Is Wesley Clark For Real?

He suggested the Guantanamo prisoners be tried by an international tribunal. WTF is wrong with him?

FDR Roosevelt is lucky he didn't have to suffer idiots like Clark. Can you see that? All the German and Japanese POWs being tried by international tribunal. He also thought the NYT revealing the finance monitoring program a good thing.

We can not trust the left with the security of our nation. Just can't.

Government Punish the Leakers.

And we the people will punish the New York Times by not buying their fish-wrap or bird cage liner whatever you prefer.

As much as I hate to say it the NYT was within their rights to reveal the story on the monitoring of international finance but whoever leaked it has no right to leak such information. They should be found, tried, and if guilty; shot. Start "leaking" stories such as how we give the Gitmo prisoners Qur'rans made from recycled paper and when the story appears in the latest torture revelation at least one leak is fixed.

I know I know lefty. Plame, Rove, Libby etc etc etc. The only secret I know uncovered by Plame's name getting out is that nepotism goes on at the CIA.

Flag Burning.

One of the silliest of arguments against the proposed anti flag burning amendment is it is unconstitutional. How can the constitution be against itself? Now, laws may be unconstitutional but not the constitution itself.

This is why the requirements for passing a constitutional amendment are much more difficult to achieve than a simple law. If the constitution was amended to punish those who refuse to eat cheddar cheese then it is every bit as constitutional as the fact the President (and not the congress) is the commander in chief of the armed forces. Of course in reality the Brie eating states will be able to prevent such an amendment from becoming part of the constitution.

No Right to Know.

What is the New York Times thinking? Have they given into the dark side of hate for President Bush, they ware willing to endanger our and their security to spite the President?

The New York Times found out about various programs. Yes, a few of them they have a debatable case but nothing I have read even suggests in the slightest there is doubt about the properness of scouring international monetary transactions for signs of terrorist activity. Our right to know is nothing more than the editors indulging their sophomoric inability to keep things that should be kept under wraps, under wraps.

Many years ago we went fishing with a cousin, my uncle, and my father. After we finished we went to McDonald's and were instructed to keep quite about our little stop at Mickey-Ds. Hehehe, after we got back home our cousin asked her brothers and sisters were we all went. My cousin was probably 10 years old or less, what excuse does the NYT have?

What Joy!

Florence King appears like she run out of retirement cash and is once again writing for National Review. As much as I like Mark Steyn, the back page of NR belongs to Florence.

Her latest article is very timely and hits home. I recall once she was calling Andey Rooney out, calling him something along the lines of a fake curmudgeon. How true especially in comparison to herself.

The Jawas are out Scrounging a New Server.

The Jawa Report is awaiting their hosting service to get a new server for them. Chris at Mindanao states (a Jawa Report Co-Blogger):

The admin has ordered a new server, which was supposed to arrive Tuesday. Jawa takes more crap than the other blogs on mu.nu, so she wants it isolated so other blogs still work if it can be attacked.

I'm hoping it is up soon, it had been rolling along the last couple of weeks.

Source: Chris at Mindanao - Comments Section

There it is!

Is the Jawa Report Getting DOSed?

What's up with the Jawa Report? I guess it got cracked or it is being bombarded by a denial of service attack.

Anyone know?

Speaking of the Constitution.

John Kerry and our own Senator Feingold are talking about a "redeployment" of force from Iraq back home. IOW: cut and run.

However, aside from unmasking such euphemisms (which is done very well by Robert Kaplan pointed out here by Byron York) there is a more serious concern here. Senator Feingold constantly accuses the President of abusing the Constitution. However, anything more than asking (and the language used by Mr. Kaplan suggest that is exactly what is being planned a resolution) would instigate a constitutional showdown.

If the good Senators really wanted to take real action to bring the troops home why don't they talk to their buddies in the House to draft legislation denying funding for the effort? That is Constitutional and a lot more effective than any doomed to fail euphemism-laden resolution.

No Surrender

People whine about Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay but in both of those places the prisoners of war get 3 squares, a Qur'ran, and decent treatment. When the treatment isn't decent it gets looked into, and the definition of decent treatment gets lowered every day.

Compare with how those they capture get treated. Torture and a cruel death. The Taliban and their allies (and in general Afghanis in general) are reputed to work in the same way.

What a way to increase resistance. Surrender means a cruel death, why would anyone surrender?

So Sorry

So sorry for not keeping Blogger Beer up to date.

I really am time constrained. I work, I get dinner, I get back to my room and then I am on the phone for hours planning and coordinating next weekend out.

