Thursday - March 08, 2007

The Inside Scoop

Confession: I have this recurring fantasy that creeps into my dreams every once in a while. I usually wake up afterward in a very aroused state. The dream involves a mud-wrestling match, kinda like the one in the movie “Stripes”. I am in the John Candy role in my t-shirt and boxer shorts referreeing the match. I’m drunk and soaked in beer (thanks to my buddies) and I stand awaiting the entrance of the contestants.

Here’s the kicker ... the match is between Ann Coulter (on the right) and Maureen Dowd (on the Left). Both are clad in panties and bra - and nothing else. They enter the ring and warily circle each other as I try to stay out of the way. Suddenly, the two tigresses spring at each with teeth bared and nails clawing at the opponent. Mud flies, animal growls rise and fall as underwear goes flying. Suddenly I’m tripped and fall into the mud with the female tornado going on around me and on my head as naked female flesh presses against ....

Then I usually wake up. Damn!

My Very Own Juror
-- By MAUREEN DOWD
_{(NY TIMES) - March 8, 2007}

When the Scooter Libby trial ended, the media was found guilty. By the media. Which likes to obsess on itself. In the media. The press gave short shrift to poor Scooter, whose downfall came from doing Dick Cheney’s bidding with “canine loyalty,” as Chris Matthews told Don Imus yesterday morning. Scooter’s facing hard time, even though others in the administration also spread the word about Valerie Plame.

But let’s get back to the media decrying the media, and the incestuous Beltway relationship between journalists and sources. Listening to all the lamentations, I excitedly realized I had a potentially incestuous relationship with a source inside the Beltway.

I went to Nativity grade school in D.C. with Juror No. 9, Denis Collins. I had an unrequited crush on his brother when I was in seventh grade. His dad was my dad’s lawyer, and both were Irish immigrants. My brother Kevin coached his brother Kevin in touch football. Our moms were in the Sodality together. His mom once chastised me for chatting up a little boy in church. We started in journalism together, Denis at The Washington Post as a sportswriter and Metro reporter, and me at The Washington Star as a sportswriter and Metro reporter.

This was a sure thing. I could get him to come over to my house and spill all the secrets of the jury that had convicted the highest-ranking White House official to be found guilty on a felony since Iran-contra days. Unfortunately, Denis spilled them on the way over. By the time he got to my house, he was already so overexposed he announced, “I’m sick of hearing myself talk.”

From the moment he stepped out of the courthouse and into the press mob in his green Eddie Bauer jacket, Denis became the unofficial jury spokesman, bouncing from Larry King to Anderson Cooper and “Good Morning America.” I thought there still might be enough jury dish for me until I heard him say “Huffington Post blog.”

“Blogs are the future, right?” he said, explaining that he’d already posted his diary of adventures in federal court — right down to our incestuous Catholic past, which came up in the voir dire, when he also mentioned living across the alley from Tim Russert and working at The Post for Bob Woodward, and his nonfiction book about spying and the C.I.A.

“I was the perfect storm,” he said. Instead of me milking him for information, he tried to milk me for information. He asked about the pitfalls of being in a media maelstrom. “Somebody called me up today and said: ‘Turn on Rush Limbaugh. He’s saying terrible things about you.’ ”

I asked him how he would feel if W. pardoned Scooter.

“I would really not care,” he replied. “I feel like the damage has been done in terms of his reputation and the administration’s reputation.”

And what about the calls for Dick Cheney to resign or get the boot?

“Here’s the thing: Libby followed Cheney’s instructions to go talk to reporters, but there’s no evidence at all that Cheney told him to lie about it. So the question is, was Libby just kind of inept at getting this story out?”

- More ...

Posted by The Skipper     on 03/08/2007 at 11:45 AM   
Filed Under: • Democrats-Liberals-Moonbat Leftists • Editorials • Judges-Courts-Lawyers • Satire •  
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Astronaut Story Follow-Up

I’m glad the Navy is doing the right thing with this woman. She still faces criminal charges and the Navy is going to postpone judgment until that case plays out. In the end she will probably be forced out of the Navy but in the meantime she can receive psychiatric care and work on getting her life (and her head) back together. After all, how many of us can claim to never have done anything this incredibly stupid in our lives? Think glass houses and stones, people ...

