Let the fire reign down upon you...

Just some video of the war we are losing.

Meteor pao pokraj Samobora?

Prema riječima očevidaca izgledalo je kao da nešto gori na nebu. Zatim snažna eksplozija, te podrhtavanje tla. Sve je trajalo nekih desetak sekundi.

Well, maybe not all that, but click the link and watch the cool meteor vid.

When anti-Christians attack

...a Christmas creche;

ANN ARBOR, MI — Thomas More Law Center Director of Communications, Brian Rooney, addressed a press conference attended by over 100 supporters on the steps of the New York City Hall on Sunday, June 24, 2007, as City Councilman Tony Avella introduced a City Council resolution that calls upon the New York City Department of Education (DOE) to amend its discriminatory holiday display policy for public elementary and secondary schools.

DOE’s current policy allows displays of the Jewish Menorah and Islamic Star and Crescent during their respective holidays, but bans displays of nativity scenes during Christmas. Council Member Avella stated, “The menorah and star and crescent are religious symbols. By adding a crèche to the holiday display, Christians will receive equal representation during the holiday season.”

the Bible;

A Florida judge has dismissed all counts against two members of The Gideons International who were arrested while handing out Bibles on a public sidewalk outside a school, officials with the Alliance Defense Fund said.

"Christians cannot be treated as second-class citizens," said ADF senior legal counsel David Cortman. "These two men have the same constitutional rights as everyone else to pass out literature on a public sidewalk.

Def Jam Patriotism

Marine style. (sorry, my YouTube connection is all broked up)

via Fyremandoug.

Confederate Sailor Buried in Ala.

I am not ashamed to profess my ignorance of the fact that a naval battle in the Civil War occurred in the English Channel. And they are still finding remains;

MOBILE, Ala. -- The remains of a Confederate sailor, recovered several years ago from a shipwreck at the bottom of the English Channel, were buried Saturday in a handmade wooden coffin pulled by a horse-drawn caisson.

The unidentified sailor's skeletal remains were found on the underside of a cannon raised from the wreck of the CSS Alabama in about 200 feet of water.

The Confederate warship was sunk in the channel off the coast of France on June 19, 1864, by the Union warship USS Kearsarge. More than 400 artifacts have been recovered from the site by American and French divers.

The CSS Alabama had a crew of about 120 members, and most were rescued by boaters in the area, but about a dozen drowned or were never heard from again, said Robert Edington, a Mobile attorney and president of the CSS Alabama Association.

Fred Thompson's 'trophy wife' runs the show

Another anti-Fred screed, this one from across the pond:

She has sometimes been dismissed as a tanned and bleached blonde "trophy wife", only ever glimpsed in sleek and glamorous outfits on the arm of her much older spouse.

Ok, I'll bite. Who dismissed her as such? That is the most virulent and sexist characterization I have seen of Thompson's wife. What lazy pissant journalism it is to fall back on the old, 'some have said' routine to mask one's own political slant.

Nashi, a new fascist 'Putin Youth'?

Frightening. The 'Sex for the Motherland' title is just a tease. Read the whole article.

But this organisation - known as "Nashi", meaning "Ours" - is youth movement run by Vladimir Putin's Kremlin that has become a central part of Russian political life.
*****
But the real aim of the youth camp - and the 100,000-strong movement behind it - is not to improve Russia's demographic profile, but to attack democracy.

Under Mr Putin, Russia is sliding into fascism, with state control of the economy, media, politics and society becoming increasingly heavy-handed. And Nashi, along with other similar youth movements, such as 'Young Guard', and 'Young Russia', is in the forefront of the charge.

At the start, it was all too easy to mock. I attended an early event run by its predecessor, 'Walking together', in the heart of Moscow in 2000. A motley collection of youngsters were collecting 'unpatriotic' works of fiction for destruction.

It was sinister in theory, recalling the Nazis' book-burning in the 1930s, but it was laughable in practice. There was no sign of ordinary members of the public handing in books (the copies piled on the pavement had been brought by the organisers).

Once the television cameras had left, the event organisers admitted that they were not really volunteers, but being paid by "sponsors". The idea that Russia's anarchic, apathetic youth would ever be attracted into a disciplined mass movement in support of their president - what critics called a "Putinjugend", recalling the "Hitlerjugend" (German for "Hitler Youth") - seemed fanciful.

