Black Panther thugs have charges dropped against them for alleged voter intimidation in Philadelphia.

Check out the video and decide for yourself whether armed and uniformed "security" are intimidating at a polling place.

Stick a couple of white sheets and hoods on them and they'd be prosecuted for sure.

Spencerblog is in Gettysburg for a newspaper thing.

We were just rereading the heroics of Joshua Chamberlain, the Mainer who fought so bravely and led his men so gallantly in the batte of Little Round Top.

He was at Appomottax when Lee surrendered. Chamberlain ordered his men to stand at attention as a salute to the courage and honor of confederate troops. One Southern officer called him "one of the knightliest soldiers in the Federal Army.

After the war, he went home and ran for Governor as a Republican. He won.

He was noted (and reviled) for his support of capital punishment and refusal to police prohibition. Now that's a good Republican.

Gettysburg is an amazing place. Everyone should see it.

Some stories are best kept to oneself. My print column is up.

Frank the Fireman vs. Sonia the Judge. Chucky the K weighs in.

Rebut, the confirm. Sounds about right.

Plus: Obama's hypocrisy on empathy. You're smart and empathic if you make rulings he likes. Not, if you don't.

Schumer too.

Money Q:

... New York Sen. Chuck Schumer, who intoned that Republicans "oppose her at their peril."

This would be the same Mr. Schumer who had this to say about Miguel Estrada, President Bush's Hispanic nominee (who, by the way, came to this country as an immigrant from Honduras) to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals in 2002: Mr. Estrada "is like a Stealth missile -- with a nose cone -- coming out of the right wing's deepest silo." That would be the same Mr. Schumer who ambushed Mr. Estrada in a Senate hearing, smearing him with allegations made by unnamed former associates. That would be the same Mr. Schumer who sat on the Judiciary Committee, where leaked memos later showed that Democrats feared Mr. Estrada would use a position on the D.C. Circuit as a launching pad to become the nation's . . . first Hispanic Supreme Court judge. Two tortured years later, Mr. Estrada withdrew, after the Democrats waged seven filibusters against a confirmation vote.

There is some evidence that Chrysler, recently taken over by the Obama administration, is mostly closing private dealerships owned by Republican political contributors.

If this is true there should be hell to pay. Obviously, it needs to be investigated further.

Same-sex marriage coming to Pennsylvania? It's a debate worth having

Here comes Joe. What he needs is a Calvin Borel to ride him home.

A mother, a daughter, a frantic search and a false police report. I'll be writing about this, in a round about way, for tomorrow's paper.

The Atlantic's Jeff Goldberg schools Newsweek's Fareed Zakaria, who for some reason is willing to trust the Iranian mullahs and their "morality" when it comes to nuclear weapons.

The ayatollahs' history when it comes to waging "moral" war includes using 12-year-old Iranian children as cannon fodder.

Blago and Burris are back in the news.

It seems the U.S. senator offered the impeached governor who appointed him a check but worried about them both getting "profiled."

Dandy stuff.

Environmentalism isn't cool anymore. Uh oh. It started with Manbearpig. Now this.

And this.

Good advice from Mark McKinnon. Chasing moderate Republicans like Colin Powell out of the party is a recipe for disaster.

In previous years, Democrats never chased anyone from their party. They fled.

The high tax, anti-business, pro-identity politics and weakness on foreign policy caused many Democrats to flee the party in the 80s. A new generation of moderate Democrats has been born but the party is being run by its liberal wing. The infighting is becoming more pronounced and will get worse in the coming years.

Republicans need to buck up and go back to their core principles of liberty, opportunity, low taxes, a tough defense. Those are pretty good blocks on which to build. In the meantime, Republicans need to oppose the worst excesses of the Democrats. Somebody has to and they're all we got.

Stuart Taylor on Sotomayor.

Money Q:

Indeed, unless Sotomayor believes that Latina women also make better judges than Latino men, and also better than African-American men and women, her basic proposition seems to be that white males (with some exceptions, she noted) are inferior to all other groups in the qualities that make for a good jurist.

Any prominent white male would be instantly and properly banished from polite society as a racist and a sexist for making an analogous claim of ethnic and gender superiority or inferiority.

John Yoo weighs in on the Sotomayor nomination: The triumph of empathy over excellence.

Yoo is persona non-grata within certain liberal communities because he wrote a legal opinion during the Bush Administration that certain rough interrogation techniques were legal. For his work, many leftists want Yoo, a tenured professor of constitutional law at Berkeley disbarred and/or prosecuted.

