I've always been a proponent of teaching kids that drugs are bad, as opposed to the heavy-handed zero-yolerance angle. Perhaps it's working:

Remember the love drug? That's the nickname of the synthetic drug also known as ecstasy. It was hugely popular with young adults a few years ago, especially at dance parties called raves. In 2001, 12% of teenagers reported having tried it.

The love affair is now over. A survey out this week from the Partnership for a Drug-Free America shows that teen ecstasy use has dropped 25% in the past two years. The Partnership's findings jibe with those of the University of Michigan's annual study on drug use, which also reports a sharp drop in ecstasy's popularity.

The reason for the decline is simple: education. The medium: television. More and more kids now know that ecstasy is dangerous thanks to a message that is being hammered home on the tube. Armed with that knowledge, they're saying no.

The media campaign about the dangers of ecstasy has taken several tracks: public-service ads, TV documentaries and anti-ecstasy messages woven into the plots of regular TV shows. Fifty-two percent of teens report having seen an antidrug ad on TV, up from 32% in 1998.

I think the money spent on the drug war would be much better spent on education and training people what the true dangers of drugs really are. Putting a kid in jail for an ounce of weed is damaging to the kid and costs exhorbitant amounts of money.

Vince Fumo, one Pennsylvania's more influential politicians, had his staff forge his name, with the help of a notary, to petitions:

Fumo aides tried to submit his nominating papers on Feb. 17, the deadline, without noting the senator's polling place. It was a simple oversight, to be sure, but election officials told Fumo's aides they had to submit a new form, with a new, notarized signature.

That posed a problem for Fumo, who, according to court papers, couldn't sign the second form "because he was unable to be physically present." He had spent at least part of last week vacationing in Florida, although neither he nor aides would say where he was on Feb. 17.

In court papers, Fumo acknowledged that he didn't sign the papers but had given someone else the authority to do so. An aide to Fumo notarized the forms as if Fumo had signed them.

James Tayoun Jr., Fumo's primary opponent, filed a challenge to Fumo's petition on Tuesday, alleging the senator's second signature was "signed by someone else in a fraudulent manner." Tayoun's challenge came just as a state judge granted Fumo's request to order state elections officials to accept a rewritten form - the senator's third. Tayoun is also expected to appeal that decision.

In court papers, Fumo said he made a good-faith effort to comply with election laws and shouldn't be penalized for a mere technicality.

He'll probably get on the ballot because, well, he'll cheat just like NJ Dems did with Laughtenberg. What a scam.

A typically misguided column by Robert Scheer:

No, not Nader again.

In an act of pure egotism, Ralph Nader - who has been largely silent on the main issues of the day, nursing his wounds since the last time he messed up an election - insists on another chance to play at electoral politics on the national stage. Does he have no sense of accountability or shame?

Yes, Al Gore shares responsibility with the U.S. Supreme Court for the fact that George W. Bush ended up as president. But without Nader in the picture in 2000, Bush's narrow Electoral College victory would have been impossible to scam. The arguments that Nader made last time around seem absurd this time, when it is all too clear that there are significant differences between the Democrats and Republicans on the issues Nader has spent a lifetime effectively raising. The Republican Party marches lockstep in a campaign against the environment, working people, the poor, civil liberties and world peace.

Uh, Bob, can I call you Bob? Oh never mind, I'll just call you idiot. The Bush stole the election with the help of the Supreme Court schtick, blah, blah, blah. It's getting old Bob, er idiot. The simple fact is that if Gore would've won his home state, Florida means nothing. Of course Marxist Bob can't help but be the voice of the oppressed. I am a working person Bobby Boy, and all the Democrats do for me is take my hard-earned cash and squander it. As for the environment, I have done more for the environment in the last year than Bob has thought of doing in his whole career. Now on to world peace. Bush did not fire the first salvo in the current hostilities, we were attacked by crazed zealots who don't want peace anywhere that Islam doesn't dominate.

The vital issue in this election is that a Republican sweep may make permanent the damage to the constitutional principle of checks and balances. How dare Nader ignore the reactionary cast of Bush's judicial appointments and the refusal of a Republican-controlled Congress to challenge the mendacity of this president on issues as varied and important as global warming and the pre-emptive, deceit-driven invasion of Iraq?

Bush is the devil because he was against the Kyoto Protocol, Clinton couldn't even muster support for that flawed piece of garbage. As for the pre-emptive invasion of Iraq, how about 17 UN resolutions and Bill Clinton bombing Saddam, pre-emptively mind you, to deflect public attention from impeachment for getting hummers from Monica? What say you about that B.S.?

...The two-party system has its shortcomings, but we are up against one-party domination. For Nader cavalierly to dismiss this concentration of power in the hands of right-wing ideologues attempting to roll back the clock on the bipartisan accomplishments of the last 50 years is dangerous nonsense. How glib he is to grade the difference between the two parties as that of a D-plus and a D-minus.

Like some faded chanteuse in a dingy nightclub, Nader played the old songs on Meet the Press, even hitting some of the high notes with his warnings about the obvious power of corporations. But he played it cheaper than he ever has, promising to appeal to conservative voters by attacking "corporate pornography directed toward children" and trade with "the despotic communist regime in China." Was the first reference Nader's obscene attempt to join pro-censorship forces in using the Super Bowl half-time show controversy to return to the good old puritanical days of the 1950s, when sex was a dirty word?

The donkeys would kick their own Grandmothers walker out if she got in the way of regaining power. They are brutalizing Nader, who in my opinion is herds smarter than Edwards or Kerry.

Nader is not responding to a grass-roots demand that he run but rather is stoking his celebrity as a media curiosity. He has no mandate from those who care deeply about the causes he has championed. His sudden cameo appearance over the objections of many who have followed him, bypassing existing Green Party organizations, smacks of overwhelming elitism. Nader has done nothing of significance since the last election to organize popular opposition to the disasters of the Bush government, yet he now deigns to assert that he alone can save us.

...His fans, and I once was one, know that too much is at stake in this next election to allow this out-of-touch old warrior to stumble into the fray determined to play leader. But play he will, and the Republicans will delight in his ability to blur the lines at a time of all-too-important electoral divisions. Sadly, Nader, like the products of those auto companies he did so much to expose, is now unsafe at any speed.

Elitist? Is that not the pig calling Rosie O'Donnell fat? Scheer is beside himself with fear that the cold-hearted conservatives, like me, will keep our man in power. Take your ritalin Bob.

Jim McGreedy announced his new budget this week. He didn't raise taxes in the usual sense, he went the "sin tax" route. This is nothing but a tax on the middle and lower middle class, who tend to be the ones who smoke. If you tax only selected items such as smokes or alcohol, is it still a tax increase? You bet it is. When I become governor, I'm going to have a special tax on every piece of gold jewelry that union officials buy. Think about it, if I could get 1% for every ring or chain bought by union business agents, I could balance the budget and give a 15% tax cut to everyone.

Update: Speaking of unions, why does the AFL-CIO support candidates who don't vote for union supported issues?:

In his stump speech, Edwards implies he ran against Jesse Helms by saying he beat "the Jesse Helms machine" to win his Senate seat. It was a real David and Goliath match-up -- pitting a poor, beleaguered multimillionaire trial lawyer against an elderly senator of humble means. But the mere mention of Helms' name invariably elicits sneers from the party of the little guy.

Helms voted with the AFL-CIO on all three big labor issues -- against NAFTA, against trade with China and for half a million good jobs in Alaska. Indeed, Helms was one of the main lobbyists against trade with China. The guy Edwards actually beat, Lauch Faircloth, was in the Senate for only one of these votes. The AFL-CIO didn't have to take Faircloth's word on how he might have voted on NAFTA: He voted against it. The AFL-CIO endorsed Edwards and opposed Faircloth and Helms.

It's not particularly surprising that the party of trial lawyers, environmentalists and Hollywood actresses keeps voting against blue collar workers. What's strange is that the AFL-CIO keeps voting against blue-collar workers, too.

Blair went over a million hits on the spleenville site. Go over and be # one million and twenty-six.

You know how Kerry has grown fond of using the "Benedict Arnold" card when discussing corporations moving overseas? Take a look at how many of the the Heinz, Inc. factories are outside of the US. Kerry has so many inconsistencies in his past, that if I posted two items every night from now until the election, I wouldn't even skim the surface.

John Kerry is so wishy-washy about every issue, I think the guy flips a coin to decide if he has to take a piss or not. Here's what he said about The Passion:

Front-runner John Kerry (news - web sites) arrived in Los Angeles on Thursday ready to debate his rivals for the Democratic presidential nomination but unsure about the city's latest controversial production, "The Passion of the Christ."

"I don't know," he said when asked if he would see the Mel Gibson (news) film about the last days of Jesus' life and its particularly harrowing focus on his crucifixion.

