Tuesday random links

Today is the last day of May and the first day of the last week of the school year. The oldest kid will be done with elementary school on Friday and is excited about moving on to middle school.

Here are some links for you:
This is silly but funny. Funny and safe to share with kids
I think smoking is a lousy habit but I think frivolous lawsuits are even worse. So this is good news. Widow loses claim for damages from tobacco company Seems that too many people are awfully eager to turn a family tragedy into a winning lottery ticket.
Some people are taking seriously the comments Dick and Liz Cheney made on Larry King Live the other night regarding Laura Bush running against Hillary Clinton in 2008. I'm not going to knock Laura Bush, but that's not gonna happen. She has served well as a classy First Lady. However, that does not make a platform for running for national office. Also, a good deal of her popularity is attributable to her lack of political aspirations.
There are fifteen days until the primary in the special election to replace Rob Portman as the Representative for the Ohio 2nd Congressional District and the race is heating up. Bizzyblog has some biting satire about the Bob McEwen campaign. I think it is safe to say Tom is not supporting McEwen.
What does society do with a 9 year-old killer?
This week CNN celebrates their 25th anniversary. Michelle Malkin has a collection of links regarding CNN's lowlights over the years.
‘Marines don’t stay at home’ (h/t RWN)
Sports:
While his current team (Detroit Pistons) is still in the NBA playoffs, Larry Brown is rumored to have accepted the job as Cavalier's president. If he shows that little loyalty to his current employer how much loyalty can we expect. Hidden in that story is a line that Danny Ferry may be the new General Manager of the team. Yes, that Danny Ferry, the one obtained in one of the worst trades the Cavs have made.
What are the Indians up to? This headline tells the story. Long road trip will be true test for Tribe Starting tonight in Minnesota, the Indians will play 12 games in the next 13 days -- all on the road, where they actually play better than they do at home. Read the rest.
Help on the way for the struggling offense? Two-time MVP, Juan Gonzalez is expected to join the Indians for tonight's game against the Twins in Minneapolis.
UPDATE: Indians bench coach (and former manager of the Tigers and Rockies) has just been named the new manager of the Kansas City Royals. Good luck Buddy! Except when the Royals play the Tribe.

Darkhorse candidate for 2008?

Many conservative are less than thrilled with the names (Giuliani, McCain, etc) being bandied about as potential presidential candidates for 2008. I've maintained that to be successful a candidate does not want to known as a candidate prior to the 2006 mid-terms. Doug Petch is speculating that there is a viable candidate who isn't even in politics anymore. He is touting the idea of Fred Thompson who is currently playing the DA on the TV show Law and Order as a potential darkhorse candidate. Professor Bainbridge has links to Thompson's senate voting record. One thing which surprised me from his bio was his date of birth. For some reason I assumed Fred was older than he is (63). He is 6 years younger than John McCain who is rumored to be interested in running again.

Memorial Day 2005

All sacrificed some, and some sacrificed all. As we go to our picnics, ballgames and other events today let us not forget the reason this holiday exists. Our country was founded by men willing to take great risks and make great sacrifices. In the 231 years that have followed our democracy and freedoms have often needed defending. Everytime our nation has been threatened or attacked young people have answered the call to arms. So enjoy yourself today but take a moment to stop and remember that Soldier, Sailor, Marine, Airman or Coastie who gave their all so we have the freedom to relax and enjoy this holiday.

Some much more eloquent than I weigh-in.
Jeff Jacoby recounts the heroism of Marine Sargeant Rafael Peralta in Iraq.
Don Surber reminds us of other casualties in the War on Terrorism. Whether we acknowledge it or not Terrorism's war against the United States started long before 11 September 2001.
Daisy Cutter tells the story of Lt Bobo's heroism in Vietnam.
Here is the story of U.S. Army Sergeant (Medal of Honor recipient) Hiroshi H. Miyamura whose heroism was classified Top Secret while he was held as a POW for fear the Koreans would exact revenge.
Medal of Honor citations from the heroism displayed on 7 December 1941 at Pearl Harbor.
Major Charles W. Whittlesey Commander of the Lost Battalion of WWI. He was a pacifist who ended up leading his men through one of the bloodiest campaigns of WWI. General Pershing declared Major Whittlesey one of the 3 most important members of the American Expeditionary Force. As a reminder that the horrors of war don't end with the cease fire, we recall that Charles Whittlesey's memories drove him to suicide 3 years after the war ended.

Weekend sweep

The Cleveland Indians completed a three game sweep of the Oakland A's this afternoon. Normally, a simple three game winning streak would not be cause for celebration. However, it is almost June and this is the first sweep they have won this season. Having spotted the White Sox and Twins a sizeable lead in the standing the Tribe need to consistently wins series in order to get back in the pennant race.

Some links from the weekend:
Friday's Box score
Saturday's
Sunday'sYou'll notice with a 2 for 4 last year's All Star catcher Victor Martinez has inched over the Mendoza line at .201.
A weekend tragedy in Bellefontaine, Ohio as six people are murdered.
Regarding liberal media bias, Ranting Right Wing Howler notices two recent articles of misbehaving "public servants." Usually media bias is in what they omit or in how they assign adjectives. Watch how conservatives are labeled either arch conservative or extreme and then ask yourself when you ever saw Ted Kennedy referred to with the correct adjective attached?
Maybe this explains the conspiracy theories.
Prior to last night, the Yankees had run off 16 wins in their last 18 games. Does that mean they are good to go? No. Their problem before this streak was team age specifically the starting pitching. Well, last night their pitching got lit up for 17 runs and tonight they are into the bullpen again after 3 innings. No one is getting younger in the Bronx.