Call it the vengence of the ankle-biters over the excellent.

Obama nominates a judicial hack, Sonia Sotomayor, for the U.S. Supreme Court.

At least he got his losing the national security debate against Dick Cheney off the front pages.

Washington's liberal establishment is at war with itself over who lied to whom in the Pelosi/CIA mess.

James Lewis, for one, is delighted: "It couldn't happen to a nicer bunch."

He's right. But my prediction is they'll declare peace before things get totally out of hand, which is to say, no "truth commission." A truth commission hurts Democrats, not Republicans. It exposes their hypocrisy and claims they didn't know "torture" was going on. Republicans say, we knew, it wasn't "torture" and we were all for it. If the Dems are smart they'll drop the whole thing. We'll see.

Ralph Peters has a solution to the Gitmo problem: Kill terrorists on the spot.

Money Q:

Terrorists don't have legal rights or human rights. By committing or abetting acts of terror against the innocent, they place themselves outside of humanity's borders. They must be hunted as man-killing animals.

And, as a side benefit, dead terrorists don't pose legal quandaries.

All in favor, say "Aye."

A fitting tribute to veterans. Kane Kalas steps into his father's shoes and fills them beautifully.

Pittsburghers are hearing about Joe Sestak.

The little admiral is tough and will not be bullied, coaxed, or promised out of the race for Arlen Specter's senate seat.

Through "enhanced negotiation techniques" the era of big government partnering with big business begins and The Angels Rejoice.

Money Q:

These events have heralded a new era of partnership between the White House and private companies, one that calls to mind the wonderful partnership Germany formed with France and the Low Countries at the start of World War II.

A thousand-year Reich has been born.

The unpopular Dick Cheney debates the popular Barack Obama on national security and wins.

How?

Sometimes consistancy and the best argument prevail.

My speech to the graduates is up.

Andrew Ferguson does a terrific job skewering establishment media personalities that "everybody loves."

Money Q:

Monday wasn't even over yet before everybody found out that Maureen Dowd, who as everyone knows writes a column for the New York Times, had lifted a paragraph from a popular blog and put it into her column and passed it off as her own work. Everybody loves Maureen. She's everybody's favorite. More important, everybody wants to be Maureen's favorite. So everybody pretended this didn't happen. Instead everybody believed Maureen when she said she'd been "talking to a friend of mine" who made a point in a "cogent--and I assumed spontaneous--way and I wanted to weave the idea into my column." That's why it was woven word for word in her copy.

Her explanation was implausible in every particular, compounding her original offense. Normally everybody loves it when this happens, because everybody gets to say to one another, "In Washington the cover up is often worse than the crime!" But this was Maureen. The unthinkable began to emerge as the implausibility sunk in. Everybody's favorite was not only lazy and unimaginative but dishonest too--a bit of a fraud.

Andrew Ferguson is unlovable. And right.

Mark Steyn: May the funds be with you.

A wife charges her husband raped her after she finds out he's won custody of their two children.

And the cops and DAs office buy into it.

My print column is up.

From last night, at the last second Lebron James.

Nuff said.

Mom leaves tot in locked car and is charged with reckless endangerment. Fair enough. She admits to doing it on purpose.

If she'd been aghast and said "Oh my God! I forgot she was in the car" maybe they would have let her slide. I would've.

Liberty University is banning a student Democratic Club because the Democratic Party supports policies the religious conservatives at Liberty find morally objectionable.

Jerry Falwell hasn't done anything this dumb since he sued Hustler Magazine for libel.

Dick Cheney's speech at the American Enterprise Institute on national security is a tour de force of reason, toughness, and no apologies.

Read the whole thing.

If anyone of consequence in the Obama administration does, they'll dump the idea of a so-called "truth commission" faster than Khalid Sheikh Mohammed spilled his guts after being waterboarded.

From: Dennis Oneill
Date: Thu, 21 May 2009 07:57:19 -0400
To: gspencer@delcotimes.com
Subject: abortion

Gil.
Now that you mention it, that's what your column was yesterday. You just don't get it. People are tired of bedroom politics and the Government intruding in their personal lives. It's a Personal choice between a woman, her family and her medical professional. If you want to see some people who "get it" read the editorial on page 40.

Dennis M. O'Neill

And my response...

Dennis,

I did read the editorial and I see many people did "get it." Especially, the people who commented on it online.

