Via Spoons, four years down the drain.

After a four-year investigation, students at the University of Illinois have determined the identity of Deep Throat, the most elusive, anonymous news source in history: Fred Fielding, deputy counsel to former President Richard Nixon

From the Washington Post: "In 2000, she repeatedly pledged that she would finish her term without seeking the presidency. Aides say she will not issue such a pledge this time."

Today's trash laying in, on, or near the road was:

• Fiberglass Insulation - (Or if you're British, fibreglass).

Statistics
Commute: "Why do they call it rush hour when nothing moves?" -- Robin Williams
Door to door: 19 minutes

The Sunday Times reports that "In the age of steam, express trains averaged over 80mph... today they're lucky if they beat 60".

According to Bradshaw's Threepenny Railway Guide from 1900, three express trains an hour linked Liverpool and Manchester, taking just 40 minutes. A century later, it takes seven minutes longer. It took 35 minutes to travel from Portsmouth to Southampton in 1898, compared with 46 minutes today. In the 1930s, steam expresses regularly averaged more than 80mph.

I've heard similar stories about Los Angeles. Something like in the 1950s, the average freeway speed was 50 miles per hour. In the 1990s, it was 15 miles per hour.

NewsMax is reporting that John Kerry has finally signed the form to release all of his military records.

The D.C. Personal Protection Act of 2005 would restore firearm's rights to law-abiding Washington D.C. residents. Of course the usual suspects are full of anti-gun rhetoric.

"They're trying to see to it that more children get killed." -- Washington D.C. Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton, a Democrat.

"I am incensed by any proposal that is an insult to the memory of the people who have died in this city due to gun violence -- in particular the three children who have died from gun violence this year." -- Washington D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams, a Democrat.

Of course, in Illinois, legislators are likening gun owners to rapists:

Sex offenders' names are kept on record, Senator Kwame Raoul (D-Chicago) said, why shouldn't gun purchasers' names be archived, as well?

GeekWithA.45 points to an alarming statistic.

Liberal Foundations: $24 billion assets, $1.2 billion annual expenditures.
Conservative Foundations: $1.5 billion assets, $100 million annual expenditures.

The disparity aside, aren't you glad McCain got the money out of politics.

Nine year old Collin Kelly wanted to celebrate Memorial Day by marking the graves of war veterans with flowers. The Framingham (Mass.) boy collected money, ordered the flowers, and then learned life's lesson that no good deed goes unpunished.

The Kelly family has been on an unexpected adventure since Collin first came up with the idea to plant marigolds at 156 veterans' graves by Memorial Day. Collin thought somebody should put flowers on the graves of these soldiers, many of whom have been buried for decades, and he and his mother, Lynn, got the cemetery's OK to start planting flowers.

But when the cemetery's board of trustees got wind of the plan, they said the Kellys couldn't plant flowers on graves belonging to other families. Though board members said they appreciated Collin's gesture, their decision prompted an outcry from local veterans, nasty messages left for the cemetery superintendent and national media attention.

A few days ago, the trustees and the Kellys reached a compromise: the Kellys and friends could place geraniums, not plant them, on the graves, and they would remove them shortly after.

That's right, they have a "rule" against unauthorized planting, even on Civil War era graves. Only after intense public and media pressure would they relent, and the plants must be promptly removed by Memorial Day's end.

While Collin and several other children could only place the flowers on most of the graves, he was able to plant a geranium at the grave of Clyde P. DeLancey, a World War I veteran who died in 1972. "Today is a special day," said DeLancey's granddaughter, Perry Bent of Framingham, standing next to Collin as he dug.

After Collin moved on to another row of graves, Bent pulled out an index card with writing on it.

"I've got to put up a little political sign that says 'planted by a family member' so it won't get removed," Bent said. "It's sad that you have to do that." In addition to the please-don't-remove instruction, Bent's card read: "Thank you, Collin."

It's amazing that a 9 year old boy understands more than a board room full of cemetery bureaucrats.

In a bout of paranoid schizophrenia, Lionel Van Deerlin writes a cliche infested op-ed piece blasting the NRA for having the nerve to protect Second Amendment rights. What's funny is that about half way down, he shows that he knows as little about gun rights groups as he does civil rights.

In Northern Virginia, working behind its newly organized Citizen Defense League, the lobby is pressing for ordinances opening virtually every public place to concealed weaponry. Easily obtained permits would authorize armed entry to parks, libraries, shopping malls, county buildings - indeed, right up to the metal detectors at Reagan National Airport.

That is, of course, news to the Virginia Citizens Defense League, founded in 1994 as the Northern Virginia Citizens Defense League, who has been championing this effort independently of the NRA.

Heh!

Can you imagine a story beginning, "I raised the hood of my Volkswagen Mini, checked to make sure the spark cylinders were bolted into the pistons, and got in and started the 7-cylinder diesel, only to hear the turbo-supercharged whine of an oncoming Yugo limo - "?

This is why gun enthusiasts get so mad when writers talk about 25 mm handguns, or 40mm handguns, or about guns having magical abilities to shoot down airplanes. In most cases is just ignorant writers now knowing anything about the subject they are writing about. In other cases, it's a deliberate attempt to fool the general public.

Wishing everyone a happy Memorial Day!

(click to supersize)

This is the long awaited World War II Memorial.

This gentleman is a Filipino WWII veteran. He was kind enough to pose for a photograph, and snapped a salute for me. Afterward, he actually thanked me and all of America for liberating the Philippines during World War II. I was dumbfounded.

I tried to get his entire flag in the picture, but it required backing up so far that it would be hard to see him. Plus I wasn't sure how long he would hold the salute, and I risked losing the Lincoln Memorial in the background.

