Diary of an Israeli pilot.

It's strange how the focus in these missions is not to succeed, hit the target precisely, but rather - not to make any mistakes. The message is clear all the way from the Squadron commander to the last pilot. One mistake can jeopardize the whole war, like in Kfar-Kana, in one of the last operations in Lebanon, where artillery bombarded a refugee camp, killing over 100 people, which resulted in international pressure that halted the operation.

Esteemed almost-Yale professor Juan Cole doesn't agree

If the reports coming out of Lebanon can be believed, the Israelis are only sometimes striking known Hizbullah safe houses or facilities or missile emplacements. A lot of their bombardment appears aimed at punishing civilian populations and forcing them north to Beirut. Such an approach would help explain the high number of civilian casualties. That is, there may be an element of ethnic cleansing in Israeli tactics.

An "element of ethnic cleansing"? It either is or isn't - why can't he just be a man and call the Israelis Nazis.  In either case, "a lot of the bombardment" is not what Hizbollah is using against Israeli civilians, it's "all of ".

Well,  it's 95 degrees in New York and things start shutting down.  It's 99 degrees here in Dallas with a forecast high of 106 and we're doing just fine thank yo....oh sh*t there go the lights.... (Just kidding). :-)

My town (Plano, TX) is number 11 on Money Magazine's newly issued list of Best Places to Live. Neighboring towns Richardson and Carrollton come in at 15 and 19 respectively.  Not bad to have 3 of the Top 20 together.  The funny thing is that this seems to be one of the few places in the country that the housing bubble hasn't come to, probably becuase there's so much building going on.  Demand goes up, but the supply goes up even more.  It is frickin' hot though.  Feels like 102 degrees and it's only noon.

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When I was 15, I went on a very popular six week teen tour to Israel.  It was the summer of 1982, only weeks after Israel invaded Lebanon.  It was probably safer then than at any time in the recent past.  Israel cleaned the PLO (the resident terrorist organization at the time) out of the area and chased them all the way to Beirut.  We even went up to the Lebanese border and could see the ex-PLO fortifications up close, went to a fair with captured military equipment, and got a first-hand lesson on how the media distorts the news to increase sales or pitch a particular point of view.  To this day, those six weeks represent the most significant time of my life, not counting marriage and children.

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On the day in 1989 when Robert J. Gschaar proposed to his girlfriend, he showed her two $2 bills. "It was a second marriage for both of us," Myrta Gschaar recalled last week. "It was our second chance at happiness. That's what the $2 bills represented."

They both tucked their $2 bills in their wallets, vowing never to relinquish them......

Their future together ended the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, when Robert Gschaar, 55, called his wife in Spring Valley after the first plane hit the north tower of the World Trade Center. He said his Aon office on the 92nd floor of the south tower was being evacuated.

That was the last she ever heard from him.....

Now, Myrta Gschaar knows for certain that her husband perished along with 2,748 others that bloody day. His remains have been positively identified through DNA testing.....

In addition to having his remains, she also was given his wallet, which was recovered from under tons of debris at the World Trade Center site.

The battered brown wallet, caked with dust and grime, contained the ordinary objects of a working person's life — a driver's license, credit cards, tickets for the Red & Tan bus Gschaar took from Rockland into the Port Authority every morning, a library card from the Finkelstein Memorial Library in Spring Valley, a picture of his wife, a Pathmark savings card.

And in the wallet Myrta Gschaar found the final, incontrovertible proof that her husband was gone: his $2 bill.

Full article here.  After having been unemployed for four years, Gschaar began working for Aon in July 2001.

Regarding the "kidnapping" versus "capturing" thing, a soldier might be "captured" if they're on the battlefield in some disputed territory. At that point they are usually held prisoner until hostilities end or they are killed if they are particularly unfortunate. They are "kidnapped" when they are taken not in a battle to determine who gets to hold the terrain, but as part of a plan whose sole aim is to retreat with the soldier(s) in custody and then ask for ransom against the threat of killing the captive.

Under the normal rules of war, soldiers are "captured" under two circumstances that I can think of. Either they are taken by force and kept alive because they may know something of value or they have voluntarily surrendered either as an individual or part of a larger, defeated group. There are no usually no "conditions" assigned to their eventual release and certainly no death threats.

On the other hand, I would never call attacks on soldiers "terrorism" as some do. I reserve that for deliberate attacks against targets where the only conceivable casualties are civilians. The attackers may still be "terorrists" though in my opinion if they incorporate attacks on civilians as part of their plan to gain power.

"See, the irony is what they really need to do is to get Syria to get Hizbullah to stop doing this (expletive)." - President George W. Bush. C'mon 43, it's what we need to do.

BINGO - (see my post yesterday) - Israel sends ground forces into Lebanon. May G-d protect the Israeli forces and innocent Lebabnese civilians.

I am a strong believer that the Israelis do not target civilians on purpose, and because these reported deaths were neighbors of ours, Canadians, I have been trying to find out what Israel was aiming at in that area.  I haven't found any additional information, nor the name of the family involved. (I'm trying not to be suspicious of the report). At least one Canadian columnist believes what I do.

As long as the victims were civilians, whether vacationing or resident, Canadian or Lebanese, old or young, men or women, we know Israel's bombs weren't meant for them.

Is reducing the federal debt a bad thing?  The Skeptical Optimist thinks so - remember the contraction that began at the end of the Clinton era when we finally started recording triple-digit surpluses?  Seems it's happened everytime we've tried to run surpluses.

When I remember, I try to find out if the Space Shuttle will be de-orbiting anywhere near my neck of the woods (and no, not because of the tragic explosion over Texas).  Unfortunately it's coming in across Central America and over the Gulf of Mexico, so there'll be no chance to see it.  I did discover on the same page, awesome videos taken from cameras attached to the Solid Rocket Boosters.  Wow.

Via Instapundit - a scienific analysis of how you can get better mpg's out of your car, here's the layman's version from the government.  I can probably stand to cut 10mph or so off my typical speed.

I saw Adam Sandler's remake of "The Longest Yard" on DVD.  4 out of 10.  Some funny parts, extremely formulaic, pretty bad acting and casting.  Adam Sandler as a tough guy?  Almost, but not quite. 

On Firday night, I heard some guy call in to a talk radio program saying that if we thought that there was a war going on then, wait until Monday - Israel was just getting warmed up, definitely preparing for a ground invasion.  I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

Two grand slams in one 11 run inning.  Up 12 games in mid-July.  Best record in the National League.  Is this my Mets we're talking about?

Sandmonkey explains all.  "All of this talk about Israel targeting civillians really pisses me off. Let me clear it up for you once and for all: Hamas and Hezbollah don't have military bases: they plan, operate and attack from homes, where their families are. The Israelis, in order to retaliate, they have to attack those homes, which always lead to those women and children, who live in those houses, to die. If Hamas and Hezbollah don;t want civillians to die, don;t fuckin plan your attacks or launch your attacks near civillians. But you know they do this on purpose, so it would look bad on the Israeli if they attacked. Dude, they called the airport 1 hour before they hit it to have it evacuated, they warned all of southern Beirut yesterday to take cover because they don't want to kill them. Not hezbollah. Hezbollah doesn't give a shit who their missiles hit. And somehow, they remain blameless in the arab mind: after all, they are not jews.  Listen, you can not talk shit about how you will beat and destory Israel, and then scream "Humanatarian crisis" when they hit you back. Either suffer the consequences of your actions or SHUT THE FUCK UP."

