Friday's various links and comments

A number of articles for you all to read as we head into a long weekend.

Chatter about Obama's 2008 plans picks up is an article from the Chicago Sun-Times discussing a potential 2008 presidential run for the first term senator from Illinois. I could be wrong but Obama seems to be laying groundwork to be considered as a running mate.

From Human Events Online we have an article about immigration "reform" titled Senate Declares War on the House. It contains commentary from several senators both opposed to and in favor of the awful bill the Senate voted for yesterday. In the past the senate acted as a restraining force on the lower house known for being prone to impulsive action. Now we need the House of Representatives to stop the stupidity of the Senate. Biggest mistake of this whole immigration mess (well, besides failing to enforce our current laws) is lumping lots of lousy ideas together and calling it a comprehensive bill. Many of the items included in the Senate bill could not stand on their own. Just one example is a provision of the bill which allows illegals to pay the lower in-state tuition rate. I lived in Virginia until a couple years ago, but now live in Ohio. If one of my kids decide to attend the University of Virginia we would have to pay the higher non-resident tuition even though we paid Virginia taxes for many years. However, our senators want to ensure that someone who broke our laws could pay the lower in-state rate.

Ridge to join Swann's campaign. Good call by Lynn Swann to get Tom Ridge involved in his campaign. Ridge is a former Pennsylvania governor and remains very popular in the Keystone state.

Jeff Jacoby takes on Sen. Harry Reid's disgusting charge that requiring English is racist.

Racist! As if Americans who speak Spanish aren't as capable of learning English as any other linguistic minority. As if it is bigoted and mean-spirited to want all Americans to be able to follow their nation's political debates, read its founding documents, and take part in its civic life. Racist to embrace English as the common American tongue!

Victor Davis Hanson's latest. Read it all and you'll have a better understanding of Iraq.

Just when I think our politicians are absolutely awful, George Galloway (Member of Britain's parliament) reminds me that they could be worse. Galloway says murder of Blair would be 'justified'

In local news, Storms put 185,000 in dark. Demonstrating that even dark clouds have a little silver lining, some kids think this is a good thing as powerless schools have them starting their weekend a day earlier than they expected.