Iowahawk Speaks Truth to Power

They may be criminals, but they care.

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Governor Blagojevice Has No Reason To Resign

What will resigning now get him?

If he's not found guilty of Federal corruption charges, he can still have a career in politics, on some level.

If he's found guilty, he can resign in protest, or simply wait to be impeached.

If he's impeached and tried, he can resign at any time during the process.

As Dave at Political Machine puts it:

It's quite apparent that no one has anything on Blago or is willing to offer him anything to resign. Quite the reverse. Blago probably knows where enough bodies are buried to make taking him out a risky project, and he has nothing to lose by staying where he is until he gets the right offer. The most valuable thing he now owns is the ability to resign. He's not going to give that away for bleeping nothing right?

I disagree with Dave on one thing: Blago has more leverage than just the ability to resign. If he's impeached and goes on trial, he can take a whole bunch of people down with him, probably to include a former Senator or two.

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Hilllary Abandons Senate for Secretarial Position

Hillary Rodham Clinton, former star in the Democratic Party, is leaving the Senate after what some say is little accomplished except a failed attempt to capture her Party's nomination for President. Clinton will accept a job as Secretary in the administration of the very candidate that Party bosses selected over her.

The move gives Ms. Rodham Clinton a chance to gain executive experience. Previously, political opponents pointed to her lack of executive experience.

Saddled with campaign debt, Clinton is leaving the Congress to join the Executive Branch. Clinton accepted millions in loans from her New York-based charitable foundation to finance her White House bid. While foreign citizens are forbidden to make campaign donations to Presidential candidates, donations to her charitable foundation can come from anywhere.

Clinton won't be forced to work on a day-to-day basis in the White House, which she occupied in her youth with her husband Bill Clinton, but in the State Department. As an older woman, she no longer has children at home, and so is free to travel.

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Dean: Former Senator Obama Now Controls Senate

Democratic Party boss Howard Dean has voiced his approval that disgraced former Presidential candidate Barack Obama, despite resigning amid a Justice Department probe earlier this month, is still behind the scenes assigning leadership roles.

Obama, elected to head of the Executive Branch despite allegations of fraud and intimidation, chose former Democratic Vice Presidential nominee Senator Joseph Lieberman (D-CT) to head the coveted Senate Homeland Security Committee.

Howard Dean told TPM Election Central that handling Joe Lieberman Senate Dems caved to pressure from Obama, and have come to accept the new role for the Legislature in the coming Obama regime. "He called the shots, and that's fine," Dean is reported to have said.

Insiders speculated that had Obama failed to select Lieberman, the Independent Senator would have blocked his plans to make fundamental changes he intends once installed in office. The Lieberman selection also gives Obama some wiggle room with Jewish voters nervous about his support of Arab plans to partition Jerusalem.

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LA Times Blog Reveals True Journalistic Integrity

Still under pressure to release the Obama-Ayers-Khalidi tape, the LA Times blog can't imagine that two of the 57 staff at Slate would fail to announce their intention to vote for Obama. I'd like to think they were being ironic, but I can't see it:

2 dumb Slate staffers split with wiser colleagues on Obama vote

One writer has broken ranks with Slate's slate of writers and intends to vote for John McCain! The Republican senator from Arizona.

w/t Protein Wisdom

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Around the Web

I used to do this a lot, but ... well, I did it once, I think.

Rachel Lucas has a girl crush on the insanely crushworthy Megyn Kelly.

Ace tells us that Democrat officials in Ohio probably broke the law trying to gather dirt on Joe the Plumber, but the LA Times won't release a video they have showing Barack Obama and Bill Ayers toasting and praising their mutual buddy Rashid Khalidi.

Frank J 'splains how the 21st century works to Syria.

Gateway Pundit shows Tito the Builder revving up Republicans at a Sarah Palin rally.

Michelle Malkin shows who is post-racial.

Treacher: Sarah Palin is smart. Joe Biden can't take the heat in the kitchen.

Brian Simpson does a fine writeup on health care policy at The Minority Report.

Jeff G at Protein Wisdom points us to the American Standard's timeline on the mortgage paper corruption crisis.

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Bailout Plan: More Bad Policy

So they've decided to buy out the bad paper from Wall Street. So not only is the government meddling with the economy -- lest its foot be dashed against a stone -- but it is telling Wall Street that in the future there is no chance of any serious failure.

Let the Bubbles continue.

