It’s “For the Children”

From Michelle, by way of the fellow Swamp Stomper Dread Pundit Bluto

Why is this baby crying? Because his mother dropped him on his face while using him as a human shield to disrupt shipments of military equipment from the Port of Olympia.

Michelle Malkin has the details, as well as more photos of this astoundingly negligent parent. Hopefully, someone will recognize the woman and contact local child protective services.

Babies: the liberal activist’s new tool of choice.

Well, hey, look at it this way… The PLO has been using Children to make it’s point for years, now. They’re simply following suit, out there in Olympia.

Doing a good job of it, too.. In fact, ya can’t fit water between them.

Gives “For the Children” a rather new meaning, doesn’t it?

This is what America is up against, people.

Swamp Stompers Blue Crab Blvd, and Sster Toldjah, have more, as does the Jawa Report, HotAir, and Memeorandum

Laughable, this report from Robert Novak:.

WASHINGTON — Agents of Sen. Hillary Clinton are spreading the word in Democratic circles that she has scandalous information about her principal opponent for the party’s presidential nomination, Sen. Barack Obama, but has decided not to use it. The nature of the alleged scandal was not disclosed.

This word-of-mouth among Democrats makes Obama look vulnerable and Clinton look prudent. It comes during a dip for the front-running Clinton after she refused to take a stand on New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s now discarded plan to give driver’s licenses to illegal aliens.

Too clever by half. At need, Hillary Clinton and her people, like bored chimps, start flinging feces at the others in the cage. But the way she’s doing it gives her the ability to claim she never released the information… and that she’s playing above board, And since it’s her people and not her she can even claim she knew nothing about it, just like the planted questions…. and the planted audience at UNLV by CNN, all while pulling yet another Hillary Clinton Dirty Trick.

Hmmm I’d better be quiet about this; she’ll flick one at me.

Memeorandum has more. So does Hot Air

Update:(Bit)

Ooohh… this gets better by the second:

Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) took the rare step of issuing a statement in his own name on Saturday to call attention to a report by columnist Robert D. Novak that New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s campaign is sitting on “scandalous” information about Obama.

The information was not described and there is no proof it exists.

Obama accused Clinton of “Swift boat’ politics” and vowed he will not be intimidated.

“I am prepared to stand up to that kind of politics, whether it’s deployed by candidates in our party, in the other party or by any third party,” Obama said. “The cause of change in this country will not be deterred or sidetracked by the old ‘Swift boat’ politics. The cause of moving America forward demands that we defeat it.”

Ya know, they’re both so bad for America… it’s hard to know who to cheer for.

Vince Flynn, author of the NYT listed best selling novel, “Protect and Defend”, in the Washington Times, today:

Question: In the real world, how effective do you think torture is with Islamic terrorists?
A: Far more effective than liberals would have you believe. Congress really upset me with how they treated Attorney General Michael Mukasey and how the media pushed this question. Why aren’t reporters forcing senators and Congress to answer the same questions about torture? What do you think we should have done? Given them a lawyer, three square meals a day and let planes get hijacked?

I think it should be done in the rarest of situations. Anybody who says torture doesn’t work hasn’t studied the history of torture. Torture, or aggressive interrogation, is only as good as the interrogators. Take Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, for instance. He got waterboarded and he sang like a canary … he ended up naming operatives and giving up a treasure trove of financial secrets as well as plans for future attacks. This was not Uday and Qusai Hussein at work. This was done with clinical precision, not brute force. There are multiple interrogators, lie detectors, doctors and a group of analysts in the next room connected to every friendly western intelligence agency to check everything the subject says.

Correct. Right on the button.

That’s a far cry from what Senator [John] McCain experienced, and he says that torture does not work. I have a lot of respect for the man, but when he was in the Hanoi Hilton, he was brutally tortured to give up names, so he gave them the starting lineup of the Green Bay Packers. Back then, it would have been difficult to verify; but today, it’s called “Google.”

Well, I guess there’s the difference between us.  I have NO respect for John McCain, anymore.

I know Amnesty International would disagree with me, but every American needs to ask themselves, “If you could turn back the clock one week [before the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks] would you want Zacarias Moussaoui to have been interrogated by waterboarding?”

