218

Almost 2,500 years ago at Thermopylae, 300 Spartans and some 700 of their allies, the Thespians, stood fast long enough to give the rest of Greece the time it needed to defeat a Persian invasion. Their heroic stand has come down through history as the very ideal of devotion and heroism.

Fast forward to today when 218 members (216 Democrats and 2 Republicans) of the United States House of Representatives voted to hand victory to the enemies of this nation. Make no mistake about that. They voted to lose a war. They voted for American defeat. Their vote today has no chance of becoming law, a fact they were absolutely assured of before they even counted the votes. They also set a precedent that will - with absolute certainty - come back to haunt a Democrat who holds the office of the President someday in the future.

They make movies about the 300. The 218 will not be similarly remembered.

UPDATE: Others: The Crimson Blog, The American Pundit, 7.62mm Justice, Mary Katharine Ham, Riehl World View, JammieWearingFool, Ace of Spades, The Mighty Righty, The LLama Butchers, Hot Air has the video of Bush slamming this bill for what it is: betrayal of the troops, Gateway Pundit has a partial list of the gigantic, glistening, gobbets of pork that were included in this bill to buy enough votes to get it through.

Poisonous Pet Food

The story of the recall of tainted pet food just got worse. It turns out that the food was contaminated with a rat poison, according to tests conducted by the New York State Department of Agriculture. ABC news is reporting the poison has been identified as aminopterin, which is used in some foreign countries but is not licensed for use in the United States. The New York authorities are not confirming that report at this hour, however.

Spokeswoman Jessica Chittenden would not identify the chemical or its source beyond saying it was a rodent poison.

ABC News reported it was aminopterin that may have been on imported wheat used in the pet food. Aminopterin is used to kill rats in some countries but is not registered for that use in the United States, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. The chemical, also a cancer drug, is highly toxic in high doses.

Officials from the agriculture department and Cornell University's Animal Health Diagnostic Center would not immediately confirm the ABC report but scheduled a news conference Friday afternoon to release laboratory findings from tests on the pet food.

The Food and Drug Administration has said the investigation was focusing on wheat gluten in the food. Wheat gluten itself would not cause kidney failure, but the common ingredient could have been contaminated by heavy metals or mold toxins, the FDA said.

State and FBI officials said they knew of no criminal investigations in the case.

This is pretty ugly right now. There are a number of different press conferences scheduled for later today, I'll update or put up a new post as appropriate.

Berlin Zoo To “Activists”: Get Bent

The Berlin Zoo will not execute Knut the Kute, the baby polar bear. "Animal Activists" had demanded the bear be killed immediately because he was being hand fed by humans. That, they informed the world, meant that Knut would never be a "proper polar bear".  Now, never mind the fact that Knut was born in the zoo and would never have been released to the wild to practice proper polar bear-ery. The "activists" wanted Knut's hide - presumably to decorate their official headquarters. But the zoo is flat out promising that Knut will live and his pelt will stay firmly where nature placed it.  

BERLIN (AFP) - Knut, a polar bear cub who has become a global sensation after cheating death, made his first public appearance at the Berlin Zoo Friday under the gaze of dozens of photographers and cameramen.

Knut seemed to lap up the attention, toddling around his enclosure, occasionally nibbling the boots of his handler Thomas Doerflein and poking his nose into a pond.

Even German Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel got in on the act, appearing with the little bear after adopting him through the zoo's sponsorship scheme.

The nine-kilogramme (19-pound) bear has triggered a wave of media coverage in recent days after an animal activist said he should have been put down after he and his brother were rejected by their mother following their birth in December.

Now, it just gets better. Annie Leibovitz has swooped in and taken Knut's picture for an environmental campaign. Presumably, Knut did not have to leak any information  to the press to get this honor, as James Baker did. Unless Knut did what bears do and took a leak on someone from the press, anyway.

Iran Crosses A Line

Iranian naval vessels have illegally seized 15 British sailors operating inside Iraqi territorial waters on routine smuggling control operations. They have openly engaged in an act of war against two sovereign nations. They really are pushing their luck this time.

LONDON - Iranian naval vessels seized 15 British sailors who had boarded a ship suspected of smuggling cars in the Persian Gulf off the Iraqi coast on Friday, officials said.

The British government demanded "the immediate and safe return of our people and equipment."

The British Navy personnel were "engaged in routine boarding operations of merchant shipping in Iraqi territorial waters," and had completed a ship inspection when they were accosted by Iranian vessels, Britain's Defense Ministry said.

