The Nannystate is in full force in Nevada:

LAS VEGAS — A Nevada newspaper says it has been served a federal grand jury subpoena seeking information about readers who posted comments on the paper’s Web site.

The Las Vegas Review-Journal reported Tuesday that its editor, Thomas Mitchell, plans to fight the request, which the newspaper received after reporting on a federal tax fraud case against business owner Robert Kahre.

The subpoena seeks the identities and personal information about people who posted comments on the story. The newspaper said prosecutors told the judge in the case that some comments hinted at acts of violence and the subpoena was issued out of concern for jurors’ safety.

Mitchell said anonymous speech is “a fundamental and historic part of this country.” The newspaper would consider cooperating if specific crimes or real threats were presented, he said.

[SNIP]

The newspaper said it received the subpoena June 2, a week after its story describing the government’s case against Kahre, a Las Vegas construction company executive accused of paying contractors with gold and silver U.S. coins based on the precious metal value of the coins but using the much lower face value of the coins for tax purposes. Kahre and the other defendants have pleaded not guilty.

The story drew nearly 175 online comments by Monday night, most in support of Kahre and critical of the government and jurors and attorneys in the case.

One commentator said: “The sad thing is there are 12 dummies on the jury who will convict him. They should be hung along with the feds.”

Another called Damm a “socialist, fascist Mormon” and a “Nazi moron.”

The comments are written under pseudonyms. Along with the real names of people who posted comments, the subpoena asks the newspaper for the writers’ gender, birth date, physical address, telephone number, Internet service provider, IP address and credit card numbers.

Just sayin…

Nanny-statist Senator Jean Francois Kerry, North Dakota Senator Byron Dorgan, Mississippi’s Roger Wicker, and yes, Minnesota’s own Senator Amy Klobuchar think that AT&T’s exclusive contract to sell the new I-Phone is somehow unnfaaair! Somehow these lame-brained senators think that free-enterprise (did I say free?) should be run like a kindergarten classroom, by making sure everyone gets equal toys. Which is ridiculous. When I was a kid and my folks were poor – wishing I had the same RC car as the richer neighbors kid didn’t do anything. It’s why I grew up and got an education, and opportunities so that if my kid needs that RC car – I can get it for him. Competition, according to these mental midgets, is a baaad thiiing… because competition means someone might not do as well as somebody else, and someone might walk away feeling baaad. And for some unknown, godforsaken reason, competition is somehow bad for consumers.

So, in the interests of faaairness, and with a lack of other things of import on which to focus, these nanny-statist buffoons will take it upon themselves to convene a hearing on why it is sooo unfaaiiir that some wireless services should have so much while others have so very little, and to better understand why this is so.

Here’s a clue, Senators: It’s called CONTRACT LAW. It’s called COMPETITION. Sprint saw the smoke signals that AT&T had an exclusivity deal with the I-Phone, and snatched up and pre-empted the new I-Phone release with what I believe is a superior phone, the Palm Pre. And not for the $599 price tag of the new I-Phone, but for a mere $200 semolians.

Being a Palm person myself with an AT&T contract, was I happy about it? Hell no. But that’s the way the ball bounces. I know that after a while, the exclusivity on models runs out, and phones are then more widely available with a variety of carriers.

I don’t need some government nannystaters to wipe away my tears, thank you.

The point is, competition is the force that ultimately provides the drive to enhance the quality and value of goods and services; while lack thereof fosters mediocrity, poor service and just not giving a damn.

Which is, when it comes down to it, what liberalism is all about.

(h/t Chris Baker)

Rather tired and I have to get up early to go play golf for the first time – that, plus get the car into the shop for new tires and an oil change. Bottom line, haven’t the time to write something worthwhile – so, have at it.

UPDATE: I “shot” a 92 for 12 holes on a par 3 course. I think my game needs a bit of work – with that chip shot thingy being real tricky for me.

Yep:

Journalism is popular, but it is popular mainly as fiction. Life is one world, and life seen in the newspapers is another. – G K Chesterton

Soon it will be the All Barak Channel, Central Barack Syndicate, National Barack Combine and Mendaciously Servile No Barack Criticism – the MSM is just becoming ever more uncaring that we can see what they’re doing:

Today, President Obama appointed 28 members to the President’s Commission on White House Fellowships. This accomplished group of citizens representing a broad range of backgrounds, interests, and professions are responsible for recommending a group of exceptional men and women to the President for selection as White House Fellows. The commission will be chaired by John Phillips, a partner at Phillips and Cohen Law Firm. Cheryl Dorsey, President of Echoing Green, will vice-chair the commission. A full list of commissioners and their biographies can be found below…

…Tom Brokaw:

Tom Brokaw is a Special Correspondent for NBC News. During 2008, he served as the Interim Moderator on Meet the Press. From 1982 to 2004, he served as the White House correspondent, the Chief Correspondent for Today, and the NBC Nightly News anchor…

How many MSMers in the news media would have accepted an appointment by President Bush?

