Robbing ‘Hood

Whatever controls the great irony engine in the universe just kicked it into mega-overdrive. How else do you explain this little tidbit? The most burgled country in Europe? Britain. The most burgled city in Britain? Nottingham. The best protector of the average citizen of Nottingham against the depredations of the burglars?

The mafia.

Forty yards from the front door of Peter Brown's home stands a tall pole topped with a battery of CCTV cameras.

These are a crime prevention system designed to monitor the privet hedge-lined thoroughfare 24 hours a day.

Three weeks ago, early in the day, there was a knock on Mr Brown's door. A youth asked him if he wanted to buy some fencing.

Mr Brown (his name has been changed to protect his identity) refused the offer, but noticed another youth peering through his front window.

The duo returned a little later and asked him the same question. In hindsight, it was clear they were attempting to find out if someone was still in the house.

Mr Brown said: "I went to work and didn't think anything more of it.

"But at about 6pm, while I was away, the front door was kicked in, which must have taken some force in itself, and they helped themselves to a laptop, mobile phone and other small items.

"They tried to take away more, but were disturbed and ran off."

Mr Brown called the police, expecting that the incident would have been caught on film by the CCTV cameras.

But, astonishingly, a policeman told him that the CCTV tower had not picked up the brazen, illegal entry.

The officer couldn't explain why the surveillance system had failed.

"Sorry. It's just one of those things," he said, nonchalantly.

This news surprised Mr Brown. In fact, it surprised him far more than the burglary itself………

…….But a major police effort in the past 18 months has seen two of the main figures in the organisation - both of whom lived in Bestwood - jailed for murder and drugs offences.

And while justice may have been done, the shocking truth is that burglary statistics in Bestwood have gone through the roof since the two were put away - whereas they had been falling.

Locals say it was the absence of the police that enabled the family to take control of the estate, after the uniformed presence was reduced from regular bobbies on the beat to the occasional patrol car.

The family was shown respect - but it was a respect brought about by fear.

For example, when one of the family entered a local shop, the queues at the tills would part to let him through.

In exchange, the family would "look after" the community.

A few years ago, they even spent thousands of pounds on a Guy Fawkes firework display for the estate.

Such an arrangement brings to mind obvious parallels with the Kray twins who ruled over the East End of London during the Fifties and Sixties. As one 56-year-old female Bestwood resident told the Mail: "We were burgled a few years back and didn't get anywhere with the police.

"Then a man from the crime family came around to see us.

"He took his shoes off at the door, came in and sat down and listened to what had happened.

"He said he was very sorry to hear about the break-in and would do everything he could to find those responsible.

"Within a week, I had all my jewellery back and most of the rest of what had been taken."

A 50-year-old resident said of the firework display: "It must have cost a bit and the show gave the area a sense of community which the council never did.

"The council treat us like scum but the family have respect. They have always treated us properly.

"If there was ever a problem on the estate, it was them who you went to see to sort it out."

A 36-year-old said: "There's an old lady down the road in her 90s.

"Every birthday she gets a card from 'the boys' with a bit of cash in it. She thinks they are angels."

And another Robin Hood legend is born. The cost to society, however, is immeasurable. You are looking at a complete breakdown of society here - the police are powerless, so a strong arm group of thugs take up the slack. When they leave, all hell breaks loose. A rather sad commentary on the state of affairs in Britain, isn't it?

Come Gather ‘Round People

It's funny, I read a post by Wretchard at the Belmont Club that invoked a line from one of Bob Dylan's songs earlier today that got me thinking. He titled it, The curse it is cast. He was writing about the move by (T)Hugo Chavez to shut down one of the few remaining voices in opposition to the new dictatorship that Chavez is trying to bring into being. Wretchard pointed out that the folks at RCTV may not be perfect - hell, who is? But he also pointed out that the silencing of different views is a bad thing - for everyone, left or right. (And that made me look up the lyrics to that old song.)

