"It's a meltdown."

We all knew Karl Rove was smart, but who knew he had such great timing, too?

What struck me about this comment beyond the obvious fact that it is insulting to our troops, is just how politically incompetent John Kerry is.

Ya think?

Thanks, Johnny boy. It's Christmas on Halloween!



UPDATE: A Democratic congressman told ABC News Tuesday, "I guess Kerry wasn't content blowing 2004, now he wants to blow 2006, too."

Tx, Mudville Gazette

MORE:

In the spare space of 24 hours Kerry has resurrected the Vietnam Syndrome "at least his and the left wing of the Democratic Party's Vietnam (loser's) Syndrome. This is stupid but particularly stupid in the last week of a national election. Doubly stupid in the midst of a long, grinding war. Kerry is trapped, in an odd sort of amber. He's stuck on stupid and stuck in the past simultaneously. John Kerry, the stegosaurus of American politics. (Okay, I'm unfair to stegosaurs, they had backbones and spikes on their tails" but the drawing at the link is cute.)

Why didn't Senator Kerry just apologize? "I'm sorry for what I said. I meant to crack a joke and it came out sounding like an insult to US troops. Forgive me. We owe our defenders so much."

But we know why.

EVEN MORE:

Photography: portfolios of note, III

Luciano Giombini exhibits a masterful eye for the moment. His travel and environmental photography is top notch - worthy of comparison with the best in the business.

Enjoy.

Twenty-four years

That's a long time between World Series titles. I was there in the last Busch Stadium, dressed for a football game, screaming myself hoarse as Bruce Sutter struck out Gorman Thomas to beat the Brewers in 1982.

The weather wasn't much better in St. Louis last night but to the delight of Cardinal Nation, the results were pretty much the same. Only this time it was a rookie closer - Adam Wainwright - striking out Brandon Inge.

Way to go, Cards.

Man, karma's a bitch!

If you're one of the literally hundreds of people outside of Michigan and Missouri who are following the World Series, you already know that the St. Louis Cardinals now lead the Detroit Tigers three games to one. Weather permitting, Game five will be played in St. Louis tonight.

Now, if you're managing the Tigers and your back is to the wall, you need to do anything you can to win tonight and get the series back to you home ballpark. Sure, the odds aren't good, but they were in exactly the same position in 1968 against the Cardinals and came back to win the series in seven games.

Knowing all of that, you logical move would, of course, be to throw your best pitcher at the Redbirds tonight. For the Tigers, that's unquestionably been Kenny Rogers. He's had one of the most amazing streaks in playoff history, throwing 23+ scoreless innings going back to the Yankee series. So it's a no-brainer decision to put him on the mound tonight, right?

Well, um, no. See, Kenny's the same guy who made national headlines on Sunday by starting the game with a "big clump of dirt" (wink, wink) on his pitching hand. This clump was big enough to have been seen by people in the bleachers at Comerica Park. It seems Kenny's pitching hand is so dirt-prone, that when ESPN and others reviewed tape of ol' Kenny going back as far as July, they found the same clump in the same place. Guess Kenny's got something of a hygiene problem. Maybe he should think about cleaning out that locker. (Photo at left is from the AL Championship Series, photo at right is from World Series game 2)

As you might imagine, St. Louis fans didn't take too kindly to Kenny being given a pass by the umpires. You see, rather than being tossed from the game and suspended as the rulebook dictates, the home plate umpire merely asked Ken to wash that pine tar dirt from his hand.

Tiger Manager Jim Leyland had originally set his pitching rotation such that dirty Kenny would pitch games two and six, both scheduled for Detroit. After the dirty-hand incident, that decision looked downright prescient, given the heaps of abuse sure to be hurled at Rogers by the Cardinal faithful if he were to pitch at Busch Stadium. Only now, with the Tigers at death's door, Leyland's original schedule calls for a rookie, Justin Verlander to pitch game five. While Verlander was the Tigers' best pitcher during the season, he hasn't been exactly overpowering in the last month. On top of all that, Verlander's a righty and Rogers a lefty. The Cardinals are infamous for making even the most average left-handed pitcher look like Cy Young with their inability to hit them.

Given all of that, the press asked manager Leyland if there was a chance he'd move Kenny, his best (albeit most sanitarily challenged) pitcher, up a game to pitch game five. Leyland's answer? "Absolutely none," he said. "I'm not going to pitch him in this atmosphere."

