Coming tomorrow

Heath Shuler - lying sack of garbage.

Stop The ACLU Blogburst

This week the ACLU held its 2006 membership conference. Over 1,500 moonbats from across the U.S. gathered to listen to the ACLU alarmist exaggerations and lies. The event was televised on CSPAN and there were some interesting moments such as when Justice Scalia slam dunked Nadine Strossen in a debate about the bill of rights.

One of the more humorous highlights of the ACLU’s conference this week was when Bush signed the Military Tribunal Bill into law. The ACLU came up with one of its most clever and cute full page ads to date in which they claimed to be “the most conservative organization in America.”

To highlight concerns with the act, the ACLU took out a full page advertisement in today’s Washington Post, calling itself “the most conservative organization in America.” Since its founding, the ACLU has fought to conserve the system of checks and balances and defend the Bill of Rights.

I guess this claim is technically true. They do more work to “conserve” political correctness, protections for terrorists and traitors, and judicial activism than any other organization out there. I guess it all just depends on what one is trying to conserve.

One thing the ACLU is not trying conserve is a Conservative majority in Congress. As a matter of fact they are actively working against this. One of the most honest moments of the ACLU conference was when Caroline Fredrickson came out in reference to a pending NSA surveillance bill and rooted for the Democrats.

The eavesdropping bills’ fate in the short, post-election session that is set to begin next month hinges on whether Republicans lose their leadership in either chamber, ACLU Washington Office Director Caroline Fredrickson said in an interview. “If Democrats take control, they won’t let a bad spying bill get jammed through,” she
said.

As if putting out over a dozen political ads opposing particular candidates wasn’t enough to show their partisanship, Caroline just comes out and says it. What happened to the ACLU’s proud claim that they are “wholly non-partisan, neither liberal nor conservative, Republican nor Democrat?” Nevermind that old cliche slogan, the ACLU now claim they are the most Conservative organization. So lets look at some of the things they are trying to conserve this election season.

One thing the ACLU is working to conserve is voter fraud. Conserving the right to vote for illegal immigrants, convicted felons, and dead people goes right along with the ACLU’s agenda to get dhimmicrats elected this election cycle. The ACLU expressed its disappointment when the House passed the Federal Election Integrity Act of 2006,” requiring voters to present a government-issued photo ID in order to vote in federal elections. In Missouri at least 16 St. Louis area Democrats were found guilty of election crimes in the last year and a half and now there is even more fraud going on. When Republican Gov. Matt Blunt signed a law requiring voters to provide I.D. the ACLU represented a group of Democrats to challenge the law. It was successful in striking down a similar law in Georgia and with the help of the 9th Circuit Arizona as well. They also fought voter ID laws in New Mexico, Michigan, and Indiana. Unfortunately for the ACLU they may not be able to pull things off in time over in Indiana.

A federal appeals court judge says the panel is unlikely to rule on an Indiana law requiring people to show government-issued photo ID at the polls before the November seventh election.

The Seventh US Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago heard arguments in the case Wednesday.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana is asking a three-judge panel to overturn the state law.

ACLU attorney Ken Falk says there’s no evidence of the vote fraud that the law is aimed at eliminating. He says Indiana’s requirements to obtain identification are too cumbersome.

But Thomas Fisher of the Indiana Attorney General’s office argued that the ACLU and the Indiana Democratic Party failed to find a single person who would not be eligible to vote under the law.

Yes, I guess it is difficult to get dead people to show up at court.

What the ACLU is really seeking to conserve is a 9/10 mindset for America. They hope to conserve privacy rights for terrorists. They want a Democrat controlled Congress and they are not ashamed to admit it. They know this is the only way they can be successful striking down the NSA legislation and other important terror bills and tools that come may come along. They fear legislation currently pending in the Senate to strip them of their taxpayer funded attorney’s fees in Establishment Clause cases, and they know a Democrat controlled Senate is the sure fire way to kill it.

