Bush Picks Alito for Supreme Court

President Bush, stung by the collapse of his previous choice, nominated veteran judge Samuel Alito on Monday in a bid to reshape the Supreme Court and mollify his conservative allies. Ready-to-rumble Democrats warned that Alito may be an extremist who would curb abortion rights.

This appointment is a giant step upwards. When an appointment has instant and outspoken responses from Senators Schumer, Ried, and others of their ilk – as far as the Chief is concerned, that’s about as good an endorsement as there could be.

Now – it’s up to Sen. Frist and the rest of the GOP to show that they have enough backbone to push the nomination through. Hopefully this will be the case. What’s the point of gaining the majority if you’re not willing to exercise it?

The Chief has nothing against former V.P. aide Scooter Libby. He’s apparently collateral damage in the Donks’ drive to do ANY|THING to taked down Karl (Dartth) Rove(r).

That being said, every time I hear his name in a news report I am reminded of the names of the characters “Tinky Holloway”, and “Cuffy Meigs” in Atlas Shrugged. It probably isn’t fair to make that association, but…it just uncontrollably happens!

Three School Girls Beheaded in Indonesia

There is apparently no question that this attack was at the hands of the local variety of Islamofascists. No doubt they were enraged by the schoolgirls’ material support for international Zionism and the US presence in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Well, if not that, maybe they were just Christian, not Moslem. The people doing these things cannot be lived with – they are a waste of the oxygen to keep them alive.

Prince Charles to plead Islam’s cause to Bush

The Prince of Wales will try to persuade George W Bush and Americans of the merits of Islam this week because he thinks the United States has been too intolerant of the religion since September 11.

Sheesh! This is right up there along with “Other than that Mrs. Lincoln, how did you like the play?”

The Prince, who leaves on Tuesday for an eight-day tour of the US, has voiced private concerns over America’s “confrontational” approach to Muslim countries and its failure to appreciate Islam’s strengths.

One supposes that it might be expected that Prince Dhimmi would ap0ologize for Islam, whose primary written foundation spells out in no uncertain terms what the proper relationship is between Islam and the rest of us: Islam calling the tune, and the rest of us properly in submission.

There is a precedent for this – the sympathy, wink and nod for Der Fuhrer and his Reich by Prince Charlie’s uncle Ed (Edward VIII morphed into the Duke of Windsor) during the 30’s.

Any old fascism will apparently do, the original variety or the Islamofascist one.

F.E.T.E.

Civilization IV Whom?

This draws some interesting lessons based on and stimulated by the Civilization series of computer strategy games, now in it’s freshly released 4th iteration.

The Chief started years ago on Civ I, then Civ. II, and Civ. III. To date, Civ. II seemed to play better, although III had nicer graphics. In an e-mail earlier this evening, the Chief’s son (who is more seriously into computer gaming much to Mrs. Chief’s continuing concern!) passed along a heads up on the release of Civ IV, which I am now eagerly wanting to get my hands on!

The column here from Tech Central Station makes some interesting points about the games, and their applicability, or not to the real world. He goes on to make some recommendations for an improved and somewhat reoriented version of Civ. If someone were to to THAT, it would be really great, and could teach some valuable lessons to anyone who played.

Something to think about: if the British Empire was won on the playing fields of Eton, a new American hegemony could be won on the computer gamer’s screen.

For another very interesting treatment of the possible impact of well-executed computer games in a realpolitik world, see a sci-fi book – The Moon Goddess and the Son, (1986), by Donald Kingsbury. In spite of a projection of a continuing Soviet threat from the 80’s. it still has some very interesting and potentially valuable insight. The Chief recommends it – you can find it online, form used booksellers since it’s long out of print.

IN LUDI VERITAS!

BUCHANAN: Miers May Have Helped Save Bush’s Presidency

While the Chief views some of Patrick Buchanan’s opinions with a certain skepticism – especially as regards mid-east policies – he is spot-on here.

By withdrawing her nomination, Harriet Miers spared herself an agonizing inquisition and probable rejection by the Senate and did George W. Bush the greatest service of her career. She may just have helped him save his presidency….

With a single stroke — the nomination of a Supreme Court justice who will remove the smile from the countenance of Chuck Schumer and unite his unhappy household in praise of Bush and anticipation of battle, as they pull down the rusty old pike-staffs from the wall, President Bush can begin the resurrection of his presidency.

Indeed!

