Jonah Goldberg slips Joe Biden a nasty shiv:

The man loves his voice so much, you'd expect him to be following it around in a grey Buick, in defiance of restraining order, as it walks home from school. He seems to think his teeth are some kind of hypnotic punctuation marks which can momentarily disorient the listener and absolve him from any of Western civilization's usual imperatives to stop talking. Listening to him speechify is like playing an intellectual game of whack-a-mole where every now and then the fuzzy head of a good point pops up from the tundra but before you can pin it down, he starts talking about how he went to the store and saw a squirrel on the way and it was brown which brings to mind Brown V. Board of Ed which most people don't understand because [TEETH FLASH] he taught Brown in his law school course and [TEETH FLASH] Mr. Chairman I'm going to get right to it and besides these aren't the droids you're looking for....

Note the expert way he works in a Star Wars reference.

I have a hunch that sitting and listening to Chuckie "It's All About Me & my Camera Time" Schumer, Teddy "Happy Hour" Kennedy, and Joe "I'm So Smart" Biden has taken a toll on John Roberts, far worse than you might expect.

This should remove any doubt:

Yes, he's going to have a lifetime dream job, but pity the man all the same.

Posted by: Harry Callahan at 07:18 PM | Comments (11)
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So, as a Reagan aide, Roberts made a joke.

Regarding a plan to encourage (women) homemakers to leave their homes and pursue careers in law, he snarked, "Some might question whether encouraging homemakers to become lawyers contributes to the common good, but I suppose that is for the judges to decide."

She's very very disturbed by this remark. She doesn't buy the rightwing White House talking-points spin that this is a typical joke about the uselessness of lawyers, and ill-wisdom of minting more of them, and believes this was a retrograde troglodytic diktat that women be kept barefoot, pregnant, and silly-slapped every time the meat loaf disappoints.

She actually interrogated Roberts about this.

If Senatrix Feinstein wants to combat misogyny, she could try, as a first step, not being such a clueless moron all the time.

That could help.

In Related News... Senatrix Feinstein supports a $20 million study by the Federal Fish & Wildlife Service to determine, conclusively, if bears do in fact shit in the woods, or if this is yet another "neocon lie."

There's a Madness To Their Method Update: In a competition between Democratic Senators' vanity and stupidity, who wins? Why you do, conservative Republicans:

Assume --correctly-- that nothing any Democratic senator can say will in any way change the dynamic that is moving towards a huge yes vote on the nomination. The only thing that can change that dynamic is (1) an explosive revelation which is nowhere in sight nor likely to appear or (2) something that Judge Roberts himself says.

Given that the only hope the left has of defeating this man who will be Chief Justice --God willing-- for 30+ years is something that he himself says, the Democrats' long winded and almost endless set-ups to their questions are in fact great favors to Roberts, allowing the judge to in effect run out the clock while not appearing to do so. The Democrats should be asking short, simple, and open-ended questions --hundreds of them-- but they cannot bear to forfeit the television time so they chew up their only hope --the time that Judge Roberts spends talking-- and their opposition is thus perfunctory.

Culled from Traffic Non-Santa's MSNBC column.

Posted by: Ace at 05:05 PM | Comments (19)
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I want to protect the kids!

-- Bill O'Reilly, debating whether or not first-time possession of child pornography should be a felony in California, 9/13/2005

Bonus Points!!! After promising the beleaguered liberal politician the much-heralded "last word," he informed him sternly, at segment's end, that child pornography is not a non-violent crime, neatly refuting his guest's "last word."

Not saying I disagree with him. Like Bill O'Reilly, I, too, make it my life's work to just keep "lookin' out for the folks."

I'm just sayin'.

Posted by: Ace at 04:50 PM | Comments (16)
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Supplement 1A (Southeast Louisiana Hurricane Evacuation and Sheltering Plan):

"The primary means of hurricane evacuation will be personal vehicles. School and municipal buses, government-owned vehicles and vehicles provided by volunteer agencies may be used to provide transportation for individuals who lack transportation and require assistance in evacuating."

The Louisiana State Emergency Operations Plan (EOP) further states, (and it is common boilerplate evacuation procedure within a state or local jurisdication) that state and local employees and other resources from unaffected or lightly affected areas can be utilized to help out in heavily affected areas.

Nagin and Blanco and Mary "Atom-Splitter" Landrieu keep saying that you can't force bus drivers to drive in the middle of a Category 5 Hurricane.

Ummm... excuse me if I'm just a moron rightwinger, but aren't evacuations typically supposed to occur before an impending disaster, not during it?

Apparently, in Louisiana, police, bus drivers, and emergency workers can't be required to work when the skies are hazy, overcast, or "overly dewey, but not in that sweet, romantic way."

Thanks to F15C.

I screwed up saying this on the show (panic!), but there were two critical points to the response to this disaster: Before and After. (You can't do anything during a hurricane, of course, without risking additional deaths.)

Before, the feds did everything right. They prepositioned supplies around the area and moved down troops.

The local officials did everything wrong.

