The Sky is Falling!

For my record, first time ever, fitfh consecutive blog post I'm going to talk about ... alternative energy. You know, the alternative you can buy at any street corner for less than the cost of Perrier - gasoline. Some of what I'm about to say is based on this article in India's Rediff.com. Much of the rest is pulled straight from a dark place so fact checking by AlexC is encouraged.

Gasoline comes from oil. Oil comes from geologic deposits underground. The entire earth has been surveyed and all existing oil reserves have been located, mapped and accounted for on a gigantic spreadsheet at Iranian Oil Company. In fact, A M S Bakhtiari there says "peak oil" (the day when oil production reaches its maximum and begins a steady decline until it is gone in 40-50 years) will occur in 2006-2007. Shell oil experts disagree. They posit that the date will actually be in 2025 or later.

So who is right? Probably neither. Energy economist C M Lynch says there is "no visible peak."

All of this is reminiscent of the "population explosion" hysteria in the seventies. That fallacious prediction was based on extrapolation of then current birth rates, ignoring the reality that birthrates change over time. Similarly, the "peak oil" and "no more oil" predictions are based on current KNOWN reserves and historical rates of discovering new reserves (like Chevron's recent find in the Gulf of Extralegalalienville). But rates of discovery, like rates of baby making, are not constant over time. Large areas of the US remain untapped because the oil deposits are relatively small. Technology now exists to pinpoint these pockets and they are becoming economically viable to collect. And the prospect of actually running out of oil will cause monumental efforts to locate more and more oil in the coming decades.

These and other factors make the fossil fuel "alternative" a very attractive one. Not the least of these factors is that many currently vogue fuels like ethanol and bio-diesel have an EROEI factor (energy returned on energy invested) of less than 1. Like bin Ladin's, the reports of fossil fuel's death have been greatly exagerated.

Apologies to Neil Diamond

An emailer shares a parody of Neil Diamond's 'Coming to America' that has been customized for, ahem, "extralegal" immigrants. It's called "Snuck into America." Enjoy.

School Shootings

First I want to draw attention to an unexcusable gaffe on the part of CNN. While watching the network this morning, as I've taken to in the weeks leading up to Red November, I saw their report on the Wisconsin school principal who was shot to death by a disgruntled 15-year old "special needs student." But the stunner was the on-screen graphic, which read, "Colorado principal killed." Huh? Are school shootings so prevalent now that a major "news" outlet can't keep them sorted out?

The answer of course is no. But in the case of the Colorado shooting, within an hour's drive of Littleton's Columbine High School where the nation's worst ever school shooting occurred, one might well wonder if Colorado's "shall issue" concealed carry law has anything to do with it. Not because any of the killers involved had carry permits, but because the law specifically excludes guns from a number of "safe zones" that include, yes, school property. A debate has broken out on Colorado talk radio whether school teachers should be armed, and whether that would be safer or more dangerous. But this is the wrong question. What should be debated is whether school teachers should continue to be DIS-armed.

The answer is not to place guns in the hands of every teacher, but when criminals know that theirs will be the only gun on a school campus it gives them a warm fuzzy feeling about terrorizing, traumatizing and even slaughtering our children. The time has clearly come to eliminate schools from the so-called "safe zone" list (if not abolish it altogether) - for the children.

Red November, CO-4

The race is heating up in Colorado 4 and state wide for the governor's mansion. Ads are multiplying on TV and radio and in our mailboxes. Current status according to realclearpolitics.com is Republican pork slayer Marilyn Musgrave leading tax dodging, student loan defaulting, bankruptcy filing, tax hiking liberal democrat Angie Paccione by single digits. (It shouldn't be this close.) The governor's race is even more frightening with gun-grabbing, plea bargaining DA Bill Ritter leading congressman Bob Beauprez by double digits. (Maybe they're only polling in urban centers?) The actual election should be a nail biter.

Additional kudos go to Musgrave for being one of only 39 US Representatives (9% of the House) with a 100% rating from Americans for Tax Reform. Hat tip: Bob Beauprez campaign website.

"Cawwy the Wun"

I recently commented that American adults are poor citizens, poor parents and poor teachers. This is a geometric problem since their children will one day have those same responsibilities and, like their parents, will be ill prepared to exercise them, making their own children even less capable. I posited that this cycle has been playing out for at least 20 or 30 years and perhaps longer. (It's genesis likely coincides with the advent of the Dewey Decimal System - not because that system is bad, but because the rest of Dewey's educational ideas were bad: New Math, Creative Spelling and Esteem-based teaching plans all derived from Dewey.)

Now there's a positive, if not altogether flattering to the American psyche, trend in American education. Reuters - 'U.S. homework outsourced as "e-tutoring" grows.'

"I like to tell people I did private tutoring every day for the cost of a fast-food meal or a Starbucks' coffee," Robison said. "We did our own form of summer school all summer."

The outsourcing trend that fueled a boom in Asian call centers staffed by educated, low-paid workers manning phones around the clock for U.S. banks and other industries is moving fast into an area at the heart of U.S. culture: education.

It comes at a difficult time for the U.S. education system: only two-thirds of teenagers graduate from high school, a proportion that slides to 50 percent for black Americans and Hispanics, according to government statistics.

China and India, meanwhile, are producing the world's largest number of science and engineering graduates -- at least five times as many as in the United States, where the number has fallen since the early 1980s.

Parents using schools like Taylor's say they are doing whatever they can to give children an edge that can lead to better marks, better colleges and a better future, even if it comes with an Indian accent about 9,000 miles away.

Yes, it is truly embarrasing that Americans can't help their own children learn, but the positives are many: Parents investing in their children's future on the free market, technological enabling of a new paradigm, and most importantly, smarter kids. (Well, within the limitations of the public schools to challenge them.)

One way to judge the worth of an educational initiative is by the reaction to it by the NEA:

A New Delhi tutoring company, Educomp Solutions Ltd., estimates the U.S. tutoring market at $8 billion and growing. Online companies, both from the United States and India, are looking to tap millions of dollars available to firms under the U.S. No Child Left Behind Act for remedial tutoring.

Teachers unions hope to stop that from happening.

"Tutoring providers must keep in frequent touch with not only parents but classroom teachers and we believe there is greater difficulty in an offshore tutor doing that," said Nancy Van Meter, a director at the American Federation of Teachers.

