Real Deadline, Real Shmeadline

Andrew Taylor of the Associated Press tries to make a case that the Bush administration is lying about the urgent need to get a supplemental funding bill for the war in Iraq passed.

WASHINGTON -- The real deadline for Congress to provide more money for the war in Iraq is several weeks beyond the April 15 deadline cited by President Bush and Defense Secretary Robert Gates.

The Pentagon can take several penny-pinching steps without harming troop readiness or other dire consequences predicted by the Bush administration until Congress actually comes up with the money.

Mid-April is about when $70 billion provided by Congress for the war will run out. After that, Pentagon accountants will move money around in the department's more than half-trillion dollar budget to make sure operations in Iraq and Afghanistan are not disrupted.

The Army, Gates testified this past week, "will be forced to consider" altering training schedules for reserves and units to be deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as delays in repairing equipment and renovating barracks.

The steps under consideration include borrowing from training, maintenance, personnel and procurement funds set to be spent later in the budget year, which runs through September. They have become routine in recent years.

The money is repaid, usually with minimal disruption, when the president signs the war spending bill. But you might not realize that, given the recent rhetoric from the White House.

"If Congress does not approve the emergency funding for our troops by April the 15th, our men and women in uniform will face significant disruptions, and so will their families," Bush said March 23.

...Such criticism was scarce when the GOP-controlled Congress was tardy in providing war dollars last year. At the time, there was a warning about "serious impacts" if the money was delayed further, but it came in a little-noticed letter from the White House budget office. Congress ignored the warning and went on vacation.

...[T]here was no effect on troop readiness and training missions, nor delays in rotating troops out of Iraq. Instead, the Army froze civilian hiring, fired some temporary employees, stopped nonemergency travel and delayed purchases of information technology, Schoomaker said.

That is why many lawmakers view Bush's April 15 deadline more as a target date. The private signal many are getting from the Pentagon is that mid-May is when the money will be needed to avoid disrupting activities such as training missions.

"The president is once again attempting to mislead the public and create an artificial atmosphere of anxiety," said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.

Allow me to clarify that:

Harry Reid is once again attempting to mislead the public and create an artificial atmosphere of security. Reid is trying to sell Americans on that "What? Me worry?" parallel universe that Dems inhabit.

...Nonetheless, Democrats are a little nervous about leaving Washington on their long-scheduled Easter vacation without first delivering the $120 billion-plus Iraq spending bill.

...[The House] does not return until April 16. Even if a tentative deal is reached by then, getting it through the House and Senate and to Bush would take a week at a minimum. If Bush follows through on his veto, a new bill would have to be written and put to votes.

Does this sound like a fair and balanced hard news account to you?

To me, it reads like an editorial, trying to sway the reader to support the Dems and to push the reader to agree with the notion that the Pentagon should take "several penny-pinching steps" in order to get by.

Why should such steps be necessary?

Do we want the Army to freeze civilian hiring, fire temporary employees, stop nonemergency travel and delay purchases of information technology just to accommodate the Dems' political maneuvers?

Why not simply pass the necessary funding for our troops without demanding the screwing around and the "penny-pinching steps"?

What's more effective?

That all depends on your goal.

If you want to undermine the Commander in Chief and our national security, it's more effective to delay.

If you care about the long term security of the United States, it's far more effective to pass a clean supplemental funding bill quickly.


This lame article is nothing more than Dem propaganda.

Its sole purpose is to debunk the deadline and convince the public to ignore the Bush administration's call on Congress to quit playing games.

I don't care whether the deadline is April 15 or July 15 or October 15.

What the libs in Congress are doing is wrong.

They are bent on securing defeat in Iraq and sending a message to our enemies that America is weak.

Way to go, Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi and, to borrow David Obey's term, "idiot liberals."

FactCheck.org Slams Greater Wisconsin Committee's Slime

The campaign ads for the Wisconsin Supreme Court race between Judge Annette Ziegler and attorney Linda Clifford are getting national scrutiny.

FactCheck.org puts the Greater Wisconsin Committee's smear job on Ziegler under the microscope and exposes its lies.

You remember the Greater Wisconsin Committee. It was responsible for many of the misleading ads sliming Mark Green in the 2006 gubernatorial race.

From FactCheck.org:

No Prison Time for a Sex Offender?

The Greater Wisconsin Committee, a state-wide political action committee funded by labor, education and healthcare PACs, attacked the tough-on-crime image that's been a staple of Ziegler's own ads with a spot claiming that Ziegler gave a convicted sex offender a lighter sentence than even his own defense attorney asked. The ad is true only if the sentence is measured strictly by years in prison. The whole story is more complicated.

In December 1998 a jury found Gary Tate guilty of sexually assaulting his step-daughter repeatedly during a three-year period. Ziegler sentenced Tate to 25 years in prison but stayed the sentence, instead giving him a year in county jail and 20 years' probation conditioned upon Tate successfully completing a treatment program for sexual offenders. At the time, admission of guilt was a requirement of the treatment program.

According to the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, Ziegler made this comment at the sentencing:

MJ-S: "I want very much to punish the defendant for what he did," Ziegler said. "I want very much to protect the community." Equally important is providing treatment "so this never happens to anyone else again," Ziegler said.

Tate filed a motion asking for a new trial, but Ziegler denied it. Tate refused to admit he was guilty, which meant he automatically flunked his sexual-offender treatment. His probation was revoked as a result, and he began serving his 25-year prison sentence.

In November 2002, Tate appealed his probation revocation. The case went to the state Supreme Court. Tate's lawyers argued that since his sexual-offender treatment required him to incriminate himself and thereby forfeit any possibility of future appeals, the revocation of his parole was unconstitutional. The Supreme Court ruled in Tate's favor. He was released from prison and is living in Wisconsin, according to the Wisconsin Sex-Offender Registry.

FactCheck concludes:

The ad is misleading in implying that Ziegler sentenced Tate to nothing more than a year in county jail. It would have been accurate to say that Tate became a free man just four years after his conviction as a result of Ziegler's sentence.

I don't think Ziegler can be blamed because the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled in Tate's favor.

It seems to me that the ad is even more misleading than FactCheck claims.

FactCheck debunks three more ads, one from the Clifford campaign and two from the Ziegler camp.

Read more here.

FactCheck finds fault with both candidates. "We think there's plenty of blame to go around for the nasty tone of this race."

Overall, I think FactCheck's arguments criticizing the anti-Ziegler ads are much stronger than its case against the anti-Clifford spots.

Ziegler had to respond. She had to hit back hard to counter the Greater Wisconsin Committee's dirty work.

Its lies helped elect the king of scandals and corruption Governor Jim Doyle.

It should come as no surprise that Clifford would resort to slime tactics.

Clifford's list of supporters is a Who's Who of libs.

Pretty sad, especially compared to Judge Ziegler's impressive list of endorsements.

What's most important to me is judicial philosophy. Unlike Clifford, Ziegler's a constructionist, meaning she believes her role is to interpret the law, not write it.

I believe that a judge has a definite and modest role. The Court’s duty is not to determine what the law should be or to negate laws in order to arrive at a desired outcome. A Supreme Court Justice must act with restraint. The role of the Supreme Court is to interpret the spirit and the letter of the law and to apply that law consistently, fairly and impartially. It is imperative that a Justice rely on legal precedent, the Constitution, and the language of the applicable law. In other words, a Supreme Court Justice must not legislate from the bench.

This is not a difficult decision.

Ziegler has my vote.

Terri Schiavo: Victim of Lethal Bigotry

Two years ago today, Terri Schiavo died, after her family lost a prolonged, contentious battle for her right to live.

Terri's brother Bobby Schindler makes some great points about the gift of life, the Culture of Death, and the media in his article commemorating the anniversary of his sister's death.

Saturday, March 31, will mark the two-year anniversary of my sister Terri Schiavo's death by dehydration. Not a day passes that my family does not think of my sister and relive the horrific images of her needless and brutal death at the hands of those who deliberately set out to kill her.

As hideous as it was, the truth is, long before Terri's case made headlines, the removal of basic care – food and water – was becoming commonplace. It continues to happen every day across our country oftentimes in cases, like Terri's, where the patient does not suffer from any life-threatening condition.

Much of the problem that exists stems from a blind acceptance of misinformation that has moved us from a firm belief in the sanctity of life to a "quality of life" mindset, which says that some lives are not worth living.

