Wash Times: China sub secretly stalked U.S. fleet  A Chinese submarine stalked a U.S. aircraft carrier battle group in the Pacific last month and surfaced within firing range of its torpedoes and missiles before being detected, The Washington Times has learned.

The surprise encounter highlights China's continuing efforts to prepare for a future conflict with the U.S., despite Pentagon efforts to try to boost relations with Beijing's communist-ruled military.

The University of Alabama is suing an artist who has painted a number of classic scenes from Alabama football, including some that hang in the Bear Bryant musuem.

With apologies to my many friends who are attorneys, this quote is priceless:

NYT: Sports Artist Sued for Mix of Crimson and Tide

James Glen Stovall, who taught journalism at the university for 25 years, said only one sort of person would support the suit.

“I can see why, if you’re sitting in a roomful of lawyers, you might come to that conclusion,” Mr. Stovall said. “But no one outside of that room would say: ‘Hey, that’s a good idea. Let’s sue Daniel Moore.’ ”

On another note, a good friend who is a rabid college football fan and Bama alumna says that she thinks Coach David Shula may lose his job after the season.  Hat Tip: "Pretty Katherine"

From Fox News Sunday:

Howard Dean:  "18% of Americans think they are in the top 1% of income earners and the next 18% think they are in the top 10% of income earners.  So when you talk about raising taxes on the rich, most Americans think you are eventually going to get to them."

Wow, Howard must have been doing some serious focus group testing.  This is good news for the many newly elected conservative Democrats (Heath Shuler, et. al.) and for the economy, and bad news for class warriors (John Edwards, et.al.) and the Republicans.

My original post on the 2008 Democrats contained a rumor about a potential candidate of a sexual nature that I heard from a DC contact.  Due to its source I do believe it is possible it is true, but I have removed it from the post because although I think it may play into this potential candidate's decision to run, I do not believe that information of that type should play any role in whether voters should support or oppose a candidate.

I'll be writing more on my views about how personal peccadilloes should be regarded by the voting public at a later date.

I'm new to this type of work, and hope that my readers will forgive my indiscretion.

I just remembered that when Gore ran in 1988 and 1992, his strongest single area of expertise was in foreign policy.  And he was quite the hawk, which will help him in positioning himself as tough in the war with Islamofacism.  He also has relationships with many world leaders going back over twenty five years that will help him make his case now that Americans seem to favor multilateral approaches to current issues.

In 1988, it helped, but he was a bit too callow to be ready while the Cold War was still underway.  (See Obama and Edwards now.)

It 1992, it actually hurt him as voters were far less concerned with foreign affairs after the Cold War ended.

In 2008, imagine Gore running commercials highlighting his expertise in this area, coupled with his environmental activism.

Something along the lines of "With the war with radical Islam and a challenging environmental situation we need a President with strong experience in foreign affairs and relationships around the world to solve these problems.  Al Gore has over twenty five years experience and the relationships necessary to work with world leaders."

Hey, I'm not a fan of the guy, but I can see him looking very, very strong.