"We are urgently pursuing this matter with the Iranian authorities at the highest level and … the Iranian ambassador has been summoned to the Foreign Office," the ministry said.

The seizure comes at a time of rising tensions between Iran and the West, which accuses the Islamic republic of violating a U.N. calls for it to halt uranium enrichment and open its nuclear program for inspection. It also comes amid U.S. accusations that Iran is funding and arming Shiite militias in Iraq, worsening sectarian tensions there.

A witness reports that the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Navy came and captured the British sailors and took them across the boundary into Iranian waters.

Best Wishes

To Elizabeth Edwards. The Washington Post has a very nice article about her and her coming battle with breast cancer that has spread. This is a real tragedy for her and for her family and I am genuinely sorry about all of this.

Not once did the shadow of fear cross her face. Elizabeth Edwards stood before the nation, a graceful fighter steeled for personal tragedy again. The cancer is back and in her bones, a lung and possibly elsewhere. The news seemed worse than bad. Yet Edwards conveyed no hint of being hobbled by an incurable cancer. Self-pity was nowhere on the scene.

"Is this a hardship for us? Yes, it's yet another hurdle," she said. "But I've seen people who are in real desperate shape who don't, first of all, have the wonderful support that I have and have no place to turn."

With an openness that thrust her personal travails square into the public and political arena, Edwards, 57, laughed at times, seemingly free of stress as she spoke forthrightly yesterday about her health and its implications for her life and her husband's presidential campaign.

She appeared relaxed, fully in command of the public space she occupied as she couched her health status in the most optimistic terms possible, saying of her marriage, "We're going to always look for the silver lining. It is who we are as people, and we'll continue to do it."

A portrait of a strong and courageous woman. All the best. May you beat the odds and confound the doctors.

Principles? We Don’t Need No Stinking Principles.

The Washington Post is reporting that Nancy Pelosi has coerced the members of the so-called out of Iraq coalition in the House to cast aside their principles and vote for the supplemental funding bill for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Oh, and for the enormous, greasy gobbets of fresh pork that festoon that bill like an all you can eat buffet. So much for principle. You know, I actually had a bit of respect for the folks who actually had enough principle to stand by their convictions, even if I do not agree with their ideals.

Liberal opposition to a $124 billion war spending bill broke last night, when leaders of the antiwar Out of Iraq Caucus pledged to Democratic leaders that they will not block the measure, which sets timelines for bringing U.S. troops home.

The acquiescence of the liberals probably means that the House will pass a binding measure today that, for the first time, would establish tough readiness standards for the deployment of combat forces and an Aug. 31, 2008, deadline for their removal from Iraq.

A Senate committee also passed a spending bill yesterday setting a goal of bringing troops home within a year. The developments mark congressional Democrats' first real progress in putting legislative pressure on President Bush to withdraw U.S. forces.

Even more than the conservative Democrats leery of appearing to micromanage the war, House liberals have been the main obstacle to leadership efforts to put a timeline on the withdrawal of U.S. forces. They have complained that the proposal would not bring troops home fast enough. Their opposition has riven the antiwar movement, split the Democratic base and been the main stumbling block to the legislation, which had originally been scheduled for a vote yesterday.

But, the resultant bill will be vetoed, the Democratic leadership knows it. And the money will begin to run out for troops in the Field. The false, pious sanctimony of the Democrats who have been saying they would never abandon the troops in the Field has just been revealed in all its glaring hypocrisy. The money will run out for the troops in harm's way, but not for peanut farmers. Because the most ethical congress that Pelosi promised is a massive taxpayer funded pork festival. I believe this will surely backfire on the Democrats. Interestingly, so does the Washington Post editorial page.

As it is, House Democrats are pressing a bill that has the endorsement of MoveOn.org but excludes the judgment of the U.S. commanders who would have to execute the retreat the bill mandates. It would heap money on unneedy dairy farmers while provoking a constitutional fight with the White House that could block the funding to equip troops in the field. Democrats who want to force a withdrawal should vote against war appropriations. They should not seek to use pork to buy a majority for an unconditional retreat that the majority does not support.

Those abandoning principle to vote for this may have done themselves serious damage without actually accomplishing any real good. I suspect the voters are going to send that message along shortly.

Edwards Will Continue Campaign

Despite the recurrence of his wife's breast cancer. Elizabeth Edwards has been diagnosed with breast cancer that has spread to one of her ribs. The AP story notes that once that happens, the cancer is no longer considered curable. I am sorry to hear that.