Kerry, a Catholic, said he was worried about the movie's potential anti-Semitism. Some critics have complained that Gibson portrays Jews as responsible for Jesus' death.

"I am concerned," he told reporters. "I don't know if it's there or not but there's a lot of it around now. I think we have to be careful."

There is alot of anti-Semitism around, particularly in France whom Kerry would ask for permission prior protecting the country from terrorism. See the movie and then make a decision. Kerry is so afraid to take a side in any issue that he's taking a side in none. That is not called leadership.

Clear Channel's removal of Howard Stern from it's stations is a scary deal. The reason was because of what a caller said, not what Howard said. I don't listen to Stern, I tend to listen to talk, news, or alternative music, however, this is wrong. I don't agree with Rush Limbaugh about alot of things, I agree with him about this issue:

'SMUT ON TV GETS PRAISED. SMUT ON TV WINS EMMYS. ON RADIO, THERE SEEMS TO BE DIFFERENT STANDARDS,' LIMBAUGH EXPLAINED.

'I'VE NEVER HEARD HOWARD STERN. BUT WHEN THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT GETS INVOLVED IN THIS, I GET A LITTLE FRIGHTENED.

'IF WE ARE GOING TO SIT BY AND LET THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT GET INVOLVED IN THIS, IF THE GOVERNMENT IS GOING TO 'CENSOR' WHAT THEY THINK IS RIGHT AND WRONG... WHAT HAPPENS IF A WHOLE BUNCH OF JOHN KERRYS, OR TERRY MCAULIFFES START RUNNING THIS COUNTRY. AND DECIDE CONSERVATIVE VIEWS ARE LEADING TO VIOLENCE?

'I AM IN THE FREE SPEECH BUSINESS. ITS ONE THING FOR A COMPANY TO DETERMINE IF THEY ARE GOING TO BE PARTY TO IT. ITS ANOTHER THING FOR THE GOVERNMENT TO DO IT.'

Again I say to anyone offended by Stern, turn the friggin' station, there's plenty of other stuff to listen to.

Glenn Reynolds has lots of stuff regarding this classic racist outburst:

U.S. Rep. Corrine Brown verbally attacked a top Bush administration official during a briefing on the Haiti crisis Wednesday, calling the President's policy on the beleaguered nation "racist" and his representatives "a bunch of white men."

Her outburst was directed at Assistant Secretary of State Roger Noriega during a closed-door meeting on Capitol Hill. Noriega, a Mexican-American, is the State Department's top official for Latin America.

"I think it was an emotional response of her frustration with the administration," said David Simon, a spokesman for the Jacksonville Democrat. He noted that Brown, who is black, is "very passionate about Haiti."

Brown sat directly across the table from Noriega and yelled into a microphone. Her comments sent a hush over the hourlong meeting, which was attended by about 30 people, including several members of Congress and Bush administration officials.

Noriega later told Brown: "As a Mexican-American, I deeply resent being called a racist and branded a white man," according to three participants.

Brown then told him "you all look alike to me," the participants said.

During the meeting, Brown criticized the administration's response to the escalating violence in Haiti, where rebels opposing President Jean-Bertrand Aristide's government have seized control of large parts of the country.

After her comments about white men, Noriega said he would "relay that to (Secretary of State) Colin Powell and (national security adviser) Condoleezza Rice the next time I run into them," participants said. Powell and Rice are black.

Emphasis mine. Let me get this straight, Brown went off on a racist tangent and it's Bush's fault? Typical Lib, taking zero responsibility for their own actions. She said this because She's passionate about Haiti? I imagine that President Bush is passionate about Iraq, their former despot did try to murder his father. Substitute the word white with black and change the political affiliation of the Brown to Republican, what type of coverage would it receive then?

Do you hear that? That's the sound of a million guys in pain. Why you ask? They no longer have a shot at marrying Rosie:

Former talk show host Rosie O'Donnell (news) married her longtime girlfriend Thursday, taking what she called a proud stand for gay civil rights in the city where more than 3,300 other same-sex couples have tied the knot since Feb. 12.

"I want to thank the city of San Francisco for this amazing stance the mayor has taken for all the people here, not just us but all the thousands and thousands of loving, law-abiding couples," O'Donnell said, after she Kelli Carpenter emerged from their brief ceremony inside Mayor Gavin Newsom's office.

The newlyweds walked hand in hand down the grand marble staircase in the rotunda to thunderous applause from hundreds of spectators who came to witness the city's first celebrity same-sex wedding.

As the San Francisco's Gay Men's Chorus serenaded the couple with a few bars of "Going to the Chapel," O'Donnell smiled and said, "We really did. We got married."

I 'm sure Rosie will be hailed for her courageous stance, however, 3,000 couples married illegally before she did. She has no shame when it comes to keeping her pudgy mug out of the news.

The Passion of the Christ debuts tomorrow. The chaos surrounding the movie is a bit overbearing in my view. Stupid headlines and the Jewish reaction have only fueled the fire. I am going to see it. It's a given that any movie about Christ will elicit outrage from Jews no matter what, even though the Second Vatican Council absolved the Jews of guilt. The Romans were responsible for the deaths of many Jews, not just Jesus. See it, decide, and talk about it.

By the way, I give Mel Gibson credit for making this movie. In Aramaic and Latin, with sub-titles. He should have seen that his Father's views would come out. I think Gibson's Dad is a loon who may or may not be an anti-Semite. Whatever the case, good for Mel in making this movie.

I have no idea who Christina Ricci is. I guess I've seen her in something but I don't care enough to look up what she's been in. This is funny however:

This week?s Overblown New York Ego nomination goes to Christina Ricci. We learn in the latest issue of Details that she and her boyfriend, actor Adam Goldberg, have bought a duplex in Chelsea because "[t]he food is better" and "Adam?s like, the mayor of New York."

We?ve no doubt that Goldberg is the friendliest guy on his block (and we?re more than a little jealous of his girl?s moon-eyed admiration). But it?s a big city, honey, and there are an awful lot of celebrities crawling about. Every one of them, in our experience, thinks of him- or herself as the most on-the-ball swinging dick in the ?hood.

Celebrities are such idiots.

The kangaroo court in the Hague continues, Israel tells them to "kiss it's ass".

Stephen Green agrees that the President may have made a huge mistake today by supporting a constitutional amendment against gay marriage. You don't change the constitution for anything related to this.

More on anti-Semitism and the Left.

A funny thing happens to me when I talk politics with people. I support Bush and the his doctrine so I must be an ultra-Right-winger Paleocon, or I support the Israelis so I must be a Neocon. If I mention that I have no issues with gay unions and that the drug war is a sham, I must be a Libertarian. I consider myself a Libertarian-Conservative. Small government, tax cuts to spur the economy, a strong military, and the right of people to do as they wish in their own homes, within limits. I am pro-death penalty and although I'm anti-abortion, I see no win-win in the abortion battles. I tend to have a biting sense of humor that can cut both ways. Liberals should be smacked upside the head regularly just for the stupid things they say, same as Conservatives. I don't drink the Kool-aid for Bush and constantly call him out when I disagree. I support him because he is the right man at the right time in a war where we shouldn't defer to the UN or EU for anything.

Most people, sadly, do not pay attention to politics, or tend to vote after seeing commercials. They don't know what political persuasion they are. If people agree with what I write here, great. If people disagree, great also. At least form a decent argument when you decide to voice your opinion. I have no idea how many, if any, people read this site. This is my release. Contact me at sswenviron@comcast.net if you wish to discuss anything I write.

In the next few years, an amazing transfer of hazardous waste will take place. On any given day, hundreds of thousands of pounds of hazardous waste are transported on US roads. The waste that is routinely transported is waste that meets the criteria of being hazardous in accordance with EPA standards set forth in the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA). RCRA waste is waste that is ignitable, corrosive, reactive, or toxic. This waste is shipped utilizing a shipping document known as the Uniform Hazardous Waste Manifest (manifest).

Department of Transportation regulations govern the over-the-road shipment of any hazardous waste. One of the regulations requires hazardous waste transporters to placard their trucks or trains to ensure that emergency crews are aware of potential hazards in a response situations. You've all seen the placards, affixed to the sides of transport vehicles.

In the last year, DOT has also required companies who ship or transport hazardous waste or materials to conduct transportation security training. I conduct this training.

The real threat, however, is coming in the near future. The federal repository for radioactive waste located at Yucca Mountain, NV is close to being completed, in fact, waste will be shipped before 2010. The repository will house all the high-level radioactive waste in the US that is no longer usable. Nevada screamed loud and long but alas, they lost.

The problem is the waste will all have to be transported to Nevada via road or rail and the potential for terrorists creating mayhem is significant. A terror group that has knowledge of a shipment could create the worlds first, and largest, "Dirty Bomb".

