Send The Chauffeur To The Barricades At Once!

O.M.G. This is a joke, right? Lyn Davis Lear, wife of television producer Norman Lear has some analysis of the nation and what should be done if the Democrats don't take control of the whole world and buy everyone a pony n November.

When I asked Gore Vidal at dinner why the White House seemed so serene and at ease about the vote, he replied that, this time around, the Bush-Cheney henchmen could simply call on martial law. He glumly noted that we are so far down the road toward totalitarianism that, even if Democrats do win back the Congress, it would take at least two generations before the last six years of damage to the nation could be reversed. Gore frankly despaired that any amount of time could ever return the country to where and what it previously was. This prediction left me reaching for some Fernet Branca.

Yeah, I know what you mean, Lyn. I read that hyperventilating hyperbole and reached for a beer. And pretzels. Although it may take several generations for me to get over laughing this hard at the complete and utter insanity that passes for deep political thought on the left.

We all know the neocons won't cede power easily. They have to be aware that if the tide of Congress turns, Bush's last two years will be mired in gridlock and perhaps even be punctuated by several embarrassing congressional investigations. Of course, Cheney did say last week that everything in Iraq is hunky dory, which leads one to believe that after James Baker's devastating report and the escalating mass destruction of the war, Dickey-boy has simply lost it. But whether it is hubris, loony tunes, or both, the White House's freakish calm about the elections makes me as nervous as the hell we seem to be headed for. Therefore we should all be on alert. If for whatever reason we don't win back Congress in November the only real answer will be to take to the streets.

That's right Lyn, incite rioting and whatnot. Send in all the hired help and those you can convince. You really won't need the chauffeur if the streets are blocked anyway.

Because you sure as heck won't see Mrs. Norman Lear at a shabby barricade. Might break a nail. Besides, much too far away from the Fernet Branca.

UPDATE: Others: Sister Toldjah, Riehl World View, Blogs For Bush, The New Editor, Right Wing News,

UPDATE: Welcome visitors from Just One Minute and from Dr. Sanity as well. Many thanks to Tom Maguire and Pat Santy for the links. Please do take a look around while you're here.

UPDATE: From Doug Ross: Olberman's nightmare dream.

Supreme Court Reinstates AZ Voter ID Law

Surprise move by the US Supreme Court – they vacated a 9th Circuit court decision that had enjoined the Arizona voter ID law. They did so by specifically calling the way the 9th Circuit judges rendered their decision an error.

Surprising action on a Friday afternoon from the Supreme Court: The Court vacated the Ninth Circuit's order that had enjoined Arizona's Voter ID law: the 6 page per curiam opinion is here. The gist of the Supreme Court's decision is that the Ninth Circuit enjoined the voter ID law with an entirely unreasoned 4-sentence order, and this was a no-no:

….

UPDATE: Perhaps the most interesting aspect to this case is that it reveals a continuing interest among the Justices in the workings of elections, even post Bush v. Gore. Here the Supreme Court treated a request for a stay as a cert petition, granted the petition, and reversed — that's something rare enough to seem sort of like a lightning bolt from above. Of course, we're dealing here with the Ninth Circuit, so maybe the Court's interest is narrower, but I wouldn't be surprised if the Court gets involved in more election cases in the future.

That is good news for an honest election process. Bad news for the proponents of voter fraud.

UPDATE: Others: Big Lizards, Don Surber, PoliPundit, OTB (with a win-win proposal),

Livin’ Doll

Got myself a cryin', talkin', sleepin', walkin', livin' doll.
Gotta do my best to please her, just cos she's a livin' doll.
Got a rovin' eye and that is why she satisfies my soul.
Got the one and only walkin', talkin', livin' doll.
Take a look at her hair, it's real,
And if you don't believe what I say, just feel.
I'm gonna lock her up in a trunk, so no big hunk,
Can steal her away from me.
(Cliff Richard, Living Doll)

What do you do with a history of repeated mannequin molestation? He was released from prison and within a week re-offended by breaking a store window to steal a mannequin dressed in a maid's uniform.