See, in addition to his slovenly personal habits, Kenny's also a bit of a psycho. He famously attacked a cameraman who was twice his age a couple of years ago. So, that puts Leyland on the horns of a dilemma. He'd like to start his best pitcher, veteran and a lefty, against the Cardinals tonight in a do-or-die game. He can't, though, because after being exposed to all the world as a cheating bastard messy person, Rogers will be the target of massive abuse by the red-clad St. Louis fans. Not to mention scrutiny by cameras and (one would hope) umpires that would make Terrell Owens blanch. No, instead, Leyland will have to start a rookie who the Cardinals knocked around in game one. That flapping sound Kenny's hearing are all of those chickens coming home to roost.

Say cheeeeeeez...

I don't even know where to start. I'll just leave it alone.



Tx, The Online Photographer

OK, hold onto something solid...

...cause this is going to come as quite a shock.

Report finds sex always on men's minds

Why he cooks

There are all sorts of reasons that people learn to cook. Sometimes it takes cat house and baby caskets.

Yet another Reuters embarassment

To the surprise of few, more evidence that Reuters has a serious, pervasive problem with the photographers they've been hiring in the Middle East:

A videotape that the prosecution presented to the judge shows Boghnat encouraging and directing rioters in Bil'in to throw large chunks of rock at Israeli vehicles in such a way as to cause maximum damage. The accused is heard shouting, "Throw, throw!" and later, "Throw towards the little window!"

First there was Adnan Hajj and his creative use of Photoshop. Now, Imad Muhammad Intisar Boghnat gets into the act by, um, getting into the act. Or rather, personally directing the action.

The article doesn't say wheter Boghnat is a Reuters employee or a stringer, as Hajj was. It doesn't really matter, however. Boghnat's is every bit as big a journalistic sin as Hajj's was and both reflect equally poorly on Reuters, an organization with a richly deserved anti-American and anti-Israeli reptutation.

I am a former (non-editorial) Reuters employee. It was a great company to work for and almost none of my job was related to the news side. In fact, over ninety percent of Reuters' revenue comes from selling market information to brokers and investors. The news agency part of the business is small potatoes in the great scheme of things.

However, as more of this type of thing is reported, this will undoubtedly begin to hurt the company's other business.

The onus is on Reuters to clean house in its editorial operations and prove that they can be a trusted source of down-the-middle journalism.

Photography: portfolios of note II

Today's portfolio comes to us from a Brit-born photographer, Daniel Bayer. He's won numerous awards and his work has been published in a variety of prominent outlets.

His work shows great vision and control in a variety of situations. I particularly like the photos in the single photos and black and white sections (although I have a definite prejudice toward black and white work in general.

Hope you enjoy his work, too.

Heh heh...

Tx, rightwingnation.com

Blockading ideas

The ultimate good desired is better reached by free trade in ideas [and] the best test of truth is the power of the thought to get itself accepted in the competition of the market. Oliver Wendell Holmes

Peggy Noonan has a wonderful piece on OpinionJournal today about the crushing of dissent by the left.

Let us be more pointed. Students, stars, media movers, academics: They are always saying they want debate, but they don't. They want their vision imposed. They want to win. And if the win doesn't come quickly, they'll rush the stage, curse you out, attempt to intimidate.

And they don't always recognize themselves to be bullying. So full of their righteousness are they that they have lost the ability to judge themselves and their manner.

And all this continues to come more from the left than the right in America.

When was the last time you heard of a liberal speaker being shouted down by a conservative audience? As Noonan points out, the driving force behind this behavior is the thought that, "I feel so much, therefore my views are correct and must prevail."

And doesn't that succinctly sum up the ethos of modern liberalism? It's predominantly a feelings-based political philosophy. It doesn't matter that the policies they espouse have been proven not to work. What matters is that they will have done something (enacted a law, taxed people more, regulated an activity), and that fact alone will allow them to feel better about themselves.

The narcissism in the face of facts takes your breath away.

When pigs cars fly

If you've watched any kind of sporting event on national television in the last couple of weeks, you've probably seen the commercial in which the Chevy cars and trucks that are stuck in traffic levitate 40 or 50 feet above all of the other cars. They then speed off in airborne "lanes" reminiscent of something out of Star Wars.

