Quote of the Day

John Stuart Mill:

War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself.

We have to pay for them somehow...

And this is why I am in favor of making the gas tax a percentage of the cost, not a flat per-gallon rate. How long has it been since gas taxes rose? I hate taxes, but there are some things - like roads - which we just have to pay for. The fairest way is to base it on use. The people who drive more or the people who drive heavier cars do more damage to the roads and use more gas, so it only seems fair that they should have to pay to maintain the roads on which they drive. From The Free Press:

Group: Bad roads cost Mich. drivers $7 billion a year

Michigan drivers pay about $7 billion a year in added vehicle maintenance, wasted fuel costs and death and injury related to poor roads, according to a study released today.

The study also warns that, by 2030, unless the state builds more roads to handle increasing traffic, rush-hour delays in metro Detroit could cause commutes to take 50% longer, raising congestion levels to those seen in the San Francisco and Washington, D.C., areas.

According to TRIP, a nonprofit transportation-research group in Washington, D.C., funded primarily by the construction industry:

•Extra operating expenses such as accelerated vehicle depreciation, repairs and tire wear cost Michigan drivers about $2.6 billion a year.

•Congestion on major roads cost drivers $2.3 billion in delays and wasted fuel.

•Traffic crashes and deaths at least partly attributed to outdated roadway design cost Michigan drivers about $2.1 billion in medical expenses, lost economic and household productivity, property damage and travel delays.

Rest in Peace Spanky...

The most important part of this piece is the dead monkey's name: Spanky the Monkey.

Plague strikes Denver Zoo

An 8-year-old hooded capuchin monkey at the Denver Zoo was a victim of the bubonic-plague outbreak moving through the City Park neighborhood near the zoo.

Twenty-three animals - mostly tree squirrels - have tested positive for the disease out of 144 examined, said John Pape, epidemiologist with the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.

Twenty animals were found in the City Park area. One specimen each has come from Jefferson County, Arapahoe County and near the old Lowry Air Force Base on the border of Denver and Aurora.

"This disease has the potential to move to other animals," Pape said. "We consider that risk to be low, but it still happens."

No humans have contracted the disease this year, Pape said.

A monkey dying from plague, however, serves as a reminder that people should not handle rodents and should keep their pets away from dead squirrels or rabbits, Pape said.

Zoo officials say the dead monkey, named Spanky, appeared lethargic May 15 and was found dead the next day.

A Must Read from Christopher Hitchens

The Latest "Must Read" from Christopher Hitchens:

Peanut Envy
The latest absurdities to emerge from Jimmy Carter's big, smug mouth

Almost always, when former President Jimmy Carter opens his big, smug mouth, he has already made the psychological mistake that is going to reduce his words to absurdity. When he told the press last week that the Bush administration had aroused antipathy around the world, he might have been uttering no more than a banality. But no, he had to try to invest it with a special signature flourish. So, he said instead:

'I think as far as the adverse impact on the nation around the world, this administration has been the worst in history. The overt reversal of America's basic values as expressed by previous administrations, including (those of) George H.W. Bush and Ronald Reagan and Richard Nixon and others, has been the most disturbing to me.'

Leave aside the sophomoric slackness that begins a broken-backed sentence with the words "as far as" and then cannot complete itself. "Worst in history," as the great statesman from Georgia has to know, has been the title for which he has himself been actively contending since 1976. I once had quite an argument with the late Sen. Eugene McCarthy, who maintained adamantly that it had been right for him to vote for Ronald Reagan in 1980 for no other reason. "Mr. Carter," he said, "quite simply abdicated the whole responsibility of the presidency while in office. He left the nation at the mercy of its enemies at home and abroad. He was the worst president we ever had."

Read the rest here.

Education is the answer...

What may surprise Mr. Mack, and many others like him, is that the basis of neo-Conservatism is exactly what he's suggesting: showing the terrorists that there is a better way; that a free, liberal, democratic society will allow them to move forward from dictatorial regimes, poverty, and a downtrodden existence. Of course, Mr. Mack is likely among those who believe that eliminating a vile, perverse, oppressive, criminal dictator and replacing him with an open, representative democracy is an atrocity so trying to get him to understand that his opinion and that of Karl Rove, Dick Cheney, and Don Rumsfeld are pretty much aligned would be futile.

Communism...huh?

