Wyoming Sen. Craig Thomas RIP, Age 74

WASHINGTON —AP- Wyoming Sen. Craig Thomas, a three-term conservative Republican who stayed clear of the Washington limelight and political catfights, died Monday. He was 74.

The senator’s family issued a statement saying he died Monday evening at National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md. He had been receiving chemotherapy for acute myeloid leukemia.

William Jefferson(D-LA) has been indited on sixteen counts of ccrruption.  Don Suber says dump the presumption of innocence and prepare the jail cell.

Congressman headed for the cooler
Democratic Congressman William “the Refrigerator” Jefferson of Louisiana finally faces 16 charges of being a crook — nearly 2 years after the FBI found $90,000 in cold cash in his freezer.

[…]

As with Republican Duke Cunningham, Republican Bob Ney and Democrat Jim Traficant — and hundreds more like them — I always give the politician the presumption of guilt in a federal case. The reason is all indictments of elected officials must be cleared by the Office of Public Integrity.

What say you, Mrs. Pelosi?

Addendum:(Bit)

Jerome Armstrong over at My Demented Democrats  whines:

Democrats really screwed up by not dealing with Jefferson during the last cycle, because the perception that is created now, is potentially one of hypocrisy. In 2006, they ran against the Culture of Corruption that was among the Republican ranks, and Jefferson too was among the corrupt. The Democrats won power, and now one of their own on on federal charges of racketeering, soliciting bribes and money laundering.

“Potentially one of hypocrisy” ?   I wanna be the one playing poker with this guy.  Here’s somebody you just know wouldn’t bet long if he had four aces an a king in his hand. Potentially?  Good Lord.
The reason that they didn’t go after Jefferson in the first place, is because they thought they could get away with it.  It’s that simple, and that direct. That would also be the explanation for why we didn’t hear anybody from the left the blogs distancing themselves from the man.
Some others commenting:  The Strata-Sphere, QandO, TPMmuckraker, The Jawa Report, Wizbang, Pajamas Media

Steve Gilbert, Sweetness & Light, has a great photo esssay of urban warfare in Germany:

ROSTOCK, Germany (AFP)

An estimated 100,000 protestors from anti-globalisation and anti-war groups will gather in this northeastern German port on Saturday to show their opposition to next week’s G8 summit.

An estimated 100,000 protestors from anti-globalisation and anti-war groups will gather in this northeastern German port on Saturday to show their opposition to next week’s G8 summit.

As Steve quips: “The peaceniks can’t control their own thugs. Yet they think they should run the world.”  

Warfare consists of killing people and breaking things.   The peaceniks are hellbent on breaking things, but have not resorted to killing people, yet.   You can debate the cause for whch the peaceniks are fighting.   It sure isn’t peace.

?

MANCHESTER, New Hampshire (CNN ) – Columnist and author Eric Alterman was arrested Sunday night inside the debate spin room and charged with criminal trespass after police say he refused repeated orders to leave.

Here’s to the cop doing the arresting.  I’ll open a beer in your honor.

A Polish man emerges from a nineteen year coma to find himself living in strange new world:

WARSAW, Poland (Reuters) — A 65-year-old railwayman who fell into a coma following an accident in communist Poland regained consciousness 19 years later to find democracy and a market economy, Polish media reported on Saturday.

A win for the Gipper.

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Once a Clinton stooge, always a Clinton stooge.

On ABC’s ,This Week, George Stephanopoulos, got bamboozled by an idiot, John Murtha. video here.   Hint George, the Nine-Eleven hijacker came from Saudi Arabia.

Noel Sheppard, NewsBusters, elaboratesL

Sadly, Stephanopoulos didn’t challenge Murtha about al Qaeda having a training facility in Northern Iraq before the March 2003 invasion. Nor did he ask the Congressman about 9/11 attackers hailing from Saudi Arabia. And, there was no mention of the 2000 attack on the U.S.S. Cole, or the attacks on the U.S. embassies in Africa in 1998, or the Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia in 1996, or the first World Trade Center bombing in 1993.

As does, Allahpundit, Hot Air:

Never mind that FBI wiretaps caught Russell Defreitas, the lead suspect, complaining about Israel’s war with Hezbollah, not Iraq. Never mind that Gadahn went out of his way in his latest tape to deny that the war in Iraq plays any central role in jihadist grievances (“[L]et us be clear. A pull-out from Iraq alone in the absence of compliance with the remainder of our legitimate demands will get you nowhere and will not save you from our strikes.”). And never mind that the 9/11 plot which Murtha claims came “from Afghanistan” didn’t involve any actual people who were, you know, from Afghanistan.

