I happened across this article, California Fires Reignite Forest Thinning Debate and I have to cry a little bit.

In Genesis 1:26, God gave man the responsibility to rule over the earth. That means we are supposed to take care of all the animals and all living things. The eco-terrorists are working against that responsibility, thinking that nature is better off being “untouched by man.”

Over 700,000 acres have burned so far this year in California alone, along with the loss of 20 lives and more than 2,600 homes destroyed. Last year, wildfires burned nearly 7 million acres, killed 23 firefighters, destroyed more than 800 homes and cost taxpayers more than $1.5 billion.

No good has come of this policy. The loss of life, both animal and human is appalling. The financial cost is staggering. And for the most part, if we manage the forests like we were told to the costs would be much less, both financially and in lives lost.

We are faced with a decision. Do we cut down 50 trees to save a hundred, or do we lose all 150 to a forest fire. What good is it to “protect” the breeding grounds of the curly-tailed gecko if it gets burned out every five years? How many times must they have to rebuild their population? How many endangered species are lost altogether because their environment was burned down around them? The eco-terrorists have made a decision to lose everything to fire. And their precious forests go up in flames when they don’t have to.

The timber companies realize the importance of “renewable resources.” They plant more trees than they cut down. There are more trees in the US now then there were a hundred years ago by a large margin, because of proper management of renewable resources. Sure it looks bad when you see several acres clear cut at a time, but you need to come back a year later when there are thousands of seedlings planted and happily growing there.

It truly is a sad state of affairs, because the eco-terrorists see the results of their work and ignore it. Or they blame it on us because we didn’t do anything about it when they prevent us from doing anything about it.

Sheesh.

Here is an enlightening article, Tax Laws Protect Illegal Workers, and proof that illegal immigration cannot be solved without a major paradigm shift.

Everybody must be fully involved and committed to kicking illegal immigrants out. If one agency does not cooperate, the efforts of the rest are undone. As long as they can find jobs, obtain assistance and other services, we cannot stop the flood. And that is a bad thing. We must starve them out, and we must start now. Confiscatory fines for employers, drop the illegal Mexican immigrants off on the south side of Mexico, immediate deportation for the rest. No respite in the court system, no mercy from the Executive branch. It must be done this way, and it must start today, because it is unfair to those who followed the rules and are here legally. It is the legal immigrants we should be kind to, for they are following the legal American Dream.

…is bashing liberals. They are so two faced you never know which one you’re talking to. Jonah Goldberg has a wonderful article, Walk of Shame and fairly skewers the left side of the line.

Rarely has the intellectual rot of liberalism been more evident. Both at home and abroad, the honorable tradition of liberalism – and there is one – has been hollowed out by its own appetite for power and vengeance. Indeed, it is exceedingly difficult to see how liberalism, at the national level, stands for anything but appetite – undirected, inarticulate, unprincipled, ravenous appetite. Truly it has become Bill Clinton’s party.

I guess I can start calling them sharks now, because that is what a shark is. A predatory, implacable appetite that seeks out the weak and then devours them.

I can’t sum it up any better than this article, so I won’t even try. Read and enjoy!

This article will leave you chuckling. Blood-sucking Leeches talks about out ever-present, professional politicians. This can even apply to the long-term men and women who are truly dedicated to the country’s business.

This is an anomaly of the way our founding fathers intended our system of government to work. They wanted the House of Representatives to be composed of citizen politicians who left their farms, stores and small businesses for a few years to serve their fellow Americans in the House – after which they would return home to continue their professions, living and working under the very laws they enacted.

The Senate was to be composed of distinguished citizens chosen by each state to serve longer terms as stewards of states’ rights against the encroachment of the larger federal government powers.

I cannot sum up my thoughts and feelings better than this quote. I was actually going to use paragraph #3, but upon reflection, I think this sums it up pretty well.

I haven’t been commenting on Rush and his condition on purpose. I figured there was already a couple of terabytes out there and my little 2 cents wasn’t going to do much. Then this article came along, Rush and Hypocrisy.

I guess I’m a hypocrite as well. I hold high moral standards for myself, and try to inspire the same in the people around me. To do the right thing, as it were. But we are all imperfect beings, and as such there are a lot of times we cannot hit what we aim for. To have standards at all puts us ahead of the game. It is the blood, sweat and tears we expend in the name of achieving those goals that we should be proud of. To actually achieve them is but a distant second to the effort we put into trying.

