Just Wondering...

...On the weekend when the premiere of The DaVinci Code sparks all kinds of debate in Catholic and Christian communities on whether the film is blasphemous or just fiction, how might the Islamic world react in the same circumstance?

Illegal Immigration...

Since this is the crisis-du-jour, I guess I ought to put something up.

As I look at I.I., I'm left with one impression: Those who use the loudest voices in their positions are more wrong than anyone else--this is an issue where the moderates ought to prevail. This goes for the Minuteman/Tom Tancredo/Lou Dobbs position as well as the Si, Se Puede/Viva La Raza position. We have every right to protect our borders from any sort of incursion, be it economic, drug-related or military. However, we also need to recognize that we are a nation of immigrants and that the illegal immigrants now at issue are providing valuable services to America.

There is another set of snakes circling around this matter...politicians. They are pandering this issue like there's no tomorrow. My own Janet-Reno-Mini-Me Governor, Janet Napolitano, once said "Show me a 50-foot wall and I'll show you a 51-foot ladder". Now, she's all over the Bush proposal of putting the National Guard on the border to assist the Border Patrol on holding back the illegals. Of course, J.D. Hayworth can barely contain himself, what with his book out and all. And now Bush has fallen prey to the noise (to mix my metaphors) and will put up a token Guard force on the border.

So, what are their orders? Posse Commitatus probably enters here somewhere. Do the National Guard have any orders on lethal force against these illegal immigrants? Can the Guard defend themselves? Let's not rely on the idea that the Guard will be REMFs in purely supporting roles to the Border Patrol. They're there for a reason. Just what is their mission (beyond the public relations angle, at least)?

In the name of this public mass hysteria over I.I., we're embarking on a massive wall-building, Border Patrol build-up, and the politicians are scrambling over each other to see who can move to the furthest to the right the quickest. Just how different is this than the Berlin Wall? In terms of how much it costs to operate, does it really matter which direction the Guards are facing? One of my favorite blogs, Op-For [Note to self: Update the favorites!] once put up an entry with a parallel between what we did to the Soviets in the Cold War, and what al Queda is doing to us today. His point was that we "won" the Cold War by forcing the Soviets to do things that their economy couldn't stand. And now, in the combined (and confused) interests of Border Security controls Illegal Immigration, we're putting up the same sort of Wall that bankrupted the Soviets. Do we ever learn anything?

America has always had a shortage of labor here. From the days when indentured servants paid their way to get over here right up till today, there has always been a need for more labor. We've endured other immigrant waves (which today, are almost universally viewed to be "legal", but I'm not willing to concede that point). Germans, Italians, Irish, Chinese all flooded into this country seeking jobs that Americans decried at the time. Yet, somehow, we're all the better for it. And, surprisingly, after all these immigrant waves, we're still speaking English. I confess I don't understand why the "Mexican" Illegal Immigration Wave we're now in the middle of will turn out any differently.

I'm wondering just how many of the "Build-the-Wall" types have thought about just how expensive it would be to live off of American-only labor. How much would you have to pay an American kid to put down the PlayStation and go get a job picking lettuce? How much more would your house run--or said another way--How much less house could you afford to live in today if it was Americans who had built it?

The Pro-Immigrant marches in mid April and on May Day may have backfired. They left the impression among the majority here that the I.I.'s really didn't care about our laws. Talk Radio included one of the dumbest things I've ever heard...some college girl spouting off about how entire states of the West ought to be ceded back to Mexico. Then there was the "Boundaries without Borders" argument...to which I answer: "Huh? WTF are you talking about?"

Here is where I stand on Illegal Immigration...We are far better off by having these illegal immigrants here than we would be if we kicked them all out. Mexico and the other Central and South American countries sending us their labor are far poorer by having their ambitious and industrious people leave their homes to work here.

I think the real answer lies underneath the complaints many here have on I.I. and it is an example of needing to be careful what you ask for. The main complaint is that the I.I.'s burden our schools, healthcare and don't pay taxes. Firstly--they do pay taxes and they often get far less of a return on those paid taxes than Americans do. Yet if I.I. presence in our tax-paid schools and healthcare is such a problem, I say get rid of tax-paid schools and healthcare. Make them entirely private. The free market will quickly find a way to deliver these services to Americans, and probably at a lower cost than the .gov delivers them to us.

This is why God invented the internet...

To allow laymen the ability to make clear something that the press will or can not.

The current crisis-du-jour in the Bush administration is the phone call data that the NSA got from 3 major phone service providers. Note: Although the press is doing their damnedest to avoid explicitly making this point, no one here is claiming that any phone calls have been listened to.

However, here, Kim du Toit explains in perfect pitch just exactly what is going on here. Please read it.

Now this is interesting...

I sometimes take some time to go over just who is reading my stuff. And some weeks, I make it into the tens of readers [Instapundit--watch your six, buddy!].

So what should a poor, and crappy blogger as myself make of a ping from somebody like this?

Guess who said...

“Never for the sake of peace and quiet deny your convictions.”

Ronald Reagan?












Nope.

Jimmy Carter?














Nope. [One would hope this would be obvious.]

George Bush?
















Nope.

John Kerry?














Nope. [Ditto.]

John Bolton?














Nope. [But you're getting close.]

Since I don't know how to format a "Continue Reading" link, I'll put the answer in the comments.

Hey! Does anybody else remember this guy???

This morning President Bush will nominate Air Force General Michael Hayden, now the head of the National Security Agency, to replace Porter Goss as head of the Central Intelligence Agency, who has resigned/been fired from that position.

This article typifies much of the opposition to Gen. Hayden--essentially that a military officer shouldn't head a civilian agency.

Question: Does anybody else remember this guy? Wasn't he a military guy at the head of a civilian agency? Doesn't his background include much more of the warfighter military stereotype than does Hayden's?

I think the Democrats know that they'll lose if they oppose Hayden on the point that he was in charge at the NSA when the NSA "Warrantless Surveillance" program was instituted. It appears that the Democrats are instead grasping for the straw that too much military leadership leads to the erosion of liberties. They're hoping that we've forgotten past military leaders of the CIA, and that we're still very much in a war.

"From the Mouth of Hell to…the Utah of the Middle East"....

Now that Stephen has offered four links to Michael J. Totten's Middle East Journal, I finally got around to reading link number five. I do recommend it.

And, as usual, you'll never see this in the MSM.

Busy, Busy, Busy...

Recurrent approaching, the household chores and projects are overwhelming me, working more and making less--blogging has taken a hit. I'll try to do better, but won't promise anything.

Geez, I hate...

Putting up something from MSNBC.

But it is such a damned good story. Go ahead. Don't take my word for it. Read it.

H/T Bill over at INDC Journal.

This Bullshit is the Absolute Truth....

Update: A better link here.

Iranian Military Improvements...

So, the news recently is that the Iranians are announcing bold new weapons in their arsenal. The other day it was a 200mph underwater rocket. Not surprisingly, the Russians seem to have been the source.

Now, I don't know the first thing about warfare on the sea. I know enough about air warfare to know that I shouldn't comment too loudly. But the commenters to this blog entry tell me that this "new" Iranian weapon, while a threat, probably isn't the threat that Iran is painting it to be. While a murder/suicide is still a murder, you can't keep it up.

And today we find a story where Iran announces a new airborne threat. But is this really new? Or are the Iranians announcing something that has been around since the mid-60's? Does this photo look anything like this one?

WIG vehicles are not new. They may be new to the Iranians, and they certainly are intriguing to the public, but the fact that they haven't caught on in either military or civilian aviation is telling. While the Iranian super-fast torpedoes, and WIG vehicles are, in a word, laughable, Jane's Tim Ripley makes a wonderful point here which bears repeating...

"You don't actually need lots of weapons to close (the Strait of Hormuz), you just need lots of threats... "You don't even have to sink a ship, you just have to double the insurance rates (for shipping) and it has a knock on effect on the price of oil."

"He must get the death penalty."

Jeffrey Dahmer? Zacarias Moussaoui? Some cop-killer? A rapist-murderer?

