November 27, 2006

We're #2!

Sigh. Kirkwood lost to Raymore-Peculiar Saturday night. Too many mistakes led to a 42-32 defeat.

Congratulation to Ray-Pec on their fourth consecutive final and third consecutive Class 5 Missouri football state championship. Wow, there's kids graduating from that school that have never not won the state championship.

Posted by Charles Austin at 10:09 PM | Comments (0)

Woo Hoo!

I won again!

Posted by Charles Austin at 10:06 PM | Comments (0)

November 23, 2006

As Dr. Nick Would Say...

Happy Thanksgiving, everybody!

Posted by Charles Austin at 09:30 AM | Comments (1)

November 22, 2006

Ku Ku Kachoo

Me: I want to say two words to you. Just two words.

Angry Leftists: Yes, sir.

Me: Are you listening?

Angry Leftists: Yes, I am.

Me: Plastic turkey.

Posted by Charles Austin at 01:54 PM | Comments (0)

Saturday Night

Daughter #1's High School will be playing for the Missouri Class 5 Football State Championship at the Edward Jones Dome on Saturday night. Of course, this means the JV squad will be playing in the annual Turkey Day game, which even got a mention in the NY Times. That's 100 years of Turkey Day games between Kirkwood and Webster Groves.

Perhaps my friend Chris would agree that Webster Groves should play their varsity against Kirkwood's JV squad to make a game of it.

Go Kirkwood Pioneers!

Posted by Charles Austin at 01:40 PM | Comments (0)

Is Our Children Learning?

Do you know what my favorite part of this story is?

A high school Spanish teacher has resigned because of an extra-credit assignment he gave that included anti-American phrases and defended the Palestinian group Hamas.

It was an extra-credit assignment.

Posted by Charles Austin at 01:28 PM | Comments (0)

So, Pre-emptive Strikes Are OK?

Next thing you know, she'll be telling the members of her caucus that they are either with her or against her:

Pelosi readying a pre-emptive House agenda

Posted by Charles Austin at 01:25 PM | Comments (0)

"Very Harsh Words"

Well, to be fair, that is the only weapon in the UN's arsenal:

After leaving Sudan with some very harsh words, the U.N. Emergency Relief Coordinator has issued a forceful call to action on the deplorable conditions in Darfur.

Posted by Charles Austin at 01:22 PM | Comments (1)

She Says This Like It's a Bad Thing

Stupid seperation of powers:

Former attorney general Janet Reno has taken the unusual step of openly criticizing the Bush administration's anti-terrorism strategy -- joining seven other former Justice Department officials in warning that the indefinite detention of U.S. terrorism suspects could become commonplace unless the courts intervene.

How can anyone use the word "unusual" when it comes to former Clinton Administration members engagaing in criticism of the current administration, especially when there are legacies to be protected and indictments to be avoided?

Posted by Charles Austin at 01:18 PM | Comments (0)

All Your Childrens Are Belong to Us

Just a spoonful of good intentions helps the statism go down, the statism go down, the statism go down...

A team of "supernannies" is to be sent to some of Britain's most deprived areas to help parents control antisocial children, Tony Blair revealed today. The parenting experts will be sent to 77 areas with high levels of unruly behaviour, teenage pregnancies and truancy from school.

The £4m scheme will also force the parents of disruptive children to attend parenting courses.

Writing in the Sun newspaper, the prime minister claimed the initiative would tackle the root causes of crime and disorder.

Heaven help us when they discover that the real root cause of disuprive children is ..., wait for it ..., having children.

Posted by Charles Austin at 01:12 PM | Comments (0)

Curtains?

Pelosi's Next Big Call

Posted by Charles Austin at 01:08 PM | Comments (0)

Too Much Word Association Football

Drudge has a headline, but the link doesn't work:

Cops 'fear suits more than death'...

Law suits?

The suits (higher-ups)?

Suits (having to wear formal attire)?

Damn, now I won't be able to go to sleep tonight unless Drudge gets his link fixed.

Posted by Charles Austin at 01:07 PM | Comments (1)

No Doubt

What O.J. meant to say was that the title should have been, "If I Didn't Do It, Here's What I Wouldn't Have Done":

O.J. Simpson's ill-fated "If I Did It" book and TV project was not a confession to the murders of his ex-wife and her friend, and that the title wasn't his idea, he said in a radio interview Wednesday.

Posted by Charles Austin at 01:03 PM | Comments (0)

November 19, 2006

There Are Still A Few Bastions of Strength and Perseverence

John Howard:

PRIME Minister John Howard has hailed the "heroic" perseverance of Iraqis since the US-led invasion toppled Saddam Hussein three years ago as proof that the military operation has not been disastrous.

Stepping up his defence of the coalition's presence in Iraq amid daily bombings, murders and kidnappings, Mr Howard rejected suggestions that the invasion had been a disaster.

Condoleezza Rice:

THE US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, has described as unacceptable a French proposal to tax the imports of countries that refuse to sign the Kyoto Protocol.

In the sharpest divide yet between the two main global approaches to dealing with climate change, Dr Rice said the idea would be "wildly unpopular" and predicted it would never be implemented.

John Bolton:

See below.

Joe Lieberman:

Connecticut voters who worried that Sen. Joe Lieberman might embrace calls by Democrats to withdraw from Iraq can rest easy — that option doesn't appear to be on his plate.

The Senate Armed Services Committee convened a hearing last week to discuss the situation in Iraq and Lieberman made it clear through his questioning that he does not favor a withdrawal.

Posted by Charles Austin at 10:27 AM | Comments (0)

Cymru am Byth

In other news, is it still appropriate to call it Great Britain?

A SPICY sausage known as the Welsh Dragon will have to be renamed after trading standards’ officers warned the manufacturers that they could face prosecution because it does not contain dragon.

I suppose there's no point in mentioning hot dogs or hamburgers at this point.

Posted by Charles Austin at 10:19 AM | Comments (2)

Going Down Swinging

I hear that John Bolton will not be confirmed to the post of UN Ambassador. Well, there's little reason to hide his true feelings then, is there?

The U.S. Ambassador to the UN, John Bolton, launched a scathing attack on the United Nations Friday.

Bolton was furious over the adoption by the General Assembly of a resolution which said the assembly regretted the deaths of 19 civilians in an attack by the Israeli military in the town of Beit Hanoun last week.

Despite the resolution being significantly watered down at the behest of the United States, and being passing by 156 votes to seven, Bolton launched a blistering attack on the UN, and many of its members.

"Many of the sponsors of that resolution are notorious abusers of human rights themselves, and were seeking to deflect criticism of their own policies," he said.

"This type of resolution serves only to exacerbate tensions by serving the interests of elements hostile to Israel's inalienable and recognized right to exist."

"This deepens suspicions about the United Nations that will lead many to conclude that the organization is incapable of playing a helpful role in the region," Bolton continued.