My own personal opinion is that anyone would have to be a fool or on the Left not to recognize an incipient tyrant in Hugo Chavez. That does not necessarily mean that his opponents, like the owners of RCTV are honest or upstanding men. They may very well be thugs. That doesn't change the fact that Hugo Chavez is a thug as well. But it seems clear to me that the Left's criteria for judging fascisms is entirely partisan. Although they use such words as "democratically elected" or "legitimate" to justify Chavez, none of these words are really operative, except as protective coloration. What matters is that he is "their guy". He is their thug. Principle, clearly on the Left and possibly among conservatives too, runs a far second to belief.

Even Jimmy Carter may now have come to believe that in Chavez, he may have gotten more than it bargained for. "The Carter Center, which has observed past elections here, said it is concerned that 'non-renewal of broadcast concessions for political reasons will have a chilling effect on free speech.' 'A plurality of opinions should be protected,' it said. 'The right of dissent must be fiercely defended by every democratic government.'" Poor Jimmy. It's always a shock to those who think they are driving events to realize that they are, as they say, the last to know.

But there are sure signs that all is not well in the socialist worker's paradise Chavez hath wrought: The people are fighting in the streets over the (T)Hugo's closure of RCTV.

Demonstrators made their way to the offices of the People's Defender, a government official in charge of monitoring human rights, and presented a document saying that Chavez is restricting freedom of expression by not renewing Radio Caracas Television's broadcast license.

"We are marching for a free country," said preschool teacher Cecilia de Becerra, as hundreds of police in riot gear stood outside the government building. "We have faith that things can change."

Hundreds of other protesters gathered outside the studios of Venevision to condemn the privately owned television channel for recently curbing its criticism of the government.

Radio Caracas Television, or RCTV, was forced off the air May 27 after Chavez refused to renew its license, citing the channel's conduct during a failed coup in 2002 and alleged violations of broadcast laws.

RCTV's executives deny any wrongdoing. They accuse Chavez, who threatened on Saturday to yank the broadcast licenses of other private media outlets he accuses of sowing unrest, of trying to muzzle his most outspoken critics.

If what the left in this country says was true, that they are being silenced, this is what it would really look like. They would not have access to major media whenever they wanted to to spout about how they were being oppressed.

Try to get on the air in Venezuela to say you disagree with (T)Hugo right now. Think you'll be able to? Think this is a good thing? Better read the words again:

Come writers and critics
Who prophesize with your pen
And keep your eyes wide
The chance won't come again
And don't speak too soon
For the wheel's still in spin
And there's no tellin' who
That it's namin'.
For the loser now
Will be later to win
For the times they are a-changin'.

One Of The More Annoying Habits

Of the more left-of-center blogs is a propensity to cite things out of context in order to "prove" whatever point they happen to be making. When I first started doing this blog, I actually tried to confront folks who misquoted, or used a "movie review quote" or twisted what I had written. Then I realized it frankly was a waste of time. Most of them, I suspect, are quite smart enough to know they are distorting things.

But, heck, today they got my goat, not about the rather strained misrepresentation about what I had written, but over another issue. So let's go.

I write this blog by going out and trying to find interesting things from a number of different news sources. Yahoo News, WaPo, a raft of British newspapers, Memorandum and Real Clear Politics are all part of the rounds along with many other things that tickle my fancy or pique my interest. I do this on my own, I only get a few tips (mostly funny stuff about animals) from email. I try to write about things I think my readers might find interesting or amusing - or sometimes just because I think it is interesting, even if nobody else gives a darn.

In other words, I do this all by myself, without a net.

