British Bizarro World: Today, we're going to learn about "Topsy Turvy land", otherwise known as Britain! In this strange and fantastic realm, the justice system works to protect the criminals while the people the crooks are trying to victimize go to jail. Just take the case of one Tony Martin...

"Tony Martin, the farmer jailed for shooting dead a teenage burglar, had his application for parole rejected yesterday.

"I suppose the attitude came across in this report that he would do it again."

That's right folks! In "Topsy Turvy Land," shooting burglars is illegal and they even keep people who defend their homes in jail because they might be a "danger to burglars." Even the police are in on the act as you can see from this article in the Daily Telegraph...

"Police have been ordered not to bother investigating crimes such as burglary, vandalism and assaults unless evidence pointing to the culprits is easily available, The Telegraph can reveal.

Under new guidelines, officers have been informed that only "serious" crimes, such as murder, rape or so-called hate crimes, should be investigated as a matter of course."

Yes folks, for all intents and purposes, in "Topsy Turvy Land" your home isn't a castle, it's an open market with fantastic prices (all you can carry for free)!

The Peace Weenie Negotiating Tactic Of The Century: Even if you stuck Jimmy Carter, Kofi Annan, Nelson Mandela, and Susan Sontag in a room together, they couldn't come up with something this mind-bendingly naive COLLECTIVELY...

"President Bush forms a peace delegation and travels to the Middle East.

Forget about wild. That idea's just plain crazy - not to mention impractical, implausible, maybe even impossible. Maybe. But it's no crazier than war."

Yes, actually it is crazier than war to send a bunch of grandmothers, 10 year-olds, and religious leaders to negotiate with Saddam. The only reason Bin Laden had the courage to attack us in the first place was because he thought we were a paper tiger that would rather sue him rather than fight. Before 9/11, if Bin Laden had thought that he was going to be vaporized at Tora Bora on the tail end of a US route of the Taliban and Al-Queda forces, the WTC would still be standing today.

Conservatives Have Been Trying To Warn America About Groups Like Hamas: Almost since 9/11, Conservatives have been pointing out that destroying al-Queda in and of itself will not stop other 9/11s from happening. Time and time again we've said that we have to go after the whole global network. That means not only Al-Queda, but Hamas, Hizbollah, the other terrorist groups of global reach and the regimes that continue support them all have to be eliminated. Here are a few words uttered today by Mahmoud al-Zahar, a senior member of Hamas that proves our point...

"If Iraq is attacked... all American targets will be open targets for every Muslim, Arab or Palestinian. Any attack against Iraq will be answered by resistance everywhere and American interests everywhere will be targeted. We say that all American targets will be open targets to every Muslim, Arab, or Palestinian."

Maybe it's just me, but when a senior member of a terrorist group like Hamas says that they want to target, "American interests everywhere," I take them at their word. Before 9/11 Osama Bin Laden was making similar threats against America and he carried them out. Furthermore, we have EVERY reason to believe that Hamas will do so as well if they're capable. Especially since this wouldn't be the first time that they've murdered Americans. The sooner all the members of Hamas are locked up or are preferably dead, the better off not only Israel will be, but the better off America will be. The fight isn't just with Al-Queda, it's with the whole global terrorist network.

Al-Queda's Latest Financial Venture: As per usual, the Weekly World News has scooped the mainstream press with the latest news about Al Qaeda ...

"Desperate Al Qaeda fighters have borrowed from a time-honored American tradition to raise money for their next cowardly assault on the U.S. -- by running a camel wash service!"

Al Qaeda must be stopped! That's why all loyal, patriotic Americans will shoot every camel they see...as well as every horse, cow, cat, and endangered species that Al-Queda might wash for cash...except fluffy, lovable, dogs.

"A CIA operative who poses as a regular customer explains, "It's no secret that the 'War On Terror' has left Al Qaeda financially crippled, but what they are doing here is downright pathetic," says the agent, who spoke under condition of anonymity.

One cheerful employee chirps, "Bring in your beast. We'll bust our humps to get it clean."

Send them to Cuba? I'm more inclined to see them sent to their 72 virgins a little early with a hostile takeover executed with Tomahawk missiles.

Then there's this chilling story from the Weekly World News...Saddam has signed a deal with Satan!

