VERY PROPHETIC QUOTE FROM GLENN REYNOLDS:
From June 2008:

"I can think of no better reason to vote against Obama than the prospect of an administration where any criticism of the President is treated as racism."

Yep.

VERY SCARY STUFF....
"US Loses Most Jobs At Fastest Rate in History Under Obama"

Link here. The graphs are actually...terrifying.

I generally kept quiet because I didn't know how much to blame Bush for our current economic mess, but it's now obvious that the "stimulus" package is an economy-killer.

NOW THIS IS FUNNY....BUT SHOULD I SUE SINCE GRAPE-NUTS HAS NO GRAPES - OR NUTS?
Woman sues Cap'N Crunch cereal because "Crunchberries" aren't real berries.

Fortunately, logic prevailed, and she lost.

Link contains funny comments about the story.

UDPATE: More on Grape-Nuts here.

IS CYBERSPACE JUST A LITTLE TOO PUBLIC?
I have a Twitter account, which apparently a LOT of people swear by as the "next big thing." I approached it with a more jaundiced eye. Anybody can check it out at http://twitter.com/halscrawford, but don't expect any more insights than I would put out here - at least not yet.

One wag I read about said "it's a great chat utility." Oh, really? I guess so, but it's a chat session that unless you mark your account private, and KEEP IT private, anybody can it check out. Forever. Those suckers just don't have an erase button.

So, Twitter is a brick wall that you can spray-paint your musings for anyone to see - except unlike that brick wall, there's a permanent pointer going right back to you. One poster, apparently a grad student, posted this message for all to see:

Cisco just offered me a job! Now I have to weigh the utility of a fatty paycheck against the daily commute to San Jose and hating the work.

Now, as an email sent to your friends, this message is quite innocuous. However, as a Twitter post, well, it was more than a little careless. Cisco employees, who like to do Twitter searches on the word "Cisco" to see what's going down, weren't so amused. The Twitterer got a reply:

Who is the hiring manager. I'm sure they would love to know that you will hate the work. We here at Cisco are versed in the web.

Ouch. Apparently the offer was rescinded. The Twitterer tried to do some damage control by backpedaling on her website, but the damage was done.

I don't do a lot of posting to my own blog - it comes in fits and starts, but I'm not blessed with a lot of spare time. But I love to write and like to put my thoughts on the Internet. I'm a consultant, and I do a lot of traveling. It's not hard for people to go through my website, my blog, and my Flickr account to see where I've been. But I generally don't talk about my clients, out of respect for them. You saw my post about Des Moines yesterday; it was a generally upbeat piece. I don't want to trash the places where I work, unless I have a really good reason. (Dayton, Ohio might be the lone exception.) But it is amazing how people can get offended by the smallest slight.

The only real fear right now is that I also like to talk about politics. I make no secret that I lean conservative, and in the age of Obama that may be a dangerous thing. It's been hard to find work in this economy. And while the clients I work for tend to share my political leanings, that doesn't mean they can sit back and let me go on a right-wing rant. Banks can be a potential client, and if I happen to land a project with a bank that has received "stimulus" money from the Obama Administration, there might be some understandable reluctance from my client to let me go on a tear about stimulus packages. Do I bite the hand that feeds the hand that feeds me? It's a tough call all around.

Well, I'm not working for a stimulus package recipient, but it is sad that one has to think of these things in a free society.

A NEW PROJECT! YEA!
Tonight I’m at Java Joe’s, a coffee bar located in downtown Des Moines, where my current assignment is. This is Irish Music Tuesday, and several musicians are playing Irish reels and other selections.

Today at lunchtime I got my shoes shined. As I sat down, I asked him how he was doing, and he said, “Well, I have to tell you. I’m doing great for a man of 95.” I was amazed – first because I wouldn’t think he was older than 75 or so, and second that he was still working at his age. But he did a great job on my shoes. He started shining shoes at the age of 18, and charged 10 cents back then (he charged me $7.00 today). I remarked that you couldn’t buy anything for 10 cents anymore, and together we listed things that used to: candy bars, phone calls. He had lived in Des Moines since 1938, and done nothing but shine shoes all these years.

This is my second visit to Des Moines – but my first visit was in the early nineties, when I was visiting Meredith Corporation. I really didn’t recognize the town. You can walk all over downtown without ever getting hot, cold or wet, because there are a series of skywalks that move through most of the buildings downtown. It’s three blocks to my client, and all covered by skywalks.

It's not Florida, but it's certainly pleasant enough.

ARLEN SPECTOR BOLTS GOP...
Surprising no one.

Don't let the Republican door hit you on the way out, senator.

Will the Democrats sing "Consider Yourself," like they did to Jim Jeffords? (gee, where is HE now?)

AND THE MEDIA CONTINUES TO SELF-DESTRUCT....
Bill Whittle has an excellent analysis of the media bias rampant today.

TYPICAL...FOR OAKLAND....
Man goes berserk, and kills 4 police officers before he goes down.

A candlelight vigil has been held.....

...for the cop killer.

The world is a little bit crazier.

NEWSPAPERS…RIP?
Speaking of the news, newspapers have been on the skids for years now. Part of the problem has been the decline of quality, accuracy and fairness that newspapers are supposed to uphold.

But with the rise of the Internet, and the means of getting your news for virtually free, the old standby sources of information have had to struggle as readers depart for other pastures.

It’s nice to have a newspaper to read on a bus or plane, but more people than ever have iPods, laptops, and Blackberrys that can access the news no matter where you are.

Now, there’s talk of a -- wait for it – bailout for newspapers! Please please please, no. Where were the government bailouts for buggy whips and trolleys? Who misses those things, today? Politics aside, I can halfway understand throwing a few bucks at the auto industry – the automobile is not going away anytime soon, and transportation is an important component of our economy. But newspapers?

Let’s look at the Gray Lady: The New York Times. They’re over a billion dollars in debt. They’re going to mortgage their own building just to keep afloat (fat lot that’s gonna get them, in today’s real estate market). But the editorial staff is a shambles. They’ve been the source of flawed coverage of critical stories for years. They’re practically the mouthpiece of the Democratic Party. They’re the Air America of print news. And surprise! Not everybody wants to read about the glories of the Democratic Party every day, or how Republicans are always screwing up the country, or how nobody can find WMDs in Iraq (even though some articles in their own paper say there are).

Why would I want to ever support throwing government money at newspapers? Isn’t the media supposed to be the “fourth branch” of government? Aren’t they supposed to be government watchdogs? If we give them money, will they be fair and balanced – like NPR?

If the silly notion of giving bailout money to newspapers takes root, I’m writing my congressman and senators. Sigh. Again.

I HAD NO IDEA THE LA TIMES WAS THIS BAD....
Patterico has a summary of all of the reviews he has done of the LA Times. What an ugly mess.

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2009!!!
And goodbye to 2008. Not a terrible year, but certainly plenty of ups and downs. 2008 was my first full year as an independent LLC consultant. And business hasn't been bad. The economy looks very daunting for 2009, and I hope things go well this year as well. I've got one daughter in college, you know; and having to save for the second one as well.

And I have a lot of friends who are looking for work (if you know of any openings for mainframe operations gurus, or BI-ETL consultants, email me). And I see no real evidence that the economy is going to pop back up anytime soon. We have a new President coming into office in a few weeks, and while he's not from my preferred party, he seems to be making sensible Cabinet selections, so there may be hope for us, yet.

FESTIVUS IS JUST THREE WEEKS AWAY!!! ARE YOU READY???
You can get your Festivus Pole here.

Instapundit: "Ah, there’s nothing like seeing the little kids’ eyes light up when you bring one of these beauties into the living room. . . ."

Yeah, I didn't know what Festivus was, either, until I clicked here. And here. Oh, and here.

A COOL WEBSITE....
This site lists ships that are anywhere in the world, where they're going, plus lots of other cool information. They are ships equipped with AIS (Automatic Identification System), and they are used for collision avoidance and emergency locating.

There is a downside - pirates out of Somalia are also using the system to pinpoint their targets, using the same technology. Hanging is too good for some people.

HEH...NEW TORTURE TECHNIQUES IN QUANTANAMO ARE GETTING RESULTS.

MUST...CONTROL...GAG REFLEX...
Time Magazine is just gone gone. Here are the first words of reporter Nancy Gibbs defining the Obama Victory:

Some princes are born in palaces. Some are born in mangers. But a few are born in the imagination, out of scraps of history and hope.

Other Democratic spokesmen have talked about how Obama will 'rule' the United States.

Banana Republic, here we come.

MARK STEYN'S LATEST...

I don't need Barack Obama's help to "spread the wealth around." I spread my wealth around every time I hire somebody, expand my business, or just go to the general store and buy a quart of milk and loaf of bread.

Note that he's talking about spreading the wealth to people who earn it. Read the rest here.

BLOG OVERHAULED!
I never liked the colors of my blog, and it was time to freshen it up. Also, I now have ads! Please check them out from time to time, and if you're interested in what you see, please click on them!

Maybe this will get me to post more often.

And no, no comments allowed (yet). I just don't have the time to keep up with them, and I'm easily baited into comment 'debates'. In the meantime, if you want to comment, just send me an email.

THE DAY AFTER....
Well, surprising no one, Barack Obama is our President Elect. Congratulations to him and best of luck to his administration. He will be inheriting a struggling economy, and a rising tide of Islamo-fascist terrorism in the Middle East and Europe. With 51% of the vote, he doesn’t have a mandate. But he’ll have a compliant Congress ready to do his bidding.

I’m not happy about some of the way he handled his campaign. There are clearly fund-raising and get-out-the-vote irregularities that really need to be investigated, but they won’t. I’m pretty convinced that Ohio was stolen. But other states weren’t, and McCain didn’t do what was necessary to get his message out to the voters.

Without question, Obama will be the most politically liberal man ever to occupy the White House. He will certainly allow the Bush tax cuts to lapse, which in combination with his redistribution agenda will certainly drag down the economy even further. Iraq better be ready; he will almost certainly pull troop out and if he keeps his word will cut military spending 25%. And while I don’t expect universal health care to have that much traction, expect no improvement in the health care area.

With gas prices returning to a semblance of normalcy, energy issues will be less prominent, but ‘cap and trade’ policies will hurt energy production and increase prices. And if he embraces Kyoto and other global warming protocols, we can expect unprecedented economic challenges.

Republicans put themselves in the wilderness when they acted like drunken teenagers with Dad’s sports car in the 2001-2004 Congress. They abandoned the conservative principles that swept them into office in the first place, and it cost them. The Democrats haven’t been any better, but with a compliant media they don’t have to be. Until the Republican party and it's leadership can embrace a conservative methodology and focus the voters with a solid message, we can expect them to be out there for a long time to come.

