The Wisdom of Tom Barnard...

"There is no poverty in America."

-KQRS Morning Show Host Tom Barnard

Ann Coulter's Wisdom of the Day...

"It's always good to remind voters that Democrats are the party of abortion, sodomy and atheism, and nothing presents an opportunity to do so like a Supreme Court nomination."
-Ann Coulter

John Roberts...

Who knows? That seems to be the prevailing thought on President Bush's nominee to replace retiring judge Sandra Day O'Connor on the Supreme Court. This pick seems to have been driven by the President needing a quick confirmation. Mr. Roberts has only two years experience on the federal bench, which of course means he has very few cases in which Democrats can point to and say "See, look at this, he's a right wing nut job." This was a wise pick by President Bush for this very reason. Not many major case decisions virtually ensures his confirmation to the highest court in the land. That's what it's come to now though. The climate in Washington is so partisan that Mr. Bush can't even nominate a qualified candidate (not that Mr. Roberts is unqualified by any means, he is by all accounts more than capable,) that may have more experience for fear of a long drawn out confirmation hearing (In all fairness though, Mr. Bush is the number one reason things in Washington are as partisan as they are). From what I've read, there were many more experienced choices for the President to choose, but he chose Judge Roberts due to his limited case history.

It's interesting that within hours after Bush picked Roberts as his choice, I was indudated with e-mails telling me how horrible this pick was for the country. MoveOn.ORG and others tell me Mr. Roberts is a (gasp) conservative. Really? I assumed Bush was going to nominate Dr. Howard Dean. Give me a break people. Like it or not, when Bush won the election we all knew that he was going to be nominating at least one, maybe two, justices. Before we all go forward and act like we know what we're talking about and flame Mr. Roberts, let's let some facts on his judicial record come forward. Also, let's not forget that while Bill Clinton was President his nominees were both approved, (both liberals, Ginsberg and Breyer) and they were granted a fair and respectful hearing.

Karl Rove...

Once in a while I come across a piece that I wish I could of or would of written. The following is one such piece found on Keith Olbermann's blog at MSNBC. It deals with Karl Rove's leak to Time magazine. It's quite possibly the best blog post I've seen this year if not ever. Re-printed without any permission whatsoever.

• July 11, 2005 | 11:39 a.m. ET

Karl Rove: Soft on terror (Keith Olbermann)

SECURED UNDISCLOSED LOCATION -- Karl Rove is a liability in the war on terror.

Rove -- Newsweek’s new article quotes the very emails -- told a Time reporter that Ambassador Joe Wilson’s trip to investigate of the Niger uranium claim was at the behest of Wilson’s CIA wife.

To paraphrase Mr. Rove, liberals saw the savagery of the 9/11 attacks and wanted to prepare indictments and offer therapy and understanding for our attackers; conservatives saw the savagery of 9/11 and the attacks and prepared to ruin the career of one of the country’s spies tracking terrorist efforts to gain weapons of mass destruction -- for political gain.

Politics first, counter-terrorism second -- it’s as simple as that.

In his ‘story guidance’ to Matthew Cooper of Time, Rove did more damage to your safety than the most thumb-sucking liberal or guard at Abu Ghraib. He destroyed an intelligence asset like Valerie Plame merely to deflect criticism of a politician. We have all the damned politicians, of every stripe, that we need. The best of them isn’t worth half a Valerie Plame. And if the particular politician for whom Rove was deflecting, President Bush, is more than just all hat and no cattle on terrorism, he needs to banish Rove -- and loudly.

Because it’s starting again. I was in the checkout line in a supermarket last night when one of New York’s countless little old ladies barked out something at the cashier: “Miss? Who does this bag belong to?” Uncomprehending, the checkout woman blinked at her. The older woman pointed at a gym bag that had been left near the store’s entrance, on a ledge below the delicatessen cabinet. Gefilta fish is an unlikely terrorist target to say the least, but the woman was absolutely right. “We’re supposed to report unattended bags. There could be a bomb in there.”

Silly, right? As silly as it would’ve been before last Thursday in London if somebody on the Underground had said to a fellow passenger, “There’s a bag of something here that doesn’t seem to belong to anybody.”

You may not have lived through a Time of the Bags in your hometown, but I did, and I don’t want to go through it again. In the jittery New York of October, 2001, I once came within seconds of getting Yankee Stadium evacuated, because there it was, resting against the railing of the visitors’ dugout: a small backpack surrounded by hundreds of reporters who were all carrying their own backpacks. I asked several of my colleagues about it - none saw it placed there nor knew to whom it belonged. I called out loudly; nobody responded. The two or three other reporters with whom I’d been chatting suddenly announced I was in charge.

Gee, thanks.

I did the calculations: the Stadium was filling up. There were hundreds on the field, thousands already in the stands. The bag had a Super Bowl logo on the side - if designed to fit in with the environment, it was ideal. As my colleagues’ faces got whiter and whiter, I said I’d give it 30 seconds and one more shout. I saw a policeman about 20 feet to my left. The process wouldn’t take long. I gave one final shout seeking the identity of the owner. A goateed ESPN guy ambled over. “I’m pretty sure that’s, what’s his name, he’s down the other side of the dugout.”