Soon this gig is done and maybe I will have time to keep Blogger Beer up to date.

Six Years.

How do you measure a year in the life of a woman and a man?

Good question. It is the sixth anniversary for the Empress and myself. Unfortunately, she is a work widow and I a work widower, but at least we have free cell phone mobile to mobile minutes.

After this its only two more weeks and the work widow/widower stuff ends.

Many people tell the Empress how lucky she is for me. However, I think it the other way around. A friend of hers a couple of years ago (a friend who lives in Saginaw MI) told me how lucky I AM. Indeed. Still, it is the fortunate couple where both are lucky or better yet, blessed by God for their husband or wife.

At least once per year couples reflect on their vows and the state of their marriage. My only hope and desire is the six years have been as easy for the Empress as they have for myself and the upcoming years will continue to be as easy for the both of us.

Six Years.

How do you measure a year in the life of a woman and a man?

Good question. It is the sixth anniversary for the Empress and myself. Unfortunately, she is a work widow and I a work widower, but at least we have free cell phone mobile to mobile minutes.

After this its only two more weeks and the work widow/widower stuff ends.

Many people tell the Empress how lucky she is for me. However, I think it the other way around. A friend of hers a couple of years ago (a friend who lives in Saginaw MI) told me how lucky I AM. Indeed. Still, it is the fortunate couple where both are lucky or better yet, blessed by God for their husband or wife.

At least once per year couples reflect on their vows and the state of their marriage. My only hope and desire is the six years have been as easy for the Empress as they have for myself and the upcoming years will continue to be as easy for the both of us.

The Sweep.

The Iraqi military is working to clean out Baghdad.

This is a good thing but the overall situation troubles me in one respect. It has to do with the Iraqi police force. The Iraqi army is much improved and while it is not as trusted as the US and other coalition forces it is much much better. Word has it that the Iraqi Police is terrible. We hear stories about bad guys in Iraqi police uniforms are causing mayhem.

Hmmm, I am skeptical of that. Of the claim they are bad guys in bogus uniforms. The Coalition needs to do to the police what we have done with the Army. Our approach should shift resources from army building and training to police force building and training.

This Guy...

Must come from Squornshellous Zeta! He just doesn't flip-flop, he flollops, he globbers, he volluings, and he voons!

Hillary has more stones than Kerry.

Flollop flollop flollop!

Newsy Day.

Hehehehe!

Very newsy day. First off, the news that the room full of pony poop is just that pony poop. That is to say, Patrick Fitzgerald has no intentions of pressing charges against Karl Rove.

Then the news of President Bush visiting Iraq. That in itself is very interesting but with the room full of pony poop it is all the more interesting.

Yeah, even though it was revealed the room doesn't have a pony in it the left is still digging and coming up with all sorts of theories on why Mr. Rove wasn't indicted. Despite denials from Rove's attorney the left still believes some deal was made and the kookiest of them believe Mr. Fitzgerald managed to get Karl Rove to testify against the Vice President. Hehehe, they call themselves the reality based community. That is rich, especially when they can not distinguish between fact and their fantasies.

Hear That?

The sound you hear are the heads of the left going *POP*. Why are they going *POP*?

Attorney Robert Luskin said that special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald informed him of the decision on Monday, ending months of speculation about the fate of one of President Bush's closest advisers. Rove testified five times before a grand jury.

Fitzgerald has already secured a criminal indictment against Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby.

"On June 12, 2006, Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald formally advised us that he does not anticipate seeking charges against Karl Rove," Luskin said in a statement.

Source: Fox News - Lawyer: Karl Rove Won't Be Charged in CIA Leak Case

So, I get to do the little dance of vindication again! I need to develop a Java applet animation to demonstrate the little dance of vindication.

Don't expect the left to believe otherwise though. Its a fantasy they believe so much they have confused their fantasy with reality.

Anyway have to run.

He Knew.

I see Robin trackbacked to my last blog on the topic and mentioned the story I am about to discuss. Abu Musab Zarqawi knew what hit him and tried to get away.

Iraqi police pulled him from the flattened home and placed him on a makeshift stretcher. U.S. troops arrived, saw that al-Zarqawi was conscious, and tried to provide medical treatment, the spokesman said.

He obviously had some kind of visual recognition of who they were because he attempted to roll off the stretcher, as I am told, and get away, realizing it was the U.S. military, Caldwell told Pentagon reporters via videoconference from Baghdad.

