Life In Hell

My house.

Eight inches so far this morning and it's coming down like crazy. Washington State University and the University of Idaho are both closed today. All public schools are closed. I've already spent hours shoveling and the places where I started have 2-3 inches of fresh snow.

The Clintons - For Sale, Again

Strangely enough, this story appears in the New York Times.

Bill Clinton accompanied some fellow named Frank Giustra to Kazakhstan. Frank Giustra returned from this trip with a huge uranium mining contract that made him one of the world's largest uranium miners. Bill Clinton returned with over $130 million in donations to his charitable foundation. And the Kazakh dictator, Nursultan A. Nazarbayev, was given a public endorsement from Bill Clinton for his bid to lead an international organization that monitors elections and democracy (wink, wink).

A spokesman for Mr. Clinton said the former president knew that Mr. Giustra had mining interests in Kazakhstan but was unaware of “any particular efforts” and did nothing to help. Mr. Giustra said he was there as an “observer only” and there was “no discussion” of the deal with Mr. Nazarbayev or Mr. Clinton.

Of course not. Given Clinton's record, who could imagine such a thing? Nope, Bill Clinton would never get involved with anything like that.

Science Imitates Cheech And Chong

Science.

Dairy farmers are five times less likely than the general populace to develop the disease, New Scientist magazine reports.

The study found farmers typically breathed in dust that consisted largely of dried manure and all the bacteria that grew in it.

New Scientist said adults who had a greater exposure to germs than usual might build up a better resistance to bugs, including cancer.

"Some researchers are starting to wonder whether the higher incidence of certain cancers in affluent populations — including breast cancer, lymphoma and melanoma — might also have something to do with sanitized, infection-free living," the researchers said, noting the unexpected links between exposure to dirt and germs and cancer risk.

"If they're right, the implications are huge. If we can understand exactly what it is about some germs that has a protective effect, we should be able to reduce people's risk of developing certain tumors later in life by exposing them to harmless microbes."

Obama's Pro-Terrorist Foreign Policy Advisor

Robert O'Malley goes past appeasement, directly to alliance with terrorists out to destroy Israel.

Robert Malley, a principal Obama foreign policy adviser, has penned numerous opinion articles, many of them co-written with a former adviser to the late Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat, petitioning for dialogue with Hamas and blasting Israel for numerous policies he says harm the Palestinian cause.

Malley also previously penned a well-circulated New York Review of Books piece largely blaming Israel for the collapse of the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations at Camp David in 2000 when Arafat turned down a Palestinian state in the West Bank, Gaza and eastern sections of Jerusalem and instead returned to the Middle East to launch an intifada, or terrorist campaign, against the Jewish state.

Malley's contentions have been strongly refuted by key participants at Camp David, including President Bill Clinton, then-Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and primary U.S. envoy to the Middle East Dennis Ross, all of whom squarely blamed Arafat's refusal to make peace for the talks' failure.

"We are noting with concern some of Obama's picks as advisers, particularly Robert Malley who has expressed sympathy to Hamas and Hezbollah and offered accounts of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations that don't jibe with the facts," said one security official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The official stated he was not authorized to talk to the media about U.S. politics, noting Israeli officials are instructed to "stay out" of American political affairs.

In February 2006, after Hamas won a majority of seats in the Palestinian parliament and amid a U.S. and Israeli attempt to isolate the Hamas-run Palestinian Authority, Malley wrote an op-ed for the Baltimore Sun advocating international aid to the terror group's newly formed government.

"The Islamists (Hamas) ran on a campaign of effective government and promised to improve Palestinians' lives; they cannot do that if the international community turns its back," wrote Malley in a piece entitled, "Making the Best of Hamas' Victory."

Malley contended the election of Hamas expressed Palestinian "anger at years of humiliation and loss of self-respect because of Israeli settlement expansion, Arafat's imprisonment, Israel's incursions, Western lecturing and, most recently and tellingly, the threat of an aid cut off in the event of an Islamist success."

Malley said the U.S. should not "discourage third-party unofficial contacts with [Hamas] in an attempt to moderate it."

Jackie Broyles Endorses Barack Obama For The Democratic Nomination

At least it's new damned dirt!

Democrat Surrender Monkeys In Trouble

Al Qaida will likely soon be finished in Iraq.

Michael Yon reports.

Major operations against al Qaeda have begun in northern Iraq. Al Qaeda is in serious trouble. These are not ad hoc operations, but are deliberate, systematic, well-planned and working. I’ve been watching this unfold for months but have not reported due to sensitivity, but the real shooting has started and Maliki has announced it. There is every indication that this series of operations could be the death blow for al Qaeda in Iraq. AQI can continue to murder people here and elsewhere for years to come, but their grip on Iraq is weakening faster than I can track. The Iraqis and Americans have seized the initiative. Al Qaeda is on the run. Due to these operations, I anticipate an increase in US casualties, but the operations are working.

I’ll be in the middle of these operations bringing you the good, the bad and the ugly, from up close.

Medieval Global Warming

The earth was actually WARMER during medieval times than it was during the twentieth century.

Historical data provide a baseline for judging how anomalous recent temperature changes are and for assessing the degree to which organisms are likely to be adversely affected by current or future warming. Climate histories are commonly reconstructed from a variety of sources, including ice cores, tree rings, and sediment. Tree-ring data, being the most abundant for recent centuries, tend to dominate reconstructions. There are reasons to believe that tree ring data may not properly capture long-term climate changes. In this study, eighteen 2000-year-long series were obtained that were not based on tree ring data. Data in each series were smoothed with a 30-year running mean. All data were then converted to anomalies by subtracting the mean of each series from that series. The overall mean series was then computed by simple averaging. The mean time series shows quite coherent structure. The mean series shows the Medieval Warm Period (MWP) and Little Ice Age (LIA) quite clearly, with the MWP being approximately 0.3°C warmer than 20th century values at these eighteen sites.

I know that I'd like to see a little of that medieval warming today.

Who Is Hesham Islam?

Apparently, his advice is highly valued at the Pentagon. Unfortunately, he seemed to have a strained relationship with the truth.

Where in The World Is Al Gore?

Could it be that he's here? Or in China? Or South America?

Democrats Embrace Marxism?

Gateway Pundit notices disturbing parallels between the Democrats state of the union response and Karl Marx.

Karl: "From each according to his ability, to each according to his need."

Democrats: "Common good" and "shared prosperity."

John McCain's Clintonism

Meanwhile, John McCain seems to have spent the last 16 years taking lessons from Slick Willie.

Then, last week, came the radio ad that even South Carolinians, who are not squeamish about bite-and-gouge politics, thought was one brick over a load, and that the Clintons withdrew. It was the one that said Obama endorsed Republican ideas (because he said Republicans had some ideas). The Clinton campaign also accused Obama of praising Ronald Reagan (because Obama noted the stark fact that Reagan had changed the country's trajectory more than some other recent presidents -- hello, Bill -- had done).

This was a garden-variety dishonesty, the manufacture of which does not cause a Clinton in midseason form to break a sweat. And it was no worse than -- actually, not as gross as -- St. John of Arizona's crooked-talk claim in Florida that Mitt Romney wanted to "surrender and wave a white flag, like Senator Clinton wants to do" in Iraq because Romney "wanted to set a date for withdrawal that would have meant disaster."

