Send a trackback to this post, but don’t forget to link it. (PS: the graphic goes to a joke that John McCain looks like the character Saul Tye in Battlestar Galactica)

Surrendie is thrilled today of the neurotic Sybil like articles available in the NY Times. First, he wants you to read this

The individual right to bear arms identified by the Supreme Court on Thursday will have little practical impact in most of the country, legal experts said, though Washington’s comprehensive ban on handguns used for self-defense in the home will have to be revised, and similar laws in several cities are also vulnerable.

So, the Heller decision is just a big yawn, no big deal, let’s move on, people!

For the law to be just, it must temper society’s anger over even the most horrible acts withdecency and restraint. The Supreme Court exemplified that principle on Wednesday, striking down the death penalty for the rape of a child. While acknowledging the horror of the crime, Justice Anthony Kennedy’s majority opinion drew on widely shared standards of decency, constitutional law and real-world impact to explain why the Constitution forbids punishing it withdeath.

The 5-to-4 ruling also laid down a critical standard: in cases of crimes against individuals (which excludes treason and espionage) the death penalty can be applied only when the victim’s life is taken. That rule should deter efforts to extend the use of capital punishment.

Refusing to allow people who violently sexually assault children without causing their deaths is a HUGE deal, though, and all must bow in the presenceof such wisdom, and don’t you damned neo-cons even THINK of trying to extend the death penalty to anyone else. Like abortion, this Right must never be touched and all people aspiring to the federal bench must follow this incredible precedent!

Of course, in another editorial, the Times is freaking out about the Heller ruling as being the future cause of un-countless gun related deaths. That they might be deaths of criminals shot by their attempted victims seems never to have crossed the Times’ neurotic mind

In his dissent, Justice John Paul Stevens was right when he said that the court has now established “a new constitutional right” that creates a “dramatic upheaval in the law.”

“Dramatic upheaval.” “New Constitutional Right.” It’s like the 2nd Amendment was just written yesterday. Goodness! Meanwhile, the 4th Amendment does not actually specify that it is only capital crimes, ie, ones that cause death, as the term “infamous crimes,” is included. In fact, it says that people shall not be deprived of their lives in these types of cases without due process, and I think brutally sexually assaulting an 8 year old, who will carry the mental and physical scars for the rest of her life, as “infamous.” Hell, back in the days of the Founders, said assailant would probably not have made it to a jury trial.

Trackposted to Outside the Beltway, Perri Nelson’s Website, Rosemary’s Thoughts, Allie is Wired, The World According to Carl, The Pink Flamingo, Cao’s Blog, Democrat=Socialist, Right Voices, and Gone Hollywood, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.

Sound advice from the Times Online: Cheer up. We’re winning this War on Terror

Al-Qaeda and the Taleban are in retreat, the surge has worked in Iraq and Islamism is discredited. Not a bad haul.

“My centre is giving way. My right is in retreat. Situation excellent. I shall attack!”

If only our political leaders and opinion-formers displayed even a hint of the defiant resilience that carried Marshal Foch to victory at the Battle of the Marne. But these days timorous defeatism is on the march. In Britain setbacks in the Afghan war are greeted as harbingers of inevitable defeat. In America, large swaths of the political class continues to insist Iraq is a lost cause. The consensus in much of the West is that the War on Terror is unwinnable.

And yet the evidence is now overwhelming that on all fronts, despite inevitable losses from time to time, it is we who are advancing and the enemy who is in retreat. The current mood on both sides of the Atlantic, in fact, represents a kind of curious inversion of the great French soldier’s dictum: “Success against the Taleban. Enemy giving way in Iraq. Al-Qaeda on the run. Situation dire. Let’s retreat!”

The writer, Gerard Baker, is kinda missing the point, though. Those on the Left feed on the doom and gloom like some sort of psychic vampire from a B horror movie, which is shown by many of the freakout comments left with the article.

