The woman pictured below was featured in this article at American Thinker.

I had never heard of Jeannette Rankin, but after reading both the above linked piece and following it up with additional research here, it became apparent that I would have enjoyed watching her in action:

How many feminists know that Montana’s groundbreaker, born in 1880, trimmed her own hats, but was still gutsy enough to — I quote — tramp “through deep snow potting bears and wolves for pastime”? [i] (Loud claps and laugher.)

How many journalists are aware that Miss Rankin, a seamstress, made her own clothes, cooked excellent meals, and “endured all the hardships of pioneers” with her sisters in Montana’s wilderness? [ii]

Yes, the world has changed since Ms. Rankin’s time but I’ll take someone who, as is pointed out by Ben-Peter Terpstra,

even “after entering politics” Miss Rankin “refused to forsake the old household arts, cooking and needlework.” [iv]

On second thought, rather than admiring her from afar, this is a figure in history I would have loved to sit down and enjoy a cup of tea with. Don’t know of course, but she sure reads like a genuine woman.

There has been a lot of criticism of Senator Obama and his campaign for their supposed two faced talk on Nafta….saying one thing at the last debate, another when speaking to Canadian Officials.

I have learned to hold my powder on such stories recognizing that the Senator’s opponent(s) have connections worldwide (and the desire to win at all cost). Personally I prefer to wait and see if another shoe drops before jumping into the fray.

Seems it has dropped, but has it cost Obama votes in Texas and Ohio in the meantime..probably:

OTTAWA(Reuters) - Canada defended Democratic front-runner Barack Obama Monday over accusations from rival Hillary Clinton that he is secretly at ease with a hemispheric trade accord which he publicly blames for losing U.S. jobs.

Clinton’s criticism, on the eve of make-or-break presidential nomination contests for her in Ohio and Texas, stemmed from a report by Canadian television station CTV that an Obama economic adviser told Canadian officials the candidate was not seriously considering disrupting the trade accord.

But the Canadian Embassy in Washington released a statement essentially backing up the Obama camp’s version of the meeting between adviser Austan Goolsbee and officials at the Canadian consulate in Chicago.

“There was no intention to convey, in any way, that Senator Obama and his campaign team were taking a different position in public from views expressed in private, including about NAFTA,” the embassy statement said. “We deeply regret any inference that may have been drawn to that effect.”

Quite interesting, don’t you think?

Actions like these will go a long way towards teaching children to share and respect each other:

A child’s birthday party at a Chuck E. Cheese restaurant in Massachusetts was cut short when a fight broke out between two mothers.

The mother of the 9-year-old birthday boy apparently became enraged because the other woman’s son was “hogging” an arcade game, Natick, Mass., police said.

Ridiculous.

I’m sure those of you living in states hosting primaries today will be pleased when the day is done and your state returns to some sense of normalcy. I’ll try to get the links up later for those who choose to follow the returns as they come in this evening.

At least the press will have something to talk about the next few days:

Pelosi wants U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeffrey Taylor to work “with appropriate dispatch” to put the case before a grand jury. She said the misdemeanor contempt charges against Miers would be for refusing to testify to Congress about the 2006 firings of federal prosecutors and against Bolten for failing to turn over White House documents related to the purge.

Pelosi’s demands were spelled out in letters sent Thursday to Taylor and Attorney General Michael Mukasey. Taylor’s office would decide whether to select a grand jury, but to move forward, he must first consult with the attorney general.

Justice Department spokesman Brian Roehrkasse said Mukasey is taking a look at the referral, but the Justice Department traditionally does not make those types of referrals.

“As we have said previously, last July the Justice Department informed the House leadership that longstanding department precedent, dating back through several administrations of both parties, did not allow a United States attorney to refer a congressional contempt citation to a grand jury or otherwise to prosecute an Executive Branch official who carried out a presidential instruction to invoke the president’s claim of executive privilege before a committee of Congress,” Roehrkasse said.

[Emphasis, mine]

If this whole fiasco had not been a contrived political ploy from its inception (any President (R) or (D), has the right to fire US Attorneys at will) then I might understand the need for it to be pursued.

In any administration even those who serve honorably do so at the pleasure of the President, and that is an understood fact when appointments are offered or awarded.

