Nightly Ramble:Passport, Edwards (What Else?) New Tolkien, Captions, Anger in History And More.

The Music: Passport, Looking Thru, 1974, (CD release, 1994.  )

Hailing from Germany, they were Germany’s best progressive jazz group, back in the day.  I have something of a personal history with this album, it got used quite a bit at a radio station that I worked at about the time it came out.

If you like jazz rock fusion, with some early electronics thrown into the mix, along with some flat out fabulous playing, this is a good one to have.  It’d be a great sample disk, as well, lots of interesting licks on it.

Recommended.

* I’ve been remarking for the last couple days, as regards John Edwards, And what I’d take to be a sympathy ploy.  Whatever else you take from this post tonight, take this: the ploy is working.  I doubt there was a talk show in the nation this morning, and during the day, that wasn’t at least mentioning them.  Good lord, do you realize how much money it would cost any campaign to get that kind of buzz going?  The don’t think for one hot second that the value of all of that, was lost on Edwards and his people.

And, as I said in the comments, yesterday, assuming John Edwards should attain the White House, Elizabeth Edwards is going to undergo a miracle recovery, which will stump the doctors. But I will guarantee you the press will NEVER question it.

* I see Christopher Tolkien has completed The Children of Húrin, and it will be in publication officially as of the seventeenth of April.  It will be interesting to see what he’s come up with.

* Both first place and honorable mention to yours truly, this time around, at the OTB caption contest. Sometimes those things just set me off.  This was one such occasion.

* I find it amusing, that so many people as suddenly discovered the subject of the anger, when I’ve already written on the point at the beginning of this month.Certainly, that I wrote on the subject first doesn’t invalidate the other comments, but it’s interesting to be at the front of the parade for change.

* Scott Ott over at Scrappleface comes up with a real gem of an idea, today… the idea, here, it is to trade the fifteen British sailors is currently in a rainy in captivity for peanut brained Jimmy Carter.  Ott suggests that only one party would get anything of value, there. He’s right, by the way…. there is a certain amount of poetic justice to this one.

* Hume, tonight:

The New York Times Magazine published a false story on March 18 about a woman who claimed to have sustained a brain injury during military service in Iraq and to have been raped twice while in the Navy.

But the Navy says it warned the magazine that Amorita Randall may not have even been in Iraq — before the story was printed — a warning the Times disputes.

The Navy says it established that the woman had never been in Iraq on March 12 — six days before the story’s Sunday release.

The Times could have pulled the magazine, which had been printed, or at least put a correction in the news section of the paper. It could have changed the online version of the article. It did none of those things. Instead readers had to wait until yesterday — a full week after the story came out — to learn the truth.

The magazine wrote: “It is now clear that Ms. Randall did not serve in Iraq, but may have become convinced she did. If the Times had learned these facts before publication, it would not have included Ms. Randall in the article.”

Go ahead.  Ask me again why I don’t trust the New York Times.

* Ace points out a list of the 100 worst reviewed movies, over at “Rotten tomatoes”. surprisingly enough I haven’t seen a darn one of these.  I noticed that “Rollerball” was listed… but it was the remake, not the original.  So I got away with that one, I guess.  Other than that …. not a one.  Maybe it’s because I don’t go in for the horror genre of film, where so many of the really stoopid stuf seems to be.

* This is my obligatory Anna Nicole Smith remark: she pulled an Elvis.

* I see the U.S. capitol police arrested an aide to senator Jim Webb who attempted to enter the senate office building carrying a loaded pistol and two fully loaded magazines that belong to Webb. I’ll bet he will continue to fight against second amendment rights.  And it would be a really nifty if someone could come up with a quote of his as regards the court case against handguns in DC. And nobody press or in the Democrat leadership, will see the contradiction.

How did Sara Wheeler become a pariah to the Atlanta homosexual population and ostricized from coast to coast?

One she dared to be mother first and advocate for the best interests of her chlld.   Two, she dared to suggest that homosexaulity was not inate.

Greg Bluestein, Associated Press:

ATLANTA – Sara Wheeler’s life has become a contradiction. Once a proud lesbian, she’s now a pariah in the gay community. Once in a committed relationship with a female partner, she’s rethinking her sexuality.

Putting the best interest of  your child first, is most basic of human instincts.   Yet it is stranglely alien to some politcal blocs.

Maybe Timothy Wayne Shepherd should have called Tyler Florence?

