Dogwood Pundit: 4/26/09

Thursday, May 07, 2009

Bush's Axis of Evil VS Obama's Axis of Evil

The Axis of Evil According to the Bush Administration:

NORTH KOREA, IRAN, AND IRAQ

The Axis of Evil According to the Obama Administration:

BEAUTY CONTESTANTS WITH THE TEMERITY TO EXERCISE THEIR FREE SPEECH RIGHTS

REDNECKS

AMERICAN SOLDIERS RETURNING FROM COMBAT

The Land Of No Smiles

Renowned documentary photographer Tomas van Houtryve entered North Korea by posing as a businessman looking to open a chocolate factory. Despite 24-hour surveillance by North Korean minders, he took arresting photographs of Pyongyang and its people—images rarely captured and even more rarely distributed in the West. They show stark glimmers of everyday life in the world’s last gulag. Many more photos here.

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SHOP GIRL: This is shopping in North Korea. The clerk sits in the dark, unheated special store, waiting to turn on the lights for foreigners, the only permitted customers. “She’s wearing a ski jacket or parka; the rest of this time they’re sitting there with the lights off, freezing,” van Houtryve says. The goods—toys, televisions, and the like—are imported from China. The store only accepts euros.

Teachers Unions Vs. Students

If you want to cure what ails urban schools, you must confront the teachers unions. There is no other way.

Wednesday, May 06, 2009

Gallup: Al Gore Losing With Public on Global Warming

The American public knows a hysteria campaign when it sees one. Read this:

He admits that it's counterintuitive, but Gallup Poll Editor Frank Newport says he sees no evidence that Al Gore's campaign against global warming is winning. "It's just not caught on," says Newport. "They have failed." Or, more bluntly: "Any measure that we look at shows Al Gore's losing at the moment. The public is just not that concerned." What the public is worried about: the economy.

That's not to say people aren't passionate about the issue. But it's the direction of their passion that will disappoint Gore. Newport says that some 41 percent believe global warming claims are exaggerated, and "that's the highest we've seen."

Exaggerated? By these scare mongering zealots like Gore? Nooooo....

Obama reacts to Tea Parties

This Week in History

From the Washington Post

Muammer al-Gadaffi Says Europe Will Turn Into A Muslim Continent In A Few Decades

Tuesday, May 05, 2009

Securing Pakistan's Nuclear Arsenal

I'll Quote You on That

The Republican Party needs centrists, but not unprincipled ones like Arlen Specter.

Agreed.

Taliban Vow to Fight Till Death

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Then by all means available, accommodate them.

World War II Photographs

A fine collection of World War II photographs, many in color.

Uncle Murtha Goes To Washington

Remember when Nancy Pelosi said she was going to drain the swamp? Well, never mind. Same old corruption, just with D's behind their names instead of R's. Read this:

The headquarters of Murtech, in a low-slung, bland building in a Glen Burnie business park, has its blinds drawn tight and few signs of life. On several days of visits, a handful of cars sit in the parking lot, and no trucks arrive at the 10 loading bays at the back of the building.

Yet last year, Murtech received $4 million in Pentagon work, all of it without competition, for a variety of warehousing and engineering services. With its long corridor of sparsely occupied offices and an unmanned reception area, Murtech's most striking feature is its owner -- Robert C. Murtha Jr., 49. He is the nephew of Rep. John P. Murtha, the Pennsylvania Democrat who has significant sway over the Defense Department's spending as chairman of the House Appropriations defense subcommittee.

Well isn't that just cushy. The most striking detail about this article isn't th no bid contract. No, it's the apparent lack of any real function of the company recieving Uncle Murtha's largesse: More here:

Robert Murtha said he is not at liberty to discuss in detail what his company does, but for four years it has subsisted on defense contracts, according to records and interviews. Giving more details could provide important clues to terrorist plotters, he said.

Murtha said he does not advertise being the nephew of John Murtha and considers it "unfortunate" that some will unfairly assume Murtech received its federal contracts because of his uncle's influence at the Pentagon.

Well, he's gonna simply have to live with these unfortunate consequences, because we are going to raise just such a concern. Also note the "if you ask questions the terrorists win" line of defense. But it isn't just terrorist plotters Mr. Murtha has to worry about giving clues to, it is Federal prosecutors.

Affirmative Action Can No Longer Be Justified

Alas, it takes a liberal to point this out. Which Richard Cohen does here:

...in a case recently argued before the Supreme Court. It was Ricci's misfortune to take -- and pass -- the New Haven, Conn., fire department's exam for promotion to lieutenant and captain, and then have the job denied him because he is white. Others will argue -- fatuously and, when they are before St. Peter, with heads bowed in shame -- that race had nothing to do with what happened to Ricci, but the fact remains that had he been black, his uniform would already sport a lieutenant's bar.

We should never confuse unfair with illegal. Still it would be nice if every once in a while they coincided. That is especially the case in matters such as this because the justification for affirmative action gets weaker and weaker. Maybe once it was possible to argue that some innocent people had to suffer in the name of progress, but a glance at the White House strongly suggests that things have changed. For most Americans, race has become supremely irrelevant. Everyone knows this. Every poll shows this. Maybe the Supreme Court will recognize this.

These are individuals being held back because of their race, in this case because they are white. There is no longer any justification for it, and its defenders are on very shaky ground if they think otherwise.