Because rigid adherence to out-of-date leftist talking points (and this one dates from 1983) trumps the safety and liberty of the American people:

Perhaps no part of the Obama administration’s planned Defense Department budget makes less sense than its effort to slash $1.2B from missile defense programs for FY 2010.

In light of the recent behavior of North Korea and the reminder that we face the prospect of a nuclear-armed revolutionary Islamic state in Iran, a group of Republican congressmen on the House Armed Services Committee on Tuesday offered a series of amendments seeking to reverse the proposed cuts.

Sources on the Committee tell Pajamas Media that the Committee Democrats blocked the amendments — seemingly unaware that earlier in the day Obama had deemed North Korea’s nuclear ambitions to be a “grave threat” or that administration officials were reporting that North Korea could have an ICBM capable of reaching the U.S. west coast within five years. Minority Whip Eric Cantor told Pajamas Media: “As we watch what is going on with North Korea and the brutal regime in Iran, Democrat efforts to cut missile defense programs are not only misguided, but dangerous. As our enemies ramp up, it makes no sense to cut important defense and national security programs.”

This is complete madness – in leftist ideology, it was pronounced in 1983 (at the behest of Soviet propagandists and fellow travelers) that SDI would never work. In spite of the fact that the USSR was building as much SDI as they could; in spite of the fact that scientific theory showed a wide array of SDI options; in spite of the fact that technological developments over the past quarter century have only confirmed the validity of SDI; in spite of the fact that we’re dealing ever more with mad men possessed of nuclear weapons – in spite of all this, the left was never instructed to drop opposition to SDI. Obama, being the figurehead of leftism in America, was instructed to parrot opposition to SDI while Congressional Democrats, also under such instructions, just waited for the chance to have a President who would go along with cuts in SDI. And here we are.

I do wonder how anyone could ever be in opposition to anything which might prevent a nuclear weapon from reaching our territory – heck, if it cost $10 trillion and only stopped one nuke, it’d be worth it. Of course, it won’t cost that much and it will stop far more than one…in the end, it might stop them all and make nuclear weapons, as Reagan desired, obsolete. Certainly this is a worthwhile task to turn ourselves to…but nothing doing on the left; SDI was just Ronald “Raygun” trying to start a nuclear war (work with me here, I’m dealing with leftist thought – which really did state that a method to defend against nuclear weapons was actually a means of using nuclear weapons) and thus it had to be stopped (that stopping it would prevent the bankruptcy of the USSR just never made it through the fog of leftist “thought”…and that USSR is bankrupt and defunct in large measure because of SDI still doesn’t get through their thick skulls…that the opposition to SDI is now lead on the global stage by those very Powers which would become trivial on the world stage once we deploy a full SDI system also never seems to get past the “wall of separation” between reality and leftist). In the end, we’re dealing with people who are willing to be extraordinarily stupid in service of leftist goals – and the real trouble is that they have the power to stop SDI…

• Twitter Updates for 2009-06-16 http://tinyurl.com/kloxlk #
• Brits No Longer Trusted With Sharp Objects http://tinyurl.com/nfzzo8 #
• Holding Political Feet to the Fire http://tinyurl.com/nrtxrx #
• Phrase of the Day http://tinyurl.com/n32f7o #
• The Cost of Infidelity http://tinyurl.com/nkccqd #
• RT @GOPLeader: WaPo: Obama’s Health Plan Needs Spending Controls, Non-Partisan CBO Says http://bit.ly/nUKKv #
• Walpin: Obama Explanation a “Total Lie” http://tinyurl.com/mjzlsu #
• RT @bethanyshondark: The American public is starting to see the light through the clouds the MSM has created: http://bit.ly/gjRKT #
• RT @cowboy007: John Cox Characture of Ahmadinejad shows up in Berlin Protest sign. http://bit.ly/R0aAq #

I really, genuinely hope that this doesn’t turn out the way it currently looks – we don’t need a Watergate sort of scandal given all the other trouble we have:

The government watchdog President Obama canned for allegedly being “confused” and “disoriented” fired back sharply Wednesday, saying the White House explanation for removing him was “insufficient,” “baseless” and “absolutely wild.”

Gerald Walpin, who until last week was the inspector general for the Corporation for National and Community Service, told FOXNews.com that part of Obama’s explanation was a “total lie” and that he feels he’s got a target on his back for political reasons.

“I am now the target of the most powerful man in this country, with an army of aides whose major responsibility today seems to be to attack me and get rid of me,” Walpin said.

Facing bipartisan criticism for the firing, Obama sought to allay congressional concerns with a letter to Senate leaders Tuesday evening explaining his decision. In the letter, White House Special Counsel Norman Eisen wrote that Walpin was “confused” and “disoriented” at a May board meeting, was “unduly disruptive,” and exhibited a “lack of candor” in providing information to decision makers.

“That’s a total lie,” Walpin said of the latter charge. And he said the accusation that he was dazed and confused at one meeting out of many was not only false, but poor rationale for his ouster.

