The "Deal"

Who better than Hugh Hewitt to shed light on the winners and losers of the Senate's compromise.

Hugh:

1.  Nan Aron is unhappy --a very good sign indeed.


2.  John McCain  --a great American, a lousy senator, and a terrible Republican-- took himself out of serious contention in the GOP primaries of 2008.  The McCain Caucus showed itself last night, and is united not by "moderation" but by enormous, towering ego.


3.  Chuck Hagel did any presidential ambitions he nurtured enormous damage as well. He didn't sign the deal, but his public dithering for the last month fueled GOP confusion and encouraged the egomaniac caucus.


4.  It will be much easier to persuade GOP voters to abandon Lincoln Chafee and Olympia Snowe in 2006.  Worse than useless, defeating one or both of these incumbents will send a much needed message on how the party regards deals based on scissoring the Constitution.

It seems to us here at OC Chronicle that there some debate about how good or bad this deal is and who the winners are.

Bottom line: Harry Reid is happy, Bill Frist is not.

Ervin "Magic" Santana?

Ervin Santana 
I just witnessed a pitching performance I will not soon forget.

22-year-old Ervin Santana just made his Angel Stadium debut and threw a complete game, 5-hit shutout against the American League leading Chicago White Sox.

Most memorable image is the joyous smile on his face after at the end of the game. As his teammates came out to congratulate him, he had the most genuine, broad smile. And the reaction of the other Halos was really telling. They seemed so overjoyed with his success. They were hugging him and running over to congratulate him as if he'd just pitched a no-hitter. Lately, it's been rare to see such camaraderie and spirit among professional baseball players, especially in May!

That smile reminded me of another young player named Ervin who took the LA Sports scene by storm as a rookie... Maybe we should start calling this Ervin "Magic"??

I have a feeling about this kid. He was still throwing at 94-MPH in the ninth inning and he had great command. For a 22-year-old that's pretty impressive, especially against a line-up like the White Sox. This bodes well for the depth of the Angels, and considering our recent injuries, we need it.

Tomorrow is going to be a great game too: Bartolo Colon vs. Mark Buehrle. Who would have thought that a quarter of the way through the season, pitching is what's keeping the Angels in first place?

A must read for anyone doubting President Bush's Middle East Policy

OpinionJournal - Featured Article: "To venture into the Arab world, as I did recently over four weeks in Qatar, Kuwait, Jordan and Iraq, is to travel into Bush Country. I was to encounter people from practically all Arab lands, to listen in on a great debate about the possibility of freedom and liberty. I met Lebanese giddy with the Cedar Revolution that liberated their country from the Syrian prison that had seemed an unalterable curse. They were under no illusions about the change that had come their way. They knew that this new history was the gift of an American president who had put the Syrian rulers on notice. "

An article I wish I had written...

Jeff Jacoby on the perils of being pro-traditional marriage: "Time and again, I have been told that my views on marriage are morally equivalent to the views of a segregationist on race, or a Nazi on Jews. It is remarkable: Express the conviction that marriage should mean the union of male and female, and you are told that you are peddling hate."

USNews.com: John Leo: The media in trouble (5/30/05)

USNews.com: John Leo: The media in trouble (5/30/05):

"I once complained to an important news executive that he ignored certain kinds of stories. He said that he would like to do them but that his staff wouldn't let him. He admitted his staff had been assembled from one side--guess which?--of the political spectrum. This conversation hardened my conviction that the biggest flaw in mainstream journalism today is the lack of diversity. Much bean-counting goes on in regard to gender and race, but the new hires tend to come from the same economic bracket and the same pool of elite universities, and they tend to have the same take on politics and culture. Much of what they turn out is very good. But when they omit or mess up stories, run badly skewed polls, or publish front-page editorials posing as news stories, nobody seems to notice because groupthink is so strong."

I can't believe the newspapers and networks aren't FINALLY doing something to change this.

For those of you about to boycott Pepsi products...

Sustain, originally uploaded by OC Chronicle.

If you're like me, you want to get Pepsi's attention because of the ridiculous speech by their soon-to-be former CFO.

Pepsi is easy to replace with Coke, but what about Gatorade???? I suggest Sustain Sport, made by Melaleuca. It's better for you than Gatorade.

"This refreshing isotonic beverage is a home run hitter when it comes to rehydrating yourself while exercising or training. Sustain Sport is the only drink made with four key electrolytes - calcium, magnesium, sodium, and potassium - to give you maximum athletic performance. Grocery store brand sports drinks may contain one or two electrolytes - Sustain Sport contains twice as many! Make Sustain your first choice over sodas, fruit drinks, or other sports drinks. Sustain Sport comes in two delicious flavors, Berry Burst and Lemon Blast, and mixes instantly. Finally, a drink that works as hard as you do! "

It also has less suger than gatorade. I'm a distributor for Melaleuca so e-mail me and I'll get you set up!

The Pepsi Challenge

Hugh Hewitt has links to various articles and blog posts regarding the commencement address at Columbia Business School by Indra Nooyi, President of PepsiCo.

