To Ohio

I’ll be taking a quick trip to Ohio this weekend. See you when I return on Monday.

Filed under: Blogging

Deanna Favre

UPDATE: More on  Deanna Favre can be found here.

From Guideposts Magazine (a tip of the conservative cap to Spring City Chronicle), the cover story this month is Deanna Favre’s account of her battle with cancer and her life with Brett. My favorite,

I loved him, even if he wasn’t the most romantic guy. On the way to our senior prom he drove off with his wallet on the top of his car so he couldn’t even pay for our dinner. In college he courted me with a plastic red rose—following a spat when I wouldn’t speak to him for a month. Then he gave me a second red rose the next date. The third one appeared in his car shortly thereafter. “I guess this is the last one,” I said, inspecting it. “Why do you say that?” he asked. “Because the tag on it says three for ninety-nine cents.”

I can relate.

Filed under: Football , Brett Farve, Deanna Farve, Football

Voter ID case

From USATODAY.com

The Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to hear a challenge to Indiana’s voter identification law, in a timely case that sets up a confrontation between officials who claim such laws prevent voter fraud and challengers who say ID requirements keep some people from the polls.

The Indiana law requires voters to show a government photo ID, such as a driver’s license or passport, to qualify to vote. Last January, a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit rejected claims by the state Democratic party that the law infringes on the voting rights of people without easy access to such IDs, particularly the poor.

The Court will also hear a case on lethal injection as criminal punishment.

Filed under: Crime, US Supreme Court, Voting reform , capital punishment, lethal injection, US Supreme Court, voter ID

I agree with Newt

From Yahoo! News

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said Tuesday that top tier Republican presidential candidates are making a mistake by skipping a forum focused on issues of importance to black voters.

Again, this touches on a point I made recently, if we believe we are right, we should compete for the hearts and minds of all voters.

Filed under: Elections, Politics, Republican , African-American, Newt Gingrich, Republican

Nelson will file suit

From the Orlando Sentinel political blog

Sen. Bill Nelson said this morning he’s going to sue over the national Democratic party blocking his state’s delegates from the presidential nominating convention.

Dean [Nelson] and Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean have been exchanging letters over the impasse. The DNC is penalizing Florida for holding its primary on Jan. 29 – before the Feb. 5 presidential contest window that the DNC set for all but four states with early primaries.

“We’re disappointed in Gov. Dean’s response,” Nelson said. ” He’s rejected at least three compromise solutions. Now there is no choice. I’m preparing a lawsuit.”

Stay tuned. Logically, I’m with the DNC; emotionally, I’m with my home state.

Filed under: 2008, Elections, Politics, Voting reform, presidential , Bill Nelson, Democrats, Florida, Howard Dean, presidential primary

Kiefer Sutherland Busted for DUI

From People.com

Kiefer Sutherland was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence early Tuesday morning in Hollywood, Los Angeles police department officials confirm.

I think they should cut him some slack. He’s had six bad days in the last few years and it appears he’s gonna have another.

Filed under: Television , 24, Kiefer Sutherland, Television

Religion as Baseball

From Beliefnet Joke of the Day,

Calvinists believe the game is fixed.

Lutherans believe they can’t win, but trust the Scorekeeper.

Quakers won’t swing.

Unitarians can catch anything.

Amish walk a lot.

Pagans sacrifice.

Jehovah’s Witnesses are thrown out often.

Televangelists get caught stealing.Episcopalians pass the plate.

Evangelicals make effective pitches.

Fundamentalists balk.

Adventists have a seventh-inning stretch.

Atheists refuse to have an Umpire.

Baptists want to play hardball.

Premillenialists expect the game to be called soon on account of darkness.

The Pope claims never to have committed an error.

Filed under: Humorous , religious humor

24 season 7

A tip of the conservative cap to Sean at The American Mind for this about the upcoming season of 24.

Howard Gordon, executive producer of FOX’s thriller “24,” says actor Carlos Bernard acted “very cool about it” when Gordon called him in his car to tell him that his character, Counter Terrorist Unit operative Tony Almeida, was not dead after all and would be returning for the show’s 7th season on Sunday, Jan. 13.

Read more at TAM including this from Sean,

As much as I like Tony bringing him “back to life” tells me the 24 writers are running out of creative storylines. What’s next? Will Jack wake up to find his wife alive taking a shower? I’m a little worried about the new season.

Has 24 jumped the shark? Read more opinions here, where you can also vote for or suggest the time it jumped the shark.

Filed under: Television , 24, jump the shark, Television

The government can do it more efficiently

Are these the folks you want to entrust your health care (in fact, most areas of your life) to?

First from the weekend’s Journal Sentinel,

State’s casino oversight falls short, audit says

[Wisconsin's] Division of Gaming failed to notice discrepancies in daily casino revenue figures between the state’s computer monitoring system and tallies done by the casinos, the Legislative Audit Bureau report says. The auditors found discrepancies in the numbers for every day of 2006, the report says. The report does not say how far off the numbers were or break them out by tribe or casino. [Emphasis mine.]

Review finds 9 children in imminent danger

A sweeping state review of more than 600 active cases under investigation by the Bureau of Milwaukee Child Welfare uncovered nine in which a child was in immediate danger, and child welfare workers were dispatched immediately to deal with the situation.

The review came after the May suffocation death of a toddler, Alicia Burgess, who was left in her home by child welfare workers despite warnings by two doctors that the child and her brother were in danger. Raul Arteaga, 34, the boyfriend of Alicia’s mother, is charged with first-degree reckless homicide.

“That’s a 1.5% measurement of cases that did not succeed,” said Reggie Bicha, the administrator of the Division of Children and Family Services, of the nine cases. “Anytime you have that kind of intense review and scrutiny, to have a 1.5% error rate is arguably not that bad – unless we are talking about kids.” [Emphasis mine.]

Now that’s an understatement. Extrapolate that 1.5% to 5.5 million Wisconsinites, or 300 million Americans.

And from the federal government (much too easy to find, most of the time)

Watch list hobbled by data errors: Technical gremlins, clashing rules undermine shared screening center

Four years after the federal government launched the interagency Terrorist Screening Center (TSC) and assigned it the daunting task of harmonizing more than a dozen separate watch lists, balky technology and quirky business practices still combine to introduce gaps and errors in the critical database. [Again emphasis is mine]

And this is for terrorists. Again we’re talking about a small percentage, but it grows to a large number when you include Wisconsinites or all Americans.

Filed under: Government inefficiency, Health care , Government inefficiency, government oversight, government regulation, Health care

Give it time

A tip of the conservative cap to elliot for this from Ann Althouse about Jena,

These are very complicated (and conflicting) reports, strained through high passions. It’s important to keep a clear head and try to get a complete picture. And don’t forget that you don’t have to choose sides. It’s possible for everyone to be wrong.

But, unfortunately, in the news and blogging world, it’s important to be first with an opinion or story whatever it may be. We have to have the scoop, we have to be able to say, “You heard it here first.”

When maybe we just need to let the facts come out.

Filed under: Blogging, Drive-by media