This is the Korean War Memorial. This photo is a reflection of the memorial off the granite walls. I thought it was an interesting look, and the lighting was perfect.

Here is a more traditional view of the Korean War Memorial.

I'm not saying they are avoiding it, but media outlets seem to have come up with a new catch phrase for the F-word:

"Senate Democrats refused to end debate on John R. Bolton's nomination to be U.N. ambassador yesterday..." -- Washington Post.

"Senate Republicans late Thursday failed in their bid to cut off debate over the nomination... The Senate voted 56-42 for cloture, four votes shy of the necessary 60 votes to cut off debate." -- CNN

"The vote against cutting off debate over the confirmation of John R. Bolton to be ambassador..." -- New York Times

"Republicans needed 60 votes to cut off debate and move immediately to a vote on Bolton's nomination..." -- Boston Globe.

"Thursday's delay resulted from a failed Republican effort to cut off debate, a move that required the support of three-fifths of the Senate." -- L.A. Times.

Even the Democrats are avoiding using the f-word. CBS News notes:

"It certainly sounds like a filibuster. It quacks like a filibuster," said Senate Republican leader Bill Frist of Tennessee.

"We are not here to filibuster Bolton, we are here to get information regarding Bolton," countered Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada.

So it was a "procedural delay" that requires 60 votes to break, but it is NOT, I say again, NOT a filibuster.

How Spoons made it on his own for the some 30 years before he met his wife, I'll never know? My guess is he'll never make it. It'll be like Lord of the Flies by the time she gets back.

Today's trash laying in, on, or near the road was:

• Cone Cups - Dozens of those cone shaped paper cups that you normally see by the water cooler.

Statistics
Commute: Well, you can forget your troubles with those Imperial slugs. I told you I'd outrun 'em.
Door to door: 16 minutes

When gun buyers undergo a NICS instant background check, federal law demands that the records be destroyed 24 hours after a "proceed" notification is given to the dealer. That means that if you buy a gun, the dealer calls it in to NICS, the government cannot keep the information on file as a de-facto gun registration scheme.

But if you live in Illinois, they keep the information indefinitely. What's more, localities like Chicago routinely use gun purchase and ownership records to seize firearms. Illinois recently passed a bill that would require Illinois to destroy the purchase records after 90 days. The bill also included an anti-gun provision that forces private citizens to seek government permission before they can sell a firearm (the mythical "gun show loophole"). In an unsurprising move, Governor Blablabla is bowing to the Gun Control Lobby and promises to use his line-item veto power to get rid of the requirement to destroy their gun registry, while keeping the anti-gun provisions.

Illinois is not, and probably never will be friendly to the freedom of law-abiding citizens.

After passing a near total gun ban, crime in the U.K. has skyrocketed. In April "street robbery" increased 26% over last year, "gun crime" was up 35%, and the total number of violent offences was up 13%. So who does the UK government blame for all of this? Apparently it's Apple.

The iPod generation is helping to fuel a surge in street crime, Britain's top policeman claimed today.

Met Commissioner Sir Ian Blair said the latest generation of mobile phones and iPods with their distinctive white leads were partly behind a shock 26 per cent jump in street robbery last month.

Remember, if you get robbed it's your own fault for having such nice things. Still spinning...

In a report to the Metropolitan Police Authority, the Commissioner said the Met had suffered "a bad few weeks" but that crime in the capital was still falling.

Up 26%, up 35%, up 13%. What kind of numbers will it take before they admit crime is actually increasing?

A West Virginia man was arrested for wearing a Grinch mask. When an officer asked him to remove the mask and told him that it was illegal, he put it back on saying he didn't believe it. (I wonder if being booked and processed made him a believer?)

Wearing a mask or hood in public is a misdemeanor under West Virginia law, punishable by a fine of up to $500, up to a year in jail, or both. Prosecutors say masks can hinder efforts by law enforcement officials to identify criminal suspects.

Actually it probably has little to do with bank robberies or hold-ups. Most anti-mask laws were put in place to combat organizations like the Ku Klux Klan. For some reason, those racist terrorists are less emboldened when they can't hide behind anonymity.

Four state lawmakers in Tennessee have been arrested and indicted for allegedly taking bribes, reports USA Today. (I'm shocked, I say, shocked!)

In a sting operation dubbed "Tennessee Waltz," the FBI set up a bogus company called E-Cycle Management Inc., then doled out payoffs to lawmakers to sponsor a bill that would allow the business to buy and sell used electronic equipment from the state. The bill was withdrawn Wednesday.

One of the lawmakers charged, state Sen. John Ford, allegedly received payments totaling $55,000, beginning last year. "You are talking to the guy that makes the deals," Ford boasted to the undercover agents, according to the indictment.

Surprisingly, there was no mention of Tom Delay.

Say Uncle reports that envirowackos have resorted to planting endangered species to spurn development.

Matt Drudge reports that NBC took a cheap shot at Tom Delay, in an episode of Law and Order: Criminal Intent.

TRANSCRIPT OF EPISODE 'FALSE-HEARTED JUDGES'

In the season finale, Detectives Goren and Eames suspect an imprisoned white supremacist is behind the shootings of a judge's family, but their investigation widens when an appellate judge is later murdered...

ADA RON CARVER (COURTNEY B. VANCE) : An african-american judge, an appellate court judge, no less.

MAN: Chief of DS is setting up a task force. People are talking about multiple assassination teams.

DET. ALEX EAMES (KATHRYN ERBE): Looks like the same shooters. CSU found the slug in a post, matched it to the one that killed Judge Barton. Maybe we should put out an APB for somebody in a Tom DeLay T-Shirt.