FERNDALE, Mich. – A Detroit man with a history of smashing store windows to grab female mannequins has been accused of indulging his fetish again. Ronald A. Dotson, 39, was arrested and jailed Oct. 9 after breaking a window at a cleaning-supply company to get at a mannequin in a black and white French maid's uniform, police said.

A judge Thursday ordered him to undergo a psychiatric examination to determine whether he is competent to stand trial on charges of attempted breaking and entering.

"Mr. Dotson went to prison and they haven't helped him," said his lawyer, Edward Cohn. "He got out of prison and he was right back out there. It's pretty bizarre."

Dotson told his parole officer that he was going to buy a mannequin of his own so he wouldn't keep breaking windows to steal them. That plan didn't happen, apparently.

China Hardens Stance Against North Korea

This is huge. The government of China has cut off fund transfers to North Korea through its banks according to bank employees. This essentially cuts off virtually all hard currency flowing into the rogue state.

Chinese banks have stopped financial transfers to North Korea under government orders, bank employees said Friday. And at an appearance with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, China's foreign minister nudged the North to resume negotiations over its nuclear program and assured Washington that China would carry out United Nations sanctions on Pyongyang.

"We hope all relevant parties will maintain coolheadedness, adopt a prudent and a responsible approach and adhere to peaceful dialogue," Li Zhaoxing said as Rice concluded crisis talks in Asia following the North's Oct. 9 nuclear test blast.

China, which is North Korea's longtime protector, has been reluctant in the past to use economic pressure for fear Kim Jung Il's government might collapse.

But Chinese leaders were stung when the North ignored their warnings not to test-fire missiles over the summer, and again when it defied Beijing by detonating the underground blast this month. China previously had reduced food aid to North Korea amid complaints that Pyongyang had ignored Chinese interests.

The move by China's banks could deal a significant blow to the already impoverished North. China is North Korea's top trading partner — accounting for more than half its total foreign trade of less than $4 billion last year — and is a key conduit for its hard currency.

China's actions are considered key to enforcing U.N. sanctions on the North over the test, and to coaxing the North to back away from the nuclear brink and rejoin talks.

This could be a death blow to Kim Jong Il's regime. It would be a very wise idea to keep a very watchful eye on Kim right now. He may get desperate for cash in a very short time.

And In More Bad News For Chavez

Man, I would not want to be a cat anywhere near (T)Hugo Chavez right about now. Cats must be running for cover whenever they see him coming for fear of Chavez taking a kick at them. Not only is his UN Security Council adventure exploding in his face, but oil prices continue to drop even though he "won" production cut promises from OPEC. Why are prices still falling? Simple: analysts do not believe OPEC will actually make the cuts they say they will. Experts know that OPEC members routinely cheat on quotas.

The pledge to curb output by 1.2 million barrels a day, announced after an emergency meeting in Doha, Qatar, came after oil prices had fallen by roughly $20 since a mid-July peak above $78 a barrel. Some oil-cartel members warned output could be trimmed further when the group meets in December.

But many analysts believe the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries will have difficulty enforcing the production cut in its entirety because oil prices are still twice as high as they were just three years ago.

"It's clear there will be some production cutbacks. But is it going to be 1.2 million barrels? That's probably unlikely," said Andrew Lebow, a broker at Man Financial.

OPEC has a history of "cheating," or producing above its official quota, when prices are high and analysts are therefore reluctant to accept the cartel's intentions at face value.

Moreover, many analysts see OPEC's action as proof that the group responsible for supplying more than a third of the world's oil is increasingly worried about slowing demand growth and burgeoning supplies from non-OPEC sources.

"What brought us to this point — where OPEC needs to reduce production by 1 million barrels a day — is bearish for prices," James Cordier, president of Liberty Trading in Tampa, Fla. "The fact is, demand has fallen or is about to fall more and OPEC is trying to catch this by producing less."

Light sweet crude for November delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange fell $1.68 to settle at $56.82 a barrel. The last time front-month futures settled below $57 was Nov. 29, 2005.

In London, Brent crude for December delivery on the ICE Futures exchange settled at $59.68 a barrel, a decline of $1.19.

