Remembering the Gipper...

“All of us denounce war—all of us consider it man’s greatest stupidity. And yet wars happen and they involve the most passionate lovers of peace because there are still barbarians in the world who set the price for peace at death or enslavement and the price is too high.”

Ronald Reagan

Mitchell Endorses Ron Paul for President in '08

From Robert W. Mitchell, Jr.:

Hello,

Congressman Ron Paul, the leading advocate for freedom in our nation's capital, is running for the Republican nomination for president. I'm working to gather support for his campaign. Please consider supporting Congressman Ron Paul. Visit RonPaul2008.com for more. Although he is running as a Republican, he is by no means a "status quo" politician. As the Libertarian candidate for President in 1988, Paul has a record of advocating Constitutional principles without becoming a slave to traditional political parties.

Regards,
RWM

http://www.RonPaul2008.com/

Robert's letter to Rep. Paul:

Dear Dr. Paul,

I am a North Carolina Democrat, a member of the state Democratic Party Executive Committee, and now a supporter of your campaign for President. I can not in good conscience support any of the other candidates that have announced their intentions thus far. I agree with you and admire your constitutional principles. I look forward to following your campaign and will share your name, issues, and ideas with those people in my circle of influence.

Best Wishes,
Robert W. Mitchell, Jr

Is Fred Thompson Coming to the GOP's Rescue?

By Stuart Rothenberg
Real Clear Politics

I'll admit that I have had a hard time warming to the idea that former Sen. Fred Thompson (R-Tenn.), whom I first saw as minority counsel during the Senate Watergate hearings and whose TV and movie credits include "Die Hard 2," "The Hunt for Red October" and "Law & Order," would run for president. And it seemed, at least initially, even more difficult to imagine him as the Republican nominee next year.

But try as I might to dismiss the idea of a Thompson candidacy, I no longer can do so. It isn't that the former Senator from Tennessee is such a good fit for the role of presidential candidate. It's simply that none of the other cast members is a perfect fit either.

The Waning of the GOP

The political problem of the Bush administration is grave, possibly beyond the point of rescue. The opinion polls are savagely decisive on the Iraq question. About 60 percent of Americans wish the war ended — wish at least a timetable for orderly withdrawal. What is going on in Congress is in the nature of accompaniment. The vote in Congress is simply another salient in the war against war in Iraq. Republican forces, with a couple of exceptions, held fast against the Democrats’ attempt to force Bush out of Iraq even if it required fiddling with the Constitution. President Bush will of course veto the bill, but its impact is critically important in the consolidation of public opinion. It can now accurately be said that the legislature, which writes the people’s laws, opposes the war.

William F. Buckley, Jr.

The GOP caught a fatal disease in 1980. It was called the Bush Family. The party stayed vital and relevant throughout the 1980s, but began to grow anemic and sickly in 1992. Once rid of the first Bush generation, it recovered slightly in 1994 and could have been on the mend. However, a relapse in 2000 really sealed its fate. By the time 2008 rolls around, the biggest question will be when the corpse will begin to stink.

The current incarnation of the Bush disease is insidious. It has used the war on terrorism to silence criticism from the right on the rank socialism that is the crux of the Bush domestic policy. It has used evasion and euphemism to avoid the charge of nation-building and flatly ignored the very accurate charges that Iraq was more about Bush pride and the Saudi Royal family than it was about terrorism and democracy. It has put the GOP faithful in the bizarre position of having to defend a surreal political position. For the last thirty years, one of the GOP's primary strengths was operating from a position of reality and firing on the breadth of wishful thinking that makes up the rhetoric of the Left. Bush has changed all that and forced the party to defend the indefensible. The result will be fatal.

If no less than the likes of Bill Buckley are doubting the survival of the GOP, one wonders if its death is not imminent. GOP True Believers hold out a great deal of hope for salvation by, variously, a liberal lawyer from New York or a right-of-center Tennessee lawyer-turned-actor. It will be amazing if the party manages to survive tidal forces of that magnitude. My inclination is to say that it is done and we can simply stick a fork in it, but I believe that someone of principle (like Ron Paul for example) could pull off a Reagan and confound the machinations of the party elite by pulling off a grassroots victory, there could be hope.

It is a slim hope at best. I certainly wouldn't wager anything of value on it.

The war was won before it was lost

But America is not invincible, any more than Rome or Great Britain or any great power of the past, present or future could ever be invincible. To suggest otherwise is to indulge in sheer fantasy. As for America's will, what does not exist cannot be broken; the American people were never asked to build a democracy in Iraq nor have they ever shown any signs of harboring any desire to do so. Should any Republican candidate be so foolish as to openly suggest that the American military take on the role of the Turkish Armed Forces in "guiding" Iraqi democracy by staging military coups every 10 years, the resulting Democratic landslide would make Ronald Reagan's 1984 thumping of Walter Mondale look like a photo finish.

And yet, that is precisely the position in which the president threatens to place the American armed forces assuming everything goes better than can realistically be expected!

The great con game of the neocons and their World Democratic Revolution is ending. One hopes that the Republican Party, especially its conservatives, will remember in the future that those nominal adherents who require an adjective seldom subscribe to the core values of the noun.

Vox Day

Who's the Boss?

(Fox News) - While many women have equality in American households, or may even be the bosses, women in other cultures often struggle against male domination. But now there is a town being planned in China where women would be the bosses — by law.

The Chinese government plans to spend almost $70 million to develop a tourist destination where the motto would be: "Women never make mistakes, and men can never refuse women's requests."

The rules would state that women make the decisions on shopping and lodging questions — and basically everything else. If a man objects, he would be subject to punishment such as, "kneeling on an uneven board," whatever that is, or sentenced to washing dishes in a restaurant.

And of course, they'd have to learn the Chinese words for "Yes dear, whatever you say dear."

Animal Writes

(Fox News) - PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) wants the Associated Press to change the way its journalists write about animals. PETA's communications director has written to the AP asking that its stylebook be updated to recommend animals be referred to as "he" or "she," instead of "it."

The letter refers to animals as "feeling, intelligent individuals — not objects." But an AP spokesman tells editorandpublisher.com that the stylebook already directs writers to use "he" and "she" for animals whose gender is known.

The stylebook reads: "Do not apply a personal pronoun to an animal unless its sex has been established or the animal has a name."

Serious Threat?

(Fox News) - A poll from CBS and The New York Times indicates that while most people see a threat in global warming — they are not ready to make major changes to stop it. When asked about an increase in the federal gasoline tax in order to cut down energy consumption and reduce global warming — 38 percent were in favor — but 58 percent were opposed.

And on the question of whether the government should focus on energy development or protecting the environment — 62 percent picked energy — and just 21 percent voted for the environment.

And speaking of voting — respondents were asked their opinions on political leaders who talk about environmental issues. 23 percent said they found politicians helpful, and 72 percent said they just find them confusing.

Hillary Clinton Under Fire for Her Blogging

(Fox News) - Senator Hillary Clinton is taking some criticism for making her first guest blogging appearance — on the women-run site called firedoglake.com. Mrs. Clinton wrote a blog on the site this week about pay equity.

But firedoglake.com is the online home of Jane Hamsher — who is known for her racially offensive attack on Senator Joe Lieberman last year. Hamsher was being critical of Lieberman for running as an independent against Democrat Ned Lamont. She posted a doctored photo of Lieberman in black face on huffingtonpost.com.

One Hillary Clinton supporter tells The Washington Post the decision to blog on Hamsher's site was "potentially problematic." But a Clinton spokesman said Hamsher's blog was picked because it is read by 100,000 people — and pointed out that Hamsher has apologized for the Lieberman photo.

The Democratic Debate: What, Us Weak on Defense?

Two of the three frontrunners stumble on a very basic question.

By Byron York
National Review Online

On Tuesday, Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani accused his Democratic opponents of being weak on terrorism. “The Democrats do not understand the full nature and scope of the terrorist war against us,” Giuliani said. On Thursday, at their debate in Orangeburg, South Carolina, two of the three leading Democratic candidates did their best to prove Giuliani right.

America’s imaginary Law and Order candidate

The new Ronald Reagan in the presidential race

By Gerard Baker
TimesOnline

Last week in these pages I noted the unusually large number of New Yorkers in the running for the US presidency. Hillary Clinton, Rudolph Giuliani and the current mayor of the city, Michael Bloomberg, all have high hopes of representing Democrats, Republicans and independents respectively in next year’s election. But in my customary haste, I omitted to mention perhaps the best-known face of all in the race.

Arthur Branch is the District Attorney for New York County, the official, legal name for Manhattan. He is that unusual but highly attractive political figure – a successful, elected conservative Republican in an overwhelmingly Democratic city. How successful? No Republican has held the Manhattan DA position since Thomas Dewey in the 1930s, who later became governor and was famous for momentarily beating Harry S. Truman in the 1948 presidential election – at least in a newspaper headline – before the real results said otherwise.

Decker sentenced to four years in prison

RALEIGH (Winston-Salem Journal) -- A federal judge sentenced Michael Decker, a former state legislator from Walkertown, to four years in prison today for his role in a political corruption scandal that toppled former House Speaker Jim Black. Decker will also serve two years of supervised release and pay a $50,000 fine.

Clinton Says Her Southern Twang a Virtue

GREENVILLE, S.C. (AP) - Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Rodham Clinton said Friday she sees her sometimes Southern accent as a virtue.

"I think America is ready for a multilingual president," Clinton said during a campaign stop at a charter school in Greenville, S.C.

Frankly Speaking

(Fox News) - Democratic party head Howard Dean says the best way to get presidential candidates to tell you what they really think — is to lock out the media. Dean told a bankers' group Wednesday that politicians live in fear that their words will be twisted for the sake of headlines. He said: "Politicians are incredibly careful not to say anything if they can possibly help it, except if it is exactly scripted ... If you want to hear the truth from them, you have to exclude the press."

