Taking a Deep Breath

And trying to decide how to proceed.

What is to become, in the event of a withdrawal, of the many Arab and Kurdish Iraqis who do want to live in a secular and democratic and federal country? We have acquired this responsibility not since 2003, or in the sideshow debate over prewar propaganda, but over decades of intervention in Iraq's affairs, starting with the 1968 Baathist coup endorsed by the CIA, stretching through Jimmy Carter's unforgivable permission for Saddam Hussein to invade Iran, continuing through the decades of genocide in Kurdistan and the uneasy compromise that ended the Kuwait war, and extending through 12 years of sanctions and half-measures, including the "no-fly" zones and the Iraq Liberation Act, which passed the Senate without a dissenting vote. It is not a responsibility from which we can walk away when, or if, it seems to suit us.

"Cut and Run" and "Stay the Course" are equally bankrupt. The solution doesn't lie between the two, but more likely outside and beyond those parameters.

Happy (?) Haloween, I Guess . . .

Monumental

All that is magnificent about the NHL on Saturday night in Montreal. Souray ties the game at 16:16 of the third, and after the OT, we gotta shootout:

TOR -Kaberle shootout goal
MON - Samsonov shootout goal
TOR - Sundin shootout saved
MON - Kovalev shootout saved
TOR - Tucker shootout saved
MON - Ryder shootout saved
TOR - Steen shootout saved
MON - Streit shootout miss
TOR - Stajan shootout saved
MON - Koivu shootout saved
TOR - Ponikarovsky shootout saved
MON - Higgins shootout saved
TOR - Wellwood shootout goal
MON - Perezhogin shootout saved

Just about ran out of bodies. The video highlights are worth the time.

Wind Out of the Sails

File under the Undeniable Power of Karl Rove, I guess . . .

DETROIT - The American Civil Liberties Union on Friday dropped a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the USA Patriot Act.

The ACLU said it was withdrawing the lawsuit filed more than three years ago because of "improvements to the law." The Justice Department argued last month that amendments approved by Congress in March 2006 had corrected any constitutional flaws in the Patriot Act.

By Any Means Necessary

You bought it, you wear it: Minnesota's 5th Congressional District might just get themselves exactly what they asked for:

1. 2005-2006 Legislative Session he authored a bill that would remove the state's ability to crack down on people who are delinquent in paying child support. ... SEE HF 1288: Driver's license suspension for nonpayment of support repealed.

2. 2005-2006 Legislative Session he authored a bill that would decriminalize making false reports of police brutality. SEE HF 2951 False information relating to police misconduct criminal provision repealed.

3. 2003-2004 Legislative Session he authored a bill that would allow alcoholic drinks to be inside a moving vehicle. ...SEE HF 2875 Driver's license; specified misdemeanor traffic offenses provided that do not constitute grounds for driver's license revocation or suspension.

How that place is going from Martin Olav Sabo to Keith X Hakim Ellison Muhammed is beyond me.

Saint Paul Streetfight

Some collection of goons, cheap-shot artistes and sniveling crybabies arrived in Saint Paul to soil our pond. They and their foul (fowl?) demeanor have been beaten back by freindly forces who reamain undefeated at home.

Not only were the Ducks lacking flair and class, they took dumb and dumber penalties, including two different jackholes who not only both got instigating (2), fighting (5) and game misconducts (10), but both had their asses handed to them in short order by Derek Boogaard.

Good guys win in the shootout; ice packs all around.

Please Stop Being Worthless on My Dime

Under the awning of No Outrage = No Attention Paid, you may be shocked to hear that Big Education is rife with disfunction and full of screwheads:

(Audrey) Johnson and Colleen Moriarty, both lame ducks whose terms conclude Dec. 31, have missed six and nine, respectively, out of about 30 public meetings since January, records indicate. Mid-termer Sharon Henry-Blythe has missed seven. Responding via e-mail from her cabin, Johnson said she has spent substantial time at her cabin for family reasons (and) said she keeps in touch with constituents mostly by e-mail but also by phone.

You know, when you ask people to vote for you and send you to the school board, you really owe it to the people who sent you there to show up a the bloody meetings.

Other board members say the absences are frustrating, one factor in the perception that the board has lost steam this year. There's plenty to deal with: falling enrollment, tight money, an achievement gap, reforming middle and high schools. The board sets policy in these areas, hires a superintendent and oversees finances. The board adopted a budget in June with only four of seven members present; the numbers were the same on Aug. 22 and Sept. 26, when the board got state testing results. Minutes indicate that the board hasn't met at full strength since July 11.

