Vinnie Is Mad

And has reason to be.

What is he mad at? He detects too many right-wing bloggers are heaping it on the Marines at Haditha. Of course the left-wing bloggers this is expected as a dog farting in the desert is sign enough we should withdraw our forces from Iraq.

However the problem Vinnie has is the investigation is not done. Those who act as if the Marines HAVE done what they are being accused of are doing so based on leaks, rumors, and innuendo. Please recall the investigation is ongoing and soon to be completed. Why don't we all wait until the investigation team announces its findings?

Remember how accurate the left were about Fitzmas. I had commentators telling me the number of indictments would number in the 10s. Lawrence O'Donnell was certain they would be in the dozens and all that happened was one weak indictment.

It goes without saying if the Marines are accused of atrocities they have to face a court martial and due process. Why don't we wait until those events happen rather than trying the Marines by blog?

Dimmah Jimmah's Salvation.

Is that he signed a bill into law that permits the homebrewing of beer. For that President Jimmy Carter I The Emperor of Blogger Beer Salutes you.

For the rest, I fart in your general direction.

E Communication and Privacy.

It never amazes me how common the story about people getting sacked or even prosecuted for perusing pr0nographic Internet sites from work. I guess if you are reading this blog you may be more internet savvy than many people but I feel it worth to talk about this.

Your network traffic is very vulnerable to prying eyes. Count on your work web browsing is being logged. Whether those logs are being perused for naughty sites or not is another question. I was on a job once helping with a network analysis and we could see the websites everyone was visiting. There were always pr0n sites on the list, my job wasn't web traffic monitoring so I didn't rat that pr0no-person out we just laughed at it.

At another client site I heard a new hire's first act was to hit a pr0no-site and their second act was to clean out their newly messed up desk and were marched out by security.

Same goes for e-mail. E-mail can be traced and if there is enough reason it can be traced back to you via g-mail, yahoo mail, hotmail, or even bogus return addresses (do you really think the only ID going on an e-mail is what you supply?). Of course if you are calling someone names most likely people will not bother but make death threats and the like and the recipient and authorities may decide it worth the bother.

Don't think hiding behind anonymizers will help either. Again if your e-mail bothers one enough they may be able to appeal to authorities and the like to be able to knock down the wall anonymizers put up.

Just remember, if your note or web use is offensive enough the Internet gives people plenty of clues to track you down.

What NonSense.

James Sensenbrenner has joined with Dennis Hastert in defending William Jefferson (D-Louisiana) from the search of William's (D-Louisiana) office.

Why? Don't tell me the Constitution has a clause protecting the offices of Congressmen from felony investigations? It certainly doesn't protect the offices of judges.

I hate to be cynical and I find myself often defending politicians (of all sorts and parties) from accusations of graft and corruption on the grounds that a congressman can not please everyone and the reason he can not please person X 100% of the time is not because Congressman Y is on the take but either because the position he takes is right or because there is honest disagreement over the issue(s).

Andy McCarthy has an article today in National Review Online:

This now includes not only an overwrought hearing convened Tuesday by House Judiciary Chairman James Sensenbrenner (R., Wi.), but ominous bombast at that hearing from Rep. Darrell Issa (R., Ca.), who thought it appropriate to remind everyone that the Constitution empowers the House of Representatives to impeach the attorney general.

This is crazy talk. But it does bring up a salient point: The House also has the power to impeach Rep. Jefferson.

Issa evidently thought it was worth broaching the I-word in connection with an attorney general who, after being stonewalled for ten months on lawful grand-jury subpoenas (which Congress has long known about), finally went to a federal judge to seek court authorization for a search—only after the Justice department designed an elaborate screening procedure in deference to speech-and-debate concerns.

For that we should talk about impeachment ... but not for Jefferson?

Well, let's look at the record on that one.

The videotaped $100,000 bribery happened in July 2005—fully ten months ago.

Of that cash, $90,000 was seized from Jefferson's freezer on August 3, 2005. (And as my Corner post last night noted, the Justice department revealed on Tuesday that there is evidence Jefferson tried to obstruct that search).

Source: National Review Online - Questions for the House (Beyond the crazy talk.) by Andrew McCarthy This adds to a cynicism and it even makes myself cynical. Why are they defending this man for whom the evidence of wrongdoing is much greater than it is for Tom DeLay? People may object they are not defending William Jefferson (D-Louisiana) but the Constitution, but that is ludicrous.

The Constitution does not protect felonious congressmen.

The DeLay case makes it all the more interesting. Tom DeLay from all appearances is being prosecuted because a prosecutor doesn't like his politics. What did he do? He stepped down so he could devote his energies in fighting Partisan Ronnie and so as not to endanger the seat. Now we have a guy who is being investigated for legitimate corruption (just like Randy "Duke" Cunningham (R-California)) and this what we get from Congressional Republicans?

Mr.s Hastert, Sensenbrenner, and Issa you are all bonkers.

From the WTF Files.

WTF is all this fuss about William Jefferson (D-Louisiana)? Come on, the FBI has their warrant, the raid team had nothing to do with the investigation, there was yet another team to vet all the material retrieved from the raid to make sure the material the raid team retrieved was relevant to the investigation and not Democratic strategy material or similar.

Cox and Forkum come up with a great cartoon on the matter and Hastert & Pelosi's reaction to the raid:
Now some make the argument that there is some Constitutional immunity from having a congressional office investigated. While the Constitution does give some immunity to lawmakers the idea that a lawmaker on the take with nearly $100,000 of cold and marked cash is protected by the Constitution is ludicrous.

So now instead of talking about William Jefferson (D-Louisiana) we are talking about the silly idea that our lawmakers are immune from the law in their offices. Hastert, you bonked!

Zing!

Tony Snow and Helen Thomas went at it recently.

QUESTION: Why would he pick such a man to be a domestic adviser?

SNOW: You meant contemptuous as opposed to contemptible I think.

QUESTION: Pure contempt.

SNOW: I'm not sure it's pure contempt. I know Karl Zinsmeister pretty well and he is somebody who expresses himself with a certain amount of piquancy. You're perhaps familiar with that, aren't you, Helen?

(LAUGHTER)

And so, as a consequence from time to time, he's going to say -- he'll have some sharp elbows.

QUESTION: His attitude toward public servants...

SNOW: I don't think it is his attitude toward public servants. It may have been toward the press. Just kidding.

(LAUGHTER)

No, look if, you look at the bulk of what Karl Zinsmeister has done at the American Enterprise and elsewhere, I think you're going to find somebody who's done some pretty meaty and interesting research on a variety of topics.
...

Source: The Drudge Report This one has me darned near rolling on the floor laughing my, well you know what, off. I think this will be a somewhat common occurrence!

Once Again.

With The DaVinci Code coming out censorship is again being talked about. Of course, there is no such debate going on here in the USA we are settled on that. No, I am certainly not going to go out and buy tickets for that movie but I will not participate in calls for it to banned or any such thing.

However, DJB at Philippine Commentary is having a discussion about the censorship and shutdown of The DaVinci Code. Most notably he takes on a former employer The Philippine Daily Inquirer (PDI) a paper I have linked to here at Blogger Beer.

Anyway the upshot is the PDI has come out in opposition to the move to ban/censor The DaVinci Code (as it should), but when it came to the Mohd Cartoons the PDI instead essentially condemned the cartoons as a sophomoric provocation.

The PDI then states:

Islam and Christianity both pay the highest tribute to martyrs. Even secular societies consider martyrdom possible in defense of country or ideology. The question is whether any kind of creed, including secularism as understood in the West, calls for provocations that make it inevitable for people to become martyrs, whether unintentionally or by design. While we do not counsel self-censorship arising out of fear, we do believe that a proper recognition of the central role faith plays in the lives of millions would go far to avoid undue provocation against people who take their religion seriously. After all, since World War II, the world has rallied to defend the Four Freedoms: of speech and expression; of every person to worship God in his own way; from want; and from fear. They all go hand in hand, and to raise one over the other diminishes them all.

Source: Philippine Commentary - The Da Vinci Code, the Mohammed Cartoons, and Being Consistent First off, the Mohd were not a sophomoric stunt as many suppose. A children's book author wanted to write a book for children on Islam, the book was to be educational and not insulting or demeaning. Well, the author had a hard time finding someone to illustrate and so the Danish Newspaper had the cartoon contest. When the cartoon were first published a very minor controversy was raised (one I noted) and then it all died down. It wasn't until Islamic provocateurs added a couple of truly vile cartoons on their own and went on tour to whip up a furor did the controversy as most people know arise. The original publication was designed to test the state on freedom of speech in Denmark, the West, and the world. The claim the cartoons were some sophomoric stunt is not supported by the events.

The reason the PDI takes the principled stand now as opposed to in the Mohd Cartoon case is because it takes little courage in the case of The DaVinci Code.

Lincoln-tastic!

Yeah,

I vowed to stop taking these silly "What xyz are you?" web questionaires but I could not resist this one and I post the results even less. However, this one is worth posting. Now to my speech: Two-gross and .....

What Famous Leader Are You?
personality tests by similarminds.com

Golf In Madison.

Last night I went golfing for the third time this decade. Went to Pleasant View in Middleton. Darned right it was a pleasant view! It was high up so we could see the surrounding lakes and the capital as well (notice this one very clearly at night).

How was the golf? Hehehehe, well I came off of the course feeling better about my game than going on. My cousin and I hooked up with another twosome and they were good, the better of the two saw something about my swing and mentioned it from that point on my strokes felt better. In fact on our next par 3 I put the ball just left of the green.

The other guy in the twosome wasn't as good but pretty decent. He had a very consistent hook and for the most part he played it well, with an aim off to the right, however every now and then the ball would go straight on him.

Any Madison area bloggers up for a round? Lance? Who else?

William Jefferson (D-Louisiana).

Oh my. What's this, William Jefferson (D-Louisiana) is caught with marked bills, bills marked by the FBI in a corruption scandal.

The investigation became public on Aug. 3 when FBI agents raided Jefferson's homes in New Orleans and Northeast Washington, where they found about $90,000 in cash in his freezer, law enforcement sources have said. They also raided five other locations, including the Kentucky and New Jersey offices of iGate Inc., a high-tech firm that has become central to the investigation, along with a house in Potomac owned by Atiku Abubakar, the vice president of Nigeria.

Source: The Washington Post - The Legal Woes Of Rep. Jefferson

I can see it now:

To: you@domain.net
from: Dolly Jefferson <djefferson@419scam.net>
Re: I Need a Trustworthy Confidant


Dear You,

My uncle Rep. William Jefferson (D-Louisiana) was recently arrested for curruption in the United States. While working out deels vice president Abubakr of Nigeria. In his dealings my uncle received $121 million (one hundred twenty one million US Dollars). Unfortunately my uncle was arrested but most of the money he received is still here in Nigeria.

I am contacting you because I know you are discreet and are interested in receiving a 25% share of the wealth if you will help us transfer this sum to the US. Please contact us and DO NOT TELL ANYONE we need bank accounts in the states to transfer the money into and hope we can use yours as an intitial destination.

Yours trooly

Dolly Jefferson

Tragic Use of Tragedy.

The word tragedy is widely misunderstood and consequently misused.

I flash back to the first day of English 1XY from my days in college. Dr. Menninga told us to throw out our thesauruses. Why? Because while a thesaurus gives synonyms they often fail to impart the subtle differences in meaning.

Here is a thesaurus entry for tragedy. This thesaurus does a poor job of explaining tragedy. Tragedy in its pure sense is when something bad happens to someone due to their own weakness or bad judgment.

In order for the tragic hero to arouse these feelings in the audience, he cannot be either all good or all evil but must be someone the audience can identify with; however, if he is superior in some way(s), the tragic pleasure is intensified. His disastrous end results from a mistaken action, which in turn arises from a tragic flaw or from a tragic error in judgement. Often the tragic flaw is hubris, an excessive pride that causes the hero to ignore a divine warning or to break a moral law.

Source: Greek Theory of Tragedy: Aristotle's Poetics Why do I bring this topic up? Because, for example many refer to 9/11 as a tragedy. By the understanding of tragedy I outline above, this is a further slam on our nation.

Some (and many) will point out that people do not use tragedy in this sense anymore and use it as a generic reference to an event filled with death and disaster. Well I agree to a certain point that most people use tragedy and catastrophe (disaster as well) synonymously but as a writer (however amateurish and hackish I may be) and a political activist I know words make a difference and I disagree with the difference the word tragedy makes.

Was Pearl Harbor a tragedy? In the common sense yes in the sense I outline above, no. However, according to the narrative of many on the left Pearl Harbor was every bit as much our fault as they believe 9/11 is also ours. They may deny it but Pat Buchanan makes use of Pearl Harbor and the events leading up to Pearl Harbor to show what happens when we start being the international actor we truly are. The arguments Mr. Buchanan makes in this affair sound very similar to what the left says.

This is very much in line with my struggle to take back the word liberal from those who are actually leftists not liberal. I try, at least I am doing that.

Is Anne Frank Rocking & Rolling...

In her grave?

In WWII a fascist ideology swept Europe and those who were its scapegoats and opposed it were targeted for "removal". We all know the story Anne and her family hid from the Nazis in Amsterdam but were eventually found. The Nazis are dead but the memory of Anne's life in hiding remain.

I spent a good part of a day in Amsterdam. The tour I was on drove by the residence where Anne Frank was hiding and our tour guide pointed it out with pride. I wonder if that tour guide bubbles with the same pride.

Has it changed though? Were there many Anne Franks in the Netherlands or was Anne Franke an anomaly? Were the Dutch resisting the Nazis or would have resistance against the Nazis interfered with retirement or what?

What If...

President Bush's speech on immigration was crafted to convey his views on the matter and not as an attempt to "thread the needle"?

Cooper views Bush's speech as an "attempt to "thread the needle" -- that is, to appease conservatives and at the same time appear to be a reasonable centrist. Perhaps. But it's more likely that the speech was an attempt to advocate what Bush considers the best solution to the problem of illegal immigration. Indeed, it's difficult for me to believe that Bush and his aides thought that this speech would appease most hard core conservatives.

Source: Powerline Blog - Going nuts, Power Line style Duh! We all know President Bush has a strong will to do what he believes to be correct. To a certain extent this is what the President should do, to lead.

I do not see President Bush as trying to appease conservatives or lefties but doing what he believes is the right thing to do. Quite a few commentators have speculated the speech was just to reverse his poll numbers but then one has to ask, did he order the troops into Iraq just to reverse his poll numbers then?

President Bush's position on immigration fits nicely with mine. I want the borders enforced and I see no way we are going to deport 12 million+ people.

I Was Asked

What I think about this.

Well slap me up and call me silly. Iran isn't going to give up its uranium enrichment and has in fact turned the tables on the Euros. So, we had the Euros offering Iran goodies to give up its uranium enrichment program and now Iran is essentially laughing at them and telling them we will give you goodies.

Of course, Iran's President Ahmednuttyjihad continues his hot rhetoric against Israel. Iran produces a lot of petrol but has about zero refining capacity. I don't see Iran has a whole lot to offer and the story linked to above notes Iran is promising more access to the Iranian marketplace.

I guess the Euros don't frighten Ahmednuttyjihad and the Mad Mullahs. Of course, they don't appear to be too afraid of us either.

Traffic Analysis.

Ah, another NSA program is unveiled. Or is it part and parcel of the one revealed last December?

Well, last December we heard the NSA was tapping the phone conversations of people some of those taps were of conversations between people in America and those outside. The key point of outrage s the in America portion.

Now, it is revealed the NSA was being given phone call records by quite a few of the phone network companies. Of course the usual suspects are outraged by this.

Commentary

The two reports have the appearance of separate programs. However, it seems the latest revelation is an early step in the whole program. After all, the NSA is not going to be able to tap every single phone conversation (let alone analyze for interest then reanalyze those that warrant interest). The NSA has to have a way to detect numbers worthy of further scrutiny.

This is what we are seeing now. If a given phone number makes repeated calls to Kandahar Afghanistan, Waziristan Pakistan (or to known terrorists) or similar, then the government has good reason to escalate their interest in both ends of the conversation. I would guess further analysis of both numbers is conducted and sooner or later it reaches the tapping stage, which one (IMO) may reasonably conclude is not the last level of scrutiny.

The constitutionality of the program? I subscribe to the view the executive is assigned by the constitution to the protection of the homeland and the prosecution of wars. Those making war upon the USA fall outside of constitutional protections. This applies to citizens as well as non-citizens.

Furthermore, little, if any privacy is compromised by this sort of traffic analysis. It is the filter by which probably tens of thousands of numbers are selected for further scrutiny.

Cartoons in Dubai.

Many of you may be familiar with Chick Publications. Chick Publications publishes tracts pushing a fundy version of Christianity.

Well, I picked up on this blog that details a Chick Publication found on the windshields of cars in Dubai! Recall, Dubai is Islamic and therefore prohibits the urging of Muslims to convert from Islam.

Here is the offending publication on the web. Yes, it is offensive and I in general am suspicious (as a Catholic) of Chick Publications but I have a hard time getting my dander up about this, and characterize this as Muslims having to eat their yucky leftovers.

Some time ago I blogged on Islamic polemicist Ahmed Deedat and the I consider the Chick Publication to be on the same level. The Chick Publication contains much of the same techniques and common leftist arguments used against Christianity (e.g. Christianity co-opted pagan holidays such as the Winter Solstice & Spring Equinox for Christmas & Easter, very sophomoric).

My worry though, is as a former UAE Legion Of Mary member, the UAE authorities will make absolutely no differentiation and go after those Christians who practice their faith publicly but are not in the local population's face about it.

In fact, my pastor from the UAE sermonized multiple times about how St. Francis of Assissi gathered up some novices from his monastery. He told them, let us to the town and preach. After a day of helping people out they said not a word. The novices asked St. Francis about the promise to preach, and St. Francis observed they did the best preaching possible.

A friend of mine went to Thailand not too long ago to perform missionary work to assist with tsunami recovery. She told me the government was considering barring foreigners from the work because even though no overt missionary work was happening the locals were converting to Christianity. By your fruits people will know you! Indeed!

Richard Cohen Redux.

Yesterday I commented on Richard Cohen's discover of the krazy Kos kiddies. Very shortly thereafter a lefty left a leftist comment in response.

The lefty's comment was not really about Richard Cohen's discovery of the krazy Kos kiddies but rehashed how Colbert gave President Bush a well deserved lashing and how the comedy in Colbert's schtick was that of the humor found in Caddyshack for instance. The clueless arrogant getting their due. So we get movie ctriticism to try and distract all from the vilenss of the krazy Kos kiddies.

Whatever. However, that argument is old news and Mr. Cohen's point was not to revisit Colbert's bullying humor but the response he received when he criticized Mr. Colbert. To revisit the original humor is sleight of hand, trying to change the subject.

Remember lefty, Richard Cohen is no fan of President Bush or the conservative movement, he is a leftist. He wants to see Democrats win office and leftist policies rule the land. His point is that the vitriol that is now the public face of the left is bound to turn the centrist voter off. The center voter who may not much care for the popular perception of GOP policies is going to see the krazy Kos kiddies hate and vitriol and decide the lesser of two evils is the GOP.

Essentially the reaction Richard Cohen received is one that indicates an intolerance of dissent. Hmmmmm, how ironic.

Ahmednuttyjihad's Letter.

In a word it was nutty. Most reports have the letter as being everything but diplomatic. In fact, according to reports I have heard it was insulting, threatening, and containing Islamic apocolyptic mysticism.

Of course, much like Saddam's 11th hour appeal to a public "debate" with President Bush it seems to be achieving its likely objective. What is that objective? To fool people into thinking the Mad Mullahs of Iran & Ahmednuttyjihad are reasonable and can be talked with.

In fact portions of that letter strike me very much as written shoe-bangning.

Ahmadinejad's 18-page letter to President Bush touched only indirectly on the hottest dispute between the two countries — Iran's nuclear program. Instead, it focuses on a long list of grievances against the United States and seeks to build on a shared faith in God to resolve them

Source: Iranians Fault Rice's Dismissal of Letter - AP Writer ALI AKBAR DAREINI. No wonder this article is so much at odds with the reports I have heard. First off the obvious fact it was written by Al-Pazeera but then look at the author Ali Akbar Dareini.

The reports I have heard include the letter bashes liberal democracy and states theocracy is the wave of the future. That report also includes references to the 12th Iman, the fact that Islam is the one true religion etc.

Related but on a different track. Reports have it that Europe is now hoping the US will engage in unilateral talks with Iran. Hehehehe, call me cynical but I believe the reason Europe wants us to take up unilateral talks with Iran so when the inevitable happens (i.e. Iran gets is bomb) they can wash their hands of blame and accuse the US of blundering the talks, rather than to have to admit talk is bound to be fruitless in this case.

Richard Cohen Is Getting Unhinged.

Michelle Malkin picks up on some blogs and offers a bit of her own commentary on Richard Cohen's latest column. What is that column about? Its about all the hate-mail he received from leftists after his column on Stephen Colbert's bullying attempt at humor at the Whitehouse Correspondent's Dinner. Recall, Stephen Colbert stood up and delivered a relentless ad-hominen attack against President Bush dressed up as humor. Richard Cohen (not fan of President Bush or the right) saw no humor but cowardly bullying.

Well,

Kapow! Within a day, I got more than 2,000 e-mails. A day later, I got 1,000 more. By the fourth day, the number had reached 3,499 – a figure that does not include the usual offers of nubile Russian women or loot from African dictators. The Colbert messages began with Patrick Manley ("You wouldn't know funny if it slapped you in the face") and ended with Ron ("Colbert ROCKS, you MURDER") who was so proud of his thought that he copied countless others. Ron, you're a genius.

Source: Austin Bay Blog - Richard Cohen Discovers The KosKidz There is a lively debate going on in the commentary at Austin's blog and centers on leftist and rightist loonies. Of course, the lefties are trying to drag Rush, Hannity, Coulter, et al into the land of looney. Interesting go and check it out.

Richard is worried this will tear the left apart and lead to another four years of Republican in the Whitehouse, and so it should.

We on the right have our kooks too. However, none of those kooks can claim to own the Republican party like the kooks on the left claim to own the Democratic party. Those kooks dislike Hillary as much as those on the right (if not more so).

Of course he comes away with some disillusionment about e-mail and the internet. He also takes an oppurtunity to pile on–bloggers. Apparently, lefty bloggers encouraged their readers to write him on the topic.

BTW Unhinged in the title refers to Michelle Malkin's book, not Mr. Cohen's state of mind.

Another Prophet of Disaster.

I tell you. The History Channel tonight is big time full of doom and gloom. The Discovery Channel has been like that now for some months now. I recall a movie on the Discovery Channel that told the story of what will happen when the Yellowstone Caldera (i.e. one huge volcano) erupts. Now, the History Channel is talking about the destruction of the West Coast via tidal wave.

Another prophet of disaster who says the ship is lost. All appropriate credit to Iron Maiden.

The Wreck that is the CIA

Reuel Marc Gerecht penned a piece for the Wall Street Journal today. I have access to the WSJ on a daily basis and read his piece

One popular theme he took on today is the changes brought by Porter Goss and whoever his replacement is going to be, is to punish the CIA for anti-Bush leaks and activism. Both Republicans and Democrats engage in this idea. Of course, my side typically dresses the theme up in the clothes the CIA has become politicized and its time to weed the polotical operatives from the CIA. Well, the CIA like any other agency subordinate to the President should not be political because they must serve both Republicans and Democrats and with the military we have seen what happens when there is political clashes between the C-in-C and the military.

However, Reuel's criticism is primarily directed at Democrats and two are named explicitly. The first is Democratic Representative Jane Harman:

"In the last year-and-a-half, more than 300 years of experience has either been pusehd out or walked out the door in frustration. This has left the agency in free-fall. I have visited these brave and committed women and men in nearly every corner of the globe, and urge the new director do so. They deserve maximum support and a clear vision of where their agency is headed."

Quite unintentionally, Democratic Reprentative Jane Harman's press release on the resignation of CIA Director Porter Goss is a decent guide to the debilitating problems afflicting the agency's clandestine service. Although the operations directorate has certainly been in free-fall, this condition has very little to do with Mr. Goss's tenure. The CIA is a dispirited organiztion. It should be: the end of the Cold War removed a sustaining sense of purpose and the broad indulgence of the agency's unenviable record of clandestine-initellignece collection, counterespionage and analytical forecasting.

Wall Street Journal May 9, 2006

The other Democrat mentioned is Howard Dean.

The current version of this theme, [of Administration persecution of a dissenting CIA] best articulated by Howard Dean of the Democratic National Committee, posits a completely apolitical, professional CIA–correctly analyzing Iraq (weapons of mass destruction excepted, of course)–being pounded by a particsan, bellicose, mendacious Republican administration, punishing those who speak truth to power.

Wall Street Journal May 9, 2006

Mr. Gerecht then goes onto to wonder if these two know anything about the intelligence community and doubts they do. He takes issue with Ms. Harman's visits with CIA personal and figures she was wowed by a dog and pony show with some smoke and mirrors.

The real problem is the CIA is not adapting to the new threats our nation (and indeed civilazation) faces. He notes any intelligence agency close to being worth the name is easily able to identify and track our CIA agents. Essentially, the CIA as it works now is not going to do its job in cracking terrorist networks and can not be expected to crack any hard target protected by a competent counterespionage service (for example, a Pakistani military officer with access to Pakistan's nuclear-weapons program). He also notes most intelligence is not the stuff of popular imagination but mostly sitting in the embassy office and waiting for the the intelligence officers of the host nation to come in and share.

It seems many take intelligence to be a cut and dry thing. That the answers are easy to obtain. They are not, especially when others are trying to deceive you, hide information, or are trying to manipulate your actions. All of this was going on prior to Iraq. Saddam didn't want the nature of his weapons programs out and of course there were those manipulating intelligence to get the US to act against Saddam.

Unfortunately all those factors make traditional "clandestine" intelligence an unreliable but necessary black art. Intelligence is never going to be evidence. Until that fact is understood we will not fix our intelligence.

The Evolution Continues?

I am now tagged as a Large Mammal. However, I believe this is because the changes to the Ecosystem have thrown things off. I figure I will return to a lower level within a week.

Another Dumb Lefty Idea.

The idea President Bush and his administration is in a bubble and isn't exposed to criticism.

First off, SO? What typically passes for criticism by the MSM and the lefties these days is no such thing and deserves to be ignored. It is little more than ad-hominen and that is the closest the Left gets to criticism.

Second, do you honestly believe President Bush is unaware of the criticism of his administration? If you believe that then you are even more foolish than you imagine the President to be.

Dissenting from Dissent.

All too often one of the whines we hear from the left is how dissent is not tolerated in this nation. What do they mean? More often then not it means people dissent from their view.

Yehudit relates an e-mail list exchange at Winds of Change the most important part of which is:

Ben Levy's Evaluation and Dissent Flowchart for non-Trivial Strategic Decision Making.
1) Evaluate Decision. Is there dissent?
A. Yes. Proceed to Step 2.
B. No. No? Bull. Unless your problem is trivial (Who wants Ice Cream?) there is always dissent. You've simply managed to ignore it already. Proceed directly to Step 2.A
2) Do you wish to Ignore Dissent?
A. Yes, Ignore Dissent. Implement Your Decision. You're done!
B. No, Do not Ignore Dissent. Review situation, and generate New Decision. Return to step 1.

Source: Winds of Change - SCENES FROM AN EMAIL LIST (by Yehudit) Dissent is not some magic wand that gives credibility to the dissenter. After all, there are people yet who dissent from the idea the world is roughly speherical, does that make them more enlightened?

In fact, and the comments that follow the above flow, it is obvious deviation and criticism of dissent is every bit as protected as dissent is (by our first amendment, it is pointed out putting dissenters in front of firing squads is actually 2A in its extreme form). The whine we hear is not brave dissent but people who lost an argument and are trying to win the argument by trying to convince everyone else that dissent automatically makes them correct.

Go ahead dissent, but don't whine or be surprised when people don't agree with you. After all, isn't dissent all about being disagreeable with the majority?

A Fresh Wind is Blowing.

Armed Liberal at Winds of Change picks up on the following LA Times story:

... "It is hard for those who live near a Police Station to believe in the triumph of violence," as T.S. Eliot wrote. That's us — we Americans, protected by a mighty military that by and large obeys the rules of our republic — safe enough, and keeping much of the world safe enough, so that we find it hard to believe in what would happen if that protection failed.

But these fighters do keep us safe. And because keeping us safe is harsh, dangerous work, we should glorify them, exalt them in story and song by way of appreciation.

"United 93" — the film celebrating the heroic civilian attempt to retake a hijacked plane on 9/11 — opened last week. That's great. Well done and about time. But now, let's have some war movies.

We need some films celebrating the war against Islamo-fascism in Afghanistan and Iraq — and in Iran as well, if and when that becomes necessary. We need films like those that were made during World War II, films such as 1943's "Sahara" and "Action in the North Atlantic," or "The Fighting Seabees" and "Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo," which were released in 1944.

Not all of these were great films, or even good ones, but their patriotic tributes to our fighting forces inspired the nation.

Source: Winds of Change - THIS MORNING, THE LA TIMES EMAIL SERVERS ARE GONNA MELT DOWN...(by Armed Liberal)

Flight 93 marks a Hollywood adventure from the nutty conspiracy theory movies Hollywood has been creating regarding the ongoing conflict. As I have said earlier, we all have a part to play in the WOT and Hollywood is finally finding its part. Hollywood shoul hope this trend continues because remember the likes of Al-Qaida do not even permit television let alone big screens.

More Evolution.

The Ecosystem now tags Blogger Beer as a large mammal and #301 in its rankings.

However, I have come to see the Ecosystem is not quite a stable ranking system. Part of it is due to the nature of the shared blogroll, part of it I think is somewhat frequent updates to the software NZ Bear has set up to rank blogs.

In the past I was gaining evolution standing and then NZ Bear changed his system and I think he adjusted the scale.

Networking!

Aaaarrrrggggghhhhhh!

I am an applications programmer by trade and leave the networking to others. I can talk with them and understand in general terms what is being said but don't ask me to set one up myself. Well, that is exactly what I am trying to do. I recently purchased a Linksys wireless router and a wireless NIC for the laptop I have been carrying around.

Well, I have been able to establish connections from my main computer (the one from which I am now writing to you) to the laptop via wireless and pull up a webpage (i.e. a webpage served off of my main computer, the one from which I am writing to you) but am unable to break out of the house. I have done some googling on the matter but nothing seems to help.

A simple explanation of the simple setup I have.

Internet---DSL ROUTER-----WIRELESS ROUTER------MAIN PC

LAPTOP w/wireless NIC

----- Wires

So I can can go from my Laptop to the PC and since I pulled a webpage off of my main server the other direction works. It just can not get to the Internet.

My NIC on the main PC:
ifconfig
eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:07:95:36:F1:A4
inet addr:192.168.1.3 Bcast:192.168.1.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
UP BROADCAST NOTRAILERS RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:87427 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:78356 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:38776324 (36.9 Mb) TX bytes:5925407 (5.6 Mb)
Interrupt:5 Base address:0xd000

Routes set up on PC:
netstat -nr
Kernel IP routing table
Destination Gateway Genmask Flags MSS Window irtt Iface
192.168.1.0 0.0.0.0 255.255.255.0 U 0 0 0 eth0
127.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 255.0.0.0 U 0 0 0 lo
0.0.0.0 192.168.1.1 0.0.0.0 UG 0 0 0 eth0

Both the DSL router and the wireless router are 192.168.1.1 and I tried to set the Wireless to 192.168.1.2 but no dice nothing seemed to change.

Any ideas?

Another Milestone In Blogger Beer History.

Blogger Beer is listed on Blog Shares (link is on the lower right) and I just hit 100 incoming links on the links listing. I pegged the listing out!

Does Jonah Goldberg Read Blogger Beer?

I'm sure somewhere out there, someone is making a detailed comparison between the Cynthia McKinney incident and the Patrick Kennedy incident. Kennedy got - or, in a sense, almost got - special treatment from the Capitol Police while McKinney didn't. Whatever the merits of this comparison, the outrage on the subject is surprisingly muted. This no doubt has to do with a lot of specific details and the speed of Kennedy's apology and admission. But one detail that can't be left out is that Kennedy is a Democrat and a Kennedy. Does anyone doubt that if this had been a Republican under similar circumstances that the Congressional Black Caucus and the liberal bloggers would be denouncing the racist double standard being applied to a white Republican while McKinney was given no slack?

Source: KENNEDY VS. MCKINNEY [Jonah Goldberg] in The Corner

Now lets look at what I said the other day: Still, this gives lots of fuel to the Reverends Jackson and Sharpton. Actually, I just touched the subject lightly and went in more detail as it regards the treatment of Rush Limbaugh. However, Jonah's commentary is right. It is hard to believe Mr. Kennedy did not get special treatment.

Holy Marauding Marsupials!

From time to time I indulge my vanity and see how many other blogs link to Blogger Beer. The number was growing steadily and slowly, slow but solid. Well, I just had a huge growth spurt.

I just bopped on over to the Ecosystem to see how my ranking is doing and The Ecosystem says 173 links. However, this is leap to the Marauding Marsupial stage right out of Flappy Bird and over adorable rodent. At first, I thought this was because of a bug the number is about 100 more than when I last checked. Well, then I clicked on show all linkers and wow, it is real!

Yesterday I left a note at At Captain Ed's about the 101st Fighting Keyboardists and how I came up with that exact same concept over two months ago. Well, as it turns out he spotted the comment and read the blog and enrolled me in the 101st Fighting Keyboardists and that is where the extra 100 or so links comes from! He didn't let the comment publish but he did put me on the 101st Fighting Keyboardist blogroll.

BTW here is my blog from a couple of months ago saying the 101st Fighting Keyboardists is no epithet, essentially proudly proclaiming my membership in such an organization.

Of course, I prefer individual links placed into blogs by the individual bloggers rather than distributed blogrolls, but what the hey!

Kennedy is Doing the Right Thing.

He is checking himself into a clinic for some help. Lets hope his intent is genuine and not a sham. Up until the point I heard he was checking himself in to the Mayo Clinic I was starting to get second thoughts about Cynthia McKinney.

However, Mr. Kennedy by his actions is telling us he needs help and is going to get it. Still, another famous political/media personality is in a similar situation and just cut a deal with the AG that was out to get him. If that media personality keeps up his treatment and stays clean for another 18 months then the AG will not press charges against him. Why is Mr. Kennedy not under similar pressure? Both cases involved prescription medications.

Still, this gives lots of fuel to the Reverends Jackson and Sharpton.

Leandro Aragoncillo Pleads Guilty.

The Leandro Aragoncillo spy case has long dropped out of the limelight, which is good because in US terms it is a small story. However, it could play an interesting role in presidential politicis in the Philippines.

Recall, a former marine and employee of the office of vice president (under Gore and Cheney) and an FBI agent leaked classified information to the opponents of Filipino President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.

NEWARK, New Jersey-A Filipino-American intelligence analyst admitted Thursday that for five years he passed top secret information gleaned from White House and Federal Bureau of Investigation computers to conspirators he said were trying to overthrow President Macapagal-Arroyo.

Leandro Aragoncillo, 47, a naturalized US citizen who was born in the Philippines, pleaded guilty to a four-count indictment.

The conspirators used code words to refer to various people, including calling Ms Arroyo "The Penguin," Aragoncillo admitted.

Aragoncillo, shackled at the feet and wearing green jail garb, himself did not identify them.
But according to documents filed in the US District Court in Newark, they included former President Joseph Estrada, opposition Sen. Panfilo Lacson and former House Speaker Arnulfo Fuentebella. [emphasis added]

Source: INQ7 - Aragoncillo admits spying for Arroyo foes (Estrada, Lacson named co-plotters vs President) The fact the dope leaked by Aragoncillo went to Erap (i.e. Joseph Estrada) is old news but I have not seen the former names attached with the investigation. PGMA's opponents of pain Lacson as above corruption. I am convinced this isn't a corrupt act but it certainly puts him in a precarious position when and if he ever has to deal with Washington D.C.

It remains to be seen if Aragoncillo will testify against Michael Ray Aquino.

More interestingly is what ramifications this will have on PGMA's state. Will any of the co-conspirators come under indictment, and will extradition requests be filed? That would be a real convenient way for PGMA to get rid of her Erap problem. He has been under house arrest now for 5 years and they still have yet to bring him to trial.

Speculation & Commentary.

The reason he is not being tried on the charge is PGMA's government is to politically weak and too saddled with its own corruption to try Erap on the self-same charges. So, they simply keep him penned up in a nice home. The problem is he is free to plot and coordinate against PGMA from his home under house arrest. If the US government indicted him as an Aragoncillo co-conspirator and asked for his extradition then PGMA would be rid of his presence in the Philippines without having to try him. Then there would only be Lacson and Fuentabella to deal with.

Permanent Scowl.

Every time I see Geoffrey Fieger that guy has the scowliest scowl every. I bet his mother told him not to smile or his face might get frozen into a smile, so instead he scowled and his face froze in that fashion.

There are people in the world who bring sunshine to others, Fieger brings doom and gloom. Why does Gretta Van Susteren insist on having that guy on her show all the time? I suppose its the producers not so much as Gretta. Still, Fox should find someone else.

Net Neutrality.

Yesterday at the BBA I went into the details of net neutrality. Go there to find out what it is.

The tenor of the blog though is one of opposition. Owen at Boots and Sabers takes up the discussion. His blog does a lot to assure me about a lack of net neutrality.

A commentator then notes it isn't so much of type of traffic but source. That is, if a service provider X (e.g. Yahoo, AOL etc) pays network company Y (eg SBC, TDS Metrocom etc) Z dollars than X gets priority over Y's networks.

A few other thoughts give me a lot less worry. First bandwidth is extremely cheap and plentiful there is plenty to go around. I am not likely to pay a network provider for Blogger Beer and I am quite sure my readers will not notice a significant degradation in response time due to a lack of net neutrality. Of course there is always the free market thoughts and the ability of the internet to morph into bigger and better things.

What would the Internet be like if 10 years ago Congress decided this new world wide web thing was going to upset people's access to archie and placed restrictions on the WWW?

Stay tuned.

Not Always.

Judge Brinkema as we all now know sentenced Zacarias Moussoui to prison for life without parole to a Supermax prison. Yesterday I expressed lukewarm satisfaction over that fact. It is kinda appealing to think Moussoui will spend the rest of his life thinking what a loser he is and watch his cause wither.

However, despite the judges best intentions terrorists do not always server their life sentences.

A helpless Moussoui strapped to a guerney receiving a deadly drip is not giving him his wish to take out kaffirs in a martyriffic blaze of glory.

Strong Weaponry Weak Will.

The History Channel is running a show detailing the latest in awesome tactical level weaponry. Automated howitzers, electronic ignition guns (I saw something on this nearly ten years ago), airburst missiles etc.

Our nation is tops when it comes to technological prowess but in our quest for technology we have left our souls behind. We have all this super weaponry but not the will to use them. We have a large army, nuclear weapons, top of the line tactical weapons. However, the people we are fighting in this war on terror have us marked as paper tigers and I am afraid they are not too far off of the mark.

W is an aberration and the likes of Ahmednuttyjihad and Bin Laden know that. They also know in about 2 years W will be out of office. Then who?

Life in Prison.

For Zacarias Moussoui.

I would have rather seen him get the deadly drip, but I am okay with it. The Milwaukee Journal some years ago editorialized on his sentence with the usual leftoid arguments. I wrote a letter to them and they published it.

The Milwaukee Journal brought up cliche #271-a that giving Zacarias the death penalty would be making a martyr out of him. Well, my reply is Zacarias wanted to die taking as many kaffirs out with himself as possible instead of fastened to a guerney and a deadly drip.

Now the issue is decided. Mr. Moussoui will spend a time in a Federal pen. Whether he is there for the rest of his life remains to be seen.

Right on the Blogger Beer.

Is Right Off of the Shore Jenna's blog. Go check it out and give her a warm welcome to the Blogger Beer blogroll.

US Windows

Today it struck me that our government has evolved along the same lines as our most popular desktop operating system.

What is an operating system (OS)? An OS is the software or computer programs responsible for making the computer usable. It handles the memory of the computer, the hard disk, files, folders, getting information from the keyboard, getting information to the monitor. When you get right down to it an OS is a fairly simple thing in concept.

Those of you old enough to remember MS DOS may have hated it, but actually MS-DOS is very good at what it set out to do. It fit in a minimal computer configuration (or what seems small now) and allowed us to run Word Perfect, Windows 3.11 and all the other games and applications we ran under DOS. In fact, I have read even the deep technical details of DOS were solid.

Now, MS Windows and its countless permutations tries to promise everything to everyone. It is buggy and full of holes. It not only wants to run your computer but it shoehorns you into its own way of doing everything. For example, multi-media (songs, photographs, etc) is not an operating system concern but an application. None-the-less Windows and MS wants you to do multimedia its way and its way only.

Isn't that the way our government has evolved? It used to be small and did what it did well. Now it grows and no matter how much resources we give it ravenously wants more. Not only that, it also decides issues not its business are its business.

A Cap on Profits.

Hey Governor Doyle,

Before you start capping the profits of private industry why don't you start with capping state spending or state taxes?

Bits and Bytes in Madison.

May 1, 2006. Did you go shopping today? I hope so! I didn't really need to buy anything today but did so just to say I didn't honor the call to protest or didn't seem like I was.

I am back in hotel land. Of the last seven nights only one has been in my bedroom. The rest in mostly a not so hot hotel and a couple in a stupendous hotel. This night the diggs are so-so.

Welcome Chris At Home to the Blogger Beer blogroll. Chris is another American living in Mindanao, yet more proof the situation there is not as bad as most believe it to be. There are spots but it is mostly live and let live.

I saw no signs of any immigration protest. However, I am on the southwest side of town far from the capital so there is no reason for protesters to be here where I am at.

I was thinking of the contrast between how Iraq attempted to thwart attack vs the way Iran is.

I tried Leinenkugel's Sunset Wheat. It isn't similar to a traditional wheat beer but closer to Coor's Blue Moon beer. It is a beer with strong fruity aftertastes. I think one of those/session would be plenty enough.

I am happy with the Packer draft. They managed to spin their picks into a number more and that is what the Pack needs. Lets hope TT can pick 'em better than Ron Wolfe. Ron Wolfe seemed to specialize in finding players in the middle rounds but blew a few first round picks. I am confident our #1 will turn out every bit as good as the hype.

Hmmm. A colleague whom used to live in Appleton tells me there is more in Madison than in Appleton. I agree, there is vastly more traffic here than in Appleton. I had to go to the east side of town after work. I left at 5:00 and didn't get to the east side until 5:45. However, it probably took me 15 minutes when I turned around to head back to my room.