November 2005 Archives

disenfranchise:

Via AP/Yahoo:

Illinois Lawmaker Convicted of Fraud

CHICAGO - A state lawmaker who didn't live in the district she represents was found guilty of using fake addresses on re-election paperwork and voter registration cards, and must resign.

Rep. Patricia Bailey was found guilty Tuesday of election fraud and perjury after a one-day trial.

"You never had a heat, electric, a telephone, a cable bill," Cook County Judge Diane Gordon-Cannon told the Chicago Democrat. "You never lived for 30 minutes inside your district."

Bailey, 52, first elected in 2002, faces up to five years in prison when sentenced Dec. 21. She wouldn't comment as she left the courtroom.

State law requires her to give up her 6th District House seat on Chicago's South Side, but prosecutors were working to determine whether she had to do so immediately or could wait until she was sentenced.

Bailey also will have to leave her job as a Cook County probation officer. She will be ineligible to hold a government job for five years after her sentence is completed.

Bailey testified that she had been a victim of identity theft and repeated miscommunication about her residence, saying she had intended to move to an address she provided to the state when she filed for re-election.

Robert Sawicki, an assistant executive director of the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners, outlined six voter registration documents with various addresses Bailey had filed — some just a few days apart — since she first registered to vote in 1995.

Attorney General Lisa Madigan called Bailey's actions "a serious breach of the public trust" and said those who "voted for or considered voting for Ms. Bailey believed that she lived in the 6th District. The fact that she did not is unethical and illegal."

When you fraudulently run for office, and legitimate candidates are pushed aside due to that fraud, you have disenfranchised each and every voter. Period.

Nancy Pelosi issued this press release today on President Bush's Iraq war plan. Although it was filled with the usual tripe we've come to expect from Rep. Pelosi, notable was the last paragraph:

"We should follow the lead of Congressman John Murtha, who has put forth a plan to make America safer, to make our military stronger, and to make Iraq more stable."

But when faced with having to put up or shut up, she bolted away from the Mothra Cut and Run Plan as if it had cooties.

I'm sure her opinion's just evolved - right?

Over a week ago, I told you about the MoveOn smear commercial designed to rub salt in the wounds of military families. It appears that there were a few details my old eyes missed. Opinion Journal was the first to hear about the fact that the "troops" in the ad weren't even American!

It gets even worse for the filthy liars at MoveOn. GOP and the City and GOP and College discovered that MoveOn knew that the troops weren't American and tried to cover it up using photoshop!

For those of you veterans (I'm one too, ya know) who may have thought the Ted Rall flap was about just one deranged moonbat (or an isolated event), think again:

Oh - someone just suggested to me that MoveOn will pass the blame to whatever firm made the ad for them. Doesn't matter. MoveOn approved it. MoveOn paid for it. MoveOn put it on the air. MoveOn owns whatever mess they made. They would expect nothing less from the conservatives.

This isn't about patriotism, although these cretins have none. This isn't about the hole in the collective left where their hearts should be.

The military represents something they can't comprehend. This breeds fear. Fear breeds hate.

The left hates you.

Update (5:20 PM EST): MoveOn has pulled the ad from its website.

Update 2 (5:22 PM EST): The ad is still there, but the photoshopped still picture on the right side of the page is removed. And the link from the main page is gone too has been moved. Sorry for the mixup.

Update 3 (02 Dec 05 9:00 AM EST): Immediately after posting update 2, I emailed Randy Hall at CNS News, and I'm sure lots of others did as well. Her update to the story is here.

over his entry on Wikipedia. And after reading his Op/Ed (via USA Today/Yahoo), I'm inclined to feel that he's justified. He speaks of the difficulty of getting the entry corrected:

For four months, Wikipedia depicted me as a suspected assassin before Wales erased it from his website's history Oct. 5. The falsehoods remained on Answers.com and Reference.com for three more weeks.

I've seen lots of blog posts over the last year questioning the reliability of Wikipedia. I think it just shows that you get what you pay for.

Here's the corrected Wikipedia entry.

and the almost cult-like following they had. Sure, they had a few tunes I liked, but I was never bitten by the same bug that created one of the most loyal fan bases the music industry has ever known.

Now we get to see just how obsessed that fan base really is as Jerry Garcia's toilet goes to the auction block:

SAN FRANCISCO - Jerry Garcia's dishwasher, toilets and other home appliances will be auctioned by a nonprofit group hoping to raise more than $100,000.

Normally, auctions involving personal items from deceased celebrities would include items meaningful to their career - you know, letters, collections, memorabilia from performances, etc. But a dishwasher?

If that's not worth bidding on for you, they have other items as well:

The items, which also include stereo cabinets, cupboards and a freezer, will be available for bidding on the online auction site eBay from Dec. 18 through Dec. 24.

It's all for charity, of course. But a toilet?

Linked with:
Don Surber (Okay, so I'm stubborn. So what?)

By now, you've all heard about the latest hostages in Iraq. Most rational and sane folks know that terrorists are to blame.

But the Christian Peacemaker Teams, the group that the hostages belong to, doesn't blame the terrorists. Who do you suppose they do blame?