Upon seeing this, my wife's comment was, "They can hardly make cars that drive. Like I'm going to get in one that flies."

Disregarding her usual snarkiosity, the comment says something about the low regard in which GM products are held. My wife drives a five year old Toyota Avalon that she loves. It's been a wonderful car with virtually no problems.

I don't know the last time she's even ridden in a Chevy, let alone whether she's driven one or not. But until they do something to improve the quality of their cars (and, more important, the public perception of that quality), GM's road to profitability will be long and bumpy.

Uh oh.

Aircraft crashes into highrise apartment building on east side of Manhattan on 71st street at the river.

Watching Fox as I type. FAA just confirmed that this is a fixed wing aircraft flying VFR (visual flight rules), not under air traffic control rules. According to Shepherd Smith and one of their correspondents who is on the scene (and is also a pilot) it is possible for a pilot of a small plane to fly up the East River without supervision depending on LaGuardia traffic. Hard to believe that is still allowed in this day and age.

A witness characterized the plane's activity before the crash as looking like "acrobatics". Another reporter noted the presence not of the usual yellow police tape around the area, but orange hazmat tape. Hopefully just a precaution given obvious concerns in a case like this.

The over/under for how long before someone blames this on Karl Rove in order to benefit Republicans in the election is currently running at eleven minutes.

MORE: FDNY confirms at least two dead so far with people trapped in the building above the fire.

MORE: Amazing. About 40 minutes after the crash, FDNY reports the main source of fire has been extinguished. Still some flames visible, but clearly not what it was at first. Already hundreds of NYPD and FDNY personnel on the scene. Situation just raised to 4 alarms.

MORE: DOJ says this is probably just an accident. However, NORAD has scrambled fighters over most major cities. Note was made that this is 10/11. Not sure there's any significance there, but the thought had occurred to me before it was pointed out on the tube.

MORE: It's now 3:45 eastern time and the fire appears to be out. No more smoke coming from the building and S&R people are combing the building. Fox reports the first floors of the building are taken up by a "special surgery" hospital. Everything above is condominiums.

The DOW dove over 70 points at the first report of the crash, but has mostly recovered since, now down only about 20 points as it seems to be the result of an accident.

Melbourne mutt morass makes Muslim mufti's mandate meaningful...maybe

If you ever needed a reason to justify the surfing you do on the greatest time-waster in the history of man Internet, learning things you otherwise wouldn't have has to be way up there on the list.

For instance, did you know that the Muslim religion proscribes contact with dogs? I have to plead total ignorance here.

"I don't refuse to take people, but it's hard for me because my religion tells me I should not go near dogs," he said.

It seems that Muslim cabbies in Melbourne are refusing to pick up blind fares with guide dogs for religious reasons. That's right, the Religion of Peace hates man's best friend.

Victorian Taxi Association spokesman Neil Sach said the association had appealed to the mufti of Melbourne to give religious approval for Muslim cabbies to carry guide dogs.

Besides the fact that I own three labs, I couldn't be prouder to be the impresario behind THE YELLOW DOG BLOG.

But Mr. Sach (who's evidently lacking one) couldn't leave well enough alone in his attempts to to get special dispensation from Melbourne's mufti. No he had to denigrate Australia's white majority:

"Muslims are good people and the community has to realise that the days of the white Anglo-Saxon Protestant are well and truly over," he said.

Looks like Mr. Sach has adopted groveling and appeasement as his preferred method of staying on the right side of all those scary Muslims.

Good luck with that.

Photography: Portfolios of note #1

Photography has been one of my loves since I was about 10 years old. I actually worked as a pro for a year or so as well as toiling in the depths of a commercial photo lab (back in the days of that stuff they used to use call film).

One of my favorite photo-related sites is www.photo.net. It's got some thing for everyone from the neophyte to the experienced pro.

In the six or seven years that I've frequented photo.net, I've found some photographers that I think turn out exceptional work. One of the occaisional features of The Yellow Dog Blog I'd like to start is to point you to some of these talented photogs' porfolios.

The first portfolio I'll feature is that of Ilona Wellman, an award-winning German photographer. Follow the link and enjoy.

Way to go, Alaska!

Guess you have to be a red state not to grovel at the feet of a manipulative maggot like Hugo Chavez when he offers you a little free heating oil.

