On the Constitution

Ace of Spades nails the whole Supreme Court issue with this comment:

Liberals like to pretend that judicial law-making by the Courts is dictated by the Constitution. That the made-up pretend fakey "penumbras and emanations" they're always discovering in a fairly brief, and fairly well-known, 216 year old document are not the result of political decisionmaking, but simple (though methodical) research into this venerable charter.

The fight over Supreme Court nominees isn't about politically conservative vs. politcally liberal. It's about whether to abide by the Constitution or just make shit up as we go.

If you're going to play the game of dirty politics, don't leave your fingerprints everywhere

The DNC's first attempt to smear Alito.

The Miers Rope-a-Dope

In a comment below, IPFreely asks whether the whole Miers thing was a ploy to pave the way for the eminently qualified but conservative Alito.

Christopher Caen (probably a descendant of Herb Caen?) writes about the same possibility in the San Francisco Examiner:

Many local senior Democrats are smiling to themselves about the whole Harriet Miers debacle. And the reason is they saw it coming three weeks ago. The reality is I had several conversations with people in the California Democratic Party and the consensus was that good old Harriet was there to take one for the team. The reasoning was that the Democrats were never going to give the White House two confirmations in a row, so cannon fodder had to be provided. And if it was
someone who could infuriate the conservatives enough to get them back behind Bush on the next appointee, then even better. No sitting judge or elected official would take that bullet, but there is no collateral damage for Harriet, who just goes back to her job as if nothing ever happened. It never was a debacle, and now we will find out who they really want in that seat. But as articles across the nation leapt out of the pages of the national newspapers and bashed the Bushies for their “mistake,” it’s good to know that our local team wasn’t so easily fooled.

I don't think Bush is playing chess looking that many moves ahead, but it's an interesting theory.

Similar, though less Machiavellian, thoughts at Don Surber.

Alito on Planned Parenthood v. Casey

A very pro-Alito Patterico cuts through the distortions on what Alito wrote in his dissent:

Nowhere did Judge Alito call for Roe v. Wade to be overruled. There is nothing inflammatory in his dissenting opinion, at all. It is simply a measured and well-written opinion that shows a careful analysis of precedent and a proper respect for the courts’ limited role in our constitutional structure.

Obviously, the Supreme Court reached a different view from that of Judge Alito, by a narrowly divided vote. This was the famous Casey decision which (among other things): 1) upheld the central holding of Roe on stare decisis grounds; 2) stripped the abortion right of its status as a “fundamental right” under the Constitution; and 3) replaced Roe’s trimester framework with a rule tied to viability.

But this does not mean that Judge Alito misread the relevant precedents regarding the scope of what is an “undue burden.” In fact, as Justice Scalia noted in dissent, “the joint opinion finds it necessary expressly to repudiate the more narrow formulations used in JUSTICE O’CONNOR’s earlier opinions.” In other words, Judge Alito read her earlier opinions correctly, but the Court
imposed a new, more restrictive standard in Casey. You can’t blame Judge Alito for that.

The bottom line is this: Judge Alito’s Casey dissent shows one thing, and one thing only: he is a careful judge and an adherent to the rule of law and a limited role for the courts. It is a dissent of which we can be proud. Don’t let the Democrats turn it into anything else.

Alito

I'm going out on a limb here, but I'll predict that Alito gets confirmed, and that the Democrats will back down from a filibuster in the face of the nuclear option.

That's reassuring

Al-Qaeda probably doesn't have nuclear suitcase bombs.

Poking a hornets' nest

The humorless, uptight White House goes after the irreverent and satirical Onion for using the Presidential Seal.

The White House might not like the Onion's response.

From AmericaBlog via Ang's Weird Ideas.

The Varones voter's guide to the California propositions

California has a mess of propositions up for voting on November 8. Some are a bit confusing. Following are my views on the initiatives. Please correct me if I'm wrong on any of them.

