Actor/Director Sydney Pollack Dies of Cancer

This was surprising:

LOS ANGELES (AP) - An agent for actor and director Sydney Pollack says the Academy Award winner has died. He was 73.

Agent Leslee Dart says Pollack died of cancer Monday afternoon at his home in Pacific Palisades. She says Pollack was surrounded by family.

Pollack appeared in some of the films he directed, including the gender-bending hit "Tootsie," which starred Dustin Hoffman. Pollack won producing and directing Oscars for "Out of Africa" in 1985.

I always enjoyed his work. He even starred in a clip that used to run before movies telling you to turn off your cellphone ("Is my directing interfering with your call?").

Congressman Admits Dems Were Insincere About Ending the War

A Dem congressman has committed the unpardonable sin - he admitted the truth:

Rep. Paul Kanjorski (D-Pa.) is seen in a video that has surfaced on the Web saying that Democrats “sort of stretched the facts” in the 2006 elections about their ability to end the Iraq war.

In a video, posted to YouTube on Thursday, Kanjorski reflects on the Democrats’ approach to the war in 2006 and said they pushed the rhetoric “as far as we can to the end of the fleet — didn’t say it, but we implied it — that if we won the congressional elections, we could stop the war.

“Now, anybody who’s a good student of government would know it wasn't true,” he said. “But you know, the temptation to want to win back the Congress — we sort of stretched the facts.”

The video was dated Aug. 28, 2007, by the person who posted it. The remarks are not placed in a larger context.

Republicans reacted Friday by calling for Kanjorski to apologize.

“For Paul Kanjorski to admit that Democrats campaigned in ’06 on a fraudulent agenda to end the war not only exposes his own calculated efforts to fool the voters of his district, but it also raises the question of whether this was a coordinated effort by the Democratic Party as a whole,” said a spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee, Ken Spain. “Paul Kanjorski should be ashamed of himself for using our troops in harm’s way as political pawns for his own partisan agenda.”

Both Hillary and Obama have been making promises about Iraq throughout the campaign that they can't possibly keep, unless they are bound and determined to ensure a U.S. defeat (and the jury's still out on that). Most astute political observers have recognized their insincerity on the issue for a long time, but unfortunately, there are millions of slavering followers of theirs who just don't get it, and won't get it even when they admit they can't do what they promised.

Jimmuh Carter Hates America and Israel

When is this senile old fool going to go away? His continued presence in the public eye is destructive to America and to world peace. Two stories from the same event demonstrate this. First, Jimmuh calls on American allies to abandon their relationship with the United States:

Britain and other European governments should break from the US over the international embargo on Gaza, former US president Jimmy Carter told the Guardian yesterday. Carter, visiting the Welsh border town of Hay for the Guardian literary festival, described the EU’s position on the Israeli-Palestinian dispute as “supine” and its failure to criticise the Israeli blockade of Gaza as “embarrassing”.

Referring to the possibility of Europe breaking with the US in an interview with the Guardian, he said: “Why not? They’re not our vassals. They occupy an equal position with the US.”

The blockade on Hamas-ruled Gaza, imposed by the US, EU, UN and Russia - the so-called Quartet - after the organisation’s election victory in 2006, was “one of the greatest human rights crimes on Earth,” since it meant the “imprisonment of 1.6 million people, 1 million of whom are refugees”. “Most families in Gaza are eating only one meal per day. To see Europeans going along with this is embarrassing,” Carter said.

The attitude from Carter and those in the Dem party who agree with him (and that would be most of them) reflects the belief that America is just another country - no different than Argentina or Zimbabwe. There is no pride in American exceptionalism among the liberals whose whole world view is based on the guilt they feel in being American. This helps explain Michelle Obama's lack of pride in her country - at least until they started voting for her husband.

And then Jimmuh tells the world that the U.S. should give the Iranians nuclear fuel:

TEHRAN (FNA)- Former US President Jimmy Carter urged Washington to establish friendly ties with Tehran, reiterating the need for his country to resume trade relations with Iran, which he described as a "rational" nation.

Speaking at the Hay Festival yesterday, Carter also suggested the US should provide nuclear power technology and fuel to Iran as a show of goodwill.

"What happens if, in three years' time, Iran has a nuclear weapon," Carter asked. "I'm not sure that is going to happen, but if it does, what do we do? They are rational people like all of us in this room. Do they want to commit suicide? I would guess not. So what we have to do is talk with them now and say to them we want to be their friends," the former US president said.

"The United States must let Iran know that we want to give them fuel and everything they need for a non-military nuclear program. Twenty-five years ago we cut off trading with Iran. We've got to resume trading to show Iran we are friends."

So, we should provide them with the fuel necessary to build the bombs that will be used to destroy Israel. Real smart guy, and given the way the Iranians played him in 1979, he's still never learned what kind of people he's dealing with.

The equally scary thing is that Barack Obama shares his views. You can look at Jimmuh's policies to see what you'll get with Obama.

For the world's sake, I hope there's a memorial service in Jimmuh's honor in the near future. I don't dance, but I'll dance that day.

UPDATE: Make that 3 stories:

LONDON — Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter says Israel has a nuclear arsenal of 150 weapons, The Times of London reported Monday.

While experts have long maintained Israel has a nuclear arsenal, the Jewish state has refused to confirm or deny it.

Most estimates, many based on evidence leaked in 1986 by Israeli nuclear technician Mordechai Vanunu, put the number of Israeli nuclear weapons at between 100 and 200. But other experts have said the number is as low as 60 or as high as 400.

It was unclear from the newspaper's account whether Carter was citing those estimates, offering his own independent assessment or drawing on U.S. intelligence he would have had access to as president.