Oil prices have tumbled since summer due to rising global supplies, a weaker-than-anticipated hurricane season and expectations for slower economic growth. The OPEC production cut is intended to halt the decline.

"The question now is whether OPEC members will comply with the new quotas or whether history will repeat itself and OPEC members over-produce," Global Insight analyst Simon Wardell said in a research note. "The markets appear to be betting on the latter."

This is going to cause Chavez's train wreck even worse. He has badly overextended his nation trying to buy the seat on the UNSC. He now has to pay all those bribes with much diminished income from oil sales. He's in trouble.

UPDATE: And still more bad news for (T)Hugo all rounded up and wrapped in a neat package at Fausta's place.

A Speech Too Far

A number of UN observers are predicting that the slow-motion train wreck of (T)Hugo Chavez's UN Security Council ambitions may be coming to an end. There is simply no sign that Venezuela will get enough votes with Guatemala pulling surprisingly high vote totals. Most of the blame is being assigned to Chavez's speech at the UN where he went off the deep end attacking president Bush. Chavez's political opposition is making the most of Chavez's blunder and may pull off an upset victory as a result. The leftist presidential candidate in Ecuador is distancing himself from Chavez after taking second place in initial polling in the election there.

The leftist cast the election for one of Latin America's rotating two-year council seats as between Venezuela and the United States, which lobbied openly for Guatemala.

But Chavez, who had hoped to use the seat to be a leading anti-U.S. voice on the world stage, failed to win in any of the 35 voting rounds at the General Assembly and trailed the tiny Central American nation by a margin of 20 to 30 ballots.

Although Guatemala did not secure the two-thirds support needed for the seat either, diplomats say it is unlikely Venezuela can win when voting to break the impasse is due to resume next week.

The drawn-out defeat in Chavez's top 2006 foreign policy goal came despite months of canvassing for votes with foreign trips, subsidized oil sales from Venezuela's large reserves and pledges to spearhead a global anti-U.S. alliance.

The voting showed there was little appetite around the world for following Chavez, even if Washington has irked many nations with the sort of aggressive diplomacy it used seeking support for its unpopular invasion of Iraq.

The losses also followed a disappointing second-place showing by Chavez's leftist ally in Ecuador's presidential election on Sunday that exposed the limits on his ambition to export his anti-Americanism in the region.

Ecuadorean candidate Rafael Correa, who faces a run-off ballot next month, has since distanced himself from Chavez, reassuring voters he would block the Venezuelan leader from interfering in his presidency.

What a disastrous move Chavez made. There is a lesson here for the left, if they are smart enough to see it.

Live From Las Cruces

The Wirefly X Prize Cup competition is underway in Las Cruces, New Mexico today and tomorrow. (I posted about it here). For those of us who do not live close enough to make it in person can still participate, however. Courtesy of Space.com, there is live streaming video as well as a video gallery of highlights. It reminds me of the old enthusiasm for the early days of the US Space program! With the same inexplicable delays! I just watched a launch scrub. There is also a rocket racing league and their first racer is the Thunderhawk.

They are running some footage of what the rocket race course will look like. Don't bother me, I'm busy right now!

I wouldn’t Bet The Farm

I've used the expression: I wouldn't bet the farm" any number of times. It was always a figure of speech to me. One of those hyperbolic rhetorical flourishes that you use to point out that something is not really a sure thing.

Some people take the expression and their politics seriously, however.

Vujadin Markovic has rejected his neighbour Sinisa Tripkovic's offer of lunch instead, Dnevni Avaz reported.

The daily said the two men quarrelled in the street over who would win the October 1 election in the Bosnian Serb Republic.

They made a bet before five witnesses and signed an improvised contract stamped in a farm cooperative near the eastern town of Sekovici.

Markovic bet Bosnian Serb Prime Minister Milorad Dodik and his Social Democrats would win — which they did. Tripkovic had been convinced of the Serb Democratic Party (SDS), but it lost after 15 years in power.

Tripkovic wagered his home and the cash to equal the value of Markovic's more valuable house, his stake.

But afterwards he dismissed the bet as a joke and the contract as illegal, but his offer of lunch instead was refused.

