On the Road

Just in time for the Instalanche(Welcome fellow Instapundit readers!), I am on the long road of vacation/family visits to places where good internet connections may be lacking. Thus I may miss out on responding to comments.

Please look around the place. I hope you enjoy my new blog endeavor.

-CF

Stray-Rod

I have to admit a little schadenfreude at this story which helps accelerate the NY Yankees demise.

Yankees superstar Alex Rodriguez stepped up to the plate with a mysterious, busty blonde in Toronto, as these intimate, exclusive photos reveal.

The cozy duo dined with two pals at a pricey steakhouse late Sunday night, then headed to a glitzy strip club before making their way to his hotel, where the pair ducked into an elevator and headed upstairs just after midnight.

Cynthia Rodriguez - A-Rod's wife and mother of their 2 1/2-year-old daughter, Natasha - was nowhere to be seen during the slugger's big night out on the town, which occurred the evening before the last-place Bronx Bombers' pathetic 7-2 loss to the Toronto Blue Jays.

Doh!

Yankees spokesman Jason Zillo said A-Rod has "never commented on his personal or private life, and he's not going to start now."

So I suppose his wife was his personal life, and the blonde was his private life? The Yankees need a better spokesman too...

Background Checks III

Instapundit points to another fine moment in the recent history of the FBI.

"The FBI's famed National Academy recently expelled a student from a troubled African nation after learning he was not a cop, as he had claimed, The Post has learned. The incident raises serious questions about the FBI's screening process for prospective National Academy students. . . . The 'quiet' Sinie lived, studied at and strolled around the Quantico facility with a still and video camera for 91/2 weeks before he was found not to be a cop, expelled and sent home to Chad, sources said."

If the FBI can't do a background check of some importance, how are we going to doing 20 million on illegal immigrants?

I guess it is a good thing that there is no Al Qaeda types in Chad, who might want to get a lay of the FBI campus for an attack or somesuch....

Ooops.

"And it's not just in Lebanon and Gaza where Qaeda is poking its head up. In a startling interview with the Financial Times, John Negroponte, Deputy U.S. Secretary of State, said Qaeda is on the move in North Africa, as well as in the Sahel region, in such countries as Chad, Mali and Niger."

People talk about breaking up the CIA, but it might be more beneficial to overhaul the FBI first, as today it seems to be less of a pre-emptive organization and more of a reactive one.

Brick & Mortar Blows

This past weekend, we were out at the local mall (though my wife would content it should be embarrassed to call itself that) to have the 6-month portraits taken of our son. We wandered around to kill time until we could pick up the prints. along the way we stopped at Borders....

For many week now, Glenn Reynolds at Instapundit has been pushing the book 'The Dangerous Book for Boys', so I figured I would find a copy and check out the hype.

Now I was always a big Borders fan from way back. When I was single and stationed in Hawaii in the early '90s, a big one opened not too far away, and I was hooked. This Borders here though is no great shakes. It is laid out poorly and seems to me to be somewhat disorganized. My visit this time would only reinforce that feeling.

The first thing I did when I arrived was find one of the computerized kiosks, where one can search the inventory. I will give Borders one thing, they have always done this right...until now. After typing in the title, I received 1 return, which I in turn clicked on. This is where I got the following message: "This item may be in stock". May? May?!? I thought the whole point of computerized inventory would be that you had total assurance of what you had in your store. This was no help.

So I decided to look and find it for myself. The computerized listing said it could be found in "Reference : General Reference". Unfortunately I could not any "General Reference" shelf, and the worker nearby did not know either, but knew that "this whole area" was the reference area.

Forget it....Back to Amazon (ie Click & Order vice Brick & Mortar)

UPDATE: I have a friend who loves to tinker with stuff, and has two young sons, and figured that 'The Dangerous Book for Boys' would be perfect for all three of them. So I sent him an email with the suggestion, and got this reply: "That is SO funny - I was in Binghamton, NY this weekend visiting family and my mom gave this book to my cousin for his birthday. He spent the whole weekend doing the magic tricks in the book..." I guess it really is catching on!