Nope.

A guy who converted from Islam to Christianity.

...The prosecutor, Abdul Wasi, said he had offered to drop the charges if Rahman converted back to Islam, but he refused.

"He would have been forgiven if he changed back. But he said he was a Christian and would always remain one," Wasi said. "We are Muslims, and becoming a Christian is against our laws. He must get the death penalty."

Are even our Muslim friends incapable of tolerance towards others?


By the way, this isn't new. Do a Google/Yahoo search on "Muslim converts to Christianity" or some version thereof, and see that such a conversion is widely held in the Muslim world as a capital offense.

Is this cool or what?

This is really an update to this post, but I thought it warranted a post of it's own.

I was perusing the sitemeter list of the sometimes tens of readers that I get in a week, and found that someone had searched "gun nut". My post above popped up on page 6 of that search.

Aside from popping up on page 1 of that search, could that be any cooler?

Update to the Update: I also just found that someone searched "IDPA", and this post of mine showed up on page three of the Google blogsearch.

Victory over Peace...

Cliff May offers nothing I can disagree with here. (h/t Glenn--like he needs my help with traffic).

My signature line on The High Road is...

I do not wish for Peace with our Enemies.
We did not create our enemies--they created themselves.
What I really want is Victory over our Enemies.

Maybe I should print up some t-shirts.

Hey, Ahmadinejad....

Some of us think this isn't such a bad idea...



h/t: Curmudgeonly

Gotta Work on This...

I'm only 86% of a gun nut. [Like my wife didn't already know!]

NRA Member You are 86% of a gun nut!

You have excellent skills in weapons handling. I could definetly trust you to cover my back. Matter of fact, you're probably packing right now!

My test tracked 1 variable How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 78% on knowledge

Link: The Gun Nut Test written by slayer1am on Ok Cupid, home of the 32-Type Dating Test

h/t: Cowboy Blob

Another fine day...

Since I spent a full day retreiving our former-exchange student (and her luggage!) from her internship at DisneyWorld, I was able to get out to not just one, but two IDPA events.

In the morning, I went and was re-classified. However, I should say "classified again", as I shot the third stage of the IDPA classification absolutely horribly, so I re-shot it and ended up in the same classification as I've had for a year now. I improved from "horrible" to only "bad". Not my best morning, but hey, I got to shoot. [BTW, this is all in preperation for the State IDPA match, which I have yet to work out a kitchen-pass for.]

In the afternoon, I made it out to my range's monthly IDPA match. They had taken a couple of months off for scheduling issues, and it was good to get back at it. I shot much better, and am awaiting the results.

A bad day of shooting beats a good day of just about anything else.

Update: Classifier Match results are in. I'm worse than I thought. Silver lining: I should practice more.

Update: No kitchen pass for me. Family is in town. The entry money is an issue. And it's supposed to rain/drizzle anyway. I'll shoot next week either in the Tuesday PM match or on my own.

I'm repeating myself...

I've said before (most recently here) that The Officers Club contain some of the finest young minds on military and world affairs in the blogosphere.

So, if you're not already a regular over there, click here and begin your education.

Cheney shoots a guy...

Vice President Dick Cheney accidentally shot a lawyer while on a hunting trip in Texas over the weekend.

So, aside from all "Cheney shoots a lawyer" jokes looming on late-night TV, what is the MSM all up in arms about?

They're all upset over the fact that it took 22 hours for the White House to make this public. They're in high dungeon about the delay. Hmmmm. Anyone notice what might have been happening during these 22 hours? Hint1, Hint2, Hint3, Hint4. Is anyone surprised at a WH motivation to not disclose something embarassing when it will be be the most damaging? Isn't this Rule #1 of Public Disclosure?

And, showing off my comedy-writing cred's; Isn't it delicious that Cheney was hunting quail?

Hey. March is just around the corner, isn't it?

Anyone want to guess at what might be happening in March? H/T: Captain Ed

Coretta Scott King...

I only watched a very small portion of the funeral for Coretta Scott King yesterday, so I can't speak to the whole thing. However, from what I did see, and the coverage the right side of the media has provided, here are a couple of small points that I may come back and address later more fully...

Jimmy Carter--Absolutely horrible. I used to respect his post-presidency, but since the War took us to Iraq, he's been horrible. Now more than ever.

Joseph Lowery--Simply egregious. His speech had almost nothing to do with Mrs. King. It was simply the same old DNC/NAACP pap used to bash Bush. A woman died. Some things transcend politics. Most of his words have no place in a funeral.

The Clintons--A more posturing, calculating couple could not be possible.

But to my main point here. Some of this may be taken as rather ugly....

As I think I've mentioned, I am an airline pilot for a major national airline. For the last 7 years, I've been a Captain. While it's certainly not routine, it is also not uncommon to run across celebrities on the plane. I can understand that a celebrity might view being locked in a tube with a public who may bother them is problematic. Sometimes, you simply don't want to talk, and a celebrity on a plane simply has no place to escape to.

For these reasons, my employer will often allow special treatment to celebrities--mainly in the form of finding a way for them to avoid the terminal. Celebrities often travel with an aide or family member who will act to shield the celebrity from the public. Again, I understand all this.

Now, to my thoughts on Mrs. King...

As a middle-aged white man, I can't say I'm all that familiar with Mrs. King. While I know that she's supported many civil rights causes throughout her life, I don't know of any writings or speeches she's given. She didn't refuse to give up her seat on a segregated bus. The impression I get from my distant perch is that her association with the MLK Center and participation in other civil rights movements were to act as more of a figurehead, than an activist. In short, I don't know of any direct or significant contributions she might have made to civil rights or anything else she might have felt were important. Her most significant achievement, to my knowledge, was to remind us that her husband had been assassinated.

In other words: She married well. Since her husband's assassination, she lived her life to remind us of that fact.

However, to my direct experience with Mrs. King...

I don't remember at all where we were going, but the agent told us that we'd have Mrs. King on board. She arrived and boarded from the ramp, where she'd been driven with police escort right to the plane. She and her aide sat in First Class, with the aide sitting on the aisle. [Tangentially, I've also had Jimmy Carter on a flight. He sat in Coach, and was a very humble passenger.] It was communicated to both myself and the flight attendants that she did not want to be spoken to, in any way. Any needs she might have would be communicated through her aide.

In other words: She didn't want The Help speaking to her at all. She was royalty, and commoners shouldn't speak unless spoken to.

And this is where my opinion gets real ugly...

I also got the impression that all of this were doubly so, if the commoner were white.

So, take that for what it's worth. I'm not a racist in any way. I just don't think she lived a life which warranted the eulogies of 4 Presidents at her funeral.

Cartoons...

The 'Muslim Street' is all aflame about a number of cartoons depicting their Prophet Muhammad. I haven't exactly figured out why, but in their view, any depiction is sacrilegious.

I've never really much cared for Thomas Friedman. I think his views are a bit constrained by the same disease which Saul Steinberg depicted so well. However, I've never been able to shake his point that the Global War we're now engaged in amounts to a Clash of Values (and forgive me, but I've been unable to find a citation to his point). The Muslim World values Virtue. They cannot tolerate alcohol, drugs, prostitution, homosexuality, pornography, or any number of "sins". They believe that there is a difference between Right and Wrong, and that they cannot in any way, condone something they view as wrong. They are strikingly intolerant of that which they view as Sin. The Western World values Freedom. We agree with the Muslim world that there are a number of "sins" that should not be accepted. However--and this is where the worlds seperate--we believe that when the choice is freely made to pursue Virtue over Sin, that that choice becomes all the more powerful. The downside is that in order to have this freedom, we have to accept those among us who would not make the same choice. Tolerance is both our Saving and our Achille's Heel. [As an aside, I thought it curious that, in searching for a citation of Friedman's point, I found that he's not exactly viewed well by the Left. However, I digress.]

So, back to the Cartoons...

It occurred to me yesterday that a visual stereotype of 'Muslim Street' is a street demonstration where something is burned...a flag, an Uncle Sam effigy, even the gruesome burning of American bodies (Find the image yourself...I won't post it.).

