Oh, Good Lord

I'll want to hear the other side of this, but, man, does this sound creepy:

Sen. Larry Craig (R-ID) "was arrested in June at a Minnesota airport by a plainclothes police officer investigating lewd conduct complaints in a men’s public restroom," according to an arrest report obtained by Roll Call.

"Craig’s arrest occurred just after noon on June 11 at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. On Aug. 8, he pleaded guilty to misdemeanor disorderly conduct in the Hennepin County District Court. He paid more than $500 in fines and fees, and a 10-day jail sentence was stayed. He also was given one year of probation with the court that began on Aug. 8."

"A spokesman for Craig described the incident as a 'he said/he said misunderstanding,' and said the office would release a fuller statement later Monday afternoon."

So, is Craig just hanging out in public restrooms?

Additionally, if the police were responding to a complaint and the undercover officer also witnessed the lewd behavior this is more than a "he said/he said" situation.

Hmmm…I cannot decide what category to list a post about a Senator getting arrested in a bathroom for lewd behavior.  Any suggestions?

UPDATE:

If you feel like it (and I know you probably don't) you can read from the police report here.

It’s Like Something Out Of Euripides

The picture above is the smoke from Greece's forest fires seen from space.  As the stories continue to filter out of Greece about horror scenes of charred corpses and devestated villages it is sad to think that more is to come.  Death toll rises from Greek fires

A helicopter swooped into a village in southern Greece to rescue residents trapped by flames on Monday — one of dozens of fires that have torn through village and forest across the country, leaving blackened landscape in their wake.

The fires have killed 63 people over four days, destroying everything in their path. One broke out on the fringe of Athens Monday, but was quickly brought under control. Another scorched the woodland around the birthplace of the Olympics.

A woman found dead on Friday with her arms around the bodies of four children had fled her home — the only house left standing in the village, said a neighbor in the Peloponnese town of Artemida. The home's white walls and red tile roof were unscathed.

"Nothing would have happened to them. The few that stayed didn't get injured, but most people left to escape, everyone, and only two or three stayed behind," said the neighbor, who identified herself as Miss Paraskevopoulou.

…

Dimitris Papangelopoulos, who is responsible for prosecuting terrorism and organized crime, ordered an investigation to determine "whether the crimes of arsonists and of arson attacks on forests" could come under Greece's anti-terrorism law, the Public Order Ministry said.

Forest fires are common during Greece's hot, dry summers — but nothing has approached the scale of the past three days.

"So many fires breaking out simultaneously in so many parts of the country cannot be a coincidence," Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis said in a nationally televised address on Saturday.

When you look at the picture from space it is hard not to think that he might be right.

Good Discussion

There is a good discussion about this column (hidden behind the NYT pay wall - and therefore unlikely to be widely read) going on over at Michael Van Der Galien's blog.

He then makes the basic mistake quite some progressives make every now and then:

The truth is that there’s no difference in principle between saying that every American child is entitled to an education and saying that every American child is entitled to adequate health care. It’s just a matter of historical accident that we think of access to free K-12 education as a basic right, but consider having the government pay children’s medical bills “welfare,“ with all the negative connotations that go with that term.

See - it is all an “historical accident.” Therefore, we should think the same about health care as we do about education. Screw counterarguments.
And then he makes it even worse by lashing out to conservatives: “And conservative opposition to giving every child in this country access to health care is, in a fundamental sense, un-American.”

Umh, what? Where in the Constitution does it say that every one has the right to health care? Besides, I bet you most people think that everyone should have access to affordable health care, but that is not the same as making it the responsibility of the federal government to provide it. Certain conservatives may, for instance, think that it is unconstitutional to get the government (too much) involved or they may think that private companies can deal with the problem… or (shocker to people like Krugman who seem to believe that States in the US are not much different that provinces in the Netherlands) that States could and should deal with it.

Soylent Green makes an appearance. That should be enough to pique your interest.

Dark Of The Moon

Hey, one good thing about this trip I'm on is that I could get a chance to see the lunar eclipse. If I can stay up that long. (Or get up that early.)

Tuesday morning, Aug. 28 brings us the second total lunar eclipse of 2007.  Those living in the Western Hemisphere and eastern Asia will be able to partake in at least some of this sky show.

The very best viewing region for viewing this eclipse will fall across the Pacific Rim, including the West Coast of the United States and Canada, as well as Alaska, Hawaii, New Zealand and eastern Australia.  All these places will be able to see the complete eclipse from start to finish. 

