Cool, but Scary...

That is how Lorie Byrd on her Byrddroppings site describes the new Google service - "Google Maps". I concur. Check it out here.

Link courtesy of Sharpes-R-Us

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Santorum Assures: Frist will go "Nuclear"...

The Hill is reporting that PA Sen. Rick Santorum is insisting to Conservative activists that Sen. Majority Leader Bill Frist is committed to exercising a rules change to ensure that President Bush's nominees receive and up or down vote, circumventing the filibuster tactic that Democrats have been using to prevent such a vote.

Santorum met the leaders Tuesday to dispel growing anxiety among conservatives that Frist was wavering over what some Republicans call the "constitutional" or "Byrd" option - a procedural tactic that would disallow judicial filibusters by a ruling of the Senate chair and a ratifying majority vote.

There has been much concern among Conservatives that the Republican Senate Caucus has been getting weak-kneed on pushing the rules change.

A conservative who requested anonymity for fear of angering the leadership said: "When you have conflicting signals at this late a date, it seriously damages our coalition's ability to support the senators in this." The activist said the message from Santorum was clear: "Man battle stations." Santorum said that he told conservative leaders, "We have to win" and "we have to have the votes" to confirm the president's nominees.

In the meantime, many Republicans - including yours truly - is starting to get impatient and concerned that Frist may be possibly missing an window of opportunity that is slowly slipping away.

When will the GOP leadership exercise the courage to act like a majority in the face of the aggressive political war that the Democrats are hell-bent on waging? The showdown may be coming soon.

Republican aides and conservative activists said that the leadership is most likely to trigger the constitutional option to force a confirmation vote on circuit court nominees Priscilla Owen or Janice Rogers Brown.

The Senate Judiciary Committee has placed Owen on the agenda for a committee business meeting this week and scheduled Brown for next week. That means the soonest Republicans would trigger the tactic for Owen would be April 15 and the soonest for Brown would be April 22, a GOP aide said.

Stay tuned.

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Red States Rising...

Red State.org looks at population projections made by Polidata, which predicts that after 2010, there will be a net gain of six Electoral Votes for current States that went for Bush in 2004. And of course if this prediction pans out it means really good news for the GOP. The .pdf file of the data is here.

The data suggests that the reapportionment of Congressional seats due to shifting population as recorded by the 2010 Census will take away one Electoral Vote each from the following Blue States: IA, IL, MA, MI, MN, MO and PA and two each from NY and OH. Where will they go? Well, except for one which goes to CA, they go to Red States: TX and FL get three each, with one additional to each of the following: GA, NV, AZ and UT.

The summary of the analysis is:

"Regionally, the Northeast would lose 4 seats, from 101 to 97; the Midwest would lose 7 seats, from 124 to 117; the South would gain 7 seats, from 189 to 196; and the West would gain 4 seats, from 124 to 128 seats. This would result in a loss of 4 seats for the 27 states (inc. DC) East of the Mississippi from 313 to 309 and a gain of 4 seats for the 24 states West of the Mississippi from 225 to 229."

In other words, by the time of the 2012 Presidential election, it would become virtually impossible to hobble together the necessary 271 without garnering a single Southern State. And as the post at RedState points out, the South will have double the EVs of the Northeast.

So it's easy to see DNC Chairman's motivation to tour the American heartland - especially in the South to try and shore up support for Democrats. It's just pretty darn tough to figure out how he'll be able to do it.

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Quote of the Day...

"We have got to start laying the groundwork for a national party, for a national message. ... [Republicans] are mean. They are not nice people. They want to run nearly every aspect of your life"

- DNC Chairman Howard Dean (on a radio interview 4/5/05 per National Journal)

Bulldogpundit at Ankle-Biting Pundits has the story.

Hat Tip: Roth Report

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Ex-Donkey Blog Endorses Labour Party For May 5 UK Elections

Labour? Huh? Isn't the British Labour Party chiefly made up of left-leaning nanny-Staters? Well, yes. But unlike the American political system, the British don't vote for a candidate so much as a political party. The man (or woman) who becomes PM is chosen by the party hierarchy. So why Labour? Two words: Tony Blair.