"Dirty Bombs" are conventional explosives such as C-4 or dynamite that is coupled with radioactive waste. The effects would be devastating, not only in practical terms, but psychological terms as well. The main effect would be the damage created by the conventional warhead, not necessarily the radioactive material, unless the radioactive waste was high-level. This type of waste is much more difficult to come by at present.

Some radioactive waste has a half life of ten-thousand years. Let's suppose that a pound of high-level radioactive waste has a half life of 500 years, in 2504, the amount of radioactive waste will be one half of a pound, in 3004 it will be one quarter pound and so on. You can imagine the horrific environmental havoc that would be created should high-level radioactive waste fall into the wrong hands.

This is the driver behind the repository. One central storage location that will be heavily protected as opposed to the situation we now find ourselves in. Radioactive waste is currently stored for the most part where it was used as material; hospitals and power plants. The national repository is the best solution, getting it there is the tough part.

To get an idea of the scope see this map and the transport procedures for spent fuel here.

Speaking of apologizing, I must say I'm sorry to Walter Cronkite for calling him a complete idiot. I was wrong, He's only a partial idiot. I tend to agree with most of what he says today:

There are many of us Christians who recall our Sunday-school teachers and later our ministers dwelling upon the sympathy and respect - indeed, the tolerance - for others that, they taught, was basic to our Christian religion. As the prophet Isaiah summed up this need for tolerance: "Come, let us reason together."

We who believe this are compelled to ask: Where is the tolerance, where is the Christian spirit in the effort to criminalize the personal choices of our fellow citizens, personal choices that do not physically threaten others? Where is the Christian tolerance in the conceit of those Christian leaders who dare suggest that they alone can be trusted to properly interpret the lessons of their Bible, and who would impose that belief on this nation's highly diverse peoples by threatening to throw them in jail if they don't agree with the Christian right's version of God's wishes?

I don't agree with the "throw them in jail" part, but the idea is right. Homosexuality is not a choice. Who would choose to be gay? Who would elect to deal with the scorn? You are born either gay or straight, just as you are born black, white, or hispanic.

More proof that Moby Dick is an idiot:

Madsen's letter was mailed to his wife, Rachel, and he hoped she would share it with his veteran friends.

"I'm wondering what happened to all the support for our president. All the headlines I see are bashing him," he wrote. "Don't blame him for sending me away. I knew it was a possibility -- we all did. We knew what would happen and the price we had to pay, as did many others before our time."

Rachel Madsen sent her husband's letter on to Florida Today, a newspaper in Melbourne that covers their hometown. The paper published the text on its Web site. It was also published on the Florida National Guard's Web site in its "Letters from the Front" section.

Madsen, a firefighter for Brevard County Fire Rescue, said other Web sites published it across the country.

Then Mark Crispin Miller, who publishes news commentary on his own Web site, quoted "a solid source in Washington" who wrote that Madsen's letter was "an obvious example of military propaganda" that's "pure and simple partisan Republican campaign pitch for votes."

Not long after Crispin's comments, Moby, an internationally known techno musician and recording artist, also posted Madsen's letter on his Internet site.

Moby, 39, whose real name is Richard Melville Hall, told his fans:

"In an earlier e-mail, I mentioned fake letters that the Bush administration sent to local newspapers around the U.S. These letters supposedly came from soldiers in Iraq, but the truth is they were generated by the Bush administration. I think you'll agree with me that Bush and his cronies have reached a new low in distasteful and despicable behavior. This letter has made me despise the Bush administration more than I ever thought possible. It is utterly disgusting."

Madsen said he became very angry at being considered a fictitious person.

"At first, I couldn't believe it," he said. "I was appalled. What was he saying, that a soldier couldn't write a letter like that? I responded with a letter to my wife to forward to him.

"To my knowledge, nothing appeared."

Of course "Dick" wouldn't post it, Libs never apologize when they're wrong.

The sham court in the Hague is about to condemn Israel, meanwhile, they've more important things to attend to:

In an ironic turn of events, the international trial against Israel's self-defense against Palestinian terrorism began today, precisely as Israeli families continue to bury their dead from the latest murderous attack. "Sort of like the orphan who tries to prevent the murder of his parents by striking at the killer and is then put on trial for assault," commented Arutz-7's Yosef Meiri.

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague, Holland, began hearing arguments today on the mostly-completed 450-mile barrier of fences, ditches, watch posts and - for 3-5% of it - concrete walls that Israel is erecting in and around Judea and Samaria. The UN General Assembly requested the hearing, expected to last three days, and both Arab and Jewish groups have sent hundreds of protestors to The Hague to present their cases. The Arabs of the PA claim the barrier is a land grab and a form of apartheid preventing them from accessing their lands freely. Israel says, first of all, that it saves lives, and that if it were not for Palestinian terrorism, there would be no need for the fence. It further maintains that the barrier is not permanent, that it affects both Jews and Arabs on both sides, and that it is not in the jurisdiction of international bodies to tell Israel how to protect its citizens.

The nations of the world with any sense of shame have rightly chosen not to attend.

Blair picks apart the Observer for misleading reporting and outright lying.

Will Deaniacs support Nader?

Ever since Howard Dean’s collapse, his most avid supporters have been out for blood. Deaniacs charge the Kerry campaign with carrying out “dirty tricks” in order to upset what should have been an easy Dean victory. How else could Dean go from a 30-point lead in New Hampshire to a 2nd place finish in just a few weeks? Though disappointed Deaniacs have trouble articulating exactly what the “dirty tricks” were, their emotions are running high and they want revenge against Kerry, a candidate who embodies the kind of sell-out, establishment Democrat whom Deaniacs abhor.

Along comes Ralph Nader.

I tend to think no. In theory, the Dean supporters may come to their senses, hold their noses, and vote for the Democrat. That'll surely happen if the nominee is Edwards. You never quite know with Dean supporters however.

The Wall Street Journal's John Fund has an excellent essay on the potential backlash that the gay marriage issue in San Francisco may cause:

Reading media reports of the 3,000-plus gay couples who have taken out marriage certificates in San Francisco make the mayor's civil disobedience look like a cross between a civil-rights triumph and a love story. That's because the vast majority of journalists support same-sex marriage, including right-of-center pundits such as David Brooks, Andrew Sullivan and Jim Pinkerton. But Democratic politicians know better. California's Barbara Boxer, one of the Senate's most liberal members, startled her base last week when she announced she opposed changing state law to recognize same-sex marriage. A spokesman for the senator said she believes the state's domestic partnership law provides gay couples with "full rights and responsibilities."

Rep. Barney Frank of Massachusetts, the first openly gay member of Congress, says he warned Mayor Newsom that his stunt would fail legally and would also force more-mainstream politicians to support a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage. He is aware there has been a backlash since the Massachusetts court decision, and San Francisco's civil disobedience may accelerate that. A December poll by CBS and the New York Times found that 61% of Americans opposed gay marriage, up from 55% in July. Opposition to gay rights was the highest since the survey began asking the question in 1992.

The poll found that blacks and Hispanics--core Democratic voting blocs--were especially loath to embrace same-sex marriage. Jesse Jackson told a Harvard Law School audience last week that he supports "equal protection under the law" for gays, but he did not endorse full marriage rights and questioned the analogy between gay rights and civil rights: "Gays were never called three-fifths human in the Constitution and did not require the Voting Rights Act to have the right to vote." He warned the issue was treacherous territory for Democrats in 2004 because it was part of a "Republican tactical strategy to distract from such issues as foreign policy and education."

As I've said every day for the last week, Bush would be very smart to shut up about this issue and let Kerry go on record with his view.

Fisked by Fisk.

Glenn fact checks the Times ass, again. This is reminiscent of Gore in 2000, the union label thing among others. They must realize that every word they print will be checked. To keep getting caught means either; A) they purposely mislead the public to sway opinion, B) they think we're stupid, or C) they are incompetent. Of course I lean toward A, but perhaps a little of B & C are mixed in.

Mark Steyn has a devastating piece on the war that should be in the news, the current one:

Last year, about a month after the war, I was heading back through Iraq's western desert to Amman, came to Jordan Junction just past Rutba and decided to take a swing up the road to the Syrian border. A weird sight: On one side, the frontier guards of the last surviving Baathist regime; on the other, American troops. It must have looked a lot weirder from the Syrian side, if you're suddenly spending your entire shift a few hundred yards from U.S. soldiers, relaxed and chewing the proverbial gum. It seems to have concentrated the mind of Bashir Assad, Syria's boy dictator. He has no desire to wind up looking like Saddam Hussein when they fished him out of that hole. So the other day the country's vice president, Abdul Halim Khaddam, said his government had sent messages to Israel via Turkey offering to resume peace talks with the Zionist entity.

