President Bush's Nominee for Federal Reserve chairman

President has chosen Ben Bernanke as nominee for chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, replacing Greenspan. Bernanke is chairman of the President's Council of Economic Advisers and has been widely acknowledged as an expert in this field. I can't wait for conservatives to start whining about the President choosing a crony for this position. I mean, that is the next logical step for people who wish to be losers. I know it won't take long. Maybe George Will or Bill Kristol will be first.

Wilma Finally Got Here, and Boy Was She Serious

Hurricane Wilma finally got here and she kicked South Florida, both east and west coasts, like a soccer ball. I'm in north central Florida and all we got was a lot of rain and wind, but nothing serious. More like an extended August thunder storm. But our friends in the south look like they're hurting, and Florida Cracker tells of some of the damage to her and her friends. Good luck, folks, with the rebuilding and getting on with your lives.

Religion of Peace, My Ass!

According to Michelle Malkin's website, many whiny advocates of the "Religion of Peace" are protesting and threatening. Not really unusual I know. According to her, a "Danish newspaper and its cartoonists are being threatened by Muslim extremists for publishing cartoons about the prophet Muhammad deemed offensive."

You see, true believers of this "Religion of Peace" will kill you if you offend their religion in any fashion. These offenses can just include a likeness of Muhammad, much less than stating that some believe it was founded in the dark ages by a warrior, murderer and child rapist (at the risk of being really offensive). Think about it, folks, what would be the world wide reaction if Christians had threatened to destroy an art gallery for displaying "Piss Christ" or the Mary portrait in dung or wrote about killing Jews just because the gallery director was Jewish. There would have been a thundering sound in the media that would make a hurricane sound small.

Well, you know what actually did happen. Many complaints were made, but no violence occurred or even was threatened. Even so, the MSM laughed at the Christians silly objections and further mocked their religious convictions. So you know what will happen now? Nothing. The MSM will virtually ignore this, even though this would be a freedom of speech issue here in the USA. Christians are objects of ridicule by the MSM here and in the 'civilized' world. Mocking Christian beliefs is not dangerous to MSM lives or property, but instead gets them in good with the "really cool crowd" just like in high school. But also because the MSM are bigots and gutless.

You see, the MSM expects the adherents of the "Religion of Peace" to be barbaric and backwards. You talk about the soft bigotry of low expectations! And the MSM is gutless because they know Christians won't cut off their heads, but know that Muslims will and have.

But of course I'm sure the many civilized believers in the "Religion of Peace" will come forward decrying their fellow believers threats. Right?

Whiny Conservatives - A Re-Post - From BEFORE the Miers Nomination

I posted the foll0wing on 9/16/05, well before President nominated Ms. Miers for the Supreme Court. Not only has the situation NOT IMPROVED, it's gotten worse...and more maddening. As I recently commented to antimedia at Media Lies: "I can't help feeling as if I'm witnessing a circular firing squad by conservatives. It has been strange to watch how quickly and thoroughly so many commentators have abandoned the President. There will be many regrets in the future, I fear."

Although this screed occurred after Hurricane Katrina, when conservatives were sounding and acting like losers, it's become even worse. I mean, even then, many were complaining about Chief Justice Roberts nomination and how it wasn't a lock that he would be a conservative on the bench. Now there's non-stop bitching about the Miers pick. There is a point when sounding like a loser becomes a factual condition. You don't win at any game when you brawl with your teammates and especially the team captain. Anyway, here's that original post.

Conservatives Are Becoming a Whiny Bunch...and Sounding Like Losers (9/16/05)

I've noticed and grown completely tired of the whining of my fellow conservatives when it comes to most things President has recently done or hasn't done. Too many of my favorite bloggers and conservative commentators have been, individually and as a group, participating in a whine-fest since Hurricane Katrina. We don't need liberals, leftists or Democrats (yeah, I'm being redundant); we are our own enemies. Yes, I know "we" say we're being fair and that therefore we're better than liberals, et al, because we criticize our own. But I don't think "we" are being fair. We are far along on the road to becoming losers.

Christ, suck it up guys! There's a vital struggle for America's future going on.

This is not a classroom debate or parlor game. While you're second-guessing the decisions and parsing every statement and examining the minutiae, how about doing it in an evenhanded and supportive way? That would still make us so much better...and more honest...than liberals.

Hooray for Tom Delay!

Texas may have a few pissants like Ronnie Earle and whathisname who peddled phony documents to Rather. But by God Texas also produced men like Tom Delay! It's obvious he's been framed by a partisan prick with police powers, but Delay took it like a man, then came back firing. What we need is a real showdown, mano y mano, to settle this. I know who I would bet on.

