About
Captain Ed is a father and grandfather living in the Twin Cities area of Minnesota, a native Californian who moved to the North Star State because of the weather. He lives with his wife Marcia, also known as the First Mate, their two dogs, and frequently watch their granddaughter Kayla, whom Captain Ed calls The Little Admiral.
Read More
The Crows Nest
Would Early Primaries Allow More Donations?
Jim Geraghty at The Campaign Spot believes that candidates will benefit if primaries and caucuses get pushed into 2007. A loophole in campaign finance regulation appears to allow an extra $2,300 per donor for candidates if those elections are held this year. Be sure to check out Jim's analysis, and the surprising candidate that may benefit the most.
When Tom Met Jeralyn
One of the interesting aspects of politics is finding out that opponents are people, too. Jeralyn Merritt of TalkLeft met Rep. Tom Tancredo backstage at NBC's studios, and found him more likable than she had anticipated. Perhaps it was their mutual interest in Dog, The Bounty Hunter ...
Joe Lieberman A Right-Wing Nut?
That's what CAIR says, according to Joe Kaufman. He has a link to a CAIR official's blog post that calls Lieberman, along with John Bolton, former CIA director James Woolsey, and the Heritage Foundation's Peter Brookes as "extremists". Affad Shaikh also calls Dick Cheney a "fat bastard of a liar," apparently not meant as a pop-culture reference to the Austin Powers movies. (via Let Freedom Ring)
Broadband Homelessness
The Japanese have made homelessness more efficient, and more Net-friendly, too. Their Internet cafés have become homeless shelters for the struggling manual-labor sector. The problem has grown into such a problem that government intervention will shortly become a political priority.
Found My Law Firm
Power Line links twice to this story regarding an attorney at Faegre & Benson who refused to become a victim and helped capture a very dangerous man. Keith Radtke is a partner in the firm as is Power Line's John Hinderaker. Radtke is listed in satisfactory condition after getting shot in the back, but that didn't keep him from locking up his attacker in a wrestling grip until police could arrive. I don't know about you, but that's the kind of man I'd want as my counsel ....
Don't Click That YouTube E-mail
The latest in spam seems to be redirections from YouTube links in e-mail to IP addresses without domain names. They attempt to entice people by making it seem that they have been inadvertently YouTubed. I'm sure most people can see through this scam, but just in case, you've been warned ....
Rick Moran Escapes The Floods
Rick Moran has kept us up to date on his travails along the Algonquin River. Yesterday, the police showed up to get him evacuated before the river flooded his home -- but today, Rick finds that a minor miracle has taken place, and that his house survives ... at least for now. Keep Rick in your prayers, and keep checking in at Right Wing Nut House for updates.
Rule 1: Drag The Corpse On Over First
If I've learned anything in four years of blogging, don't try to be out in front of the death rumors, especially with the villains of the world. Saddam died a hundred deaths before we caught him alive in his spider hole, and Abu Musab al-Zarqawi almost as many before his demise last year. Osama may or may not be alive, but everyone's avoided speculating on his fate for a while now. Maybe Val at Babalu Blog will get luckier with his "Castro Is Dead" story. We all hope so. I'll wait for the announcement ....
Hobbs Choice
Volunteer Voters is holding its annual "Best of Nashville" on-line polls, and one of the categories is for the best political writer. Our friend Bill Hobbs, now posting at Newsbusters, and he'd like his on-line fans to cast their votes. Drop by and put one in for Bill if you get a chance!
Murtha Getting Backlogged On Apologies
Gary Gross of Let Freedom Ring sees another case collapsing on the Haditha charges. He's called for Murtha to apologize earlier, and adds another reason to the tally.
No Such Thing As 'Moderate' Islam?
Turkish PM Tayyip Erdogan told a television interviewer that he finds the label "moderate Islam" offensive. Shrink Wrapped has a lot more on this, but at least in the same interview Erdogan acknowledged that "radical Islam" exists, and that it's been a catastrophe. Be sure to read the whole post.
MS-NBC Gets Punk'd
Power Line has a great post on a lack of journalistic effort on the part of MS-NBC. In covering the Michael Vick story, they reported on what they thought was Al Sharpton's website proclaiming Vick's innocence. I guess Alex Johnson and two other MS-NBC reporters couldn't bother to read the title bar of the site, which proudly proclaims it as a "parody site".
New Instapundit Podcast On Pharmaceuticals
I just caught this e-mail from Glenn Reynolds about his new podcast with Richard Epstein, the author of Overdose: How Excessive Government Regulation Stifles Pharmaceutical Innovation. Haven't had a chance to listen to it yet, but the topic is important enough to make sure I carve out time for it tomorrow. Get their first and tell me what I'm missing ....
Fed Trying A 'Stealth Easing'?
The Federal Reserve seems to have conducted a quiet campaign to steady markets that started spinning out of control, according to King Banaian at SCSU Scholars. He thinks that the Fed has conducted a "stealth easing". Be sure to read his explanation and follow his lnks.
