SOME NEWS FROM IRAQ

A few things that the all-knowing (but not all-reporting) MSM may have forgotten to tell us about:

SIX TERRORISTS KILLED, VBIED DESTROYED, 18 SUSPECTS DETAINED

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Coalition Forces killed six terrorists and detained 18 suspected terrorists in operations targeting al-Qaeda in Iraq Thursday and Friday.
 
North of Fallujah Thursday afternoon, Coalition Forces conducted an operation to capture suspected terrorists allegedly associated with al-Qaeda senior leadership.  Coalition Forces attempted to stop their vehicle, but when the suspected terrorists resisted, Coalition Forces used proper escalation of force measures and engaged the vehicle with automatic weapons, killing three men.
 
Inside the vehicle, Coalition Forces found two mortar rounds, a rifle and an approximately 100-pound improvised explosive device.  The vehicle and heavy explosives were safely destroyed on site.
 
While Coalition Forces were at the scene, they received small arms fire from a nearby orchard.  Taking appropriate self-defense measures, the ground forces engaged the armed terrorists, killing three.  Coalition Forces also found grenades and assault vests in the orchard.
 
In a follow-on operation Friday morning, Coalition Forces detained one suspected terrorist in a building north of Fallujah for his alleged ties to al-Qaeda senior leaders.  

Iraqi Special Operations Forces conduct early-morning operation

BAGHDAD – Iraqi Special Operations Forces conducted an early morning intelligence driven operation June 3 targeting a suspected senior militia leader. The targeted individual is responsible for coordinating and conducting kidnappings, small arms attacks against innocent civilians and Coalition Forces, inciting sectarian violence and directing the placement of improvised explosive devices.

The operation centered on a government building in Baghdad where the targeted individual was believed to be located.

While conducting this operation, ISOF came under heavy small arms fire from unknown insurgents. ISOF suppressed the attack with well-aimed fire.

Suspected EFP facilitator detained

BAGHDAD, Iraq – Iraqi and Coalition Forces detained one suspected terrorist and killed another terrorist Monday morning during raids in Baghdad.

The individual detained during the raid is believed to be a member of the secret cell terrorist network known for facilitating the transport of weapons and explosively formed penetrators, or EFPs, from Iran to Iraq, as well as bringing militants from Iraq to Iran for terrorist training.

During the course of the morning's operations, Coalition Forces entered the roof of a targeted building.

While on the roof, one armed terrorist attempted to engage Coalition Forces with an AK-47.

Responding to the perceived threat, Coalition Forces engaged the armed terrorist, killing him.

Intelligence reports indicate the suspected terrorist detained during the morning raids is an integral member of the improvised explosive devises and EFP facilitation network.

He is also believed to be responsible for numerous attacks against Coalition Forces, including heavy involvement in mortar attacks, personally observing and adjusting fire in the past two days.

With Paris going to jail and Lindsay in rehab (again), I guess the newsies have just been too busy to give much attention to the stories mentioned above.  But they did take time out of their busy schedules to report on US casualties.  I guess that was all we really needed to know about Iraq anyway.

SCAM ALERT

You might want to pass this info on to any military family members you know.

New scam targets military spouses

5/31/2007 - WASHINGTON (AFPN) -- The American Red Cross is warning military spouses about a new identity-theft scam that targets family members of deployed troops.

The Red Cross was alerted of the scam earlier this month, said Devorah Goldburg of the Red Cross.

The scam involves a person with an American accent calling a military spouse, identifying herself as a representative of the Red Cross, and telling the spouse that her husband was hurt in Iraq and was medically evacuated to Germany. The caller then says that doctors can't start treatment until paperwork is completed, and that to start the paperwork they need the spouse to verify her husband's social security number and date of birth.

It is hard to determine how many spouses have been targeted by this scam, Ms. Goldburg said, as there are many ways for spouses to report problems like this. However, one confirmed report was enough for the Red Cross to act, she said.

"We know that it happened to one person; it was probably going to happen to others, and we wanted to be prudent and alert people," she said.

American Red Cross representatives typically do not contact military members or dependents directly and almost always go through a commander or first sergeant, according to a Red Cross news release. Military family members are urged not to give out any personal information over the phone if contacted by unknown individuals, including confirmation that their spouse is deployed.

CRUNCH TIME

I saw this story linked at The Drudge Report:

Iran's secret plan for summer offensive to force US out of Iraq

Iran is secretly forging ties with al-Qaida elements and Sunni Arab militias in Iraq in preparation for a summer showdown with coalition forces intended to tip a wavering US Congress into voting for full military withdrawal, US officials say.
"Iran is fighting a proxy war in Iraq and it's a very dangerous course for them to be following. They are already committing daily acts of war against US and British forces," a senior US official in Baghdad warned. "They [Iran] are behind a lot of high-profile attacks meant to undermine US will and British will, such as the rocket attacks on Basra palace and the Green Zone [in Baghdad]. The attacks are directed by the Revolutionary Guard who are connected right to the top [of the Iranian government]."

The official said US commanders were bracing for a nationwide, Iranian-orchestrated summer offensive, linking al-Qaida and Sunni insurgents to Tehran's Shia militia allies, that Iran hoped would trigger a political mutiny in Washington and a US retreat. "We expect that al-Qaida and Iran will both attempt to increase the propaganda and increase the violence prior to Petraeus's report in September [when the US commander General David Petraeus will report to Congress on President George Bush's controversial, six-month security "surge" of 30,000 troop reinforcements]," the official said.

Not a pleasant prospect, eh? But that's not the really scary part. Check this out:

But if Iran succeeded in "prematurely" driving US and British forces out of Iraq, the likely result would be a "colossal humanitarian disaster" and possible regional war drawing in the Sunni Arab Gulf states, Syria and Turkey, he said.

(emphasis mine)

That regional war is the sticking point here. In spite of what we are constantly being told, this is not Vietnam. When we pulled out of Vietnam, millions died. But for all the tragedy, we just sat here fat, dumb, and stupid, protected by our precious oceans from the carnage that resulted from our failure there.

If we run from Iraq, we won't be as lucky. Iraq sits in the middle of oil central. It ranks second to Saudi Arabia in known oil reserves. Saudi Arabia, of course, is right next door. A regional war would threaten the oil supply of the industrialized world. You think $3 (or more) a gallon for gas is a lot? Just wait till the entire Persian Gulf erupts into chaos. That $3 a gallon price tag will seem like a pleasant memory. We can blather on all day long about "fuel conservation" and "alternative energy," but oil is the lifeblood of the global economy. Regardless of what we do, this will remain true for at least the next two decades.

The bottom line is this: WE WILL HAVE TO DEAL WITH IRAQ SOONER OR LATER. THE LONGER WE WAIT, THE HARDER IT WILL BE. We failed to back the 1991 uprising, and now we're paying the price for kicking that can down the road. What will it cost us to stop a regional conflagration a few years from now? Just like with gasoline, the price we're paying today will seem like a pleasant memory.

We have a job to do in Iraq. It isn't easy, and it only promises to get harder if we put off doing it. It's time we stop listening to the wishful-thinkers and the political snake oil salesman, and get the job done.

PERCEPTION IS REALITY

The American public is unhappy with the way the war in Iraq is going. We know this becuase the news media reports it ad nauseum. On any given day you'll see headlines like these:

Alabama poll: War not worth lost lives

Northwest Arkansas Poll Shows Opposition to War

Poll: Most Minnesotans oppose Bush troop surge

So why are so many people so unhappy with the conduct of the war? Because it's going badly. And how do they know this? Because the news media tells them so, of course.

Imagine for a moment that all you know about the war you learned from the mainstream media. Broadcast news and your local newspaper. No FOX News. No talk radio. No blogs. Just the old-school media. Here's what you'd know about the war:

The US has over 100,000 troops in Iraq. They're all young, uneducated, and poor. They live in spartan conditions on various bases throughout the country. They spend their days driving around Iraq in vehicles. Periodically, some of them are injured or killed by roadside bombs. Occasionally, they get so frustrated that they kill civilians, commit rape, and abuse innocent detainees.

That about sums it up. Note the items that are missing from the picture: no reports of the terrorists detained(apparently, all of the "abused" detainees are just innocent Iraqis being held for no reason), of weapons caches found, or of the heroics of our warriors.

Oh sure, they'll report on successes... if they're big enough; like the death of Zarqawi or the capture of Saddam. Of course, such reports are usually accompanied by analysis telling us (the ignorant masses) why it doesn't really matter. Even FOX News--which is supposedly a propaganda machine for the Bush administration--seldom reports on the day-to-day successes in the war.

