Many in the Blogosphere have been saying that Crawford was an inappropriate venue for a meeting with Saudi Prince Abdullard. However, I've noticed a difference: When Tony Blair and Vladimir Putin visited Crawford, Bush was dressed much more casually, like one would for a friend. When The Prince visited, I haven't seen one picture of the President without a full suit on.

I may be really stretching here, but perhaps this is a subtle way of keeping the House of Saud at arm's length?

Kathleen Parker speculates on what would happen if President Bush had responded to "warnings" the way the Dems and media want him to:

Congressional leaders are scrambling to begin impeachment proceedings against President George W. Bush following several unprecedented federal security measures that critics say constitute an unconscionable assault on American civil liberties. Wall Street, meanwhile, is reeling from a seismic downturn while the airline industry is predicted to topple.
The Bush administration's sudden imposition of several new - some say "terrifying" - policies came on the heels of an alleged FBI warning that radical Muslim terrorists were planning to hijack U.S. commercial airliners. In the past 36 hours, Bush has taken several steps that have sent American citizens and institutions into shock.

It only gets better. Go read it. Now.

Well, they've found Chandra Levy's body. I wonder how long it will be before Gary Condit is "detained"?

The coroner's report is in. Chandra Levy was...(gasp!)...murdered!

Eric S. Raymond gives his top ten reasons he's not a liberal. Or a conservative. I wouldn't go quite as far as he has on some of them (for instance, not all , nor even most, conservatives are villains, nor liberals fools), but they seem like a good starting point for discussion.

The ABM treaty expired today. Has there been a new arms race yet? Did the Cold War return? Are the Russians blockading us? What? Nothing happened? OK. I'll go back to sleep now.

You'll never guess what comes up if you google the word waffles.

Well, maybe you will; it's still funny though.

A teacher in a small Vermont town asks her class how many of them are John Kerry fans.

Not really knowing what a John Kerry fan is, but wanting to be liked by the teacher, all the kids raise their hands except one boy. The teacher asks little Johnny why he has decided to be different.

Johnny says, "I'm not a John Kerry fan."

The teacher says, "Why aren't you a John Kerry fan?"

Matt Rosenberg opines that it's beginning to, and goes into detail while discussing Bill Cosby's recent NAACP speech. Took'em to woodshed, he did!

Via Instapundit

When The Day After Tomorrow was released, Beloved Bride expressed an interest in seeing it. For some odd reason, she couldn't understand the spluttering reaction that she got from me. I steadfastly refuse to give any money for that movie, but I couldn't really articulate why.

Well, Pejman has taken care of that for me, and in a (typically) far more eloquent fashion as well. The money graf:

...the reason this movie has brought about a visceral reaction is, as explained above, because it is being used as a vehicle for setting the parameters of the debate about an important and very high profile public policy issue. Given that, and given the fact that in discussing said issue, it matters whether or not we have our facts straight, it is entirely right and proper to wonder whether a blatant propaganda piece will unfairly skew the debate in one particular direction by demagoguing through a lousy film plot and some fancy special effects.

As they say, RTWT.

George Tenet Resigns from CIA

Schadenfruede. It's a guilty pleasure, but it can't be helped:

Kerry, the only Senator not to vote for the Project BioShield Act, spent today telling anyone who would listen (i.e. the mainstream media) that the U.S. is not adequately prepared for Bioterrorism.

Via The Brothers Judd

OK, now the CIA Deputy Director of Operations, James Pavitt, has resigned "for personal reasons."

One could be happenstance, two might be a coincidence...I wonder if there will be a number three, and who would it be?

Stay tuned for more bread and circuses.

This post should get your blood boiling. Read it, then come back and finish this.

Ready? Good.

As to why the media acts as it does, there are many possible explanations. That, however, is for another time. My purpose here is to discuss the effects of their behavior, and whether it constitutes treason. I don't say that it is necessarily intentional, but in this case, intentions are irrelevant in light of the potential results. IANAL (I am not a lawyer). Having said that, let us proceed:

This, according to the 'Lectric Law Library, is the legal definition of treason:

TREASON - This word imports a betraying, treachery, or breach of allegiance.