The “surge”, despite all the doubts and derision at the time, has been a triumph of US military planning and execution. Political progress was slower in coming but is now evident too. The Iraqi leadership has shown great courage and dispatch in extirpating extremists and a growing willingness even to turn on Shia militias. Basra is more peaceful and safer than it has been since before the British moved in. Despite setbacks such as yesterday’s bombings, the streets of Iraq’s cities are calmer and safer than they have been in years. Seventy companies have bid for oil contracts from the Iraqi Government. There are signs of a real political reconciliation that may reach fruition in the election later this year.

Hmmmm. Which candidate was pushing for The Surge well before it was announced, and which one prefers to retreat in the face of advancements?

Back on June 12th, after I caught the supposed birth certificate of Barack Obama’sat the Kos Kidz Konglomerate, I wondered whether it was faked. Things went back and forth around the port and starboard sides of the Interwebzosphere.

But, now, israelinsiderhas pretty much definitive proof the it is a load of bilge water.

The image became increasingly suspect with Israel Insider’s revelation that variations of the certificate image were posted on the Photobucket image aggregation website– including one listing the location of Obama’s birth as Antarctica, one with the certificate supposedly issued by the government of North Korea, and another including a purported photo of baby Barack — one of which has a “photo taken” time-stamp just two minutes before the article and accompanying image was postedon the left-wing Daily Kos blog. (for purposes of clarification, of of those at the first link is mine, done after the posting by Kos)

An authentic Hawaiian birth certificate for another Hawaiian individual has since surfaced which, using the same official form as the presumptive Obama certificate, includes an embossed official seal and an authoritative signature, coming through from the back. Obama’s alleged certificate lacks those features, and the certificate number referencing the birth year has been blacked out, making it untraceable.

Read the whole thing. I’d write more, but, damned beat from 18 holes in 96 degree weather.

Stop The ACLU through American Thinker

Funnily! It reminds me of a 3 Stooges episode

As the Mile High City gears up to host a Democratic bash for 50,000, organizers are discovering the perils of trying to stage a political spectacle that’s also politically correct.

Consider the fanny packs.

he host committee for the Democratic National Convention wanted 15,000 fanny packs for volunteers. But they had to be made of organic cotton. By unionized labor. In the USA.

Official merchandiser Bob DeMasse scoured the country. His weary conclusion: “That just doesn’t exist.”

Ditto for the baseball caps. “We have a union cap or an organic cap,” Mr. DeMasse says. “But we don’t have a union-organic offering.”

And it gets better and better. They are going to have people going around making sure every bit of garbage goes in juuuuust the right container, and will have people pawing through the garbage to verify. Disgusting!

Seriously, most of this is not “green,” but climate change silliness. Green is about protecting the environment. Climate change is about making sure to blame Man for everything, and blame America. They are even taking it to new lows

Democrats say the point is to build habits that will endure long after the convention. To that end, the city has staged “greening workshops” attended by hundreds of caterers, restaurant owners and hotel managers. “It’s the new patriotism,” Mayor Hickenlooper says.

I’m not even going to go there on that one.

Has anyone else noticed that Obama’s campaign seems to resemble the “machine that goes ping” joke from Monty Python’s meaning of life (Stacy is groaning with yet another MP reference ) Ah, I see you have the machine that goes ping. This is my favorite. You see we lease it back from the company we sold it to and that way it comes under the monthly current budget and not the capital account. In other words, Obama’s stances are all a game, and you never really know where he stands. There’s another quote that stands out, but, I’ll wait to the end

(The Politico) When former Sen. John Edwards dropped out of the presidential race, the progressive Netroots took their affections to Barack Obama, defending him against attack from Hillary Rodham Clinton and others.

But with his support of a government surveillance bill that offers retroactive immunity to telecommunications companies — a bill that he vowed last year to filibuster — the honeymoon has ended.

Disappointed over his position on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, the online activists feel jilted and betrayed and have taken to questioning his progressive credentials. One prominent blogger, Atrios, has even given him the moniker “Wanker of the Day.”

