Everyone Needs Water

Even if it's in the form of a song. Hot Tuna performing Water Song.

Swamps

Good Lord. If all of this is true, Nancy Pelosi may have just committed a political blunder of positively biblical proportions. Reports are circulating that Pelosi's husband owns substantial amounts of stock in Del Monte corporation. (So does the Heinz Company and -ahem- Theresa Heinz Kerry would be part and parcel of that). Del Monte in turn owns one of the two canneries on American Samoa that have been purposely exempted from the much-vaunted minimum wage bill. Jim Hoft has named it "Tunagate".

After passing their minimum wage legislation earlier this week the Washington Times noted that that Speaker Pelosi exempted hometown companies from minimum wage increases by passing legislation that excluded American Samoa. Her husband is reported to be a major stockholder in Del Monte, one of the hometown companies in question.

Because this scandalous news surfaced, Speaker Pelosi announced that democrats would revisit this minimum wage legislation.
Again the Washington Times reported:

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi yesterday said Democrats will close a loophole in the House-passed minimum wage increase that exempts American Samoa — an action taken after it was revealed that one of the U.S. territory's main employers is based in her congressional district.

"I have asked the Education and Labor Committee as they go forward with the legislation to make sure that all of the territories have to comply with U.S. law on the minimum wage," Mrs. Pelosi said.

The decision follows criticism over the exemption, reported earlier this week by The Washington Times, to allow tuna canneries in American Samoa to continue paying $3.26 an hour — nearly $4 less than the $7.25 minimum wage passed by the House Wednesday.

Of course, there was never another vote on this conflict of interest since Wednesday and it could be months before action is taken.

What was all that noise about "culture of corruption"? Draining of swamps? Jim Hoft points to this editorial from the Anchorage Daily News.

But there's a curious, little-noticed loophole in the House Democrats' legislation, which still needs Senate approval. As The Washington Post pointed out, the minimum-wage boost won't apply everywhere on U.S. soil. Two U.S. enclaves in the Pacific Ocean, the Northern Marianas and Samoa, have long been exempt from the $5.15 federal minimum. The Democrats' measure ends the exemption for the Northern Marianas but keeps it for Samoa.

Ending the Northern Marianas exemption was an easy call for the Democrats. A booming garment industry there has taken full advantage of the cut-rate wage law, setting up sweatshops that exploited imported foreign workers while still putting the coveted "Made in the U.S.A." label on their products.

Congress took note of the abuses long ago — including efforts by Alaska's then-Sen. Frank Murkowski to close the loophole — so the industry hired disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff. He worked with his congressional patron, Texas Republican Rep. Tom DeLay, to thwart any improvement in wages and working conditions in the Marianas. Their accomplices included Alaska Republican Rep. Don Young.

But in failing to give Samoan workers the same minimum-wage protection, Democrats look like they are playing a similar game of political protectionism. Samoa is represented by a Democratic non-voting delegate in the House; the Marianas send an elected "resident representative" who is a Republican. The complaint offered by Samoa's huge tuna canning industry — it can't afford higher wages because of cheap foreign competition — is no different from the griping of the Marianas' garment industry, which the Democrats correctly dismissed.

Talk about a case of meet the new boss. I have to say, I applaud the stand that the Gun Toting Liberal took right out of the gate on this issue.

Yes, I voted almost straight-ticket BLUE, and given the choices, YES, I’d most likely vote blue again next time, but I WILL NOT just stand by and allow the Democrats to waltz in and engage in criminal activity before our eyes without calling them crooks. And have no doubt about it, Speaker Pelosi is off to a pretty bad start. First, she tried to appoint an ABSCAM crook to be her right hand man. Second, she wasted millions of our tax dollars on her inaugaration parties, and now this?

Nice message you’re sending out there, Speaker Pelosi Legosi — NOT.

Tunagate, indeed.

