Another Bush in the White House?

Boy that would piss off the Left. But apparently, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush has publicly taken himself out of the running. And much of the political punditry can't get their heads around the idea that the voters would elect another man named Bush because they will either have Bush-fatigue or they are too deeply suspicious of dynasties. I admit I've accepted this conventional wisdom pretty easily.

However, Brent Miniter of OpinionJournal.com argues against this thinking. He points out that George W. climbed a steep hill to overcome the legacy of his father's defeat for reelection in 1992 - running on ideas that won over voters. Like his brother, Jeb has been building an "antitax bedrock conservative record" since 1998. The younger Bush could seize the mantle of Social Security reform now that his brother has succeeded in finally making the issue debatable. And of course, everything would depend on how popular the Bush name is three years from now. As Miniter explains:

Perhaps the most compelling reason why Jeb Bush shouldn't be written off just yet came Friday with the Labor Department's latest jobs numbers. With some 200,000 net new jobs created in July and some 3.5 million new jobs over the past two years, it's getting harder to deny we are now in the midst of a Bush boom. John Kerry's claims of a jobless recovery notwithstanding, every job lost after the dot-com crash and the 9/11 attacks has long since been replaced. True, the housing market may yet tumble. But the Fed keeps raising interest rates out of fear the economy will get too hot, not too cold. If we get three more years of solid economic expansion, voters may decide that keeping a Bush in the White House is good for their wallets. After all, the Bush tax cuts are now set to expire in the middle of the next president's first term.

I still remain skeptical, however, there is one other condition that might make Jeb Bush a stronger candidate in 2008 - Hillary. Imagine if the country is forced to choose between another Bush and another Clinton. I think in this case the result would definitely favor the Florida Governor.

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Say "Ahhhhhhh"...

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How Do I Fool Thee? Let Me Count The Ways...

Deroy Murdock lists the reasons why "Senator Fake", as he calls Hillary, is no moderate despite her attempted self-makeover (and it all comes from her voting record).

H/T: The Anchoress

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Scumbags Go Googling...

Vince Aut Morire got a hit off some perv doing a search. Sick, man.

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AL TV Launches...

The latest Al Gore-backed project - a glorified public-access channel called Current TV - hit the airwaves last Monday. Coincidentally (or not) the launch date coincided with the original MTV premiere date from twenty four years ago, Aug. 1 1981. The only thing the two networks have in common however is the target audience: 18-34 year olds.

Check that. That's the only thing the original MTV has in common with this mess. You remember the days when MTV actually played videos? Current TV and today's MTV also share another common characteristic: they're both unwatchable - for the target audience and anyone else for that matter.

Human Events' Christopher Flickinger reports:

Here’s a little taste of what I had to endure for 90 minutes: a bizarre documentary about a couple and their emotional pregnancy; a story about people in Japan who want to commit suicide with others they meet over the Internet; a video titled “The Perfect Egg” that describes the unusual characteristics people desire in women who donate their eggs to ovum centers; a cultural piece featuring a man in Paris who jumps over fences, on trees, and off staircases, artwork and buildings; a segment on the history of skateboarding; and, a video-essay from a third-world country, which focuses on the tradition of cremation and literally answers the question, “how long does it take for the average human body to burn”.

Wow. Great stuff, huh? Pretty def, Al. You're so dang hip it's frightening!

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No ANWR drilling in the Energy Bill? No problem...

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Multiculturalism...Phooey!

Michael Barone chronicles how multiculturalism is (literally) killing us.

Multiculturalism is based on the lie that all cultures are morally equal. In practice, that soon degenerates to: All cultures are morally equal, except ours, which is worse. But all cultures are not equal in respecting representative government, guaranteed liberties and the rule of law. And those things arose not simultaneously and in all cultures, but in certain specific times and places -- mostly in Britain and America, but also in various parts of Europe.

Bingo.

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Announcement...

The guys over at The Llama Butchers are away on some much needed R&R and have graciously asked me to guest blog on their site. So if posting seems a little light, you can always hop over there and check out their terrific site.

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NARAL thugs behind latest Roberts dirt-digging...

The Washington Prowler section of the American Spectator Online is reporting that the goons from the pro-abortion group NARAL passed on info from their opposition research to get reporters to look into the adoption records of John Roberts' children. The organization, terrified of losing their "right" to abortion-on-demand, are desperately pushing whatever they can to derail the nomination.

Liberal groups and Democrats are finding a tough time attacking Roberts any other way. A Democrat source told the Prowler:

"There is a lot of Roberts writing, but there isn't anything much to hang our hat on. He's clean, and it's frustrating our ability to paint him anything other than what the White House put forward: a smart, sharp and fair legal mind."

Their desperation is obvious. It's sad that they have to resort to such bottom-feeding and unfortunate that Roberts and his family must endure this crap. But reporting it only makes Democrats look bad by association.

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Breaking News: Men have a hard time listening to women!

C'mon, they actually needed to do a study to come to this conclusion?

Apparently, men have to use a special part of their brain to figure out what the hell women are saying.

Men deciphered female voices using the auditory part of the brain that processes music, while male voices engaged a simpler mechanism, it said.

The Mail quoted researcher Michael Hunter as saying, "The female voice is actually more complex than the male voice, due to differences in the size and shape of the vocal cords and larynx between men and women, and also due to women having greater natural 'melody' in their voices.