"Widespread rumors that Iraqi madman Saddam Hussein has signed a sinister pact with the Devil appear to have been confirmed -- when a photograph surfaced showing the brutal dictator shaking hands with a horned figure with flaming-red skin!

Chillingly, Lt. Col. Mazhar claims that in the contract, Satan guarantees "complete and total victory over the United States."

Having Satan himself on your side is quite the strategic advantage. Just look at how famous and rich Maureen Dowd, Vanilla Ice, and Yassir Arafat have become after signing deals with Satan and it's obvious that Satan's ability to turn losers like Saddam into winners is almost unlimited. But, there is a solution. We change the name of our country to something like, "Super Crazy Fun Country" or "Ramboland" and then we force every mapmaker in the world to change the name of France to "The United States of America" on their maps. That means we'll still be able to wipe out Saddam and France will be obliterated by Satan. So it's a win/win situation for everyone!

'They're Not Warheads, They're Peaceheads' By Scott Ott: (2003-01-16) -- Saddam Hussein reacted to news that UN weapons inspectors had found 11 chemical warheads today by saying, "They're not warheads. They're peaceheads."

The Iraqi president said he was intending to launch the missiles, tipped with a "mild, mountain spring fragrance" at countries with whom Iraq would like to be at peace--like Israel.

"It was going to be a surprise," said Mr. Hussein, "But the UN ruined it. Perhaps we have other surprises for our international friends. No peeking."

If you liked this satire by Scott Ott, you can see more of his work at Scrappleface.

Blogs -- The Best Of The Best: Every so often I like to give a little credit where credit's due. So here are my favorite blogs on the net, based simply on the blogs that I enjoy reading the most...

Honorable Mentions

Amish Tech Support, Daily Pundit, Damianation, IMAO, Scrappleface, Sgt. Stryker's Daily Briefing

10) USS Clueless: Den Beste is a fantastic, detail oriented writer who has fascinating insights into foreign policy.

9) James Lileks: Lileks is a brilliant writer who reminds me a lot of Mark Steyn when he writes about politics. If he wrote about politics every day he might be in the #1 slot, but I just can't get interested in the non-politics related things he writes about.

8) Rachel Lucas: Rachel is interesting, right about most things, and most importantly there's real passion in her writing. I love someone who willing to take a stand on an issue and come out with both guns blazing to defend her position.

7) The Corner: 'Team Jonah Goldberg' does fine work. Not only is there witty banter between the posters, but they are capable of giving a fresh perspective to the issues of the day.

6) Andrew Sullivan: Sullivan's ferocious criticism of the left and his unique slant on a lot of conservative issues make his blog well worth a read.

5) Croooow Blog: Henry Hanks is essentially "Instapundit Light" and I've never really understood why he isn't a bigger name in the blogging community. Personally, I think he does great work and I hit his page five days a week, Mon-Fri.

4) Tim Blair: An Aussie who's funny and who's willing to do a both barrel fisking on any of Australia's almost unlimited supply of left-wing boneheads at the drop of a boomerang.

3) A Small Victory: 3 Doses of Neo-Conservatism + 2 cups of skewed perspective + 1 handful of real life stories + a smidgen of boobies ='s #3 on the list

2) Little Green Footballs: Nobody in the blogging world & nobody in the mainstream press does a better job of exposing the radical Islamists and Islamo-Fascists for what they are than Charles Johnson

1) Instapundit: The hardest working man in the blogosphere is a linking machine and seldom does a day pass that I don't find something worthy of a link on RWN.

There's Your Smoking Gun: Can even the anti-war crowd be delusional enough to believe that Iraq doesn't have weapons of mass destruction after this?

"U.N. weapons inspectors in Iraq on Thursday found empty warheads designed to carry chemical warfare agents, a U.N. spokesman said in Baghdad.

"The warheads were in excellent condition and were similar to ones imported by Iraq during the late 1980s. The team used portable X-ray equipment to conduct preliminary analysis of one of the warheads and collected samples for chemical testing."

Come on, why else would you have rockets designed to carry, "chemical warfare agents" unless you actually have chemical weapons? Combine this with the artillery shells full of mustard gas that have already been found and no reasonable person could believe anything other than the fact that Iraq has WMD and is lying about it.

***Update*** This is going to be fun -- Let's see who isn't buying this. Take a wild guess? Yes, there are people on the Democratic Underground who think this is all a set-up =D....

