Friday, December 31, 2004

DANGER: MAD FROG AHEAD
Matt, over at Froggy Ruminations is pissed. Apparently there is another fake Navy SEAL in the news. Another dirtbag who claimed to be a SEAL is wanted for a violent crime. This on the heels of the story about Sheryl Crow's alleged stalker who was purportedly a Navy SEAL. As it turned out, he wasn't one either.

Phony veterans are nothing new. People have been claiming credit for things they haven't really done for years. SEALs are a particularly attractive target for fakes due to the impressive reputation the teams have gained in recent years.

What has Matt really peeved is how the news media swallows the claims hook, line, and sinker without making even a token effort to fact check. Unfortunately, this is not a new story either. Media malpractice in reporting on veterans goes back to at least the Vietnam War. Thanks to our lazy-assed (or is it just plain old biased?) media, the image of the Vietnam veteran has been forever tarnished. The media repeated the lie that Vietnam vets were pathetic, PTSD-afflicted, drug addled, chronically unemployed, homeless losers so often that this myth has become conventional wisdom. I've met a lot of losers in my travels, and I've met a lot of Vietnam vets; I have yet to meet someone who was both. I'm sure there are a few out there, but they are a small minority.

Our only recourse is to hold the MSM's feet to the fire. Rather-gate was just the beginning. We may not be able to correct all of the wrongs done to the Vietnam generation by these jackals, but we can prevent them from doing it to the next generation.

Thursday, December 30, 2004

NEWS FROM TAMMI

Tammi, over at Road Warrior Survival has been logging a lot of time at the hospital for a couple of days now. Her Mama Vi was visiting her for the holidays and fell ill. Apparently, the hospital staff has been less than helpful. If you get a chance, head on over and send your regards via her comments section. If you have any ideas on how to handle the bureaucratic jackasses at the hospital, let her know (any doctors, nurses, or lawyers out there?). The link to her latest update is here.

Monday, December 27, 2004

POST HOLIDAY READING ASSIGNMENT

OK, by now you should have cleaned up that shredded wrapping paper on the living room floor, wrapped and stored the leftovers, and returned the really ugly sweater that your great aunt Hildegarde gave you as a present (you can donate it to Goodwill if you don't have the receipt; then someone else's great aunt can give it to them next year). It's time for a reading assignment.

Cliff May has an excellent column today about the war in Iraq and how it is undeniably a part of the war on terrorism. The column includes the following quote:
" There surely is only one side to be on in what is now very clearly a battle between democracy and terror..."
-Tony Blair

Truer words were never spoken. You can read the column at Townhall.com, the link is below.
Link

Michael Ledeen's December 24 column is must reading as well. Leeden points out some of the myths of the Iraqi insurgency that have been elevated to the status of "conventional wisdom" by the hacks who inhabit our news media.

"The notion that we are fighting an "insurgency" largely organized and staffed by former elements of Saddam Hussein's Baathist regime is now fully enshrined as an integral piece of the conventional wisdom. Like earlier bits of the learned consensus - to which it is closely linked - it is factually wrong and strategically dangerous."

I've been saying the same thing for months. Unfortunately, too many people have been listening to the misinformation of the MSM. You can read the rest of Ledeen's column at the link below.
Link

Part 1 of your assignment is to read the columns listed above. Part 2 is to get someone else to read them. Education is the only way to end the cycle of ignorance that has afflicted milllions of Americans (and most of "old Europe") in their thinking about the war.

Saturday, December 25, 2004

MERRY CHRISTMAS
UPDATE: I took the pic that was here out. It was too big for the blog. Oh well, it's January 5, anyway. About time I took the tree down already.

Friday, December 24, 2004

NEW JOURNALISM AWARD

The brilliant economist, Dr. Thomas Sowell has created a new journalism award: 
 
 Events of this past year have shown the need for a special award in journalism for those who think that the purpose of reporting news is to cause the public to adopt the political views of those who do the reporting. Therefore this column announces the first annual Joseph Goebbels award for that journalist who best exemplifies the spirit and the practice that Dr. Goebbels pioneered.

 For people too young to remember or too unschooled in history to know, Dr. Joseph Goebbels was the minister of propaganda in the Nazi regime back in the 1930s and 1940s. Facts never distracted him from his mission nor did a lack of facts inhibit his zeal.

 Had there been such an award in 2003, "Baghdad Bob" would have been the clear winner for his repeated bold assurances that American troops were nowhere near Baghdad and never would be. That man could have had a great career in advertising. Holding the same official position as Dr. Goebbels, Baghdad Bob would have been the perfect first winner of this award. But such are the lost opportunities of history.

I won't tell you who won this year, you'll have to read Dr. Sowell's column to find out.   Even with so many highly qualified candidates in the American news media, I'll bet you already have a good idea.  You can find out here:

http://www.townhall.com/columnists/thomassowell/ts20041224.shtml

Thursday, December 23, 2004

LOVE EXPLAINED

Harvey, of Bad Example explains the concept of love in a guest post over at IMAO. Check it out for a better understanding of this complex human emotion.

Fun Facts About Love

Wednesday, December 22, 2004

IT'S BEEN
three weeks since I last posted. I've been at a crossroads as to what to do with this blog. Since the election, I've tried to stay away from the news. War, politics, international affairs; they all give me a headache - not to mention a backache, neck ache, chest pains etc. I took a physical exam for my reserve unit right after the election. I had high blood pressure. I went a month without news or talk radio and took a physical with my personal physician. BP was back to normal. I guess I just take these things too seriously. It's hard not to when you know what the stakes are. It's hard to blog about current events when you aren't keeping current.

I can't blog about work. That would be a big no-no; my job isn't "secret" per se, but it requires a low profile. I can't really blog from work either. I have tried to blog via email from work, but that hasn't worked out too well. Something about the fonts that our email program uses messes things up.

I could blog about my personal life, but I don't have much of one. I spend most of my spare time working on my Masters Degree via a distance learning program. When I'm not actually working on that, I don't even want to think about it, let alone blog about it.

There are a few things going on that have broken through my news blackout and have really pi$$ed me off. I guess I'll have to blog about those, but it'll have to wait. I have an assignment to finish for my research methods course (I HATE THIS COURSE!!!!!)

BTW: Some blogger claims that I "was one of the people early on who urged (her) to start blogging." I happened on her blog by accident. It seems that she forgot to email me and let me know that she started a blog (insert an "I'm very disappointed in you young lady" look here). I guess I'll need to keep this blog going so I can add a link to her blog to my sidebar.

Wednesday, December 01, 2004

RETURN OF THE ANTI-DOONESBURY

Chris Muir's Day by Day cartoon returns today after a two and a half month break.  You can read it at  http://www.daybydaycartoon.com/
 

Monday, November 29, 2004

THANKSGIVING AWAY AND A JULIA COOK UPDATE

My family and I went to my mom's in Watertown, NY for Thanksgiving.  My brother and his family were there as well.  We ate way too much (who didn't?) and went to see Christmas with the Kranks (amusing movie, nothing in it that isn't family-friendly).
 
According to my brother, who had spoken with a member of Julia Cook's family that attends the same church he does, as of Thanksgiving day, her condition has been upgraded.  She is conscious and able to get around some.  She is facing some surgery to repair the damage done in the shooting, but she and her baby are doing well.  No word yet as to whether her husband, LCpl Justin Cook will have to head back to Iraq soon.  Hopefully, they'll give him some more time.
 

Monday, November 22, 2004

SENSELESS BS

My mom is a retired elementary school teacher.  Periodically, she will give me news about the activities of some of her former students, some of whom I knew.  Last night the news was bad.  One of her former students is a US Marine serving in Iraq.  While he was battling terrorists in Fallujah, his wife - five months pregnant with their child - was shot in the head by some a$$hole in York, PA.
 
According to an article in the York Daily Record:
 
Cook traveled three sleepless nights from Fallujah, site of the most violent fighting of the Iraq war since the fall of Baghdad, to York Hospital to be by his wife's bedside. The Marine said he could only describe first seeing his wife in the hospital as "crippling."

Five days after Julia Cook had been shot in the parking lot of the Giant supermarket on Loucks Road in West Manchester Township, the 21-year-old woman remained in serious condition Friday afternoon in the intensive care unit.

Her husband said she seemed happy but a little disoriented.

She has undergone several surgeries and has more to endure, Justin Cook said at a news conference Friday evening at the hospital.

To add insult to injury, the shooting had no real motive.  The dimwit who did it just wanted to kill someone and Julia Cook happened to be walking out of the Giant supermarket in York at the wrong time.  More from the Daily Record:

Noel Gomez, 19, of York, was arrested Monday at a Manchester Township motel and charged with attempted homicide and other charges in the shooting. In court documents, police said the shooting was random. They said that Gomez told them he had planned to kill someone and selected Julia Cook from among shoppers at the Giant.