It is most certain that decent men and women lost their positions when the US Attorney firings occurred, and, like anyone who is relieved of their employment it was no doubt difficult for both them and their families.

But the basic fact remains, there was no there, there, just another opportunity for Congress to rile the public without presenting the complete truth.

You better think twice before sending that dinner back to the kitchen the next time you dine out:

WEST BEND, Wis. (AP) - A restaurant cook is out of a job and facing a felony charge after being accused of hiding hairs in a ribeye because a customer complained the first steak served to him was overcooked.

Just the publicity every restaurant needs.

If you have not already seen this slip of the tongue on the part of Senator McCain while on the campaign trail yesterday, do yourself a favor and watch this quick clip.

Blackfive has a great way to support troops stationed in Afghanistan which won’t cost you any more than a few minutes of your time.

Thomas Sowell offers his take on the media (more specifically the NYT):

The front page of the New York Times has increasingly become the home of editorials disguised as “news” stories. Too often it has become the home of hoaxes.

Going back some years, it was the Tawana Brawley hoax that she had been gang-raped by a bunch of white men. Just a couple of years ago, it was the Duke University “rape” hoax that they fell for.

In between there were the various hoaxes of New York Times reporter Jayson Blair, who was kept on and promoted until too many people found out what he had been doing and the paper had to let him go.

Interesting. “Doves of Mosul” from Michael Yon:

On 23 February at FOB Marez in Mosul, I saw a dove on the ground. The bird was still alive but obviously sick. It looked up at me blinking, yet made no move to escape. The feathers were not groomed and it appeared to have a small growth near or at the leading edge of its right wing.

Standing your ground as it applies to politics is one thing, this is absurd:

The Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office is investigating a politically motivated stabbing that left one in-law hospitalized and another in prison.

Authorities said brother-in-laws Jose Ortiz and Sean Shurelds were involved in a verbal altercation over Democratic presidential hopefuls Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton when the argument escalated into a stabbing inside their family home on Honeylocust Court in Collegeville.

Authorities said Ortiz, a registered Republican and Clinton supporter, allegedly stabbed Shurelds, an Obama supporter, in the stomach. Ortiz told police Shurelds began to choke him, so he grabbed a knife and stabbed him.

James Lileks remembers the first attack on the World Trade Center:

It’s the fifteenth anniversary of the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center. The first one, I mean. I was in DC working in a syndicate bureau at the time, and we learned the news the old-fashioned way: an ALERT on the wires.

Time marches by quickly doesn’t it?

Very interesting information pertaining to the malfunctioning spy satellite which the US will attempt to destroy before it reaches earth:

Giant golf ball deployed. CNN says that “a floating X-band radar has to be modified to track the satellite’s trajectory.” That would be the massive — and massively controversial — Sea-Based X-Band Radar. The $815 million, 28-story, orb-like contraption has the ability, in theory, to tell which way a baseball is spinning — from 3,000 miles away. But it’s also proven to susceptible to the elements and high seas. The thing has been in and out of the repair shop for years.

Update: CNN is reporting that an attempt may be made on Thursday to destroy the satellite.

WASHINGTON (CNN) — The U.S. Navy will likely attempt to shoot down a faulty spy satellite Thursday, the day after the space shuttle Atlantis is scheduled to land, two officials told CNN Monday.

Michael Barone takes a look at the democratic race and breaks down those tricky delegate counts. When it comes to elections he is one of the few who can catch and keep my attention when it comes to number crunching:

With the help of thegreenpapers.com the invaluable Green Papers, I made some calculations in a best-case scenario for Hillary Clinton in the Wisconsin, Ohio, and Texas primaries. I assumed that Clinton won statewide in each case, and that Obama carried only congressional districts (or in Texas, state Senate districts) dominated by upscale white voters and/or black voters. This is an especially optimistic assumption in Wisconsin, where Clinton currently trails Obama by 4 or 5 percent in public polls. The results are as follows: a 44-30 delegate edge in Wisconsin, an 83-58 delegate edge in Ohio, and an 82-41 delegate edge in Texas. Overall this is an 80-delegate advantage, based (again I emphasize) on optimistic assumptions.