All this talk of proportionate response by israel is ridiculous.  All that really means is that Israel's critics want the status quo to remain.  In order for their to be true peace, someone has to win and in order for someone to win, one side has to be disproportionally stronger and/or smarter.  Otherwise all you have is years and years of conflict.  In my opinion those countries critical of Israel are lying anyway so that terorrists don't go after their own citizens in their own countries.

Pajamas Media is the best place to get concise, just the facts updates on the situation in Lebanon and Gaza.

The last eight episodes of The Sopranos will be delayed two months until March due to unexpected knee surgery for Tony.

A personal report from blogger The Muqata in Israel - "All of the West Bank is alight tonight with fireworks from the Palestinian villages (along with scattered automatic gunfire), as our neighbors celebrate...the shelling of Haifa."

If you want to help Israel manage the crisis in a small way, you can donate to the American Friends of Magen David Adom (the Israeli Red Cross).  If you prefer to help a similar cause elsewhere, you can pick the peoples of your choosing here.

Life In Israel makes a good point - "The powers to be have declared that this is a major escalation, and basically that now we will show them....Why is attacking Haifa an escalation? Is attacking the border not enough? Is raining Katyushas on the whole northern Israel not enough....the reaction should be harsher to stop the rockets, but not because Hizb'Allah has escalated the conflict, but because that is the appropriate reaction to when your country has been attacked by a foreign government."

The Plames have filed a lawsuit against Cheney, Rove et al. for exposing them and ruining their lives.  Good luck. 

Random thoughts on the situation in the Middle East.

Isn't it the position of the "reality" camp that Sunni and Shi'a terrorists (excuse me - hardliners) can never work together in the fight against the West?  That's the inconvenient truth as to why Saddam could never have helped Osama, right?  Well, Hamas (Sunni) and Hizbollah (Shi'a) don't seem to have a problem.

Armed resistance groups in Gaza Strip, West Bank and Lebanon standing together against Israeli aggression and occupation

Also from a NY Times report - “The capture of the two soldiers could provide a solution to the Gaza crisis,” he Hizbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah said. The operation had been planned for months, he said, though he added, “The timing, no doubt, provides support for our brothers in Palestine."  And the Gaza incident wasn't planned for months?  Curiously, a Google search with the phrase "support for our brothers in Palestine" brings up the original Times article, but the paragraph has since been removed.

Martin Peretz, Editor-in-Chief of The New Republic had this to say back in March about relations between Hamas and Hizbollah - The Sunni-Shia rift is very deep, and even hatred of the Jews will not bridge it in the long run.  Oops.  Just goes to show that Phd form Harvard and a professorship doesn't make you all-knowing.

Amnesty International weighs in - “Israel must put an immediate end to attacks against civilians and against civilian infrastructure in Lebanon, which constitute collective punishment...Hizbullah must stop launching attacks against Israeli civilians..."

First lesson - non-guided missiles lobbed into city centers with express hope of killing civilians are equivalent to smart missiles which target military objectives where civilians may be present.

Question for discussion - are airports, roads, bridges or power stations illegitimate militrary targets becuase they are used primarily by civilians in peacetime.  During a time of hostilities, regardless of who's to blame, is the causation of hardship to the civilian population a war crime?  If so, what then is a legitimate target to prevent the movement of, and communication between, enemy combatants, especially where they are using the civilian infrastructure themselves?  Wouldn't Amnesty's stance have theoretically prohibited the bombing of train lines used to send Jews to concentration camps?

The goal of many in the international community seems to be "let's just get back to the status-quo" when the status quo is what caused the problem in the first place.  We must have clear victory or defeat here in order to get things to change.

We know that Iran supports the "freedom fighters" in Lebanon and the Occupied Territories.  However, if they do become openly involved, bombs away my friends. And I suggest this man's house first.

Some good news from Iraq - a first, albeit quiet, Iraqi province is officially coalition soldier-free.  One report already has a second province being handed over.

Not only am I outraged at Hizbollah's actions against Israel, but I'm outraged at the bullsh*t coverage in the media.

The NY Times reports - "The Lebanese militant group Hezbollah seized two Israeli soldiers in a brazen raid this morning along Israel’s border with Lebanon."

CNN Reports - "Three of the seven soldiers who were killed Wednesday died during fighting with Hezbollah along the Israeli-Lebanese border"

Along the border!?!  What the hell is that!?!  Hezbollah attacked Israeli military positions (and civilian towns) INSIDE Israel.  This is an invasion and without qualification an act of war - the Israelis weren't standing with one foot on one side and the other foot on the other side.  And the border is internationally recognized.

I say a big F*** You to any other country or group of countries who ask for "proportionate" retaliation when missiles and attacks are flying on two (if not three) fronts.  This is a war and Israel has to fight to win, which means defeating their enemies.  If that means making a big mess while doing it, too bad.

The Washington Post Op-Ed page becomes Propoganda Central for Hamas' Ismail Haniyeh.  Read how he gives the American people a guilt trip for supporting Israel.  Hey Haniyeh, not even a thank you for American and International support for Palestinian arms smuggling and praise for suicide bombers?

Whenever I see that the NY Times writes an editorial about the economy, I know I'm in for a good laugh.

A growing number of economists, most prominently from the Congressional Budget Office, point out that upsurges in revenue are also the result of growing income inequality in the United States, an observation that is consistent with mounting evidence of a rapidly widening gap between the rich and everyone else.

So the Times' hope is that the rich and corporations start paying less in taxes so that the middle classes will have a greater share of the tax burden in order to prove greater income equality?  In any case, they're missing the big point in that spending is way out of control (notwithstanding expenses related to the war or hurricane relief which don't seem to merit the Times' attention even though their elimination would bring the budget into balance, or close to it.)  If the Times considers these costs unavoidable and unqiue challenges for the Bush budget, that should be included in the analysis.  Those who claim that the cost of the war is avoidable are forgetting that they wanted to spend the same money, just "smarter".

Well, I did promise to read John Stossel's Myths, Lies, and Downright Stupidity : Get Out the Shovel--Why Everything You Know is Wrong.
I'm about 30 pages in, and while it's kind of entertaining, it's going to go in the magazine/book rack that is conveniently built into the wall of the "water closet" in the master bathroom.  (This is my favorite feature of our house, by the way).  Most of the "myths" he uncovers are well-known arguments by conservatives/libertarians against traditional thinking and they comes in 1-2 page bites, which makes it easy to read a little at a time.

An example.  Women supposedly earn xx cents for the same job that men of the same caliber get paid a dollar to do.  He claims that if this were really the case, smart business people would only hire women becuase they're willing to work for so significantly less pay. 