The Muslims can desecrate something which we value--a flag, an icon, a human being. They can even be all-but-forgiven when Palestinians, while escaping a shootout with Israeli military, take refuge in one of Christianity's most holy sites. But this is the response when something they value is trod upon.

Sorry, but if we have any stones at all, and if we recognize just what is going on here--Friedman's Clash of Values--the Muslim world is going to have to get used to more of the same. And Charlie over at the OC shows that perhaps the Europeans (so far, absent the French) are beginning to shed their Euro-weenie label.

Stephen Green has a post up from an Eastern European correspondent who makes the Piss Christ point--which better illustrates the point I've been feebly trying to make.

Spam...

So, yesterday I caught a bit of news on the radio, which was mostly based on this story. Not that I'm overcome by spam (or email) but, I've noticed an uptick in the volume of spam I've been getting. Coincidence?

The Usual Suspects...

Hey. Guess what? The Usual Suspects™ are all a-foam about Bush's SOTU speech last night where they claim Bush...

...spent over the first half of his State of the Union address angrily defending his lying and bloody war in Iraq. He not only verbally attacked those who dissented from this war, he literally had Cindy Sheehan illegally arrested and jailed for wearing an antiwar tee-shirt. Bush brazenly defended his widespread and illegal wiretaps...

[Sorry. I couldn't resist emphasising their adjectives.]

Ohhh. And Guess what else? They're gonna have a march this upcoming Saturday. I wonder if they'll have some of those Right-on-Stereotype Street-People Puppets?

If you can stand it, the whole thing is here. Scrolling down to the bottom gets you to an unsurprising list of names.

H/T...John over at The Officers' Club.

Spurs...

Last week I had a layover in Mexico City. Now, in preface, I'm not fond at all of international travel. You have to worry about the water, the food, the language differences. I really don't care about different cultures--understanding my own is complex enough. On past MEX layovers, I've ventured out to a couple of restaurants near the hotel, but other than that, haven't done much.

However, this layover was different. We got directed to an artisan market, which was interesting. Wife of Azlib. would have loved the place. I'm sure she'd have decided to scrap all our current home decorating themes and gone completely Rustic Mexican. Something like this ran the equivalent of $40 instead of the $245 shown at an American re-seller. I was unsuccessful in finding a new brown leather belt to use for Concealed Carry, but I did manage to pick up a necklace and earring set for Valentines Day. I'm finally a hero in the romance department.

We also ran across a Mexican bakery which had good (and cheap!) baked goods. Most other cultures don't have nearly the sweet tooth that Americans have, so we aren't talking about Cinnabon or Dunkin' Donuts here, but good none-the-less. All told, I spent $1.30 on far too many baked goods for one guy to consume.

On my way back, the walk took me past some sort of Federal Police building. As I walked past, I tried to observe (but not too closely) the Federales. Their appearance doesn't exactly inspire confidence in their abilities or their professionalism, but it is a Third World country, so one can't expect too much. One difference between these guys and American LEOs is that all of the armed police that I saw were carrying wheel guns of some sort. I got a kick out of a couple of the guys who carried their extra ammo on old-fashioned cartridge holders...one guy had three different kinds of ammo in his 12 or so cartridge loops.

But the funniest thing had to be their motorcycle cops. It was lunchtime as I was walking back, and a couple of intersections had a motorcycle cop sitting there watching the traffic move through. It probably would have been too provacative for me to do so, but I sort of wished that I'd have had my camera with me. These guys, in addition to their Third-World-Cop authority attitude, and the I'm-A-Different-Breed attitude seen in motorcycle cops everywhere, wore spurs on their tall motorcycle-boots.

The Ignorance of Latte Liberals...

Charlie over at The OC gets it. The Latte Liberals need to get out more.

Dental Exam...

So, this morning I had my bi-annual dental cleaning and exam. For some, this is a dreaded event, but my teeth aren't terribly sensitive, and as I don't really have any dental problems, I've never thought of this a big deal. None-the-less, it's not exactly a pleasant experience either. Dental picks, sonic cleaners, rubber gloves--What's not to like, right? So, anyway, the dental hygenist I had today was, I'm sure, a very nice woman, but is it any wonder that Hollywood Torturers end up using dental equipment and looking like this?...

However, the torture didn't end there. This nice woman picking and scraping at my teeth did so with her radio set to NPR (via my tax dollars) and the awful cadence of Diane Rehm. I had to endure a discussion of the implications of a conservative winning the race for Prime Minister in Canada (Gasp!).

Oh, the Humanity.

My God...

I am continually humbled that we can produce men such as this. H/T Spacemonkey over at IMAO.

Perhaps I'm learning something...

A while back I cursed my poor blogging skillz in the context of not being able to put up a video.

Well, here is an attempt at rectifying that deficiency...



Update: Eureka! It works!

McCain as the nice guy...

Vodkapundit uses the "Nice Guy" test in an early handicapping of the '08 race, and in the comments, there's a turn towards McCain as winning the "Nice Guy" race.

McCain as the nice guy? This guy doesn't look all that nice. Nor this guy. And this McCain and this McCain somehow remind me of this guy.

His premise might be right, and of course it'll all be in comparison to whatever villian the D's will nominate, but I have a hard time believing that McCain will ever be able to pull off the "Nice Guy".

Small pleasures...

I'm a homeowner with a large lot (1 acre of citrus trees). There's always something to do around the yard. And I've never seen the sense of breaking out a saw when you've got a lot of sawing to do--that's why God let us invent chainsaws. So anyway, over the years, I've collected a fair number of powered yard tools. I've got a riding lawnmower, self-propelled mower (as "back-up" to the rider), gas line-trimmer, gas blower, gas power-washer, gas chipper/shredder, gas roto-tiller, and two gas chainsaws.

However, the problem with accumulating all these tools is that keeping them running becomes a job in itself. They certainly lessen the time I'd have to spend on the chores, but the time required to keep them maintained makes me wonder if I'm getting ahead by having these things.

Well, it didn't take too long in collecting all this stuff before the wise homeowner begins to understand--There are two kinds of power tools: Those you use regularly and those you don't. Since I figured this out some while ago, and I found that "cheap" power tools are more difficult to maintain than expensive ones, I've been buying the best tool I can afford for those that I use regularly (primarily the riding lawnmower, line-trimmer, and blower) and cheaper models for those that I use infrequently.

So, last weekend, I had trimmed 4 trees rather aggressively, and was left with a fairly large pile of brush to get rid of. On my first day of trimming, I filled up my green recycling barrel with trimmings (which was due to be on the curb the following morning), but was left with much more trimmings than could be fit in another barrel.

So, says I: "Time to break out the chipper/shredder."

And imagine my pleasure when on the first pull, the thing starts up and runs like a champ. Filled up a barrel with chippings (which equates to about a 7:1 volume of trimmings), and the only thing I had to worry about was keeping enough (but not too much) gas in the thing to keep it running.

However, balance was restored a couple of days later when my riding mower was displaying a horrible clicking sound as I tried to start it up (probably a weak battery), and I ended up pulling and pulling on the rope to the backup mower before I could finally get it started.

This is a media tragedy...

That shouldn't have happened.

Anyone who has done that party game of passing a message around the room, only to have it completely changed when it comes back to you, miscommunication is a fact of any communications.

However, as someone with no journalism training, perhaps I'm being naive, but wouldn't a responsible journalist have two sources before reporting anything, much less something of this import?

And wouldn't you know it? Geraldo is right at the front of the pack getting everything wrong. "Tell me." "Tell me." "Who's your daddy?"

Fair Warning...

Given the recent news, all who think they can sneak into this place unscathed had better think again.

Hey Irish! Hey Buckeyes! You Guys Can Party...

Football fans drink Mill Avenue bar dry of 2 beers

Jan. 2, 2006 12:00 AM

The Fiesta Bowl already is a big success long before kickoff. It's hard to imagine, but Rula Bula, an Irish Pub on Mill Avenue in Tempe, actually ran out of bottled beer on New Year's Eve.