Imitation being the sincerest form of flattery, the Clintons should bask in the glow of John McCain's Clintonian gloss on this fact: Ten months ago Romney said that President Bush and Iraqi Prime Minister Maliki should discuss, privately, "a series of timetables and milestones." That unremarkable thought was twisted by McCain, whose distortions are notably clumsy, as when Romney said, accurately, that he alone among the candidates has had extensive experience in private-sector business. That truth was subjected to McCain's sophistry, and he charged that Romney had said "you haven't had a real job" if you had a military career. If, this autumn, voters must choose between Clinton and McCain, they will face, at least stylistically, an echo, not a choice.

Democrats: Slow Learners

Democrats are just now figuring out what Republicans have known all along.

YESTERDAY, I had a vicious anti-Clinton chain e-mail forwarded to me. By a Democrat.

The e-mail has circulated for years among the right wing; it outlines a conspiratorial case against the Clintons that includes accusations of the murder of their close friends Ron Brown and Vince Foster.

This Democrat rejected the murder charges, of course. But it was clear that the rest of the message - that the Clintons are divisive, dishonest and only concerned with themselves - struck a nerve with my e-mailer, who received it from a liberal friend.

Bill Clinton's recent antics in South Carolina are unlikely to reverse these bad feelings.

In response to a reporter's question about the Clintons' double-teaming Barack Obama, the former president answered with this non sequitur: "Jesse Jackson won South Carolina in '84 and '88. Jackson ran a good campaign. And Obama ran a good campaign here."

I Blame Hollywood

Some guys just need to learn the hard way.

Two fourth-grade boys mimicking a scene from the movie "A Christmas Story" wound up with their tongues stuck to a frozen flagpole.

Gavin Dempsey and James Alexander were serving on flag duty at Jackson Elementary School Friday morning, with the job of raising and lowering the school's flags. They decided to see if their tongues really would stick to the cold metal.

"I decided to try it because I thought all of the TV shows were lies, but turns out I was wrong," Gavin said.

Karen Alexander, James' mother , said her son told her he got the idea from the movie, which is based on stories about a boy growing up in the northwest Indiana community of Hammond in the 1940s.

"I can't believe he did it, but they learned their lesson," she said.

James said he plans to eat a lot of ice cream to help nurse his wound.

"When you're young, you're just messing around," he said.

Billie Dempsey, Gavin's mom, said a nurse called them to tell them the boys' tongues were bleeding.

"The nurse asked them, 'OK, who double-dog dared who?'" Billie Dempsey said, a reference to a phrase that a character in the movie used to dare another child to stick his tongue to the pole.

Jackie Broyles Almost Goes Negative

It's this kind of moral courage and clarity that makes Jackie Broyles my candidate.

Keith Olbermann Averages A Lie Every 23 Seconds

MSNBS's premier anchor goes on a lying spree that would leave Bill Clinton breathless.

The 2008 Little Churchill Awards

Ward Churchill legacy is now forever cemented as aspirants to his status are now commemorated with an award bearing his name.

Here's the award for original scholarship.

The Little Churchill award for original scholarship came down to another two-way tie between Columbia University Middle East Studies professor Rashid Khalidi and recently-retired Central Connecticut State University president Richard L. Judd. Khalidi, who thinks America’s media make too big a deal about suicide bombers, posted an article under his own name on the web that matched up section by section with the work of another author, who was conveniently deceased. Judd offered an opinion column to the Hartford Courant that looked remarkably like an editorial by another writer that had appeared in The New York Times.

Jackie Broyles For President, Part II

Jackie Broyles now has a campaign website.

As Gay Friendly as you can get without all something in your butt.

Jackie Broyles For President

I've gotten past denial, negotiation and anger and I'm in the acceptance stage of dealing with Fred Thompson's withdrawal from the race for president. I've even removed Fred Thompson's link from my blog.

It's time to move on and choose another favorite. I've settled on Jackie Broyles.




Although he'll need to get over his campaign finance problems.

Begala, Carville and Zimmerman, Banned by CNN?

CNN has told Hillary's attack dogs that they can't be on the air until the Democratic primary is over. Apparently, they'll be allowed out of their kennels with their muzzles removed for the general election though.

Okay, this is interesting. I've just learned that CNN has told top Dem strategists James Carville, Paul Begala, and Robert Zimmerman -- who are CNN mainstays but are all Hillary supporters -- that they will not be doing any more political analysis on the network until the Democratic primary has reached a conclusion.

I'm also told that this move came after the Obama campaign repeatedly complained to high level officials at CNN about the presence of Carville and Begala on the network.

After I reached him today and pointed out that he hadn't been on CNN in some time, Carville confirmed to me that the network had told him that he wouldn't appear until the Dem primary is resolved.

Huck The Fuskies

Compared with what I read in the paper this last week, those man-bites-dog stories are nothing. How about a dog that orders a man to roll over – and the man does as he’s told? I don’t know what part of the story was more remarkable – that the University of Washington had the chutzpah to ask Washington taxpayers to fork over $150 million dollars to help renovate Husky Stadium, or that legislative leaders received the request so warmly.
Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown D-Spokane indicated that Democrats would probably shower the money on the Huskies as requested.
“I believe that the Huskies will always be here,” she said. "I don't know that you can necessarily say that about a professional sports team, but I don't think the Huskies or the Cougars are going anywhere.”
Well, it’s not as though universities have the option of threatening a move to Oklahoma City should the taxpayers fail to build them a new playground, as the Seattle Supersonics are threatening to do if they are not given a new or remodeled arena.
But it’s funny that she should mention the Cougars. Because, just down the road a short piece from her Spokane district, Washington State University is renovating its stadium. But WSU’s doing it without a dime of taxpayers’ money: “We've always worked under the premise that state funds were not available for athletic facilities,” said Washington State University’s Athletic Director, Jim Sterk.
And so the Martin Stadium renovation is being underwritten entirely from contributions. Huskies were never forced to pitch anything into the pot. But Cougs will not be excused from dropping change into the Huskies’ tip jar.
It makes sense that Jim Sterk would have been working under the assumption that funding the Martin Stadium renovation was the Cougs’ problem, because it’s not an assumption at all. About a quarter century ago the legislature let it be known that university athletic departments would not be receiving any taxpayer funds and should plan to operate as completely self-supporting programs.
Huskies Interim Athletic Director Scott Woodward apparently did not get that memo and argued that, “We are a public institution, and we have a right to these funds.”
And it seems that the current crop of lawmakers have forgotten about the memo as there seems to be little opposition to the subsidy.
Woodward’s curious reasoning was echoed by Representative Frank Chopp, D-Seattle, whose district includes the University of Washington: “I'm open to talking to the university about it because it's obviously a public facility,” Chopp said.
“It can be used for a lot more than just Husky football. They are talking about a series of high school football games. If you have ever been to Memorial Stadium in Seattle, it's in pretty bad shape. (Husky stadium) is not professional, it's not for profit and the players make nothing.”
So, because public universities exploit their athletes so cynically, their athletic programs are entitled to taxpayer subsidies, provided the athletic program is also named the University of Washington.
And as everyone knows, the state has no other priorities where that $150 million might be squandered that matter more than Husky football. It’s not as though there are any crumbling roads or bridges that could use a little upkeep.
But of course, UW argued that the stadium actually makes money for the state as Husky football supposedly generates $211 million in sales for state businesses, and $83 million in labor income. Put all this together and Husky football pours almost $13 million into tax coffers annually, meaning that the stadium will pay for itself in about 12 years or so, except that entertainment dollars tend to draw from other parts of the economy and really doesn’t generate wealth as much as it redistributes it. If people didn’t spend $211 million on tickets, parking, booze, kielbasa and Chinese-made Husky sweatshirts, that money would be spent elsewhere in the Washington economy and would generate just as much tax revenue and probably create more jobs.
We only elect those who are wiser and more intelligent that ourselves. So why does a $150 million request for taxpayer cash get such a warm reception from the legislature? Well, you can see Husky Stadium from the Space Needle, the test frequently given to setting legislative spending priorities. And a pro-westside bias qualifies as a real dog-bites-man story.

