Andre: Still Alive!

Agassi still alive in the US Open in his last tournament. Sweet!

From the AP: Andre Agassi, 36 years old and burdened by a bad back, held up better than the kid across the net in a thriller that will be talked about for years.Buoyed by a cortisone injection, along with a raucous, sellout crowd that boosted his spirits when things suddenly looked bleak as could be, Agassi extended his career for at least one more match by beating eighth-seeded Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus 6-4, 6-4, 3-6, 5-7, 7-5 at the U.S. Open.
Baghdatis was a finalist a recent 'slam.

Appropriate? Bush "Assassinated" in New Movie

Now, let's play a little game:
Imagine if the word "Bush" was replaced with Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, John Kerry. Go.

PLAME OUT! PART DEUX: BUSH HATER ARMITAGE ADMITS ROLE IN LEAK. MSM: Move Along, Nothing to See Here

Vanna, let's go to the toteboard:
No scandal. No undercover assignment. No outing. No conspiracy in the Bush White House. Scooter Libby under indictment for failing to remember meetings he had with reporters who a) didn't report the Plame "outing," b)reported in passing that Plame had a hand in sending her husband to Niger through her CIA ties, c) THE MSM STILL HAS YET TO REPORT HOW/WHY HER HUSBAND, JOE WILSON, SCREWED UP IN FAILING TO REPORT/SEE THE YELLOWCAKE CONNECTIONS THERE WERE (I've already posted info about the 1999 meeting).
Isn't it interesting how the NYT glosses over the "scandal" in this piece? Why? Because there IS none. There's a scandal for ya! It just won't be reported in the pages of their papers or the 22 minutes of airtime on their "news" casts.
WASHINGTON, Aug. 29 — Richard L. Armitage, a former deputy secretary of state, has acknowledged that he was the person whose conversation with a columnist in 2003 prompted a long, politically laden criminal investigation in what became known as the C.I.A. leak case, a lawyer involved in the case said on Tuesday.

The identification of Mr. Armitage as the original leaker to Mr. Novak ends what has been a tantalizing mystery. In recent months, however, Mr. Armitage’s role had become clear to many, and it was recently reported by Newsweek magazine and The Washington Post.

In the accounts by the lawyer and associates, Mr. Armitage disclosed casually to Mr. Novak that Ms. Wilson worked for the C.I.A. at the end of an interview in his State Department office. Mr. Armitage knew that, the accounts continue, because he had seen a written memorandum by Under Secretary of State Marc Grossman.

Plame Out. Turns Out "Outing" Valerie Plame Done by Bush Hata

1)I want Pat Fitzgerald to put an end to his charade of an
investigation,
2)Richard Armitage needs to make a public apology and resign.
3)If you lefties don't believe this then stop reading David Corn in The Nation. Spare the rest of us your ballyhoo.

From its very start, the ballyhooed case of who leaked the name of CIA analyst Valerie Plame to columnist Robert Novak has been drenched in partisan politics and media hypocrisy. The more we learn, however, the more it also reveals about the internal dysfunction of the Bush Administration and the lack of loyalty among some of its most senior officials.

The latest news is that the Bush official who first disclosed Ms. Plame's identity was none other than former Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage. According to a new book by liberal journalists David Corn and Michael Isikoff, Mr. Armitage was Mr. Novak's primary source for his now famous column of July 14, 2003, that first publicly revealed Ms. Plame's CIA pedigree.

In other words, the leaker wasn't Karl Rove or Scooter Libby or anyone else in the White House who has been accused of running a conspiracy against Ms. Plame as revenge for her husband Joe Wilson's false accusations against the White House's case for war with Iraq. So what have the last three years been all about anyway? Political opportunism and internal score-settling, among other things.

Mr. Armitage, recall, was part of Colin Powell's team at State and well known as an internal Administration opponent of the "neo-cons" who supported the ouster of Saddam Hussein. The book alleges that Mr. Armitage knew as early as October 2003 that he was Mr. Novak's prime source, yet he kept quiet about it even as his colleagues in the Administration were dragged through years of criminal investigation and media accusations as the possible leaker. Even now Mr. Armitage hasn't admitted to being the leaker, though doing so would help to clarify several things about the case.

For starters, fessing up would put to rest the conspiracy theories once and for all. Bush opponents have continued to promote this myth, with Mr. Wilson writing in June 2004 that "the conspiracy to destroy us was most likely conceived--and carried out--within the office of the vice president of the United States." Not a word of that was true.

Mr. Novak hasn't himself confirmed that Mr. Armitage was his primary source, since Mr. Armitage hasn't yet given him leave to do so. But Mr. Novak has written that his source was not a "partisan gunslinger," and the columnist has also said that he himself put in the call to Mr. Rove to confirm what he'd first heard from his main source (presumably Mr. Armitage). The White House, in short, was not engaged in any campaign to "out" Ms. Plame.

All of this matters because it also casts doubt on the thoroughness and fairness of special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald's probe that began in December 2003. The prosecutor never did indict anyone for leaking Ms. Plame's name, though this was supposedly the act of "treason" that triggered the political clamor for a probe. Instead, he has indicted Mr. Libby for perjury and obstruction of justice.

Mr. Fitzgerald has nonetheless also tried to spin an aura that Mr. Libby was responsible for outing Ms. Plame. In his press conference on October 28, 2005, the prosecutor asserted that "In fact, Mr. Libby was the first official known to have told a reporter when he talked to [former New York Times reporter] Judith Miller in June of 2003 about Valerie Wilson." But we have since learned that Mr. Armitage also told Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward about Ms. Plame--a fact that Mr. Fitzgerald never uncovered until Mr. Woodward came forward after he heard Mr. Fitzgerald make that false public assertion.