COULTER on Miers Withdrawal: It’s Morning in America!

After being one of the avid spear chuckers in the opposition to the Miers nomination, Ann Coulter is expectedly pleased about her withdrawel, and its potential significance.

Since Harriet Miers withdrew her nomination to the Supreme Court, Democratic senators like Barbara Boxer, Diane Feinstein, Chuck Schumer, and Dick Durbin – i.e. all the people who had absolutely nothing to do with Miers’ withdrawal — have been blanketing the airwaves demanding that Bush now accede to their demands. So it’s good to see Democrats are still working on getting in touch with reality.

The Democrats didn’t utter a note of disagreement with the Miers nomination. But now they say her withdrawal is their victory, which Bush must be forced to acknowledge by nominating a candidate to their liking. I believe that’s what got Bush in trouble in the first place: Listening to Democratic Senator Harry Reid, who recommended Miers for the Supreme Court.

She goes on with more commentary and exposition in her customarily outspoken style. If you haven’t done so, it’s worth a read.

She copncludes the piece:

With Miers withdrawal, Bush has us back on the team, ready to cheer for him unreservedly. All we ask is that you please not listen to Harry Reid next time.

Hear, hear!

Sen. Hatch: Democratic Filibuster? Bring It On!

One of the concerns about the possibility of an openly originalist nominee for SCOTUS is whether or not the GOP Senate would exercise enough intestinal fortitude to push the nomination through in the face of expected Donk rabid opposition and obstruction.

Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT), while he would have supported the Miers nomination, has expressed the need to take on the Donks in whatever way is needed to advance the next nominee to the court.

“I think the president ought to pick the best conservative he possibly can, and we go on from there – and I’ll be there to help.”

On the question of a filibuster of possible conservative nominees like Michael Luttig or Sam Alito, Hatch said, “These are people who have great dimension and great caliber in the law – Michael Luttig is the perfect illustration – but if they want a filibuster, we’re gonna have to take them on.”

“There’s really never been a leader-led partisan filibuster in the history of our country with regard to Supreme Court nominees,” Hatch said, “or any other member of the judiciary, and I think we’re just gonna have to take them on.”

“We’re not going to put up with that,” he added emphatically.

Hoo-rah!

This has been making the e-mail rounds up here on the northern plains this week, as a sort of response to some of the rhetoric and political posturing connected with the hurricanes. It’s worth passing along – take it for what it’s worth:

For those of you who are not aware, North Dakota and southwestern Montana got hit with their first blizzardof the season a couple of weeks ago. The following text is from county emergency manager out in the western part of North Dakota state after the storm.

WEATHER BULLETIN

Up here in the Northern Plains we just recovered from a Historic event — may I even say a “Weather Event” of “Biblical Proportions” — with a historic blizzard of up to 24″ inches of snow and winds to 50 MPH that broke trees in half, stranded hundreds of motorists in lethal snow banks, closed all roads, isolated scores of communities and cut power to 10’s of thousands.

George Bush did not come….FEMA staged nothing….No one howled for the government…No one even uttered an expletive on TV…Nobody demanded $2,000 debit cards…..No one asked for a FEMA Trailer House….No news anchors moved in.

We just melted snow for water, sent out caravans to pluck people out of snow engulfed cars, fired up wood stoves, broke out coal oil lanterns or Aladdin lamps and put on an extra layer of clothes.

Even though a Category “5” blizzard of this scale has never fallen this early…we know it can happen and how to deal with it ourselves.

Everybody is fine.

Why the differences? Admittedly, after a blizzard your house is (usually) still standing (if the weight of snow doesn’t collapse the roof).

Another critical difference that the Chief has noted is that the presence of cold harsh winters tends to filter out a lot of riff-raff! I know, some eastern states get lots of snow – but generally not with the extreme cold that we have out here on the northern plains. This combination does seem to move winter into a whole new dimension.

Miers Withdraws Under Mounting Criticism

By the time this has happened, there was a certain inevitability to it. As the Chief was driving into work this AM, thoughts that Miers didn’t have very long to go before she withdrew her name were answered by a news update that this in fact had happened.

Now maybe we can get down to basics – if the President goes back to the base and appoints an unashamed originalist conservative, he will be pleasantly surprised at the strength and depth of his base support.

As fas as the inevitable rabid, foaming-at-the-mouth, Donk opposition is concerned, bring ’em on – the GOP DOES have a Senate majority – and needs to use it – including the Constitutional (or so-called nuclear) option.