Instead of finishing the Stossel book, I whipped through Anderson Cooper's bio, Dispatches from the Edge : A Memoir of War, Disasters, and Survival. I was pleasantly surprised to find it available at my library in the New Books section - normally you have to put yourself on the waiting list for current bestsellers.  I wouldn't have paid to read it, but since it was there.....

The most surprising thing I found out was that Cooper's mother is Gloria Vanderbilt and that his brother committed suicide. (I din't realize that the Gloria Vanderbilt designer label still exists - man that stuff was popular in the disco era.)  This just goes to prove my feelings that most famous people had some kind of unusual (to put it mildly) family situations which compeled them to seek significance/relevance outside their immediate surroundings.  Othewise, the book is an interesting look at what it's like to be in places of intense human suffering.  On Iraq, I found him fair and balanced.  On Katrina, I was surprised to learn that he didn't actually get to New Orleans until well after the storm had passed and that he had significant family roots in the area.  I probably would have known that had I been paying more attention.

And, for those who are interested, he does not comment on any personal relationships of his own, even as he surrounds himself with macho military/police types who frequent strip clubs and are constantly described as "lonely" and "horny".

From World Wide Rant.

Imagine my delight when I discovered, on YouTube, this glorious, seven-minute-long live performance of "Superstition," by Stevie Wonder, from the early 1970s...

On Sesame Street.

Direct link to video here.

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Bill Maher on Amazon Fishbowl here.  Very funny and entertaining - it will be interesting to see if this plays well with the customer base.  You certainly won't see Wal-Mart advertising by celebrating casual sex, drugs and gay rights and railing against Big Business and the President.  New episodes will premiere each Thursday this summer at 8 p.m. Pacific Time and can be seen anytime at www.amazon.com/entertainment.  Quote of the day..."televison, that is so 20th century..."

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If I didn't mention before, there's no reason to go anywhere other than the new townhall.com if you need to know what's on the conservative mind.  If only there were a liberal media aggregator I would only have 2 bookmarks to go to.  That and the Mets' website.

The New York Post reports on a different kind of subway assault.  No cordess power saws involved.



A massive subway ad campaign by the controversial Jews for Jesus group is infuriating some Jewish leaders and straphangers.

The ads - which encourage Jews to accept Jesus as the Messiah - went up in subway cars and at the Times Square station as part of the organization's $1.4 million campaign this month to proselytize around the city.

As one reader comments, it is still somewhat less annoying than when they stand around pushing pamphlets in people's faces.  I wonder, does the Church have anything to say about this?  I'm too lazy to look it up right now.

Joe Biden Classic Video - "You CANNOT go to a 7-11 or a Dunkin Donuts unless you have a slight Indian accent ... I'm not joking."



Howard Dean on the New York State Court of Appeals decision that gay marriage is not a right under the New York constitution - "Today's decision by the New York Court of Appeals, which relies on outdated and bigoted notions about families, is deeply disappointing, but it does not end the effort to achieve this goal."

Howard Dean reiterating the 2004 Democrat party platform on gay marriage - "marriage is between a man and a woman." 

Actually that's not fair because he misstated the correct position which says "the party is committed to full inclusion of gay and lesbian families in the life of our nation and leaves the issue to the states to decide."  Well, the state of New York did exactly what the platform calls for and Dean's still outraged.  How about a little intellectual honesty here - support legislation to push gay marriage rights through Congress.

The Israeli cafe chain Aroma opens the doors to its first international branch this weekend, on Wooster Street in New York's trendy Soho district.

"I believe that we have a different style to our competition here," said Berman when asked how Aroma would fair against existing coffee shops such as Starbucks. "We have worked hard to develop our style, the coffee is gourmet and the food is all fresh and healthy. Starbucks does not have a kitchen, they serve mostly ready made cakes.

"I think our concept - fast food but with an elegant, healthy and sophisticated presentation - will give us the edge.

For the life of me I can't find an Israeli website for Aroma.

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Nine months ago, Israel forcibly removed all the Jewish settlers in Gaza.  One of the main arguments against the Israeli settlements, was that 8,000 Jews lived in 40 percent of the land and 1.3 million Palestinians were relegated to the other 60%.  Today, the Israeli army retook three of the abandoned, EMPTY settlements.  EMPTY?!?  Didn't Israel leave these places because the Paelstinians wanted them so badly that they killed for it?  Isn't someone responsible for not getting the Palestinians to spread out a little now that the land available to them has increased by two-thirds?

If Israel ever falls, this is the precursor to the greatest mystery of the future - Palestinians will never move "back" to pre-1967 Israel because no one really wants the land anyway - they just want to get rid of the Jews and will be more than happy to remain where they are now.

My letter to the editor of the Dallas Morning News, somewhat abridged methinks, can be found online here.  I'm used to toning down the rhetoric and being even-handed so that I can get into the New York Times.  Sometimes I forget that the Dallas paper is not afraid to print a little red meat from the readers - see the following person's comments on the same subject.

My frustated internal journalist -ego feels somewhat appeased but is never fully satisfied.

Yippee!  My letter to the editor (based on this LJ post) of the Dallas Morning News will be published sometime later this week.  I'll let y'all know when it appears.  Chances are I'll be in NY, so I'll have to ask the wife to pick up a few hard copies of the paper.  I find that it's much easier getting published if I remove the snarky comments I might usually make.

Time is almost up on the ultimatum that three Palestinian groups have given with regards to the kdnapping of Israeli Cpl. Gilad Shalit.  Some say he's a prisoner of war and that it's not a kidnapping - he was "captured".  To me if you're demanding a ransom, it's a kidnapping.  Or a hijacking if a plane is involved.  But those don't happen much anymore, in part because of the Raid on Entebbe, 30 years ago today. (Jeff Jacoby of the Boston Globe remembers it having taken place on July 4, 1976, but that's because we all remember the exciting news publsihed in the papers on the same day as the US Bicentennial - it actually took place the night before).

In a related story, the Israeli army has found and captured those responsible for the murder of Eliyahu Asheri.

"I have one big request for you Eliyahu," (his mother) Miriam said, "when you stand before God, please defend the people of Israel in all its actions."  Amen.

This is the quintessential deifference between the Muslim fundamentalists and the typical Jew. they attack.  They "know" they are doing G-d's bidding.  We just hope we're doing the right thing becuase we realize that we can never know what G-d wants.

Guessing game - who is the queen of humble who had this to say?  "It's frustrating, because sometimes, when you are attractive, people don't acknowledge that you are talented as well. "I mean, I'm a songwriter, I'm a producer, I have a strong voice, I'm a dynamic performer. Sometimes people forget that."  OK, now check the link.

I've started reading "The Tango Singer" by Tomas Eloy Martinez about a young man's quest to search Buenos Aires for a tango singer that may just be a rumor but is supposedly better than even Carlos Gardel.  It's a pretty short book and I'm only 15 pages in, but the descriptions of Buenos Aires and it's people are so on-the-ball I can tell I'm really going to enjoy the whole thing.  On deck is John Stossel's "Myths, Lies and Downright Stupidity".

Dippin' Dots are so amazing, especially if you're at an outdoor ballgame when it's 90 degrees or so.  Yum.

