The Nigh Seen Creeder

Google's global privacy chief, Peter Fleischer, wants to see T-shirts replace dress shirts and ties as standard business attire. Fleisher says the tie "constricts circulation to the brain."

In addition, the tie "acts as decorative camouflage for the business suit, designed to shield the middle-aged male physique, with its shrinking shoulders and protruding paunch, from feeling sufficiently self-conscious to hit the gym," Fleischer wrote in a letter to the Financial Times.

Fleischer suggests replacing ties with T-shirts, which he said do not hide the shape of a man's body: "Wouldn't you like to know whether your business partners are fit? Why should you trust a man in business if he abuses his own body?," Fleischer wrote, saying casual attire may bring about "greater creativity."

T-shirts? Hell, let's replace dress shirts and ties with tank tops. Nothin' says "professional" like a tank top!

I don't agree with Christopher Hitchens very often. He asks a question, however, that I've asked myself at least 1,000 times: Why are we so scared of offending Muslims? Hitchens says it's about time Muslims take responsibilty for offending those of us who don't happen to believe that God revealed himself to an "unlettered merchant in seventh-century Arabia":

"It is often said that resistance to jihadism only increases the recruitment to it. For all I know, this commonplace observation could be true. But, if so, it must cut both ways. How about reminding the Islamists that, by their mad policy in Kashmir and elsewhere, they have made deadly enemies of a billion Indian Hindus? Is there no danger that the massacre of Iraqi and Lebanese Christians, or the threatened murder of all Jews, will cause an equal and opposite response? Most important of all, what will be said and done by those of us who take no side in filthy religious wars? The enemies of intolerance cannot be tolerant, or neutral, without inviting their own suicide. And the advocates and apologists of bigotry and censorship and suicide-assassination cannot be permitted to take shelter any longer under the umbrella of a pluralism that they openly seek to destroy."

Presidential candidate Ron Paul has lined up more kook support. This time, it's the National Alliance:

"Coming off the great success of the Rally for Life and Liberty in Des Moines last Saturday, Ron Paul now needs to keep the momentum going with a victory at the Straw Poll in Ames on August 11th.

"It’s time to convert internet energy into real political power. Thousands of Iowans need to vote in the Straw Poll for Dr. Paul. And thousands more need to come from around the country to participate and volunteer at the event."

Reason 5,482 to admire the hell out of Israel: Attractive young women carrying M16s!

Here we see three Israeli girls purchasing ice cream whilst packing, er, toting heat (HT: Mad Man):

I had the damndest time trying to fall asleep last night. I started poking 'round the Internet looking for a site that would cure my infernal insomnia. I made my way to Mike Gravel for President and ... I immediately became bleary eyed and sleepy.

Don't know who Mike Gravel is? Don't worry. You are not alone.

Mike Gravel was a U.S. Senator from Alaska in the late 1960s and 70s. He was bested in the 1980 Democratic primary when Alaska voters tired of his efforts to enact almost the whole of George McGovern's 1972 platform. Now, almost 30 years later, Gravel's again attempting to enact the McGovern '72 platform ... this time as a presidential candidate.

The Gravel for Prez Web site is full of standard liberal claptrap: he wants to "fully fund" this and wants new programs to "fight" that. I did find one tidbit of interest, however. I learned that Gravel is agin' the electoral college. I guess I really shouldn't be surprised. Agitating for the abolishment of the electoral college is de rigeur in liberal circles these days.

I had quite a lot to say about the importance of the electoral college a few months back. I promtly cut and pasted my post into an e-mail and dispatched it to Gravel's campaign. I'll let you know if and when he responds. In the meantime, here's my original post 'bout the electoral college:


The Maryland legislature recently enacted a law to end the state's participation in the electoral college. Said law will award the state's electoral votes to the winner of the national popular vote ... if and when a bunch o' other states agree to do the same.

Maryland's decision to sidestep the electoral college is welcome news to Hendrik Hertzberg. Indeed, Hertzberg tells us in the April 16 New Yorker that the United States will not be a "mature democracy" until it scraps the electoral college entirely.

Far from being archaic, the electoral college is a crucial part of our Republic's machinery for combining democracy with constitutionalism and the rule of law. Indeed, as the Claremont Institute's Charles Kesler opined during the 2000 election imbroglio, "[The electoral college] ensures that the president will be chosen not by a plebiscitary majority but by a constitutional one, distributed by states and moderated by the need to accommodate a variety of interests and viewpoints."

Liberal bellyaching about the electoral college didn't start until it, well, worked. As you may recall, in the months leading up to the 2000 presidential election, many pundits were predicting that George W. Bush would win the popular vote and Al Gore would prevail in the electoral count. When the exact opposite occurred (we all know the story by now), Hillary Clinton, Jesse Jackson, Jr., and other lefties began calling for the abolition of the electoral college. We were then treated to months of liberal bellyaching about how democracy had been subverted and such. Far from being subverted, our nation's particular brand of democracy had worked just as the founders had envisioned.

To appreciate the electoral college's relevancy - nay, necessity - in these modern times, one need only examine a county-by-county map from the 2000 election. The famous red/blue map reveals a sea of Bush-red counties, while Al Gore's support is concentrated in a select number of large metropolitan areas. The electoral college ensured in 2000 - and again in 2004 - that the overwhelmingly liberal voters who live in and around Boston, New York City, Chicago, Seattle, Los Angles, and San Francisco did not trump red-state America's interests. Hertzberg says eliminating the electoral college will ensure "truly national" elections. But is an election in which a president is more or less chosen by the folks living in a half-dozen or so cities really a "national" election?

Finally, I often recommend Dr. George Grant's The Importance of the Electoral College to those who express interest in the subject. Methinks Hendrik Hertzberg needs to pick up a copy as well. Here are two of my favorite passages:

“Direct popular election of the president was rejected by the Framers because it failed to protect the states from the intrusion of massed centralized forces. They reasoned that a pure democracy was more easily corrupted than a federal republic. It would essentially eliminate state borders and state prerogative, and whenever more centralized government directly governs the people, they thought that there was likely to be more opportunity for corruption. And electing the president by the Legislative or Judicial branches would violate the separation of powers. Thus, the federal solution was to elect the president by a balanced representation of the States and the people. Electors, independent from either the states or the national government, were elected in accordance with standards established by the State legislatures, and the electors then elected the president. This federal approach carefully avoided direct dependency upon either the states or the people, but kept both represented in the process. Giving each State the number of electors as they have representatives in Congress was also in harmony with this balance.”

Grant explains further: “The federal nature of the American Constitutional covenant enables the nation to function as a republic - thus specifically avoiding the dangers of a pure democracy. Republics exercise governmental authority through mediating representatives under the rule of law. Pure democracies on the other hand exercise governmental authority through the imposition of the will of the majority without regard for the concerns of any minority - thus allowing law to be subject to the whims, fashions, and fancies of men. The Founders designed federal system of the United States so that the nation could be, as John Adams described it, a ‘government of law, not of men.'"

According to John Edwards, the "middle class" is shouldering the federal tax burden:

"It's time to restore fairness to a tax code that has been driven completely out of whack by the lobbyists in Washington, by the powerful interests in Washington and by those who value the few above the interests of many. ...

"It should not be in America that the middle class carries the tax burden, and that's exactly what's happening."

The Tax Foundation sets the record straight:

"[T]he truth of the matter is that's exactly what's not happening. If you define "middle class" as the middle 20 percent of American households, that group only paid 9.7 percent of federal taxes in 2004, according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), while making 13.9 percent of the nation's pre-tax income. On the other hand, the top 20 percent of American households paid 67.1 percent of federal taxes in 2004, while making 53.5 percent of the nation's income."

