Marathon Pundit

Kennedy hypocrisy to be on display soon as wind farm project moves forward

A self-professed friend on the environment, Sen. Ted Kennedy, is opposed to a non-polluting wind-farm. Why? Well, the wind farm will be in sight of the Kennedy family's storied Hyannis Port compound off of Nantucket Sound.

The family's most prominent environmentalist is Teddy's nephew, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. He's opposed to it too, citing recreational boating concerns (I wish I could afford a boat) among others for opposing the proposed clean-power source for Massachusetts.

The Boston Globe is reporting today that the project, known as Cape Wind, cleared an important state regulatory hurdle.

Cape Wind Associates has touted its project as a safe, clean way to create renewable energy, a safer environment and new jobs.

But opponents fear the environmental and economic effects on Cape Cod's tourist and fishing industries. They warn the turbines would pose navigational and radar hazards. They also say the turbines could hurt the views of some multimillion-dollar oceanfront homes.

Ian Bowles, the state's secretary of energy and environmental affairs, approved the environmental report in a ruling announced Friday. He said it "adequately and properly complies" with state environmental laws.

More...

Cape Wind Associates have produced computer simulations to counter criticism that the project will be an eyesore on the pristine Cape Cod coast.

Expect the Kennedy family to be set on spin-cycle for a long time.

Related post: FAA sucks air out of wind farms

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Iranians extract another "apology" from British sailor

The chicken-buggerers in Iran, having so sense of international law, aired another "apology" from a British sailor, who expressed his "remorse" in crossing into Iranian waters last week.

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Obama as a South Side community organizer

The Chicago Tribune series on the rise of Sen. Barack Obama continues today, with a rundown on Obama's stint as a community organizer on Chicago's South Side in the mid-1980s. Politically it was a wild time in Chicago, the local scene was dominated by the ongoing struggle between Chicago's first black mayor, Harold Washington, and his City Council foe, Ed Vrdolyak.

Obama came to the city to work for a Saul Alinsky. A few years later he moved on to Harvard University's law school.

Free registration is required for the Chicago Tribune link.

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Last US horse slaughterhouse shut down, unwanted horse problem will worsen

Here's a story that serves as a reminder that good intentions can have some awful consequences.From AP last week:

Kentucky, the horse capital of the world, famous for its sleek thoroughbreds, is being overrun with thousands of horses no one wants. Some of them are perfectly healthy, but many of them starving, broken-down nags. Other parts of the country are overwhelmed, too.

The reason: growing opposition in the U.S. to the slaughter of horses for human consumption overseas.

And that was the situation before the nation's last horse slaughterhouse, a facility in DeKalb, Illinois, shut down yesterday. About 1,000 horses per week were processed to produce meat for human consumption--all of it was shipped overseas. Although Congress has been considering a ban on horse-slaughter, a court ruling on agricultural inspections closed up the Illinois plant.

More from AP:

It is legal in all states for owners to shoot their unwanted horses, and some Web sites offer instructions on doing it with little pain. But some horse owners do not have the stomach for that.

At the same time, it can cost as much as $150 for a veterinarian to put a horse down. And disposing of the carcass can be costly, too. Some counties in Kentucky, relying on a mix of private and public funding, will pick up and dispose of a dead horse for a nominal fee.

But some jurisdictions, because of fears of pollution, ban it. Glue factory? Dead horses aren't used for glue anymore. Shelters? They're overwhelmed with unwanted horses.

Old strip mine areas of Kentucky are seeing growing heards of now-wild horses.

However, in other parts of the country, say where I live, it's not practical to release a horse to live off the land.

What's going to happen to all of these unwanted horses? Some pollyannas think the market will sort itself out. Possibly. However, the way I see it, criminals, whether they are a part of organized crime, or perhaps a group of goofy meth-heads, will offer up there services to "take care" of the problem of unwanted equines. Those horses will be buried (maybe), burned, or dumped in ponds.

Nature abhors a vacuum. So does a free market.

As for the workers at the horse-meat processing plant in Illinois, unless an appeals court steps in quickly to reverse the lower court's decision, they'll lose their jobs.

But the people behind the horse slaughter ban mean well, and to them, that's all that matters.

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Thursday, March 29, 2007

Chicago gulps first foie gras conviction

It is a great day in Chicago, as city officials can place Hot Doug's a Northwest Side hot dog stand on it's conviction trophy case.

Last summer, Ald. Joe Moore, the anti Wal-Mart crusader, pushed through Chicago's City Council a ban on the serving of foie gras--a duck liver delicacy--in all city restaraunts. Before the passage of the bill, it was believed a grand total of a dozen or so eateries were serving foie gras.

Doug Sohn, owner of Hot Doug's pleaded guilty to serving the dish, and he agreed to pay a a $250 fine.

Chicagoans can now sleep peacefully at night--Hot Doug's is now a foie gras-free zone.

For more on Joe Moore, visit Rogers Park Bench and start scrolling.

Related post: Ald. Joe Moore, retail genius

Thanks for the link: Third Wave Dave

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Surrender-crats and two RINOs vote for defeat in Iraq

With the excecption of Joe Lieberman, all of the Senate Democrats plus two Republicans-in-name-only (RINOs), Chuck Hagel of Nebraska and Gordon Smith of Oregon, voted to set a timeline for the withdrawal of our combat troops from Iraq.

Alabama Republican Richard Shelby summed things up this way:

Surely this will embolden the enemy and it will not help our troops in any way.

Thanks for the link: Flopping Aces

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Welcome to Chicago, Ron Rosenbaum

Pajamas Media blogger and columnist Ron Rosenbaum is moving to Chicago for while, as he's accepted the Vare Fellowship on non-fiction writing at the University of Chicago, one time stomping ground of Sen. Barack Obama, the late Milton Friedman, and Enrico Fermi.

From his Pajamas Media post, it appears Rosenbaum will be living near the U. of C. campus. The lakefront running trail is great, and there are a lot neat little books stores in the Hyde Park neighborhood. Parking is a problem though, and Ron, you can forget about finding a decent supermarket to shop in nearby.

Chicago has two baseball teams, one of which is professional, the Chicago White Sox who play a few miles to the east of campus.

And Ron, if you have any health-care issues, just contact Barack Obama's wife Michelle, who is the vice president for community and external affairs at the highly-regarded University of Chicago Hospital.

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University of Chicago

Wednesday, March 28, 2007

Hillary succeeds Carol Moseley Braun in receiving NOW endorsement

Hillary Clinton and her followers are whooping it up this evening because the New York senator's presidential campaign received the endorsement from the National Organization of Women.

From AP:

Asked if she viewed herself as a feminist, Clinton said by the standard definition, yes.

"If you look in the dictionary, the word feminist means someone who believes in equal rights for women in society, in the economy, the political process — generally believes in the equality of women. And I certainly believe in the equality of women," she said.

Her response was met with enthusiastic cheers from the crowd.

The New York senator and Democratic front-runner has launched a nationwide outreach to women voters, who are a majority of the electorate. The NOW endorsement was expected, and the Clinton campaign hopes the group's membership will strengthen the ranks of campaign volunteers and supporters.

Let's get into the way-back machine, back to the summer of 2003:

Today, Women's Equality Day, the National Organization for Women's Political Action Committee is proud to announce our endorsement of former Ambassador and Senator Carol Moseley Braun for President of the United States. I'm pleased that the National Women's Political Caucus also is announcing their endorsement this morning.

Roselyn O'Connell, president of the National Women's Political Caucus (left) and Kim Gandy, chair of the NOW Political Action Committee (right) jointly announced their groups' endorsements of Carol Moseley Braun on Aug. 26. With our endorsement comes access to NOW's hundreds of thousands of contributing members and over 500 chapters across the country—and the support of thousands of volunteer activists who are dedicated to supporting feminist candidates with their contributions and volunteer time.

The NOW endorsement did nothing for Carol Moseley Braun, whose pathetic campaign on a good day crossed the one-percent barrier in nationwide polls back in 2004.

Moseley-Braun even went as far to hire former NOW president Patricia Ireland to manage her campaign. (Ireland achieved national prominence as a chief apologist of then-President Bill Clinton during the Monica Lewinsky scandal.) But it didn't matter for CMB, before even the 2004 Iowa Caucuses, Moseley-Braun withdrew from the race for the Democratic presidential nomination, disappointing dozens. Braun threw her "support" behind Howard Dean, and we know how he ended up.

Hillary will do better than the hapless Moseley-Braun. But it won't be because of today's NOW endorsement.

Thanks for the link: Blogmeister USA.

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NOW

Iran to Britain: Admit "mistake" of crossing border

Here is the latest insanity from Iran:

Iran's foreign minister said Wednesday that Britain must admit that its 15 sailor and marines entered Iranian waters in order to resolve the standoff over their

"First they have to admit that they have made a mistake. Admitting the mistake will facilitate a solution to the problem," Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki told The Associated Press in an interview in Riyadh.

Hello mullahs: Just release the sailors and the marines.

Oh, the rulers of Iran really are nuts. Here's a post of mine from last year:

The Iranian regime and sexual relations with chickens

Read the post. And no, I'm not making this stuff up.

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Bush cites Pajamas blog Iraq The Model in speech

The power of blogs is getting noticed by the current resident of 2400 Pennsylvania Avenue. President Bush had this to say about Pajamas Blog Iraq The Model.

They have bloggers in Baghdad, just like we've got here.

Then he quoted from Iraq The Model.

"Displaced families are returning home, marketplaces are seeing more activity, stores that were long shuttered are now reopening. We feel safer about moving in the city now. Our people want to see this effort succeed."

Hopefully Surrender-crats Patrick Leahy, John Kerry, Barack Obama, and Harry Reid will drop by that blog and learn some things.

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war

Iranian hostage crisis: Second verse, same as the first

Just as in 1979, the Iranians are parading their hostages in front of the media.

Need I remind you that the Iranian leaders are barbarians?

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Iranians expected to release female sailor soon

The second Iranian hostage crisis, yes they're hostages, continues to drag on with a piece of good news: One sailor, a woman, will probably be released today or tomorrow.

Those who were around for the first hostage crisis will remember that early on, a month or so into the 444 day ordeal, the mullahs released all of the American female and African-American hostages. A few months later a white male hostage suffering from multiple sclerosis was set free.

So it's wrong to view the expected release of Faye Turney as a softening of the hard-line stance of the Iranians.

Meanwhile, the British have released pretty compelling evidence that their patrol boat was ambushed in Iraqi waters.

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Obama gaffes adding up

Lynn Sweet, who once alluded that she wanted to follow Barack Obama into the men's locker room at Chicago's East Bank Club, lists the growing number of Obama gaffes since his presidential campaign kicked off on February 10.

Here are a few of them:

• Marking the anniversary of the March 1965 "Bloody Sunday" in Selma, Ala., Obama, speaking at a church, said his parents got together "because of what happened in Selma." Obama was born in 1961.

• One of Obama's stump lines is that the biggest obstacle he fights is not any of his rivals, it is cynicism. He used a variation of it during a reception he hosted at a conference here sponsored by AIPAC, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. Displaying a tin ear, Obama said that one of the enemies is not "just terrorists" or "just Hezbollah" or "just Hamas" -- "it's also cynicism."

• The Tribune dug this up: Obama, in his memoir, Dreams of My Father, writes of a story in Life magazine that influenced him -- about a black man trying to bleach his skin white. No such article could be found in Life or Ebony.