Europeans will miss out on the entire show, as the Moon will be below the horizon during their mid and late morning hours.

What to look for

The eclipse will begin when the Moon enters the faint outer portion, or penumbra, of the Earth's shadow about an hour before it begins moving into the umbra. The penumbra, however, is all but invisible to the eye until the Moon becomes deeply immersed in it.  Look for a slight hint of shading or smudginess on the eastern (left) edge of the lunar disk about 40 minutes after the Moon first enters the penumbral shadow. 

The most obvious part of the eclipse will be when the Moon is passing through the dark umbral shadow of the Earth.  On this occasion, the full Moon will track just to the south of the center of the Earth's umbra; deep path almost through the center of the umbra which will result in a total phase lasting an unusually long 1 hour 30 minutes (the maximum possible is 1 hour 47 minutes).

California is prime viewing real estate for this eclipse.

Bears In The Freezer

This item caught our eye here at your headquarters for authoritative information on the Animal Uprising™. The implications are terrifying. A bear in Nevada has unlocked one of the secrets that have kept humans on top in the great evolutionary game: Frozen treats.

Late into the night of Aug. 20, it seems a bear broke through a screen of an open kitchen window of the Leiken home in Lakeview.

"It may have been the scent of the melon (on the kitchen counter) that attracted the bear," Ron Leiken said.

The bear also helped itself to some tasty, sweet treats in the freezer. Frozen cookies, brownies and bread.

Leiken said his family, two adults and three children, ages 10, 8 and 6, living in the home never saw the bear.

"We will be keeping the windows closed from now on," he said.

However, at 10:45 p.m. on the evening of Aug. 21, Leiken heard a noise in the house and turned to see one of his two cats running down the hall with a very scared look on its face … then he saw the bear, in the kitchen.

"The light was on and I did have the window open for ventilation only and was going to close it before going to bed," he said. "I was still awake.

Ok, you say, so the bear has figured out there are things to eat behind the door. What's the big deal? Consider for a moment: the bear has, indeed, figured out that there are good things to eat are behind the closed door. That means that he will have told all his bear friends that. Bears are notorious gossips that way.

Just remember that the next time you're taking a shower in your shower stall.

Just Curious

Will the moonbats disapear during tomorrow's lunar eclipse?

 I, for one, could use the break.

What Is It With The British Commonwealth?

We really aren't sure what is going on with the authorities in Britain and in the other nations in the Commonwealth. But it certainly doesn't look good. Police and wildlife officials in Calgary, Canada, were led on a merry little chase all over the area by a bear.

Jumping fences and slipping through alleys, a wily young black bear led cops and wildlife officers on a more than five-hour chase through a number of southeast communities yesterday.

The bear, estimated at two years old, managed to elude two fish and wildlife officers and five Calgary cops at least three times on its journey through Fish Creek Provincial Park, two communities and several neighbourhood streets after the incident began about 9 a.m.

The animal was finally subdued with a tranquillizer gun on Bonaventure Dr. S.E. about 2 p.m.

Insp. Michael Watterston said the goal was to contain the bear in Fish Creek Park, but it seemed to have its own agenda.

"Initially we wanted just to keep it away from the residential areas and obviously the little guy wanted to be in the residential areas," he said.

"The sneaky little guy was able to hide in the trees and get in the residential areas."

At least American bears are bulletproof, so there is an excuse down here when authorities can't catch one of these furry criminals. And at least it's a bear not a sheep, like in Britain. But in either country, the same video footage appears to apply. Mack Sennett would be proud.

Sending Signals

In a real turnaround in French policy,  Nicolas Sarkozy has issued a surprisingly blunt warning to both Iran and the West: either ratchet up the sanctions on Tehran or face having to bomb Iran. A nuclear-armed Iran is unacceptable to France. He also made a number of other rather blunt statements in his speech.

In his first major foreign policy speech, Sarkozy emphasized his existing foreign policy priorities, such as opposing Turkish membership of the European Union and pushing for a new Mediterranean Union that he hopes will include Ankara.

He also presented some new ideas, such as possibly renewing high-level dialogue with Syria and expanding the Group of Eight industrialized nations to include the biggest developing states.