Concerned with illegal immigration? If you think we are not making any progress now, just imagine the slow down with the Democrats in control. The ACLU will be right their lobbying against every effort to secure the border. The ACLU’s agenda is pushed by more than just the courts. Want more conservative judges put on the bench? Let the loony liberals gain power and you can kiss that goodbye as well.

One sure fire way to help the ACLU progress its agenda against America is to stay at home during election time. Discouraged by the polls? Dan Riehl can help you put things back in perspective. Don’t get discouraged and allow the liberals to gain power. Get out and vote.

This was a production of Stop The ACLU Blogburst. If you would like to join us, please email Jay at Jay@stoptheaclu.com or Gribbit at GribbitR@gmail.com. You will be added to our mailing list and blogroll. Over 200 blogs already on-board.

Fall foliage in the Mountains

Here are some shots of the fall foliage, which is reaching its peak.


This is Mountain City, TN. Mountain City is the seat of Johnson County. Johnson County is in the very Northeast corner of TN. On one side you have North Carolina and the other you have Virginia.

At the very eastern tip of the county you could build a house with the kitchen in Tennessee, the living room in NC and the bedroom in VA.


Looking the other way down Main St.


These next pictures were taken in Waynesville, NC.


In Waynesville those who have to go to court at least have a good view while they wait to be fined or sent to jail.

I do love these mountains.

This tree stands between the old courthouse and the new courthouse in Waynesville.

Maybe it will be a RED wave

From The Hotline:

Perhaps the biggest danger to Republicans in the wake of all these bad polls is that their volunteer base, so critical to victory in 2004, won't put their heart in their work. If volunteers become convinced that Republicans will lose control of Congress, what incentive do they have to work hard?

If you're ever read a profile of Ken Mehlman, you know he is obsessed with metrics. For him, one of the most important sources of data is a weekly e-mail his political team prepares called the "Weekly Grassroots Report." It meticulously records the work of tens of thousands of volunteers in targeted states, counties and congressional districts across the country. The data summary allows the RNC to determine which states are meeting goals and which states are falling behind.

The RNC declined to share the most recent report, which was issued Monday. But two independent sources who saw last week's report professed to be surprised: not only was their no drop off last week, 12 states broke new voter contact records.

In a month, the party completed more than a million phone calls and door contacts combined. Bigger states are putting up big numbers -- even Ohio, which lagged behind its targets all summer, has caught up. The RNC is particularly pleased with their progress in New Jersey, where they've rapidly set up a more aggressive version of their 72 Hour Program in light of the state's more competitive Senate race.

It is obvious to anyone who is paying attention that the media has abandoned even the pretence of objectivity and is actively working for a Democrat victory next month. Of course they are not openly saying so, that would diminish their effectiveness as Democrat operatives.

However they are creating polls and writing articles which are not designed to report truth, but to create a set of conditions. The narrative which the media is attempting to imprint on the American public in general and the average Republican voter specifically is that the Republican "base" is furious at the party and is planning to either stay home and not vote or vote for Democrats. Christian voters especially are being subjected to a barrage of propaganda intended to convince them that Republican leaders hold them in contempt, treat their sacred religious beliefs as so much superstitious nonsense and lead lives of depravity totally at odds with Christian moral values.

In other words they want Christians to think that the Republicans view them in the same way as Democrats view Blacks. As people so stupid that you can buy their votes with lies.

There are plenty of indicators out there that this strategy is backfiring. The article quoted above is only one of them. It may very well turn out that Republican voters, religious and secular alike, are too smart to have their vote suppressed by lies.

What all the media reports of the anger of Republicans at their own party deliberately fail to mention is that the anger is for the most part there because the Republicans have all too often acted like Democrats. Republicans have spent money like Ted Kennedy in a liquor store and a highly visible block of Republicans in the Senate have stabbed their Party and their nation in the back on a number of occasions.