Gomez is being held in York County Prison without bail.

Let's hope that they lock this idiot up and throw away the key.  If he wants to kill someone so badly, there are plenty of opportunities to do so in a maximum security prison.  Of course you have to get up close and personal to do it there.  And your intended victims hit back...hard.  Maybe that's too daunting a task for poor little Noel.

The people of York, in a fashion typical of people all over the USA have rushed in to help out any way they can:

Among those helping the family is Lana Musti, who lives in a half-mile from the site of the shooting. Musti has set up an account at M&T Bank to collect donations to assist the Cooks.

When Musti heard of the shooting on Monday morning, she started making phone calls, using her contacts from the York County Chamber of Commerce and Women in Motion. Local businesses responded with gift certificates, hotel rooms and food.

"This community should be a stronghold in giving back," she said. "We are better than this, and we need to show that and give this family the feeling we are sorry and we are with them."

As Justin Cook spends time with his wife, his thoughts sometimes shift to the Marines still fighting in Iraq. Cook had been in Iraq for 3½ months and in the Marine Corps almost three years. Watching the news is difficult because he knows his "brothers" are still there, he said.

He said he cannot comment on how long he will be in York County or his specific duties in the Marines, but said he is not in the infantry.

TO HELP

A fund has been set up to help Julia Cook's family. Make checks payable to "For the Benefit of Julia Cook" and mail them to M&T Bank, 960 S. George St., York, PA 17403. Or inquire at other M&T locations.

If you happen to be praying, you might want to include one for Lance Cpl. and Mrs. Cook and their baby. 

You can read the whole story on the Record's website.

http://ydr.com/story/main/49930/

Friday, November 19, 2004

STILL ALIVE (BARELY)

I've had little time for luxuries like blogging lately.  Hopefully I'll get back into the swing of it this weekend.  In the meantime, I figured I'd test blogging-by-email again.  We just upgraded our OS's on the computers at work from NT to XP.  The upgrade included a newer version of the Groupwise email program (I have no clue why they won't let us use MS Outlook).  I'm anxious to see how it works.  Using the older version, whenever I posted by email, the font of every entry in my entire blog changed to a much smaller size.  It wouldn't go back to normal until I deleted the offending post.  This version of Groupwise uses Tahoma as the default font rather than MS Sans Serif.  I'm anxious to see whether it makes a difference.

Monday, November 08, 2004

ROOT CAUSES
I saw this story linked on Drudge.
A John F. Kennedy School of Government researcher has cast doubt on the widely held belief that terrorism stems from poverty, finding instead that terrorist violence is related to a nation's level of political freedom.

Associate Professor of Public Policy Alberto Abadie examined data on terrorism and variables such as wealth, political freedom, geography, and ethnic fractionalization for nations that have been targets of terrorist attacks.

To a lot of folks, especially those in Harvard and other ivory towers, this is news. I don't find it in the least bit surprising.
Before analyzing the data, Abadie believed it was a reasonable assumption that terrorism has its roots in poverty, especially since studies have linked civil war to economic factors. However, once the data was corrected for the influence of other factors studied, Abadie said he found no significant relationship between a nation's wealth and the level of terrorism it experiences.

"In the past, we heard people refer to the strong link between terrorism and poverty, but in fact when you look at the data, it's not there. This is true not only for events of international terrorism, as previous studies have shown, but perhaps more surprisingly also for the overall level of terrorism, both of domestic and of foreign origin," Abadie said.

Instead, Abadie detected a peculiar relationship between the levels of political freedom a nation affords and the severity of terrorism. Though terrorism declined among nations with high levels of political freedom, it was the intermediate nations that seemed most vulnerable.

You can read the rest of it here.

The poverty-terrorism link is an extension of the poverty-crime link, which is an integral part of liberal dogma. Just as these "intellectuals" ignored the fact that the Great Depression, a time of record poverty in the US, did not turn millions of Americans into criminals, they have also failed to notice that many of history's most notorious terrorists came from well-to-do families.

The radical US group known as the Weathermen, the German Red Army Faction, and even Al Qaida were founded by children of privilige. Terrorists are more likely to be thrill-seeking idealogues than people looking for a way to support their families. The myth of the freedom fighter has been necessary to gain sympathy for terrorist causes. Let's face it, Carlos the Jackal is hardly a sympathetic character to the average person in "flyover" country.

Friday, November 05, 2004

SUPPORT FROM THE TROOPS
There is one voting block that, while not crucial to winning a Presidential election, says a lot about the candidate that wins its support during wartime - our troops. Retired US Army LTC Gordon Cucullu examines the election from the perspective of service members in his most recent column.
Since we have a lot of talk floating around about "supporting the troops," it’s interesting to ask the reciprocal question: Whom do the troops support? On the morning of Wednesday November 3, 2004 American soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines in the field answered that question resoundingly: George W. Bush. Marines actually engaged in combat operations around Fallujah, Iraq were cheering, laughing and exchanging high-fives over the president’s re-election victory.

From an outsider’s point of view this might seem odd. After all, Senator John F. Kerry ran as a war hero, a decorated veteran, and a man who pledged to "bring the troops back home where they belong." Throughout the campaign – indeed unceasingly since the 2000 campaign – Bush has been excoriated by the mainstream media as a draft-evader who hid in the National Guard, who was even absent without permission from that service (which they belittle). He was the son of an influence-peddling father who pulled strings to evade combat. He was a "chickenhawk" who dared to risk others’ lives (Bush lies; soldiers die) while avoiding risk of his own. With such a dismal, dare we say cowardly record how could it be possible that American service personnel support this guy?



John Kerry by contrast waved his medals, including his Purple Hearts around like a certain "civil rights" leader’s bloody shirt. He saluted (in an embarrassingly lame manner) to his primarily antiwar Democrat constituency as a convention kick-off then ran a Steven Spielberg-assisted editing job of a grainy black and white film that he had shot of himself during the Vietnam War engaging in heroic activities. He appeared at innumerable campaign sites in a leather bomber jacket and made certain that his advance people had sufficient number of American Legion and Veterans of Foreign Wars supporters in appropriate regalia seated in back of him during an appearance so that they would be highly visible in any camera angle.



Without question Candidate Kerry "talked the talk" about military experience, compassion for soldiers, and concern for their well-being. He spoke about bumping personnel levels and awarding pay raises and improving housing and all of the things that an outsider would automatically assume mattered to the troops and their families. But despite all of this he failed to pass the military smell test.

Check out the rest of LTC Cucullu's column. It's a good read, as his columns always are. Then go to this site to find out what another prominent veteran has to say about that now-famous salute.

Thursday, November 04, 2004

WHOOOSSSHHHH!
That flushing sound you hear is the "conventional wisdom" circling the bowl.

-Higher turnout=Dem victory: NOT!
-Young people will vote in droves and put Kerry over the top: NOT!
-Exit polls can foretell the outcome early in the day: NOT!

I'm so happy the election is finally over, and that it turned out the way it did. My stress level was well into the red zone. Time for a little decompression. Watch for the left to have a major meltdown. I'll probably head over to Democratic Underground (I always suspected that they were subterranean) or Dailykos to laugh at the tantrums. But not yet. I need a break from politics for a day or two.

If you voted for President Bush on Tuesday, I would like to thank you on behalf of my family and myself. If you prayed for a Bush victory, don't forget to thank The Man upstairs. Nobody likes an ingrate.

In the meantime, click on the link for a little victory dance.

Tuesday, November 02, 2004

DON'T LET THEM DOWN

Picture found at Sacred Cow Burgers.
ELECTION DAY
After what seemed like the longest campaign in history, the big day is finally here. I voted on my way to work. No lines, no waiting. My mind was not on my work like it should have been today. I checked the Drudge Report a few hundred times for election news. I just can't believe all the legal (as in lawyer-centric) and illegal (as in vandalism, dirty tricks, etc.) hijinks going on out there. If we thought the country was divided before, I think we're in for a major shock over the next four years.

I guess I'll settle in and watch the results on FOX News while I study for an exam I have at drill on Sunday. Passing it will fill in the last square I need to have in order to get promoted. Then it's just a matter of time in grade.

A number of bloggers are live blogging the election. I've been tracking Bloodspite's ongoing election post today. He's covering the numbers, the incidents, and the things other bloggers are saying. Head on over and check it out.