• Another Obama stump line -- he said it again Tuesday morning to the Communications Workers of America here -- is that "I've been long enough in Washington to know that Washington needs to change." He is running against Washington yet his campaign is populated with political professionals who are Washington insiders.

Perhaps Sweet left it out because it occurred on February 9, the day before his campaign kicked off, but this Obama stumble may hurt him the most: His dis-invitation of his pastor, the controversial Rev. Jeremiah Wright, from giving the invocation at Obama's Springfield presidential announcement. That ham-handed gesture will hurt Obama in the African-American community--black Obama opponents won't let this one fade away.

Of course Obama's biggest gaffe was the "3,000 lives wasted" comment Illinois' junior senator made during an Iowa speech the day after his presidential announcement while criticizing the Iraq war.

How could anynone forget that one?

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Tuesday, March 27, 2007

Senate votes to cut-and-run from Iraq

If the Democratic members of the US Senate, sans Joe Lieberman but with RINO Chuck Hagel along for the ride, want to know where the USS Missouri is so they can formally surrender to the terrorists, the battleship is docked at Pearl Harbor, in Barack Obama's native Hawaii.

Obama can call ahead and arrange accommodations for Harry Reid, Pat Leahy, and all of his cut-and-run pals.

From Reuters:

By a vote of 50-48, the Senate defeated an amendment that would have stricken the withdrawal language from a $121.6 billion bill that mostly would fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. A final vote on the bill is expected later this week.

Here's what Reid had to say about our troops efforts in Iraq.

This war is not worth the spilling of another drop of American blood.

Of course, the terrorists, if they win in Iraq, will one day come to America.

The casualties among our troops are difficult to bear, but waiting until things get worse (Europe, 1938) is not the right strategy for our nation.

Meanwhile, Sen. John McCain, a Republican who has been quite critical of the Bush administration's military tactics had this to say about the recent shift in our day-to-day operations in Iraq:

(The troop surge) is working far better than even the most optimistic supporter had predicted. Progress is tangible in many key areas despite the fact that only 40 percent of the planned forces are in Iraq.

And...

I have been critical of the conduct of this war since 2003, and very much regret that only now, four years into the conflict, are we beginning to implement the kind of strategy that was necessary from the start.

Obama, Reid, Leahy, Kerry, Hagel, and all the others: Let the troops finish the job.

Thanks for the links:
Flopping Aces.
Rogers Park Bench

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Obama accuses Bush of "social Darwinism"

In his first book, Dreams from My Father, Barack Obama took a couple of shots at Ronald Reagan, who not just militarily, but economically turned this country around.

Earlier today, while kowtowing to yet another union group, Obama picked up where he left off, this time President Bush was his target.

From AP:

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama accused the Bush administration on Tuesday of pursuing a policy of "social Darwinism" that leaves every man and woman struggling.

"It's a strategy that we've seen this administration pursue over the last six years, that basically says government has no role to play in making sure that America is prosperous for all people and not just some," Obama said to applause during an appearance before the Communications Workers of America.

Like Reagan, President Bush has presided over a growing economy--one that benefits almost everyone. I remember hearing the same garbage from the Democrats in the 1980s.

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Books

Obama's family's past from the Chicago Tribune

In a continuing series, the Chicago "free registration required" Tribune explores the past of Sen. Barack Obama, his family, and especially his mother, the late Ann Dunham.

For you Obama scholars out there, here is my summary of Sunday's look at the Illinois junior senator's formative years.

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Wal-Mart increases charitable giving

I blogged last July, Wal-Mart is quite generous in donating to charities, donating $245 million in 2005.

Last year, Wal-Mart increased that, giving $272 million (free registration required for the Washington Post link) to charitable causes.

In 2005 (2006 rankings are not available), The Chronicle of Philanthropy ranked Wal-Mart the top corporate giver.

Don't look for this information on the full-time (union-funded) anti Wal-Mart sites such as Wake Up Wal-Mart and Wal-Mart Watch.

Hat tip to friend of the blog Marshall Manson of Edelman for the Post article.

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Equal time for skeptics: Some doubt Garside ran around the world

I'm aware of the controversy surrounding (see below post) Robert Garside's claim to have run around the world. The Guiness Book of World Records recognizes his claim.

Others don't.

Via my comments section, from Ultramarathon World:

Garside fails 24-hour test in London, 3-4 July 2003

After announcing that he had completed his world run on 13 June 2003 in New Delhi, India, Garside returned home to Britain where he was challenged by Channel 4 television to run 130 miles in 24 hours, a distance equal to one of the many long runs he claimed to have completed in the course of his world tour. Garside agreed, saying the challenge would pose no problems. The stunt was meant to lend some veracity to the many endurance feats he claimed while circling the globe. Although fully rested, and running on a flat track in perfect conditions, Garside failed spectacularly to live up to his rhetoric. He dropped out exhausted at 72 miles. The 24-hour run is a classic ultra marathon test of endurance. A 72-mile performance is insignificant. The world record for 24 hours is 188 miles. It was the first time Garside had run any significant monitored distance in the presence of independent, expert witnesses?

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Monday, March 26, 2007

Briton to be honored by Guiness Book of World Records as first man to run around the world

He has his skeptics, but a British man, Robert Garside, will be recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records as the first person to run around the world.

Garside, pictured during his quest, essentially ran a marathon a day--26 miles (42 km) for several years.

(And I was pleased for running 12 miles this morning in 80 degree heat.)

The Guiness World Record people present Garside with his certificate honoring his achievement Tuesday at Piccadilly Circus in London.

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New York Times: Woman we said served in Iraq was in Guam

Via a Pajamas Media post.

From the New York Times:

The cover article in The Times Magazine on March 18 reported on women who served in Iraq, the sexual abuse that some of them endured and the struggle for all of them to reclaim their prewar lives. One of the servicewomen, Amorita Randall, a former naval construction worker, told The Times that she was in combat in Iraq in 2004 and that in one incident an explosive device blew up a Humvee she was riding in, killing the driver and leaving her with a brain injury. She also said she was raped twice while she was in the Navy.

More...

Based on the information that came to light after the article was printed, it is now clear that Ms. Randall did not serve in Iraq, but may have become convinced she did. Since the article appeared, Ms. Randall herself has questioned another member of her unit, who told Ms. Randall that she was not deployed to Iraq. If The Times had learned these facts before publication, it would not have included Ms. Randall in the article.

Also, the New York Times couldn't find any record of a sexual assault against Randall.

Oops.

On a related note, Pajamas also reports on Arthur "Pinch" Sulzburger, Jr.

The $4.4 Million Publisher of the New York Times: That’s what Pinch is paid in salary and compensation. In the meantime, stock is half of what it was a few years ago, the company lost $543 million in 2006, Standard & Poor had put the Times’ BBB+ credit rating on CreditWatch as a result of the company trying to bribe stockholders by increasing the dividend by 31%. That Pinch, a genius.

Oops again.

Thanks for the link: Blogmeister USA

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Barack Obama's Audacity of Boredom

Apparently I'm not the only one who was put to sleep--more than once--while reading Barack Obama's The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream.

Chicago Sun-Times columnist Jennifer Hunter read the book, as I did, and like myself she viewed it as a necessary chore.

From her column:

Every time I leave town through O'Hare Airport, I see people carrying Barack Obama's latest tome, The Audacity of Hope. It has been on the New York Times best-seller list for more than 27 weeks, helping Obama pay off the mortgage on his swanky home in Kenwood.

However, I often wonder when I see people schlepping this book: Are they going to read the whole thing, or are they just going to skim it, like I did, looking for the juicy bits? For me, reading The Audacity of Hope was a grind; I hate reading self-help books or books that lecture me about how life should be.

I found reading the Audacity of Hope useful to me however, had I not, I wouldn't have been able to compose these posts:

Obama and the Laborers' Union Ed Smith

Obama and Wal-Mart

Obama's "The Audacity of Hope," a continuing book report

More on Obama's "The Audacity of Hope," a continuing book report

Thanks for the link: Obamability

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From the "Well, duh, department"

Only the densest of the dense could've figured out some other result from the Anna Nicole Smith autopsy:

Former Playboy Playmate Anna Nicole Smith died of an accidental overdose of a sleeping medication and other drugs after she was found unresponsive at a hotel, authorities said Monday.

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Latest Sanity Squad podcast discusses Khalid Sheikh Muhammed

Much of what is wrong in the world originates in Pakistan, as Mark Steyn comments in his latest column.

Khalid Sheikh Muhammed is a Pakistani, and KSM was the mastermind of many of the Islamist terrorist acts committed in the last 15 years, including the 9/11 attacks.

The panelists remark that residents of the Left seem surprisingly oblivious to KSM's evil. Which catches Siggy's attention:

There can be no Hitlers, other than an American Hitler, there can be no evil, other than an American evil.

As always, the other Sanity Squad panelists are Neo-Neo Con, Shrinkwrapped, and Dr. Sanity.

Listen to or download the podcast here. Free Pajamas Media Politics Central podcasts subscriptions are available on the iTunes web site.

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KSM

Khalid Sheikh Muhammed

Pakistan

اسلامی

New straw poll from Pajamas Media

Once again, voting has begun in the Pajamas Media straw poll. Vote up above to exercise your franchise.

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Sunday, March 25, 2007

Koran riots in Yemen: One dead, ten cars and one helicopter destroyed

Here's a story that isn't getting much media play. I suppose if the riots continue that will change. One Yemeni is dead because his countrymen simply can't control their rage.

From AFP:

"One worker was killed and others were arrested following clashes with police who intervened" to contain the protest at the terminal being built by the French company Total in Balhaf port, he told AFP, requesting anonymity.

"After a fight between a French engineer and another who is Yemeni, the Frenchman -- to enrage the Yemeni -- threw a Koran on the floor in an offensive way," the official said of the alleged incident.

Witnesses said four workers were also wounded.

Over 400 workers protested when they found out about the incident, burning about 10 cars and a helicopter belonging to the French company, and wrecking offices used by French staff, he said.

I wonder if this story will end up like the 2005 Koran-flushed-down-the-toilet story: A lot of anger caused over something that never happened.

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Pajamas Blog Week in Review with Bill Roggio

For the first time in a couple of weeks I was able to download a new Pajamas Media Blog Week in Review. This time, in an appropriate podcast companion to the latest Glenn & Helen Show, moderator Austin Bay interviews blogger Bill Roggio, another expert on the War on Terror.

Like Michael Yon, Bill is fairly optimistic about the Iraq "troop surge" and the change in our tactics there.

Listen to or download the podcast here. Free subscriptions are available from the iTunes web site.

The podcast is sponsored by Volvo Cars.

And as always, the show is produced by Ed Driscoll.

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Hagel hints at impeachement

Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-NE) is considering a presidential run. He has no chance of winning, he won't be the nominees vice presidential pick, and if a Republican prevails in '08, Hagel won't get a cabinet position or a plum ambassadorship.

A frequent Bush critic, Hagel is now dropping impeachment hints.

From AP:

GOP Sen. Chuck Hagel (news, bio, voting record) of Nebraska, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and a frequent critic of the war, stopped short of calling for Bush's impeachment. But he made clear that some lawmakers viewed that as an option should Bush choose to push ahead despite public sentiment against the war.

"Any president who says, I don't care, or I will not respond to what the people of this country are saying about Iraq or anything else, or I don't care what the Congress does, I am going to proceed — if a president really believes that, then there are — what I was pointing out, there are ways to deal with that," said Hagel, who is considering a 2008 presidential run.

