Lots of bloggers are pretty hot about the fact that the Senate Finance Committee agreed not to ask Blanco any questions about her response to Hurricane Katrina.

The Anchoress:

when I read the Republicans on the Senate Finance Committee agreed in advance not to ask poor, quivering, completely incompetent Gov. Kathleen Blanco any - that’s right - ANY, questions about her response to Hurricane Katrina (after, it must be said, some of those same GOP senators were pre-tty darn vicious to former FEMA head Brown), simply because she asked them not to - because, I guess, she needs time to construct whatever myth she deems necessary…well!

…

As a woman I am appalled at the kid-glove treatment of Gov. Blanco who makes all women in positions of power look bad. As a fairly new conservative, I just don’t understand. What gives? Is this still the “new tone?” Is there some brilliant strategy I am missing here?

Daily Pundit

I’m reminded of the old joke about why sharks never bite lawyers…

Professional courtesy, you know.

GM draws a marital analogy.

Husband…Did I see that your car has been wrecked?!
Wife………I don’t want to talk about it.
Husband…Don’t you think I deserve an explanation?
Wife………No, and that’s not why I came to you.
Husband…Well, what do you want?
Wife………I want money for a new car.
Husband…Who do you think I am…a Republican senator?
Wife………Give me the money or I’ll accuse you of abuse and desertion.
Husband…How much should I write the check for?

Macsmind wants to get his vote in.

More examples of “Wolves in Sheeps Clothing” Are we ready for 2006/08 or what?

How Many Fingers has some of his own questions to ask. Lawhawk says he is beyond fuming.

Postwatch, on the Gutless GOP:

There’s a reason we call it The Stupid Party.

The Anchoress is on today.

She said her contract with Speaking Matters, which has not yet disclosed how much a Sheehan appearance will cost, will help her “finally make some money …’cause Casey’s insurance money’s going to run out pretty soon.

Yes…Mother Sheehan wants you to remember, with every line she utters, that her son is dead. She also wants you to understand that she has been spending the insurance money of her dead son to embolden the insurgents who killed him, so that other mother’s sons may die, as well. She wants you to know that she has been spending the insurance money of her dead son…to give praise and support to the guys who killed him, and to march in the street with people who would spit on her son and call him a mercenary and a babykiller, were tragic, heroic Casey Sheehan still alive.

Here is the text of the indictment.

DeLay’s statement:

These charges have no basis in the facts or the law. This is just another example of Ronnie Earle misusing his office for partisan vendettas. Despite the clearly political agenda of this prosecutor, Congressman DeLay has cooperated with officials throughout the entire process. Even in the last two weeks, Ronnie Earle himself had acknowledged publicly that Mr. DeLay was not a target of his investigation. However, as with many of Ronnie Earle’s previous partisan investigations, Ronnie Earle refused to let the facts or the law get in the way of his partisan desire to indict a political foe.
This purely political investigation has been marked by illegal grand jury leaks, a fundraising speech by Ronnie Earle for Texas Democrats that inappropriately focused on the investigation, misuse of his office for partisan purposes, and extortion of money for Earle’s pet projects from corporations in exchange for dismissing indictments he brought against them. Ronnie Earle’s previous misuse of his office has resulted in failed prosecutions and we trust his partisan grandstanding will strike out again, as it should.

Ronnie Earle’s 1994 indictment against Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison was quickly dismissed and his charges in the 1980s against former Attorney General Jim Mattox-another political foe of Earle-fell apart at trial.

We regret the people of Texas will once again have their taxpayer dollars wasted on Ronnie Earle’s pursuit of headlines and political paybacks. Ronnie Earle began this investigation in 2002, after the Democrat Party lost the Texas state legislature to Republicans. For three years and through numerous grand juries, Ronnie Earle has tried to manufacture charges against Republicans involved in winning those elections using arcane statutes never before utilized in a case in the state. This indictment is nothing more than prosecutorial retribution by a partisan Democrat.

