David Frum on NRO is hosting a petition to scuttle the Harriet Miers nomination.
Now, I'm not in the "support her" camp yet, as I am waiting the outcome of the hearings. I was the same with Roberts.
But the idea of rejecting a president's nominee before a hearing is ludicrous. And moreso when it is your own party's president.
Here is a copy of the e-mail I sent to David Frum:
This petition is a stupid idea.
Just thought I'd let you know, because apparently you were serious about it. You seemed smart enough to know better, too.
In fact, the worst thing for your cause is if your effort succeeds.
You can't have the nominees you want, some already withdrew, and after seeing what you and others have done to trash THIS nominee, the remaining possible picks will see that the conservative side has just given them cover to do the same to conservative nominees. So they will take their names out.
And if they don't, but they are strong and we are "sure" about their views, Specter will reject them in committee, out of "loyalty" to the President, and he will look good doing it. I can hear his speech about how Bush was forced by far-right extremists to withdraw the name of a fine woman, and send up an ideologue, and he is going to reject the ideologues so that Bush can go back to picking GOOD nominees.
I KNOW you are smart enough to see that.
So, your only chance to get a better nominee is if Bush finds a better nominee willing to go through the process, but who has the same stealth qualities as Miers. Of course, you will just have to trust Bush that the next nominee is a good one.
So, you will reject a nominee because you don't trust the president you helped elect, and then you will have to trust him to do better with the next nominee. And he of course will want nothing more than to please you, now that you have called him an idiot and destroyed his legacy and ruined his last three years in office.
The only way this comes out at all for conservatives is if in fact Bush was totally loyal to the conservative cause, and would do NOTHING to harm it, even out of spite or revenge. But if you thought THAT was true, you would trust his nominee.
So, you are pretty much screwed. It's like you are playing high-card poker, and the dealer just told you he gave you an ace. But you can't trust him, even though he's always come through for you. You see two aces sitting on the table, and you want one of those. But if you put a face-up ace on the table, your opponent will not bet against you, so you will lose the pot.
But, instead of trusting the dealer, you tell him to deal you another card, and make this one an ace.
So, you called the dealer untrustworthy, but then expect him to give you an ace. And he only will do that if he really loves you and forgives you for not trusting him.
And you know the worst thing? There are only 4 aces in the pile. 2 of them are on the table facing up, and will never be useful to you. There are only two left. He gave you one, and you rejected it. If he gives you the other, then on the next hand you CAN'T have an ace, because you threw one away.
Bush can only send up stealth nominees. He doesn't have THAT many he's sure of, and you are willing to throw out one he PROMISES is a good one without even waiting for the evidence.
That has to be the stupidest move I have seen. Twenty years of working for the day we can get a nominee we want to replace a less conservative nominee, and the CONSERVATIVES are going to screw it up. It's like we don't WANT to win, we want to keep whining.
Sure, she might be the wrong pick, but we don't know, and there is NO WAY the next pick will be MORE KNOWABLE.
Grow up, use the brains God Gave You, and Pull the Petition.
We need this to work, for the good of the country, and the court. We put Bush in office, we have to go with him. You don't pull the star quarterback in the superbowl because he had a bad quarter.
Wednesday, October 12, 2005
Saturday, October 08, 2005
Too Many Theme Parks
I've been spending a lot of time in theme parks lately. Last year, we got season passes to Busch Gardens, Williamsburg and the co-located Water Country, USA. I loved both those parks. Busch Gardens is the most charming theme park I have seen, and Water Country is well-constructed and maintained, and has a lot of fun rides.
But anyway, this year was the "off" year for theme parks. Other than an annual pilgrimage to Hershey Park, we didn't have any plans for parks.
Well, not to start. But then we got an offer to spend a weekend in Williamsburg, and they gave us the 3-day memorial weekend in a hotel along with two free Busch Garden tickets. So off we went, and I bought two discounted tickets for the family. Turns out though that Memorial Day weekend is a rather crowded weekend for theme parks, so we ended up finding other things to do.
Then came summer, and we made it through most of summer, and went off to Ohio in August. However, we were looking for something to do in Columbus, and there is this small park called "Wyandot Lake", right next door to the zoo. Turns out it was purchased by Six Flags, so now it is in the Six Flags family even though it is little more than some water slides and a pretty cool but small wooden coaster (they have the best bumper cars though, more like inner tubes on wheels).
Anyway, the kids had screamed about the park the previous year, but the tickets were way more than what the park was worth. However, I checked the web site, and found that for not much more, I could buy a Six Flags season pass to Wyandot, and it would work for all Six Flags parks.
