Sunday, July 31, 2005

USS Iowa Banned From Port of San Francisco

Talk about cutting your nose off to spite your face. Maybe the city of San Francisco would prefer to defend their own borders, I'm sure the military would be happy to oblige.

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors today voted 3-8 against a resolution urging the San Francisco Congressional Delegation to support the permanent berthing of the USS Iowa as a museum at the Port of San Francisco.

The congressional delegation secured $3 million in 2000 to move the USS Iowa, which was present at the signing of the treaty between Japan and the U.S. in 1945, from Rhode Island to the Bay Area, the proposed resolution says.

A study commissioned by the Port of San Francisco concluded that the ship would attract more than 500,000 people during its first year at the waterfront, according to the proposed resolution.

But Tom Ammiano said today he didn't want the ship berthed in San Francisco because of the military's treatment of gays and lesbians and its "don't ask, don't tell'' policy.

"It's dehumanizing,'' Ammiano said. "You are not allowed to be a gay or lesbian in the military except when there is a war and then when the war ends, you are kicked out.'' (Is this guy a drama queen or what?? All the military expects is that you don't brazenly broadcast your sexual preferences and you keep your nose out of other peoples business. If you insist on broadcasting your sexuality to anyone who will listen and marching in the gay pride parade wearing only speedos is a neccessity, find another profession JEEEEEZ.)

Supervisors Ross Mirkarimi and Chris Daly also spoke out against the resolution, citing their opposition to the US occupation in Iraq.

"I am sad to say I am not proud of the history of the United States of America since the 1940s,'' Daly said.

Saturday, July 30, 2005

Carter: Iraq War is 'Unjust'

A flailing President and a failed Presidency best sums up the tenure of Jimmy Carter in the White House. A one term President who's naiveity was surpassed only by his intellectual bewilderment. A Don Quixote mentality without the heart to do battle.

BIRMINGHAM, England — Former President Jimmy Carter said Saturday the detention of terror suspects at the Guantanamo Bay Naval base was an embarrassment and had given extremists an excuse to attack the United States.

Carter also criticized the U.S.-led war in Iraq as "unnecessary and unjust."

"I think what's going on in Guantanamo Bay and other places is a disgrace to the U.S.A.," he told a news conference at the Baptist World Alliance's centenary conference in Birmingham, England.

"I wouldn't say it's the cause of terrorism, but it has given impetus and excuses to potential terrorists to lash out at our country and justify their despicable acts."

Carter said, however, that terrorist acts could not be justified, and that while Guantanamo "may be an aggravating factor ... it's not the basis of terrorism."

Critics of President Bush's administration have long accused the U.S. government of unjustly detaining terror suspects at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base on the southeastern tip of Cuba. Hundreds of men have been held indefinitely at the prison, without charge or access to lawyers.

"What has happened at Guantanamo Bay ... does not represent the will of the American people," Carter said. "I'm embarrassed about it, I think its wrong. I think it does give terrorists an unwarranted excuse to use the despicable means to hurt innocent people."

For me this man is the perfect negative barometer. If he is on one side of an issue, you can bet the farm the other side is the place to be. During his Presidency how we escaped getting our a$$ kicked by Russia or for that matter Cuba is a miracle.

Update: I have been doing some guest blogging at the Jawa Report recently and I cross posted this commentary there. Surpisingly there was a fair amount of dissention (all from the far left Kool-Aid sippers) concerning what Carter is presently doing and my opinion of the ex Pres.

J & W have grabbed the bull by the horns and offered a really excellent response to the never say die lefty rationalists concerning Carter and his past behaviors. Swing over there, it's worth a read.

Update II: Pete Fischer sets the record straight here

Suspect: I have rights

This article conjures up a picture of that snivelling dirtbag in Dirty Harry I

THE two terror suspects caught in West London demanded cops respect their HUMAN RIGHTS during the siege on their flat.A witness said: “I heard one of them say ‘I’ve got rights’.”

And an astonished security source said: “We could not believe our ears when we heard them moaning about their human rights.“What about the rights of the innocent people we believe they wanted to kill?“What about the rights of the 52 people murdered by the foursuicide bombers on July 7?”

Bus bomb suspect Muktar Mohammed-Said and alleged Oval Tube attacker Ramzi Mohammed also told police they were too scared to come out of their flat.

Delivery driver Alex Ospina — who lives on the estate where the arrests were made — said he heard one of the men shouting to police.

Alex, 31, said: “The police were saying ‘Come out’, but the guy was saying he was scared. “He was saying: ‘How do I know you’re not going to shoot me like the guy in Stockwell Tube station?’

Typical demented egocentric attitude of a murderous scumbag.....the only rights they care about are their own. Kill, mame, and torture women and children without conscience but God forbid we should infringe on their cultural entitlements.

Friday, July 29, 2005

W.House gives strong signal on Bolton appointment

You've heard of someone having a conniption.....well if you've never seen one keep your eyes peeled because you're about to see several from the likes of Reid, Kennedy, Durbin, Schumer, Clinton, Pelosi and others.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) The White House gave its strongest signal yet on Friday that President Bush will soon bypass the Senate and appoint John Bolton to become the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

Senate Democrats have stalled the nomination of Bolton, a favorite of conservatives, over accusations he tried to manipulate intelligence and intimidated intelligence analysts to support his hawkish views while the top U.S. diplomat for arms control.

Bush can bypass the Senate and give Bolton a "recess appointment" when the Senate begins its August recess this weekend. Bolton would be able to serve until January 2007, when a new Congress is sworn in.

Asked about the possibility of a recess appointment for Bolton, White House spokesman Scott McClellan gave a strong hint.
"We do need a permanent representative at the United Nations. This is a critical time and it's important to continue moving forward on comprehensive reform," McClellan said.


Did President Bush flip off reporters? You decide. Posted by Picasa

Thursday, July 28, 2005

Quiznos Question

You know that commercial for Quiznos, the little kid "Bob" in various situations with a dubbed voice hawking subs.

I don't know about you all but he really creeps me out, hands?

Likely AP Headline: American Soldier Caught Brutally Slapping Two Young Iraqi Innocents. Posted by Picasa

Toronto subway shuts briefly after threat

But but......Canada is not fighting in Iraq. The reason Britain was attacked was because they were fighting side by side with the Americans in Iraq. How can this be?

TORONTO, July 28 (Reuters) - Toronto's subway system was partially closed for nearly one hour after a threat was made against the country's largest transit system, police said on Thursday.

Police said the threat was made by telephone and was directed at the transit system but did not specify where on the line. As a result, police shut down large sections of the line as they investigated.

"We're just not taking any chances, that's all," said a Toronto police spokesman.
The Toronto transit system carries about 1.4 million passengers a day, making it the country's busiest.

Authorities have stepped up security measures on the system since the July 7 subway bombings in London which killed at least 56 people and injured hundreds.

Why would security be stepped up after the London bombings, Canada should be safe because they are not participating in Iraq. They have acquiesced to the terrorists and therefor should not be a target, right?

London Bomb Plot May Have Been Much Larger

Sooner or later the left around the world must to come to the realization that the size and scope of this assault on the West is not going to be simply handled by capture and prosecution of the individuals involved, I'm not holding my breath.

The plot for the July 7 transit bombings in London, which killed 56 people, may have been much larger than previously known, ABC News has learned.

Sources familiar with the investigation tell ABC News an additional 12 bombs and four improvised detonators were found in the trunk of a car believed to be rented by suicide bomber Shehzad Tanweer. Police believe the bombers drove the car to Luton, where they boarded trains to London.

"I believe that the explosives left in that car were left there for a second strike," said Bob Ayers, a London-based terrorism consultant with expertise in demolition. "But the Metropolitan Police responded so quickly, they were able to get to the car and take control of the car before the second team could get the explosives and leave."

Wednesday, July 27, 2005

San Diegans Overwhelmingly Favor Transfer of Soledad Cross to Feds

With the majority of precincts reporting, San Diegans voted overwhelmingly yesterday to transfer the historic Mount Soledad cross site to the federal government. The site contains a 43-foot concrete cross that has been at the center of the controversy since a 1989 lawsuit.

