Merry Christmas!

To all of my readers Christian and otherwise Merry Christmas! One question are you a handbell hero? Try this fun little Christmas theme game out. Nimble up you ASDF fingers!

Bases & Politics

Michael Yon has the McCaffrey report and here is an interesting portion of it:

Mr. Maliki has no political power base and commands no violent militias who have direct allegiance to him personally—making him a non-player in the Iraqi political struggle for dominance in the post-US withdrawal period which looms in front of the Iraqi people.

However, there is growing evidence of the successful re-constitution of local and provincial government. Elections for provincial government are vitally important to creating any possible form of functioning Iraqi state.

Source: Michael Yon – General Barry R McCaffrey Report One observation I have had for a long time is how what we were doing in Iraq is in complete opposition to how we view life and how to organize things. Our society is driven by bottoms-up effort. In Iraq it is the opposite, we expect things to flow from the top down and as General McCaffrey observes it is not working.

Not only is Maliki's main weakness is the fact he does not sit atop a militia all the major players in Iraqi national politics do have militias. That is strongman politics more suited to Somalia than in a nation we hope becomes a united and semi-liberal nation.

Also, General McCaffrey notes the successful re-constitution of local and provincial government.Source: ibid Pretty darn interesting. The government closest to the people is the governmental units first starting to get their acts together. Michael Yon has told numerous stories of how the old way of doing things is slowly giving way to a new way.

The old way was denial of services & goods to unfavored groups and flow of goods & services to favored ones. I recall reading one of Yon's dispatch where a Sunni mayor had to deal with a Shia warehouse manager who was not releasing food to his city because the Shia mayor feared the food would end up in AQI's hands. Eventually, the situation was resolved not with guns, but by working it out face to face – the new way.

Yeah, it would be easier to find another strongman (or let the strongmen fight it out and the last one standing is the new leader of Iraq) and get out, but is that right? Would we have to return? In order, no and yes.

Patent Absurdity on Patents

Last night at a dinner party I heard that old comment that the oil companies are buying up all energy efficiency patents and sitting on them. I kept my mouth zipped up because I am not one to get into it with people I am not certain of how they are regarding such confrontations. I value the friendship more than trying to set them straight.

Patents have a finite lifetime. The longest any patent in the US is good for is 20 years. After the patent is up, anyone can manufacture the patented item. A buddy of mine holds a lucrative patent and it just lost protection other outfits are knocking off his idea and not paying him royalties.

If the inventions are truly usable and truly energy conserving (in a sensible fashion) then they will get utilized sooner or later, even IF the oil companies have bought the rights to the devices a big if as I think it hooey.

Happy Birthday Ludwig!

Today or tomorrow is the birthday of Ludwig von Beethoven. Most of us know who Ludwig von Beethoven is and know perhaps bits & pieces of one or two of his compositions. Read the Wikipedia entry an then listen to the the second movement the adagio cantabile of his eighth piano sonata in C minor – The Pathetique Sonata.
Happy birthday Ludwig, you would have been 237 years old today or tomorrow!

Whallang Utak

Whallah is a blog run by the Wisconsin blogger Xoff who is Bill Christoferson. He essentially a high level Dem operative. His main mission in Whallah is to keep an eye on mainly Jessica McBride, I give him credit for not naming this effort McBride Watch or something similar, all of those variation based on Watch make me sick and are brainless.

However the credit ends there. Reading his latest take on on one of Jessica's blogs has me wondering.

You have to admire, in a sick sort of way, the unbounded audacity of Jessica McBride to distort, twist or simply offer bald-face lies with no shame.

Source: Whallah – 'Knowing' Jack Abramoff Hmmm, pretty strong language. However, nothing Jessica states is a lie or can be considered a lie. There is no doubt the entire GOP was tarred by association. Jack Abramhoff's misdeeds even entered in the race for Governor with Mark Green having taken contributions from Abrahamoff's organization. Yes, specific Republicans (and Xoff notes Dems too) did have more than associations with Mr. Abrhamoff, but the point is not centered on a few Republicans.