On judicial confirmations there were enough votes to change the Senate rules to prevent a filibuster from being used against a judicial nominee. That rule change was blocked by Senator John McCain who led a small group of liberal Republicans into an alliance with a small group of Democrats and together they hijacked the confirmation process.

On illegal immigration, an issue which most Americans recognize as the single most important issue facing the nation today, Sen. McCain led a small group of liberal Republicans into an alliance with Senate Democrats and attempted to force an amnesty and open borders plan down an unwilling nation's throat.

In the War on Terror Sen. McCain (are we detecting a pattern here?) led a small number of liberal Republicans in an effort to grant terrorists captured on the battlefield with weapons in their hands the same rights that an American citizen would have in an American court.

Sen. McCain loudly declared that he would willingly sacrifice his presidential hopes for his principles, yet when told that the public was angry with him and that not only were his presidential hopes going out the window, but that he might not even be reelected to the Senate, he caved in like a West Virginia coal mine.

The above examples demonstrate my point. Republicans have failed when they crossed the ideological divide and allied with liberals. What can Democrats offer Republicans in exchange either for their votes or their non-participation in the upcoming election?

Can Democrats promise to make the Bush tax cuts permanent and reduce out of control domestic spending?

Can Democrats promise to build a wall along the entire border between Mexico and the US?

Can Democrats promise that every last illegal alien found by any American law enforcement officer at the local, state or federal level will be deported back to his nation of origin, regardless of how long he has been in this country?

Can Democrats convince the nation that they care more about saving American lives from terrorist attacks than they do about respecting terrorists' "rights"?

Can Democrats promise to work for the appointment of federal judges (including to the Supreme Court) who will interpret the constitution according to the original intent of the writers rather than according to current left-wing intellectual fads, and who will not use foreign law as a template for judicial activism?

The answer to all of the above is no. Democrats can not and will not promise any of those things. They can and will promise to promote judges like the ones who gave us Roe vs. Wade. They can and will promise to allow the ACLU to write the policies which the American military and intelligence establishment must abide by when questioning captured terrorists. They can and will promise to repeal the tax cuts which are driving the current economic recovery and sending the Dow to almost daily records. They can and will promise to open impeachment proceedings against the President. They can and will promise to hold congressional hearing to "investigate" every kook conspiracy theory from "Bush is lowering gas prices to help Republicans" to "the WTC was a controlled demolition".

Democrats can and will do all within their power to grant amnesty to illegal aliens and to open our borders to unrestricted Third World immigration. Then they will do all in their power to grant citizenship and voting rights to those Third World aliens. To serve this goal of buying Third World votes they will gut the welfare reform which Bill Clinton was forced to sign and expand benefits until America can not be distinguished from France or Germany.

Democrats can and will work to bring the nation HillaryCare (tm), a socialized medicine scheme which will turn America's health care establishment into a giant federal bureaucracy with all the compassion of the IRS and all the efficiency of the DMV.

Republicans are not perfect, but they are not Democrats either. With the White House and the legislature in the hands of Republicans you will not get everything you want and some of what you do not want. However with Democrats in power you will see the effort to dismantle every advance made since the Reagan Administration. You will see the construction of a grim socialist superstate on the rubble of American freedom and prosperity.

I believe that the average Republican knows this and will do all in his/her power this November to keep the government of the US in the hands of responsible adults.

Some good news

Burach has a new CD out. It is called Unstoppable and here is a link to a page where you can sample some of the cuts.

A lesson for the simpleton

From MyWestTexas.com:

Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev compared the United States' proposed 700-mile wall on the U.S.-Mexico border to the Berlin Wall during a Tuesday visit to Midland.

Addressing a Tuesday news conference at UTPB's Center for Energy and Economic Diversification, the JBS Public Leadership Institute Distinguished Lecture Series speaker was by turns serious and flippant prior to a reception with more than 100 people.

"You remember President Reagan standing in Berlin and saying, 'This wall should be torn down,'" said the 1990 Nobel Peace Prize winner. "Now the United States seems to be building almost the Wall of China between itself and this other nation with which it has been associated for many decades and has had cooperation and interaction with.