Ohio Republicans

It's a little embarrassing to be an Ohio Republican these days. We have Senator DeWine joining the cabal which has resulted in 14 senators deciding whether judicial nominees should be approved. So 14 equals a majority of 100 senators but 55 does not. Now we have Senator George Voinovich embarrassing the (formally) Great State of Ohio with some babbling speech where he stated that he opposed sending John Bolton to serve at the U.N. because he is afraid for his children and grandchildren. Does he honestly believe his children will be in greater danger if John Bolton speaks directly to the thugs running the U.N.? One could actually make the argument that many of the world's problems exist in their current today because we have been diplomatic with that cesspool rather than addressing its shortcomings.

Now, here's the funny part. Last night, I'm watching the season finale of LOST on TV when I get a phone call. It was the Ohio Republican Party spinning a tale of doom and gloom regarding Howard Dean's great skill at raising campaign funds and that he was targeting statewide races in Ohio. That was followed by a pitch to join the Ohio Republican Party Leadership Council. "All we are asking for today is a donation of 100 or 200 dollars." I turned him down and explained that the actions of DeWine and Voinovich the last week or so was the reason. If they hear that from enough people the word will get back to the clowns in DC.

Here is a NY POST article mocking Voinovich.

Just where Voinovich's damning indictment came from wasn't clear.

He hadn't, after all, troubled himself to attend the committee hearings where Bolton actually defended himself on the matter. (God help anyone who has the bad luck to have George Voinovich on his jury. The Ohioan will listen while the prosecution is up — and sleep through the defense.)

UPDATE: Billy Cunningham of WLW 700 just called into the Sean Hannity show and apologized to the nation for the two senators we sent to DC. During the conversation, Cunningham said he heard that John Kasich is considering a primary challenge to Dewine next year. Kasich was a long time congressman from Columbus who left office in 2000. Since then he has hosted a weekly show "The Heartland with John Kasich" on FOX News and taught some courses at Ohio State University. He was very popular in his district and his show on FOX has to help with name recognition state wide. I believe, he attempted to run for president in 2000 but his campaign ended quickly due to lack of money and lack of name recognition. Lets see what happens next.

So what'cha been doing the last 60 years?

If this story is true it's just simply amazing.

Two men found in the Philippines 60 years after the U.S. defeated Japan's forces occupying the country say they are former Japanese Imperial Army soldiers.

``We are checking the claim,'' Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi told reporters in Tokyo today. ``If it's true it would be a surprise.''

The men in their 80s, living on the southern island of Mindanao, have asked to return to Japan. The existence of the men was reported to a Japanese war veterans' group by a logger who encountered the two. The men said they feared they would be court-martialed and executed if they returned to Japan, the logger told the veterans' group.

The last World War II-era Japanese soldier to return from the Philippines was Hiroo Onoda in 1974. Onoda spent 29 years in the jungle on the island of Lubang, armed with a rifle, a sword and hand grenades.

Tennessee Waltz

Talk about bad timing. Rep. Harold Ford (aka media darling) announces his intention to run for the senate seat being vacated by Bill Frist next year. The next day his uncle (John Ford) who is a Tennessee state senator gets arrested in an FBI sting and in the process threatens to kill an undercover FBI agent. At least they demonstrated bi-partisanship by including one Republican in their crimes.

VOLuntarily Conservative is on the scene and gives some good background info.

Back in January, I posted this about some other shenanigans of John Ford. Right or wrong this is going to reflect on Harold. You use family connections to climb the political ladder it can come back to haunt you later.

Extra inning games

Correct me if I'm wrong. But isn't the home team supposed to have the advantage in extra inning games? The Indians just played their third straight extra inning game against a key divisional rival losing two of three. After a while failure to win close games becomes attributable to the decisions made by the manager. I have not reached the point where I would recommend firing the manager (Eric Wedge). However, he must be feeling the heat by now. Something must be done to get the teams attention.

What they really meant

Peggy Noonan at her best translates the news conference from Monday by the new Senate majority of 14.

These men are uniters, not dividers.

How do I know?

Because they told me. Again and again, and at great length, as they announced The Deal. And I believed them, because I am an idiot. Or as they might put it, your basic "folk" from "back home."

She has a way with words, doesn't she?

If you have to ask, you probably won't like the answer.

Warren Beatty: "Does that make me a 'girlie-man'?" Sounds like someone is a little insecure in his manhood.

What's with the Buckeyes?

For the third time in the last week or so an Ohio State University football player was arrested. This time it was Defensive lineman Tim Schafer being cited for disorderly conduct after a fight outside a local bar. Previously, running back Erik Haw was charged with possession of marijuana. A week before that kicker Jonathan Skeete was arrested for selling marijuana to an undercover police officer.

I have been a strong backer of coach Jim Tressell. However, the cumulative effect of all the allegations will end up tainting his reputation. I'm not in any way excusing the players. They are (borderline) adults and should not have committed the offenses they are charged with and should be prosecuted and suspended from the team. I acknowledge that no coach can monitor his players 24 hours a day. However, leadership is about motivating people to do what they wouldn't do otherwise. At some point, we have to wonder about Tressell's ability to convince his players to obey the law and stay out of trouble. He was brought in partly to clean up the teams image in the wake of a slew of players getting in trouble under previous coach John Cooper. Cooper not only didn't control the players but he also lost to Michigan and whichever team they met in bowl games. Tressell is beating Michigan but nothing has changed on the police blotter. He needs to send a strong message to the players that inappropriate conduct will result in a loss of their scholarship.

Students picket military recruiters

This article from the SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER contains a quote that says a lot about the state of education in Washington.

"I don't want to go to war," said Ob Flores, 17, from Mount Rainier High School. "I want to learn; I don't want to die."

Hey, Ob I know they may not have covered history in your school but guess what? The draft ended 35 years ago. If you don't want to go then don't join. Probably couldn't pass the entrance exam and physical anyway.

CIR back in business

The Cleveland Indians Report (or CIR) is back in business. In recent seasons, the CIR has provided the most comprehensive coverage of the Cleveland Indians from Rookie level baseball to the majors. This season, for some reason, the posts have been sporadic at best. Hopefully, Joe will be able to return to his past level of daily posting. Especially noteworthy is his coverage of the baseball draft which unlike the NFL draft gets almost no mainstream coverage.