Tough Talk

(Fox News) - Tuesday's exchange of insults between Vice President Cheney and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid over congressional funding of U.S. troops included a memorable line by the senator: "I'm not going to get into a name calling match with someone who has a nine percent approval rating."

But it turns out that not only is Cheney's rating much higher than nine percent in the latest Harris Interactive poll — it's actually higher than Reid's.

The vice president got a 25 percent approval mark, while the senator came in at 22 percent in the online survey.

Biofuel Crops

(Fox News) - Another fast-expanding industry is the growing of crops for biofuels. But that has led to incidents like the burning of Asian forests to clear land for palm oil and the stripping of Amazon vegetation to plant soya and sugar for ethanol.

Tomorrow a Dutch legislative committee will unveil stringent criteria to make sure that the biofuel industry does not do more harm than good. The proposed guidelines will prohibit deforestation, competition with food crops, reduction of soil or water supplies and the displacement of local populations in order to grow biofuel crops.

Global Warming Rip-Off?

(Fox News) - People who are spending big money trying to cut their contributions to global warming may be getting ripped off. The Financial Times reports corporations and individuals are coughing up millions of dollars on carbon-offset projects that are in some cases worthless, and in others make little if any difference to the environment.

Some companies in the booming carbon offset industry are making millions by selling services of little or questionable value. The U.K.'s biggest bank went carbon neutral two years ago — but its environment adviser says he has found "serious credibility concerns" in the offset market. And the Times reports other companies — such as DuPont Chemical — are actually getting people to pay them to clean up the company's own pollution.

Bush Behind Barricades

By Bob Novak
Real Clear Politics

WASHINGTON -- A report as routine as what was put out by the Identity Theft Task Force Monday normally is released without a White House statement, but this time the announcement came from George W. Bush himself. He praised Atty. Gen. Alberto Gonzales "for taking on this difficult and important assignment" in co-chairing the task force. That constituted bad news for Republicans outside the White House, signaling that the president really does intend to keep Gonzales in office.

The Democrats' Gonzales

By David S. Broder
Washington Post

Here's a Washington political riddle where you fill in the blanks: As Alberto Gonzales is to the Republicans, Blank Blank is to the Democrats -- a continuing embarrassment thanks to his amateurish performance.

If you answered " Harry Reid," give yourself an A. And join the long list of senators of both parties who are ready for these two springtime exhibitions of ineptitude to end.

Extra Pollution

(Fox News) - The European Parliament's Green Party says the EU is belching out more than 20,000 tons of extra carbon dioxide a year because of its insistence on having meetings in both France and Belgium. That's more than some small island countries emit on their own. They say the EU sends thousands of legislators and assistants from Brussels to Strasbourg every month — wasting fuel and pumping out unnecessary pollution — instead of doing all its business at its Brussels headquarters.

The EU is pushing members to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 20 percent in the next 13 years.

FBI Database

(Fox News) - In the wake of the Virginia Tech shootings - the National Rifle Association is backing a proposal to ensure that mental health records are entered into the FBI database used for firearms background checks.

Newsweek's Web site reports this puts the NRA at odds with another major advocacy group — The Gun Owners of America — which says the bill would amount to a new form of gun control. And the American Psychiatric Association is also slamming the idea as a "stigmatizing approach to a tragic situation."

The alleged Virginia Tech shooter had been ordered to undergo outpatient psychiatric treatment — but that information was unavailable when he legally purchased the firearms used in the shootings.

Segment Cancelled

(Fox News) - A few days ago we told you PBS had canceled a segment in its series on challenges to post 9/11 America dealing with the struggle of moderate Muslims against extremism. The producers of the program now tell Cybercast News that the episode running in its place is a "fawning portrait" of U.S. organizations with extremist ties. They say that episode was produced by Robert MacNeil, who hosts the series — and had a key role in dropping their film. Producer Martyn Burke says replacing their program was a "triumph for the Islamists." PBS said Burke's documentary was not ready for air. But the filmmakers say it was spiked because of an "ideological vendetta" and their refusal to fire some producers with ties to conservative organizations.

Democrats Jump on Rudy Giuliani for Something He Didn't Say

(Fox News) - Washington woke up to morning headlines that Rudy Giuliani predicted a "new 9-11" if a Democrat wins the presidency in 2008. Barack Obama responded that Giuliani has "taken the politics of fear to a new low." John Edwards said Giuliani's comments were "divisive and plain wrong." And Hillary Clinton called it "political rhetoric" that would not lessen the threat of terrorism.

The problem is Giuliani never said what the headlines claimed. It all started with a story in The Politico newspaper, which contained not a single quote to support its lead and headline. But it got picked up elsewhere nonetheless.

What Giuliani actually did say is what he has been saying for weeks, that Democrats would play defense instead of offense in the War on Terror, the same approach tried back before 9/11.

Environmental Alarmists Have It Backwards

By John Stossel
Real Clear Politics

Last Sunday was marked by an orgy of celebrations of Earth Day, the worldwide annual event intended to "to spark a revolution against environmental abuse."

Even the Bush administration had an Earth Day website, which stated, "Earth Day and every day is a time to act to protect our planet".

Watching the media coverage, you'd think that the earth was in imminent danger -- that human life itself was on the verge of extinction. Technology is fingered as the perp.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

Wednesday Funnies :-)

Jay Leno: All the big candidates were out campaigning on the big Earth Day weekend. They had some good ideas. John McCain suggested we bomb Iran using hybrid planes. ... Sanjaya was voted off ‘American Idol.’ Experts say that America wasn’t going to vote for a guy who spends that much time on his hair, which is more really bad news for John Edwards. ... Edwards got two $400 haircuts in Beverly Hills. He said he only went to the expensive stylist because they are friends. Friends? What kind of friend charges $400 for a haircut? ... During appearances in Denver, John Kerry re-opened the door to running for president in 2008. You know, somebody should really lock that door. It just keeps swinging open and closed. ... Mitt Romney has announced that his son Tagg Romney has joined the campaign. No word from the other kids—Skip, Jump Rope and See Saw. ... FEMA told Congress this week that a revised emergency response plan it was ordered to develop after Hurricane Katrina will not be ready by hurricane season. Well, there’s a shock. It’s only been two years. I’m surprised FEMA even knows when hurricane season is. ... According to a news report out today, on average, 2006 was the safest year for airlines. It’s mostly due to JetBlue. You can’t have an accident if you never leave the runway.

Harry's War

Democrats are taking ownership of a defeat in Iraq.

The Wall Street Journal

We're going to pick up Senate seats as a result of this war. Senator Schumer has shown me numbers that are compelling and astounding.

-- Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, April 12.

Gen. David Petraeus is in Washington this week, where on Monday he briefed President Bush on the progress of the new military strategy in Iraq. Today he will give similar briefings on Capitol Hill, but maybe he should save his breath. As fellow four-star Harry Reid recently informed America, the war Gen. Petraeus is fighting and trying to win is already "lost."

Mr. Reid has since tried to "clarify" that remark, and in a speech Monday he laid out his own strategy for Iraq. But perhaps we ought to be grateful for his earlier candor in laying out the strategic judgment--and nakedly political rationale--that underlies the latest Congressional bid to force a withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq starting this fall. By doing so, he and the Democrats are taking ownership of whatever ugly outcome follows a U.S. defeat in Iraq.

FRED THOMPSON TEARS DOWN THE FOURTH WALL

By Maggie Gallagher
UExpress.com

To an actor like Fred Thompson, the "fourth wall" is the invisible one separating the stage from the audience. For a politician -- like Fred Thompson -- the fourth wall is the line between him and the "fourth estate" -- the media who relay his words, then chatter and comment about them incessantly.

The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Libertarian

An interesting case study in how hardcore movement libertarianism plays to majority of the American people is the presidential campaign of Rep. Ron Paul (R-Tex.). Paul is the most libertarian of Republicans, and was himself a former presidential candidate for the Libertarian Party, back in 1988.

Paul’s campaign is doing better in many respects than I would have guessed back when the rumors of his candidacy first hit the ‘Net back in January. For one thing, he’s doing better in fundraising than some of the other “second tier” candidates—$640 thousand.

This is all, Paul’s campaign press liaison Jesse Benton tells me, from viral spread of the campaign on the net, without much in the way of traditional direct mail or fundraising appearances. Since Paul knows who he is and knows why he’s running, Benton says, he doesn’t need to burn money on traditional polling and consultants and thus still has $525 thousand cash on hand. That’s more than Mike Huckabee and Tommy Thompson, and within $300 thousand of Sam Brownback.

Brian Doherty

Long article, but worth the read.

RE: Mitchell to Flip Flop, Admits He Has Been Wrong

We'll make a Libertarian out of you yet, Robert.

Mitchell to Flip Flop, Admits He Has Been Wrong

COLLINSTOWN, NC (AP Newswire) - Mayor Robert Mitchell of Collinstown, a longtime supporter of public schools, held a press conference Tuesday to announce he now fully supports school choice and will actively work and lobby for school reform.

"For too long, I have buried my head in the sand and have supported a failed policy. The only way to rescue public education is to open it up to market forces. There is too much proof that doing so increases performance for students in the public schools and their private or independent counterparts."

Mitchell added that public school teacher tenure must be abolished and administrative overhead cut.

He added that attaching the money to the child would help keep those dollars from wasting away in the black hole of school administration.

Developing.....

U.S. soldier hailed for bravery in Iraq says Pentagon spin doctors made it all up

The American military has been accused of telling lies about two of its most famous soldiers.

Official versions of the rescue of prisoner of war Jessica Lynch and the death of former US football star Pat Tillman turned both into national heroes.

But the propaganda was dismissed as "utter fiction" at a Capitol Hill hearing to expose the false battlefield stories peddled by the Pentagon.