Fred Thompson Drops Out

The Vast Right Wing Conspiracy, Tenth Anniversary This Sunday, January 27, 2008

"This is a battle!"

"I do believe that this is a battle," the first lady said.

"Look at the very people who are involved in this. They have popped up in other settings. The great story here for anybody willing to find it, write about it and explain it is this vast right-wing conspiracy that has been conspiring against my husband since the day he announced for president," Mrs. Clinton said.

The first lady called the sex and perjury allegations swirling around her husband part of an effort "to undo the results of two elections."

An independent counsel, Kenneth Starr, has expanded his investigation to include charges that the president may have encouraged the ex-intern, Monica Lewinsky, now 24, to lie under oath about whether she and the president had an affair.

"That is not going to be proven true," Clinton said. She said she was fighting the charges "not only because I love and believe my husband" but for the sake of the nation.

"Bill and I have been accused of everything, including murder, by some of the very same people who are behind these allegations," she said. "So from my perspective, this is part of a continuing political campaign against my husband.

I Did Not Have Sexual Relations With That Woman, Miss Lewinsky. The Tenth Anniversary

Wal-Mart Trying To Buy Favor With The Left

However well intentioned they are, Wal-Mart is deluding itself if it thinks that the angry left will be mollified with gestures like this. They will only smell blood in the water.

Wal-Mart chief pledges higher prices for sustainable suppliers

By Dominique Patton
24/01/2008- The chief executive of the world's biggest retailer yesterday promised to favour suppliers providing high quality and ethically sourced products.

Wal-Mart will launch a major retail-industry effort to improve social, ethical and environmental standards in the factories of its suppliers, CEO and president Lee Scott told a meeting of store managers.

"The drive will see the retailer favour - and in some cases even pay more - for suppliers that meet our standards and share our commitment to quality and sustainability".

"Paying more in the short term for quality will mean paying less in the long term as a company. Higher quality products will mean better value, fewer problems, fewer returns and greater trust with our customers," Scott told the audience.

But the firm will also raise the bar for suppliers on sustainable sourcing, putting pressure on them to provide evidence that they are meeting ethical and quality criteria.

Wal-Mart says it is already demanding that some of its suppliers demonstrate that their factories meet specific environmental, social and quality standards and this will increase in coming years. It will also make certification and compliance part of its supplier agreements and ask suppliers to report on their activities regularly.

"Any supplier that fails to keep its word will be required to take prompt and serious action. If a supplier fails to improve and fix the problem, we will stop working with that supplier," said Scott.

The speech comes after a series of recalls linked to products made in China have made consumers increasingly aware of risks associated with a global supply chain. Scott said he would also put pressure on Chinese suppliers to comply with environmental regulations.

He also called on all major global retailers to join Wal-Mart and CIES, the global retail and consumer goods network, in its effort to improve sustainable sourcing and pledged to meet with CEOs of its competitors to make socially and environmentally responsible sourcing a reality across the entire retail industry.

The speech also included commitments to a reduction in energy use of 25 percent on products sold in the store. Wal-Mart plans to increase its sourcing of products that are more energy efficient but also more affordable. Coming months will see the US retailer asking suppliers to reduce prices on energy-saving items, with the goal of doubling the sale of products that help make homes more energy efficient, according to the chief executive.

It will also take the lead on informing customers about the energy required to make and use more energy-intensive products.

"Our customers want products that make them feel good about their purchases," said Scott. "They want to walk into our stores and be confident that the products on our shelves are safe and durable. They also want products that are made in a way that is consistent with their own personal values."

I expect to hear Hillary Clinton or the Breck girl taking credit for this, just as Hillary took credit for the success of the surge.

Bill Clinton Discovers Identity Politics, And Disapproves

Bill Clinton claims to have just discovered something about his party - its tribalistic identity politics.

He's not on the ballot but Bill Clinton seemed to dominate the South Carolina presidential campaign, disparaging Barack Obama and journalists and predicting that many voters will be guided mainly by gender and race loyalties.

The former president suggested that his wife, New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, may lose Saturday's Democratic primary because many black voters will side with Obama. The unusually direct comment on the possible role of race in the election was in keeping with the Clintons' bid to portray Obama as the clear favorite, thereby lessening the potential fallout if it proves true.

Voting for president along racial and gender lines "is understandable, because people are proud when someone who they identify with emerges for the first time," the former president told a Charleston audience Wednesday while campaigning for his wife, a role he has played all week.

No Recession In Sight

So, why do we need a stimulus package?

The slowing U.S. economy is unlikely to sink into an election-year recession and an economic rebound could begin as early as next year as housing and financial market turmoil fades, the Congressional Budget Office forecast on Wednesday.

In the meantime, the U.S. budget deficit will grow to $219 billion this year, up from the $163 billion registered last year, according to a CBO report submitted to Congress.

Make that about $370 billion after our unnecessary stimulus package.

Medical quacks rely upon the certainty that 9 of 10 patients will recover from whatever ails them regardless of or in spite of the treatment they receive. Political quacks fall back on the same effect.

Pandering To The Fat Vote

The latest in identity politics.


As Obese Population Rises, More Candidates Courting The Fat Vote

Mainstream Media Falls For George Soros Scam Again

Now the the George Soros funded Lancet study on Iraq death has been discredited, he's back, with another study. And, the MSM is falling for it again. The New York Times bought it hook, line and sinker. Here's the predictable Associated Press version.

WASHINGTON - A study by two nonprofit journalism organizations found that President Bush and top administration officials issued hundreds of false statements about the national security threat from Iraq in the two years following the 2001 terrorist attacks.

The study concluded that the statements "were part of an orchestrated campaign that effectively galvanized public opinion and, in the process, led the nation to war under decidedly false pretenses."

The study was posted Tuesday on the Web site of the Center for Public Integrity, which worked with the Fund for Independence in Journalism.

White House spokesman Scott Stanzel did not comment on the merits of the study Tuesday night but reiterated the administration's position that the world community viewed Iraq's leader, Saddam Hussein, as a threat.

"The actions taken in 2003 were based on the collective judgment of intelligence agencies around the world," Stanzel said.

The study counted 935 false statements in the two-year period. It found that in speeches, briefings, interviews and other venues, Bush and administration officials stated unequivocally on at least 532 occasions that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction or was trying to produce or obtain them or had links to al-Qaida or both.

"It is now beyond dispute that Iraq did not possess any weapons of mass destruction or have meaningful ties to al-Qaida," according to Charles Lewis and Mark Reading-Smith of the Fund for Independence in Journalism staff members, writing an overview of the study. "In short, the Bush administration led the nation to war on the basis of erroneous information that it methodically propagated and that culminated in military action against Iraq on March 19, 2003."

Named in the study along with Bush were top officials of the administration during the period studied: Vice President Dick Cheney, national security adviser Condoleezza Rice, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, Secretary of State Colin Powell, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz and White House press secretaries Ari Fleischer and Scott McClellan.

Bush led with 259 false statements, 231 about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and 28 about Iraq's links to al-Qaida, the study found. That was second only to Powell's 244 false statements about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and 10 about Iraq and al-Qaida.

