Justice Souter to Retire

One of the Supreme Court's four reliably liberal justices will retire:

NPR has learned that Supreme Court Justice David Souter is planning to retire at the end of the current court term.

The vacancy will give President Obama his first chance to name a member of the high court and begin to shape its future direction.

At 69, Souter is nowhere near the oldest member of the court. In fact, he is in the younger half of the court's age range, with five justices older and just three younger. So far as anyone knows, he is in good health. But he has made clear to friends for some time that he wanted to leave Washington, a city he has never liked, and return to his native New Hampshire. Now, according to reliable sources, he has decided to take the plunge and has informed the White House of his decision.

I don't know that it will matter who is nominated to replace him. Although Souter was appointed by George H.W. Bush, he was a disappointment from the start, quickly moving pretty hard left and routinely voting with the liberals. We'll just be trading one liberal for a little younger liberal.

The GOP may want to create a battle over this first nomination, but I wouldn't bother. If Kennedy or one of the conservatives decides to retire, that's when we need to fight.

ABC Outs CIA Contractors

Once the CIA memos were released by the Obama Administration, this was bound to happen:

As the secrets about the CIA's interrogation techniques continue to come out, there's new information about the frequency and severity of their use, contradicting an 2007 ABC News report, and a new focus on two private contractors who were apparently directing the brutal sessions that President Obama calls torture.

According to current and former government officials, the CIA's secret waterboarding program was designed and assured to be safe by two well-paid psychologists now working out of an unmarked office building in Spokane, Washington.

Bruce Jessen and Jim Mitchell, former military officers, together founded Mitchell Jessen and Associates.

Both men declined to speak to ABC News citing non-disclosure agreements with the CIA. But sources say Jessen and Mitchell together designed and implemented the CIA's interrogation program.

"It's clear that these psychologists had an important role in developing what became the CIA's torture program," said Jameel Jaffer, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union.

Former U.S. officials say the two men were essentially the architects of the CIA's 10-step interrogation plan that culminated in waterboarding.

Associates say the two made good money doing it, boasting of being paid a $1,000 a day by the CIA to oversee the use of the techniques on top al Qaeda suspects at CIA secret sites.

"The whole intense interrogation concept that we hear about, is essentially their concepts," according to Col. Steven Kleinman, an Air Force interrogator.

Both Mitchell and Jessen were previously involved in the U.S. military program to train pilots how to survive behind enemy lines and resist brutal tactics if captured.

The CIA is kidding themselves if they think they'll ever be able to get a confidential agreement with anyone ever again. And anybody currently under contract is done...effective immediately.

The Obama Administration may have done fatal damage to our ability to gather information, and possibly to these two guys.

And will there be an investigation to see who in the Obama administration outed these guys? After all, a special investigator worked for two years to investigate the Bush administration's leak of a name of a person who wasn't even a covert agent.

Favorite Religion Story of the Day

Pew: Church-Goers Like Torture More

They were told not to damage the grass of the earth or any green growth or any tree, but only those people who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads. They were allowed to torture them for five months, but not to kill them, and their torture was like the torture of a scorpion when it stings someone.
-Revelation 9:4,5, NRSV

According to a new study from the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, those who attend church at least weekly are more prone to say that torture is justifiable. Suffice it to say that, in the eyes of those who support the use of torture, Khalid Sheikh Muhammad and Abu Zubaydah do not have the seal of God on their foreheads.

A combined 54 percent of at-least-weekly church-goers say torture is either often or sometimes justifiable; for those who attend monthly or a few times a year, that figure is 51 percent; for those who do not attend, it is 42 percent.

Evangelicals, according to the survey, are more prone to saying torture is justifiable than members of the nation's other two main Christian groups: so-called "mainline" Protestants and white, non-Hispanic Catholics. Unaffiliateds--a conglomerated group of atheists, agnostics, and those who say their religion is "nothing in particular--support torture the least: 40 percent say it's justifiable often or sometimes.

How could this be? What happened to forgiveness and the other cheek? The Lamb of God's teachings stop at the walls of Guantanamo?

I have some questions for Mark Ambinder who wrote the piece above:

• Have you ever heard an clunky out-of-tune piano and a wheezy organ play together?
• Have you ever heard a fat lady warble a screamingly high soprano solo she never should have tried?
• Have you ever sat in a hot sanctuary as the sermon went 20 minutes longer than usual?
• Have you ever stood through an altar call that went on for 15 minutes because nobody would respond?
• Have you ever watched 200 slides of poor people some missionary took in Guatemala?
• Have you ever watched a worship service drama skit?
• Have you ever heard people with no discernible talent try and sing contemporary Christian music?
• Have you ever heard contemporary Christian music?

Churchgoers know torture.

Specter Returning Some Campaign Contributions

Some Republicans are asking for their money back:

WASHINGTON (CNN) - Two days after Sen. Arlen Specter decided to leave the Republican Party, the newly-minted Democrat's campaign manager said he will honor requests to return 15 campaign contributions.

Specter's campaign manager Christopher Nichols said Thursday that he received those requests by the close of business on Wednesday afternoon. When Specter announced his decision to switch parties on Tuesday, he said in a statement that he would return contributions "upon request."

But some think Specter shouldn't wait to be asked, and that he should return all of the money that he received as a Republican. The chairman of the Republican Party of Pennsylvania, Rob Gleason, said in a statement Tuesday that Specter should "do the right thing and proactively return any and all campaign contributions he has received in recent months to run as a Republican in the upcoming election."

According to Opensecrets.org, the Center for Responsive Politics' online fundraising tracker, Specter raised $1.3 million during the first three months of 2009.

Get your requests in now.

House Passes Thought Crimes Bill

Well, it's not actually called a "thought crimes" bill. It's called a "hate crimes" bill but the effect is the same:

Obama strongly supported the measure, which he dubbed an "important civil rights issue" in a statement late Tuesday urging Congress to approve the bill.

Current law gives national law-enforcement authorities jurisdiction over hate crimes only when directed at individuals on the basis of race, religion, color or national origin, and only when the victim is targeted because he or she is engaged in a federally protected activity, such as voting.

The new measure would expand protections to include gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability of the victim, and would expand help from Washington to local authorities to punish hate crimes.

How do determine if someone is motivated by hate unless you can read their mind? And why should only specific special interest groups be the beneficiaries of the government's mind-reading abilities?

If I bash a gay guy over the head I'll be charged with a hate crime and it probably won't matter what my true motivation was. He/she/it is part of a protected class. But if a gay guy bashes me over the head because I supported Proposition 8 which banned gay marriage, will he be charged with a hate crime?

Yeah...right.

As I've said before most crimes are hate crimes. The bank robber hates the bank for having more money than he does. The burglar hates the fact that you have stuff that he wants to have or sell. The rapist hates the victim (and probably women in general) because he can't have a normal relationship. You can extend that hate example to just about every crime.

If we're really going to punish people for what they think, I think we better make sure we know what they think rather than pile on punishment based on vague generalizations.

Don't you think?

GM Bondholders Make Obama an Offer He Shouldn't Refuse

Barack Obama says he doesn't want to be in the car business, so the GM bondholders are giving him an offer he shouldn't refuse:

The bondholder committee, which represents about 20% of the debt outstanding, said its offer would save taxpayers $10 billion in cash. Under it, GM would issue new stock and give 41% of it to the UAW, 51% to the bondholders and 1% to common equity holders.

The counteroffer seeks to put bondholders on the same plane as the union, which is owed $7 billion less.

The government would not get equity under this scenario because it wouldn’t need to reduce any of GM’s loans. Unsecured bondholders would likely reduce their entire claim on the auto maker under this plan.

The counterproposal could meet stiff resistance from the Obama administration’s automotive task force, as administration officials have said the GM deal as proposed is more than fair, and have told bondholders they would likely see less under bankruptcy.

And what are the odds Obama will take it? Zero. Nada. Zilch.

The deal Obama is promoting would give 40% to the unions, 50% to the government, and only 10% to the bondholders. The unions will never allow that to change.

Instead the taxpayers will be stuck with the various liabilities related to GM including massive union pensions. That's the only way the unions will have it.

The Seinfeld Flu

The Swine Flu could end up being the Seinfeld flu - the flu about nothing:

As the World Health Organization raised its infectious disease alert level Wednesday and health officials confirmed the first death linked to swine flu inside U.S. borders, scientists studying the virus are coming to the consensus that this hybrid strain of influenza — at least in its current form — isn’t shaping up to be as fatal as the strains that caused some previous pandemics.

In fact, the current outbreak of the H1N1 virus, which emerged in San Diego and southern Mexico late last month, may not even do as much damage as the run-of-the-mill flu outbreaks that occur each winter without much fanfare.

“Let’s not lose track of the fact that the normal seasonal influenza is a huge public health problem that kills tens of thousands of people in the U.S. alone and hundreds of thousands around the world,” said Dr. Christopher Olsen, a molecular virologist who studies swine flu at the University of Wisconsin School of Veterinary Medicine in Madison.

