U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts

The news has been filled with stories the past two days about how Chief Justice Roberts suffered a seizure yesterday, leading to a fall and his hospitalization. Thankfully, he has been released and now appears to be on the road to recovery. Lest it miss an opportunity to sink further into the gutter, the Angry Left has weighed in the situation, wishing the Chief Justice nothing but the worst: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=2935326&mesg_id=2935447. That gem is from the Democratic Underground. And then there were these words of compassion and wisdom from the ultraliberal "Wonkette" website: http://wonkette.com/politics/rumors-on-the-internets/let-the-sunshine-in-284096.php.

What the hell is wrong with these people??????

Success in Iraq = Bad news for the Democrats

Don't take my word on it. Listen to the words of their own leaders: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/30/AR2007073001380.html.

Laura Ingraham asked this question, and it is a pertinent one: What does it say about the state of American politics where one of our two parties has tied itself to a defeat of the U.S. military?

It's not just me who thinks that President Bush can't be trusted on foreign policy

Read this excellent analysis of how the Bush 43 Administration has completely backed off virtually every promise it has made in terms of U.S. foreign policy, and how that, more than anything else, has helped damage American credibility overseas to an unprecedented and previously unthinkable degree: http://www.meforum.org/article/1715.

I've made the point time and again how this Administration has turned into the Bush 41 Administration. If you will recall, the Bush 41 run only lasted one term, and though Bush 43 will have made it two terms, you can hardly classify the past two years as being much of a success............

Dennis Prager gets it right

He does get it right, more often than not. Here he is, elucidating on CAIR and other Muslim pressure groups, with the assistance of a dhimmi, compliant MSM, have successfully managed to label anyone who offers anything other than unqualified praise of Islam as "Islamophobic": http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2007/07/why_islamophobia_is_a_brillian.html.

The point raised by Prager in his final paragraph is in my mind the best one. He points out that no one says a word when a so-called "artist" soaks a Crucifix in urine, because that is "Freedom of Speech". However, when a person is accused of flushing Korans, they get charged with a FELONY!

Congratulations, CAIR. You're well on your way to winning this war..................

The Saudi Myth

Again, I will give much credit where it is certainly due. Thanks to the hundreds of billions of dollars that they have acquired in oil revenue, the Saudis have bought themselves a compliant Congress and Presidency: http://www.nysun.com/pf.php?id=59431&v=5906885811.

Let me be perfectly clear here. I don't just mean THIS Presidency and Congress, I mean every single Presidency and Congress since the 1950s. How else can anyone explain how a country that has done NOTHING to help U.S. interests anywhere in the world continues to be treated with such esteem? We are now preparing to sell them billions of dollars of high tech weaponry, despite the fact that almost half of the Jihadists who get killed in Iraq are Saudi. What the hell is wrong with us? Are we that stupid? Are we that corrupt that we are willing to sell our own country away to an Islamic theocracy because they are paying us (or some of us, anyway. How are YOU today, James "F--- the Jews" Baker and President Peanut Farmer?) to do so?

It would be comical if it weren't so stupid and suicidal..............

Iran vs. Israel

The undeclared war goes on. Iran is actively recruiting Hebrew speakers to continue its propaganda war against Israel: http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3431862,00.html.

It's only a matter of time before this cold war gets much hotter. Iran and Israel are heading for a military confrontation, and it will not be limited to those two countries. Syria and Lebanon will get involved on the Iranian side, and does anyone seriously think that the Sunni Arab states, much as they may loathe Shiite, non-Arab Iran, will be able to resist an opportunity to finally cleanse the Middle East of Jews, even if it means the destruction of their own countries? I don't...............

In defense of Western Science and Society

This, in my mind, is absolutely fantastic. Judea Pearl (Daniel Pearl's father) delivers an eloquent and reasoned defense of Western Science and Society as a commencement address at the University of Toronto last month: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5386301253013471570&hl=en.

Do yourself a favour. Watch the WHOLE thing. As an aside, contrast his dignity and graciousness with the actions of Cindy Sheehan..........

Move over, President Peanut Farmer

Here comes your #2 guy, former V.P. Walter Mondale, who has followed his former boss' lead and gone after the Bush 43 Administration. His target: Current V.P. Dick Cheyney, who is derided incessantly by Mondale in this piece run by (who else?) the Washington Post: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/27/AR2007072702126.html.

The amazing thing about this screed? Mondale nearly dislocates his shoulder patting himself and President Peanut Farmer on the back because they "kept the peace" during their Administration. Really? Well, if you consider letting the Soviets march into Afghanistan and sitting around with your collective thumbs up a certain party of your anatomy while Iran gets taken over by an Islamofascist regime which is now seeking nuclear weapons "keeping the peace", then I guess he's right.