Another bit of evidence, if one was needed, that the non-science Nobel Prizes are worthless.

Ok, I'll make this simple since Mr. Gorbachev is evidently mildly retarded. The Berlin Wall was built by an illegitimate regime to keep people who had a basic human right to leave in. The soon-to-be-built (hopefully) wall between the US and Mexico is going to be there to keep a legitimate government from being swamped by people with no right to be here.

The two walls do have one thing in common, however. They are/were both necessary to the survival of the nations who built them. Communist East Germany could not survive when anyone who wanted to leave was able to do so and the United States cannot survive if anyone who wishes to enter may do so.

Onward to the High Frontier!

Here is another reason to be glad we have George W Bush as our president.

From The Washington Post:

President Bush has signed a new National Space Policy that rejects future arms-control agreements that might limit U.S. flexibility in space and asserts a right to deny access to space to anyone "hostile to U.S. interests."

The document, the first full revision of overall space policy in 10 years, emphasizes security issues, encourages private enterprise in space, and characterizes the role of U.S. space diplomacy largely in terms of persuading other nations to support U.S. policy.

"Freedom of action in space is as important to the United States as air power and sea power," the policy asserts in its introduction.

National Security Council spokesman Frederick Jones said in written comments that an update was needed to "reflect the fact that space has become an even more important component of U.S. economic, national and homeland security." The military has become increasingly dependent on satellite communication and navigation, as have providers of cellphones, personal navigation devices and even ATMs.

The administration said the policy revisions are not a prelude to introducing weapons systems into Earth orbit. "This policy is not about developing or deploying weapons in space. Period," said a senior administration official who was not authorized to speak on the record.

Nevertheless, Michael Krepon, co-founder of the Henry L. Stimson Center, a nonpartisan think tank that follows the space-weaponry issue, said the policy changes will reinforce international suspicions that the United States may seek to develop, test and deploy space weapons. The concerns are amplified, he said, by the administration's refusal to enter negotiations or even less formal discussions on the subject.

"The Clinton policy opened the door to developing space weapons, but that administration never did anything about it," Krepon said. "The Bush policy now goes further."
Theresa Hitchens, director of the nonpartisan Center for Defense Information in Washington, said that the new policy "kicks the door a little more open to a space-war fighting strategy" and has a "very unilateral tone to it."

[Snip]

In 2004, the Air Force published a Counterspace Operations Doctrine that called for a more active military posture in space and said that protecting U.S. satellites and spacecraft may require "deception, disruption, denial, degradation and destruction." Four years earlier, a congressionally chartered panel led by Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld recommended developing space weapons to protect military and civilian satellites.

[Snip]

Some of the potential space weapons most frequently discussed are lasers that can "blind" or shut down adversary satellites and small, maneuverable satellites that could ram another satellite.

The new Bush policy calls on the defense secretary to provide "space capabilities" to support missile-warning systems as well as "multi-layered and integrated missile defenses," an apparent nod toward placing some components of the system in space.

If a nation can dominate the orbital space around a planet they will dominate the planet. It is just that simple. The agreements which the US entered into to keep weapons out of space were the result of the fear that we would not be able to keep up with the USSR since they had launched the first artificial satellite and put the first man in orbit. There was some justification to this concern since they did have a good heavy launch vehicle and building a reentry vehicle which is accurate enough to get a 10 megaton bomb close enough to its target isn't all that difficult.

We know now that the Soviets didn't have anywhere near the capabilities which they wanted the rest of the world to think they had. We know now that all it took was one good hard push from Ronald Reagan in the form of SDI to bring down their entire house of cards.

The situation today is very different than it was during the Cold War. Today we know that we have an unmatched technological superiority to every other nation and we have the economic strength to support a large investment in orbital infrastructure. European nations, who can match us in scientific knowledge, are crippled by their massive welfare states and the high unemployment and stagnation which go with them.