Filibuster deal

14 senators reached a deal yesterday afternoon to toss a few judicial nominees under a bus in exchange for agreeing to perform their Constitutional duty and vote on a few others who previously were "too extreme" to be considered. So, 14 senators can decide who deserves a vote but 55 can not. Amazing display of acting weak from a position of strength by the Republican majority.
A lot of bloggers have weighed in on this deal so I'm not going to repeat what they wrote. Here are links to a few.
Michelle Malkin
Captain's Quarters
Hugh Hewitt breaks down the winners and losers.
Riehl World View on the principle of the matter.
No Left Turns has a detailed review which includes this advice:

If I were doing the spinning on the Republican side, here’s some of what I’d say. Democratic happiness over this deal gives the lie to the rhetoric of extremism they have used to smear three worthy nominees--Priscilla Owen, William Pryor, and Janice Rogers Brown--and which they will of course use to smear others.

Don Surber has links to many bloggers reactions. Don believes this is a victory of sorts for the Republicans. I don't know, I see a lot of Dem's gloating this morning.

The problem I see with this deal besides the whole giving in when you don't have to is this: If you make a deal with the Devil you need to understand you're the only one that will stick to the deal. All the 7 Dem's promised is they wouldn't filibuster except in extraordinary circumstances. Okay, remind me again, who determines what constitutes extraordinary circumstances? The ACLU?, Bob Byrd?, NARAL? Harry Reid?, NOW?, Babs Boxer? WHO? Obviously, the majority isn't going to make that call.

Missing the real problem

People are all up in arms over the story out of New York that 198 rapists and assorted other sex offenders have been getting Viagra bought with our government confiscated money. The situation is so obviously wrong even New York's two U.S. Senators condemned it.

New York's two senators said Sunday the problem should be corrected.

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton said in a statement that it was "deeply disturbing and runs contrary to the purpose of Medicaid, which is to provide health care coverage for uninsured, low-income individuals." Clinton, a Democrat, urged Leavitt to look into the matter, and said she would explore legislative options.

New York's other senator, Democrat Chuck Schumer, said at a press conference in New York City that he hoped the issue could be resolved without a bill, but he's prepared to offer one if needed.

"While I believe that HHS did not do this intentionally, when the government pays for Viagra for sex offenders, it could well hurt many innocent people," he said.

To be fair to New York, I'm certain other states have similar problems. New York is just the one where an audit was held.

The outrage is misplaced! The problem isn't who is getting the impotence medicine. The problem is with Medicaid paying for it for anyone. This is the crap that is bankrupting the system. Elective surgery or non-necessary medicines should not be paid for by Medicaid. If you can't afford it you don't need it. How did Viagra get approved? I'm sure you could find a money trail from the pharmaceutical industry lobbyists to the approving authority.

George Mason

Because our history classes tend to shortchange the founding fathers who did not serve as president, George Mason has been overlooked. Kris at Dummocrats.com noticed that while reading a book (Charles Mee's "The Genuis of the People") on the Constitutional Convention.

One of the things that's so great about Mason (and really, this applies to so many of the Framers) is that he didn't go to the Convention strictly to advance the cause of "his kind". I know some Democrats won't understand this, but Mason went against his own self interest and instead tried to do what he believed was right for his country.

Since we are discussing the founding fathers, Betsy Newmark found this on Friday.
Ann Althouse links to the debates in the Constitutional Convention to show that Madison originally supported saying that the president could appoint judges with only 1/3 concurrence from the Senate.

Personally, I don't put a lot of weight on that because when debating today's issues we could go back and find some quote or an idea which was considered over 200 years ago and twist the original intent to suit the side we are espousing. However, in the current filibuster argument it is worth remembering that if the framers of the Constitution wanted to require greater than 50% approval of presidential appointments they could have done so.

Sunday stuff

If you can't get along with Sean Casey, you're not going to get along with anyone.

Said Casey, "I tried to be nice to the guy, but he was mean to me. I felt like putting a fence in front of my locker and putting up a sign that said, 'Keep that negative attitude on your side of the clubhouse.' "

The Political Teen has video of Howard Dean on Meet the Press this morning. Hard to watch but still pretty funny.
Here is the transcript if you can't stomach watching him. Near the end there was this exchange regarding avowed Socialist Bernie Sanders.

DR. DEAN: Well, a Democratic socialist--all right, we're talking about words here. And Bernie can call himself anything he wants. He is basically a liberal Democrat, and he is a Democrat that--he runs as an Independent because he doesn't like the structure and the money that gets involved. And he actually has, I think, some good points about campaign finance reform. The bottom line is that Bernie Sanders votes with the Democrats 98 percent of the time. And that is a candidate that we think...

MR. RUSSERT: So you'd support him?

DR. DEAN: We may very well end up supporting him. We need to work some things out because it's very important for us not to split the votes in some of the other offices as well.

So, did Dean just say that there is no difference between an avowed Socialist and Democrats? Might be most honest thing he has said.
National Review Online brings our attention to this article from Wendy Long in the Philadelphia Inquirer. It addresses the canard put forth by liberals that they're only filibustering "extremist" judges.

They claim it's because these judges, such as Justice Priscilla Owen of Texas and Justice Janice Rogers Brown of California, are "extreme."

If that were true, you can count on it: Left-wing interest groups and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee would be clamoring for a vote; they'd want Republicans on record as having supported such "extremists" in the next election cycle. Surely in 100 hours they could expose these judges as extremists, get the support of mainstream America, and send the Republicans packing.

Truth is, Democrats are hiding from a debate, and hiding from a vote, precisely because these highly qualified judges are the mainstream. They are intellectual stars on the courts where they now sit. They have the overwhelming bipartisan support of the citizens of their states, the American Bar Association, the bench and bar, and newspapers across the political spectrum. For example, even the Washington Post endorsed Judge Owen after President Bush nominated her to the Fifth Circuit, and the San Francisco Chronicle endorsed Judge Brown in her latest California Supreme Court election.