Sarkozy said a nuclear-armed Iran would be unacceptable and that major powers should continue their policy of incrementally increasing sanctions against Tehran while being open to talks if Iran suspended nuclear activities.

"This initiative is the only one that can enable us to escape an alternative that I say is catastrophic: the Iranian bomb or the bombing of Iran," he said, adding that it was the worst crisis currently facing the world.

Tehran says it only wants to generate electricity but it has yet to convince the world's most powerful countries that it is not secretly pursuing nuclear weapons.

Sarkozy criticized Russia for its dealings on the international stage. "Russia is imposing its return on the world scene by using its assets, notably oil and gas, with a certain brutality," he said.

"When one is a great power, one should not be brutal."

Sarkozy has, at least, acknowledged the choices the West has at this point. Contrary to the left's dark forebodings, nobody is contemplating an attack on Tehran at the moment, but a window is closing rapidly and the West is running out of time before being handed two equally unattractive options. The failure to deal with Iran effectively is making war more likely, not less. That isn't good for anyone.

Rich started a bit of a ruckus by hammering at the use of historical analogy to try to look at (and address) today's events. It is always attractive to try to say that the situation with Iran right now is like 1938. I have made allusions to historical similarities in the past, but I think I spelled out my feelings about using historical analogies in this post.

I have always thought that Santayana meant his famous words in the long view of history, over many centuries. It is also somewhat applicable in the shorter term, of course. So this may well be quite like 1938 right now, Cohen is not the first to see this possibility. It may be like 1914 as well. It could also be argued that it has aspects very like Vienna in 1683 for that matter.

Or it could be what we need to face up to today, remembering that which has passed before.

We can, and should, note similarities to past events if only to remind ourselves what went wrong - or right - in a given situation. That does not mean we should treat every aspect of what is happening today the exact same way - or in exactly the opposite way - as some past crisis. But we have the example of 1938 and the failure of appeasement as a reminder of what happens if the West fails to act. I rather think Sarkozy is one of the first leaders in "Old" Europe to note that openly.

On Madness

Rich Horton just posted about a completely mad plan by Federal wildlife officials to spend $27 million on recovering habitat for and preventing the extinction of the ivory-billed woodpecker.

Which are, despite all the recent junk science claims, probably long since extinct.

The only "sightings" are completely uncorroborated. The first was by someone opposed to a Corps of Engineers project - that "sighting" was used to block the project in Federal court. There was another claim of a sighting - but despite many triumphant claims about that - no physical evidence, no feathers, no nests, no photographs. And an expert has debunked the video that is widely cited as "proof". Oh, there are "sightings" now and then. But there are daily sightings of UFOs, Elvis, Bigfoot and honest politicians, too.

Rich has it right. Before the Feds throw away $27 million on saving an extinct bird, they should prove such a bird exists. Or else get off their butts and save the dodo, too.

UPDATE: Tom Nelson has a really good roundup of a lot of posts about the "recovery plan" or, as I would categorize it "rathole to throw money down." (I'd never make it as a diplomat.) I've made fun of this nonsense and I have been quite snarky about it, but there is a very serious issue here.

Other - living - endangered species are going to be short-changed because funds are being diverted to a species considered extinct for about 60 years - based on absolute crap evidence. That should alarm anyone who is genuinely concerned about conservation. In many ways this whole ruckus is quite similar to the snail darter nonsense. Only some real, living, endagered species will suffer quite real harm because money is thrown away with no real evidence. Real harm over an imaginary, mistaken or outright false sighting.

Demand real proof before wasting Federal money that is needed - desperately - for other, living species.

Rich Horton Doing A Great Job

Rich has been good enough to help out here and has been doing some really great posts. Hopefully, he'll be able to stay on guesting for a few more days. I have some time to blog today, but am not going to be able to put my normal amount of time into this by any means until Thursday. I have a fairly decent internet connection at the hotel, at least. But I can't get to my email at present - that may have to wait until I get home.

Casting Needed Light

Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute, has another of his highly readable analyses of issues that come up in polling results. This one is taking a look at a very hot topic: immigration reform. He points out that there are a lot of "facts" being asserted by various factions in the debate that may or may not be true. The newly announced crackdown, requiring employers to fire workers with mismatched Social Security numbers will like as not clarify a lot of issues once and for all.

Well, the federal government is calling both sides' bluff.

And although everyone has an opinion on how best to deal with illegal immigration, facts are in short supply, and anything that separates fact from fiction will, in the long run, help clarify the debate.