When it comes to basic economics, John Edwards don't ... know ... nothin'.

So much for the Clinton-Obama ticket:

"Hillary Clinton called Barack Obama 'irresponsible and frankly naïve,' Barack Obama fired back that electing Hillary Clinton could mean 'continuing with Bush-Cheney policies,' and finally Hillary Clinton asked, 'What’s ever happened to the politics of hope?' ...

"But even if Mrs. Clinton now reverts to holding her fire, this week’s flare-up hints at very real tension not just between the two front-runners’ campaigns but between the candidates themselves. And that, in turn, suggests that Mrs. Clinton, should she ultimately secure the nomination, will be inclined to thumb her nose at any pressure from within the party to tap Mr. Obama as her running-mate. (There is no serious thought that Mr. Obama, if he were to win, would face similar pressure to fill out his ticket with Mrs. Clinton.)"

I don't see Hillary - let's be clear, Hillary will be the nominee in '08 - picking a U.S. Senator more liberal than she, who hails from a solid blue state, as her VP. If she's going to pick another Senator, she'd do better with red-stater Evan Bayh (IN) ; if she picks a governor, her choices might be Bill Richardson (NM) or former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack -- both of whom hail from states President Bush won in '04.

To paraphrase a line from The Wolf in Pulp Fiction, those pining for an Hillary-Obama ticket shouldn't start kissing each other's butts just yet.

I'm headed to the 153rd Irish BBQ Picnic in McEwen, Tennessee.

The Nigh Seen Creeder will return Sunday, July 29.

Additional Creeder Readers have written to ask: "What is a nutbucket?" Well ...

Members of the radical activist groups Breasts Not Bombs and Code Pink crashed the opening of Hillary Clinton's San Francisco campaign HQ earlier this week. Zombietime.com was on hand to snap pictures. Thus, I'm able to give you a visual definition, if you will, of "nutbucket." Regardez:

John Hawkins has a message for the North American Union nuts (I hear these nuts on Nashville radio from time to time -- you know who you are):

"[W]hen does that North American Union go into effect? When does Tony Snow announce that last night, Bush merged the country with Canada and Mexico and that our new national sport is hockey and that we're taking orders from Felipe Calderon? Probably right after the draft that the Democrats were predicting that Bush would implement right after the 2004 elections.

"Now, here's another interesting question -- when Bush leaves office in 2009 and there is no North American Union, what do bubbleheads like Jerome Corsi say then? What does a guy like Joseph Farrah, who has been promoting this nonsense for years, say? What does Ron Paul say?

"They told us Bush was going to merge the United States, Mexico, and Canada, the people who weren't insane said that was crazy, and they insisted it was happening. So, when it doesn't happen, then what?

"It's like those goofy cults that say the world will end on such and such a day. You have to wonder how the cultists deal with the fact that it doesn't happen.

"By the way -- when it doesn't happen, let me just say in advance: I told you so, you conspiracy freaks."

"Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney said Thursday he'll probably deliver a speech explaining the role his Mormon faith plays in his political life, but he argued he's made strong gains among evangelicals despite questions about his religion," GOPUSA reports.

"'I have thought about that,' Romney said in an interview with The Associated Press. 'I haven't made a final decision, but it's probably more likely than not.'

"During a campaign appearance earlier in the day, Romney was asked about his views on appointing a 'God-fearing Mormon' to the Supreme Court. Romney has been asked about such matters frequently in question-and-answer sessions he holds almost daily.

"'I'd go after people who will follow the law and I wouldn't apply a religious test either,' Romney said.

"In the interview, Romney acknowledged the issue crops up often enough that he's pondering dealing with it in a comprehensive manner.

"'It's probably too early for something like that,' Romney said. 'At some point it's more likely than not, but we'll see how things develop.'"

Last weekend, 46 people were arrested for underage drinking at John Mayer's concert in Hershey, Pennsylvania. Being the responsible adult that he is, Mayer has threatened to teabag the next underage drinker he happens upon:

"In looking to the future, I hope that this will serve as a wake-up call to young fans who may be thinking about engaging in illegal activity at one of my concerts. If I happen to be walking backstage and I see any of you young men passed out drunk on a stretcher, make no mistake about it, you will come-to in front of your disappointed parents with a face full of Sharpie and the sneaking suspicion that you’ve been teabagged by one of Time Magazine’s 100 most influential people of 2007."

Don't know what teabagging is? Look it up here.

Class-act, that John Mayer ...

There are very few things I detest more than "Do you approve of the President's handling of [the economy, foreign policy, etc.]" polls. Why anyone would think that asking the unwashed masses to answer simple yes/no questions 'bout complex issues is a good idea is beyond me.

I'm of the opinion that any person who participates in a do-you-approve poll should be forced to explain his or her reasoning: Don't like the job the Prez is doing? Why or why not? An answer under 300 words will nullify your response. So, there.

I mention this because ...

According to a new American Research Group poll, just 23 percent of Americans approve of the way President Bush's handling of the economy (73 percent disapprove). Only a doofus would say that the President has "mishandled" the economy. Yes, only a doofus would say such a thing. Consider:

The Bureau Of Labor Statistics recently released figures showing that 132,000 jobs were created in June. Since August 2003, more than 8.2 million jobs have been created, with more than 2 million jobs created over the twelve months ending in June.

The economy has added jobs for 46 straight months, and the unemployment rate remains low at 4.5 percent.

The economy has now experienced over five years of uninterrupted growth, averaging 2.9 Percent a year since 2001. Real GDP grew a strong 3.1 percent in 2006.

Since the first quarter of 2001, productivity growth has averaged 2.8 percent. This is well above average productivity growth in the 1990s, 1980s, and 1970s.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Standard & Poor's 500 index have soared to record levels; and the tech-heavy Nasdaq has risen to numbers it hasn't seen in more than six years.

So, anti-Bush naysayers, tell me again 'bout how the President has mishandled the economy ...

Taegan Goddard says Fred will announce on September 4:

"It's now expected that Thompson will formally announce his presidential candidacy on September 4th in Nashville, with Thompson possibly heading to South Carolina (if time permits) and then to New Hampshire for the September 5th GOP debate."

It should be noted that Mr. Goddard is wrong more often than he's right. So don't let's start (apologies to They Might Be Giants) wagering on September 4 just yet.

Amtrak is an unprofitable drain down which millions of taxpayer dollars have thrown over the years. Thus, Congressional Democrats wanna subsidize the hell outta it:

"The House on Tuesday rejected moves by conservatives to cut taxpayer subsidies for Amtrak as backers of the money-losing passenger railroad cemented their position in the Democratic Congress."

So, tell me again 'bout Democrats 'n' "fiscal responsibility" ... !

Nashville Teamsters news and pics:

"Nine agents with the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation [Tuesday] executed a search warrant on the headquarters of the Nashville Teamsters offices, and TBI officials said their investigation into burglary charges against a former Metro Police officer and Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) official has expanded into a wide-ranging criminal conspiracy probe. ...

"State agents last night received a signed search warrant for the Teamsters Antioch Pike headquarters, and began their search at approximately 10 a.m. Tuesday, Helm said. Nine agents approximately five hours searching the building, and confiscated a computer and a box of paper documents, said Helm."

Nashville Teamsters say: "Vote for Li'l Bob!"