One of the joys of the Cosby Show or Seinfeld is that the material is, for the most part, timeless. Taking political cheap shots on the subject du jour is a huge turnoff.

UPDATE: Neal has a suggestion for future scripts:

ADA RON CARVER: "She looks like she was alive when the car went off the bridge"

MAN: "Why didn't she get out? The water is only four feet deep here."

CARVER: "Dunno. Maybe she was dazed. The door might have been jammed. Anyway, she suffocated. Lack of air. Must have been a brutal death.

MAN: "Was she driving when the car went off the bridge?"

CARVER: "Doesn't look like it. The seat is too far back for her to have been driving. Looks like someone taller .. a lot heavier."

DET. ALEX EAMES: "Check the car to see if it has a Ted Kennedy bumper sticker."

Click the link for more.

If you want to turn your post-ban AR-15 into an evil, scary-looking "assault weapon", TAPCO has the 4-position adjustable stocks on sale for $23. It won't make your gun fire any faster, or make the bullets any more lethal, but it scare the piss out of the anti's.

My guess is that TAPCO is clearing out their stock to make room for the new 6-position stocks. Of course if your state passed a ban to replace the federal ban that expired last September, you're shit out of luck.

IT Security gurus are telling people to go ahead and write down their passwords. Their reasoning makes more sense than you might think.

"How many have (a) password policy that says under penalty of death you shall not write down your password?" asked [Microsoft's Jesper Johansson], to which the majority of attendees raised their hands in agreement. "I claim that is absolutely wrong. I claim that password policy should say you should write down your password. I have 68 different passwords. If I am not allowed to write any of them down, guess what I am going to do? I am going to use the same password on every one of them."

According to Johansson, use of the same password reduces overall security.

"Since not all systems allow good passwords, I am going to pick a really crappy one, use it everywhere and never change it," Johansson said. "If I write them down and then protect the piece of paper--or whatever it is I wrote them down on--there is nothing wrong with that. That allows us to remember more passwords and better passwords."

Just don't leave them on a post-it note stuck to your monitor.

(Via TSM, via Say Uncle)

I love stories like this.

Today's trash laying in, on, or near the road was:

• Mystery Bag - Could be garbage, could be gold. Lets start the bidding at $5.

Statistics
Commute: You came in that thing? You're braver than I thought.
Door to door: 24 minutes

Did anyone else watch Lost last night? Did you notice they ran 2 minutes of commercials about every 4 minutes? It was almost enough to make me turn it off and tivo through it later.

What was most disappointing was that all they did was leave you with more unanswered questions. Imagine watching mystery theater each week, and they don't solve any of the mysteries. They just dive right into new ones. Sorry, but I need some gratification. I don't think I'll be back when it comes around again next fall.

Scott Norvell points out shameless reverse discrimination.

KGET-TV in California reports that a white social worker who wanted to attend a meeting of the National Association of Black Social Workers was told he was not welcome because of his skin pigment.

Bakersfield, Calif. social worker Brain (sic) Parnell wanted to attend the New Orleans meeting along with five of his colleagues because he often works with minority children. When he tried to enter, however, he was turned away.

"I approached the registration table and was greeted by a very friendly fellow who looked me in the eye and said, 'Are you black?'" said Parnell. "I told him that I'm not and he told me that the conference was only for people who were black and so I wasn't able to register to attend the conference."

A suicide hotline in Canada that only receives about 50 calls from suicidal people per year is facing budget cuts. So starting June 1st, it will only be open from 9 to 5, Monday through Friday.

Usually when you want to cut down on crime you have police officers hang around more often. But Austria is considering taking the expensive, high tech approach.

Manfred Juraczka, a councilor in a Vienna district, said Monday he wants the city to register all dogs' DNA so that droppings left where people walk can be tested and the owner of the guilty dog punished.

"This method offers a multitude of unbeatable advantages," Juraczka said in a statement, adding that all who fail to pick up after their dogs "must count on being caught."

I cannot help but wonder if this isn't the first step toward registering human DNA.

UPDATE: To save money, I recommend they implement something not unlike Maryland's 'Ballistic Fingerprint' database which photographs gun bullets and cartridges. You see, each dog's droppings are unique. Dogs could be registered and their droppings photographed and entered into a database. Police could then photograph rogue poop and use complex computer software to compare it against the database. It should work just as effectively as Maryland's system, and at a fraction of the time and cost of cumbersome DNA testing.

A shot of whisky* a day keeps the cancer away.

A medical conference in the Scottish city of Glasgow [where else?] has heard that whisky can protect the drinker against cancer.

"There has been much in the news about the health benefits of antioxidants in red wine. By contrast, very little has been said about malt whisky distillery science," Jim Swan, a doctor who works as a consultant to the drinks industry, told the recent EuroMedLab 2005 conference.

* That's metric for whiskey. They didn't say if American whiskey or Kentucky bourbon would have the same affect.

(Via Pathetic Earthling at Say Uncle)

Here is another update on Ravenwood's First Law, not to be confused with Ravenwood's Second Law regarding Second Amendment debate and Wild West comparisons.

Under Ravenwood's Law, a restraining order would restore the basic firearms rights of anyone it protects. Once the judge signs off on it, it would become a defacto gun license for both purchasing and carrying.

This one comes from Rhode Island:

The bill, cosponsored by Rep. William San Bento Jr., D-Pawtucket, would allow anyone who has obtained a protective order against an abuser to skip the seven-day waiting period when buying a gun.

Perry D. Wheeler, a Rifle & Revolver Association lawyer and lobbyist who confirms he provided "parameters of the bill" to Jacquard and crafted its language, says a protective order "will not block a bullet, it won't prevent a punch, and it won't stop a stabbing."