If the United States is headed towards an inevitable conflict with China, the thought of Russia as their militarized and neo-fascistic ally, makes the impending crisis much more dire. And if the Russian population is yearning for the good ole days of Stalin, there is little room for optimism.

The literal, 'fly on the wall'

the robot fly.

Crucifix in Urine?...

...Tax payer funded 'ART'.

Koran in toilet? Hate crime arrest.

How true?

via Lucianne.

Abe Lincoln with his...

...47 mile walk to grammar school (whatever), still has nothing on these kids.

Some speech is freer than other speech

and speech insulting to terrorists, gets you put on trial:

Most Americans know that burning our nation’s flag is protected by the First Amendment. No matter how distasteful to some, the Supreme Court has consistently held flag-burning to be protected as expressive political conduct.

So if burning an American flag is protected speech, burning other flags—say, the flags of political parties considered to be terrorist groups by our government—would also be protected speech, right?

Right—except at San Francisco State University (SFSU), where the First Amendment takes a backseat to Hamas and Hezbollah. As part of an anti-terrorism rally held on campus last October, SFSU’s College Republicans stepped on homemade replicas of Hamas and Hezbollah flags drawn on butcher paper. Unbeknownst to the group, both flags contain the word “Allah” in Arabic—prompting a student to file a complaint accusing the College Republicans of “walking on a banner with the word ‘Allah’ written in Arabic script.”

Even though the flag—stomping was protected speech—a fact pointed out twice to SFSU President Robert Corrigan in letters from the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education—SFSU administrators decided to put the College Republicans on trial for “attempts to incite violence and create a hostile environment” and “actions of incivility.” An SFSU spokesperson even told the San Francisco Chronicle that the real issue was “the desecration of Allah.” The ensuing investigation and hearing lasted more than five months before SFSU finally dropped the charges against the group under intense public criticism.

The College Republicans filed a federal lawsuit this week, arguing that SFSU violated the group’s First Amendment rights by subjecting the group to an investigation instead of dismissing the charges out of hand. The suit also challenges SFSU’s speech code, which requires students “to be civil” to one another—a rule that can only be selectively enforced against dissenting opinions on a campus as polarized as SFSU.

Constitutionally speaking, this case isn’t even close: There’s no exception for Hamas, Hezbollah or even Allah under the First Amendment. Now SFSU has to answer for violating the Constitution in court.

And the people pushing federal hate crimes legislation say the current bill will NEVER interfere with free speech. Believe it?

Dems to raise taxes on cigars

by 20,000%.

Another good indicator of what life would be like with a Democratic President and a Democratic Congress. They will justify any form of theft, the wholesale destruction of practically an entire legitimate business, so long as they can couch their thievery in terms of doing it "for the children". What is going to happen to the children of the cigarmakers in their little shops in Tampa?

Give her a Medal of Honor

...for exposing how ridiculously lax most voter registration laws are:

King County Elections Director Sherril Huff has removed Duncan M. MacDonald, from the voter rolls. No, he is not a felon or been declared “non compos mentis” (second item). He is a Canine American. Jane Balogh, 66, had registered her dog to vote in April 2006 to protest a state voter-registration law passed the previous year that she contends makes it too easy for noncitizens to vote because the ID requirements are extremely lax.

How lax are they?

They are so lax that Balogh put her phone bill in Duncan’s name, then used it as ID to register him as a new voter.

How lax are they?

They are so lax that Balogh returned mail ballots in two elections with paw prints on the signature line (she wrote “void” on the ballots to ensure they wouldn’t be counted).

How lax are they?

They are so lax that even “[a]fter telling an election worker last November that Duncan is a dog … he received a ballot for a Federal Way school bond vote in May,” reports The Seattle Times.

Balogh has pleaded not guilty to a gross misdemeanor charge of making a false statement to a public official by signing a declaration in Duncan’s name saying he was over 18 and a U.S. citizen. If convicted, she can be imprisoned for up to 90 days and fined $1,000.

