Balance tipped on Supreme Court!

If you believe the old saw that a conservative is a liberal that has been mugged, move Justice David Souter to the conservative side of the court.

The NY Times chides their guy

Kerry Struggling to Find a Theme, Democrats Fear

For many Democrats, Mr. Kerry's single biggest difficulty was what they described as his continuing search for a defining theme for his candidacy — typically one of the most urgent tasks of any presidential candidate.

Last week, after completing the most in-depth poll of his campaign, Mr. Kerry unveiled yet another theme for his candidacy: "Together, we can build a stronger America." It was, by the count of one aide, the sixth message Mr. Kerry has rolled out since he announced his candidacy nearly 18 months ago.

And he "polled his campaign" to get it. Puhleeze.

Actually, I'm a little puzzled. I thought Lurch had already chosen his theme:

Mr. Kerry has yet to unveil a long-promised biographical advertisement highlighting his war record that Democrats urged him to broadcast as soon as possible as a rebuttal to Mr. Bush's $50 million crush of advertisements. Democrats outside the campaign blamed the ouster of a senior media adviser in March for the delay.

Let me guess - "He served in Vietnam" is the universal solvent.

I want one!

A Robosaurus that is.

Blasts from the past!

The CBC amazes with Prime Ministers and Presidents:

In his book The Presidents and the Prime Ministers, author Lawrence Martin mentions how John A. Macdonald, Canada's first prime minister, "would alienate all of Washington with displays of contempt for the presidents and their men." Indeed, the subtitle of Martin's book catches the true spirit of relations across the world's longest undefended border: Washington and Ottawa Face to Face: The Myth of Bilateral Bliss 1867-1982.
...
1962 - Prime Minister John Diefenbaker on President John F. Kennedy: "He's a hothead. He's a fool - too young, too brash, too inexperienced, and a boastful son of a bitch!"

1965 - at the height of the Vietnam War, Prime Minister Lester Pearson visited President Lyndon Johnson at the White House. Pearson gave a scathing speech one night about the war, then appeared at the White House the next day to confront a livid Johnson. As Martin describes it, LBJ grabbed Pearson by the shirt collar, lifted the prime minister off the floor and shouted, "You pissed on my rug!"

I believe diplomats call those "frank exchanges of views."

And while we're digging up the past, Thomas Roeser has a US History quiz in the Chicago Sun-Times:

He was ''personally opposed, but'' -- the nation's most prominent pro-choicer. A nationally known U.S. senator. Straddled the most divisive domestic issue of his day. Sought the presidency by flip-flopping to please all sides. Beset by clergymen he charged were mixing politics with religion. Married a controversial heiress whose vast holdings spurred severe criticism.

John Kerry? Sounds like him, but guess again.

Well, enough historical hijinks, time to get back to Lurch and his butler:

An April 28 article in the newspaper that prints all the news that fits its agenda (which makes one wonder how this one got past the 43nd Street editorial trolls), Kerry’s butler has on him at all times, or within instant reach, such absolute necessities of stressful political life as:

Loose change, Tylenol, Advil, Advil Liquid Gels, Advil Sinus pills, Swedish hand cream, Halls cough drops, Scope mouthwash, a tube of Blistex, Band-Aids, a sewing kit, little zip-lock plastic baggies containing made-fresh-daily peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwiches wrapped in aluminum foil of course, cans of strawberry diet milkshake, Imodium and Handiwipes.

Wipes? That raises the question – not answered here, you can bet your bippy – of just what it is the pampered senator can or can’t or won’t do for himself, unassisted, on his very own, now that he’s over age 3.

It just gets better

Matea Gold in the LA Times - Kerry Escalating Use of War Veteran Status

When Sen. John F. Kerry's advisors indicated recently that his service during the Vietnam War would be central to the campaign's effort to define him, they weren't exaggerating.
...
In one 24-hour period, he invoked his service:

• To fend off attacks by his Republican rivals;

• As evidence he will fight to expand healthcare;

• As evidence he understands the complicated landscape in Iraq;

• To explain his love of peanut butter-and-jelly sandwiches.

By and large, I think it's because he has nothing else to say. But it just sticks in my craw that this preppie does a brief drive-by of Vietnam to pad his resume and play the military medal system for all it's worth; and then he returns home to defame fellow soldiers, hobnob with the North Vietnamese, and then spend a life in politics trying to shutdown support for the military and POW-MIA investigations. George Herbert Walker Bush and Bob Dole were genuine war heroes and they mentioned it less in their entire campaigns than this slug does in 24 hours.

"I'm mad as Hell" - Let's have some leftoid entertainment!

Well, leftoid fun is going to be hard to find at Err America - Errors keep piling up for Air America Radio. Time to get down your bets in the dead pool.

But not to worry, wingnuts! There's hope on the horizon - Dean preps for talkshow:

Dr. Phil could soon be sharing the Paramount lot with another doc: Howard Dean.