This shift, what I call lethal bigotry, began with the medical community, has infiltrated our judiciary and is taking over our nation. People are making decisions in place of God, while even many Catholic leaders remain silent despite the Church's teaching and the pope's constant reminders that God alone is the arbiter of life and death.

The sad fact is we have become a nation that spends billions trying to find the perfect body, while ignoring the condition of our collective soul; where altruism seems to be a thing of the past, and moral relativism has become a bona fide religion.

...Terri and others like her should be a constant reminder to all of us that caring for the disabled is never a burden, but is instead an act God's unconditional love.

"Lethal bigotry" says it all.

Terri was betrayed by a husband, a judicial system, and a culture that brands certain lives worthless and condones withholding food and water from the ill and disabled.

It still makes me sick to think about what she endured.

I recognize the sanctity of all human life, at all its stages, and in all its conditions.
Two years ago, President Bush said:

I urge all those who honor Terri Schiavo to continue to work to build a culture of life, where all Americans are welcomed and valued and protected, especially those who live at the mercy of others. The essence of civilization is that the strong have a duty to protect the weak. In cases where there are serious doubts and questions, the presumption should be in the favor of life.

As exhibited by the killing of Terri Schiavo, this goal is far from being reached.

The struggle for life to prevail, when engulfed in a Culture of Death, is a challenging but morally imperative endeavor.

Although today is a sad day, we can honor Terri's memory by continuing to work to build a lasting Culture of Life; keeping in mind the words of Cardinal Jose Saraiva Martins, that "an attack against life is an attack against God."

Giuliani "Swift Boated" by NYC Firefighters

The lib media's war against Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani is picking up steam.

The New York Times has a hit piece today on the former mayor of New York City.

Rudolph W. Giuliani told a grand jury that his former chief investigator remembered having briefed him on some aspects of Bernard B. Kerik’s relationship with a company suspected of ties to organized crime before Mr. Kerik’s appointment as New York City police commissioner, according to court records.

Mr. Giuliani, testifying last year under oath before a Bronx grand jury investigating Mr. Kerik, said he had no memory of the briefing, but he did not dispute that it had taken place, according to a transcript of his testimony.

Mr. Giuliani’s testimony amounts to a significantly new version of what information was probably before him in the summer of 2000 as he was debating Mr. Kerik’s appointment as the city’s top law enforcement officer. Mr. Giuliani had previously said that he had never been told of Mr. Kerik’s entanglement with the company before promoting him to the police job or later supporting his failed bid to be the nation’s homeland security secretary.

In his testimony, given in April 2006, Mr. Giuliani indicated that he must have simply forgotten that he had been briefed on one or more occasions as part of the background investigation of Mr. Kerik before his appointment to the police post.

He said he learned only in late 2004 that the briefing or briefings had occurred, after the city’s investigation commissioner reviewed his own records from 2000. To this day, Mr. Giuliani testified, he has no specific recollection of any briefing or the details of what he was told. But he said he felt comforted because the chief investigator had cleared Mr. Kerik to be promoted.

“He testified fully and cooperatively,” a statement from Mr. Giuliani’s consulting firm said of the former mayor’s grand jury appearance. The statement added: “Mayor Giuliani has admitted it was a mistake to recommend Bernie Kerik for D.H.S. and he has assumed responsibility for it.”

Why is it that the libs expect Republicans to have photographic memories but Democrats are allowed to forget?

For example, from THE WASHINGTON TIMES:

In the portions of President Clinton's Jan. 17 deposition that have been made public in the Paula Jones case, his memory failed him 267 times. This is a list of his answers and how many times he gave each one.

I don't remember - 71
I don't know - 62
I'm not sure - 17
I have no idea - 10
I don't believe so - 9
I don't recall - 8
I don't think so - 8
I don't have any specific recollection - 6
I have no recollection - 4
Not to my knowledge - 4
I just don't remember - 4
I don't believe - 4
I have no specific recollection - 3
I might have - 3
I don't have any recollection of that - 2
I don't have a specific memory - 2
I don't have any memory of that - 2
I just can't say - 2
I have no direct knowledge of that - 2
I don't have any idea - 2
Not that I recall - 2
I don't believe I did - 2
I can't remember - 2
I can't say - 2
I do not remember doing so - 2
Not that I remember - 2
I'm not aware - 1
I honestly don't know - 1
I don't believe that I did - 1
I'm fairly sure - 1
I have no other recollection - 1
I'm not positive - 1
I certainly don't think so - 1
I don't really remember - 1
I would have no way of remembering that - 1
That's what I believe happened - 1
To my knowledge, no - 1
To the best of my knowledge - 1
To the best of my memory - 1
I honestly don't recall - 1
I honestly don't remember - 1
That's all I know - 1
I don't have an independent recollection of that - 1
I don't actually have an independent memory of that - 1
As far as I know - 1
I don't believe I ever did that - 1
That's all I know about that - 1
I'm just not sure - 1
Nothing that I remember - 1
I simply don't know - 1
I would have no idea - 1
I don't know anything about that - 1
I don't have any direct knowledge of that - 1
I just don't know - 1
I really don't know - 1
I can't deny that, I just -- I have no memory of that at all - 1

Sometimes it's hard to remember. If a lib can't recall, it's no big deal. A conservative isn't granted the same leeway.

The Associated Press is also getting in on the action and firing away at Giuliani.

Rudy Giuliani's White House aspirations are inescapably tied to Sept. 11, 2001 — for better and for worse.

While the former mayor of the nation's largest city was widely lionized for his post-9/11 leadership — "Churchillian" was one adjective, "America's mayor" was Oprah Winfrey's assessment — city firefighters and their families are renewing their attacks on him for his performance before and after the terrorist attack.

"If Rudolph Giuliani was running on anything but 9/11, I would not speak out," said Sally Regenhard, whose firefighter son was among the 343 FDNY members killed in the terrorist attack. "If he ran on cleaning up Times Square, getting rid of squeegee men, lowering crime — that's indisputable.

"But when he runs on 9/11, I want the American people to know he was part of the problem."

Such comments contradict Giuliani's post-Sept. 11 profile as a hero and symbol of the city's resilience — the steadfast leader who calmed the nerves of a rattled nation. But as the presidential campaign intensifies, criticisms of his 2001 performance are resurfacing.

Giuliani, the leader in polls of Republican voters for his party's nomination, has been faulted on two major issues:

• His administration's failure to provide the World Trade Center's first responders with adequate radios, a long-standing complaint from relatives of the firefighters killed when the twin towers collapsed. The Sept. 11 Commission noted the firefighters at the World Trade Center were using the same ineffective radios employed by the first responders to the 1993 terrorist attack on the trade center.

Regenhard, at a 2004 commission hearing in Manhattan, screamed at Giuliani, "My son was murdered because of your incompetence!" The hearing was a perfect example of the 9/11 duality: Commission members universally praised Giuliani at the same event.

• A November 2001 decision to step up removal of the massive rubble pile at ground zero. The firefighters were angered when the then-mayor reduced their numbers among the group searching for remains of their lost "brothers," focusing instead on what they derided as a "scoop and dump" approach. Giuliani agreed to increase the number of firefighters at ground zero just days after ordering the cutback.

More than 5 1/2 years later, body parts are still turning up in the trade center site.

"We want America to know what this guy meant to New York City firefighters," said Peter Gorman, head of the Uniformed Fire Officers Association. "In our experiences with this man, he disrespected us in the most horrific way."

Regenhard and Gorman have every right to speak out against Giuliani and present their opinions of him to the public. Free speech.

Giuliani defends himself against their attacks by blaming bitter union negotiations for the ill will between him and the firefighters. That seems legitimate.

...The IAFF drafted a membership letter — it was never sent — that excoriated Giuliani and promised to tell "the real story" about his role in handling the terrorist attack.

The then-mayor's decision to change policy on the ground zero recovery effort was "an offensive and personal attack" on firefighters, the letter said, going on to say that Giuliani's "disrespect ... has not been forgotten or forgiven."

Giuliani countered the attacks by releasing an open letter of support from retired firefighter Lee Ielpi, whose firefighter son was among the 2,749 victims on Sept. 11. "Firefighters have no greater friend and supporter than Rudy Giuliani," Ielpi said.

The question: Will the attacks on Giuliani from firefighters erode the image of him as a competent leader in times of crisis?

...Hank Sheinkopf, a veteran political consultant, predicted the 9/11 criticisms could resonate beyond New York during the presidential campaign.