As was said in that ill-famed scandal, its not the crime, but the cover up which is the problem. It is almost a certainty that President Obama did not say “give special treatment to so-and-so” – but Walpin says that one of Obama’s people got special treatment, and now Walpin is out. It certainly is a curious thing that the man who found irregularity is out and being slammed by Obama Administration officials – the real problem would come in if what Walpin discovered is a criminal offense and if Obama, himself, signed off on efforts to cover up the scandal.

The really bad news is that with Democrats in charge of the House and Senate, there will be no real investigation in to this matter. Even if public pressure forces a Congressional committee to hold hearings, the facts of life about Democrats make it a near certainty that it would be a white wash…and that means the problem will fester, and perhaps have crime piled on crime to keep the truth from coming out…until such time as GOPers are running Congress and are thus able to conduct a genuine investigation.

I hope someone will hand Obama a copy of All The President’s Men – it might be the most useful book Obama could read in 2009.

Nevada’s junior Senator, John Ensign (R), has admitted to an affair:

Calling it “absolutely the worst thing that I’ve ever done in my life,” U.S. Sen. John Ensign admitted Tuesday he had an affair with a campaign staffer last year.

“If there was ever anything that I could take back in my life, this would be it,” Ensign, 51, said Tuesday afternoon in Las Vegas, reading from a prepared statement in a brief news conference at which he took no questions.

The Nevada Republican, a leading conservative voice in his party who has been listed as possible presidential material, indicated he plans to remain in office and that his wife of 21 years, Darlene, is standing by him.

The woman and her husband “were both close friends, and they both worked for me,” Ensign said.

Ensign had the affair, from December 2007 to August 2008, with a woman who worked for his Senate campaign and his political action committee. The woman’s husband, meanwhile, worked in Ensign’s Senate office, according to an aide who spoke on condition of anonymity.

I’ve never met John Ensign, but I have voted for him – a total of three times. In each of these votes, I was confident that I was voting for a man of integrity who could be relied upon to do the right thing. I didn’t expect perfection, but I did expect Ensign to be a man of wisdom, judgment and honor. And now I find out that I cast my vote for a man who didn’t just have sex with a subordinate, didn’t just cheat on his wife, didn’t just betray a good friend, but did all three of these things at once. “Lack of judgment” doesn’t even begin to cover what we have here.

John Ensign is 51 years old; he has been married for 22 years; he has three children; he has substantial wealth; he has the respect of his family, friends, fellow Nevadans and even his political opponents…he, in a word, has it all. Whatever a man can need for happiness, God has granted it to John Ensign. And what does John Ensign do with this great, good fortune? He decides that having sex with someone other than his wife who is married to one of his very best friends is more important than honorably discharging the duties incumbent upon a man who has achieved such a station in life.

As to what this will mean in Ensign’s personal life, I cannot say and would not say – that is between Mr and Mrs Ensign and my prayer is that Ensign will show proper humility and Mrs. Ensign will find it in her heart to forgive a horrid betrayal. A family break up is always a sad thing and no matter what pain Senator Ensign has caused, the best thing is for he and his family to remain united as he works through his failure and developes better moral sense and stronger wisdom to prevent a recurrence. Thing is, while Senator Ensign is doing this, he will not be able to properly discharge his duties as a United States Senator and senior leader of the Republican Party. Sad as I am about it, Senator Ensign has to take a sabbatical from public life and deal with his personal life – he should resign from the Senate forthwith and allow a Republican governor to select an honorable person who can devote themselves full time to the needs of the State of Nevada.

We all fail from time to time – and the larger the failure and the higher one’s station in life, the more serious is the failure. This is why we’re supposed to select men and women of strong judgment and character to be our leaders – a flighty youth all too easily falls for temptation. Its a pity that Senator Ensign decided to eschew his 51 years of life and all he’s learned in order that he might have sex with someone he knew full well – before, during and after – he should not have had sex with. Until Senator Ensign can demonstrate to the electorate of Nevada that the lack of judgment which led him to this failure has been corrected, he cannot be entrusted with the awesome responsibilities which come with the office of Senator. Ensign can still have a very bright future in politics – but not right now; maybe in a few years. We’ll have to see.

As a people, we’ve for too long allowed this sort of thing to pass without any consequences. Its all supposedly private and we’re supposed to step back and allow the erring politician time to revamp is life. Well, that is backwards – it is the fallen politician who is to step back and allow someone else to take the burden; hopefully someone who adheres to the basic rules about marital fidelity. The cost of infidelity must be a requirement to surrender office. A man who can betray his wife is not a man we can currently trust to carry out the people’s business – let such a man off the hook, and he’ll just keep doing it, arrogantly assuming he’s invincible. Senator Ensign is not invincible – he’s just a man, and he needs to work on things, as a man, not as a Senator.

In the end, the only honorable, Earthly estate:

I hope I shall possess firmness and virtue enough to maintain what I consider the most enviable of all titles, the character of an honest man. – George Washington