Oh that nuclear program

Exclusive: US removes uranium from Iraq


I patiently await a groveling apology from the entire dextrosphere as well as the MSM and every Democrat except Joe Lieberman.

We now resume with our regularly scheduled silence.

Tim Russert

I didn't often agree with him but he was fair. An increasingly rare trait in journalism these days. Fifty eight is far too young to go. Godspeed sir. My thoughts and prayers are with his family.

George W. Bush is a moron

and so is John McCain. At least that's what I keep hearing. Every utterance from the President is scrutinized for any possible interpretation that makes him look stupid. McCain is derided for saying Shia when he meant Sunni.

What would the world say if either of them referred to the "57 States" they've visited? There would be unceasing howls from Berkley to Boston and rightfully so.

So what to make of Obama describing his visits to 57 states? Some in the audience laugh but it's clear he's not joking. He goes on to say that he wanted to visit Alaska and Hawaii but his staff couldn't justify it. The fact that this is not news anywhere on the MSM is proof positive that democrats and especially The One will never be subjected to the same cynical eye cast on republicans

Full Circle

Everything is coming around full circle.

But Liu is investing $10 million in the Palmetto State, building a printing-plate factory that will open this fall and hire 120 workers. His main aim is to tap the large American market, but when his finance staff penciled out the costs, he was stunned to learn how they compared with those in China.

Liu spent about $500,000 for seven acres in Spartanburg -- less than one-fourth what it would cost to buy the same amount of land in Dongguan, a city in southeast China where he runs three plants. U.S. electricity rates are about 75% lower, and in South Carolina, Liu doesn't have to put up with frequent blackouts.

About the only major thing that's more expensive in Spartanburg is labor. Liu is looking to offer $12 to $13 an hour there, versus about $2 an hour in Dongguan, not including room and board. But Liu expects to offset some of the higher labor costs with a payroll tax credit of $1,500 per employee from South Carolina.

So the high labor cost is offset by tax incentives (liberals take note), lower land cost and cheaper power. The other unstated advantages are shipping costs (which may offset high labor cost) and import restrictions.

If this continues you'll be fielding calls from Dell customers in India complaining about how they cannot understand your accent.

Daily Roundup

(An unpopular yet continuing feature)

First up, Obama's interview:

OBAMA: Well, I think there are a whole host of areas where Republicans in some cases may have a better idea.

WALLACE: Such as?

OBAMA: Well, on issues of regulation. I think that back in the '60s and '70s a lot of the way we regulated industry was top-down command and control, we're going to tell businesses exactly how to do things.

And you know, I think that the Republican Party and people who thought about the markets came up with the notion that, "You know what? If you simply set some guidelines, some rules and incentives, for businesses — let them figure out how they're going to, for example, reduce pollution," and a cap and trade system, for example is a smarter way of doing it, controlling pollution, than dictating every single rule that a company has to abide by, which creates a lot of bureaucracy and red tape and oftentimes is less efficient.


I think that on issues of education, I've been very clear about the fact — and sometimes I've gotten in trouble with the teachers' union on this — that we should be experimenting with charter schools. We should be experimenting with different ways of compensating teachers that...

Wow. Markets work and we should be rewarding teachers by ability. Hmmm....is he triangulating because he knows Fox's audience or is he for real? I guess we'll find out one way or the other.

I've said nothing about Jose Calderon largely because he's not been in the news and I really know nothing of the man. I wasn't a fan of Vicente Fox but he wasn't all bad. It seems Calderon is doing much that needs to be done and at great cost.

Some 2,500 soldiers and federal police swept into Ciudad Juarez over the U.S. border from El Paso, Texas last month with heavy weaponry and helicopters to quell a surge in drug murders as gangs fight over smuggling routes into the United States.

Soldiers have taken over many security tasks from the often corrupt city police, making dozens of arrests and seizing arms and narcotics but the fight against common crime has apparently suffered.

Sounds familiar doesn't it? (In Iraq the IP's are unreliable but the Iraqi Army is not.) Kudos to Senor Calderon, I hope he succeeds.