Might be serious. Might be just a meaningless gesture. But the fact that Syria feels the need to be seen to be making a meaningless gesture is itself something. What's happening is that most countries in the region are moving toward the American position; the only variable is the speed. Col. Gaddafi decided to throw in the towel completely. This time last year he was still beavering away on his Weapons of Mass Destruction program. Did you know he had one? The International Atomic Energy Agency -- the body John Kerry and the Democrats place so much faith in -- were blissfully unaware. But he's now opened it up to British and American inspectors, and, in turn, we now know a lot more about his nuclear allies in North Korea, Iran and Pakistan.

Read the whole thing, as they say.

If Kerry chooses to use Vietnam as a major part of his campaign, He should expect the downside. When the downside whacks him upside his head, does he defend himself like a man? Hell no, he whines:

Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry accused President Bush on Saturday of using surrogates to attack his military service in Vietnam and his subsequent activism against that war.

In a letter to Bush, Kerry wrote: "As you well know, Vietnam was a very difficult and painful period in our nation's history, and the struggle for our veterans continues. So, it has been hard to believe that you would choose to reopen these wounds for your personal political gain. But, that is what you have chosen to do."

Kerry was reacting to criticism earlier in the day from a leading Georgia Republican who, speaking for Bush's re-election campaign, predicted trouble for Kerry in the state's primary.

Kerry comes off as a whining rich boy. That will hurt him.

Ralph Nader just announced on Meet the Press that He's running. The donkeys are beside themselves. Say what you will about Nder, the guy is not stupid. I see the appeal to Liberals when compared to Kerry or Edwards.

Did you know that whacko Lib and all-around bad musician Moby's nickname is short for Moby Dick? seems fitting. Instead of Moby, I think he should just go by Dick.

What would you do if you were gay?

Audio of Kerry trashing his fellow soldiers in 1971. You know, the soldiers he now shamefully parades out now.

According to a reader of Glenn Reynolds, the tapes have been sanitized. Here's the transcript to compare.

As I said back in November, John Street is going to be mired in scandal after scandal for his entire second term.

Follow the bugs.

First, the FBI tapped the phones of a Muslim cleric and businessman operating out of a rundown building in Mount Airy.

Then, they tapped the phone at the plush Center City office of über-lawyer Ronald A. White, a wealthy power broker obscure to the public but well-known to the politicians who coveted his campaign cash.

Next, federal authorities tapped the city's treasurer, an eager young acolyte of White's who helped dole out lucrative city bond work.

Finally came the big leap: a bug in the mayor's office.

In textbook fashion, federal investigators have taken ever bolder steps as they ratchet up their investigation into municipal corruption in Philadelphia. They have mounted what Mayor Street recently described as a "wider and wider-range probe, kind of all over the place."

By the time the bug was pulled out of the ceiling of the mayor's office four months ago, the FBI already had reams of evidence: spools of tape from at least eight phone taps and three office bugs, for starters.

Now, federal authorities are nearing the final phase before indictments. Prosecutors are reviewing tapes, calling witnesses before the grand jury, and squeezing anyone they believe committed a crime. Their message: Cooperate, turn on others, or risk a long prison sentence. Textbook.

They are in charge though.

Hollywood is so fucked up:

Liza Minnelli's estranged Husband David Gest is reportedly planning to tie the knot with Diana Ross!

Gest, who's currently in the throes of a vicious divorce battle with Liza Minnelli plans to marry the Motown legend so says "U.S. Weekly" magazine.

Reports are that Gest fell in love with Ross following her arrest for drunk driving in Arizona, in 2002.

The dude's (I use that with reservations) gig is to hook up with rich lushes. These people all suck.

Another "artist" is being censored. Will this chaos never end?

I can only hope that this is true:

A BRITISH Sunday newspaper is claiming Osama bin Laden has been found and is surrounded by US special forces in an area of land bordering north-west Pakistan and Afghanistan.

The Sunday Express, known for its sometimes colourful scoops, claims the al-Qaeda leader has been "sighted" for the first time since 2001 and is being monitored by satellite.

The paper claims he is in a mountainous area to the north of the Pakistani city of Quetta. The region is said to be peopled with bin Laden supporters and the terrorist leader is estimated to also have 50 of his fanatical bodyguards with him.

The claim is attributed to "a well-placed intelligence source" in Washington, who is quoted as saying: "He (bin Laden) is boxed in."

The paper says the hostile terrain makes an all-out conventional military assault impossible. The plan to capture him would depend on a "grab-him-and-go" style operation.

"US helicopters already sited on the Afghanistan border will swoop in to extricate him," the newspaper says. It claims bin Laden and his men "sleep in caves or out in the open. The area is swept by fierce snow storms howling down from the 10,000ft-high mountain peaks. Donkeys are the only transport."

The special forces are "absolutely confident" there is no escape for bin Laden, and are awaiting the order to go in and get him.

I guess that would deflate the excitement surrounding the Kerry-Edwards debate on Tim Russert's show.

Nader's in. This should be interesting. Nothing like telling Katrina to "kiss my ass",hey Ralph.

It appears as though the Clinton plan to save the Haitian tyrant is working out fine.

Again I say to President Bush, avoid the gay sex issue. It's spreading and for once, let's let Kerry make the first play. If he says He's for it, the south is lost. More likely He'll waver, just like most topics and look stupid.

This gives new meaning to the phrase "sin tax".

A blogger meets the Prez:

At the end of our private time with the President he turned a little serious and talked a bit about Iraq and the war on terrorism. I don't recall his exact words, but his message was that it is up to America to take the lead in spreading freedom and democracy and stability in the world.

Bottom line: If George W. Bush could spend 25 minutes chatting with everybody in America like he did with me and five other folks today, he would win any election by a landslide. Despite the formality of the setting, he immediately put us all at ease with grace and hospitality. He was personable and seemed genuinely curious about each of us and our individual pionts of view on the subject we were there to discuss.

He'd be a great guy with whom to watch a football game.

I don't know what I'd say except perhaps, Thanks for showing the leadership in the direct aftermath of 9/11 that you did.

Peggy Noonan has an excellent article over at the Journal:

Mr. Bush is the triumph of the seemingly average American man. He's normal. He thinks in a sort of common-sense way. He speaks the language of business and sports and politics. You know him. He's not exotic. But if there's a fire on the block, he'll run out and help. He'll help direct the rig to the right house and count the kids coming out and say, "Where's Sally?" He's responsible. He's not an intellectual. Intellectuals start all the trouble in the world. And then when the fire comes they say, "I warned Joe about that furnace." And, "Does Joe have children?" And "I saw a fire once. It spreads like syrup. No, it spreads like explosive syrup. No, it's formidable and yet fleeting." When the fire comes they talk. Bush ain't that guy. Republicans love the guy who ain't that guy. Americans love the guy who ain't that guy.

Someone said to me: But how can you call him normal when he came from such privilege? Indeed he did. But there's nothing lemonade-on-the-porch-overlooking-the-links-at-the-country-club about Mr. Bush. He isn't smooth. He actually has some of the roughness and the resentments of the self-made man. I think the reason for this is Texas. He grew up in a white T-shirt and jeans playing ball in the street with the other kids in the subdivision. Barbara Bush wasn't exactly fancy. They lived like everyone else. She spoke to me once with great nostalgia of her early days in Texas, when she and her husband and young George slept in the same bed in an apartment in Midland. A prostitute lived in the complex. Barbara Bush just thought she was popular. Then they lived in a series of suburban houses.

Bush is a normal guy, who doesn't speak fast, well, or with big words, maybe that's why people like him.

Tim Blair is the best daily read on the web. This one is particularly funny.

Even the Dems see the whole gay marriage issue as a political hot potato:

President Bush, in his first public comments, condemned the city's actions, and said they are influencing his decision over whether to push for an amendment to the U.S. Constitution banning gay marriage. His wife, Laura Bush, on a trip to Los Angeles, called same-sex marriage ``a very, very shocking issue'' for some people. As of Wednesday, the city had issued more than 2,700 marriage licenses to gay and lesbian couples.

But the biggest surprise of the day came from U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer, seeking her third term this fall and long a champion of gay rights, who publicly stated that she does not believe in changing state law to allow for the recognition of same-sex marriage.

The announcement, which came after two Republican opponents challenged her on the issue, was a blow to some of her longtime gay and lesbian supporters, and demonstrated the acute political sensitivity of same-sex marriage in an election year.

Bush should just back off and leave Kerry to take a stand on this issue.

According to a French paper, Arafat didn't use EU money to support terror:

week after the German paper Die Weld reported suspicion is growing that money from PA Chairman Yasser Arafat's office was transferred to terror organizations, the French daily Liberation reported Wednesday that a report being prepared by the EU's anti-fraud unit (OLAF) will show no financial ties between Arafat and terror.

The paper reported that according to its sources the report will show that Arafat did not use the financial assistance from the EU to "help in any way to fund terror organizations like the Al Aksa Brigades."

The OLAF report on whether hundreds of millions of euros to the PA was misused, is slated to be released in March

Damn, if it's good enough for the EU, I'm convinced. Friggin' weasels.