In order to find stories like these, you have to go to places like the Multi-National Force - Iraq website. There you will not only find stories of success, you'll also get the bad news as well:

MNC-I Airmen Attacked

Roadside bomb strikes MND-B patrol

Search for missing Soldiers continues

It's sadly ironic that a military PR website--an unabashedly biased source--will give you a more balanced view of what's going on in Iraq than the "legitimate" media. Free press? More like bought and paid for.

FIDDLING WHILE ROME BURNS

The world is going to hell in a handbasket, and we're preoccupied with inane bullshit.  Which brings us to today's must-read.  Victor Davis Hanson examines this phenomenon in his latest column at Frontpage Mag.

GWOT ROUNDUP-MAY 2, 2007

IRAQ

Two suspected secret cell terrorists detained

Thursday, 03 May 2007

BAGHDAD, Iraq – Coalition Forces detained two suspected terrorists Thursday morning during raids in Sadr City.

The individuals targeted during the raid are suspected members of a secret cell terrorist network known for facilitating the transport of weapons and explosively formed penetrators, or EFPs, from Iran to Iraq, as well as bringing militants from Iraq to Iran for terrorist training.

11 Suspected terrorists detained

May 3, 2007

BAGHDAD, Iraq – Coalition Forces detained 11 suspected terrorists late Wednesday and early Thursday during raids targeting a foreign fighter facilitation network and improvised explosive device networks.

Wednesday afternoon, Coalition Forces raided four buildings in Mosul as part of two related operations.  When Coalition Forces searched the buildings, they detained three suspected terrorists that intelligence sources link to arms trafficking, a vehicle-borne IED network and attacks against Iraqi and Coalition Forces.

AFGHANISTAN

Suicide Bombings Backfire on Taliban, U.S. Officer Says

Apr 26, 2007

WASHINGTON (American Forces Press Service, April 24, 2007) - Recent suicide-bombing attacks against innocent Afghans indicate a changed Taliban strategy that is backfiring on the radical Islamic group, a senior U.S. military officer in Afghanistan told Pentagon reporters today.

SUSPECTED IED CELL MEMBERS DETAINED IN KHOWST

5/3/2007

BAGRAM AIRFIELD, Afghanistan – Afghan and Coalition forces detained two adult males after a raid on a compound in the Mandozai district of the Khowst Province early this morning.

Credible evidence led the forces to the detainees, who are suspected operatives in the Haqqani network, responsible for facilitating IED attacks on peaceful Afghans and Coalition forces in the Khowst Province.

OTHER

Air Force stands up first unmanned aircraft systems wing

5/3/2007 - NELLIS AIR FORCE BASE, Nev. (AFNEWS) -- The Air Force's first unmanned aircraft systems wing stood up May 1 at Creech Air Force Base, Nev.

As Col. Christopher Chambliss assumed command of the 432nd, a piece of history was revived and a course for the way ahead continued.

BAD NEWS FOR MILBLOGGERS

In a week filled with bad news, this is the worst thing I've heard so far.  Via Blackfive:

Army Squeezes Soldier Blogs, Maybe to Death

The U.S. Army has ordered soldiers to stop posting to blogs or sending personal e-mail messages, without first clearing the content with a superior officer, Wired News has learned. The directive, issued April 19, is the sharpest restriction on troops' online activities since the start of the Iraq war. And it could mean the end of military blogs, observers say.

Military officials have been wrestling for years with how to handle troops who publish blogs. Officers have weighed the need for wartime discretion against the opportunities for the public to personally connect with some of the most effective advocates for the operations in Afghanistan and Iraq -- the troops themselves. The secret-keepers have generally won the argument, and the once-permissive atmosphere has slowly grown more tightly regulated. Soldier-bloggers have dropped offline as a result.

Just when I thought things couldn't be worse in the PR arena for the war effort, they get worse.  I understand the Army's concerns.  OPSEC is essential to victory.  But so is public relations.  We can't win this war if the public, and the world, hear nothing but the bad news.  We can't count on the political activists who pass themselves off as journalists to get the word out.  And now the Army is about to close the door on the best source of information on what's really happeneing on the battlefield.

VIDEO--STRIKING A CHLORINE BOMB TRUCK IN IRAQ

This video is from April 5, 2007, and was shot near Fallujah, Iraq. A USMC F/A-18 Hornet takes out a dump truck loaded with chlorine tanks meant to be used as a VBIED.


h/t: MNF-Iraq

NEWS FROM THE GWoT

CENTCOM

April 29 airpower summary: Maintainers keep planes flying

Afghanistan

Operation Achilles update – ISAF troops continue to progress into Sangin Valley

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (30 April) – Multinational International Security Assistance Force and Afghan National Security Forces taking part in Operation Achilles have continued their advance into the lower Sangin Valley. This action is the latest in a series of sub-operations under Operation Achilles and commenced in the early hours of Monday in the area around Gereshk in the east of Helmand province.

The operation is still ongoing, but it has already successfully destroyed several positions used by the Taliban extremists to launch harassing attacks and is meant to stabilize the ongoing reconstruction and development in Helmand province. 

Iraq

72 SUSPECTED TERRORISTS DETAINED

4/30/2007

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Coalition Forces captured 72 suspected terrorists and discovered bomb-making materials Sunday during a constellation of overnight raids targeting the al-Qaeda in Iraq network.
 
In a massive synchronized effort, Coalition Forces descended on targets in Anbar and Salah ad Din provinces to disrupt the al-Qaeda network.

Operations in Samarra alone uncovered 36 individuals with alleged ties to al-Qaeda terrorists.

5 TERRORISTS KILLED, 20 SUSPECTED TERRORISTS DETAINED

5/1/2007

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Coalition forces killed five terrorists and detained 20 suspected terrorists Tuesday during overnight raids targeting senior leaders within the al-Qaeda in Iraq network.

Intelligence reports led Coalition forces to targets associated with senior al-Qaeda leaders west of Taji Tuesday morning.  During an operation there, terrorists engaged ground forces with small arms fire.

Coalition forces used appropriate self-defense measures and engaged the armed men, killing five.  Six suspected terrorists were detained.

Coalition forces found weapons and grenades, which they destroyed on site.

BOUGHT AND PAID FOR

As you might already know, I'm no fan of former President Jimmy Carter.  I once referred to him as "an arrogant buffoon hiding behind a mask of piety."  As it turns out, my criticism of Mr. Carter may have fallen short of the mark.  Adding the word "corrupt" to my characterization of him may get me closer to a bullseye.  If Alan Dershowitz is to be believed, and I see no reason not to believe him, Carter may very well be corrupt. 

Recent disclosures of Carter's extensive financial connections  to Arab oil money, particularly from Saudi Arabia, had deeply shaken my belief in his integrity. When I was first told that he received a  monetary reward in the name of Shiekh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahayan, and kept the money, even after Harvard returned money from the same source because of its anti-Semitic history, I simply did not believe it. How  could a man of such apparent integrity enrich himself with dirty money  from so dirty a source?
 
And let there be no mistake about how dirty the Zayed Foundation is. I know because I was involved, in a small way, in helping to persuade Harvard University to return more than $2 million that the financially strapped Divinity School received from this source.  Initially, I was reluctant to put pressure on Harvard to turn back money  for the Divinity School, but then a student at the Divinity School, Rachael Lea Fish showed me the facts. 

They were staggering. I was amazed that in the twenty-first  century there were still foundations that espoused these views. The Zayed Centre for Coordination and Follow-up, a think-tank funded by the Shiekh and run by his son, hosted speakers who called Jews "the enemies of all nations," attributed the assassination of John Kennedy to Israel and the Mossad and the 9/11 attacks to the United States' own military, and stated that the Holocaust was a "fable." (They also hosted a speech by Jimmy Carter.) To its credit, Harvard turned the money back. To his discredit, Carter did not.

You can read the rest at Frontpage Magazine.  I won't hold my breath waiting for the mainstream media to pick up on this story.

THE MEDIA AS A WEAPON OF WAR

The must-read item for the week, maybe for the month, is the report from the Kennedy School of Government of a study done by Marvin Kalb titled The Israeli-Hezbollah War of 2006: The Media As A Weapon in Asymmetrical Conflict. Here's the abstract:

Based on content analysis of global media and interviews with many diplomats and journalists, this paper describes the trajectory of the media from objective observer to fiery advocate, becoming in fact a weapon of modern warfare. The paper also shows how an open society, Israel, is victimized by its own openness and how a closed sect, Hezbollah, can retain almost total control of the daily message of journalism and propaganda.

The report is 40 pages long, but it's worth your time to read all of it. Odds are that it won't tell you anything new about media bias, but the fact that the study was conducted by Marvin Kalb (nobody's idea of a card carrying neocon) makes it a bit of a surprise.