Prop 73: YES. This would require a 48-hour waiting period and parental notification for minors wanting abortions. While pro-abortion groups are going nuts about this, it's a pretty minimal and reasonable hurdle. Teenage girls who just found out that they are pregnant are not necessarily in a calm and rational state of mind. Forty-eight hours to think it over and a discussion with the parents are a good idea. Opponents raise the case of abusive parents, but the proposition allows for the minor to see a judge instead. Groups like Planned Parenthood would obviously facilitate minors applying to judges. Minors need parents' permission for a school trip to a museum or to get a tattoo. It's asinine to say that they should get invasive, and often psychologically traumatic, surgery without parental involvement.

Prop 74: YES. Most teachers are good; some are really bad. The current tenure system makes it very difficult to get rid of bad teachers. Once you teach for two years, you pretty much have to be caught on video molesting kids to get fired. This measure would simply postpone the no-accountability date to five years.

Prop 75: YES. This would require unions to get approval from members before using their dues for political contributions. Unions should be in the business of collective bargaining, not owning the state legistlature.

Prop 76: YES. Schwarzenegger's "live-within-our-means" initiative is common-sense and necessary reform. It would limit spending increases to the rate of revenue growth (trailing three-year average). The California budget was recently a disaster, and is currently kept afloat only by borrowing from the future and reaping a flood of property taxes from the housing bubble. Without reform like this, California will be really screwed at the next economic downturn.

Prop 77: YES. Politicians have gerrymandered their districts so that they cannot lose. In fact, even with an angry electorate in the 2004 elections, of the 153 congressional and state legislative races, not a single seat changed parties. This reform would take redisticting out of the hands of the politicians and put it in the hands of a nonpartisan panel of retired judges. If you oppose Proposition 77, you're either an incumbent or an idiot.

Prop 78: NO. This is a pharmaceutical industry attempt to pre-empt the really bad Proposition 79. If Prop 78 gets more votes than Prop 79, it would void Prop 79. Prop 78 is certainly way less bad than Prop 79, but I'm saying no to both.

Prop 79: NO. This is a large and bureaucratic state drug program. It is probably irrelevant as either the federal government or drug companies will probably overturn it in court. Save the millions of dollars and years in legal costs and vote no.

Prop 80: NO. This is bad re-regulation of California's electricity market.

Merry Fitzmas

Left-wing Bush-haters were expecting more from Patrick Fitzgerald. Karl Rove would be indicted, they were sure, and the whole corrupt Bush Administration would come tumbling down. Full of anticipation, they coined the term "Fitzmas" for the bounty of schadenfreude they were sure Fitzgerald would deliver. Delusional Al Franken thinks more is still to come. But the reality is that the Bush administration can survive minus one Vice-Presidential Chief of Staff, no matter how super influential the media keeps telling us Lewis Libby was.

If Libby was indeed the most powerful Chief of Staff in the history of the world to the most powerful Vice President in the history of the world, why is it that we never heard of him during the first four and a half years of the Bush Administration? We certainly heard how Cheney, Rove, Wolfowitz, et. al. were the evil geniuses behind the moron President. But now that one Lewis Libby has been taken down, he is suddenly the guy who was running everything the last four and a half years?

The Bush Administration could have survived the loss of Rove or Cheney. It can surely survive the loss of a guy who calls himself "Scooter."

"Fitzmas" did indeed come on Friday. But the Democrats found nothing but a lump of coal in their stocking.

UPDATE: A Cox & Forkum illustration.

Royalty doesn't imply wisdom

Read Bulldogpundit on Prince Charles' ignorant and arrogant lecture to Bush on Islam.

And now, to our Pentagon reporter, Rumsfeld Donald

Listening to Communist Radio this afternoon, I heard a report on Lewis Libby by reporter Libby Lewis.

Kill the white people

Video here of the (now former) NC State professor who advocates genocide as a solution for black people's problems.

