It’s too hard on my blood pressure

to try to listen to an entire speech by any Demo-gogue, but I did hear enough of Kerry's last night to inspire a few thoughts.  There’s a recurrent theme that I find troubling about the basic Democrat approach to governing, and the following passage gives one little illustration of it.  Other examples abound, so don’t try to tell me I’m reading too much into this one comment.  (Oh, and thanks to Dave Hogberg and the Spectator for providing the exact wording.)  

Remember the hours after Sept. 11, when we came together as one to answer the attack against our homeland. We drew strength when our firefighters ran up the stairs and risked their lives, so that others might live. When rescuers rushed into smoke and fire at the Pentagon. When the men and women of Flight 93 sacrificed themselves to save our nation's Capitol. When flags were hanging from front porches all across America, and strangers became friends. It was the worst day we have ever seen, but it brought out the best in all of us.

 
My reading of the relevant portion of the 9-11 report just released does not indicate to me that the passengers on Flight 93 intended to sacrifice themselves to save others as the line I emphasized above says.  They were fighting to save their lives.  Yes, I’m sure it was part of their thinking that they could not let the terrorists carry out their sick mission, but they knew they would die if they did nothing, and they wanted to live.  They knew no one else could help them and it was up to them.  This is traditional American thinking at its best – make individual decisions in one’s own self-interest and it also turns out to be the best for the community as a whole. 

In community-oriented thinking, the value to the individual is ignored, and only the benefit to others is important.  Kerry’s use of the words “sacrificed themselves” gives me this mental picture that a plane load of good Kerry-community citizens would be bargaining with the terrorists, “If we all kill ourselves, will you promise not to fly the plane into any buildings?”  That would be not only unrealistic, it would be un-American.  And that’s the expectation I would have of a Kerry administration:  unrealistic and un-American.

'This Land' Not a Parody?

Kris has a post up on the meaning of "fair use" doctrine, parody vs. satire, and threatened legal action against JibJab, the outfit which brought laughing tears to the eyes of tens of thousands with their version of "This Land" as performed by "George Bush" and "John Kerry".

Interesting stuff.

Re: Tripping Down Memory Lane

Yes, Don, I believe that Compare and Contrast from October 29 is probably my favorite post out of all 600 of them.

Appropos of Annie Jacobson & Terrorism Warnings

Blogger is pissing me off today.  This is the third time I've tried to post this.  It gets shorter every time.  I only have the patience for bullets:

1. The FBI issued a terrorist warning for the West Coast.
2. Law enforcement is downplaying the credibility of Michael Wagner. (Is there any connection?).
3. Wagner was caught near Council Bluffs with a 9mm handgun, a night scoped rifle, bullet proof vest, flight manuals, and arabic documents.
4. Wagner [shock] is a muslim convert.
5. Wagner and his "wife" were caught discussing on the trooper's car camera while their car was being search whether they should have just killed the troopers to get away.
6. Once caught Wagner offered up information on alleged al Queda operations in San Diego.

No word from law enforcement as to why his credibility should be doubted.  Apparently his parents claim he is a pacifist.  Well that's a relief.  He certainly acted like one.   I knew a Linda McGuire once, I suspect she and his wife are not the same person for a number of reasons.

I pray he's full of crap but when are LEO's going to realize that, post 9/11, American's cannot be satisfied with baseless reassurances.  Give us the facts.  We can handle it.

In better news the Paks caught some high level terrorist scumbag.  He appears to be a perfect candidate for the inaugural application of the Chad Doctrine.

Tripping Down Memory Lane

 Following up on Jeff’s suggestion earlier (he is our evil blogmaster, after all) I went back to the early days to see if I could find any evidence of how prescient we are on issues that are still with us.  What do you know?  The more things change…

August 1, 2003
The Des Moines Register editorial today is extolling the virtues of the Grow Iowa Values Fund because money from that fund is being used help lure Wells Fargo into expanding operations here in the Des Moines metro area. I suppose that is all well and good, as far it goes. But I can't help but wonder, if our business tax rates were lower, would we even need to create the Values Fund.

August 6, 2003
Slow news day out there. The big news is Kobe Bryant's court appearance in Colorado. Frankly, that whole mess just bores me. 

August 7, 2003
Some of you may have seen the Des Moines Register's unsigned editorial yesterday advocating a second look at the "fiscally conservative" Howard Dean. The false consciousness necessary for the Prairie Pravda to reach this conclusion must be similar to the French's delusion that they are still a world power deserving of a seat on the security council.

 
August 13, 2003
Fox News is running a story today echoing my thoughts from a post last week about the dangers McCain-Feingold campaign finance laws posed to the GOP. My post specifically concerned the $10 million dollars George Soros was kicking in to help the Dems. But I predicted that left-wing organizations would be jumping on that bandwagon. Fox is confirming my suspicions.

  
September 9, 2003
There are a lot of liberals, some conservatives, and a few in the media who complain that we need to pay more attention to Saudi Arabia. Or we need to focus on North Korea. I think a lot of that misses the boat. Iran is going to be one of the next great battlegrounds in the War on Terror.

And, if you follow a link in the post, you find this nugget.
As Dan's Iran Report noted recently, there are reports Iran has chosen Muqtada al-Sadr to lead the Iraqi Hezbollah.
It’s Mookie!

October 01, 2003
And the Bush administration has already committed one critical error. It was the President’s admission that the infamous sixteen words should not have been in the State of the Union Address that opened the door to this whole mess. 
...There is a firm rule to remember here – Never Apologize. Democrats can apologize; everyone knows they are sorry. But if a Republican does, it sounds like an admission of guilt. (Just ask Trent Lott.)

October 29, 2003
Compare and Contrast
…Last Hugged His Momma:
Congressmen: When she appeared in a television ad talking about Medicare
Soldiers and Marines: Before getting on a troop transport for the Persian Gulf.
Ah, hell, I could go on and on. You get the point. Our young people overseas are really freaking fighting, for our lives, their lives, and bigger ideals than every two-bit politician who ever "fought" for the right to reach into the pork barrel.


 

Photo of the Day

This is like something out of a cartoon. This building in Manilla, Philippines just fell over sideways, in one chunk, like a tottering drunk.

It's structural integrity was stronger than its attachment to the ground. How can that happen?

It Was the Best of Times; It Was the Worst of Times

The year was 2003. The day, July 29th. It was a Tuesday. Some would tell you that it was 365 days ago. They'd be wrong. It was longer. For nothing as momentous and important as the Tusk and Talon could have reached the heights it has in just 365 days. No, it takes 366 days to reach this sort of excellence. It was, afterall, a Leap Year.

But enough of the high-minded, flowery rhetoric. Let us take a look back to the primordial days of this blog.

Here's my first post, which is, not coincidentally, the very first post.

Here's Chad's first post (making fun of my early posts).

Here's Don's first post.

Here's my first semi-rant.

Don and Chad, why don't all y'all put up links to any of your favorite posts from the past year.

Celebrating Our First Year of Blogging

Today, July 29th, is our one year anniversary. Yea! (Insert sound of those little party noise makers.)

I thought that we needed a new look, so in celebration, I've reskinned the blog with a new template.

Anyway, thanks to those of you who stop by. I frequently find it amazing that we have regular readers. It thrills me to no end whenever I see one of our posts linked or when people say that they saw something interesting here. Truly cool.

RE: Fair & Balanced

Below is the text of my comment to Yin's post:

Just talking about editorial stance, you can count the conservative papers on one hand and the conservative newschannel on one finger.

Fox has a predominantly conservative lineup in its editorialists. Greta Van Sustren and Alan Colmes being two big exceptions. But if you watch their news (not O'Reilly or Hannity), you will see a massive difference in fairness compared with CNN and MSNBC.

The NYT constantly and consistently claims objectivity and fairness in its news reporting and denies the existence of a liberal media. Yet they mention Joe Wilson's accusation that Bush lied ten times as often and more prominently than the revelation that Joe Wilson was the liar.
It's fine for a newspaper or channel to have an editorial stance but it should not affect their presentation of the news. CNN & the NYT are much more guilty of editorial bleed through than Fox, the Wash Times or the WSJ and it's obvious to anyone who fairly examines the issue, including, apparently Daniel Okrent.