The city-owned land has long been recognized locally as a war memorial. Surrounding the cross are more than 1,600 plaques commemorating military veterans who have participated in the defense of America. By attaching an amendment to a military appropriations bill last November, area congressmen Duncan Hunter and Randy "Duke" Cunningham provided a way where a federal transfer of the site could occur, provided the city would allow such a move. The vote on Tuesday (July 26) -- in which more than 75 percent of voters chose to transfer the property to the federal government as a national war memorial -- sent a clear message that the public supports the move.


In 1989 attorney James McElroy, representing atheist Philip Paulson, sued the City of San Diego for maintaining a religious symbol on public property. McElroy made it clear before yesterday's vote that he intends to continue challenging the case in court. "This will be resolved in the courtroom where it deserves to be resolved -- and not in front of the voters," McElroy told the North County Times.

Typical liberal moonbat mindset, don't let the people decide, let courts overrule the public will through some nimrod judge with a similar ideology. For the most part the left can't win at the ballot box on most issues, their last and only refuge is the courts.

Youngest Covert CIA Agent in History

Larry Johnson the oh so credible ex CIA supervisor has confirmed that Valerie Plame was indeed the youngest covert CIA agent in history!

Former CIA man Larry Johnson, in an interview with PBS's "NewsHour":

This is not an alleged abuse. This is a confirmed abuse. I worked with this woman. She started training with me. She has been undercover for three decades, she is not as Bob Novak suggested a CIA analyst. But given that, I was a CIA analyst for four years. I was undercover. I could not divulge to my family outside of my wife that I worked for the Central Intelligence Agency until I left the agency on Sept. 30, 1989. At that point I could admit it.

So the fact that she's been undercover for three decades and that has been divulged is outrageous.

According the the Washington Post profile on Plame, she is 42 years old. That would mean that she has been acting as a covert CIA agent since the age of 12! Wow, she was quite the prodigy.

Durbin was source for column about Roberts

It appears that Dick Durbin's lies and hypocracy are becoming more brazen by the day.

Senate Minority Whip Richard J. Durbin acknowledged yesterday that he was the source for a newspaper column that reported earlier this week that Judge John G. Roberts Jr. said he could not rule in a Supreme Court case where U.S. law might conflict with Catholic teaching.

But the Illinois Democrat maintains that the column by George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley incorrectly captured the private conversation that the senator had with Judge Roberts in his Capitol office Friday.

When the column appeared Monday, Mr. Durbin's office clarified that "Judge Roberts said repeatedly that he would follow the rule of law".

Spokesman Joe Shoemaker also said he did not know who Mr. Turley's source was, although only a handful of people were in the room at the time.

He and Turley were in the green room of the NBC studios," he said. "Turley was getting makeup put on, and Durbin was taking it off. "They talked for about a minute, and I'm being generous," Mr. Shoemaker added.

"Durbin said Turley didn't identify himself as a journalist but introduced himself as a law professor." Both Mr. Shoemaker and Mr. Turley said large parts of the conversation concerned the writer's previous column. Mr. Turley said that after he wrote the Judge Roberts column, he read back portions of it to Mr. Shoemaker, whom, he said, verified the account. Mr. Shoemaker declined to comment further.

Considering Durbins propensity toward lying, I think I'll believe Turley's version.

Failed London bomber arrested in Birmingham

Good news for sure.

Anti-terrorist officers believe that a man arrested in Birmingham today is one of the would-be suicide bombers who attacked the London transport network last week.

As police investigations into last week's bungled bombings spread across the country, another man was detained under anti-terror legislation at Luton airport as he was about to catch a Ryanair flight to the southern French city of Nimes. It was not clear whether there was any connection with the London attacks.

But the Birmingham arrest appeared to be a significant breakthrough for police. A witness said that the man arrested in Heybarnes Road, Hay Mills, looked like Yasin Hassan Omar, 24, who has been named by Scotland Yard as the man who tried to explode a bomb on the Victoria Line Tube line last week.

Time to reactivate the "Tower of London".

Tuesday, July 26, 2005

Ex-CIA Accuse Bush of Manipulating Iraq Evidence

This behavior is unethical, criminal and outright treasonous. Kind of makes one wonder what all of this might have to do with the Rove/Plame kerfluffle.

WASHINGTON — Invoking the name of a Pentagon whistle-blower, a small group of retired, anti-war CIA officers are accusing the Bush administration of manipulating evidence against Iraq in order to push war while burying evidence that could show Iraq's compliance with U.N demands for disarmament.

The 25-member group, Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity, composed mostly of former CIA analysts along with a few operational agents, is urging employees inside the intelligence agency to break the law and leak any information they have that could show the Bush administration is engineering the release of evidence to match its penchant for war.

IPS member Ray McGovern, a 27-year CIA veteran who gave intelligence briefings to top Reagan officials before retiring in 1990, said the administration has not made the case that Iraq has ties to Al Qaeda and is providing information that does not meet an intelligence professional's standard of proof.

"It's been cooked to a recipe, and the recipe is high policy," McGovern said. "That's why a lot of my former colleagues are holding their noses these days."

But the CIA said McGovern doesn't have any authority to speak of the quality of intelligence policy-makers are reviewing.

He left the agency over a decade ago," spokesman Mark Mansfield said. "He's hardly in a position to comment knowledgeably on that subject."

VIPS (Larry Johnson's group) say their appeals to CIA staff are an attempt to evoke another Daniel Ellsberg, who leaked the Pentagon Papers, a top-secret study on U.S. involvement in Vietnam.

Leaking classified national defense information is illegal, and CIA officers, who take a secrecy oath when they join could lose their security clearances or jobs, and may even face prosecution.

On top of that, the culture of the CIA is very introverted -- disputes stay inside the agency and intelligence officers rarely discuss policy, adopting the attitude that their job is to gather and dispense information, not decide how to act on it.

Our role is to call it like we see it, to provide objective, unvarnished assessments. That's the code we live by, and that's what policy-makers expect from us," Mansfield said.
But McGovern, who now works in an inner-city outreach ministry in Washington, said officials who blow the whistle would be performing a higher service.

"It goes against the whole ethic of secrecy and going through channels, and going to the [inspector general]. It takes a courageous person to get by all that, and say, 'I've got a higher duty,'" he said.

We should certainly be inclined to believe anything Larry Johnson has to say considering he penned this intelligence analysis in the NYT on July 10th 2001.
The Declining Threat of Terrorism

Dubya's school reforms pay off

I can't even believe that this is coming from the Chronical.

FOR YEARS, nothing helped. America's children weren't reading as well as they should. An achievement gap showed black and Latino students trailing behind their white counterparts in reading and math. Educators and politicians agreed Something Must Be Done, but they made halting progress. Until now.

This month, the National Assessment of Educational Progress -- also known as the national report card -- released good news on long-term educational trends in America. Reading competency for 9-year-olds has reached its highest level since NAEP began measuring progress in 1971.

What is more, the achievement gap is narrowing. The gap between black and white 9-year-olds tested for reading was 44 points in 1971 to 26 points in 2004, while the gap between white and Latino students narrowed from 34 points in 1975 to 21 points in 2004. Half the gap-narrowing has occurred since 1999.

Predictably they do manage to temper their enthusiasm toward the end

Unions Demise Was Inevitable

It's simple, the time of unions being powerful and relevant has long since past. Early in the 20th century when workers were oftentimes exploited by immensly powerful and heavy handed corporations the union was a natural, dare I say, even needed result.

The federal government oftentimes sided with the corporations (because they frequently were on the payroll as well) little power and few protections were afforded the average working man. The unions helped to fill the vacuum. They leveled the playing field forcing companies to negotiate with a partner of co-equal or near co-equal strength. Corporations were still powerful, profitable and growing but the situations improved for the average worker as well raising his pay, benefits and overall standard of living while at the same time affording him some basic protections.

