LEADERSHIP 101

I've blogged before about leadership in a crisis situation. Remember the golden rule? Lead, follow, or get out of the way! If you want to see what leadership in a crisis looks like, keep your eye on LTG Russell Honore. Check out his handling of a recent press conference about preparations for hurricane Rita:

Honore: And Mr. Mayor, let's go back, because I can see right now, we're setting this up as he said, he said, we said. All right? We are not going to go, by order of the mayor and the governor, and open the convention center for people to come in. There are buses there. Is that clear to you? Buses parked. There are 4,000 troops there. People come, they get on a bus, they get on a truck, they move on. Is that clear? Is that clear to the public?

Female reporter: Where do they move on...

Honore: That's not your business.

Male reporter: But General, that didn't work the first time...

Honore: Wait a minute. It didn't work the first time. This ain't the first time. Okay? If...we don't control Rita, you understand? So there are a lot of pieces of it that's going to be worked out. You got good public servants working through it. Let's get a little trust here, because you're starting to act like this is your problem. You are carrying the message, okay? What we're going to do is have the buses staged. The initial place is at the convention center. We're not going to announce other places at this time, until we get a plan set, and we'll let people know where those locations are, through the government, and through public announcements. Right now, to handle the number of people that want to leave, we've got the capacity. You will come to the convention center. There are soldiers there from the 82nd Airborne, and from the Louisiana National Guard. People will be told to get on the bus, and we will take care of them. And where they go will be dependent on the capacity in this state. We've got our communications up. And we'll tell them where to go. And when they get there, they'll be able to get a chance, an opportunity to get registered, and so they can let their families know where they are. But don't start panic here. Okay? We've got a location. It is in the front of the convention center, and that's where we will use to migrate people from it, into the system.

Male reporter: General Honore, we were told that Berman Stadium on the west bank would be another staging area...

Honore: Not to my knowledge. Again, the current place, I just told you one time, is the convention center. Once we complete the plan with the mayor, and is approved by the governor, then we'll start that in the next 12-24 hours. And we understand that there's a problem in getting communications out. That's where we need your help. But let's not confuse the questions with the answers. Buses at the convention center will move our citizens, for whom we have sworn that we will support and defend...and we'll move them on. Let's not get stuck on the last storm. You're asking last storm questions for people who are concerned about the future storm. Don't get stuck on stupid, reporters. We are moving forward. And don't confuse the people please. You are part of the public message. So help us get the message straight. And if you don't understand, maybe you'll confuse it to the people. That's why we like follow-up questions. But right now, it's the convention center, and move on.

Male reporter: General, a little bit more about why that's happening this time, though, and did not have that last time...

Honore: You are stuck on stupid. I'm not going to answer that question. We are going to deal with Rita. This is public information that people are depending on the government to put out. This is the way we've got to do it. So please. I apologize to you, but let's talk about the future. Rita is happening. And right now, we need to get good, clean information out to the people that they can use. And we can have a conversation on the side about the past, in a couple of months.

Now that's leadership. I wish more of our political leaders in Washington could show that kind of leadership.

Check out the rest of Radio Blogger's commentary and his transcript of Glenn Reynolds' radio interview about the press conference. Good stuff.

h/t: Michelle Malkin

REMEMBERING 9/11

Well, 9/11 has come and gone, and I failed to post anything about it. But make no mistake, the importance of the day weighed heavily on my mind. I spent 9/11 --and the entire weekend, for that matter -- in uniform. It was a busy drill weekend. We spent it preparing for an upcoming exercise.

I was surprised and disappointed that no mention was made of the anniversary of 9/11 by the powers that be on my base. Last year 9/11 fell on a drill weekend as well. An announcement was made on the PA system to coincide with the time that the first plane hit the WTC and a moment of silence was observed across the base. This year, as far as I could tell, there was no such announcement.

Equally dismaying was the media's tepid treatment of the occasion. Oh, there were news reports on the anniversary and a few specials on some of the channels, but nothing fitting the importance of the anniversary of the deadliest attack by a foreign power on American soil in history.

I'm concerned that the enormity of what happened -- and the seriousness of the threat we still face -- has been forgotten by many of us. Have we broken our promise to never forget? I hope not. But this eerily prophetic quote from the 1993 video Red Cell keeps reverberating in my head:

I was just up in New York right after the World Trade Center got hit, and two blocks away it's like it's just...as if they didn't pick up garbage last week. You know, "if you weren't involved, don't worry about it." So they forgot about it. That's just part of our American way.

-Cdr. Dick Marcinko, founder of SEAL Team 6

LEADERSHIP AND POLITICS (AND NEVER THE TWAIN SHALL MEET)

Imagine for a moment you are in a burning building. It is a large building. You are unfamiliar with the layout of the building. The fire rages and you are certain that the roof will begin to collapse soon. You and the other people trapped inside look to someone to lead you safely out of the building before the roof collapses. Just then, the building superintendant walks into the room. You feel a sense of relief. Surely he must be able to lead you out.

You and the others gather around the superintendant and wait for instructions. The first words out of his mouth are "if this place had a better sprinkler system, this fire would've been put out right after it started." You're getting nervous about the impending roof collapse, so you ask him how to get out of the building. He responds "if they put better fire route maps in the halls, it'd be easier to find our way out." You generally agree with his statement, but the fire is raging on and he isn't moving. "What do we do?" one of the other people asks the superintendant. "If the fire department had better response time, they could've rescued us already. They were probably just sitting around playing cards for awhile after the alarm sounded" he replies.

The fire rages on, the super isn't moving, and he isn't giving you any useful guidance. Your best course of action is:

a) Draft a strongly worded letter to the company that manufactured the sprinkler system.

b) Form a committee to investigate the fire department's response time.

c) Contact you attorney and inquire about the possibility of suing the building's owner.

d) Find a way out of that building fast and lead the others to safety.

The correct answer is "d". If you had any trouble arriving at this answer, don't feel too badly. You're in good company. Many of our politicians apparently wouldn't know the answer either.

Like the burning building in my example, hurricane Katrina (and its aftermath) is a crisis situation. Solve the problem first, point fingers later. Anyone who is pointing fingers now should be pushed aside immediately. They are not only not helping, they are hindering efforts. Remember the golden rule of crisis situations:

LEAD, FOLLOW, OR GET OUT OF THE WAY!

Unfortunately, many of our politcos are incapable of leading, won't follow, and flat out refuse to get out of the way.

ABLE DANGER

I haven't really commented on the Able Danger story yet. When I first heard it, I knew that it had the potential to be explosive. But I was hesitant--and I still am--to jump on the bandwagon just yet.

First off, the fact that it proves that the Clinton administration dropped the ball on dealing with terrorism is a moot point. They aren't alone in failing to do all that realistically could have been done, but if failing to deal with a growing terrorist threat was an Olympic sport, Team Clinton would win the gold medal hands down. More proof of that won't change my opinion on the subject.

Secondly, the whole story on Able Danger isn't in yet. Let's say they did identify Atta and several of his accomplices. And let's say they did have information that pointed to an aviation-oriented threat. We still need context. For every terrorist or terrorist threat an analysis team accurately identifies, there are usually hundreds, even thousands that appear equally credible, but turn out to be wild goose chases. At this point, there is not enough info available to the public to paint a complete picture. We can only hope that there will be in the near future.

So far, three AD team members have come forward to blow the whistle about this breakdown in national security caused by the now-infamous "Wall". That's a good start, but I have a feeling there's even more to the story than what has been told so far. Like this little tidbit from a recent column by former USMC intel officer H. Thomas Hayden:

Critics of the Commission contend that the problems created by “The Wall” were never fully investigated by the 9/11 Commission, and no one involved in the process was ever called as a witness.

Some have reported that there may be other information in Able Danger that could
have significant ramifications in regard to the war in Iraq. Specifically, there was speculation that Able Danger links the 9/11 hijackers and Osama bin Laden to Iraq. Reportedly, Able Danger supports information from the Czech Republic's intelligence service that Atta met with the Iraqi ambassador at the Prague airport on April 9, 2001. Of course, the CIA of George Tenant disputes the Czech intelligence report.

Regardless, Czech intelligence informed the U.S. about this meeting shortly after the 9/11 attacks. Also, other intelligence documents indicate that two of the four terrorists that piloted the hijacked airliners were in Germany from late 2000 to early 2001. It was during that time that German authorities arrested two Iraqi agents on charges of spying against Germany. One of the hijacker pilots, Ziad Jarrah, left Germany the same week that the Germans arrested the two Iraqi agents.

