It’s been fun, sort of.

I’m heading back to USF. The complete lack of control around here just isn’t for me.

UPDATE: My new theme is still under construction, but I’m now posting at thehairyreasoner.com

Come on by, THR

Rove Says Democrats Wrong

BREITBART.COM – Rove Says Democrats Wrong on War on Terror
“The GOP’s progress during the last four decades is a stunning political achievement. But it is also a cautionary tale of what happens to a dominate party _ in this case, the Democrat Party _ when its thinking becomes ossified; when its energy begins to drain; when an entitlement mentality takes over; and when political power becomes an end in itself rather than a mean to achieve the common goal,” Rove told Republican National Committee members ending a two-day meeting.

And he said it with a straight face even though it has a new name, “DeLayism.”

A Breath of Pretty Air

I love to read Peggy Noonan. She is the master of Logic Lite. She is a one woman Cirque du Soleil of reason, spinning her colorful fantasies beautifully through the air. Her artful rhetoric could persuade a lemming to hurl itself from a cliff no matter what its mother said.

Today she expounds on how polarized propaganda machines (as opposed to a free, independent press) are a good thing and all you have to do to believe is accept that a couple of partisan crackpots have actually proven the enormous liberal bias of the mainstream media and that the democrats have “lost their monopoly on the means of information in America,” as if they ever had one.

As is her usual modus operandi, she saves anything that might be construed by the faithful as criticism of the great cause for the end of her flowing postulation, long after her devoted have clicked the “RESPOND TO THIS ARTICLE” link and thrown digital flowers at her feet.

Today she had the temerity to suggest that republicans act like the party they claim to be:

OpinionJournal – Peggy Noonan

[...]
That it regain a sense of its historic mission. That it stop seeming the friend of the wired and return to being the great friend of Main Street, for Main Street still, in its own way, exists. That it return to basic principles on spending, regulation and state authority. That it question a foreign policy that often seems at once dreamy and aggressive, and question, too, an overreaching on immigration policy that seems composed in equal parts of naiveté and cynicism. That its representatives admit that lunching with lobbyists is not the problem; failing to oppose the growth of government–so huge that no one, really no one, knows what is in its budget–is. That they reduce the size and power of government. That they help our country.

Like a broken clock, even Peggy is right every once in a while.

Churches could face IRS probe

Why has this taken so long? I’ve never understood the alliance of religious organizations with the laissez faire stack-the-deck-for-the-rich economic types despite basically no progress at all in the culture wars.

The Columbus Dispatch – Local/State: Churches could face IRS probe
Pastors Parsley, Johnson exploited pulpits to play politics, ministers’ complaint alleges
Monday, January 16, 2006
Mike Harden and Joe Hallett
More than 30 local pastors last night officially accused two evangelical megachurches of illegal political activities.

In a rare and potentially explosive action, the moderate ministers signed a complaint asking the Internal Revenue Service to investigate World Harvest Church of Columbus and Fairfield Christian Church of Lancaster and determine if their tax-exempt status should be revoked.

The grievance claims that the Rev. Rod Parsley of World Harvest Church and the Rev. Russell Johnson of Fairfield Christian Church improperly used their churches and affiliated entities — the Center for Moral Clarity, Ohio Restoration Project and Reformation Ohio — for partisan politics, including supporting the Republican gubernatorial candidacy of Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell.

The damn Puritans beacon ain’t so shiny.

Isn’t that what courts are for?

The Raw Story | Justice Department to declare warrantless wiretaps legal 

In a detailed 42-page legal memorandum set for release this evening the Bush Justice Department will defend the President’s warrantless wiretap program as legal. A copy of the document was leaked to RAW STORY.

“The NSA activities are supported by the President’s well-recognized inherent constitutional authority as Commander in Chief and sole organ for the Nation in foreign affairs to conduct warrantless surveillance of enemy forces for intelligence purposes to detect and disrupt armed attacks on the United States,” Justice Department lawyers write, referring to the President’s order to wiretap Americans’ calls overseas.

So much for checks and balances.

Wow. Recruiting really is down.