It's sad, but I'm sure that's the way it is in most of the world. If you are 20 years old, you were only 4 when the Soviet Union fell. You weren't old enough to remember the Iron Curtain, the Berlin Wall, the deprivations of the Soviets in Afghanistan, the gripping fear that a country which massacred millions of its own citizens had nuclear weapons pointed at every American city, the uncertainty that basic freedoms like speech and religion would exist, or the violence which had been committed in the Gulag or by the Khmer Rouge or in Eastern Europe.

Part of the spite directed towards the United States is from those who have either forgotten or never knew the horrors from which the United States protected the free world. People forget the atrocities associated with the Communists and, more specifically, the Soviets. So, they don't understand the role the United States had in ensuring that they never faced those atrocities.

Americans shouldn't be pointing back at Germany and pointing out the U.S.'s role in defeating Hitler. They should be pointing back at the Soviet Union and pointing out the U.S.'s role in defeating Soviet Communism.

Swedish teens don't know what communism is: study

A majority of Swedish teenagers don't know what communism is and don't know which countries neighbour their own, a poll published Wednesday showed, raising questions about Sweden's education system.

Ninety percent of teens aged 15 to 20 don't know which foreign capital is closest to Stockholm, 90 percent don't know what the Gulag is, and 40 percent think communism has increased prosperity in the world.

"They have a lack of understanding for basic concepts such as dictatorships and democracy, and that is unsettling. There must be a major change in their level of knowledge, and schools in particular must take responsibility," Camilla Andersson, the head of the Information About Communism organisation that commissioned the study, told Swedish news agency TT.

Schools Minister Jan Bjoerklund agreed.

"It is very worrying that Swedish history teaching is so limited. Many people have suspected that there are problems with (students') knowledge of history," he told TT.

He said he planned to propose more history lessons for students, and would recommend that the Holocaust and crimes committed in the name of communism in the Soviet Union be mandatory elements of the history curriculum.

The results of the study, published in daily Dagens Nyheter on Wednesday, also showed that 50 percent of the 1,004 teens questioned didn't know that Berlin was the capital of a country bordering the Baltic Sea, 82 percent didn't think Belarus was a dictatorship and 43 percent said they thought communism had claimed fewer than a million victims in the 20th century.

Fifty-six percent said they didn't know if Western market economies were democratic societies, and 22 percent said communism was a democratic social structure.

What The Candidates Drive

The Associated Press conducted a poll of the various candidates, questioning them as to the cars they drive. Interestingly, only two individuals use cars which would still be allowable if the recent Senate Commerce Committee proposal was in full effect today: Senator Brownback has a Honda Civic Hybrid among his cars (he uses a Ford Taurus when he's in Washington). Senator Tancredo uses a Toyota Prius Hybrid in addition to his Cadilac, Mercedes, and Buick. Rep. Hunter and Senator Biden have the most gas guzzling vehicles, an old Suburban and a classic 'Vette, respectively. Senator Obama, who recently lambasted the auto industry for building gas guzzlers, drives the attractive, well-built, Chrysler 300M.

Michigan Muslims show peaceful unity

Today, Michigan Sunnis and Shiites came together in an unprecedented way. The article doesn't discuss if a Fatwa had been issued in order to make the agreement into religious law. Certainly, I hope that both Sunni and Shiite leaders come together to issue a joint Fatwa requiring the following of the agreement.

It's a truly wonderful step forward. Hopefully, it can be an example to those in Iraq and elsewhere.

Michigan Sunnis, Shi'ites expected to commit to unity today
The Detroit Free Press

In what some are calling a historic move, Muslims from across Michigan are expected to sign an agreement this afternoon in a Dearborn Heights mosque that calls for unity between Sunnis and Shi'ites, the two main sects of Islam.

“It’s an unforgettable day in the history of the Muslim community here in Michigan,” said Imam Mohammad Elahi, head of the Islamic House of Wisdom, where the signing is expected to take place at 4 p.m. today.

“This is absolutely needed,” Elahi said.

Sunnis and Shi’ites sometimes have had a rocky relationship. Those strains were amplified this year with sectarian fighting in Iraq and vandalism that struck Shi’ite-owned businesses in Dearborn and Detroit. Some Shi’ites believe Sunnis were behind the attacks, but police and others say it’s unclear who was behind them.

