INVITING ATTACK

By RALPH PETERS
New York Post

SEIZED illegally, 15 British sailors and Royal Marines are hostages in Iran. Thanks, Speaker Pelosi.

Clinton Camp Turns to a Star in Money Race

By Patrick Healy
New York Times

Concerned about Senator Barack Obama’s presidential fund-raising, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton’s campaign has dispatched former President Bill Clinton to attend 16 fund-raisers in the last six weeks and to lead conference calls and Internet appeals to donors, in some cases assessing Mr. Obama’s positions on Iraq.

It sounds like Bill Clinton is running against Barack Obama for the Democrat nomination.

RE: McCain Almost Switched Sides?

Maybe McCain should start his own political party. I don't think there is currently an American Fascist Party.

Go for it, John.

With five private jets, Travolta still lectures on global warming

The Evening Standard

His serious aviation habit means he is hardly the best person to lecture others on the environment. But John Travolta went ahead and did it anyway.

The 53-year-old actor, a passionate pilot, encouraged his fans to "do their bit" to tackle global warming.

McCain Almost Switched Sides?

(Fox News) - Democratic lawmakers say Republican Sen. John McCain was close to leaving the GOP in 2001, right before Vermont Republican Jim Jeffords made the switch that gave Democrats control of the Senate.

The Hill newspaper reports former Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle and others had meetings with McCain, and that things such as committee assignments and seniority were discussed. McCain was said to be frustrated as a result of his loss to George W. Bush in the 2000 presidential primaries. But McCain denies that he ever considered leaving the party.

Still, his chief political strategist, John Weaver, tells the paper that McCain did indeed talk to Democrats about moving across the aisle.

Emboldened Tax-and-Spenders

By Bob Novak
Washington Post

The new Democratic majority begins dancing the next phase of the tax-and-spend minuet in the House of Representatives today. Following the example set by their Senate brethren last Friday, House Democrats will adopt a budget resolution containing the largest tax increase in U.S. history amid massive national inattention.

CALL IT A PRETEND STATE

By George Will
New York Post

Lincoln supposedly said: If I call a tail a leg, how many legs does a dog have? Five? No, calling a tail a leg doesn't make it a leg. Which brings us to the proposal to treat the District of Columbia as if it were a state.

NASCAR Unveils New 'Car Of Yesterday' :-)

The Onion

CHARLOTTE, NC — Only days after its long-anticipated, much-criticized Car of Tomorrow debuted to overwhelmingly negative reviews at the Bristol Motor Speedway, NASCAR responded to the wishes of competitors and fans alike by introducing the stylishly retro, technologically retrograde NEXTEL Cup Car of Yesterday.

The Force is with new Star Wars stamps

WASHINGTON (AP) - Darth Vader and Obi-Wan Kenobi will do battle one more time - and the emperor, Han Solo, Princess Leia and others will join in the struggle.

A set of 15 stamps commemorating the Star Wars movies will be released in May, the Postal Service said yesterday.

Going Greener

(Fox News) - The good news is that the city of San Francisco has decided that those recyclable plastic grocery bags are dangerous and is doing something about it. The city has voted to ban the petroleum-based bags in large markets and pharmacies in favor of biodegradable plastic or recyclable paper bags. The San Francisco Chronicle reports grocers argue that the new bags will just confuse the current recycling efforts.

New Bulbs

(Fox News) - Just when you thought you were helping the environment by buying those new compact fluorescent light bulbs that last a long time and use less energy — scientists and environmentalists are warning that the bulbs may cause trouble when you throw them away.

They say that if the bulbs break, the poisonous mercury inside can leak into landfills — contaminating the food chain and water supply much more than the mercury released from coal-fired power plants. Recycling the bulbs is expensive — costing up to fifty cents for bulbs that sell for around two dollars.

Outside Help

(Fox News) - House Democrats plan to spend $225,000 to hire a private law firm to help investigate the Bush administration over the firing of eight U.S. attorneys.

The Washington Times reports this is in addition to the House Judiciary Committee's approximately 30 paid staff positions and the staffers of various subcommittees.

House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Henry Waxman — a Democrat who's seen his share of investigations — says he does not recall ever paying for outside legal help.

Changes Ordered

(Fox News) - Dems adopted in January what are called "pay as you go" spending rules mandating that any new expenditures be met by either corresponding spending cuts or new revenue. Bills may be sent back to committee with orders to make specific changes — often having to do with funding.

But Congressional Quarterly reports the rules have inadvertently allowed Republicans to insert language into bills that is politically difficult for Democrats to oppose — such as yesterday's bill on passenger whistleblowers.

Democratic Majority Leader Steny Hoyer is now vowing to change the rules to negate the new Republican tactic.

Terrorism Tipsters

(Fox News) - House Republicans have managed to force Democrats to include a provision in their new public transportation bill that protects passengers who report suspicious activity from getting sued by the suspects. The measure was inspired by a lawsuit filed on behalf of six Muslim imams who were removed from a U.S. Airways flight in Minneapolis after passengers reported disturbing behavior.

Republicans used a parliamentary device called motion to recommit to get the protection passed and 105 Democrats voted with them. That vote to recommit is just the latest example of Republicans using new rules written by Democrats against them.

School study draws doubt

School study draws doubt:
Some local officials criticize UNC look at Forsyth students

The head of the local chapter of the NAACP said yesterday that he doubts a recent study showing that school choice has had no effect on test scores of students in Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools. "I just find it hard to believe that that's true because, from what I've seen, what my group has been coming up with, is if you put a group together with the same advantages, it enhances those advantages," said Steven Hairston, the president of the local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

The study, a doctoral dissertation by Hinckley A. Jones-Sanpei at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, looked at the effect of school choice on students' educational achievement in Forsyth County. Dennis K. Orthner, a professor of public policy at UNC and Jones-Sanpei's adviser, presented her work to the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County school board Tuesday night. Jones-Sanpei has moved out of state since getting her doctorate in public policy, he said.

Orthner said he knew that the results would be controversial because they are different from what people have seen after analyzing the effects of school choice and segregation in other communities. Jones-Sanpei used scores on state tests in reading and mathematics from elementary- and middle-school students. In her study, Jones-Sanpei looked at 11,000 students between 1992 and 2002, which spanned the period of time before, during and after school choice began in 1995. Students had to have several years of consecutive test scores in schools in the system to be included. Her study, which was done without the knowledge of the school system using publicly available data, was reviewed by several other professors as part of the doctoral-degree process. Jones-Sanpei looked at the different factors that affected the scores, including students' race, gender and socioeconomic status, then isolated the effect that school choice had on their achievement.

"There's almost no change in student test scores that can be attributed to school choice," Orthner said. "It did not appear that the racial configuration of the school was the big predictor. It's not the racial configuration of the school, it's a whole bunch of other things."

— Danielle Deaver for the Winston-Salem Journal

Interesting article, but I wish that Deaver would've gone on to list the "whole bunch of other things" that Orthner said the study showed. Digging a bit deeper would've made this article complete and far more informative. Oh, well. Maybe next time.

Wednesday Funnies :-)

David Letterman: “Top Signs It’s Spring In New York City”: Tourists are getting mugged for their decongestant; The subways smell like urine and Starbucks iced coffee; Instead of convenience stores, thieves are sticking up Jamba Juice; Rosie O’Donnell has started a feud with her allergist; Katie Couric is doing the news in a tank top and hot pants; Donald Trump’s hair has begun to bloom; Stranded JetBlue passengers are on the tarmac in lawn chairs.

Jay Leno: I love when they say this [attorney firing business] is a constitutional crisis. Oh, please. We haven’t used the Constitution in years. ... It is officially spring. Al Gore blamed the end of winter on global warming. ... Al Gore returned to Congress. Everyone said Al Gore was treated like a rock star. I think the rock star was Meat Loaf. ... Al Gore testified that if we act now, we can still save the planet. Well, the whole planet except Florida. He’s still a little upset. ... Hillary and Bill Clinton appeared together at a fundraiser in New York last weekend. They’re appearing together again this weekend. Bill wants to be there to support her campaign. She wants Bill there because it’s Spring Break. ... Former presidential candidate Tom Vilsack says he’s now officially endorsing Hillary Clinton. Well, that should put her over the top! Unless, of course, Walter Mondale comes out for Dennis Kucinich—then it’s wide open again. ... According to a new poll, 29 percent of U.S. households do not have Internet access and have little hope of getting it. You know what the technical name is for people with no hope of Internet access? AOL customers. ... There was a big scare at the John Edwards campaign headquarters. It was evacuated after a staff member opened an envelope containing white powder. Turns out it was just some of John Edwards’ age-defying make-up base. ... I guess in Al Gore’s office they found some white powder too. But that was just from his powdered doughnuts.

Heroic Secret Service Agent Takes Question Intended For Bush :-)

The Onion

WASHINGTON, DC—White House Secret Service Agent Anthony Panucci is being called a hero after intercepting what could have been a critically damaging question aimed directly at President Bush during a press conference in the Rose Garden Tuesday.

Most Women Too Nervous to Get Naked, Study Shows

(Fox News) - In the brave new world of striptease workouts, plenty of women are still not comfortable in the nude.

According to a report in the U.K. Daily Mail, one out of three women just say "no" to their birthday suit if their partner is in the room. One third of females think they are too fat to be naked around a husband or boyfriend.

Dobson Offers Insight on 2008 Republican Hopefuls

(U.S. News & World Report) - Focus on the Family founder James Dobson appeared to throw cold water on a possible presidential bid by former Sen. Fred Thompson while praising former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who is also weighing a presidential run, in a phone interview Tuesday.

"Everyone knows he's conservative and has come out strongly for the things that the pro-family movement stands for," Dobson said of Thompson. "[But] I don't think he's a Christian; at least that's my impression," Dobson added, saying that such an impression would make it difficult for Thompson to connect with the Republican Party's conservative Christian base and win the GOP nomination.