MARTINEZ FACES DEATH PENALTY

The latest on the case from The Journal News:

Suffern soldier's accused killer faces death penalty

One of the motions that could have spared a National Guard sergeant the death penalty if convicted of killing two officers in Iraq has been denied by a military judge.

Staff Sgt. Alberto Martinez is being tried for the slayings of Capt. Phillip Esposito of Suffern and 1st Lt. Louis Allen of Milford, Pa.

In decisions released yesterday, a military judge rejected a defense argument that the difference between premeditated murder and unpremeditated murder was unconstitutionally vague and therefore the death penalty for premeditated murder should also be unconstitutional. Another motion challenges the death penalty on the grounds that it is not officially a time of war. No ruling on that issue has occurred.

The judge, Col. Patrick Parrish, also has rejected three other requests by the defense for Staff Sgt. Alberto Martinez, some of which could have consumed more time and further delayed a trial scheduled to be held Aug. 13 at Fort Bragg, N.C. Previously, it was scheduled for June.

Martinez, 40, of Cohoes, N.Y., is accused of mortally wounding Esposito and Allen at Forward Operating Base Danger near Tikrit on June 7, 2005.

The men died the next day at a military hospital. An explosion that tore apart their quarters was initially attributed to enemy fire, but an investigation implicated Martinez.

The other motions denied by the judge were:

-A request by the defense to appoint a liaison between Martinez's lawyers and the widows of the slain men.

-A request for more computer modeling of the locations and events relevant to the case.

-More time to investigate.


It's going on two years now since the murders. The wheels of justice are turning slowly, but they are turning.

YOU CAN RUN, BUT YOU CAN'T HIDE

The insurgents in Iraq are ten feet tall, invisible, and bulletproof--NOT! Check out this video of a few terrorist thugs who were dumb enough to believe the MSM's reporting on them.

THE WILL OF THE UNINFORMED

Jonah Goldberg's latest column at Townhall.com is today's must-read.  Sadly, I fear that he's right on the mark.

ALBERTO MARTINEZ UPDATE

Here are a few items on this story in the news to share with you:

Pretrial hearing set in Iraq fragging case

Judge in court-martial case asked to determine if U.S. "at war"

I'm no expert on military and international law, but I would think that the Joint Resolution to Authorize the Use of United States Armed Forces Against Iraq is a de facto declaration of war. It may be time to update the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) to account for such situations, but such changes wouldn't apply in this particular case. Hopefully, the court will rule that we are at war.

Defense for alleged fragger asks for more time

FORGIVE ME IF I DON'T SHAKE HANDS

This is just too much.  Apparently Sheryl Crow wants to save the planet...one bowel movement at a time.  From her blog at Huffingtonpost:

I propose a limitation be put on how many squares of toilet paper can be used in any one sitting. Now, I don't want to rob any law-abiding American of his or her God-given rights, but I think we are an industrious enough people that we can make it work with only one square per restroom visit, except, of course, on those pesky occasions where 2 to 3 could be required.

It isn't easy to parody the self-parodying, but what the hell, I'll give it my best shot.  I think Sheryl needs a nickname.  What do you think it should be?  Here are a couple suggestions:

"Stinky Fingers"
"Skidmark"

Feel free to vote for your favorite in the comments, or suggest another one if you wish.

ONCE UPON A TIME IN AMERICA: THE VIRGINIA TECH SHOOTINGS

I guess I don't have anything profound to say about this horrific crime. It's been analyzed to death by the talking heads of the 24 hour news cycle, and it's already been politicized by some of the shameless whores who pass themselves off as our political elite. But there are a few points worth mentioning that come to mind:

--Gun control won't work. Phoenix sums it up pretty well:

The MSM and liberals will call for more gun control because of this. They will reconjure the images from Columbine and the clocktower of the University of Texas. They will tell you that we don't have sufficient control over guns. But the fact of the matter is this: no gun law will ever keep weapons out of the hands of criminals. Outlawing and criminalizing possession of drugs hasn't kept people from getting drugs and gun laws work the same way.

When the bad guys want to get guns, they will. Even the UK, with it's oft-cited strict gun control laws, is seeing a rise in gun crime.

--Angry parents are already calling for the resignation of the VA Tech President. Wonderful. Finger-pointing has become our new national pasttime.

--The ensuing policy debates will be driven by the news media. This is a bad thing, as the news media isn't trying to inform the public. The media's real job is to SCARE THE SHIT OUT OF YOU. Panicky people are more likely to stay tuned. John Stossel has done a good job of explaining this concept.

--I've heard a number of talking heads blathering on about how many bullets that the "clip" on the shooters gun held. Clip? Um, no. It's not called a clip. It's called a magazine. OK, here's a quick lesson in firearms terminology for you.

This is a clip:


This is a magazine:

A magazine is the part inside the firearm that holds the ammo (unless it's a revolver, in which case it's referred to as a cylander). A clip is used to load the ammo into a magazine.

--The media powers-that-be are going to beat us over the head with this story 24/7. Until the next big story comes along.

MARINES TO THE RESCUE, MEDIA MISSING IN ACTION (AGAIN)

Here's a story the public needs to hear:

Alpha Company Heroes

MARINE BARRACKS WASHINGTON (March 28, 2007) -- What if you were given the opportunity to help a complete stranger who had been seriously injured? Would you just walk away or would you take immediate action to help save the person?

Two infantrymen from Alpha Company were faced with situation when they saw a male in his mid-twenties who was about to be assaulted in the late evening of Feb. 24.

Lance Corporals Jared Bolhuis and David Trester were on their way to watch a movie in Washington, D.C.'s Chinatown. They had just departed the subway when they heard a disturbance at the top of the escalator. As the two Marines reached street level, they found the man surrounded by a group of 15 young skateboarders.

"There was a young guy, nicely dressed like he was going out. He was squared off with a skateboarder that looked like he was about 18 years old. The skateboarder's friends surrounded the two of them and everyone on the streets was watching this build up," said Bolhuis, a Zeeland, Mich. Native. "Before I knew it, one of the older skateboarders came from behind and blindsided this guy with a punch right in the temple, knocking him out cold."

As soon as the victim was hit, the leathernecks rushed to his aid. As the Marines with their high and tight haircuts approached the victim, the gang of skateboarders quickly dispersed into the crowd.

Lance Corporals Bolhuis and Trester are a credit to the military, and the USMC in particular. Which is probably why (as of this writing), Google News lists exactly zero stories about their heroism. None. Two Marines save a man from assault by over a dozen thugs, and it's not news? Had 15 Marines beat up two skateboarders, there'd probably be over a thousand stories on Google News by now. I guess it falls on bloggers and other non-journalists to spread the word. Again.

h/t: Blackfive

AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH

I ran across this little item at the Snopes urban legend website:

LOOK OVER THE DESCRIPTIONS OF THE FOLLOWING TWO HOUSES AND SEE IF YOU CAN TELL WHICH BELONGS TO AN ENVIRONMENTALIST.

HOUSE # 1:

A 20-room mansion (not including 8 bathrooms) heated by natural gas. Add on a pool (and a pool house) and a separate guesthouse, all heated by gas. In ONE MONTH ALONE this mansion consumes more energy than the average American household in an ENTIRE YEAR. The average bill for electricity and natural gas is over $2,400.00 per month.

In natural gas alone (which last time I checked was a fossil fuel), this property consumes more than 20 times the national average for an American home. This house is not in a northern or Midwestern “snow belt,” either. It’s in the South.

HOUSE # 2:

Designed by an architecture professor at a leading national university, this house incorporates every “green” feature current home construction can provide. The house contains only 4,000 square feet (4 bedrooms) and is nestled on arid high prairie in the American southwest.

A central closet in the house holds geothermal heat pumps drawing ground water through pipes sunk 300 feet into the ground. The water (usually 67 degrees F.) heats the house in winter and cools it in summer. The system uses no fossil fuels such as oil or natural gas, and it consumes 25% of the electricity required for a conventional heating/cooling system.

Rainwater from the roof is collected and funneled into a 25,000-gallon underground cistern. Wastewater from showers, sinks and toilets goes into underground purifying tanks and then into the cistern. The collected water then irrigates the land surrounding the house. Flowers and shrubs native to the area blend the property into the surrounding rural landscape.

HOUSE # 1 (20 Room Energy Guzzling Mansion) is outside of Nashville, Tennessee. It is the abode of that renowned environmentalist (and filmmaker) Al Gore.

HOUSE # 2 (Model Eco-Friendly House) is on a ranch near Crawford, Texas. Also known as “the Texas White House,” it is the private residence of the President of the United States, George W. Bush.

So whose house is gentler on the environment? Yet another story you won’t hear or see on CNN, CBS, ABC, MSNBC, or read about in the New York Times or the Washington Post. Indeed, for Mr. Gore, it is truly “an inconvenient truth”!