Xoff's silly blog is loaded with ad-hominen attack against Jessica unworthy of s serious blogger and more akin to the barking of a junkyard dog or a school yard bully.

Jessica's point still stands desite Xoff's petty musings. Here is what Jessica said:

If Al Sharpton goes down over this, will fellow Democrats be tarnished for knowing him, like Republicans were tarnished for knowing Jack Abramoff? Will this be painted as symbolic of corruption in the Democratic party at large, like the Mark Foley scandal and the GOP?

Source: McBride's Media Matters – How much coverage will this get? Jessica does not name specific Republicans she names a party. The Dems and their toadies painted the GOP as the party of Jack Abrhamoff corruption and there is no doubt some were (Dems too) connected directly to Abrhamoff, but that is not the point Jessica is making.

Jessica's question & point is a valid one and is no way a lie.

Phisherman Spoofs Athenet

Today's latest phishing attempt is attempting to spoof Athenet and I finally receive a phishing scam that targets appropriately.

It is a very poor attempt, I am not going to go into the specifics of why this phishing attempt despite accurate targeting fails so poorly. I do not want to provide feedback on the attempt to the perpetrators.

In any event I will forward the note to NTD/Athenet and they can deal with it.

A Disapearing Comment?

On the blog post entitled Give Me Non-Islamic Clothes or Give Me Death it seemed there was another comment left. I brought it up on my phone and the comment looked reasonable and well within the guidelines I have for commenting, however, I can not find that comment anymore. It seemed the comment author said something like all factual and well written, but the picture... I did not see the whole comment.

I somehow deleted the comment, but I am unable to find other evidence a comment was left at all (via sitemeter), but I do recall reading something in my comments pending moderation queue that disappeared. If that comment sounds like yours please resubmit.

Thanks

The Last Bit

Is going to be appropriate for a late night blog. Two things, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and a YouTube video and some music education.

Ever hear a tune and you find yourself improvising filler in between the notes or perhaps changing one musical attribute or another? That is perhaps in your head you take the tune and move each note up or down in pitch? Ever hear a song that makes you think you have heard that melody before, but can not quite realize where you heard it before? Music contains a style called variations on a theme (VOT). VOT is a simple concept, take a tune and change it in someway retaining enough of the tune or theme to recognize the original theme.

One theme I often hear in church music is Brubek's Take Five theme. There are at least two hymns our church choir sings regularly that seem to be VOTs off of Take Five. Invariably when I pull out the hymnal the timing is 4/5 timing which is unusual and the same as Take Five's timing.

VOTs can vary in any number of ways many easily discernible to the music lover's ear and some not. First some variations easily discernible (not high-school orchestra don't expect a top-notch performance): and then some not so easily discernible (the famous Variations on a Theme by Haydn - by J Brahms):

I've Seen the Needle and the Damage Done

Baseball is damaged goods.

What to do. A buddy and myself were talking about it tonight at Third Base in Greenville. The Mitchell Report reportedly suggests to take a fresh start with the problem. That is forgive the drug transgressions occurring in the past and move on with a tough and enforceable policy.

My buddy suggests one addition. No hall of fame if your name is in the report or are caught using. One performance enhancement is primarily about the money, and secondarily about the history. Of course a player wants in the hall of fame, but the primary concern is to get set up in the hear, now, and foreseeable future. The hall of fame is primarily for one's children, grand-children, great-grand-children....

I am okay with either, as long as baseball and the player's union recognize the situation and understand it does society no good to have these guys taking the cheap way to success.

Are the Brewers able to cancel their contract with Eric Gagne? Also, this explains Derrick Turnbow.

Socialized Campaign Financing

Rick Essenberg at Shark and Shephard shares thoughts on campign finance reform.

I hope from my title you can tell I oppose it. It is my belief previous campaign finance reforms have done nothing to make things more transparent and accessible and have only further shut the doors to the hall of power.