I write about Hillary! Clinton because I feel like it. I write about Fred Thompson because he's interesting. In neither case is it an endorsement. For the record, yet again, I am not a Republican or a Democrat. I have a lot of conservative ideas - that are my own, but I am not a party member or a campaign worker for anyone. But I wrote this about Thompson yesterday:

He says we have missed a great opportunity to engage people in Latin America and in the Middle East. I don't disagree that this is something we should be doing. Counteracting the information offensive the al Qaeda and their fellow travelers are engaged in is, in and of itself, a good idea. Thompson does not mention Radio Marti, however. That operation, launched in 1985, has continuously attempted to send the truth into Cuba ever since. It has not had a noticeable impact on Cuba, unfortunately. (On the other hand, they have wasted a lot of money trying to jam those signals.) So it doesn't always work. But planting the seeds of freedom is a good thing. I rather like his closing lines:

I do know, though, that it's time for a new generation of Americans to stand up for freedom — like others before us. And this time, we’ll have a whole new set of media technologies.

Which, of course, makes Cernig at Newshoggers cite me as an abject, lockstep member of the Bushitlerian mindless hoard that ignores reality and will do or say anything for the party. Ignoring the fact that I regularly - and rather forcefully - disagree with the current administration. From Cernig at Newshoggers:

Unsurprisingly, yet depressingly, none of the conservative bloggers listed on Memeeorandum as writing about Thompson's article take issue with his gloss over events. Not McQ, Not Captain Ed, not Blue Crab Boulevard or even Micheal van der Galen. From this we learn two things: firstly, that the Right is still willing to look the other way to stay in lockstep with its next generation of leadership even if many are deserting its current one and secondly, that Fred Thompson shouldn't be allowed to be the Commander In Chief at a time when a frank examination of the rise of Islamist terrorism is going to be of more use than a hagiographic attempt to rewrite history to exonerate the Legend Of Reagan. Garbage in - garbage out.

So Cernig hasn't a clue what I wrote - only that I did not preemptively agree with what he wanted me to say. Fine. But that isn't what got my goat. This is, from Libby at Newshoggers:

But what really struck me about this piece was the photo. If you didn't know, you would think it was a father and daughter, well except for the slightly lecherous look in his eyes. It's clear he's proud of his beautiful young wife, who is actually four years younger than his real daughter.

I don't have a problem with the age difference. I know of many successful May-December marriages, but I do find it distasteful when a man dumps his wife of 25 years in order to trade-up to a wife that looks better on his arm, which appears, acording (sic) to rumor, to be the case here. And yes, I know that he played the field for a while in between and Jeri had to "catch" him, and maybe the wife even kicked him out for all I know but it's difficult to deny that Jeri looks like the classic trophy wife.

Even assuming they fell crazy in love and just had to be together, it's somewhat jarring to see them together in the photo. She looks so young, you expect that she signs her name with a little smiley face instead of a dot on the "i" at the end. In studying that shot, I couldn't help but think if Fred has been dating her only a few years eariler (sic) it would have been considered a sex offense.

And here I am having to write to defend a candidate that I find interesting, but whom I am not at this point backing, from a rather vicious attack that is, frankly, beneath anyone. That Libby at Newshoggers is cheerfully recycling the sewage from Wonkette in an attempt to get that little innuendo into the marketplace of ideas just plain wrong. Oh she does a pro forma preemptive denial, but it is despicable. I do not have a resume for Thompson's wife, but by all the stuff I can get off the internet, she appears to be a) extremely smart with a very good resume, b) not a minor and c) good looking.

So. Freaking. What. That makes her a target for vicious slurs and denigration? Beneath you, Newshoggers. Seriously. You can go on twisting what I write - hell you will anyway by all indications - but attacking someone's wife (who is NOT in the political arena at this point) to further your agenda - sleazy.

For the record, Thompson's first marriage ended in 1985, according to Wikipedia. And Jeri Kehn is in her 40s - hardly a baby. Taking about 18 years to remarry isn't exactly the classic "trophy wife" scenario.

Turkeys Invade Detroit!

More properly, the turkeys are invading Farmington Hills, a suburb of Detroit. And the authorities are downplaying the depredations of the domineering drumsticks of doom!

FARMINGTON HILLS, Mich. - Wild turkeys have been showing up on the streets of this Detroit suburb, pecking at windows and eating from bird feeders.

The skittish birds are generally found in rural areas or large parks, but naturalists and wildlife experts say the turkeys could get used to life in this city of more than 78,000 people.

