0-9WASHINGTON (AP) - Two Senate Republican colleagues, including John McCain, called Wednesday for Sen. Larry Craig to resign. The White House, too, expressed disappointment in the case of the Idaho Republican caught in a men's room undercover police operation.
Arizona Sen. McCain and Norm Coleman of Minnesota, the state where Craig was arrested, became the first senators to join Rep. Peter Hoekstra, R-Mich., urging Craig's resignation.
McCain told CNN the decision was Craig's to make, "but my opinion is that when you plead guilty to a crime, you shouldn't serve. That's not a moral stand. That's not a holier-than-thou. It's just a factual situation."
"I think he should resign," McCain said.
Coleman said in a statement, "Senator Craig pled guilty to a crime involving conduct unbecoming a senator."
Hoekstra said Craig "represents the Republican party" and that "his conduct throughout this matter has been inappropriate for a U.S. senator."
Craig pleaded guilty in August to a charge of disorderly conduct following his arrest in a men's room at the Minneapolis airport. He said Tuesday he had done nothing wrong and was sorry he pleaded guilty.
Senate Republican leaders have called on the ethics committee to review Craig's case, and White House spokesman Scott Stanzel said he hoped the panel could do its work quickly.
Stanzel made no expression of support for Craig. "We are disappointed in the matter. It has been referred to the Senate Ethics Committee, so they will have to deal with it," he said.
There were other signs of difficulty for Craig.
Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch, issued a statement calling on the senator to consider stepping down. The organization is a self- described conservative government watchdog group.
"Senator Craig admittedly engaged in illegal activity that brings serious disrepute to the public office he holds," Fitton said.
Fitton's suggestion that the senator leave office suggested tenuous support among conservatives who make up his core political supporters.
You see it is like this. Republicans are in the main decent people who uphold decent standards and we police our own. This isn't a matter of "shooting our wounded" or some such. It is simply upholding a minimum level of acceptable conduct and requiring consequences for those who violate that standard.
Liberal Democrats, on the other hand, have no such standards. They are, in the main, little more than animals and have the behavioral ethics of the beasts of the barnyard, forest and field.
If only the Department of Fish and Wildlife would institute a hunting season for them so that their numbers could be controlled. . . but that's a topic for another day.
Craig will resign. Unlike Bill Clinton who was having an affair with an intern young enough to be his daughter in the Oval Office (leftists will be completely at a loss to understand why the location of the trysts was important - if you explain it to them they'll think you are joking) and he was credibly accused of rape by another woman.
Craig will resign. Unlike Ted Kennedy who, along with another Democrat Senator, tried to forcibly rape a waitress in a Washington restaurant's private dining room. What is it, BTY, with Democrats and rape? Maybe the feminists need to rethink their knee-jerk support for the Democrat Party?
Craig will resign. Unlike Rep. Barney Frank who was caught running a prostitution business out of his apartment. He claims that he didn't know what was going on but his lover (a homosexual prostitute that Frank knew was a prostitute because Frank admitted to paying him for sex) who was managing the operation tells us that Frank knew all about it and enjoyed hearing all about his encounters with customers. Another prostitute claims that Frank would call the apartment to make sure that he didn't walk in on a customer who was being "entertained".
Craig will resign. Unlike Rep William Jefferson who the FBI caught with $90,000.00 of bribe money in his freezer.
Craig will resign. Unlike Hillary Clinton whose campaign, it turns out, is being financed by the Red Chinese.
Craig will resign. Unlike Diane Feinstein who as chairman of the Military Construction Appropriations subcommittee got caught funneling billions (that is BILLIONS) of dollars into her husband's company.
I could go on but you get the point. By refusing the circle the wagons and defend other Republicans who are caught behaving in a deplorable or illegal manner the GOP demonstrates that it is the party with the higher standards. Standards which are honored in deed and not just in word.
Thursday, August 30, 2007
Republicans call upon Craig to resign
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
Ban Against Anti-Islamist Demonstration Upheld by Belgian High Court
From The Brussels Journal:
Today the Belgian Council of State (CoS) ruled to maintain the prohibition of an anti-Islamization demonstration on 11 September. Three weeks ago the demo was banned by Freddy Thielemans, the mayor of Brussels. Thielemans’s party, the Parti Socialiste (PS), caters for the many Muslim inhabitants of Brussels, the “capital of Europe.” Udo Ulfkotte, a German citizen and one of the organizers of the demo, who intended to bring 20,000 demonstrators to Brussels, decided to appeal against the mayor’s verdict before the Council of State, the highest administrative court in Belgium.
Yesterday, the Council of State postponed its ruling because it said it had to decide first whether the appeal could be made in Dutch or should be presented in French. Today, however, the CoS cut the case short and ruled outright to maintain the ban. According to the CoS Udo Ulfkotte cannot prove that his interests have been harmed by the mayor’s ban.
