Hewitt Blog

From the New York Times:

Several well-preserved skeletons of the fossil fish were uncovered in sediments of former stream beds in the Canadian Arctic, 600 miles from the North Pole, it is being reported on Thursday in the journal Nature. The skeletons have the fins and scales and other attributes of a giant fish, four to nine feet long.

But on closer examination, scientists found telling anatomical traits of a transitional creature, a fish that is still a fish but exhibiting changes that anticipate the emergence of land animals — a predecessor thus of amphibians, reptiles and dinosaurs, mammals and eventually humans.

The scientists described evidence in the forward fins of limbs in the making. There are the beginnings of digits, proto-wrists, elbows and shoulders. The fish also had a flat skull resembling a crocodile's, a neck, ribs and other parts that were similar to four-legged land animals known as tetrapods.

The discovering scientists called the fossils the most compelling examples yet of an animal that was at the cusp of the fish-tetrapod transition. The fish has been named Tiktaalik roseae, at the suggestion of elders of Canada's Nunavut Territory. Tiktaalik (pronounced tic-TAH-lick) means "large shallow water fish."

UPDATE: Canadian fish descendant Doug Tennapel objects.

My Sandmen's Major Mike essays on the Dems' tactics in 2006.

And a "Taxonomy of Legal Blogs" from 3L Epiphany.

Today's bump music, courtesy of the Nihilist in Golf Pants, which, frankly, is a blog in crisis, in shambles and probably about to close down:

11. Changes - David Bowie

10. You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet - Bachman Turner Overdrive

9. Birthday - The Beatles

8. Barbara Ann - The Beach Boys

7. My Sharona - The Knack

6. Bennie And The Jets - Elton John

5. Jimmy Jazz - The Clash

4. Bad To The Bone - George Thorogood

3. Back In The USSR - The Beatles

2. Psycho Killer - The Talking Heads

1. My Generation - The Who

According to The A-Team Blog. (HT: Rhett Smith, who is looking for college pastors who blog.)

That's Ed, as in Ed Morrissey, Blogger of the Year.

That's two in a row for Northern Alliance bloggers, with Powerline taking the honors last year.

I suspect that while James, King, and Mitch are possibles in future years, I am pretty much willing to bet the house on the Fraters gang never having to prepare an acceptance speech.

On Friday night's Larry King show, Martha Zoller and I sparred with lefty Ed Schultz and radical Rhandi Rhodes over the issues of the day. Here's one exchange on health care of particular interest today:

CALLER: And I would also like to ask the panel if what they thought if this administration or the president, if they're going to make any headway on the whole health care issue, as I'm one of the many that don't have it.

SCHULTZ: Do you want me to -- Larry, this is the number one issue on the minds of all Americans on both sides of the political aisle across the country right now. You cannot expect families to absorb year after year double-digit increases, and the number of people that don't have any health insurance. And the conservatives are sitting there saying, go get a savings account. What! Come on, give me a break....

KING: What do you think?

HEWITT: I think people should look at the states. Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney has come up with a very, very innovative plan that says to those who are 30 and 40 years old, who are just not buying health insurance because they don't need it, they figure they'll get it later when they get it, you're going to pay in. At the state level, like Massachusetts and the Romney plan, there are many innovative solutions. What we don't need is Canadian health care. What we don't need is what Ed wants....

The Romney plan I referred to on Friday night became law yesterday, and with its passage, Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney got a huge boost in his campaign for the presidency.

While Majority Leader Frist, and Senators Allen and McCain are locked in a bloody intra-party battle over illegal immigration, Romney produces an innovative solution --at the state level-- that avoids the worst of Hillarycare and yet moves towards the goal of coverage for all Americans on an equitable basis. Front page coverage in the Washington Post and the New York Times telegraphs the new legislation's importance.

While the plan does impose fees on employers not providing health insurance, it also demands performance from health care providers and begins to address the "free rider" problem in health care.

From a political perspective, it gives Governor Romney a huge advantage heading into 2008, one which all candidates covet: An actual example of concrete achievement that voters will connect to their own lives.