If their contention is "extremists" shouldn't be on the federal bench, then how do the explain Ruth Bader Ginsberg? Read this and decide if she is mainstream?

Saving the best for last, I urge you to visit A Large Regular today. His post examines the war in Iraq from a different perspective and pays homage to the Marine Corps. Semper fi!

Wrong players in majors?

Quoting from BaseballMusings.com:

Help From Below

The Cleveland Indians have currently dug themselves into a deep hole. They are 11-17, 11 games out of first place in the AL Central and six games out of the wild card. Is there hope? Maybe not this year, but as I look at the morning paper I see the Buffalo Bisons at 24-15, leading the IL North Division and the Akron Aeros at 23-15, leading the EL Southern Division. Given the records of these two teams, somebody in their minor league system can play the game. Maybe it's time to bring up some new faces; the current ones aren't getting the job done. Those players may not be able to turn the team around this year, but things look very good for the future.

With three players in the Indians starting line-up last night batting under .200, something needs to change.

A good reason to watch the O'Reilly Factor tonight

There actually is a good reason to watch the O'Reilly Factor tonight. He won't be there and Michelle Malkin is guest hosting.

Could a trend be developing?

Check this out:

The candidate is Otto Banks, a 33-year-old African-American and the biggest vote-getter in Harrisburg, a predominantly black and overwhelmingly Democratic city where a Republican hasn't been elected to the city council in nearly 20 years.
Like everyone else on the all-black city council, Mr. Banks was a Democrat -- that is, until this March when he announced he had become disenchanted and was joining the Republicans.

In the last two national elections the Republicans got around 10 percent of the black vote. If Democrats couldn't win with 90% of the black vote, how will they do with 70% or 60%.

Supreme Court stability

A paragraph in an article by the Washington Times about potential candidates for eventual Supreme Court vacancies caught my attention.

Not since 1823 has the nation gone 10 years without a vacancy on the Supreme Court — the last appointment to the high court was 11 years ago.

That got me wondering what happened after the last period of court stability. President Madison named Gabriel Duval to the Supreme Court in 1912. Then there was not another opening until President Monroe nominated the Secretary of the Navy, Smith Thompson to the court. I assumed there would be several appointments in short order after that period of stability. However, after Thompson there was only one other appointment prior to the 1830's. Age finally caught up to the Marshall Court during Andrew Jackson's administration. Jackson named 5 justices including Chief Justice Taney who replaced John Marshall after 34 years as Chief. The Taney court would go on to play a pivotal role in the drama leading up to the Civil War. While the first appointment after a period of stability didn't lead to a rush of openings, it was followed shortly thereafter by a large turnover.
What can we infer based on the history of the court? Not a whole lot. Particularly in this period of heightened awareness of the power of the court. Justices are more likely than ever to hang on past the next presidential election in hopes that the next president would nominate a replacement more in line with their point of view. The next few years will be interesting. Justice Thomas is the only justice under 65 years of age and 4 of the justices (including Chief Justice Reinquist) have been treated for cancer. I'm fairly certain there will be at least one opening during President Bush's second term. However, those expecting more than two may be disappointed. There are only 4 conservatives on the bench (Reinquist, O'Conner, Scalia, and Thomas) and I'd be very surprised if any of the liberal justices wouldn't hold out if they could for the next administration.
Here is a link to a list of Supreme Court Justices.

Twenty years already?

It is hard to believe it is 20 years already.

Twenty years ago today, Robert W. Hunter sprang from the shadows of a hotel hallway and made American history. He arrested a retired Navy warrant officer, John A. Walker Jr., for espionage, breaking what would eventually be called the most damaging Soviet spy ring in U.S. history.

We will never know the full extent of the damage from Walker's treason. He had been supplying the Soviets with highly classified material since the 1960's. Since the fall of the Soviet Union, Walker's handler has admitted that they shared the information with the North Vietnamese during the war.

One of the lessons learned in this case is if you're committing a crime don't make your ex-wife angry.

What finally brought down the ring was a call from Walker’'s ex-wife, Barbara. She was living in New England and called the FBI office in Boston to say her ex had been a spy for decades. She was angry at Walker, who had also tried to recruit one of their daughters, Laura, when she was in the Army. She refused. At first, the FBI in Boston wasn’t impressed by Barbara Walker’s story. She had been drinking and continued downing vodka while being interviewed.

I met Special Agent Hunter once and told him how I actually benefited from the case. Shortly after the story broke the Secretary of the Navy ordered a review of everyone's security clearance. He further directed that if a clearance wasn't needed in performance of ones primary assignment it should administratively withdrawn. Well, at that time I was in my job that didn't require access to classified material. However, to stand the watch I normally stood I needed a secret clearance. So, the way I look at it, Walker got me off the watchbill. Good timing too as we visited Hamburg, Germany a month or two later. Hamburg was real good liberty.

ABC Re-writing History

The fine folks at Powerline have caught ABC trying to pass this off:

The filibuster has been used historically by the minority party, which can't win with a vote count. Democrats have opposed the filibuster before — in the 1960s, they accused Republicans of using it to block civil rights legislation.

With the current state of education they probably assumed most people don't know any better. The opposition to the various Civil Rights legislation was led by Democrats including Al Gore, Sr., Bob Byrd and Strom Thurmond.

Who cares?

Get this:

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan's top aide today warned the U.S. against withholding funds to force change at the world body, saying ``a big stick rather than a hand reached out'' will alienate America's friends.

Yeah, he's right if we stop subsidizing the U.N. the French won't like us. As I said, "who cares?"

Separately, a lack of funding may inhibit the U.N's capability to ignore genocide in Darfur and to send peacekeepers to sexually exploit the people they should be helping in Liberia.

Links from Captain's Quarters, Lucianne.com and a google search.

Not paranoid are we?

Here is a quote:

"I am thinking, well, America has finally got to us," said one old woman, as she sat on the ground outside her house.

Click this link for the rest of the story.