Immigration: The Human Cost :-)

A Taxing Time for the Bush Legacy

By Mallory Factor
National Review Online

What should the president do? Does he really want to be the second Bush to have his name associated with general tax increases on the American people? Isn’t the better legacy a strong economy, such as the ones presidents Reagan and Clinton could boast?

Personal Freedom Gets Clubbed

By John Hood
Carolina Journal Online

RALEIGH – For anyone still unsure how to distinguish warring political camps on the subject of individual freedom, I’d suggest a close look at a new proposal in the North Carolina General Assembly to ban smoking from virtually all buildings, public or private.

Nuclear energy 'not the solution to global warming'

Environment ministers from Austria, Iceland, Ireland and Norway said Monday that nuclear power was not the solution to global warming.

In a joint statement following a meeting in Dublin, the four ministers from the non-nuclear countries said the "inherent risks and problems associated with the nuclear energy option remain and it can not therefore claim to be a clean alternative to fossil fuel use."

They said it was the sovereign right of each country to decide its own energy mix.

"However, for Ireland, Iceland, Norway, and Austria, we voice serious concern that nuclear energy is being presented as a solution to climate change.

On the surface, they are probably correct, but not for their stated reasons. If you believe that humans are responsible for the current climate changes (or even capable of affecting a change), then you have to consider the major source of so-called greenhouse gases, that being internal combustion engines. Since we're not likely to be driving DeLoreans with a Mr. Fusion on board any time soon, nuclear power probably isn't the whole answer.

On the other hand, all their arguments are specious. The task of disposing of nuclear "waste" is far less onerous than disposing of the megatons of consumer waste generated every single year. The sub-text of this is that the use of nuclear power quite obviously reduces the emissions of pollutants into the atmosphere. Most of the politicians who have staked their careers on climate change are terrified that it will be discovered that the whole thing is a myth or that there is a straightforward solution. This would remove their reason for self-importance.

Tests Show Snow's Cancer Has Returned

WASHINGTON (AP) - Presidential spokesman Tony Snow's surgery to remove a small growth showed that his cancer has returned, the White House said Tuesday.

Snow, 51, had his colon removed in 2005 and underwent six months of chemotherapy after being diagnosed with colon cancer. A small growth was discovered last year in his lower right pelvic area, and it was removed on Monday. Doctors determined that it was cancerous, and that his cancer had metastized, or spread, to his liver, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said.

She said Snow is resting comfortably after his surgery and has pledged to aggressively fight the disease with an as-yet-to-be-determined treatment course.

"He said he's going to beat it again," Perino said in an emotional morning briefing with White House reporters. "When I talked to him, he was in very good spirits."

Remembering the Gipper...

“[I]t doesn’t require expropriation or confiscation of private property or business to impose socialism on a people. What does it mean whether you hold the deed or the title to your business or property if the government holds the power of life and death over that business or property? Such machinery already exists. The government can find some charge to bring against any concern it chooses to prosecute. Every businessman has his own tale of harassment. Somewhere a perversion has taken place. Our natural, inalienable rights are now considered to be a dispensation of government, and freedom has never been so fragile, so close to slipping from our grasp as it is at this moment.”

Ronald Reagan

Bush Alone

By Bob Novak
CNSNews.com

With nearly two years remaining in his presidency, George W. Bush is alone. In half a century, I have not seen a president so isolated from his own party in Congress -- not Jimmy Carter, not even Richard Nixon as he faced impeachment.

Failing Schools See a Solution in Longer Day

States and school districts nationwide are moving to lengthen the day at struggling schools, spurred by grim test results suggesting that more than 10,000 schools are likely to be declared failing under federal law next year.

In Massachusetts, in the forefront of the movement, Gov. Deval L. Patrick is allocating $6.5 million this year for longer days and can barely keep pace with demand: 84 schools have expressed interest.

Gov. Eliot Spitzer of New York has proposed an extended day as one of five options for his state’s troubled schools, part of a $7 billion increase in spending on education over the next four years — apart from the 37 minutes of extra tutoring that children in some city schools already receive four times a week.

And Gov. M. Jodi Rell of Connecticut is proposing to lengthen the day at persistently failing schools as part of a push to raise state spending on education by $1 billion.

Diana Jean Schemo

Well of course. Everyone knows that if something isn't working, by all means, do more of it.

Republicans create own 'Frankenstein monsters'

It wasn't all that long ago that Republicans were looking to Arnold Schwarzenegger as a pumped-up version of Ronald Reagan, who but for the unfortunate fact of his Austrian birth, might have ridden the coattails of a Republican revival in California to an eventual victory in the White House. They spurned a man with genuine conservative credentials and spent much effort convincing Republicans in California and around the country that Arnold was a conservative at heart, his connections to Hollywood and the Kennedy clan notwithstanding.

And, in fairness, Gov. Schwarzenegger demonstrated that he does have some genuinely conservative inclinations. But a man's personal inclinations and his ability to stand by them in public are two entirely different things, especially when that public is hostile. It didn't take long for Arnold to capitulate to the girly men, of course, surprising no one except perhaps Hugh Hewitt, whose Panglossian approach to life must be envied.

Vox Day

Jeb Bush denied honor at U. of Florida

Yahoo News

GAINESVILLE, Fla. - University of Florida President Bernie Machen says he was "tremendously disappointed" with the school's Faculty Senate vote to deny former Gov. Jeb Bush an honorary degree.

Hillary's Low-Watt Energy Plan

Investor's Business Daily

Hillary Clinton's rivals may be dropping like flies, but her vulnerabilities were spotlighted at a fundraiser this week. On energy policy, for instance, picture Jimmy Carter in drag.

Illegal immigrants allowed at least five strikes

(Houston Chronicle) - Documents released in the controversy about eight fired U.S. attorneys show that federal prosecutors in Texas generally have declined to bring criminal charges against illegal immigrants caught crossing the border — until at least their sixth arrest.

Bill and Belinda’s excellent adventure

But Clinton’s new, er, friendship isn’t helping his wife’s presidential aims...

By Eric Reguly
The First Post

As potential girlfriends go, Belinda Stronach would rank as a true catch. She is single, youngish (she just turned 40), attractive, wealthy, impeccably well-connected and politically ambitious - glamorous in every respect. Two years ago, Time magazine listed her as one of the 100 most powerful people on the planet. The tabloids cut to the chase: they called her the "blonde bombshell" or "Bubba's blonde."

RE: 'The Cancer Is Back,' Edwards Says

I see that my cynicism was fully warranted.

In all honesty, it would have been a shame to see Edwards drop out so early. His slips and screw-ups were becoming the stuff of high comedy. I also would have missed the smackdown that The Beast will inevitably hand him.

Gore Outlines Grand Climate Change Plan

(CNSNews.com) - If global warming activist Al Gore has his way, Americans will over the next several years face tougher vehicle emission standards, a freeze on carbon emissions, a moratorium on coal, a ban on incandescent light bulbs, a government requirement that corporations disclose carbon emissions to shareholders, ratification of an international treaty to reverse global warming - and a carbon tax.

This is the message the former vice president and Academy Award winner brought Wednesday to Capitol Hill, where his arrival caused quite a stir.

'The Cancer Is Back,' Edwards Says

CHAPEL HILL (CNSNews.com) - Presidential candidate and former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards announced Thursday that his wife Elizabeth's cancer has returned. Mrs. Edwards, who was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2004, was in remission. However, when she went to the hospital for treatment for a cracked rib recently, doctors discovered that the cancer was back - and this time, while it is treatable, it is incurable. Edwards said doctors described her condition as comparable to being a diabetic - she'll have it for the rest of her life. Edwards also said he will not suspend his presidential campaign. "The campaign goes on. The campaign goes on strongly," he said.

Letterman Regular Calvert DeForest, aka Larry 'Bud' Melman, Dead at 85

NEW YORK (Fox News) — Calvert DeForest, the white-haired, bespectacled nebbish who gained cult status as the oddball Larry "Bud" Melman on David Letterman's late night television shows, has died after a long illness.

Edwards and Wife Plan News Conference

John Edwards, the North Carolina Democrat making a second bid for the presidency, announced late Wednesday night that he would hold a news conference Thursday, a day after he and his wife, Elizabeth, visited Mrs. Edwards’ doctor to assess her health following her recovery from breast cancer.

Mrs. Edwards, in a brief interview from her home in Chapel Hill, said she and Mr. Edwards would discuss her health at the news conference, but she declined to elaborate.

“I’m still here,” she said.

Jennifer Palmieri, communications director for the Edwards campaign, said that she would not provide any details in advance of the press conference, which will be held in Chapel Hill, N.C.

Adam Nagourney

Edwards is such a sleazeball, it is very hard not to be cynical about this. I'm not sure why Elizabeth Edwards' health is anything that requires a national press conference. It is sufficient to note that Edwards is polling a very distant third among Democrats. Edwards and his handlers are likely looking for a point or two of sympathy bump.

Mystery creator of anti-Clinton ad ID'd

By Jim Kuhnhenn
Yahoo News

The mystery creator of the Orwellian YouTube ad against Hillary Rodham Clinton is a Democratic operative who worked for a digital consulting firm with ties to rival Sen. Barack Obama (news, bio, voting record).

Philip de Vellis, a strategist with Blue State Digital, acknowledged in an interview with The Associated Press that he was the creator of the video, which portrayed Clinton as a Big Brother figure and urged support for Obama's presidential campaign.

The curse of Billy Packer

By Bill Simmons
ESPN.com

Please sit down before you read the next paragraph. I mentioned its contents to a bunch of friends, and everyone had the same reaction. First they laughed and said, "No, that's not true." When I spelled out the facts, there was dead silence, followed by the words "No, no, no, no … " Finally, they either passed out from shock or tumbled backward into a chair, where they remained for a few minutes muttering to themselves, trying to make sense of their life and everything that has happened in it. I don't want that to be your fate. So make sure you're sitting. OK, here we go …

Billy Packer has provided color for every Final Four game and every NCAA championship game since 1975.