As If Hurricanes Aren't Bad Enough-Beware Florida Drivers

According the Orlando TV station Channel 6 linked story, Florida is a very dangerous place...to be a pedestrian.

"A 93-year-old driver apparently suffering from dementia fatally struck a pedestrian, then continued driving through a toll booth with the man's body on his windshield, police said.
Ralph Parker of Pinellas Park drove for 3 miles Wednesday night after striking the 52-year-old pedestrian with his gold 2002 Chevrolet Malibu, severing the man's right leg, police said. "

So never mind the hurricanes. When you come to Florida, be on alert for our old fart drivers. We got a million of them!

Wilma!! Whatcha Waitin' On, Wilma?

Another very slow hurricane can't make up it's mind yet. Yeah, all the experts are predicting a Florida hit, but the timeline keeps being set back further. So maybe by Monday we will feel the effects. And if the experts are correct (sometimes this is doubtful, especially with hurricanes) South Florida will get kicked again. No one looks forward to this, but we in Florida are prepared.

Here in North Central Florida, all the emergency and governmental agencies, local and state, are ready and have been for the past two days. As Tom Petty sings, the waiting is the hardest part.

The Gainesville Sun - Another Liberal Florida Newspaper

From the heart of Florida liberalism...the home town of the University of Florida...there is a liberal rag called the Gainesville Sun. So of course, its newsmen are of the best and brightest variety. This was obvious from a recent editorial excerpted by Best of the Web (WSJ OpinionJournal):"Another example of anthropomorphizing nature appears in a Gainesville (Fla.) Sun editorial:
Our earth and its atmosphere seem to be reacting to something that doesn't agree with it.
The ground is fidgeting with earthquakes, and the atmosphere is flailing and thrashing with hurricanes and tornadoes.
Could it be a result of global warming that has been warned of so often, an idea resisted by many?"

WSJ then asks: "Anyone care to explain how "global warming" is supposed to cause earthquakes?"

I mean this is really priceless. Only a committed believer could write such crap, but it's written as if by some sophomore...in high school that is. To be fair, this editorial is entitled "Science may hold answers to year's litany of disasters" and all it does is list several disasters and plaintively conclude: "This country sent a man to the moon, so a way probably will be found to live in a warmer climate. In the meantime, scientists need to explain how it is happening and how this is different from all the previous changes on this earth, such as the warming that changed the Ice Age 10,000 years ago."

Now, I believe there is "global warming" occurring. But let's see, there have been numerous such cycles since the earth cooled. Besides, when there are volcanoes spewing incredible volumes of gases and particles and the sun is in a dazzling warming mode, just how will feeble man fix this? Oh, yeah, by impoverishing himself so he won't be able to use technology to defeat the effects of global warming. Yeah, that's the right and smart move...that might be supported by at least one liberal newspaper here in Florida.

Hurricane Wilma? You Gotta Be Kidding!

So, okay, we in Florida were just minding our business, when...Hurricane Wilma is deciding whether to come and stay awhile. Now that just doesn't quite seem fair. The forecast is to hit South Fla again, so hang on guys! The state has been hit several times over the past 2 seasons, so I guess we can handle another. Thankfully we still have a competent Governor, Jeb Bush, a competent legislature (more Republicans than Democrats) and a population that understands that we can take responsibility for our own. (Well, at least 51% of us can. The rest live off the public teat.)

So, once again I ask: so you want to move to Florida, huh?

Okay, maybe another post on Miers

I was going to shut up about this until the hearings, but the ratcheting up of this issue among so many conservatives I respect really annoys and disturbs me. There is a great article a (above link) in the WSJ about President Bush's choice of Harriet Miers.

Melanie Kirkpatrick says many things I believe, so of course I think she's very smart. But she really is on target with the following excerpt.
"Many of my friends on the right have signed up for the conservative revolt against Harriet Miers. Count me out--at least for now.

I don't know enough about President Bush's most recent nominee for the Supreme Court to stand up and shout, "Hooray for Harriet." Her judicial philosophy remains a mystery and the White House's attempts to explain who she is have been ineffective, to say the least.

But I do know enough about Mr. Bush's judicial appointments over the past five years to give three cheers for his record on picking judges. Almost to a man and a woman, they are judicial conservatives who are already shifting the ideological balance of the federal judiciary to the right. Conservatives who have rushed to bash Mr. Bush for his selection of Ms. Miers should brew themselves a cup of chamomile tea and go back and review the roster of Bush judges. They'll sleep better, though it's probably too much to hope that they'll wake up with a more open-minded perspective on Ms. Miers."

