Mark A. Kilmer (the weblog)

Throw ‘em out:

Rawalpindi, Pakistan: Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf says all foreign students at madrassas, or religious schools, some 1,400 pupils, must leave the country.

“Any (foreigners) in the madrassas — even dual nationality holders — will leave Pakistan,” General Musharraf said.

This is the latest in a series of measures the president has announced in a renewed clampdown on extremism.

Also, according to the piece, Musharraf “told journalists that action would be taken against any of the madrassas that did not register with the authorities.”

I applaud this move, but it could not happen here.

Also, a bit from Musharraf about Kashmir, a region claimed both by India and Pakistan:

Islamabad: Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf has said that there was a dire need to resolve the Kashmir issue, since it was “at the root” of global terrorism.

Renewing his call to resolve both the Palestine and Kashmir disputes, which, according to him, were at the “root of terrorism” affecting the entire world, Musharraf said: “If we don’t do this we will fail the region and the world.”

Don’t know if that means he’ll ban people from Kashmir from his madrassas, although 35% of Kashmir is administered by Pak.

And, according to the piece, Musharraf went on to blame the British for the recent bombings in London by offering a “safe haven [for] Islamic extremists.” Which sounds a lot like the Afghanistan of recent memory.

And I now wonder if Chirac put him up to that.

On the RSN site:

James Atticus Bowden: Good Enough Justice for Now.

Judson Cox: An Interview with Jeffrey Epstein [of Vietnam Vets for Truth].

And when you’re through, subscribe FREE to the twice-weekly Rightsided Newsletter. (You can subscribe by sending a blank e-mail to rsn-subscribe [AT] topica.com. We ask for no other information, and you will receive no e-mail other than the newsletter by doing this. For more info and the latest RSN, check out the RSN site.)

Sunday’s Rightsided Newsletter, the review of the Sunday shows, has been sent to the sundry global Inboxes. If you do not yet subscribe, you can read the RSN at it web site: here.

I posted this over at RedHot, as well.

When Arlen Specter was made Judiciary Committee chairman last January over some very serious objections, he was put on a leash, promising to support the President’s nominees. On CBS’s Face the Nation this morning, he said that he was reserving judgment on Roberts.

Has Specter violated his leash law? If so, does it matter at this point?

Good morning!

Meet the Press (NBC): Host Tim Russert will talk to Discovery astronauts Eileen Collins, James Kelly, and Charles Camarda. They won’t be in studio, of course, give that they are in Earth orbit. He’ll also chat it up with NASA Administrator Michael Griffin, who is on the ground.

FOX News Sunday: Host Chris Wallace talks Shuttle with Discovery flight crewmembers Commander Eileen Collins, Pilot Jim Kelly, and Mission Specialist Charlie Camarda. Tacked on is former astronaut, Florida Dem Senator Bill Nelson. He’ll also find time for Mitch McConnell and Chris Dodd. That’s about Bolton and Roberts.

Face the Nation (CBS): Host Bob Schieffer, is doing the stem cell thaang, talking to Arlen Specter and Sam Brownback, and it could be interesting if Snarlin’ Arlen becomes openly hostile towards Senator Sam.

This Week (ABC): Host George Stephanopoulos talks to the astronauts: Collins, Kelly, and Kamarda on discovery, and Glenn and Aldrin here on the planet Earth. Then he talks to Rick Santorum about Bill Frist.

Late Edition (CNN): Host Wolfgang Blitzer chats with Joe Lieberman and Jon Kyl; also, Iraqi National Security Advisor Mowaffak Al-Rubaie.

I will review and summarize the shows for Sunday’s Rightsided Newsletter, to which you can subscribe for free by visiting the web site at http://rightsided.tripod.com, or by sending a blank e-mail to rsn-subscribe [AT] topica.com.

It will arrive if your inbox shortly after it is completed early Sunday afternoon.

Also, look for it at Redstate.org which I hope will be back online.

It’s good to see the talk of space, and I hope John Glenn (TW) skips the politics and returns to being an American hero.