Justice in Howard Dean's world

I know this has been bouncing around the internet, but just in case you missed it, here it is:

Dean: Due Process For Bin Laden But Not Tom delay

The above link is from Jackson's Junction. However, Ankle Biting Pundits may have beat them to the punch.

What a clown. Says a lot when even Barney Franks chastises Dean for going to far with his rhetoric. When Barney Franks becomes the voice for moderation in the Democrat party they're in trouble.

Cinderella Man

I attended a screening for the movie Cinderella Man this evening. The previews lead me to believe it was a movie about boxing. It was and it wasn't. To me it was more a story of America's struggles during the Great Depression and how one man inspired a nation. James J. Braddock (played by Russell Crowe) was a boxer who had moderate success in the late 20's. His career floundered as he suffered various injuries. His finances were decimated by the stock market crash and loss of his boxing license. He reaches the point where he has to beg for work on the loading docks. Out of the blue, he gets a second chance when another fighter is unable to go in a tune up fight for a contender. He makes the most of his opportunity. The human story was gripping. The fights scenes were brutal and riveting. I strongly recommend this movie. NOT for little kids as the fight scene is graphic.

Renée Zellweger played Braddock's wife and at times seemed to be trying to play Adrian from the Rocky movies.

Doing a little research for this post I found out James Braddock actual acted in one movie. He had a minor part in a 1969 movie called Muhammad Ali, the Greatest.

More links about the Senate/judicial fight for your enjoyment

David Limbaugh examines which side is getting nasty.

Thomas Sowell discusses Harry Reid's smear tactics.

The American Spectator reviews some of the Senate intrigue.

Lastly, while not related to the senate fight over confirming judges, this item is a revealing look at how Democratic leadership views the legal system.

Howard Dean's recent statement that Tom DeLay should
Quote:
"go back to Houston where he can serve his jail sentence"
got us thinking. DeLay's never been indicted or charged, yet Dean thinks he should go to jail, and go directly to jail and not collect $200. Then we remembered that in 2004 Dean called for Osama Bin Laden to have a "fair trial"
Quote:
"I've resisted pronouncing a sentence before guilt is found," Dean said. "I still have this old-fashioned notion that even with people like Osama, who is very likely to be found guilty, we should do our best not to, in positions of executive power, not to prejudge jury trials. So I'm sure that is the correct sentiment of most Americans, but I do think if you're running for president, or if you are president, it's best to say that the full range of penalties should be available. But it's not so great to prejudge the judicial system."

Thanks Howard, for letting us all know who the real threat to America is, and the one who doesn't deserve due process.

Why do Dem's keep losing at the ballot box? Well, besides their lack of new ideas, people don't want to group themselves with folks like Reid, Dean, Byrd, Boxer, Pelosi, et al who are consumed with hatred.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words

I could write a thousands words. But why waste the effort when this sums up the situation pretty thoroughly.




H/T Curmudgeonly & Skeptical

More on the fight for the judiciary

John Hawkins of Right Wing News analizes the Democrats strategy in their filibustering of judicial nominees.

While there has been an enormous amount of discussion about the nuclear option and judicial filibusters, one thing that hasn't been discussed is the poor political strategy of the Democrats throughout this whole fight.

This hasn't come into clear focus yet. But, given that Frist is going to get the process started this week, you can bet that he's sure that he has the votes he needs to make it happen. So when the dust clears, what are the Democrats going to have gained for their filibusters?

Nothing.

Read the rest.


Today's Wall Street Journal lead editorial.

Bob Novak has a column about the opposition research efforts looking at financial disclosures of potential Supreme Court nominees.

The Independent screwed up and included some truth

The headline of this article, The deserters: Awol crisis hits the US forces, would lead one to think this is a result of recent military action. However, they included a sentence which belies that premise.

The most recent Pentagon figures suggest there are 5,133 troops missing from duty. Of these 2,376 are sought by the Army, 1,410 by the Navy, 1,297 by the Marines and 50 by the Air Force. Some have been missing for decades.

That last sentence tells the actual story. Some people are not cut out for military service and too weak to live up to their commitment. That happens during war time and peace time alike. Recruiters do their best to screen out misfits and criminals. However, a recruiter only gets a short amount of time to evaluate an applicant and some get in who clearly shouldn't. There have been deserters as long as we have had a military. Though the leftist media would lead you to believe it is a recent development.

Harold Reynolds is an idiot

On Baseball Tonight, Harold Reynolds made the comment that Manny Ramirez isn't a Hall of Fame player because of his defensive lapses. If a player was awful with the glove (and sometimes Manny is) one might be able to argue that a borderline guy falls short because of his defense. However, Manny's offensive numbers will put him miles past the borderline. What really makes Reynolds an idiot is his co-host of the show John Kruk reminds us that Reynolds argued for Harold Baines Hall of Fame induction. Baines spent most of his career as a Designated Hitter.
Compare the two players.
Manny Ramirez
G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB K SB AVG OBP SLG OPS
1570 5692 1090 1789 388 15 399 1301 896 1262 34 .314 .410 .598 1.008
Harold Baines
2830 9908 1299 2866 488 49 384 1628 1062 1441 34 .289 .356 .465 .821

Baines is a good guy and was a very good hitter. However, he is a classic example of a borderline Hall of Famer with no glove. Manny will be regarded as one of the best right handed hitters ever and he has a glove and a decent throwing arm.

Sunday stuff

Some in Philly are finding out why Clevelander's scratched their heads over Charlie Manuel's managerial moves.

Will Chicago's hot start last? I don't know, but I have to assume their weaknesses will be exposed in time. For example, last night when Ozzie Guillen felt he needed to pinch hit for Dye (batting.198) his choice was the equally anemic hitting Timo Perez.

Let's hope this is an accurate headline. Report: Zarqawi 'Seriously Wounded'

Hal McCoy of the Dayton Daily News is always worth reading.

How does a man decide to switch from Democrat to Republican?

