OC heading off to.... OC!

The OC Chronicle staff will be heading off tonight for a week-long fact finding mission to our sister-county, Orange County Florida!

One might wonder why we would leave the shadow of Sleeping Beauty's castle, fly across the country with three kids, and spend a week at a resort in the shadow of Cinderella's castle. Yeah, well, I'm wondering the same thing. But Dad doesn't always have much say when it comes to vacations! We OC Dads pick our battles.

Arnold's First Supreme Court Nomination: Harriet Myers Re-dux?

In a move that could define the depth of his conservative support in his upcoming re-election effort, Gov. Schwarzenegger has made his first supreme court nomination. California Insider's Daniel Weintraub has analysis:

"'One of the more conservative'
Here is a short profile from law.com of Carol Corrigan, the justice Schwarzenegger has appointed to the state Supreme Court. It says she is one of the more conservative justices on the first district on criminal justice issues. I guess we can start a list now of major decisions the governor makes that do not appear to have been pulled to the left by Susan Kennedy.

Note: The first draft of this post incorrectly quoted the item as saying she was one of the 'most conservative' members of the court.

UPDATE: An emailer sends along an LA Times story from Oct. 21, which I can't find a link to online, where Corrigan describes herself as a 'centrist' in the mold of Sandra Day O'Connor.

The relevant excerpt:

Corrigan, 57, a former prosecutor, described herself as a 'centrist.'

'I think I would probably be a centrist any place I found myself,' she said

Deukmejian appointed Corrigan to the Alameda County Municipal Court in 1987, and former Gov. Pete Wilson elevated her to the Superior Court and then the Court of Appeal.

Corrigan said she changed her voter registration from Democrat to Republican in the mid-1990s because 'that seemed the most accurate designation' at the time.

'I haven't changed,' she said. 'I think the political environment may have changed, and it continues to evolve in this country.'

Asked which present or former U.S. Supreme Court justices she admires, Corrigan cited Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. 'I think she is a centrist a real consensus builder,' Corrigan said."

Still waiting to see Hugh Hewitt's reaction.

A Foot-in-mouth Epidemic.

Captain's Quarters reports on Democratic reaction to the new GOP strategy of condensing ACTUAL QUOTES from the DNC leadership to illustrate their defeatist, blame America first attitude:

"For their part, the Democrats loudly responded that they have been quoted out of context. Drudge now reports that the Republicans intend on fixing that problem with a few web ads, using the actual recorded statements of each to show the nation that the Democrats have given in to defeatism:"

Isn't it uncanny that the same refrain is often heard from the Democratic Leadership? That they are being quoted out-of-context, or that their words are being twisted? The common thought is that Republicans are stupid, inarticulate dolts, and Democrats are educated, worldly, eloquent sophisticates. If this is so, why are they constantly stumbling through interviews and giving such asinine quotes for the GOP to use against them?

Must-see TV.

The GOP is finally fighting back against the "Aid and Comfort to the Enemy Party.Click here for the new White Flag Video.

The Friday Funnies...

You know that we here at OC Chronicle like to find humorous blog posts for your enjoyment on Fridays. Here's our first find: California Conservative Our New Customer Service Center. Please click to the link and read the post at CC. Then click through to their "customer service center". I'm sure that the vast majority of their San Fran/Berkeley critics will really love dealing with the customer service supervisor!

I don't know how the guys at California Conservative survive up there north or the OC County line.

Camp Katrina: Schiavo Misses the Spotlight

From Spc. Van Treuren at Camp Katrina:

"Check it out: Strange how all he wanted was to be 'left alone' when he was trying to get rid of his wife. Word now is that fifteen minutes of infamy wasn't enough for this dude:
Schiavo announced Wednesday he is forming a political action committee to support or oppose candidates depending on where they stood on the divisive case that ended when Terri Schiavo died of dehydration March 31, 13 days after her feeding tube was removed.
The spotlight is addicting, huh Mike? You and Cindy Sheehan should start a twelve step program or something."

I have my 1st New Year's Resolution: To not blog about this guy or Cindy Sheehan again. The Terri Schiavo and Cindy Sheehan stories paralyzed my blogging activity as I just couldn't being myself to write about them, or anything else as long as their stories were dominant. PLEASE GO AWAY!

Our Favorite New Blog.

All Things Beautiful is a great new blog and is truly creative. Take five or ten minutes to scroll through and see Alexandria's fine work.

She is an artist with wit and class, a rare combination.