Last week, Senator Rick Santorum and Rep. Peter Hoekstra forced the publication of an April report by the U.S. Army's National Ground Intelligence Center (NGIC) stating that approximately 500 chemical weapon warheads have been found in Iraq since 2003. The revelation was mostly ignored by the press and where it was reported, emphasis was put on the fact that the warheads were in a "degraded" state and were "old".

The Washington Post finally catches up today with the story (not one Page One, heaven forfend) by reporting on hearings of the Senate Armed Services Committee regarding the discovered munitions. The article emphasizes the political effect of this disclosure which can be shown in their headline

Munitions Found in Iraq Renew Debate

Panel Is Divided Over Whether Troops Uncovered Weapons of Mass Destruction

But is that really true?

Rep. Susan Davis (D-Calif.) asked whether the munitions could be characterized as "the Golden Oldies of weapons of mass destruction." (Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency) Maples said he was "not sure what Golden Oldies are" but added that the munitions were "dangerous. . . . even in a degraded mode, they will produce hazardous and potentially lethal effects and that we would categorize them as weapons of mass destruction."

Is that unclear? What part of "we would" did the Washington Post fail to understand? Oh, I see..they said the Panel was divided, i.e. the Democrats refuse to take Maples at his word. Or more likely they're working on their own historically revised definition of WMDs such as if the were produced before the Gulf War they don't count regardless of whether they could cause massive casulaties.

I would also refer you to the Panel's press release issued after the hearing.

Two panels of witnesses testifying today about approximately 500 chemical munitions found in Iraq—the existence of which was made public only last week by the Director of National Intelligence—largely agreed that these weapons constitute weapons of mass destruction and remain hazardous and potentially lethal.

Weldon asked if Iraq is a “WMD-free zone,” to which Maples responded, “I would not say that, sir.” In fact, Maples said, “Our concern is, what else is out there?” He also indicated that there are still significant numbers of people searching for WMDs in Iraq.

“There are WMDs,” said Rep. John McHugh (R-NY), adding, “I find it surrealistic that we’re discussing the birthday of a weapon in regards to its ability to affect human life.”

“One point that will be particularly relevant ...about the discovery in Iraq of hundreds of ‘pre-Gulf War’ chemical munitions is the fact that those were precisely the WMDs Saddam was supposed to destroy. He was not supposed to manufacture any others. Suggestions that we subsequently went to war only over different weapons, produced post-Gulf War, are erroneous and misleading.”

 I think I know now why I've taken such a liking to Christopher Hitchen's work.  He's obsessed with both Islamofascism and sex!

The American history of "Oh, that...."

Speaking of sucking (did I just give something away?), it sucks that Argentina lost to Germany on penalty kicks.

Mean, mean, mean. Separated at birth. Ursula vs. Pregnant Britney.

The Supreme Court delivers a sweeping, sharp, major rebuke (I couldn't find "stinging" for some reason) to the Bush administration in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld. (Opinion here.) The opinion rules that the military tribunals set up for Guantanamo detainees is illegal (I think that's the right term). The court did not rule on whether the detention is legal or not, just that the judicial process offered to the detainees by the administration is insufficient given their rights under the Geneva Convention and military law.

I'm partial to the Bush argument of course, but reading the opinion is fascinating if you're into legal/talmudic disucussions about whether "international" literally means between nations or means taking place in different countires. Or whether "regular" means "permanent, standard" or "occassional, consistent". Or whether a state of war/hostilities started with Osama's declaration to kill Americans in 1996 or with the Authorization of Force issued by Congress in 2001 or somewhere in between. I think Justice Thomas' dissent is very logical and well laid out. If you don't think that politics or personal beliefs play a role in Supreme Court decisions, reading this opinion will disabuse you of that notion quickly.

Don't forget tomorrow at 10AMET - Quarterfinals Classic: Germany vs. Argentina.

From the WSJ, why Tom DeLay's gerrymandering in Texas, recently OK'd by the Supreme Court, is still more representative of the people's will than New York's current districting setup.

The New York Times, still failing to produce any Shakespeare, blasts the Supreme Court for mostly upholding a Republican gerrymander of Texas' congressional districts:

The new lines were drawn in such a partisan way that Republicans ended up with nearly two-thirds of the state's Congressional delegation. . . . It is disappointing that [the court] could not have come up with a decision yesterday that had a greater appearance of fairness.

Well, let's take a closer look. Under the previous, Democratic gerrymander (with which the Times finds no fault), Texas' congressional delegation consisted of 17 Democrats and 15 Republicans. After the gerrymander, Republicans had a 21-11 majority.

The new delegation, to be sure, favors the majority party more lopsidedly than the old one did. But does that mean it is less "fair"? If so, then New York's congressional delegation, in which the Democrats hold a 20-9 majority (i.e., more than two-thirds), is even less "fair" and more "partisan."

But of course Texas is a Republican state and New York is a Democratic one. You would expect the party that dominates a state to elect more representatives. How many more? Well, let's take the 2004 presidential results as our benchmark. Here are the percentages of the two-party vote Bush and Kerry got in Texas and in New York:

	Bush	Kerry
Texas	61.5%	38.5%
New York	40.7%	59.3%

Now, here is how the victorious presidential candidate's party fares in each state's congressional delegation, and the difference from the presidential share:

	Share	Diff.
Texas old (R)	46.9%	-14.6%
Texas new (R)	65.6%	+4.1%
New York (D)	69.0%	+9.7%

So by this measure at least, Texas' new gerrymander better represents the voters' preferences than New York's, which in turn does so better than Texas' old gerrymander. It is disappointing that the Times could not have come up with an editorial that had a greater appearance of fairness.

Superman or Super-Jewish-Man? Or Gay Superman?  Feh.

If you have extra time to kill, try this book - Up, Up and Oy Vey!: How Jewish History and Values Shaped the Comic Book Superhero.

Which reminds me, if you haven't read The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, you should.  At least if you're a guy.

In other entertainment news, I saw the movie Jarhead the other day.  It didn't do much for me - probably because I didn't think there were any likeable characters. I do think Jake Gyllenhall did a fine job of acting though.  I don't know why people bother making war movies if they're not even going to attempt to come close to Saving Private Ryan.

I recently finished The Accidental Empire : Israel and the Birth of the Settlements, 1967-1977.  Very interesting history written from the center-left/left side of the political spectrum.  It seems clear that the settlements were a mistake from this perspective, although I think the author downplays the constant state of fear/war that Israel was under during the time.  Seems to me that not much has changed since '67, and if there were never any settlements, you'd still have things like tonight's actions happening constantly.  Are the Arabs not happy that Gaza is now Judenrein?

I'm about halfway through Suite Francaise by Irene Nemerovsky.  Némirovsky, a convert to Catholicism, began a planned five-novel cycle as Nazi forces overran northern France in 1940. This gripping "suite," collecting the first two unpolished but wondrously literary sections of a work cut short, have surfaced more than six decades after her death.  So far, I don't think it's great literature, although it definitely provides a look into a not too pleasant society and how it handled the Nazi invasion and occupation.  Like Jarhead, it's hard for me to get into because there are really no likeable characters, just people using their basest instincts in trying to survive - then again, I guess that's the point.  It's hard to believe that all of that happened only 65 years ago.