Posted by Bill Roggio at the Weekly Standard blog:

"The U.S. military and the Iraqi government continue to court the tribes in the provinces surrounding Baghdad. One day after the tribes in the city of Taji in Salahadin province pledged to fight al Qaeda in Iraq and the Mahdi Army, a tribal meeting was held in the city of Khalis in Diyala province. Seventy-five tribal leaders gathered and vowed to fight al Qaeda in Iraq, its Islamic State front, and other insurgent groups. 'Here, right now, I am denouncing the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Qaeda,' said one sheik in attendance.

"As the tribes turn on al Qaeda and its Islamic State of Iraq, the targeted raids against al Qaeda in Iraq's network of facilitators, bomb makes and leadership cells continue. Today's raids by Coalition forces resulted in the capture of 20 al Qaeda operatives. A series of raids near Taji in Salahadin province resulted in 16 al Qaeda captured, including 'a foreign terrorist suspected of involvement in the May 2007 Samarra suicide vehicle-borne improvised explosive device attack,' while another four operatives were captured near Balad."

If you needed proof that Sen. Barack Obama is not ready for Prime Time, well, here 'tis:

"Responding to one of the YouTube questions [during last night's presidential debate], Barack Obama announced he would meet with the leaders of Iran, Syria, Cuba, Venezuela and North Korea without precondition in his first year of his presidency, sending oppressed people in those countries and around the world a clear message: The U.S, under a President Obama will not be worrying about them."

Byron York says Obama is an "inexperienced, over-his-head rookie [who made] a stunningly dumb commitment to meet with the world's worst thugs and dictators." York is absolutely, 100 precent correct.

Again, Obama is not ready for Prime Time.

Ain't statism grand?!

"The Agriculture Department sent $1.1 billion in farm payments to more than 170,000 dead people over a seven-year period, congressional investigators say."

During my high school baseball career, I was sitting in the dugout when a teammate was struck in the head by a line-drive. He was standing on third base when he found himself in the direct path of a "laser-shot."

I can still remember the "crack" sound when my teammate was struck in the head; and I remember the baseball climbing some 75 feet in the air as it drifted over and out of the ball yard. Thank GOD he was wearing a helmet ... and thank GOD he was dazed but not hurt.

Upon hearing about this tragic story, I got sick to my stomach ... literally:

"Mike Coolbaugh became a coach with the Tulsa Drillers earlier this month not so much for the job itself, but because his little boys loved to see him on the baseball field.

"'He had just started,' said Coolbaugh's wife, Amanda, who is expecting their third child in October. 'We were going to be done with it, but his kids wanted to see him.'

"Coolbaugh, 35, died Sunday after being struck in the head by a line drive as he stood in the first-base coach's box during a game in Arkansas."

UPDATE:

Another tragic story:

"A 12-year-old softball player was knocked unconscious when a ball hit her in the head during practice, and she died a day later, police and family said."

The Campaign for Working Families tells us what IS what in Iraq:

"By the day, evidence is growing that the U.S. 'surge' in Iraq, declared a failure even before it had begun, is in fact working. The U.S. military, as usual, is performing courageously on the field of battle, dislodging Al-Qaeda and its allies from strongholds, reducing their sanctuaries and doing it all with minimal civilian casualties.

"As U.S. forces kill and capture the thugs, more and more Iraqis are willing to throw in with us. In Anbar province, U.S. forces have closed a deal with Sunni and Shiite tribal leaders resulting in joint military operations against Al-Qaeda.

"Al-Qaeda has other problems too. Its bloodthirsty, barbaric tactics are causing a backlash even among some of its own members. In one neighborhood in South Baghdad, locals are switching sides to support us after Al-Qaeda thugs started cutting off people’s faces with piano wire.

"Even an Al-Qaeda cell leader crossed over and has provided the U.S. with vital intelligence information. When asked why he had abandoned Al-Qaeda, he replied, 'Because I’m sick of it and I hate them, and I am done.' (By the way, you’re not likely to read such reports in any of the domestic media. I learned of this report from the London Times.)

"But here in Washington, powerful people, sadly, have a stake in our defeat in Iraq. Senator Harry Reid has repeatedly announced that we have already lost. Seventy liberal members of the House of Representatives, along with Republican Ron Paul of Texas, have written to President Bush warning him that they will not vote for more funding for our troops unless all of them are 'redeployed' out of Iraq before Bush leaves office.

"General Petraeus is supposed to bring his report to Congress in the next few months, but no mater what he says, the surrender contingent in Congress has already made up its mind."

Julie Ponzi gives us a good heads-up 'bout Hillary and her ilk:

"Hillary Clinton is out there the last few days touting her 'modern'and 'Progressive' views and explaining (in her tedious and obfuscating way) why those views are representative of the best of America. Hmmmmm -- not so fast. For most Americans not well versed in the various eras of American history, the term 'progressive' suggests an unqualified good. It suggests the opposite of 'regressive' or backwards, for example. But in American politics the term 'progressive' is (as most terms are) a loaded one. To get a better idea of what I’m talking about, take a look at this talk offered given recently at the Heritage Foundation by Tom West of the University of Dallas and William Schambra of the Hudson Institute. Then, the next time you hear a liberal brag about their 'progressive' views ask yourself what it is, exactly, they seek to progress toward. You can be sure of this much: it’ll be costly."

"Presidential hopeful Mitt Romney took aim at Democratic rivals on Sunday, calling them all unprepared to lead the country and comparing Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's economic plan to that of Socialist Karl Marx," GOPUSA reports.

"'It would be helpful to have a person leading the country who understands how the economy works and has actually managed something,' the former Massachusetts governor told reporters after a GOP fundraiser. 'In the case of the three Democratic front-runners, not one of them has managed even a corner store, let alone a state or a city.'" [Emphasis mine -- 'cause it's the TRUTH!]

Rich Galen - fommer press secretary to Dan Quayle, when the former Vice President was a Congressman and a U.S. Senator; former communications director of the political office of Speaker Newt Gingrich; and former executive director of GOPAC - has signed on as a senior advisor to Fred Thompson's presidential exploratory committee.

From the mouth, er, keyboard, o' Galen:

"I am excited about working with Fred Thompson and the group which is gathering around him. I am looking forward to helping you peek behind the curtain (when it doesn't compromise any internal activities) to better understand what happens in a big-time Presidential campaign if and when Thompson becomes a candidate."

Whilst workin' for Fred, Galen promises to continue his popular mullings blog, but not as a campaign tool for Fred Thompson:

"I don't believe there is a conflict if I write about the Democrats' campaigns. Nor do I think there will be a problem writing about the 14%-approval-rated Congress as long as everyone understands that in all cases MULLINGS reflects my views alone and should not be considered to be an official (or unofficial) reflection of the Thompson operation."

The person who first postulated that politics makes strange bedfellows wasn't kidding ...

We all know that a growing gaggle of leftist nutbuckets are calling on Congress to impeach President Bush and Vice President Cheney. Their effort was recently joined by the Jew-hating nutbuckets at the National Alliance:

"We need to know how receptive the American people are to an all out effort in this moment of maximum moral and political crisis to personal commitment to participation in a six month campaign to impeach Bush/Cheney, et al."

Reckon how come the mainstream media hasn't mentioned the far-right's efforts to throw "Bush/Cheney, et al." out of office in its coverage of the far-left's impeachment efforts? Theories indeed abound.

