Maggie Gallagher: The Democratic Police State

Eliot Spitzer’s personal recipe for disaster. The hubris of his administration directly descends from Spitzer’s excessive confidence in his own political mandate. Will the Dems follow?

Maggie Gallagher, on the Eliot Spitzer disaster.   Read her entire column.

Says Politico’s Ben Smith:

MyDD* flags an intense minute and a half from John Edwards in Creston, Iowa, yesterday in which he heatedly tells an audience that the attention to trivia (I assume the reference here is to his haircuts) is “not an accident” and that “they want to shut me up” to silence his message about ending the war and universalizing health care.

He warns, in the video segment posted by his campaign, that if we don’t beat back these unnamed oligarchs, “They’re going to control the media. They’re going to control what’s being said.”

Ummmm …. Yeah. John, two things:

1. The “Fairness Doctrine” died years ago. that particular bogeyman only works with the less than 10% of the nation who you call your supporters.
2. Personally, and I’m sure I speak for many, we don’t want you to shut up.  You are not a serious candidate for president, although it must be said that your comedy routines are the stuff of legend…  like for example, when you talk about the poor.  This from one of the richest men in the nation.  Instead of trying to find ways to spend our money, why don’t you donate yours…. all of it.

And tell Tracy Russo, the next time s/he films something, focus the damn camera.  I couldn’t even see the part in your hair in this one.

• I see JPod thinks that J.K.Rowling will put together another Harry Potter book “At some point in the next 15 years”… I am inclined to agree, but if she doesn’t , I will guarantee you that somebody else will within five years after that. There is something to be said for the idea that writers write, and once they have tasted success they will try to do so again and soon.  As it happens, my MP3 player has coughed up a track off of Boston’s first album.  No small irony, there.  The lesson, as it applies to the Harry Potter world, is perhaps that trying to create another world would not be as successful as was her first attempt. It is, after all, quite an act to follow , and trying to create success of the same level in a different story line, seems inadvisable on its face.  My point being, that if she wants to continue to create she’s going to have to do it, eventually, within the Harry Potter world that she has created.  Creation, certainly, is the thing; she’s hardly wanting for money, anymore. I suppose that her in sides are rebelling at the amount of strain put upon her in terms of cranking out seven rather voluminous books. she’s looking for a break.  But readers of Jack London’s works will understand the image drawn by the phrase ‘Dog out of the traces’… I suspect in a few years, she’ll be under pressure from inside to create again, else she won’t know what to do with herself.
• Speaking of Rowling, reports are that she is intending an encyclopedic work on the universe of Harry Potter.  Not a novel, per se’, but as a backfill. I’m not seeing a timeframe, but cannot imagine it won’t be out in time for Christmas.
• They’re supposed to be an ethics review going on within the office of New York governor Elliot Spitzer.  Not bad for only having been in power for short time. He’s already got itself into serious trouble.  Professor Bainbridge has come to the conclusion that Eliot Spitzer is a Thug. He’s right, of course, and in more than this.  But then the professor ask something pointed?  Wondering what attorney general Spitzer would’ve done to a corporate CEO who stonewalled to the degree that the governor has…  of course, we know what the answer to that is.  Bainbridge provides examples.  But before this one gets too far down the road, let’s remember that here in New York AG stands for two things; attorney general, and aspiring governor. In our haste to clamp down on the the thug that Spencer unquestionably is, let’s be careful about the trap laid by the next aspiring governor, Andrew Cuomo. Cuomo, you see, is also a Democrat.
• Speaking of such matters, I noticed yesterday over at The Corner a note about Democrat activist Chad Schuldt..  the paid thug, once hired by former Senator Tom Daschille. He came online back in 2004 and spent most of his time going after John Thune, (not surprisingly, given who was paying him) charging corruption, and complaining that we don’t need the tax cuts Thune was running on. Thune, you may recall, won that race.  Guess what? Seems that the cookie jar is missing a few, and Schuldt…. well… he’s got chocolate chips on his breath.  And, I guess that when you’re adding to your own income the way this guy was doing, you might not need the tax cut. not to worry, I’m sure senator Dashiell has some work for him, in a new, non governmental role… once he’s out of jail, that is.
• I took some e-mail, yesterday, and last night for that matter, as regards my comments on Democrat and former prosecutor Mike Nifong. most of it supportive, some of it not.  Among the most bass ackward comments, came from one individual who suggested the quality of mercy is not in me.  What the writer fails to understand is, I was going light on the guy.  Personally, the death penalty would not be out of the question with me, if I had my druthers.  It should be noted, also, that this same writer was in my mailbox almost daily, championing the cause of Nifong, all through that sequence of events.  Some of the comments that he left as regards those college kids led me to believe that if the quality of mercy exists in him, it is used most selectively. Now, he’s complaining that I have no mercy.  I could easily get into link the comments on this, but I won’t.  Allow me to say, however; It’s amazing, the sides of personalities that you see, when you write for this kind of a web site.
• I can hardly let this day pass, without making some kind of a comment about this moron, Private Beauchamp. We are finding out increasingly about his far left roots, by reading the ratings he left behind a before going into the military.  Just how does one with his political predisposition, and up in the military, in any event?  Perhaps one of the Liberal myths came true in his case, and he had no choice but to enter the military, because nobody else would have him? Also, as of about noon which is the last time I looked, The New Republic still has not verified anything they printed from this guy. I guess that’s not a surprise, because first, I don’t believe a word of what you wrote anyway.  But, you would think they did least if the courage to withdraw what they wrote.  Again.  I see in The Corner, Mark Steyn noting that Beauchamp reserved the harshest description of all those he wrote about, for himself. Steyn has noticed something I’d not been able to put words to; Beauchamp is showing all the signs of self-hatred one could ask for.
• The rumblings I’m hearing are that Beauchamp is engaged to, or married to… a staffer of The New Republic. Oh, my, the plot thins. (Update: Yep. Jawa Report is saying that he got the TNR gig because of his engagement to a TNR staffer.  And apparently, someone got canned for letting that Inconvenient little fact slip.)  Ace notes some similarity with a recent mission about Yellow Cake.
• Looking at possibly taking the trailer out to a new spot this weekend, or maybe Monday, depending on the weather. Which means, I’ve got some setup work to do.

