No recession here

We have spent the past 2 days at a casino in Mississippi and from what I see, there is no recession here. The poor and the blacks which the liberals seem to worry so much about seem to have plenty of gambling money. Surely they are only risking money which is well beyond that which is needed for daily expenses, I assume.

These three will undoubtedly fix things

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Thursday that he may try to force undecided superdelegates to make their decisions in the Democratic presidential race if it stretches into June.

Reid said he would consider writing a joint letter with Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) demanding that superdelegates make their endorsements public.

Sunspots

BestView is convinced that liberals usually find themselves taking actions which produce the exact opposite of intended, or stated, objectives. Many examples offer themselves, like the Great Society which was going to help poor people and instead gave us several generations of decadent dependents. Then there is the claim that if we just raise the tax on capital gains we can take money from the filthy rich and do more good things with the government spigot. Of course, the fact is a lowered capital gains tax increases revenue--and vice versa.

This brings us to global warming which the liberals (some of which are Republicans) claim is anthropogenic and can be corrected by reducing carbon dioxide emissions. Ignored in all the current blather about man's pitiful contribution to climate change is the sun. Sunspot activity has been at minimal levels now for over a year and this has always produced climate cooling--often of remarkable magnitude. Napolean's winter in Moscow has been associated with low sunspot activity, for example. Now the snow in Baghdad last winter for the first time in centuries and the extent of Antarctic ice development, which is greater than any time since the place was discovered in 1770, plus other observations suggest that we could once again be faced with the opposite result of liberal contentions. With Al Gore calling for global warming, we should instead prepare for the big chill.

McCain's Pension

The liberals are out early in their attacks on McCain. The Los Angeles Times is questioning the disability pension McCain got for injuries received while imprisoned in North Viet Nam. Their thesis seems to be that the permanent damage to his arms and legs which qualified him for a pension somehow disqualifies him to be President. Aside from the fact that these same liberals would swoon if anyone suggested Roosevelt was too disabled to serve or if there was no government pension system for our veterans with service-related health problems, their decision to play this card now against McCain shows how concerned they must be at the alternative this country will have.

Can't we just get along?

CAIRO, Egypt (AP) - Osama bin Laden's chief deputy in an audiotape Tuesday accused Shiite Iran of trying to discredit the Sunni al-Qaida terror network by spreading the conspiracy theory that Israel was behind the Sept. 11 attacks...

One of the questioners asked about the theory that has circulated in the Middle East and elsewhere that Israel was behind the 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

Al-Zawahri accused Hezbollah's Al-Manar television of starting the rumor.

"The purpose of this lie is clear—(to suggest) that there are no heroes among the Sunnis who can hurt America as no else did in history. Iranian media snapped up this lie and repeated it," he said.

Probably a bookkeeping error

From Power Line.


The Los Angeles Times' campaign finance expert Dan Morain has found Obama campaign records reporting a $50 donation by Roy Scheider, who lists his occupation as actor and his home as Sag Harbor, N.Y. Remember him from many great movies including "The French Connection" and "Jaws" and the immortal line: "You're gonna need a bigger boat"?

According to the campaign records, Scheider made the donation on March 10 last month.

Trouble is, Scheider died exactly one month before that, on Feb. 10 at the age of 75.

Malcolm adds: "Scheider was unavailable for comment. "

The good ship is listing left

The New York Times Company, the parent of The New York Times, posted a $335,000 loss in the first quarter — one of the worst periods the company and the newspaper industry have seen — falling far short of both analysts’ expectations and its $23.9 million profit in the quarter a year earlier.

Beware of Obama Gun Control

When Obama says he "supports" the 2nd Amendment, warning lights should flash. There are several examples of actions which belie his statements. In 1996 Obama said he favored a complete ban on all handguns. In this campaign, he says an aide filled out the questionnaire and he had no knowledge of it despite his hand writing on the document.

In 1999 Obama urged enactment of a federal law prohibiting the operation of a gun store within 5 miles of a school or park. This would eliminate gun sales in any urban area in the U.S.

Obama voted against legislation to stop mayors from suing gun manufacturers and gun store owners because of gun crime--even when they had complied with all laws regarding manufacture and sale of guns.

Don't think Hillary would be better. She has repeatedly voter for anti-gun proposals and co-sponsored many of them.

Pig to Man Infectious Process?

BestView is often skeptical about science article in the press, but this one seems to have some basis for concern. There are known animal prions which can affect the nervous system of man and none of them are something you want to contract.

Hillary Explains Bosnia

This is great. In the debate Hillary had last night with Obama, she was asked about why she lied about her landing in Bosnia. After a lot of hooey, she apologized and said she "was not as accurate as she has been in the past". She didn't add that neither was she more inaccurate than she has been in the past, but maybe her time was up.