The center said the study was based on a database created with public statements over the two years beginning on Sept. 11, 2001, and information from more than 25 government reports, books, articles, speeches and interviews.

"The cumulative effect of these false statements — amplified by thousands of news stories and broadcasts — was massive, with the media coverage creating an almost impenetrable din for several critical months in the run-up to war," the study concluded.

"Some journalists — indeed, even some entire news organizations — have since acknowledged that their coverage during those prewar months was far too deferential and uncritical. These mea culpas notwithstanding, much of the wall-to-wall media coverage provided additional, 'independent' validation of the Bush administration's false statements about Iraq," it said.

Democrats Finally Notice That Bill Clinton Is Unpresidential

This time, it's Tom Daschle taking notice.

“It’s not in keeping with the role of a former president,” Daschle said.

The former majority leader said the Clintons are engaging in the same kind of tactics Republicans did when they went after him in 2004, defeating him in his reelection bid even as he was the sitting Senate leader of his party.

“This is the same kind of tactic that Washington uses quite frequently,” Daschle said, adding, “I think it destroys the party. Ultimately, it divides us.”

As I recall Bill Clinton was not very presidential as a president and hasn't conducted himself presidentially since leaving office.

Sex Tape News Roundup

It wasn't just the Oscar nominees that we should consider.



Do skanks bathe?

The Party Of Whiners

If you're a Democrat, you get quite a menu of whiners to choose from.

There's Hillary:



Of course, she's just following the example of her husband.



Some of her best friends are, well you know.

Then there's the lovely John Edwards.



Barack Obama had mostly managed to stay above this behavior, but he was finally pulled into the Clintons' natural element.

Iran Also Has No Dissent

I'm certain that you all remember Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's claim that homosexuality does not exist in Iran. Well, he'd probably tell you that there is no dissent in Iran either. Here's why.

The Iranain Regime murdered imprisoned student activist Ebrahim Latfollahi. After his torture and death, they buried him under a slab of cement away from his family.
That way the family would not dig up his body and see evidence of torture.

Democrats Discover That Bill Clinton Is A Petulant Child

It's something Republicans have always known.

Prominent Democrats are upset with the aggressive role that Bill Clinton is playing in the 2008 campaign, a role they believe is inappropriate for a former president and the titular head of the Democratic Party. In recent weeks, Sen. Edward Kennedy and Rep. Rahm Emanuel, both currently neutral in the Democratic contest, have told their old friend heatedly on the phone that he needs to change his tone and stop attacking Sen. Barack Obama, according to two sources familiar with the conversations who asked for anonymity because of their sensitive nature. Clinton, Kennedy and Emanuel all declined to comment.

On balance, aides to both Bill and Hillary still see Bill as a huge net plus in fund-raising, attracting large crowds and providing a megaphone to raise doubts about Obama—even if some of those doubts are distortions. But there's concern that in hatcheting the Illinois senator and losing his temper with the news media (last week he thrashed a San Francisco TV reporter for asking about a lawsuit filed by Clinton-backing teachers union members to limit the number of Nevada caucuses), Clinton is drawing down his political capital and harming his role as a global statesman. "This is excruciating," says a member of the Clintons' circle, who asked for anonymity. "But the stakes couldn't be higher. It's worth it to tarnish himself a bit now to win the presidency."

During a December taping with PBS's Charlie Rose, a frustrated Clinton called Obama "a roll of the dice," as aides tried to end the interview. Then, in New Hampshire, he argued angrily that the story of Obama's principled position on the Iraq War was a "fairy tale," a charge few reporters bought. Rep. James Clyburn of South Carolina, the top-ranking African-American in Congress and officially neutral, found Clinton's tone insulting and said so publicly.

When the former president called Kennedy, the Massachusetts Democrat gave Clinton an earful, telling him that he bore some blame for the injection of race into the contest. In any event, both Hillary and Obama made peace on the race issue at the Las Vegas debate. The Clinton camp now fears that Kennedy is leaning toward Obama, according to the Clinton source, though Kennedy's office says he is making no endorsement "at this time."

Clinton aides admit the boss sometimes goes off script. Obama officials say this itself should be a campaign issue. Greg Craig, who coordinated Clinton's impeachment defense in 1998 and is now a senior Obama adviser, argues that "recent events raise the question: if Hillary's campaign can't control Bill, whether Hillary's White House could."

There is little precedent for a former president's engaging in intra-party attacks. In 1960, Harry Truman criticized the idea of a Roman Catholic president and tried briefly to stop John F. Kennedy's nomination. "I urge you to be patient," he told JFK publicly. But in 2000, former president George Bush declined to attack his son's GOP primary opponent, John McCain.

Clinton is undeterred by the criticism and will likely keep hammering Obama if he thinks it helps Hillary. "History will judge the impact on the Clinton legacy, not daily or weekly political reporters," says Matt McKenna, Bill Clinton's press secretary.

Racist Mexicans Favor Clinton

Why not? When there is a racial disparity in voting patterns when the contest includes an African-American, people of pallor are condemned as racist. So why not include Hispanics?

John Edwards Self-Aggrandizement

Now that it has become quite clear that John Edwards will not be the Democratic nominee for president, Ben Smith imagines that Edwards might now be imagining himself as a "kingmaker."

That strikes me as rather fanciful for a guy who pulled down less than 4% of the vote in Nevada.

Moscow Pullman Border War Cease Fire

My, what a difference an election makes. And thanks to the most recent Moscow City Council election, peace in the valley might be at hand. As George Bush once noted, democracies do not wage war upon each other. And now that democracy has flexed its muscles in Moscow, Idaho, the looming border war may be averted after all.
Moscow has not been friendly to business these last few years. When given the opportunity to have a Wal-Mart Supercenter, Moscow turned it down. The Wal-Mart will now be sited just across the city line in Latah County. A hostile business climate drove a car dealership to seek refuge across the state border in Whitman County.
And finally, when the Boise-based Hawkins Company sought to invest in the Palouse economy, it chose to settle in business friendly Whitman County, right on the state line and just beyond the jurisdiction of Moscow’s mayor and city council. Now Lowe’s Building Center and other businesses will be opening their doors in the Moscow-Pullman corridor, drawing customers from Idaho, but paying taxes only to Whitman County and the state of Washington. The message was clear. Businesses wanted to conduct business with Moscow’s residents, even if Moscow’s political establishment was anti-business.
But Moscow’s politburo was not content to simply exercise its anti-business agenda within the city limits. Moscow’s city government, under the leadership of Mayor Nancy Chaney and the recently deposed Linda Pall, Kit Craine and Aaron Ament, decided to do all they could to obstruct development on the Washington side of the state line by refusing to sell water and sewer services to Hawkins and to appeal water rights transfers needed for the development to take place.
If the duly elected Chaneyites wish to impose an incense and sand candle economy upon the residents of Moscow who voted them into office, that’s between them and Moscow’s voters. But when they started trying to dictate terms to people outside their legal jurisdiction and over people who cannot vote them out of office, then them’s fightin’ words.
Fortunately, the Greater Moscow Alliance fielded three candidates who believed in both economic and religious liberty and who convinced enough Moscow voters to steer the city away from the progressive precipice.
I expect to see a shabby and disheveled Aaron Ament on a Moscow street corner one of these days holding up a hand-lettered cardboard sign reading, “Will disparage people of faith for food.”
For the moment anyway, Moscow’s graying and plumping anti-capitalist hippies and flower children have had their dangerous and age-inappropriate toys taken from them. I’m not sure that I would ever trust an ex-hippie with the reins of government. The new city council is willing to revisit the issue of selling water and sewer services to the Hawkins Company, although the last surviving vestige of Moscow’s leftist axis, Tom Lamar, expressed his discomfort with Moscow selling such services across state line.
“To me, it doesn’t seem right to be selling our services outside the city limits. If it’s development taking place in Moscow I feel differently about providing water or sewer rights.”
Unfortunately, he has no qualms when it comes to imposing Moscow’s progressive agenda across state lines. “I don’t think it is good to put this development in the corridor,” he said.
I don’t recall that he had any problems with Moscow’s appeal of the water rights transfers. Unfortunately the recent election cannot directly influence that. The appeal is apparently out of the city council’s hands and is solely at the discretion (or lack thereof) of Mayor Chaney, so a full and lasting peace may be a ways off yet.
I really can’t imagine what there is to preserve in the Moscow-Pullman corridor. Sure, a creek runs through it, but for part of the year, it’s nothing more than Moscow’s treated sewage effluent. The rock quarries, asphalt plants and gravel pits that now blight the landscape aren’t all that attractive to the eye.
The proposed services extension from Pullman to the Idaho border now under consideration would facilitate greater business expansion along the corridor and would boost both cities’ economies.
In other words, planned growth in the corridor would benefit Moscow and Pullman. And in one form or another, the growth will occur. A less hostile Moscow would permit a more controlled and harmonious growth. The world doesn’t stop for left wing economic Luddites.

