Nightly Ramble: Hot

• Its hot at the moment, being close to 95 outside.  In my office, here it’s 72. (My office, and my server rooms are in the basement of the house, and therefore my computers and routers and so on all stay comfortable.. it’s a bit warmer in the rest of the house… say, 77 or so.) In my memory, it’s not all that unusual, around here.  There are a number of people making an awful lot of noise about how this is all “climate change” (have you noticed they stop talking about “global warming” when one of their dog and pony shows was ill-attended, supposedly, because of the cold?.. and of course there were many in the whacko ward, who claimed that the cold was also due to global warming.  Amazing, the links they will go to, to bypass facts everybody else’s early figured out.  ) The bottom line though, is it gets warm in the northeast during the summer.  Sometimes, for days at a time.  In other headlines, large light is expected in the eastern sky tomorrow morning.
• Anyone who has read this site for any length of time will know very well that I have great deal of respect for Michelle Malkin. So I am not at all being disrespectful when I comment on an article she’s run recently as regards Julian Bond and the NAACP kicking off their annual “racial demagoguery-fest with a rip-roaring, Bush-bashing, blame-deflecting diatribe.” my comment is that this is hardly news.  Now if Julian bond had actually been a reasonable being, and stopped with the race huckstering… that would have been news.  Still, I suppose somebody’s got to do it, since the mainstream media seems to have abdicated its responsibility in that area.
• Why am I not surprised that the recent article as regards Fred Thompson being hired by an abortion lobbyists, has more holes in than does Al Gore’s head?
  
• I note James Joyner talking about how German police and broken into a apartment thinking they were going to find a dead body after neighbors complained about nasty smell coming up the staircase… turns out to have been the guy’s feet.  And yes, he was fine.  I am reminded of a story I ran back into thousand four, where that 480lb. woman had died after six years of living on the couch… I commented at the time: “So let me get this right; The smell is so bad that everyone has to go in in rubber suits and they had to run fans into the place…and yet nobody in the next apartment can smell this for the last five years? Here’s an apartment complex where I want to live, gang…” So if that didn’t raise a peep of complaint out of the neighbors, how bad does this mean the guy’s smelly feet were? Sheesh!
• For the last two years, now, WCBS FM in New York City (101.1) has been trying new formats… following its untimely abandonment of the oldies format that it ran for years and years. Scott Fybush is reporting that as of 1:01pm on July 12th, Oldies are back at WCBS-FM. It’s good to see.  Now, comes the issue of whether not the rest of the stations around the country that tried the same formats that WCBS-FM tried, will be going back to the formats THEY were on as well. Such as in my hometown, WBBF.
• Speaking of radio, I gather that the blithering idiot, Don Imus, will be attempting a comeback in January. according to insiders, there in a hurry to get him back in front of a microphone prior to the next presidential election.  Gee, I wonder who Imus will be backing?

Michelle passes on word of an Airman shot in the heart by an anti-war activist.

Go and see the notes, and then come back.

Patrick Poole rightly notes:

If Airman Schrieken had been an abortionist or homosexual, this story would be front page news for the New York Times and the lead story on CBS News with Katie Couric for at least the next month. But since Schrieken is serving in the military, even his hometown newspaper, the Columbus Dispatch, has ignored this story.

He then comments:

Predictably, a law enforcement spokesman says that Marren’s suicide notes “were indicative of an individual suffering from mental-health problems”, but that raises the question of how anyone could identify anyone suffering from mental-health problems amidst those devoted to bizarre conspiracy theories and the virulent anti-Americanism of the antiwar movement. If anything, Marren would have fit right in unnoticed.

I would think that to be rather obvious; the positions he took, particularly to the extent that he took them, are clear indication of mental health issues.  In short, the kind of madness that this guy showed, is the very essence of the leftist antiwar movement.  The thing that is needful now is to examine how widespread the issue is.  A quick look at the language of the left, these days, shows a number of linkages in non- linear thought, between the left and this bozo. The outstanding difference between this guy, and the rest of them, is that he had least had the courage of his convictions and followed it through to its logical conclusion.  His actions, and the rhetoric we’re hearing coming from the left right now are all based in the same deadly, hateful, illogic.
In short, the kind of madness that this guy showed, is the very essence of the leftist antiwar movement.

