Reminder

It's that time of year, when I like to remind my readers of the map above and to issue my quarterly challenge to the "progressives" in the world.

The above map is the red-blue comparison by county.

As you can see, in general, the blue counties tend to be urban populations and the red being more suburban and rural.

I believe we can make the following assumptions about blue v red.

Blue areas have high taxes, horrible schools, high crime, high homeless populations, high unemployment, and large population drops. More significantly, they are all run by democrats. In fact, the dumpier the city, the more the democrats dominate the politics ie Detroit, New Orleans, Washington DC, etc.

The red areas are just the opposite.

I'm still waiting for that one, really just one, progressive who can explain to me how democratic policy making is so wonderful when we can visually see the results.

I've taken the fight over to the liberal blogs but they just ignore the question. Looking at the results of blue state governance, it's pretty easy to see why.

Let's end the racial divide

Excerpt

Sen. Barack Obama on Saturday decried "the forces of division" over race that he said are intruding into the Democratic presidential nomination contest.

"We have to come together," he told a town-hall meeting at a high school.

Hey Barack. I've got an idea for you. How about saying something to your pastor. that might be a good start.


More...

Obama/Smitherman/Obama

If you're not from the city of Cincinnati, the name Chris Smitherman means little to you.

But here in these parts, Chris Smitherman, will evoke quite a bit of emotion.

A brief biography. Chris Smitherman was a city council candidate in 2003. He was a good looking, excellent speaker, who promised to unite a city torn apart after the riots. He attracted white and blacks who were dying for a change in the racial discourse that was killing the city.

As a result of his campaign, he was elected to the city council. It took all of about 3 weeks before Mr. Smitherman started railing against racist cops; he accused the cops of being dominated by white Elder grads. He encouraged conventions to take their business to other cities and became a lightning rod in every council meeting. In other words, his divisiveness was worse than what he campaigned against.

He served one term and was voted out but his divisiveness wasn't over. After challenging the local NAACP leadership, he took over the organization and then decided to run again for council despite by-laws in the charter that said he couldn't.

Now the local NAACP membership is trying to get rid of him.

Any of this sound familiar? When I hear Michelle Obama's comments of "finally being proud of America", when I hear Obama's reverend proclaiming "we're the USKKKA", I have to ask myself is this Chris Smitherman on a national level?

You tell me.

More Obamamania

Interesting letter to the editor, from a pastor no less.

Excerpt

In settings where the preacher stays indefinitely, as at Trinity, the decision to join a church is typically more thoughtful and intentional, particularly where the preacher has a style that's noteworthy in content and delivery. That clearly fits the description of Pastor Wright. Obama has no choice but to associate himself with the content of Pastor Wright's sermons. They were the defining characteristic of that church. The Obama family picked it, and they've stayed for 20 years. It's their church, and any denial of that association is incredible.

"Guilt by Association" is not the relevant concept. It's "Agreement by Association" that is.

More...

Obamamania's spirtual advisor

An excellent piece on the Obamamania's Reverend

Excerpt

Considering this view of America, it's not surprising that in December Mr. Wright's church gave an award to Louis Farrakhan for lifetime achievement. In the church magazine, Trumpet, Mr. Wright spoke glowingly of the Nation of Islam leader. "His depth on analysis [sic] when it comes to the racial ills of this nation is astounding and eye-opening," Mr. Wright said of Mr. Farrakhan. "He brings a perspective that is helpful and honest."

After Newsmax broke the story of the award to Farrakhan on Jan. 14, Mr. Obama issued a statement. However, Mr. Obama ignored the main point: that his minister and friend had spoken adoringly of Mr. Farrakhan, and that Mr. Wright's church was behind the award to the Nation of Islam leader.

Instead, Mr. Obama said, "I decry racism and anti-Semitism in every form and strongly condemn the anti-Semitic statements made by Minister Farrakhan. I assume that Trumpet magazine made its own decision to honor Farrakhan based on his efforts to rehabilitate ex-offenders, but it is not a decision with which I agree." Trumpet is owned and produced by Mr. Wright's church out of the church's offices, and Mr. Wright's daughters serve as publisher and executive editor.

Meeting with Jewish leaders in Cleveland on Feb. 24, Mr. Obama described Mr. Wright as being like "an old uncle who sometimes will say things that I don't agree with." He rarely mentions the points of disagreement.

