Today, President Bush came back with a terrific nominee to the US Supreme Court, Judge Samuel Alito, of the Third US Court of Appeals. The fact that Judge Alito is a male has yet, to my knowledge, been made an issue, but you can expect that to happen any time now, if it hasn’t already.

You know how I knew that Alito was the right pick? New York’s “other” Senator, Chuck Schumer, came out swinging. Here is an excerpt from a press conference he gave immediately following the President’s nomination:

A preliminary review of his record raises real questions about Judge Alito’s judicial philosophy and his commitment to civil rights, workers’ rights, women’s rights, the rights of average Americans which the courts have always looked out for.

Now, it’s sad that the president felt he had to pick a nominee likely to divide America instead of choosing a nominee in the mold of Sandra Day O’Connor who would unify us.

America needs unity now. America needs reaching out to one another more than ever. But the president seems to want to hunker down in his bunker and is more concerned about smoothing the ruffled feathers of the extreme wing of his party than about governing all of America and changing history for the better.

This is a watered down version of what Ted Kennedy did to judge bork in 1987 when he declared that “Robert Bork’s America is a land in which women would be forced into back-alley abortions, blacks would sit at segregated lunch counters, rogue police could break down citizens’ doors in midnight raids, children could not be taught about evolution.” I know, this is a VERY watered-down version of the low-minded attempt by Senator Kennedy to assasinate Judge Bork’s character (an attempt which was ultimately successful). Still, I believe the similarities are there; and it can only get worse from here.

But I digress…

So, when I heard Schumer immediately go after Alito, I felt my second moment of profound relief in just under a week. The first moment came when Harriet Miers withdrew her nomination, which I felt bad about even as I felt grateful for Ms. Miers’ very selfless act.

The fact that the left is getting almost immediately frothy over this nomination tells me that the President has just hit a home run. As I’ve said in the past, conservatives are eager for the coming fight with the radical left.

We want this battle. More importantly, we want the public to watch with their eyes open, so they can see exactly how desperate some on the left are to keep the courts from going back to their traditional role of INTERPRETING the law rather than creating it.

Now, if only Republicans in congress would show the same backbone that President Bush displayed for us today…

David Flanagan
Viewpointjournal.com

My favorite conference in the world, Learning 2005, kicked off tonight here in Orlando, FL. I thought I would blog my notes every evening.

Masie traditionally holds his conferences here in Orlando late in the year every year. In the past, his TechLearn Conference was the conference I would attend, but he sold that in recent years and has kicked off a new series called, simply, “Learning.” This year, of course, it is “Learning 2005.”

I LOVE this guy’s conferences. I love flying in to Orlando and checking in to the hotel, knowing that, ahead of me, I have three days of fascinating talks, events, and opportunities ahead of me. And I’ve been waiting for MONTHS for this one.

The Learning 2005 Conference kickoff events on Sunday usually set the tone for the whole conference. Every year I wonder how Elliott Masie, of the Masie Center, can outdo previous years and every year he finds a way.

This year, my family and I arrived early so that we could spend Saturday and part of Sunday, before the conference kickoff in the evening, at Disney. I walked from the hotel room to the conference area earlier today to check in and get my badge and conference stuff that I always get (a conference bag and various things from learning companies).

I checked in, but, oddly enough, I also wound up rapelling. When I went into the room set aside for conference check ins, there was a HUGE rapelling wall there as well. I guess this is the ultimate in “experiential learning.” And, seeing as how I’m totally gung ho for this kind of learning, I thought I would give it a try. I did manage to get a little more than half way up the wall before I had to rapel back down. Not bad for a complete novice.

Beyond that, the kickoff this evening was interesting as always. Here as some of my thoughts and comments:

FIRST THOUGHT: The conference began with a story by Elliott Masie of meeting a new employee, fresh from college. He is not into traditional company orientation programs (neither am I, by the way) and decided just to take the new employee to Starbucks for a sit-down and a conversation about the company and her new role.

The new employee didn’t want to do it. Instead, she asked if everything he was going to relay might be on a CD or something.

The long and the short of it was, this new employee was used to learning via the Internet. She’s a chat expert, used to using Google to find information, and email to her is ancient technology.

In other words, socializing on that level is not a comfortable dynamic for her. Rather, she is used to communicating virtually, not in the actual world, and since most communication is either body language or tone of voice, it is quite possible that real communication was too uncomfortable.

At least, that’s MY story.

So, what does this mean? Perhaps that people in my profession, corporate learning, will soon have to incorporate basic communication skills training into their lexicon of courses. Social skills training for the digitally “ept” and socially inept.

MASIE CENTER LEARNING AWARDS:
-CNN: Grace Dyson, Director of Learning(?) at CNN was awarded the first honorable mention from Elliott Masie for “Inspirational Learning.”

Elliott had been visiting CNN right around the time Katrina hit and he talked about Katrina reporting, all ofthe feeds which were coming in and reports from “citizen journalists.”

What Elliot didn’t ask was how CNN and other news organizations vetted the information coming in. This is an important point in my opinion because every network struggled with this aspect of Katrina. Eyewitness accounts were grossly misleading.

So what do we do about this now that we know how poor a job “citizen journalists” can do? Are there ways to rank the information on a reliability scale that helps news sources insert information into their regular news feed at the right time?

I think this is the ONLY real way to go. The stories generated during the Katrina disaster, which were faithfully echoed by every network on cable and regular TV were all completely wrong. There has to be a way from keeping those who report the news out of the news, if you know what I mean. They should report, not become the subject of reports because of their reporting.