But No Child Left Behind, a signature Bush administration policy, encourages competition among tutoring agencies and leaves the door open for offshore tutors, said Diane Stark Rentner of the Center on Education Policy in Washington.

UPDATE: I should have given a hat-tip on this one... to dagny's "article of the day" email on Friday. (It's a private subscription service with a membership of one.)

Sustainability

I have to call a swing-and-a-miss for Peggy Noonan's OpinionJournal column today.

She appreciates the variety of new media and the freedom from liberal media oligopoly but she credits the competition with increased partisanship and lack of tone.

I spoke with a network producer a few weeks ago, an old warhorse who was trying to explain his frustration at the current ratings race. He wrestled around the subject, and I cut with rude words to what I thought he was saying. "You mean it's gone from the dictatorship of a liberal elite to the dictatorship of the retarded."

Yes, he said. And it's not progress.

When liberals miss something in the media, that's what they should be missing. Not a unity that never existed but standards that were high. When conservatives say there's nothing to miss, they're wrong. We lost some bias, but we lost some standards, too.

An emailer inquires whether one of my favorite writers is dissing the long tail. Read closely, she's against truth, justice and the American way.

You encounter these pockets of excellence and quality in any media or artistic endeavor. Rather than looking back at Uncle Walter, I always wonder about the superb runs from NPR, PBS and the BBC. Were these supra-market phenomena high quality because they were outside the market?

Sting certainly thinks so. While I usually don't just take the bass player's word on anything, he is a serious fellow. BBC America used to run a PSA with the former Policeman saying that the view of the BBC news would not be jaundiced to appeal to a Corporation or Oil company. He hoped, the spot poignantly closed. He hoped.

I'm a market fan and I'll toe the line here. Yes the BBC delivered awesome TV programs for decades on microscopic budgets. Before I saw "Buffy," I held "Red Dwarf" to be the best show ever. Joss Whedon, studying over there, likely absorbed some of that quality. In the end, however, these organizations do great work because they have great people. They can sustain it only as long as they can attract and fund similar talent.

This is an opinion post but I have no compunction saying that BBC, PBS and NPR are all in a state of decline. And that without a market component, there is no mechanism to rectify their slide. The BBCAmerica satellite channel has some good programming, but it is usually ten or 20 years old.

NPR keeps the standards up but they have attracted a generation of activist listeners to take over and I think the inbreeding weakens. PBS? Oh man, is that still on? I watch every fourth of July...

Noonan misses the integrity and quality from Newsmen (pretty much all men) who cared about their craft. I think with 500 channels and the Internet, you get just as much quality and integrity, you just have to look a little harder sometimes. Yes, that's part of the Long Tail.

Social Security Statement

Happy Days.

I got my statement today in the mail.

If you continue working until your full retirement age (67 years), your payment would be about $2,178/month.
age 70, your payment would be $2,701.

Wonderful!

The only thing this stupid document for is to make me realize how much of my money has been pissed away ($61,534) thanks to our government.

That and I made $187 dollars in 1994.

Quotes, not Votes

The OpinionJournal Political Diary has an interesting "quote of the day" today:

"How, then, are we reading about [Lindsey Graham of South Carolina] -- just another first-term conservative Southern senator -- in such choice venues as The New York Times' front page and David Broder's column? Yes, Graham has spoken out against the administration's prosecution of the war in Iraq and its approach to terrorist detainees. But the operative word is 'spoken.' Graham has mastered the art of being a rhetorical rebel -- not unlike the late great Democratic Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan of New York, whose blunt pronouncements delighted reporters and provided ample fodder for Republicans. Like Moynihan, though, Graham says much to arouse anger within his own party but casts predictable votes when the roll is called; his transgressions come in the form of quotes, not votes" -- Jonathan Martin, a staff writer for National Journal's Hotline, writing in The New Republic.

We spend a lot of time discussing Senator Lincoln Chafee and the Northeaster RINOs (you never find a RINO in a square state) who vote with Senator Kennedy but caucus with the GOP.

What do you make of Sens. Graham, and McCain, and Chuck Hagel (WTF-Neb.) who have solid voting records but are on the news every night bashing the President and the Party? I once was crafting a nasty post about Senator Hagel, and I looked up his voting record, thinking I would find things to cudgel him with.

Hagel's voting record is clean as a whistle. McCain touts his conservative bona fides and his percentage of votes with the President. Does this not come, somehow, under "aid and comfort to the enemy?" By appearing on the nightly news or New York Times every day questioning the party position, these folks give a lot of cover to Democrats and prevent the GOP from drawing clear distinctions.

Okay, ThreeSourcers -- we need a pejorative name for these folks. Republicans In Vote Only doesn't sound nefarious enough.

Phillies Bandwagon

I'm definately on the Phillies bandwagon of late... 58 home run hitter Ryan Howard (au natural) AND a wild-card race.

I watched last night's 8-7 14 inning victory until the end, and now I feel like I need to watch tonight's 4 1/2 hour rain delayed game. (An 11:30 pm start)

They're a game and a half back behind the Dodgers and some baseball team from one of those square states out west keeps dropping the ball.

Update: 12:30 am, fourth inning, 1-0 Washington. Highlight so far? Jefferson, Washington and Lincoln running down the first base line. They're guys in regular suits, except for the 8 foot tall heads. I guess that's so you can see them from the upper deck..

Jefferson takes a face plant in the dirt. Ha! He gets up, and shakes his enormous head.

I guess we'd never know if his face turned red.

Update: 1:46 AM. Ken Mandell was the guy playing Jefferson.

Update: That's all she wrote. 3-1 Nationals. Phils now two games back of the Dodgers in the wildcard race. Only the Giants sweeping the Dodgers can help them now.

Minneapolis

First, Republicans kill Senator Paul Wellstone.

THEN, FoxNews Newsstands open up in the Minneapolis St Paul Airport.

Now, the RNC convention in 2008.

What's next?

DJIA Hits High

Don't tell Paul Krugman, but Andrew Roth reports that the Dow passed its previous closing high.


It closed a bit under, so keep that Dom on ice...

Looking Through Western Eyes

If you read one thing today, make it Fouad Ajami's Featured Article on OpinionJournal.com.