Fair and Balanced?

 Yin Blog takes up the concession by NYTimes ombudsman Daniel Okrent that the Times is liberal, which included this gem, “Start with the editorial page, so thoroughly saturated in liberal theology that when it occasionally strays from that point of view the shocked yelps from the left overwhelm even the ceaseless rumble of disapproval from the right.”  But this doesn’t seem to bother Yin as much as the Fox News claim to be fair and balanced. 

Despite Fox's bizarre moniker ("fair and balanced, we report, you decide"), I don't think too many people really believe that Fox believes itself to be fair and balanced. It's almost as if Fox is winking at you when it repeats that slogan.

In saying this, Yin echoes the BigMedia/Left wing dogma that FNC is illegitimate, best expressed by John Carroll of the LATimes when he referred to Fox as “pseudo-journalists”.  The implication is that “Fair and Balanced” is a cynical marketing tool rather than an operating principle. 
Now, I’ll admit that FNC leans right, (it is “Hannity and Colmes”, after all, not “Colmes and Hannity”), and I will agree that Rupert Murdoch saw an unmet need in the way news was being presented.  This is how fortunes are made – by discovering latent demand for a product or service and meeting that demand.  (God bless America.) 
But what, precisely, is the market niche that Fox is responding to?  Is it a market for “conservative” news, or for “fair and balanced” news?  If Fox were in the business of presenting “news by and for conservatives”, then it would emphasize stories and events that help the Right and it would spike any stories that make conservatives and/or the Bush administration uncomfortable, right?  Well, I’m here to tell you that Fox showed the Abu Ghraib pictures ad nauseum, just like the other networks.  They covered Joe Wilson calling Bush a liar and speculated on who outed his wife.  Where FNC differed from its competitors was that it did not immediately condemn the administration.
I submit to you that this is where FNC is unique – that it is practically alone in consistently recognizing that there are at least two sides to every issue.  In his column, Okrent  had this to say about talking up just one side: (emphasis mine)

But for those who also believe the news pages cannot retain their credibility unless all aspects of an issue are subject to robust examination, it's disappointing to see The Times present the social and cultural aspects of same-sex marriage in a tone that approaches cheerleading.

He went on to describe the number of stories the Times printed in favor of gay marriage to the exclusion of any other point of view.  This then, is what makes the NYTimes unfair and unbalanced.  Not that it has a bias in favor of one side of the issue, but that it only presents that one side. 
Fox may well have a right-ward bias, but those who would diminish its claim to be fair and balanced need to find examples of its failure to cover the other side.  Of course to do that, a person might actually have to watch Fox for a while and risk learning that there’s a whole lot of news out there he or she hadn’t been hearing about. 

Casino to West Des Moines?

Shunned by Des Moines, Gary Kirke is now talking about building his floating casino in West Des Moines. (It's in the paper version of the Register. I'd add a link to the online version of the Register, but I can't get itse web page to load right now.) Which puts Prarie Meadows in a bit of a spot. Prarie Meadows and the county can attempt to stop this as well, but eventually, he'll find a town willing to accept the casino.

Chad suggests that it'll eventually get done in the parts of Urbandale or West Des Moines that cross into Dallas County, or possibly in Waukee. Afterall, Dallas County has no real reason to support Prarie Meadows. Dallas County isn't on the hook for the new arena.

Ann Coulter's Spiked Column

In fit of pique, Ann has posted the column USA Today spiked on her website.  While potentially a CLM (career limiting move), the column is a real stemwinder.  The first two paragraps are as follows:

Here at the Spawn of Satan convention in Boston, conservatives are deploying a series of covert signals to identify one another, much like gay men do. My allies are the ones wearing crosses or American flags. The people sporting shirts emblazened with the "F-word" are my opponents.  Also, as always, the pretty girls and cops are on my side, most of them barely able to conceal their eye-rolling. 

Democrats are constantly suing and slandering police as violent, fascist racists -- with the exception of Boston's police, who'll be lauded as national heroes right up until the Democrats pack up and leave town on Friday, whereupon they'll revert to their natural state of being fascist, racist pigs.

She has a gift for invective that sometimes outweighs her gift of discretion.  At least you know where she stands.

Schizoid Register

David Hogberg takes a look at the schizoid nature of the Register's rather schizoid take on Social Security. When it comes to reforming it, there's no reason because it's rock solid. When it comes to depending up it, well, only a fool would do that.

A Casino for Des Moines?

State 29 is takes an inciteful look at the maneuvering taking place as Des Moines considers whether or not to allow a casino. And if allowed, where should it be built and who should run it?

The big factor driving the posturing is that Prarie Meadows is suppose to be providing money to the county to help pay the bonds on the Iowa Events Center. Now that Prarie Meadows has some real gaming, it isn't really interested in competing with another casino. The county isn't really interested in it competing with another casino, either because of the aforementioned bonds on the Event Center. However, the City of Des Moines doesn't get money from Prarie Meadows, and isn't on the hook for the Events Center, so it doesn't give two strokes about Prarie Meadows' profitability. Hence, we get Prarie Meadows offering a bribe to Des Moines to get Des Moines to take a pass on adding a new casino.

Now, for me, this demonstrates the folly of the government getting involved in financing new "attractions". The Vision Iowa program has been hailed as a monumental success, but what it's really doing is saddling the taxpayers with a set of boondoggles that will almost certainly be money-losers and, accordingly, tax-dollar sinkholes, long into the future. Creating new government budget pressures doesn't do a darn thing to help this state become more competive.

Now, I've got a lot of libertarianism in my intellectual makeup. So, as a thought exercise, I'm not opposed to gambling. I'm not necessarily opposed to having a casino in Des Moines. However, I'm also not so naive as to believe that it's a cure all. Far from it. Developers do not swarm to casinos. They haven't really swarmed to any of the many gambling friendly locales in the U.S. (With the possible exception of Las Vegas, where gambling essentially created a city in the desert.) The river cities in Iowa were promised all sorts of development when river boat gambling was initiated. Most of it didn't happen. The boats are still there, but the new hotels, shops, and eateries never really materialized. There is little reason to believe that it will do much to Des Moines. The most likely outcome is that the Lakeside Casino Resort in Oceola will shut down. That's about the extent of the affect.

Stick to Your Guns Legislature

Gov. Vilsack has said he is compromising as much as he can on the impass that has prevented his boondoggle Iowa Values Fund from going back into effect after it was thrown out by the Iowa Supreme Court several weeks ago.

State House Majority Leader Christopher Rants indicates that he is wary of Vilsack's proposal because it does not actually give any concessions. The Governor has just promised to set up some boards or commissions to look into making changes to the work comp and punitive damage issues.

Mr. Rants should be wary of the Governor, and frankly, he shouldn't give up any ground at all. Here's why.

The issue originally came to a head when Vilsack, in order to get the half-billion dollar Iowa Values Fund established, agreed to sign and bills with not only the Values Fund but also bills containing regulatory changes to worker's compensation rules and rules limiting lawsuit punitive damage awards. The legislature, fearing that they couldn't trust Vilsack, sent the bills to him in one omnibus bill rather than in separate bills. Vilsack responded by proving the legislature had been correct to smell a rat; he tried to line-item veto the regulatory changes to workers comp and quarter-million dollar punitive damages cap.

The legislature took him to court, where they eventually sort of won. Well, at least they didn't lose. The legislature had thought that the Supreme Court would follow existing precedent and reinstate the items line-item vetoed, enacting the regulatory changes. The Supreme Court didn't follow precedent and just tossed the whole bill out, Iowa Values Fund and all.

So, now, the legislature and the governor need to reach an agreement, again. From my perspective, the legislature should stick to its guns and demand every last dot and squiggle of their original regulatory proposal. Moreover, they should demand extra stuff now. They are in the driver's seat.

1.) Vilsack needs the legislature more than the legislature needs the governor. The Iowa Values Fund is his baby. He's proud of it and he brags about it. The fact that it isn't in business is an embarrassment to him. However, it isn't an embarrassment to the legislature. The majority never wanted it and shouldn't feel any need to reinstate it. It's too late to get the regulatory changes in effect for this year, anyway, so unless you can get the whole ball of wax, or even more, just hold out until you can just start fresh next year.