"The campaign goes on. The campaign goes on strongly," Edwards told reporters, his wife by his side.

John Edwards had canceled a Tuesday evening house party in Iowa to go with his wife to a doctor's appointment, which his campaign described as a follow-up to a routine test she had Monday.

The campaign refused to comment on Elizabeth Edwards' health Wednesday, fueling speculation about a recurrence of the cancer and raising questions about the political future of the 2004 vice presidential nominee.

Edwards put those questions to rest although he said: "Any time, any place I need to be with Elizabeth I will be there — period."

It is their decision. It is not one I personally would have made, but I'm not trying to judge Edwards, either.

This Isn’t Good

South African police have uncovered the latest menace from the rodent legion of the Animal Uprising™. They managed to stop it for now, but there is no telling how far it has spread, either. But at least they took away the giant rat's cars.

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South African police said Thursday they had impounded 11 old cars after receiving complaints that giant rats nesting in the vehicles were attacking pedestrians.

"We've had to deal with vicious dogs before but not with rats," Wayne Minnaar, chief superintendent of the Johannesburg police, told SAPA news agency after police discovered 25 large rats living in the cars in Soweto, a township south of the city.

So now giant rats have their own cars. They won't have to hitchhike to get around anymore. This is really not good at all. Check your automobile insurance policy right away and see if you have an uninsured rat rider on your coverage. If not, be sure to phone your insurance agent and ask for one right away. We did. We're still waiting for the agent to stop laughing to see what it will cost. We're not sure what was so funny, but something really funny must have happened on his end of the line judging by the hysterics he's still having.

Sweet Dreams

So, you head for bed after a long day to get some much-needed sleep. You put on your jammies, pull the covers over you and fall asleep. You're busily snoring away, minding your own business in your own bed, having a nice, peaceful sleep.

Then you're run over by a jeep.

ROANOKE, Va. - The underside of a car is a familiar sight to auto mechanic Dean Blevins. Seeing one on top of him at 2:30 in the morning, while he was in bed — that was new. A Jeep crashed through a wall of Blevins' apartment early Tuesday and pinned him in his bed. It took firefighters an hour to free him, but he suffered only minor bruises and scrapes.

As he saw the vehicle's engine above him and felt hot antifreeze splash onto his face, Blevins said, his initial thoughts were less about his injuries than about going after the driver.

"If I'd a had my gun," he told The Roanoke Times, "I'd a probably shot him."

The driver, Wesley Dewayne Smith, 34, of Roanoke, was charged with driving under the influence.

There's one more thing to be worried about when you climb into bed that you never thought of before. You can thank me later.

The Media Is Not Buying It

Ouch, This is going to be a very harsh lesson, indeed. The Associated Press is resoundingly not buying the explanation that the "1984" anti-Hillary! YouTube video was not associated with the Obama campaign. This is very, very bad for Obama. And the funniest part: Arianna Huffington, in her zeal to publicize and lionize the creator of the ad, may have been the undoing of the Obama media love-fest.

Heralded by many as the embodiment of Web-driven citizen activism, the mysterious YouTube ad now stands revealed as the work of a Democratic operative employed by a consulting firm with Obama links.

"It's true … yeah, it's me," said Philip de Vellis, a 33-year-old strategist with Blue State Digital, a Washington company that advises Democratic candidates and liberal groups.

Blue State designed Obama's Web site, and one of the firm's founding members, Joe Rospars, took a leave from the company to work as Obama's director of new media.

Obama, Blue State and de Vellis all say de Vellis acted on his own. De Vellis left the company on Wednesday. He said he resigned; Thomas Gensemer, the firm's managing director, said he was fired.

The entire episode hangs a cloud over the Obama camp.

Since he arrived on the national political scene, Obama has won convert after convert with a vow to rise above the bare-knuckle fray of politics.

However tenuous, any link to the ad, with its Orwellian image of Clinton as Big Brother, raises questions the Obama camp would rather not face.

In a statement, the Obama campaign said it "had no knowledge and had nothing to do with the creation of the ad."

Make no mistake about this, either. It is about more than Obama. This gives the AP a vehicle to bash the heck out of the internet as a news source. They are playing up not only the connection to Obama but also that this so-called "Citizen Ad" was the work of a professional political operator. And they are using that to undermine the credibility of all internet news and opinion sources.

UPDATE: This may not be over with yet. One Ohio blogger has an interesting history of Philip de Vellis and his background of political dirty tricks. The speculation is that de Vellis may not actually be the person who produced the video. And at least one person at the Politico is very interested in this development. Pull up a chair. This might get interesting.