9/11 Funding

I was once a Republican, now an Independent, but without hesitation I have to proclaim my allegiance, on the 9/11 funding issue, with local Democratic legislators, and this is why:

A report released a year ago cited that an insect zoo in Florida, a bourbon festival in Illinois, a bean fest in Indiana and a kangaroo conservation center in Maryland were funded while Times Square, the Empire State Building, the Statue of Liberty and Brooklyn Bridge were not listed.

But, by the same token, I will NEVER become a Democrat because of gutter scraping crap like this (same article):

U.S. Rep. Gary Ackerman (D-Bayside) was also incensed about the lack of funding given to the Empire State.

“Al Qaeda hates us,” he said. “President Bush isn’t crazy about us, either.”

Fuck you.

When Nerds Neglect

RENO, Nev. (AP) - A couple who authorities say were so obsessed with the Internet and video games that they left their babies starving and suffering other health problems have pleaded guilty to child neglect.

The children of Michael and Iana Straw, a boy age 22 months and a girl age 11 months, were severely malnourished and near death last month when doctors saw them after social workers took them to a hospital, authorities said. Both children are doing well and gaining weight in foster care, prosecutor Kelli Ann Viloria told the Reno Gazette-Journal.

Michael Straw, 25, and Iana Straw, 23, pleaded guilty Friday to two counts each of child neglect. Each faces a maximum 12-year prison sentence.

Viloria said the Reno couple were too distracted by online video games, mainly the fantasy role-playing "Dungeons & Dragons" series, to give their children proper care.

"They had food; they just chose not to give it to their kids because they were too busy playing video games," Viloria told the Reno Gazette-Journal.

Lock'em up. Put 'em in a cell with a terlitt, a bed, and a tv that can only play that silly that silly ping pong game. Appropriate justice.

All I can say is that...

my life is pretty plain.

pwned

Ayaan Hirsi Ali schools some America-hatin Canatard.

“You grew up with freedom, so you can spit on freedom.” Sound familiar?

via Allah.

Mostest bad ass gun evuhhhhh....

...to the delightful tune of old school Metallica.

Swedish Greasers

Interesting.

Jabba'd give Atta a free pass

The bloated Congressman who represented, and continues to represent, the District which included the World Trade Center defends the posthumous habeus corpus rights of non-U.S. citizen, and architect of 9/11, Mohammed Atta:

During one exchange, Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D., N.Y.) had this to say: "I don't see how you can pick up someone in New York and say that his rights are different or less because he's accused of being an enemy combatant, based on whatever information, as opposed to his being accused of being a murderer. . . ."

Berenson responded: "[W]e need to be clear about what that means. It means that if we had captured Mohammed Atta on September 10th, we would have had no choice but to treat him as a criminal defendant, which would have meant no interrogation, no intelligence, and the World Trade Center is coming down."

Nadler interjected, "That's exactly right."

M. Night Shyamalan's grammar school to close?

PATNA, India (Reuters) - Scores of Indian children attending a school located in a graveyard were having recurring nightmares about ghosts and have appealed to authorities to shift them from the site, officials and residents said.

"I have stopped going to school after many dead people walked out of their graves and came into my dreams, ordering me to reach school on time," said six-year-old Raqib Ansari.

Gator fan contemplating....

Gator guru worried about Timmy at 1st string

Fat tax study

Some studious folks at Oxford U. have come to a brilliant conclusion. Tax fatty foods:

LONDON - A “fat tax” on salty, sugary and fatty foods could save thousands of lives each year, according to a study published on Thursday.

Researchers at Oxford University say that charging Value Added Tax (VAT) at 17.5 percent on foods deemed to be unhealthy would cut consumer demand and reduce the number of heart attacks and strokes.

A value added tax is a nice way of taxing a consumer, but not really tax them, because the tax doesn't show up on their receipt. Instead the tax is on the guy who makes the food, the guy that packages the food, the guy that ships the food and the guy that sells the food. No harm, no foul for the consumer, right? WRONG. The consumer still pays a higher amount approximating the amount of the collected taxes already accumulated on their purchase. In this case, 17.5 percent.

So, only the people who eat fatty foods are targeted. What about those who eat high carbohydrate products? High calorie products? High nitrate products? Non-organic products? High cholestrol products? Products high in artifical flavors and colors? High sodium products? They have all been shown to encourage obesity, disease, and/or other health problems.

