Thursday, May 22, 2008

Why do you think?

Global Terrorism in Sharp Decline

The worst sort of revisionism...

The Belmont Club: The valley of tears

Probably not covered very much by the MSM...

FRENCH COURT VINDICATES AL DURA HOAX CRITIC: Philippe Karsenty, fresh from his victory over a bogus libel suit, reports. "Now it is time for France 2 to acknowledge that it created and is continuing to perpetuate the worst anti-Semitic libel of our era. It’s the responsibility of the French government and, ultimately, the responsibility of the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy — who is, for all practical purposes, the chief executive of French public television — to finally reveal the truth."

What a surprise....

Gray Lady fighting dirty against McCain campaign? Update: NYT Ethics Policy:
"Does the New York Times leverage access to campaign events through threats of negative news articles? According to one source at the McCain campaign, the answer is yes."

So lets make more committments!

Taxpayers' bill leaps by trillions

Read it if you dare...

Chill out on global warming

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

When worlds collide...

The absolutely insane talk of Obama promising Hillary Clinton the next seat on the Supreme Court

Via WSJ...

The New York Times reports that Barack Obama staked out an insouciant position on Iran and other U.S. antagonists:

Arguing for engagement with the country's foes, Mr. Obama said in a speech on Sunday that "strong countries and strong presidents talk to their adversaries."
"That's what Reagan did with Gorbachev," he said, adding, "I mean think about it. Iran, Cuba, Venezuela--these countries are tiny compared to the Soviet Union. They don't pose a serious threat to us the way the Soviet Union posed a threat to us. And yet we were willing to talk to the Soviet Union at the time when they were saying we're going to wipe you off the planet."
He went on to argue that Iran spends "one-one hundredth of what we spend on the military. If Iran ever tried to pose a serious threat to us, they wouldn't stand a chance. And we should use that position of strength that we have to be bold enough to go ahead and listen."
"Let me be absolutely clear," said one candidate the next day in response: "Iran is a grave threat." That quote comes from . . . Barack Obama.

At least we're getting a real debate about foreign policy!

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Please read...

Inconvenient Truths: Get Ready to Rethink What It Means to Be Green

I feel like that, too...

Media Ownership? Really?:
"Seems that every time I feel myself drifting leftward, the leading lights of leftism jolt me back to reality."

Great fix...

Sleep Well, Secure in the Knowledge That the Prison Crisis Is Being Addressed By Three of the Most Liberal Judges on the Planet:
"So we won’t be releasing criminals early. We’ll just be taking tens of thousands of state prisoners and (releasing them early) giving them home detention and electronic monitoring."

No, really, can you imagine your health care in their hands?

More on milk:
"If you want to know just how ridiculous our agricultural programs are, consider this: for about half a century, we priced milk based on how far the cow was from Eau Claire, Wisconsin. No, I swear, I am not making this up. Apparently, the USDA scientifically determined that Eau Claire was the perfectest place in the entire world to keep cows, and that therefore the farther you were from that fabled city, the harder you must find it to produce milk."

Read it...

Scanner:
There are two basic lines of thought in the war of memes with radical Islam. The first implicitly sees it as a virus. The other sees it as a candidate component of the world s future operating system. It s fair to say Lieberman sees it as a virus. What does Obama regard it as?

This is (some of) what we need...

Iraq oil status and possible increases in 2009 and 2010

Via Instapundit...

LISA SCHIFFREN: "You know, I am all for Fossella resigning. But I'm a little unclear why David Paterson, the serially adulterous Governor of NY, who recently replaced moral paragon Eliot Spitzer, gets a free pass."

Fossella is a Republican. Paterson isn't. And he's black, and differently-abled to boot. Thus, a much higher threshold for him. That's how media outcries work.

Democrats...

For local fans of Clinton, campaign is personal and "extremely emotional"
"When Shannon de Rubens, a stay-at-home mom, wears her Hillary Rodham Clinton button, she expects to be harassed. A woman in Bellevue even pretended to spit on her once. That's all part of the game, when you're a Clinton backer in a land of Obama bumper stickers."

Via Volokh...

New Dean of Columbia's School of International and Public Affairs:

If you want to be dean of Columbia's SIPA, you should

(a) invite Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to campus and announce that you would "certainly" have invited Adolf Hitler as well, resulting in a public relations debacle for your university;

(b) sign a petition calling for divestment from Israel.

(c) apologize for a high-level Communist Cuban official who served with Castro since before the revolution by drolly noting noting that "many decent and honorable people in Cuba are Communists. They work in government agencies, schools, laboratories, and clinics to improve the lives of their fellow citizens." UPDATE: And with regard to the official's political perspective, state, "I respect his convictions."

(d) all of the above.

Answer: (d), of course.

Always the case...

"Bush Hit the Nail on the Head-- Now the Nails Are Complaining"

Vote for (no) change....

Talking Versus Doing
"If you look around America today, you see the Olson logic playing out. Interest groups turn every judicial fight into an ideological war. They lobby for more spending on the elderly, even though the country is trillions of dollars short of being able to live up to its promises. They’ve turned environmental concern into subsidies for corn growers and energy concerns into subsidies for oil companies.

The $307 billion farm bill that rolled through Congress is a perfect example of the pattern. Farm net income is up 56 percent over the past two years, yet the farm bill plows subsidies into agribusinesses, thoroughbred breeders and the rest."