Newsjock: "Right after moveon.org's TV ads debut
They do the big media buy on ads that close "That's why Americans are telling President Bush: Let the Inspections Work." And this hits the news cycle less than three hours after the ads are announced?

What a co-inky-dink. This administration makes me physically ill."

starcade: "As I said on the dupe thread...It was "over" for a long time... You knew that, eventually, a "breach" would be manufactured. The protests are far too late. If they're really interested in bringing the war down, it may take Vietnam-level unrest to do it."

Mary T: "Err BB By "This Administration" The Poster Meant Bush*s. Iraq didn't manufacture anything dude the finger is pointing at Bush* and crew."

Then there are the lefties who swarm to the comments sections at Fark. Gosh, missiles with empty chemical warheads? Gee...Saddam probably planned to get rid of those but forgot. You know like, 1) take out trash 2) Pick up the laundry 3) Get rid of missiles armed with chemical warheads...

Ouch: "OMG!!! EMPTY WARHEADS!!!

Wait... OMG!!! I found an empty bottle which chemicals could go in to! War!!! WAR!!!!!"

Sswift: "If they're EMPTY, then they can hardly be "warheads", now can they? You can't go to war with the top of a missle with no PAYLOAD.

Heck did they even find any missle ENGINES? I mean that at least would be something. What they found were basically chunks of metal."

GurneyHalleck: "I'm sure there was a conversation in Washington that went something like a scene out of a crappy 70's television show:

"Yes, Mr. Vice President."

TheGreatMikeB: "Its wonderful that they found these empty chunks of metal and all. They should inspect the Bagdad U-PULL IT car lot if this is what counts as breaking news."

But unlike at the DU, some of the Farkers came up with some entertaining lines as well...

MisterStupidFace : "It's only fair that we now bomb them with empty tomahawks."

StrikitRich: "Chemical warheads? What chemical warheads? Oh, you mean those chemical warheads."

Just_Another_Arsehole: "it depends on how empty they are - could be some kind of super vacuum weapon."

Bass555: "It's clear they have violated the bans of the United Nations in terms of imports," Blix said. The imported items include missile parts, CNN's Richard Roth reported.

"Lucy, you got some splainin' to do!"

Zombie Zero: "To those who say there's no reason to worry about empty warheads:

Golly, nothing to worry about there! It's empty!"

Debunking The War For Oil Theory: As I read the latest & greatest piece of diarrhea to be penned by one of the 'war for oil" crowd, I was struck by how shallow and ill-thought out this theory it is.

In fact, when I called it the "war for oil theory" in the title of this editorial, I probably gave the whole idea more credit that it's due. That's because there's really nothing more to the whole "theory" than,

A) The United States uses oil
B) Iraq has a lot of oil
C) Bush & Cheney are former oilmen (Cont)

Political Rhetoric Or Insanity?: I was reading the "Required Reading of 2002" on A Small Victory and I ran across an article written by someone named Ezrael from back in November. Here's the super kooky part of the article that I'd normally slap in the ACPOTI section...

"America, you will conform, or you will be rounded up and shot. You will conform, or you will be named a traitor and placed in a cell with other enemy combatants. A company named Halliburton, once run by the current Vice President, will be contracted to build cells at the Guantanamo Bay prison-camp on a military base in Cuba. America, your government will act to prevent a lawsuit filed on behalf of those raped and murdered on the facilities of an American company because its desire for Indonesian oil will outweigh its concern for the victims. If you protest this action by your government, you will be aiding the terrorists, of course. If George Bush comes to your graduation and you don't clap like a seal on amphetamines for him, you will be aiding the terrorists. Unless everything you do is personally vetted by the government, you may well be aiding the terrorists. Did you spend enough money this month to help lift our economy? No? Are you aiding the terrorists by being thrifty? I hope you don't end up as an enemy combatant somewhere.

And then you will be rounded up and shot. By then, I expect I will already be dead, and so I will not be able to do much about it."

Now I understand that sometimes in the heat of the moment, people may go a little overboard on the political rhetoric. That does happen -- but, at a certain point, you have to wonder what's really going through someone's mind when they write something like this. I mean do you honestly want to know what I thought after I read this? I thought the guy was crazy, nuts, insane. That's not rhetoric either -- I think that if this guy really believes what he's writing, he's so out of touch with reality that he needs to see a psychologist.