Ajami stresses that we must look at Western and coalition actions as they are seen by the residents in the MidEast. Read the whole thing, but here's a taste:

But this brutal drawn-out struggle between American power and the furies of the Arab-Islamic world was never a Western war. Our enemies were full of cunning and expert at dissimulation, hunkering down when needed. No one in the coffeehouses of the Arab world (let alone in the safe houses of the terrorists) would be led astray by that distinction between "secular" and "religious" movements emphasized by the Senate Intelligence Committee. They live in a world where the enemies of order move with remarkable ease from outward religious piety to the most secular of appearances. It is no mystery to them that Saddam, once the most secular of despots, fell back on religious symbols after the first Gulf War, added Allahu Akbar (God is great) to Iraq's flag, and launched a mosque-building campaign whose remnants--half-finished mosques all over Baghdad--now stand mute.

Regional politics for 2008

I could never be a football coach. They can never look past this week's game to the next (or so they tell sportscasters). I don't want to downplay the midterms, but the quadrennials are always a little more fun.

John McIntyre has a segment in the OpinionJournal Political Diary today. As the Democrats follow Ryan Sagar's advice and look to the Rocky Mountain West, the GOP might counter with appreciating influence in the Midwest:

In picking the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul to host the 2008 Republican National Convention, GOP leaders signaled the importance of the upper Midwest to their '08 electoral strategy.

The electorally important trio of Minnesota, Iowa and Wisconsin combine for a not insignificant 27 electoral votes. Al Gore and Joe Lieberman carried all three states in 2000, but with margins unusually small for Democrats. In 2004 President Bush flipped Iowa into the Republican column for a crucial seven electoral votes. Wisconsin was close but Mr. Bush came up short for the second straight time by a little more than 10,000 votes. With the red-blue divide well entrenched in more than half of the 50 states, each party is already strategizing over such key battlegrounds in hopes of reaching the magical 270 electoral votes needed to win the Presidency.

Iowa's seven electoral votes were huge in 2004, providing the Bush-Cheney ticket with a margin in case Republicans did worse than expected in three western battlegrounds of Nevada, Colorado and New Mexico. Even if he lost two of these states, Iowa would have preserved President Bush's victory. If Republicans in their third shot could finally take Wisconsin from the Democrats, this would provide a cushion against even the loss of the "big" battleground of Ohio. That's why just holding Iowa and flipping Wisconsin into the GOP column would severely complicate Democratic strategy to get to 270 electoral votes.

But the big enchilada for the GOP is Minnesota. The Bush-Cheney ticket won 46% in Minnesota in 2000 and 48% in 2004. Governor Tim Pawlenty faces a tough reelection battle this year, but he's generally believed to have a slight edge. Assuming Mr. Pawlenty can take care of business this fall and remain reasonably popular through the summer of 2008, the 45-year old-will almost certainly be near the top of the short list for the eventual GOP Veep nominee.

Republican wins in the Midwest trio of Minnesota, Wisconsin and Iowa would leave Democrats little hope of winning the presidency unless they can flip both of the crucial battleground states of Florida and Ohio. Otherwise, Democrats would have to make unexpectedly strong inroads in the southwest quartet of Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico and Arizona (with 29 electoral votes) to offset the loss of either Florida or Ohio.

Don't be surprised to see the Democrats settle on Denver for their convention (Denver and New York are the finalists) and also take a long, hard look hard at New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson for VP and maybe Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano if Senator Hillary Clinton is not the Democratic nominee.

Denver, huh, maybe I can change my name and get selected as a delegate.

Majority Leader Reid?

Breathing a sigh of relief that the House is suddenly looking safer, is the Senate slipping away?

I never, ever, once counted out Harold Ford, Jr. in Tennessee. That guy is the best candidate the Democrats have. I read the other day that his opponent, Mr. Corker, is flailing. Add "Felix Allen Macaca, Jr.'s" troubles in increasingly purple Virginia, and I think we will have to bank our hopes on Tom Kean, Jr. (no political dynasties in this country, no).

The NYTimes may be wishful thinking, but they see New Hope for Democrats in Bid for Senate

In Virginia, a state that few expected to be seriously competitive, Senator George Allen looks newly vulnerable after a series of controversies over charges of racial insensitivity, strategists in both parties say. In Tennessee, another Southern state long considered safely red, Representative Harold E. Ford Jr., a Democrat, has run a strong campaign that has kept that state in contention.

Elsewhere, Democratic challengers are either ahead or close in races in five states held by the Republicans: Missouri, Montana, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island, according to political strategists in both parties and the latest polls.

All of these races could shift direction in a matter of days, let alone six weeks, and Republicans are counting on their superior finances and large blocks of television advertising to hold the line. Democrats also have their own vulnerabilities, particularly in New Jersey, where Senator Robert Menendez is in a tight race with his Republican challenger, State Senator Thomas H. Kean Jr., according to recent polls.

Perhaps the good people of the Garden State will not elect a corrupt pol because he has a 'D' after his name, but history portends poorly. The states in play are pretty blue or feature a pretty weak GOP candidate.

How about Minnesota? Can Sugarchuck pull one out for us? I sure like Steele in Maryland as well, though he must swim against a very blue tide.

Just call me Cassandra...

Here's a rare (first ever, actually) guest blog from dagny:

A few days ago in a comment I noted that:

"When the smoking is all banned, next they will decide that bacon is a crappy habit and I will not be so happy waiting in that restaurant since I will not be able to get an avocado, bacon burger to go with my fries. Maybe no fries either and the burger won’t be beef!"

As if on cue, New York and Chicago legislators are discussing ideas to ban the use of trans fats in restaurants.

From the NY Times:

The aldermen voted in April to forbid restaurants to sell foie gras. They have weighed a proposal to force cabbies to dress better. And there is talk of an ordinance to outlaw smoking at the beach.

Even Mayor Richard M. Daley, who often promotes bicycle riding and who not long ago appointed a city health commissioner who announced he was creating health “report cards” for the mayor and the aldermen, has balked at a trans-fat prohibition as one rule too many.

“Is the City Council going to plan our menus?” Mayor Daley asked.

And, from Scientific American:

NEW YORK (Reuters) - New York City's Health Department on Tuesday proposed a near ban on the use of artificial trans fat at restaurants, likening its health danger to that of lead paint.

The proposal would limit the use of the artery-clogging fat, which is often used in fast foods, to 0.5 grams per serving. The proposal comes after a year-long city campaign to educate restaurants on the effects of such fats and encourage them to stop their use.