If it's the latter I couldn't blame the Mossad if they decided to shut him up.

Bill Clinton: Hillary the Victim of a Cover-up

It just gets better and better in the Dem nominating battle:

(CNN) — Former President Bill Clinton said that Democrats were more likely to lose in November if his wife Hillary Clinton is not the party’s presidential nominee, and suggested some people were trying to “cover this up” and “push and pressure and bully” superdelegates to make up their minds prematurely.

"I can’t believe it. It is just frantic the way they are trying to push and pressure and bully all these superdelegates to come out,” he said at a South Dakota campaign stop Sunday, in remarks first reported by ABC News. “'Oh, this is so terrible: The people they want her. Oh, this is so terrible: She is winning the general election, and he is not. Oh my goodness, we have to cover this up.'"

The former president added that his wife had not been given the respect she deserved as a legitimate presidential candidate. "She is winning the general election today and he is not, according to all the evidence,” he said. “And I have never seen anything like it. I have never seen a candidate treated so disrespectfully just for running.”

“Her only position was, ‘Look, if I lose I'll be a good team player. We will all try to win — but let's let everybody vote, and count every vote,’" he said.

The former president suggested that if the New York senator ended the primary season with an edge in the popular vote, it would be a significant development. "If you vote for her and she does well in Montana and she does well in Puerto Rico, when this is over she will be ahead in the popular vote,” said Clinton.

“And they're trying to get her to cry uncle before the Democratic Party has to decide what to do in Florida and Michigan” – which the party would need to do “unless we want to lose the election. "

Bill's cries will fall on deaf ears...thankfully. He's actually right about the general election. Hillary will have a better chance of winning against McCain, but she won't get the chance. Her RFK statements pretty much assured that.

Memorial Day

On this Memorial Day I'd like to bring back a few images from our 2005 trip to Washington DC:

The World War II Memorial

The Tomb of the Unknowns, Arlington National Cemetary

Arlington National Cemetary, with Arlington House in the Background

To all who have sacrificed for our freedom, thank you.

There's No Crying in Racing

I spent my Sunday watching 1,100 miles of racing. It's one of those days that makes the TiVO well worthwhile - I didn't watch a single commercial.

The Cup race at Charlotte went about as expected, with surprise twists and turns along the way and another win by Kasey Kahne. Tempers stayed relatively in check and not a single driver cried. I can't say the same for the Indy 500.

The 500 is the only open-wheel race I watch all year, mainly because it's the only one that anyone shows up for. You could fire a cannon into the stands at most IndyCar races - several times - and not even scare anybody, let alone hurt them. But Indy always draws a big crowd and occasionally there's good racing.

There aren't any women drivers running in NASCAR's highest level, but there were at least three that I know of in the 500. And it was two of those drivers that made the day entertaining.

The first was Sarah Fisher, running a team that she owns and runs on a shoestring budget. Sarah appeared with Hillary Clinton for a campaign photo op a few days before the Indiana primary. During the race Fisher had the misfortune to try and share the same point in space with the race leader, who was spinning across the track at that moment, and both were put out of the event. Tony Kanaan, the other driver, was interviewed following the crash and had a typical race driver's attitude. He was disappointed, a little ticked, but had that "we'll get 'em next week" attitude. He also told the interviewer that he had ridden in the ambulance with Fisher, and although she was unhurt, she had sobbed the whole way.

A few minutes later they interviewed Fisher. Her eyes were all puffy, and before the interview was over, she was sobbing again. Now, I know she was disappointed and her team took a shot it probably can't afford, but sobbing on camera is not how you attract sponsors. There's no crying in racing (unless you're the wife or girlfriend of the winning driver, or your leg is hanging by a tendon out the other side of you car).

At least she didn't have to be put down like the horse Hillary endorsed in the Kentucky Derby.

A little later driver Danica Patrick, the media darling, was making her way down pit road after a routine stop when another driver fishtailed as he exited his pit and smacked Patrick's car in the left rear and broke the suspension, putting Patrick out of the race. The crew pushed the car back to her pit, where she got out and began stomping her way down pit road toward the offending driver, whose crew was trying to repair his car. She wasn't crying, or at least I don't think so, since she still had her helmet on (if you're going to confront another driver and his team, it's always better to keep your helmet on).

Here's where it got almost funny, but dangerous at the same time. Patrick's P.R. person, another women, though of considerably heftier dimensions than the diminutive Patrick, jumped over the pit wall and began running after the stomping Patrick. The P.R. person clearly was not in the kind of shape that she should have been running anywhere, especially down pit road in the middle of a race. She had no protective equipment whatsoever, save her determination to come to the aid of her client. Fortunately, she didn't get more than a couple of pits before a crewman from another team pulled her over the wall and off the racetrack. If I were in charge of IndyCar, that team would have a penalty for her foolishness.

Patrick was stopped about one pit stall short of her target by the guy who heads up security for the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and the whole entourage stomped off toward the team's pit. It was quite a comical site, with big burly P.R. lady pushing the pressies out of the way like a linebacker opening a hole for the quarterback.

You just don't get that kind of entertainment at a NASCAR event.

Better Check That Caption

I just pulled up FoxNews.com at 7:35 pm PDT to check headlines and I think somebody was asleep at the switch. Here was the main photo and the caption under the shot:

NASA's Phoenix craft softly lands near the north pole on Mars.

There is life on Mars! They have crash investigators!

Christianity's Decline in Great Britain

Mark Steyn points us to an article in the Church of England Newspaper:

If recent reports of trends in religious observance prove to be correct, then in some 30 years the mosque will be able to claim that, religiously speaking, the UK is an Islamic nation, and therefore needs a share in any religious establishment to reflect this....