At the same time, the Paris-based Islamic newspaper Al-Watan Al-Arabi linked Iraq to radical Islamic groups and Osama bin Laden. The paper reported that the Iraqi agents were part of an Iraqi operation to form a network of terrorist alliances to strike U.S. targets.

Would it surprise anyone to know that this information is also not in the Commission report?

(emphasis mine)

I'm not ready to get all worked up about this just yet, but I'm certain we haven't heard the end of this story.

IT'S OFFICIAL

No protest would be complete without an appearance by the patron saint of TV camera whores everywhere. Said patron saint is more commonly known as the "Reverend" Al Sharpton (does this guy actually even pretend to be a minister anymore?).

CRAWFORD, Texas (AP) — The Rev. Al Sharpton joined hundreds of war protesters camping near President Bush's ranch for an interfaith service Sunday, saying he felt compelled to meet Cindy Sheehan, the grieving mother who started the rally three weeks earlier.

Felt compelled to get some face time in front of the cameras is more like it. Apparently, the day didn't go entirely as planned. From FOXNews:

CRAWFORD, Texas — A driver for the Rev. Al Sharpton led Ellis County Sheriff's deputies on a nine-mile chase at speeds up to 110 mph before state troopers stopped the car, authorities said.

The driver was rushing Sharpton to the airport after his visit anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan on Sunday at her camp outside President Bush's ranch in Crawford.

The car carrying Sharpton and two other passengers was clocked doing 110 mph in a 65 mph zone on Interstate 35 in Ellis County in North Texas, said Lt. Danny Williams.

The car ignored deputies' attempts to stop it and continued speeding and weaving in and out of traffic before it was stopped, Williams said.

One hundred and ten mph? Damn, it looks like Big Al was in a hurry to get away from Cindy. Maybe she's even creepier in person than she comes across on TV. Scary thought.

One thing's for sure, the arrival of Big Al at Camp Casey is a sure sign that Cindy Sheehan has Jumped the Shark. Or is it Jumped the Sharpton?

KATRINA (AND THE WAVES?)

Most of the news today is about the hurricane. There's not much I can add to what's being reported in the horrendously redundant 24 hour news cycle. If you get the chance, it might not hurt to send a few prayers and/or good thoughts the way of the folks down there.

TET OFFENSIVE, OR BATTLE OF THE BULGE?

I was on base making up a missed drill day today (ssshhhh!!! don't tell the left, or they'll call me a deserter). My OIC handed me an article from Stratfor (a damn good source of intelligence). It was written by analyst George Friedman and was titled Al Qaeda's Global Campaign: Tet Offensive or Battle of the Bulge?. It was published about a month ago, but I hadn't seen it until today.

It costs money to join Stratfor and read all their best stuff, but I found the entire article posted here.

A spate of attacks have occurred recently that we attribute to al Qaeda. In addition to the two rounds of attacks in London this month and the bombings at Sharm el Sheikh, we have seen ongoing suicide bombings in Afghanistan and Iraq that targeted government officials, the bombing of a Sufi shrine in Islamabad, the abduction and murder of an Iranian security official and other killings in the Muslim world. In addition, we have seen an intensification of attacks in Iraq by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's al Qaeda-linked faction. We are not great believers in coincidence and therefore regard these incidents as being coordinated. The degree of coordination and the method whereby coordination is achieved is murky, and not really material. But that we are experiencing an offensive by al Qaeda is clear.

At issue is the nature of the offensive. To put the matter simply, do these attacks indicate the ongoing, undiminished strength of al Qaeda, or do they represent a final, desperate counterattack -- both within Iraq and globally -- to attempt to reverse al Qaeda's fortunes? In our view, the latter is the case. Al Qaeda, having been hammered over the past four years, and al-Zarqawi, facing the defection of large segments of his Sunni base of support, are engaged in a desperate attempt to reverse the course of the war. It is not clear that they will fail; such counter-offensives have succeeded in recent years. The question is whether this is a Tet offensive or a Battle of the Bulge.

If you haven't read it yet, check it out. It is a well reasoned and dispassionate analysis of the global war on terrorism. George Friedman seems to have a keen understanding of the psychological aspects of war. Public opinion is as much a factor in war as troop levels, training, and munitions. Unfortunatley, the terrorists seem to understand this too.

THE AMERICANS

I was listening to the usual criticism of the United States the other day--and trying not to get too aggravated (my, what a horrible nation we must be to be the object of such criticism)--when I remembered an incident from my youth.

Back in the early 1970's, I lived in Syracuse, NY. A couple kids I hung out with who lived down the street had a cousin visiting them for a week. Their cousin was a couple years older than I was and was from Canada. This kid seemed to do nothing the whole time he was there but criticize the US. We're war mongers, our economy was f'ed up, we had an energy crisis. Even our highways sucked compared to Canadian highways--which were apparently paved in gold, to listen to this jackass bray.

This kid really pissed me off, but I had a tough time countering his arguments. He was older and confident in his "facts", which I later learned were standard leftwing bullshit talking points. I had never even been to Canada, so I was in no position to judge whether it was a better country that the US. I only knew what I had always been taught by my family: the US is a great country and I am fortunate to have been born here.

A few weeks later, I was out of town visiting my cousin when I related the whole story of the braying jackass to my aunt and uncle. They could see that it was still bothering me. My uncle told me he had something he wanted me to hear. He foraged around through his record collection until he found a .45 (anyone remember vinyl records?) he wanted me to listen to. The record was of a broadcast done by Gordon Sinclair, a Canadian broadcaster. It was titled The Americans:

The United States dollar took another pounding on German, French, and British exchanges this morning, hitting the lowest point ever known in West Germany. It has declined there by 41% since 1971, and this Canadian thinks it is time to speak up for the Americans as the most generous, and possibly the least-appreciated, people in all the earth.

As long as sixty years ago, when I first started to read newspapers, I read of floods on the Yellow River and the Yangtse. Well who rushed in with men and money to help? The Americans did, that's who.

They have helped control floods on the Nile, the Amazon, the Ganges, and the Niger. Today, the rich bottom land of the Mississippi is under water and no foreign land has sent a dollar to help. Germany, Japan, and, to a lesser extent, Britain and Italy, were lifted out of the debris of war by the Americans who poured in billions of dollars and forgave other billions in debts. None of those countries is today paying even the interest on its remaining debts to the United States.

When the franc was in danger of collapsing in 1956, it was the Americans who propped it up, and their reward was to be insulted and swindled on the streets of Paris. And I was there -- I saw that. When distant cities are hit by earthquake, it is the United States that hurries into help, Managua, Nicaragua, is one of the most recent examples.

So far this spring, fifty-nine American communities have been flattened by tornadoes. Nobody has helped.

The Marshall Plan, the Truman Policy, all pumped billions upon billions of dollars into discouraged countries. And now, newspapers in those countries are writing about the decadent, war-mongering Americans.

Now, I'd like to see one of those countries that is gloating over the erosion of the United States dollar build its own airplanes.

Come on now, you, let's hear it! Does any other country in the world have a plane to equal the Boeing Jumbo Jet, the Lockheed Tristar, or the Douglas 10? If so, why don't they fly them? Why do all international lines except Russia fly American planes? Why does no other land on earth even consider putting a man or a women on the moon?

You talk about Japanese technocracy and you get radios. You talk about German technocracy and you get automobiles. You talk about American technocracy and you find men on the moon, not once, but several times, and, safely home again. You talk about scandals and the Americans put theirs right in the store window for everyone to look at. Even the draft dodgers are not pursued and hounded. They're right here on our streets in Toronto. Most of them, unless they're breaking Canadian laws, are getting American dollars from Ma and Pa at home to spend up here.

When the Americans get out of this bind -- as they will -- who could blame them if they said "the hell with the rest of the world." Let somebody else buy the Israel bonds. Let somebody else build or repair foreign dams, or design foreign buildings that won't shake apart in earthquakes." When the railways of France, and Germany, and India were breaking down through age, it was the Americans who rebuilt them. When the Pennsylvania Railroad and the New York Central went broke, nobody loaned them an old caboose. Both of 'em are still broke.

I can name to you 5,000 times when the Americans raced to the help of other people in trouble. Can you name to me even one time when someone else raced to the Americans in trouble? I don't think there was outside help even during the San Francisco earthquake.

