Cash for Clunkers

Cash for Clunkers is (was) a success.

CNN.com reports that:

"The most popular car being purchased under the program, according to the White House? The Ford Focus, which boasts up to 35 mpg."

While our clunker-upgraded ride doesn't get quite that high combined MPG, I'm glad that people are choosing to take fuel efficiency more seriously, despite the guy in the article who got a "crew-cab Silverado, four-door" under the program.

It's interesting that the reporter chose to lead off with a counter-example (fuel-guzzling truck) to the government presented data. Seems like a sign of conservative bias rather than left-wing bias.

Common cause?

Apparently Islamist regimes and Republicans have gathered around a common enemy: Barack Obama.

The AP reports that:

"Republican senators criticized President Barack Obama on Sunday for not taking a tougher public stand"

and Al Jazeera reports that Ahmadinejad:

"has told the US [...] to stop interfering in the country's internal affairs"

So, believing both the Iranian regime and the GOP, the Obama administration is oxymoronically "timidly" and "passively" interfering in the domestic affairs of Iran.

Bad Except When They're Good

Victor Davis Hanson posting at The Corner on National Review Online makes an interesting remark while commenting on Iran and its nuclear implications.

He writes about the "moral equivalence" of Prof. John Mearsheimer at the YearlyKos convention, who surmised that Iran had the right

"to have a bomb since Israel has one too-as if an anti-American theocracy run according to Sharia Law is no more a nuclear threat than a pro-American liberal democracy."

So anti-American theocracy is the bad and pro-American liberal democracy is good. Catch that? Liberal is good, says the conservative.

Okay, just checking.

What we really are

From Wikipedia:

Amerigo Vespucci used a Latinised form of his name, Americus Vespucius, in his Latin writings, which Waldseemüller used as a base for the new name, taking the feminine form America.

Amerigo itself is an Italian form of the medieval Latin Emericus, which through the German form Heinrich (in English, Henry) derived from the Germanic name Haimrich.

So...we are the United States of Henry.

What defines a "vast majority"

Hugh Hewitt said of the 700-mile fence at the U.S.-Mexico border:

"...the vast majority of people believe the 700 miles of fencing will in fact be effective..."

A Quinnipac University poll taken in mid-November asked:

As you may know Congress has passed and President Bush has signed legislation that would build a 700 mile fence and increase security along the Mexican-U.S. border. Do you think additional measures are needed from Congress to deal with illegal immigrants entering the country or do you think this is enough for now?"

Only 24 percent said that the fence was "Enough for Now". If it's so effective, how come it's not enough?