Just had a false fire alarm at the high-rise hotel I'm staying at in Manhattan at 11 o'clock at night.  Nothing like the thought of walking down 35 stories in a staircase crowded with summer tourists to get the blood going.  Not going to sleep soon.....

Ate at Stephen Pyles last Staurday night with the wife in Dallas.  Totally worth it if restaurants of note are your thing.  There are also enough menu options that allow you to keep down the tab to a reasonable price, especially at lunch time.

I din't get to eat in any fancy-shmancy palces here in NY - just room service for dinner and the usual bagel/cinammon rolls from the coffee cart for breakfast.  The tuna melt from Bazzini's for luch was quite yummy.  Hope I get a window between the rain storms to get home tomorrow night.

I'm very excited 'cuz I won 2 floor seats for the local stop of the Faith Hill / Tim McGraw Soul II Soul tour on eBay. Only a 40% markup on the face price which I didn't think was too bad - barely over the triple digits per ticket. This will be our first country concert and the first arena concert of any kind for my wife.

Am I crazy to pay that much money to go to a 2-hour concert? Maybe. However, I give you these lyrics from one of Mr. McGraw's more popular tunes.

He said I was in my early forties
with a lot of life before me
when a moment came that stopped me on a dime
and I spent most of the next days
looking at the x-rays
Talking bout the options
and talking bout sweet time
I asked him when it sank in
that this might really be the real end
how's it hit you when you get that kinda news
man what'd you do

and he said
I went sky diving
I went Rocky Mountain climbing
I went 2.7 seconds on a bull named fumanchu
and I loved deeper and I spoke sweeter
and I gave forgiveness I'd been denying
and he said someday I hope you get the chance
to live like you were dying.

I'll be happy when Drudge refreshes his page, as I would prefer not to read about a "teabagging" complaint during lunch.  Thank you very much.
My thoughts on the SWIFT financial transaction surveillance program can be found over at zarq's page.  I wrote, in part - There's a big difference between the public being interested in something and something being in the public interest which the newsmedia doesn't seem to understand.

Argentina vs Mexico at 3PM ET Saturday on ESPN.  Vamos Argentina!  The winner will play the winner of the day's earlier match, Germany v. Sweden.  If there is an Argentina v Germany match - oh my!

Yesterday, a Chase Bank branch near my home was robbed for the second time this year.  Not my bank, though.

I'm going to try to go to Stephen Pyles' restaurant tomorrow evening with the significant other.  He's supposed to be the hottest chef in town.  It's a splurge for us, but I'm having a little bit of a letdown after returning from our bed and breakfast getaway last weekend.  Next Sunday night I'm going to the Rangers-Astros game with my dad and daughter and I'll get my usual hot dog and peanuts in the upper deck.  It's nice to be able to live in both worlds.

Keeping on the food theme which I should post about more often, my stomach doesn't usually do well with wines, but I'm trying to find some that aren't so bad for me as I kind of like the snobby feel of drinking wine and a glass a day is supposed to be good for the heart anyway.  (I'm not too snobby though to keep a re-corked bottle in the fridge for a week which is way beyond how long a real oenophile would let his wine sit around).  In Central Market last night, i found this wine from Argentina - Postales del Fin del Mundo - "Postcards from the End of the World".  I don't care what it tastes like, but the label just took me away...I have found that I can deal with the Argentine Malbec pretty well, so technically, that's my favorite.

This report just warmed the cockles of my heart...whatever those are.

Bush seemed most animated when a European journalist asked about a belief of many Europeans that the United States is the biggest threat to global stability.

"That's absurd," Bush replied curtly.....

(Austrian Chancellor) Schuessel rose to Bush's defense, recalling the American support for European reconstruction after World War II and saying Europeans "should not be naive" about the necessity of tough action against terrorists, in view of attacks on the continent. He said the suggestion that the United States was worse than Iran and North Korea was grotesque.

Am I crazy, or is this not important?

Reading from a declassified portion of a report by the National Ground Intelligence Center, a Defense Department intelligence unit, Santorum said: "Since 2003, coalition forces have recovered approximately 500 weapons munitions which contain degraded mustard or sarin nerve agent. Despite many efforts to locate and destroy Iraq's pre-Gulf War chemical munitions, filled and unfilled pre-Gulf War chemical munitions are assessed to still exist."

Red Cross opens its doors to Israel

The inability of the world to accept a Jewish symbol even under humanitaian conditions says more about the World than it says about Israel or the Jewish people.

Just imagine, right now in a maternity ward somewhere in the world, a girlfriend has been born for me. Ewww. A Granddaddy fixation - James Woods (59) with girlfiend (20).

It's about time! Man Flab - It's Fab! It’s Tubby Time! Vince Vaughn, Jack Black, Leave Buff Bodies to Neutered Narcissists: Mattress-Top Torsos Hot on Beach This Summer

Do you know the Monkey Man?

Irony of ironies. A while back there was a Sunday when many Jewish organizations led nationwide protests against the genocide in Darfur. My rabbi led what I believe was one of the larger contingents of congregants in the Dallas area and was very vocal in the synagogue about how important it was for us to go (I didn't). Well, turns out those voices in Dallas and elsewhere were indeed heard in Africa. Problem is, now the President of Sudan thinks that bringing in peacekeepers to the area is a Jewish colonialist conspiracy.

When journalists pressed al-Bashir on his objection to U.N. troops in Darfur, he replied: ``It is clear that there is a purpose behind the heavy propaganda and media campaigns'' for international intervention in Darfur.

``If we return to the last demonstrations in the United States, and the groups that organized the demonstrations, we find that they are all Jewish organizations.''

New Plan Unveiled for 9/11 Memorial

Some people at Daily Kos are sure "the Jews" are behind the fact that Juan Cole did not get a professorship at Yale University. You can go and determine if the post and it's related cartoons are anti-Semitic or not. Cooment on the comments from leftist/anarchist Jewschool.

"Because shrouds don't have pockets" - Former Citigroup chairman Sandy Weill pledges to donate much of his personal fortune to charity.

In Manhattan, there's a Hispanic Kabbalah enthusiaist driving around in an old van advertising his A/C-refrigerator repair company Aleph. Thanks to Chaptzem Blog.



What kind of English do you speak? My profile is shown below.

Your Linguistic Profile::

50% General American English

30% Yankee

15% Dixie

0% Midwestern

0% Upper Midwestern

In Wal-Mart's Home, Synagogue Signals Growth. It annoys me that the writer switches between synagogue and temple in the article. I hate using "temple" to describe a synagogue even though it's popular in the Reform movement. Can't explain why.

Boy do I hope this gets printed in the Arabic editions as well - Depressing Sermons

Last week, I attended Friday prayers in one of the mosques of the Saudi capital. The sermon that was delivered before the prayer addressed the issue of summer vacations stating that to travel to atheist countries is religiously forbidden except in cases of urgency. The speaker further added that one who travels to such countries for reasons that are not related to "education or medical treatment" is contradicting Sharia law.