"In a larger sense, the United Nations must confront a more significant question, that of its relevance and utility in confronting the challenges of the 21st century. We believe that the United Nations is ill served when its members seek to transform the organization into a forum that is a little more than a self-serving and a polemical attack against Israel or the United States," he said.

"The Human Rights Council has quickly fallen into the same trap and de-legitimized itself by focusing attention exclusively on Israel. Meanwhile, it has failed to address real human rights abuses in Burma, Darfur, the DPRK, and other countries," Bolton charged.

"The problem of anti-Israel bias is not unique to the Human Rights Council. It is endemic to the culture of the United Nations. It is a decades-old, systematic problem that transcends the whole panoply of the UN organizations and agencies," he continued.

And this is the transnational progressivism Democrats want to yield our sovereignty to.

Posted by Charles Austin at 10:11 AM | Comments (0)

Today's Non-News Story

There are Americans going to Iran?

Iran's conservative-dominated parliament, in a tit-for-tat measure, passed a bill on Sunday obliging the government to fingerprint U.S. citizens entering the Islamic Republic, state radio reported.

The proposal, backed by 135 votes to 26, also requires a complete security check on every American who enters Iran. The bill now goes to the hardline Guardian Council, a constitutional watchdog body, before becoming law.

This isn't exactly a new thing:

U.S. journalists are already fingerprinted on arrival in Iran but it has not been law until now.

Posted by Charles Austin at 10:07 AM | Comments (0)

Necessity Is the Mother of Invention

A swarm of these little buggers would scare the bejebus out of me:

Israel is using nanotechnology to try to create a robot no bigger than a hornet that would be able to chase, photograph and kill its targets, an Israeli newspaper reported on Friday.

The flying robot, nicknamed the "bionic hornet", would be able to navigate its way down narrow alleyways to target otherwise unreachable enemies such as rocket launchers, the daily Yedioth Ahronoth said.

It is one of several weapons being developed by scientists to combat militants, it said. Others include super gloves that would give the user the strength of a "bionic man" and miniature sensors to detect suicide bombers.

The research integrates nanotechnology into Israel's security department and will find creative solutions to problems the army has been unable to address, Deputy Prime Minister Shimon Peres told Yedioth Ahronoth.

"The war in Lebanon proved that we need smaller weaponry.

Killer bees indeed. This reminds me a little of what Isaac Asimov described in the Foundation Trilogy.

Posted by Charles Austin at 10:04 AM | Comments (1)

An Observation

After the last half dozen or so general elections, Big Media has usually started speculating on whether whichever party lost can survive. Strangely, there hasn't been as much of this kind of speculation after the recent election, even though everyone says the the Republicans took a thrashing. I attribute this to two five things:

1. This election was a referendum on George W. Bush more than anything else, and regardless of how it turned out, he will be gone in two years. The next boogeyman isn't yet obvious, and the candidates (Guiliani, Romney, McCain, Thompson?) are kind of tough to demonize, though all for different reasons.

2. The Democrats have sought to become the Know Nothing Party, or if they do know, they aren't telling. Nobody is really excited about what this portends.

3. Joe Lieberman. His election showed the the Democratic National Committee is not that strong or particularly relevant. It also shows, yet again, the relative irrelevance of the Kos Kids and their ilk. And if Joementum does a little Joe-jitsu, the Senate goes back to the Republicans.

4. Late at night as they review their thoughts just before they go to sleep, a number of powerful people think a lot about the fact the Al Gore and John Kerry have been selected as the Party's poster boys in the last two presidential elections. Nobody not drinking the kool-aid rests easily about this and what it means about their candidate selection processes.

5. Hillary Clinton can't win a national election and they know it, despite her apparent coronation for 2008.

Posted by Charles Austin at 09:58 AM | Comments (0)

I Blame Bush!

Funny how we didn't hear much about this before the election:

Oil tumbles to lowest level since June 2005

Posted by Charles Austin at 09:40 AM | Comments (0)

Back to Basics

Next time you take some gruff from somebody who complains that Americans are so ignorant of the world, just keep in mind that some well educated Europeans haven't yet mastered the basics of our form of government, not that that will stop them from commenting on it:

Republican strategists plotting their party's comeback after it lost control of Congress have identified the "first lady" of Democrat politics as a key target in the 2008 White House campaign — even though she will not be running.

Senior party operatives told The Sunday Telegraph that they are already co-ordinating plans to attack Nancy Pelosi, the liberal Californian congresswoman and Speaker-in-waiting who suffered a damaging rebuff from her own party caucus last week.

Well Hans and Phillip, actually she will be running in 2008. Every member in the House of Representatives has to run for reelection every two years. What's funny is they even were told this:

"Two years of Pelosi gives a good idea of what four years of Hillary will be like," said Tom DeLay, the Republican powerbroker who ran his party in the House before he was caught up in a lobbyist corruption scandal.

But hey, don't confuse 'em with facts when there's venom to spew.

Posted by Charles Austin at 09:39 AM | Comments (0)

November 17, 2006

George Allen, Call Your Office

Whoa! I didn't see this coming:

Santorum: No oval office run

Who knew that not winning your home state could doom a presidential bid. I mean, aside from Al Gore.

Posted by Charles Austin at 03:14 PM | Comments (0)

Ha Ha

Apparently, they've run out of mirrors in Brussels:

European Union lawmakers on Thursday denounced world powers for a failure to tackle the ongoing Middle East crisis, highlighting the inaction of the United States to push for peace in the Palestinian-Israel conflict.

For inaction, read instead actions we don't like.

Posted by Charles Austin at 03:12 PM | Comments (0)

Brent Musberger Knows All, Brent Musberger Sees All

Sure, like Georgetown against Villanova in 1985:

N Korea nuke 'a matter of time'

Posted by Charles Austin at 03:08 PM | Comments (0)

Hand Up Vice Handout

Sure, conservatives walk the walk better than liberals, but, no doubt, their hearts are purer:

Syracuse University professor Arthur C. Brooks is about to become the darling of the religious right in America -- and it's making him nervous.

The child of academics, raised in a liberal household and educated in the liberal arts, Brooks has written a book that concludes religious conservatives donate far more money than secular liberals to all sorts of charitable activities, irrespective of income.

In the book, he cites extensive data analysis to demonstrate that values advocated by conservatives -- from church attendance and two-parent families to the Protestant work ethic and a distaste for government-funded social services -- make conservatives more generous than liberals.

Personally, I believe that deep down everyone wants to help. It's just that some seem more anxious and comfortable offering to help with other people's money than with their own.

Posted by Charles Austin at 03:02 PM | Comments (1)

Hans Brix Can't Nix Prix Trix

Ah yes, the old effective verification measures trick:

Former U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix said Friday that North Korea would one day master nuclear weapons technology despite its apparently less-than-successful atomic test, and he warned that the world must avoid striking a quick disarmament deal that lacks effective verification measures.

Blix said verification would be the key to ensuring compliance in any nuclear accord with Pyongyang, as the country returns to six-nation talks on its weapons program.