Al-Zarqawi attempted to, sort of, turn away off the stretcher, he said. Everybody re-secured him back onto the stretcher, but he died almost immediately thereafter from the wounds he'd received from this airstrike.

Source: LittleFootballsootbals - Zarqawi's Infidel-Got-Me Moment Good! I hope that knowledge soured those 72 raisons you got on your flight to the infernal region Zarq-Man.

Zarqawi Dead.

Hes gone, hes gone and he never coming back.

Nothing left to do but smile smile smile.

Anyway that is why people form organizations so efforts can carry on after one is gone. The fight is not over, this is not chess where the game is over when the king is dead.

Hey Where's My Data?

The recent revelations of large amounts of personal data falling into the wrong hands are making the news.

Rich Lowry at The National Review hints at a possible cause:

Here is the congressional leadership strenuously objecting to the FBI searching a corrupt, cash-grubbing congressman’s office. There is the Department of Veterans Affairs losing the personal information of millions of veterans.

Source: Bloated and Incompetent (Republicans need to be cut off.) National Review Online by Rich Lowry What is the VA Office data theft doing in such an article? Unfortunately, the event at the VA is not a technological problem or one to be fixed by regulation but one of human nature. Dude was probably under pressure to get some work done and thought he was doing everyone a favor by taking it home. Against the rules? Ah, no one will ever know, fits on a couple of SD cards and then its a snap to upload to my laptop, heck while I am on the train to NYC I can get a lot of work done. Of course, what dude didn't count on was a couple of smack or crack fiends busting into his house andgrabbingg that laptop probably pawned it for a hundred or two bucks heck maybe enough money for them to get a decent meal (after all the jones needs to be fed first).

Dude lost his job. Think of it, how many times have you done something similar? Broke a rule to expedite or ease something for yourself? Most of the time things turn out okay, but when they don't watch out!

At my current employer I have trolled their production system for particular customers. Actually former customers, myself and the Empress. Essentially, there is nothing (other than the time and processing limits on production) stopping me from doing this. I could probably dump their customer database take it home. However, to do so would be HIGHLY UNETHICAL (I have no legit use for such data) and most likely against the law. At the least it would kill my career (current one). However, there is little to stop me from actually doing this.

However, I wonder if governmental agencies have to go through the Sarbannes-Oxley gauntlet? They should.

Saturday on State St.

As if we didn't get enough of Downtown Madison on Friday night, the Empress and myself went back Saturday morning.

The Farmer's Market was in full swing so we walked around the Capital taking in the sights and sounds of that. It is a big deal and there was vegetables to be found. Mainly lettuce, green onions, and asparagus. The asparagus looked real good.

It seemed on the corners of the square were reserved for political activists and the left was quite well represented. I bite my tongue and just looked, it doesn't pay as for sure they are as dedicated and closed minded as myself about such affairs.

My cousin called and we arranged a meeting point and eventually we found each other. Well his father was out of his meeting just at that time so my cousin told him where we were and soon enough my uncle arrived on the scene. Well, then we went back to State St. and walked down the street.

Down towards lower State St. there were some young ones (college aged) asking everyone if the heard about Haditha and of course those fellows don't have to wait for the investigation to finish before they are certain as to what happened. Again my tongue was getting dented in with my teeth and I just ignored it. Of course in my mind I was playing through 100s of scenarios about jerking them around in such fashion but I did not realize those fantasies.

We eventually settled on an Italian restaurant called Ginos for our lunch. I had fettucine with meat sauce, a gin and tonic, and a glass of cabernet. It was good, the Empress had the last eggplant parmesan available and she liked it but she complained it was rather oily. I liked the music they played which consisted of baroque music (my guess is most of it was Vivaldi, but some Handel was mixed in as well) and some pieces by Mozart and Mendelssohn. I don't know if I will go back to it as there are many other places on State St. to eat at but I do suggest you stop in and check it out if you are hankering for Italian food, you will not go wrong.

So we hit State St. again and once again walked by the pushy young ones asking us if we had heard about Haditha. Today I had a little esprit de escalier and thought maybe I should have asked them if that is where Barry Bonds hit is Babe surpassing Home Run. Hehehehe.

Well we went to the Terrace for some desert. My uncle was hoping to get some "Alma Mater" ice cream but they had none. So I had a waffle cone (the small one, I would have hate to have seen the large) with their coffee flavored ice cream. It was very good.

We sat on the terrace ate our ice cream and watched the lake and the people. We were also crow watching. A crow had picked up a plastic baggy of something and flew into a tree with its booty. We then wondered what it had and how it was going get into the bag. More importantly we were watching to see if the crow would have dumped a load on the people below. Blessedly for the people below the crow did not such thing and we lost interest in the crow.

The one thing at the Terrace that got my attention was a laugh I heard. It was a head turning laugh because it sounded almost exactly like that of one of my college buddies (I went to Plattveille, not Madison) who lives in Madison. The laugher didn't look like my buddy but it has been a few years since we have seen each other. I was tempted to watch him and dial him up on my cell phone but I was afraid if it were not my buddy then I would be stuck explaining to my buddy what I am doing in town w/o calling him up. I'll call this week.

Anyway we then went back up State St. and parted ways and reunited and then the Empress ran into a work colleague. We stopped to talk with my wife's friends and my uncle and cousin faded into the crowd.

It was a good weekend not to be out and about. Later on this week I will talk more about the silly political things I saw.

Friday Night

The Empress, on Thursday, caught a ride to Madison and I picked her up at the West Town Mall. Thursday night is none of your business and most of Friday involved me going to work and her staying in the room.

However, after I got back from work we jumped in the car and I gave her a whirlwind tour (plus I had some paperwork to deliver) of my Madison. This involved the paperwork delivery and then a ride to the office where I was working last fall and then worked our way back to the West side and showed her where the current client is. Then we went to the room and I changed into something more comfortable.

Got back in the car and went up Gammon Rd., drove her past an old haunt of mine the (the house was that of a college roommate, don't know if his folks are still there are even if they are still alive we have not had regular contact now for eons). Then when we hit University Ave. we took a right turn. I love that road and I have many memories of University Ave. One of them was stopping at the McDs by the round building after the Pink Floyd Concert (yeah it probably wasn't the best way for us but it was the dir we got headed and I knew where I was going, and a reminder to at least one reader that was 18 or so years ago) to that one morning I had to walk back from some sorority house (nothing of significance happened) to my buddy's place off of Gammon Rd.

Well, I turned into the parking garage I recollect we always parked in and found meters. We left and found another one and that one too had meters but I had enough of the driving I was itching to hit State St, so I fed in about four+ hours worth of quarters, better safe than sorry.

The garage was near the Capital and opposite from State St, eventually we worked our way around and got on State St. Hehhehe, we passed Kathleen Falk's campaign headquarters right next to the Capital and I was NOT tempted to go in and inform them I was a JB/Paul fan. There were people at work in the Falk campaign headquarters.

So we get to State St. and start looking for a place we ate at the last time we were in the area. It was a Middle Eastern sorta Arabic place. Eventually we found it and it is Husnus. Husnus is actually a Turkish joint but there are many similarities between Turkish and Arabic. So we sat down and ate. I had a lamb dish and the Empress had a chicken dish. Both were very good, the gin and tonic I had was a touch strong but the lime in the drink didn't seem out of place (I have had gin and tonics in Madison that should have come with an olive instead of a lime). As I said the lamb dish (Lamb Pide) was good, it came with some bread so I could use the bread to get it started down my alimentary canal without using my utensils (this really is the best way to eat dishes like that). The chicken couscous was very good too, if you stop in Husnus (and I suggest you do) you will not go wrong with the pide or the couscous dishes.

All the usual players were there. Street musicians playing a variety of instruments, steel guitars, German flutes, and saxophones (this is the penultimate street music instrument). Of course also present were people shaking cups at us and asking us for some spare change.

Well we finished our dinner and left the joint. We walked down the street and wondered on over to the Terrace. A jazz band was playing and while that was nice it was crowded and I didn't feel like hanging out there. We continued along Lake Mendota's shore on the bike path and we walked for a good half-hour or so and then turned around. It was a beautiful evening to do so such a thing. The weather was pleasant, the sunset was nice, while there was a hatch on (what lake doesn't have a daily hatch during the summer?) no bugs were biting. We returned to the Terrace took care of some biological needs and then went back to our car.

The police, rescue squads, and fire fighters were very busy. The parking lot at the Terrace had some police officers and rescue squad people attending to someone. As we walked back up State St. the wail of sirens was commonplace.

We got back into our car and found ourselves on John Nolen and back to the Beltline for our trip back to our hotel room. Tomorrow a recap of SA and then some commentary on an Appletonian's view of Madison.

Madison Evening

The Empress and I spent last evening on State St. and thereabouts. It was a wonderful evening but I don't have time right now to blog on it fully be assured I will later. Back to State St. and thereabouts!