Markovic has sued to enforce the contract. Anyone want to bet on the outcome?

Why Iraq Is Not Vietnam

Military historian John Keegan, writing in the Telegraph reacts to the (incorrect) media reports of Bush supposedly comparing Iraq to Vietnam. Even though he is reacting to a misinterpretation, his detailed explanation of why Iraq is not Vietnam is still worth reading.

The recent upsurge of violence in Iraq in no way resembles the Tet offensive. At Tet, the Vietnamese new year, the North Vietnamese People's Army simultaneously attacked 40 cities and towns in South Vietnam, using 84,000 troops. Of those, the communists lost 45,000 killed. No such losses have been recorded in Iraq at any place or any time. The Tet offensive proved to be a military disaster for the Vietnamese communists. It left them scarcely able to keep up their long-running, low-level war against the South Vietnamese government and the American army.

Indeed, insofar as Tet was a defeat for the United States and for the South Vietnamese government, it was because the American media decided to represent it as such. It has become a cliché to say that Vietnam was a media war, but so it was. Much of the world media were hostile to American involvement from the start, particularly in France, which had fought and lost its own Vietnam war in 1946-54. The defeat of Dien Bien Phu rankled with the French and there were few who wanted to see the Americans win where they had failed.

It was, however, the American rather than the foreign media who decided on the verdict. The American media had begun by supporting the war. As it dragged on, however, without any end in sight and with the promised military victory constantly postponed, American newspapers and — critically — the evening television programmes began to treat war news as a bad story.

The media were extremely influential, particularly at such places as university campuses and the firesides of American families whose sons had been conscripted for service. When casualties of 150 a week began to be reported, the war began to be increasingly unpopular. President Johnson, who was temperamentally oversensitive to criticism, believed that one particular broadcast by Walter Cronkite in February 1968, just after Tet, lost him Middle America. "If I've lost Kronkite," he said to his staff, "I have lost the war."

President Bush must now expect that America's television anchormen will be looking for a similar opportunity to damage him. If they find it, the blame will be the President's alone.

I do not want to see the same mistakes repeated. The majority of the media is operating in a completely irresponsible fashion these days in a desperate attempt to cause the war to fail. They are routinely publishing anything they can that will damage the administration with no thought whatsoever about what damage they are doing to this nation and the world itself. The question that must be answered by all those who oppose the war in Iraq is this: Are you, personally, willing to bear the responsibility for the bloodshed that will follow a precipitous withdrawal from Iraq? Because there will be bloodshed.

And the media will be complicit.

Hiding The Truth

We here at Blue Crab Boulevard continue to be the only source of Real Truth™ on the strange goings on all over the world. Not only the animal uprising, either. We also happen to be the only ones on top of the cover-up by all the governments in the world of the alien invasions. We told you about the attack on Christchurch, New Zealand but nobody listened to us. Now all of the residents of that city have been assimilated. We're absolutely sure of that because we have never talked to anyone in Christchurch. Never! Proof positive.

But now the aliens have branched out. They launched an assault on Bonn, Germany. And they burned an old man's house down! The authorities are covering it up, though.

BERLIN (Reuters) – A fire that destroyed a cottage near Bonn and injured a 77-year-old man was probably caused by a meteor and witnesses saw an arc of blazing light in the sky, German police said on Friday.

Burkhard Rick, a spokesman for the police in Siegburg east of Bonn, said the fire gutted the cottage and badly burnt the man's hands and face in the incident on October 10.

"We sought assistance from Bochum observatory and they noted that at that particular moment the earth was near a field of meteoroid splinter and it could be assumed that particles had entered the atmosphere," he said.

Lies, nothing but lies. We have again been extremely fortunate in obtaining a genuine Reuters Quality™ photo from the folks at Magic 8-Ball Photography and Blacksmithing, Ltd. This shows what that blaze of light was! It wasn't a meteoroid splinter! We must demand an immediate investigation! Before we are all assimilated.

UPDATE: They hit Chino, California, too. This time it was the ice ray. (Looks the same as the above only blue).

"It was a huge crash. It shook the whole building but we thought it was a car," McElroy said. The couple went outside to investigate but found nothing, so they returned to finish watching the movie.

