The Kos-muck just keeps on flowing.

Liberal Alan Colmes weighs in on Sarah Palin's pregnancy, thinks better of it, and attempts to disappear his embarrassing post down a memory hole.

What a fool!

UPDATE: Meanwhile gay feminist and cultural critic Camille Paglia watched Palin's Dayton speech and says: “We may be seeing the first woman president. As a Democrat, I am reeling... That was the best political speech I have ever seen delivered by an American woman politician. Palin is as tough as nails.”

The bounce just went out of Barack.

Looks like the Barracuda just took a bite out of his campaign ball.

The Politico reports the Palin pick is a huge hit with working women, conservatives, pro-lifers and hunters.

It seems conservative nay-sayers like Charles Krauthammer and David Frum are being drowned out by the enthusiasm of the rest of the GOP base.

Three good things this shows for the Republicans:

1. The party has nothing against ambitious, hard-charging and tough women or against working mothers.
2. It puts a very attractive female face on conservative positions and values.
3. It cements the GOP as the party interested in ethics reform (both McCain and Palin have serious records in this regard) and committed to taking on the Beltway status quo.

A diarist at the hard left-wing Daily Kos suggests that Sarah Palin's 4-month old son, Trig, isn't hers but maybe her 16-year-old daughter's who might have been raped or something.

Classy.

"Normally," writes Inky99, "I'd say this is a totally private issue for them, but seeing as how she's quite willing to butt into the private lives of every other American woman, I think it's fair game."

So because Palin is pro-life, it is fair game to publicly speculate -- based on no evidence whatsoever -- that she's a liar and her daughter is a rape victim.

Why not throw in a little speculation about incest in the Palin family too?

Charming but somehow not surprising.

UPDATE: From the news story linked to by Inky99:

"Palin noted another Alaska governor welcomed a new baby to his family while in office -- Mike Stepovich, who served as territorial governor in the late 1950s.

"Having kids and serving as governor are entirely compatible, she said.

"To any critics who say a woman can't think and work and carry a baby at the same time, I'd just like to escort that Neanderthal back to the cave," Palin said.

UPDATE II: Harvey at IMAO likes the Palin choice because it makes lefties says such dumb things.

That's the ticket? Heh.

Heh

That guy pretending to be the post-racial, post-partisan, reform-minded candidate for president is not the Barack Obama, David Freddoso has come to know. And he's researched it pretty well.

John Edwards hikes his speaking fees to $65,000 a pop.

Hey, he's got a family to support!

Wow! What a nice surprise.

John McCain has chosen Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin to be his running mate.

Here's what I know about her.

She's conservative, pro-drilling and pro-life and, like McCain, a politician unafraid of taking on her own party when it comes to reform.

She's young, 44, and probably not ready to be president but she is the only member of either ticket was some executive experience.

On a personal note, one of things Spencerblog admires and likes about about Palin is that she has five kids, one with Down Syndrome.

Some 95 percent of pregnant women who find out they are carrying a Down syndrome baby abort it. Not Palin!

Not only does she know when life begins, she knows that Down syndrome kids are just as worthy of it as the rest of us.

UPDATE: From Fred Barnes 2007 profile of Palin:

"In the roughly three years since she quit as the state's chief regulator of the oil industry, Palin has crushed the Republican hierarchy (virtually all male) and nearly every other foe or critic. Political analysts in Alaska refer to the "body count" of Palin's rivals. "The landscape is littered with the bodies of those who crossed Sarah," says pollster Dave Dittman, who worked for her gubernatorial campaign...

..."She's as Alaskan as you can get," says Dan Fagan, an Anchorage radio talk show host. "She's a hockey mom, she lives on a lake, she ice fishes, she snowmobiles, she hunts, she's an NRA member, she has a float plane, and her husband works for BP on the North Slope," Fagan says. Todd Palin, her high school sweetheart, is a three-time winner of the 2,000-mile Iron Dog snowmobile race from Wasilla to Nome to Fairbanks. It's the world's longest snowmobile race."

She also led her underdog high school basketball team to the state championship. Her nickname was "Sarah Barracuda." Contrast that with the soft, 3-point shooter at top of the Democratic ticket.

CORRECTION: The percentage of women who - when they find out they are carrying Down syndrome babies - abort them is estimated to be 85 to 90 percent, not 95 percent.

Barack Obama's historic acceptance of the Democratic nomination to be president fell under its own weight last night.

When you're making real history, it's difficult to live up to it with mere words and promises.

The forum created for Obama actually looked like THE forum. With it's giant columns, it resembled a Roman temple from which an oracle would reveal his vision of the future.

But in the end, it was the same old same old: More money for teachers. More jobs. No outsourcing. Affordable college. Better healthcare. Lower taxes for the "middleclass." And, of course, "We" are patriots too.

Obama accused his Republican opponent of being out of touch, clueless and wrong. Fair enough. But for a candidate who promises to transcend the old politics, the old ways, all this stuff is as old as the seven hills of Rome.

Maybe the problem was the setting. No one, short of a real rock star, could have succeeded in that setting. That Obama could draw such a crowd (85,000 people) is amazing in itself. But did he deliver the rhetorical goods? Did he manage to connect with the voters he needs to win this election? Not last night.

He was out-performed by just about every other important speaker at the convention, from Hillary, to Bill, to Biden to Kennedy to his wife, Michele. Obama's speech was essentially the same one he's been giving for the last six months. There were no surprises. No memorable moments.