"I have no illusion it will be easy," he said.

I have no illusions it will be, period.

Posted by Charles Austin at 02:56 PM | Comments (0)

Adventures in Headline Writing

State plans probe as Foley grieves for his father

Um, ok.

Posted by Charles Austin at 01:41 PM | Comments (0)

Sure, We're At War

Albeit one with apparently meaningless consequences for near treasonous activity:

Federal transportation officials and a private security firm at San Francisco International Airport worked together to undermine a federal investigation of passenger screening at security checkpoints, according to a report released Thursday by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

For 16 months ending last year, Transportation Security Administration employees tipped off screeners from Covenant Aviation Security that undercover agents were on their way to the airport's checkpoints to test whether the screeners were properly inspecting passengers and their carry-on luggage, the report said.

Despite the charges, the private security firm was rehired two weeks ago with a $314 million, four-year contract at the airport to screen passengers and checked bags. Employees of the firm and the security agency were disciplined as a result of the investigation but none lost their jobs.

It is really hard for me to take airport security seriously if those responsible for it won't.

Posted by Charles Austin at 01:38 PM | Comments (0)

As Elvis Costello Once Sang, "Tiny Steps, Almost Real, Tiny Fingers You Almost Feel"

Blah, blah, global warming, blah, blah:

The Kyoto Protocol is supposed to be a tiny, first step towards solving climate change -- the planet's top problem alongside conflict and poverty, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan told the Nairobi conference this week.

Oh? I though the planet's top problem was creeping iliberal utopian statism as personified by the transnational progressivism advocated by self serving bodies like the UN, but that's just my opinion. Meanwhile, here's what we get from these folks flying aournd the world and staying in high priced accomodations:

In a proposal seen irrelevant by some delegates, Russia seeks a decision on allowing developing countries, which have no targets at present, to volunteer to cut their emissions.

I was going to compliment the body for at least recognizing how silly this was, but then I read this:

Besides debating how to cut further the greenhouses gases blamed for global warming, the conference had meant to turn the spotlight on how to adapt to climate changes -- floods, droughts, desertification and rising sea levels. But the meeting has delayed until next year a decision on who should run funds to help poor countries adapt to climate change. "Rich countries should have achieved more at this conference and made more firm commitments to combat climate injustice," said Sharon Looremeta of environmental group Practical Action.

The eat the rich mentality dies hard.

Posted by Charles Austin at 01:26 PM | Comments (0)

It's About Time Somebody Stepped Up to the Job

Frenchwoman May Be First to Lead France

Posted by Charles Austin at 01:18 PM | Comments (0)

Actually, Contrasts Would Be More Accurate

Bush compares U.S. wars in Vietnam, Iraq

But, hey, why expect journalistic accuracy from Big Media to pick up now.

Posted by Charles Austin at 01:14 PM | Comments (0)

Injustice

This bastard should have been executed by a firing squad for raping a 14-year-old girl, killing her and her family to cover it up, and just generally making life miserable for Iraqis and all of our troops there by committing these heinous acts and then lying about it. Instead he gets to plea bargain down to a maximum of up to 90 years and someday he will be eligible for parole.

It's enough to make you want to quit trying. This sentence is a disgrace to the honorable men and women of the U.S. Marines. Fixing Iraq is damned hard work and this doesn't make it any easier.

Posted by Charles Austin at 01:09 PM | Comments (0)

November 16, 2006

Road Thrill

I think I could have safely gone the rest of my natural life without hearing about this:

Meet Bryan James Hathaway, alleged venison lover. The Wisconsin man, 20, is facing charges that he had sex last month with a dead deer. Hathaway, who previously has served time for killing a horse he intended to sexually assault, allegedly found the deer in a ditch alongside a roadway.

Vyvyan was right, Bambi did do a Disney Nasty.

Posted by Charles Austin at 09:23 PM | Comments (1)

The Funniest Thing I've Read All Day

Last night CNN’s Larry King confessed to Roseanne Barr that ...

Who cares what it was about?

Posted by Charles Austin at 09:19 PM | Comments (0)

Laugh?

I thought I'd die:

Terrorists using comedy websites to lure recruits

George Carlin had something to say about this once. Come to think of it, so did I.

Posted by Charles Austin at 05:19 PM | Comments (0)

00-Zero

In fairy tales, a Green Prince is what is otherwise known as a frog:

Prince Charles has told some of his staff to use bicycles in the fight against global warming. He is even prepared to travel to London by commuter train from a station near Highgrove.

Charles wants to be remembered as the "Green Prince" and is making a personal statement by planning a radical shake-up of his travel plans.

Please note that the words "kiss", "Camilla", "sodding", "mouth" and "shut" were not used in any of the above sentences.

Posted by Charles Austin at 03:45 PM | Comments (0)

East End Boys, West End Girls... West End Girls

The body language on display here is fascinating:

steny.jpg

Democractic nominee for Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Ca), and Democratic House Majority Leader nominee Steny Hoyer (D-Md), (C) as Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa) applauds following the House Democratic Caucus Leadership elections on Capitol Hill, November 16, 2006. (Larry Downing/Reuters)

Posted by Charles Austin at 03:36 PM | Comments (0)

Not That There's Anything Wrong With That...

He forgot to add:

Nevada's senators _ both winning leadership posts in opposite parties _ pledged Wednesday to stay close on issues of mutual interest, but not too close.

"He and I just like each other, and I think we set a good example here in the Senate," Majority Leader-elect Harry Reid said of colleague John Ensign, who was chosen Wednesday by Senate Republicans to head their campaign fundraising operation.

"He's a Republican, I'm a Democrat, we work together on issues that are important to the state of Nevada. And I wish other people had the same nonaggression pact we have," Reid told reporters. "It's not a 'Brokeback Mountain' situation," he added, referring to last year's film about two gay cowboy lovers.

DOWNDATE: James Taranto channels from the same muse.

Posted by Charles Austin at 02:32 PM | Comments (0)

Seppuku

If only this headline were true:

O.J. SPILLS HIS GUTS IN TV TEARFEST

Posted by Charles Austin at 02:30 PM | Comments (0)

Amateur

Everybody knows you use cauliflower rather than broccoli for this hex:

A renowned black magic practitioner performed a voodoo ritual Thursday to jinx President George W. Bush and his entourage while he was on a brief visit to Indonesia.

Ki Gendeng Pamungkas slit the throat of a goat, a small snake and stabbed a black crow in the chest, stirred their blood with spice and broccoli before drank the "potion" and smeared some on his face.

Or, at least that's what Howard Dean says.

Posted by Charles Austin at 02:28 PM | Comments (0)

Down Goes Murtha, Down Goes Murtha

Speaker Pelosi strikes out in her first at bat:

Democrats picked Rep. Steny Hoyer to be House majority leader on Thursday, spurning Rep. Nancy Pelosi's handpicked choice moments after unanimously backing her election as speaker when Congress convenes in January.