Because fear of a bubble bursting is the only thing that keeps the market's puppy-like exuberance at bay.

Additionally, they've loaded this thing up with crap, continuing the same pressure to loan money to people who can't afford it in the name of political correctness.

And none of the politicians will accept the responsibility, not even for Washington generally. They're happy to point at each other, but no one stands up and admits to the unintended consequences of his acts of good intentions.

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House Votes Greater Dependence on OPEC

oh no, i am not making this stuff up

According to shortnews.com (which links to a Reuters story at yahoo):

The U.S. House of Representatives passed in a landslide legislation that would allow the Justice Department to sue OPEC for cooperating to set high oil prices and limiting supply, but President Bush said he will veto the bill.

The bill would attempt to subject OPEC to U.S. antitrust laws and would include Saudi Arabia, Iran and Venezuela. The vote margin, 324-84, is large enough to override a presidential veto, which was threatened in fear of retaliation by OPEC.

This attempt by Congress to extend our antitrust laws to cover an organization made up of other sovereign nations is wrong-headed for several reasons, some obvious and some not.

OPEC, as known to everyone not a member of the House of Representatives, stands for the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. These countries, not being part of the United States, are not required to recognize our laws or courts.

However, the bill would leverage regulation of foreign-owned oil refinery and transport properties in the U.S to get cooperation from the individual OPEC nations, such as Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Venezuela.

The entire stated purpose of OPEC is to cooperate to set high oil prices and limit supply. Congress may as well say that the United States has authority over the treaties other nations may make with one another, or over the legal systems of any country doing business in the United States.

And their price-fixing scheme is not totally effective. The price of oil is set by the international oil market: sellers try to find the buyer willing to pay the highest price, and buyers try to find the cheapest source. OPEC is simply one group of sellers in the international oil market. The way to get them to lower their price is to buy from a less expensive source.

Another group of sellers is U.S. domestic oil producers. If Congress wishes to increase supply, it can allow domestic producers to drill for oil in places which are already known to have oil, such as the continental shelf off our own coasts and in Alaska.

But rather than stand up to the environmental lobby, Congressional Democrats would encourage OPEC to increase its supply, thereby increasing our dependence on foreign oil.

There is no rule or law that says an OPEC country must produce a single drop of oil. The only thing keeping them producing oil is the international market price. You can't sue someone into selling you something at your price.

What's next: legislating that pi henceforth will be equal to 3.0? Perhaps instead the Congress would like to ensure that the oil fields in Saudia Arabia meet OSHA requirements, or those in Kenya aren't harming the sensitive East African environment.

And if OPEC decides to retaliate against Congressional arrogance, they can turn off the spigot, or merely lower their output even further. That would be a minor inconvenience for them, and the consequences for us would be disastrous.

But perhaps the Democrats in Congress know that already, and believe they can blame President Bush for the economic depression that would follow their attempt to extend our laws to the whole world.

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Best Wishes for the Senator

When a political opponent suffers a personal crisis, especially one of health, we have a choice to make. When that opponent has been a powerful foe, strident and even demagogic at times, it's tempting to express pleasure. I, of course, am not above such low sentiments. I wish that I were, but it's one area where my humanity makes me appear inhuman.

But now it appears that Senator Edward "Ted" Kennedy has not suffered a stroke, but a seisure brought on by a malignant brain tumor.

Those saying "It couldn't happen to a nicer guy" or "Serves him right for doing X for Y years" need only know that they, too, will have an end, leaving behind people who love them.

My own father and I disagreed politically. He was a lot more liberal than I am, and an atheist. He contracted cancer and died after a long illness. Our disagreement on politics and religion didn't harm our relationship, as far as I know, and in his later years we would have discussions that we could not have had without our differences.

He was a good man, and Senator Kennedy reminds me of him. Dad was a hearty drinker, and never lost his small-town ways. Arrogant and something of an intellectual snob, he regularly bent over backwards to help those less fortunate than himself.

Though I think his policies are misguided, Senator Kennedy is at least genuine, and believes in what he professes. In a government full of windsocks, that is something to respect.

Now, those rejoicing over the Senator's pain may be convinced that they themselves are better people than he, and so are more deserving of health and life. Then surely their own loved ones will be all the more disappointed when those now rejoicing do themselves begin the universal struggle at the end of life.

For those who love us do not necessarily agree with us. Senator Kennedy may be loved by people who agree with you in every detail except for their affection for him. And you rejoice when they are stung by the news of his illness.