Last night was the 40th anniversary of Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech. In a very real way, Obama's mere presence on that stage, is King's dream (and ours) coming true. A man of African-American heritage being nominated and having a real shot to become the next president of the United States.

Now, he has to win it based on the content of, not only his character, but his ideas, judgment, record and experience. It is in these areas that Barack Obama becomes a tough sell.

His ideas and voting record, skimpy as it is, reveal not only a liberal but a very liberal politician. His judgment will continue to be questioned on matters large (the war and the surge) and small (his past associations with a radical black preacher and white domestic terrorist from the 1960s) until Election Day. His experience when it comes to governing or running anything is slighter than slight. It is virtually non-existent.

In an election year where the Democrats have every advantage, they nominated a candidate who can be easily (and accurately) portrayed as too young, too raw, and too liberal for many Americans to vote for.

Every candidate has their flaws. Hillary had plenty. So does John McCain. But the voters, at least, know them. Obama remains a cypher, a hollow man. He can talk the talk but is there any there there?

As a basketball player, Obama likes to stay on the perimeter and shoot 3-pointers with nobody guarding him. That doesn't win presidential elections. To win the Oval Office you've got to be able to take it hoop; to take contact and score in traffic.

The Dems nominating Obama is like an NBA team drafting an 8th grader. He could be a great one but it's way to early to tell.

Barack gets his bounce.

Look for more McCain ads like this one in the weeks to come.

Spencerblog was otherwise engaged (the Mets were in town) when Joe Biden took to the podium at the Dem convention and accepted the nomination for Vice President.

Spencerwife thought he was awesome. But then she thought Hillary should be the Democratic nominee, not to mention the next president of the United States.

Biden can certainly be charming and he has a compelling life-story to tell. (Why he ever thought he needed to borrow the life Irish pol Neil Kinnock -- which caused him to drop out of the 1988 presidential race -- remains a mystery of human psychology.) But as has been said, a little bit of Joe goes a long way.

The whole idea of Obama putting him in the ticket was build support among middle-class and blue-collar whites, a voting cohort with which, so far, Obama has failed to connect. And to have someone on the ticket who can boast some real foreign policy experience.

Biden blasted his friend McCain last night for getting the Iraq war completely wrong.

Yet it is Biden who voted for the war (before he was against it) and forcefully argued that "the surge" of troops to beat back al-Qaida wouldn't work.

It was McCain who went out on that limb. He forcefully criticized how the Bush Administration was conducting the war. He said we went in with too few troops (and he turned out to be right). When the war was at it's least popular and in danger of being lost, he supported the surge and the tide was turned.

Biden puts on an excellent show but when push comes to shove, his judgement is not all it's cracked up to be.

Tonight, it's Obama who has to impress America, especially those Democratic and Independent voters who aren't sold on the inexperienced freshman senator from Illinois.

George Will rains on Obama's coronation here.

WSJ's Peggy Noonan is quite generous with her assessment of how the Donkeys' convention is going.

Ralph Nader is not.

Cool profile of Blackwater International.

Money Q:

Started with a few contracts to train Navy boarding parties, the folks at Blackwater became innovators. Side note: If you get one thing out of my visit to their company, it should be that they are consummate professionals. I was expecting professionalism but was surprised at the extreme high level of expertise and concern. The second thing you should understand from my trip is that they are innovators. They are innovators unfettered by the mind-numbing reams of regulations that stifles military innovation outside of SOCOM.

Of course, the anti-war left HATES Blackwater. All the more reason to be impressed by it.

John Murtaugh writes in City Journal:

During the April 16 debate between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, moderator George Stephanopoulos brought up “a gentleman named William Ayers,” who “was part of the Weather Underground in the 1970s. They bombed the Pentagon, the Capitol, and other buildings. He’s never apologized for that.” Stephanopoulos then asked Obama to explain his relationship with Ayers. Obama’s answer: “The notion that somehow as a consequence of me knowing somebody who engaged in detestable acts 40 years ago, when I was eight years old, somehow reflects on me and my values, doesn’t make much sense, George.” Obama was indeed only eight in early 1970. I was only nine then, the year Ayers’s Weathermen tried to murder me.

Interesting stuff, read it all.

Nancy Pelosi becomes a spluttering, stuttering, nonsense-espousing fool when asked "when human life begins" by Tom Brokaw on Meet the Press.

PELOSI: As an ardent practicing Catholic, uh, this is an issue that I have studied for a long time. And what I know is over the centuries, the doctors of the church have not been able to make that definition, and, uh, Senator -- uh, I'm -- Senator -- Uh, St. Augustin' (sic) said at three months. We don't know. The point is is that it shouldn't have an impact on a woman's right to choose. Roe v. Wade talks about very clear definitions of when the child -- uh, eh, er, first trimester, certain considerations second trimester, not so third trimester. The -- the -- there's very clear distinctions."

Kathleen Parker demolishes the "Speaker," even while cleaning up some of her syntax.

Pelosi should have said, "Advising Obama is above my pay grade" and left it at that.

Those crazy bastards at Popular Mechanics say lift the ban on off-shore drilling to bridge the gap to the U.S. energy future.

Democrats, look away.

Pa. AG Tom Corbett makes a big deal about his opponent's overtime parking.

''I hope that John Morganelli understands what he did is wrong and immediately sends the city of Harrisburg the $6 that he stiffed the city,'' said Brian Nutt, Corbett's campaign manager.

What a maroon!