(You OK? Need a glass of water? All right, let's keep going.)

Wednesday Funnies :-)

David Letterman: “Top Things Overheard At Osama bin Laden’s 50th Birthday Party”: “Who’s up for ‘Pin the turban on the bind Sheik?”’; “Death to these novelty candles that light again after you blow them out!”; “Mullah Omar’s running late—he forgot to change his clocks”; “To fool United States Special Forces, we had the bakery personalize the cake ‘Happy Birthday Debbie”’; “For he’s a jolly good fellow, which the infidels will deny”; “I hope you don’t already have season one of ‘Who’s The Boss?’ on DVD”; “No cake for Osama—he’s ballooned to 102 pounds!”

Jay Leno: President Bush is back from his tour of Latin America. He said it really opened his eyes. He said, “It’s amazing. We thought we had a lot of illegal aliens here. They’re all over the place down there!” ... According to a recent poll, anti-American sentiment is running high in Mexico. Half of Mexico’s population say they have a negative view of the United States and the other half are already here. ... It’s chilly here [in L.A.]. But it’s terrible weather back East. Another massive snowstorm has hit the Northeast. Or, as environmentalists call it, a “temporary global warming hiatus.” ... An elite military unit made up of Native American Indians is now being used to track down terrorists in the Middle East, including Osama bin Laden. They’re over in Afghanistan right now. They haven’t found bin Laden yet, but they did open 13 casinos. ... Al-Qa’ida’s number three man, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, has confessed to being the mastermind behind September 11, and said he planned 29 other attacks, including to kill Bill Clinton. To which Hillary Clinton said, “You too?” ... In a speech in Iowa, Barack Obama described John Edwards as cute and good looking. How does this make Hillary feel? ... You know what’s interesting about this election? Several of the candidates are men who have been divorced more than once. See, we have to expect this from politicians now. It’s not like the old days when a politician would stay married to the same woman his entire life—you know, like Bill and Hillary. ... Hillary Clinton announced that the vast right-wing conspiracy is back. You know what that means: Bill must be dating again.

Czech leader Klaus fights global warming 'religion'

Czech President Vaclav Klaus said on Wednesday that fighting global warming has turned into a a 'religion' that replaced the ideology of communism and threatens to clip basic freedoms.

The right-wing president, a free-market champion, wrote to the U.S. Congress that adopting tough environmental policies to fight climate change would have destructive impact on national economies.

'Communism has been replaced by the threat of an ambitious environmentalism,' Klaus wrote in response to questions from the U.S. House of Representatives' Committee on Energy and Commerce.

The U.S. House Subcommittee for Energy and Air Quality was due to hold a hearing on climate on Wednesday with former U.S. Vice-President Al Gore, who sees global warming as a key challenge, and Danish sceptic Bjorn Lomborg, who says governments should focus on fight disease and hunger instead.

Jan Lopatka

I'm keeping the Czech Republic in mind for when it becomes so much like the Soviet Union here that I can't stand it. They are well aware of the cost of flirting with Marxism.

Censure Badgett, panel says

(Winston-Salem Journal) - Mark Badgett, a District Court judge for Surry and Stokes counties, should not be removed from office but should be publicly condemned for misconduct, the N.C. Judicial Standards Commission recommended this week.

The N.C. Supreme Court will make a final decision on the recommendation.

The commission recommended that Badgett be censured. A censure is a formal citing of a judge's misconduct and goes on the judge's permanent record. The commission, which held hearings late last year and early this year, had two options for punishment, censuring Badgett or removing him from the bench.

Yes, the Second Amendment Guarantees an Individual Right to Bear Arms

On March 9, the Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia issued a groundbreaking ruling. It declared in a 2-1 decision that the Washington, D.C. ban on handgun possession in private homes, in effect since 1976, is unconstitutional. The court reached this conclusion after stating unequivocally that the Second Amendment's right to keep and bear arms applies to individuals and not just "the militia."

It is quite likely that this ruling will be appealed to Supreme Court, which hasn't offered an interpretation of the Second Amendment since 1939.

Appalled by the District Court ruling, the Washington Post editorialized that it will "give a new and dangerous meaning to the Second Amendment" that, if applied nationally, could imperil "every gun control law on the books."

The Post accused the National Rifle Association and the Bush administration's Justice Department of trying "to broadly reinterpret the Constitution so as to give individuals Second Amendment rights."

But actually, to argue that the Second Amendment does not apply to individuals is a reinterpretation of the Constitution and the original intent of the founders.

Pierre Atlas

I think imperiling every gun control law on the books sounds very good. Every single one of them is flagrantly unconstitutional. If I want to park a howitzer on my lawn, the government has no business telling me I can't.

I can see how the liberals at the Washington Post are terrified of the precedent this could set. Their paper-thin arguments and semantic hair-splitting cannot possibly stand up to any rational scrutiny. Only in the dishonest world of lawyers and their double-speak is it possible to argue that the founders had any other intention than to allow individuals to keep and bear arms.

Muslims offer to help 'John Does' sued by imams

(Washington Times) - Lawyers and a Muslim group say they will defend at no cost airline passengers caught up in a lawsuit between a group of imams and U.S. Airways if the passengers are named as "John Does" and sued for reporting suspicious behavior that got the Muslim clerics booted from a November flight.

John Edwards' Death by Bangs

At least he's still got good hair.

Otherwise, it may be over for John Edwards, thanks to a resurrected video of him primping, too lovingly, his hair.

The video, set to the song "I Feel Pretty,'' has been airing on television, posted on YouTube and circulating on the Internet the past few days with potentially devastating effect for the man unflatteringly referred to as the "Breck Girl.'' It also illustrates the enormous power of YouTube in politics forevermore.

For a while, it seemed Edwards might shake the Breck brand. Recently, while responding to Ann Coulter's remark referring to him with a word we're not allowed to use, Edwards sported a studiously short-cropped, un-boyish do. His face was so frozen in gravitas that Dick Cheney sent him a bottle of champagne and a joy buzzer.

Kathleen Parker

The only thing I would add is that becoming a caricature of one's self is certain death for those seeking to ascend to the rarefied air of the Oval Office. Edwards has arrived.

RE: Edwards Claims His Mega-Mansion is Carbon Neutral

For those who are unaware, in the early part of the Sixteenth Century, Pope Leo X effectively codified the practice of selling indulgences. This practice led Martin Luther to write his 95 theses and thus was born the reformation and the Protestant Church.

In Catholic theology, an indulgence is like an excuse slip from your mother. It allows those who are "in communion with the church" to be excused of venial sins they have committed. Some people believe that the Catholic Church has discarded that part of their theology, but that is not the case. What they have done is to eliminate the sale of indulgences and to crack down on their use as a "get out of jail free" mechanism.

In the church of liberalism, hypocrisy is only a venial sin. In fact, it's not really even that if you don't get caught. The adoption of indulgences by liberals is classic stuff. Liberals continuously demonstrate that they are unable to learn from history and that contrary evidence is no impediment to their goals. The fact that the sale of indulgences nearly destroyed the Catholic church is not a strong reason for them to abandon the sale of their own indulgences, otherwise known as carbon credits.

Gore and Edwards are cartoon characters. It is telling that The Beast in Pants Suits has not jumped on to the carbon indulgences bandwagon. There is little doubt that her mansion in Chappaquiddick is a carbon nightmare, but she's smarter than these two clowns. She doesn't engage in the sappy hand wringing and Chicken Little jingoism. And Hillary's New Negro proves himself to be a quick study as well.

It will be interesting to watch when Hillary's Machine decides the antics of Algore and The Silky Pony are stinking up the Democrat political house too badly. The attendant smackdown should be quite amusing.

Edwards Claims His Mega-Mansion is Carbon Neutral

Presidential candidate promotes carbon caps for business, but carbon 'offsets' for himself.

By Dan Gainor
The Boone Pickens Free Market Fellow
Business & Media Institute

Call it “Dancing with the Stars”: Global Warming Edition. Democratic presidential hopeful John Edwards showed his best dance moves trying to avoid questions about how energy efficient his 28,000-square-foot mansion really is and how much the power bill costs each month.

The March 20 edition of CNN’s “American Morning” showed Edwards hyping global warming, promoting his energy plan that mandates carbon caps and claiming that his new mega-McMansion was actually being operated in a “carbon-neutral way.” He has recently declared his campaign “carbon neutral.”

Arthur Branches Out

Is Fred Thompson Reagan reincarnated? Or at least a candidate for the slot?

By Kathryn Jean Lopez
National Review Online

“Is Fred Thompson the next Ronald Reagan?” Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace asked at the top of his show two weekends ago. The question echoed what I’d been hearing for days from National Review Online readers and in conservative circles. (“Ask What Would Reagan Do?” and the survey [that is, my inbox] says Elect Thompson!)

Wisely and humbly the 64-year-old former Tennessee senator dismissed the Reagan comparison as unwarranted. But Thompson didn’t rule out a run for the Republican nomination, saying he is “going to leave the door open.”

Climate scientist sees cover-up

By Eric Pfeiffer
Washington Times

A NASA scientist who said the Bush administration muzzled him because of his belief in global warming yesterday acknowledged to Congress that he'd done more than 1,400 on-the-job interviews in recent years.

Hillary's Mistakes Fuel Obama's Surge

By Dick Morris and Eileen McGann
Fox News

In the aftermath of Hillary’s two big mistakes — attacking Obama over the remarks of David Geffen and competing with the Illinois Senator for African American votes at Selma, Ala. — Obama has now closed in on Hillary dramatically, moving within seven points of the frontrunner, in the latest Time Magazine poll. Nationally, Hillary’s lead has collapsed to 30-23, with Edwards running a distant third.

So, Mr. Hitchens, Weren't You Wrong About Iraq?

Hard questions, four years later.

By Christopher Hitchens
Slate.com

Four years after the first coalition soldiers crossed the Iraqi border, one can attract pitying looks (at best) if one does not take the view that the whole engagement could have been and should have been avoided. Those who were opposed to the operation from the beginning now claim vindication, and many of those who supported it say that if they had known then what they know now, they would have spoken or voted differently.

