Cave In

It appears that the Democrats in Congress are ready to cave in and simply fund the war in Iraq. They're painting it up and making it look real pretty, but they're agreeing to supplying war funds - without trying to dictate control over the war - in exchange for domestic spending.

House Democratic leaders could complete work as soon as Monday on a half-trillion-dollar spending package that will include billions of dollars for the war effort in Iraq without the timelines for the withdrawal of combat forces that President Bush has refused to accept, House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.) said yesterday.

In a complicated deal over the war funds, Democrats will include about $11 billion more in domestic spending than Bush has requested, emergency drought relief for the Southeast and legislation to address the subprime mortgage crisis, Hoyer told a meeting of the Washington Post editorial board.

If the bargain were to become law, it would be the third time since Democrats took control of Congress that they would have failed to force Bush to change course in Iraq and continued to fund a war that they have repeatedly vowed to end. But it would also be the clearest instance yet of the president bowing to a Democratic demand for more money for domestic priorities, an increase that he had promised to reject.

"The way you pass appropriations bills is you get agreement among all the relevant players, among which the president with his veto pen is a very relevant player," Hoyer said. "Everybody knows he has no intention of signing anything without money for Iraq, unfettered, without constraints. I think that's ultimately going to be the result."

And with that, the entire charade that has been played out in the twisted, surreal kabuki theater that is Washington comes out. The "principled stand" of the Democrats is quite amenable to a pork payoff. The deal is not yet done and, frankly, this story is a trial balloon. House leaders on the Republican side are not happy about this at all. But you can just about bet that Pelosi sent Hoyer out to draw fire on the deal.

Acto De Desaparición

And now, ladies and gentlemen, I ask you to turn your attention to the center ring! The high-flying acrobatics act of Havana-based Circuba is ……

Gone.

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Eight Cuban acrobat jugglers disappeared before a performance at a festival in central Mexico last week, presumably to defect to the United States, organizers said on Friday.

The six men and two women, the entire juggling and high-flying acrobatics act of Havana-based Circuba, arrived in the Mexican state of Queretaro last week for an annual festival of musicians, actors and artists from around the world.

The group was part of a troupe of more than 20 Cuban performers attending the fair for the second year in a row.

"They arrived on Thursday, bought cell phones, and by eight in the morning on Friday they were gone," said Guadalupe Navarro, a spokeswoman for the Queretaro fair.

"It's most likely they came prepared with all the contacts they needed to escape," she said.

Hasta la bye bye, Fidel. Funny thing. You never read about an American circus act fleeing to the worker's paradise, do you? To intelligent people, that tells quite a story.

Communist Economics 101

The price of fuel in China is kept at artificially low prices by government mandate. This has led to some unforeseen consequences as the global price of oil has climbed and domestic refineries have been unable to produce enough fuel at the official price. One crematorium has hit on a novel way to cut fuel consumption.

They only burn the bodies part way.

Villagers in Hengyang county, in the southern province of Hunan, discovered the practice when an "unbearable stench" started coming from the site, and tried to block a road on Wednesday to stop funeral vehicles from delivering more bodies.

The village sent people to investigate the smell and the South China Morning Post said they saw "crematorium workers putting half-burnt human remains and organs in plastic bags and throwing them into a nearby ditch."

"As the price of diesel rose, we saw more and more bags thrown out from the crematorium," the paper quoted Xiao Gaoyi, a village representative and one of the witnesses, as saying.

Think of it as China's contribution to reducing carbon emissions. Since they won't do anything else. (Obviously, they took their cue from an American role model.)

Mo’ Nukes

Bryan over at Hot Air caught this one. Wired News has an interview with Gwyneth Cravens, a novelist, journalist and former nuke protester who is now arguing - strongly - for nuclear power. She's pitching it as salvation from global warming, which I still think the rational jury is out on, but she also notes the simple economics of it - and echoes what I have written about as to why the so-called "green alternatives" are unworkable.

