We are pipe-less, so no posts!

Let us clarify: TOBACCO pipe-less.

We can't write without a nice pipe stuffed with Irish Whisky or Orange Blossom tobacco.

It'd be unseemly!

Hopefully a pipe is forthcoming.

Boston Kids Get a Huge Break!

Rivera won't lead Boston schools

(January 24, 2007) — Rochester school Superintendent Manuel Rivera has chosen not to lead Boston schools.

“It’s unfortunate that Boston won’t be able to utilize his skills and talents,” Board of Education Vice President Malik Evans said today, confirming what he was told by Rivera. “I respect his personal decision.”

Rivera, could not be reached for comment. Sources within the district say that Rivera has accepted a position in Gov. Eliot Spitzer's administration.

Rivera, is still leaving the City School District later this year.

“He’s not going to be the superintendent as of July. The search still continues as far as we’re concerned. We accepted has resignation as of July,” Evans said.

If you lived in Rochester, you'd understand why parents of school age kids in Boston should be dancing in the streets tonight.

New York's loss (as if we needed any more excuses to flee South) is Boston's gain.

We require 12 hours to digest the SOTU ...

Especially inasmuch as the NHL skills contests were held tonight ... but this is instructive ...

I'm No Bipartisan Pollyanna

But how the heck can you make an stubbornly obnoxious point, as Speaker of the House, to sit through this? “And ladies and gentlemen, nothing is more important at this moment in our history than for America to succeed in the Middle East ... to succeed in Iraq ... and to spare the American people from this danger.”

We're there, can we agree we ought to succeed?

Apparently, some sweet old Botoxed grannies do not concur.

Woe are their grandkids.

The Carnage So Far

47,282,923


"Happy" Roe v. Wade Day.

Rest, frolic and love in peace, little angels.

Blatherer of the House Spews Her Venom

White House, Democrats step up words war on Iraq

By Matt Spetalnick

WASHINGTON, Jan 19 (Reuters) - Intensifying a war of words over a U.S. troop buildup in Iraq, House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi accused President George W. Bush on Friday of playing politics with soldiers' lives, a charge the White House called "poisonous."

"The president knows that because the troops are in harm's way that we won't cut off the resources," Pelosi, head of the Democratic-led House, told ABC's "Good Morning America. "That's why he's moving so quickly to put them in harm's way."

...


Newly empowered congressional Democrats pushing for a phased withdrawal from Iraq are gathering support even from within Bush's own Republican ranks for a nonbinding resolution opposing the troop increase.

But most senior Democrats have stopped short of threatening to withhold funding, mindful that would allow the administration to accuse them of abandoning the troops as the 2008 presidential campaign gears up.

...

"HISTORIC BLUNDER"

Pelosi, a California liberal who earlier this month became the first woman to lead the House, insisted on Friday that Democrats would never deny funding to U.S. forces in wartime.

"But we will hold the president accountable," she said. "He has to answer for his war. He has dug a hole so deep he can't even see the light on this. It's a tragedy. It's a historic blunder."

...

The White House struck back at Pelosi for suggesting Bush had political motives for moving quickly on the troop increase. "Those particular comments were poisonous," Perino said.

"Speaker Pelosi was arguing in essence that the president is putting young men and women in harm's way for tactical political reasons and she's questioning his motivations, rather than questioning his policies," she said.

Perino maintained that Bush "is sending the troops to Iraq quickly because he wants to win."(emphasis ours)
...


-more-

Got that, soldiers? Your mission is "a historic blunder".

Baathist diehards and al Qaeda imports, did ya catch that?

George Bush wants to win.

Our military wants to win.

The Iraqis want to win.

The terrorists want to win.

Apparently, only the Disloyal Opposition wants to lose.

Perhaps we're off base inasmuch as Granny Botox sees this conflict as "his war", not America's.

In that case, she should have proffered legislation to withhold funds the morning after the "surge" speech, well before this initial brigade was deployed.

But an outcome to the war favorable to the U.S. and its allies, of course, is not the issue.

The 2008 Presidential Election is.

That U.S. surrender in Iraq would embolden the enemies of Civilization apparently matters to Pelosi about as much as the deleterious economic effects of forcing employers to overpay unskilled workers.