I am familiar with the level of pain that Rush is in. In early 1997 I ruptured my L5S1 disk. The details are unimportant. The pain I felt was immense. I experienced a deep burning from my tailbone up to my kidneys, then a fierce sharp pain reaching from my tailbone all the way down my right leg to my paralyzed foot. I only had to put up with it for a week or two. After the operation, the doctor didn’t prescribe me any postop painkillers, because the relief I felt from what I put up with before the operation made the postop pain feel like a hangnail.

Rush put up with this kind of pain for what, five years? I’d have been popping pain pills like they were M&M’s too. If Rush has been able to operate on the level he did with that kind of pain and doped up, his level after rehab and with pain control will be nothing short of phenomenal.

To be imperfect is the norm. To expect someone to obtain perfection is crazy, and I don’t mean mental illness crazy. It is okay to have high moral values, as long as you try to live up to them. The effort makes all the difference.

FOX carried this opinion piece, A War Casualty We Can’t Afford.

In this post 9/11 world, the last thing we can afford is a ‘measured, proportionate response.’ We had two buildings destroyed, we brought down two countries as payback. If we get a city destroyed, all the world should be scared shitless awaiting our response.

In order to do that, we need intelligence. Clinton gutted the CIA, then hamstrung what was left, forcing it into something like police procedures. There are times that we can only guess at what is going on. I would rather guess that a foreign hostile country had something when they don’t rather than guess they don’t when they do. And you can never tell either way until it’s too late. To wait for confirmed, incontrovertible evidence will be two days too late, and we no longer have that luxury. We are going to lose a city in the next five years, one way or another. The question is, what are we going to do about it, before and after the fact.

Hindsight is always 20/20, and to Tuesday Morning Quarterback the President and his administration is grandstanding at its worst.

Preemption must not become another Washington casualty of the blame game. Yet the doctrine remains on an artificial respirator so long as our pre-war intelligence on Iraq seems so faulty.

I remember a comic, where this one kid sat next to another kid, a bully. The bully was minding his own business for once, but the first kid was so worried about being picked on, he up and knocked the bully flat, unprovoked. To the teacher, he then proclaimed, “I HIT HIM BACK FIRST!”

That is what we must do for now on, until all of the terrorists are dead, play whack-a-mole. Every time a terrorist pops up, we flatten him. No waiting around for a political statement, no response to an attack, kill them before they kill us. That’s the rules the terrorists taught us, how long we are willing to live by those rules is up to us, because we get to choose our leaders. Will we pick one that will take the fight to them, or one that will let them bring the fight to us? Right now we have a man in charge how is taking the fight to them. Yes, we are taking casualties. Yes, it is an expensive war. But the choice is either a) Attacks on our soldiers in Baghdad, or b) suicide attacks on civilians in Boston. There is no inbetween, no grey area, no room for negotiations. One or the other and you, my dear readers, get to choose.

Choose. And choose wisely.

I am sickened by this, New Jersey Fires ‘Incompetent’ Social Workers for Letting Boys Starve.

These people may be overworked, but it is by their own design. It also proves that there is money to be made in the foster care industry. The sacrifice these children are giving is intolerable.

“I had staff that were either incompetent, uncaring or who had falsified records,” said Department of Human Services Commissioner Gwendolyn Harris. “I have members of this division who have failed children almost to the cost of their very lives.”

I am shocked beyond words to describe this situation. On top of the trauma of having to endure the abuse of their parents, then forced separation from their family, then unimaginable abuse at the hands of the system that is supposed to care for them, these children have been through hell several times.

I found this on Drudge, High school senior came ‘out’ – and was expelled and wanted to comment on it.

The fact that the student was gay is to my comments is unimportant. The fact that I wanted to bring up was the fact that he was asked a very personal and private question by an authority figure. The student told the truth and suffered serious consequences for it.

I for one have learned through my life experiences that you admit to nothing when it comes to authority figures. I don’t mean to lie, and there are times when admitting your guilt is the proper thing to do. In instances where your butt is on the line for some serious consequences, you should keep your mouth shut. I have never been interrogated, nor have I ever done anything that would warrant such a treatment. But if faced with such a situation, I have come to realize that you do more damage to yourself by talking in such a situation, even about the smallest things. The interrogator is not your friend, he is not there to help you, he wants you to admit to something so they can use it against you. Period.

Always remember that.

CBS stepped over a very clearly marked line when they decided to show “The Reagans.” With all of the firestorm created so far, they might give it up, but I doubt it. It is sweeps week after all. I have links to articles here, here, here, and here.