HOUSTON — For at least two days, neighbours at a city apartment complex noticed an acrid aroma, black smoke and leaping flames coming from two barbecue grills on the balcony of a second-floor apartment.

?

Chuck Hagel floated the I-word yesterday during his appearance on ABC’s “This Week”. He warned that George Bush could face impeachment unless he adopted a policy on Iraq more to the liking of Congress. Hagel, who wants to run for the Republican nomination for President in 2008, has apparently learned the word impeachment in some other resource than the Constitution

 Ed Morrissey, Captain’s Quarters.

*The Music: Simon and Garfunkel; Bookends.(1968) No particular reason…. It happened to come up in rotation, in Winamp.

I’ve always considered this one to be their best album.  Certainly “Bridge over troubled water” was probably the runner up. 66’s “Parsley Sage Rosemary and Thyme” had more songs you’ll remember, I suppose, and might even sing along with.  But this one is a full album, and can’t easily be broken up into singles without losing the intended effect. Also, like the Moodies, the sound tends to be somewhat bombastic at times and over the top.  Yet, this album pulls it off, without beinga complete turn-off for the listener.  In a lot of ways, it was as good a concept album as anything the Moody Blues ever turned out.

Roy Halee, far as I can hear, was about half this album. There are artist / producer, combinations that simply work…. work so well in fact that without THAT producer, the artist loses a signiture sound.  The aforementioned Moodies and Tony Clarke, are one such in my view. The Beatles and George Martin, is another. The Association, The Turtles, and the Mama’s and the Papas, and Bones Howe.

Perhaps what tied it all together into a concept was the attitude displayed.  one thing that brings that attitude across, is the production values involved. The music and the lyrics, powerful as they are in terms of imparting the overall sense of loss that this album brings on, would not be possible without the producers touch.  Intangible perhaps, but insurmountable.

I have the original version of the album here, on vinyl, as well as on CD.  I gather that there was a reissue about six years ago that was simply outstanding.  Apparently the remastering is superb, by all accounts.

* Cosh has managed to re-appear. Good; I was starting to wonder, but didn’t want to comment for fear of starting something viral on the subject.

* It’s a spring day up here.  About 55 outside, and nice sunshine. A good day to get the truck cleaned out. Of course we have the new car to worry about, too.

*Yesterday was nice, too. We did a road trip, as I said, and gave the car it’s first real road-trip shakedown.  It really is a nice little car, getting about 35 to the gallon on the road, and a little closer to twenty around town.  Quite acceptable.  And boy, will that thing SCOOT. It’s serious over -torques the front tires on a full throttle start, so you have to play some serious traction games to get the thing going.  Once you get it out of the hole, the 30 to 70 times are probably among the best I’ve ever seen in the class.  You can get yourself into some serious trouble with this thing in a real hurry if you don’t watch yourself.

* Two destinations on the road trip the nearby Iroquois wildlife reservation, and Frontier Rail Yard, just outside Buffalo.

Iroquois was something of a disappointment; it rained like you would not believe, and likely scared all the birds away that we gonna see.  We did manage to see one heron flying right alongside the car.  I clocked him at about 45.  Here’s a shot of the swamp, as we waited for further developments that never came.  You can drill these pics if you like for the full res shot.
After a while, we gave up there, and headed west out 33 to Frontier yard.  Frontier, as you may or may not know, is the main rail operation for CSX in the western end of new York state.  They run about 200 trains a day through this operation not counting local runs.  I’ll pass along a few of the more interesting shops that we managed to take.  This one, for example, of a Wisconsin Central unit.  It’s WC3027. This one is kind of rare, because WC hasn’t been in business as such for a few years now, having been bought up by Canadian National Railways, who was looking for inroads to the Chicago area at the time. You’ll notice the CN unit it’s MU’d to, if you look closely. Sorry for how grainy this one is, it was at the extreme range of my cameras ability, and I had to turn the electronic zoom on, as well as the mechanical.  Those white squares that you see on the side, are actually flag stickers.  Flags from all over the world, in fact.

This particular afternoon would bring us a couple of additional treats. Aside from all the strictly freight stuff, we saw some power moves, such as Amtrak 810, caught in the unlikely position of being in a heavy freight train. 810 is something of a hard luck unit, having been reportedly in several accidents, and having some serious computer problems… the latter of which is not unusual for a first generation unit of a given design. 810 was one of the first P40 Genesis units produced by GE for Amtrak. The unit was dead in tow.