If you cannot think of those affected by his eventual passing, of which this hospitalization is a stark reminder, think of those who will be affected by your own. Who will weep? Who will miss your patronage?

If no one springs to mind, then I wonder who indeed has the better of whom?

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Barack Obama's Extremely No Good Very Bad Day

Barack Obama must be thinking "What am I, Job?"

Two days ago he was enjoying the small victory of having brought down Geraldine Ferraro. Then yesterday:

• Ferraro rebounded, as a backlash against Obama's constant barrage of charges of racism
  
• His pastor and "mentor" is himself an America-hating racist
  
• It was reported that in 2006 (as Senator) Obama arranged a $1 million earmark for the hospital where is wife had just gotten a promotion to Vice President, with a $200, 000 raise
  
• The Rezco trial in Chicago shows that Obama lied about the extent of his relationship to the sleazy political fixer and campaign donation launderer.

These are all equally bad news for his campaign. Whether the anti-racism, anti-demagogue, conflict of interest with a touch of graft, or good old Chicago corruption charges would individually be enough to tarnish his reputation as a different kind of politician, I don't know. But taken together even his most ardent acolyte will have to reassess the Obama candidacy.

And surely the superdelegates to the Democratic convention will now have a much easier time supporting Hillary. All of this corruption and ickiness would make Huey Long vote Republican; if moderate, apolitical voters were to hear about it in the general election, they'd pull for John McCain.

Methinks the Obama campaign is played out.

But what will happen to the Democratic Party? Will they go to their convention in Denver and fight it out, with a willing but conflicted media delivering the show?

Mmmm, popcorn.

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Friday Official News Agency: Product Focus

The Official News Agency has a listing for a long overdue product:

In the aftermath of the Sen. Larry Craig restroom sex scandal, the question of what is and what is not sexually solicitous behavior in a public restroom has become an important issue for Americans. Now, a new product emerges, promising to protect you by broadcasting your intentions before you enter the stall.

The "No Sex Please" sign is a step in the right direction, and can only help improve the public restroom experience for everyone. But what other signs are needed?

Surely signs showing the stall's status, such as "Do Not Flush" or "Hot Water Mixup" would be of extreme help. I'll never forget the time Maintenance did an experiment on the Academy's plumbing, such that the toilets flushed with hot water. That was quite a surprise, though I must admit that it was not entirely unpleasant.

But nothing ruins the public restroom experience like having the facilities all taken. I mean, who uses a public facility unless they are already in dire straits? The worst part (well, almost) is not knowing how long the torturous wait will be. Those signs with clock faces, used by barbers and other one-man storefronts to signal when the proprietor will return, could do double duty in public restrooms.

O'course, unless everyone brought their own sign, which would be quite a lot to ask from people on fixed incomes, hygiene would demand setting the hands with the proverbial ten-foot pole, and of course to be any good at all it would have to be done before entering. As I said, I've always got urgent business inside that will probably not get me arrested but certainly won't wait while I put up a sign.

As for the "No Sex Please" sign itself, will those of us who don't carry such a sign, or as explained, fail to display proper signage, then be open to the advances of randy undercover policemen cruising public restrooms?

It's time to set your feet apart and take a wide stance against this product. While the "No Sex Please" sign seems harmless enough, we must not allow failure to warn to be seen as an invitation, or our public restrooms will become as sleazy as the halls of Congress.

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Breaking: Global Warming and Climate Change Smoking Gun

The Official News Agency is reporting a link between Global Warming and Climate Change. Interviewed for the story, researchers noted

We found that as the temperature rises world-wide due to global warming, it rises equally around the Earth due to climate change. We were astounded.

It should be noted that no causal link between Global Warming and Climate Change has been found, but this new research brings that closer.

I think I'll add a news scroller here for the Official News Agency, to avoid missing stories like this in the future.

h/t Classical Values

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On the Proper Use of Sledgehammers

Apparently, sites across the blogosphere agree that the proper use of rhetorical sledgehammers is in the swatting of flies. Or maybe it's just a slow news day.

John Bambenek, with whom I am usually pleased to be acquainted, delivered a well-reasoned but ill-informed complaint to the FEC about DailyKos, a popular liberal blog. Bambenek's complaint alleged that DKos is playing on the FEC's regulatory turf.