Mr. Obama went on to explain Mr. Wright's anti-Zionist statements as being rooted in his anger over the Jewish state's support for South Africa under its previous policy of apartheid. As with his previous claim that his church gave the award to Mr. Farrakhan because of his work with ex-offenders, Mr. Obama appears to have made that up.

Neither the presentation of the award nor the Trumpet article about the award mentions ex-offenders, and Mr. Wright's statements denouncing Israel have not been qualified in any way. Mr. Obama nonetheless told the Jewish leaders that the award to Mr. Farrakhan "showed a lack of sensitivity to the Jewish community." That is an understatement.

As for Mr. Wright's repeated comments blaming America for the 9/11 attacks because of what Mr. Wright calls its racist and violent policies, Mr. Obama has said it sounds as if the minister was trying to be "provocative."

Hearing Mr. Wright's venomous and paranoid denunciations of this country, the vast majority of Americans would walk out. Instead, Mr. Obama and his wife Michelle have presumably sat through numerous similar sermons by Mr. Wright.

Indeed, Mr. Obama has described Mr. Wright as his "sounding board" during the two decades he has known him. Mr. Obama has said he found religion through the minister in the 1980s. He joined the church in 1991 and walked down the aisle in a formal commitment of faith.

The title of Mr. Obama's bestseller "The Audacity of Hope" comes from one of Wright's sermons. Mr. Wright is one of the first people Mr. Obama thanked after his election to the Senate in 2004. Mr. Obama consulted Mr. Wright before deciding to run for president. He prayed privately with Mr. Wright before announcing his candidacy last year.

Mr. Obama obviously would not choose to belong to Mr. Wright's church and seek his advice unless he agreed with at least some of his views. In light of Mr. Wright's perspective, Michelle Obama's comment that she feels proud of America for the first time in her adult life makes perfect sense.

Much as most of us would appreciate the symbolism of a black man ascending to the presidency, what we have in Barack Obama is a politician whose closeness to Mr. Wright underscores his radical record.

The media have largely ignored Mr. Obama's close association with Mr. Wright. This raises legitimate questions about Mr. Obama's fundamental beliefs about his country. Those questions deserve a clearer answer than Mr. Obama has provided so far.

More.....

You have to ask the salient question. Why is Obama so closely aligned with so many people who hate America, unless he feels the same way?

Last night, I caught O'Reilly at the gym and the usual suspects where there to say that these comments were taken out of context.

Someone explain to me exactly what context would make these palatable. To claim that you were never present when these statements were made simply doesn't wash. We're talking your church, 20 years, the man who married you, the man you dedicated your book to, and this is a surprise to you.... Please.

If you are that ignorant, or think that we are, you can't be president. If you're lying abut this, you can't be president. Pick your poison.

One of Obamamania's apologist claimed that this is something preached at many black churches. If that's the case, Obama will be an excellent president for black America. Unfortunately, he's running for president of the entire United States of America.

Once again, the liberal media and blogosphere helped enable this mess. Instead of reporting on this stuff, they hid it. They were too busy putting on their kneepads and wiping the slobber off their faces in worship to the God known as Obamamania. Now they're going to have a candidate mortally wounded with no back up.

Obamamania's not going to be able to just wash this one off.

Tonight's DUI checkpoint

So you want to go out and have a few early belts to celebrate St Patrick's day. You are now warned.

Police will be out in full force, starting with a drunk driving checkpoint tonight in Blue Ash.

The checkpoint will be on Reed Hartman Highway between Creek Road and Lake Forest Drive from 8 p.m. until midnight. That is earlier than most checkpoints, which usually are held from 11 p.m. to 3 a.m.

So if you're the kind of guy that just goes out for happy hour. You might as well get plowed and wait it out.

FOLLOW UP

LAST NIGHT'S DUI CHECKPOINT NETTED ALL OF ONE, I SAY, I SAY, ONE, UNO, DUI ARREST. NICE USE OF POLICE RESOURCES.

Identity Politics #2

Charles Krauthammer on identity politics aka the democratic party.

Excerpt

If you cannot successfully pretty yourself, dirty the other guy. Hence the relentless attacks designed to redefine Obama and take him down to the level of ordinary mortals, i.e. Hillary's. Thus the contrived shock on the part of the Clinton campaign that an Obama economic adviser would tell the Canadians not to pay too much attention to Obama's anti-NAFTA populism or that Samantha Power would tell the BBC not to pay too much attention to Obama's current withdrawal plans for Iraq.