The truth is that such an ignorant suggestion demonstrates the continuing strengthening of an extremist ideology and presents religious explanations that have absolutely no connection to the practices of Prophet Mohammed....

...The speaker finally ended his sermon by cursing the Christians and Jews.

Personally, I did not take part in these invocations against Jews and Christians as in the past, Jewish doctors have cured the illness of a relative and Christians live amongst us performing their roles honorably and faithfully, therefore, why would I pray that God curses them? The speaker has chosen to follow a path that differs to that of the Prophet Mohammed who always prayed for all people to be guided by God.

The continuation of such falsehood and fanaticism that cloaks itself in religion is disgraceful.

People are always asking, why do we give so much foreign (especially military) aid to Israel?  What do we ever get in return?  How about the targeting and recording device that brought al-Zarqawi's life to an end for starters?  Some more detail on how the system was used here at armytimes.com.

An armored bus carrying 16 year old Israeli girls was shot at in the West Bank.  Three girls were wounded by shrapnel and two others treated for shock.  I'd like to think that whoever shot at the bus may not have known it was full of children, but I could be wrong.

"We do not believe the Israelis were targeting civilians." Garlasco said. "We just want to know if it was an Israeli shell that killed the Palestinians (ed - in Gaza last week)."  Well, at least Human RIghts Watch admits that much.  That wasn't the story four days ago.  “The likelihood that the Ghalya family was killed by an explosive other than one of the shells fired by the IDF is remote,” said Marc Garlasco, senior military analyst at Human Rights Watch.

The real story behind Bambi. Great podcast.

Did you know that diet soda was born in the Jewish Sanitarium for Chronic Disease in Brooklyn?  Fascinating history at AmericanHeritage.com.  More History of No-Cal.

$183 million for this?  I actually like it, which is more than I can say for most 20th century art.  Nevertheless, I think I would have used the money instead to like, buy a small country or something.



I couldn't even get through a minute of this three minute video of Connie Chung singing a farewell for her canceled MSNBC show...ouch.

The wife and I went to see The Lake House this weekend.  We really liked the movie even though the premise is totally illogical - we're suckers for date movies.  I can watch Sandra Bullock all day long.  I just so want to see her happy at the end of every movie that I'll believe anything that gets her there.

Just catching up after a nice, long weekend away from reality.  The wife and I stayed at The Inn at Craig Place in San Antonio for our first "kids-feee" weekend in six years or so.  Eleven points on a scale of one to ten.

Stuff I didn't know  - The coach (Jose Pekerman) and captain (Juan Pablo Sorin) of the Argentine soccer team are Jewish. 

The Argentine population in Houston has doubled in recent years.  The Argentine owned restaurant mentioned, Giannotti's Cafe, was voted to have the Best Pasta in Houston.

The idea of a population swap between the future Palestine and Israel is becoming a serious topic of debate.  I'm not too sure how many Israeli Arabs would be excited about living in Hamas-stan, even if they don't enjoy their current status as a minority getting second class services.

Talk about playing both sides off against each other.  Nestle is buying Jenny Craig.  What's their slogan going to be - "Crunch Bar today, crunchy granola tomorrow?" Mmmmm....Crunch Bars......

Pataki Increases Penalties For Swastikas, Hate Graffiti

New York Gov. George Pataki has signed legislation increasing the penalties for people putting swastikas on public property or on a private building without the owner's permission. The legislation also covers burning a cross without the property owner's permission. The law makes the swastikas and cross burnings more serious crimes than simple graffiti or vandalism. The governor said the swastika and burning cross have been used to threaten and intimidate members of ethnic, racial and religious minorities.

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Hamas offers to renew cease fire with Israel

So, they're willing to reinstitute a "cease-fire" that they broke after inventing a story about an Israeli attack.  Now they're promising to get the other  terror groups to stop sending Qassam rockets into Israel even though they had the power to do this before the "Israeli genocide".  I guess they need a cease fire so they can concentrate on killing other Palestinians.  Can't fight a two front war you know.

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The Mets are kicking ass.  I just thought I'd say that.  They're going for their 8th straight win (on the road!) in Philadelphia as I write this and are winning 5-2 in the 5th inning.

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Elder of Ziyon thanks the BBC for their diagram of how much of Israel can be reached by Palestinian rockets fire.  He gives us the added insight though of showing where these missiles could hit if they began to be launched from the West Bank and Lebabnon as well.  Not too much of Israel's population would be safe from rocket fire.  If you think you haven't heard of the longer-range Katyushas being fired from Gaza, it's not for lack of trying.

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Girls can marry at 15, Colorado court finds.  Then can go straight to jail after the post-coital run to buy cigs at the 7-11.

At what point does liberal journalism become aiding and abetting the enemy? I think it would be considered as such if a newspaper makes an active decision to give the benefit of the doubt to our enemies and publishes fantastical stories that are meant to be critical of our government and the war effort.

Case in point - The NY Times printed Detainees in Despair, a first person account by Mourad Benchellali, a former Gitmo prisoner who was supposedly falsely imprisoned and totured - all in our name.

In the early summer of 2001, when I was 19, I made the mistake of listening to my older brother and going to Afghanistan on what I thought was a dream vacation....

And this didn't set off bells and whistles to begin with at the editor's desk?!?

His friends, he said, were going to look after me. They did — channeling me to what turned out to be a Qaeda training camp. For two months, I was there, trapped in the middle of the desert by fear and my own stupidity.

Americans love self-deprecation!

After two weeks in the American military base in Kandahar, Afghanistan, I was sent to Guantánamo, where I spent two and a half years. I cannot describe in just a few lines the suffering and the torture....

For that, you will have to buy my book - see the plug at the bottom of the page.

I was eventually released and I will go on trial next month in Paris to face charges that I've never denied, that I spent two months in the Qaeda camp....

It was an accident, I assure you! (I wonder if he was free to go at any time or did al-Qaeda use Guantanamo like measures to keep him there - he doesn't say.

I wasn't anti-American before and, miraculously, I haven't become anti-American since....

But what the Times doesn't tell you is that he would be the first in his family to feel that way. You see his father and brothers were convicted TODAY, in France of preparing to commit terrorist attacks in France.

In handing down sentences, the court followed the prosecutor's office by giving the maximum 10-year term to the group's alleged chemicals expert, Menad Benchellali. However, Menad's father, Chellali Benchellali, an imam, or prayer leader, in the Lyon suburb of Venissieux, received only an 18-month suspended prison term -- far lower than the prosecution's demand for six years behind bars.

The court convicted 24 defendants of criminal association in relation with a terrorist enterprise, a broad charge used by France to sweep wide in bringing terror suspects to justice. One other was convicted of using false papers.

The Benchellali family was at the center of the case, with Menad's mother, Hafsa, and brother, Hafed, also on trial for roles in the plot to carry out an attack in France.

Coincidence? Or is there a smidgen of possibility that this guy was as dangerous as the governement says Guantanamo detainees are?

Read the Times op-ed piece again, knowing what you know now. Do you think they could have done a little research on this guy and his connections to terrorism (he admits to being at an al-Qaeda camp too!) before printing his sob story.

Disgusting.

