the things you believe you're seeing...

The MSM has been wildly and breathlessly speculating for the past several days about the possibility of a Civil War in Iraq because of the bombing of the Samarra shrine. So far that has not materialized thanks largely to leaders coming out and urging calm. Yes there has been violence and killing but an all out civil war has not erupted. So why would the MSM not report on this as aggressively as their civil war predictions. See the GatewayPundit for more.

Now what could Gov Rendell mean by that and why would he veto an election reform bill ? On Presidents' Day at the National Constitution Center, Gov. Rendell announced his veto of a bill that would have required all voters to show identification when they go to the polls. Rendell said that the bill, which passed the legislature last week on largely parti-line votes, would have the effect of disenfranchising those without easy access to identification , including nursing-home residents, displaced families, the very poor and those without a driver's license I am sure that provisions could have been made for individuals with those situations, but then all those illegals and dead people wouldn't be allowed to vote. Can't have that!

I do think that this pending deal to allow a company in Dubai to handle port security at six US ports including New York and New Jersey is a bit....well, insane. Two of the 19 9/11 hijackers were citizens of Dubai, the Arab emirate whose bid to run ports in New York, New Jersey and four other cities was okayed by the White House even though investigators have found signs that money used to finance terrorism flowed through Dubai banks. I am guessing that pressure from Republicans like Rep Peter King and some Democrats as well will cause the White House to put a temporary stop or kill the deal all together. What the hell could the White House be thinking? Brit Hume of Fox News thinks the President will reverse on this. Peter King from the New York Post.

Housing Construction Surges in January Feb 16 8:50 AM US/Eastern By MARTIN CRUTSINGER AP Economics Writer Construction of new homes and apartments, defying forecasts of a housing slowdown, shot up in January at the fastest pace in more than three decades. The Commerce Department reported Thursday that building activity was up 14.5 percent last month when compared to December, pushing construction to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 2.276 million units. That was the fastest construction rate since March 1973, but it was expected to be a one-time blip caused by unusually warm weather in January that prompted builders to start work on more homes. Analysts are forecasting that housing construction will slow this year as the nation's five-year housing boom quiets down. Well if they keep saying they are bound to be right eventually...

Critics slam Cheney's interview choice - Matea Gold, Los Angeles Times Thursday, February 16, 2006 New York -- For days, the White House news corps has pounded the Bush administration, demanding to learn more about Vice President Dick Cheney's accidental shooting of a hunting companion Saturday. Cheney finally addressed the incident Wednesday, but the forum in which he chose to do so -- in an exclusive interview with Fox News host Brit Hume -- quickly became another source of contention. Fox News executives cast the scoop as the result of persistence and the growing clout of the top-rated cable news network. "We've been after the vice president since Sunday, as everyone has, and our efforts paid off," said John Moody, Fox's senior vice president for news editorial. "I think he wanted to make sure he got a fair interview and a good interview -- good in the sense of thorough -- and Brit is sort of the pre-eminent journalist in Washington right now." Bu...

VP Dick Cheney will be interviewed by Fox News about the shooting accident that has left Harry Whittington in the hospital with a birdshot pellet lodged in his heart muscle. Vice President Dick Cheney is making his first public remarks about a hunting accident this weekend in which he shot and injured a prominent Texas lawyer in an interview with Fox Television today, his office said. The interview, which was being taped starting at 2 p.m., will be shown at 6 p.m., Fox said. The network plans to show excerpts from it before then.

The dems just keep shooting themselves in the foot , bless their little hearts. In case you're short a hot topic tonight, Bill O'Reilly, take a look at the San Francisco Board of Supervisors -- which is working up a resolution calling for the "full investigation, impeachment or resignation'' of President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney. The Pennsylvania Avenue Pair's alleged crimes: -- Waging an unnecessary war in Iraq. -- Authorizing torture of terrorist prisoners. -- Failing to respond adequately to Hurricane Katrina. -- And not to be forgotten -- ordering the secret wiretapping of U.S. citizens without a warrant. San Francisco's ever-left-leaning Supervisor Chris Daly placed the resolution on the board's consent calendar Tuesday -- but the matter was sent to committee at the request of Supervisor Sean Elsbernd, who opposes the resolution . That ensures a roll-call vote when it eventually comes back to full board. "I have more important thing...

In an article about the Danish cartoon controversy , the NY Times publishes a photograph of Chris Ofili's "Holy Virgin Mary" made from elephant dung. Yes, thats right.

Seems that Sen. Barbara Boxer is not to keen on the idea of a Senator Cindy Sheehan; "I don't think having her in the Senate election helps her at all," Boxer told a roundtable of California reporters this morning. "I think it might have the opposite effect." Ya think?