The attack line writes itself: Says one thing and means another. So much for the man of new politics. Just an ordinary politician -- like Hillary.

That same maladroit foreign policy adviser is caught calling Hillary a monster. A resignation demand nicely calls attention to the fact that the Obama campaign -- surprise! -- hurls invective. And a strategic mention of Tony Rezko, the Chicago fixer who was once Obama's patron, nicely attaches to Obama a whiff of corruption by association.

These attacks have a cumulative effect. Obama mania is beginning to wear off. Charisma is intrinsically transient. But Hillary's attacks have succeeded in hastening its dissipation.

So if there are no policy issues between them and the personality differences have been whittled down, what's left? Identity. Race, age and gender. Is this campaign about anything else?

More....

A great easter gift

You you're wondering what to get that special god child this easter season.

How about a replica of COCO the colossal colon.

Excerpt

"It stands 4 feet tall and is 40 feet long," the e-mail read. "It has rubbed shoulders with CBS Evening News anchor Katie Couric, educated hundreds of thousands across America, and is personally inviting you to crawl through its hallowed halls to learn more about colorectal cancer."

A personal invite from a 40-foot, Katie-Couric-touched colon? Who could resist?

On Thursday morning, Coco is curled in the corner of a room inside the TriHealth Fitness & Health Pavilion on Pfeiffer Road, where the colon will be open to the public through Sunday. It looks a bit like a big worm. A hollow, peach-colored coil.

Me and my homies haven't been able to hoop this week because this damn exhibit has been occupying the gym. Someone please come and steal it.

Hey Mon Airlines

Another Friday Funny. Although if you've flown Delta lately, you might wonder how funny this really is.

Trunk Monkey Compilation

Someone mentioned the trunk monkey.
Well, here he is.

C'mon Elliot

C'mon Guv. You were going to spend 5 grand on this?

Let me clue you #9. You could have picked up this skank at the local bar with a couple of Corona's and a shot of Tequila.

Your real crime Elliot? Your taste.

In Living Color - Dirty Dozens

Man In the Arena

Chick Magnet- Grady the Badger

Who will she vote for? #10

Meet Marie Jeanette Mason.

Why is Ms. Mason in the news?



Excerpt

Mason, 46, was arrested Monday by federal officials and taken to the Butler County Jail until she is transferred to Michigan to face charges of setting fires to protest genetically altered agriculture more than eight years ago.

You have it down now.

Who will she vote for?

The change candidate of Obamamania who will be a president of unity and hope all of humanity?

Or John McCain?

Why?

Newspaper decline

Jill at WLST has a post on the decline of newspaper subscriptions. Anybody notice something?

The list

USA Today -- 2,293,137 -- 46,141 -- 2.1%
The Wall Street Journal -- 2,011,882 -- (-79,180) -- (-3.8%)
The New York Times -- 1,037,828 -- (-80,737) -- (-7.2%)
Los Angeles Times* -- 794,705 -- (-201,133) -- (-20.2%)
New York Daily News -- 681,415 -- (-47,709) -- (-6.5%)

New York Post -- 667,119 -- 14,693 -- 2.3%
The Washington Post -- 635,087 -- (-97,785) -- (-13.3%)
Chicago Tribune -- 559,404 -- (-54,105) -- (-8.8%)
Houston Chronicle* -- 502,631 -- (-50,387) -- (-9.1%)
Newsday -- 387,503 -- NA

The Arizona Republic*, Phoenix -- 385,214 -- (-47,070) -- (-10.9%)
The Dallas Morning News -- 373,586 -- NA
San Francisco Chronicle -- 365,234 -- (-147,406) -- (-28.8%)
The Boston Globe -- 360,695 -- (-89,843) -- (-19.9%)
The Star-Ledger, Newark, N.J. -- 353,003 -- (-55,669) -- (-13.6%)

The Philadelphia Inquirer -- 338,049 -- (-38,444) -- (-10.2%)
Star Tribune*, Minneapolis -- 341,645 -- (-38,709) -- (-10.2%)
The Plain Dealer*, Cleveland -- 332,894 -- (-32,394) -- (-8.9%)
Detroit Free Press -- 320,125 -- (-32,589) -- (-9.2%)
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution -- 318,350 -- (-64,071) -- (-16.8%)

The more "liberal" the perception of your paper, the larger the drop in circulation. What is most fascinating, no media observers seem to notice this trend. Something I pointed out last year.