Santorum on Frist (TW) should be interesting, as Rick’s in the leadership and Frist is the leader. Santorum is as pro-life a senator as now serves, and Frist… digs experiments. Lieberman (LE) is always a pleasant, Joe-mentum kind of guy. I haven’t seen much of Kyl (TW) on these shows for quite a while. Mitch (FNS) can take care of himself, and why Dodd again? Is he envious of Connecticut’s junior senator and ready to make good on his alleged Presidential ambitions?

President Dodd. Those of you visiting from Viking Pundit or Political Teen, who often link to these previews, what do you in particular think of this? “President Dodd.” With those beady eyes and constant snarl… but he’d have to get past Joe Biden, and Hillary, and Evan Bayh, and John Kerry, and John Edwards, and Mark Warner, and whatever else they come up with.

It’s the last Sunday in July.

We’ve got a 10th Planet in our solar system, and it is called 2003-UB313. For now.

A cold, methane-covered world more than 9 billion miles from the sun is our solar system’s 10th planet, according to a Caltech astronomer. It is the first object larger than Pluto found since Clyde Tombaugh discovered that planet in 1930.

Why is this thing a planet?

Although astronomers have not been able to agree upon a good definition of what qualifies such bodies as planets, [Astronomy professor Michael] Brown said it would only be logically consistent to call 2003-UB313 a planet if Pluto retains the title. Pluto has been known as a planet for so long that he figures it would be extremely unpopular to give it a non-planet designation.

If Pluto’s a planet and not just a Disney dog, this thing is a planet.

No one had yet discovered 2003-UB313, they asserted, because “its orbit is at a 45-degree angle to the rest of the solar system.”

Since there’s so much methane, I might call it Joe Biden.

Here’s the letter sent to President Bush, re: “BOLTON LIED!”, from thirty-five Dem Senators and Jeffords, snagged from a FOX News pdf:

July 29, 2005

The Honorable George W. Bush
President of the United States
The White House
Washington, DC 20500

Dear Mr. President:

In light ofthe fact that John Bolton was not truthful to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on the questionnaire he swore was truthful, we ask that you do not make a recess appointment ofMr. Bolton to be the Ambassador to the United Nations and instead submit a new nomination to the Senate.

Mr. Bolton’s excuse that he “didn’t recall being interviewed by the State Department’s Inspector General” is simply not believable. How can you forget an interview about an issue so important that the United States Senate unanimously passed an amendment stating that Congress supports “the thorough and expeditious investigation by the Inspector General of the Department of State and the Inspector General of the Central Intelligence Agency into the documents … that the President relied on to conclude that Iraq had attempted to obtain uranium from Africa”? The amendment was cosponsored by the Chairmen of both the Foreign Relations Committee and the Intelligence Committee.

Mr. President, we know you are engaged in an effort to strengthen our relationships throughout the world. Sending someone to the United Nations who has not been confirmed by the United States Senate and now who has admitted to not being truthful on a document so important that it requires a sworn affidavit is going to set our efforts back in many ways.

Sincerely,

The signatories are Durbin, Reid, Rodham-Clinton, Boxer, Dodd, Biden, Anime Quisten, Kerry, [odd line], Wyden, Lautenberg, Jeffords, Bent Oreo, Salazar, Jim Zenn, Schumer, Bill Nelson, I’m All Fried, Rockefeller, Reed, Dorgan, Cantwell, Murray, Bamnhihihi, Sarbanes, and Death Ray. I’m sorry, but that’s the best I can do on short notice.

Obviously, there are no Senators Anime Quisten, Bent Oreo, Jim Zenn, I’m All Fried, Bamnhihihi, or Death Ray, but their signatures are little more legible than mine. More senators should sign like Hillary, Wyden, Salazar, Nelson, and Reed, although Rhode Island’s senior senator could easily be mistaken for “Zach Reed.”

Of course, now you know how seriously I take this letter.

Can I call him “Bill f’ing” Frist, or is that too harsh? Oh, there’s a sort of language barrier and I suppose that would cross it. But I’d like to think what went into this decision on his part, and I’d further hope to think that his staff made it for him.