The bill (PDF) is still moving it's way through the legislature.

The hair band Motley Crue slipped in the F-word while appearing on the Tonight Show on New Year's Eve. NBC banned them from their network, so Motley Crue is suing. These morons are actually requesting that the courts force NBC to put them on the Tonight Show.

The band. . .is requesting a ruling that NBC's ban is unconstitutional, a court order forcing the network to lift it, and unspecified financial damages tied to the band's reduced media exposure.

In case you haven't heard, Constitutional Amendment #28 was recently ratified by the states. It reads: NBC shall not show good taste in music and deny two-bit 80's hair bands access to perform on late night talk shows. If these guys are so good, why don't they go on Letterman? CBS could even boast: "You won't find this on NBC."

Of course they could also spin this as a civil rights issue:

"We meant no harm, but it feels that we're being singled out unfairly," said Nikki Sixx, the band's bassist. "This is a discrimination issue, pure and simple. All we've ever asked is to be treated like everybody else, which is why we're taking this action."

Oh, woe is me. Please pass the world's smallest violin.

Today's trash laying in, on, or near the road was:

• Plywood - It'll make some bum a nice roof.

Statistics
Commute: She'll make .5 past light speed.
Door to door: 27 minutes

This had me in stiches for a half an hour: Parade of Unfortunate Star Wars Costumes.
(Via Random Nuclear Strikes.)

Children are becoming an endangered species in San Francisco.

In an effort to cash in on people's addiction, states are sending huge tax bills to smokers who purchase online.

Perhaps hoping to reset the clock, John Kerry has once again pledged to release all of his military records. He made a similar promise back in January.

Another neo-con giving up on the Dems.

"The Democrats' dependence on blacks for votes means that they must keep blacks dependent on them." -- Thomas Sowell.

Sex offenders are getting free Viagra, and you're paying for it.

"It just keeps getting worse in Iraq. The death toll is rising. Tension is growing between Shiites and Sunnis. Is the country sliding toward civil war?" -- CBS News' Bob Schieffer with their lead story of the day on Thursday Evening.

"In speech after speech at the meeting, at a Baghdad social club, delegates called on fellow Sunnis to cast aside doubts and throw themselves into politics to try to weigh in on the writing of a constitution, which is under way in a Shiite-controlled committee in the National Assembly. Even the Association of Muslim Scholars, a leading voice in the Sunni election boycott, signed on as one of the conference's organizers." -- New York Times, Sunday May 22, 2005, on Iraqi Sunni's joining with Shiites to help write their Constitution.

Pioneer Pete, the mascot for Cal State Univ. East Bay, is likely to be disarmed. Gun fearing wussies are afraid of the animated shotgun he carries in the school's logo. (The real mascot carries no gun.)

...though the live mascot carries no weapons, fake or real, Debby De Angelis, director of athletics, doesn't like the shotgun in the logo.

"I've been here for four years, and for four years, I've been saying, 'We've got to at least get the gun out of Pioneer Pete's hands,'" De Angelis said.

So she took a job there and immediately began trashing the mascot. Maybe Gladys Kravitz would make a better mascot.

(Speaking of which, who says Hollywood is out of ideas?)

I'm sure it seemed like a good idea at the time.

Two Star Wars fans are in a critical condition in hospital after apparently trying to make light sabres by filling fluorescent light tubes with petrol.

A man, aged 20, and a girl of 17 are believed to have been filming a mock duel when they poured fuel into two glass tubes and lit it.

Petrol is metric gasoline. (Except it's measured in litres and costs four times as much.)

An intoxicated passenger leapt out of a car traveling 50-60 miles per hour to retreive a dropped cigarette. Reacting to the incident, Arkansas state police Trooper Jamie Gravier said, "If anything could make him stop smoking, this should be it. The man is lucky to be alive."

Yeah, blame a drunken leap from a moving vehicle on smoking.

(Via Taranto)

How's this for cojones:

Stating that the United Nations needs "nothing less than a transformation," the organization's chief of staff, Mark Malloch Brown, told Congress yesterday that reform could be achieved only by increasing funding and reducing American interference at Turtle Bay.

The U.N. is one of the most corrupt organizations in the world. They give credibility to third world dictators, embezzle blood money from ruthless murderers, cannot keep their staff from soliciting underage prostitutes, and are generally anti-Semetic and anti-American in all of their endeavors. When we should be kicking their sorry asses out of New York, they have the nerve to tell us that we should send them more money and butt out of their affairs.

"There is no agreement that allows one side to unilaterally do what it would like to do and the other side to be ignored." -- Senator Lindsey Graham, defending his decision to sell out his party on the issue of filibustering judicial nominations.

Back in college, my roommate once told me how he waded into a domestic dispute (of which he knew nothing about) to stop a guy from arguing passionately with his wife. My roommate admitted to pulling his gun on the guy. I told him to be careful, because he could have faced a brandishing charge if there was no perceived threat of violence. He said "It's no problem, the gun wasn't loaded."

After I picked my jaw up off the floor, I proceeded to lecture him about gun safety. You know what's more stupid than pulling out your gun when you aren't prepared to use it? It's pulling out your gun when you aren't capable of using it. I asked him what he'd have done if the guy would have pulled out his own gun. My roommate replied, "Well, I would have loaded mine real quick."

"Nope," I said. "You'd be dead. And he'd probably be justified in killing you."

I was reminded of that story by this example of anti-gun scare tactics:

The anti-gun-control side made a decent presentation, with data and charts. His opponent then strode to the front of the stage and pulled a gun, aiming it at the audience of what quickly became ducking, screaming women. Having seen a gun before, I wasn't one of them, though it crossed my mind that if I were armed I'd be justified in defending myself against someone who was violating the law against "brandishing."