‘Tell it to the troops’

This piece from USMC Lt. General James T. Conway caught my attention for a couple of reasons. Firstly, it is a piece of blazingly bright reason on a subject that most of the media severely misreports. Secondly, the Chief had the privilige of knowing Gen. Conway many years ago in St. Louis at Roosevelt H.S., where he graduated in ’65, a year behind the Chief’s class. He was determined already to pursue a military career, and already was pursuing (and achieving) excellence in a number of ways. Obviously he has continued to do so.

This piece is just terrific. General Conway shows that unlike the MSM, he has acquired some real situational awareness over there:

One hundred and forty-four years ago last month, the first major battle of the American Civil War had been joined on a small stream named Bull Run, outside Washington D.C. As the fighting neared its climax, a Confederate staff officer galloped his horse up Henry Hill and hailed Brigadier General Thomas Jackson. He shouted above the din of cannon and musketry, “Sir, I fear the battle is lost.”

Jackson, astride his horse near the crest of the ridge watching the advancing Union brigades, looked over his shoulder at his own brigade of Virginians on the reverse slope, lying prone but at the ready. He then turned his gaze on the officer and responded in a low voice, “You may think it, Sir, but you had best not say it to those troops!”

Jackson’s words of so long ago still contain sound advice for those journalists, pundits, and official visitors who journey to Iraq. If you have any misgivings that the Coalition and Iraqi Forces are losing this war against insurgents and terrorists, then you had better not say so in their presence-lest you attract a hostile crowd.

The fact is, they get it. They are closest to the action, they feel the momentum shifts, and they know when they have taken the best the enemy can dish out. They know what victory looks like and smells like-and they know it’s only a matter of time.

Read the rest of it! It’s definitely grist for the mill to counteract the moonbat seditious defeatism that dominates the MSM and the Donks’ dominant left wing.

Iran Leader Calls for Israel’s Destruction

Here’s the head cheese of the Islamofascist axis-of-evil showing his true colors, which are the same ones that went out of fashion in das Reich in 1945.

Note the broken sphere with US colors in the corner!
Israel isn’t the only target of their plans!

Iran’s hard-line president called for Israel to be “wiped off the map” and said a new wave of Palestinian attacks will destroy the Jewish state, state-run media reported Wednesday. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad also denounced attempts to recognize Israel or normalize relations with it.

In this context, it’s well worth remembering that this guy was one of the “student leaders” that engineered the takeover of the US Embassy in the late 70’s, and the whole hostage thing that ended up doing in the Carter administration. (It’s an ill wind that blows no good!)

“There is no doubt that the new wave (of attacks) in Palestine will wipe off this stigma (Israel) from the face of the Islamic world,” Ahmadinejad told students Wednesday during a Tehran conference called “The World without Zionism.”

Sheesh! Not only are they talking the talk, and walking the walk, they’re organizing international conferences to further organize their plans for ethnic cleansing and genocide. Meanwhile, the UN dis-Organization continues to stick its collective head in the sand, and the MSM largely bends over and assumes the positon when the Mullahs walk by.

As far as the Chief is concerned, the only words of reply should be , “Onward Christian Soldiers”, and DEUS VULT!

A couple of other conservative bloggers have just thrown in the towel on the Miers nomination. A couple weeks ago the Chief’s doubts tipped the scale away from her nomination, and I’ve seen nothing since then to change my mind.

First, Jon at SD Politics has tipped over the Kool-Aid pitcher:

I have waited until I saw the whites of her eyes, but I can keep the powder dry no longer (forgive the mixed metaphor). The Bush administration must withdraw from consideration the nomination of Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court.

He goes on to note coverage of some speeches she gave that tipped him over into opposition. He alos notes this posting over the line in Minnesnowta on the PowerLine site where they are similarly concerned over a lack of quality, and questionable content as well.

Hopefully she will be out of the picture soon, so we can get down to the hard business of political harball to get a real, identiiable strong originalist in noimination. Hopefully Dubya’s got it in him to do it – but will he let it out! Stay tuned.

Lawmakers renew push to break up 9th Circuit

According to the Associated Press, Republicans in Congress are renewing their push to break up the San Francisco-based Ninth US Circuit Court of Appeals.

This would be a step in the right direction. The 9th Circuit Jerk-it Court of Appeals Schlemiels is reversed more often than any other Federal circuit, and has the largest assortement of of moonbat judges in the country. Anything that would dilute this mess would be an improvement.