My answer? Hell, yes.  And I suspect once you strip away all the posturing.. (Which Flynn goes to great lengths to describe).. most Americans will agree. He also touched on a topic I spent some time on here a few days ago…  Preachy anti-war movies coming out of Hollywood…

Q: This year has seen a surge of antiwar films, which are flopping like dominoes, while “Protect and Defend” is the No. 1 book this week. Is Hollywood ready for Mitch Rapp yet?
A: I don’t think we are quite there. Hollywood is now saying people don’t want to watch movies about war. No, Americans don’t want to watch [bad] anti-American movies about war. Americans would love to watch a great movie where Mitch Rapp is meting out punishment to these crazy zealots, but I don’t know if Hollywood has the guts to do it. If Democrats take the White House, Hollywood will make a movie like that in a heartbeat.

Telling, that.  I’ll be getting the book shortly.

We all know by now about the planted questions for Hillary Clinton, so she’d have an advantage. Now it appears possible that in the case of the ‘Debate” the other night, the Audience got planted, too… Dan Riehl explains:

Actually, there are suggestions at some prominent Democrat sites that CNN didn’t just plant questions, but perhaps in the administration of the debate, they created a situation where Hillary Clinton had a decided advantage. It’s mentioned at DailyKos but the best information is here. Admittedly, it comes from an Obama fan. But if you think about the logistics, it’s hard to imagine Hillary wouldn’t have a home crowd.

I want to comment on a couple of issues relating to the Debate because I feel it is important to speak out about it. I have had some inside information about how this debate was conducted and I think that CNN and those who organized this debate have a responsiblity to answer for the way it was conducted.

Of particular note, if accurate, is that of 1,000 tickets given to UNLV, only a hundred made it into the hands of students. Both Edwards and Obama do better among younger Democrats. And as for dissemination of tickets by the Nevada Democrats, Jill Derby the Democrat Chair is a moderate with some friends close to Hillary. Does the name Begala ring a bell?

Derby has had numerous supporters. CNN political analyst, as the Reno Gazette-Journal reported, Paul Begala, who helped engineer Bill Clinton’s 1992 win, said he was encouraged by U.S. Rep. Rahm Emanuel, chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee to “stump” for Derby.

I’d stop short of calling it a conspiracy, as some Democrats are doing. But if it’s true that each candidate only had 22 tickets out of 2,000, in a state where Hillary is polling 20+ points ahead of everyone else, if no steps were taken to balance the audience, that might explain why she was cheered, while several others were booed.

Perhaps now we have a better idea of why Hillary Clinton has been acting like this whole thing… from the day she entered the race… is stacked in her favor… because she knew it was.

Interestingly, it’s the far left doing the most complaining. What kind of mental gymnastics did the Democrats just come through, what strange set of events must have occurred, to get to the stage where of all the Democrat party candidates, Hillary Clinton is positioned as the moderate of the group?

Yikes!

More, Memeorandum, The Strata-Sphere, Hot Air

• I’m currently studying the implications of a WordPress upgrade to version 2.31. I’ll likely do this sometime this week, or possibly the weekend following Thanksgiving. To this end, I may be bringing the system down for short periods for backups and whatnot between now and then. Preparation, you know. Usually, these will be no longer than 5 min each.
• I’ve installed a fresh copy of the “Maintenance Mode” plugin. Tried it out this morning.. It seems to work fine.
• I’m installing a new dictation module in Panther, this morning. I’ve been getting a little tired of the limitations of the Microsoft supplied dictation software… and when it broke again last week, I decided to try something else. I may end up fixing the old system, but we’ll see. The dictation makes blogging a LOT easier.
• Anyone got a double-monitor vid card they want to get rid of?  Doesn’t have to be a screamer. The issue is I’d like to go to four monitors, but I’ve run out of IRQ’s on the bus. I’d like to prove the concept before I drop the dime on a really good card set. Drop some feedback.
• This is the 10th week in a row we’ve averaged 250 or so hits per day at BitsBlog. Progress. One thing that pleases me about this is most are repeat viewers… people who are now visiting regularly…. that in my view is the highest compliment.
• The Swamp Stompers are looking for members, yet. Drop feedback.
• I’m advised that we’re having a little problem with the PDA feed… the code page is getting fouled somehow. (I’ve set this site up a long time ago to accommodate PDA’s with a smaller, tighter display, without graphics. It does this automatically.) I’ve noticed that it works better on my Palm E2’s browser than it does on my phone, so t may be a browser version issue.  I’m looking at that this weekend.
• One of the reasons I’ve not bothers with a lot of YouTube stuff is that this theme doesn’t work well with the code. The layout is the best I”ve found but that comes at the cost of table support within the post body that is lacking.  I’m playing with a newer version of MCE that supposedly extends HTML table support. Dunno if it’ll help, but we’ll see.