From One hand Clapping:

Basically, Ms. Nooyi said that America is the big finger of the world’s hand, and, said she, “You know what I’m talking about. In fact, I suspect you’re hoping that I’ll demonstrate what I mean.”

Charming. And Charmaine Yoest has this:

PepsiCo is trying valiantly to emphasize the "misconstrued" line. That word come up several times when I talked with them this morning. Terri Maini, a Consumer Relations Supervisor, told me, "I really think it was misconstrued." In response to my follow-up questions, Donna Leskowski, Manager for Public Affairs, said much the same thing.

Misconstrued? What is the proper understanding of "Now as never before, it's important we give the world a hand -- not the finger."?? Please, PepsiCo instruct me on the correct construal of this statement?

In the old days (I mean about five years ago) this is one of those cheap applause lines meant for the Ivy League, graduate school elite audience it was directed to. But how dense can this woman be? Has she not grasped the speed and access of the internet, the blogosphere and talk radio yet? Forget about how offensive this line is to Americans, she should be pink slipped for being so out of touch with the age we are in.

So... as Blogfather Hugh points out: "What to do if you are at Pepsi?"

That really is the Pepsi Challenge, isn't it. I'd start by killing this "misconstrual" line. It's never good to explain an obviously ignorant and offensive remark by blaming the audience for not hearing it correctly.

A photo for Roman Catholic blog

elev_host, originally uploaded by OC Chronicle.

Maximus at Roman Catholic Blog has a nice new banner. But I noticed the photo on the far right is from the pre-Vatican II rite. How about this one for those of us still in communion with the Vatican?

Keep up the great blog, my brother!

Filibuster Fun

Last night on Fox's Hannity and Colmes, the odd and creepy Dick Morris was giving some sound, political advise to Republican Senators on how best to handle the filibuster which he repeats in this article. All good and sound advise and it made for a good interview.

The best part was Alan Colmes final shot. As he was closing the interview, he reminded morris that "Jesse Helms held up every African-American nominee that came through his district by blue slipping them."

JESSE HELMS!?! This is the best they've got? They're still running against Jesse Helms? Hasn't he been retired for almost a decade? Why not some fleeting reference to Edwin meese? Or maybe James Watt?

This reinforces that there are very few new and fresh arguments or ideas coming from the left side of the political debate. Jesse Helms???!!!

Why the Koran is Different than the Bible.

Turkish 16th Century Koran, originally uploaded by OC Chronicle.

Some of the most respected commentators from the center-right of the spectrum have been commenting on the Newsweek/Koran flushing story from a very interesting angle. Ann Coulter eviscerates the rioting Afghans with these cutting points:

Come to think of it, I'm not sure it's entirely fair to hold Newsweek responsible for inciting violence among people who view ancient Buddhist statues as outrageous provocation — though I was really looking forward to finally agreeing with Islamic loonies about something. (Bumper sticker idea for liberals: News magazines don't kill people, Muslims do.)

Meanwhile, the always brilliant Jeff Jacoby goes even further:

No one recalled, for example, that American Catholics lashed out in violent rampages in 1989, after photographer Andres Serrano's ''Piss Christ" -- a photograph of a crucifix submerged in urine -- was included in an exhibition subsidized by the National Endowment for the Arts. Or that they rioted in 1992 when singer Sinead O'Connor, appearing on ''Saturday Night Live," ripped up a photograph of Pope John Paul II.

There was no reminder that Jewish communities erupted in lethal violence in 2000, after Arabs demolished Joseph's Tomb, torching the ancient shrine and murdering a young rabbi who tried to save a Torah. And nobody noted that Buddhists went on a killing spree in 2001 in response to the destruction of two priceless, 1,500-year-old statues of Buddha by the Taliban government in Afghanistan.

It is impossible to argue that Muslims are justified in their violence in response to a story about the Koran being flushed, but I think it is important to recognize that analogies to destruction of Jewish, Christian or Buddhist symbols are not exactly correct. Muslims believe that the Koran is a holy unto itself. They believe that it is the actual work of God, not divinely inspired, but actually written in Heaven and delivered to man by God. This is an important distinction and one that Christians should be able to appreciate.

For my fellow Catholics to closer understand the emotion behind the reaction to the Koran being flushed, imagine this: An adversary is trying to get an emotional reaction from you and takes a bible and flushes it down the toilet. Your feelings? I would suspect you may feel angered because of the attitude this action represents but the trashing of the bible is not equivalent to the destruction of a holy, sacred item that is a part of Heaven itself and cannot truly be restored in this world.

However, imagine that the same person takes consecrated communion host, the Blessed Sacrament, the actual body of Christ and flushes it down a toilet. Your feeling is quite different, is it not? I believe this is a more proper analogy. I don't think it would inspire bloody riots, but I think there would be greater outrage than we have seen over the silly and offensive "art" exhibits that are merely insulting to our faith.