Not at all likely.

Looking at blogs, I saw that Joel at ChezJoel.com:

“An embryo is nascent human life,” Mr. Frist says in his speech, adding: “This position is consistent with my faith. But, to me, it isn’t just a matter of faith. It’s a fact of science.” But more than either of these, IVF [in vitro fertilization] and federal embryonic stem cell research is about money.

The ethics of IVF (in vitro fertilization) is based on expediency: it does help couples who are having trouble getting pregnant to have children. But it creates many more embryos than the couple will use, mainly because creating embryos one at a time would be prohibitively expensive. If you believe, as Frist claims he does, that human life begins at conception, then IVF involves the hideous equation of lives for money.

Yes, yes, yes, and yes.

Looking at blogs, I saw that Augustine at RedState.org reminds:

The very utility of the stem cell is premised upon its humanity. The argument for their use is the argument against their use. As a medical doctor, Senator Frist knows this. He knows there is no scientific debate about when human life begins: the embryos he seeks to have destroyed at taxpayer expense, so that we may profit by their deaths, are uniquely human and they are alive – they are each an individual human life. And Senator Frist also knows full well that – if he has his way - Trey Jones would not exist.e all know, embryonic stem cell research is not banned in America; it is legal. The issue at hand is taxpayer funding of said research – and just as the GOP does not believe in taxpayer funding for the destruction of unborn people, we should not embrace taxpayer funding for the destruction of embryonic people.

Listening to Durbin gloat — yes, GLOAT! — as he praised Bill Frist as a “humanitarian” and a “physician,” I could almost palpably feel the betrayal — not of me. Would that it were only me and other social and fiscal conservatives who were betrayed.

Is this a deal with Specter for justices? No, Arlen’s on a leash

Life begins at conception, said Senator Frist. Death thus can begin at any time thereafter. Doesn’t he realize what he’s doing?

I wanted to read what Augustine from RedState had to say about Senator/physician/candidate Bill Frist’s latest hijinx. I suspect that he would strike the nail squarely on the head.

And he has.

For starters:

Today, on the floor of the Senate, Dr. Frist betrayed the conservative movement, President Bush, the history of the Republican Party, and thousands of defenseless Americans. In doing so, he effectively ended his brief flirtation with the Presidential nomination of the GOP – and if this is a just world, he may also have effectively ended his leadership role within the party in anything but title.

Amongst the many comments in response, you can find mine:

This is another big government spending program which promises the moon but might not deliver even a guy bending over with his trousers down. The cost is too high, in both blood and treasure.

Dick Durbin, in praising Senator Frist this afternoon, mentioned that no profit will be gleaned from this laboratory experimentation. It is a simple fact of nature that if you want something done cost-efficiently, quickly, and RIGHT, it should have a market incentive. If they were serious about utilizing this lab experimentation to find cures for whatever they think they are going to cure, the market would take care of it, for as long as it was legal, and the federal government would stay far away.

This is buffoonery of the highest order. Bill Frist, MD, has handed a victory with even greater emotional than logistical import to the enemies of abortionists, conservatism, and the Republican Party.

I hope he enjoys Dick Durbin’s praise. And Ted Kennedy’s. He will never receive the 2008 GOP nomination for President — although he could conceivably pull a John Anderson and run third-party with Pataki. In fact, he may not long remain majority leader. His leadership has been questioned for other reasons of late, and we hear grumbling from Trent Lott’s corner. (Sometimes I really miss Nickles.)

Bill Frist is dead to me.

After this month’s terrorist bombings in London, issued a fatwa against suicide bombings, saying that the atrocities being committed in Palestine and Iraq'’ did not justify the attacks on British civilians.

Thanks, guys, but no thanks.

A North American ulema has issued its on fatwa, asserting that “Islam strictly condemns religious extremism and the use of violence against innocent lives,” and that there is no excuse for it.