NewsMax.com throws up.

This pretty much sums it all up.

Ah, yes. The great New York Times strikes again. In this article, Hit-and-Run Pesticide News has another pro-ecoterrorist piece.

Telling only half the story and not revealing conflict of interest tidbits seems right up their alley.

The New York Times famously boasts on its banner, “All the news that’s fit to print.” I guess that sounds better than, “Only the news that we want to you to know.”

That pretty much sums it all up.

The president of NOW is throwing a hissy fit that Patricia Ireland got fired from the YWCA. This article, NOW Blames ‘Ultra-Conservatives’ For Ireland YWCA Ouster clearly shows that this woman is not right in the head.

“Ultraconservative groups slammed the YWCA for hiring a strong supporter of women’s rights,” Gandy alleged. She also blasted the Bush Administration as acting “in concert” with “these bullies” at the conservative Traditional Values Coalition to remove Ireland.

If you don’t like what is going on, scream and hold your breath until your face turns blue.

I don’t know which side of this issue the reporter is on. Only one and a half paragraphs directly quote portions of the YWCA press release concerning the issue, which are the only facts that I can tell. The rest of it is unsubstantiated rants and cries of conspiracy.

Paul Nowack has a political cartoon that addresses this issue. Scroll down to Wednesday, and you better hurry. I can’t permalink to this cartoon and it will be rotated off on the 29th of October. My blog account won’t let me post images.

You should bookmark this page, National Review Online, so you can always see what Victor Davis Hanson has written.

Today it’s The Event of the Age. I like Victor because he makes you think. Using the only muscle that counts.

Indeed, each day the great gamble in Iraq is taking on significance that transcends the immediate tactical advantages that accrued from ridding the world of Saddam Hussein’s savagery. True, the world is a far better place without the worry of Kurdish genocide, 10,000 U.S. troops in Saudi Arabia, perpetual no-fly zones, clumsy U.N. embargos, Abu Abbas loose, guided missiles and WMD programs in Iraq, blood money for suicide bombers, exasperation that Saddam Hussein had violated 1991 agreements, SCUDs raining down on Saudi Arabia and Tel Aviv, assassination plots against American presidents, and so on. But there are other positive rippling effects that are already beginning to become manifest.

Read the rest. I command it.

This is an eye-opening piece, The ‘Psychology’ of Liberals where the underpinnings of why liberals behave like they do is revealed.

You really can’t blame them for their misguided views. They themselves are victims of 20th century psychology, which in textbook after textbook taught clinician after clinician – as well as the general public – that leniency trumps discipline, “concern” trumps consequences, motive trumps morality – and that one’s “feelings” are sacrosanct.

It tries to prove that there are mental health issues involved, and at some level I can agree. About half of the people professionally involved in the mental health field are involved because they have MH issues and they wanted to understand them better.

I don’t agree with the borderline diagnosis. I have that as one of my diagnosis and the black and white viewing of things doesn’t really apply to them. They see things in grey (except republicans). There is also a “I hate you! Don’t leave me!” part of borderline that I don’t see in liberals.

But all in all, a good, recommended read.

This article, Feds Finally Confront ‘Slave Reparations’ Criminals talks about how people are defrauding the government through tax returns to get what they think they deserve.

I have to admit, I am for it in some cases. For those on Welfare and its related programs, let’s make it a one time grant, ending all entitlement programs for those people for all time. That would save the feds a lot of money in the long run.

But generally, I think we should stick to the original deal, either 40 acres and a mule, or a one-way ticket to Liberia.

Since the civil rights movement in the 60’s, racism is largely a thing of the past. Blacks are now treated equally when they give that treatment to others. I admit, it’s not perfect, but it’s a damn sight better than Africa where they still practice slavery to this day.

A $500,000 per person grant is outrageous and not warranted by the circumstances. No one in America today has suffered from the institution of slavery.

And what about all of the white indentured servants? I’m sure at least one of my ancestors was such, don’t I get anything?

Feh.

This article, Beware of Stealth Energy Tax, Conservative Group Warns, is all about trying to back door the Kyoto treaty.

The Kyoto Protocol which was meant to stop global warming, wants the US to cut back emissions of greenhouse gases to 1990 levels. Even supporters of the Kyoto Protocol admitted it would only move the inevitable result back 5-10 years. To comply would wreck our economy in no uncertain terms. It could even be fatal to our economy, starting us on a downward spiral to total collapse. Of course, the Senate rejected it.