None of this should take away from the truth of Jeff Jacoby's thesis:

Yes, Islam is disrespected. That will only change when throngs of passionate Muslims show up for rallies against terrorism, and when rabble-rousers trying to gin up a riot over a defiled Koran can't get the time of day.

Will California legalize murder?

In our never-ending quest to emulate that utopian dream that is Oregon, California is on the verge of passing an assembly bill legalizing physician assisted suicide, or, as it is more comonly called: MURDER!

Disability activists are mobilizing against AB 654 which was sponsored by that pilar of morality and tower of intellect Patty Berg. She's the assembly woman from Humbolt County. That's right Orange County, the right to live or die for our disabled brothers and sisters is being championed by our sister Patty from Humbolt County! Humbolt County, the only place in California that can make Berkely look right-wing!

Ms. Berg's bio contains this very impressive carreer highlight:

Patty has a history as a strong advocate for women's rights and a woman's right to choose. In 1982, she helped found "CHOICES" Humboldt County's first pro-choice Political Action Committee. She also developed California's first K-12 comprehensive family life education curriculum in 1980, which was implemented in 80% of Humboldt County School Districts.

My fellow Catholics know that it is very rare for political issues to be discussed during our Sunday Mass. This past Sunday, AFTER the Eucharist and before the final blessing, a member of our parish anounced that there will be a rally at Peshing Square in Los Angeles against this bill.

Governor Arnold has not come out with a position on this item yet, perhaps he could use some encouragement.

Not quite "Deep Throat"

Michelle Malkin has a partial transcript of this morning's Don Imus show where Newsweek's Howard Fineman likens the tragic, imaginary Koran flushing debacle to Watergate investigative reporting!

Howard Fineman: "Well you know, there all kinds of ways this works. And I know that from the days of Watergate and "All the President's Men", the notion of two sources on a story has become the popular dogma about how you confirm something. And there is a lot of truth to that, but there are all kinds of ways to check to the extent that you can, a story that you get. And even in "All the President's Men" you may remember the scene where they have a guy on the phone and they say 'Alright, we'll count down to 10, you know from 10 to zero and if you don't hear otherwise then, whatever.'"

Imus: "That was a movie."

Oh this is terrific! He later goes on to praise Newsweek for their diligent investigation into this matter.

What? How about some diligent reporting in the first place???

It has to be said:

If a person with a true love and respect for their country and their military hears a report that military inquisitors had flushed pages of the Koran down the toilet in front of prisoners to get a rise out of them, they would not initially believe it and would require concrete proof before dangerously reporting the item to the world.

But a person with a pre-disposed suspicion, or worse, an animus toward their country or military would be quick to believe such a thing and would not hesitate to publish it knowing that it would damage the country and our efforts in the Middle East.

Dennis Prager said it best this morning: The people at Newsweek either knew this item would cause violence and mayhem and they should be fired for printing it, or they had no idea that this would cause an uproar on the Arab Street and they should be fired for being such ignoramuses!

Either way: Someone needs to lose their job.

OC Chronicle in Vegas!

OC Chronicle is off to Vegas for "Business". Posts will be spotty at best. We've received many comments from readers suggesting that we here at the OC Chronicle travel quite a bit... yes, you're right.  

Enough already!

Runaway Bride ad nauseum: "On what was to be her wedding day, Jennifer Wilbanks wore not a white veil but an orange towel over her head to prevent the media from taking her picture. Instead of being led down the aisle by her father, she was led by police to an airplane that flew the runaway bride home."

We here at the OC Chronicle are news junkies: BIG TIME. And we love following the latest stories in politics, culture and religion. But PLEASE! This "Runaway Bride" story is stupid and boring and trivial and we're tired of it already!

You've got to love this woman's spirit!

Laura's Official Home On The Web: "I don't care if I have to drag a chemo i-v drip down the aisle! Heck, I'll get married in an open-MRI machine if I have to. The party will go on!
-- Laura Ingraham, on whether the big 'C' will stop her June nuptials"

It's 2005, why not have a cable news station originate from the heartland?

DRUDGE REPORT 2005�: "MSNBC TO CHANGE ITS NAME, THE DRUDGE REPORT HAS LEARNED. THE ALL-NEWS CABLE NETWORK, WHICH WAS FOUNDED AS JOINT EFFORT BETWEEN MICROSOFT AND NBC, WILL SIMPLY BECOME 'THE NBC NEWS CHANNEL'"

Oh yeah! That will make all the difference in the world! The reason most people don't watch MSNBC is because of the name of the network... Now it all makes sense.

You know, if NBC really wanted to do something different and really wanted to make people watch their network, they'd move the headquarters to St. Louis, or Des Moines. Have the central focus of the news come organically from the center of the country instead of from New York. Right now, they're just a carbon copy of CNN and all the other networks. It's all the same news with the same point of view and the same voice.

Why not have the news come from the heartland of the country? These days with satellites and High-speed everything, there's really no reason why the networks have to be located in NYC. This way, they would not be able to help but be influenced by their environment. THEN they'd be different and worth watching.