They didn't discover the chunk of ice on the bed and the 2-foot-wide hole in the ceiling until Thursday morning.

"If I'd been looking at TV (in his bedroom) I'd have had it," he said.

"I think we had somebody extra looking over us," Evelyn McElroy said from her wheelchair Thursday afternoon.

Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Ian Gregor said Thursday if the offending chunk of ice is from an airplane, then it is likely the cause of a leak in a holding tank of the aircraft's bathroom.

Sometimes Being Stupid IS A Crime

The 20-year old man who posted a threat against seven NFL stadiums on the internet is being charged by the Federal authorities. Details of the charges will be released later today. The man admitted writing the threat as part of a "writing contest" to see who could come up with the scariest fake threat.

The U.S. Attorney's Office in Newark did not immediately identify the man but said in a news release announcing the charge that he would be in court in Milwaukee later Friday.

One of the stadiums allegedly targeted was Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J.

The FBI determined the threats were a hoax on Thursday.

A joint statement from the FBI and Homeland Security Department said fans "should be reassured of their security as they continue to attend sporting events this weekend."

An FBI official in Washington, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the case is still under investigation, told The Associated Press that a Milwaukee man acknowledged posting the phony stadium threat as part of a "writing duel" with a man from the Brownsville, Texas, area to see who could post the scariest threat.

The Texas man corroborated the story during questioning Thursday by FBI agents, the official said.

This falls into the same category as falsely yelling "fire" in a crowded theater. One hopes the authorities makes a hard example here. Then maybe other people will figure out that this sort of thing is a form of stupidity that can land you in prison.

UPDATE: Boy, am I good. The Federal prosecutor said the exact same thing in a press conference. Which either means great minds think alike or that he reads Blue Crab Boulevard for advice. Let's go with the great minds, though.

"These types of hoaxes scare innocent people, cost business resources and waste valuable homeland security resources. We cannot tolerate this Internet version of yelling fire in a crowded theater in the post-9/11 era," said U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie in Newark, N.J., where Brahm was charged in a sealed complaint filed Thursday. One of the stadiums mentioned was Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J.

Brahm was charged with making a terrorist threat over the Internet, which carries a maximum five-year prison sentence and $250,000 fine. When the potential sentence was read in court Friday afternoon, his mother, Victoria Brahm, with whom he lives, closed her eyes and put her hand over her mouth.

U.S. Magistrate Patricia Gorence released Jake Brahm without bail, citing his spotless record and strong community ties. She prohibited him from using the Internet or traveling outside Wisconsin and New Jersey, where his lawyer said he plans to make a court appearance.

Just in case, it's time to have a little chat with my kids about what is and isn't free speech.

Grape Expectations

Go to the supermarket and pick up a nice bag of grapes. They look delicious, don't they? Just the thing for a nice, healthy snack. Grapes meet all the government guidelines; they are high in fiber and packed with vitamins.

And Black Widow spiders, too.

Sheryl Rosen of Rocky Hill bought a bag of Autumn Royal black seedless grapes on sale Tuesday. It wasn't until Thursday, when she was eating some grapes at work, that she found the spider in the bag.

"I couldn't believe it," said Rosen, who was not injured. "I never thought I'd see a black widow around here."

The spider was taken to the Connecticut Poison Control Center at the University of Connecticut Health Center, where Rosen works, and verified as a black widow.

"Right now, we have it in a jar and we will wait until we hear if anyone is investigating further about the source," said Bernard Sangalli, toxicologist and administrative director of the center.

Though a black widow's venom is not usually fatal to humans, the bite is extremely painful. The spider is best known for a distinctive red hourglass shape on its abdomen.

Mona Golub, Price Chopper spokeswoman, said the grocery chain confirmed the incident and removed the grapes as a precaution. She said they came from California.

The animal uprising: coming soon to a supermarket near you.

Protesting Too Much?

This is interesting. The chairman of the House Intelligence committee has suspended a staff member pending an investigation into whether the staffer leaked classified information to the media. The staffer in question is a Democrat. The Democrats on the committee are screaming bloody murder.

