WE'VE BEEN LULLED TO SLEEP

The New York Times has obtained a document from the Department of Homeland Security.  It's known as "National Planning Scenarios" and it lists a dozen possible terrorist strikes that are viewed as most plausible or devastating.  

Do you want to know that these experts at Homeland Security are thinking?  Well, here's some of their ideas:

Detonation of a nuclear device in a major city.

Release of sarin nerve agent in an office building

A truck bomb attack on a sports arena

Blowing up a tank of chlorine

Spreading pneumonic plague in bathrooms at an airport, sports arena or train station

Infecting cows with foot-and-mouth disease

Homeland Security did not intend for this document to be seen by the public.  But, as usual, someone screwed up ... and out it went!  Oh ... and political correctness ruled in the drafting of this document.  No mention of Islamic terrorists.  There are just references to some hypothetical "Universal Adversary."

The real problem here is that most Americans have been lulled into a lethargic stupor.  It's been almost four years since 9/11 ... and nothing has happened within our borders since.  For most Americans, the threat of a terrorist attack is off the radar screen.  That's called complacency .. and complacency kills. 

IF NOT THE REPUBLICANS, THEN WHO?

Yesterday we had a poll right here on Nealz Nuze.  The question was "Do you think Republicans are still committed to the concepts of smaller government and individual liberty?"  Only 13% of the people who responded said yes.  A not-surprising 87% said no.  

Hey ... I'm with the 87%.  At this point anyone who actually thinks that the Republican Party has any intention whatsoever to shrink the size of the massive, bloated Imperial Federal Government of the United States is living in a dreamland.  Republicans or Democrats .. doesn't matter.  Government will continue to grow and personal liberties will continue to fade.  Are there advantages with either party?  At least the Republicans recognize that cutting taxes actually increases government revenue, and the Republicans seem to be willing to protect our nation and our interests.  In times like these when the terrorist threat is so great, this is a huge plus for the Republican side.  We may end up as slaves to the massive federal bureaucracy, but at least we'll be safer, not safe ... just safer ... from Islamic goon squads.

But what about freedom and smaller government.  The answer is as it was.  The Libertarian Party.

DEMOCRATIC TEMPER TANTRUM

Unable to cope with the Republican victory that swept the land last November, the Democrats in the Senate have now settled on their strategy against George W. Bush: they're going to pound their fists, hold their breath until they turn blue, and just generally throw a temper tantrum. Hopefully the rest of us will see their antics as obstructionist .. and get a good chuckle from it all.   

Without boring you with a lengthy treatise about Senate procedures, here's the long and short of it: last term, Democratic Senators used the threat of the filibuster (endless debate, which takes 60 votes to override) to scuttle some of President Bush's judicial nominees. This became a campaign issue, wherein Republicans correctly painted Democrats as obstructionists. Many Democrats, including their leader Tom Daschle, lost. 

So now the issue is back before the Senate. President Bush wants to appoint some judges, the Democrats want to filibuster them. But the Senate Majority Leader, Bill Frist wants to change the rules to require only 51 votes to break the filibuster....votes they have. This is called "the nuclear option" apparently because of its unprecedented use. Frist now seems inclined to make the change.  Frist sees something basically wrong with the idea of a minority party (The Democrats) using obstructionist tactics to prevent a vote on the Senate floor for a judicial nominee who has the votes to be confirmed!  The Democrats want us to believe that what the constitution really meant by the term "advice and consent" is that a judicial nominee must have 60 votes, a super-majority, to be confirmed.  Maybe it's just me, but somehow I think that those who wrote the Constitution would have put their super-majority provisions in there if that had been their intent.  That's exactly what they did when it came to Constitutional amendments.  If they intended the same thing for judicial confirmations ... why not just come out and say it? 

The Democrats are coming unglued.  They are threatening to shut down the business of the Senate if the Republicans don't allow them to go forth with their plans to filibuster Bush's judicial nominees.  Hey .. isn't that what they do best?  Clog things up?

Now Jamie Dupree (our D.C. correspondent) and I have a bit of a different view here.  He says that if the Republicans change the rules to essentially forbid filibusters on judicial nominees, then they can expect the Democrats to do the same when they have the power.  No problem!  I do not believe that the Constitution demands a super-majority vote on judicial nominees .. and that stands whether it's Democrats or Republicans in charge.

Jamie says that the Democrats are only doing the same thing to the Republicans that the Republicans did to Clinton's nominees.  So ... Let me put my challenge to Jamie in writing.  Cite one instance where Republicans used a filibuster to block a vote on a judicial nominee who had already received a "confirm" vote from the Senate Judiciary Committee.  I've looked ... and I can't find it.

NOT A MONSTER? WAIT JUST A MINUTE

A quick note about Brian Nichols, the shooter in the Atlanta courthouse killings. His family is now doing media interviews and they are expressing astonishment that their son, brother, etc. is actually a cold-blooded mass murderer. We're told that he's really a nice person....that they can't believe he is capable of the crimes he has committed. They are standing by him. Well isn't that nice.  Blood is thicker .. and all that ....