Meanwhile, Democrats have to explain to Big Media that, "these aren't the internecine battles you're looking for":

Wisconsin Rep. Dave Obey, who will chair the Appropriations Committee, said the divisions exposed by the race doesn't pose a problem for Pelosi.

"There's such universal respect and affection for Nancy. She's gutsy as hell and she's willing to take a chance..., push the envelope. "It was bitter between the two candidates, I suppose, but it wasn't bitter among the members of the caucus. People get over this stuff."

The Democrats did Nancy Pelosi a huge favor today. This morning Drudge had a headline up with Murtha saying he had the votes, even though the final tally turned out to be 149-86. How effective was she going to be with a #2 that couldn't count, was self delusional, or both?

Posted by Charles Austin at 02:21 PM | Comments (0)

Milton Friedman, R.I.P.

The markets are up, but we are all poorer today.

Posted by Charles Austin at 02:17 PM | Comments (0)

November 15, 2006

Global Warming

Hot air:

Automakers and manufacturers, beware: There's a new environmental policy boss in town, she scowls a lot, and two of her favorite phrases are "global warming" and "extensive hearings."

The Democrats' coming takeover of Congress is expected to feel pressure for policy change on a number of fronts, from Iraq to taxes, but the starkest change may come at the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, when Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., will surrender the gavel to Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif. Her appointment was announced Tuesday, but won't take effect until January.

Inhofe rejects a wide scientific consensus that human use of fossil fuels is largely responsible for catastrophic climate change, calling it "the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people." He's accused environmental activists of exploiting people's fears to raise money. And he's blocked legislation aimed at curbing global warming.

Boxer, in contrast, is a fiercely liberal environmental activist. She has railed against Inhofe, crusaded for cleaner drinking water and led wilderness protection efforts in her home state and for Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Her likely counterparts in the House of Representatives - Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., incoming chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee, and Rep. Nick Rahall, D-W.Va., of the Resources Committee - are less sympathetic to environmentalists. Dingell's constituents include the auto industry, and Rahall's include the coal industry. Then too, of course, George W. Bush remains president, and he's not exactly a global-warming crusader, either.

But Boxer said Tuesday that starting in January, her priority will be to begin "a very long process of extensive hearings" on global warming.

Posted by Charles Austin at 12:04 PM | Comments (0)

Cue Vera Lynn

We'll meet again:

Iran's president said on Wednesday his country would press on with its nuclear program "until the end" and would not be stopped by the West, which fears the Islamic Republic is trying to build atomic bombs.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was speaking a day after the U.N. nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said in a report Iran was still stonewalling probes aimed at determining whether its plans are peaceful.

"The Iranian nation stands for its nuclear right and will go ahead until the end," Ahmadinejad said in a speech to a rally in western Iran, broadcast live on state television.

Time is on the Iranian nation's side. With each passing day, (the West) must retreat one step and acknowledge the rights of the Iranian nation and with each passing day the Iranian nation goes ahead toward the summits of victory," he said.

"By the grace of God, we will hold a great nuclear celebration before the end of this year, all over Iran," he said, without elaborating. The Iranian year ends in March 2007.

Oh boy! A nuclear celebration, "Mahdi, I can walk!"

Posted by Charles Austin at 12:02 PM | Comments (0)

But, But, I Thought There Weren't Any WMDS?

Climate change is as serious as WMD: Annan

Posted by Charles Austin at 11:53 AM | Comments (0)

If You Want More of Something...

Subsidize it:

Palestinian terror groups and security organizations in the Gaza Strip received $2 million from a U.S. source in exchange for the release of Fox News employees Steve Centanni and Olaf Wiig, who were kidnapped here last summer, a senior leader of one of the groups suspected of the abductions told WND.

The terror leader, from the Gaza-based Popular Resistance Committees, said his organization's share of the money was used to purchase weapons, which he said would be utilized "to hit the Zionists."

He said he expects the payments for Centanni and Wiig's freedom will encourage Palestinian groups to carry out further kidnappings.

This is from the occasionally-batshit-crazy World Net News, but the implications remain spot on.

Posted by Charles Austin at 11:52 AM | Comments (0)

There's Stupid...

And then there's O.J. Simpson:

Fox plans to broadcast an interview with O.J. Simpson in which the former football star discusses "how he would have committed" the slayings of his ex-wife and her friend, for which he was acquitted, the network said.

The two-part interview, titled "O.J. Simpson: If I Did It, Here's How It Happened," will air Nov. 27 and Nov. 29, the TV network said.

Simpson has agreed to an "unrestricted" interview with book publisher Judith Regan, Fox said.

"O.J. Simpson, in his own words, tells for the first time how he would have committed the murders if he were the one responsible for the crimes," the network said in a statement. "In the two-part event, Simpson describes how he would have carried out the murders he has vehemently denied committing for over a decade."

I'm speechless.

Posted by Charles Austin at 11:49 AM | Comments (1)

Fight Back

Reading Ralph Peter's latest, there's one thing about Iraqis that I still can't understand:

YESTERDAY, 80 terrorists in police uniforms raided an Iraqi research institute in Baghdad, rounded up 100-plus male students, loaded them into vehicles in broad daylight and drove away.

They couldn't have pulled it off without the complicity of key elements within the Iraqi security services and the government: "our guys."

The students probably will be executed and dumped somewhere. Partly for the crime of wanting to study and build a future, but primarily just to step up the level of terror yet again.

There is more than enough evidence that if you are kidnapped in Iraq these days that you are going to end up dead, and probably tortured first. Given that, why are these folks so passive about their abduction and near certain death seemingly day after day? The closest analogy I can come up with here in the US is how the folks on Flight 97 took it upon themselves to fight back, and that lesson only took a couple of hours to sink in.

If Iraqi's are so going to be so damn passive in the face of people they know are going to kill them, then even I am beginning to think that we should leave. We cannot ultimately gaurantee their safety, only they can. I know they need a lot of help, but damn, have some pride, some courage, and enough gumption to give yourself a chance and if necessary go out fighting rather than with your hands and feet bound to make your killer's job as easy as possible.

Do one hundred young men facing a dozen or so men with guns stand much of a chance. Not really, but it is better than the chance they'll have once they have all been tied up and all their killers then will need is a large knife and a video camera. It may be a little hoary, but the oft cited question of what would have happened if every Jew in the Warsaw ghetto had fought back against the Nazis rather than calmly accepted their fate seems appropriate here.

A little Fabrizio Quattrocchi would go a long way against these lethal bullies.

Posted by Charles Austin at 11:47 AM | Comments (0)

November 14, 2006

Good News

Well, here's something I can finally feel good about today:

University of North Dakota athletic director Tom Buning says a weekend court ruling that allows UND to hold a football playoff game without dropping its Fighting Sioux nickname came just as the playoffs were about to be scheduled.