Well no shit.

If you've forgotten what the Bush Doctrine is really about, read this.

John Kerry, man of the people:

Sen. John F. Kerry sent 28 letters in behalf of a San Diego defense contractor who pleaded guilty last week to illegally funneling campaign contributions to the Massachusetts senator and four other congressmen.

Members of Congress often write letters supporting constituent businesses and favored projects. But as the Democratic presidential front-runner, Kerry has promoted himself as a candidate who has never been beholden to campaign contributors and special interests.

Between 1996 and 1999, Kerry participated in a letter-writing campaign to free up federal funds for a guided missile system that defense contractor Parthasarathi "Bob" Majumder was trying to build for U.S. warplanes.

Majumder's firm, Science and Applied Technology Inc., was paid more than $150 million to design and develop the program in the 1990s. But the program ran into some stumbling blocks at the Pentagon.

Kerry's letters were sent to fellow members of Congress ? and to the Pentagon ? while Majumder and his employees were donating money to the senator, court records show. During the three-year period, Kerry received about $25,000 from Majumder and his employees, according to Dwight L. Morris & Associates, which tracks campaign donations.

Rove must be licking his lips to let loose on Kerry. Let's start today.

The mad Mullahs in Iran are about to shut down Iranian bloggers. The bloggers have made known who their choice for President is:

?We are fighting these mad men here to make America safe as well, and the reason is so simple but I am not sure if you can understand, it is because when these mad Mullahs become defeated, Americans can also live in a safer world.

Please review your views again and quit this campaign and make us happy a little bit.?

Iran is on the verge of becoming the next Taliban (or Ayatollah Khomeini) led government and the young people in that country are up in arms. The CIA has probably been stoking this fire, but we have to make it an inferno.

A novel approach to a second amendment issue:

A Wilmette man who was cited for violating the village's handgun ban after he shot an intruder in his kitchen has invoked U.S. Supreme Court rulings on sodomy and pornography laws to argue that the gun ban violates his privacy rights, his lawyer said.

Hale DeMar's attorney has asked a Cook County circuit judge to dismiss his case and order the village to pay DeMar's legal bills.

"I want the court to say, `The Village of Wilmette cannot come into his home and take his gun under this ordinance. They are invading his right to privacy,'" said Robert Orman, DeMar's attorney.

Emphasis mine. This guy was protecting himself and his family. I'm curious to see where this goes.

Is the EU unilateral?

Some Swiss exports to the European Union are to be subject to new tariffs as of March 1 in a unilateral move by Brussels.

The Swiss government on Wednesday said it had been told of the new tax on re-exports by local firms before receiving confirmation from Brussels on the matter.

Tres simplisme.

PETA goes down again:

There will be no Veggieville in Oklahoma. The town of Slaughterville will keep its name after all.

The animal rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals recently tried to get the Cleveland County town to change its name from Slaughterville to Veggieville. But residents voted against it.

PETA says the name conjures up images of animals dying violently. Slaughterville officials say the town is named after grocer James Slaughter who ran a store there in the early 1900s.

Sucks for PETA.

Two NY Times headlines from today:

White House Under Fire for Projections on Jobs

Scientists Accuse White House of Distorting Facts
By JAMES GLANZ

Published: February 18, 2004


The Bush administration has deliberately and systematically distorted scientific fact in the service of policy goals on the environment, health, biomedical research and nuclear weaponry at home and abroad, a group of about 60 influential scientists, including 20 Nobel laureates, said in a statement issued today.

Those Nobel laureates have no axe to grind against Bush, do they? The simple, unfortunate fact, is that most people only read the headline. The Times is on a mission to get Kerry into office, or more correctly, get Bush out of office. So much for their ombudsman.

I love stories about criminals who get what's coming to them, even if they are French:

Strasbourg - Three robbers who bundled up the staff of a supermarket in eastern France on Wednesday found they had bitten off more than they could chew when the shop's butcher took to them with one of his meat cleavers, police said.

Two of the criminals were wounded in the counter-attack and were picked up by police a short time afterwards.

One of them was found at a hospital seeking urgent treatment for a nasty cut to the stomach, while the other was arrested at home while he tried to bandage a sliced arm.

If the French government had even one atom of the balls this guy showed, they would've supported us.

What would the National Org for Women say?

Last July, a 20-year-old thug named Stewart Pearson soaked a rag in toilet bowl cleanser and Ajax and used it to smother 17-year-old Tina Phan while she was sleeping in her Terra Linda, Calif., home. Tina gasped, trying to fend off Pearson, but he wielded a knife and overpowered her. Pearson raped and brutalized her. According to Phan, Pearson told her he had committed the same crime before and planned to do it again. Phan bravely persisted in pressing charges against Pearson. He initially denied raping Phan, but admitted guilt last fall.

Enter Rep. Woolsey. As first reported by the Marin Independent Journal, the outspoken feminist and anti-violence-preaching Democrat attempted to intervene in the case. She used her official stationery to send a letter to the local presiding judge in support of . . . the convicted rapist.

A Liberal Democrat supporting a convicted rapist who admitted his crime? As Malkin says, what if it was a Republican.

Why the hell doesn't a big paper hire Lileks?

But there was more going on in 1992 than a dead man's charge of infidelity. Perusing the front pages of 1992, you see 2003 in its larval stage. Saddam Hussein defies inspectors. U.N. officials threaten sanctions. Qusai claims the United Nations and United States are conspiring against Muslims. The entire fetid mess that would erupt 11 years later is open for all to see, but no one really cared. The other big issue besides the supposed affair was Bush 41's response to a rhetorical question about what he'd do if a rhetorical granddaughter had a rhetorical abortion. Foreign affairs? From the AP, this stinging quote:

"If they're such whizzes at foreign policy, why is Saddam Hussein thumbing his nose at the rest of the world?"

So said Al Gore. Back when he cared.

Read the whole thing.

I have no issues with homosexuals getting married in San Francisco, or anywhere for that matter. I tend to agree with Russ Williams on the issue. This is most definitely the time for Bush to mutter a few words about the sanctity of marriage, yada, yada...then drop it. It is a potentially damaging political issue for Bush, especially with crucial Independents, that can be easily avoided.

Update: I didn't see this but Bush had some comments:

WASHINGTON - President Bush (news - web sites) said Wednesday he was troubled by gay weddings in San Francisco and by legal decisions in Massachusetts that could clear the way for same-sex marriage. He declined to say whether he was close to backing a constitutional ban.


"I have watched carefully what's happening in San Francisco, where licenses were being issued, even though the law states otherwise," Bush said. "I have consistently stated that I'll support law to protect marriage between a man and a woman. Obviously these events are influencing my decision."


He didn't answer directly when asked whether he is any closer to endorsing a constitutional ban on same-sex marriages, as conservative groups say the White House has privately promised.

Drop it now and go on. Gay unions are inevitable.

Crash & Burn:

Howard Dean, bowing to the political realities of a 17-contest losing streak, ended his Democratic presidential campaign Wednesday but promised to keep his "campaign for change" alive while supporting his party's eventual nominee.

For now, the former Vermont governor did not endorse either of his top rivals, Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts or Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina. He called both men before his announcement to tell them his decision.

"I am no longer actively pursuing the presidency," Dean told a crowd of cheering, flag-waving supporters. "We will, however, continue to build a new organization using our enormous grass-roots network to continue the effort to transform the Democratic Party and to change our country."

See ya Doc, you were a bloggers dream.

Deserters are nothing more than wussies. My heart is pumping piss for this SOB and his wife.

Robert Mugabe is among the most despicable despots in the world and the UN and the French lick his boots. This is the type of thing the UN should be fighting, but alas they are too busy forming committees and running up parking tickets in New York. How did Zimbabwe go from hope:

Every man gotta right
To decide his own destiny
And in this judgment
There is no partiality

To where they are now?

Surprise:

An unnamed 30 year-old Greek man got a bit more of an eyeful that he bargained for when he was checking out an exhibitionist porn site. While happily surfing vids of couples getting it on, he happened upon one of his wife getting jiggy with another man.

Hubby, meanwhile, claimed that he found the site while trying to work out why his missus spent so much time online. The red-faced chap immediately notified the Greek police, demanding that the clip be removed to protect his wife’s privacy.

However, as the site was free to access, and registration demanded that visitors submit pornographic images of themselves, she was likely aware of the use to which her footage would have been put.

Sucks for you dude.

Here's a Hitchens piece from last week about the Dem field:

Party-mindedness is an enemy in itself, if only because it makes intelligent people act and think stupidly. But the belief in the candidate's "program" is hardly less of a trap. I hate to say it, but a successful contender for office can change his mind on, say, universal health care. What he cannot change is his personality. If he's a money-grubbing, narcissistic, and approval-seeking psycho at the start, he will not doff these qualities in the Oval Office. One ought therefore to begin by eliminating all those who are running for some kind of therapeutic or Oedipal reason. (This doesn't cost much: It would only have deprived us of Kennedy, Nixon, Hart, and Clinton in the recent past, and superior candidates from both parties were readily available in all those instances.)

