I really like the way this sheriff thinks:

BUFFALO, Mo. (AP) - Prisoners returning to a jail damaged in a failed breakout attempt will find a radically new decor - pink with blue teddy bear accents.

Dallas County Sheriff Mike Rackley said he decided on the color scheme as part of extensive repairs necessary after inmates set a fire and vandalized the interior on Oct. 8.

“Basically, if they are going to act like children and commit a childish act, then we’ll make a childish atmosphere,” he said. “And it’s a calming thing - Teddy bears are soothing. So we made it like a daycare and that’s kind of like what it is, a day care for adults who can’t control their behavior in public.”

“How do you feel tough in a pink atmosphere?” he asked.

Since the jail violence, most of the southwest Missouri county’s 30-plus prisoners have been in neighboring jails awaiting completion of the repairs.

Eight inmates already have been returned to the jail, but they are confined to their cells 23 hours a day because of the construction and are “a little testy” because of the restrictions.

“They haven’t said much about the color scheme,” Rackley said.

Donald Rumsfeld has just been fired. I say it’s about damned time. You can’t discount the fact that there is a growing chorus of military leaders who think he’s done a horrible job.

And I’m not all that upset about the change in midterm elections. W. wasn’t paying attention to any of his critics. He stuck with his same course, no matter what. And it isn’t working.

I’m still trying to fathom how not a single manager was ever fired over 9/11. There were failures at every level in every intelligence organization, and all we got was a reorganization that put them into an even bigger bureaucracy, and the Patriot Act.

Maybe now W. will pay some attention to his critics, and maybe we can start seeing some positive news from Iraq.

Besides Israelis, that is, who never get the heartrending passages such as you can read in the AP account of the deaths in Beit Hanoun. No, I’m talking about these civilians, which include a mother of eight, shot in the chest for the crime of being near a clan feud, and an 18-year-old, who in AP parlance would be a “youth.”

On Saturday, 4 November 2006, five Palestinians were killed, including one woman, and seven others were injured, including a woman and a child, in renewed clashes between El-Masri and Abu Taha clans in Khan Yunis.

PCHR’s preliminary investigation indicates that at approximately 9:40 on Saturday, armed clashes erupted between El-Masri and Abu Taha clans in Jamal Abdel Naser Street at the intersections with Jala’ and Bahar Streets in the city of Khan Yunis. The clashes erupted after Adnan Yousef Hosni Abu Taha (49) was beaten with a sharp object on the head by members of El-Masri clan. The clashes between both clans resulted in the death of 5 people:

• Abdel Aziz Ahmad Shaker Abu Taha (18), killed by several bullets to the head and chest;
• Bilal Ahmad Shaker Abu Taha (25), killed by several bullets to the head and chest;
• Ashraf Abdel Sami’ Shaker Abu Taha (30), killed by several bullets to the head and chest;
• Salim Mohammad Odeh El-Masri (21), killed by two bullets to the pelvis; and
• Maha Nathmi Abdel Hafith Abu Shammala-Abdel Hadi (33), a bystander and a mother of 8 killed by a bullet to the chest.

What media bias?

While I would love to claim that my write-in candidacy affected the Virginia Senate race, let’s be realistic:

Allen easily won rural and suburban areas, while Webb won big in vote-rich Northern Virginia.

Glenda Gail Parker of Alexandria, running as an Independent Green Party candidate, was picking up 1 percent of the vote.

It wasn’t me, folks.

I’m just looking forward to going to the VA election page and seeing how many votes I got.

A stray tank shell killed twenty two people in Beit Hanoun this night, many of the killed women and children. There is nothing but grief now in many Beit Hanoun families.

The human cost of Hamas’ murderous behavior is growing. We all know that the cost will continue to grow until the launching of Qassams stops and our kidnapped soldier is returned home safely.

Instead of choosing an opportunity to build their own future in peace, the people of Gaza have chosen a gang of terrorists to sell this future for a mirage. Nothing but blood and tears will come of following their blind hatred and fanaticism, fueled by their paymasters in Damascus.

And the cost will continue to grow.

Cross-posted on SimplyJews

So the terrorist organization that the world insisted would moderate after being democratically elected to head the Palestinian Authority, not satisfied with having killed hundreds of Israeli civilians, is gunning for American citizens now. Why? Because the U.S. supports Israel. (Cue the Buchananite, Walt-Mearsheimer, and neo-Nazi frenzy.)

An Israeli tank shell went off course and killed 18 palestinian civilians. Hamas, and all of its terrorist buddies, are threatening revenge. (Cue the “they have opened the gates of hell” quote watch.)

“After this barbaric operation, Israel proved that it’s not a humane state,” Hamas government spokesman Ghazi Hamad said. “It’s a state that believes in killing, and therefore this state should cease to exist.”

Hamas chief, Khaled Mashaal, said hours after the attack that Palestinian militants had abandoned their truce with Israel and would resume attacks on the Jewish state.

Please note that the Ahmadinejad language, as well as the language of the extreme left and asshats like Tony Judt, has now hit the Hamas media operation regarding Israel’s legitimacy. Not that Hamas ever thought Israel was legitimate—their charter calls explicitly for the end of the Jewish state.

Now, the media reports that Hamas’ “military wing” (yeah, right) is gunning for us. (Cue the media spin that will actually support this logic.)

Meanwhile, Hamas’ military wing changed its longtime focus on Israel as the sole target of attacks against perceived enemies of the Palestinian people, calling on Muslim supporters worldwide to wage attacks against American targets in retaliation for the U.S.’s support of the Jewish state.

“America is offering political, financial and logistic cover for the Zionist occupation crimes, and it is responsible for the Beit Hanoun massacre. Therefore, the people and the nation all over the globe are required to teach the American enemy tough lessons,” Hamas said in a statement sent to The Associated Press.

And here’s the way they support the terrorist logic.

While critical of the U.S., Hamas has always focused its violent campaign of suicide bombings and rocket attacks against Israeli targets. Wednesday’s threat signaled that the group is identifying with global Islamic extremist movements, such as al Qaeda.

Here, however, the AP has shocked me by almost declaring outright that this “military wing” stuff is bullshit.

Hamas’ political wing, led by Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, claims it is independent of the military wing. But the two entities both report to the group’s secretive leadership, headquartered in Syria, and frequently coordinate with each other.

This did not, of course, stop them from quoting the “military wing” higher up in the article.

My take on this? Oh, they totally mean it. They may even start carrying out the attacks. They have apologists and fundraisers living right here in America, and probably terrorists as well.

But they’re going after Israel first.