This pretty much confirms the conversation I had yesterday with a pulmonologist at UCLA Medical Center. The hype is worse than the actual disease.

Top Gay

One of the first dates I went on with my future wife was a trip to the Big Newport Cinema to see Top Gun. There have been rumors for years that one of the stars was gay, but perhaps not the one you thought:

Tom Cruise's girlfriend in the 1980s hit "Top Gun" confirmed in an interview the longstanding rumor that she's gay.

Kelly McGillis told the Internet show Girl Rock! that she was single, and in the market for a female partner.

"Definitely a woman," she said when asked if she's looking for a man or a woman. "I'm done with the man thing. You need to move on in life."

As far as I'm concerned the jury's still out on Cruise.

Don't Mess With a Marching Band Kid

As a father of two marching band kids I can tell you they go through a pretty tough training regimen - one that would have some football players wheezing and puking. You don't want to mess with them:

QUARTZ HILL, Calif. – Don't mess with a marching band girl, especially one armed with a baton. A 17-year-old high school marching band student beat up two assailants who tried to mug her as she walked to school in this high desert community about 40 miles north of Los Angeles, sheriff's officials said Tuesday.

The girl punched one of the men in the nose, kicked the other in the groin and beat both with her large baton before she ran away on Friday morning, officials said.

"The moral to this story is don't mess with the marching band girls."

Unless you want a tuba wrapped around your neck in ways the manufacturer never designed, don't mess with them.

Fox's "Lie to Me" Beats Networks' "Lie to America"

Fox clearly made the right call by skipping the Obama newser last night:

While Obama's prime-time news conference aired on three Big Three broadcast networks -- ABC, NBC, and CBS -- Fox opted out, and instead aired an episode of the drama "Lie to Me."

That move seems to have paid off: Fox drew 7.9 million viewers and won the 8pm time slot, according to TVNewser. However, approximately 19 million viewers tuned into Obama on the Big Three combined. (That's according to Nielsen overnight numbers, with final ratings out later today).

Obama's presser aired on Fox News, although Major Garrett was the only one of the major networks' White House correspondents not to get a question.

I called it.

Fox also got to collect advertising revenue that the Big 3 didn't get. A win in all categories for Fox, even if Major Garrett didn't get a question. That just made Obama look petty.

Attack on Dutch Queen Kills Four Spectators

There's some pretty ugly video coming out of the Netherlands this morning after a guy in a small car slammed into spectators waiting to see the Dutch Royal Family:

At least four people were killed and several others hurt in the Netherlands after a car rammed into a crowd of spectators watching a royal motorcade Thursday.

A photographer said the car appeared to be deliberately driving at high speed toward an open bus carrying Queen Beatrix and her family in the western Dutch city of Apeldoorn.

Prosecutors said they believe the incident was deliberate, but not an act of terrorism. They did not indicate a motive or say why the popular queen might have been a target. The driver was a 38-year-old white Dutch male with no police record or history of mental illness, police said. They would not give his name.

Cynthia Boll said she saw about 20 people "flying through the air" after the black car swerved across police railings, where crowds of people were waiting to see the queen pass.

I don't know if this is going to be classified an assassination attempt, and they haven't said anything about motive yet. However, I'll be curious to see if there's a connection between the driver and a certain "religion of peace" which has been known to carry out deadly attacks in the Netherlands.

Sarah Palin, Motorcycle Mama

Back during the campaign I ran this photo of Sarah Palin:
According to this item she'll be getting a new bike soon - one designed by the boys from Orange County Choppers:

Turns out the hockey mom is also a motorcycle maven.

Alaska Governor Sarah Palin recently welcomed the crew from Orange County Choppers – whose custom motorcycle business is featured on TLC's American Chopper – to Anchorage where show star Paul Teutul Sr. researched building a bike to honor Alaska's 50-year anniversary of being a state.

"It means so much to the state of Alaska that these guys are building this bike that will honor statehood here," Palin says in the episode, airing April 30 at 9 p.m.

Paul Sr. hangs out with the Governor in her office and talks about the Alaskan weather, snowmobiling and fishing in the summer. "I inherit whatever [husband] Todd rejects from the year before," Palin says.

After inviting the OCC crew back for the summer months, she suggests having fun Alaska style, saying, "We'll ride the bike to the fishing hole."

Although initially nervous about the meeting, Paul Sr. says that he felt Palin was "a real down to earth person to talk to."

That's gonna help their ratings. You can see some video of their meeting here.

By the way, Palin is now on Twitter for those who want to follow her.

Some Enchanted Evening

The question of the night during the Obama newser had to be from Jeff Zeleny of the NY Times who asked Obama (among other things) what "enchanted him the most about the office during the first 100 days" (video here). Boy, these guys have really taken the whole Camelot thing way too seriously. Do they think this is the White House or Sleeping Beauty's Castle?

It's easy to understand their confusion since I'm sure there's more than one fairy floating around there.

And I'm sure there's been more than one evening when Obama has spotted a stranger across a crowded room.

Does anyone else miss the days when Sam Donaldson and Brit Hume were White House correspondents?

Behind the Scenes at the Obama Newser

What's it like to be a White House correspondent on the night of a presidential press conference? Mark Ambinder provides an interesting behind-the-scenes look here.

TARP Banks Losing Key Executives

Anybody surprised by this?

John Mack and Kenneth Lewis, the chief executive officers of Morgan Stanley and Bank of America Corp., said pay limits tied to federal rescue funds have prompted some top employees to leave the companies.

“I had a hedge fund say to me, ‘I can hire anyone I want from you and Goldman,’” Mack said at the bank’s annual meeting today in Purchase, New York, referring to rival Goldman Sachs Group Inc. Some units lost a dozen people, he said, without identifying them. Lewis, speaking at his annual shareholder gathering in Charlotte, North Carolina, also blamed the restrictions for departures.

“We have lost strong revenue generators over the past three months to competitors that are not facing the same compensation restrictions that we are,” Lewis said.

When you take "free" out of "free market" that's bound to happen. The TARP banks will have to be content with second and third stringers because the varsity players are going to go somewhere else.

Chrysler Will File Chapter 11 Bankruptcy

Despite the efforts of the administration to work out a deal with Fiat and their creditors, Chrysler will announce a bankruptcy filing today.

Talks between the Treasury Department and lenders aimed at keeping Chrysler LLC out of bankruptcy broke down late Wednesday, making it all but certain that the car maker will file for Chapter 11 protection Thursday, according to people familiar with the discussions.

Administration officials, who have been braced for a Chrysler bankruptcy filing for weeks, say all the pieces are in place to get the country's third-largest employer through the court quickly, perhaps in a matter of weeks.

The talks with Chrysler's lenders broke down after the Obama administration's automotive task force worked into the evening to persuade several hedge funds and other lenders to accept a deal to reduce Chrysler's debt, said people involved in the talks.

More auto bailout money well spent.

I've thought all along that bankruptcy was the best way to go for the failing auto companies. That will give them a chance to restructure the union contracts that are killing them. In the end, Chrysler should emerge a much stronger company and one that can build cars for a reasonable price.

UPDATE: Jake Tapper has the details on the new Chrysler.

Joe Biden: Don't Fly or Take Subways

Joe Biden decided to add to the panic that is probably completely unnecessary regarding the swine flu:

Vice President Biden was a little off-message this morning about what he would advise his family in terms of the current flu crisis.

Asked by NBC's Matt Lauer what he would tell a member of his family who came to him and asked whether he should fly to and from Mexico on a commercial airliner in the next week, the Vice President gave an answer that goes much farther than the precautions the President suggested last night, or the travelers' advisories given by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"I would tell members of my family, and I have, 'I wouldn't go anywhere in confined places now,'" the Vice President said. "It's not that he's going to Mexico,
it's that you're in a confined aircraft, and one person sneezes, it goes all the way through the aircraft."

"That's me," the vice president said.

"I would not be at this point if they had another way of transportation, suggesting they ride the subway," the president said. "So from my perspective what relates to mitigation, if you're out in the middle of a field and someone sneezes, that's one thing. If you're in a closed aircraft or a closed container or closed car or closed class room, it's a different thing."

The airline industry thanks you, Joe.

Yesterday I had a brief conversation with a pulmonologist at the UCLA Medical Center regarding the swine flu. This is a guy who deals with and specializes in diseases of the lungs such as pneumonia. As soon as he heard the words "swine flu" he kind of rolled his eyes and then told me that the regular human flu that goes around each year is much more virulent than the swine version, and the human flu kills something like 36,000 people each year. There's no sign that this swine version will be nearly as bad as that. You're less likely to get it than the human version, and less likely to die from it.

He sees this whole "crisis" as a lot of unnecessary media hype and panic. Who are you going to believe - a lung specialist or Joe Biden?