Lifes Lessons

Watching Cops tonight, it occurred to me again that one of life's simple lessons is this.

If you are doing/possessing illegal things, and you are in a car, be sure to obey all the traffic laws. You know...signaling lane changes, not having expired tags or blown bulbs. Because it is the little things that get your butt pulled over!

Oh, and one more thing...if you are that dumb...don't run from the police!

Fallen Heroes

Pictures from the tremendous Photo Essay by Daniel Wood.

Hat Tip: Flopping Aces (Who has his own great read)

Best Cartoonist

For my money, the best political cartoonist out there is Michael Ramirez of Investors Business Daily.

Here is this week's sample of this work:

Obama's Glass House

As noted in a Corner post today, Senator Barack Obama stated that he did not believe that the current course in Iraq was not working, and then insulted fellow Senator John McCain with the following statement:

"Senator McCain clearly believe[s] the course we are on in Iraq is working, but I do not.

And if there ever was a reflection of that it's the fact that Senator McCain required a flack jacket, ten armored Humvees, two Apache attack helicopters, and 100 soldiers with rifles by his side to stroll through a market in Baghdad just a few weeks ago."

That is pretty rich. Especially given that Obama asked for early Secret Service protection here in a country where there are no IEDs, suicide bombers, sectarian reprisals, or civil war. All of those things exist in Baghdad, and any American of import will be afforded similar protection from the military, whether they want it or not. While there have been unspecified threats to Obama, if we gave Secret Service protection to every politician who received threats, we would be running thin on agents.

For Obama to make fun of McCain for having tight security seems slightly hypocritical, wouldn't you say?

Guardian Angels for Soldiers Pets

As a military member with 3 dogs, I know how tough it can be to leave them behind. I know before my son was born, the dogs were my kids (and still are). But at least I have a wife who can (and has) stay behind to take care of them.



But what of those deploying service members who don't have anyone to take care of their beloved pets? Enter Guardian Angels for Soldier's Pet.



Right now they are trying to build a Sanctuary, where pets can stay while their humans are deployed. If you feel so inclined, please go and donate.

I just did.

UPDATE: This weekend, also consider contributing your Frequent Flyer miles to family members of injured servicemen, so that they may fly to visit them in the hospital.

Visit HeroMiles.org

Leaving Iraq

CFB bud Noah Shachtman and his preeminent blog Danger Room, points out a couple of great articles on our long term future in Iraq. In other words...our withdrawal. Not the immediate Murtha plan mind you, but the inevitable redeployment of troops when our goals have been established.

While some will reflexively attack any mention of "withdrawal", it would be irresponsible for the military not to think about how to make it happen when the time eventually comes. It is proper and responsible planning.

The first article comes from Army Reserve officer ( and long time blogger) Phil Carter:

Military planners always begin their work by making assumptions to guide their efforts. Before the invasion of Iraq, Pentagon planners assumed we would be "greeted as liberators" and that the troops would be ordered home quickly, and these assumptions resulted in a deeply flawed (or nonexistent) occupation plan. To plan the withdrawal, planners must assume certain things about the security and political situation in Iraq. Given some kind of middle-ground scenario between a totally secure Iraq and utter chaos, which is roughly the situation today, the exit plan might unfold like this....

Also mentioned in Carter's article is an earlier article from Marine father and son team Bing & Owen West, who call for an 'Adviser' model:

How can U.S. soldiers stay in Iraq and accomplish what needs to be done? Our best hope is the Adviser Model. With the surge still under way, Gen. David Petraeus obviously cannot discuss a Plan B. But given U.S. public opinion, a Plan B for 2008 and beyond is a certainty. Its central feature is likely to be the buildup of a combat-advisory corps as our combat units are drawn down.

Read them both.

Also read the following article on how while some want to 'Support the Troops' by bringing them home, the troops want to stay and press the fight:

Haunted by Vietnam, Democrats are determined to express support for the troops. This is admirable. The truth of the matter, however, is this: many troops in Iraq, perhaps even most of them, want to stay and fight. That doesn’t mean that we should stay in Iraq any longer. It does mean, however, that if Democrats want to bridge the divide between themselves and the military—an effort further complicated by their opposition to the war—they’re going to have to recognize that arguing in the name of the troops isn’t going to work.