At all levels of national life Islam has gained state funding, protection from any criticism, and the insertion of advisors and experts in government departs national and local. A Muslim Home Office adviser, for example, was responsible for Baroness Scotland’s aborting of the legislation against honour killings, arguing that informal methods would be better. In the police we hear of girls under police protection having the addresses of their safe houses disclosed to their parents by Muslim officers who think they are doing their religious duty.

While men-only gentlemen’s clubs are now being dubbed unlawful, we hear of municipal swimming baths encouraging ‘Muslim women only’ sessions and in Dewsbury Hospitals staff waste time by turning beds to face Mecca five times a day — a Monty Pythonesque scenario of lunacy, but astonishingly true...

The point is that Islam is being institutionalised, incarnated, into national structures amazingly fast, at the same time as demography is showing very high birthrates...

Today the Christian story is fading from public imagination, while Islam grows apace.

Steyn adds this:

Strange to witness one of the oldest and most successful of nations commit suicide without even being aware of what it's doing.

Very true.

Two Stories From the War on Homeschoolers

If you're a homeschooled student, you'll have a better chance of getting into first rate colleges, but you won't be able to enter a Subway Restaurant's writing contest or work for the state government in Tennessee. Here's the Subway story:

Subway, the sandwich restaurant, wants to hear your child's story – unless he or she is homeschooled.

The national chain's "Every Sandwich Tells a Story Contest" offers prizes and a chance to be published on the Subway website and in Scholastic's "Parent & Child" magazine but specifically excludes homeschoolers:

NO PURCHASE NECESSARY TO ENTER OR WIN. Contest is open only to legal residents of the Untied (sic) States who are currently over the age of 18 and have children who attend elementary, private or parochial schools that serve grades PreK-6. No home schools will be accepted.

Subway's website promotion not only misspells "United" States, but offers the grand prize winner a "Scholastic Gift Bastket (sic) for your home."

The 2007 winner of the Scripps National Spelling Bee was Evan O'Dorney, a 13-year old homeschool student from Danville, Calif.

Amazing. And now, from Tennessee:

Tenn. Declares Only Dumbest Kids Wanted for State Jobs

-By Warner Todd Huston

It’s true. The State of Tennessee has officially declared that from this point forward it will accept only less educated student applicants for state, county and city jobs in the Volunteer State. Why would the kindly folks in Nashville make such a stupid rule? Well, it’s all about control, you see. The state controls the less educated kids and they don’t control the ones that show higher academic aptitude. It really is just that simple.

It has come to pass that the State of Tennessee has officially invalidated the high school diplomas of thousands of home-schooled Tennessee kids, at least where it concerns their eligibility to apply for the positions of fireman, police officer, state government employee, even daycare worker — any government job or government controlled position that the state regulates is covered.

The reasoning the Board of Education used to justify this obscene act is almost a sensible sounding one. Since religious schools and home-schools each have their own curriculum that is designed by people not working for the state government (i.e. the state Board of Education), then the state has no real control or input in those curricula. Therefore, the state cannot make the assumption that kids educated in institutions or via home programs meet the standards of an officially recognized state education. Like I said, this almost seems logical until one does a tiny bit of research. Fortunately Tennessean Rob Shearer has done just that.

You can read the rest at Stop the ACLU.

The education establishment is petrified by the success of homeschoolers and the threat they pose to traditional government-run public education that fails so many kids and desperately tries to give kids a diploma that some of them can't even read in order to keep their graduation statistics from being completely embarrassing. (How's that for a run-on sentence? As a graduate of public school I'm sure the NEA would be proud.)

Teacher's unions have a lot of money and a lot of power, and they won't stop until they force every kid back into public schools.

Another Titanic Mystery Solved

This is interesting - the mission to find the Titanic in 1982 was actually a mission to find missing U.S. nuclear subs:

The man who located the wreck of the Titanic has revealed that the discovery was a cover-up for the real mission of inspecting the wrecks of two Cold War nuclear submarines.

When Bob Ballard led a team that pinpointed the wreckage of the liner in 1985, he had already completed his main task of finding out what happened to USS Thresher and USS Scorpion.

Both of the U.S. Navy vessels sank during the 1960s, killing more than 200 men and giving rise to fears that at least one of them, Scorpion, had been sunk by the Soviet Union.

Ballard, an oceanographer, has admitted that he located and inspected the wrecks for the U.S. Navy in top secret missions before he was allowed to search for the Titanic.

A robotic underwater craft, which Ballard developed in the early 1980s, mapped the submarine wreck sites. Then, he was able to use it to crisscross the North Atlantic seabed to pinpoint the final resting place of the luxury liner. He had only 12 days to do so.

Ballard said what he had seen during the inspection of the submarine wrecks gave him the idea of finding a trail of debris that would lead to the main sections of the Titanic. Thresher, had imploded deep beneath the surface and had broken up into thousands of pieces and Scorpion was almost as completely destroyed.

“It was as though it had been put through a shredding machine," Ballard said. "There was a long debris trail.”

Ballard's mission for the U.S. Navy took place in 1982. The Titanic sunk in 1912 after hitting an iceberg, killing 1,500 people.

“I couldn’t tell anybody,” he said. “There was a lot of pressure on me. It was a secret mission. I felt it was a fair exchange for getting a chance to look for the Titanic.

I'll bet there were a lot of covert missions masquerading as treasure hunts or National Geographic photo missions and the such.

