Mark A. Kilmer (the weblog)

British Baroness Helena Kennedy, chairperson of an outfit called The Power Inquiry, has determined (according to the BBC): “Politics and government are increasingly in the hands of privileged elites, as if democracy has run out of steam.”

Thank you for your opinion, Baroness. The British people should be thankful to you, Baroness, for telling them that their government is run by aristocrats. Now give up your title and get a real job.

Never try to trick voters into exercising their franchise or toss around your condescending, blue-blooded gimmicks.

CBS News trumpets a new poll which shows the President with a 34-percent approval rating. Seventy-percent object to the DP World deal, though it is unclear how many know what it is. (The MSM, in large part, has not told them.) Two of three think Bush has not fixed Hurricane Katrina, thought, CBS News concedes, that’s from a completely different poll. Over half the people think Bush doesn’t care. Less than a third approve of Bush on the Iraq war, while half of Americans think he’s blowing the war on terror.

An pollster and reader of NRO tells NRO’s Kathryn Jean Lopez:

Please check out page 18 of the pdf file that tallies up the poll. This page includes the frequency data.

Note the respective numbers of Republicans and Democrats:

GOPers: 272 (weighted up to 289)
DEMs: 409 (weighted down to 381)
INDs: 337 (weighted up to 348)

This is NOT representative of the electorate.

They also used a split-sample methodology, which is legit (we’ve used it ourselves), but which also INCREASES the margin of error for those questions (a fact that is usually glossed over).
You’ll also note that the story (http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/02/27/opinion/polls/main1350874.shtml) and the pdf both reference “Americans.” Not likely voters.

So the poll offers nothing on the next election. It seems that they contacted a bunch of people who claimed to be Democrats and asked them, essentially, whether or not the President has cooties.

It’s a worthless poll with a fake result, but it fills space and gives Schieffer something to talk about.

Someone blew up Saddam’s father’s tomb, the “noble freedom fighters” (Zarqawi, et al.) are still freeing people from their lives, and Saddam’s attorneys have again stormed out of trial. It’s cheap, Ramsey Clark stunt.

But we’ve lost another soldier.

Good morning.

Tom Monaghan, the guy who founded the Dominoes Pizza chain, is created the nation’s first Roman Catholic town: Ave Maria, Florida. The people who move to the town agree to live under Catholic principles.

The land on the western edge of the Everglades swamp will eventually house up to 30,000 people, with 5,000 students living on the university campus. Florida officials have declared the project a development bonanza for a depressed area, and Gov. Jeb Bush attended a groundbreaking ceremony for the new university earlier this month.

Yet civil rights activists and other watchdogs concerned about the separation of church and state are threatening lawsuits if Ave Maria attempts to enforce Catholic dogma. Environmentalists have also complained the town will restrict the habitat of the Florida panther, an endangered species.

Well, it will not be establishing a government religion on an existing town. It is establishing a town to live under the code of a religion. The First Amendment should not be construed so as to prevent that.

We’ll see how this goes. I support their attempt.

Partying in Kuwait City, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad boosted his chances of becoming UN General Secretary Monday when he called for the United States and Russia to toss aside their nuclear arms.

He did this in the context of calls to make the Middle East a “nuclear free zone,” which makes a joke of the entire proposal.

He didn’t mention that Putin had forced Iran to transfer their nuclear processes to Russian soil, perhaps because the mullahs neglected to tell him.

Meanwhile in Tokyo, Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki told the Japanese to go to hell, they’re going to go nuclear anyway.

Iran is a silly place.

Iraqi TV reports that the Iraqi government has captured 6 Iraqi Qaeda 70 miles west of Baghdad, including one of Zarqawi’s top lieutenants, a fellow named Abu al-Farouq.

A Google search on this “Abu al-Farouq,” yields nothing, but the AP piece says that he is a Syrian.

They got the bastard before he could make Google. That’s something, I suppose.

Good morning.

Britain’s Lord Healey, an elder statesman of their Labour Party, says Prime Minister Tony Blair is “losing his grip” and ought to quit now.