As for "Bedroom politics," a question: Since when do abortionists make housecalls to perform abortions in people's bedrooms? Maybe they'll be required to under Obama's new healthcare plan. What a great day for the cause that will be.

Cheers.

UPDATE: First runner up goes to Bradley McFarland Scace...

Mr. Spencer,

In lieu of your most recent article, "Obama honor is an abortion of beliefs" I am finally taking the opportunity to pass along some long overdue thoughts regarding your career. You sir, are an outstanding journalist and a credit to your profession. In this day and age, the blatant lack of objectivity permeating throughout the vast majority of your colleagues work is nothing short of disgraceful. I am sure you have heard this many times before; however, that in no way mitigates its veracity: We need voices like yours now more than ever. The media’s methodology and tactics employed to destroy any of those who dare to stand against their extreme leftist agenda are reprehensible. No doubt, they would gladly silence every conservative voice in this country if they could. Thankfully, due to the efforts and writings of men like you, they will not accomplish that goal. Please, keep up the good (and necessary) work you do.

Respectfully,

Bradley M. Scace

My response...

What can I say other than thanks. I'll try.

UPDATE: A late entry:

I wonder what criteria you're using to declare Notre Dame "the nation's premier Catholic university". In name recognition perhaps but Georgetown was the first, and by any other standard I can think of, is the greatest Catholic university in the land.

Jack Brennan
Ardmore, PA

My response:

I stand corrected. Thanks.

Glenn Beck in the witches den.

Whoopi Goldberg calls him "a lying sack of dog mess" for getting a single and rather minor fact wrong in his description of meeting her and Barbara Walters on an Amtrak train. And then, the girls spend almost 6 minutes, calling him a "liar," preventing and interrupting his polite attempts to explain.

They ought to change their name to "The Spew."

George Will on the coming bailout of California.

I recall back in the 70s when President Gerald Ford declined to bailout a bankrupt New York City there was a famous New York Daily News headline: "Ford to City: Drop Dead."

Somehow, the city didn't drop dead or otherwise disappear off the face of the earth. But President Obama is far too compassionate to force California to clean up its own mess. And so taxpayers from Washington to Florida to Maine will foot the bill for the proflicacy of California's political class.

The country's in the very best of hands.

Barney Frank debates the unseasoned Rep. Michelle Bachmann on the taxpayer funding of ACORN... and loses.

Bachmann proposed an amendment cutting off federal funds for organizations that commit voter fraud. Frank voted for it without paying attention to who it would affect - in this case a partisan get out the Democratic vote machine - now he wants a do-over.

"It was after a very long session, Lou."

Aww, does the congressman want a pillow for his head?

Lou Dobbs weighs in with a most pertinent question: Why are taxpayer funds going to partisan non-profits in the first place when government already spends billions on such programs?

Also notice how the amazingly arrogant Frank tries to bully the unflappable Bachmann with his Please DON'T interrupt me, Michelles. Especially late (just past the 9 minute mark) even when it's Lou Dobbs who attempts to interrupt the filibustering Barney.

With Pelosi and Frank as the faces and mouthpieces of the angry and accusatory Democrat party even bumbling Repubicans have to be happy.

Cap and Trade and the delusion of tons of jobs and cost nothing.

Dick "Toe Sucker" Morris explains why Nancy Pelosi has to go.

It's obvious that either Leon Panetta, Obama's head of the CIA, or Nancy Pelosi, his party's Speaker of the House, has to go. No administration can tolerate a permanent, public civil war between two such high-ranking officials.

Especially when their disagreement stems not from issues of policy but from matters of veracity and credibility, the battle must end in one of their resignations. You cannot have the head of the nation's first line of defense against terrorism calling the Speaker of the House a liar and being attacked by her in turn.

Makes sense.

Henninger introduces "Earmark Nation." Frank J. Fleming introduces Cybernetic Monkey-Men".

The future is looking very bleak.

If Jimmy Kimmel gets fired from ABC after his "truth-telling" binge, he should be hired as a spokesman for Nancy Pelosi. Or better yet, The White House.

Money Q:

To the ABC advertisers, Mr. Kimmel said, “Every year we lie to you and every year you come back for more. You don’t need an upfront. You need therapy. We completely lie to you, and then you pass those lies onto your clients.”

Should be, but won't be.

Government as business entrepreneur. It's record? Not great.

