Quote of the Day

The Quote of the Day, and from the be careful for what you wish department, comes from Hassan al-Bazam, 20, resident of the Gaza Strip,  in reference to his Fatah kidnappers:

“These people are real murderers, […] Even the Jews did not do such cruel things to us.”

H/T:  James Taranto, Best of the Web.

If the armed forces are being mowed down in combat zones, wouldn’t sending 10,000 unarmed Americans into hostile territories to clean the drinking water seem like a kind of unworkable plan?

E. M. Zanotti, American Princess, reacting to John Edward’s plan to wage the Global War on Terror with the Peace Corps.   Personally, I think John’s been whiffing on too much hair spray.

Yesterday, Bit reported Paris Hilton was out of jail. 

Well today, I am reporting  Hilton was order back to jail to serve the balance of her sentence.  Story via TMZ:

Paris Hilton was just ordered back to jail in Lynwood to serve out the remainder of her sentence! She’ll get credit for at least 5 days already served.  Hilton left the courtroom in tears, screaming, “Mom, Mom, Mom.”  Hilton was also heard saying “It’s not right.

Spoiled brat!

H/T:  Ann Althouse.

An interesting, if slightly misguided article today, submitted by Dr. Charles Krauthammer.

In Britain, Canada and other civilized places, national elections are often called, run and concluded within six weeks. In America, election campaigns go on forever. It used to be one year, now it’s two. No one planned this, but like other evolutionary artifacts (the Founders applied intelligent design to the general makeup of the U.S. government but never foresaw formal political parties, let alone the endless campaign), this crazy improvisation embodies a certain wisdom.

First, it tests a certain kind of competence. Managing a national campaign in a country of continental dimensions requires exceptional organizational skills. A fairly narrow competence, to be sure, but of major importance in a country where the president must run the behemoth that is the federal government.

Several objections, right off; in Britain Canada and other civilized places, he is quite correct that elections are concluded within six weeks from the time they are called.  However , that set up also leads to a great deal more political posturing and a great deal more in the way of governmental largess to buy votes with, at the next opportunity, whatever that might be.  In effect, instead of a relatively concentrated among time wherein people are running for election to a specific office, politicians are posturing all the time.  I’m not sure this can be considered a good thing.

It’s true enough, that the US Democrats have been doing this for some time now.  So perhaps the line isn’t as undefined as either of us make it.   Still, I have objections to calling the systems of Britain and Canada a respite from the nonsense that Krauthammer decries here.

As for the wisdom he invokes as regards revealing a certain level of competency, I submit to examples to the contrary; Jimmy Carter, and Bubba Clinton.

As such, I wonder about his comments about the “gratuitous humiliation of our would be Kings ” .  The humiliation offered such, is certainly not in keeping with their lack of service to the country.

John Dowd represented Sen. John McCain in his darkest hour, the “Keating Five” scandal. He supported McCain the first time he ran for president in 2000 and signed up to be a major fundraiser for him in this year’s presidential race. But when former senator Fred D. Thompson began thinking about running, the Washington lawyer changed his mind.

For McCain (Ariz.), who started off as the favorite to win the Republican nomination but now trails former New York mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani in most polls, Dowd’s move signals yet another threat to his struggling campaign. As Thompson (Tenn.) builds his team of major fundraisers such as Dowd, the challenge for McCain will be to collect the millions of dollars necessary to maintain a nationwide campaign and convince Republicans that he is their best bet to retain the White House.

So says Matthew Mosk in today’s Washington Post, under the headline “Defections to Fred Thompson Pose a Major Threat to McCain.”

The attitude reflected in the headline is also reflected in the article.  However, Mosk has this one wrong.  Thompson isn’t a major threat to McCain.  McCain is a major threat to McCain… the single biggest threat, in fact. Thompson is simply being Conservative, which will invariably beat someone like McCain.

Wanna know why Bush won the Republican primary in 2000, and not John McCain?  It’s rather simple; Bush, Liberal has he can be, was by far the preferable choice to conservatives, as compared to John McCain.

This is further confirmed, currently, by Rudy Giuliani, who happens to be leading McCain in the polls by a significant margin at the moment.  Once again, Giuliani as liberal as he is, and has a history of being, is to the right of John McCain.  He is therefore more popular among voters….  And in the race between Thompson and Giuliani, Thompson wins for the same reason.