The city said the voluntary campaign failed and while some of New York's more than 20,000 restaurants reduced or stopped using artificial trans fat, overall use did not decline at all.

This falls into my official category of, “WHAT’S WRONG WITH PEOPLE?” I would really like to know what happened to the concepts of individual rights and personal responsibility in this country.

"Then they will start on whatever YOUR crappy habit is so watch out!"

AGW

Ursula K. Leguin's Earthsea Trilogy posited that to get power over something, you had to know its true name. Joss Whedon and Tim Minear use that in the climax of Season Four of Angel ("Peace Out"), destroying Jasmine (Gina Torres of Firefly fame) by speaking her true name.

Professor Glenn Reynolds gives man made global warming its true name in a TCS column: "anthropogenic global warming."

"Do you believe in Global warming?" Why yes, but I'm skeptical of anthropogenic global warming. The MS-Word spellchecker recognizes it. If it's good enough for Bill Gates and Glenn Reynolds, it's okay by me.

Bill CLinton targets Santa

Brit Hume closed his show last night with this video from the Tonight Show. Funny stuff.

Protectionism Doesn't Sell

Interesting historical tidbit from Andrew Roth at The Club For Growth

One other note on Smoot-Hawley is that after 1932 neither one of them was in office. Sen. Smoot (R-UT) was defeated in Nov 1932 and Rep. Willis Hawley (R-OR) was defeated in his bid to be renominated by the GOP in 1932. Not sure if he lost in a primary or a caucus and what the issues were that kept [him] from the nomination.

Roth says "Schumer and Graham should pay heed to history." Perhaps a little homage to Larry Kudlow, who calls them "Smoot Schumer" and "Hawley Graham."

Media Bias

I contend that FOXNews is about equally biased as its competition, just in a different direction. Brit Hume presents both sides but anyone watching can tell what he believes.

FOX is in the headlines after the Clinton-Wallace contretemps. I think Wallace is great and I have squirmed many Sundays as I thought he was being too hard on my favorite Secretary of State or other administration official.

How can you measure bias? I have a thought which you good folks might refine. Last night's Special Report with Brit Hume basically portrayed the declassification of the April NIE report as exonerating the Administration and as a black mark against the New York Times.

Today the WaPo weighs in orthogonally. In another front page bylined story titled "Sobering Conclusions On Why Jihad Has Spread" they claim the exact opposite conclusion.

The overall estimate is bleak, with minor notes of optimism. It depicts a movement that is likely to grow more quickly than the West's ability to counter it over the next five years, as the Iraq war continues to breed "deep resentment" throughout the Muslim world, shaping a new generation of terrorist leaders and cultivating new supporters for their ideology.

In describing Iraq as "the 'cause celebre' for jihadists," the document judges that real and perceived insurgent successes there will "inspire more fighters to continue the struggle elsewhere," while losses would have the opposite effect. It predicts that the elimination of al-Qaeda leaders, particularly Osama bin Laden, Ayman al-Zawahiri and Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who was killed after the estimate was completed in April, would probably leave that organization splintered into disparate groups that "for at least a time, pose a less serious threat to U.S. interests" than the current al-Qaeda structure.

As I posted, the WaPo ran with the leaked version last Sunday. This story even claims that the President agreed with the assessment. I saw several clips of the President (on that wicked FOX of course) and he was angry about the leak and stern in denying its assessment.

Get 10 people to read the report and grade each news feature? There seems a rare chance for a clear metric here, it has awakened some deep inner researcher in me. Ideas?

UPDATE: Hugh Hewitt comes out on the exoneration side. He recounts a heated discussion with Jonathan Alter about the document before it came out. Alter said that no one had disputed the Times's account.

I hope lefties like Jonathan take the time to let the New York Times' "reporters" know that they don't appreciate being sent out to be embarrassed defending cut-and-paste stories that distort the facts and which, upon revelation of the true facts, support the foreign policy judgments and political positions of the Bush Administration.

The democratic Party and its agenda journalist allies are campaigning for retreat from Iraq, a retreat that would be a decisive victory for the jihadists. Thus any vote for any Congressional Democrat is a vote against victory and a vote for vulnerability.

And that is the conclusion supported by the NIE, touted just 48 hours ago by the left as the key document of this political season.

Ducking Out on Debates

If you're a candidate for US Senate, wouldn't you think that you ought to show up for debates?

And if you duck them, don't you think your opponent will make hay out of it?

Behold. Bob Casey, running against Rick Santorum, decided he had better things to do than go to two debates on Monday. This despite having "a light schedule."

Macaca, kimosabe.

A plugged-in emailer wonders what is up with the spate of "macaca" references. Here is my version of the story for all who missed it. If you want more, Senator Allen is on the cover of this week's Weekly Standard.

Senator George Allen was teasing an operative of the Webb camp who attended all the Allen events. He called to him on the stage, telling everybody to say hello to "Macaca." Confusing the term, perhaps, with "Mohawk" because of the young man's haircut.

It turns out "Macaca" is a racial slur used by French citizens to North Africans.

Sen. Allen is not French, the young man was not North -- or any kind of -- African. Yet America is America and the Senator was forced to apologize about 53 times.

Rams vs. Buffaloes

An intrastate rivalry is deepening. AlexC sends a link to a DenverPost.com story about a CSU professor (well covered on these pages) and an NCAR scientist in Boulder.

The words "global warming" provoke a sharp retort from Colorado State University meteorology professor emeritus William Gray: "It's a big scam."

And the name of climate researcher Kevin Trenberth elicits a sputtered "opportunist."

At the National Center for Atmospheric Research, where Trenberth works, Gray's name prompts dismay. "Bill Gray is completely unreasonable," Trenberth says. "He has a mind block on this."
Only 55 miles separate NCAR's headquarters, nestled in the Front Range foothills, from CSU in Fort Collins. But when it comes to climate change, the gap is as big as any in the scientific community.

The article is pretty balanced, enumerating what is and is not disputed. The author leans on consensus and majority as favoring the existence of man made global warming. I repeat that science is not democratic, look more to Karl Popper's epistemology and less toward focus groups.

Yet the story is a pretty balanced look at the controversy and worth a read.

I just hope Dr. Gray doesn't call Dr. Trenberth "macaca."