This may explain why there's been no move by the federal government to close our borders or restrict travel to Mexico. The threat simply isn't that great, but it benefits the administration to keep the hype going so that people will be more inclined to believe that only a nationalized health system and can adequately deal with such a "crisis". Obama needs public support to get his socialized medicine plan through Congress.

The people who claim this is a crisis aren't acting like it's a crisis. That should tell you something.

UPDATE: Bloomberg to ride subway from Gracie Mansion to City Hall... Hizzoner is slapping Biden around a bit.

UPDATE 2: Travel Industry to VP Biden: Zip It It's beat up Joe day!

Harry Reid's Deal

Alot of members of the Senate Dem caucus are not happy with Harry Reid's deal for Arlen Specter. They just got shuffled back in seniority:

Several Democrats are furious with Reid for agreeing to let Specter keep the seniority accrued over more than 28 years as a Republican senator. That could allow him to leap past senior Democrats on powerful panels - including the Appropriations and Judiciary committees.

One senior Democratic lawmaker told The Hill that the Democratic Conference will vote against giving the longtime Pennsylvania Republican seniority over lawmakers such as Sens. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) and Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) when they hold their organizational meeting after the 2010 election.

Specter was elected in 1980, and under his deal with Reid would jump ahead of all but a few Democrats when it comes time to dole out committee chairmanships and assignments.

“That’s his deal and not the caucus’s,” the lawmaker said of Reid’s agreement with Specter.

I'm sure there is more than one Democrat in Pennsylvania that's equally peeved since Reid promised Specter a free ride in the primary. Why would a guy who just because a Democrat yesterday have rights over guys who have been Democrats for their entire lives?

Specter Raises the Dems Average IQ

That's pretty much what Sen. Robert Byrd said (h/t Don Surber):

“[Specter] is tough, thorough, and he can’t be intimidated. I am delighted to welcome him as a Democratic colleague. Arlen Specter gives our side of the aisle not only a numerical boost, but also an intellectual shot in the arm.”

I'm pretty sure that whenever I walk into a Wal-Mart the average IQ in the building goes up. It's probably the same with Specter joining the Democrats.

Though the last time I was in Wal-Mart I felt like brain cells were dying. Somewhere in the small electrics aisle I lost geometry.

Political Quote of the Day

From Dennis Miller on Bill O'Reilly's show:

"We're living in odd times when Miss California gets tougher questions than the President."

And a bonus quote from Miller talking about reporter Helen Thomas:

"The more I see her, the more I think she's Janet Napolitano before you add water."

Mr. Obama, Stop Blaming Bush

The AP took a hard look at Barack Obama's statements on his 100 day celebration and found that the president is playing fast and loose with the facts:

WASHINGTON (AP) - "That wasn't me," President Barack Obama said on his 100th day in office, disclaiming responsibility for the huge budget deficit waiting for him on Day One.

It actually was him - and the other Democrats controlling Congress the previous two years - who shaped a budget so out of balance.

And as a presidential candidate and president-elect, he backed the twilight Bush-era stimulus plan that made the deficit deeper, all before he took over and promoted spending plans that have made it much deeper still.

There's a lot more fact-checking here.

Remaking America

From tonight's prime time presidential special:

April 29 (Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama marked his 100th day in office by telling Americans that “we’ve begun the work of remaking America.”

The president, speaking at a town hall meeting in the St. Louis suburb of Arnold, Missouri, said that while the U.S. still faces challenges in recovering from a recession, the country is making progress.

“We have begun to pick ourselves up and dust ourselves off,” Obama said. “I’m pleased with the progress we’ve made, but I’m not satisfied. I’m confident in the future, but I’m not content with the present.”

I'm not confident in the future as envisioned by Obama, and I'm certainly not content with the present. And who elected him to "remake America"? I kind of liked America the way it was, you know, with freedom and such.

Political Quote of the Day

From Democrat Speaker Nancy Pelosi:

"Republicans in America, take back your party."

Be careful what you wish for, Nancy.

There's more to the story:

Congressional Democratic leaders say Sen. Arlen Specter's party switch is a sign that Republicans should become more like, well, Democrats.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California told reporters Wednesday that the GOP should return to the days when it advocated for the environment and individual rights. The nation, she said, needs a strong Republican Party that does not alienate moderates.

But not too strong, added Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada.

Specter stunned the political world Tuesday by switching from Republican to Democrat. He said there aren't enough moderates left in Pennsylvania for him to win a GOP primary. Many Republicans said good riddance, but Specter's departure deeply shook the party establishment.

Specter's switch has nothing to do with a GOP that doesn't welcome moderates. It's all about Specter's desire to be re-elected and the fact he cannot win the Pennsylvania GOP primary.

However, anyone who thinks the answer to the GOP's difficulties is to become more like Democrats shouldn't have a role in the GOP in any substantive way. That's why the party couldn't get excited about John McCain, and won't follow the advice of his ditsy daughter.

California Budget Propositions in Trouble

The people of California are in no mood to cooperate with the legislature's huge tax increase and spending budgets, and the proposals that the Governator needs to pass in order to prevent the next budget "emergency" are all heading for failure (h/t Flap):

Prop. 1A (Rainy Day Budget Stabilization Fund)
This proposition, which would establish a “rainy day” budget reserve and limit state spending, is trailing by nine points – 49% No, 40% Yes and 11% undecided.

Prop. 1B (Education Funding)
Prop. 1B, the measure that would provide supplemental funding to local schools and community colleges, is also behind by nine points – 49% No vs. 40% Yes, with 11% undecided.

Prop. 1C (Lottery Modernization)
The measure receiving the least support is Prop. 1C. It calls for modernizing the state lottery and borrowing against its future proceeds. Likely voters are opposing it 59% to 32%.

Prop. 1D (Children’s Services Funding)
This measure would transfer early childhood development monies out of the California Children and Families Program to the state general fund. Voters divide 49% No, 40% Yes, with 11% undecided.

Prop. 1E (Mental Health Funding)
Prop. 1E would temporarily transfer funds currently allocated to mental health programs under the Mental Health Services Act to the state general fund. Currently 51% are voting No and 40% Yes.

Just wait until you hear the wailing and gnashing of teeth that will take place in Sacramento the day after all of those go down. It's gonna be ugly.

Specter's Move to the Dems is a Good Thing

So says Bill Kristol:

On May 24, 2001, I wrote an op-ed for The Post in the wake of Vermont Sen. James Jeffords’s party switch. I argued that the switch, which cost Republicans control of the Senate, could well turn out to be good for President Bush.

Not entirely for the reasons I speculated on in the op-ed, I turned out to be right. Bush was still able to get enough cooperation to govern over the next year and a half, and he was also able to run successfully against the Democratic Senate in the fall of 2002. The GOP regained control that November.

Similarly and contrarianly, I wonder if today’s Arlen Specter party switch, this time to the president’s party, won’t end up being bad for President Obama and the Democrats. With the likely seating of Al Franken from Minnesota, Democrats will have 60 seats in the Senate, giving Obama unambiguous governing majorities in both bodies. He’ll be responsible for everything. GOP obstructionism will go away as an issue, and Democratic defections will become the constant worry and story line. This will make it easier for GOP candidates in 2010 to ask to be elected to help restore some checks and balance in Washington -- and, meanwhile, Specter’s party change won’t likely have made much difference in getting key legislation passed or not. So, losing Specter may help produce greater GOP gains in November 2010, and a brighter Republican future.

Plus, now the Democrats have to put up with him.

We'll see.

911 Calls Reveal Panic in New Jersey

More information is coming out from Monday's botched Air Force One photo op:

911 calls just released by a New Jersey emergency office communicate chilling on-the-ground scenes of the panic and terror that besieged many eyewitnesses of yesterday's botched Air Force One promotional photo op over Lower Manhattan.

"Oh my god," one caller says again and again, later telling the operator, "They are following an aircraft, a big aircraft coming like the 9-11."

Also this afternoon, the Air Force released an estimate of the cost of the NYC flyover - $328,835. The estimate includes fuel, personnel costs and maintenance and was calculated over the life of the aircraft and did not necessarily occur yesterday.

One woman in Jersey City, NJ says in a call, "we don't know what's going on because there's like planes going inside the building so everybody's outside going crazy."

The 911 operator responds, asking, "There's what?"

The caller repeats, "It looks like planes are trying to go in the building. And everybody's outside going crazy." She said no one knew what was going on and ran out of their office building and "went their own separate ways." Later in the call, the plane's engine can be heard overhead.

Another caller from Staten Island, NY says the planes were flying so low that he expected them to land in the water.

The calls were released this afternoon by the 911 office in Hudson County, NJ, just across the river from Manhattan.

As Rush said, those costs don't include the dry cleaning expenses for the people in New Jersey and New York.

