Attention Speaker Hastert: You are not above the law

Even in YOUR "House"

It appears some in Congress have their knickers in a knot over the raid on Rep. William Jefferson’s (D-La.) Congressional office this weekend. For Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert, the issue seems to be over the “constitutionality” of the raid and he has gone on records saying “the seizure of legislative papers, no matter how innocuous, was a violation of the “the principles of Separation of Powers, the independence of the Legislative Branch, and the protections afforded by the Speech and Debate clause of the Constitution.”
Ohhhh Kaaay. The same article goes on citing Hastert:

Hastert also singled out Attorney General Alberto Gonzales in that statement: “It would appear that the Attorney General himself was aware that Separation of Powers concerns existed … because in seeking the warrant the FBI suggested to the judge procedures it would follow to deal with Constitutionally protected materials.”

Alright then! Heck, we can’t let the Executive Branch run roughshod over the HEY! Wait a second……
“Seeking the warrant”? They got a Federal judge to issue a warrant? And they had to describe to the judge how they would deal with the Constitutional issues before he would give them the warrant? Sounds like some due process going on. What does the AG have to say for himself?

"We respectfully, of course, disagree with the characterization by some,” Gonzales said. “We believe … we have been very careful, very thorough in our pursuit of criminal wrongdoing, and that’s what’s going on here. We have an obligation to the American people to pursue the evidence where it exists.”

So the story so far is this....

On the one hand we have a Justice Department eager to look at what a guy known to be ‘dirty’ might be keeping in an office where he thinks he’s untouchable. He put a pile of suspect cash in the freezer and is on tape taking dirty money for crying out loud! I wonder what he wouldn’t think to hide in his office! The AG does the right thing and gets a warrant, which is essentially a buy-in on the idea that a search is a good thing by the Judicial branch of government.

On the other hand we have a House of Representatives that seems to think they should be untouchable when on ‘hallowed ground’.

Hmmm...

RECOMMENDATION: Speaker Hastert and his ilk should shut up, quietly cry in their beer, and worry how this perceived attempt to keep themselves above the law will look to their constituencies.

Crap. Of course, a bazillion people will read about this first at Instapundit. Looks like Professor Reynolds posted about the time I finished my first paragraph. I feel good knowing I'm on the same wavelength as the Blogfather, but I gotta either get off work earlier or learn to type faster [;-)

NO BIG OIL COLLUSION

Sorry (Not Really)
The speed at which the investigators looked into the possibility of major oil companies colluding to manipulate oil and gas prices, and found NONE, will shortly have someone, somewhere, screaming COVERUP! and WHITEWASH! Oh, there were isolated instances at the retail and distribution levels post-Katrina, but no major oil company involvement.

I knew it wouldn’t take long for the ‘oil gouging’ investigation to wrap up. It was impossible for it to take much time. I mean, we only keep more excruciating public details on all aspects of the oil business than just about any other commodity, including:oil production,imports(PDF),petroleum product exports (.xls),transportation, and refinery operations.

Remarkably, even with much ambiguity over the mere definition of ‘price gouging', investigators found NO “big oil” collusion.

Of course that won’t keep the innumerate, paranoid, politically ambitious or possibly somebody suffering from any combination of these faults from claiming the investigation was a whitewash or coverup.

Update in midstream...

….report shows ``that federal investigators don't have the tools they need to protect the American people from gas price gouging,'' Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada said today in a statement.

``The FTC ignored the 800 pound gorilla in the room, namely that the oil companies engage in price leadership - setting prices higher than what real competition would merit,'' Senator Charles Schumer, a Democrat from New York, said in a statement.

Look for a gripping performance by Reid’s or Schumer’s proxies (right column) when the FTC chairwoman appears before the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee tomorrow.

Should be a hoot.

Oh, one more thing. Chuck Schumer's wrong about that gorilla; the gorilla is the fact that federal and state governments make much more off every gallon of gas than anybody in the actual production/supply chain. Especially in Schumer's state, where the state taxes on the total value of the sale instead of by the gallon. Now that's a definition of gouging I can live with!