There are still around 17,000 (in our opinion, not enough) troops still to be deployed as part of this effort.

They are not yet in harm's way.

It will be instructive to see if Nance puts her denial-of-money where her stretched-way-too-tight mouth is.

Uhhhhh ... OK then ...

FOX News Poll: Most Think Troop Surge Is Bush’s Last Chance in Iraq

19. Do you personally want the Iraq plan President Bush announced last week to succeed?
Yes No (Don’t know)
16-17 Jan 07 63% 22 15
Democrats 51% 34 15
Republicans 79% 11 10
Independents 63% 19 17

...

-more-

That "Yes" comes nowhere near 100% is astounding.

Can you imagine a similar poll prior to Operation Overlord?

Do you personally want the Normandy plan President Roosevelt announced last week to succeed?

What American in 1944 could possibly answer "No"?

We have received much abuse via Email --apparently posting here is a bit daunting for the pantywaists -- over the construct "The Disloyal Opposition".

But when over a third of a political party does not "personally want the Iraq plan President Bush announced last week to succeed", what other label applies?

Can you imagine 34% of Republicans in 1944 hoping that the Normandy Invasion would fail simply because the president was a government expanding socialist?

What the Hell are these people thinking? It isn't as if the Islamacists are big fans of pornography, abortion and men marrying men.

How can the irrational hatred of one man (President Bush) supercede the survival instinct?

Always remember, folks, that THEY are the "smart" ones!

There's a fortune to be made in burqa sales ...

His Dream Deferred

Security costs put an end to King Classic

James Johnson
Staff writer



(January 15, 2007) — For the most part, the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Classic hit its mark during a six-year run.

Jack Purificato, Section V's boys basketball committee chairman, created the showcase of high school games in the spirit of recognizing diversity in Rochester's community.

City School District teams played squads from schools inside and outside of Monroe County at Blue Cross Arena at the War Memorial. Players would share soda and pizza in the same room afterward.

"I'm proud of it because we've been able to donate about $30,000 to local charities," Purificato said. "We let the kids know that they were a part of that."

But players will no longer go through that experience.

Escalating costs, among other factors, forced Purificato to put an end to the Dr. King Classic.

"Security costs, especially, have skyrocketed due to excessive violence at games," Purificato said.

Fights broke out inside and outside of the arena during last year's Dr. King Classic.

For some, it was an embarrassment since the games took place on a holiday honoring a man who preached non-violent protests during the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s.

...

-more-

A great big thank you is owed the architects of "The Great Society".

Let's raise young boys with government checks in place of fathers.

Brilliant.

And they clamor for Bush to apologize for the Iraq incursion.

How many more hundreds of thousands have perished as a result of this great experiment in social engineering?

Religion of ... College Football?

Prayer Space Requested

Muslims say they need quiet room at Welsh-Ryan

By Dan Fletcher and Paul Takahashi
The Daily Northwestern

Amid the cheering Northwestern football fans at Ryan Field, all Ashar Wasi wanted was a quiet place to pray. The only place he could find was a spot of less-than-clean floor in a public walkway.

"We had to pray in front of the concession stand, in front of all the people," the McCormick junior said.

Perhaps someone noticed. At last Wednesday's ASG meeting, the Muslim-cultural Students Association proposed a bill establishing a designated prayer area at Welsh-Ryan Arena for Muslim students for football and basketball games.

McSA President Amir Siddiqui estimates more than 20 Muslim students are in attendance at nearly every game.

"Oftentimes while students are at sporting events, the prayer time falls during the game," the Weinberg senior said. "If there was a space to pray, or even an opportunity for students to leave and re-enter, things would be better. Right now, it can be difficult."

John Mack, associate athletic director of external affairs, said McSA contacted him about the problem as early as mid-October. Despite discussing the request in staff meetings, Mack said they couldn't provide a solution.

"This is a request we took seriously," he said. "We appreciate all student support, but we didn't feel there was a suitable area for prayer. There's not enough space in the arena."

Mack said the athletic department doesn't allow any spectators to leave and re-enter the facilities during an event.

