1918 News Server

From FOX News;

Hat Tip: Ty

Country music singer Shania Twain and her husband Robert "Mutt" Lange have split after 14 years of marriage, People magazine reported on their Web site.

"This is a private matter and there will be no further comment at this time," her rep Jason Owen told People in a statement.

Twain, 42, and Lange, 59, got married six months after they met, and have a 6-year-old son Eja D'Angelo. [read more]

From Business & Media; Worried about gas prices hitting $4 a gallon and beyond? Imagine if they were $6, $7 or even $8 a gallon. Those levels are a certain possibility should Congress pass cap-and-trade legislation, which could face a vote in early June.

Oil is trading at record levels, in excess of $120 a barrel. Leading Republican Sens. James Inhofe (Okla.) and Jeff Sessions (Ala.) both told the Business & Media Institute (BMI) energy prices would drastically increase if the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act (S. 2191) is signed into law.

“The studies show it would be directly affected, would be a $1.50 a gallon, in addition to what it is today,” Inhofe, the ranking Republican on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, said to (BMI).

Inhofe spoke at a press conference at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. on May 15 to introduce the “We Get It!” campaign – a program founded by evangelical Christians that question the merits of global warming alarmism. According to Inhofe, the bill will make it to the floor of the Senate on June 2. [read more]

From David Limbaugh; Let me get this straight. It's perfectly fair for Barack Obama and his cohorts to repeatedly disparage President Bush's foreign policy as "cowboy diplomacy" but unspeakably horrific for Bush to analogize the Democrats' approach to foreign policy to appeasing Hitler?

When Obama compared Hillary Clinton's threats against Iran to President Bush's threatening "bluster" and "cowboy diplomacy," no one batted an eye.

But when Mr. Bush, in addressing Israel's
Knesset, compared those who want to negotiate with today's terrorists and tyrants to an American senator in 1939 who lamented that Hitler's march into Poland might have been avoided "if only I could have talked to Hitler," Obama, other Democrats and the mainstream media went ballistic.

What's wrong with the president assuring our major Middle East ally that, under his watch at least, America will stand by it against our common enemies, such as the Holocaust-denying Iranian regime?

Well, plenty, if you listen to Democrats and the MSM. If President Bush is articulating a position with which they don't agree, he is politicizing foreign policy -- an unforgivable sin. Never mind that Democrats not only have been politicizing foreign policy for the past seven years but also undermining our official policies in the process. Jimmy Carter's intermeddling with Hamas, Nancy Pelosi's junket to Syria and trips to Iraq by other Democratic members of Congress to sabotage U.S. policy are but several egregious examples. [read more]

From Daeth by A Thousand Papercuts; Rielle Hunter, the ex-campaign worker/video producer, who was impregnated by John Edwards–according to the National Enquirer (and at least one Hunter friend)–has had her baby and is still secluded, by many reports, in North Carolina multi-million dollar home owned by an Edwards backer.

John Edwards, he of the “Two Americas–one that wears condoms, the other that doesn’t–is back in the news. First, Edwards came out yesterday and endorsed Barack Obama. In related news, the NY Times reports that Edwards would “consider the role of vice president, and favored the position of attorney general.”

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — John Edwards gave his long-awaited endorsement to Senator Barack Obama on Wednesday, bolstering Mr. Obama’s efforts to rally the Democratic Party around his candidacy and offering potential help in his efforts to win over working class white voters in the general election.

“The Democratic voters in America have made their choice, and so have I,” Mr. Edwards told a roaring crowd of more than 12,000 people here in the Van Andel Arena, on a day when Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton was trying to capitalize on her victory on Tuesday in West Virginia and convince superdelegates and contributors that she still has a chance to capture the Democratic nomination.

[read more]

From Boortz; The House is one step closer to passing this $290 billion farm bill. President Bush says he will veto it but Congress thinks it has enough votes to override the veto. Why do I bring this up? Because this farm bill is just loaded with pork and government entitlement program funding.