Thans again to Noah for digging out some great reads...

Discontent in Iran

Pajamas Media has a consistently good rundown of internal happenings in Iran that you probably wont see on the MSM.

Iran -- Going.... Going.... (Michael Leedeen)

So the mullahs have lied once again to the Iranian people. On Sunday, the regime promised they would not be raising gasoline prices. Less than two days later they raised them by twenty-five percent. Meanwhile housing prices are up one hundred percent, vegetables have tripled, and citizens are beaten up in the streets. And still there are apologists in the West who say this regime has the support of most Iranians.

Show of Force? (Ardeshir Arian)

Just yesterday, in the midst of police beating on two defenseless women in Haft e Tir, a popular square in Tehran, people quickly gathered, holding hands with one another and chanting loud and clear against the police, demanding them to let the women go. The police squad, suddenly frightened, radioed for help, but amid the turmoil they were kicked by a young man. Others released the victims from police custody and helped them escape to safety. The young man who also disappeared in the crowd. And today, reports from Tehran said that in another incident near an upscale shopping mall in the north of the city, a girl was being harassed by a police officer for her dress code, but then she pulled a knife and attacked the policeman. People tried to help the girl, but a special police backup unit quickly arrived and manage to take the the girl away by force.

A witness on the scene told PJ Media that after these reactions against police brutality he feels confident, powerful, and “smells freedom in the air.” Is this the beginning of something more?

The View's Second Lady of Idiocracy

Rosie is bad enough, but having to listen to a blowhardette like Joy Behar spout crap is excruciating.

When I heard her speil, I knew I wanted to do a point by point refutation. But fortunately the Anchoress has already done so. God Bless her.

Lets take a look at Behar's ignorant leftie screed:

JOY BEHAR: I was watching Al Gore on, on “Larry King” last night and, you know, he has a new book out, Al Gore, where he basically really says that Bush was the worst president that we’ve ever had in the history of the country…Does anyone have any idea why we can’t get rid of this guy who stole the election in 2000, killed the surplus with tax cuts…Wanting to privatize social security. Let me get through the list. He withdrew us from the Kyoto Treaty, John Ashcroft. Sat in the classroom after learning about 9/11…He lied to us to get us into the war. He awarded a no-bid contract to Halliburton, Abu Ghraib. He promoted his friend Michael Brown to take care of Katrina. Heck of a job, Brownie. Remember that? He doesn’t listen to the Iraq Study Group. He choked on a pretzel…He waited a week to visit New Orleans and then only to watch some jazz. He stood by Alberto Gonzales…and he stood by Rumsfeld, who some people think is a war criminal. He can’t pronounce the word “nuclear.” These are just some of the reasons…this guy needs to be thrown out of office.

Here is the complete response from the Anchoress (I hope she doesn't mind me re-posting it in total):

1) Bush Stole the Election!
Let’s have the editors of the NY Times and the consortium of newspapers who took the time to actually Recount Florida Gore’s Way testify - under oath - that their 10,000 word article admits that yes, Bush really did win the election, or that no, their piece was a lie. Let’s get it on the record.

2) Bush Lied Us Into War!
Let’s have President Clinton, Senator Clinton, John Kerry, John Edwards, Edward Kennedy, Madeline Albright, Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, Jack Murtha, Sandy Berger and all the rest (including - again - the NY Times) testify - under oath - that when they were telling the world - from 1998 right up to the Iraq invasion - that Saddam Hussein “had WMD” and given half a chance would “use them,” and that the intelligence they saw from President Bush and SecState Powell either was (as Sen. Clinton said) “consistent with the intelligence we saw in the White House [from 1998-2000],” or it was not. Let them testify that they were telling the truth then, or that they were lying through their teeth, all along and the 1998 Iraq Liberation Act was mere hogwash. Oh and, when they voted for the war, they didn’t actually mean it, too.
Let’s get it on the record, and settled once and for all. And while we’re at it, let’s shine a little light on some real voter fraud.

