It’s official — Willie Nelson has smoked himself crazy:

Texas icon Willie Nelson said on a nationally syndicated radio show that he questions the official story of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in New York City.

“I certainly do,” Nelson said Monday when asked by talk-show host Alex Jones.

“I saw those towers fall and I’ve seen an implosion in Las Vegas, there’s too much similarities between the two. And I saw the building fall that didn’t get hit by nothing,” the singer-songwriter said. “So, how naive are we, you know, what do they think we’ll go for?”

Mamas, don’t let your babies grow up to be Truthers.

This isn’t good for the Rocket:

Former personal trainer Brian McNamee has turned physical evidence that he believes will show Roger Clemens used performance-enhancing drugs over to federal investigators, his attorneys told the New York Daily News.

“This is evidence the government has that we believe will corroborate Brian in every significant way,” McNamee lawyer Earl Ward told the Daily News. The lawyers wouldn’t discuss what the evidence is, but a source told the Daily News that McNamee gave vials with traces of steroids and human growth hormone, as well as blood-stained syringes and gauze pads that might contain Clemens’ DNA, to the Justice Department’s BALCO investigators.

Clemens is still scheduled to testify before a House committee next week. At this point, it would be pretty tough for him to make some kind of deal. If this evidence is legit, Roger Clemens is toast.

It’s simple for me: the economy. I can live with him as CIC, that is his passion, although, as Mark Levin likes to point out, he has not laid out a “vision” of how he would shape foreign policy.

And on the social issues, I tend to think he’ll at least try to maintain the status quo, not expanding the liberal agenda, based upon his actual voting record, not his dalliances with liberal Democrats. And that he will appoint judges that are more conservative than not. Again, based upon his voting record.

What frightens the bejabbers out of me about him is that I think he would raise taxes - even though he is on record as saying he would not sign any legislation that authorized new taxes and that he would attempt to make the Bush tax cuts permanent. We saw how well that worked with G.H.W. Bush.

Alan Reynolds at the Cato Institute makes the case quite well:

McCain would be eager and enthusiastic to join with past co-authors — Kennedy, Edwards, Lieberman and Feingold — to raise tax rates on high incomes, capital gains, dividends and estates.

McCain could surely be persuaded to remove the cap on the Social Security tax. That move, added to a state-local marginal rate above 45%, would make the top tax in the U.S. much higher than in any other civilized country, including Sweden (which has the least progressive tax system of them all). Many European countries allow the payroll tax to be deducted from the income tax, but it’s a nasty add-on for us. It’s loosely tied to benefits, but Social Security would become a pure redistribution scheme if they uncapped the tax.

All the Democrats need to do in exchange for such higher tax rates on the rich is to offer to “fix” the AMT (to make sure it just hits the rich) and cut the nominal corporate tax rate (after “closing loopholes” like quick depreciation), and also to fund any and all U.S. troops in the Middle East.

In McCain’s view, this would be another bold act of leadership, like pushing McCain-Feingold after being tarnished as a member of the Keating Five.

It would show how marvelously bipartisan he is, how fiscally responsible, unlike that upstart George W. Bush. I can see the smug grin even now.

And that would be exactly the wrong approach to the economy. We already have some of the highest corporate tax rates in the world. I fear that in McCain’s view, keeping a strong military would require us to maintain the high rates rather than slash them.

The Eisenhower-Nixon years defined the phrase “fiscal conservative.” If Democrats spent too much, a “fiscal conservative” would regard it as his duty to do the honorable thing and raise tax rates as much and as often as required, if only to protect the military budget.

And that is why I hope we have a brokered convention.

“Slap yourself on the forehead” mistakes are just part of 21st-century office life.

• Sending out a report, only to then spot an obvious and idiotic typo;
• Accidentally forwarding an email to the wrong person, thanks to the ever-helpful “Let me complete the address for you!” function on your computer.

So part of me feels a tinge of sympathy Yet I can’t help but gleefully celebrate this little “oopsie,” courtesy WorldNetDaily [h/t Aussie Dave]:

Yesterday, a suicide bomber detonated his explosives in the Israeli Negev desert city of Dimona, killing one woman and injuring 11 others, including at least one man who is in critical condition.

Immediately after the attack, a leader of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades terror group called both WND and a reporter from Israel’s popular Ynetnews website to take credit for the bombing on behalf the Brigades and another terror organization, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

The Brigades leader provided WND with the names of the two bombers – Mussa Arafat, a PFLP terrorist from the Gaza city of Khan Younis, and Lawai Lawani, an Al Aqsa Brigades member from Gaza’s Sabra neighborhood.

Calls by WND to the families of both Arafat and Lawani in Gaza discovered the two men, both in their 20s, left their homes and have not been heard from all week.

Later yesterday, the Brigades temporarily released on its official website short videos of Lawani and Arafat professing their faith in Allah and willingness to become a “martyr.”

The two suicide bombers were believed to have crossed into Israel from Egypt after Gaza-based militants 13 days ago blew up the Gaza-Egypt border wall, allowing hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to stream into the Egyptian Sinai desert. Israel has a long border with Egypt, much of which is unprotected.

