If you have to deliberate over who the thug is here — the accused Albanians or Montenegro — keep in mind the Albanian track record for violently usurping land, plus note that no one in the world would piss off Albanians if they didn’t have to.

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If president Bush made Condi Rice a secretary of state in the hope that she can tame Foggy Bottom, he over estimated her. She is now as house broken as has predecessor has been. Either that or race is thicker than water. How else can one explain her hand in floating the trial balloon that the US considers opening interests section in Iran that would be 1st diplomatic post in 3 decades in the middle of the election season.

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I’m back in Washington and taking one of my fortifying walks around town. They are preparing for next week’s Fourth of July spectacular: the grass is being cut, steps to the monuments are being swept, vendors are setting up temporary shop, getting ready to dole out five dollar bottles of water and six dollar popsicles. Viva America!

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(First publishe in the Vallejo Times-Herald) 

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Democracy does not mean confidence in citizens, writes Dirk Kurbjuweit. No kidding. The fact that the American system does mandate such confidence has been a major reason for elite European anti-Americanism. Indeed, they support for Barack Obama rests in their hope that he will change that system. As far as the European governing elites go, the Irish ‘no vote” proves them right. They admit that by submitting a 287 page long constitution written in incomprehensible legalese, they have in effect asked Europe’s citizens to write them a blind check. But that, they argue, is as it should be. Citizens cannot and should not be trusted. They should meekly defer to their betters.

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For many Americans on both sides of the political divide, the most nightmarish element of the 2008 election is the winning candidate’s ability to seriously impact the Supreme Court of the United States. Is there a way such an impact could be mitigated? You bet–but it would a take a Constitutional amendment.

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It’s been a while since Arlo Guthrie has made an appearance in these parts — actually, it’s been NEVER — so why not mention him today?

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I don’t know about you, but going to a funeral and meeting someone you haven’t seen in a number of years and saying… “It’s so good to see you..” doesn’t seem quite right to me…does it to you?

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     The ironies of Anne Frank’s tragically brief life didn’t end with her murder in Bergen Belsen.  Her diary was originally adapted into a play by Meyer Levin whose version was rejected by Lillian Hellman and the play’s producers because its emphasis was too Jewish.  Hellman, a communist and anti-Zionist, wanted to universalize Anne, even at the expense of history and authenticity.  The play that was ultimately produced on Broadway was written by Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett who won a Pulitzer Prize for it, but who certainly complied with Hellman’s determination to turn Anne into less of a Jew and more of an “everyman” whose eternal optimism leaves the viewer on a buoyant plane of forgiveness and hope.  There is no final scene showing Anne’s anonymous, diseased corpse strewn into a mass grave in a concentration camp, just the message of an adolescent firl who, despite everything, continues to believe in “the goodness of man.”

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The head of the United Nations nuclear “watchdog” agency—the International Atomic Energy Agency—just said that Iran could make a nuclear weapon in six months to a year.

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Here’s an ad for a carbon-spewing, pollution-spilling, footprint-leaving cruise sponsored by The Nation magazine. Note the opportunity to purchase sucker–er, carbon offset–credits. Strictly optional, says the trip’s sponsors–though if they really cared about the environment and believed global warming was, as Algore put it, less than ten years from permanent, they’d make the purchase mandatory. Say, I have an idea:  Show you really care about global warming (sic) and cancel the trip altogether, but still purchase the offsets! The Nation Cruise is just another example of how the libs have one set of rules to impose on everyone else, and an utterly flexible set for themselves. Guess glo-bull warming isn’t so important that this li’l trip would hurt that much–that’s their attitude….

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Iran could not have a better friend than El Baradei. He secures his credibility by criticizing the Theocratic state for lack of cooperation with the IAEA. Then, argues that as long as Iran has not expelled his IAEA, it cannot enrich the uranium it needs to produce a bomb.

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I only now stumbled upon a Kosovo independence post from February by the liberal Jewish site Jewcy.com. In it, the site does the standard applauding of the mono-ethnic (including Jew-cleansed) “free” gangster state. It was accompanied by this photo:

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It is difficult to find a more neglected story than the relative satisfaction of Palestinian Arabs living in Israel as is revealed from a recent Harvard Study. (Palestinians Arabs (including those living in greater Jerusalem) constitute 20% of the population). Aware of inconvenient polls which reveal that Palestinian living in Israel are vehemently opposed to becoming citizens of Palestine, the researchers did their best to lower the satisfaction number by phrasing the question so as to receive the most negative number. They asked Palestinian Arab if they would rather live in Israel or in any other country in the world.

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While hosting “The Laura Ingraham Show” and my own radio show over the past few days, I have listed a few of President Bush’s jawdropping achievements. Because of popular demand, I list them again here.

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A study released today confirmed what I have always suspected: Bad Boys get the Girls. My day, along with the rest of my life, is officially RUINED! I have as much chance of being a Bad Boy as James Bond ordering milk. In order for me to get babes, I would have to change several things beginning with that I look like the Pillsbury Doughboy. When I walk into a room, women don’t say, “Psst, check out the guy with the dark side…” They giggle, “Set the oven to 425 degrees and hand me the butter!”