No chance of winning.

Thanks for the link: Flopping Aces

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Breaking from Pajamas Media: US holding 300 prisoners linked to Iran

Pajamas Media's Richard Miniter reports this breaking news:

American forces in Iraq now hold some 300 prisoners tied to Iran’s intelligence agencies, Pajamas Media learned from both diplomatic and military sources.

This is believed, by both sources, to be a record number of prisoners tied to Iran. Virtually all were captured in the past two months.

This week’s seizure of 15 British sailors by Iran in the contested waters of the Shattab al-Arab, the ship channel that divides Iraq and Iran, may have been payback for the capture of record number of Iranian operatives inside Iraq. “It may be a bargaining chip,” one diplomatic source said.

The intelligence community is still debating whether the unlawful detainment of British sailors was ordered by Iran’s government or was presented to it as a fait accompli by relatively low-level Iranian Revolutionary Guards officers.

The roughly 300 prisoners held in Iraq—the number grows frequently—are either Iranian nationals or Shiites recruited from neighboring countries that are employed one of its almost two dozen intelligence or paramilitary services.

Archaeologically digging deep in doo-doo

If you're in the neighborhood of Chicago's O'Hare Airport this afternoon, say you have a long layover there, then you may want to head to the nearby suburb of Niles, where you can hear Tom Majewski speak about his archaeological work with outhouses.

Make sure to wash up afterwards if you shake Tom's hand.

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Saturday, March 24, 2007

Saudi Arabia's "Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice"

The Arab News interviews Sheikh Ibrahim Al-Ghaith, he's the head of Saudi Arabia's Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, one of the most feared organization in the Kingdom.

The paper gives a good summary of what this group does:

The Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice is Saudi Arabia’s morality police. Its members roam the streets day and night looking for offenders of morality from both sexes. They randomly enter malls, restaurants and local and private establishments to enforce proper moral conduct. They also have the power to close shops during prayer times and asking people to attend prayers in mosques. In addition, they enforce the rule of gender segregation in public areas — with the exception of malls and hospitals. They also have the authority of confiscating material which they consider inappropriate to the Kingdom’s moral values. This material includes a wide variety of books and photos, pornographic material, sculptures, etc.

It's wonderful to have the Saudis as a close ally.

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Chicago Tribune discovers Obama's youth somewhat different from "Dreams"

Many readers have been enthralled by Barack Obama's memoir, Dreams from My Father. I thought the book was a bit ponderous, and two-thirds of the into it, I was saying to myself, "Find your self, already."

The Chicago Tribune's Kirsten Scharnberg and Kim Barker did some excellent reporting by traveling to Hawaii and Indonesia and interviewing individuals who crossed paths with Obama during his memoiric youth.

Free registration is required for the Trib article.

Barker and Scharnberg discovered things were not quite the same as what Obama wrote about in "Dreams."

For instance, despite his claim in the book that he learned it in just six months, Obama never became fluent in the Indonesian language--he struggled in school there because of that. Obama didn't quickly fit in with kids there, as he wrote in "Dreams"; the reporters learned that because his physical appearance was noticeably different from his classmates, the Indonesian students did the same thing kids generally do in other parts of the world when confronted with an "oddity"--they unmercifully teased him.

In the book Obama recounts becoming aware of his race by reading a horrifying account of a black man permanently scarring himself by attempting to lighten his skin hue. Obama said he read it in Life, but no such article was ever published by the magazine.

As the Lemonheads once sang, "It's a Shame about Ray": Obama reflects on conversations he had with "Ray," a fellow black student at Obama's high school, Punahou. But the real "Ray" in fact is Keith Kakugawa, who is bi-racial, black and Japanese. Other students at the time at Punahou recall that "Ray" was viewed as just another of the many mixed-race kids there.

Last month, as I blogged about here, the Los Angeles Times picked apart a claim by Obama that he was the driving force behind the campaign to have asbestos removed from Chicago's Altgeld Gardens housing project. The Times learned that although Obama had a part in that effort, others played a role as well, which is not mentioned in "Dreams From My Father."

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Captured British sailors taken to Tehran

It may be too early to call them hostages, but the British sailors and marines who were captured by the Iranian Navy yesterday have been taking to Tehran.

Holding hostages is one thing the Iranians and their friends excel in.

Thanks for the link:

Flopping Aces

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Friday, March 23, 2007

Latest Glenn & Helen Show podcast with blogger Michael Yon

During my hiatus from my home computer, one thing I was unable to do was update my iPod with the latest Pajamas Media podcasts. During my morning run, I listened to the latest Glenn & Helen Show podcast. Instapundit's Glenn Reynolds and his blogger wife, Dr. Helen Smith, once again interview embedded-in-Iraq blogger Michael Yon.

Yon gives his appraisal of of General Dave Petraeus' tactics in Iraq--Michael is a big supporter of him--and he says, "So far, so good."

As Yon explains, rather than spending nights safely within a military base, many soldiers are encamped within Iraqi communities, something that Reynolds compares to big city community policing.

So while the House of Representatives today voted to set a timetable for our withdrawal from Iraq, Yon seems to be optimistic about our mission--and the change in tactics--in Iraq.

Listen to or download the podcast here. Free subscriptions are available from the iTunes web site.

The podcast is sponsored by Volvo Cars.

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Iranians holding 15 British sailors

In another era, this would be called an act of war. News is breaking this morning that 15 British sailors were captured during a routine anti-smuggling patrol in Iraqi waters.

I don't know how many times I have to repeat this, but the Iranians are not rational.

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Wal-Mart fits a store inside the Beltway

It's not in Washington DC proper, but Wal-Mart opened its first store inside the Capital Beltway Expressway yesterday. The new store is in Landover Hills, a small suburb in Prince George's County, Maryland.

The Washington Times has a write-up on the opening. Here's the part I like:

The shopping center, on Route 450 off the Baltimore-Washington Parkway, had fallen into despair following the departures of Montgomery Ward and Hechinger in the late 1990s. Other retailers followed, and customers had no reason to go to the mall.

"The mall needed something to happen. It's been dead," said Mimi Gioni, owner of Italian Inn Restaurant across the street from Wal-Mart.

She said the restaurant's register felt it when Capital Plaza no longer drew crowds. It was "not enough to put us out of business, but it hurt," she said.

The anti Wal-Mart crowd, undoubtedly pleased that they can take the Green Line from their K Street offices for a nearby protest site, showed up the day before the store's opening to to present their view that "Wal-Mart has a depressing effect on wages and benefits."

However, if you scroll down a few posts, you'll read that Wal-Mart recently awarded bonuses to over 800,000 employees.

Hat tip to Marshall Manson of Edelman for the story.

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Big box

Thursday, March 22, 2007

Harold Ford, Jr--Wining by losing

One of the few Republican bright spots during Election 2008 was Bob Corker's defeat of Democrat Harold Ford, Jr. for the Senate seat that was vacated by Republican Bill Frist in Tennessee.

Corker is now a junior member of the minority party in Congress. And Ford is raking in the cash.

From The Tennessean:

Congress was the first real job Ford ever had. In the four months since the election, he has picked up four new ones — Merrill Lynch vice chairman, Fox News commentator, Vanderbilt guest professor and chairman of the Democratic Leadership Committee — the last a job that Bill Clinton used to lay the groundwork for his national political ambitions. Ford, who turns 37 next month, makes no secret of the fact that this hiatus from politics won’t last long.

"They’ve given me a big old office at Merrill Lynch," he jokingly told the audience. "I’m enjoying that. I’m enjoying life at the DLC. But public service is in my blood."

There’s no word yet on which job Ford might have in his sights. His Fox News contract reportedly includes an escape clause that he could invoke if he opts to challenge Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., next year. Or he could bide his time until 2010 and make a run for the governor’s mansion.

For certain, we haven't heard the last from Harold Ford, Jr.

Related post: Harold Ford Jr. and Chicago's E2 nightclub tragedy

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Zimbabwe nearing an open revolt?

Yes, a popular uprising may be in the very near future for Zimbabwe, where the nation's longtime klepto-ruler, Robert Mugabe, appears to have driven his nation to the breaking point, as the London Times reports tonight.

Mugabe seems to be aware that things are going poorly, 2,500 Angolan special forces troops, nicknamed "ninjas," are on their way to Zimbabwe.

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Wal-Mart gives bonus to over 800,000 hourly workers

The company that the Left loves to hate is back in the news--and once again it puts anti Wal-Mart zealots into a quandary.

How are they going to respond to a move by the retail king that clearly benefits its employees?

From AP:

Wal-Mart made its annual bonus for store employees public for the first time in two decades, saying today that about 80 percent of hourly workers would split more than a half-billion dollars.

Based on the numbers Wal-Mart Stores Inc. released, the mathematical average payment would be $651 per worker but Wal-Mart said the individual amounts varied. It declined to provide a range or the specific level of payments, citing competition with other employers.

In the past, the bonus has been $1,000 for full-time workers and up to $500 for part-timers, according to former Wal-Mart managers who declined to be named because the information is competitive.

Sometime around 1970, Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton added profit sharing bonuses to his employees compensation package, something the he called "the smartest thing I ever did."

Related posts:

My book report: The Wal-Mart Revolution: How Big Box Stores Benefit Consumers, Workers, and the Economy

Obama and Wal-Mart

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Chicago to pay $12 million into fund because of political hiring violations

In 1969, attorney Michael J. Shakman won a lawsuit against Mayor Richard J. Daley's Chicago to effectively ban hiring based on politics. Winning the suit was just the beginning for Shakman, as several mayors later, Chicago, now run by Daley's son, is still resisting what is known as the Shakman decree.

A $12 million fund has been set up by the mayor, with Shakman's prodding, to compensate recent violations of the political hiring ban.

Shakman is keeping busy on other fronts. His law firm is defending fired University of Illinois Associate Dean Robert van der Hooning in his battle against his former employer.

Related post: Broken promises: How "jarheads" got shunted aside at the University of Illinois: A Marathon Pundit series

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law

Obama's gay community problem

One of the issues I missed during my hardware-induced semi-vacation from blogging was Gen. Peter Pace's use of the word "immoral" to describe gays. Last week, Barack Obama was asked about Pace's statement, and Obama fumbled his response.

From the Chicago "free registration required" Tribune:

Obama's first answer was: "I think traditionally the Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman has restricted his public comments to military matters. That's probably a good tradition to follow."

Asked a second time, he said: "I think the question here is whether somebody is willing to sacrifice for their country."

When asked a third time, the senator ignored the question, signed an autograph, posed for a photo and then jumped into a Lincoln Town Car, according to a report by Newsday.

The exchange left some gays and lesbians cold, shocked that someone they trusted would not immediately defend them.

Hillary Clinton's initial response on this issue wasn't one that pleased the gay community either, but her campaign quickly sprang back to defend gays.

It's amazing how awkward these candidates are when they are away from their handlers.

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Gay

Wednesday, March 21, 2007

Pajamas blogger Cathy Seipp, RIP

Fellow Pajamas Media blogger Cathy Seipp passed away earlier this afternoon in Los Angeles.

From her blog, the entry was posted by her daughter, Maia Lazar:

My mother passed away three hours ago. It's on the homespace of JournalSpace and the official obit is here

Funeral service will be held Friday at 10AM. In addition to the humane society, I also want to acknowledge the previous mentioned before, Lung Cancer Alliance. I got an email from them explaining that one of their goals is not to represent patients in a stigmatized away. Not all lung cancer patients were smokers. My mother was frustrated on her blog that there is more funding for the more popular diseases of breast cancer, AIDS etc which have more hope than lung cancer which is a harder way to go.