Yes, that's right:

We are angry because what has happened to our teammates is the result of the actions of the U.S. and U.K. governments due to the illegal attack on Iraq and the continuing occupation and oppression of its people.

Denial. It's not just for breakfast anymore.

I didn't post on the horrid Ted Rall cartoon yesterday. Nick at Conservative Dialysis addressed it pretty thoroughly, and I couldn't add to his analysis.

Today Ted dredges up a little more bile in his weekly op/ed subtitled "How Ragtag Insurgents Beat the World's Sole Superpower"

He wants to rewrite history on the Afghan war - something not even Nancy Pelosi would dare do. He claims the Afghan was not only lost, but claims our troops, to the last man, acted dishonorably and even criminally:

Banditry and looting soon made the average Afghan nostalgic for the security that accompanies tyranny. On the other hand, since U.S. soldiers quickly gained a reputation for shoving, kidnapping, robbing and even torturing innocent Afghans, perhaps their small number was a good thing.

If any of you reading this are veterans, this is what Ted Rall thinks of you. He doesn't stop there, however. He moves on to describe our Guard and Reserve:

As inexperienced weekend warriors shot up carloads of civilians from rooftops above invisible checkpoints, it soon became apparent that our forces were undereducated, poorly trained and excessively preoccupied with their own safety. The Americans' cultural insensitivity, often beyond the point of brutality, transformed people grateful to be liberated into insurgents in a matter of months.

If you ever served as a weekend warrior, that's what Ted Rall thinks of you. Oh - by the way - below the fold is another one of his cartoons in which he accuses our troops of homosexual rape. Just in case the above wasn't enough.

Linked with:
Conservative Cat
bRight & Early
Don Surber - then again, maybe not. No, I don't know why. MT 3.2 isn't as good with trackbacks as I would like.
Basil's Blog

The DNC must be having a worse fundraising year than I thought. They're resorting to direct email soliciting donations for a single billboard:

If you contribute now the billboard can be up next week.

They're hoping to raise enough money for more billboards as well. It's a brilliant, albeit infantile, move for the Dems. Since Republicans can't debate a billboard, facts and reality can't taint the Democrat's message.

As for the billboard, besides having the usual distorted and hypocritical slant that is the hallmark of most Democratic advertising nowadays, it's childish. I know, folks on the right have done this kind of thing as well, mostly during local elections.

It's still childish.

In a sudden fit of balance, AP gives us some interesting reporting on the Abramoff Scandal:

Abramoff Tied to Dorgan Donation, Tribe Says

WASHINGTON - New evidence is emerging that the top Democrat on the Senate committee currently investigating Jack Abramoff got political money arranged by the lobbyist back in 2002 shortly after the lawmaker took action favorable to Abramoff's tribal clients.

A lawyer for the Louisiana Coushatta Indians told The Associated Press that Abramoff instructed the tribe to send $5,000 to Sen. Byron Dorgan (news, bio, voting record)'s political group just three weeks after the North Dakota Democrat urged fellow senators to fund a tribal school program Abramoff's clients wanted to use.

The check was one of about five dozen the Coushattas listed in a tribal ledger as being issued on March 6, 2002, to various lawmakers' campaigns and political causes at the instruction of Abramoff, tribal attorney Jimmy Fairchild said Monday.

Many of the recipients were lawmakers who had just written letters to the Bush administration or Congress supportive of Abramoff's tribal causes, documents show.

In Dorgan's case, at issue is $20,000 in donations recieved from tribes represented by Abramoff and the appearance that it was payment for a letter he wrote to the President supporting a tribal school program.

Previously, reporting in this has been focused primarily on Republicans, and the left has made numerous statements about the Republican's involvement while turning a blind eye to their own members caught up in the scandal. As the reporting has shifted toward something more balanced, the left, particularly the DNC, has adopted silence. Considering the aggressiveness of the DNC attacks at the outset of the story, I can't help but surmise that the DNC was blind-sided by the media on this, having been able to depend on the MSM's portward tilt in the past for cover.

In my previous posts, I've commented on the problematic nature of this particular scandal for the Democrats. After all, how can you deride the Republican "culture of corruption" when Harry Reid, Byron Dorgan, Mary Landrieu, and others are part of the same club? Defending their own is equally difficult when by default, they defend Trent Lott, Tom Delay, Roy Blunt and the rest. Not that Dorgan doesn't try, albeit weakly:

Dorgan's staff said Dorgan believes the letter was drafted by Sen. Conrad Burns (news, bio, voting record), R-Mont., who also signed it and got similar donations from Abramoff's clients in the same time frame.

Considering the treatment Republicans received from the DNC over this, I find it curious that Senator Dorgan would use the "he did it, too!" defence.

So far, everyone involved is saying the same thing:

"The suggestion in the story that I may have supported that school construction program because of Jack Abramoff or because of campaign contributions from Indian tribes is clearly and despicably wrong," Dorgan said.

But Dorgan's position as ranking Democrat on the committee charged with investigating the scandal adds another dimension to the story. He denies that it affects his duties, though:

Dorgan's spokesman, Barry E. Piatt, said he believed his boss had pursued the congressional investigation of Abramoff aggressively.