Strangely, Mr. Armitage never seems to have told Mr. Fitzgerald that he'd talked to Mr. Woodward. And Mr. Fitzgerald never seems to have asked to see Mr. Armitage's appointment calendar, which would have showed his meeting with Mr. Novak. It's all enough to make us wonder if Mr. Fitzgerald didn't buy into the liberal "conspiracy" theory of this case from the start and target the White House while giving Mr. Armitage a pass.

Meanwhile, according to the Corn-Isikoff book, Mr. Armitage never did tell the White House or his boss, the President, that he was the leaker. Instead, in October 2003 he told Mr. Powell, who told the State Department general counsel, who in turn told the Justice Department but gave the White House Counsel only the sketchiest overview of what he'd learned and didn't mention Mr. Armitage's name. So while Mr. Fitzgerald presumably knew when he began his probe two months later that Mr. Armitage was Mr. Novak's source, the President himself was apparently kept in the dark, even as he was pledging publicly to find out who the leaker was.

At a minimum, there appears to be a serious question of disloyalty here. By keeping silent, Messrs. Powell and Armitage let the President take political heat for the case, while also letting Mr. Rove, Mr. Libby and other White House officials twist in the wind for more than two years. We also know that it was the folks in Mr. Powell's shop--including his former chief of staff Lawrence Wilkerson and intelligence officer Carl Ford Jr.--who did so much to trash John Bolton's nomination to be Ambassador to the U.N. in 2005. The State Department clique that Mr. Bush tolerated for so long did tremendous damage to his Administration.

As for Justice, then-Attorney General John Ashcroft recused himself from the case in an act of political abdication. That left then-Deputy Attorney General James Comey in charge, and he also presumably knew about Mr. Armitage's role as the leaker who started it all. Yet if the book's account is correct, he too misled the White House with his silence. Mr. Comey is also the official who let Mr. Fitzgerald alter his mandate from its initial find-the-leaker charge to the obstruction and perjury raps against Mr. Libby that are all this case has come down to. Remind us never to get in a foxhole with either Mr. Comey or the Powell crowd.

There is more to be said at a future date about the specific case against Mr. Libby. But for now the Armitage news should concern one man in particular, and that's the President of the United States. How much differently would he have behaved had he known about Mr. Armitage's role in 2003? Would he have kept echoing the media-liberal spin that there was some nefarious White House leaker to discover, and continue to let the aides who most believed in his policies--Mr. Libby and Mr. Rove--be hounded by a special counsel? And why has he tolerated so much insubordination to his policies?

Someday we hope Mr. Bush will tell us. Meantime, as he absorbs the partisan and ultimately trivial truth of this case, why shouldn't he pardon Mr. Libby and put the entire sorry saga to rest?
**If you don't trust the WSJ then check out Christopher Hitchens' latest post at Slate.com

One Year Later...

What did Mayor Ray Nagin do? Didn't bother to get his people out
because school buses weren't good enough for them.
What did Kathleen BLANK-o do? Failed to call in the national guard, forgetting it was HER job even after the President begged her to do so. A bill this year to allow the President to federalize troops for natural disasters (in circumvention of posse comitatus) it was shot down by the democrats. Guess it's still too much fun to blame Bush than to actually take responsibility.

000

WWUS74 KLIX 282139

NPWLIX



URGENT - WEATHER MESSAGE

NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE NEW ORLEANS LA

413 PM CDT SUN AUG 28 2005



...EXTREMELY DANGEROUS HURRICANE KATRINA CONTINUES TO APPROACH THE

   MISSISSIPPI RIVER DELTA...

...DEVASTATING DAMAGE EXPECTED...



MOST OF THE AREA WILL BE UNINHABITABLE FOR WEEKS...PERHAPS LONGER. AT

LEAST ONE HALF OF WELL CONSTRUCTED HOMES WILL HAVE ROOF AND WALL

FAILURE. ALL GABLED ROOFS WILL FAIL...LEAVING THOSE HOMES SEVERELY

DAMAGED OR DESTROYED.



THE MAJORITY OF INDUSTRIAL BUILDINGS WILL BECOME NON FUNCTIONAL.

PARTIAL TO COMPLETE WALL AND ROOF FAILURE IS EXPECTED. ALL WOOD

FRAMED LOW RISING APARTMENT BUILDINGS WILL BE DESTROYED. CONCRETE

BLOCK LOW RISE APARTMENTS WILL SUSTAIN MAJOR DAMAGE...INCLUDING SOME

WALL AND ROOF FAILURE.



HIGH RISE OFFICE AND APARTMENT BUILDINGS WILL SWAY DANGEROUSLY...A

FEW TO THE POINT OF TOTAL COLLAPSE. ALL WINDOWS WILL BLOW OUT.



AIRBORNE DEBRIS WILL BE WIDESPREAD...AND MAY INCLUDE HEAVY ITEMS SUCH

AS HOUSEHOLD APPLIANCES AND EVEN LIGHT VEHICLES. SPORT UTILITY

VEHICLES AND LIGHT TRUCKS WILL BE MOVED. THE BLOWN DEBRIS WILL CREATE

ADDITIONAL DESTRUCTION. PERSONS...PETS...AND LIVESTOCK EXPOSED TO THE

WINDS WILL FACE CERTAIN DEATH IF STRUCK.



