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 (24)
Posted by B. English | August 22, 2007 6:06 AM
Environmentalists; like other call to action movements; love to preach to us common folk, but seem very free and easy with their ways.
BTW, how about all the fossil fuel used to: bring machinery and crew to the site, fell the trees, load them onto trucks, and ship them off the property.
Will the fallen trees be burned thus emitting that carbon they loath so much?
Posted by wolfwalker | August 22, 2007 6:18 AM
So it's not enough to love trees -- people have to love non-immigrant trees?
Yes, actually. Invasive species of plants and animals are a significant problem in Hawaii. And everywhere, actually. Zebra mussels, gypsy moths, green crabs, walking catfish, spurge, kudzu, mute swans, water-milfoil, and many more.
I can't tell from the article what Midler actually had in mind for this cleared land, but I'd say that if she actually intended to produce a natural-looking tract of native Hawaiian forest trees, then she was trying to do something good.
Posted by Teresa | August 22, 2007 6:26 AM
I'm not so sure how much of a typical "environmentalist" that Midler is. The things that I have seen her do is build community gardens on vacant lots in NYC in poor neighborhoods. Her foundation buys the lots and then gets the community to work together to maintain the garden, plant fresh veggies, etc... They provide shade and a nice place to relax for older folks and some grass to play in for little kids.
Hard for me to see how that is a bad thing.
Posted by Casey | August 22, 2007 6:53 AM
I'm not surprised.
Some environmentalists are far too serious about things like that and insist everything be "native" plants. While it is true that some invasive species are a huge problem (as some in ranching, I'll refer specifically to leafy spurge), that's a fraction of the plants that are non-native. A lot of ranchers will use, say, Kentucky blue grass instead of native prairie grasses because they grow better and produce better grass for livestock.
The usual problem with invasive species is that they grow too quickly and push the native species out. I don't see that as being a problem with trees, to be honest.
Posted by Jazz | August 22, 2007 7:07 AM
My cousin lives there. There are a number of poorly organized and uncoordinated, but very serious efforts underway to remove transplant species, both in flora and fauna, and try to bolster the vastly decreased native spiecies. Many of the original species have been eliminated or severely decreased from landscaping over the last century or more.
Don't have any specific infomation about Middler's involvement in any of this, but we all know what happened with the introduction of non-native snakes to the islands. You may want to research this one a bit more before casting stones. There is a serious environmental concern on the islands which shouldn't just be poo-poo'd away as "tree hugging hippies" or whatever the disparaging term of the day is now.
Posted by SCATTERSHOT | August 22, 2007 7:25 AM
58,000 square feet is a bit over 2 acres. Plus a road. Could you provide before and after pictures ? People in the land clearing and road grading business around here are very much aware of the permit requirements.
Posted by steve-o | August 22, 2007 7:37 AM
58,000 SF is actually about 1.33 acres. Unless the property is very narrow and very long, any road on said parcel would be more accurately described as a driveway.
Posted by Jobe | August 22, 2007 8:18 AM
Does anybody out there remember the late John Denver who campaigned so virulently against building in the Colorado mountains? This is the same John Denver who dynamited half a mountain to build his mountain home. These rich and famous must all have caught a bug from Al Gore.
Posted by Davod | August 22, 2007 8:28 AM
The article said that the trees were butchered to provide room for a road. The response from Midler's rep is that they were removed so they could plant native species.
Fine. Plant trees. Deny a permit to build the driveway.
Posted by Ed Lilly | August 22, 2007 8:51 AM
58,000 square feet is actually about 1.33 acres. But in any event, does this article mean the entire parcel (which is noted as merely ONE of Ms. Midler's properties on the island) was 58,000 square feet, or only the part where the trees were removed?
Looks to me like she has a 1.33 acre parcel that is now devoid of trees - she cut down 1 tree for about every 250 square feet of land.
Posted by Dave | August 22, 2007 8:55 AM
On the other hand, the lot size of 58,000 square feet is about 1.3 acres. Removing 230 trees for a road would indicate that the trees were pretty small, or the road was real big, or the lot was overgrown.
Posted by rbj | August 22, 2007 9:03 AM
$6500 is chump change to Midler, compared to going through what can be a lengthy and uncertain permit process. Better to ask forgiveness than seek permission.
Posted by NoDonkey | August 22, 2007 9:18 AM
It's unbelievable how rich these Hollywood nitwits have become, with their marginal talents.
Midler "acted" in piffle movies, belted out boring, childish ditties like a cow in labor and was never much to look at, frankly. Big deal.
For this she's a multi-millionaire.
No wonder she has liberal guilt. Having never worked a real day in her life and parlayed her less than marginal talents into a king's ransom, she should want to "give back". She should give it all back.
