Via Power Line, here’s a provocative look at the new movie “Dark Knight” as an allegory to the war on terror.

As this superb Batman retelling, The Dark Knight, makes clear, its subject is a weakness that runs instinctively through us – to hate a hero who, in saving us, exposes our fears, prods our weaknesses, calls from us more than we want to give, or can.

And how we resent a hero who must shake our world in order to save it, or brings alive that maxim of George Orwell that so implicates us in our preening piety: “Good people sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf.”

Go give it a look.

Craig

The post-adjournment GOP energy protest/rally held on the floor of the House today looked like it was a lot of fun.  Tourists even got in on the act, in what must have been the most excitement to take place in Congress in a long time.  Read about it here.  As Mark Hemingway at NRO said, “It really looks like Congressional Republicans are getting some of their mojo back.”  Can Speaker Pelosi continue to deny a vote on more drilling?

Craig

A common double standard exhibited by liberals is that they vociferously oppose any kind of voucher program, while at the same time sending their own kids to private school.  While average kids are stuck in failing public schools, some rich Democratic politicians won’t subject their own kids to such ignominy.  Al Gore and Bill Clinton were two examples of Democrats who operated this way, and Coyote Blog points out (via Cato) that Barack Obama is another offender who says “private schools for me, but not for thee.”

Craig

On the way to work today, I spotted a white pickup truck emblazoned with the logo of the City of Logan sitting in front of a gas pump at the 4th North Chevron – the most expensive gas station in town.  Shouldn’t the city instruct its employees to drive a block or two to save $0.10 or more per gallon?

It is possible that the driver of this truck was constrained in his fueling options by the type of fleet cards the city is signed up for.  My employer has a Chevron card, and in my experience traveling around, Chevron always has some of the most expensive gas, in part because their stations are always in the prime locations.  If this is the case, Logan needs to get a new fleet card.

Craig

I could probably start a separate blog on which I chronicle the outrageous statements made by Logan City Council member Laraine Swenson that demonstrate that she is out of touch and does not understand the proper role of government.  Such statements are quite frequent.  Instead, I’ll give you her latest statement, from today’s HJ, right here.  This is in regards to a new, less-stringent electronic sign ordinance, and the possibility that this ordinance will allow video on such signs:

“I don’t think it’s tasteful,” she said. “I just don’t want to see TV everywhere when I drive down the street.”

Now, the question of the effect of such signs on traffic safety is a valid one.  But the question of whether a certain councilperson likes these signs is not.  If you don’t want to “see TV everywhere,” then stay off the roads.  Especially on the first and third Tuesday nights of each month.

Craig

Yes, Utah’s Senators do have a maverick streak of disagreement with their party.  At least as compared to Barack Obama, according to the Tribune:

Even Utah’s senators, known as party stalwarts, break with their ranks far more often than Obama broke with his, according to the hundreds of votes examined by The Tribune. 

Here’s the breakdown on number of maverick votes since 2005:

• John McCain – 88
• Bob Bennett – 74
• Orrin Hatch – 73
• Barack Obama – 20

I’m sure that I disagree with the three aforementioned GOP Senators when they break party ranks, so I don’t necessarily praise their independence, but this analysis serves to pierce the post-partisan aura that Obama seeks to perpetuate.  It will help McCain if he can portray Obama as just another liberal politician, and plenty of evidence exists to help him make that case.

Craig

The NY Times Sunday Magazine has an in-depth piece on Rush Limbaugh that fans of his will find quite informative.  Late in the article, Limbaugh comments on some of his fellow right-wing broadcasters.  I thought this one, about Bill O’Reilly, was noteworthy:

“[S]omebody’s got to say it,” he told me. “The man is Ted Baxter.”

I had to ask myself, “Who is Ted Baxter?”  Wikipedia provided the answer:

Baxter was the overbearing, pompous anchorman for the fictitious station WJM-TV in Minneapolis, Minnesota [on the sitcom Mary Tyler Moore]. While his massive ego consistently fueled his dreams of grandeur, his actual performance was the reverse. A running joke of the show was Ted Baxter’s incompetence, evidenced by a steady stream of mispronunciations, malapropisms, and mercurial displays of temper. Constantly in fear of being fired, Ted Baxter is, in fact, the only character of the show to survive the mass layoffs that featured in the final episode, a deft twist of plot that further cemented the satirical comment on mainstream media implicit in his character.