What exactly does it mean to take the latter position? At what point, in other words, ought the putative supporter to have stepped off the train? The question isn't as easy to answer as some people would have you believe. Suppose we run through the actual timeline...

Missing Boy Scout has been found alive

A 12-year-old Greensboro youth missing since Saturday in rugged North Carolina mountain terrain was found alive this morrning [sic], searchers said.

Michael was found shortly just before 11 a.m. today in a heavily wooded area northeast of the primitive campsite where his Boy Scout troop was camping over the weekend, parks spokeswoman Tina White said, quoting radio traffic.

Rescuers are walking him out of the woods now. "The family's also running to meet their son," White said.

Michael is in relatively good health, but a little weak, White said. Michael was found 1.5 miles from the camp, CNN is reporting.

Everyone likes a little good news now and again.

Ron Paul and the naked Pajamas Media

I was not asked to be a part of Pajamas Media. That was just as well, as I would have declined to participate for three reasons. The first was that I regarded it as a stupid business plan, about as well-conceived as the idea of selling dog food over the Internet. While there is some genuine demand for news and opinion, the supply approaches that post-scarcity vision of which neo-Marxian economists happily dream.

The second reason was the much-publicized involvement of various individuals I neither like nor respect. That's completely subjective, of course, but is closely connected to the third reason, which is not. This third reason was that it was clear from the start that many of those involved with Pajamas Media saw the mainstream media as a club to which they hoped to be admitted, not an unnecessary evil better disrupted and left for dead on the roadside of technological advancement.

Vox Day

This is one of those interesting articles Vox puts out every once in a while. It's in a style I think of as "front and back." The real meat of the article is on the back:

What the headline fails to mention is that in the Feb. 19 Pajamas Media poll, Ron Paul, the Texas congressman and now a declared candidate for the Republican nomination, roundly defeated Rudy Giuliani, 43.1 percent to 20.1 percent. Moreover, he did so by winning more votes, 1,769, than Giuliani subsequently did in winning the Mar. 4 (1,431) and Mar. 11 polls (1,158).

The innocent observer might wonder how Ron Paul could slip so much in three weeks that Giuliani could surpass him with fewer votes, or that a disgraced adulterer and non-candidate for president like Newt Gingrich could claim second place. Did his actual declaration of his candidacy on Mar. 11somehow inspire a backlash against him? No, the truth is much more simple.

Because they didn't like the results, Pajamas Media simply dropped Ron Paul from the poll, while retaining the likes of George Pataki, Tommy Thompson and other no-hopers who aren't even running for president! (emphasis original)

On the front, Vox develops a thesis that sometimes seems almost meandering. Occasionally, the relationship of the front and back parts of the article is so obscure, the article seems to be founded on two unrelated ideas. In this case, though, he pastes the old media on the Pajamas Media with impressive accuracy.

The real reason Vox didn't get asked to be in the Pajamas Media is that he is a member of the weirdest fringe of all in American Politics: a Christian Libertarian. In truth, I suspect Christians with strong libertarian leanings make up the majority of the American electorate. However, the herd mentality of both the left and the right doesn't allow for such a thing, so their respective propaganda arms will reject the idea outright.

Prince Falls in Love

(Fox News) - A pilot project in 14 British schools has some four to eleven year olds reading a book called "King and King," in which a prince falls in love with three different princesses before falling in love with a man.

Another book called "And Tango Makes Three," which is in some U.S. school libraries, tells the true story of two male penguins who are in love, and a zookeeper who gives them an egg to hatch and nurture.

The director of the "No Outsiders" project says it is needed to combat what she calls the "absolutely massive" problem of bias against homosexuals among British schoolchildren.

But conservative Christians and Muslims are united in opposition to the effort — which one official for the Muslim Council of Britain calls "morally unacceptable."

Harsh Language

(Fox News) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has called President Bush "the devil," "a drunkard," and "a menace to the world." He has consistently referred to the U.S. as "the empire" and said George Washington was the leader of a movement to "support a slave-owning elite."

But Barbara Walters finds him a sentimental man who likes the U.S. Walters said of Chavez following their recent interview: "He was not what I expected. He was very dignified. He was warm, friendly. He likes the U.S. It's George Bush that he doesn't like...This is a man who has some sentiment and he is not crazy as some people seem to think."

Whose Ox Is Gored?

The media discover the former vice president's environmental exaggerations and hypocrisy.

By John Fund
Wall Street Journal

The media are finally catching up with Al Gore. Criticism of his anti-global-warming franchise and his personal environmental record has gone beyond ankle-biting bloggers. It's now coming from the New York Times and the Nashville Tennessean, his hometown paper that put his birth, as a senator's son, on its front page back in 1948, and where a young Al Gore Jr. worked for five years as a journalist.

Last Tuesday, the Times reported that several eminent scientists "argue that some of Mr. Gore's central points [on global warming] are exaggerated and erroneous." The Tenessean reported yesterday that Mr. Gore received $570,000 in royalties from the owners of zinc mines who held mineral leases on his farm. The mines, which closed in 2003 but are scheduled to reopen under a new operator later this year, "emitted thousands of pounds of toxic substances and several times, the water discharged from the mines into nearby rivers had levels of toxins above what was legal."

Remembering the Gipper...

“The specter our well-meaning liberal friends refuse to face is that their policy of accommodation is appeasement, and appeasement does not give you a choice between peace and war, only between fight or surrender. We are told that the problem is too complex for a simple answer. They are wrong. There is no easy answer, but there is a simple answer. We must have the courage to do what we know is morally right, and this policy of accommodation asks us to accept the greatest possible immorality.”

Ronald Reagan

Republican Senator Arlen Specter to Run for Sixth Term in 2010

WASHINGTON (Fox News) - Republican Sen. Arlen Specter, a moderate who has often clashed with the Bush administration and his fellow GOP lawmakers, plans to seek a sixth term in 2010.

Specter, 77, will formally begin his re-election campaign April 4 at a Philadelphia fundraiser, Scott Hoeflich, a Specter spokesman, confirmed on Monday.

In Washington, It's Always the Year of the Rat

Democrats have leapt on reports of mold, rats and bureaucratic hurdles at Walter Reed Army Medical Center as further proof of President George Bush's failed war policies.

To the contrary, the problems at Walter Reed are further proof of the Democrats' failed domestic policies – to wit, the civil service rules that prevent government employees from ever being fired (a policy that also may account for Robert Byrd's longevity as a U.S. senator).

Thanks to the Democrats, government employees have the world's most complicated set of job protection rules outside of the old East Germany. Oddly enough, this has not led to a dynamic workforce in the nation's capital.

Ann Coulter

New Anti-Hillary Clinton YouTube Ad Makes Waves on Web

WASHINGTON (Fox News) - Both campaigns for Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama say they know nothing about a new and chilling campaign advertisement airing on YouTube that attempts to cast the Democratic frontrunner and New York senator as Big Brother.

The ad, an example of a "mashup," in which old and new elements are combined to create a new message, uses footage from the "1984" Super Bowl ad produced by Ridley Scott for Apple Computer but splices in footage from Clinton on the presidential campaign trail.

Stokes hires Triad native as manager

(Winston-Salem Journal) - Stokes County commissioners have hired a Winston-Salem native as the new county manager after more than a year without a full-time manager.

Bryan Steen, 48, an assistant manager in Stanly County, was unanimously appointed to the position by the board during a closed-session meeting Monday night, Leon Inman, the chairman of the board of commissioners, said yesterday.

Steen is expected to start in the job in April, Inman said. His starting salary will be $88,000.

The board was interested in finding someone who would offer Stokes some stability, not someone who would use the county as a stepping stone, he said.

RE: Idiocy in D.C., Progress in Baghdad

The surge is working--that's what matters.

Sure it is, Bill. Democracy is about to break out all over Iraq any moment now. Bless your spinning, neocon heart.

Idiocy in D.C., Progress in Baghdad

The surge is working--that's what matters.

By Bill Kristol
The Weekly Standard

In order to preserve the cosmic harmony, it seems the gods insist that good news in one place be offset by misfortune elsewhere. It may well be that Gen. David Petraeus is going to lead us to victory in Iraq. He is certainly off to a good start. If the karmic price of success in Iraq is utter embarrassment for senior Bush officials in Washington, D.C.--well, in our judgment, the trade-off is worth it. The world will surely note our success or failure in Iraq. It will not long remember the gang that couldn't shoot straight at the Justice Department--or, for that matter, the antics of congressional Democrats--unless either so weakens the administration as to undercut our mission in Iraq.

Lights, Camera . . . Candidacy?

Fred Thompson is shaking up the GOP presidential field. And he's not even running yet.

By John Fund
Wall Street Journal

So many voters remain unsold on any of the current GOP contenders that Mr. (Fred) Thompson just might trade his TV sound stage for a campaign microphone. As this is the first truly open Republican nomination fight in decades, the party might as well revel in the competition it claims to cherish in other parts of life.

Limousine Liberal Hypocrisy

By Charles Krauthammer
Time

If (Al) Gore really wants to save the planet, he can try this: Turn off the lights. Ditch the heated pool. Ride the subway. And spare us the carbon-trading piety.

When And Why Joseph C Wilson IV Outed Valerie Plame

By Steve Gilbert

Before we put Plame "leak" story to bed once and for all, I want to reiterate what I first posited almost two years ago, which now seems to be more true than ever.

It was almost certainly Mr. Joseph C. Wilson IV who first "outed" his wife as a CIA officer.

And he probably did this in early May 2003 after meeting with top level Democrats and around the time he began to work for the John Kerry for President campaign.

Critics Howling

Fox News

Critics are howling like big bad wolves in West Yorkshire, England, where administrators at a school putting on a children's play have changed its title from "The Three Little Pigs" to "The Three Little Puppies," in order to avoid offending Muslims.