The Constitution of the United States, Art. III, defines treason against the United States to consist only in levying war against them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid or comfort. This offence is punished with death.

This is the only crime (that I know of) in which the Constitution itself prescribes the death penalty. With a crime and punishment this severe, it is critical that we define our terms clearly. What is aid and comfort?

I found this in an e-mail from a friend:

We believe in the United Nations, and Kofi Annan, the maker of international legitimacy.

We believe that the UN inspections worked.
We believe that SCUD missiles fired at U.S. troops minutes after the war began doesn't change anything;
We believe that 3 liters of sarin gas used against U.S. troops doesn't change anything;
We believe that finding evidence of mustard gas doesn't change anything.

We believe that the war in Iraq conducted by a Republican president was unjustified because it lacked UN approval;
We believe that the "military action" in Kosovo conducted by a Democratic president was justified without UN approval.

Whatever would we do without Al Gore?

In his screed, I mean speech, today, he "accused the Bush administration of working closely 'with a network of "rapid response" digital Brown Shirts who work to pressure reporters and their editors for undermining support for our troops.'" Go read the whole thing. It's rich.

Hmmmm...Rapid Response Digital Brown Shirts...RRDBs...nah! Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy sounds soooo much better.

Oh, but I forgot to thank Mr. Gore for inventing the Internet. Without him, none of this would be possible!

That Al Gore, though. He is so clever! Bush supporters=Brownshirts, ergo Bush=Hitler. Get it? How droll. Is it just me, or does Gore prove Godwin's Law every time he speaks?

UPDATE: Herewith the entire text of the RNC response:

"Al Gore's history of denial of the threat of terrorism is no less dangerous today in his role as John Kerry's surrogate than it was in the 1990s in his role as Vice President, a time when Osama Bin Laden was declaring war on the United States five different times," said RNC Communications Director Jim Dyke.

UPDATE #2: This morning, Lileks has a mini-screed on this very subject. Scroll to the bottom if you don't have time to read everything.

UPDATE #3: It just keeps on getting better:

via Drudge

Orson Scott Card fears that average Americans may be stupid enough to elect Kerry:

. . . [Kerry's] talking like Clinton: Bush has done a terrible, terrible job. Elect me and I'll do a lot better with this war on terror. And you know how I'll do it?
By doing every single thing that President Bush has done. Only I would have done it sooner and better.

What concerns me is that Card makes a convincing case. We can't afford to be passive this year. We have to actively participate, fight for every inch of ground, and hold it until the elections.

The more I see this year, the more I am convinced that this election will determine the course of this country for years to come. I believe that it will set this nation either firmly on the road to victory and success, or appeasement and disaster - that is what is at stake come November.

Jonah Goldberg says that he will not be seeing Fahrenheit 9/11. But that doesn't stop him from having an opinion about Moore and his sycophants:

...[Moore] has officially become one of those rare figures who simply by his existence illuminates a great deal about politics. I don't need to know very much about you or your ideas to know that if you think Michael Moore is just great, a truth-teller and a much-needed tonic for everything that is wrong in American life, you are not someone to take seriously about anything of political consequence, or you are French. But I repeat myself.

You know what to do.

via VodkaPundit

UPDATE: From VP's comments, the best quote of the day: "F[ahrenheit]-9/11 is to political documentary films what Battlefield Earth is to Space Exploration."

By now, I'm sure that you've heard Madame Rodham-Clinton's quote about taxes. Well, I was on a blog I hadn't visited before (but will visit again), and I found this gem:

I'm all for the common good. I'm all for sacrifice...but before you start telling me that the 300 bucks we got back last year can be better spent by Washington for the common good might I suggest that there are some things we "take away" from Senator Clinton and her colleagues, both Democrat and Republican, in the House and Senate?

UPDATE: Drudge says that Hillary is likely to be Kerry's running mate. I don't think for a moment that there is anything to it, but if it is true, then this should be fun.

I hate to post their stuff so much, but they keep coming up with winners!

See also here.