2.) Vilsack has already shown that he will go back on his word. He already stabbed the legislature in the back once. Why trust him this time? They've got no reason to, go back to item one.

3.) The legislature is diffuse. It's hard to place blame on any one individual it it for failing to get a the deal done. On the other hand, Vilsack is one person. It's easy to point the finger at him.

4.) But I don't think that the electorate will blame anyone. The voters aren't clamoring for this. It doesn't affect basic services like street lights or police patrols. It isn't a shiny new service like health care or prescription drugs. The general population won't notice it if this doesn't go into effect.

All in all, there is no reason for the legislature to compromise one iota. The legislature isn't likely to pay a price for thwarting the governor. They have no reason to trust him anyway. And, most importantly, the regulatory changes might actually make Iowa a better place to do business, which is the real key to attracting new businesses.

Stick to your guns, legislature. Stick to your guns.

Des Moines River Walk

They've broken ground on the Principle River Walk here in Des Moines. Eventually the 1.2 mile path will join both sides of the Des Moines River downtown via a couple of pedestrian bridges across the river to the path around Gray's Lake as well as to a skating rink/water feature, perhaps a canoe launch and outdoor rock climbing wall, and other downtown attractions.

I'm on record as thinking this is a pretty cool thing, primarily because Principle is putting up such a large chunk of the money for it. (Not nearly all of it, mind you, but a fair chunk nonetheless.)

By the time the River Walk is completed in 2007 or 2008, downtown Des Moines should be a fairly lively and interesting place.

Strike up the band update

Malkin updated the post identified below.  There is some question whether they had overstayed.  Hopefully we'll get some answers to that question but I've got my doubts considering the complete lack of communication from our security apparati.

Back to the Band

Well,  Michelle Malkin has apparently found out that the Syrian band members on Annie Jacobson's Flight 327 were traveling on EXPIRED VISAS!  Wow. 

I'm a big open borders guy.  Anyone without a criminal record and who demonstrates an intent to learn english and become a citizen should be allowed to come to America for that purpose.  I'm also a big law enforcement guy.  I don't like our current immigration scheme but dammit, it's the law so let's deport the illegals and let them apply for reentry on equal footing.  The last non-felon out of Mexico can turn out the light. 

You would think our government would give Syrian, Lebanese, Egyption, and Saudi Arabian passports a pretty high level of scrutiny.  These guys should have been put on the next plane to their country of origin, not allowed to continue to their gig and back to God knows where.  I'd feel the same way if they were Mexicans, Brits, Frogs, Krauts, Canucks, Ruskies, etc.   I'm just more emphatic when it comes to people who's countries sponsor or turn a blind eye to terrorism.  But maybe I'm being unreasonable.

The Democrat Convention..

..Was suppose to be a boon to local business. It was going to bring in a bazillion people to flood the hotels, eateries, and attractions around Boston. It was going to raise the visibility of the city in an uplifting and tremendous way.

Then, everybody came back to reality.

Downtown businesses are sending employees away for the week since the freeways near the FleetCenter are going to be closed for long periods of the day. The roads which are still open will be jammed so thickly with cars from conventiongoers trying to get in and out that regular citizens might as well stay home. A police union is threatening to use the national exposure to embarrass city leaders and potentially make it difficult for some Democrat politicians to utilize the facility since they may have to cross a picket line. Then, the DNC decided to give free food away at the convention so that their people actually hang around for all the dull and boring speaches during the day rather than enjoying the U.S.S. Constitution, a Red Sox game, or visiting Lexington & Concord.

That was the final straw for one pizzaria owner. Located right across the street from the FleetCenter, Halftime Pizza now has a 24-foot-long sign hanging from the building that says, "Say!!! DNC, Thanks for Nothing! Go Bush". The city is threatening to fine him, but the owner insists that he won't be dissuaded from leaving the sign up to exercise his 1st Amendment rights.

One more place for me to visit if I ever vist Bostong.

Yea! Iowa a Leader in Cutting Taxes

This is good news. According to a report by the National Conference of State Legislatures, Iowa was the only state in the Union to cut taxes last session by more than 1% of expected revenue.

Whoo hoo!

Of course, the standard Democrat mouthpiece for the Register, Ed Fallon, bitched that the tax cut was the reason revenue was falling short and that we were in danger of losing basic services in Iowa.

"We're, in fact, out of step with what legislatures across the country are doing," said Fallon, who earlier this year proposed repealing tax cuts to help pay for education. "The tax cuts are a big reason why our budget is having trouble."

May I respectfully suggest that Mr. Fallon is full of it. The tax cuts in question went into effect on July 1, just three weeks ago. Mr. Fallon has no way of knowing how it will affect the budget, let alone that it will endanger state services. It is impossible to know how it is affecting state revenue until about next spring. I'll bet dollars to donuts, we will collect more money this coming year, with the lower taxes, than what we collected last year.

Oh, one other thing, since Mr. Fallon says that we're out of step with other states, I'm assuming that if every other state were cutting taxes, then, he'd be all in favor of it. Oh, hahaha, I kill me. If everyone else were cutting taxes, he'd believe that we should chart a brave, solo, courageous, course to higher tax rate so as to increase our ratio of state employees to residents as nearly a perfect one to one ratio.

Look, we need to cut taxes in this state to make it competitive. For once, when it comes to taxes, we are number one in a good way. This is a good day.

The Problem With Our Whole Approach to Airline Security....

....Can be summed up in this article. Security checkpoints actually stopped several of the September 11 hijackers because they repeatedly set off the metal detectors. And, as the article points out:

The video also shows an airport screener hand-checking the baggage of one hijacker, Nawaf al-Hazmi, for traces of explosives before letting him continue onto the plane with his brother, Salem, a fellow hijacker. Al-Hazmi had been added to a U.S. government terrorism watch list just weeks earlier. (Emphasis added by me.)

That's right, a man on the terrorist watch list was stopped at a security checkpoint and nothing was done to keep him off the plane? How is that possible? Well, because we look for the stuff. We don't look for the terrorists themselves.

And its absolutely no different know. We look for stuff. We take away tweezers and extra razor blades. We lift sewing scissors and knitting needles off of grandmothers (actually happened to my grandmother). We make people put their shoes through the X-ray machine. But we refuse to look at the person and say, "Hmmm...this middle-aged guy here is more likely to be a terrorist than this geriatric woman with a walker."

If someone would have been looking for bad guys rather than bad stuff, they might have actually thwarted the September 11 plan.

Now, I suppose that you could say, "Hey, that was before the whole event occurred. We didn't know. We weren't ready." True enough. But, we haven't changed the key component. We still look for stuff. And the bad guys will always find a way around that. They'll always be able to come up with a new type of stuff.

Our focus on weapons is political correctness run amok. And eventually, it is going to come back to haunt us.

Iowa Events Center: What are We Going to Be Watching There

The idea of getting major sporting events was one of the big reasons Des Moines is building the new Wells Fargo Arena as part of the Iowa Events Center. Now, the new AHL hockely team is pretty cool. I would be inclined to go to a game or two a season. But, if you really want to get me excited, bring me a Big 12, Big 10 basketball tournament. Bring me the first round of the NCAA hoops tourney. That's what we are all really hoping to see.

The Iowa High School Athletic Association, however, is a thorn in the side of such dreams. It apparently has some sort of iron-clad, signed-in-blood, contract that gives them first dibs on the best arena in Des Moines for most of the appropriate weekends in March until 2014--and they aren't giving them up without some cajolling.

This column from the Register discusses some of the issue.

Here's to hoping that if Des Moines can make a run for getting some tournament games in the next five or so years, that the IHSAA will see fit to push their tourneys back a week so that we can try to bring something unique and new to Des Moines.

New Nickel to Debut at Iowa State Fair

The newest nickel, celebrating the two-hundredth anniversary of the Lewis and Clark expedition is to make its debut at the state fair.

The picture on the back is of the boat the expedition used to navigate up the Missouri River.

This is the second nickel to honor Lewis and Clark, the first was introduced in March of this year. (Though, I don't believe that I've seen one yet.) That particular coin had a picture of an American and a Native American hands shaking in friendship.

Pretty snazzy that it is being introduced at the Iowa State Fair.