After, the feds were arguably slow to respond (although, as Jack Kelly points out, they responded faster to Katrina than to Hurricanes Hugo and Andrew). And the local authorities by that point were clearly out of their league, and hence to be held blameless.

The media continues to focus only on the after part of the response.

But why was a quicker-than-the-record federal response so desperately needed?

Because the city was left full of people who were not evacuated previously-- something under the sole control of local officials. Had they been evacuated according to Louisiana's own (perfectly-achievable and sensible) plan, there would have been no one to rescue in the city.

See if you can follow this logic: Had the evacuation plan been executed, had 600 NO buses (and thousands of Louisiana buses) not been left idle during the storm, no one would have died. The federal response would have consisted entirely of property-damage assessment and fixing the broken levees and restoring power and turning on the pumps.

CNN wants its on-line interviewees to "get angry," but not about that.

That could hurt the Democrats, after all.

Posted by: Ace at 04:36 PM | Comments (15)
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No, not that one.

Let's all sit back and wait for the caterwauling to commence again, shall we?
Oh? No?
Hunh. Wonder why.

Posted by: LauraW. at 04:14 PM | Comments (2)
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Its old news to say that the mainstream media hates, loathes, despises, etc. Republicans. Its old news that the mainstream media deliberately tells one-sided stories. But how low will the lowlifes at Reuters sink? Well, how about consciously taking a picture which is intended to portray someone in a bad light?

Why don't you let Reuters and Kevin Lamarque know what you think about this.

Editorial Policy

Reuters news operations are based on the company's Trust Principles which stipulate that the integrity, independence and freedom from bias of Reuters must be upheld at all times.

Reuters has strict policies in place to ensure adherence to these principles. We are committed to accurate and balanced reporting. Errors of fact are always promptly corrected and clearly published.

Reuters is the largest international multi-media news agency, reporting extensively from around the world on topics ranging from financial markets to general and political news.

Some Reuters coverage, including pictures and video, is of wars or conflicts during which all sides are actively promoting their positions and arguments.

We are committed to reporting the facts and in all situations avoid the use of emotive terms. The only exception is when we are quoting someone directly or in indirect speech. We aim to report objectively actions, identity and background and pay particular attention to all our coverage in extremely sensitive regions.

We do not take sides and attempt to reflect in our stories, pictures and video the views of all sides. We are not in the business of glorifying one side or another or of disseminating propaganda. Reuters journalists do not offer their own opinions or views.

The world relies on Reuters journalists to provide accurate, clearly sourced accounts of events as they occur, wherever they occur, so that individuals, organisations and governments can make their own decisions based on the facts.

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Contacts USA +1 646 223 4000

Posted by: Tanker at 03:39 PM | Comments (13)
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Another fictitious threat.

Hemant Lakhani, 70, was convicted in April of attempting to sell the missiles to a group he thought would use them to shoot down commercial airliners.

During his trial, and again Monday, his lawyers said Lakhani was the victim of government entrapment because the supposed missile seller and buyer were actually government agents.

A-yup.
Be interesting to find out exactly how they found this guy. The details, who initiated the transaction, etc.

Posted by: LauraW. at 03:29 PM | Comments (16)
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If you want the full goods on Morris Berg, try here for starters.

Not a great catcher, but a decent spy and a first-rate patriot.

In 1934, five years before he retired as a player, Berg made his second trip to Japan as part of a traveling major league All-Star team. One might wonder what the seldom-used catcher, a .251 hitter that season, was doing playing with the likes of Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig.

Berg, who spoke Japanese, took home movies of the Tokyo skyline that were used in the planning of General Jimmy Doolittle's 1942 bombing raids on the Japanese capital. The U.S. government wrote a letter to Berg, thanking him for the movies. Biographies, magazine articles and word of mouth have elevated this story into the stuff of legend.

Go to Don Myers for a thorough debunking of the Japanese Empire's supposed "sneak attack" plans for the US.

Posted by: Ace at 01:42 PM | Comments (9)
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We'll be talking to Women's Wall Street columnist and author of Terror In The Skies: Why 9-11 Could Happen Again, Annie Jacobsen.

In case you've forgotten, she wrote that series of articles about the Northwest Airlines flight in which the passengers and crew were alarmed by the coordinated movements of a group of Muslim passengers.

Click on the graphic and look for Hoist the Black flag at 4.

Oh, and do call in at 866-884-TALK. Third caller who calls with the Phrase That Pays ("Dudes, you guys rock me like a hurricane") gets a picture of Karol in a belly-shirt.*

* While supplies last.**

** Supplies currently equal zero and are likely to remain at that level.

Panic Room! Damnit, for the first time since week one I was hit by panic during the show. The trouble getting the guest on the line threw me into a panic and I never quite recovered.

Damnitall.

Sorry about that, guys.

Posted by: Ace at 10:42 AM | Comments (69)
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On their blog -- where they are freer to express their true feelings and leanings.

One would almost begin to suspect that the media is a group of like-minded liberals looking out for each other's interests.

Posted by: Ace at 09:50 AM | Comments (16)
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