Overall, CNN seems to have done a really phenomenal job helping people to learn on the job. Making the learning very hands on and very relevant to their jobs. Exactly the kind of learning that we need to focus on as an industry, if you ask me.

The second award went to “eLearning For Kids,” a global non-profit foundation which is attempting to provide high quality, engaging curricula world-wide for free. Uses gaming style designs to keep children engaged. I think this is an approach that is long overdue. The fact is software companies have been making money for at least a decade now by designing educational games for children. Kids take to computers easily, so designing friendly courses online for children is the right way to go.

For those of you out there who, like me, have young children, Zoo Tycoon was given an honorable mention by one of four children who were with the foundation’s President to speak about their learning experiences.

Boston Scientific was the third company which received an award. They make
medical equipment and have helped to innovate the medical field in many ways.

One of the interesting topics of their discussion was in regards to health wikis which are out there. Apparently, there are tons of online resources. The gentleman speaking on behalf of his company gave a great tip regarding working with your doctor. He mentions that we can help ourselves by writing down our health history as it applies to whataver you are going to speak with a doctor about. It’s the best way to aid them in making a proper diagonsis.

That’s all for this evening. More coming tomorrow!

David Flanagan
Viewpointjournal.com

Just an update on the Condi Rice photo post that I put up this morning showing photos from Yahoo Espana and USA Today’s online edition of the same photo of Condi Rice, but with the USA Today version of the photo looking somewhat doctored. USA Today’s VP/Editor-in-Chief Kinsey Wilson left this response to my post:

I’d like to explain how that happened. USATODAY.com, like other news organizations, often adjusts photos for sharpness and brightness to optimize their appearance when published online. In this case, a USATODAY.com editor sharpened the photo and then brightened a portion of Rice’s face. Those changes had the effect of distorting the photo and failed to meet our editorial standards for accuracy and integrity. The photo has been replaced with a properly adjusted copy and an editor’s note has been published here: http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2005-10-19-rice-congress_x.htm. The photo did not appear in the USA TODAY newspaper.

The editors of USATODAY.com will make every effort to ensure that something like this doesn’t happen again.

Kinsey Wilson
VP/Editor-in-Chief
USATODAY.com

I certainly appreciate the fact that Kinsey took to the opportunity to respond personally to my post and I when I do get these kinds of responses from members of the media, I try always to give them equal time by reposting their message.

At the same time, I want to offer up my amateur perspective on this issue. While I’m certainly not a full-time graphic artist, I’ve been using tools like Photoshop and Fireworks for seven or eight years now, and I’ve done a fair amount of photo editing and retouching for websites and family photos. When I pulled up each photo, blew them up to about 800% and then layered the pictures vertically on my screen, it looked quite a bit like the eyes had been doctored a bit.

Here is a screen shot of what I just described:

FYI: The USA Today photo, which they resized and then reportedly “sharpened,” is on top and what I believe to be the original photo, found on Yahoo Espana, is on the bottom.

What do you think? I want to give USA Today the benefit of the doubt here, but, it looks to me that, at the very least, there was some sloppy work done. Was this deliberate and malicious? Probably not.

As I said, I want to give USA Today the benefit of the doubt and appreciate Kinsey’s very courteous response to my less-than-generous post. Take a look, dear readers, and tell me what you think.

David Flanagan
Viewpointjournal.com

*****Yes, I changed the title so as not to “demonize” USA Today*****

Sloppy work or a literal “demon-eye-zation” of a conservative by a mainstream media company? Take a look at these Condi photos:

Here is the photo of Rice that USA Today posted:

See the eyes? For those of you who, like me, are Stargate SG-1 fans, no Condi is NOT a Goa’uld!

Here is the original photo, which blogger found on Yahoo Espana:

Note to readers; this is not at all unusual for this newspaper. And it’s not even that great a job! Very unprofessional. I could do better in five minutes than this hack job of an edit. Shame on them!

Hat tip to Michelle Malkin.

David Flanagan
Viewpointjournal.com

Could the liberal wet dream be realized? Well, the furor grows as USNews published an article claiming that rumors were flying in Washington that, based on the investigation, Cheney was preparing to step aside as VP. Here is a bit of the article:

Sparked by today’s Washington Post story that suggests Vice President Cheney’s office is involved in the Plame-CIA spy link investigation, government officials and advisers passed around rumors that the vice president might step aside and that President Bush would elevate Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

I remain a skeptic.

David Flanagan
Viewpointjournal.com

The media drones on today regarding the Plame investigation. As I have said, and will continue to say, they are desperate to see this thing turned into “Watergate II: The Destruction of Another Hated Republican President.” Of course, the unwritten byline of this theme goes something like, “Made possible by your heroic mainstream media… See the blogs were wrong about us and we were right about Bush!”

The minor mention today goes to Katie Couric of NBC’s Today Show. This morning, they first aired a brief expose of Special Prosecutor Fitzpatrick, which seemed balanced and pretty flattering overall. I’m wondering if this is not just a nice way for the Today Show to build Fitzpatrick’s credentials so that, if he does issue any indictments, the public will already have a favorable opinion of him.

And the fact is, we should have a favorable opinion of the guy. He’s good at what he does and he seems pretty honest and fair. I’m glad he’s on the case.

After the expose, Couric interviewed one of their correspondents, asking her “how nervous” administration officials are over this investigation. Well, of course the answer is that they are all pretty nervous. No one knows anything, and so there is no inkling of what can or will happen this week or next regarding this investigation.

