Joy in Mudville

(H/T photo: All Posters )

Yes the Sun is shining in Mudville today.  The Baseball writers got it right today.  Both Cal Ripken Jr. and Tony Gwynn won easy election to Baeeball Hall of Fame.  Goose Gossage finished a respectable and promising third.

On the dark side, one hundred one hundred twenty-eight, apparently brain damaged, baseball writers actually voted for Mark McGwire, the noted drug abuser and liar.  Further, the AP writer, Ronald Blum, got the lede wrong.  Instead using Ripken as the lede, Blum used the drug abuser Gwire.  Then getting the lede in an article abouit the Hall of Fame is as close as McGwire will ever get to Cooperstown without a ticket.

The New Jersey Constitution says that idiots can’t vote. No, seriously … it does. If we had that clause in the U.S. Constitution Nancy Pelosi would be selling flowers on a street corner in San Francisco.

That’s Boortz, today.

A great line, Neal, but I dunno. If that law was actually being enforced, how does one explain Corzine being elected?

LOS ANGELES, Jan. 8 —New York Times-  Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Monday proposed extending health care coverage to all of California’s 36 million residents as part of a sweeping package of changes to the state’s huge, troubled health care system.

A total of 6.5 million people, one-fifth of the state’s population, do not have health insurance, far more than in any other state. At least one million of the uninsured are illegal immigrants, state officials say.

OK, let’s make sure I’ve not missed anything, here.

The system is already huge and troubled. Not least among those troubles are financial. Yet this idiot proposes dumping huge numbers of people into that system who are not going to be paying for it, thereby making it even larger and more troubled, financially.

Yeah, that’ll work huh?

Update: Steve Verdon has some thoughts on all of this.

What is a major difference between republicans like George W. Bush and democrats like Nancy Pelosi and John Edwards.   Whereasa the president see Islamofascism as Freedom’s enemy, clearly Mrs. Pelosi does not see Islamofascism as freedom’s enemy.  Tammy Bruce cites Mrs. Pelosi’s voting record 

While she voted in support of Bill Clinton’s adventure in bombing the bejesus out of the former Yugoslavia (to save Muslims, mind you) she voted against the war in Iraq in 2002. Here’s a small sample of her positions:

# Voted NO on approving removal of Saddam & valiant service of US troops. (Mar 2004)
# Voted NO on authorizing military force in Iraq. (Oct 2002)
# Condemns anti-Muslim bigotry in name of anti-terrorism. (Oct 2001)
# Wage war on Terrorism, not on fellow Americans. (Sep 2001)
# Voted NO on disallowing the invasion of Kosovo. (May 1999)

Clearly, this is not a woman who votes based on what’s right. She votes based on what Republicans do not want. [photo added]

( H/T:  Lorie Bryd, Wizbang )

Whereas the president sees Islamofascists as the enemy, the ilk of Mrs. Pelosi see Walmart as the enemy.   The former wants to kill us and the latter just wants to sell use consumer good.   Al Qaeda wants our blood.   The proverbial Sam Waltons just want our business.

So it is not surprizing that a  Quinnipiac University poll found overwelming public support for Walmart.

(H/T photo:  Hotline ) 

Meanwhile the Internet hottie Betsy Newmark wants to know if John Edwards is so smart why is he spending so muich time attacking Walmart.

Years ago, there was a tagline: “Not tonight, dear, I have a modem”.

Well, my twist is, not tonight, dear, I have an HD TV with 5.1 surround. To say the very least, I’ve been having some fun with it. It’s opened up movies I’ve owned for years in a way I never expected.

I’ll comment further on this business later this week, I promise. A writer doesn’t go through a major change like this and not have something to say about it.  But, for the moment, I’m too tired.

Peter Wehner, today:

President Bush has said that the war against global jihadism is more than a military conflict; it is the decisive ideological struggle of the 21st century. We are still in the early years of the struggle. The civilized world will either rise to the challenge and prevail against this latest form of barbarism, or grief and death will visit us and other innocents on a massive scale.