Our neighbors have faced it alone, and I am one Canadian who is damned tired of hearing them kicked around. They'll come out of this thing with their flag high. And when they do, they're entitled to thumb their noses at the lands that are gloating over their present troubles. I hope Canada is not one of these. But there are many smug, self-righteous Canadians.

And finally, the American Red Cross was told at its 48th Annual meeting in New Orleans this morning that it was broke.

This year's disasters -- with the year less than half-over -- has taken it all. And nobody, but nobody, has helped.

It's a sad state of affairs that there are many US citizens today who don't appreciate their own country the way Gordon Sinclair did.

You can hear Sinclair's original broadcast and read the text here. The story behind the piece can be found here.

CINDY SHEEHAN

This story got old a long ways back. It has gotten to the point where I don't even feel any sympathy for Cindy Sheehan anymore. She's gone from sad, to pathetic, to just plain ridiculous. First it was "Bush the murderer", now it's Israel and the evil Jewish cabal bearing the blame for the death of her son. But still, the news media won't let it go. Because she's grieving, she lost a son, she deserves an explanation--or multiple explanations if necessary--from President Bush. And we're not allowed to criticize her or anything she says. We're not even allowed to question her association with the putrid Michael Moore & company.

If this story is so important that it must be covered continuously, then please tell me where was the wall-to-wall coverage of Herb Shugart. Shugart is the father of SFC Randy Shugart, one of two soldiers posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for heroism in Somalia in 1993. Herb Shugart refused to shake President Clinton's hand at the award ceremony and told Clinton that he was unfit to be commander-in-chief. Had it been President Bush that he had criticized, Herb Shugart would be on the cable news channels 24/7. They could find Natalee Holloway and no one would hear it because the media would be too busy interviewing a grieving parent about how bad George W. Bush is. But Shugart criticized a Democratic President. And he did it before the advent of FoxNews and the blogs. Consequently, most people have never heard of him or heard what he had to say about President Clinton. But there's a new media in town, and they're not all in the bag for the left. I hope they keep us informed about what's really going on in Crawford, TX.

OVER WHERE?

I've seen ads for a show on the FX channel for a series called Over There. The show is about soldiers serving in the war in Iraq. Personally, I have not even been tempted to watch the show. I figured that they'd get it all wrong. According to Kevin at Boots on the Ground, I was right.

I unfortunately wasted an a few minutes of my life to watch "Over There." A new series on FX about US Army Soldiers serving a tour in Iraq. There are a few bad war movies and tv shows, but this one takes the cake. If the inaccuracies they made in this new show was to keep the real enemy from watching and knowing our real tactics, then they did a SUPERB job.

Since Kevin has logged in a fair amount of time on the ground in Iraq, I have to figure that he knows what's what. If you didn't think an infantryman could drop a MOAB, you'll see how wrong you were when you see what Kevin does to this show.

The Hollyweird crowd ought to consult with some folks who have been there and done that before they try to do a show about a war that is currently underway. I'm totally unsurprised that they screwed this one up. Most of the time, they can't even get uniforms right, and most actors can't even pull off a believable salute. Maybe they should stick to "reality" TV.

You can read the rest of Kevin's post here.

IF ONLY...

Slick Willie's at it again, trying to salvage the legacy of his ridiculous narcissistic presidency. From NewsMax:

Clinton: I Would Have Attacked Bin Laden

Ex-president Bill Clinton now says he would have taken out Osama bin Laden before the 9/11 attacks – if only the FBI and CIA had been able to prove the al-Qaida mastermind was behind the attack on the U.S.S. Cole.

"I desperately wish that I had been president when the FBI and CIA finally confirmed, officially, that bin Laden was responsible for the attack on the U.S.S. Cole," Clinton tells New York magazine this week. "Then we could have launched an attack on Afghanistan early."

Coulda, woulda, shoulda. Talk is cheap, and this kind of talk is the cheapest of all. "Yeah, I coulda kicked Bruce Lee's ass. If only he hadn't died before I got the chance." Sure you could.

I'll admit that I've never liked Bill Clinton, but this kind of talk makes him seem even more pathetic. It also makes me happy that the 9/11 attacks happened on Bush's watch and not on the watch of a man who obsesses over his image.

BACK INTO THE SWING OF THINGS

I'm trying to get back into the routine after a couple weeks of vacation. I tried to stay away from the news for most of the time just to keep my blood pressure down. I was in the process of getting caught up when I ran into this article:

Editors Ponder How to Present a Broad Picture of Iraq
By KATHARINE Q. SEELYE
Rosemary Goudreau, the editorial page editor of The Tampa Tribune, has received the same e-mail message a dozen times over the last year.

"Did you know that 47 countries have re-established their embassies in Iraq?" the anonymous polemic asks, in part. "Did you know that 3,100 schools have been renovated?"

"Of course we didn't know!" the message concludes. "Our media doesn't tell us!"

Ms. Goudreau's newspaper, like most dailies in America, relies largely on The Associated Press for its coverage of the Iraq war. So she finally forwarded the e-mail message to Mike Silverman, managing editor of The A.P., asking if there was a way to check these assertions and to put them into context. Like many other journalists, Mr. Silverman had also received a copy of the message.

Ms. Goudreau's query prompted an unusual discussion last month in New York at a regular meeting of editors whose newspapers are members of The Associated Press. Some editors expressed concern that a kind of bunker mentality was preventing reporters in Iraq from getting out and explaining the bigger picture beyond the daily death tolls.

"The bottom-line question was, people wanted to know if we're making progress in Iraq," Ms. Goudreau said, and the A.P. articles were not helping to answer that question.

Not helping to answer the question? Ya think? It'll be interesting to see how much traction this story gets. I'm surprised it came from the NY Times.

Hat tip to Drudge.

GROWING(?) AL QA'IDA THREAT

The London bombings took place during my blogging hiatus, but some of the analysis (to use the term loosely) struck me as really asinine. To be specific, this BS about the "evolving" global insurgency misses the mark completely. If we're talking about evolving as in changing, then yes, it is evolving. But if the point is that AQ is growing or becoming more dangerous, then these "experts" aren't paying attention. Let's cast aside the hyperbole and look at the math. Math doesn't lie.

September 11, 2001: Terrorists hijack four commercial airliners simultaneously and crash three of theM into buildings in NYC and DC. Death toll: approximately 3000.

October 12, 2002: Terrorists set off two bombs -- a backpack bomb, and a more powerful car bomb -- at a resort on Bali in Indonesia. Many Australians and Britons were at the resort. Death toll: 202.

March 11, 2004: Terrorists set off multiple bombs on commuter trains in Madrid, Spain. Death toll: 191.

July 7, 2005: Terrorists set off four bombs in London's mass transit system. Death toll: 52.

Let's look at the numbers again: 3000, 202, 191, 52. Am I wrong, or are they going down? I don't mean to minimize the pain and suffering caused by these attacks, but there is no denying that the attacks are becoming less destructive. According to the people who taught me about how wars are fought, you're in trouble when you lose your ability to do damage to the enemy. But what do I know, I'm not an "expert."

For a look at what a real expert has to say about the Global War on Terrorism, check out Lt. Col (Ret) Gordon Cucullu's column in Frontpage Magazine.

Before the dust had settled in the London subways and the wounded evacuated much was already being made by breathless commentators about the "increasing sophistication" and technical expertise of the terrorist killers. These kind of coordinated attacks, we were assured, presuppose a highly intelligent, highly skilled group of terrorists. The implication is that we are losing ground and are increasingly helpless in the face of such professional competence. We have been forced into a reactive mode to an invincible terrorist threat. Well, that's simply not the case.

In fact, to judge by the sophistication levels of terrorist attacks they reached the pinnacle with the simultaneous hijacking of airliners and converting them into homicide missiles on September 11, 2001. The terrorists have been unable to equal that attack and since then the degree and sophistication of terrorist offensives have declined. Frankly, it is no great shakes for a jihadist revolutionary movement with the kind of funding al Qaeda receives from sheiks in Saudi Arabia and mullahs in Iran to blow up a few bombs individually or simultaneously. It does not take loads of sophistication to pack a car with explosives, drive it to a target, and close an electrical circuit. Nor can it be anything other than sheer desperation to rely on terrorists who kill themselves along with their victims. Use of suicide bombers is a strategy of self-imposed attrition that can only result in organizational self destruction. Horrific, yes; advanced, no.
(emphasis mine)

Check out the rest of Lt. Col. Cucullu's column. With years of military experience, including time in Vietnam fighting real-live insurgents, I'd dare say that he knows more about unconventional warfare than the entire editorial board of the New York Times combined.