Air Force Changing Uniform, It Must be Wednesday

The Air Force is messing around with the uniform....AGAIN.
One of these may appear to be a USMC ripoff, but it is really a pure CARTOON of an Eddie Rickenbacker-era uniform with a modified Sam Brown Belt.
The other one appears to be the product of a forbidden act between a 1940’s uniform and a zoot-suit. Lapels are evidently the latest rage!

Honestly, how many years of therapy does senior leadership need to undergo before they get over their insecurities well enough that they stop remodeling the uniform every time you turn around?

Or is there a mysterious process by which dead fashion designers channel (Chanel Channel?) fashion diktats via clueless general officers?

There's a certain LT I know thinks they're using this as a way to lower retention and get under the manpower cap.







But a colleague at work is reminded of something else:

'allo 'allo 'allo What's all this then?

Working Off Line: Not Blog and Blog

Not Blog
Been burning the late hours at work. You know you are under the gun when even though you are salaried, you have almost 12 hours overtime by the end of the first day of the workweek.

Didn't get to see a local airshow this Saturday, I just got to hear it from inside the lab. My daughters did get to go, and my youngest caught some good pics including this one.
Trivia for afficionados
I talked to the owner/pilot in the BX the last time he flew here (Nice Gentleman BTW). Suprisingly, he has no problem getting most parts. Some come from Russia and other former Warsaw Pact countries. but many parts come from China (his was license built in the PRC). The few parts he can't get, he gets fabricated.


Blog
Finally finished Cobra II, and am preparing an in-depth review. It ain't pretty.

Air Force Reshaping BS: A Milestone

I'm the grandson and son of non-career military men, son-in-law to a retired military man, a retired military man myself, and a father and father-in-law to people now serving. Once upon a time, I would have heartily recommended Air Force service to anyone. Be it for a single hitch or a career, responsible individuals almost always got more out of it than they should have expected. But these days, I wouldn't recommend it to my worst enemy.

Today and tomorrow the USAF will be letting 1LTs know who survived and who didn't in this round of so-called 'Force Reshaping' Reduction-in-Force (RIF) .

The 'victims' will soon figure out where their futures will lie. The 'survivors' get to continue wondering what their future will bring, in a military service that maintains a deafness to its own self-inflicted idiocy.

After retirement, I have continued working closely with the services, and have seen what has been, and is now, going on. I have this to say to the survivors:

Take a look around at the Air Force as it is today and remember it. Although the Air Force started sliding downhill under Merrill McPeak** and is but a shadow of its pre-Bottom-Up-Review self, this bonehead manpower exercise called Force Reshaping has put an Olympic luge under the AF. Sorry boys and girls, right now active duty is as good as it is going to be...for a long, long time. So from here on out, try and enjoy the ride.

What a f*&#%&$ shame.

**For you young kids who aren't aware of the McPeak legacy click here and scroll down and read the comments from those who served with/under him. Its a hoot.

The Why's of Missing Leadership on Immigration

Killer week at work, including an 11 hour day Saturday, so I've blogged-lite this week and weekend to keep up with my real life. This is another killer week at work that will probably end up with another long Saturday, but I still managed to look in on what’s going on in the well-traveled parts of the Blogosphere. I wanted to wait until something came to me that wasn’t being beaten to death elsewhere, but that hasn’t happened, so I thought I’d ruminate on some of the less talked-about aspects to something that was widely covered.

There is a lot to pick from, but no other topic seems as fertile as the illegal alien issue. Any discussion of the problem with our borders raises a lot of questions (so far) that seem to go unanswered, Tom Tancredo aside, in Washington. I guess my biggest questions on the issue all begin with a “Why?”

Why was the first instinct for a large number of Republican lawmakers either to drag their feet or work to subvert any effort to secure our borders and enforce our laws?

Why are elected officials who are otherwise security-conscious, trying to turn a blind eye to the near and long term security threats of an open border?

Why are so many in Congress, who haven’t met a piece of not-one-more-dead-child legislation they didn’t pass lest they appear to be indifferent to any American’s health, and the President, who thought no price was too high to pay for yet another federally funded health care giveaway, ignoring the enormous threat the unchecked flow of illegal aliens pose to our health and health care system?

We will catch this problem in time, I think, but no thanks to the so-called ‘leaders’ (of any stripe) in Government.