There. They’ve spoken. Nothing’s going to change, of course, because Islam has scads of authorities and multiple interpretations. It’s not like Catholicism, for example, where a decree from the Vatican is considered to be infallibly the will of God. (Except to “Catholics” like Teddy Kennedy, Joe Biden, Dick Durbin, and John Kerry, who seem to have invented their own brand of “Catholicism.” But such is not for me to say.)

THE IMPORTANT PART of this is that Moslems in the United States (and in Canada) have condemned the terror, the death. Backed in Koranic scripture, they’ve stared the mutants in the eye and wailed like the best of muezzin: “ENOUGH!”

Teddy Kennedy on Bill Frist’s newfound enthusiasm for medical experiments performed on human embryos:

“As a physician, Sen. Frist has a moral calling to save lives and alleviate suffering. He honors his Hippocratic Oath today by recognizing the unique healing power of embryonic stem cells.”

No, Ted, these human cells have healed no one. Frist has agreed with you that the U.S. taxpayer should fund lab experiments on these human cells which might maybe perhaps lead to a cure for something or other but which will result in the end of a human life.

No kidding. The FOX entertainment network has hired an “independent counsel” to determine whether or not ’80s music star Paul Abdul, a judge on the show, had an affair with contestant Corey Clark.

We’re talking “affidavits” and “thorough investigation,” here.

This ought to excite the “Paula Lied” crowd into an orgy of frog-marching.

Ruben Studdard better tell all he knows, or he’s off to prison while his “significant other” takes a Mediterranean cruise with Harry Potter.

Brian Grayson at Toomfoolery of the Highest Order points to a CNN headline: Roberts documents reveal a conservative.

In other related news, CNN is reporting that documents reveal that Ted Kennedy is a liberal Democrat and that Clarence Thomas is a non-white.

Indeed

Good morning and TGIF!

They won this afternoon, beating the Twins, 6-3. I missed the game, which happens, but I saw some highlights. Aaron Small gave them seven innings, giving up three, which is more than should be expected. He’s 2-0 this year. This month.

Sheffield had four RBI, and Robbie Cano had three hits. Derek made an excellent play at deep third, and Bernie snagged a ball at the ground.

Yanks trail Boston by 1.5 games, one game in the loss column, as the Sox were idle. They play the Angels this weekend, and Saturday’s game will be nationwide on FOX.

Giovanni Viotti’s violin concerti. If any of you enjoy works for violin, Viotti is splendid.

Forgive me if I seem to ramble.

Pierre Legrand at The Pink Flamingo Bar & Grill offers: “Not Islamic Terror, no siree that won’t do we are now in a global struggle against extremism, Barry Goldwater duck! “I would remind you that extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice! And let me remind you also that moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue.”

He seems to be arguing against the stripping of the modifier, but the article linked also deals with the war being a “struggle” against an ideology as much as a troops-on-the-ground bit of combat. But an extreme form of Islam is a form nonetheless, and the best attrack against this extreme form would be carried out with the assistance of the mainstream form.

Joint Chiefs Chairman General Richard Myers from the piece linked above:

General Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the National Press Club on Monday that he had “objected to the use of the term ‘war on terrorism’ before, because if you call it a war, then you think of people in uniform as being the solution.”

He said the threat instead should be defined as violent extremism, with the recognition that “terror is the method they use.”

Although the military is heavily engaged in the mission now, he said, future efforts require “all instruments of our national power, all instruments of the international communities’ national power.” The solution is “more diplomatic, more economic, more political than it is military,” he concluded.

President Bush had always said that the “war on terror” is multi-faceted: military, diplomatic, economic. I wished he would have stressed that more and harder, and perhaps he now will.

I’ll support a war on violent extremism, but not one on all forms of extremism. An extreme, purism, is more often than not a fine thing. A “war on violent Islamic extremism”? It is that. But if the war is against an ideology, it is also one against the ideology which revolves around an attempt to harm one man by hindering the apt prosecution of the war. That war must be won, in America, at the ballot box.

