Continuing the chain.

Hardball With Jed Clampett

Via Wizbang who got it from Steven Taylor who got it from James Joyner who got it from INDC.

Come on, Michelle, everyone knows why Dan Rather made the mistake he did.

It was all my fault.

Didn’t you read it in the report? They attribute it entirely to this blog.

It’s a bit humbling to be the one the report cites as the cause of Dan Rather’s downfall… but nonetheless, we play with the hand we are dealt.

PunditGuy wonders how fast the Fire Bible will be added to the list of items you can’t take on an airplane.

Wow.

From the AP:

Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan on Thursday embraced the notion of overhauling the nation’s tax system and said that some form of a consumption tax - such as a national sales tax - could spur greater economic growth.

There are more puns per hundred words (PPM) in this article than in anything I’ve read in a long time. Check it out:

Ashish Kulkarni has a doctorate in chemical engineering. He used to develop plastics for General Electric. Now he’s in the bowels of a research facility in central New Jersey, dropping golf balls into a toilet.

Lots of interesting tech here…

I am still in shock about the revelation in the update on my previous post about what Nancy Soderberg said. I probably shouldn’t be by now, but I am. The hateful anti-American rhetoric of the left is amazing, and even more so because it’s not some looney fringe, it’s from a former member of the National Security Council under Clinton.

From 1993 until 1997, Soderberg served as the third ranking official of the National Security Council at the White House, including as Deputy Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs. She was responsible for day-to-day crisis management, briefing the President and developing U.S. national security.

From 1997 until 2001, Soderberg served as alternate representative to the United Nations as a presidential appointee, with the rank of ambassador. Her responsibilities included representing the United States at the Security Council. She has also worked as senior foreign policy adviser to Sen. Edward Kennedy.

And this is what she said about the chance for a historic peace deal between the Palestinians and the Israelis.

it may well work. I think that … it’s scary for Democrats, I have to say.

And regarding Stewart’s comment that Bush may end up “greater than Reagan”… she said:

Well, there’s still Iran and North Korea, don’t forget. There’s hope for the rest of us.

Regarding democratic results in the region of the middle east:

There’s always hope that this might not work.

Nancy Soderberg appears to be saying that she hopes that we fail completely in our quest to spread freedom and democracy around the world, because it would be bad for the democrats. That is truly a jaw dropping perspective on things. How do these people ever hope to connect with main street America again?

UPDATE: Joining OTB’s Linkfest

UPDATE 2: Mark at Section 15 has pointed out to me that they were both being sarcastic (this is Comedy Central after all). I stand corrected here and probably should not have jumped so hard on this… I read a transcript rather than watched it. See the comments on this thread for additional perspective. What is it that makes satire funny?

UPDATE 3 (3/7): MSNBC has linked to this blog entry.

See if you can find the link in the following paragraphs. :-)

James Taranto transcribed the interview and insisted that Nancy didn’t make a convincing case for the book. (Gee, on “The Daily Show?” That’s surprising) That’s here. The next day, the Washington Times covered it here.)

Then Rush Limbaugh read about it in the Washington Times and goes on a rant about it even suggesting, without having read the book, that Nancy argues that we should cede our role as a Superpower. He also reads from the transcript instead of playing it, because if he played it, you’d see she was joking.

Apparently Laura Ingraham was on it the next day, with her typical commitment to accuracy and journalistic integrity. Now it’s all over the web and will follow Nancy around like gob from Cathy Young. Look, for instance, at this doofus (who at least had the good grace to recognize his mistake and apologize—making him far more of mensch [sic] that [sic] Rush or Laura.)

Alterman states:

Anyway, that’s the way it works; not an ounce of truth in it anywhere, but nobody involved could care less. [”It”, as I read the article, is referring to this, a couple of paragraphs earlier: “They now have their proof that Nancy, indeed, all liberals, hate America.”]

Well, at least we got it all cleared up. And being more of a mensch than Rush or Laura has to count for something, doesn’t it?

Oh, and regarding the name calling, I ran across this great quote (guess who said it!!)

That’s OK, hits are hits. Negative attention, for a Web site, is still attention, and MSNBC.com and I will take anything we can get.

