The Plame Name Blame Game

In response to a request from i eat puppies, here are my thoughts on the Karl Rove dustup.

I think this shows just how desperate the Democrats and liberals are. There is no credible evidence that Karl Rove broke any law. Yet, the lack of evidence does not stop the media, the Democrats and the Left from trying and convicting him in the press and in the Press Room.

If there is evidence that Karl Rove, or anyone else, broke any law, why don't we leave it to the prosecutors to determine, and let the reporters report, instead of interrogate?

Two sources that I trust, former Judge Andrew Napolitano and Victoria Toensing, both say that Karl Rove did not break the law in question. Ms. Toensing wrote or participated in the writing of the law, which was narrowly drawn to address a specific issue, the efforts of former CIA agent Philip Agee to identify CIA covert operatives.

According to Judge Napolitano, there are two requirements for the law to be broken: First, the individual in question, Rove, must have had access to classified information directly through his official role. He didn’t, the Judge said.

Second, the information about the protected individual, Plame, must not have been made available prior to Rove’s alleged release of it. The Judge notes that Ms. Plame’s husband, Joe Wilson, had published that information himself prior to the discussion between Mr. Rove and the reporter (Cooper) on Wilson’s Web site!

There is a further question of whether Ms. Plame was undercover at the time all of this came about, and no one has said definitely that she was, and further they have not said that at any time is it clear that she would have been protected by this law, as far as I have been able to determine.

So, it appears that the Democrats are shooting their mouths off before they know what they are talking about. They have only one goal in mind, and that goal has nothing whatsoever to do with national security, or protecting the identity of covert operatives.

And, while we are on the subject of Valerie Plame's outing, have you ever wondered just why The New York Times refuses to reveal the source its reporter is now in jail to protect? Karl Rove released reporters from maintaining his anonymity, so it must not be Mr. Rove that the Times is protecting.

It seems to me that this is what the press ought to be wondering about. And as for the Democrats/liberals, they ought to know better. But as they say, “desperate people do desperate things.”

Technorati Tags: Rove, Plame, Agents, Democrats

Fighting Fire With Fire

Islamic terrorism is rampant in the world. Prior to 9/11 there were quite a few terrorist activities, several aimed at U.S. targets. Since 9/11, terrorists have targeted Madrid and London. Radical Islamists now stoop to killing fellow Muslims in Iraq who are trying to free themselves of the bonds of Islamic fundamentalism, an ancient and outdated religion/philosophy that enslaves its subjects. This they do in the name of Allah.

The Muslim extremists murder at will, without a care. They are not being held in check, or even actively opposed by their moderate brethren, if any moderate Muslims indeed exist. Islam looks at the world as black and white: Either you are Muslim or you aren’t. If you aren’t, you are fair game. As long as extremist, radical, fundamental Islam is in control, every non-Muslim is a potential target. We, the potential targets of these creatures whom the civilized world left behind centuries ago must fight back to end this threat to our way of life.

Islam is touted as a religion of peace. If so, Muslim terrorists pervert their religion to justify murder. They are cowards. Like pedophiles, they prey on the innocent and those unable to defend themselves. They attack schools, hospitals, buses and trains. They blow up cafes and shops. They cause enormous harm and pain. All in the name of Allah.

Terrorism cannot be tolerated. It must be fought fiercely, or else it will consume us. Its perpetrators must be hunted down and killed. Its supporters must be swiftly and painfully punished. The message must be broadcast far and wide that we will not allow them to succeed, and our actions must back that up.

Pockets of radical Muslims in the U.S. must be wiped out. Their members must be jailed or deported. We cannot condone or permit Islamic radicals inflaming anti-American sentiment within our own borders. This is not about free speech. It is not about freedom of religion.

Our borders with Mexico and Canada must be fortified. Our ports must be made safer. All illegal aliens, regardless of who they are or what they are doing here must be rounded up. Those who are merely here illegally will be deported. Those involved in criminal activity will be jailed. Those involved in terrorist activities should be beheaded.

Nations that support terrorism, or which condone terrorist activities within their borders will be warned that if terrorist planning and training groups are detected within their borders, the U.S. will go in and destroy them. We will apologize in advance for any collateral damage to lives and property, but it is their fault for allowing this activity to go on.

They will also be warned that if a terrorist act is traced to within their borders, their country, or a significant portion of it, will be wiped from the face of the Earth. They may need a demonstration up front to convince them we mean business, to get them motivated to find and destroy terrorist organizations within their borders.

The longer we sit back and make excuses, the more we try to blame ourselves for Muslim extremism’s atrocities, the stronger a foothold the extremists gain, the more numerous they become, and the longer and harder the fight will be to kill them.

Tags: Muslims, Islam, Terrorism, Terrorists, United States, Security, Defense

The War With Radical Islam

I found this post last night on El Borak's Myopia. It has some interesting points to make about the nature of Islam and the radical practitioners that visit such attrocities on the world, and whom the Western cultures must defeat and destroy before they destroy us.

No Civilians Left

Responding to questions about the terrorist attack on London, a Muslim scholar in the British capital asserted Islam makes no distinction between civilians and military targets.

"The term 'civilians' does not exist in Islamic religious law," said Hani Al-Siba'i, head of the Al-Maqreze Centre for Historical Studies in London.