SAN DIEGO -AP— Leonard Nimoy isn’t through with Spock yet.

The 76-year-old actor will don his famous pointy ears again to play the role in an upcoming “Star Trek” film due out Christmas 2008.

Fascinating…

It was the pet idea of President Lyndon B. Johnson to allow the North Vietnamese unlimited sanctuary in occupied Cambobia.  Now, the so-called Smartest Woman in the World, proposes to adopt Johnson’s policy, but this time in Pakistan, from Dawn:

WASHINGTON, July 26: US presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has said if America sends its troops to the tribal region, they should go with Pakistani troops and not on their own.

At a fund-raising dinner arranged for her by the National Association of Pakistani-Americans, she rejected the suggestion by some US officials and lawmakers that the United States should conduct unilateral military operations in the tribal region to destroy alleged Al Qaeda and Taliban safe havens

So just how tough is Mrs. Clinton?  Evidently not tough enough to stand-up to a dead man.

Hat tip: A.J. Strata, Strata-Sphere.

Seattle (Seattle Times)King and Pierce County prosecutors filed felony charges today against seven people who allegedly committed the biggest voter-registration fraud in state history.

The defendants, who were paid employees and supervisors of ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, concocted the scheme as an easy way to get paid, not as an attempt to influence the outcome of elections, King County Prosecuting Attorney Dan Satterberg said.

“This was an act of vandalism upon the voter rolls of King County,” Satterberg said.

In addition to filing criminal charges, Satterberg said state and local officials had signed a five-year agreement with ACORN that requires the organization to beef up its training and procedures for detecting and reporting fraud.