Somewhere along the line the federal government decided they needed to be the protectotate of the American working man. Over a period of decades literally thousands of laws, edicts and madates spewed from within the bowells of the bureaucracy provided a giant "bubble" of collective immunization for the multitudes of average Joe's. This concurrent with the progressively increasing greed of the unions began to spell the end.

Companies no longer bargained from a position of superior or even co-equal power. They became the underdog being battered frontally by the unions and flanked by the federal government. Productivity waned, profits suffered. The corporations began to realize that they could not win a war against two such overwhelming opponents head to head.

The strategy they developed was multi-faceted and ingenious. First, when a union or the federal government makes doing business at a profit unfeasable, close up shop. Either move to a non-union area of the country or move offshore or even shut down completely. Second, preempt the union. Offer higher salaries, more benefits, better working conditions up front. A happy employee does not want to rock the boat. If he believes the union will not make things significantly better for him, why bother. The union wants 15% of his pay; Why vote for a union when the federal government and the company will do it for free. Lastly, eliminate as many working people as possible. If there is a machine that can do it, buy it. If there's technology out that that can eliminate men from the payroll, incorporate it. No matter how long it takes to break even on the investment, it's worth it. And so the paradigm has changed.

The Teamsters are right about one thing, the political obsession of the AFL-CIO has hurt them. After all at least a third of the card carrying union members vote Republican. It irritates these 30% that a big chunk of what was formerly their money is going to prop up Democrats. Many causes of which they personally disagree are being funded by their dues and that creates animosity in the ranks. The unions for a long time now have neglected to dance exclusively with the person that brung em.

Union membership is declining precipitously. Company's that continue to be beat up by them are destined to take one of the above courses of action. There may come a time when the only workers in this country remaining unionized are federal and municipal government employees. After all being that profit is not an issue, it's only the government as an employer who still is content to allow themselves to be extorted.

Monday, July 25, 2005

Is Bolton Recess Appointment Imminent?

More than one way to skin a Rat....... errrrr cat.

WASHINGTON - Frustrated by Senate Democrats, the White House hinted Monday that President Bush may act soon to sidestep Congress and install embattled nominee John Bolton as ambassador to the United Nations on a temporary basis.

White House press secretary Scott McClellan said Bush has used his power for temporary appointments when "he has to get people in place that have waited far too long to get about doing their business." He said that "sometimes there's come a point" when Bush has decided he needs to act.

Bolton's nomination has been stalled for months. Critics say Bolton, who has been accused of mistreating subordinates and who has been openly skeptical about the U.N., would hurt U.S. efforts to work with other countries on global matters. The administration says the tough-talking Bolton is ideally suited to lead an effort to overhaul the U.N. bureaucracy and make it more accountable.

Bush could put Bolton on the job by exercising his authority to make a recess appointment, an avenue available to the president when Congress is in recess. Lawmakers are expected to leave Friday for a summer recess and not return until Sept. 7.

Hanoi Jane Rides Again (on a bus)

Now that HJ milked every last dollar from her book tour and finished apologizing to the veterans of Vietnam, she's reverting back to old form. I wonder if there is anything this women feels is worth fighting for, I doubt it.

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) - Actress and activist Jane Fonda says she intends to take a cross-country bus tour to call for an end to U.S. military operations in Iraq.

"I can't go into any detail except to say that it's going to be pretty exciting," she said.
Fonda said her anti-war tour in March will use a bus that runs on "vegetable oil." She will be joined by families of Iraq war veterans and her daughter.

They plan to return to the Santa Fe area, where she was promoting her book, "My Life So Far" on Saturday.

Prompted by a question from the audience, Fonda said war veterans that she has met on a nationwide book tour have encouraged her to break her silence on the Iraq war.

"I've decided I'm coming out," she said

One might surmise she's been sniffing a bit too much of that vegetable oil exhaust.

IED emplacers captured, arms cache seized

Time to break out the bras and dance music.....

BAGHDAD, July 23 (KUNA) -- U.S. Soldiers captured nine individuals July 22 after they were seen placing an improvised explosive device (IED), Coalition forces said in a statement circulated here on Sunday. The Soldiers observed two vehicles pull to the side of a road north of Forward Operating Base Kalsu, said the press release, adding that nine men armed with AK-47 rifles exited the vehicles and began placing an improvised explosive device. The Soldiers engaged the men with small arms fire, wounding several. The other four fled the scene and were captured by another U.S. patrol. One of the four was found to be wounded. The six wounded individuals were taken to the 86th Combat Support Hospital in Baghdad. The remaining three are being held for questioning. In another development US troops detained 100 individuals and confiscated large quantity of weapons and explosives in search operations in west Iraq.

Sunnis rejoin Iraq's constitutional commission

Like they had a choice. The walkout was an excercize in futility. They either stay with the process or they become completely irrelevant.

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Sunni Arab members of a committee drafting Iraq's new constitution ended their boycott Monday, six days after jeopardizing the credibility of the nascent political process by walking out in protest over the assassinations of two fellow Sunni constitution framers.

Their decision to return eased the threat that the country's new constitution would be a product of only two of three major Iraqi ethnic and religious groups. Leaving out the Sunni Arabs, who form the core of the insurgency, would dim hopes for a political exit from the incessant violence gripping the country.

On Monday, a minibus packed with explosives detonated at a checkpoint outside a hotel once used by American contractors, killing at least 12 people and injuring at least 18, hospital officials and police said.

Also, a U.S. soldier was killed Monday when a roadside bomb exploded under his vehicle near Samarra, 60 miles north of Baghdad, the U.S. command said. The soldier was assigned to Task Force Liberty, which oversees security in a large area of the infamous Sunni Triangle, the main center of the insurgency.

Thursday, July 21, 2005

Teacher says principal ordered Bush portrait removed from classroom

ooooooh, I wish this gal was my twins principal. I would relish taking her a$$ down.

JULY 21--A New York woman claims that she was forced from her teaching post by an elementary school principal who objected to her Republican activism and last year ordered the removal of a portrait of President George W. Bush from the educator's Long Island classroom.

In a federal discrimination lawsuit, Jillian Caruso, 26, claims that she was improperly forced to resign her job by Birch Lane Elementary School principal Joyce Becker-Seddio, the wife of state Assemblyman Frank Seddio, a Brooklyn Democrat. In her U.S. District Court complaint, a copy of which you'll find below, Caruso contends that she was retaliated against by Becker-Seddio because of her political work, which has included volunteering at last year's GOP convention and membership in the Republican National Committee.

Caruso, who taught first and third graders at Birch Lane, also claims that when the principal spotted the Bush portrait late last year--it was hanging among photos of other U.S. presidents--she "became outraged and insisted that the picture be removed." Caruso, who complied with that order, has named the Massapequa Union Free School District as the sole defendant in her action, which seeks unspecified monetary damages and a reappointment to her prior teaching post.

These sort of fascist strong arm tactics are what the right is routinely accused of. In reality the left is all too often the perpetrator of such dictatorial despotism.
Bet the ACLU will be all over this right, yea, you bet.

Jobless Claims Post Biggest Dip in 2 1/2 Years

How long has it been since you've heard anyone on the left even mention the economy?

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits plunged by the largest amount in 2 1/2 years last week, reflecting a slowdown in layoffs in the auto industry.

The Labor Department reported that new benefit claims dropped by 34,000 to a new total of 303,000 as the labor market continued to signal strength.

Government analysts attributed the big improvement to a slowdown in layoffs in the auto industry, which had seen big increases in recent weeks as auto plants shut down temporarily to retool for the new model year.

Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, delivering a monetary report to Congress this week, said the U.S. economy, after a brief slowdown in the spring, has picked up strength over the past two months and should enjoy solid growth this year.

Moral to this story, TAX CUTS WORK.

More Bombs in London

BREAKING......Fox is reporting that 3 bombs have detonated in London. Explosions at Sheperds Bush, Warren St. and Oval

More as it becomes available.

Update: Now reporting 4 incidents, bus involved in 4th. Possible nail bomb at Warren St. Tube station. Scotland Yard is NOT treating this as a major incident "yet". Yahoo report here

Update II: London Police confirm explosions at 3 subway stations and a bus.