When I tried to buy the internet tickets, turned out I lived too far away, but a nice lady at Wyandot told me I could get the same deal from a local grocery store. And so the saga began, in Mid August.
After spending several days at Wyondot, we came home and immediately shlepped over to Six Flags America for the first time. This is a very large but run-down park, with a good water park. They have a large steel coaster (Superman) and a cool coaster where you actually are hung under the cars held up only by the restraints, like you are flying (BatWing). We ended up attending Six Flags several times over the rest of the summer.
Then, at the end of August, we went back down to Williamsburg to use the tickets we had. However, while checking the web, I found a special deal on Kings Dominion 2006 season passes which included free parking, so I bought them. We took in Kings Dominion the Wednesday after Katrina (it wasn't very crowded) and then went to Busch Gardens on Thursday.
While there, I found it was pretty cheap to upgrade to a 2006 season pass there, which also saved us 10% on our food purchases for the day.
This left me with season passes good for 2005 for three major theme park chains.
We took two more trips to Kings Dominion, and one again to Hershey Park. So we have attended 5 different theme parks, and attended about 15 days or so. The last was today.
Today of course we are in the middle of the remnants of a tropical storm. This made things rather wet, but ensured the park would be sparsely attended. So we got on every ride with almost no waiting, and got to do all the Halloween stuff (except one thing was closed because of the rain). They did close the park early because of the bad weather, which was dissappointing.
Anyway, part of me wanted to drive up to New Jersey to hit that Six Flags park, and I researched other Paramount parks. IN fact I would have scheduled a trip for their "christmas" events at one of the southern parks except that they don't honor season passes.
I remember last year going to Busch Gardens for halloween, the night of I think it was the 2nd Presidential debate. After the 1st I couldn't stand to watch a debate anyway; I had worked hard for my candidate and was tired and needed a break. I ended up in a line with a guy with a bush sticker. Turned out he was military, and I had a wonderful conversation which cheered me up.
I think what I like most about theme parks is the chance you get to meet other people, to chat with them, to talk about stuff you wouldn't talk about.
Last november after the election we went to Tampa, Fla. and spent a dissappointing day at Busch Gardens-Tampa (I wrote of this trip in my first "humor" column).
Theme parks are a great way to get away from stuff. There's been a lot of stuff to get away from lately.
But anyway, this year was the "off" year for theme parks. Other than an annual pilgrimage to Hershey Park, we didn't have any plans for parks.
Well, not to start. But then we got an offer to spend a weekend in Williamsburg, and they gave us the 3-day memorial weekend in a hotel along with two free Busch Garden tickets. So off we went, and I bought two discounted tickets for the family. Turns out though that Memorial Day weekend is a rather crowded weekend for theme parks, so we ended up finding other things to do.
Then came summer, and we made it through most of summer, and went off to Ohio in August. However, we were looking for something to do in Columbus, and there is this small park called "Wyandot Lake", right next door to the zoo. Turns out it was purchased by Six Flags, so now it is in the Six Flags family even though it is little more than some water slides and a pretty cool but small wooden coaster (they have the best bumper cars though, more like inner tubes on wheels).
Anyway, the kids had screamed about the park the previous year, but the tickets were way more than what the park was worth. However, I checked the web site, and found that for not much more, I could buy a Six Flags season pass to Wyandot, and it would work for all Six Flags parks.
When I tried to buy the internet tickets, turned out I lived too far away, but a nice lady at Wyandot told me I could get the same deal from a local grocery store. And so the saga began, in Mid August.
After spending several days at Wyondot, we came home and immediately shlepped over to Six Flags America for the first time. This is a very large but run-down park, with a good water park. They have a large steel coaster (Superman) and a cool coaster where you actually are hung under the cars held up only by the restraints, like you are flying (BatWing). We ended up attending Six Flags several times over the rest of the summer.
Then, at the end of August, we went back down to Williamsburg to use the tickets we had. However, while checking the web, I found a special deal on Kings Dominion 2006 season passes which included free parking, so I bought them. We took in Kings Dominion the Wednesday after Katrina (it wasn't very crowded) and then went to Busch Gardens on Thursday.
While there, I found it was pretty cheap to upgrade to a 2006 season pass there, which also saved us 10% on our food purchases for the day.
This left me with season passes good for 2005 for three major theme park chains.
We took two more trips to Kings Dominion, and one again to Hershey Park. So we have attended 5 different theme parks, and attended about 15 days or so. The last was today.
