I want to be crystal clear that Speaker Pelosi is not changing anything, C-SPAN has made this request every year for decades:  To have permission to televise all of the House’s floor sessions in full, as they do for Joint Sessions and Committee hearings.

But in her new Direction leadership, one might have hoped she would abandon business as usual and opt for full accountability and transparency in the House’s procedings.

Pelosi says no to C-SPAN request on floor proceedings

Speaker-to-be Nancy Pelosi cited the need to preserve the ”dignity and decorum” of the House as she rejected a request Friday that C-SPAN operate its own cameras in covering the chamber.

The public service network has provided gavel-to-gavel television coverage of House proceedings since 1979. But the House leader has kept control of the cameras, with coverage generally limited to tight shots of the speaker or the podium.

The situation is similar in the Senate, which C-SPAN has televised since 1986.

C-SPAN’s chairman and chief executive told Pelosi, D-Calif., that under this arrangement, cameras are prevented ”from taking individual reaction shots or from panning the chamber, leaving viewers with an incomplete picture of what’s happening in the House of Representatives.”

Strange bedfellows indeed.

Al Qaeda Sends a Message to Democrats

Al Qaeda has sent a message to leaders of the Democratic party that credit for the defeat of congressional Republicans belongs to the terrorists.

In a portion of the tape from al Qaeda No. 2 man, Ayman al Zawahri, made available only today, Zawahri says he has two messages for American Democrats.

"The first is that you aren’t the ones who won the midterm elections, nor are the Republicans the ones who lost. Rather, the Mujahideen — the Muslim Ummah’s vanguard in Afghanistan and Iraq — are the ones who won, and the American forces and their Crusader allies are the ones who lost," Zawahri said, according to a full transcript obtained by ABC News.

Is this something anyone should be proud of?  I’d like to hear the democrats come forth and dispute it, even though in a sense they are correct. 

While they did not win the election, the terrorist’s actions coupled with the Democratic fear mongering and distaste of conflict was a part of the win.

The media with it spin mongerting also deserves an honorable mention.

via Drudge:

Rape Charges Dropped in Duke Case  

Prosecutors dropped rape charges Friday against three Duke University lacrosse players accused of attacking a stripper at a team party,

But… 

but the three still face kidnapping and sexual offense charges, a defense attorney said.

This whole case has never made sense.  Consider this:

Joseph Cheshire and attorneys for the other players have said for months the woman told several different versions of the alleged assault.

Cheshire said Friday that the accuser now says she does not know if she was penetrated, which he said led District Attorney Mike Nifong to dismiss the rape charges.

Nifong did not immediately return calls seeking comment.

The accuser, a 28-year-old student at North Carolina Central University, has said three men raped her in a bathroom at a March 13 team party where she was hired to perform as a stripper.

The players _ Dave Evans, Collin Finnerty and Reade Seligmann _ all say they are innocent. Their attorneys have consistently said no sex occurred at the party and have cited a lack of DNA evidence in the case as proof of their clients’ innocence.

When good kids go bad…

H/T Hot Air

The comparison kind of pisses me off.  Everytime some group wants to add shock to a claim, they draw a Nazi analogy, which only serves to diminish the horror of the Nazis.

Suddenly ICE officials are the Gestapo oppressing the peaceful law abiding Jews, not US officials enforcing both Imiigration and Identity Theft laws.

Hispanic groups call for moratorium on work raids

U.S. Hispanic groups and activists on Thursday called for a moratorium on workplace raids to round up illegal immigrants, saying they were reminiscent of Nazi crackdowns on Jews in the 1930s.  

They accused the Department of Immigration and Customs Enforcement of "racial profiling," or selective enforcement against Hispanics, for arresting 1,300 workers on immigration violations in December 12 raids at meatpacking plants in six states.

"We are demanding an end to these immigration raids, where they are targeting brown faces. That is major, major racial profiling, and that cannot be tolerated," said Rosa Rosales, president of the League of United Latin American Citizens, at a news conference.

Short answer.  NO.  If the people are here on legal work permits they have no cause for concern.  The quote from this article that irritates me the most is this:

The battle of insults between these two is not high drama, it is train wreck drama.  You don’t want to watch but you can’t help it.  A battle where both sides are grossly unsympathetic, you don’t know who to bet for or against, so you just bet for drama, and entertainment.  You want to see it escalate.

Bill O’Reilly did an hour on this tonight on the radio factor, and he extracted an actual tid bit of relevance to this.  His tag line says:

Rosie vs. Trump: He said, she said
Donald Trump viciously lashes out at Rosie O’Donnell, unleashing a series of personal attacks live on television, in retaliation for some statements that Rosie made on The View. But did Rosie deserve it? What provoked it? And why can’t we move past this kind of petty bickering? That and more in the first hour of the Radio Factor.

Bill is right.  While I play hit and miss in my agreement with Bill, he nailed this one.

The issue boils down to our complete inability to deal with issues and facts without taking the discussion to insults.