Asked why that investigation hasn't focused more on donations to lawmakers who wrote letters favorable to Abramoff's clients, Piatt said, "They're investigating what appears to be massive fraud, and there's lots of ground to cover and it is still early."

Honestly, folks. If Chuck Grassley was on that committee, what would the Democratic reaction be? And they'd be right. Even if this all turns out to be just a tempest in a teapot, the appearance of suspects conducting their own investigations casts a pall over any resulting conclusions that can't be ignored.

The appearance of impropriety is unmistakable. Senator Dorgan should step aside from the investigation. And if anyone on the Indian Affairs Committee is implicated in the Abramoff scandal, they should join him.

On the other hand, staying on simply reinforces what we've known all along - Democrats are only interested in dealing with corruption when it occurs in someone else's party. And this time it appears that the press is noticing.

You should recall the story earlier this month about the IRS investigating Rev. George Regas and All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena about a sermon titled "What if Jesus were to debate John Kerry and George Bush?"

Now comes another allegation:

WASHINGTON, Nov. 28 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) today filed an Internal Revenue Services (IRS) complaint against Focus on the Family, a conservative, non-profit organization led by its founder and chairman James C. Dobson. The complaint asks for the IRS to investigate activities by the group which may violate IRS regulations and require a revocation of its tax-exempt status.

Although barred from electioneering, Dobson has endorsed candidates for political office several times. In early April, 2004, Dobson endorsed Republican Representative Patrick J. Toomey in his race for Senate in Pennsylvania. In addition, it was reported that Dobson actively campaigned during a rally for Rep. Toomey. Other candidates that Dobson reportedly endorsed in 2004 include North Carolina Republican candidate Pat Ballentine for Govenor and Oklahoma Republican candidate Tom Coburn for Senate.

"Mr. Dobson's egregious violations of IRS code demand an investigation into his improper activities that break both the spirit and the letter of IRS law," Melanie Sloan, executive director of CREW said today.

I don't think this will go very far. Endorsing a candidate as an individual is a far cry from making political speeches disguised as a sermon. But the real question is: Why did CREW make the complaint?

Recently, the IRS has actively pursued investigations against several perceived liberal groups. The IRS targeted the NAACP's chairman Julian Bond for a July 2004 speech in which he criticized the Bush administration's policies on civil rights and the war in Iraq. Additionally, the IRS has threatened to revoke the tax-exempt status of All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena, California because of an antiwar sermon there during the 2004 presidential election. In his sermon "If Jesus Debated Sen. Kerry and President Bush," the Rector Emeritus of the church, George Regas, never encouraged parishoners to vote for one candidate over another, but only to vote their deepest values.

Sloan continued, "The IRS has established a track record of scrutinizing organizations, in particular liberal ones, that have purportedly violated electioneering regulations. We hope that the IRS will fully investigate Focus on the Family activities as vigorously as it has targeted those of progressive organizations."

You know, my four year-old does the same thing.

The DNC is having a meeting in New Orleans:

NEW ORLEANS - The Democratic National Committee plans to hold a meeting of about 400 people in New Orleans early next year as a way to express confidence in the city's future after Hurricane Katrina, officials said.

Evidently, accomodations were a problem:

The group usually uses only union hotels but got a special dispensation from labor officials to book the downtown Sheraton, he said. Dean said the Sheraton was the only full-service hotel that was reserving rooms and could handle a convention that large.

Sigh. No wonder they can't win elections. They're too busy pandering to come up with any ideas.

Via AP/CNN:

SAN DIEGO, California (AP) -- Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham pleaded guilty Monday to conspiracy and tax charges, admitting taking $2.4 million in bribes in a case that grew from an investigation into the sale of his home to a wide-ranging conspiracy involving payments in cash, vacations and antiques.

Yes, yes, it's terrible. And it's sad to see a Republican in this situation. However, as I've said before about others - if he's guilty, punish him and good riddance. We have too much trouble with bogus accusations to tolerate the real ones.

But that's not why I brought you here. In the same article, about 800 pixels down, is this:

House Ethics rules say that any lawmaker convicted of a felony no longer should vote or participate in committee work.

Should? Please think about that word "should" for a moment. It's okay, I'll wait.

Now - have we just stumbled on to a root problem here?

Update: Head House Moonbat invokes her favorite catchphrase. Is she starting to sound like a trained parrot, or what?

That's the title of this opinion piece in today's USA Today:

In it, Tim Kane and James Jay Carafano do a respectable job of countering the arguments often made by anti-war/anti-recruiting activists that minorities and the impoverished disproportionately bear the burden of defence:

That's the view of some critics, such as New York Times columnist Bob Herbert, who writes that "very few" of the soldiers fighting in Iraq "are coming from the privileged economic classes," and that there would likely be no war if rich kids had to fight. According to Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., social equality demands reinstatement of the draft, which he justifies by asserting that "the most privileged Americans are underrepresented or absent." Herbert concludes that there is "something very, very wrong with this picture."

What's "very, very wrong" with the Rangel-Herbert picture is that it has no factual basis.