Another indicator; Were this guy still alive, would he be charged with a “hate crime?”  You know he wouldn’t. So much for the argument that the left “supports the troops”.
I suspect that to be precisely why the mainstream media hasn’t deigned to cover this; they probably figure that someone else will make that connection too.

By the way, if you’d like to send the airmen a card, I’m sure that it would be appreciated.

Jonathan Schrieken
Cooper University Hospital
1 Cooper Plaza
Camden NJ 08103

I recognize that there are technical reasons why the airmen would not get a purple heart, but I am of the opinion that he should get one.

WASHINGTON — Louisiana Sen. David Vitter apologized Monday for his telephone number showing up on the old phone records of Pamela Martin and Associates, the alleged prostitution ring run in the nation’s capital by Deborah Jeane Palfrey.

“This was a very serious sin in my past for which I am, of course, completely responsible,” Vitter said in a statement.

So in that entire list, we are to believe that there’s only one politician of any way whatsoever , and that one happens to be a member of the GOP.  And I’m selling Florida by the gallon.  Sorry, I’m not buying it.

It’s no small thing, that the ones generating the most heat on this, are the same ones who defended Bill Clinton.What we have here, inside the first circle is Palfrey, who is a prostitute/pimp. she got caught, she’s facing jail time.  In a move which could only be described as blackmail, she decided she was going to try to make the charges go way by being a name dropper.  It didn’t work. so, she decided that a scorched earth policy was her best path. She decided that if she’s going down, she’s taking a bunch of other people with her.

But, I think I ought to point out, that now that we have the list in front of us, there is no way for us to determine who was who used the service legally, and who use the service to engage in prostitution. That would seem to include David Vitter.

Vitter, for his part, could have pulled a Bill Clinton, and claim he “never had sex with that woman”, and pull all kinds of legal stunts to the end of confounding his critics as Bill Clinton did. He didn’t. I suppose that to be a massive difference in the character of the two individuals.

But the difference in character, here, is also exposed, insofar as the character of the people labeling this a scandal.  It’s no small thing, that the ones generating the most heat on this, are the same ones who defended Bill Clinton. That particular point is not brought up in defense of Vitter, but rather to show in stark relief, the remarkable double standard being applied by the left in this matter.

Make no mistake about the opportunism that’s going on here.

And by the way, I note that with just the one public name out, the server that contains the records is down.

I wonder; is this a case of protecting the democrats on that list, now that the pound of Republican flesh has been offered up?

MADRID (Reuters) – Women in the northern Spanish city of Pamplona, world-famous for its ferocious bull-running festival, are demanding their own version complete with cows instead of bulls.

You know, there are some ideas which are just too bizarre to comment on.   I think I’ll just let this one stand.

The Sister has this up:

HOUSTON â€”  A state lawmaker who opposed a bill giving Texans stronger right to defend themselves with deadly force pulled a gun and shot a man he says was trying to steal copper wiring from a construction site, police said Monday.

Rep. Borris Miles told police he was fixing a leak on the second floor of the Houston house he’s building Sunday night when he heard a noise downstairs and saw two men trying to steal the copper. After Miles confronted the pair, one of the men threw a pocketknife at him, Houston Police spokesman Victor Senties. (emphasis removed)

Michelle Malkin:

Go figure:

Foreigners don’t have a high opinion of the United States, owing to the war in Iraq, but that hasn’t done much to deter a ferocious appetite for American goods and services, as had been expected.

Last year, U.S. multinationals posted record earnings in virtually ever region of the world and rose to a total of $291.5 billion — a 170 percent jump from 2001’s cyclical low — Joseph Quinlan, chief market strategist at Bank of America Corp., noted in a report on Monday.