Another short wait, and we saw yet another passenger engine dead in tow, only this one was freshly shopped and looking quite good indeed…  It was Metro North’s 4903, an F40PH. This thing shone like a new car, though the lighting doesn’t show it very well.

This spot is popular with local railfans because CSX now, and Conrail and the NYC before them, all use(d) this spot for crew changes.  Not only does this mean shutterbugs get closeup shots that they actually have time to set up, but they alsoget to see a little drama as the trains start from a dead stop. Basic physics apply here… a mile long or longer train, being pulled by a few steel wheels on steel rails. It’s a wonder they move at all, given the limited traction.

The drama in this case was made all the more potent by the dead weight in the third position.  It took all 7000 horsepower and some skill to get this thing moving, as you see in this going-away shot. The smoke behind the second unit is a little unusual, these days.

* I see Jonah Goldberg, properly taking issue with Peter Beinart , In a time of it where the latter argues that the democrats in Congress ought to “go for it” meaning, that they should pull out all the stops in trying to end the Iraq war now, regardless of consequences. Beinart Says there were no consequences to speak up for the democrats in their opposition to the Vietnam War.  And that given the passage of time and other factors they are less likely to pay for ending the war in Iraq prematurely.  Goldberg, however, has a handle on the situation;

….even if you agree to his argument that Vietnam didn’t hurt the Democrats in the 1970s (I think there’s a debate to be had and — hey! — we just may have it) (it) certainly hurt the Democrats in the 1980s. Reagan’s popularity stemmed in large part from his ability to defeat the Vietnam syndrome. Clinton would never have been elected in 1992 with his Vietnam record if the Cold War hadn’t been over, and even then it was a tough haul. The war on terror won’t be over any time soon, so they can’t rely on a political peace dividend the way Clinton did in 1992. And the Democrats seem to be working overtime to make their foreign policy stance as indecipherable as possible. Peter sees nuance. It’s not clear to me average Americans will.

So into the mix comes Beldar, who says:

I’m not sure what I think about the ultimate issue they’re debating, but on the specific issue of whether the Vietnam experience was, overall, something that hurt the Democrats, I find myself in disgusted agreement with Mr. Beinart — and in fact, I’d go farther than he does, and argue that the Democratic Party never paid a serious political price over Vietnam at any time.

While I agree, that the Democrats have never paid nearly enough of a price for what they did to us and to the Vietnamese in the seventies, (they should have been jailed, at least) the price they paid was not inconsequential. The aftermath of Vietnam, and the situation in Iran, and the Democrat attitude about each, cost them Jimmy Carter’s second term. (Thank God for small favors) Indeed, Goldberg’s point about Clinton is well taken… there’s another disaster we’d not have suffered as a nation, had the lesson of ‘nam been taught. The Democrats would not have been taken seriously by the electorate for several generations.
For all that my disagreement with Beldar on this point is very real, he does say something very important here, that I want a pass on tonight.

Right now, though, I don’t care much about whether either party pays a political price. Instead, I’m worried about the consequences for our nation, and the world, if in the current debate about Iraq, Americans fail to consider properly what happened as a result of the American abandonment of South Vietnam in 1973-1975. I’m worried about the price we’ll all end up paying if we cannot overcome our national amnesia on that subject.

The one problem that I have with this statement is that had the Democrats actually paid the proper price, for what they did to us and the Vietnamese back in the seventies, there wouldn’t be all these questions about Iraq, now.  We would have fought to victory without all the argument, had the lesson of Vietnam truly been learned.

Billy mentions this morning the compact fluorescent lamp.  I went to some length on this subject, several days ago, sometime around the beginning of the month. One topic I didn’t get into, with regards to those units (old habit, I still call them lighting units) is the color they generate.  Billy, understandably, doesn’t like them for that reason.  He’s a lighting technician; I would expect that kind perfectionism of a professional, Particularly one who apparently knows his stuff as Billy seems to.  (Sadly, I’ve never seen the man’s work)

That said, there are CFL’s and CFL’s so far as color goes. I found that the color output of such units is anything but consistent, brand to brand and apparently, from production run to production run, for that matter.  I have one over my desk, here, that actually works quite well as far as color goes.  Surprisingly enough it doesn’t get into arguments with my CRT’s either, as regular commercial fluorescent lights have a tendency to do.  The CFL it replaced, tended toward the blue side, and had a flicker on it that made one think they were watching old- time movie.