Her conclusion? Every day spent burning coal for power translates into damaged lungs and ecosystem destruction. If the world wants to keep plugging in big-screen TVs and iPods, it needs a steady source of power. Wind and solar can't produce the "base-load" (or everyday) steady supply needed, and the only realistic — and safe — alternative is nuclear.

Wired News talked with Cravens on the phone from her home in New York.

Wired News: You don't argue that nuclear power is entirely safe, but that it's vastly better than coal and fossil fuels. Do we have to choose between them?

Gwyneth Cravens: I used to think we surely could do better. We could have more wind farms and solar. But I then learned about base-load energy, and that there are three forms of it: fossil fuels, hydro and nuclear. In the United States, we're maxed out on hydro. That leaves fossil fuels and nuclear power, and most of the fossil fuel burned is coal.

In the U.S., 24,000 people a year die from coal pollution. Hundreds of thousands more people suffer from lung and heart disease directly attributable to coal pollution.

WN: That's opposed to a minuscule number of people who have been directly harmed by nuclear power?

Cravens: It's zero in the United States. Of course there is the occasional industrial accident amongst the workers. But over the lifetime cycle of nuclear power, if you go cradle-to-grave with uranium, the total carbon emissions are about those of wind power.

WN: You have an interesting statistic comparing the waste levels produced by individuals over a lifetime.

Cravens: A family in four in France, where they reprocess nuclear fuel, would produce only enough waste to fit in a coffee cup over a whole lifetime. A lifetime of getting all your electricity from coal-fired plants would make a single person's share of solid waste (in the United States) 68 tons, which would require six 12-ton railroad cars to haul away. Your share of CO2 would be 77 tons.

It's encouraging that someone who was anti-nuke can figure out why she was wrong. There is one factual error (which may be of omission or intentional) in her interview, regarding plutonium 239, but otherwise, she is spot on. Here, yet again is what I wrote about why wind power (and other intermittent sources of electricity like solar) will not work. And no, you can't wish it away and you cannot base policy on "and then a miracle happens" wishful thinking. There have always been rational arguments that burning petroleum is not a great idea, but the "solutions" that are being pimped by special interests are simply not going to work. Period. Nukes will.

Ho, Ho, Hand It Over

Police in Poland are busy trying to locate a very bad Santa Claus. The unjolly old elf they seek robbed a village grocery store waiving what may have been a gun.

Witnesses of the hold-up Thursday in Ploty, northwest Poland, found it difficult to describe the robber who wore a Santa costume with a plastic face mask and long white beard, police said.

The thief gave his best wishes to the saleswoman before brandishing an item resembling a handgun and making off in a getaway car with several thousand zlotys (several hundred euros, dollars).

We're pretty sure it wasn't the real Santa Claus since a sleigh wasn't used for the getaway. And in other bad holiday cheer, a Salvation Army bell ringer at a Wal-Mart in Indiana used his break time to shoplift some festive Christmas ornaments. While caroling.

According to a probable cause affidavit filed by police, (Sean M.) Sayers was on his break as a bell ringer at a Wal-Mart in the city northeast of Indianapolis when he went inside the store and slipped about $20 worth of Christmas ornaments inside his jacket and a fast food bag. Police said he was singing the Christmas carol as he shoplifted the goods about 6 p.m. Wednesday.

He was singing The First Noel. If he was stuffing the ornaments into a fast food bag, wouldn't Away in a Big Mac be better?

China To West: Get Bent

China flat refuses to curb emissions and says the west can go ahead and kneecap their own economies. China is ready to pick up the business and all the money, thanks. Oh, and the activists have dropped the masks and are using religious terminology, labeling the US and Saudi Arabia 'sinners'.

Environmental activists, meanwhile, labeled the United States and Saudi Arabia the worst "climate sinners," accusing them of having inadequate polices for climate problems while letting greenhouse gas emissions rise. But the activists also said no country is doing enough.