The New York Times Supports The Troops

According to the New York Times, the Iraq war is cultivating a generation of murderers. Not ever one agrees and the Times bigotry is dissected here and here.

As Ralph Peters says, "[I]n the Middle Ages, lepers had to carry bells on pain of death to warn the uninfected they were coming. One suspects that the Times would like our military veterans to do the same."

This Is What Happens When You Exceed A Liberal's Attention Span

Jonah Goldberg tries to explain the pedigree of fascism to Jon Stewart. Jon Stewart loses intellectual contact if Goldberg uses a complex sentence.

In Defense Of Liberals

Some things are worse than liberals, maybe.

I'm Not So Weird After All

When I was a kid, I hated clowns. Turns out, I had a lot of company, although I don't recall ever being scared of clowns.

A survey found that decorating wards with images of clowns was more likely to frighten young patients than cheer them up.

More than 250 children aged between four and 16 were asked for their opinions - and every single one said they disliked clowns as part of hospital decor.

Even some of the older children said they found clowns scary, Nursing Standard magazine reported.

The youngsters were questioned by the University of Sheffield for the Space To Care study aimed at improving hospital design for children.

It's about time somebody asked the kids what they thought of this.

The Public Doesn't Trust The Mainstream Media

Guess who polls lower than the Democratic Congress - The Mainstream Press.

I wonder why? Could it be that the MSM widely reported that 11 close family members of Jordanian-based Baathist reporter were slaughtered, when in fact they are very much alive and well, and then refused to correct the error.

Surfer Dude Comes Up With The Answer To Life, The Universe and Everything

And it's not 42 after all.

For more than a century, physicists have tried to concoct a theory that ties the two most successful theories together. Einstein's theory of relativity and Heisenberg's quantum mechanics have been confirmed by observation. Nevertheless, no one has yet formed a theory that allowed the two to work together.

The theory that would do that has been called the "Unified Field Theory" or more colloquially, "The Theory of Everything."

Scientists have pounded their head against the wall seeking the Theory of Everything for generations. But, just as it took a patent clerk to derive the Theory of Relativity, it took a surfer dude to scribble out the Theory of Everything.

An impoverished surfer has drawn up a new theory of the universe, seen by some as the Holy Grail of physics, which has received rave reviews from scientists.

Garrett Lisi, 39, has a doctorate but no university affiliation and spends most of the year surfing in Hawaii, where he has also been a hiking guide and bridge builder (when he slept in a jungle yurt).

In winter, he heads to the mountains near Lake Tahoe, Nevada, where he snowboards. "Being poor sucks," Lisi says. "It's hard to figure out the secrets of the universe when you're trying to figure out where you and your girlfriend are going to sleep next month."

Despite this unusual career path, his proposal is remarkable because, by the arcane standards of particle physics, it does not require highly complex mathematics.

Even better, it does not require more than one dimension of time and three of space, when some rival theories need ten or even more spatial dimensions and other bizarre concepts. And it may even be possible to test his theory, which predicts a host of new particles, perhaps even using the new Large Hadron Collider atom smasher that will go into action near Geneva next year.

Now, how cool is that?

Another Hsu Drops

Another Clinton fundraiser has been caught funneling foreign funds into the Clinton campaign.

Mauricio Celis has been a major fundraiser for the Clintons. He was originally busted for practicing law without a license and he's linked to Mexican drug cartels.

Mauricio Celis is linked to the Mexican drug trade in a search warrant the state used Friday to raid his law offices and gather computer files, according to financial documents and other business records. The warrant includes a sworn statement by a Texas Attorney General's official accusing Celis of money laundering.

...

The state searched a U.S. Treasury database and border crossing data to determine that Celis went to Mexico frequently after withdrawing large sums of cash, according to an affidavit accompanying the warrant.

"Celis is rumored to be associated with questionable criminal element (sic) possibly related to drug trafficking," the affidavit states.

The affidavit, by Capt. Alex Pena of the Attorney General's Office, states that Pena "believes that Mauricio Celis has committed the felony offense of money laundering."

A document the state obtained from Frost Bank showed a joint account signed by Celis and Raul Armando Winder, a Mexican citizen and former police officer who has been employed as a pilot by individuals linked to narcotic trafficking, according to the affidavit. The account was for a business called Pegasus Air Services, which Celis owned from 2002-05, according to the Texas Secretary of State. Winder is listed as vice president on the bank application.

So far, we have the Clintons accepting money from Chinese communists who gained valuable missile targeting technology, Indonesians who got much wealthier as a consequence of Bill Clinton's designation of the Grand Staircase Escalante as a national monument and criminals who were granted presidential pardons in exchange for cash and contributions. What is it that Mexican drug lords hope to receive?

Rush Hands The Clintons Their Asses

Part One



Part Two

Is Terrell Owens Running For President?

I'm not sure, but I think that Terrell Owens announced his candidacy for president of the United States.



It worked for Hillary.

Is Hillary Even More Narcissistic Than Bill?

Earlier in this campaign season, Hillary Clinton claimed that her election would result in a huge drop in the price of crude oil. Those oils sheiks fear her that much.

Now she's claiming that the surge worked because the Iraqis are afraid of her.

“I know very well that they follow everything that I say.”

Bad News For Al Gore

The Federal Trade Commission is investigating carbon offset scams.

Corporations and shoppers in the United States spent more than $54 million last year on carbon offset credits toward tree planting, wind farms, solar plants and other projects to balance the emissions created by, say, using a laptop computer or flying on a jet.

But where exactly is that money going?

The Federal Trade Commission, which regulates advertising claims, raised the question Tuesday in its first hearing in a series on green marketing, this one focusing on carbon offsets.

As more companies use offset programs to create an environmental halo over their products, the commission said it was growing increasingly concerned that some green marketing assertions were not substantiated. Environmentalists have a word for such misleading advertising: “greenwashing.”

With the rapid growth of green programs like carbon offsets, “there’s a heightened potential for deception,” said Deborah Platt Majoras, chairwoman of the commission.

World Penguin Day

Mark your calendar. It's January 20th.

It's also Penguin Awareness Day, for all of you who were previously unaware of penguins.

There does seem to be some controversy though. Crayola seems to think that World Penguin Day is tomorrow.