I swear the clucking among some "intellectual" conservatives has gotten to be much too much. There is no reasoning to it anymore. The Dems are laughing for now, because most of their "job" has been done for them. Instead of waiting to see if President Bush is truthful, they began whining immediately. God, they sound so much like the Move-On crowd when Hillary isn't liberal enough. Not attractive...and not smart.

UPDATE (10/21/05)

Again, must see Media Lies for some heartfelt comments from someone else who is astonished about the uproar in the conservative blogosphere. His last two sentences especially strike home:
"A lot of people are complaining that the President has abandoned them. I can't help but think he's feeling the same way right now."

More on Miers and Conservatives

I've read and responded to a post on Media Lies, where antimedia really lays out what I also believe. At the risk of acting like a troll, I want to repeat my comments here.

Conservatives and Republicans shouldn't be kool-aid drinkers like the libs and Democrats were about Clinton. However, the rapid decline in the level of discourse among conservatives has been so wrong. We must change this before we hand the libs another victory. Frankly, I thought President Bush would nominate an acknowledged conservative/strict constructionist. Certainly one that I'd heard of from reading so many clued in conservative commentators. Well, I don't know that he didn't nominate a very good candidate. So I'm more than willing to await the senatorial inquisition that is such an atrocious, yet probably permanent, part of advise and consent.

UPDATE (10/14/05)

Mullings (Rich Galen) also had a thoughtful take (usual for him) on his site in a post dated 10/5/05.

President Bush's Second Supreme Court Nomination

It's been a few days and there are some things I'm sure of.
1) President Bush is at least as smart as most conservatives who have been bashing his choice of Ms. Miers.
2) President Bush knows Ms. Miers on a personal level, as well as professional level.
3) President Bush promised to consider candidates in the mold of Scalia and Thomas.
4) President Bush is not a liar.
5) Many conservatives whom I respect really, really think they know what's best and could have easily picked a better candidate. Many of these same conservatives were against Chief Justice Roberts.
6) Many conservatives whom I respect really, really think President should have consulted them or at least read their opinion pieces.
7) None of these conservatives whom I respect are responsible for running this nation.
8) Considering the above, I trust President Bush and will await the confirmation hearings. I've disagreed with his decisions in many other areas (immigration, McCain-Feingold, education, compassionate conservatism, not vetoing spending bill, among others), but when it comes to the war on Islamic terrorism, Israel, social security, court judges (among others), I do trust him to do the right thing.

UPDATE (10/09/05)
Thanks to antimedia at Media Lies coherent thoughts on this topic, I found my way to Beldar. A great excerpt:
"Look, folks, Dubya didn't pick who you all clamored for him to pick. That's not because Dubya hates you; he wasn't flipping you off. And he absolutely, positively knows how important this stuff is; it was no accident, nor insincere, when he talked about judges in almost every campaign speech in 2004. But he recognizes that the duty of making this pick is ultimately his. And he sincerely believes that he, personally, has a more solid basis for making an informed prediction about what kind of Justice this woman will become than he, personally, has for making predictions about anyone else, including any of the ones y'all were clamoring for — some of whom he might return to next time, if there is a next time, but none of whom he knows now like he does Harriet Miers. "

Another Supreme Court Nominee

Okay, we have another Supreme Court Nominee...and too many of my fellow conservatives are whining. Geez, how about we wait and see. I've had my differences with President Bush, but he promised that his nominees would be in the mold of Scalia and Thomas. Could we just see how this plays before we start crying foul. Christ, folks, our President is a man of his word. Yet too many conservatives think we're Charlie Brown and this president will pull the football away from us at the last moment.

UPDATE (10/6/05)

Antimedia seems to think along similar lines.

That's Right, In FLORIDA We are "Locked and Loaded"

FLORIDA: LOCKED AND LOADED. That's the title of Michelle Malkin's above linked post.

She excerpts the following comments: The Brady organization is out-and-out lying about the new Florida law. First of all, the law addresses use of deadly force in the home not in the streets. The statute allows citizens to use physical deadly force against a person who enters their premises and is a threat to their safety. If a person within a residence feels an intruder will kill or cause serious injury to him or her, or that the intruder will kill or cause serious injury to someone else in that dwelling, that person may use deadly physical force against the intruder to stop the attack.

Come to Florida. But come in peace. We know how to deal with scum who threaten us in our homes.

UPDATE (10/03/05)

Fellow Floridian Doug Giles is on the case. His column in Townhall.com addresses this issue perfectly.

Able Danger and the DOD

Well, "Col. Tony Shaffer has had his security clearances revoked by the DoD" according to this linked post from Captain's Quarters. Something really smells here. Someone needs to be fired. And as much as I support Rumsfeld, he should be canned if he is involved in this decision.

Stupid, stupid, stupid bureaucrats!

And I say this as a fellow bureaucrat.