With those two examples in mind, it would seem that the problems that he’s mentioning are not universal; and as such I wonder if the eventually such problems couldn’t be dealt with technologically.  I don’t know, but it strikes me that we’re possibly dealing with the arguments that the soldering irons and hum- heads had years ago, between digital and analog audio.

Afterthought:(Bit) At least, if the technology improves as seems possible, what the argument would be raised, to, anyway. I should have mentioned, the color quality on the majority of what I see today, is garbage.  Given that I see the occasional one slipping through that really isn’t all that bad, it seems possible to create them all that way, from a technological standpoint.  But, they’re not there yet.

The Nose on Your Face is repoting what must be the joke of the day. 

Former President Jimmy Carter has stepped forward and offered to mediate the escalating crisis between Iran and Britain over 15 British marines seized by Iran for allegedly entering their territorial waters.

“As everyone knows, I have tremendous hands-on experience in handling a crisis of this nature,” said Carter, who spoke briefly to reporters during a break from building a house for former Guantanamo Bay prisoners. “And I understand the Iranians. The manner in which you negotiate with them is highly dependent on the specifics of the issue. And in this case, where their sovereignty has been violated by tea-loving imperialists, a deft touch is critical.”

I offer four hundred forty-four reasons to tell Carter to take long walk off of a short pier.  

On November 4, 1979, Iranian militants stormed the United States Embassy in Tehran and took approximately seventy Americans captive. This terrorist act triggered the most profound crisis of the Carter presidency and began a personal ordeal for Jimmy Carter and the American people that lasted 444 days.  

Has there ever been a man more arrogant than Carter for less reason?   I’d think not.  Carter failed as president and now he is failing as a former president.

The Washington Post needs take time to actually read the Constitution of the United States.

WASHINGTONIANS probably could live with Republicans’ sabotaging their latest chance at congressional representation; that’s nothing new. More galling are those Republicans too gutless to admit their true position.

So how did the republican derail the plan to give DC a congressional vote?  The republicans proposed that the District ban on handguns be lifted.

WASHINGTON – Utah’s efforts to get a fourth congressional seat were waylaid Thursday when Republican critics pulled a procedural move to make the debate about gun rights instead of voting rights.
    The legislation is primarily designed to give the nearly 600,000 residents of the District of Columbia their first full-voting member of Congress and is paired with Republican-dominated Utah to balance a likely Democratic district member.
    Momentum of the bill was halted, though, when critics of the legislation tried to send it back to committee with instructions that it be amended to get rid of the district’s long-standing ban on handguns.

The citizens of the District of Columbia have no constiitution right to congressional representation.   Amendment XIV, Section 2:

Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for President and Vice-President of the United States, Representatives in Congress, the Executive and Judicial officers of a State, or the members of the Legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such State, being twenty-one years of age,* and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion, or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such State.

The District is not a state.   No representation.  On the other hand, the residents of the district are People of the United States:   Amendment II:

A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

The WaPo demands that residents of the District of Columbia be given a right they do not have, representation in Congress, yet be denied their constitutional right to keep and bear arms.   The WaPo invents the right of the ballot while denying the right of the bullet.

Rush Limbaugh is the king of talk radio because he dares give voice to what others just suspect:   Media Matters is attributing this to Limbaugh:

LIMBAUGH: Interesting point. Now, let me say something else that might be accused of cynicism: What is their religion? I don’t doubt they’re religious people, but, we talked about this. Political people are different than you and I. And, you know, most people when told a family member’s been diagnosed with the kind of cancer Elizabeth Edwards has, they turn to God. The Edwards turned to the campaign.

If true, bully for Rush.  Media Matter is also atttributing this to Keith Olbermann:

Do you suppose, sir, you could summon the decency to delay injecting your cynical venom into this woman’s illness until just the day after? I mean, maybe that decency comes in pill form. Rush Limbaugh, today’s Worst Person in the World.

So how many people has Limbaugh killed?  As for as I know, zero.   The is no rational moral basis which would deem Rush Limbaugh the worst person in the World.   Limbaugh may be loud, a braggart, and who knows what else.   Yet Limbaugh has never killed anybody.   If Olbermann thinks Limbaugh is worse than a murderer, Olbermann is truely insane.   Then, I am stating the obvious.

