Democratic Governor Tim Kaine of the Commonwealth of Virginia was cast in the role of presenting the Democratic response to the State of the Union Address. Governor Kaine actually presented the opposition point of view (as flawed as the reasoning behind it might be) eloquently and with measured dissenting demeanor. A stark contrast to the histrionics and drama of last years flaccid, unimpressive and vitriolic response from the Democratic minority leadership of Congress:

Apologies (again) to Grant Wood.

After most Senate Democrats finished making spectacles of themselves as the party of whiners, screamers and oppose-anything-Bush-does, the Senate confirmed Justice Alito by a 58-42 vote.

Congratulations to the newest member of the Supreme Court of the United States, Justice Samuel Alito.

From AP:

WASHINGTON - Samuel Anthony Alito Jr., the son of an Italian immigrant and a longtime lawyer, prosecutor and judge, won Senate approval Tuesday to become the nation’s 110th Supreme Court justice.

The 58-42 vote was the most partisan for a high court nominee in modern history. Alito is replacing retiring Justice Sandra Day O’Connor.

The 55-year-old U.S. appeals court judge was to be quickly sworn in before his expected appearance at President Bush’s annual State of the Union speech with the White House’s other new Supreme Court judge, Chief Justice John Roberts.

As I predicted before, SCOTUS will now tend toward the right on 5-4 split decisions, rather than to the left. I also am hopeful that Americans will remember Democrats asinine behavior when they go to the polls in November of 2006.

The insanity of terrorists simply amazes me. This guy narrowly misses annihilation and crawls out from under his rock to taunt his enemies. This terrorist scumbag should realize that he has a “hit me here” target right on his forehead.

Zawahiri, in New Videotape, Says He Survived Airstrike

CAIRO, Egypt — Al Qaeda No. 2 Ayman al-Zawahiri said in a videotape aired Monday that President Bush was a “butcher” and a “failure” because of a deadly U.S. airstrike in Pakistan targeting the bin Laden deputy, and he threatened a new attack on the United States.

Al-Zawahiri, shown in the video wearing white robes and a white turban, said a Jan. 13 airstrike in the eastern village of Damadola killed “innocents,” and he said the United States had ignored an offer from Al Qaeda leader Usama bin Laden for a truce.

“Butcher of Washington, you are not only defeated and a liar, but also a failure. You are a curse on your own nation and you have brought and will bring them only catastrophes and tragedies,” he said, referring to Bush. “Bush, do you know where I am? I am among the Muslim masses.”

Spc. Phil has been busy adding features to his Camp Katrina blog:

In addition to categorizing humanitarian military stories by location, Camp
Katina now organizes by the type of humanitarian work, as well.

Need an update on medical care and supplies being delivered to people around
the world by our troops? Just tune in to http://www.campkatrinablog.com.
Child care and school construction? Camp Katrina. Road work and animal
assistance? Well, you get the point.

I hope the new categories at Camp Katrina can help you let your readers know
about the good stuff our soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines are doing
across the globe.

Spc. Phil Van Treuren
Ohio Army National Guard
JAG Corps
http://www.campkatrinablog.com/

Today we were at our local garden emporium and found dozens of orchids blooming in the hothouse section. I just had to get pictures of some of these most beautiful and exotic flowers. This is one of the prettiest of so many varieties. This photo shows several aspects of the flowers: face on, profile and oblique views.

On a recent trip along Interstate 10 through Cabazon and Whitewater, CA, we got some shots of a few of the windmills in an area with immense fields filled with them. They would have driven Don Quixote absolutely nuts!

From the American Wind Energy Association:

U.S. Wind Industry Ends Most Productive Year, Sustained Growth Expected For at Least the Next Two Years

24 January 2006 - The U.S. wind energy industry easily broke earlier annual installed capacity records in 2005, installing nearly 2,500 megawatts (MW) or over $3 billion worth of new generating equipment in 22 states, according to the Washington, D.C.-based American Wind Energy Association (AWEA). Instead of the slow year that has previously followed boom years for the industry, 2006 is expected to be even bigger, with installations topping 3,000 MW.

Full Story

This is just plain weird science.

NASA - SuitSat

January 26, 2006: One of the strangest satellites in the history of the space age is about to go into orbit. Launch date: Feb. 3rd. That’s when astronauts onboard the International Space Station (ISS) will hurl an empty spacesuit overboard.

The spacesuit is the satellite — “SuitSat” for short.

“SuitSat is a Russian brainstorm,” explains Frank Bauer of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. “Some of our Russian partners in the ISS program, mainly a group led by Sergey Samburov, had an idea: Maybe we can turn old spacesuits into useful satellites.” SuitSat is a first test of that idea.

Image: ISS astronaut Mike Finke spacewalks in a Russian Orlan spacesuit in 2004. SuitSat will have no one inside.

[More]

This must be the Russians’ idea of a publicity stunt. I liked the space lottery idea better.

Russian brainstorm - bah - brainfart is more like it.

