Mark A. Kilmer (the weblog)

It is a curious song to reference on the front page of RedState.com, Metallica’s Enter Sandman, and I will not link the lyrics. However, to a New York Yankees fan, it’s not about nasty dreams or drummer Lars Ulfsbane throwing fits at the old Napster. Rather, it usually means that Mariano Rivera has entered the game and the win is secure. It is the song they play as he walks from the bullpen to save a game.

Pitchers like Kyle Farnsworth, Mike Myers, Scott Proctor, and Luis Vizcaino are all major leaguers, capable pitchers, but they’re not going to get the Yankees into the hunt for wildcard spot, let alone strike at the Boston Red Sox, if they cannot hold ballgames.

Candidates like Rudy Giuliani, John McCain, and Mitt Romney are all capable politicians and would probably make for decent national management. So would the rest, save one or two. President Reagan was that, and he was more, and the GOP needs a closer.

Mariano has not had many opportunities to save games this year, but he was lights out last night, when he ended the potential nightmare Farnsworth was creating. Mariano River is possibly the most exciting player to wear the pinstripes since Mickey Mantle.

Fred Thompson is possibly the most exciting candidate with a Republican lapel pin since Ronald Reagan.

“The Fred has Landed.”

Read More…

(more…)

Here’s the Associated Press:

NBC’s Matt Lauer didn’t learn his lesson from interviewing New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine about the governor’s near-fatal car crash while riding without wearing a safety belt.

A few weeks after that chat, there was Lauer on “Today” on Wednesday, sitting in the back of a moving sport utility vehicle while interviewing Republican presidential contender Mitt Romney. Both men were unbuckled.

A sheepish Lauer admitted his mistake after “Today” ran the interview, which was conducted Tuesday.

“I should have set a better example,” he said. Romney also said he needs to keep reminding himself to buckle up.

Is there any reason to take Lauer seriously?

According to Lindsay Lohan’s Wikipedia entry, Lindsay Lohan is “an American actress and pop music singer.” My knowledge of Lindsey Lohan’s current predicaments, and the extent of my familiarity with Linday Lohan, can be attributed largely to cultural osmosis.

Here is a photo of Lindsay Lohan:

According to that Wikipedia entry, Lindsay Lohan will be 21-years-old on July 2nd. According to cultural osmosis, she likes to drink herself into several stupors in one binge.

This is AGAINST THE LAW:

Read More…

(more…)

NASA administrator Michael Griffin, in an interview with NPR, accidentally brought the wrath of the Earthies upon himself by questioning lefty writ:

“I have no doubt that a trend of global warming exists,” Griffin told Inskeep. “I am not sure that it is fair to say that it is a problem we must wrestle with.”

“To assume that it is a problem is to assume that the state of Earth’s climate today is the optimal climate, the best climate that we could have or ever have had and that we need to take steps to make sure that it doesn’t change,” Griffin said. “I guess I would ask which human beings — where and when — are to be accorded the privilege of deciding that this particular climate that we have right here today, right now is the best climate for all other human beings. I think that’s a rather arrogant position for people to take.”

True, but NASA’s top climatologist has called Griffin “incredibly arrogant and ignorant!”

It’s unbelievable,” said [James] Hansen. “I thought he had been misquoted. It’s so unbelievable.”

They recoil in horror when it is explained that their conveniently twisted worldview might not be so. They’ve based lives and careers on the myth that is global orthodoxy, and they react with at least verbal violence when informed that the world just might be round.

A partial transcript can be found at the end of this article, where Griffin questions NASA’s role in jumping the bandwagon:

Nowhere in NASA’s authorization, which of course governs what we do, is there anything at all telling us that we should take actions to affect climate change in either one way or another. We study global climate change, that is in our authorization, we think we do it rather well. I’m proud of that, but NASA is not an agency chartered to quote “battle climate change.”

The climate change movement is not serious, anyway. If third world countries can pollute because they are poor, the fearmongers are not really frightened. If people like Al Gore can buy carbon credits, pay money for exemptions from limits, the fearmongers are not serious. If we’re all going to die, a country cannot engage in activity which will contribute to that death merely because one it has less money than others; likewise, a rich guy can’t contribute to our eventually death if he has enough money to pay to make the freaks look the other way. If this is serious, do something about it.

WSJ muses today on President Bush’s poll numbers in April, according to Harris. Let’s see, 28% of adults currently within the borders of the United States approve of the job the President is doing, while 70% will have none of it.

As Harris polls go, Bush is still not hanging out in the single lowest position. Tha is the Once and Future Clown, Jimmy Carter:

Those ratings are still better than the marks President Jimmy Carter received in July 1980, when just 22% responded positively and 77% answered negatively when asked to rate the job he was doing.

President Bush’s 28% approval is not even the second lowest. That spot belongs to pre-resignation Dick Nixon, in March, June, and August of ‘74. Only 26% approved of him then, while 71% disapproved.

It doesn’t matter.

In October of 2001, President Bush was at the all-time high in Harris polling of 88% approval.

