How sad

29 04 07 - 21:52.

Cardinals relief pitcher and Tupelo, Mississippi native Josh Hancock was killed Saturday in a car accident.

The Cardinals will wear patches with Hancock's No. 32 on their sleeves for the rest of the season. The team also planned a memorial for the bullpen, which already features a tribute to Kile, found dead in his hotel room in Chicago. The 33-year-old pitcher died of a coronary artery blockage.

General manager Walt Jocketty said the Cardinals, who are off Thursday, plan to charter a plane to the funeral. The team begins a three-game series in Milwaukee on Monday and returns to St. Louis on Friday.

"Obviously, this is very difficult for all of us, especially those of us who were here five years ago when we lost Darryl Kile," said Jocketty, his eyes red. "There's no way we could have played tonight's game."

You can read about the details here. The Cardinals are chartering a jet for the team to attend the funeral services in Tupelo on Thursday.

Lieberman

27 04 07 - 13:51.

Sen. Joe Lieberman continues to command my respect. On most social and economic issues, I have grave concerns about where he stands. But he loves his country and desperately wants to see America victorious in Iraq. In a time when almost every Democrat is willing to put politics and Bush-bashing ahead of their country, it's encouraging to see a politician that sees the big picture, loves his country, and is willing to fight against those who seek America's destruction. So in the midst of one of the darkest moments in the history of the US Senate--while 51 Senators voted to surrender Islamic terrorists--Sen. Lieberman's floor speech offers a faint ray of hope that there's still some sanity and patriotism left in Washington. Here's a short excerpt:

Therefore, I ask the supporters of this legislation: How, exactly, are U.S. forces to gather intelligence about where, when, and against whom to strike, after you have ordered them walled off from the Iraqi population? How, exactly, are U.S. forces to carry out targeted counter-terror operations, after you have ordered them cut off from the very source of intelligence that drives these operations?

This is precisely why the congressional micromanagement of life-and-death decisions about how, where, and when our troops can fight is such a bad idea, especially on a complex and changing battlefield.

In sum, you can’t have it both ways. You can’t withdraw combat troops from Iraq and still fight Al Qaeda there. If you believe there is no hope of winning in Iraq, or that the costs of victory there are not worth it, then you should be for complete withdrawal as soon as possible.

Hillary

23 04 07 - 18:39.

It's amazing (and sad) that people would seriously consider voting for this woman. What's bothers me the most about this video (and the others out there--yes, she's done this sort of thing before) is the extent to which this is (or should be) insulting to Blacks. The idea that she has to adopt a black/southern accent in order to connect with the crowd is abhorrent.

Textbook pandering:



I don't know which is worse--the fact that she talks like this or the fact that she talks like this before Al Sharpton's organization.

Carhart

18 04 07 - 16:32.

There's a lot to say about the Supreme Court's ruling today in Gonzales v. Carhart (you can find the entire 73 page opinion here). To begin with, it's a narrow decision. While the long-term ripple effect remains to be seen, the Court's holding in Carhart does very little to restrict abortion rights; it merely upholds a Congressional statute that prohibits a certain late-term abortion procedure (except for cases where the woman's life is in danger). This statute was crafted by Congress in 2003 in response to the Court's 2000 ruling that overturned a Nebraska statute that, in the eyes of the Court, was too broad and imposed an undue hardship on a woman's right to have an abortion. In fact, one could say that Congress drafted the statute so that it would withstand the scrutiny of the notoriously ideologically adrift Kennedy and O'Conner (who hadn't yet stepped down).

Needless to say, Congress succeeded. What I find remarkable is the extent to which pro-abortionists are devastated by the decision. I doubt many of the people that are blasting Justice Kennedy will actually read his opinion. It's classic Kennedy--tempered and restrained. The left should be comforted by the fact that Kennedy's holding is premised upon the constitutional validity of Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey. Kennedy took the jurisprudence established in those cases, applied it to the 2003 statute, and found that it didn't trigger any constitutional concerns. So, the way I read it, Carhart affirms a very narrow restriction on abortion (a good thing), but implicitly reaffirms Roe and Casey (a bad thing). Those of us who value life more than choice should realize that the ruling today is a victory, but a small one at that.

Hero

17 04 07 - 12:23.

The mass-murderer at Virginia Tech represents the worst humanity has to offer. But trying times--even a massacre--also reveal outstanding character. The Jerusalem Post examines Virginia Tech professor Liviu Librescu, a Romanian holocaust survivor who barricaded the door of his classroom with his body so his students would have time to escape through a window.