I’ve gone to some lengths to point up where Hollywood has failed us by turning left. My favorite Jersey Girl, Michelle, points up that Hollywood may seem the monolithic leftist bloc.. but it’s not…

We do a lot of Hollywood-bashing here, but when celebrities do something right, they deserve full credit and praise. John Ondrasik of Five for Fighting has brought together many musicians to produce a CD for the troops (hat tip – Blackfive). Here’s the lowdown:

Just in time for the holidays, 13 major recording artists have created a musical “Thank You” for the troops.

“CD for the Troops” will be available for anyone with a valid military identification card to download at no cost from the Army and Air Force Exchange Service Web site, www.aafes.com, beginning tomorrow.

…Mitch Bainwol, chief executive officer of the Recording Industry Association of America, agreed. “This is an historic project. It shows that a music community that has many voices speaks with just one when it comes to support for men and women in uniform,” he said in a news release from the Defense Department’s America Supports You program. “We are proud to come together to help offer a compilation with some of today’s best-selling artists and songs. We hope his album will be music to the ears of our troops.”

America Supports You is a Defense Department program connecting citizens and corporations with military personnel serving at home and abroad.

Getting this project, which combined the music of Billy Joel, Brooks & Dunn, the Goo Goo Dolls, Jewel, Josh Groban, Los Lonely Boys, Melissa Ethridge, the Neville Brothers, Sarah McLachlan, the Lt. Dan Band, Montgomery Gentry, The Fray, and Five For Fighting, to troops’ ears took true teamwork. John Ondrasik, the singer-songwriter who performs under the stage name “Five For Fighting,” was intimately involved with making sure that happened.

“Beyond the artists and managers, all the record companies and publishers had to approve free downloads to over 1.5 million potential users,” he said. “(It) also could not have been achieved without the financial, logistical, and emotional support of (the Recording Industry Association of America), AAFES, TriWest Health Care Alliance, America Supports You, Media Base and Sony Manufacturing.”

Ondrasik spearheaded the CD after being asked to write a forward and contribute a song to a compilation of local bands sending music to troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“I thought it was a wonderful gesture,” he said, explaining his belief that music is a unique medium that can affect morale and mental health. “I started making a few calls to friends of mine, and six months later we have the CD for the troops.”

Ondrasik has been a staunch supporter of the troops. I was lucky to attend one of his concerts earlier this spring, where he saluted active-duty troops and veterans in the audience, several of whom he had personally invited after meeting them during a visit to Guantanamo Bay.

Hmmm. Sounds like an interesting, and certainly worthy project.  Perhaps one of the few worthy projects the RIAA has been involved with of late, particularly. As Michelle says:

 Spread the word. Support the entertainers who support the troops!

I’m on board with that, Michelle, and I’m open to anything that will help this effort.

Gaius at Blue Crab Blvd:

The FBI has started to release some details of the items they seized during a raid on the home of Harriette Walters, the now-jailed former Washington DC tax office employee accused of stealing at least $20 million for that office. I reads like a catalog of conspicuous consumption. Despite the pricey items found in large quantities only a fraction of the stolen money can be accounted for. The Washington Post reports:

The investigators hauled out more than 100 pieces of jewelry, a mink coat and 90 purses — many of them such designer brands as Louis Vuitton, Chanel and Gucci, according to an FBI inventory that was released late yesterday.

Walters, who was arrested in the predawn raid Nov. 7, also had 68 pairs of shoes, designer luggage and other luxury items, the FBI said. Some of the goods were stored in the garage, near a 2006 Mercedes-Benz, where authorities said they found a pair of silver-plated iguana figurines, a silverware set, a Rolex watch and a silver bar cart.