The next time you hear a liberal prattling on about how hard jobs are to come by these days, remind him or her of this fact: Eighteen states have set historical record-low jobless rates in the last year, and twelve of those record lows were set this year. Here's the list:

Alabama: 3.3 percent; Alaska: 5.8; Arizona: 3.4; California: 4.7; Florida: 3.2; Hawaii: 2.0; Idaho: 2.3; Illinois: 4.0; Louisiana: 3.3; Montana: 2.0; Nevada: 4.1; New Mexico: 3.2; New York: 4.0; Pennsylvania: 3.8; Texas: 4.1; Utah: 2.3; Washington: 4.4; West Virginia: 4.0.

Take note that three states (UT, HI, MT) have unemployment rates below 2.5 percent. That's a couple of points below the rate at which economists consider the country to be at full employment. Incredible!

The worst place for job-seekers these days is the state of Michigan. Not only does Michigan have the highest unemployment rate in the U.S. (7.2 percent), it is the only state that did not create any new jobs last year.

Remember when Democrats were bemoaning the fact that MI Gov. Jennifer Granholm is constitutionally prohibited from running for president (she was born in Canada)? Considering the bang-up job Gov. Granholm has done running the Michigan economy, she'll be lucky if she can herself elected as Lansing's chief dogcatcher when she leaves the statehouse.

From this morning's Wall Street Journal:

"Returning from a five-mile run, presidential candidate John Edwards raids the refrigerator and plops down in his sweaty clothes to munch on sugar snap peas at the table."

Do we really want a president who "raids the refrigerator" and grabs ... sugar snap peas? That's just a little, well, wimpy.

You just ran five miles, dude. Make yourself a bologna (thick-sliced, of course) and cheese sandwich. That's what a man does when he raids the refrigerator!

Clement, Dozier, Briley, Dean, Gentry?

On August 2, Nashville voters NEED this option:

"Massachusetts voters sick of holding their noses on Election Day could get another option: none of the above. The proposal would let voters reject all candidates and demand a new election.

"The measure, pending before the Legislature, would add the line 'None of the Above; For a New Election' to every state and local race on the ballot. If that option won the most votes, another election would be held in 60 to 80 days, and other candidates would be allowed to run."

We all know how much left-wingers hate Wal-Mart ... but their hatred don't stop 'em from shoppin' there:

"On the same day Barack Obama told an AFL-CIO forum in New Jersey that he would not shop at Wal-Mart because of the company’s anti-union stance, his New Hampshire campaign staff purchased $93.92 in office supplies at the store in Manchester."

C'est hypocrisie, n'est-ce pas?

"Republican Mitt Romney directly appealed to social conservatives in South Carolina on Thursday, criticizing Democratic rival Barack Obama for supporting age-appropriate sex education for children as young as kindergartners," GOPUSA reports.

"'Senator Obama is wrong if he thinks science-based sex education has any place in kindergarten,' Romney told some 150 people at a restaurant in the northern part of the state. 'We should be working to clean up the filthy waters our kids are swimming in.'"

A Creeder Reader sends us this:

"In Italy, a debate is raging among chefs and diners about eliminating a pungent staple of the Italian diet: garlic. ...

"The debate starts in the center of Rome at La Trattoria restaurant, one of the city's trendiest restaurants known for its innovative Sicilian cuisine. La Trattoria's chef, Filippo La Mantia, has shunned garlic as the basis of his dishes in favor of other natural ingredients such as citrus and other herbs.

"La Mantia says that garlic is a leftover from when Italians were poor and used it to flavor their meager victuals. He says the average standard of living is high enough today that people can do without it."

Italian cuisine sans garlic? Ain't that like Irish cuisine without taters?

Don't tell me that garlic's peasant food. I'll peasant kick your ass ...!

Filmmaker Kevin Smith (Clerks) has a new movie in his movie-making hopper:

"Red State takes place in an intentionally unnamed, conservative state, where religious fundamentalism has reached its logical conclusion. You guess it: It's a horror movie."

I don't reckon I'll be viewing Mr. Smith's left-wing nutbucket movie 'bout murderous conservatives.

In-f'n-deed.

Don't like the Prez?!

Show your displeasure by defacing public property:

U.S. Representatives Zach Wamp (TN) and Eric Cantor (VA) sent a letter to Speaker Nancy Pelosi yesterday in which they respectfully ask her to reprimand Rep. Keith Ellison (MN) ...

Here's the letter.

In case you haven't heard, Ellison, the first Muslim to be elected to Congress, recently compared President Bush to Adolph Hitler by equating the 1933 Reichstag fire -- which, history tells us, the Nazis instigated in order to grab power in Germany -- to the terrorist attacks of 9/11.

Classy guy, that Keith Ellison ...

Awesome satire from the Onion (HT: Crush Liberalism):

"In an effort to jump-start a presidential campaign that still has not broken into the top Democratic tier, former Sen. John Edwards made his most ambitious policy announcement yet at a campaign event in Iowa Monday: a promise to eliminate all unpleasant, disagreeable, or otherwise bad things from all aspects of American life by the end of his second year in office."

As funny as that sounds, it's only a matter of time before a Democratic presidential candidate makes a campaign pledge like that.

"It is ... time that Democrats in Congress and those running for president stop using the war on terror as nothing more than a tool to raise money from the American Left."

-- Senator Joe Lieberman (I-CT)

"As part of an increase in tobacco taxes designed to pay for children's health insurance, the nickel-per-cigar tax that has ruled the industry could rise to as much as $10 per cigar," the St. Petersburg Times reports.

How many cigar shops do you think will go out of business if a $10-per-cigar tax is instituted? Personally, I will make fewer visits to my local tobacconist (Tobacco Road) if my three-cigars-a-day habit costs me an extra $30 ... indeed!

Hillary Clinton and Chuck Schumer want to use your tax dollars to build a nutbucket museum in NY (HT: John Hawkins):

"The grassroots free-market group Americans for Prosperity ... released a list of Senate earmarks slated to be included in the Fiscal Year 2008 Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education appropriations bill.

"The 1,016 earmarks total nearly $392 million, and include millions for questionable projects such as $1 million in tax dollars for a museum dedicated to recreating the 1969 Woodstock Music Festival experience." [Emphasis mine]

Jon Lovitz beat the hell outta Andy Dick last week after Dick made a jackass comment about Phil Hartman.

Sometime last year, Dick approached Joh Lovitz and, according to Lovitz, "looked at me and said, 'I put the Phil Hartman hex on you - you're the next one to die.'"

When the two ran into each other at the Laugh Factory last Wednesday, Lovitz was expecting an apology. When he didn't get one ... well:

"Laugh Factory owner Jamie Masada, who witnessed the assault, said, 'Jon picked Andy up by the head and smashed him into the bar four or five times, and blood started pouring out of his nose.' Lovitz told Page Six, 'All the comedians are glad I did it because this guy is an asshole.'"

The leading Republican presidential candidate is ...? None of the above:

"The latest Associated Press-Ipsos poll found that nearly a quarter of Republicans are unwilling to back top-tier hopefuls Rudy Giuliani, Fred Thompson, John McCain or Mitt Romney, and no one candidate has emerged as the clear front-runner among Christian evangelicals. Such dissatisfaction underscores the volatility of the 2008 GOP nomination fight. ...

"A half year before voting begins, the survey shows the White House race is far more wide open on the Republican side than on the Democratic. The uneven enthusiasm about the fields also is reflected in fundraising in which Democrats outraised Republicans $80 million to $50 million from April through June, continuing a trend from the year's first three months."

The Fiscal Wake-Up Tour is making a stop in Nashville aujourd'hui.

David M. Walker, the Comptroller General of the United States, will visit the Downtown Rotary Club today to discuss the federal government’s long-term fiscal outlook.