Given the stakes involved in this war and how little is known, even now, about what is at the core of this conflict, it is worth reviewing in some detail the nature of our enemy – including disaggregating who they are (Shia and Sunni extremists), what they believe and why they believe it, and the implications of that for America and the West.

An excellent piece, on the whole. Aside from bringing the reader up to speed on this whole deal, very well indeed, it reinforces what I said the other day and have been saying since the day after we were attacked on 9/11/01… this is going to be a long drawn out affair.  As Wehner says, we’re in the early years.  Go and read.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A U.S. gunship has conducted a strike against two suspected al Qaeda operatives in southern Somalia, but it was not known whether the mission was successful, U.S. news networks reported on Monday.

The U.S. Air Force plane, operated by the Special Operations Command, flew from its base in Djibouti to the southern tip of Somalia, where the al Qaeda suspects were believed to have fled from the capital Mogadishu, U.S. networks reported.

The left has been screaming for our involvement in Somalia for a long time, now. But you know how they’re going to react to this, now don’t you?

There’s several things about this that smell… well, bad.

As Surber suggests:

So 6 weeks after people asked AP to produce him, AP produced him.Now to verify his claim that 6 Sunnis were burned alive.

Look, even taking the first line all by itself… the news media is always chary about giving up it’s sources. So, six weeks off the request, they cough the man up? A little unusual, wouldn’t you say?

In any event…on what basis do we accept the validity of the man’s claim on whom he is? His claim would be far more credible had it not taken the AP over a month to dredge him up.

Or should I say train him up?

Texas Rainmaker asks “How Cn we Trust Democrats on Iran?” 

Again we have a nuclear ambitious, Islamic tyrant playing games with the United Nations. And the Democrats are acting the same way they did towards Iraq prior to the war.

The ‘rats are the first to beat the drum of war and the first to sound the trumpet to retreat.

AUSTIN, Texas -AP- Police shut down 10 blocks of businesses in the heart of downtown Austin early Monday after dozens birds were found dead.

Experts were testing for any sort of environmental contaminant or gas or chlorine leaks that might have killed off the animals, police spokeswoman Toni Chovanetz said.

Something feels a little odd about this. I’ll be interested in seeing the autopsy reports in the birds, if any.

Along the same lines this monring comes word from NYC:

NEW YORK (Reuters) – The smell of gas throughout much of Manhattan forced the evacuation of buildings and the suspension of a commuter train service on Monday, authorities and media reported.

Hmmm.

The ‘Rats have a dangerous addiction to spending other peoples’ money, as in your tax dollars.   Cuit, on Flopping Aces writes,”Democrats Plan To Dig Deep Into Your Wallet.”  Over on Townhall, Mary Katherine Ham serves up much the same warning, but Mary Katherine serves her’s with collard greens.

I see Joe Biden has decided he’s going to try again for the presidency. I can only assume the man is a gluton for punishment, or he likes the brief flirt with the publicity every four years.
Look; Even absent the major names already involved, there’s no way that senator Biden would make it past the primary.  Even assuming he went past the primary key get knocked down fast enough by any republican opponent.

Sorry, Joe, it ain’t gonna happen..

It will, however, be interesting to see what kind of damage he manages to do the front runners.

Forget that investigation of Mollohan. He now chairs the subcommittee that oversees the FBI budget. Some swamps are drained, others are protected wetlands.

Murtha chairs the subcommittee overlooking the defense budget. His brother will be lining up the suitors on K Street.

I would hope, Don, that you know better than to think that would have worked out any other way with the democrats in charge.  There going to protect their own.  To heck with little things like the law getting in the way. It supports the Democrat’s rise to power, therefore it can’t be wrong.

Did anyone notice Reynolds calling himself

…extremist, but in an eclectic fashion.

Someone had better send the man a dictionary.

Speaking of oil…. all this ‘conservation’ nonsense  is

…. is a subset of the post-modern craziness known as “environmentalism”, right? This is a strain of sentiment which actively ignores — deplores — the ability and necessity of human beings to put tools (“technology”) to work at adapting our environment to our requirements.

Sign me on, Billy.

I’ve been saying it for years.

And how many people have died over saving a gallon of gas?

How many jobs have been lost?

How much progress has been lost?