3) Bush Wanted to Privatize Social Security!
Oh, heavens - let’s not try something novel to save a program that’s going under! What was the Democrat plan, again, to “save” Social Security? What have they done to “save” it…ever? What is their plan besides “raising taxes?”

4) Bush Killed the Surplus with Tax Cuts!
I remember reading about a projected surplus - not an actual, “money in the bank” surplus, and I’ll have to call out a bleg here, because I also remember reading reports, after Clinton left office, which said the GAO was finding discrepancies by some 30% within the Clinton projections, but at that time I wasn’t saving stuff and sometimes it’s surprising what you can’t find on Google.
Be that as it may, nine months after Clinton left office with a projected surplus the nation was attacked. The airlines and New York City needed bailing out; we began funding action in Afghanistan, etc - so, yeah, those projected surpluses went away; the projections did not anticipate terrorist attacks in two US cities. The big, bad tax cuts (which the Congress voted in a second time, soundly) seem to have propelled us to spectacularly low unemployment rates (remember, when Clinton was in office we accepted that 5.6% unemployment was “virtually full” employment). And even, yes, the New York Times is admitting that tax receipts are at record highs and are lowering the deficit. That’s what happens when everyone is working because businesses aren’t being taxed to death, but if you think it’s impeachable, honey, bring it on.

5) Bush Killed the Kyoto Treaty!
Once again, In 1999 Bill Clinton shelved the Kyoto Treaty because the Senate made it clear - unanimously - that they would not ratify the thing, rejecting it 95-0. President Bush has initiated a plan that moves beyond Kyoto and actually works, and doesn’t cripple economies or put us into the odd position the noble Kyoto-ratifying countries now find themselves, wherein they cannot live within their Kyoto-prescribed limits, while America is cutting emissions without Kyoto, but you don’t want to hear it. You don’t want the reality. You have your convenient narrative, and you don’t want to look at the fact that Bush is greener than Al Gore ever thought to be. Mustn’t allow reality get in the way of “truthiness” when it serves irrational hate.
And btw, there is some evidence that the loudest incorrect-meme-repeaters are really not that serious about environmental stuff, alternative energy and conservation.
Shall we move on? What’s next on the list? “John Ashcroft,” (oh, wait, Ashcroft is a hero now…nevermind)

6) Bush sat in the classroom after learning about 9/11!
Da-da-da-dahhhhhh SUPERMAN! By all means, President Bush, having an aide whisper “we’re under attack” into his ear before a roomful of small children and the press, should have leapt up, scared the children and panicked the country before anyone really knew what was going on - he should have dashed out into his limo before the Secret Service could ascertain that he and his motorcade were also not being targeted so he could…what, exactly? Bite his lip and cry? Save the people jumping from the WTC’s? What exactly was the president supposed to do in those seven minutes - what could he do - that would have changed anything? What would any other president have done? Da-da-da-daaaahhhhh SUPERMAN! And if he’d jumped up from his seat and done something, you’d have criticized him for “scaring the children” or “acting like a hero.” You probably would say he planned the attack so he could look good when the cameras were on him, too. Because that’s where hate takes you - to a place where no matter what someone does, you’re gonna hate him for it.

7) Bush awarded a no-bid contract to Halliburton!
Please name the work for which Halliburton was contracted and then expound on what other companies do the same work with the same level of expertise and experience as Halliburton. We’ll wait. This is Impeachment we’re talking about…this is all going to have to come under real investigation and involve real testimony, and good lawyers never ask questions to which they do not already know the answers - so you should know that 94.7% of all of Halliburton’s contract funds came through “full and open competitive bids”, shouldn’t you? (Thanks, Ed!)
Let’s get it on the record and see how impeachable this is. While we’re at it can we also note that under Bush, Ken Lay was convicted for what he did at Enron while Clinton was in office? I’m just saying! You want to talk about entities having undue influence on a president? Please, please do.