The anti-war crowd frequently brays that there is no way that Al Qaeda would be in bed with Saddam as he was unislamic and that would make them natural enemies. Likewise they would never collaborate with Hezbollah or Hamas as they are Shia. Yet now we're getting word that Al Qaeda is teaming up with Mookie Sadr to fight the U.S. "But..but..but....how can that beeeeeeee?" I hear them sputter. "They hate each other." Yes but the old axiom of the enemy of my enemy is my friend always applies. People hold grudges and old hatreds do die hard but frequently interests, goals, objectives (call them what you will) usually trump those hatreds. I guarantee that if I offered you enough money you'd make peace with your enemies. This is, of course a losing deal for everybody. Despite Leftist crowing to the contrary, neither Sadr nor AQ is going to win this one. They aren't even going to be able to hold out much longer. Last time Sadr showed his hand he and his boys where crying Uncle inside a day and a half and he fled to Iran with his tail between his legs. The best part of this for us is that it unites the two opposing forces into one front. When we get inside their decision curve it will be on one front. When they have turncoats they will have a much more information to give. They may have the fervor of the righteous but they don't have the doctrine. Or the brains. Or the equipment.

The "Support Our Troops/Bring Them Home" crowd masks their anti-war stance as some sort of concern for the safety and well being of our troops. This one will test that theory. Many moons ago when my brother was stationed at Bragg he was giving me a tour of the base. He wryly pointed out that his office was in a building that had been condemned (due to structural concerns) and due to be demolished and replaced. When the requisite funding dried up the building was "uncondemned" and the structural deficiencies magically vanished. As an officer he was never required to live on post (aside from a short stay in BOQ while looking for a house). Yesterday I read this and today I saw this video:



I'll hold my breath while the anti-war crowd raises their voices in unison to right this wrong. That would be supporting the troops.

Changing the subject to sports...I read this story today which I really like to see. I've talked about sportsmanship before and how I think it's a benchmark to judge people. Stories like this are not seen on a professional level and to a degree I understand but even seeing this on a collegiate level is a welcome thing. More please.

Back to politics...

"Louis said 20 years ago that Zionism, not Judaism, was a gutter religion. He was talking about the same thing United Nations resolutions say, the same thing now that President Carter's being vilified for and Bishop Tutu's being vilified for. And everybody wants to paint me as if I'm anti-Semitic because of what Louis Farrakhan said 20 years ago. He is one of the most important voices in the 20th and 21st century; that's what I think about him. . . . Louis Farrakhan is not my enemy. He did not put me in chains, he did not put me in slavery, and he didn't make me this color." - Jeremiah Wright

Nota Bene:

1. You were never in chains
2. You were never in slavery
3. The melanin in your skin made you that color

What makes this statement so reprehensible is the implication that because Farrakhan is black he is not the enemy. Inversely that must mean that anyone who is white;

1. Put black people in chains or bears responsibility for same
2. Enslaved or is responsible for enslaving black people
3. Is somehow responsible for skin color

My family didn't get here until long after slavery ended. Before that they were in Europe scraping out an meager existence and in no position to employ anyone let alone enslave them. Wright's comments and frankly, ideas are disgusting. They are unAmerican, unChristian and deplorable. Obama was right to disavow him but it will not explain his close, personal relationship with him for over 20 years.

Two Items From Europe

Why is it then that so many Americans - and foreigners who come here - feel that the place is so, well, safe?

I have met incredulous British tourists who have been shocked to the core by the peacefulness of the place

A British man I met in Colorado recently told me he used to live in Kent but he moved to the American state of New Jersey and will not go home because it is, as he put it, "a gentler environment for bringing the kids up."

This is New Jersey. Home of the Sopranos.

Brits arriving in New York, hoping to avoid being slaughtered on day one of their shopping mission to Manhattan are, by day two, beginning to wonder what all the fuss was about. By day three they have had had the scales lifted from their eyes.