Astronaut Dismissed By NASA, Will Take Navy Assignment
_{(WASHINGTON POST) - Thursday, March 8, 2007}

Astronaut Lisa M. Nowak has been dismissed by NASA and will return to active duty in the Navy, officials said yesterday. Nowak has been charged with attempted kidnapping and other felonies in connection with a late-night encounter in Florida with a woman she saw as a rival for the affections of astronaut William A. Oefelein, a Navy commander.

Navy spokeswoman Lydia Robertson said Nowak will begin her new assignment on March 21, working with the Chief of Naval Air Training in Corpus Christi, Tex. Navy officials have said they will decide whether Nowak should face military charges after her criminal case runs its course.

The public dismissal of Nowak appears to be the first in the history of the astronaut corps, said space historian Roger D. Launius of the Smithsonian Institution. He said Nowak is also the first active-duty astronaut charged with a felony.

Nowak, 43, pleaded not guilty to charges of attempted kidnapping and burglary with assault, stemming from her Feb. 5 confrontation at Orlando International Airport with Air Force Capt. Colleen Shipman. Nowak was released on bail and is wearing a monitoring device on her ankle.

- More ...

Posted by The Skipper     on 03/08/2007 at 11:27 AM   
Filed Under: • Insanity •  
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The Heat Is On

I would like to think my e-mail to President Bush that I sent a couple of days ago had something to do with his reluctance to even consider a pardon at this point but the truth is that it would be political poison for Dubya to pardon Libby now. We’ll see how this plays out over the next week or so. Meanwhile, two Border Patrol agents still sit rotting in prison, getting beat up by Hispanics. They need to be pardoned right damn now!

Bush Deflects Pressure To Give Libby a Pardon
Clemency Before 2008 Election Could Be Politically Risky
_{(WASHINGTON POST) - Thursday, March 8, 2007}

President Bush said yesterday that he is “pretty much going to stay out of” the case of I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby until the legal process has run its course, deflecting pressure from supporters of the former White House aide to pardon him for perjury and obstruction of justice.

Libby’s allies said Bush should not wait for Libby to be sentenced, and should use his executive power to spare Vice President Cheney’s former chief of staff the risk of prison time for lying to a grand jury and FBI agents about his role in leaking the name of an undercover CIA officer. But the prospect of a pardon triggered condemnation from Democrats and caution from some Republicans wary of another furor.

Defense lawyers for Libby said they are focused on seeking a new trial and appealing Tuesday’s jury verdict, while making clear that they believe the president should step in. “Our number one goal is to see Scooter’s conviction wiped out by the courts and see him vindicated,” attorney William Jeffress Jr. said in an interview. “Now, I’ve seen all the calls for a pardon. And I agree with them. To me, he should have been pardoned six months ago or a year ago.”

In his first comments on the case since the verdict, Bush told CNN en Español that he has to “respect that conviction” but that he “was sad for a man who had worked in my administration.” Bush did not rule out a pardon but implied that it is not imminent. “I’m pretty much going to stay out of it until the course—the case has finally run its final—the course it’s going to take,” he told Univision during an interview before a trip to Latin America that begins today.

No one knows better than Libby how politically hazardous a pardon can be. Before he became Cheney’s chief of staff, Libby served as an attorney for Marc Rich, the financier whose pardon by President Bill Clinton in the last hours of his administration provoked a storm of complaints. Now Libby finds himself in the same situation as his onetime client, hoping for a president’s beneficence.

The pardon power is enshrined in the Constitution and is completely at the president’s discretion. In recent decades, presidents have been increasingly reluctant to use it for fear of political trouble. When they have exercised it in controversial cases, they typically have waited until their terms were at an end, as Clinton did with Rich, Susan McDougal, Roger Clinton and others, and as George H.W. Bush did in pardoning former defense secretary Caspar W. Weinberger and others implicated in the Iran-contra arms-for-hostages case. Libby is the highest-ranking White House official convicted of a felony since that scandal.

Otherwise, pardons in recent times generally have been granted to people who were convicted years earlier of nonviolent crimes and who have completed their sentences and redeemed themselves. Bush has granted 113 pardons over six years, nearly a modern low, and has never pardoned anyone who had not been released from prison. He has commuted the sentences of three others.