MSM Caught Demon-eyes-ing Administration Again

H/T to Michelle Malkin on this one –

Another case of the MSM (USA Today this time) doctoring content to try to make someone (Condi Rice in this case) look somewhat evil.

Condi Rice a la Anne Rice?

What happened this time was that they tweaked a photo to make her look like she has the evil eye, but got caught in the act. Apparently when they got noticed in the blogosphere, some vestige of journalistic ethics was belatedly called into action, and the picture was revised in their archive, with an editorial comment.

The real deal!

Editor’s note: The photo of Condoleezza Rice that originally accompanied this story was altered in a manner that did not meet USA TODAY’s editorial standards. The photo has been replaced by a properly adjusted copy. Photos published online are routinely cropped for size and adjusted for brightness and sharpness to optimize their appearance. In this case, after sharpening the photo for clarity, the editor brightened a portion of Rice’s face, giving her eyes an unnatural appearance. This resulted in a distortion of the original not in keeping with our editorial standards.

In other words, now that we got busted, we had better try to do some damage control! The Chief suggests you can believe as much of THAT explanation as you want to.

And the MSM still expresses worry about “editorial control” in the blogosphere! The question is, who in the MSM watches the watchers? At least the blogosphere has the feedback mechanism so succinctly stated on the Captain’s Quarters site: “Thus every blogger in his kind, is bit by him who comes behind.” It seems to work better than MSM “editorial control” does.

Leaders on right call for new pick

Here’s yet more erosion of the GOP base from support for the SCOTUS appointment of Harriet Miers.

Phyllis Schlafley, and Richard Viguerie both long-standing spear carriers for the conservative wing of the GOP, have joined with others in organizing a PAC group, WithdrawMiers.org, calling for a different nominee for the open SCOTUS seat, and acting as an opposition information clearinghouse.

I guess more and more conservative folks are discovering that in many cases “the Emperor has no clothes”, and that his domestic policies seem more like FDR than Ronald Reagan.

The Man Who Would Murder Death

This British Cambridge researcher is SERIOUSLY pursuing what might seem to be at first consideration as being bleeding-edge bizarre: the prospect of human lifespan extension of 1000 years+.

Read on. This guy is not as crazy as he looks – and his ideas, if they can be implemented – could well accomplish what he thinks they will.

Remember, “The universe isn’t just stranger than we imagine, it’s stranger than we can imagine.”

Check it out!

Hurricane Wilmalpha Aims at N.E. Coast

Interesting set-up for the northeastern coast.
Time to batten down the hatches up there mates – ayuh!

Islamic group told to ‘read the Koran’

Thailand’s prime minister angrily told the Saudi Arabia-based Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) to “read the Koran” before criticizing his crackdown on Muslim terrorists in the south, where more than 1,000 people have died. “I would like him to read the Koran, which stated clearly that all Muslims, regardless where they live, must respect the law of that land,” Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said yesterday, in remarks aimed at OIC Secretary-General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu.

This plea for rationality will unfortunately fall on deag ears. Thailand’s Buddhist PM is only partially correct in his analysis of the Koranic attitude towards him, hos non-Islamic countrymen (and us for that matter!).

Yes, those cited passages are there, but in Islamic belief, later “revealed” passages of the Koran SUPERCEDE earlier passages altogether. Amond the later passages are the 9th Sura, which includes this little gem:

[9.5] So when the sacred months have passed away, then slay the idolaters wherever you find them, and take them captives and besiege them and lie in wait for them in every ambush, then if they repent and keep up prayer and pay the poor-rate, leave their way free to them; surely Allah is Forgiving, Merciful.

In other words, kill the infidels – Buddhists (considered idolaters) need not apply even for dhimmitude (abject submission to Islamic rule, allowed for non-converted Christians and Jews) – they can convert or die! Remember the Taliban dynamiting the Buddhist statues in Afghanistan?

Meanwhile, the moonbats continue THEIR litany that if only we would throw Israel over the side, and withdraw all signs of our existance from the middle east, that the Islamofascist terrs would leave us alone. So then, what does Thailand have to do with either of these? Obviously, nothing. Their crime is to not be Moslem. That’s enough to make them targets for conquest into dar al Salaam – the world of Islam.

The Chief’s prediction: no peace in Thailand anytime soon!