Those figures run counter to the global image of America. A 47-country survey released in late June by the Pew Global Attitudes Project documented wide anti-American sentiment since the survey was launched in 2002 and found those attitudes deepening this year.

The United States’ favorable ratings declined in 26 of the 33 countries for which a comparison was available, with negative views particularly strong in the Middle East.

Lots of lip service to America-bashing. But when it comes to consumer spending, the haters don’t walk their talk.

Precisely why I have said from the beginning that this “I hate America” business in the rest of the world, is remarkably thin, the American lefts opinion of how deeply such dislike goes, not withstanding.  As a matter of fact, I would suggest to you that the only place that sentiment takes on any serious heft at all, is in the ranks of the Democratic Party, here in the ‘States…. An org which always seems to have a fairly wide sway on the aforementioned Pew Research Center.
Michelle doesn’t say this, but I will; the perception of the rest of the world disliking America, is a perception that is fostered and cultivated by the left wing in this country. It is not, as they would have you believe, a matter of any serious heft.  Our own left, by means of Hollywood, and by means of our mainstream media, has made disliking America a popular thing to do, and it’s in reaction to that that these numbers show up.

But as Michelle points out, when the rubber meets the road, …or, perhaps more correctly when the Euros meet the cash register… the true measure of their conviction on the matter is exposed for all to see.  What is fashionable, tends to melt away revealing what is real.

Just for laughs, and to extend the point that this is something that our own mainstream media has been fostering and cultivating for years, let’s see how much coverage in the mainstream media this particular story gets.  I’m willing to bet, it’s not much.

Mitt Romeny calls Mrs. Clinton, what she is, a Marxist (video).   Some leftards, T.W. Furman, TPM Cate for one, are none too happy about it..  Furman thinks this Mrs. Clinton quote refutes Romney:

Now, there is no greater force for economic growth than free markets, but markets work best with rules that promote our values, protect our workers and give all people a chance to succeed.

Furman’s problem that is the case of HillaryCare, Mrs. Clinton fully intended to make priivate markets illegal.  Making private health care illegal, but calling it merely regulation, is like describing the Volstead Act as an attempt to regulate the legal liquor business, rather than to kill it.
?

Little Green Footballs notes:

In their standoff with the Pakistani government, the depraved holy warriors of the Red Mosque in Islamabad have surrounded themselves with children: Brainwashed children plead to die as martyrs in Red Mosque siege.

SAIMA KHAN wants to die a martyr. Life is transient, she told her father in a telephone call last week, and the real glory is to sacrifice it for Allah. Her statement would be alarming at any age, but Saima is only 10.

As she spoke, rifle shots rang out, the acrid smell of tear gas drifted over Islamabad and hundreds of troops surrounded the pro-Taliban Red Mosque, a religious school complex in the heart of Pakistan’s capital where Saima was among hundreds of children being held as virtual hostages in a stand-off between militants and the government.

Saima and her 14-year-old sister, Asma, were embroiled in a struggle for the soul of Pakistan in which up to 70 militants died last week and more than 100 were injured, according to mosque officials.

Holed up inside the complex behind the lines of troops and razor wire, the children – many of them girls whose families had sent them to the mosque to receive a strict Islamic education – repeatedly rejected relatives’ entreaties to leave before a threatened army onslaught.

There was evidence that many had been brainwashed into a cult of martyrdom, and the authorities feared last night that some were being prepared to be suicide bombers. In barely eight weeks, Saima had been transformed from a religious but fun-loving girl to a jihadi, grimly craving martyrdom.