A school official said: "We feared that some Muslim children wouldn't sing along to the words about pigs." But many Muslims say this is political correctness gone too far. An official of the Muslim Council of Britain calls the move "bizarre." He says that while Muslims don't eat pork, nothing says they cannot read stories about pigs. And he says misguided moves like this make Muslims misfits in society.

John Edwards' North Carolina Campaign Headquarters Evacuated After White Powder Found

Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards' campaign headquarters in North Carolina was evacuated after a staff member opened a letter containing white powder, a campaign official said.

"The health and safety of our staff and volunteers is obviously our paramount concern, so we contacted the authorities," Jonathan Prince, deputy campaign manager said after the evacuation Wednesday. "The authorities have asked us to evacuate while they run tests on the substance, and we have done so."

Edwards tries desperately to keep his name in the news.

Target is transferring cashiers who avoid pork

In the wake of community criticism, Target Corp. is reassigning its Muslim cashiers who refuse to ring up pork products for religious reasons to other jobs at the stores.

Target received a wave of criticism earlier this week after the Star Tribune reported in a front-page article that some Muslim cashiers at Target declined to scan bacon and other pork products. They would call over another cashier to ring up the products, or in some cases, ask customers to do it themselves.

Some customers called and wrote Target to complain about the practice; a few called for a general boycott of Target on the Star Tribune's community blog, buzz.mn.

Chris Serres and Matt McKinney

Can we expect the ACLU and other leftist organizations to jump in and force Target to fire or discipline these employees? It only seems fair since they are trying to get the government to force pharmacists and obstetricians to dispense morning after pills and perform abortions, despite their religious objections.

That Certain, Special Tuesday

By John Hood
Carolina Journal Online

What would a February-to-November general election campaign for president look and feel like? That may not be a speculative issue for long.

The New Dean Political Plan

By Roger Simon
Politico.com

Democratic Party Chairman Howard Dean has been meeting with world leaders to repair "the extraordinary damage" that the Bush administration has done to America's image and to prepare the way for a new Democratic president.

Bush Tries to Mend Relations With Mexico

President Bush left Mexico today without reaching concrete agreements with the new Mexican president on a host of issues, from greater cooperation on attacking drug traffic to extending protections for Mexican farmers who grow corn and beans.

But as he sought to mend ties with Mexico, Mr. Bush vowed to step up his efforts to persuade Congress to approve a bigger guest-worker program for Mexican migrants and to provide a path to citizenship for millions of illegal immigrations living in the United States, most of them from Mexico and Central America.

President Bush said the mood in Congress had changed, and he was optimistic that he could persuade moderate Senate Republicans to join Democrats to overhaul immigration laws. Mr. Bush said the proposed changes would create a border where trade flows freely but criminals and terrorists face stiff obstacles.

“A good migration law will help both economies and will help the security of both countries,” Mr. Bush said at a joint news conference with President Felipe Calderón of Mexico. “If people can come into our country, for example, on a temporary basis to work, doing jobs Americans aren’t doing, they won’t have to sneak across the border.”

James C. McKinley, Jr.

So President Clueless is still singing the "jobs Americans won't do" song, oblivious to the fact that the statement has become satire of itself. But if that isn't enough to convince you that he is either unrepentantly evil or stupid or both, try this out:

“We have a very good chance of getting the bill out of the Senate, because Senator Kennedy is one of the best legislative senators there is,” President Bush said. “ He can get the job done.”

Hot Air Hog

(Fox News) - Remember that story about the massive energy consumption by Al Gore's Tennesse mansion. It came to light through a tiny free-market think tank called the Tennesse Center for Policy Research, and spread quickly through the Internet to the national media.

But it now turns out that the esteemed Nashville Tennessean, perhaps the state's most influential paper, had been sitting on the story for a month. Tennessean editor Mark Silverman said the story "got put on the back burner simply because people were working on other stories."

Bracing for '08 Bid

(Fox News) - Rudy Giuliani has given up some of his business connections as he mounts a presidential campaign but he remains a partner in the growing law firm of Bracewell and Giuliani.

One of the firm's clients is CITGO, the oil company wholly owned by the government of Hugo Chavez's Venezuela. The Giuliani firm represents CITGO in Texas.

The Giuliani campaign says the former New York Mayor regards Chavez as "no friend of the United States," but did not answer a question from Bloomberg News about whether Giuliani knew of the CITGO work, and whether he considered it appropriate.

Weak Reid?

(Fox News) - Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is described as reacting to an online poll by a left-wing Web site when he gave in to pressure to agree to canceling the Democratic party debate co-sponsored by FOX News.

The Politico newspaper says it all happened during a conference call last Thursday between Reid and a group of liberal bloggers. Reid had previously called the planned FOX debate "great news," but the bloggers were strongly opposed and one of them told him that his straw poll standing on the far-left Daily Kos Web site had dropped from 80 percent to the forties.

Reid then declared that, "I don't like Fox News," and claimed he had nothing to do with the original decision. By that night, the debate was cancelled.

Did John Edwards Vote to Authorize the Iraq war for Political Reasons?

(Fox News) - Veteran Democratic consultant Bob Shrum, who advised both John Edwards and John Kerry during the 2004 Presidential cycle, says Edwards was disinclined to vote to authorize the Iraq war, but was talked into doing so for political reasons.

In a book to be published in June, parts of which were obtained by the AP, Shrum describes a meeting in Edwards' Washington living room in the fall of 2002. He says the Senator was leaning against voting to authorize force in Iraq and that his wife was strongly against it.

But Shrum says he and other advisers argued that Edwards, as a freshman Senator, would appear unserious about national security, if he voted no and that Edwards reluctantly went along.

Edwards says he has "no idea" what Shrum is talking about and that his vote was a mistake but not a political calculation.

John Edwards at Bennett College

Live Leak

Rally at Bennett College with Presidential Candidate John Edwards, March 13th 2007.

Edwards on Skipping Fox News Debate: 'I saw absolutely no reason to give Fox a special platform especially given their history on how they treat Democrats and Democrat Presidential candidates'

Edwards on Global Warming: 'This is an emergency' 'It's a frightening thing' 'It'll make world war look like heaven'

The Hubbell Standard

Hillary Clinton knows all about sacking U.S. Attorneys.

OpinionJournal.com

Congressional Democrats are in full cry over the news this week that the Administration's decision to fire eight U.S. Attorneys originated from--gasp--the White House. Senator Hillary Clinton joined the fun yesterday, blaming President Bush for "the politicization of our prosecutorial system." Oh, my.

As it happens, Mrs. Clinton is just the Senator to walk point on this issue of dismissing U.S. attorneys because she has direct personal experience. In any Congressional probe of the matter, we'd suggest she call herself as the first witness--and bring along Webster Hubbell as her chief counsel.

As everyone once knew but has tried to forget, Mr. Hubbell was a former partner of Mrs. Clinton at the Rose Law Firm in Little Rock who later went to jail for mail fraud and tax evasion. He was also Bill and Hillary Clinton's choice as Associate Attorney General in the Justice Department when Janet Reno, his nominal superior, simultaneously fired all 93 U.S. Attorneys in March 1993. Ms. Reno--or Mr. Hubbell--gave them 10 days to move out of their offices.

At the time, President Clinton presented the move as something perfectly ordinary: "All those people are routinely replaced," he told reporters, "and I have not done anything differently." In fact, the dismissals were unprecedented: Previous Presidents, including Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Carter, had both retained holdovers from the previous Administration and only replaced them gradually as their tenures expired. This allowed continuity of leadership within the U.S. Attorney offices during the transition.

Equally extraordinary were the politics at play in the firings. At the time, Jay Stephens, then U.S. Attorney in the District of Columbia, was investigating then Ways and Means Chairman Dan Rostenkowski, and was "within 30 days" of making a decision on an indictment. Mr. Rostenkowski, who was shepherding the Clinton's economic program through Congress, eventually went to jail on mail fraud charges and was later pardoned by Mr. Clinton.

Also at the time, allegations concerning some of the Clintons' Whitewater dealings were coming to a head. By dismissing all 93 U.S. Attorneys at once, the Clintons conveniently cleared the decks to appoint "Friend of Bill" Paula Casey as the U.S. Attorney for Little Rock. Ms. Casey never did bring any big Whitewater indictments, and she rejected information from another FOB, David Hale, on the business practices of the Arkansas elite including Mr. Clinton. When it comes to "politicizing" Justice, in short, the Bush White House is full of amateurs compared to the Clintons.

Wednesday Funnies :-)

David Letterman: “Top Other New York Times Allegations Against Al Gore”: In addition to “An Inconvenient Truth,” wrote “Big Momma’s House 2”; Against CO2 emissions, yet he insists on exhaling carbon dioxide; Ordered his vice presidential limousine stocked with Yoo-Hoo and caramels; Al Gore, al-Qa’ida? Not a coincidence; “Al” is short for “Alice”; Real reason polar bears are endangered—he’s eating them.

Jay Leno: I guess you heard, today was a big day for the U.S. Border Patrol. They caught 500 immigrants trying to sneak into the country and 200 Halliburton executives trying to sneak out. ... Nebraska Senator Chuck Hagel—he’s a Republican—called a press conference to announce he’ll be making a decision about running for president sometime later in the year. So, he called a press conference to say maybe later in the year he’s going to say something important. This is the kind of bold, decisive leadership this country needs. ... Did you see all those people protesting while President Bush was in Latin America? Bush hasn’t had that many people shouting “Gringo go home!” since his last trip to LA. ... Last week NASA fired that crazy astronaut Lisa Nowak. Apparently there was no place at NASA for an unstable woman. The good news? Today she was hired as co-host of “The View.” ... Rudy Giuliani has defended Newt Gingrich, saying it’s okay Newt had an affair and that no one is perfect. That’s when you know the Republicans are in trouble—when a guy with three marriages and an affair is defending the guy with three marriages and two affairs, so they can team up and beat a Clinton. ... In a speech in South Carolina, presidential candidate Joe Biden says he has a plan for Iraq, he can solve the problem and it’s time to make a change. And then the kid at the counter said, ‘Uh mister, do you want fries with this?

