The DNC issued a press release yesterday attacking Fred Thompson and his not-yet-presidential-campaign. Titled “Thompson’s Non-Campaign Stalls, Hits a Wall Before It Can Get Started,” the release hysterically attempts to rewrite reality by ignoring the strong success of Thompson’s not-even-yet-official candidacy.

DNC spokesgal Amaya Smith laughably declares, while channeling some of Thompson’s folksiness, “If Thompson was a NASCAR driver, he’d be sitting in the pit with four flat tires and no engine.” If that’s true then everyone else must be running in reverse.

It’s easy to see why Democrats are scared out of their wits by a Fred Thompson run. He’s polling competitively against either likely Democrat nominee. His solid federalist credentials and plain-spoken appeal suggests those numbers will only improve once more people get a chance to see him under the campaign spotlight.

Democrats are so frightened they’re attacking an opposing parties not-yet-announced-candidate before the primaries have even begun. But there’s little the Democrats can do, Fred Thompson is coming whether they like it or not.

Coming as little surprise to those of us perpetually baffled by the government’s disregard for enforcing its own immigration rules, The Washington Times reports that federal, state and local governments are among the biggest employers of those using ‘non-work’ Social Security numbers. These numbers are issued to aliens who are not authorized to work in the U.S. but who are allowed to succor from our welfare teat (see here for more on that).

If President Bush is serious about getting tough on U.S. employers who hire illegal aliens, he can start with his own administration, which employs thousands of unauthorized workers, says the top Republican on the House immigration subcommittee.

A 2006 audit showed federal, state and local governments are among the biggest employers of the half-million persons in the U.S. illegally using “non-work” Social Security numbers ? numbers issued legally, but with specific instructions that the holders are not authorized to work in the U.S.

. . .According to the 2006 audit by the Social Security inspector general, 17 of the 100 worst employers using employees with non-work numbers were government agencies: seven federal agencies, seven state agencies and three local governments. That means the government knows who those employees are, but usually does not go after them.

If the government can’t even follow it’s own simple rules by not giving work to those it has issued no work social security numbers to, how can we believe it is being thorough in keeping terrorists and jihadists out of our country? In fact, I’d say the odds are pretty good some of these terrorists are currently government employees.

More on the issue from the Compenium File: Border Security & Immigration

The Bush Administration has finally decided to make sure that the many billions of dollars Americans give to aid organizations through the federal government is not being spent to finance jihad against the U.S.

The Bush administration plans to screen thousands of people who work with charities and nonprofit organizations that receive U.S. Agency for International Development funds to ensure they are not connected with individuals or groups associated with terrorism, according to a recent Federal Register notice.

The plan would require the organizations to give the government detailed information about key personnel, including phone numbers, birth dates and e-mail addresses. But the government plans to shroud its use of that information in secrecy and does not intend to tell groups deemed unacceptable why they are rejected.

So of course there’s some boo-hooing in the article. Still, I find it hard to imagine how many outside of the organizations upon which would be placed an extra burden can challenge such a common sense move.

CounterTerrorism Blog calls this “a welcome and overdue development.” Succinct and to the point.

Democratic Representative from Washington Brian Baird has an op-ed in the Seattle Times in which he announces his new support for ongoing efforts in Iraq. Although he hilariously declares that the invasion of Iraq “may be one of the worst foreign-policy mistakes in the history of our nation,” Baird has also come to believe that the surge is working.

As a Democrat who voted against the war from the outset and who has been frankly critical of the administration and the post-invasion strategy, I am convinced by the evidence that the situation has at long last begun to change substantially for the better. I believe Iraq could have a positive future. Our diplomatic and military leaders in Iraq, their current strategy, and most importantly, our troops and the Iraqi people themselves, deserve our continued support and more time to succeed.

. . .It is just not realistic to expect Iraq or any other nation to be able to rebuild its government, infrastructure, security forces and economy in just four years. Despite the enormous challenges, the fact is, the situation on the ground in Iraq is improving in multiple and important ways.

Regardless of one’s politics or position on the invasion, this must be recognized and welcomed as good news.

Unfortunately, the idea that facts must be recognized is not something many Democrats are prepared to admit. They’d rather stand up in the Senate, House, or on the campaign trail and tell lies that serve their political ends but harm our efforts. Although Representative Baird is still wrong about a great many things, we should commend him for displaying a level of honesty not currently found in abundance within the Democratic party.

Further illustrating the descent of our government run schools into rampant moonbattery, a 13-year-old boy has been suspended for doodling that most vile of images, that of a gun!

Officials at an Arizona school suspended a 13-year-old boy for sketching what looked like a gun, saying the action posed a threat to his classmates.