The picture is one of female students of the Red Mosque holding bamboo sticks and shoving antigovernment slogans during the attack of the soldiers on the mosque, and is from AFP. I post it, along side the story, to give you a visual and help you understand.  I would suggest you follow the link that Charles put up in the text I quoted, to get the full story.
If this doesn’t give you a fairly decent idea of what we’re up against the worldwide basis, I don’t know what would.  Unfortunately the specter of Janet Reno style response almost seems reasonable in the face of such determination to sacrifice one’s self.  And here certainly, we have more indication of the intents of the people inside, then we did at Ruby Ridge. (So I’m by no means defending Reno’s abominable actions…)
Fortunately, as the story that Charles links indicates, they didn’t end up having to nuke the place to quell the disturbance.  Still, something along the lines of 70 people died.  About 100 more were injured that we know about.

But for all that, the question becomes, how many lives were saved?  How many truly innocents didn’t have to die because this weed got pulled up by the roots?

Truly, a quandary that’s beyond the ken of the “Peace at all costs” crowd. It’s a choice Cindy Sheehan has never understood, though her son being smarter than her, did. It’s a choice they wouldn’t be able to make if their lives depended on it.  Their reaction to Iraq and our actions within it pretty much prove that.  Unfortunately for them, it may, yet come to that dependency.

Udpate: Captain Ed has more 

The Jawa Report:

(Toledo, Ohio) From a report citing a Blade article, the Lucas County Democrat Party golf outing at a public course last Friday featured local strippers providing drinks and entertainment. One official remarked that “he witnessed one woman lift up her top and reveal her chest to a group of golfers. She then lowered her shorts for their benefit.”

Hubba! Hubba! My score is already impeded by trees and sand traps. I can’t imagine the obstacles posed by bare chests and lowered shorts.

In any event, the Democrat-stripper connection reported by the liberal media isn’t the sensational headliner it likely would be had the participants been Republicans.

Indeed; with Democrats it’s kind of expected. No wonder the democrats were so busy protecting bill Clinton, as regards that walking humidor he used to keep around.  With Republicans, not so much.

Which is precisely why I’ve always taken Democrat generated scandals with a grain of salt… and why I’d take promises from the Democrats about how moral and upright they’re going to be with a snowplow load of salt.

Criminals don’t care about gun laws … anymore than they care about D.C.’s complete gun ban

Wayne LaPierre’s, reaction, to the armed robbery of a DC school official.

Via, Michelle Malkin.

?