Today's entry as pictured above is especially impressive as it depicts 3 of our favorite people: President Bush, Pope Benedict XVI and Michelle Malkin... now THAT's a dinner party I'd like to attend!

Up-date on Hewitt Interview with K-R's Henderson:

As noted yesterday , Hugh Hewitt had an interview yesterday with Stephen Henderson of Knight-Ridder. The transcript is now posted on Radio Blogger Here is his response regarding Hugh's challenge to him as to why he does not reveal his political leanings to his readers:

"SH: Well, it's not relevant. You know, every journalist has political beliefs, but my job is not to...I don't have a job in which I'm asked to, or expected to pursue my political beliefs through my work. My job is to report on what happens. And so, really, my personal politics, and I believe everybody's entitled to vote without telling anybody what they did. That's one of the things that I think is pretty important in this country."

Really?

As quoted at HughHewitt.com, Mr. Henderson did find it important to inject his opinion earlier in the week when being interviewed by C-Span::

"I think for example that we didn't find a single case in which Judge Alito sided with African Americans alleging racial bias, which I think, is again, rather remarkable. We found very few cases, maybe one or two, in which he sided with a woman in a gender bias case."

You think it's rather remarkable, Mr. Henderson? Why is that RELEVANT?

Katie Couric Speaks for the Average Person...

...and sound like an ignoramus! NewsBusters.org:

"Katie's guest was former air marshal Tony Kuklinski, who stated that 'by all accounts I've seen, what [the air marshals] did was necessary.'Katie wasn't so sure:
'Do they always shoot to kill, Tony? In other words, I guess the average person hearing this [on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, Katie?] might think: isn't there a way where they could have shot this person and not killed him? Wounded him or incapacitated him in some way without killing him?'
As Kuklinksi patiently and professionally explained:
'law enforcement officials aren't trained to shoot to kill; they're trained to shoot to prevent the action from taking place. We're not trained to precision-shoot in the knee or in the arm or in the finger to prevent something from taking place. Your accuracy goes down, the potential for a stray bullet or a missed shot hitting a bystander goes up tremendously.'
That wasn't enough to satisfy Katie:
'I know that last July, London police shot and killed a Brazilian electrician because they'd mistaken him for a terror suspect. It raises the question: should there be further training? Do you think that air marshals should be taught to shoot at a specific location on a body?'"

I saw this this morning and hoped someplace like NewsBusters would pick it up. It was one of those moments that you could sense bloggers all around the country writing their post at the same time about the same thing.

Ms. Couric, with all respect, we here at OC Chronicle suspect that the "Average Person" [condescending on the face of it] would have the intelligence to think this situation through rather than immediately second-guess trained law enforcement officials whose sole purpose is to protect innocent passengers on an aircraft.

We here at OC Chronicle are the epitomy of average (except for our fabulous ability to sing any Broadway Showtune at the drop of a hat, yet still remain a bonified heterosexual) and here's what we thought:

1. A clearly deranged man exhibiting odd behavior [wearing a backpack across his chest as suicide bombers do] is screaming that they have a bomb.
2. Said deranged man does not respond to two, clear commands to desist and get on the floor
3. Federal Air Marshals are trained to know that suicide bombers are by definition... SUICIDAL, therefore, if they are truly nbent on blowing themselves and others up, they will not follow commands.
4. Federal Air Marshals are on a crowded, small aircraft filled with innocent civilians.
5. The only USRE way to stop a suicide bomber is TO KILL THEM.

Katie asks if the Air Marshals should be "taught to shoot at a specific location on a body?"... THEY ARE!!! The head, and the torso, to kill them.

Why would any average or exceptional person want it any other way?

Howard Dean's Talking Points Finally Find Their Audience!

Al Qaeda #2 Nut-Case::

"Zawahri said the United States had been defeated in Iraq and would eventually cut its losses and pull out its troops.'Iraq is a catastrophe for America and Americans will leave, it will only be a matter of time.'I say to Bush: you entered Iraq with lies, you will lose Iraq and lie about it and you will leave with the pretext that you have completed your mission ... America only has to decide on the number of (troops) it wishes to lose before withdrawing.'"

Without the attribution, we could have guessed this was Kerry, Pelosi or Dean talking.

Hewitt Hits a Homer

Today's Hugh Hewitt show featured an interview with a Knight-Ridder "journalist" and his hit piece on Judge Alito's written record.

Hugh DESTROYS him!

I'll look for the transcript on Radio Blogger later tonight and link.