Wednesday, December 26, 2007

A few corrections to Hillary's bio

 
Received this interesting article via email from my Uncle. Veteran Hillary adviser Dick Morris offers a few corrections to Hillary's biography provided by her campaign and marketed by husband Bill. Snopes has been investigating this one since September, so we'll assume for the sake of discussion that it's true.

Bill says: Hillary never wanted to run for public office, but she did want to work at public service.

The true facts are: When Clinton was considering not running for another term as Governor of Arkansas in 1990, Hillary said she would run if he didn't. She and Bill even had me take two surveys to assess her chances of winning. The conclusion was that she couldn't win because people would just see her as a seat warmer for when Bill came back licking his wounds after losing for president. So she didn't run. Bill did and won. But there is no question she had her eye on public office, as opposed to service, long ago.

Bill says: In law school Hillary worked on legal services for the poor.

The true facts are: Hillary's main extra-curricular activity in law school was helping the Black Panthers, on trial in Connecticut for torturing and killing a federal agent. She went to court every day as part of a law student monitoring committee trying to spot civil rights violations and develop grounds for appeal.

Bill says: Hillary spent a year after graduation working on a children's rights project for poor kids.

The true facts are: Hillary interned with Bob Truehaft, the head of the California Communist Party. She met Bob when he represented the Panthers and traveled all the way to San Francisco to take an internship with him.

Bill says: Hillary could have written her own job ticket, but she turned down all the lucrative job offers.

The true facts are: She flunked the DC bar exam and only passed the Arkansas bar. She had no job offers in Arkansas and only got hired by the University of Arkansas Law School at Fayetteville because Bill was already teaching there. She only joined the prestigious Rose Law Firm after Bill became Attorney General and made partner only after he was elected Governor.

Bill says: President Carter appointed Hillary to the Legal Services Board of Directors and she became its Chairman.

The true facts are: The appointment was in exchange for Bill's support for Carter in his 1980 primary against Ted Kennedy. Hillary became chairman in a coup in which she won a majority away from Carter's choice to be chairman.

Bill says: She served on the board of the Arkansas Children's Hospital.

The true facts are: Yes she did. But her main board activity, not mentioned by Bill, was to sit on the Wal-Mart board of directors, for a substantial fee. She was silent about their labor and health care practices.

Bill says: Hillary didn't succeed at getting health care for all Americans in 1994 but she kept working at it and helped to create the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) that provides five million children with health insurance.

The true facts are: Hillary had nothing to do with creating CHIP. It was included in the budget deal between Bill Clinton and Republican Majority Leader Senator Trent Lott. I helped to negotiate the deal. The money came half from the budget deal and half from the Attorney General's' tobacco settlement. Hillary had nothing to do with either source of funds.

Bill says: Hillary was the face of America all over the world.

The true facts are: Her visits were part of a program to get her out of town so that Bill would not appear weak by feeding stories that Hillary was running the White House. Her visits abroad were entirely touristic and symbolic, and there was no substantive diplomacy on any of them.

Bill says: Hillary was an excellent Senator who kept fighting for children's and women's issues.

The true facts are: Other than totally meaningless legislation like changing the names on courthouses and post offices, she has passed only four substantive pieces of legislation. One set up a national park in Puerto Rico. A second provided respite care for family members helping their relatives through Alzheimer's or other conditions. And two were routine bills to aid 9-11 victims and responders which were sponsored by the entire NY delegation.

Here is what bothers me more than anything else about Hillary Clinton. She has done everything possible to weaken the President and our country when it comes to the war on terror:

1. She wants to close Gitmo & move the combatants to the USA where they would have access to our legal system.
2. She wants to eliminate the monitoring of suspected Al Qaeda phone calls to/from the USA.
3. She wants to grant constitutional rights to enemy combatants captured on the battlefield.
4. She wants to eliminate the monitoring of money transfers between suspected Al Qaeda cells & supporters in the USA.
5. She wants to eliminate the type of interrogation tactics used by the military & CIA where coercion might be used when questioning known terrorists even though such tactics might save American lives.