Al-Siba'i, in an interview with the Arab news channel al-Jazeera, elaborated, "There is no such term as 'civilians' in the modern Western sense. People are either of Dar Al-Harb or not."

Dar Al-Harb refers to the Muslim concept of the world being divided into two "houses," the House of Islam and the remaining territories, the House of War, or Dar Al-Harb.
-- World Net Daily

Of course, he's correct, because there were no such things as civilians until 1648.

The "Peace of Westphalia," signed that year, ended the Thirty Years' War and ushered in the era of modern warfare. Prior to that time, there were no uniforms, no civilians, and no distinction between combatants and non-combatants. There was only conquest, and such played even greater havoc with civilians than today's warfare, if such can be believed.

Islam hearkens back to warfare between societies, not armies. There is only Islam and Dar al-Harb, them and us. And one or the other must die.

As modern states break their armies against the House of Islam, they are coming to realize one thing: Islam does not fight like we do. It does not recognize "rules" of warfare; it does not adhere to the Geneva Convention. We are not fighting a state, but a state of mind that can exist in anyone. Anyone can be a combatant, therefore anyone can be a threat, from the smallest child to the oldest harridan. And anyone can be a target.

We are, in a large way, going back to the future as warefare devolves into its pre-modern state. Terrorism and insurgency are not new things, but very old things. And it's going to play out very badly for us once the war is joined fully. Unfortunately for those "over there", it's going to play out much worse for them.

This is not a threat, but a fact. The day a suitcase nuke explodes in some American city, bringing down the economy as well as (quite possibly) the government, the day America forgets - in its rage - why we distinguish between combatants and non-combatants, there's going to be a desert of beaded glass from the Mediterranean to India.

It will be a sad day, indeed. But I feel it coming.

2005 Cost of Government Day - July 4

Cost of Government Day is the date of the calendar year on which the average American worker has earned enough gross income to pay off his or her share of spending and regulatory burdens imposed by all levels of government, federal, state and local.

Cost of Government Day 2005

Cost of Government Day for 2005 is July 4th, the same date as 2004. With July 4th as the COGD, working people must toil on average 185 days out of the year just to meet all the costs imposed by government. In other words, the cost of government consumes 50.4 percent of national income.

Cost of Government: Trends

• Cost of Government Day remained the same as last year’s revised date of July 4th and down 4 days from July 8th in 2003.
• Slower economic growth, a recession, the war, and corporate scandals were responsible for the substantial increases in previous years.
• However, it appears the index has turned the corner. COGD is now only slightly above 2001 levels.
• The reduction, however, is due to stronger economic growth in the wake of the Bush tax cuts.
• The acceleration of economic growth has produced more income for Americans which has mitigated the large increases in spending and regulations in 2004 and 2005.
• If growth occurred as initially projected then Cost of Government Day would be July 8th.
  However, COGD is still 5 days above 2000’s level.

Cost of Government: Components

Federal Spending

• After posting its first decline in four years, federal spending shot back up in 2005.
• The average American is working 4.9 days more in 2005 than was required in 2000.
• 97 percent of the increase in the total COGD since 2000 has been due to increases in federal spending.

State/Local Spending

• The average American will work 42.2 days to pay for state and local spending; signifying the third straight decline as a percentage of national income in as many years.
• Although the decline for 2005 is expected to be 0.6 days, the average American will work 2.7 fewer days in 2005 than was required in 2001.
• State and local spending as a percentage of national income increased every year from 1998 though 2002 and the recent three-year decline has put state and local spending back around 1999 levels.

Regulations

• Regulations as a percent of national income declined for the second straight year following a substantial increase in 2001 and 2002 then holding at the elevated levels in 2003.
• Regulatory costs have now fallen back to 16 percent of national income.
• In 2005, the average American will have to work 58.5 days out of the year to pay for all regulations, which is a decline of 0.6 days from 2004.
• In the broader picture, 2004 experienced a reduction of 1.6 days compared to 2003 and yet the average American is still working an extra day to pay for regulations than was required in 2000.
• Even with the 2004 and 2005 decline, the average American has worked a cumulative 10 additional days to pay for regulations since 2000.
  

More Information

• Complete 2005 Report (Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader)
• COGD By the Numers (Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader)
• COGD Chartroom (Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader)
• COGD State Tax Increases (Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader)
• COGD State Spending (Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader)

Tags: Government, Taxes, Spending, Labor, Tax Freedom Day

People Are As Weird As Anybody

How could we have forseen the dire consequinces of ramming a comet with a spacecraft? As a follow-up on the story about NASA creashing the Deep Impact spacecraft into a comet, NASA is being sued.

"Astrologer sues NASA

A Russian astrologer is suing Nasa after claiming the probe they smashed into a comet meant she had to rewrite all her horoscopes.

Marina Bai wants 170,000 in damages after Nasa's Deep Impact probe crashed into the Tempel 1 comet.

She said the collision will change the orbit of the comet and therefore affect the night skyscape, and she will be unable to read horoscopes properly without lots of extra research."

Source: Tomorrow's Trends

Tags: Comet, Lawsuit, Nuts, Astrology, NASA, Space

Burr Kills Hamilton in Duel in 1804

On July 11, 1804, Alexander Hamilton (right) and Aaron Burr (left) met on the dueling grounds at Weehawken, New Jersey, to fight the final skirmish of a long-lived political and personal battle. When the duel was over, Hamilton would be mortally wounded, and Burr would be wanted for murder.