We didn’t call the cop. We called What’s His Name. He was from the Bay Area and though an otherwise intelligent man, he simply hadn’t yet had to consider exactly what was meant by the phrase “unattended bag.” He sheepishly reclaimed it.

Not an hour later, I was finishing up dinner with one of my colleagues who had shared my Near Bag Experience. He had a press seat way out in leftfield and didn’t want to take his bag with him. So he promptly stuffed it under a desk in the Yankee Stadium press room. He’s a friend, and I swore at him as you can only swear at a friend. He took the bag with him.

We’re back in those times, thanks to the London attacks. Needless to say, the 2001 bag at Yankee Stadium was no more threatening than the 2005 bag at the Associated Supermarket. But if we’re going to have to live our lives looking for them, I damn well don’t want political morons in positions where they can deliberately screw up counter-terrorism measures. I know we already have to live with the idea that they’ll do it accidentally.

Any time I’ve criticized the current administration here or on the air, I’ve gotten the same idiotic emails from the same idiotic people who’ve never been touched by terrorism. They brand me a liberal who doesn’t understand that terrorists want the next unattended bag to be filled with WMD. Their position is incredible on its face; in the light of the confirmation of the Karl Rove revelation it would assume the quality of farce, were it not so deadly serious.

And the bottom line is this: in the metaphoric department of the war on terror, Karl Rove not only leaves bags unattended - he does it intentionally.

E-mail: KOlbermann@msnbc.com

"Bias"...

A couple of years back, CBS insider Bernard Goldberg came out with his supposedly scathing indictment of how the "liberal" media in this country operates with his book entitled "Bias". The fact that he worked at CBS news for many years made people stand up and take notice at the claims he was making. Mr. Goldberg is back with a new book, "100 People Who Are Screwing Up America" and this time the only "Bias" that comes across is the bias Mr. Goldberg seems to harbor for Democrats, liberals and celebrities. With this new book, Bernie Goldberg finally lets everyone know where his allegiance lies and it's most definitely along the conservative, republican side of the aisle. For the sake of the reader of this blog, here's the list:

1 Michael Moore
2 Arthur Sulzberger
3 Ted Kennedy
4 Jesse Jackson
5 Anthony Romero
6 Jimmy Carter
7 Margaret Marshall
8 Paul Krugman
9 Jonathan Kozol
10 Ralph Neas
11 Noam Chomsky
12 Dan Rather
13 Andrew Heyward
14 Mary Mapes
15 Ted Rall
16 John Edwards
17 Al Sharpton
18 Al Gore
19 George Soros
20 Howard Dean
21 Judge Roy Moore
22 Michael Newdow
23 The Unknown American Terrorist
24 Lee Bollinger
25 James Kopp
26 Dr. Martin Haskell
27 Paul Begala
28 Julian Bond
29 John Green
30 Latrell Sprewell
31 Maury Povich
32 Jerry Springer
33 Bob Shrum
34 Bill Moyers
35 Jeff Danziger
36 Nancy Hopkins
37 Al Franken
38 Jim McDermott
39 Peter Singer
40 Scott Harshbarger
41 Susan Beresford
42 Gloria Steinem
43 Paul Eibeler
44 Dennis Kozlowski
45 Ken Lay
46 Barbara Walters
47 Maxine Waters
48 Robert Byrd
49 Ingrid Newkirk
50 John Vasconellos
51 Ann Pelo
52 Markos Moulitsas
53 Anna Nicole Smith
54 Neal Shapiro
55 David Westin
56 Diane Sawyer
57 Ted Field
58 Eminem
59 Shirley Franklin
60 Ludacris
61 Michael Savage
62 Howard Stern
63 Amy Richards
64 James Wolcott
65 Oliver Stone
66 David Duke
67 Randall Robinson
68 Katherine Hanson
69 Matt Kunitz
70 Jimmy Swaggart
71 Phil Donahue
72 Ward Churchill
73 Barbara Kingsolver
74 Katha Politt
75 Eric Foner
76 Barbara Foley
77 Linda Hirshman
78 Norman Mailer
79 Harry Belafonte
80 Kitty Kelley
81 Tim Robbins
82 Laurie David
83 The Dumb and Vicious Celebrity
84 The Vicious Celebrity
85 The Dumb Celebrity
86 Chris Ofili
87 Sheldon Hackney
88 Aaron McGruder
89 Jane Smiley
90 Michael Jackson
91 Barbara Streisand
92 Kerri Dunn
93 Richard Timmons
94 Guy Velella
95 Courtney Love
96 Eve Ensler
97 Todd Goldman
98 Sheila Jackson Lee
99 Matthew Lesko
100 Rick and Kathy Hilton

Wow! So an editorial cartoonist (Ted Rall), is screwing up America more than Tom Delay, Ann Coulter, Rush Limbaugh, James Dobson, Sean Hannity etc... C'mon Bernie, we can see right through you you're so transparent. Now, I don't disagree with Bernie on some of these names. Many probably belong there, but my god the lack of politicians and talking heads from the conservative side of the aisle is astonishing! Don't tell me that Jimmy Carter is screwing up America more than a Rush Limbaugh or Ann Coulter. I don't buy that.