The government's long-term fiscal outlook is, well, bleak. Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid already consume nearly half of all federal spending; and many economists predict that these three federal programs will consume more than 75 percent of federal spending within a generation.

The United States' fiscal problem ain't unique. Indeed, practically the whole of Europe - not to mention Japan - is facing a similar problem: aging populations, a declining worker-to-entitlement-consumer ratio, and lawmakers who spend every waking moment thinking up new ways to expand the welfare state.

Unfortunately, I'll not be able to attend the Fiscal Wake-Up meeting today. I very much want to go, if only to count how many times the participants state that "additional revenues," i.e., higher taxes, are needed in order for the United States to get its fiscal house in order.

I'm willing to bet a dollar to anyone's dime that Mr. Walker will not entertain a single notion 'bout shrinking the size of the American welfare state.

That being said, I can only hope that Comptroller Walker keeps this in mind whilst talkin' about what can be done to ensure that the United States exists for another 225+ years ...

"A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship.

"The average age of the world's greatest civilizations has been two hundred years. These nations have progressed through this sequence: From bondage to spiritual faith; from spiritual faith to great courage; from courage to liberty; from liberty to abundance; from abundance to complacency; from complacency to apathy; from apathy to dependence; from dependence back again into bondage."

-- Professor Alexander Tytler, describing the fall of the Athenian Republic ... prior to the American War for Independence

Frank Luntz says it will be well nigh impossible for a Rebublican to be elected president in '08 if'n he can't carry the state of Ohio:

"The final step is to win Ohio. To be perfectly blunt, no Republican can win the White House without winning Ohio. Although readers of this column would no doubt like to see and hear the presidential nominees up close, the reality is that California, at least when it comes to elections, is as blue as the Pacific. A successful Republican candidate in Ohio will have learned how to articulate a culturally conservative message fused with government accountability and economic opportunity specifically tailored to voters in the industrial heartland. Without the support of the anxious working class, Ohio will also turn deep blue. And so will the United States."

According to a new Concord Monitor poll, Mitt Romney remains in first place in New Hampshire:

Mitt Romney 27 percent
Rudy Giuliani 20
John McCain 16
Fred Thompson 15

What would a presidential contest be without a candidate who represents the interests of the nutbucket left?!

"Consumer advocate Ralph Nader told the Green Party's national convention that he is considering a 2008 presidential run and accused Democrats of trying to shut smaller parties out of the political process. ...

"Later, addressing a few hundred conventioneers who chanted 'Run Ralph Run,' Nader exhorted Greens to focus on raising money to boost their competitiveness."

OK, I lied ...

I wasn't going to blog today. However, when I got online this evening to check my e-mails, I had ... well, check this out:

"We've already got a historic election with a viable African American candidate and a viable female candidate. Could we also have a gay conservative in the mix? Rumors are swirling that Republican hopeful Fred Thompson is gay. With Christian extremists already up in arms over Mitt Romney not being a real Christian, confirmation of Thompson's sexual orientation could be interesting."

I think it's safe to say that the liberal/socialist/statist left is scared to death of a potential Fred Thompson presidential campaign. Now that certain liberals have tagged ol' Fred as a closet homosexual, what kind of mud can we expect nutbucket-leftists to sling when he becomes an official candidate?!

I'll bet we ain't seen nothin' yet ... !

I'm on my way to Fayetteville, Tennessee, to visit family.

I'll probably eat a slaw burger whilst visiting F'ville - nay, I'll probably eat two or three slaw burgers!

The Nigh Seen Creeder will return Monday, July 16.

"The Dems are terrified. The door to their anxiety closet has swung open wide, encircling them amidst the antiwar howlers of today and the ghosts of defeats they have created: of their past, from Vietnam, and the future, the defeat they wish to impose on America and Iraq. They don’t want to do anything that would make them responsible for whatever results from their actions. All that’s important is to hang George W. Bush. So Democrats follow the Yellow Streak Road, going wherever cowardice leads."

Read the rest here.

I snapped this picture near the entrance to Nashville International Airport:



A Creeder Reader sent me the following quote several months ago. I couldn't really use it for anything ... until today:

"[Liberals] are just itching to pull American troops out of Iraq, which is incredibly important to American interests, and send them to Sudan, which is not important to American interests. Additionally, one of the reasons that they cite for pulling out Iraq is that it's a 'civil war.' That's not really true of Iraq, but it is certainly true of Sudan. It's just wacky."

Howard Gentry recently sent me a press release in which he touted some 60+ black ministers who've signed on to his campaign. I fired off an e-mail to the Gentry for Mayor campaign in which I asked these simple questions:

"Why must the ministers who've decided to endorse Vice Mayor Gentry be identified by their ethnicity? Why not just say '61 ministers' instead?"

This was Vice Mayor Gentry's response:

"I am honored to have this endorsement from the African American Ministers.
This is a positive response to an earlier article questioning my support
from this same group.

"I understand your concern, in light of the Christian mission, but this is
more about my political mission.

"I am ok with this. I hope you will be, also."

No, it doesn't make a whole hell of a lot of sense to me either.

Wall Street is - and has been - on fire:

"Wall Street soared Thursday, propelling the Standard & Poor's 500 index and Dow Jones industrials to record highs as bright spots among generally sluggish retail sales allowed investors to toss aside concerns about the health of the economy.

"The rally, which gave the Dow its biggest one-day percentage gain in nearly four years, was perhaps surprising given that there was no extraordinary announcement or other catalyst often seen with such a huge gain, and that it came before most companies have announced their second-quarter earnings."

In a letter to Power Line, Fred Thopson addresses the cheap shots directed at lawyer-candidates because of their clients (thanks to Hugh Hewitt for the tip). Wise words from ol' Fred:

"The easiest and most generally used tactic when running against a lawyer is to trade off a general perception that most people dislike lawyers. Goodness knows that a lot of lawyers have earned disfavor but, as it turns out, folks understand our system better than a lot of politicians think they do. In my first run for the Senate, my opponent tried the old demagoguery route – 'He has even represented criminals!' – to no avail.

"A first cousin of this ploy is to associate the lawyer with the views of his client. Now-United States Chief Justice John Roberts addressed this notion during his confirmation hearings. '… [I]t’s a tradition of the American Bar that goes back before the founding of the country that lawyers are not identified with the positions of their clients. The most famous example probably was John Adams, who represented the British soldiers charged in the Boston Massacre.'

"Roberts pointed out that Adams was actually vindicating the rule of law. Every person, unpopular or not, is entitled to representation. He further said, 'That principle that you don’t identify the lawyer with the particular views of the client or the views that the lawyer advances on behalf of the client, is critical to the fair administration of justice.'

"Like Adams, the views of attorney Abe Lincoln would have been a little hard to discern from looking at the positions he took as a lawyer. He represented the big railroad companies and on other occasions represented farmers and small land owners against the railroads.

"Likewise during the Roberts confirmation, the New York Times reported on August 5, 2005 that as an appellate lawyer in the mid-1990s, Roberts gave advice to a gay-rights group that helped them win a 1996 anti-discrimination suit. Chief Justice Roberts had no direct hand in the suit. Rather, colleagues at his firm were handling the case and sought advice from a number of partners, him included. The group said that Chief Justice Roberts provided 'invaluable strategic guidance' formulating legal theories.

"I’ve experienced another gambit of those schooled in the creative uses of law and politics: dredging up clients – or another lawyer’s clients – that I may have represented or consulted with, and then using the media to get me into a public debate as to what I may have done for them or said to them 15 or 20 years ago. Even if my memory serves me correctly, it would not be appropriate for a lawyer to make such comments."