Jessica Lynch, now 23, said she was giving testimony "to set the record straight".

"I'm no hero, the people who served with me who died are the real heroes," she said. "The truth of war is not always easy. The truth is always more heroic than the hype."

David Gardner

Yeah, I know the Democrats are on a witch hunt, but they certainly aren't having to make anything up. Americans really don't know or, for that matter, care much about Iraqis. Every war needs heroes. If there aren't any real ones, I guess you just have to make them up.

Does it warrant a Congressional investigation? No. Will anything come of it? Probably not, the Democrats are just looking for platforms on which they can engage in their favorite pastime: demagoguery.

RE: “Faith-Based Justices”

I can't, for the life of me, figure out why anyone would waste ink giving credence to anything this stupid cow has to say. Any time anyone responds to her as if she was even remotely credible, it encourages her to vomit her nonsense all over us once more.

Donald Trump had the right idea.

New Men's Magazine :-)

“Faith-Based Justices”

By Jan Crawford Greenburg
ABC News

“You know what concerns me?” Rosie O’Donnell asked last week on ABC’s morning gabfest, The View.

“How many Supreme Court judges are Catholic, Barbara?”

"Five,” responds host Barbara Walters.

“Five. How about separation of church and state in America?” asks constitutional law scholar Rosie, after the Court’s sweeping decision upholding a federal law banning partial birth abortion.

Barbara counsels against drawing conclusions, saying “we cannot assume that they did it because they’re Catholic.” But the theologian in Rosie can’t help herself.

“If men could get pregnant,”Rosie opines, “abortion would be a sacrament.”

Good heavens. Where does one start? Perhaps with the law the Supreme Court interpreted. It was approved by a bipartisan congressional coalition that included the Republican and Democratic leadership. In all, 17 Senate Democrats voted for it, in addition to 47 Republicans, the vast majority—I think we can assume—who are not Catholic. You could say the five justices in the majority voted to uphold a law that reflected the choices of those legislators, not to mention the some 30 states that previously had imposed similar bans.

Honey Bee Die-off Alarms Beekeepers, Crop Growers And Researchers

(Science Daily) — An alarming die-off of honey bees has beekeepers fighting for commercial survival and crop growers wondering whether bees will be available to pollinate their crops this spring and summer. Researchers are scrambling to find answers to what's causing an affliction recently named Colony Collapse Disorder, which has decimated commercial beekeeping operations in Pennsylvania and across the country.

A Mixed Legacy: Russian leader was a key force in the collapse of the Soviet Union

(AP) - Former President Boris Yeltsin, who hastened the dismantling of the Soviet Union by scrambling atop a tank to rally opposition against a hard-line coup and later pushed Russia to embrace democracy and a market economy, died yesterday at age 76.

The first freely elected leader of Russia, Yeltsin was initially admired abroad for his defiance of the monolithic Communist system. But many Russians will remember him best for presiding over the steep decline of their nation.

Phipps Released: Former agriculture commissioner completes federal prison sentence

(AP) - Former North Carolina agriculture commissioner Meg Scott Phipps was released from a federal prison yesterday after serving more than three years for extortion.

Phipps, whose father and grandfather served as North Carolina governors, was released from a prison camp for women in Alderson, W.Va., about 8 a.m., a prison spokesman said.

Phipps, a Democrat, pleaded guilty in 2003 to extorting illegal campaign contributions.

Jacket was at cleaners - for 45 years

(Winston-Salem Journal) - Lloyd Pardue wondered for years what had happened to the Eisenhower jacket that the Army issued him as a young soldier during World War II.

After he was discharged, Pardue wore the warm, short-waisted jacket to shovel coal and mow the yard during chilly weather.

One day, the jacket disappeared. Had he thrown it away because it was so filthy? Had it gotten lost at the dry cleaners?

Pardue wasn’t sure. Years passed and, eventually, he forgot about it.

Last October, Mimi Bourquin strolled into Pardue’s yard carrying a garment bag. “I have your dry cleaning to deliver,” she yelled to Pardue, who was toiling in a flower bed.

Inside the bag was Pardue’s jacket - with a bill for 85 cents pinned to the front.

My Retort on Torts

On April 20, Ramesh Ponnuru penned an article called “Thompson’s Tort Trouble.” While he referenced my conservative voting record he took issue with two instances when I voted against “tort reform.” He noted my stand on federalist grounds but thinks I must have a mistaken view of Federalism and that conservatives may want to ask me a few hard questions.

This hardly constitutes the stuff of a major dispute, but I would submit that the problem is not so much my mistaken view of Federalism as much as it is his lack of commitment to the principle. This presents conservatives with an opportunity to have a much needed discussion.

Fred Thompson

In all, I think he acquits himself well here. While I would still prefer a true Libertarian, like Ron Paul, in the White House, Thompson, as a strong Federalist, is not a bad second choice. He can talk the talk, we shall see if he can walk the walk.

Stokes schools to fill top spots

(Winston-Salem Journal) - With two Stokes County school administrators planning to leave in June, the school board has two large recruiting tasks ahead.

School board officials announced Friday that Stokes County Superintendent Larry Cartner and Assistant Superintendent Debbie Merritt will be leaving.

Remembering the Gipper...

“There are those in America today who have come to depend absolutely on government for their security. And when government fails they seek to rectify that failure in the form of granting government more power. So, as government has failed to control crime and violence with the means given it by the Constitution, they seek to give it more power at the expense of the Constitution. But in doing so, in their willingness to give up their arms in the name of safety, they are really giving up their protection from what has always been the chief source of despotism—government. Lord Acton said power corrupts. Surely then, if this is true, the more power we give the government the more corrupt it will become. And if we give it the power to confiscate our arms we also give up the ultimate means to combat that corrupt power. In doing so we can only assure that we will eventually be totally subject to it.”

Ronald Reagan

In prison, Phipps tells of small joys

By Mark Johnson
Charlotte.com

Meg Scott Phipps, daughter and granddaughter of N.C. governors, tumbled from a political legacy to sleeping on the floor in a one-person cell shared with a mentally ill prisoner.

With her expected release Monday from a federal prison camp in Alderson, W.Va., she will have finished more than three years of incarceration. Phipps, the former commissioner of agriculture who pleaded guilty to public corruption charges, completed most of her sentence at Alderson, where her husband's grandmother once worked as a guard.

The Birth of the ‘Breck Girl’ Story Line

The tale of John Edwards’ $400 haircuts may have ended – or at least his campaign hopes it ended – when Mr. Edwards told Iowans on Friday that he was embarrassed by the episode. It arguably began four years ago this weekend with a story in The New York Times about the White House’s strategy for dealing with prospective Democratic challengers to President Bush.

In the last paragraph of that story, which I wrote with a colleague, Richard W. Stevenson, an unnamed “Bush associate” was quoted as referring to Mr. Edwards as “the Breck Girl of politics.” Another Bush adviser, again unnamed, was quoted as saying of Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts, “he looks French.”

Adam Nagourney

This is classic Edwards:

Mr. Edwards’ advisers argued over the weekend that the financial circumstances of his life – he became wealthy as a trial lawyer – should not detract from the sincerity of his message, or the depth of his concern about issues of poverty.

Translation: That Edwards is very wealthy and shares nothing in common with the classes he incites to warfare with his hyperbole shouldn't be used against him. Also, the hypocrisy that he exhibits when insisting that other people should be willing to give up their wealth without even offering his should never, ever be mentioned in public. And by all means, no one should ever call Edwards a power whore.

RE: Report: Sheryl Crow's Solutions to Global Warming

Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt.

Abraham Lincoln

Report: Sheryl Crow's Solutions to Global Warming

(Fox News) - Americans may be using less toilet paper, if Sheryl Crow has her way.

Former Russian President Boris Yeltsin Dead, Kremlin Says

MOSCOW (AP) — Former President Boris Yeltsin, who engineered the final collapse of the Soviet Union and pushed Russia to embrace democracy and a market economy, has died, a Kremlin official said Monday. He was 76.

Kremlin spokesman Alexander Smirnov confirmed Yeltsin's death, but gave no cause or further information.

A Hero is Laid to Rest

The Middle Eastern sun shone bright in the cemetery where Professor Liviu Librescu, whose body had traveled as long and complicated a journey in death as it had in life, was finally laid to rest.

His widow Marlena shook her kerchief-clad head in disbelief as the rabbi read the Jewish prayers of mourning for the dead.

“It’s so painful for me to think of your last moments, in which you suffered. I’ll never know what went through your mind, but I hope very much that wherever you are, you will watch over your family,” she said by his graveside.

Allison Kaplan Sommer

Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
John 15:13

Go with God, Mr. Librescu.

DAs want lighter term for Decker

They say Decker aided prosecution

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Federal prosecutors asked a judge yesterday to cut in half any prison time former state Rep. Michael Decker gets when he is sentenced next week, saying that his cooperation was the “critical turning point” in convicting former House Speaker Jim Black.

Two Stokes administrators plan to resign

Winston-Salem Journal

DANBURY - Two top administrators in the Stokes County school system have announced plans to leave.

Superintendent Larry Cartner, who has held the job since 2003, gave the school board a letter of intent to resign during the board’s regular meeting Monday night, Sonya Cox, the chairwoman of the board, said yesterday. Cartner will become superintendent of Person County Schools, she said.

“He did a great job here. Our loss is Person County’s gain,” Cox said.

The board plans to begin looking for a new superintendent immediately, she said.

“Our plan is to make some decisions about a type of interim situation,” Cox said.

Cartner could not be reached for comment.

The school system will also be looking for an assistant superintendent. Debbie Merritt gave the board a letter stating that she will retire in June.

Carr will stay in jail

Anchorman will not post bond in traffic fatality

By Titan Barksdale
Winston-Salem Journal

Locked arm in arm with his mother, WXII-TV anchorman Tolly Carr, with head bowed, walked slowly toward the Forsyth County Magistrate’s Office yesterday.