The lesson here is that, as I have said in these spaces many times previously, there is a genuine hunger for someone in the White House, and in Congress, who actually operates in the realm known as “right of center”.  To the degree that Thompson qualifies, is precisely the degree to which he has gathered a following in this presidential race. Time, I think, has run out for Republicans in name only.
This is not a situation where, as John Dowd suggests in the Mosk article, the central issue is whether are not McCain’s campaign is being run well.  The American people in general, and the Republican rank and file in particular, are not that stupid, so as to follow the best run campaign, IF the best run campaign doesn’t have any conservative substance to it.  They have apparently decided (correctly, I think ) that McCain’s campaign does not in fact of the conservative substance to it.  Indeed, it can be said that the reason McCain’s campaign is failing, is because it reflects the candidate too well.  The McCain campaign doesn’t reflect any conservative substance, because McCain doesn’t have any himself.

Interesting article on Che Guevara, today:

He’s the ultimate symbol of radical chic but was Che Guevara really a homophobic, racist square who personally ordered the jailing and executions of innocent men, women and children?

That’s according to Humberto Fontova, the author of “Exposing the Real Che Guevara and the Useful Idiots Who Idolize Him,” who claims that Guevara probably would have imprisoned or punished most of his celebrity fans, from Johnny Depp to Angelina Jolie.

……

– Twice, Che plotted terrorist attacks against New York City. In November 1962, the FBI cracked a terrorist plot by Cuban agents who targeted Macy’s, Gimbel’s, Bloomingdale’s and Grand Central Terminal. They planned to blow up those landmarks with 12 incendiary devices and 500 kilos of TNT the day after Thanksgiving. Several months before visiting New York in December 1964 and being feted by the toast of the city’s intelligentsia, Che hatched a plan with the Black Liberation Army to blow up the Statue of Liberty, the Liberty Bell and the Washington Monument. The plotters were infiltrated in 1965 by a sharp-eyed NYPD cadet.

I suppose this is a case of trying to impose facts, where mere facts have no pull over the myth… but there it is.

-(Fox)-Power cables and even batteries might become a thing of the past using a new technique that can transmit power wirelessly to cell phones, laptops, MP3 players, household robots and other electronics.

Scientists lit a 60-watt light bulb from a power source seven feet away with their new technique, with no physical connection between the source and the appliance.

First of all, this kind of thing isn’t all that new.  Tesla himself did some experiments with this some years ago.

But, mostly what this reminds me of, is my experience at the various radio stations are worked out over the years.  One of them, was interesting in that the lights in the transmitter room  were never turned off.  Then again, they were never hooked up, either, Being fluorescent two was, which were lit 24 hours a day seven days a week with no wires whatever, simply being powered by the high level (5kw) RF field in the room.

If you read the story, all they’ve succeeded in doing in this case, is limiting the power to a particular frequency.  It still requires radio frequency space to accomplish, and some serious power inefficiencies.  Forgive me if I fail to be impressed.

Mrs. Clinton’s campaign has announced, and thereby accepted, the endorsement on the only impeached congresscritter serving in the House, Alcee Hastings.

Corruption, perjury and impeachment, Hastings’ endorsement of Mrs. Clinton does seem all too appropriate.

Is Barack Obama cutting into Mrs. Clinton’s critical support among blaclk voters?  So it would seem.

More, Don Surber

Here we go again, with this nonsensical “people on the Internet are vicious” routine.  This time the person involved as Brittany Gilbert.  However, I notice Oliver Willis, one of the hangers on from the left, spouting at Insta-Glenn… who by the way, I read perhaps weekly.
In any event, Glenn says:

BRITTNEY GILBERT hangs up her keyboard in response to reader abuse. “I do not want to be seen as a victim here, I only want to honestly tell you why I will no longer be authoring NIT. Your host is simply not cut from strong enough cloth. This is the internet. People are vicious.”

It’s true, they are. But I suspect Brittney will be back, because the addictive nature of blogging is strong, too.

UPDATE: Oliver Willis emails:

You may want to (I know you probably won’t) note that a lot of the vitriol got directed at Gilbert, right or wrong, after she linked and excerpted a mean dig at the recently deceased Steve Gilliard.

But I know you’ve got an agenda and a cause to push and all.

Hmm. I thought this was about the Bob Krumm / Kleinheider dustup. But since Brittney is an antiwar blogger who doesn’t like me very much, I’m not sure what “agenda” and “cause” I’m pushing here. Better email Rove for instructions, I guess!

No doubt, Glenn.

(Glenn gets into this more deeply on his site… I’ve just given you a taste)
I tell you; an entire book could be written about the motivations that drive good old Oliver. But let’s place them on the line, and see where things stand, shall we?