Libby probably faces a prison sentence of 1 1/2 to three years for lying about his role in the disclosure of the identity of undercover CIA officer Valerie Plame, wife of war critic and former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV. But Libby could avoid jail time until after the 2008 presidential election through appeals, according to legal specialists—timing that would make a pardon easier for Bush politically.

Libby’s defense team intends to seek a new trial and possibly appeal his conviction on four felony counts. U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton has scheduled sentencing for June 5, when many lawyers expect him to allow Libby to remain out of prison pending appeals that could last through late 2008.

Some Republicans said yesterday that Bush should wait for that process to play out. “It’s probably too early for the White House to reach a determination,” said former congressman Robert S. Walker (Pa.), adding that Libby “is certainly entitled to take this into the appeals process, and I don’t think it should be interfered with.”

But if Special Counsel Patrick J. Fitzgerald insists that Libby begin serving his sentence right away and Walton agrees, it could force the question sooner. “Then the issue could ripen very fast,” said Bradford A. Berenson, a former Bush White House lawyer, who said he expects a debate within the White House about what to do.

“It seems likely that the vice president will advocate for a pardon,” he said. “What’s less clear is whether the president would agree.”

- More ...

Posted by The Skipper     on 03/08/2007 at 11:10 AM   
Filed Under: • Judges-Courts-Lawyers • Politics •  
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Encore!

This is just way too embarrassing for words to describe. Ordinary human beings like us should never have to be subjected to this horror. There ought to be a law against it. Doesn’t the Geneva Convention protect me from this? As a Southerner, I am deeply offended. Click on the image below and wait for the Flash popup window to open.

Posted by The Skipper     on 03/08/2007 at 10:44 AM   
Filed Under: • Hildabeast •  
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“Private” Property

The notion of private property is one ingrained into our cultural concience.  We value it very highly, as evidenced by the severe backloash over the Kelo decision by the SCOTUS last year.  But what are your children learning about private property from their teachers?  If they are in Government school, you can bet your kitten that they are learning that private property is a bad thing.

A simple example that Neal Boortz has been touting for years is the annual “School Supplied Shuffle”, whereby kids are told which supplies they need to buy for the upcoming year, then when they arrive in class for the first day, all those supplies are gathered into one pile to be used by those who need them, when they need them.  Thos sissors and crayons and glue sticks that your child painstakingly picked out for his very own immediately become the property of the state, to be distributed to those who need them.  “From each according to his ability, to each acording to his need”

I now read of a bed-wetting liberal teacher in the Seattle area who has taken it a step further.  The full article is subscription only, but you can see the gist here.

As they watched their elementary-age students playing with Legos, Ann Pelo and Kendra Pelojoaquin saw some disturbing trends.

In the current issue they describe how some kids hoarded the “best” pieces, denied their classmates any access at all to the pretend town they were building, and displayed other undesirable behavior surrounding ownership and the social power it conveys.

So the teachers banned Legos, and worked with the kids to surface the issues raised by the ways they had been using the popular building blocks.

Makes me want to puke.

Posted by Drew458     on 03/08/2007 at 10:49 AM   
Filed Under: • Democrats-Liberals-Moonbat Leftists • Insanity •  
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   Wednesday - March 07, 2007

Through The Looking Glass

_{(Click image for larger 1600x1200 in popup window)}

Posted by The Skipper     on 03/07/2007 at 09:04 PM   
Filed Under: • Art-Photography •  
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Lost!

Lost again, y’all. I’m over my favorite USAF base in the whole, entire world - it’s home. It’s down South and if you’ve been reading this blog for any length of time at all you probably have a good idea where it is.

Final hint: In February 1910, the Wright Brothers decided to open one of the world’s earliest flying schools at this site that would subsequently become a USAF base. The Wrights taught the principles of flying, including take-offs, balancing, turns, and landings. The first recorded heavier-than-air night flights in aviation history occurred here on May 25, 1910. The school closed on May 27.

_{(Click image for larger 1065x915 in popup window)
(Photo from Google Earth Desktop)}

Posted by The Skipper     on 03/07/2007 at 04:25 PM   
Filed Under: • Fun-Stuff •  
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Trouble Afoot

Lt. Smash is worried about the punks.

FOUND on DC Indymedia, a post by “A”:

Anti-authoritarian bloc on the 17th?
About the demo on March 17th:

People who are planning a black bloc, youth bloc, SDS bloc or something like that should announce it so more than 10 people can join in and make it worthwhile.