While you would expect family members to be as supportive as they could to Nichols, some of the comments they're making are an insult to not only people's intelligence, but to the memories of those Brian Nichols mercilessly slaughtered.

One close family friend said "All of this is extremely surprising because not once did we see any violence from Brian. It all comes as a surprising shock to us." Well, apparently not to some of his former classmates, who describe Nichols as someone who was not to be messed with in school. But the most ridiculous statement came from Nichols' brother, who was speaking on Larry King Live: "My brother isn't a monster like he's been portrayed to be. He may be a big person as far as physically, but he's gentle. He's laid-back."  Well, I'm sure that makes the families of the four people he murdered feel a lot better, don't you think?  Their loved ones are dead, but at least they have the comfort of knowing that they were killed by a gentle, laid-back kind of guy.

Sorry....but he is a monster, and gentle, laid-back people don't go around killing judges, court reporters, sheriff's deputies and off-duty federal agents. They also don't take defenseless women hostage. This guy is a psychopath, and the sooner he takes his last breath on this Earth, the better.

THE LARRY SUMMERS JIHAD

The Harvard faculty has expressed a vote of no confidence in President Lawrence Summers. He'll probably resign in the next 24 to 48 hours. That's too bad...because he didn't do anything wrong. What he said is being blown so far out of proportion that it leads one to question the sanity of the knee-jerk bedwetters that are all worked up about it.

Besides, what ever happened to academic freedom? We're told that in the case of Ward Churchill, outrageous anti-American statements should be considered protected speech with no consequences. Yet when Larry Summers suggests in a speech that there must be some reason why women don't do as well in math and science...now he should be fired.

Liberals are all for freedom of speech as long as they agree with what is being said. Once someone dares to challenge their lexicon, they must be gotten rid of. 

Oh, by the way ... this is the same Harvard University where the student newspaper slammed a Sophomore who set up a dorm cleaning service.  The newspaper is upset because some students can afford the service, and some can't.  That, you see, just isn't fair, so the service, Dormaid, should be shunned and kicked off campus.

And this is supposed to be our nation's grandest University?

ITALIANS CUT AND RUN

The membership of the Axis of Weasels has now officially grown by one. The government of Italy has announced that they are pulling out of Iraq and bringing their troops home. This of course comes on the heels of the shooting at the checkpoint involving their communist journalist hostage whose freedom they bought. How disappointing.

They had said their troops would stay, but now they have buckled under to hypnotizing force of Islamic terrorism. They have joined their fellow Euro-Weenies in Spain in throwing in the towel. That's too bad.

When the chips are down, you find out who your friends are. Unfortunately, the tortellini-eating surrender donkeys of Italy don't want to defend freedom anymore.

READING ASSIGNMENTS .... Y'ALL BONE UP NOW.

Harry Reid is not a happy man.  Senate Democrats are threatening to shut down the Senate if the Republicans make a move to restore Constitutional principals by going back to a simple up or down vote on judicial nominees.  But the Republicans are seeing some momentum in their move to end judicial filibusters.

With freedom and democracy on the march in the Middle East and elsewhere, the left is coming unhinged. The nutcases are really showing their true colors. Michelle Malkin (sigh!) tells us all about it.

The Democrats are wining the fight against private Social Security accounts.  Government education rules!

Washington Post editor Phillip Bennet says he was grossly misquoted by the People's Daily of China. Hugh Hewitt has the corrections from the man himself. Perhaps it would not be a good idea to trust state-controlled media in a communist country in the future. Just a tip.

Jordan's King Abdullah is talking about democracy in his country, and is even talking about giving up his dictatorship in favor of a Constitutional Monarchy. Make no mistake: none of this would be happening without the invasion of Iraq. The amount of credit the mainstream media will give George Bush for this? Absolutely Zero.

Is there any question whether Ashley Smith should get the full $60,000 reward for turning in Brian Nichols? Well, the state has kicked in their ten grand, but  the other agencies have yet to come off a nickel.

So how did Saddam Hussein's Weapons of Mass Destruction plants get plundered? Christopher Hitchens takes a look inside the facts.

If you listen to the left, Social Security isn't in any trouble at all whatsoever. If you listen to the right, the whole system is about to go broke. Byron York chases down the facts and tells us what the numbers have to say.

Peter Jennings made some comments about the United States that The Media Research Center didn't like very much. Here's a full report.

The only mistake Larry Summers made was that he didn't exercise discretion with his comments in front of the Harvard faculty. After all, writes Walter Williams, some things are better left unsaid in front of children. Zing!

With some on the left sucking it up and admitting George W. Bush was right about democracy in the Middle East, Paul Greenberg says it's time to praise some honest liberals.

Vindication!  Here's someone who agrees with me on those silly, sophomoric Starbucks names.  Really, folks ... I like Starbucks coffee, but those pretentious names "vente, tall, grande" are, for lack of a better word, just stupid.  Join with me in refusing to speak Starbucks!

Morning Sickness: Nurse makes life hell on day shift by giving nursing home patients extra laxatives.

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