Today, Israeli forensic experts who coordinated with Palestinian security officials discovered Lawani and Arafat were not the bombers who exploded themselves, according to security sources.

The Hamas terror group today claimed responsibility for the suicide attack in text messages to journalists and on Hamas’ official TV station. Hamas identified the two attackers as Mohammed Herbawi and Shadi Zghayer.

According to terrorist sources and Palestinian security officials in Gaza speaking to WND, when the Egypt-Gaza border was breached two weeks ago, the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the PFLP and several other terrorist organizations sent several suicide bombers with explosive belts into the Egyptian Sinai desert with instructions to attempt to infiltrate into Israel along the country’s long border with Egypt.

Israeli security officials realized the Al Aqsa Marytrs Brigades – after hearing of yesterday’s successful suicide operation – mistakenly thought it was their bombers who had reached Israel and detonated their explosives and, in a rush to take responsibility, the Brigades released the names of their two bombers.

Thanks to the Brigades’ mistake, Israeli security agencies now have the identities of two potential Brigade suicide attackers.

Memo to the al-Aqsa Martyr’s Brigade press shop– no Ramadan bonus for you.

Irony, thy name is McCain.

The man who is legend for his nasty disposition and temper, has a message for his conservative opponents:  Don’t blow a gasket.

WASHINGTON - Boosted by his big night, John McCain asked his loudest conservative critics Wednesday to “calm down” and support his Republican presidential candidacy, . . ..

Acknowledging the pasting he has taken from talk radio, McCain did something sure to further endear him to the right - he compared himself to Ronald Reagan!  (You knew that was coming, didn’t you?)

“I think they’ve made their case against me pretty eloquently,” he said, adding wryly, “if that’s the right word.” He asserted that the pundits’ conservative hero Ronald Reagan — and his — reached across the aisle to Democrats just like he wants to do as president.

If he keeps this up, he might alienate the nose-holding Republicans still left.

Though I both laughed and cried when I read this story, now I know it’s time for the gin.  At least. 

• That Rush Limbaugh’s brutal assaults on John McCain (presumably to the benefit of Mitt Romney) would seemingly not affect the McCain Train on Super Tuesday?
• That the combined anti-McCain forces of Limbaugh, Sean H(v)annity, Laura Ingraham, Mark Levin and Ann Coulter would do no better?
• That interest in the campaigns was so high, news outlets reported some people showed up to vote in states where no primaries were held?  (Does the awareness shown by these nitwits help explain the mess we’re in?)
• That Mike Huckabee would collude with McCain to help defeat the most conservative candidate remaining in the race?
• That, after 2000, the likely GOP nominee for 2008 would be a 71-year-old curmudgeon who frequently frolics (in the legislative sense) with liberal Democrats?
• That said likely nominee would have a history of supporting amnesty for illegal aliens, opposing tax cuts and tinkering with campaign finance laws to the ultimate benefit of Democrats?
• That a man who has completed barely half of his first term in the US Senate, and whose previous elective  experience consisted of several years in the Illinois State Senate (essentially a part-time job, as the body meets about four months a year) may become the Democratic nominee without providing actual details on any particular issue, but rather riding the waive of his speaking skills and looks (talk about a Cult of Personality!)?
• That politically astute people could say, with a straight face, that voting for John McCain is no different than voting for Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama?
• That the influence of conservatives in choosing the Republican nominee — wait a minute, what influence?

I don’t know whether to laugh or cry - or just hit the gin early.

Real Clear Politics estimates after Super Tuesday:

Republican (1,191 needed):

McCain	604
Romney	244
Huckabee	187
Paul	14

Democrat (2,025 needed):

Clinton	900
Obama	824

After their “self-proclaimed success” last year at stopping comprehensive immigration reform, “conservative” talk radio hosts vastly overrated their ability to sway voters opinions. From El-Rushbo to Laura to Beck to Hannity to Levin and beyond, all of them started yelling FIRE! in the Super Duper Tuesday theater.

But no one ran.

Myth: Talk radio reflects “the people” and their values. Blocking comprehensive immigration reform proves that talk radio is capable of driving the electorate.

Reality: Talk radio is entertainment. Targeting specific legislators to get them to block a vote is not the same as driving the electorate.

When did these guys start taking themselves so seriously? The voters, rightly, decided that Mitt Romney didn’t deserve the exaltations that he was receiving from the anti-McCain crowd. He may or may not be to the right of McCain but he isn’t a rock solid core principled conservative. And John McCain isn’t a flaming pink Commie.

Could we get back to blasting the Democrats now?

If this is true, it pretty much blows away the argument that the two thugs Joe Horn killed were just a couple of nice guys.

Hartman said Davila rang the doorbell of a home in the Sugar Lakes subdivision. When the woman who lived there answered, Davila mumbled something and the woman opened the door.

Three men, who apparently had been hiding nearby, rushed into the house, Hartman said.

One of the men put a gun to the victim’s head. The woman was tied up and left on a bed while the men ransacked the home, taking about $100,000 in jewelry and other valuables.

If you suffer from Hypengyophobia then one of these two may be your best choice for President.

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