I thought it was a pretty good speech overall. The president was much more comfortable talking about his domestic agenda, and I thought the section on Iran could have been tougher, but overall I give it a “B”.

I was suprised to hear that Cindy Sheehan was going to be in the chamber for the speech, but not surprised to hear she got arrested for trying to unfurl an anti-war banner before the speech started. She had to do something. If she had shown the president respect, her supporters would have complained.

Jeff has all the pertinent information. For discussion, head over to NRAnews.com

Rules can be found here. We’ll be liveblogging the speech over at On Tap. I’m trying to convince Jim he needs to try to follow the drinking game rules. I myself will be too doped up on cold medicine to partake.

I heard the nominations as I drove into work this morning. Now, granted, I don’t get the opportunity to watch a lot of movies, but c’mon now. It’s all about the arty films, which is the Academy’s perogative. But I don’t watch arty movies. I’d nominate Steve Carell for best leading actor for his role in “The 40 Year Old Virgin” (Paul Rudd would get a supporting actor nod as well). I’d also nominate Ewan MacGregor for best actor (Obi Wan Kenobi in Star Wars Episode III… he WAS a young Alec Guiness).

I realize I’m probably in the minority, but I won’t be watching the Oscars (again) this year. Too many movies I’ve never heard of, too many stars I don’t care about. And it’s hosted by Jon Stewart, who’s just too smug for me.

Better luck next year, Hollywood.

Awww, look at this lil’ ol’ blog getting the moonbat love from the Cindy For Senate blog. (Scroll down, update #2)

So, unless this is all just another elaborate set up (and I suppose it probably is), this is the episode where the “evil neo-con” takes center stage.

I suppose we’ve gone four years without a conservative being demonized on the show. Still, it’s always sad to see it play out.

At least I still have “House”.

Boy, the Kos commentors really aren’t happy about the Alito closure vote. Some of the comments from this thread (warning, graphic language ahead):

-I plan on donating every penny I can afford to the primary opponent of the Senators voting “Yes” on cloture.

I’d like to fax each and every one of them to let them know.

Also that if they fail to HAVE a primary opponent, I’ll donate to the GOP. At least I know what I’m getting.

Spineless shitweasels. I hope they fucking enjoy it when Congress has all the authority of a dead titmouse.

Jesus fuckin’ Christ. What a sad ass day for Democracy. Dean was right about 2008 being too late. I’m afraid 2004 might have been too late.

We don’t have a party anymore. We just have a bunch of clueless jackasses wetting themselves every time Bush opens his mouth.

-Barely more than half the votes we needed for this, with more Senators than we thought crossing over to the dark side and letting this go through without a hitch.

It’s over then, that’s it? Complete Republican dominance of all three branches now? And you know the media is going to crow about how much of a failure our efforts were.

It’s over, then. We’ve lost. I’d hold out on hopes for a win in November, but considering our own senators handed the Republicans the final bricks to complete the wall barring us from any sort of say in the nation….

-PULL YOURSELF TOGETHER.

Freepers would love to drag this thread all over the Free Republic to energize thier base.

“Check out the feeding frenzy over on Kos” snicker snicker…

To be fair, not just the Freepers…

By buddies Jim Geraghty (of TKS fame) and Marshall Manson have started a new group blog. You can find it at www.ontapblog.com. It’s an attempt to recapture the conversations we used to have on Friday nights after “Cam and Company” was over. Hopefully you’ll enjoy it.

Someone who thinks Dianne Feinstein is a Republican in Democrats clothing (first video in link, at roughly 2:10 into the interview).

I’m officially jumping on the Sheehan for Senate bandwagon. Run, Cindy, Run!

You can encourage Cindy here (h/t to Michelle).

Friday afternoon I received one of those forwarded emails from a buddy of mine. The subject: asking people to sign on to John Kerry’s petition to filibuster Sam Alito.

The email was started by a KaufNYC@aol.com, with the message “forward away, my liberal friends”. One of those who received the message was a guy named David Kaufman, a Vice President of Affiliate Relations for ABC Radio. He forwarded on the email with his own message: “Help stop the craziness!”

Oh yeah, one more thing. He forwarded the message from his abc.com email account. I contacted Mr. Kaufman by email and asked him if he would like to comment. I received a reply this morning telling me no.

