Thanks everybody for your patience and encouragement as I reformat the blog. As you can see, I finally figured out how to import my old posts from the old database to the new, but it looks like I still need to comb through the archive and make some minor edits to remove extra characters. I also need to add back the images (I wiped everything clean, so I might be selective about which posts I fix) and perhaps repost the three or so items from late last week. Cheers.

Some things are more important than blogging:

The Flyer’s lefty blogger Chris Davis says there is an update on the terror suspect that Bill Hobbs coined a “Memphislamist.” I don’t see it on the paper’s website yet.

Previously: here and here.

Some vloggers I met at blogNashville were interviewed by NPR today. Check it out.

Despite the criticism he’s getting, and some of it may be deserved, I don’t see that much difference between what Rep Tom Tancredo reportedly said, and what Cal Thomas writes in his column today:

Here’s what Blair should say to the Muslim leaders: “The onus is on you guys. You find and shut down the terrorists and their network. You turn those who incite, plan and encourage violence over to the authorities. If you don’t act, we will by closing and bulldozing the mosques and schools that incubate and instruct the killers, prosecuting the terrorists we find and deporting them and their clerics, and closing our borders to anyone from countries that harbor and teach terrorists. Those who are British citizens will be stripped of their citizenship.”

I’ve not even seen the interviewer’s question, so I’m not sure what the exact wording was, but here’s the Tancredo comment under fire:

“Well, what if you said something like — if this happens in the United States, and we determine that it is the result of extremist, fundamentalist Muslims, you know, you could take out their holy sites,” Tancredo answered.

Keep in mind that Tancredo’s point was a hypothetical threat, not a plan of action.

No, we shouldn’t bomb innocent people. No, we shouldn’t incite more hatred of the U.S. by being disrespectful of muslim places of worship.

At the same time, shouldn’t there be serious consequences for those responsible for a nuclear terrorist attack against the United States?

And if nuclear terrorists don’t consider even the loss of their lives too big a price to pay, why is it inconceivable that we should threaten them with the destruction of the one thing they do consider sacred… if indeed they do?

Furthermore, if it turns out that some of these “holy places” are actually breeding grounds for terrorism… how could we pussyfoot around them and still hope to protect our country?

War is war, and that means everything is on the table until the enemy is defeated. That means if Al Qaida goes nuclear, and a holy site is Al Qaida’s only Achilles Heal… perhaps it is time that Al Qaida is made to consider losing it.

UPDATE: Here is a partial transcript of the interview:

Campbell: Worst-case scenario - if they do have these nukes inside the borders and they were to use something like that, what would our response be?

Tancredo: What would be the response? (pause) Um, you know, there are things you could threaten to do before something like that happens and you may have to do afterwards (unintelligible) draconian.

Campbell: Such as?

Tancredo: Well, what if you said something like, “If this happens in the United States and we determine that it is the result of extremist, fundamentalist Muslims.” You could take out their holy sites.

And Tancredo’s response to criticism:

“I’m not suggesting we do it. I have nothing to apologize for in that respect,” Tancredo said. “I’m simply saying to have a good discussion on this issue, a thorough discussion on what is perhaps the most serious kind of possible situation we could face as a civilization, that you cannot simply take things off the table because they are uncomfortable to talk about.”

…

“I simply throw that out there as something to think about, although it is horrendous to think about, I understand that,” Tancredo said. “So is having one or more cities destroyed in the United States. And that’s all I did.”

UPDATE: 12.13.2005 - Tancredo explains further in an interview with Hugh Hewitt.

Republican Arthur Fletcher died last week.

Fletcher served under Presidents Nixon, Ford, Reagan and Bush. As executive director of the United Negro College Fund, Mr. Fletcher originated the motto “A mind is a terrible thing to waste.” Fletcher was also a D.C. mayoral candidate, an obscure candidate for U.S. President, and the author of “My Hour of Power.”