There is no doubt in my mind that the pundits are going to grow very tired of hearing Mitt Romney talk about the "Romney plan which he pushed through a blue state legislature, which extends coverage and controls costs while increasing the quality of health care throughout Massachusetts," but it is a significant achievement for a Republican governor in a very liberal state.

And the other would-be successors to W have got to have noticed that when it comes to deliverables, the Romney campaign just took a big jump forward.

Meanwhile, John McCain is teamed with Teddy while also blocking Bush nominees to the federal bench.

Quite a contrast.

More reactions from Webbloggin, Midtopia, ByTheRiver, NationalReview.com --pro, NationalReview.com --con; and Maggie's Farm, which asks "A Home Run for Romney?"

Yes, Maggie, a home run.

Like Aaron Boone's in yesterday's first win of the season for the World Series-bound Indians.

Chapman Law School is holding a symposium beginning tomorrow on the crucial legal question of the year: "Are We At War."

If you are in California beginning tomorrow, you will want to try and attend. There is also a webcast.

Up early for a segment on Fox & Friends with the Judge and Allison, partly about Tom DeLay and partly about the new book's focus on maintaining the GOP majorities in both House and Senate in November's elections.

I think that's the bottom line of the decision by Tom DeLay to step down: He put the Congressional majority he helped build ahead of his personal vindication at the polls, a vindication that would have been close-run at best and incredibly expensive.

With his departure the Texas 22nd should stay in GOP hands, and the Democrats are denied a whipping boy for the next six months. As Tony Blankley points out this morning, "Democrats express delight but are actually disappointed, as his Texas congressional seat is more likely to now stay Republican and they won't have Tom Delay to kick around anymore."

Some on the left are genuinely delighted and are busy doing their Lord of the Flies dance, but not the pros. DeLay's stepping aside helps clear the field so that focus can be put on the national issues at stake in November.

Simply put: If Democrats win a majority in either body, the war will be deeply compromised. If Democrats win both, the war will be lost in a replay of the retreat from Vietnam the Democrats orchestrated in the '70s.

The insurgents are fighting on in the hope of one thing: That America will quit.

The Democrats are committed to quitting.

Given these stakes in November, every Republican member has got to be asking themselves what do they do to preserve the majority. DeLay did the right thing, and hopefully his example will guide others over the next six months.

Judge Napolitano asked me for specific examples of how the GOP gets the momentum back. I mentioned the obvious things such as forcing a vote of Russ Feingold's censure motion and of course up-or-down votes on all of the president's judicial nominees.

But the key thing would be for every Republican to begin to think beyond the next sound byte to the much larger contest between the parties, and to focus relentlessly on the war and the choice before the country.

It isn't about the individual members. It is about the majority. Perhaps DeLay's stunner will force a few more to recognize that essential fact.

Deputy Assistant to the President Peter Wehner responds to conservatives critics of the war in the pages of OpinionJournal.com. Key graph:

[C]ritics of the war are demonstrating a peculiar eagerness to declare certain matters settled. We certainly face difficulties in Iraq--but we have seen significant progress as well. In 2005, Iraq's economy continued to recover and grow. Access to clean water and sewage-treatment facilities has increased. The Sunnis are now invested in the political process, which was not previously the case. The Iraqi security forces are far stronger than they were. Our counterinsurgency strategy is more effective than in the past. Cities like Tal Afar, which insurgents once controlled, are now back in the hands of free Iraqis. Al Qaeda's grip has been broken in Mosul and disrupted in Baghdad. We now see fissures between Iraqis and foreign terrorists. And in the aftermath of the mosque bombing in Samarra, we saw the political and religious leadership in Iraq call for an end to violence instead of stoking civil war--and on the whole, the Iraqi security forces performed well. These achievements are authentic grounds for encouragement. And to ignore or dismiss all signs of progress in Iraq, to portray things in what Norman Podhoretz has called "the blackest possible light," disfigures reality.

Jed Babbin explains it all for you.

And Kevin McCullough podcasts our interview about Painting the Map Red.