This verdict may sound nonsensical to non-Belgians, but in Belgium it is not considered harmful to have one’s political freedoms restricted. In Belgium it is also considered quite normal that the lawyer representing Mayor Thielemans before the CoS is Marc Uyttendaele. The latter is one of the most expensive lawyers in the country. He is also the husband of Laurette Onkelinx, the Belgian minister of Justice, who is responsible for appointing, promoting and suspending judges.
The forbidden demonstration was an initiative of Danish, British and German organizations that wanted to protest in front of the European Parliament in Brussels against the introduction of Sharia laws in Europe. They chose to do so on the symbolic date of 11 September, which would allow them to end their demonstration with one minute of silence for the victims of the 9/11/2001 terror attacks in America.
Mayor Thielemans banned the demo precisely because the organizers picked 11 September as the date for their protest. The mayor wrote: “The intention is obviously to confound the terrorist activities of Muslim extremists on the one hand and Islam as a religion and all Muslims on the other hand. […] Such incitement to discrimination and hatred, which we usually call racism and xenophobia, is forbidden by a considerable number of international treaties and is punished by our penal laws and by the European legislation. The European Court of Human Rights has repeatedly pronounced judgments condemning this type of acts.” He told The Wall Street Journal: “I won't have Brussels regarded as the capital of racism.” Obviously, Brussels as the ‘capital of socialism’ or ‘capital of Islamization’ will do.
To honor Mayor Thielemans this video was created:
Online Videos by Veoh.com
As I've said before there is no hope for Europe.
Tonight's Music
This is from Irish group Altan's CD Blackwater. The song is called A Stor, A Stor, A Ghra which means "A Star, A Star, My Love".
Here are the lyrics in Gaeilge (Irish Gaelic) and the English translation:
One fine summer's day
I mo sheasamh ar an mhargadh
As I stood there in the marketplace
'S is iomaí fear a dúirt liom
Many a young man remarked
"Monuar, gan tú sa bhaile agam"
"I'm sad you're not at home with me"
Chorus (after each verse):
A stór, a stór, a ghrá
A star, a star, my love
A stór, a stór, an dtiocfaidh tú?
A star, a star, will you come with me?
A stór, a stór, a ghrá
A star, a star, my love
An dtiocfaidh tú nó an bhfanfaidh tú?
Will you come with me or settled be?
Gheall mo ghrá domsa
My true love promised kindly
Cinnte go dtiocfadh sí
That she would surely come with me
Ní raibh a culaith déanta
Her wedding dress not ready
Agus sin an rud a choinnigh í
Delayed her in joining me
Tá an t-uisce ag teacht ón Éirne
We've got water from the Eirne
Is tá an féar ag teacht ó neamh chugainn
And green grass from the heaven's stems
Tá utha na mba á réabadh ar mhéid
Cow's udders are near rending
Is 'tá de bhainne acu
From the overflow of milk in them
Thart tóin an gharraí, a Mháire
By the bottom of the garden, oh Mary
Bhfuil an fhidil leat?
Is the fiddle there?
Aicearra na bprátaí go dtéimid
The shortcut by the praties
'Sair an fhidileoir
We'll hasten to the fiddler
Bhí mise lán den tsaol
At one time in my life
Is bhí cion amuigh is istigh orm
I was dearly loved by everyone
Nach mór a d'athraigh an saol
Haven't times changed a lot
Nuair nach bhfuil cion ag duine ar bith orm?
When no one cares a whit for me?
Calderon plays host to a criminal
From The American Thinker:
Mexico's President Calderon has delivered a slap in the face to the United States, and provided what amounts to an endorsement for his citizens violating the laws of the United States. Steve Gilbert of Sweetness & Light caught the significance of an official photo appearing on Mexico's Presidencia website, showing El Presidente meeting with Elvira Arellano, who illegally entered our country and who illegally used a fake social security number.
There can be no denying that this is a high honor for the citizen of any country. To confer such a distinction on someone who very publicly flouted the laws of a neighbor implies official endorsement of lawlessness.
Steve asks the important question of how Mexico would regard a neighboring nation encouraging its citizens to flout Mexico's laws, such as its strict immigration laws.
This is not the behavior of an amigo.
Of course it isn't the behavior of a friend. The government and people of Mexico hold the United States and its people in contempt. To them we are nothing but a giant ATM machine.
President Bush prizes loyalty above all other things. His supposed friend President Calderon has just spit in his face. I wonder if this will wake Mr. Bush up?
Hero passes away
ATLANTA (Aug. 29) - Former security guard Richard Jewell, who was erroneously linked to the 1996 Olympic bombing, has died, a spokesman for the Georgia Bureau of Investigation said Wednesday.
Richard Jewell, 44, was found dead in his west Georgia home, GBI spokesman John Bankhead said.