If this guy were some lone kook, it wouldn't be a big deal. But the truth is, the sort of rhetoric is all over the place on the left. By this sort of "rhetoric" I mean things you'd literally have to be a little unbalanced to believe.

If you think Republicans really want to emulate the Nazis, are Fascists, that John Ashcroft is going to start locking people up in concentration camps because they're Democrats, etc, your nuts. Yes, I mean you are so out of touch with reality that you probably need professional help.

In one sense, all these weirdos are funny. Sure, it's amusing to read about some bunch of kooks from the Democratic Underground who think Bush killed Paul Wellstone or that they're going to be dragged away in handcuffs for backing a Gore Presidential run in 2004, but in another sense it's scary. It's scary because people who are crazy enough to believe that sort of stuff would actually be dangerous if they acted on what they believe. For example, if the US were actually taken over by a Nazi-like regime that suspended the Constitution and started throwing all their political opponents into gulags, I'd say the moral thing to do would be to pick up a gun and try do something about it.

Do you see what I'm trying to get across here? The only thing worse than endlessly repeating a bunch of outlandish propaganda is actually believing the outlandish propaganda you're spouting. That's a lesson a significant chunk of the left on the net should take to heart.

The North Korean Gulag Nightmare: As a general rule I tend to be pretty jaded about man's inhumanity to man. Not that I don't care, but I've already ready about every bit of cruelty and barbarism you can imagine. But, even I was sickened when I read about what's going on in the gulags of North Korea...

""IT'S ONE of the worst, if not the worst situation - human rights abuse situation - in the world today," said Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., who held hearings on the camps last year. "There are very few places that could compete with the level of depravity, the harshness of this regime in North Korea toward its own people."

...Prison guard Ahn's memories are, like the others', nothing short of gruesome. Every day, he said there were beatings and deaths.

"I heard many times that eyeballs were taken out by beating," he recalled. "And I saw that by beating the person the muscle was damaged and the bone was exposed, outside, and they put salt on the wounded part. At the beginning I was frightened when I witnessed it, but it was repeated again and again, so my feelings were paralyzed."

Bastards...

The Fisking Dutchman: Glenn Reynolds of Instapundit fame linked a ridiculous letter from a Dutch journalist that I thought was worth fisking.

To the Ambassador, the US embassy,
CC. President George W. Bush

We are firmly convinced that this movement is being actively supported by your government, which has systematically backed, organized and financed every right wing coup and conspiracy against progressive governments in the western hemisphere, while supporting every brutal right wing dictatorship.

So what "firmly convinced" this guy that Bush is behind the problems in Venezuela? Did the voices in his head tell him Bush was responsible? Did he find a crystal ball in one of those dikes in the Netherlands that let him see some CIA operative running around in Venezuela plotting a coup? This is like the Ted Rall crowd speculating the GOP had Wellstone murdered. Sure there may not be any evidence, but they really don't like Bush which means it MUST be true.

"You pretend to stand for democracy while trampling democracy underfoot everywhere."

Like in Afghanistan where the noble and democratic Taliban were replaced with a totalitarian regime run by a guy with a funny hat.

"You pretend to stand for self-determination and national independence while staging acts of unprovoked aggression against sovereign states which do not agree to accept the dictates of Washington."

Well, he's half right. If you support terrorists, we're going to wipe you out. But, are we pretending to support democracy in Taiwan, Israel, and South Korea where democratic regimes are standing up to totalitarian enemies with our help? What about Afghanistan? What about the Democracy we'll leave in place after we leave Iraq a few years down the road -- once the dictatorship is in place and we've renamed their country "New Texas" ! Hahah, I'm "just funnin" about that part Dutchman...har har har...

"Do not imagine that your actions in Venezuela will pass unnoticed."

Well our imagined imperialism, our imagined war for oil, our imaginary war against Muslims, and our imagined empire haven't gone unnoticed, so I'm sure this won't go unnoticed either.

You will not be allowed to enter like a thief in the night to plunder the oil of that country as you plan to do in Iraq. You will stand condemned in the eyes of the world.

Yes, we're going plunder all the oil in Iraq. We've probably got a spaceship that we're going to use to suck all the air out of the planet's atmosphere and..wait, wait, that's the plot to "Spaceballs." This is supposed to be more like "Ice Pirates", except we'll be stealing their oil instead of their ice.

