But I think they meant “Virginians”.

Peggy Noonan, spot on as always.

I second that with one addition: Condi as his VP.

Well, a certain financial one anyway. It is looking very likely that Tony Snow is on track to replace Scott McClellan.

GOOD. I would have preferred Dan Senor, but Tony Snow is going to be equally adept, if not more so, at throwing the misperceptions, innuendo and often times out-and-out lies coming from the White House press corps right back in their face.

I can’t wait!

Ok, first, Greg gets all the credit for this. Back story: Greg was watching part of this morning’s briefing and McClellan was being grilled about and defending Rumsfeld. He was clumsy, stuttering, stammering, and had zero command of the room. In short, as Greg put it, he acts like a “scared fourth grader” in front of the press corps.

**UPDATE 4/19/06 **

Well, I’ll be damned. There is something to that “ask and ye shall receive” thing after all!

Now, let’s get a pit bull in there that won’t be a door mat. There’s talk about Dan Senor or maybe Tony Snow. I like Tony Snow, but being from Fox News there are bound to be issues with the rabidly partisan WH press corps.

I think Dan Senor would be the better pick. He has the credibility, the linguistic skills, and he knows Iraq better than almost anyone Bush could pick for this job. And best of all, HE’S NOT A FREAKIN’ DOOR MAT.

Scott McClellan needs to be replaced. Greg says they might as well put Butters up there for all the good McClellan does. I have to agree.

Greg’s mom sent us this demonstration.

Example 1:

Example 2:

Example 3 (after the jump):

Read the rest of this entry »

Says Debra Burlingame in another gret op-ed, this time in the NY Post.

February 6, 2006 — DO you remember Rick Rescorla? He was the Morgan Stanley security chief who persistently warned Port Authority officials before the first World Trade Center bombing that the Twin Towers were vulnerable to terrorist attack. They didn’t listen.
After six people died in the 1993 bombing, Rescorla repeatedly drilled employees on evacuation procedures. On 9/11, after the first jet slammed into Tower One at 8:46 a.m., he ignored the official order to send his workforce back to their desks in the south tower.

“Everything above where that plane hit is going to collapse,” he told a friend over the phone. “I’m getting my people the [expletive] out of here.”

The 62-year-old Vietnam veteran grabbed a bullhorn and led hundreds of people out of the building, singing “God Bless America” to keep them from losing their nerve, going back again and again for stragglers.

He’s credited with evacuating 2,700 people, but did not save himself.

Listening to members of Congress argue about the National Security Agency (NSA) terrorist-surveillance program brought Rescorla to mind. What would he think about all the dry legal arguments concerning the president’s authority for intercepting al Qaeda conversations?

I think the decorated war hero would say, “If it’ll it save my people, do it.”

Of course, the NY Times would stop to ask whether or not Al-Qaeda’s “rights” were being violated.

**UPDATED**

And well, will you look at this? Coincidence with the NY Times story? I think not.

Some fun “facts” about my home state. And personally, we never owned any livestock.

And for good measure: The Texas State Song

**UPDATE**

23 basic rules for driving in Texas. Uh, honey, you were wondering where I got it from - well, there you go.

9/11 Family Member, Take Back the Memorial cohort, and dear friend Debra Burlingame has an extensive must-read op-ed in today’s Opinion Journal on “The Wall”, FISA, and the duplicitous coverage of the NSA “syping” controversy.

Ms. Burlingame is simply brilliant, and dead-on. Here’s just a sampling:

NBC News aired an “exclusive” story in 2004 that dramatically recounted how al-Hazmi and al-Mihdhar, the San Diego terrorists who would later hijack American Airlines flight 77 and fly it into the Pentagon, received more than a dozen calls from an al Qaeda “switchboard” inside Yemen where al-Mihdhar’s brother-in-law lived. The house received calls from Osama Bin Laden and relayed them to operatives around the world. Senior correspondent Lisa Myers told the shocking story of how, “The NSA had the actual phone number in the United States that the switchboard was calling, but didn’t deploy that equipment, fearing it would be accused of domestic spying.” Back then, the NBC script didn’t describe it as “spying on Americans.” Instead, it was called one of the “missed opportunities that could have saved 3,000 lives.”

[...]

The old laws that would prevent FBI agents from stopping the next al-Mihdhar and al-Hazmi were built on the bedrock of a 35-year history of dark, defeating mistrust. More Americans should not die because the peace-at-any-cost fringe and antigovernment paranoids still fighting the ghost of Nixon hate George Bush more than they fear al Qaeda. Ask the American people what they want. They will say that they want the commander in chief to use all reasonable means to catch the people who are trying to rain terror on our cities. Those who cite the soaring principle of individual liberty do not appear to appreciate that our enemies are not seeking to destroy individuals, but whole populations.

[...]

The public has listened to years of stinging revelations detailing how the government tied its own hands in stopping the devastating attacks of September 11. It is an irresponsible violation of the public trust for members of Congress to weaken the Patriot Act or jeopardize the NSA terrorist surveillance program because of the same illusory theories that cost us so dearly before, or worse, for rank partisan advantage. If they do, and our country sustains yet another catastrophic attack that these antiterrorism tools could have prevented, the phrase “connect the dots” will resonate again–but this time it will refer to the trail of innocent American blood which leads directly to the Senate floor.

My empahsis. Read the whole thing.