Show up to the meetings. Just show up. Do the job. How tough can this be?

(Audrey) Johnson's neighbor Bert Robinson estimates she spends 90 to 95 percent of her time at Deer Lake. "She's living up here," he said.

Deer lake isn't even vaguely near Minneapolis.

(Chairman Joseph) Erickson last spring listed three priorities for the board before the terms of four members expire Dec. 31. The board has completed one. The lame-duck status of Johnson, Moriarty, Erickson and Judy Farmer prompted the board to delay a search for a superintendent until the new board is seated. The board also didn't follow through on plans for office hours in the community and formal school visits.

There's lots to do. What is supposed to be accomplished is important. You are throwing around serious taxpayer coin. Don't give the public some lame excuses for your behavior.

Moriarty cited a busy season at the nonprofit agency she heads, an ear infection and surgery. Henry-Blythe listed recent trouble keeping track of board meeting times (HOLY SHIT!), a family trip, and out-of-town travel or work conflicts. Johnson said she was sick for two meetings, and out of town or on vacation for others.

Liars. Lazy-ass liars; all of them.

Asked about the board's pace this year, (Johnson) wrote in an e-mail: "I feel that we should allow the meatier decisions to be made by the new board."

You are on the board. You are taking money fo being on the board. PARTICIPATE AS A MEMBER OF THE BOARD YOU CHILDISH FRAUD!

Johnson expressed interest in chairing the board for 2005, but members chose Erickson.

Thank God for that.

Johnson has yet to pay more than $29,000 in health-insurance premiums she owes the district. Johnson has said that she can't afford to pay until she finds a job after her term ends.

So she's happy to accept and use the far-better-than-typical health insurance, but she's just not going to pay for until she's no longer on the board that she only participates in when it doesn't inconvenience her from her place on the lake.

What a collection of self-important idiots.

Calling Out Mid-East Islam

Victor Davis Hanson puts down his drink, unplugs the jukebox, and asks Middle-East Muslims, in front of the whole crowd, when they might ever consider helping themselves.

(Mid-East) Islamists are entirely parasitical on the West: They want our material products, but only to use them for destructive purposes. And if they employ televisions and videos to further the spread of Islam, they never pause for a second of self-critical analysis. It is not just that the world of the 7th century does produce what a Mullah Omar or Dr. Zawhri prefers to use, but that the Islamic Dark Ages ensure that such appurtenances could never be discovered or improved by fundamentalist cultures that adjudicate scientific research by Koranic purity, subjugate half the population, invest in scapegoating rather than in confident self-reliance, and predicate merit on blood ties and religious zeal.

Don't miss the ten-point list that really gets down to brass tax, for example:

#7 - We must at all times talk of anti-Americanism and why we want you out of the Middle East; you must never become anti-Arab or anti-Muslim, much less close your borders to our immigrants and students.

Another Capital Crime Goes Underpunished

I would volunteer to pull the switch on this guy:

(T)he president of a company and an associate have pleaded no contest to charges that they broke the law in seizing vehicles and demanding payments on the street.

The case against the president of Quick Lift Towing and an associate was built from a sting operation by the Los Angeles Police Department in which a tow truck driver put an undercover police car on the truck's rack and a representative of the firm demanded $180 to release the vehicle immediately.

Checking in With Ranger Bob

He knows alliteration:

So Shawn shoots Sheena, Shelby, and Shayne, and the sheriff shrugs?

he knows poetry:

(T)here's no way he'd have the time, either to read poetry or even sift casually through volumes current and old, to choose an appropriate poem. He not only has his weekly radio show, he's busy producing rotten books on what seems an almost seasonal basis...

and he knows quality marine archetecture.

Banned in Eagan!

Not only has this luddite been breeding, she's out to make sure you life sucks as much as her's does.

After a parent complained about the "sex, death and general mayhem" in newspapers, a suburban elementary school here decided to cut off students' access to free copies provided by the St. Paul Pioneer Press.

One idiot freaks out, and an entire school administration, staff and enrollment immediately steps in line behind her. We really can't accommodate sociopaths fast enough in the government schools, can we?

The Pioneer Press had been available to students for several years at Deerwood Elementary School in Eagan through its Newspapers in Education program. All kids had to do was pick up one of the 30 copies left daily on a counter in the media
center.

When I went to school and if I wanted a paper I needed to buy my own.

The parent of a 7-year old sent the school an e-mail last week complaining that the newspaper is "not appropriate reading material for elementary-aged kids."

What kind of demented small-minded putz is this? Anyway; tell you what - we'll just keep the newspaper away from YOUR kid . . .

Deerwood Elementary's media director offered to not make the paper available to her child, but continue allowing other students ready access to the newspaper. The parent rejected that, saying it "would silently endorse the kids reading them. It's like leaving a loaded gun on the table."

Stop. Right. There.

#1 - Not only does this idiot not want her own kid to be exposed to this terrible newspaper,
#2 - She is also demanding no one else's kid has access to the Saint Paul Pioneer Press,
#3 - Futhermore (and I mean WAY further) she's equating access to a newspaper with access to a firearm.

So, with 1-3, you'd figure she should be put in a rubber room, but no; 1-3 equals a very logical pattern of thought, so naturally,

#4 - Big education obeys they delusional whims of this fool, and propagates the charade of privacy by not naming this moron, yet making her schizms into school-wide policy.

Colleen Kingsbury, who has two daughters at Deerwood Elementary, said she intended to go there Friday to object. "I really resent this decision that the principal has made, especially given the fact that it's based on the opinion of one parent," she said.

Bless you, Colleen, you and I seem to be in the minority.

One More From the Hospital

That's Lil on the right.

It's Sad To Say Goodnight

Lillian S. Long 1912-2006

Mother's Day, River Falls, Wisconsin

1965

Up is Down, Down is Up

Remember when journalists tried to get the truth OUT?

The BBC has spent thousands of pounds of licence payers' money trying to block the release of a report which is believed to be highly critical of its Middle East coverage. The corporation is mounting a landmark High Court action to prevent the release of The Balen Report under the Freedom of Information Act, despite the fact that BBC reporters often use the Act to pursue their journalism.

The action will increase suspicions that the report, which is believed to run to 20,000 words, includes evidence of anti-Israeli bias in news programming.

(Steven) Sugar said: "This is a serious report about a serious issue and has been compiled with public money. I lodged the request because I was concerned that the BBC's reporting of the second intifada was seriously unbalanced against Israel, but I think there are other issues at stake now in the light of the BBC's reaction."

Clean Dog Mouths and Other Crap Science

Don't believe everything you know.

Not only is the Earth's rotation too weak to affect the direction of water flowing in a drain, tests you can easily perform in a few washrooms will show that water whirlpools both ways depending on the sink's structure, not the hemisphere.

Beware of the Future

You'll know when there's danger, for there will be signs.

Anonymity Can Set You Free

PostSecret:

Bravo for Muhammad Yunus

Muhammad Yunus and the Grameen Bank have been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. There's not much better than someone whose mouse trap is really better:

To ensure repayment, the bank uses a system of "solidarity groups." These small informal groups apply together for loans and its members act as co-guarantors of repayment and support one another's efforts at economic self-advancement. As it has grown, the Grameen Bank has also developed other systems of alternate credit that serve the poor. In addition to microcredit, it offers housing loans as well as financing for fisheries and irrigation projects, venture capital, textiles, and other activities, along with other banking services such as savings.

Many, but not all, microcredit projects also retain its emphasis on lending specifically to women. More than 96% of Grameen loans have gone to women, who suffer disproportionately from poverty and who are more likely than men to devote their earnings to their families.

Five Oh!

Guess who's unbeaten?

The Wild played Columbus so tight Saturday that Nash, Zherdev, Westcott & Vyborny had nowhere to go and they got no soup. The Jacket's frustration boiled over in the 3rd peroid as they took stupid penalty after stupid penalty.

How bad was it for Columbus? Derek Boogaard played on two different power plays for the Wild in the 3rd period. It really became a good old-fashioned county ass-whuppin.'

High Crimes and Misdemeanors

Front Page News by Any Other Name:

Imagine for a moment that Bush National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley or, say, Scooter Libby, had intentionally exploited his security clearance to steal top-secret documents out of the national archives. Is there any chance that would not be daily front-page fodder for the New York Times? Would the broadcast networks, CNN, the Washington Post, and the rest of the mainstream media give us five seconds of peace if all of America had not yet been shown every jot and tittle of what any high-ranking Bush official had been caught red-handed trying to hide?

Of course, as it turns out, (Sandy) Berger was not content merely to conceal the drafts of the after-action report. He has admitted deliberately destroying some of the documents he took. Unauthorized destruction of classified information, it bears noting, is yet another felony violation of federal law, carrying a potential ten-year penalty.

Maybe if Big Media didn't go so breathless on the story/non-story of Scooter Libby, there would have bee some time/energy/attention left for Sandy Berger.

No, you're right: If Scooter Libby had never existed, they still wouldn't report on Berger.