Dems on blogs

The DNC on blogs:

At the Democratic National Committee (DNC), chairman Howard Dean, who pioneered the use of the Internet to raise funds for his 2004 presidential campaign, has set up an Internet Department to get his message out to the blogs.

"Sometimes there are stories that don't fit with our larger, overall national media strategy that we send out to encourage and motivate and engage people in the blogosphere," says DNC spokesman Josh Earnest.

Translation: We try to put on a sane face for our national advertising to win over middle America voters. But then we send what we really believe to the blogs, like how Israel is a terrorist state, Bush stole the election, and the Iraq war is being waged for Halliburton profits.

Finally

Harriet Miers withdraws.

I've been so adamant that she should withdraw that I thought I would feel a great joy when it happened, like White Sox fans felt last night... or at least great schadenfreude, like someone who hates the Astros.

But what I feel is not a great rush of victory, or even schadenfreude. Just relief, and a nervous hope that the next nominee will understand the Constitution and the intent of its authors.

USA Today doctors photo to make Condi look like evil vampire

What media bias?

How cute

Neo-Nazi Olsen twins.

Their web site is here.

From Drudge.

What else would you expect from the corrupt and incompetent UN?

A whitewash, and a bungled whitewash at that:

UN office doctored report on murder of Hariri

THE United Nations withheld some of the most damaging allegations against Syria in its report on the murder of Rafik Hariri, the former Lebanese Prime Minister, it emerged yesterday.

The names of the brother of Bashar al-Assad, President of Syria, and other members of his inner circle, were dropped from the report that was sent to the Security Council.

The confidential changes were revealed by an extraordinary computer gaffe because an electronic version distributed by UN officials on Thursday night allowed recipients to track editing changes.

The mistaken release of the unedited report added further support to the published conclusion that Syria was behind Mr Hariri’s assassination in a bomb blast on Valentine’s Day in Beirut. The murder of Mr Hariri touched off an international outcry and hastened Syria’s departure from Lebanon in April after a 29-year pervasive military presence.

The joys of Communist health care

Short documentary on Canadian health care here.

From Lorie Byrd.

Oh, that's fair

DeLay's judge is a moveon.org supporter.

The markets have spoken

Tom DeLay: Not Guilty!

Harriet Miers: Not Confirmed!

Bush's four-step rehab plan

Daniel Henninger of OpinionJournal has a four-step plan to get Bush back on track:

1. Dump Miers, nominate Edith Jones.

2. Visit Iraq

3. Put a supply-sider in to succeed Greenspan.

4. Support spending limits in Congress.

That just might work. If not, he could always take up drinking.

The Upside of Stupid

Harriet Miers is to the Supreme Court what Dan Quayle was to the vice presidency: a sign of rising standards.

From Instapundit.

Ann Coulter on the Miers abomination

Ann Coulter is exactly right on why Miers is a disaster, and what we really want in a Supreme Court Justice:

From the beginning of this nightmare, I have taken it as a given that Miers will vote to overturn Roe v. Wade. I assume that's why Bush nominated her. (It certainly wasn't her resume.) Pity no one told him there are scads of highly qualified judicial nominees who would also have voted against Roe. Wasn't it Harriet Miers' job to tell him that? Hey, wait a minute ...

But without a conservative theory of constitutional interpretation, Miers will lay the groundwork for a million more Roes. We're told she has terrific "common sense." Common sense is the last thing you want in a judge! The maxim "Hard cases make bad law" could be expanded to "Hard cases being decided by judges with 'common sense' make unfathomably bad law."

It was "common sense" to allow married couples to buy contraception in Connecticut. That was a decision any randomly selected group of nine good bowlers might well have concurred with on the grounds that, "Well, it's just common sense, isn't it?"

But when the Supreme Court used common sense — rather than the text of the Constitution — to strike down Connecticut's law banning contraception, it opened the door to the Supreme Court rewriting all manner of state laws. By creating a nonspecific "right to privacy," Griswold v. Connecticut led like night into day to the famed "constitutional right" to stick a fork in a baby's head.