Bunged Uppedness Solved

Okay, I dropped a comment on the previous post, but I think that the screen issue has been solved. And I owe a big thanks to State 29 and especially Kris over at Random Mentality. (Or, click her permalink in the right side bar.) I had already tried deleting some of the posts which were appearing in the sidebar when she left a comment to my previous post that got me to thinking about html in the posts.

Kris offered that she had a similar issue one time and it was the html in the actual post. I looked at the html for the posts appearing in the sidebar, and they looked normal. But then, I thought, what if the problem isn't in the posts which are appearing in the wrong place, but in another post in the main column.

Bingo.

The html for the post titled "Larry, Curly and Mo Al-Zawhiri" had a mistake in it. It had about four sets of blockquote instructions, plus a weird div instruction that may have been the real problem. I deleted the extraneous instructions. Now everything seem back in working order.

Yea!

Thanks guys.

The Page is Bunged Up

I'm not certain if it is showing up on everyone's computer, or if it is just something in the system here, but from what I can tell, our page is completely bunged up right now.

Not the most recent post, or the second most-recent post, but somewhere along about the third most recent post, is showing up over in the side bar.  Then, several posts seem to be ignoring the fact that there is suppose to be a sidebar.  Lastly, the margin on the left side of the screen seems variable.

Here's what I've done so far to try to correct it.

1.) Looked at my blogger template.  Didn't see anything wrong in it.

2.) Contacted Blogger to see if they could help.  It's been about 18 or 20 hours.  Haven't heard back yet.

3.) Tried rebooting my computer a couple of times.  Didn't help.  And in any event, it's bunged up on Chad's screen as well.

4.) Tried importing an entirely new template off of the Blogger templates.  Installed brand new template.  Viewed the preview of my blog on said template.  Didn't work.  Getting the same problem of one post appearing in the sidebar.

5.) Tried deleting the offending post.  It just shifted a new post into the sidebar.

So now, I'm getting frustrated.  I think that our comments are still working.  Does anyone have an idea of how to get this straightened out?

 

Annie Jacobsen and Flight 327, redux

Well, it looks like NRO managed to actually identify the band and the casino and confirm that the band did, indeed, perform.  The Corner also links to a Washington Times article describing very similar behavior on other flights including a disturbing report that an Air Marshal had forcibly open a locked forward lavatory door after a Middle Eastern man had been in there for an extended period.  What did the Air Marshall find?  The mirror had been removed and the man was attempting to gain entry to the cockpit through the wall. 

While the writer for NRO confirms that these people are indeed Syrian musicians the writer then makes the leap that they are not terrorists.  Again, does the ability to play an instrument preclude one from being able to slit throats, construct bombs, and dive airplanes into buildings?  Certainly not.  Given the level of hatred for America in the Arab world, is it too far to speculate that a group of Syrian musicians might at least be willing to case a plane for terrorist acquaintances?  It would be like saying we shouldn't be suspicious of Mohammed Atta because he was a student pilot and was just flying around the United States to different training centers.  Being a pilot is an honorable profession but one can still be a terrorist. 

Everything they did, taken in isolation, has a perfectly innocent alternative explanation.  It was a pattern of behavior that did not rise to a level of criminality, hence the lack of arrests.   BUT: It's the pattern of behavior that caused not just Annie Jacobson's concern but also the Air Marshal's and flight crew's concern.   It was a pattern of behavior that matches the patter of behavior of other middle eastern men who clearly cased planes for security flaws.  Even if we assume that the band is perfectly innocent, moderate Muslims who love America, why should we have a security apparatus that costs billion of dollars a year and did nothing in this case, or really in any other case, to assure the passengers on this flight that they had any safety? Why should these people have had to white knuckle a flight for 4 hours when simple confrontation by the flight crew could have stopped the matter in its tracks without blowing the Air Marshal's cover?

Iraqi Stock Market

Iraq has opened its stock market with 15 companies selling stock.  By the end of the month, another 15 are expected to join.

Considering the economic growth that Iraq has seen in the past year and its relative lack of taxes and regulations, it might be a great investment opportunity.  (But, not for the risk adverse invester since it's still possible for things to go to hell in a handbag.)

 

RE: Larry, Curly & Mo

In all seriousness, everytime a terrorist beheads a hostage we should ask the Saudi's to march five Al-Queida types out into the main square, lop off their heads, ship the heads to Ayman Al Zawhiri in Iraq packed in bacon fat, and feed their bodies to swine.  This would do three things 1.  it would show Saudi Arabia's committment to destroy terrorism (ha, ha), 2.  it might actually disuade some low level AQ types to fade back into the "Arab Street", and 3. it would be a damn satisfying thing to do.   I guarantee Al Jazeera would show it in all it's glory.

I'm sure if the Saudi's ran out, we could send them a few clearly guilty ones from Gitmo.  Another win-win.

Larry, Curly, and Mo Al-Zawhiri

Apparently the Phillipino's courageous stand has encouraged the terrorist to go back to the well for another drink. 

The text stands for itself:

A militant group said Wednesday it had taken two Kenyans, three Indians and an Egyptian hostage and would behead them if their countries did not announce their readiness to withdraw their troops from Iraq immediately.

None of those countries are part of the 160,000-member U.S.-led coalition force in the country.

Annie Jacobsen and Flight 327

More to be found on this matter from Donald Sensing and Michelle Malkin and others.  Follow the trackbacks and comments.  There's a lot of idiots out there but hey, you wouldn't be reading this blog if you didn't already know that.  I certainly do not count Donald Sensing in that group.  He's not an idiot.  He and I just disagree on the important lessons to be learned from this story.  His lesson is "The system worked.  They weren't actually caught with anything bad.  They are actual musicians on legit gig."   My lesson is that the system didn't fail (far different from it working).  We don't know whether they had anything bad.  The most we know is that they weren't caught with enough bad stuff justify an arrest (again a far different standard).  As for the last point, I don't think being an legit musician and a legit terrorist is mutually exclusive.  After all, OBL's right hand man is a medical doctor (and trained in the West, I believe).

Sensing also makes a sensible point about the difference between exegesis and eisegesis.  One being interpreting the text that is there and the other placing into the text that which one wishes to be there.  It's a fine and valid distinction when it comes to biblical interpretation as the text of the Bible must stand or fall on its own.  We can't ask Luke and the psalmist whether Christ's hands or the wrists were pierced.  We can't confirm their observation with other eyewitnesses outside the Gospel accounts.   Accordingly, the text must stand on its own.

Here the author is ready and able to speak.  The government is free to chime in. The passengers and crew can provide their impressions.  The airline can issue a statement.  The band can come forward.  The casino could confirm the showdates.  To date, none of these people (other than the TSA) have identified themselves and none have disputed either Annie Jacobsen's factual assertions (the TSA has essentially confirmed all of her facts) or her opinions regarding the level of malevolence to attach to such facts. 

This letter posted on Michelle Malkin's site is spot on regarding the uniqueness of the band.  How many 14 member Syrian bands can there be that are good enough that someone will pay for them to fly cross country to do a 2 day gig? 

I agree with Sensing that racists will use this story to foment hatred for Arabs and muslims.  That is tragic but should not distract us from ensuring the security of our citizens against those who mean to harm us.  And if that means racial and religious profiling on airlines (which I think it does) then so be it.  If there is anything where a government has a compelling state interest to take those factors into account airline safety is it, the constitution allows it, and the American people demand it.

The Built-In Limitations of U.N. Peacekeepers

The Patron Saint of Mediocrity has a nice post up on the structural problems with relying upon U.N. peacekeeping troops to actually be useful at keeping the peace.

The situation also invites corruption and scandal. If you engage in nasty activity while in your country's armed forces, you've sold out your country. You're a traitor and a disgrace to your flag. But if you're working for the U.N. and the local rebel leader offers you $5,000 to look the other way when he attacks, or you're in the mood to go rape some of the locals, who are you betraying if you accept? You're not selling out your country. You're selling out a bunch of diplomats and bureaucrats. You don't bring disgrace to your country, you bring disgrace to a non-governmental organization.

That's certainly a big, big part of it.
 