ACORN agreed to pay King County $25,000 for its investigative costs and acknowledged that the national organization could be subject to criminal prosecution if fraud occurs again.

“Ladies and gentlemen, this is the worst case of voter-registration fraud in the history of the state of Washington. There has been nothing comparable to this,” state Secretary of State Sam Reed said at a news conference with Satterberg, King County Executive Ron Sims and Acting U.S. Attorney Jeff Sullivan.

Were a Republican group involved, I can’t help but assume that instead of signing a five year agreement with the group, all contracts would be null and void with such a group As a result of such a breach.  Documented as the worst case of voter fraud in the history of the state, and the group ends up with a slap on the wrist, by their fellow Democrats.  Just ponder that one for a while.  Now, consider the idea that this group is been involved with fraudulent activity, in other states, where investigations have also ensued.

Update:(Bit) Michelle Malkin’s doing a good job in keeping up with this one.

At last, Pvt Beauchamp’s, a.k.a. Scott Thomas, ambitions are revealed.  Beauchamp wants to write military novels, just like Senator Jim Webb, Virginia.  From Jack Kelly, Real Clear Politics:

In a blog entry for May 8, 2006, Pvt. Beauchamp describes an atrocity: “‘Put a 556 in his head.’ (The caliber of an M-16 rifle is .556 millimeters.) On the street below, the man’s brown face dissolves in a thick red mist. The lights in the city’s houses shut off in unison. Electricity rationing. Water rationing too. You ever tried to survive for more than a few hours in 120 degree weather?”

On May 8, 2006, Pvt. Beauchamp was in Germany, where temperatures rarely reach 120 degrees, and the electricity and water work just fine.

So question for Franklin Foer, editor the New Republic, at what point, if any, did you realze that S.T. Beaucamp wrote fiction

Addendum:(Bit) I’ll have some more on this tonight. I’m hearing some rumors about the relationships between this moron and at least one person inside TNR, that will explain rather a lot.

Apparently, Patrick Ruffini is worried. I think, needlessly.

Says Pat:

This is a big mistake. The Democrats are afraid to answer questions from Big Bad Fox News Anchors, and the Republicans are afraid to answer questions from regular people. Which is worse?

First of all, Patrick, CNN is not “regular people”.  Given their lack of ratings, it could be fairly said that CNN is not people at all.

The ratings for the Democrats on CNN/YouTube were embarrassingly low, even at the outset… and it didn’t help that the program itself was a yawner.  It was to the point where more than one pundit suggested that the Democrats were going to have to seriously consider appearing on Fox, having tried to attract attention everywhere else, and failing miserably. There is no reason to suggest that the Republicans are going to fare any better trying the same trick.
Add to that, the history of CNN is one of distinct Democrat party bias, and one can hardly blame the Republicans for dropping this turkey. There’s nothing to gain, and lots to lose.  There’s no point in bothering with it.

As to Patrick’s reaction, I’m not sure what’s driving that. My only advice to Patrick, is “Son, calm yourself.” (Or is that clam yourself?)

This early in the race, such an exposure does not matter in the grand scheme. Such things are simply not important to the average American, just now.  Given a little while, that situation will undoubtedly change.  However, this early on in the race, the biggest ally that Republicans have is Democrats in office.  Let their bumbling, let their corruption, let their efforts to force the US into a surrender, let their inability to perform, do our work for us.  When it gets closer to election time, we stand up and say without irony…. “There’s a better way”.

Congress was created to legislate, not investigate. Their utter lack of legislating anything other than earmarks and a minimum wage hike that “gave a raise” to less than a half-million $5.15 an hour people, most of them part-timers.

Don Surber.