SUPREME PICK

President Bush has named his nominee for the Supreme Court Seat being vacated by the retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor.

WASHINGTON — President Bush has picked Judge John G. Roberts Jr. to replace retiring Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor.

Roberts, 50, is a conservative who currently sits on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. A former clerk to Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, his name has been floated for months as a possible Bush selection for the high court.

Bush announced the nomination to the American public at 9 p.m. EDT — with Roberts appearing alongside the president.

Senators Leahy and Schumer responded immediately after. It's tough to say how hard the battle over this nomination is going to be. One thing is certain, Chuckie Scummer will lead the charge against. He couldn't even wait for Leahy to finish his introduction before he went into his spiel.

If I was a bettin' man, I'd bet that it'll get nasty. Having the Scum-meister out front is a virtual guarantee of that. I really dislike that guy. He's actually gotten more obnoxious since he was reelected. I guess that's what carrying 71% of the popular vote will do to an already arrogant politician (is that redundant?). Of course he did run practically unopposed. But that's a whole different post.

A LONG TIME AGO, IN A GALAXY FAR, FAR AWAY...

Once upon a time, the folks in the mainstream media -- those would be the "real" journalists -- just loved a whistleblower. A high ranking government official who blew the whistle on less than ethical actions by...oh, say...a CIA official, would be hailed as a hero. As we now know (didn't we always know this anyway?), that doesn't apply when the whistleblower is a Republican, and the CIA employee is trying to advance an anti-Republican agenda. (Note: I was going to call it a pro-Democrat agenda, but I'd be hard pressed to explain what Democrats are in favor of these days, besides sticking it to Republicans)

Check out this site for a little background on the Intelligence Identities Protection Act. This law was passed in response to the actions of former CIA Officer Philip Agee. Agee is believed to have blown the cover of CIA station chief in Athens Richard Welch, which resulted in Welch's assassination in 1975. Agee fled to Cuba, where he has lived under the protection of Fidel Castro. Ironically, Agee has been a darling of the left for decades for doing what the media has accused Karl Rove of. If you can stomach it, do a Google web search for Philip Agee. You'll find many of the sites about him to be of a positive nature. Nice double standard. Further proof that you have to be a hypocrite to be a lefty.

TAGGED

I got tagged with a meme by Bloodspite last week. Being up to my eyeballs in work, I just got around to it this week. If you're interested, you can read it here.

75 YEARS AGO TODAY

Today marks the 75th birthday of Dr. Thomas Sowell, one of the smartest men in America. Dr. Sowell wrote a column today looking at all of the events that have occurred around the world since his birth. Well worth reading, the column gives some historical perspective to our current situation.

KEEP WATCHING THE SKIES

I just saw this story linked at the Drudge Report:

Two thefts of small planes renew security concerns

Some 19,000 small airports across the US have varied safeguards.

By Alexandra Marks | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

NEW YORK – In the past two weeks, two small planes have been stolen and taken for joy rides. In neither case was the crime a national security threat, but some analysts note that in this post-9/11 era the thieves could have easily been Al Qaeda operatives and not teenagers out for a thrill.

That has again raised the question of whether enough is being done to secure the more than 19,000 small airports scattered across the nation. At the same time, the incidents also put into stark relief two challenges the nation faces as it tries to secure itself against another terrorist attack more than three years after 9/11.

The first is how to prioritize potential threats, determine which ones would cost too much to guard against, and then educate the public that they must simply learn to live with them. The second is how to balance the need for security against individual freedoms and commerce. Both challenges are evident in the $20 billion general aviation industry, which includes everything from small private planes to corporate jets.

"It's not enough to simply say you're going to regulate [the industry] totally - you can't because you'd end up destroying it," says Andrew Thomas, a professor at the University of Akron in Ohio and author of "Aviation Insecurity." "On the other hand, you can't do nothing, because clearly it is still a very real threat given Al Qaeda's determination to use small planes in the past. We still haven't found the balance."

If that's not enough to make you feels just a little less safe, check out this column about the effect BRAC has had on the air sovereignty mission.

As of this writing, the only ANG units answering to First Air Force that are expected to retain both an air defense/air superiority role and mission posture are the 125th Fighter Wing, FLANG, located at Jacksonville IAP, FL, the 144th Fighter Wing, CAANG at Fresno Airport, Fresno, CA and the 177th Fighter Wing, NJANG located at Atlantic City IAP, NJ. The 125th and 177th Fighter Wings will continue their missions with F-15 Eagles (the 177th after it receives their primary assigned aircraft from three ANG fighter wings stripped of theirs), and the 144th will soldier on with its F-16 Falcons.

The reduction in the number of dedicated air defense units means that the continental air defense of the lower 48 will be carried out by just three fighter units. The entire west coast will be patrolled and protected from Fresno while the east coast will have a unit in the southeast corner of the country and another located in the Mid-Atlantic region. Alaska, considered to be a separate command, will lose most of its active duty fighter aircraft to realignments or retirements and there will be considerable holes in the air defense network there until the newer F/A-22 Raptors are assigned there later in the decade.

I don't believe for a second that the terrorists have given up on another airborne attack on US soil. They're just biding their time until the opportunity presents itself. Let's hope we don't hand them one on a silver platter.

READING ASSIGNMENT

Check out this piece, entitled 10 Things I'd Do If I Were The Commander-In-Chief, by Edward L. Daley. I'd bet that number ten will be Bloodspite's favorite.

MILBLOGGER RULES OF ENGAGEMENT

Yankee Sailor has posted a set of rules of engagement (ROE) for MilBloggers. You can check them out here. These are all common sense things, but like the saying goes, "common sense is not that common." Yankee Sailor's rules are pretty close to the rules I imposed on myself when blogging from Qatar. If you're a MilBlogger, this post is a must read.

Hat tip: Mustang 23

MARTINEZ UPDATE

I've been hearing a lot about this case via the rumor mill. My sources are second-hand, but reliable. Be that as it may, I hesitate to post any of this info on the blog. I don't want to mess up the Army's legal case against Martinez or violate his rights--yes, even someone accused of a hideous crime like this has rights guaranteed by the Constitution and the UCMJ. I can confirm that WTEN Channel 10 is reporting the following:

A Schaghticoke man accused of killing two superior officers in Iraq was the subject of an Army investigation prior to the alleged murders.

The New York Post is reporting Staff Sergeant Alberto Martinez was the target of the probe looking into irregularities connected to his job as a supply sergeant with the 42nd Infantry Division of the Army National Guard based in Troy.

The report said something had gone wrong in the logistical charin which often refers to missing equipment.

Military officials would neither confirm nor deny the report.

Martinez is charged with the murders of Lieutentant Louis Allen and Captain Phillip Esposito after he allegedly set off an explosive device.

(emphasis mine)

Irregularities? Let's just say that would jibe with the info coming from the rumor mill. And with the fact that Martinez had military ordnance in the basement of his house in Cohoes, NY.

DO THE WRONG THING

I was expecting this to happen. I just knew some of the anti-war left would become hopeful for more "fraggings" in the wake of the actions of alleged murderer Alberto Martinez. Check out this quote from the Worker's World website (that's what communists read when they can't get a copy of Newsweak):

Meanwhile, the Pentagon made it clear it considers the recent deaths of two officers in Iraq a case of "fragging." It has charged Staff Sgt. Alberto Martinez with murder in the deaths of Capt. Philip Esposito and 1st Lt. Louis Allen.

Whatever the details of the case, this sends a shiver up the generals' spines. While there have always been examples of killings not by enemy fire, in Vietnam this reached the level of political protest, which many war resisters saw as a legitimate tactic against warlike or racist officers. Between 1969 and 1971, the U.S. Army reported 600 fragging incidents, which killed 82 officers and non-commissioned officers and injured 651.

The Pentagon knows the high level of discontent among U.S. troops, and fears that fragging will become a more popular method of opposing the tour of duty in Iraq.

(emphasis mine)

I'm waiting for the lefty moonbats to start praising Martinez for killing two of his officers and to call on other troops to do the same. For all I know, it's already happening over at DU or Daily Kos.

Mark my words, this is going to turn out to be a plain, old-fashioned murder case. If he's guilty, Martinez is just a crook. Nothing more.