What is it about becoming a state's Attorney General that turns normal human beings into petty but dangerous prosecutorial maniacs?

Would Democrat Morganelli be any better? Not if Eliot Spitzer is any guide. But could he be any worse?

Haverford Township Librarian Addie Ciannella is resigning her post.

In announcing her resignation she told the Haverford board of commissioners:

"I want to encourage you to continue the work of bringing the library into the 21st century - we're almost there."

Back in 2003, Ciannella thought bringing the library into the 21st century meant excluding certain potentially offensive "symbols" because they might "send a message of unwelcome philosophical orientation, expectations of others, and can produce ill will and even fear."

The symbol at the library Ciannella was most concerned about? The American Flag.

Her attempt to ban the Stars and Stripes won Haverford a mention on Fox News with Brit Hume, the notice of the Wall Street Journal, and this newspaper.

(Here's a link to my original column on the subject.)

Addie is leaving. But the flag she sought to ban is staying. Good luck and best wishes to them both.

John M. Marchetti of Clifton Heights has a peeping problem.

Upper Darby Police chief Mike Chitwood says it goes deeper than that, pointing out Marchetti has past arrests for attempted kidnapping and possession of child porn.

"He's a sicko prowling our streets," Chitwood says. "He's a dangerous predator."

But his name wasn't listed in the Pennsylvania Megan's Law Sex Offender registry.

Go figure.

It's home monitoring for the 11-year-old caught in the Collingdale gun shop robbery.

Sounds like the home could use a little monitoring too.

From what Spencerblog saw of Hillary Clinton's speech (it wasn't much thanks to the Phillies' amazing 7-run comeback against the Mets) it was pretty good. (Bill sure seemed to like it.)

But some are saying it didn't do much to heal the hurt feelings of many of her supporters.

The PUMAs are still out there. (Bill seems to be one of them) And kitty can scratch!

Why a vote to drill will bring down oil prices now.

Ouch! This could leave a mark!

UPDATE: No wonder Obama is trying to have it killed.

UPDATE II: The DC Examiner asks, does Obama support free speech or not?

UPDATE III: Now that Obama is about to be nominated, for the first time in his life, is terrorist Bill Ayers proud to be an American? If so, he's not saying. NRO wants to know: Have you ever befriended a known terrorist?

Pro-lifer Sen. Bob Casey plays useful idiot for the extremely "pro-choice" Barack Obama. So do quite a few others.

Vets for Freedom have a message for Barack Obama

No Biden bounce for Barack

USA Today reports: "Poll: More than half of Clinton backers still not sold on Obama."

Right. Isn't that what the convention's for?

From today's WSJ:

There are Americans who judge politicians by their race, or gender, or religion; Mr. Obama will certainly carry the black vote in November because he is black and because he is a Democrat. But we reckon that a scant number of voters are motivated by racism, and that number's growing smaller by the day. Virginia elected a black Governor two decades ago, and Illinois has had two black Senators. America has had two black Secretaries of State, and major corporations are run by black CEOs. No other Western democracy has done as well at opening up political, business and other arenas to minorities.

The whole thing here.

For too long, in the spirit of free expression, Spencerblog has permitted some of the most juvenile, insulting and asinine comments to be published on this blog.

No longer.

Frequent posters will notice that many recent comments have already been removed. More to go.

From now on, all comments will now be monitored for civility and being on topic.

The Management.

Heh.

I wouldn't say Obama "viciously attacked John McCain..." Other than that, pretty accurate.

UPDATE: Andy Breitbart weighs in on the "inconvenient Obama" and the shot the Democratic candidate takes at McCain.

Money Q:

Someone who made $4.2 million last year and lives in a mansion that a mobster helped pay for should not be throwing stones. When Mr. Obama's flesh-and-blood lives in squalor, raising the standard of living of his opponent's extended family is probably not a smart idea.

It's scary to think that this could be a preview of an Obama presidency in which attacking the rich is all the rage, and the rich in the news media pretend it's OK. Hugo Chavez is having a helluva run bringing down his formerly prosperous nation of Venezuela with that formula.

Wow! Mickey Kaus reports that Democrats, DEMOCRATS may finally be getting it when it comes to teachers unions.

At a panel on Education, one panelist said: When the childrens agenda runs up against the adult agenda, too often the adult agenda wins.

Then Cory Booker of Newark attacked teachers unions specifically--and there was applause. In a room of 500 people at the Democratic convention!

"The politics are so vicious," Booker complained, remembering how he'd been told his political career would be over if he kept pushing school choice, how early on he'd gotten help from Republicans rather than from Democrats. The party would "have to admit as Democrats we have been wrong on education." Loud applause! Mayor Adrian Fenty of D.C. joined in, describing the AFT's attempt to block the proposed pathbreaking D.C. teacher contract. Booker denounced "insane work rules," and Groff talked about doing the bidding of "those folks who are giving money [for campaigns], and you know who I'm talking about." Yes, they did!

On Obama's selection of Joe Biden to be his running mate the joke going around is Empty Suit picks Stuffed Shirt.

I've met Biden twice and his reputation as a blowhard is well earned. But he is also entertaining, knowledgable on foreign affairs and combative.

He could be a bit of a problem for the hard left. Like John Kerry, Biden supported the war before he was against it. But with the war winding down and troops being withdrawn, they'll be plenty of other things for the Dems to talk about.

Biden is something of loose cannon and a little bit of Joe can go a long way. But overall, Spencerblog thinks his selection is inspired.

