Painting: Flag No. 9

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Testimonials

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In Case Of Nuclear Attack, Tune To 640 or 1240 On Your AM Radio Dial!

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When I was a kid, a message often appeared on the radio and television, along with the all too familiar Conelrad logo. The message was "In the event of a nuclear attack, you will be instructed by your local authorities to tune to 640 or 1240 on your AM radio dial."
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Reactions To The Harriet Miers Nomination

"This is a pick that was made from weakness. There was an opportunity here to show strength and confidence, and I don't think this is it." Rush Limbaugh

"The President's nomination of Miers is a betrayal of the conservative, pro-family voters whose support put Bush in the White House..." Public Advocate President Eugene Delgaudio

"President Bush showed exceptional judgment in naming Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court to replace Justice O’Connor." Jay Sekulow, Chief Counsel of the ACLJ

"In a decision deeply disheartening to those who invested such hopes in him, Bush may have tossed away his and our last chance to roll back the social revolution imposed upon us by our judicial dictatorship since the days of Earl Warren." Patrick Buchanan


"I like Harriet Miers." Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid

"It could have been a lot worse." Sen. Charles Schumer, New York Democrat

"If he wants to give her judicial experience why doesn't he nominate her to the Fifth Circuit (Court of Appeals)?" John Eastman, Center for Constitutional Jurisprudence
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POTUS Names Friend Harriet Miers Associate::::The Right Shrieks Like A Wounded Swamp Sow::::Buchanan Wigs::::What Will Ann Coulter Say??

The President today named White House Counsel Harriet Miers--a member of the inner circle and his one-time personal lawyer--as his choice for Associate Justice. Miers was the first woman to head her Dallas law firm, the first woman president of the Dallas Bar and the Texas State Bar. This is going to be a fascinating nomination!

The selection of Miers was announced right before Chief Justice John Roberts took his seat on the court this morning (after sailing through his nomination). Miers helped steer that nomination through the Senate.

Bush's choice to replace Justice Sandra Day O'Connor is a lawyer who has never been a judge, which makes it tough for both liberals and conservatives to suss out where she might stand on hot button issues like abortion.

From early press reports, some of the staunch right are shrieking like wounded swamp sows.

The Democrats--not so much. The right is more up in arms than the Democrats. After all, Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid had her on his suggestion list. He said today that “the Supreme Court would benefit from the addition of a justice who has real experience as a practicing lawyer.”

On his blog today, Pat Buchanan began hucking brickbats at The President:

"Handed a once-in-a-generation opportunity to return the Supreme Court to constitutionalism, George W. Bush passed over a dozen of the finest jurists of his day -- to name his personal lawyer. In a decision deeply disheartening to those who invested such hopes in him, Bush may have tossed away his and our last chance to roll back the social revolution imposed upon us by our judicial dictatorship since the days of Earl Warren."

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Del Brummet's Seatle Sledgehammer Murders Online

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Del Brummet's movie "based on the tragic events of Summer 2004 and HOW they impact the lives of a group of comical citizens."

Click here to go to archive.org, where you can either stream and watch or download both the movie and the trailer. . .
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Boeing Steps In It Again

Boeing and its partner Bell Helicopter apologized yesterday for a magazine ad showing Special Forces troops rappelling from an Osprey chopper onto the roof of a mosque. The ad recently ran in several military-oriented publications.

"It descends from the heavens. Ironically it unleashes hell."

The ad appears as the U.S. tries to improve its image in the Muslim world and Boeing seeks to sell its airplanes to Islamic countries. Nice work fellas! This ought to soften up those customers. . .
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Bill Bennett Often Makes Me Wonder About The First Amendment

I didn't write about it Wednesday, when Bill Bennett said "You could abort every black baby in this country, and your crime rate would go down"

Yesterday on his web site, he wrote, not a mea culpa, but an explanation. He didn't get on his knees and apologize, or even squeeze out a few tears.