"Wherever you have a suburb that still has large stands of big trees left, where they think they are comfortable, you may be prone to having wild turkeys," said Joe Derek, city naturalist for Farmington Hills.

You fools. The turkeys must be stopped before it is too late. Pretty soon, they'll be hanging out on street corners waiting for kids to walk by so they can steal their lunch money! Don't believe us? Then look at what happened when the feathered fiends invaded Brookline, Massachusetts! And just wait until they keep people from their jobs! Or until they begin to commute! The only solution is to immediately arrange for a casino to be built in another town.

Turkeys are suckers for slot machines.

Countdown

Mad Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the president of Iran, announced that the countdown to the destruction of Israel has begun. Reuters does its level best to deflect the man's words and paint them in least unfavorable light.

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran's president said on Sunday the Lebanese and the Palestinians had pressed a "countdown button" to bring an end to Israel.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who triggered outrage in the West two years ago when he said Israel should be "wiped off the map", has often referred to the destruction of the Jewish state but says Iran is not a threat.

"With God's help, the countdown button for the destruction of the Zionist regime has been pushed by the hands of the children of Lebanon and Palestine," Ahmadinejad said in a speech.

"By God's will, we will witness the destruction of this regime in the near future," he said. He did not elaborate…….

……"If you make a mistake and create another war against the oppressed Lebanese nation, this time the angry ocean of the nations of the region will remove your rotten … roots from the region," the president said in another speech on Sunday night.

Time is running out to choose sides. I'm afraid time has already run out for averting this catastrophe that Western disarray has brought about. Oh, and all you true believers in the First Church of the Presumptuous Assumption of Global Warming®? Your prayers are answered. Because you will get a rapid cool down in the atmosphere.

It's called nuclear winter.

Consensus?

Whenever I post something that casts any doubt on the liturgy of the First Church of the Presumptuous Assumption of Global Warming®€£$, I can expect some screeching from the true believers. Especially if the artist formerly known as the Daou Report (now Blog Report) links. Then the gates are opened. One of the things they shout - in a towering huff - is that the TOP scientists have reached a CONSENSUS and only a brain dead tool of the oil companies would deny it. And you're going to be entered into the global warming denier's database for later reeducation. (Well, that's what they imply, anyway.)

They flat refuse to even question their private jet-setting, energy hogging, strip mining, indulgence selling prophet Al "Gorezilla" Gore about his hypocrisy. You know, preaching mightily about the evils of using gobs of energy. While using 20 times more gobs than the people he lectures. (And cheerfully pimping the benefits of buying indulgences - er - carbon offsets, while offering to sell said offsets through one of his companies.

I haven't had them respond to any of the sudden spate of stories recounting the rampant fraud in the UN and European Union run carbon mitigation programs yet. I really cannot wait to hear the explanations of how the emperor does too have some clothing. But let's go back to that consensus thing. Lawrence Solomon has been writing a long series of profiles on people who are classified by the true believers as candidates for reeducation once the revolution is complete. (Oh, they just call them "deniers" now. Sorry, just took it to the logical conclusion there.) And guess what? There are TOP scientists who think the CONSENSUS is a pile of ……. fill in the blank (that darned comment policy gets me, too, you know.)

Somewhere along the way, I stopped believing that a scientific consensus exists on climate change. Certainly there is no consensus at the very top echelons of scientists — the ranks from which I have been drawing my subjects — and certainly there is no consensus among astrophysicists and other solar scientists, several of whom I have profiled. If anything, the majority view among these subsets of the scientific community may run in the opposite direction. Not only do most of my interviewees either discount or disparage the conventional wisdom as represented by the IPCC, many say their peers generally consider it to have little or no credibility. In one case, a top scientist told me that, to his knowledge, no respected scientist in his field accepts the IPCC position.