Top general: Remarks on gays were 'personal moral views'

The top U.S. military officer, Gen. Peter Pace, said Tuesday he should have focused more on military policy and less on his own opinion when he told a newspaper homosexual acts are immoral.

His remarks drew opposition from some lawmakers and an advocacy group.

Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the Chicago Tribune on Monday that he supports the "don't ask, don't tell" policy banning openly gay people from serving in the U.S. armed forces.

"In expressing my support for the current policy, I also offered some personal opinions about moral conduct," Pace said in a statement. "I should have focused more on my support of the policy and less on my personal moral views.

Earlier Tuesday, senior staff members for Pace said the general had no plans to apologize for his comments, which included comparisons between homosexuality and adultery -- behavior that he said is prosecuted in the military.

Good for General Pace. Far too many public figures fold under pressure from the homosexual lobby. Any nation that attempts to operate its military as a democracy will not remain a nation long.

Senate Democrats Try Again to Jump Start Iraq Debate

WASHINGTON (Fox News) — After weeks of watching their counterparts in the House make headway on anti-war legislation, Senate Democrats say it is their turn to put their members on record on whether President Bush should pull U.S. combat troops out of Iraq.

Clinton: Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy Is Real

WASHINGTON (Fox News) — Presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton told Democrats Tuesday the "vast, right-wing conspiracy" is back, using a phrase she once coined to describe partisan criticism.

On the fringe

Steve said:

Also, since Paul has been re-elected nine times, the GOP machine's assertions that he has only a fringe following is patently absurd.

Andy responded:

Now I wouldn't go that far because there are many members of Congress who are way out there in outer space. I'm not saying Ron Paul is one, but there are quite a few in the House.

Undoubtedly there are fringe members of Congress, but the GOP machine continuously asserts that Paul has a fringe following. It is logically impossible to get re-elected nine times with just a fringe following. Obviously, the majority of people in his district support him, thereby negating the possibility that they are on the fringe.

One of the most attractive aspects of someone like Ron Paul is that he will not give his vote away to feed the party beast. That, of course, makes him anathema to party insiders and other faithful.

Group Honors Atheist Congressman

WASHINGTON (AOL News) - The American Humanist Association applauded Rep. Pete Stark for publicly acknowledging he does not believe in a supreme being. The declaration, it said, makes him the highest-ranking elected official -- and first congressman -- to proclaim to be an atheist.

RE: Stokes may re-open health clinic soon

"We have such a nice building. That building being up and running is a front-burner issue for me," said Commissioner Stanley Smith. "When can I pull over there and get a shot?"

Can't Stanley Smith afford to go to a private doctor and get a shot??? This is government-run health care on the local level... I'm sure Hillary Clinton would be proud of Stokes County. Maybe Ron Carroll will have a fundraiser for her there at the clinic.

RE: RE: Texan Ron Paul enters race for GOP nomination

Steve opines: "The True Believers have already started excoriating Paul, calling him "nutcase" and "fruitcake." Since Paul is, by any measure, the most conservative member of Congress, this behavior lends credence to the school of thought that the GOP is no longer the conservative party in America."

The GOP establishment has always made fun of conservatives... This isn't anything new. They did the same thing to Reagan all the time.

"Also, since Paul has been re-elected nine times, the GOP machine's assertions that he has only a fringe following is patently absurd."

Now I wouldn't go that far because there are many members of Congress who are way out there in outer space. I'm not saying Ron Paul is one, but there are quite a few in the House.

From a Rapt Audience, a Call to Cool the Hype

By William J. Broad
N.Y. Times

Hollywood has a thing for Al Gore and his three-alarm film on global warming, “An Inconvenient Truth,” which won an Academy Award for best documentary. So do many environmentalists, who praise him as a visionary, and many scientists, who laud him for raising public awareness of climate change.

But part of his scientific audience is uneasy. In talks, articles and blog entries that have appeared since his film and accompanying book came out last year, these scientists argue that some of Mr. Gore’s central points are exaggerated and erroneous. They are alarmed, some say, at what they call his alarmism.

Warner hits Pace on gay remarks

(The Swamp) - The ranking Republican of the Senate Armed Services Committee sharply rebuked the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Tuesday, taking issue with General Peter Pace’s view that homosexual acts are immoral.

Sen. John Warner (R-Va.), a former Secretary of the Navy, said, “I respectfully but strongly disagree with the chairman’s view that homosexuality is immoral. In keeping with my longstanding respect for the Armed Services committee hearing process, I will decline to comment on the current policy until after such hearings are held.”

RE: Texan Ron Paul enters race for GOP nomination

The True Believers have already started excoriating Paul, calling him "nutcase" and "fruitcake." Since Paul is, by any measure, the most conservative member of Congress, this behavior lends credence to the school of thought that the GOP is no longer the conservative party in America. Also, since Paul has been re-elected nine times, the GOP machine's assertions that he has only a fringe following is patently absurd.

As I said before, and now it seems it is official, I will be participating in the GOP primary.

Texan Ron Paul enters race for GOP nomination

WASHINGTON (Winston-Salem Journal) - Rep. Ron Paul, a Texas Republican with a pronounced libertarian streak, officially entered the crowded GOP presidential primary field yesterday in his second bid for the White House.

Paul, 71, who was the Libertarian Party's presidential nominee in 1988, announced his unconventional candidacy during an early-morning C-SPAN call-in show.

Paul, an obstetrician serving his 10th term in Congress, began testing the political waters in January. He stepped up his announcement timetable by nearly a month - testimony, he said, to the strong support he has received on the Internet and during a recent trip to New Hampshire, site of the first nominating primary.

Stokes may re-open health clinic soon

DANBURY (Winston-Salem Journal) - Stokes County officials told county commissioners yesterday that the county's health clinic in King could re-open soon.

Commissioners discussed the steps to take to re-open the clinic during the board's regular meeting. The main issue is hiring a doctor to provide care.

The clinic, the Southwestern Services Center, closed in 2003 after mold was discovered. The mold has been removed and the building has been tested to ensure that it is mold-free. It will be re-tested today.

Gay Advocacy Group Wants Apology From Pentagon Top General After Homosexuality Comment

WASHINGTON (Fox News) — A gay advocacy group Tuesday demanded an apology from the Pentagon's top general for calling homosexuality immoral.

In a newspaper interview Monday, Marine Gen. Peter Pace had likened homosexuality to adultery and said the military should not condone it by allowing gays to serve openly in the military.

The Conservative Case Against Bush

After six years of President Bush--thought by nearly every observer to be the most socially conservative president of recent decades--where does social conservatism stand? No one can deny there have been some bright spots: the defeat of the Democrats' Senate leader Tom Daschle in 2004, the nominations of Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Alito to the Supreme Court in 2005, a few successful state referendums in 2006.

What isn't so clear is what it all amounts to. The noise has been overwhelming since George W. Bush took office. Abortion, euthanasia, stem cells, public Christmas displays, same-sex marriage, pornography in the movies, faith-based initiatives, immigration, visible patriotism: We've been warned by the media, over and over again, that Republicans are reshaping America into a Puritan's paradise. But at the end of the day, the media mostly won and the Republicans mostly lost. Social conservatism is in little better shape now than it was when Bush was first elected. In many ways, it is in worse shape.

In truth, no branch of conservatism has prospered much under Bush, particularly since the beginning of the Iraq War. Economic conservatives have had several victories, particularly with tax cuts, but on their fundamental worries about bloated government spending, they've been routed. From 2000 to 2006, the Republican Congress proved as financially undisciplined as its Democratic predecessors--and occasionally even less disciplined, as the prescription-drug entitlement and Katrina relief showed. And that's to say nothing about the scandals involving Tom Delay, Jack Abramoff, Mark Foley and all the rest. The Gingrich Republicans used the long parade of congressional corruption to help defeat the Democrats in 1994, but they seemed all too ready to join it themselves once they had held power for a few years.

Joseph Bottum

I can't agree with all of Bottum's assertions, particularly his assertion that Bush actually is a conservative. "Compassionate Conservatism" or "Big Government Conservatism" are euphemisms for some very un-conservative behavior. At heart, I am convinced that Bush is a socialist and a globalist. As well, he may be sincere in his social conservatism, but his ineptitude as pointed out by Bottum makes it look like mere pandering. In the main, though, Bottum's assessment that Bush is responsible, in large part, for the beating taken by American Conservatism over the last six years is spot on.

HILLARY'S 'HERO' PROBLEM

By Bob Novak
N.Y. Post

While Hillary Rodham Clinton came out second best to Barack Obama in their long-range oratorical duel at Selma, Ala., the real problem with her visit there a week ago concerned her March 4 speech's claim of her attachment to Martin Luther King Jr. as a high school student in 1963. How, then, could she be a "Goldwater girl" in the next year's presidential election?

The incompatibility of those two positions of 40 years ago was noted to me by Democratic old-timers who were shocked by Sen. Clinton's temerity in pursuing her presidential candidacy. Barry Goldwater's opposition to the 1964 voting-rights bill was not incidental to his run for the White House but an integral element of conscious departure from Republican tradition that contributed to his disastrous performance.

Of course, no political candidate should have to explain inconsistencies of her high school days. What Hillary Clinton said at Selma is significant because it betrays her campaign's panicky reaction to the unexpected rise of Sen. Obama as a serious competitor for the Democratic nomination.

Do we really need a Gen. Pelosi?

Congress can cut funding for Iraq, but it shouldn't micromanage the war.

L.A. Times

After weeks of internal strife, House Democrats have brought forth their proposal for forcing President Bush to withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq by 2008. The plan is an unruly mess: bad public policy, bad precedent and bad politics. If the legislation passes, Bush says he'll veto it, as well he should.