He died at 9 a.m. Wednesday, said Meriwether County Coroner Johnny Worley. Worley said Jewell died of natural causes.
"There's no suspicion whatsoever of any type of foul play. He had been at home sick since the end of February with kidney problems," Worley said.
Bankhead said the GBI would do an autopsy Thursday.
Lin Wood, Jewell's longtime attorney, said in an e-mail to The Associated Press that he was "devastated" by the news. He declined further comment, saying he was in New York trying to get back to Atlanta.
Jewell was initially hailed as a hero for spotting a suspicious backpack in a park and moving people out of harm's way just before a bomb exploded during a concert at the Atlanta Summer Olympics.
Then the media called him a suspect and he became a public spectacle.
The blast killed one and injured 111 others.
As recently as last year, Jewell was working as a sheriff's deputy in rural Meriwether County.
The frenzy that changed Jewell's life started three days after the bombing with an unattributed report in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that described him as "the focus" of the investigation.
Other media, to varying degrees, also linked Jewell to the investigation.
He was never arrested or charged, although he was questioned and was a subject of search warrants.
Eighty-eight days after the initial news report, then-U.S. Attorney Kent Alexander issued a statement saying Jewell "is not a target" of the bombing investigation and that the "unusual and intense publicity" surrounding him was "neither designed nor desired by the FBI, and in fact interfered with the investigation."
Eventually, the bomber turned out to be anti-government extremist Eric Rudolph, who also planted three other bombs in the Atlanta area and in Birmingham, Ala., that killed a police officer, maimed a nurse and injured several others. Rudolph was captured after spending five years hiding out in the mountains of western North Carolina, pleaded guilty to all four bombings last year and is serving life in prison.
Jewell told the AP last year that Rudolph's conviction helped, but he believed some people still remember him as a suspect rather than for the two days in which he was praised as a hero.
"For that two days, my mother had a great deal of pride in me - that I had done something good and that she was my mother, and that was taken away from her," Jewell said around the time of the 10th anniversary of the bombing. "She'll never get that back, and there's no way I can give that back to her."
As if to prove his point about being remembered for the unfounded accusations that were leveled against him the headline on this story was:
Former Olympics Bombing Suspect Dies
Not "Hero who saved dozens from Olympic bomber dies", but former suspect dies.
The Clinton era Justice Department suspected Mr. Jewell because he fit their idea of a "redneck" and a "gun nut". The leaks were targeted at Mr. Jewell to put pressure on him and make him crack. In the end he was vindicated, won a financial settlement and realized his dream of working in law enforcement. Of course a reputation once tarnished is never quite the same. Let us remember this before we are foolish to put another Clinton into a position to shape the Justice Department.
Miss Ann is talking
This week, congressional Democrats vowed to investigate Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' firing of himself. Gonzales has said he was not involved in the discussions about his firing and that it was "performance-based," but he couldn't recall the specifics.
Right-wingers like me never trusted Gonzales. But watching Hillary Rodham Clinton literally applaud the announcement of Gonzales' resignation on Monday was more than any human being should have to bear. Liberals' hysteria about Gonzales was surpassed only by their hysteria about his predecessor, John Ashcroft. (Also their hysteria about Bush, Rove, Rumsfeld, Cheney, Libby, Rice, Barney and so on. They're very excitable, these Democrats.)
Liberals want to return the office to the glory years of Attorney General Janet Reno!
There is reason to believe Reno is precisely the sort of attorney general that Hillary would nominate, since Reno was widely assumed to be Hillary's pick at the time. As ABC News' Chris Bury reported the day Reno was confirmed: "The search for an attorney general exemplifies Hillary Clinton's circle of influence and its clout. ... The attorney general-designate, Janet Reno, came to the president's attention through Hillary Clinton's brother, Hugh Rodham."
Let's compare attorneys general:
-- Civilians killed by Ashcroft: 0
-- Civilians killed by Gonzales: 0
-- Civilians killed by Reno: 80
Reno's military attack on a religious sect in Waco, Texas, led to the greatest number of citizens ever killed by the government in the history of the United States. More Americans were killed at Waco than were killed at any of the various markers on the left's via dolorosa -- more than Kent State (4 killed), more than the Haymarket Square rebellion (4 killed), more than Three Mile Island (0 killed).
-- Innocent people put in prison by Ashcroft: 0
-- Innocent people put in prison by Gonzales: 0
-- Innocent people put in prison by Reno: at least 1 that I know of
As Dade County (Fla.) state attorney, Janet Reno made a name for herself as one of the leading witch-hunters in the notorious "child molestation" cases from the '80s, when convictions of innocent Americans were won on the basis of heavily coached testimony from small children.
Charged by Reno's office in 1984 with child molestation, Grant Snowden was convicted on the manufactured testimony of one such child, who was 4 years old when the abuse allegedly occurred.
