It’s here (”Bill Pierce for US Senate (Ohio) to Defeat RINO Mike DeWine; Getting Involved”). Tell your FReeper friends.

The post at FR essentially combines revised versions of the Pierce endorsement and support posts here at BizzyBlog.
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Note: I have endorsed Bill Pierce for Senate, and have provided nominal financial support for his campaign. BizzyBlog is a member of Blogs for Pierce.

Evans-Novak Report Analyzes Immigration Legislation, Implicating Mike DeWine in the Current Stalemate

Ohio’s incumbent Senator in the May 2 Ohio primary has demonstrated yet again why his continued presence there is not desirable.

Here is an immigration-related excerpt from the latest usually-weekly Evans-Novak e-mail (link not available). The first four paragraphs discussed where Democrats are with the issue, so I’ll begin at Paragraph 5 (bolds are mine):

5) The comments of House Majority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) on Sunday–that a guest-worker bill would be inappropriate until border security had been finished–represents a change of direction, a new recognition that the immigration bill is dead. Senators rejected cloture on a stand-alone border-enforcement bill after the compromise on the immigration bill died. This could become a weapon for Republicans in some races. No Democrat supported the enforcement bill, although several Republicans as well voted against it. Most Republican senators apparently don’t understand the political benefit of putting Democrats on the record against border security.

6) The result was a wasted week of the legislative calendar, and the pathetic sight of majority Republicans on the floor whining about amendments as if they were members of the minority. Frist is mostly to blame for this outcome, as he appears to have lost control of the Senate. (Reid and Judiciary Chairman Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) are the most powerful at the moment. Reid has already gotten the better of Specter now on both asbestos litigation reform and immigration, even though Specter has won on Supreme Court confirmations. )

7) In this immigration debate, Frist had already failed the minute he turned the floor over to Specter, letting the Democrat-inspired Judiciary Committee bill come up as a substitute to his own bill. Were he more assertive, Frist would have scuttled Specter’s bill as a Democratic product that could never pass, and proceeded to his own border security bill. Senators could have added guest-worker amendments on the floor. Common sense dictates that the immigration bill most likely to pass on the floor is one that is constructed on the floor, amendment by amendment. The Judiciary Committee just was not a good place to build a passable bill, because four or five of the Republicans on the committee were in agreement with the Democrats on key provisions liberalizing immigration law.

Mike DeWine is one of the “four or five” Republicans on the “Democrat-inspired Judiciary Committee” agreeing with the Democrats that immigration law should be liberalized.

Bill Pierce isn’t inspired by Judiciary Committee Democrats — He says that legislation to truly secure our borders must be in place, and only then can a discussion begin about dealing with those who are already here illegally.

Bill Pierce is right on this issue. Mike DeWine is wrong. This is just one of dozens of reasons why Bill Pierce deserves the votes of all conservatives in the GOP Primary on May 2.

Note: I have endorsed Bill Pierce for Senate, and have provided nominal financial support for his campaign. BizzyBlog is a member of Blogs for Pierce. The graphic above is mine, and has not been approved by the Pierce campaign.

….. From Peace Action’s Educational Fund.

I don’t think she’ll be losing sleep over getting this zero rating.

Here is what Peace(nik) Action does (about halfway down the About page) — “We are the nation’s largest grassroots Peace network, with over 28 state affiliates, and over 100 local chapters. We organize our grassroots network to place pressure on Congress and the Administration through write-in campaigns, internet actions, citizens lobbying and direct action. Through a close relationship with progressive members of Congress, we play a key role in devising strategies to move forward peace legislation, and, as a leading organizing member of United for Peace and Justice and the Win Without War coalition, we lend our expertise and large network to achieving common goals.”

Go to their publications page, and at the bottom of the page, click on the PDF link for their 2005 voting record report on all Senators and Congresspersons.

How did Jean Schmidt earn her big fat zero from the Kumbaya crowd? With the following votes (she was not in Congress for votes 1 through 9):
– #10 - She voted to continue funding the War in Iraq.
– #11 - She opposed a timetable for withdrawing troops from Iraq.
– #12 - Unlike many other Republican in Congress, she did not get cowed by the mostly bogus claims of “torture” at Guantanamo Bay and elsewhere, and voted against adopting a prohibition against “torture” as part of the Defense Department appropriations bill.

The remainder of the local Ohio delegation (Boehner, Chabot, Turner) agreed with Schmidt on these three votes. Geoff Davis of Kentucky agreed on items 10 and 11, but let himself get cowed on the “torture” bill.

Although the comparison is admittedly not fair because there were 12 Peace Action issues that members who served during all of 2005 voted on, I reviewed their entire list and saw no more than a half-dozen or so other congresspersons who received a score of zero, including none from Ohio. Radical Ohio Democrat Congressman Dennis Kucinich was one of roughly a dozen to get a “perfect” 100% Peace Action score.

This shows that Schmidt is functioning in the realm of reality in a post-9/11 world.