According to a comprehensive study of all enlistees for the years 1998-99 and 2003 that The Heritage Foundation just released, the typical recruit in the all-volunteer force is wealthier, more educated and more rural than the average 18- to 24-year-old citizen is. Indeed, for every two recruits coming from the poorest neighborhoods, there are three recruits coming from the richest neighborhoods.

The study mentioned can be found here. Also, more commentary by Mr. Kane can be found here.

The good news is that contrary to what we so often see in the MSM, patriotism among our youth is flourishing and crosses racial and economic boundaries.

I hope Rep. Charles Rangel takes a look.

From AP/Yahoo:

BAGHDAD, Iraq - A military vehicle carrying three congressmen overturned on the way to the Baghdad airport, injuring two of them, the U.S. Embassy said Sunday.

Rep. Tim Murphy, R-Pa., was airlifted to a military hospital in Germany for an MRI on his neck, and Rep. Ike Skelton (news, bio, voting record), D-Mo., was sent to a Baghdad hospital for evaluation, said Rep. Jim Marshall (news, bio, voting record), D-Ga., who was also in the vehicle but was not hurt when it overturned Saturday.

We've been pretty lucky 'till now. VIP visits to Iraq have been frequent, even though this wasn't a hostile act, it easily could have been.

DGITL wishes rapid recovery to Rep. Murphy and Rep. Skelton.

Update (10:00 P.M.): Others are apparently not as generous, though.

This'll please the history buffs:

Scientists Probe Lewis & Clark Encampment

WARRENTON, Ore. - A fire that destroyed the replica of Fort Clatsop, where Meriwether Lewis and William Clark spent the winter of 1805-1806, has provided a rare chance for archaeologists to probe the ground where the fort stood, seeking even the subtlest evidence of the explorers or the Clatsop Indians who came before them.

They've only a small window of opportunity - till Dec 10 - but a great bit of luck for some archaeologists who wouldn't have gotten a chance otherwise. I hope they find everything they want.

Via AP/Yahoo:

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Iraqi police arrested eight Sunni Arabs for allegedly plotting to kill the judge who prepared the indictment of Saddam Hussein, authorities said Sunday, the day before the ousted leader's trial for crimes against humanity resumes.

The "plotters" (why can't AP get it right?) were apparently under orders:

The eight alleged plotters from Iraq's Sunni Arab minority were apprehended Saturday in the northern city of Kirkuk, police Col. Anwar Qadir said.

He said they were carrying written instructions from a former top Saddam deputy, Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, ordering them to kill investigating judge Raed Juhi, who prepared the case against Saddam and forwarded it to the trial court in July.

Al-Douri is the highest ranking member of the Saddam regime still at large and is believed to be at least the symbolic leader of Saddam loyalists fighting U.S. forces and Iraq's new government.

If this keeps up it's going to be a long trial. In the meantime:

Former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark arrived in Baghdad to help the defense but might not be allowed in court Monday when the first of up to 35 prosecution witnesses take the stand.

What is it about this guy? Is there a genocidal maniac that he wouldn't defend?

Update (8:00 am 28 Nov 05): Maybe it will be a longer trial than I thought:

Saddam Trial Resumes, Then Is Postponed

After a short session during which the first testimony was read into the record, Chief Judge Rizgar Mohammed Amin adjourned the trial until Dec. 5 to allow time to find replacements for two defense lawyers who were slain and another who fled the country after he was wounded.

Saddam's strategy appears to be "complain about everything":

The trial of Saddam Hussein for alleged crimes against humanity resumed in a heavily guarded courtroom Monday with the former Iraqi president angrily complaining about having to walk up four flights of stairs under foreign guard.

I really don't think he's going to get a lot of sympathy from his bellyaching, though.

Now that Thanksgiving is over, lots of us will be preparing for Christmas. Before you pat yourself on the back for your Griswald-like decoration job, you may want to take a look at this (via snopes.com).

If you have control issues, Alek's Christmas Lights Webcam lets you turn lights on and off, and even inflate/deflate Frankenstein (since when did he become a symbol for Christmas?). It was fake last year, but this year he promises to make it real, and all to raise a few bucks for Celiac Disease Research.

If you hadn't heard the music in the first item before, it's from the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. I've always liked the blending of rock with classical, and they do it nicely. I wish they would make a few more videos like this, though. The music from the first item is called Wizards in Winter, and a better quality listen can be found here.

If you still need decorating ideas, there are lots of pictures of Griwald wanna-be's at Planet Christmas. And for the curious, here's how Christmas lights work.

For examples of what not to do, check out Holly's Tacky Christmas Lights. I hope she updates it for this year. And take a look at this from the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

Not that Virginia has the market cornered on over-done lighting - here's a few in other states. Who knows, maybe you'll come across your house?

California: San Fransisco, Bakersfield (fun video here)

Florida: Pinecrest (this one raises money for cancer research, so they're at least doing it for a good cause), Tampa

Texas: Austin (some of these would make Neal Boortz proud)

By the way - comedian/author Doug Hecox thinks we're inviting trouble with all the Christmas lights. I bet he'd be really popular in Canada.

Update: Alek of Alec's Christmas Lights reponds.

