One Hand Clapping has this:

"My wife is the director of a preschool and pre-Kindergarten run by a local United Methodist Church (not mine). Every year her school is inspected by the state's regulatory and licensing agencies. If the school does not pass the inspections, it can be closed by the state. There are a lot of different inspections at the school year's beginning. Please note that this is a private pre-school. Today she went shopping in preparation for an inspection coming up this week. It was for a doll. She told me that the state licensing agency requires that her school have three dolls of at least two different races. Of course the school may have more than three dolls, but it may not violate the "two races per three dolls" ratio."

I have a dream that in every state government workers will go in and do a racial headcount on the dolls. I have a dream.

Our top story tonight is that crime is down along with political posturing. One of the big problems the Bush Administration has is not getting out in front of stories like this and taking credit, deserved or not, like the Clinton Administration seem to do at the drop of a hat. With no one spinning the story from the administration the news media is left to its own devices and raw data and has to come up with some analysis based on something that they did not have to do in the past - research.

Crime was supposed to go up. Conventional wisdom says more unemployment equals more crime. So now reporters have to go out and interview some faceless "experts" to figure out why crime went down instead of up.

"Experts say a number of factors have driven the crime rate down, including a more mature, less violent illegal drug trade, a drop in gang membership and even improved home locks and alarms that deter would-be burglars. "

You can read the Bureau of Justice's crime statistics here. A very good discussion can be found here.

Scorecard:

Okay, as promised, here's what I think of the candidate's websites in general and use of available technology.

Dean, Kerry and Graham have blogs but Dean's is a true blog. Kucinich, Bush and Lieberman have links to supporters, etc. that I like. Braun has a comprehensive set of links to every kind of organization there is. Bush, Kucinich, and Kerry have links to past speeches. All of them have places where you can donate money. Kerry, Edwards, Dean, Sharpton, and Gephardt have videos. Dean, Braun, and Kerry have a link to Meetup. Gephardt's site looks like it is being run by a bunch of college freshmen. Edwards actually has "Welcome to my website" on his website. Bad, bad. Lieberman's takes a looooonnnng time to load maybe because it is so popular? Joe has a graphic/html that allow you to set up link back to his site. Bush has a neat news script you can use on your website (look over in the lefthand column).

Political websites should:

and we have socialized medicine don't let this happen to you

From the BBC:

Valdemar Lopes de Moraes, 39, was suffering from muffled hearing, and thought his name had been called out in the waiting room at a clinic in the town of Montes Claros in south-eastern Minas Gerais state, Reuters news agency reported.

He promptly went into a consulting room - where a doctor was performing vasectomies.

The staff had really called out Aldemar, not Valdemar - but they say they gave the full name, Aldemar Aparecido Rodrigues, of the man who was scheduled for the snip.

"The strangest thing is that he asked no questions when the doctor started preparations in the area which had so little to do with his ear," said clinic manager, Vanessa Guimaraes.

Mr de Moraes, a local farmer, later told staff he thought his ear inflammation had reached as far as his testicles.

The father of two, who had the vasectomy last week, turned up at the same clinic on Wednesday for the ear examination he failed to get the first time - but made no request for a reversal of the operation.

Al Franken, the liberal community's big hero for illegally infringing on someone's trademark, set a new scumbag low for investigative journalism. He deliberately used the letterhead from Harvard's University's Shorenstein Center for Press and Politics at the Kennedy School of Government without persmission (He is Al Franken and Al Franken doesn't have to ask persmission.) to send letters asking various people in public life about their sex lives while posing as Al Franken, serious researcher. The school was not pleased. The letter claimed that other individuals had sent in responses to his request. This, of course, was totally untrue.

The liberal community is probably vigorously slapping their thigh and saying "That Al, isn't he funnnnny!" Al Franken sent an abject, groveling letters of apology to everyone involved. He then tries to whitewash his scurrilous behavior by daintily calling it an "imprudent attempt at satire" at the same time releasing the letters to the media in order to get maximum media coverage for his supposedly funny below the belt slap at the Attorney General of the United States. Al tries to cover up his mean-spirited smear with the worn-out it is just satire excuse again. It is obvious what Franken had in mind when he sent the letter to Attorney General Ashcroft, who is a minister, then released the contents. Satire? Hardly. This man is sick.

Does Al Franken had any idea what the word "tarnishment" means? He is about to find out.

