Outing the Children

Ann Coulter points out the new message from the Left:

Outing relatives of conservatives is nothing but ruthless intimidation: Stop opposing our agenda – or your kids will get it. This is a behavioral trope of all totalitarians: Force children to testify against their parents to gain control by fear.

On the positive side, this also sounds like Drowning Man Syndrome. Talk about being out of ideas.

Pryor Restraint

Powerline wonders why Judge Pryor is being fillibustered.

Quin Hillyer of the Mobile (Ala.) Register says that Alabamans want to know why Bill Pryor is being filibustered in the Senate. Hillyer notes that Pryor enjoys near universal support in the state, including the support of newspapers that endorsed Al Gore and John Kerry, the Democrat that Pryor defeated for attorney general, and Alabama's leading black politicians. He has earned this support in part by defending Democratic lawmakers against Republican lawsuits, defying the Republican governor who appointed him, and consistently enforcing liberal laws and court rulings that conflict with his personal predilections. Hillyer calls Pryor "a man of conscience even at his own political peril" and "a real-life Atticus Finch."

So why are the Democrats filibustering Pryor? My guess -- because he is a man of principle and because they hate Alabama.

There is, sadly, an even more obvious reason: He was nominated by George W. Bush, Object of Hatred in Chief.

Scene in an Airport

Talk show host Matt Friedman reports on a call from a returning Marine.

"We get into JFK, we step out of the breezeway into the main terminal, and directly in front of us was an elderly gentleman carrying a bag. And he immediately stopped, set his bag down, and the first thing we all thought was, 'Oh, Lord, here we go already.' He just stopped and looked at us for a second, and then tears came to his eyes and he saluted us.

CQ: The Asymmetrical Offense

High on the list of things W has done right is what the good captain calls The Asymmetrical Offense.

In the 1980s, Ronald Reagan saw that the Soviet Union had no economic capacity for an extended struggle and that "peaceful coexistence" only benefitted the Soviets, as it allowed them to conserve scarce capital resources for life support. Reagan initiated an economic war with the Kremlin designed to bankrupt them by not only escalating our defense spending, but encouraging democracy movements wherever the Soviets had taken control. He openly supported Solidarity, putting pressure on the Soviets through Poland and encouraging the Baltic states to awaken, and he took on the Sandanistas in Central America, forcing them eventually to hold real elections -- and out of power.

George Bush looks to have done the same thing. After decapitating the Taliban, he deprived al-Qaeda of its safehouse. Removing Saddam Hussein gave Bush the military high ground in Southwest Asia, but the elections in both countries created a new, philosophical front that directly opposed that of the Islamofascists. Terrorists still operate within Iraq and to a lesser degree Afghanistan, but now their war on democracy has suddenly sprouted into a five-front war: Iraq, Afghanistan, Egypt, Lebanon, and even Syria, where activists have begun to stir for the first time since the slaughter at Hama.

Indeed, recent events have had a certain echo of 1989 to them. I hope we also soon witness the collapse of the regime in North Korea. And Iran? Faster, please.

First Amendment, RIP

Any honest person knew before it was signed that the McCain-Feingold "Campaign Finance Reform" law was unconstitutional. (So please don't ask me why W, forever to his shame, didn't veto it.) Now the Captain's Quarters reports that the law may shut down his blog. Read the scary Bradley Smith interview here.

In just a few months, he warns, bloggers and news organizations could risk the wrath of the federal government if they improperly link to a campaign's Web site. Even forwarding a political candidate's press release to a mailing list, depending on the details, could be punished by fines.

Update:

More on this at Power Line. Also, please forward Captain Ed's open letter to your Senators.

Here's where you can help me out. Please copy my letter above and paste it into a message with an introduction of your own and send it to both Senators from your home state. That way we can be sure that all 100 Senators not only see this letter but your endorsement of it.

Fosset Makes It!

Steve Fosset has flown solo around the world.

The GlobalFlyer aircraft touched down just before 1:50 p.m. local time Thursday in Salina, Kan. (11:50 a.m. PT), where its journey had begun two days earlier. The total flight time was approximately 67 hours, well ahead of the goal of 80 hours.