Your UN at work

The UN is as apathetic about stopping sex crimes by its employees as it was about enforcing its resolutions in Iraq.

The United Nations has developed procedures to curb sexual abuse by peacekeepers, but the measures are not being put into force because of a deep-seated culture of tolerating sexual exploitation, an independent review reported Tuesday.

"A 'boys will be boys' attitude in peacekeeping missions breeds tolerance for exploiting and abusing local women," said the report, by Refugees International, a Washington-based advocacy group. "This attitude is slowly changing, but the U.N. must go beyond strong rhetoric and ensure that the resources needed to change this culture are available."

The U.N. has to have one of the most attractive employee benefits packages around. You get to take millions in bribes from murderous dictators, and then you get to rape the local women.

Isn't it ironic?

Author of vicious dog law attacked by own dog.

More ironic than some silly Canadian singing about rain at her wedding, anyway. Dontcha think?

Harriet Miers = John F'ing Kerry

Harriet Miers has a crafty pattern of telling people exactly what they want to hear.

James Dobson and other anti-abortion activists seem pretty sure she's on their side. But Arlen Specter thinks she told him that there is a "right to privacy" in the Constitution that would imply support for Roe v. Wade. After these private sweet nothings whispered in the ears of each camp, she tells the public that she never said anything to anybody.

This behavior isn't new. It goes back to the days of her Dallas local politics. She told a lawyer in a civil rights case that she wouldn't have run for city council if a minority candidate could have had her seat. She told anti-abortion groups she would support a Constitutional Amendment against abortion.

Gay publications are claiming that she told the Eagle Forum of Texas she would oppose laws banning discrimination against people with AIDS, but coyly side-stepped the issue when asked by a gay rights group. (The existence of the Eagle Forum questionnaire has not been reported in the MSM yet. If it's true, we should hear about it soon, as it is purportedly in the possession of the Senate Judiciary Committee.)

Harriet Miers is not a constitutional scholar. She's a politician with enough flips and flops to make John Kerry proud.

I can see it now: "I actually voted for Roe v. Wade before I voted against it!"


UPDATE: It's true! The Washington Post has Harriet Miers' Eagle Forum questionnaire. Thanks, Right Side!

Armed and dangerous

Armed gay Texans don't take kindly to right-wing a-holes.

How inconvenient

DeLay prosecutor lacks key document.

You mean the one he's been bragging about, the incriminating list of candidates who were supposed to receive illegally laundered money? Yeah, that one. It doesn't exist. Or, if it does exist, Ronnie Earle hasn't seen it.

Inside the Bubble

Great preview clips here of "Inside the Bubble," the documentary on the Kerry / Edwards '04 fiasco.

That sucks

Condi says no.

Communists agree: gerrymandering is bad

Wow! Left-wing partisan maniacs are showing some real principle. Yesterday I noticed that the San Francisco Chronicle was supporting Proposition 77 to end gerrymandering.

Today I learn that the ultra-left Daily Kos supports it, as does left-wing group CalPIRG, and the not-exactly conservative Sacramento Bee, Santa Cruz Sentinel, Contra Costa Times, and Santa Barbara News-Press.

I'm impressed by this rare display of integrity!

Hell freezes over

The LA Times endorses Proposition 75, paycheck protection.

Is this part of their new initiative to slow subscriber losses: "Please subscribe! We'll tone down the leftism!" ?

On top of the SF Chronicle endorsement of redistricting reform, this is bad news for the union bosses. They still control the legislature (for now), but they can't control the state's left-leaning newspapers any more.

California Reform

Proposition 77: It's such obviously necessary reform, even the San Francisco Chronicle endorses it:

A system that allows politicians to draw their own legislative and congressional districts is worse than absurd.

It's undemocratic.