Take this, for example. Two-thirds of the bill (that's about $193 billion) will pay for huge increases in food stamp programs, emergency food assistance for the "needy," and nutrition aid to help people pay for groceries. Another $40 billion will be paid to subsidize US farmers and $30 billion will be paid for farmers to sit on their butts and do absolutely nothing. That's $30 billion NOT to grow crops. This is happening at a time when farm income is way up there.

And then there's the pork. State projects including tax breaks for Kentucky racehorse owners and money for salmon fishermen in the Pacific Northwest managed to sneak their way into the bill. Another one gives extra money to "geographically disadvantaged farmers" in Hawaii and Alaska ... it is essentially affirmative action for farmers. [read more]

From AP; California's Supreme Court declared gay couples in the nation's biggest state can marry - a monumental but perhaps short-lived victory for the gay rights movement Thursday that was greeted with tears, hugs, kisses and at least one instant proposal of matrimony.

Same-sex couples could tie the knot in as little as a month. But the window could close soon after - religious and social conservatives are pressing to put a constitutional amendment on the ballot in November that would undo the Supreme Court ruling and ban gay marriage.

"Essentially, this boils down to love. We love each other. We now have equal rights under the law," declared a jubilant Robin Tyler, a plaintiff in the case along with her partner. She added: "We're going to get married. No Tupperware, please."

A crowd of people raised their fists in triumph inside City Hall, and people wrapped themselves in the rainbow-colored gay-pride flag outside the courthouse. In the Castro, the historic center of the gay community in San Francisco, Tim Oviatt wept as he watched the news on TV. [read more]

From YouTube;

From The New Republic; Ninety percent of black Democrats support Barack Obama. So that might leave an observer wondering: What the hell is up with that other 10 percent? Are they stupid? Do they hate their own race? Do they not understand the historical import of the moment?

I can shed some insight on this demographic anomaly. In gatherings of black people, I'm invariably the only one for the Dragon Lady. I'll do my best to explain how those of us in the ever-shrinking minority of a minority came to our position.

But, before going any further, let me fully disclose my predispositions. I disliked Obama almost instantly. I never believed the central premises of his autobiography or his campaign. He is fueled by precisely the same brand of personal ambition as Bill Clinton. But, where Clinton is damned as "Slick Willie," Obama is hailed as a post-racial Messiah. Do I believe that Obama had this whole yes-we-can deal planned from age 16? No, I would respond. He began plotting it at age 22. This predisposition, of course, doesn't help me in making the case against Obama, especially not with black people. But, believe me, there's a strong case to be made that he isn't such a virtuous mediator of race. And it's this skepticism about Obama's racial posturing that has led us, the 10 percent, into dissent.

Let's begin with the locus classicus of Obama love, Andrew Sullivan's encomium in The Atlantic. He writes:

Earlier this fall, I attended an Obama speech in Washington on tax policy that underwhelmed on delivery; his address was wooden, stilted, even tedious. It was only after I left the hotel that it occurred to me that I'd just been bored on tax policy by a national black leader.

This is presented as a confession, and Sullivan honestly admits his reaction is based on his stereotyping of blacks. Add to that another Obama supporter, Senator Claire McCaskill of Missouri, calling Obama the first black politician to "come to the American people not as a victim but rather as a leader." You hear this kind of talk all the time. Never mind the dignified glories of Booker T. Washington, Frederick Douglass, Martin Luther King Jr., Colin Powell, Kurt Schmoke, and others. We have arrived at the crux of the matter. So much of the educated white people's love for Barack depends on educated white people's complete ignorance of and distance from the rest of us. Barack is the black person they want the rest of us to be--half-white and loving, or "racially transcendent," as the press loves to call him. And, since picking a candidate makes you allies with his other supporters, why would I want to be allies with educated whites whose glorification of Barack depends in large part on their implicit denigration of the rest of us? [read more]

From FOX; I guess it was never really in question, but I thought Syesha Mercado might just get into the finals since she's beautiful and female, but I guess the teeny-boppers and grand mothers aren't really swayed by that.