POWER OUTAGES WILL LAST FOR WEEKS...AS MOST POWER POLES WILL BE DOWN

AND TRANSFORMERS DESTROYED. WATER SHORTAGES WILL MAKE HUMAN SUFFERING

INCREDIBLE BY MODERN STANDARDS.



THE VAST MAJORITY OF NATIVE TREES WILL BE SNAPPED OR UPROOTED. ONLY

THE HEARTIEST WILL REMAIN STANDING...BUT BE TOTALLY DEFOLIATED. FEW

CROPS WILL REMAIN. LIVESTOCK LEFT EXPOSED TO THE WINDS WILL BE

KILLED.



AN INLAND HURRICANE WIND WATCH IS ISSUED WHEN SUSTAINED WINDS NEAR

HURRICANE FORCE...OR FREQUENT GUSTS AT OR ABOVE HURRICANE FORCE...ARE

POSSIBLE WITHIN THE NEXT 24 TO 36 HOURS.



LAZ038-040-050-056>070-MSZ080>082-290300-

ASSUMPTION-HANCOCK-HARRISON-JACKSON-LIVINGSTON-LOWER JEFFERSON-

LOWER LAFOURCHE-LOWER PLAQUEMINES-LOWER ST. BERNARD-LOWER TERREBONNE-

ORLEANS-ST. CHARLES-ST. JAMES-ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST-ST. TAMMANY-

TANGIPAHOA-UPPER JEFFERSON-UPPER LAFOURCHE-UPPER PLAQUEMINES-

UPPER ST. BERNARD-UPPER TERREBONNE-

413 PM CDT SUN AUG 28 2005



...INLAND HURRICANE WIND WARNING IS IN EFFECT...



HURRICANE KATRINA CONTINUES TO APPROACH THE AREA. TROPICAL STORM

FORCE WINDS ARE CURRENTLY MOVING INTO THE COASTAL MARSHES AND WILL

PERSIST FOR THE NEXT 26 TO 28 HOURS. HURRICANE FORCE WINDS WILL

ONSET AROUND MIDNIGHT NEAR THE COAST AND BY 3 AM CLOSER TO THE NEW

ORLEANS METRO AREA AND PERSIST FOR 9 TO 15 HOURS. MAXIMUM WIND GUSTS

AROUND 175 MPH ARE LIKELY IN THE WARNED AREA BY DAYBREAK MONDAY.



DO NOT VENTURE OUTDOORS ONCE TROPICAL STORM FORCE WINDS ONSET!



$



LAZ034>037-039-046>049-MSZ068>071-077-290300-

AMITE-ASCENSION-EAST BATON ROUGE-EAST FELICIANA-IBERVILLE-

PEARL RIVER-PIKE-POINTE COUPEE-ST. HELENA-WALTHALL-WASHINGTON-

WEST BATON ROUGE-WEST FELICIANA-WILKINSON-

413 PM CDT SUN AUG 28 2005



...INLAND HURRICANE WIND WARNING IS IN EFFECT...



HURRICANE KATRINA CONTINUES TO APPROACH THE AREA. TROPICAL STORM

FORCE WINDS ARE CURRENTLY MOVING INTO THE COASTAL MARSHES AND WILL

SREAD NORTHWESTWARD INTO THE GREATER BATON ROUGE AREA AND

SOUTHWEST MISSISSIPPI LATER THIS EVENING. TROPICAL STORM FORCE

WINDS ARE EXPECTED TO ONSET AROUND 9 PM TONIGHT AND PERSIST

FOR 22 TO 26 HOURS. HURRICANE FORCE WINDS WILL ONSET AROUND

DAYBREAK AND PERSIST FOR ABOUT 5 TO 10 HOURS. MAXIMUM WIND

GUSTS OF 80 TO 90 MPH ARE POSSIBLE IN EAST-CENTRAL LOUISIANA

AND SOUTHWEST MISSISSIPPI.

 

DO NOT VENTURE OUTDOORS ONCE TROPICAL STORM FORCE WINDS ONSET!

Westboro Baptist Haters Claim to be Coming to Picket an American/Oregon Hero

The folks in charge of drowning out the Westboro Nuts wanted me to post this:

Your Help is Urgently Needed!
As you know, there is a community memorial service for Navy SEAL Marc Lee this Saturday. What you don’t know is that the Westboro Baptist Church from Topeka, Kansas and another protest group are planning on attending to try and disrupt the service.
I don’t think it matters whether you are for or against the Iraq War. I am appalled that any group will show such disrespect for a family at a memorial service for their son who has been killed. We need to do what we can to shield the Lee family from these people.
You, probably like me, has never met Debbie or her son Marc. But I hope that you will join me in surrounding the protesters on Saturday so that their antics are drowned out. These people are not nice! These people are not respectful! Just visit their website at www.godhatesamerica.com. You will not believe what you see. I cannot imagine having to deal with these kinds of people at the funeral or memorial service of a family member.
Please, we need as many people as possible to dress in the ‘ol red, white and blue and bring American flags. We would like to line the 2nd street over pass, the road to the Expo Center and completely surround the protesters who will be confined to Lot 6 at the Port. Lot 6 is directly west of the Luhr Jensen Plant.
Here are the details:

What: Drown out the Protesters
When: Saturday, August 26, 2006
Where: The Hood River Expo Center, 405 Portway Avenue, Hood River, OR
When: 10:00 in the morning
Who: everyone, please pass this message on!
Why: No one should have to deal with this crap during a memorial service
for a family member!