"When you give preferential treatment, while respecting their group's religion, it's tough to determine where to draw the line in terms of our entire fan base," he said.

Regardless, some Muslim students said the current rules present an inconvenience that warrants more discussion.

"Right now, we have to pray late afterwards or early and it's annoying," said Ramah Kudaimi, a Medill senior. "It's a lot more convenient to have a designated area than having to pray at different times."

...

-more-

Kudos to NW's athletic department for eschewing the easy way out and denying the camel of Dhimmitude an opening in the tent to poke his nose through.

We wonder how their "peers" on the academic side will react to such insensitivity.

And of Ramah Kudaimi we ask: If you're such a devout Muslim, why attend an event where alcohol is served, scantily clad strumpets frolic on the sidelines and a ball made of pigskin is featured?

Didn't Sandy Koufax once postpone a World Series start to observe a Jewish holy day?

He musta been one of those pigs and/or monkeys the Koran speaks so highly of.

Apparently, He Does Mean It

Bush approved raids on Iranians in Iraq

WASHINGTON - An order from President Bush authorized a series of U.S. raids against Iranians in Iraq as part of a broad military offensive, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Friday.

Bush issued the order several months ago, Rice told The New York Times as she prepared to visit the Middle East. She said the president acted "after a period of time in which we saw increasing activity" among Iranians in Iraq "and increasing lethality in what they were producing."

Five Iranians were detained by U.S.-led forces this week after a raid on an Iranian government liaison office in northern Iraq, a move that has frayed even further the relations between the two countries. The United States accuses Iran of helping provide roadside bombs that have killed American troops in Iraq, and a bitter standoff already exists over Tehran's nuclear program.

Rice, according to a story for the Saturday print editions of the Times, described the military effort against Iranians in Iraq as a defensive "force protection mission." Concerns that Iran was trying to further destabilize the country also motivated the raids, she told the newspaper.

"We think they are providing help to the militias as well, and maybe even the more violent element of these militias," she said.

The State Department said Friday that U.S.-led forces entered an Iranian building in Kurdish-controlled Irbil because information linked it to Revolutionary Guards and other Iranian elements engaging in violent activities in Iraq. There was no truth to reports that Iran was carrying out legitimate diplomatic activity at the site, State Department spokesman Tom Casey said.

...

-more-

More, please!

He Can't Be Serious

Obama Forms Committee to Weigh 2008 Presidential Bid (Update3)

By Jay Newton-Small

Jan. 16 (Bloomberg) -- Senator Barack Obama, an Illinois Democrat who rose to prominence with his keynote speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention and has become one of the party's most sought-after speakers, said he's exploring a presidential bid.

``Running for the presidency is a profound decision -- a decision no one should make on the basis of media hype or personal ambition alone -- and so before I committed myself and my family to this race, I wanted to be sure that this was right for us and, more importantly, right for the country.'' Obama said in a statement on his Web site.

Obama, 45, the only black in the U.S. Senate, said he will reveal his decision whether to run Feb. 10 in Illinois. Obama and Senator Hillary Clinton of New York, who hasn't announced her plans, are the favored potential presidential candidates among Democrats in polls of party voters. Clinton spokesman Howard Wolfson declined to comment.

...

-more-

As Marcia Brady once exclaimed: "Boy, what an ego!"

The guy spends eight years in the Illinois state senate, wins a gimme Senate seat -- where he has been thus far unremarkable -- and he's suddenly presidential timber?

On the other hand, he is more qualified than Hillary. At least he didn't rely on an adulterous spouse for his advancement -- though Jack Ryan's alleged voyeuristic tendencies involving his ex-wife, conveniently made public by a California judge, certainly helped.

President Obama?

Puh-leeeze.

Abort This

A crowded womb

A twin leans over and kisses the cheek of her sister in a heart-warming picture that would not be out of place in any family home.

Yet these siblings are a not even born and the astonishing images have been captured on a new 'four-dimensional' ultrasound scan of the womb.

The scans are a highly developed form of traditional ultrasound where very high frequency sound waves are used to produce images of what is inside the body.