• So, Cindy Sheehan, has decided she’s going to run against Nancy Pelosi. After swearing off the public life, and after swearing off politics, it appears her given word on the subject wasn’t worth the powder to blow up.  As I predicted at the time.  But perhaps more importantly…. What does it say about the politics of that district, that Pelosi is by far the more reasonable candidate? The press, is busy telling the woman, and the rest of the country, that the lefty bloggers suddenly have an enormous amount of pull. Since she’s been mouthing the same stuff they have, I suppose she figured on capitalizing on that momentum she’s seeing.  Trouble is, they’re the only ones she’s been hearing from lately.  She apparently hasn’t been hearing from the remainder of the country.  I suspect that she, the lefty bloggers, and the rest of the country are all about to get an education on just how wrongly she’s called this one.  Like she has, pretty much, everything else.
• I mentioned the dearth of viewership, and the (even for me) startling lack of people showing up to the concerts for “Live Earth” over the past weekend. Today I notice Rasmussen ran a poll yesterday, which pretty much tells the story… nobody bothered because they were skeptical of the motives of the performers. in the poll, only 12% thought global warming was the top issue.  Their earlier surveys show a deep division over the causes of “global warming” So, if Al Gore ran all of this nonsense to “raise awareness of the issues”, I’d say offhand it was fairly well successful; they’re quite aware of what Mr. Gore is up to.  And they’re not buying it. this is nothing short of huge, my friends; these events have traditionally been ground zero for rabble rousing.  If the numbers I’m seeing, both in terms of viewership, and in terms of what the polls are reporting, are to be taken as any candidate indication at all, and I think they are, even the rabble doesn’t trust the Enviro-wackos. in watching the comments sections today in places like Koz and the Democratic Underground, one gets the decided in pressure and that there’s an awful lot of people feeling an awful lot of betrayal on all of this.  It’s an interesting process to watch, the awakening… as they come to the realization that they have been sold out for Al Gore and his political power.
• Speaking of such things, I see where the concert in Antarctica met with Billy Beck’s expectations… Too bad they didn’t get Al Gore to fly down there to speak. From what I saw, he’d have gotten a better reception than what he got in Sydney. What a hoot!
• The New York Sun, this morning, is reporting that those staffers that were terminated from John McCain’s campaign are probably going to be working for Fred Thompson very shortly.  So much for the nonsense that Thompson didn’t have a working campaign on the ground. the only question that I have, is with regards to the views of the candidates.  Perhaps this is idealistic of me, but if I have somebody that’s working to make sure someone’s elected, I’d like to believe that that someone believes the person they’re working for would be good for the position, and good for the country.  With the two candidates involved in this being of such opposite mind on so many issues, I wonder …
• So, John Conyers has got his mouth running again, and is calling for congressional hearings on presidential pardon powers.  He’s bent outta shape about the pardon of Scooter Libby, of course… the guy that represents the sum of the anti-Bush witchhunts for the last eight years.  You can certainly understand is anger, if it wasn’t for scooter Levy being convicted, the democrats would have absolutely nothing to show for the last eight years.  Even their retaking of Congress, ended up with nothing to show for it.  His obvious disdain for the constitution aside, I think it only fair to remind you that Conyers said none were one when Bill Clinton pardoned the acetic Jews who managed somehow to deliver an entire communities votes to Hillary Clinton for the New York senatorial race just couple years ago.  Or, when bill Clinton pardoned Porter Rican terrorists who are involved in well over 100 bombings in New York and Chicago .  Or, when Bill Clinton party and Mark Rich, who just by a stroke of coincidence happen to be married to a huge Clinton fundraiser.  You’ll pardon me for thinking that Conyers’ outrage is selective at least.
• I see Boeing has finally gotten around to unveil in the largest ever commercial plane… the 787 Dreamliner. They’ve got something like 600 orders from customers, already.  They’re expecting a test flight in September.  As big as these things are, it’ll be interesting to see where they are able to take off and land.
• The Associated Press is reporting a study by the corporation for national and community service, which is a Federal agency, which used census data to determine the share of people sixteen and older who would volunteer their time in the previous year.  When you break that dated down, it turns out that the Midwest tops both of the posts for volunteerism.  And of course, I respond “Well, no Duh….”. the posts, you see, are essentially a large collection of liberals, who tend not to volunteer.  This would be further enhanced by the large surge in volunteerism that occurred during the Reagan and Bush administrations.  Conversely, during Carter and Clinton, volunteerism dove, rather dramatically.  So much for the idea of conservatives , and their supposed trend of selfishness. This report shows what I’ve always known….that selfishness is a LIBERAL trait.

From the Strib, just now:

Freshman Congressman Keith Ellison was among friends Sunday — in this case, a gathering of atheists — so his support for a fistful of hot-button opinions, including the impeachment of Vice President Dick Cheney, brought enthusiastic nods of approval and standing ovations.

“You’ll always find this Muslim standing up for your right to be atheists,” he told the group.

Yeah, well, If past is prologue, he’ll be your friend for as long as he needs something from you.
As for how that works out with Islam in general… a photo is worth 1000 words.

In this case, likely a few more than that.

Forgive me if I am less than impressed with the track record.

But let’s examine his real purpose, shall we? Why would Islam, want to encourage atheism in the west?

“America, is like a healthy body and its resistance is threefold: its patriotism, its morality, and its spiritual life. If we can undermine these three areas, America will collapse from within.”

—Joseph Stalin

That’s about as accurate a description of the game plan as I’ve been able to find.

Oh… should I mention that both Stalin and Ellison consider themselves  Democrats?

Boortz this morning:

Western intelligence is confirming it … the mullahs of Iran are, indeed, linked to al Queda. Iran is being used as a base for terrorists. These terrorists then go into Iraq and kill Iraqis and Americans, with the explicit intention of undermining progress in Iraq.