We've gone from divine right to celebrity based on, what exactly? Being a celebrity? Talent certainly has nothing to do with it.
Posted by unclesmrgol | August 22, 2007 9:31 AM
But, wouldn't Midler pay Gore to do the carbon offset thing? So, as far as we know, a whole bunch of short driveways belonging to poorer people in the Islands have a bunch of unwanted trees, thus stifling their economies and thereby multiplying the effects of the carbon offset.
Posted by Dave | August 22, 2007 9:45 AM
Plus--she's singlehandedly ruined at least one Tom Waits album.
Posted by Insufficiently Sensitive | August 22, 2007 10:09 AM
If 'her foundation' buys vacant lots in NY and redevelops them as gardens, she's fibbing when she claims she didn't know about need for permits.
Liberal busybodies since the 60s have vastly succeeded in a campaign to force permits on private property owners, with all the bureaucracy and hearings and extortional payoffs the owners must comply with. She can't very well claim to be an 'environmentalist' without knowlege of that campaign, being such a busybody herself.
Oh, but she's a celebrity. The environmental permit raj was to be imposed on capitalists, not sing-song girls...
Posted by Del Dolemonte | August 22, 2007 11:00 AM
In fairness to Ms. Midler, she did buy some 1,400 acres of land on Kauai from the Amfac Sugar Company in 1999 to keep it away from the developers. Said land is in a pretty good location, too (along the Coconut Coast near the base of Sleeping Giant Mountain). She's been planting native trees there as well.
Posted by Del Dolemonte | August 22, 2007 11:05 AM
In fairness to Ms. Midler, she did buy some 1,400 acres of land on Kauai from the Amfac Sugar Company in 1999 to keep it away from the developers. Said land is in a pretty good location, too (along the Coconut Coast near the base of Sleeping Giant Mountain). She's been planting native trees there as well.
Posted by Del Dolemonte | August 22, 2007 11:09 AM
In fairness to Ms. Midler, she did buy some 1,400 acres of land on Kauai from the Amfac Sugar Company in 1999 to keep it away from the developers. Said land is in a pretty good location, too (along the Coconut Coast near the base of Sleeping Giant Mountain). She's been planting native trees there as well.
Posted by LarryD | August 22, 2007 11:12 AM
Hawaii is an island archipelago, formed by volcanic action, so all of it's fauna and flora either arrived by wind, wave, or wing; or by human action. Exactly what constitutes a 'native' species is a little iffy. The first human settlers arrives sometime between 300AD and 1000AD.
Clear cutting a patch of land is not the way to protect native species. One, you might take down native trees when you cut, and two, native animals might just be living in or on non-native trees.
I think Midler got caught with her hand in the cookie jar, and is making up excuses.
OT: just seeing the new format, could a preview button be added back in, please?
Posted by PK | August 22, 2007 11:27 AM
i was the absolute worst fire fighter in montana in the early sixties.
however:
the trees that i planted in the reforesting program (600 a day for three weeks each year) are now big enough for selective harvesting for lumber for HOUSES.
the liberals have their lawns mowed don't they?
WHATS' THE DIFFERENCE.
C
Posted by PK | August 22, 2007 11:44 AM
i was the absolute worst fire fighter in montana in the early sixties.
however:
the trees that i planted in the reforesting program (600 a day for three weeks each year) are now big enough for selective harvesting for lumber for HOUSES.
the liberals have their lawns mowed don't they?
WHATS' THE DIFFERENCE.
C
Posted by Del Dolemonte | August 22, 2007 12:18 PM
Sorry for the triple post, it must have something to do with the new format.
The University of Hawaii has defined what is "native", list here:
http://www.botany.hawaii.edu/FACULTY/CARR/natives.htm
One of the last strongholds of Native Hawaiian flora and fauna is uphill from Bette's land, in the remote Alakai Swamp:
http://starbulletin.com/97/01/02/news/story4.html
Posted by Rose | August 22, 2007 8:52 PM
Posted by Teresa | August 22, 2007 6:26 AM
They provide shade and a nice place to relax for older folks and some grass to play in for little kids.
Hard for me to see how that is a bad thing.
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It's when they turn around and lay out extortionist fines against others, or even block them for clearing a piece of land so it can be used for the purpose it was purchased for - and even forcing the owners to build game reserves for non-native plants and animals displaced by their human endeaveors.
She could have had all those trees "REPLANTED" instead of destroyed.
Personally, I don't care - people can plant new trees - I hate the Liberals telling us how to live our lives based on their fake, false junk science, just so their dictatorial powermongering can have a "justifiable excuse" of "pseudo-righteousness".