Swanntorum

Lynn Swann and Pa Governor Ed Rendell had their first debate yesterday.

SwannBlog writes...

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette describes some of the exchanges, and Swann seems to have deftly outmaneuvered the "greatest political mind in Pennsylvania history."

Rendell supporter John Baer, of the Philly tabloid Daily News, conceded that Swann batted and rattled Ed, but taunted that the governor's race was over anyway so it doesn't matter.

There were two opportunities for Senator Rick Santorum and challenger Bob Casey to debate yesterday, Bob Casey skipped both of them.

The first was a US Senator's Forum on PCN TV (our C-SPAN). There was actually an empty chair on hand, quite capably representing the challenger.

The second debate was at the same forum that Swann & Rendell squared off at. Again, there was an empty chair.

At one point while discussing foreign affairs, Santorum gestured to the empty chair and said, “I’d like to hear what my opponent has to say about this.”

Heh.

NYTimes Gets Tough on Terror

You say they're soft, but my daily email leads off with this:

Qaeda Operative, an Escapee in '05, Is Killed in Iraq By SABRINA TAVERNISE

A good writer and a good shot.

Adding Nothing

Robert Tracinski is mad at the Washington GOPers.

But he can't vote for Democrats.

Why?

If you want to have a debate over big government versus small government, you'll have to have it within the right. The left contributes nothing of value.

...

If you want to have a pro-immigration versus anti-immigration debate, you'll have to have it within the right. The left contributes nothing of value.

....

So if you want to have a debate over how to fight and win the War on Terrorism, you'll have to have it within the right. The left contributes nothing but proposals for surrender, appeasement, and passivity. As far as the war is concerned, that "D" next to a candidate's name on the ballot stands for "defeat."

....

So this November, let's crush the left. Once the left is safely out of the way, we'll be free to begin the much more serious and important business of splintering the right.

Naturally, he spells out the reasons, so read it all.

The Caucus of Corruption

Republicans, they're all evil.

No, just kidding.

Democrats!

Something Rotten in PA?

Holman Jenkins has an interesting suggestion in today's WSJ Political Diary:

Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell frequently has been looked at cross-eyed by other Democrats for his questionable party loyalty -- even when he was party boss. That made it all the more newsworthy when, apparently safe in his own reelection race against former Pittsburgh Steeler Lynn Swann, he last week delivered $200,000 in campaign cash to Bob Casey, the state treasurer seeking to unseat GOP Sen. Rick Santorum.

Here's an unsung factor that may explain the previously cool Mr. Rendell's sudden activism on Mr. Casey's behalf. A new Santorum ad, denounced as "misleading" by goo-goo groups, features actors playing unidentified Casey donors discussing their doings -- behind bars. Though the ad takes dramatic license, it alludes to a real, late-breaking problem for Democrats: An FBI investigation of Philadelphia-area developer Robert Feldman, who has raised millions for Messrs. Rendell and Casey as well as for John Street, Mr. Rendell's successor as Philadelphia mayor. The Philadelphia Inquirer last week quoted from an FBI surveillance tape that caught Mr. Feldman complaining about being shut out of a Penn's Landing development deal three years ago: "I've got nothing. I've raised a ton of money for the mayor. I'm raising right now for him. Maybe I should make this my 'big ask.'"

A lingering frost had been perceived between the two Democrats, Mr. Casey and Mr. Rendell, since their nasty fight for the 2002 gubernatorial nomination. The popular Gov. Rendell endorsed his former rival for Senate and, more importantly, worked behind the scenes to secure the nomination for him, but that's not the same thing as fervently advocating his cause in the general election. He hasn't cut any ads for Mr. Casey. Worse, just a few weeks ago, he went out of his way to praise Mr. Santorum in back-to-back interviews as a senator who "delivers" for Pennsylvania. Mr. Santorum has since closed the gap markedly, though Mr. Casey is still favored.

There may be nothing here. It's not clear yet whether the Feldman news has legs. But with Mr. Rendell up by nearly 20 points over Mr. Swann, and Mr. Casey ahead of Sen. Santorum by nearly 10 points, about the only thing that might change the dynamics of both races simultaneously is a party-wide corruption scandal. If Mr. Rendell's goal in donating $200,000 to the Casey campaign was to send a message that his quasi-neutrality has its limits, the reason may be Mr. Santorum's move to highlight a graft issue threatening to both Democrats.

In case anybody around here follows Pennsylvania politics.

UPDATE: Here's the TV ad (thanks, AlexC!)

About that Wagging Dog Thing

President Clinton renewed his bona fides as "an unusually good liar" in an interview with Chris Wallace which aired on yesterday's Fox News Sunday.

Jake Tapper at ABC.com compares his assertions to the, er, facts:

In the interview Clinton said that during the 1990s conservatives criticized him for "obsessing" over bin Laden and "they ridiculed me for trying" to kill bin Laden.

This stunned me when I heard this. I remember the events but had forgotten the reaction. Mr. Tapper -- both less lazy than I and also paid for this -- looked it up.

"I think the president did exactly the right thing," said House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) said. "By doing this we're sending the signal there are no sanctuaries for terrorists." Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) called the attacks "appropriate and just," and House Majority Leader Richard K. Armey (R-Tex.) said "the American people stand united in the face of terrorism."

The AP says: "Gingrich dismissed any possibility that Clinton may have ordered the attacks to divert attention from the scandal. Instead, he said, there was an urgent need for a reprisal following the Aug. 7 bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. 'Anyone who watched the film of the bombings, anyone who saw the coffins come home knows better than to question this timing,' Gingrich said. 'It was done as early as possible to send a message to terrorists across the globe that killing Americans has a cost. It has no relationship with any other activity of any kind.'

The interview is up on YouTube, you can follow a link from Tapper. If you did not see it, it's a merry, nostalgic romp through the Clinton years. The mendacity and false bonhomie are displayed as clearly as his shins above his socks and below his suit pants (call that a petty complaint but it added to the overall strangeness).

The ugliness of Bush hatred made me rethink my visceral dislike of his predecessor, but I found it rekindled yesterday.

Hat-tip: Insty

Mr. Orwell, call your office

If you like running out of hot sauna into the icy pool, I can recommend a couple of interesting articles.

First, seriously, read Stephen Hayes's How Bad Is the Senate Intelligence Report? This was the cover of last week's issue (Felix Allen Macaca, Jr. has the current week) and is available free on the website.