Miscalculation

I am actually reluctant to blog about certain things actually happening in Iraq for a number of reasons. Obviously, I have personal reasons for that reluctance. In this case, I think I really need to write a bit about this latest story published in the Guardian.

Like Abu Omar before him, Abu Aisha, a mid-level Sunni commander, had come to understand that the threat from the Shia was perhaps greater than his need to fight the occupying Americans. Abu Aisha fought in Baghdad's western Sunni suburbs, he was a former NCO in the Iraqi army and followed an extreme form of Islam known as Salafism.

Jamming

Deep lines criss-crossed his narrow forehead and his eyes half closed when he tried to answer a question He seemed to evaluate every answer before he spoke. He claimed involvement in dozens of attacks on US and Iraqi troops, mostly IEDs (bombs) but also ambushes and execution of alleged Shia spies. "We have stopped using remote controls to detonate IEDs," he volunteered halfway through our conversation. "Only wires work now because the Americans are jamming the signals."

On his mobile phone he proudly showed me grainy images of dead bodies lying in the street, their hands tied behind their backs . He claimed they were Shia agents and that he had killed them. "There is a new jihad now," he said, echoing Abu Omar's warning. "The jihad now is against the Shia, not the Americans."

In Ramadi there was still jihad against the Americans because there were no Shia to fight, but in Baghdad his group only attacked the Americans if they were with Shia army forces or were coming to arrest someone.

"We have been deceived by the jihadi Arabs," he admitted, in reference to al-Qaida and foreign fighters. "They had an international agenda and we implemented it. But now all the leadership of the jihad in Iraq are Iraqis."

My son has told me on any number of occasions when we had a chance to talk that what is going on in Iraq right now is not a civil war. Rather it is a religious war. The fact is that al Qaeda and Iran are stirring this pot and both are aiming directly at building anti-war sentiment in the United States by doing so.

The Mahdi Army cannot win a force-on-force confrontation with the US military and it knows that. It may be able to do so against a heavily inflitrated ISF and it knows that as well.

The reported flow of arms may have been in anticipation of Congress forcing US withdrawal and the Mahdi army further asserting themselves in a play to take control of the country at some point (via real civil war). My guess is both Iran and as Sadr weren't anticipating a US surge in the aftermath of the election. Iran was most assuredly further shocked when its legation office was raided earlier in the week. While it may yield some intelligence, my guess is it was as much a warning as anything else that the game has changed.

Iran is sending arms into this conflict and I think McQ is exactly right here. Sadr was building up in anticipation of an American withdrawal. To the extent that the surge in US forces disrupts Sadr's - and his Iranian master's - plans, this is a good thing. (Incidentally, I do not for a second believe the Guardian's reporting that American military officers are involved in selling ammunition to the Sunni militias. I suspect that is massive propaganda from the insurgents.)

What To Do?

If you're born into a wealthy family and have never held a job. If you spend your life reading and listening to music. If you happen to be a reclusive bachelor with no heirs. What do you do with your estate when you die?

Well, you could pick 70 names at random out of the phone book and leave everything to complete strangers.

Luis Carlos de Noronha Cabral da Camara drew up his unusual will in 1988 in front of two witnesses at a Lisbon registry office, 13 years before he died of natural causes at the age of 42, weekly newspaper Sol reported.

"I am sure he just wanted to create confusion by leaving his belongings to strangers. That amused him," one of the witnesses and one of the man's few friends, Anibal Castro Vila, told the newspaper.

"The registry office employee was shocked when he asked for the Lisbon telephone book and started choosing names at random. She asked him several questions to check his sanity but he was really lucid," he said.

Da Camara's heirs are still waiting for his estate, which includes a 12-room apartment in the centre of Lisbon, a house near the historic northern town of Guimaraes, a car and nearly 25,000 euros (32,000 US dollars) in a bank account, to be divided up.

