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.
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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 (12)
Posted by Graham | July 18, 2007 8:43 AM
Hey! Give a spoiler alert, man!
Slightly more on-topic, can't politicians realize that anti-pork is more popular than pork?
Posted by AJStrata | July 18, 2007 9:07 AM
Ed,
Just a guess, but sometimes emergency intel spending might run through something like this....
What caught my eye was "instrumented critical infrastructure". This hints at surveillance systems to protect our national infrastructure from possible attack. Just a thought.
AJStrata
Posted by tmac | July 18, 2007 10:09 AM
"Just a guess, but sometimes emergency intel spending might run through something like this...."
Well, its "only" a million dollars--petty cash for a government bureaucracy. I understand this is one of Murtha's earmarks, so it is definitely pork.
Posted by COB6 | July 18, 2007 10:22 AM
The mystery is solved. CICI is a secret program. Details here: http://crotchetyoldbastard.com/blog/2007/07/cici_exposed.html
Posted by retire05 | July 18, 2007 10:33 AM
A little research can be a dangerous thing. The earmark was designed to go to Concurrent Technologies, not to some phanthom group that no one can proves exists. It also seems that Concurrent was the reciprient of $150 million Navy contract in 2005 secured by (tah-dah) one John Murtha.
Daniel DeVos is CEO of Concurrent but he is so much more. He is also the director of AmeriServ Financial, a banking group in Murtha's home state.
Seems like the earmark reform so loudly touted by the Dhimmicrats was just all bluster.
Posted by La Mano | July 18, 2007 10:53 AM
Just curious, has Ellison been voting for the PORK?
Posted by Blaise MacLean | July 18, 2007 11:18 AM
I don't know if this ia appropos of anything, but if you go to the Concurrent Technologies Corportation (CTC) website and so a site search for "Center for Instrumented Critical Infrastructure", the search comes up empty..."No Matches Found". So, CICI, at least at this moment, seems not to exist within the CTC.
So the question is, where is the money going?
Posted by Blaise MacLean | July 18, 2007 11:31 AM
I don't know if this ia appropos of anything, but if you go to the Concurrent Technologies Corportation (CTC) website and so a site search for "Center for Instrumented Critical Infrastructure", the search comes up empty..."No Matches Found". So, CICI, at least at this moment, seems not to exist within the CTC.
So the question is, where is the money going?
Posted by William Betts | July 18, 2007 11:53 AM
Great idea. Here is my letter to the honorable congressman
Dear Mr. Murtha.
I just saw the news stories on the excellent work you did on behalf of the Center for Instrumented Critical Infrastructure. It seems to me that my center, "The Center for Displaced I.T. workers" is also worthy of federal funding.
It's true that my center doesn't actually exist, but could be up and running in just a few days. All we need is some seed money. We would provide job training to I.T. workers who, like myself, have had their jobs outsourced overseas and have exhausted their severance benefits.
Since 1,000,000 dollars is too high a price for some narrow minded people to give to worthy causes, I think a quarter of that amount should be enough to enable us to help several potential voters and not attract the attention of those pesky balanced budget types.
I don't have a PA address, although the company that outsourced me is from Chesterbrook so I feel like you are nearly a neighbor. I will be happy to pick up the check at your district office as soon as the appropriation passes.
Best wishes in the continued stewardship of the tax money of fellow displaced I.T. workers.
Posted by Blaise MacLean | July 18, 2007 11:59 AM
Oh. And another thing....
You note at heading right that the million dollars would pay the average person's salary for 40 years. But, how many people's health care premiums would it buy?
The thing about the left is that they are constantly attacking the so-called rich but, in reality, they have no idea how hard a person actually has to work to earn 50, 60 or 70 K per year. They throw around million of dollars as though they were frisbees.
Posted by Naman | July 18, 2007 12:41 PM
That money is going to the secret Stargate program!!
Posted by retire05 | July 18, 2007 12:52 PM
Dear Congressman Murtha,
I plan on moving to your state and starting my 501(c)3 group. The name of the group will be The Study of the Environmental Impact of Hoochie Koochie Dancers on South Beach.
If it will aid in my garnering more of the taxpayer dollar for my group, I will be happy to include Hoochie Koochie dancers from all 50 states as well as U.S. terrorities.
This action would require the use of your brother's lobbying firm and I am sure the payment to your brother will hinge on the amount of taxpayer dollars I can obtain. Of course, for you patriotic assistance in my obtaining the millions required for the study, I would be happy to donate to your (next) campaign fund. Say 15%?