The answer to all these "whys", I believe, might be very simple. The National Legislators and Administration, are gun-shy on any issue that could be framed as a ‘rights’ or ‘discrimination’ issue. And in the end we the Public are to blame. Over the last four decades, either we’ve been raving liberal moonbats who see oppression in every corner of public discourse and browbeat anyone who dares challenge the ‘Cause’, or we’re the chronic apologists who let them do it.

Bottom line: in a free society, we get the government we collectively deserve.

Again, I think (hope it isn’t just ‘hope’) we are catching this problem in time. The national mood is swinging towards a rational point of view. The mainstream dialog seems to have shifted quickly into a ‘facts-based’ discussion rather than an emotive one. This should bode us well and prevent irrational counter-movements that could give rise to an American sympathy similar to those that gave energy to France’s LePen or England’s BNP.

I guess we will see.

May Day Mayday

Well golly, the "numbers" weren't quite where the wackos and militants wanted them, even in Los Angeles. Baldilocks and the Pajamas Media covered Los Angeles pretty well, including pictures I'm pretty sure won't be shown on CNN.

What really caught my eye in Baldilocks' post was this:

Within my earshot, someone said that it would be easier for Mexico—with its demonstrably hard-working population--to reform itself were it not for the fact that it exists right next to the most prosperous nation in the world. With the border so close, open and inviting, however, who could blame a poor Mexican for fleeing instead of standing up to Mr. Fox’s notoriously brutal and crooked police and military?

Which reminded me of my earlier 'Co-Dependent No More' post, where I wrote about (among other things)...

"Rationalizing":

"(Mexico is an economic pressure cooker and) needs to blow off steam. (Mexico) has problems that can’t be dealt with any other way."

"Projection":

(American dominance is) enough to drive (any country) to (ruin).

The Icons are not loading at the top of the page for some reason. I'll update later, but file this one under Cultural and Economic Elements of Power.

Round Up The Usual Suspects

If the Feds want us to believe they aren’t just a bunch of “Captain Renaults” and are serious about rounding up illegals they need to do a couple of things...

First: Don’t let them go after you catch them
Second: Keep gathering them up.

Crime Stopper Tip: The meat processing industry seems a pretty good follow-up to the pallet-making industry.

Bird Cuisinarts

Instapundit has a good post up on the NIMBY - Wind Farm issue, and one of his readers (a Ms. Jackson) sent in a nice shot of the Tehachapi wind farm as seen from Mojave Airport.

I left that area (the Antelope Valley) in 2003 after living there for a decade. I watched the number and size of windmills grow while flying in and out of Edwards AFB for a decade before that (been blinded flying over the solar farm east of there too). Ms Jackson is spot on in everything she says.

However, there is a lot NOT to love about them.

My last boss in CA is a 'Birder'. I consider him a responsible conservationist (rational) and not a rabid 'environmentalist' (emotive) by any measure - He IS an engineer after all. He's a member of the Audubon Society and often burns some of his vacation time in the mountains just north of Tehachapi doing volunteer work collecting data on migratory birds. It turns out that the Tehachapi wind farm is planted right in the middle of the Pacific Flyway, one of the major U.S. migratory bird routes. (They have pretty much the same problem at Altamont.)

Birders (like him) refer to these wind generators as "Bird Cuisinarts" or "fill-in-bird-name-here" Cuisinarts. At certain times of the year dead birds are known to pile up at the bases of towers.

Hmmmm..."Well Sited" eh?

Here's a map of the major migratory bird routes in the United States.
And here is where the best wind (class 3 or above) for wind turbines is found in the U.S.

Now, here's an overlay of the two maps (grey areas indicate suitable winds):

It makes one wonder: perhaps smart birds use the wind to their advantage, or that the same conditions that create high winds (like mountain ridges) might also have some other aspect (shelter?) that facilitates bird migration?

It also irritates me that when advocates of Wind Power talk about “waste streams” they never mention the waste stream from manufacturing wind generator systems and infrastructure. I live just off a major interstate and I frequently see trucks with loads of huge generator blades and housings made out of composites – and composite work tends to have nasty waste byproducts, and electronics often do as well.