You know what? The guy probably had a good chuckle over the whole thing whenever he thought about it. Many of the heirs were very suspicious of the letters informing them of their bequest fearing it was a scam. It would be interesting to look in on the heirs in a few years time to see if it changed anything for them, wouldn't it? It doesn't sound like there is an enormous estate, however. So coming into sudden money may not be all that big a change for any of them. Or as big a disaster as it has been for some folks.

A man beset by problems since winning a record lottery jackpot says he can't pay a settlement to a casino worker because thieves cleaned out his bank accounts.

Powerball winner Jack Whittaker gave that explanation in a note last fall to a lawyer for Kitti French, who accused him of assaulting her at the Tri-State Racetrack and Gaming Center, a slots-only casino near Charleston, according to a motion French's lawyer filed this week demanding payment of the confidential settlement.

Although he was already a wealthy contractor, Whittaker became an instant celebrity on Christmas Day 2002 after winning a $314.9 million Powerball jackpot. He took his winnings in a lump sum of $113 million after taxes, and at a news conference in which he came across as a jolly saint, he promised to donate one-tenth to his church and contribute to other causes.

He soon created a charity to help people find jobs, buy food or get an education; he split $7 million among three churches; and he gave money to improve a Little League park and buy playground equipment and coloring books for children.

But his life has been marred by lawsuits and personal tragedies. He faced his granddaughter's death by drug overdose in 2005; he was sued for bouncing checks at Atlantic City, N.J., casinos; he was ordered to undergo rehab after being arrested on drunken driving charges; his vehicles and business have been burglarized; and he was sued by the father of an 18-year-old boy, a friend of his granddaughter's, who was found dead in Whittaker's house.

I remember when this guy won. He seemed so lucky then. Now, not so much.

State Agrees To Take Case From Nifong

The Attorney General of North Carolina has agreed to take over the so-called Duke rape case. Durham district persecutor Mike Nifong, a man with his own verb named after him as a result of the case.

Durham County District Attorney Mike Nifong, hamstrung by a flip-flopping witness and dogged by allegations that he made inflammatory statements to the media, asked Attorney General Roy Cooper's office Friday to appoint a special prosecutor.

"I wish I could tell you this case would be resolved quickly," Cooper said at a news conference Saturday. "Since we have not been involved in the investigation and prosecution, all of the information will be new to our office. Any case with such serious criminal charges will require careful review."

Cooper pledged that his office would not comment on details of the case as officials review the investigation and the charges of sexual assault and kidnapping against Reade Seligmann, Collin Finnerty and David Evans.

Last month, Nifong dropped rape charges against the men after the accuser changed a key detail of her description of the alleged attack.

Yup, it is all the fault of the witness according to Nifong. Nothing to do with his official misconduct. Little things like suppressing exculpatory evidence don't count. Must be tough shaving in the morning, eh, Mike? No mirror to work with makes it tricky.

Durham-in-Wonderland has a roundup of reactions to the state takeover. The funniest one has got to be this gem:

Nifong's attorney, David Freedman, said that Nifong acted because "he wants to make sure the accuser receives a fair trial." Only in Durham.

I could not have made that one up. Believe me, I try hard at these things, but that one is in a league all its very own.

Baby, It’s Cold Outside

So it's past time to think warm thoughts. How about a little Subtropical Stomp? Bob Brozman heats things up.

Sale Of A Wife

ON Wednesday evening last, in the Grass-market, Mary Mackintosh was
brought down about six o'clock by her husband, for the purpose of being
sold. Her crime was drunkenness and adultery. She was held by a straw
rope tied round her middle, and the words, " To be sold by public auction"
in front of her bosom. Several thousand spectators were assembled to wit-
ness this novel occurrence. John F——n, pensioner, and knight of the ham-
mer, commenced business, but the acclamations of the people were so great,
that no one could get a hearing for ten minutes, to bid for the unfortunate
Woman;

You find the most interesting things on the interwebby tubes when you're looking for other things. In this case, this bit of "current history" was current in 1828*. The National Library of Scotland has put their collection of "broadsides" on the web. The Word On The Street gives an interesting look back at the way news was circulated in the days before cable television.