Even groups who support the legislation admit it will raise prices. The group Environmental Defense estimates the cost at $10 per household in 2010 – a “low cost,” it says.

Ten dollars a what? Year? Month? Week? Day? And of course like any other government sponsored program, that is a very low ball figure, certain to double or triple in no short order.

I’m no scientist, so I can’t say one way or the other about global warming. Hell, the scientists themselves can’t agree. But I do know that our society rests lightly upon our infrastructure and by jogging one part like this, everything can come down like a house of cards. And by causing a splash in one part, all of the other parts of the infrastructure are affected by the ripples that spread everywhere.

Let’s just assume for a minute that the cost outlined above turns out to be $10 a month. Okay, you pay that without a sweat. But you also pay that same $10 for all of the companies involved in delivering all of your goods and services. And companies pay a magnitude more for their electricity than you do. You end up paying like 10% more for everything you buy, from Wal-Mart to your ISP. Companies do not absorb increases like this, they pass it along to the customer. And in any chain of manufactured goods, you’re paying for 3-4 companies worth of increases.

Think about it. Then write your Senators and see what side of this bill they are on.

What does this say about our society? Killing the Good Samaritan is a story about a guy trying to do the right thing and getting body slammed for it.

The incident reflects how paranoid our culture has become after decades of political correctness that defines and divides us into categories eternally at war: female against male, whites against minorities, heterosexual against gay.

You should read the whole article, especially the couple of paragraphs about how the author defines The Devil.

In war, training is used specifically to dehumanize the enemy, making it easier for the soldier to kill and not agonize over it. This is exactly what the Liberals are doing here. By assigning everyone into a category, then associating that category with something bad, then you assign something bad to everyone you put into that category, guilty or not.

We must fight this on every level. I follow the words of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and I judge a person by the content of their character, rather than by he color of their skin. I do not lump people together in groups, I treat every individual as that individual treats me. You should do the same.

After reading this article, A French Revolution in Iraq?, I begin to understand how incredibly klutzy the French are.

France began its own path toward democracy by explicitly rejecting this [Anglo-American] view. Unlike the American Founding or England’s Glorious Revolution, the French experience exulted in humanistic ideals about man’s potential. The immediate result was the orgy of the guillotine, followed by a cynical regard for religious values and institutions. “We will strangle the last king,” cried the revolutionaries, “with the guts of the last priest.”

France is currently working on its fifth incarnation of a republic since the end of the Napoleonic era. We are still on our first. The Articles of Confederation don’t count because there was no revolution to bring about the Constitution. The Articles were not doing the job, and so were refined into the Constitution we follow today.

The French claim that we are the naive ones, but it is the French that are naive. They believe that they can stab us in the back and be friends again instantly. They believe that once the process of democracy in Iraq is started, it can stand and survive on its own. Both of these views are wrong on so many levels that it isn’t funny, it’s sad. To see a country that was once a superpower, now collapsing due to its own selfishness and indifference is disheartening.

We’ve been over this subject before. Compassion-Based Schools Teach Kids ‘Untrue Drivel,’ Critic Charges.

Of course it’s centered in that great Liberal stronghold of San Francisco. Unabashedly teaching unsubstantiated left-wing psychobabble to children and passing it off as “humane education” makes me want to pull out what little hair I have left.

“They are going to be teaching alarmism, which inherently means filling their heads with untrue drivel designed to breed a new generation of modernity-loathing robots,” Horner added.

This couldn’t be more of a brain-washing indoctrination if it was being done in China or South Korea. I understand that these people must exist (how can you have good without bad?), but it’s the influence that they have on our young that enrages me.

Fight this wherever you see it. Please.

The title comes from a line some magicians use for a laugh before they pull off a big illusion.

I got a chuckle out of this headline, Secondhand Smoke Scam. I have a clear bias against smoking, both my parents and sister smoked. I remember sticking my nose into my shirt every time my parents lit up while we were in the car, yelling at them to crack the windows.

But this falls into the misdirection category, where you pick a lay audience to announce your findings, then refuse to release your data to peers for critical review. You do this to maximize your “findings” while tap-dancing as fast as you can to fool the very people who can shed light on what you want to keep secret.

Rabid environmentalists have done this for years. They either make up stuff out of blue smoke and mirrors, or they take one little fact and bend it way out of context. In either case, they start screaming it at the top of their lungs, hoping for it to ripple outwards and get into the national consciousness before they are found out. When the real facts emerge, they are downplayed to the point of invisibility.

Almost every liberal group with an agenda have done this at one time or another. Which is why I am very cynical in regards to any flashy “findings.”