Okay. Where is it? The governor of Arizona said that there is plenty of gasoline in the valley (the Phoenix metropolitan area) and that no one should panic. As she said this 3 of the stations closest to my house were closed down because they didn't have gas and one was selling gas for $2.54 a gallon and had cars backed up into the street waiting to buy it. Government officials are measured by how they handle crisises. Governor Napolitano is doing a great job handling this crisis here in Arizona. The main gasoline pipeline between here and Tucson/El Paso broke a couple of weeks ago and things have gone down hill from there.

The blame gamers are at it big time. The owner of the pipeline, Kinder-Morgan, comes under fire naturally. Next, America's liberal punching bag, President Bush, is blamed by some misguided souls with troubled minds that have nothing to do while they sit in gas lines. Even the governor, who is doing all she can, catches flak. One complainer writes: "Anyway, just who is responsible for this mess? It's probably the current Bush administration trying to return the AZ Gubernatorial seat to a republican. Which I'm sure is part of the bigger conspiracy that started in CA.". Another chimes in with this (this person posted 10-15 similar posts throughout the gasoline shortage forum where I found this particular one.): "Price Gouging by the Oil Companies is EXACTLY what can be expected when our federal government is run by rich, greedy good ol' boys from the Oil Industry." Even Kerry's campaign worker blamed Kerry's total ignorance concerning how to order and eat a philly cheesesteak sandwich on President Bush so laying blame on the president is nothing new. Desperation Time for Democrats is just around the corner. You can feel it in the air.

It is not a good time to have a big SUV or monster pickup truck. 30-40 gallons in one of those big gas hogs will cost $75-$100 for a fill up if the gas can be found. I hope they enjoy the ride as old Betsy takes big swigs from the trough each mile she goes down the road. Our local Valley Metro Park and Ride facility has more and more cars in it each day as drivers cannot afford to pay $5-$20 to drive back and forth to downtown Phoenix from the suburbs each day and are hopping the express busses. Maybe things will be back to normal in a couple of weeks. Meanwhile we are going to have to miss going to play bunko tonight in order to save gas.

Given the choice between a one day electrical black out and no gas or gas lines at the pumps I would take the black out.

Who wrote this speech for Gray Davis?

Gray Davis:

Call me old fashioned — and I am — call me old fashioned, but I believe when an election is over the people have spoken and it's time to get to work and do the public's business

William Jefferson Clinton:

But I want to say one thing to the American people. I want you to listen to me. I'm going to say this again. I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky. I never told anybody to lie, not a single time – never. These allegations are false. And I need to go back to work for the American people.

Then there is this gem:

And while the Bush administration spends its time peering into our bedrooms, our homes and our libraries, I have been working with Democratic legislators in Sacramento to pass the toughest financial privacy law in America.

Ummm, Governor? Financial privacy laws will keep President Bush out of our bedrooms, homes, and libraries? Gee, thanks for helping us out there, Governor. Your problem seems to be not that you are not keeping your eye on the ball, but being aware that there is even a ball there.

I can see why the vast majority of voters in California want this guy to take a hike.

As I travel through the blog universe I sample other blog's fare especially if they seem to be well-known and respected. Most political blogs are fiercely partisan. I do not have a problem with that. It is when they lie and totally misrepresent things do I get annoyed. There is one liberal blog where I pop in and point out what is being said is a total fabrication and wait for the bloggers defenders to crawl out of woodwork. Of course, I have plenty of proof that the blogger is lying and usually my post to his comment page on that particular subject is the last one or he removes his post altogether. That has happened 3 times so far.

Today I ran across another well-respected and oft-quoted blog that contained enough errors and lies to keep me busy for a week. The blog did not have a comments function so I had to email the owner of the blog. Here is part of one of his posts concerning Dr. Condoleezza Rice, President Bush's National Security Advisor and former provost at Stanford University:

Of course, Condi doesn't appear to know jack-squat about the civil rights movement. One of her most famous lines about nation building from the 2000 campaign is "It is not the business of the 82nd Airborne Division to escort children to school in Kosovo." Here is a picture of the 101st Airborne escorting children to school in Little Rock, Arkansas. *shows picture of troops with children in Little Rock*

First, the situation in Little Rock was a domestic disturbance that required US troops to enforce US law because the State of Arkansas would not. In Kosovo, US troops were there as peace keepers to stand between two warring groups, not to enforce US law or to nation build. The Kosovo and Little Rock situations are entirely different. The statement that the blogger used was taken out of context and erroneously used to smear Dr. Rice. Second. This is my email to the blogger.