And this reply, by “dylan”:

bring some paint so we can spray the wall.

For those who haven’t been following along, the demo “A” refers to is ANSWER’s “March on the Pentagon.”

And the wall “dylan” wants to spray paint is the Vietnam Memorial.

I loved this comment by one of his readers:

Comrades,

I’ll be in Washington on the 17th, with my cane and my resolve to protect the monumnents (all of them) from desecration.

More than 30 years ago, I was one of those who was covered in paint and blood by the local SDS chapter, all because I was wearing the uniform of my country. I never forgot that day, and i have never forgiven those who comitted that act. payback is a bitch.

I truly hope that some smart-ass punk tries to vandalise the wall, or whatever monument I am helping to defend. I’ve waited decades for this time. I could care less hat happens to me. I’m older, and in failing health, my kids are grown, and I’ve got time enough to spend supporting my comrades in arms.

Go ahead punks, make my day. For decades, you’ve been given carte blanche with your pansy-assed protesting and chic marxist dribble. Now you’ll come up against some folks who’ve had enough of your crap.

Time to face reality, boys..... I won’t throw the first punch, but I’ll damned sure throw the last one.

If you’re in DC on St. Paddy’s Day, I might suggest a visit to the memorial.

Posted by Drew458     on 03/07/2007 at 04:02 PM   
Filed Under: • Commies •  
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Motivational Poster Of The Day

Posted by The Skipper     on 03/07/2007 at 02:01 PM   
Filed Under: • Motorvators •  
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The Jerk

_{Gary McCoy - The Illinois Suburban Journals}

Posted by The Skipper     on 03/07/2007 at 01:12 PM   
Filed Under: • Hildabeast •  
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Illegals Nabbed In Boston

Illegal aliens in Boston working in factories making supplies for our troops because DoD contractor landed a huge contract that was bigger than they could handle without grabbing illegal aliens off the street. Now the illegals have been arrested and will be deported. Our troops will be shortchanged while a new contractor is found. There are so many things wrong with this story I’m getting a major headache sorting it all out. What do you think ....

Major Raid Targets Illegal Immigrants Near Boston
_{BOSTON (Reuters) - Wed Mar 7, 2007 10:46am ET163}

Federal officials detained 350 suspected illegal immigrants at a Massachusetts factory that made supplies for the U.S. military in one of the biggest such raids in New England, authorities said on Wednesday.

The immigrants had been making leather goods, including vests, grenade pouches and backpacks for soldiers in Iraq, and are now being held at a former Army base near the town of New Bedford where they were working, officials said.

Workers who are in the country illegally will be charged and deported, officials said. Most of those caught were from Latin America.

Federal officials said they investigated the Michael Bianco Inc. factory in the former whaling town south of Boston for months and used an undercover agent to pose as an illegal immigrant.

Tuesday’s early morning raid by officials from the Department of Homeland Security and other agencies came at a time the U.S. government is trying to reform its immigration laws and crack down harder on people who enter the country illegally and those who employ them.

The factory won millions of dollars in contracts from the U.S. Defense Department in recent years and officials said it came to rely on illegal workers to meet rapidly growing demand for its products.

Prosecutor Michael Sullivan, the U.S. Attorney in Massachusetts, said agents arrested the factory’s owner, his payroll manager, plant manager and office manager.

Posted by The Skipper     on 03/07/2007 at 12:54 PM   
Filed Under: • Illegal-Aliens and Immigration • Military •  
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News Of The Weird

• “Unzipped Fly Leads Officers to Pot Stash” - ABC NEWS


• “Jesus Might Be Alive and Well in Houston” - ABC NEWS


• “Cannabis Grandmother Spared Jail” - BBC


• “Indian Cow Eats More Chicken” - CNN


• “Elvis Voters Alert Suspicious Minds In New Guinea” - CNN


• “Drill Sergeant Accused of Forcing Trainee to Dress as Superman, Submit to Sex Acts” - FOX NEWS

Posted by The Skipper     on 03/07/2007 at 12:20 PM   
Filed Under: • Odd-Strange •  
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Irish Eyes Are Smiling

_{Brian Fairrington - Cagle Cartoons}

Needed This St. Patrick’s Day – Ronald Reagan
-- By Tom Purcell

It was on St. Patrick’s Day 1988 when an unexpected visitor arrived at Pat Troy’s Irish pub in Alexandria, Va—President Ronald Reagan.