So thanks for stopping by, and while you’re here, check out some of our other recent posts on the sidebar. :-D

UPDATE 4: At least someone thinks I’m not a doofus. I feel much better now, thanks Mark! And LaShawn Barber and Jeff Harrell (here) agree with the “I don’t care what you say as long as you link to my blog!” sentiments.

UPDATE 5: Taranto has weighed back in, and links to Section15:

The it-was-only-a-joke line we’re hearing from Alterman, Francis and Soderberg herself, though, is just too simplistic to take seriously. Why would it be funny to suggest that Democrats are hoping for America to fail–as Soderberg did four times–unless there’s an element of truth to it?

As a follow-up to our previous post about the bandwagon on this “democracy in the Middle East is spreading and that’s a good thing” avalanche that the NYT started, Small Dead Animals noticed even Jon Stewart jumping on board.

Check out some of his quotes, excerpted by Taranto:

But boy, when you see the Lebanese take to the streets and all that, and you go, “Oh my God, this is working,” and I begin to wonder, is it

Do you think that the people of Lebanon would have had, sort of, the courage of their conviction, having not seen–not only the invasion but the election which followed? It’s almost as though that the Iraqi election has emboldened this crazy–something’s going on over there. I’m smelling something.

do they understand what they’ve unleashed?

T

his could be unbelievable!

He’s gonna be a great–pretty soon, Republicans are gonna be like, “Reagan was nothing compared to this guy.” Like, my kid’s gonna go to a high school named after him, I just know it.

this is the most difficult thing for me to–because, I think, I don’t care for the tactics, I don’t care for this, the weird arrogance, the setting up. But I gotta say, I haven’t seen results like this ever in that region.

UPDATE: Turns out lots of other bloggers are also posting on this as well. PoliPundit, BizBlogger, Secure Liberty, Airborne Combat Engineer, Say Anything, Insty, and lots more.

Of course, the underlying theme of the discussion between Stewart and Nancy Soderburg is “there is hope that this might not work.”

Here’s the video.

UPDATE: I didn’t really pay attention to who Nancy Soderburg is, until I noticed the comment on Say Anything’s post. Mike posts:

She was on the staff of Senator Kennedy before joining the Clinton Gore Administration. As number 3 on the staff of the National Security Council, she was at Clinton’s right hand during much of the malfeasance we witnessed during that time.

When she remarks about something going wrong in North Korea, she ought to know. Sec. Albright and Soderberg were among the cabal of America apologists that thought they could buy good will from Kim Jong Il… Didn’t work DID IT!

Now, Bush is cleaning up the mess these people made and all they can do is hope he does not succeed…

Very sad… Politics used to stop at the water’s edge… But power and personal bitterness seems to be more important to these folks than their own nation’s success in making the world a freer, more peaceful place.

And her quotes in the Stewart interview are worth noting:

Soderberg: Well, I think, you know, as a Democrat, you don’t want anything nice to happen to the Republicans, and you don’t want them to have progress.
…
Soderberg: It’s scary for Democrats, I have to say.
…
Soderberg: Well, there’s still Iran and North Korea, don’t forget. There’s hope for the rest of us.
…
Soderberg: There’s always hope that this might not work.

Granted, this is Comedy Central, but she is a former National Security Council member. “Hope that this might not work”??!!! What’s amazing is that this lefty rooting against the US is less of a story than Stewart rooting for America. We are no longer surprised by such anti-US rhetoric from leaders of the Democratic party.

UPDATE: See this post for further context.

From the AP:

A man who recently had received radiation treatment for a medical condition set off a nuclear alert detector on a fire engine, prompting police to close down a roadway in Escondido while authorities searched for a nuclear weapon.

The Rancho Santa Fe Fire Protection District engine crew’s radiation monitor sounded Tuesday when the man and his friend walked past the crew on their way to fill a gas can.
The Nuke Alert monitor sounded again as the men walked back to their vehicle.

Firefighters notified the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department after they drove by the men’s vehicle and the monitor sounded a third time.

Sheriff’s deputies pulled over the driver and detained him and his passenger for about one hour while they confirmed that the man was not carrying a nuclear weapon and that he had received radiation treatment, according to Sgt. Robert Healey.

AFP:

Danish filmmaker Lars von Trier, who is putting the final touches on the sequel to his 2003 movie “Dogville”, has reportedly cut a scene showing the slaughter of a donkey after receiving heaps of protest mail.