Road trip today, and I don’t know when I’ll be back tonight, so, I’ll post this a bit early, today:

The Music: Lighthouse: One Fine Morning, 1971

This was their fourth album, released in July of 1971.  Their first three efforts for RCA, where, frankly, disappointing… particularly their first one.  RCA is ability to handle rock acts at the time was to say the least limited.  Then, too, was the addition of vocalist Bob McBride.  McBride had a sound not unlike that of David Clayton Thomas of Blood Sweat and Tears, whose best album I also recently posted in a Ramble.

.
In this case, now that they were away from RCA, the production values were actually quite good.. to the point where they actually strained the limits of the vinyl analog medium at the time. I’ll tell you point blank, that it’s a hard song to duplicate over to cassette… I HF saturation being what it is on that medium.

There were a number of different mixes of the title tune, “One Fine Morning” out there… plus two single mixes that I’m aware of, and one slightly less bright mix for CDs that were released later.  After hearing the original (on the Evolution Label, pressing 3007) these others just sound, well, wrong. That 3007 version still takes my breath away, 35 years after first hearing it, for the sheer power of it.

One could hardly live in Rochester, or anywhere in upstate New York, Michigan, Ohio, or for that matter anywhere within shouting distance of Toronto, where they were from, without hearing this town.  Given Canadian content laws, and the fact that the record itself was hotter than hell of the time, it was all over play lists of the big top 40’s in southern Canada such as 1050/CHUM and the Big 8, CKLW, and so on. Those two I mentioned, were both 50kw burners at the time… And were by virtue of that, play list leaders for the entire region.

.
I managed to catch Lighthouse live, just after this album came out, when they played here at Rochester at an outdoor concert. in doing so, one could easily understand why they continued to be popular despite the first three albums.  Their live performances were nothing short of spectacular.

This particular album, I fear, it is hard to find any more.  Amazon doesn’t even have it listed , showing instead a “best of” compilation, Which, if memory serves, has the inferior mix of “One Fine Morning”

.
If you like Chicago, BS&T, Gerard, T.O.P., and some of the other horn bands of the seventies, you will love this one.  Trust me on this. Always assuming, of course, that you can find the bloody thing, anymore.

.
* I mentioned a few days ago, that I thought Fred Thompson should run based on a number of factors, which I listed.  Apparently, we can add one more factor to that list; Bob Novak is reporting that Thompson’s wife Jeri is arching him to run, as well.  Talk about your political insider.

Over at TownHall, Mark Alexander says that the democrats are in fear of Mr. Thompson and so they should be.

Democrats clearly understand their Republican opponents’ limitations, which is why they are confident that one of their far-left-of-center frontrunners, Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama, will win the presidency in ’08.

While there are conservative candidates for the GOP nomination, any of whom could deservedly win the Republican primary, none of whom would be likely to carry a majority in the general election. This list includes some true luminaries of the conservative movement: Sen. Sam Brownback, Gov. Jim Gilmore, Gov. Mike Huckabee, Rep. Duncan Hunter, Rep. Ron Paul, Rep. Tom Tancredo, Gov. Tommy Thompson and possibly former House Speaker Newt Gingrich.

However, if conservatives and the rest of the Republican electorate want to line up behind the most capable, qualified and electable candidate in the ’08 presidential race, a man who can carry the Reagan mantle and draw an enormous crossover vote (as President Reagan did in 1980 and 1984 see 1984 election map), then call out Fred Thompson.

Truly.

* Sorry to see a White House press Secretary Tony Snow is in the hospital after receiving some bad news. Reportedly, he will undergo surgery come Monday.  Best wishes, Tony.

Of course, the Democrats, being the grand humanitarians that they are, and open minded too, are expressing their best wishes:

– “Sure holding all that bulls**t in your gut would make anybody sick..!”

– “The growth in his abdomen is his head stuck up his a**. F**k him!! He is pure lying scum and should die ASAP!!”

– “You can only swallow so much…………can you say karma……………..”

Those are from the Huffington Post, who of course removed those comments from the web pages; Wouldn’t want your readership to be seen as the animals they are, would ya, guys? Nahhhh. A Bit’s ball cap tip to Hewett for grabbing them and reposting them, thus exposing the true nature of the Democratic party today.

* Extending this discussion, about the reaction to Snow …Fran mentions today, in reference to something else, that…

Left activists tend to be vicious and ruthless toward those they perceive as their adversaries — i.e., toward conservatives. This is well confirmed by experience; there’s no need to reason out the wherefores. In any event, the consequences are far more important: a few of us rear up on our hind legs and give back as good as we got if not better, but the rest, who are frequently the majority of us, surrender the rhetorical field and lapse into quietism.