Color me not impressed with this “study.”

You do have a fire extinguisher in your kitchen, don’t you? How about in your car? Garage? If you do, then you’re my kind of person. You’re careful and thoughtful, keeping well aware of realistically possible emergencies.

Do you have a crime extinguisher? You know, a firearm. Are you familiar with its operation? Do you take it to the range often to keep yourself familiar with it? (you can also have fun with it at the same time) Do you get to carry it with you where ever you go? Gun Rights Advocates Take Aim at Concealed Carry Bans talks about the fight in the last holdout states that do not let law-abiding citizens carry concealed firearms.

Guns prevent crime. Gary Kleck did a careful study to prove that gun control works, and found out the exact opposite. Lawful defensive use of firearms results in the prevention of 2,500,000 crimes a year. In 97% of those incidents, all it takes is for the citizen to show the weapon and the criminals run away. Only in 1/2 of 1% is somebody actually shot or killed, and of course those are the only incidents that make the news.

Back in the 90’s, Florida (a concealed weapon state) had a rather serious crime wave in rapes. The police took action and the headlines sum it all up, “POLICE GIVE GUNS, TRAINING TO RAPE VICTIMS.” Don’t you know, the bottom fell out of that particular crime wave.

It has been documented in state after state that when the citizens are allowed to lawfully carry weapons, the crime rate goes down. When the criminals know the victims have a fair chance to shoot back, they change their habits.

I myself used to have a carry permit. I had a lot of self-imposed restrictions. I couldn’t yell at anybody, no matter how idiotic they were. I was very careful as to where I went. My family could not stand on my gun side. I was always alert to my surroundings. I trained constantly, and at my peak I could draw from cover and put two rounds in the center of a target up to 25 feet away in under 3/4 of a second, well under a defensive reaction time. But it was all worth it.

You can never know when violent crime will strike you and your family. All you can do is be prepared for it when it does happen. Are you ready for it?

This article, Child Welfare System Must Grow Up, shows what happens when a governmental agency is paid on a commission basis.

The incentive here is 180 degrees out of what it should be. Yes, there is a need to sometimes got a child out of a hostile environment, but it is also important to reunite the child with the parent(s) after the problem has been solved. If the problem can’t be solved, you need to transition the child into an adopting household as quickly as possible. Leaving a child in a ‘temporary’ situation for years does terrible damage, but when the governmental agency gets paid for how many kids are in foster care, that is exactly what happens.

The human cost of rushing children into foster care does not stop when they reach 18 years old. According to CDDS data, among youths who “emancipate” from foster care, 50 percent do not complete high school; 45 percent are unemployed; 33 percent are arrested; 30 percent are on welfare; 25 percent are homeless.

These are statistics that do not need to happen. Get the foster care system away from a commission basis today.

First, a reading assignment: This Perfect Day by Ira Levin.

I picked this one over Brave New World, THX 1138 and 1984 because if it’s idyllic perfectness. In your reading assignment, you have truly a perfect world. Everyone is equal, no Alphas, Betas, Deltas and Gammas, and there is no war like in 1984.

This Perfect Day describes a Tranzi’s idea of heaven. The world is one big Family. The Benevolent UniComp takes care of everyone, from picking a nameber (Name/serial number, like Mark GH5178392), to deciding where you live and what you do. ‘F*ck’ is an acceptable word, but ‘hate’ is used as a swear word. You eat cakes and Cokes every day. The price is total conformity. Any deviant behavior gets you grabbed and taken to a medical facility where the ‘sick’ person is ‘helped.’ You are constantly pumped full of psychotropic drugs to keep you happy.

The standing question is, can good things happen in such a world? I mean the bad things were eliminated, like war, crime, poverty, intolerance and hate. Does this mean that only the good things were left? And what else was given up? Individuality, self-determination, worship of God, freedom and the like. Are these good things?

In Oh, God! Book II, the little girl that God picked to be His messenger asked God, “Why do bad things happen to people?”

(I’m paraphrasing here, I don’t remember the exact conversation)
God replied, “Have you ever seen a top without a bottom?”
“Nope,” said the little girl.
“How about a left without a right?”
“Nope.”
“An up without a down?”
“Never.”
“Then,” Said God, “how can you have good without bad? You tell what the good things are by comparing them to the bad things. If you have nothing to compare good to, is it really good?”