Dems New Whipping Boy Refuses to Play the Role

Judge Jay Bybee is the left's favorite new whipping boy. He's the guy that authored the memos in the Bush Administration that gave legal authority to the use of waterboarding and other harsh interrogation techniques. Bybee is now a federal judge and some Dems are trying to figure out a way to impeach him from his lifetime appointment.

Bybee is not going gently into that good night:

Judge Jay S. Bybee broke his silence on Tuesday and defended the conclusions of legal memorandums he had signed as a Bush administration lawyer that allowed use of several coercive interrogation practices on suspected terrorists.

Judge Bybee, who issued the memorandums as the head of the Office of Legal Counsel and was later nominated to the federal appeals court by President George W. Bush, said in a statement in response to questions from The New York Times that he continued to believe that the memorandums represented “a good-faith analysis of the law” that properly defined the thin line between harsh treatment and torture. …

Judge Bybee said he was issuing a statement following reports that he had regrets over his role in the memorandums, including an article in The Washington Post on Saturday to that effect. Given the widespread criticism of the memorandums, he said he would have done some things differently, like clarifying and sharpening the analysis of some of his answers to help the public better understand the basis for his conclusions.

But he said: “The central question for lawyers was a narrow one; locate, under the statutory definition, the thin line between harsh treatment of a high-ranking Al Qaeda terrorist that is not torture and harsh treatment that is. I believed at the time, and continue to believe today, that the conclusions were legally correct.”

Other administration lawyers agreed with those conclusions, Judge Bybee said.

“The legal question was and is difficult,” he said. “And the stakes for the country were significant no matter what our opinion. In that context, we gave our best, honest advice, based on our good-faith analysis of the law.”

The left is trying to paint Bybee as the devil himself, but my guess is he was just a lawyer trying to answer a legal question according to the best information he could get his hands on. The effort to criminalize policy differences does not serve our country well, nor will it serve Obama well when that day comes that he's no longer Supreme Leader.

Why Are Christian Movies So Bad?

Dallas Jenkins at Big Hollywood has some good thoughts on the subject here.

Obama's Carbon Tax May Have to Wait

It looks like Obama's plan to create massive new taxes on carbon, otherwise known as "cap-and-trade", will have to wait:

The House may not vote on a climate change bill this year, according to a high-ranking Democratic leader.

Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) told The Hill on Monday that leaders could opt not to bring a climate measure to the floor if the bill has little chance of passing the Senate.

Democrats, including Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), had previously indicated they would pass a climate bill through the House by the August congressional recess.

The competing allegiances of Van Hollen — charged with leading Democrats into what is arguably their most challenging election cycle since 1994 and serving as a policy hand to Pelosi — were on display during his interview with The Hill.

Van Hollen, 50, became the highest-ranking House Democrat to say that even if an agreement is reached, the House may not vote on a cap-and-trade bill if the bill appears to have little hope of clearing the upper chamber.

“The first thing we need to do is see whether we can come together around a consensus position in the committees in the House, and that’s what we’re working on. And then, of course, if we were able to arrive at that, the question is whether you would take it to the floor, or do you wait to see if anything develops on the Senate side,” Van Hollen said.

“The chances of doing cap-and-trade in the Senate are much more difficult. We recognize that,” he added.

I doubt if 2010 will be a better year for a massive new tax hike. For one thing we'll have another year's evidence that the earth is cooling, not warming. Secondly, 2010 will be a midterm election year. During the second year of a presidential the party in the White House almost always loses seats, and often quite a few of them. Imposing a massive tax on virtually every activity in the country would not be a platform the Dems would want to campaign on.

Bill Clinton tried to nationalize health care during his first two years and his party lost control of the House and Senate in the first midterm. They didn't get either one back for the rest of his term.

I don't know that 2010 will be another 1994, but the incredible spending and debt being created by Obama and the Dems are giving the GOP some ready-made campaign issues. If they jam national health care down everyone's throats and try and push cap-and-trade, it could be a tough year for the Dems.

Given the way the congressional generic ballot has moved toward the GOP (see previous post), I think we may see the headlong rush toward socialism moderated a bit.

GOP Pulls Ahead in Generic Ballot

My, how times have changed:

For just the second time in more than five years of daily or weekly tracking, Republicans now lead Democrats in the latest edition of the Generic Congressional Ballot.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that 41% would vote for their district’s Republican candidate while 38% would choose the Democrat. Thirty-one percent (31%) of conservative Democrats said they would vote for their district’s Republican candidate.

Overall, the GOP gained two points this week, while the Democrats lost a point in support. Still, it’s important to note that the GOP’s improved position comes primarily from falling Democratic support. Democrats are currently at their lowest level of support in the past year while Republicans are at the high water mark.

The midterms are still a long way off, but this has to give Democrats concerns about how hard they want to push their agenda.

Egyptian Bacon for Everybody!

This is what passes for disease control in the Middle East:

CAIRO (AP) - The Egyptian government says it has begun slaughtering all pigs in the country as a precautionary measure against the possible spread of swine flu.

The Health Ministry says the slaughter of the country's 300,000 pigs will begin immediately.

The ministry has stated several times that there are no cases swine flu in the country, however neighboring Israel has reported two.

That'll show that old swine flu a thing or two.

By the way, this picture is circulating that reportedly shows the Patient Zero in the swine flu epidemic:

Both pig and kid are doing fine.

Economy Tanks Worse Than Expected

Hope and change apparently hasn't kicked in yet:

The U.S. economy shrank at a worse-than-expected 6.1 percent pace at the start of this year as sharp cutbacks by businesses and the biggest drop in U.S. exports in 40 years overwhelmed a rebound in consumer spending.

The Commerce Department's report, released Wednesday, dashed hopes that the recession's grip on the country loosened in the first quarter. Economists surveyed by Thomson Reuters expected a 5 percent annualized decline.

Instead, the economy ended up performing nearly as bad as it had in the final three months of last year when it logged the worst slide in a quarter-century, contracting at a 6.3 percent pace. Nervous consumers played a prominent role in that dismal showing as they ratcheted back spending in the face of rising unemployment, falling home values and shrinking nest eggs.

In the January-March quarter, however, consumers came back to life.

They actually boosted their spending after two straight quarters of reductions. The 2.2 percent growth rate was the strongest in two years.

Still, the consumer rebound was swamped by heavy spending cuts in virtually every other area.

Businesses cut spending on home building, commercial construction, equipment and software, and inventories of goods. Sales of U.S. goods to foreign buyers plunged as they retrenched in the face of economic troubles in their own countries. Even the government trimmed spending. It was the first time that happened since the end of 2005.

There aren't a lot of encouraging messages coming from our leaders or the media. I'm not sure the second quarter will look much better. The confidence just isn't there.

Public Does Not Want Torture Hearings

That's what a CBS/NYT poll says:

(CBS) The recent release of detailed memos describing harsh interrogation techniques used on suspected terrorists under the Bush administration has fueled calls for a Congressional investigation.

But most Americans do not want an investigation, according to a new CBS News/New York Times poll.

According to the poll, sixty-two percent of Americans do not think Congress should hold hearings to investigate the administration’s treatment of detainees. Only a third of Americans thinks Congress should investigate. That's the same proportion as thought so in February.

After digesting that info, this item from the poll becomes a lot more interesting:

These numbers do not mean the public agrees with the tactics used under the Bush administration to interrogate detainees, however. While 37 percent think waterboarding and other aggressive interrogation techniques are sometimes justified, 46 percent think these techniques are never justified.

And even more Americans - 71 percent - think the use of waterboarding and other aggressive interrogation techniques constitutes torture.

So, 71% think waterboarding and some of the other stuff was "torture", but most of them don't care. Sixty-two percent don't think there should be hearings, so you have to assume that a great many of them thought the "torture" was justified.

Interesting.

I wonder if any of these numbers will dissuade the wacky left caucus in Congress to rethink their plans for a modern inquisition? Probably not, but at least they'll go into these hearings with the knowledge that most Americans think they're wasting their time. Pelosi and company will have a difficult time pursuading those Americans that there's any real value in these hearings.

Arlen and the Democrats

The Next Right has some interesting reaction to Arlen Specter's move to the Dem party:

The news that Arlen Specter is switching parties has sparked a lot of attention to the predictable Republican reaction, which ranges from disappointment to blame-storming to "Don't let the door hit your ass on the way out".

But that's not the most interesting story here.

Once everybody gets the Republican reaction story out of their system, we'll turn to a much, much more interesting chapter in this story: How will Democrats react to Democratic Senate candidate Arlen Specter?

Early reaction (Daily Kos, Glenn Greenwald, The New Republic, MyDD, Open Left) suggests Senator Arlen Specter has somehow managed to join a political Party that dislikes him even more than Republicans did.

So, by promising to give Specter the institutional support of the Democratic Party, it looks like the Democratic establishment has engineered a switch that advances their political control at the expense of the ideological agenda and ideals of the progressive movement.