According to Investor's Business Daily, President Bush's tax cuts "kept the economy afloat and built the foundations for the current shrinkage in budget red ink":

"It wasn't that long ago that the common wisdom — especially among ignorant journalists — was that the deficit would continue rising due to the Bush tax cuts, which would reduce the amount of money coming into the government's coffers.

"They were wrong on both counts. So were Bush's Democratic foes, who predicted fiscal armageddon from 'deficits as far as the eye can see.' In 2001, Bush inherited an economy in recession, the real cause of the deficits. He wisely ignored the misplaced warnings, cut taxes and let a surging economy fill U.S. coffers with tax revenues.

"Now, surprise, surprise, the Office of Management and Budget announced in this week's midsession review that the deficit this year would be $205 billion, or 1.5% of GDP, down from $248 billion, or 1.9% of GDP, last year and well below the peak of $413 billion, or 2.6% of GDP, in 2003. That 1.5% of GDP, by the way, also is well below the average of 2.4% over the past four decades."

As revenue pours into the treasury and the budget deficit continues to shrink, what do the Democrats want to do? Why, tax and spend ... of course:

"The House Appropriations Committee's moves came as it approved a huge bill funding the departments of Labor, Health and Human Services and Education for the budget year beginning Oct. 1. The measure provides about $152 billion next year for programs whose budgets are set at lawmakers' discretion each year -- almost $11 billion above the administration's request. ...

"The panel also moved to restore Bush's proposed $550 million cut to Amtrak's subsidies."

Awwwwwwwwwww:

"One-woman gay-pride float Tori Spelling may have outdone herself.

"The Beverly Hills, 90210 alum blogged yesterday that she got herself ordained online, and has performed her first gay wedding.

"'I'm Rev. Tori Spelling, and my certificate is in the mail!' she gushed. 'I united Tony and Dex as partners in love. It was a magical evening ... love knows no gender.'"

To paraphrase a line from the movie Fargo, that's a fountain of wisdom. That's a geyser!

The American says it's time it's time to let Africa determine its own future (amen):

"Africa has never loomed as large in the popular imagination of the West as it does today, thanks to the Jeffrey Sachs-Bono ambition to Make Poverty History, and of course to Angelina Jolie and Madonna's commitment to adopting African babies.

"Their message of hope is one that seems to deny Africans a role as agents of their own transformation. We can save Darfur. We can save Africans from disease. We can even save Africans from themselves. Africa can be saved if we just try hard enough. ...

"Aid can alleviate immediate misery and that is why we love it. Charity is a profoundly human response to all those images that pull on our heartstrings. But all evidence points to the maddening conclusion that, in the long run, aid not only has no positive effect on economic growth, it may even undermine it.

"The only way Africa will develop and create wealth is if it can attract foreign capital and trade its goods on the world market like every other economically successful country does."

Conservative curmudgeon Richard Viguerie ain't too keen on Fred Thompson:

"He turned out to be a shooting star—a dazzling flash in the sky, soon gone, not there dependably, night after night, like the Big Dipper. Or, as The Tennessean later put it, 'A year ago [Thompson] looked like a rising star. Today he looks more like a fading comet.'

"Especially to conservatives who have taken the time to examine his record.

"Rumors circulated that Thompson was lazy, uninterested in the daily grind that comes with being a Senator — and one can understand that Capitol Hill is a lot more tedious and less glamorous than a Hollywood movie lot. More important were Thompson’s failures of will and his lack of leadership on any legislation that would promote the conservative cause. Instead what little leadership we got from Thompson advanced the liberal Establishment agenda."

My ami Chris tells us 'bout a MOST disturbing current event:

"The depths of depravity the human heart can reach still surprises me at times, but all that really proves is that I remain pretty naive after all these years. The bottom line is evil exists no matter how much some folks try to deny its existence.

"My prayer is for God to intervene in the matter that is described below and see that all the guilty be brought to justice. We all know His perfect justice will occur in the next life. However, these folks need to be made an example of in this life. It's that simple. It doesn't get any worse than this.

"'Police: Boy forced to have sex with mom[.]'"

Read the rest here.

Whilst driving home this afternoon, I had my radio tuned into Nashville's Sporting News Radio affiliate. An unnamed top-o'-the-hour news babe said this 'bout Barry Bonds' inevitable besting of Hank Aaron's home run record:

"If you can't embrace Barry Bonds, at least embrace the record."

WTF?!

How is possible to "embrace" a record without "embracing" the individual who holds said record?

Barry Bonds is a steroid-using jackass. He will never - and I mean never - be the Home Run King in my book. Indeed, Barry Bonds ain't in any way qualified to carry Hank Aaron's jock.

If I ever come face to face with one Barry Bonds, I'll "embrace" him and his record by punching him in his steroid-enlarged head.

I'm not scared of Barry Bonds. That ain't no sh**, neither (apologies to Sgt. Hartman).

You can download a podcast at RedState.com in which Fred Thompson sets the record straight 'bout his supposed pro-abortion lobbying.

More from RedState.com:

"Since last week's Los Angeles Times hit job on Fred Thompson, a few things have happened.

"First, since the Los Angeles Times article came out, it's been pointed out that Senator Thompson had never acted as a cowboy and thus could not have related a story Ms. DeSarno claims he related. That bit of the article has now mysteriously disappeared from the Los Angeles Times article.

"Second, Thompson had not gone to work at Arent Fox, the firm from which Thompson was allegedly hired, until several months after the abortion rights group claims it hired him through Arent Fox."

Lighten up, Fredheads:

"The straw poll results from the Young Republicans national convention are tallied, but according to some attendees, they come with a big asterisk.

"Former Gov. Mitt Romney, who spoke moments before the balloting, won* with 46 percent followed by former U.S. Sen. Fred Thompson with 28 percent and then former mayor Rudy Giuliani with 10 percent. ...

"The asterisk was prompted by a number of Thompson fans who complained that some Romney supporters were voting even though they weren't Young Republican members.

"It seems Thompson's folks lost sight of the fact that the straw poll is absolutely meaningless -- it's just for fun."

A Creeder Reader wrote to me over the weekend asking this important question:

"Can you please explain what a 'nutbucket' is?"

Someone wiser than I once posited that a picture is worth more than a thousand words. Thus, I will give my readers a visual example of a nutbucket. Behold:

http://www.zombietime.com/world_naked_bike_ride_2007/IMG_3613.JPG

Warning: Nudity

Joseph Epstein straightens the record on JFK in today's Wall Street Journal (you'll need a subscription to read the entire article):

Here was a president who initiated no impressive programs, was less than notably courageous in coming to the aid of civil rights workers in the South, got the nation enmeshed in one of the most unpopular wars in our history (Vietnam), and brought it to the edge of nuclear war in a probably unnecessary war of nerves with Nikita Khrushchev over the installation of Soviet missiles in Cuba. In short, John F. Kennedy was a president who, based on the decisions he made or didn't have the courage to make while in office, deserves to go down as one of the resoundingly mediocre figures in American presidential history."

Rich Galen gets the final word on Live Earth:

"One of the reasons the Earth may well be warming (in addition to that pesky sunspot cycle) is that we measure the success of events like Live Earth on the metric of how many people sit on their butts watching their computer or television screens, burning billions of watts of electrical energy which require who knows how many tons of fossil fuels to produce.

"Not to mention the silos of hops and barley that went into making the giga-gallons of beer which were shipped to all corners of the nation on trucks and trains, and consumed at the concert sites as well as by the millions of people sitting on their butts in front of a computer or TV screen."