According to the folks at Snopes, the above is fairly accurate. Shocker, isn't it?

A MUST-READ ITEM

Today's must-read item is an interview with retired US Army LTC Ralph Peters at Frontpage Magazine.  Interviewer Paul Kengor questions Peters about the war in Iraq, the surge, withdrawal deadlines, and the state of Christianity in Europe.  Check out this quote from Peters on immigrants in Europe:

No European state--not one--has a functional model for integrating immigrants from different cultural and religious backgrounds. This is, indeed, a clash of civilizations. Europe's secular elites are, in fact, the last to get it. The average Frenchman or German or Englishman understands that the situation is dysfunctional, but the governing elites insist on pretending that all will be well--despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary. And, of course, there's blame on every side. Immigrants don't want to assimilate, but neither do Europeans really want them to assimilate. The miraculous North American model, in which "America makes Americans," has no counterpart in Europe. And for all their pacifist masquerading, Europeans remain really good haters--you can still smell the smoke of the ovens of Auschwitz.

Harsh, but I think he may have a point.  Time will tell, I guess.  Anyway, read the rest.  Interesting stuff.

STUPID IS AS STUPID SAYS

"I do believe that it was the first time in history that fire has ever melted steel."

-Rosie O'Donnell

Duh.  Get a clue Rosie.

And speaking of Rosie and her conspiracy nuttiness, Michelle Malkin reconsiders doing business with the companies that advertise on The View.

And speaking of advertising, actor and 9/11 conspiracy nut Charlie Sheen--who is rumored to be narrating the upcoming third edition of the 9/11 "documentary" Loose Change--is featured in the latest commercial for satellite television provider DirecTV.  As much as I hate my cable provider, I wouldn't switch to a service that uses a buffoon like that to hawk their product.  A spokesman is supposed to have credibility and inspire confidence in the product.  Any company that hires a clown who believes that real life is like an X-Files episode apparently doesn't get that.

DHIMMITUDE CREEP IN THE UK

Disheartening as it has been to watch the once-vaunted Royal Navy being punked on international TV by a gang of medievel thugs, this story from the UK may actually be worse:

Teachers drop the Holocaust to avoid offending Muslims

Schools are dropping the Holocaust from history lessons to avoid offending Muslim pupils, a Government backed study has revealed.

It found some teachers are reluctant to cover the atrocity for fear of upsetting students whose beliefs include Holocaust denial.

There is also resistance to tackling the 11th century Crusades - where Christians fought Muslim armies for control of Jerusalem - because lessons often contradict what is taught in local mosques.

The findings have prompted claims that some schools are using history 'as a vehicle for promoting political correctness'.

The study, funded by the Department for Education and Skills, looked into 'emotive and controversial' history teaching in primary and secondary schools.

So, they have to alter reality because it might offend Muslims?  That's pathetic.  And speaking of pathetic, check out this little bit of moral relativism from the above-linked story:

A third school found itself 'strongly challenged by some Christian parents for their treatment of the Arab-Israeli conflict-and the history of the state of Israel that did not accord with the teachings of their denomination'.

Note the fact that the school was challenged, and that there was no curriculum change made to accomodate the Christian parents.  It's also interesting to note that there were no details as to what was found objectionable.  Some pro-Palestinian propaganda, perhaps?  I guess we'll never find out, since that paragraph was just a little CYA for the newspaper.  Wouldn't want to offend any Muslims, right?

h/t:  Drudge

HELPFUL HINT

If you ever wonder what the Democrats are up to, the best way to find out is to listen to what they are accusing Republicans of doing.  Case in point:

Kennedy:  Justice firings are keyed to '08 vote

WASHINGTON -- Senator Edward M. Kennedy yesterday accused President Bush of using the Department of Justice to further his administration's "right-wing ideology," saying that veteran prosecutors were replaced by political operatives in key states to ensure that "reliable partisans" are in place in time for the 2008 presidential election.

Kennedy noted that the recent rash of firings among US attorneys put new top prosecutors in place in several presidential swing states, including Florida, Iowa, New Mexico, Minnesota, and Arkansas.

At least two of the eight US attorneys fired by the administration refused to investigate spurious claims of voter fraud that were initiated by Republicans, Kennedy said. Two of the new US attorneys, meanwhile, had documented records of pursuing GOP goals, one as a Justice Department official and the other as a top aide to White House political adviser Karl Rove, he said.

"The administration views our system of justice as merely another arena for furthering its right-wing ideology," Kennedy said in a speech at the National Press Club. "The conclusion is inescapable that the administration has methodically placed reliable partisans in positions where they can influence the outcome of the 2008 election."

So, what does all this mean?  The way I see it, it means that the Dems' 2008 strategy must have included voter-fraud in key states, and the recent DOJ firings endanger that plan.  Ain't that a shame?

h/t: Drudge

ABC=DNC?

I was watching Good Morning America this morning, when I saw a report on the "purging" of US Attorneys by the Bush administration.  The report made this out to be a serious issue and an unprecented move.  When the report was over, they turned to acting co-anchor George Stephanopoulos for his take on the political ramifications of this.  Not one mention was made of the fact that former President Clinton--Stephanopoulos' ex-boss--fired all but one of the US Attorneys when he took office.  Did these ace journalists not know this?  Stephanopoulos has to know it.  But there was no mention.  And there is no mention of it in this article on the ABC News website.  It appears that the Democrats, and their lapdogs in the media, are counting on the ignorance of the American people.  Again.  But why shouldn't they?  It's worked before, hasn't it?

SLOWLY BUT SURELY

War is a marathon folks, not a sprint.  And we are making progress.

Locals helping troops find weapons

BAGHDAD — Iraqis in the country's north, fed up with ongoing violence, are leading U.S. and Iraqi forces to some of the largest weapons and bombs caches found in the region to date, the commander of Multi-National Division-North told Pentagon reporters Friday.

This comes as U.S. troops in that area are handing off most counterinsurgency missions to Iraqi forces.  This allows U.S. forces to focus on killing or capturing those who finance, make and emplace IEDs, said U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Benjamin Mixon, commander of MND-N and the 25th Infantry Division.

So far this year, his forces have nearly doubled the monthly averages for finding IED caches, Mixon told reporters in the Pentagon via a satellite link from Contingency Operating Base Speicher, outside of Tikrit. The forces also have doubled the monthly average for killing the insurgents who use them, he said.

"The enemy is ruthless in using IEDs," Mixon said. "We are equally as aggressive and violent in our approach to defeat them."

Mixon said a cache found last week in Diyala had enough material to make about 130 "explosively formed projectiles," as well as military-grade rockets and mortars, the largest find of that type so far. While EFPs make up only one percent of IEDs used against Coalition forces, they are among the most deadly.

The find was part of an Iraqi forces-led mission and was based on a tip by a local informant, Mixon said. No arrests were made, but officials are still working with the informant to identify insurgents involved.

Locals are more willing to lead Coalition forces to weapons and bombs caches partly because of the increased presence of Iraqi forces, Mixon said.

What's that expression, "Slow and steady wins the race?"  And then there's "Patience is a virtue."  And let's not forget "Quitters never win."

AN ANNA NICOLE UPDATE

Here's the latest:

Anna Nicole Smith is still dead.

The father of her baby is still unknown.

The disposition of her remains is still undecided.

And, most importantly, I still don't give a damn.  The media could stop covering this story tomorrow, and I'd be just fine with that.  But somehow, I suspect they won't.

In related news, the diapered astronaut is quite happy with the whole Anna Nicole saga.  After all, Miss Smith's "untimely" passing knocked her right off the media's radar screen.

A VOICE FROM THE PAST

As the 2008 Presidential campaign heats up, and the debate over whether we should have gone into Iraq continues, a little historical perspective might be useful.

STATEMENT BY THE PRESIDENT

Today I am signing into law H.R. 4655, the "Iraq Liberation Act of 1998." This Act makes clear that it is the sense of the Congress that the United States should support those elements of the Iraqi opposition that advocate a very different future for Iraq than the bitter reality of internal repression and external aggression that the current regime in Baghdad now offers.

Let me be clear on what the U.S. objectives are: The United States wants Iraq to rejoin the family of nations as a freedom-loving and law-abiding member. This is in our interest and that of our allies within the region.

The United States favors an Iraq that offers its people freedom at home. I categorically reject arguments that this is unattainable due to Iraq's history or its ethnic or sectarian make-up. Iraqis deserve and desire freedom like everyone else. The United States looks forward to a democratically supported regime that would permit us to enter into a dialogue leading to the reintegration of Iraq into normal international life.

My Administration has pursued, and will continue to pursue, these objectives through active application of all relevant United Nations Security Council resolutions. The evidence is overwhelming that such changes will not happen under the current Iraq leadership.