His point, I guess, was that we should all experience how scary guns are. Immediately thereafter, a "consensus" vote was taken in favor of gun control...

Having not been there, I don't know what I would have done. But Uncle has the right idea. "I guess if I'd been in attendance and capped his ass, I'd still be the extremist, right?"

I visited four different sites last night that had a "Welcome Instapundit Readers" tag emblazoned on them. Nothing like letting your regular readers know what you think about them. It's reached pet peeve status now.

UPDATE: Very funny smart ass.

North Carolina seventh-graders were given a math problem on a state exam that asked them to calculate the average gain for a football team on their first six plays. The plays were a 6-yard loss, a 3-yard gain, a 2-yard loss, a 7-yard gain, a 12-yard gain, and a 4-yard gain.

The 12-yard gain apparently came on 5th down and 7 yards to go. State officials were defiant.

Mildred Bazemore, chief of the state Department of Public Instruction's test development section, said the question makes sense mathematically and was reviewed thoroughly.

"It has nothing to do with football," Bazemore said. "It has to do with the mathematical concepts that you're studying."

So if it was 75-degrees today, and only 25-degrees yesterday, how many times warmer was it today than yesterday?

"Antarctica ice cap growing, another sign of warming" -- Palm Beach Post, May 20, 2004.

Global Warming doomsayers have ventured into the absurd.

For those of you who thought the uncorroborated, single-source, hearsay Newsweek story that trashed the American Military was just an honest mistake:

(click to supersize)

(Hat tip: Free Republic)

UPDATE: Rick Adams has the translation, and even a synopsis of the article inside.

UPDATE: Larry Elder dares Newsweek to run this in the U.S.

Weak kneed Republican Senators torpedoed their own party's efforts to ensure that George Bush's judicial nominees received an up or down vote in the full Senate, by appeasing Democrats and the mainstream media with a compromise. Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Nebraska, said that preserving the filibuster rule, which is used for blocking legislation like the Civil Rights Act, was not worth discriminating against all of the judges, but some are alright.

He said it was important that the filibuster -- a form of extended debate that has been part of Senate rules since the early 19th century -- was preserved and that most judges would get an up-or-down vote by the full Senate.

So four years is "extended" debate. And so long as "most" of them get a vote, I guess it's okay to horse trade with people's lives. Most, by the way, is 3 of 10. And the sacred filibuster rule that requires a 2/3 majority vote, holding the Senate floor without yielding, stopping Senate operations until a deal is reached, a 60-vote majority, is preserved just as it was 300 years ago when George Washington crossed the Potomac and discovered Plymouth Rock.

The 14 Senators who would be king are:

Democrats
Robert Byrd (West Virginia)
Daniel Inouye (Hawaii)
Mary Landrieu (Louisiana)
Joseph Lieberman (Connecticut)
Ben Nelson (Nebraska)
Mark Pryor (Arkansas)
Ken Salazar (Colorado)

Republicans
Lincoln Chafee (Rhode Island)
Susan Collins (Maine)
Mike DeWine (Ohio)
Lindsey Graham (South Carolina)
John McCain (Arizona)
John Warner (Virginia)
Olympia Snowe (Maine)

UPDATE: Of course the filibuster option is still available to Democrats under "extraordinary options", with the Dems being able to decide what constitutes "extraordinary". Republicans on the other hand have pledged not to change any Senate Rules during this term of Congress. (in other words: until after the mid-term elections)

Furthermore, the Senate is trying to subvert the President's power to nominate Judges. From the text:

We believe that, under Article II, Section 2, of the United States Constitution, the word "Advice" speaks to consultation between the Senate and the President with regard to the use of the President's power to make nominations. We encourage the Executive branch of government to consult with members of the Senate, both Democratic and Republican, prior to submitting a judicial nomination to the Senate for consideration.

This rule is sure to backfire for the hapless Republicans.

UPDATE2: A quick and hilarious must read: The Filibuster Deal for Dummies.

All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. Sorry for the lack of updates, but I worked 19 hours yesterday and today doesn't look to be much better. I didn't get home until 2:30 AM this morning, but I still made it into the office before half of my cow-orkers.

Home ownership has soared, cause home prices to soar, causing property taxes to soar. Lawmakers across the nation are considering lowering property taxes in the face of a tax revolt.

Federal lawmakers are considering phasing out the hideous Alternative Minimum Tax. At it's inception, the tax was supposed to affect 1 person in 500,000. Today it affects 1 in 5.

Worldwide, Star Wars III has already taken in $303 Million. The opening day broke the record with $50 Million earned on opening day. Of course none of these figures take inflation into account.

Scott Norvell over at Tongue Tied notes that a Dallas-area parent has demanded that her child's pre-school change it's logo because it features only a white kid.

Leslie Moore, a teacher in McKinney, Texas whose child is in the preschool program, says the logo is racist.

"It sends the wrong message," she said. "It's telling me that every other ethnic race other than Caucasian is inferior to the Caucasian race."

Even though tee shirts and bags are already being printed, along with letterhead, school officials have stopped everything and will meet with Moore to discuss trading the offensive image for another logo that depicts the gorgeous mosaic of ethnicities that is the McKinney school district.

If the logo is talking to her, she has bigger problems than perceived racism.

Here is more proof that scientists really don't know anything (except how to get more funding).

Scientists are excited about a vitamin again. But unlike fads that sizzled and fizzled, the evidence this time is strong and keeps growing. If it bears out, it will challenge one of medicine's most fundamental beliefs: that people need to coat themselves with sunscreen whenever they're in the sun. Doing that may actually contribute to far more cancer deaths than it prevents, some researchers think.