The notion of allowing elected officials to artfully design their district boundaries was unfair back in 1812, when Gov. Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts signed off on a redistricting plan that was so skewed to keep his party in power that one of the districts resembled the shape of a salamander.

Today, computer programs that can use party registration and a slew of other data to show voters' predisposition with stunning precision -- even within city blocks -- have elevated "gerrymandering" from an art to a science.

California politicians used data from the 2000 census to protect their respective flanks in impressive fashion. In November 2004, 153 legislative and congressional seats were on the ballot. Not a single one changed party hands.

The system is a godsend for the legislators in power. It is not so helpful for candidates who want to break into the club, or voters who want to have a real choice in an election.

Leftists against Miers

On the near-bankrupt, boring-as-hell, leftist women's web site Salon, angry leftist Joe Conason is against Harriet Miers:

Every Supreme Court nomination poses a test of our common understanding of what the Constitution means -- and specifically our interpretation of the role assigned by that document to the U.S. Senate. This time, by sending up the name of a personal crony with few other qualifications -- and then suggesting that her fitness for the high court should be measured by her faith -- George W. Bush has publicly challenged the Senate to defend the Constitution and to fulfill the purpose assigned to them by the founders.

For senators who claim to uphold the framers' intentions, the president has left no choice but to reject Harriet Miers. Both her nomination and the covert campaign to win her confirmation are constitutional offenses that should be intolerable to the Senate.

Even a blind squirrel finds a nut now and then. Conason is right. But he might not have this forum for much longer. He had better start writing something interesting before Salon goes under:

Salon has incurred annual losses and negative cash flows from operations since inception and has an accumulated deficit at June 30, 2005 of $91,409. These factors raise substantial doubt about Salon's ability to continue as a going concern.

Salon's independent accountants for the years ended March 31, 2003, 2004 and 2005 have included a paragraph in their reports indicating substantial doubt as to Salon's ability to continue as a going concern due to recurring operating losses and negative cash flows.

Salon's subscribers apparently don't find the crappy writing worth paying for any more:

Salon Premium revenue assumes that Salon will not continue to experience an accelerated decline in Salon premium memberships that it has recently experienced.

Just what you've always wanted to see

Naked English people dancing.

Rove cleared?

Maybe, maybe not:

"The special counsel has not advised Mr. Rove that he is a target of the investigation and affirmed that he has made no decision concerning charges," Rove's attorney Robert Luskin said in a statement.

"The special counsel has indicated that he does not anticipate the need for Mr. Rove's further cooperation," the statement said.

From Drudge.

National Review: withdraw Miers

Yet another eloquent plea for Miers to withdraw or be withdrawn.

Good

You can sue the spyware bastards.

From Instapundit.

Hear the silence so loud

Sounds like Dick Cheney ain't that excited about Harriet Miers.

Still don't know about Miers?

I've been conflicted on this nomination.

First, I said Bush would never be stupid enough to nominate Miers.

Then, I was pleased by her ability to read the Second Amendment.

Then, I flirted with the Coalition of the Chillin'.

Then, I linked to Miers' new blog.

Then, I started to side with those urging withdrawal.

I am in doubt no longer: Miers must go!

James Taranto has the final word and lots of supporting evidence: Harriet Miers is a left-leaning, unprincipled, moderate.

Bush is an idiot for nominating her.


UPDATE: PoliPundit on Miers' less-than-Supreme legal writing. Her Texas Bar Journal writings read like a "Letter from the President" of a small-town PTA.

Your federal government at work

... yanking a disabled veteran from the hospital to prosecute him for growing marijuana.

Wasn't there a war on terror or something? Do the feds really have nothing better to do than terrorize disable vets?

From TalkLeft.

Petition to withdraw Miers nomination

David Frum at the National Review is circulating a petition among conservatives urging the President to withdraw the Miers nomination.

At this point, withdrawal is probably the best outcome.

John Fund writes in OpinionJournal on how the nomination process went so wrong.