Obama's lapel decisions

After 9/11/2001, Barack Obama, like most politicians wore an American flag in his lapel as a symbol of patriotism and sympathy for the victims. When he stopped wearing it, a reporter asked him about it. Here is his reply:

"You know, the truth is that right after 9/11, I had a pin. Shortly after 9/11, particularly because as we're talking about the Iraq War, that became a substitute for, I think, true patriotism, which is speaking out on issues that are of importance to our national security, I decided I won't wear that pin on my chest.

Well, arrogant dismissal of regular folks in the dems electorate seems to have Obama in sufficient angst to bring it back. He once said that his patriotism speaks for itself, but now, he must figure he needs flags to bolster that.

I wonder how long it is going to take for the poor ignorant voters to discover that Obama is as big a phony as most other politicians?

The Bush Legacy

In the previous offering, BestView chided historians for declaring the Bush presidency a failure. Now it is fair to suggest they may not be wrong in two important aspects. First, the administration seems to be shrinking from what was once a commendable insistence that North Korea permit verification of its nuclear activities. The stance now seems to be we will take the word of a country which has lied to everyone about everything. Utter nonsense.
A second problem seems to be one where Bush continues to utter cluck-clucks about the activities of Iran in Iraq, but nothing gets done to see that this stop. Lord help us if Bush passes this problem off to someone like Obama or Clinton.
Ironically, the liberals like the aforementioned historians will not see these two major deficiencies as part of the problem with the Bush legacy.

History in Reverse

I was reading this morning that 98% of 109 history professors surveyed by the History News Network adjudged the Bush presidency to be a failure. This seems a trifle early for such a pronouncement, but they are a liberal lot and probably can't resist. A survey in 2003 found the Democrat to Republican ratio of history professors to be about 9.5:1.0. As a scientist, I have never really been convinced historians differed greatly from modern-day property assessors. The work product of both depends largely on what they start out to look for.

Finally, historical evaluations such as this remind me of meteorological predictions of our climate decades into the future when we have little to no idea what the weather will be like next week. Liberal historians do it in reverse.

Thomas Sowell gets it right again

"Senator John McCain could never get me to vote for him. Only Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama can cause me to vote for McCain."

"The same people who have gone ballistic when some prominent figure is found to belong to some all-male social club are full of excuses for why Barack Obama remained a member of a racist and anti-American church for 20 years."

Senatorial Disgrace

Sen. Jay Rockefeller who was born to wealth and has spent his adulthood being a politician without ever finding military service to be part of his plan has issued a slur on John McCain's service. He said McCain dropped laser-guided bombs on innocent people in Viet Nam and gave no thought to the consequences. Ergo, McCain cares nothing about the lives of people.

This is such a despicable case of slander that even some liberals who also hate the military are taking notice. Aside from being untrue (laser guided missiles were not available before McCain got shot down) it is also idiotic. Does Rockefeller also feel this way about those thousands of pilots in World War II who flew missions over places like Guadalcanal?

Rockefeller came forth with an "apology" for "an inaccurate and wrong analogy". What he said was not an analogy. It was a specific reference to actual acts --McCain's service to his country.

It is really disturbing that this man is the Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee.

Vagina Warriors?

The existence of this group is news to BestView. Where do I get one of those lollipops? Read the whole thing here.

Watch out, New Orleans: “Vagina Warriors” are headed your way. This weekend V-Day will celebrate its 10th anniversary with a two-day festival in New Orleans, or “the vagina of America,” as V-Day board member and actress Rosario Dawson called it at the luncheon announcing the festivities. Why New Orleans? V-Day’s website says, “We need to celebrate New Orleans, cherish it, protect it, just as we do our vaginas, and make sure it goes on and on.”

Celebrities, including mega-stars Katie Holmes and Oprah Winfrey, have signed on in droves to attend the vagina festival, but one wonders if they know what they are really supporting. V-Day’s mission is to end violence against women, surely a noble cause. But when you look at the activities done in the name of V-Day, it’s clear that this about more than just ending violence. On campus, V-Day groups sell vagina-shaped lollipops, chocolates, and t-shirts with slogans like “I love Vagina” and “A vagina by any other name would smell just as sweet.” They parade around campus in vagina costumes, or in the case of the George Washington University, have a four-foot-tall “living vagina” named Joan on display.

Crooked Porkster, Rare Reporter

Congressman Jack Murtha is one of the most influential powerbrokers in Washington.

According to an estimate by Taxpayers for Common Sense, he's steered more than $600 million in earmarks to his Pennsylvania district in the past four years and $2 billion since 1992. But what's been good for Murtha and his district is not always good for taxpayers.

The fact that Congress is full of crooked appropriators using ear marks is not really news. Neither is the fact that John Murtha is one of the bigger abusers of ear marks. The bigger story here is that CBS is reporting the scandal by one of their liberal kin-folks. That is amazing.

My favorite Hillary Picture

BestView has published some very unflattering pictures of Hillary and it is time to offer balance. So here is my favorite picture of her which is not entirely fair since Natalie Portman is also in there, but ....