Monday, November 01, 2004

10 REASONS TO VOTE FOR GEORGE W. BUSH
George W. Bush isn't perfect. He has been weak on immigration and border control issues, even in the wake of 9/11. He proposed the "No Child Left Behind" bill, which shoveled more tax money into the sinkhole of our public education system. He signed a prescription drug bill that represents the largest increase in entitlement spending since Lyndon Johnson's administration. Even with these strikes against him, George W. Bush is still (far and away) the best candidate running for President.

1. He says what he means, and he means what he says. This was a refreshing change after eight years of Mr. "It depends on what the meaning of is is". Mr. Nuance ("I voted before it before I voted against it") doesn't inspire much confidence in his ability to get the job done in the face of adversity.

2. George W. Bush will do what it takes to get the job done, even if there are political risks involved. The invasion of Iraq proved that. War is a politically risky proposition. President Bush didn't depend on polls or focus groups in deciding on a course of action vis a vis Iraq.

3. President Bush won't predicate his actions on the approval of the international "community". He will do what needs to be done whether the UN and France approve or not. Senator Kerry talks tough, but his "global test" comment at one of the debates betrayed his real position. He has been on record as being an internationalist since the 1970's, it appears that he still is.

4. The economy is recovering under President Bush. We were in a recession before 9/11. The attacks struck at the heart of our financial and air travel industries. It is a testament to this country's resilience that our economy has recovered so well. Had the 9/11 attacks happened in one of the countries "old Europe", I would expect a total economic collapse.

5. The Bush tax cuts help working families. My family benefitted from the tax cuts. My wife and I both work for a living, we are not among the idol rich. Other families like mine benefitted as well.

6. President Bush understands that we are at war. Senator Kerry and many on the left seem to want to return to the Clinton-era strategy as treating each terrorist act as an individual crime. Al Qaida gained strength and momentum while the Clinton administration bumbled and fumbled around after the 1993 WTC bombing, the Khobar Towers bombing, the USS Cole attack, and the duel embassy bombings in Africa.

7. President Bush understands that we have to keep the pressure on the terrorists overseas in order to prevent future attacks at home. While there is still a lot of room for improvement on the homeland security front, it is impossible to build an impregnable "Fortress America". We have to go after the terrorists and the people who support terrorists, even if they are hiding behind an ally of one of our "allies". A proactive approach can win this war, a reactive approach will not.

8. President Bush and his top advisors understand that we are at war with an entire movement. Senator Kerry thinks the GWoT all boils down to UBL and Al Qaida. The wahhabist/salafist Islamic movement was around long before UBL, it will surely live on after his death. If we limit our efforts to the people who were directly invloved in the 9/11 attacks, we will surely see more attacks in the future.

9. UBL, Saddam Hussein, Kim Jong-Il, Bashar Assad, and the Iranian mullahs all harbor disdain for President Bush. When bad folks all agree on hating you, you must be doing something right. If President Bush didn't represent an impediment to the plans of the aforementioned thugs, they wouldn't care whether he was President or not.

10. A Bush victory will make Al Franken, Michael Moore, the Dixie Chicks, Barbara Streisand, and George Soros very unhappy. That alone should make your vote for George W. Bush worth your while.
A MESSAGE FROM ANOTHER FORMER CENTCOM COMMANDER
I saw this on Drudge's site:
Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf Calls On DNC To Stop Fraudulent Phone Calls Claiming He Has Endorsed Senator Kerry

TAMPA, FL – Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf today issued the following statement:

"The Democratic National Committee is making fraudulent phone calls claiming that I have endorsed Senator Kerry. Nothing could be further from the truth, and I demand that they stop immediately.

"Senator Kerry opposed the Reagan defense build-up that won the Cold War. Senator Kerry opposed the removal of Saddam Hussein from Kuwait. Senator Kerry proposed billions in intelligence cuts after the first attack on the World Trade Center. Senator Kerry voted against funds to equip our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan with supplies like body armor and ammunition.

"I am supporting President Bush for reelection, because he is the candidate who has demonstrated the conviction needed to defeat terrorism. In contrast to the President's steadfast determination to defeat our enemies, Senator Kerry has a record of weakness that gives me no confidence in his ability to fight and win the War on Terror. His attempt to make up for these deficiencies by falsifying my endorsement only confirms my impression that he is not the man we need to lead our nation."

Further proof that Senator Kerry is willing to say or do anything to get elected. Take my advice, don't get into a game of limbo with John Kerry. Odds are you can't go lower than he can.

Saturday, October 30, 2004

A MESSAGE FOR THE TROOPS

Pic found at Strange Cosmos
WALTER CRANKCASE
"America's most trusted man" is at it again. According to Drudge, Walter Cronkite is engaging in speculation of the far-out-in-left-field-kind.
Former CBSNEWS anchorman Walter Cronkite believes Bush adviser Karl Rove is possibly behind the new Bin Laden tape.

Cronkite made the startling comments late Friday during an interview on CNN.

Somewhat smiling, Cronkite said he is "inclined to think that Karl Rove, the political manager at the White House, who is a very clever man, he probably set up bin Laden to this thing."

Interviewer Larry King did not ask Cronkite to elaborate on the provocative election eve observation.

That's all we need from this legend of "journalism", more fuel for the fires being tended by the tin-foil hat crowd. I can't believe that Cronkite is dumb enough to believe this bullshit (the possiblity of senility notwithstanding), and I can't believe that he doesn't know the kind of harm his endorsement of such looney-toon conspiracy theories does.

So, tell us Walter, was Ho Chi Minh behind this?
Just back from Saigon, (Cronkite) rejected the official forecast of victory, predicting instead that it seemed "more certain than ever that the bloody experience of Vietnam is to end in a stalemate."

I hear that Uncle Ho was "a very clever man" too.

Wednesday, October 27, 2004

A MUST READ
Blackfive addresses the shameful way in which one of the presidential candidates is campaigning on the issue of the GWoT.
You have read letters that I have posted here from Combat Commanders writing about (1) the media's anti-war and anti-Bush agenda and (2) how a few words from a certain presidential candidate is spurring the enemy to fight on.

In turn, the terrorist bombings fuel the far left's anti-war and anti-Bush fervor. Yesterday, John Kerry said it's a "bigger mess by the day."

I've said it before, "You can't be anti-war and support the troops at the same time." It just doesn't work. The terrorists are encouraged by anti-war rhetoric. And they will keep striking harder as our resolve appears to weaken.

B5's point, one which the left in this country cannot seem to grasp, is that war is a holistic thing. Armies do not win wars, nations do. World War II was not just fought by the brave members of the allied militaries. It was fought by the people on the homefront too. From Rosie the Riveter, to the people with victory gardens,everyone did their part to win that war.

Colin Powell once said "perpetual optimism is a force multiplier." I agree with that sentiment 100%. There is, however, another side to that coin. Perpetual pessimism is a force divider. If the folks on the homefront sink into an attitudinal abyss, our troops will too. They are not robots, they are human, just like the rest us. They cannot maintain a positive attitude when high ranking political officials continuously denigrate their mission. Soldiers derive a great deal of their pride from their mission. When you tell a soldier that his mission is pointless, you are telling him that his existence and his sacrifices are pointless. That's not much of a morale booster.

Either Senator Kerry does not know this (which would mean he is extremely stupid), or he does not care (which would mean he is extremely callous). As B5 points out, this is not a new M.O. for John Forbes Kerry.
John Kerry fought in Vietnam for four months, then came home and lied about the courage and valor of our military in order to get elected. And he's doing it all over again in order to win the presidency.

Sure Kerry was in Vietnam. Well, Bennedict Arnold wasn't a coward either.

They both turned against their brothers.

The piece goes on to list some good ways you can support the troops. You can read the rest of it here. Then keep it in mind when you pull that lever/punch that card/touch that screen on Tuesday.

Tuesday, October 26, 2004

ON THIS DAY...
in 1881, the infamous gunfight at the OK Corral took place in Tombstone, AZ. Actually, the gunfight took place behind the OK Corral. Tombstone Town Marshal Virgil Earp, his deputies (and brothers) Wyatt and Morgan Earp, and Doc Holliday confronted Ike and Billy Clanton and Tom and Frank McLaury. The gunfight lasted thirty seconds and left Billy Clanton and the McLaurys dead. Virgil and Morgan Earp were both injured in the shootout.

To this day, there is still controversy over who shot first. The Discovery Channel did an installment of Unsolved History on the subject.

This site is probably the most complete on the web concerning Tombstone and the Earp/Clanton feud. It is maintained by Terry "Ike" Clanton, a descendant of the Clantons. It also contains a section on the ghosts of Tombstone to put you in a Halloween frame of mind.

Tombstone is one of my favorite movies. There is an excellent website about the movie here. It includes the Latin Duel Page, which translates the Latin phrases that Doc Holliday and Johnny Ringo traded in the Oriental saloon.