Until that time comes, how much can Obama do? As a Marxist (by his own words), quite a bit. Look at Venezuela. It was a free country when populist Hugo Chavez took power as president. Now the country is a basket case, kept alive only because it sells oil to the U.S. He shut down newspapers and TV stations. Nationalized the oil industry. Can Obama do that? We got a taste of what he is capable of doing when he sent his operatives to Missouri, and his response to the Orlando TV station when they didn’t do the usual puff piece on Joe Biden. Now there is talk of reviving the “fairness doctrine,” which will stifle free speech in the radio markets, and there may even be moves to shut down political speech on the internet (including this feeble site!). The Democrats have power again, and we’ve seen that they will do what it takes to keep it.

It’s going to get rough.

I WAS ON NEAL BOORTZ THIS MORNING!
Hardly had to wait, too. I call in about every 5 years, so it was time. I wanted to talk about the Democrat-backed bill that would create unions from open elections. Currently to become a union, there is a secret ballot. Union organizers want to do away with all that stuff. Intimidation factor? Nahhhh....

Anyway, here's how I opened with Neal:

ME: Hi, Neal. You should know that if Obama wins, I'm moving to a more conservative country - like, France.

NB: Oh, do like Alec Baldwin, huh?

ME: Exactly.

NB: 'A conservative country like France...' heh heh....

IT'S ELECTION DAY!!!!
I'm gonna vote for Palin and that other guy.

Heh: "Vote for McCain, he may win."

UPDATE: My polling precinct is PACKED. Gonna try after lunch.

Another heh: Mark Steyn reports that early results are in.

OH, NOW I FEEL BETTER ABOUT VOTING FOR OBAMA....
Obama will explain how he will spend the $700 billion bailout money, on Wednesday. Ben Smith has the details.

Also up, on Wednesday, Obama will solve the global warming problem, establish peace in the Middle East, and establish 100% employment in the U.S.

BIDEN BOTTLED UP...
After some questionable performances, such as engaging in an interview that finally asked some straight questions about Obama and campaign, and after well, talking without a script, again, VP candidate Joe Biden has been leashed.

I think if I knew Biden personally, politics aside, I would like him. As a politician, though, he's a bit clueless.

IS OBAMA AN AMERICAN CITIZEN?
Quite a few folks say, well, no:



Summary: Philip J. Berg has brought a lawsuit in Philadelphia has not proven his American citizenship and is therefore disqualified from running for office.

Now, Mr. Berg has his own issues, and I'm kind of in the crowd that might be willing to give Obama the shadow of the doubt, but there are lingering questions. However, the case was dismissed on Friday.

The reason: Because Mr. Berg "lacked standing", and any harm that would come from an ineligible candidate was "too vague and its effects too attenuated to confer standing on any and all voters."

Lacked standing? Other than being an American citizen, how can one not have standing to demand that a candidate prove their citizenship as required by the Constitution???

Also, that judge (who was appointed by Clinton, BTW), indicated that any potential harm from an ineligible candidate was "too vague"? So, the natural born requirement is unenforceable?

This stuff is just bizarre - all around.

UPDATE: Even Michelle Malkin isn't touching this one, considering the evidence (see this link). I'm willing to move on, too.

NEAL HEFTI HAS DIED....

Who is Neal Hefti, you ask? Why, none other than the composer of the most memorable song of my childhood: The Batman Theme!

In the LA Times' Obituary (linked above), he says it took him a month to write the theme. Must have been one hell of a case of writer's cramp. Let's go over the lyrics of that unforgettable classic:

(dum-dum dum-dum dum-dum dum-dum -- dum dum dum dum dum dum dum)
BATMAN! (dum-dum dum-dum dum-dum dum-dum dum-dum)
BATMAN! (dum-dum dum-dum dum-dum dum-dum dum-dum)
BATMAN! (dum-dum dum-dum dum-dum dum-dum dum-dum)
BATMAN! (dum-dum dum-dum dum-dum dum-dum dum-dum)
BATMAN...BATMAN...BATMAN! (well, you get the dum-dum part)
BATMAN...BATMAN...BATMAN!
DAH-DAH DAH-DAH DAH-DAH DAH-DAH DAH - BATMAAANNNNN!!!!

Interestingly, he also scored the Odd Couple theme. Passed away, age 85.

SO SIMPLE A CAVEMAN CAN DO IT...
A great piece from Jim Manzi on how Wall Street works, and what's going on today.

BUSH'S SPEECH THIS MORNING...
Yeah, I caught it, while waiting on a new battery for my car. The most inspiring words since Jimmy Carter told us to turn down our thermostats from his fireside chats.

I don't know, I guess I'm still just MASSIVELY ticked off about this bailout. "The Federal Reserve has injected hundreds of billions of dollars into the system...?" And if this is such a great idea, why did we wait for a crisis to do it? I'll tell you why: to prevent inflation.

The REAL question is, are the credit markets reticent because there is TOO much money in the economy, or not enough? Too much means inflation is on the way, enabling banks to be repaid with dollars worth less than what was lent out. Not enough means that the economy is contracting - and banks don't want to put money into business or ventures that won't pan out or repay them. You know, like the real estate market. Either way, Wall Street is now on shaky ground.

I know if you took all the economists in the world, and laid them end-to-end, you will never reach a conclusion. But fiddling with the marketplace with this bailout just messes up the financial cues that the market relies on to prosper.

A GREAT AD FROM THE NRCC:
Check this out!

HOW A FINANCIAL DISASTER BEGINS....
A New York Times article from 1999 sets the stage.

WALL STREET BURNS WHILE CONGRESS CONGRATS ITSELF...
Thanks for nothing, Congress (and Mr. President). In spite of Rep. Linder's efforts, a pork-laden bailout plan passes Congress - and President Bush signs the bill quickly. Totally ignoring my warnings (see below). Wall Street, knowing that bending the rules of the Free Market and Economics 101 doesn't do them any good in the long run, reacted accordingly.

Meanwhile, AIG has a little celebration.

THE VICE-PRESIDENTIAL DEBATES:
No, I didn't watch them - I'll review excerpts later. But the reviews are coming in.

A USA Today editorial calls the debate a draw. In MSM-speak, that means it was a TKO for Palin.

SAY NO! TO PORK-LADEN BAILOUTS!
This article got me mad. So I wrote my Congressman:

Dear Representative Linder,

It is a rare moment when I am moved enough to write Congress, so please understand the sincerity of my words when I say that the Bailout bill, as passed by the Senate yesterday, is far worse than the original bill that you voted NO on earlier this week. (Thank you, by the way.)

I completely agree with you that some form of relief must be passed. However, the Senate bill, laden with projects and spending that are not germane to our financial crisis, does not approach addressing the problem.

I am not naive enough to believe that the final cost to taxpayers will be $700 billion. In addition, the infusion of cash from the US Treasury will distort the financial markets, increase the risk of inflation, and does nothing to prevent this fiasco from happening again.

I have every confidence that you agree with me on these points. Please communicate to your fellow Congressmen (and our Senators) that any solution must include a fresh look at the government relationship with our financial institutions, the current regulations that facilitate graft and market distortions, and hold those who caused this mess accountable.

ALL I CAN SAY IS, "WOW..."
The I-35W bridge in Minneapolis, which collapsed last year, has already reopened. Months ahead of the planned Christmas Eve date, which detractors said couldn't be done. Read the article to see how it was done. Anyone who has responsibility for heavy-lifting projects like this one should pay attention.

IF PRESIDENT KENNEDY HAD HAD THE 2008 DEMOCRATIC MINDSET:

Kennedy: I propose that we send a man to walk on the moon.
Science Advisor: But that will take 10 years to happen!
Kennedy: Really? Oh, never mind, then.

USS NEW YORK LAUNCHED - MADE WITH 9/11 STEEL...
I think this is kinda cool:

It was built with 24 tons of scrap steel from the World Trade Center .

It is the fifth in a new class of warship - designed for missions th at include special operations against terrorists. It will carry a crew of 360 sailors and 700 combat-ready Marines...

Junior Chavers, foundry operations manager, said that when the trade center steel first arrived, he touched it with his hand and the ‘hair on my neck stood up.’ ‘It had a big meaning to it for all of us,’ he said. ‘They knocked us down. They can’t keep us down. We’re going to be back.’

The ship’s motto? ‘Never Forget’

HEY ISLAM! YO MOMMA WEARS ARMY BOOTS!
Let's see Kuwait come and get me.

THERE ARE JUST SOME THINGS A CHEMIST WON'T DO....
Derek Lowe has published a series of short articles on "Things I Won't Work With," and after you read these technically detailed but humorous segments, you'll see why. If you eyes glaze over reading about anions, boiling points, and other fun aspects of organic chemistry, you may not want to check out this link. But the scientifically curious should go ahead and click here.

FROM THE TOO MUCH TIME ON THEIR HANDS DEPT:
Human Tetris.

NOT ALL MUSLIMS ARE NUTS
Good article from the Baltimore Sun. Javeed Akhter discusses how terrorists abuse the Islamic writings, twisting them for their own agenda:

Those who practice or sanction suicide bombing consider it a form of martyrdom. But suicide by any name is still suicide and is explicitly prohibited in Islam. Injunctions of the Quran and traditions of the Prophet Muhammad prohibit it in unequivocal terms. Similarly, killing of innocents is expressly prohibited. It is not collateral damage but callous murder.

Hope this is required reading at Gitmo.

ADVENTURES IN DINING OUT
Rule 1: If you skip out on a big bill, don't go to another restaurant, owned by the same Judo-trained manager, on the same night.

FICKLE WORSHIPPERS.

I HAVE PICTURES!
I finally created a Flickr account, and I'm slowly adding pictures to it. You can view my work in progress here.

CUBA!!!

Right now I’m flying over Cuba! Around 32000 feet up, barely six miles over this communist country. Hard to see a lot of details, because of partly cloudy skies, but I can make out farms, a few roads, and the occasional village. I see absolutely no traffic on the roads. Ah, the worker’s paradise.

I’m not stopping here, of course. I’m on my way to Jamaica for a quick project.

THIS IS FUNNIER THAN I EXPECTED:
Star Wars quotes that are improved by changing one word to 'pants.'

Note: Don't waste your time past the top 20 or so....

FROM THE 'WHY DIDN'T I THINK OF THIS - FIRST' DEPT:
http://www.cereality.com/main.php

Simple idea. Simple implementation.

Argh.....!

Not that we're looking at the next Starbucks, but....still....

THEY SHOULD TRY THIS AT SIX FLAGS...
Jonah Goldberg of NRO brings up this amusing story: The largest theme park in Great Britain, Alton Park, had planned to host a "Muslim Fun Day," where the park is set aside for Muslims only. All alcohol will be banned, and separate lines will be set up to segregate male and female riders. There will be a strict dress code (burquas, what fun!) and prayer areas would be set up.

It's been canceled, due to low ticket sales.

Which is probably a relief to this couple.

PEACE???
It's now war between, well, Israel and, er, terrorist organizations in Syria and Lebanon. I suppose that the idea of war between nation-states is all but a thing of the past - afterall, who pits ship against ship, plane against plane, and soldier against soldier anymore? The war on terror has been more about stomping cockroaches than destroying the other guy's army. In a way, we have the modern (liberal) media to blame - wailing over every 'civilian' death, and calling out for peace at every turn.