Services will be held at 10 a.m. Friday at Mt. Sinai Hollywood Hills, 5950 Forest Lawn Drive, Los Angeles. Instead of flowers, Seipp had requested that people make donations to the Humane Society, www.hsus.org.

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I'm back....

Well, my repaired (I hope) desktop returned this afternoon. All of my data is gone, unfortunately. On the flipside, I didn't have much on there that can't be replaced, so it's a fresh start. It's going to take me a few days to get back into full Marathon Pundit mode--I have a lot of software to download, but look for my posts to increase a lot over the next few days...

Thanks for your patience, all.

A shipment in the mail...

Mrs. Marathon Pundit just called...my desktop computer--sent out for an under-warranty repair--has returned....

The worst government money can buy: Bath County, Kentucky

Below you'll see some posts about a blatant incident of vote buying in Bath County, Kentucky--a rural county in the eastern part of the state.

The convicted vote buyer, former Bath County Judge-Executive Walter Shrout, in addition to being a crook, was a lousy county CEO too.

More on this under-reported story from the Lexington Herald Leader.

In the same year investigators found rampant vote-buying in Bath County, the county government racked up a deficit of close to $600,000 and increased spending on road paving projects by two-thirds. In a scathing audit of Bath County finances released yesterday, State Auditor Crit Luallen said Bath County officials were repeatedly warned by the state that they were overspending but continued to do so.

The audit, released four days after Bath County Judge-Executive Walter Shrout was convicted on vote-buying-related charges stemming from the May primary, said the county increased its road budget by 67 percent over the previous year. In addition to the $276,400 shortage in the road fund, the audit noted a deficit of $207,798 in the general fund and $106,707 in the jail fund. Shrout is one of 12 Bath County residents to be indicted on vote-buying-related charges.

Shrout blamed much of the county's money crunch on an increase in expenses including insurance, Social Security and jail costs. But the audit, which looked at the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2005, and ending June 30, 2006, found that spending on road paving grew more than spending from the city's operating budget or the jail fund. The increase in spending from the road fund was "mainly due to discretionary blacktop expenditures," the audit said. The audit covered the period leading up to the May primary, in which Shrout and others faced stiff competition.

Shrout resigned his position Monday and could not be reached for comment. In the audit, Shrout said the road fund deficit has been repaid and that parts of the general fund and jail fund had also been partly repaid.

As is the paper's wont, party affiliation was left out of the article. Shrout is a Democrat.

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Unions made pre$ence known during first round of Chicago elections

As regular readers of Marathon Pundit are aware, the big-box "living wage" ordinance was one of the major issues in the first round of Chicago aldermanic elections last month. The final round of voting will take place in early April.

Organized labor is still in a tizzy over Mayor Richard Daley's veto of that aforementioned ordinance, which would've forced only big-box retailers such as Wal-Mart and Home Depot to pay their hourly workers more. Alderman who voted to sustain Daley's veto (Daley won re-election last month) have been targeted for defeat by local unions.

More on this subject from today's Chicago Sun-Times:

Organized labor sent a "message of intimidation" to the City Council by pumping more than $1 million into just five aldermanic races -- with some challengers receiving 100 percent of their campaign contributions from unions, a business group charged Tuesday.

Bernard Loyd, a board member for the Metropolitan Planning Council, reviewed the campaign finance reports of union-backed challengers in a few wards.

It showed that organized labor contributed $1.02 million to challengers in five wards and that the beneficiaries relied almost exclusively on union money. They were 3rd Ward challenger Pat Dowell ($147,000 or two-thirds of all contributions); 12th Ward candidate Carina Sanchez ($171,000 or 96 percent); 15th Ward candidate Toni Foulkes ($250,000 or 100 percent); 16th Ward challenger Joann Thompson ($248,000 or 100 percent); and 21st Ward challenger Leroy Jones Jr. ($210,000 or 96 percent).

Those same candidates also received the benefit of extensive campaign management, polling, message development, opposition research and hundreds of precinct workers, he said.

Yes, business groups have funded some incumbent alderman, but I find it quite unlikely they've provided the type of support mentioned in the above paragraph.

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Tuesday, March 20, 2007

Reinstate Thomas Klocek at DePaul petition 100 signatures short of goal

Good news tonight. The 19th signee voiced his support earlier today. The goal for the Scholars for Peace in the Middle East petition is to reach 200 signatures. Just 100 to go!

Here is the petition in full:

A Petition to Reinstate Professor Thomas Klocek to DePaul University With No Prejudice or Penalty

To: Rev. Dennis H. Holtschneider, C.M., Ed.D., President and Susanne M. Dumbleton, Ph.D., Dean of the School for New Learning, DePaul University

We, the undersigned faculty members from around the world, stand solidly with Professor Thomas Klocek, a Roman Catholic, who was dismissed by DePaul University for allegedly offending Muslim students when discussing Christian interests in Israel, disputing that Israeli treatment of Palestinians was akin to the Nazi treatment of the Jews and then terminating the discussion when it appeared that the students were more interested in Israel-bashing than discussing the issues.

We believe this case sheds serious questions on the commitment to academic freedom and civility in academic discussion with this egregious termination. We further believe that this action by administration has separated DePaul from the academic community.

It is our understanding that Prof. Klocek alleges:

1) He was never allowed to meet with his accusers.

2) He was never presented with a written list of the complaints or charges against him.

3) He was suspended by the Dean of the School for New Learning in clear violation of the University's own stated Faculty Handbook procedures.

4) He was never given a hearing.

5) A vote by the DePaul Faculty Council affirmed that the same rules that apply for a formal academic hearing apply to all professors, full-time and adjuncts alike.

As a result, we believe that Professor Klocek, a faculty member with a 15-year history of excellent evaluations and no prior complaints, was dismissed without due process and should be reinstated without penalty or prejudice and with back pay, restitution of benefits and compensation for his legal and other expenses incurred as a result of his being improperly terminated.

Sincerely,
The Undersigned

Related Marathon Pundit post:

Sept 15: Second anniversary of the beginning of the Thomas Klocek affair

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Ill. Gov. Blagojevich: Proposed budget puts him "on the side of the Lord"

One can only imagine the response had George W. Bush made such a statement.

Gov. Rod Blagojevich (D-Ill), while meeting with some black ministers in Chicago, told them that he's "on the side of the Lord" because of his proposed new budget.

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Monday, March 19, 2007

Why we fight

Some people deny it, but the War on Terror started in the late 1970s. One member of the enemy forces, Waleed Mohammed Bin Attash, like Khalid Sheikh Muhammad, is talking while on "extended vacation" in Cuba.

From AP:

Waleed Mohammed Bin Attash, long suspected of plotting the bombing of the USS Cole, confessed to planning the attack during a hearing at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, according to a Pentagon transcript released Monday.

He also said he helped plan the bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998 that killed 213, the transcript said. Seventeen sailors were killed and 37 injured when suicide bombers steered an explosives-laden boat into the guided missile destroyer on Oct. 12, 2000.

''I participated in the buying or purchasing of the explosives,'' bin Attash said when asked what his role was in the attacks on the Cole and the embassies. ''I put together the plan for the operation a year and a half prior to the operation, buying the boat and recruiting the members that did the operation.''

Of course, informed members of the public are aware of the retaliatory response made by the Clinton administration after the USS Cole bombing.

Wait, hold on...there was no response.

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Blogging and libel

Luckily I haven't had a run-in with anyone over something I've blogged that's been viewed as libelous, but it's something I have to keep in mind while I'm blogging.

Bill Hobbs has a good post on how to be a careful blogger.

Most homeowner's insurance policies do not cover blogging activity.

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Saturday, March 17, 2007

Computer update...

One of my two computers I have should be fixed soon, so I should be online once again...Stay tuned.

Friday, March 16, 2007

Guilty verdict in Kentucky vote buying trial

Here's another story that simply isn't getting the attention it deserves. Voting is one of the great blessings of living in a democratic society: Those that defile that blessing deserve widespread public scorn. And today, yet another public official was found guilty of vote-buying.

From the Lexington Herald-Leader:

A federal jury found Bath County Judge-Executive Walter Shrout guilty Friday of conspiracy to buy votes, making false statements to a federal agent and obstruction of justice.

He was on trial in a vote-buying case that grew out of the May 2006 primary election.

U.S. District Chief Judge Joseph M. Hood ordered Shrout to resign from office no later than noon Monday.

Twelve people have been indicted in connection with the Bath County investigation, according to a news release from U.S. Attorney Amul Thapar.

As with Wednesday's Herald-Leader report, the party affiliation of Shrout is not mentioned in the article, I'll give it to you: He's a Democrat.

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Thursday, March 15, 2007

AP does story on shunted Univ. of Illinois vets

Of course regular readers of Marathon Pundit will know I did a report on this story last month:

Broken promises: How "jarheads" got shunted aside at the University of Illinois: A Marathon Pundit series

AP is right behind me on this one.

About this time last year, my alma mater, the University of Illinois announced an unpredented offer of 110 full-ride Executive MBA scholarships to for War on Terror veterans returning home after serving abroad. Congressman Rahm Emanuel and Lt. Governor touted the program.

But as I blogged last month, things didn't turn out quite as planned. Some of the returning vets had their acceptance to the university rescinded.

Emanuel and Quinn pressured to university to do the right thing.

From AP:

"It is my expectation that the admissions policy remains consistent with the program I endorsed -- and that the university is using my name to support," Emanuel wrote June 12 after hearing from an Army captain who'd been accepted and then turned away.

Two days later, the university decided to honor conditional admissions, according to the complaint.

Forty-one applicants, including (Army veteran Michael) Purvis, were given scholarships and enrolled in Chicago, and eight were enrolled in the Champaign-Urbana programs, Kaler said. The number in Chicago later dropped to 35 after some students decided not to attend, the university said.

Spokesmen for Emanuel and Quinn said the two would like to see the program or one like it continue. Eric Schuller, Quinn's senior policy adviser, said the lieutenant governor will watch closely to see that the university lives up to its commitment.

Despite my computer problems--scroll down--I'm not done with this story.

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Light blogging

I was in training this morning--this part of my "day job" training has ended. So even in taking account my home computer problems, blogging would've been lighter this week.

Wednesday, March 14, 2007

Kentucky vote buying trial starts, party affiliation missing from newspaper report

Last year in Kentucky a vote-buying scheme was uncovered. The trial for one of the alleged conspirators, Walter Shrout, Judge Executive for Bath County, started yesterday.

Curiously, or maybe not curiously, there is no mention of party affiliation in this Lexington Herald-Leader account.

As for the party Shrout is a member of, I'll give you a hint: That party won control of Congress in November.

From the Herald-Leader:

Norman Crouch was working at the Town and Country Market in early May when Bath County Judge Executive Walter Shrout stopped by and asked to speak to him into the store's back room.

Shrout handed Crouch an envelope stuffed with cash and asked him to help find voters, Crouch testified yesterday on the first day of Shrout's trial on charges that he conspired to buy votes during the Bath County primary in May. Crouch took the envelope and went to work, he said.

"I started going to the housing projects to find people to vote," Crouch said.