Overall, the Today Show gang showed restraint this morning in that they only spent about 10 minutes on the story.

The big mention, and proof positive of what I’ve been saying for weeks now, comes from an article written by Dan Froomkin in the Washington Post. Let me give you the relevant text:

Could the CIA leak investigation turn into an accountability moment for the Bush administration and the way it handled intelligence before and after taking the country to war?

There it is, a well written summarization of what I can only say is the left’s wet-dream; a minor investigation escalated into an investigation of none other than the Iraq War!

As I said yesterday, liberals, including some of those in the MSM, want the Iraq War to become a modern-day Viet Nam and the Plame investigation a modern-day Watergate.

They want it so bad, they can taste it.

They want it so bad, they can’t stop talking about it.

I’m not saying it won’t happen that way; anything is possible. I’m just saying that this has become THE obsession for most of the anti-Bush crowd.

All their hopes are centered right here, on this case, and it seems to me that this thing has been so over inflated in terms of its impact that liberals cannot be anything other than disappointed when the findings are finally released. Again, I’ll admit that I could be wrong here, but this is what my gut is telling me, and I’ve lived long enough to know that the more expectations are inflated, the more likely they are to be seriously deflated when reality comes calling.

David Flanagan
Viewpointjournal.com

Nice Op-Ed today by Washington Post columnist Anne Applebaum regarding Saddam Hussein’s upcoming trial. Here’s a relevant excerpt:

Quite frankly, it doesn’t matter whether Saddam Hussein is drawn and quartered, exiled to Pyongyang, or left to rot in a Baghdad prison. No punishment could make up for the thousands he killed, or for the terror he inflicted on his country.

But if his Sunni countrymen learn what he did to Shiites and Kurds, if the Shiites and Kurds learn what he did to Sunnis, if Iraqis come to realize that his system of totalitarian terror damaged them all, and if others in the Middle East learn that dictatorships can be overthrown, then the trial will have served its purpose.

I wholeheartedly agree.

This is a very good read. The op-ed is located here.

David Flanagan
Viewpointjournal.com

A friend referred me today to a terrific article written by Patricia Bauer, who was a Washington Post staff writer. Here is an excerpt:

Imagine. As Margaret bounces through life, especially out here in the land of the perfect body, I see the way people look at her: curious, surprised, sometimes wary, occasionally disapproving or alarmed. I know that most women of childbearing age that we may encounter have judged her and her cohort, and have found their lives to be not worth living.

To them, Margaret falls into the category of avoidable human suffering. At best, a tragic mistake. At worst, a living embodiment of the pro-life movement. Less than human. A drain on society. That someone I love is regarded this way is unspeakably painful to me.

Everyone should read this article, no matter what your views are regarding abortion. It asks the question, “what kind of society are we to be?”

Will we show mercy to the weak, or will we do away with them one way or another?

In ancient Rome, when Christianity was spreading through the known world, Christians angered many because they had a terrible habit… You see, if they found an infant or elderly person who had been left out in the elements to die, they took them in and cared for them.

Even people who were sick and destined to die, and were thus tossed out to die on their own, were taken in. The whole concept of Hospice was born out of these acts of mercy, which, at the time and in that culture, were alien and quite threatening to those in authority over the various Roman provinces.

So, are Christians part of the problem today or part of the solution? I wish I could tell you.

Probably both.

David Flanagan
Viewpointjournal.com

Driving in to work today I actually found an AM station broadcasting Air America radio. I couldn’t listen very long, though.

From the second I began listening, to the second I changed the dial, it was all about conspiracy, propaganda, corruption, scandal, etc. The guys talking might as well have been fire and brimstone preachers up on a pulpit telling us all of the evils of Satan and calling us to repentance.

Apparently, what Democrats do in Washington as a regular practice, smearing political opponents, is a deadly mortal sin for Republicans. And, also apparently, the Bush Administration duped the entire country into war in Iraq.

Hmm… I wonder about all those Democrats who, even as late as 2003 were insisting that WMDs were a real threat…

Here’s what I think happened with respect to Democrats who insisted that we confront Saddam after 9/11. Kerry, Kennedy, Clinton, et. al. all got on the bandwagon, touting the intelligence on WMDs, criticizing the President for not acting quickly enough, etc. In other words, they got in line with the President on both Iraq and WMDs.

After we took Saddam’s regime down and we began looking for WMDs, finding only a “fast ready” capability in Iraq, Democrats who were in line with the President and other Republicans, standing shoulder-to-shoulder with them so as to look like they were strong on national defense, took a collective step backward.

Have you ever seen that kind of thing? If you’ve ever seen, perhaps, a comedy spoof of a military movie, where the drill Sergeant asks for a volunteer and the whole line of soldiers takes a step back, making it look as if one person has stepped forward?

It’s basically a collective act of cowardice… A refusal to admit that, “yes, I too believed there were WMDs and that it was right to go after Saddam.”

But the President is not going to turn around and question the decision he made. We made it with the best intelligence we had. A Democratic president would have done the exact same thing or they would have lost their second-term election. We all know that.

The radical anti-war fringe, which has a great deal of influence in Washington among Democrats, hates this war, and the mainstream media is also firmly opposed, therefore, we see a lot of cover for those Democrats who once stood shoulder-to-shoulder with the President and now are claiming exactly the opposite; but that doesn’t change the facts. We went after Saddam because we could no longer afford to let the guy sit around throwing money at terrorists and wondering if he could hurt us and, if so, when he might try to hurt us.