This would be enough to erase the current 58-delegate edge Obama has in total delegates according to Real Clear Politics. But not enough to overcome the 137-delegate edge he has among “pledged delegates,” that is, those chosen in caucuses and primaries. And it doesn’t account for the fact that Texas on March 4 will also have caucuses to select another 67 delegates. The Obama campaign has swamped the Clinton campaign in almost all the caucuses and probably has far more in the way of organization in Texas’s 254 counties than the Clinton campaign does.

Much more at the link.

Clever number quiz you can take on line. I tried it twice and both times the answer was correct. A bit of fun for Tuesday.

This evening Frontline will tackle the complex situation which occurred in Haditha.

The upcoming Frontline broadcast of “Rules of Engagement: What Really Happened in Haditha” is a major event. A co-production with Yellow River Productions, it will air February 19th at 9 p.m. ET on PBS. For the first time, television viewers will hear the facts about the incident in Haditha.

Arun Rath is the documentary’s producer, writer, and director. He took some time from a hectic postproduction schedule to talk with Defend Our Marines.

Not Murtha’s version of Haditha

“I am a journalist and tend to follow world news fairly closely, but before starting work on this project all I knew about the Haditha incident was basically the headlines,” Rath told me.

“When I first heard about it I thought it was interesting and counterintuitive. I knew that Marines had more intense training than our other forces, so the idea that so many would suddenly snap under pressure seemed a little strange. But I also knew that horrible things happen in wars, and figured something bad must have happened.

“Once we started to look into the story more deeply, we realized how far off the popular notion of what happened in Haditha was. For instance, the idea that there were no firefights when we know that November 19, 2005 was a day of very intense attacks across the town. We spend some time in our film spelling this out, using an interview with Major (then Captain) Jeffrey Dinsmore, the battalion’s intelligence officer, to help bring that day to life. We were also able to obtain the ScanEagle video from that day. That will be eye-opening for much of our audience.”

If interested, please check your local PBS station for availability.

The Anchoress linked to an article in one of her round-ups which offers thoughts on motherhood from a perspective unlike the typical associations.

For example, the mother who stays home with small children experiences a very real withdrawal from the world. Her existence is definitely monastic. Her tasks and preoccupations remove her from the centres of power and social importance. And she feels it. Moreover her sustained contact with young children (the mildest of the mild) gives her a privileged opportunity to be in harmony with the mild, that is, to attune herself to the powerlessness rather than to the powerful.

It’s nice to read a piece which offers encouragement and praise to those Moms who can afford and choose to stay at home with children. To me it is the toughest but most rewarding job one can have.

Yep! (And this goes for all who choose to run for POTUS.)

In presidential politics, the past is not just prologue. It’s ammunition.

The test of President Bush’s Saturday morning radion address is offer in full here. I choose this site as the commentary following the President’s remarks are worthy of note.

If this seems nuts, it is; but it is the world we live in, and the world that Nancy Pelosi is determined to preserve for her contributors in the plaintiffs’ bar.

The FISA bill which will expire at midnight is essential not only for the safety of America but those who reside overseas and yes for the lives of our military also. It is a complete and utter travesty (though somehow not surprising) that the Democrats in the House have chosen to go into recess without completion of this important task.

A masterpiece in less than a minute?

Enjoy!

Let me start by offering thoughts and prayers to all those at NIU where the events of yesterday will alter forever the lives of many.

Another senseless tragedy and one which mimics far too many we have had to read or write about in the not so distant past.

Now I understand why sometimes it is so exhausting to read or watch the news (just joking) ..they have a “Bias towards Conflict.”

Never really thought of it that way but point well taken.

This exclusive interview with John McCain’s son Jack, is refreshingly candid. An enjoyable read with many touches of humor injected.

“There had been musings that I was coming to NAPS. The prior enlisted had been there a few days before and evidently they heard Senator McCain was coming to drop off his son so they had to clean a little more – which made my reception less than warm,” recalls the 21-year-old McCain.

Governor Huckabee has the right to remain in the race for the Presidency if he so chooses, but in listening to yesterdays interview with Neil Cavuto when questioned about Mitt Romney’s endorsement of John McCain, one might sense that he knows the end is near but does not have the capacity to bow out gracefully.