What none of these stories say is how the French managed to catch all those family members. Could have something to do with that box of candy Benchellali earned at Guantanamo. Maybe this is really a concealed effort to try to convince his family not to kill him for giving them up.

Just imagine if it was his testimony that resulted in these dozens of arrests in Europe. Seems less fantastical to me that the story the Times is helping him peddle.

Controversial (or so says the white media) clip of A Tired Black Man.  One film director's response to the Oprah-Angelou-McMillan axis.

Top of Newsweek's link of political cartoons regarding al-Zarqawi's death.  There's rhetoric, and then there's BDS (Bush Derangement SYndrome).

Remember what the Editors of the New York Times had to say yesterday about the Iraqi Prime Minister's failure to appoint Defense and Interior Ministers to his cabinet?

"Almost six months after Iraqis voted for their first full-term government, two of the most essential jobs in that government remain unfilled: the interior minister, who oversees the police, and the defense minister, who oversees the army. That would be a serious political crisis in any country. It is little short of calamitous for Iraq."

So now on the day following the appointments, does the Times consider the situation resolved?  Is there a great releif now that disaster has been averted?

"....it will take far more than the elimination of a handful of iconic leaders to stem the tide of the Iraqi insurgency and reverse the country's alarming slide into civil war....A modest step in that necessary direction was taken yesterday with the parliamentary confirmation of Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki's remaining cabinet members."

When things go wrong it's a calamity.  When those same things are put right, it's a modest improvement.

Do I even need to mention that in today's editorial which focused on the death of Zarqawi there is not one word of congratulations for our military and intelligence services who had been working for years trying to hunt him down?  Even if you hate the President, give some credit to the guys on the ground.

You would think that someone with a fancy title like Vice Chairwoman for the State Senate District Committee of a county's Democratic Party would be a little less childish and liitle more smart.

Dog Feces left at Congresswoman's Office

Republican U.S. Rep. Marilyn Musgrave's re-election campaign was already heated, and it just got smelly as well: Her staff accused a Democratic activist Thursday of leaving an envelope full of dog feces at Musgrave's Greeley office.

That opening paragrpah is a little misleading given that the leaver of dog leavings admitted to the stunt.

Ensz (ed. - Kathleen Ensz, a Weld County Democratic volunteer) told The Associated Press she left the envelope at Musgrave's office but said it "wasn't in the office doors, it was in the foyer." Asked what she meant by the act, she declined comment.

And how did they find her out?

Musgrave spokesman Shaun Kenney said someone stuffed the envelope through the mail slot in the door on May 31 and then sped away in a car. Kenney said most of the preprinted return address was blacked out, but staffers used the nine-digit ZIP code to trace it to...Ensz.

Maybe next time she'll just use a plain envelope from home.

Musgrave is not unused to seeing harsh attacks though. During the 2004 campaign a group run by former Colorado Democratic Party Chair Tim Knaus aired an anti-Musgrave ad that showed "a look-alike of a Colorado congresswoman fleecing a corpse and an American soldier during battle."  That being said, her opponent claimed "I personally never would have run a spot like that in my campaign".

As usual, the NY Times is quick to point out when they think things in Iraq aren't moving as quickly as they would like.

Almost six months after Iraqis voted for their first full-term government, two of the most essential jobs in that government remain unfilled: the interior minister, who oversees the police, and the defense minister, who oversees the army. That would be a serious political crisis in any country. It is little short of calamitous for Iraq.

I guess they weren't able to retract this before this piece of news hit the wires overnight:

Iraq appoints security ministers

The Iraqi parliament has approved the prime minister's nominations for the three key security posts in the new Cabinet, ending a stalemate among politicians over the filling of these positions.

Lawmakers Tuesday approved Jawad Bolani, a Shiite, for interior minister; Gen. Abdel Qader Jassim, a Sunni who has been Iraq's ground forces commander, for defense minister; and Shirwan al-Waili, a Shiite, for minister of state for national security.

As I was about to walk into Eatzi's, a well-known gourmet deli here in Dallas, Dirk Nowitzki of the Dallas Mavericks was walking out.  Another one of the Mavs were coming out too, but to be honest I'm not big enough of a fan to know much of the rest of the team.  Dirk is the seven foot tall German dude, so it's pretty easy to figure out who he is.

The building I work in is part of The Crescent complex which includes the Crescent Court Hotel.  Since we're only a few blocks from the Amercian Airlines Center, pretty much all the visiting basketball and hockey teams stay here.  A couple of guys in my office apparently literally bumped into Shaq going into the Au Bon Pain in the lobby.

All this may change once they finish the new W and Ritz Carlton nearby.

Game 1 - Tonight - Miami vs. Dallas.  Go Mavs!

I recently bought myself the new Motorola Q "smartphone".  For years I've been wanting to have a blackberry type device for my personal use although I never really had enough personal e-mail traffic to justify it.  Being the internet junkie that I am, I got a wireless broadband card from Verizon last year and have been dragging my 7-8 pound personal laptop with me whenever I travel.  That was getting to be a drag although the service was uniformly excellent.

So when I read the reviews of the Motorola Q and that I could have my phone, broadband internet and e-mail all in one place and that it would run on Windows software and could sync with my personal Microsoft Outlook, I just had to have it.  No more laptop, just a slim, calculator sized device to connect me to the world.  Did I mention that it also plays videos and mp3s?  With the added memory in a miniSD card (I got 1GB) it holds as much as I might ever put on an iPod.

Many reviews like this one in the NY Times have mentioned that the device is cool, but the software not so much.  This is undoubtedly true, but I'm not bothered by the extra second or two it might take to perform some functions and the extra functionality offered by other devices like the Treo are just not that necessary for me for my personal use.

I'm in love.

Al Zarqawi is dead.  I don't think I'll have much to add except that I think there's some kind of moronic convergence going on - perhaps it is a herald of the end of the world of something.

Reaction of Al Zarqawi's colleagues - "We want to give you the joyous news of the martyrdom of the majahed sheik Abu Musab al-Zarqawi....The death of our leaders is life for us"

Reaction of U.S. citizen Michael Berg, whose son Nick was beheaded in Iraq in 2004 (maybe by Zarqawi himself) - "I have no sense of relief, just sadness that another human being had to die."  Berg blames President Bush for his son's death.

Even if, especially if, you agree with Michael Berg's politics, is there any doubt that eventually these two philosphies of life and death would lead to some sort of clash?

In an article about Governernor Arnold Schwarzenegger's re-election campaign kickoff by Jennifer Steinhauer, the report begins in standard, relatively dry newspaper fashion.

Schwarzenegger Voices New Confidence

SAMOA, Calif., June 7 — Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger began his re-election campaign on Wednesday by racing through the state, boasting about budgets and bond issues and expressing confidence that he would defeat the newly minted Democratic contender, Phil Angelides, the state treasurer.

Mr. Angelides beat Steve Westly, the state controller and a former eBay executive, on Tuesday with 48 percent of the vote in the primary. In their race, the two spent the better part of their budgets on television advertising to accuse each other of malfeasance and general incompetence.

Mr. Angelides, the more liberal of the two, had the strong support of a majority of unions in the state and its top-ranking Democrats.