Snowden, the most decorated police officer in the history of the South Miami Police Department, was sentenced to five life terms -- and was imprisoned with people he had put there. Snowden served 11 years before his conviction was finally overturned by a federal court in an opinion that ridiculed the evidence against him and called his trial "fundamentally unfair."
In a massive criminal justice system, mistakes will be made from time to time. But Janet Reno put people like Snowden in prison not only for crimes that they didn't commit -- but also for crimes that never happened. Such was the soccer-mom-induced hysteria of the '80s, when innocent people were prosecuted for fantastical crimes concocted in therapists' offices.
-- Number of obvious civil rights violations ignored by Ashcroft: 0
-- Number of obvious civil rights violations ignored by Gonzales: 0
-- Number of obvious civil rights violations ignored by Reno: at least 1
On Aug. 19, 1991, rabbinical student Yankel Rosenbaum was stabbed to death in Crown Heights by a black racist mob shouting "Kill the Jew!" as retaliation for another Hasidic man killing a black child in a car accident hours earlier.
In a far clearer case of jury nullification than the first Rodney King verdict, a jury composed of nine blacks and three Puerto Ricans acquitted Lemrick Nelson Jr. of the murder -- despite the fact that the police found the bloody murder weapon in his pocket and Rosenbaum's blood on his clothes, and that Rosenbaum, as he lay dying, had identified Nelson as his assailant.
The Hasidic community immediately appealed to the attorney general for a federal civil rights prosecution of Nelson. Reno responded with utter mystification at the idea that anyone's civil rights had been violated.
Civil rights? Where do you get that?
Because they were chanting "Kill the Jew," Rosenbaum is a Jew, and they killed him.
Huh. That's a weird interpretation of "civil rights." It sounds a little harebrained to me, but I guess I could have someone look into it.
It took two years from Nelson's acquittal to get Reno to bring a civil rights case against him.
-- Number of innocent civilians accused of committing heinous crimes by Ashcroft: 0
-- Number of innocent civilians accused of committing heinous crimes by Gonzales: 0
-- Number of innocent civilians accused of committing heinous crimes by Reno: at least 1
Janet Reno presided over the leak of Richard Jewell's name to the media, implicating him in the Atlanta Olympic park bombing in 1996, for which she later apologized. I believe Reno also falsely accused the Miami relatives of Elian Gonzalez of violating the law, which I am not including in her record of false accusations, but reminds me of another comparison.
Number of 6-year-old boys deported to totalitarian dictatorships by Ashcroft: 0
Number of 6-year-old boys deported to totalitarian dictatorships by Gonzales: 0
Number of 6-year-old boys deported to totalitarian dictatorships by Reno: 1
Not until Bush became president was the media interested in discussing the shortcomings of the attorney general. Whatever flaws Alberto Gonzales has (John Ashcroft has none), we don't have to go back to the Harding administration to find a worse attorney general.
From the phony child abuse cases of the '80s to the military assault on Americans at Waco, Janet Reno presided over the most egregious attacks on Americans' basic liberties since the Salem witch trials. These outrageous deprivations of life and liberty were not the work of fanatical right-wing prosecutors, but liberals like Janet Reno.
Reno is the sort of wild-eyed zealot trampling on real civil rights that Hillary views as an ideal attorney general, unlike that brute Alberto Gonzales. At least Reno didn't fire any U.S. attorneys!
Oh wait --
Number of U.S. attorneys fired by Ashcroft: 0
Number of U.S. attorneys fired by Gonzales: 8
Number of U.S. attorneys fired by Reno: 93
Yet more Clinton scandals
From The Los Angeles Times:
The Los Angeles Times reports on this website tonight and in Wednesday's print editions that a major Democratic Party fundraiser named Norman Hsu is wanted by authorities for skipping out on an agreement to serve up to three years in prison after pleading no contest to grand theft swindling charges.
In a story by Chuck Neubauer and Robin Fields, The Times reports that for three years Hsu has been carving out a place of political and financial influence by funneling hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions into Democratic Party coffers, much of the money earmarked for Sen. Hillary Clinton. He has earned the ranking of Hillraiser for pledging to raise at least $100,000 for her.
In just the last 36 months Hsu has been involved in raising more than $1 million for Clinton and other Democrats. Howard Wolfson, a spokesman for the Clinton campaign, confirmed today that Hsu had been a "longtime and generous supporter" of the party including Clinton. "We have no reason to call his contributions into question or to return them," Wolfson added.
Hsu has developed a specialty of bundling hefty campaign contributions from obscure citizens who live modest lives and have never before given money to campaigns. Many are not even registered to vote.
Over the years other recipients of Hsu donations have included Sens. Dianne Feinstein, Barack Obama, Joe Biden and Edward Kennedy.