Shrout, who won the primary and general election and is still the county's top elected official, is one of 12 Bath County residents who have been charged in what prosecutors have described as rampant absentee vote-buying in the weeks before the May primary. Shrout has been charged with conspiracy, making a false statement to a federal agent and obstruction of justice.

Despite all the Huffington Post ramblings about Diebold and alleged Republican chicanery at the polls, the truth hurts: When it comes to vote fraud, it's almost always Democrats who are behind it--and the mainstream media knows it, even if they don't report it.

Related post: Obama and the Laborers' Union Ed Smith

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Rushdie in Chicago, laments no appearance on "The Simpsons"

Condemned-by-the-jihadists author Salman Rushdie is in Chicago this afternoon, talking about his books and his life as a fugitive from the nutjobs in Iran that pronounced a death sentence against him almost twenty years ago--after the publication of his book The Satanic Verses.

From the Chicago "free registration required" Tribune:

Among his sharpest disappointments, Rushdie said, is never yet having appeared as a character in "The Simpsons": "I quite resent it. I find it deeply shocking," he added, with deadpan sincerity.

Rushdie did have a bizarre almost appearance on "Seinfeld." But that Rushdie only existed in the imagination of the Kramer character.

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Tuesday, March 13, 2007

Rudy comes to Chicago, pays' homage to Harry Caray

Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani was in Chicago yesterday for a $1,000 a person fundraiser--the first of many here, according to this article.

While in Chicago, Giuliani paid a visit to Harry Caray's restaurant. Caray was a longtime Chicago White Sox, then Cubs, broadcaster. In the Chicago area, Caray's link, unfortunately to this White Sox fan, is to the Cubs.

(Yes, I know Caray was a St. Louis Cardinals announcer for a couple of decades. Also, for one year, Caray was the voice of the Oakland A's.)

It's ironic that Guiliani chose to pay homage to Harry yesterday. Guiliani is a lifelong New York Yankees fan, something former Chicago Cubs fan Hillary Clinton tried to lay claim to back in 1999. Few people, if any, fell for it.

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Marathon Pundit is running a lot

Since I'm not blogging that much--see below post, I'm running a lot more. Confession time. Sometimes blogging keeps me from running, so I've gained a small amount of weight. It's almost 70 degrees Fahrenheit today, so it was a good day to be out running--global warming has come to Illinois.

My desktop computer is boxed up and awaiting pick up from DHL. On old device I had--a Hewlett Packard, was taken out of storage--I dropped it off (Yikes!) at one of those big box retailers--but not Wal-Mart--that other sites warn you about.

Saturday, March 10, 2007

The smell of something burning, and then digital silence

Blogging from my Treo 650 in Palos Heights, Illinois.

Last night I was installing some extra RAM into my desktop--and I turned the computer on...and that sickening electrical burn smell came forth.

It's still under warranty, but I have to ship it to Arizona.

The machine is flawed, I've been having problems with it since I bought it in August.

I called the help desk, they told me "Obviously the RAM chip you bought was incompatible." However, I purchased the chip directly from the same help desk--but from a different customer service representative.

I'm at my mom's house--my boyhood home--typing this with two fingers.

I wasn't going to be blogging much today or tomorrow--Sunday I'm helping someone move, but posting will be lighter for the next few days.

Lighter, but a long way from non-existant.

Friday, March 09, 2007

Marker tagging of inmates viewed as inhumane by activists

Okay, not only have I never been arrested, I've not been part of a mass-arrest, so I have no idea what the protocol is when being taken into custody of law enforcement officials.

Apparently using felt-tip markers, which unlike tattoos (see below post) are not permanent, by writing numbers on arrestees' hands,is not an acceptable practice.

On Tuesday a plastics company in Mishawaka, Indiana was raided by immigration authorities, 36 suspected illegal immigrants were arrested.

Some of those arrested were bussed to McHenry County, Illinois northwest of Chicago to be jailed there.

McHenry County jailers used felt-tip markers to write numbers, odd for men, even for women, on the hands of each inmate. And that's where the trouble started.

From NBC 5 Chicago:

"When we knew about this issue, we immediately reacted and we complained with immigration authorities and homeland security," said Carlos Sada of the Mexican Consulate.

Many feel the conditions on which immigrants are held are inhumane.

"The marking is an insult," said Emma Lozano from Pueblo Sin Fronteras. "They treat these people as if they're numbers and not as human beings. But worse, is that they're being held and given nothing to eat and treated as if they are criminals."

If those plastics company employees are in the country illegally, then that makes them criminals.

In regards to the hand-markings, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement told the jail to stop the practice. As for the accused-illegals getting nothing to eat, well, I do know some people who have been jailed, and being fed consistently is something they relied upon. Time is marked by meal periods. In short, I don't believe Ms. Lozano on that one.

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Tattoo you: Tattoo artist's mistake leads to permanent show of support

I'm not making this up, this is a big story in Chicago. Michael Duplessis, a mechanic, went to Jade Dragon Tattoo and Body Piercing on Chicago's Northwest Side two years ago to get the words "Chi-Town" tattooed below his neck. The artist, Sam Hacker, transposed the "N" and "W" and the tattoo came out "Chi-Tonw."

Duplessis is suing the tattoo parlor because he's suffered "emotional distress from public ridicule."

I decided initially not to blog about this story as it's a bit outside of the realm of topics that normally interest me, but this tale has taken a weird twist.

Now some Chicago tattoo artists are purposely getting tattoos with the intentional mispelling of "Chi-tonw" as a show of support for Hacker. It's a unique, if not unprecedented sacrifice.

Says Hacker:

My friends are supporting me by saying, "Hey, you know, it happens. We've done it. You just got, you know, blown up on it."

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My book report: The Wal-Mart Revolution: How Big Box Stores Benefit Consumers, Workers, and the Economy

Earlier this week I finished reading The Wal-Mart Revolution: How Big Box Stores Benefit Consumers, Workers, and the Economy, a book by Richard Vedder and Wendell Cox.

The book is well-written and well-researched, and should be, I say, should be required reading for such individuals as Alderman Joe Moore of Chicago and Barack Obama.

A lot in the book reinforces what I knew about the big-box king, but there were a few revelations for me.

Here are some Wal-Mart misconceptions that are knocked down in the book:

Wal-Mart contributes to urban sprawl: Wal-Marts are disproportionatel--compared to its competitors--located in non-metropolitan areas. Its stores are usually built outside of town centers so the store can capitalize on the one thing shoppers crave more than low-priced goods, and that is abundant and free parking. People drive to Wal-Mart because by their own choice--they want to shop there. It's common knowledge that small town and suburban downtowns have been struggling for decades. Ironically, the state most-associated with sprawl, California, didn't see its first Wal-Mart until 1990.

Wal-Mart pays low wages: With the notable exception of Costco, Wal-Mart's wages are in line with wages at other retailers. On a nationwide average, Wal-Mart's appear lower, but again, many of its stores are located outside of major metropolitan areas, where people on average get paid less. Jobs offered by retailers generally don't require major skills, and the market responds accordingly. And just as no one is forced to shop at Wal-Mart, no one is compelled to work there either.

Wal-Mart hurts the poor: Wrong. Because it offers not only jobs but also low priced goods, Wal-Mart helps the poor, putting extra dollars in their pocket the would've been spent elsewhere to buy the same products, at a higher price.

Wal-Mart underinsures or doesn't insure its employees: Way wrong. Many employees opt-out of Wal-Mart insurance plan because their spouse already has coverage. Yes, some Wal-Mart employees receive Medicaid, but so do employers at other retailers, Vedder and Cox write.

Wal-Mart drives smaller firms out of business: Well, that one is true, but so did A&P, Sears, Montgomery Ward, K-Mart, Safeway...should I keep going...and today's big-box chains such as Home Depot, Target, Lowe's, Best Buy and others are doing the same thing. Why is this happening? The short answer is that people prefer shopping there, the longer one is that chains have superior distribution systems, enjoy brand name recognition, choose better locations, and oh yeah, they offer lower prices.

A warning to Wal-Mart and the other kings of the hill today. A&P once was viewed as dominant and unstoppable as Wal-Mart is today. Once nationwide, A&P is now confined to the Northeast.

Wal-Mart destroys jobs: Well, if you worked at a variety store such as Woolworth's, and a Wal-Mart came to town, you probably lost your job. Of course, you could apply to work at that Wal-Mart. Also, because Wal-Mart, Target and the others put more cash in people's pockets--because they pay less for goods than they would elsewhere, that allows them to spend that money at say, a local restaurant, a nearby amusement park, or see a movie. Which means new jobs are created.

On a final point, the authors of the book write just as John D. Rockefeller was the business genius of the 19th century, Wal-Mart's Sam Walton, earned the title for the 20th century.

If you click on the top link, not only do you end up at the The Wal-Mart Revolution spot on Amazon, but you can read friend-of-the-blog John Ray's review of the book.

Thanks for the links!

Deep Thoughts
O Apaniguado (in Portuguese)
Palousitics
Rogers Park Bench

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I'm on Constitutional Public Radio this afternoon discussing the Univ. of Illinois

Listen for me, along with former University of Illinois Associate Dean Robert van der Hooning, this afternoon on Constitutional Public Radio with Andrea and Mark.

We'll be talking about this story here:

Broken promises: How "jarheads" got shunted aside at the University of Illinois: A Marathon Pundit series

"Constitutional Public Radio - CPR for the Heart of America" begins 3 pm ET (2 pm CT) on 1510 AM on Florida's Space Coast.

If you don't live there, you can listen live on the internet here.

There'll be a chatroom party going on at this location.

Tune in or log in, but see you there all the same.

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Thursday, March 08, 2007

Hagel Kant win but is expected to announce presidential run on Monday

To most Republicans, Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb) has a philosophy centered around undermining President Bush at any opportunity. Since Rhode Island Senator Lincoln Chaffee was voted out of office, he's viewed as the most anti-Bush senator in Congress.

His anti-war stance is more in line with the mainstream of the Democratic Party.

Yet for some reason, Hagel thinks he should run for president--as a Republican.

I have to get this philosophical pun in: Hagel Kant win. But look for the Rosie O'Donnell types to fawn over this man, who they'll name as their favorite Republican. But to the GOP faithful, he's viewed as a RINO-Republican in Name Only.

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Buh-bye: Gingich admits affair during Lewinsky probe

There's a lot a like about former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, but his personal life has always been a mess; yes, worse that Rudy Giuliani's.

From beginning (he married his former high school teacher) to end (he told her that he wanted to divorce her while she was being hospitalized for cancer) his first marriage was a mess for him. Months later, Newt remarried, but that marriage ended in a nasty divorce.

Tonight news comes out that Gingrich had an extramarital affair while leading the charge for impeachment against Bill Clinton. Yes, Clinton was impeached for perjury--a criminal offense, but the public remembers the scandal as the Monica Lewinksy affair, not as Perjury-gate.

And there's a precedent for piling on someone caught fooling around while the Monica scandal raged. While the Rev. Jesse Jackson was supposedly counseling Clinton to overcome his cheating ways, Jackson was himself having an extramarital affair--which led to the birth of an out-of-wedlock child. Thread after thread on conservative sites such as FreeRepublic were devoted to Jesse's hypocrisy.

After Gingrich abruptly resigned from the House in late 1998, his handpicked almost-successor, Bob Livingston, had to abandon his House seat because Hustler Magazine's Larry Flynt revealed that Livingston was involved in an extramarital affair.