SORRY SEEMS TO BE THE HARDEST WORD

Well, it's official. Senator Dick Durbin is sorry. Was there ever any doubt? He shall henceforth be know as the Sorry Senator from Illinois. Or just Sorry Senator Durbin, for short.

MORE ON THE 42nd ID "FRAGGING" INCIDENT

Apparently SSG Alberto Martinez, the alleged murderer of his Commander and XO in Iraq has what you might call a less than perfect record. According to this story in the Albany Times-Union, Martinez was suspected of arson in a fire that destroyed his home in Cohoes, NY.

A Schaghticoke soldier accused of killing two of his superior officers is in a legal dispute with Liberty Mutual Insurance Co. after the insurer accused him of burning down his Cohoes home in 2002 to collect on a policy whose value had been doubled six weeks before the fire.

On Sunday, Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said the motive for the alleged ``fragging'' in Iraq is unknown. ``I don't know of any of the dynamics behind it. It may come out at trial. We have to wait for all the facts to come out.''

Staff Sgt. Alberto Martinez previously told fellow National Guardsmen, ``If I can't sell my house, I might as well burn it down,'' the insurer said in court pleadings obtained by the Times Herald-Record of Middletown.

Martinez, 37, denied any involvement in the fire. Police records show the cause was determined to be accidental. Martinez is suing Liberty Mutual for payment on the policy.

``We believe that the plaintiff, utilizing his knowledge of electrical wiring, has cleverly created the impression that this fire was of electrical origin,'' Liberty Mutual lawyer Thomas O'Connor wrote in court papers in September.

Martinez has an associate degree in electronics.

A guy is suspected of arson, and he gets deployed to Iraq? What was his chain of command thinking? Martinez is a supply NCO. Supply types often have access to arms, ammunition, and explosives. Not exactly the kind of job you want to give to a suspected arsonist.

Somebody screwed up when they decided to deploy this guy. When the whole truth comes out, I have a feeling it won't be pretty. Not that it's pretty now, but it's going to get uglier.

UPDATE
There's more on the Martinez story at the Insurance Journal website.

Court papers reviewed by the newspaper also show that Martinez was five months behind on his mortgage payments and his electric service was being turned off for nonpayment when the fire damaged his home. Neighbors said the family moved out about two weeks before the fire.

The civil lawsuit in the case was scheduled to go to trial in September, though what will become of that given his arrest is unclear, his lawyer in the civil case, Eugene Spada, told the newspaper.

Cohoes Detective Tom Ross told The Troy Record that 18 months after the fire, a caretaker overseeing rehabilitation work on the house reported finding in the basement a 47-pound bomb. Police contacted the Army, and the bomb was removed. Cohoes Police Chief Joe Fahd said firefighters had immediately found in the house several unarmed artillery shells, which were checked by a Watervliet Arsenal demolition team and eventually confiscated.

After the fire, Martinez moved his wife and two teenagers to his parents' house in the Schaghticoke, just outside of Troy. He worked at the Watervliet Arsenal before going full-time with the National Guard.

(emphasis mine)

A bomb? This story is just going to get weirder folks.

A SAD DAY FOR THE RAINBOW DIVISION

Tragedy struck my former unit recently. Not the usual tragedy you expect in war. This time, the enemy was one of our own.

Soldier charged with murder
A member of Troy's Rainbow Division has been charged with murdering two members of his unit.

The Department of Defense has charged 37-year-old Army Staff Sergeant Alberto B. Martinez with two counts of premeditated murder.

It stems from the June 7 deaths of Captain Phillip T. Esposito and 1st Lieutenant Louis E. Allen.

The soldiers died at a base near Tikrit, in what was first reported to be an enemy mortar attack, but a criminal investigation found inconsistencies with that story.

If this jerk is convicted, I hope they throw the book at him. Hangin's too good for this dirtbag.

A LITTLE PERSPECTIVE

Complaints of abuse, torture, mistreatment, and poor living conditions by people who are incarcerated is nothing new. To get an idea of how often this happens, go to this site. Type the word "inmate" into the search box and click the search button. You'll get about five hundred matches. Most are lawsuits or motions brought by inmates against the State of New York in the New York State Court of Claims. Five hundred. The database only goes back five years. And most of those poor souls in NY's state prisons are innocent. Just ask 'em, they'll tell you.

No one is calling for us to close the prisons in NY. Maybe we should. Let 'em all go. Folks like David Berkowitz, Lemuel Smith, Reginald McFadden, and Patrick Baxter. Maybe they can all move in with Senator Dick Durbin. He's a millionaire, he can afford to support them.

DICK AND FRIENDS

I've spent the last couple of days fuming over all of this rhetoric from the left about the detention center at Guantanamo Bay. This BS from Dick (boy, were his parents prescient, or what?) Durbin is the straw that broke the camel's back. If crap like this had been going on in World War II, we would have lost. The truth is, if we lose the GWOT, it's going to be because of folks like Durbin. When they go on TV and say the things they have been saying, it emboldens the terrorists. They think the US is losing its resolve.

Durbin & Co. can't not know the harm they're doing. The only other alternative is that they want us to lose the war. I know these folks like hardball politics, but putting American lives at risk is inexcusable.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again; war is a holistic thing. The military can't win it alone. They need the entire country behind them. People like Durbin are trying to sabotage this. There's a word to describe people who try to sabotage their own country during wartime: traitors.

CHILD MOLESTATION RAP? JUST BEAT IT!

I'll be damned. So, Michael Jackson is "innocent." As soon as I heard the "not guilty" verdict on the first count, I turned to my wife and said "watch, he'll skate on all of the charges." Sure enough, he did. The question now is this: How long will it take before parents line up outside Neverland trying to get their kids next to Michael? After all, Micheal's been declared "safe" by the court, right? Or is he just a smooth criminal?

WEEKEND MILITARY HUMOR

Having just moved into his new office, a pompous, new colonel was sitting at his desk when an airman knocked on the door. Conscious of his new position, the colonel quickly picked up the phone, told the airman to enter, then said into the phone, "Yes, General, I'll be seeing him this afternoon and I'll pass along your message. In the meantime, thank you for your good wishes, sir." Feeling as though he had sufficiently impressed the young enlisted man, he asked, "What do you want?"

"Nothing important, sir," the airman replied, "I'm just here to hook up your telephone."

-----------------------------------------------------------------

An Air Force Chief Master Sergeant and a General were sitting in the barbershop. They were both just getting finished with their shaves, when the barbers reached for some after-shave to slap on their faces. The General shouted, "Hey, don't put that stuff on me! My wife will think I've been in a whorehouse!"

The Chief turned to his barber and said, "Go ahead and put it on. My wife doesn't know what the inside of a whorehouse smells like."

WHO WANTS THE TERRORISTS TO WIN?

Last week I read an excellent column by Jim Simpson over at Defensewatch. The column was titled "Who Wants the Terrorists to Win?", and was posted on the site on May 16th. For reasons unknown, the column has disappeared from the archives of the site. This is a shame, because it is well worth the read.

In light of President Bush's recent Russia trip to celebrate victory over Germany in World War II - or the "Great Patriotic War" as the Soviets called it - it is useful to ask: Why do historians, pundits, journalists, politicians the world over, and even Hollywood, celebrate World War II as the last "Good War" in American history?

How does that conflict distinguish itself from Korea and Vietnam, wherein we faced anti-war opposition both at home and abroad? Why do we today face such vicious resistance to the Global War on Terror from many of these same sources?

At first, the disunity of our war effort today seems inexplicable given the unity that existed during World War II. The similarities between the two are striking.

In both wars, we joined with global allies to fight fascistic fanatics who committed mass genocide. In both cases, we were attacked by surprise, completely without warning, in a strike that killed thousands. In fact, 9/11 can be seen as the more barbaric, since the attackers chose defenseless civilian targets. In both cases, Western civilization itself was targeted.

The stock answer is that during World War II, we were all united in a common cause: to counter an imminent threat from a barbaric enemy and defeat the only genuine "Axis of Evil" that ever existed.

Simpson goes on to examine the political left and why they found it in their hearts to support World War II. And why they are opposed to the Global War on Terrorism. While the original post on Defensewatch is gone, some wise poster on the Military.com forums had the foresight to post the column there in it's entirety. You can check it out here. And just in case it dissapears from there too, the Google cache of the text is located here.