Rich Lowry and Mark Levin aren’t convinced there’s anything here.

Lowry:

If you can indict a ham sandwich, a conspiracy charge is indicting the mustard on the sandwich; it’s what you do when don’t have anything solid; conspiracy indictments are often tossed.

Levin:

Here’s my first take on this indictment (I’ve only read the indictment and nothing more for now): The indictment is three pages in length. Other than a statement that “one or more” of 3 individuals, including Tom DeLay, entered into an illegal conspiracy, I can’t find a single sentence tying Tom DeLay to a crime. That is, there’s not a single sentence tying DeLay to the contribution. The indictment describes the alleged conduct of two other individuals, but nothing about DeLay. You would think if Ronnie Earle had even a thin reed of testimony linking DeLay to the contribution, it would have been noted in the indictment to justify the grand jury’s action. Moreover, not only is there no information about DeLay committing acts in furtherance of a conspiracy, there’s no information about DeLay entering into a conspiracy. I honestly believe that unless there’s more, this is an egregious abuse of prosecutorial power. It’s a disgrace. I understand that not everything has to be contained in an indictment, but how about something!

Rebecca Harton says that the “politically motivated” argument misses the point.

The investigation probably IS politically motivated. BUT if the charges against him are true, it doesn’t matter to me what motivated the investigation. He’s either guilty or he’s innocent. That’s what really matters

However, maybe she missed the first sentence in his statement:

These charges have no basis in the facts or the law.

“Did Chuck Schumer get my credit report?”

That’s the question that various Senators and Candidates are asking. Michelle Malkin is asking a different question, and it is, “Where is the NYT, the ACLU, etc?”

Captain Ed turns the tables and asks Schumer some of his own questions. Mark Kennedy responds to the scandal (alternatively, Chuckaquiddick or Schumergate) here.

Hugh Hewitt graciously offers the phone number for a good defense attorney.

First, write down this number: 202-974-5600. That’s the number for Chadbourne & Parke in DC, where you can reach Abbe Lowell. LoweFirst, write down this number: 202-974-5600. That’s the number for Chadbourne & Parke in DC, where you can reach Abbe Lowell. Lowell’s a bit busy right now, but he is the city’s best bet for criminal defense and he’ll get you into competent hands within the firm. It is best to be the first one to the firm before conflicts kick in. Bring your wallet. Probably dad’s wallet, if you are young staffer in over your head. In fact, you’d better tell dad right now. It isn’t what he signed you up for, and he’s going to pretty ticked that Schumer’s gotten you into this mess, but it is better to tell him now rather than wait for the storm to pass over.

Pete the Elder:

Remarkably even though his employees have committed a felony they have not been fired, only suspended with pay.

I think this story qualifies as a climate of fear case even though no violence occurred because they were breaking the law in order to go after and possibly intimidate a political opponent.

The Ox Rant points to a Newswire article that quotes Virginia Walden Ford, who is still waiting for an apology:

“There is enough fear about identity theft and government invasion of our privacy without the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee engaging in such activity,” said Virginia Walden Ford, president of People of Color United and DC Parents for School Choice. “Our Senators should assist in protecting and guaranteeing our right to privacy, not condoning such gross violations. I’m disappointed Senator Schumer hasn’t publicly apologized to Lt. Governor Steele. We’re waiting for your apology, Senator Schumer.”

In an unintended consequence of affirmative action fewer boys are attending college these days.

Glenn Reynolds writing at TechCentralStation…

The remedy, in this view: Affirmative action for male candidates, re-education for faculty, campus “men’s centers” to match the womens’ centers that were created when women were an underrepresented group on campus (and which still remain today almost everywhere), and efforts to make curricula, dormitories, and recruiting more male-friendly. (Right now, though we see lots of courses on literature by and about women, courses on literature by and about men are regarded as too narrow.”)

Looks like this imbalance could be a serious problem for the future of this country given Harvard President Larry Summers comments, in a moment of unguarded honesty, about gender differences in aptitude in math and science.