Clinton return the money!
[Lemuel stops and laughs out loud for 47 minutes]
Look, left-liberals aren't going to care that Hillary Clinton (like Bill before her) is the bought and paid for property of the Red Chinese military-industrial complex. Not as long as she wants to keep baby killing legal and raise taxes on the "wealthy".
But the rest of us, you know the sane ones, can and should take all this into account. But then again the sane people weren't going to vote for Mrs. Bill Clinton anyway.
Let's all pile on!
As was pointed out in a comment, if Craig was a Democrat he would just say that this was his lifestyle and the entire left would be rushing to his defense.
However conservatives have actual standards and morality so when this happens to one of us we take hits, and rightly so.
To the Left all that counts is what policies one advocates. Bill Clinton was pro-choice so he could be credibly accused of rape and the feminist establishment would not turn on him. Al Gore says the politically correct things about global warming so he can have an actual "carbon footprint" the size of Alaska and no one on the Left cares.
Cartoon from Cox & Forkum.
Ron Paul (the ass-clown) ommitted from this month's GOP straw poll
Here is a statement by Matt Margolis on his decision to exclude ass-clown Ron Paul from this month's GOP straw poll:
UPDATE: Some of you may be wondering about the absence of Ron Paul from this months straw poll. Let me explain. After my decision to include Ron Paul in the previous poll, I monitored (to the best of my ability) the efforts by Paul's online supporters. With the help of other bloggers, we discovered a sophisticated coordinated effort to spam the poll, obfuscate their actions, and even cheat the poll.
Shortly after the launch of the previous poll, I received an email from Jesse Benton, the communications director for Ron Paul's campaign. He was interested in getting information about what safeguards are used in the straw poll in order to protect it from spammers/cheaters. I made it clear that I was not about to share the details of what protections are place. His response was a bit less than amicable.
I found it very curious that someone from Ron Paul's campaign would have such an active interest in the GOP Straw Poll and specifically request such guarded details about it. This high suspect request, combined with the efforts of Paul's online supporters to spam/cheat the poll. Ron Paul has been removed from this months poll in order to provide usable data on the acceptability/unacceptability of the candidates in the race. As you may have noticed in the previous poll, people who voted for Ron Paul as their number one choice also only put Ron Paul as the only acceptable candidate -- a voting behavior not mimicked by supporters of other candidates. This made the data severely flawed and useless as a barometer -- even for an unscientific one.
So, that's all there is to say about it now.
The fact that the Paul campaign was asking directly about the security measures indicates that the gaming of online polls is not just the work of overzealous supporters with lots of time on their hands (because the part-time jobs at McDonald's aren't very demanding). The attempt to create a distorted image of Paul's true level of support is apparently a deliberate strategy of the Paul campaign.
So much for Libertarians being "principled".
Since the average Ron Paul pod-person has an emotional age of about five this will not bother them in the least. After all they have been the ones sitting home all day with a jumbo bag of Doritos and a six pack of Mountain Dew obsessively voting over and over in online polls to make it appear that Ron Paul (ass-clown) actually has a detectable level of support. To them this is just an opportunity to get one over on the grown-ups.
What I am curious about are Paul's reasons for this. He knows, he absolutely knows, that he has zero chance of getting the Republican nomination. He knew going in that he had no chance whatsoever. Until now I've been thinking that his purpose was to gain a forum in the debates to advocate his ideas. This is, after all, the only reason the Libertarian Party even bothers to mount a presidential campaign every four years.
Now I'm beginning to wonder if this isn't just some kind of money making scheme. I know that money raised in a campaign must be spent on campaign related matters, but you can use it to retire debt from previous campaigns and bank it for future campaigns as well. Paul may well be in this to retire debts from his previous runs for the House and to build a war chest for his future election expenses.
Again, so much for being "principled".
Whatever the Ass-Clown's motives for orchestrating this online hoax he has demonstrated himself to be as immature, no childish, as his pod-people followers.
PS: Notice that without the distorting effect of pod-people voting multiple times Thompson is far and away the leader.
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
Tonight's Music
This is Loreena McKennitt performing The Mystic's Dream live at the Alhambra Castel in Spain. This is from the DVD Loreena McKennitt: Nights from the Alhambra
Truth make you uncomfortable? Then shut it out
Our friends at Power Line are covering the refusal of MSNBC and CNBC to run advertisements urging support for the war in Iraq:
We wrote here about the television commercials that Freedom's Watch has produced, featuring veterans and their families, that urge Congress and the public to continue supporting the Iraq war. The commercials are well done, and convey the simple message that the Iraq war is important and winnable, and that we should allow our troops to see the mission through. The ads are appearing in the context of a blizzard of anti-war ads by left-wing groups, intended to pressure Senators and Congressmen into pulling the plug on the Iraq effort.