Today of course we are in the middle of the remnants of a tropical storm. This made things rather wet, but ensured the park would be sparsely attended. So we got on every ride with almost no waiting, and got to do all the Halloween stuff (except one thing was closed because of the rain). They did close the park early because of the bad weather, which was dissappointing.
Anyway, part of me wanted to drive up to New Jersey to hit that Six Flags park, and I researched other Paramount parks. IN fact I would have scheduled a trip for their "christmas" events at one of the southern parks except that they don't honor season passes.
I remember last year going to Busch Gardens for halloween, the night of I think it was the 2nd Presidential debate. After the 1st I couldn't stand to watch a debate anyway; I had worked hard for my candidate and was tired and needed a break. I ended up in a line with a guy with a bush sticker. Turned out he was military, and I had a wonderful conversation which cheered me up.
I think what I like most about theme parks is the chance you get to meet other people, to chat with them, to talk about stuff you wouldn't talk about.
Last november after the election we went to Tampa, Fla. and spent a dissappointing day at Busch Gardens-Tampa (I wrote of this trip in my first "humor" column).
Theme parks are a great way to get away from stuff. There's been a lot of stuff to get away from lately.
Thursday, October 06, 2005
Racism in New Orleans
Bush suggested last week that poverty in New Orleans was related to racism. He may have been literally correct, although if true it is only tangentially so.
However, Poverty is related to racism. But it isn't the racism of those who hate minorities. No, it is the racism of liberals and the liberal media. This is an extension of the "soft bigotry of low expectations", but in this case it is a hard bigotry of perceived helplessness.
The racism of liberals, who believe that black people are particularly unsuited for handling their own affairs or succeeding with their help. Thus the need for program after program aimed at ensuring their "dignity".
Liberal racism gave us the ultimate failure of war -- the war on poverty. Trillions? of dollars and we are no closer to "winning". It is one of the few wars the liberals support, but they don't want to win it either.
Liberal racism oppresses poor black people in New Orleans, and in cities around the country. It traps them in failing schools (while in some cases paying the highest salaries to the employees responsible). It holds vouchers from them, to keep them out of the schools the liberal elites send THEIR children to.
The liberal media oppresses as well, reminding blacks nightly that they can't make it in this world without help from the government. The schools reinforce the message -- if you are black, you aren't expected to acheive, but rather to survive with government handouts.
In New Orleans, liberal racism was seen in the MSM, quick to believe that black people would rape, beat, and murder each other in the Superdome if there weren't enough (white) police to keep them in line.
Liberal Media racism told us that blacks, after a couple of days without food, would eat corpses floating around. That black looters would shoot down rescue helicopters. That they would not help each other, but would instead prey on each other. The media reported story after story with the same line, about the "jungle" that New Orleans had become. The reference was all too apparent, if not stated.
Liberal racism told us that blacks were too stupid to evacuate, too stupid to save themselves, so there would be tens of thousands of dead black people. The Mayor said that he didn't even try to get buses because he assumed the black bus drivers would refuse to help their fellow citizens. He said early evacuation was useless because the blacks couldn't drive (but notice all the flooded cars in the pictures?)
We need to end liberal racism. It is the only way to make real progress in the war on poverty. But instead, the liberals want to spend billions to get the blacks back into their prison, complete with walls built higher and stronger -- New Orleans. They need the blacks to go back to their helplessness, their dependency. They fear the taste of freedom, of independence, of self-sufficiency that those in New Orleans are experiencing through this terrible ordeal.
If what Bush proposes can move us even one step closer to empowering these people, to allowing them to see their potential, to recognize the liberal oppression, to give them control over their own lives, then there will be some measure of good to come out of this tragic and terrible storm.
However, Poverty is related to racism. But it isn't the racism of those who hate minorities. No, it is the racism of liberals and the liberal media. This is an extension of the "soft bigotry of low expectations", but in this case it is a hard bigotry of perceived helplessness.
The racism of liberals, who believe that black people are particularly unsuited for handling their own affairs or succeeding with their help. Thus the need for program after program aimed at ensuring their "dignity".
Liberal racism gave us the ultimate failure of war -- the war on poverty. Trillions? of dollars and we are no closer to "winning". It is one of the few wars the liberals support, but they don't want to win it either.
Liberal racism oppresses poor black people in New Orleans, and in cities around the country. It traps them in failing schools (while in some cases paying the highest salaries to the employees responsible). It holds vouchers from them, to keep them out of the schools the liberal elites send THEIR children to.
The liberal media oppresses as well, reminding blacks nightly that they can't make it in this world without help from the government. The schools reinforce the message -- if you are black, you aren't expected to acheive, but rather to survive with government handouts.