I had a Twitter conversation with a guy yesterday who thinks Specter is now a shoe-in to win re-election now that he's a Democrat. I disagreed.

Somewhere in Pennsylvania there is a lifelong Democrat or two who had his hopes set on challenging Specter in the 2010 general election. That all went out the window yesterday, especially with Obama's promises to support Specter in the primary. Why should the Democrat regulars in PA just roll over and make room for a guy who just decided yesterday to rejoin their party (he was a Democrat up until 1965 when he switched to win an election - deja vu all over again, as they say).

Specter got lots of attention yesterday for his move, and my guess is he won't get much attention again until he loses in 2010. This is his last hurrah.

You Still Can't Say the Seven Dirty Words

The Supreme Court has upheld the right of the government to police language on the airwaves:

The Supreme Court said today that TV viewers should not be hit with the "F-word" or the "S-word" during prime time broadcasts, upholding the government's power to impose huge fines on broadcasters for airing a single expletive.

In a 5-4 decision, the justices said federal law has long prohibited the broadcast of "indecent" language, and they said the Federal Communications Commission had ample authority to crack down on what Justice Antonin Scalia called the "foul-mouthed glitteratae from Hollywood."

He was referring to several incidents that trigged the FCC's crackdown.

When entertainer Cher was given a life-time achievement award on Billboard Music Awards, she said it proved her critics wrong. "So, f....'em," she said. The broadcast aired live on the Fox Network and was viewed by about 2.5 million minors, Scalia said.

The FCC cited similar comments by Bono and Nicole Richie on entertainment industry award shows.

In its new policy, the FCC said a single "fleeting expletive" could trigger fines for the network and all the local broadcasters who aired the show. Fox and the other networks went to court, arguing that this sudden change in policy was unjustified and unwarranted.

But the Supreme Court upheld the new policy today in FCC v. Fox Television and confirmed the government retains broad power to police the airwaves.

Good.

ACORN's New Tactic

Flush with new cash thanks to the Porkulus Bill, ACORN is starting a new tactic - acting as a mob-for-hire for foreclosed homeowners. This from Sacramento (h/t Michelle Malkin):

A large crowd of protesters disrupted several foreclosure auctions today on the Sacramento County Courthouse steps, winning temporary cancellation of one Sacramento foreclosure and sending an auctioneer to the hospital with chest pains.
Bidders on the homes, all declining to provide their names, called the ACORN protest the first major disruption of an established auction schedule that plays out every weekday at the courthouse following 37,000 foreclosures in the capital region since Jan. 2007…

…As the first auction was to begin at 9:30 a.m. on the Sacramento County Courthouse steps, Los Angeles ACORN member Kathleen Thompson-Boons asked an unidentified auctioneer with LPS Financial Services of Sacramento “to stop the auction.”

When the auctioneer resumed seeking bids from nine potential bidders, Thompson-Boons asked again, prompting the auctioneer to say, “If you’re not going to bid, then go away.”

Seconds later, protesters surrounded the group, chanting, blowing whistles and creating a commotion that made it impossible to hear. The auctioneer, who had a pacemaker according to associates, began to collapse and was later taken to a local hospital.

The protest continued for about 90 minutes. ACORN members left after cheering a concession by LPS Financial Services to cancel a specific requested foreclosure auction for one Sacramento family. Minutes later, as the group left, the auctions resumed as scheduled.

How long do you think it will be before other homeowners pick up on this and every auction is a battle of nitwits?

The Air Force One Photo Revealed

Mark Hemingway has the picture from the Air Force One photo shoot over New York City:


And then there's this:

The flight by the VC-25, a modified Boeing Co. 747, and two F-16 fighter jets cost $328,835, Air Force spokeswoman Vicki Stein said.

Three-Hour Mission

That includes $300,658 for the larger plane, which flew a three-hour mission, and about $28,178 for the F-16 jets, which flew 1.8 hours each, Stein said in an e-mailed statement. The total includes fuel used in flight, fuel used to power ground equipment used to prepare the aircraft, and ground maintenance, Stein said.

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said yesterday’s flyover was “two training missions that became in the end a picture mission” and only Air Force personnel were aboard.

As I understand it a second mission was planned to fly low over Washington D.C. on a similar photo hop (no, that's not a joke). That flight has been cancelled, along with the career of the guy who okayed the first one.

Why is Obama So Unpopular?

I'll bet you're hearing endless stories about how cool and popular the rookie president is. Well, I hate to rain on your parade....

According to Gallup’s April survey, Americans have a lower approval of Mr. Obama at this point than all but one president since Gallup began tracking this in 1969. The only new president less popular was Bill Clinton, who got off to a notoriously bad start after trying to force homosexuals on the military and a federal raid in Waco, Texas, that killed 86. Mr. Obama’s current approval rating of 56 percent is only one tick higher than the 55-percent approval Mr. Clinton had during those crises…

It’s no surprise the liberal media aren’t anxious to point out that their darling is less popular than George W. Bush. But given the Gallup numbers, their hurrahs could be more subdued. USA Today’s front page touted the April poll results as positive, with the headline: “Public thinks highly of Obama.” The current cover of Newsweek magazine ponders “The Secret of His [Mr. Obama's] Success.” The comparison with previous presidents is useful because they are usually popular during their first few months in office - and most presidents have been more popular than Mr. Obama.

Lower than both Bushes. Lower than Carter. Lower than Nixon. Lower than Reagan.

Mr. Unity a bipartisanship.

Maybe those Tea Parties meant something after all.

Feds Knew New York Flyover Would Cause Panic

But they did it anyway and insisted that the public not be forewarned:

A furious President Barack Obama ordered an internal review of Monday's low-flying photo op over the Statue of Liberty.

CBS 2 HD has discovered the feds will have plenty to question.

Federal officials knew that sending two fighter jets and Air Force One to buzz ground zero and Lady Liberty might set off nightmarish fears of a 9/11 replay, but they still ordered the photo-op kept secret from the public.

In a memo obtained by CBS 2 HD the Federal Aviation Administration's James Johnston said the agency was aware of "the possibility of public concern regarding DOD (Department of Defense) aircraft flying at low altitudes" in an around New York City. But they demanded total secrecy from the NYPD, the Secret Service, the FBI and even the mayor's office and threatened federal sanctions if the secret got out.

"To say that it should not be made public knowing that it might scare people it's just confounding," Sen. Charles Schumer said. "It's what gives Washington and government a bad name. It's sheer stupidity."

The flyover -- apparently ordered by the White House Office of Military Affairs so it would have souvenir photos of Air Force One with the Statue of Liberty in the background -- had President Obama seeing red. He ordered a probe and apologized.

"It was a mistake. It will never happen again," President Obama said.

The NYPD was so upset about the demand for secrecy that Police Commissioner Ray Kelly vowed never to follow such a directive again and he accused the feds of inciting fears of a 9/11 replay.

"Did it show any insensitivity to the psychic wounds New York City has after 9/11? Absolutely. No questions about it. It was quite insensitive."

The cost of the frivolous flight was about $60,000 an hour and that was just for Air Force One. That doesn't include the cost of the two F-16s that came along.

The mayoral aide who neglected to tell Mayor Michael Bloomberg about it was reprimanded.

I find this whole thing absolutely astounding. When we say the current administration thinks they're living in a pre-9/11 world, nothing proves it better than this.

Reporters are now asking for the flight manifest to see who was on board. Speculation is it wasn't just the Air Force crew, but campaign donors as well. Wouldn't that be interesting...

More Fallout from Air Force Fly-by

A former Bush Homeland Security advisor is understandably critical of yesterday's Air Force photo-op in New York:

(CNN) - A former homeland security adviser to President George W. Bush is slamming the decision by an Obama White House official to use lower Manhattan as the location for a low-flying presidential plane photo-op.

Francis Townsend, a CNN security contributor, called the fly-over "crass insensitivity" Tuesday on CNN's American Morning. "And, frankly, as I would say as a former prosecutor, I would call this felony stupidity," the lawyer and former Bush homeland security adviser added.

Townsend also suggested that Louis Caldera, the Director of the White House Military Office, may not be fit to continue serving in the Obama administration.

"What makes this almost more disturbing is the fact that that's the office responsible for the movement of the president and his staff in a time of emergency," Townsend told Kiran Chetry. "So, of course, the most important thing is that the person leading it has good judgment. . . . at its best this is bad judgment. This is probably not the right job for Mr. Caldera to be in if he didn't understand the likely reaction of New Yorkers."

"This was not necessary," Townsend added. "If you needed pictures of Air Force One over a national icon, fly it over the Grand Canyon. But flying it over lower Manhattan, which to many of us is a sacred ground now where we lost thousands of Americans, I just think it wrong."

To be completely fair the flyover was not supposed to be over Ground Zero, but over the Statue of Liberty. However, it's pretty impossible to fly a 747 over the Statue without being very close to Ground Zero. The flight time in that jet between those two points would be only a few seconds.