Thank you,

Camille Hukari

Starrett Stays on Ballot

Rinowatch has it here. Did you really think John Lindback, Bill Bradbury and company would take off a candidate who could siphon votes from the REPUBLICAN candidate? Kelly Clark may still choose to pursue this as a lawsuit after the going to the state gambit failed to pay off.

Former Defense Secretary William Cohen on the Victoria Taft Show Tonight

Stream the show here 5-8pm on KPAM AM 860 "The Talk Station"

Fat, Dumb and Happy: Are Americans Becoming Losers?

The author of this new American Spectator article is on the show tonight. The Victoria Taft Show 5-8pm, AM 860 KPAM, 'The Talk Station.' Stream it here.
His main thesis: Americans aren't mentally tough enough to stick out anything from sports to wars.

"By almost all available evidence, a vast malaise is infecting this nation's sports scene. What's worse is that it seems to mirror our inability to win what should be winnable wars -- or, rather, winnable peaces, if peace can be pluralized -- in the Middle East.
Is our nation going soft? Is our comparative wealth making us complacent? Do our iPods and video games, our SAT tutorials and our grade inflation, our reliance on sports psychologists for emotional sustenance and on our soccer moms for driving us hither and yon, all combine to make us spoiled rather than self-reliant, and over-programmed instead of creative?
Our self-appointed intelligentsia can't seem to find the heart to wage a winning war against jihadists. Fewer Americans (every one of them precious, it must be said) die in three-and-a-half year operation in Iraq than in three-and-a-half hours in some U.S. Civil War battles, yet the talk is all of disaster and despair. The Pentagon so much as considers using mild psychological stress to glean information from imprisoned terrorists, and the hand-wringers fulminate about "torture" and run off to the nearest courtroom."
Read the rest here.

Joe Lieberman's Words. Read. Discuss.

"...It's time for Democrats who distrust President Bush to acknowledge he will be the commander in chief for three more critical years. And that in matters of war, we undermine presidential credibility at our nation's peril."
"It is time for Republicans in the White House and Congress who distrust Democrats to acknowledge that greater Democratic involvement and support in the war in Iraq is critical to rebuilding the support of the American people that is essential to our success in that war."

Here's to the Messy Parts of Portland

Wonderful piece in Sunday's O from Portland State University Urban Planning Professor Carl Abbott. The following is an excerpt; the rest is here.

The Pearl District may be fashionable and North Mississippi Avenue extremely cool, but 82nd Avenue is necessary. This corridor of asphalt, car lots and old-world politics keeps Portland honest.
I'll admit it's not beautiful. It doesn't have the hottest clubs or gallery-hopping First Thursday crowds. But 82nd Avenue from Sandy Boulevard south to the Clackamas County line does things no city can do without.
First, the street reminds us that our economy still requires things. Words and ideas may be the stock in trade of college professors and the creative class, but cities need places to find used travel trailers, scout out discount appliances and hunt down new sound systems installed in beat-up Toyotas.
A couple of years ago I bought a small pickup. I wanted to cover the cargo bed so my 12-year-old golden retriever could stay dry when we drove around on errands or headed up to Mount Hood. My Yellow Pages list four firms on 82nd Avenue that fabricate and install pickup canopies, including Canopy Corner and Canopies Unlimited, and two more within shouting distance.
...This brings up a third way that 82nd Avenue and its neighborhoods keep Portland honest. When these kids grow up, they'll be a potent force in Portland and Multnomah County politics. Back in the 1980s and early '90s, Portland annexed a large chunk of eastern Multnomah County (while Gresham took in much of the rest).
The result has been to dilute the political clout of the comfortable West Hills and the trendy inner east side. The precincts east of Mount Tabor consistently are more skeptical about government and more forthright about bread-and-butter issues.

On the Show Tonight: Jim Gilchrist of the Minutemen

Listen to the Victoria Taft Show from 5-8pm on KPAM AM 860,
"The Talk Station." Stream the show on your computer here.

A Marine Responds to NSA Ruling

Hello Victoria,

I guess right now that I am at a total loss of words. I enlisted in the Marines on Sept. 12th, 2001 because I was so outraged at what had taken place, and I wanted revenge. I wound up being sent to tankers school shortly after that where I learned to drive a tank and shortly there after was deployed to Iraq.

I was in the initial push up to Baghdad and on, and since then have served two additional tours and am considering going back again. I am home here in Lake Oswego visiting my parents and I guess maybe you can help me understand how it is that a judge in Detroit can make a decision that stops the most powerful man in the world from protecting us as a nation?

When I enlisted almost the whole country was behind what it was that we were doing and demanding restitution for the massive deaths in NY, and it seemed as though every time I would come home on leave, or after my tour was over that politics just got worse and worse. I have seen some of the worst things that a person can see, I have seen and heard stories from Iraqi's themselves about people being put in plastic shredders feet first without probable cause and other stories that would turn your stomach as to what an evil leader does to a country. I sat and drank tea in their houses and listened as they would told us how they would give anything to live in our country and then go on and tell me things about life under Saddam's leadership.

I guess that I am at a loss for words as to what's going on and feel as though I want to go back to one of the only places where things make sense and where adding up one plus one and getting two. Kinda funny I have to go half way across the world to a war zone to find something like that. Where is the outrage? Where are the people standing up to the minority who are making it seem like they are the majority?