From National Ledger; Following the scandal over her highly criticized risqué photo shoot for Vanity Fair, Hannah Montana star Miley Cyrus did some damage control by posing for wholesome pictures at Disney World in Orlando, Fla., on May 1. But the 15-year-old Hannah Montana star may also want to rethink her friends, a report from Life & Style Weekly suggests in this week's magazine.

A report notes that right before the Vanity Fair photo shoot, Miley spent time with Lindsay Lohan, 21, a veteran of rehab and her own racy photos scandals. "At the shoot, Miley was talking to her mom and friends about hanging out with Lindsay," an insider told the magazine, noting that Miley's mother, Leticia (Tish), was not happy to hear the news that she was out with Lilo. [read more]

From Wizbang; They are so noble, so much better than Republicans, that they don't need to stoop to dirty tricks like race-baiting or smears.

Right?

Um... I guess not. Michelle Malkin has an ad the DCCC ran smearing a Republican, Greg Davis, in the Mississippi congressional race, linking him to the founder of the KKK.

Classy.

Only problem? The, uh, DCCC got their facts wrong.

[T]he DCCC says "Greg Davis wanted to honor the founder of the KKK with a statue in Southaven" and also said the statue was of "the first Grand Wizard." But in reality, the statue was of Jefferson Davis who was not the founder and never in the KKK. In fact, another place that has a statue of Jefferson Davis http://1918.com/news.php
News That's Worth Reading from 1918 Newsis the United States Capitol Building. Jefferson Davis is one of the two statues representing Mississippi, along with James Z. George. Furthermore, Senator Thad Cochran uses the desk of Jefferson Davis in the Capitol, one of two "heritage desks" (the other goes to Massachusetts Senior Senator and belonged to Daniel Webster).

ROM further notes that the "founder of the KKK statue" (Nathan Bedford Forrest) was wanted by the Mayor of Horn Lake.

So the DCCC has attacked the wrong mayor for the wrong statue.

[read more]

From Rush Limbaugh; By the way, ladies and gentlemen, from the New York Times today, this is just too rich. This is just too good. "Some public health experts are questioning why menthol, the most widely used cigarette flavoring and the most popular cigarette choice of African-American smokers, is receiving special protection as Congress tries to regulate tobacco for the first time. The legislation, which would give the Food and Drug Administration the power to oversee tobacco products, would try to reduce smoking's allure to young people by banning most flavored cigarettes, including clove and cinnamon. But those new strictures would exempt menthol -- even though menthol masks the harsh taste of cigarettes for beginners and may make it harder for the addicted to kick the smoking habit.

"For years, public health authorities have worried that menthol might be a factor in high cancer rates in African-Americans. The reason menthol is seen as politically off limits, despite those concerns, is that mentholated brands are so crucial to the American cigarette industry. They make up more than one-fourth of the $70 billion American cigarette market and are becoming increasingly important to the industry leader, Philip Morris USA, without whose lobbying support the legislation might have no chance of passage. 'I would have been in favor of banning menthol,' said Senator Judd Gregg, Republican of New Hampshire, who supports the bill. 'But as a practical matter that simply wasn't doable.'"

Do you see where this is going, folks? Have you connected the dots on this already? "Menthol is particularly controversial because public health authorities have worried about its health effects on African-Americans. Nearly 75 percent of black smokers use menthol brands, compared with only about one in four white smokers." Now, some of you might be saying, "Why? Why are they exempting menthol from the ban on flavored cigarettes?" (laughing) You think about it, folks. You think about it, and I'll clue you in when we get back. [read more]

From News Busters; Towing the "Green is Universal," corporate line, MSNBC's Chris Matthews seemed shocked that anyone would dare question whether climate change was real. During a discussion about John McCain's eco-friendly rhetoric the "Hardball" host was dismayed when conservative radio talk show host Heidi Harris called it a move "to the left," as Matthews decried: "You think climate change is an ideological issue?!"