Monday, May 19, 2008

What's to become of Breezewood?

Investors Offer .8 Billion to Run Penn. Turnpike
"A consortium led by Citigroup and Spain’s Abertis Infraestructuras won the bidding war to run the Pennsylvania Turnpike with a $12.8 billion offer, Gov. Edward Rendell said on Monday.

The group, which includes Australia’s Babcock & Brown, beat out a rival group that includes Goldman Sachs and Transurban Group."

Actually, you have to be well traveled enough on the Penna. Tpk. to understand the reference. Here's to Valley Forge (the original eastern terminus of the road when it was started back in the '40's), the NE extension near Harrisburg, and the tunnel at Blue Mountain!

Nice, but call me when the Atlanta series is over....

Weekend in Bronx Revives Mets

He really does take us all for fools...

Stranded in Suburbia
"I have seen the future, and it works."

Nobody does it like Krugman. Or should I say nobody sees the present without a future quite as well.

Being nice is not a government approved activity....

Offer a Ride, Lose Your Car

Thye beginning of the end...

Al Jazeera English Tries to Extend Its Reach
The English-language offshoot of Al Jazeera, the Arabic television news network, is pushing for a "breakthrough" that would make the channel available to American TV viewers and help it move beyond a turbulent start-up phase, according to its new managing director, Tony Burman.

Must be George Bush's fault...

Anti-Immigrant Violence in Johannesburg
"“We should be the last people to have this problem of having a negative attitude towards our brothers and sisters who come from outside,” Mr. Zuma said.

Many of South Africa’s current leaders sought shelter in neighboring countries during the apartheid years and were deeply embarrassed by the violence.

Newspaper editorials have called the outbursts a matter of using immigrants as scapegoats for South Africa’s problems. The official unemployment rate is 23 percent. Food prices have risen sharply. The crime rate is among the highest in the world."

Oh, please - get over it!

Gender Issue Lives On as Clinton’s Hopes Dim

Have any of these "feminists" ever thought that, perhaps, Ms. Hillary is either just not the right person for the job; or that people have the right not to vote for her - regardless of her gender? This is not some affirmative action job, girls.

One of many...

Michael Moore's Crime
"I usually freely grant use of my work to truthful, peaceful, non-commercial, non-political outlets. For instance, a church group wanted to use one of my photos for their congregation. I was honored and gave it to them freely. On another occasion, a peaceful, non-profit Islamic organization wanted to use the same photo that Michael Moore has infringed upon (Major Mark Bieger cradling a little girl named Farah), and I was honored to contribute to their peaceful cause. I’ve seen grandmothers use my work in technically illegal ways, but since they’re not a big company, they probably have no idea about copyright, and usually use the work in tasteful, appropriate ways, I just smile and say “Go ahead, Ma’am.”"

A worthy "Heh!"...

PERSONALLY, I JUST MAIL MINE TO AL GORE: Doesn't everybody?

Ain't that the truth...

The Problem is not conservatism, but conservatives who aren’t conservative:
"What mystifies is the paralysis of Republicans and their impotent protestations that “Bush did it”. The truth is that Congressional Republicans, responsible for turning principles into governance, deserve to lose—unless they craft clear positions that won’t be compromised and then offer them as alternative choices to the voters this fall. Here are some examples:"

Not to worry - universal health care will fix it all...

Pigs in the trough on Capitol Hill
"Pathetic. Craven. Irresponsible. Unprincipled. Those and similar adjectives apply to every member of Congress who voted for the bloated, anti-consumer piece of legislative corruption known as the Food and Energy Conservative Act of 2008 a k a as “the farm bill.” President Bush has promised to veto the bill. To put it plainly, everybody in Congress who votes to override the coming Bush veto should be retired come November because they will have voted for a measure that is nothing more -- or less -- than a $300 billion giveaway of the taxpayers’ hard-earned money. This is especially true for conservative Republicans and Blue Dog Democrats who brag about their fiscal rectitude."

Sunday, May 18, 2008

And nobody else published it...

Speaker Pelosi encounters reality and notices it
Buried deep in this AP report, between news of a crackdown on al Qaeda in Mosul and a suicide bombing in Baqouba, is Nancy Pelosi's concession that the surge is succeeding. According to AP, the Speaker, who made a surprise visit to Iraq, "expressed confidence that expected provincial elections will promote national reconciliation." She also "welcomed Iraq's progress in passing a budget as well as oil legislation, and a bill paving the way for the provincial elections in the fall that are expected to more equitably redistribute power among local officials."

Via Instapundit...

SHOOT THE MESSENGER: "In the end, well-placed stooges like Anil Patani are a greater danger to free societies than a cheerfully straightforward hater like Abu Usamah." Just don't pretend that they care about "antiiscrimination" or "human rights" or any aspect of actual civilization whatsoever.

Read it and weep...

Of course...

Live By Political Correctness, Die By Political Correctness
As the Insta-Man likes to say, I'll consider believing that there's a crisis when the people who complain the loudest start acting like there's a crisis.
THE POLAR BEAR: A new libertarian mascot. Yep, as with "racial harassment" complaints for saying bad things about Dead White Males at universities, use of environmental laws to stop government programs seems an area ripe for some guerrilla lawyering.