The Weekly Standard, and Hayes especially, have been slow to lie down and accept the CW that Iraq would never work with al-Qaeda, 'cause Saddam was secular. You can get immediate troglodyte status with any thoughtful NPR listener by expressing the slightest doubt of that.

Hayes demolishes it

As early as 1982, the Iraqi regime was openly supporting, training, and funding the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamist organization opposed to the secular regime of Hafez Assad. For years, Saddam Hussein cultivated warm relations with Hassan al-Turabi, the Islamist who was the de facto leader of the Sudanese terrorist state, and a man Bill Clinton described as "a buddy of [Osama] bin Laden's."

For several pages, Hayes enumerates inconsistencies, errors, and willful misdirection in the Senate Intelligence report which "proves" it.

Grab a large coffee and read that one coast-to-coast. It's cover story length, a little dry, and incredibly repetitive because Hayes finds so many errors to contradict. That's your sauna visit. After reading that article, you will be particularly informed on a topic about which most of the country is purposefully ignorant.

Then read as much as you can stand of the Page A01 bylined story in the WaPo Spy Agencies Say Iraq War Hurting U.S. Terror Fight

"It's a very candid assessment," one intelligence official said yesterday of the estimate, the first formal examination of global terrorist trends written by the National Intelligence Council since the March 2003 invasion. "It's stating the obvious."

Saddam Hussein's Iraq, long before President Bush blundered into the Pottery Barn, operated state sponsored paramilitary training camps for terrorists.

Beginning in 1994, the Fedayeen Saddam opened its own paramilitary training camps for volunteers, graduating more than 7,200 "good men racing full with courage and enthusiasm" in the first year. Beginning in 1998, these camps began hosting "Arab volunteers from Egypt, Palestine, Jordan, 'the Gulf,' and Syria.

Seems like recruitment was doing all right when President Clinton and Speaker Wright were running things.

Now the same "intelligence community" that participated in the Senate Intelligence Report, willfully obstructed the President, missed 9/11, sent the extraordinary Joseph Wilson IV to Niger, and said WMDs were a slam dunk should be believed in toto with a subjective assertion.

Because they're professionals, I suppose. It would be humorous to see the fourth estate so supportive of the veracity of every word from US government spooks. It would be humorous had it not been so successful in hurting the war effort and inculcating opposition in the electorate.

The Real Reason

Congresspersons Pelosi and Rangel came out and bashed Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez this week, not out of respect for President Bush, but to cover themselves. It's good politics.

When a crazed America hater echos the same commentary of America's political left it makes people stop and say, "hey... there might not be that much difference...."

Nickname Fetish

(this is the part where I channel Jerry Seinfeld)

What's the deal with liberals and their nicknaming of people?

How many different variations of George Bush are there?

I think it's evolved into Chimpy McBushburton or something.

But here's a new one.

Felix Allen Macaca, Jr.

Let's break this down.

1) Felix. Some how appealing to the whole Jewish thing. Perhaps some latent anti-semitism. Hard to say.

2) Allen. To make the nickname work, you need the connection to Senator Allen.

3) Macaca. Apparently it's a vicious ethnic slur that can be found in high abundance on liberal blogs. Incredibly no one seems to know what it really is, nevermind using it on a regular basis. Unlike the other vicious ethnic slur that dare not speak it's name.

4) Jr. His father's name was George Allen. A football coach, hall of famer, too. Diminutive, however.

Chavez: Buy Berkeley Square CD!

Venezuelan collectivist Higo Chavez made headlines at the U.N. for calling President Bush "el Diablo." That's noteworthy, but caused people to miss his message. At the start of his talk Wednesday, during which Chavez referred to President Bush as "the devil," Chavez held up a jazz CD by Berkeley Square "A Nightingale Sang" and recommended it to everyone in the General Assembly, as well as to the American people. "The people of the United States should listen to this ... instead of the watching Superman movies," Chavez later told reporters. Well, actually it was a Noam Chomsky book, but Donald Luskin notes that the endorsement put the book in Amazon's Top Ten. The Conspiracy to Keep You Poor and Stupid. Top ten, huh? I wonder how much he charges for such an endorsement? Hat-tip: The Everyday Economist

Hugo Chavez, Meet Mayor Daley

Blog brother AlexC just shared an editorial from Alaska which said of Hugo Chavez's fuel oil stunt, "BOTTOM LINE: If you're cold and can't afford fuel oil, who cares about the political motives of the giver?" Chicago mayor Richard M. Daley, that's who!

This American Thinker blog posted yesterday contrasts the behavior of what I'll characterize as 'serious' Democrats with that of 'nutjob' Democrats:

Not all Democrats are as craven as Delahunt & Company, though. The Chicago Democrats of Richard M. Daley, who had the wisdom to veto a bill imposing pay scales on Wal-Mart, are also a step ahead when it comes to understanding the energy market.

These actions contrast sharply with those of Chicago Democrats who told Chavez to beat it with his offer of $4 million in cheap transport fuel, and then started probing Chavez’s bid to penetrate their city’s electoral apparatus through voting machine contracts.

IBD has been consistently a leader in covering Chavez. The winning streak continues.

As if Chicago politics isn't smarmy enough without Venezuela pulling the strings. But a Venezuelan "elections contractor" couldn't even get its foot in the door if Jimmy Carter hadn't validated Venezuela's electoral apparatus as having "integrity" and "accuracy." Here's a blast from the past for you:

"We made it clear to them and to the public that this did not imply any doubt by The Carter Center or OAS regarding the integrity of the electoral process or the accuracy of the reported results."

But what's this he said even before the referendum took place?

Excluding the presidents, our group then met with President Chavez for about two hours. He appeared quite confident but pledged to resign immediately if he should lose the referendum vote and said in that case he would rest for a week and then resume campaigning for re-election. Toward the end of our meeting, I called on him to be gracious in victory, to make every effort to reunite the divided country, and to let us help in establishing a forum for dialogue between the government and opposition groups. He did not respond directly but was very quiet while I spoke and then said he had always wanted the nation to be united. Subsequently, he said he needed to spend more time with me and asked if we could have lunch together on Monday.

Hell, why bother with the vote if you already know who won?

I'll preorder a copy

The more I hear about Ayaan Hirsi Ali, the more I like her.