Then there was this reaction from New York-based NBC news anchor Brian Williams:

This was dangerously mishandled. As I said the other evening at a gathering of New York City firefighters: even after all these years, among many New Yorkers, 9/11 still feels like it was about 10 minutes ago. The pit is still there, though it's now a construction zone. The losses don't go away. No one is bringing my neighbor back to me. I will drive by his house on my way home from work tonight, and he won't be there. We still look up at the sky (in ways we never did before) when we hear low-flying aircraft, and we still worry. Lower Manhattan is no place for an unnanounced low-altitude jumbo jet-and-fighter-jet flyover.

Someone should pay for this.

Of course, this whole thing is now giving way to a collection of jokes about the next Obama photo-op. This tweet from AllahPundit:

Next Obama "photo op": An unannounced overflight of Pearl Harbor by 200 or so unmarked fighter/bombers

And this from TTBL:

BHO reminds us the Air Force One stunt is not his fault - he inherited AF1 from Bush.

This will probably keep up for awhile.

UPDATE: Feds knew flyover would cause panic but insisted on secrecy anyway.

Guns and Ammo

How's this for economic stimulus? (from Ammoland)

In just 3 months Americans bought enough guns to outfit the entire Chinese and Indian armies combined.

You also bought 1,529,635,000 rounds of ammunition in just the month of December 2008. Yeah that is right, that is Billion with a “B”.

This is an evaluation of overall firearms and ammunition purchases based on low end numbers per Federal NIC instacheck data base Statistics. The numbers presented are only PART of the overall numbers of arms and ammunition that have been sold. The actual numbers are much higher.

I did my part.

Making Pelosi the Story

The GOP has a few tricks of their own in this "torture" battle, and reminding voters and the press that the decision to use "enhanced interrogation techniques", now regularly referred to as torture, was a joint bipartisan decision:

Minority Leader John Boehner is asking the Obama administration to release the CIA’s notes briefing Nancy Pelosi. Whether the Obama team does so or not seems irrelevant. It is enough for the public now to know that Pelosi and others were briefed and that no meaningful objections and steps to halt the CIA (e.g. cutting off funding) were ever raised. The GOP, with moves like this and in interviews such as the one Sen. Kit Bond gave today, is trying to make Pelosi the story now. To the extent that “Pelosi Plays Defense on Torture” is the top story on Politico (for a good part of the day) they are succeeding. And what does that do?

Well, it might slow the witch hunt down a bit. But more importantly it reminds the voters that until it became politically expedient there was bipartisan consensus for enhanced interrogation techniques. The existence of those briefings (and the notes which will document them) suggest that everyone — the lawyers, Congress, and the CIA — were operating in good faith, as best they could, to prevent the unimaginable, namely another attack on America. That, it seems, goes to the heart of the “defense” of Bush officials who may be dragooned before a Truth Commission.

I thought Cheney's call to demand a full release of the CIA documents showing the success of the enhanced techniques was brilliant. It really forced the hand of Obama and didn't allow them to control the message.

This move to make Pelosi the issue also takes some of the thunder out of the notion that the interrogations were solely the idea of Bush and the Republicans.

Two can play this game.

Handing GM to the Unions

Looks like the Auto Workers Union will get their reward for supporting Obama. Larry Kudlow has the details:

What is going on in this country? The government is about to take over GM in a plan that completely screws private bondholders and favors the unions. Get this: The GM bondholders own $27 billion and they’re getting 10 percent of the common stock in an expected exchange. And the UAW owns $10 billion of the bonds and they’re getting 40 percent of the stock. Huh? Did I miss something here? And Uncle Sam will have a controlling share of the stock with something close to 50 percent ownership. And no bankruptcy judge. So this is a political restructuring run by the White House, not a rule-of-law bankruptcy-court reorganization.

Kudlow has a lot more about Tim Geithner's cozy relationship with the bankers he's supposed to be regulating and the problems that will cause. Read it here.

Arlen Specter Make it Official

He's long voted like a Democrat, and now he'll become one:

Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter will switch his party affiliation from Republican to Democrat, according to sources informed on the decision.

Specter’s decision would give Democrats a 60 seat filibuster proof majority in the Senate assuming Democrat Al Franken is eventually sworn in as the next Senator from Minnesota. (Former Sen. Norm Coleman is appealing Franken’s victory in the state Supreme Court.)

“I have decided to run for re-election in 2010 in the Democratic primary,” said Specter in a statement. “I am ready, willing and anxious to take on all comers and have my candidacy for re-election determined in a general election.”

“Since my election in 1980, as part of the Reagan Big Tent, the Republican Party has moved far to the right. Last year, more than 200,000 Republicans in Pennsylvania changed their registration to become Democrats. I now find my political philosophy more in line with Democrats than Republicans.”

This switch is not about his political philosophy as much as it's about the conservative challenger Pat Toomey who was mopping the floor with him in early polling. Specter was gonna lose in the primary. Now, if he doesn't get a primary challenger, he can wait until election day to get his clock cleaned.

There something else missing in Specter's statement. Remember Operation Chaos? That was the effort by Rush Limbaugh to get Republicans to switch their party affiliation so they could vote for Hillary in the primaries. Thousands of them did and Hillary won the Pennsylvania primary. Specter may be justifying his decision based on bad information.

Regardless of how he came about it, I think most Republicans will be glad to see him go.

Way back on November 5, 2004, just a couple of months after this blog started, I had an item urging the Republicans not to make Specter the chairman of the Judiciary Committee. He had just threatened the newly re-elected President Bush about sending conservative judges up for confirmation. I've seen this coming for a long time.

This makes Sen. John Cornyn look pretty silly since he recently came out and said the Republican Senatorial Committee would back Specter's campaign. And, of course, he made President Bush, Sen. Rick Santorum, and the whole GOP look silly for backing him in 2004.

The overwhelming message I'm reading from most conservatives is: Good riddance. Amen. Now let's see if we can get John McCain and his wacky daughter to join him.

Name That Pandemic

Mark Steyn reports in The Corner on problems with the flu naming conventions:

How come those deadbeats at CAIR weren't on to this before the Jews? The naming of influenzas:

JERUSALEM – The outbreak of swine flu should be renamed "Mexican" influenza in deference to Muslim and Jewish sensitivities over pork, said an Israeli health official Monday.

What about Mexican sensitivities? Undocumented Flu?

And here's something they didn't have in 1918 during the last pandemic - Google maps showing where the cases are appearing. Plan your vacations accordingly.

The Press is Fawning at Record Levels

I don't think any of us will be surprised by this from Howard Kurtz:

The networks have given President Obama more coverage than George W. Bush and Bill Clinton combined in their first months — and more positive assessments to boot.

In a study to be released today, the Center for Media and Public Affairs and Chapman University found the nightly newscasts devoting nearly 28 hours to Obama’s presidency in the first 50 days. (Bush, by contrast, got nearly eight hours.) Fifty-eight percent of the evaluations of Obama were positive on the ABC, CBS and NBC broadcasts, compared with 33 percent positive in the comparable period of Bush’s tenure and 44 percent positive for Clinton. (Evaluations by officials from the administration or either political party were not counted.)

On Fox News, by contrast, only 13 percent of the assessments of Obama were positive on the first half of Bret Baier’s “Special Report,” which most resembles a newscast. The president got far better treatment in the New York Times, where 73 percent of the assessments in front-page pieces were positive.

A striking contrast: Obama’s personal qualities drew more favorable coverage than his policies, with 32 percent of the sound bites positive on CBS, 31 percent positive on NBC and 8 percent positive on Fox.

Just wait until they look at the numbers for this week, with every network going all out on a "First 100 Days" blitz.

Swine Flu Creeping Closer to Pandemic Status

Want to have some fun? Get on an airplane and start coughing. I'll bet you get more attention than if you'd shouted "BOMB!":

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - A new virus has killed up to 149 people in Mexico and the World Health Organization moved closer on Monday to declaring it the first flu pandemic in 40 years as more people were infected in the United States and Europe.

The WHO raised its pandemic alert level for the swine flu virus to phase 4, indicating a significantly increased risk of a pandemic, a global outbreak of a serious disease.

The last such outbreak, a "Hong Kong" flu pandemic in 1968, killed about 1 million people.

Although the new flu strain has so far killed people only in Mexico, there were more than 40 confirmed cases in the United States, including 20 at a New York City school where eight cases were already identified.

In Mexico City, fearful Christians paraded a centuries-old statue of Jesus, believed to protect against disease, through the streets for the first time in more than a century.

Yeah, idol worship always helps.

Then there was this addition to the story:

The swine flu is not caught from eating pig meat products, but several countries imposed import bans on pork from the United States.

You may think that's kind of silly, but Iowa Senator Charles Grassley actually sent this out on Twitter:

U can't get swine flu fr eating pork. Eatup. Regardless of epidemic.