Hamilton was a Federalist. Burr was a Republican. The men clashed repeatedly in the political arena. The first major skirmish was in 1791, when Burr successfully captured a United States Senate seat from Philip Schuyler, Hamilton's powerful father-in-law. Hamilton, then Treasury secretary, would have counted on Schuyler to support his policies. When Burr won the election, Hamilton fumed.

In 1800 Burr obtained and had published "The Public Conduct and Character of John Adams, Esq., President of the United States.," a document highly critical of Adams, a Federalist. Hamilton, its author, had intended it for private circulation. Its publication proved highly embarrassing to Hamilton and helped widen rifts in the Federalist Party. That same year, when Republicans Aaron Burr and Thomas Jefferson tied in balloting for the presidency, Hamilton lobbied Congress to decide the election in Jefferson's favor. Hamilton's campaign had little effect, but in the end, Jefferson emerged the winner.

It was the New York governor's race of 1804, however, that pushed the two men to violence. In that election, Burr turned his back on the Republicans and ran as an independent. Burr believed that if he won, he would regain power. The prospect of Burr leading New York mortified Hamilton, who despised and mistrusted Burr completely. In early 1804, Hamilton tried to convince New York Federalists not to support Burr.

Although Hamilton's campaign was probably not the deciding factor, the Burr campaign failed. Burr was crushed in the general election by Morgan Lewis, the Republican candidate, who was supported by George and DeWitt Clinton, powerful New York Republicans.

The battle for New York had been a bruising one, but in the end, a relatively minor slight precipitated the Burr-Hamilton duel. In February, 1804, a New York Republican, Dr. Charles D. Cooper, attended a dinner party at which Alexander Hamilton spoke forcefully and eloquently against Burr. Cooper later wrote a letter to Philip Schuyler in which he made reference to a particularly "despicable opinion" Hamilton expressed about Burr. The letter was published in a New York newspaper the "Albany Register."

Hoping that a victory on the dueling ground could revive his flagging political career, Burr challenged Hamilton to a duel. Hamilton wanted to avoid the duel, but politics left him no choice. If he admitted to Burr's charge, which was substantially true, he would lose his honor. If he refused to duel, the result would be the same. Either way, his political career would be over.

After Hamilton's and Burr's seconds tried without success to settle the matter amicably, the two political enemies met on the dueling grounds at Weehawken, New Jersey on the morning of July 11. Each fired a shot from a .56 caliber dueling pistol. Burr was unscathed; Hamilton fell to the ground mortally wounded. He died the next day.

Instead of reviving Burr's political career, the duel helped to end it. Burr was charged with two counts of murder. After his term as vice president ended, he would never hold elective office again. And his next plot to gain power would end with charges of treason.

Source: The Burr-Hamilton Duel

Tags: Aaron Burr, Alexander Hamilton, Duels, Politics, Rivalry, Murder, Treason

The Seduction of the Welfare State

Columnist and economist Walter Williams often hits the nail squarely on the head. The following excerpt comes from a column that does just that:

Dependency on government

Walter E. Williams

July 6, 2005

William Beach has just written a report for the Washington, D.C.-based Heritage Foundation titled "The 2005 Index of Dependency." Between 1962 and today, American dependence on government has more than doubled and shows little sign of abatement. The growth areas of dependency examined in the report are: welfare and medical care, housing, retirement income, education, and rural and agricultural services. The budgetary impact of dependency threatens perpetual budget deficits and high taxes, but to focus only on the budgetary impact is to trivialize the more devastating aspects of dependency.

Some of this has been commented upon by University of Texas professor Marvin Olasky in his 1992 book, "The Tragedy of American Compassion." One of the results of the growth of dependency on government is what Professor Olasky calls the charitable equivalent of Gresham's Law -- where bad charities drive out good charities.

Consider two options for a homeless family. A church or some other non-governmental entity might offer a homeless family shelter in return for the family's performance of chores such as cleaning the kitchen, mowing the lawn and washing windows. By contrast, a shelter financed by the government might provide that family shelter with no such obligation. The natural tendency for many homeless families would be to opt for the shelter where they have no obligation to give back. The Gresham's Law feature of this is the displacement of charity from the local and private level to the state, where all too often the state is unwilling or unable to distinguish between deserving and undeserving need.

There's another devastating feature of growing dependency on government. Professor Olasky says that prior to the 1960s, marriage was a more vital institution than today. It was a "compassionate anti-poverty device that offered adults affiliation and challenge as it provided two parents for each child." Before the '60s, the support for marriage was so strong that an unmarried woman who became pregnant usually would get married. Professor Olasky adds that 85 percent of teenage mothers in the 1950s were married by the time their babies were born. That's before we bought into the vision promoted by "experts" such as Johns Hopkins professor Andrew Cherlin, who said, "It has yet to be shown that the absence of a father was directly responsible for any of the supposed deficiencies of broken homes." The real issue, according to Professor Cherlin, "is not the lack of male presence but the lack of male income." That's a vision that says marriage and fatherhood can be replaced by a welfare check.