Searching for a site which supplies a decent round-up of links to news for the day? I recently discovered Pageflakes and have found the page to be diversified enough to provide topics which might be of interest to all.

Pictures of a moose might not be anything unusual, but pictures of this particular breed of the animal are certainly rare:

WHITEFISH, Mont. — A KREM-TV News viewer shared incredible pictures of an albino moose shot recently by a co-worker near Whitefish, Montana. The cow moose can be seen foraging for food in a thicket with two other moose.

A terrific slideshow of photos of the moose in its natural habitat is available here.

For those who believe that we can turn a blind eye to the threats which face not only our country but the world in the War on Terror, take a few minutes to read this:

Islamist extremists have infiltrated Government and key public utilities to pass sensitive information to terrorists, the security services have warned.

Counter-terrorism officials say “insiders” or their associates are almost certainly working “undetected” in sensitive posts and are actively supporting the activities of extremists.

In some cases, lifelong relationships between friends or relatives are being exploited to obtain crucial information from those in sensitive posts.

The development is detailed in intelligence reports circulated to the Home Office, police and Whitehall officials.

No “scare tactics” in play here by politicians, just the realism of the world in which we live today.

Michael Yon relays a few of those short dispatches he mentioned in an email a while back:

An important article by Sudarsan Raghavan in the Washington Post shows how the AQI is coming to grips with their ever-shrinking habitat. Al Qaeda is on the run. They are demoralized and being fractured and re-fractured.

and this:

These words come to you from South Baghdad, where signs of progress are unmistakable. I am with 1-4 CAV in an area that was among the most dangerous in Iraq during early and mid 2007. But a few days ago I walked down a road—wearing no body armor or helmet—where just 7 or 8 months ago tanks and Strykers would have been in great danger.

I don’t usually insert videos in these quick hit type posts, but I just could not resist this one: HT: Roger Simon:

Move over Mick Jagger… she’s 67!

Finally, for dog lovers everywhere, the time has once again arrived for the Westminster Dog Show. For some great pics, check out this site.

Have a terrific Tuesday.

Just a few things you might have missed this week amidst all the breaking political news:

President Bush attended his final National Prayer Breakfast on Thursday:

I believe in the power of prayer, because I have felt it in my own life. Prayer has strengthened me in times of personal challenge. It has helped me meet the challenges of the presidency. I understand now clearly the story of the calm in the rough seas. And so at this final prayer breakfast as your President, I thank you for your prayers, and I thank our people all across America for their prayers. And I ask you not to stop in the year ahead. We have so much work to do for our country, and with the help of the Almighty, we will build a freer world –and a safer, more hopeful, more noble America.

Michael Yon offers this brief dispatch with a link to the complete story:

“We were taking pretty sustained fire, but once you engage, they just disappear,” Lt. Jacob Deguire said minutes after a gunfight against insurgents in downtown Mosul. “They’re really good at disappearing once you return fire.”

A ruling in the case against Representative William Jefferson has been handed down:

A judge ruled Wednesday that an indictment accusing Rep. William Jefferson (D-La.) of masterminding a wide-ranging bribery scheme involving business deals in Africa is valid.

Jefferson’s attorneys argued that most of the charges should be thrown out because testimony his staffers gave to a grand jury violated the Constitution’s speech and debate clause that protects legislative activity from intervention by other branches of government. The clause specifically says a congressman “shall not be questioned in any other Place” about his legislative work.

U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III agreed with the government’s argument that Jefferson’s interpretation was overly broad and would prevent a member of Congress from ever being formally accused of a crime associated with their work in Congress.

My choice for quote of the week:

I don’t agree with the characterization that McCain is responsible for the radicalization of these conservatives. They have radicalized themselves. They alone are responsible for their emotions and decisions.

Absolutely. Read the balance of this post by Kim Priestcap.

Whether your preference is the Left or the Right, if you are a political junkie you like to have available all the information possible.

This site offers listings of all the Super Delegates on the Democratic side. Given the importance these delegates may place in nominating a candidate on the Left, it might be a site to bookmark.