Su Wei, a top climate expert for China's government attending the U.N. Climate Change Conference, said the job belongs to the wealthy. He said it was unfair to ask developing nations to accept binding emissions cuts and other restrictions being pushed for already industrialized states.

He said the United States and its fellow industrial nations have long spewed greenhouse gases into the atmosphere while newly emerging economies have done so for only a few decades.

"China is in the process of industrialization and there is a need for economic growth to meet the basic needs of the people and fight against poverty," Su said.

While many experts believe China has surpassed the United States as the world's top emitter of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases, Su noted the Chinese population is far bigger and said America's emissions per person are six times higher than in China.

The west is being told to go cut their economic throats so China can just keep expanding. Which I have pointed out all along. Unfortunately, the activists are more than willing to apply the knife.

Christmas Miracle

Just in time for a very merry Christmas indeed comes word that Buffalo Bills tight end Kevin Everett is walking on his own. Everett, who suffered a severe spinal cord injury during the season opener against Denver, was thought to be so badly injured that doctors feared he would never walk again.

"He doesn't have a full natural stride but, yeah, he's walking," a person close to the family told The Associated Press on Friday. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of Everett's status.

The person said Everett has been walking under his own power since his release from Memorial Hermann/TIRR three weeks ago and is now an outpatient there. The person added Everett is picked up at his Houston-area home by car to attend daily rehab sessions and is able to walk to and from the facility.

"He's not driving or anything like that, but he is walking. He's not running. He is walking," the person said.

Doctors initially feared he'd never walk again after what was described as a life-threatening injury while making a tackle in the Sept. 9 season opener against Denver. Everett was paralyzed from the neck down when he arrived at Buffalo's Millard Fillmore Gates Hospital and spent the first few days on life support.

Just to remind folks, the Buffalo Bills did the classy thing and have kept Everett on injured reserve, which ensured Everett became a three-year NFL veteran and vests him in the lifetime benefits package from the player's union.

Congratulations to Kevin Everett and his family. Merry Christmas.

Media Narrative Agenda

Reuters: Omaha massacre unlikely to alter gun laws

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Once again there has been a mass shooting in the United States, this time in a Nebraska shopping mall. Once again there is no national outcry for gun control.

Associated Press: Mall employee describes deadly shooting

New details also surfaced about the gunman.

State officials said Hawkins spent four years in a series of treatment centers, group homes and foster care after threatening to kill his stepmother in 2002.

Finally, in August 2006, social workers, the courts and his father all agreed: It was time for Hawkins to be released — nine months before he turned 19 and would have been required to leave anyway.

The group homes and treatment centers were for youths with substance abuse, mental or behavioral problems. Altogether, the state spent about $265,000 on Hawkins, officials said.

The aftermath of Wednesday's killings left some who knew Hawkins questioning if more should have been done.

So the narrative emerges. More gun control, more mental health intervention. As usual, the media narrative is driven by the media agenda. The gun used was stolen from the gunman’s stepfather.

Omaha World Herald: Hawkins' stepfather, owner of rifle, was in Thailand Wednesday

While Robert Hawkins was killing Von Maur employees and shoppers with his stepfather's AK-47, the stepfather was vacationing thousands of miles away in Thailand, according to the stepfather's family and people familiar with the shooting investigation.

Although Hawkins' mother, Maribel "Molly" Rodriguez, was divorced from Mark Dotson, she and Hawkins had access to Dotson's Bellevue home while he was away, said Eric Dotson, Mark's brother.

Hawkins, 19, apparently took the rifle from a closet and put it in his car while his mother was gone for a while, Eric Dotson said.

And the officials in charge of Nebraska’s Health and Human Services rendered every bit of treatment and support allowed by law.

Omaha World Herald: HHS says it did its best to treat Hawkins

Hawkins received care at several residential treatment centers, a group home and an agency-based foster home, children and family services director Todd Landry said Thursday.