Asked about his eyebrows, Healey declared that he was a nobleman, a member of the House of Lords, and didn’t have to take this sitting down. He stood on his head, and his eyebrows fell off and scurried under the rug.

Tomorrow is anotehr day.

These are my show notes from this morning’s MTP. Something seems to be working towards something else, and it appears to me that Chuckie Schumer is going to win the day.

Below the fold are my show notes of host Tim Russert talking to Senator John Warner and Representative Peter King:

(more…)

Sunday, January 26, 2006

Interesting, anyway. On MTP, Representative Peter King charged that there has been no review of the sale of port operations to the government of the UAE, and he and Russert to into a discussion about the wisdom, vis-à-vis Hillary’s comment, of selling our ports to the Arabs. Senator John Warner told them to cut it out, we were not selling our ports to foreign governments.

John McCain on TW declared that the Iraqi factions had “looked into the abyss” and opted for a sane solution. Fran Townsend on FNS said that the only way to conduct another review of the situation would be for DP World to request one. Warner on MTP read from such a request.

Mitt on FNS said that he became pro-life when he considered stem cells, and he basically called himself a secular Mormon. Biden on FNS said that the Administration had botched everything but had another chance to save their sorry behinds. (He says this with almost every appearance anywhere.)

Cal Levin on TW complained that the Bush Administration had not sought the permission of the 9-11 Commission, whose report Russert waved like the Bible on MTP, to sell approve of the sale of port operations to the government of the UAE.

Wolf Blitzer scratched his head repeatedly and attributed all head-scratching unnamed others.

Check out the complete show-by-show review at RedState.com.

Tim Graham at NewsBusters.org quotes General Tommy Franks defending the UAE in the ports matter on the Hannity and Colmes TV show on FNC.

I believe it’s ludicrous and disingenuous for us to look at activities inside the United Arab Emirates and say that, just because one, two, or three hijackers, at some point in time, lived in the Emirates that we should hold that government responsible.

Read Graham’s entire piece for Franks complete argument, one which he found convincing.

No one needed to sell me on the arrangement, but I did find one of Franks’s llnes slightly unnerving:

I believe we had every reason to be thankful for the relationship and the dialogue that existed between the United Arab Emirates and the Taliban, as it assisted us in our efforts to understand what was going on in Afghanistan.

That’s the Talbin, fercryingoutloud! Did the UAE help with caning the chiks without burquas? Did they help Mullah Omar take out the 2,000-year-old Buddhas at Bamiyan?

Either way, I will watch the Sunday Shows this AM. I’ll be back this afternoon with word on that.

For Sunday, February 26, 2006

Meet the Press (NBC): Host Tim Russert interviews Arnold about Arnold stuff. And he chats with Chairmen John Warner (Senate Armed Services) and Peter King (House Homeland Security) about that A-rab government’s company buying the Brit company which manages operations at a half dozen U.S.ports.

FOX News Sunday: Host Chris Wallace chats with Homeland Security Adviser Fran Townsend and Joe Biden about the selling of our ports to the intifada. He promises also to talk to Mitt about Mitt things.

Face the Nation (CBS): Host Bob Schieffer talks to National Securtiy Advisor Steve Hadley about the mullahs who are infiltrating ports. Then he talks to Senators Lindsey Graham and Chuckie Schumer about the same thing. And I’m sure Chuckie will have something to say about a window of opportunity and the civil war and how “this Adminstration continues to fail.”

This Week (ABC): Host George Stephanopoulos talks to Senators John McCain and Carl Levin (very dour) about the impending Iraqi Civil War and the upcoming jihad at our nation’s ports.

Late Edition (CNN): Host Wolf Blitzer has Hadley, Iraq’s National Security Advisor Mowaffak al-Rubaie, and Senators Kay Bailey Hutchinson and Diane Feinsten, Rubaie will discuss civil war. THe rest will no doubt discuss the forthcoming imposition of Sharia at our nation’s ports.
—–

Biden and McCain, hooray! We’ve Lindsey Graham, who has a following amongst RedStaters as a warm and funny guy. We’ll see if Hadley can soothe the fancies of those who are concerned, but I doubt that much will calm Biden and Levin and Schumer. (”Oh, my!”)