The vitamin is D, nicknamed the "sunshine vitamin" because the skin makes it from ultraviolet rays. Sunscreen blocks its production, but dermatologists and health agencies have long preached that such lotions are needed to prevent skin cancer. Now some scientists are questioning that advice. The reason is that vitamin D increasingly seems important for preventing and even treating many types of cancer.

So not using sunscreen causes cancer. Now, using sunscreen causes cancer. It sounds to me that the only thing researchers do know is that they need more money. (preferrably the taxpayer's money)

Senator Clinton is inviting Iowans to come visit her in D.C., and she's asking them to bring money. The Senator doesn't want to throw her hat in the ring for the 2008 Presidential campaign just yet, so a visit to Iowa is out of the question. Instead she is inviting Iowans to come visit her in D.C. for a fundraiser. The kicker is that the fundraiser is for her Senate re-election campaign, in New York.

Clinton aides Friday confirmed that the former first lady -- widely expected to seek the Democratic nomination for president in 2008 -- is inviting supporters to her Washington home for a fundraiser.

Campaign spokeswoman Ann Lewis declined to say when the event would be but said the sole purpose was to raise money for Clinton's Senate re-election in 2006, not to court support in a state that hosts the caucuses that kick off the presidential election cycle.

Now, I don't know any Iowans so I cannot really judge them. But are they really so gullable as to help pay for Clinton's re-election as a Senator from New York? And is Senator Clinton so worried about re-election that she needs to look to Iowa for campaign funds?

I saw Star Wars last night and was pretty impressed. This is definitely the best film of the prequel trilogy and there's none of the cutesy cuddly bullshit that plagued Jedi, Menace, and Clones. The movie did seem to end rather abruptly though, and leave me wanting for more. But then I've always been a bigger fan of the Empire than of the goody-two-shoes Rebellion.

So now that this is at an end, where do Star Wars fans go from here? Lucas says that he's not going to make any more films, but we can always hope. There were rumors last year that Lucas would go back on his word and finish out the last three Episodes (7-9). But considering this one leaves off with Vader's rise to power, and A New Hope (the original) picks up some 16-17 years later with Luke coming of age, there is a pretty big time gap that *could* be filled. I think exploring more story lines within the Empire would be much more interesting than the post-Empire stories surrounding Leia and Han.

I also wouldn't mind seeing some of the 'alternative universe' books being put down on film. Grand Admiral Thrawn would make a serious ass-kicking villain. If Lucas doesn't do it himself, perhaps someone else can do it under license.

There was a lot of talk about the rise of the Empire mirroring American imperialism, but I don't see it. If you ask me, the peace-through-totalitarianism theme more closely resembled the modern anti-war movement's practice of looking the other way to Saddam's (and other dictator's) human right's atrocities. But then again, it's just a movie.

If you haven't seen it yet, I highly recommend it. I might go see it again before it leaves the theaters.

Say Uncle has an update on Ravenwood's (First) Law, not to be confused with Ravenwood's (Second) Law regarding Second Amendment debate and Wild West comparisons.

Ravenwood's First Law was written back in February, where I suggested that people receive restraining orders should also be permitted to carry a gun (regardless of conflicting state or local laws that deny that right).

Under Ravenwood's Law, a restraining order would restore the basic firearms rights of anyone it protects. Once the judge signs off on it, it would become a defacto gun license for both purchasing and carrying.

The Charlotte Observer reports that Ravenwood's Law came up recently in North Carolina.

The N.C. House is slated to hear a bill today that initially would have required sheriffs to issue temporary concealed handgun permits to those who get protective court orders. It also would have required judges to tell domestic violence victims they could get the permits.

By "would have" they mean that the N.C. Sheriff's Ass. successfully pushed to have the provision removed. Allowing the sheep defend themselves is bad for the shepherd.

Spoons beat me to the punch with this delightful story about how Global Warming is actually causing Antarctic ice to increase.

Scientists now have incontrovertable proof that the global warming that is shrinking the polar ice caps and raising sea levels is now growing the polar ice caps and lowering sea levels -- just as they predicted.

My biggest fear now is the obvious implication that a rise in global temeratures may cause the next ice age!

In that spirit, I'd like to make the following predictions:

• The stock market will continue to skyrocket, causing a dramatic decline in stock prices;
• Hillary Clinton's universal unpopularity will catapult her to electoral success in the 2008 Presidential race;
• The spread of democracy throughout the Middle East will spread totalitarianism throughout the Middle East.

So basically, if it gets warmer, they're right; if it gets cooler, they're right.

"Story that might not be true paints a sadly accurate picture" -- Op-Ed Headline, Seattle Times, May 19, 2005.

First Tom Plate says that it's all the fault of the American Military. If it weren't for Abu Ghraib, Newsweek never would have been suckered into publishing their single source, uncorroborated, hearsay report.

Sure, it was a serious error to go public with a story like this on the basis of a sole source. Newsweek, after all, isn't some bumptious, fly-by-night blog; it's one of the best magazines around, with a famously superb fact-checking staff that ordinarily can distinguish the fly from the ointment with the best of them.

But the print story surfaced in this magazine against the backdrop of those awful pictures of Arab and Muslim prisoners being humiliated, violated and dehumanized by their American captors at Abu Ghraib in Iraq. Without those pictures - and other tales of abuse - the Quran-toilet story would never have been published without far more extensive fact-checking, and surely not on the basis of a single source.

And of course it's all Bush's fault for daring to respond to terrorist attacks in the first place.