"It was a perfect storm," said Steve Goumas, the bar's managing partner. "You have two schools that travel real well" and party as hard as their teams play.

Rula Bula ran out of Bud Light and Coors Light. Suppliers couldn't restock until New Year's Day, when Mill Avenue reopened for traffic after the Tempe Tostitos Fiesta Bowl Block Party, Goumas said.

So who drank more, Ohio State Buckeyes' fans or Notre Dame Fighting Irish fans? Goumas said: "We're an Irish pub, what can you say?"

Source: Arizona Republic

To tack onto my....

Earlier cartoon on the Democrat's fickle policy on Iraq...

Geez, Oh Pete....

These guys are scary smart. For me, they're every bit as scary as Freddy Kreuger, LeatherFace, or Jason.

But then, George Bush is pretty scary too.

Connecting a couple of dots...

Dot 1. President of Iran says: Move Israel to Europe

Dot 2. A portion of the welcoming committee. (h/t INDC-dorkafork)

Note: I am not, in any way an anti-Semite, nor am I suggesting that moving Israel to Europe would generate widespread anti-semitism there (in spite of the increased Islamic immigration there). My point is that thinking of the fringe, nutcase elements who would put up a JUDEN sign at a soccer match is completely present in the thinking of the President of Iran.

BTW, I might have some minor quibbles with their thinking, but these guys make an interesting case that a war with Iran is looming.

Tell me again why Iraq is a quagmire....

...When the same people told me Afghanistan would be a quagmire too?

The Blogfaddah nails it.

It's less than a year to the midterms, and....

Just what do the Democrats think about the War in Iraq?...

John Murtha Pull out to someplace nearby. Do it sooner rather than later. And on a 6 month deadline.

Nancy Pelosi Just get out.

Her deputy, Steny Hoyer Leaving "could lead to disaster, spawning a civil war, fostering a haven for terrorists and damaging our nation's security and credibility." [Which sounds surprisingly like what Bush is saying.]

Hillary Clinton I'm for the war, but Bush has screwed it up royally, and we ought to let the UN do something about WMDs.

John Kerry Huh?


Joe Lieberman Does America have a good plan...for victory in Iraq? Yes we do.

On another forum, I said to a democratic-leaning reader...

Kerry lost because he couldn’t escape the label of being a “flip-flopper”. He made himself famous by being an anti-war activist-turned politician, and then tried to make America believe that these were credentials sufficient for him to become a Wartime President. He “voted for the War before he voted against it.”

The Democratic Party is collectively today doing what Kerry did as a candidate: Flip-flopping. Iraqi regime change became American policy in 1998 on a 97-2 vote in the Senate (as well as signed into law by Clinton). In 2002, the Congress “authorized [the President] to use the Armed Forces of the United States as he determines to be necessary and appropriate...” to pull Saddam out of power and to enforce the UN resolutions [emphasis added]. And, last week the House overwhelmingly voted down the idea that we should withdraw immediately.

Yet we continue to hear the Biden/Pelosi/Reed/Murtha/Sheehan crowd crow over and over that we ought to get out. What Democrats really ought to do is to get down on their knees and beg someone like Zell Miller, Ed Koch, or even Joe Lieberman to be their standard-bearer. Take the foreign policy issue away from the Republicans and force the debate to focus on domestic issues. You guys can win on domestic policy. The Republicans will cream you if you insist (again) on staying out of a war that our enemy has decided we’re in.

Does the above cartoon (lifted from the NY Post) not depict where the Democrats are today? Nowhere.

Just checking in...

Like everyone, I've been distracted by the Thanksgiving activities, as well as being involved in a rather in-depth forum discussion elsewhere. Son-of-Azlib and I were able to make it to the range last Friday. I've got a nice video, but damn my poor blogging skillz, I haven't been able to find how to put up a link.

Ha!! I am William Wallace!!!

Roll your "R's" when you speak around here, lassie!

You scored as William Wallace. The great Scottish warrior William Wallace led his people against their English oppressors in a campaign that won independence for Scotland and immortalized him in the hearts of his countrymen. With his warrior's heart, tactician's mind, and poet's soul, Wallace was a brilliant leader. He just wanted to live a simple life on his farm, but he gave it up to help his country in its time of need.

Which Action Hero Would You Be? v. 2.0
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Why isn't Chris spitting at the camera?

I don't watch nearly as much of Chris Matthews as I once did. He used to have a fairly balanced show, but has drifted pretty much completely off the left edge of things. His recent quest, of course, has been the 'Scooter' Libby indictment. Matthews appears to enjoy the way "Scooter" falls off his tongue, and has been all verklempt at the idea that ethics problems exist in the Bush White House (and specifically among the Vice President's staff).

So, now that Bob Woodward has said to Special Prosecutor Fitzgerald that he was aware of Plame's CIA employment a month before it was supposedly leaked to the press as a way to punish Joe Wilson for his scathing critique of the reasons for the war, many are saying that these charges may have to be dropped. Fitzgerald has boxed himself in with this statement...

"He was at the beginning of the chain of phone calls, the first official to disclose this information outside the government to a reporter. And then he lied about it afterwards, under oath and repeatedly."

Now, my question is: Why isn't Chris spitting at the camera at the idea that many are saying that these indictments will be dropped? He sure seems to be still wondering who did something wrong.

Who Lied?

Norman Podhoretz has written a thoroughly researched essay putting down the meme that Bush Lied!

Happy Birthday, Devil Dogs

Lifted shamelessly from someplace I won't admit to...

President Bush May Send Up To 5 Marines For French Assistance

President Bush has authorized the Joint Chiefs to begin drawing
up a battle plan to pull France's ass out of the fire again. Facing an
apparent overwhelming force of up to 400 pissed off teenagers Mr.
Bush doubts France's ability to hold off the little pissants. "Hell, if
the last two world wars are any indication, I would expect France
to surrender any day now", said Bush.

Joint Chiefs head, Gen. Peter Pace, warned the President that it
might be necessary to send up to 5 Marines to get things under
control. The General admitted that 5 Marines may be overkill but
he wanted to get this thing under control within 24 hours of them
arriving on scene.

He stated he was having a hard time finding even one Marine to
help those ungrateful bastards out for a third time but thought he
could persuade a few women Marines to do the job before they go
on pregnancy leave.

President Bush asked Gen. Pace to get our Marines out of there as
soon as possible after order was restored. He also reminded Gen.
Pace to make sure the Marines did not take soap, deodorant, or
razors with them. The less they stand out the better.

Notice...

For my few and largely spamming commenters...

I have now turned on "Word Verification". You'll have to manually copy a word to make a comment.

Since I have few other viewers or commenters, it shouldn't slow things down too much.

What he said...

Pour yourself your favorite drink, pull up your chair and click...

Damn my poor computer skillz...

I just watched the local NBC station air a MSNBC story (reported by ? Handlesman) on the CIA prison kerfluffle currently going on. I wanted to post a screen capture of a map they put up showing the supposed locations of these prisons. Anyhoo, I could swear that the arrow labeled "Afghanistan" was pointing to Somalia. If I get time, I'll try to find this and get it up here.

I see a connection here...

Regarding the rioting going on in France recently, there is obviously a lefty-media agenda to skip right on by the fact that these are young Muslims who are rioting (Do I dare call them 'Young Turks'?).

However, I think there is another connection. They are from a demographic with a high unemployment rate. As much as I think these nutcases are more of the problem than the solution, they point me to a parallel to the Watts riots of 1965.

In 1965 Black unemployment in the U.S. was 9%, but unemployment in Watts was 31%. Los Angeles joined the ranks of cities all over the country - Newark, New York, Las Vegas, Detroit - where riots had broken out over political and social issues.

The French social state has obviously contributed to their lack of jobs. Anytime the government will guarantee something for little to no work--and tax their public to support this guarantee--is it surprising to anyone that jobs are lost and people are incented to not work? This breeds the hopelessness that is evidenced by the riots. Throwing money at the problem only exacerbates the problem. Getting rid of their socialist form of thinking is their only long-term hope.