Gingrich has told reporters that he's considering a presidential run. It probably won't happen, and if it does, he'll perform poorly. America is a forgiving nation, but often Americans draw the line at hypocrisy.

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Ditka sells 1975 NFC championship ring to benefit needy ex-NFL'ers

Former Chicago Bears player and coacg Mike Ditka did a great thing today. To benefit the many needy and disabled former National Football League players, "Da Coach" sold his 1975 NFC championship ring, which he earned while an assistant coach for the Dallas Cowboys.

Former Ditka rival Jerry Kramer, who played for the Green Bay Packers in the 1960s, started Gridiron Greats to aid the old-timers who've fallen upon hard times.

Ditka presented his championship ring to the auction winner today. Free registration is required for the link.

UPDATE: Here's a free, no-strings-attached link:

Mike Ditka Riled Up Over Plight Of Old NFL Greats

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NFL

Glenn & Helen Show podcast: Rep. Duncan Hunter, presidential candidate

In what seems to be turning into a series for the Glenn & Helen Show, Glenn Reynolds and Dr. Helen Smith interview Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Cal), who is running for president.

Hunter's a smart guy, and he knows his biggest stumbling block in a achieving a successful end to his quest is the same thing that plagues all members of the House of Representatives who run for the top job: name recognition.

In fact, no member of the House has gone from the lower chamber to the White House since James A. Garfield did it in 1880, and it took him 36 ballots for him to win his party's nod.

On the flipside, one of the benefits of the longer presidential campaign season is that it gives lower-tier candidates time to break out of the pack. Howard Dean did it in 2004 for the Democrats, but of course he imploded. For a while he had a seat at the head table, and a more solid, saner candidate such as Hunter could make lightening strike twice for the back-of-the-packers.

One interesting thing I learned in the podcast is that Rep. Hunter doesn't think "hate crimes" shouldn't be punished worse that "regular" crimes. Speaking within the context of murder, Hunter tells Reynolds and Smith, "one victim is not less valuable than another victim."

Hunter son, Duncan Duane Hunter, is a Marine officer stationed in Iraq, as he was in 2004 when Michael Moore made the bogus claim in his crock-u-mentary Fahrenheit 9/11 that no children of members of Congress were serving in Iraq.

Hunter, true to his surname, is a hunter, as he explains in the podcast.

On an unrelated note, blogger John Hawkins of Right Wing News is working as a consultant to the Hunter presidential campaign.

Listen to or download the podcast here. Or subscribe for free via iTunes.

The podcast is sponsored by Volvo USA.

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"Untainted" Obama is fully stocked with ethics problems

Now on to more serious matters in regards to Obama. Early on in his senate career, Illinois' junior senator took advantage of perk that members of the upper chamber until recently enjoyed: Flying on charter jets (what global warming?) for the price of a first-class commercial airline ticket.

Once the Abramoff scandal broke--corporate jets figured into that story--and Obama became the Democrats' point man for ethics, Barack switched to flying to first class, where Obama once suffered the indignity of having a kid spill orange juice on his shoes.

I can only imagine what awaits Obama in coach.

Now Obama, who says he's a new type of politician and whose supporters claim his inexperience is an asset because he hasn't been tainted by the ills of the political system, has his duplicity on full display in the front store window with the revelation that his financial blind trust wasn't all that blind.

From Lynn Sweet's Chicago Sun-Times column:

The Senate Ethics manual has detailed rules about blind trusts and qualified blind trusts. Obama did not want to sign on to either of those options because he did not want to wash his hands of the responsibility of investments made in his name, attorney Robert Bauer said.

Because the off-the-shelf trusts were not satisfactory, "We tried to see if we could jigger it to make it work better," Obama said. He signed papers on May 31, 2005, for the custom trust designed to shield him from knowing how his money was invested -- but let him respond to media inquiries about potential conflicts. Obama realized his system was not working when he received some sort of shareholder letter in fall 2005.

Katten Muchin Rosenman attorney Michael Hartz in Chicago drew up the papers for and was the trustee of the "Freedom Trust." Bauer said this particular kind of trust did not require any clearance from the Senate Ethics Committee because he did not ask to be relieved from any reporting rule. Bill Allison, a senior fellow at the Sunlight Foundation, said that if any kind of blind trust was created, "you should have the Ethics Committee sign off on it."

The trust was revoked on Dec. 31, 2005. Obama put his money in cash and mutual funds.

Thanks to a $1.2 million dollar advance from his book publisher, Obama had an extra $100,000 in loose change to invest. This "untainted" man asked for some financial advice from a couple of his wealthy donors.

However, Obama first considered approaching Warren Buffett, one of the world's wealthiest persons but he "decided it would be embarrassing with only $100,000 to invest to ask for his advice."

I'm not sure if Obama was joking but having only $100,000 to invest is a problem that most of his constituents, including this one, would like to have.

Obama purchased $5,000 in shares of AVI Biopharma, a company that was developing a drug to treat avian flu, and sure enough, Obama was on the Senate floor in 2005 asking for federal funding to treat avian flu. The suggestion to buy AVI came from a donor.

Obama has been bragging about his role in getting the Senate to pass a recent ethics bill. However, I can't seem to find anything that covers book advances in the bill, and of course Obama wouldn't have had that $100,000 to invest, nor would he have been able to afford his Chicago mansion; he only was able to buy that house with the help of since-indicted political insider Tony Rezko, had Crown Publishing not written that generous check to him.

Untainted.

Thanks for the link: Corruption Chronicles

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Obama pays off very old parking tickets

I don't think there is much a story here in regards to the revelations that Barack Obama had to pay off some Massachusetts parking tickets from 1990 and 1991.

Except for this: Shouldn't there be a statue of limitations on parking violations?

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Wednesday, March 07, 2007

Students for Justice in Paletine site is just gone, possibly available for purchase

One of the vilest groups to be found on American college campuses is the Students for Justice in Palestine. As far as anti-Israeli stances, you name it, they're for it: An end to all US aid to Israel, corporate divestment from Israel, the "right of return," and an end to the "Apartheid State of Israel."

Jimmy Carter didn't just come up with "Apartheid" out of thin air to describe the Jewish state.

While doing research for my latest DePaul University story, I discovered that the SJP site is gone--It appears Students for Justice in Palestine abandoned their domain, www.justiceinpalestine.org as of February 26. And you can possibly be the lucky owner of this domain for as little as $14.99.

The DePaul chapter's site, www.sjpdepaul.org, appears to have been left in the cyber-dust many moons ago.

Regular Marathon Pundit readers of course know that it was some DePaul Students for Justice in Palestine members, along with a few folks from another Muslim DePaul group, UMMA, whose feelings were hurt because Professor Thomas Klocek countered some of their extremist views with something called common sense. Klocek was later fired by DePaul.

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Pete Townshend, blogger

Pete Townshend, guitarist and principal songwriter for The Who, has a blog--which he appears to be using as a testing ground for his to-be-published autobiography.

Amazingly Pete, at least for now, is allowing commenters to post on his blog.

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Al Gore sings!

Here's Al Gore from last week's Jimmy Kimmel show, as he does his version of Nelly Furtado's "It's Hot in Here." Good fun, and there is a surprise visit from a resident of the Arctic.

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US funded two Palestinian colleges with terror links

Your tax dollars at work. This Joel Mowbray Washington Times article was sent to me by a regular Marathon Pundit reader.

Millions of dollars in U.S. foreign aid have been given in the past several years to two Palestinian universities -- one of them controlled by Hamas -- that have participated in the advocacy, support or glorification of terrorism.

The funding -- principally in scholarships to individual students -- is being eyed by several members of Congress and their aides, who say it may violate U.S. law.

The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has provided more than $140,000 in assistance to the Hamas-controlled Islamic University in Gaza -- including scholarships to 49 of its students -- since Congress changed the law in 2004 to restrict aid to entities or individuals "involved in or advocating terrorist activity."

No U.S. assistance was directed to Islamic University last year, but USAID continues to fund multimillion-dollar programs through American Near East Refugee Aid (ANERA), which is building a high-tech facility for the school. U.S. law requires that any recipient of U.S. aid have no association with terrorists.

Despite the beliefs of some denizens of the political left, as well as similar sentiments from Muslim apologists for Islamic terror, Hamas, like Hezbollah, is a terrorist organization.

Mowbray also reports that the same agency gave $2.3 million to Al-Quds University. This alleged institution of higher education recently celebrated an undoubtedly jam-packed week of fun--was it Homecoming Week?--to honor the achievement of the barbarian who invented the first suicide belt.

Perhaps an Al-Quds student can dress up like this guy and become the school's mascot. He can dance, and at the end of his performance he can, well you know.....

Thanks for the link: Freedom Folks

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Part two of the Daily Illini series on the Univ. of Ill. MBA program and the rescinded vets' scholarship offers

Here is my report on the University of Illinois Executive MBA program scandal that I posted last Tuesday: Broken promises: How "jarheads" got shunted aside at the University of Illinois: A Marathon Pundit series

Part two of the series about the University of Illinois College of Business and its rescinding of some Executive MBA scholarships is here.

Mark Spartz of the DI writes about funding issues within the Illinois Veteran's Grant program, something that fired Associate Dean Robert van der Hooning told me was well known to other top College of Business officials before he was given the go-ahead to recruit War on Terror veterans to the Urbana campus' downtown Chicago Executive MBA program.

A couple of excerpts:

Documents obtained by The Daily Illini include a picture of a dry erase board van der Hooning said was taken after a May meeting between top administrators, including current Interim Director Dave Ikenberry. Scribbled on the board are calculations used to figure how more civilians in the program could bring more money, as opposed to students supported by the IVG.

"Dave Ikenberry came up to Chicago and was helping me work on how to rescind people," van der Hooning said.

Ikenberry denies this.

Here is some good news:

The EMBA program has since doubled in size since last year, from 32 to 65 students. Due to attrition, the current class is 58. Also, last year only 8.6 percent of students received IVG benefits. This year, 60 percent of the class receives these benefits, or 39 students.

However, the man who came up with the idea to recruit these vets to the university, Robert van der Hooning, was fired ten months ago.

There are a couple of items within Spartz' article that bear further investigating. Let's see what I come up with.

Related post:

Daily Illini on the Univ. of Illinois MBA "jarheads" story

Thanks for the link: Freedom Folks

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Obama stock deals raising eyebrows

Once again, the New York Times has an unfavorable story about Barack Obama.

Unlike yesterday's story about Obama dis-inviting his pastor from his presidential announcement, today's entry either involves brilliant investigating reporting, or a well-informed source ratting out Illinois' junior senator.

I believe it's the latter.

Roger L. Simon in his blog writes:

If it's the Clintonistas - and their finger prints can be shown - we are off to the races in one of the bloodiest campaigns of all time.

Here's what the New York Times discovered, uh, well, wrote about:

Less than two months after ascending to the United States Senate, Barack Obama bought more than $50,000 worth of stock in two speculative companies whose major investors included some of his biggest political donors.

Kate Phillips and The Times's politics staff report on the latest political news from around the nation. Join the discussion.

One of the companies was a biotech concern that was starting to develop a drug to treat avian flu. In March 2005, two weeks after buying about $5,000 of its shares, Mr. Obama took the lead in a legislative push for more federal spending to battle the disease.

The most recent financial disclosure form for Mr. Obama, an Illinois Democrat, also shows that he bought more than $50,000 in stock in a satellite communications business whose principal backers include four friends and donors who had raised more than $150,000 for his political committees.