I can see it right now as our hands are being so tied by the left, no wire taps, no racial profiling, terrorist rights in Guantanamo and Abu Grahab (where I have been and they ate better then the Marines who serve them). I can just see it now after the next terrorist attack which is eminent......Bush Administration does nothing to thwart terrorist attack, Bush responsible for mass death on his watch...

I just don't get it, what's it going to take for us to wake up, and who is one judge to tell the most powerful man in the world no?

Your friend,

Adam

Jimmy Carter: The Left's Moral Equivalance is Justified

Read this. This is what the Deaniacs(in the form of Jimmy Carter) think of Christians, moral equivalency, the crassness of patriotism, and the soul of America.

SPIEGEL: One main points of your book is the rather strange coalition between Christian fundamentalists and the Republican Party. How can such a coalition of the pious lead to moral catastrophes like the Iraqi prison scandal in Abu Ghraib and torture in Guantanamo?

Carter: The fundamentalists believe they have a unique relationship with God, and that they and their ideas are God's ideas and God's premises on the particular issue. Therefore, by definition since they are speaking for God anyone who disagrees with them is inherently wrong. And the next step is: Those who disagree with them are inherently inferior, and in extreme cases -- as is the case with some fundamentalists around the world -- it makes your opponents sub-humans, so that their lives are not significant. Another thing is that a fundamentalist can't bring himself or herself to negotiate with people who disagree with them because the negotiating process itself is an indication of implied equality. And so this administration, for instance, has a policy of just refusing to talk to someone who is in strong disagreement with them -- which is also a radical departure from past history. So these are the kinds of things that cause me concern. And, of course, fundamentalists don't believe they can make mistakes, so when we permit the torture of prisoners in Guantanamo or Abu Ghraib, it's just impossible for a fundamentalist to admit that a mistake was made.

SPIEGEL: So how does this proximity to Christian fundamentalism manifest itself politically?
Carter: Unfortunately, after Sept., there was an outburst in America of intense suffering and patriotism, and the Bush administration was very shrewd and effective in painting anyone who disagreed with the policies as unpatriotic or even traitorous. For three years, I'd say, the major news media in our country were complicit in this subservience to the Bush administration out of fear that they would be accused of being disloyal. I think in the last six months or so some of the media have now begun to be critical. But it's a long time coming.
Read the rest here.

Terrorist Surveillance Program Unconstitutional: Federal Court

Don't count on this decision standing. The Supremes will have to get involved soon as cases wend through the courts.
The program helped stop the British air bombing plot.
Now the courts decide how we prosecute a war?
The President should have the right (and constitutionally does) to prosecute a war and keep the people safe.
If this program is taken away, what should be done to keep track of terrorists?
Got any better ideas?
Why the case was brought? Read this from CBS News:
The American Civil Liberties Union filed the lawsuit on behalf of journalists, scholars and lawyers who say the program has made it difficult for them to do their jobs. They believe many of their overseas contacts are likely targets of the program, which involves secretly taping conversations between people in the United States and people in other countries.

The Judge: "Plaintiffs have prevailed, and the public interest is clear, in this matter. It is the upholding of our Constitution."
The decision here.

Face of a Murderer?

"I was with JonBenet when she died," he told reporters in Bangkok. "I loved JonBenet."

John Mark Karr, 41. A kiddie porn addicted teacher.

Karr told The Associated Press he wrote Patsy Ramsey before she died to express his remorse.

"I conveyed to her many things, among them that I am so very sorry for what happened to JonBenet," he told the AP, which described him as sweating and stuttering. (Read the interview with Karr)

"Karr's ex-wife, Lara Karr, told KGO-TV in California that she was with her former husband in Alabama at the time of JonBenet's killing and she does not believe her former husband was involved in the homicide.

She said her ex-husband spent a lot of time studying the cases of Ramsey and Polly Klaas, who was abducted from her Petaluma, Calif., home and slain in 1993." ABC News story.

Why did he go to Thailand?
He was teaching school in Thailand?
Is he lying about killing her?

Unworthy

As the Deaniacs in Salem foam about the Afghan-Iraqi Freedom War Memorial because it "glorifies war" instead of urging peace (at least I think that's their complaint) it's worth noting just what sacrifice really means and how unworthy MOST of the rest of us are. Please read the following from a column in the Dallas Morning News. The link follows.

A flight with an honor guard and fallen Marine reveals the meaning of service
"When you fly as often as I do, you learn to mind your business as soon as you take your seat. But that wasn't possible once I saw the military honor guard boarding a recent US Airway flight from Boston to Washington.I was heading through the gate when I noticed Sen. Ted Kennedy walking down the concourse. I stepped aside and followed him down the ramp.

As we got to the entrance of the plane, the members of a Marine honor guard in their dress blues were coming up the outside staircase usually used for stowing strollers and allowing mechanics on board. The Marine in charge held in both hands a flag that had been folded into a triangle as if it had been draping a coffin, which it had.

Down on the tarmac the white gloves of eight Marines snapped their final salute as the doors of the hearse closed.

Mr. Kennedy extended his hand to the Marine and said, "Thank you for your service."

"Thank you, sir," replied the Marine.

"Are you escorting remains?" asked Mr. Kennedy.

"Yes, sir, a Marine."

"And the funeral is at Arlington Cemetery?"

"Yes, sir, on Wednesday."

"Thank you, I'll try to get out there."

The Marine went to sit in coach, but a man in the first-class cabin went over to him, shook hands and offered his seat. The Marine reluctantly accepted. Half the passengers broke into applause.