The Last Doughboy

I posted a previous item about how we're losing the WWII veterans at a rate of over 1,000 a day, and today George Will writes about the last, the very last, of the WWI veterans who is still going strong at 107:

CHARLES TOWN, W.Va. -- Numbers come precisely from the agile mind and nimble tongue of Frank Buckles, who seems bemused to say that 4,734,991 Americans served in the military during America's involvement in the First World War and 4,734,990 are gone. He is feeling fine, thank you for asking.

The eyes of the last doughboy are still sharp enough for him to be a keen reader, and his voice is still deep and strong at age 107. He must have been a fine broth of a boy when, at 16, persistence paid off and he found, in Oklahoma City, an Army recruiter who believed, or pretended to, the fibs he had unavailingly told to Marine and Navy recruiters in Kansas about being 18. He grew up on a Missouri farm, not far from where two eminent generals were born -- John "Black Jack" Pershing and Omar Bradley.

"Boys in the country," says Buckles, "read the papers," so he was eager to get into the fight over there. He was told that the quickest way was to train for casualty retrieval and ambulance operations. Soon he was headed for England aboard the passenger ship Carpathia, which was celebrated for having, five years earlier, rescued survivors from the Titanic.

He led an interesting life. Read the whole thing.

More Clinton "Whack-a-Obama" Fallout

Lots of headlines today about the fallout from Hillary Clinton's "I'm Staying In Because Obama Might Get Whacked" statement. Here are some headlines:

UPDATE: Clinton apologizes for RFK assassination remark...

Very Bad Day...

PAPER: KENNEDYS OUTRAGED...

Sharpton urges Hillary: Watch what you say...

How Clinton's Comments Didn't -- Then Did -- Catch Fire...

Carter sees superdelegates prompting Clinton to quit...

Obama Says Focus on Florida Her 'Last Slender Hope'...

Clinton Apologizes After Invoking RFK Assassination

If this doesn't go away very quickly I can't see how her campaign can go to the convention, or how she'll have any hope of a VP nod.

UPDATE: I didn't see this one:

Hillary: Why I continue to run

And today, I would like to more fully answer the question I was asked: Why do I continue to run, even in the face of calls from pundits and politicians for me to leave this race?

I am running because I still believe I can win on the merits. Because, with our economy in crisis, our nation at war, the stakes have never been higher - and the need for real leadership has never been greater - and I believe I can provide that leadership.

I am not unaware of the challenges or the odds of my securing the nomination - but this race remains extraordinarily close, and hundreds of thousands of people in upcoming primaries are still waiting to vote. As I have said so many times over the course of this primary, if Sen. Obama wins the nomination, I will support him and work my heart out for him against John McCain. But that has not happened yet.
I am running because I believe staying in this race will help unite the Democratic Party. I believe that if Sen. Obama and I both make our case - and all Democrats have the chance to make their voices heard - in the end, everyone will be more likely to rally around the nominee.

This was written as a response to the assassination statement, but at this point, I don't see how she can salvage the campaign after the damage it caused.

Obama Ignores the Obvious Fix for High Oil Prices

Barack Obama doesn't seem all that bothered by high oil prices. His recommendation: Americans need to change what and how they drive and car companies need to change what they build:

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Barack Obama said on Saturday Americans would start changing the kinds of cars they drive if gasoline prices continue to climb and said he owned a hybrid vehicle, though he doesn't drive it much.

Obama, an Illinois senator and the front-runner for his party's presidential nomination, has made fighting climate change a key issue of his campaign, and as fuel prices soar, he has repeatedly called on car makers to increase fuel efficiency standards.

What's missing here? Where's the call to Congress to make it easier for our own oil companies to drill for new resources and build additional refining capacity to increase supply? He could sponsor a bill tomorrow to do both of those things, but liberals don't do that.

The Greatest Generation is Leaving Us

On this Memorial Day weekend comes the story that the men and women who made up our WWII fighting forces are leaving us at a rate of more than 1,000 a day:

NEW ORLEANS — They were a swashbuckling lot — parachuting behind enemy lines, charging onto sandy beaches as bullets whizzed by, liberating countries from a totalitarian grip.

They jitterbugged the nights away, sang about faraway sweethearts and painted the noses of their B-17 bombers with bawdy pinups. "They're overpaid, over-sexed and over here," the British groused about their American allies.

And now, they're dying off, and with them the memories that defined what has been called the Greatest Generation.

As their ranks shrink, the National World War II Museum is one of several organizations rushing to preserve the personal accounts of veterans. Other such efforts are sponsored by the Library of Congress and the U.S. Latino and Latina WWII Oral History Project.

Once 16 million strong, U.S. veterans of World War II are dying at a rate of more than 1,000 a day and now number about 2.5 million, the Department of Veterans Affairs estimates.

"I think that's low now," said Martin Morgan, historian for the World War II Museum in New Orleans of the number of vets dying each day. "But judging by the passing of the World War I veterans, we're predicting they will all be gone by 2020."

My father-in-law was a young man, still in his teens, when he entered the Army and eventually fought in France, receiving a Silver Star and two Purple Hearts. When I look at my own kids, who are 19 and 16, it's hard to imagine them taking on the kinds of roles that were asked of kids their age during the war.

He's 82 now and still going strong, and hopefully he'll be with us for quite awhile to come.

Newsweak's Racial Resentment Index

Do you think Newsweak Magazine is in the tank for Obama? They've just created a poll called the Racial Resentment Index, but interestingly enough, polled only whites. They didn't bother to find out if blacks might have some racial resentment toward whites:

Obama's race may well explain his difficulty in winning over white voters. In the NEWSWEEK Poll, participants were asked to answer questions on a variety of race-related topics including racial preferences, interracial marriage, attitudes toward social welfare and general attitudes toward African-Americans.