...Dennis Kucinich is the sort of guy who we need in politics. He thinks long-term, and he doesn't think that in the short or long term it pays to trade principles for compromises. That's the attitude one wants in a president, of any party. This, however, is probably not the year for a man who basically believes in the downsizing of the United States.

Wesley Clark is a loss to the United States armed forces, and President Clinton and Defense Secretary Cohen ought to have been excoriated for firing him when they did, as well as for how they did it. Many Kosovars owe their lives to Clark, and the victory won in that war also helped to bring at least a semblance of democracy to Serbia. But there's something bizarre about a conceited man in uniform who now can't remember which regime-change he favored or why, which party he belongs to, or which "faith-based" community he espouses. He also has a weakness for half-cooked conspiracy stories and gets snappish when he's questioned on the last weird thing he said. Again, beware of those who run to pacify their internal demons.

...Nothing occurs to me when I think about Al Sharpton, but as a rule it's even worse to run as "Reverend" than it is as "General." We haven't sunk to the point where we need either. It's a relief to see how few black voters identify with a big-mouth shake-down artist, against the patronizing expectations of the media, whether it's an election year or not.

...I'm a single-issue person at present, and the single issue in case you are wondering is the tenacious and unapologetic defense of civilized societies against the intensifying menace of clerical barbarism. If in the smallest doubt about this, I would suggest a vote for the re-election of George Bush, precisely because he himself isn't prey to any doubt on the point. There are worse things than simple mindedness?pseudo-intellectuality, for example. Civil unions for homosexuals, or prescription-drug programs, are not even going to be in second or third place if we get this wrong.

The main issue is, and should be, the security of the country. Bush must make this point crystal clear when he ramps up his campaign. I have always thought that video of the planes hitting the towers and the towers collapsing should be shown often to remind us of what happened. This is not a Republican or Democrat issue, it's an American issue.

What candidate would the terrorists of the world prefer, Bush or Kerry?

Microsoft has taken histories most offending symbol, to sane people at least, off its font group with a new critical update:

Microsoft today released a critical update to remove "unacceptable symbols" from Bookshelf Symbol 7 font.

Just 58-odd years after the Red Army hoisted its standard on the roof of the Reichstag on 30 April 1945, effectively ending the European war, MS has finally flushed the swastika from its last hiding place - an otherwise innocent font shipped with Office 2003.

This has hardly been a Blitzkrieg on Microsoft's part. The company has been aware of the presence of the Mark of the Beast since December. At the time it promised an immediate utility to remove the characters. It also passed the buck onto the hapless Japanese (from whose happy land the font apparently originated), and launched a damage-prevention campaign by contacting Jewish organisations before the whole thing got out of hand.

Of course they also removed the worlds most offensive symbol to the insane and idiot types, the Star of David.

Via LGF.

Over at Newsweek they're conducting a poll asking the following question:

Among the most recent four First Ladies, who do you think came closest to doing the job the way it should be done?

Hillary's running away with it. Last I checked we didn't elect a first lady.

Lock up you daughters, Dave Barry is taking over the world:

Australian blogger Tim Blair has alleged in his blog that this blog's plan to migrate to a new site, with advertising, is actually a giant-corporate-media plot to steal his advertising. This blog is a big admirer of Mr. Blair, and wishes to reassure him, in all sincerity, that we will crush him like a bug, along with anybody else who dares to get in our way BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Thank you. That is all.

Barry calls out Lileks, Sullivan, and the all-powerful Barry Manilow, a mistake on the last one in my opinion. I tend to think that his world conquering may be successful at first but will peter out after a short run ala Howie Dean.

Run Ralph, RUN!

WASHINGTON - Oops, Ralph Nader's doing it again.

Almost exactly four years after he announced he would run for president, the former Green Party candidate is poised to declare that he is running again this year, this time as an independent.

Despite a vigorous effort on the part of the left to keep Nader from running and despite his insistence that he's still mulling over his decision, friends, associates and insiders say he is determined to run again.

"I think there's very little doubt," said Micah Sifry, the author of a book on third-party politics and a longtime Nader watcher. "I think he's going to run."

Nader has twice delayed saying whether he would be a candidate, but with the anniversary of his Feb. 21, 2000, announcement coming up, insiders expect the latest declaration next week.

I guess the Green Party people are just no fun. I understand that the DNC is buying Ralph a Corvair to criss-cross the US in.

Thanks Tim, lunch is on me.

The Sun (UK) tabloid has a picture of the woman Kerry supposedly had an affair with. I honestly don't think that an affair is a reason to totally discredit a man (or woman) and their work. I do think that if a man (or woman) can't adhere to the commitment of marriage and would lie to their spouse, they would not hesitate to lie to anyone. That is a serious character flaw. The girl must be thrilled they used her high school yearbook photo, I guess her drivers license picture wasn't available.

The Inquirer has nothing about the suspected Kerry dalliances, however their sister paper , the tabloid Daily News, reported it yesterday. The media knew of the rumors and it seems that no one wanted to explore it any further. Why?

Timothy Noah, of Slate infamy, waxes about the media and their reporting of sex scandals:

THE FOURTH Estate is not interested in petty gossip and unfounded rumors.

We report on matters of high policy pertaining to the public interest. Consequently, the rumor of a sexual liaison between a certain presidential candidate and a female intern with the Associated Press wouldn't ordinarily be the sort of thing we'd stoop to publish or broadcast.

Bullshit! Timothy Noah thrives on rumor and innuendo. It is a real issue when vetting a presidential candidate, especially the front-runner and expected winner. If the media had investigated Bill Clinton and the numerous charges against him, as Hitchens did in his great book, the public could have made a more informed decision about his candidacy. The fourth estate is currently slamming a sitting president for not being seen or producing anyone who had seen him 30 years ago during military service, doesn't Kerry deserve the same scrutiny. Let's look at some of Noah's other reasons:

2) It's an Internet phenomenon. The people sharing rumors about John Kerry's sex life by e-mail and on Weblogs constitute a vital new subculture - a new news medium, if you will, one that doesn't play by the old rules. This cries out for sociological analysis.

Bloggers and the internet, which Noah knows quite well, actually take time to investigate all reports on record and allow the public to form decisions. The media fears this since they've reported, or not reported, what they think is important for years. The blogosphere is a new player, trying to take the old veterans position.

5) It's a story about sexual harassment. See Paula Jones, Monica Lewinsky, et. al. In lieu of actual evidence, it's sufficient to find the accuser believable. That was Wall Street Journal editorialist Dorothy Rabinowitz's justification for running with the story of Juanita Broaddrick, who claimed that Bill Clinton raped her. Previously, Rabinowitz achieved renown by disbelieving stories of sexual impropriety.

The Broaddrick story was eminently believeable. Again I defer to Hitchens, who did what the mainstream press wouldn't, investigate the story and its merits.

8) It's a story about electability. Anything that's believed about Kerry, even if it's untrue, affects his electability. He is not a person. He is the public's perception of a person. A rumor is a component of that perception.

Yeah, like the perception put out that Bush was a coke-head.

9) It's a story about a Democrat, and all Democrats are scum. This justification only works for the conservative press.

10) Lighten up - it's a humor piece! Never trust anyone who tries to justify himself this way.

This is Noah's M.O. If anybody read past the first paragraph, I'd be surprised and this Noah knows full well. Everything said prior to the last line is all satire, huh Tim?

Krauthammer:

But I remain puzzled. Let's say that al Qaeda is so badly hurt that it cannot organize another Sept. 11 with 19 hijackers, four planes and years of training. Yet how much training, how much planning can it take to pack a few trucks with explosives and blow them up in crowded shopping malls? Considering the economic and psychological havoc that would wreak, why haven't they done it?

After all, Timothy McVeigh did not need a huge terror apparatus to kill 168 people in the heartland of America. It takes but a primitive level of organization to do that. It is hard to believe al Qaeda is not capable of doing the same. So why hasn't it?

The other explanation is that it is a matter of pride. Having pulled off the greatest terrorist attack in the history of the world, al Qaeda does not want to sully its reputation by resorting to the cheap car bomb.

Politically, the fact that we haven't been attacked again is a huge issue. Bush would be idiotic to use the issue but it proves that what he has done works. I believe that luck, the systematic dismantling of al-Qaeda, the Iraq war, luck, and more vigilance at home are the key factors.

Real busy, read Hitchens in the Journal.

I don't subscribe to Newsweek. I saw a friends Feb. 9, 2004 edition with this cover. Where were the pictures of Kerry, Edwards, Annan, Chirac, and Shroeder?