Mitt and Arnold are Republican governors. A year from now, the producers can attempt to book Republican Governor Lynn Swann of Pennsylvania. If the girls can swoon for Mitt and Arnold, their hearts will skp a beat for Governor Swann.

Bloomberg wants money, Pataki is catious, Pataki’s appendix busted, Bloomberg joked that when Pataki was high post-op, he agreed to give him they money.

[New York Post]

It’s Saturday afternoon, I’m out of here, and I am sick of hearing that the White House botched the thaang with the ports. Sure, it could have been handled in a much, much better manner on their part, but the blame goes to the MSM for getting the story wrong and spreading disinformation. The White House can’t do PR, and the MSM don’t know what to do with information.

It is Friday evening, dammitall.

Mike Krempasky, blogging at RedHot reveals that apparently, the 15 minutes can extend by 30 additional seconds: links THIS BLOG.

I said: “Let’s tell the folks at Kos it’s Tom DeLay communicating in secret Republican code.”

Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, a DEMOCRAT, says he didn’t realize that Comedy Central’s The Daily Show was a comedy show. Okay. According to the Associated Press:

Interviewer Jason Jones pretended to stumble over Blagojevich’s name before calling him “Governor Smith.” He urged Blagojevich to explain the contraception issue by playing the role of “a hot 17-year-old” and later asked if he was “the gay governor.”

At one point in the interview, a startled Blagojevich looked to someone off camera and said, “Is he teasing me, or is that legit?”

Matt Margolis at GOP Bloggers compares the AP story at MYWAY.com, in which the governor is labeled a Democrat, with the AP piece after a CNN edit, in which he is not.

Notes Margolis:

Over something so trivial as this, CNN decided to hide Governor Blagojevich’s party affiliation. And we’re supposed to believe they’re unbiased?

The short answer is NO. We’re supposed to believe no such thing. CNN wears its color proudly, and that might be why few people tune in.

Anti-American London Mayor Ken Livingstone has been suspended for a month beginning March 1 for comparing a Jewish reporter to a Nazi camp guard.

The mayor had told the panel he had not meant to offend the Jewish community when he asked Evening Standard reporter Oliver Finegold whether he had been a “German war criminal”.

Finegold, who had approached the mayor for comment after a reception for the gay and lesbian community in February, replied that he was Jewish.

Livingstone told the reporter he was “just like a concentration camp guard. You’re just doing it because you’re paid to, aren’t you?”

That was a reference to Associated Newspapers, publishers of the Evening Standard, the Daily Mail and the Mail on Sunday.

I love the concept of suspending office holders, but al Jazeera (linked), of course, objects to Livingston’s suspension. They believe that referring to a Jew as a Nazi is merely “hyperbole.”

I believe that Livingstone is a freak.

The problem is with the headline, in this case over a Stephen Barr column on the web site of the WashPost: Acts of Heroism Shine Through Homeland Security’s Humiliation. My initial reaction, of course, was a bit rough. Had the DHS been “humiliated” by Hurricane Katrina? Had they lost all dignity and self-respect because a lot of people from all levels of government suffered from the bureaucracy? Remember, the DHS has kept this nation free from terrorist attack since its creation.

The problem, I learned, was not with Cohen; rather, it’s the headline. He writes nothing about humiliation. He writes that the DHS folks are telling jokes about themselves, then he switches to the acts of heroism detailed in Appendix B of the White Houses history of Katrina report.

He concludes:

If Homeland Security can cut through the red tape and reinvent itself — a big “if,” to be sure — then the “Brownie” jokes should fade away. In the meantime, let’s not forget that numerous Coast Guard, military and civil service personnel reacted to the Katrina catastrophe with clear heads and courage.

Nice, constructive column, Mr. Barr. Shame on the freak who created the headline.

Good morning, and TGIF.