Update III: Only one injury reported so far, police see a wealth of forensic evidence to be gained from unexploded ordiance.

Update IV: Arrests made

Wednesday, July 20, 2005


PERFECT! Posted by Picasa

Scotty beams up for the last time. James Doohan dead at 85. Posted by Picasa

Boxer Hammered on Fox

Boxer in her predictable know it all self righteous condescension, talks about how at the appeals level, judges are not supposed to make law, but at the Supreme Court, they are supposed to mold the law with their judicial philosophy , so we need to know Roberts' ideology, etc., Then she brought up the "French Fry Case" and talked about how unfortunate it was that Roberts had voted to keep a little 12-year old girl locked up for eating french fries.

I'm WT (without Tivo) so this is paraphrased....

Kiran Chetry "Senator, wasn't that a unanimous decision of the court in that case which basically said that there was nothing in the consitution that prohibited the police from arresting her?"

Boxer: no, I don't believe it was a unanimous decision, and, in fact, Roberts was in the minority on that decision.

Chetry: "Senator - I've read it - it was unanimous."

For the record, here's the Findlaw.com summary of the case in question:

In the unanimous ruling last October in Hedgepeth v. WMATA, Roberts upheld the arrest, handcuffing and detention of a 12-year-old girl for eating a single french fry inside a D.C. Metrorail station. "No one is very happy about the events that led to this litigation," Roberts acknowledged in the decision, but he ruled that nothing the police did violated the girl's Fourth Amendment or Fifth Amendment rights.

Nothing like making up the facts to bolster your misguided dogma eh Babs.

Tuesday, July 19, 2005

John G. Roberts Biography

Some say John G. Roberts is a Rehnquist clone, sounds perfect to me.

Info from slate.com's biography of him: Age: 50 Graduated from: Harvard Law School. He clerked for: Judge Henry Friendly, Chief Justice William Rehnquist.

He used to be: associate counsel to the president for Ronald Reagan, deputy solicitor general for George H.W. Bush, partner at Hogan & Hartson. He's now: a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit (appointed 2003). His confirmation battle: Roberts has been floated as a nominee who could win widespread support in the Senate. Not so likely. He hasn't been on the bench long enough for his judicial opinions to provide much ammunition for liberal opposition groups. But his record as a lawyer for the Reagan and first Bush administrations and in private practice is down-the-line conservative on key contested fronts, including abortion, separation of church and state, and environmental protection.

Civil Rights and Liberties For a unanimous panel, denied the weak civil rights claims of a 12-year-old girl who was arrested and handcuffed in a Washington, D.C., Metro station for eating a French fry. Roberts noted that "no one is very happy about the events that led to this litigation" and that the Metro authority had changed the policy that led to her arrest. (Hedgepeth v. Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, 2004).

In private practice, wrote a friend-of-the-court brief arguing that Congress had failed to justify a Department of Transportation affirmative action program. (Adarand Constructors, Inc. v. Mineta, 2001).

For Reagan, opposed a congressional effort—in the wake of the 1980 Supreme Court decision Mobile v. Bolden—to make it easier for minorities to successfully argue that their votes had been diluted under the Voting Rights Act.

Separation of Church and State For Bush I, co-authored a friend-of-the-court brief arguing that public high-school graduation programs could include religious ceremonies. The Supreme Court disagreed by a vote of 5-4. (Lee v. Weisman, 1992)

Environmental Protection and Property Rights Voted for rehearing in a case about whether a developer had to take down a fence so that the arroyo toad could move freely through its habitat. Roberts argued that the panel was wrong to rule against the developer because the regulations on behalf of the toad, promulgated under the Endangered Species Act, overstepped the federal government's power to regulate interstate commerce. At the end of his opinion, Roberts suggested that rehearing would allow the court to "consider alternative grounds" for protecting the toad that are "more consistent with Supreme Court precedent." (Rancho Viejo v. Nortion, 2003)

For Bush I, argued that environmental groups concerned about mining on public lands had not proved enough about the impact of the government's actions to give them standing to sue. The Supreme Court adopted this argument. (Lujan v. National Wildlife Federation, 1990)

Criminal Law Joined a unanimous opinion ruling that a police officer who searched the trunk of a car without saying that he was looking for evidence of a crime (the standard for constitutionality) still conducted the search legally, because there was a reasonable basis to think contraband was in the trunk, regardless of whether the officer was thinking in those terms. (U.S. v. Brown, 2004)

Habeas Corpus Joined a unanimous opinion denying the claim of a prisoner who argued that by tightening parole rules in the middle of his sentence, the government subjected him to an unconstitutional after-the-fact punishment. The panel reversed its decision after a Supreme Court ruling directly contradicted it. (Fletcher v. District of Columbia, 2004)

Abortion For Bush I, successfully helped argue that doctors and clinics receiving federal funds may not talk to patients about abortion. (Rust v. Sullivan, 1991)

Judicial Philosophy Concurring in a decision allowing President Bush to halt suits by Americans against Iraq as the country rebuilds, Roberts called for deference to the executive and for a literal reading of the relevant statute. (Acree v. Republic of Iraq, 2004)

In an article written as a law student, argued that the phrase "just compensation" in the Fifth Amendment, which limits the government in the taking of private property, should be "informed by changing norms of justice." This sounds like a nod to liberal constitutional theory, but Rogers' alternative interpretation was more protective of property interests than Supreme Court law at the time.

Judge John G. Roberts, Jr. An excellent nominee and comes with OpiniPundits seal of approval.  Posted by Picasa

Supreme Court Nominee Latest

Our belief that Edith Clement will be Bush's nominee is waning and not without some celebration.

Currently here at OP the concensus is Michael Luttig, with Edith Jones coming in second. Tradesports has Jones at a 37% liklihood of nomination with Owen a distant second at 12% and Luttig and 10%.

Getting interesting.

Update: Both CBS and ABC are reporting it is NOT Edith Clement.

Update II :IT"S ROBERTS!

Update III: We are happy campers here. He is a strong conservative, a member of the Federalist society and the National Legal Center For The Public Interest, serving on the latter group's Legal Advisory Council and he's only 50 yrs old.

Sen. Boxer Spews the True Liberal Mindset

Babs gonna trigger a nuke....

Senator Barbara Boxer appearing on Fox News this afternoon was asked about the 'Gang of Seven' deal not to Filibuster nominees unless it is Extra-ordinary circumstances; declared that "with the right to privacy and Roe v Wade on the table this is an extra-ordinary circumstance and the Filibuster is on the table".

"I am relevant, I am, the orb tells me so!"

Most Ludicrous headline of the Week

Gore: New TV Channel Won't Be Partisan

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (AP) - Former Vice President Al Gore, co-founder of a new television channel launching next month, said he's shunning politics - and so is his media venture.

"I consider myself a recovering politician. I'm on step nine," Gore told a meeting Monday of the Television Critics Association.

I think the reality of the network will speak for itself. It's not intended to be partisan in any way," said Gore. (Yea, you bet... BWAAHAHAHAHA)

Monday, July 18, 2005

Nominee imminent?

A good deal of speculation on the blogospere that Bush will announce his Supreme Court nominee in the next 48 hours.

We here at OP believe it will be Edith Clement. Not thrilled about it but we call em as we see em. Her record is sketchy and another Souter we most definately DON'T need.

Update: Announcement will be made at 9:00PM ET.

Durbin abuse case not verified

Remember the gut wrenching speech by Dick (the turbin) Durbin

Military investigators did not substantiate major charges of prisoner abuse contained in one FBI agent's e-mail that was read on the Senate floor by Minority Whip Richard J. Durbin as an example of U.S.-sanctioned torture at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

The unnamed FBI agent wrote that she saw one al Qaeda suspect lying in his own excrement, that he had pulled out his own hair and that he had no food and water. The female agent also said he was shackled to the floor and subjected to loud rock music and to extreme temperatures.