The following exchange occurred on the May 13 edition of "Hardball:"

HEIDI HARRIS, RADIO TALK SHOW HOST: But, but here's the ultimate thing Republicans never get credit for going over to the left. This happens all the time. They try to pander to the left. Going a little more--

CHRIS MATTHEWS: You think climate change is, is an ideological issue?!

HARRIS: Absolutely, absolutely I do.

[read more]

From Cal Thomas in Jewsih World Review; With gas prices topping four dollars a gallon in some regions of the country, now may not be the best time to say something positive about "big oil," but here goes anyway.

Where is it written that the cost for a product or service should be frozen in place and in time, never to rise again, or to rise at a pace commensurate with our incomes? People who think this way know little to nothing about supply and demand and less than nothing about the profit motive. That's because at least three generations have been raised on the notion of entitlement, and when one feels entitled to something, one believes someone else should pay.

Senate Democrats last week sought to ingratiate themselves with voters, while doing nothing to produce more energy, with a familiar attack on "big oil." They want to repeal $17 billion in tax breaks for the oil companies over 10 years and on top of that impose a windfall profit tax on companies that don't invest in new energy sources. This is political expediency at its worst.

Peter Robertson, vice chairman of Chevron, told me it's a myth that oil companies are not investing in new energy sources. He says last year alone, Chevron spent $20 billion exploring new sources of energy. [read more]

From USA Today; Does David minus dad mean danger for American Idol's presumptive front-runner?

The Associated Press and other news outlets reported over the weekend that David Archuleta's father has been banished from rehearsals by Idol producers.

The reports say that the action came after Jeff Archuleta demanded phrasing from Sean Kingston's Beautiful Girls be inserted into David's rendition of Ben E. King's Stand By Me last week. The change cost the show additional song-clearance fees. The AP cited an unidentified source associated with Idol who was familiar with the situation; an Idol spokesman declined to comment Sunday.

David's dad has been a strong presence behind the scenes, and observers wonder what effect the loss of backstage support would mean for David, 17, as the show enters its last two weeks Tuesday (8 ET/PT, Fox). [read more]

From Think Fashion; Jenna Bush, daughter of current president George Bush, married her longtime love, Henry Hager, this weekend at her father’s Prairie Chapel Ranch in Texas.

The happy couple exchanged vows in a lakeside ceremony on a 4-foot limestone cross that will now remain as a landmark on the Bush property.

And while President Bush referred to the event as ’a joyous occasion’ the posh ceremony could have been ruined if Mother Nature didn’t cooperate.

Just hours before Jenna (who walked down the isle in a stunning Oscar de la Renta gown) and Henry were set to say their ‘I do’s’ a tornado watch was released for the area where the wedding was being held. Fortunately, the weather cooperated and the ceremony was executed exactly as the couple intended. [read more]

From Human Events; House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md) will testify tomorrow afternoon in an unprecedented hearing before the Select Committee investigating how the Democrats violated House rules to produce a fraudulent result on August 2, 2007.

According to a “notice of hearing” obtained by HUMAN EVENTS, and as explained to us by House sources, Hoyer – along with Cong. Michael McNulty (D-NY) – will be the first members to testify in such a hearing in the history of the Congress.

Members often testify in behalf of bills they introduce or in behalf of presidential nominees they favor (or against those they oppose). But it is only in the rarest occasion do they face potentially hostile questions, in ethics committee hearings. Tuesday’s hearing before the “Select Committee to Investigate the Voting Irregularities of August 2, 2007” will be the first time in the history of the House that members of Congress have faced such an inquiry and been subjected to questioning by members of the opposing party.