Berkeley is not taking care of the homeless.

The Quarter Meal, a venerable free dining service for the poor and homeless population of Berkeley, announced last week that rising costs will force it to reduce services as of March 1st, and probably close its doors by June, unless its financial problems can be resolved. The rising costs are rooted in precisely the ?progressive? well-intentioned ?reforms? which have been advocated by the left all over America, but implemented most extensively in Berkeley.

For starters, there is the matter of the ?living wage? legislation passed by Berkeley, and mandatory for anyone contracting with the City of Berkeley, including the Quarter Meal?s parent organization, the Berkeley Food and Housing Project. Every job, you see, should pay enough to support a family. The generous escalator clause for inflation, built into Berkeley?s living wage law, is forcing the Quarter Meal to pay $10.76 an hour to its lowest-paid employees.

Then there is California?s notorious Workers Compensation system, which has seen costs skyrocket several hundred percent over the past few years, making California by far the most expensive state in the nation for workers comp. Lawyers specializing in work-based injuries, like Barbara Boxer?s husband, have prospered, and workers with vague backaches and other injuries get paid better than in other states, but everybody else has to pay, nonprofits included.

Finally health insurance costs have skyrocketed. Not only have overall medical costs risen, but there are a lot of ?extras? such as coverage for ?domestic partners? and ?mental health? problems, which don?t come cheap. Berkeley?s vast industry of therapists and counselors is always coming up with new mental and emotional ailments which need treatment, and those bills do have a way of adding up.

California is, as I've commented on before, immensely over-regulated. The "People Republic of Northern California" is hurting Cali in infinite ways. Also this article about Thomas Friedman is excellent.

Liberal talk radio delves into Indymedia territory:

Every weekday, from three in the afternoon until seven in the evening, Randi Rhodes delivers her brief against George W. Bush. Much of it is standard anti-Bush fare: He stole the 2000 election, he wrecked the economy, he led the nation into a disastrous war under dishonest pretenses. But sometimes Rhodes takes her critique into less familiar territory. Citing a book titled George Bush: The Unauthorized Biography, Rhodes alleges that in the 1940s Prescott Bush, the president's grandfather, sold raw materials to the Third Reich. And then there are the Bushes' business ties to the bin Ladens, which, Rhodes says, go back decades and even involve the president himself, who as a young oilman in Texas was partners with Salem bin Laden, Osama's older brother. Indeed, Rhodes contends that it is the Bush-bin Laden relationship--not an anti-American jihad--that accounts for the September 11 attacks. According to Rhodes, Osama bin Laden, disgusted with the corruption of his own family and the Saudi royals, decided to seek revenge against their most prominent American partners: the Bushes. Bin Laden, in other words, doesn't want to destroy the United States; he just wants to destroy Bush.

This is the drivel they use as an example of the "THE COMING RISE OF LIBERAL TALK RADIO". Pretty damn pathetic.

John Kerry, Man of the People II:

Back when federal lawmakers legally could be paid for speaking to outside groups, John Kerry collected more than $120,000 in fees from interests as diverse as big oil, tobacco, the liquor lobby and unions, records show.

Between 1985 and 1990, Kerry's first five years in the Senate from Massachusetts, he pocketed annual amounts slightly under the limits for speaking fees set by Congress. Unlike many colleagues, he donated a speaking fee to charity only once, according to annual financial disclosure reports reviewed by The Associated Press.

The cheap bastard only contributed minimal amounts to charity, unlike other speakers:

Kerry, now the front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination, said he didn't learn about the drug connection to the company or its executives, who also gave him political donations, until The Boston Globe informed him of it in 1996. He donated several thousand dollars to charities to make amends.

Kerry's ethics reports show he made more than 90 paid speeches between 1985, when he first took office, and 1990, when Congress began the move to end honoraria.

The senator's campaign acknowledged Sunday that he accepted the speaking fees, but said he also gave several speeches a year for free.

"He gave these speeches to address what he saw as the important issues at the time such as the growing national deficit," spokeswoman Stephanie Cutter said. "In compliance with the law, he accepted small speaking fees from some of the groups he spoke to, and, in at least one case, donated that money to charity."

At the time Kerry could accept speaking fees, senators were forced to abide by annual limits, which ranged from $26,568 to $35,800.

A number of veteran lawmakers often collected more than $100,000 in a single year but had to give everything over the limit to charity. For instance, former House Ways and Means committee chairman Dan Rostenskowski once donated $155,000 of his speaking fees in one year to charity.

And Sen. John Heinz, R-Pennsylvania, the late husband of Kerry's wife, Teresa, donated all $12,000 in speaking fees he made in 1986.

Kerry reported donating a speaking fee to charity only once, when he was paid $2,000 in 1988 to speak to the RJR Nabisco tobacco and food conglomerate, his reports state.

The Populist persona is going to kill his campaign once the Bush/Rove machine gets revved up.

I'm glad Bush is finally hammering the Dems on the tax cut issue:

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (AP) - His voice rising to a shout, President Bush lashed out at Democratic rivals who want to roll back his tax cuts as he defended his economic priorities Monday in a presidential primary state where his record has been harshly criticized.

"There are some in Washington that are going to say, 'Let's not make the tax cuts permanent.' That means he's going to raise your taxes," Bush said at a factory. "When you hear people say, 'We're not going to make this permanent,' that means tax increase."

The Democrats running for president say they would repeal all or portions of Bush's tax cuts, and Bush seemed to step more forcefully into his re-election campaign as he defended his tax policies. Some of the cuts are to expire next year, including those for married couples, and Bush is asking that Congress make them permanent.

If this comes up for a vote this year, Bush puts Kerry and Edwards (if he's still around), in a bad spot. If Kerry votes to repeal the cuts, he'll get pounded as a tax and spend liberal, if he votes for it, the Left will slam him for cowtailing. Bush has been ahead of the donkeys on alot of issues and with a strong push in congress can get this to the floor.

While I didn't watch Bush being interviewed by Tim Russert-- I was busy becoming a godfather to beautiful Amanda Virginia--I did read the transcript. Listening to talk radio, you got the feeling that Republicans were disappointed. Rush railed about putting the CINC with Russert as bad. I disagree, Bush is what he is, a poor public speaker when he is answering questions. He gets the point across, but not in a Clinton-like way. This to me is a good thing. Most folks can't answer fifty questions in a row, let alone fifty questions that will be dissected upside down and sideways. Relax people, one of the things that appeals to Americans about Bush is his down-to-earth qualities. By the way, I like Russert. The candidates on the Dem side have all been grilled by him and I'm glad Bush sat down and talked. Russert asks great questions but seemed to be respectful of the Office of President. Peggy Noonan sums it up:

President Bush's interview on "Meet the Press" seems to me so much a big-story-in-the-making that I wanted to weigh in with some thoughts. I am one of those who feel his performance was not impressive.

It was an important interview. The president has been taking a beating for two months now--two months of the nonstop commercial for the Democratic Party that is the Democratic primaries, and then the Kay report. And so people watched when he decided to come forward in a high stakes interview with Tim Russert, the tough interviewer who's an equal-opportunity griller of Democrats. He has heroic concentration and a face like a fist. His interviews are Beltway events.

But certain facts of the interview were favorable to the president. Normally it's mano a mano at Mr. Russert's interview table in the big, cold studio. But this interview was in the Oval Office, on the president's home ground, in front of the big desk. Normally it's live, which would be unnerving for a normal person and is challenging for politicians. Live always raises the stakes.

...George W. Bush is not good at talking points. You can see when he's pressed on a question. Mr. Russert asks, why don't you remove George Tenet? And Mr. Bush blinks, and I think I know what is happening in his mind. He's thinking: Go through history of intelligence failures. No, start with endorsement of George so I don't forget it and cause a big story. No, point out intelligence didn't work under Clinton. Mention that part of the Kay report that I keep waiting for people to mention.

He knows he has to hit every point smoothly, but self-consciousness keeps him from smoothness. In real life, in the office, Mr. Bush is not self-conscious. Nor was Mr. Reagan

John Kerry, man of the people:

In the Senate, his record of his constituent services has been lackluster, and most of his colleagues, despite their public support, are hard-pressed to list an accomplishment. Just last fall, a Boston TV reporter ambushed three congressmen with the question, name something John Kerry has accomplished in Congress. After a few nervous giggles, two could think of nothing, and a third mentioned a baseball field, and then misidentified Kerry as "Sen. Kennedy."

Many of his constituents see him in person only when he is cutting them in line - at an airport, a clam shack or the Registry of Motor Vehicles. One talk-show caller a few weeks back recalled standing behind a police barricade in 2002 as the Rolling Stones played the Orpheum Theater, a short limousine ride from Kerry's Louisburg Square mansion.

The caller, Jay, said he began heckling Kerry and his wife as they attempted to enter the theater. Finally, he said, the senator turned to him and asked him the eternal question.