Mr. Durbin, of Illinois and the Senate's No. 2 Democrat, read the e-mail June 14 in a speech attacking the Bush administration. He then likened Guantanamo interrogation techniques to the Nazis, Josef Stalin's prisoner gulag, Pol Pot and the internment of Japanese during World War II. He later issued an apology on the Senate floor.

That investigation was completed last week by Air Force Lt. Gen. Randall M. Schmidt, who commands the 12th Air Force, the air component of U.S. Southern Command, which oversees the 520-inmate prison at the U.S. Naval Base at Guantanamo.

Gen. Schmidt wrote in his report, "Another FBI agent stated she witnessed a detainee short shackled and lying in his own excrement. The [investigation] was unable to find any documentation, testimony, or other evidence corroborating the third agent's recollection to this allegation or her e-mail allegation that one of the detainees had pulled his hair out while short shackled."

His statements were widely quoted by the Arab media including al-Jazeera. That is appropriate considering that both parties would be equally as likely to give America the benefit of the doubt.

Valerie’s No Victim

Terrific read from the "Great One".

Let's cut through all the clutter: Almost two years ago, I wrote that Joe Wilson had himself to blame for the publicity surrounding his wife, Valerie Plame. I was wrong. Look to Valerie Plame herself.

Despite all the hype, it appears that Plame works a desk job at the CIA. That's an admirable and important line of work. But it doesn't make her a covert operative, and it didn’t make her a covert operative when Bob Novak mentioned her in his July 14, 2003, column, or the five years preceding the column’s publication, during which time she hadn’t served overseas as a spy, either.

And even if Plame had been a covert operative, as I read the statute, Karl Rove or anyone revealing her identity, would: 1) have had to secure the information from classified information; and 2) intended to use the information to expose her identity. There's no information on the public record to support this, either. The New York Times now reports that a State Department memorandum identifying Plame was circulated on Air Force One and perhaps other places. Ex-Secretary of State Colin Powell was reportedly seen on the plane with the memo in his hand. (Of course, like so much the Times publishes, this had already been reported long ago by both the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal.) Perhaps the document was classified. Who knows at this point? But if Plame wasn't a covert operative who met the five-year foreign-service requirement, identifying her based on the memo should be of no legal consequence. And there are other reasons to conclude that revealing Plame's identity would not be a crime. In a devastating piece about the media's unconscionable hypocrisy, Andy McCarthy explains that the same media that are speculating about Rove's guilt filed papers in federal court insisting that there can be no underlying crime as Plame's identity was already known thanks to revelations having nothing to do with Rove or anyone else at the White House.

At this point, I have to wonder: What, exactly, is being investigated? The Left acts as if it doesn't much care as long as someone in this administration is made to look like a criminal. The goal is to damage the president. Indeed, even before the investigation's end, Charles Schumer, Harry Reid, and Joe Wilson himself are demanding Rove's head. And to think it all started with Valerie Plame herself.

That's right. Plame started this phony scandal. And so far, she’s gotten away with it. What do I mean? Plame has shown herself to be an extremely capable bureaucratic insider. In fact, we know she's accomplished — she accomplished getting her husband, Joe Wilson, an assignment he desperately wanted: a trip to Niger to investigate a "crazy" report that Saddam Hussein sought yellowcake uranium from Niger (her word, according to the Senate Intelligence Committee, not mine). And she was dogged. She asked not once but twice (the second time in a memo) that her husband get the job. And there's more. The Senate Intelligence Committee investigation also found that a CIA "analyst's notes indicate that a meeting was 'apparently convened by [the former ambassador's] wife who had the idea to dispatch [him] to use his contacts to sort out the Iraq-Niger issues." [snip]

Sunday, July 17, 2005

5 Most Common Lies Perpetuated by the Entrenched Media Concerning Rove/Plame

1. President Bush NEVER said he would fire anyone from the White House who was found to be involved in the alleged leak. He said he would cooperate fully in the investigation and "take care of" anyone found responsible. "Take care of" could mean anything from a reprimand to dismissal.

2. The law is clear.....Valerie Plame was NOT a covert agent as defined by the statute. She was not working abroad undercover for 6 years. The law clearly states that in order to be considered a covert agent as it is defined, he/she must have been working undercover out of country within 5 years.

3. Karl Rove DID NOT confirm that Valerie Plame was a covert CIA agent. When Novak brought it up to him he simply stated that he had heard the story also neither confirming nor denying it's accuracy.

4. Karl Rove is NOT a target of the investigation regardless of how bad the "entrenched media" would like you to believe he is.

5. Valerie Plame was hardly "covert" Her previous supervisor states that friends, family and who knows how many neighbors and aquaintences knew she was CIA. She made no effort to conceal this fact nor dispel speculation. In all liklihood Aldrich Ames, the CIA or both had "outed" her years ago.

BTW, a little birdy told me to keep an eye out for something coming out of the State Dept. Is this where the story originated, maybe, stay tuned.

Saturday, July 16, 2005

June Industrial Production Roars Ahead

Industrial production, helped by a jump in utility output, surged in June at the fastest pace in 16 months, providing the strongest evidence yet that U.S. manufacturing is rebounding.

Meanwhile, wholesale prices were flat last month, matching the benign performance turned in by consumer prices during June.

Taken together, the two reports Friday helped to ease fears that manufacturing, hardest hit in the 2001 recession, was in danger of faltering again or that inflation, battered by high energy prices, was threatening to get out of hand.

"This is about as close as you can get to a Mary Poppins economy _ practically perfect in every way," said David Wyss, chief economist at Standard & Poor's in New York.

Investors liked the positive economic news. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 11.94 points to close at 10,640.83, the highest close in four months.

Now class is there anyone who knows why the left is concentrating exclusively on Gitmo, Rove/Plame and similar nonsense.....hands?

Friday, July 15, 2005

Raising the Pursuit of Nonsense to an Art

FOX NEWS: Wendell Goler reports tonight that Congressional Democrats have inquired the Library of Congress as to whether administration officials like Karl Rove can be impeached.

When it seems that the Democrats can't possibly get any further into left field.....they do. I laughed so hard I think I might have hurt myself.

Ex-Clinton Aide Charges Republicans 'Want to Kill Us'

Friday's addition of moonbats on parade features Paul (the forehead) Begala......

Young liberals this week flocked to the nation's capital to hear, among other things, liberal television pundit and Democrat political strategist Paul Begala accuse Republicans of wanting to kill him and his children to preserve tax cuts for the rich.

Begala was featured at the first-ever Campus Progress National Student Conference, which was designed to provide campus liberals with the tools necessary to fight the conservative movement. The event also drew former President Bill Clinton, for whom Begala once worked as an advisor.

Begala's presence on the panel created a stir when he declared that Republicans had "done a p***-poor job of defending" the U.S. Republicans, he said, "want to kill us."

I was driving past the Pentagon when that plane hit" on Sept. 11, 2001. "I had friends on that plane; this is deadly serious to me," Begala said."

They want to kill me and my children if they can. But if they just kill me and not my children, they want my children to be comforted -- that while they didn't protect me because they cut my taxes, my children won't have to pay any money on the money they inherit," Begala said. "That is bulls*** national defense, and we should say that."

Plaming Rove

Rather than try to cover this involved story, I defer to those most in the know.

For all the latest comprehensive analysis of the "Plame Affair" one need go no further than Polipundit. Lorie Byrd's coverage is excellent and she has terrific links listed to bring you up to speed.

Update: : In the next few days or so, certain additional info will surface which will make the Dems and the "Entenched media" look monumentally foolish. Look for backpedaling, tortured spin and wild tin foil hat assertions to be the action du jour.

SUSPECT HELD IN EGYPT

Good news, no time wasted here.

Scotland Yard has confirmed that a man who allegedly made the bombs used in the London attacks has been arrested in Egypt.

American television company ABC reported that the man, believed to have had a central role in making the explosive devices, had been held near Cairo and was being questioned

Sky News Crime Correspondent Martin Brunt said: "This man is a bio-chemist, who studied at Leeds University. He allegedly ties in with the plot because he is said to have rented a flat in Leeds to the fourth bomber Lindsey Germail.