You Could Put Your Eye Out Kid!

Hat tip: Tom Forbes

Where In The World Is Algore?

Is it possible that he's in Baghdad?

Predictive Journalism Belongs On The Sports Page

The mainstream media has proved themselves to be every bit as inept at predicting the future as they have been at accurately and impartially reporting the news of the day. Tuesday morning, the media were unanimous in their conviction that Hillary Clinton would suffer a staggering defeat in the New Hampshire primary at the hands of the their new darling, Barack Obama. Only anthropogenic global warming enjoyed an equivalent consensus among the know-it-alls.
The media were so confident of their predictions that, days before the vote, they had begun a deathwatch on the Hillary Clinton campaign. Generalissimo Francisco Franco on his deathbed was given better odds. Would she drop out after New Hampshire? Was she out of money? The postmortems were already written and published. Was it strategist Mark Penn’s fault? Shouldn’t some blame be laid at the feet of her narcissistic husband whose campaign speeches on her behalf were devoted to talking about himself? Or should Hillary bear the blame for being such a bad candidate? Has anyone running for the presidency ever appeared so icy and calculating? Every few weeks her campaign would announce a strategy intended to “humanize” her. Has any candidate ever required humanizing before? If so, has any attempt at humanization ever failed so miserably? And now that she was finished, could anyone stop Obama? The media were all but ordering baskets of rose petals to cast before him on his path to the White House.
In the end, it was Hillary 39% and Obama 36%, with John Edwards bringing up the rear with 17% of the vote.
The story line that no one seemed to have written in advance was a Hillary Clinton victory. Not since 2004, when Lewis Lapham’s story for Harper’s Magazine about his experiences at the Republican National Convention appeared on newsstands before the convention’s opening gavel, has predictive journalism endured such humiliation.
I’m a little surprised that no one in the Clinton campaign had the foresight to have “Dewey Defeats Truman” headline replicas printed. But then, humor and imagination have never intruded upon Hillary’s ambition, so I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised. The thin-lipped, grim-faced angry man-hating feminists that form her Praetorian Guard don’t look as though they’ve experienced a smile in their adult lives. I doubt that any could even manage one of those contrived cackles that Hillary Clinton resorts to when asked a difficult question without pulling a facial muscle.
According to media predictions in 2000, Al Gore won that presidential election. Ditto for John Kerry in 2004. Of course the howling moonbats on the left still insist that both elections were stolen, but aside from Keith Olbermann on MSNBC, I doubt that anyone in the mainstream media would speak aloud their belief that fraud turned the outcomes of those elections.
The media did not quite call the New Hampshire primary for Obama before the polls opened, but they were quite confident of the outcome. Mrs. Clinton apparently believed them as well as she reportedly did not have a victory speech prepared and seemed as lost as a Hollywood comedian during a writers’ strike when the time came to deliver one.
Hmmm. Now that I think about it, we have heard a lot less political commentary from actors this election cycle. Perhaps if we are fortunate, the writers’ strike will last until after the election. Can anyone really distinguish one episode of CSI from any other? I think that the only thing that changes from one show to the next is the specific sexual perversion associated with the murder.
On the sports pages, writers and pundits entertain themselves attempting to show off their analytical brilliance by predicting the outcome of athletic contests. Sports journalism will always invest more dead trees and printer’s ink predicting the outcome of a major sporting event than they will in actually reporting it. ESPN invests hours every weekend morning breaking down and predicting the winners and losers of that day’s upcoming games. Unfortunately, political journalism has followed the example of sports journalism. Although in truth, sports journalists have higher ethical standards, as they don’t try to influence the outcome of the events they cover.
In the end, only John Edwards got it right when he declared that: “It’s not about me.” Certainly most Democratic New Hampshire voters (83%) agreed with his assessment, so far as it went.

Mike Huckabee Gets His Ass Handed To Him

By Fred Thompson

More Islamic Art Criticism

Artist are genuinely afraid to portray Islam except as Islam wants itself to be portrayed.

Given the history of Islamist violence directed at European artists, writes David Rusin, their fear of critiquing Islam is justifiable. However, the current level of self-censorship is deeply problematic. “Their eagerness to assume the role of subjugated infidels living under Islamic rule can only demoralize the population and embolden the extremists.”

Sorta gives the lie to all these artists who bravely exercise their constitutional right to free speech by criticizing George Bush, doesn't it?

Things Just Keeping Getting Worse For Obama

After flopping in New Hampshire, now Obama has to deal with the John Kerry endorsement.

Barack Obama is being endorsed by fellow Sen. John Kerry, the Democrats' 2004 presidential nominee who lost to George W. Bush that year and gave up his own plans for a 2008 run a year ago.

Kerry, a senator from Massachusetts, planned to announce his support Thursday at 11 a.m. EST at a rally at the College of Charleston, said a Democrat familiar with Kerry's decision. The 2004 nominee was to argue that Obama can best unite the country and has the potential to create transformational change, the person said.

Kerry lost the South Carolina Democratic primary in 2004 to John Edwards, the former North Carolina senator who now is running third in the 2008 campaign behind Hillary Rodham Clinton and Obama.

83% Of New Hampshire Agree With John Edwards

"It's not about me."

"This is not about me, it's not about Elizabeth, it's about the future of this country. Because all of us have been given such an enormous responsibility."

The Media Makes An Ass Of Itself Again

I've begun to wonder lately when journalism turned from reporting news to predicting the future. It certainly hasn't been very honest at the former and now journalism has proved its incompetence at the latter.

Tom Brokaw, like virtually everyone on television, went on the air Tuesday night expecting Hillary Clinton to get whipped in New Hampshire.

"I was buying into all the conventional wisdom as well," says the former NBC anchor, who was struck by how quickly his colleagues backed off their bombast about Barack Obama's imminent triumph.

"The pirouettes are amazing," says Brokaw, who was analyzing the campaign on MSNBC. "The utter confidence with which everyone had been wrong 20 minutes earlier, they have the same utter confidence about what produced this surprise. It's intellectually dishonest."

Clinton's come-from-behind moment came on the same evening that John McCain -- all but buried by the press last summer -- was winning New Hampshire's Republican primary. And it was five days after Mike Huckabee, all but ignored by the media for most of 2007, won in Iowa.

The series of blown calls amount to the shakiest campaign performance yet by a profession seemingly addicted to snap judgments and crystal-ball pronouncements. Not since the networks awarded Florida to Al Gore on Election Night 2000 has the collective media establishment so blatantly missed the boat.

Maybe the front page is trying to emulate the sports page.

Yale's Alumni Purge

Yale alumnus John Yoo holds opinions that are out of favor with his professors at Yale Law School - so they're suing him.

John Yoo can be forgiven if he's having second thoughts about his career choice. A Yale Law School graduate, the Berkeley professor of law went on to serve his country at the Justice Department. Yet last week he was sued by convicted terrorist Jose Padilla and his mother, who are represented by none other than lawyers at Yale. Perhaps if Mr. Yoo had decided to pursue a life of terrorism, he too could be represented by his alma mater.

Journalist Ethics

Helen Thomas complained recently that bloggers lack the ethics of a real journalist. I guess this is what she means.

This Is What You Get For Stiffing Waitresses

Hillary Clinton has gained a reputation for stiffing waitresses by not leaving tips, or even not paying bills. Well, the union that represents waitresses is getting back at her as the Culinary Workers Union endorsed Obama.

Not Quite Like The Pina Colada Song

Rupert Holmes wrote a popular tune called "Escape" in which a couple whose relationship had gone stale rediscover each other though the personal ads.