To the mad mullahs any U.S. progress in Iraq means that Western culture and ideals are at their doorstep. It’s a threat they can’t ignore. It puts the war on radical Islamic on their turf.

That Iran is involved here, should surprise nobody.  They’ve been involved since the beginning. they’ve always been the proximate cause of the problem.    They’ve been able to duck the evidence thus far.  That’s coming to a crashing halt, as the evidence continues to mount against them.

So, I hear you asking, some of you, why did we go after Iran in the first place?   Simple.  Can you imagine taking on Iran, with Saddam still in place?

Of course, the Cindy Sheehans  of the world the “peace at any price” crowd, as Neal calls them, will object.  We will doubtless see Shehan snuggling up to Iranian Mullahs shortly.

But mark this, and mark it well; we are going to be forced to act in Iran, and shortly.  Better sooner, rather than later.

IN the monring rounds, I note Venlet this morning:

From the New York Timeseditors:

(You know, the same morons calling for complete capitulation to our enemies in the Middle East…)

Congress returns this week, with its approval ratings plummeting among constituents. Time is short for House Democrats to fully deliver on their campaign promise to turn around the “culture of corruption” in the Capitol. Progress was made in the January crackdown on free gifts, travel and meals from influence brokers. But now comes the hard part — facing up to the need for a new Congressional integrity office to help the moribund ethics committee enforce anticorruption rules.

Calling for a “new Congressional integrity office” is like putting a band-aid on brain tumor.

Yeah well, about that: aren’t these the same individuals that the New York Times was demanding that we elect to office a short time ago, on the idea that things were going to be so much better once they took over power?

What we have here is a group of people more worried about how much damage they can do to The President, than they are about doing the jobs they were elected to do. We also, by the way, have a press, which is finally starting to show some minor signs of anger, for having carried the democrats water for so long, only to now find its own credibility suffering under the weight of the corruption and sheer stupidity of the Democrats.
You see, the biggest problem with any new “congressional integrity office” is that it will be run by congressional Democrats, and will therefore have no chance whatever for any integrity at all. The reason that the approval ratings on the current Congress are as low as they are, is precisely because of their lack of integrity.

And, ummm…. guys…?? It’s not like you weren’t told this, last November.

Pinch Sulzberger must really hate Clarence Thomas, a black man who refuses to cowtow to the liberal dogma.  Pinch has piece up by one Linda Greenhouse moaning about the current, barely conservative, make-up of Supreme Court.  Greenhouse writesof her vision for the Constitution:

Exactly what that vision should encompass is now the question. It is easy enough to find consensus on a checklist that would include a robust reading of the guarantees of the Bill of Rights, including the notion that some rights are fundamental; a constitutional interpretation not tethered to a search for the framers’ original intent; invigorating the right to privacy to include personal privacy in the electronic age; restoring the shield of habeas corpus; and recapturing the government’s ability to intervene for the benefit of African-Americans and other minority groups without being constrained by the formal and ahistorical neutrality that liberals saw as the conceptual flaw in the chief justice’s opinion a little over a week ago invalidating two voluntary school integration plans.

Suffice to say that Pinch and Greenhouse do not see the Constitution as device to limit the power of the federal government,   Rather the two see the Constitution, or at least th their personal version of it, as a device ti implement the liberal social agenda:

If Pinch and Greenhouse do not see the Constitution teetered to Orignal Intent, what if anything do they see as a limit on the power of the state?  

Greenhouse bolivating did not play too well in Madison.  Ann Althouse weighs in:

The liberal lawprofs’ dream seems to be that you could get people to believe that the expansive vision of rights is the proper way to do constitutional interpretation and they’d be willing to go along with that even if they didn’t want these rights enough to support enacting them into law through statutes. But what are the chances that people today would allow liberal academics to convince them of such a thing?

Just like their hero Franklin D. Roosevelt the liberals still want to pack the court, because they can’t not sell the public on their looney social agenda.