Newsweek's little sin is thus nothing compared to this administration's much greater sins. By launching a war against terror in a way that is probably working to infuriate a good part of the Muslim world, the administration has pretty much succeeded in spreading anti-Americanism even without Osama bin Laden's help.

Let's see, terrorists are responsible for: World Trade Center bombing I; World Trade Center bombing II; attacking the USS Cole; attacks on Embassies in Moscow, Manilia, Kenya, & Tanzania; attempting to assassinate a U.S. President; and attacking our military bases in Riyadh & Dhahran. Before Bush became President, the United States had a policy of ignoring terrorist attacks (or at best, responding weakly). But infuriating Muslims is all Bush's fault for starting the War on Terror and offending the terrorists. (src)

This sounds more like a desperate hoax from anti-gunners...

On the eve of a crucial vote to reinstate a law allowing more people to carry guns in public, House members received e-mails threatening harassment and blackmail if they voted against the bill Wednesday.

"We will send people to your homes to harass you, and look in your windows," said the message sent Tuesday. "If that does not work, we have information on you, and your family, and we will use it in any way shape or form to get our bill passed."

UPDATE: It looks like I was right.

Remember, simply carrying 'large amounts of cash' is considered a crime and your cash can be seized on nothing more than suspicion. Granted getting caught with $60,000 and a trunk full of cigarettes looks really suspicious. But a mere 28 cartons doesn't quite add up to huge amounts of cash, even in New York. At $5 a pack, that's only $1400 worth of smokes. These guys appear to be guilty of petty smuggling at the very least, but they should still be given due process.

For the sake of the argument, let's say you are selling your car to a guy in the next state over. You drive your car over there to deliver it and rent a car to drive home. When you deliver the car, are you going to accept a check? Even cashiers checks carry the risk of forgery. If you're speeding on the way home, you might find yourself pulled over by the cops, in a rental car, with $5,000 in cash in your pocket. In the United States, that is often enough to have it seized by local police. Then you'll find yourself in the position of fighting to prove your innocence get it back.

Time might tell if these guys are really guilty of something? But keep this in mind the next time you're traveling with more than $1000 cash on you.

Senators Kay Bailey Hutchison and John Cronyn of Texas and George Allen of Virginia have proposed legislation to make it legal to own handguns in Washington D.C. again. It's similar to the House version. Because handgun ownership has been pretty much illegal since the mid 1970s, D.C. has one of the highest rates of handgun crime.

Do you know what Sections 416(b)(2), 417, 418, 419, 420, 424, or 426 of 21 U.S.C. 841(b) are? You might want to find out, because if you see someone violating them and fail to report it you could get up to 20 years in prison. Say Uncle has more.

This must be a metrosexual thing.

Elizabeth Taylor has White Diamonds. Coco Chanel had Chanel No. 5. Now, D.C. Mayor Anthony A. Williams has his own signature scent, a blend of patchouli, jasmine and citrus christened "Beau-Tie."

That's pronounced "bow tie" for the French-impaired, a coy reference to the mayor's signature fashion accessory. And though Williams does not normally wear perfume, cologne or scents of any kind, he cheerfully accepted a small, beribboned flask of the stuff yesterday from representatives of Aveda during a news conference at the new Gallery Place mall.

Last month the Maryland legislature voted to extort money from Wal-Mart. They drafted a bill that would require Wal-Mart to either spend 8% of their payroll on health insurance for workers, or pay it directly to the state of Maryland.

Maryland Governor Robert Erlich, a Republican, vetoed the legislation this week.

Terry Lierman, chairman of the Maryland Democratic Party, said the legislature's passage of the bill had been "the right thing to do," given that some Wal-Mart employees now must rely on Medicaid, the state-run insurance program for the poor, for health care.

"Taxpayers are footing an even larger bill with Wal-Mart dumping their employees into Medicaid rather than insuring them," Lierman said in a letter to Democrats this week in which he urged them to turn out for a rally here at the same time Ehrlich vetoed the bill.

Apparently buying their own health insurance never occured to these people.

Today's trash laying in, on, or near the road was:

• Bags o' Grass (not weed) - Maybe they finally mowed that sod that fell off a truck last week.

Statistics
Commute: She'll do the Kessel run in less than 12 parsecs.
Door to door: 20 minutes

A high school in Seattle has banned military recruiters from their campus, in violation of the No Child Left Behind Act. In doing so, they are gambling that their federal funding will not be cut off.

During discussion at the PTSA's meeting last week, Ted Inkley argued against the resolution because he thought it dangerous to deny free speech to organizations simply because their philosophies or intentions disagreed with the PTSA.

Mr. Inkley, an attorney whose daughter is a senior, told the crowded library he could "easily" see a resolution by some other PTA that banned Planned Parenthood representatives from campus because of their views on contraception and abortion.

Steve Ludwig, whose son is a senior and whose daughter will enter as a freshman next fall, made a point shared by many in attendance: Garfield does not allow organizations that promote illegal activities to recruit students to perform those activities, nor does it allow organizations that discriminate on the basis of race, gender, national origin, or sexual orientation to recruit on campus.

"Planned Parenthood, as far as I know, does not advocate or perform illegal acts. The US military does," Mr. Ludwig continued. The soft-spoken carpenter said he would not object if Army representatives came to Garfield to debate their ideas on torture or aggressive war. "What I object to is their coming here to recruit students to perform those acts," he said. "It's not about free speech."

Ludwig's daughter may not end up pursuing a career with the imperial military machine, but at least she'll have easy access to Planned Parenthood, should she decide to date the football team.

The village of Palatine (Ill.) has banned sparklers as well as other fireworks. Apparently they've come to the realization that sparklers are hot.