His political transformation wasn't complete until a friend showed him unlabeled copies of the 1980 Democratic and Republican Party platforms and asked him which one he identified with most.

"I said, 'I agree with this one over here," Allen said. "He said 'Well, welcome to the Republican Party.' "

During the last congressional session, he was blocked by Dem's from an Appeals Court Judgeship. Why? He had committed the sin of being a black conservative.

Why Bolton doesn't matter

I've previously posted why I believe Bolton's nomination matters (even if the U.N. doesn't). Here is John Cole explaining why Bolton doesn't matter. Good historical review of others attempts to shake up the U.N.

H/T to Instapundit

This is outrageous!

This is pretty underhanded:

Minority Leader Harry Reid strayed from his prepared remarks on the Senate floor yesterday and promised to continue opposing one of President Bush's judicial nominees based on "a problem" he said is in the nominee's "confidential report from the FBI."

This is from a guy so concerned about protecting "senate traditions" in the fight over filibusters. Well, he may want to review actual Senate rules on release of confidential information. To wit:

Standing Rule of the Senate 29, Section 5: "Any Senator, officer, or employee of the Senate who shall disclose the secret or confidential business or proceedings of the Senate, including the business and proceedings of the committees, subcommittees, and offices of the Senate, shall be liable, if a Senator, to suffer expulsion from the body; and if an officer or employee, to dismissal from the service of the Senate, and to punishment for contempt."

Unfortunately, nothing will come of it.

Base closure list

The much anticipated listing of recommendations of the latest BRAC (Base Realignment and Closure) was released this morning. I fully understand how traumatic this listing is to areas with an economy dependent on a nearby base. However, proping up local economies is not the reason we have a military. We have a military to protect and defend our nation. Regardless of the bipartisan nature of this committee, there will be upset senators and representative from both political parties making angry speeches decrying any action affecting their home state. Some may be sincere in their statements about the effect on national security of closing the base. Most will just be arguing for the cameras so they can tell their constituents that they fought hard to save the base.

On a personal note, the only base near here (Wright-Patterson AFB about 45 miles away) was spared and may actually pick up a few jobs.

Maybe Rather wasn't the problem at CBS.

The title of this post is deliberately misleading. Rather was obviously biased and willing to lie to advance the liberal viewpoint. However, his departure from the evening news did nothing to change the culture at CBS. The latest episode is in many ways worse than failing to verify fraudulent documents just because they wanted the story to be true. What makes this worse is they actively created the fraud to mislead anyone who is still foolish enough to watch CBS news. Here is the situation. You decide if this is how you want your news "packaged."

Watch this clip and you will get the impression the Ken Starr is opposed to ending the un-Constitutional filibustering of judicial nominees.
Newspapers across the country, anxious to do the bidding of the left, picked this theme up and ran with it. Here is the Indianapolis Star for one example.
Problem is CBS did a 20 minute interview with Judge Starr and clipped his responses to change his meaning.
Here is an item from National Review with Starr's response.
Here is a transcript of Rush Limbaugh's interview with Judge Starr.
Now Blogs for Bush is reporting that CBS is refusing Judge Starr's request for a copy of the original interview.

My note to Voinovich

After hearing one of my two senators, Sen. George Voinovich, make reprehensible comments during the confirmation hearings I figured he needed constituent feedback. So, being a civic minded sort I sent him the following email.

Senator Voinovich,

I'm just writing to express my disappointment with your behavior in handling the nomination of John Bolton to be U.N. Ambassador. We elected you believing you were a Republican with the experience and savvy to understand and ignore the malicious lies Dems have been tossing at the president's nominees. If I had wanted a senator who would take marching orders from the duplicitous Joe Biden I would have voted for your opponent. There is no reason to have a Republican majority if we are too weak-kneed to exercise it.
Sincerely,

The worst part of the hearing was Sen. Voinovich commenting to the nominee that if he behaved the way he is accused of in the private sector he would have been fired. That brings to mind a couple points.
1. How would Voinovich know about business practices in the private sector since he has been in government employment of some sort or another since election as a State Representative in 1967?
2. If Voinovich was in the private sector he might have been fired for missing all the previous committee hearings.

Don't bother calling the senator's office, they took the phone off the hook.

Stanford Judicial Reviews

Here is the Stanford Judicial Reviews on Janice Brown who was previously discussed.

Stanford has not reviewed Priscilla Owens' body of work.

Who is Judge Boyle

Many have lamented, and rightfully so, the length of time (4 years) that Priscilla Owens has had to wait for the senate to carry out their Constitutional obligation of advise and consent on her nomination to the federal bench. However, she is a mere piker compared to Judge Terrence W. Boyle. He has waited 15 years since President George H.W. Bush first nominated him for the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals. His nomination was derailed without a vote in the aftermath of the acrimonious Justice Clarence Thomas hearings. The current President Bush renominated him four years ago. Will he get a vote this time?

Some related links:
The Washington Post reviews the history of Judge Boyle's wait.
Judge Boyle's bio
Stanford Judicial Review's report on Judge Boyle. It's 67 pages long so I won't pretend that I read it all. However, I perused the section related to decisions with Constitutional ramifications and he doesn't seem extreme to me. A little liberal on some issues and conservative on others.

Separately, the Stanford Judicial Review seems to be an unbiased review of Judge Boyle's judicial past. I'll see if I can find their report on the other nominees.

Bolton committee vote today

John Bolton should be voted out of committee for a vote by the full senate. I expect the vote will be a straight party line vote 10 to 9 in favor. Robert Novak has a column explaining that the real motivation behind the attacks on Bolton is a desire to affect U.S. policy toward Cuba.

Another success in the war on terror!

The United States recorded another victory in the war on terror today as Navy deserter Pablo Paredes was convicted at his court martial. Paredes was the idiot who decided not only to refuse to deploy with his ship (USS Bonhomme Richard) but also made political statement against the war on terror. This turd and others like him fail to realize that the draft ended over 30 years ago. You don't need to be a CO (conscientious objector) anymore. Just don't join the military. Don't take the paycheck or the benefits if you are not prepared to obey the orders you might be given. His conviction sends an important message to others who may waver in the commitment to their obligation.