My point? Opening the door to taxing food for fatty content means opening the door to taxing food for whatever the zeitgeist doctors and nutritionists decide is the demon food of the day. We don't need a bureacracy to decide on a health quotient for the foods we buy and then tax us accordingly.

That is the direction that taxing fatty foods leads us to.

We need to be wary of Creepin Nutritionism.

AP reporter Jennifer Loven with another anti-Bush hitpiece

For some background on Jennifer Loven’s reporting, please read some of Powerline’s earlier posts.

Let’s look at some excerpts from her latest foray into objective reporting (emphasis below is mine):

Despite a long history of denouncing leaks, Bush declined to express any disappointment in the people who worked for him and who were involved in disclosing the name of a CIA operative. Asked about that during a wide-ranging news conference, the president gave a dodgy answer.
******
Libby is still appealing his conviction. And Bush has not ruled out an eventual pardon for the former top White House aide.

But the president appeared eager Thursday to put the entire case in the past. It was costly for his presidency, denting his image as someone who had pledged to restore integrity to the White House.

*******

In the beginning stages of the case, Bush said, "I want to know the truth," and pledged to fire anyone found to have leaked. As the investigation wore on, he expressed more weariness than outrage, saying only that someone who "committed a crime" would be fired and calling the case "background noise" he had to ignore.

via FReeper poster, willk

DISBARRED

The Duke lacrosse hoax continues to be the gift that keeps on giving:

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) -- The North Carolina State Bar on Thursday issued a formal order disbarring Mike Nifong for his handling of the discredited Duke lacrosse rape case.

Nifong must surrender his law license to the bar no later than 30 days from when he is served with the order. He must also pay costs associated for his weeklong ethics trial that took place last month, including those incurred by the court reporter and witnesses.

And he must pay court costs for his disciplinary hearing.

Take note of the aggravating factors in the findings of fact:

1. Nifong’s conduct is aggravated by the following factors:

a. dishonest or selfish motive;
b. a pattern of misconduct;
c. multiple offenses;
d. refusal to acknowledge wrongful nature of conduct with his handling of the DNA evidence;
e. vulnerability of the victims Collin Finnerty, Reade Seligman and David Evans;
f. substantial experience in the practice of law.

I’d have to say, that pretty much sums up the case. Let the civil suits rain down.

Canadian courts don't recognize Jerusalem as part of Israel?

Disgusting:

OTTAWA, Canada -- A Canadian court has upheld the country's policy of barring Canadian passport holders from listing Jerusalem, Israel, as their birthplace.

The Federal Court of Appeal said that the policy does not violate the Charter of Rights, The Jerusalem Post reported. The decision was a defeat for Eliyahu Veffer, 19, the son of a Toronto rabbi who wanted to amend his passport to identify his birthplace as being in Israel.

Israel has claimed all of Jerusalem since the 1967 war, while Palestinians also claim at least part of the city. On Canadian passports, Jerusalem is listed without an identifying country, the Post said. "There is no evidence that the absence of a country name beside Jerusalem hinders his ability to travel in any way," the judges said in their opinion.

Veffer has the right to hold any religious views or beliefs on Jerusalem's nationality, the court said in the newspaper article, but a passport is simply a travel document, not a vehicle for expressing those views.

We should have annexed the cute chilly country to our north a long time ago.

Frozen tsunami wave?

I report you decide.

Nobel Peace Laureate: "I could kill George Bush"

Nice to hear some words of peace from a recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, a cofounder of The Community for Peace People, and a signatory of the Declaration of Peace People, Betty Williams:

Nobel Peace Prize winner Betty Williams came from Ireland to Texas to declare that President Bush should be impeached.

In a keynote speech at the International Women's Peace Conference on Wednesday night, Ms. Williams told a crowd of about 1,000 that the Bush administration has been treacherous and wrong and acted unconstitutionally.

"Right now, I could kill George Bush," she said at the Adam's Mark Hotel and Conference Center in Dallas. "No, I don't mean that. How could you nonviolently kill somebody? I would love to be able to do that."

About half the crowd gave her a standing ovation after she called for Mr. Bush's removal from power.

"The Muslim world right now is suffering beyond belief," she said.