Maybe we shouldn't surrender in Iraq yet?

Amazingly enough, this piece was published in the New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/30/opinion/30pollack.html?ei=5090&en=33fd6c98de2a6409&ex=1343448000&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss&pagewanted=all. Turns out, morale is high, and the troops remain behind the mission! Then again, all we need to do is go re-read that Ted Rall piece. They must be too stupid to know how bad it is.............

Nonetheless, can someone--ANYONE--please forward it to Jack Murtha, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, Charles Schumer, George Voinovich, Richard Lugar, and all of the other "surrender NOW" crowd?

A person who doesn't get it on Illegal Immigration

Today's Philadelphia Inquirer published an Op-Ed from a person who believes that the problem with immigration lies not in the fact that the illegal immigrants have broken the law by being here, but in the fact our unfair and dicriminatory society has wrongly barred them: http://www.philly.com/inquirer/opinion/20070730_Immigration_issue_not_about_lawbreakers__but_broken_law.html.

This is more of the typical, left wing tripe that argues (implicitly in the case of this Op-Ed, explicitly in others) that those who don't favour a blanket amnesty and open borders are nothing but a bunch of racist yahoos.

British P.M. Gordon Brown surprises me

I had him pegged as being your typical anti-American, leftist European technocrat, but I am more than willing to admit that maybe I was wrong about him: http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2007350097,00.html.

Now, a few good words do not constitute official government policy, but this is better than anything I have heard out of the U.K. since Tony Blair stepped down at the end of June.

Those Pesky Jews!

There they go again, causing tumult and havoc wherever they are! What are they up to now? Well, apparently, they are the ones behind all of the killing and mayhem in Darfur: http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3431281,00.html.

You know, it's a good thing we have Muslims around to keep the world up to date on what those Jews are doing...................

Blogfest West

Hadn't planned to post today, but I did want to give the blogger's get-together a much-deserved plug:

BLOG·FEST·WESTDATE: August 18, 2007TIME: 6:30 PM till ??? LOCATION: Room C370 - Ft. Mason Center - San Francisco, CA.DIRECTIONS: Ft. Mason Directions Page.PRICE: Food, drinks (wine, beer, soda, water) tax, tips and the best company in the bay area cost: $20 (for students and struggling writers) $25 (for people with regular jobs). Such a deal.

If you're on the West Coast, please do check it out!

Angry Left hits bottom, starts digging, hits bottom again, brings out jackhammer

This falls under the "I couldn't make it up if I tried" department. Sometimes, truth really is stranger than fiction: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/7/27/21214/1997. So, now we have the President and Vice-President conspiring to murder Pat Tillman.

Just as a reminder, JetBlue sponsored a Daily Kos convention recently. Keep that in mind the next time you need a cheap flight and Jet Blue is available.

The Democrats score some points

You can't spin this. The Democrats have definitely scored some major political points by passing a bill (which President Bush has said that he will sign) implementing the major recommendations of the 9/11 Commission: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070728/ap_on_go_co/homeland_security.

It's galling to see Nancy Pelosi crow about this, but she makes a valid point when she says that the Democrats managed to get this legislation passed in six months while the Republicans had almost five years (she said six, which is unfair, given that the Commission's findings did not come out right after 9/11) to do something about changing the way we secure the Homeland and by and large did not do so.

Wackos, wackos everywhere!

They're coming out of all the woodworks now: http://www.counterpunch.org/lindorff07272007.html.

I could make a bunch of smug and snarky comments about this guy's lunacy but really, why bother? If you can't figure that he's nuts, you're just as nuts yourself...........

From the "Man Bites Dog" news category

An Op-Ed cirticizing EU support of the plethora of rabidly anti-Israel NGO's IN THE GUARDIAN: http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/seth_freedman/2007/07/burning_bridges.html.

I'm as shocked as you are! I mean, what's next? Actual objective journalism from the paper which has never met a Palestinian it didn't love unconditionally? Well, okay, that's not likely to happen, but I was still pleased to read this Op-Ed, which hit the nail on the head regarding how the EU speaks out of both sides of its mouth when it comes to Israel.

Iran Divestment Movement

There is a growing movement by state legislatures across the United States to move to divest their state pensions from any companies which do business with Iran: http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/oped/bal-op.iran26jul26,0,2575652.story. The problem is that what they are doing, while absolutely laudable, may not be constitutional, and there are pointy heads in Washington who whine that this movement interferes with the right of the Executive Branch of the government to make foreign policy. Those same pointy heads already got a Massachussets divestment law invalidated on those grounds.