 

Re: Linda Ronstadt

 
No doubt Elton John will soon be criticizing the Bush administration for getting Blue Bayou girl fired, as he did when the Slim-Fast company dropped 160 pounds of unneeded fat.  I’m kinda impressed that the administration was able to react so quickly and pack the Aladdin audience with enough operatives to boo Ronstadt off the stage.  The Hush-up Hollywood squad operates so much more efficiently than our international intel operations. 
 
Seriously, Sir Elton has led me to develop a new theory on why the Left feels it’s a violation of free speech to fire a performer for voicing his or her political views on stage.  It’s because the Left wants an activist federal government that is responsible for righting all wrongs, settling all disagreements and ensuring that no one is unjustly victimized.  In their view, the first amendment means the government has to guarantee every artist’s “right” to be heard. 
 
Those of us who have actually read the Constitution realize that its purpose is to delineate and strictly limit the powers of the federal government.  We see the government instructed to stay out of the way while We The People argue, cajole and settle our disputes in a more-or-less civil fashion among ourselves.  We see the Bill of Rights as telling the federal government what it can’t do, while Elton and his cronies see it specifying what the government must do. 

Linda Ronstadt & the Alladin

Deacon at the Power Line is wondering what other conservatives think of the Alladin giving Ms. Ronstadt the bum's rush for laying into President Bush near the end of her concert.  
 
Well, it makes me a damned bit more likely to stay at the Alladin the next time I'm in Vegas. 
 
Was it necessary to run her off?  No, it probably wasn't.  Was it justified? Possibly--she had apparently given a lousy performance and had ended it by making an ass of herself.  Was it within their rights?  Absolutely.  It's their casino.  The expelling is the other side of free speech.  You have the right to speak you mind without government restraint; the owner of the venue has the right to respond with, "get the hell off my property."  With this act, the Alladin gave a message to performers.  Don't mix your performance with politics.  We are here to make money.  We can't do that if you run off a sizeable portion of our patrons.  You are free to say what you want in the papers or at political events, but not here.  If you want to walk onto our stage, you have to check your politics at the entrance door.
 
Next time I'm in Vegas, I'm staying there.
 
 

PA Chaos

I've been out of the loop for a week, so I'm not sure how much play this has been getting in the mainstream press, but it is beginning to look like the Palestinian Authority is imploding in the Gaza strip.
 
Wretchard at the Belmont Club has a good post on it titled, "The Swarm".  He points out that some months back, Steven denBeste proposed that the reason the Israeli government had authorized the attack on Sheik Yassin and other prominent Palestinian terrorist leaders was to sow the seeds of a permanent power vacuum in the PA.  denBeste's theory was that if the terrorists methods utilized by the al Aqsa Martyrs Brigage, Hammas, and Hezbollah were not focussed by well-known and respected leaders, that the various Palestinian terrorists organizations would turn on each other.  The decentralized nature of the terrorists, long lauded by the western press as an insurmountable problem for western militaries, would instead become a devestating weakness for the terrorists.
 
Wretchard posits that this proposal may now be showing itself to have been correct.  Arafat's reliance on terrorism, his fervent anti-Semitism, his brainwashing of a generation of Palestinian Arabs into believe that Israel should not exist in any form, has created a situation where he can not compromise and he can not continue. 
 
He can't continue:  His government is as crooked as a dog's hind leg.  He can't get clean water or any type of economic system to function.  The Palestinians are far worse off now then when he returned from exile.  His promises have never come to pass and seem further away now than they did a decade ago. 
 
He can't compromise:  Many of the key lieutenants he once relied upon have been killed and replaced by people who see Arafat either as an impediment to that cause (why does he enage in the "peace process" when he should just attack Israel?) or who see him as aging and needing a successor.  These new leaders are as likely to attack others within the same "cause" as they are to attack the Israelis as they scramble for prestige and power.
 
Keep a close eye on this situation. 

Update to READ THIS ARTICLE!!!

Another piece by Annie Jacobson raising more question than answers.   As much as I'd like to have Donald Sensing's skepticism (here, here, & here) I can't get rid of the feeling of foreboding.  It's like in a scary movie when you start to hear the bass and then the screeching violin. 
 
While Sensing correctly notes that a suddenly empty McDonald's sack and fourteen Arabs on a plane from Detroit (Arab capitol of the US) do not a terrorist plot make, he does little to address the overwhelming sense from pilots and flight attendants that these men were up to no good.  Sensing might make the same argument if the practice flights used by the 9/11 hijackers were similarly scrutinized.  "Sure some middle eastern men acted nervously, sweated, and looked around a lot on our flight and yeah they found some box cutters with/without blades but hey, the flight landed safely.  Our system is working." 
 
Even Sensing would admit that assuming the best case scenario, the fact remains that though not all Arabs are terrorists, the correlation between terrorism causing American deaths and being an Arab male between the ages of 16 and 35 is approaching a perfect 1 (Ann Coulter makes just such an argument here).  There is no defense for our government's position that Arab males in this age group (and probably, unfortunately, females) deserve no greater scrutiny than 85 year old black women and 8 year old Asian children.   It is suicidal stupidity at best and malicious ideology at worst.  While this story needs vast amounts of flesh on the bones before becoming court's exhibt 1 in an indictment of our current security structure, simple reason is indictment enough.  This story provides a vehicle for those, like me, who believe the government has a compelling state interest to take age, religion, ethnicity, and nationality into account for security screening.  I pray that Annie Jacobson was a overwrought twit with no rational basis for fear and perhaps the major media spotlight will help us answer the question.  Nevertheless, a positive response to this question does not vitiate the need for the US to radically overhaul transportation security.

I'm Ba-aack!

Okay, back from a restful week. 
 
Short notes. 
 
Note to Chad: I'm glad I didn't read that article linked in your last post prior to flying this past week.    I maintain that the best security would be performed by the pilots and the flight attendants getting on the plane with the passengers.  They've got more incentive to make sure that the plane is safe than any federal employee sitting back at the security check point.  The pilot should have final say on seating arrangements and should be allowed to bar entry to anyone who he or she feels is a danger to the other passengers--be it drunk, suspicious terroristic-type behavior, or just being beligerant in the airport.
 
Note on a Random Mentality Post:  The Iowa Supreme Court is at it again, inserting its judgment for that of a jury.  Hey, convince a judge that a search warrant is necessary, find a likely drugged out resident and drug-making materials in the bed of said resident, that's still no reason for a jury to find that the drug-making material belongs to said resident.  Goodness gracious.  TATBO!
 
Based on the Iowa Supreme Court ruling discussed by Kris, I wonder if 22,000 poppy plants in your house is enough to get a conviction on drugs.  I mean, unless you actually caught the residents of the home in the act of tending to the plants while simultaneously reading an article on processing the seeds into opium, no reasonable jury could find that these people had any intent.
 
Okay, that's enough for now.  I've only been back 90 minutes, but already, I feel like I'm getting back into the swing of things.  Relaxation subroutines being purged.  Aggravation and bile levels returning to normal.  Ahhh, no matter how good the vacation was, it's good to be home.
 
 

READ THIS ARTICLE!!!!

If you fly or have friends or family who fly READ THIS ARTICLE about suspicious behavior by middle eastern men on a flight.  It is absolutely terrifying.  I am emphatically not a racist.  I do believe in my own survival and if that means racial/religious profiling to ensure my safety then I insist that it be done.  I'd feel the same way if anti-abortion "christian" whackos decided to start ramming planes into skyscrapers.  When will our government wake up?

Ditka, Republicans Out

 
Mike Ditka has announced that he will NOT run for the senate seat being given up by Peter Fitzgerald (R-IL).  Fitzgerald served one term and called it quits after ousting Carol Mosely Braun in 1998.  This means that seat is guaranteed to revert to the Dems.  Despite the name recognition and his popularity in Illinois where he was idolized for his years as Chicago Bears coach, Ditka faced an uphill battle because of the late start he would have gotten. 
 
Ditka did a great job with the Bears, but he was less successful when he moved to the New Orleans Saints.  Since there are few, if any, saints in Washington, D.C.,   that couldn’t have been the reason he decided against running.  According to Rush Limbaugh, his wife told him she would divorce him if he ran. 
 
