Well, I don't think that's a great shock.

Thanks to TJ.

Posted by: Ace at 09:06 AM | Comments (6)
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Our "informant" in Iraq made it all up.

Couple of points:

* The Bush Administration never gave this much credence and said so. The decision to treat this as serious was Michael Bloomberg's. The most DHS officials said is that they supported New York's decision to err on the side of caution. But, of course, we'll have Keith Olbermann "questioning the timing" and the MSM pinning this all on the Bush Administration anyhow.

* I still think Bloomberg made the right call.

Lots of hoax bomb threats are called into colleges every year, suspiciously around exam time. They know almost all of these are hoaxes, but they clear the buildings and search just the same. And they're right to do so.

Posted by: Ace at 09:03 AM | Comments (7)
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Jonah Goldberg has a good post up at the Corner wondering how a dispute over Miers' conservativism and qualifications turned largely into a questioning of her opponents' good faith.

FWIW, I haven't called any on the pro-Miers side "blind Bush partisans" or the like.

John From Wuzzadem parodies the tenor of the "debate."

Posted by: Ace at 08:49 AM | Comments (48)
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I was surprised to catch so much flak for posting RWN's blogger poll. A lot of the responses were basically "Well who the hell are bloggers anyhow? Why should we care?"

That's a good point and all, but really, I was just posting it because I thought it was informative. I won't get into whether bloggers are good barometer of public opinion or are, in aggregate, a nontrivial influencer of public opinion. I was just posting it because I thought it seemed interesting.

But more interesting to me is this very odd and I think quite destructive us vs. them or elite vs. O'Reilly's "folks" dynamic that is developing. A lot of the criticism of the poll seemed to play right into that dynamic-- "How dare you, the bloggers, dare instruct us nonbloggers on how to vote?" Which is of a piece with the big anti-elitist argument against the disatisfaction over the Miers nomination. Once again, the presumed elite vs. "the little guy."

I find this whole argument to be silly. First off, I don't think many bloggers consider themselves elite. Surely not because they write dumb opinions on-line. Maybe some consider themselves elite owing to their real jobs, but certainly not due to blogging, which is a somewhat embarassing pastime.

And I continue to be perplexed by those arguing for Miers on the basis that those who oppose her are doing so on elitist grounds. Fact of the matter is, she's not particularly well-qualified to be on the Supreme Court. Basically, she's about as qualified as any other somewhat-successful lawyer would be. If this is the bar for qualification, Miers and about 500,000 other lawyers in the country are qualified for the Supreme Court as well.

The real objection to Miers, though, is that we don't know she's a conservative. We don't even know Roberts is a reliable conservative vote, but at least there we had some indicia of a general conservative bent. With Miers, we don't have that at all.

I wouldn't mind putting a retarded chicken on the Supreme Court if I knew for a fact that that drooling moronfowl would simply vote whatever way Scalia told it to. I have no guarantees -- not even any good evidence -- that Miers will pursue a strict constitutionalist Scalia jurisprudence. The fact that she seemed devoid of ideology at all or any strong philosphical principles makes her very vulnerable to simply become a liberal judicial activist, which is the easiest path to follow. After all-- you get to help people! And the New York Times will say nice things about you!

It's tough to be a conservative in a culture dominated by liberals. I don't know if Miers is a conservative at all. Certainly I know that, if she is a conservative at all, she's been too ashamed to say so in public.

Which makes me less than optimistic she will resist the blandishments of super-liberal DC dinner-party culture.

Really, I am so goddamned tired of this phony elites-vs.-the-commoners argument. It's stupid, quite frankly. I know conservatives like that template, but honestly, let's lay off using it so quickly against our political brethren, huh?

Posted by: Ace at 04:24 PM | Comments (240)
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Karol and I will be doing a taped interview with Steve Forbes in less than an hour, for playback on tomorrow's show. We probably won't take phone calls but if you have a question for Mr. Forbes write it below and I'll see if we can't ask it.

We'll spend about half the interview on the Flat Tax (he's a big champion of it) and the other half on spending, Miers, etc. A grab-bag.

In the Can: Feels good to have Tuesday's show done tonight.

Posted by: Ace at 12:19 PM | Comments (20)
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A non-scientific poll over at Right Wing News.

Posted by: Ace at 11:07 AM | Comments (26)
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John Fund asks around and finds that Miers is an enigma wrapped in a riddle shrouded by a mystery.

have changed my mind about Harriet Miers. Last Thursday, I wrote in OpinionJournal's Political Diary that "while skepticism of Ms. Miers is justified, the time is fast approaching when such expressions should be muted until the Senate hearings begin. At that point, Ms. Miers will finally be able to speak for herself."

But that was before I interviewed more than a dozen of her friends and colleagues along with political players in Texas. I came away convinced that questions about Ms. Miers should be raised now--and loudly--because she has spent her entire life avoiding giving a clear picture of herself. "She is unrevealing to the point that it's an obsession," says one of her close colleagues at her law firm.

White House aides who have worked with her for five years report she zealously advocated the president's views, but never gave any hint of her own. Indeed, when the Dallas Morning News once asked Ms. Miers to finish the sentence, "Behind my back, people say . . .," she responded, ". . . they can't figure me out."

Hugh Hewitt argued that opposing Miers would politically injure Bush. Maybe. But even if he winds up politically crippled, this seems too important. The tax cuts can be extended or rescinded at any time. Even if Bush made them "permanent," another Congress and another President could cancel them.

But here we're talking about someone who decide this country's most important cases of constitutional law for 10 or 15 years.

After the war on terrorism, this is the big issue of the Bush Administration, and his legacy. It's too big to gamble on "trusting Bush."

Meanwhile, of course, half of the Senate's Republicans doubt Miers.

Posted by: Ace at 09:58 AM | Comments (28)
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By definition, I guess. Not necessarily Islamic terrorism, although I Do Question The Timing.

Posted by: Ace at 09:48 AM | Comments (10)
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New PETA campaign hopes to turn children against their carnivorous parents.

Featuring a gory comic called Your Daddy Kills Animals!

Best bit: In an effort to convince people that fish are intelligent, PETA asserts that fish use tools.

Fish.

Using tools.

Like you saw in the acclaimed documentary Finding Nemo.

We all know from Blade Runner that having an insufficient empathy for animals is the sign of sociopathy and/or being an android. But it's also a mental disorder to be this concerned about animals. It shows some kind of defect in human emotional development. I know when I was a kid I found people boring and preferred cartoons and movies about animals. I think these PETA folks are in the same infantile state of development.

Consider all this insane energy that could be used helping people. Children starving. People dying of diseases eradicated in the westernized world for lack of immunization. Children used as prostitutes. Women abducted into prostitution. People being blown up by unmarked landmines. War. Famine. Pestillence. Human death.

Instead these people spend their time trying to save flounder.

There's a fundamental mental defect there. The empathy that should be directed towards human beings is instead directed almost exclusively towards dumb (yes, dumb) animals. I can't help but think that that stage of emotional development, when four year olds stop caring exclusively about puppies and kittens and ponies and unicorns and start caring about people, just sort of passed the PETA folk by.

Thanks to Alicia.

Posted by: Ace at 07:36 PM | Comments (57)
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No, it's not sexual. It's some kind of gaywad educational thingee showing the horrors of war, by showing Smurfs being bombed to death (by American Imperialist Planes, no doubt).

As Dave wonders, is this supposed to turn us off of war? Seems to do the opposite. Yipee-ki-yay, mothersmurfer.

Posted by: Ace at 07:27 PM | Comments (29)
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