He’s gone, Iraq is moving forward, but the leftist fringe in this country is bitter, and they believe with delusional intensity that President Bush put a spell or something on the whole country in order to take us all to war. Unfortunately, in order for these kooks to get any vindication whatsoever, we would have to lose in Iraq. That won’t happen, but it doesn’t stop anti-war fanatics and some in the MSM from hoping.

In their dreams, these folks see Iraq as Viet Nam and the Plame investigation as Watergate.

Which brings us back to the constant drone regarding the Plame investigation. Though the Air America DJs are more partisan and intense in spewing their rhetoric, there are plenty of others in the MSM who are more than willing to calmly talk the conspiracy angle, even using some of the same words, only in a calmer tone. One guest from the NY Times on Imus this morning talked of the White House propaganda regarding Iraq, which managed to dupe them into supporting the war, of course.

He also went on to talk calmly of Rove and Libby, Cheney and Bush. Saying much the same thing, that all of this with Wilson and Plame was tied to a deception regarding the Iraq war.

You see, in their minds, the Wilson/Plame issue is the lynchpin now. All of their hopes ride on Fitzpatrick bringing back SOME kind of indictment against someone (ANYONE) in the Bush Administration. Even the ones who admit that it’s a long shot that anyone could ever be indicted for outing Plame (seeing as how she wasn’t even under cover at the time), are hoping that perhaps someone was caught obstructing justice or perjuring themselves in front of the grand jury.

As Bill Clinton was caught perjuring himself in regards to his little affair with Monica Lewinski; remember? Back then, of course, perjury was not quite the capital offense it seems to have become today. It was just sex, right? What’s the matter with a little perjury over sex?

But I digress…

Liberals know that the “outing of a CIA agent” angle is not really something they can hope for, but they are hoping that perhaps Rove, Libby, or Cheney perjured themselves in their testimony.

I think that’s a long shot too… But, hey, that’s just me.

So, for now, liberals everywhere continue to drone on… Waiting for Fitzpatrick to announce his findings, HOPING for some kind of scandal to hang on to for the 2006 election and thinking that, perhaps, if they talk about it enough and WILL it to happen, it might just all happen the way they’ve imagined.

It could happen I suppose. But what if it doesn’t?

What will all those liberals say then? They’ve convinced themselves that ‘THIS IS THE ONE THAT’S GOING TO GET THE PRESIDENT!’ This is the scandal they’ve been waiting for, and it’s going to undermine EVERYTHING the President has ever done.

But what if it doesn’t happen?

What will they say?

What will they do?

THAT’s what I’m eager to see… The liberal reaction when NOTHING happens.

I’m as eager as these liberals to hear the details of Fitzpatrick’s report… But for very different reasons, of course.

David Flanagan
Viewpointjournal.com

Democrats have been crying ‘SCANDAL’ for over a year now. And trying very hard to scare up a scandal, but with very little success to date. Despite what the NY Times might intimate, all of the so-called scandals Democrats are pinning their 2006 hopes on are on the verge of desolving into nothing - which is all they were in the first place… Nothing!

Here they are at a glance:

PLAMEGATE - Did Rove, Cheney, or a white house staffer out an undercover CIA agent?

Democrats have been salivating at the thought of an indictment against one of Bush’s inner circle. But its far from clear that any laws were ever even broken, as even the NY Times has admitted. Plame was not technically undercover, and the law that Democrats have been trying to use against Rove, et. al., really does not fit into the Plame scenario. And now it is clear that Judy Miller went to jail, not because she wanted to protect her White House source, but because she did not want to answer Fitzpatrick’s questions regarding a completely seperate case having to do with a tipoff she gave to some Islamic fundamentalists that a raid was about to take place on their Mosque. When Fitzpatrick finally agreed to confine the questioning to the Plame case, Ms. Miller admitted that she was not sure if Scooter Libby was the first person who had mentioned Plame to her! That certainly does not bolster the case against Libby, or anyone else in the Bush Administration, that Judith Miller does not really know where she first got Plame’s name!

Did I call this story “Plamegate?” Sounds more like “Lamegate” to me.

RONNIE EARL VS. TOM DELAY - Did Tom Delay illegally use campaign funds?
Ronnie Earl, the Democrat who loves to indict on a wing and a prayer has really pushed himself into the spotlight this year with his indictment of Tom Delay, first on a charge of conspiracy, which, upon being challenged by Delay’s lawyer’s, turned out to be a false indictment because the law Earle was trying to use did not apply at the time in which he accuses Delay of wrongdoing. After Earle realized his case was about to disintegrate, he went grand jury shopping to try and get an indictment for money laundering on the basis of some mysterious “list” that Earle’s team had in their possession which could prove their case.

Unfortunately for Earle, the first grand jury he went to refused to indict, so he went to another grand jury, one that had just convened that day and had only recently been sworn in, and managed to convince them to indict. Now, of course, we find out that the “evidence” Earle claimed to have, he does not really have. The list they have is actually, in their own words, a “similar” list, not the actual list. Maybe Earle’s dog ate his homework?

So much for that case. It will likely crumble before long. And so might Earle’s career. They guy has a history of using his office to harass political enemies. Let’s hope that his corrupt ways finally send him into retirement.

FRIST AND HIS HCA STOCKS - This story is proof that no good deed goes unpunished.

So, Frist’s family owns a company, which means that it’s very natural for Senator Frist to own stocks, some of which are restricted. Finally, after years of holding on to his family’s company stocks, he decides to divest himself completely before his 2008 presidential bid.

