Yeah, I know the folks who like to talk about how they are being oppressed (or repressed) are already all just aglow about the heckling of Rumsfeld. Yeah, speaking truth to power and all that.
Except, consider this, Rumsfeld let him speak. Rumsfeld waved off security personnel ready to take him away.
And the "truth to power" speaker an anti-Semite with an agenda. One who actively encourages people to break their oaths.
Are you really sure you want to embrace him? Really? Think about it.
UPDATE: Gateway Pundit has a good round-up of Ray McGovern's history. Are you sure you want to cheer for this guy?
Anyone who has read this blog for any length of time knows I don't have a high opinion of Ted Kennedy. It's not his politics, although I agree with almost none of his positions. It's not his nasty partisanship. It's not his personal life, in general.
It's the way he skated on something that would have gotten any other person in this country lacking his money and family connections in serious trouble. Likely jail time. Then to preach about the rights of the downtrodden. Kind of sticks in my craw.
So, yeah, I take shots at him whenever I can, because I think he is a horrible person. Not political, quite honestly, it's personal. I would have died trying to save someone's life, not gone to get a nice rest before reporting an accident. In which someone died. So, yes, it's a personal yardstick. Yes, he doesn't measure up. I have no apologies for that position. That said, I do not ascribe the sins of the father to the offspring. I want that clear.
Now there are numerous reports that Ted Kennedy's son has been involved in an accident. Nobody was hurt, thankfully for all involved. Patrick Kennedy first denied any problem, then came out with another statement that said he'd actually taken the correct dosages of prescribed drugs which caused the reported staggering.
Sorry, that sounds a little too contrived, a little too self serving. Something is wrong here. Investigate this and try to get to the root of it. If it turns out that Patrick Kennedy was driving while under the influence, the people of his district should turn him out of office and get someone else. By the way. I'd be saying exactly the same thing regardless of what party the individual was in, so please don't start the partisan hacking.
UPDATE: Washington Post coverage this morning.
Andi over at Andi's World has a very interesting update on the Fran O'Brien Stadium Steakhouse. The American Legion hand carried the following letter to the Capitol Hilton:
Dear Mr.Kelleher:
The leasing dispute between The Captial Hilton Hotel and Fran O'Brien's Stadium Steakhouse has been brought to our attention. We understand the owner's generously cater to the most severely wounded troops injured in the war on terror by providing them with free weekly steak dinners. We would like to see this tradition continue at Fran O'Brien's.
While we aren't privy to all the details, The American Legion would like to make The Hilton Corporation an offer in the best interest of these wounded heroes and their families who frequent the dinners at your hotel.
For two and a half years now, the owners of Fran O'Brien's have offered up much more than free steak. This venue has become an important element to their long recovery from wounds most will have for the rest of their lives. This environment has provided mental and emotional healing we can't see or put a price tag on.
We understand that the dispute between the Capital Hilton and Fran O'Brien's is a monetary one. We will meet you halfway in ending this dispute for one reason: Our wounded warriors and those who care for them deserve better. All parties involved are in a position to make this happen.
We will match 50 percent of the cost of an elevator to help bring Fran O'Brien's and the Capital Hilton into ADA Compliance (American Disabilities Act).
In the spirit of your founder and namesake Conrad Hilton, we would very much like to end this dispute and work together in a common cause also dear to Mr. Hilton's heart as you can read from his 1968 statement below when he agreed to be a member of The American Legion's 50th Anniversary National Prestige Advisory and Entertainment Advisory Committees.
Conrad was a charter member of Post 58 in El Paso, Texas, and held continuous membership until his death in 1979.
"I am a charter member of post 58 at El Paso, Texas, and have always considered it a privilege to belong to an organization which has made so many contributions to the Nation and to the welfare of my fellow veterans. I am proud of the fact that shortly after World War I, I helped organize Post 58 at El Paso, Texas, and have maintained my membership in The American Legion continuously since then. The World War I veterans who founded The American Legion created, not just an organization of veterans, but a vigorous defender of basic American principles of justice, freedom and equality of opportunity. I am proud to have been a charter member of my post.