Read the entire column

Tags: Welfare, Dependency, Government, Compassion, Family, Marriage, Charities

From the Belly of the Beast

From PowerLine:

How is the American left responding to today's terrorist attacks in London? The posters at Democratic Underground represent the heart and soul of the left, and, arguably, of the Democratic Party. Check out this message thread for their views on the latest terrorist outrage. Warning, this is only for those with strong stomachs. The debate is basically between those who think President Bush is only indirectly responsible for the terrorist attacks, and those who think the administration actually carried out the bombings. Like this guy:

I am so cynical... That all I can think is "how convenient" that this happened to take the light off Karl Rove.

I don't think anything is on the "up-and-up" anymore, not even terrorist attacks.

Yes, that's it, all right. The Bush administration is now staging terrorist bombings to distract attention from Karl Rove. Fortunately, however, our leftist friends have their attention riveted firmly on Rove, and they won't be distracted by something as insignificant as terrorist attacks.

Tags: Religion, News, Politics, Terrorists, Bombing, London, Stupidity

Muslim Mafia

by The Windjammer

The hot news off the cool tube this morning is the bombing of at least seven sites in the major city of the United Kingdom. An Al Qaeda affiliate cell has claimed credit.

It is about time that the civilized world begin calling the perpetrators by their proper name. Maybe if we begin to face facts by telling what they are, a few of us who need desperately to do so will wake up to the fact that they are determined to destroy any and all law-abiding societies.

Muslim Mafia may not be an apt description, but neither were the terms Sicilian or Italian Mafia and Russian Mafia, but they identified the same sort of hoodlums embedded in those societies.

Muslims in general, just as Italians, Sicilians and Russians in general, are decent people. Most have no desire to destroy those who rationally disagree with their philosophies. It is the criminal element inside Islam composed of those who call themselves Muslims and who operate under the guise of religious fervor which is bent on destroying all civilization as the rest of us know it.

The Muslim Mafia has many allies in this country and in others. Some of those may truly have good intentions, but the actions they take actually afford support for the criminal element of Islam.

They have allies in both houses of Congress. All one need do to confirm that hypothesis is to listen to some of the spouting of the members of those "august" bodies. It is unlikely, at least I hope so, that congresspersons would willingly aid and abet such activities as are conducted by the terrorist organizations, but they do so with their support of pork barrel politics and partisan politics which are pushed so far as to be detrimental to the country.

Those who totally oppose development of energy sources which would be the property of or controlled by the United States are also guilty of aiding and abetting. I am sure that is not the aim of some of those groups, but the results are the same as if it were.

This nation is dependent upon petroleum as the primary energy source. It isn’t really, but we have made it so and we are strengthening that position every day. I have read a great deal of information which indicates that a large chunk of the money we have paid to others for oil has gone to support terrorist groups.

There is one particular group which has been pushing for release of detainees held at Gitmo. I believe that to be overt support for the various terrorist groups, all of which have a common objective.

There is considerable support for open borders and amnesty for illegal aliens. I don’t care what the ethnic background, illegal aliens can afford an excellent cover for persons bent on mayhem.

The hardest part for some of those who think that the Hollywood brains are just that is to accept the fact that the guy in the White House who used to wear pointy boots doesn’t have a head to match his toes. I don’t know how many times he and Tony Blair will have to be proven to have been correct in their assessment of the basic problem for those in the perimeter to quit harping on what they perceive to be WMD and focus on the real WMD’s which are being used against people every day. "People" includes non-military men, women and children, Christians, Jews AND Muslims, as well as any others who happen to be in the wrong place at the right time.

Muslims especially should understand that they are having their religion taken over by hoodlums of the worst kind who are doing that by proclaiming that they are the true believers.

True believers in WHAT?

Their sole objective is to establish a world-wide Mafia that will make the others look like a Sunday School youth group hayride on Saturday night.

Tags: Religion, News, Current Affairs, Current Events, Politics, Terrorists, Bombing, London,

An immigrant's musings on Durbin

By Edward Gorin
From JewishWorldReview.com

I was once a violinist for the Bolshoi Symphony in Moscow. I was once a Soviet dissident and refusenik. I was also the son of a man who served six years in one of Russia's gulag camps. Today, in my retirement, my mind has little to do besides muse on the idiocies of some of our politicians. So when I heard Illinois Senator Dick Durbin's comparison of the terrorist storage facility at Guantanamo Bay to "Soviets in their gulags," my mind reeled from such a flaunting of ignorance by an American senator — not to mention his trivialization of the experiences of my father and of countless other Russians who suffered unspeakably or perished in the gulags of the old Soviet regime.

Especially because I recalled how the mother of one of the eight Russian detainees at Guantanamo pleaded with authorities to keep her son at the prison camp. "I am terribly scared of a Russian prison or Russian court for my son," Reuters quoted Amina Khasanova in 2003. "At Guantanamo they treat him humanely. The conditions are fine." Her son, Andrei Bakhitov, had written her a letter saying, "I think there is not even a health resort in Russia on the level of this place."

The only way my assaulted brain was able to recover from Mr. Durbin's boggling remarks was by finding refuge in the Russian language. For it occurred to me that the word "Dur" means stupidity in Russian. From it are derived the words "durnoy" (stupid), "durak" (fool) and "durdom" (mental hospital). Now, "bin" is the American word for something like a hamper or a trash can or a container for all manner of refuse.