For 27 years, it’s been a favorite watering hole for Washington insiders. Some of Reagan’s advance men had been regulars. They secretly arranged the president’s visit.

Just before noon, the pub was half-packed when Reagan and his entourage arrived. As news got around, the pub quickly filled to capacity. While Reagan enjoyed a pint of Harp and some corned beef and cabbage, Troy was so busy tending to patrons, he didn’t have time to react to his famous patron.

“He had an energy about him that put you instantly at ease,” Troy told me. “He made it easy to carry on as though he was just another patron, so that is what I did.”

Troy took the stage and led the audience in “The Wild Rover.” He directed sections of the audience to compete with each other to see which could sing and clap the loudest.

“You have to clap louder, Mr. President,” he said to Reagan, prompting the president, not used to being given orders, to laugh.

Troy next led the audience in “The Unicorn Song.” While Troy sang the words, the audience mimicked the animals referenced in the song:

“There were green alligators and long-necked geese, some humpty backed camels and some chimpanzees. Some cats and rats and elephants, but sure as you’re born, the loveliest of all was the unicorn.”

Reagan turned to watch a group of young women act out the song. His face showed curiosity and delight – he’d never seen this song performed before.

But that was how he was: At the same time he was the world’s most powerful man, the man who felled communism and restored American optimism, he was a man of youthful innocence who found immense pleasure in the simplest things.

When Troy finished, he handed the president the microphone. The normally raucous crowd became extraordinarily quiet.

Reagan spoke off the top of his head. He graciously thanked Troy for having him for lunch. He said it was a great surprise. He talked about his father, an Irishman.

“When I was a little boy, my father proudly told me that the Irish built the jails in this country,” he said, pausing expertly. “Then they proceeded to fill them.”

The crowd laughed heartily.

“You have to understand that for a man in my position, I’m a little leery about ethnic jokes,” he said. The crowd roared. “The only ones I can tell are Irish.”

He talked about a recent trip to Ireland. He visited Castle Rock, the place where St. Patrick erected the first cross in Ireland.

“A young Irish guide took me to the cemetery and showed me an ancient tombstone there,” he said. “The inscription read: ‘Remember me as you pass by, for as are you so once was I, and as I am you too will be, so be content to follow me.”

As Reagan paused, the crowd eagerly awaited his follow up.

“Then I looked below the inscription, where someone scratched in these words: ‘To follow you I am content, I wish I knew which way you went.’”

The crowd roared loud and long, causing the president to deadpan to his advance men: “Why didn’t I find this place seven years ago?”

The pub visit was videotaped by Reagan staffers and released to Troy 10 years after Reagan left office. I watched that video and got to see a snapshot of pure, unscripted Ronald Reagan.

It shows how powerfully and eloquently the man was able to engage any audience, large or small, just by being his genuine self. As we begin the process of selecting our next president, we sure could use another fellow like him.

I’ll be sure to offer up a toast to the Great Communicator as I celebrate St. Patrick’s Day this year:

“To follow you we were content, and grateful for the way we went.”

---

_{Tom Purcell is a humor columnist nationally syndicated exclusively by Cagle Cartoons. For comments to Tom, please email him at Purcell@caglecartoons.com}

Posted by The Skipper     on 03/07/2007 at 11:21 AM   
Filed Under: • Editorials •  
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   Tuesday - March 06, 2007

Lost!

_{(Click image for larger 1065x915 in popup window)
(Photo from Google Earth Desktop)}

Posted by The Skipper     on 03/06/2007 at 04:00 PM   
Filed Under: • Fun-Stuff •  
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Not that very many people ever read this far down, but this blog was the creation of Allan Kelly and his friend Vilmar. Vilmar moved on to his own blog some time ago, and Allan ran this place alone until his sudden and unexpected death partway through 2006. We all miss him. A lot. Even though he is gone this site will always still be more than a little bit his. We who are left to carry on the BMEWS tradition owe him a great debt of gratitude, and we hope to be able to pay that back by following his last advice to us all:

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It's been a long strange trip without you Skipper, but thanks for pointing us in the right direction and giving us a swift kick in the behind to get us going. Keep lookin' down on us, will ya? Thanks.

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