Whatever the reason, it’s a blow to Republican chances to gain seats in the Senate, and opens up the possibility they could actually lose control of it.  If that were to happen, God forbid, conservatives will be incensed over the many times the White House chose a moderate, centrist path rather than a conservative one.  (Ganske over Salier, Spector over Toomey, etc.)   Here’s hoping the Club for Growth can pull a few rabbits out of its hat.

Al-Jazeera Pledges Honest News Coverage

The station said it will distinguish between news, analysis and commentary to avoid "falling in the trap of propaganda and speculation."

It also promised to "acknowledge any mistake as soon as it is made and take the initiative to correct it and avoid repeating it."

Could this be the start of a trend ? Could it spread to ABCCBSCNNMSNBCNYTLATWaPo?

Davenport contributes to homelessness

The latest episode in the ongoing downtown Davenport redevelopment soap opera might best be titled “The Young and the Homeless”. The city has consummated its deal to buy an apartment building converted from the historic Mississippi Hotel and has informed the remaining 44 long-term residents that they should plan alternate living arrangements, starting in November. Fortunately, a local businessman provides an annual Thanksgiving feast for the homeless, so they’ve got that going for them.

Alderman Donna Bushek, 2nd Ward, who voted against the Adler project only because she wanted to wait to allow Davenport residents an opportunity to see the whole picture, said that whole idea of relocating the residents of the hotel has been heartbreaking for all council members.

“But it’s one of those things that must be done,” she said.

The city does intend to help the displaced tenants find temporary housing, but perhaps you’re curious how we got to where the city is putting its citizens on the street. The QCTimes has run a series of articles detailing the ongoing saga.

The city was “forced” to buy the Hotel because of a contract with Vision Iowa. I'm not making this up. A number of downtown civic improvements intended to improve the quality of life in Davenport are included in the River Renaissance Project. Vision Iowa is putting up $20 million and a lot of strings. The county has kicked in $5 million and $80 million of alleged private monies are committed. The city taxpayers are liable for the rest. I believe the two new parking garages were part of it, and another part was to enlarge the stage at the 2500 seat Adler Theatre.

The city is committed to expanding the theatre’s stage 12 feet to accommodate major Broadway-style shows. The expansion is part of the city’s contract with the Vision Iowa Board for the River Renaissance project. If the city fails to complete the expansion, it will have to return $20 million to the Vision Iowa fund.

Naturally, as with any government project, costs were underestimated, and the city will have to come up with more cash. Turns out (and of course nobody could possibly have foreseen this) taking these twelve feet requires removing a structural wall that is supporting the Mississippi Hotel above the Adler. The city's solution to this is to BUY the hotel, thereby taking one more tax-producing business out of the community and turn it into a tax-consuming city operation and spend a lot of money in the process. The negotiated purchase price is $739,000 plus a management fee for the former owners. If anybody knows how long it will take to make back this money based on the revenue from said bigger shows, they're not bragging about it.

The apartments directly above the wall to be removed have already been vacated, and now the rest will have to go.

While there has been no formal discussion among Davenport’s city leaders on what is to be done with the Mississippi Hotel, there appears to be broad consensus that the 73-year-old building should be renovated for downtown living.

“I have every expectation that the Mississippi Hotel will be redeveloped as a successful residential property,” City Administrator Craig Malin said.

Now wait a minute. I thought it was already a successful residential property.

One tenant complained that…

he was offended at the terminology used in the letter city officials gave to tenants informing them of their situation. “They called my apartment a unit,” he said. “I ain’t living in no damn unit. It’s an apartment. It’s my home.”

…[Two] students at Hamilton Technical College, are able to afford the rent while going to school. “We pay $250 a month each,” [one] said. “And all the utilities are paid. That’s cheap.”

Will a private developer be found to “spruce up” the building and return it to the tenants? Can a historic building be renovated for reasonable cost? Will all these civic improvements bring people back downtown? Tune in later for the next episode of “All My Taxpayer Dollars”

Vacation

Well team, I'm going to be on vacation for the week. It's my first lengthy vacation in about three years.

I put it to you Don & Chad, to keep up the posting. Make me proud!

Kerry + Edwards

Go check out this little video.

I know I shouldn't enjoy this type of cheap shot, but gosh darnit, this made me laugh. I was a little disturbed, but I laughed until I cried.

Comments Enabled

Okay, Chad, you've gotten your wish. Comments are enabled.

Comments

If it takes me examining every spam porn site in detail to determine whether it is appropriate for our literally tens of readers, that's a sacrifice I'm willing to make. Can I write off the membership fees as a business expense?

Just Added a New Feature

Just added TrackBack to the features here, so that if anyone out there wants to let us know that they are commenting on us, they can.

Chad is trying to convince me to turn on comments as well. I've taken it under advisement, but if comments get turned on, mark my words, I'll be leaving it to Chad to patrol the comments for any silliness and to keep the porn spam comments at bay.

Jobless Claims Down/Productivity Way Up

New jobless claims fell to 310,000 in June, the lowest level since October of 2000.

So far this year, 1.3 million new jobs have been created.

So much for that whole "jobless" recovery mantra. Like most every other recession since the Great Depression, the unemployment rate is a lagging indicator. Far from shedding employees at the first sign of distress, employers tend to hang onto until they absolutely have to let people go.

They do so for a couple of reasons, they hope to weather the economic storm and have good staffing when things turn around. They don't like to go through layoffs or terminations because they are bad for morale and productivity. And, frankly, there are also a couple of psychological reasons. If you own or run a business, you are probably a hard-charging, goal-oriented person. Laying off people is a sign of your own failure. Plus, for any rational person, they don't like giving bad news or firing people that are generally good employees.

Accordingly, when employers finally give in and perform a round of layoffs to trim costs and improve margins, it is a sign that they have made the sacrifice and are going to go forward lean and mean.

Hiring works the same way, even once the economic recovery has begun, employers will hold off on expanding the workforce. So, they'll make due with existing staff, increasing productivity through means such as overtime, until they absolutely have to increase staff.

Putting the two situations together, the unemployment rate is likely to not bottom out until well into the recession. And the numbers don't begin to pick up again until the recovery is well established.

In other news, productivity is way, WAY up--17 percent over the past four years. That's greater than any other four year period in the last almost half century. As described in this article from TechCentralStation.com:

Productivity is probably the single most important economic statistic. Productivity is what determines our standard of living. In the long run, productivity is what determines how much workers are paid.

(In the short run, wage growth sometimes diverges from productivity growth. If there is a sudden surge in productivity, it usually takes a couple of years for this increase to work its way into wages. Conversely, if there is a productivity growth slowdown, as in the 1970's, it takes a while for wage growth to slow down to match.)

Sustained high productivity growth would cancel out any possible economic worry. Global competition from low-wage workers? High productivity would protect our standard of living. Rising costs from Medicare? As I pointed out in The Great Race, high productivity would make the welfare state affordable (although not optimal). Environmental quality? High productivity would give us the resources to devote to addressing any challenge.

So, hey, we got that going for us as well.

My two cents worth

…on the selection of Edwards for Kerry’s veep is just this: If Edwards is the best Kerry could come up with, (and Vilsack is first or second runner-up!) it just shows the pathetic lack of talent in today’s Democrat Party. Most of the big names in Democrat politics are in Congress, and Congress is not a good training ground for a run at the presidency. The last person to go directly from the Senate to President was Kennedy and the Democrats have been trying to reincarnate him ever since.

The best training for the presidency is to serve as a state governor, but since there are few governorships in Democrat hands today (thank you, Bill Clinton), it’s hard to come up with good candidates. Bill Richardson of New Mexico comes to mind, but he was practically done in by the Los Alamos scandal when he was head of the EPA. A Republican would have been ridden out of town on a rail for that mess, but Richardson remains one of the bright stars in the Democrat firmament.

The name polls show most desired for the ticket is Hillary Clinton. Her resume includes 1) helping to run Richard Nixon out of office, 2) masterminding the world’s most complicated failed health-care proposal, 3) personnel selection for Travelgate and Filegate, and 4) ignoring her “husband’s” intern-mentoring project. As a lawyer, she billed her client for hours she “didn’t work” on Whitewater/Castle Grande and is credited with the decision to fight the Paula Jones lawsuit rather than pay her off. Brilliant.