Respondents were grouped according to their answers on a "Racial Resentment Index." Among white Democrats with a low Racial Resentment Index rating, Obama beat McCain in a hypothetical match-up 78 percent to 17 percent. That is virtually identical to Clinton's margin in the category, 79 percent to 13 percent. But among white Democrats with high scores on the Racial Resentment Index, the picture was very different: Obama led McCain by only 18 points (51 to 33) while Clinton maintained a much larger 59-point lead (78 to 18).

Who exactly are these high Racial Resentment Index voters? A majority, 61 percent, have less than a four-year college education, many are older (44 percent were over the age of 60 compared to just 18 percent under the age of 40) and nearly half (46 percent) live in the South.

Confusion over Obama's religious background may also be hindering his ability to attract white support. Asked to name Obama's faith, 58 percent of participants said Christian (the correct answer), compared with 11 percent who answered Muslim, 22 percent who did not know and 9 percent who said something else. Obama's name could be contributing to the confusion; 18 percent of white Democratic voters say they judge the Illinois senator less favorably because of his name, compared to only 4 percent of white Democrats who say it makes them judge Obama more favorably.

While the NEWSWEEK Poll clearly suggests a lurking racial bias in the American electorate, the role of race in presidential politics may be diminishing. In 2000, only 37 percent of voters thought the country was ready for a black president. Now, 70 percent of voters think a black candidate like Obama could win the White House.

I wonder how much "racial resentment" there would have been had Hillary won the nomination from Obama? We'll never know since Hillary won't win and Newsweak wouldn't dare poll blacks on the issue.

The underlying message: Vote for Obama or you're a racist.

Even Discrimination is Going Wireless

Advances in technology are such that now even discrimination is wireless:

A group in Santa Fe, New Mexico, is seeking a ban on Wi-Fi signals in public buildings because they say they’re allergic to wireless Internet signals, according to a report from KOB-TV.

"I get chest pain and it doesn't go away right away," alleged Wi-Fi allergy sufferer Arthur Firstenberg told KOB.

"It's not 1692, it's 2008. Santa Fe needs to embrace this technology, it's not going away," Santa Fe City Councilor Ron Trujillo says, noting that the area is already saturated with the wireless signals.

The Santa Fe city attorney is checking to see if the Wi-Fi signals could be considered a form of discrimination, KOB reports.

The voices in my head think these people are crazy.

Dem Congresswoman a 3-Time Defaulter

The other day I mentioned a Dem congresswoman from Long Beach whose Sacramento home was just sold in a foreclosure auction. It turns out that she's a 3-time defaulter:

Rep. Laura Richardson, who lost her Sacramento home in a recent foreclosure auction, has also defaulted on properties in Long Beach and San Pedro, records show.

Richardson, D-Long Beach, was able to bring her payments up to date on the Long Beach home relatively quickly, but the San Pedro property lingered in the foreclosure process for almost eight months, and still has a pending auction date.

In her first interview since the news broke Tuesday that her Sacramento home had been foreclosed, Richardson blamed the foreclosure on a miscommunication by her lender. She offered no apologies for failing to make payments on three separate homes and expressed no regret for failing to pay nearly $9,000 in property taxes.

She makes $170,000 a year as a member of Congress, not to mention additional funds for daily expenses. A fine example of a Democrat lawmaker. I'll bet she can't wait until Congress passes that bailout bill.

Bitter America Furious at Hillary's RFK Statement

Not Obama's bitter America that clings to God and guns, but the bitter America that clings to liberals and Democrats. Those folks are ticked that Hillary referred to the assassination of Robert Kennedy as a reason to stay in the race. Many think this is the end for Hillary, or should be. Michael Goodwin has a pretty scathing piece in the New York Daily-News:

SICK. Disgusting. And yet revealing. Hillary Clinton is staying in the race in the event some nut kills Barack Obama.

It could happen, but what definitely has happened is that Clinton has killed her own chances of being vice president. She doesn't deserve to be elected dog catcher anywhere now.

Her shocking comment to a South Dakota newspaper might qualify as the dumbest thing ever said in American politics.

Her lame explanation that she brought up the 1968 assassination of Robert Kennedy because his brother Ted's illness was on her mind doesn't cut it. Not even close.

We have seen an X-ray of a very dark soul. One consumed by raw ambition to where the possible assassination of an opponent is something to ponder in a strategic way. Otherwise, why is murder on her mind?

It's like Tanya Harding's kneecapping has come to politics. Only the senator from New York has more lethal fantasies than that nutty skater.

We could have seen it coming, if only we had realized Clinton's thinking could be so cold. She has grown increasingly wild in her imagery lately, invoking everything from slavery to the political killings in Zimbabwe in making her argument for the Florida and Michigan delegations. She claimed to be the victim of sexism, despite winning the votes of white men.

But none of it was moving the nomination needle, with Obama, despite recent dents, still on course to be the victor.

So she kept digging deeper, looking for the magic button. Instead, she pushed the eject button, lifting herself right out of consideration.

Giving voice to such a vile thought is all the more horrible because fears Obama would be killed have been an undercurrent to his astonishing rise. Republican Mike Huckabee made a stupid joke about it recently. Many black Americans have talked of it, reflecting their assumption that racists would never tolerate a black President and that Obama would be taken from them.

Clinton has now fed that fear. She needs a very long vacation. And we need one from her.

Say good night, Hillary. And go away.