John Hawkins has his latest Rightosphere Temperature Check. Among those answering the poll:

Aaron’s CC, Absinthe & Cookies, The Absurd Report, The American Princess, Argghhhh!, AtlanticBlog, Atlas Shrugs, BillHobbs, Bit’s Blog, BizzyBlog, Bluey Blog, Brainster’s Blog, Cassy Fiano, Conservative Grapevine, dcthornton.com, Drumwaster’s Rants, Eckernet, Euphoric Reality, Four Right Wing Wackos, GraniteGrok, Inside Larry’s Head, Isaac Schrödinger, JackLewis, Jeff Gannon – A Voice of the New Media, GOPUSA Northeast (Illions), GOPUSA Northeast (Butehorn), Gocinatlanta, The Hedgehog Report, IMAO, Keith Burgess-Jackson, Moonbattery, Mountaineer Musings, Musings, My Vast Right Wing Conspiracy, Newmark’s Door, The Nose On Your Face, Poliblog, PoliPundit, Right Thinking Girl, Right Thinking From The Left Coast, Don Singleton, Sister Toldjah, Slobokan’s Site Of Schtuff, Solomonia, Townhall (Amanda Carpenter), Vox Popoli, WILLisms, Wuzzadem

DURHAM, N.C. —AP- Disgraced former prosecutor Mike Nifong acknowledged Thursday there is “no credible evidence” that three Duke lacrosse players committed any of the crimes he accused them of more than a year ago, offering for the first time a complete and unqualified apology.

“We all need to heal,” Nifong said. “It is my hope we can start this process today.”

Here ladies and gentlemen as a monster pleading for mercy.

He should get none.

No, Mike, we don’t “all need to heal”… Your victims need to heal.  You need to pay the price for your making them victims for your own political gain.

That your victims actually served no prison time, (Past being held the duration of the trial)… that they were not convicted, should not bear on the issue of what you had intended for them, and why, and on the price that you should pay. That someone stepped in, and stopped you from committing the worst part of your crime, does not bear on your intent.  You had intended at least fifteen years worth of prison time for each of the boys in question, all when you knew they were innocent.

Hmmmm… Let’s see… 15 times 3….  That comes up to 45 years total prison time. Seems a reasonable start on what ought to happen to you.
That you are now going through a difficult time, is inconsequential to your victims. It matters not at all.  Your pleas for mercy, are also inconsequential and they matter not at all.  Would the pleas of your victims have mattered?  It’s clear by your statements today that you still have no clue as to the gravity of the situation that you started.

All we’ve talked about, is the three boys.  There are, of course, other victims involved here.

What of the other people that you have convicted?  How many of these were convicted on similarly falsified evidence?  It’s a question that the people of North Carolina will have to deal with for many years.  Your honesty, has been established as nonexistent.

Finally, what of the voters of Raleigh North Carolina?  Has their voice been heard in all of this?  It’s their tax money that’s paying for all of this, after all. I will be most interested to see whether not they continue to vote democrat so solidly, in the next election.  It certainly didn’t pay for them to do so the last few times around, did it?
If there is justice in this world, (and with people like you in the legal system that is a serious question ) you will have 50 years or so in prison, with the people you convicted, to think about it.  Do get back to us and let us know what you decide.

Blackfive is saying that Scott Thomas of TNR fame and fable, is Scott Thomas Beauchamp.

Bryan over at HotAir confirms, saying:

He’s Private Scott Thomas Beauchamp, a member of Alpha Company, 1/18 Infantry, Second Brigade Combat Team, First Infantry Division. He’s also calling most of his critics chickenhawks, even though most of his critics a) served in the military and/or b) have been to Iraq or c) both.

Bryan correctly notes:

How remarkably lucky for Scott that he encountered precisely the sorts of incidents during his tour that would make good librul readin’ when people like Yon, Greyhawk, and Blackfive have had to do without. I guess the Muse had special plans for him.

Then again, as BlackFive notes:

As I said every unit has a Private Beauchamp who is more or less universally disliked as a whiny loser. No one understands them and they are always getting screwed over. They always have aspirations to grandness coupled with an absolute uselessness and laziness that ensures they will never achieve it.