So go ahead and have that BLT or ham sandwich. The pork producers are counting on you.

Another Brit Threatens to Become an Ex-Patriot

I recently saw a nice bio piece on Michael Caine. He's a very busy actor, even at 76. Caine is not too pleased with the new British tax rate:

"The Government has taken tax up to 50 per cent, and if it goes to 51 I will be back in America," he said at the weekend. "We've got 3.5 million layabouts on benefits, and I'm 76, getting up at 6am to go to work to keep them."

He better hurry before our tax rates pass theirs.

Yesterday Andrew Lloyd Webber basically made the same threat.

Political Quote of the Day

From Tantor (h/t Ace):

Isn't it fabulous how Obama has reconciled with our enemies and put fear into the hearts of Americans? Does any image illustrate so neatly the wrongheadedness of the Obama administration than Americans scrambling in terror from Air Force One?

The Problem of Having Your Kid at a Northern California College

My wife gets all the press releases from Sonoma State University where our daughter attends. Yesterday she got this:

SONOMA STATE UNIVERSITY NEWS CENTER
April 27, 2009

"PEACE MOM" CINDY SHEEHAN SET FOR SSU LECTURE
ON ENDING MIDDLE EASTERN OCCUPATION BY U.S.

Cindy Sheehan, famous for her high profile "Camp Casey"
Iraq war protests outside former-president George W. Bush's
Crawford, Texas home, comes to Sonoma State University
on Friday, May 15 at 7 p.m. in the University Gym.

Her lecture will focus on how individual action can help
President Barack Obama end the wars and occupations
in the Middle East.

Known worldwide for her determined efforts to promote peace,
Sheehan has been called "the Rosa Parks of the antiwar
movement" and nicknamed "Peace Mom" by the mainstream
press.

She has also been called "Mama Moonbat" and "Queen of the Ditch People" by me. They didn't include that in the press release.

Common sense couldn't get her out of a ditch in Crawford, TX - how is she going to tell us how to get the U.S. out of Iraq?

We're going to be in Northern California that night to visit our daughter, but I think I'll skip the lecture. There's plenty of other places I can go to see crazy.

Nicest Thing Anyone's Said to Me in Awhile

While getting my haircut on Saturday I was talking to the guy I've been going to for probably 16 years. We were talking about his twin girls who are now in the 5th grade. He said people have been warning him to watch out for the day when they become teenagers. This is what he said:

"I'm not worried. I can just point to your kids and tell them it's possibly to raise teenagers without a lot of problems."

He's getting a big tip from now on.

Today May Have Set Some People Back 5 Years

The New York Times blog has some personal stories of people and their reactions to the sight of a large airliner flying low over their city:

Unaware of the planned exercise, scores of office workers flooded out of buildings, worried about the prospect of terrorism.

“People came pouring out of the buildings, the American Express Building, all the buildings in the financial district by the water,” said Edward Acker, a photographer who was at the building, 3 World Financial Center. “And even the construction guys over by 100 North End Avenue area, they all got out of their buildings. Nobody knew about it. Finally some guy showed up with a little megaphone to tell everyone it was a test, but the people were not happy. The people who were here 9/11 were not happy.”

Mr. Acker added: “New York City police were standing right there and they had no knowledge of it. The evacuations were spontaneous. Guys from the floor came out, and one guy I talked to was just shaking.”

Even the markets dipped shortly after 10 a.m., though it was unclear if the alarm over the planes was a factor. Starting at 10:02 a.m., three main market indexes started dropping precipitously. The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 40 points in 10 minutes, starting 10:15 a.m., before it rebounded more than 50 points.

In Jersey City, construction workers were evacuated from a condominium tower under construction at 77 Hudson Street.

The workers, who were on the 32nd floor of the construction site, said the plane circled three times past the Goldman Sachs tower, the tallest building in New Jersey. On the second pass, they said, the jet appeared to be only a few dozen feet from the building — close enough to clip the side of the skyscraper. A fighter followed right behind, mirroring its moves.

The construction site as were other buildings in downtown Jersey City, including offices in the Exchange Place financial complex.

Carlina Rivera, 25, who works at an educational services company on the 22nd floor of 1 Liberty Plaza, said her co-workers were spooked in part because their offices are so close to the site of the 9/11 attack. “As soon as someone saw how close it got to the buildings, people literally ran out,” she said. “Probably about 80 percent of my office left within two minutes of seeing how close it got to our building.”

Ms. Rivera, who was a high school student in the East Village when the 9/11 attack occurred, added, “I did feel a little bit foolish for staying in the office while everyone left.”

Ms. Rivera said eventually there was a message made over the public announcement system that the plane was an advertisement for a movie — which she said that did not coincide with what they were reading online about the plane taking pictures of the Statue of Liberty. “It was a little confusing. What was the truth?” she said.

Ms. Rivera continued: “Of course, everyone had to take out their cellphones and say, ‘You can come back, it’s O.K.’ Eventually they returned with some sort of comfort food. We feel like we should have at least been warned.”

At 1 Liberty Plaza, according to another person who works in Lower Manhattan, a loudspeaker announcement said at 10:55 a.m., “Planes were observed flying low over Lower Manhattan, but were part of an approved federal action.”

Johnny Villafane, 42, of the Upper West Side, said, “The plane did a 360. There was a vibration. The glass in the skyscrapers was shivering.” He added, “It sounded like the building were cracking, everything started shaking. I thought the plane was coming down.”

Sidney Bordley, a floor director in an office building at 1 Battery Park Place, said, “People were running out of the office, claiming they saw a commercial flight being pursued by F-16’s.” He added, “There was some confusion and a little excitement.”

A group of financial services workers, who were gathered outside the same building but declined to give their names, described their reactions. “I saw the landing gear and I was out of here,” one said. Another said: “There were people in my elevator, sweating and shaking. There were women
crying. It was not an experience to be taken lightly.”

Andrew Burke, 49, a T-shirt vendor from Crown Heights, Brooklyn, said: “People panicked and ran into the streets thinking the worst.” He added, “It’s a real shame they couldn’t tell the city what they were going to do.”

The plane undoubtedly appeared lower than it really was. 747's are so huge that distances are very deceiving. However, in the heat of the moment I'm sure it looked to shaky New Yorkers like a tragedy was about to repeat itself.

I wonder how many survivors of 9/11 just had their recovery set back about 5 years by this little episode?

Oklahoma Tornadoes

Just because I'm a sucker for severe weather, here's some video from the guys at TornadoVideos.net from yesterday's storms in Oklahoma:

You may see this footage again this fall on the Storm Chasers TV show on the Discovery Channel.

Fox Turns Down Opportunity to Air Obama Prime Time Special

Finally, a broadcast network tells Obama he's been on TV too much:

NEW YORK – The Fox network is sticking with its regular schedule over President Barack Obama this week.

The network is turning down the president's request to show his prime-time news conference on Wednesday. The news conference marks Obama's 100th day in office. Instead of the president, Fox viewers will see an episode of the Tim Roth drama "Lie to Me."

It's the first time a broadcast network has refused Obama's request. This will be the third prime-time news conference in Obama's presidency. ABC, CBS and NBC are airing it.

Although the broadcast network won't carry it, I'm sure Fox News cable channel will. Even if they didn't, it's not like it will be hard to find.

This does put the other networks in an odd position. Sweeps are going on right now, meaning the ratings during this period will determine ad rates for the next quarter. Fox will be sticking with their regular line-up while the other will be all-Obama, all the time. The other networks' ratings are likely to get hurt.

This could be a real bonus for Fox.

The Air Force Photo Shoot - a New Yorker's View

Earlier today the big story in New York City was the appearance of a low flying airliner over the city accompanied by F-16 fighters. You can understand that New Yorkers might be a big sensitive about those things. Here's one New Yorker's view from Red State:

This isn’t going to be a major story, but I’m awfully sore about it, and I’m not the only one.

Shortly before 10am this morning, a low-flying airliner buzzed New York Harbor just south of Manhattan, tailed by a pair of fighter jets. In case you weren’t here one dazzling September morning eight years ago, that’s exactly the flight path taken by the airplane that hit the south tower of the World Trade Center.

So what do you do when you hear that sickeningly familiar sound? Of course: you go into near-panic and evacuate all the office towers. That’s pretty close to what we did.

Now, we’ve come to find out what it was all about. If you haven’t heard this story, please brace yourself.

It was one of Barack Obama’s planes. It was one of the 747s used as Air Force One. They flew it past the Statue of Liberty. To snap some publicity pictures.

Why are we hopping mad about this? Because no one bothered to tell us. Apparently, DHS informed the New York police, but then instructed them not to say anything about it. The only thing I can guess is that they were afraid one of our friendly neighborhood terrorists might take the opportunity to fling a shoulder-launched missile at the thing.

So people I talked to (who were there on 9/11) said they heard two really loud flybys, and ducked because the next sound they expected to hear was a big crash. If you’re not from here, it’s hard to explain how sensitive people still are about this.