It has more to do with what results would benefit the U.S. the most. Unquestionably, voting out Labour (and by extension Blair) from control of Parliament would send a bad message to terrorist insurgents in Iraq and throughout the Middle East. A vote against Blair is - for all intents and purposes - a vote of "no confidence" in the current British Government.

But more importantly, the world is currently woefully short on leaders with integrity. Say what you want about Blair's party or his socialist-leaning ideals, but the man understands the enemy we now face, just as another PM of note was able to identify pre-WWII Nazi Germany for what it was - a fascist State bent on the domination of Europe.

Tony Blair stood up in the face of political unpopularity and put his balls on the table. He may pay a political price at the polls a month from now. But at least he'll be able to sleep at night, knowing he did the right thing. Doing the right thing is almost never the popular thing. It's always easier to appease and dodge and avoid facing the enemy rather than to summon the courage to face it like a man - just look at the French.

Blair has been criticized as a "lap dog" or "poodle" to the Americans (and to President Bush in particular) by his opponents looking to damage his viability. But just like in the past, Blair has been a loyal partner and ally to the U.S. in a conflict that threatens not just these two nations, but all nations that value freedom. Tony Blair recognizes the importance of winning the War on Terror and that refusing to fight it head on will only buy - at best - a delay of the inevitable.

Patrick Ruffini has an analysis of the political landscape in Britain today and notes the rising influence of the Liberal Democrat Party that has been gaining ground over the last few election cycles.

RealClearPolitics has a good .pdf file that gives a lot of detail on how the support is geographically distributed in the current polling here.

And in my honest (and humble) opinion, Tony Blair deserves to remain Prime Minister.

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Morning Round-up...

Jayson at Polipundit looks at the popular vote numbers behind the 16 "same sex marriage" bans passed to date (including the one this past Tuesday in Kansas) and shows the political reality facing supporters of gay marriage.

Winds of Change links to pictures of Denzel Washington's recent trip to Iraq in support of U.S. troops, courtesty of Random Probabilities.

And The Hill reports that Democrats have their own internal fights - specifically between Sen. Minority Leader Harry Reid and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi.

“There’s always tension in the House-Senate relationship because the Senate believes that they are more important. Daschle and Gephardt overcame that because of their close relationship,” said a former high-ranking congressional aide.“Over time, hopefully, Pelosi and Reid will develop the same amount of trust,” the aide continued. “If there’s a problem in six months, then it will be a real problem.”

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Breaking: Iraqi Parliament names Kurd as President...

Speed of Thought links and comments on the story.

"Thanking parliament, Patriotic Union of Kurdistan leader Mr Talabani said it was a step towards a free, democratic Iraq after long years of dictatorship. His appointment is a major political victory for Iraq's Kurdish community, which suffered greatly under Saddam Hussein."

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More on the "Crack-up"

Last night I posted a commentary of Patrick Hynes' recent post on the Libertarian v. Conservative "schism".

John Hawkins at Right-Wing News offers his thoughts on the matter.

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Ex-President Carter miffed at being left behind...

Miserable failure and Nobel "Booby" Prize winner, "Jimmah" Carter was left off the delegation list of U.S. officials heading to Vatican City for the funeral of Pope John Paul II. This was NO oversight. Both the President and the Vatican have plenty of reason for dissing the Peanut Farmer, as the Washington Prowler column in The American Spectator reports:

"Carter claimed a kinship with the Catholic priest, though it isn't clear that the Vatican thought so highly of Carter's diplomatic skills, particularly after he left office. Carter was often the wrong side of the political fence when it came to elections and policies in Latin America, where John Paul II devoted a great deal of time in the 1980s stamping out the Marxist "Liberation theology" movement. At one point in 1979, the Vatican sought assistance from the Carter Administration State Department to limit the travels of U.S. Maryknoll missionaries to Central American countries, where they were teaching and preaching Liberation Theology alongside like-minded Latin American priests.

"The other thing that people forget is that Carter has treated President Bush very badly. He has openly criticized the President in a manner that President Clinton has not," says a Bush administration source. "He has traveled around the world bad-mouthing this president and this country's policies. I would be surprised if a single person gave a thought to including him in the delegation."

What goes around, comes around, Jimmy. Now go build some more houses and stop embarrassing this country.

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Is it just me?