Freedom's Watch has placed its ads on Fox and CNN, but CNBC and MSNBC have refused to run the ads. Ari Fleischer wrote this morning on behalf of Freedom's Watch to let us know that CNBC and MSNBC have stubbornly refused to air the pro-war ads, even though they have run issue ads on other controversial topics. Freedom's Watch has written to CNBC and MSNBC to protest their decision; here is the text of that letter:
They end the post this way:
Freedom of speech: at some of our cable networks, you can't even buy it! We'll follow up with any response that may be forthcoming from NBC.
As I have said before the mainstream media is not an impartial observer and chronicler of events. They have chosen to become partisan players and the side they have taken is the side of America's enemies. Enemies both foreign and domestic.
Since I have already been accused of being a "hate site"
Here is some neo-Nazi hate rock:
File it under "now for something completely different".
Not that there's anything wrong with that
From The Strib:
U.S. Sen. Larry Craig, an Idaho Republican, pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct in Minnesota this month after being arrested by a plainclothes police officer investigating complaints of lewd conduct in a men's restroom at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport.
Craig denied the police account of what occurred and said he erred in pleading guilty.
"At the time of this incident, I complained to the police that they were misconstruing my actions," he said in a statement Monday afternoon. "I was not involved in any inappropriate conduct.
"I should have had the advice of counsel in resolving this matter. In hindsight, I should not have pled guilty. I was trying to handle this matter myself quickly and expeditiously."
Craig was arrested at the airport on June 11, according to Roll Call, a Capitol Hill newspaper. According to police reports, Craig kept watching the undercover police officer through a crack in the bathroom stall, Roll Call reported. Craig then entered the next-door stall and placed his luggage against the opening under the stall door.
"My experience has shown that individuals engaging in lewd conduct use their bags to block the view from the front of their stall," said the officer, Sgt. Dave Karsnia.
The report continued: "At 1216 hours, Craig tapped his right foot. I recognized this as a signal used by persons wishing to engage in lewd conduct. Craig tapped his toes several times and moves his foot closer to my foot. ... The presence of others did not seem to deter Craig as he moved his right foot so that it touched the side of my left foot which was within my stall area."
The report said that Craig swiped his hand beneath the stall divider several times and that Karsnia showed his police identification under the stall.
Roll Call reported that Craig was detained about 45 minutes and questioned by officers at the Airport Police Operations Center. At one point, police reports said, Craig handed the arresting officer a business card that identified him as a U.S. senator and said, "What do you think about that?"
Roll Call reported that a Craig spokesman said the incident is a "he said/he said misunderstanding." Craig denied any lewd intentions and told police he has a "wide stance" in the bathroom and reached down to pick up a piece of paper from the floor.
"It should be noted that there was not a piece of paper on the bathroom floor, nor did Craig pick up a piece of paper," Karsnia wrote in the police report.
According to the report, Minneapolis airport police have made "numerous arrests regarding sexual activity in the public restroom."
Craig's arrest was confirmed by Nancy Peters, a spokeswoman for the Hennepin County courts. Peters confirmed the Roll Call report that said Craig pleaded guilty Aug. 8 to a misdemeanor disorderly conduct charge. Craig was fined $1,000 and sentenced to 10 days in jail, Peters said. However, the 10-day sentence was stayed for a year, meaning that Craig avoids jail time unless he is rearrested on a similar charge within a year.
Peters said Craig paid $575 of the fine and won't have to pay the $425 balance as long as he meets the terms of his year-long probation, which will be unsupervised.
Craig, 62, is married and in his third term in the Senate. Craig hasn't said if he plans to run for a fourth term in 2008.
Craig has been one of Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney's top Senate supporters, serving as a Senate liaison for the campaign since February. As word spread of Craig's guilty plea, a Romney campaign spokesman, Matt Rhoades, said in a statement: "Senator Craig has stepped down from his role with the campaign. He did not want to be a distraction and we accept his decision."
A "wide stance" in the bathroom.
I like the part where he gave the cop his "I'm a Senator so I can do whatever the frak I want" card.
But he isn't gay.
Some of us get brains and some of us get beauty
This is painful to watch. The poor kid is asked why she thinks that one-fifth of Americans can't locate the U.S. on a map. Her answer rambles on and she manages to mention that she thinks the US should help South Africa and something about "the Iraq".
USA is #1 again!
GENEVA (Reuters) - The United States has 90 guns for every 100 citizens, making it the most heavily armed society in the world, a report released on Tuesday said.
U.S. citizens own 270 million of the world's 875 million known firearms, according to the Small Arms Survey 2007 by the Geneva-based Graduate Institute of International Studies.
About 4.5 million of the 8 million new guns manufactured worldwide each year are purchased in the United States, it said.