In New Orleans, liberal racism was seen in the MSM, quick to believe that black people would rape, beat, and murder each other in the Superdome if there weren't enough (white) police to keep them in line.
Liberal Media racism told us that blacks, after a couple of days without food, would eat corpses floating around. That black looters would shoot down rescue helicopters. That they would not help each other, but would instead prey on each other. The media reported story after story with the same line, about the "jungle" that New Orleans had become. The reference was all too apparent, if not stated.
Liberal racism told us that blacks were too stupid to evacuate, too stupid to save themselves, so there would be tens of thousands of dead black people. The Mayor said that he didn't even try to get buses because he assumed the black bus drivers would refuse to help their fellow citizens. He said early evacuation was useless because the blacks couldn't drive (but notice all the flooded cars in the pictures?)
We need to end liberal racism. It is the only way to make real progress in the war on poverty. But instead, the liberals want to spend billions to get the blacks back into their prison, complete with walls built higher and stronger -- New Orleans. They need the blacks to go back to their helplessness, their dependency. They fear the taste of freedom, of independence, of self-sufficiency that those in New Orleans are experiencing through this terrible ordeal.
If what Bush proposes can move us even one step closer to empowering these people, to allowing them to see their potential, to recognize the liberal oppression, to give them control over their own lives, then there will be some measure of good to come out of this tragic and terrible storm.
People Don't Keep Up Their Blogs
When I started this blog, I wanted to not be like so many others who worked for a week or so and then just stopped.
My first attempt failed, crushed under the end-of-summer rush followed by the start-of-school-year rush.
Plus, I have found it's a lot more fun sometimes to just write comments to other people's blogs than it is to put stuff in your own blog.
Anyway, today someone made a comment to an old post of mine, and it woke me up. So here I am.
Lot's has happened since last I was here. Cindy Sheehan is gone now, back home although she still threatens to strike again. Since we last saw her, she has protested the American occupation of New Orleans, and hooked up with the VFW for some long-term Katrina relief that lasted only a short time before they mysteriously packed up and left the volunteers hanging. There may be an investigation related to that. Cindy also has started accepting money for speaking.
There was a huge anti-war rally in DC (well, not really huge by normal standards, but I'm feeling generous). At the rally the WMD sensors picked up biological agents which turned out to be Rabbit Fever or something like that -- When we talk about the great unwashed masses, we don't mean that literally.
Roberts was confirmed after he turned out to be smarter than the entire democrat side of the judiciary combined. Although regardless of his impeccable credentials, 22 democrats (that is 1/2 if you don't count jumping jim jeffords) voted against the man they said was the best nominee they had EVER seen.
But now we have Harriet Miers. A lot of people say she is stupid, although there is no evidence of that, or at least unqualified, although there is little evidence of that. But what is really scary is that Harry Reid, who voted NO on Robers (I guess thinking him unqualified) not only likes Harriet, but actually recommended her. I would have loved to be a fly on the wall at his monday staff meeting -- "OK, who put HER name on the list? I did, but it was just a joke, I didn't know he'd actually PICK her!!!"
Indictments are coming in the Plame investigation. Today lots of lefties were salivating over the possibility that Rove would be one of them, I've heard conflicting information but I don't see the point of trying to predict the future when I have no control over it and it doesn't effect me.
Indictments have already hit Tom DeLay. Last week a grand jury handed down a single count of conspiracy before disbanding. Unfortunately for the prosecutor, it was an indictment for a crime that wasn't actually a CRIME until a year after the activity was alleged to have occured.
Undaunted, Earle ran to another Grand Jury, presented his evidence, and, well, they turned him down. Apparently you can indict a ham sandwich, but sometimes your case is so bad you can't. But wait. Earle, realising that the reason TWO CONSECUTIVE GRAND JURIES had looked at the evidence and failed to indict was that they had LOOKED AT THE EVIDENCE.
Well, he had the cure for that-- on monday he called up another grand jury, and before they had even finished orientation he got THEM to indict DeLay again, this time for something that is actually a crime. Of course, he has no evidence that Tom DeLay actually COMMITTED that crime, which is why two Grand Juries refused to indict, but at least for the democrats it keeps DeLay out of his leadership post for a while longer.
There was Katrina and Rita. And the New Orleans Flood, and the News Media having a meltdown, accusing the poor black people in New Orleans of unspeakable crimes that turned out to be false. To liberals, it is apparently perfectly believable that black people would eat corpses, and can be counted on to kill, rape, and plunder their fellow citizens if there isn't a large enough police presence. The result of Katrina was tragic, but the damage to the image of inner-city blacks painted by the news media will take some time to correct (and much longer if the democrats have their way -- the liberals can't stand the thought that their constituents might figure out they can take care of themselves).