China, which has the money, doesn't have the technical sophistication and if we can keep the Clintons away from the White House they will have to invest decades in developing it rather than buying it from us in exchange for illegal campaign contributions.

The United States has the ability to establish a permanent presence in orbital space which would give us military supremacy over the rest of the planet. A supremacy which would last for as long as we wish it to last because once you control the orbitals nobody launches anything which you don't allow them to launch.

All of this doesn't even get into the economic benefits. From the time that JFK said that we would go to the moon before the end of the decade to the time the last Apollo mission splashed down American women spent more money on cosmetics than the nation spent on the space program yet the every dollar which we spent on space has returned hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars back to the economy. Everything from the ipod you listen to music on to the computer you are using right now are spinoffs from the space program.

The scientific advances which would come as a result of the colonization and militarization of space would take both our technology and our economy to the next level. Imagine electrical power in limitless quantities generated with zero pollution at a price so cheap that it is essentially free. That is only the first and most obvious result of a true permanent presence in space.

So let's see. Clean cheap energy that doesn't depend on OPEC, military command of the planet and technological advances which will make our PC's look like mechanical adding machines. What are we waiting for?

For Capercaillie fans

As you may know the musical group Capercaillie is named after a bird which is native to the Highlands of Scotland. The capercaillie happens to be highly endangered. The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds has issued a capercaillie tartan with a percentage of the sales going to efforts to protect the capercaillie. Here is a link to their online store, and a picture of the tartan.

This style of cap is called a tam o'shanter.

Here is a picture of a capercaillie:

And to round things out here is a picture of the band Capercaillie:

A new Ecosystem member signs on!

Gribbit of Gribbit's World has just joined the Hillbilly Ecosystem! Gribbit is one of the contributors to Stop The ACLU, one of our favorite blogs.

Go over and give him a big hillbilly welcome. And while you're at it check out Stop The ACLU. If you have a blog why not sign up for their Stop The ACLU Blogburst. It is a very worthy effort.

Mrs. Clinton clarifies

From WorldNetDaily:

Years after alternative media pointed out the virtual impossibility, Sen. Hillary Clinton finally has admitted she was not named for the famous conqueror of Mount Everest, Sir Edmund Hillary.

The New York Times, which repeated the claim as fact in a story just one week ago, reported Sen. Clinton's campaign issued a correction yesterday.

"It was a sweet family story her mother shared to inspire greatness in her daughter, to great results I might add," said spokeswoman Jennifer Hanley.

For more than a decade, Sen. Clinton's informal biography repeated
the story, and it was recounted in former President Bill Clinton's 2004
autobiography, "My Life."

The problem with the tale, however, is one of timing. Sir Edmund and his Sherpa guide, Tenzing Norgay, became known to the world only in 1953, after becoming the first men to reach Everest's summit. Sen. Clinton was born in 1947.

Senator Clinton still maintains that she spent several years traveling with Dr. Who in the early 1980's. Ms. Clinton was asked how that could be possible since she was working for the Rose Law Firm in Little Rock during the entire decade of the 1980's, a period in which she made regular appearances in court and at business meetings with clients as well as appearing at state functions with her husband who was attorney general and then governor.

A spokesman from Sen. Clinton's office pointed out that since the TARDIS travels through both time and space the Doctor was able to pick her up on a Saturday morning and take her on a five year long journey then bring her back on the same day, in time to bake a batch of cookies for her daughter.

Katie tanks

Drudge is reporting that the ratings for the CBS Evening News with Katie Couric are in freefall. She is in dead last in New York City, LA and Washington DC.

If she can't even hold three citadels of left liberalism like these what hope does she have for the parts of the country which remain sane?

Stewart plans to continue her work

Well you've all heard by now that traitorous leftist lawyer Lynn Stewart did not get the 30 years in jail that the prosecution asked for, nor did she get the firing squad she deserved. Instead she got a pathetic 24 months, with credit for time served.

As things stand now she is free pending appeal.