Why on earth did our President do this to us? Was he just plain thoughtless? Or was the insensitivity willful?

A lot of people (mostly Democrats) in other parts of the country may have forgotten 9/11, but nobody who lives or works in New York City has. This thing should have been announced in advance to more than just city leaders.

UPDATE: Apparently even Hizzoner Mayor Bloomberg was not told of the photo shoot:

Angry that an unnamed but "dumb" city official failed to notify him of the Pentagon's plans, Bloomberg said a flyover so close to Ground Zero was insensitive and showed "poor judgement."

He said the first he knew of it was when his BlackBerry began buzzing.

It "defies the imagination," said Bloomberg, who insisted he would have tried to stop the shoot had he known about it.

The NYPD confirmed that it had been told of the Pentagon's "aerial photo mission" last Thursday but ordered to stay quiet about it.

Sen. Chuck Schumer called the whole incident "absolutely outrageous and appalling."

"To think that the FAA would plan such a photo shoot and not warn the public, knowing full well that New Yorkers still have the vivid memory of 9/11 etched in their minds," he said.

"In New York, of all places, to not warn the public that one of the largest jets in the county tailed by a fighter jet is going to fly low over their communities defies logic and borders on simply being cruel."

UPDATE 2: New Yorkers run for their lives as Air Force One screams low overhead:

(And yes, I know it's not Air Force One unless the president is aboard, but if I said it was SAM 28000 or SAM 29000 you wouldn't have known what I was talking about.)

UPDATE: A White House mea culpa.

Budget Cuts Finally Doing What Prop 187 Couldn't Do

Voters in California tried to eliminate state-funded services for illegal aliens when they passed Prop 187 by a large margin in 1994. As often happens a judge overturned the will of the voters and the state continued pouring money into services for illegals.

Now the budget cuts hitting the state are doing what Prop 187 wasn't able to do:

Forced to slash their budgets, some California counties are eliminating nonemergency health services for illegal immigrants -- a move that officials acknowledge could backfire by shifting the financial burden to emergency rooms.

Sacramento County voted in February to bar illegal immigrants from county clinics at an estimated savings of $2.4 million. Contra Costa County followed last month by cutting off undocumented adults, to save approximately $6 million. And Yolo County is voting on a similar change next month, which would reduce costs by $1.2 million.

Illegal immigrant concentrations in U.S."This is a way for us to get through what I think is a horrible year for healthcare in California," said William Walker, director of Contra Costa Health Services.

Just wait. There will be another lawsuit and another judge telling us we can't keep illegals out of state-funded services.

Political Quote of the Day

I like this item from The Corner:

This week on Uncommon Knowledge, John Winston Howard, who served from 1996 to 2007 as the twenty-fifth prime minister of Australia.

Today I ask the former prime minister why he sent naval forces and some 2,000 troops to join the United States in Iraq. Why didn’t he instead take the approach followed by the prime ministers of, let us say, Belgium or the Netherlands? Why didn’t the Australians stay out of trouble, letting the Americans wage the war on their own?

"We don't believe in free riding."

Gotta love the Aussies. I sure hope the PM that replaced Howard doesn't completely ruin them.

San Fran Nan on Defense

Nancy Pelosi was briefed, along with other congressional leadership from both parties, about the enhanced interrogation techniques and the results that came from using them. She is not quite willing to claim ownership to that information and in fact would like us all to forget it. Now that there's a move to prosecute those who were involved in the decision making chain of command, Pelosi is trying to make this go away...at least for her:

Nancy Pelosi didn’t cry foul when the Bush administration briefed her on “enhanced interrogation” of terror suspects in 2002, but her team was locked and loaded to counter hypocrisy charges when the “torture” memos were released last week.

Many Republicans obliged, led by former CIA chief Porter Goss, who is accusing Democrats like Pelosi of “amnesia” for demanding investigations in 2009 after failing to raise objections seven years ago when she first learned of the legal basis for the program.

“As soon as the president made the decision to release [the memos], I was telling people that the Republicans were going to come after us, saying she knew about it and did nothing,” said an adviser to Pelosi (D-Calif.), speaking on condition of anonymity. “And I’m sure we’re going to get hammered again when they release all those new torture photos,” the person said.

But Pelosi’s allies were less prepared to confront the fallout from her convoluted answers during three sessions with reporters last week — answers that raised new questions and handed Republicans a fresh line of attack on a speaker at the height of her power.

“I’m puzzled, I don’t understand what she’s trying to say,” said Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R-Mich.), former chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and currently the committee’s ranking minority member.

“I don’t have any sympathy for her — she’s the speaker of the House; there should be some accountability. She shouldn’t be given a pass,” added Hoekstra.

Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) promised to keep up the heat, telling reporters last week, “She and other leaders were fully briefed on all of these interrogation techniques. There’s nothing here that should surprise her.”

If people like Sen. Pat Leahy want to go after all those who were involved in these decisions, the Republicans will make sure that the Democrat involvement in this process is not overlooked.

Today's Talking Point - Blame the GOP for Swine Flu

Our first entrant, the SEIU union thugs:

The Service Employees International Union has launched an online petition criticizing Republicans for delaying the confirmation of a Health and Human Services secretary in the face of a swine flu outbreak.

The union accuses Senate Republicans of delaying the confirmation of nominee Kathleen Sebelius to “curry favor with extremist outside groups” and depriving the department of leadership as the nation confronts a potential flu pandemic.

“This is simply unacceptable,” the union says on its website. “This disease is spreading as we speak, but right now, a Bush-appointed accountant is running the department. We need an HHS secretary NOW. Sign the petition telling the Senate to vote immediately to confirm Gov. Kathleen Sebelius. If we don't act, the swine flu might just turn into another Hurricane Katrina.”

Yeah, Kathleen Sebelius will save us all from the evil flu.

Second item, a lefty writer for The Nation:

When House Appropriations Committee chairman David Obey, the Wisconsin Democrat who has long championed investment in pandemic preparation, included roughly $900 million for that purpose in this year’s emergency stimulus bill, he was ridiculed by conservative operatives and congressional Republicans.

Obey and other advocates for the spending argued, correctly, that a pandemic hitting in the midst of an economic downturn could turn a recession into something far worse — with workers ordered to remain in their homes, workplaces shuttered to avoid the spread of disease, transportation systems grinding to a halt and demand for emergency services and public health interventions skyrocketing. Indeed, they suggested, pandemic preparation was essential to any responsible plan for renewing the U.S. economy.

But former White House political czar Karl Rove and key congressional Republicans — led by Maine Senator Susan Collins — aggressively attacked the notion that there was a connection between pandemic preparation and economic recovery.

Once again evil Republicans put us all at risk by refusing massive spending.

But wait, there's more. It turns out that Dem Senator Chuckie Schumer wasn't a fan of the pandemic spending either. Here's his quote (h/t Michelle Malkin):

“All those little porky things that the House put in, the money for the [National] Mall or the sexually transmitted diseases or the flu pandemic, they’re all out,” Schumer said.

"Porky things". I'll bet he's wishing he'd used a different description now.

Phantom of the Treasury

One of the world's preeminent playwrights, Andrew Lloyd Webber, is warning his country that their new tax plan might finally chase him and other producers (entertainment and other) out of their home country:

The opinion polls have uttered. The country loves the new 50 per cent top rate of income tax. Soak the rich. Smash the bankers. So Government spin doctors are in second heaven. The Conservatives' silence redefines a tomb. And I suppose there'd be quite a turnout for the public flogging of Sir Fred the Shred.

But before you book your tickets, hold hard. And before you lynch me as a rich b*****d flying a kite for my own cause, let me beg you to believe that I am not.
I believe that this new top rate of tax could be the final nail in the coffin of Britain plc.
I am 61 years old. I have lived and worked in Britain all my life. Not even in the dark days of penal Labour taxation in the Seventies did I have any intention of leaving the country of my birth.

Despite a rumour put around some years back, I have never contemplated leaving Britain for tax reasons. But in the 40-plus years I have been lucky enough to work here, I've seen a bit. So I must draw your attention to what is really proposed in this Budget.

Here's the truth. The proposed top rate of income tax is not 50 per cent. It is 50 per cent plus 1.5 per cent national insurance paid by employees plus 13.3 per cent paid by employers. That's not 50 per cent. Two years from now, Britain will have the highest tax rate on earned income of any developed country.

I write this article because I fear the inevitable exodus of the talent that can dig us out of the hole we find ourselves in. It is inevitable, given that other countries are bidding for entrepreneurs. The Government must modify its proposals.

We're not quite back to those tax levels yet, but it's almost inevitable that we will get there and higher should Obama's spending plans continue unabated. America's wealth producers have choices, and among them is where to live and pay taxes. If some nation out there with decent weather were to create a tax haven for people like that, they'd be overrun with private jets and limos in a matter of months.