Pretty standard stuff, right? Then comes this line....

Mr. Schwarzenegger, whose constituents thought so little of him last winter that it seemed anyone with a bank account and a pulse could remove him, ran without serious opposition in the Republican primary and won nearly 90 percent of the vote. He said he was unafraid of the campaign against Mr. Angelides.

"I'm only afraid of not being able to do the things that I want to do," Mr. Schwarzenegger said in an interview in a restaurant here on the remote northern coast. "And I'm not afraid of that, either."

The governor, looking relaxed, well coiffed and a shade somewhere between sun-kissed and Sunkist, added: "I don't look at it as a campaign against somebody. I'm looking at it much more a campaign for the State of California."

Ouch! Pretty unprofessional if you ask me. These things should be reported, but why the snarky language? In any case, does he really look that tan, or orange for that matter, in the photo below taken at the event being reported on?

I think I'll write a letter to the Ombudsman, this seems like blatantly biased (i.e., false) reporting to me.

Democrats failed to gain the U.S. House seat given up by disgraced former Representative "Duke" Cunningham as Republican Brian Bilbray defeated Francine Busby by a 49%-45% margin.

GOP candidate narrowly wins California race

Republicans will say that the "culture of corruption" charges aren't sticking to the party as a whole and will not matter in individual races in November.  Democrats will point out that Busby lost the seat to Cunningham by 20 points in 2004 and the closer race now shows a large shift of Republicans flipping to their side in disgust.

In either case, it probably didn't help Busby much when she made the mistake of telling a mostly Hispanic crowd just before the election that, "You don't need papers for voting, you don't need to be a registered voter to help."  Although she later claimed that she was talking about minors who wanted to help her campaign, it was taken by almost everyone that she was talking about "undocumented" immigrants.  Definitely not the right thing to say in a Republican-leaning border city.

Someone died in a local traffic accident because of some stupid ass.   Stray donkey causes fatal crash on I-45

I swear that traffic was lighter today than normal, even though I left for work later than I normally do.  I wouldn't doubt if people are staying home out of fear that Satan is waiting for them.  Maybe they're just in line to see the remake of The Omen, which opens today (of course).  Then again, maybe it's all just a big misunderstanding.  Beast's Real Mark Devalued to '616'

For the first time since a concerted effort to return art stolen by the Nazis during the Holocasut began, a painting is being returned from Texas - the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth to be exact.  Kudos to them.  Honestly though, the artwork doesn't seem like anything to write home about.

Glaucus and Scylla, a magnificent 1841 circular painting on wood that has long been a highlight of the Kimbell's permanent collection, was purchased in 1902 by Jewish art collectors John and Anna Jaffe, British citizens who lived in Nice, France. After Anna's death, in 1942, the painting was among 60 items confiscated by the pro-Nazi Vichy government in Nice. It was sold in 1943 at an auction of "Jewish property." The Kimbell purchased it in the mid-'60s from a gallery in New York.



Big special election in California today to fill the House seat left open due to the resignation of Republican Randy "Duke" Cunningham after pleading guilty to corruption charges.  Final polls show Republican Brian Bilbray and Democrat Francine Busby in a dead heat.  Busby lost to Cunningham in 2004 by a 20 percent margin, so the question is whether the impending close results have to say about this case of corruption in particular versus people's views on Republicans in general.

Remember all the hoopla over the big cut in anti-terror grant money for NY budgeted by the DHS?  Of course you do, it happened only last week!

But do you remember when, in 1994, the federal governement seriously cut back on AIDS research grants to New York City?  Wasn't a "thinking" Democrat in the White House then?

New York City is losing three of its four community-based clinical trials, a decision that is prompting outrage here and igniting a debate on whether there is a right to participate in clinical trials.

The Federal Government, which pays for the research, has decided to place only one of its 16 programs in New York, the city in the United States with the most people with AIDS. Within three years, the number of New York patients being treated in the trials will decline to 534, from 2,130.

Officials at the National Institutes of Health say their motive was scientific, to pick the best research projects. But New York community groups and politicians, including Senators Daniel P. Moynihan and Alfonse M. D'Amato and Representative Charles B. Rangel, are fighting the shift, protesting that a city with such a high proportion of AIDS patients should have a commensurately high proportion of the research dollars.

It's deja vu all over again.

In the War on Terror, the Department of Homeland Security studies threats to the United States and determines which targets are most likely to be hit, which are the easiest or hardest for terrorists to hit, what the casualty counts might be, etc.  Think CTU on "24".

While Americans can work up a pretty good sweat regarding traitors to Jack Bauer, will anyone get upset at ABC News for releasing an "Official Use Only" threat assessment produced by DHS?  Here is the footnote on the cover page.

(U) Warning: This document is UNCLASSIFIED//FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY (U//FOUO). It contains information that may be exempt from public release under the Freedom of Information Act (5 U.S.C. 552). It is to be controlled, stored, handled, transmitted, distributed, and disposed of in accordance with DHS policy relating to FOUO information and is not to be released to the public, the media, or other personnel who do not have a valid “need-to-know” without prior approval of an authorized DHS official.

In it's excitement to prove that the DHS is screwing New York and Washington by cutting their anti-terror grants, ABC News "obtained" and published a recent detailed report on the terrorist threat to the U.S. rails system. 

There really isn't a need to tap American's phones to find out who's giving info to al-Qaeda.  ABC News is publishing helpful hints for all the world to see.

The ABC report also mentions that, "New York's rail terminals and commuter rail lines are at the top of the terrorist hit list, according to a Department of Homeland Security strategic report".

First of all this is misleading because the report that was leaked to them was only concerned with the U.S. rail system, commerical and public.  It did not concern itself with other threats (to air traffic, nuclear power plants, ports, etc.) so there is no way to know if the targets mentioned are at "the top of the terorirst hit list".  What about schools or malls?  Secondly, it actually says that it would be more likely that an attack would occur on a train traveling between cities (which are generally not traditional commuter lines like the LIRR or Metro-North), and not in the rail terminals themselves.

Feh.

Jewish Heritage Day: As part of Jewish Heritage Day, the Marlins this afternoon will give away Mike Jacobs T shirts — even though they wrongly assumed that Jacobs is Jewish.

"They said it wasn't done intentionally but I don't know about that,'' Jacobs said. "It's a big joke around here.''
Click the little promotion star in the Marlin's schedule for May 28 to see that this was not a joke.

For  a few days now, I've been reading up on these violent protests in Iran, but I never really bothered to check if the MSM were really ignoring the story or not.  (You would think that any kind of upheaval in Iran where people die would be news).  Turns out the NY Times is indeed half-heartedly covering the story.  Apparently, some of the riots started when an Iranian newspaper published a cartoon or a cockroach speaking Azeri.  This pissed off parts of the Azeri community which apparently make up 25% of Iran's population.

Since the Times didn't publish an image of the offending cartoon, I figured I'd try to google the image.  I put in the words "Azeri" and "cockroach" in the search bar.  What was my result?

"Did you mean 'American cockroach'"?

Boy, somebody out there doesn't think much of us....