According to Danish news agency Ritzau, the scene in “Manderlay” shows starving inhabitants of a small town slaughtering and quartering the animal. The donkey had been put to sleep by veterinarians before the scene was filmed.

As Drew Curtis points out, killing people in movies is still ok.

Reader James, has pointed me to the fact that National Association of Theatre Owners president John Fithian and former MPAA president Jack Valenti issued a comment Wednesday on the PG-13 rating of Gunner Palace:

According to the MPAA and NATO, the groups decided to issue the additional statement to proactively warn parents of the film’s content because its rating does not reflect the usual guidelines set forth by the ratings system. Both groups made clear that they are neither criticizing the film’s distributor nor superseding the judgment of the ratings or appeals boards.

“The content of this picture deviates so far from any previous PG-13-rated film that we believed it was important to give America’s parents more information about the picture,” Fithian said. “The language in the picture exceeds that contained in any PG-13-rated film in history. It’s important for parents to understand that before making decisions about their children’s moviegoing.”

As we noted yesterday, the Supreme Court has been increasingly focusing on weighing international law, and the opinion of the world, in its decisions.

IowaHawk has more on the larger ramifications of this shift:

WASHINGTON, DC - In a far-reaching decision that will likely create complicated consequences for the American livestock and wedding-planning industries, the Supreme Court this morning ruled 5-4 that all US marriage dowries “must include three non-diseased oxen.”

Writing for the majority, Justice Anthony Kennedy cited “the weight of the expansive penumbra surrounding the historically emerging and prevailing opinions of tribal shamans from Lesotho to Myanamar” in issuing the historic ruling in American Cattleman Association vs. Modern Bride, Helverson, et al.

TransTerrestrial noticed too. Nate wonders if he’s too late.

On a more serious note, The Buck Stops Here links to this article about the impropriety of what the court did. (HT: Stromata)

Kevin at Wizbang points to this Rolling Stone article and has a good laugh.

Like so many other Internet start-ups, MoveOn has raised — and burned through – tens of millions of dollars, innovating without producing many concrete results. Any reasonable analysis shows its stock may be dangerously overvalued. Those banking on MoveOn had better hope it is more Google than Pets.com. Because should the group flame out, the Democrats could be in for a fall of Nasdaq proportions.

More…

Now that Howard Dean has been named chair of the Democratic National Committee — an ascension that MoveOn helped to engineer — the Internet activist group is placing another high-stakes wager. It’s betting that its 3 million grass-roots revolutionaries can seize the reins of the party and establish the group as a lasting political force. “It’s our Party,” MoveOn’s twenty-four-year-old executive director, Eli Pariser, declared in an e-mail. “We bought it, we own it and we’re going to take it back.”

The Moderate Voice says:

As we see it, a fundamental issue is whether MoveOn.org is trying to reach the center and attract centrists or, rather, trying to convert centrists to move a bit more in their direction. And that, in a nutshell, is the Democratic party’s struggle as it heads towards the mid-terms and 2008: does it choose to define its identity by moving more towards the center, or does it consider that me-tooism and opt to accentuate differences with the GOP by taking sharper, more confrontational, positions?

If it miscalculates and makes a choice that doesn’t turn out to be the wise one, than all of MoveOn.org’s volunteers– and big bux –won’t make a dime’s worth of a difference.

VodkaPundit, The New Editor, Rosenblog, and Instapundit are all linking to this story as well.

Senator and former Klansman Robert Byrd (D-WV), had this to say (speech text) on the floor of the house Tuesday.

We, unlike Nazi Germany or Mussolini’s Italy, have never stopped being a nation of laws, not of men,” Byrd said. “But witness how men with motives and a majority can manipulate law to cruel and unjust ends.”
Byrd then quoted historian Alan Bullock, saying Hitler “turned the law inside out and made illegality legal.”

Byrd added, “That is what the nuclear option seeks to do.”

The nuclear option is the nickname for the proposal to end filibusters of judicial nominations because of the devastating effect the plan, if enacted, would have on relations between Democrats and Republicans.

Via Rambling. RadioBlogger has more, as does PowerPundit. And Captain Ed says:

Byrd, with his attempted filibuster of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, is the last person who should be standing in the well of the Senate, calling anyone a Nazi

UPDATE: RadioBlogger wants a blog swarm.

