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Three FDNY Firefighters Killed

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Today’s New York Times reports on the death of three firefighters in New York City:

The fireball burst through the floorboards on Sunday, consuming the room in flames and trapping two firefighters from Rescue Company 3 by the single window overlooking the icy pavement five stories below.

Four other firefighters had already jumped to the ground from a room next door; two would die. The last two men on the floor were alone in the flames.

“I got a rope, but I got nothing to tie it to,” Firefighter Jeffrey Cool said to his partner, Joseph DiBernardo, whose father recounted the story of their escape yesterday.

‘”Throw it to me and I’ll support you,”‘ Firefighter DiBernardo replied.

Firefighter Cool tossed the rope, and Firefighter DiBernardo tied it to the window’s child safety bars and lowered him from the window, fire officials said.

Suddenly, the rope became taut and snapped, sending Firefighter Cool falling to the ground, said Joseph DiBernardo Sr., a retired deputy fire chief.

But Firefighter DiBernardo was still able to use the remaining piece of rope for his own escape, lowering himself until, when he was about 10 feet from the ground, the bars ripped from the window frame and he fell.

“They saved each other’s lives,” said his father, who gave the dramatic replay for reporters outside Weill Cornell Medical Center, where his son was being treated.

Where do we find such men?

RIP: Johnny Carson

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One of my favorite activities of my childhood was watching the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson – The New York Times is now reporting his death at age 79:

Johnny Carson, the “Tonight Show” TV host who served America a smooth nightcap of celebrity banter, droll comedy and heartland charm for 30 years, has died. He was 79.

“Mr. Carson passed away peacefully early Sunday morning,” his nephew, Jeff Sotzing, told The Associated Press. “He was surrounded by his family, whose loss will be immeasurable. There will be no memorial service.”

The best there ever was – the best there ever will be.

You’ll be missed.

Democrats Can Never Lose An Election

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A relatively new weblog, New Sisyphus has a great post up about how the democrats can never really lose an election:

We entered a new political age then, born of the horribly selfish acts of a sitting Vice President who would not and could not accept defeat. Count after count after count since those horrible days, even by liberal mouth-pieces like the New York Times, have verified that President Bush won Florida. Let us concede: the vote was close, Bush did not win the popular vote, Gore was favored by a majority of voters. However, in the end, under our precious Constitutional system, Bush won the 2000 election.

The Florida disaster inaugurated a new world where the Democratic challenger never really loses an election, even if he or she has. Since Florida, the Democratic Party has been completely unable to accept that it is losing in the battleground of ideas and has retreated to ever-more improbable conspiracy theories. And since they never lose, challenging any and all results is, of course, morally justified and right, since the whole world knows that Republicans never really “win” anything. Should “all the votes be counted,” the Party of the People would, naturally, prevail.

And so we have had to witness the much-commented-about public deterioration of what once was a reasonably intelligent Senator from Tennessee, as he turned into the Man Who Had the Presidency Stolen From Him. To Democratic Blacks, the Republicans “suppressed” the black vote through public intimidation. To Democratic academics, the Supreme Court “stole” the election. To Democratic “anti-globalization activists,” Republicans’ victories are invalid since they are the fruit of corporate contributions. Nowhere and at no time since Florida have the Democrats lost. Either they were robbed, or the people are stupid and didn’t understand them correctly, or they were the victims of a racist conspiracy.

And it makes great sense – look at the uproar even over this election. The rhetorical smoke billowing out of the mouths of Barbara Boxer and Cynthia McKinney is enough for me.

Today’s Forecast

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Just another beautiful day in Southeastern Massachusetts:

Blizzard conditions with heavy snow and very gusty winds. There could even be a rumble of thunder. Low 18F. Winds NE at 35 to 50 mph. A foot or more of snow expected. Winds could occasionally gust over 50 mph.

I just returned from the grocery store, where there were 40 people in line at the deli, the meat counter was 60% empty, and the lines were 8 people deep.

It’s just snow folks – you’ll scoop it out and goto work the next day… geesh!

Bleat Bleat! The Confirmation Hearings

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Already quoted by many in the last few hours, James Lileks cranked one off in yesterday’s Bleat regarding Dr. Rice’s confirmation hearings before the United States Senate:

I listened to some of the Dr. Rice hearings today. Listening to Sen. Boxer is like having someone pump six gallons of lukewarm tea up a catheter tube. Slowly. It’s like being beaten to death by a moth. The rest of the questions were a bit more adept, inasmuch as they postured and preened with greater skill – but I kept wondering, who’s their audience? Who are they talking to? Who is this supposed to impress? I suppose if you believe that Abu Ghraib is the defining crime of the 21st century, you’re impressed that they’re still gnawing the bone; if you still believe that the solution to Iraqnam is the addition of Russian forces (!) (as Kerry suggested) (!) then this was heartening: truth to power, man. But to someone who is not on the moveon.org mailing list, it’s more of the same. More about WMD, for example. I too deplore the Bush administration’s decision in 2002 to go back to 1998 and plant all those false stories about Iraqi WMD and Saddam’s Al Qaeda connections in the mainstream media, for example, but I’m more interested in what comes next. (And I still, stubbornly, support the decision to go in.) What I heard from Rice’s interrogators was the same thing I heard back in the 80s – often from my own mouth, in fact. The voice of Wise Calm International Reason, all-knowing in retrospect, all-trusting in the power of a summit or a thick piece of paper signed at an impressive ceremony and toasted with Moet. But here’s the thing: the tone of voice, the tendentious lectures, the sonorous outrage, and the overall oppositional posture would have been the same if 9/11 and Iraq had never happened, and they were discussing, say, don’t ask / don’t tell or relations with Haiti.

I really wish someone would run against Barbara Boxer.. and win!

Boston’s War on Terror Continues

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As I thought might happen some time ago, the War on Terrorism has returned to Boston, captured here in this article from the Boston Globe:

The FBI launched a massive manhunt across the region yesterday for six people, four Chinese scientists and two Iraqis, said to be planning to detonate a “dirty bomb” in Boston, local public safety officials briefed on the threat said.

An anonymous tipster told authorities that the six sneaked into the United States from Mexico and were headed to New York and then to Boston, where they intended to launch an attack that could involve a lethal radioactive material, several officials briefed on the threat said.

The threat was reported to a California police department by someone in Mexico who said he had smuggled the suspects across the border, the officials said. The FBI had not corroborated the information as of last night, and officials expressed skepticism about the credibility of the tip, saying the names of the suspects had been run through all available databases of criminals and nothing had come up.

“What we’re trying to do is reassure the public that there’s no reason to panic, because the information has come from an unknown source, and none of the information has been corroborated,” US Attorney Michael J. Sullivan said in an interview yesterday. “At the same time, we have to do our diligence.”

Sullivan said officials had decided to release the names and photos of the four Chinese nationals — Zengrong Lin, Wen Quin Zheng, Xiujin Chen, and Guozhi Lin — because they believe the public could help investigators find the two men and two women.

“There’s an interest on the part of law enforcement to at least locate and speak with these individuals,” Sullivan said.

The information about the four was all that the tipster provided, public safety officials said. The tipster gave no identifying information about the Iraqis, they said.

Federal, state, and city officials were taking the threat seriously yesterday. The threat was discussed in President Bush’s morning security briefing. Representatives from several state agencies, including the Department of Public Health and the National Guard, were gathered at an emergency bunker in Framingham, as Boston police were readying themselves to respond to an attack.