Passed Out Wookies

Mark: Have Tom call his office.

(HT: Lileks' Bleat)

Bush Job Approval Numbers

Regular WMD reader VikingSpirit:

RCP has new Bush job approval numbers. Rasmussen has it at 50%, while ABC News/Washington Post has it at 48%. I've got one thing to say on this-Bush's job approval rating is going to hover around 50% until gas prices go down. As long as gas prices are high, Bush's job approval rating isn't going anywhere.

Well, get ready my friend...

The Strategic Oil Reserves are nearly full for the first time since its creation which will free up about 75,000 barrels a day for consumer consumption.

There is some skepticism about how much of an effect this will really have, but I think we're going to see some sort of price drop...how significant remains to be seen...

Another Victory

Another Yahoo News Alert:

WASHINGTON (AP) Senate confirms William Pryor for U.S. Appeals Court.

Indeed. Keep 'em coming...

Thoughts of Freedom

I've written about liberty and patriotism, but nobody does freedom like Free Thoughts. Stefania is a young Italian woman who understands that we are at war and that the war is worth fighting. Refreshing to see a European that GETS IT.

HT: Nickie Goomba

POTUS in Columbus Talking about Patriot Act

Get the speech here.

6/10 Update

Welcome Brainsterites! I actually have stuff to say about the renewal of the Patriot Act in my weekly column over at the MVCA Commentary and Journal and one of my regular readers (a liberal!) has some good thoughts as well (link here).

Immigration Madness Update

Check this press release out:

A Riverside, Calif. crane operator sued the state of California on Monday, claiming that his rights are being violated because he is not allowed to take his safety certification in Spanish. According to The Press-Enterprise (Riverside, Calif.), Tom Ledesma failed his mobile crane certification test in English on May 14, and is asking the state to cease issuing crane operating certificates until a Spanish test is offered.

"The claim that immigrants have a constitutional right to operate heavy machinery without understanding the English language is absolutely breathtaking," explained Mauro E. Mujica, chairman of U.S. English, Inc. "While California may choose to offer certain services in foreign languages, that does not mean that the state has an obligation to do so, particularly where lives and limbs are at stake."

The Certification for Crane Operators (CCO) exam, which is given by the National Commission for the Certification of Crane Operators, consists of both a written and practical test. The written portion is offered solely in English because English fluency is necessary for the safe operation of heavy equipment. In addition to the fact that crane safety manuals are printed in English, crane operators must be able to complete required records, report unsafe conditions and communicate at the site with management, all tasks that require English fluency.

Requiring English as a prerequisite to certification is not unique to crane operation. Many states mandate that English fluency be demonstrated in order to obtain licensure in medicine, nursing, massage therapy, cosmetology, and many other professions. One state even requires that the licensing exam for body piercing technicians and tattoo artists be offered solely in English.

"What does it say about our assimilation process when a man can work in the United States for 24 years and still not be English proficient?" asked Mujica. "While America's door should remain open to immigrants, this is not an invitation for newcomers to redecorate the house in any fashion they'd choose. Our laws, our traditions, and our common language -- English, have been the great assimilator for more than 200 years. To abandon these bedrock principles for people who choose not to become part of our society is to weaken the very fabric of our nation."

Let me get this straight...guy comes to the US and spends 20 years here and doesn't bother to learn English. Instead of suing whatever company hired this guy for letting him operate a piece of heavy machinery he clearly was not certified to operate, he's suing the state of California.

The gall of these people... It's amazing...I'd say I don't believe it, but I do...

Strange Google Searches Leading to WMD

I was just over at the Butcher's Shop where Robbo was talking about how they've dropped to #8 for "Padme Porn"...

I came back to WMD and checked in on the numbers and there was a hit from Google searching for "free rap x-rated videos." We're #48, so apparently we have a way to go on this subject... The post in question can be found right here but you won't find any free rap x-rated videos there or anywhere else on WMD...thankfully...

Victory!

Yahoo News Alert from last night:

WASHINGTON (AP) Senate confirms Janice Rogers Brown for U.S. Appeals Court.

Keep 'em coming!

Not Sure I'm More Ticked At

...the Syrians or the Washington Post reporter who is in collusion with the enemy.

Another Look at McEwen

BizzyBlog has another take down of Bob McEwen, who is running for Rob Portman's seat in Congress. In this installment, Tom sheds light on why the McEwen campaign's argument that he was "cleared of wrongdoing" doesn't really matter a whole lot.

It’s tempting to pick apart the contents of the Dayton Daily News report (a PDF that is here) and do the “raises more questions than it answers” thing, ask “why won’t he release a copy of the clearance letter?” (which would be valid points), and lose the rest of this campaign dwelling on it.