The boy’s parents said the drawing was a harmless doodle and school officials overreacted.

“The school made him feel like he committed a crime. They are doing more damage than good,” said the boy’s mother, Paula Mosteller.

The drawing did not show blood, bullets, injuries or target any human, the parents said. And the East Valley Tribune reported that the boy said he did not intend for the picture to be a threat.

…Chandler district spokesman Terry Locke said the crude sketch was “absolutely considered a threat,” and that threatening words or pictures are punishable.

The only thing that should be considered a threat here is the continued attempts by educrats to criminalize the childhood behavior of boys.

Hat tip: Moonbattery

Learning absolutely nothing from the April massacre of 32 Virginia Tech students, the school has offered a mild set of changes supposedly designed to beef up security.

. . . The report said there was adequate coordination between Virginia Tech and local emergency workers, but recommended that officials improve the university?s ability to handle emergencies by centralizing the campus police and fire departments into one building. The cellular and phone systems on campus should also be upgraded to avoid being overloaded in emergencies, the report said.

The report described the university?s mental health system as responsive, but said privacy laws had created confusion about gaining access to students? health information. It called for an increase in the number of case workers on campus who can identify students at risk of mental problems.

Some of the changes suggested by the report have already been made. The university has replaced many of the types of door handles that enabled Mr. Cho to chain the doors during his attack, preventing the police from entering when they first arrived. It has also instituted a system to alert students and staff members of emergencies by text messages to cellphones, e-mail accounts and online instant messages.

So, Virginia Tech students, do your new door handles and new phone systems make you feel any safer? At least you’ll have the comfort of knowing that administration officials can babble on the phone a little bit more efficiently when a madman bursts into your classroom and begins firing. And you’ll furthermore know that when police finally do arrive they won’t have to wait outside, sitting on their thumbs (though they still might). Will these liberal gestures comfort you as you lay dying on the floor because you weren’t allowed the freedom to arm yourself with defensive weapons? I certainly hope so.

There has been more than enough media coverage of the horrific acts being committed in Iraq. Many, particularly in Congress, have recently taken to badmouth all Iraqi’s, portraying them as uninterested in helping themselves and ungrateful for American assistance. But then a story like this comes along:

FORWARD OPERATING BASE HAMMER, Iraq ? An Iraqi man saved the lives of four U.S. Soldiers and eight civilians when he intercepted a suicide bomber during a Concerned Citizens meeting in the town of al-Arafia Aug. 18.

The incident occurred while Soldiers from 3rd Squadron, 1st Cavalry Regiment, were talking with members of the al-Arafia Concerned Citizens, a volunteer community group, at a member?s house.

?I was about 12 feet away when the bomber came around the corner,? said Staff Sgt. Sean Kane, of Los Altos, Calif., acting platoon sergeant of Troop B, 3-1 Cav. ?I was about to engage when he jumped in front of us and intercepted the bomber as he ran toward us. As he pushed him away, the bomb went off.?

The citizen?s actions saved the lives of four U.S. Soldiers and eight civilians.

Kane felt the loss personally because he had met and interacted with his rescuer many times before the incident.

?He was high-spirited and really believed what the group (Concerned Citizens) was doing,? Kane said. ?I have no doubt the bomber was trying to kill American Soldiers. It was very calculated the way the bomber tried to do it. If he hadn?t intercepted him, there is no telling how bad it could have been.?

Kane believes the citizen is a hero.

?He could have run behind us or away from us, but he made the decision to sacrifice himself to protect everyone. Having talked with his father, I was told that even if he would have known the outcome before hand, he wouldn?t have acted differently.?

Capt. Brian Gilbert, of Boise, Idaho, the commander of Company D, 1st Battalion, 15th Infantry Regiment, currently attached to 3-1 Cavalry, echoed Kane?s sentiment.

?I spoke with the father,? Gilbert said. ?He said he has no remorse in his son?s death because he died saving American Soldiers.?

Later that night, the Concerned Citizens group contacted the local National Police director, Lt. Col. Samir, with the location of the al-Qaeda cell believed to be responsible for the attack. The National Police immediately conducted a raid that resulted in four arrests.

Despite the citizen?s death, Gilbert is encouraged by the cooperation between citizens and the Iraqi National Police.

?The effort of the Concerned Citizens group has made the area much safer,? he said. ?They are proud of who they are and their area, and want to get rid of the terrorists in their area.?

Gilbert also praised the Iraqi National Police?s role in eliminating insurgents in the area.

?The cooperation between them and the Concerned Citizens has been key,? Gilbert said. ?The NP has done a great job of responding to the tips they have been given by the group.?