The friends and donors according to the New York Times are: George W. Haywood and his wife Cheryl, Tejas Securities chairman John J. Gorman, and Jared Abbruzzese, a New York businessman being investigated by the FBI in a state government corruptin probe.

The Times didn't bring up the name of Tony Rezko, but it did discuss the complicated real estate deal Obama made with the since indicted Illinois political insider--and longtime Obama donor.

It's a significant hit against Obama--not a fatal one, but it further undermines his self-created reputation that he's above the routine sleaze of big-time politics.

Related posts:

More Obama and Rezko

Obamas and Rezkos no longer neighbors

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Sanity Squad podcast on mental health

This week the Sanity Squad, four mental health professionals and bloggers, talk mainly about--in a direct fashion--mental illness. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, the bible of psychiatric diagnosis, has been released and the panelists have some fun with the what they think should be in the new edition.

The recent death of former Senator Thomas Eagleton, the running mate for a brief time of George McGovern in 1972--he was forced to quit the ticket after it'd been disclosed he'd been hospitalized for depression--brings about a discussion on health issues of past presidents. Yes, mental health too.

The Sanity Squad consists of Neo-neocon, Shrinkwrapped, Dr. Sanity, and Siggy.

Listen to or download the podcast here. Free subscriptions are available on the iTunes web site.

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Tuesday, March 06, 2007

More on Obama's church

On tonight's Hannity & Colmes, the Reverend Jesse Lee Patterson criticized Sen. Barack Obama's place of worship, the Trinity United Church of Christ.

In a segment inspired by the last night's New York Times revelation that Obama dis-invited the pastor of his church the night before he was to give the invocation at the senator's official presidential announcement last month.

Feeling the heat from bloggers and conservative media over the church's black-nationalist agenda, Obama thought it best to dump his pastor, the Reverend Jeremiah Wright from his Springfield speaking bill.

Reverend Patterson of BOND, a black conservative organization, was on the show with a Democratic staffer whose name got away from me, and Patterson referred to Trinity as "a racist church."

The Dem staffer tried to bring Ann Coulter into the mix, and didn't do a very good job of countering what Peterson had to say.

The issues of Trinity United Church of Christ won't go away for Obama. Bloggers will keep bringing up the church's controversial tenet. And the more Obama attempts to distance himself from the church, the more he risks being called a turncoat by the black community.

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Blogs For Borders Vburst from the Freedom Folks

Jake and The Bald Chick of The Freedom Folks are two Chicago bloggers who do quite a bit of original reporting. They've expanded on that, and today they have their first official Blogs For Borders Vburst.

MJ, aka The Bald Chick, focuses on the "amnesty gravy train," crimes committed by illegal aliens, and shows footage of illegal day laborers being confronted at a California Home Depot.

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Scooter Libby, not Karl Rove, was on trial

A juror from the Scooter Libby trial, Denis Collins, had this to say about the panel's deliberations:

There was a tremendous amount of sympathy for Mr. Libby on the jury. It was said a number of times, "What are we doing with this guy here? Where's Rove? Where are these other guys?" I'm not saying we didn't think Mr. Libby was guilty of the things we found him guilty of. It seemed like he was, as Mr. Wells put it, he was the fall guy.

Karl Rove was not on trial, just I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby. I'm not an attorney, and I served on just one jury, but something is not right with Collins' statement.

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Daily Illini on the Univ. of Illinois MBA "jarheads" story

Here is my report on the University of Illinois Executive MBA program scandal that I posted last Tuesday: Broken promises: How "jarheads" got shunted aside at the University of Illinois: A Marathon Pundit series

Mark Spartz of the Daily Illini has a well-written version of the events that started unfolding about a year ago with the University of Illinois College of Business and its EMBA program.

The Daily Illini is not owned by the University of Illinois, but its staff is made up of U of I students, and university faculty sit on the board of the paper, so it took a lot of guts for Spartz to write the story. The same goes for contributors Amanda Graf, Kathleen Foody and Jonathan Wroble.

From the DI article:

After visiting a group of Marines nicknamed the "Mad Ghosts" that just returned from serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, Robert van der Hooning, former director of the University Executive MBA program, had a life-altering experience. He started a program at the University that would partner the Illinois Veteran Grant with a scholarship to the Executive MBA program in Chicago. It was supposed to give back to Illinois veterans who made immeasurable sacrifices.

Then on May 23, 2006, an e-mail was sent to him by his boss that mandated him to rescind admission to this program of 11 Illinois veterans - and they would receive this news on Memorial Day.

Van der Hooning of course refused to follow that directive, and without his knowledge his literally-cut-and-pasted signature was placed on a letter rescinding the university's offer of an MBA scholarship to some Illinois War on Terror veterans.

One thing in my research for the story was that I missed was the disbelief among top College of Business faculty, including the dean of the college, Avijit Ghosh, and Larry DeBrock, an associate dean, that van her Hooning could find very many qualified Illinois MBA candidates among the military.

More from the Daily Illini:

Only after van der Hooning recruited tens of veterans for the program was he told by Ghosh, DeBrock and others to limit the number.

"Ghosh had told me on more than one occasion that he didn't think I could find 110 smart guys that were qualified for the MBA program," van der Hooning said. "I said to him ... 'there's tens of thousands of veterans here in Illinois. There's lots of very capable people.'"

Unlike myself, Spatz was able to get university officials to speak to him. Their side of it was that van der Hooning over-promised the scholarships. When van her Hooning and I met a few weeks ago, he told me that the press release announcing the 110 scholarships, "was approved by the public relations director and Dean Ghosh in writing."

Part two of the Daily Illini series will be published tomorrow.

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A Marathon Pundit commenter weighs in on the Univ. of Illinois MBA story

I usually don't repost comments made on the blog, but this one needs to be put out front and center.

John, great work here. As an Illinois vet, I've talked to Mr. van der Hooning about the program and the scholarships. I've also pointed several candidates in his direction.

This isn't a case of misunderstanding. It's a broken promise by the University. And the University has been too short-sighted to realize that they've squandered a long-term opportunity to emerge from the shadows of Kellogg and UoC's programs by building the program's reputation through the graduates of these scholarships.

One good thing to come out of this story is that Mr. van der Hooning has given all of us a priceless leadership example of courage and integrity.

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Scooter Libby found guilty of four of five conspiracy counts

The last few days have been tumultuous for Vice President Dick Cheney. A possible bomb attack against him last week, a blood clot found in his calf, and now this: His former chief of staff, Lewis "Scooter" Libby has been found guilty of four of five counts in the CIA "Plamegate" leaks case.

Look to hear the name Scooter Libby from the mouths of Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, John Edwards and the like often in the months to come.

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Ann Coulter, Ozzie Guillen, and the "F" word

Since I did a post on Bill Maher's repulsive comments--which he's denying now--about Vice President Cheney, it's only fair I take on Ann Coulter calling John Edwards a faggot.

She shouldn't have said it. Her explanation of her taunt the she gave last night, which the "wuss" part is what Chicago White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen should've included in his apology to the public after he called a sportswriter a "f*cking faggot asshole" last year was:

Faggot isn't offensive to gays; it has nothing to do with gays. It's a schoolyard taunt meaning 'wuss,' and unless you're telling me that John Edwards is gay, it was not applied to a gay person.

Ozzie shouln't have said what he said either.

Ann and Ozzie: This is what happens when barroom banter escapes the tavern. You get in trouble.

As for the sportswriter Guillen verbally attacked, it was Jay Mariotti of the Chicago Sun-Times. He is an a-hole.

Oh, Ann. It's okay to call John Edwards a "Breck Girl."

Thanks for the link: Boise Wants Jay Mariotti

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Monday, March 05, 2007

Obama rescinded invitation to his pastor for invocation at his presidential announcement

Bloggers, including myself, and to a lesser extent the mainstream media, have raised questions about the Afro-centric nature of Chicago's Trinity Church of Christ. Obama joined the congregation in the late 1980s; the title of his best selling book, The Audacity of Hope, comes from the senior pastor at Trinity, the Reverend Jeremiah Wright.

Recently Wright gave one wild sermon, which a Rolling Stone Magazine reporter witnessed:

And there is the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, a sprawling, profane bear of a preacher, a kind of black ministerial institution, with his own radio shows and guest preaching gigs across the country. Wright takes the pulpit here one Sunday and solemnly, "Fact number one: We've got more black men in prison than there are in college," he intones. "Fact number two: Racism is how this country was founded and how this country is still run!" There is thumping applause; Wright has a cadence and power that makes Obama sound like John Kerry. Now the reverend begins to preach. "We are deeply involved in the importing of drugs, the exporting of guns and the training of professional KILLERS. . . . We believe in white supremacy and black inferiority and believe it more than we believe in God. . . . We conducted radiation experiments on our own people. . . . We care nothing about human life if the ends justify the means!” The crowd whoops and amens as Wright builds to his climax: "And. And. And! GAWD! Has GOT! To be SICK! OF THIS SHIT!"

The New York Times is reporting this evening that the Reverend Wright was asked in January by the Illinois senator to give the invocation prior to Obama's official presidential announcement in front of Springfield's Old State Capitol last month. However, probably feeling that Wright might become an issue for his campaign, Obama rescinded his invitation to Wright--the night before Obama's February 10 announcement.

Rev. Otis Moss III, Wright's successor as regular pastor at Trinity was then invited to give the invocation....he declined.

The Reverend Al Sharpton heard about the treatment Wright received from Obama, and he isn't happy about it, telling the Times:

I have not discussed this with Senator Obama in detail, but I can see why callers of mine and other clergymen would be concerned, because the issue is standing by your own pastor.

Related post:

Obama's church's tenet raises questions

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Bill Maher gets the honor he deserves

Last week during his TV show, Real Time With Bill Maher, the host, along with guests Congressman Barney Frank (D-Mass.) and former Republican congressman and current MSNBC host Joe Scarborough were discussing the hateful "Huffington Post" comments that were posted on a thread about a suicide bombing that took place near the vicinity of Vice President Dick Cheney while he was in Afganistan last week.

From Fox News:

Frank earned applause when he quoted bloggers saying the bomb was wasted when it missed Cheney. Maher asked the panelists whether it was wrong for blog host Arianna Huffington to remove the comments.

Quoting the blog, Maher said, "I have zero doubt that if Dick Cheney was not in power, people wouldn't be dying needlessly tomorrow."

Asked by Frank if Maher believed that sentiment, the host replied, "I'm just saying if he did die, other people, more people would live. That’s a fact."

Maher, pictured above while in a Halloween costume mocking the accidental death of the crocodile hunter, Steve Irwin, received a reward for his anti-American efforts, as Pam at Blogmeister USA reports. But he may have to travel to a cave to pick it up.

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Audio of Heel-a-ree Clint-tun in Alabama

Hillary Clinton grew up just a few miles west of Marathon Pundit world headquarters in Morton Grove, Illinois--in the house pictured. Despite years of college in New England, an even longer time in Arkansas, and 15 years of living mostly in Washington--with time in suburban New York City, she never managed to lose that flat Chicago accent of hers. Until yesterday during her speech in Selma, Alabama.

Listen here, via Hot Air. Barack Obama, who spent most of his formative years in Hawaii, put on a bit of a drawl too. But the Illinois senator managed to keep his put-on accent under control--unlike Heel-a-ree.

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Cheney has a blood clot in his leg

Vice President Dick Cheney has a blood clot in his left calf, a potentially dangerous situation for a man who has had a history of heart problems.