We are a polarized nation. We are a confused nation.

What does this all mean? Not a thing. The President is going to keep doing what he’s doing.

Proceed.

The Miss Universe pageant is, by some accounts, about babes, and bods, and bikinis. It is being held in Mexico City this year, and word is that Miss U.S.A., Rachel Smith, was booed off the stage Monday night.

The boos started as soon as Smith stepped forward for the interview round. And it continued, along with chants of “Mexico,” as Smith launched into a history of her volunteer work in South Africa.

“I don’t think they are booing because of Rachel,” said Donald Trump, co-owner of the Miss Universe pageant. “They are booing because of the immigration policy.”

Thanks, Trump, now shut up. Or go talk to yourself about “Rosie.”

Either way, it not good form for a host audience to boo its guests.

[That’s Rachel being crowned by Tara Conner, who is evidently something else entirely.]

At NewsBusters.org, Scott Whitlock reports on the reaction at ABC:

(read on)

(more…)

He’s not his daddy Hafez al, but Syrian dictator Bashir al Assad has won his second second seven-year term, capturing 97-percent of the vote.

The question was: keep him or not. Almost 20,000 people (deceased) voted to boot him, while he refused to count over 250,000 ballots.

Obligatory, from the hosts: “Death to America.”

‘T was a holiday, a day to remember those on whose shoulders our way of life is maintained.

I was going to write an essay about my black cat; though his skin be pink, I assume, his appearance is black and he has dealt with the hassles involved with that. He was unwanted, bad luck. When we got him from the shelter, he had been adopted and returned several times. Given a chance, he’s as good if not better than any other cat.

I was prepared to take it further, but it struck me that I can’t. The experience of blacks in America is not that trivial.

Chuck Rangel, not my favorite Congressman, fought in an all-black unit in Korea. Segregated. And he was a hero. From Wikipedia:

Rangel then enlisted in the United States Army, and served in it from 1948 to 1952. During the Korean War, he was a sergeant in the all-black 503rd Field Artillery Battalion in the 2nd Infantry Division. In late November 1950, this unit was caught up in heavy fighting in North Korea as part of the U.N. forces retreat from the Yalu River. In the Battle of Kunu-Ri, Rangel led some 40 men from his unit, during three days of freezing weather, out of a Chinese Army encirclement; nearly half of the battalion was killed in the overall battle. Rangel was awarded a Purple Heart for a shrapnel wound to his foot and the Bronze Star Medal with Valor for his actions in the face of death. In 2000, Rangel reflected with CBS News that “Since Kunu Ri — and I mean it with all my heart, I have never, never had a bad day.”

When he received his honorable discharge, he finished high school. Then college. Then law school.

Let’s remember everyone who has given everything to create, preserve, protect, and defend our nation against those who would see us dead.

And, for those of you who frequented the old Rathergate.com site, it seems to be back. I’ve posted this morning’s open thread.

www.rathergate.com

Sunday, May 27, 2007

On MTP, Candidate Bill Richardson said that he wants to “deauthorize” the war, and that it is his idea to do so. Joe Biden has said that it is his, and as far as I know, it was Bobby Byrd’s senile idea. He wants to get every single soldier out of Iraq. It’s not what he wrote eighteen-months-ago, host Russert pointed out, but Richardson doesn’t care what he wrote. He also doesn’t mind his flip-flop –in-72-hours over the immigration bill.

On FNS, Candidate Mike Huckabee made a case for his “Fair Tax,” and he acknowledged that Fred Thompson would be a “presence” in the race for the GOP nomination. There’s room for more than the current ten, he said.

On FNS, Arlen Specter liked that Kay Bailey Hutchison said that the Bush-Kennedy immigration bill was better than the current setup. Hutchison argued against what she called “amnesty,” and Specter argued that it wasn’t amnesty. And he predicted that Attorney General Alberto Gonzales would resign soon.

Bob Menendez complained on TW that the Bush-Kennedy immigration bill rips apart families. Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez suggested that this was our last chance to fix the immigration problem. Gutierrez said that those with Z-Visas won’t receive sundry government entitlements, but it seems pretty much settled that such government programs should exist.

On FTN, Rove came out arguing that we need a timeline to make the Iraqis take care of their own country. Alabama Republican Jeff Sessions argued that “we can’t achieve everything we want to achieve.” He said that if things haven’t improved dramatically by the time General Petraeus reports in September, Republicans will begin to defect. Levin questions why they should wait until September.
Schieffer suggested that they had made news, and everyone went home happy.

On LE, Major General Billy Caldwell held out hope that Moqtada al Sadr would become part of the solution in Iraq. Duncan Hunter predicted that Iraq would be a stable state, and Chuck Rangel said that the United States has absolutely no security interests in Iraq and should get out now and let Africa take care of it. On immigration, Rangel said we need the illegals to do jobs and Hunter promised to build the Really Big Fence within six months of his inauguration.

The complete, show-by-show review is up at RedState.com.