The agreement calls for Muslims to refrain from the practice of takfir, a part of Islamic law in which Muslims declare that others are not true Muslims. Some Sunni Muslims consider Shi’ites not to be true Muslims and attack Shi’ite beliefs.

The agreement will be posted in area mosques and clerics will be encouraged to spread a message of unity during their sermons Friday.

“We’re going to make a commitment today,” Elahi said.

Quote of the Day

"When I try to imagine an ideal government, it looks a lot like the government of Taiwan. First, they're democratic. That's a good start. But the best part is that they have Jerry Springer-like fights in parliament on a regular basis."

- Scott Adams

Waiting for the surge to work

What really shocks me about these things -

1) The President has said repeatedly that we need to wait until September for the surge to show its effects.

2) Democrats repeatedly are trying to get the United States to commit to a withdrawal prior to that date.

Maybe I'm really, really cynical, but the most logical reason I see for all of this is that the Democrats are afraid that waiting until September will mean waiting for the surge to work and that would destroy their chances at getting elected next year. Why they'd fund things until July and then see "how things are going" can only be answered one way - the administration can't guarantee progress between now and July. They need until September. The extra couple months might be the difference between winning and losing in Iraq and the Democrats seem afraid to grant that time.

Bush Would Veto Democrats' New Iraq Bill
Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush would veto a bill drafted by House Democratic leaders that would fund the Iraq war only into the summer months, his spokesman said Wednesday.

The Democrats' proposal would pay for the war through July, then give Congress the option of cutting off money after that if conditions do not improve. Bush requested more than $90 billion to fund the war through September.

"There are restrictions on funding and there are also some of the spending items that were mentioned in the first veto message that are still in the bill," White House press secretary Tony Snow said on Air Force One traveling with Bush.

Asked directly if Bush would veto the House bill in its current form, Snow said, "Yes."

Bush vetoed an earlier bill because it set deadlines for U.S. troop withdrawals from Iraq.

What is a protest?

Regarding the violence currently gripping France, I have one thing to say: if you are burning cars, attacking police, looting stores, burning schools, and destroying phone boots, while - in the words of the French Communist Party - having "no political significance" then you are not a protester. You are a rioter. Reuters and AFP seem to think that accurately describing individuals who are engaged in vile acts vilifies the individuals. It is not the description of the individuals but rather the acts themselves while vilifies the perpetrators. They are not protesters. They are rioters. Substituting the more accurately term, "rioter," for the less accurate term, "protester," reduces the accuracy of the article and substitutes political correctness for journalistic integrity.

Congress knows better than the Generals?

One question for Mr. Levin, who I might add is the worst Senator this great state has had in my lifetime: Mr. Levin, you speak of the Iraqi government needing to "look into the abyss." If you recognize that such an abyss is there, why are you so willing to condemn the people of Iraq to it?

Just once, I'd like someone to pose the following questions to the Democratic contenders for President and hold them to it:

Do you disagree with the prevailing military opinion that withdrawal from Iraq will result in an escalation in fighting and genocide? If agree - why are you willing to condemn the Iraqi people to genocide? If disagree - why are your opinions different from those of the military generals on the ground in Iraq?

Levin: GOP must confront Bush before Iraq war can end
Detroit Free Press

WASHINGTON - The Iraq war will start winding down when disillusioned Republicans in Congress confront President George W. Bush to say he has lost their support, U.S. Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said in an interview Monday.

Levin, one of a handful of Democrats shaping his party's Iraq exit strategy, compared what will be required of Republican leaders to what the party's congressional members did in the final days of Richard Nixon's presidency in 1974, when they made clear he had squandered their support in the Watergate scandal.

Levin said he expects that will happen, but he wouldn't say when. But recent events suggest there may be cracks in the GOP's solidarity with Bush.

Some Republicans have said this week that they want to see results from the administration's war policy in September.

White House press secretary Tony Snow cautioned Tuesday that people should "avoid the idea that Iraq is like Oz, and one day, it's going to be black and white, and the next day, you're going to wake up and it's color."

But Levin said that "at some point, some Republican leaders will walk into the Oval Office the way they did with Nixon and say, 'Hey, you're losing your Republican troops in the Congress, and you got to change course. You got to start removing troops instead of surging troops.' "

He also said his party's strategy has succeeded in putting Iraqi leaders on notice that Congress' patience is wearing thin.

Mohammed at Iraq the Model

Something that deserves reading from Mohammed at Iraq the Model:

Don't bury your heads in the sand.