As I reported last October Republicans reacted with outrage at the maneuvers apparently pulled by Hoyer, acting as House leader and McNulty, who was presiding over House proceedings at the time. Republicans had made a motion to deny illegal aliens welfare benefits. When McNulty gaveled the vote to a close, the Republicans had won 214-213. Then, apparently at Hoyer’s direction, the vote was reopened so that Speaker Pelosi could vote, producing a tie that defeated the Republican motion. [read more]

From Boortz.com; There's an upcoming trial in New York City involving a gun shop owner who was sued by the city. But in this trial, lawyers for Mayor Bloomberg are asking the judge to ban any reference to the Second Amendment during the trial.

What the hell? We're supposed to be a nation of laws, and these LAWyers want any mention of the supreme law of the land barred from a legal proceeding?

The trial is set to start May 27. It actually involved a gun shop here in our home state of Georgia called Adventure Outdoors. New York City is claiming that this store is responsible for a disproportionate number of firearms recovered from New York City criminals. This isn't the only gun shop New York City is taking to task ... this is just one of 27 out-of-state gun shops being sued by New York City.

In this case a motion has been filed for Judge Jack Weinstein not to allow the store's lawyers to argue that the suit infringes on any Second Amendment rights of the gun store or its customers. Bloomberg's lawyer who filed the motion is seeking a ban on "any references" to the amendment. The brief says, "Any references by counsel to the Second Amendment or analogous state constitutional provisions are likewise irrelevant."

Irrelevant. Gotta love it. Our Constitution is irrelevant.

From Capitalism Magazine; Earth Day approaches, and with it a grave danger faces mankind. The danger is not from acid rain, global warming, smog, or the logging of rain forests, as environmentalists would have us believe. The danger to mankind is from environmentalism.

The fundamental goal of environmentalism is not clean air and clean water; rather, it is the demolition of technological/industrial civilization. Environmentalism's goal is not the advancement of human health, human happiness, and human life; rather, it is a subhuman world where "nature" is worshipped like the totem of some primitive religion.

In a nation founded on the pioneer spirit, environmentalists have made "development" an evil word. They inhibit or prohibit the development of Alaskan oil, offshore drilling, nuclear power--and every other practical form of energy. Housing, commerce, and jobs are sacrificed to spotted owls and snail darters. Medical research is sacrificed to the "rights" of mice. Logging is sacrificed to the "rights" of trees. No instance of the progress that brought man out of the cave is safe from the onslaught of those "protecting" the environment from man, whom they consider a rapist and despoiler by his very essence.

Nature, they insist, has "intrinsic value," to be revered for its own sake, irrespective of any benefit to man. As a consequence, man is to be prohibited from using nature for his own ends. Since nature supposedly has value and goodness in itself, any human action that changes the environment is necessarily immoral. Of course, environmentalists invoke the doctrine of intrinsic value not against wolves that eat sheep or beavers that gnaw trees; they invoke it only against man, only when man wants something.

The ideal world of environmentalism is not twenty-first-century Western civilization; it is the Garden of Eden, a world with no human intervention in nature, a world without innovation or change, a world without effort, a world where survival is somehow guaranteed, a world where man has mystically merged with the "environment." Had the environmentalist mentality prevailed in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, we would have had no Industrial Revolution, a situation that consistent environmentalists would cheer--at least those few who might have managed to survive without the life-saving benefits of modern science and technology. [read more]

From The National Ledger; Michelle Duggar, the female head of the Dugger household, has been pregnant for 135 months of her life. she's pregnant with her 18th child, and says she has no plans to stop any time soon. Will they ever run out of "J" names? According to the Associated Press, the new baby, (the little one is due on New Year's Day 2008) will have seven sisters and 10 brothers, including two sets of twins. The Duggar children, all with first names beginning with "J," range from Jennifer, 9 months, to Josh, 20.

There is a photo album and video album here of the family with lots of photos of the house and all of the kids and even more footage of the family. Some fun facts per the Discovery Channel about the Duggars: The average number of months between Duggar births is 18. The estimated number of Duggar diapers to date is 90,000 and the he Duggars do approximately 200 loads of laundry each month. [read more]