To be sure, peace is a great thing, but even as Americans we haven' t seen a lot of what could be called true peace. A terrorist organization has members without a political structure, the geographical boundaries of a nation-state, or even uniforms. They target civilian populations, because of the fact that if you set your sights on military targets you quickly learn that they can shoot back.

For years we've been making nice to Arafat and a slew of other terrorist-supporting organizations, with nothing more than wishful thinking that they'll think hey, all this killing is a bad thing, we should stop. This is a game that's been played for over 40 years, and I think I speak for a lot of people who are sick and tired of just hoping the terrorist problem goes away.

Israel's already been doing everything they can to avoid war and try to establish peace. The liberal elite says those poor people just want land, so Israel gives them land. They've tried to help Palestine become a reality. It's annoying to hear about how Arabs want to push the Jews into the sea. So when some terrorist goons kidnap some Israel soldiers, and Israel says, okay, that's enough, and starts shooting, I can only tell Israel, hey, go for it.

I think that terrorists should be hit back, and hit very hard. There are rules, even in warfare. Civilized nations try to follow the rules. Terrorists don't. And if Lebanon and Syria don't want to clean house, then they shouldn't complain when Israel does it for them.

NOW THIS IS AN OBITUARY....
Heh.

AL-ZARQAWI SURVIVES BOMBING; DIES SEVERAL MINUTES LATER

Report from CNN. All I can say is, GOOD. Wouldn't want him to go without suffering a bit.

UPDATES! I HAVE UPDATES!
I really have been working on my website, www.halcrawford.org. Last month I added links to the Easter service at my church (where my daughter played organ and piano). This month I added photos and video from my trip to San Francisco. Feel free to check it out.

IS AMERICA TORTURING PRISONERS?
A report from the Amnesty International prepared for the United Nations declares that tortune and inhumane treatment are par for the course if you happen to be a prisoner of the US Government.

Having followed Amnesty International’s reports for many years, this report shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone. Amnesty International’s politics have pretty much run anti-America on any issue of substance. Besides, look at the evidence. Investigators have been through Guantanamo and other centers for Prisoners of War in Afghanistan and Iraq. You have to look pretty hard to find ANY evidence of abuse anywhere. Guantanamo? The best they can come up with is that a Koran got flushed. Abu Ghraib? Some idiot soldiers got cocky and they got completely slammed for their actions. Secret detention centers around the world? Still just a rumor, but….come on. I’d still rather be a prisoner of the US Armed Forces than in a jail cell in North Korea, Saudi Arabia or pre-liberation Iraq. By comparison, a stint in Guantanamo is Club Med. Muslims have rights a Christian could only dream about in any Islamic jail cell.

It's unfortunate, because by lowering the bar for prisoner abuse here, they raise the bar in other totalitarian countries. Now try going after Zimbabwe's obvious abuses. "What do you mean, we torture our prisoners? At least we're not like big, bad America!!!"

SO LONG TO 'THE VIEW'...
Meredith Vieira is leaving the ABC show to replace Katie Couric on 'Today' - guess who's replacing Meredith? Rosie O'Donnell.

In a word? Arrrrrgggggghh! What's the matter, Barbra Streisand wasn't available???

COOL WEATHER VIDEO....
...located here. (you have to scroll down a little to see it.)

COME ON, DUBYA!
What ARE you thinking? What's the matter, too many American companies want to charge too much to manage our ports? Don't feel guilty enough taking on the Middle East? So now you want to turn over seaport operations to a state-owned UAE company? A Middle-Eastern country that has exported terrorists at that?

Michelle Malkin doesn't like this deal. (plus read this)
Neither does Neal Boortz.

Democrats, no surprise, are also opposed. But one Democrat thinks it's just swell:

Jimmy Carter.

If that ain't the kiss of death, what is?

SORRY...
But I've been too busy to say anything here - been wrapping up projects in Atlanta, trying to get new business in Richmond, working on presentations in Miami, mentoring a project rehabilitation in Ft Lauderdale, and prepping to train a class in Jacksonville (where I am right now). Really quick notes:

Harriet Miers pulls nomination - good news there. James Taranto notes that she and Karl Rove were in attendance at a Federalist Society gala and received a round of applause when her presence was noted at the event. Considering this is the Federalist Society, the fact that conservatives applauded her is worthy of note. My 'ilk' and I at NRO never said she was incompetent, just that she wasn't worthy of the highest court in the land given her background. So I thought it was a nice and gracious touch for her to get that consideration.

Paris burning - bad stuff. Most insightful comment to date is from Jonah Goldberg, who says it's too easy to just dismiss this as Muslim rage perpetuating a religious agenda. Still, it's getting easier to understand France's recalitrance about dealing with Iraq - fear of the Islamic base back home.

Scooter Libby indicted - while I have tried to suppress my instincts that this is just a left-wing hatchet job, the facts are coming out that Valerie Plame's employment at the CIA must be the biggest open secret in Washington. If her job wasn't secret, Fitzgerald has no case. I guess somebody had to be indicted to keep the blood in the water to a minimum, but stuff like this is ugly politics.

Having a nice little 'discussion' at this site with someone named 'forty-two' (my favorite Douglas Adams number!). 42's his/her own site, here. (There's a Bear plug for you, 42!)

CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER PLOTS THE EXIT STRATEGY FOR MIERS
Hey, he's only trying to help:

...imagine the hearings. First she will have to pass an implicit competency test. As case upon case is thrown at her on national television, she dare not respond, as she apparently did to Sen. Chuck Schumer while making the rounds, that she will have to "bone up on this a little more." Then there will be the withering fire of conservatives such as Sen. Sam Brownback who will try to establish some grounds to believe that (a) she has a judicial philosophy and (b) it is conservative.

And then there will be the Democrats who, in their first act of political wisdom in this millennium, have held their fire on Miers, under the political axiom that when your opponent is committing suicide, you get out of the way. But now that Miers is so exposed on abortion, the Democrats will be poised like a reserve cavalry to come over the hills to attack her from the left -- assuming she has survived the attack from the right.

The omens are not good.

Nope, they're not.

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL WEIGHS IN ON MIERS:
"A political blunder of the first order."

PORKBUSTERS TAKES A SETBACK
I don't have time to provide links or better research, but Senator Coburn (not sure what state he's from - see? Too busy to do homework.) tried to put together an amendment to reduce some of the pork going to certain pet projects - most notoriously, a half-billion dollar bridge in Alaska to serve 50 Alaskans. You conservative Republican government hard at work. The amendment failed overwhelmingly.

I'm planning on calling my senators - who voted against the amendment.

HARRIETT MYERS PETITION: OVER 6000

Not too late to sign!

Update 2006 - actually, it is now. Link's broken. But it's okay! We won!

ANN COULTER ON HARRIETT MIERS
One person I wouldn't want to be upset with me.

Her first column on Miers - October 5. She defends the charges of elitism head-on:

Bush has no right to say "Trust me." He was elected to represent the American people, not to be dictator for eight years. Among the coalitions that elected Bush are people who have been laboring in the trenches for a quarter-century to change the legal order in America. While Bush was still boozing it up in the early '80s, Ed Meese, Antonin Scalia, Robert Bork and all the founders of the Federalist Society began creating a farm team of massive legal talent on the right.

Conservatives from elite schools have already been subjected to liberal blandishments and haven't blinked. These are right-wingers who have fought off the best and the brightest the blue states have to offer. The New York Times isn't going to mau-mau them – as it does intellectual lightweights like Jim Jeffords and Lincoln Chafee – by dangling fawning profiles before them. They aren't waiting for a pat on the head from Nina Totenberg or Linda Greenhouse. To paraphrase Archie Bunker, when you find a conservative from an elite law school, you've really got something.

Her 2nd column on Miers - October 12:

There are more important things in life than being Supreme Court material, but – oddly enough – not when we're talking about an appointment to the Supreme Court. According to the Associated Press, Sen. Arlen Specter defended Miers on the grounds that "Miers' professional qualifications are excellent, but she lacks experience in constitutional law" – and Specter ought to know. This is like recommending a plumber by saying, "He's a very professional guy, but he lacks experience in plumbing."

I genuinely feel sorry for Miers. I'm sure she's a lovely woman, brighter than average, and well-qualified for many important jobs. Just not the job Bush has nominated her for. The terrible thing Bush has done to Miers is to force people who care about the court to say that.

And now here's her latest column. She feels better about Harriet Miers....NOT.

From the beginning of this nightmare, I have taken it as a given that Miers will vote to overturn Roe v. Wade. I assume that's why Bush nominated her. (It certainly wasn't her resume.) Pity no one told him there are scads of highly qualified judicial nominees who would also have voted against Roe. Wasn't it Harriet Miers' job to tell him that? Hey, wait a minute ...

Well, she wasn't too crazy about John Roberts, either.

TIME RANKS 100 GREATEST BOOKS SINCE 1923
What? My autobiography isn't there?

Home sick today - aging digestive tract is rebelling.

This list is about as useless as you might think. Oh sure, they did think to add The Lord of Rings. Gone With The Wind is there, too. But no Atlas Shrugged? Well, that's okay, everybody has their own tastes....but wait a minute....

JUDY FRICKIN BLUME?????????

They found a spot for one of HER books?

I actually read - no, I endured "Tales of a Fourth-Grade Nothing," at the urging of my little brother, many, many years ago. A veritable waste of two weeks. Oh, it took barely a day to read it. I had to endure constant reminders of, "It's good! Really! It's really good! Wasn't it good? Why didn't you think it was good?" This from a man who would later think Chris DeBurgh's "Lady In Red" should be considered inspiring music.

Anyway, Are you there, God, it's Me, Margaret made the Time 100. Now, I checked with my wife - she considered it a perfectly readable book when she was 11 years old. And maybe it is (National Review Online, well, disagrees). Obviously it's superior to anything by that hack Ayn Rand. At least that what Time thinks.

ON THE LIGHTER SIDE OF MIERS...
Check out her blog!

(note - it's a satire)


(image 'borrowed' from her website)

MORE ON MIERS:
The more we learn about Harriet Miers, the scarier things get. Look, I think that Roe v. Wade was bad law. I think that, given sane reflection and consideration, it will eventually be overturned. (Note to abortion 'fans' - if you want to legalize it, you should have to do it the legislative way like everybody else.)

Miers signed support for the Human Life Amendment back in Texas umpteen years ago does not impress me. Well, la-dee-da. I don't care what legislation she supports. That has minimal bearing on how well she would do as a judge. You see, judges, particularly Supreme Court Justices, aren't supposed to consider prospective laws. They're supposed to consider and rule on laws already on the books, and consider them in the light of the Constitution. And not the laws of foreign countries, by the way.