He won't be hospitalized, but will be taking blood thinning medication. Fox News is reporting that the drug he'll be taking will most likely be Coumadin.

Last week a suicide bomber in Afganistan may have targeted the vice president--the bomber did kill 23 people--which led to a series of hateful comments regarding Cheney. The offensive comments were later pulled.

I'll have to keep an eye on the Huffington Post this afternoon.

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Illinois to tax everything

If you drive a car, I'll tax the street. If you drive to city ,I'll tax your seat.
If you get too cold, I'll tax the heat. If you take a walk, I'll tax your feet.
The Beatles, Taxman

Okay, maybe I'm exaggerating a bit with the headline, Illinois is not about to tax everything, but if Gov. Rod Blagojevich's plan to insure most if not all residents of the Land of Lincoln, a lot of things will be taxed that haven't been before. Such as legal fees and medical services in what's called a "gross receipts tax."

Corporate taxes collected in Illinois amounted to $1.6 billion. The gross receipts tax will up that to $6 billion, the Daily Herald reports.

Illinois businesses have taken notice.

More from the Daily Herald:

The Illinois State Chamber of Commerce has anticipated a gross receipts tax in Illinois ever since Ohio and Texas approved theirs about a year ago, said Chief Executive Officer Douglas L. Whitley.

"No one in the business world wants a gross receipts tax," said Whitley. "We feel it would be fundamentally devastating to the economy and every business in this country would be re-evaluating whether Illinois is the right place to do business or whether they should get their services here."

Whitley said the current corporate income tax only charges companies that have made a profit. A gross receipts tax would target all cash coming through the door, before deductions were made for business expenses.

It’s likely that companies could pass that extra burden onto their clients. The ripple effect would damage the state’s economy, not enrich it, business leaders said.

But it's worse than that. From Crazy Politico's Rantings:

What this tax does is taxes goods every time they change hands between companies, instead of just a sales tax at the end of the chain. So, right now the way it works is Company A makes a widget that goes into Company B's product, which is sold to the consumer. Right now Comp. B doesn't pay a sales tax when it buys the widget, instead the entire product is taxed at sale. Under Blago's plan every step gets taxed.

If passed, the new tax scheme will lead to an exodus of businesses out of Illinois. Most large Illinois-based corporations--and there are a lot of them here--have offices and plants in other states--or even other countries. It woudn't take much to push them out the door.

Which will lead to an underfunding of Blagojevich's insurance plan.

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Pam of Atlas Shrugs video blogs CPAC

The Conservative Polital Action Conference concluded on Sunday. Pam Atlas of Atlas Shrugs was there, and she has a number of well-produced videos on her site, including this one which is available on YouTube. Pat Hynes of Ankle Biting Pundits makes an apppearance in the clip, as does Mitt Romney, John Bolton, Ann Coulter, and Rudy Giuliani.

Michelle Malkin has a number of CPAC posts as well on her blog.

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Sunday, March 04, 2007

DePaul student and Hezbollah apologist criticizes Klocek appearance

Ali Abbas is a DePaul University marketing student who has written several op-eds for the school newspaper, the DePaulia.

Here is what he wrote last fall about Hezbollah. The bold print emphasis is mine.

With the tension in Lebanon rising and the destruction within the Gaza strip in a brighter spot light, news media is becoming increasingly crucial to the welfare of entire world. Yet there is a strange oncoming trouble mainly within the West that is hindering the complete disclosure of truth. The problem: the occupancy of terrorism within everyday diction. More specific and relevant to the situation in Lebanon, the application of the word terrorism to Hezbollah is a detriment to both the political world and western journalistic integrity and political diplomacy.

Hezbollah, whose flag is adorned by an AK-47, is a terrorist group. The United States, Australia, Canada, the Netherlands, and Israel have officially named Hezbollah as a terrorist organization.

Hezbollah has been implicated in the 1983 US embassy attack that 241 marines, the 1996 Khobar Towers attack that killed 19 in Saudi Arabia, and a whole bunch of other incidents.

Hezbollah = Terrorism.

In the latest DePaulia, Mr. Abbas takes on Thomas Klocek, the fired DePaul professor who crossed the PC line in 2004 by daring to challenging extremist positions expressed by two DePaul Muslim groups.

In January, Klocek, accompanied by DePaul mathematics professor Jonathan Cohen, and noted conservative author David Horowitz, gave an enlightening presentation about free speech issues on college campuses.

To paraphrase what I wrote afterwards, the three men may not have changed a lot of minds that night--at least yet. They did get some people thinking.

Abbas, who probably was not a student at the time of the 2004 cafeteria conversation between Klocek and the DePaul Muslim students, wrote on op-ed for the latest edition of the DePaulia about Klocek's January return to DePaul that is beyond awful, claiming that Klocek engaged in "dominating any social space in which free speech is possible."

Nope, Ali, the offended students just didn't like what he had to say--so they started a witch hunt that led to his dismissal from DePaul.

Abbas writes in a very detached style that leads me to question whether he actually attended the January free speech forum--one that was sponsored by the DePaul Conservative Alliance, a group with which Abbas seems to have an axe to grind.

Crap such as the stuff Abbas writes for the DePaulia doesn't belong in a student newspaper. It's not censorship--he can always start a blog. Besides, newspapers are not obligated to publish all letters-to-the-editors--or op-eds it receives.

The faculty adviser for the DePaulia is Mike Conklin, a former Chicago Tribune reporter. Surely he knows better. Or maybe he doesn't.

Related posts:

David Horowitz comes to DePaul

Sept 15: Second anniversary of the beginning of the Thomas Klocek affair

CAIR-Chicago recommended that DePaul fire Klocek

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Pajamas Media Blog Week in Review with Victor Davis Hanson

If you're looking for personal reinforcement on why the teaching of Western Civilization is important, I recommend listening to the most recent Pajamas Media Blog Week in Review podcast.

Author, professor, farmer, newspaper columnist and Pajamas Media blogger Victor Davis Hanson is interviewed by Austin Bay.

Hanson explains why Western Civilization matters--and why Muslim extremists hate it.

Iraq is talked about, and the professor tells Austin--and the listeners--that military setbacks are a part of any war--and our "disaster" in Iraq pales in comparison to what we encountered--and overcame--in other American conflicts.

Ed Driscoll produces as always.

The podcast is sponsored by Volvo Automobiles.

Listen to another great Pajamas Media Blog Week in Review here. Or subsribe for free via iTunes--just like me.

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Actual Al Jazeera headline: Earth causes total lunar eclipse

Yes, planet Earth caused yesterday's lunar ecliple. Al-Jazeera's English language site has the breaking news here.

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Sanity Squad podcast on movies, culture, and kids

The Sanity Squad has another podcast in the can.

This time the four mental health professionals talk about the influence of Hollywood celebrities on our society.

Siggy sets the tone with this comment, speaking of these denizens of the covers of People Magazine he says:

The court jesters have become the kingmakers. And there is no precedent in any civilization throughout history where people who sing and dance have been elevated to these highest positions of prominence.

The four panelists discuss the sexual culture and how it effects children, and they throw some more cold water on the global warming hysteria.

Neo-neo con, Dr. Sanity, and Shrinkrwapped contribute as always.

Listen or download to the podcast here. Or do what I do and subscribe for free via iTunes.

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US and Iraqi forces enter Sadr City

Sadr, City, the stronghold of the mumbling mullah, Muqtada al-Sadr, has some guests: US and Iraqi forces.

So far, the mullah's militia, the Mahdi Army, isn't putting up any resistance, but it could be like al-Sadr, they've left the impoverished section of Baghdad. Or, as Lt. Colonel David Oclander put it:

The indication that we are getting is a lot of the really bad folks have gone into hiding.

I wouldn't call this a victory yet, but I'm curious what the reaction of the cut-and-runners will be.

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John McCain orders you to wish Brainster a Happy Birthday!

Very good friend of the blog Pat Curley of Brainster is celebrating his birthday today. John McCain, of whom Pat is a supporter, demands that you visit his web site to wish him a Happy Birthday.

UPDATE 2:00PM CST: Kitty Myers has a suberb Brainster tribute here. Over here is the Radio Patriots salute.

More birthday greetings come from:

Wyatt Earp
Third Wave Dave
Pam at Blogmeister USA
Gayle
Lifelike Pundits
Lorie at Wizbang

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Saturday, March 03, 2007

Obama: Talking tough on bill that has no chance of passing

The Employee Free Choice Act is a labor-designed bill that may make it easier for employees to form unions. Union publications are touting it as a correction response to the Taft-Hartley Act of 1946.

The economic changes away from an industrial, labor-intensive manufacturing society to one dominated by brains, not brawn, is the key factor union membership among the private workforce has plummeted from a post World War II high of about 30 percent--to just 8 percent today.

Unions, never known for innovation, have yet to adapt to the information age.

But labor is pretty good at running to the Democratic Party when it needs to achieve what they can't win at the bargaining table--or by organizing. It gets the Democrats to sponsor legislation favoring labor.

Obama gave a speech today in front of a big Chicago area union, American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Council (AFSCME) Local 31. Obviously, AFSCME is not a union representing private sector works.

Said Obama:

It's not a matter of if; it's a matter of when. We may have to wait for the next president to sign it, but we will pass it. We will get this thing done.

The House passed the Employee Free Choice Act on Thursday. It's chances of getting through the Senate are slim, but even if it does, President Bush has promised to veto it.

Adding some shreiking was my congresscritter, Jan Schakowsky, an Evanston Democrat:

You ain't seen nothing yet! Just wait until we have a Labor Department under President Barack Obama, an even better day is coming!

The present Department of Labor has been effective in combatting organized labor's worse enemy--union corruption.

A better day will be coming when corruption within the labor movement is far less commonplace than it is now.

And it is commonplace. Here's a story from way back, yesterday that is, here in Illinois. The former secretary of a United Mineworkers local pleaded guilty to charges that she embezzled $5,000 from the local.

Related posts:

Obama and the Laborers' Union Ed Smith

Obama and Wal-Mart

More Obama: Wife serves on board of company whose biggest customer is Wal-Mart

Cong. Schakowsky's husband gets five months in prison

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Glenn & Helen Show podcast: Training the Afghan army and police

On the way home from work this evening I listened to the latest Glenn & Helen Show podcast. More proof is offered that bloggers can be excellent reporters, as Glenn Reynolds--joined by Mark Finkelstein of Newsbusters, John Noonan of Op-For, Scott Kesterson of the Huffington Post, and Andrew Lubin of On Point--ask questions of Colonel David B. Enyeart , commamder of Task Force Phoenix--they are in charge of training the Afghan National Army.

The podcast is sponsored by Volvo Automobiles.

Listen to or download the podcast here. Or do what I do and subcribe for free via iTunes--Glenn and Helen like that.

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Ill. attornery general asked to investigate retiriement of Chief Illiniwek

State Senator Bill Brady, a Republican from Bloomington, is asking the Illinois Attorney General, Lisa Madigan, to see if the retirement of the Chief Illiniwek mascot violated the state open meetings act.

Facing pressure from the NCAA, the University of Illinois Board of Trustees quietly dumped the Chief last month. In fact the last Chief hadn't officially heard of his "retirement" from the board or the athletic department--only from media reports--up until the time of his last performance.

Here's something else Madigan should investigate: How the University of Illinois allegedly reneged on some promises for an MBA education, a Marathon Pundit piece of original reporting.

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