"Unless the president of the United States is held responsible for what he's doing and what he has done, there's no one in the Muslim world who will forgive him."

Note the headline here: 'Nobel laureate calls for removal of Bush'. You would think the quote of her saying she could murder the President might draw a bit more attention.

Richardson: I'm the insurgent candidate

"If you want to be part of an insurgency, I'm it!" Mr. Richardson told the crowd, getting some laughs.

Think before you speak, asshole. Hundreds of our troops are dying at the hands of an Islamist insurgency. It might be trendy parlance in the circles you travel in, but to the rest of America, being an 'insurgent' candidate makes you sound like a fucking traitor.

Latest Victim of Illegal Immigration

Schanna Gayden

Murdered by illegal immigrant who had been arrested 27 times

Run Cindy, Run

Cindy, on Democrats:

"I was a life-long Democrat only because the choices were limited. The Democrats are the party of slavery and were the party that started every war in the 20th Century except the other Bush debacle. The Federal Reserve, permanent federal (and unconstitutional) income taxes, Japanese Concentration Camps and, not one, but two atom bombs dropped on the innocent citizens of Japan were brought to us via the Democrats. Don’t tell me the Democrats are our 'Saviors' because I am not buying it especially after they bought and purchased more caskets and more devastating pain when they financed and co-facilitated more of George’s abysmal occupation and they are allowing a melt down of our representative Republic by allowing the evils of the executive branch to continue unrestrained by their silent complicity."

Anyone else all shit and giggles like me? It does make me pause, however, when are things I agree with her about.

Rudy G's mayoral success against crime explained

Lead poisoning.

But we all knew that.

Via Hot Air.

Bimbo eruption prevented?

All readers must wash their hands after reading this post. We are talking New Jersy politics here.

No, it's not about McSkeevy.

Just more distasteful gossip from the Corzine camp:

July 9, 2007 -- THE aide to New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine who was with him April 12 when he was seriously injured in a car crash was suddenly reassigned last month because the two had become "too close," said an inside source.

Samantha Gordon, a "tall and attractive" 25-year-old, worked for a year as an "intellectual valet" to the governor, traveling with him wherever and whenever he went, much as Huma Abedin is the "body person" who travels with Sen. Hillary Clinton.

"Samantha was extremely devoted to him," said the source.

Gordon was riding in the middle row of seats in Corzine's SUV when his two-car motorcade crashed on the Garden State Parkway, but she emerged unscathed.

Corzine, 60, was rumored to have been sitting next to her and not in the front seat with no seat belt as he claimed, said our source. This would better explain why Corzine was found in the very rear of the vehicle by responders to the scene.

While Corzine was rushed by helicopter to Cooper University Hospital to treat numerous broken bones and cuts to his head and face, Gordon was taken by ambulance to Atlantic City Medical Center, where she was treated and released.

The source said that after the accident that nearly killed Corzine, Gordon was prevented from talking to the press. Then, two weeks ago, she was told by Corzine's lawyer, Nancy Dunlap - who normally doesn't handle staffers and is known as Corzine's "enforcer" - that she was being transferred to a different job.

Gordon wasn't given any reason for her transfer, and when she protested to Corzine personally, he said, "It's out of my hands," according to our source.

"The bizarre thing is that they let the driver talk, but not one reporter got to her," said the source.

Staffers also feared the wrath of Corzine's girlfriend, Sharon Elghanyan, 62, who is reportedly "very jealous."

A spokesman for the governor told Page Six: "We don't comment on fiction and sensational yellow journalism that's not worth the paper it's written on."

New Jersey, you hired him.

Creepy Japanese man alert

Any feller that spends $170,000 on 'Love Dolls' because they don't 'cheat on you' or 'betray you', well, you can finish that sentence.

The Rio leg of the Live Earth experience, however,

seems not to attract too much crowd. Mick Jagger v. the Goracle. Fat man loses.

Chocolate City / Chocolate State

Let's just call this, the exaltation of incompetence:

NEW ORLEANS -- New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin might be making a run for the governor's mansion.

Nagin was on the Tom Joyner radio show on the New 99.5 FM on Friday morning.

"There's a wide open governor's race, and we'll take a look at it," Nagin said, when asked to clear up rumors about a possible bid.