A Virginia Tech Student's Account

16 04 07 - 19:04.

Michelle Malkin received this email from a student at Virginia Tech:

Dear Michelle,
I was in Norris Hall today when the shootings took place. I thought I'd give you my account in case you wanted more information.

It was just a regular day in class; the door was open and we heard a pop-pop-popping noise. Sounded like some kind of construction but it was getting disruptive so we went to close the door, and one of the girls stepped out in the hallway to see what it was. She saw the gun and ran back inside the room and slammed the door shut and we all got down on the floor.

We heard pretty much continuous shooting for the next minute or so, and I said, "Shouldn't we barricade the door," because we were sitting ducks with no way out inside that room if he opened the door. A couple more people floated the idea that "We need to barricade the door, NOW." But I was too scared to even move, much less move the teacher's desk.

Finally one of the guys in the front of the classroom was brave enough to get up and move the desk in front of the door to prevent outside entry. About twenty seconds later, the shooter rattled the doorknob trying to get in. When he couldn't get in he fired two shots through the door (single solid piece of wood) and left. We heard him go in to 206 (the room across the hall) and shoot the people in that room. If we hadn't put the barricade up when we did, I and all my classmates would be dead.

When the police arrived five minutes later we heard them call for him to surrender his weapon and some more, irregular shots. Another five minutes later the police knocked and yelled "Police!" and we yelled "How do we know?" and when a second voice confirmed that it was in fact police, we opened the door. An officer came in and told us to line up single file, take nothing with us (I grabbed my coat) and run out the door single file while another officer escorted us.

We entered the hallway. Blood, bullet casings, and empty pistol clips were everywhere; this was definitely the most horrifying sight of my entire life. We ran past quickly. A door to the stairwell had been opened and there was a massive trail of blood; we found out later that a class had tried to escape only to find that the monster had chained the doors shut before starting his rampage. They were all killed.

We all ran to a nearby building and stayed there until we could be processed, and that was the end of it. Thank you all for your concerns and prayers, but please mostly pray for those who were seriously injured or hurt today.

Also, let me say that the response from the campus, local, and state police was exemplary. Within five minutes of the first shots, police were gathering outside. In another ten minutes, the threat had been neutralized and the building was secure. My heartfelt gratitude goes out to the brave men and women who kept us safe today.

--Jacob Simmons
junior, Computer Engineering, Virginia Tech

There's a lot of unanswered questions concerning what's happened today at Virginia Tech. The FBI maintains that this was not an act of terror. I hope this is true. The fact that the authorities have had little to say about the identity of the killer gives me pause. We need more answers.

Get Over It

16 04 07 - 12:35.

Of all the GOP candidates for President, Rudy Giuliani fascinates me the most. His positions on most social issues give me pause, yet I support his approach to national security issues. I have little doubt he would be an excellent Commander-in-Chief. My inclination to support him fluctuates from week to week (a fact that frustrates me and speaks to the less than stellar nature of the GOP field). So, true to form, the latest from Giuliani makes me wonder:

Giuliani made his sharpest case for moving beyond social issues this weekend in Iowa, telling The Des Moines Register, "Our party is going to grow, and we are going to win in 2008 if we are a party characterized by what we're for, not if we're a party that's known for what we're against."

Asked about abortion, he said, "Our party has to get beyond issues like that."

Something tells me Fred Thompson is smiling.

UPDATE: Here's the full context of Giuliani's remarks:

On abortion I think we should respect each other. I think that’s what we should do and we should respect the fact that this is a very difficult moral question and a very difficult question and that very good people of equally good conscience could come to different opinions on it. My view of it is I hate abortion. I think abortion is wrong. To someone who I cared about or cared to talk to me about it and wanted my advice, the advice I would give them is not to do it and to have adoption as an option to it. When I was the Mayor adoptions went way up, abortions went down but ultimately I respect that that’s somebody else’s decision and that people of conscience can make that decision either way and you can’t put them in jail for it. (applause) And then I think our party, our party has to get beyond issues like that where we can have people who are very good people who have different views about this, they can all be Republican because our party is going to grow and we’re going to win in 2008 if we’re a party that is characterized for what we are for and not if we’re a party that’s known for what we are against…”

In context, this is consistent with what he's said about abortion ever since he established himself as a candidate.

Character

03 04 07 - 20:27.

No matter how much President Bush has faltered in his handling of almost every issue he's confronted, I'll always admire his character--especially his humility and compassion. Here's one reason why. Political considerations aside, he should be respected, both as President and as a man.