WASHINGTON — Democrats say there was no basis for the Republican head of the House Intelligence Committee to suspend a staff member who's come under scrutiny for the leak of a secret intelligence document.

The unidentified staff member, a Democrat, was suspended this week by Chairman Peter Hoekstra, R-Mich., and is being denied access to classified information pending the outcome of a review, Hoekstra's spokesman, Jamal Ware, said Thursday.

The ranking Democrat on the committee said Hoekstra's action was "without basis."

The leak to The New York Times of a National Intelligence Estimate on global terror trends caused a political uproar last month. In the assessment, completed in April, analysts from the government's 16 spy agencies concluded that the Iraq war has become a "cause celebre" for Islamic extremists, breeding deep resentment of the U.S. that probably will get worse before it gets better.

President Bush, who suggested the document was leaked for "political purposes" weeks before the midterm elections, later made public four pages of the estimate's key findings.

In a letter to Hoekstra dated Sept. 29, Rep. Ray LaHood, R-Ill., a committee member, said the Democratic staffer requested the document from National Intelligence Director John Negroponte three days before a Sept. 23 story by the Times on its conclusions.

"I have no credible information to say any classified information was leaked from the committee's minority staff, but the implications of such would be dramatic," LaHood said in the letter, a copy of which was obtained by The Associated Press. "This may, in fact, be only coincidence, and simply 'look bad.' But coincidence, in this town, is rare."

Democrats began screaming the moment they were informed of the suspension. But they appear to be carrying on an awful lot over what really is a commonsense action. Until an investigation is completed into what really does appear to be a highly suspicious action, what is the harm in suspending the staffer's access to more classified material. Unless of course the investigation is what the folks are afraid of in the first place.

Informer Nation

Yes, you too can aspire to be an informer! Spy on people! Watch for wrong-doing! Make things up if you have to!Turn in your friends and neighbors! Or at least your friend's and neighbor's nannies.

Jill Starishevsky, a mother of two and a New York prosecutor, launched HowsMyNanny.com on Thursday, which sells stroller license plates that have a unique number and include the Web site address so the public can anonymously report good or bad nanny behavior.

The parents, who pay $50 for a plate, receive an e-mail alerting them to the report, which they access on the Web site (http://howsmynanny.com//default.aspx) using a password.

"It's a tool to empower the parents and to protect the parents and the children, it's not a tool to work against nannies. It's just a tool to give parents peace of mind," said Starishevsky, a lawyer who prosecutes child abuse and sex crimes.

Starishevsky said she came up with the idea after she saw a nanny in a New York city park who for at least an hour ignored the two young girls she was looking after.

"I was so frustrated," said Starishevsky. "How do I tell the mother that these kids could have run into the street, they could have been taken away at the hand of a stranger."

Kind of alarming that this is the idea of a lawyer. Not surprising, mind you. Just alarming. This seems appropriate:

Panda Pu-Pu Platter

The Pu Pu Platter is a tray of appetizers consisting of various tasty items. A Panda Pu-Pu platter consists of a handy volunteer. Or, more specifically, a handy volunteer's hand.

The 50-year-old woman, identified only as Lisa, had registered in the Wolong Giant Panda Protection and Research Center in Sichuan province as a volunteer, the official Xinhua News Agency said.

She was wearing gloves and feeding the panda bamboo on Tuesday morning when "suddenly, the panda bit into her thumb," Xinhua said.

"When she cried out, the cub became excited and gripped more tightly," it said. "Lisa finally managed to wrench herself free."

About 20 percent of the thumb had been bitten off, Xinhua said.

A man who answered the telephone at the center's administrative office said it had no comment.

The center has been recruiting volunteers since 2004 for stints that last from one day to more than a month, Zhang Hemin, the center's director, was quoted as saying. They can prepare food, feed pandas under supervision and clear the enclosure with the help of professional keepers, he said.

We've been trying to warn people. Pandas are not cute and cuddly. They are man-eaters. (In this case, woman-eater). But notice that the government of China is keeping expenses down by getting people to volunteer to feed the pandas? It's unfortunate that people who volunteer don't understand they are literally going to feed the pandas. In small tasty bits.