Well, it wasn't that charming when a Polish man looking for a little on the side visited a brother and discovered that his wife was one of the hookers.

A Polish man got the shock of his life when he visited a brothel and spotted his wife among the establishment's employees.

Polish tabloid Super Express said the woman had been making some extra money on the side while telling her husband she worked at a store in a nearby town.

"I was dumfounded. I thought I was dreaming," the husband told the newspaper on Wednesday.

The couple, married for 14 years, are now divorcing, the newspaper reported.

Not quite like discovering that your lady love shares your taste for pina coladas and getting caught in the rain.

Democrats' Voter ID "Victim" Registered In Two States

The Democratic Party, which opposes any attempt to prevent voter fraud, chose Faye Buis-Ewing its victim of choice. Supposedly, Ms Buis-Ewing was denied a ballot because she could not produce an ID.

Well, as it turns out, Ms Buis-Ewing is actually a poster child for voter fraud. She's registered to vote in two states.

On the eve of a hearing before the U.S. Supreme Court, the Indiana Voter ID law has become a story with a twist: One of the individuals used by opponents to the law as an example of how the law hurts older Hoosiers is registered to vote in two states.

Faye Buis-Ewing, 72, who has been telling the media she is a 50-year resident of Indiana, at one point in the past few years also claimed two states as her primary residence and received a homestead exemption on her property taxes in both states.

Monday night from her Florida home, Ewing said she and her husband Kenneth “winter in Florida and summer in Indiana.” She admitted to registering to vote in both states, but stressed that she¹s never voted in Florida. She also has a Florida driver’s license, but when she tried to use it as her photo ID in the Indiana elections in November 2006, poll workers wouldn’t accept it.

Subsequently, Ewing became a sort-of poster child for the opposition when the Indiana League of Women Voters (ILWV) told media that the problems Ewing had voting that day shows why the high court should strike it down.

Obviously, Ms Buis-Ewing has a very good reason for not wanting a state-issued ID.

Hat tip: The Blogfather

Bill Clinton Cries

Hey, why shouldn't he. After all, it worked for Hillary.



And, it worked for him before.

Damned Global Warming

Not much blogging today. We got buried with snow (again) and I need to shovel out most of the neighborhood as we have a lot of infirmed elderly folks as neighbors.

Because "The Comeback Kid" Is So 1992

And besides, the media have already proclaimed John McCain the 2008 Comeback Kid. Maybe this works better.

Was it the tears?

Can't quibble with success.

An Illegal Immigrant The "Texan of the Year?"

Texans say, No way Jose!

On December 30, NewsBusters voiced its displeasure with the Dallas Morning News naming the illegal immigrant as its 2007 Texan of the Year.

As it turns out, Morning News readers were just as offended.

In fact, according to Saturday's "Ask the Editor" piece on the subject, 95 percent of readers that sent in letters or e-mail messages were highly negative about the paper's choice:

By midday Friday, some 700 reader comments had been posted on the Editorial Board's blog, DallasMorningViews. We received roughly 200 letters to the editor.

[...]

We've engaged with readers individually via e-mail and telephone and in groups on the Web and over the airwaves. But let's be candid: 95 percent of all that reaction to our choice was negative. Readers we heard from were angry, insulted, in disbelief that we'd do such a thing. Some cancelled their newspaper subscriptions.

NBC Just Loves Obama

And, NBC admits it.

NBC Evening News anchor Brian Williams took to MSNBC today at noon and had this to say: "I interviewed Lee Cowan, our reporter who covers Obama, while we were out yesterday and posted the interview on the web. Lee says it's hard to stay objective covering this guy. Courageous for Lee to say, to be honest. The e-mail flood started out we caught you guys, we never did trust you. That kind of thing. I think it is a very interesting dynamic. I saw middle-aged women just throw their arms around Barack Obama, kiss him hard on the cheek and say, you know, I'm with you, good luck. And i think he feels it, too."

Ron Paul - Racist, Bigot, Homophobe

Will this finally knock this lunatic out of the race, or at least dry up his money?

A collection of Ron Paul quotes.

“[O]ur country is being destroyed by a group of actual and potential terrorists—and they can be identified by the color of their skin.”

“I think we can safely assume that 95% of the black males in that city [Washington, D.C.] are semi-criminal or entirely criminal.”

“We are constantly told that it is evil to be afraid of black men, but it is hardly irrational.”

“The riots, burning, looting, and murders are only a continuation of 30 years of racial politics.”

“The criminals who terrorize our cities—in riots and on every non-riot day—are not exclusively young black males, but they largely are. As children, they are trained to hate whites, to believe that white oppression is responsible for all black ills, to “fight the power,” and to steal and loot as much money from the white enemy as possible. Anything is justified against ‘The Man.’ And ‘The Woman.’’”

“My friend waved to the tiny [African-American] child, who scowled, stuck out her tongue, and said (somewhat tautologically): “I hate you, white honkey.” And the parents were indulgent. Is any white child taught to hate in this way?” [As a matter of fact, Paul has appeared on a radio program called “The Political Cesspool,” which has featured the neo-Nazi twin pop stars Prussian Blue. –ed.]

“But this is normal, and in fact benign, compared to much of the anti-white ideology in the thoroughly racist black community. The black leadership indoctrinates its followers with phony history and phony theory to bolster its claims of victimology.”

“Korean-Americans, hated by blacks, never riot, and in fact are some of the most productive people in America (the reason for black hatred).”

“The cause of the riots is plain: barbarism. If the barbarians cannot loot sufficiently through legal channels (i.e., the riots being the welfare-state minus the middleman), they resort to illegal ones, to terrorism.”

“We must not kowtow to the street hoodlums and their sanctimonious leaders.”

“Regardless of what the media tell us, most white Americans are not going to believe that they are at fault for what blacks have done to cities across America. The professional blacks may have cowed the elites, but good sense survives at the grass roots.”

“Indeed, it is shocking to consider the uniformity of opinion among blacks in this country.”

“Blacks have ‘civil rights,’ preferences, set-asides for government contracts, gerrymandered voting districts, black bureaucracies, black mayors, black curricula in schools, black beauty contests, black TV shows, black TV anchors, black scholarships and colleges, hate crime laws, and public humiliation for anyone who dares question the black agenda.”

Dhim Wits

Four Columbia University professors traveled to Iran to apologize for Columbia President Lee Bollinger's belligerent introduction of the Iran's Islamofascist president.

Bill Clinton: It's All About Me

Bill Clinton gets upset at Barak Obama for dissing him.

Bill Clinton Bores Them To Tears

The thrill is gone, the thrill has gone away.

Helen Thomas: Bloggers "Don't Have Our Ethics."

Helen Thomas unloads on bloggers.

"What I really worry about is that I think the bloggers and everyone, everyone with a laptop thinks they're journalists," Thomas said. "And, they certainly don't have our standards. They don't have our ethics, and so forth. There's a deterioration," she continued. "Reporters laid down on the job in the run up to this [the Iraq] war."

Journalistic ethics are one of the big reason why so many people are turning to bloggers for their news.

Here's one recent example of journalistic ethics, and here's another one.

And here's a fine example of journalistic standards.

Of course, Helen Thomas has exhibited her own standards and ethics.

Hillary's Patsy Schroeder Moment

Hillary is discovering that she can't win. Some people are comparing this to Ed Muskie. She reminds me of Patsy Schroeder who broke down and cried when she realized that she couldn't win the presidential election.

Update: On the other hand, the oafish John Edwards might have just played into her hands.