Forget it. Let’s simply ask: Why did McEwen resist releasing this information?

The answer lies in the timing: This information, such as it is, was available to the voters who rejected Bob McEwen in 1992 and 1993, and its nebulous nature was a large part of their basis for rejecting him.

What matters is this:

* The Dayton Daily News article was published on September 23, 1992.

* By Election Day 2002, six weeks later, the fact that McEwen was “cleared of wrongdoing” was “common knowledge.” (see note below)

* With that “common knowledge,” in November 1992, voters of the then-Sixth District rejected 12-year congressman Bob McEwen for newbie Democrat Ted Strickland.

* Again with that “common knowledge,” on March 16, 1993, voters of the Second District rejected now-former congressman McEwen for newbie Republican Rob Portman.

The voters had the last word in 1992 and 1993, throwing McEwen out and keeping him out. What has happened in the past 12 years that would cause the people of this district to override those previous voter verdicts? (sound of crickets chirping)
...
Note to Wes Farno, McEwen’s campaign manager: You live by the “common knowledge” (last two paragraphs at link), you die by the “common knowledge.”

The way this was phrased sounded kind of familiar to me...and then I saw the note at the bottom to Wes. Wes was a guest on our show when we were on MVCC last year. Good guy, solid credentials. That he is McEwen's campaign manager means something to me. I'm going to have to take another look at McEwen and the evidence against him.

I will say this though. I know for a fact that the Brown County Republican Party hasn't endorsed anybody...they are sitting on the sidelines like cheerleaders instead of players on the field...yet over on McEwen's blog, you get the feeling that Brown County Republicans are behind McEwen. This is NOT the case.

CoinGate Update

Another twist in this developing scandal...

And a whole lot more money is lost this time in an investment gone bad.

The Toledo Blade reports:

Democrats were screaming “cover-up” yesterday after state officials admitted that a high-risk hedge fund that the embattled Ohio Bureau of Workers Compensation had invested in had lost $215 million in just a few months last year.

The bureau acknowledged that the fund, managed by a Pittsburgh-based investment firm, lost the money between February and September, 2004. MDL Capital Management relinquished control of the fund in November.

Although the bureau has known about the losses since September, wasn'tasnÂ’t revealed until yesterday, a day after The Blade began making calls upon learning that state investigators had uncovered huge losses at the bureau.

Aspokesman for Gov. Bob Taft said last night that Mr. Taft had been told in September that there was an investment loss at the bureau - a loss of $10 million to $20 million.

Investment loses are nothing new, they happen all the time. What's the big deal here?

In mid-April, The Blade reported that Ohio Republicans received more than $455,000 in campaign contributions from employees of the fund managers hired by the bureau for the “emerging managers” program in which Mr. Noe participated.

The big winners included the state Republican Party committees, which received $200,750, Secretary of State Ken Blackwell, who received $67,130, and Governor Taft, who got $61,875.

Mr. Lay also confirmed that Mildred Forbes, the daughter of George Forbes, the vice chairman of the bureau’s Oversight Commission, works for his firm. Ms. Forbes is a senior vice president who works on human resources and compliance issues for MDL.

The two met at a conference while she was working for an Ohio investment firm. She has worked for MDL for about three years, Mr. Lay said.

Democrats call this "pay to play" but they have no hard proof, only circumstantial evidence. In the case of Ken Blackwell, it seems that whatever contributions he got were ideologically motivated and not "pay for play" at any rate because he has nothing to do with the BWC. Futhermore, Blackwell has been calling for federal involvement in cleaning up the mess.

Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell, a Republican, repeated his May 27 request that the Public Integrity Section of the U.S. Department of Justice take control of the investigation into the bureau’s investments.

“As it relates to this widening scandal, there is clear and commanding evidence that we need the feds involved in this investigation in a wider way,” Mr. Blackwell said. “This is a serious, serious issue. State investigators cannot do the job. They don’t have all the authority that they need to dig as deep as they can dig. And the integrity of the investigation rests in the believability of its independence."

Seems to me that it is the "moderate" Republicans who have the most to hide here...

The Racist Hatespeech of the DNC

Howard Dean lays out what liberals are afraid to say but believe. Here is the video evidence from SF Gate....

'They all behave the same. They all look the same. It's pretty much a white Christian party'...

Yep, so much for tolerance....Gee, I wonder what Condi Rice, Colin Powell, JC Watts, Anthony Munoz, Mel Martinez and many others think of his comments. Talk about hate speech and violent rhetoric. Maybe we will see this used on an episode of Homicide: Criminal Intent.

