Double Your Pleasure, Double Your Fun…

Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist will announce his retirement today at 4:50 PM EDT…

In the words of Michael Buffer…

Liberals haven’t had an original idea in the past 10 years. This is why we don’t hear them coming up with any substantive plans for fixing a social security system they agreed was failing in the 90’s, why we hear them complain about Bush’s response to terrorism, but never hear them offer a solution of their own, why they keep obstructing at every turn, but never promoting their own positive plans for anything.

And now with the retirement of Justice O’Connor, all they can do is rehash old, tired rhetoric from the days of Robert Bork.

2005:

Mr. Bush should ask himself whether Americans want to live in a country where the handicapped cannot find a champion in the law, where women are stripped of all abortion rights, where universities are barred from offering a hand up to deserving minority students.

1987:

In Robert Bork’s America there is no room at the inn for blacks and no place in the Constitution for women, and in our America there should be no seat on the Supreme Court for Robert Bork.

Liberals can’t just say, “Here’s a candidate we like, with these credentials and this past success,” instead they have to resort to the old “Republicans will restart slavery, kick puppies and legalize rape” idiocy.

Keep up the good work.

Terrorism made him a victim; technology made him a reporter

What an interesting take on things.

The fact that I subscribe to the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times and the San Francisco Chronicle tells you much about the trust I place in newspapers as an institution. The fact that I didn’t give them more than a fleeting glance this morning speaks just as strongly to their uselessness on a day of major news.

Stories, photos, audio and video reporting on the horrific bombings in London fill the airwaves, top the web sites of news organizations and occupy the attention of the blogosphere. The front page of the Times is dominated by a photo showing a throng of Londoners cheering for the city’s successful Olympic bid. How sadly outdated it is today.

“We announce in the al-Qaida in Iraq that the verdict of God against the ambassador of the infidels, the ambassador of Egypt, has been carried out. Thank God,” a written statement in the Web posting said.

London Mayor Ken Livingstone said the blasts that ripped through his city were “mass murder” carried out by terrorists bent on “indiscriminate … slaughter.”

This isn’t about “American arrogance” it’s about the arrogance of islamofascist criminals. Today, the whole world stands with Londoners. The barbaric acts affect us all. We are all in this together. And, hopefully, we have the resolve to remain strong as long as it takes.

Our Prayers Are With You

All I can say is… how ironic.

Seattle’s new City Hall is an energy hog

Seattle’s new City Hall was designed with the environment in mind, using the most energy-efficient technologies. But the building acts like an old-fashioned electricity hog. It has lofty public spaces and walls of glass designed to welcome citizens and suggest an open and transparent government. It also uses 15 percent to 50 percent more electricity some months than the older, larger building it replaced, according to Seattle City Light utility bills.

Wind farms pitch plan to address bird deaths

A California Energy Commission study estimated wind turbines in the Altamont kill 881 to 1,300 birds of prey a year, including as many as 116 federally protected golden eagles.

Are we supposed to have pity on a woman who committed a felony? Martha Stewart certainly thinks so. In her latest interview with Vanity Fair, she whines about her sentence, complains that her electronic monitoring device is chafing and refuses to admit that what she did was wrong.

In the interview, Stewart tells Vanity Fair magazine she agrees with those who say her crime � lying about a personal stock sale � is far different from massive corporate scandals such as Enron, WorldCom and Tyco.

Sure, just like committing a single murder is different than masterminding the holocaust… but in the end, you’ve still committed a crime worthy of punishment. It probably also explains why Martha got 5 months in prison, 5 months under house arrest and probation compared to Tyco’s CEO facing 25 years in prison, Worldcom’s CEO facing 85 years in prison and Enron’s former execs are facing 250+ years in prison.

“Of course that is what it’s all about,” Vanity Fair quotes Stewart as saying. “Bring ‘em down a notch, to scare other people. If Martha can be sent to jail, think hard before you sell that stock.”

Actually, Martha’s conviction wasn’t for selling stock, it was for obstructing justice. Maybe THAT’S the message being sent.

Asked whether she owes anyone an apology, Stewart says she is sorry for the “chaos” her prosecution caused but suggests she is not personally to blame.

Of course not. Other than the fact that she sold the stock in question, and she lied to investigators, and she made false statements to inflate her own company’s stock… she really is just a “victim” of this whole thing. It’s all the big, bad prosecutors doing their job that are to blame.

Poor old Martha, who’s has had her life completely stolen by eeeeevil prosecutors trying to prove a point to a bunch of “real” criminals, will go back home this afternoon and finish working on her two new television shows airing this Fall, renovating her multi-million dollar mansion and enduring the fashion faux paus as electronic monitoring device’s shouldn’t be worn after Memorial Day.

Cry us a river.

House Democrats are victims of “a kind of mindset that too often creeps in in Washington �to get along, go along,” Bell said in a telephone interview from his law office in Houston. “There’s not a more adversarial act you can take in the House than an ethics complaint, and some people just don’t have the stomach for it.”

Indeed, at the DNC’s executive committee meeting here in early June, Dean publicly acknowledged that some congressional Democrats had urged him to tone down his “culture of corruption” rhetoric because they did not want to get caught up in the same ethics probe as DeLay. But Dean said he would not hold back.

“Howard Dean is pretty much out there on his own (among Democrats) in trying to take on the ‘culture of corruption,” said Melanie Sloan, executive director of the Committee for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), the nonpartisan group that drafted the complaint Bell filed against DeLay in June 2004. “The Democrats (in the House) talk a good game, but that’s all,” she added. “They’re afraid to do anything that could blow back on them. They’re all about the boys and girls club that Congress is.”

Related:
More Dean Babble - Thank you DNC for electing this guy!
Howard Dean: The Republican Gift that Keeps on Givin’
Howard Dean: The Republican Gift that Keeps on Givin’ - Part II
Howard Dean: The Republican Gift that Keeps on Givin’ - Part III
Howard Dean: The Republican Gift that Keeps on Givin’ - Part IV
Howard Dean: The Republican Gift that Keeps on Givin’ - Part V

Happy Independence Day

But Isikoff says, facts be damned, Rove is a criminal. But ask yourself, if Rove is the source who leaked the identity, and did so with the intent of disclosing the ID of an undercover operative, and he has signed a waiver authorizing reporters to speak freely about conversations with him, why would Matt Cooper risk going to jail to protect him? (For that matter, how could Cooper go to jail if the waiver exists?)

The facts don’t support the idea that Rove intentionally leaked the identity of an undercover CIA agent. But that doesn’t stop Newsweak from alleging he is guilty anyway. Not suprising.

Update: An interesting little twist to this story. “Sources close to the investigation say there is evidence in some instances that some reporters may have told government officials — not the other way around — that Wilson was married to Plame, a CIA employee.”