So, Senator Frist asks his staff to look into the best way to do this. Meanwhile, he contacts the proper groups within Congress to let him know of his intent and to inquire as to whether or not there might be any legal concerns with this move. All lights are green, no legal concerns, no worries regarding impropriety, and he orders the sale of the stock.

Unfortunately, soon after, the stocks price plummets, and suddenly the very people who knew in advance he wanted to sell are pointing the finger at him and accusing him of insider trading. Do these doofs even know what insider trading is? Apparently not.

So now, because of the politics involved, the SEC is doing it’s due diligence, so that they can’t be accused of showing partisan favor, and looking into the whole transaction. They’ll spend a couple million perhaps on the investigation, produce an impressive report, and close the case. There’ll be no indictment because Senator Frist followed all the rules.

WHAT THEN ARE WE TO SAY?
That Democrats are desperate? I think that, based on their behaviour, this is a pretty fair thing to say.

And the very interesting thing here is that, even though President Bush and Republicans in Washington have suffered in the polls, Democrats have not gained even one point overall in the polls. People might be unhappy right now at Republicans in Washington, but they are not any more confident that Democrats can do better.

And the 2006 elections are a year away. Plenty of time for all this silliness to blow over.

Which is exactly what will happen.

David Flanagan
Viewpointjournal.com

I guess the President has really stepped in it this time. This time, fellow conservatives are the ones who are unhappy. As the old saying goes, “with friends like these, who needs anemone’s?”

Over the past few weeks, as the Miers nomination debate continued to heat up, with the vast majority of major conservative voices expressing their desire to see the nomination pulled, I have, for the most part, stood on the sidelines. That won’t change today.

That said, I do want to make a couple of observations.

MISTAKE, MISTAKE, MISTAKE!
First of all, I do personally believe that Ms. Mier’s nomination was a mistake. I have no doubt that she is an honest, intelligent, over-achiever who has distinguished herself in her career. You look at her resume, and you know that much for sure.

I don’t think that we should care as much that Ms. Miers is likely an evangelical Christian who is likely staunchly pro-life. I am an evangelical Christian who is staunchly pro-life too. Should I be nominated for the “Associate Justice” position?

Okay, you can stop laughing now; that was a rhetorical question.

And the fact is, the majority of Christians I think want someone who is both a judicial conservative AND over-qualified for the job of Associate Justice. We don’t want JUST one of our own, we first want someone like a Janice Rodgers-Brown who we are certain will impress the nation during her confirmation hearings and go into the role as a justice who has already distinguished herself and whom we know can influence her peers.

Long story short; conservatives in general and conservative Christians in particular want a judicial conservative, not necssarily an evangelical Christian, to take his or her place on the bench. We want the right person for the job, and there are just too many other awesome candidates out there for us to be happy with an unknown like Miers.

SILENCE FROM THE LEFT
Secondarily; over the past few weeks, while watching the media coverage of this story, it struck me as very odd that liberal voices and opinions are being almost completely ignored by the MSM right now. We have a wall of silence when it comes to liberal/Democratic opinions regarding this nomination. To me, this is very telling.

Why would the mainstream media NOT give their traditional blanket coverage to Democrats and/or liberals on a topic of such import?

I think it’s because some liberals in the MSM are hoping that this is the beginning of a giant rift between the President and his die-hard supporters, both in alternative media as well as among mainstream conservatives. By covering this rift in detail, some of them may also be hoping to accentuate it and, perhaps, make it seem as if the Republican Party is experiencing a Katrina-like crisis.

More on this point in a minute.

The liberal silence may also later allow liberals and/or Democrats, if Ms. Mier’s nomination is pulled or she is not successfully confirmed, to then say to the public, “see, this is what conservatives do to career women; marginalize them, if not actively discriminate against them. Remember this as you vote in 2006; Republicans are narrow-minded.” Would such a charge stick? I doubt it, but liberals do love this kind of rhetoric.

Okay, back to the current Miers debate. To me, the real fascination is that this kind of heated debated is taking place at all among conservatives.

And I’ve found myself reacting (depending on the day) in a couple of different ways:

• At times, it gets to bee too much. Hours of talk show hosts discussing every greulling detail, with experts calling in to debate each other and the host. After a while, I just have to turn music on to tune it all out.
• Overall, I’m very encouraged by the quality and tone of the debate.

You see, I’m one who believes in healthy debate; and the debate over Ms. Mier’s nomination is, on the whole, a very healthy one. We’ve needed this kind of debate for some time now and thank goodness we are finally having it! We need to figure out where we are going to draw that line between loyalty to one person, our President, and our principles.

President Bush obviously is a human being, not the Pope. Let’s not be surprised when he presents us with human qualities that may lead him to a decision with which we disagree. And this debate is a great one to have. Long overdue if you ask me.

This is nothing less than democracy in action… So why is everyone worried (or elated, depending on your political affiliation) about a possible rift in the GOP? This process is partly about the need to remind our elected officials that they are… well… elected officials! The other element here is simply the ongoing dialogue that conservatives have long valued so as to generate ideas, discuss differences, and promote unity. Sometimes the best way to a resolution is to have a good, healthy argument.

And that is what you are seeing now.

Republicans in Congress, as well as the administration, should understand that conservatives are ready and willing, even eager, for a major confirmation fight in support of the right nominee. So ready, in fact, that they are willing to touch off a major debate within their own party to get to the real fight with liberals in congress and the special interest groups which support and influence them.

We are more than ready for a big fight over judicial reform. We’ve been waiting for this fight to occur for at least the last couple of decades.