The rest of the flight was uneventful, though quieter than usual. When we landed, the Marine took his white gloves from where he'd stowed them inside his hat, put them on and again gripped with both hands the precious cargo of the folded flag.

Then he went over to two people quietly sitting in first class – the parents of the fallen Marine. None of us had known they were there.

He escorted them off the plane and into the terminal. Because of the afternoon's oppressive heat, he had persuaded them to wait inside instead of on the tarmac.

The father looked as if he might have once been a Marine himself, a handsome man of perfect posture, with bristly silver hair. The mother, blond, wore light-colored pants and an orange jacket. They both looked calm, if a little lost.

They stood at the window between Gates 43 and 45 and watched as a full Marine honor guard marched up the tarmac, coming to attention between the plane and a silver military hearse. The unloading of their son's coffin from the cargo hold was very slow, and every time someone inside the terminal noticed and stopped to stare, someone else noticed and did the same.

The mom leaned her elbows on the window ledge. She stared for 10 or 15 long minutes and never moved. The father stood nearby, rocking from foot to foot and pacing a bit. They did not say a word to each other.

The PA system announced flights for Atlanta and Chicago. Travelers rushed to business meetings or summer vacations.

Except for a handful of us standing frozen at a respectful distance from the window, the war and its carnage might as well have been on another planet. The disconnect between those who serve and those of us who are beneficiaries of their service has always felt great to me, but never greater than at that moment.

The mom and dad ... waited until the Marine in charge came up from the runway to escort them to a government vehicle. I went to my car and drove to work with no ambition for the day other than to be worthy.

From Friday's Dallas Morning News here.

Westlund Quits. Quid Pro Quo?

Westlund bows out of the race. What did Kulongoski give him to get out? As you've got to figure, the only one who stood to lose by having the Tumalo Independent running for governor was Kulongoski's campaign. What hearts and minds would Westlund have won on the conservative side by championing universal health care? The last time we let someone fool around with health care we got the unsustainable, budget busting Oregon Health Plan, which, as predicted, resulted in rationed health care and giveaways to the politically correct class. Whoo...sign us up!
Coyote at NW Republican says he's 'heard' that Westlund will get a sweet job in the Kujo administration--maybe even Secretary of State. All he has to do is change his party affiliation to D. It's only a formality, of course, Westlund has never been a real R and his switch to I in order to be a stalking horse for Guv Kujo was never very convincing.
There's been much speculation, of course, about "the most partisan Secretary of State in the country" [John Fund, Wall Street Journal on the Victoria Taft Show], Bill "vote by phone" Bradbury, leaving before the end of his term so, as they do with judgeships, the Democrats can name one of their cronies to run as an incumbent in the next election. That Bradbury would bow out, citing health reasons [he suffers from MS] has been the script for some time, Westlund's bail out gives us a name to plug in to the scenario. Same old. Same old.

AMERICA SLEEPS (Connecticut), TERRORISTS PLOT-Part Deux

From Debbie Schlussel on the kids from Hezbolla High in Detroit:
Why is the mother of a terrorist working at the airport? And why does she have passenger lists and info on airport security? Why did she give them to her son? Early this morning, I wrote about Ali Houssaiky and Osama Sobhi Abulhassan, the Dearbornistan Terror Boys. They purchased at least 600 TracFones for the chips inside, which terrorists use as detonation devices in bombs. They had flight manifests and information about airport security checkpoints. They had $10,000 in cash and lied to police. They were working with a Dearborn man under FBI investigation. They were charged with Money Laundering to Aid Terrorism. Today, more disturbing information about these All-American homegrown terrorists:

The Dearbornistan Boys: Islamic Terrorists Osma Sabhi Abulhassan & Ali Houssaiky

* In addition to the money-laundering charge, the Dearbornistan Terror Boys were charged with Soliciting or Providing Support for an Act of Terrorism.

* The Dearbornistan Terror Boys claim that they had the flight manifests and airport security info because the mother of Ali Houssaiky works for Aircraft Services International Group at Detroit Metro Airport.

AMERICA SLEEPS (Connecticut), TERRORISTS PLOT

The Victoria Taft Show is all over this story. Listen 5-8pm Pacific. Stream here.
Looks as if Al Qaeda has grown more sophisticated since its Operation Bojinka plot went awry in the 1990's. Oh look, the NYT's has had a recovered memory about Al Qaeda and Operation Bojinka here.
And yet, as the Howard Deaniacs who backed Ned Lamont said on Tuesday "Bring our troops home!" Who's using the war as a political ploy to the detriment of our country again?
I'm curious, how long will it be till Howard Dean or someone of his ilk suggest the US is overblowing this episode for political gain?

Here's what terrorism researcher, frequent guest on the Victoria Taft show, Tom Joscelyn says about the plot uncovered today.
(1) Pakistani Intelligence helped? The London Times is reporting that Pakistani Intelligence help thwart the plot. The Times also passes along this nugget from Pakistan:
Today Pakistani security forces Hafiz Mohammed Saeed, leader of the outlawed Islamic militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba, (LeT) under house arrest. The largest of the separatist groups fighting the Indian forces in Kashmir, the LeT has also been blamed by Indian authorities for last month's train bombings in Bombay which killed more than 200 people.
(2) Liquid explosives. There are a number of reports, including this one from the AP, saying that the plotters wanted to use liquid explosives in their carry-on luggage to blow up the planes. It is worth noting, as some reports do, that this was the Ramzi Yousef's modus operandi in the mid-1990s. Yousef, whose uncle KSM orchestrated 9/11, was plotting to blow up a dozen aircraft in mid air when he was arrested. Yousef had wanted to use liquid-based explosives mixed on board the aircraft.
Counterterrorism Blog sums up the President's Comments this morning:
President Bush at 11:50 am ET: He said that the recent arrests are a "stark reminder" that we are a nation at war with Islamic fascists who will use any means to hurt us. He thanked Tony Blair and UK officials for busting the plot and officials in washington and around country for excellent cooperation between the UK and the US and within our government. He said, "We are safer than we were prior to 9/11," but we're obviously not completely safe because people still plot against us. "It's a mistake to believe there is no threat aginst the United States."