Americans should know that especially over the past decade, many American-English words feature prominently in the Russian language— for example, director, computer, region, manager, Internet, traffic, PR, sponsor and producer, to name just a few. (While the French may go out of their way to avoid using American terms such as "email", and come up with French substitutes, the Russian inferiority complex is not as strong.)

So there is actually a real possibility that very soon a new word will enter the Russian vocabulary: durbin (accent on the second syllable). And its meaning will be "a trashcan for idiotic ideas, suggestions, speeches, and hysterical parallels."

In fact, I'd like to be the first to suggest it.

Tags: Durbin, Gulag, Guantanamo, Prisoners, Abuse

U.S. Citizens Held on Insurgency Suspicion

WASHINGTON — The U.S. military is holding five U.S. citizens suspected of insurgent activities in Iraq, a Pentagon spokesman said Wednesday.

They were captured separately and don't appear to have ties to one another, spokesman Bryan Whitman said. He declined to identify them, citing a Pentagon policy that prohibits identification of detainees.

Three of those being detained are Iraqi-Americans; another is an Iranian-American; the fifth is a Jordanian-American, Whitman said. The three Iraqi-Americans were captured in April, May and June, officials said. The Iranian-American was captured May 17, one official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the cases.

One of the Iraqi-Americans allegedly had knowledge of planning for an attack, and another was possibly involved in a kidnapping. The third was "engaged in suspicious activity," Whitman said, declining to be more specific.

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Reality ruins 'Live 8' boasts

By Jennifer Harper
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Published July 6, 2005

Was the TV audience 3 million, 3 billion -- or maybe 3 kajillion? Depends on who's counting.

According to organizers of the "Live 8" concerts staged at nine cities Saturday, 85 percent of the planet could watch the "poverty awareness" music events studded with rockers, rappers and other musical elite.

Concert point man Bob Geldof told the press Monday that 3 billion viewers had tuned into the festivities.

Or did they?

According to Nielsen, fewer than 3 million watched ABC's two-hour special on the concerts, which featured Paul McCartney, Bono and the Who, among others. An additional 5 million watched the innovative video streaming of multiple concerts available at America Online.

The British audience, meanwhile, ranged from 4 million to 9 million, according to the British Broadcasting Corp., which received 400 complaints for airing foul-mouthed remarks from Madonna and other performers.

"Passions are running high, and many celebrities are emotional," a BBC spokeswoman explained.

Meanwhile, the French channel M-6 drew 1.9 million viewers, and two Italian broadcasts of the concerts pulled in a combined 2 million. In Canada, the TV audience numbered 10 million, the Hollywood Reporter said yesterday.

So simple math reveals the audience in these TV markets -- the biggest in the world -- to number about 30 million.

Concert organizers estimated live crowds of 205,000 in London; 150,000 in Philadelphia; 35,000 in Barre, Canada; 8,000 in Johannesburg; 200,000 in Rome; 150,000 in Berlin; 100,000 in Paris; and 10,000 each in Tokyo and Moscow.

In addition, 26 million people sent in text messages via their cell phones in support of the musical cause.

Though the roughly 27 million radio listeners were not factored, the number still does not bring the grand total of concert watchers in these markets to 60 million -- or about as many people as watch a typical Super Bowl in the U.S. alone.

Numbers aside, the "Live 8" events drew criticisms from charities and African leaders who felt the event was "too focused on money, rather than the problems of unequal trade and good governance in Africa itself," the BBC reported.

Others were offended by commentary from on-camera hosts, confused editing and heavy advertising of expensive goodies during a supposedly "anti-poverty" presentation.

"For one day while our culture united to do something good for the world, do we have to put the worst of it on display?" Ari Rabin-Havt asked in an article at the Huffington Post blog yesterday.

A few performers reported a spike in record sales. Some -- such as Pink Floyd and Mr. McCartney -- announced they would donate the profits to charity.

Others were not so generous. Pirated copies of the concert were available on EBay by Monday, but they were removed quickly from the online auction block after complaints from organizers and a record company that had bought the rights to the concert.

The pirates, Mr. Geldof told Reuters, were "cretins and scum."

Supreme Court Vacancy Petition

Join grassroots citizens from around the nation who are urging the President to nominate justices who strictly adhere to the meaning and intent of the Constitution!

The resignation of Justice Sandra Day O'Connor signals the beginning of a monolithic battle over the next Supreme Court nomination. A key swing vote on some of our nation's most high-profile legal cases over the last 25 years, the absence of O'Connor will have liberal interest groups throwing open their war chests to defeat any of President Bush's Supreme Court nominees.

Even with the so-called filibuster compromise, Democrats in the Senate have all-but pledged to oppose any nominee that does not pass their liberal litmus test.

There could not be a more critical time for Americans who are desperate to see order restored to the court and justices who strictly adhere to the original intent of our Constitution.

To counter the aggressive push by liberal groups to nominate and confirm moderate justices, Grassfire.org is moving to rally a minimum 250,000 citizens as quickly as possible for an EMERGENCY PETITION DELIVERY to The White House!