In the meantime, while the United States continues to look to the Security Council's efforts to keep the current regime's behavior in check, we look forward to new leadership in Iraq that has the support of the Iraqi people. The United States is providing support to opposition groups from all sectors of the Iraqi community that could lead to a popularly supported government.

(emphasis mine)

-President William Jefferson Clinton, 1998

MARTINEZ TRIAL POSTPONED

It looks like SSG Alberto Martinez will be getting an extra couple of months to prepare for his trial.

Judge postpones court-martial in Esposito slaying

A military judge has postponed the court-martial for a soldier charged with killing Capt. Phillip Esposito of Suffern and another officer in Iraq two years ago.

Opening statements for the trial of Staff Sgt. Alberto Martinez were to begin June 4. But Col. Patrick Parrish acquiesced to a defense motion for a delay and set an Aug. 13 deadline for empaneling a jury.

The trial would begin soon after that, said Thomas McCollum, a spokesman for Fort Bragg, N.C., where preliminary hearings in the case are being held. The trial is expected to be held there as well.

"The defense is being afforded every opportunity so that this case is tried completely fairly," McCollum said.

He announced no firm date for the court-martial.

Martinez has been charged with two counts of premeditated murder in the deaths of Esposito, 30, who was his company commander, and Lt. Louis E. Allen, 34, of Milford. Pa., second-in-command of the 42nd Infantry Division's headquarters unit.

Both men were wounded in an explosion June 7, 2005, at Forward Operating Base Danger near Tikrit. They died the next day.

Whatever happened to "justice delayed is justice denied," anyway? Or does that only apply to defendants?

CREDIT CARDS FOR ILLEGALS?

Well isn't this nice:

Bank of America launches credit card for illegal immigrants

Bank of America, the country's second-largest bank, "has quietly begun offering credit cards to customers without Social Security numbers -- typically illegal immigrants," according to the Wall Street Journal.

Customers can qualify for a credit card if they have had a checking account at the bank for at least three months. They are required to leave a deposit and pay a relatively high interest rate, according to the paper.

The program is controversial. Bank of America says it will help undocumented workers build good credit. But critics say one of the USA's largest financial institutions should not be helping people who violate the country's immigration laws.

Well, this pisses me off.  How do you feel about it?  Oh, and you might be interested to know that BofA is the vendor for government travel cards.  That's right, our tax dollars are helping to subsidize these illegal immigration-enablers.  Wonderful.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MR. LINCOLN

 Today is the birthday of Abraham Lincoln, our 16th President, and the man whose courage and determination held our nation together during its darkest hours.

Address given at Gettysburg, PA on November 19, 1863:

Four score and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth upon this continent a new nation: conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war...testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated...can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war.

We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate...we cannot consecrate... we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember, what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here.

It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us...that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion... that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain...that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom...and that government of the people...by the people...for the people...shall not perish from the earth.

RUDY ON GUN CONTROL

Well this isn't encouraging:

Giuliani says gun control helped reduce N.Y. crime

SACRAMENTO -- Rudy Giuliani addressed a potentially troublesome issue with conservative voters, saying his policies as mayor to get handguns off the street helped reduce crime in New York.

"I used gun control as mayor," he said at a news conference Saturday during a swing through California. But "I understand the Second Amendment. I understand the right to bear arms."

He said what he did as mayor would have no effect on hunting.

(emphasis mine)

No effect on hunting?  Sorry Rudy, but the Second Amendment has nothing to do with hunting.  And it's worth noting that NYC has had strict gun control laws for years, even when the crime rate was rising.  It looks to me like Rudy just doesn't get it.

h/t:  Drudge

GLOBAL HOT AIR

He's no Al Gore, but Dr. Timothy Ball is a former professor of climatology at the University of Winnipeg.  Consequently, he may know something about the current hysteria over man-made global warming, even though he hasn't ever been nominated for an Oscar.  Check out his column "Global Warming: The Cold, Hard Facts?" over at the Canada Free Press website.

h/t: Drudge

SCHOOL CHOICE IN NY?

Well this is surprising.  From WTEN:

Budget Controversy Sparked by Just Two Little Lines

The Governor calls it a tax break - a tax break worth a couple of hundred dollars. But the people who teach your kids call it bad public policy.

The idea that parents who send their kids to a private or parochial school get a tax deduction was a surprise for many in the budget plan Governor Spitzer laid out. And some are saying it was snuck in, in the five-volume budget.

And the proposal makes up just two lines. NEWS10's John McLoughlin explains why those two little lines could be what many people will care the most about.

The Governor never even mentioned it during his budget briefings - but there it was, a new personal income tax deduction of up to one-thousand dollars for each kid in private or parochial school.

"Were you surprised when you saw this in the budget?" McLoughlin asked Steve Allinger, the Legislative Director of the New York State United Teachers Union.

"Yes, we were surprised," Allinger said.

Allinger, the lobbyist for NYSUT, says tax deductions for religious schools not only harm public education - he says they are simply wrong, "to use the public's tax expenditures or appropriations to support narrow private sectarian uses."

"They've got a lot of nerve complaining," says Dennis Poust, Legislative Director for the New York State Catholic Conference.

Poust says NYSUT's got a lot of nerve after Spitzer pledged a record seven-billion dollars in new school aid, while the private and parochial schools are educating half-a-million youngsters for a lot less money.

This is something I didn't expect from Spitzer.  Most Democrats are so tight with the teachers' unions that they wouldn't even dream of proposing such a thing.  Of course NYSUT's response was exactly what I expected.  Their rep makes it a point to mention that money would go to "sectarian" schools.  No one ever seems to remember that millions of dollars in government financial aid and student loans goes to private religious colleges and universities every year.  I guess we owe this oversight to the lack of a powerful union for professors at the state instititions of higher education.  The squeaky wheel gets the grease, and all that.

It'll be interesting to see if our new Governor has the stones to stand up to them.  I'll keep my fingers crossed, but I'm not holding my breath.

SICK AND TIRED--A DETOUR THROUGH RANT CITY

A few of the things that have been getting on my nerves lately:

The New Democratic Majority
OK, they won already. So when is the media going to stop obsessing on the point. Let's move on and get down to business for crying out loud.

Scared Republicans
OK, the Dems won. Get over it. Stop running scared and stand on your principles. If you're going to act like Democrats-Lite, expect to stay in the minority for a long time. Or to get bounced from office altogether. Why should we vote for imitation Democrats when we can have the real thing instead.

"Don't Call Us the 'Democrat' Party"
Yes we know, it's "Democratic" party. Implying that any other party isn't democratic. Grow up. The only thing worse than crybaby losers is crybaby winners.

"Bless Me Doctor, For I Have Sinned"
Rehab is the new route to absolution. Whether you're a congressman who hit on an underage page, an actor with a racial epithet-spewing potty-mouth, or a naughty beauty queen, just pack up and head out to rehab. Substance abuse is the new "the Devil made me do it."

Cickenhawk Arguments
I'm sick of hearing the "anyone who didn't serve, shouldn't send our troops into harm's way" argument. Or the b.s. about how more Democrats served than Republicans. The next time I hear one of these, my reply will be this: "Yeah, I don't think non-veterans should be allowed to hold office. Or vote. Or express opinions about politics and national policy. Freedom isn't free, and if you didn't pay, you should STFU." I don't really believe this, but it's sure to end the conversation.

So, what's been on your nerves lately?

ALBERTO MARTINEZ: CASE UPDATE AND STUPID LAWYER TRICKS

My blogging as of late has been inconsistent, so I haven't kept up on this story. In case you're not familiar with it, Staff Sergeant Alberto Martinez stands accused of murdering Captain Phillip Esposito and 1st Lieutenant Louis Allen in Iraq in June 2005. All three were part of the New York Army National Guard's 42nd Infantry Division. Here's the latest:

Judge orders independent investigator in Iraq ‘fragging’ case


FORT BRAGG, N.C. - A judge has ordered the government to pay for an independent investigator who will help prepare a defense for a soldier accused of killing two superior officers in Iraq. Military judge Col. Patrick Parrish granted the request after lawyers for Staff Sgt. Alberto Martinez complained Army investigators haven’t cooperated with them.

Martinez, 39, of Troy, N.Y., is the only soldier known to be charged with killing his superior officer during the Iraq war, also known as “fragging.”

He is accused of killing Capt. Phillip Esposito, 30, of Suffern, N.Y., and 1st Lt. Louis Allen, 34, of Milford, Pa., by setting off grenades and a mine in their room at one of Saddam Hussein’s former palaces in June 2005. The pair were his superior officers in the 42nd Infantry Division of the New York National Guard.