She has located in the United States because the Dutch would not protect her from Islamic militants after Theo Van Gogh was murdered. I think she belongs here. George Will pulls himself out of an intellectual batting slump with this incredible column

Slender, elegant, stylish and articulate (in English, Dutch and Swahili), she has found an intellectual home here at the American Enterprise Institute, where she is writing a book that imagines Muhammad meeting, in the New York Public Library, three thinkers -- John Stuart Mill, Friedrich Hayek and Karl Popper, each a hero of the unending struggle between (to take the title of Popper's 1945 masterpiece) "The Open Society and Its Enemies.'' Islamic extremists -- the sort who were unhinged by some Danish cartoons -- will be enraged. She is unperturbed.

Hat-tip: Instapundit, whom I'll quote "Read the whole thing!"

Chavez Offers US Foreign Aid

Grrr.

Margaret Williams of Hughes in the Interior said it doesn't matter who's providing the heating fuel, which costs about $6 a gallon in the Koyukuk River village of 69.

"We sure could welcome it," she said. "As long as we don't have to pay."

In the Kobuk River village of Ambler, heating fuel is running more than $7 a gallon.

Residents in the village of 283 and surrounding villages are ecstatic, said tribal administrator Virginia Commack. "It's a miracle," she said.

Each household will save more than $700 in fuel costs this winter, freeing cash for people to spend on gasoline so they can hunt more caribou and moose, she said.

Ooh. There's a bargain for liberals. They've got to stick it to the caribou so that Chavez can stick it to the President.

An unsigned Anchorage Daily Worker News editorial piles on the snark.

Alaska has a similar program funded entirely with federal dollars. The Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program distributes funds to needy Alaskans to help pay the high cost of heating oil. But federal funding is at the same level today as it was 20 years ago, which means it's far short of what is needed. Gov. Frank Murkowski this year asked legislators to appropriate $8.8 million in state cash to supplement the program, but lawmakers gave the governor -- and low-income Alaskans -- the cold shoulder and rejected the request.

Good thing for those Alaskans that another country is coming to help.

BOTTOM LINE: If you're cold and can't afford fuel oil, who cares about the political motives of the giver?

House's "Last Gasp Measures" on Immigration

The WSJ editorial page and a beloved blog brother are deriding the efforts of republicans in the House of Representatives to "do something about this immigration problem about which they've whipped everybody up." FNC's Major Garrett gave a detailed report on events in the legislative body during Thursday's 'Special Report with Brit Hume.'

Here are the highlights -

Republicans "steamrolled" three bills through the House:
Bill 1- Imposes a 20-year prison sentence for anyone constructing or financing the construction of a cross-border smuggling tunnel.
Bill 2- Allows for longer detention and swifter deportation of illegal alien felons or illegals who belong to criminal gangs.
Bill 3- Encourages local and state police to find and apprehend illegal immigrants.

"Democrats say the bills have little chance of becoming law."

Republicans Hastert and Boener presented a chart entitled, "House Republicans' Border Security Now September Agenda" which listed the following bullet points:
- More Border Fencing and Improved Surveillance Technology
- "Catch & Return," not "Catch & Release"
- Detention and Deportation of Alien Gang Members
- Expedited Removal of Alien Criminals
- Increase in Prosecution of Alien Smugglers
- Criminalization of Construction and Financing of Border Tunnels
- Detention of Dangerous Aliens Unable to be Deported
- Reaffirm Authority of State and Local Law Enforcement to Enforce Immigration Laws
- Funding for Secure Border Initiative
- Funding for More Border Patrol Agents

Personally, I fail to see how any of these individual measures are "bad politics, bad economics" or "bad imagery." Better yet, taken as a whole they give the appearance of a "comprehensive" approach.

While detractors share common cause with representatives John Conyers and Sheila Jackson Lee who decry the failure to pass "comprehensive immigration reform," the three house bills passed today with large bipartisan margins, as Democrats hasten to put themselves on the politically popular side of these obvious steps.

Bill 1- Passed unanimously. Bill 2- Passed with 100 democrat "yea" votes. Bill 3- Passed with 62 democrats piling on.

The three bills have no companions in the Senate, but House leadership hopes to roll them into the "must pass" Homeland Security spending bill scheduled for hill action next week.

This is shaping up to be quite a mighty "gasp."

And don't forget the 700-mile border fence the house already approved, which is also scheduled for a Senate vote next week.

Easy to be Hard

I think I can be a climate scientist.

It's easy to be always right.

Despite the long term warming trend seen around the globe, the oceans have cooled in the last three years, scientists announced today.

The temperature drop, a small fraction of the total warming seen in the last 48 years, suggests that global warming trends can sometimes take little dips.

In the last century, Earth's temperature has risen about 1 degree Fahrenheit (0.56 degrees Celsius). Most scientists agree that much of the warming in the past 50 years has been fueled by the burning of fossil fuels and other human activities.

"This research suggests global warming isn't always steady, but happens with occasional 'speed bumps,'" said study co-author Josh Willis, a researcher at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. "This cooling is probably natural climate variability. The oceans today are still warmer than they were during the 1980s, and most scientists expect the oceans will eventually continue to warm in response to human-induced climate change."

Is global-warming, pardom climate change the only branch of science that has never been wrong?

Sheesh. A little introspective, please.

Oil

$61.92 a barrel, if you haven't noticed.

Smoking bans

ALa at Blonde Sagacity posts about a Philadelphia smoking ban. She quotes a Jonathan Davis Morris who makes an important observation:

This is partly because anti-smoking groups are tenacious, and partly because smoking is a crappy habit. However, neither of these things explain why smoking bans are becoming inevitable. The real reason so many cities have banned smoking in public places is because of the words "public places." Somehow, this phrase has come to describe privately owned bars and restaurants, which, by nature, tend to be privately owned.

Just because you go "out in public" to visit these places doesn't make them public any more than having sex in a park in broad daylight makes the park private. There's an obvious difference between public and private property, and reasonable human beings can spot this difference. Unfortunately, this country is full of something, but it isn't reasonable human beings.

I don't care if it sounds like I'm splitting hairs here. To me, this isn't an issue of mere semantics. If you call privately owned bars and restaurants "public places," it tells me you don't know what you're talking about. And if you don't know what you're talking about, you shouldn't be making — or even so much as influencing — policy. No one should care about your opinion. I'm not even sure you should have the right to vote.

