Hearing Kos and other lefty blogs expressing outrage and demanding Brit Hume’s resignation over Hume’s take on Roosevelt’s vision of Social Security shows just how cushy those on the left have had it in their nice comfy liberal media cocoon. It’s debatable whether Hume even misquoted him, yet some on the left find this single statement intolerable, even calling Hume a “liar”. Update: Bill at INDC Journal also has a good analysis of the alleged misquote.

It brings to mind the standard war movie scene where the fresh faced soldier, wincing at every sound of distant gunfire, is juxtaposed to the battle hardened sergeant who walks across the battlefield unflinching as bombs go off within yards of him.

You think that was a misleading statement son? C’mon man, pull yourself together. You’ll never last out here if you melt down over something like that. We see stuff worse than that each and every day. Why back a couple of months ago we were facing a real tough battle. One of our boys Rumsfeld was taken down pretty hard. They quoted two sentences from a lengthy statement of his and completely turned it around on him. Worse yet, he was taking multiple hits from all sides. Over and over and over again, the same misquote just kept coming in. Yup, Rummy hung tough and made it through though. We were mad as hell, but did you hear us whining about resignations.

Heck if everybody who participated in that one resigned, we’d have no mainstream media left. Now there’s a thought.

Conservative in Texas had some thoughts about grassroots support for SS reform after hearing the results of a poll on the radio that indicated popular support is declining. He emailed David Limbaugh with his idea and David has some thoughts on this as well.

David says:

It seems to me that bloggers, by definition, are a grassroots phenomenon. But they are like grassroots on stilts because their work is immediately published and potentially explosive in terms of its ability to reverberate to the corners of the earth instantly and efficiently. Some might argue that the very notion of a concerted blogging effort is counterintuitive, since one of the best attributes of bloggers is their independence. But they don’t have to sacrifice their independence to become part of an organized effort with whose goals they happen to agree.

Link to the White House’s page on SS Reform here.

Link to the WSJ article here. (Subscription required. I don’t have one so I don’t know exactly what it says).

Update: link to USANext , Building a Legacy of Freedom for Families

In the first bill signing of 2005, President Bush signed Class-Action Fairness into law.

Full text of the remarks are here.

Overall, junk lawsuits have driven the total cost of America’s tort system to more than $240 billion a year, greater than any other major industrialized nation. It creates a needless disadvantage for America’s workers and businesses in a global economy, imposes unfair costs on job creators, and raises prices to consumers.

We have a responsibility to confront frivolous litigation head on. I will continue working with Congress to pass meaningful legal reforms, starting with reform in our asbestos and medical liability systems.

Via Fox News: The Iowa Supreme Court decided today that Illegal Aliens do not have the right to get driver’s licenses in the State of Iowa.

Mark Hunacek, an assistant attorney general, said federal courts have concluded there is no constitutional right for illegal aliens to have a driver’s license.

“We conclude the state’s licensing scheme is rationally related to the legitimate state interest of ‘not allowing its governmental machinery to be a facilitator for the concealment of illegal aliens,’ ” the court said.

Since Jeff has joined me, this isn’t just Kim’s Thoughts and Observations anymore… Now it’s Musing Minds. URL is the same…

The NY Times (big surprise there) has an op-ed piece by Napolitano – apparently Stewart’s prosecution was a travesty of justice and simply an attempt to “intimidate defense lawyers.”

As I stated here, the real travesty is attorneys abusing their position and corresponding solicitor and client privilege to carry out such criminal acts. In doing so, they threaten the foundation of the privilege itself. That, your honour, is the real threat to future litigants. That is why communications in furtherance of a criminal acts are not privileged. While a thoughtful discussion as to how to preserve otherwise lawful communications in the process may be warranted, Napolatino chooses instead to victimize Stewart and cast aspersions on the motives of Justice officials.

As for intimidating defense lawyers, if the Stewart decision intimidates lawyers from committing such acts in the future, mission accomplished. It’s called deterrence, one of the corner stones of the criminal justice process. Lawyers not abusing the privilege (and I presume that’s by far the vast majority) have nothing to fear. As for those few who do, they are not above the law.

Update: Welcome Dirty Harry Readers

Not that this is surprising but Al Franken is attempting to bring down his own media heavyweight – Brit Hume. He’s accusing Brit of “Lying” in one of his on-air statements. The only problem is Al doesn’t link to Brit’s statement.

Hmmm…. I wonder why he doesn’t provide a link. With such a serious charge one would expect to see very specific evidence. That’s right, you guessed it – the transcript doesn’t say what Al accuses Brit of saying. Read all about it here.

Sorry Al, but did you actually expect to pull that off with today’s blogosphere? Now what was that about being fired for lying?
Hat tip: Dirty Harry (BTW if you havn’t made Dirty Harry a regular, you should, his wit is amazing)

I’d like to thank Kim for inviting me to blog with her. It’s been a good first week. Kim’s a great person to blog with. I’ll be pretty busy in the next little while so blogging will be light on my part.

Jeff

Update: Thanks for blogging with me Jeff. I am looking forward to a long blogging relationship. – Kim

Hybird cars are a bad thing … at least for state gas tax revenues. Apparently those cars that use less gas and are better for the environment are not so good for revenue… Now they want to install GPS in your car to track how many miles you’ve driven and tax you some more…

GOP Bloggers brings our attention to a story on CBS News from Monday regarding a per mile driven tax that is being tested in Oregon and considered in California.

States Mull Taxing Drivers By Mile
“Drivers will get charged for how many miles they use the roads, and it’s as simple as that,” says engineer David Kim.

Kim and fellow researcher David Porter at Oregon State University equipped a test car with a global positioning device to keep track of its mileage. Eventually, every car would need one.

Having the state government know where I am at any time? Uploading that information through the gas pump every time I fill up? Getting penalized for travelling during rush hour?? Perhaps this would slide down the slippery slope to penalize me for driving on city roads, for short trips (such as taking my child to pre-school – 2 miles one way)?

Sneaking Suspicions has a story on the two Baltimore Sun journalists who were frozen out by Maryland Governor Erlich. They have sued because Governor Erlich issued a memo telling staffers not to speak to them.

Under the First Amendment they do have the right to ask me questions.

Under the First Amendment I do have the right to not answer their questions.

It seems to me that many journalists feel that the First Amendment means that I have to answer their questions…

These two found out otherwise…

Go read it.

Hat tip: Instapundit