Attorneys were notified of Judge Lawrence Jahnke's ruling Saturday night, hours before the playoff pairings were announced. The NCAA had banned UND from playing at home because of its Fighting Sioux nickname, but the school asked for a court order to put the ban on hold until the case was resolved.

If only my alma mater's Board of Trustee's had the intestinal fortitude of the folks who lead the University of North Dakota.

Posted by Charles Austin at 09:41 PM | Comments (0)

Just In Case You Had Any Illusions About What Is Coming V

It's back:

SOVEREIGNTY for Hawaiians appeared to have been shelved for a long duration in June when the Senate voted to block it from proceeding. The proposal has gained new life with the Democratic takeover of Congress, although questions remain about the sentiment of the House and whether President Bush would veto the measure. Those issues need to be put to the test.

Meanwhile, ground was broken yesterday for the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial on the Mall. So much for Dr. King's dream for his children that they "... will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character."

(Fortunately, I resisted the little devil on my left shoulder suggesting I make a crude remark about M. Akaka vice macaca.)

Posted by Charles Austin at 09:25 PM | Comments (2)

The Stuff That Emerges After the Election

Wow, I thought that only Republicans were tainted by Jack Abramoff, but then I get my news from Big Media:

Sources close to the investigation say Abramoff has provided information on his dealings with and campaign contributions and gifts to "dozens of members of Congress and staff," including what Abramoff has reportedly described as "six to eight seriously corrupt Democratic senators."

Look, there's Elvis!

Posted by Charles Austin at 08:45 PM | Comments (0)

Perhaps the Role of Attack Kitty Is Still Available

Republican Party's Martinez: won't be "attack dog"

Posted by Charles Austin at 08:26 PM | Comments (0)

You Don't Know Jack

With apologies to Isaac Hayes, I offer this theme song for Jack Murtha as he tries to beat down Steny Hoyer for the Democrat Majority Leader position in the US House of Representatives...

Who's the Dem ex-Marine
That's a vote machine to all Kos Kidz?
Jack!
Ya damn right!

Who is the man that would risk his seat
For his brother Dem?
Jack!
Can you dig it?

Who's the "hawk" that wants to cop out
When there's danger all about?
Jack!
Right On!

They say this cat Jack is a bad Murtha...
Shut your mouth!
I'm talkin' 'bout Jack.
Then we can dig it!

He's a complicated man
But no one understands his cut and runnin'
Vote Jack!

Posted by Charles Austin at 08:22 PM | Comments (0)

Something I Can Do That Instapundit Can't

Have a post/reader ratio > 1.

In fact, my post/reader ratio will always be greater than Instapundit. So, I got that going for me.

Posted by Charles Austin at 08:09 PM | Comments (1)

HDTV Monitor Bleg

I'm getting ready to buy a large screen (>50 inch) HDTV monitor for my new office's conference room, primarily as a display device driven by a laptop. We are having a custom table built so that power and cables will come up through the floor into the middle of the table for convenience and saftey. Alas, I've become depressed and confused reading about HDMI, DVI-D, and the inability of most common HDTV monitors to accept a signal from a PC even if it has a HDMI or DVI-D port. And what genius thought it was smart to carry only the video but not the audio over a new format like HDMI or DVI?

Right now I'm thinking about buying a device for about $600 that I can plug just about anything into (HDMI, S-Video, RCA) and it then sends the signal over two CAT5 cables to another box that then plugs into the HDTV monitor. This solves a couple of problems by now requiring that we only fish CAT5 cables though conduit rather than all the various cable formats. But it still leaves me with the problem of what monitor to buy. I am quite hapy with my SONY LCD HDTV I have at home, but, as noted above I don't think this will work that well connected to a PC. I think I prefer LCD to plasma for cost and longevity reasons, but other than that, I have an open mind.

Any good references, thoughts or suggestions out there?

Posted by Charles Austin at 06:58 PM | Comments (1)

Microsoft IE Sucks

I usually defend Microsoft from most of the attacks they find themselves under, but noW I've got a burr in my saddle about them. Without thinking, I downloaded IE 7.0 yesterday. Now, every time I try and insert a hyperlink I first have to go through three clicks to allow a scripted window to run. From reading the help file, the only solution to this is to allow Active X controls to run on all websites, which am loathe to do with the other less computer literate members of my household surfing the web.

Anyone have any ideas? And, no, buy a Mac isn't what I consider a legitimate suggestion.

Posted by Charles Austin at 06:39 PM | Comments (2)

Double Standards

This is remarkable:

A state senator accused of sexual misconduct with an 18-year-old page resigned Tuesday rather than be judged by his colleagues, but said he intends to show up for the new South Dakota legislative term that begins in January.
Democrat Dan Sutton's lawyer said the lawmaker did not want to be judged by a lame-duck Senate in a special session led by some of his political enemies.

The session had been scheduled for Nov. 27 to look into allegations that Sutton groped a male high school student who served as a page. Lawmakers could have expelled, censured or otherwise disciplined or exonerated Sutton.

Despite the allegations, Sutton, 36, was re-elected last week to a new two-year term with 57 percent of the vote.

The new Senate seated in January can take up the issue.

Issue?

Posted by Charles Austin at 06:31 PM | Comments (0)

Holmes or Clouseau?

Which sleuth comes to mind when you read this?

U.N. sleuths find plutonium at Iran atom site: IAEA

Posted by Charles Austin at 06:25 PM | Comments (0)

Kerry On My Wayward Son

What the Murtha is going on here?

House won't revote this week on Vietnam

Damnit, we're going to withdraw from somewhere right now!

Posted by Charles Austin at 06:22 PM | Comments (0)

The "New Spirit"

Bipartisanship for thee, but not for me:

A House Republican and Democrat, in the new spirit of bipartisanship, are urging President Bush to name defeated Republican Rep. Jim Leach to be the next U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

As one of my old bosses once told me, you can't call someone ugly all week and then ask them to the dance on Saturday night. If the Republicans fall for this "new spirit of bipartisanship" because they are now in the minority, my disgust with them will become complete. I'll also note that Big Media had little interest in the "old spirit of bipartisanship" when their friends where in the minority.

I'm not terribly familiar with former Representative Leach, but this description does not warm the cockles of my heart as he sounds like the Democrats' favorite kind of Republican, i.e., a moderate, a non-fighter, an opponent of the liberation of Iraq, and a loser:

"He is the most diplomatic politician I have ever met," Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., said of Leach, a moderate from Iowa known for his professorial sweaters, his low-key, nonpolitical approach to issues and his opposition to the war in Iraq. [snip...]

But Leach may not be helped by his record of being near the top of those Republicans who vote most often with Democrats. In 2002 he was one of six House Republicans to vote against the resolution authorizing the use of force in Iraq, and he was among the first Republicans to call for a military withdrawal from Iraq.

Yep, he'd be perfect for the UN.

Posted by Charles Austin at 06:13 PM | Comments (0)

Your Turn

Ok, this makes fifteen posts today. Weird, how my hits decrease once I start blogging again.