"A caller to my radio show proposed the idea that one good argument for the pro-life position would be that if we didn't have abortions, Social Security would be solvent. I stated my doubts about such a thesis, as well as my opposition to such a form of argument.

"I then stated that such extrapolations of this argument can cut both ways, and cited the current bestseller, Freakonomics, which discusses the authors' thesis that abortion reduces crime. "

And you, outraged American public, were supposed to know that! He was merely using this in his sophistry! You weren't supposed to actually believe he was actually postulating the "impossible, ridiculous, and morally reprehensible. . ." solution to all our ills.

Is anyone is still listening to this P.O.S. , this degenerate gambler who flushed millions down the toilet while lecturing us in the media and in his books about "virtue?" He lost around eight million dollars gambling but claims he "came out about even" (as all gamblers claim!). The self-delusion and lying never stops. Ollie North, Rush Limbaugh, or Gordon Liddy. . .are all convicted criminals and serial prevaricators who regularly lecture us about morality. We not only allow them to spew their invective, but we make them rich for doing it, and beg for more! ("Please Sir, may I have another?").

What happened to the old ways? When someone like Senator Harrison Williams, Billy Sol Estes or Dan Rostenknowski got caught with their hand in the till or (in the case of LBJ's aide) busted for a men's room sex act. . .well, that was it. They would instantly fade into the woodwork, never to be heard from again? If the gambling revelations didn't do it, maybe this new imbroglio will marginalize Bennett for good.

I don't really wish ill to William Bennett. I'd just like the next thing I hear about him to be his obituary. Many, many years from now, of course.
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Painting: The New Boss

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The Poetry Of Secretary Donald Rumsfeld No. XIV:::::::The Unknown

I saved the best for last. Unless I come up with some juicy press briefings, this is the last Rumsfeld poem. This poem is so relevant to what I do for a living (one part of which involves investigating the unknown) that it is the first page in my manual. If you work for me, it's required reading.




The Unknown

As we know,
There are known knowns.
There are things we know we know.

We also know
There are known unknowns.

That is to say
We know there are some things
We do not know.

But there are also unknown unknowns,
The ones we don't know
We don't know.
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Department of Defense news briefing Feb. 12, 2002

The Poetry Of Secretary Donald Rumsfeld XIII:::::::::It Hasn't Happened

It Hasn't Happened

You're going to be told lots of things
You get told things every day that don't happen
It doesn't seem to bother people, they don't—
It's printed in the press

The world thinks all these things happen
They never happened
Everyone's so eager to get the story
Before in fact the story's there

That the world is constantly being fed
Things that haven't happened.
All I can tell you is
It hasn't happened

It's going to happen
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Department of Defense briefing Feb. 28, 2003

Google Blog Search Is In Beta

As Google continues to roll out more services, they have now unleased a Blog Search tool.

As Google says

"Blog Search is Google search technology focused on blogs. Google is a strong believer in the self-publishing phenomenon represented by blogging, and we hope Blog Search will help our users to explore the blogging universe more effectively, and perhaps inspire many to join the revolution themselves. Whether you're looking for Harry Potter reviews, political commentary, summer salad recipes or anything else, Blog Search enables you to find out what people are saying on any subject of your choice."

They seem to do a good job of crawling the blog world. Typing in my name (of course the most important test!) brought up 350 references to this blog. I checked on the blogs of some people I know-- and found lots of results--Newsquirt, El Snoozo, Zen Lawncare, Aunty Sassie's Nothing Witty Left blog. A longer established blog like Dr. Clarke-Willson's Random Blts brought up several hundred hits. My son Del's blog had fifty or so hits. A search for Hira Bluestone's blog (Better Red Than Dead) told me there are at least four other blogs with the same name! Typing in Sarvananda Bluestone's first name led me to his hundreds of haiku, his blogspot blog, and a blogger that referenced his (wonderful) book on How To Read Signs And Omens.

There are several ways to get there: blogsearch.google.com brings up a standard Google interface; search.blogger.com brings up a blogger stype interface. Click on the title of this post for the Google style version.
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