No wonder the Iranians don't take us seriously..............

Hasta la vista, Ward Churchill...........

..............don't let the door hit you where the good Lord split you. Churchill was recently let go by the University of Colorado, which found that he had committed numerous acts of academic fraud. Here is the link to the university president's column in the Wall Street Journal explaining why Churuchill was fired, and the full text of his column is located immediately below that:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118541244442278421.html?mod=opinion_main_commentaries

Why I Fired Professor Churchill
By HANK BROWN
July 26, 2007; Page A13

University of Colorado Ethnic Studies Professor Ward Churchill was fired this week after the university's Board of Regents approved my recommendation to dismiss him for academic fraud.
The ongoing drama now moves to state court, where Mr. Churchill has filed a lawsuit against the university alleging that it violated his First Amendment rights. Mr. Churchill drew considerable attention to himself in an essay that compared 9/11 victims to notorious Nazi Adolf Eichmann.
While no action was taken by the university with regard to his views on 9/11, many complaints surfaced at the time about his scholarship from faculty around the country. The university had an obligation to investigate. The complaints led to the formation of three separate investigative panels -- which included more than 20 of his faculty peers and which worked for over two years -- to unanimously find a pattern of serious, deliberate and repeated research misconduct that fell below minimum standards of professional integrity.

The panels found that Mr. Churchill rewrote history to fit his own theories. When confronted, he
asserted he was not responsible. According to one report, "Professor Churchill has, on more than one occasion, claimed that certain acts that appear to have been his were instead the responsibility of some other actor: his editor or publisher, his assistant, or his former wife and collaborator." The report goes on to note that "we have come to see these claims as emblems of a recurrent refusal to take responsibility for errors . . . and a willingness to blame others for his troubles."

But his case is about far more than academic misconduct. It is about the accountability that public universities must demonstrate. Mr. Churchill's difficulties in facing up to his academic responsibilities are in many ways emblematic of higher education's trouble with accountability. Too often, colleges and universities tend to insulate themselves in ivy-covered buildings and have not been as diligent as necessary to ensure that the academic enterprise is conducted rigorously and honestly. This elitist attitude is simply outdated, and our university has made tenure reforms -- precipitated by the Churchill case -- that will ensure academic integrity.
Universities, particularly public research universities, are accountable to those who have a stake in their success and efficient operation. At the University of Colorado, this includes the people of Colorado who contribute $200 million in taxes annually, the federal agencies that provide some $640 million annually in research funding, the alumni who want to maintain the value of their degrees, the faculty who expect their colleagues to act with integrity and the students who trust that faculty who teach them meet high professional standards.

And just as the public has high expectations for us, we expect our faculty members to be accountable for maintaining high standards of scholarship. A public research university such as ours requires public faith that each faculty member's professional activities and search for truth are conducted according to the academic standards on which an institution's reputation rests.
The University of Colorado's reputation was called into question in the matter of Ward Churchill. His claim that he was singled out for his free speech is a smokescreen.

Controversy -- especially self-sought controversy -- doesn't immunize a faculty member from adhering to professional standards. If you are a responsible faculty member, you don't falsify research, you don't plagiarize the work of others, you don't fabricate historical events and you don't thumb your nose at the standards of the profession. More than 20 of Mr. Churchill's faculty peers from Colorado and other universities found that he committed those acts. That's what got him fired.

Even great universities have problems. Places with thousands of faculty and tens of thousands of mostly young students are not immune to trouble. But a university's reputation will only be strengthened when it works to ensure that it remains accountable to those it serves.

Mr. Brown, a former U.S. senator, is president of the University of Colorado.

A local angle on the battle over illegal immigration

A local municipality called Hazleton had recently enacted a law which imposed stiff fines on businesses who were found to have employed illegal aliens. Of course, those in favour of amnesty and the Open Borders crowd immediately challenged the constitutionality of the law, and yesterday, a federal judge in Scranton, Pennsylvania, struck it down on the grounds that immigration issues are solely within the purview of the federal government: http://www.philly.com/inquirer/home_top_stories/20070727_Court_voids_Hazleton_law.html.

I have a question for the judge. What are we supposed to do when the federal government has completely abdicated its responsibility on this issue? And to the extent that Washington is "addressing" the problem, it is generally acting against the interests and wishes of the vast majority of the country.

The Mayor of Hazleton has vowed to appeal, and I hope that he does. This is too important to just give up now.