It is telling that the person Kerry really wanted was a Republican. Perhaps because taking marching orders from the NEA, NOW, George Soros and Greenpeace is bad preparation for the position of Most Powerful Person in the World, the Democrats have fallen behind in personnel development. It is fortunate for them that this election, the name at the top of the ticket could simply be “Not Bush” and they would do just as well. The constant repetition of Halliburton, Halliburton, Halliburton is intended to vilify Cheney the same way, so that “Not Cheney” becomes the ideal vice-President candidate. In that respect, Edwards is as good as any of the others.

What if John Kerry Wins?

Space Monkey Leader has a really nice post on how he'll react if John Kerry is elected. After describing why he doesn't like John Kerry he delivers the main point of his post:

Having said that, I also think that if he should win, it will not be the end of the world. Or, more specifically, not the end of the nation.

We're made of sterner stuff than that; and while the inevitable missteps of Hypothetical President Kerry would no doubt further damage the already-wounded culture of values at the heart of this nation (as opposed to the thriving culture of victimology), the nation will endure, as long as there are a few of us who still believe in the dream.

At its finest, our nation is the one place on Earth where a person can go from underclass to upper crust through hard work and perserverance. At our best, we Americans have the power to do as we please, with the responsibility to do what we should. No other nation has done so much to erase the lines of race, gender, and sexual orientation. And what's really amazing is that given so much personal power, we can still be a nation of good people.

I think that's just about right. Go read the whole thing.

Bush's Response to Kerry-Edwards

In response to Kerry's announcement, the Instapundit is predicting that Cheney will step aside so that Bush can choose a splashy running mate. I have to say that I disagree. The Instapundit's opinion would seem to be underpinned by one of a couple of ideas. First, the idea that Cheney is such a liability that he has to get off the ticket. Second, the idea that Edwards is such a forminable opponent, Cheney can't help but get crushed by him in a debate, or Bush-Cheney can't help but get swamped by Kerry-Edwards.

I think both of those notions are hogwash.

Cheney is unpopular because Cheney takes flack for the administration. He's sort of the designated bullet stopper. I suspect that's why he's there. One of the reasons Bush chose him was because he was loyal and would always put the administration ahead of his own goals. I suppose in one sense, stepping aside would be Cheney's last great "take one for the team" moment. But, I don't think you let him do it. Anybody added would likely be a younger, prettier face, with ambitions for the future. Why do you import that type of situation? When you're greatest desire for your staff if loyalty, why do you bring in somebody who may or may not be on board with that gameplan? Bush is still going to need a lightening rod in the future. I think that you stick with Cheney in that spot.

Moreover, when has the Bush team ever acted as if making a splash was their biggest goal. If that was the case, Cheney never would have been picked. If that was the case, Tenet would have been chucked out of the CIA a couple years back. If that was the case, they'd be holding press conferences every week to talk up the war. Maybe I'm missing something, but I don't think flashy is what they want. I think they want to convey the image of "slow and steady wins the race". Cheney fits that image to a 'T'. (I certainly don't mean to say that Cheney is slow. I suspect he's damn near brilliant. But "steady" he certainly is. He's like the word "gravitas" given flesh and blood.)

Cheney is a liability with the loony left because he's an honest to goodness conservative, he ran a large company, and he's rich. I highly doubt that Bush could bring in somebody splashy who doesn't have most, if not all, of those liabilities. I'm not sure that there is anyone that could be brought in as the Veep who can attract the moderates that a move of this nature is suppose to accomplish (with the exception of John McCain, who would fail miserably at the loyalty/team player concept). And, the loony left will attack anybody you bring in. I think that Bush's instinct is that you dance with the one who brung ya'.

With regard to the idea that Edwards is a forminable candidate, I'm not entirely convinced of this either. Does he have some inate talents as a politician. Yes he does. But, really, you can't say that he's the second coming of Bill Clinton, either. Edwards isn't running for reelection to the Senate in North Carolina because the early polling data showed he was likely to lose. He finished second to John Kerry in most of the primaries, only won a couple of state, and finished third or fourth in many states. That's not really a demonstration of enthusiastic appeal. Reporters who followed him on the stump frequently reported that while his stump speech was good. It was just that, "a" stump speech. He didn't vary it much from town to town. He never really showed the empathic understanding of people or the ability to make a personal connection. During the primary debates, he often looked a little skittish when it came to foreign policy questions.

I'm convinced the in a debate of the Vice-President candidates, Cheney would eat him alive. I remember that Joe Lieberman was a good guy, generally popular and with an easy smile. To the degree that anyone remembers the Vice-Presidential debate four years ago, I think that most people would agree that Cheney dismantled Lieberman (if for no other reason that the two most memorable lines of the debate were cutting retorts Cheney skillfully dropped on Lieberman when Lieberman was trying to paint Cheney as a rich, corporate shill). I see no reason why Cheney wouldn't do the same to Edwards.

I've been wrong about things before, but I find it hard to believe that Cheney won't be by Bush's side throughout the campaign.

It's Gonna Be Kerry-Edwards

Well, John Kerry made his announcement for Veep earlier this morning. While the television news outlets here in central Iowa were abuzz yesterday that it might be Vilsack, seeing as how Kerry spent so much of the long weekend here in Iowa, Vilsack's just the bridesmaid this time. No, the selection went to John Edwards.

My own feelings are that this was about as good as John Kerry could do given the parameters he'd set for himself. (Can't upset the unions or the abortion lobby.) Edwards has a reputation as a moderate even though he's amassed something like the fourth most liberal voting record in the Senate. His populist schtick works well on the stump, so long as you only hear it a couple of times. He's constantly touted as good looking and he's got a ton of friends in the trial lawyers' lobby.

All in all, probably the best way to go.

Back from the 4th

Hey, hope everyone had a good Independence Day. I certainly did. Weather was perfect, absolutely perfect. Lounging by a swimming pool? Check. Grilled burgers and hot dogs? Check. Corn on the cob? Check. Slices of watermelon? Check. Watching fireworks? Check. Finishing off the day around a bonfire enjoying a beer with friends? Check.

All in all, just about a perfect day.

Battle Hymn of the Republic

This is one of my personal favorites.

Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord:
He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored;
He hath loosed the fateful lightning of his terrible swift sword:
His truth is marching on.

I have seen him in the watch-fires of a hundred circling camps;
They have builded him an altar in the evening dews and damps;
I can read his righteous sentence by the dim and flaring lamps:
His day is marching on.

I have read a fiery gospel, writ in burnished rows of steel:
"As ye deal with my contemners, so with you my grace shall deal;
Let the Hero, born of woman, crush the serpent with his heel,
Since God is marching on."

He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat;
He is sifting out the hearts of men before his judgment-seat:
O, be swift, my soul, to answer him! be jubilant, my feet!
Our God is marching on.

In the beauty of the Lilies Christ was born across the sea,
With a glory in his bosom that transfigures you and me;
As he died to make men holy, let us die to make men free,
While God is marching on.

He is coming like the glory of the morning on the wave,
He is wisdom to the mighty, he is honor to the brave,
So the world shall be his footstool, the soul of wrong his slave
Our God is marching on!

You're A Grand Old Flag

You're A Grand Old Flag

You're A Grand Old Flag,
You're a high flying flag,
And forever, in peace, may you wave

You're the emblem of the land I love,
The home of the free and the brave.

Ev'ry heart beats true
'neath the Red, White and Blue,
Where ther's never a boast or brag,

But, should auld acquaintance be forgot,
Keep your eye on the grand old flag.

Yankee Doodle

I had no idea that Yankee Doodle had this many verses. From looking at a couple of different web pages, it appears that there may not even be a difinitive version of this song as people sort of made up their own verses over time.

Father and I went down to camp
Along with Captain Gooding
And there we saw the men and boys
As thick as hasty pudding.

Chorus
Yankee doodle, keep it up
Yankee doodle dandy
Mind the music and the step
And with the girls be handy.

There was Captain Washington
Upon a slapping stallion
A-giving orders to his men
I guess there was a million.

Chorus

And then the feathers on his hat
They looked so' tarnal fin-a
I wanted pockily to get
To give to my Jemima.

Chorus

And then we saw a swamping gun
Large as a log of maple
Upon a deuced little cart
A load for father's cattle.