The Environmental Bubble Bursts. Interesting piece in TNR.

It includes this nugget:

A 2007 survey that appeared in The New York Times found that more Prius owners (57 percent) said they bought the car because it "makes a statement about me" than because of its better gas mileage (36 percent), lower emissions (25 percent), or new technology (7 percent). Prius owners, the Times concluded, "want everyone to know they are driving a hybrid." The status effects were so powerful that, by early 2009, Honda's new Insight Hybrid had been reshaped to look like the triangular Prius.

Also check out the new Prius ad. It's Creepolicous.

Here come the taxpayer-subsidized Obamamobiles. Any takers?

My print column on the Obama at Notre Dame controversy is up.

The Matt Steven Story on ESPN. And to think it all started with a phone call to the Daily Times.

Marc Cerasini tries to figure out what makes Jack Bauer tick.

Money Q:

In On Combat, Grossman compares civilization to a flock of sheep. In that context, Jack is the sheep dog, the terrorists the wolves. Although the sheep fear the wolves and are guarded by the dog, the dog — with its fangs, claws and willingness to kill — has more in common with the wolves than with the sheep he protects. Despite the dog’s role as protector, he possesses the same predatory instincts and violent tendencies as the wolf, so he can never be a part of the flock. Jack is estranged from his daughter, constantly robbed of a normal life, admired by the audience but alienated by much of the fictional world he inhabits.

It’s no surprise Jack Bauer has become a lightning rod: In real life, soldiers and police are often similarly stranded on islands unto themselves, looked on with suspicion by some in the general public. Lately, however, it’s gone beyond wariness. We now live in a country where the brave men and women who’ve sacrificed to protect the people and ideals of this nation have become targeted for terror profiling by the very government they’ve put their lives on the line to protect.

Read the whole thing.

Alec Baldwin's joke about getting himself a Filipino mail-order bride... or a Russian one falls flat with Filipinos. No response yet from the Russians.

You would think there would be no shortage of American women who would be willing to co-habitate with Alec. What's he got against them, other than the fact that his ex is one?

In Aston, former Penn Delco school board member John Green has some splaining to do.

The VP reveals the location of the secret bunker to which he is supposed to retreat during an attack.

They told us if we voted for McCain we'd have a buffoon for a vice president. We did. And they were right.

Robert Samuelson on Obama's "Zen-like capacity" to avoid criticism for what might be the most irresponsible budget in American history.

Money Q:

The Obama budgets flirt with deferred distress, though we can't know what form it might take or when it might occur. Present gain comes with the risk of future pain. As the present economic crisis shows, imprudent policies ultimately backfire, even if the reversal's timing and nature are unpredictable.

It's a Ponzi scheme. Bernie Madoff didn't know when his was going to collapse but it did. This one will too.

Senator Joe Sestak? My print column is up.

Obama moves toward Bush administration policies on national security, angers the already angry and loony left.

Money Q:

A leader of the antiwar group Code Pink said she now wonders at what point her organization should begin to refer to Mr. Obama as a "war criminal."

John Kass explains the controversy over Notre Dame awarding Barack Obama an honorary degree and comes down on the side of well, Mary Ann Glendon.

Nuance is in, being principled is out.

The Weekly Standard rains on Obama's healthcare plan.

The Democrats' plan would displace tens of millions of happily insured Americans and exacerbate the worst elements of the current system.

You got a problem with that?

A statement from the Speaker of the House on those so-called "torture" briefings - via Iowahawk.

Thanks Iowahawk, for helping straighten all this out.

Conservatives have a new sarcastic catch phrase: "The country's in the very best of hands." An oldie but a goodie and timely as this video shows.

Stories like this one give them the opportunity to use it.

CBS golf analyst David Feherty apologizes for Pelosi joke.

How offensive was it? You be the judge.

Of course, it's fine to make jokes about wanting Rush Limbaugh dead. Even the president laughs at those.

On corporate taxes, Obama "sacrificies substance for grandstanding." What else is new?

And another Obama payback to a powerful union that contributed millions to his campaign.

Meanwhile, California is about to go broke.

Mike Gearson on "American Grace," a new book about religion in America.

It's authors find that the "Religious Right" turned off many young Americans to religion, which is a shame because:

"religious Americans are nicer, happier and better citizens." They are more generous with their time and money, not only in giving to religious causes, but to secular ones. They join more voluntary associations, attend more public meetings, even let people cut in line in front of them more readily. Religious Americans are three to four times more socially engaged than the unaffiliated. Ned Flanders is a better neighbor.