One of her opponents, Bob McEwen, had a camera crew show up at a facility (with or without the candidate) that is supposed to remain secure, and (from the parts of the account not in dispute — go here and here for the painful details) expected to be able to take shots inside — something that most likely would have been allowed before September 11, 2001. This episode, coupled with Schmidt’s voting record, shows that Mr. McEwen and his campaign are roughly 5 years behind Ms. Schmidt, and most likely also Deb Kraus, on matters of national security.
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For Ohio’s curious: Buckeye State US Senators Mike DeWine and George Voinovich got ratings of 33% and 56%, respectively, on nine US Senate votes that Peace Action used for Senate scoring in 2005. Current congressman and heavy favorite for Democrat gubernatorial nominee Ted Strickland got 83%.

It’s here.

The organic farming industry has a well-developed and mostly undeserved halo that has taken years to build.

One reason, as TCS Daily’s Alex Avery notes, is that scientists, even government researchers who are supposed to be objective, twist the results of studies to make the organic food look more advantageous than it is:

The researchers collected and examined the urine of 23 children looking for traces of the harmless breakdown products (metabolites) of non-persistent organophosphate (OP) pesticides. These are the most powerful, and potentially most worrisome, insecticides. Using ultra-sensitive instruments, they found OP pesticide metabolites at an average of 2-5 parts per billion in the children’s urine. When they switched the kids to organic fruits and vegetables, the OP metabolite traces disappeared within 24 hours.

The research is actually good news on two fronts. First, only miniscule traces of pesticide metabolites were found. A part per billion is equal to one second in 32 years. Second, it confirms that pesticides are rapidly detoxified and cleared from children’s bodies — just as we thought they were.

But instead of using these findings to reassure parents about the safety of the food supply, the researchers tacitly promoted organic foods. Consider this line from their paper,

“Although we did not collect health outcome data in this study, it is intuitive to assume that children whose diets consist of organic food items would have a lower probability of neurological health risks, a common toxicological mechanism of the OP pesticide class.”

This sentence is an organic food marketers’ dream. Most parents would interpret this as a warning that neurological health damage from pesticides is “common” and that organic foods are substantially safer. Neither is true. What is entirely missing from this sentence is the context of dose.

What is also entirely missing is any sense of fairness, or any inclination to step away from the politically (and in this case organically) correct.

Folks, anyone can “intuitively” opine on anything without spending money to ignore reasonable conclusions that might contradict my worldview. The purpose of scientific studies is supposed to be to get away from the “intuitive.” But I guess there’s now an organic foods exception to legitimate research, which can be added to the global-warming exception, the DDT exception, etc., etc.

Hey folks, I moderate comments.

The ones with personal attacks or other personal comments directed at me or others that otherwise lack substance don’t get through.

The ones with profanity either get deleted, or occasionally are let through and edited if the comment is otherwise worthwhile.

The ones that are off-topic don’t get through.

I attempt to contact those whose comments are deleted (which is a lot more than most would do), but to get an explanation e-mail from me, you have to provide me a real e-mail address. If you don’t, you get to brood.

I may choose not to allow comments on certain posts (like this one, while I’m at it). It’s my place.

K?

Free Links:

• It appears that the bill that would ban all online gambling introduced by Virginia Congressman Bob Goodlatte is a bigtime overreaction to a not very big problem. Y’think the fact that Virginia’s 6th District, which Goodblatte represents, includes Lynchburg, home of Jerry Falwell, might have something to do with this grandstanding piece of legislation that would appear to have no chance of passage?
• So Now They Want to Take Away Bob Taft’s Law License after his ethics convictions last year. With all due respect, what took the state Supreme Court’s disciplinary counsel almost eight months, and why should I not question the timing three weeks before the primary?
• Lincoln Logs is right (no, not about the US Senate GOP Primary :–>) — The Alan Mollohan story should be big. Very big.
• Flipping Off the Hamburger-Flipper Argument — “Newest job numbers show that businesses are expanding opportunities in high-wage fields.” Imagine that.
• S.O.B. Alliance member Large Bill linked to my Pierce endorsement (thanks!), and, at the end of his roundup post, shockingly reveals that he wishes to be a hyphenated American — Legal-American. That’s a good one.

Lunchtime Read:
One of the OpinionJournal Federation’s first offerings yesterday was a very good one from the American Spectator. Robert T. McLean’s “Bullish on Baghdad — The Iraqi economy shows signs of strength” broke through the near-total blackout on economic news from that country with this second-paragraph overview:

As the Iraq campaign continues to be labeled a disaster by political opponents of the Bush administration at home, by those suspicious of the United States abroad, and increasingly by conservatives who call themselves realists yet have no realistic plan for Iraq, positive indicators about the Iraqi economy are not too hard to find. Though the economy expanded by an unimpressive 2.6% in real terms in 2005, that figure is scheduled to reach over 10% this year, as reported by the International Monetary Fund. Dawn Liberi, director of the U.S. Agency for International Development in Iraq, noted in February that per capita income has increased from $500 at the time of the invasion in 2003 to $1,500 today.

Read the whole thing if you didn’t catch it yesterday.

A couple and their 5 kids survived an unplanned 100-foot ride:

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