Northern Ireland’s Irish Republican Army (I.R.A.), after thousands of death a millions of pounds sterling of destruction, say that they are switching tactics, from terror to talk.

The IRA said it had invited two independent witnesses, from the Protestant and Catholic churches, to verify that it will put its massive arsenal of guns and explosives beyond use, but it gave no dates for starting or completing the process.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair hailed the announcement as “a step of unparalleled magnitude in the recent history of Northern Ireland.”

“This may be the day when finally after all the false dawns and dashed hope, peace replaces war, politics replaces terror on the island of Ireland,” Mr. Blair said.

My first thought on learning this news was, I thought, a little basic: “They must not like the bad P.R. they get for themselves and their cause by resorting to the same tactics as the mutant Islamic extremists.” Well, the specialist in European affairs, with a concentration on Northern Ireland, at the Heritage Foundation sees the same thing.

Before the shock of Sept. 11, 2001, the idea had currency that “one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter, but that’s not true any more,” says Mr. [Heritage Foundation’s John] Hulsman, who has focused on the Northern Ireland conflict. “If there’s any beneficial side effect to the rise of Muslim extremism it may be the realization that we live in a different time when violent extremism is not acceptable. The IRA and Sein Fein [the Irish republican movement’s political wing] seem to be finally recognizing this.”

Hulsman says 9/11 also took its toll on the IRA because it accelerated a distaste for violence that had been growing among the guerrilla army’s crucial American supporters. American moral and financial support, centered in the Irish-Catholic community, was key to the movement’s survival.

“The terrorist attacks on the US changed Americans’ perspective and got things rolling, but the IRA’s continuing criminal activities have only dug their hole deeper,” Hulsman says. “They’ve totally estranged themselves from their American supporters, who had been bankrolling Sinn Fein for decades.”

Now answer me thing: WHY ALL THE DEATH IN THE FIRST PLACE?

The New York Times had a reporter covertly in on the conference call in which New York Governor George Pataki informed State GOP Senator what they already knew, that he would not seek another term.

The call is described as playful banter, Pataki portion, and more banter after the governor had departed the call.

In the banter afterwards, New York Senate Republican Leader Joseph Bruno asked who might succeed Pataki.

One senator said that Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg was “the guy, Joe.” Many agreed.

It’s a stupid thought. Bloomberg, who turned Republican in 2001, would have a lot of trouble without the support of the State’s Conservative Party, and he can forget that.

Here’s part of it:

Bloomberg, who scooped up the endorsement of the city chapter of the Democrat-friendly National Abortion Rights Action League last week, has said he’d oppose Roberts if the nominee doesn’t divulge his position on choice.

But if not Bloomberg, then whom?

CENTCOM wrote to me this morning, telling me about their new web site at http://www.centcom.mil, asking me for a link.

If the above sounded a tad self-important to you, we’re thinking along the same lines. The e-mail was from someone in public affairs at CENTCOM letting me know about the site and asking for a link. I’m honored that they’d ask, and I’m honored to include the link at right.

The site has absolutely nothing political about, except perhaps by what we might bring to it ourselves. It has all sorts of links, news reports, transcripts, plenty of information and room to grow.

Keep an eye on it.

Mark Halperin and the folks at ABCNews.com are still writing their daily feature The Note, which began with the opening shots of the 2004 Presidential campaign. If you check out the Thursday edition, they have the sarcasm thaang down:

If the Bush White House weren’t so completely distracted by the Wilson leak investigation, perhaps the President would be able to actually get something done — besides sign CAFTA, the highway bill, and the energy bill into law; read all the improving economic figures; celebrate his still-bullet-proof Supreme Court nomination; and continue along semi-stealthily on 2006 fundraising and candidate recruitment.

And if the Democrats weren’t so sure that a one-sentence party platform (”Karl Rove should be in jail.”) was a sure winner, perhaps they would Notice that the Republican majority is likely to get at least some credit with voters for passing these laws; that the Bill Clinton Democratic Party of free trade just might have been dead and buried shortly after midnight; and that the AFL thing — along with the America Coming Together thing, along with the DNC thing — leaves the party with some serious money and organization questions.