Another good Tombstone site to visit is the one mainatined by Big Nose Kate's Saloon, which was named for Doc Holliday's infamous girlfriend.

If you're interested in visiting Tombstone someday, you can see what there is to do there on the city's official website.

Monday, October 25, 2004

EXPLOSIVES MISSING
Our illustrious news media is reporting that 377 tons of explosives are missing from the al-Qaqaa military facility in Iraq. Senator Kerry is on the attack over this.
"Terrorists could use this material to kill our troops, our people, blow up airplanes and level buildings," he told a rally in New Hampshire.

No sh*t Sherlock! What did you think that they were making those IED's from, breakfast cereal?
LIAR, LIAR
Last December, Senator John Kerry claimed, while speaking to the Council on Foreign Relations, claimed to have met
"with the entire Security Council, and we spent a couple of hours talking about what they saw as the path to a united front in order to be able to deal with Saddam Hussein."

As it turns out, that isn't entirely true
But of the five ambassadors on the Security Council in 2002 who were reached directly for comment, four said they had never met Mr. Kerry. The four also said that no one who worked for their countries' U.N. missions had met with Mr. Kerry either.

The former ambassadors who said on the record they had never met Mr. Kerry included the representatives of Mexico, Colombia and Bulgaria. The ambassador of a fourth country gave a similar account on the condition that his country not be identified.

Ambassador Andres Franco, the permanent deputy representative from Colombia during its Security Council membership from 2001 to 2002, said, "I never heard of anything."

Although Mr. Franco was quick to note that Mr. Kerry could have met some members of the panel, he also said that "everything can be heard in the corridors."

If this was President Bush, everyone would be hurling the "L" word (liar, not liberal) at him. Let's see if this happens to Senator Kerry. I'm not holding my breath. Where is Lawrence "I hate lies" O'Donnell when you need him?

Friday, October 22, 2004

A FIRST TIME FOR EVERYTHING
On November 2nd, I am going to do something that I have never done before. Twenty years after my first vote in a national election, I am going to vote for a third party candidate. I have never given much credence to third party candidates. They are often single issue candidates, and they usually don't amount to much once the votes are counted. Of the ones who do have an effect, the majority serve only as spoilers. My first inclination is usually to dismiss a third party candidate as either a zealot for whatever cause they are espousing, or a hopeless megalomaniac (Ross Perot and Ralph Nader come to mind).

A few years ago, I tried to talk a friend out of voting for the Right to Life Party candidate for Senator. My argument centered around the fact that the RTL candidate didn't have a prayer, and that even though the GOP candidate was relatively liberal, he was a damn sight better than his opponent. As it turned out, the RTL candidate lost, the GOP candidate lost, and my state wound up with the most liberal senator it has ever had.

Living here in the great(?) state of New York, I'm "fortunate" enough to be represented in the US Senate by two of the most liberal politicians in the country: Hillary "let's nationalize health care" Clinton and Charles "never met a gun he didn't want to ban" Schumer. This year Schumer is up for reelection, and I don't forsee New Yorkers ridding themselves of him this time around. Senator Chuckie is running an aggressive television campaign. He is taking credit for everything from new airline service in the upstate region to the morning sunrise. A few minutes ago, Chuckie was on TV promising to make medicines less expensive.

The GOP's candidate is Howard Mills. The only reason I know this is because I have heard his name mentioned in a Marilyn O'Grady campaign commercial. O'Grady is the Conservative Party candidate for US Senate. While not as ubiquitous as Schumer's commercials, O'Grady's commercials air frequently on local TV. As for Mills, I have not seen one TV commercial, heard one radio commercial, or even seen a flier from his campaign. None. Zero. Zip. Zilch. If there have been any, I haven't seen 'em.

While I don't believe that O'Grady has much of a chance of winning, I'm going to vote for her anyway. The New York GOP's sorry performance in this election has me pissed. I am not going to reward this lazy-ass attitude with my vote. Mills may have what it takes to be a great Senator, but he's not playing to win. If the GOP wants to make inroads into traditionally Democratic states, they're going to have to make their case to the voters. That'll require actual effort. Just showing up is not enough.

This year I'm going to "throw away" my vote on a third party candidate. If enough people do the same, maybe the GOP in NY will wake up and smell the donkey shit. It's time to grab a shovel and get to work.

Wednesday, October 20, 2004

MULTIMEDIA STRESS RELIEF
As the campaign has intensified, so has my stress level. Sometimes a little humor helps to lighten the load. Fortunately, there is no shortage of funny stuff in the internet.

Here you can see a photo essay (complete with captions) on "Interpreting John Kerry". (Hat tip: Blackfive)

David Zucker, the director of Airplane and Naked Gun has directed an anti-Kerry commercial for the Club for Growth. You can view it here.

My brother sent me the link to this toon that is a takeoff on Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody. Watch for a cameo from everybody's favorite unhinged VP at the end.

If you miss the Soup Nazi from Seinfeld, you can see him here.


Is this the new Kerry/Edwards bumper sticker? (Picture from Flashbunny)

Monday, October 18, 2004

LOOK WHO'S TALKING

Former VP Al Gore blasted President Bush in a speech today.
"It is beyond incompetence – it is recklessness that risks the safety and security of the American people," the former vice president said during a speech at Georgetown University.

Gore, the Democratic presidential nominee in 2000 and loser of that bitterly contested election, complained that Bush's refusal to budge from "a rigid, right-wing ideology" has led him to forbid any dissent and ignore warnings that may conflict with his assumptions about Iraq, tax cuts and other policy issues.

"He is arrogantly out of touch with reality," Gore said. "He refuses to ever admit mistakes. Which means that so long as he is our president, we are doomed to repeat them."

The speech, sponsored by the liberal activist group MoveOn.org, was billed as Gore's last major policy speech before the Nov. 2 election. He delivered his remarks in strong but measured tones, avoiding the overheated passion that had marked several of his appearances earlier this year.

I'm not sure which is more ridiculous, ranting about rigid ideology at an event sponsored by MoveOn.org, or accusations of being "out of touch with reality" coming from a man who endorsed Howard Dean (and encouraged the eight other candidates for the Democratic nomination to drop out of the race).

Sunday, October 17, 2004

NOT A GOOD SIGN
At a time when information and personnel security are most critical for the US military, a disturbing story emerges about a major lapse in the military's security controls. This story was brought to my attention via Michelle Malkin's blog.
Last week's issue of People magazine has a brief article about Liliana Plata, an illegal alien from Mexico who allegedly entered the Air Force by pretending to be Cristina Alaniz, a student at Texas State University. According to news reports, Plata was able to join the Air Force using identity documents she had purchased on the black market in Los Angeles for about $2,000. Plata argues that she should be spared punishment for fraud, and be spared punishment for violating our immigration laws, and be spared for deceiving the U.S. government because she served honorably in Iraq. A lot of soft-headed, open borders sympathizers agree with her.

Spared punishment? Let's see, identity theft, fraud, forgery, falsifying official documents (try one count for each document she signed as Cristina Alaniz); this dumbass has committed a whole slew of felonies. Wearing your country's uniform, or in this case, the uniform of someone else's country, is a privilige and an honor. It is not a "get out of jail free" card. They ought to throw the book at this bimbo.

Speaking of punishment, someone in the Air Force recruiting and personnel system really dropped the ball here. There are at least a few folks in need of a severe spanking over this. I doubt it will actually happen, but I hope I'm wrong. The next person who slips through the cracks could turn out to be a terrorist, or a terrorist sympathizer. For all we know, one already has.

Saturday, October 16, 2004

DING DONG...
the witch is dead. Former US Navy SEAL Matthew Heidt has an excellent post on his blog about Usama bin Laden. His theory, one I happen to agree with, is that UBL is dead. Turned into a crispy critter at Tora Bora.
UBL has not been heard from since Tora Bora despite developments in the GWOT in Afghanistan and Iraq that make it unthinkable for him to have remained silent. Not to mention successful attacks in Bali, Madrid, Turkey, and Jakarta to name a few that remain unremarked upon by UBL. The invasion and occupation of an Islamic state by the US and not a word. Elections held for the first time in Afghan history, and he had nothing to say about it in the lead up. AQ tried once early on to air a tape that never mentioned key developments in the Afghan campaign and was quickly discredited as an attempt to put one over on his followers by airing a previous recording. Zwahiri decided that it was better to just pretend that UBL was alive because there was no plausible martyr story to tell. UBL went out running for his life like a coward. He is dead. His remains are turds shat by scavenging animals in the mountains of Afghanistan blown by the wind and stomped on by US troops.