LAW AND (LEFTWING) ORDER

Apparently one of (how many of them are there now, anyway?) NBC's Law and Order shows took a swipe at Rep. Tom Delay on Wednesday. I missed the show (like I always do), so I didn't hear it myself. I can't say I'm shocked. The folks who produce this (formerly entertaining) show have a history of liberal bias. In 1995, former star Michael Moriarty left the show due to a disagreement with producers over attempts to censor the show at the behest of then-Attorney General Janet Reno.

Hell, who cares what they say on that show anyway. If you're up at 10 PM on Wednesday nights, you should be watching CSI: NY. It's a better show. And besides, star Gary Sinise is a major supporter of our troops and veterans.

DEAL

Our wonderful Senators have apparently reached a deal on the judicial filibuster fight.

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A bipartisan group of senators reached an agreement after days of talks to avert a showdown Tuesday over President Bush's judicial nominees, Sen. John McCain announced Monday evening.

Standing with a group of 13 other senators, the Arizona Republican told reporters the seven Republicans and seven Democrats had brokered a compromise.

"We have reached an agreement to try to avert a crisis in the United States Senate and pull the institution back from a precipice that would have had, in the view of all 14 of us, lasting impact, damaging impact on the institution," McCain said.

Under the deal, judicial nominees would only be filibustered "under extraordinary circumstances," McCain said.

McCain said the group of 14 pledged to vote for cloture -- an end to debate -- for three judicial nominees: Janice Rogers Brown, William Pryor and Priscilla Owen.
He said the group made no commitment to vote for or against cloture on two nominees, William Myers and Henry Saad.

"We will try to do everything in our power to prevent filibusters in the future," McCain said.

"This agreement is meant in the finest traditions of the Senate it was entered into: trust, respect, and mutual desire to see the institution of the Senate function in ways that protect the rights of the minority," he said.

Democrats filibustered 10 of Bush's 218 nominees in his first term, saying they were too radical for a lifetime appointment to the bench.

Of course "extraordinary circumstances" will be defined as circumstances where the President nominates anyone for the Federal Judiciary that Democrats don't like. And isn't it funny that nominees Brown, Owens, and Pryor are suddenly not "too radical" anymore.

It's too bad that Republicans didn't have the guts to make the Dems engage in a real filibuster, rather than this "virtual" filibuster. I guess they think that this deal will buy them some goodwill when they are in the minority again. Fat chance guys.

NEWSWEAK

This Newsweek BS has my blood pressure so high, I could blow the dial right off the sphygmomanometer. Every time these a$$hats in the MSM get wind of a story that paints a negative picture of the US military, they can't wait to run with it. It turns out that the "journalists" that produced this creative writing piece had nothing more than one anonymous source (who has since backed out on them), and a couple of "no comments" from the Pentagon. That's weak as hell, by anyone's standards. Especially when we're talking about a story with the volatile potential this one had. But they ran with it anyway.

I'm not sure what prompted this lack of adherence to basic jouralistic standards. Are they that blinded with hatred for President Bush that they've tossed caution - and ethics - to the wind? Or is it that they find it so easy to believe that military personnel are all prone to behaving like thugs? My guess is that it's a combination of both. As someone who has spent the last eighteen years serving in the military in one capacity or another, I find it hard not to take their attitude toward us personally.

Newsweek has since "retracted" the story. While Al-Jazeera has reported on the retraction, the damage has already been done. People are dead and it's Newsweek's fault. More people will die, and Newsweek bears some responsibility for that too. Maybe it's time to put America's trial lawyers to good use (for a change). I'm thinking we need a class action suit against Newsweek and it's parent company on behalf of those dead or injured in the riots.

FRIDAY THE 13TH: DODGED A BULLET (SO TO SPEAK)

It looks as if the Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) storm clouds have receded from my base. Others weren't so lucky. A number of Guard and Reserve bases in NY are being closed. I figured we'd lose a few, including at least one Air Guard unit since NY has five flying units (more than any other state). I was kind of surprised it was Niagara Falls though. They had a Guard wing (refueling) and a Reserve wing (airlift) there. Both are leaving. I hope that the folks who want to stay in can find other units in which to continue their military careers. The process still has to go through the BRAC Committee, Congress, and the President, but previous BRAC rounds have shown that the DoD's list is usually how things wind up in the end.

If you're interested, you can read more about the BRAC process at the Defenseling BRAC website.

CHAMPIONS OF THE WORKING MAN

Linda Chavez has an excellent column out today about how labor unions are abusing members' pension funds for political ends.

Unions are losing members and clout at the bargaining table, but that doesn't mean they aren't still powerful players on the political scene. Now, Big Labor is trying to stop Social Security reform, even if it hurts union members. Unions are supposed to represent their members' interests by negotiating higher pay and better benefits, including pensions. In fact, union pension funds are the single biggest source of investment in the stock market, amounting to an estimated $6 trillion in 2003. Now, the AFL-CIO and individual unions are threatening some investment firms and corporations with pulling out their pension fund investments unless the companies withdraw their support for President Bush's plans to overhaul the ailing Social Security program

In the old days, unions just used the pension funds to back mob casinos. At least the casinos made a profit.

The problem with many of these actions, however, is that they actually hurt the union pension beneficiaries, who get lower returns on their investments because the union is pushing policies that lower profits and stock price. Pension fund managers have a moral -- and legal -- duty to invest retirees' money wisely. Their fiduciary responsibility is to act prudently on behalf of those whose funds they manage. They are supposed to invest funds to ensure a good return, not to promote the political or organizational goals of the unions. When a union pension fund coerces a company to adopt policies that make it less profitable, union retirees lose money. The only thing fiduciaries are supposed to consider is the return to the pension fund on the investment made -- certainly not the unions' desire to sink a key element of the president's domestic agenda.

The unions have been abusing member dues for years. When I was a union member, I used to get a newsletter that often featured stories about the union's efforts to convince Wal Mart employees to form their own union. I could never understand why I was paying to unionize Wal Mart. Not to mention the money spent supporting political candidates I didn't support.

This thing with the pension funds is much worse. These power-mad thugs are playing games with their members' futures. When Wall Street firms do that, self-styled corruption-busters like Eliot Spitzer go after them hammer and tong. Why don't they care about this? Oh yeah, that's right. Eliot Spitzer is a Democrat, and labor unions always give money to Democrats.

BRAC FRIDAY

It looks like Friday's the day when we'll be seeing which bases made the cut on the Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) list. I have no idea whether my base will be closed or realigned. The rumor mill has been running in overdrive for months, but you never know what to believe. I guess I'll just have to be patient. I suck at being patient.

GREAT QUOTE ON THE FILIBUSTER

"Again and again in recent years, the filibuster has been the shame of the Senate and the last resort of special interest groups. Too often, it has enabled a small minority of the Senate to prevent a strong majority from working its will and serving the public interest."

-Senator Ted Kennedy, 1975

My how times have changed. Too bad the MSM doesn't seem to know about this quote. If you know anyone at the New York Times, send them this link.

WHY EVEN BOTHER WINNING ELECTIONS?

It's looking like some of our intrepid "Republican" Senators may be ready to flinch in the game of chicken that's being played out over judicial nominees.

May 9 (Bloomberg) -- A bipartisan group of U.S. senators is discussing a possible agreement to avert a showdown over President George W. Bush's judicial nominees, said Maine Republican Senator Susan Collins.

Collins is among a half-dozen Republican senators who have voiced reservations about Republican Leader Bill Frist's threat to try to bar Democrats from blocking Senate votes on Bush's choices for the federal bench.

In February, Bush resubmitted the names of seven appeals- court nominees Democrats had blocked in the last four years by using the filibuster, a tactic that permits unlimited debate. Democrats have threatened to bring Senate business to a standstill if Frist succeeds in changing Senate rules to eliminate the use of filibusters against judicial nominees.

"Attempts are under way" to try to avert a showdown, Collins said in an interview. "I have had discussions with colleagues in the Senate about the possibility of that. I haven't signed off on anything."

Collins didn't discuss the details of the discussions. Roll Call, a publication about Congress that is distributed on Capitol Hill and electronically, reported that six Republicans offered to oppose the rule change to eliminate judicial filibusters if Democrats agreed to allow votes on four of the seven disputed judges.

So, Susan Collins finally wants to play a leadership role in the Senate. Her first strategy? Surrender. I only wish I was surprised. You can read the rest of the story--including the role Trent Lott may be playing in this fiasco--here.

What is wrong with these people? And what's the use of being a majority if they're going to let the Dems go on running things?