I have a number of objections to socialized campaign financing (SCF).

The first is the plain old First Amendment to our constitution and the less plain purpose of the constitution. Government shall not infringe upon Congress shall make no law ... abridging the freedom of speech. When you tell groups or candidates how much they can spend on getting their message out you are restricting their freedom of speech. Dress it up all you want, but speech takes money and if a campaign wants to get its message out it needs money. If a campaign wants to raise funds to travel in style or eat at the best places in town I suppose I can be talked into something about that, but when a campaign needs to fund a staff and a promotions campaign I am off of your message.

The desire in a sizable number of SCF proponents is to muzzle side not-us. They say lobby XYZ is clobbering us in the polls we have to do something. Sorry, that is not the government's job to correct, even if the lobby XYZ is a group I oppose.

How does the government decide who does and does not get funds? How do we determine if someone mounting a campaign is serious or not? Recently a "candidate for president" received public funds, but honestly the candidate seemed more interested in living high on the taxpayer's dime than getting the office.

This invites (don't say begs the question!) the next question. Does it make sense for the government to decide who can or can not get into government? Is this not the sorta thing more appropriate for a snoooty country club? This is downright scary. People who normally fear W is listening to their boring conversations about organizing Dennis Kucinich's next fest are now suddenly okay with handing over the means of getting into government to the – government. Do you not believe some self-selection may happen?

My next objection is summarized by the following quotation: To compel a man to subsidize with his taxes the propagation of ideas which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical. Question, do you believe it would have been morally correct to compel Frederick Douglass to fund pro-slavery candidates? I guess you agree with me, so why force pro-abortion forces to fund the likes of Mike Huckabee?

My last objection is the disuniting effect such legislation will have.

"No sooner do you set foot on American soil than you find yourself in a sort of tumult," de Tocqueville wrote in his book. "A confused clamor rises on every side, and a thousand voices are heard at once, each expressing some social requirements." De Tocqueville was amazed at the large number of people active in public affairs. "All around you everything is on the move," he reported. De Tocqueville saw all kinds of people busily planning local projects, choosing representatives and assembling to criticize their leaders. He was especially impressed with New England town meetings where every citizen had the right to vote on public matters.

De Tocqueville thought it remarkable how often Americans joined together in various organizations which he called associations. "Americans of all ages, all stations of life and all types of disposition are forever forming associations," he wrote. "There are not only commercial and industrial associations in which all take part, but others of a thousand types-religious, moral, serious, futile, very general and very limited, immensely large and very minute."

Source: Constitutional Rights Foundation – The Citizen in de Tocqueville's America The upshot of one of de Tocqueville's important observations is how easily we Americans form and dissolve associations to do things normally done (in Europe) by the governments.

"Finally, if they want to proclaim a truth or propagate some feeling ...they form an association. In every case, at the head of any new undertaking, where in France you would find the government ... in the United States you are sure to find an association."

Source: ibid That is we form associations to oppose as well as support the government or to push for one policy or the other. Association such as Handgun Control Inc. and the NRA.

When you cripple such organizations you cripple individual citizens ability to lobby and petition our government. Again, Tocqueville discerns the problem

"No sooner do you set foot on American soil than you find yourself in a sort of tumult," de Tocqueville wrote in his book. "A confused clamor rises on every side, and a thousand voices are heard at once, each expressing some social requirements."

Source: ibid Even with individuals organized into associations Tocqueville characterizes the American political discussion as a confused clamor. If the government is able to cut off citizen's ability to organize to support candidates and policies as is our God-given right then the clamor will become easily ignorable white noise, millions of voices canceling each other out.

Deaths of Note

Two families (at least) are not going to have a Merry Christmas.

The first is the family of Triticale – The Wheat/Rye Guy. Triticale whom had leukemia and just passed away as a result of it and a recently discovered brain tumor. I never met him and never will. May God have mercy on his soul and comfort his grieving family and friends.