More and more men seem to be skipping college to take up high paying trades such as electricians, plumbers, contractors, and linesmen, all skills calling for a decent degree of intelligence. And these jobs won’t likely be outsourced. Looks like men aren’t so dumb after all.

Pretty soon the diversity crowd will be crying about an underrepresentation of women and minorities in the building trades. But then policing diversity is an industry all its own.

This U.S. Marine has real courage. Recently back from Iraq he wasn’t about to let the pro-terrorists roaming the streets of Washington, D.C. ignore the truth.

From Powerline…

Standing up to totalitarian sociopaths: it takes courage, whether you’re in Washington, D.C. or Beijing.

Let’s follow the lead of this courageous patriot.

More on the pro-terrorist rallies in Washington that the so-called mainstream media doesn’t want you to see here and here.

Apparently, they want a “download of his experience.” Sean Sirrine says “Only a government agency would pay someone to explain to them why he screwed up so bad.”

John Clark wonders what his new role as contractor is paying. Chris Fournier says: “a guy who was totally unqualified for the job in the first place is now getting paid as a consultant.” Two Babes and a Brain thinks it is outrageous. Michelle Malkin has more. And Ankle Biting Pundits is skeptical, but primarily because CBS is reporting it.

Occasionally I peruse the referring URLs to see what people are searching for to find Myopic Zeal. Often I am surprised.

I noticed several recently from a Yahoo search for Diversity on Campus that pointed to this post. Turns out we’re the second Yahoo search result for that phrase, outflanked by only UMass Amherst.

Fun.

And in a strong testimonial to the power of advertising on Myopic Zeal, we also have several listings in the first page of Google results for the term Marbleworks (currently 8th and 9th), Super Marbleworks (coming in 2nd and 3rd!)

How, you might wonder, is this possible? Well, the Discovery Toys Super Marbleworks is one of our favorite toys, and we have mentioned this several times in the past. One of our favorite sponsors is a Discovery Toys senior educational consultant, and we have linked to her website as a service to both her and our readers. If you’re interested in purchasing some of these great products (guaranteed for life!), click through to her site. If you’re a business owner interested in advertising here, consider what a spot on Myopic Zeal, and the occasional associated commentary, could do for your search engine rankings! Email us if you would like more info on this “amazing opportunity!” :-)

So far, we have only advertised for products which we have personally tested and approved. In that vein, we also highly recommend that you take some time out of your busy life for a relaxing week or maybe just a long weekend in beautiful Brown County, Indiana. Woods’ Edge is a uniquely decorated condominium sitting on Salt Creek Golf Course just outside of the quaint artisan village of Nashville, IN. It’s worth the trip.

The same Saudi prince who offered Giuliani a big check after 9/11 (which Guilliani refused) is reported to be buying a 5.46% stake in Fox News. Watch for changes in coverage at Fox.

From the Israeli National News, Arutz Sheva, here’s the story.

Here’s a category by category recommendation (kind of a broadened line by line analysis) on turning the budget deficit into a large budget surplus.

Ken at ChicagoBoyz…

As one who thinks that taxes are plenty high enough, on the rich as well as on everyone else, and that budgetary problems should be solved by budget cutting, it’s time to go to work.

Here’s Ken’s work. See what you think.

The NY Times caught again. Yup. In what is becoming commonplace, the Times was forced to admit that one of their reporters made up a story about Hurricane Katrina. But that’s not the real story.

The real story is this…

Times editor Bill Keller, however, is still standing by Ms. Stanley’s bogus report. He told Calame that she was “writing as a critic, with the license that title brings - [and] was within bounds in her judgment.”

So if you take the position of a critic as a journalist it is now okay to lie, fabricate, and just plain ol’ make things up to fit what you want the story to convey. If you ask me most reporters sound like critics.