I had said it over and over again that some of us in Iraq and America are sending wrong messages to the terrorists and the dictators behind them; in fact I wasn't surprised when I saw Zawahiri appear on al-Jazeera to announce America's defeat, not long after Reid did.

Zawahiri claims al-Qaeda has won and Reid claims America has lost but I see only a war that's still ongoing and I see no victory for al-Qaeda or any other entity. On the contrary I see that al-Qaeda has the shortest stick.
We are going through a fierce war and sending more wrong messages could only further complicate an already complicated situation and create more mess that would be exploited by Iran, Syria and Saudi Arabia for their own purposes—more iron-fist control on the peoples and treasures of the region and pushing the middle east to crises and confrontations with the world not forgetting spreading their dark, backward ideologies.

The American forces should stay in Iraq and yes, reinforcements should be sent if the situation required. Not only that, these forces should be prepared to expand their operations whenever and wherever necessary in the region to strike hard on the nests of evil that not only threaten the middle east but seeking to blackmail the whole world in the ugliest way through pursuing nuclear weapons in a feverish desire to destroy themselves along with everyone else. It's a delusional obsession with power derived from the false belief that only they possess absolute justice while denying the right to exist to anyone who disagrees with them.

We must keep fighting those criminals and tyrants until they realize that the freedom-loving peoples of the region are not alone. Freedom and living in dignity are the aspirations of all mankind and that's what unites us; not death and suicide. When freedom-lovers in other countries reach out for us they are working for the future of everyone tyrants and murderers like Ahmedinejad, Nesrallah, Assad and Qaddafi must realize that we are not their possessions to pass on to their sons or henchmen. We belong to the human civilization and that was the day we gave what we gave to our land and other civilizations. They can't take out our humanity with their ugly crimes and they can't force us to back off. The world should ask them to leave our land before asking the soldiers of freedom to do so.

The cost of liberating Europe was enormous in blood and treasure and thereafter it took half a century of American military presence to protect Europe's nations from subsequent threats—now if that made sense during a cold war, and it did, then I don't understand why would anyone demand a pullout from Iraq (and maybe later the middle east) when the enemies are using every evil technique, from booby trapped dead animals to hijacked civilian aircrafts to kill us and destroy the human civilization.

Yes my friends, I will call for war just as powerfully the bad guys do and I must show them that I'm stronger than they are because those do not understand the language of civilization and reason. They understand only power, and with power they took over their countries and held their peoples hostages. Everything they accomplished was through absolute control over the assets of their nations through murder, torture, repression and intimidation.

The policy of the United States and her allies needs to adjust to make better use of the energy God-or nature or whatever you name it-blessed them with. We need to see a firm policy not afraid of making tough decisions replace the Byzantine debate of withdrawal. This became America's destiny the day it became a superpower. A destiny to show responsibility toward her own people and toward the world, and running away from this responsibility won't do any good.
Otherwise those who prefer to bury their heads in the dirt today will be cursed forever for abandoning their duty when they were most capable. I don't understand why someone who has all the tools for victory would refuse to fight the enemy that reminds us every day that it's evil with all the daily beheadings, torture and violations of all humane laws and values.

Some will keep on blaming America and her policies and they will consider anything America did and does wrong whether America stayed or left, fought or ran away, negotiated or boycotted. There will always be those who blame America for everything that goes wrong in this world but that doesn't mean America has to listen to them. America instead should listen to the spirit of America and what it stands for.
Reaping the fruit won't be today, it will be in the future after patience and great fighting.

The begining of the end of Michigan

The United States Senate Commerce Committee declared war on Michigan. Today, the Senate Commerce Committee passed a resolution which would, if it were to take immediate effect, would ban all but six cars currently on sale in the United States - the Honda Civic Hybrid, Toyota Yaris, Toyota Corolla, Toyota Prius, Nissan Altima Hybrid, and the Toyota Camry Hybrid. They tossed in a measure which would entail spending $50 million a year for "advanced battery research" which, while desperately needed, will cost far, far more than $50 million a year. Why does Congress not understand the economics involved? General Motors spent $1 billion developing the EV1. The sort of changes that Congress hopes to get out of the auto industry - delivering vehicles with similar performance to today's vehicles with dramatically increased fuel economy - will require that sort of investment on a wide variety of platforms. The cost of development is going to be incredible. The cost to the American consumer is going to be dramatic. Already, hybrid vehicles cost thousands of dollars more to produce without ever increasing fuel economy enough to compensate. Diesel engines are significantly more expensive and other techniques haven't proven themselves out.