This in-house debate is just a warm-up for the real fight we’ve been long seeking with liberals. Republicans in Washington should feel very confident that we are behind them when it comes to bringing a well-known, highly qualified candidate to the nomination process. No matter how much money liberal special interest groups spend to marginalize the Janice Rodgers-Brown’s of the world, conservatives will continue to support their efforts. We want nothing less than a true judicial conservative appointed as the next Associate Justice of the US Supreme Court.

David Flanagan
Viewpointjournal.com

I saw a bit of the Today Show on NBC this morning. A fun show, but one which leans constantly left.

I have no problem with that, by the way. It gives me things to write about.

Periodically, they will invite Chris Matthews of “Hardball” fame on MSNBC to come on the show and discuss political topics. Now Chris Matthews is a funny and intelligent guy. At the same time, he’s as much a liberal partisan as Rush is a conservative, but you never hear that on the Today Show.

They’ll introduce conservative commentators and columnists as “conservative,” but they never use the “L” word when liberals come on the show. Why?

Because they all lean left to one degree or another.

So, this morning, listening to Chris and Katie discussing Rove, Cheney, Plame, and Wilson, I learned something valuable…

When libs like Matthews go to bed at night, this is what they do; they get down on their knees and utter a prayer like this one (as you read this, think Ben Stiller during the prayer scene in “Meet the Parents”):

Oh great deity… thing… Who or whatever you might be. Please, oh great deity… Can I call you that by the way?

Anyway, who or whatever the hell you are… Or think you are for that matter.

I was wondering, and I’m not begging here by any means but, obviously I’m hoping that you and I are of the same mind on this…

If you are, then what I’m hoping, what so many of us are hoping, is that you’ll basically give us Karl Rove and Dick Cheney’s political heads on a platter, so to speak.

And if it helps convince you at all of my sincerity then I’ll also say ‘pretty please with sugar on top.’

Okay? Well… This is me, you know who, signing off for the evening… Whoever you are.

I’m afraid that libs like Matthews are going to wind up being disappointed yet again. Fitzpatrick, the special prosecutor, is not going to come back with any indictments because no crime was committed, as even the New York Times has underscored on several occasions. The first person to out Valerie Plame was, of course, Joe Wilson, Valerie’s husband.

But, of course, as even Joe Wilson knows, you can’t “out” someone who is not under cover. Ms. Plame had been back in the states at a desk job for almost five years, had been to many social functions with her husband, and was even interviewed with her husband by US Magazine! You can see their picture, both of them together, right on the cover of the magazine no less. It’s laughable, not indictible.

And most people know it. But it doesn’t stop, or even slow, all the wishful thinking that is going on in the media right now.

Oh well. I think that Matthews has gotten used to disappointment by now. This won’t be all that unfamiliar a feeling.

David Flanagan
Viewpointjournal.com

Articles like this one, entitled, “What Was Bush Thinking, from Peggy Noonan are why I think she’s one of the wisest and most balanced minds relating to political commentary. Here’s an excerpt from a wonderful piece she posted last week:

The headline lately is that conservatives are stiffing the president. They’re in uproar over Ms. Miers, in rebellion over spending, critical over cronyism. But the real story continues to be that the president feels so free to stiff conservatives. The White House is not full of stupid people. They knew conservatives would be disappointed that the president chose his lawyer for the high court. They knew conservatives would eventually awaken over spending. They knew someone would tag them on putting friends in high places. They knew conservatives would not like the big-government impulses revealed in the response to Hurricane Katrina. The headline is not that this White House endlessly bows to the right but that it is not at all afraid of the right. Why? This strikes me as the most interesting question.

You can read the rest of the article here, at the WSJ’s online opinion section, Opinionjournal.com.

David Flanagan
Viewpointjournal.com

I think Matt Lauer had the right of it when he called Curtis, Jenn, Kimee, Karla and Shaun (the cast of Hi-5 for you poor uninitiated souls) the children’s equivalent of “John, Paul, George, and Ringo.” Really, that is the only thing to adequately explain what I witnessed this weekend during a Hi-5 concert at Sesame Place in Langhorne, PA.

I know what you are thinking… “This weekend?! The sky started falling on Friday and didn’t stop, much less slow down, until Sunday morning! No way all those fans, and the cast as well, would endure an outdoor show in that mess!”

Well, yes and no.

The sky did fall for two days and Hi-5 and all their fans DID show up for the concert. I have the video to prove it!

Friday evening, Julie and I packed the van, buckled the girls in their car seats, and began the Annapolis-to-Langhorne trek. It was a BRUTAL trip, driving for almost three hours in the pouring rain. We arrived at the same Courtyard Marriott where we stayed before (ten miles from Sesame Place), checked in, and put the girls (as well as ourselves) to bed.

Of course, the girls didn’t sleep well that night. So my oldest woke me up at 5:30am and couldn’t get back to sleep. We looked out the hotel window and… well, lets just say that I kept expecting to see Noah’s Ark floating by at any minute.

Long story short, we set the girls’ expectations as best we could about the day’s events, went to Sesame Place expecting to hear that everything was cancelled and were told that the show would go on! “This is going to be interesting,” I thought. And it was.

The concert area was semi-covered, meaning they had a fancy tarp-like arrangement above us, with plenty of open spaces to allow plenty of rain to come through and soak the majority of us. At times, the wind would gust and push some pockets of water down onto people heads. Thank goodness that it was at least a warm day.