Conrad N. Hilton
We hope to work with The Hilton Corporation in the interests of those who have paid a heavy price for our continued way of life and we hope you accepted our offer to release some of the financial burden for both parties and install an elevator in The Capital Hilton.
Sincerely,
THOMAS L. BOCK
National Commander
Let's put it this way - the Hilton can save face and save a lot of protests if they take this offer. They will look very, very bad indeed if they ignore it. Andi already has commenters saying what I have said - no business to Hilton or it's subsidiaries.
Might be a good idea to bring O'Brien's back, Hilton. A very good idea.
We have been hearing an awful lot about global warming lately. There are a lot of people who think that the warming is caused, at least partly by man. Others (I am one) think there is insufficient data to ascribe the warming to man's activities yet. That there is warming is verifiable; what is not yet clear is that the approximately 200 parts per million increase in CO2 (that's a rough estimate, figures vary from the data I have seen) is enough to cause any significant change.
Now there's some evidence that Jupiter may (stress the may part) be also experiencing global warming. Wouldn't that point to solar activity being the cause of the warming trend we are seeing?
Just asking.
UPDATE: VERY cool picture of Jupiter and (I think) the baby red spot.
An amazing amount of people have signed up with the 101st Fighting Keyboardists, I think Captain Ed deserves a round of applause on the idea - it was brilliant. I sent him an email today, telling him what my son told me on the phone today. My son got a chuckle out of the name and the whole idea (and them regaled me with some of the nicknames the real unit patches get called by the troops. Trust me, not fit for a family blog!) But my son was also very, very impressed with the response and the sheer number of people out there supporting the troops. That 101st blogroll is a visual symbol of support for our troops. It shows visually that there are people who care about the troops. My son thought it was fantastic.
So, I'm going to make it a point to visit daily at least one member of the unit's site and see what I can find to link to. I may or may not find something on every site, but I'll visit and read and pay a little attention to my fellows. If I find something I think should be more widely read, I'll link it and try to spread the word. I'd like to see other members try to do the same, I think it will increase all of our exposure a bit.
So, today I found this post over on Strong As An Ox and Nearly As Smart (picked first because I loved the name) that I really think needs to be read by a lot of people. It's a great post.
Blue Crab Boulevard has learned that Sayed Rahmatullah Hashemi has sent a special thank you gift to Tatiana Maxwell, the president of the International Education Foundation. The foundation was created to raise money to send Mr. Hashemi to college. Mr Hashemi has thoughtfully provided a lovely addition to Ms. Maxwell's wardrobe. We're please to bring you an exclusive photograph obtained by the Magic 8-Ball Photography Service and Fish Market. These guys are everywhere.
A tape of Zarqawi's greatest bloopers has been released showing him unable to figure out how to operate a machine gun. Also included in the greatest hits compilation is a scene with his loyal troops burning their hands grabbing a the barrel of the hot machine gun.
Blue Crab Boulevard has obtained an exclusive still photo from the video, courtesy of the magic 8-Ball Photography and Drain Cleaning. Must Credit Blue Crab Boulevard!
UPDATE: Greetings visitors from Preemptive Karma. Please take a look around before you comment. The comment policy is one the "About" page. Thanks for visiting.
A Federal judge has ordered the city of San Diego to remove a 29-foot tall cross that marks a war memorial on top of Mount Soledad. The cross has stood since 1954. The first cross was erected on the sight in 1913. The city transferred the land the cross stands on to a private war memorial group once. The courts ruled the transfer unconstitutional and forced the city to take it back. Federal legislation was passed to take over the memorial, and voters approved the transfer overwhelmingly. That was again blocked by the courts.
The entire sequence of events was started by one atheist. Supported by the ACLU.
The refusal of the courts to allow the property to be transferred begins to smell a lot like a judicial vendetta, doesn't it? The fact that the court is also ignoring a majority of voters to enforce the beliefs of one person also grants uneven protection to that one person's beliefs. Essentially declaring that the cross violates the establishment clause appears to instead establish atheism. Isn't that just as wrong?
It's a memorial. Leave it alone.
Speaking to a reporter at a Microsoft publicity event, Bill Gates said he wished he wasn't the richest man in the world. He said nothing good comes from it.
Not wishing Mr. Gates to come to any further harm, we here at Blue Crab Boulevard are ready to help. When can we expect the check?
This morning I received a call from my son. He tells me his unit has been running almost continuous missions since he's been in country. Obviously he could not tell me where he has been traveling. We had a really nice, long chat. He told me the phone center wasn't busy at that time of the night, unlike the internet center. Which tells you a lot about communications in this day and age when you think about it.
He had a few choice words for the "extra armor" that has been much talked about. Essentially, the new side panels are useless. They will not stop a rifle round but make movement very difficult. None of the troops like them. He's very happy with the class 1 armor his unit's vehicles are equipped with and said he'd had first hand experience with it's effectiveness, which is not something a father wants to hear.
He's confident in his unit, his officers, his mission. It shows in both the words and the tone in which the words were delivered. He's proud of the members of his squad and confident enough in them to joke with them. He's currently working on getting promoted to E-6 and his unit's officers are supporting him. He says relations between units is very good this tour, better than they were the last time he was there.
It was a really nice chat. How much harder it must have been in past wars.
We reported on four "animal rights activists" who were convicted of running a four year terror campaign against a family who raised guinea pigs for research. They stole the corpse of the family's grandmother as part of their activities.
The grandmother's remains have finally been located and returned to the family.
I sincerely hope they get long jail terms.
To make you swear off drinking. Workers renovating a house in Hungary found a very large barrel of rum and decided to have a few drinks. Then a few more. Then a couple more. Until the large barrel was empty. Then they decided to move the empty barrel. Only it weighed more than it should have. They opened it up and the naked corpse of a man rolled out.
I don't know about you, but I would still be throwing up.
Apparently, the corpse had been shipped back to Hungary in the barrel in order to avoid the paperwork and expense of moving the body legally. 20 years ago, by the way.
The workers said the rum had a "special taste". I'll bet it did.
Yesterday (and continuing on today) I had a lot of visiting commenters who came over here from Daou after
this post got linked there. I'd be interested to see their reaction to the behavior of the darling of the netroots,
Screamin' Howie. After all he fired the party's Gay Outreach advisor over something the advisor's partner did.
Smash over at Indepundit has a comment posted from one of his readers. It was so relevant to the immigration discussion that Smash moved it to the front page. It really should be read. It is by a naturalized American of Russian birth who has been here for 17 years. He has some good ideas (like Smash, I'm not 100% on board, but a lot of it makes sense.) This statement is particularly important and may very well become a better nomenclature for the group of people we're talking about:
To start with, let us clarify some terminology. I personally resent when people marching and waving other country's flags are called "immigrants" to this country. That is because I am myself a naturalized American, i. e. an immigrant. In my view, immigrants are supposed to learn the language of a new country, which is English in the case of USA, assimilate and become part of the new country. Those people waving Mexican flags and, as they say in Russian, pumping their right, are not immigrants. They are unassimilated migrants at best and foreign invaders at worst, their legal status notwithstanding.
That's pretty concise.
Ever wonder why the Democrats have stopped using that meme?
Vernon L. Jackson, 53, owner of Louisville-based iGate Inc., pleaded guilty to conspiracy to bribe and bribery in U.S. District Court in Alexandria. Federal sentencing guidelines call for a prison term of up to nine years for the crimes, which occurred from 2001 to 2005.
Jackson is the second person to plead guilty to charges of bribing the eight-term Democrat to promote iGate's broadband technology — including Internet and cable television — in Nigeria, Ghana and Cameroon. Jefferson denied any wrongdoing in the case yesterday, but his legal problems are steadily mounting and have undercut his party's efforts to portray the Republicans as the party of political corruption.
We've said all along that was a bad road to go down, that both parties were equally culpable on this issue. It is bad for everyone that this culture is so deeply embedded in Washington. Both parties need to address this issue and clean up. Neither party has the high ground on this issue. That's bad for everyone, I think.
UPDATE: Props to Balloon Juice for Tim F.'s take on this story.
Left Wing, Media, Politics | Gaius Thursday, 4 May , 2006 | 
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