I have long considered Reynolds to be a centerist at best. I have often enough taken him to task for tilting left, as have many other people.  So, I’m not quite sure what Oliver’s got in his mind, either, other than some hallucinogenic or other.
Oliver Willis, on the other hand, is well known for tilting at leftist windmills at every opportunity. anyone who has read his site, or his commentary on sites around the sphere, we’ll know this quite well.  On that basis, and of the two , it must be said that Oliver Willis is the one with the agenda to push.  And unlike Glenn, Oliver is actually getting PAID to tilt at those windmills. Therefore, it seems to me, that any claim Willis may have as regards someone else’s motivation, is immediately suspect.

And let me tell you something, Oliver, since I know you read here, your sure to be forthcoming denials notwithstanding… (site trackers are wonderful things) Gillard is getting far more in the way of respect upon death than did Ronald Reagan, or in another realm, Jerry Falwell, from the left. Yet, I see no complaints from you in those cases.
While we’re on this subject, at what point was I or anyone else required to speak well of someone after they have died, after so many years of being such an anal pore in life? This is a discussion I had with Selwyn Blakely and his survivors, years ago, before your time. That whole thread bottom lines at this:

That someone has died, does not immediately require me or anyone else, to leave the realm of the truth behind. The truth is far more important than the feelings of the dead, or their survivors.  As I said then… I’m neither inclined, nor required to lie about such a person. Nor is Glenn, Brittany, or anyone else.
Moreover, and as to truthfulness, the quote that you cite, uses the man’s own words. The man was a bigot. Always had been.  I’m not going to speak well of people like that, nor should you.  That you do speak well of him, or at least defend him, brings to mind of the question of whether not you qualify as a bigot, as well.  That question is furthered by some of your comments, over the years.

Then again, however, you DO have an agenda to push, don’t you?

Quick, go check for instructions from Soros, before you reply.

John Hawkins gives some details about the death of the Shamnisty bill:

My source told me that he thinks this will kill the bill because the Senate has now voted against cloture 3 times and that means that if they want to bring it back up, they’ll probably have to start from scratch and go through the regular committee process.

Believe me, my friends, when I tell you that going through the committee process pretty much excludes about 90% a what was in this piece of trash.  The problem for the bill’s backers, is the majority of it will stand up to the light of day.

And now, hopefully, neither will they.

Addendum:  (David L)   This was certainly not Dirty Harry Reid’s finest hour.  After moaning about his desire to legalize twelve milliion illegals, and his commitment to get an amnesty bill passed, Reid pulls the bill.  Nicole Gaouette and Maura Reynolds, LA Times:

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) immediately announced that he would pull the bill from consideration and move on to energy legislation. But he left open the possibility that lawmakers could still reach a decision on immigration legislation and called on Bush to do more to help.

“Even though I’m disappointed, I look forward to passing this bill,” Reid said after the vote. “There are ways we can do this. There’s lots of support for this bill on the outside; the problem was on the inside of this chamber.

“We are committed to immigration reform. We believe the country needs it,” Reid said. “Let’s have President Bush work with us on this.”

What the nation needs is not amnesty, a.k.a. comprehensive immigration reform, what we need is border securty.  The democrat, Byron Dorgan, who did as much to kill the bill as any democrat understands.   Allahpundit, Hot Air, has the video.  Dorgan get long winded, but stays calm and makes sense.   Lindsey Graham and John McCain would well advised to do likewise.

Dorgan is right.  Fix the border first, stop the flow of new illegals, before attempting to legalize the old ones, also callled putting the horse before the cart.

I was in meetings, most of the day, and apparently quite a bit happened whilst I was busy;

* Apparently, the Senate has started to react to the negative reaction on the supposed immigration bill bill.  It is essentially a dead letter, at this point.  But of course, senate majority leader Harry Reid, was quick to spin this bill’s failure as the fault of George W. Bush.

Actually, in this case he may have a point.  Not quite that way, though.

I’m going to toss out some idle speculation here;

GWB is already a lame duck. he has nothing to lose, politically.  Whereas the Democrats have quite a bit to lose.  In the end, Bush cannot really be damaged by any negative outcome, here.  The democrats however and the Republicans in Name Only, many of whom have been quite loud in supporting this bill, can in fact be damaged, and I suggest have been damaged very seriously.  The American people are going to remember who backed this monstrosity when the time comes.

Is it possible that what we’re looking at is a move designed to flush such people out of the shadows and into the harsh light of political reality, prior to ’08? With lots of noise being made about the tarring and feathering of anyone who spoke up in support of this bill, and certainly anyone who voted for it from the rank and file of both parties, I would suggest that if that was a designed play, it could hardly have been played better.
OK, perhaps it’s a stretch.  On the other hand, an awful lot of people have repeatedly underestimated GWB and his people. Can this be another such occasion?