Sometimes the rain lessened, and sometimes it came pouring down, but, one way or another, Hi-5 fans were there, and so was Hi-5. And yes, the Hi-5 mosh pit formed again during the second show of the day as the children defied the Sesame Place security to gather round the stage to dance. And yes, just as before, my youngest daughter (now two and a half) was one of the first defiant ones to move stage-ward!

And we stayed for two shows!

It was certainly an experience. And I have to say again that the Hi-5 cast is a hard working group. Under ordinary circumstances, no way in the world would I have shown up to a concert on a day like that.

But the Hi-5 cast and crew were there, with everything set up and ready to go, enduring all the complications of a major storm, with rain blowing sideways at times, and big splatters of water pouring off of the tarp above around the concert area at times, and they just thanked everyone for being there and went on with the show.

And when problems occurred, as they must in such extreme conditions, they sailed right on, not looking the least bit ruffled. “Good show,” as the English might say.

Of course, the fans were great too. At least the Cast had solid cover above (good thing, or they would have been electrocuted), but the fans had a lot less, and everyone seemed to be just fine. The kids of course, acted as if they were having the time of their lives.

Marleigh and other two-year-old were standing on the stairs leading up the left side of the bleachers during the first show. They found a spot where there was a lot of water sloshing down from one of the tarps above and just stood under it, faces pointed up to get splashed!

Water Park indeed!

Unfortunately, the cast stayed at a different hotel this time. Bummer. Oh well, maybe next time.

Finally, let me mention that we picked up a very nice new CD at the Hi-5 show, It’s a Hi-5 Christmas. We listened to it about 10 times on the way home and it’s very well done. There are at least a couple of great original songs, including “Santa Claus is Coming,” which I believe was written by the show’s producer.

The CD really highlights the cast’s voice skills. If you are a Hi-5 fan then I highly recommend the CD.

You know, I recently heard of a minor debate regarding the strengths of individual Hi-5 cast members. I never commented because I thought the debate to be quite silly and meaningless. The cast was chosen, first of all, in an exhaustive process which eliminated hundreds of other candidates. Secondly, this cast was chosen because their talents and skills are complementary, not redundant.

The Christmas CD proves my point. Listen to them sing, without the dancing or all the theatrics, and you’ll know how well chosen they all are. I’ve spoken with nearly every cast member and seen them many times on TV and live. They are all incredibly nice and wonderfully talented, and they have worked very hard to build their own success and the success of the show.

In July, the cast was on that same stage in sweltering heat, sweating so much that the tape for their head gear was falling right off their faces. This weekend, they were on stage with rain and water pouring around them and their fans, taking minor problems in stride as they tried to put on the very best show for all those loyal fans who came in the worst weather imaginable.

In every way they and their crew are a hard working, professional bunch. Impressive to say the least.

Nuff said.

David Flanagan
Viewpointjournal.com

I’m not the biggest Stern fan, but certainly the guy has earned an amazing amount of success in the radio biz.

Though not his first job in radio, Stern launched himself in a major way here in the Washington DC area. Unfortunately, after making a name for himself, he decided to capitalize on a horrible plane accident (”Hello? Air Florida? I was wondering if I could get a ticket to the 14th Street Bridge?”) to get himself fired so that he could sign a lucrative deal with NBC in New York City.

So, as I said, Stern brought himself to the pinnacle of radio dominance. And he did that by taking enormous risk and by using his talents to break new ground in radio. The term, “Shock Jock” was invented for Stern. I’m sure if you look the term up in the dictionary, his picture will sit right next to the definition. And, of course, Stern still rules the Shock Jock roost.

For me, however, there’s too much shock to appeal to my conservative nature. At the same time, the capitalist in me completely respects the success he’s earned.

And now Stern is poised to leap into a new radio frontier, satellite radio (or, as Don & Mike call it, “cable radio”). As an XM subscriber, and someone who spends 3+ hours per day on the road, satellite is a winner! Almost any kind of content you could want, on demand; it’s terrific.

While Don Geronimo took time to badmouth “cable radio” today, eventually, it will attract some of radio’s brightest talents the same way cable tv does. But not until after Stern teaches that industry an important lesson.

Or, it might be more accurate to say, not until after Stern teaches the satellite radio industry, in general, and Sirius, in particular, 500 million lessons!

Because that is what Sirius has agreed to pay Stern over the next 5 years… 500 MILLION DOLLARS! Wow!

Sirius cannot afford that kind of money, and I just don’t think Stern listeners are going to flock to Sirius in droves, pay the $12.95 monthly fee, then pay a rumored $10 per month fee on top of that to listen to Stern. As you know, that adds up to $22.95 per month! Will millions of Stern fans go out and pay $100.00 for satellite equipment, then $22.95 per month to listen to their favorite jock?

I have my doubts.

In the end, Stern is going to get his money. Win or lose, he’s golden. Even if the whole thing bombs, he’ll still walk away with HALF A BILLION dollars in five years.

Sirius, on the other hand, is the one taking the enormous risk. If it doesn’t work out, then XM may wind up purchasing Sirius in a couple of years at a bargain basement price.

Okay, I’m joking a bit here, but it truly is that big of a risk. It will be very interesting to see how this things work out.

David Flanagan
Viewpointjournal.com

It’s all a plot you know. The Miers nomination, I mean.

It’s in the VRWC (Vast Right Wing Conspiracy) Handbook. Chapter 3 (”Stocking Federal Courts With Ultra Right-Wingers), Section C, paragraph 5, sentence 4 to be exact!