Another death of note is that of Walter Kolata. Walter was a longtime member of Appleton's common council. He recently left some commentary on Jo's Fox Politics blog regarding Appleton's water plant problems.

I can not say Walter and I were on the same side of issues (however, not living in "Appleton proper" it did not matter so much we were often on the other side), but we were both on this side of life until yesterday. May God have mercy on the his sould and comfort his grieving family and friends.

NO!

Fred Thompson scored points with me.

When told the only acceptable answer to the globaloney (anthropocentric) warming question was yes or no, he told them he was not going to participate.

Globaloney (anthropocentric) warming is not a yes or no question. I agree the earth is warming, I disagree humans are the cause of it. I disagree hamstringing our economy is going to do anything to solve it. The earth's climate is not a steady state of 1960s climate. I know how all was love and acid in the '60s and how many want to preserve the '60s as much as possible, but 1960s weather is like any other it is fleeting and bound to change.

I am undecided when (other than nos on Ron Paul and Huckabee) it comes to the GOP presidential race. I think McCain is a stronger candidate than what many of my fellow conservatives give him credit for, despite his stands on immigration and socialized campaign financing. Giuliani is a great candidate for homeland security or defense, but I would rather not see him as president.

Is my view petty? I do not think so, I thnk Fred took an issue that the reporter was trying to cast as black and white and refused to treat it as such.

All the talk about how conservatives see the world in stark black and white is just that, talk. The view that conservatives and can not see nuance is a cheap caricature. It seems to me the left veers between impenetrable complexity or the starkest of yes and no. Wiretapping bad guys from Afghanistan is always and everywhere evil there is no downside, detaining the bad guys in Gitmo is is always evil, or Ahmednuttyjihad is engaging in extremely complex rhetorical devices and does not mean what he says.

Fred Thompson, I am not on board with you yet, but a number more of such displays of leadership and courage and I will be with you.

Iowa Caucuses

We are just shy of three weeks out on the Iowa Caucuses.

Reports have Barak Obama pulling out front of Hillary Clinton, but the polls are not unanimous on that judgement. Real Clear Politics (RCP) publishes the latest polls. In all RCP publishes four polls and Barak Obama leads in two of those, but RCP combines the polls and dubs Barak Obama as the Democratic leader in Iowa.

Running the numbers shows the polls have a number of undecideds. The undecideds run from 5% to 13% with RCP's numbers yielding 9.6%. What I am trying to ferret out is the number of undecideds now compared to those in 2004.

Two weeks ago, polling had Edwards far behind then-front-runner Dean as well as Kerry and Gephardt. In pre-caucus polls from the campaign's final days, Kerry, Edwards, Dean and Gephardt were running so close, that the candidates were statistically tied. It was the closest Iowa contest since 1988.

Source: Fox News Online – Kerry Wins Iowa, Edwards Takes Second We are one week away from the same point as the excerpt and had Howard Dean out in front, I wonder what the number of undecideds were back then? My recollection is the number of undecideds were quite significant then, much more undecideds than now.

Iowa back in 2004 was a surprise. The MSM kept building up Howard Dean and the polls gave some support to the idea. However, in the end it was the person who had the aura of inevitability. The polls we see have enough margin of error and undecideds to swing Iowa to Edwards, Clinton, or Obama. I do not think this races is decided yet.

On the Republican side the undecideds (for the purpose of this blog I call the difference between the sum of the reported percentages & 100 as undecided) are greater in number, but unanimous for Mike Huckabee. In all cases but one the number of undecideds outnumber the difference between Huckabee and number two Mitt Romney.

Now, one last item I wonder about. From what populations do the polls RCP cite sample? The general Iowan or from the partisans who will decide the contests? Participation in the Iowa caucuses are limited to registered voters of the respective parties. I don't know, does the Iowa voter have to declare which side they belong to when they vote? Is it reasonable to generalize the Iowa population as tied to one party or the other? Even among those registered is it reasonable to expect the average Iowan party registered voter to show up at their caucus?

Obama and Huckabee lead the polls now, but polls do not count.

Happy Birthday Hector Berlioz!

I present to you the second movement ("Un Bal" in allegro non troppo) from Hector's most famous work Symphonie Fantastique.
Or just click on here to be whisked to You Tube to view the performance.

Hector was a composer during the romantic period. This piece is from a 1970 performance conducted by Herbert von Karajan.

Holy smokes Hector, you would be 204 years old today!

Oh my! Mozart's K466 is playing right now!

Give Me Non-Islamic Clothes or Give Me Death

Source: Posted Toronto – Girl, 16, dies after hijab dispute with father (Rob Roberts)
In Mississuagua Canada (near Toronto) a young woman is murdered by her father. Why? Because she would not wear the clothing he demanded her to wear. That is she would not cover up properly.

The 16-year-old Mississauga girl who was allegedly strangled by her father in a dispute over her refusal to wear the hijab has died. Aqsa Parvez, a Grade 11 student at Applewood Heights, succumbed to her injuries late last night, Peel Regional Police said today.

The girl’s 57-year-old father, Muhammad Parvez, has been charged with muder. Aqsa’s 26-year-old brother, Waqas Parvez, has been charged with obstructing police.

Friends believe Aqsa (seen above in a personal photo) was the victim of a dispute over the teenager's desire to be more western. “She wanted to live her life the way she wanted to, not the way her parents wanted her to,” classmate Krista Garbhet told the Post this morning.

Source: Posted Toronto – Girl, 16, dies after hijab dispute with father (Rob Roberts) Such a pity. When this family left their native land they took this ugly custom with them. We in the West want to welcome all who want to share in the promise of liberty, but leave your illiberal traditions at home, after all, isn't there a reason you left?

However, here are one of Mohamad Parvez's enabler's interviewing Ayan Hirsi Ali:
Ayan Hirsi Ali had to fight against the likes of Muhamad Parvez and a combination of wits, luck, and the Almighty got Ayan out of the Aqsa's fate (to date as Ayan is marked for death). Wonder if those who knee jerkingly detest Ayan (i.e. Westerner's, the Islamists detest her) see what Ayan escaped and why they should support her.

I give the standard disclaimer about innocence and hope if Mr. Mohamad Parvez and his son are convicted in the death of Aqsa they become someone's boyfriends and they stay awake all night long in fear the food is haram. Stash them in the bowels of the prison and never tell them which way is Mecca, why should they get to observe the tenets of their faith on my in-laws (we have family in Canada) dime observing all the customs of something that obviously instilled them with barbarism?

Now, do not get me wrong or believe I am on the fence about this. However, if a Muslim woman in the West voluntarily covers up, I have no problem with that. I do buy (at least partially) the argument that too often women here in the West are commoditified (i.e. turned into commoditys) that there is way too much pressure upon women to be sex toys for men. In fact, given time perhaps Aqsa would have learned it first hand and reverted to covering (at least partially) but to kill her for not is evil.

BTW, I wonder if Lawarence O'Donnell has anything to say about this? I doubt it, he is probably out there bravely denouncing Mitt Romney or something.

A hat tip to the Jawa Report on two counts: The story from Toronto and Lawrence O'Donnell's honesty.

Commenting on Blogger Beer

Is a privilege not a right. You are coming into to my house (so to speak) as a guest I expect you to act as a worthy guest. This does not mean you have to fawn over what I say or even agree, but you must make sense and keep your commentary on the blog post or on track with the commentors in an existing and ongoing thread.

I have turned comment moderation on and I must review all comments prior to posting. I approve/disapprove comments at my leisure and whim.

Also, remember your comments are not anonymous. Haloscan records your posting IP. Posting IPs can be used to track you down, if warranted. I feel no obligation to shield anyone, this is public space, do not expect privacy.

TIC Minion Not Charged

Wenday at Boots & Sabers notes the Washington County DA is not going to charge James Buss with any crimes. I am not displeased by that. He is not criminal just a naughty boy!