The first part of fixing a problem, recognizing the actual problem.

Thought of the day

If you were one of those people who has been waiting for a couple of days to go into Ikea the day it opened....

You are a loser.

Why cheating matters

Now that the Luv Guv is on his way to the podium to resign, let me just say. Cheating matters.

Why?

Let's assume the Guv has lots of romantic interests and someone who may be looking for an in to the guv, from a policy stand point.

Don't you think the governor is a target for extortion from these activities?

Look, I couldn't care less if he and his wife go to a key club every week and give the show "Wife Swap" a whole new meaning. If it's out front and in the open, nobody's going to be able to hold that against you.

Hell, look at Sarkozy and his hottie reality show. He doesn't seem to care about all his infidelities and neither does anybody else?

Do I think he's a scumbag? Maybe. Able to lead his country effectively? Maybe maybe not?

But as I told Mrs. Gekko when we started dating. It's never the things people tell you that you need to worry about...... it's the things they won't.

If you are a public servant and have to be referred to as Client #9 I think we need to worry.

.... Because women let them

When I'm out with friends, I'm always cracking up with women's complaints of men.

After a while, I usually interject this bit of human observation.

"Do you know why men are scumbags?... because women let them".

Case in point, when the next woman refuses to stand on a podium supporting their precious husband for hitting the hookers, toe tapping on bathroom floors, wearing a ball gag in a hotel room, this crap will stop.

Here's a sorry piece on the women in these sex scandals. WTF. Did their husband's force them to stand on that podium with them? If not, they're just as culpable. For cryin' out loud girl, where's your self respect? Make that douche bag deal with it solo.

A recovering liberal's testimony

David Mamet, Hollywood type, finally admits to a problem.

Why I Am No Longer a 'Brain-Dead Liberal'

Excerpt

And I began to question my distrust of the "Bad, Bad Military" of my youth, which, I saw, was then and is now made up of those men and women who actually risk their lives to protect the rest of us from a very hostile world. Is the military always right? No. Neither is government, nor are the corporations—they are just different signposts for the particular amalgamation of our country into separate working groups, if you will. Are these groups infallible, free from the possibility of mismanagement, corruption, or crime? No, and neither are you or I. So, taking the tragic view, the question was not "Is everything perfect?" but "How could it be better, at what cost, and according to whose definition?" Put into which form, things appeared to me to be unfolding pretty well.

Do I speak as a member of the "privileged class"? If you will—but classes in the United States are mobile, not static, which is the Marxist view. That is: Immigrants came and continue to come here penniless and can (and do) become rich; the nerd makes a trillion dollars; the single mother, penniless and ignorant of English, sends her two sons to college (my grandmother). On the other hand, the rich and the children of the rich can go belly-up; the hegemony of the railroads is appropriated by the airlines, that of the networks by the Internet; and the individual may and probably will change status more than once within his lifetime.

snip

Aha," you will say, and you are right. I began reading not only the economics of Thomas Sowell (our greatest contemporary philosopher) but Milton Friedman, Paul Johnson, and Shelby Steele, and a host of conservative writers, and found that I agreed with them: a free-market understanding of the world meshes more perfectly with my experience than that idealistic vision I called liberalism.

David, thanks for sharing, you can sit next to me at the next Recovering Liberal Meeting.

When will "progressives" get it.

I'm finding it hilarious that all these "progressives" are finding out what conservatives have known for the last 16 years.

The Billary are scumbags

Over at Plunderbund, they're amazed that The Billary won't release tax returns.

Then there was this blurb from a lib in the WSJ...

Excerpt

She has no idea how many times I defended her. How many right-leaning friends and relatives I battled with. How many times I played down her shady business deals and penchant for scandals. . . . She has no idea how frequently I dismissed her husband's serial adultery as an unfortunate trait of an otherwise brilliant man. For sixteen years, I was a proud soldier in the legion of 'Clinton apologists'. . . . And then she ran for president. She's proven that she cares more about 'Hillary' than 'unity.' More about defeating Obama than defeating the Republicans. She's become a political suicide-bomber, happy to blow herself to bits -- as long as she takes everyone else with her.