The recommendation came from the Fire Department and Fire Prevention Committee in an effort to decrease the number of injuries associated with so-called safe fireworks. Sparklers burn at temperatures approaching 1,800 degrees and can easily ignite other fires, said Palatine Fire Protection Director Jim Eriksen.

Candle flames burn from 800 to 1400 degrees Celsius; thats 1472 - 2552 real degrees (Fahrenheit).

Via Taranto, activists are taking advantage of the release of Star Wars III to push their kooky causes.

The release of the latest Star Wars movie this week is creating excitement among fans of the sci-fi saga, but itīs also creating concern among some environmental advocates who fear the Dark Side - in other words, waves of discarded plastic action figures, light sabers and other movie-related paraphernalia headed to landfills.

"We love Star Wars as much as anybody, but it doesnīt mean we should emulate the destructive power of the Death Star by harming the environment," said Anne Reichman, director of Earth911.org, an environmental action and information Web site. "Most people donīt know that these types of figurines canīt be recycled, not even little Yoda. In fact, almost all of these toys will sit in landfills until long after weīre gone."

The defenders of the Newsweek kerfuffle are relying on the fake-but-accurate defense that Dan Rather pioneered after the forged documents scandal at CBS. They are claiming that while the Newsweek story may be fake, it accurately portrays how our evil imperial military machine treats the poor Muslim activists who were rounded up and thrown into prison.

What is most shocking is that defenders are not only circling the wagons around Newsweek, but they are relying on the word of "released detainees". The MRC reports:

CBS and ABC passed along allegations from prisoners. Richard Roth of CBS recalled: "Detainees released in 2003 came home claiming American guards had routinely provoked them by sitting on the Koran, or putting pages in a toilet." ABC's Martha Raddatz argued: "The Newsweek article was not the first time U.S. personnel have been accused of desecrating the Koran. Last year, this British detainee released from Guantanamo said guards 'would kick the Koran, throw it into the toilet and generally disrespect it.'"

A caller to Tuesday night's Chris Core show on 630 WMAL in Washington D.C. parroted the same view and asked, "Why would the prisoners lie?"

The greater question is why are some Americans more apt to believe prisoners of war - members of the Taliban and al Qaeda who have sworn to destroy the "Great Satan" - instead of believing their own military or government?

A petition against Social Security reform was circulated and signed by more than 150 student body presidents at colleges across the United States. They formed a coalition called "Students for a Secure Future", which is promoting turning Social Security into a giant welfare program. The AJC reports:

The statement from the student leaders says the best ways to address Social Security's shortfalls are "to examine the levels at which workers pay into the system, ensure that benefits remain at the current levels for the neediest recipients, and reassess the payout to others."

Examining the levels at which workers pay into the system means that they will demand that the evil, hated, rich to pay more tax (most likely by removing the cap). And by reassessing the payout they will no doubt conclude that the evil, hated, rich don't need Social Security and should be prevented from receiving benefits.

Karl Marx would be proud.

I wasn't kidding when I lamented about URLs that use keywords. Take this one from CNN. The headline reads: "New rules to crack down on child porn". The URL contains the word 'childporn', which immediately sends up red flags to internet filters and firewalls used by most companies. In some cases the url and subsequent content are blocked completely.

If you are interested in increasing your readership, keep that in mind.

Today's trash laying in, on, or near the road was:

• Sporks - Hundreds, perhaps thousands of white plastic sporks.

Statistics
Commute: Flying through hyperspace ain't like dusting crops, boy!
Door to door: 20 minutes

Who's lining up to go see Star Wars at midnight tonight? And who's dressing the part? And who's playing hooky from work because of it?

ABC announced their fall lineup yesterday, and they have indeed picked up Commander in Chief, as Drudge reported earlier this month. The series stars Geena Davis as the first female President of the United States. Davis' character, Hillary Mackenzie, ascends to office as Veep for a President who died before the end of his term.

Who's betting that she's a staunch conservative who promotes family values and smaller government?

Two girls in Dekalb County Georgia will miss their baccalaureate, but will be allowed to attend graduation ceremonies with their classmates. Their crime was using a butter knife to cut a cake. The school's zero-intelligence policy mandated that they each receive a 10-day suspension. One of the girls, Ashley Pickens, said that the teacher who busted them threatened her with arrest, WSB reports.

"He said it really didn't matter [that it was used for a cake]," Pickens said. "[He said] it's a knife on school grounds, and you have to be written up for it--you ought to be glad we didn't have you arrested."

These so-called "zero tolerance" policies trigger the RCOB. I can only hope that these kids grow up realizing that "zero tolerance" policies are a product of moronic school administrators and teachers and that the real world doesn't work this way.

I'm beginning to wonder if the media's reliance on the "anonymous source" is just a big cover-up for them making up the news. I don't know about you, but it's been my opinion that your journalistic duty to protect your source goes out the window when your source stabs you in the back. If some guy hung me out to dry with lies and misinformation like they apparently did to Newsweek, I'd sure as hell be pointing the finger directly at them.

I've heard a lot of talk about the journalists duty to maintain the anonymity of their source. They're saying that sources won't come forward if there is a threat they'll be revealed. I think the threat of exposure makes the sources more reliable. I mean, if there is no recourse for these so-called "anonymous sources", what's to keep me from making shit up and telling it to reporters. Especially if the media is going to take all the heat and not even reveal who I am.

Of course the question at hand is why is Newsweek still refusing to reveal their source, one that has severely damaged their journalistic integrity? I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt, but I have to wonder if they really even have one.

"In order for people to understand we had made an error, we had to say 'retraction' because that's the word they were looking for." -- Editor, Mark Whitaker on why Newsweek retracted their single-source, uncorroborated, hearsay claim that the United States Military defiled the Koran.