GIULIANI STEPS INTO CLINTON FRAY

Former New York Mayor and expected 2008 presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani has weighed in on the war of words between Bill Clinton and the Bush Administration.  In an interesting turn of events, Rudy has taken neither side in the battle over which administration did or didn't do what, nonetheless, he makes some good points.

Speaking of who's to blame for 9/11, Giuliani had this to say:  "The idea of trying to cast blame on President Clinton is just wrong for many, many reasons, not the least of which is I don't think he deserves it.  I don't think President Bush deserves it.  The people who deserve blame for Sept. 11,  I think we should remind ourselves, are the terrorists, the Islamic fanatics, who came here and killed us and want to come here again and do it."  Nicely said.

He's not far off the mark.  The reality of the situation is that the people who are at fault for 9/11 are the Islamic hijackers that flew the planes into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, those who planned the operation and those who supported them with money and encouragement. Clearly 9/11 is their fault.  If Osama Bin Laden had been captured or killed before 9/11, by either administration, there's no way of knowing whether or not the attacks would have been prevented.

There's another side to the story here.  Just who started assigning blame first here?  The Democrats have politicized 9/11 and the war on Islamic fascism.  They are quick to point out the failings of George Bush, both real and imagined.  Wasn't it a Democrat member of congress who said that George Bush knew about the attacks and did nothing to stop them? 

The Democrats brought it up.  It's more than fair, then, to point out their own failings ... and Bill Clinton had plenty. 

DEMOCRATS CELEBRATING A BIT EARLY

The New York Times is reporting that the Democrats may have a solid chance at capturing the Senate on November 7th.  As evidence, they point to the fact that races are tightening for Republican incumbents.  They also point out that Democrats only need 6 seats to take over.  Just 6 more.  Can they do it?  Maybe so .. but let's take a closer look.

If you read a bit further down the page, the Times' headline falls apart.  For Democrats to win back the Senate, they would have to win nearly every close race...which is usually impossible.  They would also have to not lose any of their current seats, a problem they're facing in certain places like New Jersey.  Then there's the money issue.  Republicans have more of it.  In elections, that means one thing:  more TV commercials.  And whoever has the most TV commercials tends to win.

Hmm....doesn't look too good for the Democrats, does it?  Anything is possible, and discounting the anti-Bush, anti-Iraq war sentiment out there would be a mistake.  But this is always the problem with predictions like this.  It's easy to point to national polling that shows people are dissatisfied with the administration of the Congress as a whole.  But when it comes to actually running their own member of congress out of office, it becomes difficult.

Also don't forget the most important rule of American politics:  the incumbent usually wins.  But there's 6 weeks left...should be fun!

FOX NEWS BOSS RESPONDS TO CLINTON

Roger Ailes, the HAWIC of the Fox News Channel, is responding to former President Bill Clinton's tirade on the network over the weekend.  Ailes has an interesting take, one that really hasn't been raised in the media yet.  He says Clinton had a "wild overreaction" to Wallace's question.  He also said this, in an interview with the AP:  "If you can't sit there and answer a question from a professional, mild-mannered, respectful reporter like Chris Wallace, then the hatred for journalists is showing."  Ouch.  But Ailes is right.

Bill Clinton accused Chris Wallace of performing a conservative hit job on him.  The Left and the mainstream media rallied to Clinton's side.  But let's say this interview took place at ABC, where Chris Wallace worked for 14 years and hosted Nightline from time to time?  Would Democrats be bashing Chris Wallace the way they are now?  Doubtful.  It's only because he works at Fox News that Bill Clinton has gotten a pass for ripping his head off.

Then again, such is the Left's hatred for Fox News that they cannot accept that anyone who works there is actually a journalist.  They think every journalist on that network is given their questions by the GOP and programmed by Rupert Murdoch.  Ailes addressed that too:  "Chris Wallace has never taken orders on questions in his life.  There's never been a discussion of that.  I frankly think the assault on Chris Wallace is an assault on all journalists."

So where is the outrage in the journalistic community over Clinton's abuse of Wallace?  Nowhere to be found....because Clinton is a Democrat.  And thus he is given a pass and the template is followed.  Funny how that works, isn't it?

THOSE BASKETBALL PLAYERS!  WHAT BRAINIACS!

Looks like we're about to put the myth of the "student" athlete to rest.  At least at the University of Georgia.  We now have the stats in for the graduation rates of NCAA Division 1 men's teams, and UGA isn't looking all that hot.  Let's go through the numbers:

• Football,  Georgia is last in the Southeast Conference for graduation rates.  Only 41% of football players who enrolled in the late 1990's got a degree within six years.
   
• Baseball?  Somewhat better. There we have a 48% graduation rate.
   
• Then there's basketball.  The graduation rate for The University of Georgia?  Only 9%. 

I think it's safe to say that in the great pecking order of college and professional sports, basketball players are the the true "dumb jocks."  When you hear professional athletes interviewed, basketball players usually come out sounding the most illiterate.

Oh .. and how did rival Georgia Tech do?  Tech beat Georgia in every sport.  Forty-two percent of Tech basketball players from the same time period graduated.  That's 42% to 9%.  In football it was 55% to 41%, and baseball was 65% to 48%.

National numbers?  In Division one schools the average is 59% for basketball players. 

So ... can we put this "student athlete" moniker to rest now.

Oh ... by the way.  I didn't graduate from Texas A&M within six years of entering either.  In fact, I never graduated from undergraduate school at all.  Yet I'm a lawyer, and not doing all that poorly.  These studies just track graduation rates, they don't track business success after school.  So ... maybe none of this really matters.

ANOTHER IDIOT HEARD FROM

This little goodie from a reader showed up in this mornings "Vent" in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. 

"The money spent on the light show displayed outside the Superdome Monday night could have been better spent on the Katrina recovery effort and the suffering poor."

Where do these fools come from?

The money spent on the light show outside the Louisiana Superdome on Monday night went to the people who manufactured all of the components of the the lighting equipment, the people who manufactured the actual final product, the people who marketed the lighting equipment, the people who transported the lighting equipment, the people who set up the lighting equipment, an the people who operated the lighting equipment.  These people have rent or house payments to pay, food to buy, cars to pay for and families to support; and they are able to do these things because there are consumers out there in the marketplace who purchase and use the products they manufacture and the services they offer.

Then we get some full-fledged jerk come along and say that these people should be denied this income so that the money could be given to the poor, poor, pitiful suffering poor ... many of whom were probably watching the whole spectacle on their color television sets.

REDNECK SCRAP BOOK

Hey, redneck kids probably like model rockets too. Luckily this one has got them covered. More in the Redneck Scrap Book.

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