Her appeal will not be heard until January at the earliest which will give her time to make what contribution she can to the cause of the America-hating terrorists which she has done so much to serve.

To this end she will travel the nation making campaign appearances for Democrats. Since the greatest service anyone can render to the Islamofascists (short of strapping on a suicide belt) is to work for a Democrat victory this November.

Crossnore Presbyterian Church

I stopped on my way home yesterday and took these pictures before the rain started to pour.

I couldn't get far enough back to capture the entire structure, but here are some views.

This is the front.

This building would have been easy to defend in the era before explosives.

This is the upper parking lot.

The leaves are reaching their peak this week. By the upcoming weekend the color in the higher elevations will be at or slightly past its most beautiful.

Looking over one of the lower parking lots.

People who live here see this beauty every day and mostly take it for granted.

Just like people who live in NYC never go go Broadway or visit the Empire State Building. When you live amid something and see it every day it can be hard to notice.



I'll try to get some more pictures this weekend.

The sulpher smell is getting a lot stronger

We don't get many of these around here

A "micro" earthquake with a 2.6 magnitude rattled central North Carolina early Tuesday, the U.S. Geological Survey said.

The epicenter was about 3 miles east-northeast of Winston-Salem at 4:56 a.m. There were no immediate reports of injuries or damage.

Amy Vaughan, a geophysicist with the USGS in Golden, Colo., said earthquakes are rare in that part of the country. Since the quake wasn't very strong, no major damage was expected, she said.

About 150 calls came into the Winston-Salem Police Department after the quake, said police Lt. David Kiger.

"They reported a loud explosion and ground shaking," he said. "They just want to know what was going on."

Don't read unless you have a strong stomach

Driving home today I caught the very last of Sean Hannity interviewing Catherine Moy and Melanie Morgan about their book American Morning, which is in part about moonbat "peace mom" Cindy Sheehan. It seems that Sheehan had an affair with Lew Rockwell a little while back. Rockwell is married and at the time of the affair Sheehan was as well. I came home and did a little digging around on the 'net and found this from Saber Point:

I've known for some time now that the so-called paleo-conservatives are in bed with the far left. However, I had no idea how extensive the problem has become.

It came out this week that Lew Rockwell, the political schizophrenic who runs lewrockwell.com, has been knocking knees with peace activist Cindy Sheehan.

Rockwell was once a respected voice in the conservative community, regularly interviewed on conservative talk radio. He also regularly wrote political opinion pieces that were published in the main stream media. Then he went weird on us, just after 9/11 happened. He morphed into a peacenik and buddy of the far left. His political positions slid rapidly leftward. He stopped being interviewed on conservative talk radio and I haven't seen any articles from him in several years.

I actually met Lew Rockwell once, and sat next to him at dinner at a meeting in San Mateo of the John Randolph Society. This was ten years ago or more. I noticed then that he was a vegetarian and I kidded him about whether he actually was a conservative, based on his choice of vittles. I thought I was kidding, but I must have been on to something.

This past week it came out that Lew and Cindy have been doing the horizontal polka. They met in an internet chat room and learned there is no more powerful an aphrodisiac than a shared hatred of America.

The story was backed up on Free Republic:

Cindy Sheehan packed her bags and left Crawford ,Texas, Tuesday afternoon and arrived home in Berkeley, Ca. late Tuesday evening. Sheehan rushed back to do damage control after explosive information became public today about an alleged affair that began while she was still married to her husband Patrick, and after her son Casey Sheehan died in Sadr City, Iraq attempting to rescue members of his trapped squad.

Sources are telling authors Melanie Morgan and Catherine Moy, (American
Mourning, Cumberland Press) that Sheehan is furious that the news of her affair has gone public. Sources have identified the boyfriend as former right-winger Lew Rockwell of the Ludwig Von Mises think tank located in Alabama, who is himself married.

This is not a joke. I literally gagged when I heard those two women on Hannity's show talk about some man actually having sex with Cindy Sheehan.