Don't worry Seth, you were wrong on The Billary but that only makes "progressives" a perfect "O" for history on just about anything "progressives" take a stand on. It really doesn't matter if it's The Billary, Vietnam, Hitler appeasement, Social Security, War on Poverty. There's really been nothing "progressives" have ever be right on.

If you ever question that one, just look at our inner cities.

Am I a racist?

Over at this blog, a writer linking this blog with the question.

Or is this just racist? Lovely.

I'm guessing that this is the same punch bowl turd that posted this lovely comment on one of my posts this morning.

You are an absolute chicken&*%$ and pu%%$. You spew your crap while hiding, or cowering, or pooping in your pants. You want to be in the game -- a blogger and analyst -- but you won't let anybody know who you are. You are afraid. A coward. A pansy. That means you are not a man, you are a gutless worm and sissy. You probably wear silk panties and squat when you pee. If you are not a pussy, put your name behind your words. You probably live at home, leaching off your mom and dad.

I imagine your favorite color is yellow. It matches the streak on your belly. You don't have a spine.

This is the thing I find fascinating. In general, I find that I get more hits when I post on some thug who just victimized his neighborhood than anything else; except the Larry Craig saga.

I can't tell you the number of hits I've received on Dante Allen, Charles Bennett , Triquero Terrell and now Levar Ricks (see below). I also can't tell you the number of comments like the one above I've received based on my posts. It's almost like people are going out of their way to find someone dissing their thug buddy or something.

Rarely, do I get a hit on the victims of one of these clown's crimes.

So let me spell it out for you derelicts.

The purpose of my posts on these guys are this. They are criminals, who would they vote for? Simple.

There is a reason the democratic party wants felons to be able to vote. Because they know who they will vote for; and it's not republicans.

So I ask the question to any of you liberals out there. What is it about the democratic party that would have criminals vote for them? And why would you want to align yourself with a party that supports criminals?

It's really that simple.

It's now been over six months since I challenged a liberal out there to tell me one instance where anything, I mean anything, democrats run is run better than republicans. I know there are some libs that read this blog because they come over from Progress Ohio; yet they remain silent.

Instead of arguing the point, they just want to write it off by calling me a racist.

So let me ask they question in a different manner. Why is it that democrats worry more about what I say about Levar Ricks than the fact that he murdered another african american, Israel Burton?

Global Warming Challenge Update

The score through 3/10/08 on the Global Warming Challenge.

Warm - 77 Cold - 79

If you factor out the twenty bonus points from the four record warm days in January this would be an ass kicking like the UC - Uconn basketball game Sunday.

Who will he vote for? #9

Meet Levar Ricks. What is he in the news for?

Excerpt

Levar Ricks, 18, of Westwood, is held without bond this morning at the Hamilton County jail on charges of murder and aggravated robbery. He is scheduled to go before a judge at 9 a.m.

Cincinnati police arrested Ricks about 12:30 a.m. today. They accuse him of shooting Israel Barton on Friday afternoon - the day before Barton's 32nd birthday - in the 200 block of West McMicken Avenue in Over-the-Rhine.

Question

This November, assuming Mr. Ricks is out on bond, does he bring his youthful enthusiasm to the polls and vote for Obamamania or does he vote for the same old McCain?

More Spitzer

Headline

Spitzer Vows to Crackdown on Excess Prostitute Charges

When your faith has been pimped

What do you do when you find your faith has been betrayed. Ask a global warming alarmist

Excerpt

When True Believers begin to harbor doubts, they don't immediately give up the faith. It's too scary; too much pride and money has been invested; too many jobs and reputations are on the line; and they need to find a new reason to live. So they always try to add on new wrinkles and qualifications to their crumbling story.

Today that's happening with the global warming cult.

"Human-caused global warming" has now officially been re-named "climate change" to explain the inconvenient truth that the winter of 2007-8 was the coldest in a century, in spite of all those tons of "greenhouse gas" being spewed into the air from all the new factories in China and India. Worldwide temps dropped 0.6 of a degree C in one year. That may not sound like a lot, but it's more than all the ballyhooed warming in the preceding century.

Poor Michelle

We once had billionaire John "Hair Club" for men who understood the plight of the working man from his 28,000 square palace.

But since his exit, the democratic party has been looking for the person who could best connect to the working stiff.

That person? Michelle Obamamania

Here's a quote to how she connects to the working guy.