As incredible as it sounds that’s apparently now becoming the new journalistic standard since they can’t get away with lying anymore. I guess it’s a case of ” We’re going to lie no matter what to promote our agenda. Since the bloggers are always catching us, we’ll just make it okay and call it within the new bounds of journalistic integrity.” Times editor Keller giving a license to lie I guess. So is this new special category of reporter now exempt from telling the truth? Amazing!

Look for Alessandra Stanley to get some sort of great reporter award from the Rather Institute of High Standards. No wonder there’s fear in the newsrooms. You can’t get away with lying anymore. And that’s something to shed tears over.

So we’ll call it “okay.” Gotta love it.

More media fraud discussed here and here.

Could it be that the Feds knew about a possible Iraq/Oklahoma City bombing connection? Is there a reason the Clinton administration shut down the Able Danger investigation that had fingered Mohammad Atta?

Very intriguing investigative work by Jayna Davis found here.

Great reading for you sleuths out there.

What’s the voter registration like in your town? Has your town been a purported hotbed for the insurgency? So this is good news from Iraq… once again ignored by the so-called mainstream media.

Check it out via Powerline.

Maybe we in America should follow the example of these brave people. Instead we get the daily drumbeat from the leftist media of anti-American, hate Bush propaganda.

The other day I saw a headline, “2 Killed across Iraq.” I wonder how many were killed across America on that day. It gets pretty old and very transparent doesn’t it?

Here’s how the liberals operate. If you haven’t been following the new liberal radio Air America’s thievery of funds ($875,000) from the Gloria Wise Boys and Girls Clubs of Bronx, NY it wouldn’t be surprising. The so-called mainstream media haven’t been following this either, trying to push it under the rug.

But for a good rundown of how these people think and operate we recommend this piece…

… from the deposition

“The notion that money left the Gloria Wise Boys & Girls Club so that Evan could pretend that he was investing in Air America sickened me to my core,” Mr. Goodfriend said in the deposition.

David Goodfriend is a former Clinton administration official. Evan Cohen is the founder of Air America.

“I was told my life would be made very difficult if I didn’t sign the document,” Mr. Goodfriend testified.

Now why isn’t this on the front pages of the NY Times? Imagine, liberals stealing from boys and girls. Sure seems newsworthy to me. But then maybe the Times figures it’s standard fare for liberals so it really isn’t newsworthy. I guess they would know.

More here.

Mahmoud Abouelleil asked a very good question.

A Northwest Airlines flight bound for Minneapolis from Bradley International Airport was detained for more than two hours Thursday evening when a passenger who missed the boarding call but whose bag had been loaded onto the plane, asked an airline gate agent: “What if there was a bomb in my bag?” state police said.

I may be the last guy in the country to not hear about this conspiracy theory… but I read this tonight for the first time.

Since Katrina, Stevens has been in newspapers across the country where he was quoted in an Associated Press story as saying the Yakuza Mafia used a Russian-made electromagnetic generator to cause Hurricane Katrina in a bid to avenge the atomic bomb attack on Hiroshima.

…

Although the theories espoused by Stevens - scalar weapons, global dimming - are definitely on the scientific fringe today, there are thousands of Web sites that mention such phenomena.

“The Soviets boasted of their geoengineering capabilities; these impressive accomplishments must be taken at face value simply because we are observing weather events that simply have never occurred before, never!” Stevens wrote on his Web site. “The evidence of these weapons at work found within the clouds overhead is simply unmistakable. These patterns and odd geometric shapes seen in our skies, each and every day, are clear and present evidence that our weather has been stolen from us, only to be used by those whose designs for humanity are rarely in alignment with that of the common man.”

Right.

For a good chuckle, read more here.

Want some conspiracy with your forecast?

This is quite an interesting list.

Unicorn? Bunny?

Via the Moderate Voice

In between her biting satirical digs on the New York Times and John Kerry, Ann Coulter makes some great points in her most recent column.