If I ran a hospital that was below sea level and protected by a 3-foot wall, I think I'd put my electric generators above the water level, or build a waterproof room for it.
Trent Lott's house got blown away, but we shouldn't feel sorry for him or say anything kind about him. Lest we be accused of being racists.
I'm sure other important things happened while I was out. For example, there was a terrorist attack at the Oklahoma football game last saturday, although the news media is mostly ignoring it. (Google search on Joel Hinrich to learn the slowly evolving details of his suicide bombing and possible ties to islamic terrorists).
My first attempt failed, crushed under the end-of-summer rush followed by the start-of-school-year rush.
Plus, I have found it's a lot more fun sometimes to just write comments to other people's blogs than it is to put stuff in your own blog.
Anyway, today someone made a comment to an old post of mine, and it woke me up. So here I am.
Lot's has happened since last I was here. Cindy Sheehan is gone now, back home although she still threatens to strike again. Since we last saw her, she has protested the American occupation of New Orleans, and hooked up with the VFW for some long-term Katrina relief that lasted only a short time before they mysteriously packed up and left the volunteers hanging. There may be an investigation related to that. Cindy also has started accepting money for speaking.
There was a huge anti-war rally in DC (well, not really huge by normal standards, but I'm feeling generous). At the rally the WMD sensors picked up biological agents which turned out to be Rabbit Fever or something like that -- When we talk about the great unwashed masses, we don't mean that literally.
Roberts was confirmed after he turned out to be smarter than the entire democrat side of the judiciary combined. Although regardless of his impeccable credentials, 22 democrats (that is 1/2 if you don't count jumping jim jeffords) voted against the man they said was the best nominee they had EVER seen.
But now we have Harriet Miers. A lot of people say she is stupid, although there is no evidence of that, or at least unqualified, although there is little evidence of that. But what is really scary is that Harry Reid, who voted NO on Robers (I guess thinking him unqualified) not only likes Harriet, but actually recommended her. I would have loved to be a fly on the wall at his monday staff meeting -- "OK, who put HER name on the list? I did, but it was just a joke, I didn't know he'd actually PICK her!!!"
Indictments are coming in the Plame investigation. Today lots of lefties were salivating over the possibility that Rove would be one of them, I've heard conflicting information but I don't see the point of trying to predict the future when I have no control over it and it doesn't effect me.
Indictments have already hit Tom DeLay. Last week a grand jury handed down a single count of conspiracy before disbanding. Unfortunately for the prosecutor, it was an indictment for a crime that wasn't actually a CRIME until a year after the activity was alleged to have occured.
Undaunted, Earle ran to another Grand Jury, presented his evidence, and, well, they turned him down. Apparently you can indict a ham sandwich, but sometimes your case is so bad you can't. But wait. Earle, realising that the reason TWO CONSECUTIVE GRAND JURIES had looked at the evidence and failed to indict was that they had LOOKED AT THE EVIDENCE.
Well, he had the cure for that-- on monday he called up another grand jury, and before they had even finished orientation he got THEM to indict DeLay again, this time for something that is actually a crime. Of course, he has no evidence that Tom DeLay actually COMMITTED that crime, which is why two Grand Juries refused to indict, but at least for the democrats it keeps DeLay out of his leadership post for a while longer.
There was Katrina and Rita. And the New Orleans Flood, and the News Media having a meltdown, accusing the poor black people in New Orleans of unspeakable crimes that turned out to be false. To liberals, it is apparently perfectly believable that black people would eat corpses, and can be counted on to kill, rape, and plunder their fellow citizens if there isn't a large enough police presence. The result of Katrina was tragic, but the damage to the image of inner-city blacks painted by the news media will take some time to correct (and much longer if the democrats have their way -- the liberals can't stand the thought that their constituents might figure out they can take care of themselves).
If I ran a hospital that was below sea level and protected by a 3-foot wall, I think I'd put my electric generators above the water level, or build a waterproof room for it.
Trent Lott's house got blown away, but we shouldn't feel sorry for him or say anything kind about him. Lest we be accused of being racists.
I'm sure other important things happened while I was out. For example, there was a terrorist attack at the Oklahoma football game last saturday, although the news media is mostly ignoring it. (Google search on Joel Hinrich to learn the slowly evolving details of his suicide bombing and possible ties to islamic terrorists).
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