Judge Janice Brown

Yesterday, I discussed Priscilla Owens nomination for the federal bench which has been held up for 4 years. Today, I'll examine Judge Janice Brown who is also being denied a vote on the senate floor. Judge Brown's nomination fight is the most contentious of those being held up. Why is that? Well, turns out the main reason is that the liberals who claim to be fighting for minorities are unable to accept a person of color who is conservative. A quick glance at her personal history will show she is the sort of person whose accomplishments we should be celebrating not denigrating for failure to adher to narrow expectations that minorities should think and vote as a monolithic group. Justice Brown grew up the daughter of sharecroppers in segregated, rural Alabama. As a single mother, she worked her way through Cal State, Sacramento, and UCLA Law School. She has spent nearly a quarter-century in public service, including nearly a decade on different levels of the California appellate bench. In 1996, she became the first African-American woman to sit on the California Supreme Court. She was retained with 76 percent of the vote in her last election. Bear in mind California is not exactly the most conservative state in the nation. If she was the extremist she is being portrayed to be there is no way she would have been elected by such a wide margin.

Here are various links regarding Judge Brown and her nomination:
Transcript of her senate judiciary committee hearing.
Judge Brown's bio.
The Washington Times examines a couple of cases cited by opponents of her confirmation.
Free Republic examines a recent speech Judge Brown gave and its implications on the confirmation battle.
Human Events Online discusses why Dem's fear her nomination.


Separated at birth?
Justice Brown


and
Wanda Sykes

How'd I miss this?

While getting the kids fed and off to school, I sort of watched an hour or so of ESPN Sportcenter this morning and completely missed this story. Tony Pena resigned as manager of the Kansas City Royals last night. Pena made some of the mistakes that first time managers make. Most notably overmanaging at times. However, with the talent he was provided he could not have reasonably been expected to win much more than he did. I liked his energy as a player and believe he will do better if given a second chance with a team willing to spend a little money for talent.

This biographical sketch includes mention of my favorite Pena moment as an Indian.

Once in '95 when the Tribe's closer, Jose Mesa was struggling in a game against the Yankees, the squat Pena approached the mound and slapped the hulking reliever in the face with his glove, telling him to pay attention.

Some might pick the playoff homer, but to me his biggest contribution to the team was that slap. Older Boston fans will remember Pena screaming at Clemens and attribute some of Clemens success to the catcher's mentoring of a young and occasionally erratic power pitcher.

What was Bush's margin of victory?

I get some sidelong glances when I mention that Bush garnered 60 percent of the vote in the last election. People will say "I thought it was closer than that." Reality is there was enough fraud that we don't know and my guess is as good as anyone's and probably more accurate than 51 percent. Here is some more evidence of Dem fraud which mostly served to depress the margin of victory. I say mostly because the fraud in Washington state resulted in the losing candidate sitting in the governor's office.
More Milwaukee fraud.
Illegal felon vote trends.

If you feel like going through their archives, Captain's Quarters and Michelle Malkin have been tracking voter fraud extensively.

Most of the vote fraud stories include an innocuous comment that the suspected double voting probably wouldn't have affected the outcome. B.S. They have no way of knowing that to be true. However, even if true it doesn't matter. To restore citizen faith in the system, steps must be taken to improve the process. Every state should have minimum levels of proof of residence and proof of identity in order to vote. Equally important is the need for aggressive prosecution of those individuals involved in voter fraud.

The case for Priscilla Owens

The Dems have claimed they are only disregarding the U.S. Constitution to block the most extreme of President Bush's judicial nominees. There are nine being block and most people know next to nothing about any of them. I'm going to compile links on each of the blocked judges starting with Justice Priscilla Owens of the Texas Supreme Court.

Here is Senator John Cornyn of Texas who previously served with Owens on the Texas Supreme Court.
Practical Politics position.
Transcript of the original senate hearings on Judge Owens nomination.
Washington Times notes that Judge Owens may well be used by Senator Frist to knock down the notion of judicial nominees requiring 60+ votes to be confirmed.
There is no doubt that the push to oppose these nominations is driven by special interest groups which now drive the Democrat party. You can learn a lot about a nominee by which groups are opposing confirmation. Here is a list.

ConfirmThem.com is tracking all the nominees as well.

This kid is off to a good start

H/T Blue Collar Pundit

Which political party is mean-spirited?

Due to their paucity of valid arguments, libs often resort to turning conservatives into a caricature of a mean bogeyman. However, the evidence points another direction. Hugh Hewitt took a look at a couple recent comments by Democrat leadership to illustrate the point.

On Friday Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (after called Bush a loser) said this to school children regarding the Bush judicial nominees:

"I think they're bad people. [California Supreme Court Justice Janice Rogers Brown] wants to take us back to Civil War days."

Okay, so he is saying an African-American judge (Janice Brown) who grew up in the Jim Crow South wants to take us back to Civil War days. Sure, now you're making sense.

The funny part is that his buddy, Senator Chuck Schumer the next day made the Democrats weekly radio address and urged the president to rein in the harsh language some have used in the filibuster fight.

Oddly, the meanest thing the Republicans have done in the filibuster fight has been to repeat comments made by Dems. Some mean things include noticing Robert Byrd's Hitler comments, or worse yet compiling quotes from Dems about filibusters from when they were in the majority.

Separately, if Harry Reid believes Bush is such a loser, what does he think of Al Gore and John Kerry who actually lost to this "loser?"

How many number two or three assistants (or key leaders) does al Qaeda employ?