In the first few seasons of the show, the character of Ted Baxter was portrayed in very broad comic terms. Baxter was usually represented as a complete idiot who would mispronounce even the simplest words on the air.

There you go.

Craig

What is it with Utah’s Congressional delegation showing up to pay homage to CVTD?  First, we had Rep. Bishop in town to celebrate CVTD’s “Sweet Sixteen.”  Now, we have Sen. Hatch coming to bestow pork on the agency to the tune of 4-5 new buses from the federal government.  I understand the political benefits of making appearances in your district and bringing home the bacon, but shouldn’t conservative politicians be opposed to an expensive transit system with low ridership and no fares?

Craig

This guy, at a McCain event in Minnesota, sounds confused:

Kent Kaiser, a political conservative who doesn’t always vote for Republicans, said he arrived at the McCain event undecided in the presidential race — and left the same way.

Once a supporter of former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton, he’s now considering voting for Libertarian Bob Barr or writing in former Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney.

Craig

This is probably not the message this guy’s organization wants him spreading:

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority board’s vice chairman is all for taking the Long Island Rail Road – but only if it’s a free ride, courtesy of the systemwide passes he and his colleagues receive as perks.

“Why should I ride and inconvenience myself when I can ride in a car?” David S. Mack, Nassau County’s only voting member on the 22-person board, said yesterday when asked during a break in MTA committee meetings if he would use the LIRR if not for the free pass.

He has a good reason, though:

Mack also said that when he drives across MTA bridges he regularly calls bridge managers to alert them to any problems he perceives while crossing.

If you can’t get transit officials to ride mass transit, how are you going to get regular people to do so?

Craig

It may go on sale after all, although the company’s web site doesn’t reflect this news.  Here’s a photo, courtesy of the Tribune:

Craig

Jake Tapper is an ABC Senior National Correspondent, and he has a blog called “Political Punch” that is good stuff.  He was able to interview Barack Obama today, and he asked a question I have been waiting to hear addressed to the Democratic nominee:

TAPPER:  You and Senator John McCain are both talking about the need to reach across the partisan divide.

OBAMA:  Right.

TAPPER:  It’s not difficult to look at Senator McCain’s record and see examples of times when he reached across the partisan divide at great political risk to himself:  immigration reform, Gang of 14, campaign finance reform.  I know that you have worked across the aisle.

OBAMA:  Absolutely.

TAPPER:  But have you ever worked across the aisle in such a way that entailed a political risk for yourself?

You can click the link above to read Obama’s full answer, but I know you’re busy and that your time is valuable, so I’ll summarize it for you: No.

Craig

I hope this doesn’t come across as callous, but I was wondering over the weekend if the volume of coverage of Tim Russert’s death was appropriate. While he was great at his job, he was a journalist, not a world leader, yet his death received many hours of coverage. Hal Boedeker has an article in the Orlando Sentinel today that considers this topic:

Do the hours of coverage inflate the story? Tim Russert was excellent at his job, make no mistake. He worked hard, he treated his guests fairly, and he asked tough questions. But by weekend’s end, some commentators had elevated him to preeminent journalist of his time. And one reader wrote: “His was the most noteworthy and untimely ‘public’ death in the past 20 years.”

…

The affection that Russert stirred in millions was testament to his skill. But the coverage of his death was often overblown, self-congratulatory and self-indulgent. It was no way to treat a news icon.

On the other hand, Russert was well-liked, his death was unexpected, and the people doing the coverage were his friends. You can argue that NBC can do what they want, since it’s their network.

But should they keep a sense of proportion? As Boedeker asks, what will NBC do when Tom Brokaw dies? He is more of an NBC fixture than Russert, I’d say.

Thoughts? Are Hal and I just jerks?

Craig

From Justice Scalia’s dissent in the Gitmo case, via Power Line:

9. Justice Scalia notes in his dissent that the Court’s decision is difficult to reconcile with American history as well as its own precedent:: “The category of prisoner comparable to these detainees are not the Eisentrager criminal defendants, but the more than 400,000 prisoners of war detained in the United States alone during World War II. Not a single one was accorded the right to have his detention validated by a habeas corpus action in federal court—and that despite the fact that they were present on U. S. soil.”

Would supporters of yesterday’s decision say that, yes, all of those POWs on US soil should have been allowed habeas corpus?  That would be the effect of this decision, if applied retroactively.

Craig