I always love it when someone tells a black person raised in Birmingham, Alabama during the 1950's and 1960's that they don't know jack-squat about the civil rights movement. One of Rice's school friends was killed in the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing in Birmingham and she does not know jack-squat about the civil rights movement? If a black person living in Alabama in the 1950s did not know what racism was, who in the hell does?

and this was his response:

If only the 82nd Airborne was there in Birmingham to protect the church. Oh wait, that's nation building. Seeing as how she forgot the role of the 101st Airborne in escorting children to school. I would say that yes, she doesn't know jack squat, or at least forgets the parts that conflict with her worldview. More to the point, I haven't heard anyone accuse the Iraqis of being incapable of democracy. In fact, the only place that particular phrase turns up is in the Texas declaration of independence, in reference to Mexicans.

I have a very hard problem understanding what point he is trying to make if he is making one. This is a typical empty-headed, cute response from a liberal when they caught with their pants down.

In the other part of his post he includes part of Dr Rice's speech to make a fuzzy point that she says that anyone who says Iraqis are incapable of instituting democracy is a racist. This is what he included:

"We've heard that argument before, and we, more than any, as a people, should be ready to reject it," Rice, who is black, told about 1,200 people at the National Association of Black Journalists convention. "The view was wrong in 1963 in Birmingham, and it is wrong in 2003 in Baghdad and in the rest of the Middle East," she said.

How he logically came to the point that Dr Rice was accusing someone of racism from what Dr. Rice said is beyond me. He conveniently leaves out the following paragraph from the news article about the speech which ties the two paragraphs he quoted together.

"We should not let our voice waver in speaking out on the side of people who are seeking freedom," Rice said. "And we must never, ever indulge in the condescending voices who allege that some people in Africa or in the Middle East are just not interested in freedom, they're culturally just not ready for freedom or they just aren't ready for freedom's responsibilities."

Dr Rice certainly wasn't calling anyone a racist. I cannot understand why Wyeth Ruthven would say she was.

This is getting too good not to comment on. The liberal weblogs like Eschaton and Mark A. R. Kleiman are awash in snotty remarks about the Fox News trademark infringement lawsuit againt Penguin Books and the 'humorist' Al Franken. Reading a copy of the complaint filed by Fox, we find that Penguin/Franken used the trademark "Fair and Balanced" without permission along with other visual elements associated with Fox News on Al Franken's new unreleased book "Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right". I have some experience with trademark issues and it seems to me that Fox has a good basis for a lawsuit. Penguin has acknowledged this fact by saying that their defense is going to be based on the first amendment. Keep in mind that since Fox has asked for monetary damages they are probably hoping that this is a #1 best seller so they can be awarded most of the profits Penguin makes as damages. I believe that reality will set in at Penguin and that there will be settlement and that Penguin will change their book cover.

Most trademark lawsuits are based on the likelihood of confusion standard. This is not the strongest element in Fox's case since the cover has elements of parody in it. Parody is an acceptable defense. Whether it is in this case remains to be seen. The strongest part of Fox's trademark infringement suit is the trademark dilution claim. While Franken's use of Fair and Balanced may or may not cause confusion among consumers, Franken's use of the trademark may be diluting Fox's mark by either through blurring or tarnishing it. Franken may be casting the Fair and Balanced trademark in an unflattering light by associating it with inferior goods, i.e., Al Franken. Blurring occurs when the mark is associated with dissimilar goods. By associating the Fair and Balanced trademark, which Fox uses to identify its "entertainment services in the nature of production and distribution of television news programs", with a book Franken may be blurring what services Fox's trademark is used to represent. There is an excellent source for learning more about trademark law here.

Here is a sampling of some of the comments about this matter from other blogs. They are hilarious.

"The term "fair and balanced" was in use in the English language long before FOX decided to use it as company slogan... It's just like the term "safe and sound" or "night and day" or "salt and pepper". The court will not find in favor of FOX because FOX cannot suddenly claim a generic term for their exclusive use. That would put a hell of crip on marketing world as we know it. "

"If beating the Fox ****wads in court is part of their grand strategy, I say: Let's walk right into that trap and give them what they want!" **** edited.

"They will lose, they will look like dopes, No. They will lose, and they will look like martyrs at the hands of a vengeful liberal judiciary, which only increases their credibility with their target market. The loss in court is part of the strategy. It's designed in." "That [t]rademark, like copyright, has now become a general purpose device for private parties to use the state to suppress speech they do not like."