"There is roughly one firearm for every seven people worldwide. Without the United States, though, this drops to about one firearm per 10 people," it said.
India had the world's second-largest civilian gun arsenal, with an estimated 46 million firearms outside law enforcement and the military, though this represented just four guns per 100 people there. China, ranked third with 40 million privately held guns, had 3 firearms per 100 people.
I knew there was a reason why I liked the Indians.
Seriously now 90 guns for every 100 citizens is not acceptable. We can't stop until it is 100 (or more) guns for every 100 citizens becuase as Patrick Henry said, ""The great object is that every man be armed . . . [e]veryone who is able may have a gun."
This may be the Left's last chance to surrender
From FrontPageMag:
The latest intelligence assessment of the military and political situation in Iraq offers a mixed picture, providing both critics and supporters of President Bush’s “surge” strategy with ammunition to espouse their respective positions.
On the one hand, the National Intelligence Estimate (as the intelligence assessment is officially known) concludes that the Iraqis are falling short of expectations for political reconciliation among the various sectarian groups. This is true particularly at the national level where Prime Minister Maliki has proven unable to forge political unity among the Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds and the Iraqi parliament left town for a month’s vacation without reaching agreement on any significant issues.
The defeatists in Washington are seizing on this finding to argue that the war effort is a failure. They will press this fall for a vote in Congress to cut our losses and force us to leave Iraq as soon as possible. But they overlook the part of the intelligence assessment that points out how security conditions have improved in Iraq and how changing the current mission would “erode security gains achieved thus far.” If we leave too soon, the country will implode into even worse sectarian violence than before.
Gen. David Petraeus will be providing his military status report to Congress in mid-September. It won’t be all rosy to be sure, but General Petraeus is expected to point out two significant measures of improvement since the surge has been underway that are also reflected in the intelligence assessment findings: (1) the number of violent extremist attacks has gone down; and (2) the number of local Sunnis who turned against al-Qaeda, which had come to dominate the Sunni insurgency, has gone up. This second measure of improvement is especially important, but is at risk of being reversed if the defeatists in Washington force a premature withdrawal of our troops from Iraq.
Al-Qaeda has clearly failed to win the hearts and minds of the local populace whom the terrorists have been killing in the name of Allah. Indeed, al-Qaeda’s brand of Islamic fanaticism did not sell to their fellow Muslims who should have been an easy source of recruits for the Islamic terrorists’ cause since many local residents had started out hating the American ‘occupiers.’ The intelligence assessment points out that the Coalition forces – working with Iraqi forces, tribal elements and Sunni insurgents – have succeeded in reducing al-Qaeda’s capabilities, removing its freedom of movement, and denying it grassroots support. The Iraqi citizens turned on al-Qaeda when they experienced first-hand their evil acts – the beheadings, the murder and rape of women and children, the conscripting of forced labor and the destruction of the Iraqis’ own livelihoods.
In short, al-Qaeda managed to alienate the local Sunni Muslim population all on its own. We turned out to be the more attractive alternative. This in itself represents a major victory over al-Qaeda’s claim to represent pure Islam against the infidel Western invaders. Now the cut-and-run crowd in Congress wants to throw all this progress away and create a vacuum that al-Qaeda will quickly fill again and exploit for propaganda purposes.
[. . .]
Back in December 2004, Osama bin Laden called Baghdad “the capital of the caliphate” and said of the war in Iraq, “[T]he whole world is watching this war and the two adversaries; the Islamic nation, on the one hand, and the United States and its allies on the other. It is either victory and glory or misery and humiliation.”
The Iraqi people are rising up against the terrorists. With the benefit of the security we have been providing, they are courageously delivering a humiliating blow to al-Qaeda’s standing in the Muslim world. However, if the defeatists in Washington prevail and cause us to surrender our troops’ hard-earned gains, the terrorists will prevail by forfeit.
If the United States continues its present course al Qaeda is finished. Their only hope of victory now is the American Left. If Mr. Bush can keep America engaged in the war after Gen. Petraeus' presents his report the political situation in Iraq will fall into line relatively quickly. Iraqi politicians, tribal leaders and common citizens have been waiting to see who is going to win before deciding definitively which side to support.
Right now it looks like the United States is the side to bet on - if the Democrat Party can be held at bay.
That doesn't mean that the final agreements arrived at by the various factions in the Iraqi government will be all that the US is hoping they will be, it is a different nation and culture after all, but they will work for the Iraqi people.
Surprising no one
From The Wall Street Journal:
DALY CITY, Calif. -- One of the biggest sources of political donations to Hillary Rodham Clinton is a tiny, lime-green bungalow that lies under the flight path from San Francisco International Airport.
Six members of the Paw family, each listing the house at 41 Shelbourne Ave. as their residence, have donated a combined $45,000 to the Democratic senator from New York since 2005, for her presidential campaign, her Senate re-election last year and her political action committee. In all, the six Paws have donated a total of $200,000 to Democratic candidates since 2005, election records show.
