Bobby Bland turns 75

Check it out. I love Bobby "Blue" Bland.

Power Line: Bobby Bland turns 75

Are we going to bury our heads in the sand like Europe?

Hello? An ordinary robber does not slash everyone's throat.

As is well known, the Copts in Jersey City and elsewhere have many suspicions about this crime. But when they have voiced these suspicions, they have been frequently denounced as “Islamophobes” – an all-purpose term of abuse used to silence criticism of Islam and of Muslims. And Hudson County Prosecutor Edward DeFazio is dismissive of the idea that the killings were religiously motivated: “Is it possible? Yes. Do we have anything that gives us reason to believe this is what it was, factually? No. Nothing indicates that was the prime motivation for this. That we can clearly say.” The media has widely accepted the idea that it was just a robbery.

Copts and Robbers by Robert Spencer

A grand old wizard

Why do the mainstream media pretend that only Republicans can be racists?

Because of the double standard that the mainstream media has established for matters of race, politics, and racism (i.e. only white Republicans can possibly be racist and black Republicans aren’t really black), most people don’t know – or need to be constantly reminded – that the self-proclaimed historian of the Senate who is again passing negative judgment on a black candidate for federal service was indeed a member of the Ku Klux Klan.

Sen. Byrd was a “Kleagle,” a recruiter who earned $10 for each new member he signed up for the sheet brigade. Although Byrd was intelligent enough to cut official ties with the Klan in 1943 (today he calls it a youthful mistake), he wrote, in a letter to the Grand Wizard in 1946, that

“The Klan is needed today as never before and I am anxious to see its rebirth here in West Virgina.”

Read the whole thing.

This woman is as dumb as a post

Boxer's much-touted "grilling" - which consisted of more than 2,000 words, or nearly four single-spaced pages of written text, and took a full 12 minutes to deliver - didn't include a single question. This wasn't about subjecting a would-be Cabinet secretary to the customary scrutiny. It was about Boxer's attempt to become the public face of the Democratic Party's moonbat wing, an effort that began in earnest a week earlier, when she was the only U.S. senator to vote against certifying President Bush's Electoral College victory.

Boxer's anti-Rice bombast backfires

Pelosi Defends Ex-Klansman's Assault on Condi

Via Brothers Judd

Rep. Pelosi insisted that Byrd's extraordinary move had nothing to do with his long history of public racism, but was instead a reflection of his opposition to the Iraq war.

"They're confirming a Secretary of State in a time of war. [Byrd's] views on the war and his opposition to it are well known," she said.

Still, Byrd's "sad history," as Pelosi described it, makes him a particularly bad choice to lead the assault on Rice.

As recently as 2001, the West Virginia Democrat was forced to apologize after blurting out during a nationally televised interview, "There are white n****rs, I've seen a lot of white n****rs in my time. I'm going to use that word."

In 1972, Byrd pushed to have the Senate's main office building named after Dixiecrat Sen. Richard Russell - a leading opponent of anti-lynching legislation who Byrd called "my mentor."

Byrd filibustered the landmark 1964 Civil Rights Act for 14 straight hours.

Pelosi defends Byrd

What he said

Bleeding-heart liberals think our act of kindness in Asia will ease the hatred the Muslim world has for the United States. I think our kindness just kindles the fire of hatred. The United States never wins in these endeavors. We are accused of either flaunting our wealth by world elitists or not providing enough money to the poor of the world. We just can’t win.

I really feel sad for the loss of life in Indonesia and other parts of Asia and Africa. I think the United States should spend as much money as is needed to help the less fortunate.

As for our military in Indonesia, I think it is time to pack up and leave before we have another Somalia incident on our hands. The Marines should go to Iraq and kill terrorists, as they are trained to do. They shouldn’t be handing out care packages.

Who is going to help the Indonesians when the Marines leave? I don’t know. Maybe Indonesian Vice President Yusuf Kalla should feed his own people.

Time for Marines to Leave Tsunami Area

Democrats have it in for Republican Minorities

They confirm the white candidates. However, confirmation of the black and hispanic candidates, even though they are qualified, are a problem. What's wrong with this picture?

Blacks need to wake up and stop voting for Democrats reflectively. We need to think about which party can do the best for us. Having a former Klu Klux Klan member hold up Dr. Rice's nomination does not look good for the Democratic Party.

But after members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee approved Rice by a 16-2 vote yesterday and the full Senate prepared for a vote today, some vehemently anti-Bush Democrats suddenly served notice they wanted more time.

Republican sources identified the key holdouts as 87-year-old Robert Byrd of West Virginia, along with Ted Kennedy and John Kerry, both of Massachusetts.