I have met incredulous British tourists who have been shocked to the core by the peacefulness of the place, the lack of the violent undercurrent so ubiquitous in British cities, even British market towns.

"It seems so nice here," they quaver.

Well, it is!

Violent paradox

Ten or 20 years ago, it was a different story, but things have changed.

And this is Manhattan.

Wait till you get to London Texas, or Glasgow Montana, or Oxford Mississippi or Virgin Utah, for that matter, where every household is required by local ordinance to possess a gun.

Folks will have guns in all of these places and if you break into their homes they will probably kill you.

They will occasionally kill each other in anger or by mistake, but you never feel as unsafe as you can feel in south London.

It is a paradox. Along with the guns there is a tranquillity and civility about American life of which most British people can only dream.

Peace and serenity

What surprises the British tourists is that, in areas of the US that look and feel like suburban Britain, there is simply less crime and much less violent crime.

Doors are left unlocked, public telephones unbroken.

One reason - perhaps the overriding reason - is that there is no public drunkenness in polite America, simply none.

I have never seen a group of drunk young people in the entire six years I have lived here. I travel a lot and not always to the better parts of town.

It is an odd fact that a nation we associate - quite properly - with violence is also so serene, so unscarred by petty crime, so innocent of brawling.

Virginia Tech had the headlines in the last few days and reminded us of the violence for which the US is well known.

But most American lives were as peaceful on this anniversary as they are every day.

Well, yes. Having lived in NYC as well as the Deep South, I can tell you I was much safer in Deep South which was bristling with (legal) guns. (I will qualify that by saying that I was living in NYC during the Dinkins years when things were really grim. Not so now.)

Item #2:

Europeans apparently got the memo that Global Warming ended in 1998 because they're moving full tilt boogie back to ugly polluting coal.

"Over the next five years, Italy will increase its reliance on coal to 33 percent from 14 percent. Power generated by Enel from coal will rise to 50 percent.

And Italy is not alone in its return to coal. Driven by rising demand, record high oil and natural gas prices, concerns over energy security and an aversion to nuclear energy, European countries are expected to put into operation about 50 coal-fired plants over the next five years, plants that will be in use for the next five decades."

I'll brook no more comments from Europeans or preening Americans about how much better/wiser/more environmentally responsible Europe is. That ship has sailed (and it's powered by coal).

You say LA I say Hell-a

Los Angeles is becoming a "Third World city" with immigrants making up half its workforce, says a new study.

Becoming? Welcome to the party but you're a little late.

A third of immigrants have not graduated from high school and 60 per cent do not speak English fluently, the Migration Policy Institute found.

Let alone the native born anglos who can't speak English properly.

It said this left immigrants ill-equipped to fill California's fastest-growing occupations, such as computer software engineering and nursing. The organisation added that as the so-called baby boomers reach retirement age, a similar pattern will spread across the US.

1. Boomers aren't going to retire any time soon.
2. That pattern will be most pronounced in border states.

Ernesto Cortes Jr, of the Industrial Areas Foundation, a think-tank that specialises on social change, claimed Los Angeles was at a crossroads.

"The question is are we going to be a 21st century city with shared prosperity, or a Third World city with an elite group on top and most on near poverty wages?" he said.

I'm gonna have to go with B. Bill Hicks was ahead of his time.

Democrat talking point

I've not heard this elsewhere but I'd be hard pressed to think I'm the only one to come up with the idea. If the Government means to bail out Bear Stearns (or whatever lending entities made loans to people who defaulted) why not simply pay off the mortgages and give the titles to the borrowers? Call it "trickle up" economics. The people at the bottom rung keep their houses, Bear gets paid and stays in business. They'd have to spin this carefully to avoid the "rewarding irresponsibility" argument that is sure to follow. YMMV.

Name That Party

Anyone? No takers?

Remember the Republicans are corrupt thieves giving money to their fatcat friends. Democrats are noble public servants thinking only of the children.