I can't think of a single bill Hillary has introduced or a single comment she has made that would tend to strengthen our country in the War on Terror. But, I can think of a lot of comments she has made that weakens our country and makes it a more dangerous situation for all of us... She goes hand in hand with the ACLU on far too many issues where common sense is abandoned. She is a disaster for all Americans.

Update: I found the original article by Dick Morris.

Update II: The New York Times: 'About those eight years as First Lady...'

New sign on the Tiger exhibit at the Las Vegas Zoo

 
News reports indicate that visitors may have been taunting or teasing the tigers prior to an attack that resulted in one death and multiple maulings at the Las Vegas Zoo.

I propose a new sign at the exhibit.

Update: Dan Riehl has a picture of an actual sign, carried by a clueless animal rights activist.

Jonah Goldberg's new book: Liberal Fascism

 
One of the most frequent insults hurled by liberals at the right consists of labeling the latter group "fascists." Across the left's media spectrum, whether it's the diarists at Daily Kos or Air America Radio or MSNBC's Keith Olbermann, the epithet is used with an almost casual disregard.

Jonah Goldberg's new book turns this routine assertion on its head, carefully employing twentieth century history as a backdrop. The book Liberal Fascism lays out an impressive and well-researched argument that is sure to ripple through the punditsphere for months.

In fact, the reviews are stunning, as much for the reviewers as anything else.

Replacing manufactured myths with enlightening research, Goldberg begins by showing how the Italian fascism, German Nazism and American Progressivism (forebear of modern liberalism) all drew from the same intellectual foundations the idea that the state can create a kind of social utopia for its citizens. He then traces fascism's history in the U.S. -- from Woodrow Wilson's war socialism and FDR's New Deal to today's liberal push for a greater alliance between big business and government. Finally, Goldberg reveals the striking resemblances between the opinions advanced by Hitler and Mussolini and the current views of the left on such diverse issues as government's role in the economy, campaign finance reform, campus "speech codes," education, environmentalism, gun control, abortion, and euthanasia.

Impeccably researched and persuasively argued, Liberal Fascism will elicit howls of indignation from the liberal establishment...

* How fascism, Nazism, Progressivism, and modern liberalism are all alike in principle, in that all believe that government should be allowed to do whatever it likes, so long as it is for "good reasons"

* How, before World War II and the Holocaust, fascism was considered a progressive social movement both in the U.S. and Europe -- but was redefined afterwards as "right wing"

* How the Nazis were ardent socialists (hence the term "National Socialism") who loathed the free market, believed in free health care, opposed inherited wealth, spent vast sums on public education, purged Christianity from public policy, and inserted the authority of the state into every nook and cranny of daily life

* How the Nazis declared war on smoking; supported abortion, euthanasia, and gun control; and maintained a strict racial quota system in their universities -- where campus speech codes were all the rage

* Adolph Hitler, Man of the Left: how his views and policies regarding capitalism, class warfare, environmentalism, gun control, euthanasia and even smoking are remarkably close to those of modern liberals

* How Woodrow Wilson and the other founding fathers of American liberalism were far crueler jingoists and warmongers than modern conservatives have ever been

* How Wilson's crackdown on civil liberties in the name of national security far exceeds anything even attempted by Joe McCarthy, much less George W. Bush

* How Mussolini and Hitler both thought -- quite rightly -- that they were doing things along the same lines as FDR

* How, in the 1930s, FDR's New Deal was praised for its similarity to Italian Fascism -- "the cleanest, neatest, most efficiently operating piece of social machinery," said an influential member of FDR's team

* How, just like modern liberals, Mussolini promised a "Third Way" that "went beyond tired categories of left and right" in order to "get things done"

* Mussolini's and Hitler's not-so-secret admirers: how many prominent progressives -- from W.E.B. Dubois in the U.S. to George Bernard Shaw England -- publicly praised German Nazism and Italian Fascism

* Liberal fascism and the cult of the state: how progressivism shared with fascism a conviction that, in a truly modern society, the state must take the place of religion

* How the modern heirs of the fascist tradition include the New York Times, the Democratic Party, the Ivy League professoriate, and the liberals of Hollywood...