The incidents described by Private dung beetle did not happen in the way he described them, but some event containing morsels of truth did and then our fabulist enbellished it to match the narrative of the voices in his head. They tell him the war is evil and consequently he and the folks around him are compromised and now agents of evil. He was just doing his part to ensure that people get the truth as it should be, damn the facts.

Yeah, no kidding. Bryan suggests a comparison which Billy should find interesting:

I now think that what the TNR has on its hands is not a fraudulent soldier, but a Walter Mitty. He’s there, he’s bored, and he’s using his real experiences as a basis to make stuff up.

I suppose that Mitty remains the standard for what makes good Liberal journalism.

There is one thing that bothers me about this though, that I haven’t seen yet.  What we told that “Scott Thomas” was a pseudonym? if that’s true, that his real name could not possibly be “Scott Thomas”. In short, somebody’s lying.  Besides Beauchamp, I mean.

There’s an awful lot more going on here, than meets the eye, and I’m convinced the worst of it hasn’t shown up yet.

Update: Michelle Malkin has more. The comments alone are worth the trip.

A “biparistan” bill is a democrat sponsored bad idea with a useful idiot republican as a obstensive co-sponsor.   Not content to attempt to strangle free speech on the public airwave, democrats are now proposing to regulate private speech.  Adam Thomas reports on a Senate proposal to further trample free speech: 

US senators today made a bipartisan call for the universal implementation of filtering and monitoring technologies on the Internet in order to protect children at the end of a Senate hearing for which civil liberties groups were not invited.

Commerce Committee Chairman Daniel K. Inouye (D-Hawaii) and Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee Vice Chairman Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) both argued that Internet was a dangerous place where parents alone will not be able to protect their children.

The Internet is private, and the federal govenment has no authority or business attempting to regulate it.  

Ed Morrissey, Captain Quarters:

We don’t need a nanny state deciding what to block for our own good.

If you don’t like the Internet, don’t use it.

?

The mind is such a terrible thing to waste, and with Glenn Greenwald there is a lot of wasted gray matter.  Alas

Greenwald loses it:

One of the lowest and most dishonest tactics is to attempt to smear and demonize a blog by exploiting statements left on the blog by commenters despite the fact that the comments have no relationship to the arguments made by the blogger. It is no surprise that right-wing pundits have made that deceitful tactic one of their most frequently invoked weapons. The most recent example, of course, is Bill O’Reilly’s campaign to pressure Jet Blue to withdraw its sponsorship of Yearly Kos due to statements made by Daily Kos commenters who have no connection to the site other than using it to comment.
 

Greenwald clearly has his knickers in a twist because Jet Blue dumped YearlyKos.

Today, John Aravosis discovered several violence-inciting comments from Bill O’Reilly.com regulars, including ones threatening violence against Hillary Clinton.

So what did Aravoisis discover?  This:

BillOreilly.com: “I am keeping my guns loaded if she [Hillary] is elected” 

So given Mrs. Clinton’s demonstrated propensity for violence, which is the greater threat, Mrs. Clinton’s thug with a machine gur or a law abiding citizen?  Keep in mind that is a loaded machine gun which Mrs. Clinton’s thug has pointed at the child.

.

 ?

The subject of motorcycles and accidents thereon has come up over at Billy’s place.

Here is something that I think is true: people who have never been in a bike crash have a very difficult — nearly impossible — time at conceiving the amazing violence unleashed in one. Look: how often do you ever seriously imagine, say, having your arm torn off by blunt force? Think about that. Try to imagine something like that happening with excruciating slow, frame-by-frame, precision, because — believe me — that’s how you’ll see if it ever happens.

Everything he says in there is true. And I do mean “everything”.