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Here’s one reason why I have so much trouble with libs:  Often on matters of empirical evidence, they begin not with the evidence but with what they wish were true. No, I’m not talking about philosophy or matters of opinion. I”m talking about rock-hard fact–in this case, statistics and polling. In this bit of analysis by Markos Moulitsas, the Daily Kos founder pretty much begins with the assumption that his candidate, Sen. Obama, has a big, certain lead. Period. I don’t think anybody looking at politics seriously from either side believes that–but it doesn’t stop Kos from offering up his wishful thinking as critical thinking. Look at serious conservative magazines:  You’ll have to look long and hard to find this kind of lazy approach (if you can find it at all) presented as fact. Sigh.

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“They’re going to try to make you afraid of me. He’s young and inexperienced and he’s got a funny name. And did I mention he’s black?”–Barack Obama

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David Mumford said he would donate his $33,333 portion of the Wolf Prize to a Palestinian university and an Israeli group that tries to ease Israeli travel restrictions on Palestinian students. He said he believes freedom of movement is crucial to intellectual development.

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With the recent and sad passing of the great Sidney Pollack, I was minded that David Zucker would often cite his interactions with Sidney Pollack as a good examples of a comedy “Logic Nazi.”Every project or room ought to have one, comedy or drama.

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My wife’s old Grand Caravan developed an oil leak that was worth more than the vehicle itself to fix, so I broke down and bought her a new car: the Honda Fit (picture from Cardata.com):

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Click here for an essay from Steven Weber, an actor who contributes to the Puffington Host. It is hilarious on dozen levels, but most especially for its holy, self-important language. My favorite line: The movement headed by Obama is becoming an unstoppable juggernaut, fueled not by his leadership alone but by the gathering momentum of those individuals who feel the totality of the movement’s righteousness within them. Is that not the funniest s**t you’ve read all day? And isn’t it the perfect distillation of every liberal thought?

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Sen. Gordon Smith said something at a recent gay-rights forum that was so opaque even opponent Jeff Merkley’s campaign couldn’t take a direct shot at him. Marshaling the semantic precision he reserves for his Iraq war talks, the GOP incumbent said something that was either a defense of polygamy, an equating of gay marriage and polygamy or (the most likely explanation) a somewhat undisciplined free-association on the senator’s part. Merkley’s camp could only ask for a clarification.

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I’d recently posted a blog titled “This Summer, Take a Permanent Vacation“, which read:

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At 7 this evening (in half an hour), Brooke Goldstein, an attorney for Daniel Pipes’ Middle East Forum, and co-producer of the film “The Making of a Martyr,” will be interviewed on the John Batchelor show (AM 770 in New York City).

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Gnjilane, May 31 2008 (Beta) - Brothers Miomir (24) and Milos (25) Stojanovic from Gnjilane have been arrested on a regional road Gnilane-Bujanovac because they wore T-shirts with the words “Kosovo is Serbia,” says today an official from the Ministry of Kosovo and Metohia, Milorad Todorovic.

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Just a folow-up on this blog post, which mentioned that a Kosovo film crew would be coming to Pittsburgh to take some lessons on a successful litter-removal program that has come to the State Department’s attention as it sweats for its demon child in the Balkans:

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“Meet the Excess”: NBC News Washington bureau chief and “Meet the Press” host Tim Russert died Friday at the too-young age of 58. I knew him only as the master of the chat-show interview — tough, knowledgeable, evenhanded — and a joyful analyst of American politics. What we’ve all learned since is that there was so much more to Tim Russert than Tim Russert, public man. His life as a father, son, husband and man of faith. His acts of goodness and grace over a lifetime. His kindness to friends and strangers.

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Today I write from the base of the Washington Monument. The ring of American flags embraces, the soaring height of the monument symbolic of the General’s physical and historic stature.

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The former Slovenian leader who led the country to independence in 1991 says the international community was wrong in recognising Kosovo’s secession.

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AP Headline:  Ahmadinejad says West failed in Iran nuclear crisis. Yeah, I’d say that’s about right. Thanks, libs! We’re on our way to getting a nuke-tipped crazy-state in the heart of the Middle East! Thanks for a safer world! You guys are the BEST!!! (Oh–and maybe President Bush might have stepped up on this, too. It’s not like taking care of this problem was going to make him LESS popular.)

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Maybe it’s just me, but when I read a story in the NY Post today about John Hinckley, president Ronald Reagan’s would-be assassin, I thought about the Supreme Court’s recent decision granting Constitutional rights to enemy combatants. I also thought about what could happen if Osama Bin Laden were captured alive.

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Prishtina, 15 June 2008 — The Prime Minister of the Republic of Kosovo, Mr Hashim Thaçi, today gave a lunch at his house in Burojë for a delegation from the American House of Representatives, led by Congressman Eliot Engel.

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