"'It is my argument that American liberalism is a totalitarian political religion,' Jonah Goldberg writes near the beginning of Liberal Fascism. My first reaction was that he is engaging in partisan hyperbole. That turned out to be wrong. Liberal Fascism is nothing less than a portrait of twentieth-century political history as seen through a new prism. It will affect the way I think about that history -- and about the trajectory of today's politics -- forever after." -- Charles Murray, author of Human Accomplishment and coauthor of The Bell Curve

"In the greatest hoax of modern history, Russia's ruling 'socialist workers party,' the Communists, established themselves as the polar opposites of their two socialist clones, the National Socialist German Workers Party (quicknamed 'the Nazis') and Italy's Marxist-inspired Fascisti, by branding both as 'the fascists.' Jonah Goldberg is the first historian to detail the havoc this spin of all spins has played upon Western thought for the past seventy-five years, very much including the present moment. Love it or loathe it, Liberal Fascism is a book of intellectual history you won't be able to put down -- in either sense of the term." -- Tom Wolfe, author of Bonfire of the Vanities and I Am Charlotte Simmons...

It's available January 8th. My advice is to buy two. One for you; one for a progressive friend.

Hat tip: The Corner

Update: the morbidly obese James Wolcott -- writing at the morbidly moronic Vanity Fair -- is on a whining frenzy, what with Goldberg receiving positive reviews from Tom Wolfe and all. The envy is almost palpable and the sweat rolling from Wolcott's furrowed brow almost visible. One feels an urge to plug an IV into the rotund progressive, not to help his blood pressure, but instead to release some of the highly compressed gas circulating within his Mooreian frame.

American Digest: How Beautiful We Were

 
Van der Leun, writing at American Digest.

A short list. In no particular order.

We had car shows, boat shows, beauty shows and dog shows.

We ran robots on the surface of Mars by remote control.

Our women came from all over the world in all shapes and sizes hues and scents.

We actually believed that all men are created equal and tried to make it come true.

Everybody liked our movies and loved our television shows.

We tried to educate everybody, whether they wanted it or not. Sometimes we succeeded.

We did Levis.

We held the torch high and hundreds of millions came. No matter what the cost.

We saved Europe twice and liberated it once.

We believed so deeply and so abidingly in free speech that we protected and even honored and in some cases even elected traitors.

We let you be as freaky as you wanted to be.

We paid you not to plant crops and not to work.

We died in the hundreds of thousands to end slavery here and around the world.

We invented Jazz.

We wrote the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Gettysberg address.

We went to the moon to see how far we could hit a golf ball...

Read the rest of this beautiful piece at American Digest.

Hat tip: Larwyn

Big Dig comes to an End. Maybe.

 
If you'd like to get a sense of how successful nationalized healthcare would be, look no further than Boston's "Big Dig" project. Originally estimated at $2.6 billion, the final total appears to be $14.8 billion -- a measly 570% overrun. As 2007 draws to a close, so does the largest public works project in history.

After a history marked by engineering triumphs, tunnels leaks, epic traffic jams, last year's death of a motorist crushed by falling concrete panels... there's little appetite for celebration.

Civil and criminal cases stemming from the July 2006 tunnel ceiling collapse continue, though on Monday the family of Milena Del Valle announced a $6 million settlement with Powers Fasteners, the company that manufactured the epoxy blamed by investigators for the accident. Lawsuits are pending against other Big Dig contractors, and Powers Fasteners still faces a manslaughter indictment...