While everything's still in the early talking stages, the former Democratic presidential candidate is mulling the idea of hosting his own syndicated gabfest. He's hooked up with ex-Big Ticket TV topper Larry Lyttle ("Judge Judy") and longtime political consultant Gerald Rafshoon, who would likely serve as exec producers of a pilot for any such project.

Be still, my heart! Jerry Springer better watch his back!

Lyttle and Rafshoon are lefty political consultants so we know where this going.

"The last thing we're going to talk about is politics," Lyttle said. "We'd talk about a myriad of other things instead of politics."

Yuk, yuk. We believe ya.

Dean's skein would likely have more in common with the talkshow Bill Clinton had been considering a few years back.

"He'd look at things like, What happens if you lose a sibling? What about when you're victimized by not having health care?" Lyttle said, arguing that Dean has the perfect persona for the small screen.

Yup, no politics there. But where are the adulterous couples of several sexes and the fisticuffs? I think Springer is safe, this sounds like a sure cure for insomnia.

"He's a little bit of Howard Beale, a little Dr. Phil and a little Donahue all rolled into one," he said. "What was so appealing to me is the fact that he's not afraid to express an opinion."

Howard Beale! Now that's the ticket. Howie (Dean that is) could close each show with an extended rant and then yell "I'm mad as Hell and I'm not going to take it anymore! Yearghhhhhhhhhh!" before passing out.

Ruh Oh!

The long public transit transit strike in Minneapolis- St. Paul had some interesting effects according to the Red Star Tribune - Some crime ebbed during bus strike:

The anecdotal stories that crime was decreasing in downtown Minneapolis, St. Paul and at the Mall of America started soon after the Metro Transit strike began in early March.

Curious about what might be happening, police began discreetly monitoring crime figures and found some intriguing numbers.

• Police calls at the Mall of America, especially on weekends, were down by as much as 21 percent.

• Arrests in downtown Minneapolis had dropped.

• In St. Paul, police calls for so-called "quality of life" complaints, such as narcotics sales near bus stops, also had fallen.

After the metro area's first transit strike in a decade, the possible relationship between the strike and crime has become a much-debated -- and politically touchy -- issue. Critics complain that the focus unnecessarily paints an unflattering portrait of bus riders.

No word on "letting the chips fall where they may."

Jon Pratt, executive director of the Minnesota Council of Nonprofits, also said such comparisons are unsettling. "I wouldn't say it's a disservice to draw those connections. [But] there is kind of a sport in picking on the poor and trying to point out their foibles," he said.

Er, foibles? And it isn't being poor that is the problem.

I'm feeling nostalgic!

Gnu Hunter points out this gem - N Korea train blast victims died saving leaders' portraits.

Many North Koreans died a "heroic death" after last week's train explosion by running into burning buildings to rescue portraits of leader Kim Jong-il and his father, the North's official media reported yesterday.

Fears of a toilet paper shortage?

"Many people of the county evacuated portraits before searching after their family members or saving their household goods," KCNA said in a report with a Ryongchon dateline.
...
The KCNA report could not be independently verified.

Ya think?

I really miss the Commies. The world's a poorer place without a consistent flow of stories about the antics of "hero workers" and "humble Socialist toilers". Nowadays you have to be satisfied with the inferior quality products from Cuba, North Korea, and China. But every once in a while they manage to deliver one like the above that brings back the "spirit" of the old days. Here's hoping the fat boy takes up swimming next.

"Don't criticize Mr. Ponzi! We want to invest our money with him!"

Congressman Tom Lantos (D - California, natch) is giving Jimmy Carter a tough fight for the prestigious Mooncalf of the Year Award:

At a time when we are moving towards placing enormous responsibilities, following the handover on June 30, upon the United Nations and the Secretary General.... to imply dishonesty on his part is so contrary to our national interest that it simply boggles the mind.

The clue phone appears to be off the hook at Tom's place.

Why is Gorelick still on the 9/11 Commission?

I know she's a liberal princess, but how warped do your faculties have to be to miss that fact that she should be testifying instead? Here's the latest - Memos show Gorelick involvement in 'wall':

Newly released Justice Department memos show that September 11 panel commissioner Jamie S. Gorelick was more intimately involved than previously thought with hampering communications between U.S. intelligence and law-enforcement agencies fighting terrorism.

As the No. 2 person in the Clinton Justice Department, Ms. Gorelick rejected advice from the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, who warned against placing more limits on communications between law-enforcement officials and prosecutors pursuing counterterrorism cases, according to several internal documents written in summer 1995.

"It is hard to be totally comfortable with instructions to the FBI prohibiting contact with the United States Attorney's Offices when such prohibitions are not legally required," U.S. Attorney Mary Jo White wrote Ms. Gorelick six years before the 2001 terrorist attacks in New York and at the Pentagon.

"Our experience has been that the FBI labels of an investigation as intelligence or law enforcement can be quite arbitrary, depending upon the personnel involved and that the most effective way to combat terrorism is with as few labels and walls as possible so that wherever permissible, the right and left hands are communicating," she wrote.

C'mon Jaime, trundle on down to the witness table!