I can remember when Rockwell was a conservative. In fact he once wrote a piece for Reason magazine in which he made the case that the whole libertarian movement was a part of the political right.

After 9/11 I noticed that he was drifting to the left and had made an alliance with the nutjob who runs Anti-War.com. It was at that point that I unsubscribed to the daily feed from his website and put him out of my mind.

Sympathy for the Devil

From Michelle Malkin:

Left-wing radical laywer Lynne Stewart will be sentenced this morning for her role in fomenting jihad for her client, convicted jihadist and NYC bomb plotter Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman. The Associated Press casts her as a compassionate grandma who just cares too much about her downtrodden clients. The New York Times sympathizes here:

Cry me a fraking river. The hag did the crime now let her do the time.

You make an ASS of U and ME

Hillary's problems

From The Washington Post:

DES MOINES, Oct. 15 -- Former president Bill Clinton entered the Hy-Vee Hall here on Saturday night like an aging rock star, striding up a red carpet, wearing a big smile, his arms outstretched to touch the hands of Democratic admirers lined up along his walkway to the stage.

Clinton came to rally Democrats three weeks before critical midterm elections. But his visit may have served another purpose as well. Alone among prospective Democratic presidential candidates for 2008, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) has not set foot in the state all year, and the futures market in Clinton political stock here has been suffering.

Early polls by the Des Moines Register have shown former North Carolina senator John Edwards, the Democrats' 2004 vice presidential nominee, to be more popular among Democratic activists than the New York senator. A more recent survey of Iowans showed her running weaker than Edwards, Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) and Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack (D) in a series of hypothetical general election matchups against prospective Republican candidates.

The senator's political advisers dismiss those numbers and perhaps for good reason. Clinton has chosen to focus on her own reelection in New York, they note, and so has not spent time in a state where voters insist on getting to know the candidates before they make a commitment to support them. If she decides to run, say her advisers, attitudes will change.

But Iowa Democrats said Clinton's standing reflects more than her absence. They say there is general unease within the party about her ability to win a general election. Beyond that, some Democrats are troubled by her support for the war in Iraq long after other Democratic politicians such as Kerry and Edwards had renounced their votes for the congressional resolution that authorized President Bush to launch the invasion.

The Democrats may be crazy, but they aren't totally stupid. They had enough sense to dump Howard Dean before he locked up the nomination. Even though he was the candidate who best represented the heart and soul of the modern Democrat voter, in all his repugnant lunacy.

Another issue that needs to be discussed is the role of Bill Clinton in his wife's campaign. When Mr. Clinton was the Attorney General and then Governor of Arkansas anyone wishing to bribe him did not need to meet with him in a dark restaurant and pass an envelope of cash under the table. One only needed to retain the services of his wife, Hillary Rodham of the Rose Law Firm. By paying her generous sums for little or no real work anyone doing business in Arkansas could purchase the good will, and good efforts, of her husband.

The situation has now reversed itself. It is now Bill who serves as bag-man for Hillary. Campaign finance law strictly limits how much any individual, corporation or organization can contribute to a political campaign. However a politician may spend as much of his or her own money as they wish. This includes assets held in common by husband and wife.

Today anyone wishing to funnel what would otherwise be an illegal campaign contribution (in other words a bribe) to Mrs. Clinton need only hire her husband to give a speech, consult or do a bit of writing. Bill earns something like a million dollars per year in this way.

There was nothing wrong with John Kerry spending his wife’s money in his presidential race, or his Senate races for that matter. The Heinz fortune was not ill gotten. The Clinton situation, however, is sailing into uncharted campaign finance waters.

One wonders if Senators McCain and Feingold will have the courage to cast their gaze in that direction before 2008.

The countdown

If you're like me you've been missing your weekly visit with Jack Bauer. Well its going to be nearly 3 months, but on 10/24 you can go here to see the season 6 trailer.

In the meantime you can check out Blogs 4 Bauer.