However, a couple of interesting comments pop up immediately:

I hope it doesn’t take too long for Mr Buss to sue owen,the city of West Bend and his ISP. They all need to be ‘taught a lesson’ and show the other overzealous prosecutors that saying “Oops, so sorry” doesn’t cut it.

Source: Boots & Sabers Commentary on No Charges Far be it for me to criticize anyone for anonymous speech, but I do criticize Twoofer II for spoofing Charlie Syke's e-mail address. Yes, so sorry does cut it.

A lesson to all contemplating posting on the internet. Sarcasm does not do well over the internet! The subtle verbal and visual cues we give while going sarcastic do not travel over the internet. If things would have been for real, then the police and Superintendent Patricia Herdrich would have been accused of gross negligence and "Oops so sorry, we thought it was sarcasm" would not have saved them.

Another post is posed under "james buss" and from the pronouns used to reference the real James Buss it is is another spoof. Of course, there are a number of commentors making it all to be a RoveMcChimplerBurton plot to which Donna retors:

A liberal posing as a conservative makes idiotic comments on a conservative blog. A school superintendent (who, I am guessing, is not a Republican, since most people connected with the educational system in this country are not) readss , the post, panics and complains. The police investigate. The teacher is suspended without pay (again, a decision made by largely Democratic school admininstrators).

And a poster says it’s the Republicans who have let “their imagination run wild?” No, Mr. Logic-Challenged Bone head, it was Buss’s imagination running wild that started this thing in the first place.

Source: Boots & Sabers Commentary on No Charges No need to add anything to Donna's comments.

West Bend, The Police, Owen, and an Idiot TIC Minion

Makes for a national blog conversation.

To summarize the story, a particular blog of Owen's at Boots & Sabers elicited a comment from a person who was posing as a conservative opposed to tax increases. The post was complete with misspellings and praise for the Columbine killers. The post contained a threat against teachers.

Well, the comment came to the police's attention who contacted Owen and they asked for the IP of the poster. It turns out the poster was a former president of a teacher's union chapter and was spoofing a conservative to attempt to discredit Boots & Sabers. Owen through Boots & Sabers and a column he writes for the local paper helped to drive the opposition that defeated a recent school spending referendum.

Now, for the complete setting a few posts later the commentator posted that his first post was not serious. However, despite the disclaimer the police took it seriously. Owen turned over the IP and the police tracked down and arrested the commentator.

This incident has been picked up on a national scale with Little Green Footballs, The Jawa Report, and reports have CNN noting the story too. The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel has a write of the story.

The reaction to the incident is interesting. Until the story started getting attention the reaction for the most part contained two major themes.

1. The police are overreacting. Once they investigated the situation and determined no threat was imminent or remotely real they should have let it drop


2. Owen had no obligation to protect the IP address of the poster

Of course, the above two points are general and not universal.

However, now the story is getting national attention and Owen's blog is getting visits by references from many different websites the reaction is starting to shift and shift like the game where you whisper a sentence in a friend's ear and the sentence goes around the circle and when it comes back to the start the sentence is completely wrong.

Here is one blog on the topic & its comments thread. The comments range from twooferistic:

Could the person behind this be maybe Owen or Jeb themselves in one way or another? Remember that Owen admits to having freely given up the poster’s IP address,(basically his identity,) to an emailer who advised he was a detective with the West Bend police (make sure you save that Owen along with a complete copy of the blog and comments,) and that Jeb was able to deliver it to the officer, without any legal process required, within minutes. And remember Owen’s excuse that he was so willing to give up the poster’s IP address voluntarily, because he just thought the cops would “find him, chew him out a bit for being an idiot, and leave it alone.”

Source: Boots & Sabers – B&S Commenter Arrested It's all a vast right-wing conspiracy! I bet this guy can even time the evil RoverMcChimplerBurton into it all!