Where is the new Barry Goldwater?

If the Republicans could find their present-day Barry Goldwater, they could absolutely clean up politically. But they persist in their present mold of being only slightly less corrupt than the Democrats, and every bit as willing to freely spend our money.

Is there not someone out there who can speak these truths today?

A little catching up...

I said earlier that I'd get to something about the atrocious Kelo decision, and frankly had forgotten about it.

So, today I run across this little gem, which exemplifies just where my fears might take us. H/T Sharp as a Marble, via Ace.

Ammo? Oh, yeah. I've got ammo.

[BTW, sorry for the scarcity of posting as of late. I've run into a bankruptcy at work (and the resultant questions of "What will we do if the company goes under?", extra work at home, and a general lack of motivation for this thing. We'll see if I can keep it going.]

She overwhelmed her...

As we watched the first reports after Katrina hit New Orleans, and the levees were overtopped, I said to my wife (after watching a brief press conference with Gov. Blanco), that she was totally in over her head. I could see it in her eyes.

So, (via the Puppy Blender) I see that even the NYT is reporting the same. She dithered and delayed until the damages were too much to control.

The article includes a very subtle cutting quote at women executives...

"Can you imagine how it would have been perceived if a president of the United States of one party had pre-emptively taken from the female governor of another party the command and control of her forces, unless the security situation made it completely clear that she was unable to effectively execute her command authority and that lawlessness was the inevitable result?" asked one senior administration official, who spoke anonymously because the talks were confidential. [emphasis mine]

Now I'll accept (without knowing) that Gov. Blanco is a good administrator and that this is important in an Executive, but the message I'm getting here is this: Elect a woman and you risk getting someone not capable of handling an emergency. It is clear that Gov. Blanco did not perform her responsibilites as she should have, and that the suffering and death are partly her fault. [And I won't even begin to speak about that complete idiot, Mayor Nagin.] There are certainly women politicians who would have done better than Gov. Blanco (Hillary! and my midget dyke-governor come to mind), and equally, there are touchy-feely male politicians who one might expect would perform at least as badly as Gov. Blanco. But the differences in character of women who are care-givers and compassionate, verses the character of men who are problem-solvers and leaders cannot be dismissed here.

A New Look...

You'll notice the new look of these premises. I wasn't really happy with the lack of contrast between the color of a link and my background. This template is kind of plain, but solves that problem.

Another new favorite...

Gotta remember how to put someone over in the sidebar. Cold Fury deserves a place of honor.

Update: Done.

"It was an obviously symbolic thing to do..."

I have to admit that I think Jon Stewart of Comedy Central's The Daily Show is actually one of the more thoughtful of the lefties. Not that I agree with him much, but just that he's better at making his points than the DU/Mother Sheehan crowd.

And I further have to admit that I think Christopher Hitchens is often full of himself, and can't help but express himself in a hoity-toity manner.

However, I ran across this video of Hitchens' appearance on Stewart's show, and can't help but think that while Hitchens seems to have been holding back, he still sliced Stewart's positions to shreds without Stewart appearing to know it was happening.

As an example, Hitchens asks Stewart why, back in '98, Congress passed, by a near unanimous margin, a resolution making Iraqi regime change the policy of the US, Stewart responds...

It was an obviously symbolic thing to do...

Question for Mr. Stewart: Please expand on how we are supposed to know when the actions of our government are just symbolic or when they really, really mean something.

Enquiring minds and all that.

God Bless...

Those in Mississippi, and Louisana who are enduring the aftermath of Katrina. While yesterday it looked as though New Orleans had missed most of Katrina's wrath, it is now beginning to look bad for them.

"...he did a crazy judo roll and came up shooting..."

Everybody else in the blogosphere has spoken already about this post, but I thought I'd add it to my humble blog along with these two points...

• The incredible bravery of our soldiers just defies words. I'm sure there are tons of paper-pushers and bean-counters for every guy pulling a trigger, but as Casey Sheehan's story exemplifies, regardless of MOS, everyone is a soldier.
• Michael Yon's reporting is far and above the caliber of reporting seen by both the right and left sides of the MSM. Of course, the NYT-WaPo-BroadcastNetwork versions of news would actively avoid such situations, but even the Fox News-style openness in reporting both the good and the bad from Iraq doesn't touch this level of reporting. There's way too much reporting done from hotels safely inside the Green Zone. If Yon doesn't get a Pulitzer or other recognition for his work, there's something seriously wrong in journalism.
  

A couple of political notes...

• Via Viking Pundit, I was directed to this article, which includes a mention of my very own Congressman, Jeff Flake. The money quote...

  What continues to amaze, however, is the sheer arrogance and hubris with which the Republicans have chosen to govern. As Congressman Jeff Flake — one of the few principled Republicans in Washington — told the Washington Post, "Republicans don't even pretend anymore." [emphasis added]
  

• Today's Arizona Republic includes this article in the local (Mesa) section. [You may have to semi-register to read this. I did.] It seems McCain is overdoing it for even the loyal Arizonans who have kept re-electing him. Not to worry--I've been voting against him for years.
  

More Shit Happens...

Update to Bob...

Although at my last update, it looked like Bob was progressing well, since then the improvement to his health has stopped, if not regressed. He's been back into the ICU twice since then and will have to have a kidney removed this morning.

Will report more as I know it.

As promised--Update to the update: We spent much of the mid-day at the hospital with Diane. If you look closely, you can tell the strain is wearing on her, but otherwise, she's a rock. Bob's trauma surgeon said he had complications that had to be dealt with beyond the loss of the kidney, but seems optomistic otherwise. Now that the source of his troubles (his damaged kidney) is gone, the other troubles should begin to improve. Of course, he won't be able to travel to see his son graduate from Army Basic next week. They're still hopeful that they'll be able to make their trip to Ireland. From my seat however, there is much to focus on right now, and while I hope they can make their trip, I'd rather see Bob healthy now than risk a relapse in Ireland.

No kidding...

She says she's suffering from a fever.

Shit happens...

Sorry--this isn't a discussion of the conjugation of one of my favorite all-around words.

This one is "Shit Happens sometimes to some of the best people who least deserve this sort of thing".

I got word last night that one of my closest friends in this world--a Deputy Federal Marshal--was gut-shot yesterday as he and a Maricopa County Probation Officer attempted to arrest some slimeball.

Bob is this great big Bear of a man, and one of the nicest guys ever. If you didn't know what he did for a living, you'd never guess that he spends his days chasing some of the worst bad guys out there. He's doing OK, but at this moment, I suspect that it'll take some time for him to get back up on his feet.

His wife is a complete Saint of a woman. Like all good wives, she's been a rock throughout this, but I cannot imagine that she's not cracking a bit underneath. She's absolutely livid that the press has found out Bob's name (probably through his boss--idiot that he apparently is).

To respect their privacy, I'll leave out the further details, but they've had to go through quite a bit recently, and if any family deserves a break, it's this one.

I don't know him at all, but the other officer in this incident is much worse off. I understand he was shot in the neck at C-6, and is paralyzed. Prayers for both families are in order.

Update: Bob is not quite out of the woods yet, but is doing much better. He's breathing on his own, has been up sitting, and even taken a few steps. He watched Blackhawk Down today. There are cautionary good feelings about his partner too. He still has much more serious wounds, but perhaps not quite as ominous as we thought yesterday. Prayers still.

A small cautionary note...

Air France lost an Airbus A340 yesterday in Toronto. A quick thumbnail analysis of what happened...

The weather absolutely sucked...

YYZ 022004 SPECI 022004Z 34024G33KT 1 1/4SM PTSRA SCT015 OVC045TCU RMK RA2SF2TCU5 CB ASOCTD

YYZ 022004 SPECI 022004Z CCA 34024G33KT 1 1/4SM PTSRA SCT015 OVC045TCU 23/ RMK RA2SF2TCU5 CB ASOCTD

YYZ 022020 SPECI 022020Z 34024G33KT 3SM PTSRA FEW015 OVC040TCU 23/ RMK SF2TCU6 CB ASOCTD

To help those who need the important parts translated from Aviation Meteorology-talk into English... There are three reports here. The first two are basically the same; YYZ (Toronto) on the second (the date) at 2004 (GMT-which is 4:04pm local and 1 minute after the accident). But here's where it gets interesting--winds 340˚ (from a direction just a bit west of due North) at 24 knots gusting to 33 knots. Visibility 1¼ miles and heavy(P) thundershowers(TS) and rain(R). The third report comes 16 minutes later, and has the visibility lifting to 3 miles, but otherwise is basically the same.