From the NY Sun... The House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence is studying 12 hours of audio recordings between Saddam Hussein and his top advisers that may provide clues to the whereabouts of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction. The committee has already confirmed through the intelligence community that the recordings of Saddam's voice are authentic, according to its chairman, Rep. Peter Hoekstra of Michigan, who would not go into detail about the nature of the conversations or their context. They were provided to his committee by a former federal prosecutor, John Loftus, who says he received them from a former American military intelligence analyst. Mr. Loftus will make the recordings available to the public on February 17 at the annual meeting of the Intelligence Summit, of which he is president. On the organization's Web site, Mr. Loftus is quoted as promising that the recordings "will be able to provide a few definitive answers to some very important - and...

Debra Burlingame, a former attorney, is the sister of Charles F. "Chic" Burlingame, pilot of American Airlines Flight 77, which was crashed into the Pentagon on 9/11. She has a great piece in the NY Post today . All of the idiots whining about the governments NSA program should read it and learn from it; 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]...

From the AP, be sure to read to the very last paragraph, which is classic! In Turkish Movie, Americans Kill Innocents Gary Busey, Billy Zane Co-Star in Anti-American Film By BENJAMIN HARVEY, AP ISTANBUL, Turkey (Feb. 2) - In the most expensive Turkish movie ever made, American soldiers in Iraq crash a wedding and pump a little boy full of lead in front of his mother. They kill dozens of innocent people with random machine gun fire, shoot the groom in the head, and drag those left alive to Abu Ghraib prison - where a Jewish doctor cuts out their organs, which he sells to rich people in New York, London and Tel Aviv. "Valley of the Wolves Iraq" - set to open in Turkey on Friday - feeds off the increasingly negative feelings many Turks harbor toward their longtime NATO allies: Americans. The movie, which reportedly cost some $10 million, is the latest in a new genre of popular culture that demonizes the United States. It comes on the heels of a novel called "Metal Storm...

The military seems to think so , and so do I... WASHINGTON, Jan. 31 (UPI) -- The American media stood up and took notice when an improvised explosive device grievously injured an ABC News crew Sunday. In Iraq, and throughout the military, there is sympathy and concern for anchor Bob Woodruff and cameraman Doug Vogt, but there is also this question: "Why do you think this is such a huge story?" wrote an officer stationed in Baqubah, Iraq, Monday via e-mail. "It's a bit stunning to us over here how absolutely dominant the story is on every network and front page. I mean, you'd think we lost the entire 1st Marine Division or something. "There's a lot of grumbling from guys at all ranks about it. That's a really impolite and impolitic thing to say ... but it's what you would hear over here." At least 2,242 troops have died in Iraq since the war's start, 1,753 of them killed in action. Another 16,000 have been injured, half of them seriously ...

See Michelle Malkin for the latest on the "forbidden cartoons" from Denmark that Muslims deem offensive and the effort to support Denmark's right to freedom of expression.

Interesting how the Dems love to scream about the huge deficit but when a bill to reduce spending by $40 billion of the next five years crosses their eyes (literally) they show their true colors; WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republicans in the House of Representatives narrowly won passage on Wednesday of a controversial bill to trim about $39 billion from domestic spending over five years, capping a yearlong push to cut health care for the poor and elderly and other programs. By a partisan vote of 216-214 , the House approved the bill, sending it to President Bush for signing into law . The 214 voting against are all Democrats, none voted for the bill. Nice touch on that last line from al-Reuters . And the AP has a change take on what "largely along party lines" means; WASHINGTON - The House on Wednesday narrowly approved Congress' first attempt in eight years to slow the growth of benefit programs like Medicaid and student loan subsidies, sending the measure to President Bush...

From Michael Moore's (who else) website ; I was never told that I couldn't wear that shirt into the Congress. I was never asked to take it off or zip my jacket back up. If I had been asked to do any of those things...I would have, and written about the suppression of my freedom of speech later. I was immediately, and roughly (I have the bruises and muscle spasms to prove it) hauled off and arrested for "unlawful conduct." Thats not quite true, according to the AP ; Schneider said Sheehan had worn a T-shirt with an anti-war slogan to Tuesday night's speech and covered it up until she took her seat. Police warned her that such displays were not allowed in the House chamber, but she did not respond, the spokeswoman said.

When President Bush said this; Congress did not act last year on my proposal to save Social Security . The dems rose and gave themselves a rousing standing ovation. Thats what they are all about. Obstruction. Nothing else.