Peggy Noonan wants a withdrawal too.

Ho ho ho

Very funny video of Bushisms starring the very funny Andy Dick here.

Frenchy goes down

It's about friggin' time. France's former U.N. ambassador has been taken into custody as part of an investigation into allegations of wrongdoing in the Iraq oil-for-food program, judicial officials said Tuesday.

Jean-Bernard Merimee, 68, who also was ambassador to Italy from 1995-98 and to Australia in the 1980s, is suspected of having received kickbacks in the form of oil allocations from the regime of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. He was also a special adviser to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan from 1999 to 2002.

From OpinionJournal.

He's the father of the bubble, but...

he's finally right about one thing:

Greenspan: Flexibility crucial to economy.

Translation: European-style labor laws and market intervention result in European-style unemployment rates and stagnation.

Harriet Miers' blog

Iffy Supremes candidate Harriet Miers has a new blog.

Letter from the deuce

The Director of National Intelligence has posted the English translation of a letter from Al Qaeda Number Two Ayman al-Zawahiri to Iraqi terrorist leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. It's long and rambling, but worth reading for a few interesting insights.

A thought: how come all these guys' middle names are Al? And is Paul Simon secretly sending messages of terrorist sympathy when he sings "Call me Al"?

The Adventures of Old Zeke, Part I

Out in the west Texas town of Amarillo, I've fallen quite comfortably, if temporarily, into the life of a full-time gambler. After walking the dogs in the morning, I head over to an underground joint known as the Cigar Club, which has little to do with cigars and everything to do with poker. Starting around noon, the club offers a fine (I'm told) home-cooked lunch, usually with items I'd never known in California and generally wouldn't eat now--briscuit, chicken-fried steak, fried catfish, etc. But the hospitality is fine and the atmosphere cordial.

After the boys are fed, the "day game" begins. This is a game of pot-limit Omaha, populated largely by retired ranchers, bookies, and life-long gamblers. This particular game, having survived several changes in location, has run almost daily for more than forty years, and until recently was the province of "Amarillo Slim" Preston, perhaps the most notorious road gambler of the twentieth century and an early winner of the World Series of Poker. I say "until recently" because Slim had a more-than-usually-embarrassing scrape with the law and now seldom shows his face in Amarillo. Now the game is left to his old buddies, who constitute as fine a collection of story-tellers and pure gamblers as you could ever hope to find.

Sprinkled in among this group are various youngsters, businessmen of all--and I do mean all--variety, and wayfarers who have heard of the game and want to take a stab at it. For the most part, the regulars tell stories and swear at each other jovially, and walk away with all the money at the end of the day. While the initial buy-ins are only $100, stack sizes and pot sizes escalate quickly as losers buy ever-larger amounts and the gambling spirit descends. By the approach of dinner, it's not uncommon for $15,000-$20,000 to have changed hands. One friendly old-timer named Earl, a retired bookie, likes to tell this story: "This game made me a millionaire. The problem is, I started with $5 million." The other regulars believe it's true. (cont'd)

The Adventures of Old Zeke, part II

The day-game gents seem to have to have taken a shine to me, and I must say that for whatever faults they exhibit (and these are plenty), they are some of the most likeable people I've known. I would venture to say that these guys treat each other with more honor and decency than you'd find in most legitimate businesses and, for that matter, many families. And different though my politics and background might be, I can't help but admit an affection for their rambunctious, outspoken, outlaw spirit. Here a man is judged by his integrity, smarts, and good humor, in a manner much more transparent and simple than in society at large. A no-good liar is a no-good liar; he doesn't rise to CEO.

Someday these characters will show up in a book or film, I hope, but in the meantime, suffice it to say they're teaching me plenty of things that escape a university curriculum. And, while I'm still learning the hard way how to play Omaha, my winnings at the night games, which are Texas Hold 'Em, have more than kept me afloat. Finally, for all you gin lovers, these guys will play for $1000 a game or anything else you care to offer--and they do play a mean game of gin.