The Black Hills...

may be called that for another reason:

American Digest points to a domestic field that holds between 200 and 400 beeeeelion barrels of oil. This will, of course give Leftists apoplexy. Look for immediate legislation declaring these lands protected because the Black Hills Newt uses it as a breeding ground or some sort of Native American Heritage Site or whatever conveniently environmental restriction will keep us from ever using it. This same group will simultaneously rail against our dependence on "foreign oil" without a hint of irony.

At the first sign of trouble, quit.

Last Thursday, Delaware Watch was asking; How's the Surge Going?

In typically snide fashion Dana is using his vast military experience and counterinsurgency knowledge to beat up on poor hapless David Petraeus.

"The truth of the matter is that the surge has never been working. The temporary lack of hostilities within Iraq has only created the appearance of success. But the real reason for the lack of hostilities has been that the various Shia factions found it in their political best interests to cease their hostilities and they had little, if anything, to do with addition of 33,000 more US troops in Iraq.

Now that the political situation has changed and hostilities have re-emerged, the facade of the surge's success has been removed"

So after about 11 minutes of shooting Dana wails and moans that all is lost and see I told you so. Or not.

Sadr orders followers to cease fire. Why would that be?

Back to Dana:

Part of the surge strategy was to strengthen the government, a government that seems to be increasingly unpopular"

Increasingly unpopular? I wonder what does Sadr himself have to say? Let's ask him:

"Based on responsibility towards Iraq and to stem Iraqi bloodshed and to preserve the country's unity and integrity as a prelude to its independence, I call on the people to be up to their responsibility and awareness in order to maintain Iraq's stability," according to a statement issued by Sadr and sent to Voices of Iraq.

I guess it's popularity is somewhat open to question.

The US supports the Iraq government's assault and a big part of the surge's credibility hangs precariously on its success:

Given that Sadr has surrendered after a day or two of his guys getting their asses handed to them I'd say the precariousness of the credibility of the surge is a wee bit overstated.

Did you really believe that crap at the beginning of the surge about significant draw downs of the troops? Really?

The man said to wait until April 8th before making any decisions. Let's see what they say in a week. It's possible that the drawdown may not be happening but troop strength is a function of events on the ground.

This eruption of violence, which even effects the Green Zone, shows that neither the US forces nor the Iraqi government control Iraq. Moqtada al-Sadr still calls many of the shots in Iraq, which signals a failure for one of General Petraeus' main objectives in his surge strategy:

Actually most of the shots Sadr has been calling have ended up with lots of dead Sadr supporters which is why he's begging for mercy after a few days of shooting.

Up next Dana goes way too far out on his THE US MILITARY IS A FAILURE AT EVERTHING branch. He quotes the bastion of fair reporting Antiwar.com. The assertion that we could not take on the Mahdi army is not grounded in any sort of quote from Petraeus just something that Gareth Porter dreamed up. Who is Mr. Porter anyway? Oh, he's that guy who was denying the Vietnamese communists were slaughtering people en masse after the US left. After he was done with that Walter Duranty bit of fantasy he upped the ante by denying the Khimer Rouge were similarly slaughtering anyone but rather just moving them around. I guess I should just take his word on present events as factual.

Dana has a different take:

Did you notice that? The US forced could not take the risk of taking on the entire Mahdi army. The meaning couldn't be more obvious. There are too many of them. We would lose too many US soldiers and might even lose the war as a consequence. They are far more popular and have more popular support in Iraq than us. Those are facts that grownup observers of this war have known for some time.

We actually have video of what happens when the US and Iraq forces take on the Mahdi Army:



See all those infrared lasers on those weapons? How many Mahdi guys do you think have those? See those nightvision scopes on the soldiers? How many Mahdi guys have those? See those nifty armored vehicles, ditto. What about what we don't see the AC-130 gunships? The Predators? The Kiowa's and Blackhawks? Yes, I hear you say but we're outsiders! Interlopers! That's why the Iraqis themselves are moving to the forefront.

A path to making the Iraqi people like us or support any government that permits us to stay within Iraq's borders will never materialize. The Iraqi people don't like or trust us. They associate us with death, torture, economic deprivation, and the death of their children. Yes, their children.

