Thursday's links and comments

Senator Voinovich now recognizes he was wrong about John Bolton. He explains his about face in an op-ed in today's Washington Post. One passage jumped out to me:

Ambassador Bolton's appointment expires this fall when the Senate officially recesses. Should the president choose to renominate him, I cannot imagine a worse message to send to the terrorists -- and to other nations deciding whether to engage in this effort -- than to drag out a possible renomination process or even replace the person our president has entrusted to lead our nation at the United Nations at a time when we are working on these historic objectives. For me or my colleagues in the Senate to now question a possible renomination would jeopardize our influence in the United Nations and encourage those who oppose the United States to make Bolton the issue, thereby undermining our policies and agenda.

Hey Senator Voinovich, your fighting his original nomination and forcing the president to send Bolton to the U.N. with a recess appointment had the same effect. Glad to see he changed his mind, but Voinovich should have given more thought to the nomination before he made a fool of himself on the Senate floor crying and blubbering about how he was opposing the nomination for his grandchildren. Hogwash.

Want to know why taxes are high and government spending never slows down? Look at crap like this and you'll realize the biggest problem is those spending the money don't care how much they waste because it is someone else's money.

The city has been quietly settling cases with several dozen people arrested during the 2004 Republican National Convention. The plaintiffs are each being offered between $2,500 and $7,500, four lawyers who represent separate groups of plaintiffs said yesterday.

Speaking of lawyers trying to steal taxpayer's money, here is the winner of today's chutzpah award:

The family of a woman stopped for drunken driving who was hit and killed by a car on the Ohio Turnpike after escaping from a State Highway Patrol cruiser has sued the agency for failing to lock the car doors.

So, this goof dies while escaping from arrest and her family wants to be rewarded for her stupidity. Amazing! Why is her family doing this? Because by settling these cases over the years, corporations and government entities have taught these losers that it is profitable to sue even when your injuries were caused by your own misbehavior. The city should counter sue the attorney for filing a nuisance suit.

In his latest Impromptus column, Jay Nordlinger questions why President Bush has decided to address the annual NAACP meeting.

President Bush has agreed to speak to the NAACP, and I’m sort of sorry about it. For years, every president — every eminento — spoke to the NAACP, because, in doing so, they thought they were speaking to Black America. And that’s the way the NAACP thought too.

But, one day, an extraordinary president — George W. Bush — said no. He recognized, I believe, that the NAACP had become another left-wing hate group. This was especially evident in the television ad they ran against him in 2000. It essentially accused Bush of lynching a man. So Bush declined to speak to them, during his presidency. At least during its first five years.

Read the rest.