He also offers an explanation as to why the administration hasn't made this known to the American public. Check it out, it's very enlightening.

Friday, October 15, 2004

SO CLOSE THE F'ING WINDOW, ALREADY!
Are you feeling a draft? Senator Kerry is, and he's sharing it with the electorate. Old Cap'n Flip-flop has gone from alluding to a return to the military draft, to saying outright that its return is in the works if President Bush is reelected.
Des Moines, IA, Oct. 15 (UPI) -- Democratic presidential nominee Sen. John Kerry said there is a "great potential" for the reinstitution of a military draft if President Bush is re-elected.

"With George Bush, the plan for Iraq is more of the same and the great potential of a draft," Kerry said during an interview with the Des Moines Register before speaking at an Iowa State Fairgrounds rally.

I guess that the Cap'n forgot that the bill that would reinstate the draft was soundly defeated in the House of representatives earlier this month.

Still, the Democrats' scare tactics are having an effect. It wouldn't be the first time that the Dems have whipped up emotion in order to trump reason. As retired USAF First Sergeant Rod Powers points out, the news media isn't helping matters any.
Various newspaper and magazine articles make it appear that the military is having problems attracting recruits and retaining members. Nothing could be further from the truth. They interview a few soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines, who state they are getting out, and use that as "proof" that the services are having problems with recruiting and retention. The truth of the matter is that all of the active duty services have made their recruiting and retention goals this year, and for the past eight straight years. The first-term re-enlistment rate is about 50 percent, and for those re-enlisting for third and fourth terms is about 80 to 85 percent (and that's exactly where the services want those rates to be -- any higher would stagnate promotions).

Powers has written an excellent, and very detailed article on why a return to the draft is unlikely. You can read it here; then you'll have more ammo to use the next time you hear one of Cap'n Flip-flop's koolaid vendors telling people "Bush is bringing back the draft!" You probably won't convince the koolaid dweeb, but you may save a few folks from being persuaded. I'm beginning to believe that stupidity is contagious. We all have to do our part to stop the spread.
NEW KERRY AD(?)
(Sound blaring at full volume)DICK CHENEY'S DAUGHTER IS A LESBIAN!! GAY!! HO-MO-SEX-U-AL!!
(Faint whisper) I'mJohnKerryandIapprovedthismessage.

Monday, October 11, 2004

PESKY TERRORISTS!
Senator John Kerry clarifies his position on the War on Terrorism:
"We have to get back to the place we were, where terrorists are not the focus of our lives, but they're a nuisance… I know we're never going to end prostitution,” Kerry told Times interviewer Matt Bai. “We're never going to end illegal gambling. But we're going to reduce it, organized crime, to a level where it isn't on the rise. It isn't threatening people's lives every day, and fundamentally, it's something that you continue to fight, but it's not threatening the fabric of your life."

Is this guy lying in order to get elected, or is he really this freakin' clueless? I'm not sure which answer would scare me more.
REMEMBER THE ALAMO
Just what the military needs in the wake of Abu Ghraib, more tarnish for its image.
Two teenagers, identified by police as active duty soldiers at nearby Fort Sam Houston, were arrested Sunday evening for having sex at the Alamo.

A police report says the 18 year old woman and 19 year old man, both assigned to an Army medical batallion, were naked from the waist down when tourists spotted them having sex in an area of the Alamo which is open to tourists. Several visitors reported seeing the activity and reported it to police.

The pair was charged with public lewdness, a misdemeanor.

According to another article, the two dumbasses involved were Kristine Nissel, 18, and Matthew Hotard, 19, both members of the 232nd Medical Battalion stationed at Fort Sam Houston. Their parents must be so proud.

Sunday, October 10, 2004

ON THIS DAY IN 1985...
...the hijackers of the cruise ship Achille Lauro were taken into custody after US F-14 fighters forced the airliner they were on to land in Italy.
On October 7, 1985, four members of one of the PLO's factions, the Palestine Liberation Front (PLF), hijacked the Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro and demanded the release of Palestinian prisoners held in Israel. Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak persuaded the hijackers to surrender, but not before they shot to death a wheelchair-bound Jewish passenger from the United States named Leon Klinghoffer, dumping his body overboard.

Mubarak allowed the PLF leader and hijacking mastermind, Mohammed Abbas, and the other terrorists to fly to their headquarters in Tunisia. President Ronald Reagan sent U.S. warplanes to intercept the flight, however, and forced it to land at a U.S.-Italian air base in Sicily. The United States and Italy fought over jurisdiction in the case, but the Italians refused to extradite any of the men.

Inexplicably, Abbas was allowed to go to Yugoslavia. An Italian court convicted 11 of 15 others associated with the hijacking, while Abbas and another terrorist were tried in absentia and found guilty. Abbas was sentenced to life in prison. Bassam al-Asker, one of the Achille Lauro hijackers, was granted parole in 1991. Ahmad Marrouf al-Assadi, another accomplice, disappeared in 1991 while on parole.

Abbas was never arrested. In 1990, he struck again from the sea, with an abortive speedboat attack on bathers on a beach near Tel Aviv.

Though he was sentenced to five life terms in Italy, and was wanted in the United States, Abbas remained a free man. He spent most of the years after the hijacking in Tunisia before moving to the Gaza Strip in April 1996, after the Palestinian Authority took control of the area as part of the peace agreement with Israel.

While in Gaza, Abbas said he was sorry for the hijacking, but the daughters of Leon Klinghoffer said that Abbas had been convicted of murder and should serve his sentence (CNN, April 23, 1996). As a result of the 1995 Israeli-Palestinian interim peace agreement, however, Abbas and other PLO members were granted immunity for violent acts committed before the signing of the September 1993 Oslo agreement.

Abbas eventually made his way to Iraq where he was believed to be a conduit for Saddam Hussein's payments to the families of Palestinian suicide bombers. Abbas was captured by U.S. forces in a raid in Iraq on April 15, 2003. He died on March 9, 2004, at the age of 56 in U.S. custody in Iraq. Klinghoffer's daughters said, “Now, with his death, justice will be denied. The one consolation for us is that Abu Abbas died in captivity, not as a free man.”

Let's see, the fact that Abu Abbas was captured in Iraq doesn't prove that the Hussein regime was a terrorist enabler? Nor does the fact that Iraq offered a safehaven and support to the likes of Abu Nidal and Abu Ibrahim (as far back as the 1980s)? I guess we'll have to wait for a signed confession from Saddam. Don't hold your breath.

Friday, October 08, 2004

DEBATE TONIGHT
Time to throw a couple of Coronas in the freezer to get them nice and cold for the debate. W better be on his game tonight. I don't believe that tonight is make or break for the Pres, but I can't handle another week of listening to the MSM gloat that Captain Flip-flop won.
THE UNITED(?) NATIONS
With the release of the Duelfer report on the Iraqi WMD program (or lack thereof), controversy is swirling around the report's conclusion that Iraq did not have WMD's.
Boiled down to its essentials, the report by the CIA-led Iraq Survey Group says Iraq had essentially destroyed what weapons of mass destruction it had in the early 1990s. Mr. Duelfer said Saddam Hussein had the desire, but not the capability, to restart those programs because of United Nations sanctions.

The status of Iraq's WMD programs has become a hot political issue because it was a key rationale for the Bush administration's decision to attack Iraq in 2003. In a highly charged election campaign, the new report is more fuel for the political fires.

This will undoubtedly provide more fuel for the fire of the "Bush lied" crowd. The fact that a virtual who's who of international leaders spent the 1990's repeatedly asserting that Saddam Hussein was pursuing WMD's is conveniently ignored.

While the MSM will continue to pound the point about Iraq's WMD's into our heads, they are less than enthusiastic about the report's other major conclusion. It appears that suspicions about corruption in the UN oil-for-food program were not only correct, they fell short of the true scope of illegal activity.
SADDAM Hussein believed that the United Nations system was so corrupt that it would protect his dictatorship from American aggression and allow him to complete quickly his quest for weapons of mass destruction (WMD).

Detail from the full Iraq Survey Group report - compiled from scores of former Iraqi officials and captured intelligence documents - shows that Saddam was intending to resume his WMD programme as soon as UN sanctions were dropped.

His officials believed they could make WMD within two years - but the only flaw in their strategy was to think that Tony Blair and President George Bush would not invade Iraq without explicit UN permission.

Extraordinary detail from the report was reverberating around the world yesterday as the French government issued an angry denial that its ministers had privately assured Saddam they would use their UN veto to stop war in return for oil contracts.

The full text of the report shows that Saddam realised in 1995, after his son-in-law defected to Jordan, that he had no choice but to comply with UN weapons inspectors. He ordered the destruction of all documents - but told scientists to "preserve plans in their minds" and "keep the brains of Iraq’s scientists fresh".