"I believe all appropriate services were provided when needed and for as long as needed," he said. "Based on our review, this tragedy was not a failure of the system to provide appropriate quality services for a youth who needed it."

The mall, meanwhile, was a “Gun Free Zone”.

But despite the massive news coverage, none of the media coverage, at least by 10 a.m. Thursday, mentioned this central fact: Yet another attack occurred in a gun-free zone.

Surely, with all the reporters who appear at these crime scenes and seemingly interview virtually everyone there, why didn’t one simply mention the signs that ban guns from the premises?

Nebraska allows people to carry permitted concealed handguns, but it allows property owners, such as the Westroads Mall, to post signs banning permit holders from legally carrying guns on their property.

The Reuters story contains an astonishingly misleading statement by a fellow from the Brookings Institution:

"Although people who favor increased gun control in the United States are a substantial majority, those who oppose it are far more intense in their opposition and far more likely to vote on the basis of that issue alone," said Bill Galston, senior fellow at the Washington-based Brookings Institution.

The latest Gallup polling I was able to find does not show that at all:

"In general, do you feel that the laws covering the sale of firearms should be made more strict, less strict, or kept as they are now?"

Those results show a very slim majority (51%) that answer the question with “more” in 2007 (without specifying what "more" actually means, of course). That number has been shrinking steadily since 1990 when it stood at 78% in favor. Furthermore, another question flat-out trumps the first one:

"Do you think there should or should not be a law that would ban the possession of handguns, except by the police and other authorized persons?"

That one gets 68% “should not” up from 55% in 1990.

The gunman broke the existing laws by stealing the gun in the first place. He broke the existing laws yet again when he entered the “Gun Free” zone. The gunman was treated by mental health authorities to the tune of more than a quarter of a million dollars. But the media and the anti-gun zealots will try to paint this as the need for still more laws/restrictions/bans/government intervention. That is a shameful twisting of facts to advance an agenda.

Negative Spin

I take a story like this with a grain of salt. A former co-chair of the Clinton campaign in Iowa has very publicly switched sides and joined the Obama cause. Now any story that goes from a political operative to the media is almost always all about the spin, this one is no exception. The reaction from the Clinton campaign is also unsurprising. They downplay the whole thing.

DES MOINES — Once, Garry Thomas counted himself a Hillary Clinton supporter — even signing up to be one of her 25 co-chairs in Iowa alongside with former Iowa First Lady Christie Vilsack.

But Thomas now says he felt obliged to switch sides in recent weeks. "I think the Clinton campaign went negative," Thomas said in a telephone interview on Thursday. He attributed his defection to the new tone Clinton took last weekend, describing it as divisive. Obama officials said Thomas committed to them this week.

Clinton officials said they lost touch with Thomas in October, and are skeptical of his claim that he left them because of her tone (she did not launch her offensive until this past Sunday).

But either way, Thomas is now with Sen. Barack Obama, putting him on a growing list of Iowans who have switched from one candidate to another heading toward the caucuses.

Thomas said he informed Harry Baxter, the former Des Moines County Democratic Party chairman and a Clinton coordinator, of his decision to defect — and no one from the Clinton campaign tried to talk him out of it.

As I said, taken with a big grain of salt - one about the size of Detroit. There are plenty of indications and warnings from experts that say that Hillary's turn to the negative could backfire on her. But a plant from an operative isn't really one of them.

The $50 Billion Hole

The Washington Post reports that the Senate has overwhelmingly passed a patch for the Alternative Minimum Tax, blowing a $50 billion hole in the Democrat's stone tablet promise to not pass any spending or tax measure that would add to the deficit - the much vaunted PAYGO promise.

Eleven months after adopting stringent new rules aimed at reining in the federal deficit, the Senate last night shrugged off its pledge of fiscal rectitude and overwhelmingly approved a measure to spare millions of families from the growing reach of the alternative minimum tax without providing an offsetting tax increase.