We condemn the inhumane actions of the United States and other states and intelligence agencies, to interfere in the internal affairs of so many countries in the world."

If only we could all be like the Dutch and do...well...whatever it is they do inconsequential countries.

'THERE ARE BUT TWO POWERS IN THE WORLD, THE SWORD AND THE MIND. IN THE LONG RUN THE SWORD IS ALWAYS BEATEN BY THE MIND.'

Henk Ruyssenaars
Foreign Press Foundation
fpf@chello.nl
The Netherlands'

There is nothing that finishes off an article about imaginary imperialism quite as well as a quote from an actual imperialist. All Ruyssenaars' needed was a quote from Jimmy Carter talking about how to make the economy hum and a Bill Clinton quote explaining why it's so important to tell the truth and this whole thing would be perfect.

VRWC Spam Letter To Europe: If a bunch of nearly illiterate Nigerian thugs can scam suckers out of millions of dollars with their email scams, then why can't I do the same thing? Introducing the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy spam email....

Dear Sir,

I got your contact from a nice young Democratic activist who we kidnapped and forced to work in one of the secret "Bush oil wells" in the "no-fly zones" in Iraq.

I am John Hawkins, a nephew of Henry Kissenger, the current head of Security for the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy. Unfortunately, last month Condi Rice decided to challenge Henry for the position. Per the rules, the winner was the first one able to kill 50 terrorists imported from Gitmo with one of our Ronald "Maximus" Reagan M-Class Mech Warriors. Henry won, but we began to suspect that Condi was a sore loser when a Hellfire missile fired from a Predator hit one of Henry's mansions the next day. Then there was the poison in the caviar, the cobras someone put in the bathtub, and the brainwashed Jennifer Anniston clone who tried to strangle Henry with her bra.

At this point, we've been forced to go on the run to the one place Condi won't dare come after us -- Crawford, Texas. During the mad dash out to the AC-130 gunship that was flying us away, I ran across two trunks full of cash that Henry made from his child labor sweatshops in Guatemala. Unfortunately, he hadn't yet deposited the money in his Swiss bank accounts.

Much to our dismay, the heat is still on in Crawford. W. is keeping Condi away from us -- for now. But, no one has been able to calm her down yet. Every time we think Jonah Goldberg or William Buckley is about to get Condi to forget about trying to assassinate Henry, Ann Coulter will start getting her all fired up again (Henry sent Ann a Jimmy Carter bobblehead doll for Christmas and Ann hasn't forgiven him yet).

So that's why I need your help. I need you to come to Crawford, Texas to pick up the 30 million dollars that was in uncle Henry's trunks so you can take it to Marget Thatcher's villa on the Thames. If you're willing to help us out, not only will I give you 30% of the money, I'll get you into the VRWC. I'm hoping to hear from you as soon as possible. Make sure to keep this email confidential since the VRWC scans and reads all emails going in and out of Europe to see if anyone over there has gotten wind of our upcoming invasion. I expect to hear from you as soon as possible. In fact, make sure to respond today before Condi hears about this and has you eliminated (if you see a woman who looks like Jennifer Anniston walking towards you with a bra in her hands, run for your life).

Yours truly

John Hawkins
VRWC Member

Huffington's Hypocrisy!: In case you've missed it somehow, Arianna Huffington is the sponsor of TV spots that equate owning SUVS with supporting terrorism. Of course, that doesn't stand up to the barest logical scrutiny.

If owning an SUV means you support terrorism, well then doesn't driving a small car mean you're supporting terrorism? Heck, what about riding a plane or a bus? You're still using oil that came from the Middle East. In fact, since almost every product we buy in our society is delivered by vehicles which consume oil, if we take Huffington's theory to its logical conclusion, even if we never ride in an oil powered vehicle, we still must support terrorism simply by buying almost any product from almost any store.

Furthermore, Huffington is guilty of hypocrisy of the worst sort. Huffington herself used to own an SUV & she has admitted that she flies on private planes. Do you know why Huffington has the money to spend on television commercials? Because she received a big chunk of change when she divorced OIL TYCOON Michael Huffington. Isn't that irony at it's finest?

More Fan Mail: I received a terrific email that I thought I would share with all of you. I did edit it a bit to cut down on the length, removed a few parts of the email that went off on unrelated tangents, and corrected a few minor errors, but otherwise, the email appears as written...