Marines will no longer guard crypt
Sunday, January 15, 2006
Associated Press
Annapolis, Md. – A Naval Academy tradition that lasted 155 years has come to an end: The Marine Corps sentries who guarded the gates and the crypt of Revolutionary War Capt. John Paul Jones have been withdrawn and sent to war. 

The four dozen Marines were released from their security duties in a ceremony on Friday and are being replaced by Navy enlisted personnel.

“Pray for them, for many of them are going into harm’s way,” a chaplain said in an invocation for the departing members of the Naval Academy Company, Marine Barracks.

The Marines have provided security at the gates and for dignitaries’ visits and special events on the academy campus since before the Civil War. They also performed largely ceremonial duties, including standing guard outside the crypt of Jones, one of the founders of the Navy.

“They’ve done much more, in their ability to look tough but remain pleasant,” said Vice Adm. Rodney Rempt, the academy superintendent.

On the other hand, a little pleasantness in Iraq would certainly be welcome.

Finally, someone notices.

Media Matters – Dobson: Republican majority has “very little” to show for “pro-family, pro-moral” agenda; Santorum pushed marriage amendment in response 

During the January 12 broadcast of his radio program, Focus on the Family founder and chairman James C. Dobson complained that the Republican Party, in control of the White House and Congress, has “very little … to show for it” in terms of accomplishing the goals of “the pro-family agenda, the pro-moral agenda, [and] the sanctity of life.”

And yet Dobson still doesn’t appear to realize he’s we’ve been the victim of a scam. Santorum resolutely continues to not realize anything at all.

Can you say, “Loophole?”

Santorum reaps money from lobbyists
By Maeve Reston, Post-Gazette National Bureau

WAYNE, Pa. — Sen. Rick Santorum, who has been tapped by fellow Senate Republican leaders to draft legislation tightening restrictions on lobbyists, has received more money from lobbyists than any other congressional candidate so far in the 2006 election cycle.

Mr. Santorum, R-Pa., received $145,946 from lobbyists in the period from the start of the 2006 election cycle through Oct. 31, 2005, according to an analysis by the Center for Responsive Politics based on the most recent data the Federal Election Commission has published.

No doubt those lobbyists are lining up at Sen. Santorum’s door to help him draft away any semblance of sanity he might accidentally put in.

Stupid will make you abstinence only?

State abstinence overseer lent name to firm seeking business with agency 

The director of Ohio’s abstinence program faces an ethics inquiry and an investigation by her own department because her name showed up on business documents of a Denver firm that was close to finalizing a contract with her office.

It appears that Ohio is becoming so corrupt they don’t even know what corruption is anymore and are the new leaders in third world politics, American style.

Does anyone need to be reminded that Republicans have controlled all three branches of Ohio government since 1994?

Abstinence is a great way to avoid pregnancy and STIs but if you do have sex, please use your brain AND a condom. This message is brought to you by the T.H.Reasoner Campaign for Reality in Education.

Nope, no conflict here, move along

Mondo Washington by James Ridgeway with Michael Roston
Alito and His Coaches
For Supreme Court nominee, hearings are an inside game 

by James Ridgeway with Michael Roston
January 10th, 2006 9:59 AM

WASHINGTON, D.C.–In the first hours of Samuel Alito’s Senate confirmation hearings on Monday, Judiciary Committee member Lindsey Graham, the Republican senator from South Carolina, may very well have irreparably compromised himself.
At the hearing, Graham told Alito, nominee for the U.S. Supreme Court, that he had already decided in Alito’s favor. “I don’t know what kind of vote you’re going to get, but you’ll make it through. It’s possible you could talk me out of voting for you, but I doubt it. So I won’t even try to challenge you along those lines.”

That certainly ought to be the case. Graham is one of a group of Republicans who have been coaching Alito behind the scenes. The Wall Street Journal’s Washington Wire reported before the hearings began:

“On Thursday, Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, one of the ‘gang of 14′ who sits on Judiciary, joined a so-called moot court session at the White House.”

The coaching session for Alito has raised a few eyebrows.

“Coaching a judicial nominee behind-the-scenes is not the proper role for a Judiciary Committee member who must subsequently sit in judgment on that nominee,” writes Think Progress, a project of the American Progress Action Fund. “It could be a violation of the ethical duties of a senator.”

It shouldn’t be an ethical violation. It should be a legal one.