His strategy was to use Iraq’s vast oil reserves as a lever to pull apart the international community, by bribing Russian and French officials. The report shows this policy carried out to a breathtaking degree.

Given that only 15 of Iraq’s 73 proven oilfields were being developed, Saddam’s officials started to offer lucrative deals to Russian and French oil companies, while personally targeting politicians considered corrupt.

Jacques Chirac, the president of France, was top of the list. Some 11 million oil-for-food vouchers were allocated to a businessmen named Patrick Maugein, who was "considered a conduit to Chirac", according to the report.

It also claims that Saddam’s officials paid the equivalent of £600,000 to the ruling French Socialist Party - and that Baghdad’s then ambassador to Paris handed the money to Pierre Joxe, the then French defence minister.

Russia, another of the five countries with the power to veto war under the UN system, was heavily courted. Saddam’s officials dealt directly with the oil companies, who he deduced were quickly assuming political power.

"Iraqi attempts to use oil gifts to influence Russian policy-makers were on a lavish and almost indiscriminate scale," it says. He targeted a "new oligarch class" and also bribed Lukoil, the oil giant, with oil-for-food vouchers worth $10 million.

Peter Rodinov, Russia’s energy minister, went to Baghdad in 1997 to discuss a $12 billion oil deal. Two years later, Russian experts travelled to Iraq to provide advice on missile-guidance systems.

Critics say that President Bush didn't work hard enough to get the UN on board with us in regards to Iraq. It's now apparent to anyone but the kool-aid addicts on the extreme left that the UN and some of our "allies" were bought and paid for by Saddam Hussein. John "did I mention that I was in Vietnam?" Kerry wants to give these corrupt yahoos a say in our national security. WRONG F'ING ANSWER, WAR HERO!

Tuesday, October 05, 2004

GLOBAL TEST
When John Kerry was asked in last week's debate whether he would, as President, take preemptive military action:
Kerry said in the debate that the United States had the right to take preemptive action abroad if it "passes the global test, where your countrymen, your people understand fully why you're doing what you're doing and you can prove to the world that you did it for legitimate reasons."

Asked Monday to clarify what he meant by a "global test", his response was:
"The test I was talking about is a test of legitimacy — not just in the globe, but elsewhere," he said. "If you do things that are illegitimate in the eyes of other people, it's very hard to get them to share the burden and risk with you.

"I will never cede America's security to any institution or any other country. No one gets a veto over our security. No one."

Still confused? Okay, they say that a picture is worth a thousand words. Maybe this will help.

Sunday, October 03, 2004

IN NEED OF A DAY OFF
After a busy week, I had reseve duty this weekend, as if I wasn't already tired enough. To add insult to injury, we did chemical warfare training (a periodic requirement for all service members) on Saturday morning. A few hours of running around in a chem suit will do nothing to improve your disposition if you are already in a less-than-happy-place. The finale involved carrying a "casualty" to a casualty collection area. Naturally, he was one of the largest guys in training that day. Like the man says, you don't have to like it, you just have to do it. We did it. It's done. No more play-war stuff for another month, and no chem training until next year.

Wearing the gear sucks (it's even worse in the desert), but it's better than one possible alternative: exposure to chemical weapons.

This stylish suit is similar to what I was wearing on Saturday.

Monday, September 27, 2004

HASN'T HE DONE ENOUGH TO..I MEAN FOR...US
Former President Carter is back in the news.
Former President Jimmy Carter says that despite changes designed to eliminate voting problems in Florida where the disputed 2000 presidential election was decided by only a few hundred votes conditions for a fair election in that state still don't exist.

"The disturbing fact is that a repetition of the problems of 2000 now seems likely," Carter wrote in an opinion piece published Monday in the Washington Post.

So, the elections in Venezuela were legit, but Florida is in doubt. I'm sure that Floridians (like Miss Tammi) will be happy to hear that they are living in a third world country. Then again, with all of the hurricanes this year, they're certainly getting the full effect. Be that as it may, our illustrious former President has taken another leak on the US of A.

I used to think that Carter was a lousy President, but a decent man nevertheless. In recent years I've come to the realization that he is an arrogant buffoon hiding behind a mask of piety. Instead of criticizing the integrity of his fellow citizens, he should be placing flowers on Richard Nixon's grave. It was Nixon's scandal-plagued administration, after all, that made it possible for Carter to be elected President.

As I recall, Carter confessed in a Playboy Magazine interview to lusting after women in his heart. Sorry Jimmy, you got it all wrong. In your case, I think it's the first deadly sin you have to worry about.
OK, NOW I GET IT
I just saw former Clinton NSC member Dan Feldman on the O'Reilly Factor tonight. He was debating former Undersecretary of Defense (under Bush 41) Jed Babbin on Iraq's links to terrorism. I've blogged about this before. I even followed it up with another post, or two. Babbin brought up a couple of the points I covered, most notable the presence of Abu Abbas and Abu Nidal in Iraq prior to the invasion. Babbin countered with the same old song and dance about how their is no direct link between Iraq and 9/11.

Using Babbin's philosophy, we shouldn't even be engaged in a war on terrorism at all. After all, the 19 people who are directly responsible for 9/11 are all dead. The "wait for it to happen, then find the terrorists and arrest them" mentality of the Clinton administration is what led us to 9/11 in the first place. If we aren't ahead of these guys, we're behind them. That's not a good place to be.

President Clinton probably thought he was doing the right thing, but he thought wrong. Dead wrong. If Sen. Kerry is elected, I fear that we'll be right back to that losing (and dangerous) strategy.

Thursday, September 23, 2004

IT'S WHAT THEY DON'T TELL YOU
According to ABC News, Democratic Presidential candidate John Kerry is warning the public that if President Bush is re-elected, the military draft may be reinstated.

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. Sept. 22, 2004 - Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry, citing the war in Iraq and other trouble spots in the world, raised the possibility Wednesday that a military draft could be reinstated if voters re-elect President Bush.
Kerry said he would not bring back the draft and questioned how fairly it was administered in the past.

Answering a question about the draft that had been posed at a forum with voters, Kerry said: "If George Bush were to be re-elected, given the way he has gone about this war and given his avoidance of responsibility in North Korea and Iran and other places, is it possible? I can't tell you."

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and other Pentagon officials have been asked numerous times whether they thought a draft would be necessary to maintain force levels in Iraq. They have said consistently that they think it is neither necessary nor desirable, since today's military is built on volunteer service and professionalism.


What the ABC article fails to mention, is that the only vocal proponent for a return to the draft is a Democrat; Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY). This is nothing more than a shameless attempt to mobilize the youth vote against Bush by scaring young voters into believing that the day after a Bush re-election, they'll likely be shipped off to Iraq or Afghanistan. ABC is playing right into that strategy by leaving out some very important details. What they are reporting is the truth, just not the whole truth. Typical.

You can read the whole ABC News article (but NOT the whole story) here.

Tuesday, September 21, 2004

A MESSAGE FOR THE TROOPS FROM "GENERAL MOORE"

Michael "Fahrenheit 9/11" Moore has an inspirational (well, kind of) message on his website for Kerry...um...supporters.

"Look at us -- what a bunch of crybabies. Bush gets a bounce after his convention and you would have thought the Germans had run through Poland again. The Bushies are coming, the Bushies are coming! Yes, they caught Kerry asleep on the Swift Boat thing. Yes, they found the frequency in Dan Rather and ran with it. Suddenly it's like, 'THE END IS NEAR! THE SKY IS FALLING!'

No, it is not. If I hear one more person tell me how lousy a candidate Kerry is and how he can't win... Dammit, of COURSE he's a lousy candidate -- he's a Democrat, for heavens sake! That party is so pathetic, they even lose the elections they win! What were you expecting, Bruce Springsteen heading up the ticket? Bruce would make a helluva president, but guys like him don't run -- and neither do you or I. People like Kerry run."

Bruce Springsteen "would make a helluva president"? Well, he can play the guitar pretty well and he's a pretty good singer. Once upon a time the Boss was a good songwriter too. But president? Give me a break, Mike. Why does anyone take this guy seriously?

There are two pieces of good news for Republicans and conservatives (and others with common sense) in Moore's letter. The first is that they're afraid that Kerry is going to lose. The second is that Michael Moore is disinclined to run for president. Not that too many people would vote for Moore anyway. Hell, I'd vote for Bruce Springsteen over Michael Moore. At least the Boss can play the gee-tar.

You can read Mikey's message here.