Allen, who grew up in Chester, N.Y., was a biology teacher at George F, Baker High School in Tuxedo.

Before issuing his ruling, Parrish noted that a civilian defendant in a death penalty case could be given an independent investigator at government expense.

“Do you think that would sit well with Congress, knowing that a soldier has fewer rights than a person sitting in a federal prison?” Parrish asked military prosecutor Capt. Adam Siple.


Parrish gave the defense until Jan. 19 to recommend an investigator to be hired.

And this:

Military judge grants access to files in Iraq murder case


(Fort Bragg, NC-AP) January 11, 2007 - Attorneys representing a soldier charged with killing two superior officers in Iraq will get access to the government's electronic data, including classified evidence.

The military judge ordered the access Thursday. Staff Sergeant Alberto Martinez faces two counts of premeditated murder in the deaths of Captain Phillip Esposito of Suffern, New York, and First Lieutenant Louis Allen of Milford, Pennsylvania.

Prosecutors say Martinez, of the New York Army National Guard, set off grenades and a mine in a room where Esposito and Allen were staying in June 2005.

The judge says that the government must allow access to both unclassified and classified data collected in the case. He also ordered the government to provide a computer expert to the defense lawyers.

Neither of these developments is unusual. This being a death penalty case, the court is going to bend over backwards to avoid looking as if Martinez isn't being given a "fair" trial. Of course to some people (especially the defense team), fairness is defined as a guarantee that Martinez gets off scott free.

This development is the one that really pisses me off:

At a November hearing, defense lawyers hinted that a Supreme Court decision barring the execution of mentally retarded defendants could keep the Army from seeking a death sentence against Martinez. They didn't elaborate.

(emphasis mine)

Mentally retarded? Martinez isn't just a soldier, he's a noncomissioned officer. Someone the Army had seen fit to give a position of authority to. It's disheartening enough that he may be a murdering sociopath, but now the defense team is going to tell the world he's mentally retarded?!?!

I apologize in advance for putting this so indelicately, but these lawyers are preparing to drop their pants and take a shit on the whole US Army NCO Corps. What's that going to do for the morale of our troops in harm's way? I guess murdering two men wasn't enough damage for him. Now his lawyers are helping him spread the pain. Disgraceful.

This whole episode just reinforces my belief that lawyers are no longer members of a profession. They are priests in some bizarre religion. A religion that performs sacrifices. Public safety. National security. And now the honor of our soldiers. All sacrificial lambs to some warped vision of "justice."

TODAY'S MUST-READ

In his book Hurray! We're Capitulating!, German author Henryk M. Broder examines the western world's total lack of courage in the face of Muslim intimidation.  Der Spiegel has posted an excerpt from the book on their english language online edition.  Mr. Broder gets it.  Too bad so many of his European brethren (and their American admirers) don't.

VOLUNTARY DHIMMITUDE

And surprisingly, it's not the Europeans this time.

Chinese TV Network Bans Pig Ads During Year of Pig Celebrations Due to Muslim Sensitivity


SHANGHAI — Companies looking to reach China's consumer market with pig images during Year of the Pig celebrations next month will have to adjust after a national television network adopted a policy to be sensitive to the country's small Muslim population, according to published reports.

China Central Television said it would ban all verbal and visual pork references from advertisements during Lunar New Year celebrations next month, the Wall Street Journal reported. This week, the network banned a TV ad from Nestle SA featuring a smiling cartoon pig and the message, "Happy new pig year."

Too bad China's Christians don't merit such consideration from the government. What is it about Islam that even communist atheists are willing to kowtow to it?

MOONBAT ALERT: ROBERT REDFORD

I saw this story linked on the Drudge Report.  From the Hollywood Reporter:

Redford lands left hook, criticizes Bush policy

PARK CITY -- Robert Redford came out swinging at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival's opening news conference Thursday, attacking the Bush administration for its politics as strongly as he dismissed film buyers who want his fest to serve as a market.

"Anyone with a rational mind and a sense of decency is being positioned as a lefty by the extreme right," he said, responding to an attendee who asked whether he thought Sundance selections were politically oriented to the left. "I believe in the tenets of democracy, and when they get pushed, it pisses me off," he said.

Redford maintained that Sundance films always have been politically diverse but said that "in light of what's happened in the past six years, we haven't adhered to snuffing attempts from the administration. ... (Documentaries) have become more of a truth to power in an environment where lying is treated like a political asset."

"I'm left-handed," he joked. "I'm not a very moderate person."

So, first he complains about his political opponents labeling him and other dissenters as "lefty."  Then, in the same sentence no less, he labels said opponents as "the extreme right."  Irony, anyone?  And just to make the ridiculousness of his statement complete, he basically admits that he is a lefty.  This would be funnier if there weren't so many people who take these clowns seriously.

PLAYING POLITICS (AGAIN)

I wish this was surprising.  From the Washington Times:

On Dec. 5, Newsweek magazine touted an interview with then-incoming House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence Chairman Rep. Silvestre Reyes as an "exclusive." And for good reason.

"In a surprise twist in the debate over Iraq," the story began, Mr. Reyes "said he wants to see an increase of 20,000 to 30,000 U.S. troops as part of a 'stepped up effort to dismantle the militias.' "

"We have to consider the need for additional troops to be in Iraq, to take out the militias and stabilize Iraq," the Texas Democrat said to the surprise of many, "I would say 20,000 to 30,000."

Then came President Bush's expected announcement last week, virtually matching Mr. Reyes' recommendation and argument word-for-word -- albeit the president proposed only 21,500 troops.

Wouldn't you know, hours after Mr. Bush announced his proposal, Mr. Reyes told the El Paso Times that such a troop buildup was unthinkable.

"We don't have the capability to escalate even to this minimum level," he said.

Don't even try to tell me these people aren't playing politics with our national security.  Of course Reyes is the same clown who didn't know whether al Qaeda was Sunni or Shiite.  But colossal ignorance notwithstanding, Congressman Reyes should at least know what his own position is on a troop increase.  But don't expect an explanation as to why his position changed.  Reyes will count on the MSM to give him a pass.  And they will, as they always do for Democrats.  Unfortunately, most of the mushy middle--the much coveted "moderate" voters--still get most of their news from the MSM. 

h/t:  Drudge

LATEST ACT FROM THE 9th CIRCUS

Yet another example of why terrorism shouldn't be treated as a law enforcement issue (as if we really needed one):

Appeals court vacates sentence of 'millennium bomber' Ressam

RETURN OF THE "FAIRNESS" DOCTRINE

I'm no psychic, but I saw this coming from way back.  From the National Ledger:

Fairness Doctrine:  The Plan to Silence Conservatives

Memphis, Tennessee: Media reform sounds like a good cause. But the gathering here of more than 2,000 activists turned out to be an effort to push the Democratic Party further to the left and get more "progressive" voices in the media, while proposing to use the power of the federal government to silence conservatives.

In short, triumphant liberals now want to consolidate and expand their power.

Several speakers, including Senator Bernie Sanders and Rep. Maurice Hinchey, declared that they think Congress should use a new federal "fairness doctrine" to target conservative speech on television and radio.

But while conservatives are not ashamed to be conservatives, because of the popularity of their ideas about freedom, a strong military, economic growth and traditional values, the liberals at this conference wanted desperately to avoid the use of the term "liberal," apparently because of its association with failed domestic, social and foreign policies. They described themselves and their causes as "progressive."

If this conference has an impact, and the participants were called upon to put pressure on the media and Congress, we should expect increasing references to the term "progressive" in coverage of controversial liberal initiatives, including the proposed agenda for "media reform." The only question is when congressional liberals get enough nerve to aggressively push this authoritarian attempt to muzzle their political opponents.

Free speech threatens one-party rule.  Just ask the GOP.  And the Dems, one election shy of a return to their "rightful" place as ruling party, won't stand for anything that threatens their grip on power.  If they regain the White House in '08, look for more legal limits to be placed on free speech, especially talk radio and the blogosphere.  If you have something to say about that, you'd better say it now.  While you still can legally do so.

ANOTHER STEP TOWARD THE NANNY-STATE

That's what Sen. Ted Kennedy is proposing (shocking, isn't it?).

Sen. Kennedy Seeks Universal Health Plan

WASHINGTON (AP) - The federal government should join the state of Massachusetts in enacting universal health coverage, said Sen. Edward Kennedy, the new chairman of the Senate committee with jurisdiction over numerous health issues.

Kennedy's home state is the first to require everyone to have health insurance, just as drivers must have automobile coverage.

Kennedy has his own version of what universal health coverage would look like. He wants to extend Medicare to all. In his first hearing Wednesday as chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, the Massachusetts Democrat called on 10 witnesses from all over the country to talk about how to make health care more affordable.