The report said authorities were eager to learn whether more than one bomb-maker had been involved and whether more bombs had been made.

ABC story here

Thursday, July 14, 2005

Leftist Loonacy of the Day (via Cspan II)

Senator Reid added his "Carl Rove' amendment to the Homeland Security funding bill then spoke for five minutes spewing venom at Carl Rove anItalicd George Bush.

THEN, the clerk read an amendment proposed by Bill Frist that any office holder who discloses classified FBI information on the Senate floor and uses it to denigrate the U.S. military should have HIS security clearence removed. (ie Dick the Turbin Durbin)

On the one hand it's a bit juvenile for both sides, on the other, if the Democrats insist on playing their nonsensical little political games, may as well try and highlight the hypocrisy.

More Hypocrisy From The Left

What a timely revelation considering the joint Schumer/Wilson news conference scheduled for later today.

What a comedown. Back when Robert Novak's column naming Bush Administration critic Joe Wilson's wife as a CIA officer became the scandal flavor of the day, the air was thick with charges of "crime" and "felony." But today even Mr. Wilson's attorney has backed off those claims. In his letter to the editor, the best Christopher Wolf can do is assert that naming Valerie Plame was "probably illegal."

What a comedown. Back when Robert Novak's column naming Bush Administration critic Joe Wilson's wife as a CIA officer became the scandal flavor of the day, the air was thick with charges of "crime" and "felony." But today even Mr. Wilson's attorney has backed off those claims. In his letter to the editor, the best Christopher Wolf can do is assert that naming Valerie Plame was "probably illegal."

The easiest conclusion from reading this law is that Mr. Novak didn't violate it. In the only section (Title 50, Section 421 of the U.S. Code) that deals with non-officials, the act limits prosecution to those who expose agents "in the course of a pattern of activities" they had reason to believe would undermine U.S. foreign intelligence activities. That's because this was a law written with such anti-intelligence publications as CounterSpy and the Covert Action Information Bulletin in mind. [snip]

All of which puts an interesting tint on the selective outrage we've been hearing. New York Senator Chuck Schumer was one of the first to claim shock over the Novak column, indignantly thundering how the leak "was tantamount to putting a gun to that agent's head." That's interesting, because as Congressman Schumer he was one of only 56 to vote against the law whose sacral character he now invokes.

In other words, when the object of this law was CIA turncoat Philip Agee, Mr. Schumer deemed the law more dangerous than the exposure. But now that we have a bona fide newsman (and the lefts most despised Republican) at the center of this storm he wants someone to hang.

This is certainly no surprise considering Schumer has proven himself to be a liar and unabashed hypocrit time and again.

IRAQ: SUNNIS TO ISSUE FATWA ON CONSTITUTION DRAFTING

Finally a rational fatwa

Baghdad, 14 July (AKI) - A prominent Iraqi Sunni leader has said that Sunni leaders will soon issue a fatwa, or religious edict, urging members of their community to participate in the drafting of Iraq's new constitution. "We've decided to take part in writing up the constitution on the advice of the United Nations," Adnan al-Dulaymi, head of the Sunni Waqf Bureau, told Adnkronos International (AKI).

"Sunni religious leaders will issue fatwas that will allow for the participation in the referendum [to approve the draft constitution] and the [subsequent] elections, confirming the fact that we don't represent a minority as some people are trying to depict us," al-Dulaymi said.

The Sunni leader also appealed to Iraq's Higher Independent Election Commission (HIEC), to open "voting centres in the western regions of Iraq so that the inhabitants of those areas will be able to particiapte in the vote."

More at CQ

Temporary Remission of the Old Grey Lady's Dementia

In a rare moment of lucidity, the NY Times reports what most of us already knew.

A high-level military investigation into complaints by F.B.I. agents about the abuse of detainees at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, concluded in a report released Wednesday that their treatment was sometimes degrading but did not qualify as inhumane or as torture.

The report was presented to the Senate Armed Services Committee by Lt. Gen. Randall M. Schmidt of the Air Force, who conducted the investigation after e-mail messages between Federal Bureau of Investigation agents at Guantánamo and their superiors in Washington were disclosed in a lawsuit.

In addition, one of the high-value detainees, Mohamed al-Kahtani, whom the military has said confessed that he was meant to be the 20th hijacker in the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, was led around on a leash and forced "to perform a series of dog tricks." The leashing of a detainee to humiliate him was another practice that became notorious after it was recorded in a photograph of abuses at Abu Ghraib.

The report said those techniques and others were part of authorized approaches called "ego down" or "futility," which are used to make the interrogation subject question his sense of personal worth or the value of resisting.

"It's hard to see why we're so wrapped up in this investigation," Mr. Inhofe said. "We have nothing to be ashamed of."

Several Democrats saw it differently. They said the report demonstrated that the handful of abuses highlighted therein showed that the military was committed to absolving any high-level person of responsibility.

Untrue....the Dems see it the same as everyone except they choose to spin in in a fashion that causes the greatest disrepute on the military. This disingenuous breast beating by the left is political expediency personified and unfortunately they rarely pay a price for it.

Wednesday, July 13, 2005

Fox Slaughters the Competition

This coutesy of Media Bistro.

Fox beats CNN bt 3 to 1. Don't expect this to change as long as the rest of cable (besides Fox) continues to be blatantly slanted to the left. If they continue to insist on promoting the liberal agenda viewers will contiue to make them pay.

Total day: FNC: 1,037,000 / CNN: 450,000 / HLN: 209,000 / MSNBC: 194,000 / CNBC: 144,000Primetime: FNC: 2,355,000 / CNN: 763,000 / HLN: 344,000 / MSNBC: 323,000 /

CNBC: 145,00025-54 demographic:Total day: FNC: 265,000 / CNN: 141,000 / HLN: 81,000 /

MSNBC: 72,000 / CNBC: 49,000Primetime: FNC: 506,000 / CNN: 192,000 / HLN: 101,000 /

MSNBC: 124,000 / CNBC: 82,000The hourlies:7pm: Shep: 1,494,000 / Cooper: 521,000 /

Showbiz: 88,000 / Hardball: 278,0008pm: O'Reilly: 2,666,000 / Zahn: 565,000 / Grace: 458,000 / Countdown: 299,000 / CNBC: 191,0009pm: H&C: 2,244,000 / King: 954,000 /

Situation: 198,000 / Mad Money repeat: 120,00010pm: Greta: 2,156,000 / NewsNight: 772,000 / Grace repeat: 282,000 / Scarborough: 471,000 / Deutsch: 124,000

Karl Rove Was Whistleblower

An excellent read from RCP and spot on.

Democrats and most of the Beltway press corps are baying for Karl Rove's head over his role in exposing a case of CIA nepotism involving Joe Wilson and his wife, Valerie Plame. On the contrary, we'd say the White House political guru deserves a prize--perhaps the next iteration of the "Truth-Telling" award that The Nation magazine bestowed upon Mr. Wilson before the Senate Intelligence Committee exposed him as a fraud.

For Mr. Rove is turning out to be the real "whistleblower" in this whole sorry pseudo-scandal. He's the one who warned Time's Matthew Cooper and other reporters to be wary of Mr. Wilson's credibility. He's the one who told the press the truth that Mr. Wilson had been recommended for the CIA consulting gig by his wife, not by Vice President Dick Cheney as Mr. Wilson was asserting on the airwaves. In short, Mr. Rove provided important background so Americans could understand that Mr. Wilson wasn't a whistleblower but was a partisan trying to discredit the Iraq War in an election campaign. Thank you, Mr. Rove.

The same can't be said for Mr. Wilson, who first "outed" himself as a CIA consultant in a melodramatic New York Times op-ed in July 2003. (snip)

If there's any scandal at all here, it is that this entire episode has been allowed to waste so much government time and media attention, As for the press corps, rather than calling for Mr. Rove to be fired, they ought to be grateful to him for telling the truth.

Tuesday, July 12, 2005

Troop Reductions in Iraq Likely for 2006

Major reductions in U.S. troop levels in Iraq next year appear increasingly likely, although Pentagon officials said Monday it is too early to predict the specific size and timing.