What of the one claim that we hear over and over again, that 2,000 or 2,500 of the world's top scientists endorse the IPCC position? I asked the IPCC for their names, to gauge their views. "The 2,500 or so scientists you are referring to are reviewers from countries all over the world," the IPCC Secretariat responded. "The list with their names and contacts will be attached to future IPCC publications, which will hopefully be on-line in the second half of 2007."

An IPCC reviewer does not assess the IPCC's comprehensive findings. He might only review one small part of one study that later becomes one small input to the published IPCC report. Far from endorsing the IPCC reports, some reviewers, offended at what they considered a sham review process, have demanded that the IPCC remove their names from the list of reviewers. One even threatened legal action when the IPCC refused.

Read more than just Solomon's linked synopsis of what he has found in interviewing these folks. Read some of the actual profiles - and the actual credentials these folks have, it is important.

And it shows that, despite the screeching, this issue is not settled. And, quite frankly, the outright sanctimonious fraud in the so-called carbon reduction programs should make any thinking person realize there is a hell of a big smoke screen here - and it isn't oil-fired.

(And for the record, this blog does not get funding from the oil companies. Hell, I don't get funding from anyone.)

EGAD

We here at Blue Crab Boulevard have been keeping a close eye on the condition of performance artist Mark McGowan ever since he chowed down on a corgi dog. Our informants told us that the corgi McGowan devoured actually died of a rare disease, Extremely Gullible Artist Disease, or EGAD. The disease, when contracted by humans, manifests itself as an insatiable appetite for dog meat. (This appears to be a chicken and egg type thing with Mr. McGowan.) Well the whole appetite for dog is in the initial stages of the disease. There is a tertiary phase, however, that is much worse. We're afraid that Mr. McGowan has reached that stage.

He's about to become the main course of a blue plate special.

McGowan said he ate the dog because he was angry that the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, of which the royal family is a patron, had not prosecuted Prince Philip, the Queen's husband, for hunting and killing a fox. The RSPCA said the fox did not suffer.

Now McGowan is switching his attention from animals to vegetables. He told Sky News television that his next project would be an interpretation of the work of American illusionist David Blaine.

"I am being buried in a box — a David Blaine type thing — in Dublin underneath a metre of mashed potato," he said. He did not explain why.

Why? Because the disease has given him an incurable urge to become an entrée, that's why. Chef Gaius will NOT be making a new sauce for this, either. The Super Corgi Sauce is quite enough (besides, we're running low on snail darters and the baby seals aren't quite ripe yet). We do, however, want to point out the obvious: this perfectly validates the old expression, "There's a place for all of God's creatures".

Right next to the mashed potatoes and gravy. Or under, in this case.

Pounding On The Sicko

Ok, we know Michael Moore's film isn't supposed to be eponymous, despite the opinion of a lot of folks. But another person has come out to beat heck out of Moore's contention that the Cuban medical system is wonderful. And this person has more than a little inside knowledge. After all, his sister is a doctor in Castro's Cuba.

Moore's latest documentary, "Sicko" - which opens this month - aims to skewer the sad state of U.S. health care, in part by comparing it unfavorably to what Moore considers Cuba's sparkling system of national care. In a signature stunt, he brings a few American citizens who couldn't get proper care here down to Cuba - where they get the treatment they need.

As usual, Moore's logic needs a checkup. The man stretches his argument into caricature and discredits himself by cherrypicking facts. To assume that Cuban citizens are getting the medical attention they need because a party of foreigners got treated decently is akin to praising prison food because you got offered a nice spread of cold cuts after the warden took you on a tour.

If Moore had taken a moment to have a little chat with my cousin, a Cuban doctor, he would have learned much more about the true state of health care in Castro's Cuba.

She's not difficult to find. Just go to her town about six hours outside of Havana and look for the woman who's missing half her left leg and trudging down the dirt covered roads on crutches to see her patients.

Though my cousin is readily available to do her job, she's frustrated daily by the lack of medicine and supplies that can facilitate the healing process. Most weeks, not even aspirin is available.