So, what is his position today?

At a presser today, Obama weighed in again on the FISA cave, and suffice it to say that what he said won’t make opponents any less unhappy about Obama’s position than they were already.

Asked specifically why he’s supporting the current FISA bill when he’d promised months ago to support a filibuster of an earlier version of the bill, Obama suggested flat out that “national security” overrides the question of telecom immunity…

“The bill has changed. So I don’t think the security threats have changed, I think the security threats are similar. My view on FISA has always been that the issue of the phone companies per se is not one that overrides the security interests of the American people.”

Which is sure to make the Nutroots even less happy, as national security is way, way down there on the list of what is important to progressives.

But, wait, he has also kinda thrown some red meat to the Nutroots that he will do away with that provision regarding telecom immunity if he is elected president. But, will that make Progressives happy or sad? Because what you would have would be Obama being an “imperial president” who is “unconstitutionally increasing the power of the Executive,” which they have stated the hate (at least when Bush is president.)

I guess we will have to wait for Obama’s next postion. He didn’t even bother voting during the cloture vote. In the sake of fairness, neither did McCain. However, McCain hasn’t been bloviating about it, and his base is not unhinged about it, either.

Firedoglake: Regular readers of FDL and EmptyWheelwill know that this is security theater and that there is no reason to believe that gutting the 4th amendment will make Americans safer, even if Obama is willing to ignore his oath to uphold the Constitution. This is a sad day, especially for those of us who believed Obama when he said he would support a filibuster against retroactive immunity.

Shakesville: Thanks for standing together and not doing a damn thing to stop the FISA “compromise.” This unity stuff is totally awesome, and I for one can’t wait to see what the Democratic Party caves on next.

The Poor Man Institute:

The Moderate Voice and First Draftare looking at Obama as if he was just the same old politician, and back him for it. Hope! Change!

Crooks and Liars: Obama has fallen on the wrong side of the debate.

Kos Kidz Konglomerate: Not that telco amnesty and national security really have anything to do with each other, or that this FISA bill actually does make us safer. It’s disturbing, to say the least, to see that Senator Obama has adopted the talking points of Steny Hoyer and the right on the issue.

If you want unhinged, dive into the comments sections at the progressive sites. The posts themselves tend to show disappointment. If Obama keeps this kind of stuff up, you can expect them to degenerate to unhinged.

Oh, the other MP quote: Grim Reaper: Shut up, you American. You Americans, all you do is talk, and talk, and say “let me tell you something” and “I just wanna say.”

Perfect for Obama!

How did this make the Washington Post?

Sen. John McCain pledged yesterday that he would make the federal government more environmentally friendly, while Sen. Barack Obama mocked his rival as crafting energy policies that merely pander to voters, in the latest skirmish over which presidential candidate is better prepared to tackle the nation’s energy and environmental problems.

If anyone would know about pandering it would be Mr. Hope and Change and Change and Hope.

In a speech in Santa Barbara, Calif., McCain (R-Ariz.) vowed to “put the purchasing power of the United States government on the side of green technology” by buying fuel-efficient vehicles for its civilian fleet of cars and trucks and by retrofitting federal office space. The pledge comes months after Obama (D-Ill.) outlined a more detailed and ambitious proposal on the subject, virtually ensuring that the next administration will take significant steps to lower the government’s output of energy and pollution.

So, let’s see: Obama has stated the same thing, yet, if McCain says it, it is pandering?

Greening the government is a good idea, and not just for the energy reductions and real environmental protections it affords. The government is out there preaching to the American People that the People need to change their whole lives, but government is offering to do little but change the light bulbs for themselves. Do as I say, not as I do. If they want people to follow, then government has to do what they are asking, and, in some cases mandating, the People to do.

And, who ya gonna trust? Someone with virtually no experience, or a guy who has tons of it?