The inventory, filed yesterday in U.S. District Court, provided new insights into the lifestyle of the woman who prosecutors say masterminded the biggest fraud ever perpetrated against the D.C. government: $20 million and counting, they say. It details items seized by nine agents who went through every room of the house near Rock Creek Park.

Walters, 51, co-worker Diane Gustus and four others are charged with taking part in a conspiracy to generate illegal property tax refund checks for themselves. In a separate court filing yesterday, authorities alleged that at least $12.7 million of the stolen money flowed directly into accounts controlled by Walters’s niece, Jayrece Turnbull, whom they described as Walters’s principal partner in the scam.

Authorities say that the have identified some real property, houses and cars, that account for some of the money. But there is an awful lot missing. So far they have been able to keep the suspects jailed arguing that they have both the means and a very large motive for fleeing. But there will be another hearing Monday for Turnbull.

I get the feeling this investigation is going to run far deeper, if they don’t screw it up. BCB has more details… go see. Memeorandum’s picked up on it too…

Rich Texas bastard T. Boone Pickens boasted that he would give $1 million to anyone who can disprove “even a single charge” leveled by the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, who he funded to the tune of $3 milion. Kerry offered to meet with Pickens and do so, with the million dollars going to veterans’ charities.But now Pickens is reneging:

Pickens, who provided $3 million to bankroll the group during Kerry’s race against President Bush, responded by saying he won’t consider giving Kerry the reward unless he surrenders his combat films, additional military records and wartime journal.

In other words, Pickens was full of bravado when he made the offer in a keynote address in front of a bunch of friendly right wingers at an American Spectator dinner, but when Kerry took him up on it, he was a bit too cowardly to back it up:

“While I am prepared to show they lied on allegation after allegation, you have generously offered to pay one million dollars for just one thing that can be proven false,” Kerry wrote to Pickens. “I am prepared to prove the lie beyond any reasonable doubt.”

“Just one thing” has turned into more records than George Bush has willingly surrendered under government subpoena:

In his response, Pickens wrote: “I am certainly open to your challenge,” but he said he would not pay Kerry unless the senator first provided him with copies of his wartime journals, as well as movies he shot while on patrol and his complete military records for 1971 to 1978.

Pickens said such documentation, which the group has previously sought, would be needed to disprove its ads.

“When you have done so, if you can then prove anything in the ads was materially untrue, I will gladly award $1 million. As you know, I have been a long and proud supporter of the American military and veterans’ causes,” Pickens wrote.

“A proud supporter of the American military” — not to the point of actually, you know, enlisting or anything. More of the “yellow elephant” variety one would expect from a big Rudy Giuliani fundraiser.

He then goes for a Rovian jujitsu move: saying that if Kerry “cannot prove anything in the Swift Boat ads to be untrue,” Kerry should agree to give a million dollars to the Congressional Medal of Honor Foundation.

That’s Jane Hamsher .

Well, Jane, ya see there only one small problem with your pro-Kerry scneario. Asking for actual documentation isn’t moving the goalposts. Kerry hasn’t provided such.

Moreover, Kerry’s record on things isn’t exactly stellar. As Jules Crittenden says:

There’s the disparagement of American soldiers in front of the cameras, the throwing of someone else’s medals. The decades of unremarkable backbenchwarming. But I found out everything I needed to know about John Kerry’s leadership qualifications when I learned that, four months into his combat command, having received three minor wounds, none of which required hospitalization, he took a technical out. Some people like to whack Bush for going into the Air National Guard, Cheney, Romney, Giuliani and Clinton for their various stratagems of Vietnam War avoidance. You can say what you like about those situations, but none of them can be accused of, having sworn to serve and accepted command, walking away from men who had been placed in their charge in combat.