So for their landing on runway 24, they had to assume a crosswind at 33 knots--which, although I don't know what the limits of the A340 are, it has to be quite near the plane's crosswind limit.

Most runways in America are grooved. They diamond cut grooves into the concrete about 2 inches apart, and maybe ½ an inch deep. These grooves act to channel water off the runway and improve traction. For some reason (climate perhaps), most runways in Canada are not grooved, and none of the runways in Toronto are. What I'm getting to here is that, with the heavy rain they were getting at the moment of the accident, it is likely that the runway surface was very slick. [I'm here to tell you it doesn't take much water on a runway to make it feel like you're landing a locomotive on a skating rink.] Given these crosswind conditions, IMO it is admirable that they were able to keep it on the runway at all. [Of course, their best choice would have been to go around and wait for the thunderstorm to clear before attempting to land. However, there's lots more yet to investigate (reports of lightning, possibility of microburst, etc), so I won't Monday-morning Quarterback things quite yet.]

So, although they kept it on the runway despite the rain and crosswind, they were unable to brake sufficiently before they ran off the end of the runway by some 200 yards. Their evacuation went just about as perfectly as you can make it. For those who don't know, most airline captains (or maybe it's just me) assume that an evacuation--for any reason--will result in minor injuries to about 10% of your passengers. This is just about what we see here.

However, related to this, and the real reason why I'm writing this comes from this sentence from this report...

"We were all trying to go up a hill; it was all mud, and we lost our shoes. We were just scrambling, people with children." [emphasis mine]

I cannot tell you how many times I cringe inside, especially this time of year, when I see someone board my plane while wearing sandals. Men, kids, but especially women. I understand that everyone wants to be comfortable, and that on flights of more than an hour or so, feet tend to swell. But I sense that much of the trend towards sandals--again, especially for women--seems to be more out of a sense of fashion than of comfort. Ladies will often go out and get a cute pair of sandals or thongs, a nice pedicure, maybe a toe-ring, and you just want to show it all off. Now I like a well-turned ankle as much as the next guy, but I'm here to tell you that, at the moment you jump down that evacuation slide, lose your shoes, and then attempt to get away from the twisted and burning wreckage of an aircraft accident while in your bare feet, you'll wish more than anything that you'd put on that pair of Nikes.

Moral of my story: Despite how incredibly rare it is to be a passenger in an aircraft accident--Wear sensible shoes.

I wonder if he gets tired of being wrong all the time...

I can't remember when I haven't had a subscription to a dead-tree newspaper. So this morning, as I dalied before getting to my chores, I ran across this column by Paul Krugman where he posits that America is losing jobs to Canada because of their superior healthcare. Of course, Krugman being Krugman, he misses a couple of salient points...

• The number of Canadians who are fleeing their country precisely because of their less-than-acceptable standards of healthcare.
• He claims that there will be no effect to Canadian taxpayers because "all Canadians get government-provided health insurance in any case". This is like saying that healthcare is as free as the air. It's just there for anyone to enjoy, and costs nothing. Absurd on it's face.
• If Canadian state healthcare is so superior, and corporations are deciding where to place their new jobs because of this, why are we not hearing of Canadians complaining of the hoards of Americans "voting with their feet" and illegally coming across the Canadian border to take these new jobs?

And, with unintended, yet perfect irony, the editors of the Arizona Republic place this article above the fold on the front page of this very same issue.

Update: Heh. (h/t: Cracker Barrel Philosopher)

The Gloves Come Off

In preface, I offer condolences to the family of the man killed by the Brit's the other day.

With that said, everything he did suggests that the police acted correctly by taking direct and decisive action against him. As it turns out, he wasn't who they had reasonable belief to believe he was, which is unfortunate. However, had he turned out to be one of the loose bombers the police were looking for, and they'd allowed him to set off another bomb, then there would certainly be cries of "Police Incompetence". This case of mistaken identity is an unfortunate byproduct of his behavior's resemblance to that of the "Asians" who have lately taken to blowing up British mass transit.

Of course, as usual, Froggy is right about all this.

Update: Just to remind everyone of the importance of differentiating between this guy's behavior and his skin coloring, I offer three words: John. Walker. Lyndh.

Range Report

So, my one and only commenter (so far) asked recently for a Range Report. So here goes...

This weekend I accomplished a number of things.

1. I was actually home.
2. The weekend on which I was actually home coincided with my ranges' monthly IDPA match.
3. I was able to secure a Kitchen Pass for said match.
4. Additionally, two of the three Spawn-of-Azlibertarian™ expressed an interest in shooting with Dear Old Dad, and we had yet another trip to the range.

As to the details related to this weekend of shooting...

For the IDPA match, although at this writing the results haven't been released yet, I'm sure they will show that I basically sucked. The theme this month was distance, which is my nemesis. There were a couple of targets at 3-5 yards, but the vast majority were in the 25-30 yard range. Humbling to say the least. However, one of the guys in my group had serious problems with his gun. He's usually one of the better scorers, but was cursed this month with bad mag's, and bad ammo (reloads--of course). [Note to self: Perhaps I should rethink that dream of someday procuring a Dillon RL 550B.] He finally switched out his entire setup to a more reliable gun. My stuff worked just the way you'd want it--aside from the operator errors. The guys who do all the legwork for this match (bless their hearts) aren't usually all that creative in their scenarios, but this month they did have one very cool stage--a You're-Michael-Durant-in-Your-Just-Shot-Down-Helicopter Blackhawk Down stage. I imagine lots of ranges with active practical shooting groups have tons of props for use on their stages. However, how many of them have a real helicopter from which to do something like this? Cool. Very cool.

Although I always enjoy IDPA, my Sunday morning outing with the kids was probably more pleasant. Daughter#1 has fallen in love with my Browning Hi-Power, and wanted to shoot this. I also brought along my Glock23C, HK USP Compact, AR-15, and Mossy 590. I had intended to put a few slugs through the Mossy, and brought 2 5-round boxes, but as it turns out, I'd loaded the slugs into the Sidesaddle and Sling and left them at home as part of my "Home Load". The 10 rounds I'd brought consisted of 2 slugs and 8 buckshot rounds. So my son and I each shot off one of the slugs and I shot off 3 of the buckshot rounds. Son-of-Azlibertarian has generally shyed away from pistols, as he's much more proficient with rifles, but did seem to enjoy all three pistols this time. We all did pretty well with the pistols, and with the AR-15 (Iron sights) were each able to stay reasonably on the paper at 100 yards and regularly get hits on the 300-yard metal plate. Good times had by all.

As an aside, Daughter#1 will be an RA at ASU this year. She kept the targets we used, and we joked about her using them as room decorations. We'll see if (a)ASU let's her put these up and (b)she actually goes through with this.

Oh. How I wish it were so.

Anyone else see something wrong here?

Who's Who Here?

Bill channels Jeff.

To Replace Sandra Day O'Connor, President Bush should nominate...

...Sarah Connor

[Note the similarities in names. Cool. Huh.]

Words Well Spoken...

...Unlike any other country, America came into the world with a message for mankind -- that all are created equal, and all are meant to be free. There is no America race; there's only an American creed: We believe in the dignity and rights of every person. We believe in equal justice, limited government, and in the rule of law. We believe in personal responsibility, and tolerance toward others....

I caught a few moments of this speech yesterday as I had it on in the background on FNC. You can read the rest of it here. As much as I have disagreed with the man, it is hard to find much wrong with his foreign policy and anything wrong with his views on the impact of democracy on world peace.

Does it get any better than...