If you haven't guessed by now, I have a pretty strict view of the Constitution. It wasn't always that way. I remember going to school and learning that somehow, the Constitution was a living document - that it's meanings were subject to fresh interpretations given new perspectives and customs. It made perfect sense back then. But then I didn't hear the entire story. No one bothered to tell me about the Federalist Papers.

But it was the Living Document claptrap that made it possible for bad rulings to slip by, like Griswold v. Connecticut. That case was over a simple matter of the right to buy birth control pills, back in 1965. I don't believe in penumbras and emanations in the Constitution. But I have to tell you, if you twist words just enough, you can do pretty much anything you want. Here they fudged a questionable right to privacy out of a bad ruling, and things have gone downhill ever since.

Anyway, regarding Griswold v. Connecticut - Miers was in fact asked about that case, and did she think it was a fair ruling. Why, yes, she said, yes it was. At least that's what Sen. Arlen Specter thought he heard. She later said that she really had no position and she was misunderstood.

Back when Roberts was nominated, I recalled that the idea of putting a SCOTUS nominee in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee is a fairly new concept in our nation's history. Only in the last 30 years have nominees been brought before the committee. It simply wasn't considered necessary before. The sad spectacle of Robert Bork was probably the worst, with the Clarence Thomas hearings close behind. I really didn't think it was necessary or prudent to parade John Roberts in front of a committee to see if he was good enough - his background and reputation should be clear enough to anyone. However, Harriet Miers has proved me wrong, I think. Because there is such a thin background, because we don't know what her court persona will be, that we only have Bush's recommendation to commend her, well, we all want to see who this nominee is.

I think she's going to turn out to be an embarrassment. Her 'obvious' pro-life views will penalize her in the eyes of the Democrats, who will have to vote her down, if only to appease the pro-choice people. Senators on the Republican side MIGHT be enough to get her confirmed, but if she doesn't do well in the hearings, she'll go down in flames. If she's half as smart as Bush says she is, she might do all right. But current events don't seem to be in her favor.

SIGN THE PETITION!
Are you a frustrated conservative? Wouldn't you like your President to just act like one? Did the nomination of Harriet Miers go one bridge too far?

Then sign the petition.

HOW DESPARATE ARE WE FOR NEWS?
The contents of Karl Rove's garage!

REPUBLICAN CANNIBALISM IN RHODE ISLAND:
The National Republican Senatorial Committee is sponsoring ads in Rhode Island, defending RINO Senator Lincoln Chafee against challenger Steve Laffey. The ads themselves sound pretty childish, using a cartoon image to portray "Laffeyland Tales."

Here is my letter to the NRSC:

Why are you using NRSC dollars to attack Republican challengers? Shouldn't this money be better spent going after Democrats?

I'm referring specifically to the campaign ads sponsored by the NRSC to attack candidate Steve Laffey, who is running against Chafee.

http://blogs.washingtonpost.com/thefix/2005/10/national_party_.html

What are you going to do if Laffey wins?

Sigh.

UPDATE: http://www.nationalreview.com/miller/miller200510180823.asp

ALL CONSIDERED, IT'S STILL A COOL OBITUARY:

Theodore Roosevelt Heller, 88, loving father of Charles (Joann) Heller; dear brother of the late Sonya (the late Jack) Steinberg. Ted was discharged from the U.S. Army during WWII due to service related injuries, and then forced his way back into the Illinois National Guard insisting no one tells him when to serve his country. Graveside services Tuesday 11 a.m. at Waldheim Jewish Cemetery (Ziditshover section), 1700 S. Harlem Ave., Chicago. In lieu of flowers, please send acerbic letters to Republicans. Arrangements by Chicago Jewish Funerals, Douglas MacIsaac, funeral director 847-229-8822, www.cjfinfo.com.

If I have the opportunity, maybe I should have something like this: "In lieu of flowers, caustic conservative letters to the editor should be sent to the AJC."

SUPREME COURT NEWS:
With the words, “Trust me,” Bush has nominated Harriet Miers for the Supreme Court. And everyone is scrambling to find out who this Ms. Miers is. One can certainly say that from a jurist perspective, her resume is a bit thin. Sure, she’s run a law firm. She's performed in various capacities of government, most notably as the head of the Texas Lottery Commission. Maybe she’s the stellar candidate for the job – the President thinks she is. But the more I learn about her, the more depressing it gets. Let’s set aside that she was once a contributor to Democratic campaigns, or that she has pursued feminist agendas up to only a few years ago. Rather than tell you what I think – in my words, I’ll let you read what other, more experienced pundits have to say:

First up, George Will. He’s all over Bush for his “Trust me” comment:

The president has forfeited his right to be trusted as a custodian of the Constitution. The forfeiture occurred March 27, 2002, when, in a private act betokening an uneasy conscience, he signed the McCain-Feingold law expanding government regulation of the timing, quantity and content of political speech. The day before the 2000 Iowa caucuses he was asked … whether McCain-Feingold's core purposes are unconstitutional. He unhesitatingly said, "I agree." Asked if he thought presidents have a duty, pursuant to their oath to defend the Constitution, to make an independent judgment about the constitutionality of bills and to veto those he thinks unconstitutional, he briskly said, "I do."

McCain-Feingold is a travesty, so Bush’s nominees are not going to get a free pass on his word alone. Sorry.

Professor Bainbridge was one of the first out of the gate to denounce the nomination. His first broadside was right to the point:

1. She's 60. There were lots of highly qualified younger candidates out there who would have sat on the court for decades.
2. She has no judicial experience.
3. She has no public track record of proven conservative judicial values (what happened to Bush's 2000 promise to appoint people in the old of Scalia and Thomas?). How do we know she won't be another Souter? or Kennedy?
4. She's a Bush crony, which is an unfortunate choice for an administration that has been fairly charged with excessive cronyism (anybody remember ex-FEMA head Mike Brown?).
5. Her resume pales in comparison to those of some of the other leading candidates.
6. Why is the leader of a party that is supposedly against affirmative action making an appointment that can only be explained as an affirmative action choice?
7. And if Bush was bound and determined to make an affirmative action choice, why not go with a more experienced and qualified woman like Edith Jones or minority like Emilio Garza?

As for the last two comments, even the President has indicated that he was looking for a woman to replace O’Conner. A pretty ugly political play so far.

WHEN ARCHIMEDES IS ON YOUR SIDE, WHO NEEDS LASERS?
This is kinda cool....

PIGLET...BANNED???

FIREFLY IS BACK!
Well, it's never really BEEN back - ruthlessly cancelled by FOX before a full season could be completed back in 1993, producer Joss Whedon promised to put together a movie-version of the show. In the meantime, it's been released on DVD, and the episodes are being re-aired on the Sci-Fi Channel...and now the movie is ready for release. If you've seen the trailer it looks hot! (Check out their website by clicking here.) I had some early comments about the show here.

I'm not exactly a Joss Wheden fan - Buffy never captured my attention with the limited amount of time I have to watch TV (and I'm sure I'll get tons of hate mail just for saying that) - but I like the unique vision he presents in the story.

This is the synopsis that sets up the movie:

Joss Whedon, the Oscar® - and Emmy - nominated writer/director responsible for the worldwide television phenomena of BUFFY THE VAMPIRE, ANGEL and
FIREFLY, now applies his trademark compassion and wit to a small band of
galactic outcasts 500 years in the future in his feature film directorial
debut, Serenity. The film centers around Captain Malcolm Reynolds, a
hardened veteran (on the losing side) of a galactic civil war, who now ekes
out a living pulling off small crimes and transport-for-hire aboard his
ship, Serenity. He leads a small, eclectic crew who are the closest thing he
has left to family –squabbling, insubordinate and undyingly loyal.

It opens September 30. Check it out.

DOWN BUT NOT OUT...
As bad as it's been in New Orleans - tens of thousands of homes flooded, millions displaced, things are hopeful for the long run.

Satellite pictures of before and after in New Orleans here.

Live blogging from these people in the middle of the action. Hope their food (and diesel fuel!) holds out.

Great summary from Peggy Noonan.

Neal Boortz also said that the military bases slated for closing would be a great place to house refugees. And add me to the list of folks who think that trucking them to Houston's Astrodome is a really dumb idea. Drop them in the middle of another city with no real supporting infrastructure for food and water? Sigh.

Shooting looters? Hard to argue with Instapundit's analysis:

When I was on Grand Cayman last month, several people told me that looting became a problem after Hurricane Ivan, but quickly stopped when the police shot several looters. That's because looters usually value life over property too.

As for me, I'm disappointed in our President's response. A major city has been totally, completely devastated. Troops should be there. The mobilization order should been issues as soon as Katrina targeted New Orleans.

But blaming Bush for the flooding is nothing less than stupid. New Orleans has been a fat target for a crisis for years. The Corps of Engineers should have been on top of this for years. The levees have been sinking all this time, through a lot more presidents than Bush. The pumps around the city seem woefully inadequate for a real emergency. And Louisiana and New Orleans can share in the blame for their shortsightedness.

KATRINA DELIVERS...SEAFOOD...?
Driving back into the office tonight, I found this little creature running around in the driveway....

It was about 12 inches across. I bet it looked weird to anybody watching me snapping pictures of this thing like crazed papparrazi.

I want to know - did Katrina really carry this crab 15 miles inland? Or do crabs thrive in freshwater lagoons?

CATEGORY 3 - NEW ORLEANS SPARED...
Whew.

KATRINA LINKS YOU CAN USE:
New Orleans Radar - you'll know it's bad when this link goes down
Mobile Alabama Radar - just in case

Cool, LIVE webcam of the corner of St. Charles & Napoleon in the Quarter (still working as of 2:30 AM EST)
Other webcams here and here.

The economic impact of a hurricane hit in Louisana is bad enough. Fact: New Orleans is the largest seaport in the U.S., with docks that line 50 miles of the Mississippi River. The river in that section passes a lot of sediment and must be continuously dredged for service. Tigerhawk has an impressive analysis.

Louisiana has a LOT of oil refineries....sigh. Gas prices are already high enough....

** Link credits to instapundit and Brendon Loy.

UPDATE:

NOLA Radar went offline around 9AM - last image:

LILEKS NAILS IT....

Ah – the TV guys are broadcasting from Baton Rouge. And they’re saying it’ll hit in the morning. Meanwhile, watch out for tornados! It’s like watching a feed from Pompeii describing how the shower of pumice should stop around two, and choking clouds of poison gas and lava flows will start around five.

Read the whole thing.

KATRINA - KILLER STORM OF THE CENTURY?
The National Weather Service has issued a warning of apocalyptic proportions:

...EXTREMELY DANGEROUS HURRICANE KATRINA CONTINUES TO APPROACH THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER DELTA......DEVASTATING DAMAGE EXPECTED...

MOST OF THE AREA WILL BE UNINHABITABLE FOR WEEKS...PERHAPS LONGER. AT LEAST ONE HALF OF WELL CONSTRUCTED HOMES WILL HAVE ROOF AND WALLFAILURE. ALL GABLED ROOFS WILL FAIL...LEAVING THOSE HOMES SEVERELY DAMAGED OR DESTROYED....