I believe the single thing that makes America great is the freedom to choose bad over good. That doesn’t mean I’m soft on crime or whatever. I firmly believe there should be serious, negative consequences for doing bad things, just like there are serious positive consequences for doing good. It is this very action/consequence cycle that should propel us towards good, but doesn’t always do so.

Just look at the rest of the world. Nowhere else is anybody able to have as much freedom and power as the American people. Nowhere else do you see people who work harder, produce more, are more innovative and play harder than America as well. We are the people who invented the light bulb, powered flight, the computer and landed on the moon.

Good and bad are on a bell curve. Every time you take a serious piece out of doing bad, you lose some of your greatness in the process. I am quite sure we could take a serious bite out of the drug trade by executing dealers on the spot. But what would that cost us in the long run? What freedoms would we lose in order to allow such an action? And what are the long term effects of the loss of such freedoms? Not developing some important piece of technology? How about not saving someone’s life?

The consequences of ‘getting rid of bad’ at any cost are myriad and uncomprehendingly complex. It’s like in the 1978 series Connections James Burke starts off with a touchstone. He then draws a line from innovation to innovation, one invention or idea building on the last one until he arrived at the atomic bomb. There is just no way to determine what the long-term consequences will be to our actions if we are not very careful.

It’s like the Treaty of Versailles. The conditions of the treaty on Germany made World War II inevitable, but at the time they thought they were making sure war wouldn’t happen again. Irony can be pretty ironic.

Which brings me back around to my old Conservative idea of doing the right thing for the right reasons. This is not an easy task, let me tell you. You can do the right thing for the wrong reasons pretty easily, getting positive short-term results. But then something will come back and bite you in the rear later over it and it will leave you wondering, “What did I do to deserve this?” All must be in positive alignment, action, motivation and intent, to obtain a long-term positive outcome. Remember this always and you will do much good in this world.

It seems that the L.A. Times has enraged a significant portion of its readership. This article, Readers Keep Fleeing Biased L.A. Times plainly proves that there is immense bias in the paper, both in editorializing and in the straight reporting.

[Times editor John] Carroll continues to duck the issue of another outrageous example of the paper’s hypocrisy: burying and censoring news of Bill Clinton the rapist while trumpeting claims of Schwarzenegger the fondler.

The Times has already admitted that they’ve lost 1,000 subscriptions, and they are admitting losing additional uncounted subscriptions. Add to that sales from vendors and other places where you buy it on the street, they could be looking at a significant loss of readership.

Now all that is needed is a concerted letter campaign against the businesses that advertise in the Times. Loss of advertising revenue together with loss of readership will definitely put the hurt on them.

These people are flagrant Liberals. They are doing their best to tell you what you should be thinking, because to them you’re not smart enough to know what to think about anything. When they want you to have an opinion, they’ll tell you what your opinion should be!

Me? I offer things, show you the evidence and offer my own insightful commentary. I find articles that you won’t find in your local paper. After I present these things to you, I let you draw your own conclusions. I think you are smart enough to decide that either I’m on to something or that I’m full of BS. Your decision, not mine, and definitely not the Times.

I lost the link, but there is a story related to Valerie Plame Outed as CIA Agent Long Before Novak Column.

NewsMax released a story just a couple of days ago about how the husband, Joseph Wilson, was going to release his memoirs. The review of the subject matter was ‘underwhelming’ according to the article I saw.

I think that Mr. Wilson has some ulterior motives, because he is howling way out of proportion as to any real damage that was done to him or his wife. He is spearheading an assault on President Bush and his administration. With the book deal, is seems to be trying to grab some of the glory for himself.

A classic example of doing the wrong thing for the wrong reasons. He should quit while he’s behind.

This just goes to prove that the Conservative movement has it’s loony fringe elements as well. State Dept. Outraged at Robertson Nuke Comment proves to me that there is little difference between Pat Robertson and Osama Bin Laden.

“I read your book,” Robertson told Mowbray. “When you get through, you say, ‘If I could just get a nuclear device inside Foggy Bottom [State Department headquarters], I think that’s the answer’ and you say, ‘We’ve got to blow that thing up.’ I mean, is it as bad as you say?”

The American way is to plain old fire them, kick them out of their jobs. They are allowed to have their own thoughts on things, but when it comes work time, they are to toe the company line. I think the State Department sees the wiggle room President Bush gives Colin Powell and tries for some of their own.

I believe that if President Bush wins re-election, Powell won’t be part of the team anymore and a lot of the Senior State Department people who aren’t toeing the line will be asked to go with him. The President needs to clean the State Department house, the sooner the better.