Hey, Al, cold enough for you?!

"Officials at Live Earth Johannesburg have blamed the effects of climate change for poor audience attendance at Saturday's (07 Jul 07) South African event. Organiser John Langford believes extremely cold weather in the region - it snowed last week for the first time in a quarter of a century - kept people away from the concert, which starred Joss Stone, UB40, Angelique Kidjo and Baaba Maal. Speaking before the event, Langford said, 'We're expecting 10,000 here tonight. It's a bit chilly, and we've had a strange winter. ... We had snow in Jo'burg last week for the first time in 25 years.'"

John Seigenthaler, chairman emeritus of the Tennessean and founder of the Freedom Forum First Amendment Center, says there's nothing fair about the Fairness Doctrine:

"The idea of any agency of government deciding what is 'fair' in the news media is silly on its face, as well as unconstitutional. It makes no sense."

Read the entire article here.

While I admire Seigenthaler for coming out agin' the Fairness Doctrine, I wonder why he and other liberals must fill their seemingly rational commentary with little left-wing bombs (Tennessean columnist Larry Daughtrey is a little-left-wing-bomb master). For example:

● According to John Seigenthaler, conservative radio talkers like Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity are "right-wingers," yet liberals ain't liberals. No, people on the left - nay, people from the "center" leftward - should be should be identified as "progressives." Please. The only folks I hear touting the word "progressive" these days ain't in the center of anything. Indeed, the only folks I hear identifying themselves as progressives are the loons at MoveOn.org and DailyKos, and elected loons like Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer.

● Quoth Seig: "The Supreme Court ... put George Bush in the White House." Let's think back to what was transpiring when the U.S. Supreme Court got involved in the 2000 presidential election: The Gore campaign had convinced the Florida Supreme Court to order recounts in a handful of Gore-friendly counties, and each of the cherry-picked counties were using wildly divergent standards to count votes. If Al Gore had done the right thing and conceded a vote he wasn't going to win fairly, the U.S. Supreme Court wouldn't have had to rule - correctly rule - that the final Florida recount ran afoul of the Constitution's "equal protection" provisions.

● Seigenthaler just has to alert his readers 'bout this quote from U.S. Rep. David Obey (D-Wisconsin): "Rush and Sean are just about as important in the scheme of things as Paris Hilton." If Rush and Sean are so f'ing unimportant, why've Obey and his comrades been so up in arms about 'em? Hmm, John?!

I found this delicious gem 'bout Live Earth on the New Yorker's Web site:

"The promoters, who inclue Al Gore, want this seven-continent, twenty-four hour gathering to 'trigger a global movement to solve the climate crisis,' according to the event's Web site, www.liveearth.org. ... At the very least, expect the show to trigger a substantial traffic jam, situated as it is in a stadium with limited mass-transit options." [Emphasis mine]

Isn't it ironic that Al "Biggun" Gore, who once identified the internal combustion engine as mankind's most dubious achievement, seemingly has no problem with thousands of people driving to the Live Earth concert at the Meadowlands? It reminds me of the officer in Vietnam who said his soldiers had to destroy a village in order to save it.

"Fred Thompson, who is campaigning for president as an anti-abortion Republican, accepted an assignment from a family-planning group to lobby the first Bush White House to ease a controversial abortion restriction," the Los Angeles Times reports.

"A spokesman for the former Tennessee senator denied that Thompson did the lobbying work. But the minutes of a 1991 board meeting of the National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Assn. say that the group hired Thompson that year. His task was to urge the administration of President George H. W. Bush to withdraw or relax a rule that barred abortion counseling at clinics that received federal money."

Update: According to the American Spectator,

"[The L.A. Times claims] that Thompson was 'hired' by the National Family Planning and Reproductive Rights Association, whose director, Judith DeSarno, was acquainted with a then-partner at Arent Fox, former Congressman Michael Barnes. In fact, DeSarno worked as a senior aide to Barnes during his time in Congress. According to Arent Fox insiders, Barnes, who now directs the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, and DeSarno are both well-known left-wing activists. Most recently, both were active against the nominations of John Roberts and Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court. Thompson was an adviser to Roberts, and served as his Senate 'sherpa' during the confirmation process.

"As well, as Thompson has continued to rise in the polls, left-wing groups have been looking for ways to ding Thompson, hitting him on lobbying stories for weeks, to little effect.

"According to sources at a rival paper, the L.A. Times has been working with the pro-abortion group for some time on a Thompson lobbying story, but with little success until now. 'We started hearing about it several days ago,' says a Washington-based reporter for another West Coast paper. 'These abortion groups have been pushing reporters to look into Thompson's past, but haven't had much to go on. You talk to these guys and you can tell that he makes them nervous. They know how he voted and where he stands.'"

The feller who runs zombietime.com has done an excellent job of chronicling left-wing idiocy in and around San Francisco. On July 4, he attended an anti-American art show hosted by some outfit called Propaganda III. Here're two particularly galling pieces of "art":





If only we could take a big saw to the city of San Francisco and let it float out to sea.

An anonymous Creeder Reader sent me the following message -- twice:

"Get your facts straight. Vivian Wilhoite and the other [black] Council Members have already formed the Black Caucus and it is a strong group. They were successful in making sure we had our first building in Nashville named after a black person and they have done alot [sic] of good in making sure issues important to the black community have been heard in the council. So get your facts straight. No one is spreading rumors. This is already a fact and so what."

I don't think I took a position on whether or not an official black caucus exists in the Metro Council. What I said is this: Persons connected to the campaigns of Paul Collins and Councilman Robert Duvall have been been quite chatty about Councilwoman Vivian Wilhoite's supposed desire to start a black caucus in the Metro Council. So, yes, rumors are being spread. I've heard 'em with my own ears.

You'd think that folks who're working for a sitting councilman would know about the various caucuses - or is it cauci? - in the Metro Council, n'est-ce pas? Take your so-whatting up with them.

GOPUSA says Fred Thompson's easygoing, no-nonsense style is "clearly his strength and undoubtedly has helped him soar in presidential polls." But it "may only get him so far."

"Sooner or later, the all-but-declared candidate will have to answer the question: What else do you offer?"

Indeed.

Campaigns and Elections magazine's James Pindell has some advise for Fred Thompson. A sample (you'll need a subscription to read the entire article):

"The excitement over Thompson was fueled by the belief that none of the Republican front-runners were the true Reagan conservative the base was looking for.

"Here are three lessons for the Thompson campaign gleaned from these other recent draft campaigns:

"Lesson 1: Understand that draft movements are not about you—they are about the idea of you.

"This is probably the most important lesson for Thompson’s campaign. Many conservatives are drawn to his ego and self-confidence, but if he takes it too far it could lead to his downfall.

"The draft Thompson movement has been similar so far to the Wesley Clark movement. When it came to electability, many Democrats thought Clark was the perfect candidate. But Clark showed he was more popular as a non-candidate than as a candidate.

"So now consider [Barack] Obama. When he made his first 'testing the waters' trip to New Hampshire, he said something very interesting about why 1,500 people would pay to see him and why there were so many reporters covering him.

"'I think to some degree I’ve become a shorthand or symbol or stand-in for a spirit that the last election in New Hampshire represented,' Obama said, talking about major Democratic gains in the midterms. 'It’s a spirit that says we are looking for something different—we want something new.'

"If Thompson embraces that type of spirit—that he serves as a symbol for the party returning to its glory days—voters may overlook his mistakes for the greater cause."