...The Leonard P. Zakim Bunker Hill Bridge — the project's signature element — went through dozens of revisions as designers labored to come up with the most practical and elegant way to cross the Charles River.

But the project's darkest day came near the end of construction in 2006 when suspended concrete ceiling panels in a tunnel leading to Logan Airport collapsed, crushing a car and killing Del Valle, 39, a passenger in the vehicle driven by her husband.

The tunnel was shut down for months as each of the remaining panels was inspected and a new fastening system installed. A federal investigation blamed the use of the wrong kind of epoxy and the Massachusetts attorney general indicted the epoxy manufacturer.

Four workers also were killed working on the project. During peak construction, more than 5,000 workers labored daily on the project...

But is the project really over? That remains to be seen. As recently as August of this year, federal officials were expressing serious concerns about the "practical and elegant" Zakim Bridge:

Federal inspectors say six steel plates securing support cables on Boston's Zakim Bridge show signs of warping and could pose a threat... Six warped plates were found on the bridge, the report said. The plates connect the bridge's cables to its steel girders...


Isn't it beautiful (not to mention 'practical and elegant')?

The defects had not been previously reported and a federal report says the damage should have been spotted earlier...

In October, however, the feds called off daily inspections of the bridge, saying they were "no longer needed."

I'm sure that I-93 commuters are comforted to know that everything is hunky-dory now. One hopes that officials aren't as mistaken about the bridge as they once were with the tunnel's ceiling.

Jammie Wearing Fool and A Blog for All have more.

Tuesday, December 25, 2007

Motivational Posters for Christmas

 





Media Research Center announces the 2007 Worsties!

 
The Media Research Center has announced the winners of its 20th Annual Awards for the Year's Worst Reporting. And the winner is... drumroll, please... ... ...

Cue the damn drumroll! I said cue it!

Ah, forget it.

Budget cuts here at blog central... sorry about that.

The Media Research Center today awarded McClatchy News Service the dis-honor of the worst Notable Quotable of 2007, for a headline trying its best to contort good Iraq news into bad: “As violence falls in Iraq, cemetery workers feel the pinch” (October 16, 2007).

First Runner-Up goes to MSNBC anchor Keith Olbermann in October’s Playboy magazine: “Al Qaeda really hurt us, but not as much as Rupert Murdoch has hurt us, particularly in the case of Fox News. Fox News is worse than Al Qaeda - worse for our society. It’s as dangerous as the Ku Klux Klan ever was.”

As an aside, can you believe Olbermann has a part-time job as a sportscaster? His demented MSNBC soliloquies -- which typically average eleven viewers -- have cemented his spot in the Pantheon of Moonbats®.

Funniest award winner?

“You know, I wanted to sit on a jury once and I was taken off the jury. And the judge said to me, ‘Can, you know, can you tell the truth and be fair?’ And I said, ‘That’s what journalists do.’ And everybody in the courtroom laughed. It was the most hurtful moment I think I’ve ever had.”
      — Co-host Diane Sawyer... on ABC’s Good Morning America July 12, following a report on how some people try to avoid serving on a jury.

Hat tip: Jammie Wearing Fool

Preview: Hillary the Movie

 
Don't miss this free preview!

Click to view.

Hat tip: NHC

Clusterhuck!

 
The latest revelations -- tacked on to several serious missteps over the last several weeks -- translate to a premature end for the Huckabee campaign.

It's all over for the Man from Hope II.

Christmas Linkfest

 
Daily Mail: Don Surber: Monica turned journalism inside out

I knew she had talents, but... wow!

Reuters: Illegal immigrants "self deport" as woes mount

So much for the old straw-man argument ("But... you can't deport them all!"). True, but maybe they'll deport themselves.

Philadelphia Inquirer: Mark Bowden: In defense of waterboarding

*Gurgle* I'll admit it! It works!

Politico: Witnesses recall Romney-MLK march

Don't hold your breath waiting for Chris Matthews to apologize. You should only hold your breath if being chauffeured around Martha's Vineyard by a member of the Kennedy clan.