In 1976, when Jimmy Carter ran for president, I was all for him. This, perhaps, can be forgiven, since I was only 13 years old. By 1981, however, the scales had fallen from my eyes: I supported Ronald Reagan.

In the decades since, I have come to think of Carter as a bumbling, but generally good man who was a living example of a useful idiot the Peter Principle.

Perhaps I've given him too much credit.

Weapons of Mass Destruction? Mutated disease strains? Terrorism? Global Warming? Asteroid impact?

Not if you ask Robert Reich, former Labor Secretary under Bill Clinton. By his lights, the greatest danger to civilization is belief in God.

UPDATE: The Evangelical Outpost comments at length on Reich's statements.

Hugh Hewitt has a new book out, If It's Not Close, They Can't Cheat: Crushing the Democrats in Every Election and Why Your Life Depends on It.

The title pretty much says it all. Amazon has it for $13.99, and it's definitely worth the cost. I don't think it's hyperbole to say that this is one of the most important books to be published this year. I will post a review when I finish it, but I wanted to get the link out there for others.

Direct, and to the point.

via AllahPundit

-----
*For the young and historically unenlightened, that is a photo of the evacuation of the U.S. Embassy in Saigon when we abandoned Vietnam to the Commies, 30 April, 1975.

Back when I was in the Air Force, I held a Top-Secret security clearance. If I had "inadvertently" walked out of the my work facility with classified information, or handwritten notes thereon, I would be stationed at Ft. Leavenworth to this day, at the rank of Airman Basic.

It'll be interesting to see how this turns out:

Hugh Hewitt's new book arrived from Amazon today. Now I can stop going to Barnes & Noble to read one of their copies. I'll have a review up by this weekend, but go buy yours now. Time's a-wastin'!

Stephen Green v Andrew Sullivan!

I used to read Andrew Sullivan faithfully - his posts were always erudite and well-thought-out, even when I didn't agree with him. Unfortunately, the President's endorsement of the FMA seems to have transformed him into the Antichrist in Andrew's eyes.

From that time forward, he started heading toward the cliff of Loony-Land. I sadly gave up on him quite a while ago. Having said that, Vodkapundit demonstrates exactly why I don't read Mr. Sullivan anymore.

Rand Simberg gives us yet another reason not to vote for Kerry. If you are at all interested in the government space program, read this.

NPR's Scott Simon skewers the Left's favorite Stupid White Man and his latest . . . film:

Michael Moore has won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival, and may win an Oscar for the kind of work that got Stephen Glass, Jayson Blair, and Jack Kelly fired. . .A documentary film doesn't have to be fair and balanced, to coin a phrase. But it ought to make an attempt to be accurate. It can certainly be pointed and opinionated. But it should not knowingly misrepresent the truth. Much of Michael Moore's films and books, however entertaining to his fans and enraging to his critics, seems to regard facts as mere nuisances to the story he wants to tell.

Read the whole thing. I wonder how much longer he'll be working for NPR.

via Transterrestrial Musings

Pander Bear's tacky Hollywood-style salute was an appropriate precursor to the rest of his speech, if you ask me.

Even Andrew Sullivan was less than pleased with Kerry's speech:

One thought sprang into my mind immediately: what an arrogant jerk.

UPDATE: This is priceless: "Kerry's John-John moment!"

update via the blogfather

Many of us in the blogosphere followed the recent online argument between Sgt. Stryker and Hugh Hewitt with interest. The short version is that Hugh said the military predominantly votes conservative/Republican, with Stryker saying that it was more of a reflection of the civilian world (approx. 50-50). Well, never let it be said that I won't take the opportunity to add fuel to the fire:

Thursday August 05, 2004--A Rasmussen Reports survey shows that military veterans prefer George W. Bush over John Kerry by a 58% to 35% margin. Those with no military service favor Kerry by ten percentage points, 51% to 41%.

Sorry, Sarge, but that sounds pretty overwhelming to me.

Oh, and don't miss the funny joke here.

via VodkaPundit

Large number of aliens from another world professionsal whiners protestors swarmed Manhattan yesterday in a warmup for the Big Event. Numerous bloggers have pictures, but I found this one particularly telling: