Wednesday, August 31, 2005

The Power of the Kyoto Protocols!


BushKyotoKatrina, originally uploaded by maurelius.

Wackos from the left (two evidenced in the last blog) are whining if only President Bush would have approved Kyoto (why didn't President Clinton do so? Also, recall that treaties need senatorial ratification.) Katrina would not have happened.

I wonder if that would have looked anything like this!

Good night.



Update:
9/2/2005: You will find this amusing! Completely gratuitous mention of this quote found on the Jawa Report: I've lost my job, my house, my car, everything I'm now free to fish. So I can trackback this blog to the Jawa Report. Jawa report readers click here for my full blog and thanks for coming by!

The Cry of Lunacanids Mormoops.

Of course the moonbats would not be able to long hold their tongues.

First off we have Saint OCindy Bin Sheehan:

Well, George and I are leaving Crawford today. George is finished playing golf and telling his fables in San Diego , so he will be heading to Louisiana to see the devastation that his environmental policies and his killing policies have caused. Recovery would be easier and much quicker if almost ½ of the three states involved National Guard were not in Iraq. All of the National Guard's equipment is in Iraq also. Plus, with the 2 billion dollars a week that the private contractors are siphoning from our treasury, how are we going to pay for helping our own citizens in Louisiana , Mississippi, and Alabama? And, should I dare say "global warming?" and be branded as a "conspiracy theorist" on top of everything else the reich-wingers say about me.
Source: Hugh Hewitt - Cindy Sheehan's Latest


Cindy, we were calling you a tin-foil hat wearing conspriacist a long time ago. Global warming? Huh? Even the likes of Susan Esterich is calling you an antisemite.

Ahhh. Check this out:
As Hurricane Katrina dismantles Mississippi's Gulf Coast, it's worth recalling the central role that Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour played in derailing the Kyoto Protocol and kiboshing President Bush's iron-clad campaign promise to regulate CO2.
...
In 1998, Republican icon Pat Robertson warned that hurricanes were likely to hit communities that offended God. Perhaps it was Barbour's memo that caused Katrina, at the last moment, to spare New Orleans and save its worst flailings for the Mississippi coast.
Source: The Huffington Post - "For They That Sow the Wind Shall Reap the Whirlwind" Robert Kennedy Jr.


Kinda ironic the godless left does appear to have a god. In addtion it appears some German minister is saying the same thing "bushdiddit".

Katrina's Destruction.

Is terrible to behold. That which took years of planning and years of building destroyed in a day.

Folly, it is all folly.
Blue Oyster Cult's song Godzilla has a line History shows again and again how nature points out the folly of man. Katrina did that. Concrete and steel could not withstand Katrina's powerful winds.

When the Levee Breaks.
That there was the big catastrophe, Laura from Dummocrats got out of New Orleans and was in Dallas TX. She was hopeful about her home but not anymore. She was hearing all of the material and manpower was in place and ready to shore up those levees and they didn't. Why not? They were re-tasked to rescuing those that stayed behind those that were warned there would be no help for them if they got into trouble. Needless to say the Mayor is not happy about that. I don't know, maybe it went down like that, maybe it didn't. It does sound plausible since this is what they were concerned about when it became apparent Katrina was headed for them.

The Here and Now
Make sure you visit The Truth Laid Bear for a conglomeration of links related to the relief effort. Paul from Wizbang asks for an Evacuation Guide for Dummies. Links and the like to guide people on how to get the help they never needed before and need now. BTW, his statements in this blog throw into doubt what I relate above.

The Future.
New Orleans is not going to become a ghost town. No way. Some serious engineering is going to be done and some very critical discoveries are going to be made as to why things failed like they did. Like the folks in San Francisco they will learn, adapt, and carry on.

How many episodes on the History Channel will this inspire? Engineering Failures will certainly make an episode as well as The Wrath of God. I am quite certain a number of specials will be created as well.

Tuesday, August 30, 2005

A Discovery!

Preparing for an upcoming trip I went onto E-Bay and am bidding on an IPod Mini (a gift). Well, I have been looking into digital music lately and started getting my system geared up for it.

Well, last night I found a website with the 7/13/1984 Greek Theater Grateful Dead concert all digitized up. That show was my first bootleg tape, the one that opened my ears to the Grateful Dead. What's that you say? Beware of copyrights? The Grateful Dead allow the free dissemination and copying of their concerts, it was not a smooth transition from tapes to digital but they allow digital now. The caveat is you are not to profit from the dissemination of their work.

Well, I have a portion of the show downloaded. The tape I had was the second set and now I have access to the complete concert. I will eventually obtain the tracks song by song and the site also has it set by set (two total) which I will also download since the breaks between the tracks are annoying in a couple of spots.

Monday, August 29, 2005

05.08.14.ShowofGrief-X


05.08.14.ShowofGrief-X, originally uploaded by maurelius.

See this link for the original Cox & Forkum cartoon. I have scaled down the above a tad.

Isn't it funny, how this cartoon drawn weeks ago, looks so similar to the real photo below?

What a Touching Makeup Touchup.


sheehanmedia, originally uploaded by maurelius.

Touching.

Media Circus. Cindy is not behind this.

Photo grabbed off of The Corner.

Read also, The Buzz and other National Review material for all the MSM is leaving out about this made for media circus in TX.

Micro-Reporting.

Remember the other day when I blogged this:
It all seems a chaotic mess because this is the way the MSM is reporting it (and perhaps because as Michael Yon points out there seems to be no rhyme or reason why the army releases its information). 20 Marines killed in Haditha just seemed to happen for no reason at all. There is no explanation of why Haditha and Rawa are important. There is no reminder the Marines were fighting the core of the terrorists in Fallujah last year (much closer to Baghdad). Thank God for The Belmont Club and The Fourth Rail and other such blogs!
Source: Blogger Beer - Can Not See the Forest for the Moss.


Yesterday on Meet the Press this was said:

Mr. Russert: All of you have had distinguished military careers, leading men into war. We now have a majority of the American people saying this war is a mistake. General Downing, how long can you conduct a war that is not supported by a majority of the American people?


Gen. Downing: Well, Tim, you absolutely have to have the support of the American people. And the troops that we have in Afghanistan and Iraq right now feel this very, very strongly. They want the support. Quite frankly, I think one of the problems that we're having is that the news media, the opposition to the war are framing this entire discussion in the terms of casualties and casualties only. I think what we don't have is a serious discussion about why you take those casualties.

We're not out there roaming the roads in Iraq and Afghanistan, looking for IEDs to blow up. Everything we're doing in a military campaign, both the U.S., the coalition and the Iraqi forces, are aimed at objectives. And those objectives are to promote the political process, number one, because what we're doing, Tim--for the last six weeks we've been doing this--we're preparing for the election in the middle of October--I mean, the referendum on the constitution and then the following one, the election in December to ratify it.

The other things we're doing is we're supporting the economic development of that country and the social development. That's why these military operations are going on. And I really think that it's incumbent upon you and the others and the responsible American press to put the casualties into these kind of context. In other words, what is it that they're accomplishing? I mean, can you imagine us and, you know, it's been quoted out there in the Web, judging the D-Day invasion of Normandy back in 1944 by the casualties that were suffered?
Source: Meet the Press Transcript Sunday August 28, 2005


Again, the MSM refuses to put anything into context. First our troops are in the field working to defeat the terrorists they do not sit in the barracks and play cards and wait for the terrorists to come to them. They go after them. They report each incident like it was something all onto itself and refuse to paint a larger picture for us.

Sunday, August 28, 2005

The Mighty Winds.

First off let us all pray for the safety of our fellow citizens in Louisiana and on the Gulf shore.

Secondly, brace yourselves. Already leftists are screaming about how President Bush caused global warming thereby bringing on Katrina. The KKK King has asked where are the National Guardsmen. Well, dummy there are in Louisiana look and listen. Of course a goodly number of Islamists will say Katrina is Allah's retribution.

Get used to it.

What Happened?

Earlier today for a reason I can not recall I tried to go read Michael Yon's The Gates of Fire blog. Now, if you follow the link you are taken to a Google cached copy of the The Gates of Fire not Michael's original edition.

The Gates of Fire is missing from Michael Yon's site. Why? What happened?

A couple of blogs prior he talked about the seeming lack of reason why the Army publicizes and not publicizes events and happenings. He also talked about toeing the line less with that guidance.

Post Script: The operation has begun. The Commander of Deuce Four, LTC Erik Kurilla, was shot three times in combat yesterday in front of my eyes. Despite being seriously wounded, LTC Kurilla immediately rejoined the intense and close-quarter fight that ended in hand-to-hand combat. LTC Kurilla continued to direct his men until a medic gave him morphine and the men took him away. I was right there. When I returned to base, I was actually "ordered" not to write about the fighting until given clearance, and was told that my phones could be confiscated. I will ignore such "orders" at my own discretion. I am preparing a dispatch now.
Source: Michael Yon - Proximity Delays


Did some Army officer order Michael to drop that dispatch? How sad when the NYT claims of how we have no heroes fighting the good fight (ironic too) and the Army seems to cover it all up.

In any event, this djini is out of the bottle and use the Google Link above to see the story.

Update: 8/29/2005: The blog is back. Have not checked to see if it is different or anything is missing.

Friday, August 26, 2005

The Mainstream Misleaders.

This Powerline blog points out how Angela Brown from Al-Pazeera is playing games with the facts when it comes to Cindy Sheehan.

This isn't the first time that Angela Brown has applied a discreet airbrush to the facts relating to Cindy Sheehan. Consider this AP article dated August 11, which begins:

Cindy Sheehan's eyes well with tears when she talks about her oldest son, Casey, an easygoing young man with a quiet wit.

Casey joined the Army in 2000, never imagining he would see combat. Five days after he arrived in Iraq last year, the 24-year-old was killed in Sadr City.


This truncated account is utterly dishonest. Casey Sheehan might not have anticipated combat when he joined the Army in 2000--although I assume anyone who joins the Army expects that he could be called upon to fight--but he most certainly did anticipate combat when he re-enlisted in August 2003, after the Iraq war had begun. According to Sheehan's own account, Casey re-enlisted for the specific purpose of "protect[ing] his buddies" in Iraq. So Angela Brown's narrative, which omits any reference to Casey Sheehan's re-enlistment in the midst of the Iraq war, is highly misleading.
Source: ">Powerline Blog - If the Facts Don't Fit, Make Them Up


Of course there is a little flap emerging via the New York Times.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Wednesday offered sympathy for the Israeli settlers who are being removed from their homes in Gaza but also made it clear that she expected Israel and the Palestinians to take further steps in short order toward the creation of a Palestinian state.

"Everyone empathizes with what the Israelis are facing," Ms. Rice said in an interview. But she added, "It cannot be Gaza only."
Source: New York Times as quoted by the Jewish Current Issues - Condoleezza Rice and The New York Times


This elicits the following response:
Since the Roadmap calls for the dismantlement of Palestinian terrorist capabilities and infrastructure in Phase I -- and does not require Israel to remove a single settlement (other than certain "outposts") during that phase -- Rice's comments seemed gratuitously insulting. One would have thought she would emphasize the need for the Palestinians -- after a unilateral Israeli withdrawal that went far beyond their initial Roadmap requirements -- to comply with their own Roadmap obligations.

On the day of the Times story, a commenter at LibertyPost.org posted this comment: "This just doesn't sound right, or like Dr Rice. . . . She doesn't screw up like this."

Indeed, it didn't . . . she doesn't . . .and in fact the Times made the quote up.
New York Times as quoted by the Jewish Current Issues - Condoleezza Rice and The New York Times


This story did some damage to Secretary Rice's reputation and standing. I recall a certain radio talk show host referring to Secretary Rice as "Condaleeze Reich" (that was Mr. #61). Could it be Mr. 61 that it came from the BS factory of the NYT?

Go to the links in the above quote and you will see what Secretary Rice said, how she said it, and the complete and full context.

A Sad Anniversary.

Dummocrats reminds us
35 years ago today, [Dummocrats posted this on the 24th, I just picked it up myself] four Madison men bombed Sterling Hall, home of an Army Math Research Center, on the University of Wisconsin campus. Karl Armstrong, David Fine, Leo Burt & Dwight Armstrong set the bomb off in the middle of the night, but, tragically, a young physics researcher, Robert Fassnacht, was killed in the explosion and several others were injured. Until Oklahoma City, it was the largest act of domestic terrorism the United States had ever seen.
Source: Dummocrats - Sterling Hall Bombing: 35 Years Later


Actually, the anniversary was on the 24th.

I fear this is something we need to expect. The left is self-marginalizing and they may start to act out with violence starting up a viscous cycle. Lets hope I am wrong about this.

Thursday, August 25, 2005

A Wedding Announcement.


The Happy Couple Mr. and Mrs. Wraparound after their wedding.


The happy couple was married in Crawford TX at Camp Casey. In attendance were skinheads and wacky leftists united to stop the Neocon JOOOOOOOish war.

In all sincerity, Mr. Moore does look better on a thin body. Even though I detest his politics he is a person that when he sets his mind to something it seems he can go out and do it. Too bad he is too busy trying to tear down the system that allows poor schleps like he was, to get ahead!

Pope John Paul II.

It sounds like JPII is on a fast track to sainthood. They say they are still looking for the miracle and I would say it is so obvious so large we can not see it.

He along with two other mustard seeds did what all the smart and nuanced people said could not be done. Because of their faith A miracle happened; the wall came down, and the Great Bear was no more.

Who? Who? Who?

Not too long ago the NY Times questioned why we do not know the names of any heroes from Iraq.

Why? Who?

Well we know of none because the MSM reporters barely travel outside of safe haven, and when they do they do so it is often with the jihadis and terrorists. Remember the AP stringer who just happened to be tipped off by the jihadis as they murdered election workers? A CBS stringer also found himself arrested with terrorist jihadis. So, if we want to know who the Jihadi heroes are we know where to turn.

Who do we turn to to know who our heroes are? The blogosphere namely Michael Yon. The story linked to is his latest and contains a detailed shot by shot account of a fight in Mosul. Michael posts photographs (don't want to use the shorthand in this case) of the fighting. This includes photos of the wounding of LTC Kurilla commander of Deuce 4 the unit Michael is embedded with.

In fact, contrary to the rules he must abide by Michael picked up a gun and used it. LTC Kurilla had been wounded and was exposed. There were two other young officers present but they were green and were not pushing the attack, Michael relates
I saw Prosser's M4 on the ground, Where did that come from?

I picked up Prosser's M4. It was empty. I saw only Prosser's bloody leg lying still, just inside the darkened doorway, because most of his body was hidden behind a stack of sheet metal.

"Give me some ammo! Give me a magazine!" I yelled, and the young 2nd lieutenant handed over a full 30-round magazine. I jacked it in, released the bolt and hit the forward assist. I had only one magazine, so checked that the selector was on semi-automatic.

I ran back to the corner of the shop and looked at LTC Kurilla who was bleeding, and saw CSM Prosser's extremely bloody leg inside the shop, the rest of him was still obscured from view. I was going to run into the shop and shoot every man with a gun. And I was scared to death.
Source: Michael Yon - Gates of Fire


Mr. Yon was jacked up for that. Lets hope the two young juniors who should have been doing the job were also jacked up or at least shamed by the fact a civvy blogger was doing their job.

Make Michael Yon's blog a weekly read.

GOP: Grand Old Patronage?

Yesterday I received a column in the e-mail. The column comes from Kerry Thomas a resident of Vilas County and the Vilas County Republican Party Webmaster.

Kerry sees the Wisconsin GOP taking sides in a nomination struggle despite its rules not to.

In another instance, on a crucial veto override vote of the Photo ID Bill earlier this year, Speaker Gard scheduled a vote, which had no chance of passage at that time, timed so that Terri McCormick, his probable opponent in the congressional campaign, would miss the opportunity to cast her vote for the override. She was en route to the Capitol, sick with the flu, having a colleague drive her, and missed the vote by less than an hour. If this was such a crucial vote, shouldn't the Speaker have waited until all his colleagues were available to cast their votes? Why was it necessary to rush that vote, so that McCormick would have no chance to cast her vote? Was there a calculation that this missed vote could be used against McCormick in the campaign?

It looks to me like John Gard has blatantly abused his public office, breached the public trust placed in him. It's a complete conflict of interest. It is the very sort of allegations that Gard's former colleagues Scott Jensen, Micki Foti and Sherry Schultz are going to court about this Fall.

If John Gard wants to run for Congress, he should step down as Assembly Speaker, so he can devote his energies to his campaign. Unless, maybe that's what he's doing as Speaker. If he is using the Speaker's office for political gain, not only should he step down, he should resign all together.
Source: Kerry Thomas - Does GOP Stand For Good Old Patronage?


This is something I have detected as well. The crew in Madison have anointed John Gard (though they will not go on record) and are discouraging activists from working with the opposition. One fellow I know who is a Republican and ran for state office says if it is a vote between John Gard and a Democrat he will not vote for either.

I remember during the nomination fight for senator we went through this same thing. In fact, one of the candidates got a resolution through reaffirming the neutrality of the party in the nomination process.

See the whole article here.

"The Plan" Buwhahahahahaha!

Iowahawk must have access to some real good surveillance gear!

Are you smellin' what the KOS IS COOKIN'?

No calls for a truce will be brooked. Because homie don't brook, biatch. And also, we got Caller ID, and if we see "DLC" on it, it's going straight to the ansering machine. The DLC has used those pauses in the past to bide their time between offensives, and offer us so-called "weekend 2c/minute calling plans." Appeals to party unity and "super low introductory rates" will fall on deaf ears (it's summer of a non-election year, and we are thinking of going to the Wisconsin Dells).
Source: Iowahawk - Scenes From A Political Marriage


Oh uh, WI-Dells is in danger, who will rescue it from the KKKs?