...Standing with your family in your freshly mowed front yard watching the fireworks show put on by the church down the street?

Happy Fourth, everyone.

W ain't all that stupid...

I've said more than once that Pres. Bush has been a foreign policy Master. The War on Terror must be fought. The Iraqi Theater in that war, and the installation of democracy in a region not used to such form of government have been strategic moves of immense scale.

And here, Joe Katzman at Winds of Change shows that Bush is thinking beyond this War on Terror and perhaps forging an alliance in our potential Next War.

BTW, this level of deep thinking is one reason why the Main Stream Media is failing so badly. They simply miss this sort of thing, or--when they do cover it--offer it up in such shallow coverage as to miss the importance of our moves.

Hey--My First Gun Post

I've been shooting IDPA for about a year and a half now. I have always intended to go once a month, but in practice, am only able to get to a match every-other month or so. It is admittedly somewhat anal, but I do a little statistical analysis of the results I get back. Now--there are some among the crowd that I normally shoot with who are very good (Rob Leatham occasionally shows up).

So, I am quite happy to report that I have improved to where I am almost average.

Whew...

Has it been two weeks already?

As you can see, I haven't put up much lately, and when I have, there hasn't been much behind it. I have been super-busy in May and June....Went to recurrent and flew nearly a full month in May, and had a giant month in June. I wanted to fly some overtime in late June, but for the first time that I can remember, 100 hours per calendar month became a concern. And, I'm still trying to be a good husband and father, not to mention home-owner, so there's been little time to sit down and ponder about things in the world.

Some items I've been thinking about, but haven't had time to write on...

• The Supreme Court's atrocious Kelo decision.
• Sandra Day O'Connor's retirement, her legacy, her replacement, and the politics surrounding all of it.
• President Bush and how we're doing in Iraq.
• Iran's new President and what we're going to do about Iran.

Anyway, perhaps I'll get to these. However, it is a holiday weekend, I'm at home with the family, I've got a ton of chores to do, and my youngest turns 16 very soon (Yikes!). Off to breakfast and my chores before it gets too hot.

Update: I found a compelling and deep analysis of the Kelo decision over at hubris. I'm pondering a purchase at Amazon. [A movie, BTW, made quite near where we live.]

Good News not Seen

Lots of it here; I especially like bullet #6.

Hardball

I've got to agree with the Llama Butcher that it is now time for Bush to begin to play hardball. Bolton needs to have the job one way or the other.

Now this ought to be good

I just wonder what Amnesty International will have to say when they testify before Congress on the impact of the Patriot Act.

Now, I'll be the first to say that I have some reservations about the Patriot Act. I'm not all Let's-Organize-the-Activists-and-Get-Some-People-Puppets-for-a-Demonstration upset about the PA, but do see the potential for abuse. I give the Bush administration credit for using it carefully and in ways that are not abusive. However, I have no doubts what-so-ever that the PA in the hands of the (or another) Clinton adminstration would yield results that most of us would not like.

But back to Amnesty International. They've done a great job of devolving themselves of any credibility they might had. Last week Chris Wallace of Fox News Sunday had William Schulz, the executive director of Amnesty International, USA. I could fisk this transcript inside-out, but here are just a few points.

• Schulz initially says that AI has backed away from the use of "gulag" to describe Gitmo, then goes right back at defending the word. He claims that detainees there are held in "indefinite incommunicado detention without access to lawyers or a judicial system or to their families." However, later he acknowledges that the International Red Cross has been allowed access to these detainees--which is all that is required if they are held under the Geneva Conventions (something they're not entitled to, and we are being quite generous in providing, IMO). In short, access to lawyers, a judicial system, or their families are never accorded to prisoners of war.
• Wallace shows Schulz has a twisted definition of torture. He is unable to produce evidence of systematic torture, and when questioned on the small numbers of documented problems, he then questions the source of the data. When obvious evidence of his pre-concieved notions of what is happening there can't be found, in essence, he says: "Of course, they'd hide the evidence."
• Schulz stands by the ridiculous comparison of Rumsfeld and Gonzales to Pinochet, and that they ought to stand trial for human rights abuses.
• He ends by essentially saying that AI has benefitted from the controversy it has generated because he's there on FNS. Any publicity is good publicity.

So, this is the same Amnesty International that will lecture the Congress on the Patriot Act.

Maybe it's just me, but serious opponents of the Patriot Act ought to cut their losses here and find another mouthpiece.

Update: To quote somebody really famous at blogging....Heh. H/T little green footballs

Peggy Nails It (Of Course)

Peggy Noonan clearly shows why the Democrats are sliding into oblivion. The hysterics from Clinton and Dean would be intolerable from any Republican. She could expand on this theme by offering a selection of quotes from Senators Kennedy, Boxer, and Biden.

Update...I guess I have to wonder about my own habits here. My next most recent post shows a very unflattering picture of a young John Kerry aside a bad characture (sp?) of a Hollywood bad guy. Am I being fair to Kerry? I don't know. As would any Presidential candidate, he or his handlers did their best to make him available for photo-ops as a means to enhance his story. As it stands, IMO, these efforts fell flat. He simply isn't a photo-genic guy, and in a Photoshop and internet-savvy world, his campaign should have found a way to add to his "electability" without resorting to his image. I have several other equally unflattering internet photos of Kerry, Dean, and Clinton in my files. I'll have to gaze at my navel some more to decide whether my use of these images is as unfair as the words Noonan attributes to prominent Democrats.

Did this guy date at all?

Now I have to admit that I've never turned too many heads. And as I am now well into my middle ages, and am going grey and getting fat, this is especially true today. However, I was never this bad.

Lifted from Country Store.

I'm beginning to admire....

...All the bloggers who put up multiple postings a day. First, it is work for me to peruse the internet, find an item that interests me, and then comment intelligently. And this work takes time. Time which I find is in short supply.

I especially admire the big-time bloggers who are able to make money at this.

Just Wondering...

On my little walkabout in Manhattan the other day, I happened across Madison Square Garden. As you can see, the building is oval.

They Can't Help Their Moral Equivalence

The family is still away while they finish their vacation, and I got home this morning too late for Fox News Sunday, so the only Sunday talk-show left was Face the Nation. I guess I shouldn't have been surprised (I'm talking about CBS after all), but I've generally thought of Bob Schieffer as one of the more balanced in the CBS stable (which isn't saying much at all, I admit). Today I'm convinced that CBS has no value what-so-ever.

On their Memorial Day show no less, Schieffer ended his show with a commentary linking Memorial Day, John McCain, and Gitmo.

Schieffer, CBS and the rest of the MSM (to include Hollywood) are currently all a-twitter about McCain's Faith of Our Fathers movie. I have the deepest respect for McCain's Vietnam performance. A couple of years ago, a co-worker asked me how I thought I might have done on the ground in Vietnam. My honest answer is that I don't think I'd have lasted more than 15 minutes into my first battle. Maybe I underestimate myself, but I just don't think I have the kind of guts it takes to succeed at a close, personal war. In my opinion, McCain was a hero after what he went through on the Forrestal. His performance while a POW was epic.

However, in his political life, he has been nothing but a self-promoting shill. We saw this most clearly in 2000, when the MSM fell in love with "The Maverick". To name just a few, he slimed his way out of lasting damage from his Keating-5 connections; he's furthered this with his McCain-Feingold abomination; and is now in the middle of doing the same thing by inserting Congress into major-league sports steroids abuse (which I commented on here).

Schieffer noted McCain's use of the Honor Code as a mechanism to cope with the brutality of the North Vietnamese POW camps, and then compares this Honor Code to what we're doing in Guantanamo. His last four paragraphs...

I thought about that as yet another tale of torture and abuse came out about the POW camp we are running at Guantanamo Bay.

Columnist Tom Friedman said the prison ought to be shut down because the stories about it are so inflaming the Arab world they're making the war on terrorism more dangerous for our American soldiers to fight.

But as I watched the McCain movie, I wondered if the greater danger is the impact Guantanamo is having on us. Do we want our children to believe this is how we are? Is this the code of honor we are passing on to the next generation?

