"This was not a boat accident!!" (Part Deux)...

On Monday, I noted a diver being attacked and eaten by a Great White Shark off the coast of South Africa.

Today's news is closer to home. A teenage surfer was bitten off the New Jersey coast in what would be the first shark attack in NJ waters in thirty years.

Based on the tooth marks, the season and the location, the shark was likely either a small great white or a sandbar shark, said George Burgess, a Florida expert who is curator of the International Shark Attack File. He had examined an e-mailed photo of HortonÂ’s injury.

Two local experts said they think it was a great white shark.

“In cool water like this, you would have to suspect great white,” said Richard Fernicola, who wrote a book about shark attacks off the New Jersey shore in 1916 that that left four people dead. “A great white is much more likely to be aggressive to man than a sandbar shark.”

Now what else happened thirty years ago? The release of the film "Jaws". And you can now pre-order the "30th Anniversary Edition" of that same movie on DVD due to be released on June 14th. Coincidence?

Hmmmmm.

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Yet Another Bogus Washington Post Poll...

Ripped to shreds, courtesy of BullDogPundit.

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New Jersey GOP primary -Forrester to face Corzine in November...

The NJ Governor's race got a little clearer yesterday when Doug Forrester won the Republican Primary as his party's candidate for Governor.

Now I don't pretend to be fully up-to-speed on NJ politics, but it seems to me that Forrester represents the Republicans' best chance to take back the State House. Forrester is a wealthy Mercer county businessman with a lot of name recognition. Of course it's hard not to recognize the name when you consider the number of ads for him that play on the radio these days.

Forrester's basic platform is to reform NJ's crushing property tax code, cut State spending and wrest control of NJ from the corrupt Democrat machine. He has the personal financial resources to go head to head with Corzine and he's a "moderate" on social issues.

If Forrester can capitalize on voter's dissatisfaction with the corruption in Trenton, he has a chance. Although it's probably Corzine's race to lose. New Jersey is one of the Bluest of the Blue States and frankly a Republican can't win Statewide running simply as a conservative, because the voters, by and large, are not. In any case it should make for an interesting race.

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Not just stupid, but hypocritical as well...

GOP Bloggers has a good smackdown of Howard Dean's latest comments and how ridiculous is the idea that Democrats are the party "more welcoming to different folks".

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Just When You Thought Dean Couldn't Possibly Make A Bigger Ass of Himself...

DNC Chair Howie Dean calls Republicans the "white Christian party".

Man, this guy is the gift that just keeps on giving.

"This is one of those flaps that comes up once in awhile when I get tough," Dean said. "We have to be rough on the Republicans. Republicans don't represent ordinary Americans and they don't have any understanding of what it is to go out and try and make ends meet."

Sure they do Howie, it's just that ordinary Americans know enough to take responsibility for their own lives instead of holding out their hands for the latest goodie-bag from the Federal government.

Of course, Dean is only saying what the Democrat base really thinks. And they just eat it up. The more he opens his mouth the more he marginalizes his party. Go, Howard, Go!

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Vilmar has been FOUND!

Those of you familiar with this blog know how often I link to Barking Moonbat Early Warning System. Well, a couple of months ago one of the contributors to BMEWS, Vilmar, had a falling out with Skipper Allan and seemed to disappear from the blogosphere.

Well thanks to New England Republican, I have found Vilmar's new blog - Right Wing Howler - and I am pleased to report that he is as unrestrained as ever. Go check him out.

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Katherine Harris to run for Senate in 2006...

If Sean Hannity wasn't the first to hear it, he will be miffed. For months he has been pressing Harris on her intentions to unseat Democrat Senator Bill Nelson, and he made her promise he'd be the first to know when she decided. Now she's made it official. Tune in to Sean (if you can) at 5pm EST, I would be very surprised if she wasn't on his show today.

Talk about a polarizing race. Republicans love her, Democrats despise her and Nelson is considered vulnerable in this Red State.

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Kerry's lackluster college transcript reveals much...

According to an article in the Boston Globe, the image of John Francois Kerry - aka "the poodle" - as being so damn brilliant compared to the President has just been blown to smithereens.

Recently released Yale transcripts reveal that Kerry did no better in college than his Presidential classmate. Under Yale's grading system, the Massachusetts Senator scored a cumulative 76 (or mid-C level) for his four years. Bush's score was 77.

Out of 10 courses during his Freshman year, Kerry got four "D"s.

The transcript shows that Kerry's freshman-year average was 71. He scored a 61 in geology, a 63 and 68 in two history classes, and a 69 in political science. His top score was a 79, in another political science course. Another of his strongest efforts, a 77, came in French class.

Great. So "don't know much about history" but he had no problem mastering the Gaulic tongue. I have to laugh at all the media attention given to Kerry's supposed complex intellectual prowess over the sentence-mangling Texan which has now been proven to be a complete sham.