NPR:

The Department of Homeland Security is experimenting with a controversial new method to keep better track of immigrants who are applying to remain in the United States. It is requiring aliens in eight cities to wear electronic monitors 24 hours a day.

But there’s a big debate going on over at Outside the Beltway about whether this is aliens who have been ordered to leave the US, or whether this is for immigrants applying to remain in this country.

Others weighing in:

Kevin Drum
Talk Left
Michael Hussey
ParaPundit

The Observer reports that Mary Mapes (fired CBS News Producer) is shopping a “tell all” that will include a defense of the Killian Documents.

(via LGF).

Interested Participant is getting dizzy:

So, she’s going to prove that the fake documents are accurate, but she won’t allow her supporting documentation to be quoted. Since the original case against George Bush was based on fake documents, the case could not be supported. Nonetheless, Mapes now feels that she can write a book, keeping her supporting documentation secret, which proves the original case was true. Holy moly, I hope there’s a video. This is confusing. And frankly, Mapes sounds like she’s going to just repeat the “fake but accurate” blather we’ve already heard from Rather.

OpinionMeister made me chuckle with this:

You have to feel sorry for a publisher who buys a book that later proves to be a fraud, but how can you feel sorry for a publisher who buys a book that was proven to be a fraud before the rights were purchased. If anyone wants the rights to this clunker, I have some underwater real estate that you really should have a look at.

In the Agora has a brief overview of the legislative games going on here in Indiana.

Mitch Daniels, a great guy who has to date avoided impuning the character of his oppenents, today went on the attack:

“Indiana’s drive for growth and reform was car bombed yesterday by the Indiana House minority. Any pretense notwithstanding, it is clear that this cynical action was planned from the start of the session.

…

If you want to know why Indiana’s economy fell behind, why state government is broke, broken, and awash in scandal, just look at Mr. Bauer.

I shouldn’t be surprised that a throwback politician like Mr. Bauer would put party over jobs, reform, public safety, or the protection of children. But it’s harder to understand why not one House Democrat had the courage or conscience to stay at work when he told them to walk off the job. I guess they were just following orders.

I’m embarrassed for them, but it was their choice. We’re going to create a pro-jobs economic climate with or without them. We’re going to clean up the scandals and the waste they left behind whether they like it or not.”

I’m not sure the “car bomb” reference was a good choice of analogies, next we’ll hear “Mitch Daniels calls the house democrats terrorists” … but the point he is making is solid.

Let’s watch for criticism from those that defended O’Malley on this analogy, which was way more outrageous than what the Gov just said:

“Back on September 11, terrorists attacked our metropolitan cores, two of America’s great cities. They did that because they knew that was where they could do the most damage and weaken us the most,” O’Malley said. “Years later, we are given a budget proposal by our commander in chief, the president of the United States. And with a budget ax, he is attacking America’s cities. He is attacking our metropolitan core.”

UPDATE: In thinking a bit more about Mitch’s analogy, while it may be insensitive in some ways, it in fact is (from a literary standpoint) actually quite a good one. The point he seems to be making is that both a car bomb and the legislators actions in Indiana both indiscriminately kill things in their path. A car bomb takes out everything in range, regardless of who or what it is. The Indiana House Democrats, in protesting two measures, killed 132 pending bills.

I haven’t blogged about this yet, because I haven’t had much to say that’s not already been rehashed a thousand times elsewhere. However, this morning I scanned Big Trunk’s post at Powerline, in which he makes some interesting observations … and something jumped out at me that I wanted to repeat.

Though this link is a few years old, I had never heard this idea before… and it’s a great idea! PL points to Ben Boychuck’s idea of a Declaration recitation. If it’s unconstitutional to say the pledge or post the ten commandments, maybe it would be ok to recite the D of I on public property.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.

Boyd says [emphasis mine]:

Jefferson outlined what he thought should be the goals of public education in America. Among other things, it should “give every citizen the information he needs for the transaction of his own business,” “improve, by reading, his morals and faculties,” and teach the citizen to “know his rights; to exercise with order and justice those he retains.”

Love and respect for the great American experiment in free government does not appear out of thin air. Freedom and self-government are habits. Habits are formed out of repetition. They must be learned. Let’s teach them.

La Shawn is, understandably, pretty excited about her first live TV appearance. So now we have another “face of the female blogger.”

Political Teen has the video.