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 (15)
Posted by docjim505 | October 1, 2007 10:03 AM
Cap'n Ed: While some media operators are inexplicably focusing on Hillary's annoying laugh, others have performed more meaningful journalism on Hillary's bid for the presidency and the shell-game con men funding it.
Sad to say, the Hilldabeast's "annoying laugh" will probably do more to scotch her bid to become president (the horror... the horror...) than a thousand stories about Ponzi schemes and bundlers. I hate to say this about my fellow Americans, but most of them aren't very interested in deep stories. Consider Howard Dean's fatal "scream", or George McGovern's crying, or Gerald Ford's trick knee, or Dan Quayle and "potato", or the efforts FDR made to hide his paralysis. Little things, even silly things, can mean a lot in politics.
It's much the same with the Hilldabeast. I'd wager that the average American doesn't understand or care much about Hsu, bundlers, donations, and the like, and even if they do, they shrug it off because there's a great deal of truth in the old cliche that "everybody does it."
However, the Hilldabeast's cackle is so irritating that I think people WILL be influenced by that to her detriment. Is it smart? No, of course not. But politics isn't about logic as much as it is about packaging and visceral reactions. The Hilldabeast comes across to many people as a scheming, manipulative, selfish, bullying, malevolent, grasping, shrewish, carpetbagging, pandering, phony hag, and her laugh (shudder) merely reinforces that image.
(I wonder if somebody could get her on tape cackling, "I'll get you, my pretty! And your little dog, too!" Margaret Hamilton, look out! Honestly, if this whole politician gig doesn't work out, the Hilldabeast would be boffo in Hollywood or on Broadway as the Wicked Witch.)
Posted by unclesmrgol | October 1, 2007 11:01 AM
Seagram's. Teddy Kennedy. Does anyone think there's a connection here?
Posted by SouthernRoots | October 1, 2007 12:46 PM
unclesmrgol - only if you add water.....
Posted by John | October 1, 2007 12:48 PM
Mark my words. All this daughter of Satan stuff of which the laugh furore is just the latest example will do her no harm at all. In fact many could, and are, interpreting it as anti women. Just absorb the full flavor of Docjim, it's a deeply misogynistic comic book image of her which redounds to the discredit of fat old white men rather than her. I rather had this feeling when Russert was very obviously going after her last week. Sorry to say a lot of folks here just don't get it. We should also be careful about this fund raising stuff since we are hardly lily white. One of Romney's fundraising bundlers is under indictment for something or other and no doubt some others will come out of the woodwork
Posted by brooklyn - hnav | October 1, 2007 12:56 PM
No wonder why she is CACKLING so much...
This is the same family, the Clintons, who pardoned FLAN TERRORISTS in hopes for finding votes.
Some partisans and those who are not paying attention, began to demonstrate a yearning for the negligent facade of the 90's.
They foolishly view the problems of today, missing the context of how the malfeasance of the past shaped our current existence.
The Clintons gave concerning Gov. Loan Guarantees to Enron...
They ignored-enabled the growing threat of Militant Radical Militancy, including appeasing the likes of the killer named Arafat.
Hillary and Bill even lied about the Genocide in Rwanda.
The MSM has tried to diminish the ugly, and many aren't aware of just how corrupt-misguided the Clinton experience truly was for our Country.
Ginsberg is not the only lasting problem from the Clinton incompetence, and we simply cannot afford to allow that folly again.
Hillary wants to take things away from us...
Posted by swabjockey05 | October 1, 2007 1:22 PM
Brooklyn, You're so right. I would seriously consider "staying home" (not mailing my Military absentee ballot...they don't get counted anyways...).
But having that foul Beast on the Dhimmi ticket will FORCE me to vote. YES I'll even vote for your Repub who is the "lesser of two evils". I can't help thinking there's some conspiracy (of Rovian proportions) at play…
I'll actually vote for the gun-grabbing Rudy if it means keeping the mangy, corrupt Clintonistas out of the WH.