"I think what we need in a commander-in-chief is strength and resolve, and presidential campaigns are tough business, but being president of the United States is also tough business," Edwards told reporters Laconia, New Hampshire.

Hillary's Negative Energy

Apparently, physicists searching for negative energy, have been looking in all the wrong places.

Hillary greets an enthusiastic crowd and puts them to sleep.

Ducking Hard Questions

Hillary Clinton is ducking Tim Russert.

Said Russert: "Last week we had Barack Obama and Mike Huckabee on 'Meet the Press.' This week we had John McCain. We invited Senator Clinton, she declined our invitation. Doing very few media interviews. I am told she might be doing 'Access Hollywood' on Monday."

How can she claim that she is capable of dealing with the hard decisions of the presidency when she can't even handle hard questions?

Separation Of Church And State

A group of highly reputable climate scientists is warning against the "religious belief in global warming."

"It seems that in the climatic area a new faith fight has broken out, which has all the characteristics of historical religion," warned professor Francis Massen of the Physics Laboratory in Luxemburg, one of the scientists included in the report.

"There is an unrestrained contest among media, environmental groups, and politicians to paint as dire a picture as possible," Massen added.

French climatologist Dr. Marcel Leroux, director of the Laboratory of Climatology, Risks, and Environment in Lyon, France, compared the current global warming culture to that of the Spanish Inquisition.

"The Apocalypse looms ever nearer! Without realizing it, or perhaps without wishing to, the average citizen is bamboozled, lobotomized, lulled into mindless acceptance," he said. "Non-believers are in the position of those long ago who doubted the existence of God."

Indeed.

Note To Media Matters - Do Your Research

There seems to be little to distinguish Media Matters for America from the MSM. Neither does much research before passing judgment.

2008 Kozmo Awards

So much absurdity and so little column space. The greatest challenge to awarding the annual Kozmo awards is not finding goofiness, but to identify with any certainty the silliest of so many deserving entries. In a year when Hillary Clinton cannot even cause a ripple in the pool by claiming that oil sheiks will fearfully reduce crude oil prices the moment she wins this November’s presidential election, it tells one something about the depth of talent and creativity in this year’s field. Nevertheless, your intrepid servant has slogged through the cesspool of leftwing wisdom and plucked from it the most worthy floaters for you to appreciate. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you part II of the annual Kozmo Awards.

Al Gore managed to sandwich winning the Nobel Peace Prize with quite remarkable demonstrations of hypocrisy. Before winning he was exposed as a world-class greenhouse gas emitter. The power bill for just one of his three mansions showed that he consumed 20 times the electricity of the average American home. Then, after winning his prize, he and Tipper flew a private jet to Scottsdale, Arizona, where he entertained friends who traveled similarly and set a buffet table weighted down with delicacies flown in fresh from Alaska, Maine and Asia.

Once again, the tobacco farmer who opportunistically turned anti-tobacco crusader collects another Kozmo for hypocrisy. It should look good on his mantle, between his Oscar and his Nobel.

Dennis Kucinich remains the only presidential candidate to take a firm stand against space based mind control weapons. But that’s not why he’s taking home a Kozmo. Nope, the congressman from Ohio wins for his commentary on American politics and cuisine: “You know how they say, Don't ever ask how laws or sausages are made? Well, I can attest to the wisdom of that with the exception of kielbasa made with tofu.”

The Anti-Bismark Kozmo goes to Dennis Kucinich.

I’d almost like to see Kucinich win the presidency, just so I can enjoy the spectacle of him “pardoning” the Thanksgiving tofurkey.

Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards goes to remarkable lengths to avoid informing his opinions. Fighting poverty is his primary crusade, and yet the one solution he has offered was tried and failed in the 1990’s. News to him. When it was learned that he had invested in a hedge fund, he said it was to learn more about poverty. If he did learn anything it was when that company started foreclosing on subprime mortgage loans in New Orleans.

When asked about Barack Obama’s supposed prescience regarding the Iraq War, he defended his vote for the war thusly: “He (Obama) wasn't burdened like a lot of us with the information that we were receiving on the intelligence committee and as members of the United States Senate. We were getting very detailed, intimate information about what was actually happening in Iraq.”

And so presumably, if only he had Obama’s advantage of ignorance, he too could have cast the vote he now claims he wishes he had cast in the first place.

And so, we award the Defense of Ignorance Kozmo to Pretty Boy John.

Johnny collects a second Kozmo for cynicism. This last spring it was learned that his wife, Elizabeth, had incurable breast cancer. Millions poured out their sincere, heartfelt sympathy to the Edwards family. And so John Edwards did what any loving husband would have done, he exploited his wife’s terminal illness to make money.

Visitors to John Edwards’ official campaign website were greeted with an opportunity to send Elizabeth an electronic sympathy note. Those who did were immediately solicited for contributions to the campaign.

In a normal year, Mike Huckabee would have won the Cynicism Kozmo for his media stunt with his negative anti-Romney advertisement, but John Edwards might have just retired the cynicism Kozmo. It’s hard to believe that anyone will ever again rise to the standard Edwards established.

This year’s Kozmo Supremo winner comes from academia, the fountainhead of most nonsense. Shortly after Columbia University president Lee Bolinger invited Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to speak, somebody wrote anti-Semitic slurs on a bathroom wall. Bollinger sanctimoniously railed against the offender and declared that the crime was inconsistent with Columbia’s ideals.

For Bollinger, anti-Semitism deserves a podium and a public address system. And for that, Bollinger wins the Irony Kozmo in a landslide.
Have a great 2008.

Clinton Campaign has No Conscience?

I agree, but John Edwards lacks the moral authority to make that accusation.

Islamic Art Critics

"We’re going to burn you naked or put a bullet in your mouth."

And you probably thought New York art critics were tough. But then, maybe American art critics aren't all that smart either.

Gary Hart and Bill Clinton

How about a Gary Hart moment? As Gary Hart did in 1984, Bill Clinton essentially invited the press to revisit his and Hillary's past indiscretions.

Allahpundit resurrects this blast from the past that Slick Willie would have us look at again.

Independent Counsel Robert Ray's final report on the White House travel office case found first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton's testimony in the matter was "factually false," but concluded there were no grounds to prosecute her.

In my world, factually false equals lying. How is that different from what Scooter Libby was convicted of?

Is Patrick Kennedy Trying To Make Nancy Pelosi Look Good?

Massachusetts' favorite drug addict managed to make an even bigger fool of himself in Syria than Nancy Pelosi did.

No doubt he has solidified his hold on his seat in the House of Representatives.

The Media Made Her Do It

It's not her fault. But Hillary's gone negative on Obama in New Hampshire.

Some Are Born Divisive, Others Have Divisiveness Thrust Upon Them

The Politico has a laughable article about Bill and Hillary in which Bill claims that the media forced his wife to go negative.

Ed Morrissey doesn't just find this bizarre, but recalls the Clinton's 1992 campaign. Explaining Bill Clinton's aggressive strategy, national campaign manager James Carville said: "It's hard for someone to hit you when you have your fist in their face."

And let's recall Hillary herself, who once she started going negative on Barack Obama expressed her delight that she was finally free to do what comes naturally: "Well now the fun part starts. We're into the last month, and we're going to start drawing the contrasts. Because I want every Iowan to have accurate information when they make their decisions. I don't expect to get 100 percent of the vote. But I want people to know what they're voting for, and to make the contrast, to make an informed decision. So we're going to be out there telling the people of Iowa what the facts are, setting the record straight, and having a good time doing it."