"My name is Anthony Lynn McKinley, and I'm an Irishman who greatly supports the United States. I feel the war on terrorism has a very important goal to acquire. I think the reason the liberals in your country act so bizarrely stupid and ill supportive is because most, if not all of them, have never experienced terrorism. When I was 3, my parents were killed in a church bombing by Protestants. They were not in the IRA, they were good, respectable people who worked hard. And I have, since I was old enough to understand it, hated terrorism and terrorists. I actively support fighting them, arresting them, killing them, whatever the situation dictates. Liberals often seem to think that would be inhumane, but it'd only be inhumane if those you were fighting were in fact human. A terrorist is not human. A terrorist is a coward, and has no humanity left in them to fight how they do. There should be no pity, no remorse for such a murderer.

Anthony Lynn McKinley"

Hey Anthony, it's great to hear from you. I wish more Europeans had your attitude about things. If they did, it would be a better world.

The Democratic Underground Post Of The Day: Someone from the Democratic Underground ran across the "Can We Call You Unpatriotic Now That You're Rooting For Your Own Country To Lose A War" episode of ACPOTI and posted a link to it on the DU forums. That prompted this hilariously overwrought response among others...

brensgrrl: "So what. . .!!!!! as FASCISTS they WOULD be against free speech. After all through FREE SPEECH, the TRUTH about their lies and propaganda would be found out. Their worst enemy is a thinking, free-speaking public. Of course, they belittle and denigrate the truth!

(Forgive me Lord--this really made me mad!)"

Oh no, she figured out my evil plan! The first step was making fun of the kooks on DU, but if that didn't work, then I was going to have them sent to "concentration camps" and "done to death." You know how we "saltless" "fascists" are when we're gripped with our "oil-war fever!"

All Prisoners Released From Jails In U.S. By Scott Ott: (2003-01-03) -- Inspired by Illinois Governor George Ryan, who commuted the death sentences of 167 death row inmates this week, governors across the nation have decided to release all prisoners from all jails.

"Ryan said there are errors in the system. If we can't do criminal justice perfectly, we shouldn't do it at all," said an aide to one governor. "It's not enough just to commute death sentences to life in prison, we need to let them all out."

Studies have shown that state governors are significantly smarter than judges and juries. The average governor can decide a case in a few minutes without even attending the trial, although it takes a jury weeks of carefully listening to the evidence. Even then, the jury is almost always wrong.

State courts will shut down this week because, as one governor put it, "we can't take the chance that we might get another one wrong."

If you enjoyed this satire by Scott Ott, you can see more of his work at Scrappleface.

So What If The People Of Illinois Want A Death Penalty: In case you haven't heard, outgoing governor George H. Ryan of Illinois decided to thwart the will of the people of Illinois by commuting the sentence of "every inmate on Illinois' Death Row."

"Declaring the state's capital punishment system "haunted by the demon of error," Gov. George Ryan on Saturday commuted the sentences of every inmate on Illinois' Death Row, the most dramatic step by a governor on the issue in U.S. history.

With two days left as governor, Ryan declared that most of the state's 156 condemned prisoners will now serve terms of life in prison without parole. Three Death Row inmates, whose cases Ryan said raised particular fairness concerns, were granted 40-year prison terms, allowing the possibility of release in several years. And 12 additional people - who had once been sentenced to Death Row but are awaiting new sentencings - will receive life in prison without parole."

This is a staggering and repulsive abuse of power. It's nothing less than a "screw-you" to the people of Illinois who obviously want a death penalty, the police officers who've risked their lives enforcing the law, and most of all, it's a slap at the victim's familes.

You know, now that Ryan has actually given these death row monsters a break, I'd like to see he has to say to the victim's families today. Ryan should have to look in the face of a small girl and explain why he gave a break to the guy that killed her daddy. Let him explain his decision to a mother who had her child raped and murdered by one of these animals. Her kid is dead while these wastes of plasma who took their lives are going to live on for decades.

All of this is because Ryan is worried that they might execute an innocent person. Well, there might be innocent people sitting in Illinois jails serving decades of hard time. In fact, I'm sure there are innocent people in prison in Illinois because there is no such thing as a flawless system. So why doesn't Ryan give pardons to every criminal in Illinois? That makes about as much as sense as leniency to all these pieces of garbage who were on death row.