The radio station reported that Nagin could announce his candidacy in the next seven to 10 days.

In the past, the mayor has said that he had no interest in running for governor.

As much as I disliked the Don Imus show, Bernie's Nagin impression was priceless.

Deport illegal criminals? Maybe later

A starkly candid article from MSM about the Fed's inability to deport illegal immigrants convicted of felonies:

July 6 (Bloomberg) -- Ezeiquiel Lopez already had a rap sheet that stretched all the way to Texas when, police said, he shot Kenosha County, Wisconsin, Deputy Sheriff Frank Fabiano in the head, killing him.

Lopez, 45, an illegal immigrant from Mexico, was free at the time of the May shooting, after having been jailed for two prior violent crimes. By law, he should have been deported, but federal immigration authorities didn't know he had been in custody, and state and local police didn't tell them.

The case isn't an exception. Fewer than half the foreigners convicted of crimes in the U.S. -- most of whom are in the country illegally -- are deported after serving their sentences, according to the Homeland Security Department's inspector general.

Maybe the dunces in the Senate will realize that there are more pressing issues to be addressed before worrying about bringing people 'out of the shadows'.

Anti-Fred hitpiece part trois

Read the headline: Analysis: Thompson Lacking Substance.

A concerted effort? I don't know. But someone please show me an equal amount of Osama hitpieces.

Thursday nite hybrid animal blogging

Octopus + Squid = Octosquid

Horse + Zebra = Zebrula

Another anti-Fred hitpiece

Walter Todd Houston does an excellent job dissecting Fred Thompson's ever-so-slanted 'bio' on Bloomberg's 'News' Service. I decided to do some fact-checking myself, and, lo and behold, gasp, one of the 'bio's' authors has done some politicking herself. Yes, that's $202 to Mr Heinz in the last Presidential election.

And have we forgotten this?

Day laborers shower us with culture, irrigation

LMAO at this piece from the Washington Times:

Harry Thomas Jr. is the Ward 5 Council member who is meeting neighborhood opposition to his proposal to plant a day-laborer center near the Home Depot on Rhode Island Avenue Northeast.

The otherwise good residents of the Brentwood neighborhood take exception to the day laborers sleeping under their porches, drinking firewater on street corners and irrigating the trees, bushes and walls in their midst.

It is a cultural thing, and the fine folks of Brentwood just do not understand. The need to understand those from a foreign land is important, especially if they have come all this way to sleep under your porch, imbibe in bottled spirits and relieve themselves whenever it is necessary.

The enlightened Mr. Thomas wants to do right by the laborers, illegal or not, and has secured $500,000 in taxpayer money to build the center. D.C. officials have not said whether they will check the immigration status of the day laborers who congregate there. We would hope they would overlook this tiny detail.

Redefining 'Unhinged'

Kos' diarists always seem to set the bar higher, but this one from ImpeachkingbushII is particularly hilarious:

So far I'm batting a thousand. Last year I was right about how many seats we would pick up in the November elections. On June 21st I predicted that "My money says Scooter Libby walks". He did walk as I predicted. Today, I'm predicting that Bush never leaves office voluntarily. Not in January, 2009. Not ever!

Read the whole thing.

The Fred pulls even with America's Favorite Yankee Fan

per Rasmussen:

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds New York Senator Hillary Clinton (D) tied with former Tennessee Senator Fred Thompson (R) in an Election 2008 match-up. Both candidates attract support from 45% of voters. Given a Clinton-Thompson match-up, 5% of voters say they’d pull the lever for some other candidate and 4% are not sure.

And its not a blip but big mo:

Compared to our previous survey of these matchups, conducted early in June, Clinton has lost a net five points against both Thompson and Romney. In May, Clinton led both of these GOP hopefuls by three points.

The IBD on Clintonian Justice

The Investor's Business Daily gives us a Remembrance of Pardons Past in light of the liberal blowback over the Libby commutation:

Clinton commuted sentences for 16 members of the Puerto Rican separatist group FALN. That group had set off more than 100 bombs in the U.S., and the 16 had been convicted for a number of violent crimes, ranging from sedition to bomb-making.