Shortly after 2 p.m., Carr walked inside and stood before a magistrate to face additional charges in the traffic death of Casey Bokhoven, 26. Carr’s attorneys emerged from the office about 30 minutes later, but he was not with them.

Carr, 32, was charged yesterday with felony death by vehicle; bond was set at $100,000. He was initially charged with driving while impaired on March 11 - the day that police say Carr hit Bokhoven.

Rutgers team skips Clinton meeting

By Glenn Thrush
Newsday

NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. -- Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton finally dropped by Rutgers to meet with the school's women's basketball coach -- but the players themselves skipped the half-hour meeting, citing their studies and Imus fatigue.

Alberto Gonzales’s Disastrous Day

The attorney general bombs before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

By Byron York
National Review Online

Judging by his testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee Thursday, there are three questions about the U.S. attorneys mess that Attorney General Alberto Gonzales wants answered: What did I know? When did I know it? And why did I fire those U.S. attorneys?

As the day dragged on, it became clear — painfully clear to anyone who supports Gonzales — that the attorney general didn’t know the answers. Much of the time, he explained, he didn’t really know much at all — he was just doing what his senior staff recommended he do.

Psychosis Control

We've let killers roam freely.

By Charles Krauthammer
National Review Online

What can be said about the Virginia Tech massacre? Very little. What should be said? Even less. The lives of 32 innocents, chosen randomly and without purpose, are extinguished most brutally by a deeply disturbed gunman. With an event such as this, consisting of nothing but suffering and tragedy, the only important questions are those of theodicy, of divine justice. Unfortunately, in today’s supercharged political atmosphere, there is the inevitable rush to get ideological mileage out of the carnage.

Judge weighs tougher term for Decker

RALEIGH (Winston-Salem Journal) - A federal judge has indicated that he might pursue a tougher sentence for Michael Decker, a former state legislator who pleaded guilty in August to switching parties in exchange for campaign contributions.

Decker, a former state representative from Forsyth County, had hoped to get leniency for helping federal authorities investigate former House Speaker Jim Black.

But in a court filing, Judge James C. Dever III of U.S. District Court wrote that he “is contemplating an upward departure” from the sentence recommended under federal law, The Charlotte Observer reported. Dever said that the advisory sentence is “incorrect and fails to account for the benefits” that Decker received for his crimes.

Decker’s attorney, David Freedman, filed a response yesterday, saying he opposes Dever’s view and expects federal prosecutors to oppose a tougher sentence. Freedman said that Decker has cooperated fully in Black’s prosecution.

Stokes officials discuss crowded schools

(Winston-Salem Journal) - Stokes County commissioners and the Stokes school board discussed solutions to the county’s problem of overcrowded schools at a meeting yesterday afternoon.

“Not long ago, we felt like it would be beneficial for the two boards to sit down together at the same table,” said Leon Inman, the chairman of the board of county commissioners. “We’ve seen tremendous growth.... As a result, we felt the two boards should sit down.”

Edwards 'embarrassed' by haircut

By Todd Dorman
Quad-City Times

ADEL, Iowa – As a gusty spring wind tousled his neatly trimmed locks Friday, Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards said he’s embarrassed about his now famous $400 haircut.

Liberal Family Values

Alec Baldwin's Threatening Message to Daughter

TMZ.com

An enraged Alec Baldwin unleashed a volcanic tirade of threats and insults on his 11-year-old daughter, Ireland, calling her a "thoughtless little pig," and bashing her mother Kim Basinger -- and TMZ has obtained the whole thing unfiltered and raw. And we've learned, a family law judge was so alarmed after hearing the tape, she has temporarily barred Baldwin from having any contact with his child.

John Edwards Pays Campaign Back for $400 Haircuts From Beverly Hills Stylist

WASHINGTON (Fox News) — Democrat John Edwards is trying to get out of a hairy situation, reimbursing his presidential campaign $800 for two visits with a Beverly Hills stylist.

Q-C barbers call Edwards' $400 haircut 'impossible'

By Bill Wundram
Quad-City Times

Quad-City barbers put down their shears and sputtered words like “preposterous” and “impossible” Wednesday when they heard of Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards spending $400 for a haircut. In the Quad-Cities, $10 or $12 is about average.

“If I charged $400 for a haircut, they’d come after me with white coats,” said Leo Fier, who has been cutting hair for 49 years at his shop in DeWitt, Iowa.

Nope, this isn't a parody... Ha!

Some of the victims of 4/16...

Court Backs Ban on Abortion Procedure

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Supreme Court upheld the nationwide ban on a controversial abortion procedure Wednesday, handing abortion opponents the long- awaited victory they expected from a more conservative bench.

The 5-4 ruling said the Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act that Congress passed and President Bush signed into law in 2003 does not violate a woman's constitutional right to an abortion.

Edwards' Haircuts Cost a Pretty Penny

By Joan Lowy
The Rapid City Journal

WASHINGTON - Looking pretty is costing John Edwards' presidential campaign a lot of pennies. The Democrat's campaign committee picked up the tab for two haircuts at $400 each by celebrity stylist Joseph Torrenueva of Beverly Hills, Calif., according to a financial report filed with the Federal Election Commission.

FEC records show Edwards also availed himself of $250 in services from a trendy salon and spa in Dubuque, Iowa, and $225 in services from the Pink Sapphire in Manchester, N.H., which is described on its Web site as "a unique boutique for the mind, body and face" that caters mostly to women.

A spokeswoman for Edwards' campaign did not respond to requests for comment.

No, this isn't a parody article from The Onion... Ha! I'm really surprised he's able to keep a straight face when he gives his "Two Americas" stump speech on the campaign trail. Thinking about it, I'm surprised that the audience can keep a straight face when hearing John Edwards give that stump speech.

Roommates Describe Gunman as Loner

By MARC SANTORA
New York Times

BLACKSBURG, Va., April 17 — He was a stranger in a crowd of 26,000. Cho Seung-Hui was even unknown to the young man who for nearly a year slept just feet away from him.

“He was my roommate,” said Joe Aust, a 19-year-old sophomore. “I didn’t know him that well, though.”

A Glimpse of Evil

New York Sun

A glimpse of evil as ghastly as Americans got in Virginia yesterday tends to cast a pall over the nation. President Bush spoke for millions when he said, "We hold the victims in our hearts. We lift them up in our prayers and we ask a loving God to comfort those who are suffering today." Millions got up as they ordinarily do yesterday and expected to spend a normal day, only to find themselves glued to the television sets as the grim story unfolded. Parents thought about their children. Children thought about their friends. From all walks of life people tried to comprehend the kind of monster that stalked the Virginia Tech campus.

Virginia Tech Killer Identified

(ABC News) - We now know the identity of the killer at Virginia Tech.

He is Cho Seung-Hui, a 23-year-old resident alien of the United States, as first reported by ABC News.

Cho is a South Korean national, a Virginia Tech senior majoring in English and the man who killed 33 people -- including himself -- on the Virginia Tech campus Monday.

Sources tell ABC News that Cho killed two people in a dorm room, returned to his own dorm room where he re-armed and left a "disturbing note," then went to a classroom building on the other side of campus to continue his rampage.

Remembering the Gipper...

“Common sense told us that when you put a big tax on something, the people will produce less of it. So we cut the people’s tax rates and the people produced more than ever before.” ++ “Are you entitled to the fruits of your own labor or does government have some presumptive right to spend and spend and spend?” ++ “The federal government has taken too much tax money from the people, too much authority from the states, and too much liberty with the Constitution.” ++ “Government’s view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it.” ++ “Republicans believe every day is the Fourth of July, but Democrats believe every day is April 15.”

Ronald Reagan

Happy Income Redistribution Day!!!

Gun bill gets shot down by panel

A bill that would have given college students and employees the right to carry handguns on campus died with nary a shot being fired in the General Assembly.

House Bill 1572 didn't get through the House Committee on Militia, Police and Public Safety. It died Monday in the subcommittee stage, the first of several hurdles bills must overcome before becoming laws.

The bill was proposed by Del. Todd Gilbert, R-Shenandoah County, on behalf of the Virginia Citizens Defense League. Gilbert was unavailable Monday and spokesman Gary Frink would not comment on the bill's defeat other than to say the issue was dead for this General Assembly session.

Virginia Tech spokesman Larry Hincker was happy to hear the bill was defeated. "I'm sure the university community is appreciative of the General Assembly's actions because this will help parents, students, faculty and visitors feel safe on our campus."

Greg Esposito, January 31, 2006

Gun control advocates seem to decide, arbitrarily, that some class of people are more likely to commit mayhem when in possession of guns and then, contrary to any sort of logic, decide to prevent everyone else from owning or carrying a gun. Had one or more of the students or faculty on campus at VA Tech been armed, it is not demagoguery or maudlin conjecture to assume that some of the people killed this morning might still be alive.

How long will we listen to people who cannot think beyond their emotional reactions and how many of our fellow men will we feed to the grinder to allow them to continue pretending?

UPDATE: Virginia Tech Campus Reels From Shooting That Leaves at Least 32 Dead

(Fox News) - Students and faculty at Virginia Tech University were in shock Monday after a gunman shot and killed at least 32 people and injured 21 during the most deadly shooting spree in U.S. history.

Gunman kills 21 on Virginia Tech campus

(AP) - A gunman opened fire in a dorm and classroom at Virginia Tech on Monday, killing 21 people and wounding another 21 before he was killed, police said.

At Least 1 Dead, 17 Injured in Virginia Tech Shootings; 1 Suspect in Custody

One person was reportedly killed and as many as 17 people are being treated for gunshot wounds after at least one gunman opened fire at the Virginia Tech University campus in Blacksburg, according to officials.