As with older forms of ultra-sound, sound waves a emitted from a transducer, or probe, which is placed on the mother's abdomen and then moved to 'look at' areas in the uterus. These sound waves bounce back off the foetus, helping to create a 'picture' of the child on a screen.

...

-more-

About time, if he means it

President's Address to the Nation

...

Succeeding in Iraq also requires defending its territorial integrity – and stabilizing the region in the face of the extremist challenge. This begins with addressing Iran and Syria. These two regimes are allowing terrorists and insurgents to use their territory to move in and out of Iraq. Iran is providing material support for attacks on American troops. We will disrupt the attacks on our forces. We will interrupt the flow of support from Iran and Syria. And we will seek out and destroy the networks providing advanced weaponry and training to our enemies in Iraq.

...

-more-

Hit them both. Brutally and repeatedly.

And support the anti-mullah forces in Iran with money and rhetoric backed by the the good name of the United States of America.

Are We Ready to Kick Jihadist Ass? ...

The Enemy Within be damned?

Wonderful how the president refers to the opposition as "honorable people".

They are not, but he once again proves his class in the face of libel and slander from his lessers.

Let's hope a huge part of the new strategy entails bombing key sites in Iran and Syria.

Get 'em boys.

House Votes to Steal The Money of Others

House Votes to Boost Minimum Wage to $7.25 an Hour

Jan. 10 (Bloomberg) -- The House of Representatives approved raising the U.S. minimum wage by $2.10 an hour as Congress moves toward passing the first federal increase in a decade for the country's lowest-earning workers.

The Democratic-led House voted 315 to 116 today to boost the national minimum wage to $7.25 an hour from $5.15 over about two years. The 41 percent increase, which still must be approved by the Senate, wouldn't affect all workers because at least a half dozen states including California and Massachusetts, have, or are set to have, minimum wages above the proposed federal level.

...

-more-

Our initial headline read "House Dems Vote to Steal The Money of Others" but it seems 75 or so quisling "Republicans" signed on to this legal larceny.

We're so thrilled that the apathetic bimbo who hands us our Double Whopper will be grabbing an extra 2+ dollars per hour to spend on her various piercings.

Drive-thru accuracy will surely improve.

OKC: Did McVeigh and Nichols have help?

...

Note: at the outset of the subcommittee’s investigation, former Oklahoma governor Frank Keating personally requested that the investigation be called off. During his meeting with the subcommittee chairman, Governor Keating mentioned that then-President Bill Clinton had called him only hours after the bombing. According to Keating, President Clinton’s first comment to him after the bombing was “God, I hope there’s no Middle Eastern connection to this.”(Emphasis ours.)

This mindset, described by Governor Keating, may or may not have influenced the original Oklahoma City bombing investigators. There were many reasons to believe that there might have been a foreign connection. There should have been no hesitation to investigate and make that determination, even if it would have required a forceful retaliation.

...


-more-

We're not conspiracy types, but it's always stuck in our craws how quickly the FBI was willing to ditch the possibilty of a "John Doe #2", to say nothing of McVeigh's astonishingly quick execution.

Given the above quote from the boy ex-president, we are more than ever troubled that an "incovenient truth" might have been dismissed for the sake of political expediency.

Had a Middle Eastern connection been established, Clinton would have been compelled to react, perhaps even putting troops on the ground, some of whom would certainly have died, thus cutting into his precious popularity ratings and undercutting his pursuit of a legacy.

Better to blame talk radio.

Such are the perils of electing an insecure teenager to the office of the presidency.

M*A*S*H Marathon on TVLand

TVLand has been showing M*A*S*H for the past few days.

A very funny show at its inception.

A very insipid show not long thereafter.

Note to Alan: The South Koreans are a lot better off than the (former) South Vietnamese.

Cheers to vets of both conflicts and here's hoping we don't pull a 1975 on the Iraqis.

No Mosquito Blood For Oil!

Democrats push for Alaska drilling ban

WASHINGTON - Opponents of oil drilling in an Alaskan wildlife refuge are going on the offense after playing defense for a quarter of a century. They want the new Democratic Congress to make an oft-challenged drilling ban permanent.