The President nominates a candidate who is a complete unknown with no judicial experience, but a distinguished legal career who really is a closet ultra right-wing conservative determined to overturn Roe v Wade and turn the US into a theocracy. This nominee, of course, has had her career carefully shielded from the media so as to look like a complete mismatch for the role of Associate Justice (never mind the fact that there have been 40 other Supreme Court picks with no judicial experience who have served honorably).

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, conservatives and conservative organizations all pretend to be unhappy, nay, outraged over the President’s pick. Thus Democrats and liberals in the MSM (ever ready to underestimate Bush), believing they have succeeded in intimidating the President, rush Meirs’ nomination process.

Little do they realize that is EXACTLY what all of us ultra right-wing neocon vast right-wing war-mongering chickenhawks want! Democrats have just spelled their own doom (you know… D-O-O-M)!

Muahahahahahaha!

Muhahahahahahah!

MUAHAHA… Cough, cough, cough, cough!

Sorry. Have a little cold.

David Flanagan
Viewpointjournal.com

I’m not sure what got me thinking about the topic of “Reparations” today. For those of you who are not sure what I’m talking about, just go to Google and type the word “reparations” and you’ll get oodles of hits.

You’ll find links to websites advocating reparations, white papers, blogs, speeches from local, state, and federal officials, etc. You’ll find no end of opinion going back and forth on the issue.

I could go on at length myself, having heard this debate many times, and I generally do not favor reparations. The reasons against this idea are legion.

First of all, we fought a huge war to free blacks in the 1860’s. That is actually how my family earned its citizenship. We were tired of being hungry and oppressed by the English in Ireland, I guess, so came to the US on the promise of citizenship for anyone that enlisted into the military for the duration of the war. So my great great great great great (I think) grandfather came over and joined the US Navy in the fight against the Confederacy.

After the war ended, he was given an honorable discharge, which he then used to apply for citizenship. We still have the paperwork given to him by the Navy in fact. He was honorably discharged on November 8, 1865. And in writing this post, I just realized that, in a little over a month, my family will be able to celebrate 140 years of US citizenship… Whoa!

But I digress…

That war was huge in terms of costs, especially when you consider that more Americans (black and white) died in that war than any war before or since. Unfortunately, the scars of that war still remain. The confederacy is DEAD, yet people continue to take pride in flying the old confederate flag.

And so the emotional scars of a terrible war remain, and there is no doubt in my mind that those scars have adversely effected the hopes and opportunities of blacks in the US. It took another 100 years AFTER the Civil War before we really took on the issue of institutionalized racism in this country. Thanks to people like Martin Luther King, we are all freer today.

Then, in 1964, President Johnson declared a war on poverty and since then, we’ve poured untold billions into efforts to equalize society. Has it been just billions? Doubt it. How about tens of billions? Maybe.

It’s probably more like hundreds of billions that have been spent to try and “repair” some of the very obvious disadvantages that African Americans have had to live under since before we were even a nation. Despite all the money that has been spent, problems persist, that is sure and certain.

Are we a perfectly free society today? Yes and no. The racism we deal with today is much more subtle and I firmly believe it continues to adversly effect blacks in this country. At the same time, overt racism is far less prevalent today.

All this to say, I still lean away from reparations. First we should look into how much money the US has ALREADY spent to try and repair some of it’s past errors. I’m betting the money spent is daunting in size.

Then we need to see what programs have made a difference and which ones have not or, worse, have hurt more than they helped. With every government program comes consequences that were never intended, much less planned for. Welfare, for example, helped those in poverty, but it virtually destroyed families below the poverty line because it paid women for NOT getting married. By the way, it just so happens that single-parenthood is one of the leading causes of poverty.

So, what welfare actually does, in effect, is help create the conditions which keep unmarried women in poverty, as opposed to the intended purpose of helping them get out of poverty. At the same time, welfare did more to destroy the family unit in poor communities than communism.

Your tax dollars at work.

So, what would be the impact of what I like to call “The Big Payoff,” and how would the federal government pay it out? Would they make payments individually or to interest groups to be distributed?

You know that this is what these special interest groups want, right? Just pay them the billions and then they’ll distribute it from there. Rightttttttt! That’ll happen.

And WHO gets paid; meaning, which families? What if the government is unable to verify someone’s status as a bonafide descendent of a slave? What if some parts of the family tree had actually been slave OWNERS, as some African Americans were in those days, while other parts had been slaves? Do they get a partial payment?

I’m sure the issue is more complicated than any of us can imagine. After all, some African Americans were brought over as slaves but earned their freedom during the American Revolution. The Continental Army, after all, was the most integrated army the country would see right up until the Koren War.

But do freedmen (as they were called) deserve some compensation? If memory serves, I don’t think any Continentals ever wound up being paid for their service during the American Revolution… Perhaps we need to track down their heirs and pay them too?

Oh my head!!

But lets say all the details are worked out and legislation enacted to recompense African Americans who were wronged… Then what?

Will all be forgiven? Will organizations promoting this cause simply disband? Will they issue an official pardon? Will they drop the issue altogether, or will they continue to target companies which were once remotely or directly connected with the slavery industry?

All those are important questions. And I’m sure there are a thousand more relevant questions I’ve failed to ask here.

But my big question is this… Will money REALLY resolve all grievances once and for all?

That is what I want to hear from groups like NCOBRA, ARM, The Rainbow Coalition, and the hundreds of other groups, large and small, which are calling for reparations. If the US government makes the Big Payoff, then what?

Inquiring minds want to know.

David Flanagan
Viewpointjournal.com