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
OpenCongress Web Widget
Ever wanted to announce your support or opposition to Congressional legislation? OpenCongress now has a web widget that allows bloggers to do exactly that. Take a look at this, and check out how easily you can build your own.
Maybe They're Flotation Devices?
The Australian Navy foots the bill for breast augmentations. The Labour Party would like to know why, and probably so would most of the voters in Australia.
The Thinking Blogger
Congrats to Fausta, who won a Thinking Blogger award. She thanks me for my friendship, but the truth is that Fausta makes it easy to be her friend. She's always positive and energetic, and she epitomizes the notion of a thinking blogger. Make sure to put her on your must-read list!
Ensign Calls For Return Of MoveOn Money
NRSC chair Senator John Ensign calls for Democrats to return all campaign funds donated by MoveOn, after their despicable New York Times ad today accusing David Petraeus of treason. "If Senate Democrats are serious about moving our country forward, they will denounce this outrageous ad and return the campaign funds MoveOn.org has lavished on them as well as the donations made through MoveOn.org -- the choice is theirs." Ensign's right, but I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for the refund ...
Support The Al-Dura Petition
Roger Simon at Pajamas Media is circulating a petition to demand accountability for the discredited al-Dura report from France's Channel 2. This is, as Roger calls it, the "Father of all Fauxtography," and C-2 has never acknowledged its fault in airing the supposed murder of a Palestinian child. He wants C-2 to show all of the unedited footage of the incident in order to show that C-2 faked the murder. If they're resisting the demand, I'd say they have something to hide ....
There Goes The Undefeated Season
Notre Dame managed to get its first loss out of the way as soon as possible -- and as badly as possible. Georgia Tech came to South Bend and stomped the Irish, 33-3, in the worst home opener loss in school history. The offense fumbled twice and allowed seven sacks on Evan Sharpley, who must have longed to have Brady Quinn back on the field instead. If Charlie Weis doesn't turn this debacle around fast, he may want to start asking Ty Willingham for some career counseling ....
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!
Comments (6)
Posted by starfleet_dude | September 25, 2007 11:12 AM
Don't neglect this peach of an earmark while you're at it today Ed:
Posted by SonnyJim | September 25, 2007 11:28 AM
What a waste of time and talent. All this talk about pork and earmarks and etc is just adolescent foolishness in my opinion. The only way that you will reduce government spending, including earmarks and what have you, is to reduce government income. If they have it, they will spend it; and why not? What else are they going to do with it? I'm sure earmarks, like all government spending is mostly crap with an occasional good use of the money thrown in by chance and probability. The best thing to do is to reduce the government's income. We conservatives make a stupid argument for reducing taxes when we note that a little reduction actually increases revenue. What we need to do then is to continue to reduce taxes until we finally do reduce revenue.
Posted by Nate | September 25, 2007 11:42 AM
That's pretty cool, and not a waste of time at all IMO. Let the sun shine in.
For whatever its worth, I looked up my senator Gordon Smith's $150k earmark for Community Solutions for Clackamas County's "Working for Independence" program. In short, it's a program to help people with mental illness find jobs. Helping people with mental illness is one of Smith's main issues since his mentally ill son committed suicide.
Posted by starfleet_dude | September 25, 2007 11:45 AM
It should be kept in mind that most earmarks aren't for boondoggles, and it's nice to see a site that provides at least some information about them instead of just more innuendo.
Posted by Carol Herman | September 25, 2007 11:53 AM
Oh, Captain, I think the "short answer" is: POCKET IT.
In other words? Earmarks are just "bundling" pay offs. Returning money "given to a candidate," back to them, at interest. In another form. Right out of the cash register the congress critters use. AS. IF. IT'S. THEIR. MONEY !!!
I'm so glad that you and InstaPundit, are always putting the subject up, so we can see what's going on.
These are my daily stops.
And, I'm not the only one who sees this stuff, and "seeths." Just in case the muzzies think they've lasso'ed in "seething" ... they have not.
Congress, meanwhile, sits in the dumpster, on popularity ratings. After making Bush's life so miserable. Well, at least his ratings are more than double that of the thieves and scoundrels in congress.
Remember: T'marra is the date we see what the Minnesota judge does to Larry Craig's request to "pull his plea." As if, "after you're a little bit pregnant," pulling in your gait, works! Does not. Beldar is predicting a very bad day for Craig, t'marra.
If not? Columbia will get some company as a venue that needs to hang black crepe on their "back drop."
Posted by Shaprshooter | September 25, 2007 9:51 PM
QUOTE: a "naturally occurring retirement community demonstration project".
If it gets government funds, it's no longer "naturally occurring". Nice Orwellian speak, folks.
P.J. O'Rourke's "Parliament of Whores" comes to mind, especially the ending: "What we must remember is that, in a democracy, the whores are us".
IOW, That whole of that gang of 535 shysters was ELECTED by your friends and neighbors (not YOU, of course).