* We all know nothing like this would happen today. If it did, though, it would involve eBay.

Bergerlary

The Opinion Journal takes a look at the report issued by the House Government Reform Committee on the theft of classified documents from the National Archives by Sandy "Socks" Berger. It is not a flattering report for either Berger of the Justice Department that failed to go after this criminal action with sufficient vigor. Berger should have been jailed for what he did but got away with a slap on the wrist.

The more we learn about Sandy Berger's brilliant career as a document thief, the clearer it becomes that there is plenty we still don't know and may never learn. On Tuesday, the House Government Reform Committee released its report on Mr. Berger's pilfering of classified documents from the National Archives.

The committee's 60-page report makes it clear that Mr. Berger knew exactly what he was doing and knew that what he was doing was wrong. According to interviews with National Archives staff, Mr. Berger repeatedly arranged to be left alone with highly classified documents by feigning the need to make personal phone calls, and he used those moments alone with the files to stuff them in his pockets and briefcase.

One incident is particularly suggestive. By his fourth and final visit to review documents and prepare for testimony before the 9/11 Commission, the Archives staff had grown suspicious of how Mr. Berger was handling the documents, so they numbered each one he was given in pencil on the back of the document. When one of them–No. 217–was apparently removed from the files by Mr. Berger, the staff reprinted a copy and replaced it for his review. According to the report, Mr. Berger then proceeded to slip the second copy "under his portfolio also." In other words, he stole the same document twice.

There's more, of course. Nobody knows how many uncatalogued documents he might have removed - we likely never will, either. But the Justice Department did not try to find out, either. The Opinion Journal points out that there is no evidence Berger did remove any uncatalogued material. There is also no evidence that he did not. Given that he was willing to try to steal documents twice to try to suppress them, it is not a safe assumption to make that he did not remove some other things. The Justice Department did the US no favors here.

Bearing Bad News

Police in Medford, Oregon allowed a scout of the Animal Uprising™ escape, apparently through some sort of misguided sense of compassion. The 400 pound black bear was wandering around performing a reconnaissance of the Eastern part of Medford.

A black bear's tree-top tour of an east Medford neighborhood ended late Thursday when the creature sauntered back to its territory somewhere near Roxy Ann Peak under the distant watch of two Medford police officers.

The some 400-pound bruin descended from its perch in a tree near Woodbridge Drive after 10 p.m. and headed east on Spring Street toward Pierce Road shortly after police dimmed their patrol vehicles' lights and drew away from the tree.

"We wanted things to be quiet so the bear would feel comfortable enough to climb down and leave," said Medford police Lt. Bob Hansen.

Calls about the bear started trickling in to Medford police dispatch between 4 and 4:30 a.m. Thursday.

Medford police, joined at times by Oregon State Police and Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife officials, kept watch through the day to ensure the bear and the neighborhood residents stayed safe.

They say they just don't understand why the bear was there in the first place. Fools. He was there to scout for a planned invasion, of course. The bears intend to take over the town. No more sleeping in holes in the ground for them. They want split-levels and they aim to take what they want.

Norwegian Reindeer To Begin Tunneling

Reindeer in Norway are set to begin tunneling soon with the help of a self-appointed human "ambassador". That's right, a human is assisting the Animal Uprising™.

The state is working on a new Highway 7 over Hardangervidda, but local conservationists fear it can have dramatic consequences for the wild reindeer that roam the plateau.

"It will be a priority for us to make sure that it's possible for the reindeer to cross the road safely," said Karl Baadsvik, chairman of the new center dedicated to the local wild reindeer at Skinnarbu (Norsk Villreinsenter) The center was being formally opened on Friday by Norway's minister for the environment.

