Transcript of the Chris Wallace interview with William Schulz here.

SCHULZ: …So we don’t know for sure what all is happening at Guantanamo, and our whole point is that the United States ought to allow independent human rights organizations to investigate just as Sudan, Pakistan, and many other environments around the world…

WALLACE: But in fact hasn’t the International Red Cross — sir, hasn’t the International Red Cross been allowed to go to a number of these facilities?

SCHULZ: They — yes, they have. And, indeed, the CIA tried to prevent them from finding out about certain so-called ghost detainees. Furthermore, they…

WALLACE: Wait, Mr. Schulz, excuse me, you’re switching subjects. I asked you whether the ICRC has been allowed access to every place from Abu Ghraib to Guantanamo Bay. And the answer is yes, correct?

SCHULZ: Oh, Chris, I have no idea whether the Red Cross has been given access to the secret detention facilities that the U.S. is maintaining. Have they been given access to the Syrian prisons and the prisons where the United States is rendering prisoners? I have absolutely no idea and I suggest you don’t either. I think we don’t know.

Talk about secret prisons, that they don’t know if they actually exist or where they are, because they’re …. secret…

and then…

WALLACE: But Mr. Schulz, and we do have to wrap this up. I mean, you’re hardly just a bystander here. You’re the one, who in your presentations, specifically called Rumsfeld and Attorney General Gonzales high-level torture architects.

And I’d like to finish, if I might, by quoting The Washington Post, which has hardly been a supporter of President Bush’s and the Bush administration’s treatment of prisoners. This is what they had to say in a recent editorial. And let’s put it up on the screen, if we may. “Turning a report on prisoner detention into another excuse for Bush-bashing or America-bashing undermines Amnesty’s legitimate criticisms of U.S. policies.”

Is it possible, sir, that by excessive rhetoric or by your political links, that you have hurt, not helped, your cause?

SCHULZ: Chris, I don’t think I’d be on this station, on this program today with you if Amnesty hadn’t said what it said and President Bush and his colleagues haven’t responded as they did. If I had come to you two weeks ago and said, “Chris, I’d like to go on Fox with you just to talk about U.S. detention policies at Guantanamo and elsewhere,” I suspect you wouldn’t have given me an invitation.

They had to say this stuff so they could get on TV.

The Online Coalition.

When waiting to make a left turn, do not turn your wheels in anticipation of turning, keep them straight. If someone should rear end you, they will push you right into oncoming traffic. If your wheels are straight, you will be pushed ahead, in the same lane.

We Remember.

All the men and women who died in the service of this wonderful country, enabling it to continue to be the wonderful country that it is.

May they all Rest in Peace.

May The Lord bless you and keep you.
May the Lord make his face to shine upon you, and be gracious to you.
May the Lord lift up his countenance upon you, and give you peace.

Our Dodger went to kitty heaven today. He was 13 years old. He’d lost weight over the past year and just 9 weeks ago had his annual physical. His blood tests came back normal and we were asked to supplement his diet with canned food to see if we could get some weight back on him. He loved the food, but kept losing weight and was getting weaker. I took him into the vet this morning and she palpated a very large mass near his liver. Apparently he had an agressive cancer and a much smaller tumor that was not palpable at his physical just ballooned.

When we first got him, my daughter was just over one year old. Dodger was safe anywhere in the house except for in her playpen. She used to pick him up by his tail when he was a kitten. But he loved her dearly and kept going back into her playpen to get “tortured”. It was his choice. The photo below is from a healthier time.

We loved you Dodger and know that you are now in a better place.

We need to change the name we use for the corporate broadcast media, newspapers and magazines. The term “Mainstream” is so misleading. Sure, the “mainstream” media is the media that’s been around for years and a vast number of people get their news and information from it. But it doesn’t reflect the mainstream of American thoughts and beliefs. This is how the Democrats can argue that perfectly qualified judges like Janice Rogers Brown and Priscilla Owen are “out of the mainstream”.

The Democrats and the “Mainstream” media reflect each others’ views. Since the media is called “Mainstream” the Democrats, and the media, believe that they are in the mainstream. Therefore, everyone else is out of the mainstream. I call this Pauline Kael Syndrome. Remember Pauline? The late columnist for the New Yorker who reportedly said, “How could Nixon have won? Nobody I know voted for him!” The media and the Democrats reinforce and validate each other.

The Democrats and the media need to realize that they went off on a tributary quite a while ago.