Now, this raises an interesting conversation. Sean Hannity, employed by ABC Radio, could certainly say, while on the job, “You should not support this filibuster.” Mark Levin, while on the job, could say the same thing. Should Dave Kaufman be able to say the opposite while he’s on the job?

The Bunnies take on Star Wars in 30 seconds.

Check out the Princess Leia Bunny - love the ‘do.

It’s the DESERT people. It must be a really slow day over at the Drudge Report.

Well, not all the moonbats inhabit the left side of the political spectrum. Two recent comments by conservatives really crossed the line, and I think they need to be covered.

The first was the moronic statement that Lynn Swann is the “rich white guy” running for Pennsylvania’s governor. Yeah. Stupid statement. Glad to see gubernatorial candidate Bill Scranton fired the guy who said it.

The second statement was one by Ann Coulter, who makes a living by saying things that shock people. Still, even joking that Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens should be poisioned is over the top. If Margaret Cho or Michael Moore “joked” that Antonin Scalia should be poisoned, the right would be up in arms over the remark. Just because the “joke” is directed towards the left doesn’t make it any better. I don’t think Ann Coulter will be ashamed of her remark, but she should be.

First off, I had no idea that Episcopalians even hadsaints, but the idea that former Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall should be a saint is kind of bizarre.

When it comes to sainthood, Episcopalians follow a looser procedure than the Roman Catholic Church, which conducts a rigorous investigation into the life of any saint-to-be and requires proof that he or she performed at least two miracles. Candidates for Episcopal sainthood should be figures who displayed traits such as “heroic faith,” “joyousness” and “service to others for Christ’s sake,” according to church guidelines.

Well, that clears up one question. And if the Episcopalians want to sanctify Justice Marshall, I guess that’s their business. What concerns me more is that we seem to be heading back towards the idea of “separate but equal” and segregated schools (heck, a segregated society in general). I wonder what Justice Marshall would have thought of segregation by choice, rather than law?

Has President Bush’s approval rating at “an all time low” of 43%. I’m not sure you’ll hear much chortling from the Democrats on this though, because of this:

Just 36% expressed a favorable opinion of congressional Democrats, whereas 45% viewed them unfavorably. That’s statistically the same as the showing for congressional Republicans, who were viewed favorably by 38% and unfavorably by 44%.

Looks like the Democratic Revolution of 2006 is running a little behind schedule.

…her fifteen minutes were up, Cindy Sheehan does or says something so outrageous she starts that clock ticking all over again.

When she’s not exploiting her son’s death to sell a book, or posing on his grave for a photo shoot, or getting arrested, she’s threatening her Senator in matters of advice and consent.

Anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan has threatened to run for Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s (D-Calif.) seat unless Feinstein filibusters Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito.

Sheehan, who was in Caracas, Venezuela Friday attending the World Social Forum, heard that several Democrats planned to filibuster Alito but that Feinstein, who is up for re-election in November, announced that she will vote against Alito but would not filibuster the nomination.

“I’m appalled that Diane Feinstein wouldn’t recognize how dangerous Alito’s nomination is to upholding the values of our constitution and restricting the usurpation of presidential powers, for which I’ve already paid the ultimate price,” Sheehan said in a statement.

So far, Feinstein’s not going to filibuster. Looks like we’re going to have an interesting election year.

**EDIT**

I stand corrected. Apparently Sheehan’s threat was taken seriously by Feinstein. She’s voting no on cloture.

Union protests of construction sites are increasingly featuring picketers who aren’t union. Instead, they’re homeless people, paid just above minimum wage by the unions to protest non-union job sites.

The irony of the union using non-union people to protest non-union sites appears lost on those in charge.

AFL-CIO President John Sweeney said he saw nothing wrong with unions hiring homeless people as pickets.

“The fact that the people demonstrating were not members of the union doesn’t make much difference,” Sweeney said. “What matters is that the carpenters working on the building had no health care and no pension.”

When it was noted that the homeless pickets also had no benefits, Sweeney responded: “Our hope is that those workers — that all workers — would have health benefits, but that is a bigger issue.”

Sweeney expressed the hope that the homeless protesters “may work themselves into a full-time job where they would get benefits.”