It was one thing for the House to pass a nonbinding vote of disapproval. It's quite another for it to set out a detailed timetable with specific benchmarks and conditions for the continuation of the conflict. Imagine if Dwight Eisenhower had been forced to adhere to a congressional war plan in scheduling the Normandy landings or if, in 1863, President Lincoln had been forced by Congress to conclude the Civil War the following year. This is the worst kind of congressional meddling in military strategy.

Remembering the Gipper...

“Unlike our opponents, who find their glee in momentary political leverage, we garnish our strength of purpose from a commitment to ideals that we deeply believe are not only right but that work. Ludwig Von Mises, that great economist, once noted: ‘People must fight for something they want to achieve, not simply reject an evil.’ Well, the conservative movement remains in the ascendancy because we have a bold, forward-looking agenda.”

Ronald Reagan

The case against science, part II

It was interesting to see the plethora of reactions to last week's column, wherein I demonstrated that the arguments commonly made against religion cannot only be made against science, but can be made more conclusively against science than against religion. And it was particularly amusing to see how individuals who attack religion with these sorts of arguments were incapable of recognizing their own logic when applied to a different target.

Here are a few of the more common responses engendered by the column:

It is not fair to blame all scientists, or science itself, for the evil actions of a few scientists.

Of course it is not. And therefore it is obviously not fair to blame everyone who possesses religious faith, or religion itself, for the evil actions of a few religious people. Yet anti-religious individuals such as Sam Harris actually attempt to blame Christian moderates for the actions of Islamic extremists.

Vox Day

The priests and acolytes of science seem just as inclined to accept a blatant double standard as do the priests and acolytes of Marxism and its various denominations. This is illustrated nowhere better than the union of environmentalists, the new Marxists, and the field of climate "science" that gives us the global warming scam.

The high irony is that everyone, even atheistic scientists and their groupies, has a sacred cow.

RE: Burr is supporting McCain for president

I guess Richard really has gone over to the dark side. There has been a lot of discussion about that on some other forums, but I have held fire for the most part.

McCain is an unabashed and unapologetic fascist. He does not believe in free speech or the rule of law. Like nearly every other fascist in history, he hides behind the guise of "conservatism," while all the while pursuing a heavily Leftist agenda. On top of all of that, he is obviously mentally unstable. He plays the prisoner-of-war and war hero cards pretty heavily, but if you examine the facts in-depth, you find that his hero status is not much more credible than John Kerry's was.

That Richard chooses to endorse this lunatic means one of two things. Either Richard has adopted the same fascist ideology or that he is simply playing the game, devoid of principle. Either circumstance is unfortunate, but my guess is the latter, since Richard has had stars in his eyes for a while. I would guess that McCain has at least hinted the Richard would be on his short list for VP.

I know a lot of people who worked very hard to help Richard achieve what he has done. I also know a lot of them won't continue to support him due to his lackluster and highly ineffectual performance since he went to the Senate. I know more who will abandon him because of this endorsement.

What a shame. Another one bites the dust.

Holliman bill would tightly limit smoking

RALEIGH (Winston-Salem Journal) - Surely, in this day and age, with smoking restrictions spread across the country, there ought to be some places left where people can legally light up. Their homes. Their cars. The Reynolds Building.

Maybe not for long.

A bill making its way through the state legislature would enact broad restrictions on indoor smoking across North Carolina. It would ban smoking in restaurants, offices and public buildings. And yes, maybe even inside the Winston-Salem headquarters of the nation's second-largest tobacco company, Reynolds American Inc.

Rep. Hugh Holliman, D-Davidson, is the bill's chief sponsor, and he said that it is aimed at limiting the effects of secondhand smoke.

Burr is supporting McCain for president

WASHINGTON (Winston-Salem Journal) - U.S. Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., endorsed Sen. John McCain for president during a campaign fundraiser yesterday in Charlotte.

Burr called McCain "a proven leader and true American hero."

McCain, he said, "is my friend and I look forward to calling him 'Mr. President.'"

Fox Attacks

John Edwards '08 Blog

Deputy Campaign Manager Jonathan Prince sent the following email to supporters this evening.

You may have heard by now that John Edwards was the first candidate to officially say no to the Fox News debate in Nevada -- and because of the hard work of so many grassroots and netroots Democrats, news is breaking tonight that Fox is out.

Is it just me or is John Edwards looking like a wuss in all of this??? I would assume he is going to boycott all of Fox News shows. If he can't handle Fox News, how is he going to handle the serious threats throughout the world???

Roger Ailes To Media: Pressure To Boycott Debates "Must Be Resisted"

(MEDIA BISTRO) - FNC chairman Roger Ailes is apparently taking the effort to "ask the Democratic Party of Nevada to drop Fox" very seriously. During his RTNDF acceptance speech tonight, he addressed the issue head-on...

Nevada Dems Nix Fox Debate

(The Politico) - The Nevada State Democratic Party is pulling out of a controversial presidential debate scheduled for Aug. 14 in Reno and co-hosted by Fox News, according to a letter released late Friday from state party chairman Tom Collins and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev).

Of Hate-Speech and Hypocrisy

By Patrick Goodenough
CNSNews.com

(Contains language that may be offensive to some readers.)

(CNSNews.com) - The left-wing Daily Kos blog has been driving a campaign to have companies pull ads from Ann Coulter's website after the conservative author used a slur in a recent speech, but leftist websites -- including Daily Kos -- have themselves used the offending word in the past.

Daily Kos postings have included the word "faggot" at least three times in recent years, as have other liberal blogs -- without apology, and without generating a furor.

RE: The liberal media? No (expletive) way!

I think Strother and Campos need to get together and have a pity party so they can whine about this some more. This article is nothing more than an exercise in airing Campos' (self) righteous indignation. The tie-in with the liberal media remark is weak, at best. Like every other leftie pinhead, Campos seems to miss the gaping logic hole in his thesis: that because CNN choses to pander to controversy does not make them illiberal.

This isn't about what Coulter said any more. What's really chapping Campos' (and Strother's) flanks is the fact that conservatives haven't risen up en masse and pilloried Coulter. In fact, the vast majority of conservatives seem to be quite pleased with the panty-bunching Coulter's remarks have caused among liberals and other PC advocates.

In the end, Edwards is still nobody going nowhere, quickly. My advice to Campos (and Strother) is, get over it.

Obey berates woman over war funding, later apologizes

(The Hill) - House Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey (D-Wis.) berated a woman who approached him in a Congressional corridor, claiming that “idiot liberals” don’t understand the war supplemental spending bill process.

Appeals Court Strikes Down Washington, D.C. Handgun Ban

WASHINGTON (Fox News) — A federal appeals court overturned the District of Columbia's long-standing handgun ban Friday, rejecting the city's argument that the Second Amendment right to bear arms applied only to militias.

New Ethics Rules

(Fox News) - New House ethics rules banning travel paid for by lobbyists — do not cover trips funded by one of Capitol Hill's most influential forces — higher education.

USA Today reports colleges, universities and higher education groups are exempted from the rules that took effect this month. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's office tells the paper that lawmakers wanted the exemption so they could deliver commencement speeches.

But the loophole covers all travel funded by academic interests — not just for commencements. The report says education groups spent at least 75 million on federal lobbying efforts in 2005 — and more than 900,000 on lawmaker travel since 2000. The Senate is considering an ethics rule with a similar exemption.

Some Democrats Want to Bring Guantanamo Bay Detainees to the Mainland

(Fox News) - House Democrats want to force the Pentagon to shut down the Guantanamo Bay detention camp and bring the terror suspects housed there to the U.S. The Politico newspaper reports the effort is being led by Virginia Democrat Jim Moran, who wants the 385 suspects in custody to be either released, tried or moved to military brigs along the East Coast.

Moran wants to cut funding for the facility by the end of the summer of 2008. A senior administration official responded by saying: "Where do Democrats believe we should keep Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the mastermind of the 9/11 plot? Which American city will they choose to place America's most wanted terrorists?"

RE: Gingrich Had Affair During Clinton Probe

Wow, another despicable hypocrite in Washington! Who's surprised?

As an aside, I wonder what Coulter would say about Gingrich's inability to keep it in his pants (or at least keep it exclusively for use by his own wife)? "At least he's not a faggot?" It wouldn't surprise me.

The liberal media? No (expletive) way!

Now suppose I were to stand up here and call Ann Coulter a (expletive). (Interestingly, unlike "faggot," American newspapers won't print this word, although it's no more offensive). That would, I believe, be a highly inappropriate thing to do. Even though it's my personal opinion that, if anyone deserves to be called a (expletive) Coulter does, it's still the sort of thing any decent person will avoid doing.
Yet if I were to point out that Ann Coulter is, by any reasonable standard of evaluation, a (expletive), I suspect much outrage would ensue. After all, Nancy Pelosi is giving a speech later tonight inside this same hotel, in which someone Pelosi doesn't know would have called Ann Coulter a (expletive).
If such a thing were to happen, the entire right-wing noise machine would leap into action. Ann Althouse would probably write a column in the New York Times about how, if Pelosi were really a feminist, she would unequivocally condemn some guy Pelosi has never heard of, who called Ann Coulter a (expletive) in front of 75 people in a hotel room in Denver.
Meanwhile, Ann Coulter calls John Edwards a faggot on national TV, at the same podium from which Mitt Romney had just told the world how much he loves Ann Coulter, and the result is that, rather than being shunned by every decent human being on the planet - or at least by people who would like to be elected president - Coulter is immediately invited on to CNN to discuss her views further.
That, ladies and gentlemen, is your "liberal media" in action.

— Paul C. Campos

Interestingly enough, this same column ran this morning in the WSJ, but without the middle Pelosi/feminist part I included above.

Yep — I now realize what John Edwards should've said after Ann's scheduled 'outrageous' moment: "Well, what do you expect from a bitch like Ann Coulter?" Imagine a presidential candidate saying that. Hell, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em, right?

Then the next time John sees Ann in person, he gives her the finger before punching her in the adam's apple. Just kidding about that last part — to paraphrase Ryan Seacrest, this is American Idol, not WWE. Not yet, at least.