"I hope that Franken's attorneys know they need to knock this one out of the park. No expecting the court to see their side 'cause it's the only one that makes sense. If Fox is going to bring in a dozen expert witnesses for their side, Franken better bring in two dozen. The case is too important to allow for any half-measures on Franken's part."

"So can I win a suit with the Government over the use of "... with liberty and justice for all." Aren't they misrepresenting things? Shouldn't that last part be "some" not "all"? Can I sue them to change the Pledge of Allegiance" and win?"

"the unfait and unbalanced shoudl hopefully get a comupance- Fair and balanced is not a copyright trademark - how can it be - heck it is not like Kleenex after all and of course it is a lie to boot- I think they should be called the big lie network and they should have one of their star reporters testify - that is the oh so upright and truthful Oliver North".

"Faux news is looking more and more stupid over the Al Franken law suit. This fair and balanced yuk yuk suit is biting them in the butt. I can't say I'm sorry when they have touted frivolous lawsuits in their comments saying it is because of us liberals. Ha only the truly stupid stick their foot in their mouth up to their hips. The newspapers and real news sources are laughing at them and Al Franken is laughing all the way to the bank. They have just given him the best publicity that money can't buy."

Yankee haters everywhere had their day in 2001 courtesy of the Arizona Diamondbacks. ESPN rates the Diamondbacks victory over the Yankees as the number two best moment in history for Yankee haters. The 1960 dramatic homerun by Pittsburgh's Bill Mazeroski to give the Pirates their first World Series in 35 years ranks as number one.

This is ESPN's article. Read it again and weep or smile. I'm smiling.

"For sheer drama, not many World Series topped the 2001 edition. You probably remember most of the details, so we'll just recount those final sweet moments, the ones that warmed the hearts of Yankee-haters all winter long. It's November. The series is knotted at three games apiece. AL Cy Young winner Roger Clemens starts for the Yankees, and Curt Schilling, who finished second in the NL Cy Young voting behind teammate Randy Johnson, starts for the D-Backs. Naturally, it's a pitcher's duel. The Yankees take a 2-1 into the bottom of the ninth and stand three outs away from another world championship. Mariano Rivera, he of 23 consecutive postseason saves, is on the mound to wrap things up. "I thought the game was over," New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani said. "When you have Mariano Rivera in to pitch the ninth inning, most people are thinking about spring training." As the mayor admitted, the D-Backs weren't most people. Back to the BOB, present-tense. Mark Grace leads off with a single to center field. Damian Miller lays down a sac bunt in Rivera's direction. He fields it, and tries to get pinch-runner David Dellucci on a force at second. It's a bad throw, off Derek Jeter's glove and into center. Men on first and second, no outs. Jay Bell, pinch-hitting, lays down an ineffective bunt. Dellucci's forced out at third. Tony Womack doubles, driving in a run. Score's tied at 2-2. Men on second and third. Rivera hits the next batter, Craig Counsell, to load the bases. Luis Gonzalez comes to the plate. The Yankees move the infield in. Rivera jams Gonzalez, who manages to hit a little blooper over Jeter's head. Bell scores. Diamondbacks win. Yankees denied their four straight World Series title. "

Want to know what your Advance Tax Credit status is? Go here.

The check mailing dates are:

For the first three weeks, the checks will be sent according to the last two digits of the taxpayer's social security number:

00-33 -- mailed July 25
34-66 -- mailed August 1
67-99 -- will be mailed August 8

Eligible taxpayers whose returns were not processed in time for these initial mailing dates will have their checks sent out after the IRS processes their returns.

Keep in mind if you are philosophically or ideologically opposed to the tax cuts please send your checks to a worthy cause - the Velociraptor's Golf Car Fund. Don't let getting your tax money back from the government compromise your tax cut hating principles. We are not burdened with such idealistic concerns and I badly need a golf car. We will spend your money on a nice car and help the economy grow. Everyone wins. Me, the golf car company, the economy, and you. That's a big Win-Win-Win-Win situation. And as an extra bonus, your endorsed check will buy you naming rights for the golf car and a lovely picture, suitable for framing, of the car without me in it.

Thanks Mr. President!!