“Every year, the federal government buys upwards of 60,000 cars and other vehicles, not including military or law enforcement vehicles,” McCain said as he campaigned with California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a prominent GOP environmentalist. “From now on, we’re going to make those civilian vehicles flex-fuel capable, plug-in hybrid, or cars fueled by clean natural gas.”

Saying that the U.S. government ranks as “the single largest consumer of electricity in the world” because it holds sway over “3.3 billion square feet of federal office space” worldwide, McCain said he plans to reduce the government’s carbon footprint by updating its buildings and demanding better standards in new ones.

While I’m not buying the whole carbon footprint silliness, more fuel efficient vehicles leads to less real pollution. Plus the whole aforementioned “I’ll do as I say” stuff from the government.

He also shows that he believes in the Nanny State as the be all end all of existence. For a speech he is to give in Las Vegas on energy

For decades, John McCain has been a part of this failure in Washington. Yes, he has gone further than some in his party in speaking out on climate change. And that is commendable. But time and time again, he has opposed investing in the alternative sources of energy that have helped fuel some of the very same projects and businesses he’s highlighting in this campaign. He’s voted against biofuels. Against solar power. Against wind power…

You mean the failure to stop Democrats and their extremist environmental lobbyists from blocking all meaningful attempts to allow more drilling in US territory, new refineries, new nuke plants? At least he has been there, Senator Neophyte. While you were out playing “community organizer,” Senator McCain was out there on the front lines.

Wind power and solar are nice, but only work in small areas. Hmm, and, isn’t it the Lion of the Senate who is the major force behind blocking the Cape Wind Project? I wonder who Teddy Kennedy has backed for President?

After all those years in Washington, John McCain still doesn’t get it. I commend him for his desire to accelerate the search for a battery that can power the cars of the future. I’ve been talking about this myself for the last few years. But I don’t think a $300 million prize is enough. When John F. Kennedy decided that we were going to put a man on the moon, he didn’t put a bounty out for some rocket scientist to win — he put the full resources of the United States government behind the project and called on the ingenuity and innovation of the American people. That’s the kind of effort we need to achieve energy independence in this country, and nothing less will do. But in this campaign, John McCain offering the same old gimmicks…

I guess this is where that word “Marxist” comes in to play. Obama does not believe in the power of the private industry, which does things better, faster, and more cost efficient then government. But, hey, let’s put tons of unnecessary money into a government boondoggle that takes decades longer to create something that is not that good.

But, don’t worry, Obama won’t tax Americans too much (cough) to pay for it, reducing what people have to spend on their own power needs in the here and now. You just have to trust the guy who has spent almost no time in government over the guy who has given a lifetime of service.

Dan Collins at protein wisdom calls it Obama announces plans for gravity dams, perpetual motion machines, cold fusion. It’s kinda hard to beat that, unless one includes cars powered by fairy dust and the lights in their rumps

LAS VEGAS (Reuters) - U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama on Tuesday criticized his rival John McCain’s proposal to encourage the building of 45 new nuclear reactors by 2030.

Obama, a Democrat, said the Republican candidate lacked a plan for storage of the waste. It was among several energy-strategy ideas that Obama said were “not serious energy policies.”

Oh, Senator Neophyte? It is actually codified in law, specifically, the 1982 Nuclear Waste Policy, which specified that a nuclear waste repository was to be designated, finalized, and operational by 1992. But, the Democrats and their extremist environmental base have held up the choice, which is the best choice, Yucca Mountain. I remember doing a paper on this in Public Policy graduate class, and because of the ground and limited ground water, as well as many other factors, Yucca was the best of many choices. I’d show it to you, but, the data was formatted on a Tandy PC on 3 1/4 floppies, will not work on anthing.

Obama supports using federal research and development dollars to explore whether nuclear waste can be stored safely for reuse.

That’s already been done, Senator Neophyte. I suppose it was hard to learn that during your short tenure in the US Senate before you really got your campaign for president going. You know, that campaign that you said would not run? But, you know, his ideas are as green as Kermit the Frog.

PS: yes, I know Obama gave up the seal, but, it’s too much fun!