Coulter: New Robes

As we count down the minutes to a state ordered execution of an innocent woman, some are asking "how?" It takes another lawyer with enough righteous rage to give us a succinct and blazing answer: Ann Coulter.

Her latest piece "The Emperor's New Robes" is by no means for the faint of heart, and yet, even the faint of heart should read it. She answers many important questions, including, why no court has over-turned Greer's ruling, why the Congress did not abuse its power in its attempt to save Terri, and she also breaks down (for political junkies like me) who and what groups have sided where and why.

Coulter has again laid down an awesome blanket of fire. This quote almost made me run and hide; it's what I'd call "white hot":

Our infallible, divine ruler is a county judge in Florida named George Greer, who has more authority in America than the U.S. Congress, the president and the governor. No wonder the Southern Baptist Church threw Greer out: Only one god per church!

Read the rest and you will find yourself wishing she added even more heat to that fire brand.

Crossposted at Meneltarma

It's Good Friday.

Crossposted from Musings from the Last of the Baby Boomers

There is an oxymoron somewhere in the above. I mean, it's good because it's Friday, and it's good because of what happened about this date 2005 years ago... but to realize we are celebrating the death of (in my belief) the Messiah is heartbreaking. Every year I have difficulty with this... but to paraphrase something that makes it tolerable...

Jesus lived a good and faithful life in a wicked world. He did this because that is the kind of person he was, and to show us it could be done. He was one to always lead by example.

On Easter Sunday, he rose again from the dead. He did this to show we could do that,too.


All I can say to that is .... Amen.

And another note, not posted over there... Ms. Schiavo continues to battle for her very life. God grant mercy on her... and on us as a whole.

Democrat or Republican, Pro-Life or Pro-Choice, one thing is certain. We, as a nation, have successfully ordered the execution of someone that was unable to defend themselves.

Are people in a coma, or people suffering from Alzheimers, COPD or congestive heart failure next? Paraphrasing Charles Dickens... "And if they would rather die, they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population."... sound a bit Scroogish doesn't it? Hmmmm.

God bless, and until our next........

Speaking Out of Her Mind

Cross-Posted at Memento Moron.

Thanks to Drudge, Little Green Footballs, and Way Off Bass.

Joel Connelly of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer (one wonders which definition of the second word applies) writes on Her Craziness' recent visit to Seattle. Below are a few quotes from the column, with my impressions in italics:

What made Teresa Heinz Kerry so refreshing to some voters, and threatening to others on the 2004 campaign trail, is summed up when THK talks about her speech to last year's Democratic convention:

Personally, I never felt threatened by her. If I was a Democrat, on the other hand...

"Nobody told me what to do," she told a Saturday fund-raiser here.

You don't think it might have been that much of what you did/said was "I-Am-Napoleon" crazy?

Heinz Kerry flew into town on her own Gulfstream jet (the Flying Squirrel, named for a Sun Valley ski run) direct from a conference on global philanthropy at Stanford.

A more appropriately named aircraft never flew.

She talked energy-efficient building design with Seattle Art Museum boss (and old friend) Mimi Gates. She dined at Wild Ginger and flew back east with takeout food from the Third Avenue restaurant.

As LGF's readers observed, the irony drips from those two paragraphs like crude oil. Energy efficiency? Private jet? Did the subject of John...er... the family's SUV come up?

At a lunch for Rep. Adam Smith, guests were treated to more spicy observations than will likely be heard at all fund-raisers under the Westin's roof from now to the 2008 presidential race. A sampling:

Oh, please, Dahling, keep talking!

"You cannot have bishops in the pulpit -- long before or the Sunday before the election -- as they did in Catholic churches, saying it was a mortal sin to vote for John Kerry," she said.

....

"The church has a right and obligation to teach values," Heinz Kerry declared. "They don't have a right to restrict freedom of expression, which they did.

But you think their freedom of expression should be restricted when it comes to criticism of your hubby? Moral and logical consistency aren't your strengths, are they, T?

Heinz Kerry is openly skeptical about results from November's election,

Somehow I doubt her concerns extend to the results of Washington's gubernatorial election...

"Two brothers own 80 percent of the machines used in the United States," Heinz Kerry said. She identified both as "hard-right" Republicans. She argued that it is "very easy to hack into the mother machines."

Before marrying into the Heinz fortune, Heinz Kerry went by the moniker Acid Burn.

Heinz Kerry is still steamed at what the Republican attack machine did to her husband.

"Think about last year," she said. "Once John had his nomination, the Republicans spent $90 million to destroy his reputation."