Here’s a list of superdelegates to the 2008 Democratic Convention that have officially announced who they plan to nominate. If you know of any others or are a superdelegate please post a comment.
We have also created a list of superdelegates that have not endorsed a candidate. There are 796 (not including Michigan and Florida) total Democratic superdelegates that the nominees are trying to be endorsed by. This consists of 720 regular superdelegates and 76 unpledged add-ons. We will add the unpledged add-ons as soon as they are named by each state.

Have a great Friday and terrific weekend.

Captain Ed posts on the latest concerns of my home state Senior Senator.

Arlen Specter wants to get to the bottom of an obstruction of justice that burns to the soul of America. Someone destroyed videotapes that evidenced a crime, and Specter wants an investigation. Was it the CIA who destroyed the videotapes? FBI? BATF? OMB? No — it was the NFL:

I disagree with just one teeny-tiny little point in this piece. It’s in the title of the post.

Respectfully Captain, it’s long past time the Senator finds another form of amusement.

Read the balance of this post done with the typical Ed Morrissey flair.

This about sums it up, don’t you think?

It could be that in politics, as in movies, the great screenwriter William Goldman was right: Nobody knows anything.

HT:Lucianne

I wonder if next year this will be packaged and ready to market prior to the big game?

It’s time for Super Bowl Ad Bingo!

Sensible thoughts on immigration.

4. Give amnesty to the rest…. Ah, now everyone’s going crazy. I’m just being blunt. You can call it amnesty, shamnesty or late for lunch… It comes to the same thing. These people came here under the “Wink System.” If you’re going to end the “Wink System,” you have to be fair. You can’t punish people retroactively for a shell game they didn’t invent.

Michael Yon’s latest dispatch:

“The Iranians are poison to the Iraqi people,” said the old Sheik. He said he is from the Jabouri tribe, and that many Jabouri are Sunni, like him, but many others are Shia. He pointed to someone across the room and said, “That is my son-in-law, and he is Shia!” and his son-in-law smiled. I see this all over. The fabric of Iraq is finely woven and not coarse like it sometimes appears from afar. The old Sheik said that both Sunni and Shia were friends who often came to his house. They even prayed together…..

“Men of Valor: Part VI of VII” has been posted at Michael Yon’s site. If you have been following this series don’t miss this latest dispatch.

From the cities to the deserts, the malarial jungles to stiff-frozen lakes, from counterinsurgencies to head-on battles in cragged mountains, it takes years to make a good infantry soldier. Just down the road was urban combat. Here were scorpions, relentless sun and heat, and mines scattered like seeds in the sand. In the city there was no need to hide our tracks, whereas out here where noise could drift for miles in the desert night, track discipline could be life and death.

This wins the “what?” award for the week:

A British parking warden ticketed a car which had pulled up to a hospital with a patient in a diabetic coma, and proceeded to continue writing the ticket even as emergency personnel frantically attended to the victim.

From Deans World comes what I consider my favorite quote of the week.

“Freedom isn’t just a pretty word or a fun way to be, or even just the most moral state of affairs. It’s also the best way to make life better for people.”

Simply stated but speaks volumes.

If you would like to read a very thought provoking article, this might be a good choice:

This is a striking story: today, it frequently seems as if scientific authority is replacing religious and moral authority, and in the process being transformed into a dogma. At first sight, it appears that science has the last word on all the important questions of our time. Science is no longer confined to the laboratory. Parents are advised to adopt this or that child-rearing technique on the grounds that ‘the research’ has shown what is best for kids. Scientific studies are frequently used to instruct people on how to conduct their relationships and family life, and on what food they should eat, how much alcohol they should drink, how frequently they can expose their skin to the sun, and even how they should have sex. Virtually every aspect of human life is discussed in scientific terms, and justified with reference to a piece of research or by appealing to the judgment of experts.

HT:Brutally Honest

A sign of the times?

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A record number of readers visited U.S. online newspaper sites last year, according to figures released on Thursday, confirming the Web as one of the few bright spots for the struggling newspaper industry.

The Newspaper Association of America reported the number of unique visitors to newspaper Web sites last year rose more than 6 percent to a monthly average of 60 million. Monthly visits climbed 9 percent in the fourth quarter from a year ago.

It said that during the fourth quarter, 39 percent of all active Web users visited newspaper Web sites, with visits averaging 44 minutes a month.

Here’s to a great Friday for all and a terrific weekend as well.