Gilbert said he believes the area is improving because of the efforts of local citizens. The death, while unfortunate, demonstrated how close many in the area have become with the American Soldiers operating there.

?I consider many in the town friends, and I know they feel the same,? Gilbert said. ?This is a tough situation, but we?ll move on and try to prevent things like this from happening again. I?ve talked with his family and told them how brave their son was. This is a huge loss for everyone involved.?

Not only was this Iraqi a member of a group doing the kind of work politicians claim the Iraqi’s aren’t trying to do for themselves, but he was also willing to sacrifice his life for his fellow citizens and American soldiers. There’s plenty that has gone wrong in Iraq, but that shouldn’t give license to American politicians to engage in politically calculated attacks on the whole of the Iraqi population. There’s still room to get this right.

Britain’s government run National Health Service has won a court ruling allowing it to deny $5-a-day medications to Alzheimer’s patients in the earliest stages of the debilitating disease.

Drug companies and campaigners yesterday lost a high court appeal for people in the earliest stages of Alzheimer’s to be prescribed on the NHS a ?2.50-a-day drug which is said to provide relief from the symptoms and respite for families.

. . .The organisation decided in November that three acetyl cholinesterase inhibitors - Aricept, Reminyl and Exelon - should only be prescribed to patients in the moderate but not earliest stages of the disease. Eisai and Pfizer, which make and market Aricept, supported by patient groups, sought a judicial review.

Yesterday, Paul Hooper, managing director of Eisai, said: “The guidance Nice has issued is morally reprehensible. They are denying patients access to early treatment and that is wrong. This is about patients, not profits. For Nice to deny treatment to patients with mild Alzheimer’s disease is disgraceful.”

Woah woah woah woah woah. Back this trolley on up. How can a benevolent, government-run, bureaucrats wet-dream of a health service possibly be motivated by profits? Surely they do only what is in the best interest of the patient, right? Well, not so much:

The ruling means the drug will not be available for people in the earliest stages of the disease, allowing the decision of the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice), that Aricept’s benefits are too slight to justify prescribing, to stand.

So now we come to the rub. The British NHS, which keeps one in eight patients waiting over a year for treatment, has decided which benefits are worth treatment and which are not. What criteria do they use to make this judgment? Who knows. But where is the individual in this process? Where is freedom to make ones own decisions? How is it so hard for leftists to comprehend that it is antithetical to freedom to allow governments the power to decide what is in the best interest of the citizen. Hillary Clinton wants to impose this dictatorial failure of a health system on Americans. We must firmly and clearly reject this assault on liberty.

Hat tip: BizzyBlog (via National Center Blog)

Related:
The Problems with Socialized Health Care
I’m Not Going to Pay a Lot for This MRI
Don’t Buy The Hype

My jaw actually dropped when reading about this.

20% of convicted criminals in Norway don’t show up to serve their sentences.

20 percent of convicted criminals do not show up for their prison terms, according to the Norwegian Correctional Services. Prison authorities can do little but hope that the criminals will eventually come knocking on the prison door.

“It?s difficult to make plans for the prison terms when we have no idea who will show up and who won’t,” said Ellinor Houm, director of the Norwegian Correctional Services, section for eastern Norway.

Get this. The longer the sentence, the less likely the convict is to show up. No kidding.

I can’t get past the idea that convicted criminals have to voluntarily show up to serve their sentences. What the hell is wrong with the liberals in charge of Norway? Wait, that’s a self answering question.

In their defense, they have just passed a law which makes it illegal to skip your prison sentence. I’m no criminal justice expert, but in my opinion it does little good to threaten someone with additional prison time when you can’t even make them show up to the prison. It was a good try though.

Europe is so utterly screwed.

Updating this story from a few weeks ago, the two boys being held hostage by power-mad DA Bradley Berry have finally been liberated.

judge dismissed charges this morning against the two Patton Middle School teens accused of sexual harassment for swatting girls on the buttocks.

Judge John L. Collins said he acted “in the interests of justice” after both prosecutors and the boys’ defense lawyers said four alleged victims had signed a civil compromise in the case, which drew national attention. The victims said they want to drop the charges.

Dennis Prager has targeted Bradley Berry for removal from office:

Bradley, like Nifong, must be removed from office. Anyone who believes that seventh-graders who swat girls’ buttocks on “slap butt day” are sex criminals who should be charged with crimes that would permanently label them as sex offenders is a dangerous fool. A district attorney who believes that is a dangerous fool. Bradley Berry has acted like Mike Nifong. He needs to be punished like Mike Nifong.

Hear, hear.