I Can't Come Up With a Headline for This

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A "Presidential Bust" of U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton was unveiled on Wednesday at New York's Museum of Sex, where sculptor Daniel Edwards hopes it will spark discussion about sex, politics and celebrity.
Edwards, the artist who also created a life-size nude of Britney Spears giving birth on a bear-skin rug, said he wanted to capture Clinton's age and femininity in the sculpture.

UPDATE: SAXTON CANCELS TAFT SHOW. AGAIN. WORLD RENOWNED AUTHOR AND EXPERT ON IRAN AND HEZBOLLAH ON PHONE FROM THE WAR ZONE: STILL CAN MAKE THE SHOW

SAXTON CANCELS AGAIN. Kenneth Timmerman on the Victoria Taft Show 5-8pm, KPAM AM 860 "The Talk Station"
Stream here.

BLOGGERS REVEAL MORE STAGED AND PHOTOSHOPPED "NEWS"

LGF coins new term: FAUXTOGRAPHY.



Gateway Pundit here shows how the NYT showed these photos. Notice the "dead" guy has no dust on him.
"So, dead guy began his day assisting the photographer, then scrambled over debris, then fell dead. Perhaps the caption should have read "don't help - you'll end up dead".
Watch the guy in the green hat. He starts helping the photog and then ends up a pristine 'victim.' Someone at the NYT has some 'splainin' to do...

Governor Saxton Backs Off Spending Limit and GOP Stance on Automatic Citizenship to Children of Illegal Aliens

Oregon Republican Governor's candidate, Ron Saxton, is heading toward the middle for the general election. Now, this always occurs in politics, however in this case I believe Saxton has set a land speed record for veering away from his more conservative leanings that we saw during the primary.
While shining a light on the state and federal responses to illegal immigration during the primary, Saxton simply can't come to grips with what to do about people who come here to get a paycheck, have a kid, and suck at the government teat. The anchor baby issue is paramount in the discussion of illegal immigration. Saxton knows this but can't be seen uttering a word against babies even IF their parents are stealing from the government (may I recommend once more my previous post on the anchor baby issue in the LA Times story?). We saw what happened to Saxton when, during a primary debate, Kevin Mannix got blue Oregon's attention when he cooed about not wanting to get tough on children of illegals because it simply wasn't nice. Saxton looked hard hearted because he hadn't thought to say it first.
And now here we are on the spending limit being proffered by the Taxpayer's Association of Oregon in conjunction with a national group. Saxton says he won't back it. Really? The Oregonian, of course, thinks this is a decision of Solomonic proportions, but his stance makes no sense. He's FOR cutting government spending and waste which Measure 48 does. He's FOR a rainy day fund which Measure 48 creates. Seems to me he'd be better off tying himself to this politically popular plan than standing on the sidelines and looking like a political opportunist and capitulator.

Have Your Bomber Talk to My Bomber...Oh, and Let's Have Reuters Shoot it for Us

**Late Ad: REUTERS PHOTOG FOUND DOCTORING PHOTOS FROM WAR. IS FIRED.
Michelle Malkin and Blackfive have the goods on the guy.

Hezbollah's PR Flak: See below for Hezbollywood.

This Picture is Fine. But at the Park? Nope. At the Mall? Nope.

Private is fine. Lovely picture.

Like this in public? No, thank you.
Ladies: Love ya, mean it, but these Nurse-ins by militant milkers are boorish, self indulgent and annoying. Just because you have just discovered what your breasts are for doesn't mean the rest of us are uninformed. Having breast fed three children I can tell you my (well fed) chillins never needed to have me open my shirt so everyone could get a peek. Get a blanket. Heck, get a room.

This is fine.

But, oh my, listeners are cranky:

I am writing to say how disappointed I was in your recent segment regarding breastfeeding in public. The attitude presented by you and many of your callers is, I believe a part of the reason why breastfeeding rates are so low in North America.

I do not live in Portland, but I heard of your nasty diatribe against nursing mothers. I must say that you and all of your callers who slammed nursing mothers are mentally ill. You have sexualized breasts so much that you are ignorant of their main purpose: TO FEED BABIES! I am a nursing mother of a toddler, and I will feed my baby whenever he is hungry, whether or not I'm surrounded by morons such as yourself.

That" thing (as you refer to it) those women do (it's called breastfeeding by the way) - is not gross, nor is it akin to emtying your bowels as you indicated - it is the FEEDING and NOURISHMENT of a child. Something I would think someone that is so into "family values" might agree with. Oh wait, but you do support it, as long as the mother hides in the closet, toilet, telephone both, or wherever, so long as no other person on this earth must view this disdainful, dirty act.