A Shameless Bit Of Sel-Promotion
Gateway Pundit and Val at Babalu Blog note a crass PR move by Hugo Chavez. Venezuela has responded to Peru's eathquake disaster with food shipments -- and with Hugo's smiling picture on the cans. He also uses the tuna-can label to undermine President Garcia of Peru, who narrowly defeated Chavez' pal Ollanto Humalla, whom the labels extol for his "solidarity" with Chavez.
Tacky beyond belief.
Comments (10)
Posted by jay | June 25, 2007 7:43 AM
It is also cities and counties. Yet the cities with the most illegals offer "sanctuary" to illegals and most won't even contact the INS when they catch an illegal for another crime.
Posted by bvw | June 25, 2007 8:29 AM
Pretty clear case for repealing the 17th Amendment. The states -- as States -- need to have a say in the Federal Government.
Posted by Labamigo | June 25, 2007 9:21 AM
The city of Farmers Branch, a suburb of Dallas, recently passed by popular vote a referendum restricting the right of a landlord to rent to an illegal alien.
The federal court in Dallas enjoined the law on the basis that the federal government has pre-empted the law on immigration.
Any local or state law which has any real effect on illegal immigration will suffer the same fate.
Posted by gobigred | June 25, 2007 9:40 AM
Since Captain's Quarters is from Minnesota, and generally thinks the illegal ammnesty bill is terrible, why aren't you investigating Senator Coleman's fence sitting on this???? I guess you are ok with it? Don't underestimated Minnesotans...they will find someone else. Coleman isn't that great...they elected Jesse Ventura, don't put it past them to elect Franken or some other no-name democrat to replace him. This fence-sitting and non-representation by our elected officials frosts me. We gave sweat, tears and dug in our pockets for this guy to be elected...It just doesn't matter, though, does it?
Posted by vet66 | June 25, 2007 9:51 AM
The Feds can't continue to have it both ways. They pass legislation that sounds tough but then fail to fund it leaving the financial burden on the states and cities.
It appears the 'fix' is in. Border patrol agents who shoot illegal drug runners in our country are jailed for failing to properly fill out paperwork, and federal courts knock down states that have the temerity to pass legislation demanding their rights.
Both parties are pandering to illegals in an attempt to garner a larger per centage of their vote (12 million +) to avoid the inevitable elections that are so close they have to be recounted.
Who will bear the cost? The U.S. middle class, that is who.
Posted by Daedalus | June 25, 2007 10:03 AM
The biggest problem with these laws is the ACLU which has much greater resources than the local communities. They are able to bring the local community to its knees financially, and many of the laws never see the light of day.
Posted by docjim505 | June 25, 2007 10:18 AM
Cap'n Ed wrote:
State efforts to control illegal immigration do not get many headlines, but several states have enacted or are considering strong measures to deter illegals from remaining inside state borders, if not national.
And those measures will last for about five minutes in a federal court. Some judge will rule them "unconstitutional" and that will be the end of that. LA and El Paso will continue to go bankrupt paying for illegal aliens while some politicians cynically manipulate the issue for electoral advantage.
Why even bother to have local government and state assemblies any more? Let's just chuck the idea of having states and start calling them provinces or something like that. It would be a lot more accurate, don't you think?
Posted by BoWowBoy | June 25, 2007 11:19 AM
I don't think changing states to provinces is exactly the correct transformation.
How bout ........"estado's de seguridad y prosperidad" .......??
Posted by Bill Faith | June 25, 2007 11:43 AM
Here's hoping some of the states are fed up enough to push things all the way to SCOTUS if that's what it takes. I wouldn't be too shocked to see the people of Farmer's Branch do the same thing; they're home to a lot of major businesses that wanted to be near, but not in, Dallas and I suspect they can afford it.
I added a link to my 2006.06.25 "No Illegal Left Behind" Roundup.
Posted by AnonymousDrivel | June 25, 2007 3:12 PM
"What makes the states so anxious to pass such laws?"
Let me ask the obvious, flipped side of the coin, question to coincide with that:
What makes the Federal government so anxious to pass comprehensive "reform"?
It is urgent to the Legislative and the Executive exactly because the states are anxious to pass such laws. State laws by public demand threaten current power structures. This seems to be boiling down to a states' rights issue as this debacle proceeds. The Federal government has been stepping all over the states for decades, yet the states continue to lose authority over seemingly everything. It's a slow, steady march of the expanse of federal, i.e. centralized, government at the expense of states and local governance.
It's quite telling that the desires of legal citizens are being trampled by our governing institutions with citizenship as the source of discontent. Even more interesting is that this is all wrapped into a socioeconomic struggle where indentured servitude of sorts is being welcomed by elites.
Didn't we have a civil war over this not too long ago?
It's now a race. Can the states write and pass laws regulating illegal alien immigration processes before the feds can waive it all away with the amnesty that makes it all moot and thus making any appeal to the Judicial impossible? Why would any conservative and traditional liberal support the federal government on this matter, nevermind the lack of credibility and utter contempt it displays for the voters?