Legislation introduced in the House on Friday would make the oil-rich 1.2 million-acre coastal strip of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge a permanently protected wilderness and end repeated efforts to open the area east of the Prudhoe oil field to energy companies.

"The consensus is that there should not be drilling in the refuge, so the logical next step is to pass legislation which turns it into a wilderness," Rep. Edward Markey (news, bio, voting record), D-Mass., chief sponsor of the legislation, said in an interview.

...

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Yes, well, protecting a desolate, barren mosquito haven from the predations of Man is certainly a worthy cause.

Perhaps the majority will sponsor a bill whereby the government subsidizes the harvesting of aborted babies for some sort of silly alternative fuel.

Thus begins the dumbest House ever!

Pelosi and Reid to Bush: Surrender already!

Congressional Leaders Call on President to Reject Flawed Iraq Troop Surge

...

Clearly this address presents you with another opportunity to make a
long overdue course correction. Despite the fact that our troops have been
pushed to the breaking point and, in many cases, have already served
multiple tours in Iraq, news reports suggest that you believe the solution
to the civil war [sic]
in Iraqis to require additional sacrifices from our troops and are
therefore prepared to proceed with a substantial U.S. troop increase.
Surging forces is a strategy that you have already tried and that has
already failed. Like many current and former military leaders, we believe
that trying again would be a serious mistake. They, like us, believe there
is no purely military solution in Iraq. There is only a political solution.
Adding more combat troops will only endanger more Americans and stretch our
military to the breaking point for no strategic gain. And it would
undermine our efforts to get the Iraqis to take responsibility for their
own future. We are well past the point of more troops for Iraq.
In a recent appearance before the Senate Armed Services Committee,
General John Abiz aid, our top commander for Iraq and the region, said the
following when asked about whether he thought more troops would contribute
to our chances for success in Iraq:
"I met with every divisional commander, General Casey, the Corps
commander, General Dempsey. We all talked together. And I said, in your
professional opinion, if we were to bring in more American troops now, does
it add considerably to our ability to achieve success in Iraq? And they all
said no. And the reason is, because we want the Iraqis to do more. It's
easy for the Iraqis to rely upon to us do this work. I believe that more
American forces prevent the Iraqis from doing more, from taking more
responsibility for their own future."
Rather than deploy additional forces to Iraq, we believe the way
forward is to begin the phased redeployment of our forces in the next four
to six months, while shifting the principal mission of our forces there
from combat to training, logistics, force protection and counter-terror. A
renewed diplomatic strategy, both within the region and beyond, is also
required to help the Iraqis agree to a sustainable political settlement. In
short, it is time to begin to move our forces out of Iraq and make the
Iraqi political leadership aware that our commitment is not open ended,
that we cannot resolve their sectarian problems, and that only they can
find the political resolution required to stabilize Iraq.

...

-more-

Check out the glaring typo about a third of the way through.

Nance, your proofreader is stupid enough to get stuck in Iraq!

Anyhow, essentially Nance and Pinky are promulgating the ideas of the generals responsible for the "quagmire" in Iraq as a means of affecting the withdrawal of troops and negotiation with savages.

This press release would more properly be titled "Congressional Leaders Call on President to Surrender".

We are not certain that the "surge" will succeed, specifically because we do not know what these additional troops will be allowed to accomplish.

If they are charged with merely defending the status quo, then yes, it will fail.

But if we free them to do their jobs -- seeking out and killing the terrorists in their strongholds -- then we are four-square behind it.

Unfortunately, it's the Disloyal Opposition, led by Reid and Pelosi, that has made it nigh near impossible for our warriors to do the nasty business that would ultimately defeat the enemy.

Save us Nancy!

Employment Situation Summary

THE EMPLOYMENT SITUATION: DECEMBER 2006

Nonfarm employment increased by 167,000 in December, and the unemployment rate was unchanged at 4.5 percent, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported today. Job gains occurred in several service-providing industries, including professional and business services, health care, and food services.

...

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Please, Madam Speaker, for the good of the children, tax us before we grow again!

The Sun will come up tomorrow ...

... As will taxes, teenage unemployment and the morale of our enemies.

Watch this space.