"These are very emotional people who will touch a responsive chord with a lot of the electorate," he said. "The things that the 9/11 families say will wind up in television commercials used against Rudy Giuliani."

The issues also have forced Giuliani to try to strike a balance to avoid the perception that he's exploiting the attacks for his own personal gain. President Bush faced the same challenge in 2004 when he invoked the attacks to portray himself as a strong and steady leader in the face of terrorism. Some victims' relatives criticized Bush for using the ruins of the World Trade Center in his campaign commercials, while others defended him.

Libs HOPE that the electorate will change their opinion of Giuliani when he's "swift boated."

I think that will be a tough sell.

This is very different from John Kerry and the truth about his brief tour in Vietnam.

Americans experienced Rudy Giuliani in action for themselves.

I think most Americans also understand the gravity of the terrorist threat.

It will be difficult to wipe out all of Giuliani's positives from the slate of Americans' collective memory and rewrite the history of 9/11.

Was it misguided for TIME to declare Giuliani 2001 Person of the Year and practically canonize him?

"Mayor of the World"

"Tough and smart, sure. But who knew about Rudy's big heart? Here's how a very human man taught us superhuman courage."

Now, we should believe otherwise.

I don't think that will fly with the electorate.

It won't be easy to undo so much praise and convince Americans that Giuliani is not a great leader.

Nathan Thomas Summers "Confesses"

As promised, Iran's official TV station Al-Alam broadcast a "confession" from one of the 15 British captives, Nathan Thomas Summers.

As a bonus, the Iranian embassy in London released a third letter from Faye Turney, addressed to the British people.


She sat next to another serviceman and Summers when he "apologized" for illegally entering Iranian waters.

TEHRAN, Iran -- One of the 15 British service members held captive in Iran appeared Friday on state television and said he apologized "deeply" for entering Iranian waters, and the country released a third letter supposedly from the one woman in the crew saying she has been "sacrificed" by Britain.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair, whose government has insisted that its navy personnel were captured in Iraqi waters, immediately condemned Iran's treatment of the captives, saying it "doesn't fool anyone."

In the video Friday, Royal Marine rifleman Nathan Thomas Summers was shown sitting with another male serviceman and the female British sailor Faye Turney against a pink floral curtain. Both men wore camouflage fatigues with a label saying "Royal Navy" on their chests and a small British flag stitched to their left sleeves. Turney wore a blue jumpsuit and a black headscarf.

A floral curtain -- nice touch, very comfy and friendly.

It's as if they were sitting in Beaver Cleaver's kitchen and Mrs. Cleaver was about to come into the frame and offer the captives a glass of milk.

"We trespassed without permission," Summers said, adding he knew that Iran had seized British military personnel who strayed into their waters three years ago.

"This happened back in 2004 and our government said that it wouldn't happen again," Summers said. "And, again, I deeply apologize for entering your waters."

It was not known whether the marine spoke under pressure from his captors, but Summers said in the broadcast "our treatment has been very friendly."

That's a fair statement from AP, although it slants in support of Iran.

Technically, it's not known whether Summers was pressured into delivering his remarks; but of course he did talk about the friendly treatment he's getting.

I don't see the point in that being included in the article. It shows a bias, an attempt to give Iran the benefit of the doubt.

Such leeway was lacking when AP and lib media outlets reported on Gitmo.

Why not say, "It was not known whether the marine spoke under pressure from his captors, but it seemed like a scripted load of crap"?

According to Al Jazeera, the broadcast was an "interview," not a violation of the Geneva Conventions.

Iranian television has broadcast an interview with a captured British marine in which he admitted to entering Iranian waters illegally and apologised to the Iranian people.

The Arabic-language Al-Alam television channel showed an interview with the marine on Friday in which he said: "I deeply apologise for entering your waters."

Footage of three of the 15 captured British navy personnel was shown by Al-Alam.

"The treatment has been very friendly," the marine - identified as Nathan Thomas Summers - said on the state-run channel.

...The interview was broadcast as Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Iranian president, demanded an apology by the British government, the Fars news agency said.

The Islamic Republican News Agency, Ahmadinejad's puppet, covers it this way:

Another UK arrested royal marine N. Thomas Summers on Friday admitted that the 15 British sailors had trespassed on Iran's territorial waters on March 23 and extended his apology to the Iranian nation for the issue.

Speaking to reporters, the royal marine said, "We illegally trespassed on Iran's territorial waters and were arrested by the Iranian border guards and I would like to apologize the Iranian people for the issue."
He said the Iranian forces captured the sailors and marines in a friendly manner and treated them well.

Referring to repeated illegal entry into Iranian territorial waters by the UK troopers and to the official commitment of British officials in the year 2004 on non-repetition of such violations, he apologized for illegal entry of the UK forces in the year 2004 too.

"Since we were arrested on March 23, 2007, everything has been OK and I am quite satisfied with the current conditions. Over the past days, Iranian forces have shown us a very friendly and good behavior and no ill treatment has been observed," said the sailor.

Another UK service person Fay Turney had already on Thursday expressed regret for illegal entry into Iranian territorial waters and described the Iranian border guards as very humane and good.

...The British media and officials have launched a wave of propaganda campaign against Iran immediately after capture of the British sailors and marines.

Regardless of the GPS surveys, monitored by Iran and offered to the British government, the British media insist that the British navy has not violated Iranian waters.

I expect such propaganda from Al Jazeera and IRNA.

I also expect propaganda from Left-biased outlets like AP.

Note to Ahmadinejad and propaganda promulgators:

As Tony Blair said, IT DOESN'T FOOL ANYONE.

Iran Waffles

There's more Iranian insanity:

Iran's official Arabic-language TV channel said Friday it would broadcast a confession by one of the 15 British sailors and marines detained last week in what Tehran insists were its territorial waters.

A newscaster on Al-Alam television said the taped confession would show a British sailor explaining how he and his colleagues entered Iranian waters "in an illegal way." He did not identify the sailor, but added the tape would appear later Friday.

Iran has demanded that Britain acknowledge that its sailors had violated Iranian waters, with Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki saying Thursday that such an admission would help to secure the release of the 15 service members.

Earlier this week, it appeared the two countries were moving toward a resolution of the crisis. Mottaki told reporters Wednesday that the only woman in the group, Faye Turney, would be freed shortly.

However, the Iranians were angered by tough talk out of London, including a freeze on most bilateral contacts and a British move to refer the issue to the U.N. Security Council.

On Thursday, the council expressed "grave concern" over Iran's seizure of the military personnel and called for an early resolution of the escalating dispute.

As tensions spiked again Thursday, the Iranians rolled back on their offer to free Turney.

On Friday, however, the Turkish prime minister's office said that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had indicated his government is willing to reconsider freeing Turney, who is married and has a young daughter.

If this hostage crisis doesn't prove to Dems and other cockeyed types that "talking" to Iran is an exercise in futility, then nothing will.

Trouble at Tosa West Bubblers

Students routinely disrespect and deface school property.

Unless the damage is major, such incidents usually don't make headlines.

What makes this case newsworthy is the racial element of the vandalism.

Wauwatosa -- School officials at West High School are trying to determine who scrawled "whites only" and "coloreds only" on two side-by-side water fountains on the second floor of the high school Thursday morning.

The incident came to light shortly before noon, according to district spokesman Chris Preisler. He said the phrases -- similar to those that were widely used on public facilities such as water fountains, restrooms and restaurant entrances in the South prior to integration -- were written in marker on the stainless steel backwash portion of the fountains.

...Administrators had building custodians remove the phrases from the fountains. He said the incident upset some students and that administrators made counselors available for any students who felt they needed to speak to one. An announcement on the matter was made over the public announcement system at the end of the day.

Preisler said school officials will discipline whoever is responsible for scrawling the racially offensive terms on the water fountains.

What a really stupid thing to do!

The kid responsible for the vandalism (assuming it was a student and not a staff member) not only did damage to school property but also made a terribly insensitive racial statement.

I can understand why students would be upset by the graffiti. If it was supposed to be a joke, it flopped. Not funny.

The kid or kids involved had to know that it would hurt students and potentially increase racial tensions at the school.

In addition, it gives the school bad press, creating an impression of some deeply rooted racial problems. That may or may not be a fair portrayal of Tosa West, but it's unavoidable.

Some jerk has caused a lot trouble by engaging in this completely unacceptable behavior.

But--

The words were discovered and they were removed.