Why would Clinton show such a tender heart for terrorists? Could it be he knew Hillary would need Puerto Rican votes to be elected in New York? We'll entertain alternative explanations, but that one so far seems to fit best.

Clinton also pardoned carnival operators Edgar and Vonna Jo Gregory. How did carnival operators get on his radar? Turns out they had loaned Hillary's brother, Tony Rodham, $107,000, which he never repaid. He didn't have to, as it turns out. Clinton stamped that debt "paid in full" with his pardons.

Then there was Carlos Vignali, a cocaine trafficker whose sentence Clinton commuted. And Almon Glenn Braswell, who was found guilty of mail fraud and perjury but won a pardon.
Why the pardon? Braswell and Vignali each paid Hillary's other brother, Hugh Rodham, $200,000, hoping he could win them clemency. Rodham returned the money, but only after the scandal became public.

Remember Marc Rich? He was pardoned for tax evasion. His ex-wife, Denise Rich, made substantial gifts to the Clinton library and to Hillary's senatorial campaign. Think there was a connection?

By the way, Rich later showed up in another scandal — the U.N.'s oil for food affair. Despite his pardon, he was hardly contrite.

We could go on. And on. For example, both Tyson Foods and Sun Diamond were fined millions of dollars for giving illegal gifts to Clinton's former Agriculture Secretary Mike Espy. Yet, somehow Espy himself was found innocent. How's that for equal under the law?

Others also found grace under Clinton's pardon frenzy — former Rep. Mel Reynolds (found guilty of sexual assault on a child and later of bank fraud); Susan MacDougal (pardoned for her role in the Whitewater scandal); and President Clinton's brother Roger Clinton (pardoned for earlier drug convictions).

UPDATE: The impeached ex-Prez can't just bury his head for a fortnight, or run off to Dubai to give a speech, but, of course, feels the need to comment on the Libby commutation.

UPDATE: The White House fires back:

WASHINGTON (AP) - The White House on Thursday made fun of former President Clinton and his wife, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, for criticizing President Bush's decision to erase the prison sentence of former aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby.

"I don't know what Arkansan is for chutzpah, but this is a gigantic case of it," presidential spokesman Tony Snow said.

Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., has scheduled hearings on Bush's commutation of Libby's 2 1/2-year sentence.

"Well, fine, knock himself out," Snow said of Conyers. "I mean, perfectly happy. And while he's at it, why doesn't he look at January 20th, 2001?"

Refreshing.

Speaking of W's daughters

Here is the blog of some scrimpy lawyer turd named Mitchell L. Silverman who wrote a complaint letter to the Recording Industry Association of America alleging violations of copyright laws by Jenna and Barbara Bush because they made an exercise CD for pops for Father's Day. Turns out the weasel was wrong. He had to retract his complaint:

It has come to my attention that noncommercial copying of digital music recordings may not be an infringement under Title 17 of the U.S. Code, "Copyrights." I apologize for any confusion I may have caused or any mistaken impression I may have given.

I've always hated the expression, 'get a life', but I can't craft an expression that is more apropos.

When dealing with a 'private family matter'...

... what is one to do but go on the Today Show.


NEW YORK (AP) -- Al Gore says he's dealing with his son's arrest in California "as a private family matter."

Al Gore the Third, who is 24, was arrested early yesterday. Sheriff's deputies say he was driving about 100 miles per hour on the San Diego Freeway. They arrested him on suspicion of possessing marijuana and prescription drugs.

The former vice president and Democratic presidential nominee appeared on the "Today" show on NBC this morning. He says he's glad his son is safe and is "getting treatment." He also says he's thankful no one was hurt.

Al Gore the Third completed substance abuse counseling to settle pot possession charges in suburban Washington in 2003.

What was that about Jenna and Barbara? And Al Gore the Third. Please splainz that to me.

People, people

Stop fornicating on top of walls:

Fornicating Couple Falls off Roof, Both Die

Two South Carolina residents in their early 20's are dead after what police believe may have been a sexual encounter gone horribly wrong. An unwitting cab driver came across the two nude, lifeless bodies at around 5 a.m. Wednesday morning.

Police were summoned immediately, and an investigation began. The bodies were located next to a building, and police began to search the area. A check of the building's roof, some fifty feet off the ground below, revealed the couple's clothes.

