Power Sweepers

David Stout, New York Times reportatorialist, rues Supreme Court decisions aiding and abetting the

Bush administration’s drive, at least for now, for sweeping executive powers in the post-9/11 world

Those sweeping powers?

...In one case, the court refused to stop the administration from bypassing environmental reviews in building a security fence along the border between the United States and Mexico. In the other, it agreed to hear the administration’s appeal of a lower court decision that, on environmental grounds, restricted the Navy’s use of powerful sonar off the Southern California coast.

Stout has the sweeping powers schtick bass ackwards. The only powers running amok here are those using environmental lawsuits to carry out a sweeping range of the leftist agenda - such as preventing the Navy to search for enemy submarines and preventing the border patrol from stopping illegal alliens.

Crossposted at UNCoRRELATED

It was either clean the garage or go hiking

Baer Canyon Trail overlooking the Great Salt Lake.

It Takes a Village

Whether you like it or not:

A Gatineau judge's bizarre attempt to undermine a father's authority sends a frightening message to all parents: When it comes to raising children, the state knows best.

Madam Justice Suzanne Tessier of the Quebec Superior Court sided with a 12-year-old girl who challenged, in court, her father's decision to ground her.

Doesn't seem like real Canadian courts are better than their "kangaroo" wanna-be's.

Crossposted at Uncorrelated

Time for a Texas CPS raid

From another compound:

As summer vacation begins, 17 girls at Gloucester High School are expecting babies...

...All it took was a few simple questions before nearly half the expecting students, none older than 16, confessed to making a pact to get pregnant and raise their babies together.

Originally posted in UNCoRRELATED 20 Jun, 2008

The Chicago Way

Want to become a state senator the easy way? Hire a bunch of lawyers to disqualify your opponents' petitions to put their names on the ballot - including the incumbent. Barack Obama, the great community organizer who helped register 100,000 new voters, ensured he ran unopposed in 1996 - that's something Mugabe has failed to do so far. Amazingly, this is a CNN story:



via Flying Debris

Originally posted in UNCoRRELATED 18 Jun, 2008

It's the Economically Stupid

The 1992 campaign gave us "It's the economy stupid". In 2008 it's the economically stupid.

Senator McCain wants to punish oil speculators. On the other hand he also wants to bail out other speculators.

Senator Obama wants to tax "windfall" oil profits. If that's good for oil, shouldn't it be good for any commodity?

Suffice it to say I won't be watching any presidential debates centered on the economy.

Originally posted in UNCoRRELATED 17 Jun, 2008

McCain should have been shot down over Illinois

After following an Instapundit link to gawk at McCain's household credit card debt, I stuck around to compare pension plans:

In addition to his Senate salary, McCain received an annual pension from the U.S. Navy that is worth more than $58,000.

...Obama reported between $50,001 and $100,000 in pensions from his work as an Illinois state legislator

So 20 years in the military, including six as a POW in North Vietnam, gets you $58,000.

But seven and a half years suffering in the Illinois legislature gets you somewhere between $50,000 and $100,000. Maybe that will make up for those missed dinners with the wife.

Originally posted in UNCoRRELATED 13 Jun, 2008

“This makes it very difficult for the rest of us to do our jobs”

Newsweek columist Eric Alter has his knickers in a bunch after blogger Mayhill Fowler scooped the legacy media on Obama's thoughts of gun-totin', God fearin' country bumpkins and Bill Clinton's opinion of Vanity Fair writers.

"If you don’t have trust, you don’t get good stories. If someone comes along and uses deception to shatter that trust, she has hurt the very cause of a free flow of public information.”

Ironically Fowler gets two pretty "good stories" that Alter implies he would have spiked. I guess "a free flow of public information" means different things between Alter and me. Seems he uses the word "trust" to mean Obama and Clinton should be able to trust a reporter not to report their candid but negative sides (think Alter would consider this rule for President Bush? - yeah right.)

Alter espouses the Eason Jordan style of journalism. Ensure constant access with your subject by only reporting favorable stories. Alter fools himself, however, if he seriously thinks this leads to a "free flow of public information."

Originally posted in UNCoRRELATED 11 Jun, 2008

Priorities

Three times a year, Air Force major commanders meet to coordinate priorities. Defense Secretary Gates, however, set the priority at yesterday’s Corona gathering by firing both the Secretary of the Air Force and the Air Force Chief of Staff. Gates stated his actions were “based entirely” on a report critical of the Air Force’s handling of nuclear weapons.

Juxtapose the above story with this one and I can understand Secretary Gates anger:

E-mails reproduced in the report showed that Hornburg’s successor at ACC, now-retired Gen. Ronald E. Keys, told Moseley that ACC could not spare $50 million for a video show at a time when, due to budget contraints, it could only fund 75 percent of its base operating support needs. Keys wrote, "I cannot support burning that kind of money to fix something that isn’t broken when I am not buying fixes to things that are broken." Keys noted that the $50 million could fund many important projects.

ACC – or Air Combat Command – is the command responsible for nuclear bombers.

Originally posted in UNCoRRELATED 6 Jun, 2008