I think it may be going a bit overboard to make counselors available for students who felt they needed to speak to one about the bubbler situation.

I can understand that an upset student might want to talk to a counselor about race relations at the school in general.

I can't see any students being so traumatized by the bubbler incident that they'd need counseling.

Anything to get out of class, I guess.

I would hope that school officials will punish the vandal or vandals. That should go without saying. Defacing school property is unacceptable.

I would also hope that the school takes this opportunity to teach students that racial segragation was not a proud chapter in American history.

Rosie O'Donnell's 9/11 Conspiracy Theories

Rosie O'Donnell has gone "Kevin Barrett."

She is absolutely over the edge, off the deep end nuts.

O'Donnell is holding The View and Barbara Walters hostage. I sincerely think she's trying to get ABC to give her the axe.

Each day on The View she says something outrageous, like she wants to commit career suicide.

It's like a pathetic cry for help.
NewsBusters does a great job of chronicling her daily drivel and rants.

From today's show:

ELISABETH HASSELBECK: Do you believe that the government had anything to do with the attack of 9/11? Do you believe in a conspiracy in terms of the attack of 9/11?

ROSIE O’DONNELL: No. But I do believe the first time in history that fire has ever melted steel. I do believe that it defies physics for the World Trade Center Tower Seven, building seven, which collapsed in on itself, it is impossible for a building to fall the way it fell without explosives being involved, World Trade Center Seven. World Trade Center one and Two got hit by planes. Seven, miraculously, for the first time in history, steel was melted by fire. It is physically impossible.

HASSELBECK: And who do you think is responsible for that?

O’DONNELL: I have no idea. But to say that we don't know it was imploded, that there was implosion in the demolition, is beyond ignorant. Look at the film. Get a physics expert here from Yale, from Harvard. Pick the school. It defies reason.

O'Donnell didn't have the guts to pin the blame for what she believes was the planned implosion of the WTC on President Bush, the way former UW-Madison Kevin Barrett does.

But, without question, she doesn't blame terrorists. She's convinced that it was an inside job of some sort.

Read some of her 9/11 conspiracy ramblings in an entry from her blog.

Isn't this about as far as she can go?

When are ABC and Barbara Walters going to put an end to this insanity?

That time is long overdue.

Sponsors should take their advertising dollars elsewhere and avoid The View like the plague.

More Arrests in Bay View Crime Spree

It appears that Bay View and south side Milwaukee residents, business owners, and their patrons can breathe a sigh of relief. The criminals terrorizing the area for months are in custody.

Six thugs have been charged for the string of robberies.

The five men and one woman facing charges of armed robbery with threat of force are Paul Asik Jr., 30; Xavier Perez, 18; Brendaly Gonzalez, 19; Angel DeJesus, 21; Carmelo Vaszquez Jr., 32 and Christian Colon, 19.

Colon is also charged with felony murder and sexual assault. Gonzalez is he only suspect without a prior criminal record in Wisconsin.

So, the Bay View Bandit turned out to be a band of bandits. That should come as no surprise, given the various descriptions of the robbers.

As suspected, Colon was involved with the murder of Nicholas G. Knutowski during an attempted robbery at Marty's Party tavern. That was back in early January, many crimes ago.

Thankfully, the police finally got this 19-year-old terror off the streets. A 19-year-old murderer!

Sadly, it wasn't soon enough to save Knutowski's life.

Note that five of the six have a prior criminal record. They aren't rookies.

The six people charged so far are among more than a dozen arrested for the robberies. That's a lot of bad guys put away -- at least for now.

Although the crimes are being solved and the criminals are being held accountable, I wonder about the long term effects of the crime crisis.

I wonder if there will be any lasting impact on the area because of all the robberies.

Will people ever feel as safe as they once did?

I suppose people will eventually relax, as long as there's not another string of robberies.

People will probably feel comfortable again; but I don't think it will be the same.

Once innocence is lost it's lost forever.
___________________________

The robberies were the work of the Spanish Cobras.

The arrests of suspects believed to be linked to the South Side Spanish Cobras gang cleared nearly 40 armed robberies that stretched across Milwaukee and nearby suburban communities where small businesses and customers were targeted by masked men wielding guns for months.

Twelve people have been arrested in the crimes which were heavily publicized in Milwaukee's Bay View neighborhood but have since been connected to several communities, including St. Francis, South Milwaukee, Cudahy, West Allis, Greenfield, West Milwaukee, Glendale, Wauwatosa and Waterford in Racine County, Milwaukee police Deputy Chief Brian O'Keefe said today.

O'Keefe said police continue to seek more suspects in the cases, however, six people ranging in age from 18 to 32 have been charged so far in Milwaukee County Circuit Court.

Gang activity is not new to Milwaukee.

Read more here and here and here.

The Milwaukee Police Department has spent decades trying to dismantle the gangs.

It seems with each step forward there's two steps back.

You'd think leaders would make the issue a priority. You'd think.

Iranian Hostage Crisis: Ahmadinejad-Style

What is with the Iranians and hostages?

Was megalomaniac Mahmoud Ahmadinejad looking for something to propel him back into the news?

I guess you can call for the destruction of Israel only so many times before the media stop reporting it.

A nice high profile hostage crisis seems to be just what bully Ahmadinejad ordered to feed his massive ego.

Besides, it's been over 25 years since the Iranians held Americans in captivity for 444 days during Jimmy Carter's disastrous presidential term. Maybe radical Iranians longed to relive those good old days so they rounded up some Westerners to hold captive.

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia -- Iran's foreign minister said Wednesday that Britain must admit that its 15 sailors and marines entered Iranian waters in order to resolve a standoff over their capture by the Mideast nation.

Manouchehr Mottaki's statement in an interview with The Associated Press came on a day of escalating tensions, highlighted by an Iranian video of the detained Britons that showed the only woman captive saying her group had "trespassed" in Iranian waters. Britain angrily denounced the video as unacceptable and froze most dealings with the Mideast nation.

The Iranian official also backed off a prediction that the female sailor, Faye Turney, could be freed Wednesday or Thursday, but said Tehran agreed to allow British officials to meet with the detainees.

Mottaki said that if the alleged entry into Iranian waters was a mistake "this can be solved. But they have to show that it was a mistake. That will help us to end this issue."

"Admitting the mistake will facilitate a solution to the problem," he said late Wednesday night in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, where he was attending an Arab summit.

It was the first time that Iran has publicly suggested a way to resolve the crisis, but British acquiescence appeared unlikely as the country has been insisting since the crisis began that its troops were in Iraqi waters and released a GPS readout on Wednesday to back up the claim.

Mottaki enjoys yanking the Brits' chain.

The Iranians are behaving like unruly toddlers testing the preschool teacher.

It's critical that the British do not go wobbly and submit to the ridiculous demands of the Iranians.

...Earlier Wednesday, a brief video of the captured Britons was shown on Iran's Arabic language satellite television station, Al-Alam.

One segment showed sailors and marines sitting in an Iranian boat in open waters immediately after their capture.

The video also displayed what appeared to be a handwritten letter from Turney, 26, to her family.

"I have written a letter to the Iranian people to apologize for us entering their waters," it said. The letter also asks Turney's parents in Britain to look after her 3-year-old daughter, Molly, and her husband, Adam.

The video showed Turney in checkered head scarf and her uniform eating with other sailors and marines. Later, wearing a white tunic and black head scarf, she sat in a room before floral curtains and smoked a cigarette.

Turney was the only detainee to be shown speaking, giving her name and saying she had been in the navy for nine years.

"Obviously we trespassed into their waters," Turney said at one point, her voice audible under a simultaneous Arabic translation. "They were very friendly and very hospitable, very thoughtful, nice people. They explained to us why we've been arrested. There was no harm, no aggression."

Does anyone actually believe that those are Turney's own words?

"They were very friendly and very hospitable, very thoughtful, nice people."

Yeah, right.

Her statement was clearly scripted.

Parading the British sailors and marines before the cameras is a disgusting display.

Furthermore, it's particularly disturbing that the Iranians chose to exploit the only woman captive. That was clearly a calculated move intended to persuade the British to acquiesce.

Read the spin from the Islamic Republic News Agency, Ahmadinejad's propaganda machine:

British marine Mrs. Faye Turney from F99 Royal Navy on Wednesday admitted entry into Iranian territorial waters and apologized for doing so.

Turney, who is going to be freed soon, said that Iranian coast guards treated them friendly and with hospitality.