Excerpt

“We spend between the two kids, on extracurriculars outside the classroom, we’re spending about $10,000 a year on piano and dance and sports supplements. And summer programs… Do you know what summer camp costs?”

Yeah my family struggled with that as they bought me my first "sport supplement", a pair of Converse Chuck Taylor's.

Good to know someone's out there who can relate to the working stiff.

Spitzer in prostitution ring

News Flash

Eliot Spitzer has informed his most senior administration officials that he had been involved in a prostitution ring, an administration official said this morning.

If you are new to the political reality show and were interested in knowing what party Spitzer is in, here's how you can tell.

If he puts his state and party in front of his narcissism and resigns, he's a republican.

If he puts his narcissism in front of state and party and "fights to help the people of New York", he's a democrat.

What makes you a member?

Apparently, some people didn't like the fact that some republicans swapped sides and voted in the democratic primary.

Here's a letter to the editor reflecting those thoughts.

It doesn't stretch the imagination too much to think there were Republicans who voted for a Democratic candidate because they thought he/she would be easier to beat come November or because they couldn't stand the thought of one or the other occupying the White House.

I've always wondered what exactly makes you a democrat or republican? When I graduated from high school I don't remember a membership card being issued; there's no secret hand shake. No one has ever asked me for dues. I've never had to go through an initiation. Hell, I've never even been hazed by one of these parties to gain admittance.

The only thing that makes you a member.... simply saying so.

So I went to the polls last week and simply said I'm a democrat. Someone want to prosecute me for that? If you are a pissed off lib who wants some retribution; send this post to Jennifer Brunner. I want a day in court to demonstrate the absolute joke our political party system is.

The fact is the two party political system in this country is a mockery of governance in and of itself. It's like Pepsi and Coke, they know they're going to get 48% of the market place. and the other guy gets 48% but they'll do whatever they can to keep a third party from stepping in on their oligopoly.

So today I'm a democrat, loud proud and sassy; deal with it.

Another move to "Redville"

ST Media is moving it's downtown Cincinnati headquarters to Blue Ash.

Didn't anybody tell them that being inside "Progress City" is where it's at.

Higher city tax, lack of parking, more crime, crappy schools, lack of parking and horrible "progressive" city leadership, are all the amenities one can expect when operating downtown.

I guess it's their loss.

Bring back the '90's

Excerpt

So it turns out that — in the middle of a desperate primary battle — the Clintons are withholding from the public documents from the William Jefferson Clinton presidential library. This was denied back in December, when our roving national correspondent, Josh Gerstein, reported that about 2,600 pages of documents were being withheld at Mr. Clinton's direction, despite assurances from the former president's office that he "has not blocked the release of a single document from his library." That story was met by derision from the Clinton camp, which claimed that the article contained unspecified errors and misstated how the process of releasing presidential records worked.

The essential accuracy of Mr. Gerstein's dispatch was borne out over the weekend when USA Today reported that the National Archives was withholding all or some of pages of pardon-related records the newspaper requested under the Freedom of Information. USA Today said about 300 of those pages consisted of internal White House documents. The paper did not indicate what portion of the documents were withheld for national security or privacy reasons, which Mr. Clinton has no role in assessing, and what portion were withheld as confidential advice, a designation which Mr. Clinton can waive or assert at will.

Don't worry, the records will mysteriously show up in someone's bedroom about five years from now and no one will know how they got there.

More......

Creating a need

So you're one of those environmentally sensitive types using those little curly light bulbs.

Don't you know? You're part of the problem?

Excerpt

Compact fluorescent bulbs use less energy than old-style incandescent light bulbs, which is good for the environment.

But the new lights also contain toxic mercury, which is bad for the environment if it leaches into groundwater or vaporizes into the air.

Environmentalists are encouraging all people to kill themselves and find an appropriate place to dispose of their bodies to make the least impact on the environment.

Of course, they won't do it themselves because someone needs to be here to tell everyone else what to do.

"Journalistic Standards"

Here's a funny piece about the Samantha Powers flack.

Tucker Carlson, interviews the Scottish reporter who interviewed powers.

Excerpt

CARLSON: Right. But I mean, since journalistic standards in Great Britain are so much dramatically lower than they are here, it's a little much being lectured on journalistic ethics by a reporter from the "Scotsman," but I wonder if you could just explain what you think the effect is on the relationship between the press and the powerful. People don't talk to you when you go out of your way to hurt them as you did in this piece.