Sounds right. Makes sense. Read the whole thing.

Hypocrisy among the Democrats on the CIAs harsh interrogations techniques is now approaching outright lying.

So what else is new?

Nancy Pelosi demanding a "truth commission" on torture is like Barry Bonds demanding an independent counsel to investigate steroid abuse in Major League Baseball.

More here. And here

PETA protest cancels a donkey basketball game in Chi.

Great another "union" snorting up taxpayer dollars.

CBS News is onto Obama and his payoff to the UAW for supporting his campaign. He - and other members of his party - stood bankruptcy law on its head to benefit the union and demonized secured investors as "vultures."

Money Q:

It must be a coincidence that the United Auto Workers has handed $25.4 million to federal politicians over the last two decades, with 99 percent of that cash going to Democrats. And that Mr. Obama's final campaign stop on Election Day was a UAW phone bank.

If those politicians thought about this a bit more, they'd probably realize their mistake. Creditors didn't force Chrysler's management to head to the capital markets and beg for funds: It was poor management, uncompetitive wages, and a union that opposed pay cuts.

Families who lost members in the 9/11 attacks and the bombing of the U.S. Cole met with President Obama to discuss their concerns about the closing of Guantanomo Bay and the president's strategy for combating terrorism.

He talked a good game and then...

More on Dr. Jerry Lazaroff and the DA's decision to prosecute him on such flimsy evidence.

My colleague, Tony Phyrillas, doesn't feel sorry for Arlen Specter for believing Harry Reid's lies.

No one does.

Heh.

Barney Frank wants a do-over. He forgot that ACORN is a criminal enterprise running a prostitution ring out of his party.

A bad week for business and America's future.

Obama pays the UAW back for its political support by taking billions from the secured creditors of Chrysler and America taxpayers. Michael Barone explains.

With Arlen Specter's defection and a possible filibuster-proof majority, George McGovern worries his party could push through the Employee Free Choice Act. The act is well named because it would do what pro-choices are for, abort the negotiating process and kill the rights of both management and labor.

Money Q:

My perspective on the so-called Employee Free Choice Act is informed by life experience. After leaving the Senate in 1981, I spent some time running a hotel. It was an eye-opening introduction to something most business operators are all-too familiar with -- the difficulty of controlling costs and setting prices in a weak economy. Despite my trust in government, I would have been alarmed by an outsider taking control of basic management decisions that determine success or failure in a business where I had invested my life savings.

Jennifer Rubin catches Ruth Marcus (see below) and Obama fudging their "empathy" agenda for the Supreme Court.

Money Q:

Marcus is trying her best to tap dance around the premise which is plainly animating the Obama justice search. He wants “empathy” to guide the justice in reaching outcomes which favor the down-and-out, minorities, women, employees, and criminal defendants. And if you doubt that, go back and look at every confirmation hearing over the last couple of decades. Democrats railed against judges who had written decisions which ruled against these parties. The nominees were therefore tagged as ”insensitive” because they did not find a way to conform the law around a favorable outcome for these groups.

From the WSJ Notable Quotable...

Blogger and aircraft financier Dave Cribbin of TailWind Capital Group writing at blog.getliberty.org:

In the Chrysler deal, the [United Auto Workers] were unsecured creditors and the Chrysler bondholders were secured creditors. The bondholders received 28% of the value of their $6.9 billion in bonds in cash; the Union will receive stock worth approximately $4.2 billion, and a note for an additional $4.58 billion, which represents 82% of the value of their claim. Either the government negotiators have dyslexia and have made a terrible mistake in their paperwork, or this is political payoff writ large. Is this not the equivalent of financial waterboarding? And thus we enter a brazen new era of government, when the White House is openly complicit in the theft of, as a matter of fact is directing, the looting of private property from investors. Welcome to the Rule of Man, or as the President calls it, change we can believe in!

Yes. Welcome to the new "culture war": Statist progressivism vs. Free markets and entrepreneurs. Roger Kimball has a longer post on what's at stake. This President's wealth and freedom killing agenda is nothing if not "audacious."

My print column on Dr. Jerry Lazaroff, who was acquitted of child molestation charges, is up.

Ruth Marcus attempts to defend Obama's promise to nominate "empathetic" judges to the Supreme Court.