A state government official told The Associated Press that at least one person was killed in a shooting incident at the West Ambler Johnston residence hall early Monday morning.

Judith Chambers, a spokeswoman at Montgomery Regional Hospital, where the injured were taken, told FOX News that 17 individuals from the college are being treated for gunshot wounds and other injuries. The conditions vary and some are in surgery, she said.

The news on this is very confused at the moment. Current reports are saying 20 dead, 28 wounded, one shooter in custody, the other is dead.

Agreement keeps Tweetsie on track through 2010 in Blowing Rock

(AP) - A landmark Wild West theme park nestled in the mountains of Western North Carolina will remain open through 2010, despite skyrocketing land prices that threatened to shutter its doors.

The Tweetsie Railroad theme park was up against a 2007 deadline to renew land leases or close, but its owners negotiated deals so the family-run park could operate for at least a few more years at its current site in Blowing Rock. The park will celebrate its 50th season of entertaining families when it opens May 4.

Refusing to Meet

(Fox News) - A man whose son was killed in the Iraq war says lawmakers who are pushing for troop withdrawal timelines are refusing to meet with him to discuss it. Kris Hager tells Cybercast News Service that such a pullout would mean his son's life was wasted.

But, he says, he's been rebuffed in attempts to visit or talk on the phone with several top Democrats, including John Kerry, Nancy Pelosi and John Murtha.

Hager says: "I've seen them embracing Cindy Sheehan. They make themselves accessible to people who agree with them."

"Ho" Trouble

(Fox News) - Don Imus got in trouble for using the word "ho" to describe members of the Rutgers University women's basketball team. But a comedian in Chicago who regularly uses that word in his act — along with "bitch" — was made a spokesman for a campaign to halt violence against women anyway.

The Chicago Sun-Times reports comedian Jay Deep appears in T.V., print, and city bus ads sponsored by the Chicago Foundation for Women.

He defends using the words in his act — saying he is an artist — while maintaining he is committed to the anti-violence program. But the associate director of the group says no one at the foundation had ever seen him perform before signing him to do the ads — and says if they had, he would not have been recruited.

Meanwhile the executive director of Chicago's Battered Women's Network says she's in shock over putting him in the ads — saying you have to know who you're working with.

Will the Firing of Don Imus Be Bad for Democrats?

(Fox News) - Some political analysts say the cancellation of the Don Imus show will be a blow to Democratic politicians who had found a sympathetic ear in the largely Republican-dominated medium of talk radio. The Los Angeles Times reports Democrats such as Christopher Dodd, John Kerry and Joe Lieberman had come to count on Imus as a unique vehicle to reach a crucial voting bloc — politically independent white men.

Dodd, who announced his presidential candidacy on the Imus show, told CNN that an appearance on Imus gives politicians a chance to reach an audience that "doesn't always watch the Sunday morning talk shows."

Aide: Corzine Apparently Not Wearing Seat Belt

CAMDEN, N.J. (WNBC.com) -- New Jersey Gov. Jon S. Corzine apparently wasn't wearing a seat belt during a crash that left him in critical condition, a spokesman said Friday.

What's Next for the Activists Who Called for Don Imus's Head?

Two words: Fairness Doctrine

By Byron York
National Review Online

In October 2004, Media Matters for America, the liberal watchdog group run by former American Spectator writer David Brock, announced a campaign to reimpose the Fairness Doctrine, the government regulation that, before it was repealed in 1987, required broadcasters to present opposing viewpoints on controversial public issues. “Tired of imbalanced political discourse on our airwaves?” Brock asked readers in a petition appeal. “Media Matters for America has joined with Democracy Radio and the Media Access Project in calling on Congress to restore the Fairness Doctrine.”

Maryland Becomes First State to Pass 'Living Wage' Law

(CNSNews.com) - Maryland is set to become the first state in the nation to require contractors to pay workers a "living wage." A liberal group Thursday said the law would lift thousands of families out of poverty while a business group panned the measure as "unwise."

Stunningly Beautiful Nappy-Headed Hoe

Put your bid in now. Get it while it's hot.

Ho Ho Ho, Merry Imus!

The only person happier than Larry Birkhead about the big announcement that he is the father of Anna Nicole Smith's baby is Don Imus. By the way, what's the word for a woman who gives birth to a child of uncertain paternity?

English speakers in America need a rule book to tell us what people can say what words when, and under which set of circumstances. The rule book will be longer than the Patriot Act and will require weekly updates as new words and circumstances are added. Perhaps a Nasdaq-style ticker would be more efficient.

Depending on which TV show you tune into, what Imus said was wrong because: (1) His show goes out on FCC-regulated airwaves; (2) he regularly interviews people like Sens. John Kerry, John McCain and Joe Biden; (3) he spoke at the White House Correspondents' Dinner a few years ago; or (4) he's not black.

Ann Coulter

Ann swings the bat. Looks like a line drive to center field.

The Pelosi Effect?

By Tom Bevan
Real Clear Politics

In the wake of Nancy Pelosi's first real public relations disaster, it's probably a good time to revisit the question of what impact, if any, the new Speaker's performance has on Hillary Clinton's presidential ambitions.

Here's What The New York Times Didn't Report About the Duke University Rape Case

(Fox News) - The New York Times today ran a front-page story on the dismissal of the charges in the Duke lacrosse case — but nowhere did it mention a Times exclusive from last August in which the paper said: "While there are big weaknesses in (prosecutor) Nifong's case, there is also a body of evidence to support his decision to take the matter to a jury. In several important areas, the full files, reviewed by The New York Times, contain evidence stronger than that highlighted by the defense."

Today's story makes no mention of that "body of evidence," saying Nifong, "relied almost entirely on the woman's photo identification of the three suspects and on a report by the sexual assault nurse who examined the woman," evidence that had been known since the beginning.

CBS Fires Don Imus Over Racial Slur

(CBS/AP) - CBS announced Thursday that it has fired Don Imus from his radio program, following a week of uproar over the radio host's derogatory comments about the Rutgers women's basketball team.

Crocodile Bites Off Zoo Worker's Arm in Taiwan

Fox News

A zoo worker had his forearm reattached Thursday after his colleagues recovered the severed limb from the mouth of a 440-pound Nile crocodile, an official said.

Reid Compares Bush to Nixon, Byrd Tells Dems to Hang Tough

The Politico

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) compared President Bush to former President Nixon today, suggesting Bush is "as isolated" now over the Iraq war as Nixon was during the Watergate scandal, reports Politico's Carrie Budoff.

AP: D.A. Apologizes to Duke Players

DURHAM, N.C. (AP) - The local prosecutor who charged three Duke lacrosse players with raping a stripper apologized to the athletes Thursday, acknowledging that the North Carolina attorney general's decision to drop the case was correct.

"To the extent that I made judgments that ultimately proved to be incorrect, I apologize to the three students that were wrongly accused," Durham County District Attorney Mike Nifong said in a statement.

Stem Winders

Congress is debating competing bills on expanding funding for embryonic stem-cell research, but British researchers aren't waiting. Using patients' own stem cells, they've weaned them off insulin injections.

Despite the fact that George W. Bush is the only president to have spent federal funds on embryonic stem-cell research (Clinton spent zero), and that private embryonic stem cell research (ESCR) is not restricted, the myth persists that the only thing standing between us and a bevy of miracle cures is a cabal of right-wing Bible thumpers led by Dubya himself.

Thanks in part to deceptive campaign ads that politicized the issue, such as those featuring Parkinson's sufferer Michael J. Fox and run in key Senate races, Democrats gained control of the Senate. Now Majority Leader Harry Reid is pushing a bill expanding federal ESCR funding beyond existing stem-cell lines, including the use of embryos created specifically for research purposes.

Regardless of how one feels about the morality and ethical issues, the bigger issue, in my opinion, is being ignored. Funding this research is not a proper function of government and as such, it is immoral to force everyone, including those viscerally opposed, to pay for it.

Blair blames spate of murders on black culture

(UK Guardian) - Tony Blair yesterday claimed the spate of knife and gun murders in London was not being caused by poverty, but a distinctive black culture. His remarks angered community leaders, who accused him of ignorance and failing to provide support for black-led efforts to tackle the problem.

Family says Phipps will be released

(AP) - The former N.C. commissioner of agriculture, Meg Scott Phipps is expected to return home later this month after spending almost four years in a federal prison on extortion and other charges related to the State Fair, family members say.

Rep. Brad Miller considers challenging Dole for her Senate seat

RALEIGH (AP) - Democratic Rep. Brad Miller said he is considering a challenge to Republican Sen. Elizabeth Dole in next year's election, a race in which national Democrats have struggled to find a candidate.

Not Practicing What They Preach?

(Fox News) - Some of the stars of Al Gore's Live Earth concerts to help save the planet from climate change are being accused of hypocrisy for leading environmentally unfriendly lives.

The Daily Mail reports Madonna — who will sing at the show in Wembly, England — used private jets and commercial airlines to fly a 100-person entourage on a 56 date world tour — and owns a fleet of gas-guzzling cars.

The Red Hot Chili Peppers, also scheduled to play in London, reportedly produced 220 tons of carbon dioxide with their private jets during six months of their last world tour — about 22 times what the average person produces in a year.

King Health Clinic

John Turpin, former chairman of the Stokes County Board of Commissioners, opines:

Andy, as commissioner we only had two requests from the general public to reopen the clinic. Those two requests were from people in Forsyth County that traveled to King for services. They commented on how nice it was that there wasn't a long wait. The only people that pushed for the opening were current board members. I regress back to the comment that Ron Carroll made at the GOP Mens Club last year referring to Joe and I: "Those that do not believe in government should not be in government". I know of no one in Stokes County that died of neglect from the county for hunger or health care while I served. This is just part of Stokes/Hillary '08 Health Care Plan, "Line up boys for a free shot."