Are you really expecting us to take such a ‘man”.. John Kerry… at his word? (It’s seared in my memory, I tell you… seared…)

More, Memeorandum

Addendum:  (David L)

If I were a betting man, I’d bet on Patterico’s take:

It sounds like Kerry thinks he has a sure winner on one charge. If so, he’ll likely use that as a hammer to claim all the charges were false. Pickens isn’t the type to back down from a challenge so this should be fun. Whatever the terms of the bet, I hope the process is public and adversarial

Yeah Kerry have found something to refute one allegation, or to fudge it.   He then wants to use the one item to discredit the entire set of allegatiuons.   The entirety of Kerry’s claims can not be true.  Kerry claimed to be in Cambodia when Richard Nixon was President.   Thic can  not be true.   Kerry’s tour of duty ended before Nixon took office.   Pickens is standing by his guns.

In response to Dan Rather’s lawsuit filed against the CBS responded, in effect, that Rather was insane.   CBS termed the lawsuit bizarre.

So question for CBS, at what point in Rather’s forty year association with your network  did come to believe that Rather was insane?

More, Memeorandum.

What would life in the United States be like under a President who is obsesssed with personal power, does not respect the rule of law and has no tolerance for criticism?  The Pittsburg Tribune-Review, is kind enough to offer a glmpse of Mrs. Clinton’s America:

Severe food shortages in Venezuela — milk, sugar, eggs and more — indicate supporters of Hugo Chavez, the country’s slippery socialist strongman, are getting their just deserts.

With Cuban dictator Fidel Castro as Mr. Chavez’s role model, mentor and commie muse, no wonder so many suffer so much.

Like Hugo Chavez, Mrs. Clinton believes that making a profit while providing a service, such food, oil, pharmaceuticals, is akin to a crime.  Like Chavez, Mrs. Clinton will take the profits for the greater good.  After Mrs. Clinton removes all incentives for producing commodities, there will be severe shortage of essential commodities, just like in Hugo Chavez’ utopia.

As night follows day, socialism produces poverty.

Hat Tip: Luicianne.

From Mona Charen, who I quote all too infrequently around here:

Memo to: Ron Paul supporters

Subject: Your e-mails

Okay, enough is enough. Like every other journalist in America, and who knows, maybe the world or even the universe, I’ve been deluged with your letters and e-mails. So I’ve done as you asked and taken a closer look at your candidate. Here is what I’ve found:

1. Ron Paul is inconsistent.

…

2. Ron Paul is historically challenged.

…

3. Ron Paul is unserious.

…

4. Ron Paul is too cozy with kooks and conspiracy theorists

…

Ron Paul is the favorite candidate of a number of racist, neo-Nazi and conspiracist websites. While Paul cannot be held accountable for the views of cranks and kooks, he can disavow their support and return their checks. He received $500 from Don Black, the proprietor of Stormfront.org and former Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan. He has not yet returned it.

Moreover, Paul seems to be playing a sly game with his conspiracy-minded fans. He does not explicitly endorse the crazier theories out there, but he hints at dark forces in the U.S. government threatening our liberties, he inveighs against the “neo-cons” (shorthand for Jews in some circles) and he gives aid and comfort to the paranoid by appearing on their favorite radio shows.

No, Ron Paul is not my candidate. Not for president. He might make a dandy new leader for the Branch Davidians.

Sounds like she’s been reading my email here at CasaDeBit, which I responded to, in like fashion, here. (read particularly the links from the second update)

Every point Mona makes , I’ve made here at BitsBlog, many times over.I may well be accused of hitting that drum too hard and often, but I do so because I sense a real danger, here with Paul… for all the reason both Mona and myself and a few million others have mentioned…. and more.

BBCT: Memeorandum

Man, I tell you, this bit with Spitzer just keeps getting better… The Weekly Standard’s Mike Goldfarb:

New York Governor Eliot Spitzer has taken a lot of abuse in recent weeks–for his hastily-dropped plan to give driver’s licenses to illegal aliens, his quickly-withdrawn plan to tax internet purchases, and his move to speed-up release for violent criminals.

But if Spitzer is to have any prayer of winning a second term, he needs to correct this mistake very quickly. Spitzer’s Division of Tax Appeals says New York Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter owes millions in back taxes:

Yankee shortstop Derek Jeter, known for making the rounds at the city’s hot spots, is on the hot seat with New York State, which says he owes back taxes because he claimed he lived in Florida when he was really a resident of the Big Apple…

“What the state is saying is that he’s a New Yorker at heart and because he has some important things here in his apartment, even if he’s here only 30 days, he’s a New Yorker,” said John Lieberman, a certified public accountant with the firm Perelson Weiner in New York City, which advises athletes and entertainers.