* They found Kelsey Smith, and arrested her killer.As I gather from various sources, this guy is married, has a kid, still has a wife, or at least did, go as I gather in the house is in foreclosure.  And there’s another missing girl in the neighborhood.  Same age.  Pretty much the same situation.

On that topic, Billy, I have to tell you, at least part of this is a perception thing.  Consider; is the number of these incidents going up, or is it the number of the incidents reported going up?  I would also suggest, that the long view of history suggests that such things occur on a percentage basis.  We have far more people in the world than we did even twenty years ago.  On that basis this kind of crime is going to go up.  Given the media centric world in which we live, it’s going to be more faithfully and sensationally reported.  Pass that, I have no real argument with you.  Indeed, your fears for the children are truly justified.  The fear, here, is that perception which says this kind of evil is more commonplace, and thereby in some weird way, more acceptable than it used to be.  At which point, we will see an increase in this crime in terms of a per capita percentage.

* Rosie O’Donnel may have a show at NBC. according to reports that I’m seeing, then Silverman the new programming chief over there, is apparently willing to pay big bucks to have her on. Apparently, he has an even talk to are yet, but he’s already publicly saying the woman would have free rein, to spout off any way she wanted to.  Idle speculation, again; Is there a financial connection between been Silverman, and George Soros?

* I see where a Federal judge has frozen the assets of William Jefferson the Louisiana democrat who apparently thought era in a corner on that market.  (That’s a line that’s just too rich to pass up)

* I notice where Time magazine’s columnist Joe Klein is catching hell from the far left.  Well, gee, who could’ve predicted that? I mean, besides, me.  I told you people repeatedly over the years, then anyone not in lockstep with the far left would be considered the enemy.  And so they are.  Klein is just starting to figure this out, apparently.  Welcome to the club, Joe, the one we’ve been dealing with for quite some time now.  Isn’t it amazing how abuse of the far left can get?
Of course, Klein himself engages in a little free range lunacy too, when he starts talking about how Bush has been engaging in “lethal radicalism”.  Pot to Kettle, I think.  Still, give him credit for having a large enough pair to call the free range lunacy from the DU and the Kos kids, what it is.

I see also where Bruce at Q&O is noticing this, as well.

In fact what the leftosphere does it does all by itself. It is the dominant culture of that side of the blogosophere and it has grown from the activist mentality it brought to the net. It isn’t aping anyone or anything. This isn’t about what the right has done or not done, Joe. This is about what the left is, at least in this domain. And pretending they’re attempting to ape anyone is really rather insulting to them. Why is the leftosphere like it is?

They are like that, Bruce, for one reason, and one reason only; because that’s what the left is.  The problem here is not that the radical left end of the sphere is not representing the left well, the problem is that they are representing the left well.  The bullying, the moral vacuum they operate in, the lack of common sense, all of it.  All of it is part and parcel of what the left has become over the last 40 years.

Enough; I’ve got some code to write, tonight.

It’s easy to see why Al gore’s [sic] movie should not be shown in schools. An Inconvenient Truth is a political commercial that misrepresents a whole area of science.

Kristen Byrnes, age fifteen, via Sister Toldjah.   A high school student can figure out Al Gore’s con game.   Is the media that stupid?

I don’t know…

BBCT to an unnamed reader, feedbacking last nights’ comments.

Update/Breaking: TMZ is now confirming she’s out.

Well, that figures.  Originally sentenced to 45 days in jail, sentence reduced to 23, she’s released after having served three days, or actually, a little less.  Is there any question why the criminal justice system isn’t being taken seriously anymore?

Apparently, they’re supposed to be a news conference a little later this morning, being held by the L.A. county Sheriff’s department.

I don’t know about you, but frankly I am disgusted with a whole situation.

President George W. Bush has had the shear audacity to nominate for surgeon general a canidate who challenges the liberal mantra that homosexual behavior ought to treated as if it were normal.  Jake Tapper reports for ABC.

President Bush’s nominee for surgeon general, Dr. James W. Holsinger Jr., wrote a paper in 1991 that purported to make the medical argument that homosexuality is unnatural and unhealthy. Doctors who reviewed the paper derided it as prioritizing political ideology over science, and Democratic aides on Capitol Hill say the paper will make his confirmation hearings problematic

Holsinger has described male and female genitalia  as ‘complimentary.”  Imagine that.  

Billy:

I know that feeling.

For what it’s worth.