If Americans loved judicial activism, liberals wouldn’t be lying about what it is. Judicial activism means making up constitutional rights in order to strike down laws the justices don’t like based on their personal preferences. It’s not judicial activism to strike down laws because they violate the Constitution.

But liberals have recently taken to pretending judicial activism is — as The New York Times has said repeatedly — voting “to invalidate laws passed by Congress.” Invalidating laws has absolutely nothing to do with “judicial activism.” It depends on whether the law is unconstitutional or not. That’s really the key point.

…

The left’s redefinition of judicial activism to mean something it’s not allows liberals to claim they oppose judicial activism and to launch spirited denunciations of conservative judges as the real “judicial activists.” This is the Democrats’ new approach to winning arguments: Change the definition of words in mid-argument without telling the guy you’re arguing with. Chairman Mao would approve.

Thus, The New York Times prissily informed its readers: “There is a misconception that so-called activist judges who ‘legislate from the bench’ are invariably liberal. In fact, conservative judges can be even more eager to overrule decisions made by elected officials.”

That statement has as much intellectual content as saying: “There is a misconception that so-called activist judges who ‘legislate from the bench’ are invariably liberal. In fact, conservative judges can be even more eager to play tennis.”

The very act of redefining “judicial activism” to mean invalidating any law passed by elected officials is precisely the sort of Alice-in-Wonderland nonsense we’re talking about. Liberal judges redefine the Constitution’s silence on abortion to mean “abortion is a precious constitutional right.” Liberal flacks in the media redefine judicial activism to mean “striking down laws.”

By way of Mind and Media, I have been given a copy of Time Bete’s “In the Beginning There Were No Diapers” and it is an absolute riot.

I’ve read lots of parenting books, to the point where it seems repititious after a while. Lots of experts have different theories on the subject, of course, but after a while there are only so many ways you can discuss potty training, behavioral training and enforcement, etc. But Tim puts a completely new spin on things.

This book will have you laughing out loud. It will have you saying to your spouse over and over “Hey honey, let me read you this paragraph!” And you will laugh together (or may be cry together, depending on the paragraph and how much you can directly relate). Tim takes the best and the worst of parenting and sums it up in a uniquely humorous way. There were many times I was reading a chapter and wondered to myself if he had set up a secret recording device in my house.

Rather than belabor the point, suffice it to say, this book is hilarious. If you are a parent who has had young children, you absolutely must buy this book.

On a somewhat related note, Tim Bete has also recently won the award of the 2005 Writer’s Digest Best Writer’s Web Site.

“Humor helps people reflect on their lives and can be very healing, especially for parents raising young children,” says Bete. And he adds, children who drive their parents crazy are nothing new, speculating there must have been a thousand children present when Jesus multiplied the loaves and fish.

“By my calculation, 500 kids would have said they ‘didn’t like fish,’” says Bete. “Three hundred would have complained that their ‘bread was touching their fish.’ Two hundred kids would have whined that their fish was ‘inedible without tartar sauce.’ It’s a miracle when you can get your kids to eat something that’s good for them.”

Bete’s humor has also appeared in the Christian Science Monitor, Sacramento Bee and more than a dozen parenting magazines. He is a contributor to the books, Chicken Soup for the Father & Daughter Soul, Amazing Grace for the Catholic Heart and Misadventures of Moms and Disasters of Dads. Bete is also the creator of HumorWriters.org, which was picked as one of the Best 101 Web Sites for Writers by Writer’s Digest, and FlightHumor.org, which was picked by the Houston Chronicle as one of their 101 Favorite Travel Web Sites.

“For me, there is a difference between being a Catholic writer and writing about Catholic things,” says Bete. “There are many members of the Body of Christ. I just happen to be the funny bone.”

Other reviews can be found here…

Great book, two thumbs up, 5 stars, a+, and all those other good ratings!

… and here …

There were quite a few times that a passage got me so tickled that my husband took the book away from me just to read what was so funny.

Interesting news reported in the Northeast Intelligence Network (via The Canadian Sentinel).