And don't think the conspiracy theory nuts aren't all over this. Just look at one of the first comments on the Goodwin piece:

The GOP has done its job and done it well, first they firgured out that theres no way they beat Hillary in the general ellection, so they covertly finance this black guy to run against Hillary to sabotage her campaign, knowing the party will divide and when it looks like this black guy has it all but wrapped up they sic their media dogs on the democrats to further divide them, all the whille knowing that all this is going to do is ensure that she wont be on the ticket at all, and that Hillary supporters wont vote for the black guy in November. Game over.

This guy clearly hasn't been paying attention because anyone who has observed the GOP for the last couple of years knows they're not possibly smart enough to pull off something like that.

The question is why would Hillary make such a statement? Just too tired, or did she intentionally bring the "A" word into the conversation to make the superdelegates pause before jumping on the Obama bandwagon? Given the cynical way the Clintons operate, nothing would surprise me.

Obama should consider a restraining order against Bill and Hillary. If either of them get too close to him at the convention, anything could happen. Oh, and I think this will pretty much end all the "dream team" talk. Since Hillary would clearly benefit from Obama's demise, having her on the ticket could be a career-ending (and life-shortening) move for Obama.

However, there may yet be a VP slot for Hillary, according to this item in a Mark Steyn post at the Corner:

If McCain wants to neutralize the novelty value of the Obama candidacy, he can do it with a Jindal or a Palin more easily than a Lieberman.

On the other hand, if he wanted to do the grand bipartisan gesture Jonah's arguing for, he'd be better to go all the way and put Hillary on the ticket. I tremble even to make that suggestion because McCain's such a contrarian old coot he's just nutty enough to do it.

Scary. With McCain's age Hillary would have a better chance to make it look like natural causes.

Greensburg Dodges a Bullet

About a year ago the city of Greensburg, KS was nearly wiped off the map by a giant tornado that left very little standing. The city has since been rebuilding, and is even the subject of an eco-freak Leonardo DiCaprio documentary that will be running on Discovery Channel.

They almost had to rethink their plans based on this news from yesterday tornado outbreak in, as Barack Obama calls them, the "middle states":

The city of Greensburg, Kansas, which was largely destroyed a year ago by a massive twister, reported minor damage when a tornado hopped from the western edge to the eastern edge of town Friday.

"The funnel cloud went directly over the top of Greensburg," said Ray Stegman, Kiowa County emergency preparedness manager.

Was there anything left to damage? Those folks must have a bullseye on them, or else God was warning DiCaprio to get out of town.

Taxing Porn to Save California

There are lots of creative ways to close the California budget deficit, but I think this one will hit Democrats harder than Republicans:

California state lawmakers are considering an unusual idea to solve the state's huge budget shortfall: Tax pornography.

The idea was proposed by a state assemblyman, and would impose a 25 percent tax on the production and sales of pornographic videos -- the vast majority of which are made in southern California.

It is unknown, however, how seriously lawmakers will take the idea or how the porn business would deal with the new tax. It is likely, though, that porm-makers would simply pass the cost along to consumers by making pornographic materials more expensive.

However, many economists believe that pornography is an industry with inelastic demand -- meaning market conditions typically don't affect consumers' desire for the product. In other words, it is believed that most porn consumers would continue to buy regardless of how much it cost.

A potential economic downside to the tax proposal is that porn producers could leave California to manufacture and distribute videos in other states that don't impose the tax.

Downside?

McCain Could Win Big

Some Republican strategists have been looking at the state-by-state maps (such as the ones produced by Karl Rove) and are beginning to think that McCain can beat Obama by a pretty decent margin:

It sounds crazy at first. Amid dire reports about the toxic political environment for Republican candidates and the challenges facing John McCain, many top GOP strategists believe he can defeat Barack Obama — and by a margin exceeding President Bush’s Electoral College victory in 2004.

At first blush, McCain’s recent rough patch and the considerable financial disadvantage confronting him make such predictions seem absurd. Indeed, as Republicans experience their worst days since Watergate, those same GOP strategists are reticent to publicly tout the prospect of a sizable McCain victory for fear of looking foolish.

But the contours of the electoral map, combined with McCain’s unique strengths and the nature of Obama’s possible vulnerabilities, have led to a cautious and muted optimism that McCain could actually surpass Bush’s 35-electoral-vote victory in 2004. Though they expect he would finish far closer to Obama in the popular vote, the thinking is that he could win by as many 50 electoral votes.

By post-war election standards, that margin is unusually small. Yet it’s considerably larger than either Bush’s 2004 victory or his five-electoral-vote win in 2000.

“A win by 40 or 50 electoral votes would be an astonishing upset, just a watershed event with all the issues that were stacked against him from the very beginning,” said David Woodard, a Republican pollster and Clemson University political science professor. “But it could happen. I know this seems like wishful thinking by Republicans. I’m thinking that Republicans could win by 40 electoral votes. But I dare not say it,” he added. “Certainly what is possible could come to pass.”

A top strategist with the Republican National Committee, who asked that his name be withheld to speak candidly, explained that by his own examination, “we’re actually sitting pretty well in most states.”

“There are a lot of scenarios that look good for McCain, and I almost would go so far to say that there are a lot more scenarios [than for Obama],” the strategist added. “I don’t think anybody over here wants to let themselves get too excited about it. It is an eternity between now and November. But McCain looks a lot stronger than our prospects as a party.”

It is virtually impossible to find an established GOP strategist who believes McCain will win in a landslide. But in light of the circumstances, more than a few Republicans are pleasantly surprised to find that McCain is at all situated to defeat Obama.

The sad thing for the Dems is that they're about to discard the candidate most likely to beat McCain - Hillary. Putting her on the ticket won't fix the problem because people don't vote for the VP.