Byrd, a former Ku Klux Klan member, has been one of the most vocal critics of Bush. Rice would be the first black woman to serve as secretary of state.

Byrd's spokesman, Tom Gavin, said the delay was "not intended as any slight to Dr. Rice" and said that before voting, the full Senate should "have a chance to read the transcripts" of her confirmation hearing.

But Republicans said the delay, coming after last week's efforts by Democrats led by Sen. Barbara Boxer to challenge Bush's November election, was an effort to damage the president's second-term momentum.

"The Democrats looked foolish and partisan in the way they questioned the president's election and this looks arbitrary and unnecessary," said Sen. John Sununu (R-N.H.).

A spokesman for Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid of Nevada said Democrats would allow the confirmation today of Mike Johanns as agriculture secretary and Margaret Spellings as education secretary.

Rice on Ice

Tsunami Relief

I am glad that they are scaling back. The situation in Aceh looks like it is a disaster waiting to happen with the US military caught in the middle. Leave it to the UN, that's what that institution is there for.

In a separate incident, an Indonesian soldier in Aceh fired his weapon into the air Thursday, narrowly missing the rotor blades of a U.S. helicopter delivering aid to survivors, witnesses said. Nobody was hurt in the incident.

The soldier apparently was trying to control a crowd of up to 25 refugees in the coastal village of Panga that stormed toward the American helicopter to grab relief supplies.

U.S. Scales Back Tsunami Relief Efforts

Oh well

The British asked for their citizens back and now they have them back. If there is a problem then the British can deal with it. In other words, who cares?

Another of the detainees, Martin Mubanga, was allegedly assigned the job of plotting terror attacks against New York-based Jewish organizations and was apparently planning to fly to the United States when he was arrested in Zambia in 2002, according to documents obtained by NEWSWEEK. (Mubanga has denied the charges and, like the other detainees, alleges he was mistreated in U.S. custody.)

But those concerns were in effect trumped by Bush’s desire to mollify Blair, who has come under increasing domestic pressure to protect the rights of British citizens held at the controversial U.S. detention camp in Cuba. In a trip to Washington last November, and in follow-up teleconference calls that the two leaders regularly have, Blair made “personal pleas” to Bush to repatriate the British detainees, a British government official said today.

Risky Releases?

Ice Skating is Fun! ...it's also good exercise

Adults who want to burn the maximum calories, or just want to gain more confidence on the ice, can join a learn-to-skate program. Many ice rinks -- both indoor and out -- have added adult programs for those who want instruction in the basic skills without the pressure to compete with fast-learning children.

Coaches say the biggest obstacle for adults wanting to pick up the sport is the fear of falling. A lesson helps adults get over that fear, ``and learn to fall correctly,'' Smith said.

Also, since skaters are continually faced with new challenges, Smith said, individuals incorporating skating into their fitness regime are less likely to get bored and quit.

``You can just flow and you don't have to think about it,'' said Conor McLaughlin, 24, of Boston, who skates at Frog Pond in the Boston Common three to four times a week.

McLaughlin started skating four years ago, after quitting a high-stress job. He found being on the ice relaxing. Completely self-taught, McLaughlin said he learns new moves by watching figure skaters on TV.

``It's not conformed motion like being at the gym,'' he said. ``It's like dancing on the ice.''

The New York Times > AP > National > More Adults Turning to Ice Skating

The good thing is that they are not releasing them to roam freely in the U.S.

As long as they are releasing them in Britain and not here it's all good.

All four Britons held by the US in Guantanamo Bay will be returned to the UK within weeks, Foreign Secretary Jack Straw told the Commons on Tuesday.

Guantanamo Britons free in weeks

The Useless UN

This is disgusting. The UN is a totally useless organization.

The peacekeepers over the last year have been accused of gang rapes, sexual harassment and bribing children as young as 12 or 13 with eggs, milk and a few dollars to have sex in bushes, on the bare ground or under mango trees.


The new report by the U.N. Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) concentrates on Bunia, in the eastern part of the Congo, where fighting was intense earlier this year.


"In our view the problem was and continues to be widespread," Barbara Dixon of OIOS, who worked on the report, said at a news conference. "We ran into fairly substantial resistance from contingent commanders."

Sexual Abuse by UN Troops in Congo Hasn't Stopped

He nails it

Victor Davis Hanson captures exactly how I feel about the world outisde of the US shores right now.

Let them worry about their own problems and we take care of ourselves.

Tsunami

I haven't said much about tsunami aid so far. Kim du Toit says it so much better than I ever could.