Whoopsie

Ed Morrisey discusses an article in the New York Times that, if anything, paints an even more bleak portrait for the Pelosi-Murtha cut and run pork festival - er - spending bill than the one I linked in the WaPo.

The Democrats thought they rode to power on a wave of anti-war sentiment, but they have discovered that their victory had much more to do with Republican failures than with Democratic platforms. Most of their new members come from center-right districts where Democratic messages about corruption and abuses resonated — but where they see Congress' role in Iraq as limited at best. Boren represents a typical Democratic pickup district in that respect.

Now that the Democratic leadership has gone on record as wanting to limit options for victory in Iraq, Nancy Pelosi and company find that these new representatives will not play along with them. The Blue Dogs understand that timetables represent nothing more than defunding efforts under another name. They will not vote for anything that smells of defeat and retreat, and their numbers indicate that the Democratic supplemental — even filled with hometown pork for those on the fence — will likely fail.

It isn't a good idea to count chickens early, of course. But if this bill fails to pass, it will be a major blow against Pelosi. She will have squandered a lot of voter good will and internal political pull. We'll see how the actual vote goes, of course. I continue to maintain that contrary to the assertions of Pelosi and her pal Murtha, the Democrats were not given a mandate to lose a war. If they find that out the hard way, so be it.

Edwards To Make Announcement Today

The Washington Post is reporting that John Edwards has scheduled an announcement today regarding his presidential campaign plans. They also hint darkly that the announcement may have something to do with his wife's medical condition:

Former senator John Edwards (D-N.C.) and his wife, Elizabeth, have scheduled a news conference for noon today in their home state of North Carolina, in what aides described as a major development in his 2008 presidential bid.

Advisers declined to discuss the details of the hastily arranged announcement ahead of time. "He's talking tomorrow," said Jonathan Prince, Edwards's deputy campaign manager, last night. "Listen to what he says tomorrow."

The appearance comes on the heels of a last-minute decision by Edwards this week to cancel an event in Iowa to accompany his wife to a doctor's appointment on Wednesday. Elizabeth Edwards was diagnosed with breast cancer at the end of her husband's unsuccessful 2004 campaign as the Democratic vice presidential nominee. She subsequently underwent extensive treatment.

Her husband has repeatedly said he would put his wife's well-being first; he announced that he would mount a second bid for the presidency after she was given a clean bill of health.

After a doctor's appointment Monday, Elizabeth Edwards, 57, was summoned for further tests.

Some kind thoughts for the Edwards are in order, I think. I'll post about whatever the announcement reveals later.

RIP Cathy Seipp, 1957-2007

One of the very first bloggers who's work I ever had the pleasure of reading has passed away. Cathy Seipp was 49 years old. Rest in peace, Cathy. She was sharp and funny and she will be missed. I am so very sorry for your loss, Maia. The LA Times has an obituary.

Gorezilla Testificates To Congress

But he just won't pledge to reduce his gargantuan appetite for electricity. He's coming for your power!

Number One In The News

Number one - as in the euphemism for urine - is in the news today. Item: An eighth-grader from Muncie, Indiana is in some hot water for putting urine in a teacher's coffeepot.

MUNCIE, Ind. - An eighth-grader faces expulsion after admitting he put urine in a teacher's coffee pot, officials said. The Wilson Middle School teacher noticed that the coffee had an unusual odor Friday and reported it to the principal, Muncie Community Schools officials said. A student who overheard classmates discussing it also reported the incident to officials.

Urine was found in the locker of the eighth-grade boy, who admitted to putting some in the coffee, authorities said.

The eighth-grader has been suspended pending a recommendation for expulsion, said Assistant Superintendent Steve Edwards.

We have a recommendation, but we'd probably better not say it out loud, so to speak. Meanwhile, on the other side of the globe, we have the completely opposite situation. Chinese reporters put tea in their urine samples. And got back lab results, too.

BEIJING (Reuters) - A group of Chinese reporters came up with a novel idea to test how greedy local hospitals were — pass off tea as urine samples and submit the drink for tests.

The results: six out of 10 hospitals in Hangzhou, the capital of the rich coastal province of Zhejiang, visited by the reporters over a two-day period this month concluded that the patients' urinal tracts were infected.

Five of the hospitals prescribed medication costing up to 400 yuan ($50), the online edition of the semi-official China News Service.

See, if the budding genius in Muncie had put tea in the coffeepot, people would be laughing.