Baadsvik views himself and others at the center as being "the reindeer's ambassador." He wants to prevent the reindeer's grazing areas from being split up or otherwise interfered with.

We here at Blue Crab Boulevard view ourselves as ambassadors of a completely different sort. We try to warn the world about the plots the animals are hatching. In this case, the Animal Uprising™ is attempting to develop a new species entirely: the subterranean reindeer. If they succeed, soon these antlered troglodytes will be burrowing into banks to help fund even more nefarious plots. And if you think moles in the lawn were a problem, just wait til a colony of these move in!

The Great California Cold Rush of ‘07

Yep, there's cold in them thar hills. The Governator has declared a state of emergency in California due to "extreme" cold temperatures. Why it got all the way down to 35° F overnight in Los Angeles. Ok, all you Midwesterners get up off the floor. It's not nice to laugh that hard.

Schwarzenegger said in a statement released by his office he was declaring the emergency because of "extreme low temperatures" that threatened the old, sick and the homeless.

The cold snap has been caused by an arctic low-pressure system from Alaska has swept south to California, sending temperatures plummeting to near record lows, officials said.

Temperatures in Los Angeles were expected to reach two degrees Celsius (35 degrees Fahrenheit) overnight Friday, 0 degrees C in San Francisco and minus five degrees C in Sacramento, the state capital. At Lake Tahoe, temperatures were seen at minus 20 degrees C.

It seems a bit theatrical to declare a state of emergency over winter temperatures. It happens to be about -10° F where I am right now. 35° would be a relief. Chipping ice off the dog is getting old already. It is all relative, however. At least the decree targets people at risk. If they were providing heat lamps for sunbathers, we'd really laugh at them.

The New York Junk Science Diet

Paul Howard, a Senior Fellow at the Manhattan Institute's Center for Medical Progress, writes an op-ed in the Washington Post today that dismembers the New York City ban on trans fats. He calls it the equivalent of a fad diet. Then he destroys the so-called logic behind the entire thing. The result is calling the whole thing what it really is, nanny state nonsense with a self-declared elite dictating how others live their lives. A policy that will very like do no good whatsoever but will almost certainly have unintended negative consequences.

The science behind the ban is debatable (experts disagree about the relative danger of trans fats vs. other fats) and its logic tenuous (city bureaucrats can't possibly predict the myriad dietary and exercise choices of millions of New Yorkers). After all, obesity and heart disease are complex chronic ailments that are impacted by an individual's genes, diet and exercise (or lack thereof). If trans fats affect health, they only do it at the outside margins.

And, of course, the law of unintended consequences still applies. For instance, once trans fats are eliminated from city restaurants, diners might increase their consumption of french fries and other fried foods under the illusion that they are now "healthier."

The political logic behind the ban is impeccable. McDonald's and other fast food restaurants that use trans fats for frying and baking are an easy target for the city's health-obsessed media and cultural intelligentsia. These are the nation's most health obsessed consumers, who sip red wine, gravitate to yoga studios, and peer obsessively at the fine print on food labels. These voters view "corporate" food as an affront to nature, and what is worse, déclassé. They are more than happy to save the unwashed masses by imposing better health choices, especially since (it is believed) poor urban consumers have no real food choices available to them.

That lack of choice is a real problem in New York City. Howard points out that there are political and policy decisions that could be made to make it easier for large supermarkets to be built in large cities. Most food shopping in New York is done in relatively tiny corner stores and bodegas. The prices are high, the choices limited. Larger grocery stores would give city dwellers more choice and presumably would allow them to choose healthier foods all by themselves like grownups do. In other words a market-based - quite literally - approach that empowers people.

Instead, the nannies proceed merrily down the path they have chosen hearkening to the cries of the wild goose they think they hear. They want their junk science fad diet imposed on their "cultural inferiors" who simply need to be told what to do since they can't be trusted to make their own decisions. Read the whole thing.