Posted by quickjustice | October 1, 2007 1:41 PM
Actually, I'd like to know which of the Presidential candidates (and all the others, for that matter) are being bought and paid for NOW, and not after the election. Let the chips fall where they may. If Romney or other Republicans go down for taking dirty money, so be it.
I generally opposed campaign finance "reform" on grounds that people ought to be able to give as much as they can afford, as individuals, to their favorite candidates. That said, I would have kept the corporations, labor unions, and foreigners out of it, while encouraging individuals to give as much as they wanted, with full, real-time disclosure of all contributions online.
Posted by docjim505 | October 1, 2007 3:47 PM
John,
I am NOT "old"!
Posted by j | October 1, 2007 5:19 PM
Remember - voting is usually the lesser of two - rarely will any of us agree with more than 70% of a given candidate's position. It took me far to long to realize that my voting was for the the one who would do the least damage.
Presently, my Congressman is that rare exception - I vote for him. Otherwise, I vote pretty much for the candidate that has the least negatives.
Finally - being a one-issue person is not the way to vote. We all must look at the bigger picture.
Posted by JM Hanes | October 1, 2007 8:33 PM
"A focus on meaningful information on the leading Democratic candidate for the nomination and the sources of her funding would be appreciated."
It's going to take a lot more than that. As John noted above, neither party has a lock on dubious donors alone. It won't matter who is funding Hillary unless she is actually tied to those questionable donors in some additional way. For example, I think that the most important part of the Hsu story is the most recent revelation that Hillary appears to have been working "closely" with Hsu to funnel money to her selected list of candidates. That's the part that makes it difficult for her to distance herself from his Ponzi scheme scandals by claiming he wasn't crossing her radar and suggests some political quid pro quo's which have a whiff of corruption about them, regardless of the technical legalities. That's precisely the angle that's NOT getting much traction in the press so far.
Posted by Niccolo | October 2, 2007 2:46 AM
J -
I disagree that single issues can't be pivotal on voting decisions.
Specifically: 1st, 2nd, 9th and 10th Amendment positions. In order of importance:
2nd Amendment: Without the ability to enforce the sovereignty of the people, we're in a snare, and we have no means to extricate ourselves by force if that should ever become necessary.
1st Amendment: Without the ability to freely communicate amongst ourselves, we're back in the world of the samizdat.
9th and 10th Amendment: Without primacy of the states and the people (mostly lost already at this point), the fedgov is free to run amok, which it mostly is right now, and the wagon and team needs a bunch of reining in, 'cause the cliff is comin' right up.
Absent a right attitude on these issues, a candidate for any national office is pretty much worse than useless. We can do with the status quo on the 9th and 10th, but without the 2nd and 1st, we're dead meat. We're State Socialist serfs.
Forever.
Posted by docjim505 | October 2, 2007 10:14 AM
Niccolo: 2nd Amendment: Without the ability to enforce the sovereignty of the people, we're in a snare, and we have no means to extricate ourselves by force if that should ever become necessary.
The recent events in Burma have underscored to me the absolutely vital necessity for the Second Amendment. The protesters in Burma have apparently been shot down like dogs in the street, unable to do anything in their own defense AGAINST THEIR OWN GOVERNMENT but wave signs and perhaps throw rocks.
We've been very fortunate in America in that we've seldom had to defend ourselves against our own government. Many other people around the world have not been so lucky. While there is no doubt that the security we've enjoyed is due both to the wisdom of the Founding Fathers embodied in our Constitution and the general respect for the law that is common among Americans, nevertheless it is prudent to always be suspicious of the government and it's intentions... and be ready and able to "alter and abolish it" if need be.
Posted by Proorplop | October 2, 2007 2:11 PM
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Posted by lgattruth | October 2, 2007 3:22 PM
Great stuff!
Thanks for reporting on this.
More info on this controversial group at this database - The Rick A. Ross Institute for the Study of Destructive Cults, Controversial Groups and Movements
Posted by Proorplop | October 4, 2007 7:07 PM
Продвижение, оптимизация сайтов.
Реклама по: форумам, доскам объявлений, сайтам знакомств.
Контакты:
ICQ: 393-513
e-mail: bary_m@mail.ru