We have been responsible for the death of multiple hundreds of thousands of their children for over a decade and it has not stopped:

No, they don't. They know that the foreign fighters (i.e. Al Qaeda) are the murderers and killers. The Sunnis have taken to fighting them too. Sadr wants a piece of the political pie and he's not getting what he thinks he deserves. He thought he'd stir the pot by starting a shooting war and very quickly found himself on the wrong end of that shooting.

I wouldn't like a nation that caused my child to die as a result of economic sanctions or an invasion and occupation however high-sounding their motives. It would not be worth the death of my child for a nation on the other side of the planet to attack my nation and occupy it because it wanted to make my country a "beacon of democracy" to nations in my region.

I wouldn't either and thankfully that's not what happened. To frame that way would be simplistic and erroneous. (Where's that nuance liberals are so fond of?) I wouldn't want to live in a country run by a psychopath and his two homicidal maniac sons who lived in luxury and splendor while children starved and went without medicine.

Grownup people recognize these truths and facts without difficulty. They are not beset by the patriotic fantasies that every nation we invade is grateful to us. Grownups know when they are not wanted. They have a good sense of what is possible and what is not.

Some Iraqis probably love us. Some probably hate us. Lots are likely somewhere in between. Iraq is sovereign. They could ask us to leave tomorrow and we'd have to yet they do not. Perhaps they are the ones who have a sense of what is possible and what is not.

Daily Roundup

When I was in High School I went to some really bacchanalian parties. Rich kids with parents out of town and a credit card at their disposal. I'll let you imagine the rest. I now know that we were a bunch of pikers compared to this crowd.

78 Things to hate about gaming. I think they got about 70 right.

Funniest trial transcript ever.

The only way I'll ever go to the movie theater again is if the open one of these in Delaware.

Why do I love Larry Niven?

Niven said a good way to help hospitals stem financial losses is to spread rumors in Spanish within the Latino community that emergency rooms are killing patients in order to harvest their organs for transplants.

“The problem [of hospitals going broke] is hugely exaggerated by illegal aliens who aren’t going to pay for anything anyway,” Niven said.

“Do you know how politically incorrect you are?” Pournelle asked.

“I know it may not be possible to use this solution, but it does work,” Niven replied.

“I cannot guarantee I’m going to be a great help to Homeland Security,” Niven said earlier.

He's got brass ones I'll give him that.

Some say the way to make health insurance affordable is to make it compulsory. Is that Constituional? Here's a strong argument that it is not. NB: this has never seemed to slow down the Federal Government before but that's another matter...

Some are calling Hillary's current campaign strategy the Tonya Harding Option. That's a one liner that could be an editorial cartoon.

That this is happening in a place called Carthage is entirely too ironic.

Department of Selective Outrage

From here.

Daily Roundup

Dick Morris declares; "Wright's Rantings Won't Sink Obama" Which can mean only one thing: Wright's Rantings will sink Obama.

Best quote on DC vs. Heller:

"Although I enjoy making sport of the Justices as much as anyone, the question of whether the 2nd Amendment protects an individual right, including a right to self defense, is not that difficult, at least to me. The framers of the 14th amendment assumed that it was one of the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States. And if a right is a privilege or immunity of citizens of the United States, it hard for me to conclude that it does not bind the United States as well as the individual states.

Now, as a unreconstructed liberal (I'll show you pictures of my bleeding heart), I don't particularly like this result. But it follows sufficiently strongly from other commitments I have about the Constitution that I must accept it.

Global Warmening (TM) is real. Except for the part about the Earth heating up apparently.

These diving instruments suggest that the oceans have not warmed up at all over the past four or five years. That could mean global warming has taken a breather. Or it could mean scientists aren't quite understanding what their robots are telling them.

Since the system was fully deployed in 2003, it has recorded no warming of the global oceans.

"There has been a very slight cooling, but not anything really significant," Willis says. So the buildup of heat on Earth may be on a brief hiatus. "Global warming doesn't mean every year will be warmer than the last. And it may be that we are in a period of less rapid warming."

more here

Don't confuse exposure to and experience with.