Could there possibly be any better outcome for the Left, which strains to silence us as completely as it can? Can you, Gentle Reader, think of any other tactic — any other legal tactic — that would offer them as great a gain as that?

Certainly, this response to Snow, is an indication that Fran is correct, so far as I’ve quoted here. Trouble is, Fran attempts to mitigate the consequences of this conclusion of his, however, and the whole thing goes awry;

No, your Curmudgeon is not suggesting that we reply in kind. That’s beneath a decent man — gee, what does that say about the Left? — and would ultimately bring us beneath contempt, alongside those who practice the art today.

Frankly, I disagree.

.

One of the reasons that we’re currently in a certain amount of trouble in Iraq is because we’ve tried to fight it whilst being polite about it.  Whilst being politically correct.  One simply cannot win a war in that fashion.  Similarly, one cannot win against people such as Fran describes, without tossing at least a certain amount of fire back at them.  And what kind of battle are the left waging against us at this point?  Fran says himself;

Apparently, the most effective way to discourage a man’s entry into activism is to make it plain that his adversaries will extract a high price for it. That message is best conveyed by brutalizing those who are already active or showing signs of becoming so: vilifying them in public, besmirching their reputations, and showering abuse upon them and their loved ones whenever possible. This sort of “stitch in time” has prevented the development of many conservative and libertarian activists who might have become serious thorns in the Left’s political flesh.

They’ve been pulling this stuff, since the middle sixties.  Taking the “high road” and making nice with these people, is obviously not working. Fran argues that we should be taking our positions purely on the merits of each individual issue.  While I agree that it’s certainly high minded, it is simply not going to work.  The reason it’s not going to work is simple enough; the people we are arguing with about these points don’t give a tinkers dam about facts, and the merits of each position.  They are not founded in fact, truth, or logic.  They are founded in socialism which fails on all three counts. Trying to make nice, and argue high mindedly with such people, is like bringing a knife to a gunfight, and is demonstrably about as successful.

.
Where a we have made inroads against the socialist left, is where we have been willing to stand up and toss a little fire around, in defense of our ideals…Where we weren’t constantly apologizing for simply holding those ideals.  The choice on what level to fight these issues out, has already been made for us.  The battlefield has been chosen, long ago.  To attempt to fight this war on another, more palatable battlefield is to lose the war in absentia. When we become so worried about “offending” those of the left with our positions, we become less willing to fight for them.  Recent history has proven that these people are going to take offense at anything that we do.  The only thing to do, then, is simply state our position and ignore the response.  It’s called leadership.  “I’m marching in this direction.  Who is following me ?  ”
.
Ann Coulter, recently, took some serious condemnation from both the left, and some of the weak-kneed right… mostly the left, for her comments recently.  I think this was wrong.  Coulter if nothing else, is fighting the battle against the left on the battlefield that they have chosen.  She’s also fighting it on the only battlefield we can win on.
.

The battlefield has been chosen, the issues are in place.  We have but one choice; to fight and win.  They’re the ones who set the standard. I say it’s about time we started beating them up with it.

* An interesting note from Carrie Lukas today… she suggests that the Democrats are staying the course, in spite of all evidence.

* And did you know that AlGore is now running a blog?  Bill Hobbs, down in Nashville made note of this this morning, but, he says, the site is incomplete;

Unfortunately, the Gore blog doesn’t allow for readers to post comments. Al does invite readers to “Please join the conversation” – by submitting their email address. That’s not a “conversation,” Al, that’s an email mailing list. Email newsletters are for one-way communication. Blogs are for conversations.

Yeah; I really have to agree with Bill, here.  But you know, the bottom line is that with Gore a one sided conversation is the best you could possibly help for.  As demonstrated by his reaction when faced with the possibility of real debate on his global warming nonsense.

* Sorry to see that Little Green Footballs is having some database issues.  Mostly, I’m sorry because I foresee database problems in my future, once this site starts catching on more than it has been.  He’s converting over to MySQL, which is what this site runs on.  I’m not quite sure what the reasons for the conversion are, but I suppose that would entirely depend on what kind of database he was running on.

* Matt Hoy passes along That the Los Angeles times editorial page editor Andres Martinez has apparently resigned.  The reason?  Somebody let slip that he was dating a publicist who represented a Hollywood producer Brian Glaser, who Martinez had selected as the first of several guest editors of the papers Sunday Current Opinion section.  Oops, huh? However the situation is even more serious than this; as Matt explains.  Go and read.