Wind power conceivably has lower or more benign waste streams compared to many other energy sources but nonetheless there still has to be one. I say conceivably, because I don't think even the industry really knows: they’re taken at face value as being ‘better’ than other power sources.

Boyington Revisited

Looks like UW Student Senate is reconsidering their earlier transgressions and is moving towards a memorial for alumnus Pappy Boyington after all....of sorts. According to this article, Col Boyington's memorial will be part of memorial to a larger group of UW alumni who were awarded the Medal of Honor. Any memorial would still have to be OK'd by the University, but that seems promising given UW also started a scholarship in Boyington's name last week.

Most interesting is the reporter's brief mention of how UW

"is also trying to cool public tempers that student leaders raised when, among other things, some questioned whether the university should honor a Marine who had killed people or another rich white man."

As we discussed earlier, the kinds of things like the statements referenced above were what really drew the public's ire in the first place.

The article closes with some mention of related student initiatives:

One calls for a UW student to publicly apologize for comments she made about the military and read a book about Boyington -- or lose her senate seat.

Another asks the senate to support military recruiters' right to be on campus.

A third calls for UW students to recognize members of the military who have died in Iraq with a campus monument.

I REALLY hope the first one passes, especially if it affects the hypocrite who made the "another rich white man" crack.

War with Iran?

Probably one of a series

Instapundit asks:

SO DOES THE FACT THAT BUSH IS HALTING DEPOSITS TO THE STRATEGIC PETROLEUM RESERVE mean that we shouldn't expect a shooting war with Iran any time soon?

No.
It just means don't expect a long one.

Jane, you poor, misguided scrag!

This weekend, Jane Harman had a meltdown on one of the talking head shows.

The ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee complained on Sunday that the fired CIA employee who leaked classified information to the Washington Post about top secret interrogations of al Qaeda suspects was being held to a higher standard than President Bush.

Um….no.

First off, this is (among other things) a battle of semantics, and I’m tired of giving the lead to the spinmeisters on the left. ‘Leaks’ happen when you have radiator hoses, or don’t change your kid’s diapers in time. ‘Leaks’ is just too dammed cute a word for Criminal Disclosure of Classified Information to An Unauthorized Person which, at the minimum, is in violation of Title 18 USC, but due to the nature of the information might also be in violation of Title 50 USC.

"While leaks are wrong, I think it is totally wrong for our president, in secret, to selectively declassify certain information and to empower people in his White House to leak it to favored reporters so they can discredit political enemies,"

It is neither a ‘leak’ nor an Unauthorized Disclosure, Jane, it is a Declassification and Public Release of Information. That you do not like that it was done, or how it was done means absolutely diddly-squat.

"That is wrong, that is unprecedented," Harman claimed. "I have never, ever heard about that happening in other administrations."

Then why it is a "Washington aphorism" that "The ship of state is the only vessel that leaks from the top?"

"[Bush] wasn't breaking the law because the president claims to have power that no one else has," she complained.

This is my favorite, Jane.
Tip: He DOES have powers that no one else has.

You're "The ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee"?

"He should be reminded that . . . . the inherent powers of the presidency are not unlimited."

Why? Between you lefties and the RINOs, Congress often stymies him. I think it far more likely Jane, that YOU need to be reminded that the inherent powers of Congress ARE limited.

9th Circuit Follies: Concurrence

Mostly....

Volokh Conspiracy posts more on the latest 9th Circuit Court of Appeals hijinks. We are in material agreement, with him (of course) providing far more meat to the argument concerning supposed and selective rights to not be offended as well as the other major aspects of the case.

Priorities......

Can't blog today.

Youngest Daughter has Senior Prom tonight and I will be cleaning my weapons to present the proper 'Dad' effect when the limo arrives.

I should almost be finished when the limo comes back.

Coming Russian Decline

in population, that is....

Power Line has a good post about and link to a Washington Times article on the future of Russian demographics. According to the post, at this birth rate, there will be 1/2 as many Russians in 2050 than today.

How 'Russian' will it be, when they aren't making any more Russians? I wonder who will be replacing them? Let's see, what cultures and nationalities are on their borders....

I can't blame the Russian people though: I wouldn't want a "Putin" future for my kid either.