8) Bush promoted his friend Michael Brown to take care of Katrina! Heck of a job, Brownie. Remember that?
Yes, I remember. 100 hour after stormfall the Federal Government had put an enormous amount of good into action. Do you remember that disaster aid and relief is the provenance first of the Local, then of the State, then of the Federal government? Do you remember that President Bush called Gov. Kathleen Blanco three days before Katrina hit and asked her to please start evacuating people and to let the Federal Government begin to help her, and her refusal? Do you remember Ray Nagin’s unused buses?
Do you remember Kathleen Blanco dithering and turning down help, refusing to put the National Guard into action (that was her job, not the president’s and if he’d done her job for her you would have - admit it - screamed that he was overstepping his bounds and dissing a female governor, to boot!) Do you remember the Red Cross saying they were prevented by local government from going into NOLA to help? Do you remember all the exaggeration and disinformation everywhere? Do you remember that practical action was dismissed as not enough? Do you remember that after Katrina passed over NOLA, people were hanging out in the streets because the levees hadn’t yet broken and the whole world thought we’d dodged a bullet? Do you remember the Democrats seizing an opportunity, not to help, but to play politics through all of this? And that they did it again, just recently, in Kansas?
Oh, I remember it, and I think we should get it out there. Let’s impeach President Bush and get this all on the record. Get Blanco’s testimony. Get Nagin’s. Let’s get everyone under oath and finally look good an hard at Katrina, at NOLA, and at why funds earmarked to shore up those levees somehow got diverted. Not by Bush. I’m up for this, let’s do it.

9) Bush ignored the Iraq Study Group!
So did everyone else.

10) Bush choked on a pretzel! He can’t say nuclear the way we want him to! He talks like a Texan! We hate him!
Please. Impeach the president. Do it. Bring all of your accusations, narratives, memes, large conspiracy theories and small distrusts, petty dislikes and visceral hatreds. Let’s make it a very thorough impeachment, with long, hard looks and bright, hot lights, and everyone under oath and on the record!

Thanks Anchoress. You have done a great service!

The Gates of Freedom

This past Monday, Hugh Hewitt had Bill Bennett on for an hour of great radio.

But the best part of the time came at the very end (Start at 33:00). In talking about the current immigration debate, Bennett framed the big picture like this:

“It’s a place of dreams…the amazing thing about America is that it is a place where dreams actually do come true….” [Bennett quoting Bernard DeVoto]

I was wandering around the country, I was going to schools teaching. This young woman in California said “You love this country don’t you?” I said “Yeah!” She said “Why?” I said to her “There is a simple test, the ‘Gates Test’. Every country has gates, and here is the test. When they raise the gates, which way do people run? Do they run in or do they run out?”

Every time we raise the gates, people run in. When we don’t raise the gates, people run in, which is what we are talking about today. You have gates, you have fences, and people still run in. Why?

Because it is a place where dreams come true. In the long story of inhumanity and misery, the American achievement is high and it is unique….

I think that many conservatives when making their arguments against this current piece of flawed legislation need to cite the 'Gates Test'. The overriding message should be that while we oppose this political contrivance, but we welcome immigration....legal immigration.

I am for some form of normalization for current illegals, but not amnesty. While immigration should be welcomed, it should not necessarily be convenient. Just because we open the gates, does not mean the trip should not be without consequence to the traveler.

UPDATE: For a much more cogent defense of the mindset for a lot of national security, law & order conservatives on this, read Andy McCarthy's Corner entry: "I don't want to kick the illegals out of the country....the illegals have chosen to be illegal so it's not unfair to make them live with that choice..."

Worst Lawsuit Ever?

One cannot help but feel for the family of St Louis Cardinals' pitcher Josh Hancock, who was killed when his car crashed into the back of a tow truck stopped to help a stalled motorist on the highway. One can feel sorrow for his family despite the fact that he was driving with BAC nearly twice the legal limit.

However, grief can sometimes make people do very, very, very dumb things. Like sue everyone in sight.

The suit, filed in St. Louis Circuit Court by Dean Hancock of Tupelo, Miss., does not specify damages. Mike Shannon's Restaurant, owned by the longtime Cardinals broadcaster who starred on three World Series teams in the 1960s, is a defendant in the case along with Shannon's daughter, Patricia Shannon Van Matre, the restaurant manager.

Other defendants include Eddie's Towing, the company whose flatbed tow truck was struck by Hancock's sport utility vehicle in the early hours of April 29; tow truck driver Jacob Edward Hargrove; and Justin Tolar, the driver whose stalled car on Interstate 64 was being assisted by Hargrove.

Now I can understand suing the restaurant, if they did in fact overserve him. But the tow truck driver and stalled motorist????

Hancock's suit had this to say about suing a stranded motorist for causing his son's death:

The lawsuit claimed Tolar was negligent in allowing his vehicle to reach the point where it stalled on the highway, and for failing to move it out of the way of oncoming traffic.

Not to be cruel, but if this is the threshold for a lawsuit, perhaps Hancock should sue himself for being negligent in not teaching his son not to drink and drive.

Ridiculous.

Immigration Background Checks Part II

When I posted 'Background Checks?', I was upset about the requirement for them to be done in 24-hours.

But now I am upset about another facet, which again, makes the provision for Background Checks wholly impotent.

Check out this quote (Hat Tip: Old Soldier):

“We can find no record of having had contact with this individual before or having had him referred to us by another law enforcement agency,” Tim Counts of Immigration and Customs Enforcement told WTMJ.”

So if ICE can't find criminal illegal immigrants via criminal database checks now (because many localities refuse to records one's immigration status), how effective will it be when it has to be done within 24 hours??

Answer: The effectiveness will be zero.

Great....just great.

One Soldier has had Enough

CW3 Funk says his piece:

"Hello media, do you know you indirectly kill American soldiers every day? You inspire and report the enemy's objective every day. You are the enemy's greatest weapon. The enemy cannot beat us on the battlefield so all he does is try to wreak enough havoc and have you report it every day. With you and the enemy using each other, you continually break the will of the American public and American government.

Dems Dream Come True?

George Bush Resigns.....

So I quit. I’m going back to Crawford. I’ve got an energy-efficient house down there (Al Gore could only dream) and the capability to be fully self-sufficient. No one ever heard of Crawford before I got elected, and as soon as I’m done here pretty much no one will ever hear of it again. Maybe I’ll be lucky enough to die of old age before the last pillars of America fall.

Oh, and by the way, Cheney’s quitting too. That means Pelosi is your new President. You asked for it. Watch what she does carefully, because I still have a glimmer of hope that there’re just enough of you remaining who are smart enough to turn this thing around in 2008.

So that’s it. God bless what’s left of America. Some of you know what I mean.

To the rest of you, up yours.

Signed,
George W. Bush

Read the whole thing.....

A Big Ratio

Over at Instapundit, Glenn Reynolds says:

WHEN I READ STORIES LIKE THIS, I wonder how we're doing as well as we are in this war:
"U.S. military continues to discharge gay Arab linguists."

That leads me to ask, "How many can there be?"

I mean, if we are complaining that we can't find/train enough Arab linguists to fight the war, that means there is a only small pool of them. If that pool is so small, having 58 of them be gay sounds like it would be a pretty high percentage for a discharge-to-AFSC/MOS population ratio. I haven't the foggiest what that might mean except I suppose that statistics would portend there couldn't be many more of them. Perhaps is is because many of them go through more rigorous back-ground checks for security clearances.

Oil Profit Hypocrisy

Oil prices are outrageous! Oil companies are making unfair profits off the backs of the regular Joe! The government needs to do something!

At least thats what the Main Stream Media would have you think based on the leading news coverage of this story.

Now, are prices high? Yes, but only in comparison to what we are used to paying. We have been relatively spoiled over the last 25 years to have had low gas prices.

But because of the shock, enterprising politicians want to step in and "help" us by investigating "record profits".

Now Governor Crist is calling for a Congressional investigation into big oil companies and their record profits.

So far, 21 other governors across the nation have joined him.

Now would it surprise you to learn that they might be doing this to distract attention from their own profiteering?