To the reasoned:

#

If you post something that directly or indirectly suggested violence to a person or specific group of people, and then that information gets in front of a member of law enforcement, you’re putting yourself in a position of suspicion. Especially in this day and age. More than likely, this idiot got arrested, questioned, and the charge will get dropped. Better that happens than some nut goes and shoots someone, and it comes out later that some internet threats were brought to the police and they chose to do nothing.

Source: Boots & Sabers – B&S Commenter Arrested

As I have been stating quite often, if the police did not investigate, if Owen did not cooperate, and even if nothing came of the threat can you imagine how that would appear? Mr. Buss's identity would not be revealed and Owen would be accused of allowing comments that incited others to violence. If the threat would have become real than nearly the entire left side (and a good portion of the right side too) of the nation would be screaming for Owen's head.

Even a Ronpaululan joins in and uses it to plug his/her favorite candidate:

This is a perfect example of our freedoms being slowly taken away from us due to the police state of the USA.Its time to vote for Ron Paul to restore our USA freedoms.

Source: Boots & Sabers – B&S Commenter Arrested

Some commentators are completely clueless and to characterize their comments makes my mind hurt.

What I find interesting about the commentary threads is its evolution. It seems the prevailing wind in the commentary has turned against Owen. It seems most of the more recent commentors believe Owen had an obligation to shield the Mr. Buss's IP from the police. I do not know where that obligation comes from, do you? The Constitution only burdens the state with the requirement to obtain a warrant if the information source is not cooperative. It does not burden citizens with demanding anything.

A new tack taken by some is due to Owen's side-line as a columnist in the West Bend Daily News is that Owen owes his sources protection. Again why? A journalist is under no obligation, that matters more than a handshake, to protect any source. An extreme hypothetical. If a journalist's source said a bomb was going to go off and hurt a number of people is the journalist then obligated to protect that source? Even after the event? Of course, if a journalist still wants to get good tips and information they have to respect the confidentiality they promise but there is no constitutional requirement any journalist (blogger, fishwrap, radio, TV, or otherwise) keep their sources confidential. In any event, a comment on a blog is not a source. An e-mail sent to only the blogger in question I would consider to be a source and to carry with a reasonable expectation of privacy in its content.

The silliest objection raised by many is the expectation of privacy. Why someone expects privacy in a public forum is beyond me. Yeah, the IPs are not revealed but the constitution concerns itself mainly with the message and not the delivery. That is, there is no expectation of privacy in a public forum, so just because the IP is not published don't expect it to be private or to receive privacy expectations.

Now onto the comment's content. The argument that his comments were not serious and should not have triggered an arrest are the only ones that make sense. In this I would have thought after the police interviewed Mr. Buss and searched his house they should have been satisfied no physical harm was every intended and therefore dropped the manner. However, they placed him under arrest and according the article I link above are charging him with disorderly conduct, and some other charge related to the making of threats with computer equipment.

I am in full agreement the police (on behalf of West Bend teachers) were correct to investigate, I am much less certain an arrest and in fact I state the police should NOT have arrested Mr. Buss.

Go Ahead Thugo!

So we can fuel up at Citgos!

"If it starts a process of destabilization, incites a civil war, not only will the United States not get any of the 3.2 million barrels (produced per day in Venezuela according to official figures) but nothing will go onto the market, not a drop," Chavez warned, explaining he would stop all oil exports.

Source: Yahoo News – Chavez renews attacks on US ahead of poll (by Marc Burleigh) Saudi Arabia most likely can and will be likely to make up the shortfall too. However, I bet you need the cash as much as we need the oil. Sigh, you and your thugs will muscle the count or the voters or do what you have to claim a dictatorship in Venezuela and then run Venezuela into the ground.

Comment Moderation is On

I have decided to moderate comments. That is, if you post a comment it does not show up until I approve it. For the long time regulars & those with anything substantive to say it means you have to wait until I get around to approving your comments for them to show up. For a certain commentator it means their comments never show up period.

I am working on a solution so I no longer have to moderate the comments, I will not divulge details nor give an ETA on that work around.