One question - why hasn't John Dingell gotten out in front of the Senate with a House bill that addresses this? His House committee is the one which should produce legislation that could have cut off this bill before it started, implementing changes in other, more pressing and more economical areas, that will have more effect and cost less than destroying the auto industry.

Illegal Immigrants arrested in terror plot

Three illegal immigrants, along with two legal resident aliens and a United States citizen were arrested in connection with plotting an attack on a U.S. Army base. Of course, the idea that trying to stop people from illegally entering the country is racist as these people clearly not a threat to the United States.

Fort Dix Plot Called "New" Form of Terror
Federal Officials Say 6 Foreign-Born Suspects Were Their Own Terror Cell
CBS News

One drove a cab, three were roofers. Another worked at a 7-Eleven and a sixth at a supermarket. Their alleged plot to attack Fort Dix was foiled by another blue-collar worker: a video store clerk.

Six foreign-born Muslims were accused Tuesday of planning to assault the Army base and slaughter scores of U.S. soldiers with automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenades.

The unidentified clerk is being credited with tipping off authorities in January 2006 after one of the suspects asked him to transfer a video to DVD that showed 10 men shooting weapons at a firing range and calling for jihad, prosecutors said.

"If we didn't get that tip," said U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie, "I couldn't be sure what would happen." FBI agent J.P. Weis called the clerk the "unsung hero" of the case.

Authorities said there was no direct evidence connecting the men to any international terror organizations such as al Qaeda. But several of them said they were ready to kill and die "in the name of Allah," prosecutors said in court papers.

"Benchmarks"

So, I was on my way to work today, thinking of the Democratic proposal of adding "benchmarks" to an Iraqi war funding bill. The Democratic idea is that the Iraqi government isn't doing enough to stop the insurgency and terrorism occurring in Iraq, so we need to do something to prod them along. On its surface, it seems to make sense. I had pretty good feelings about the idea at first, but have recently changed my mind.

The problem with the benchmarks is that they go in the wrong direction. The short of it: if violence continues, U.S. troops will leave. I'll set aside the idea that continued violence is exactly why the troops are needed, not why they should go. The important issue is what this means for the insurgents and terrorists: they now have a very clear, well defined criteria for success. While these aren't the hard deadlines or an explicit declaration of surrender, these provide our enemies exactly what is required in order to get us to surrender, which is likely even more dangerous.

Laying out exactly what is required for troop withdrawal based on unacceptable levels of violence will only encourage those who desire our withdrawal to engage in further death and destruction. When we broadcast a list to al Qaeda consisting of who to bomb, who to attack, who to kill, and what to do to interrupt our mission - can anyone honestly believe they will not use this as a blueprint?

The principle behind the "benchmarks" is a good idea. There should be some level of accountability and responsibility for all members of the mission. The real problem, though, is that we're holding the wrong people to task. We need to make it very clear and very obvious exactly how U.S. troops will leave the country: when there is a stable, free, liberal democracy in Iraq.

It is true that there are military requirements in every war. This war is different, however, in that this is not a purely physical war. In effect, we are engaged in a war of ideas: liberty and democracy against extremism and oppression. We need more than just bombs and bullets to fight - we need to convince the Iraqis that there best interests lie with ours.

To accomplish this:

1) We need to continue our current missions of establishing peace and security in the Sunni Triangle and in Baghdad and its surrounding areas in order to provide an opportunity for the Iraqi people to witness the freedom and prosperity that comes with cooperating with the democratically elected government.

2) We need to put in place benchmarks for victory rather than for defeat. We need to define the exact goals for the troops - reductions in violence, creation of infrastructure, establishment of democracy - and make it very clear that as these targets are reached, troops will withdraw. Destroying a power plant isn't going to get American troops to leave, for example, while establishing 24-hour electrical service will. Attacking an Iraqi army recruiting station won't get U.S. troops to leave, while fully training the Iraqi military will. Slaughtering innocent civilians won't get U. S. troops to leave, but rather reductions in violence will.