That total ranks the house with residences in Greenwich, Conn., and Manhattan's Upper East Side among the top addresses to donate to the Democratic presidential front-runner over the past two years, according to an analysis by The Wall Street Journal of donations listed with the Federal Election Commission.
It isn't obvious how the Paw family is able to afford such political largess. Records show they own a gift shop and live in a 1,280-square-foot house that they recently refinanced for $270,000. William Paw, the 64-year-old head of the household, is a mail carrier with the U.S. Postal Service who earns about $49,000 a year, according to a union representative. Alice Paw, also 64, is a homemaker. The couple's grown children have jobs ranging from account manager at a software company to "attendance liaison" at a local public high school. One is listed on campaign records as an executive at a mutual fund.
The Paws' political donations closely track donations made by Norman Hsu, a wealthy New York businessman in the apparel industry who once listed the Paw home as his address, according to public records. Mr. Hsu is one of the top fund-raisers for Mrs. Clinton's presidential campaign. He has hosted or co-hosted some of her most prominent money-raising events.
Mr. Bill Clinton's presidency was a wholly owned subsidiary of the government of communist China. Why does anyone think that Mrs. Bill Clinton's presidency (if God is angry enough with the US to permit that) will be any different?
Thanks to Bill Clinton the Red Chinese were able to steal our most secret nuclear weapons technology and able to buy the knowledge of how to make a functional ICBM from a corrupt American company. In return for this treason the Chinese generously financed Clinton's campaigns using a series of Asian front men in the United States. Anyone who thought things would be different with Hillary Clinton was a fool.
The really sad thing is that Democrats will not care. They will loose no more sleep over this than they lost over the fact that Bill was a paid agent of influence for a foreign government which is aiming thermonuclear weapons at the United States. If anything proves the absolute moral bankruptcy of the Left this is it.
Monday, August 27, 2007
Tonight's Music
A slide show of Scotland accompanied by Capercaillie's The Sound of Sleat.
Sleat (pronounced Slate rather than Sleet) is "the soft, green and wooded southern peninsula of the Isle of Skye" It is also sometimes called "The Garden of Skye".
Hillbilly White Trash is honored
To be in some damn fine company!
It seems that a website run by a certain Christian minister has compiled a list of Internet sites which spread various types of "hate speech". These sites have been banned by various nations such as (but not limited to) Cuba, Saudi Arabia, Red China, Iran, North Korea, Palestinian Territories, Sudan, Vietnam, Yemen.
Of course there are also nations on the list which are not evil but have simply signed the cultural suicide pact of political correctness, however the fact that the good reverend proudly lists North Korea (which seeks to keep its people from learning the truth about life outside North Korea) alongside Israel (which bans neo-Nazi and antisemitic websites) and apparently sees no difference between them informs us that the gentleman suffers from what has to be the worst case of malfunctioning spiritual discernment since some members of the German Protestant clergy endorsed Hitler.
Let me go on record as being proud as peaches to be included alongside websites like:
The Family Research Council
Regnery Publishing, publishers of Laura Ingrham, Jed Babbin, Robert Spencer, Rowan Scarborough, G. Gordon Liddy, John R. Lott, Jr., Russell Kirk, Mark R. Levin, David Limbaugh, Mark Steyn, Haley Barbour, Michael Barone, Bill Gertz, Bernard Goldberg, David Horowitz, Oliver L. North, Dinesh D’Souza, Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, Steve Forbes and many others.
Discover the Networks
Jihad Watch
Gathering of Eagles
Front Page Magazine
Heritage Foundation
NewsBusters
Washington Times
WorldNetDaily
Ann Coulter
DC Protest Warrior Home Page
Michael Medved
Hot Air
National Review
Michelle Malkin
Hugh Hewitt
Atlas Shrugs
AND
Hillbilly White Trash
As you can see someone thinks damned highly of me.
The good reverend warns me and the others listed that:
Hate mongers are going to have to accept, sooner or later, that the world is tired of them, the world has realized how such hatred leads to violence, extremism and terrorism, the world has seen through the motivation of the more prolific haters, and the world is changing to deal with this - previously ignored or seldom-enforced laws and regulations are now being aggressively enforced, new laws are going into effect, and international pressure is being brought to bear on various entities that offer forms of Internet access.
Dude, my advice to you is to go back to telling your congregation how Jesus being THE way, THE truth and THE light is just a load of dogmatic crap. If I changed this blog to make it acceptable to the Stalinists of North Korea or the Whabbi friutcakes of Saudi Arabia or the Shiite nutjobs of Iran I would certainly burn in hell. But I doubt that you believe in hell as anything but the final destination of Republicans so I don't think you'll get my meaning.
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