I admit to a bit of wincing at the word "empathize," with its sensitive-new-age-guy aura. If I thought Obama was advocating a pick-your-favorite-side approach, I'd be on the barricades too. But his position is not anything like this absurd caricature. Indeed, it reflects a more thoughtful, more nuanced understanding of the judicial role than Roberts' seductive but flawed umpire analogy.

Sounds more like she was against it before Obama was for it.

Question for Marcus: Does she agree with her "liberal" colleague Richard Cohen (see below), that denying a fireman a promotion because of his race (caucasian) is an unconstitutional violation of his rights as an American citizen? Or is that just a "more thoughtful and nuanced understanding" of how the world works (through racial mau-mauing) "outside the arid confines of the courthouse"?

Meanwhile, Richard Epstein writes that there is a place for empathy, but it's not on the bench.

Having criticized WaPo columnist Richard Cohen for his reasoning on "torture," it's only fair to acknowlege his excellent column today proposing a litmus test for the next Supreme Court nominee.

Meet Frank Ricci, fireman and victim of the worst kind of affirmative discrimination in action.

Money Q:

Liberalism, a movement in which I hold a conditional membership, would be wise to get wise to what has happened. Blatant affirmative action always entailed a disturbing and ex post facto changing of the rules -- oops, you're white. Sorry, not what we wanted. As a consequence, it was not racists who were punished, but all whites. There is no need to cling to such a remedy anymore.

Read the whole thing. Cohen nails it, accurately and bravely.

NASA's Leonard Weinstein debunks anthropomorphic global warming and it's hysterical doomsayers.

A front runner for Obama's nomination to the Supreme Court: Sonia Sotomayor.

The New Republic reports:

The most consistent concern was that Sotomayor, although an able lawyer, was "not that smart and kind of a bully on the bench," as one former Second Circuit clerk for another judge put it. "She has an inflated opinion of herself, and is domineering during oral arguments, but her questions aren't penetrating and don't get to the heart of the issue." (During one argument, an elderly judicial colleague is said to have leaned over and said, "Will you please stop talking and let them talk?")

At least she's Hispanic and has a compelling personal story, which, you know, is the important thing.

UPDATE: In the meantime, Tom Sowell writes on the danger of "empathetic" judges, of the sort Obama promises to nominate.

We prefer judges like Sister Aloysius.

Father Flynn: "Where's your compassion?"
Sister Aloysius: "Nowhere you can get at it!"

Sister Aloysius for the Supreme Court.

Upper Darby's criminals get dumber by the day.

It's not that our new emperor isn't wearing any clothes. It's that his agenda is that of a pro-huge government statist, and too few people seem to be noticing.

But Mark Steyn does.

Obama botches a joke. Big deal.

But if Bush had done it, it would have been.

The right-wing kooks at National Geographic hint at "a new ice age" thanks to a "quiet" sun.

Don't they know the debate on global warming is over? We thought the age of "junk science" was over now that Barack "I won" Obama is in the Oval Office? These conservative nincompoops need to get with the program and stop confusing the American people.

Arlen Specter blames his old party for not curing cancer.

"As a matter of principle, I'm becoming much more comfortable with the Democrats' approach."

How funny is it to hear Arlen Specter talking about "principle"? Very. It's like listening to Jimmy Swaggart talk about chastity.

Dan Abrams interviews former AGs John Ashcroft and Alberto Gonzales about national security and "torture" in front of a college audience and finds the pickings not as easy as he thought.

It has become a standard trope of the left that when a former Bush administration official is asked his opinion on these matters, to childishly shout "Who cares what these people say?"

It turns out a lot of people do. And for good reason.

Contrary to something I suggested in a column last week, I am now told that Gov. Ed Rendell has no interest in taking over Arlen Specter's senate seat when he is done with it.

I am told that Rendell was interested in leaving the governorship for a position in the Obama Administration, specifically to head the Department of Energy, but given the line of succession to the governorship, he couldn't do it.

When his term as governor is up, Rendell would much rather be Commissioner of Major League Baseball than one of a hundred talking heads in the U.S. Senate.

Also, I am told the GOP tried to recruit Tom Ridge to run against Specter but he declined on the grounds of pauperdom. Since leaving his job as the first head of the Department of Homeland Security, he is making around $50,000 a speech on the lecture circuit. Nice work if you can get it. And it comes without the hassles of raising campaign bucks.

Come to think of it, Rendell could go the Ridge road. He would be a sought after speaker or rainmaker for some big law firm.