Posted by Charles Austin at 05:14 PM | Comments (0)

Weird

I thought that Diane Feinstein was a senator of California, not just San Francisco:

The Santa Clara Chips of the National Football League?

That was Sen. Dianne Feinstein's disparaging suggestion Tuesday as she ramped up her campaign to keep the San Francisco 49ers in San Francisco. And if they moved to Santa Clara, she said they should not take the ``49er brand name with them.''

Sounding very much like the former mayor of San Francisco she is, Feinstein even suggested looking at legislation to block a franchise from keeping a team name when it leaves a city.

``I have deep concern about taking the name of the team,'' she told a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on NFL broadcasting disputes. ``You can't move to Santa Clara and call yourself a 49er.''

Now, had Senator Feinstein inveighed against the rather ridiculous Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim last year, I could take her just a little more seriously. But, hey, at least all the really important issues have been resolved if the Senator has time for this.

Posted by Charles Austin at 05:08 PM | Comments (0)

So, Tell Me Again Why We Want to Be More Like the EU

In a bit of meanspiritedness infused with schadenfreude, I've been laughing at the Airbus A350 fiasco for a couple of years. You really can only go against reality for so long before your words can no longer support the weight of your fantasies.

Posted by Charles Austin at 05:04 PM | Comments (0)

But Won't A Nuclear Winter Solve Global Warming?

Not to mention reducing overpopulation:

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahamdinejad told a news conference today that Iran's long-term target should be to install 60,000 centrifuges to enrich uranium, saying the fuel was for civilian energy production only.

"That should be a cold jolt to the rest of the world,'' State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said.

"What that leads to is an Iranian nuclear weapon, which would be an incredibly destabilising event in the course of Middle East history,'' he said.

Iran has said it is looking to install 3000 centrifuges by March 2007 and ultimately run 60,000 centrifuges - compared to two cascades of 164 centrifuges each it has at its Natanz plant to enrich uranium on a research scale.

While Tehran says its goal is civilian energy production, experts say that 50,000 centrifuges could produce 20kg of weapons grade uranium in under a month.

And goodness knows, they are going to need peaceful nuclear power to generate all the electricity needed to run these centrifuges.

Posted by Charles Austin at 05:00 PM | Comments (0)

The Sky Is Falling, No Really, We Mean It This Time

What's amazing about the following announcement is that Paul Erlich's fingerprints can't be found anywhere on it:

LOSSES from extreme weather could top $US1 trillion ($1.3 trillion) in a single year by 2040, a UN climate conference was told today.

Perhaps he should sue them for stealing his copyrighted apocalyptic ideas.

Posted by Charles Austin at 04:55 PM | Comments (0)

If You Don't Know Where You're Going, Any Path Will Get You There

Never again do I want to hear anyone say that no plan can't beat the current plan:

Poll: Most Doubt Dems Have Plan for Iraq

Posted by Charles Austin at 04:53 PM | Comments (0)

A Bridge Too Farsi

Well, to be fair, this is a defensive maneuver that has a long military pedigree:

EU burning its bridges to Iran: Khorram

Posted by Charles Austin at 04:50 PM | Comments (0)

Just In Case You Had Any Illusions About What Is Coming IV

Funny, it isn't unexplained to me;

International Atomic Energy experts have found unexplained plutonium and highly enriched uranium traces in a nuclear waste facility in Iran and have asked Tehran for an explanation, an IAEA report said Tuesday.

But, hey, don't worry because:

The first cracks in the united front over Iraq between Tony Blair and President Bush appeared last night as the Prime Minister offered Iran and Syria the prospect of dialogue over the future of Iraq and the Middle East.

I find it interesting that they've got enough plutonium to have some thrown away.

Posted by Charles Austin at 04:46 PM | Comments (0)

In Other Moral Equivocation News...

Vatican Cardinal unable to distinguish between walls meant to imprison and walls meant to protect:

A senior Vatican cardinal on Tuesday condemned the building of walls between countries to keep out immigrants and said Washington's plan to build a fence on the U.S.-Mexican border was part of an "inhuman program".

Cardinal Renato Martino made his comments at a news conference presenting Pope Benedict's message for the Roman Catholic Church's World Day of Migrants and Refugees, in which the Pope called for more laws to help immigrants integrate.

"Speaking of borders, I must unfortunately say that in a world that greeted the fall of the Berlin Wall with joy, new walls are being built between neighborhood and neighborhood, city and city, nation and nation," said Martino, head of the Vatican's Council for Justice and Peace.

See, the US is just like East Germany. But, hey, he's got nothing to worry about anyway.

Posted by Charles Austin at 04:41 PM | Comments (0)

The Worst Economy In the Last 50 Minutes

Good thing this news didn't come out last week:

Core Inflation Drops by Record Amount

Posted by Charles Austin at 04:39 PM | Comments (0)

"Words, Words, Words" -- Hamlet

In today's installment of dumbing down the populace for political correctness, I offer you the following:

The New Oxford American Dictionary Announces the Word of the Year: 'Carbon Neutral'

Is it really too much to expect that anyone who publishes a dictionary can count to two and consider that a plural instead of a singular grammatical entity? Or did I miss the memo where a space became the 27th letter?

Posted by Charles Austin at 04:36 PM | Comments (0)

Just In Case You Had Any Illusions About What Is Coming III

Voter's remorse?

The incoming U.S. Congress will review the law mandating 700 miles of fence along the U.S.-Mexico border, and may seek to scrap the plan altogether.

Anyone?

Posted by Charles Austin at 04:32 PM | Comments (0)

Global Smarming

If only Big Media applied the following logic to other matters:

"The skeptics who get vocal are vilified," said Marc Morano, director of communications for the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. The committee chairman, Republican Senator James Inhofe of Oklahoma, has enraged environmentalists by calling global warming alarmist and a hoax.

Morano was invited to be part of a panel discussion on how best to convey the issue of climate change in the media. His fellow panelists, including Jules Boykoff of Pacific University in Oregon, argued that skeptics actually get too much attention in the press.

Efforts by journalists to create "balanced" stories on global warming allow "a handful of skeptics . . . to be treated as equals to thousands of scientists," said Boykoff, an assistant professor in the department of politics and government.

Note the "science" credentials of Professor Boykoff. I agree that the journalistic technique here is ridiculous, but this doesn't in and of itself invalidate the criticism of global warming.

Posted by Charles Austin at 04:30 PM | Comments (0)

Just In Case You Had Any Illusions About What Is Coming II

Don't say you weren't warned:

That was fast. A mere two days after Democrats capture Congress claiming they wouldn't raise taxes, former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin tells them they should do so anyway.

It's amazing what kind of mandate comes with a 1% victory.

Posted by Charles Austin at 04:21 PM | Comments (0)

Just In Case You Had Any Illusions About What Is Coming

No need to pretend any longer:

[Senator Clinton] also said Democrats would focus on improving the quality and affordability of health care _ a touchy matter for the former first lady, who in 1993 led her husband's calamitous attempt to overhaul the nation's health care system. The failure of that effort helped Republicans win control of both the Senate and House the following year.