"Do you know who I am?"

"Yeah," said Jay. "You're a gold-digger."

John Kerry. First he looks at the purse.

Kerry's fight against lobbyists and "the Man" is going to cost him dearly. Americans have a very acute "BS detector" and will figure this guy out once they start paying attention.

This is pretty funny. There's nothing worse than being a front-runner for President, just ask Dean.

More on the BBC:

The ranks of the stricken were not confined to the emoting British elite, at least if the BBC is to be believed. Its New York correspondent reported that he was overwhelmed at the outpouring of sympathy he had found on the streets of Manhattan.

"'Good luck,' said a colleague from a friendly U.S. network, squeezing my arm with a look of pity and concern in her eyes." This lonely but brave reporter went on to add, with the pure objectivity and balance for which the BBC is so renowned: "Arch skeptics here see it as just another victory for the ideology that drives the war on terror." He presumably meant to insert a hyphen before the word "skeptics," though the omission perhaps gave the statement its truer meaning.

The Hutton Report was, to read the British media, the Night of the Long Knives, the bonfire of the vanities, and the Cultural Revolution all rolled into one hideous assault on cherished press liberty.

If you live in the fantasy world of self-adulation and preening pomposity of high-powered liberal journalists, I suppose the aftermath of the Hutton Report might seem like that. But for those who have to toil in the less sensational world of reality, the unassuming 72-year-old peer may just have done the world one of the greatest services in the history of journalism and public broadcasting.

The average American couldn't care any less about the BBC, Gilligan, any other partisan hack at the Beeb. Hell, most Americans would have a hard time putting a name to Dick Cheney's picture. The Brit media beleives that the world is behind them, sorry chaps, the world doesn't give a damn.

...THE KELLY STORY was not an isolated incident. It was merely the most infamous example of a left-liberal bias that refracts all news coverage through the prism of the BBC's own distinctive worldview.

The BBC's coverage of the Iraq war itself marked a new low point in the history of the self-loathing British prestige-media's capacity to side with the nation's enemies.

Its Middle East coverage is notoriously one-sided. Its pro-Palestinian bias is so marked that recently the London bureau chief of the Jerusalem Post refused to take part in any more BBC news programs because he believed the corporation was actually fomenting anti-Semitism. If anti-Americanism is on the rise in the world, the BBC can take a fair share of the credit; much of its U.S. coverage depicts a cartoonish image of a nation of obese, Bible-wielding halfwits, blissfully dedicated to shooting or suing each other.

Its suppositions are recognizable as those of self-appointed liberal elites everywhere: American power is bad; European multilateralism is good; organized religion is a weird vestige of unenlightened barbarism; atheism is rational man's highest intellectual achievement; Israel (especially Ariel Sharon) is evil; Palestinians (especially Yasser Arafat) are innocent victims; business is essentially corrupt, or at best simply boring; poverty is the result of government failure; economic success is the product of exploitation or crookedness. And so on.

A great summary of the events that led us to where we are now. The Brits who own TV's are required, by law, to pay $200 per year to support the BBC. They will be prosecuted if they don't fork over the required pounds.

This is interesting, check out this chart which shows a good showing for Bush based on several factors. Of course it's way too early to even fathom a guess, but the game of politics is always fun.

Via Stephen Green

Seal the border, NOW!

ZAPOPAN, Mexico - The Mexican crowd hooted "The Star-Spangled Banner." It booed U.S. goals. It chanted "Osama! Osama! Osama!" as U.S. players left the field with a 2-0 victory.

And that was in a game against Canada on Thursday before just 1,500 people.

A game Tuesday in neighboring Guadalajara will determine whether the U.S. under-23 soccer team heads to the Athens Games.

When I lived in San Diego, they broadcast the Oscar de la Hoya Vs. Julio Cesar Chavez fight on closed circuit at the San Diego Sports Arena. The crowd was strongly behind Chavez, who at that time was a Mexican hero. Oscar was considered a sell-out because he fought for the US (and won) in the Olympics. The mostly Mexican and Mexican-American crowd booed the national anthem relentlessly. That's when I decided that immigration from our south must be curtailed.

How do we know that the Democrats will politicize the Iraq War during the general election? Because to them, everything, including war, is political:

Some top Clinton administration officials wanted to end the Kosovo war abruptly in the summer of 1999, at almost any cost, because the presidential campaign of then-Vice President Al Gore was about to begin, former NATO commander Gen. Wesley K. Clark says in his official papers.

"There were those in the White House who said, 'Hey, look, you gotta finish the bombing before the Fourth of July weekend. That's the start of the next presidential campaign season, so stop it. It doesn't matter what you do, just turn it off. You don't have to win this thing, let it lie,' " Clark said in a January 2000 interview with NATO's official historian, four months before leaving the post of supreme allied commander Europe.

...A former senior administration official, however, said Clark might have been referring to a Washington meeting of top policymakers in late spring at which Gore allegedly expressed concern that the war might interfere with his campaign. Gore formally announced his candidacy one week after the war ended, on June 16, 1999.

Gore, through a spokesman, declined to comment directly. Leon Feurth, his national security adviser at the time, said that politics were not discussed at White House national security meetings, and that while Gore opposed preparing for a ground war, he supported continuing the bombing as long as necessary to win. Gore "was prepared to take a political hit" on such issues, Feurth said.

Are these the people we want to lead us in the War on Terror? Who cut and run for political purposes? God, I hope not. Furthermore, what is up with Clark constantly not remembering or knowing things he was directly invloved in?

Update: Clark, Clintonian fashion, denies it:

Clark did not say he was misquoted. Rather, he called the report ``a stream-of-conscious dictation'' with a historian. ``I had to assemble all of my memory and think about what had actually happened. It was such a complex period of time,'' Clark said.

He said he was never given any deadline to end the war and there was no desire by the White House to end bombing in Kosovo.

In a January 2000 interview, Clark told NATO's official historian, ``There were those in the White House who said, 'Hey, look, you gotta finish the bombing before the Fourth of July weekend. That's the start of the next presidential campaign season, so stop it. It doesn't matter what you do, just turn it off. You don't have to win this thing, let it lie.'''

We don't want to upset Bubba now, do we Wes? Bubba upset Hillary though.

Peggy Noonan on the Superbowl (TM) fiasco and the current state of culture:

For a while after 9/11 we seemed to sober up. There seemed a new seriousness. It wasn't heavy and somber, there was a lot of humor and wit, but we were perhaps a little chastened, a little more mature. Sept. 11 was such a shock to the national system that after it the culture's long slide into narcissistic netherworlds seemed momentarily stopped, or at least slowed. But it's picked up again.

Last Sunday night I joined some friends at a Texas barbecue restaurant in Manhattan. We were a football-free zone, marking the birthday of a friend from San Antonio. We had a great time eating what Texans call barbecue and we call brisket. I got home about 9 p.m. and put on the television. It looked like a good game. I logged on to Drudge, and saw the big picture of Justin Timberlake, whose expression could have been described as evil if his face had more intelligence, turned toward Janet Jackson, whose famous breast was exposed to show the famous nipple decorated by the famous Goth-looking metal sunburst.

Oh no, I thought. We're back to the pre-9/11 freak show.

I'm glad Peggty is back.

What is the definition of a hero? This is.

Bush is to name John McCain to the panel inquiring about the intelligence failures:

WASHINGTON - President Bush (news - web sites) will name Sen. John McCain to a commission that will investigate Iraq (news - web sites) intelligence failures, an administration official said Thursday.

Bush will formally create the nine-member panel on Friday with an executive order. The bipartisan commission will be directed to deliver its findings next year, which means they will come in after the November presidential elections.

I'm a big fan of McCain and believe that he will do what is right with respect to avoiding politics and straightening out our intelligence agencies.

Universal Healthcare, AKA Socialized Medicine, practiced in parts of Europe and Canada, as well as that utopia known as Cuba, is the dream of Leftists. They wish for the US to have "a heelthcare system as great as Canada or Britain. I believe they may want to rethink that:

British surgeons are endangering patients by using paper clips to close wounds and tongue depressors as splints for babies, a government agency said Tuesday.
The Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency said it had uncovered an increasing trend for doctors to use medical devices in ways they were not meant to be used, and also "adapt nonmedical products for clinical purposes."

Such misuse can put patients' health at serious risk, it said.

"For example, use of tongue depressors in a neonatal intensive care unit as limb splints led to two deaths and one amputation because of fungal infection," the agency said.

Surgeons were closing wounds with paper clips and urinary catheters. Others were using wooden clothes pegs to clip devices that measure the pulse on to patients' earlobes, or using fake fingernails to fix cuts on the nail bed.

That's my idea of good medicine. If they added some leeches it would be perfect. That's where we'd be with universal healthcare if Hillary had been successful. It'd be cheaper though.