"This causes a more complex range of sound frequencies than in a male voice."

Ladies, don't take this the wrong way. But it's a whole heck of a lot more likely the problem is that unless women are talking about sports, food, bodily functions or sex men are too busy exerting all their mental energy just trying to pay attention to whatever you're saying much less understand it.

No need to think of us as more complicated than we really are.

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Diane Lane Photo of the Week...

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New in the "Featured Time-Waster" Section...

Shoot the beer into the mouths of the thirsty Germans. Warning, if you speak German, I've heard some of the words are naughty: Play

H/T to K-Lo at The Corner

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Fear the 'stache...

Several diplomats at Turtle Bay are already sucking up to new U.N. Rep. John Bolton.

Several ambassadors, including those from Algeria, Argentina, France, Russia and China expressed welcoming wishes and expressions of enthusiasm to working with the former State Department undersecretary.

And I'm sure Sec. Bolton is well aware of the Godfather wisdom that says "keep your friends close, but your enemies closer."

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"Another Nail In My Heart", no longer just a song by Squeeze...

A British man, Nigel Kirk, was repairing floorboards in his home when he had a little accident with a nail-gun.

[H]e was working in his bathroom when he lost his footing on a towel, stumbled backwards and turned the pneumatic gun on himself as he fell.

He accidentally pulled the trigger, shooting himself at point-blank range in the chest. The nail embedded itself in the wall of his heart, with the tip poking into the heart muscle, but missed the vital arteries.

Mr. Kirk survived the ordeal after undergoing major heart surgery. Doctors had to work carefully as one wrong move would have resulted in blood pouring out of his heart like air from a punctured tire.

And I cry like a baby when I get a torn cuticle.

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207,000 new jobs in July...

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Damn, Liberals didn't move to Canada after all!

Bush-hating Liberal weenies who threw a hissy-fit after the 2004 Presidential election and vowed to move to Canada in protest apparently were not serious about their intentions. Despite the Canadian immigration website being slammed with visits from U.S. surfers, the "move to Canada" movement never really took off.

Data from the main Canadian processing center in Buffalo, NY shows that in the six months up to the U.S. election there were 16,266 applications from people seeking to live in Canada, a figure that fell to 14,666 for the half year after the vote.

Crud, and I was all excited about the idea back in February. Too bad. They wouldn't have been missed.

UPDATE: 10:38am
From Betsy Newmark: "They're all like a French movie -- all talk and no action."

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Is the Ohio special election a bellwether?

ABP's Patrick Hynes does some analysis of the results of last Tuesday's Congressional election in the Ohio 2nd district. First, the Democrat opponent:

"[T]he Democrats pulled out all the stops to win the seat. Hackett is a Marine just back from Iraq who sometimes sounded like he was running against George W. Bush himself, rather than Jean Schmidt, so critical of the president was he (he openly called the president a "chicken hawk" on the stump). Hackett is tall, good-looking, and smart. Jim Carville and Max Cleland trekked to Ohio to help him raise money. The leftwing blogosphere, still chasing the idea that if they just hate George W. Bush enough they will eventually win something, helped Hackett raise tens of thousands of dollars."

Ohio seems to have become the new Florida - a "Red" state closely won by Bush that the Republicans must have "stolen" in order to win the White House. So Democrats desperately wanted this seat as poke in the eye to Bush (again, it always comes back to Bush). But more importantly for the Dems, they desperately need any seat they can possibly get. Looking at the political landscape for 2006, it doesn't look like there's much in the way of potential for taking back the House.

With a 233-201-1 current advantage for Republicans, Hynes notes that political analyst Charlie Cook sees only 8 competitive (i.e. toss-up) races next year. And of those eight, five seats are currently Democrat-held and need to be defended. And what of the financial resources for the these races?

"According to reports filed with the Federal Election Commission through the month of July, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) has raised a total of $24,070,752.10 so far this year. The National Republican Congressional Committee has raised $39,984,494.62. The DCCC has only $8,544,288.27 cash on hand compared to the NRCC's $16,377, 230.66. The DCCC has $3,666,666.67 in outstanding debts. The NRCC has no debt.

Put simply, Democrats have fewer dollars to defend more seats, which limits their ability to create a greater number of competitive races by recruiting rock star candidates."

For Dems, the future's so dark, they're gonna need seeing-eye dogs.

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There is just no low to which the MSM will not stoop...

Digging into the adoption records of John Roberts' children? Disgusting.

Michelle Malkin has a good round-up on this one. As Bob Novak would say - this is bullshit.

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Loading up the van

Loading up the van and heading down to Shea this morning. I'm taking Ryan to his first Mets home game (we saw them at Turner Field in Atlanta back in May). The little bugger's so excited!

Hopefully, with Bensen pitching (7 - 4, 3.40 ERA) the Mutts will be in decent shape, after losing a heartbreaker last night in the 9th. Looper sucks! Hovering a game over .500 they're about where I expected them to be at this point, although I'd hoped for better. Whatever.

Play Ball!

Also NY Giants update: all draft picks signed as of Tuesday. Injuries starting to plague the squad. Hopefully, they'll work and play smart the rest of the camp. Healthy guys, think healthy!

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Let this be a warning to the U.N.

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