Ummm.... Rayzuh Dear... If, as a Dem, you're going to throw those stones, I'd avoid spending time at the homes of Dan Rather or George Soros... they're still sweeping up broken glass.

"We have to develop a discipline for this party, so the people of this country know more clearly what it is to be a Democrat," she said.

Maybe the problem is it's already all too clear, ya think?

Classic Heinz Kerry -- spouting off baseless, self-contradictory, often vitriolic babble, reacting with shock and contempt when people reject it for what it is, then somehow viewing their reactions as justification for continuing on the same path. Personally, I am delighted that TuhRAYzuh continues to speak her mind. If we can just keep her in the public eye, between her and Howard Dean, the Democratic party will be wearing a kimono in a quiet room, writing a final haiku as their wakizashi waits by 2006.

When At First You Don't Succeed

On the one hand, this is a posting about Portland - but it isn't (oh, I like that opening line). Once upon a time Portland had (has) a city commissioner who, like all politicians, seemingly was continously seeking funds. His options were limited, but not his imagination. He dreamed up a new tax, er ... license fee (aka a tax) that he proposed on cell phones, a new tax, er ... license fee that apparently no one had ever thought of before. He was assured that the technology was fesible but the folks weren't too impressed with it. His fellow commissioners didn't embrace it, he recieved all sorts of flack from the public, neighboring governments, cell phone companies, pretty much from everyone. So the majority of politicians would have slinked away and acted as though he'd never heard of the idea, right?

No, no, not our Randy Leonard, no, he's not a man who likes to take no for an answer. He just knew that this idea had legs; he just had to figure out how to get some more allies. Well, like the movie says, "He's BAAACK!!!" And he is still pushing his idea, but this time with a twist. He now has changed where the money will go, previously he wanted it ear marked for the general fund, now he says he is open to whatever and wherever the city feels it's needed. He's now consulted with some of the folks from the wireless industry, no details were given, but I can't see how that's working in the favor of us the consumers. Here is the icing on the cake, he is talking to the Office of Cable Communications and Franchise Management to come up with a piece of statewide legislation that would enable all jurisdictions in Oregon to adopt a wireless tax if they chose to. Okay, everyone who doesn't think that every jurisdiction in Oregon will adopt such a tax, given that option raise their hands please. Anyone? Come on, there has to be someone who believes that government wouldn't grab another source of revenue just because they will be able to, anyone?

So yes, Comissioner Leonard took his failed plan back to the drawing table and figured out a way to gain allies. If it works out, your tax, and please realize it is a tax will be 7%. Amazingly enough not all of his fellow commissioners have embraced his moment of genius; however, it really hasn't been fully discussed in council. No date has been set, but it is due to be talked about some time this month. Should you wish to link the article, here it is.

More Later

David Brooks: Why not here?

David Brooks published a fascinating piece in the NY Times editorial page yesterday, titled, "Why not here?" The question is a representation of a larger question running through the national minds of many oppressed countries as they look at the success in Iraq; as they look at the revolt in Ukraine; as they see democracy at their very fingertips. If you, like me, are a free subscriber to NYTimes.com, I recommend reading the whole piece. Otherwise...

Brooks explains that the American will to dream big dreams and do the impossible is infectious, and stands in stark contrast to the prevailing attitudes of modern Western Europe, as he here explains:

It's amazing in retrospect to think of how much psychological resistance there is to asking this breakthrough question: Why not here? We are all stuck in our traditions and have trouble imagining the world beyond. As Claus Christian Malzahn reminded us in Der Spiegel online this week, German politicians ridiculed Ronald Reagan's "tear down this wall" speech in 1987. They "couldn't imagine that there might be an alternative to a divided Germany."

But if there is one soft-power gift America does possess, it is this tendency to imagine new worlds. As Malzahn goes on to note, "In a country of immigrants like the United States, one actually pushes for change. ... We Europeans always want to have the world from yesterday, whereas the Americans strive for the world of tomorrow."

Stephen Sestanovich of the Council on Foreign Relations wrote an important essay for this page a few weeks ago, arguing that American diplomacy is often most effective when it pursues not an incrementalist but a "maximalist" agenda, leaping over allies and making the crude, bold, vantage-shifting proposal - like pushing for the reunification of Germany when most everyone else was trying to preserve the so-called stability of the Warsaw Pact.

Indeed, Reagan was vilified to an extreme degree. No one could imagine anything else but the continued threat of Soviet Russia as long as there was a Europe for it to threaten. It’s ridiculous to suggest, first of all, that Bush has completely “gone it alone,” as much as it is to suggest that he is the first to ruffle so many feathers.