And about that leg: It's the result of a bad motorcycle accident 22 years ago. Yet in all the time that has passed since then, the Cuban health care system has not been able to provide her with either a proper prosthetic or even a motorized chair. We sent her the latter. It sits in the corner, awaiting a replacement battery, unavailable on the island.

And those who decry America's health care as stratified should save some outrage for Cuba - where tourists like Moore and Communist party officials get all kinds of care that's out of reach for Cuba's 11 million average citizens. The fact that the vast majority of them often have to bring their own food, soap and sheets to the hospital somehow didn't make it into the final cut of "Sicko."

Rafael Salinas, who wrote this piece for the New York Daily News is obviously rather disgruntled with Moore's twisting of the facts. (Or gullibility, take your pick.) Not that this kind of thing is new for Moore, of course. His distortions and "creative" editing of clips is well documented. Could our health system be improved? Sure. But use Cuba as a role model? Only if you're a sicko.

Rafael Salinas, who wrote this piece for the New York Daily News is obviously rather disgruntled with Moore's twisting of the facts. (Or gullibility, take your pick.) Not that this kind of thing is new for Moore, of course. His distortions and "creative" editing of clips is well documented. Could our health system be improved? Sure. But use Cuba as a role model? Only if you're a sicko.

Sanctimony, Fraud And Failure

The ugly truth about "carbon offsets" and trading. From The Guardian again. (Whatever has gotten into them? They're failing to toe the leftwing line.)

Ten years after the idea was launched at Kyoto; six years after the guidelines were drawn up at Marrakech; a year and a half after it finally went to work: the CDM thus far has issued only 50m tonnes of certified emissions reductions to offset global warming: Britain produces more emissions than that in a single month.

There are doubts about the validity of some of these CERs, on two separate grounds. First, some of them appear to breach the CDM's requirements for sustainable development - 53% of the existing CERs come from just six monster projects, in India, China and South Korea, all of which engage in the most controversial form of carbon reduction. They manufacture refrigerant which produces as a side effect a gas called HFC-23. Although carbon dioxide is the most common greenhouse gas, HFC-23 is 11,700 times more likely than carbon dioxide to encourage global warming. Refrigerant companies find it relatively cheap to instal an incinerator to burn the HFC-23 and, once that is converted into certified reductions of emission, each tonne saved can be sold as 11,700 carbon credits. These companies are now earning millions of euros from these credits - more than from selling their refrigerant products.

The environmental problem is two-fold, first that HFC factories tend to pour out other pollutants which don't happen to be greenhouse gases but which are unpleasant or dangerous for local communities; and second, that the potential profits from burning HFC-23 are so great that companies are being encouraged to expand production of refrigerants so they can produce more HFC-23 to incinerate, thus increasing the net amount of pollution.

Secondly, as our front-page story today reports, there is evidence that a significant percentage of current and future CDM reductions, possibly as many as 20%, may have been wrongly checked. This effects not just the 50m tonnes of CERs which have been issued already, but a massive quantity which is sitting in the pipeline as a result of hedge funds pouring an estimated €4,000m into high-profit carbon projects.

Within the world of carbon trading, there are numerous cases of projects which are widely regarded as breaking CDM rules. Some of them existed long before the CDM project was launched: if they do happen to be producing fewer greenhouse gases, that is the natural state and not a reduction which can be claimed and sold. Yet, such schemes have been validated by specialist companies and accepted by the CDM board; and the companies running them have been allowed to earn large amounts of money by selling unjustified Certified Emissions Reductions.

Save the earth by polluting the living heck out of it, apparently. True believers in the First Church of the Presumptuous Assumption of Global Warming® are very quick to accuse anyone who questions their pronouncements as tools of the oil companies. It's pretty apparent that the true believers are tools of other companies and schemers who are lining their pockets at the earth's expense. (This is pretty much guaranteed if the inept and incredibly corrupt UN is involved.) And who is pushing global warming issues and insisting on more and more stringent controls and projects like the above?

Why that would be the inept and corrupt UN. With assistance from others with their hands in the cookie jar. Like Al "Gorezilla" Gore.

