Lowell Ponte
Monday, July 30, 2007

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Ancient Egypt's astronomers called these hottest days of the year the "dog days of summer."

This name came from Sirius, the "Dog Star," deeply significant in Egyptian religion, which from around July 3 through Aug. 11 rose in conjunction with the sun. The coming together of these two brightest heavenly bodies, Egyptians reasoned, made these summer days so hot.

Our scientific priesthood now calls Sirius Alpha Canis Major, measures its luminosity as 23 times that of our sun, and calculates that it is a mere 8.6 light years from Earth, theoretically reachable within a century or two by ion-propelled hibernating astronauts.

Some strange influences are clearly dogging human minds during these wilting days. As evidence, look at a few recent news stories.

ABC felt compelled to announce that its forthcoming TV sitcom "Cavemen," based on the stylish primitives in Geico insurance commercials, is not "an ambitious allegory about race." Why? Because politically correct, subconsciously racist liberal journalists, as OpinionJournal.com's James Taranto observed, alleged similarities between these cavemen and African-Americans "based on their own stereotypes."

University of California Santa Barbara linguist Mary Bucholtz, meanwhile, sees race in another stereotype.

Nerds, she finds, are "hyperwhite," favoring activities, music, aesthetics and ways of speaking and thinking that do not incorporate African-American influences on our culture. This, she implies, makes nerdiness and its associated studiousness tantamount to racism.

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In Pennsylvania a district judge appointed by President Bill Clinton has struck down laws in the city of Hazelton designed to make it harder for illegal aliens to find jobs or apartments there.

In a 206-page ruling that shows we are no longer a nation of laws but of egomaniacal men in black robes, Judge James Munley declared that illegal aliens can be regulated only by the federal government. The fact that the federal government refuses to enforce its own laws, Judge Munley held, does not give the city of Hazelton any right to try to deter this de facto lawlessness.

This case, Hazelton's mayor promised, will be appealed as high as the U.S. Supreme Court.

Lost in the rippling heatwave mirage of his own ego, Sen. Arlen Spector (RINO-Pennsylvania) last week announced that he will review the Senate testimony of U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel A. Alito, both nominated by Republican President George W. Bush.

Spector's concern, according to The Politico, is to "determine if their reversal of several long-standing opinions conflicts with promises they made to senators to win confirmation."

As I recall, Sen. Specter joined fellow liberals across the aisle in demanding that Republican presidents impose no "litmus test" on prospective justices — no probing, for example, to determine whether they would vote to overturn abortion-decriminalizing Roe v. Wade.

But now Specter seems to believe that senators such as himself should be able to impose precisely such litmus tests, even retroactively. Has it occurred to him that Roe v. Wade reversed several long-standing opinions?

Democratic enforcer Sen. Charles Schumer of New York last week announced that the razor-thin ruling margin of the Democratic-socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders coalition should "reverse the presumption of confirmation" for any Supreme Court nominees by President Bush. The Democratic-socialist bloc, in other words, will simply refuse to confirm any Bush nominee, no matter how well qualified.

In defiance of the spirit of the Constitution, the Democratic-Socialist bloc will continue to sabotage normal government processes put in place by America's Founders until the next President Clinton can appoint more Judge Munley's to impose more leftist laws by fiat from the bench.

The megalomania of lawmakers is bipartisan and nothing new. Each day 100 U.S. senators whistle "Hail to the Chief" as they chap their lips by kissing mirrors.

In mid-July, as the dog days commenced, one of the most powerful Republicans in Congress, Alaska's Don Young, made headlines by ranting at budget-cut-proposing conservative colleagues that "Those who bite me will be bitten back . . . You want my money, my money." Yes, this summer's fever has left Rep. Young with the delusion that he personally owns the taxpayers' money, and that he will destroy any who question this.

New York's new Democratic Gov. Eliot Spitzer's staff used state police to spy on the Republican leader of the state Senate.

Former Sen. John Edwards on the presidential campaign trail days ago told an audience that "they want to shut me up." He did not specify who "they" was, but added that "They're going to control the media. They're going to control what's being said."

Was Edwards referring to Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, D-Ill., overheard by a live microphone privately discussing how to purge rival Democratic presidential candidates from the 2008 race?

Or did Edwards have in mind those loony leftist behind-the-scenes puppet masters who pull the Democratic Party's strings?

One such puppet-master is Michael T. Eckhart, president of the American Council on Renewable Energy (ACORE).

"It is my intention to destroy your career," Eckhart wrote in an e-mail to Competitive Enterprise Institute senior fellow Mario Lewis. "If you produce one more editorial against climate change, I will launch a campaign against your professional integrity. I will call you a liar and charlatan . . ."

Last week a coalition of ultra-left wing entities, including DailyKos.com, the Campaign for America's Future, and MoveOn.org (which has openly boasted that having bought and paid for the Democratic Party, it now owns it) announced that they are now identifying, and waging campaigns to intimidate, businesses, including small local businesses, that advertise on Fox News Channel and cable companies that carry it.

The totalitarian nature of the left becomes ever more obvious. These thugs have no desire to debate issues or reach constructive compromise. Their aim, as with their schemes of "Campaign Finance Reform" and restoring the "Fairness Doctrine," is to gag and silence all opposition.

What is behind this increasingly feverish frenzy among leftists to force socialism down everybody's throat by utterly undemocratic tactics? Their history, as written if they win, will doubtless blame today's fever on the long dog days of global warming.

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