"Insurance coverage is down. Costs are up. And America is heading to the bottom of the league of major nations in important measures of the quality of care," Kennedy said.

(emphasis mine)

The bottom? Really? Then I guess we'll be seeing people hopping on planes to Cuba or North Korea so they can get complicated medical procedures done in nations with higher quality health care. Can't afford a plane ticket? That's OK, take a car ride across the border into Canada. As everyone knows, their healthcare system is a model for others to follow. Or is it? Before you answer that, you may want to check out this website for the documentary Dead Meat. Things up there are not good. And we're about to race into a similar situation at warp speed. Be afraid. Be very afraid.

WHERE'S THE BEEF?

There's been something missing from this blog for the past couple of weeks.  You've probably noticed it if you're one of my regular readers.  That something is...content.  New content to be precise.  There are several reasons for this.  Time, convenience, and just plain old laziness are all part of the equation.  If I'm going to continue to maintain this blog, I'm going to need to make some changes in what I'm doing here and how I'm doing it.  I have a few ideas, but there's still some work to do.  In the meantime, you may want to check out these columns:

John Weisman takes a good look at changes at DoD

Ralph Peters looks at the reasoning behind the administration's choice for a new CENTCOM commander

John Stoessel examines the proposal to raise the minimum wage

 

DANNY BONADUCE IS ON MY A-LIST (Updated)

I saw this on the O'Reilly Factor tonight. Too cool.


Update: And speaking of 9/11 conspiracy theories...

THE IMPORTANCE OF PROPAGANDA

Propaganda has become a dirty word to Americans.  It conjurs up images of Joseph Goebbels, and movies by Leni Riefenstahl.  But the truth is, propaganda is essential to winning a war.  It can provide a warring nation with a sort of psychological momentum, while denying this to an enemy. 

Our enemies in the war on Islamic extremism have made excellent use of propaganda.  The infamous sniper videos, for instance, can be used to recruit troops for their cause (when shown on Arabic news channels) and to demoralize their enemies (when shown on CNN).  War crimes by Americans are played up, exaggerated, or even completely fabricated.

And what is the American media's response to this?  Why they lap it up, of course; always willing to be spoon-fed any story that paints the US military or the current situation in Iraq in a bad light, regardless of the source.

If we're going to win this war--not just the war in Iraq, but the global war on terrorism--we're going to need to learn wage a propaganda war.  In his recent Townhall.com column, Michael McBride takes a hard look at what he calls the "information war," and the role that our news media has played in it so far.

Vietnam forever changed the relationship between the military and the Mainstream Media. I think that the case can be made to some degree that the real issue is between various administrations, their Pentagon inhabitants, and the media…not between the media and the troops on the ground. But what happens in this food fight is that the cafeteria fare almost always ends up on the faces, and uniforms of the troops. (good references here…A Bright and Shining Lie, Dereliction of Duty, Once Upon a Distant War, The Best and the Brightest, The Pentagon Papers) And all the troops I know are pretty unforgiving when their uniform is stained by someone else’s careless behavior, or their reputation is smeared through careless and biased reporting. (Hugh Hewitt’s interview with LtGen Mattis makes the case here.)

This fissure, first noticed after ApBac in Vietnam, and widened irreparably by Walter Cronkite’s 1968 Tet reporting, has only festered since. The military has done its part…successful campaigns in Panama, Grenada, Desert Storm and the current war in Iraq. There have been setbacks, Iranian Hostage Rescue, Beirut (driven by political constraints of the day, see The Root by Eric Hammel ), the USS Cole, but-by-and large, the military has more than upheld its contract with the citizens of this country by responding superbly when tasked by the nation Command Authority.

Their reward?...continuous deriding and minimalization of their accomplishments by the MSM corps. The badgering of generals, the callous showing of soldiers and Marines dying at the hands of snipers, the blatant disregard for other metrics of success other than US casualty counts, only reinforces the utter disrespect and disdain that the MSM has for the military, and by extension…the troops in the field.

As a result of the MSM messaging, our field generals, and our troops are being portrayed as failing. I think this is an incorrect representation of what is happening…we are really losing the information war, and as with Vietnam, if we don’t adjust fire soon, we may lose the war in Iraq…a vital battle in the Global War on Terror.

McBride goes on to outline what needs to be done to turn things around.  Among other things, he suggests cutting much of the mainstream media out of the loop.  That's a pretty radical solution, but I don't see any other choices.  As things stand now, I have serious doubts about our ability to wage an extended war.  No matter how much the country may be behind a war, the media--always in search of another scandal, higher ratings, and more awards--will turn on the military.  It's not they they won't aid in spreading propaganda, it's just that they tend to do it for the wrong side.

ANOTHER MILESTONE

The "milestone" crowd in the media is at it again.  The total number of US personnel killed in Operation Iraqi Freedom has exceeded the total killed in the 9/11 attacks.  From ABC News:

In a span of a few hours, 2,973 people were killed in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. In a span of 45 months, the number of American troops killed in Iraq exceeded that grim toll as the war continues.

The milestone in Iraq came on Christmas, nearly four years after the war began, according to a count by The Associated Press. In announcing the Monday deaths of three soldiers, the toll from those fighting the war surpassed the toll from those killed by terrorists in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania.

For a little historical perspective, the number of US personnel killed in the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 was 2388.  Total US war dead for World War II:  418,500.  That total includes those killed in the European Theater of operations fighting the Germans and Italians; who, by the way, never attacked us.

Look, either OIF was the right thing to do, or it was the wrong thing to do.  The numbers game is nothing but a diversion, and the last thing we need right now is yet another diversion.

IRAQ--MAYBE WE NEVER HAD A CHOICE

As the sectarian violence in Iraq increases, I find myself wondering whether we ever really had a choice about fighting there.  Had we left Saddam in power, we would have found ourselves embroiled in a sectarian war in the Persian Gulf eventually, anyway.  In other words, it was a case of deal with the problem now, or deal with it later.  And the longer we waited, the bigger the problem would have been.  Rather than being caught in a sectarian war in Iraq, we'd have found ourselves caught up in a regional sectarian conflict.

Christopher Hitchens, who is hardly a "neocon," examines the Persian Gulf's future without American military intervention in a recent column titled The Real Sunni Triangle.

Many people write as if the sectarian warfare in Iraq was caused by coalition intervention. But it is surely obvious that the struggle for mastery has been going on for some time and was only masked by the apparently iron unity imposed under Baathist rule. That rule was itself the dictatorship of a tribal Tikriti minority of the Sunni minority and constituted a veneer over the divisions beneath, as well as an incitement to their perpetuation. The Kurds had already withdrawn themselves from this divide-and-rule system by the time the coalition forces arrived, while Shiite grievances against the state were decades old and had been hugely intensified by Saddam's cruelty. Nothing was going to stop their explosion, and if Saddam Hussein's regime had been permitted to run its course and to devolve (if one can use such a mild expression) into the successorship of Udai and Qusai, the resulting detonation would have been even more vicious.

And into the power vacuum would have stepped not only Saudi Arabia and Iran, each with its preferred confessional faction, but also Turkey, in pursuit of hegemony in Kurdistan. In other words, the alternative was never between a tranquil if despotic Iraq and a destabilizing foreign intervention, but it was, rather, a race to see which kind of intervention there would be. The international community in its wisdom decided to delay the issue until the alternatives were even fewer, but it is idle to pretend that Iraq was going to remain either unified or uninvaded after the destruction of its fabric as a state by three decades of fascism and war, including 12 years of demoralizing sanctions.

The Middle East has been headed for a major war for decades.  I don't think there was anything we could have done to stop it, short of military intervention.  Iraq will wind up being the focal point of much of the war.  And the real lesson of 9/11 is that the U.S. is not insulated from the problems brewing--or boiling over--in the Middle East.  The Atlantic and Pacific oceans can't protect us.  Our economic prosperity can't protect us.  And our advance technology can't protect us.  We can't hide anymore.  Welcome to the real world, America.

BIG MOTHER MARCHES ON

This just keeps getting better and better.

Mass. bill would ban trans fats

Boston--Massachusetts is considering following New York City’s lead and banning restaurants from serving artery-clogging artificial trans fats — a move some lovers of greasy food are giving a thumbs-down.

State Rep. Peter J. Koutoujian, D-Waltham, co-chairman of the Legislature’s Joint Committee on Public Health, filed a bill yesterday to make Massachusetts the first state to impose the ban.

“It’s basically killing people,” Koutoujian said.

Killing people?  Well, we can't have that, can we?  We have to ban anything that can kill people.  Like trans fats.  And saturated fats.  And smoking.  And alcohol.  And cars.  How about refined sugar?  That's bad for you, we should ban candy and most breakfast cereals.  Yeah, we can ban anything dangerous.  We can create a world without risk.  Without pain.  Without freedom, too.  But that's a small price to pay, right?