The Pentagon is eager to pull some of its 135,000 troops out of Iraq in 2006, partly because the counterinsurgency is stretching the Army and Marine Corps perilously thin as casualties mount and partly because officials believe the presence of a large U.S. force is generating tacit support for anti-American violence.

It appears highly unlikely that any significant numbers will be withdrawn before the end of the year. U.S. commanders expect the insurgency to remain at or near its current strength at least until after a scheduled October referendum on a new Iraqi constitution, followed by December elections for a new government.

Bryan Whitman, a senior Pentagon spokesman, declined to comment directly on a leaked British military assessment that raises the possibility of drastically cutting British troop strength in Iraq by the end of next year as well as sharply cutting the overall number of U.S. and allied troops by the middle of next year to 66,000.

The Pentagon does not want to tip off the enemy; Too bad the press has no such concern.

Monday, July 11, 2005

Al-Qaida nukes already in U.S.

Beyond scary if true.....

WASHINGTON – As London recovers from the latest deadly al-Qaida attack that killed at least 50, top U.S. government officials are contemplating what they consider to be an inevitable and much bigger assault on America – one likely to kill millions, destroy the economy and fundamentally alter the course of history, reports Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin.

According to captured al-Qaida leaders and documents, the plan is called the "American Hiroshima" and involves the multiple detonation of nuclear weapons already smuggled into the U.S. over the Mexican border with the help of the MS-13 street gang and other organized crime groups.

Al-Qaida has obtained at least 40 nuclear weapons from the former Soviet Union – including suitcase nukes, nuclear mines, artillery shells and even some missile warheads. In addition, documents captured in Afghanistan show al-Qaida had plans to assemble its own nuclear weapons with fissile material it purchased on the black market.

In addition to detonating its own nuclear weapons already planted in the U.S., military sources also say there is evidence to suggest al-Qaida is paying former Russian special forces Spetznaz to assist the terrorist group in locating nuclear weapons formerly concealed inside the U.S. by the Soviet Union during the Cold War. Osama bin Laden's group is also paying nuclear scientists from Russia and Pakistan to maintain its existing nuclear arsenal and assemble additional weapons with the materials it has invested hundreds of millions in procuring over a period of 10 years.

There are a few things about this story that seem a bit hinky but even the remote possibility that it's accurate is chilling.

Hat Tip Rusty at Jawa

The "Plame" Game

NEW YORK At numerous press briefings last week, not a single reporter asked White House Press Secretary about emerging allegations that top presidential aide Karl Rove was a source, or the source, for Time magazine's Matthew Cooper in the Valerie Plame case. On Sunday, Newsweek revealed a Cooper e-mail from July 2003 that showed that Rove indeed had talked to him about Plame and her CIA employment, although he apparently did not mention that she worked under cover.(or her name)

This development apparently freed the journalists to hit McClellan hard at this afternoon's briefing. Here is a partial transcript.

Q: Does the president stand by his pledge to fire anyone involved in a leak of the name of a CIA operative?

MCCLELLAN: I appreciate your question. I think your question is being asked related to some reports that are in reference to an ongoing criminal investigation. The criminal investigation that you reference is something that continues at this point.And as I’ve previously stated, while that investigation is ongoing, the White House is not going to comment on it.The president directed the White House to cooperate fully with the investigation. And as part of cooperating fully with the investigation, we made a decision that we weren’t going to comment on it while it is ongoing

.Q: I actually wasn’t talking about any investigation. But in June of 2004, the president said that he would fire anybody who was involved in this leak to the press about information. I just wanted to know: Is that still his position?

MCCLELLAN: Yes, but this question is coming up in the context of this ongoing investigation, and that’s why I said that our policy continues to be that we’re not going to get into commenting on an ongoing criminal investigation from this podium.The prosecutors overseeing the investigation had expressed a preference to us that one way to help the investigation is not to be commenting on it from this podium....

Blood in the water folks, but incredibly insignificant nonetheless. Look for a tremendous amount of bluster, vicious rhetoric and breat thumping with little consequence. The left have had soooooo little to work with they are betting the farm on this one. Likely a sucker bet as we will see.

Democrats seek court nominee with 'big heart'

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Senate DemoWASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid cratic Leader Harry Reid urged President Bush on Saturday to say "no to the far right" and nominate to the Supreme Court someone who will rule with "an open mind and a big heart."

"We need an independent thinker who will follow the Constitution, not a knee-jerk conservative crusader who will march in lock-step to the tune of partisan pressure groups," Reid of Nevada said in his party's weekly radio address.

Fine with me as long as the "big heart" is tempered with a "big brain".

Friday, July 08, 2005

Unemployment Rate Down.....Again

Per CNBC, June added 148,000 new non-farm jobs reducing the overall unemployment rate to a flat 5%. The lowest rate Since Sept 2001 (9/11)

Have you heard anyone on the left talk about the economy lately?? This is why.

If you care to read Reuters try and spin this as a negative, here it is.

Reuters may have been "tepid" but the stock market wasn't..... Dow up 150, Nasdaq up 36.

Thursday, July 07, 2005

al- Qaida Website: Top Egyptian Diplomat Murdered

Breaking.......al-Qaida claiming Egyptian Envoy to Iraq has been executed.

al- Qaida said in a Web statement Thursday that it has killed Egypt's top envoy in Iraq, posting a video of the blindfolded diplomat identifying himself.

"We announce in the al-Qaida in Iraq that the verdict of God against the ambassador of the infidels, the ambassador of Egypt, has been carried out. Thank God," a written statement in the Web posting said.

The video does not show him being executed. Instead, it shows a man who appears to be the diplomat, Ihab al-Sherif, blindfolded and wearing a polo shirt.

TERRORISTS HIT LONDON

Half a dozen explosions rocked the London subway and tore open a packed double-decker bus during the morning rush hour Thursday.

The blasts killed at least two people and injured scores in what a shaken Prime Minister Tony Blair said was a series of "barbaric" terrorist attacks.

Blair said it was clear the attacks were designed to coincide with the opening of the G-8 summit in Gleneagles, Scotland. The prime minister said the meeting of world leaders would continue but that he would return to London.

"Whatever they do, it is our determination that they will never succeed in destroying what we hold dear in this country and in other civilized nations throughout the world," Blair said a day after London was awarded the 2012 Olympics.

Bloodied and bandaged witnesses reported panicked crowds fleeing the blast sites. A witness at the bus explosion said the entire top deck of the bus was destroyed.

Michelle Malkin has a comprehensive synopsis.

Update: The BBC has posted a "Have Your Say page which contains several eye witness accounts.

Update II: Latest from AP

Four London Blasts Kill 40, Injure 300

Three blasts rocked the London subway and one tore open a packed double-decker bus during the morning rush hour Thursday, sending bloodied victims fleeing in what a shaken Prime Minister Tony Blair called "barbaric" terrorist attacks. A U.S. law enforcement official said at least 40 people were killed and London hospitals reported more than 300 injured.

The U.S. official spoke on condition of anonymity because British officials have yet to make public the death toll. U.S. authorities learned of the number from their British counterparts, according to the official.

Blair said the "terrorist attacks" were clearly designed to coincide with the opening of the G-8 summit in Gleneagles, ScotlandItalic. They also came a day after London won the bid to host the 2012 Olympics.

"Whatever they do, it is our it is our determination that they will never succeed in destroying what we hold dear in this country and in other civilized nations throughout the world," said Blair.

The Madrid Syndrome....... Don't bet on it, the Brits are not the Spanish. If anything it will solidify their resolve against the terrorists

Wednesday, July 06, 2005

SEN. SCHUMER CAUGHT ON CELLPHONE:

'WE ARE GOING TO WAR' OVER SUPREME COURT

Schumer promised a fight over whoever the President’s nominee was: “It's not about an individual judge… It's about how it affects the overall makeup of the court.”

Finally a war the left is willing to support.

TERRORISM: AL-ZARQAWI CALLS WOMEN TO JIHAD

This infidel believes the numbers supporting Zarqawi's current fatwa are dwindling. What other reason would there be for appealing to women for help.