“New York State is phenomenally aggressive on this kind of thing and Derek Jeter – I think they’re making a test case out of it for athletes, actors and CEOs, people with multiple residences,” Lieberman said.

New Yorkers are sophisticated enough to recognize that the city’s confiscatory tax rates encourage athletes and entertainers not to make their permanent residences there. And if Jeter asserts that he intends to reside permanently in Florida once he’s retired from baseball, what New Yorker will hold that against him? After all, that’s a New York cliche.

And it gets better… The NY Sun…

By Day 365, Governor Spitzer will propose legislation legalizing gay marriage in New York, a top aide to the governor said yesterday.

The Spitzer administration moved to reassure gay-rights advocates that it wasn’t backing down from a campaign promise to support a same-sex marriage bill. The governor did not address the issue specifically in his 61-minute State of the State address on Wednesday.

Hmmm. He’d better not be planning on a second term. With this radical left agenda of his, my guess is he’s going to have negatives that make Hillary Clinton look like Gold.

Who is asking to to shut down CNN, a.k.a. the Ciinton News Network?

Can We Just Close Down CNN?

Josh Marshall, Talking Points Memo..

Wolf Blltzer, and fellow CNN accomplishs, have enraged the leftosphere by staging a phony debate.  Marc Ambinder, Atlantic:

Maria Luisa, the UNLV student who asked Hillary Clinton whether she preferred “diamonds or pearls” at last night’s debate wrote on her MySpace page this morning that CNN forced her to ask the frilly question instead of a pre-approved query about the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository.

Don Surber asks:

Why plant questions when Wolf Blitzer shields you from nosy coeds

Allahpundit, Hot Air, calls the question moronic.

I say no self-respecting canidate should ever consent to another CNN debate.  What say you?

More: Memeorandum.

Addendum:

When it rains, it pours.  It seem that CNN has even PO’ed KOS:

Would it kill CNN to not include partisan supporters of the various candidates in their post-debate spin

It is enough make CNN pine for Peter Arnett.

Bithead Snipe: Jeez, nobody was this pissed about “Boxers or briefs?”….

And would Kos prefer Fred Thompson?

There’s a multilevel discussion going on over at Q&O, on Ron Paul and his Nazi contributors. Paul hasn’t disavowed these contributors, nor has he returned the money.

I’ll use Jon’s lede for the links:

I understand the point McQ has made about candidates needing to distance themselves from unsavory supporters, and I understand the point Dale has made that “neither Mr. Paul, nor anyone else, has any responsibility to seek out and repudiate endorsements from whackos.” I agree with both of those points. Politicians shouldn’t have to disavow every crank…but it is sometimes helpful to do so, despite the fact that these stories are mostly just a contrivance…a fake ad hominem story.

Well, actualy, no, it’s not a fake story, as Dale points up. Allow me to demonstrate.

Politics, particularly the end of getting elected, is all about  perception.

Replace Ron Paul’s name with Fred or Rudy. Now, replay the whole scene. Let’s imagine one of these gets a donation from a nazi group.  

Does anyone suppose that the left wouldn’t be screaming bloody murder over the connection? Ask yourself; Why is Ron Paul comparatively getting a pass, here from both the MSM and the Democrats?

More; Does anyone suppose, that in our hypothetical scenario, Fred or Rudy wouldn’t be going to some lengths to disassociate themselves from such groups by way of deep sixing sich contributions? Ask yourself: Why doesn’t Ron Paul consider that he needs to ditch these contributions and assocociations?

It all makes one wonder.

The answer is “No”, of course.

MEXICO CITY —USA TODAY- The question of whether to give driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants has ignited a national debate in the United States.

Yet in Mexico, the biggest source of immigrants to the USA, there’s no debate: If you’re not in the country legally, you can’t get a driver’s license.

All of Mexico’s 31 states, along with the federal district of Mexico City, require foreigners to present a valid visa if they want a driver’s license, according to a survey of states by USA TODAY.

So, why on earth do we consider it?  Aside from getting illegals to vote for Democrats, as we’ve discussed, of course.

BBCT: Memeorandum