Linked with and Thanks to:
Wizbang
Stop the ACLU
Basil's Blog
bRight & Early
Conservative Cat

Cindy has a new web post! (hat tip: Little Green Footballs)

Odd that it isn't posted at Huffington Post like usual. Maybe she's having trouble getting past Arriana's censors. That's where I usually go for her posts, since it's brighter lit and cleaner than the other places. And besides, I know I can take Deepak Chopra if he gets too rowdy. Anyway, the Damsel of Delusion serves up an unusually tasty Thanksgiving treat featuring Moonbat Pie as the desert. So lets get on to the quotes:

My family is spending our 2nd Thanksgiving without Casey thanks to you and your lies. I am spending the day crying on a plane on my way to come to Crawford to again ask you for a meeting.

Let's forget about the fact that President Bush didn't lie, and never mind the fact that Bush didn't kill Casey, the terrorists did. After 2 years, why does she continue to choose misery? No one is forcing her to cry on airplanes. Why keep stalking the President? Maybe it's all the attention:

But wait - there's more:

Also, since August we have discovered that American forces are using chemical weapons in Iraq . The Army admitted that white phosphorous was used as an offensive weapon against "enemy combatants."

Tsk, tsk. Caught in another one! The Army didn't say that! And let's assume (however wrongly) for a moment that WP is a chemical weapon. In that case, Saddam had a bunch of it! So are you really willing to throw out your "Bush Lied" fiction in favor of a much weaker one? Do none of your handlers give you advice? Oh, and if you're curious about the white phosphorous story, find out from folks who know. Start here.

Cindy also gets more personal than ever before in this post:

Are you and Laura going to hit the sack tonight and toss and turn or stare out of the window worried that Jenna or Barbara may be killed in Iraq?

It's their business, Cindy. And a mite distasteful of you to speculate what the Bushes do in bed, don't ya think? That said, I'd like to think since the twins aren't in Iraq, they'll be doing some tossin' and turnin' in the sack.

Cindy is now the Mistress of Monuments:

Yes, her fans have erected a monument to Cindy. Lots of folks, including me, have said the Dame of Despair needs a hobby to get her mind off all that hate and delusion. She's obviously not the only one:

The artist who carved the 1,200-pound monument, Ron Teska of Wind Ridge, Pa., drove to Crawford the last week of the protest with the stone slab in the back of his pickup. He spent about 45 hours carving it.

And what would be a day at Camp Moonbat without a few faux tears?

Cindy Sheehan, who staged a 26-day protest outside Bush's ranch in August, cried when she saw the 2-foot-high sandstone marker.

I think she should use it as a keychain fob.

While most of us are more concerned with the War on Terror, Some Canadians worry about a different war:

Former Canadian Minister Of Defence Asks Canadian Parliament Asked To Hold Hearings On Relations With Alien "Et" Civilizations

(PRWEB) - OTTAWA, CANADA (PRWEB) November 24, 2005 -- A former Canadian Minister of Defence and Deputy Prime Minister under Pierre Trudeau has joined forces with three Non-governmental organizations to ask the Parliament of Canada to hold public hearings on Exopolitics -- relations with “ETs.”

By “ETs,” Mr. Hellyer and these organizations mean ethical, advanced extraterrestrial civilizations that may now be visiting Earth.

On September 25, 2005, in a startling speech at the University of Toronto that caught the attention of mainstream newspapers and magazines, Paul Hellyer, Canada’s Defence Minister from 1963-67 under Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Prime Minister Lester Pearson, publicly stated: "UFOs, are as real as the airplanes that fly over your head."

Mr. Hellyer went on to say, "I'm so concerned about what the consequences might be of starting an intergalactic war, that I just think I had to say something."

Of course, it's probably all Bush's fault:

Hellyer warned, "The United States military are preparing weapons which could be used against the aliens, and they could get us into an intergalactic war without us ever having any warning. He stated, "The Bush administration has finally agreed to let the military build a forward base on the moon, which will put them in a better position to keep track of the goings and comings of the visitors from space, and to shoot at them, if they so decide."

Definitely the oddest example of BDS I've seen in a while...

Update: Little Green Footballs is posting on this as well. Beat me by 5 minutes, too.

This is wrong on so many levels:

Drug Smuggler Crowned Miss Penitentiary

SAO PAULO, Brazil - South America's latest beauty queen won't be campaigning abroad for world peace any time soon, unless, of course, she's granted early parole.

Angelica Mazua, a statuesque Angolan serving five years on international drug smuggling charges, on Thursday was voted Miss Penitentiary 2005 after a six-hour contest pitting 40 women inmates from 10 prisons around Brazil's largest city, Sao Paulo.

This is the second year for the event in Brazil. The contestants come from all walks of life:

The women, serving sentences for crimes from armed robbery to drug trafficking, were vying to be named Miss Penitentiary 2005 — a title that brings a $160 prize and a break from dreary routine.

Although it seems to me that an unintended side effect might be the glorification of criminals, the prison system thought up the idea to boost self-esteem:

Prison officials came up with the idea of a beauty contest last year as a way of trying to boost inmates' self-confidence. Judges include celebrities, soccer players and journalists, and there are prizes in three other categories, writing, public speaking and congeniality.