FACING A HARD TRUTH

Author and screenwriter Pat Conroy has written an essay titled An Honest Confession by an American Coward that is posted at FrontPage Magazine. In it, he takes a hard look at his antiwar activities during the Vietnam War.

I have come to a conclusion about my country that I knew then in my bones but lacked the courage to act on: America is good enough to die for even when she is wrong.

This is today's must-read item. Conroy doesn't pull any punches about his own behavior. I have to give him credit for having the courage to go public with such an honest self-examination.

ADVANCE OF THE NANNY-STATE

I ran across this interesting bit of news on the Drudge Report. That someone would think of this is disconcerting, if totally unsurprising:

Obese should have health warnings on their clothes

Oversize clothes should have obesity helpline numbers sewn on them to try and reduce Britain's fat crisis, a leading professor said today.

And new urban roads should only be built if they have cycle lanes, according to Naveed Sattar, Professor of Metabolic Medicine at the University of Glasgow.

He is calling for more government intervention with a central agency set up to deal with the problems of obesity.

Britain's fat problem is so acute that it could even bankrupt the health system if nothing is done.

(emphasis mine)

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: once the "government" is paying for your healthcare, they're going to use the cost excuse to take control of how you live your life. This is not a paranoid conspiracy theory, it's just the logical outcome of signing over personal responsibility to the state. Don't say I didn't warn you.

"TOLERANCE" AND MORAL RELATIVISM

If you are as annoyed as I am by the "tolerant" left, you'll enjoy this column at Townhall.com by Greg Koukl titled The Intolerance of Tolerance.

As it turns out, by the modern definition of tolerance no one is tolerant, or ever can be. It's what my friend Francis Beckwith calls the "passive-aggressive tolerance trick." Returning to the classic understanding of tolerance is the only way to restore any useful meaning to the word. Let me give you a real life example.

Earlier this year I spoke to a class of seniors at a Christian high school in Des Moines, Iowa. I wanted to alert them to this "tolerance trick," but I also wanted to learn how much they had already been taken in by it. I began by writing two sentences on the board. The first expressed the current understanding of tolerance:

"All views have equal merit and none should be considered better than another."

All heads nodded in agreement. Nothing controversial here. Then I wrote the second sentence:

"Jesus is the Messiah and Judaism is wrong for rejecting Him."

Immediately hands flew up. "You can't say that," a coed challenged, clearly annoyed. "That's disrespectful. How would you like it if someone said you were wrong?"

"In fact, that happens to me all the time," I pointed out, "including right now with you. But why should it bother me that someone thinks I'm wrong?"

"It's intolerant," she said, noting that the second statement violated the first statement. What she didn't see was that the first statement also violated itself.

I pointed to the first statement and asked, "Is this a view, the idea that all views have equal merit and none should be considered better than another?" They all agreed.

Then I pointed to the second statement—the "intolerant" one—and asked the same question: "Is this a view?" They studied the sentence for a moment. Slowly my point began to dawn on them. They'd been taken in by the tolerance trick.

If all views have equal merit, then the view that Christians have a better view on Jesus than the Jews have is just as true as the idea that Jews have a better view on Jesus than the Christians do. But this is hopelessly contradictory. If the first statement is what tolerance amounts to, then no one can be tolerant because "tolerance" turns out to be gibberish.

Mr. Koukl uses simple logic--something that modern politcal debate is almost ompletely devoid of--to show the ridiculous trap of moral relativism that most of us have been caught in for the last couple of decades. A trap we'd better escape from soon, if we want our culture to have any hope of surviving.

CUT AND RUN: THE MOTHER OF ALL BAD IDEAS

No one would mistake CNN terrorism analyst Peter Bergen for a "neocon." Keep that in mind when you check out this piece about the ramifications of an U.S. pullout from Iraq titled What Osama Wants.

A total withdrawal from Iraq would play into the hands of the jihadist terrorists. As Osama bin Laden’s deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri, made clear shortly after 9/11 in his book “Knights Under the Prophet’s Banner,” Al Qaeda’s most important short-term strategic goal is to seize control of a state, or part of a state, somewhere in the Muslim world. “Confronting the enemies of Islam and launching jihad against them require a Muslim authority, established on a Muslim land,” he wrote. “Without achieving this goal our actions will mean nothing.” Such a jihadist state would be the ideal launching pad for future attacks on the West.

And there is no riper spot than the Sunni-majority areas of central and western Iraq. Abu Musab al-Zarqawi — the most feared insurgent commander in Iraq — was issuing an invitation to Mr. bin Laden when he named his group Al Qaeda in Iraq. When Mr. Zarqawi was killed this year, his successor, Abu Hamza al-Muhajer, also swore allegiance to Al Qaeda’s chief.

Another problem with a total American withdrawal is that it would fit all too neatly into Osama bin Laden’s master narrative about American foreign policy. His theme is that America is a paper tiger that cannot tolerate body bags coming home; to back it up, he cites President Ronald Reagan’s 1984 withdrawal of United States troops from Lebanon and President Bill Clinton’s decision nearly a decade later to pull troops from Somalia. A unilateral pullout from Iraq would only confirm this analysis of American weakness among his jihadist allies.

I don't agree with Bergen on a lot of things, but there's no denying he makes a good point here. The analogy he makes later in the column compares a pullout from Iraq with the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan, which eventually gave us the Taliban. And we all know what that eventually lead to.

The propaganda victory for al Qaeda should not be underestimated either. Check out this passage from bin Laden's 1996 fatwa:

Few days ago the news agencies had reported that the Defence Secretary of the Crusading Americans had said that "the explosion at Riyadh and Al-Khobar had taught him one lesson: that is not to withdraw when attacked by coward terrorists".

We say to the Defence Secretary that his talk can induce a grieving mother to laughter! and shows the fears that had enshrined you all. Where was this false courage of yours when the explosion in Beirut took place on 1983 AD (1403 A.H). You were turned into scattered pits and pieces at that time; 241 mainly marines solders were killed. And where was this courage of yours when two explosions made you to leave Aden in lees than twenty four hours!

But your most disgraceful case was in Somalia; where- after vigorous propaganda about the power of the USA and its post cold war leadership of the new world order- you moved tens of thousands of international force, including twenty eight thousands American solders into Somalia. However, when tens of your solders were killed in minor battles and one American Pilot was dragged in the streets of Mogadishu you left the area carrying disappointment, humiliation, defeat and your dead with you. Clinton appeared in front of the whole world threatening and promising revenge , but these threats were merely a preparation for withdrawal. You have been disgraced by Allah and you withdrew; the extent of your impotence and weaknesses became very clear. It was a pleasure for the "heart" of every Muslim and a remedy to the "chests" of believing nations to see you defeated in the three Islamic cities of Beirut , Aden and Mogadishu.

Adding Baghdad to the list of cities where we have been "defeated" by mujahedeen will not help our efforts in the war on Islamic extremism. If you think our presence in Iraq is creating new terrorists, just wait and see what our withdrawal would do.

DROP EVERYTHING, READ THIS NOW

Today's must-read is a post over at Blackfive.  It was all I could do to keep myself from yelling "Hell yeah!" in the office as I read it.  So go check out ROE RULES OF ENDANGERMENT.

NO GOOD DEED GOES UNPUNISHED

East Greenbush, NY resident Lisa Robinson was on a quest to raise money to send care packages to troops deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq.  An honorable gesture, to be sure.  But one that was rewarded with a dishonorable act, prepertrated by dishonorable people.  From the Albany Times Union:

While Robinson was living on the roof of an American Legion post in Rensselaer to raise money to benefit U.S. troops, someone burglarized her Barber Road house.

"They got my jewelry. I just talked to my husband and found out they got my pocketbook, too. I'm sitting here in a tent up on the roof with no identification. It's probably in a Dumpster somewhere," she said.

The burglars who struck sometime Sunday afternoon also took jars filled with spare change and ransacked desk drawers inside her home office.

Robinson was hoisted to the roof of the American Legion Melvin Roads Post No. 1231 in Rensselaer at 9 a.m. Saturday with a sleeping bag, tent and provisions, and vowed not to come down until she raised $25,000. The money will buy supplies for troops in Iraq, who are often lacking practical and comfort items like batteries, beef jerky and DVDs.

I don't know who broke into Robinson's house, but I do know what they are:  assholes.  Don't get me wrong, I think all burglars are assholes.  But these clowns are gold-medal winning assholes.  Especially if they learned about Robinson in the news and targeted her because they knew she wouldn't be home.

In breaking news, Lisa Robinson is down from the roof of the Legion after raising $20,000.  My hat is off to Ms. Robinson for her support for our troops.