EMERGENCY ACTION ITEM: Grassfire is calling on all members of our online team to take immediate action in helping us rally and mobilize 250,000 citizen signers of our "Judicial Vacancy" petition. With the announced retirement of Sandra Day O'Connor, it is crucial that the grassroots voice is heard in the nomination process.

Grassfire will be delivering petitions to the White House during the first week of July.

If you are concerned about the future of our nation and want to stop Judicial Tyranny in America, go here, and alert your friends.

The Petition States:

To: President Bush, U.S. Senate

Whereas, the federal courts of the United States have imposed a tyranny of the judiciary on the American people by straying from the original meaning and intent of our U.S. Constitution, and

Whereas, judges and justices have extended the jurisdiction of the courts in ways that betray the meaning and intent of the Constitution, and

Whereas, some members of the U.S. Senate have obstructed the judicial nomination process and imposed an ideological blockade on President Bush's nominees…

Therefore, I the undersigned do hereby call on the President of the United

States to nominate and the U.S. Senate to speedily confirm nominees for the lower federal courts and the U.S. Supreme Court who:

1. Uphold the original meaning and intent of the Constitution and reject the so-called "living Constitution" model that allows judges to apply their own meaning to our founding document;

2. Uphold the intended jurisdiction of the courts as outlined by the Constitution and are committed to reversing the imperial court and the doctrine of judicial supremacy on all societal matters.

3. Are men and women of upstanding moral character who adhere to the historic values of our nation.

I oppose efforts to filibuster or block all nominees who meet these criteria and call for "Up-Or-Down" votes on all of President Bush's nominees. In addition, in the event the following individuals are nominated:

I would support the nomination of Antonin Scalia as Chief Justice.

I would support the nomination of Clarence Thomas as Chief Justice.

Re-establishing Perspective on African Poverty

Now that the hoopla has died down, here's a dash of cold water from Wes Pruden to restore common sense to the discussion of African poverty and other problems:

Slaking a thirst with a fire hose
July 5, 2005

This must be Tuesday, because poverty in Africa ended Monday.

All it took were a few chords, a lot of screaming, several acres of dirty hair and a cloud cover of lethal body odor. When the last guitar strings snapped Saturday night at those Live 8 concerts across the world, promoter Bob Geldof's over-the-hill gang had the prescription: just stuff a few billion dollars down the bottomless holes on the Dark Continent.

"This is the greatest rock show in the history of the world," cried the announcer at the London concert. Gushed a disc jockey on XM Satellite Radio: "This is the single most important concert ever."

No one wanted to stop there. Shouted one of the "musicians" of a group called Coldplay: "This is the greatest thing that's ever been in the entire history of the world."

Since "the entire history of the world" includes the extinction of the dinosaurs, the eruption of Krakatoa, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, the construction of the pyramids, the Resurrection of Christ and man's landing on the moon, Live 8 had to be impressive mush.

But this week the grown-ups take over, as grown-ups always must, when the G-8 economic summit commences in Scotland under the baton of Tony Blair, who not only wants to eliminate African poverty but to end global warming before Christmas.

The nations of the West must do something to ease the brutal pain of generations of unbridled greed, ignorant incompetence and rabid corruption in Africa. It's our Christian duty. But it will require discipline that is out of fashion in the 21st century, and it certainly isn't what the simple-minded noisemakers of Live 8 had in mind.

The example of Nigeria says it all. Figures released last month by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, as reported in the London Daily Telegraph, reveal that in the 45 years since Britain granted independence in 1960 a succession of despots squandered $387 billion (that's a "b," not an "m"), almost to the dollar the sum of all Western aid to all of Africa between 1960 and 1997. One of the despots, Gen. Sani Abacha, now safely dead, is believed to have looted Nigeria's vast oil reserves of more than $5 billion in just five years.

William Bellamy, the U.S. ambassador to neighboring Kenya, startled the guests at his Fourth of July garden party yesterday with just the kind of bluntness needed to keep African aid in realistic perspective. "Turning on the fire hose of international compassion and asking Kenya and other African nations to drink from it is not a serious strategy for promoting growth or ending poverty."

President Mwai Kibaki, the Kenyan president, was off at the African Union summit in Libya, helping other despots draw up their gimme list. In his absence, a deputy fired back at Ambassador Bellamy, complaining that Kenya had been singled out for criticism just because it doesn't take terrorism seriously. Aid for Africa, he told the ambassador, "should not get entangled with the politics of your dissatisfaction with a regime, unless you have decided on a regime change."

Nobody has, unfortunately, and that's exactly why aid for Africa is as close to hopeless as anything can be. Regime change all across the continent is sorely needed, even more than another concert by unemployed service-station attendants whanging away on electric guitars and other noisemakers.

Tony Blair's No. 2 man, George Brown, talks giddily of a Marshall Plan for Africa, but Nigerian despots alone have already pocketed the equivalent of six Marshall Plans. George C. Marshall's miracle scheme for rebuilding Europe worked because mature European leadership was determined to rescue the continent from the ravages of World War II. There's scant evidence that Africa's "leaders" want anything more than to drink from the fire hose.

Live 8 concerts are nice, and the photographs of starving children will break the coldest heart, but unless Europe and the West accompany aid with the kind of supervision nobody has the courage to impose, the aid will wind up in the usual Swiss banks, and 20 years from now another generation of children will die while naive hearts bleed.