The latest audio message, purporting to be from Jordanian militant leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, has called of Muslim women to play a more active role in the Jihad or Holy War. The one-hour-long speech, posted on Islamist Internet forums, is entitled 'Religion declines and I am still alive'. "What have you done for this nation?" asks al-Zarqawi referring to Muslim women, "don't you see that men get astride their horses and take up arms for the Jihad. Why do you not incite your husbands to fight in the Jihad against the infidels?".

In his speech, al-Zarqawi frequently refer to religion and the rules of Jihad, which he says are modeled on the religious example the caliphate set up by the Prophet Mohammed's successor, Abu Bakr, and the ideological example of 12th century Syrian sheik, Ibn Taymiyya.

Within the first few minutes of the message, Al-Zarqawi make the first of many references to Iraq."This is a message for the enemy of Allah [US president George W.] Bush.

In reality the God in which you believe is the God of Evil and the Christ that you are waiting for is none other than the Anti-Christ. The enemy is living a terrible moment in Iraq and even members of the US Congress recognise this".

Anyone who believes that the whining defeatist blame America first left isn't doing real harm, better think again.

TRANSCRIPT:CNN NEWSNIGHT AARON BROWN

Crazy cousin Lawrence O'Donnell does a 180 on Aaron Brown.

BROWN: You are a guy that has hung around Washington a long time, knows Washington. Don't you think the president would have called Karl Rove up and said, Karl, look, there's a lot of pressure to get a special prosecutor on this. We could be in kind of deep trouble if you had anything to do with it, so you best tell me now.

O'DONNELL: I think the president wouldn't do that. This is the kind of knowledge that a president doesn't want to have. The president called for a special prosecutor to do that investigation for him. You can't find any examples of presidents, when an investigative question arises in the White House, summoning people in and trying to be the prosecutor themselves. I would be very surprised if this president did that.

BROWN: Ten seconds. Do you think Karl Rove's going down on this?

O'DONNELL: I think Karl Rove is in a position where he may lose his job, but it is hard for me to see where the crime would be for Karl Rove. I think he's too smart for perjury and I don't think he's actually qualified to have committed the original crime.

Now that your back on your medication Larry, maybe you can explain just exactly why Karl Rove should lose his job considering , by your own admission, he is guilty of nothing.

Tuesday, July 05, 2005

Factory Orders Rise 2.9 Percent in May, Best Showing in 14 Months, on Airplane Demand

More good economic news.

U.S. factories saw orders rise by 2.9 percent in May, the best showing in 14 months, with most of the strength reflecting robust demand for airplanes and parts.

The sizable advance came after 0.7 percent increases registered in both March and April, the Commerce Department reported on Tuesday.

New bookings for machinery and computers fell in May. Orders for cars and primary metals, including steel, were flat. But demand for airplanes, household appliances and furniture all posted gains. Orders for food products and clothing also went up.

Monday, July 04, 2005

US delight as Iraqi rebels turn their guns on al-Qa'eda

A bit of Independence Day cheer.

American troops on the Syrian border are enjoying a battle they have long waited to see - a clash between foreign al-Qa'eda fighters and Iraqi insurgents.

Tribal leaders in Husaybah are attacking followers of Abu Musab Zarqawi, the Jordanian-born terrorist who established the town as an entry point for al-Qa'eda jihadists being smuggled into the country.

The reason, the US military believes, is frustration at the heavy-handed approach of the foreigners, who have kidnapped and assassinated local leaders and imposed a strict Islamic code.

Fighting, which could be clearly heard at night over the weekend, first broke out in May when as many as 50 mortar rounds were fired across the city. But, to the surprise of the American garrison, this time it was not the target.

If a shell landed near the US base, "they'd adjust their fire and not shoot at us", Lt Col Tim Mundy said. "They shot at each other."

There is one thing that proves inevitable with groups of disperate murdering criminals, sooner or later they step on each others toes.

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY EVERYONE!

Let's all try and remember who founded this country and why.

Sunday, July 03, 2005

Iranian President linked to murders

What a gem.......

INTELLIGENCE sources and Iranian opposition figures have accused Iran's new President of being involved in a string of assassinations in the Middle East and Europe in the 1980s and 90s.

The claims follow last week's allegations that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad participated in the student takeover of the US embassy in Tehran in 1979.

According to a report in The Sunday Times of London, Kazem Sami, who was the first Iranian health minister after the 1979 Islamic revolution but fell out with the ayatollahs, was the first of dozens of dissidents to die.

Among three people killed was Abdul Rahman Qassemlou, the leader of Kurdish opposition to the ayatollahs in Tehran. The murders have never been solved.

An Austrian Interior Ministry spokesman said at the weekend that the Austrian Government had documents implicating Mr Ahmadinejad in the Qassemlou assassination.

One potential positive, the more hard core and out of step the new Pres is the sooner the people will become fed up and revolt against the Mullahs. All this hopefully before they supply some terrorist group with a nuke.

Saturday, July 02, 2005

Documents Show Gitmo Inmates Defy U.S.

The press would have you believe that the Gitmo prisoners are docile and subservient victims being horribly brutalized by sadistic American soldiers. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Military authorities have previously disclosed some incidents of guard retaliation at Guantanamo Bay, which resulted in mostly minor disciplinary proceedings. What emerges from 278 pages of documents obtained by The Associated Press is the degree of defiance by the terrorism suspects at Guantanamo.

The prisoners banged on their cells to protest the heat. They doused guards with whatever liquid was handy — from spit to urine. Sometimes they struck their jailers, one swinging a steel chair at a military police officer.


Some prisoners at the U.S. base in eastern Cuba have gone on the attack, as in April 2003 when a detainee got out of his cell during a search for contraband food and knocked out a guard's tooth with a punch to the mouth and bit him before he was subdued by MPs. One soldier delivered two blows to the inmate's head with a handheld radio, the documents show.

In another case, an inmate threw a partially full urine bottle at an MP in May 2002, apparently because he believed the soldier had intentionally kicked his hospital bed. When the soldier threw the urinal back, the detainee grabbed a steel chair and swung it at guards before they subdued him.

Think about it, had these been American POWs in WWI, WWII, Korea, Viet Nam etc, they would have been shot or hanged. What's amazing and the real story here is the amount of restraint our boys have shown.

Friday, July 01, 2005

FNC: O'Connor Resignation Imminent!

Looks like Krystol knew what he was talking about.

Update: It's official:

Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, the first woman appointed to the Supreme Court and a key swing vote on issues such as abortion and the death penalty, said Friday she is retiring.

O'Connor, 75, said she expects to leave before the start of the court's next term in October, or whenever the Senate confirms her successor. There was no immediate word from the White House on who might be nominated to replace O'Connor.

It's been 11 years since the last opening on the court, one of the longest uninterrupted stretches in history. O'Connor's decision gives President Bush his first opportunity to appoint a justice.

"This is to inform you of my decision to retire from my position as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, effective upon the nomination and confirmation of my successor," she said in a one-paragraph letter to Bush. "It has been a great privilege indeed to have served as a member of the court for 24 terms. I will leave it with enormous respect for the integrity of the court and its role under our constitutional structure."

Now the fun starts!

House Votes To Undercut High Court On Property

More than one way to skin a cat....or should I say Rat, all 5 of em.

The House voted yesterday to use the spending power of Congress to undermine a Supreme Court ruling allowing local governments to force the sale of private property for economic development purposes. Key members of the House and Senate vowed to take even broader steps soon.

Last week's 5 to 4 decision has drawn a swift and visceral backlash from an unusual coalition of conservatives concerned about property rights and liberals worried about the effect on poor people, whose property is often vulnerable to condemnation because it does not generate a lot of revenue.

The House measure, which passed 231 to 189, would deny federal funds to any city or state project that used eminent domain to force people to sell their property to make way for a profit-making project such as a hotel or mall. Historically, eminent domain has been used mainly for public purposes such as highways or airports.

Any question which side of the issue WAPO is on?