Biden isn't exactly "Change You Can Believe In," he's an old Washington hand. But he's probably exactly what Obama needs to balance his own inexperience and thin resume.

Besides, he's smarter than you are. And smarter than he was in 1988.

UPDATE: Check out this GOP ad Democrats Vs. Obama. Note what Joe Biden says about the man who has now chosen him to play second banana.

My Sunday print column is up. Meet Oogie, a.k.a. Olympics Opinion Guy.

He thinks the Chinese cheat, Russia stinks and Becky Hammond is no All-American hero.

Spencerblog thinks Oogie is on to something.

UPDATE: Oogie wants you to check out Todd Gallagher's piece at NRO about the performance differences between male and female athletes.

Gallagher is the author of "Andy Roddick Beat Me with a Frying Pan."

Oogie says, "I didn't even know they were dating."

Obama-supporter and billionaire Warren Buffett suggests a class-action lawsuit against John Edwards for soliciting and getting campaign contributions under false pretenses.

After all, he lied when he said the National Enquirer story about his affair with Rielle Hunter was a lie and continued to solicit campaign funds under that deception.

Those contributions ought to be returned, says Buffett.

The class-action process is already out of control and abusive enough as it is. But it would be fun to see a creepy plaintiff's lawyer and phony like Edwards dragged in court by the supporters he suckered into donating to him.

And once politicians started being sued for lying to the public, we might see some real tort reform.

Larry just can't let it go. Claims Alycia tried to undermine his career after he ended their flirty, "inappropriate" relationship.

Somebody ought to tell him, when you're in a hole, quit digging.

My print column is up. It's about the legal wrangling over 14-year-old murder victim Danieal Kelly's "estate."

From the column:

"That's a funny name for it: Estate. After all, what property did Danieal Kelly, a victim of cerebral palsy, have to pass on to her loved ones? An old wheelchair? A few rags that passed for clothes? The maggot-infested bedsores she got living in her mother's home?
No, Danieal's estate consists of just one thing and one thing only: Suffering. And the estate's attorneys (not Danieal's attorneys, her estate's) are looking to turn that into cold, hard cash."

Jonah Goldberg amusingly nails three of Obama's problems with middle-class voters:

... (he's) a very left-wing politician with almost no experience, who often sounds like his campaign slogan is: "People of Earth! Stop Your Bickering. I Am From Harvard, And I'm Here To Help."

He has more. Take away the support of cultural liberals and blacks and Obama's not doing very well at all.

Read the whole thing.

The Daily Mail reports:

"Living with humans has taught dogs morals, say scientists"

Some would say it's the other way around... but they'd be wrong.

Gen. David Petraeus leaves Iraq in much better shape than he found it. He now goes on to central command to conduct the larger war against Islamic jihadism.

Under his command al Qaida in Iraq has been decimated, the surge worked, and the stage has been set for Iraqi political reconciliation.

His critics on the left have done everything they could to diminish his accomplishments and even question his patriotism. Moveon.orggers once famously asked in a full-page ad if Petraeus had "Betrayed us?" In so doing, they revealed themselves for who and what they are.

Petraeus has proven what he is; a brilliant general and an American hero.

LAWeekly reports, Obama said he would help a struggling little school in Kenya and then... didn't.

Oh well, at least it provided a nice photo-op at the time.

The New York Post reprints State Assemblyman Sam Hoyt's a 4-year-old e-mail to an intern.

From: Assemblyman Sam Hoyt
To: blueskies588@hotmail.com
Subject: Re: what i wish...

". . . that i could be painting your toenails right now . . . that i could see you do that little cheerleader move . . . that i could be your human lollipop . . . that i could take a shower in your shower with all that girly stuff... that i could be rubbing hot oil on your back and then lying on top of you sliding around and kissing your neck..."

He forgot to add "... that this e-mail be kept secret forever."

George Will visits the American Indian Public Charter School in Oakland.

"Seated at a solitary desk in the hall outside a classroom, the slender 13-year-old boy with a smile like a sunrise earnestly does remedial algebra, assisted by a paid tutor. She, too, is 13. Both wear the uniform -- white polo shirt, khaki slacks -- of a school that has not yet admitted the boy. It will, because he refuses to go away.

"The son of Indian immigrants from Mexico, the boy decided he is going to be a doctor, heard about the American Indian Public Charter School here and started showing up. Ben Chavis, AIPCS' benevolent dictator, told the boy that although he was doing well at school, he was not up to the rigors of AIPCS, which is decorated with photographs of the many students it has sent to the Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth. So the boy asked, what must I do?"

Read it all...

Hey, Spencerblog forgot to post Wednesday's column on mortgage fixer Gennaro Rauso and the civil suit brought against him by Makra Opoku.

Rauso represented himself in a manner reminiscent of "My Cousin Vinny." Bumbling but effective. And a special guest appearance of CID Det. Tom Worrilow made for an interesting morning.

This doesn't look good for Obama.

Money Q:

Barack Obama, in a discussion with evangelist Rick Warren about his Christian faith, said he had been guilty of a “fundamental selfishness” that had contributed to regrettable youthful behavior.

Then he confessed for the rest of us.

“Americans’ greatest moral failure in my lifetime,” he said, “has been that we still don’t abide by that basic precept in Matthew that whatever you do for the least of my brothers, you do for me.”

Now, it turns out his own brother, is living in a hut on a dollar a month in Kenya.