Wesley Pruden is editor in chief of The Washington Times.

Canada Releases Triple Sex Murderer After Only Twelve Years In Prison!

Karla Homolka became the symbol of evil in Canada in 1993, when she was convicted of manslaughter and given 12 years for her role in the rapes and murders of Ontario teenagers Kristen French and Leslie Mahaffy. The prison term also included time for the 1990 death of her 15-year-old sister, Tammy Homolka, who died Christmas Eve after Homolka held a drug-soaked cloth over her mouth while both she and her husband raped her.

Neither the U.S., nor apparently Canada, has yet learned the lesson about releasing violent sex offenders on the innocent public. Twelve years for three murders is a pitifully inadequate sentence. It does not reflect concern for the good citizens of Canada, who deserve better.

Now the murderous sub-human is afraid for her life. Isn’t it a pity that she gets to feel some of the horror she visited on three people?

One of Homolka’s attorneys said she was in a "state of terror" about her release from a maximum-security prison outside Montreal. "She is paralyzed with fear, completely panicked," the lawyer told the Montreal Gazette. `When I saw her she was in a state of terror, almost in a trance. She cannot conceive of what her life will be like outside."

The lawyer argues that since Homolka's safety cannot be assured by police, the media must be prevented from reporting on her whereabouts to protect her from numerous threats against her life, mostly by Internet bloggers.

Quebec Superior Court Justice Paul-Marcel Bellavance last week rejected a similar plea, saying it violated press freedoms. The lawyer has asked the court to reconsider before his client's release.

I’m sweating bullets trying to work up some sympathy for this animal. It isn’t working. I don’t condone violence, but somehow in cases like this one, I’ll just look the other way and smile if something awful happens to this creature.

Perhaps justice will indeed prevail in the end.

Celebrate Freedom Today

The Declaration of Independence of the Thirteen Colonies
In CONGRESS, July 4, 1776

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. --That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. —Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain [George III] is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us, in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by the Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

The signers of the Declaration represented the new states as follows:

New Hampshire

Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton

Massachusetts

John Hancock, Samual Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry

Rhode Island

Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery

Connecticut

Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott

New York

William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris

New Jersey

Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark

Pennsylvania

Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross

Delaware

Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean

Maryland

Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton

Virginia

George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton

North Carolina

William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn

South Carolina

Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton

Georgia

Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton

Muslims, Like the Rest of the World, Engage in Dangerous Behavior

Here's and interesting story that shatters the myth of Islam as a superior "religion," if there are any who actually believe that. Emphasis has been added to selected portions:

AIDS threatens to overwhelm many predominantly Muslim countries, whose leaders remain in a state of denial of crisis, doing little to stem the deadly problem.

In one of the most comprehensive reports on AIDS covering the Muslim world, analysts warned of serious repercussions if governments continued to ignore the crisis.

A report released by the Seattle-based think tank, the National Bureau of Asian Research, said: "If leaders continue to ignore the problem, AIDS could debilitate or even destabilize some of these societies by killing large numbers of people in the 15-to-49-year age group."

"What is especially troubling to behold is the reluctance to admit that Muslims engage in exactly those same dangerous behaviors that support the transmission and spread of HIV/AIDS elsewhere," the report said, blaming "deeply rooted cultural and religious attitudes."

"This reluctance even to recognize the problem will only accelerate the epidemic and make it more difficult for the international community to provide meaningful support and treatment."

This would deprive the Muslim countries of some of their best, brightest and most economically productive members, say Laura Kelley and Nicholas Eberstadt, authors of the report.

An infectious-disease specialist, Miss Kelley previously had undertaken AIDS research for the U.S. National Intelligence Council and had studied other diseases for the U.S. Agency for International Development, the principal foreign-aid agency of the United States. Mr. Eberstadt is a scholar at American Enterprise Institute, a Washington-based think tank.

"An important take-home message for all Muslim nations is that real behaviors on the streets are sometimes in marked contrast to the expected behaviors of good Muslims, and that is something that leaders in these countries must deal with," Miss Kelley said.

The report said that even though the Muslim world was riven by premarital sex, adultery, prostitution, homosexuality and intravenous-drug use -- which help spread the HIV virus that causes AIDS -- many governments have been slow to respond to the rapidly spreading disease.

NASA Spacecraft Closes In on Comet

PASADENA, Calif. — A NASA spacecraft was speedily closing in on its target Friday, a comet scientists hope to smash open this weekend, producing celestial fireworks for the Independence Day weekend.

But the real purpose is to study the comet's primordial core.

Mission scientists said the Deep Impact spacecraft was 1 1/2 million miles away from Tempel 1, a pickle-shaped comet half the size of Manhattan.

"We're closing in very rapidly, but we're still very far away," said Michael A'Hearn, an astronomer at the University of Maryland and principal investigator of the $333 million project.

The cosmic fireworks will not be visible to the naked eye. But skygazers with telescopes can view the collision 83 million miles up from parts of the Western Hemisphere — in the United States, west of a line from Chicago to Atlanta, around 2 a.m. EDT Monday if all goes as planned.

Source: Fox News

FBI searches congressman's home

SAN DIEGO, California (AP) -- Federal authorities intensified their investigation into U.S. Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham's dealings with a defense contractor Friday by searching his California home and a yacht where he has stayed while in Washington, D.C.