Brazilians Reject Proposed Gun Ban

Brazilians soundly rejected a proposal to ban the sale of guns in a national referendum Sunday, striking down the bid to stem one of the world’s highest firearm murder rates following a campaign that drew parallels to the U.S. gun control debate.

With more than 92 percent of the votes counted, 64 percent of Brazilians were opposed to the ban, while 36 percent backed it, said election officials, giving the ‘no’ position an insurmountable lead. The proposal would have prohibited the sale of firearms and ammunition except for police, the military, some security guards, gun collectors and sports shooters.

There are a number of interesting ramifications and issues associated with this – aside from the primary fact that the Brazilians were not willing to cede full responsibility for personal protection to an all too ineffectual governmental system.

Some Brazilians said they resented the referendum because they feel the government is ducking its responsibility to keep the peace. “It’s immoral for the government to have this vote,” said Pedro Ricardo, an army officer in Sao Paulo. “They’re putting the responsibility on us, but … the way to cut down on violence is to combat the drug trade and patrol our borders.”

Hmmmm. Sounds sort of familiar doesn’t it!? Enforce borders? What a concept!

About 39,000 people in Brazil are killed by guns each year, compared to about 30,000 people in the United States, although the U.S. population is about 100 million more than Brazil’s, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Hello? Come again? Does anybody know what the US Centers for Disease Control is doing collecting data on gun deaths in Brazil? One shudders to learn the answer.

Illegals at military bases raise concerns

Scores of illegal aliens working as cooks, laborers, janitors, even foreign-language instructors have been seized at military bases around the country in the past year, raising concerns in some quarters about security and troop safety. The aliens did not work directly for the military but for private contractors, as part of a large-scale effort by the Pentagon to outsource many routine rear-echelon jobs and free up the troops to concentrate on waging war.

IF the bean counters had ANY security awareness at all, this could not be happening. If there was security awareness, the cost of checking security on these outsourced jobs would more than offset any hypothetical savings, to say nothing of the cost if just one of them turned out to be an Islamofascist operative with a plan.

Anothe case of “penny wise, pound foolish”. Like the old comis strip character Pogo observed: “We have met the enemy, and he is us!”

Insiders see hint of Miers pullout

The beginning of the end on this nomination?

The White House has begun making contingency plans for the withdrawal of Harriet Miers as President Bush’s choice to fill a seat on the Supreme Court, conservative sources said yesterday. “White House senior staff are starting to ask outside people, saying, ‘We’re not discussing pulling out her nomination, but if we were to, do you have any advice as to how we should do it?’ ” a conservative Republican with ties to the White House told The Washington Times.

Of COURSE not! Why think that?

The White House denied making such calls.

Ooops! As soon as ANYONE is called, the cat’s out of the bag, especially in DC. As no less than Benjamin Franklin writing as the esteemed Bon Homme Richard noted: “Two can keep a secret, if one of them is dead.”

But the conservative political consultant said that he had received such a query from Sara Taylor, director of the Office of White House Political Affairs. Miss Taylor denied making any such calls.

A second Republican, who is the leader of a conservative interest group and has ties to the White House, confirmed that calls are being made to a select group of conservative activists who are not employed by the government. “The political people in the White House are very worried about how she will do in the hearings,” the second conservative leader said. “I think they have finally awakened.”

There MAY be a better example of the Byzantine nature of political hardball as it’s played Inside the Beltway, but the Chief would be hard pressed to name it.

One just KNOWS there will be more, MUCH more, to follow.

Bush: U.N. should act on Syria

Interesting stuff here. A UN investigation apparently uncovered, and even more astoundingly, RELEASED information that the Syrian government was involved in the assassination of Lebanese former PM Habiri, after he very publicly called for Syria to get out of Lebanon once and for all.

As soon as thst assassination happened, the Chief would have been willing to bet on that being the case, and I’m NOT a gambling man (that would have been no gamble at all, being in the category of a sure thing, like betting on the law of gravity).

A truly astonishing thing is that anything associated with the UN would find and release corroboration for this. Another truly astonishing thing is the administration seeming to have an expectation that the UN would be capable of making any sort of effective response to this.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called on the U.N. Security Council to hold those responsible for Hariri’s death accountable.

“Hold them accountable.?” How so? Invade Syria? Send in the SEALs or Mossad to take them out? Cancel their VISA cards? The Chief would be surprised if the UN even got as far as a limp “wrist slapping” resolution expressing nominal regret at the dastardly deeds of the Syrians.