Meanwhile, the homeless protestors are paid 8 dollars an hour and get a two minute break (unpaid).

Sara alerted me to the recent lawsuit filed by the Oklahoma Education Association, seeking to force the state to pay an additional $1 billion a year in education funds.

Look, I’m not sure that the OEA is the best group to judge how much money needs to be spent on our schools. This is the organization that pays it’s state leader $160,521 a year and thinks that’s reasonable.

Besides, and I hate to be the one to tell the OEA this, but I’m sure lots of programs in the state are “underfunded”. Look at the streets you drive on. You’re telling me we’re spending enough on roads?

Well, maybe we are. And maybe we’re spending enough on education. Maybe it’s how the money’s being spent that we should look at, not just how much is being spent.

**edit**

Oh, I forgot. It’s for the children. Jeez.

Either people want to enrich the state’s children and create a viable educated pool of workers for the advancement of the state economy or they want to give the ultra-rich more tax cuts and limit economic progress for themselves and their children. It is really that simple. The lawsuit helps bring the question into sharp focus for all of us here during this upcoming election year.

The ultra-rich? Wonder if that applies to OEA’s David Duvall?

After three months and not one serious buyer, John McCain just knocked $500,000 off the sale price of his home in central Phoenix. The modest, 11,000 square foot home located in historic central Phoenix, can be yours for the bargain price of $3.75 million.

There’s an open house this Friday - but you can’t get in unless you prove you can afford to buy the house.

When you’re guilty of something, and then you accuse your opponents of doing the exact same thing to take the heat off you and your guilt…What’s that called? Projection? Transference?

Man, I really should have paid more attention in Psych 101.

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So Jim and I disagree about Joel Stein’s column on the idea of supporting the troops but not the war. I think Stein’s right, actually. I’ve never understood how someone like Cindy Sheehan can get away with saying her actions support the soldiers, but not their mission.

We also disagree on Hugh Hewitt’s cross-examination of Stein. It was good talk radio, I’m sure. Stein got beaten like a rented mule and it was amusing to read. But really, his presence wasn’t needed for Hewitt to say what he said. It easily could have been a monologue, and it certainly wasn’t a spirited discussion of the merits of Stein’s argument. There was no “there” there.

Stein says people who just throw a “Support the Troops” bumper sticker but don’t do anything else should quit fooling themselves and get active in the anti-war movement. I think if soul-searching went on, Stein would see the opposite happen. I think more people would start to actively support the troops AND their mission. So I’m all for having that public debate. In that respect, Stein’s argument is false. But when he says you can’t support the troops and not support the war, I’m finding it hard to disagree.

I think Glenn says it well:

IF KANYE WEST HAD BALLS, he’s pose as Mohammed, instead of Jesus. But he doesn’t. Efforts to be controversial have become so predictable. Yawn.

Background here.

Full disclosure: I host a show on Sirius Satellite Radio, which is a competitor of XM Satellite Radio.

Now, on with the story. Jim points out that Luke Russert, son of Tim is going to be hosting a show on XM Satellite Radio with James Carville. Jim says if he was a radio person, he’d be pretty ticked off by a sophomore in college with a famous last name getting a show.

I say welcome to radio. There is definitely a trend towards putting celebrities on the radio, regardless of whether or not they can actually host a show. Witness Janeane Garofolo and Al Franken. I’ll be honest: if I didn’t have the “brand” of the NRA, I don’t think I’d be on Sirius today (which makes me glad that I do have the brand behind me).

It’s not just radio. Look at TV. “Skating with Celebrities”. “Dancing with the Stars”. If you’re famous (or once were famous) you’re gold. If you’re not, it seems to be becoming more and more difficult to get that first chance.

So, good luck to Luke Russert. I hope his radio show is entertaining and enlightening. But honestly, I’d rather listen to Mike Steely than some college sophomore with a famous dad. He might not be famous, but he’s good.

I’m a sucker for a man in uniform. I’m a bigger sucker for a man in uniform who blogs about the positive things the US Military is doing. I’ll admit, I’m smitten.

Anyway, go check out Camp Katrina. You gotta love a blog who’s tag line is “Proving that the United States military does much more than just kill people and break things.”

(via Powerline Blog)