"My name is Faye Turney. I come from England, I live in England at present. I have served on F99. I have served in Navy nine years, I was arrested on Friday on 23rd of March which obviously has passed internal waters.

"I was treated friendly and hospitable they are nice people, they explained why we were arrested, and there is no aggression, no hurt, no harm, they are very very compassionate," she said in an interview.

Meanwhile, she forwarded a letter to her family to inform them about her well-being.

An Iranian foreign ministry official handed over the letter to British Ambassador to Tehran Jeffrey Adams on Wednesday.

"I want you all to know that I am well and safe. I am being well looked after.

"The people are friendly and hospitable, very compassionate and warm. I have written a letter to the Iranian people to apologise for us entering into their waters.

"Please don't worry about me; I am staying strong. Hopefully it won't be long until I am home, she said in part of her letter to her family.

Iran announced that she will be freed soon.

15 British marines, who had violated Iranian territorial waters in the Persian Gulf, were arrested on Friday.

What a load!

Have the so-called human rights organizations called out Iran for this exploitation?

I wonder what Rosie O'Donnell has to say about the treatment that the British sailors and marines are receiving.

She always blathering about torture and Gitmo and how horribly the U.S. treats detainees. She's so extreme that she was even eager to defend Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.

How does the video of the hostages fit into her idiotic conspiracy theory?

"But interesting with the British sailors, there were 15 British sailors and Marines who apparently went into Iranian waters and they were seized by the Iranians. And I have one thing to say: Gulf of Tonkin, Google it. Okay."

"Yes, but it’s very interesting too that, you know, these guys, they went into the water by mistake right at a time when British and American, you know, they're two, they’re pretty much our biggest ally and we're considering whether or not we should go into war with Iran."

Enough of the crazed O'Donnell and her lunacy.

The bottom line is the Iranians intentionally created an international crisis.

They set out to heighten tensions with the West.

Once again, Iran earns its place on the Axis of Evil.

President Bush Zings Webb

Tonight was the annual Radio and Television Correspondents' Association dinner in Washington, D.C.

President Bush got in some good lines when he delivered his remarks, although I thought he looked a little tired.

My favorite line: "I'd like to thank Senator Webb for providing security."

I also liked the President's jab at Barack Obama. He said that Obama didn't show up at the dinner because there wasn't enough press.

Milwaukee's Feral Children

Is there hope for the city of Milwaukee?

Is its future bright?

Look at its children. Look at the generation coming up.

It's a discouraging picture.

I hope that the good kids grow up to stand up to the bad ones, because at present, Milwaukee's future seems very bleak.

Currently, there is a shocking lack of leadership and a level of incompetence that is mind-boggling. You can count on one hand the Milwaukee leaders willing to acknowledge that the city is in crisis and offering solutions to tackle its problems.

Mayor Tom Barrett is AWOL.

In the meantime, high schoolers fight inside and outside the classroom.

Kids assault their teachers.

An 11-year-old boy was taken into custody Tuesday at Elm Creative Arts School, 900 W. Walnut Ave. after he hit a teacher on the head with the phone, bit her and then kicked and punched an educational assistant in the chest, police and school officials said today.

MPS spokeswoman Roseann St. Aubin said the student became unruly and angry during a class and took a phone receiver located in the class and struck the teacher in the head three times. He then bit her, she said.

An educational assistant who was making an effort to restrain the child was kicked and punched in the chest, she said.

Kids commit murder.

Antonio Jones, murderer of 44-year-old Scott Huggins, is 16!

Today, two more kids were taken into police custody for their involvement in a murder.

A 15-year-old and a 16-year-old are in police custody in connection with the killing of Cardell Bonslater Sr. in February, police said this morning.

Bonslater, 63, was shot and killed during a robbery Feb. 5 at his appliance store located in the 3600 block of N. Martin Luther King Dr.

From a February 6, 2007, report in The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

Two masked men - one with a gun -- entered Magic Furniture Variety Appliance Store, 3611 N. Martin Luther King Dr., at 7:19 p.m. and demanded money, said department spokesperson Anne E. Schwartz said. Bonslater was in the store with two other people moving an appliance.

After the men got cash, they fled and Bonslater followed them out. That is when he was shot, police said. Because the investigation is ongoing, no other information was released such as where on his body Bonslater was hit.

Are the 15 and 16-year-olds the masked men that killed Bonslater?

Read more about Bonslater.

Cardell Bonslater Sr. made a major career change a year ago, from hairdresser to appliance store owner, his daughter said Tuesday.

It was at his store - Magic Appliance in the 3600 block of N. King Drive - that Bonslater, 63, was killed Monday night in a robbery, police said.

Bonslater was in the store with a couple employees about 7:15 p.m. when two masked men, one armed, came in, said Anne E. Schwartz, department spokeswoman. The robbers got cash. Schwartz said Bonslater followed them and was shot outside, where he died.

...Bonslater's daughter Samantha Smith, 29, said her father was killed inside the store and didn't follow the robbers out. She doesn't believe her father would let masked people in the store after it was closed.

"I think it was someone already in the store with him," Smith said. "They asked him for money, and they shot him anyway."

Bonslater moved to Milwaukee from Chicago in 1996, Smith said. He cut hair in Chicago and Milwaukee, but he also was good at fixing appliances, she said.

"He was a jack of all trades," she said.

He opened his store a year ago and worked many hours there, she said, but he never had been robbed before Monday.

Bonslater, who was divorced, liked playing pool and belonged to a league, she said. But mostly he enjoyed spending time with his 10 children and 30 grandchildren, she said.

"Anyone who met him would have loved him," Smith said.

My heart breaks for the victims of these ruthless murderers. My heart breaks for their grieving families and friends.

Are the children that committed these crimes and brought so much misery victims?

Should we feel sorry for these kids gone astray?

If these children truly don't know right from wrong, if they don't know that assault, stealing and murder are wrong, then I guess one can't blame them for what they've done. In that case, they have no guidelines to follow when exercising their free will.

I don't buy it.

I don't buy that they don't know that killing someone in cold blood is wrong. Of course they know that taking someone's life is wrong.

The violence isn't caused by guns or a lack of jobs or poverty. Individuals choose to commit the crimes.

Milwaukee's children are all too routinely committing serious crimes. There's no excusing that.

This is about morals and the depths of the soul.

Are these young criminals animals, without any understanding of values and rules of society?

No.

Whatever our circumstances, we are each responsible for our actions.

We each should be held accountable for what we do; and in the case of Milwaukee's Mayor Tom Barrett, for what he DOESN'T do.

Eliot Stein: How NOT to Behave on the Internet

Instances of ugliness on the Internet abound.

This one is truly disgusting.

Cathy Seipp was dying.

The 49-year-old newspaper columnist and conservative blogger, who had come from Manitoba, Canada, to become the sharp-tongued doyenne of the Los Angeles media scene, was only hours away from losing her years-long fight with cancer, leaving behind a 17-year-old daughter, a lifetime of work as a plucky and plain-speaking wordsmith, and the respect of colleagues from both sides of the political spectrum.

But what was supposed to have been a dignified end for a long-suffering single mom instead turned into what friends called a disgustingly public travesty, an example of the current Wild West atmosphere of Internet privacy issues, and a sordid showcase of just how far a beef can go.

Just hours before her death, “Cathy Seipp” suddenly seemed to undo decades of hard work with an oddly written letter posted on the Web site, www. cathyseipp.com. In what came off as more bizarre rant than heartfelt apology, her supposed “very last blog entry” called her years of journalism a “shoddy,” “despicable” and “irresponsible” career as a “fourth-rate hack.” Her political stance? All a mistake.

The fiery, unwavering supporter of George W. Bush supposedly said she'd done a complete 180 in the past year and was now an implied supporter of Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y. What was even more perplexing was that “Seipp” was taking mean-spirited potshots at her own daughter, Maia Lazar, whom she called an “obnoxious” and “arrogant” wanna-be “skank” who was “mentally ill.” Throughout the letter, the one person whom “Seipp” seemed most sorry for ever having offended was Maia's 10th-grade journalism teacher, who had frequently clashed with mother and daughter. Finally, “Seipp” said she was probably to blame for her own illness — the “venom” she'd spewed for years was responsible for her terminal cancer.