'Til next time...

Question of the day

Q. Was Bin Laden killed in the earthquake?

A. Who cares? He's an impotent jackass hiding in a cave!

A little political humor

One night, George W. Bush is tossing restlessly in his White House bed. He awakens to see George Washington standing by him. Bush asks him, "George, what's the best thing I can do to help the country?" "Set an honest and honorable example, just as I did," Washington advises, and then fades away

The next night, Bush is astir again, and sees the ghost of Thomas Jefferson moving through the darkened bedroom. Bush calls out, "Tom, please! What is the best thing I can do to help the country?"

"Respect the Constitution, as I did," Jefferson advises, and dims from sight................

The third night sleep still does not come for Bush. He awakens to see the ghost of FDR hovering over his bed. Bush whispers, "Franklin, What is the best thing I can do to help the country?"

"Help the less fortunate, just as I did," FDR replies and fades into the mist........................

Bush isn't sleeping well the fourth night when he sees another figure moving in the shadows. It is the ghost of Abraham Lincoln. Bush pleads, "Abe, what is the best thing I can do right now to help the country?"

Lincoln replies, "Go see a play."



From Captain Corruption.

Ah, Communism...

... and the American left / media who envy it.

Tales of Communist health care:

A British-American asked my father a question that could only come from someone who has known freedom his whole life: "Why did you leave Russia? Your family was there, you had a job, you had free health care. Why did you leave?" The questioner, a former editor with the New York Times, then proceeded to assert that today's Britain and U.S. are no longer free.

The rest of the article is brutal and not for the faint of heart.

Billy boy, Billy boy

OK, all you sycophantic foreigners pathologically obsessed with Bill Clinton worship, I got your Bill Clinton right here, in the words of his own FBI Director, Louis Freeh:

“The problem was with Bill Clinton, the scandals and rumored scandals, the incubating ones and the dying ones never ended. Whatever moral compass the president was consulting was leading him in the wrong direction. His closets were full of skeletons just waiting to burst out.”

and

Freeh says he stayed on longer as FBI director because he didn’t want to give Clinton a chance to name his successor. “I was concerned about who he would put in there as FBI director because he had expressed antipathy for the FBI, for the director. I was going to stay there and make sure that he couldn’t replace me.”

Freeh had another reason for wanting to outlast Clinton. It was the 1996 Khobar Towers terrorist attack in Saudi Arabia, where 19 U.S. servicemen died and more than 370 were wounded.

President Clinton had sent the FBI to investigate and promised Americans that those responsible would pay. “The cowards who committed this murderous act must not go unpunished. Let me say it again: we will pursue this. America takes care of our own. Those who did it must not go unpunished,” the president said.

But Freeh says the President failed to keep his promise.

The FBI wanted access to the suspects the Saudis had arrested but then-Saudi Ambassador Prince Bandar said the only way to get access to prisoners would be if the president personally asked the crown prince for access.

Freeh says Clinton did not help him. He writes in his book: “Bill Clinton raised the subject only to tell the crown prince that he understood the Saudi’s reluctance to cooperate, and then he hit Abdullah up for a contribution to the Clinton Presidential Library.”

and

Freeh told us that in 1993, after the first World Trade Center bombing, he realized the U.S. was in a global war with terrorists. But then, after Al Qaeda terrorists blew a hole in the U.S.S. Cole and demolished two U.S. Embassies in East Africa, and America did little to retaliate and Freeh writes how frustrated that made him because he believes that not retaliating only encouraged more
attacks.

New Orleans' finest

Bad cops, bad cops, whatcha gonna do?

UPDATE: The old link was broken. Try this one and watch the video (link about 1/3 of the way down on the left).

Stop These Murderers

These two fine beasts will likely have puppies in early December, if their posture gives any indication. Their goal, of course, was to bring unneeded puppies into the world, thereby displacing and sending to death a number of less attractive pups at animal shelters.