We need a new term for old media.

Related: GOP Bloggers asks

So, in California, the bluest of blue states, Janice Rogers Brown won 76% of the statewide vote and Barbara Boxer won 58% of that same statewide vote. Who’s more mainstream?

Update: How about the Tributary Media??
Update2: Trader Rob at Opinipundit likes “Entrenched Media”. So do we.

Jeff1999 and I have been blogging together for quite a while now, but we live far, far, away from each other. Yesterday, we finally met! Here’s a picture of us at the zoo.

I’m the one with the leg brace, Jeff1999’s the one in the shorts. It was a beautiful day by the lake and our families had a great couple of hours together before the 1999 family started on their long, long, journey home.

Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich (D) [Blah-goy-oh-vich] defending his leadership and low poll numbers the other day stated,

…And I think this is the kind of thing that I think, frankly, separates the men from the boys in leadership. Do you have the testicular virility to make a decision like that, knowing what’s coming your way, and then stick to it, which is what I did, and knowing all of this that we’re dealing with now, is what we have to deal with? I say I do.

Of course separating “the men from the boys in leadership” is completely dismissing anyone in leadership who doesn’t happen to have that particular body part. Senator Susan Garrett (D) Lake Forest said,

It should never come down to the language of testicular virility. It’s like male only language that sends a message about domination of women. Women don’t talk about estrogen virility. We don’t need to. It’s a code language.

John Kass at the Chicago Tribune has more on testicular virility, he’s even called NASA to find out about throw weight and thrust. The NASA spokeswoman called back and left a voicemail message:

John? Thrust is the force of the launch vehicle or spacecraft, measured in pounds or newtons. And throw weight is the amount of payload mass you’re ejecting into space.

The Tribune article is here. John Kass’ column is here.

12/09/2008: Rod Blagojevich arrested on corruption charges.

60 Minutes Wednesday has been cancelled. “It was a ratings call, not a content call,” said Les Moonves.

Dan Ra^ther will contribute stories to the original 60 Minutes Moonves said.

Oh well, he’s not gone yet. He’s avoided the axe yet again.

In response to Democratic suggestion that “non-controversial” judges hit the floor first:
Senator Frist on the Senate Floor:

Mr. President as always we will take into consideration all suggestions and be happy to talk to the leadership on both sides of the aisle as to whether that suggestion is the most appropriate way. We have engaged in negotiations in attempts to satisfy both sides for the over the last really four months, five months since these unprecedented filibusters came before this body after 214 years of a threshold of fifty votes, all of a sudden the last congress it was radically changed by the last congress to become 60 votes denying the sort of people like a little bit what we’ve heard over the last few minutes, trying to move to a qualified nominee, Priscilla Owen, and we hear these attempts to delay even right now and to sidetrack and consider somebody else, and that’s the challenge. That’s why we’re on the floor of the United States Senate, with the light of day, with the American people watching at this point to take it to the body of the United States Senate and ask that fundamental question. Is Priscilla Owen out of the mainstream? Eighty-four percent of Texans think she’s in the mainstream, are eighty-four percent of Texans out of the mainstream? And if the answer to that question is no, they’re not out of the mainstream, then all we want is a vote, an up or down vote. Accept, reject, confirm, yes, no. That’s all that we’re asking for. We don’t want the Constitutional Option. We didn’t ask for the Constitutional option. What has happened, because of the other side of the aisle in shattering the Senate tradition for 214 years where filibuster was never even contemplated, now it’s being used on a routine basis. One out of every four of the President’s nominees that have come over for the circuit courts are filibustered, blocked. Not given that responsibility or given that courtesy of a vote, when it’s our responsibility to give advice and consent. So in response to my good friend Democratic leader, yes, let’s consider, as proposals come forward, we’ll consider all the two leaders spent 50 minutes as the papers reported today talking with people who are trying to come to some reasonable conclusion and we’ll continue to do that. I’d be happy to consider another idea. I think what’s important now though is to come to the floor of the United States Senate. Let’s shed light on this, let’s do take this, yes it’s an inside the Senate decision, and we make our traditions and rules, but it is important for the American people to see. Is Priscilla Owen, is Janice Rogers Brown, deserving of a vote, yes or no, on the floor of the United States Senate. So what I would recommend is that we continue discussions, but let’s proceed with this nominee, continue debate over the course of the day and it may take a day, it may take two days, and let’s answer that question. Is she qualified, does she deserve an up or down vote?