Bush went to Yale from 1964 to 1968; his highest grades were 88s in anthropology, history, and philosophy, according to The New Yorker article. He received one D in his four years, a 69 in astronomy.

And, or course, who's the one sitting in the White House?

Note: Since Kerry has apparently FINALLY signed form SF-180, 127 days after he said he would, I will follow Polipundit's lead and take down the Kerry Clock that they created. Congratulations to them for doing their part in keeping the pressure on.

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DNC fundraisers cutting and running under Dean's watch...

The Hill is reporting that three top fundraisers for the Democratic National Committee are bolting because of DNC Chair Howard "Old Yeller" Dean's lack of attention to big money donors.

Democratic fundraisers say that there is growing concern over what they call DeanÂ’s lack of attention to major donors and that donors are much less likely to give money if they donÂ’t have sufficient opportunity to meet with the partyÂ’s leadership.

“When you don’t have the chairman to fundraise with, or any principals of the leadership, you can’t get major donors to help you,” a veteran Democratic fundraiser said. “You want the leaders of the party to sit down with them so they can discuss their plan.”

“It’s frustrating to be the staff person in charge of that group,” the fundraiser said. “No one wants to stay in a job in which they’re not successful.” The fundraiser added that New York is a competitive place to raise money and that donors often demand detailed explanations of how the money will be spent.

Gee I can't understand why donors would want to know where the money will go. Oh yeah, that's right. Isn't Dean the guy who raised over $40 million in 2003 and then pissed most of it away by the end of January 2004 - not winning a single primary outside of worthless Vermont?

I hope Democrats are too late to figure out that Dean is a political amateur who owes his current notoriety to guys like Joe Trippi. Go, Howie, Go!

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Dick Morris to W: Fight Back on Gitmo!

A man who understands that politics is a blood sport gives some valuable advice to President Bush on these Guantanamo Bay attacks: don't rest on your laurels, the campaign continues!

America never loses wars on battlefields. We lose them in the streets, at home, when people turn against a foreign war. We had to accept defeat in Vietnam because the American public would not allow the Nixon and Ford Administrations to intervene to stop the North Vietnamese offensive of 1974-1975. We could not break the stalemate in Korea because public impatience with the conflict sapped our ability to pursue it vigorously. We almost lost the Civil War when northern animosity to the draft almost
elected a Democratic candidate for president who probably would have capitulated to the demands for Southern independence.

Bush has the classic choice of any incumbent with a mess on his hands — he can be either the prosecutor or the defendant. He can either lead the hunt or offer his own scalp to his critics.

A strong offense is the best defense. Don't give Democrat pipsqeaks like Sen. Chris Dodd credibility by default.

Where's the "turd blossom" these days?

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A "bright side" to the judicial compromise?

Human Events' Barney Brenner thinks so:

Not only have the seven Republican compromisers compromised their own ability to oppose changing Senate rules when the Dems act up again, but more significantly, the seven Democrat “moderates” have discarded much of their cover for opposing the filibuster when the inevitable well-qualified Supreme Court nominee comes on the scene. For the thinnest of upsides, either merely delaying a vote for a rule change or having a chance to desperately claim an “extraordinary circumstance,” the latter seven have swapped their power to impede in exchange for forever compromising their standard for who qualifies as an acceptable circuit court judge – and by extension, an acceptable Supreme Court justice. Even the value to the libs of the phrase “extraordinary circumstances” has been gutted by their colleagues agreeing to cloture on three clearly conservative, originalist jurists.

The dishonestly named “nuclear option” is not only still intact, but the political fallout from its still-possible use – which will be more justified than ever if it’s needed – will no longer contaminate Republican electoral strategy.

In other words, the actions of the seven Democrats indicate that "the dam has cracked" in their party's obstructionist unity and further filibustering will only hurt them in the eyes of voters in 2006. Talk about seeing the glass half full.

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The KFC "Hillary Special"...

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As the Jacko jury deliberates...

Corie of Insane Troll Logic weighs in. I concur.

Also, while we wait for the verdict, a blast from the recent past: Michael Jackson song parody.

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"This was not a boat accident!!"

Just in time for the thirtieth anniversary of the release of Jaws, a monster Great White Shark reportedly swallowed a diver whole off the coast of Cape Town, South Africa.

Dave Estment, a yachtsman, was sitting on the jetty at Simon's Town, near Cape Town, when he saw the great white breach the surface.

"It was incredibly fast. The two spear fishermen were not far from the beach. Suddenly a huge shark surged from under the water taking the one diver [from his legs upwards] to his arms in its jaws," he said.

A little shakin', a little tenderizin'...and down he went.

Thank the f-ing environmentalists who had these creatures put on the protected species list in 1990. A-holes!!

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Mark Steyn on Hillary...