On Sunday, Tim Russert pressed RNC Chairman Ken Mehlman on the Karl Rove / Joe Wilson / Valerie Plame affair — are Republicans being hypocritical?

MR. RUSSERT: Mr. Mehlman, if this happened in the Clinton White House, John Podesta or Leon Panetta or someone was accused of doing this, what would the Republican National Committee be saying today about the Clinton White House?

Wait, back up a second.

Q. What is Rove accused of doing?

A. That would be: leaking the name of an undercover CIA agent to members of the press.

Q. Did he do that?

A. No.

Q. How do you figure?

A. 1. Plame apparently wasn’t an undercover agent, 2. Rove didn’t leak her name, 3. Rove learned the information from members of the press, not the other way around.

A better question, for Russert to answer, would be this:

Mr. Russert, if this happened in the Clinton White House, John Podesta or Leon Panetta or someone was accused of putting our nation’s security at risk, how would the press be treating him, and would it be anything like the media’s treatment of Rove? Better yet, what if he was not only accused, but also found guilty?

Would the press put that someone’s face on the cover of TIME magazine?

Well, it just so happens that we know the answer to that question, from an example that unfolded just a few months ago.

When Clinton’s National Security Advisor, Sandy Berger, pleaded guilty to taking classified, top secret intelligence documents from the National Archives, and destroying those documents, the story was buried.

Berger did not make it to the cover of TIME magazine, and the few stories that were written about his guilty plea didn’t even make the front page at CNN, or the New York Times, or the LA Times, or CBS News, and on it went.

In fact, it seems even the links to several of those buried, hidden stories have now been destroyed: CNN and NY Times, for example.

So please excuse us if we refuse to hear a sermon on double-standards from Tim Russert, who couldn’t find time on the program to discuss his own role in the Wilson ordeal.

UPDATE: Here’s something to flush down the toilet. I guess we can’t accuse Newsweek of originality:

Went to the rally for Terry Roland, who’s running for John Ford’s TN State Senate seat. Took photos. Look close and you’ll see my mug. Here’s one of Roland with Ed Bryant.

MORE: This is a rushed post. Busy weekend.

I also snapped a photo of Roland with blogger Thaddeus Matthews, a Democrat who is crossing party lines to support Terry.

In that spirit, let me vent some frustration with County Commissioner Marilyn Loeffel, who was also at the rally. I told Marilyn I enjoyed her (now cancelled) radio show on 990 AM, but if I had known she voted in favor of the latest property tax increase (thanks to a Half-Bakered reader for the tip), I may have balanced my praise with some criticism. The same goes for Commissioner Joyce Avery (right); in fact, if three of seven Republicans on the Commission hadn’t voted in favor of the tax increase (with a fourth not recording a vote), it wouldn’t have passed. The 14-cent increase (per $100) in the County’s property taxes are an extra burden to Memphians, who were awarded just last month with a 27-cent increase in City property taxes.

Also noted: Bob Corker made an appearance and exchanged several words with Bryant. I wonder if Corker had another reason to come all the way from Chattanooga to attend an event where he wasn’t even invited to speak and Bryant was. After the speechifying, Corker pulled Bryant aside for a discussion in private (turning his back to me when he saw the camera). This is pure, uninformed speculation, but I wonder if Corker was asking Bryant to support him in a gubernatorial bid. Not likely, I guess, but we’ll see.

Every person in the United States needs to view this video, of ABC News on the connections between Saddam Hussein and Osama Bin Laden (this and more available at my Iraqi WMD blog, which for two years has documented news related to Saddam’s WMD programs and terrorist ties).

Following that, every American needs to watch this video, of a terrorist in Iraq shooting a U.S. soldier as he guards the good people of Baghdad. It is as chilling as the Nick Berg video, just less likely to make you violently ill. According to the report, the soldier in the video gave “medical aid to the terrorist who’d tried to kill him just minutes before.”

Then, as a reward, you could pick from a more lighthearted selection here. Some of them are pretty funny.