And/but there’s still the Iraq war and Social Security for the White House to deal with, but does anyone think Democrats are scoring political points galore on those?

And/but perhaps Democrats will be able to convince the country by votin’ time that Washington is a corrupt, Republican-dominated cesspool of special interest greed and that the macro economic numbers mean nothing. (Just like in 2002 an7d 2004. . .)

They billed the above four graphs as their “snap-shot summary of everything you have to know about American politics in fewer than 250 words.” (MS Word, into which I am typing this entry, gives me 218 words. Give or take whatever.)

They’ve some good stuff on the Roberts nomination and even a little bit about the Joe Wilson scandal™.

This is from Irby McKnight, a liberal political activist in Miami’s predominantly black Overtown neighborhood, upon learning that embattled former Republican Miami Commissioner Arthur Teele had shot himself in the offices of the Miami Herald:

“It is a tragedy every time something like this happens, but again, he has a lot of baggage.”

Thoughtful, thoughtful people. Thoughtful, nice, kind, Deaniac people.

Good morning.

Pennsylvania Lieutenant Governor Catherine Baker Knoll crashed the funeral of fallen Marine Staff Sgt. Joseph P. Goodrich and harassed his grieving family, handing out her business card in bit of “VOTE FOR ME!” shtick and alerting the family to the “fact” that the Rendell Administration opposes the war. (The Governor has since asserted that he supports the troops.)

Michelle Malkin, Mike Krempasky, BlackFive, and others weren’t happy.

To me, it was CBK being CBK. She’s an opportunist ditz, and deserves to be condemned.

Uncle Eddy, the governor, has apologized. Baker Knoll says she’s sorry. And she’s still for now on the Rendell ticket, although the calls for her resignation are still coming here in the Commonwealth..

As of yesterday, Knoll was still standing. The governor is backing her. Some political observers say he can’t afford the time and money it would take to back another candidate as he seeks re-election.

Rendell said he does not consider Knoll’s latest misstep a firing offense, though he did criticize her for going to the funeral without an invitation from the family and for misrepresenting his administration’s position on the war in Iraq.

is not until next year, Gov. You’d be wise to cut your losses and snag someone like a Joe Hoeffel, last year’s unsuccessful Dem challenger to Arlen Specter. If the GOP runs Lynn Swann or State Senator Jeff Piccola next year, and especially Swann if he turns out to be the real deal candidacy-wise, CBK could be an issue which pries Rendell out of Harrisburg. (Bill Scranton’s running too, but I fear that Carville has forever branded him as a follower of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. He is, and add to this that he returned to Pennsylvania in ‘96 after ten years in San Francisco, a city with a sometimes-flakey reputation in certain circles.)

When asked if he’d dump CBK, though, Governor Rendell seemed unready:

“I have no reason to expect differently. … Sure she occasionally makes some malaprops, including introducing me as Edward G. Robinson, but if malaprops were a disqualification from office I submit that we would be looking for a new president of the United States.”

Some wild-eyed folks are, governor, and a few word stumbles are not quite as damaging and… well, idiotic as traipsing into a funeral with a political advertisement, announcing that you opposed the actions of the deceased.

It would be a fairly safe guess, though, that the Pennsylvania GOP would very much like for that woman, Ms. Baker Knoll, to continue to help Governor Eddy on the campaign trail.

53-year-old Pennsylvanian Joanne Silva, speaking to the Harrisburg Patriot-News (linked above) might have CBK pegged: “To me, she’s in the category of Jane Fonda.” Except the newly-minted Jihad Jane was in her 20s when she sat on a V.C. anti-aircraft gun. CBK is a 74-year-old grandmother.

Then again, the MoveOn.org/dKos/Deaniac crowd must adore CBK and her willingness to play the buffoon. She’s taken a page from their playbook.

[posted first at RedState.org]

Christopher G. Adamo’s The War of the Worldviews.

