Shining the light of truth

The fabulous Anne Coulter writes today in DRAG LIBERALS INTO THE LIGHT that the Republicans should quit trying to debate the history of the filibuster and make Democrats explain why the nominees are extreme and deserve to be filibustered in the first place.

Good question - notice that they are long on invective rhetoric and short on details. Coulter rightly points out that if the details were their friends on this, we would be hearing the details.

Anyway, another Coulter home run.

RMR

NEWS FLASH: Al Franken still on the air

Yes, he's still on, but don't worry, no one is apparently listening. Some facts today from Byron York about Air America's dismal ratings in...

New York! (cymbal crash to emphasize humorous punchline)

That's right, in the liberal mecca, Al is getting beat at least two to one by...

Rush Limbaugh!

heh.

RMR

A Chink in the Armor?

The Washington Post's David Broder has weighed in on the judicial filibuster with his article A Judicious Compromise.

In it he essentially tells the Democrats to back off and hold their fire for the supreme court. He makes a pretty intelligent argument that this is the wrong hill to die on. The Post is pretty influential with the Left, so maybe the Dem's will step back from the brink and let the process happen. Broder's suggestion is to allow a vote on the seven judges (I thought it was ten, so I'm not sure what this number means) provided that the Republicans guarantee a real hearing and debate on each one. I think this is reasonable (though many already had hearings and were held up on the floor anyway last term), provided the Dem's don't pull a fast one and filibuster anyway when the heat dies down.

Anyway, I think the Dems might actually wake up and realize that the light at the end of the tunnel is actually an oncoming train.

But I'm not holding my breath.

RMR

After a slight pause...

I haven't written in about a week, mostly because the news has been kind of boring me (with the exception of all the remembrances of John Paul II - one of the most influential and important figures of the twentieth century).

Anyway, it's been a busy and tumultuous week at my real job, and I've just been too busy.

Two observations from the past week -

1 - The stuff that Tom Delay is just accused of isn't illegal or unethical - they just want him gone because he's effective. If this is all they got, we need to just wait until it blows over. Ask the average american if they even know who Tom Delay is to get the solution to this problem - just don't do anything and let the fat gasbags talk on low-rated television shows all they want. As long as we meet them there and refute them, that's all that's required. This story is a Beltway-only story - in the heartland, no one cares. Does it even rate late-night humor? - if not, it's not really a scandal (I don't know the answer to that, I just doubt that Leno has cracked a joke about it).

2 - Senator Frist needs to end the judicial philibuster already and get the thing over with. If I hear the phrase "cooling saucer" out of a Democrat's mouth again I will do something really nuts.

Thanks, more later.

RMR

Mr. Moore not so popular in the heartland after all

Check this out from Byron York over at NRO. It turns out that, contrary to Mr. Moore's personal comments, that Fahrenheit 911 did not sweep the country with a tide of anti-Bush anger, after all.

What, Michael Moore distort the facts?

No, say it ain't so. How unusual.

RMR

The Clinton Legacy...or lack thereof

Check out this article on the mismanagement and lack of effectiveness of the Clinton COPS program: Yahoo! News - 10 years and $10B later, COPS drawing scrutiny Despite Kerry's campaign claims to the contrary, the COPS program did not put 100000 cops on the street and reduce crime - it wasted resources and was a publicity stunt. Though this article says it was the Clinton economy that caused crime to drop, crime dropped in the nineties because the Republican congress passed mandatory sentencing, which prevented liberal judges from giving five years to multiple murderers. Note that the recent Clinton recession didn't cause crime to rise.

RMR

Speech only free if it's leftist?

Check out the Indy story about David Horowitz being hit by pie during a speech at Butler University. I guess they only like free speech they agree with over there on the fascist left. Incidents like this show the bankruptcy of the liberal argument.

And that you should go to a quality small private school in Indiana and not Butler.

RMR

NEW FLASH - Bill Clinton has no shame

This on DRUDGE REPORT

En route to Rome, Clinton told reporters the pope "centralized authority in the papacy again and enforced a very conservative theological doctrine. There will be debates about that. The number of Catholics increased by 250 million on his watch. But the numbers of priests didn't. He's like all of us - he may have a mixed legacy."

Suuuuure, Bill, you're just like the Pope.

ARE YOU KIDDING ME????!!!!!!

RMR

Iraq moving forward whether MSM likes it or not.

Despite this AP article's pessimism, Iraq is in the first flowerings of its democracy. They have selected a new president and vice-presidents, and will soon select a prime minister who will, in turn, select a cabinet. Those in charge are pledging to work together across ethnic lines. The president is the first non-arab president of an arab country...ever.

The article talks of the nine weeks that have passed after the elections before this occured as a bad thing. I'm sorry, I guess people should already have focus grouped all this stuff and had it done by the late evening news cycle? Let's give these folks who are inexperienced with democracy a little time to get their act together. Also, notice there has been no secterian violence stemming from the results of the election - they are committeed to a peaceful transition to their freedom.

It's also interesting how the article describes a battle in which insurgents were slaughtered at a rate of twenty to one or more as a failure for the military. You could stage an insurgency in Denver and have success like that, it doesn't mean the country is a lawless wasteland, whatever the AP thinks.

Whether the AP likes it or not, Iraq is moving forward, and other nations are following or will soon start following.

RMR

Ex-Clinton Adviser to Admit Taking Documents

Yahoo! News - Ex-Clinton Adviser to Admit Taking Documents

Let's not forget that he stuffed them IN HIS PANTS! Of course he took them on purpose. This is blatant theft of government documents to make sure that Clinton didn't look bad for the 9/11 comission (did you know this guy was sitting next to Clinton when he testified?).

It's amazing this wasn't cleared up much earlier by a vigorous press investigation.

O wait, he worked for Kerry and they wanted him to win.

RMR

News Flash - Full Employment Bad

Yahoo! News - Payroll Growth Sluggish; Jobless Rate Dips

Apparently, a 5.2 percent unemployment rate is bad, according to this story. I seem to remember in high school, you know, when it was like 8 or 9 percent, that people used to say that we would NEVER even reach 5 percent unemployment.

The big problem with reporting on this issue is that reporters fundamentally don't understand how the three major job numbers can give different information. This month, for example, the employment survey of large companies yielded a lower than expected 100,000 new jobs in March but the unemployment rate fell to 5.2 percent. The larger household survey, which also includes self-employment and "cottage" or home-based employment is still running well ahead of the corporate number as well (I think by about 2 million jobs).

These numbers all measure different things, so they will yield different numbers. Interesting how the MSM always manages to point out the most negative of the numbers (we ONLY added 100,000 jobs). This is also by far the most volatile number, as we remember through this year it has been readjusted in later months by as many as 100,000 jobs. In any case, isn't the Pres. up by about two and a half million in less than two years now?

In any case, 5.2 percent unemployment is GOOD NEWS, guys.

RMR