The Senate's 88 to 5 vote blew a $50 billion hole in the Democrats' promise not to pass any spending or tax measure that would add to the deficit. The outcome brought a furious response from conservative "Blue Dog" Democrats in the House, who assailed the Senate and vowed to block passage of any tax measure that would add a cent to the federal debt.

"We run for reelection every two years. They run every six years," fumed Rep. Mike Ross (D-Ark.). "Don't try to tell me the Senate can't take a tough vote."

Despite the heavy toll the AMT exacts on some middle-class taxpayers, Congress has been loath to repeal it outright because that would leave a trillion-dollar hole in the federal budget over 10 years. Instead, successive Congresses have opted for one-year "patches" that hide the long-term cost. The Senate-passed bill would spare the middle-class households touched by the AMT an average of $2,000-per-family increase on 2007 income taxes and would ensure that refunds of as much as $75 billion would be distributed without delay.

The AMT was designed in the 1960s to prevent the very rich from using deductions, credits and other shelters to avoid paying taxes, but its income thresholds did not rise with inflation. Taxpayers are not hit by the AMT based on income alone. The number and type of deductions and credits they take also help determine whether they will be forced into the alternative taxation system. Because of rising incomes, the tax's bite is expected to expand to more than 30 million households in 2010. Last year, the AMT affected 3.8 million mostly well-off households.

This will set up a very difficult confrontation for the Democrats. Yesterday, 31 of the so-called Blue Dogs vowed openly that they would not support any conference bill that does not provide an offsetting tax hike. The AMT was crafted by Democrats and now the Frankenstein's monster is coming back for them. This should be fun to watch. Pass the popcorn.

Why Not Collect The Whole Set!

In what is probably one of the more unusual fundraisers I have ever heard of, The International Rhino Foundation is conducting an online auction of eBay to sell an all-natural end product. Yep, they're auctioning rhino poop.

The pieces come from four of the five types of rhino: white, black, Indian and Sumatran. The Javan rhino is so rare, a sample could not be collected.

Each piece is dried, mounted in a clear trophy case and marked with the type of rhino that produced it.

The auction ends Sunday and as of Thursday afternoon bidding had been light, with the top bid for Sumatran rhino poop standing at $500. Black rhino poop was standing at $255, Indian was at $250 and white was at $122.50.

The rhino poop (and that is exactly what they call it in the auctions) can be found here. In case you're planning on surprising the loved one in your life for Christmas.

Whatever happened to coal in the stocking?

A Date Which Will Live In Infamy

 

Mr. Vice President, Mr. Speaker, members of the Senate and the House of Representatives: yesterday, December 7th, 1941 - a date which will live in infamy - the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.
The United States was at peace with that nation, and, at the solicitation of Japan, was still in conversation with its Government and its Emperor looking toward the maintenance of peace in the Pacific. Indeed, one hour after Japanese air squadrons had commenced bombing in the American island of Oahu, the Japanese Ambassador to the United States and his colleague delivered to our Secretary of State a formal reply to a recent American message. And while this reply stated that it seemed useless to continue the existing diplomatic negotiations, it contained no threat or hint of war or of armed attack.

It will be recorded that the distance of Hawaii from Japan makes it obvious that the attack was deliberately planned many days or even weeks ago. During the intervening time the Japanese Government has deliberately sought to deceive the United States by false statements and expressions of hope for continued peace.

The attack yesterday on the Hawaiian Islands has caused severe damage to American naval and military forces. I regret to tell you that very many American lives have been lost. In addition American ships have been reported torpedoed on the high seas between San Francisco and Honolulu.

Yesterday the Japanese Government also launched an attack against Malaya.

Last night Japanese forces attacked Hong Kong.

Last night Japanese forces attacked Guam.

Last night Japanese forces attacked the Philippine Islands.

Last night the Japanese attacked Wake Island.

And this morning the Japanese attacked Midway Island.

Japan has, therefore, undertaken a surprise offensive extending throughout the Pacific area. The facts of yesterday and today speak for themselves. The people of the United States have already formed their opinions and well understand the implications to the very life and safety of our nation.

As Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy, I have directed that all measures be taken for our defense.

But always will our whole nation remember the character of the onslaught against us. No matter how long it may take us to overcome this premeditated invasion, the American people in their righteous might will win through to absolute victory.

I believe that I interpret the will of the Congress and of the people when I assert that we will not only defend ourselves to the uttermost but will make it very certain that this form of treachery shall never again endanger us.

Hostilities exist. There is no blinking at the fact that our people, our territory and our interests are in grave danger.

With confidence in our armed forces - with the unbounding determination of our people - we will gain the inevitable triumph - so help us God.

I ask that the Congress declare that since the unprovoked and dastardly attack by Japan on Sunday, December 7th, 1941, a state of war has existed between the United States and the Japanese Empire.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Address to the United States Congress, December 8, 1941

The audio-only of the speech can be heard here.

Political Chicken

Stuart Rothenberg looks at the game of political chicken going on in Washington right now and says that the conventional wisdom - that Republicans are on the ropes - is more than a little optimistic and may, in fact, be completely wrong.

Democrats, on the other hand, are on the political upswing after last year's elections. The party's image is relatively good, and the party's agenda seems in sync with most voters. The party's House and Senate campaign committees are flush with cash, and Democratic voters seem enthusiastic and optimistic. Another good Democratic election seems likely, especially if Republicans look to be blocking change and defending the status quo.

Given that political environment, the president has to blink first, right?

Wrong.

The problem for Democrats is that the president has nothing left to lose. With his job ratings hovering between 30 percent and 35 percent, and Bush insistent that his political legacy will ultimately depend on what happens in the Middle East decades from now, what incentive does he have to capitulate and give legislative and political victories to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.)?

If you said "none," buy yourself an ice cream cone.

Just as in the Kris Kristofferson-Janis Joplin song "Me and Bobby McGee," "freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose," and that's why the president is free to act as he has, ignoring Congressional Democrats' demands the way he has.

Bush's standing with American voters means that many will blame him for gridlock, since they don't hold him in high regard and seem to blame him pretty much for everything. But since he's not running for anything again, he doesn't have to feel their wrath.

Even today, less than a year out from the next election, the Democrats simply appear to be unable to do anything but run against George Bush. Since Bush isn't, you know, actually running for anything, this is a very odd strategy. Rothenberg points out that if the president gave in to every Democratic demand, all they would do is crow about how they rolled him - he wouldn't change a single mind. Likewise, Republican minds are already made up. The question mark, then, becomes what the independents think. And who they will blame.

They might just blame the party that appears to be a one-trick pony fixated on attacking a soon to be former president and unable to pass any of its legislative goals, don't you think?

Bad Sequel

The San Francisco Chronicle, believe it or not, labels the current Norman Hsu-Clinton campaign funding scandal a bad sequel to the scandals that rocked the last years of Bill Clinton's presidency.

Clinton spokesman Howard Wolfson told the media the campaign returned the donations out of "an abundance of caution."

That caution was late in coming. Bill Clinton's presidency was marred by re-election campaign finance excesses that led more than 20 donors to plead guilty, be convicted or flee the country. Big donor Johnny Chung, who pleaded guilty to making illegal contributions to Democrats, explained, "I see the White House as like a subway - you have to put in coins to open the gates."

Clinton should have directed her team to make sure not to repeat the mistakes of 1996. But the Hsu episode has all the markings of a bad sequel.

What is going to be interesting to watch is whether Hsu, anxious to make a deal on the Federal charges he faces, turns on (or turns in) others - including Clinton or people closely connected to Clinton. Hsu is under threat of serious Federal time - which does not allow for parole. He is facing six counts of mail fraud, six counts of wire fraud plus three counts of breaking federal election law, which means a lot of time in prison if found guilty on all counts. Makes you wonder who is sweating right now, doesn't it?