I wonder how a murderess or an armed robber prepares for "miss congeniality"?

And apparently lots of folks missed as well. Captain Ed has the details of an unsettling incident at our southern border:

"In a disturbing incident that has received little national attention, the US Border Patrol found itself in retreat on US soil after interdicting a dump truck full of marijuana on US Interstate 10 last week. The truck made a run for the border but got stuck on a riverbed. While the Border Patrol started to unload the estimated three tons of weed, a larger armed group apparently comprised at least in part by the Mexican military forced the Border Patrol away from the vehicle and bulldozed it back into Mexico..."

This seems to be stuck in the local news with little interest from the national media. I agree with Cap'n Ed's assessment:

"But by far the biggest problem shown in this incident is that no matter who the Mexicans were, our Border Patrol presents no match for the drug smugglers and bandits along the southern border of the US. To have a dump truck stolen while they stood by and watched, afraid to fire a shot in defense of the border, amply demonstrates the futility of our entire approach to security along the southwestern edge of the US."

I would add that asking the Border Patrol to face military weapons is unreasonable. The U.S. does, however, have access to folks that are more than equipped to deal with such a threat. The notion that our military shouldn't be used to protect our borders is naive and outdated in an age when there are potential dangers even more menacing than the drug runners mentioned above. President Bush, Congress, are you paying attention?

Well, she back - and hamming it up for the press:

"I feel happy to be back here with all my friends ... but I'm heartbroken that we have to be here again," Cindy Sheehan said as she arrived at an airport in nearby Waco. "We will keep pressing and we won't give up until our troops are brought home."

Here's a photo accompanying the article showing how heartbroken she is:

Peace activist Cindy Sheehan, right, is greeted by supporter Kathleen Hernandez at the Waco Regional Airport after flying in from California, Thursday, Nov. 24, 2005, in Waco, Texas. Sheehan plans to resume her war protest near President Bush's ranch in Crawford, Texas. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)

Now, we've all seen that the anti-war crown seems to avoid things American, with their Che and Castro T-shirts, communist pamphlets and speeches, etc. So it shouldn't be a surprise to anyone that meanwhile, back at the camp, the very same folks who believe that the terrorists who killed Casey Sheehan are "freedom fighters" avoided anything American in their holiday meal:

War protester Dede Miller, sister of Peace Mom Cindy Sheehan, dishes up a Thanksgiving meal of traditional Iraqi food at their camp near President Bush's ranch, Thursday, Nov. 24, 2005, in Crawford, Texas. About 100 war protesters gathered for the Thanksgiving meal. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)

From the looks of that crowd, soap must be American as well.

and the ties to top politicians has yet to come to a head. The media, as I've covered here, and here, had been focusing almost exclusively on the Republicans involved. The Democratic Party has gleefully joined in the fray, with press releases and speeches decrying the "Culture of Corruption" on the right while ignoring their own members', most notably Harry Reid's, involvement.

This was a mistake for the Democrats, and I've said so previously:

Will the DNC still be able to maintain their own effrontery, brashly shouting "Culture of Corruption" at conservatives while ignoring the involvement of their own?

Seems to me that this isn't a scandal the Democrats would want to wecome so openly.

The media, I'm pleased to say, is actually starting to mention the Dems in it's coverage. And the DNC's brashness from last week has been replaced by deafening silence as everyone waits for the other shoe to drop.

Here's today's sample of the renewed interest in reporting over at AP (emphasis added):

The lawmakers hailed from both parties, including House Appropriations subcommittee Chairman Charles Taylor, R-N.C., and Sen. Byron Dorgan (news, bio, voting record) of North Dakota, the top Democrat on the Senate committee currently investigating Abramoff.

Seems to me someone needs to recuse himself. The casinos weren't the only lobbying drive by Abramoff. The above example concerns possible quid pro quo for supporting a native American school program:

Most wrote letters that pressed a reluctant Bush administration to renew a program that provided tribes federal money for building schools. Others worked the congressional budget process to ensure it happened, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press.

And most received donations, ranging from $1,000 to more than $74,000, in the weeks just before or after their intervention. One used Abramoff's restaurant for a fund-raiser a month after a letter.

As a group, they collected more than $440,000 from Abramoff, his firm or his tribal clients between 2001 and 2004, when Abramoff represented the tribes.

Everyone involved has said the donations were just a coincidence:

Lawmakers said their letters had nothing to do with Abramoff and instead were prompted by their desire to keep the government's Indian school building program alive so tribes in their own states might one day benefit. The timing of donations, they said, were a coincidence.

"It really had nothing to do with Jack Abramoff. Senator Dorgan had a personal interest in the program and how it benefits tribes at large and the three affiliated tribes in his state," Dorgan chief of staff Bernie Toon said, echoing comments from many lawmakers.

Now, I'm not feeling disposed to either insularism or guilelessness about this. This kind of thing has been happening since the first politician. And I have zero confidence that it will ever be stopped. There will always be innovators using the loopholes and abiguities of the system in new ways. But insofar as there lurks even the slightest appearance of out and out bribery, this needs to be fully investigated and the appropriate sanctions/prosecutions should be applied.