Cunningham's lawyer called the searches "an appalling abuse of government power."

FBI agents searched Cunningham's $2.55 million mansion outside San Diego and a 42-foot yacht named Duke Stir, according to a bureau spokeswoman, who said agents from the Department of Defense and Internal Revenue Service assisted.

Authorities also searched the Washington, D.C., offices of defense firm MZM Inc. MZM's founder, Mitchell Wade, bought a home from the congressman in 2003 at what may have been an inflated $1.7 million price. Wade also owns the boat docked on the Potomac River where Cunningham said he has lived part-time since April 2004.

Cunningham could not be reached for comment Friday, but his attorney, K. Lee Blalack, released a statement saying he told the government Thursday the congressman is going to cooperate fully with the investigation.

"They will apparently not take 'yes' for an answer and have instead opted to use strong-arm tactics that were designed to generate headlines," Blalack said.

Overpopulation seen spawning terrorism

A report released Thursday by the Population Institute links increases in global terrorism to "unprecedented" population growth in the past 50 years.

Speaking at a press briefing, Werner Fornos, president of the Population Institute, said if population growth remains unchecked in certain regions there could be "serious security consequences" for that region and others surrounding it. Yemen, Palestinian territories and Afghanistan, breeding grounds for Islamic terrorists, have some of the highest growth rates in the world, he added.

"Particularly in Palestine, many women turn suicide bombers," Mr. Fornos said. "[Population congestion] leaves young women convinced this is what they need to be active in."

According to the Population Institute report, entitled "Breeding Insecurity: Global Security Implications of Rapid Population Growth," the world's population will increase from 6.5 billion today to 9.1 billion by 2050, with most of the increase occurring in developing countries.

Aside from the security threat, the Population Institute's report highlighted a number of other political crises that could mushroom into global security threats.

Former Swedish hostage claims bounty hunters took care of two kidnappers.

This guy has the right idea. It's about time someone took matters into their own hands, instead of, like the Italians, paying ransom and wringing their hands.

This from Free Republic:

Two down… Yesterday we noted that Ulf Hjertström, the sexagenarian Swede who survived a 67-day kidnapping ordeal in Baghdad, reportedly was paying professional bounty hunters a handsome fee to track down his erstwhile captors. Expressen, a Swedish tabloid, picked up the story and got in touch with Hjertström to get the lowdown. Hjertström, an oil broker whose career took him to Iraq 25 years ago, makes no bones about the decision to exact revenge on his abductors. “I’ve lived [in Iraq] for a long time. This is how things are done...

Another Jackass Pro Athlete's Inflated Ego Gets the Best of Him

These spoiled brats just don't understand that even though they make millions playing kids games, they aren't really special. They aren't allowed to abuse people just because they want to.

I hope this suspension is for 20 games this doofus would be pitching in, not just 20 games on the schedule. He ought to have to make a sincere personal apology to each of the guys he mindlessly attacked, and he ought to have to make an apology to all baseball fans.


Fox News Channel

NEW YORK — Texas Rangers pitcher Kenny Rogers was suspended for 20 games and fined $50,000 by Major League Baseball on Friday for an outburst that sent a television cameraman to the hospital and prompted a police investigation.

...

Rogers shoved two cameramen before Wednesday's game against the Los Angeles Angels in a tirade that included throwing a camera to the ground, kicking it and threatening to break more. The incident was captured on videotape and led to KDFW cameraman Larry Rodriguez being treated at a hospital.

Rodriguez filed an assault report, and Arlington police spokeswoman Christy Gilfour said the case was being investigated as a misdemeanor assault. Rogers hadn't been interviewed by investigators and no charges had been filed Thursday.

...

Rogers, who missed his last start with a broken pinkie he suffered during an outburst earlier this month, erupted at the cameramen as they filmed him walking to the field for pregame stretching before Wednesday night's game against the Los Angeles Angels.

The 40-year-old left-hander first shoved Fox Sports Net Southwest photographer David Mammeli, telli

One Down, Four to Go

Justice O'Conner Retires

Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor announced her retirement from the high court today, kicking off what promises to be an acrimonious summer confirmation fight over her successor.

The retirement took many in Washington by surprise, since speculation had centered on Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist--who suffers from thyroid cancer--to retire. Both sides had lined up to fight a massive and expensive battle over his replacement.

The fight over Justice O'Connor's replacement likely will be even more contentious because, unlike the reliably conservative chief justice, Justice O'Connor has been the swing vote in many 5-4 court decisions on the most significant court cases. Replacing her with a reliable conservative--which President Bush and the Republican-led Senate are expected to do--could shift the court to a more conservative route.

From The Washington Times

---

Hardly anyone approved of the Supreme Court's ruling allowing governments to take private property from its owner and turn it over to another private owner for private purposes. But that ruling is just one of many examples where the Court ruled improperly, failing to abide by the intent of the U.S. Constitution, and making decisions based upon nothing more than the prerogatives of the individual justices who formed the majority, and frequently worse, based on their perception of public opinion.

President Bush has his first opportunity to nominate a justice who will follow the original intent of the Constitution. Justice O'Conner in many ways distinguished herself in her 24 years on the SCOTUS. However, she not infrequently strayed from the intent of the Constitution.