Does Obama think the American voting public is going to appreciate being accused (inaccurately) of selfishness by a man who allows his own brother to live in such poverty?

They say charity begins at home? Not for the Obama family.

The hits just keep on coming.

In her last chance, and on the toughest, scariest piece of equipment Olympian Shawn Johnson wins gold.

She had the best smile at the games and she never lost it, even when she came in second. Get her a Wheaties box.

The New Yorker's Nicholas Lemann explains in a review of Franks' "The Wrecking Crew," a rant against the GOP and conservatives. Frank's previous book "What the Matter with Kansas?" was a big hit with progressives.

This fellow Bentley sounds like he understood politics a lot better than Frank.

The review is long but worth the read.

David Freddoso makes "The Case Against Barack Obama" in his new book of the same name. A snippet can be found in today's WSJ.

Obama isn't the reformer he pretends to be, at least if you look at his record in Chicago. He threw in his lot with the Democratic machine there and against the reform movement.

He won his first election by getting all his opponents thrown off the ballot and then tolerated the corruption of the Daley and Stroger armies of the night, including the corruption of Tony Rezko.

Harry Truman was a product of local machine politics in Illinois and turned out to be a pretty good president. But then, he never had the audacity to claim that he was above the sort of politics that got him to the Oval Office.

McCain is surging. The latest Zogby has him 5 points up. It's not just the drilling, stupid, but a series of cooly put negative attacks.

Obama is a soufle. McCain is a knife. Just what Hillary supporters feared.

Rich Lowry does an effective job demolishing Obama's claim that the GOP is lying about his position on abortion.

With politicians you don't just listen to what they say. You watch what they do. And you study their voting record.

More on the agitpropters and protesters, who'll be mugging it up for the cameras in Denver.

Money Q:

Unconventional Denver, meanwhile, is largely using the Internet so that “anarchists, witches, clowns, Iraq vets, artists, SDSers, radical queers, immigrants, Earth First!ers, rebel Democrats, parents, precarious workers and others” can make it known that “come August, the Democrats’ attempt at co-opting our energies and power will fall short as we make it clear that change will come from below not above, in the streets and not in their stadiums.”

With kerchiefs tied across their faces in true anarchist chic, the group offered to call off all DNC protests if Denver took its $50 million in federal security grants and gave it to the needy. Do real anarchists negotiate with the government? The irony was that they wanted the blackmail cash distributed through government programs to schools, health care, poverty programs, etc. Is there such a thing as anarchist welfare?

Now there is.

It appears that Obama's claim that his connections to his neighbor and former Weather Underground terrorist, Bill Ayers, are not as tenuous as he and his campaign have suggested.

When does a spin operation turn into a cover-up operation? Maybe when a university library blocks access to information that might be embarrassing to a presidential candidate.

PHILADELPHIA - (AP) Responding to a furor over their wrongful-death suit, lawyers for the estate of a disabled girl who died of starvation said Monday they did not sue Philadelphia officials in an effort to enrich the parents.

Hmmm. Whom were they trying to enrich, then, themselves?

No, says the attorney for the attorneys. They were trying to enrich Danieal Kelly's 11 brothers and sisters or at least cut them in for a third of the take.

But the money would have gone to the parents, being the executors of Danieal's estate, even though they are both charged with neglect. Typically, a third to 40 percent of such an award would go to the attorneys who brought it.

According to the story "a retired city judge is now expected to become the estate trustee and pursue the claims against the city, the state welfare department and others..." while the city pursues charges against the parents and others.

Question: How did the lawyers Brian Mildenberg and Eric Zajac (a Radnor school board member) get involved in the case to begin with? Did Danieal's parents come to them? Or was this a classic case of ambulance (hearse) chasing.

The two lawyers are threatening a defamation suit against Philly's new mayor Mike Nutter for calling their lawsuit "disgusting" and other things.

The truth is an absolute defense in such cases. It doesn't sound like Nutter has much to worry about.

UPDATE: Zajac tells our Patti Mengers that the "case was brought to him by a social worker" who was "genuinely concerned by the plight of the kids." He added "Anyone suggesting there is ambulance chasing or hearse-chasing is being grossly reckless."

According to story:

Zajac became involved in the case last September when he was retained by Danieals's oldest brother, Troy Washington, age 19, who reportedly was traumatized by his sister's death and seeing her emaciated body."

Yes, well. That raises more questions.

If the young Mr. Washington was so "traumatized" at seeing the condition his sister was in, why didn't he scoop her up and rush her to the nearest hospital? Or, at least, dial 911?

Instead, he watched her die. Now, with the aid of Mr. Zajac, he seeks to benefit financially from his sister's death and his alleged trauma at seeing it occur.

Said Zajac:

"No civil suit can bring Danieal back, but it just might leave a legacy and make a very possible difference for her brothers and sisters some day if the estate is recovered on behalf of Danieal."

Legacy meaning MONEY. Possibly millions, a third or more of which would go to plaintiff attorneys, like well, Eric Zajac. In the end, it would be the taxpayers of the city who would pay the bill. Some legacy.

Obama disses Clarence Thomas. He wouldn't have nominated him and strongly implies he's not as smart as his white conservative colleagues.

Obama, who is half-white, is letting his racist DNA (he must've gotten it from his racist grandmother) get the best of him.

UPDATE: Nevertheless, Nancy "I'm Saving the Planet" Pelosi sees Obama as a "leader God has blessed us with at this time."

The Obamessiah has returned.