I think Peoria County State's Atty. Kevin Lyons summed it up fairly well when he said,

"It was so offensive for him to compare himself to Lincoln and say, 'I am a friend to these men on Death Row. My reply is, yes, your Excellency, you certainly are. Now go home before you make any more friends who are murdering the good people of Illinois."

***Update***: Here's just one story from the Washington Times about some of the people George Ryan spared...

"Sometimes, 4-year-old Jordan Evans tells his little brother, Elijah, about their mother," the 1998 Associated Press story reads. " 'Our mom's name was Debbie,' " Jordan's grandfather heard him say one day. "And she was good."

Jordan will never know his mother, who was brutally murdered the very night he was born. But thanks to Gov. George Ryan - who issued blanket commutations to all 156 prisoners on death row on Saturday, just two days before leaving office - the sentences of two of the predators responsible for her murder, Jacqueline Williams and Fedell Caffey, were commuted to life imprisonment.

One night in November 1995, Jordan and Elijah's pregnant mother, Debbie Evans, was brutally murdered by Williams and Caffey, who invaded her suburban Chicago apartment. The killers stabbed Miss Evans in the throat and shot her in the head. Then, as she lay dying, they tore Elijah from the womb. They stabbed Elijah's 10-year-old sister, Samantha, to death. Then, they kidnapped his 8-year-old brother, Joshua, whose corpse was found in an alley the following day. Williams and Caffey left Jordan behind; when police found him, he was stained with his mother's blood.

..."George Ryan broke the system when he commuted the sentences of all convicted murder[ers]," declared Sam Evans, Debbie Evans' father and Samantha and Joshua's grandfather. "I have nothing but contempt and disgust for a man who abused the powers that the State of Illinois granted him."

Let Ryan look Sam Evans in the eye and tell him why he gave a break to the animals that killed his daughter. Then, let Ryan explain to Josh Evans why he decided to help out the people who cut Josh's mother open like a fish and then murdered his brother and sister. We get all this concern for these cold blooded killers -- how about a little compassion for the people who were murdered and their families?

Quote Of The Day: From Victor Davis Hanson's editorial on anti-Americanism that appeared on the Wall Street Journal website today,

"Earlier Romans knew what it was to be Roman, why it was at least better than the alternative, and why their culture had to be defended. Later in ignorance they forgot what they knew, in pride mocked who they were, and in consequence disappeared."

One day, if we're not careful, what happened to the Romans will happen to us. If so, it won't be because of any outside power, it'll be because we lost respect for the values & the culture that made us so successful.

Why Invade Iraq And Just Talk With Canada?: Many of the same people on the left who snickered when Bush included North Korea in the 'Axis of Evil' are now frantic about the threat that North Korea presents, or at least they're pretending to be. So they're demanding that Bush forget all about that "Iraq thing" and focus all of his energy on the real threat, North Korea. In fact, they're claiming that they just can't understand why we're threatening Iraq while we're dealing with North Korea diplomatically. But as per usual, the anti-war left's arguments are intellectually dishonest and fall apart once they're exposed to the slightest amount of informed scrutiny. Maybe we're not treating North Korea and Iraq exactly alike because -- are you ready for this one -- the situation isn't the same. Asking why we're going to invade Iraq and not North Korea is like asking why we cooperated with the Soviet Union while we nuked Japan in WW2 or even why we bombed Libya in the eighties instead of our neighbors to the North in Canada. In short, it's the sort of question only the intellectually dishonest or those who don't understand the situation would ask. Unfortunately, neither intellectual dishonesty nor ignorance are in short supply in the anti-war movement. So let me explain why we'll probably be sending Saddam a box of chocolates strapped to a smart bomb on Valentine's Day while we simultaneously have heart to heart talks with the fruit loops in Pyongyang. (Cont)

The Walter Williams Interview: Yesterday, on my birthday, I received one heck of a gift. I was able to do a phone interview with the inimitable Walter Williams. Williams is the ex-chair of the Economics department at George Mason University, he has six books to his credit, and he is an, "occasional substitute host" on the Rush Limbaugh show. However, he's best known for his, "weekly syndicated column which is carried by approximately 160 newspapers." I was thrilled to get this opportunity and I'm sure you'll enjoy the interview...