Saturday, September 18, 2004

PARENTAL WARNING
This is what happens when you leave your kids Home Alone. Never underestimate the value of parental supervision. It is essential in helping kids deal with their growing pains. They can wind up getting themselves into deep trouble without proper guidance.

Friday, September 17, 2004

CONSUMER ALERT
CBS News has a consumer alert on their website warning their viewers about shrimp that may be contaminated. If you are a shrimp lover, as I am, you may want to read the story.

I did not, however, find a consumer alert on the website warning viewers about CBS News. In the interest of protecting the viewing public, the Noble Eagle Blog will issue one.

CONSUMER ALERT!!! (exclamation points added to underscore the seriousness of this alert.)
Viewing CBS News may seriously impair your ability to distinguish fact from fiction. Recent events have demonstrated that CBS News, and it's ace reporter/managing editor Dan Rather, operate under the belief that the seriousness of a story outweighs the authenticity of the evidence offered in support of the story. As a result of this policy, you may be subjected to a pack of lies that you are told to believe because Dan Rather says you should. Watch this program at your own risk.


Apparently, Rather & Co. believe that even if the documents are forged, their story is still legit. According to Rather:
The focus on "questions over the veracity of the memos was a smoke screen perpetrated by right-wing allies of the Bush administration," he said. "This is your basic fogging machine, which is set up to cloud the issue, to obscure the truth."

I wonder how Dan's "authenticity doesn't matter" philosophy would work out in the real world. To that end, I have devised a little experiment to test it (kids, DON'T try this at home). Take a $100 bill and make a really bad black & white copy of it (one side only). Then try passing it off at your local supermarket. When the cashier notices that it's a fake (believe it or not, about 1 in 5 won't), insist that it's real and refuse to leave the store until your transaction is complete. When the police come to arrest you, tell them that you believe that the bill is real, and that they have no business contradicting you on that. When you go to court, tell the judge that while the $100 bill may not be entirely authentic, you still believe that it's worth $100 dollars, and that these counterfeiting laws are like "your basic fogging machine, which is set up to cloud the issue, to obscure the truth." If charges are dismissed (for reasons other than insanity), I guess that Dan was right after all. If they aren't dismissed, I guess that means that Dan needs to get a freakin' clue.

DISCLAIMER: The above experiment is offered for illustrative purposes only. The Noble Eagle Blog accepts no responsibility for the fate of those dumb enough to actually try it. If you are that clueless you should not be viewing this website, you should be viewing a site intended for someone who is incapable of independent thought, like this one.

Wednesday, September 15, 2004

(COUNTER)F(E)IT TO BE TIED

I just saw Carl Bernstein (of Watergate fame) on Hannity and Colmes.  Bernstein is one of the icons of investigative journalism and his opinion was asked regarding the "Memogate" fiasco.  Bernstein referred to the scandal as a "sideshow" and said that President Bush's Air National Guard service in the early 1970's is the real story here. 
 
So it's a sideshow, is it?  A major news organization, headed by a respected (by others in the media, if not by me personally) journalist, does a story that could have a profound impact on a presidential election (in the middle of a war, no less!), and uses forged documents to prove their case.  How in the hell is this a sideshow?  CBS and Dan Rather engaged in (either willfully or negligently) a fraud perpetrated on the American people.  Bernstein's attitude, which mirrors CBS' attitude, is that no explanation is owed to the American people.  We all have a duty to pretend it never happened and to tune in to 60 Minutes next week and willingly ingest whatever they decide to spoon-feed to us.
 
I'm sorry Mr. Bernstein, but I'm not buying it, and neither are a lot of other Americans.  "Buying it" sums the situation up quite well. actually.  You people (the news media) are a business.  Your credibility is essential in order to stay in business.  Without it, no one will buy what you're selling.  To make an analogy, think of yourselves as cookies vendors.  Last week, Dan Rather and Company sold their customers a bag labeled "chocolate chip cookies".  As it turns out, the actual contents of the bag consisted of 100% pure bovine manure (bullshit, for those of you with Ivy League educations).  It's pure arrogance to deny your customers an explanation, and even more arrogant to expect them to buy another bag next week.
 
I have a feeling that Dan and his crew are going to keep on hawking more bags of (C)BS like nothing happened.  I don't know about you, but I'm not buying.

Friday, September 10, 2004

SEPTEMBER 11th
Saturday marks the third anniversary of the attacks on the US by Al Qaida. Many have referred to 9/11 as America's wakeup call. Sometimes I fear that we have fallen back to sleep. I make it a point to periodically look at pictures of the attack and its aftermath to remind myself of what happened and what we are still facing.



Here are some videos of the WTC attacks (most of these files will take a while to download if you have a slower internet connection):
1
2
3
4
5
6
CNN cameraman describing what he saw that day.

We owe it to the people who died that day, the people who have died in the War on Terrorism, our children, and our children's children to never forget what happened on September 11, 2001.
MORE ON MEMOGATE
The CBS 60 Minutes memo story continued today. The mainstream media appears to be picking up the story with a vengeance. In spite of this, Dan Rather is standing behind the authenticity of the documents.

I dug into my old military paperwork today and found my original DD Form 214. The document, issued at the US Army's hi-tech National Training Center in 1990, showed my last duty assignment as the 177th FSB. The "th" after the 177 was NOT in superscript. I sincerely doubt that the Texas Air National Guard had more advanced typewriters in the early 1970s than the Army had at NTC in 1990. I am becoming increasingly convinced that these documents, at least some of them, are forgeries.

In the long run, the real implication of this story does not involve the election. I don't think that the authenticity of the documents is going to change voters minds either way (although former democratic pollster Pat Caddell thinks that this scandal may cost Kerry the election). The real potential damage here is to the credibility of CBS. This scandal may drive more people to seek out alternative sources of information. The MSM's monopoly on the flow of information is coming to an end, and they can't handle it.

Thursday, September 09, 2004

LIKE A SNOWBALL ROLLING DOWN A HILL
The 60 Minutes memo story has spread like wildfire on the internet. At last count, there were 193 trackbacks to the post on Powerline. After I read the post this morning, I sent a tip to Drudge via his website. I'm certain that I'm not the only one who did that today. By mid-afternoon, he had the story linked on his site. On the Fox News Channel, the story was featured on Special Report with Brit Hume (it was actually the last story discussed by the panel at the end of the show).

Now ABC News has picked up on the story. They are reporting that the son the the late Jerry Killian, the officer who wrote the memos, doubts their authenticity.
Gary Killian, who served in the Guard with his father and retired as a captain in 1991, said one of the memos, signed by his father, appeared legitimate. But he doubted his father would have written another, unsigned memo which said there was pressure to "sugar coat" Bush's performance review.

"It just wouldn't happen," he said. "The only thing that can happen when you keep secret files like that are bad things. ... No officer in his right mind would write a memo like that."

CBS is sticking by their story that the documents are legitimate. Not that that is a surprise. Credibility is essential for any news organization to stay in business (and it IS a business). If it turns out that the documents are forgeries (some experts have already weighed in saying that there is a good chance they are forgeries), CBS will find itself on the receiving end of the type of savaging that they are used to dishing out. Look for the other broadcast networks to pile on as well. In the fierce competition for a dwindling number of viewers, ABC and NBC will not pass up this opportunity to grab some of CBS' business. It's sure to make for an interesting show.
FORGERIES?
The Big Trunk at Powerlineblog is reporting that the memos regarding President Bush's Air National Guard service that were featured on 60 Minutes last night might be forgeries. This makes for some very interesting reading. If true, this would be a new low in American politics. You can see the whole story here.

After reading the post at Powerline, go to the CBS News website and look at the PDF file copies of the memos. Very interesting.

Wednesday, September 08, 2004

OLD EUROPE
Blackfive has an excellent post about Europeans. Apparently they hate us because of the war in Iraq. HA!!! I spent two years in Germany in the 80's and I can tell you this for sure; they hated us then, too. I think the war has just given them a new excuse. Ya gotta luv 'em.
BEATING A DEAD HORSE
The Dems are getting desperate. After several unsuccessful attempts to get traction from the bogus Air National Guard "AWOL" issue, they are taking another shot at it (again). These guys are taking the concept of never learning from your mistakes to a new level.

DNC bag-man Terry McAuliffe is criticizing President Bush for serving in the Air National Guard rather than going to Vietnam.
"We know that John Kerry was in Vietnam," said Democratic Party chief Terry McAuliffe in a conference call with reporters. "My question, Mr. President, is where were you, Sir?"