My father was a civil engineer. I was exposed to civil engineering for many years. I visited job sites, worked at some of them, saw plans and Gant charts from the time I was a boy. Does that mean I have any experience as an engineer? Flatly, no.

One quick note to DelawareLibertarian...

Guys, I love your site and what you write but please, in the name of all that is good, slow the fsck down!

Your fans (read: me) can't read it all and any comments I make on a post are pushed to the deeper pages within minutes due to the firehose like volume of posts.

Examples:

Sunday March 9th:

Pages: 15
Paragraphs: 218
Lines: 857
Words: 8535


Monday, March 10th:

Pages: 8
Paragraphs: 119
Lines: 449
Words: 4463

So...when I read your blog after two days of not reading it I have 13,000 words to read and 23 pages.

I fear you're going to lose your audience by sheer volume. Maybe it's just me but that's just my $.02.

Scales falling from the eyes...

Two installments on what may become a regular feature:

First up, dutiful lefty David Mamet on why he is no longer a "brain-dead liberal." Read the whole thing. I think his critique of "brain-dead liberalism" is a fair one. He doesn't believe all liberals are brain-dead. Rather, that he was not thinking about it. There were certain things he accepted as hardened facts that did not withstand the scrutiny of close examination or comparison with real life.

Second, physicist and environmentalist Miklós Zágoni believes he was wrong about global warmening. Like any good scientist (or intellectually honest person) changed his mind to fit the facts and not the other way around. The key graf:

NASA refused to release the results. Miskolczi believes their motivation is simple. "Money", he tells DailyTech. Research that contradicts the view of an impending crisis jeopardizes funding, not only for his own atmosphere-monitoring project, but all climate-change research. Currently, funding for climate research tops $5 billion per year.

Lastly, a bit of good mockery but let anyone who doesn't admit that Code Pink hates America see them speak for themselves. Key quote: "We don't have to be concerned about their rights, it's an unequal relationship." All pigs are equal but some are more equal than others.

About that 3 AM Phone Call Ad...

The 3 AM call and the "lifetime of experience" indicates she either has to win or McCain does. Anything else puts an end to any hope of occupying the White House. Gore ran very strong. He lost by the closest of margins and they put him out to pasture. Kerry also ran and it came close and again, out to pasture. Hillary knows she gets one bite at the apple and this is it. She has put herself in a bind. In the now infamous 3 AM call, she indicates that Obama isn't qualified or capable to be president. So, if he gets the nominee, either she will back a man she doesn't believe is qualified to answer that call or she's not going to back him and risk tearing the party apart at the seams. This is like a political Samson Option. "Vote for me or I'll take the entire party down with me."

It is also odd that she indicated she would accept him as a running mate if she think him unqualified.

But given the Clinton camp's implicit argument that Obama is not ready to be commander-in- chief or handle a 3:00 am phone call, Clinton was asked why then would she consider Obama for the No. 2 spot. "That's politics,"

See? Politics is a blood sport and only winning matters.

Bill also knows that his shine will fade rather quickly as de facto (or even de jure) head of the party. No more globetrotting for you.

Hillary is now making absurd claims about her foreign policy experience.

Pressed in a CNN interview this week for specific examples of foreign policy experience that has prepared her for an international crisis, Clinton claimed that she "helped to bring peace" to Northern Ireland and negotiated with Macedonia to open up its border to refugees from Kosovo.

This will be news to the Irish, English and anyone else who's paying attention. Similarly, the Macedonian borders were opened the day before the Clintons arrived. I suppose she could have negotiated thereafter but I don't suppose it took much convincing to allow something to continue that was already started.

For all her carping about Obama's lack of foreign policy experience, her primary experience comes from being married to Bill. See, she can't come right out and say she was doing the heavy lifting during Bill's presidency as that is;

A. Not true
B. Likely unconsitutional
C. Bound to inflame the ire of lots of people

Essentially it will validate all of the right wing's histrionics about the co-presidency. Let's also remember that her last attempt at a federal program was HillaryCare which was an unmitigated disaster.