In response to public debate, the FEC last year issued a rule (pdf) concerning how Internet sites in general and blogs in particular should be treated. They read the very large amount of public comment on the matter and understood that web sites are fundamentally different from other media, those differences making them less in need of regulation. As I said at the time (Google cache),

Reading the rule, it was clear that the FEC was not just posturing in their attempt to defend free speech and apply a minimalist approach to regulation, of the blogosphere but of campaign speech in general. Their words have the ring of truth to them.

I wrote last week on this that the standard ought to be transmission, that if you cause something to appear that a person wasn't expecting and can't avoid, then you may need to be regulated. It seems the FEC, in looking at the comments people made to them, realized that while that would exclude web sites from regulation, that it didn't quite hit the mark; the standard ought to be money changing hands.

Given that there is regulation of any campaign ads, that's probably the best way to do it.

However, it isn't just money changing hands, but money changing hands causing people to stumble onto the content without wanting it. That doesn't fit DailyKos or any other web site, because in the end they are at the mercy of the mouse, which is under the control of a person.

So until Kos starts taking money for the purpose of forcing people to read his (poorly considered and generally incorrect) posts, there is no way the FEC needs to regulate his site. Bambenek is wasting everyone's time at best, and even if successful would be fouling his own portion of the commons.

But it's one thing for me, or even IlliniPundit, to say that. It's quite another for the blog heavyweights such as Mike Krempasky or NRO to bother with this sort of thing, and certainly to don sackcloth amid ashes for the crisis such a complaint portends. Now that is a real waste of time.

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Howard Dean: [Not Proven to be] Criminally un-Hippocratic

[Update: According to GatewayPundit:

** The Senator and Governor Never Spoke. **
I just got off the phone with Brian Hart a spokesman from Senator Brownback's office and he said that the conversation in question between Senator Brownback and Governor Sebelius did not take place. (Friday AM)

That's what I get for jumping in sandals first.
/UPDATE]
Howard Dean conspired with Kansas Governor Sebelius to delay emergency assistance to Greenburg, KS, tornado victims while Democratic Party officials decided how to blame President Bush for the disaster.

According to Quinn & Rose, appearing on the Sean Hannity radio show, Howard Dean called Kansas Governor Sebelius (D) and told her not to say or do anything about the tornado until she heard from Democrat leadership. She did as she was told, apparently. Q&R say Sebelius got another call, from "Dick" (probably famed Nazi hunter Dick Durbin), saying she should stress that there were no troops or equipment to deal with the disaster because it was all in Iraq.

Of course Dean, being a physician, will spin this to say he was just following the Hippocratic Oath to first do no harm.

This is the same Howard Dean who blamed President Bush for hurricane Katrina deaths. This man will stoop to nothing, even interfering in the proper operation of the government, to make cheap political points.

Howard Dean, Dick Durbin, and Kathleen Sebelius should resign.

Also blogging this are FreeRepublic, HotAir, and probably every blogger with a shred of decency.

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Solution to Terrorism

The "homegrown terror cell" actually consisted of a half-dozen jihadists:

Six foreign-born Muslims were arrested and accused Tuesday of plotting to attack Fort Dix and slaughter scores of U.S. soldiers — a scheme the FBI says was foiled when the men asked a store clerk to copy a video of them firing assault weapons and screaming about jihad.

The clever, quick-witted clerk! Who could have put that one together?

Why is there no talk about a backlash against Muslims? After all, it's not clear what the link was between these fellows. Weren't they just hard-working immigrants out to make their way in the New World? It's hardly their fault they didn't know we would have a problem with indiscriminant mass murder on military bases.

So we must not blame these men, nor the Religion of Peace. Any day now, we'll surely hear about some non-Muslim terrorist.

Don't hold your breath.

The only solution, since banning Islam is out of the question, is to outlaw black market guns. In fact, this entire "black market" thing should be banned. From now on, all markets should be colored green. Or banned.

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Obama Gets Free Security

Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) has received Secret Service protection a bit early in his presidential campaign. Normally only those whose names are actually going to be on a presidential ballot get protection [UPDATE: a bipartisan House leadership committee decides]. Notice how the Chicago Tribune reporter leads off her story (emphasis mine):

WASHINGTON -- Although Sen. Barack Obama has been drawing enormous crowds and intense attention during his presidential campaign, friends say he has resisted the idea of a U.S. Secret Service detail for fear it would limit what has been a great part of his appeal, namely his ability to make a close connection with voters.

But those reservations gave way to security concerns on Thursday, when the Secret Service assigned a team to the Illinois Democrat — the earliest point in a campaign cycle at which the agency has ever taken responsibility for a candidate not already under its protection as an office holder.