"Health care is coming back," Clinton warned, adding, "It may be a bad dream for some."

And, she didn't say, a nightmare for everyone else.

Posted by Charles Austin at 04:20 PM | Comments (0)

November 12, 2006

Adventures in Headline Writing

Ahmadinejad Blasts U.N. Security Council

Let's hope we don't see this one again in a few years with an entirely different meaning.

Posted by Charles Austin at 11:00 PM | Comments (0)

They Call It Worker's Paradise, Kiss It Goodbye

Cuba won't abandon socialism just yet

No? Ok. How about now?

No? Ok. How about now?

No? Ok. How about now?

Posted by Charles Austin at 09:56 PM | Comments (0)

The Mote in the Reality-Based Community's Eye

I know it may come as a surprise to the folks at the Center for Constitutional Rights who are suing Donald Rumsfeld in Germany over Abu Ghraib, but Camp X-Ray at Guantanamo isn't the only "political prison" in Cuba. Not by a longshot. Any chance they'll take a shot at suing Fidel Castro for his crimes against humanity before he dies?

Posted by Charles Austin at 09:44 PM | Comments (0)

Brass Knuckles

Speaking now as an independent observer, I think the Democrats are making a tactical mistake in talking up the bipartisan approach to politics. Their popularity is probably about as high as it is going to get while President Bush's continues to sink and the Republicans can't quite figure out what to do next. if the country is truly tired of Republicans and what they stand for then make the most of it. Now is the time to kick them while they are down and seize as much power as possible. The best defense remains a good offense. They should make the most of their 2% advantage in the Senate and 3% advantage in the House to keep driving the same messages home that won this time again and again leading up to 2008.

Not that they'll listen to me.

DOWNDATE: Then again, they do appear to be holding to their true colors:

Democrats say will push for Iraq withdrawal

Pelosi Puts Weight Behind Murtha in Leader Bid

All I was trying to say above was that these are the same people they were last week. Winning an election rather closely by a small margin isn't going to make them better people. They remind me a bit of Detective Sergeant Jack Vincennes in L.A. Confidential when Captain Dudley Smith advises him not to try and do the right thing, since he doesn't have the practice.

Posted by Charles Austin at 09:26 AM | Comments (0)

November 11, 2006

Hats off to the CBC

Watching the CBC tonight, at the first intermission of the hockey game between the Montreal Canadiens and the Toronto Maple Leafs there was a special called Coach's Corner featuring Don Cherry. Tonight, they didn't talk about hockey. Instead, they read a letter from a Canadian Unit in Afghanistan that calls themselves the Crazy Eights. This unit has suffered a casualty rate of over 70%. Intheir letter they mentioned that they had received a signed picture from Don Cherry which they have placed prominently in the trench they live in and that they cannot wait to get back to the greatest country and the greatest game int he world. Don Cherry noted that while the war may not be popular, there is no excuse for not supporting these men and women and caring for the wounded when they return to Canada. Then, the CBC ran a spot where each of the forty-two Candian men and women in uniform and one Canadian diplomat that has fallen in Afghanistan was featured for about six seconds with their picture, their name and their unit while a patriotic theme, which I'm sorry to say could not recognize, played. I was deeply impressed by the respectful way this was done by the CBC without rancor or agenda.

Canada, you have my gratitude. And the CBC rose substantially in my eyes.

Posted by Charles Austin at 08:40 PM | Comments (0)

Google Growth

On July 7, 2002, I launched a Googlebomb that returned zero hits: Hyperspectral Eggplants. Just out of curiosity I googled it again today and it now generates 140 hits.

The world keeps getting ever more strange.

Posted by Charles Austin at 09:47 AM | Comments (0)

Onomatopoeia

Daughter #2 had a sleepover last night to celebrate her tenth birthday, Having lived through this, I propose that any gathering of six or more adolescent girls be called a cackle.

Posted by Charles Austin at 09:38 AM | Comments (1)

November 10, 2006

Pop Quiz

The NCAA considers three of the following four collegiate nicknames hostile and abusive:

Fighting Illini
Fighting Sioux
Seminoles
Fighting Irish

Which is the odd man in?

Special credit if you can also name the one that the NCAA does consider hostile and abusive but is unwilling to substitute its judgment for the judgment of the named tribe, or, in other words, the NCAA will allow them to continue to be abused, but only because they survived the genocide of the 19th century and now suffer from a variant of the Stockholm Syndrome.

Of course, not everyone agrees.

Posted by Charles Austin at 03:05 PM | Comments (0)

A Serious Question

Now that Democrats have actually taken over Congress, what is to stop President George W. Bush from going ahead and rather aggresively dealing with the Axis of Evil over the next two years?

Leave your serious answers in the comment section. Unserious comments will be deleted -- you have been warned.

Posted by Charles Austin at 02:22 PM | Comments (0)

Famous First Lines

"Call me Ishmael a Democrat." -- Joe Lieberman

Posted by Charles Austin at 01:51 PM | Comments (0)

It Just Comes Naturally

Way and means, baby:

A Democratic congressman from New York says he wasn't trying to insult Mississippi in published remarks Thursday, but a Republican colleague from Mississippi says Rep. Charles Rangel should apologize to the state.

Rangel, D-N.Y., was quoted in a Thursday article in The New York Times, saying: "Mississippi gets more than their fair share back in federal money, but who the hell wants to live in Mississippi?"

I'm sure he didn't mean it. Perhaps Charlie Rangel was too preoccupied with bringing back the draft!

Posted by Charles Austin at 09:57 AM | Comments (0)

Crude Title in Poor Taste Withdrawn

Iraqi president says Democrats told him they will not pull out quickly

Then again, perhaps President Maliki missed this:

George McGovern, the former senator and Democratic presidential candidate, said Thursday that he will meet with more than 60 members of Congress next week to recommend a strategy to remove U.S. troops from Iraq by June.

Posted by Charles Austin at 09:55 AM | Comments (0)

ET, Go Home

I guess this means that Ramsey Clark isn't sui generis:

'Aliens could attack at any time' warns former MoD chief

Maybe a general amnesty would help.

Posted by Charles Austin at 09:52 AM | Comments (0)

You Go, Earnest Young People

Please, just go:

Student leaders at a California college have touched off a furor by banning the Pledge of Allegiance at their meetings, saying they see no reason to publicly swear loyalty to God and the U.S. government.

The move by Orange Coast College student trustees, the latest clash over patriotism and religion in American schools, has infuriated some of their classmates...

Posted by Charles Austin at 09:47 AM | Comments (2)

Good Riddance

Lincoln Chaffee may bolt:

Two days after losing a bid for a second term, Sen. Lincoln Chafee said he was unsure whether he would remain a Republican.

Remain? But let's be honest, quitting after you've lost is about as lame as it gets.