See suitsat.org for pass times and details if you’re into this.

From Cox & Forkum:

Here is our first daffodil of the season. The unseasonably warm weather convinced this flower to come out as though it were spring. Not to worry, though; cooler weather and precipitation are yet to come this winter. California actually has four seasons: rainy season, mudslide season, summer and fire season. And all bets are off when the ground starts shaking; earthquake season is all year long.

Standing on the most southwesterly point of the Palos Verdes Peninsula, Point Vicente Lighthouse has long been one of this area’s jewels. Overlooking the rocky beach below from the Interpretive Center, one can see Santa Catalina island in the distance on a clear day.

Democratic senators in liberal-infested states like California or Massachusetts don’t have much to worry about, but many Democratic senators in middle America should carefully consider supporting Judge Alito. Americans have become increasingly aware that Judge Alito is a highly-qualified candidate and think that he should be confirmed.

Our own South Bay Daily Breeze published an editorial today that joins the Washington Times in questioning the effects of a party-line vote on Judge Samuel Alito.

Party-line vote would be mistake

This week the Senate is expected to vote on the Supreme Court nomination of federal appeals Judge Samuel Alito, a former prosecutor and Justice Department attorney who won the American Bar Association’s highest recommendation. Months of digging by journalists, Democratic operatives and Senate investigators turned up near-uniform testimonials from people of all ages and backgrounds who swear by Alito’s brilliance, kind temperament, work ethic and devotion to the law. Attempts to smear Alito on extenuated guilt-by-association grounds and with wafer-thin conflict-of-interest allegations went nowhere.

Yet only a handful of the Senate’s 44 Democrats are expected to vote to confirm Alito. If this occurs, it will be unprecedented, outrageous and unfortunate.

It is unprecedented in that while nominees have been rejected or faced substantial opposition before, it was on grounds that they were too close to the White House, lacked a suitable temperament or background, or, in the case of Clarence Thomas, faced sexual harassment allegations. It was not because senators objected en masse to their judicial ideology. This is why Democratic President Bill Clinton’s liberal but highly qualified nominees — Ruth Bader Ginsburg (confirmed 96-3) and Stephen Breyer (confirmed 87-9) — won such easy approval.

It is outrageous because it is one more sign of the Democratic Party’s embrace of the blind anger of its activist wing against President Bush.

more . . .

Maybe some of you folks have already seen this. A friend sent this to me today, and I had not seen it before. I grew up in the years just after WWII, my Dad fought in it and I found it deeply touching - so keep the tissues box handy . . .

Image: Aerial View of WWII Memorial, Washington D.C. (Photo by Rick Latoff/American Battle Monuments Commission)

The elderly parking lot attendant wasn’t in a good mood!

Neither was Sam Bierstock. It was around 1 a.m., and Bierstock, a Delray Beach, Fla. , eye doctor, business consultant, corporate speaker and musician, was bone tired after appearing at an event.

He pulled up in his car, and the parking attendant began to speak. “I took two bullets for this country and look what I’m doing,” he said bitterly.

At first, Bierstock didn’t know what to say to the World War II veteran. But he rolled down his window and told the man, “Really, from the bottom of my heart, I want to thank you.”

Then the old soldier began to cry.

“That really got to me,” Bierstock says.

Cut to today.

Bierstock, 58, and John Melnick, 54, of Pompano Beach - a member of Bierstock’s band, Dr. Sam and the Managed Care Band - have written a song inspired by that old soldier in the airport parking lot. The mournful “Before You Go” does more than salute those who fought in WWII. It encourages people to go out of their way to thank the aging warriors before they die.

“If we had lost that particular war, our whole way of life would have been shot,” says Bierstock, who plays harmonica. “The WW II soldiers are now dying at the rate of about 2,000 every day. I thought we needed to thank them.”

The song is striking a chord. Within four days of Bierstock placing it on the Web http://www.beforeyougo.us/ , the song and accompanying photo essay have bounced around nine countries, producing tears and heartfelt thanks from veterans, their sons and daughters and grandchildren.

“It made me cry,” wrote one veteran’s son. Another sent an e-mail saying that only after his father consumed several glasses of wine would he discuss “the unspeakable horrors” he and other soldiers had witnessed in places such as Anzio, Iwo Jima, Bataan and Omaha Beach. “I can never thank them enough,” the son wrote. “Thank you for thinking about them.”

Bierstock and Melnick thought about shipping it off to a professional singer, maybe a Lee Greenwood type, but because time was running out for so many veterans, they decided it was best to release it quickly, for free, on the Web. They’ve sent the song to Sen. John McCain and others in Washington. Already they have been invited to perform it in Houston for a Veterans Day tribute - this after just a few days on the Web. They hope every veteran in America gets a chance to hear it.

GOD BLESS every veteran…and thank you !

CLICK THE LINK BELOW TO HEAR THE SONG AND SEE THE PICTURES:

Dr. Sam and the Frivolous Action Blues Band