Or does this Sony SDR-3X robot look a little too much like "Twiki" from the Buck Rogers in the 25th Century TV show?

You know, the little bugger who used to go "Bidi-bidi-bidi" and make saucy comments about Erin Gray's ass?

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The GOP "Crack-up": Another Perspective...

OK, I've written in the past about all the debating back and forth between various factions in the current Conservative coalition as to who's betraying core principles and who's most responsible for electing Republicans and who's gonna be sorry if this group or that group suddenly says, "That's it, I'm picking up my marbles and going home".

Most of the criticism lately has been coming from the direction of the Libertarians. Patrick Hynes of Ankle-Biting Pundits takes a swipe back in their direction. Getting right to the heart of the matter, Hynes makes some very good points.

"I have worked on dozens of Republican campaigns for high public office and never once, not one time, did I ever sit in a strategy session dedicated to formulating an appeal to the libertarian wing of the party. Conversely, I have never been on a campaign in which we did not devise strategies to communicate with and recruit conservatives, whether they be pro-lifers, anti-taxers, guns rights folks, or Christians. What IÂ’m saying is that if the libertarians walk away from the table, the party will be a whole lot less principled, but weÂ’re not likely to lose a lot of votes."

Hynes is quick to point out that the kind of "don't take us for granted" whining is also exhibited from time to time by other factions in the coalition, particularly the Religious Right. But he explains that, considering the number of votes they control, they at least have the clout to make the "ground shake" when they want to be heard. To that point, he summarizes what he feels Libertarians need to do if they really want to make their presence felt. It's one thing to sit back and huff and puff about principles, but to make a real impact, they need to do more than talk.

"[S]o Ryan Sager, Glenn Reynolds and a few other disaffected libertarians decide to walk out on conservatives? I love those guys, and I, for one, would be sad to see the libertarian-right split from the coalition. But I must say, the movement will go on...

...The libertarian-right needs to organize. Hold monthly meetings of like-minded groups. Call it the Alliance for Limited Government. Or something. Force would-be members of Congress to sign a free-market, civil libertarian pledge before they can earn an endorsement or procure choice lists. These are the fundamentals of political organization. And if the libertarian right were to put them to use, the next time they start talking about a “crack-up,” GOP leaders will sit up straight and take notice.

As I've said before, the fact that these different ideas can be even up for discussion is a credit to the current state of the Republican party. It's what got them in power and what will keep them there if they can keep their eyes on the big picture. And it's something Democrats only wish they had.

Hat Tip to Lorie Byrd at Polipundit

UPDATE: this morning (9:35am 4/6/05): Here

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Even Howard Kurtz reads "Captain's Quarters"...

WaPo chronicles Ed Morrissey's coverage of AdScam.

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"Plans? We don't need no stinking plans!"

The Hill is reporting that many Dems are up in arms over the latest Democracy Corps memo, penned by James Carville and Stan Greenberg, that had the nerve to - get this - actually suggest that Democrats propose some kind of alternative plan to fix Social Security. Gasp! Are they joking?

The language in the Carville-Greenberg memo was frank: “Why has the public not taken their anger out on congressional Republicans and the president? We think the answer lies with voters’ deeper feelings about the Democrats who appear to lack direction, conviction, values, advocacy or a larger public purpose.”

Al From and Bruce Reed, leaders of the Democratic Leadership Council, also have called on Democrats to craft a vision outside of opposing GOP ideas.

The Carville-Greenberg memo infuriated Democrats on Capitol Hill. “They’re all wrong,” a Senate Democratic aide said. “Republicans are fleeing the president’s plan.”

A House Democratic leadership staffer said, “We’re in a good position.” The staffer pointed to a recent USA Today headline on Bush’s travels around the country to sell his Social Security plan: “30 days, 100-plus events, scoreless.”

Good idea guys, sit on the ball in on your own 1-yard line. In the meantime the Democrats, once again, reinforce the image in the minds of voters that their party offers no new ideas, no solutions and no possibility of reform. The party of the Status Quo. The party of DE-FENSE. The party of "no".

House Democrats say they will have an alternative plan, but the timing of a proposalÂ’s release is unclear. They also have not made firm decisions on whether it will call for a revamp of Social Security.