First Poland, now the Ukraine is standing up to Russia despite its threats, bullying and invasion of Georgia.

Gutsy and awesome.

Byron York paid attention to Saddleback so you didn't have to. And by his estimation McCain out argued and out performed Obama.

Obama said abortion questions are "above his paygrade." Will they be above the paygrade of his Supreme Court nominees?

Spencerblog thinks not.

Pelosi reconsiders off-shore drilling. Apparently saving the planet is no longer a Pelosi priority.

My print column on Opoku v. Rauso is up.

The Liberian social worker is going to court against the ex-con real estate/mortgage fixer tomorrow.

Be there or be square.

Spencerblog, Spencerwife, Spencerdaughter and Spencerniece saw "Tropic Thunder" last night. We were not offended.

The film is a satire of Hollywood. It has been protested and because it supposedly makes fun of the mentally disabled.

It doesn't.

It makes fun of actors playing mentally disabled characters mawkishly and for their own acclaim.

It also makes fun of actors playing soldiers, writers pretending to be grizzled ex-soldiers, graphically violent war movies, Hollywood producers, directors, Jews, blacks, fat people, gays, Asians and heroin addicts. But mostly actors and Hollywood producers.

And it's pretty funny.

Denver prepares an "arrest processing center" for protesters at the Democratic convention. Protest organizers are calling it a "secret prison." How secret can it be since we're reading all about it?

But they have a point. What liberal protesters and activists need are more schools, not prisons.

Oh, wait, that's where they learned about the importance of protesting and civil disobedience in the first place.

Protesters are calling it "Gitmo on the Platte," presuming, we guess, they'll be held indefinitely, tortured, and tried before military tribunals.

How embarrassing for them if they are just charged with disorderly conduct, processed and released on their own recognizance.

King penguin knighted in Norway. Isn't that a demotion?

And won't Batman be upset?

Investors Business Daily tries to explain to the dim that profits, even if they go to Exxon Mobil, are not an evil thing.

The dim still won't get it.

Poland wants under our nuclear shield. The Ruskies are getting all huffy about it.

Frank J. has his own ideas of how to deal with Russia. He's cagey, that Frank J.

On Georgia, Gerard Baker gives it to (his side) the West but good.

Money Q:

Once again, the Europeans, and their friends in the pusillanimous wing of the US Left, have demonstrated that, when it come to those postmodern Olympian sports of synchronized self-loathing, team hand-wringing and lightweight posturing, they know how to sweep gold, silver and bronze.

There's a routine now whenever some unspeakable act of aggression is visited upon us or our allies by murderous fanatics or authoritarian regimes. While the enemy takes a victory lap, we compete in a shameful medley relay of apologetics, defeatism and surrender.

Read it all

Chris Horner makes an interesting observation concerning Obama's plan to take even more in the way of taxes from "Big Oil."

Exxon Mobil collected $12 billion last quarter. The U.S. government collected $2.54 trillion from American taxpayers last year. That's a heckuva lot more. Any chance of returning some of that dough to the American people?

Didn't think so.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Iraqi Shiite assassination teams are being trained in at least four locations in Iran by Tehran's elite Quds force and Lebanese Hezbollah and are planning to return to Iraq in the next few months to kill specific Iraqi officials as well as U.S. and Iraqi troops, according to intelligence gleaned from captured militia fighters and other sources in Iraq.

That doesn't sound good.

Democrats will probably demand an investigation into how the information was "gleaned."

Not to pile on but maybe he should have thought about resigning after number 2.

My print column on the John Edwards scandal is up.

Is it news?

News or not, the story gets curiouser and curiouser.

CORRECTION: Edwards' mistress was relocated to Santa Barbara, not San Diego

Krauthammer: Time to get tough with Putin's Russia for his invasion of Georgia.

As usual, Chucky the K has some excellent suggestions.

Charles Murray does it again: speaks sense and truth - this time about "higher" education.

Money Q:

Imagine that America had no system of post-secondary education, and you were a member of a task force assigned to create one from scratch. One of your colleagues submits this proposal:

"First, we will set up a single goal to represent educational success, which will take four years to achieve no matter what is being taught. We will attach an economic reward to it that seldom has anything to do with what has been learned. We will urge large numbers of people who do not possess adequate ability to try to achieve the goal, wait until they have spent a lot of time and money, and then deny it to them. We will stigmatize everyone who doesn't meet the goal. We will call the goal a "BA."

You would conclude that your colleague was cruel, not to say insane. But that's the system we have in place.

Read it all

Prof. Samuelson gives both candidates bad grades on energy.

But it's Democrats in general who are flunking the class.

They'll have to make a movie out of this. Oh wait, they already did.

Debra Saunders on John Edwards:

"The pretty-boy candidate always was the biggest phony at any Democratic debate. He was the $400-haircut poster boy for poverty. The 28,000-square-foot mansion owner who preached about global warming. The candidate who demanded that other Democrats swear off accepting contributions from Fox News baron Rupert Murdoch, after he pocketed a $500,000 advance -- with an extra $300,000 for expenses -- from Murdoch's HarperCollins. The man who ran as the doting husband of the cancer-battling Elizabeth Edwards while he was boffing an overpaid campaign aide.

"If I were a Democrat, I would be spittin' mad..."

... But she's not so she's gleefully piling on with the rest of us.

The more Russia changes, the more it stays the same. The world fiddles in Bejing while Georgia burns. George Will pundificates.