2, 4, 6, 8, Who Do We Indoctrinate?

U. U. U. Linda Seebach, writing in the Rocky Mountain News, reviews Indoctrinate U a documentary by Evan Coyne Maloney. Seebach is interested in the subject of overwhelming leftist bias in academia since she actually has a background in the field (she's a former mathematics professor). This is a very favorable review of a film that may never be widely seen unless Maloney can get a distribution deal.

A friend of mine did a round of campus visits with his son earlier this year before the son decided where to enroll in the fall. When they came back after one particularly unsatisfactory visit my friend explained why that college was definitely crossed off his son's list.

As I wrote to someone I know who is a professor emeritus there, "He found the insularity and the pervasive groupthink stifling. All the 'chalking' was left wing; he went to a history class and the professor claimed that capitalism was responsible for the Holocaust (and refused to let a student who disagreed finish speaking)."

There was more, but you probably know this story by now - many colleges and university campuses are pervasively left wing, to the extent that any student not on the left is likely to be marginalized or worse.

If you'd like to see the story dramatized, there's an excellent new documentary by Evan Coyne Maloney called Indoctrinate U. You might not be able to see it any time soon - they're still looking for a distributor - but the Web site www.indoctrinate-u.com has a trailer, reviews and background (scroll down for individual pages).

"Instead of the vibrant debate, intellectual diversity, and academic freedom we like to associate with universities, Maloney found violent protests at UC Santa Cruz and San Francisco State, persecution of student members of a conservative club at Cal Poly and the University of Tennessee, divisive racial and ethnic politics at the University of Michigan and Yale, doctrinaire teaching at Duke and Columbia, and much more," the site says.

(The trailer is very well done, incidentally). This is, of course, a subject I have posted about quite a lot. I'm frankly not surprised that Maloney is having a hard time finding a distributer. This isn't left-wing, politically correct subject matter, therefore it doesn't meet the agenda criteria for distribution that the Dixie Chicks and their faux martyrdom warrants. Too bad. I really hope someone steps up here.

Who’s Afraid Of The Big, Bad Fox?

Wow. When the Boston Globe publishes a slam against the Democrats you know the knives are out. The subject is the candidates who are so afraid of Fox News that they refuse to appear in a debate on that network (co-sponsored by the Congressional Black Caucus). Columnist Joan Vennochi absolutely blasts the candidates who are following the dictates from the far left and praises (rightly, I think) Joe Biden for his strong stance on the issue.

IF YOU can't face the bad boys of Fox News, how can you face the bad boys of Iraq or Iran?

The Delaware senator and presidential candidate said he will participate in a Fox News Channel debate in the fall , despite demands from liberal groups like Moveon.org that he back out of it.

That leaves Biden, former senator Mike Gravel of Alaska, and Representative Dennis J. Kucinich of Ohio as the only three Democrats committed to attending the forum scheduled for Sept. 23 in Detroit.

Even the event's cosponsor, the Congressional Black Caucus, isn't lure enough for five other Democrats who are running for president. Senators Hillary Clinton of New York, Christopher J. Dodd of Connecticut, and Barack Obama of Illinois, and former senator John Edwards of North Carolina, and Governor Bill Richardson of New Mexico have all turned down Fox.

Note that Clinton didn't turn down Rupert Murdoch — whose media empire includes the Fox News Channel — when he threw a fund-raiser for her Senate reelection bid. That was symbolism she couldn't afford.

"For me, it's basic. I get elected because the African-American community supports me. . . . To say no to them, I don't get it," Biden said.

Besides, Biden added, he goes on Fox "to be the other voice. . . . To fight back. I'm tired of Democrats not fighting back."

Edwards, the first to back out of the debate, is the only candidate to give an official reason. His campaign said Fox programming tilts too much to the right.

So now, he and the other presidential candidates aren't just tilting to the left. They are genuflecting.

Down on your knees, can't you hear the Soros calling?…… Not as good as the old carol. This is really a hard, hard beating.