As we reflect on the meaning of Memorial Day, let us remember first what it is that separates us from those who would take away our freedom -- what John McCain's dad taught his kid, what we should be teaching ours.

Well, to answer Schieffer, let me clue him in on a couple of things. These "torture and abuse" allegations we're hearing about are coming from the friggin' prisoners. These allegations have been investigated. What we hear described as "torture" is also often seen as nothing more than a fraternity prank here. The vilest "torture" alleged is that a woman interrogator has applied simulated menses on the Muslim prisoner and then kept him from cleaning himself. The "abuse" is said to have been mishandling of the Koran--apparantly a non-believer touched the holy Koran, or dropped it on the floor, or in some other way dis-respected their holy book. [I think even the MSM have dropped their claims that the Koran has been flushed down the toilet.] Let's not forget that these prisoners are the most violent and committed of the Islamofacists. They are strikingly intolerant of non-believers, to the point of believing that all non-believers need to be killed (Anyone else remember the Muslim Palestinians who took refuge from the Israelis in The Church of the Nativity? They desecrated venerated and historic Christian artifacts while there.).

And so Friedman thinks we ought to shut down Gitmo because the Arab Street is being inflamed. Should we shut down prisons because criminals don't like how they're treated inside? The simple fact is that we don't create our enemies...they create themselves. We are a uniquely generous and tolerant people. Shutting down Gitmo will not appease the Arab Street. They'll love (or at least tolerate) us when we win. Appeasement will do nothing.

Finally, Schieffer confuses the Code of Honor. We are not beheading or summarily executing prisoners. Sure, Gitmo isn't a kid's summer camp, but we are being quite generous in treating them as Prisoners of War at all (something they are not entitled to, IMO). Schieffer gazes at his navel and brings a moral equivalence to something that makes him uncomfortable (apparantly he's forgotten Daniel Pearl)--our treatment of Islamofacist prisoners. They're not Sunday School teachers--they're people who would do anything to bring down everything we hold dear. They're being treated appropriately. If we only gain a few nuggets of intelligence, or accomplish nothing more than to remove them from the battlefield, then what we're doing in Gitmo is the right thing.

Is Balanced Reporting Too Much to Ask?

I'm paying attention to the tussle Pres. Bush and the Senate Democrats are in regarding the appointment of judges and the filibuster rules surrounding this debate. Largely, I think the D's are failing to recognize that they're in the minority--which means they haven't quite accepted that they're going to lose on many more issues than they win. So they obstruct. After the experience of Sen. Daschle, you might think they'd learn something, but I digress.

However, today's Arizona Republic has a typically unbalanced analysis of what's going on. A few examples needing to be fisked....

Both political parties opened a historic showdown over judicial nominations Wednesday while the public worried that Congress could be distracted from more tangible issues such as gas prices and Social Security.

Maybe it's just me, but I don't think that Congress will ever have much influence on gas prices. The market will rule. In this case (as I understand things), the suppliers have tapped out most of the easily-refineable crude sources, refining capability has not grown over the years (there's not much money in refining), and most importantly, demand from China and India has spiked. So yeah--gas prices will go up. From what I remember from Econ 101, this increased demand will either spur action to find more supplies or provide an incentive to develop alternative energy sources. Congress doesn't have much to do here. Oh--and Social Security? A time-bomb that nobody is willing to defuse. Fussing about judicial nominees is exactly what Congress ought to be doing.

Few strategists in either party expect the specific arguments over the GOP's bid to thwart Senate filibusters to sway many voters in the 2006 elections. But many analysts believe the conflict could increase and solidify public antagonism toward Washington surfacing in polls, especially if the dispute deepens Capitol Hill's partisan acrimony and impedes action on issues more tangible to voters.

So which is it? Is this filibuster debate going to fail to influence voters in 2006, or will antagonism increase and make this debate central to the mid-term elections? And you know what? I'm getting tired of the qualifiers "Few strategists" and "many analysts". Are we talking about someone who gets paid to craft or analyze strategy or are we talking about whomever happened to show up around the water cooler that morning? This paragraph tells me nothing.

They've buried the money paragraph...

The key political question is whether the public disenchantment would hurt the parties equally or the GOP more, because it holds the majority and is seeking the rule change on judges.

So it will either hurt both parties equally or the GOP more. Those are the two choices. It apparantly isn't possible that the Dem's could be hurt here. The bias from this reporting/analysis is absolutely screaming.

And as icing on the cake...

Both sides step into this fight visibly bruised by recent events. Since last year's election, the news in Washington has been dominated by a Bush drive to restructure Social Security that has generated majority opposition in polls; the congressional intervention in the case of a brain-damaged Florida woman, Terri Schiavo, which provoked a sharp backlash in public opinion surveys; the ethics charges swirling around House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas; and the escalating acrimony over Democratic efforts to block some of Bush's most controversial judicial appointments through the filibuster.

Maybe it's just me, but I don't think Bush's attempt at reforming/saving Social Security has failed. Sure, the D's have confused the issues, but I don't think we're done yet. I do agree that Congressional involvement in the Schiavo case was misplaced, but I don't think there will be a lasting effect from it. And please. Tom DeLay? While he's probably not exactly a saint, the D's are engaging in nothing more than a witchhunt here precisely because he's been effective against them. And finally in the last sentence, we get an example of something the D's might be doing which the analysts here think will hurt them. More bias.

I really don't expect fully balanced reporting from the Arizona Republic or other MSM sources, but after the success of alternative news sources--internet, talk-radio, Fox News Channel--you'd think the providers of MSM would begin to wonder why their market share was continuing to decline. That their lefty worldview has so poisoned their product just escapes them.

I finally did what I said I'd do

So, I had just arrived for my recurrent training--somewhat tired, hungry, and very stressed about the upcoming four days. Recurrent came at the worst possible time, and I'd had no where near the time I wanted to put towards studying. [As it ended, I did OK--not "Great", but good enough for another year.] I was standing there putting away the change I'd received for my airport food-court meal, and I looked behind me. There he was.

I see soldiers in the airport all the time. Usually, they're like everyone else--hustling to get themselves from one gate to another as they make their connections. I've never seen the public applause that has been depicted in the beer commercial, but don't doubt that it happens. I've always said that if I had the opportunity, I'd buy a meal for a soldier, and this was my chance.

It didn't go quite as I had imagined. I would prefer that the soldier be three or four people behind me, and that I'd just leave a reasonable amount of money for his meal and then walk off. I don't want his thanks or his protestations that my act isn't necessary. I don't do this for him. I do it for me. If the purchase of his meal makes his day go just a little bit better--that's fine. But the reason that I do this is to make my day go much better. I feel so inadequate in expressing my thanks to those serving our country. My real inadequacy is that I haven't figured out how to express my thanks to the many anonymous spouses/parents/children who are equally serving our country. They are bearing a burden that I cannot imagine.

Anyway, this soldier was right behind me, and I did not have the opportunity at the anonymity that I had wished for. He did thank me, and went on his way.

I'll do it again the next chance I get.

Elvis Convention

One of the interesting things which occassionally happen in my life happen while on a layover. I layed over in San Diego years ago at a hotel which was hosting the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force (or some such title). I think that we were the only heterosexuals in the hotel that weekend. [Not that I have anything against homosexuals, because I don't. Its just that homosexuals are often unusual people, and especially those who might go to such a national convention.]

This last layover had an Elvis Convention going on. They were advertising 20 impersonators, and I saw half a dozen or so in the lobby. Most were the "Old Fat" Elvii, but there was one 20-something who I saw enter as a "Young Elvis". They even had a 50's Pink Cadillac out front. I have to wonder about someone who would go through life as Elvis. I can't imagine that more than a few impersonators are able to make a living at this fascination of theirs. So what do they do the other 29 days a month?

Related is to wonder about the women who are intrigued enough with Elvis that they will travel and pay money to see these impersonators. It's no skin off my nose one way or the other, but why not drop your teenage fascinations with some guy who's long dead, and get on with your life?

As my kids would say: Whatever.