Is asking too much for a weekend news show host to be smarter than a dotard?  Evidently.

(H/T photo: Fairpress )

Will Chris Dodd fire this blogger? Ace has details

“LOS ANGELES, Calif. (Reuters) -: An aspiring physicist was sentenced to more than eight years in prison on Monday and ordered to pay $3.5
million for his role in a spree of arson and vandalism that targeted gas-guzzling Hummers and other sports utility vehicles. “

This amounts to a slap on the wrist.

I’ve an idea. Let’s put this clown into one of the thimbles he expects everyone else to drive. Then, let’s put said thimble in a line of junk cars at a monster truck show… with him inside it. I’m willing to bet lot of people would come to see and cheer on the trucks.

And, no my friends, I’m not backing off this one. If you think what I propose is violent, I suggest it’s mild in comparison to the deaths he proposes for literally millions of American drivers…. and as such I would propose the same for ANY idiot complaining on the topic of what others drive. And all of that says nothing of the kind of deaths he could have caused with the stunt he pulled.

You want to exchange your life for a few gallons of gas? Fine. You do that. Be proud of yourself for your environmental accomplishment, right up to the part where you die horribly… crushed beyond identification because your toy car has no structural stregnth to speak of.

Just don’t expect me to be as stupid as you are.

Mrs. Pelosi promsed to drain the republican swamp.  Mrs. Pelosi lied.  Rather than draining the congressional swamp, Mrs Pelosi is infesting it. Andrew Taylor, Associated Press, reports on Mrs. Pelosi’s lastest infestation:

After promising unprecedented openness regarding Congress’ pork barrel practices, House Democrats are moving in the opposite direction as they draw up spending bills for the upcoming budget year.

[…]

Rather than including specific pet projects, grants and contracts in legislation as it is being written, Democrats are following an order by the House Appropriations Committee chairman to keep the bills free of such earmarks until it is too late for critics to effectively challenge them.

Rather than making goverment more open and more accountable, Mrs. Pelosi is removing the People’s voice from the Peoples’ House.  Shame.

* The oil companies are making on the order of 8¢ a gallon for gasoline. Meanwhile, the smallest tax on a gallon of gasoline comes up to 27¢, that being in the state of Alaska. Here in New York, it is somewhere in the neighborhood of 60¢ a gallon. Again, the oil companies are actually producing the stuff, and making 8 cents per gallon. The government’s response to this inequitable situation?  They penalize the oil companies for “price gouging”.  Make sense to you?

* I stopped following baseball, some years ago, after the second strike.  The players union killed that game for me.  So it is that I have only been peripherally aware of Barry Bonds attack on Hank Aaron’s home run record.  Frankly, it annoys me.

(TH Kelly Editorial Drawing… you should check the site out… nice work… Bit)

Let’s be honest, here; The only reason that Barry Bonds is still alive, is it because it’s illegal to kill him.

OK, before you get started… No… I’m not suggesting that anyone should take that action. Then again, I don’t need to.  His teammates, would have done that a long time ago, had the situation been otherwise. Indeed, more than once I’ve heard reference to the story of his college team voting him off the team, which was then superseded by the coach.

Here’s a guy who even without the drugs, is approximately as popular as the parking spot next to the honey dumper.  ABout half of this is anger over what he’s done to the game, and the other half is his personality, or lack thereof.

Even with personality issues aside, what can be said about the validity of the record that will stand after he succeeds in getting past Hank Aaron?  The only reason he’s managed to get as far as he has, is because of his chemistry set.

And I’m willing to bet, that he considers this kind of talk persecution of him.  I’m even willing to bet that there are those who will read this, who will consider my comments racist.  (Ignoring, of course, that Hank Aaron is Black too. )
Here it is, gang; Baseball heroes, are such because they manage to outperform everyone else, while still following the rules.  Bonds simply doesn’t qualify.

Think, now; Do you know of two sober people on the face of the planet who think Bonds actually followed the rules to get himself this far?  I don’t.

If MLB has any smarts whatsoever, which I doubt, they will find some way to disqualify Barry Bonds.  They should do so, very quickly indeed.  I’m telling you; Major League Baseball, hailing the “accomplishment” of Bonds, will be the final nail in the coffin of the game.  What few people who still care, won’t, any more.

* In my perusal of the web to provide me with fodder for this column, for the last several months, I have invariably run across stories as regards Nicole Ritchie, Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan, Paula Abdul, and so on and so on.