The practice need not be that dangerous though. A British couple practices safer sex:

A young British courting couple had a miraculous escape when they plunged nearly 50 feet from a wall in Majorca because their fall was broken by a tree.

Leanne Hanley, 21, from Blackpool, and boyfriend Nicholas Maxwell, also 21, from nearby Preston, climbed up to the view point next to their holiday apartment block after a night on the town in the brash resort of Magaluf, on the holiday island's south coast.

They were indulging in what police described as "an amorous game" when they fell from the wall at 5.30am on Sunday.

As they plunged to the ground they crashed through the branches of a fig tree which broke their fall and saved their lives.

Another vile potential Presidential candidate

BLOOMY BUILDING AN '08 TEAM OF ELECTION PROS

If you think the US needs a pompous, annoying, disjoint President that wants to regulate your fat intake, the places you have a cig, then you have a feller. Not the nanny state, but the Bloomie one. The latter will be more vile. Believe.

The Newt that won't die

and we dont want you to, but please, please, disappear. Newt, deal with reality. Stop flirting with a Presidential run.

Your personal problems make you unelectable, and you arent worth the effort of a defense. You resigned as Speaker under a cloud. You abandoned the constituents that elected you. You were usually a sane voice of conservative reason but I am still dumbfounded by the 'man made global warming' confession to your debate partner, John Kerry. I don't think conservatives should lend any support to such a zeitgeist surfer.

*Brought to you by a blogger that supports Fred and only Fred.

Dhimmi London Mayor insults non-Muslims

... but still gets it half right.

The bad:

"In this city, Muslims are more likely to be law-abiding than non-Muslims and less likely to support the use of violence to achieve political ends than non-Muslims," he told BBC Radio.

He noted that terrorist acts had been carried out in London over the years by various groups including for example far-right groups. For years the British capital was wracked by violence by the Irish Republican Army (IRA).

The good:

But he said criticized the government's ties with Saudi Arabia, saying it remained unclear if Riyadh had stemmed huge amounts of funding which he said flows from the country.

"We have got to understand that when we talk about the Wahhabi strand of Islam, which is very intolerant, our major problem in dealing with it is that it flows out of Saudi Arabia," he said.

He said Wahhabi was the official religion of the Saudi royal family, and noted that Riyadh was one of the main buyers of British arms.

"For a very long time, politicians at national level were refusing to be sufficiently critical of the fact that the Saudi regime didn't clean up its act," he said.

The near-sighted Mayor can see the problem on the next continent but has trouble seeing it in his backyard.

Political pondering of the day

I am thinking that Elizabeth Edward's newfound political zeal and her valiant defense of 'civil' political discourse (but of course the daughter of a VP's sexual orientation is always fair game) is the most contrived political theater since Hillary pronounced herself a lifelong Yankees fan.

What we shouldn't learn from the Duke lacrosse hoax

Let's consider what we need not learn from the Duke lacrosse hoax, courtesy of the righteous Reverend Tom Ehrich, who, apparently has lost his way:

Duke should be leading the way in a national reassessment of student life, campus ethics, entitlement and privilege, academic freedom, gender relations, underage alcohol use, exposure to liability for failure to provide a safe environment, and the role of over-involved parents.

Finally, the three exonerated young men need to learn from this episode. They have had a sobering look inside the criminal justice system, which should give them sympathy for the many who are unfairly accused.

"national reassessment of student life" - I call for a national reassessment of drunken, stoned stripper life

"campus ethics" - I think prosecutorial ethics are a bit of a pressing lesson

"entitlement and privilege" - maybe they 'bought' justice, but they shouldn't have had to. It is the duty of the JUSTICE system to provide it freely.

"academic freedom" - the right to accuse innocent students of grievous crimes doth not fall under the banner of academic freedom. The Duke 88 be damned.

"gender relations" - drunken and emotionally unstable strippers should do as little relatin as possible

"underage alcohol use" - yawn

"exposure to liability for failure to provide a safe environment, and the role of over-involved parents" - these two are so incoherent and ridiculous - I'll just relegate them to the 'wtf' category

"sympathy for the many who are unfairly accused" - shouldn't this lesson be directed towards the lying accusers and their enablers in the JUSTICE system?

hat tip: DIW