New British PM Gordon Brown apparently thinks that the best way to deal with Muslim terrorists in the U.K. is ... to not call them "Muslim terrorists":

"Gordon Brown has banned ministers from using the word 'Muslim' in connection with the terrorism crisis.

"The Prime Minister has also instructed his team – including new Home Secretary Jacqui Smith – that the phrase 'war on terror' is to be dropped.

"The shake-up is part of a fresh attempt to improve community relations and avoid offending Muslims, adopting a more 'consensual' tone than existed under Tony Blair." [Emphasis mine]

Methinks the Prime Minister needs to spend less time trying to soothe the sensibilities of Britain's multiculturalism-lovin' elites and more time listenin' to what Hassan Butt has to say:

"And though many British extremists are angered by the deaths of fellow Muslim across the world, what drove me and many others to plot acts of extreme terror within Britain and abroad was a sense that we were fighting for the creation of a revolutionary worldwide Islamic state that would dispense Islamic justice.

"If we were interested in justice, you may ask, how did this continuing violence come to be the means of promoting such a (flawed) Utopian goal?

"How do Islamic radicals justify such terror in the name of their religion?

"There isn't enough room to outline everything here, but the foundation of extremist reasoning rests upon a model of the world in which you are either a believer or an infidel.

"Formal Islamic theology, unlike Christian theology, does not allow for the separation of state and religion: they are considered to be one and the same.

"For centuries, the reasoning of Islamic jurists has set down rules of interaction between Dar ul-Islam (the Land of Islam) and Dar ul-Kufr (the Land of Unbelief) to cover almost every matter of trade, peace and war.

"But what radicals and extremists do is to take this two steps further. Their first step has been to argue that, since there is no pure Islamic state, the whole world must be Dar ul-Kufr (The Land of Unbelief).

"Step two: since Islam must declare war on unbelief, they have declared war upon the whole world.

"Along with many of my former peers, I was taught by Pakistani and British radical preachers that this reclassification of the globe as a Land of War (Dar ul-Harb) allows any Muslim to destroy the sanctity of the five rights that every human is granted under Islam: life, wealth, land, mind and belief."

If this don't make your blood boil, well, your blood is incapable of boiling:

"Top officials at the Department of Homeland Security had announced that arrests during the first two years of Operation Predator, an initiative aimed at foreign nationals who prey on children, have exceeded 6,000.

"The majority of the arrests under Operation Predator -- roughly 85% -- have involved foreign nationals in this country whose child sex crimes make them eligible for removal from the United States. By matching immigration databases with state Megan’s law directories, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents have arrested more than 1,800 registered sex offenders."

Have a safe and happy Fourth.

The Nigh Seen Creeder will return Thursday, July 5.

A CBS News poll asked this question:

"Suppose America's Founding Fathers came back to the present day. Do you think the Founding Fathers would generally be pleased about the way America has turned out, or would they be disappointed?"

Poll results:

Pleased - 20 percent
Disappointed - 72
Mixed - 3
Unsure - 5

72 percent is way too low. I would say that 95 percent - or more - of the Founding Fathers are currently spinning in their graves.

I think it's safe to say that Howard Zinn, who's long been admired by left-wing nutbuckets the world 'round, won't be celebrating the Fourth of July in any traditional sense.

Steven Hayward - who penned one of my favorite books, the magisterial Age of Reagan, 1964-1980: The Fall of the Old Liberal Order - found this Howard Zinn gem (try saying that ten times really fast) at the Progressive Media Project's Web site:

"Is not nationalism -- that devotion to a flag, an anthem, a boundary so fierce it engenders mass murder -- one of the great evils of our time, along with racism, along with religious hatred? National spirit can be benign in a country that is small and lacking both in military power and a hunger for expansion (Switzerland, Norway, Costa Rica and many more). But in a nation like ours -- huge, possessing thousands of weapons of mass destruction -- what might have been harmless pride becomes an arrogant nationalism dangerous to others and to ourselves."

Hayward then quotes from James Burnham’s Suicide of the West about why liberals hate patriotism:

"The rise of liberalism to predominance in the controlling sectors of American opinion is in almost exact correlation with the decline in the ceremonial celebration of the Fourth of July, traditionally regarded as the nation’s major holiday. To the liberal mind, the patrioic oratory is not only banal but subversive of rational ideals; and judged by liberalism’s humanitarian morality, the enthusiasm and pleasures that simple souls might have got from the fireworks could not compensate the occasional damage to the eye or finger of an unwary youngster. The purer liberals of the Norman Cousins strain, in the tradition of Eleanor Roosevelt, are more likely to celebrate UN Day than the Fourth of July."

Go ahead, folks, and celebrate the Fourth by flying Old Glory ... and keep in mind that you're giving Howard Zinn-style leftists a hearty f-you when you do.

"Vladimir Putin practised catch-and-release during a deep-sea fishing outing yesterday with President George W. Bush, a highlight of their two-day 'Lobster Summit' in Kennebunkport, Maine," the National Post reports.

Instead of fishing with President Bush, Vladimir should've gone huntin' with Vice President Cheney!

Rush, rock music's premier libertarian power trio, will soon take the stage in Wantagh, New York. The New Yorker has details:

"Having gradually evolved over the course of nearly two dozen studio albums, from three Zepplinesque players prone to excess into a strenuously accomplished and versatile unit, Rush unites metalheads, computer geeks, and ... Ayn Rand fans in adoration of its erudite and burly rock."

Oh, how I wish I wuz in NY ce soir!

John Lillpop, a self-described recovering liberal, says the Fairness Doctrine might not be so bad after all ... if:

"At first glance, the Fairness Doctrine being floated by leftist fascists like Diane Feinstein, John Kerry, Nancy Pelosi and other enemies of free speech sounds prohibitive and downright dangerous.

"But a real Fairness Doctrine might actually help if it included all media, television, newspapers, and radio, and if:

"When hiring reporters, editors, commentators, anchors, and other news staff, mainstream media venues were required to hire the exact same number of conservatives as liberals;

"For every Maureen Dowd column it publishes, The New York Times were required to run a current Ann Coulter column, of equal length, on the same page;

"PBS were required to follow the Jim Lehrer News Hour with a segment of The Savage Nation, hosted by Michael Savage.

"To counter 60 Minutes featuring Mike Wallace, CBS were required run a show of equal time hosted by Michael Reagan;

"In order to avoid being excessively 'one way,' ABC were ordered to fire two leftist feminists from The View and replace them with Bay Buchanan and Phyllis Schlafly[.]"

Read the rest here.

Ms. Jessica Fender
The Tennessean

Dear Ms. Fender:

A little over two months ago, you wrote a column in which you labeled State Rep. Stacey Campfield an "archconservative" ("State Rep. Campfield can't pass his bill but still gets heard," April 22).

I immediately dispatched an e-mail to you in which I asked you two questions:

What must one do to be considered an archconservative, as opposed to just an ordinary conservative?

If you were asked to pick a member of the TN House of Representatives whose views "fall toward the hard-left of the Democrat spectrum," whom would you pick?

You've now had two months to cogitate upon my questions. So, how 'bout some answers?! My readers are on pins and needles awaiting your reply.

Cordially,

Joltin' Django
Nashville, Tennessee

Newt Gingrich "is telling Republican insiders that his decision in September whether to run for president in 2008 depends on the progress of Fred Thompson's imminent candidacy," Robert Novak reports.

"If Thompson runs a vigorous and effective campaign, Gingrich says privately, he probably will not get in the race himself. If Thompson proves a dud, however, the former House speaker will seriously consider making a run. That implies that the others in the field look to Gingrich like losers in the general election."