3) We need to pass laws expressly forbidding the very practices of which our administration is falsely accused. Outlaw the theft of oil and prove that this war is not about oil; outlaw permanent military bases in Iraq and outlaw our presence in Iraq without the explicit approval of the Iraqi government and prove that this is not an occupation; outlaw proselytizing by U.S. personnel in Iraq on government business and prove that this is not a war to establish Christianity; outlaw direct interference in Iraqi government business and prove that the Iraqi government is not a puppet of the United States.

4) We need to treat this as an election. The biggest strengths of the Bush administration lie in winning elections. It's time to use some of those skills to good effect in Iraq. We need to have Arabic-speaking Americans on Iraqi and Arab television daily, pointing out the new laws and reiterating the idea that we want to leave and we will leave just as soon as the benchmarks are met.

5) We need to absolutely meet every commitment we set in accordance with the above. We need to make it very clear to the Iraqi people, to the insurgents, and to al Qaeda, that we want out, we want a peaceful, free, and stable Iraq, and that we will keep our word.

Quote of the Day

"America encapsulated the principles of the Enlightenment - Liberty, Equality, Fraternity - wrapped them in the pursuit of happiness, underpinned them with an inalieanable right and turned an IDEA into a country."

- Matt Frei, BBC News, Washington D.C.

Why can't I ever go to Hawaii...?

First off, the idea that the costs for air travel to Hawaii is similar to the costs of travel to Orlando or Vegas is ridiculous.

Secondly, there's no compelling reason to have a conference like this in Hawaii or Las Vegas. A centrally located conference - perhaps in St. Louis or Orlando - or several, smaller conferences in smaller, less expensive venues would provide the same training opportunities but wouldn't cost upwards of $3,000 per person. No one would blink if they were having a $600/person conference in St. Louis, with a $120 a night room and a $200 or so plane ticket.

I absolutely understand why there are needs for training conferences. I can't understand why the public-sector ones seem to have to be in Las Vegas, Hawaii, and Barbados while the ones I attend are in Orlando (for a Florida insurance conference), Chicago, or Columbus. Oh, that's right - the public-sector doesn't have a compelling interest in keeping the costs down like they do in the private sector.

Mich. taxpayers sending 80 officials off to Hawaii
Detroit Free Press

Nearly 80 officials across Michigan - more than twice the number of any other state - plan to fly off to Hawaii this month for a weeklong conference on public pension issues. And taxpayer-backed pension funds will pay the tab.

Leading the Michigan contingent are 13 officials from Detroit, making Detroit second only to Chicago, which planned to send 16 people, according to a list of registrants compiled by the event's sponsor and obtained by the Free Press.

Michigan communities investing in pension training at the Hilton Hawaiian Village Beach Resort and Spa include:

* Monroe county planned to send nine people, the City of Monroe, five.

* Grand Rapids and Pontiac planned to send seven each.

* Oakland County planned to send five.

Among Detroit officers listed as attending are Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick; Fire Commissioner Tyrone Scott; Marty Bandemer, president of the Detroit Police Officers Association; the Rev. Wendell Anthony, and City Council members Monica Conyers and Alberta Tinsley-Talabi. All have roles in overseeing pension systems.

So much for objective journalism

A couple of quick items:

1) Does it really surprise anyone that a leftist journalist is taking overt sides? Does everyone forget the U.K.'s journalist union coming out in direct support of Palestinians against Israel?

2) I always find it ironic that these sorts of things are going on during May Day. It really shows the true intentions of the people running these things that they chose the largest Communist holiday to hold their rallies.

NBC cameraman flies Mexican flag at march
WorldNetDaily.com

A cameraman for the NBC affiliate in Houston was captured on home video sporting a Mexican flag on his camera while covering a rally in the Texas city that supported illegal immigrants, drawing angry shouts from counter-protesters.

In the first of two clips posted on YouTube, a counter-protester with a bullhorn can be heard condemning the cameraman's flag.

"Why Does Channel 2 News have a Mexican flag on their camera?" the man asked.

KPRC News Director Skip valet told WND the cameraman's flying of the Mexican flag broke station rules.

"It violates our policy, because we're always objective observers of these situations," Valet told WND. "We don't take sides in news stories, we cover them. That policy was clearly violated."

Quote of the Day

"Speaking of Presidential politics, recently I awoke in the night in a cold sweat over this thought: what if the 2008 presidential election ends up pairing Hillary versus Newt? Millions will move to Canada."

- Gregg Easterbrook, on ESPN.com