RE: Could Edwards Become First Woman President?

Compared to Mrs. Clinton, Mr. Edwards is short an ‘X' chromosome, but listening to Ms. Michelman, that is easy to forget. "As a lawyer, as a senator, as a husband, as a father of two daughters, he understands the reality of women's lives. He understands the centrality of women's lives and experience to the health and well-being of society as a whole. … He understands that on an extremely personal level," she said.

No need to beat around the bush and be so wordy, Kate. Just say that Edwards is a metrosexual and a gamma male and leave it at that. Succinct, to the point, and just as accurate.

Marriage Spells Death to the Lady's Libido

(Fox News) - Hey ladies, if you want to keep the passion alive with your man, it's a good idea to hold off on marriage.

Greek researchers found that married women are more likely to complain about lack of libido than their single counterparts, according to a report in Greece's Kathimerini newspaper.

The figures, released Tuesday by the Center for Sexual and Reproductive Health (KESAY) in Thessaloniki found that married women complained about their diminished sex drive 40 percent more than single gals.

The center used data from some 3,500 phone calls made to its helpline since 1998 for the study. KESAY also found that only a third of the women who complained about a low sex drive told their doctor about the problem.

Gingrich Had Affair During Clinton Probe

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich acknowledged he was having an extramarital affair even as he led the charge against President Clinton over the Monica Lewinsky affair, he acknowledged in an interview with a conservative Christian group.

Could Edwards Become First Woman President?

By Josh Gerstein
New York Sun

BERKELEY, Calif. — Toni Morrison famously dubbed President Clinton America's "first black president." With that barrier broken, the comments of a prominent feminist are provoking debate about who may lay a similar claim to the title of America's first woman president.

The candidate being touted as a torchbearer for women is not Senator Clinton, but one of her former colleagues, John Edwards. At a rally near the University of California, Berkeley campus this week, a veteran of the abortion-rights movement, Kate Michelman, asked and answered the question she gets most frequently about her decision to back the male former senator from North Carolina.

It would have been much funnier if Ann Coulter would have called John Edwards "our potential first female president" instead of what she said at CPAC.

The Lost Scandal

By Bob Novak
Real Clear Politics

WASHINGTON -- Denis Collins, a Washington journalist on the Scooter Libby jury, described sentiments in the jury room reflecting those in the Senate Democratic cloakroom: "It was said a number of times. . . . Where's Rove? Where are these other guys?" Besides presidential adviser Karl Rove, he surely meant Vice President Dick Cheney and maybe President Bush. Oddly, the jurors appeared uninterested in hearing from Richard Armitage, the source of the CIA leak.

Some Damage Control on Incentives

By John Hood
Carolina Journal Online

Google made many public officials in North Carolina look like yahoos. Now they needed to defend themselves, and chose a Senate Finance Committee meeting as their opportunity.

Three Good Options for The Right

By George Will
Washington Post

The axiom is as old as human striving: The perfect is the enemy of the good. In politics this means that insisting on perfection in a candidate interferes with selecting a satisfactory one.

Which is why the mood of many of the 6,300 people, lots of them college age, who registered at last week's Conservative Political Action Conference here, was unreasonably morose. Sponsored annually by the American Conservative Union, CPAC is the conservative movement's moveable feast. Many at CPAC seemed depressed by the fact, as they see it, that the top three Republican candidates -- John McCain, Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani-- are flawed. Such conservatives should conduct a thought experiment.

Shooting elephants in a barrel

By Ann Coulter
Townhall.com

Lewis Libby has now been found guilty of perjury and obstruction of justice for lies that had absolutely no legal consequence.

It was not a crime to reveal Valerie Plame's name because she was not a covert agent. If it had been a crime, Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald could have wrapped up his investigation with an indictment of the State Department's Richard Armitage on the first day of his investigation since it was Armitage who revealed her name and Fitzgerald knew it.

With no crime to investigate, Fitzgerald pursued a pointless investigation into nothing, getting a lot of White House officials to make statements under oath and hoping some of their recollections would end up conflicting with other witness recollections, so he could charge some Republican with "perjury" and enjoy the fawning media attention.

As a result, Libby is now a convicted felon for having a faulty memory of the person who first told him that Joe Wilson was a delusional boob who lied about his wife sending him to Niger.

This makes it official: It's illegal to be Republican.

TV Star, Former Republican Senator Fred Thompson Mulls '08 Presidential Bid

WASHINGTON (Fox News) - Former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson is facing increased calls to get into the 2008 GOP nomination race.

Sources told FOX News that Thompson, 62, now one of the stars of the popular NBC prime time series "Law & Order," has not ruled out a presidential bid, and has authorized advisers and supporters to continue to gauge support.

Newspapers Pull Ann Coulter's Column Over John Edwards 'Faggot' Comment

WASHINGTON (Fox News) — At least three newspapers have pulled conservative commentator Ann Coulter's syndicated column from their editorial pages after her comments last week calling Democratic presidential hopeful John Edwards a "faggot."

Comic hero Captain America dies

(BBC): Superhero Captain America has been killed off after appearing in US comic books for 66 years. The character, who appears in the Captain America comic book, was created in 1941 to build up patriotic feeling during World War II.
Co-creator Joe Simon told the New York Daily News: "It's a hell of a time for him to go. We really need him now."

Meant to be symbolic, perhaps?

Latest House Democrat Plan Would Withdraw Troops From Iraq by Fall 2008

WASHINGTON (Fox News) — Challenging President Bush's strategy for Iraq, House Democrats unveiled plans Thursday for a specific timetable to remove U.S. combat troops from Iraq and bring them home before fall 2008.

Edwards Declares War on Fox News

Seeking to solidify the liberal base of his party, Democratic presidential contender former Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C., announced this week his boycott of the August 14th Democratic debate in Nevada being co-hosted by Fox News.

Edwards was, in fact, responding to a gauntlet thrown by blogger Markos Moulitsas, founder of liberal website the Daily Kos, who asked the Democratic candidate pool "not to do a Fox News debate," rather "to debate in Nevada with another media partner."

Jake Tapper and Nitya Venkataraman

Hey Johnny-boy, you need to decide whether you're going to pander to the angry Left or not. You hired those two trash-talking bloggers and then fired them when the heat got too much for you. So now you're sucking up to the Daily Kos?

I also wonder if one of the Republicans will refuse to participate in a debate co-hosted by ABCNBCCBS. If Edwards can refuse to participate because a propaganda outlet for the Right is involved, it only seems reasonable that someone else would refuse when any one of the propaganda outlets for the Left is involved. Or maybe all the Republicans are smart enough to avoid marginalizing themselves.

Way to go, Silky Pony. Is Liz still running your campaign? How's that working out for you?

"Wrongful Birth"

(Fox News) - A Boston woman has filed what's being called a "wrongful birth" lawsuit, alleging that a Planned Parenthood clinic botched her abortion, and another doctor failed to notice she was still pregnant afterward.

The 45-year-old woman is seeking child-rearing costs for her now two-year-old daughter and other damages. She says she originally sought the abortion for financial reasons — and believed it had been accomplished until she had to go to the emergency room for pelvic pain about two-and-a-half months before giving birth.

Massachusetts law requires a tribunal to screen the complaint to see if it has merit to go on to trial.

Impeachment Vote

(Fox News) - 32 towns in Vermont Tuesday passed resolutions calling for the impeachment of President Bush, for allegedly misleading the country about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction and for engaging in illegal wiretapping.

The symbolic votes came on Vermont's annual "Town Meeting Day" — which dates back to colonial times. Five towns passed similar measures last year.

Congressional Democrats have largely steered clear of any impeachment talk. Also on Tuesday, 16 Vermont towns passed separate measures calling for an immediate troop withdrawal from Iraq.

Cross Returns

(Fox News) - After months of controversy, The College of William & Mary will return a brass cross to the school's historic Wren Chapel. The decision by a committee of alumni, students and faculty follows threats by alumni to withhold contributions — including one $12 million donation.

The cross was removed after President Gene Nichol said he wanted to make the chapel more welcoming to people of all faiths. But it will soon be back in what is called a prominent, readily visible place — inside a glass case with a plaque explaining the school's Anglican heritage.

Diet Change Beats Car Switch

(Fox News) - The folks at PETA, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, are calling out Al Gore, saying if he really wants to fight global warming, he should become a vegetarian.

PETA has sent Gore a letter saying giving up meat is the quickest and most effective way to combat climate change because the meat industry is one of the most significant sources of environmental damage.

PETA claims, "raising animals for food generates more greenhouse gases than all the cars and trucks in the world combined." And, it says, researchers have determined that switching to a vegan diet is more effective against global warming than switching from a standard American car to a Toyota Prius hybrid.

Gore's office told FOX News this afternoon it had not yet seen the letter.

RE: The Rev. Hillary's Tin Ear

Yeah. OK. Sure. Point taken.

But if this is the best the right has to throw at her beastliness, we had all better practice up saying, "All hail Queen Hillary."

The Libby Travesty

Mr. Bush owes the former aide a pardon, and an apology.

The Wall Street Journal

The word "guilty" had barely crossed the airwaves yesterday in the perjury case of Scooter Libby before critics were calling it proof that President Bush "lied us into war" and demanding that Dick Cheney be strung up next. Maybe now Mr. Bush will realize that this case was always a political fight over Iraq and do the right thing by pardoning Mr. Libby.

Why Libby Lost

After three and a half years, the CIA-leak case ends with one conviction.

By Byron York
National Review Online

On virtually every day of the perjury and obstruction of justice trial of Lewis Libby, it was hard not to imagine that the jurors were asking themselves, “Why is this guy on trial?” Why wasn’t Richard Armitage, the former State Department official who first leaked the identity of Valerie Plame Wilson, in the courtroom? Or Ari Fleischer, the former White House press secretary who told reporters about Mrs. Wilson? Or Karl Rove, the top White House aide who ever-so-briefly discussed her with journalists?