Click here for a special audio message for the Republican "Lions" of the Senate.

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!

Unlike "Secretary's Day", Mother's Day was not the creation of greeting card companies and florists looking for a new market for their wares. Mother's Day in the United States can trace its origins back to the Civil War. If you're interested, you can learn more about it here.

In the meantime, if you aren't going to see your mother today, make sure you give her a call and wish her a happy Mother's Day.

A PLEA FOR LYNNDIE

PFC Lynndie England pled guilty yesterday to abusing Iraqi detainees at Abu Ghraib. Even after pleading guilty, the blame game wasn't over for England.

At one point on Monday, England said she posed with the leashed prisoner because her then-lover, Charles Graner, sentenced to 10 years in prison in connection to the abuse scandal, had told her to do so.

"I assumed it was OK because he was an MP (military policeman). He had the background as a corrections officer and with him being older than me I thought he knew what he was doing."

So she's guilty, but it's not her fault she's guilty. Duty, Honor, Country...not! England, Graner, and the rest of these yahoos have not only disgraced their fellow service memebers, they've given boatloads of ammo to the anti-war America crowd, who have in turn given hope to the Iraqi resistance and foreign fighters who are killing Iraqi civilians and coalition troops. Inexcusable. Totally inexcusable.

The question now is, what's next. Will they go after the NCO's and officers who were supposed to be providing leadership to these dim-bulbs? I'm hoping so, but I'm not holding my breath.

THOSE THINGS'LL KILL YOU

I saw this story linked on Drudge today:

Burrito Leads To School Lockdown, Armed Officers On Roof Tops

CLOVIS, N.M. -- A 911 call about a possible weapon at a middle school prompted police to put armed officers on rooftops, close nearby streets and lock down the school.

All over a giant burrito.

Someone called authorities Thursday after seeing a boy carrying something long and wrapped up into Marshall Junior High School.

The drama ended two hours later when the suspicious item was identified as a 30-inch burrito filled with steak, guacamole, lettuce, salsa and jalapenos. It was wrapped inside tin foil and a white T-shirt.

"I didn't know whether to laugh or cry," school Principal Diana Russell said.

Russell said the mystery was solved after she brought everyone in the school together in the auditorium to explain what was going on. Afterward, eighth-grader Michael Morrissey approached her.

"He said, 'I think I'm the person they saw,"' Russell said.

The burrito was part of Morrissey's extra-credit assignment to create commercial advertising for a product. "We had to make up a product and it could have been anything. I made up a restaurant that specialized in oddly large burritos," Morrissey said.

What I want to know is whether the burrito was equipped with any of the following:

-Folding or telescoping stock
-Pistol grip which protrudes conspicuously below the action of the burrito
-Bayonet mount
-Flash suppressor or a threaded barrel designed to accommodate a flash suppressor
-Grenade launcher

Even if the burrito wasn't equipped to be an "assault burrito", it might still be banned from school grounds in the coming nanny-state.. Those things are dangerous.

A VOICE FROM THE PAST

"...the opinion which gives to the judges the right to decide what laws are constitutional and what not, not only for themselves in their own sphere of action but for the Legislature and Executive also in their spheres, would make the Judiciary a despotic branch."

-- Thomas Jefferson

A smart man, that Thomas Jefferson. The only thing scarier than a despotic branch of government is one run by know-it-all lawyers. Another point to keep in mind when considering nuking the filibuster so we can get judges appointed who will follow the Constitution, rather than rewrite it.

NUKE THE FILIBUSTER

I've had it with the debate over the filibuster of judicial nominees. It's time Senator Frist & Co. do what needs to be done and change the Senate rules. A number of arguments have been made about why this would be a bad idea, but I'm not buying them.

You shouldn't abandon over 200 years of Senate tradition.
Two hundred years? Not quite. According to the Senate's own website, the first continuous filibuster took place in 1841. The cloture rule to end filibusters was adopted in 1917. A two thirds majority was needed to end debate (for those of you who may be mathematically challenged, that's sixty-seven votes). This rule was changed in 1975 - when the Dems ruled the Senate - so that sixty votes could end the filibuster. Why, you ask, did the Dems abandon "tradition" in 1975?

In 1975 the Senators changed the filibuster requirement from 67 votes to 60, after concluding that it only takes a simple majority of Senators to change the rules governing their proceedings. As Senate Majority Leader Mike Mansfield (D-MT) said at the time: "We cannot allow a minority" of the senators "to grab the Senate by the throat and hold it there." Senators Leahy, Kennedy, Byrd, and Biden, all agreed. Nearly a decade ago, Lloyd Cutler, the former White House Counsel to Presidents Carter and Clinton, concluded that the Senate Rule requiring a super-majority vote to change the rule is "plainly unconstitutional."

There could be negative political fallout.
So? If doing the right thing was easy, everybody would do it. If you do the right thing you could lose your office, and we need you in office so you can do the right thing. Which you won't do, so as not to lose your office. Am I the only one who finds that "logic" asinine. If we're going to wind up with Democrat-style results anyway, why do we need Republicans in office? Make your case to the American people and then do what needs to be done. If you lose your next election, so be it. Victory belongs to the bold. There's no room for pussies in the winner's circle.

If we change the rules, the Dems will shut down the Senate.
Again, so? Let them. They saw that strategy backfire on Newt and the boys in the 90's. They'll have a tough time picking and choosing what to shut down and what to let through. Besides, Dems are even bigger pork addicts than Repubs, let 'em go cold turkey on pork for awhile and see how long they last. This threat is a lot like a child threatening to hold his breath if he doesn't get his own way. He might make good on the threat, but he can't hold his breath forever. The Dems will cave quickly enough without their snouts in the trough.

Dems will look to get even when they are in the majority again.
A strategy designed to cushion your defeat is a sure way to guarantee that defeat. Besides, what Republicans do now is irrelevant to how Dems will treat them in the future. First the GOP had the nerve to "sieze control" of the Congress in 1994, then they "stole" the election in 2000. The Dems have gone ballistic. The GOP has committed a mortal sin; they took power from them. There can be no atonement for this sin. No matter what Frist & Co. do, no quarter will be give to Republicans if the Dems ever get back in control of the Congress.

The filibuster is a good idea.
No, it's not. What is it? Unlimited debate? Thorough debate can be a good thing. Unlimited debate is a good way to avoid doing anything. Filibusters aren't usually used for debate anyway. They are used to stall action. And now they are being used to obstruct. The filibuster is a trick. The folks in power have enough tricks to thwart the will of the people. Let's chuck this one.

Trivia(from C-SPAN)
The term filibuster comes from the early 19th century Spanish and Portuguese pirates, "filibusteros", who held ships hostage for ransom (how appropriate).

UPDATE
Dick Morris wrote an excellent column today on this subject. His idea is to force the Dems to help make it easier to nuke the filibuster.

Frist just needs to end the “virtual” filibuster and make the Democrats stage a real one, replete with quorum calls, 24/7 sessions and truly endless debate covered word for word by C-SPAN for all the nation to see — and ridicule.

Frist should bring up a judicial nomination of little consequence for the nation — say Charles Pickering — and let the Democrats explain, at tedious length, why they are tying up the entire nation over a judgeship for Mississippi. While the public would possibly tolerate a filibuster over a Supreme Court nomination or over a particularly important piece of legislation with enormous consequence, they would never allow a filibuster over so inconsequential an item, and the backlash would be fierce.

To force the Democrats to filibuster over such a matter would be akin to the way President Clinton forced the Republicans to shut down the government in the budget fight. In the era of 24-hour news and cable TV, the Democrats will find that they cannot stage a real, red-blooded filibuster without hurting themselves politically each day they talk.

This is a great idea. I can just see FOX News playing video clips of Teddy Boy or Sheets Byrd reading from the phone book on the Senate floor. I hope Senator Frist read Morris' column.

MY DOG ATE MY HOMEWORK

Last night I wrote a post about the death of several American civilian contractors in Iraq last week. More specifically, it was a rant about this comment over at the Daily Kos website. The post took me over an hour to write. Blogger dumped it on me (dammit!!!) I am disinclined to write it again, but suffuce it to say that this commenter - if it is indeed a commenter, and not a sock puppet for Kos (looking to avoid another "screw them" controversy) - doesn't know jack sh*t about the military, defense contractors, and Special Operations personnel. It scares me to think of how many people with limited military knowledge read this excrement and believe it.