This is going to continue to pose a pretty problem for the Democrats. Wanting to position themselves as the party of renewed ethics (snicker) prior to mid-term elections, they're going to have a very difficult time distinguishing themselves from the GOP while this current scandal plays out. And if they defend the actions of Reid, Dorgan, and the others, by default they'll be defending the GOP as well.

Strange, though, how the left is suddenly silent about this...

Like many of you, I checked out what others were saying yesterday. And it's not all sweetness and light. In addition to my previous post, I'm also thankful that I'm not bitter, cynical, spiteful, and filled with hate.

Let's take a look, shall we?

Daily Kos: Happy Thanksgiving, consists mostly of an anti- Dick Cheney cartoon. He does at least charge his readers to "Enjoy your families and time off".

Democratic Underground had a photoshopped picture of a turkey biting the president's crotch.

Atrios served up 5 open threads and regurgitated a 2 year old post about an alledged fake photo-op.

At Talking Points Memo, Josh evidently felt that Al-Zarqawi has at least, in part, been falsly accused by the Bush administration.

Pandagon had a couple of posts slamming religious figures, complete with a photoshopped picture of the Pope with lightning coming from his hands, a la the emperor in Star Wars. Disgusting.

At Huffington Post, there were a few genuine holiday well-wishers, but a few others are just plain sourpusses:

Bob Cesca was thankful for "The Spam of Bart Simpson Humping A Naked Female Simpsons Character". And that's as cheerful as his post got.

Jeremy Pikser: I’m thankful I’m not being tortured in Guantanamo or any other branch of the US “anti-terror” Gulag. and "I’m thankful my home, my water supply and my electricity have not been blown to shit by US bombs." There's a whole list but I think you get the idea.

David Mamet posted an anti-bush cartoon.

Jesse Kornbluth's post had too much baggage attached to characterize.

RJ Eskow was cynisism redefined in this view of Thanksgiving 100 years from now.

There lots more, but this is a good representation.

Traditionally on Thanksgiving many folks will, along with giving thanks, acknowledge that there are some who have little or nothing to be thankful for. This post is offered for those of you still in need of a list.

When it comes to getting all mushy about holidays, I'm certainly no amateur. At least internally. Sure, I get emotional inside when watching holiday movies, and I really get wound up when seeing the expressions on my kid's faces on Christmas morning.

But express it in writing? No way. I just don't have it in me to wax poetic about being thankful for all the things in my life such as my two beautiful daughters, who delight me every day with their curiousity, energy, and zest for living, and have an amazing ability for taking away the day's pain and stress with just a hug.

And I certainly don't have the writing ability to express how the beautiful TB makes my life complete in every way, and how my affection for her has grown daily through thick and thin, and how proud and thankful I am to go on life's journey hand in hand with her.

And I could never be able to express how much I appreciate living in the best country on the planet along with all the opportunity it's given me - the twenty years I served in the Air Force is poor repayment indeed.

I also wish there were some way for my words to convey how thankful I am to all of you, my new friends in the blogosphere, both readers and fellow bloggers; whether we agree or not, I value you all.

And last but not least, I simply haven't the words to say how proud and thankful I am for our uniformed men and women who have sacrificed and continue to sacrifice so that we can all remain free.

Nope, there's no way I can do it. So I won't. Instead, I charge you with going to all the other blogs who do have words befitting of this day. When you see one that's especially well-written and emotes the requisite amount of sentimentality, please pause and say, "LB would have said that - if he could".

Happy Thanksgiving To You All!

from LB and the entire B family.

Linked to:
All Things Beautiful

Thanks, Alexandra. If I made a similar list, you would definitely be included.

My Mom would appreciate your remark on manners. I'm going to forward the link to her.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Well, what do ya know? Seems the tape was real. Via Bill Quick at Daily Pundit:

I just got off the phone with Laurie Goldberg, Senior Vice President for Public Relations with CNN. Her statement confirms the authenticity of the tape recording and reveals the actions CNN took after learning of the incident:

"A Turner switchboard operator was fired today after we were alerted to a conversation the operator had with a caller in which the operator lost his temper and expressed his personal views -- behavior that was totally inappropriate. His comments did not reflect the views of CNN. We are reaching out to the caller and expressing our deep regret to her and apologizing that she did not get the courtesy entitled to her. "

You really have to be amazed at the luck of the CNN switchboard operator. Frustration mounting from call after call from folks complaining about the X, and he happens to snap on the call that has a tape recorder owned by a PR firm on the other end. Perhaps he launched such a tirade at several callers. Very unprofessional, and Kudos to CNN for cleaning house.

Who knows? Maybe he has a future at MoveOn.org.

As to the rest of the entire X matter, I'm gonna be stubborn and say this changes little. It remains not just my personal but also my professional opinion that the X appeared as a result of scenario like the one I posted yesterday, or something very similar. And although Team Hollywood gets vindication on the authenticity of the call, it doesn't prove that CNN as a network set out to paste an X on Cheney's face. Moreover, much of the remainder of Team Hollywood's press release simply appears to be hyperbole: For example:

Millions from across the country telephoned CNN to alert the network about an accidental "X" over the Vice President's face, only to be told that the "X" was intentional against the present administration. CNN callers flooded the Internet and online communities with calls to boycott the network.