Times: Miller May Have Misled Editors

It’s one thing when the MSM lies/misleads/fails to report on stories that fall outside of their definition of, as the NYT states it, “…news that’s fit to print”. (Which is more realistically …”news that fits, we print”). I mean, that’s waht they are, and that’s what they do.

The twist here is for “ace reporter” Judith Miller apparently lying to her own editors about what she’s been doing on their time and dime.

It’s almost…as if once they start playing loose with the truth in one area, they get into the habit of doing so, and continue it, even “in house”.

Ultimately one can expect liars in one area to lie in others. THIS is what is meant by the (much maligned by the MSM) concept that “character counts”, eh?

Ann Coulter Continues Criticism of Choice

Ann Coulter is no stranger to well delivered (and well deserved) invective, and she continues her barrage of criticism of the Harriet Miers appointment to SCOTUS in her inimitable style.

She goes beyond this, to note a more serious problem than the appointment itself:

The sickness of what liberals have done to America is that so many citizens — even conservative citizens — seem to believe the job of a Supreme Court justice entails nothing more than “voting” on public policy issues. The White House considers it relevant to tell us Miers’ religious beliefs, her hobbies, her hopes and dreams. She’s a good bowler! A stickler for detail! Great dancer! Makes her own clothes! That’s nice for her, but what we’re really in the market for is a constitutional scholar who can forcefully say, “No — that’s not my job.” (Emphasis Added)

We’ve been waiting 30 years to end the lunacy of nine demigods on the Supreme Court deciding every burning social issue of the day for us, loyal subjects in a judicial theocracy. We don’t want someone who will decide those issues for us — but decide them “our” way. If we did, a White House bureaucrat with good horse sense might be just the ticket.

The super-hot button issue with both the left and the conservative side is Roe v. Wade. After commenting specifically on what is realistically describes as “the abortion holocaust” she reaches what the Chief considers as the most profound observation of all:

We’ve gone from a representative democracy to a (judicial) monarchy, and the most appalling thing is — even conservatives just hope like the dickens the next king is a good one.

Indeed. We would be better served by remembering the old American Revolutionary slogan: “No King but King Jesus!”

Deal ‘opens the door’ to wind power

DEFINITELY A WIN-WIN-WIN for South Dakota’s Economy!

One of the biggest hinderances to the development of more wind power in South Dakota has been a lack of enough transmission line capacity to get the electricity to where it’s needed.

There is a positive logic to the addition of a new coal-burning plant also. The US has an abundance of coal, and large deposits of high quality low-sulfur coal are just to the west in Wyoming. There is a synergy that comes into play here with a three-way synergistic development of South Dakota’s utility and transportation infrastructure which is catalyzed by the planned construction of a new coal-burning power plant at Big Stone.

The first element of this synergy is the expansion of the DM&E Railroad, which, in spite of the usual opposition from envirowacko activist groups and assorted other NIMBY (Non-In-My-Backyard types pushed through approval of extending it’s lines into the Wyoming coal fields, and upgrade of its existing mainlines to handle the greatly increased traffic that results from this. (See note 1 in extended entry) This increases the availability of coal for new plants.

With the abundance of coal, and modern abatement technology, it is possible to burn low-sulfur coal with a minimum amount of air pollution, plus it helps to increase the electric power capacity, which is an essential positive factor for continued economic growth in the area. (See Note 2)

Finally, this proposed coal plant will bring in a significantly serious excess in electrical power transmission capacity, above and beyound the needs of the new plant. This excess capacity is available for the development of large(r) scale wind turbine developments, which (a) provides yet more electricity, (b) is a clean, renewable energy source, and (c) provides yet another boost to the local economic structure.

So, what’s the “win-win-win”? More needed electrical power, use of domestic coal instead of imported oil, and the enabled development of even cleaner wind power capacity. Three birds with one “Big Stone”. Not too bad.
Continue reading →

Body chipped from glacier likely a WWII airman

The only problem the Chief has with this is NOT the factual circumstances of the story itself, but rather with the journalistic caution.

“…Likely a WWII Airman.”

Well now. This is hard. Human remains were found in a cake of ice. 13000 ft up the mountainside. Wearing WWII Army uniform, flight suit, and parachute. Had obviously been up there for some period of time. NOW – what are the possibilities. WWI, WWII, Korea, Viet-nam era, or Civilian?