JT

Wednesday Funnies :-)

David Letterman: “Top Questions To Ask Yourself Before Buying The Pope’s Used Car”: Will I be able to see through the stained glass windshield?; Can I keep the vanity license plate, “Holydude”?; Will he throw in the Creedence tapes in the glove compartment?; Should I get something cheaper like Billy Graham’s old Jeep Wagoneer?; Will it upset my Jewish friends?; When’s the last time he washed this thing, the Reformation?

Jay Leno: Democratic Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi went to Syria, and she said she found some common ground to talk about with the Syrians. I guess they told each other Bush jokes for a few hours. ... Our official policy is to punish Syria for not renouncing terrorism. Hey, maybe the visit from Nancy Pelosi was the punishment. ... Iranian President Mahmud I’m-A-Nut-Job released those 15 British captives after they were held hostage for 13 days. Iran was worried that if they didn’t act soon, Nancy Pelosi would go over and talk to them too. ... Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and John Edwards, as well as a number of other Democratic candidates say they will not participate in a presidential debate next month because the debate is on Fox News and Fox News is biased. How are you going to stand up to terrorists when you’re afraid of Fox News? ... The big story in the presidential campaign is how much money Hillary Clinton has raised. It’s a record. She raised $26 million in the first quarter, and then shifted $10 million she had leftover from her Senate race for a total of $36 million. Hillary Clinton has so much money John Kerry is now hitting on her. ... Health officials are now warning that prescription sleeping pills can cause sleep driving. It can cause people to get up in the middle of the night, drive somewhere, and have no memory of where they went or what they did. To which Bill told Hillary, “See? ... Presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani said he wants to make it clear he is not in favor of gay marriage. He believes marriage should be between a man and a woman, no matter how many times it takes to get it right.

Conan O’Brien: “President Bush was in Arizona inspecting an unmanned plane that’s used to patrol the border. At least the plane was supposed to be unmanned—turns out they found six Mexicans inside.”

Imus isn’t the real bad guy

Instead of wasting time on irrelevant shock jock, black leaders need to be fighting a growing gangster culture.

By Jason Whitlock
Kansas City Star

In the grand scheme, Don Imus is no threat to us in general and no threat to black women in particular. If his words are so powerful and so destructive and must be rebuked so forcefully, then what should we do about the idiot rappers on BET, MTV and every black-owned radio station in the country who use words much more powerful and much more destructive?

I don’t listen or watch Imus’ show regularly. Has he at any point glorified selling crack cocaine to black women? Has he celebrated black men shooting each other randomly? Has he suggested in any way that it’s cool to be a baby-daddy rather than a husband and a parent? Does he tell his listeners that they’re suckers for pursuing education and that they’re selling out their race if they do?

When Imus does any of that, call me and I’ll get upset. Until then, he is what he is — a washed-up shock jock who is very easy to ignore when you’re not looking to be made a victim.

This is one vote Edwards never had

Monty Johnson was heading home Monday with a cooler full of catfish when he learned his new neighbor had turned him into a minor celebrity.

The first calls on his cell phone came from two lawyers asking to represent him in a slander case. Elizabeth Edwards, they told him, had called him a "rabid, rabid Republican." That wasn't all. The Democratic presidential candidate's wife also told The Associated Press she didn't want her children near Johnson because, she said, he once pulled a gun on workers investigating a right of way on his property.

Johnson, a 55-year-old retired landscaper with arthritic knees, said he's not interested in suing.

"I'd just like to know why she has such hard feelings to me," he said. "They say they're for poor people."

But apparently, you're nobody until Elizabeth Edwards dislikes you.

Leah Friedman

I really hope Edwards stays in the race for the long haul. You just can't make stuff like this up. It may soon get difficult to distinguish between real Edwards news and an article in The Onion.

Duke Charges Dropped

Meet Crystal Gail Mangum. The North Carolina woman, a 28-year-old college student/exotic dancer, last year claimed to have been sexually assaulted by a trio of Duke University students after she performed at an off-campus party attended by members of the school's lacrosse team. This afternoon, North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper announced that he was dropping all charges against the men, saying that there was "no credible evidence" against the "innocent" trio. Cooper said that, in fact, evidence gathered by investigators contradicted the accuser's claim, adding that the woman herself has "told many stories" that were themselves contradictory.



Roy Cooper is calling Nifong a "rogue" prosecutor. The irony is that Nifong step-laddered his political career on this case and now Roy Cooper is doing the same for his gubernatorial aspirations.

And people wonder at the comparisons between politics and prostitution.

RE: Stokes County Health Clinic

The truth of the matter is that there isn't any good reason to do this.

The county, for whatever reason, has decided it needs to compete with private practitioners in the area. In my experience, the excuses for it are numerous, but in the end it amounts to growing the size of government for the purposes of self-aggrandizement for the elected officials. As side benefits, they pull down grant money from various sources and find employment for their friends and family members.

When re-election time rolls around, Stanley Smith will be able to pound his chest and sing his own praises in getting the clinic re-opened. Almost no one will ask why.

Bread and circuses, my friends. Bread and circuses.

Former Senator Fred Thompson in Remission for Lymphoma

WASHINGTON (Fox News) - Former Tennessee Republican Sen. Fred Thompson announced Wednesday he's in remission from lymphoma.

Thompson, who is considering a run for the White House in 2008, told FOX News that the illness is treatable.

Duke Lacrosse Case Charges to Be Dropped

(ABC News) - The office of North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper will announce that he is dismissing all charges against three Duke Lacrosse players, ABC News has learned from sources close to the case.

Stokes County Health Clinic

The salary ranges from $56,448 to $84,671. With the policy adjustment made yesterday, the commissioners must approve a salary more than the mid-range.

“If this is what it takes to get the Southwestern Services Center open, to get this position filled and have health care,” Commissioner Stanley Smith said. Health care has been a priority for Smith since he was elected, he said.

I didn't realize the city of King didn't have health care. Let's see, you have J.R. Jones Medical Center, Stokes Medical Center Park, approx. 20 minutes to 2 hospitals and numerous doctors in Winston-Salem, etc, and somehow we have to open a taxpayer-funded health clinic in King because the southwest section of the county don't have health care... Are they serious??? Did Stanley Smith give that comment with a straight face???

The Greening of Gingrich

By Amanda B. Carpenter
Human Events

In a heavily hyped debate – one that environmentalist Democrats hoped would be a “smack down” on Republicans -- former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich disappointed them and conservatives alike when he declared that human activity was causing the Earth to warm.

The concession was made in a debate on global warming with Sen. John Kerry (D.-Mass.) today on Capitol Hill that was sponsored by the Brookings Institution and the RAND Corporation.

Clinton Fund-Raising Strategy Backfires

The Clinton camp pressed donors to give only to Hillary. Then the strategy backfired.

By Richard Wolffe
Newsweek

There's a turncoat inside Hillary Clinton's money machine. Over the past several years, Leonore Blitz has helped raise about $250,000 for Clinton's Senate races, and she signed up early to help the new presidential campaign. But in recent weeks the Manhattan marketing consultant has secretly attended finance meetings and fund-raisers for Clinton's archrival, Barack Obama. Under intense pressure from the Clinton team to pick sides, Blitz—who bundled more than $1 million for John Kerry in 2004—felt deeply conflicted. Clinton operatives have warned donors not to contribute to other campaigns, and put a price on disloyalty: early supporters will be valued and latecomers scorned. But now Blitz is coming out of the shadows, ready to test the rules. "I have been a lifelong advocate of women and minorities' participating and running for political office," she told NEWSWEEK last week. "Therefore, I'm supporting both Clinton and Obama."

Clinton, Obama just say no to Fox

Presidential debate thrown into jeopardy

By Michael Learmonth
Variety.com

Both Sen. Hillary Clinton and Sen. Barack Obama said they would not participate in a presidential debate sponsored by Fox News Channel, throwing the event in jeopardy.

I was wrong yesterday when I said Hillary Clinton was the only one with guts running for the Democrat nomination. It appears she's just as chicken as Barack Obama and John Edwards.

Fire Chief: Johnny Cash's Former Home Burns To Ground

HENDERSONVILLE, Tenn. (WSMV.com) -- According to Hendersonville’s Fire Chief Jamie H. Steele, Johnny Cash’s former home burned to the ground on Tuesday.

Apparently the fire started during a large renovation project that has been occurring at the home. Sealant caught fire, causing the blaze to burn throughout the home, according to officials.

The house is currently owned by musician Barry Gibb. No one was injured during the blaze, according to authorities.

RE: Health chief given salary authority

Let's see. There are four Republicans and one Democrat on the Stokes board. I know, this must be some of that compassionate conservatism we hear about from on high.

No doubt the pubbies on the board would layer us with truckloads of rhetoric defending this. We would hear every loose justification and argument why this is not just rank socialism.

I can't imagine why anyone bothers to maintain a Democrat Party organization in Stokes County. The GOP has been implementing their agenda, with one brief hiatus, for years now. Of course, previous boards, while no less socialistic, at least had the benefit of a few members who weren't solidly in the third sigma below mean on intelligence.

Health chief given salary authority

(Winston-Salem Journal) - Staffing issues with a dormant health clinic in King could be resolved soon.

The Stokes County Board of Commissioners made a salary-policy adjustment yesterday that is expected to make it easier for county health officials to hire a more experienced health-care provider for the Southwestern Services Center.

After much discussion, commissioners agreed to allow the county health director the flexibility to negotiate a higher salary for a physician’s assistant.

Laptops Lost

(Fox News) - As you put the finishing touches on your tax returns it probably will not comfort you to know that the IRS has lost almost 500 laptop computers in the last three years — many containing sensitive taxpayer information.

A government audit says 490 laptops were either lost or stolen in 387 separate incidents between 2003 and 2006. Many of the computers were stolen from employees' vehicles or their homes. And the audit says IRS workers are not properly encrypting data or using password protection to safeguard taxpayer information.