Friends were horrified. They quickly realized that the letter was the work of an infamous character known as “Troll Dolls” who'd positioned himself as the blogger's archenemy and bought the domain name www.cathyseipp.com years earlier (Seipp's real Web site is www.cathyseipp.net). Troll Dolls is really Eliot Stein, a 54-year-old former online talk-show host and stand-up comedian who hadd taught Maia in a journalism class for a brief period in 2004, and who blamed Maia and Seipp for his departure from the school after only five weeks. Seipp's friends marshaled their resources, creating an impromptu Internet chat room to make their plans, fingering Stein as the culprit, enlisting the help of a lawyer to serve him a cease-and-desist letter, and successfully lobbying Stein's Internet host to take the Web site down permanently.

“He's a genuinely weird dude [who wrote] a rambling, odd, mean, totally cruel series of posts ... designed to trick well-wishers, as Cathy lay dying, into reading a torrent of rage and bitterness against her,” Rob Long, an L.A. television writer and longtime friend of Seipp's, wrote in an e-mail. “Just immensely cruel. It was easy to ignore when she was alive, but as she died it became intolerable — thousands and thousands of people wanted to reach out to Cathy and her family in the days surrounding her death, and this guy tricked, perverted and deeply hurt them. And for what? A years-old grudge?”

There was perhaps one silver lining, Seipp's friends said. They first found Stein's letter on March 20. Seipp died in the afternoon of March 21, never having known what Stein was saying in her name.

Read more.

I don't understand people like Stein.

I don't know what it's like to be without a conscience.

The Iraq Timeline and the War on the White House

The Democrats, Chuck Hagel, and Gordon Smith are playing games.

They voted for a U.S. troop withdrawal from Iraq by March 31, 2008. By attaching the provision to a funding bill for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, they hope to up the pressure on President Bush to give up on victory.

Do you think insurgents, terrorists, and tyrants have the date on their calendars?

Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad must be counting the days. Al Qaeda leaders, too.

The President has said that there's no way he would sign a bill that includes a timeline for troop withdrawal. A veto is certain.

The President is disappointed that the Senate continues down a path with a bill that he will veto and has no chance of becoming law. In the two weeks since the Senate defeated a similar proposal, General Petraeus reports encouraging signs are already emerging. The Senate, which unanimously confirmed the General for this mission, needs to support him by providing our troops the funding they need - not by mandating failure. As the President said, "Our men in women in uniform should not have to worry that politicians in Washington will deny them the funds and the flexibility they need to win."

The Dems and Republican defectors Hagel and Smith won't be able to override Bush's veto. It's all a game, an effort to appease the fringe anti-war crowd.

They don't care. They want to suck up to anarchists and Vietnam retreads by sending a message to the President and to our allies and to our enemies that the U.S. Senate is pressing forward to secure defeat in Iraq and Afghanistan.

They don't care that while they screw around playing politics, our troops are waiting for a bill to supply necessary funding.

WASHINGTON -- Congressional Democrats are showing no signs of backing down on their rebuke of the Iraq war, insisting President Bush will have to accept some sort of legislative timetable in exchange for the billions of dollars needed to fund the war.

"We would hope that the president understands how serious we are," said Majority Leader Harry Reid , D-Nev., after the Senate voted to uphold a proposal in a war spending bill calling for the troop withdrawal.

As the Senate resumes debate on the $122 billion bill Wednesday, President Bush was expected to address the legislation in a speech at the National Cattlemen's Beef Association meeting in Washington.

Deputy press secretary Dana Perino said Bush would use the speech as an opportunity to address the war on terror and the need to let the new Iraq security plan get fully under way.

"The president will say it is dangerous to our soldiers on the ground to let Washington politics delay this funding," Perino said.

But Reid and other Democrats say they won't back down.

"Rather than making all the threats that he has, let's work with him and see if he can give us some ideas how we can satisfy the wishes of a majority of the Senate, the majority of the House and move forward," Reid said.

Reid is such a doofus.

I don't see the President's statement that he will not sign legislation that includes a date for troop withdrawal as a threat.

A veto is the right thing to do. It doesn't take a lot of brains to understand how dangerous a timeline is.

What war in our history has been won by telling the enemy how long we intend to fight?

Bush doesn't have to "satisfy the wishes of a majority of the Senate, the majority of the House."

He has to protect the American people and our interests, and uphold the Constitution.

The Oath of Office:

I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States. (So help me God.)

It doesn't say anything about a president's duty to satisfy the Senate's wishes.

If anyone is making threats, it's the Dems.

Reid said, "We would hope that the president understands how serious we are."

That's not a threat?

It seems threatening to me.

Senate Republicans tried Tuesday to strip out the withdrawal language but failed in a 50-48 vote. One Democrat — Sen. Mark Pryor of Arkansas — sided with Republicans in opposition to the public deadline, contending such a measure would broadcast U.S. war plans to the enemies.

"Congress should not define how long our enemy has to hang on to win," said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.

Sen. Chuck Hagel delivered the deciding vote by joining anti-war Republican Gordon Smith of Oregon in breaking ranks and voting with Democrats to put a nonbinding end date on the war.

"We have misunderstood, misread, misplanned and mismanaged our honorable intentions in Iraq with an arrogant self-delusion reminiscent of Vietnam," Hagel, R-Neb.

Pryor said he supports setting a deadline for U.S. involvement in Iraq, but only so long as such a date remains classified. Pryor compares the 2008 date set by his Democratic colleagues akin to announcing to the Germans plans for the U.S. invasion of France in World War II.

But ultimately, Pryor said, he will vote in favor of the bill.

Sometimes it's hard to believe just how irresponsible and incompetent our elected officials can be.

Hagel is enjoying the embrace of the lib media. He loves all the attention.

And Pryor...what can you say about him?

He's correct in saying that setting a withdrawal date would be like tipping Germany off about the D-Day invasion. But then, he turns around and says that in the end he'll vote for a withdrawal date.

It's like something John Kerry would do.

...Sen. Chuck Schumer said he sees Tuesday's vote as the first step in turning up the heat on Bush's war policies.

"This is not one battle; it's a long-term campaign," Schumer, D-N.Y., told reporters.

Listen to Schumer's language.

He and the Dems are at war with President Bush and the administration.

"This is not one battle; it's a long-term campaign."

That's sick.

Schumer's priority is to do battle with his fellow Americans, not foreign enemies wishing the U.S. harm.

Russ Feingold joins Schumer in talking about "first steps."

“Today marks an important step toward ending the war in Iraq. For the first time, the U.S. Senate will pass binding legislation requiring the President to begin withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq. While this is long overdue, it is a big step in the right direction and it brings us closer to ending our involvement in this disastrous war.”

This timeline doesn't spring from a desire to end the war. In fact, it wouldn't end the war. It would ensure continued bloodshed and a humanitarian disaster. It would increase the likelihood of more terrorist attacks here at home.

The timeline is all about politics and positioning.

The Dems and Chuck Hagel have decided that the enemy they vow to conquer is the Bush administration.
_____________________________

President Bush vows to fight these political opportunists.

WASHINGTON -- President Bush accused congressional Democrats Wednesday of meddling in Iraq war policy and setting a deadline for a U.S. pullout that would have disastrous repercussions for both countries.

As the Senate resumed debate Wednesday on a bill containing a spring 2008 timetable for bringing American troops home, Bush argued again that such a step would result in a needless delay of funds for troops. But Democrats are insisting that he'll have to accept some sort of timeline to get the money.

...Bush said Wednesday that the Democratic strategy move will not force him to negotiate. He said again that he would veto any funding legislation that includes a withdrawal timeline.

"The consequences of imposing such a specific and random date of withdrawal would be disastrous," Bush said in a speech at the National Cattlemen's Beef Association meeting. "Our enemies in Iraq would simply have to mark their calendars. They'd spend the months ahead plotting how to use their new safe haven once we were to leave. It makes no sense for politicians in Washington, D.C. to be dictating arbitrary timelines for our military commanders in a war zone 6,000 miles away."

Bush broadly defended his new war plan, which involves sending 21,500 additional U.S. combat troops to Iraq to help secure Baghdad and troubled Anbar Province. He said two months of joint operations with Iraqi troops have seen some early successes but "it's going to require a sustained, determined effort to succeed."

"If we cannot muster the resolve to defeat this evil in Iraq, America will have lost its moral purpose in the world and we will endanger our citizens," the president said. "If we leave Iraq before the job is done, the enemy will follow us here."

Bush accused lawmakers of engaging in little more than "political statements" even as money for troops will run out next month.