Telegraph: Crisis may make 1929 look a 'walk in the park'

Join us in another verse of We're waiting for the Recession... Again.

Daily Mail UK: 'This isn't the country I grew up in. No one speaks a word of English these days,' says Dame Shirley Bassey

With those accents, how can anyone tell?

The Arkansas Governorship Virus claims another victim

 
Caucus Cooler offers a new nickname for Mike Huckabee, officially labeling him Arkansas's "Governor Graft."*

The Cooler has obtained documents that show Mike Huckabee received $378,000 in consulting fees during 2006, while he was still governor of Arkansas.

[Most notably], $35,000 came from Novo Nordisk, one of the world's largest embryonic stem cell researchers. It seems that when money is at stake Huckabee may be able to look past his supposedly fervent opposition to this procedure...

...You can view a full list of Huckabee "donors" here.

Bob Krumm provides additional insight into Huckabee's startling stem-cell duplicity:

On April 13, 2007 Mike Huckabee was interviewed by the Des Moines Register. Among the questions was one about stem cells. In response Huckabee said that “I don’t think that the only avenue to curing cacer and heart disease and diabetes and some of the horrible things that inflict Americans is that we have to destroy life in order to create it.”

That’s not an absolute denunciation of embryonic stem cell research*, but the “destroy life” phraseology certainly gave the impression to social conservatives that he is against it.

Interestingly, just one month later Mike Huckabee produced his financial disclosure statement indicating that he had been paid a $17,500 consulting fee by a leading pharmaceutical company engaged in embryonic stem cell research to find a treatment for diabetes.

Obviously, this is a problem for some social conservatives. To others it is an example of the hypocrisy of Huckabee. And to all, that financial statement should raise other alarms.

In addition to the payments from Novo Nordisk, Mike Huckabee took a third of a million, much of it from organizations with governmental interests, even while he was Governor of Arkansas. Included in that is a salary from Flagship Global Health... There is quite obviously a conflict of interest [regarding healthcare]. Even worse, Flagship’s business model would seem to profit from an increase in government medical spending... [even worse,] as the quality of government care deteriorates, his company’s profits presumably grow. It would be like choosing the owner of a taxi company to regulate buses; the worse the buses perform, the more he profits.

After [Mike Huckabee’s] personal success at shedding 100-plus pounds, he has found a platform to share his secrets to creating better health habits in “Quit Digging Your Grave with a Knife and Fork”. Novo Nordisk, a world leader in diabetes care, today announced the availability of 35,000 Spanish-translated copies of this best-selling book, which can be ordered free of charge.

Glenn Reynolds wondered what Huckabee was paid for the 35,000 books. It’s a good question.

Piling on? The pundits aren't done yet.

BizzyBlog's Tom Blumer adds:

And to think I was tempted to give the guy a pass over the “wedding” registries used to collect gifts from “friends” last year when his time as governor had ended. You see, Poor Huck and his wife Janet were moving into a 7,000-foot house, and had to furnish it “somehow.” Gag me.

...I’m insulted that Huckabee — take your pick — thought he could get all of this past the nation indefinitely, or that we wouldn’t care if it became known.

What is it with these Arkansas governors? Is there some sort of virus circulating in the HVAC of the governor's mansion, similar to those gastrointestinal bugs people catch on cruise ships?


* Because there was simply nothing else to do in Little Rock, the Arkansas House passed legislation in March '07 ruling that "Arkansas's" is the correct possessive form of the state's name.

Monday, December 24, 2007

Understatement o' the Day

 
More brilliant work from The Politico:

Huckabee running as a rebel? How'd they guess? Was it his surrogates attacking Rush Limbaugh? Was it calling the National Review the "chattering class"? Executing a Kosian attack on the Bush administration, claiming it has a "bunker mentality"? Harshly criticizing Condy? Or quoting scripture to compare those that oppose him to those facing God's wrath?