Wednesday, August 24, 2005

The Perils of Hotlinking.



The oringal photo that a KKK hotlinked to.

The photo Charles substituted.

The latest from Little Green Footballs!


All credit goes to: Little Green Footballs!

You see, hotlinking puts you at the mercy of the person you are hotlinking. Some times this is okay, for example you want a block on your homepage where you want the latest weather forecast to appear. You then put some code in that pulls that content directly from an agreeable provider. When you hotlink to another without proper permission then you may have a problem.

BTW, I did save the photos above and put them on the photo server I use. Flicr!

Politics & War.

How often do we hear complaints of how the politicians interfere with matters military?

In our society and system of government the military is subordinate to the civil government. The complaints while understandable do not recognize the military's purpose is to fulfill the political and diplomatic aims of the duly elected government. Yes, you heard me diplomatic aims. The political and diplomatic are at least equal components to victory.

In Iraq our commanders and government had forgotten that point. In Fallujah I our forces were taking the city and doing their job. However, while the military was prepared the political and diplomatic forces were not prepared. The result Fallujah I was a defeat for our forces. However, our government and top commanders learned their lesson (again, real life learning takes hold much quicker than book learning) and all three legs of the triangle were ready for Fallujah II. Fallujah II was a victory for our forces and the Iraqi forces that participated.

In the movie Patton there is a good picture of this. It's the scene where Patton is directing tank traffic and his commander (Omar Bradley) approaches him to notify him they have to divert major amounts of his supplies to take the area where the V1 and V2 rockets were being launched against the UK. Patton was probably correct that allowing the 3rd Army to continue to fight the Germans full strength would have done more to defeat the Germans but the political was at the utmost there.

Can Not See the Forest for the Moss.

Two posts from separate blogs work together very nicely.

Late yesterday I read on Powerline
One wonders how past wars could have been fought if news reporting had consisted almost entirely of a recitation of casualties. The D-Day invasion was one of the greatest organizational feats ever achieved by human beings, and one of the most successful. But what if the only news Americans had gotten about the invasion was that 2,500 allied soldiers died that day, with no discussion of whether the invasion was a success or a failure, and no acknowledgement of the huge strategic stakes that were involved? Or what if such news coverage had continued, day by day, through the entire Battle of Normandy, with Americans having no idea whether the battle was being won or lost, but knowing only that 54,000 Allied troops had been killed by the Germans?
Source: Powerline - Some Thoughts on Casualties in Times of War and Peace


It all seems a chaotic mess because this is the way the MSM is reporting it (and perhaps because as Michael Yon points out there seems to be no rhyme or reason why the army releases its information). 20 Marines killed in Haditha just seemed to happen for no reason at all. There is no explanation of why Haditha and Rawa are important. There is no reminder the Marines were fighting the core of the terrorists in Fallujah last year (much closer to Baghdad). Thank God for The Belmont Club and The Fourth Rail and other such blogs!

But it is entirely possibile [sic] this story is true. At this stage in the Anbar Campaign, Coalition forces are not devoting many resources to occupying cities. Operation Quick Strike, which was directed at Haditha and surrounding towns, was another cordon and search operation designed to keep the insurgency off balance. Once the Coalition switches to clear and hold operations, towns such as Haditha will no longer remain open to enemy infiltration.

There is another item to consider here. At this time last year, Fallujah was the capital of the Zarqawi empire that stretched across the Anbar province. If the Guardian is correct, Haditha and a couple of backwater farming towns along the Euphrates are now the core of his empire. Zarqawi's area of operation is shrinking, and his support, particularly among Sunnis, is waning. He may be able to occupy Haditha and run it as his personal Islamist state, but he is a far cry from where he was last year, and even further from disrupting Iraq's political process.
Source: The Fourth Rail - The Islamic Republic of Haditha?


The instigation of Bill's blog above was a report in The Guardian on the state of terrorists and how they still control Haditha and the surrounding area. The article's sole source consists of a terrorist. The terrorists can provide one source but no number of sources from the good guys will ever suffice.

Iowahawk Gets a Hold of New Moore Mockumentary.

Iowahawk has the very inside scoop of Michael Moore's fat farm visit. They have a bountiful harvest at that farm!

Wassup? You may have heard by now that I have taken the "Slacker Uprising Tour" on a personal health retreat to the Pritkin Center in Florida. Unfortunately, some of the reports of this in the corporate media, like 'Faux News,' are based on complete distortions and outright lies. First, the Pritkin Center is not some cushy "spa" for overweight corporate war profiteers. Think of It as an elite guerilla training center.
Source: Iowahawk - Hello Blubbuh, Hello Flabbah


And that is only the start! Check it out.

Earlier today I noted that I saw on a blogad about how some ad had Michael Moore's head pasted on an image of Fat B@$+@$& from the Austin Powers movies. Now Iowahawk does it again.

Its all in good fun, in the end this does nothing to prove Moore's idiocy, but the satire in it is good.

HT: Little Green Footballs.

Tuesday, August 23, 2005

Blue on Blue.

Little Green Footballs watches and waits as Markos "Screw Them" Moulitsas Cunninglingus (whoops, that is Zuniga) countsdown to the launching of his plan.

What plan? Who knows, but he is promising to take down the Democratic Leadership Comittee. Whooo-hooo! They are going after their only shot to win the presidency in 2008. Blue on blue!

What has the DLC ever brought us?
A two term president!

Okay, aside from a two term president what has the DLC ever brought us?
A chance at winning votes.

Okay, aside from a 2 term president, a chance at winning votes what has the DLC ever brought us?
Somewhat reasonable rhetoric.

Okay, aside form a 2 term president, a chance at winning votes what has the DLC ever brougth us?

gotta love it!

Who Said This?

The Jawa Report posts a transcript from an under-reported speaking appearance by a current media figure. Read it and guess who said it.

I take responsibility partly for my son’s death, too. I was raised in a country by a public school system that taught us that America was good, that America was just. America has been killing people, like my sister over here says, since we first stepped on this continent, we have been responsible for death and destruction. I passed on that bull$#!+ to my son and my son enlisted. IÂ’m going all over the country telling moms: “This country is not worth dying for. If weÂ’re attacked, we would all go out. We’d all take whatever we had. I’d take my rolling pin and I’d beat the attackers over the head with it. But we were not attacked by Iraq. {applause} We might not even have been attacked by Osama bin Laden if {applause}. 9/11 was their Pearl Harbor to get their neo-con agenda through and, if I would have known that before my son was killed, I would have taken him to Canada. I would never have let him go and try and defend this morally repugnant system we have. The people are good, the system is morally repugnant. {applause}
Source: The Jawa Report - Transcript of XXXXX XXXXXXXX anti-American moonbattery: bin Laden not behind 9/11, US Using Nuke Weapons in Iraq


Read the whole Jawa Report blog as it contains a picture of a flyer from the event. This is all treason. I really love this quote: I’d take my rolling pin and I’d beat the attackers over the head with it. which is followed by a denial we were really attacked on 9/11. Seems to me the above speaker would not defend this nation even when attacked, after all what all the talk about This country is not worth dying for?

The left says they love this nation and spew the bile above. The question must be asked, how can they stand living in such a nation? If you work for a company, or are involved with an organization that contradicts your beliefs, morals, and ideals then if you can not change the organization the honorable thing to do is to quit. In this case, leave. After all the Canadian immigration website servers seem to be able to handle the traffic. Perhaps Iran would more suit your tastes?

The last point which is a repeat. This person's son volunteered, voluntarily re-enlisted, and then voluntarily went off on the mission where he was killed. All humanity recognizes there is a time for childhood and a time for adulthood. Quite treating your son like a child.

A Right To Create Sound Waves.

One of the things said about thet campers in Crawford TX (the chief camper in particular) ;-) is they have a right to be heard.

No, they have no such right. In order to enforce a right to be heard you have to coerce people to listen. No, they have a right to make sound waves, print, bits n bytes over the internet etc but we are under NO obligation to listen, to read, or to receive those bits n bytes.

Fareed Zakaria's Energy Policy Column.

HT: To Jonah Goldberg in The Corner.

Fareed Zakaria takes on the question of how to lessen our dependence on oil for energy. This is a good question. Most conservatives say let the marketplace take care of it. Now, being an economic conservative I am sympathetic to the argument. However, I am coming more and more around to point of view there are sufficient externalities in our current energy paradigm (sorry for using that word, but it fits my needs very well) to justify societal to justify coordinated societal (i.e. governmental) intervention.

Now, Fareed goes on and brings up some of the usual solutions.

That is because of strong growth, but also because American cars-which guzzle the bulk of oil imports-are much less efficient than they used to be. This is the only area of the American economy in which we have become less energy-efficient than we were 20 years ago, and we are the only industrialized country to have slid backward in this way. There's one reason: SUVs. They made up 5 percent of the American fleet in 1990. They make up almost 54 percent today.
Source: MSNBC's Fareed Zakaria - How to Escape the Oil Trap


This point most people arguing for government intervention do so in their sleep. The funny thing is I am hearing more and more reports the values for used SUVs is declining and people are not getting declining value on SUV trades. It seems the number of Yukons and Suburbans in the GMC lot next to my house is rising. Even earlier this summers SUVs would hit the lot and be gone quickly, not so anymore.

In any event, the more efficient one's car is, the more driving one will do. Any gains in efficiency will be lost to increased driving. If not more driving by the same people then by an increase in the number of cars (with an increasing population).

Okay.

We don't need a Manhattan Project to find our way out of our current energy trap. The technologies already exist. But what we're searching for is perhaps even harder-political leadership and vision.
Source: MSNBC's Fareed Zakaria - How to Escape the Oil Trap


The solutions Fareed argues for are nothing but stop-gap measures. Increased automotive efficiency is important but not a solution.

Are we in need of a Manhattan Project? I say we are. Or do we finally start to harvest the fruits of the original Manhattan Project?

Its Happening.

All sorts of media outrage over Pat Robertson's comments. Getting lots of coverage. Can not say it is a bad thing, when a prominent person says something loopy they should get called on it. It just seems awful convenient though only lunatic comments from one side get so much attention.

What is next? I am guessing we will be getting blasted by a history of his past lunatic comments. Of course, the past and current lunacies of another prominent media personality are ignored and minimized by the MSM.

Bernard Goldberg is right.

As sure as the sun rises in the East and sets in the West.

Brace Yourselves!

Pat Robertson said something stupid. Now, we will hear about it incessently for days.

As someone else once said (IIRC it was William F Buckley Jr.) the proper reaction is to tell Pat to take another Prozac and go back to his corner.

Monday, August 22, 2005

Torture, Rape, and Assassination.

Bill Roggio relays some interesting information about the Jihadists in Iraq.

Al Qaeda has nothing to offer but what we see in the interviews of Abed and Adan Elias, another member of Ansar al-Islam. Elias participated in torture, the dismemberment of corpses and booby trapping the dead so their families would be murdered when picking up their loved ones.

Freedom and Jihad cannot coexist, and therefore al Qaeda is forced to turn its weapons on the only ethnic group where it retains some measure sympathy, giving them a taste of Jihad. A sure sign of desperation, as the war is now in al Qaeda's back yard. In Mosul, three Sunni election workers of the Islamic Party are assassinated attempting to register voters.
Source: The Fourth Rail - THIS is Jihad


Read the whole blog and be sure to check out The Adventures of Chester which carries a large portion of the interview on Bill's site.

Are these the actions the left claims to be modeled on the Minuteman? Did George Washington and his lieutenants rape the daughters of their enemies and then kill them? Did the Continental Army and the Minutemen rig the bodies with explosives so their relatives would be killed? How can any "peace activist" support those who carry out such atrocities?

Saturday, August 20, 2005

Caption Contest.


Lions1, originally uploaded by maurelius.

Yes!

Once again the famous Blogger Beer caption the photograph contest!

Two lions snoozing in the Serrentgetti or so it seems.

Caption this photograph and if you win you get a mention and some linky love (fwiw). BTW, linky love is a The Jawa Report coinage.

Widgey, no one let alone Dallas Cokeboy fans can not win consecutive weeks. However, we welcome your captions anyway! :-)

The decision of the judge (myself) is completely capricious and final! Good luck!


BTW: The above photo is absolutely and positively copyrighted by Marcus Aurelius. If you want a piece of it send me an e-mail by finding my e-mail in my blogger profile.

Hitting Us Below The Belt.

The Terrorists in Iraq are not dumb.

There are many big blogs talking about how they are going to be hitting the media war very hard. They always say hit your enemy where they are the weakest and the terrorists are working on it.

They think their supporters in the media are not doing a good enough job so now they are concentrating on distributing their message via the Internet as well. So we have Al-Jazeera, Al-Pazeera, Al-Reuters, Al-Guardian, and Al-ABC (CBS, CNN, NBC etc) now they are going to hit the Internet harder. Of course their enablers in the MSM will pick up on these Internet drops and broadcast them worldwide.

This is like Michael Moore and similar whining about how the Terrorists hit the capital of leftism in New York City. He whined about how they should have crashed their planes into Texas (of course this was after other countless self-hating insults). Well, see above about the intelligence of the terrorists. They are not going to hit those who will hit back they will hit those who want to capitulate.

Friday, August 19, 2005

Baron Marcus & Baroness Claudia.

Claudia and I took on new titles today. We closed on a parcel of land so now in addition to being the Wise and Benevolent Emperor & Empress of the Blogosphere, we are now the Baron & Baroness of....a parcel of land yet to be named.

Do you detect a contest of some sort coming up?

Immigration Is Not Good For Mexico Either.

Most arguments against unlimited immigration are US-Centric. That is, the large numbers of illegal immigrants drains our health and welfare systems.

That is true. What is also true but not spoken of often is how the illegal immigration is a problem for Mexico.

Often times free and easy wealth is a way to create bad habits in people. This has happened to Mexico. Unlimited immigration to the US allows Mexico not to improve and grow its economy. I wonder if any studies of illegal immigrant attitudes to leaving their homeland have been conducted?

As you know I spent some years in the UAE and hung with the Overseas Filipino Worker crowd (OFW). I watched close up some of the hardships they had to put up with. Namely, being separated from their loved ones, of course lonely men and women oceans away from their husbands and wives were not always faithful. I heard many stories of women talking about seeing their children once per year (if that), of one person supporting whole extended families and those OFWs having to put themselves into abusive situations. I do not believe the Illegal Mexican worker has it as bad.

They are closer to the homeland and this also means they have a better chance of bringing their families with them. However, would it not be better for Mexico to fix its poor economy?

Hahahaha! Now I Get It!

Check out today's (8/19/2005, if out of date go to the official website) Day by Day cartoon.

At first, I did not not get the joke. I thought it was funny because it is obvious the Air scAmerica scandal is indeed completely cloaked to the MSM, how could they ignore such a story?

However, I did not pick up on the fact the actual invisibility device being demonstrated was the comment on Air scAmerica.

Thursday, August 18, 2005

#61's Strawmen are Pretty Good Too!

I was listening to Michael Savage tonight. Even though I have stated I do not like him that much and can not be too disagreeable with Bernard Goldberg's assessment of him I do listen when it is convenient (unlike other talk shows I seek out and will go out of my way for).

Anyway he was in his usual mood. He was talking about Bernard Goldberg tonight. I guess one can not blame him as Bernard tagged him the 61st most dangerous person in America. Savage said something along the lines of that Bernard is mad at him because he makes more money than Bernard. That is a strawman that rivals those built by Joe Wilson and Co. Hey Michael if it was a money thing then why isn't Bill Gates on the list?

He then went on to build another fine strawman by attacking those right-wing talk show hosts who are saying Cindy Sheehan should be arrested or has no right to protest. One caller asked which show hosts were calling for this and Michael did not name any. He should consider merging with Wilson & Co.

Michael Duke & David Moore.

Wow!

Are these two characters getting married?

The camp down in Crawford is so far off of the map they have wrapped around and married the worst of the right and the left.

Byron York on the MoveOn Crowd.

Sheehan's words, in turn, echoed statements made by the leaders of MoveOn opposing the war in Afghanistan. What that suggests is that the vigils across the country last night were only partly about the war in Iraq. Yes, that is the focus of the protesters' passions today. And yes, they support Cindy Sheehan. But the antiwar movement is also about opposition to the very foundation of the war on terror - the war in Afghanistan and the U.S. response to the 9/11 attacks. Last night, the signs and the slogans were about Cindy Sheehan. But the protest was about much more than that.
Source: National Revew Online Byron York - The Real Meaning of the Cindy Sheehan Vigils: Yes, the protesters oppose the war in Iraq. But they opposed war in Afghanistan, too.


Read the whole article.

The 101st Keyboard Division.

Last night reading the Jawa Report I came across this
Left and Right Bloggers Military Service Survey


An oft heard accusation is that of chickenhawk being levelled [sic] at supporters of the Iraq War who have no prior military service. Bloggers with no prior military service are called members of the 101st Fighting Keyboardists on almost a daily basis by Markos Mulitsas' Daily Kos, himself a veteran of the U.S. Army. The phrase is used to shorten discussion about the war by making a personal attack and delegitimizing the person's credibility. It is easy for you to be for the war when you are not fighting it, is the crux of the chickenhawk argument.
Source: The Jawa Report - Left and Right Bloggers Military Service Survey


Hmmm. Isn't the Left all talk about how we need to talk to our enemy instead of fighting them? Isn't the Left upset we are not fighting the ideological war?

In any event a few basic points. FDR, what an illustrious military career he had, so too Abraham Lincoln. In fact, all the leaders FDR & Lincoln were up against had significant military experience a lot of good it did Tojo, Hitler, and Davis.

Do you oppose murder or fires? If so, then you had better join the police department or the fire department otherwise you are a "chickenhawk".

We all have contributions to make, and FWIW I have no military experience.

OCindy Bin Sheehan.

The Drudge Report drudges up another gem from Cindy Sheehan's past. Be warned the above link contains vulgar language.

Wow, if you read that it sounds like it comes straight from the mouth of Ayman Al-Zawahiri or Osama Bin Laden, et al.

Wednesday, August 17, 2005

Another Discharge?

One of the calls I hear in relation to Able Danger is someone had better lose their jobs over this. Oh great, can you think of any other way to get people into spin and CYA mode? We need people in the DoD, State and in other such departments to be honest not only with others, about others but they need to be honest about themselves to others and to themselves!

Perhaps those people should be given horizontal transfers to the telephone sanitization department of where they work and never again handle duties more vital than telephone sanitation (Hey, we can even set 'em up with perpetual bubble baths and ginnentonics) but fire them, no. The only exceptions should be for those who committed crimes, after all the Federal Government is not UW-Madison.

Amassing Data.

Well, we have a name now to go along with all the talk on Able Danger, and he is certainly not being shy about the story.

Anyway, since I have been on a discussion of technology fit of late let us continue.

What Able Danger did was to amass huge amounts of publicly available data (whether that data was free or for purchase) and develop a computer system to analyze that data to pull out interesting nuggets of data from the tons of dirt and useless rocks of irrelevant data.

We are talking about terrabytes worth of data. What's a terrabyte? Same but different from megabyte and gigabyte. Mega is 1x106, giga is 1x109, and terra is 1x1012 (fyi, peta is 1x1015 and exa is 1x1018). So, we are talking about a huge quantity of data.

In the not too distant future I am quite sure we will be seeing terrabytes on our micros but right now that is an astonishingly huge amount of data.

So, what did the Able Danger team do? According to Lt. Col. Tony Shaffer (I heard his interview on Michael Savage's radio show) they studied the gang o goobers who bombed the World Trade Center in 1993 (remember that?) and sent their programs coming through their terrabytes of data looking for patterns similar to the 1993 bombing gang. That is the same behaviors that the original Trade Center bombers had were replicated by the successful WTC bombers.

Not surprising considering there were reports of airline pre-screening software systems that fingered a subset of the 9/11-19 for more thorough scrutiny and that program was not looking at nowhere near the data Able Danger's data miner did.

Of course it was asked if any such program is being thought of being run again. I would be upset if it were not already in full gear for sometime.

Warden Notices and He Knew.

I can not believe I have not blogged this. But search as I may I can not find the story.

This is a story I do tell on a frequent basis for two reasons. It shows that a report that says OBL is going to bomb something somewhere is not good enough. It also shows that people in the government were aware of him and his perfidy well before he became a household name.

To start off here is today's inspiration:
What's striking is the use of the word "officially", which suggests President Clinton may have 'known' Osama Bin Laden was a danger with intellectual certainty without being able to assert it officially. That in turn suggests that Osama Bin Laden was implicitly or even subconsciously provided with the protection of due process by a President who felt he would have to defend any action he took against OBL. Those who followed the Army War College monograph will have seen the distaste of legal scholars for applying the concept of war to counterterrorism because it implies action on a "switch that is either on or off." The legal ideal is "violence on a dimmer switch." (page 7) Clinton it would seem, at least subconsciously preferred the dimmer switch.
Source: The Belmont Club - Law vs. War


President Clinton is supposed to have said: "I desperately wish that I had been president when the FBI and CIA finally confirmed, officially, that bin Laden was responsible for the attack on the U.S.S. Cole," HT The Belmont Club: The Moderate Voice - Bill Clinton Says He Wish He Had Confirmation To Have Attacked Bin Laden

Okay so we are nice and setup for my story.

In the summer of 1998 I was packing up to leave the UAE for good (I would return but my residency there was coming to an end). One day in June I came into the office to do something and found the ole warden notice from our embassy in Abu Dhabi. It warned us that Osama Bin Laden (and I do recall the notice named Osama bin Laden explicitly) was up to something. Then it went on to enumerate (yet again) the standard list of security precautions.

Okay, I get packed up and finally return to the USofA which was in early July. In early August I was up north watching some tv with my brother. The regularly scheduled programming we were watching broke in with a news alert. They announced the bombings in East Africa. The first words out of my mouth were: Osama Bin Laden! Momentarily later they announced the chief suspect Osama Bin Laden!

So, our intelligence agencies had an idea of what OBL was about. Our State Department had an idea of what OBL was about. Now of course, we do not know exactly how much they knew. Anyone can stand up and say I will attack the USA and what does it mean? Is it misinformation? Is he going to hit shipping, an embassy? Where? When? How? With whom? etc etc etc. So, I am not upset they were not able to prevent that attack (I am upset with those who attacked).

But what more did President Clinton want? I do not take him at his word for the above statement after all he supposedly knew enough to shoot some cruise missiles at empty tents in Afghanistan and a factory in The Sudan. Why did he suppose it was any other organization that put together the Cole bombing?

Tuesday, August 16, 2005

Another Day for Able Danger.

Well, we have a person now who was a part of Able Danger.

If he's telling the truth, then the entire history of the last five years needs to be rewritten. His name is Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer, and he's one of the two military intelligence officers alleging that the Defense Department had located Mohammed Atta and other hijackers in America in 2000.

He's now gone public on cable television and in this interview with the New York Times.

What's perfectly credible about what Shaffer says is that his unit, Able Danger, developed information about an Al Qaeda cell in Brooklyn and that Pentagon lawyers thrice blocked meetings between his unit and the FBI because they feared being accused of spying illicitly inside the United States. (He was not an intelligence analyst, but rather Able Danger's liaison with the Defense Intelligence Agency.)

But Shaffer does not have proof that Atta and three others were among those named. To be fair, he should NOT have proof because any such documentation would be classified material that should not be in his possession.

So now we have some manifest contradictions:
Source: The Corner - John Podhoretz - OKAY, HERE IT IS


John considers a couple of different possibilities. One is if the 9/11 commission is being deceitful this is will really cause a problem for Condeleeza Rice "since the 9/11 commission staff director, Philip Zelicow, is one of Condi Rice's most trusted aides." ibid

Skepticism and caution with this story are still wise.

One Man Gathers What Another Man Spills.

Reading Little Green Footballs leads to this:
One man's irony will be another's nifty conspiracy theory - a jack in oil prices rescues Baghdad.
Source: Austin Bay - Three Bucks A Gallon May Save Iraq


Well, the other day a reader left the following comment

One other nice factoid I found somewhere (I can research it if desired):

Iraq's GDP and per-capita income are growing faster than any other state in the region.

That is not all roses because the starting point was in the dumps. I remember the stat as per-capita income being in the $3,700 range for 2004 - which was up some 40%. Projected growth was in the 35% range for 2005. If the projections are accurate than we are looking at a per-capita income of some $5,000. Statistically, once that number exceeds $6,000 there is no turning back on a democratic movement - and the region (or courntry) will inch out of 'gap' status.
Source: Blogger Beer Comment by BoghRD


So, this is interesting thing is Austin Bay puts it in the reverse order. Usually (certain) people suspect we raided Iraq for the oil, but what if oil turns out to save Iraq? Instead of us obtaining oil on the cheap (is it cheap?) the global economy pumps much needed wealth into Iraq?

When I lived in the Middle East you could tell the oil markets were very important to the nations of the Middle East. When oil revenue was low due to depressed demand they were considering imposing an income-tax on ex-patriates. I am quite sure all such talk of that is gone, the oil nations are awash in revenues (just look at Dubai building one world wonder after another) and this is bound to help Iraq. The terrorists had better come up with a way to hit the world economy not just the US economy.

Quiet Success.

The AP (I will refer to them straight up here instead of with my derisive moniker for them) reports:
The first batch attended a camp called Hudeibah starting in mid-1998 and ending in February 2000, the report said. Abu Bakar Bashir, the alleged spiritual head of the Jemaah Islamiyah who has been jailed for his role in the Bali bombings, attended the graduation ceremony, the report said.

Riduan Isamuddin, also known as Hambali, and fellow militant Ali Ghufron, known as Mukhlas, were among the Indonesian instructors, the report said. Both are in custody and face charges for deadly terror attacks.

The next batch of Indonesian recruits arrived in 2000, but their training was disrupted by a major military offensive on the MILF's main camp, Abubakar, forcing them to transfer to the Muaskar Jabal Quba camp on Mt. Kararao.

A third group arrived in August 2002, completing its training in February 2003, the report said.

A fourth group had not arrived because of military assaults, the report said, citing information from arrested Indonesian militants.

Members of the extremist Abu Sayyaf group and the MILF, as well as recruits from Malaysia and Singapore, also underwent training, but it was disrupted by assaults, it said.

An arrested Jemaah Islamiyah trainer, known as Rohmat, said three Indonesian militants trained about 60 Abu Sayyaf rebels on southern Jolo island in March 2003 "but they were constantly on the run to avoid government forces," the report said.
Source: Yahoo News (AP) - Forces Disrupt Group's Terror Training


Hmmm. Sounds like a fair amount of training has gone on, but at least it seems to be over. The MILF and their likes (MNLF & Abu Sayyaf etc) are not on easy street. This is good, could be better.

Today's G-File.

Today's G-File at National Review Online is about criticism and the First Amendment. How many times (especially of late) do we hear criticisms answered by: "I have a first amendment right to say this" or something similar? Yeah, so? How does criticism squelch your right to speech? In fact, if one thinks about it, the implicit argument is that one does not have the right to criticize. Commonly referred to as "freedom of speech for me, none for thee".

In practice though it is an attempt to change the subject and to put the critic on defense. In fact, don't most writers when criticizing a person often include a standard disclaimer about The First Amendment?

Jonah has fun with the column and starts off saying some things that are fist amendment protected:
The Constitution allows me to make a very long list of statements. I can say George W. Bush is in the pocket of Zionists and oil interests, as a certain woman hanging out in Crawford, Texas does. I can also say that George W. Bush is little bunny fru-fru hopping through the forest. I can say that the difference between him and a duck is ice cream because, after all, a vest has no sleeves. Or I can say that the Stifler dance scene in American Wedding made complete sense. In other words, I can say any crazy old thing I want. I can say America is a racist, sexist, homophobic country of hate with mean icing and a bigoted cherry on top. Or I can say that I have armadillos in my trousers.

In fact, I can actually put armadillos in my trousers (though I suspect there's barely room for one) and then say all of the above. Because, you see, I can make statements almost anywhere I like about almost anything I like. I can say it in Texas, I can say it in front of the White House. I can say it dressed like a mouse, I can say it like a souse.

Okay I hate rhymes. So enough of that.

Of course, I can't say any of this inside the White House unless I've been invited inside. Otherwise, I'd be arrested for trespassing, not for presidential sassing.
Source: The Goldberg File - Storm Troopers vs. Cindy Sheehan The Left's authentic nonsense.


The point of the whole thing is that the first amendment does not imply what someone says is to be free from criticism.

Answer Me This.

Why is the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) forcibly removing settlers from Gaza?

Why not just tell the settlers they will not have the protection of the IDF. That they will have to take their chances and if Hamas attacks them they will have to depend on the graces of the PA?

What is going on seems like bigotry. The Arabs do not want any Jews among them.

Who is Fighting?

Michael Yon's newest piece is out.

He talks about the different Iraqi components of the fight against the terrorists in Mosul.

He is particularly upset about the abuse of two words. Suicide and martyr.

Michael on the use of the word suicide:
Suicide is a term that should evoke empathy, if not sympathy, for a lonely and despairing act. A distressed soul, harboring a crushing, agonizing lebensmude, weary of the strain of a terrestrial existence, perhaps seeking mere relief, or just an end to psychic pain, may be contemplating suicide. If this person straps a bomb to his or her chest and walks out into the solitude of the desert and detonates, they would then be properly called a "suicide bomber." But when the media reports every day on "suicide bombers," they are talking about different people.
Source: Michael Yon's Online Magazine - The Battle for Mosul: Reality Check


Michael is no happier with martyr:
Calling homicide bombers martyrs is a language offense; words are every bit as powerful as bombs, often more so. Calling murderers "martyrs" is like calling a man "customer" because he stood in line before gunning down a store clerk. There's no need to whisper. I hear the bombs every single day. Not some days, but every day. We're talking about criminals who actually volunteer and plan to deliberately murder and maim innocent people. What reservoir of feelings or sensibilities do we fear to assault by simply calling it so? When murderers describe themselves as "martyrs" it should sound to sensible ears like a rapist saying, "she was asking for it." In other words, like the empty rationalizations of a depraved criminal.
Source: Michael Yon's Online Magazine - The Battle for Mosul: Reality Check


Words are important. Remember the screaming that went on when FOX News decided not to call the bombers of Sbarro's Pizzarias "suicide bombers" but "suicide murderers"? However, those that bomb Sbarro's Pizzarias are nothing but murderers.

Anyway, Michael says the Iraqis are more and more able to do the work themselves. He reminds us we no longer hear stories of Iraqi police stations being cleared out by the terrorists.

The most helpful thing is he talks about the two components of the terrorist campaign as well. Former regime elements and the Jihadis. The former regime elements (FREs) are former baathists who no longer have a lock on power and therefore wealth. They are not happy. He notes the FREs and the Jihadis would normally be fighting each other (and we frequently hear of incidents where they do just that) but are loosely bound by opposition to Iraqi liberty.

Read his magazine. Very riveting.

Monday, August 15, 2005

Responding to Critics.

Nope, I am not responding to a critic or criticism.

I am talking about the common attitdue some people get when a criticism is answered and I am seeing a lot lately.

Imagine a situation where Joe Sixpack says "Your aardvark wears ballet slippers." You respond, "My aardvark does not wear ballet slippers!" Joe Sixpack then retorts: "Ahhh, it must tbe true because you are responding to the charge."

Sorry folks. Repsonse to a criticism or a charge in and of itself says nothing about the validity of the charge. Do not do that lest ye be considered silly.

A Hearty Welcome to...

All Things Beautiful by Alexandra von Maltzan.

Her maternal grandfather was executed by General Tito's henchmen as part of his brutal purge of Yugoslavia's political and intellectual elite post WWII. General Tito sought to squash all allies of Alexandra's great uncle Milan Stojadinovic, Prime Minister of the former Kingdom of Yugoslavia 1935-39, and a staunch opponent to Hitler's and Stalin's dictatorships. After the war he immigrated to Argentina, where he founded and built the venerable El Economista, still in the family's hands today as Argentina's equivalent to The Wall Street Journal.
Source: All Things Beautiful - About Alexandra von Maltzan


Someone who has direct experience with illiberalism.

You Can Have Him!

Sunday, August 14, 2005

Paper Lanterns.

Wretchard at the Belmont Club gives us a fairly deep look into his life.

In February 1945, a woman now dying of lung cancer grabbed two of her children and jumped out the window to escape Imperial Japanese Marines crashing through the door intent on bayoneting everyone in the burning house. Finding no one, they went on to the next house to continue their massacre on a street not far from the Rizal Memorial ballpark, where Lou Gehrig and Babe Ruth both played in sunnier days before the forgotten Battle of Manila. The 100,000 civilians who died in the largest urban battle of the Pacific War -- more than at Hiroshima -- are not remembered in beautiful candles floating down darkened rivers or in flights of doves soaring into the blue sky; there is no anti-American significance to their deaths. But they still live in the fading memory of that woman, who hid for two days in the smoldering ruins of the neighborhood until the first American patrols came into view.
Source: The Belmont Club - Untitled


I have read accounts of what went on in the Philippines. I visited Intramuros the old Spanish fort that was used as a torture chambers. I have read about the reprisals the Filipinos had to bear for assisting US Forces:
While the liberation of the internees from Los Baños went off without a hitch, there is a dark epilogue to the story. After the 11th Airborne Division paratroopers left the area, the Japanese moved back in. Ironically, the first Americans to re-enter the vicinity of Los Baños were the same paratroopers who had liberated the camp only days before. What they found in the barrios surrounding the camp this time was both nauseating and pitiful. Whole families had been tied to the stilts supporting their houses, then the dwellings had been set ablaze, collapsing around their helpless former inhabitants. Burgess estimated that more than 1,500 Filipinos had been cruelly killed, evidently in retaliation for the rescue of the internees.
Source About - Liberating Los Baños


It was war.

The Bombmaker, The Financier, and The Emplacer.

As you are probably aware I have blogged quite a bit on a discussion between several different blogs on technology and its role in warfare.

Wretchard took the side that this was a battle the terrorists can not win and almost seems fearful of the technologies that will be developed to combat terrorism. After all, the djinni is not going to go back into the bottle after the GWOT is over.

Bill Roggio takes the stand that technology while important is less significant than the human factors. He points out that impregnable castles were defeated by not attacking the castles but by attacking the surrounding area forcing the opposition to come out of their castles to do battle in the open.

The terrorists in Iraq are not dumb. Much reading done today shows they have many IED teams floating about who contract their services. The teams are made up of about six or so people.

The Command Post finds some good analysis of what the general organization of the IED teams for example
Like the emplacer, the triggerman's primary motivation is money. Sometimes these lower-level operatives will hire themselves out as a package, changing affiliations based on money. If an alternative means of earning money is provided for the emplacer and the triggerman, they can take them out of operation, Formica said.
Source: Global Guerrillas - THE IED MARKETPLACE IN IRAQ


The others in these ghoulish gangs are the financier, the bombmaker, and possibly suicide bombers. The financiers, the bombmaker, and the suicidi The financiers are usually ex-Baathist officials with cash and smarts, they know how to game the system all around. The financiers are rarely caught, and are ideologically committed.

The bombmakers are described as commodities. Easily replaced and killing or capturing them does not stop the IED gang for too long. They can find another one quickly. The suicidi, well duh!

However, the weakness is the emplacer (the fellow who plants the bomb) and the triggerman. As is stated above they are simply in the game for the money (again we are talking generalizations). As is the case with money driven people, if they can get better pay-risk deal it sounds like the marketplace for emplacers/triggermen will dry up or the suicidis will have to be forced into living.

So, what factor is key? Economic aid and development. This development must be built up properly. We in the West value productivity more than anything else because we know the more we produce more we earn. In places like Iraq it is hard for people to adapt (at this point in time) to such rapid changes.

In fact, I recall hearing an officer in charge of some project somewhere brought in a ditchwitch to dig a ditch. His superior saw this and got on his case about it. Why? Don't do it with a machine, hire a crew of Iraqi men to do it. Give them a job and pay them!

Believe me, I saw this plenty in the UAE. Crews of men digging ditches instead of a machine and why not, the cost of the labor was cheaper than buying and maintaining the machine.

Another case of how idle hands are the devil's workshop.

Just a last thought, does any of this remind you of the "butcher, the baker, and the candlestick maker"?

Announcement.

Wisconsin Web Weavers is pleased to announce its latest site. www.wi-ski.com.

Yes, I have announced it before and it did disappear. However, it is back and looks much improved. Check it out!

Caption The Photo Contest!


caption1, originally uploaded by maurelius.

Caption this photo!

Leave your caption in the comments and on Sunday I will choose a winner. Winner gets a mention and extra big dose of linky-love from Blogger Beer!

Cheers!



The winner: James Wigderson of Wigderson's Pub & Library!
Maaan, last time she left me her purse, now this time I'm stuck here holding the flowers. I'm a wuss.


Here is your linky-love (FWIW)!

Able Danger? Another Dud?

Pardon the interruption of the light weekend blogging.

There is a sense starting to settle in with the right wing bigs that Able Danger is not the big deal it was initially made out to be. Initially, it did make for a big splash and there is good reason for it. Everyone wants to believe it was a simple glitch in our counter-terrorist and defnese organizations that allowed 9/11 to happen.

After all, if it is a simple glitch the fix should be simple, right?

Until more evidence is brought forth by Rep. Curt Weldon we should be skeptical of the claims he makes. As I stated earlier even if Mohd Atta had been identified previous to 9/11 as a bad guy what would that have led to? The one thing it does sound like is bad guys were identified by Able Danger. So, Mohd Atta is one more face on their charts and file in their drawers.

Yes, in the future those identified by similar operations should have some investigative agency on them (complete with roving wiretaps and no-knocks).

Yes, those of you who regularly read my work here you may have noticed a less than full committment to the story and a wavering approach to it. One blog supporting the claims the next one backing off. View this as further backoff.

Rep. Weldon, the time is coming for some solid proof of the charges you make. After all none of us on the right were all that happy about HowDea's talk of his theory, right?

Updates:

Amazing Johnathans.

Not the goofy magician

but Johnathan's Italian Bistro in Appleton (actually I believe it is in Grand Chute which is an important distinction for at least those who smoke).

Last night Claudia and I stopped at Johnathan's Italian Bistro at 1910 N. Casaloma Dr. in Appleton. This is near Fox Cities Stadium and in the same strip mall as The Cooks Corner, in fact you can get to one from the other.

FYI Johnathans is owned by the same group that owns Fratellos the joint that I panned a couple of weeks ago in this same blog!

Scenery and Ambiance


The ambiance inside Johnathan's nice, IMO, not quite as good as Fratellos. Very high ceilings and the main dining area is in the barroom and the lighting is subdued. They have side dining rooms with full windows so the light is brighter.

The scenery one sees outside the windows is very much ho-hum (at best). I was seated and my view consisted of a nearby mill with hoppers and bins and trucks etc. Hardly the sort of thing one wants to look at while eating in a nice restaurant, at least it wasn't a stockyard. The views Claudia had were better but not by significant amounts.

Fratellos is in an old mill on the river, Johnathan's is in a new strip mall in what used to be (admittedly it has been years) flat farmland. They should switch locations, and not just because of the scenery but because I think Fratellos would draw more people before and after a Timberrattlers game.

The Bar


Looks nice and appears well stocked. The ginnentonic I had before dinner was acceptable (the two I had the night before at an area supper club had flat tonic water) and crisp. Since we were seated immediately I have little to report but my superficial impression is the bar is good.

Signs


Of good things came with the bread service. Immediately after being seated they brought out a loaf of bread with a little dish of olive oil and balsamic vinegar. The bread was average and they need to put the oil & vinegar on a plate. The vinegar and oil separates and unless you make an effort you only get the oil on your bread. Don't get me wrong the olive oil was good but I really like balsamic vinegar and most people are familiar with olive oil but not balsamic vinegar.

A huge bowl of salad was brought out and Claudia and I received individual salad bowls. The salad was good and was pre-dressed with some sort of oil and vinegar based dressing. Just enough to add good flavor to the salad but not so much to be wasteful or sloppy. The salad contained a variety of greens, red onion, cucumber, croutons, and cherry tomatoes. Basic but well done.

The Wait


Just right, Claudia and I had time to chat but not hours. Our dining mates were treated to one end of a discussion in Bisayan (Claudia phoned her sister in the Philippines)! In any event the pre-meal appetizer were brought out in snappy fashion so we did not have any problems with people getting too hungry.

The Menu and Food


The menu is not as large as Victorias but it contains all the basics. The basics if executed well are all a restaurant truly needs.

I ordered the sausage and peppers, Claudia the vegetable rissoto (made with a chicken stock, so not for vegetarians). I also had a glass of heart medicine aka red wine! I can not recall the exact and full name of the wine but it was Italian, and I recall primitivio being in the name.

The sausage and peppers was a standard but well executed dish! Three links of Italian sausage, a marinara sauce with plum tomatoes, peppers (both red and green), and a tube pasta. They placed a honking huge fresh basil leave on top of the dish. YUMMY!

The wine was good. I do not have highly developed wine tasting abilities yet. I can differentiate between various classes of wine, I know some rough sorts of flavor characteristics (body, astringency), I can tell a bottled wine from a boxed wine but beyond that forget it. Trust me the wine was good and complemented my sausage and peppers wonderfully!

The risotto (which as usual Claudia allowed me to generously sample) did not mix well with my dinner and wine. Its flavor was much more delicate, and I liked it but it needs a separate evaluation. The bites I had contained a large piece of cauliflower and asparagus. This dish too came with a large fresh basil leave. This needed a white wine and not a red wine to go with. The wine I was drinking and the dish I had pretty much negated any chance I had to do any serious tasting of this dish.

In Short (order)



  • The view I give a 1/5 (0 being overlooking a stockyard).

  • The ambiance I give a 4/5 (0 being a joint with the stud walls still not covered over).

  • The menu I give a 4/5 (0 being "you get what I give you").

  • The food itself I give a 4.5/5 (0 being Irish sausages).

  • The service I give a 4/5 (0 being you have to wash your own dishes afterwards).

  •  

  • Overall I give 4.0/5 (0 being they would have to pay me to eat there again).



Despite the fierce competition in the Italian style dining in Appleton I will give Jonathan's Italian Bistro a slot in our restaurant rotation. I suggest you do too!

Don't forget this weekend's contest!

Friday, August 12, 2005

Taking Applications.

For Immediate Release.

Your attention please. Leftists United for Peace in the United States (LUPUS) is accepting applications for the position of 2006 Crawford Texas Media Magnet.

Duties.
You will be required to sit out in front of President Bush's Crawford Texas ranch during the month of August while he is there on his summer vacation. You will be expected to perform interviews with bored and fawning media crews from the world over.

Qualifications.
You must be photogenic and well groomed. You need to be able to read copy our writers give to you, and you need to have a story that can be spun to attack President Bush.

Experience.
No experience needed.

Compensation.
You will be treated and feted by people from Hollywood and the Media.

Please send your application to:
2006 Media Magent Job Application
LUPUS
Louis VIII Lane
Suite 3332
New York, New York

Measure - Countermeasure.

Quite a discussion is been going on between the The Belmont Club, the commentators, and The Fourth Estate about the nature of technology in conflicts.

Wretchard focuses on the technological development occurring right now to combat the terrorists in Iraq and their preferred weapons the VBIED (vehicle born improvised explosive device, i.e. a car bomb) and the IEDs.

Over the last two blogs the general conclusion arrived at by Wretchard and his readers is this is a war the terrorists will not win in the long run, and the problem for the Coalition is stretch it out long enough for our technological prowess to counteract the terrorists.

Bill Roggio argues more than simple weaponry is required. He says
They [sic] key here is that military technology depends not only on weapons and armor, but also training and logistics [emphasis added]. The castles of the day were impregnable because no one could field an army large enough to sustain the losses inflicted trying to take it, did not have weapons powerful enough to knock down its walls, and did not know tactics that could otherwise destroy it. And this situation persisted for a long time.
Source: The Fourth Rail - Tactics, Strategy, Grand Strategy: A Warning


That is you can have grand weapons and countermeasures but if you do not use them properly they are little more than technological wonders. In the above paragraph he leads into how castles were rendered obsolete not by powerful weapons but standard weapons being used in novel ways.
By the time of Crecy it was 1346, almost three hundred years after Hastings and Stamford Bridge. The castle, in spite of the beginnings of artillery, was still all but impregnable. The Black Prince developed a tactic that was designed to defeat the castle. It was called the chevauchee, the "war-ride," a heavy cavalry raid designed to despoil the countryside so greatly that the enemy could not afford to await battle in their castles. They would have to come forth and fight. And so they did, and were destroyed by the English longbow.
Source: The Fourth Rail - Tactics, Strategy, Grand Strategy: A Warning


That is it did not take grand new weaponry to defeat a castle it took the creative application of existing tactics. Isn't this a story we have (at least those that know at least some history) have seen often? Or at least variations on that theme.

I touched on this yesterday with my comment on The Belmont Club.
The most important thing is no matter the technology having soldiers who are aware and observant. After all if the operator does not pick up on what his device is telling him the device does not work. E.g. the radar picking up the incoming Japanese planes on a December morning in 1941.
Source: The Belmont Club - Comment by Marcus Aurelius (yours truly)


In the movie Patton near the end of the movie Patton is lamenting the development of wonder weapons. Don't worry General Patton, that day is not here yet.

Hello? Hello Hello – Barry?

You may be aware of the pending impeachment of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo (GMA)in the Philippines . The spark was a tape of her with speaking with the national commissioner of elections. GMA's opponents assume it was a nefarious plot to deny Fernando Poe Jr. the election, GMA and her supporters say it was just a simple query.

In fact IIRC, GMA said she did talk with the COMELEC chair. However, this story is breaking right now. Apparently forensic tape experts one from the States and one from the Philippines have declared the tape bogus. However, this does not mean the discussion alleged by the tapes to have taken place indeed took place. That is what the forensic team is claiming the tape consists of multiple intercepted conversations spliced together.

(3RD UPDATE) PRESIDENT Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo will ask Congress to throw out an impeachment case against her after her political spokesman presented findings by US and Philippine experts that the alleged wiretapped tapes, which the opposition had used as evidence, had been altered.

At the same time Secretary Michael Defensor challenged the President's opponents to disprove the findings.

"The tapes, as we have clearly shown, have been spliced and I dare the opposition to prove this otherwise," Defensor said in a news conference at the Sulo Hotel on Friday.

Defensor, Arroyo's concurrent head of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, said the President was to present to the justice committee of the House of Representatives a technical study of the tapes to prove that they had been "spliced."
Source: INQ7.net - Arroyo wants impeach case junked over 'spliced' tapes


The opposition claims their own tape expert has confirmed the legitimacy of the tapes.

The expert from the States who is supposedly claiming the tapes to be bogus is a fellow by the name of Barry Dickey who supposedly worked to confirm some of the Bin Laden tapes.

I think this is all a crock spurred by three sets of losers. The Marcos family, Joe "Erap" Estrada, and the supporters of Fernando Poe Jr.

Updates:

  • 8/12/2005, 12:06pm: Opening sentence reworded so it was more sensible.

Thursday, August 11, 2005

One Woman in Texas.

There was much being talked about today regarding Cindy Sheehan.

First there is the obvious obligatory preface to commenting on it. People may not fathom exactly understand it, but we all have a good feeling of why she is upset. Also of course, she is free to take any stand she wants.

That said.

Her family in so many words asked her to stop the grandstanding. I saw it brought up by some blogger questioning the relevance of the family request. The relevance is the family knew Casey as well and realize he was a free actor and chose his path to join the army. Their voices count as well and they have the same rights as anyone else.

Another thing I saw brought up was how the President said he was not going to score political points out of visits with the grieving families. I don't see him working that angle at all. There was the report of the visit with the Sheehan's but those reports were not coming from the Whitehouse they were coming from local press reports from the Sheehans themselves. In fact it was only today the President first mentioned the situation. Who is working to score political points?

The last thing I want to mention in all of this remember last summer at this time? It was Max Cleland at the President's ranch pulling the same stunt. The MSM is bored in a town without the sophisticated distractions they are accustomed to and Cindy is it.

Go Get Him!

Michelle Malkin reports on the indictment of Jack Abramhoff. Jack is a right wing lobbyist. Michelle expresses no sympathy for his plight and will not weep if he goes up the river.

Michelle says "Other Beltway conservatives better untie their tongues, get over their swamp fever, and call a sleazebag a sleazebag. This stinks. Big time."

While I will wait until I pronounce judgement it seems like they have the guy on some very shady dealings. I am certainly not going to stick up for Mr. Abramhoff.

The Particulars from the Generals.

One reason I like to read The Belmont Club is because Wretchard has a good writing style. He has a way with words.

No matter how good a person is with words this is not enough to become a good blogger. One needs to offer something else. Whether that something is reporting, analysis or opinion it matters little but a good writer writing poetry does not draw me (most of the time).

In Wretchard's commentary section a troll has reemerged. This troll constantly accuses Wretchard and his supporters of being stuck in WWII. He claims we do not recognize the differences between the situation in Iraq and WWII, he says Iraq is exactly like Algeria and Vietnam and we refuse to recognize that.

Wretchard has commented plenty on various similarities of Iraq and Algeria. IIRC he noted that Muslim on Muslim violence was a major thing in Algeria and it did not prevent the French from losing control the situation there. No doubt that is part of the terrorists plans, to show the average Iraqi the coalition and the new Iraqi government can not provide security.

Wretchard spends most of his time commenting on things which are general to fighting period. It matters not a bit if the Iraq situation is more like Vietnam than WWII, the terrorists in Iraq still need to move men and materials. The Germans had to solve those problems, so too did the Vietcong, and so too do the Iraqi terrorists.

The same thing with technological means of waging war. Each side in all conflicts adapts more effective weapons and the other side responds by developing appropriate countermeasures.

It is pretty obvious to everyone concerned the Iraqi terrorists are not going to challenge The Coalition openly. Sure it happens from time to time we hear about a base getting attacked by massed numbers of terrorists but they get - killed quickly. This is why it is important for our forces to carry the attack to them, to force the terrorists into situations where they must fight openly.

This is the reason many career military people are historians. They study history to separate and apply the particulars and the generalities of an historical event.

Mohd Atta.

The Able Danger story is well out. I don't suspect it will get a lot of MSM airtime, maybe more than the Air scAmerica scandal and how Cindi Sheehan's family is asking her to stop her protest.

This story is interesting. Essentially a unit of the DoD discovered Atta and his 9/11 Cohorts were in the states and up to no good. They were instructed not to share the information they gathered with the FBI and reasons have been given, namely they were in the country legally and we go back to the wall.

I fully expect when the MSM finally (if ever) reports the story fully, the spin will be President Bush should have known. Now, some commentators reacting to this warn conservative commentators not to run President Clinton into the ground with this information. The same things that would have led President Bush to backburner such a report are equally applicable for President Clinton.

However, this sort of information should not require Presidential attention. Why wasn't the FBI informed? Reports have it lawyers and "the wall" prevented the information from getting to the FBI.

So, the terrorists plan and we pretend we can not do anything about it.

FIRED!

Michelle Malkin published a selection of fan e-mail received. I link to it but issue a warning, very strong and pornographic language is used.

One of the notes published came from a person who sent the note from their work workstation. They did not use a yahoo e-mail but sent it directly from the domain of their employer. The employer was not happy and terminated the employee.

WARNING: This link leads to content of an X-Rated nature.

Hey, Chris are you out there?

Something to Ignore.

HT: Rush Limbaugh.

The family of Cindy Sheehan are asking her to stop with her stunt.

The Sheehan Family lost our beloved Casey in the Iraq War and we have been silently, respectfully grieving. We do not agree with the political motivations and publicity tactics of Cindy Sheehan. She now appears to be promoting her own personal agenda and notoriety at the the expense of her son's good name and reputation. The rest of the Sheehan Family supports the troops, our country, and our President, silently, with prayer and respect.
Source: The Drudge Report - FAMILY OF FALLEN SOLDIER PLEADS: PLEASE STOP, CINDY! Thu Aug 11 2005 12:56:21 ET


Which story do you think will get more attention from the MSM? This one or Air scAmerica?