Chorus

And every time they shoot it off
It takes a horn of powder
It makes a noise like father's gun
Only a nation louder.

Chorus

I went as nigh to one myself
As' Siah's underpinning
And father went as nigh agin
I thought the deuce was in him.
We saw a little barrel, too
The heads were made of leather
They knocked upon it with little clubs
And called the folks together.

Chorus

And there they'd fife away like fun
And play on cornstalk fiddles
And some had ribbons red as blood
All bound around their middles.
The troopers, too, would gallop up
And fire right in our faces
It scared me almost to death
To see them run such races.

Chorus

Uncle Sam came there to change
Some pancakes and some onions
For' lasses cake to carry home
To give his wife and young ones.

Chorus

But I can't tell half I see
They kept up such a smother
So I took my hat off, made a bow
And scampered home to mother.

Chorus

Cousin Simon grew so bold
I thought he would have cocked it
It scared me so I streaked it off
And hung by father's pocket.

Chorus

And there I saw a pumpkin shell
As big as mother's basin
And every time they touched it off
They scampered like the nation.

Chorus

My Country 'Tis of Thee

By Samuel Francis Smith

My country 'tis of thee,
Sweet land of liberty,
Of thee I sing.
Land where my fathers died!
Land of the Pilgrim's pride!
From every mountain side,
Let freedom ring!

My native country, thee,
Land of the noble free,
Thy name I love,
I love thy rocks and rills,
Thy woods and templed hills;
My heart with rapture fills
Like that above.

Let music swell the breeze,
And ring from all the trees
Sweet freedom's song.
Let mortal tongues awake;
Let all that breathe partake;
Let rocks their silence break,
The sound prolong.

Our father's God to, Thee,
Author of liberty,
To Thee we sing.
Long may our land be bright
With freedom's holy light;
Protect us by thy might,
Geat God, our king.

God Bless the USA

This one, by Lee Greenwood, is a little more modern than the others, having first become popularized during the 1980's.

God Bless the USA

If tomorrow all the things were gone I'd worked for all my life
And I had to start again with just my children and my wife
I'd thank my lucky stars to be livin' here today
Cause the flag still stands for freedom
And they can't take that away
And I'm proud to be an American
Where at least I know I'm free
And I won't forget the men who died
Who gave that right to me
And I'd gladly stand up next to you
And defend her still today.
Cause there ain't no doubt I love this land
God bless the USA.
From the lakes of Minnesota to the hills of Tennessee
Across the plains of Texas, from sea to shining sea
From Detroit down to Houston, and New York to LA
Well there's pride in every American heart
And its time we stand and say:
That I'm proud to be an American
Where at least I know I'm free
And I won't forget the men who died
Who gave that right to me
And I'd gladly stand up next to you
And defend her still today.
Cause there ain't no doubt I love this land
God bless the USA.

God Bless America

God bless America
Land that I love
Stand be-side her and guide her
Thru the night with a light from above

From the mountains to the prairies
To the oceans white with foam
God bless America My home sweet home
God bless America My home sweet home

America the Beautiful

America the Beautiful

By Katherine Lee Bates

O beautiful for spacious skies,
For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties
Above the fruited plain!

America! America!
God shed His grace on thee,
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!

O beautiful for pilgrim feet
Whose stern impassion'd stress
A thoroughfare for freedom beat
Across the wilderness.

America! America! God mend thine ev'ry flaw,
Confirm thy soul in self-control,
Thy liberty in law.

O beautiful for heroes prov'd in liberating strife,
Who more than self their country loved,
And mercy more than life.

America! America!
May God thy gold refine
Till all success be nobleness,
And ev'ry gain divine.

O beautiful for patriot dream
That sees beyond the years
Thine alabster cities gleam
Undimmed by human tears.

America! America!
God shed his grace on thee,
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea.

Star Spangled Banner

Most everyone knows that the words for the Star Spangled Banner was written by Francis Scott Key as he watched a battle unfold during the War of 1812. And most people know the lyrics to the first verse. But, a lot of people don't know that there are several more verses that we rarely hear.

Star Spangled Banner

Oh, say, can you see, by the dawn's early light,
What so proudly we hail'd at the twilight's last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars, thro' the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watch'd, were so gallantly streaming?
And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof thro' the night that our flag was still there.
O say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

On the shore dimly seen thro' the mists of the deep,
Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?

Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,
In full glory reflected, now shines on the stream:
`T is the star-spangled banner:
O, long may it wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion A home and a country should leave us no more?
Their blood has wash'd out their foul footsteps' pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave.
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

O, thus be it ever when freemen shall stand,
Between their lov'd homes and the war's desolation;
Blest with vict'ry and peace, may the heav'n-rescued land
Praise the Pow'r that hath made and preserv'd us as a nation!
Then conquer we must, when our cause is just,
And this be our motto: "In God is our trust"
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

In Honor of Independence Day

In honor of Independence Day this weekend, I'm going to be posting the lyrics that goes along with all the great patriotic music you'll be hearing.

One of the Forgotten Rights in the Bill of Rights

King County in the state of Washington is considering enacting a new county ordinance that would prevent people from building on 65% of their property, leaving it in its natural vegetative state. As you can imagine, this has many people up in arms, stating, not without justification, that it constitutes an unconstitutional "taking" of their property.

The plan is apparently being pushed by King County Executive Ron Sims, a candidate for governor in Washington.

Now, "takings" law is a fairly interesting area of Consitutional juris prudence. The basis for the whole issue is the 5th Amendment, which states:

No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.

Obviously, it's the part that I've bolded that is at issue in a law such as the one proposed in King County, Washington. Under the 5th Amendment, the government can't just take your property from you without paying you a fair price. The thought was that if the government wanted to build a road across your property, or build a new courthouse, or open a new public park, it should have to buy your property from you. And, for the first hundred years or so, this theory generally worked out pretty well.

Now, however, because of environmental regulations, there are a plethora of varying decisions by the Supreme Court giving various definitions of what constitutes an unconstitutional taking. You see, this rule doesn't seek to terminate ownership of the land, just the ability to use it. Now, to my eyes, this is pretty much the same thing as kicking the owners off the land without buying it, but the Supreme Court has held again and again that it isn't that clear to them. If my memories of Property 2 in law school are serving me well, one of the key standards the Supreme Court uses in situations like this is whether or not the law removes "all economically viable use" of the land in question. On that standard, the rule in King County might destroy the economically viable use of the land, or it might not. (If I got insanely abreviated 5th Amendment analysis even remotely correct, it's all a tribute to Professor Janis.)

If I was a landowner in King County, I'd be contacting a good property attorney.

The Ketchup War

So, you're a good Republican and the upcoming July 4th Holliday has got you tied up in knots. Why? Because you're going to have all of those grilled hot dogs and burgers that are in dire need of ketchup, but you don't want to feel like you're putting money in John Kerry's campaign every time you dollup some Heinz.

Well, folks, worry no more. You've got options.

Saddam on Trial

Today, the charges against Saddam were read to him by the Iraqi court. Fitting his meglomania, he refused to sign the charges and defiantly announced that he was the President of Iraq.

To some extent, it would have been easier to just pop this SOB when we captured him. However, it probably is good to let the Iraqis themselves take a shot at him. The people of Iraq were the ones who suffered the most at his hands and they rightfully should get first crack at him.

The really interesting thing about the article linked above is how Saddam has absorbed much of the language and many of the talking points of the American left. He apparently keeps blathering on about how he is still "President" of Iraq, how Kuwait was a danger to Iraq, how George Bush is a big mean bully, and so forth.

And of course, we get the obligatory discourse on this being the "Trial of the Century." Whatever. To my way of thinking, there isn't much to make it the trial of the century. I would think that to obtain such a title, there would have to be good arguments for both sides leading to some semblence of doubt as to the final outcome. I'm sorry, but regardless of how you feel about the U.S. actions, there is simply nothing defensible in what Saddam did to his own people. Absolutely nothing. And I can't imagine what the exculpatory evidence would be. The guy is evil. There's nothing in this trial that can change that fact.

Hogberg On a Roll

David Hogberg got on a roll the last couple of days. Articles in the Spectator, NRO, and a nice post on an ill-conceived Register editorial.

Very nice.