Too Positive?

(Fox News) - A planned T.V. drama based on the exploits of a British Iraq war hero has been dropped by the BBC. The Sunday Telegraph quotes a source close to the project as saying the BBC began to have second thoughts about the project last year because it was hesitant to show anything positive about the war. Private Johnson Beharry twice braved ambushes to lead troops to safety — becoming the first person to receive Britain's highest award for valor — the Victoria Cross — in 25 years.

The BBC confirms the decision but won't comment on the reasons.

National Security Implications

(Fox News) - A bill in the U.S. Senate would require the CIA and the Pentagon to assess the national security implications of global warming.

The Boston Globe reports the bill from Republican Chuck Hagel and Democrat Dick Durbin calls for a National Intelligence Estimate that would pinpoint regions at highest risk of humanitarian suffering and assess the likelihood of wars erupting over diminishing water and other resources.

The Pentagon would be required to undertake a series of war games to determine how global climate change could affect U.S. security.

"Gross Alarmist"

(Fox News) - Meanwhile, top hurricane forecaster William Gray of Colorado State University called Al Gore "a gross alarmist" during the closing speech of the National Hurricane Conference in New Orleans.

Gray says the recent increase in strong hurricanes is part of a natural cycle that has nothing to do with global warming. He says Gore is, "doing a great disservice and he doesn't know what he's talking about."

Global Warming Beneficial?

(Fox News) - A meteorology professor at the Massachusetts institute of Technology says there is no compelling evidence that global warming will lead to a catastrophe — and in fact might be beneficial.

Richard Lindzen writes in Newsweek: "Much of the alarm over climate change is based on ignorance of what is normal weather and climate. There is no evidence that extreme weather events are increasing…Indeed, meteorological theory holds that, outside the tropics, weather in a warming world should be less variable, which might be a good thing."

Lindzen says most of the current alarm over climate change is based on what he calls "inherently untrustworthy climate models, similar to those that cannot accurately forecast the weather a week from now."

Obama Ditches CBC/Fox Debate

The Politico

Barack Obama has chosen not to attend September's Democratic presidential primary debate co-sponsored by the Congressional Black Caucus Institute and Fox News, an aide said, effectively dooming the event.

I'm starting to think Hillary Clinton is the only candidate with guts on the Democrat side...

Remembering the Gipper...

“There is a new term being used in Washington these days, tax expenditures. If you and I used that term we would be talking about things upon which the government spent our tax dollars. That, however, is not what government means. Tax expenditures is the new name government has for the share of our earnings it allows us to keep. You and I call them deductions.”

Ronald Reagan

Penn And Teller Get Hippies To Sign Water Banning Petition

Arthur: Faye Saved Me

Fellow captive Faye Turney was instrumental in getting Arthur Batchelor through their terrifying 13-day kidnap ordeal, the 20-year-old said yesterday.

Arthur said his brave colleague, nicknamed Topsy, risked beatings from their cynical guards for whispering reassurances to him as he sat scared stiff and blindfolded on a boat after they were snatched at sea.

And he revealed that the hardest part of his nightmare in Tehran was when he was separated from mum-of-one Faye - who he said was like a big sister to him - and chucked into solitary confinement. Speaking of the day they were captured, able seaman Arthur said: "We were blindfolded on the long journey back to land and my whole body was tense...not knowing whether to expect a kick or a punch. It was horribly quiet.

Chris Hughes and Robert Stansfield

If this is the best the British Military can do, they might as well go ahead and surrender to the nearest Muslim now.

Officials: Sexy Chicken Mascot Violates Rule Against Hawking

NORTH RICHLAND HILLS, Texas (Fox 8 News) -- The mascot for the Sexy Chicken restaurant in North Richland Hills, Texas, has recently come under fryer ... er, fire ... for possible violating a city ordinance. According to city officials, the bikini-clad chicken breaks a city law about hawking wares out on the street.

Disney Worries About Keith Richards' Dad's Ashes Comment

(World Entertainment News Network) - Rolling Stone Keith Richards' recent comment he snorted his father's ashes mixed with cocaine has left bosses at family movie studio Disney squirming.

Richards, who has since insisted he was joking, is appearing in the upcoming Disney sequel 'Pirates of The Caribbean: At World's End' and the company's marketing department is worried.

Disney senior vice president Dennis Rice tells British music magazine NME, who broke the original story, "When (a senior Disney publicist) forwarded the (Richards) story to me, I thought 'How are we going to spin this?'"

He adds, "Keith won't be doing a lot of publicity for this movie."

Elizabeth Edwards afraid of neighbor

Elizabeth Edwards says she is scared of the "rabid, rabid Republican" who owns property across the street from her Orange County home -- and she doesn't want her kids going near the gun-toting neighbor.

Edwards, the wife of Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards, particularly recalls the time neighbor Monty Johnson brought out a gun while chasing workers investigating a right of way near his property. The Edwards family has yet to meet Johnson in person.

"I wouldn't be nice to him, anyway," Edwards said in an interview. "I don't want my kids anywhere near some guy who, when he doesn't like somebody, the first thing he does is pull a gun out. It scares the business out of me."

But Johnson defended the occasion he brandished a gun, saying those on his land didn't have the proper approval.

"I use the gun for protection, and I considered that an appropriate time," Johnson said. "Sometimes you have to take drastic measures."

Mike Baker

But Lizzie, Monty's just part of that "other" America your pretty hubbie keeps droning on about.

The guy put up a Giuliani sign. How much of a "rabid, rabid Republican" can he be?"

This is pretty priceless:

"I thought he was supposed to be for the poor people," Johnson said. "But does he ever socialize with any poor people? He doesn't speak to me."

RE: Tax administrator for Stokes suspended by commissioners

Wren probably told one or more of the Commissioners that they are a pack of retarded monkeys.

He should at least get credit for being right.

An iPod for every kid? Are they !#$!ing idiots?

The Detroit News

We have come to the conclusion that the crisis Michigan faces is not a shortage of revenue, but an excess of idiocy. Facing a budget deficit that has passed the $1 billion mark, House Democrats Thursday offered a spending plan that would buy a MP3 player or iPod for every school child in Michigan.

I've heard a lot of dumb ideas in my lifetime, but I have to say, this ranks right up there near the top. No wonder the state of Michigan has such a high unemployment rate compared to the other states in the country.

Tax administrator for Stokes suspended by commissioners

DANBURY (Winston-Salem Journal) — Stokes County’s tax administrator has been suspended with pay, officials said yesterday.

Wren Carmichael was relieved of his duties by the Stokes County Board of Commissioners during an emergency meeting yesterday morning.

“It does not involve any misappropriation of funds,” said Commissioner Leon Inman, the board’s chairman. “It is a personnel matter.”

Carmichael is suspended with pay pending the outcome of an internal investigation.

Commissioners appointed Jake Oakley as interim tax administrator.

Running Unopposed

(Fox News) - An alderman in Missouri City, Missouri — population 300 — was running unopposed for re-election this week. So Joe Selle says he simply forgot to vote. Unfortunately, so did everyone else.

Selle received no votes — zero — in Tuesday's third ward balloting. Now the city isn't sure what to do. The Kansas City Star reports the city attorney says the city's pre-civil war charter states the incumbent can hold office until someone else is elected to take his place — but added — "I'm not happy that nobody…voted in an election."

Hate Messages

(Fox News) - The think tank that generated headlines by reporting that Al Gore's Nashville mansion uses about 20 times as much energy as the average home, has been bombarded by hate messages ever since.

Nicole Williams of the Tennessee Center for Policy Research tells the Scripps Howard News Service that she received about 10 death threats by phone, and more than 100 threats that said in one way or another — "I'm gonna get you."

The center received nearly 3,000 Gore-related emails — many too vulgar to repeat here. Of those that can be, one said: "I hope you all die slowly and have your hearts and brains trampled to pieces — you small-minded, ignorant, backwoods ideologues."

Another e-mailer said: "You bunch of stupid hick rednecks. I am sure you are quite religious, yet you have no problem destroying His creation with pollution; and, rather than addressing that, you cast dispersions on Al Gore's home energy use."

Yet another: "You are a total waste of skin and air. Help the environment and jump off a cliff."

Hero Memorial

(Fox News) - Some parents in Littleton, Colorado are protesting plans to erect a memorial to a fallen hero. This statue will honor Danny Dietz — a local man who was in a team of U.S. Navy SEALs caught in an ambush almost two years ago in Afghanistan. Dietz fought for 45 minutes while severely wounded — and enabled one of his comrades to escape.

But the protesting parents say the statue glorifies violence because Dietz is depicted with his rifle. They say the gun conjures up memories of the nearby Columbine shootings and is too close to areas where children play.

Dietz's window says comparing the guns at Columbine with her husband's rifle is like comparing a criminal's knife with a surgeon's scalpel. Patsy Dietz says, "one is used to take lives, and the other is used to save them."

Taking a Hit

(Fox News) - USA Today is criticizing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for her meeting this week with Syrian President Bashar Assad, saying Pelosi "stepped out of bounds on an ill-conceived trip to Syria." It said that she "crossed a line" and "violated a long-held understanding that the United States should speak with one official voice abroad."

But the paper also carried a response from House Foreign Affairs committee Chairman Tom Lantos — who was on the trip with Pelosi. He writes that "USA today's views distort both the nature of Speaker Pelosi's trip and the constitutional role of Congress in foreign policy," and adds Pelosi, "acted well within the bounds of current U.S.foreign policy."

An editorial in the Wall Street Journal also criticized the trip, and pointed to a different remark from Lantos who said during the trip: " We have an alternative Democratic foreign policy. I view my job as beginning with restoring overseas credibility and respect for the United States."