Assuming a down-on-their-knees position may feel good for the moment. But in the long run, it only gives the right wing fodder to use against the Democrats' quest to regain the White House.

This marriage to left wing advocacy groups will hurt them in the general election — the GOP will make sure of that. In 1988, George H. W. Bush taunted Michael Dukakis as "a card-carrying member of the ACLU." In 2008, the Republican presidential nominee will taunt his opponent as a puppet of Moveon.org.

Yup, pretty much. The candidates have provided the club with which to beat them. All at the behest of the farthest left elements - those with an agenda that will not fly with the general electorate. And they will not be able to use the old models any longer. Candidates used to run to the wings for the primaries and toward the middle for the election. In the age on the internet, all those panders to the fringe will not be forgotten and will be brought up again and again (that applies to Republicans as well, by the way). Vennochi is right here - or should we say 'correct' so as not to scare the Democrats?

Attack Of The Giant Crabs

Scientists in Rome have unwittingly discovered the latest genetic experiments being conducted by the overlords of the Animal Uprising™. It seems the ruins of ancient Rome are the breeding ground for giant, mutant freshwater crabs! And they're taking over the joint!

Potamon fluviatile, an unassuming freshwater crab, has shown superior staying power, thriving in the canals built by the Etruscans nearly 3,000 years ago, Italian zoologists say.

The ancient ruins of Trajan's Forum in the heart of the Eternal City have provided the ideal habitat for the crustacean, which is much larger than its counterparts in lakes and rivers, Massimiliano Scalici told AFP.

The narrow canals that flow under Trajan's Forum lead to the Cloaca Massima, the ancient Roman sewage system built in the sixth century BC initially to drain local marshes.

"Early results of a genetic analysis that we are doing show that the genes of the crabs at Trajan are very close to those of Greek freshwater crabs," Scalici said.

"So it's very likely that they were introduced by the Greeks 2,500 or 3,000 years ago, which means they were here even before Rome was founded in 753 BC," he added.

While in nature the crab grows to a length of five centimetres (two inches), it is more robust in the ruins, growing to more than eight centimetres. "Once we found a moult (shed exoskeleton) measuring 12 centimetres!" Scalici said during a tour of the site.

"Gigantism is one animal response to isolation, and it is a phenomenon that requires a long time," he noted.

It is also a response to experiments with Potamon-Gro, developed by animal scientists! Soon, the monsters will grow to full size, then watch out. They'll be making human cakes from fresh tourists.

Hiding The Money

Well, well, well. It appears the Associated Press has decided its job actually includes reporting the actual news, not just pontificating and disguising opinion as news. They are also reporting the news that is negative about the conduct of Democrats. Will wonders never cease.

WASHINGTON - After promising unprecedented openness regarding Congress' pork barrel practices, House Democrats are moving in the opposite direction as they draw up spending bills for the upcoming budget year.

Democrats are sidestepping rules approved their first day in power in January to clearly identify "earmarks" — lawmakers' requests for specific projects and contracts for their states.

Rather than including specific pet projects, grants and contracts in legislation as it is being written, Democrats are following an order by the House Appropriations Committee chairman to keep the bills free of such earmarks until it is too late for critics to effectively challenge them…….

……The House-Senate compromise bills due for final action in September cannot be amended and are subject to only one hour of debate, precluding challenges to individual projects.

Obey insists he is reluctantly taking the step because Appropriations Committee members and staff have not had enough time to fully review the 36,000 earmark requests that have flooded the committee.

What Obey is doing runs counter to new rules that Democrats promised would make such spending decisions more open.

I posted about this little sleight of hand trick earlier - the Washington Post was on it early. But when the wire services start slapping the Democrats openly, it has really gone national. So much for the most open and ethical House, eh? Like I said earlier. Meet the new boss, ever so much worse than the old boss.

(And there is no chance that the voters won't notice that the Democrats broke their promises even faster than usual for politicians. After all, the AP is sending it out now.)