Adamo writes of this column: “Here’s my latest. I know it is quite different from my typical writings (which I _promise_ will return next week). But I just had so much fun writing it that I simply couldn’t stop until it was complete. It is guaranteed to infuriate the liberals.”

From Yaron Brook and Onkar Ghate of the Ayn Rand Institute” The Foreign Policy of Guilt.

The subtitle is: “Until the West asserts its moral right to exist, we will not be safe from Islamic totalitarianism.”

Enjoy them both.

And when you’re through, subscribe FREE to the twice-weekly Rightsided Newsletter. (You can subscribe by sending a blank e-mail to rsn-subscribe [AT] topica.com. We ask for no other information, and you will receive no e-mail other than the newsletter by doing this. For more info and the latest RSN, check out the RSN site.)

Stare decisis is the principle which olds that court decisions should be guided by precedent, previously decided cases. One such case is 1972’s Roe V. Wade. Lower courts are bound by Roe. Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez has made headlines by declaring that the Supreme Court is not bound by Roe.

In an interview with the Associated Press, Gonzales said a justice does not have to follow a previous ruling “if you believe it’s wrong,” a comment suggesting Roberts would not be bound by his past statement that the 1973 decision settled the issue.

Duh?

Of course. An appeals court judge, such as is John Roberts, is controlled by Roe. He is not free to overturn it. As a Supreme Court justice, and there are currently nine of them, can vote however he or she wishes. They can choose to be guided by precedent, not to be guided by precedent, or to be guided only in part.

Stare decisis is alive and well on the SCOTUS, and precedent is sometimes twisted in order to give an appearance of consistency.

But I’m sure someone will call for the Attorney General’s resignation, just ‘cos that’s what they do.

Hassan at An Average Iraq lists the “3 Most Ridiculous Ways to Die in Iraq, noting that he “will be satisfied when some or all of those 3 reasons of death are gone.”

He puts them in inverse order, with number three being driving too closely to U.S. military vehicles, and the second. Number two is selling advanced technology (like cell phones, etc.), as they “must come from the Americans” and thus are a seen by the mutants as a sign of working for the Americans.

A special insanity is evoked by his Number One Most Ridiculous Way to Die in Iraq: cutting hair in a specific manner not approved by the mutants:

The number one is the almost unbelievable: It is perfectly acceptable to open a barber shop in Iraq, but recently many barbers have been shot, their shops targeted and attacked, some of them were even killed by use of silenced weapons in Gazaliya, the reason of the death is that they use a technique in shaving their customers beards, the technique involves using a string to shave some hairs so that they don’t grow again. That technique has been used before the war, and I don’t know why it is being forbidden now by the rebels, but right now many barbers refuse to use this technique in fear of their lives, and I don’t blame them, some of them have signs on their windows saying that they don’t use this technique anymore.

That is no reason to die. It has a very medieval feel to it.

With the departure of Bradley Smith from the Federal Elections Commission, RedState’s Mike Krempasky is pushing for the President to offer a recess appointment to Washington attorney, writer, and blogger Allison Hayward, the Skeptic at Skeptic’s Eye.

I second the call, which would be one of WAKE UP to the commission’s lefty set. A blogger on the FEC? Yes.

Well, the Anchorage Daily News reports that the Energy Bill has made it through the House-Senate conference and is set for a final vote by both Houses.

This bill differs from the energy legislation the president wanted in at least one prominent way: It has no provision for opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling.

Senate leaders believed an ANWR provision would kill the energy bill. Congress, though, may have a refuge-drilling proposal in a budget bill it is expected to take up in the fall.

It’s got clean coal, though. What the hell is “clean coal”? It sounds like one of Bobby Byrd’s oxymorons, but it evidently has something to do with technology. The industry should be inventing such a thing, if the market bears it; if the market does not, it doesn’t matter if it is invented or not.

Lots of little projects:

Cook Inlet Oil Enhancement Program: The bill authorizes up to $3 million for a pilot project to see if carbon dioxide injections can extend the life of the Cook Inlet oil field.

These folks are weak. The President should veto, but he won’t. Weak.