ALa, you want to stay very very far away from the People's Republic of Boulder.

Morris makes a superb point. People really do think they own every institution that lets them in the door.

No news here...

Instapundit links to a Yourish.com post which questions why 2000 protestors marching against the Iraq war gets covered, but 35,000 pro-Israel/anti Ahmadinejad protesters are ignored.

I checked AP. Nothing. Reuters. Nada. I checked Google News. Nothing. 1010WINS. Nothing. I checked WABC, NY1, all the New York media sites. Gridlock alerts are the only thing you can find about the march. After all, it’s not newsworthy. The fact that 2,000 people marched a day earlier to protest the Iraq war? Oh, yeah, that made the news.

How can this be anything but Bias?

Mr. Sensenbrenner, Tear Down This Wall

Here we go again. The Wall Street Journal Ed Page wonders about the message and politics of the Congressional GOP's last gasp measure do something about this immigration problem about which they've whipped everybody up.

I hope they'll move it to the free site this weekend. It is a very thoughtful piece. It runs as the lead editorial today, The Great Wall of America, which opens with "It wasn't so long ago, during the Reagan era, that Republicans sought to tear down walls, not erect them."

Now that they've created this frenzy, they have to show how tough they are:

Here's one example of how tough they are. Steve King of Iowa suggested in front of the C-SPAN cameras that at the top of this new fence "we electrify this wire with the kind of current that would not kill somebody, but it would be a discouragement for them to be fooling around with it." Then he added: "We do this with livestock all the time." Equating people with cattle: There's an inclusive political message for you.

Nor is a "sealed border" desirable, even if it could be achieved. More than nine of 10 of the three million net new jobs created from 2000-05 have been filled by immigrants, according to Census Bureau data. With many regions of the country now suffering from a shortage of workers, not even Pat Buchanan could argue with a straight face that immigrants are stealing jobs from Americans. The fence itself will probably have to be built by immigrants.

I'm the lone voice 'round these parts, but this is bad politics, bad economics, and as this article reminds, bad imagery.

Republicans cite polls indicating that Americans want a secure border, but the political appeal of walls and fences is exaggerated. Just last week Don Goldwater, the man who held a press conference at the border urging, "Mr. Bush, build this wall now," was defeated in a GOP primary for Governor of Arizona -- in the very border state where these policies were thought to be most popular. The Arizona Republican who won a Congressional primary on immigration in the Tucson district is expected to lose in November.

The only real way to reduce the flow of illegal Mexican immigration is to provide a legal, orderly process to match open American jobs with workers who want to fill them. Mr. Bush is for that, and so is the Senate, but House Republicans have concluded that they're better off building fences. When Ronald Reagan spoke of America being a "shining city on a hill," he wasn't thinking of one surrounded by electrified barbed-wire fences.

This Free Market Thing

What to do about runaway drug costs? That's the intractable problem that has animated the Democratic Party for years and forced the GOP to enact the first new entitlement since LBJ lived at 1600 Pennsylvania.

I'm not saying that this is a panacea, but Wal*Mart is testing a new program to offer $4 generic drugs (my co-pay is six). The Wall Street Journal reports (paid link) that the evil giant will use its fearful monopsony powers to, umm, provide inexpensive drugs to people.

Retail giant Wal-Mart Stores Inc., eyeing a long list of brand-name pharmaceuticals about to lose patent protection, announced plans to test a low-price strategy for generic drugs sold at its pharmacies.

The Bentonville, Ark., company said it will cut the price of nearly 300 generic drugs sold at Wal-Mart store pharmacies in Florida's Tampa Bay area to $4. The company plans to expand the program to all Florida stores in January 2007, and in other states next year.

Wal-Mart said the program will be available to customers with insurance as well as the uninsured. It will include medications to treat allergies, cholesterol, high blood pressure and diabetes. The discount giant said some antibiotics, antidepressants, antipsychotics and prescription vitamins will also be included.

Again, I don't claim that the problem is somehow solved, but this shows the power of a free market solution.

Tax Carbon, Not Jobs

Josh at Everyday Economist has a great riff on global warming. He links to CSU professor Bill Gray's claims that global warming is real but not man-made.

Then he links to Don Luskin discussing a speech by VP Gore that suggested "taxing carbon dioxide emissions instead of employees’ pay."

We've had varied discussions on these pages, but I want to point out the unseriousness of the opposition. Kyoto is obviously not gong to do anything but further impede the economies of its EU signatories. If anybody wants to take the former VP's idea and imbue it with any seriousness, I'll play along but think we'd all agree that it's a bit problematic at best.

An opposing view to Professor Gray makes a curious case:

There are uncertainties. It’s not like you change your light bulbs today, you’re going to have better weather tomorrow,” he said. “It’s even better if those actions you’re taking make sense for other reasons, like getting off Middle Eastern oil or saving money.-- Roger Pielke Jr., director of the Center for Science and Technology Policy Research at the University of Colorado

Y'know, sir, if it saved money you wouldn't have to coerce anybody to do it. That 's the thing about proposals which make economic sense. You are asking us to spend more and to forego pleasures to prevent an unproven phenomena.

The warmies want to enact the solution first, then prove the problems. That is unserious.

JohnGalt's Prediction Coming True

WSJ's Political Diary says "Happy Days are Here Again" for the GOP. John Fund writes:

Washington is abuzz with polls showing President Bush's approval ratings creeping up to 44% and the GOP closing the gap in generic voter preference. The key to the revival of their fortunes is simple: Republican voters are coming home and engaging again in the political fray. The percentage of Republican "base voters" who say they are "almost certain" to vote is up to 81%. Another 14% say they are "very likely" to vote.

GOP pollster Fred Steeper says his surveys show that the centerpiece of the election among GOP voters is concern for winning the war on terror "and worries that Democrats will abdicate that responsibility." A full 56% of the base reported "extremely strong feelings" against the position of leading Democrats on the war on terror.

Other issues are also playing a role, with over 70% of base Republican voters saying they are extremely motivated to vote by Democratic attempts to derail President Bush's attempts to make his tax cuts permanent. The nominations of John Roberts and Sam Alito to the Supreme Court also scored well among the GOP faithful.

And impeachment talk was listed as a large issue against Democrats. Keep those gas prices low, Republicans, we're riding the wave to victory!