Steyn has an excellent analysis of why Hillary Clinton controls her own destiny in her pursuit of the 2008 Democrat Nomination: she's the only one "who can get away with ignoring the loopy demands of the party's base". Unlike Kerry who was forced into an unwinnable position on Iraq by the Soros/Moore-led Left, the Senator from New York can pretend to tack to the center and not suffer the wrath of the party activists.

Steyn also floats the idea that a Rodham Clinton Presidency need not cause utter panic to spread through the ranks of the GOP. He explains:

The distinguishing characteristic (as Paula Jones would say) of the Clintons' Democratic Party is that it was swell for the Clintons, disastrous for the Democratic Party: throughout the 1990s, the Democrats lost everything - Congress, state legislatures, governors' mansions, tumbling to their smallest share of elected offices since the 1920s. But somehow Bill and Hill were always the lone exceptions that proved the rule. There is no reason to believe the Clintons' amazing historical immunity to their party's remorseless decay will not continue.

Could a second Clinton Presidency, thwarted by a Republican majority in Congress, be as beneficial to the GOP has the first one was? Perhaps. But I for one prefer not find out. Hillary needs to be taken seriously in 2008 because even disgruntled Democrats will find enough reason to unite behind her - even if they disagree with some of her public positions. This will perhaps be the Democrats' last best chance to take back the White House for some time with the Red and Blue States heading in opposite directions in terms of electoral vote strength. And Hillary will seen as the party's savior:

For the last decade the Democratic Party's been a Frankenstein monster only the Clintons can jolt into life. In 2004, Michael Moore and co shot the corpse full of juice and still couldn't jump-start it. Six months after the election, new chairman Howard Dean's supposed "revitalization" of the party is already a bust. Hillary's the warrior queen on a field of corpses, and in today's Democratic Party that's more than enough.

Update: Sully weighs in.

It's too early, of course, to say anything with much conviction about the future. But you can confidently say that Hillary has prepared herself with a discipline and intelligence that has prompted some of her critics, including me, to take another look. She has the money, she has the beginnings of a centrist appeal, she'll have a Democratic party desperate to win back the White House. Bush-Clinton-Bush-Clinton?

In the strange nepotism that has always bedevilled American politics weirder things have happened.

While I think Sullivan overestimates her appeal to Republicans, his assessment pretty much mirrors Steyn's.

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Amnesty International continues to make itself look stupid...

Red at Scared Monkeys has the lowdown on yesterday's embarrassing performance by the organization's US Executive Director, William Schulz. He should have used the "Spaceballs" defense: "I'm surrounded by A-Holes!"

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Remembering D-Day...

Today is the 61st anniversary of the Allied invasion of Normandy and the first anniversary (plus one day) of the passing of Ronald Reagan. I can think of no better way to commemorate these occasions than reading Reagan's speech at Point-Du-Hoc, France from 6/6/84.

The men of Normandy had faith that what they were doing was right, faith that they fought for all humanity, faith that a just God would grant them mercy on this beachhead, or on the next. It was the deep knowledge -- and pray God we have not lost it -- that there is a profound moral difference between the use of force for liberation and the use of force for conquest. You were here to liberate, not to conquer, and so you and those others did not doubt your cause. And you were right not to doubt.

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Patrick Ruffini takes a look at Dean's failure as DNC Chair...

From a professional politico's perspective:

Dean at the DNC is Dean without Trippi, Dean without the 15,000 person crowds (who can normally be counted upon to drown out the errant shriek), Dean minus the Movement. As it turned out, Dean was perfectly programmed to succeed in that in-between period (2003) where the activists are paying attention, but when the general public has yet to tune in. Once they did tune in, and the focus turned to personality over process, Dean flopped. The Dean chairmanship now is effectively the bookend to the Dean Scream. Now, virtually no one is tuned in – a development aided by keeping Dean in hiding for most of his chairmanship – which means that not even the activists feel vested in his leadership or committed to supporting him when he screws up.

We can only hope he's a keeper.

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The Unraveling of the EU...

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EU's Biggest Booster Blair Now Balks...

Captain Ed looks at the UK PM's recent resignation to give up the fight over the European Union project. Apparently, with so many of his colleagues on the Continent jumping off the bandwagon, even Blair is realizing that the future of the economic union - as well as its currency, the Euro - is in doubt. Says the Captain:

Blair had long lectured on the importance of European consolidation. During most of his career, the EU was his signature project, and he has done more than any other British politician to bring the UK as close as it came to integrate itself within the union. For Blair to relegate it as a secondary issue, or less, means that he truly must have lost faith in the future of the EU. With over 81 percent of Britons demanding that any further moves towards consolidation be approved by referendum -- and the sorry track records that such plebescites already have had in Europe -- Blair has seen the writing on the wall.

Can the whole concept of the EU be salvaged? We shall see.

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