Ladies, ladies, I never referred to breastfeeding as "that thing" and I never said it's dirty, that breasts are for prurient interests only, or that you should be shoved into a broom closet. If you have to mischaracterize my disdain for women who insist on being purposefully exhibitionistic to make a political point then you've lost the argument. All we're asking is that you become tolerant of those of us who really don't care to see your breasts being brought out in front of the public to feed your baby. A piece of cloth to cover yourself will suffice. See, you respect our sensibilities and you feed your baby! It's a compromise. Are you willing to do that?

CAPTION CONTEST!

I've got a 'kerplah' of wet kisses for you, Ted.

Who Looks Bad Now? "Black Face Lieberman is "Republicans'" Fault: According to Original Blogger!

"
Black face Lieberman shows up on libby blog.
Here she is on Malkin's blog.

HERE'S WHAT LIEBERMAN'S MAN, LANNY DAVIS, SAYS ABOUT THE HIT JOE'S TAKEN.
Davis is chagrined because the moveon.org'ers have taken a contract out on their man. Welcome to our world, Lanny. Your side have once again turned to the dark side of anti semitism, capitulation, and appeasement.

"I came to believe that we liberals couldn't possibly be so intolerant and hateful, because our ideology was famous for ACLU-type commitments to free speech, dissent and, especially, tolerance for those who differed with us. (insert hit on Rush Limbaugh here)

"Now, in the closing days of the Lieberman primary campaign, I have reluctantly concluded that I was wrong. The far right does not have a monopoly on bigotry and hatred and sanctimony. [oy] Here are just a few examples (there are many, many more anyone with a search engine can find) of the type of thing the liberal blog sites have been posting about Joe Lieberman:

• "Ned Lamont and his supporters need to [g]et real busy. Ned needs to beat Lieberman to a pulp in the debate and define what it means to be an AMerican who is NOT beholden to the Israeli Lobby" (by "rim," posted on Huffington Post, July 6, 2006).

• "Joe's on the Senate floor now and he's growing a beard. He has about a weeks growth on his face. . . . I hope he dyes his beard Blood red. It would be so appropriate" (by "ctkeith," posted on Daily Kos, July 11 and 12, 2005).

• On "Lieberman vs. Murtha": "as everybody knows, jews ONLY care about the welfare of other jews; thanks ever so much for reminding everyone of this most salient fact, so that we might better ignore all that jewish propaganda [by Lieberman] about participating in the civil rights movement of the 60s and so on" (by "tomjones," posted on Daily Kos, Dec. 7, 2005).

• "Good men, Daniel Webster and Faust would attest, sell their souls to the Devil. Is selling your soul to a god any worse? Leiberman cannot escape the religious bond he represents. Hell, his wife's name is Haggadah or Muffeletta or Diaspora or something you eat at Passover" (by "gerrylong," posted on the Huffington Post, July 8, 2006).

• "Joe Lieberman is a racist and a religious bigot" (by "greenskeeper," posted on Daily Kos, Dec. 7, 2005).

UPDATE "Hezbollywood" The Art of Staging Scenes for the Media

Read new story on it here. Noel Sheppard's take on Newsbusters here. Read about "The Schwinns of War," here. See pictures below.
"What happened at Qana was, almost certainly, what happened at Jenin in 2002, what happened on a beach in Gaza a few weeks ago, and what has happened on innumerable other occasions. The Israelis are instantaneously accused and convicted of a monstrous and perhaps intentional act of butchery, by people quite incurious about the facts. The Israelis quickly released real-time aerial reconnaissance footage to show the Hezbollah firing rockets from between houses in Qana; then pulling the launchers immediately afterwards into civilian buildings. The Israeli military logged three air strikes around Qana in the course of the evening in question, including one next to the houses that were destroyed. So while it was possible the Israelis had dropped the bombs that killed 54 people -- coincidentally all women and children -- it was, at the worst, unintended "collateral damage" near a valid military target."




"Sad Woman in Front of Wall With English Language Slogan: Take one" Watch the video.

Which brings us to this series of questions:
Was the Qana bombing an atrocity? A mistake?
What about the death count?
Who's this guy and why does he change clothes and carry the same body around the whole day?
A sad prop?
What's going on here and why do the media allow themselves to get 'played'?
Brent Sadler of CNN reports that the Israeli ordnance did not even hit the building but landed "20 or 30 meters" from the structure.
"There are other mysteries. The roof of the building was intact. Journalist Ben Wedeman of CNN noted that there was a larger crater next to the building, but observed that the building appeared not to have collapsed as a result of the Israeli strike."
From Israel Insider: What we do know is that sometime after dawn a call went [out] to journalists and rescue workers to come to the scene. And come they did, in droves. While Hezbollah and its apologists have been claiming that civilians could not freely flee the scene due to Israeli destruction of bridges and roads, the journalists and rescue teams from nearby Tyre had no problem getting there.
More from Israel Insider: There was little blood, CNN's Wedeman noted: all the victims, he concluded, appeared to have died while as they were sleeping -- sleeping, apparently, through thunderous Israeli air attacks. Rescue workers equipped with cameras were removing the bodies from the same opening in the collapsed structure. Journalists were not allowed near the collapsed building. Rescue workers filmed as they went carried the victims on the stretchers, occasionally flipping up the blankets so that cameras could show the faces and bodies of the dead. But Israelis steeled to scenes of carnage from Palestinian suicide bombings and Hezbollah rocket attack could not help but notice that these victims did not look like our victims. Their faces were ashen gray. While medical examination clearly is called for to arrive at a definitive dating and cause of their deaths, they do not appear to have died hours before. The bodies looked like they had been dead for days.
Here's more info.
Here's why we're asking.