"Help Ohio Democrats Stop Ken Blackwell"

That's the banner at the top of the Ohio Democrats web page, according to NewsMax. Learn about the uber-liberal forces gathering to oppose Ken Blackwell here.

...and then donate here to the Blackwell campaign. And then check out our friends at the Ohio for Blackwell (unofficial) blog.

Personally, I think this is exactly the reason why he should get the nod...

Katherine Harris to Run for Senate in '06

Florida Congresswoman Katherine Harris, who was the Florida Secretary of State during the 2000 election has announced that she will make a run for the Senate.

I'll just go ahead and echo John Cole's assessment:

The results of this high comedy will be something I eagerly anticipate. We get to look forward to two years of vapid statements from a half-wit and enlightened attacks about make-up. Personally, it is a blogger's wet dream.

Should be fun to watch...

CoinGate Update

From ONN:

Investigators are wondering whether a wine collection valued at a half-million dollars may have been purchased with Ohio Workers Compensation funds.

This latest twist came during a raid on a house outside Denver, Colorado. The home belongs to a former business associate of Tom Noe, the Republican fundraiser at the center of the scandal.

From the home of rare-coin dealer Michael Storeim, investigators seized computers, invoices and hundreds of coins.

Detectives also searched Storeim's business.

They are investigating possible theft and forgery involving two coins valued at $400,000. They are coins that mysteriously disappeared in the mail. It's separate from the Ohio investigation, but Sergeant Richard Webb says they are closely related.

"Ohio authorities are continuing to send us additional information of their investigation and their audit, and we're analyzing that information to present to our district attorney's office," says Webb.

And this story keeps on giving...how about WineGate?:

Also seized at Storeim's house was a wine collection, 3,500 bottles of wine, valued at $500,000. There's some indication, according to Colorado authorities, the collection was purchased with company funds, which they say could mean Ohio funds.

Way to go Ohio GOP! This is what you get for "bowing to the will of the candidates" instead of maintaining the integrity of the party. This is what you get when you build a tent so big the foundations can't hold the thing up...

Janice Rogers Brown Update

A Yahoo News Alert:

WASHINGTON (AP) The Senate has ended a two-year filibuster of Appeal Court judgeship nominee Janice Rogers Brown.

Let's have a vote, people!

Global Warming Update: Fault Lies with Liberals?

Fellow member of the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy, Steven J. Kelso, Sr., points out this article from the Associated Press and concludes that global warming, if it exists, is the fault of liberals.

Why?

Well, most liberals live in our largest cities. And since everything that happens on this planet is America's fault, global warming (if it exists) is our fault too.

Turns out, that it is now believed that it is the urban centers that are causing global warming (if it exists).

"Cities use vast amounts of resources like water, food and timber while also producing a large amount of waste," said Klaus Toepfer, head of the United Nations Environment Program, or UNEP.

"People living in San Francisco or London may look at these images of deforestation or melting Arctic ice, and wonder what it has to do with them," Toepfer said. "Their impacts stretch beyond their physical borders affecting countries, regions and the planet as a whole."

So, liberals, thanks for trashing the planet.

Civil War era Sub Found

From Times Online (UK):

A British explorer has found an early submarine that he believes was the inspiration for Nautilus, Captain Nemo’s vessel in Jules Verne’s novel Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea.

Colonel John Blashford-Snell discovered the half-submerged, cast-iron wreck off the coast of Panama while searching for ancient ruins.

She was built in 1864 by a visionary craftsman, Julius Kroehl, for the Union forces during the American Civil War. But the boat, called Explorer, was never used in the conflict and was subsequently taken to Panama where she was used to harvest pearls.

I just love stories like this...

The Explorer had one of those reversible airlocks like Verne's Nautilus which is how they were able to go pearl hunting.

The submarine, which measures 36ft by 10ft, was lying in under 10ft of water off Isla San Telmo, an island in an archipelago known as The Pearl Islands, since being abandoned after three years in the pearl industry. Her crew all died from what was described then as a “fever”, but what was more likely to have been the bends after they regularly submerged to about 100ft to work.

SALUTE!

Kerry's Records Released

Former regular reader Peter van P. sent me a link to this Boston Globe story out today that indicates that they have received a complete copy of John Kerry's records from the military.

The records, which the Navy Personnel Command provided to the Globe, are mostly a duplication of what Kerry released during his 2004 campaign for president, including numerous commendations from commanding officers who later criticized Kerry's Vietnam service.

The lack of any substantive new material about Kerry's military career in the documents raises the question of why Kerry refused for so long to waive privacy restrictions. An earlier release of the full record might have helped his campaign because it contains a number of reports lauding his service. Indeed, one of the first actions of the group that came to be known as Swift Boat Veterans for Truth was to call on Kerry to sign a privacy waiver and release all of his military and medical records.