Chafee said he waged a lonely campaign to bring the party to the middle. He described attending weekly lunches with fellow GOP senators and standing up to argue his point of view, often alone.

"There were times walking into my caucus room where it wasn't fun," he said, adding that he stayed with the GOP largely because it helped him bring federal dollars home to Rhode Island.

So, he only stayed a Republican for legal graft? Like I said, good riddance.

Posted by Charles Austin at 09:41 AM | Comments (1)

Stay the Curse

Surely this is a reverse psychology ploy:

A purported audio recording by the leader of Iraq's al Qaeda wing gloated over the resignation of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld as a top U.S. general said the military was preparing to recommend strategy changes.

Al Qaeda must really be worried about their prospects now that a redeployment to Okinawa is on order.

DOWNDATE: It gets better:

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Friday called U.S. President George W. Bush's defeat in congressional elections a victory for Iran.

And better:

Iran and Syria say that a Democrat-controlled Congress and the resignation of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld could relieve the pressure on them, officials from those countries said.

And better:

Half of America and the upper echelons of the US military may be cheering Donald Rumsfeld’s resignation from the post of Defence Secretary, but there was no rejoicing yesterday among those most directly affected by his decisions: the frontline soldiers in Iraq.

Troops expressed little pleasure at the departure of the man responsible for their protracted deployment to a hostile country where 2,839 of their comrades have died.

Indeed, some members of the 101st Airborne Division and other troops approached by The Times as they prepared to fly home from Baghdad airport yesterday expressed concern that Robert Gates, Mr Rumsfeld’s successor, and the Democrat-controlled Congress, might seek to wind down their mission before it was finished.

Meanwhile, word from North Korea is still pending.

Posted by Charles Austin at 09:37 AM | Comments (0)

November 09, 2006

Operation Iraqi Freedom

Under New Management:

Nancy Pelosi just told Brit Hume that the war in Iraq is "not a war to be won but a situation to be solved."

Since wars don't end in ties, this may give new meaning to the phrase sudden death overtime.

Posted by Charles Austin at 09:27 AM | Comments (2)

November 08, 2006

The Election

I celebrate once again our nation's ability to transfer political power peacefully while concurrently lamenting that "Let's Roll" has been replaced with "Let's Rollback," if not "Let's Rollover."

Posted by Charles Austin at 11:09 AM | Comments (0)

November 07, 2006

In Case It Was You Who Were Wondering Via MSN Search ...

This isn't me.

Neither is this.

Nor this. Though if I ever did need to reach a, ahem, psychic, why would I need his phone number or e-mail address?

Hmm..., maybe Bill Gates minions respond rather quickly to any negative post about him.

Posted by Charles Austin at 11:13 PM | Comments (0)

Micro, Perhaps. Soft, Without Question

Bill Gates says West not supplying enough IT talent

And here I thought the problem was that we weren't supplying enough unskilled talent, hence the need for a general amnesty for illegal immigrants and a guest worker program.

Posted by Charles Austin at 08:11 PM | Comments (0)

Poisoning the Well

I have come to despise the repeated attempts by some to destroy the fragile democracy we have by undermining our collective faith in the electoral process. I heard Andrew Kohut of the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press on Diane Rehms' show this morning noting that while a few percent of Republicans think their vote will not be counted, almost a third of all Democrats worry that their vote will not be counted properly. Disregarding the absolute absurdity of this large a number for the moment, what exactly did Mr. Kohut expect to discover in such a poll? The leaders of the Democratic Party have been quite liberal (no pun intended) with their sleazy innuendo and outright lies concerning voter suppression for years now, while Democrat operatives continue to go to jail for actual vote fraud. What we have here is nothing more than a self fulfilling poll prophecy.

And now the fun begins. Hot on the heels of Nancy Pelosi's claim that either the Democrats win or the Republicans have committed fraud and/or vote suppression, the lawyers continue to try and perfect the technique first tried in 2000 to have carefully selected judges award them elections they cannot win fair and square on the hustings.

Tennessee: Dems will go to court this afternoon to ask for polls to stay open

Indiana: 1:15 p.m. - Voting extended in Delaware County

Manchester, England (?): Lawyers poised as US vote hit by technical glitches

Posted by Charles Austin at 03:59 PM | Comments (1)

Least Funny Movie Ever Made

John Podhoretz thinks it is 2001: A Space Odyssey, not that he could be bothered with a hyperlink.

Off the top of my head, here are a few better choices IMHO:
The Killing Fields (Seriously unfunny stuff)
Triumph of the Will (I hate Nazis)
Paths of Glory (A btter Kubrick choice)
Macbeth (The Roman Polanski version)
The Exorcist (Still the scariest movie ever)

Posted by Charles Austin at 03:31 PM | Comments (2)

I Voted

It took an hour, since the new electronic touch voting machines were already down when I arrived at the polling station just before 0800, but I persevered. And, of course, there are fewer booths now to process the paper ballots since the new, now unfunctioning, electronic touch voting machines took up so much space. And then we had to fill in the little dots with ink pens instead of magic markers, which makes the process take even longer. Hmm..., could there be a conspiracy to suppress votes in a decidedly Republican area? Enquiring minds want to know!

I wonder if I violated any laws by actually using a picture ID to identify myself?

Posted by Charles Austin at 10:51 AM | Comments (1)

November 06, 2006

Is Genuflection a Contraction of Genuine Reflection?

Jeez, I go away for three months and it's like I died or something.

Posted by Charles Austin at 05:09 PM | Comments (2)

Bumper Stickers for Tomorrow

Imagine World Government, Now Imagine a Boot Stomping On a Human Face -- Forever

With Great Power Comes Great Irresponsibility

Save the Wails

By Any Chad Necessary

Baseball, Hot Dogs, Applie Pie and John Mellencamp Commercials

Vote McCaskill -- Talent Is Overrated

Vote McCaskill -- Who Needs Talent?

Free to Bet (Vote Yes on Amendment 5)

I'd Rather Be Killing Terrorists

Posted by Charles Austin at 02:13 PM | Comments (0)

November 05, 2006

"Guilty! Guilty! Guilty!"

What are the odds that Garry Trudeau will now pen a Doonesbury comic with anyone gleefully shouting this about Saddam's verdict with as much enthusiasm as Mark the DJ had for the guilty verdicts after Watergate?

And, of course, how long will it be before someone on the Angry Left questions the timing of the verdict? (Well, that didn't take long.)

DOWNDATE: If you find yourself arguing for mercy for Saddam Hussein, as the EU reflexively does, may I suggest that perhaps it is time to go back and check your first principles.

DOUBLE DOWNDATE: I think I'll stay up late and watch this tonight.

TRIPLE DOWNDATE: Beating the dead horse...

Saddam Condemned!

EU Condemns Saddam's Condemnation!

I Condemn the EU's Condemnation of Saddam's Condemnation!

Your turn.

Posted by Charles Austin at 10:13 AM | Comments (1)