It's gonna get fun.

John McCain Returns to "Shamnesty"

"Shamnesty" is the name which describes the Senate plan to grant amnesty to illegal aliens, a plan which was shot down and should have ended the McCain campaign. In January McCain assured everyone that he had "gotten the message" about the importance of securing the border before handing out green cards to every Pancho and Paco that's snuck across the border since the Reagan amnesty.

It looks like he's forgotten the message:

UNION CITY - Republican presidential candidate John McCain joined Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in calling today for comprehensive immigration reform, including guest worker visas to bring employees to California's Silicon Valley and the state's vast agricultural fields.

The two men brought up the issue at McCain's prompting during a global competitiveness roundtable featuring California technology executives and entrepreneurs.

Asked by Silicon Valley panelists on what he would do to grant more visa for skilled technology workers, McCain broadly advocated the comprehensive immigration reform plan he had backed with Democratic Sen. Edward Kennedy in Congress.

The same issue brought McCain intense criticism during the Republican presidential primary from conservatives who assailed him as soft on illegal immigration and an advocate of amnesty.

But today McCain, the now presumptive GOP presidential nominee, said an immigration program is needed that protects America's borders and national security. While he called for punishing employers who hire illegal immigrants, he also advocated a humane approach that treats illegal workers as "God's children."

McCain said they should be allowed to seek legal status in a "humane and comprehensive fashion" through a program "they can count on and trust."

Who writes this stuff? How about coming up with a program to secure the border so that American citizens "can count on and trust" it? Why are we dancing around the feelings of the illegals?

All the more reason to flush them all and start over.

Jupiter Has SUVs

There is now scientific proof of SUVs on Jupiter:

Explanation: For about 300 years Jupiter's banded atmosphere has shown a remarkable feature to telescopic viewers, a large swirling storm system known as The Great Red Spot. In 2006, another red storm system appeared, actually seen to form as smaller whitish oval-shaped storms merged and then developed the curious reddish hue. Now, Jupiter has a third red spot, again produced from a smaller whitish storm. All three are seen in this image made from data recorded on May 9 and 10 with the Hubble Space Telescope's Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2. The spots extend above the surrounding clouds and their red color may be due to deeper material dredged up by the storms and exposed to ultraviolet light, but the exact chemical process is still unknown. For scale, the Great Red Spot has almost twice the diameter of planet Earth, making both new spots less than one Earth-diameter across. The newest red spot is on the far left (west), along the same band of clouds as the Great Red Spot and is drifting toward it. If the motion continues, the new spot will encounter the much larger storm system in August. Jupiter's recent outbreak of red spots is likely related to large scale climate change as the gas giant planet is getting warmer near the equator.

We know from scientific experts like Al Gore that planetary climates remain stable unless influence by man-made objects like SUVs. Therefore, there must be SUVs on Jupiter to explain the climate change going on there.

Either that, or the planet is going through puberty.

Hillary: I'm Staying In Because Obama Might Get Whacked

Hillary Clinton brought up an issue that won't play well with the voters or the Obama-loving press:

Hillary Clinton today brought up the assassination of Sen. Robert Kennedy while defending her decision to stay in the race against Barack Obama.

"My husband did not wrap up the nomination in 1992 until he won the California primary somewhere in the middle of June, right? We all remember Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in June in California. I don't understand it," she said, dismissing calls to drop out.

Obama's camp immediately fired back.

"Sen. Clinton's statement before the Argus Leader editorial board was unfortunate and has no place in this campaign," Obama campaign spokesman said in a statement.

I don't think she meant it the way it came out, but a poorly structured statement can be a campaign killer. She was likely referring to lengthy campaigns of the past, but bringing up the frontrunner's assassination in 1968, especially in light of his relation to brother and Obama supporter Teddy who now faces a death sentence of his own, was a big mistake. The press won't be kind.

McCain Should Pick a Democrat??

Jonah Goldberg, usually a reliable conservative, offers that outrageous suggestion that McCain should pick a Dem for VP:

But what if he picks a Democrat? Specifically, what if he picks a Democrat while pledging one term and out?

As the parties have become less coalitional and more ideological, the No. 2 slot on the presidential ticket is increasingly seen as an opportunity for national marketing rather than regional deal-making. Bill Clinton picked Al Gore not to win a specific state or constituency, but to shore up Clinton’s image as a youthful, moderate reformer. George W. Bush selected Dick Cheney for any number of reasons (though, contrary to rumor, none of them have to do with Cheney making Bush an offer he couldn’t refuse on a hunting trip), but capturing Wyoming’s three electoral votes wasn’t one of them.

With the exception of Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal (and possibly Alaska governor Sarah Palin), it’s difficult to see how any of the advertised picks for the veep slot help McCain sell himself as a different kind of Republican. And, at age 36, the still-green Jindal might not only seem like a gimmick, but he would undermine McCain on two fronts: He’d remind voters of McCain’s age, and he’d diminish the anti-Obama argument that experience, particularly in foreign policy, really matters.

Meanwhile, a national-unity ticket would, among other things, expose Obama’s fraudulent claims to be a post-partisan uniter and reformer. The party-line, left-wing Democrat has done almost nothing in his short political career to support either claim. He is a product of the profoundly corrupt Chicago machine, not an enemy of it. And his definition of bipartisanship amounts to welcoming the unqualified support of Republicans who support his liberal agenda. The most liberal member of the Senate in 2007, according to National Journal, wasn’t even a member of the bipartisan gang of 14.

Such a daring move on McCain’s part would also signal that the country might enjoy a timeout from partisan rancor. Even the Obama-sycophantic mainstream press would have to admire such a profound gesture.

