I noticed this quote on
SquareSpace’s Blog (one of the sponsors of this site):

Many blogs are simply opinion-based and very rarely is there any factual evidence to back up what they are saying

Huh? Opinion, sure. But “rarely factual evidence”?

La Shawn Barber has a good blogosphere roundup and some commentary on the Condi hearings.

Voting “no”: Boxer and Kerry.

Powerline’s commentary here.

The Democrats have made a political decision to use the Senate confirmation hearings on President Bush’s Cabinet appointments to re-fight the 2004 election campaign. First we had the bizarre spectacle of Alberto Gonzales being raked over the coals for Abu Graibh, with which he had nothing whatsoever to do, but which was a Democrat talking-point throughout 2004. Next we witnessed two days of “hearings” on the confirmation of Dr. Condoleezza Rice as Secretary of State, highlighted by the incoherent ramblings of the notoriously stupid Barbara Boxer. Senate Democrats apparently think they score a political coup when voters see them pontificating endlessly and self-righteously, while the nominee waits patiently for a chance to get a word in edge-wise. I doubt that this is correct; the more voters who witness these ridiculous proceedings the better, I believe.

I ran across this article by Robert Ricker, in which the following quote jumped out at me:

Democrats and moderate Republicans are beginning to understand that the gun lobby, led by the NRA, does not really represent the views of mainstream U.S. gun owners.

Now, check out these rough statistics.

Gun owners in US: 45 million
NRA membership: 4 million
Percentage: 9%

Women in the US: 150 million
NOW membership: 1/2 million
Percentage: 1/3 of 1%

So, my question is this: If the NRA doesn’t represent the mainstream of gun owners, does NOW represent the mainstream of women?

More hilarious stuff from Scott Ott.

…
“The laboratory is like a football locker room at most Ivy League schools,” said the unnamed NOW source. “The guy scientists think nothing of mocking each other by saying ‘You research like a girl’ or ‘Careful with that mass spectrometer, you might break a fingernail.’”

Odd AP story:

A homeless man with nowhere else to go says he went back to his old high school and posed as a student for three weeks, sitting in on classes, showering in the locker room and sleeping in the theater.

A must read article at WorldTribune.com from LTC Tim Ryan, Commander, Task Force 2-12 Cavalry, First Cavalry Division, Iraq.

All right, I’ve had enough. I am tired of reading distorted and grossly exaggerated stories from major news organizations about the “failures” in the war in Iraq. “The most trusted name in news” and a long list of others continue to misrepresent the scale of events in Iraq. Print and video journalists are covering only a fraction of the events in Iraq and, more often than not, the events they cover are only negative.

The inaccurate picture they paint has distorted the world view of the daily realities in Iraq. The result is a further erosion of international support for the United States’ efforts there, and a strengthening of the insurgents’ resolve and recruiting efforts while weakening our own. Through their incomplete, uninformed and unbalanced reporting, many members of the media covering the war in Iraq are aiding and abetting the enemy.

…

Ironically, the press freedom that we have brought to this part of the world is providing support for the enemy we fight. I obviously think it’s a disgrace when many on whom the world relies for news paint such an incomplete picture of what actually has happened. Much too much is ignored or omitted. I am confident that history will prove our cause right in this war, but by the time that happens, the world might be so steeped in the gloom of ignorance we won’t recognize victory when we achieve it.

…

Postscript: I have had my staff aggressively pursue media coverage for all sorts of events that tell the other side of the story only to have them turned down or ignored by the press in Baghdad. Strangely, I found it much easier to lure the Arab media to a “non-lethal” event than the western outlets. Open a renovated school or a youth center and I could always count on Al-Iraqia or even Al-Jazeera to show up, but no western media ever showed up – ever. Now I did have a pretty dangerous sector, the Abu Ghuraib district that extends from western Baghdad to the outskirts of Fallujah (not including the prison), but it certainly wasn’t as bad as Fallujah in November and there were reporters in there.

Tim Ryan should be a household name.

Here’s a link to the BlackFive post, and there are lots of others chattering here, here, here, here, here, etc.

From the Boston Herald story headlined Boston terror threat probed:

Authorities are scouring Boston for four Chinese nationals and two Iraqi men who may pose a nuclear threat to the city based on a report from an unidentified man calling from Mexico who claims to have smuggled them over the U.S. border.

Another version of the story is located at Boston.com.

Michelle Malkin lists some other Boston Terrorist connections, and bit of blogging from The Counterterrorism Blog.

But, of course, it could just be another hoax or hype. This is, after all, an unidentified source calling from Mexico, so…

Meanwhile, the Associated Press is reporting that a federal law enforcement official has stressed the tip is one of many from around the country that routinely are forwarded to local task forces for further investigation. No credible, specific terror threat has been identified in connection with the tip about suspects possibly entering the country from Mexico.

and…

FBI spokeswoman Marcinkiewicz said the terror alert had not been raised for Boston.

At least we don’t have to try to figure out whether magenta is more scary than fuschia.

WindsOfChange points out some of the “don’t quite add up” facets of this.

Michelle Malkin links to a Newsmax article (which incidentally is coming up on the top few Google news results for Byrd Condoleezza Nomination).

From the Newspaper of Record:

Senator Robert C. Byrd, an outspoken critic of the decision to go to war, announced late in the day that he would not allow the Senate to approve Ms. Rice without a few days of consideration of her lengthy testimony, and at least a token debate on the floor. His refusal to join in the unanimous consent of all senators for a quick vote effectively torpedoed the administration’s hopes to have her nomination approved Thursday.

Or, as Michelle puts it:

Democratic Sen. Robert “Sheets” Byrd, past recruitment officer for the KKK and former advocate of racial segregation, has announced that he will obstruct the confirmation of the first African-American woman to be nominated to be Secretary of State.

From Jay Tea over at WizBang comes a bit of light-shedding on the antics of Wilfredo LaBoy and his new running boards.

You may recall (see here, here, here , here and lots of other places) that LaBoy is the school superintendant who put 24 teachers on unpaid leave for failing the state-mandated English proficiency exam, which he himself failed. In fact, he failed it twice. And the third time he passed the reading section and failed the writing part.