THE MAJORITY OF INDUSTRIAL BUILDINGS WILL BECOME NON FUNCTIONAL. PARTIAL TO COMPLETE WALL AND ROOF FAILURE IS EXPECTED. ALL WOODFRAMED LOW RISING APARTMENT BUILDINGS WILL BE DESTROYED. CONCRETE BLOCK LOW RISE APARTMENTS WILL SUSTAIN MAJOR DAMAGE...INCLUDING SOME WALL AND ROOF FAILURE.

HIGH RISE OFFICE AND APARTMENT BUILDINGS WILL SWAY DANGEROUSLY...A FEW TO THE POINT OF TOTAL COLLAPSE. AIRBORNE DEBRIS WILL BE WIDESPREAD...AND MAY INCLUDE HEAVY ITEMS SUCHAS HOUSEHOLD APPLIANCES AND EVEN LIGHT VEHICLES. THE BLOWN DEBRIS WILL CREATE ADDITIONAL DESTRUCTION. PERSONS...PETS...AND LIVESTOCK EXPOSED TO THE WINDS WILL FACE CERTAIN DEATH IF STRUCK.

POWER OUTAGES WILL LAST FOR WEEKS...WATER SHORTAGES WILL MAKE HUMAN SUFFERING INCREDIBLE BY MODERN STANDARDS.

See that? THAT???

When I was working in West Palm Beach last year, my client at the time was subjected to TWO hurricanes in as many weeks. Category 3. I left. It tore up both hotels I had been staying in. When I returned to the most whole hotel the next week, I got a free dehumidier to dry up the soaked carpeting in my room.

There are some storms you ride out, and some you flee. You can't ride this out.

Oh, but that doesn't mean somebody isn't going to try:

"We have never evacuated for a hurricane and probably never will. This isn't
bravado; it's just due to the logistical impossibility of evacuating 28 animals,
some of whom are uncatchably feral, and I have no intention of holing up
somewhere safe and dry while the animals cower in terror and go hungry. Besides,
we couldn't evacuate this time even if we wanted to; we're contractually
prevented from taking our cheapo rental car more than 25 miles from New Orleans."

You have got to be kidding me. I don't know where this guy lives but I'd put this post next to the word "foolish" in the dictionary. Not allowed to drive more than 25 miles from New Orleans? I'm sure the cheapo rental car agency would rather you drive it out of there than leave it submerged under 20 feet of brackish filthy water, especially since your sorry @## won't be around to pay the rental.

As for the animals, I love 'em, too, but you need to implement triage. Grab as many of the ones you can catch, cram them in the car, and go. The feral ones will likely make do anyway.

It reminds me of the interview of the old man before hurricane Ivan hit Mobile, Alabma: "I've been here for 80 years and I'm not going to run away now." And then he was never seen again.

Not that it matters at this point. If you haven't left by now, you're pretty much on your own. You can either whole up in your house or office building, or head for the makeshift shelter in the Superdome. Either way you have to hope Katrina doesn't do a direct hit on the city.

I've been studying Superdome links (like here and here), but I can't determine if the building design will withstand a Category 5 hurricane. The wind braces described in the design sound reassuring, as well as the fact that its "the largest clear span steel structure in the world."

But if the water pours into the city in the midst of the hurricane, the flooding could trap the occupants inside. In a giant, dark, powerless room, holding over 100,000 people with exits designed for less than half that number, and a massive storm beating the building in around you, it sounds like a perfect recipe for a nightmare.

UPDATE:

Word came in that 'Poppy Z Brite' bugged out after all. Good. Although word is that he might have called it right anyway. Still can't be too careful.

OH, NO.....
Just got word that Katrina has targeted New Orleans for her next landfall, and she's now a Category Five Hurricane.

This is serious.

A hurricane strike in New Orleans should be considered more serious than an earthquake in LA. New Orleans is below sea level. It is surrounded by dikes and levees, and requires massive pumps running constantly just to keep rainwater and groundwater out of the city. A breach in any of the levees should be considered a serious event. Hurricanes carve out channels in miles of land; cutting through a levee should be no big deal to a Cat 5. If that happens, with the storm surge New Orleans could see over 20 feet of water on Bourbon Street. Combined with high winds that would pretty much wipe out major portions of the city.

If you're reading this, and you live in New Orleans, don't take chances. Leave now.

AFTERMATH...
Katrina caught everybody by surprise: (1) As soon as it went ashore near Ft. Lauderdale it swept southward past Miami (and me); (2) It strengthened from a tropical storm to a Category One as soon as it came ashore - totally tossing out the rule that hurricanes start to dissipate when they hit land; (3) High speed wind bands accompanied the northern side of the hurricane, while massive rain came in on the southward side, drenching South Miami, Perrine, and Homestead with over 12 inches of rain overnight. And now (4) there's talk that Katrina is going to swing upward back into the Florida panhandle by Tuesday.

2 deaths reported so far, mostly by falling trees. If you don't have emergency power, well, you don't have power. Word is at least 800,000 are without power. Fortunately my hotel's emergency system worked well, and (as you can tell) Internet is still up.

My client's building has minor water damage, no power and lots of fallen trees. The signage at the top of the 9 story building has missing letters. Work crews are already here but have told me the building is closed. My company's office building was in similar shape.

All the traffic lights are out - fortunately there isn't a lot of traffic to worry about - yet.

Downed trees are everywhere. No stores are open and I know finding ice is going to be a critical concern for people here. It could take days to get power restored.

I was asked what was like to stand outside in 70 MPH winds. To be honest, I don't know. I stayed indoors.

They say there's a fine line between brilliance and insanity, and I prefer to think that I'm brilliant.

I have a few pictures and I'll try to post them soon. In the meantime I'm going to try to find an open restaurant.

KATRINA HURRICANE REPORT
I think the worst is past now. The hurricane actually took a dip southward toward Miami, and I think I literally went out to dinner during the eye of the storm, which was a little eerie. Winds mostly around 20-40 mph when I went out, with mostly drizzly rain.

Went under an overpass under construction on the way out; it collapsed about an hour later when the winds picked up behind me. CNN has the video.

At the restaurant you could hear the wind howling through the airducts - it was loud. When I first got there I couldn't open the door, and I thought the restaurant had closed, but it was the wind holding the doors shut.

On the way home it was dark, rainy, and still windy, with downed trees everywhere. I ran over an alligator in the road.

Really.

Yes, it was crossing the road and I didn't see him until I was right on top of him. About 4 feet long. I felt absolutely terrible - right up to the tree that had fallen across the road. I had to turn around, and face my handiwork.

But it wasn't there.

Maybe it was tougher than I thought (I am driving a pretty small car this week). Or maybe it had enough strength left just to get off the road. I don't know. I wasn't going to get out of the car to find out.

Had to take a few other detours to get out of the way of fallem trees. That must be how I got a nail in my right rear tire. Now I can say that I've changed a tire in a hurricane. My life is complete. While changing the tire in the driving rain I saw huge green flashes everywhere. Not lightning...transformers exploding, I'll bet. I've seen it happen before.

More updates as I think to add them.

IT'S RAINING HORIZONTALLY NOW....
guess it's time to leave the office.

FORECAST FOR MIAMI: I'M GONNA GET DRENCHED...
Here is the latest view out of my office window, looking at Miami Airport:

Raining on and off right now, and the clouds are sweep north-to-south (left to right in the picture, as this is a NE view).



Fun fun fun. Maybe I'll wear a swimsuit to work tomorrow.

WANNA SEND A MESSAGE TO THE NEW POPE?
He has an email address: benedictxvi@vatican.va

(I wonder how many Viagra/Cialis ads he gets?)

THE REALLY GOOD NEWS ABOUT BUSH'S REELECTION...
...is that Bush is in an excellent position to appoint some excellent Supreme Court justices. With an even stronger Republican majority in the Senate and with obstructionist Minority Leader Tom Daschle out of the picture, we actually have a chance to put some balance back into the courts.

Liberal justices have held off on retirement, hoping to get a Democratic president to choose their replacement. But that strategy has probably backfired, since if they had retired this term Bush would have likely had to find justices with more moderate views to placate the backbiting minority.

NO GLOATING HERE....
It really could have turned out the other way. I'm in South Florida this week, and didn't get a chance to vote before I left, much to the griping and complaining of certain stalwart Republicans ("It's okay," I kept repeating, "the Republicans will carry Georgia!"). I would have been in for a lynching if Bush had lost by one vote. Fortunately I called Georgia correctly.

Here in Florida it clearly looked like Kerry Country. A toll booth operator, sporting a Kerry button, shouted, "VOTE FOR KERRY!" as I handed her my dollar. But most of the 'international' people I know here (Cubans, South Americans, Asians, etc) were leaning for Bush. One told me that 'they' were offering $50 to vote for Kerry. When I kept asking "who are 'they'?" I just got a shrug. I did my best to talk up Bush for the undecideds, and maybe got a few to go to the polls.

Not that *I* would take credit for Bush carrying Florida, of course....

MORE ON THE DRAFT…
It’s the non-issue that refuses to go away, thanks now to CBS. They spotlight a “Republican Mother” who will vote for Kerry if Bush plans to bring back the draft. The Media Research Center is all over the case.

But there’s more that MRC didn’t catch. Apparently the mother in question, Beverly Cocco is a chapter president for People Against the Draft. This group isn’t just anti-draft, it’s anti-war – and there’s clearly a hidden agenda that CBS either overlooked or chose to ignore.

Let’s say it right now: The draft isn’t going to happen. The Selective Service is in place in the event of a national defense emergency. It’s a prudent precaution in the event a major power, say, China, decides to attack the U.S. Using the draft to put boots on the ground in Iran, North Korea, etc. simply doesn’t make sense. The best article to date is here.

In any event, if I were in charge of CBS News, thanks to Rather's ridiculous 'fake but accurate' expose that aired two weeks ago, I would want to personally vet every program that went on the air until election day. But that organization is so ideologically driven that producers there aren't just wearing blinders, they're wearing toilet-paper-tube goggles. How much worse can they get?

FROM ONE .ORG TO ANOTHER - MOVEON!
The folks at moveon.org are upset because their beloved presidential candidate isn't looking good in the polls. Their solution? Shoot the messenger:

If John Kerry believed in the Gallup poll, he might as well give up. A couple of weeks ago, a highly publicized Gallup poll of “likely voters” showed President Bush with a staggering 14-point lead.

But wait a minute. Seven other polls of likely voters were released that same week. On average, they showed Bush with just a three-point lead. No one else came close to Gallup’s figures. And this isn’t the first time the prestigious Gallup survey has been out on a limb with pro-Bush findings.

Let's cut to the chase. Their concern is that disillusioned Democrats, seeing their champion on the ropes, will decide to skip out on election day and not bother to cast their vote on a losing candidate.

Hey, guys, it works both ways. I might decide to skip out on election day because if my guy is winning, I don't need to waste my time voting.