"If Congress fails to pass a bill to fund our troops on the front lines, the American people will know who to hold responsible," Bush said.

Jim Webb Scares Me

What can I say?

Senator Jim Webb is scary.

He seems to be out of touch with reality. It's like he treats his life as if he's acting out scenes for an as yet unwritten novel.

Yesterday, the word from Webb's office was this: "To our knowledge, this incident was an oversight."

Today, things have changed.

Webb denies giving his gun to his aide Philip Thompson.

Sen. Jim Webb (D-Va.) said Tuesday that he did not give staffer Philip Thompson the pistol whose possession got the aide arrested Monday when he tried to enter the Russell Senate office building.

“I have never carried a gun in the Capitol complex and I did not give the weapon to Phillip Thompson, and that’s all that I think I’ll say,” Webb told reporters.

“I think this is one of those very unfortunate situations where, completely inadvertently, he took the weapon into the Senate yesterday,” Webb added. The senator noted that he was in New Orleans from Friday until Monday. He speculated that the incident happened because three of his cars were moved because of the trip.

...“Everyone here knows that I am a strong supporter of the Second Amendment, that I have had a permit to carry a weapon in Virginia for a long time, and I believe that it’s important — it’s important for me, personally, and for a lot of people in the situation that I’m in, to be able to defend myself and my family.”

Webb is parsing words; and it sounds like Thompson is agreeing to take a bullet for Webb. Slimy Webb is wiping his hands of the matter.

He says he didn't give the gun to Thompson. Who cares?

It certainly was Webb's gun and it certainly was in Thompson's possession.

Why should Webb and Thompson be treated any differently than any other citizen in D.C.?

Would a tourist who inadvertently brought a loaded gun to a Senate office building be let off the hook?

Furthemore, Webb is trying to paint himself as a victim of a conspiracy, as though he has enemies interested in assassinating him or harming his family.

Are the libs in the media getting on Webb's case for being a gun-toting cowboy?

Nooooo.

WASHINGTON -- Sen. Jim Webb turned an awkward episode — the arrest of one of his aides for carrying a gun into one of the Senate office buildings — into a political opportunity Tuesday, giving a spirited defense of his and other Americans’ right to carry firearms to defend themselves.

While Webb, D-Va., did not specifically say he’d support a change in the law in the District of Columbia that bans most residents and visitors from carrying or even possessing guns, he did defend the right of people to use guns in self-defense.

I wouldn't refer to this as an awkward episode.

That's being awfully easy on him.

Would the reaction of the lib media be the same if a Republican senator's aide inadvertently tried to bring a loaded gun into a Capitol Hill office building?

Can you imagine if someone working for Karl Rove did that?

There would be hearings. Chuckie Schumer would be on the Sunday talk shows demanding that this violent administration be investigated.

Since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, he said, “it’s a more dangerous time” for those serving in government. “I’m not going to comment with great specificity about how I defend myself, but I do feel I have that right,” he added.

Webb, a Marine veteran of the Vietnam War and former secretary of the Navy, said members of Congress did not have the high level of protection that the president and executive branch officials have. As a result, he said, “We are required to defend ourselves.”

When a reporter asked Webb if he considered himself “above Washington D.C.’s gun law,” the Virginian replied that he would not comment on “how I provide for my own security.”

Since 9/11?

Does Webb think that he might need a gun to battle some terrorists?

Talk about promoting a "culture of fear!"

Webb is exploiting the terrorist attacks as an excuse for disregarding D.C.'s gun laws.

He claims that he doesn't feel safe enough. The U.S. government doesn't provide enough security for senators.

Webb has the right to defend himself, but he doesn't have the right to break the law.

Update: Discount-mats.jerk

Back in January, a Wisconsin-based online business received national, even international, attention.

A U.S. soldier in Iraq contacted the business via e-mail to order some mats.

Here's the exchange:

From: SGT Jason Hess
Sent: Tue Jan 16 3:25

Do you ship to APO address? I’m in the 1st Cavalry Division stationed in Iraq and we are trying to order some mats but we are looking for who ships to APO first.

*******************************

From: contact@discount-mats.com
Sent: Tuesday, January 16, 2007 9:44 PM
Subject: Re: Feedback: from discount-mats.com

SGT Hess,
We do not ship to APO addresses, and even if we did, we would NEVER ship to Iraq. If you were sensible, you and your troops would pull out of Iraq.

Bargain Suppliers
Discount-Mats.com

The business was blown offline, for a while.

It's back and using what was incredibly negative publicity as a testimonial.



To say that Discount-mats is misleading potential customers is putting it mildly.

"As Seen On: Fox News, CNN, NBC" is not an endorsement for their mats or great customer service.

How stupid!

Rather than putting the episode behind it, the company is highlighting it. It's inviting people to google and learn more.

Not a bright business decision.

(h/t Charlie)

KANE, THE ANGER IS HERE!

Eugene Kane has an absolutely idiotic column in today's Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, "Where's anger when victim is black?"

What he writes is factually misleading. Kane twists reality to fit his warped view of Milwaukee as a crucible of racism.

Not surprisingly, Kane whines that people are expressing outrage over the murder of Scott Huggins because he was white. He argues that when the victims of violence are black, it doesn't elicit the same sort of angry reaction.

Of course, that's crap.

Kane writes:

When you're gone for a week on vacation, you don't figure things will change that fast.

But apparently the city of Milwaukee became a much scarier place since I left.

It seems Milwaukee is suddenly much more frightening to some people because of a shocking daytime crime. No, it wasn't the death of Prentice Barnes, a van driver killed by random gunfire near N. 39th and W. Center streets at eleven o'clock in the morning.

My March 13 column lamented that an innocent man could get killed in his own neighborhood at 11 a.m. and suggested daytime crime had become an unsettling reality for those who live in the city.

But Barnes' shooting didn't set off the same amount of hand-wringing as the death of Scott Huggins, the boxing coach from Waukesha. Barnes was African-American; Huggins was white.

If you think that has nothing to do with the reaction to any of this, it's probably good I'm back from vacation to clear things up.

When I heard Huggins was shot at a gas station at W. Capitol Drive and N. Sherman Blvd., it reminded me of all the times I've visited a morning radio talk show at WMCS-AM (1290), right across the street from where Huggins was killed.

For those of us who regularly travel the central city, the possibility of crime and violence is always a daunting reality. But if you travel the central city regularly, you also know Capitol Drive and Sherman Blvd. is not the typical scene for a daytime murder.

I also realized upon hearing the story that since Huggins was white, it would be a bigger deal than most crime in our city.

That's how I view all this overheated talk about an allegedly deadlier Milwaukee all of a sudden, described by doomsayers as a fearsome place with streets so violent, it's time to call in the National Guard. It makes me wonder if the routine police blotter of death in the central city simply never registered until the victim was a white suburbanite.

A few things--

Kane mocks the notion that Milwaukee is a scarier place in a week's time.

I believe that it gets scarier everyday. There's a cumulative effect, with each violent incident contributing to that awakening.

Kane suggests that Alderman Bob Donovan's idea to use the National Guard to help restore and maintain order in the city was prompted by Huggins' murder.

Obviously, Kane has time line issues. It's a careless error that exposes his agenda, which is to stir up controversy and get under the skin of white Milwaukee residents.

It's a pathetic cry for attention. (Yes, I realize that I'm giving it to him by commenting about his column, but his race-baiting can't go unanswered.)

Kane goes on:

Sadly, there was a brief opportunity to extract some hope out of Huggins' death. Police reported unprecedented support from African-American witnesses to help find the culprits, including two young bystanders who stayed by Huggins' side during his final minutes. Daniel Carter, the black Milwaukee County sheriff's deputy who caught the 16-year-old suspect, also deserves praise. But few have gotten around to it, seeing how they were too busy proclaiming Milwaukee a new murder capital.

That's flat-out wrong. It's another example of Kane altering reality to fit his template.

The people who helped to apprehend the Huggins' murderer, Antonio Jones, were proclaimed as heroes and role models.

I don't play the usual game in town that calls for quick response to a white death while a black death just reaffirms the black community's violent dysfunction. I also don't pay much attention to frightened suburbanites who vow never to visit the central city because of reported violence. Frankly, some of these folks didn't need a shooting to steer them away.

What's clear is the people who want to make Huggins a martyr for all the wrong reasons are the same ones for whom Barnes' death didn't register a blip.

That kind of thinking does make this a scary place.