Check out these fun facts from earlier this year:

ExxonMobil's Record Profits -- And Record Taxes
by Jonathan Williams
February 2, 2007

Today, ExxonMobil reported the largest corporate profits in U.S. History. From Yahoo Finance:

"Oil giant Exxon Mobil Corp. on Thursday posted the largest annual profit by a U.S. company -- $39.5 billion -- even as earnings for the last quarter of 2006 declined 4 percent. The 2006 profit topped the previous record, also by Exxon Mobil, of $36.13 billion set in 2005." [Full story]

While they were recording record profits last year, they were also writing checks to Uncle Sam to the tune of $100.7 billion -- two and a half times what they made in net profit. In fact, previous Tax Foundation research found that from 1977 to 2004, federal and state governments extracted $397 billion by taxing the profits of the largest oil companies and an additional $1.1 trillion in taxes at the pump. In today's dollars, that's $2.2 trillion.

So who is really making the obscene profit here??? Federal and State govts are a leech on the normal capitalistic activities of the oil companies, and get to make out like bandits.

Note in this graph from 2005 how taxes have always outstripped corporate profits:


But for arguments sake (ignoring the dozens of other factors influencing pump prices), lets say that the oil companies are engaged in criminal collusion and price gouging in order to rake in the money. Would that not make the very politicians calling for investigations complicit accessories in the fraud? You're darn tootin' it would.

However since there is remote chance that such gouging exits, it simply makes the politicians self-serving hypocrits who desire to deflect the ire of an upset public away from themselves, and on to a convenient target.

Why should we be surprised.....

UPDATE: See Update #4 at Hot Air for good perspective on how oil prices tend to work.

Immigration Shipwreck

That is what Newt is calling it:

The announcement last week that the White House and a group of senators have reached an agreement on "comprehensive immigration reform" should have the same effect that the word "iceberg" had on the passengers and crew of the Titanic.

This proposed agreement is a disaster of the first order, and it will severely cripple America for the foreseeable future.

Hugh Hewitt has done an exhaustive analysis as well.

There are so many problems with this bill that it should not be introduced in the Senate absent a period of open hearings on it and the solicitation of expert opinion from various analysts across the ideological spectrum.

Read his comments on all 8 sections of the bill...

Background Checks?

Having read nothing else, I believe the "background checks" should be the deal killer.

I see an immediate problem in that I have undergone numerous U.S. Govt required background checks, and they can take months to finalize. I know that it can be even worse for those who have family members who are foreign citizens and live overseas, or have a foreign born spouse. 24 hours is absurd.

Since all of those who will apply for these background checks will be from foreign countries, I can't see how these can really be called "background checks".

Of course this is a throwaway term, in that it sounds safe and reassuring, but is in fact a misrepresentation. I am sure that they in fact will be a cursory look to see if illegal immigrants are in the criminal justice system. If not, "Congratulations!" Of course since most illegals are not in any system (SSA, IRS, etc...), passing these checks will be a breeze.

What a sham....

All is Well

While most other things are going to heck in a handbasket, some things in the world are as they should be....



Ooops, sorry Johnny. Guess you should have stayed in Boston.....
EAST W L GB RS RA
Boston 29 13 -- 226 153
Baltimore 20 23 9.5 185 197
Toronto 19 23 10.0 192 197
NY Yankees 18 23 10.5 221 198
Tampa Bay 18 24 11.0 190 253

Lets hope it stays this way. I am getting used to seeing this....

Immigration Changes

No, not the recent changes (there will be on that once we figure out what is n that 400 page bill), but rather those that have occurred over the last 50 years.

I use Ancestry.com to work on my family history, and they send me regular email updates on their collections. It is only slightly ironic that I got the following email this week, in the midst of the immigration surrender on Capital Hill....



Wow, you mean they used to keep records? Sigh....

Welcome

I am starting this new blog, Charlie Foxtrot, in order to publish my thoughts and comments on the sorry state of a variety of subjects to include politics, freedom, idiocracy, and most importantly the Long War that we find our selves fighting.

Plenty of targets out there. Stand by for DMPIs.....