Before giving Kerry total vindication on this point, I'll wait and see what other less partisan analysts have to say about Mr. Kerry's records, but it does appear that he has indeed signed and delivered the Standard Form 180.

I have removed the countdown from the sidebar.

One question remains...why did he wait?

Asked why he delayed signing the form for so long, Kerry said in a written response: ''The call for me to sign a 180 form came from the same partisan operatives who were lying about my record on a daily basis on the Web and in the right-wing media. Even though the media was discrediting them, they continued to lie. I felt strongly that we shouldn't kowtow to them and their attempts to drag their lies out."

And this is why John Kerry would have made a horrible president. It's all about him. He wanted the controversy...otherwise he would have released the records if they would have vindicated him against the charges made by the Swifties. Waiting until now was a strategic and tactical error that may have cost him the election.

12:30PM Update

I am beginning to think that this exchange on The Corner is worth subscribing to...

LET IT GO [John Podhoretz]
Kathryn, the bloggers need to let the Kerry 180 form business go. Really. The Globe got the records and they don't feature the smoking gun the bloggers were hoping for. As Kerry might himself say, "Les jeux sont faits."

RE: LET IT GO [K. J. Lopez]
I'm with you on that, JPod. He's not president, that's what I needed for election 2004 closure.

I don't think we'll ever get the Truth on this one...and quite frankly, I'm not real sure that I care all that much any more...

Owen Sworn In

From the WMD Mailbag we learn that Pricilla Owen has been sworn in for her seat on the Appeals Court. (Story)

This was a big win as all the right people were ticked off that she got confirmed.

The Left's Smoking Gun Against Pres. Bush

James S. Robbins exposes the truth over at NRO.

Reader's Digest version: The allegation that Bush had already decided to attack Saddam is coming second-hand from a character code-named "C" in the minutes of a briefing with Tony Blair.

Predicition: John Kerry and the his fellow moonbats will fall for it yet again. How many times are they going to trust unnamed sources?

This is no smoking gun.

I Blame Bush Update

Apparently, Louisiana is sinking in to the GUlf of Mexico...and Texas may be next! In the discussion section, put in your bid for how long it will take Al Gore or some other liberal moonbat to blame the Bush administration. I'm thinking probably on this weekend's political shows...unless there is another "Take Back America" rally or some other liberal moonbat on parade conference/festival going on this week...

Saddam's WMD Update

From FOX News:

U.N. satellite imagery experts have determined that material that could be used to make biological or chemical weapons and banned long-range missiles has been removed from 109 sites in Iraq, U.N. weapons inspectors said in a report obtained Thursday.

This story is dated June 3, 2005...

In the report to the U.N. Security Council, acting chief weapons inspector Demetrius Perricos said he's reached no conclusions about who removed the items or where they went. He said it could have been moved elsewhere in Iraq, sold as scrap, melted down or purchased.

So...while Saddam didn't have any WMDs, he had the ability to make WMDs. Nothing to worry about there! Nothing at all... These are not the droids you are looking for... Move along...

A Good Point

J-Pod over at The Corner:

CAN YOU TORTURE A BOOK? [John Podhoretz]

Anybody notice that the debate over American conduct at Gitmo has moved from the question of whether detainees were tortured to the question of whether a book was tortured? Granted, we are talking about a holy book. But it is an inanimate object, no?

I do think this is a bunch of nonsense. If you replaced the word Koran with Bible, how many front pages would that generate in the liberal mainstream media? Yeah, it's a rhetorical question...

Self-righteous and intellectually disingenuous perpetrator of digusting moral equivalencies between the United States and the Soviet Union

Amnesty International's U.S. chief, William Schulz admitted that making stupid comments was good for his cause on FOX News Sunday with Chris Wallace.

Remind me again, why are we supposed to care what these people think?

MIA Update

12 days since a post over at the Ohio GOP blog...did Jason go on vacation or something? There are PLENTY of bloggers who would have gladly stepped in for him...

Update

Jason Lives! A post with today's date went up sometime today... Oddly enough, no word about CoinGate....

Not Everybody Hates George W. Bush

From the Guardian:

About 10,000 opposition protesters chanted "Freedom!" and carried pictures of President Bush as they marched across Azerbaijan's capital Saturday, urging the government of this U.S. ally to step down and allow free parliamentary elections this year.

The massive rally in Baku was the largest opposition demonstration in the former Soviet republic since October 2003, when one person died and nearly 200 were injured in clashes between police and demonstrators protesting vote-rigging in the presidential election.

What a powerful symbol of freedom our President has become. It's almost as if they don't get mainstream media over there...