And exactly what sort of game does Kane play?

Check out his highlight reel here and here.

His irresponsible accusations are, I believe, intentionally divisive. I know uniters. Uniters are friends of mine. Kane is no uniter.

He enjoys being a lightning rod.

But enough about Kane, the egomaniac and hypocrite.

What's most disturbing is Kane's complacency.

Instead of writing a column about the pressing need to take back the streets of Milwaukee from the thugs, he chastises the people wanting to do exactly that.

Kane is not part of the solution. He's part of the problem.

High School, Guns, and YouTube

Last week, I wrote about an incident at Pulaski High School, a public school in Milwaukee.

The initial report in The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has been shown to be incomplete and/or inaccurate.

An 18-year-old student at Pulaski High School was arrested after a gun was found in his locker Thursday, Milwaukee police said today.

The gun was not loaded, said police spokeswoman Anne E. Schwartz.

She said the boy dropped the gun from his pocket during a class and a school safety officer alerted the police.

That account is pretty straight forward.

A boy had a gun at school and the matter was dealt with promptly and appropriately.

As it turns out, there's more to the story.

From The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

Police and Milwaukee Public Schools officials on Monday were investigating allegations that a teacher at Pulaski High School, 2500 W. Oklahoma Ave., saw a gun in the possession of a student in school and did not notify authorities in a timely manner.

An unloaded gun was found Thursday in the 18-year-old student's locker after a second teacher notified security aides at the school, sources familiar with the incident said.

Following a second incident on the same day the gun was found, MPS administrators said they were investigating a teacher who appeared to be out of her classroom while a fight occurred between two students, with many others watching. A student videotaped the fight, apparently on a cell phone, and the video was posted on the YouTube site on the Internet.

The two incidents led Pulaski's principal, Ada Rivera, to call an emergency staff meeting after school Friday.

Rivera said she called the meeting "to remind staff about all of their responsibilities and why it is that we have a no electronic devices and cell phone policy in the district." She said the school must maintain strong standards of safety and conduct, and those standards are "non-negotiable."

MPS spokeswoman Roseann St. Aubin confirmed that officials were investigating whether a Pulaski teacher saw a gun fall out of a student's pocket last week but then did not tell authorities.

According to two sources who asked not to be named, including one connected to the school who feared job repercussions, the teacher told a colleague about the gun the next day, and the colleague told a school safety aide. Police were called, and the gun was found in the 18-year-old's locker.

St. Aubin said the investigation associated with the gun could lead to disciplinary proceedings that could include firing. The teacher at the center of that investigation was at work Monday.

First, how was a student able to videotape the fight on a cell phone?

Cell phones are banned in the public schools, but that's another matter. Let's put that aside.

This is a no-brainer. If a teacher did not report an ARMED student, that teacher should be fired.

What sort of teacher sees a student with a gun at school and doesn't take immediate action?

It's not a judgment call. What to do after spotting a kid with a gun is not a grey area.

I have sympathy for the teachers being expected to act like cops, rather than actually teach. It must be frustrating, not to mention frightening, for MPS teachers to face a roomful of thugs rather than reasonably well-behaved students.

Although it's a daunting, unenviable task, that's no excuse for failing to perform. It's what they get paid to do.

Teaching at MPS is definitely not for the faint-hearted.

In addition to the gun fallout, there's the disgrace of having a classroom fight scene at Pulaski High School posted on YouTube.

It's not a pretty picture of public education. Milwaukee residents should be troubled to see how their tax dollars are being spent.

Watch the video.

The videotaped fight did not leave either of the central parties injured, but the 52-second video clip posted on YouTube showed one swinging aggressively at the other and, at one point, slamming him into a radiator. One student made an attempt to break up the fight but others appeared to cheer it on.

...[St. Aubin] said the students involved were ninth-graders.

She said: "It's disturbing to watch. We're very unhappy that the incident happened. It almost becomes a secondary matter that it's posted on a well-viewed Web site. It just should never have happened."

Two students have been disciplined, she said, but she gave no details. Based on what can be seen in the video, "other student activities are under investigation," she said.

"The lack of student supervision is under investigation by the district administration," she added, and she expected MPS officials to involve police in that matter as well.

It's complete chaos.

I can't imagine any academic progress being made in such a setting.

I would think that Ada Rivera's job would be in jeopardy as well as the allegedly negligent teacher.

Students were shouting, screaming, cheering. They were making a lot of noise.

Not only was there no supervision in the classroom, but there was no swift response to the ruckus by other staff members or faculty. I can't believe that teachers in neighboring classrooms didn't notice that things were out of control.

Or are those the typical sounds coming from an MPS high school classroom, just another day at school?

St. Aubin claims the students were disciplined. Really? What was their punishment?

Writing "I will not fight in school" 100 times?

"I will leave my gun at home"?

Problems aren't limited to Milwaukee Public Schools. Shorewood High School is getting some bad press as well, thanks to another cell phone video made by a student photographer.

The video adds a dimension to the stories. It's one thing to hear that there was a fight. It's another thing to watch tape of it.

Shorewood -- Six students have been ticketed for their involvement in a lunchtime fight last week at Shorewood High School, and as many as 20 others who watched may also be ticketed, police said Monday.

The incident began as a dispute over money between two boys, one 15 and the other 17, Lt. Terry Zimmerman said. Zimmerman said that while one of the youths was black and the other was white, the incident did not appear racially motivated.

"If it had been racial, everyone would have jumped in," Zimmerman said. "That was not the case."

The police investigation was aided by a video recording one of the students made. Police released a copy of the video later Monday.

The video begins in the school cafeteria. The photographer introduces the two youths who were about to fight, and a group of about 20 students moves outdoors in a party-like mood to a grassy area on the school campus.

Once outdoors, the cameraman turns his camera on himself and explains that one boy had borrowed money from the other and had refused to pay it back, and now they were going to fight. The video shows a large crowd taunting the boys to "fight, fight," and several punches are thrown as the boys roll around on the street. Four people join in and start kicking, but it's unclear who they are aiming at.

..."We will be taking action soon," [Shorewood School Superintendent Blane McCann] said. "There will be consequences."

Really?

Will those consequences be severe enough to deter others at Shorewood from fighting?

I doubt it.

Wild, Wild Webb

Renaissance man Jim Webb is a real piece of work.

Virginia voters chose the heat-packing Webb to represent them in the Senate, sending George Allen packing.

Are you proud of yourselves, Webb supporters?

It was no secret that Webb wrote novels with pornographic scenes.

Even before he was sworn in, Webb made waves in Washington by dissing President Bush.
Webb boasted that he was "tempted to slug the commander-in-chief."

Yes, Webb is a colorful character.

Today, another bizarre chapter was added to "Jim Webb's Excellent Washington Adventure."

WASHINGTON -- An aide to Sen. Jim Webb was arrested Monday when he entered a Senate office building with a loaded pistol belonging to the senator.

Capitol Police spokeswoman Sgt. Kimberly Schneider said the aide was charged with carrying a pistol without a license and possessing an unregistered firearm and unregistered ammunition.

The office of Webb, D-Va., identified the aide as Phillip Thompson and said he was "a former Marine, a long-term friend and trusted employee of the senator."

Is that supposed to make it OK?

It sounds like Webb believes that former Marines, good friends, and trusted employees should be considered above the law.

What was Webb doing handing over a loaded gun to Thompson?

A congressional official briefed on the incident said Webb gave the gun to Thompson when the assistant drove him to an airport earlier in the day. Thompson, upon entering the Senate building, forgot he was carrying the weapon.

"To our knowledge, this incident was an oversight," Webb's office said in a statement. It said it had no other details.

The weapon was revealed when the aide went through an X-ray machine at an entrance of the Russell Senate Office Building, Schneider said. She said the man had a loaded pistol with two additional loaded magazines.

According to Webb's office, the gun incident was an "oversight."

What kind of "oversight"?

Oops! Thompson forgot he was bringing a loaded gun into the Senate Office Building!

I've always thought that there was something odd about Webb. I didn't realize he would turn out to be this odd. Eccentric is too kind a word. He's creepy.

Earlier this month, Webb put out a press release referring to Iran, telling President Bush to "holster his guns before he leads America into another unprovoked war."

"This presidency has shot from the hip too many times for us to be able to trust it to act on its own," Webb said.

It appears that Webb likes to be ready to shoot from the hip, doesn't it?

There's something very, very strange about this Dem senator.