Out of "millions" of calls, why no one else making the claim? I'm sure that CNN also got more than a few calls from other news organizations (i.e., competitors), and most would be taping the call. Where are the stories? And how would anyone outside of CNN's call center be able to make any claim as to the content of "millions" of calls?

The statements catering to bloggers don't wash as well. When I spoke to Preska Thomas (which occurred Tuesday just prior to Bill Quick's call), she told me that bloggers were among those who had called complaining of CNN's call center. Where are the posts from these bloggers?

So with the one exception of the tape (really great work, Mr. Quick - hats off to ya!), I stand by my earlier assessment - there's still no indication that the X was much more than a glitch.

That is, unless the Trilateral Commission issues a report stating otherwise.

Side note: Thanks to Alexandra for the link and the kind remark.

Well, the Trollop of Turkeys won't be getting arrested in Texas tomorrow - but all her moonbatty friends will (emphasis mine):

Texas Anti-War Protesters Still Determined

CRAWFORD, Texas - War protesters say they are determined to demonstrate outside President Bush's ranch during the Thanksgiving holiday despite the arrests of a dozen people on Wednesday.

The group had pitched six tents along the road in defiance of new local bans on roadside camping and parking. Many in the group held up signs, including one that said "Give me liberty or give me a ditch."

Give me liberty or give me a ditch?!?!?!? What happened to "Power to the People"? A couple of these nuts wanted to play-pretend to be just like the Matron of Moonbats:

More than two dozen McLennan County sheriff's deputies arrived and asked if they wanted to walk out on their own or be carried. Two chose to be carried.

And we also had a verified sighting of the hypocritical yellow-crested chicken dove:

A dozen others left after deputies warned them they would be arrested.

Just as in earlier protests, some had no reason to be there other than to recapture the drum-banging, flower in the gun barrel, dope-smokin', unbathed days of their fabulously misspent youth:

Among them was Daniel Ellsberg, the former Defense Department official who leaked the Pentagon Papers during the Vietnam war, who estimated it was his 70th arrest for various protests since the 1970s.

Whew - Cindy was right! Getting arrested must really be addictive.

"Those of us who finally saw through the Vietnam war saw through this war, and all the actions that were necessary to end the Vietnam war will be necessary here," Ellsberg said Wednesday. "I think the American people will get us out of this (war)."

That's right, Danny. Americans are working very hard to get us out of this war. Let's see, there are the Army-Americans, the Marine-Americans, the Navy-Americans, and the Air Force-Americans. They're working very, very hard to get us out of the war the right way - by winning.

But alas, the Mistress of Missing was nowhere to be found. Apparently, she had a family emergency back in festive and ditchless California. No word on when she would reprise her role as the Doll of Ditches. She just said "soon".

My bet - she won't show up on Thanksgiving day, possibly due to the little-known fact that hippies have trouble getting the turkey just right.

Via AP/Yahoo:

WASHINGTON - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice says the United States will probably not need to maintain its current troop levels in Iraq "very much longer," though she declined to provide a precise timetable for reduction in U.S. forces.

It's appearing to me that Lorie's proving to be the rightest as well as the firstest.

Upon further reflection, I'm going to firm up my previous opinions on the whole "X" thing.

CNN says "glitch", Drudge says "staffers laughed". Who's right? I say both. My theory is that some control room guy put the X on one of the control room monitors to amuse himself and his coworkers. The malfunctioning switch allowed it to bleed over to the broadcast feed. Is such a glitch possible? I've been teaching electronics for over 13 years (and repairing the same for much longer), I've seen similar malfunctions, although I'll have to admit my expertise is in aviation and defense, not television studio gear.

As for Team Hollywood? Hoax. I was skeptical from the beginning, and said so. The mention of bloggers and trilateral commission set me off - I mean, why would a blogger run to a PR firm to inquire about CNN? Especially one that seems to have no clients but themselves (at least currently), and haven't updated their web site in over a year. This looks like an attention grabbing scheme to me. The trilateral commission is purely tin-foil hat stuff - anyone invoking that old canard should be regarded with a jaundiced eye. I'm sorry to say a few folks may have been snookered, though.

Unless something really compelling comes up to get me to change my mind, I'm gonna let it go. I'll still track blogger reaction is it remains interesting, though.

Update: It's just common sense, so I'm not surprised that someone else came to pretty much the same conclusion. It was just a matter of time.

In San Fransisco, they must be worried about the toll collectors for the Golden Gate Bridge:

SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) - Toll collectors at San Francisco's landmark Golden Gate Bridge have been issued body armor to guard against armed bandits.

"We did a review of safety procedures and added this tool to the toll box for collectors," bridge authority spokeswoman Mary Currie said Tuesday. "This is really the right thing to do."

I'm not so sure Ms. Curry's heart is really in it, though:

"The folks that are wearing them are pleased to have that added psychological edge," said Curry.

Hmmm - next time I need a psychological edge - like when TB and I can't agree on what channel to watch - I'll know what to wear.