Bing West says we've won the war in Iraq but we could still blow it by withdrawing too many troops too soon. Sounds right.

Maureen Dowd at her best viciously puncturing the male ego. In this case, John Edwards'. Ouch!

Critics of the military tribunal process look away.

Obama is sounding a lot like NYT's Paul "The GOP is the party of stupidity" Krugman these days.

"It's almost as if they take pride in being ignorant," Obama said of Republicans and other critics who don't think keeping America's tires properly inflated is the complete answer to the energy problem.

Obama should remember, such people cling to guns, God and xenophobia, not their tire gauges.

In my awesome opinion, Frank J. needs to be more fair, better balanced and medicated. Want proof? Check this out.

Baby born 8/8/08 at 8:08 p.m. weighing 8 pounds, 8 ounces. Big Deal. Maybe if it was 8 pounds .08 ounces.

UPDATE: No comment yet from John Edwards.

OK. Edwards admits an affair but doesn't admit to being the father of the love child. Or loving her mother. Creepy.

Somehow, I don't think this is the end of this story. Though it is the end of Edwards' political career.

CLARIFICATION: The mother's name isn't Creepy. Edwards is creepy.

UPDATE: All you Edwards supporters: You got played, says a former Edwards supporter.

UPDATE II: A fellow trial lawyer and Edwards former finance chairman paid to have "former" mistress and the supposed father of her child (though he is married and the father of two young children) relocated to California. If this is a cover-up it is making Watergate look like child's play.

OK, this isn't Watergate. It's Waterbroke and getting nuttier by the minute.

A SWAT team of Prince George County police raid the the home of a local mayor, handcuff him, terrorize his family and shoot and kill their dogs.

Turns out to be a case of stolen identity. The mayor and his family the innocent victims of a couple of big money pot dealers.

Bigger victims of an out of control police force.

What a bunch of buffoons!

Hey, it's not like this doesn't happen with straight couples.

Krauthhammer vs. Krugman on energy.

Is Krauthammer being stupid? Or is Krugman being an arrogant, supercilious twit? You be the judge.

What's the matter with the National Enquirer? Everybody lies about sex... and the babies it creates. Nothing to see here. Move along.

UPDATE: Democrats are saying Edwards needs to address this story before he is allowed to speak at the convention. Sounds reasonable.

A military jury has convicted bin Laden's driver of providing material support to terrorists.

Let the screeching begin.

Swarthmore native Holman Jenkins knows a Boone-doggle when he sees one.

He also understands how markets and human beings work. And if you read him, you'll undertand them a little better too.

My print column on our new dog park is up.

Verdict: It stinks! But it's better than nothing.

County Council prez Linda Cartisano, the park's prime mover, is open to better ideas.
Spencerprint has one. Read all about it.

Obama's energy plan appears to be designed to wreck the U.S. economy.

Next he'll be calling for spaceships (solar-powered of course) to transfer the entire U.S. population to a galaxy far far away.

Wait, here he is in 8 years launching the first ship of U.S. citizens to our new home.

It appears Obama isn't the man of the people his campaign would like people to believe. The hundeds of millions he's raised aren't coming from little guys, but bundlers and big donors or the sort typical of Washington D.C. and lobbying groups.

His biggest donors? Lawyers. Go figure.

A new book by Ron Suskind claims that the Bush Administration forged a letter to make it look like Saddam Hussein had something to do with training 9/11 terrorists.

It's an explosive charge but the evidence seems thin to non-existent.

If true and the president knew about it, it would be an impeachable offense. But there is no evidence of that. In fact, Suskind suggests that Bush would have been kept from knowing about the forgery by that dastardly Dick Cheney. But then, there doesn't appear to be any evidence that Cheney knew about the alleged forgery either, just supposition on the part of Suskind.

Interesting that the last forgery involving Bush went to CBS News' 60 Minutes and cost Dan Rather his career.

While it is true that the left is willing to believe anything that reflects poorly or criminally on the Bush Administration, the right has been suspect of the CIA for some time. Like any organization, there are factions within it, who have their own agendas and political loyalties.

It will be interesting to see where this story leads, if anywhere.

Fred Rogers isn't cool enough for PBS?

Just because he's dead is no reason to take him off the air.

Actor Jon Voight wrote an OP-ED piece disapproved of by liberals and now blacklisting is being recommended:

"The Los Angeles Times, the Hollywood Reporter, Entertainment Weekly and People magazine alum Jeffrey Wells led the charge. At his influential Web site Hollywood-Elsewhere.com, Mr. Wells wrote, "If I were a producer and I had to make a casting decision about hiring Voight or some older actor who hadn't [ticked] me off with an idiotic Washington Times op-ed piece, I might very well say to myself, 'Voight? Let him eat cake.' "

Nice!

Popular Mechanics has 10 Questions for g-nomer Craig Venter.

Question 7:

Q: Since the 1970s oil crisis, a number of policies have been enacted to increase energy independence. Do you think they've been effective?

A: Had we followed intellectually where we were back in the Carter era, we wouldn't have a lot of the problems we do today. We've had a lot of short-term thinking from administrations that basically trades off the health of the planet for economic gain for the business community—and for their own re-election. We don't reward our leaders for making long-term beneficial decisions for society. It's like the stock market—all that matters is the next quarter, not where you are 10 years from now.

Welcome to life in a democratic republic. That answer would be truer about Medicare and Social Security.

Venter is an Obama supporter but McCain is less likely to be worried about getting re-elected.