Apparently, watching people who have been literally handed everything in their lives (Rich, famous, good enough looking to prevent people retching in the isles) throw all of that away, has become something of a national sport. (Apparently, this is the replacement for baseball?)

This is not to defend these individuals from their actions, but at what point did this stuff become commonplace?  At what point did this kind of dirt digging become acceptable?  Years ago, we used to spend at least as much time on positive role models, in our entertainment news.  Can anybody say that what we have now is an improvement?

* Opie and Anthony are not making headlines anymore. Neither is Don Imus.  Did you notice?  No? Well, guess what? Neither did most of the rest of America. Perhaps they’re just not that important, after all?
* Did you know that month before last, tax revenue collections at the Federal level have reached an all time high?

This is despite the fact of the supposedly irresponsible tax cuts signed into law by President Bush a few years ago.  Indeed, specifically because of those tax cuts, are the revenues are up.

So when you hear the Democrats pondering massive tax increases, as they are now, you should be able to label it as the tripe it is.

Right?

Well, YOU, perhaps. You’re smart enough to be reading this. The rest of America?  I’m not so sure.

Congress has apparently forgotten the ‘Seventies.  Well I have not.  Maybe the public needs a little reminder? 

David Ivanovich, Houston Chronicle, writes of the domestic oil industry media effort to remind voters of h0w stupid Congress was in the ‘Seventies and how long the lines were at the gas station.

“Remember the ’70s?” an actor intones in the velvety-smooth voice of an oldies DJ, as R&B instrumental music plays in the background. “Mood rings … disco … bad hair … synthetic clothing … and long lines at the gas station.”

Price controls and windfall profits taxes only worked in the ‘Seventies to make life miserable for motorists.   Yet Congress, which seems to have no instiutional memory, seems all too eager to reimpose the same failed solutions, yet again.  Click here to see full sized image.

Noted in passing:

That Dutch TV show about the dying woman with the kidney she was trying to  select someone to receive as if it was some kind of game show? It’s all a hoax.

Personally, I had always thought that sounded a little too sick to be a real.  There was something about it that simply did not up, which is why I didn’t comment on much of it here.  Or, come to think of it, at all; I don’t think I did, now that I consider it.

Anyway, The whole thing was apparently designed for the purpose of highlighting the lack of appropriate organ donors. Apparently, Chinese prisoners cannot be depended upon for everything.
Captain’s Quarters,  (Ed has a rather pronouned interest in such matters, given the health issues his wife has been going through)  and Q&O both have comments.

Ed says:

I share the hope of the producers that this will convince more people to donate their organs for transplant.

It might, but I doubt it.  The negative connotations here, are just too great.

I must say, that the comparisons between the situation and that of “global warming” are too close to ignore.  The difference is, in this case the producers finally admitted it was all a scam.   One wonders what pressures would have to be brought to the followers of Al Gore, to get them to admit it.

Fox news is chasing this one:

NEW YORK — Three people were arrested and one was being sought in connection to a plan to set off explosives in a fuel line that feeds John F. Kennedy International Airport and runs through residential neighborhoods, officials close to the investigation said.

The plot, which never got past the planning stages, did not involve airplanes or passenger terminals, according to the two officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because details of the arrests had not yet been announced.

A senior law enforcement official told FOX News that of the three arrests, one was in New York and two were in Trinidad. The New York suspect was identified as Russell Defreitas, a former JFK employee who allegedly planned to attack the airport’s fuel supply because he thought he could do more damage than attacking a passenger terminal. Afreitas is a Muslim U.S. citizen from Guyana.

Defrietas predicted the attacks would destroy “the whole of Kennedy,” according to an FBI press release, and that only a few people would survive the attack.

There was no comment from John Edwards, who recently assured us that such threats were “Overblown”. Perhaps he thought they were talking about his hair.

Also commenting:The Strata-Sphere, QandO, Little Green Footballs, Hot Air, Captain’s Quarters, Talking Points Memo, theneweditor.com Don Surber protein wisdom The Newshoggers, PoliBlog (TM), Counterterrorism Blog Hullabaloo Michelle Malkin

In short, about everyone.

Addendum: 

Except, of course the leftie blogs. LGF has some details. 

Let’s talk about racism.

Let’s talk about xenophobia.

Talk about liberals.

Just so you know, we’re talking about the same thing all three subjects.

We can deport 12 million people; it’s the will that’s lacking.

Don Surber, who has sixteen more of these gems.