It's just fine for Obama to get Secret Service protection. We're a rich country, and surely we can afford a few measly million to protect the Senator while he's a candidate. I don't begrudge anyone the safety of life and limb.

However ...

According to the Tribune article, it was Dick Durban (D-IL) who told Harry Reid about the size of crowds Obama is seeing, and showed Reid some unspecified "other material". Now, presumably this was not illicit real estate development information, but something related to the Obama campaign. Where did Durbin get the material? From the Obama campaign, that's where.

Obama and Durbin thought it would be a good move to do it now, to play on the sympathy vote, and to play the race card without playing it. After all, if anyone accuses Obama of not really needing Secret Service protection, he can trot out the hateful letters he's probably gotten, and point to veiled threats on web sites. I haven't seen any such threats, but I haven't looked. I'll stipulate that the threat is real.

But why the subterfuge? Because it wouldn't look good at all, that's why.

Obama, looking to save money by having the taxpayers fund his security while at the same time playing the brave speaker of truth to power, would not have given the materials to Durbin without a reason. The only reason to do it is to get his friend and fellow Senator , the number two man in the Senate, to do it for him. If he were to have gone to Reid personally, Obama would have looked like a wimp who's overreacting to hate mail and anonymous bloggers.

The bipartisan Congressional panel which authorizes the Secret Service protection was unanimous: none of them wanted to vote against protecting Obama. Good for them.

But shame on Barack Obama for not being honest about it.

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Condi to Waxman: Nunya

(Also at The Minorty Report)

Henry Waxman (D-MysteryVan) issued a subpoena to Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice seeking questions about Iraq, yellow cake, and Niger. Rice has indicated she will refuse to comply with the subpoena on several grounds, including relevance, pestering, and Consitutional issues.

Rice said she respected the oversight function of the legislative branch, but maintained she had already testified in person and under oath about claims that
Iraq had sought uranium from Africa during her confirmation hearing for the job of secretary of state.

"I addressed these questions, almost the same questions, during my confirmation hearing," she said. "This is an issue that has been answered and answered and answered."

Subpoenas are regularly refused or quashed. If a subpoena is issued but sent to the wrong address, or to the wrong person, or if responding to the subpoena would be a giant hassle for nothing, or for a variety of other reasons, subpoenas sometimes need not even receive a response. If a witness is just going to exercise their Fifth Amendment right and not answer any questions, it's better to simply ask the court to quash the subpoena.

Congressman Waxman is using the subpoena to advance a political agenda, and is abusing his power in the process. He is attempting to distract the Administration with silly, inapposite questions in an effort to appeal to the far left wing of his party. There is no reason for Secretary Rice to answer further questions on this matter, and she should continue to say that.

What part of "No" does Waxman not understand?

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King Tolerance Abdicates

It's a tautology to say that people who have different points of view will disagree. Diverse points of view will probably lead to diverse disagreements. It is impossible to have diversity without strife. But when do those disagreements become offensive?

The Tolerance Police are now explaining, in the name of sensitivity, that some points of view are inexpressible. It used to be said that only Intolerance could not be tolerated, which was ironic enough; unsatisfied with that, the tolerators have now come to say that they need not tolerate what they find offensive. King Tolerance, it seems, has abdicated his throne.

Don Imus is a shock jock. He makes his living by saying outrageous things to people who love being shocked by the outrageous things he says. The trouble with shock is that it wears off; eventually the shocking becomes merely unsettling, then conventional. When Imus says (via Newsbusters, their emphasis)

I used to think that all of these things that the administration did were either because of the war criminal Vice-President and that psychopath who was over at the Pentagon, because of them, or because of stupidity. But I really believe, in my heart, that it's arrogance, and maliciousness and mean-spiritedness.

That kind of thing used to be shocking, became merely unsettling, and now serves only to make liberals to bobble their heads in BDS-infected agreement.

Yet Imus's use of racial slurs (which I will not repeat) to talk about a women's basketball team has caused the Reverend Jackson (playing the part of Salome in this metaphor) to call for his head on a platter.

Shock jocks shock. It's their thing. Ignore them, and they'll go away. Above all, don't mention them by name. (Oops.)

But as long as we celebrate diversity, we will be stuck with people who make fun of differences. If you want diversity, and want toleration of your diverse point of view, you'll have to tolerate the ugly, diverse points of view of others.

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