The implication, of course, is that President Bush failed to serve his country in the armed forces. The last time I checked, the Air National Guard is part of the military. In essence, McAuliffe's statement implies that members of the ANG aren't "real" military personnel. This urinates on the service of many thousands of men and women who have served in the ANG. To add insult to injury, I've seen no evidence that McAuliffe ever served in the military in any capacity. Furthermore, McAuliffe is the lap dog of a politician who really did dodge the draft. He gave his unwavering support to said politician in a political race against a decorated combat veteran.

I know you have to be a hypocrite to be a left winger these days, but McAuliffe takes it to the extreme. To paraphrase the Dixie Chicks: Just so you know, I'm ashamed that Terry McAuliffe is from New York.

Tuesday, September 07, 2004

ULTIMATE SACRIFICE
Our illustrious news media is reporting that the number of military deaths in the Iraq campaign has topped 1,000. No doubt someone will try to spin this number to suit their political ambitions. The number will climb higher still before we are done in Iraq. Such is the nature of war.

Consider these numbers:

-At the battle of Gettysburg during the Civil War, 7,058 soldiers were killed (3,155 Union, 3,903 Confederate). When the wounded and missing numbers are added, the total goes over 50,000.

-During the invasion of Okinawa, over 12,000 US military personnel were killed.

-In the second week of October 1943, the Eighth Air Force lost over 1,000 crewman in bombing raids over Europe.

-About 2,500 American troops died during the invasion of Normandy on D-Day (an exact number has not yet been determined).

-In the year 1968, about 14,000 US troops died in Vietnam.

As Robert E. Lee once said, "It is well that war is so terrible, or we should grow too fond of it."

To learn more about the brave men and women who have given their lives in the war on terrorism, visit the Fallen Heroes Memorial.

Monday, September 06, 2004

OUR FRIENDS THE FRENCH
Just for fun, go to Google and type "French military victories", then hit the I'm Feeling Lucky button.

This picture (and other hilarious stuff) available at Flash Bunny.

Sunday, September 05, 2004

AWOL
Baldilocks has a very informative post on her site concerning the media-manufactured controversy over President Bush's service in the Air National Guard. This is a topic that aggravates me to no end. I've blogged about this issue before. The mainstream media seems to love this story so much, they can't stop reporting on it. They do not, however, love it enough to do any actual research on how the Guard and Reserves work. Baldilocks' site would be a good place to start that research. If you go there and read her post on the subject, I promise that you'll know more about Guard and Reserve service than the entire staff of the New York Times combined.
REASON ENOUGH TO VOTE FOR JOHN KERRY?
I'll leave it for you to decide.

Friday, September 03, 2004

MOORE (OR LESS)
I didn't see this exchange myself, but if it really happened this way, I'd have paid money to see it.

Hat tip: Kate
CONVENTION, DAY 4
Thankfully, my predictions about an increase in serious protester incidents did not come true. Did it have anything to do with the City of New York dragging its feet on releasing those who had been arrested? I guess we'll never know for sure, but I'm willing to bet that in the long run, these fines were a bargain.

The President's acceptance speech was, in my opinion, a home run. If there was one theme he hammered home, it was his decisiveness. This contrasts with his opponents waffling on the issues, especially the war.

Senator Kerry held a midnight rally in Springfiled, OH to give his response to the convention. I can't recall this ever haveing been done before. It looked like a move of desperation to me.

A shot was fired into Republican headquarters in Huntington, WV last night during President Bush's speech. So much for polite discourse. I guess the Democrats have given up on gun control, or at least made an exception in this case.

Thursday, September 02, 2004

CONVENTION, DAY 3
The number of protesters arrested in NYC yesterday was down from the day before. Down a lot, in fact (think VERY high double digit percentage). This was probably due, in large part, to the fact that many of the hardcore troublemakers were still in jail (so much for the "incarceration doesn't prevent crime" theory). Look for things to get a little crazy this evening. Many of the protesters/vandals/thugs/punks who have been arrested will doubtless make bail or otherwise be released in time for one more "adventure". Also, the President is scheduled to speak tonight; further motivation for the most radical of the radicals to "exercise their first ammendment rights" in as disruptive and destructive a manner as possible.

By the way, you'll be happy to know that the National Lawyer's Guild has observers posted at the various demonstrations to ensure that the rights of the protesters are respected. They can be identified by the distinctive lime green hats they wear. I saw one of these observers on the news last night. She was watching as a protester severely beat a police officer. The officer, Detective William Sample, suffered a concussion and bruises on his face and chest. Jamal Holiday, the 20 year old jackass who assaulted him, was arrested Tuesday night at another protest. Apparently, the Lawyer's Guild's concern for civil rights doesn't extend to the rights of police officers.

Wednesday, September 01, 2004

PROTESTERS
By midnight tonight the NYPD will probably have arrested about 2,000 protesters since the start of the Republican National Convention. I've been reading about some of these groups on the net. One group, the Ruckus Society has set up a text alert system in order to gather protesters quickly in a particular location. Some of these groups are pretty well organized for "anarchists". Isn't being organized antithetical to the anarchist's philosophy? More evidence that you have to be a hypocrite to be an extreme leftist.

On a side note, a former Ruckus Society member named Zack Exley is the Director of Online Communications for the Kerry/Edwards campaign. Exley has also worked for Moveon.org. You can learn more about Ruckus and Mr. Exley in this excellent column by Lowell Ponte.
BACK IN UNIFORM
I haven't had time to post lately, as I've been on active duty in support of the Republican National Convention in NYC. Fortunately I didn't have to leave home since I'm working at the ops center at HQ. I'm on an overnight shift, which is exhausting due to the reverse schedule. Everyone I work with is pretty cool though, which makes it all more bearable. Even the general is easy going. I made his A-list by being the only one in the room who knew who said "extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice". I shot further up the list by knowing who referred to "the nattering nabobs of negativism". Who says that being good at trivial pursuit is worthless?

Thursday, August 26, 2004

THE NEW SOLDIER
Ed at Monkeywatch informs me that John Kerry's antiwar book (a picture of the cover is linked in my previous post) is available online. You can read it here. Spread the word. This is something the voting public needs to see.

Wednesday, August 25, 2004

HERO OR GOAT?
Apparently the Swift Boat Veterans for the Truth have hit a nerve. The Kerry campaign has sprung into action as Kerry's support from veterans has fallen in recent weeks. He has even enlisted the assistance of former Senator Max Cleland in stopping the Swiftvet ads (poor Cleland has become nothing more than a pathetic mascot for the Democratic party).

The debate over Kerry's medals and whether he deserved them are a moot point, in my opinion. Medal Inflation has been going on for years. The sad truth is that an officer will often receive a higher award for the same deed as an enlsited person. This is nothing new, and there is no end in sight (this is less likely when the chain of command is populated by high quality officers). This debate clouds the real issue at work here.



The real issue at here is Kerry's conduct after he returned from Vietnam. When he returned, Kerry turned on his fellow veterans, calling them war criminals. In 1971, he told the following story to the Washington Star newspaper:
"We established an American presence in most cases by showing the flag and firing at sampans and villages along the banks. Those were our instructions, but they seemed so out of line that we finally began to go ashore, against our orders, and investigate the villages that were supposed to be our targets. We discovered we were butchering a lot of innocent people, and morale became so low among the officers on those 'swift boats' that we were called back to Saigon for special instructions from Gen. Abrams. He told us we were doing the right thing. He said our efforts would help win the war in the long run. That's when I realized I could never remain silent about the realities of the war in Vietnam."

Following his "Winter Soldier Investigation", he told the following story to Congress in 1971:
They told the stories at times they had personally raped, cut off ears, cut off heads, tape wires from portable telephones to human genitals and turned up the power, cut off limbs, blown up bodies, randomly shot at civilians, razed villages in fashion reminiscent of Genghis Khan, shot cattle and dogs for fun, poisoned food stocks, and generally ravaged the country side of South Vietnam in addition to the normal ravage of war, and the normal and very particular ravaging which is done by the applied bombing power of this country.

These statements made life harder for his fellow veterans, giving the antiwar crowd an excuse for their mistreatment of returning veterans. Even worse, the propaganda victory that Kerry gave to the North Vietnamese and Vietcong undoubtedly encouraged them to fight harder, costing more military and civilian lives.

Whether the Swiftvets' allegations are true or not, John Kerry has already shown America he is unfit for command. If he was telling the truth in 1971, and I don't believe that he was, he is a war criminal. If he was lying, he is a traitor. Either way, he is hardly Commander-in-Chief material.

PROBLEM SOLVED
I finally resolved my font issues. Unfortunately, it required that I delete all of the posts I have made since I first attempted posting by email. I lost about a half dozen posts. Oh well, sh*t happens. I guess that I was lucky that I've been lazy about posting lately. I guess posting by email was a bust.

Twitter Updates

    follow me on Twitter