I obviously disagree with the aims and methods of al Qaeda. However, there is one western custom they seem to have adopted. I'm of course referring to developing burdensome bureaucracy. It seems at least once a week there is a story like this one saying

Multi-national security forces have captured a key associate of Iraq's most wanted terrorist, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi

Freedom of speech

I strongly believe in the concept of free speech, especially political speech. However, every so often some idiot comes along who makes me reconsider that right. Mike Whitney is one such idiot. Here is an article he wrote explaining why he is rooting for the insurgency (oops I mean terrorists) in Iraq. Even after reading his anti-American drivel I still think he should have the right to say stupid stuff. Having said that, I hope some Veteran in his area knocks the dog snot out of him. The right to say something does not equal an absence of consequences.

H/T to SondraK

Why did the terrorist cross the bridge? Because that's where he worked.

Junkyardblog has the story of a guy on the terror watch list caught on the George Washington Bridge in New York City. Turns out he had a job as a painter on the landmark listed on the post 9/11 potential target list. Read the rest. Just because we have disrupted their bases in Afghanistan and knocked out a major supporter in Iraq does not mean al-Qaeda is no longer interested in doing us harm. In the War on Terror we don't always get to choose the location of the front lines.

Do the Twins whine too much?

Rick from the Rick's Tribe Report in the Most Valuable Network took a look at the amount of crying from the Twins after yesterday's game. The Twins won 9 to 0, imagine how much they'd have cried if they lost. They were upset that a pitcher who couldn't find the strike zone (Jason Davis) hit one of their hitters (Shannon Stewart).

An endorsement of Bolton from the Iron Lady

Margaret Thatcher weighs in on John Bolton's nomination to serve as U.S. Ambassador to the U.N.

Another 5 year handcuffed. This one is local.

Last month the case of a five year old girl in Florida being handcuffed after a temper tantrum was national news until it got trumped by some bride with cold feet. Turns out the case in Florida wasn't the first instance of a five year old being cuffed. Here in Cincinnati we had one in January. I wonder how that stayed out of the news for so long? A common response from city officials asked about the situation was "First I've heard of it." Apparently, no one tells their bosses what's going on. Wine and cheese might improve with age - Bad news doesn't.

Anyone surprised the mom is suing?
Anyone surprised the story has no mention of a father?

Just asking.

Ann Coulter's latest

Ann Coulter's latest column is worth reading for this statement alone. But read the rest.

I repeat: Bolton has been nominated to be ambassador to the United Nations. It's not like it's an important job. Get a grip, people! He's not replacing Paula Abdul on "American Idol."

Only the "little people" pay their own parking tickets.

Sen. John F. Kerry tapped campaign funds for Red Sox tickets and to pay nearly $300 in overdue Boston parking tickets in March, records show. Read the rest.

Wonder if the people who donated to his ill-fated campaign feel they got their monies worth?

Wednesday links

Terry Pluto of the Akron Beacon Journal talks about Kellen Winslow's accident and Reuben Droughns' holding out in a column titled Browns fans deserve break, not bad news

That modified Yankees' lineup really worked out well, didn't it. To be fair, the way Kevin Brown pitched the tinkering (Womack in left, etc) didn't matter.

Walter E. Williams takes a look at success in this column Only in America

Finally, someone notices Nancy Pelosi's hypocrisy.

Is Bob Wickman really devious or just paranoid? I've never heard of a pitcher doing this before.

He intentionally balked Cuddyer to third so he couldn't steal catcher Victor Martinez's signs.

What? Are the signs that easy to steal and relay back to the hitter? Read the rest of the story: Wickman uses well-timed trickery to help beat Twins

Iraq is only part of the terrorism problem in the Middle East

When will people realize that when they pay "protection" money (or ransom in the case of the Italians) to terrorists they are funding future attacks. Here is a news item about the country of Qatar paying millions of dollars to Al-Qaeda to ensure they would be further down the hit list. Qatar is putatively an ally of the United States. However, how long does your ally fund your enemy before they are regarded as an enemy.

Feed the beast and it grows. Starve the beast and it dies. A terror organization runs on easy cash flow. They do not create and sell a product. They only exist as long as people are dumb enough to give them funds.

H/T to In The Bullpen for the link.

The gall of some people

When I heard Hillary Clinton's latest outrageous comments I knew there would be some great columns to follow. Here is her words:

She later told The New York Times that Pyongyang, which tested a short-range rocket Sunday, couldn't arm a missile with a nuclear weapon "when George Bush became president, and now they can."

If she was just another senator those words could be dismissed as empty political rhetoric. However, that would ignore the fact that the only reason she is a senator is because her husband was president. She is also ignoring the fact that North Korea has nukes because when her husband was president he took their word that they wouldn't use the enriched uranium for that purpose.

Here is an article from the Investor Business Daily. Here is a portion.

While the Clinton administration was congratulating itself for talking Pyongyang out of its atomic nuclear ambitions and Carter was telling the world that he didn't see the DPRK as an outlaw nation, Kim was moving ahead with plans to build a nuclear weapon.

The world learned this in October 2002, when North Korea admitted to U.S. envoy James Kelly that it had violated its deal with the U.S. by carrying on a secret nuclear weapons program.

In response, the Bush White House suspended the oil shipments and construction on the light-water nuclear reactors that the Clinton administration arranged.

Now, Hillary Clinton wants the country to believe that Kim didn't restart the program until Jan. 20, 2001, or later.

How do you scout for good judgement?

If it were possible to take judgement into account when scouting football players, Kellen Winslow probably wouldn't have been drafted in the first round last year. Then again it isn't as if he showed great judgement at Miami either.

Winslow was riding in a community college parking lot Sunday when he hit a curb at about 35 mph and was thrown from the motorcycle, Westlake police Lt. Ray Arcuri said.

``He went over the handlebars and was real evasive about what the injuries were,'' Arcuri said.

The 21-year-old Winslow was wearing a helmet, but it wasn't strapped on and flew off his head, Arcuri said. He landed in a landscaped area at the edge of the parking lot, falling hard enough to tear out a small tree.

Is it too early to call the oft injured Winslow a bust? Read the rest of the article.

You can not look at this picture and still be in favor of steroids.

I'm one of a select few people

I just saw Mike Piazza throw out someone trying to steal a base. How many people can say they saw that happen.