It's due to heartless killers like these that the city of Berkeley, CA, has in place a forced spay/neuter ordinance, extending beyond the more limited state law.

In California, any unclaimed pooch picked up by animal control has its plumbing decommissioned before it is offered for adoption. Sensible enough. In Berkeley, however, they force surgery on any animal picked up, whether it already has an owner or not. What this means: if you have a dog that you'd like to let sire, or just keep his testicles for personal reasons, you'd better not let Berkeley's animal control get a hold of him.

The female in this picture had just such a run-in, and it was only due to a quick bit of treachery that she escaped intact.

Thank goodness the left knows what's best for us, and has the fortitude to legislate it.

Oklahoma suicide bomber was Islamic terrorist

I thought this was suspicious, then I heard it was just a deranged college student. It turns out my first instincts were right: this was an attempted terrorist attack. Good thing the guy was incompetent; he could have killed a lot of people.

From Gateway Pundit:

** Evidence is mounting that Joel Henry Hinrichs III, the University of Oklahoma student who blew himself up 100 yards outside the Oklahoma-Kansas State Football Game on Saturday night, had bigger plans. Joel tried to purchase ammonium nitrate at a feed store late last week. Joel attended the Islamic mosque near his apartment, possibly the same mosque as Zacarias Moussaoui attended. His Pakistani roommate has not been seen by neighbors since the incident. The very volatile explosive Joel used is the same chemical that Shoe Bomber Richard Reid tried to use before his arrest. It is very rarely seen in the US and is called "Mother of Satan" by Islamic extremists. **

Why is this not getting prominent coverage in the national media? Idiots!

Reform in California

This is a huge swing from prior polls. Is California really saved?

The most important issue is Prop 77, which would end gerrymandering and the safe seats that almost all California Congresspeople and legislators have.

From Polipundit.

Coalition of the Chillin', Part Deux

Months ago Decision '08 started the Coalition of the Chillin', a collection of bloggers who kept their heads on while others were losing theirs over the Gang of 14 deal. The Coalition has been proven right, by the way.

Now Patrick Ruffini is starting the Coalition of the Chillin', Part Deux, a collection of bloggers who don't think Harriet Miers is the next David Souter (may he lose his home!).

Miers certainly wouldn't have been my pick, but I'm not that worried about her. Bush knows her well enough to know she's not a Souter. Count me in.

From Lorie Byrd.

Mmmmm.... Miers

At least she understands the Second Amendment.

D'oh!

It's Miers.

She can't really be filibustered on ideological grounds, considering that she's an Al Gore and Dukakis DNC supporter. She could be filibustered on the grounds that she's totally unqualified, but then Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., had urged the president to consider Miers, according to several officials familiar with Bush's consultations with Congress.

Suicide bomber in Oklahoma

Body count: 1 bad guy, 0 innocents.

Was this a terrorist with a premature detonation problem?

UPDATE: Nope, just a troubled student.

From Michelle Malkin.

UPDATE 2: It was an Islamic terrorist with a premature detonation problem after all!

It's about time

NY Times: To More Inmates, Life Term Means Dying Behind Bars.

Of course, to the Times, that's a bad thing.

By the way, doesn't their poster boy for parole in the article look like Macauley Culkin?

Desperate Times calls for desperate measures

LA Times: Please subscribe! We'll tone down the leftism!

From Kaus.

Bali bombings

This is a tragedy not only for those who were killed or injured in the blasts, but also for the people of Bali. The island is heavily dependent on tourism, and took more than a year to recover from the 2002 bombing. When tourists don't come, people go hungry. Too bad a few psychotic Muslims have to ruin it for the whole beautiful, peaceful, Hindu island.

Some on the left have been urging a boycott of Bali to make the people suffer for what their government did to drug smuggler Schapelle Corby. Now they'll get a boycott for a different reason. Happy?