The benefit for Republicans might be substantial. The party could rightly claim to have the bigger tent and the stronger commitment to serious reform. And for movement conservatives, the next four years could be a time for much-needed rebuilding. Obviously, a Joe Lieberman or Sam Nunn would not be the presumptive front-runner for the GOP nomination in 2012. And the lack of an heir apparent would encourage a healthy and vigorous debate for the future of the party.

McCain would still have to reassure Republicans that he would be reliable on judges and other issues vital to conservatives. But a unity ticket would provide the greatest assurance of them all: Barack Obama wouldn’t be the one picking judges.

Gee whiz, what are they smoking up there at National Review?

If the goal is a "unity" ticket, then there's certainly no reason to continue to have political parties.

The goal is not unity, it's winning and making sure that conservative principles are advanced. A Dem VP is not going to be a proponent of conservative ideals, no matter who the president is.

Would Ronald Reagan have picked a Democrat for VP? Of course not.

American Indian Museum's Duck Sucker

Three years ago I took the family to Washington D.C. and while there we visited the Museum of the American Indian where we took this picture.

Apparently there's a little controvery about that fountain behind us as it has proven especially proficient at duck sucking:

WASHINGTON — The National Museum of the American Indian said equipment in an outdoor fountain that was supposed to protect wildlife appears to have failed, resulting in the deaths last week of five ducklings.

Museum spokeswoman Leonda Levchuk said the ducklings were pulled into a drain as horrified visitors watched Saturday afternoon.

If they really want to be horrified they ought to walk about a quarter mile down the Mall to the U.S. Capitol and see what's going on down there.

Clinton Pushing for VP Slot

According to this report, the Clinton campaign is pushing Barack Obama for the VP slot:

May 23 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. Senator Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign is in formal talks with Senator Barack Obama's campaign about becoming his vice presidential running mate, CNN reported, without citing anyone specific.

The two Democratic campaigns are talking about ways for Clinton, from New York, to drop her bid for president that may include joining the Illinois senator's ticket, CNN reported. Talks are in a ``very preliminary'' stage and are described as ``difficult,'' the network said.

It's probably "difficult" because Obama doesn't want her. Why would he want to be saddled with all the baggage she and Bill would bring?

I'm still not convinced that Hillary really wants the job. This could just be an effort that she knows is doomed but feels she must pursue in order to stay in the good graces of the Dem voters who will be asked to vote for her when she runs again in 2012 (assuming Obama loses in November).

Scrappleface offers Bill Clinton's reasoning for wanting Hillary to be the VP candidate:

“Black racists and white racists would, of course, refuse to vote for Obama-Hillary,” said Mr. Clinton. “Elitists will snub Hillary and blue-collar union workers will thumb their noses at Obama. Bitter, man-hating women will reject him and misogynists will spurn her. Social Security dependents will abandon Barack and, as usual, young radicals will merely intend to vote. Essentially, that covers the full range of registered Democrats.”

The former president said the Obama-Hillary pairing “would balance the ticket in way that keeps virtually every Democrat at home on election day, thus de-legitimizing the process, which we all know is corrupt anyway.”

There's a surprising amount of truth in that.

LA Times Spins the Numbers on the Gay Marriage Amendment

Take a look at this headline from the LA Times and Bird Cage Liner (h/t Patterico):

Californians narrowly reject gay marriage

So, just how narrow is it? Two points? Four points? How about 11 points by one measure, and 19 points by another? I think you call this "defining narrowness down".

Here are the numbers:

When asked whether they approved or disapproved of the Supreme Court's ruling on gay marriage, registered voters responded this way-

Strongly approve - 29%
Somewhat approve - 12%

Strongly disapprove - 10%
Somewhat disapprove - 42%

That works out to 52% disapproval to 41% approval. An 11% "narrow" loss for gay marriage.

And what about the upcoming gay marriage amendment?

For - 54%
Against - 35%

A 19% "narrow" loss.

I wonder if the Times described Jimmy Carter's 49 state defeat as a "narrow" loss?

The Times piece tries to suggest that support for amendments drops over time and therefore the results are closer than it looks, but this issue is just getting started. Nobody really paid attention to this amendment until the court ruling, and now that gay marriage will be a reality in California without it, I would expect that the historical voting patterns won't apply to this proposition.

Wait for 30 days when county clerks start issuing marriage licenses and the TV news is filled with lip-locking same-sex couples and then try the poll again.

Dems Threaten Nationalization of Oil Industry

If you think there are problems in the oil industry now, wait until the liberal nationalize it. This little gem came from the transcript of the congressional hearings the other day (video here):

John Hoffmeister from Shell Oil: I can guarantee to the American people because of the inaction of the United States Congress ever increasing prices unless the demand comes down and the five dollars will look like a very low price in the years to come if we are prohibited from finding new reserves and new opportunities to increase supplies.

Rep. Maxine Waters: And, guess what this liberal will be all about? This liberal will be about socializing... uh, will be about, basically taking over and the government running all of your companies.

So, Maxine Waters' ideal oil industry solution is the same as Hugo Chavez' in Venezuela. Can we just go ahead and call her a communist and get it over with?

Hoffmeister was very good in his testimony. When challenged on oil prices he calmly informed the panel that one of the main reasons for high prices is the lack of a free market in the United States. In a free market oil companies would be allowed to explore for new sources and build new refining capacity. Democrats won't allow either of those.

The GOP needs to aggressively remind America of the Dems obstinance and refusal to operate in the best interests of the country. It's not enough to hope the public figures it out as they pay $4+ for a gallon of gas.