Lastly, she pounds on Obama for not giving a full account of his dealings with Tony Rezko and then in the same breath equates him with Ken Starr when he asks for her tax records. Charlie Trie, James Riady, Edgar and Vonna Jo Gregory, Carlos A. Vignali, Almon Glenn Braswell, Marc Rich, Susan McDougal, Dan Rostenkowski, Melvin J. Reynolds, Roger Clinton and the FALN 16 were unavailable for comment.

On the other side, there's been a similar flap about John McCain getting testy with a reporter who's asking him a question about the last campaign.



I don't see anything wrong with his response. Sure he's short with her but she's trying to play the "gotcha" game I'm so damn sick of. What he said in 2004 about the matter is irrelevant to this election. John Kerry, as far as I know, has never disputed McCain's claim. If there's some question of the timing, who cares? It may well be that he had a conversation and was asked to keep it confidential until after the election. If that's the case, he could deny the conversation took place (when it had) in good faith.

Transparency

We all remember Hillary Clinton's miraculous skill at trading cattle futures. At the time her critics wryly noted that she should be giving investment advice rather than being First Lady. I believe it was a means of giving $99,000 to her and Bill without disclosing the source and circumventing any pesky laws about who can give what to elected officials.

Now, Bill Clinton has made a fortune by selling worthless stock to someone who wanted them so badly that they'd willingly pay $700,000 for them. These same shares that Gary Kasparov couldn't unload for a dollar a share at the same time. History, it seems, does repeat itself however it seems that cycle is shortening.

The Clinton's have always sent the message that they are our betters. They are not bound by laws because they are of a higher order of being and the righteousness of their cause demands that they sometimes skirt the rules. After all, this is For The Children(TM).

Lying under oath doesn't matter if you're a Clinton if it's a private matter. Credible rape allegations are unimportant. Those women were nuts and sluts anyway. We have important work to do here.

Apostate right winger Andrew Sullivan declares Hillary to be Cheney in a pantsuit.

They have not and will not release their tax returns or any information about the library.

Bill never released his medical records while in office. I'll wager there were some diseases in there he didn't want people to see.

Clinton also raised more than $362 million for his foundation through 2006 and secured pledges for billions more.

Is it appropriate for the "First Gentleman" to be jetting around the globe squeezing people for donations to his foundation and/or library? It certainly gives rise to the appearance of impropriety if nothing else. Given the Clinton's tarnished history with, well, everything this is a fundamentally bad idea. Of course it also means that Terry McCaulliff and his ilk will be loudly denouncing anyone who even hints at just that (save of course, your truly who will continue to toil away in pseudonymity).

Around the Horn Friday

Delaware Curmudgeon is hosting Around The Horn Friday this week. Go read it now.

And yes, I feel like a dork for having a post about my broken dishwasher on the list.

Uncomfortable truths

It has become something of an article of faith among the anti-war crowd that any action by the US in Iraq creates scores of terrorists. Our bungling ineptitude enrages the Arab/Muslim street and our enemies multiply endlessly. Or not. That noted neocon organ The New York Times has an article:

“I hate Islam and all the clerics because they limit our freedom every day and their instruction became heavy over us,” said Sara, a high school student in Basra. “Most of the girls in my high school hate that Islamic people control the authority because they don’t deserve to be rulers.”

Atheer, a 19-year-old from a poor, heavily Shiite neighborhood in southern Baghdad, said: “The religion men are liars. Young people don’t believe them. Guys my age are not interested in religion anymore.”

....

“I used to love Osama bin Laden...Al Qaeda and the Mahdi Army are spreading hatred. People are being killed for nothing.”

So we're winning by not being the iron clamp of oppression and death in the region. The hardest hearts have softened. If the radical clerics have lost the youth of Iraq to freedom and liberty they've lost the future. Similarly, their control of the present is unstable and may not last too long either.