Saw these pictures and just had to share.

Check out the little one in the shades..what a prize winning shot that is!

HT:Don Surber

While glad handling the folks in Albania something happened to President Bush’s wristwatch.

Watch the video and you will see he has a watch with a brown wrist band on it in the beginning. See if you can determine when it disappeared from his arm. Pretty good pick-pocket.

Watch closely beginning at the 3:12 point and you will actually see the watch stripped from his wrist.

As if we need Reuters to tell us what we already feel.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Inundated with politics long before the 2008 presidential election, U.S. voters are in danger of suffering wearying bouts of the uniquely American affliction of “campaign fatigue” in coming months.

Experts say voters who follow the news closely are most at risk of the condition striking this year earlier than ever. It takes its toll with information overload, long hitches of unpaid work for campaign volunteers and the all-important undecided voters on the fence longer than usual.

Voter attention tends to wane in between the early debates, major primaries and conventions and, in a contest so long this time it includes two summer hiatuses before the November 2008 vote, fatigue is practically unavoidable, many of the experts said.

We’ve complained of long campaigns in the past when they started the September or so of the year prior to the first caucus and primary.

This has been an almost two-year campaign marathon and I, for one, am ready for it to end.

If Congress wants to be productive in at least one thing they should pass a law that presidential campaigns cannot start earlier than three months before the first caucus and primary, and the caucuses and primaries must not start before six months before the first national convention.

Kimsch from Musing Minds has a good post up that tells what she would like to see when the immigration reform bill is reconsidered.

So called “Sanctuary” cities, counties, and/or states lose federal funding until they stop being sanctuaries. If local governments won’t follow federal immigration laws, why should aliens?
Deport the criminals first. (see Patterico’s series - Part 10 here and links from there) Removing “sanctuary” cities, counties, and/or states will go a long way to make this happen. We have enough home grown criminals. We don’t need to be importing them as well.
Sunset date on the provisional “Z” visa. Once the provisional “Z” visa is obtained, it will expire after a certain time period. The alien must then either qualify for and receive a regular “Z” visa or leave.
Sunset date on the regular “Z” visa as well. Once an alien has received the regular “Z” visa, it will expire after a certain period of time. The alien must then apply for and receive citizenship or leave.
Family (chain migration): Family in this circumstance should include husband, wife, children and perhaps parent(s) of the husband/wife. I see parents because some adult children do take care of their parents. No sisters, brothers, aunts, uncles, cousins or “my sister’s husband’s cousin’s husband’s sister’s cousin’s aunt by marriage” If you don’t want to leave your extended family behind, then don’t leave in the first place.

Go to this link and read the rest.

Over zealous prosecutor Mike Nifong has begun his trial before the N.C. Bar today.

More than a year after shocking allegations emerged about Duke University’s lacrosse team, prosecutor Mike Nifong was back in court Tuesday—this time, as the defendant.
The North Carolina State Bar charged the Durham County district attorney with several violations of the state’s rules of professional conduct, all tied to his handling of the lacrosse case.

His trial is expected to run for five days, and as it started Tuesday, the hearing commission chairman promised a quick verdict. If convicted, Nifong could be disbarred.

Here’s hoping for justice to be done.

The violence going on in Gaza, with Palestinians fighting and killing Palestinians has been a story kind of on the back burner of the newspapers, and we haven’t discussed it here.

Two years ago Israel forcibly pulled the remaining Jewish “settlers” out of Gaza and turned the territory over to the Palestinians.

Now the Palestinian political forces of Hamas and Fatah are warring with each other, putting the innocent Palestinians in the middle as is their habit.

Those Palestinians who can afford it are leaving for Egypt or any other Muslim country that will take them.

Palestinian infighting, almost daily Israeli air strikes, and a steadily worsening economic situation triggered by an international aid boycott has made life unbearable for many Palestinians. Those who can are leaving.

European Union monitors at the Rafah border crossing from the Gaza Strip to Egypt say that more than 14,000 Palestinians have fled Gaza since Israel withdrew soldiers and settlers in 2005 and the rise to power of the Islamist Hamas five months later. In the past year alone, the average number of people leaving Gaza per day has doubled from 15 to 30.

The rising number of Palestinians seeking to emigrate has prompted Jerusalem’s Mufti, Mohammad Ahmed Hussein, to issue a fatwa prohibiting Palestinians from leaving Palestinian territories.

“Immigration from this blessed land is not permissible according to Islamic law,” said the religious edict. “People who live in this land should not leave it for the invaders and occupiers.”

It should be noted the Israelis are using air strikes because the fighting has overflowed into Israel and they are just protecting their own territory and not participating in this civil war.

One of the great leaders of Israel past, Abba Eban once said, “Palestinians never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity.”

When the Palestinians elected Hamas they should have known this would happen, but they did it willingly anyway. How many of their sons and daughters will have to die before they try to fix the mistake?

The problem is they will be unable to fix the mistake as the Hamas are firmly entrenched and will kill every last person if that’s what it takes for them to “win” and have their style of government.

What a shame. They have frittered away the land they got and now they are frittering away their most valuable resource: their people.

Hat Tip to Captain’s Quarters.

Time does fly. It seems impossible that it was 20 years ago today when Ronald Reagan gave what is remembered as one of the speeches which defined his Presidency.

Power Line has an interview posted this morning with Peter Robinson, the author of the famous speech at the Brandenburg Gate.

In April 1987, when I was assigned to write the Brandenburg Gate address, I spent a day in Berlin with the White House advance team, the logistical experts, Secret Service agents, and press officials who went to the site of every presidential visit to make arrangements. In the evening, I broke away from the advance team to join a dozen Berliners for dinner. Our hosts were Dieter and Ingeborg Elz, who, after Dieter completed his career at the World Bank in Washington, had retired to Berlin. Although we had never met, we had friends in common, and the Elzes had offered to put on this dinner party to give me a feel for their city. They had invited Berliners of different walks of life and political outlooks—businessmen, academics, students, homemakers.

We chatted for awhile. Then I explained that, earlier in the day, the ranking American diplomat in West Berlin had told me that over the years Berliners had made a kind of accomodation with the wall. “Is it true?” I asked. “Have you gotten used to it?”

So much of what continues in this piece we have heard or read before, yet if feels as though you are discovering the information for the first time. I think it is that way with monumental moments in history.

Well worth a read and a quick look at the video.

Rick Moran. with his literary flair also offers a great read.