Don't you think that hurts the rest of us in our effort to get to the truth from the principals in these campaigns?

PEEV: If this is the first time that candid remarks have been published about what one campaign team thinks of the other candidate, then I would argue that your journalists aren't doing a very good job of getting to the truth. Now I did not go out of my way in any way, shape or form to hurt Miss Power. I believe she's an intelligent and perfectly affable woman. In fact, she's -- she is incredibly intelligent so she -- who knows she may have known what she was doing.

She regretted it. She probably acted with integrity. It's not for me to decide one way or the other whether she did the right thing. But I did not go out and try to end her career.

Great Britain journalists' standards are much lower than the US, who are these guys? Car salesman, Attorneys, Pimps?

To be lower than Jayson Blair, Rathergate, The NY Times McCain piece, is quite an accomplishment.

But I'm still trying to figure out what Carlson means by "since journalistic standards in Great Britain are so much dramatically lower than they are here".

How can Great Britain have lower standards than the US when the US has no standards to begin with? By the way, I'm still waiting for someone to explain to me the qualification difference between a blogger and a "journalist".

It is alive

Andrew Sullivan, formerly a conservative, with some observations on The Billary.

Excerpt

It’s alive! We thought it might be over but some of us never dared fully believe it. Last week was like one of those moments in a horror movie when the worst terror recedes, the screen goes blank and then reopens on green fields or a lover’s tender embrace. Drained but still naive audiences breathe a collective sigh of relief. The plot twists have all been resolved; the threat is gone; the quiet spreads. And then . . .

Put your own movie analogy in here. Glenn Close in the bathtub in Fatal Attraction – whoosh! she’s back at your throat! – has often occurred to me when covering the Clintons these many years. The Oscars host Jon Stewart compares them to a Terminator: the kind that is splattered into a million tiny droplets of vaporised metal . . . only to pool together spontaneously and charge back at you unfazed.

The Clintons have always had a touch of the zombies about them: unkillable, they move relentlessly forward, propelled by a bloodlust for Republicans or uppity Democrats who dare to question their supremacy. You can’t escape; you can’t hide; and you can’t win. And these days, in the kinetic pace of the YouTube campaign, they are like the new 28 Days Later zombies. They come at you really quickly, like bats out of hell. Or Ohio, anyway.

Andrew's a little slow to the game. I made this call in January.

Thoughts from White Death 2008

Now that my lower back is killing me from shoveling 130 feet of driveway, I thought I would think about 2008 White Death in terms of Katrina.

In preparation of White Death 2008 did Gordon and Mrs. Gekko

1) Leave town for a few days to avoid the mess.
2) Drive down to the nearest stadium and wait to be let in.
3) Buy a boat load of groceries in anticipation of being walled in for a few days
4) Sit on our fat asses and waited for the inevitable.

Once the White Death started rolling in on Friday night did we

1) Leave town for a few days to avoid the mess.
2) Drive down to the nearest stadium and wait to be let in.
3) Buy a boat load of groceries in anticipation of being wall in for a few days
4) Start shoveling knowing we're going to be in deep doo doo.

On Saturday morning, with about 5 inches of snow on the ground and a report for about 10 inches more, did we

1) Leave town for a few days to avoid the mess.
2) Go to our roof waiting for the National Guard to come get us.
3) Call CNN to get a reporter over so we could blame Bush for not having us ready for the snow.
4) Go to work like we were scheduled to do.

When Gordon got home around 11:00 he found his neighbor's car was suck in a mud hole, did he

1) Bitch about how global warming was the cause of this.
2) Bitch about how George Bush was responsible for global warming.
3) With about 30 people standing around, bitch to the CNN reporter about how we were stranded (even though the reporter managed to get in).
4) Actually helped push his car out of the rut.

By 3:00, with now, well over a foot of snow on the ground, did the Gekko's

1) Put a fat suit on, went over to the CNN cameras to tell them how we were starving to death.
2) Decided to throw a brick through the neighbors window and steal their TV (it is a nice one).
3) Waited for the mayor to release 400 school buses buried in snow to take us somewhere.
4) Started shoveling

I've been lobbying Mrs Gekko for a small tractor for these kind of shoveling issues, but I think I'll just wait for our FEMA check to pay for it.