Clinton Vacations in Caribbean

NEW YORK (AP) - Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton has stepped off the presidential campaign trail for a few days, heading to the Dominican Republic to spend Easter weekend at the swank Punta Cana Resort and Spa.

Edwards to Skip Fox News Debate

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) -- Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards on Friday pulled out of a second debate co-hosted by Fox News Channel, saying the cable network has a conservative slant.

Forecaster Blasts Gore on Global Warming

NEW ORLEANS (AP) - A top hurricane forecaster called Al Gore "a gross alarmist" Friday for making an Oscar-winning documentary about global warming.

Life Lessons for Rudy

National Review Online

When Rudolph Giuliani announced his entry into the race for president, we noted that there were reasons to find his candidacy both compelling and problematic. In the latter category fell, above all, his denial that unborn children have a right to life. Even on that issue, however, we held out hope that Giuliani would try to meet pro-life conservatives halfway. He had already come around on partial-birth abortion, even if he had not come up with a good explanation for his shift. He had said that he favors “strict constructionist” judges, who attempt to determine what the law is rather than to make it what they think it should be. We hoped that he would go further: for example, by joining President Bush in declaring Roe v. Wade a bad decision as a matter of constitutional law, or even by joining Sen. John McCain in calling for its overturning.

Instead, we are sorry to say, he has mostly gone into reverse. Since his announcement, he has said that, in his mind, a strict constructionist judge could as easily rule to keep Roe as to scrap it. He has continued to misrepresent pro-lifers as seeking to throw pregnant women “in jail.” He has refused to rule out signing federal legislation codifying Roe should it be presented to him as president. And, most troublingly, has reiterated his longstanding support for taxpayer funding for abortion.

RE: Democrats at War

Pelosi has demonstrated repeatedly that her intelligence is well into the second standard deviation below the mean, maybe even into the third. However, this is an excellent illustration of what is wrong with democracy.

The question proponents of democracy never want to answer is, what if the majority is wrong? This example represents a closely related question: What if the majority is stupid?

Edwards Wants IRS To Complete Tax Forms

WXII.com

RALEIGH, N.C. -- Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards wants the Internal Revenue Service to calculate and complete the income tax returns of up to 50 million Americans annually.

The Tyranny of Legislating Morality

The mere use of presently illegal drugs causes little to no real criminal behavior. The use of the drug alcohol however, is related to approximately fifty percent of all murders and to over fifty percent of all rapes and robberies. Therefore, the argument that the government is banning drugs other than alcohol in order of protect society is both false and hypocritical. Furthermore, it doesn't even stand up to a loose examination of the US Constitution and the legitimate power of government, as such power was supposed to be used in America.

All federal, state and local laws prohibiting the manufacture, sales, possession and use of any mind-altering and or addictive drugs are absolutely unconstitutional. There just is no such enumerated power. The Intestate Commerce Clause and the necessary and proper clause of the US Constitution does not save the federal government here. While the Constitution gives the federal government the power to "regulate" commerce, it does not give it the power to prohibit the manufacture, sales or use of certain substances or products, just because said substances or products may harm the user.

David Nichols

The author is a little shrill, and the arguments on the constitutionality of the states' ability to regulate drugs are very thin. As well, he really neglects to address the topic of his title. However, he makes a couple of good points, especially on the schizophrenic nature of our drug laws and the slippery slope of government protecting us from ourselves.

Missouri bill calls for crackdown on sale of ... baking soda

First, the state said you must make a special trip to the pharmacy counter to buy certain cold medicines. That was to curb production of methamphetamine.

Now, a St. Louis legislator wants you to do the same thing to buy an even more common household item — baking soda — because it's used to make crack cocaine.

Sales of cold medications containing pseudoephedrine, such as Sudafed, are strictly regulated in Missouri. Customers must show a photo ID when they buy the medicine. Pharmacists must log the names and addresses of buyers, including how much they buy. People under 18 may not buy the medicines.

The sponsor of the baking soda bill, Rep. Talibdin El-Amin, D-St. Louis, said the same approach was needed for baking soda because crack cocaine is often produced by dissolving powdered cocaine in a mixture of water and baking soda.

Derek Kravitz

We have abandoned our roots of a free society. Whether it is in the name of protecting us from ourselves, protecting us from whatever demagogued threat the elite conjure up to stay in power, or just in the interest of providing bread and circuses, politicians of every stripe, Republican and Democrat, are under no compunction to follow the tenets of libertarianism.

At one time, the GOP pretended to be a counterbalance to this trend, but the rise of the neocons looks to have ended that, possibly forever. We now rush headlong toward an authoritarian police state, with the only unresolved question being whether it will be a fascist police state or a socialist one. If the GOP wins the day, it will be the former, if the Democrats prevail, it will be the latter.

I don't believe anything short of armed rebellion can reverse this trend. The oligarchy is established. I expect the next twenty years to yield up the sham of democracy we now affect. It will be replaced by the "people's democracies" affected by the openly socialist states like the PRC. The charade of a multi-party system will be dropped entirely.

Everything changes and human society always swings on a pendulum. The only thing unsure is whether anyone reading this will be alive when the pendulum swings back toward freedom.

Democrats at War

Prime Minister Pelosi and Secretary of State Lantos undermine U.S. foreign policy--and maybe their own party.

The Wall Street Journal

Democrats took Congress last fall in part by opposing the war in Iraq, but it is becoming clear that they view their election as a mandate for something far more ambitious--to wit, promoting and executing their own foreign policy, albeit without the detail of a Presidential election.

Their intentions were made plain this week with two remarkable acts by their House and Senate leaders. Majority Leader Harry Reid endorsed Senator Russ Feingold's proposal to withdraw from Iraq immediately, cutting off funds entirely within a year. He promised a vote soon, as part of what the Washington Post reported would also be a Democratic offensive to close Guantanamo, reinstate legal rights for terror suspects, and improve relations with Cuba.

Meanwhile, Speaker Nancy Pelosi made her now famous sojourn to Syria, donning a head scarf and advertising that she was conducting shuttle diplomacy between Jerusalem and Damascus. If there was any doubt that her trip was intended as far more than a routine Congressional "fact-finding" trip, House Foreign Affairs Chairman Tom Lantos put it to rest by declaring that, "We have an alternative Democratic foreign policy. I view my job as beginning with restoring overseas credibility and respect for the United States."

Firefighter caught in bikini

Family visiting park gets shock

By Jennifer Baker
Cincinnati Enquirer

MASON – A Wayne Township volunteer firefighter is scheduled to appear Thursday in Mason Municipal Court on drunken driving and other charges after he was found wearing a woman’s blond wig and bikini in a public park.

WARNING: This isn't pretty. :-)

Carter backs Pelosi's trip, despite Bush's rebuke

By Dugald McConnell
CNN

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Former President Jimmy Carter expressed his support for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's trip to Syria, rejecting White House criticism of the visit.

"I was glad that she went," Carter said Wednesday. "When there is a crisis, the best way to help resolve the crisis is to deal with the people who are instrumental in the problem."...

...Carter said he recently wanted to visit Syria, in connection with a Palestinian election, but "for the only time in my life, as a former president, I was ordered by the White House not to go."

I had to laugh after reading that last paragraph... Kudos to Bush for putting the brakes on Carter.

On the language of politics

The usual terminology of political language is stupid. What is 'left' and what is 'right'? Why should Hitler be 'right' and Stalin, his temporary friend, be 'left'? Who is 'reactionary' and who is 'progressive'? Reaction against an unwise policy is not to be condemned. And progress towards chaos is not to be commended. Nothing should find acceptance just because it is new, radical, and fashionable. 'Orthodoxy' is not an evil if the doctrine on which the 'orthodox' stand is sound. Who is anti-labor, those who want to lower labor to the Russian level, or those who want for labor the capitalistic standard of the United States? Who is 'nationalist,' those who want to bring their nation under the heel of the Nazis, or those who want to preserve its independence?

Ludwig Von Mises, Interventionism, An Economic Analysis

They're free, but Britain has been humiliated

U.K. Telegraph

Relief at the freeing of the British sailors and Marines in Iran is tempered with dismay at the humiliation to which they and the country they serve have been subjected.

Dr. James Dobson disses Fred Thompson (And vice versa.)

Remembering the Gipper...

“You and I know and do not believe that life is so dear and peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery. If nothing is worth dying for, when did this begin? Should Moses have told the children of Israel to live in slavery under the pharaohs? Should Christ have refused the cross? Should the patriots of Concord Bridge have thrown down their guns and refused to fire the shot heard round the world?”

Ronald Reagan (1964)

Pratfall in Damascus

Nancy Pelosi's foolish shuttle diplomacy

Washington Post

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) offered an excellent demonstration yesterday of why members of Congress should not attempt to supplant the secretary of state when traveling abroad. After a meeting with Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad in Damascus, Ms. Pelosi announced that she had delivered a message from Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert that "Israel was ready to engage in peace talks" with Syria. What's more, she added, Mr. Assad was ready to "resume the peace process" as well. Having announced this seeming diplomatic breakthrough, Ms. Pelosi suggested that her Kissingerian shuttle diplomacy was just getting started. "We expressed our interest in using our good offices in promoting peace between Israel and Syria," she said.

Only one problem: The Israeli prime minister entrusted Ms. Pelosi with no such message. "What was communicated to the U.S. House Speaker does not contain any change in the policies of Israel," said a statement quickly issued by the prime minister's office. In fact, Mr. Olmert told Ms. Pelosi that "a number of Senate and House members who recently visited Damascus received the impression that despite the declarations of Bashar Assad, there is no change in the position of his country regarding a possible peace process with Israel." In other words, Ms. Pelosi not only misrepresented Israel's position but was virtually alone in failing to discern that Mr. Assad's words were mere propaganda.

What in the world is Nancy Pelosi thinking??? She thinks she's president of the United States all of a sudden... Geez.