Remember the last Democrat that kept saying to voters "I have a plan" over and over but never managed to come up with any? Well, Bush is in the White House and that guy is still shuttling back and forth between Capitol Hill and Beacon Hill.

Hat Tip: The Roth Report

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And now, the "Vast LEFT-Wing Conspiracy"...

The WSJ Online reviews the book The Vast Left Wing Conspiracy by National Review's Byron York. Some highlights from the review:

In the months following the 9/11 attacks, there emerged an activist movement of left-wing loyalists, Democratic operatives and deep-pocketed financiers all united under one aim--to defeat President Bush--and all confident that history was turning in their direction. Mr. York, the White House correspondent for National Review, gives us an engaging account of the partisan passions that made this "the biggest, richest, and best organized movement in American political history" and that ultimately proved its undoing...

...Beneath the patina of confidence, however, the left-wing conspiracy often seems pitiable, as desperate as it is determined. Above all, its members are angry--at the perceived injustice of the 2000 presidential election, at the prospect of long-term Republican governance, at John Kerry's inept campaigning. Even, it appears, at being called angry.

It is the anger that does them in. Resting his case on much original reporting, Mr. York convincingly shows that the activist left mistook its base--2.5 million strong and anti-Bush to the (mostly white) man--for the mainstream electorate, as if fury and contempt were the only logical responses to the Bush presidency. Reciting the mantra that it was "too big to fail," the left wing bought into the conspiracy of its own vastness. An inability to connect with swing voters followed, and electoral defeat.

Especially trenchant is Mr. York's analysis of the Center for American Progress. Convinced, mistakenly, that modern liberalism's problem was its deficit of sound bites, the think tank gave short shrift to compelling policy ideas. A disgruntled Democratic source--the book is densely populated with this species--offers an apt postmortem: "Just getting bigger amplifiers doesn't make the music any better."

I need to get a copy of this book. Based on my readings of York's work over at NR, it should be a good one.

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The Canadian "AdScam" scandal continues to unfold...

Captain Ed is ALL over this one.

Check back with him for further updates. Go, Captain, Go (apologies to "the Wiggles")

UPDATES:
10:04
Winds of Change has an excellent summary of the situation if you need to get caught up. And he's just been added to "The Pajamahadeen" section of the blogroll.

12:35pm
Also, be sure to check Small Dead Animals, who is also following.

2:42pm
Howard Kurtz at the Washington Post writes about Captain Ed!

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Quote of the Day...

"Over the past 30 years, John Bolton has advertised himself as an unadulterated nationalist and opponent of multilateralism. He's not a healthy skeptic of the United Nations but widely known as a committed destructive opponent, an ideological lone ranger."

- Former Ambassador Jonathan Dean, Sr. U.S. Arms Control Negotiator for the Carter administration (and opponent of Bolton's nomination as UN Ambassador).

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Iraqis Creating Ethnically-Balanced Govt.

Despite all the nay-saying on the Left. The Iraqi representatives assembled in Baghdad are putting into place a government the allows the three very different factions - Shi'ites, Sunnis & Kurds.

They appointed a Sunni as their Speaker of the National Assembly, despite the fact that they represent a small minority. And they seem poised to elect a Kurdish President and Shi'ite Prime Minister, with the two Vice-Presidential positions given to a Sunni and a Shi'ite.

"I think we really have achieved a lot. We have witnessed that the number of [terrorist] attacks has been reduced by a third, and I think it will continue to go down," said Mr. [Adnan] Ali [a Dawa party spokesman], speaking by telephone from Baghdad.

"The more the political process takes place and assures the Iraqis it is genuine and not a game, I think this will push Iraqis to believe this democratic process is true," he said.

Why doesn't this good news make the front page of the NY Times? Ah forget it, that's a whole other story.

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Happy 9th Birthday to Ryan!!

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I Couldn't Resist...

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Blogswarm Alert! Blogswarm Alert!

Michelle Malkin has a comprehensive post on all the latest concerning the big corruption scandal up in Canada, and that governments desperate efforts to seal off any information about it to its population - with a publication ban that includes blogs.

All is not so rosey with our neighbor to the North. Some Canadian bloggers are defying the information blockade. Stay tuned.

UPDATE: more on this story here.

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