Juan Williams talks the race issue and how Obama can overcome it to win the presidency.

He concludes:

"Blacks in the Pew poll were just as likely as whites to take a hard line opposing crime (as long as black neighborhoods are not unfairly targeted), to condemn the shocking number of children born out of wedlock and express disgust with the violence and misogyny in rap music.

"Mr. Obama needs to hammer home these conservative social values to capture undecided white voters. He might lose Mr. (Jess) Jackson's vote. But he won't lose many black votes, and he will win the undecided white votes he needs to become America's first African-American president."

Sounds like fairly good advice except there is little evidence that Obama actually holds these conservative values himself. He has no voting record of actually supporting conservative social values.

And this is weird: What does it mean for blacks to take a "hard-line" on crime as long as black neighborhoods aren't unfairly targeted? Urban (black) neighborhoods is where most of the violent crime is in this country. You don't target the neighborhood, you target the criminals in the neighborhood.

This goes back to what Spencerblog said yesterday. Communities pretty much get the law enforcement they demand and the amount of crime they will tolerate.

And rabble rousers like Al Sharpton who side against the police and encourage "the community" not to give them the benefit of the doubt in most cases make it difficult for the law-abiding to get the aggressive law enforcement they deserve.

UPDATE: Obama's response to the McCain Britney/Paris ad isn't playing well with voters.

If this scares you, you're a liberal.

UPDATE: Spencerblog says: Communities generally get the law enforcement they demand and the level of crime they are willing to tolerate.

Discuss.

Former Clinton Dep. AG Jamie Gorelick has an OP-ED piece blasting the Bush Justice Department for partisanship.

This is the same Jamie Gorelick who created the famous "Gorelick Wall" that prevented the sharing of intelligence between federal agencies because she was so worried about the rights of terror suspects. This led to the 9/11 attacks being such a success for Osama bin Laden.

This is the Gorelick who sat on the 9/11 Commission when she should have been testifying before it, under subpeona if necessary.

And this is the same Gorelick who worked for Bill Clinton, who fired every U.S. Attorney when he took office and hired back those of whom he politcally approved.

And this is the same Gorelick who was Vice Chairman of Fannie Mae when it was using Enron-style accounting schemes to fool regulators and now requires billions from the American taxpayers in bailout payments. Crony capitalism at its worst.

Gorelick may not be capitalist, but she's a crony alright.

For more details click here.

My print column on the governor's creation of a new Office of Diversity Management is up.

After six years in office, Not-So-Fast Eddie needs a Chief Diversity Officer?

Good government or cynical racial pandering? You be the judge.

A greedy Republican porker goes down. Will the GOP learn anything from it?

Nancy Pelosi just sounds weird.

Read the whole thing.

What will they think of next?

But not everyone thinks it's a good idea. And they ought to know. They're from the "land down under."

Usually, it's the last ones to leave who are asked to turn out the lights. But in this case... NOT!

Some people are saying Nancy Pelosi didn't want Republican complaints about her party's inaction on oil drilling and gas prices heard by reporters and the people who watch C-Span, or anyone else for that matter..

But more likely she was just trying to save energy and, you know, the planet!

UPDATE: Meanwhile, Obama can read a poll. Candidate Shifty.

Krauthammer on Pelosi's refusal to allow a vote on oil drilling.

She's trying to "save the planet," not to mention her Democrat colleagues an embarrassing vote in the House.

No wonder Congress' approval rating is 9 percent.

UPDATE: NYT's Krugman says Pelosi isn't "crazy." What a relief. But wait! Who's vouching for Krugman?

Read this awesome story about a National Rifle Association mole who infiltrates a Pennsylvania gun control organization and gets elected to their board.

It begins:

"Mary McFate was the kind of volunteer the gun-control movement in Pennsylvania prized. By all accounts, she was dedicated and diligent, humble enough to stuff envelopes yet bold enough to lobby U.S. senators.

"Now it seems that the CeaseFire PA board member may have been more versatile than anyone could have imagined. According to Mother Jones magazine, she was a spy for the National Rifle Association.

Mother Jones reported that McFate was in fact Mary Lou "Sapone, who made headlines in the 1990 when it was revealed that she had been hired by a surgical-equipment company to infiltrate the animal-rights movement.

"As McFate, the magazine reported, Sapone covertly infiltrated gun-control groups for more than a decade and received payment from private security firms and the NRA."

Even better are the quotes from Ceasefire and their supporters.

"If I wasn't 63 years old and seen a lot in my life, I would have been shocked," said (CeasefirePA. prez Phil) Goldsmith, a veteran of city politics as managing director to Mayor John F. Street.

(But since he was around one of the more corrupt city adminstrations in American history, he's not.)

"It's surprising that the NRA had nothing better to do but put a mole into an organization such as CeaseFire PA," said City Councilwoman Donna Reed Miller... "It must mean they're afraid of something."

(Yeah, of having their guns taken away.)

"She must be very good at what she does, because a whole bunch of very smart people were completely hoodwinked by this," said Diane Edbril, CeaseFire PA's executive director between 2004 and 2007.

(Or not so very smart people... but then...)

"We thought she was sort of a flake and not so bright, but hardworking and ready to show up for anything," (Former CeasefireNJ director) Bryan Miller said.

(There's a want ad for you: "CeasefirePA - Now hiring not-so-bright flakes, willing to work hard and show up for anything.")

Isn't this how the FBI broke the Ku Klux Klan? With moles and infiltrators?