...a few of the small communities want to refuse free heating oil from Venezuela, on the patriotic principle that no foreigner has the right to call their president "the devil." ...

"As a citizen of this country, you can have your own opinion of our president and our country. But I don't want a foreigner coming in here and bashing us," said Justine Gunderson, administrator for the tribal council in the Aleut village of Nelson Lagoon. "Even though we're in economically dire straits, it was the right choice to make."

Too bad there aren't any Justine Gundersons in the Bay State where legislative whores like Edward Markey prostrate themselves before a petty dictator in the name of "constituent service" (nevermind taking any opportunity to poke a finger in Bush's eye).

Proud to be living...

...in a D+ state.

Now if we can only figure out how to progress to the coveted F grade. Heh.

Wait, here's a good idea!

More clear thinking from the nation's elite editorialists regarding gun laws:

It may be true that no law could have stopped the Pennsylvania school killer. Maybe, though, stricter laws would have given him pause. And, even if his victims could not have been saved, certainly some of the 10,100 people murdered with guns or some of the 477,040 people who were victims of gun violence last year would have been spared.

Of course. Everyone knows that psychotic child-killers always stop to consider the legality of the weapons they're using to butcher innocent little girls before they actually commit the crime.

The sick loser who killed those children would have done the job with a knife, a hammer, a garden rake or a cordless drill if he didn't have a gun. The continued advocacy of victim disarmament more restrictive gun laws represents willful disregard of the experience and empirical data from strict gun-control localities like New York, D.C. and all the other places that have already tried it. The writer above concedes that no law would have stopped the freak in Pennsylvania. Doesn't matter, though. It would make all right-thinkers feel better and allow them to think that they've actually done something.

Whewww...

Well, I don't know about you, but I feel much better already at the prospect of France overseeing Iran's uranium enrichment.

Now if we can just get Venezuela to keep an eye on North Korea for us, we should be in great shape.

The market is a wonderful thing

Try as they might, even a cartel such as OPEC can't repeal the laws of economics. A fat man may as well try to repeal the laws of physics and reduce gravitational pull because he weighs too much.

It's amazing how the price seems to rise during the summer driving/vacation season and drops after Labor Day. Instability in the Middle East and a psychotic running Venezuela don't help matters. Combine all of that with the effective efforts of the environmental lobby at blocking the addition of any new US refining capability in the last 30 years and drastically limiting our exploration for new sources of oil (ANWR, Pacific coastline) and it's little wonder that the price of gas rose as it did this year.

Yahoo is thinking of you!

So I'm minding my own business last night, logging in to check my email while watching someone who claims to be Brett Favre muck up yet another game on national television. When will the commentators realize that the guy on the screen last night hasn't been 'Brett Favre', the one they lionize ad nauseum, since about 2001?

Anyway, my default home page is set to yahoo.com as ATT/Yahoo is my ISP. When the screen pops up, this is what I'm greeted with:



"Tell Hillary Clinton: How we can prevent breast cancer? The senator wants to hear answers from you."

Where does one begin to deconstruct the stupidity (and transparency) of this little venture? It's hard to know. Let's just dive right in then, shall we?

First, does Yahoo think that they have an unusual number of research oncologists viewing their home page on Monday nights? Have these enterprising physicians recently had a breackthrough such that they are now able to actually advise women how to avoid contracting breast cancer? If so, why haven't I seen this splashed across the front pages of the dinosaur press?

While all of this would, naturally, be wonderful news, why is Senator Clinton appealing to the good people at Yahoo to help her divine this kind of information. Surely someone of her position and influence would be able to find out how to avoid breast cancer from some of the fine medical institutions in the great state of New York. Could it be that she's appealing to the public for down-home, homeopathic medical advice to include in the next NIH funding bill?

No, I don't think it's any of those things. It certainly isn't something useful like reinforcing the importance of women performing regular breast self-exams and getting mammograms in order to catch problems early.

Pardon my cynical side popping up in October of an even numbered year, but this is a public service annoucement by our friends at Yahoo to let us know that Democrats really do care about us. How timely! Especially since the election is only four weeks from today!!

Thanks, Yahoo. Gosh, it's nice to know you have our best interests at heart. I'm sure that the Chinese version of the home page has an equally flattering photo of Hu Jintao with the command, "Tell President Hu which of your neighbors is insufficiently loyal to the communtist ideal: The president wants to hear answers from you."