The Senate passed a bill that would make English the “common and unified” language of the United States. Now, perhaps, states like California can stop all this bilingual publishing at taxpayer expense. (I know — that would be too much to expect from the bunch of liberals in Sacramento.)
I watched the White House press conference yesterday. Long-time press corps matriarch Helen Thomas tried to rant about the administration’s international surveillance of potential terrorist communications. She repeated her talking points over and over while Tony Snow diffused her poison apples until she was silenced by this last exchange:
Image: Helen Thomas prepares a poison apple for Tony Snow
Thomas: Privacy was breached by turning over their phone numbers.
Snow: Well, again, you are jumping to conclusions about a program, the existence of which we will neither confirm, nor deny.
Thomas: Why? Don’t you think the American people have a right to know–
Snow: Because–what’s interesting is, there seems to be a notion that because the president has talked a little bit about one surveillance program and one matter of intelligence gathering, that somehow we have to tell the entire world we have to make intelligence gathering transparent. Let me remind you, it’s a war on terror, and there are people–I guarantee you, al Qaeda does not believe–
Thomas: He doesn’t have a right to break the law, does he?
Snow: No, the president is not talking about breaking the law. But al Qaeda doesn’t believe in transparency. What al Qaeda believes in is mayhem, and the president has a constitutional obligation and a heartfelt determination to make sure we fight it.
Tony then went on to the next reporter while the wicked witch Thomas sputtered her way to silence.
Perhaps James Taranto of National Review Online made the best point about Tony Snow’s value to the White House when he wrote this about Thomas in his Best of the Web column yesterday:
All you have to do to win an argument with Helen Thomas is let her gibber; she discredits herself with her outlandish and tendentious statements. It’s to Snow’s credit that he’s not satisfied outwitting her by default but instead used her embarrassing performance to make a serious and substantive point. This is what we need more of from the White House.
More and more I think Dubya made an excellent choice when he named Tony Snow to be Press Secretary.
For about $700 each, the California Highway Patrol will acquire nearly ten thousand new American-made Smith and Wesson semi-automatic weapons to replace aging armament; some of these aging weapons having delivered over one hundred thousand rounds.
CHP will buy 9,700 new guns – sacbee.com
The California Highway Patrol is buying 9,700 semi-automatic pistols from gun maker Smith & Wesson Corp. in a deal the CHP says is worth $6.6 million. Delivery of the .40-caliber firearms will start in June and be completed over the next 18 months, Smith & Wesson Vice President Liz Sharp said. The new firearms will replace older Smith & Wesson pistols that CHP officers have carried as their primary service weapon since the 1990s, Sharp said.
Leland Nichols, Smith & Wesson’s chief operating officer, said the Springfield, Mass.-based company was “honored†that California’s premier law enforcement agency had decided to stick with his company’s guns.
“They are happy with the brand and happy with the reliability and durability,†Nichols said. “They have some units that have fired over 100,000 rounds.â€
We’re happy to see that the CHP is buying American and buying much needed replacements for our first responder patrolmen and women.
Cap’n Bob & the Damsel will be transitioning to a new server this week. I expect there to be some period where access is not available, and a period where restoration to full functionality will be taking place. I apologize in advance to users of our blog and users of our Never Forget 9/11 Tribute. I hope to have most functionality restored quickly.
Note: if you are displaying the tribute on your site, you won’t have to do anything special. I have tested this using Firefox™ and IE6™ and both browsers handle the missing resource gracefully.
This will be the last post until after the transition.
We’ve been seeing this TV spot ad for a few weeks now, and I finally found it on-line thanks to GOP Bloggers who referred us to UnionFacts.com. Unions universally cripple employers, but tragically, here in California, they have brought public education down to the lowest levels of functionality. This not only hurts the taxpayers, but the students. It’s time for competition in the learning system and to run racketeering teachers unions out of power.
Check out this ad and the UnionFacts.com website:
The Center for Union Facts | UnionFacts.com
Running nationally this week, our new commercial asks what you love about your union: is it the forced dues, political spending, discrimination, or corruption?
My opinion? The only difference between organized labor and organized crime is the way the second word is spelled.
NASA – NASA Satellites Observe Comet’s Trail
There will be no tsunamis, firestorms or mass extinctions to spoil your Memorial Day weekend.
Image right:This infrared image from NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope shows the broken Comet skimming along a trail of debris left during its multiple trips around the sun. On the lower right lies the Ring Nebula, coincidentally in the same direction as the cometary fragment.
Despite speculation that Comet 73P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 3 will strike the Earth on May 25, neither the main comet nor any of its more than 40 fragments pose a danger to Earth.“We are very well acquainted with the trajectory of Comet 73P Schwassmann-Wachmann 3,” said Donald Yeomans, manager of NASA’s Near-Earth Object Program Office. “There is absolutely no danger to people on the ground or the inhabitants of the International Space Station, as the main body of the object and any pieces from the breakup will pass many millions of miles beyond the Earth.”
However, you can see the comet falling apart right before your very eyes, thanks to NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, Swift X-Ray and Spitzer Space Telescope.
Click on the Space Rocks page for an animated preview of the next large comet impact.