Gallup's numbers may be more accurate than those other polls. But moveon.org thinks it has a fair gripe about how those numbers are generated. Why? Because the owner (who isn't even involved in the polling operation of the company) is a Christian:

Gallup, who is a devout evangelical Christian, has been quoted as calling his polling “a kind of ministry....”

Oh, what a Neanderthal. They probably resort to tea leaves and animal sacrifices to pick the latest numbers, too.

Seriously, if there's an issue with the numbers, it will be apparent soon enough. From my own 'pollng', Kerry is going to get a harsh wakeup call on Election Day.

PS - IMAO calls the moveon.org folks 'zombies' - as in Night of the Living Dead - heh. And check out this article by liberal pundit Mystery Pollster.

SUDDENLY I DON'T FEEL SO HEALTHY
Living in the suburbs is hazardous to your health?

People who live in sprawling communities tend to suffer more health problems, according to the first study to document a link between the world of strip malls, cul-de-sacs and subdivisions and a broad array of ailments.

It's better to live in Manhattan than Atlanta, apparently. The evidence cited is pretty thin, though. Color me skeptical.

FINALLY - A REASON TO VOTE FOR KERRY!
Oh my.

Update: Link fixed.

REUTERS - BLECH...
I can't say I'm a big fan of international news agency Reuters. Their articles are slanted with a left-wing bias, and there's an anti-American taint to many of their stories (they're British). Of course, they think they're fair and balanced.

My biggest complaint by far, however, is that they don't know what a terrorist is. Because of an apparent unfamility with the English language, they don't seem to realize that a terrorist is one who deliberately targets to kill or injure innocents for a political cause. So, when a group of armed gunmen invade a school in Russia, hold children hostage, and shoot them in the back when they try to run, don't dare call them terrorists. Oh, no, they're militants. Ah. How nuanced.

But now the truth has been laid bare. I had thought that the reason they didn't use the terrorist label was because they're biased. Nope. It's because they're cowards. Apparently Reuters got upset when a subscribing paper added the banned word to an article:

"Our editorial policy is that we don't use emotive words when labeling someone," David A. Schlesinger, Reuters' global managing editor told the New York Times. "Any paper can change copy and do whatever they want. But if a paper wants to change our copy that way, we would be more comfortable if they remove the byline."

Schlesinger indicated changes like those made at CanWest could lead to "confusion" about what Reuters is reporting and possibly endanger its reporters in volatile areas or situations.

"My goal is to protect our reporters and protect our editorial integrity," he said.

How noble. Reuters, trying to make its mark in the Middle East, is concerned about intimidation from Muslim thugs.

I guess you wouldn't want to lose your press pass at PLO headquarters, would you, Reuters?

UPDATE: Just to underscore my point, Reuters publishes kooky news like this. Millions of felons unable to vote because of laws "that have roots in the post-Civil War 19th century"? Shocking! Where's the ACLU?

I LOVE THIS STORY....
Larry Elder's column has a great story about someone who was tired of having his Bush/Cheney yard signs stolen...check it out (skim past the Rathergate section).

I have an interesting yard sign story too - someday I'll post it....

WHOO-HOO! I NAILED ONE!
Four days ago I suggested that Democrats were hinting that the draft might be restored just to scare up votes. Turns out I was prescient....

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. Sept. 22, 2004 — Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry, citing the war in Iraq and other trouble spots in the world, raised the possibility Wednesday that a military draft could be reinstated if voters re-elect President Bush.

(And he made his statement here in WPB? Ironic....)

Actually, talk about bad strategy. Why didn't he make that point on a college campus or something? In senior citizen laden Florida, he should have spent more time on the "Bush wants to trash Medicare" meme.

Heh. He should hire me to run his campaign. He still wouldn't win, but at least I'd keep it from looking like a McGovern/Dukakis upset.

UPDATE: Snopes has more on the drafting issue - looking more and more like a myth.

And here's what our military has to say about it.

And finally here's the word from Congress - the one pending bill - stuck in committee....

RESTARTING KERRY'S CAMPAIGN
Left-wing blogger Josh Marshall thinks that Kerry's campaign needs a new slogan. Well, Iowahawk comes to the rescue - NEW SLOGANS! My favorites:

I Will Keep Our Enemies Guessing, Too
Projecting American Strength Through Intricately Complex Nuance
The Thinking Man's Self-Confessed War Criminal
Vote For Me or My Running Mate Will Sue
I Will Do For You the Many Wonderous Things I Have Done For Massachusetts
Fear Not, America, I Have Deigned to Lead You
The Next Time America is Attacked, I Promise To Open Up a Carafe of Whupass
I Have Three Words For George Bush -- Bring It On
I Have Five More Words For George Bush -- Call Off Your On-Bringers
Some Look at Things As They Are And Say, 'Why?' Others Look at Things As They Are Not And Say, 'Why Not?', And I Suppose A Few Might Look at Things As They Are Not, And Say 'Why?', and Vice-Versa, and So Forth, And One Might Be Tempted To Look at These People Looking at Things And Ask 'Who?' But This Would Not Be Constructive, Because The Important Thing To Realize Is That Some People Like To Look At Things, And This Is Precisely My Point

WHITHER KERRY?
I’ve wanted to write about John Kerry for a long time, but haven’t had the time to (and don’t now). But let’s recap the current campaign, shall we?

John Kerry beats out a number of other candidates with questionable qualifications for office to get the Democratic nomination for President.
He spent some 4 months there, as a commander of a swiftboat patrolling the rivers of Vietnam. He was ‘wounded’ 3 times, two of those under highly questionable circumstances, and was able to return stateside before his tour of duty was up. Other questionable aspects of his war experiences have been raised.
The moment Kerry returns to the U.S., he joins the anti-war movement and testifies in Congress about atrocities that presumably happened in Vietnam. For some reason he doesn’t seem to understand why Vietnam veterans aren’t supporting him.
He has yet to make a speech without invoking some aspect of the time he spent in Vietnam. In his own mind he’s apparently a military hero. That he drops the fact that he was in Vietnam into EVERY conversation is almost laughable.
Why isn’t this multiple-term senator running on his record? Apparently it’s a pretty pathetic record. Ted Kennedy would be proud, but that’s about it. It’s been a fat target – even Zell Miller called Kerry out on it during the Republican Convention.
What's more, Kerry has been AWOL (to pick a military phrase) from numerious committee meetings, and refuses to have attendance information released that could exonerate (or elaborate) his absenses.
I suppose I could criticize Kerry’s political positions – if he had one. The caricatures keep coming because they’re easy. There isn’t ONE position you can tie him down on, unless it’s a solid social liberal issue.

All I can say is that this is the worst campaign I have seen from a Democratic candidate. Even worse than Dukakis. Can you look worse than running around driving a tank? Yep.

It's just astonishing how the best candidate the Democrats can field is this one. More on that later.

The Mainstream Media – not a Bush fan among them – has given up trying to find nice things to say about Kerry. Now they’re scrambling trying to find nasty things to say about Bush. Halliburton is making profits from the war! Oh, no! Documents say he skipped medicals, had improper influences getting him into the National Guard! Oh, my! Well, no.

He’s in the news today: “I have one position on Iraq.” Yeah, only it just keeps changing.

BUSH TRYING TO RESTORE THE DRAFT???
I get word that one of my daughter's friends is worried about the draft if Bush wins in November. The proof? This article, from the prestigious "Earth Crash Earth Spirit" website.

It's an article written by a discredited senator (anyone remember George McGovern?) who didn't come close to getting elected president. It was published 18 months ago in an obscure, leftist website which hasn't even published anything new since February 2004. This article posits the shocking possibility that Bush plans to invade North Korea and Iran "after finishing with Iraq." I've seen better foreign policy analysis from high schoolers. Why not add China to the list? Anybody remember China taking down one of our planes, back in 2001? I'll bet old G.W.'s got an axe to grind there, too!

So, we can dispense with anything particularly thoughtful and relevant coming out of this article.

NOW, let's move on. Why would we invade Iran and North Korea? It is still part of the "Axis of Evil" so proclaimed by GW Bush 3 years ago. They both are developing nuclear weapons, and sources there have made no secret of using them when they fully acquire them. So okay, the possibility of an invasion - by Bush *OR* by Kerry - does exist. (Kerry will likely wait until Philadelphia and Atlanta are hidden under mushroom clouds first, though.) I guess this whole episode just gets a big "so what?" from me.

Iran has no real military - what little one they have has been devastated through multiple wars with Saddam. Any military conflict will be resolved in weeks (especially if Iraq can be used as a staging area). North Korea is a little more problematic, if for no other reason than nuclear weapons could be involved. They must import 100% of their oil, which means they can literally have their fuel cut off, their reserves bombed, and their refineries gutted. In order to have a war, you MUST have fuel.

[Ed. Note: I'm not a military analyst, so don't quote me!]

The original concern, though, is that the draft will be reinstituted. I think this is a sad tactic to scare up Democratic votes. The only serious proposal to restart the draft has been by Democratic (!) Congressman Charles Rangel (information links here and here). Apparently he's upset that too many minority and lower-class youth are volunteering, and a draft might even up demographics of our military.

From what I hear from my military sources, recruitment is stable, and our military numbers are adequate for now. Everyone in Washington pretty much agrees that a draft would be a bad idea.

The world will be a far more dangerous place with Kerry in the White House. What's worse than getting drafted? Getting drafted with this grasping, spineless twit as president.

I HATE my cell phone
So I reach for my phone to call Delta Airlines, because my SECOND flight to Atlanta (which I had JUST rescheduled) has been cancelled. The "helpful" screen saver on my phone is displayed, so I press the "No" button to clear it. RIGHT AFTER I press the "No" button, a call immediately comes in. Well, I had just pressed the "No" button. If you press that button while the phone is ringing, it rejects the call. Do I know who it is? Nope. I suspect it's Delta Airlines, calling me to tell me my flight is cancelled. But I'll never know, because they didn't leave a message.

Grrrrr.

CHENEY UNLEASHED:
On the campaign trail in Dayton, OH, VP Cheney sticks it to Kerry regarding the war on terror (kudos NRO):

Senator Kerry has also said that if he were in charge he would fight a "more sensitive" war on terror. (Laughter.) America has been in too many wars for any of our wishes, but not a one of them was won by being sensitive. President Lincoln and General Grant did not wage sensitive warfare -- nor did President Roosevelt, nor Generals Eisenhower and MacArthur. A "sensitive war" will not destroy the evil men who killed 3,000 Americans and who seek the chemical, nuclear and biological weapons to kill hundreds of thousands more. The men who beheaded Daniel Pearl and Paul Johnson will not be impressed by our sensitivity. As our opponents see it, the problem isn’t the thugs and murderers that we face, but our attitude. Well, the American people know better. They know that we are in a fight to preserve our freedom and our way of life, and that we are on the side of rights and justice in this battle. Those who threaten us and kill innocents around the world do not need to be treated more sensitively. They need to be destroyed. (Applause.)

I listened to what Senator Kerry had to say in Boston, and, with all due respect to the Senator, he views the world as if we had never been attacked on September 11th. The job of the Commander-in-Chief, as he sees it, is to use America’s military strength to respond to attacks. But September 11th showed us, as surely as anything can, that we must act against gathering dangers - not wait for to be attacked. That awful day left some 3,000 of our fellow citizens dead, and everything we have learned since tells us the terrorists would do worse if they could, and that they will even use chemical, biological, or nuclear weapons against us if they can. In the world we live in now, responding to attacks is not enough. We must do everything in our power to prevent attacks -- and that includes using military force….

Here's the full text.

ABU GHRAIB
I was going to talk about the prisoners at Abu Ghraib. Enough indignant condemnation – the world knows we’re upset about it. But let’s keep things in perspective:

These guys were prisoners. That place was never Club Med. Bad things, justified or not, happen in prisons. The best way to stay out of them is to just do the right thing.

The ‘torture’ that was going on is bad, shameful, and repugnant, but is nothing compared to what used to happen in those prisons under Saddam. At least those prisoners will eventually be able to walk out of those prisons, with all pieces intact.

Many of these prisoners had valuable information about al-Qaida, and were understandably reluctant to talk. Making these people a little uncomfortable without permanent physical harm, in order to save American lives, is not a vice. (Of course, that’s not meant to imply that putting them on leashes and parading them around nude is an appropriate interrogation technique.)

Liberals are calling for Rumsfeld’s head. What a stupid, preposterous idea. What political prattling. I recall a certain Attorney General who authorized the attack and burning of a ‘compound.’ Innocent people – including children - died. If somebody should have resigned from that episode, it was Janet Reno, who directed that operation. Don’t lecture to me about how Rumsfeld has to go. He’s doing a great job, and the ‘torture’ that occurred had nothing to do with him, but a few military idiots who thought they were above the rules of war. The bottom line is that Democrats are trying to score a few political points. How sad that the important objective – eliminating terrorism and establishing a democratic beachhead in the Middle East, is being disregarded.

Having said ALL of that – the beheading of the American pretty much silenced the debate. This is what we’re fighting – people who have no conscience other than a blind allegiance to the mullahs who preach Wahabbi violence and others who would twist the words of the Koran into its most perverse and violent.

Cinco de Mayo! Yea!
Well, I've spent the entire day working...and I'm gonna spend the entire night...working...but I do like Mexico. Nice memories down there, and I've been there twice.

(cue strains of James Taylor's 'Mexico.....)

(I said, CUE JAMES TAYLOR'S MEXICO!!!)

Ummm....we don't have that version....

Oh.

(cue strains of Jimmy Buffett's version of 'Mexico')

There. That's better.

As I was saying, I wasn't sure what May 5 meant to Mexicans other than drinking a lot of tequila. But being curious, I happened upon this link. Wow, this guy is really excited about Cinco de Mayo. Hey, Mexico liberated itself from the French! What kind of challenge was that?

I'm not sure I agree with the author's analysis, and he throws in a lot of jingoism and excited adjectives ("Diaz' superb horsemen", the French had "the finest modern equipment", etc.). But it's still a fun read.

"Hamas Vows to Avenge Israel's Killing of Rantissi"
Okay, I'm curious - what is Hamas going to do that it hasn't already sworn to do since it's inception? Kill every Jew? Oops. That's already part of the platform. From Article Seven:

"The Day of Judgement will not come about until Moslems fight the Jews (killing the Jews), when the Jew will hide behind stones and trees. The stones and trees will say O Moslems, O Abdulla, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him...."

I mean, when you draw a line in the sand that consists of murder, mayhem and destruction, well, you set the terms. Don't get upset if a missile comes calling.

BUSH'S PRESS CONFERENCE
He's not The Great Communicator, but he was earnest and plain-spoken. The idiotic question of the night (which was presented in many different forms) was, should he apologize for 9/11?

What a stupid question. If your house is broken into, do you expect the chief of police to come over and apologize that a burglar robbed your house? Are the police really to blame when crime happens? Maybe if the police knew a crime was about to be committed you could park a cruiser in front of the house, but even that's no guarantee that your home won't be robbed. When would a apology be appropriate?

A good police department doesn't mean there is no crime; but it should act as a deterrent to dissuade criminals from committing crimes in the first place. Likewise, extending the analogy to our government, a strong defense with appropriate intelligence-gathering assets and a quick, measured response to terrorist acts should make such animals think twice about attacking us.

Apologizing for events beyond your control is a foolish liberal invention, and contributes nothing to a real solution. Yet the press continues to act like something's wrong when administration officials don't feel the need to apologize.

MISERABLE WEATHER:

It almost exactly like Miami, except that it's always raining, it's cold, it's windy, it's....

Well, never mind. It's nothing like Miami.

AS AN APRIL FOOL'S JOKE, THIS IS SO NOT FUNNY:
Those fun-loving folks at Planned Parenthood have a new site up:

http://www.saveroe.com/whitehouse/

These are the same people who pilloried Bush for doing this.

UPDATE: Surprise! Planned Parenthood took the original, tacky website down. Guess they didn't think it was that funny. That's okay, thanks to the miracle of the web, you can find the page here.

WHY DO THEY HATE US?
An absolutely awesome Lilek's bleat today:

We stopped pretending we would ratify Kyoto. We only spent $15 billion on AIDS in Africa. We did not take dictation from Paris. If we had done these things, it would minimize the world’s anger.

Is the world angry at Russia, which spends nothing on AIDS and rebuffed Kyoto? Is the world angry at China, which got a pass on Kyoto and spends nothing on AIDS for other countries?

Is the world angry at North Korea for killings its people? Angry at Iran for smothering that vibrant nation with corrupt and thuggish mullocracy? Angry at Syria for occupying Lebanon? Angry at Saudi Arabia for its denial of women’s rights? Angry at Russia for corrupt elections? Is the world angry at China for threatening Taiwan, or angry at France for joining the Chinese in joint military exercises that threatened the island on the eve of an election? Is the world angry at Zimbabwe for stealing land and starving people? Is the world angry at Pakistan for selling nuclear secrets? Is the world angry at Libya for having an NBC program?

Is the world angry at the thugs of Fallujah?

Is the world angry at anyone besides America and Israel?

And that just happens to be easiest part to quote. Read the rest.

POP-POP POP POP POP...
This happened to be a day when I needed this:

HOW NOT TO IMPRESS YOUR GIRLFRIEND
This potty-mouthed moron's attorney claims he's an honors student?

I find that hard to believe.

AIR AMERICA DOESN'T SOUND VERY IMPRESSIVE...
Initial reviews are flat.

It's obvious Franken doesn't like Ann Coulter. I don't blame him; she's a lot funner than he is.

WILL KERRY SURVIVE UNTIL NOVEMBER?
The Democratic challenger's poll numbers are dropping fast. Still, it's way too early in the race to tell what will happen, but Bush is in a lot better position than his father was this time umpteen years ago.

I really like Tony Blankley's take on Kerry, published in a column in the Washington Post:

What may become the enduring exemplar of the Kerry style was his spontaneous expletive on the ski slopes when his Secret Service guard bumped into him by accident (while guarding him): "I don't fall down. The S.O.B. knocked me over." To instinctively say that about the man who is sworn to put himself between Mr. Kerry and a bullet, paints a lasting and contemptible character portrait. Contrast that with what Ronald Reagan said shortly after he was shot: "Honey, I forgot to duck." It was at that moment that 60 percent of the American public fell permanently in love with the Gipper. As Ernest Hemmingway put it in another time, that is grace under pressure — and Mr. Kerry doesn't have it.

Read the whole thing here.

SOME GOOD NEWS! YEA!!!
The Statue of Liberty is reopening.

IRAQ IRAQ IRAQ....
There are a lot of people who are down on Bush regarding Iraq ("Bush Lied, People Died," etc etc). The lame, predictable bleating from the left all but ignores every other reason we had to go in. Invading Iraq was an inevitable aspect of the War On Terrorism. Saddam Hussein was a destabilizing influence in the entire Middle East. He paid Palestineans to become suicide bombers. He likely funded other terrorists as well. He harbored them and had training camps established for them. He was an obvious player in promoting terrorism. Never mind what he did to his own people. And has anyone noticed that Saddam ignored virtually every demand made of it by the UN? I mean, is the United Nations an impotent organization, or what?

There have been OBVIOUS peace dividends. Khadafi is becoming pacified. North Korea and Syria is pushing for stronger diplomatic ties. The terrorist network has lost a major source of funding.

And of course, now we're discovering that the "Oil for Food" program (that the UN organization put together, see above) has been a scandal. That deserves a lot more than I have time to write, but here's a good link for now:

And Kerry plans to apologize to the world for invading Iraq if he's elected. Spare me.

RICHARD CLARKE IMPLODES, NO FILM AT 11 (DUE TO MEDIA BIAS)
Another disgruntled Bush Administration employee writes a book and gets tons of media attention. Funny how ex-Clinton Admin folks didn't get such red carpet treatment. The best article I've read so far is from Ann Coulter.

GOING TO BE HARD TO BUY XMAS LIGHTS WITHOUT GUILT:
http://english.epochtimes.com/news/4-3-24/20545.html

China is apparently using slave labor in many of its factories. Despicable.

IS IT NOW SAFE FOR LEFT-WINGERS TO TURN THE RADIO ON?
The new liberal radio network Air America launches next week. Color me skeptical, but there already have been countless attempts of liberal talk-show hosts trying to make it big to a national audience. For the most part, none have approached the audience or impact of Rush Limbaugh. Not that the usual media suspects haven't tried to give this fledging network a boost. There's even an article in USA Today. Compare that with Rush Limbaugh, who was largely ignored until he had hundreds of radio markets. Even then, you could picture the sneers on the faces of everyone who thought that Limbaugh would be a "here today, gone tomorrow" phenomenom.

Al Franken and Janeane Garofalo are top-billed as hosts on the new network. Franken, in fact, plans on going head-to-head against Limbaugh in his time spot (weekdays, noon to 3). But as of yet things aren't going so well for Air America. In spite of months of planning and promotion, they're only in three markets. Two of them are small-market, Spanish-language stations. The apologists are out in force:

“This is a consequence of the company coming to the table late,” says Tom Taylor, editor of Inside Radio. “All of the big signals have already been taken by conservatives like Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity. If liberals had been buying stations a dozen years ago, they would have been in a much better position now to start this network.”

Phui. Liberals have to buy stations to be heard? I don't think so. There are plenty of timeslots out there, with stations continually jocking programs around to boost their ratings. Bottom line: Radio stations carry network programming because they want to attract listeners. Listeners mean advertising dollars. Air America has to prove it's worth listening to before stations are going to commit valuable timeslots to it.

When Rush Limbaugh began broadcasting there weren't any national broadcasts catering to the right. Broadcast news, and CNN were dedicated to presenting liberal views with only a rare nod to anyone with a Republican perspective. Limbaugh clearly filled a niche. What's going to be draw for Air America? Al Franken can be a funny guy, but I find his political humor a bit grating. Time will tell.

Other comments here.

UPDATE: The network has gone live today, now with five stations. Stand back.

CAN YOU SPOT THE ERROR?
Someone wants to blow up a drive-thru McDonald's restaurant in Northern Italy. He wasn't successful.

http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/story.jsp?story=506489

There's a 'bad science' error in the article - can you find it?

For my answer and to read other dark-humored comments, click here.

OH, THIS MAKES ME MAD....(or does it?)

A man living quietly in his home somewhere in Scotland gets a knock on the door. He opens it to find four armed men. This gang attempts to rob him. He grabs a sword from his wall, and stabs one of the men, killing him.

Guess who's going to jail? For EIGHT YEARS?

http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=2687311

UPDATE:
Strangely enough, there is more to the story - sometimes I have to be careful what I read:

http://www.thisislancashire.co.uk/lancashire/archive/2004/03/09/NEWS7ZM.html

WEIRD SITE OF THE DAY....
http://www.jda.go.jp/JMSDF/event/cm_p/index.html

JAMES LILEKS IS COOL....
I especially like his writings when he's angry - the wit just shines through. But he and I have both noticed that Home Depot no longer sells GE light bulbs. Apparently he likes Reveal light bulbs. I like the Miser bulbs, myself. Anyway, he thinks Home Depot pulled GE products because GE wouldn't pay for the shelf space (as some retailers sometimes charge to get manufacturers to pony up for the best product placement).

Home Depot has always been an 800 pound gorilla with manufacturers. At first it was a great thing for consumers; you knew that you would always get a decent price for a hammer to replace the one that just vanished (but will reappear 2 hours after you get home). However, HD's buyers didn't know when to quit. The ubiquitous glass scraper is a prime example. How hard is it to find a decent scraper? All it has to do is hold a razor blade in a steel frame, with a slide switch to move the blade in and out for safety. Well, Home Depot no longer sells the reputable Stanley tool - now it sells something from China that barely survives pulling it out of the blister package. Sure, you pay half the price of the USA-made product, but it doesn't last the weekend!

Not that I'm always a "Buy America" kind of guy but I think this is a cheap ploy to get people to buy a LOT more paint scrapers.

Why not sell the cheap China knockoff along with the more expensive USA-brand? Well, Lileks hit it on the head - can we say it together? Not enough shelf space. It's hard to find two different brands of anything at Home Depot. And since the cheapest price is king, we all suffer.

At least Ace Hardware is still around.

Speaking of Lileks, he loves to do retro. And he has a great section on his website about how New York City's Times Square has changed through the years. Check it out.

...AND HE'S ALSO CONTROLLED BY THE JOOOOOOOS!

Like conspiracy theories? Can't figure out how Bush is so stupid that he can't tie his shoelaces, yet manages to outsmart the Democratic caucus - over and over again? Check out this article that wraps up every nasty thing Bush has done into one tidy article....

UPDATE: The link was retired - but I found someone who has it here.

THE IDES OF MARCH...

They haven't been pleasant. Bombings in Spain. Kerry's being a jerk. The weather in DC is cold and miserable. Jonah Goldberg ignores my email (more later...maybe). Frank J. of IMAO has a last name after all (but he's ignoring me, too). And I'm waaaay too busy to elaborate. How do people find time to do this stuff?

Mynd you, møøse bites Kan be pretty nasti...

http://wcco.com/water/watercooler_story_064123405.html

Update: Link broken - try the Google Cache Here.

OKAY, WHAT HAPPENED?

Where to start?

First of all, blogger.com started having problems. I couldn't get in to add posts, and frankly, I was too busy to track down the problem. THEN I was very hot and heavy in a consulting project, which made me even busier. THEN I started a new job, even though I still had to wrap up my consulting project, and THAT job consumed an immense number of hours. I then tried to get blogger to work, but it wouldn't behave - it had lost my template (the 'look-and-feel' part of the website) and I had to recreate it - which I didn't have time to do.

Anyway - fast forward to now - and I went ahead, blew away the fragments of the old template, and recreated my blog. Since Blogger had (finally) fixed the problems it wasn't so hard. So here I am again.

Now, the template I'm using now - well, it's okay. I don't like the color (orange???), but I did spend a few minutes getting the font size down to something useful. Plus I'm out of town today, and don't have access to Dreamweaver (which I like to use for web work). So I'm editing the HTML code directly. That's not so hard, but it's a little tedious.

But anyway, I'm here. Things have changed a bit since I started blogging - it's a bit easier for me to get on the web now, so maybe I'll be able to post a little more often. I don't have a lot of time these days either, but with the access I should be able to keep this site fresh. We'll see.

Wish me luck.

HELLO?

Anybody miss me?

---

I'M HERE! I'M HERE!
Pretty busy, though - haven't had time to post anything, and there is of course so much to say.

I am so glad that Cynthia McKinney will not be representing the good people of Georgia anymore. She has blamed everything possible for her loss - except maybe her own big mouth. This is the kind of stuff she says on the floor of Congress - really...!

http://www.ilw.com/lawyers/immigdaily/congress_news/2002,1002-mckinney.shtm

As always, more later.

COOL SERIES ALERT
Firefly is one of the new sci-fi series that is in the Fall lineup. It’s peculiar in that it tries to treat the distant future straight, with regard to space travel. This is no Star Trek. No phasers or teleportation. No aliens. Just colonized worlds. No alabaster cities, there, either. This is a slightly dark future where these colonies resemble the Wild West, right down to the oxen used to haul goods and farmers just trying to scratch out a living. Any scifi context comes through the space travel between these planets, which is where ‘Firefly’ comes in. Firefly is a class of starship dedicated to ferry goods and occasionally people from planet to planet.

The series centers around one ship, Serenity, which is a Firefly-class ship. In the scheme of things in this future, Serenity is a small ship, with no apparent weapons. Serenity’s crew is headed up by Captain Malcolm “Mal” Reynolds (Nathan Fillion). While he’s not exactly a white knight, there s a lot of good in him and he keeps the rest of the crew together. There is a rather varied cast here, but all that needs to be said is that each of them has an extremely peculiar personality, especially the enigmatic River, a young girl who is apparently far more than she appears.

The collision of Wild West and space colonization is an interesting concept. I’m intrigued by the prevalence of both American and Chinese cultures on the show (one scene features a bar, with signs written out in English and Chinese). Even the costumes are faithful to the western 1800’s theme, with outfits reflecting that genre, as well as pistols.

I do have a few problems with the series. Since everything happens away from Earth, that aspect is explained by the narrator at the beginning of every show: "…in the future when the Earth was all used up...." that’s the best premise we can come up with? It just shows a woeful ignorance of basic economics.

Some moral aspects of the show also bother me. Mal lost his faith in God from when he joined the Browncoats against the established Alliance. The Browncoats lost, and he has questioned Him ever since. Also, one of the passengers on Serenity is a beautiful "Companion" which is more-or-less a high-priced, well, you know. Hopefully I’ll get over these qualms.

I think the ships and the effects are pretty cool, and the storyline looks a bit intriguing. I can live with the shortcomings for now.

LINK OF THE DAY:
Opinion Journal has a great article on Bush vs. the Federal Bureaucracy today. But don't let the word bureaucracy scare you off - this link gives you the big picture.

http://www.opinionjournal.com/wsj/?id=110001922

Excerpts:

The permanent bureaucracy, which Henry Kissinger once accurately described as the fourth branch of government, resists change. Harry Truman knew this well. When he turned over the presidency to former Dwight Eisenhower, he remarked that Ike, who was accustomed to having his orders obeyed, was going to get a big shock when he issued an order from the Oval Office and nothing happened....

President Bush, faced with multiple crises, is no doubt learning this sobering lesson. His Forest Service, taken over by "environmentalist" dilettantes during the Clinton years, is helpless as dead wood accumulated through years of neglect fuels fires that are destroying many thousands of acres of forests, endangering people, animals and homes. Justice Department and Federal Trade Commission lawyers, emboldened presumably by recent corporate scandals, are having atavistic spasms, hunting down companies that are either competing too little or too much....

And so it goes. Mr. Bush is somewhat in the position of trying to steer an 80,000-ton supertanker with nothing more substantial than a sailboat rudder. He is rueful about the difficulties. When the Environmental Protection Agency undercut his Kyoto policy with a report asserting that the globe is certain to be warmer than now in a hundred years, he brushed it off as yet another vaporous emanation from the EPA bureaucracy.

DOGS & CATS LIVING TOGETHER....
Things are stranger and stranger. The circuit court judge who voted to ban "under God" from the pledge has just issued a stay of execution order - against his own decision. Apparently public opinion (and a 99-0 vote in the Senate condemning the decision) made some impact. It appears now that the decision will go to an 11-judge appellate court panel.

More information:
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&ncid=578&e=4&cid=578&u=/nm/20020627/ts_nm/court_pledge_dc_12

I don't like to buy into a slippery slope, but pundits are already predicting that "In God We Trust" might be next to fall if this decision is upheld. I'm thinking in even starker terms. Our own calendar is based on Christian and Catholic precepts - will contracts be invalidated? And speaking of dates, the Constitution itself makes a reference or two:

Done in convention by the unanimous consent of the states present the seventeenth day of September in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and eighty seven and of the independence of the United States of America the twelfth.

(Thanks to Opinion Journal for the last bit)

MORE ON THE PLEDGE CASE - NEAL BOORTZ CHIPS IN:
As to be expected, Atlanta talk show host Neal Boortz has written up an extensive review on yesterday's Circuit Court decision. I think the comments about the plaintiff, Michael Newdow (well, he is actually the plaintiff's father) are on target:

First and foremost, this man seems to be a publicity hound. He’s a professional victim and guilty of emotional and psychological child abuse. He professes to be an atheist...his animosity toward religion in general, and Christianity in particular, is probably based in some sort of an association he makes between people with deeply held religious beliefs and conservatism. Conservatives are more open about expressions of their religious beliefs and their love of God. Michael Newdow can’t figure out how to use our laws and our Constitution to suppress conservative speech, so he concentrates his efforts on trying to suppress expressions of faith. Further – he has decided to use his daughter as a tool in the furtherance of his efforts.

This morning Michael Newdow was asked whether or not his daughter came to him and asked him to pursue this case on his behalf. His response was that he would rather leave his daughter out of this. “This is my case,” he said.

Wait a minute! This isn’t his case! He wasn’t a student in that school. He wasn’t required to sit there while that pledge was being recited in school. His daughter was enrolled in that school, not him. Now he says that his daughter should be left out of this?

Get real! This man has used his daughter as a tool in his fight against religious conservatism. Now he wants to protect her from the backlash. Someday she may well hate her father for this exploitation.

That said, however, Neal actually comes around to agreeing with the court. I see the point in his arguments, but regardless of the reasons of the original legislation, I think the phrase is perfectly valid in the context of what I said below.