But this still leaves Joe Sestak stuck in the slow lane packed in behind Specter's limo. He can honk and yell all he wants, he's not going anywhere fast. Rendell, a long-time political friend of Specter's, has Sestak boxed in and he's not about to let him pull out and pass the man who finally accepted his invitation join his party.

Bill Whittle provides a 17-minute history lesson on the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki for the likes of Jon "Truman is a War Criminal" Stewart and his blissfully ignorant audience.

How about this for a movie plot:

The humble son of a Pennsylvania steelworker rises to become the CEO of a large sand company. When his company is sued on bogus charges by a swarm of class action attorneys he refuses to capitulate. Instead he fights back. He exposes the corruption of the attorneys and doctors who conspire to manufacture evidence and phony diagnoses for money.

And he wins, saving his company and showing the world how corrupt America's tort system has become.

The makings are all there in the story of John Ulizio.

But is this a movie Hollywood would make. Only if the CEO could somehow be turned into a kindly, arthritic old lady ala "The Soloist."

Selling global warming? Lose "global warming."

That's the advice of one green group.

Instead of grim warnings about global warming, the firm advises, talk about “our deteriorating atmosphere.” Drop discussions of carbon dioxide and bring up “moving away from the dirty fuels of the past.”

Somehow, I see these people in the movie "Sleeper" selling Orgasmatrons.

School board buffoonery rears its head in Aston Valley. My print column is up.

On torture, Charles Krauthammer nails it.

Torture is an impermissible evil. Except under two circumstances. The first is the ticking time bomb. An innocent's life is at stake. The bad guy you have captured possesses information that could save this life. He refuses to divulge. In such a case, the choice is easy. Even John McCain, the most admirable and estimable torture opponent, says openly that in such circumstances, "You do what you have to do." And then take the responsibility.

Some people, however, believe you never torture. Ever. They are akin to conscientious objectors who will never fight in any war under any circumstances, and for whom we correctly show respect by exempting them from war duty. But we would never make one of them Centcom commander. Private principles are fine, but you don't entrust such a person with the military decisions upon which hinges the safety of the nation. It is similarly imprudent to have a person who would abjure torture in all circumstances making national security decisions upon which depends the protection of 300 million countrymen.

Read it all, especially the end when he comes to the "contemptible" behavior of Nancy Pelosi and others.

Richard Haas explains why going forward with a special prosecutor or a truth commission on "torture" is a dumb idea.
In so doing, he relates his own experiences with these sorts of political and poisonous investigations. Very interesting.

My own bet is President Obama will ultimately shoot down any such effort. He's a smart guy and he knows that such an investigation would end up embarrassing many Democrats - Nancy Pelosi for one - and distract the country from the important business at hand. It would also have great ramifications for future administrations and our national security. The left will continue to howl for prosecutions but that's what the left does.

Obama has given them more red meat to chew on by releasing the legal memos regarding harsh interrogations, but every time he talks about the issue, he screws it up more.

His citing Winston Churchill and the British during WWII as refusing to "torture" is simply not historically accurate. His claim that while harsh interrogations during the Bush administration led to actionable intelligence to prevent attacks, they were not necessary because the same information could have been gotten by other means, is completely unsupported conjecture.

He has so far refused to release documents that the former vice president says will show the effectiveness of some of these interrogations. Given that 71 percent of the American people believe that "torture" is "rarely, sometimes, or often" justified to prevent attacks this is an political argument he could very well lose in the court of public opinion.

Which is why, he will shut it down before it bites him and his party in the neck.

With the "loss" of Arlen Specter, Kim Strassel explains what the GOP must do to get its mojo back. And it has nothing to do with becoming more like big spending Democrats.

Money Q:

With a popular president now branding the GOP as the "party of no," there will be a strong Republican temptation to cut deals on health-care or energy, hoping to get credit for bipartisanship, or for making policies less bad. But the GOP will never win running as a less enthusiastic version of big-government Democrats. Washington votes are the only way for congressional Republicans to actually demonstrate a philosophy to voters, and it is here the party must reclaim its mantle of the party of limited government and entrepreneurship.

Sounds about right.
It's not as if the Democrats are suddenly the party of new and great ideas. They are reaching back to 1933 and 1965. Much bigger government, more money for welfare, more redistribution of income and higher taxes. When that all sinks in, the center will shift again.

Specter defects, Rendell smiles, Sestak pouts. My print column is up.