However, I would like you to consider something… Something that Billy had not intended, and he is likely to be somewhat upset by my use of his article as a launching board… as usual I’m going to take a topic and turn it on its ear.
What Billy accurately describes also happens in the miniscule cars we are being forced into the name of saving gasoline, and saving the planet, of course.  Certainly, riding a motorcycle is somewhat more dangerous than a small car. Then, too, riding in the proverbial Yugo is a lot less safe, than riding in a regular car, or in an SUV. .. and for the same reasons… there’s far less around you to protect you in the event of a crash. It is simply impossible to design a “safe” motorcycle, and by the same token it is equally impossible to design a “safe” small automobile, assuming said automobile lacks sufficient mass to protect its passengers in the event of a crash.
This is not a suggestion that we should outlaw motorcycles.  But I would like you to consider the idea that there is a difference between motorcycle riders and small car drivers… the motorcycle riders know the risks and choose to ride for themselves anyway.

Most small car drivers, on the other hand, don’t understand the risks they face. They’ve been told the newer versions of the smaller cars are safer, and to a degree that’s true.  But frankly, they’re not even as safe as the cars that we were making in the early seventies, yet.  Despite all the technology, despite all the air bags, they’re just not.  Even the small car drivers that that do know that, that DO understand the risks involved, generally speaking, are not left the choice in the matter.  For some people, driving such a vehicle has become a matter of image.  for others, it is a financial requirement, brought on by environmental zealotry in our government.  It’s also something of a status symbol, anymore, and that perhaps is the most tragic aspect of all of this.
It’s interesting; we’ve been told for so long that the issue be as nothing more than an status symbol. it’s the SUV shape and size that attracts people to buy it, we are told.  Of course, we’re told that none of that attraction is legitimate.

What then, is the Prius?  The thing, if nothing else looks futuristic.  It’s design and appearance are fairly unique.  Understand; there are other hybrid vehicles out there which turn and similar mileage numbers, have extraordinarily reliable designs and yet aren’t selling 1/10 of what the Prius is. Why? Image. Status. So, we’re left with the idea that it’s a status symbol. But demonstrably, it’s a status symbol that is less safe than body-on-frame vehicles, particularly ones without all the added danger of the battery systems.
This is what our “environmentalism” has brought us to.

I hear you asking, what about the government tests, that X car is safer Y car?  Consdier Billy’s words, here:

One thing that makes the above challenge just a bit absurd is the wild variety of dynamics in a crash, not to mention the possible medical implications. The number of ways that things can go badly on a motorcycle must approach infinity.

So it is, with crashes in any kind of vehicle, including small ones.  It is one thing to run a vehicle through a testing procedure which tests specific types of crashes and compares the results.  It is quite another to release it into the wild , as you will, and say that those tests in the controlled environment have anything to do at all with what the vehicle is going to run into, quite literally, out on the street.  I suppose that if someone were to hit one of those smaller vehicles, in exactly the fashion prescribed in the test, you’d be OK. but I also suppose that your chances of having an accident out on the street that even comes close to the kind of prescribed violence that occurs in government testing labs , also approach the chances of nearly infinity to one.  In short, you have a better chance of winning Powerball.  Or, perhaps, getting struck by lightning.
Let’s put a face on this; In my travels, yesterday, I saw a Ford Fiesta.  Older, but apparently very well cared for.  Twentysomething woman driving it.  Three kids and what laughingly passes for the back seat.  The lack of mass in an automobile was specifically designed that way to save fuel.  Problem is, it won’t withstand being hit by anything larger than a ten speed bicycle, particularly from the rear.  I couldn’t help thinking to myself that all it would take was a slip of the foot on somebody’s brake pedal and those kids are dead.

And I know, because I’ve seen it happen.  More than once.  In front of me. On one occasion the driver had a Fiesta.  On the other occasion a Prius. Both one car accidents.  Both fatalities.  Both would have lived if they’d had more mass around them. In both cases they valued a gallon of gas to be of higher value than their lives, and lost the gamble I’m willing to bet neither knew they were making… A gamble that motorcycle riders understand fully every time they twist the grip. Which, I think, is why death rates from motorcycle accidents aren’t higher than they already are.