Bob Snow is lucky. If Eddie's had been raided while we were in high school this could be Bob's story. Bob was the youngest and maybe the smartest member of my high school class. In our state at the time a person could get a drink over the bar at age 18. Bob was not 18. He might not have been 17. He looked like he was 15 actually. I was 18. And I was a teetotaler so I lent Bob my photo ID when we all went out for over 18 fun on cold Friday and Saturday nights. The busty barmaids at Eddie's could have cared less whether Bob's ID was valid or not and let him drink and dance the night away. Besides it was dark in the there and the barmaids probably wouldn't have even noticed the oblivous descrepancies. The only light was from beer signs on the walls. Bob was short and I am tall. Bob had nice black hair and I had brown hair (then). Bob was good looking and I wasn't. Careful use of a flashlight by cops would have outted Bob in 3 seconds.

We lived in a small town and there wasn't much else to do but go dancing at Eddie's or get some pizza at Oscar's. (I would have been a perfect designated driver if I had a car and knew how to drive. Poor is not owning a car. My family was poor.) If we had a lawsuit happy society then like we do today Bob would have been sued by Eddie's if the cops would have raided the place and closed them down for selling cold Molsons to underaged Bob. Then Bob wouldn't have made it into Harvard and would be now thinking about retiring after working 40 years at the meat tray plant. But the cops wouldn't have raided Eddie's because they were too busy busting up fights at the French-Canadian hangout downtown. Thank God for drunk French-Canadians. Eh, Bob?

I used to put pocket change in a big mayonnaise jar in our student union at college labeled "Help the Freedom Riders!'. I admired people who would put their lives on the line for something they believed and since I could not help out in more substantive waysI thought that my pocket change might help. For someone in college on loans and scholarship and who was working nights washing dishes for $1.25 an hour pocket change was a lot of money. I hope it helped in some small way. What was going on in the south and other places was truly revolutionary. Things were going to change and you could feel it. At least I could in my white-bread mind. It would take a while but it was going to happen. I lived at one time in my youth in Alabama when there were separate but 'equal' facilities for whites and blacks. There were Colored and White drinking fountains. Blacks had to sit in the balconies and on the back of the bus. Although I was young at the time I knew it was wrong and it had to change. In the sixties the changes began to happen very rapidly thanks to brave people willing to take a personal stand to end racial discrimination and segregation. Racial discrimination and segregation does not have a place in our country.

Now this in Seattle, Washington. Describing this James Taranto of the OpinionJournal of the Wall Street Journal writes:

In America, in the 21st century, there are people--even in the field of higher education--who are so bigoted that they are willing to pass up a prestigious job rather than work in a state that has antidiscrimination laws.

AUGUST 1--Oversized "American Idol" winner Ruben Studdard is suing the Alabama clothing maker who once supplied him with those colorful "205" jerseys--size XXXXXXXXL--he wore on the Fox TV talent show. In a lawsuit filed Wednesday in Jefferson County Circuit Court, the corpulent crooner claims that 205 Flava, Inc., the Birmingham couturier, is improperly using images of the swollen singer to move its merch via its web site. The two-ton troubadour is seeking a court injunction against the firm, which the elephantine entertainer estimates to have earned north of $2 million by exploiting his image. The sweaty Studdard, currently headlining the "Pop-Tarts Presents American Idols Live Tour," opted for more fashionable clothing as he advanced through the Fox competition, leaving his damp 205 jerseys behind. Below you'll find a key excerpt from Studdard's complaint. (7 pages)

This is one sharp kid:

Boy uses cell phone camera to implicate suspect who tried to abduct him

CLIFTON, N.J. (AP) — A 15-year-old boy foiled an apparent abduction attempt when he pulled out his cell phone camera and snapped photos of a man trying to lure him into a car, police said.

The teen also photographed the vehicle's license plate and gave the evidence to police, who arrested a suspect the next day.

"It's surprising the kid had the presence of mind to use the technology under duress," Detective Capt. Robert Rowan told The Record of Bergen County in Friday's editions.

The teen, whose name was not released by police, was walking home at about 7 p.m. Tuesday when a man, later identified by police as William MacDonald, pulled up beside him, Rowan said.

He offered to drive the boy to another town to look for girls, and then began "engaging in a sexually explicit conversation," Rowan said. The teen told him he wasn't interested, but MacDonald, 59, continued to follow him.

At that point, the boy took the pictures, and MacDonald got out of his car and grabbed him by the arm, Rowan said. A struggle followed, but the boy was able to break free and run away.

MacDonald was charged with attempting to lure a juvenile into a car, criminal restraint and simple assault. If convicted, he could face up to five years in state prison. He is being held on $25,000 bail.

A spokeswoman for Sprint, whose phone the boy used, said she had never heard of someone using the new technology to catch a criminal. There is, of course, other uses for phones cameras. This is one.