* Nice story about Billy’s nephew, today.

The toilet paper-offsetting life: It stinks

Michelle Malkin.

I blogged about Knut on Tuesday. Today, Khuê Pham, Spiegel Online reports, “Knut Woos the Crowds:”

Berlin’s favorite polar baby has finally made his first appearance for the public. Cute Knut wooed an excited audience of children, zoo visitors and journalists at Berlin Zoo Friday. Unfazed by the attention, he explored the outdoor enclosure and displayed his affection for his carer. 

The people of Berlin are in love with Knut and the animal right wackos are irate.   Win-win.

Doctor Charles Krauthammer says in his most recent column that attorney general Alvaro consolidation resign or be fired as soon as possible for his handling of the recent scandal.  Says he:

It’s not a question of probity, but of competence. Gonzales has allowed a scandal to be created where there was none. That is quite an achievement. He had a two-foot putt and he muffed it.

How could he allow his aides to go to Capitol Hill unprepared and misinformed and therefore give inaccurate and misleading testimony? How could Gonzales permit his deputy to say that the prosecutors were fired for performance reasons when all he had to say was that U.S. attorneys serve at the pleasure of the president and the president wanted them replaced?

And why did Gonzales have to claim that the firings were done with no coordination with the White House? That’s absurd. Why shouldn’t there be White House involvement?

I’m not so sure. the good doctor, in my view, should know better than most, that neither incompetence, nor actual crime for that matter, is required on the part of Republicans to get the Democrats to start screaming “scandal” and calling for investigations. And frankly, that this “scandal” exists at all is evidence of that.

Further, forcing the resignation of Gonzalez, or his taking involuntarily, would be taken by the press and the democrats as an admission of guilt.  Why hand the Democrats a victory without a fight? There’s no benefit in it.  Matter of fact, there’s more of a benefit of taking them to the mat, showing the American people just how far they will go to score political point.
The way I figure it, once the facts come out, the Democrats will look like the opportunistic power hungry pigs they have always been…. only moreso… Just in time for the 2008 election.

I’m afraid this is one occasion where Doctor Krauthammer and I do not see eye to eye.

House panel votes to issue subpoenas: 

A House panel authorized subpoenas yesterday for top White House and Justice Department aides, including White House counselor Karl Rove, setting up a constitutional clash with the Bush administration over the U.S. attorneys investigation.

Democrat senator says good luck trying to enforce them.  From the office of Senator Patrick Leahy:

Most importantly, compelling compliance with a congressional subpoena in this context would be difficult. The civil contempt mechanism normally available to Congress, see 28 U.S.C. § 1365, specifically exempts subpoenas to the executive branch. The criminal contempt mechanism, see 2 U.S.C. § 192, which punishes as a misdemeanor a refusal to testify or produce documents to Congress, requires a referral to the Justice Department, which is not likely to pursue compliance in the likely event that the President asserts executive privilege in response to the request for certain documents or testimony. Thus, the only legal way to enforce this subpoena would be to hold a witness in contempt using its “inherent contempt authority,” but this would require a contempt trial on the floor of the Senate. Not many of us relished our role as jurors during the impeachment trial and are not anxious to reprise that role

Ok, Senator Depends issued this letter in 1999.  I am sure that Depends will claim that circumstances are somehow different.  Yet if you take Leahy’s letter at face value, the democrat subpoenas are not going any where.

(H/T: Mark Levin, NRO)

I’ve written a few times now, about Fred Thompson, and stated flatly he is someone I could get behind. Mona Charen, who I quote all too infrequently, here at BitsBlog, agrees.

His voting record is solidly conservative. He is articulate, self-made (his father was a car salesman), highly intelligent, and exudes calm authority. His star power offers him an opening with independent voters that other candidates can only dream of, while his solid conservative credentials will excite the Republican base.

Perfect? No. Then again, nobody is. But he IS a better fit than anyone else on the radar…. which is what elections are supposed to be about, anyway.

Update:  (David L)  Rasmussen:

The first Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey involving Thompson shows the former Senator from Tennessee essentially tied with the Democratic frontrunner, Senator Hillary Clinton. It’s Thompson 44% Clinton 43%. (More Below)

Stick a fork in Mrs. Clinton.  She is done.