However, even though most everyone says they want the current law enforced, doing so will inevitably make some people - and not just the immigrants caught in the sweep - unhappy.

Certainly, those who believe that welcoming newcomers, with or without papers, is the moral thing to do for a nation composed almost entirely of immigrants will not like the laws being actually enforced.

And, if there is indeed a serious crackdown and the economy does not fall apart, then those who said the rules should be changed because the current ones are unenforceable will have to find a new rationale. Of course, if a shortage of workers does tank the economy then it will make a powerful statement about the need for reform.

And, if the strict enforcement results in a decline in the number of folks crossing the border in the dead of night, then that too will inform the debate on the issue.

I'm taking a bit of an exception to the way Brown has worded his essay. There are facts aplenty in the debate, many of which cancel each other out. I've been one of the strong border enforcement people for a number of reasons, mostly having to do with national security. I've also been an advocate that tight border control and a very lenient legal immigration policy can and should be able to be enacted.

To the extent that this crackdown illuminates some of the truths of the immigration debate, it will have cast some real light on the issue. That's a good thing. As always, there will be some unintended consequences - some possibly good, most probably bad, as is the general rule with unintended consequences. That will also serve as a longterm good thing, I think.

Would Anyone Accept An Actually Modest Proposal?

The government is mobilizing to save a species that might not actually, ya know, exist:

 Federal wildlife officials say spending more than $27 million to research the suspected habitat of the ivory-billed woodpecker is worth the cost, despite conflicting views on whether the elusive bird even exists.

"There's enough out there that we've got to keep searching," said Jeff Fleming, a spokesman for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. "It'd be irresponsible not to."

The agency this week released a 185-page draft plan aimed at preventing the extinction of the bird. The draft plan, which is open for public comment until Oct. 22, recommends spending more than $27 million in federal dollars on recovery efforts for the woodpecker.

"The opportunity to recover this icon of the ornithological world cannot and should not be passed over," said Sam Hamilton, regional director for the service's Southeast Region and leader of the recovery team.

Much of the recovery work has been happening in Arkansas, but projects are also underway in Florida, Louisiana, South Carolina and Texas, Fleming said.

It would be quite a good thing if this supposedly extinct bird was actually living the quiet life in the wilds of Arkansas.  But, do we have to spend almost thirty million dollars on its well-being before we know it survives?  How about just a couple million to conduct an exhaustive search for the bird first?  If we find some, then we can pamper the hell out of them.

I know, I know.  I'm just talking crazy now.

Alberto Kicking To Cease Being National Pastime

There is more "bowing to the inevitable" from a Bush administration lightning rod.  Embattled Attorney General Resigns

Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales, whose tenure has been marred by controversy and accusations of perjury before Congress, has resigned. A senior administration official said he would announce the decision later this morning in Washington.

Mr. Gonzales, who had rebuffed calls for his resignation, submitted his to President Bush by telephone on Friday, the official said. His decision was not immediately announced, the official added, until after the president invited him and his wife to lunch at his ranch near here.

Mr. Bush has not yet chosen a replacement but will not leave the position open long, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the resignation had not yet been made public.

There had been rumors swirling earlier in the summer that Gonzales would take his leave while Congress was on vacation.  For once, the rumors got something right.  The second part of the rumor, that Bush would seize the chance to make a recess appointment for the new AG seems less likely.  It would be picking a fight for no good reason. 

Here is how Ed Morrissey sees it:

QandO points to an interview with Chuck Schumer saying that he would prefer to conduct the confirmation hearings in the spirit of looking forward and not backward by dredging up the controversies of the Gonzales period. McQ doesn't buy it, but I think the Democrats will be as happy to get past Gonzales as the White House. If the administration picks someone from the outside, they may get a fairly easy ride in the Senate, just as they did with Robert Gates.

A few others have mentioned a recess appointment, but that would prove so divisive that even Republicans in the Senate would object. If the administration wants to minimize confirmation conflict, they should not nominate someone who would need a second confirmation to replace in his current position.

I, for one, am hoping that the Bush administration takes the path of least resistance on this one.  At this point all any new AG could be is a caretaker for his successor.  Peter Lattman over at WSJ floats the name of deputy AG Craig Morford, a career prosecutor who would raise no alarms among Democrats.  The President should just bite the bullet and get to the post-Gonzo era as quickly as possible.