Hmmmmmm? (Think, think!) A WWII outfit? Well now, we can say he was
“…Likely a WWII Airman.” Phew! Anything to avoid coming to a simple conclusion based on clear factual evidence, which might set a bad journalistic precedent for the rest of the media.

In fairness, the DC Times is generally a cut above the rest of the MSM – but this is NOT one of their higher moments – maybe that’s why it struck my attention.

FINAL VOTE RESULTS FOR ROLL CALL 519

Stephanie Herseth claims to be some sort of moderate “blue dog” Democrat. The Chief has NEVER been very impressed with these claims. She’s essentially a libDonk, and except for some narrowly select issues to fool us, she will trend that way pretty consistantly in most cases.

So, here comes the vote in the House on HR 3893, Gasoline for America’s Security Act, which is designed to ease the administrative burden on building new oil refineries. I guess the Donks don’t think 20+ years without expanding our refining capacity is what will help a prospering economy keep on keeping on, since ALL of them drank the party Kool-Aid and voted against the act.

Make sense? The Donks? Why start now!

Our gal Stephanie is looking out for South Dakota, eh? Maybe she thinks that farming should go back to horses. (Oooops – that won’t work either. Animal flatulence is a concern of the envirowackos as a contributor to the alleged human promoted global warming.)

This vote was taken earlier in the month. Didn’t you notice the extensive coverage of Stephanie’s voting performance? You didn’t? Neither did I. (The enemy paper again proves itself to be the Argus-Misleader.)

A number of different interesting news pieces –

Volcker asks U.S., allies to link U.N. budget to reform

Amazing! A good idea for getting the UN to exercise some semblance of responsibility.

The BEST response would be to tell the whole UN to not let the door hit ’em in the butt on the way out, but as long as we’re still stuck with them, something like this is a necessity.

China denies targeting U.S. cities

This bit of diplospeak SOUNDS good. You can believe just as much of it as you want to. Before you believe much of it, be sure to check out relevant articles on this Bill Gertz site, especially THIS!

As far as the Chief is concerned, you can trust the ChiComs to be…ChiComs, and not much more.

Bush vows to oust ‘every single’ illegal

Mr. Bush said the government has to stop illegal entrance in the first place, needs to improve its ability to catch illegal aliens who have crossed, and must ensure that those who are caught are deported.

This is another one that sounds GREAT on first examination. It suggests that Bush took some Tom Tancredo (R-CO) pills by accident. Ooops! Keep reading…at the same time he’s still pushing that new quasi-amnesty “guest worker” scheme.

But even as he talked tough on illegal immigration, he continued to lobby for a program that would allow foreign workers to legally cross the border to fill U.S. jobs temporarily.

And it’s even worse that that sounds:

As Mr. Bush was pushing his proposal, though, his nominee to lead the Citizenship and Immigration Services was telling the Senate Judiciary Committee that the agency, which probably would run such a guest-worker program, cannot do it right now. “The systems that exist right now wouldn’t be able to handle it,” Emilio Gonzalez said, though he added that, if approved, he would take immediate steps to get the agency ready.

When it sounds too good to be true, it generally IS too good to be true. Maybe THIS has something to do with it:

The sudden hard line comes as Mr. Bush is trying to assuage his conservative political base, much of which is upset over his nomination of White House counsel Harriet Miers to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Surprise, surprise, surprise! NOT!

At last the smell of reality!

Cards’ season ends with Game 6 loss in NLCS

Well, I suppose it’s back to blogging as usual now that the Cardinals are out of the post-season. Congrats to Houston, I guess – they obviously were pumped for the playoffs, and played better at least in the post-season.

The Chief thinks it would have been better if they had a better sustained record over the season – but that’s the breaks of the way the system is organized.

What leaves a bad taste also is the clearly visible (on TV) bad call by the umpire in the thrid inning that took the steam out of a Cardinals offensive move. Again, unfortunately, that’s part of the game too.

This was the final game in the present Busch Stadium (the new one will be the 3rd Busch Stadium!). Also it’s the end of the Cardinals on KMOX radio. The relatively puny new station’s signal can’t make it to South Dakota, so maybe it’s time to look at XM Satellite Radio or something.

“…there was no joy in Mudville.
Mighty Casey had struck out.”

Go White Sox!

This is to demonstrate how potentially easy it could be to start a conspiracy theory.

Has anyone elxe noticed the resemblence between Homeland security boss and Lenin?

Nah. Couldn’t be, could it?