WHILE WE'RE ON THE TOPIC OF DISENFRANCHISEMENT...

According to Michelle Malkin's April 13th column, Senator Hillary Clinton was in Minnesota preaching to the faithful recently :

Singing from the same hysteria-promoting hymn book in Minnesota this week, Sen. Hillary Clinton further stoked Democratic madness. Sarcastically praising the elections in Afghanistan and Iraq, Sen. Clinton pounced: "I believe that the right to vote and the obligation to count all the votes should be promoted not just in the Middle East, but in the Middle West! And in the Northeast! And in the Southeast! And in every. Corner. Of. The. United. States. Of. A-MEH-rica!"

The crowd went wild. Sen. Clinton continued: Too many minorities and college students have been "denied an equal right" to vote, she exclaimed.

Malkin also includes a recent quote from Senator John Kerry:

''Last year, too many people were denied their right to vote, too many who tried to vote were intimidated.''

There you have it. Two Senators who believe that everyone should have the right to vote. That being the case, why don't these two champions of enfranchisement lead the charge in ending the filibuster on judicial nominees in the Senate. After all, what is a filibuster? It's disenfranchisement, plain and simple. Senators, both Democrats and Republicans, are being denied the right to vote on President Bush's judicial nominees. Don't like the nominees? Then vote them down. But don't steal the vote from those who disagree with you. Not only have the Senators been disenfranchised, their constituencies are being disenfranchised. Why should the people send a Senator to Washington if said Senator won't be allowed to do the people's bidding.

They say that charity begins at home. Maybe justice does, too. It's about time Hillary & Co. start practicing what they preach.

I CAN SEE CLEARLY N0W (THE RA1N IS G0NE)

Damn. It's been over a month since I last posted on this blog. I had LASIK surgery last month, and it made it difficult to read anything on the computer screen for any length of time. I got a mile behind in my grad course. When I finally got back to using the 'puter, the blog had to take a back seat to schoolwork. Hopefully, I'll be back to regular posting now.

H&C HIGH POINT

Dick Morris was just on Hannity and Colmes discussing one of my State's Senators. Alan Colmes asked Morris why he is dedicated to preventing Hillary Clinton from being elected. His answer: "Because she would be an awful (emphasis placed on the word by Morris) President." Not a positive thing coming from someone who knows Hill well.

Later Colmes said to Morris, "Maybe she (Hillary) is not shrill, dishonest, and partisan. Did you ever consider that?" Morris replied "only if you don't know her."

TAMING THE BLOGOSPHERE

For several days now, the blogosphere has been abuzz about a comment made by a Federal Elections Commissioner concerning federal regulation of blogs.

WASHINGTON, March 5 - Federal election commissioners are preparing to consider how revamped campaign finance laws apply to political activity on the Internet, including online advertising, fund-raising e-mail messages and Web logs.

Anyone who decides to "set up a blog, send out mass e-mails, any kind of activity that can be done on the Internet" could be subject to Federal Election Commission regulation, Bradley A. Smith, a Republican commissioner, said in an interview posted Thursday on the technology news site Cnet.com.

Right on the heels of that story came this one:

In a case with implications for the freedom to blog, a San Jose judge tentatively ruled Thursday that Apple Computer can force three online publishers to surrender the names of confidential sources who disclosed information about the company's upcoming products.

Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge James Kleinberg refused to extend to the Web sites a protection that shields journalists from revealing the names of unidentified sources or turning over unpublished material.

Apparently, only "real journalists" are afforded the full protections of the First Ammendment. The question is, how do we determine who the approved free speakers are? Let's take a look at the First Ammendment to the Constitution and see if we can find an answer.

Amendment I

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

Not much help there. I guess the framers didn't forsee blogs. Maybe we can devise a licensing scheme like we have with guns (perhaps free speech is a collective right, like we have been told the right to keep and bear arms is). I guess we'll have to ammend the First Ammendment. Let's try this on for size (proposed changes are in bold):

Amendment I

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the right to apply for a license to exercise freedom of speech, or of the licensed press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

There. That's much better. Now the constitution won't get in the way of "free" speech regulation anymore. All you have to do if you want to blog is to apply for a license. Look for speech license fees to be really high. After all, ya gotta keep the riff-raff out. Start saving your pennies. Some day you too may be able to express yourself in the well regulated brave new world.

As for me, I won't be applying for a license. I'll just scrawl my political ramblings onto pictures of naked people and post those on my site. Regulating political speech is one thing, but pornography is downright sacred to the American judiciary.

STATING THE OBVIOUS

According to news reports, bin Laden is reaching out to his biggest fan in Iraq.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden recently asked his chief ally in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, to consider the territory of the United States as a target for terrorist attacks, a U.S. counterterrorism official said on Monday.

"There has been communication between bin Laden and Zarqawi, with bin Laden suggesting to Zarqawi the U.S. homeland as a target," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The official called the bin Laden communication "a fairly recent development" but declined to provide details for fear of compromising U.S. anti-terrorism efforts.

Let's put on our analyst hats and figure out what this means. As near as I can tell, this development has two implications:

1. Bin Laden is at a point where he has no operational capability. The Godfather of Islamic terrorism would not go to a relative newcomer and ask said newcomer to conduct operations on his behalf unless he had to. Bin Laden has either run out of assets, or his network has been disabled leaving him unable to communicate with his assets. Either way, he is dead in the water. At least for the time being.

Bin Laden's anemic pre-election terrorist attack--a video taped message that essentially endorsed John Kerry--lends credence to this theory.

2. The "insurgency" in Iraq is failing. If it were accomplishing its intended purpose, there would be no need to divert increasingly scarce resources to another front. The tactics being used by the terrorists in Iraq tend to confirm this theory in my mind.

Suicide attacks against civilians (like the one noted in the previous post) are not the act of a military force that is on the verge of victory. On the contrary, such actions are an act of desperation. It is worth noting that the Japanese started fielding large Kamikaze forces toward the end of WW II. They knew that the end was near and were counting on a "divine wind" to save them from imminent defeat. It didn't.

DO YOU GET IT YET, MIKEY?

In the words of the infamous Michael Moore:

The Iraqis who have risen up against the occupation are not "insurgents" or "terrorists" or "The Enemy." They are the REVOLUTION, the Minutemen, and their numbers will grow -- and they will win.

Minutemen? I don't recall the Minutemen doing anything like this:

At least 105 persons were killed and 133 wounded in a car bombing today outside a medical centre in Hilla, south of Baghdad, the deadliest attack in Iraq in a year, medical officials said. “Our definitive toll after taking away the last victims is 105 dead and 122 wounded,” said Dr Mohammed Dia, head of Hilla’s General Hospital. The car bomb blew up in a crowd of civil servants gathered outside the medical centre in a packed commercial district.

What kind of revolutionaries kill the people that they are trying to free? Killing innocent civilians and Iraqi civil servants is noble? When Timmy McVeigh did it here in the U.S., he was (correctly) labeled a hatemonger and a murderer. When is our news media going to acknowledge that these "Minutemen" are no such thing? They are nothing but vicious thugs who kill indiscriminately. They don't give a damn about the Iraqi people. They just want to stick it to the U.S., and to any Iraqis who are trying to rebuild their country.

DAMMIT! (MORE MULTIMEDIA STUFF)

Damn that Cowboy Blob! He's gone and done it again. Check out this post. It's funnier'n Michael Moore falling down a flight of stairs.

MULTIMEDIA STUFF

Cowboy Blob has a new flash animation creation up and running. If you like our new SecState, you'll like this.

THIS JUST IN! (LIKE YOU REALLY CARED ANYWAY)

According to Sky News, Queen Elizabeth II will not be attending her son's impending nuptials.

QUEEN WON'T GO TO WEDDING

The Queen will not attend the wedding of Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles, it has been announced.

But Buckingham Palace has denied that the Queen is snubbing her son's wedding.

I will not be attending the wedding either, and I want it understood that I am snubbing Prince Charles. I've been feeling out of sorts lately, and I thought that snubbing a royal wedding would be just the pick-me-up I've needed. Maybe her Majesty and I can get together for a marathon game of Trivial Pursuit that day. Then again, maybe not.

MUSICAL INTERLUDE

I found this MP3 on the net this morning using the Alta Vista Audio search. This song was used in the soundtrack to the movie Snatch. Geat tune. Its called Golden Brown, by The Stranglers. If you want to check it out, you can find it here.

Oh, and if you haven't seen Snatch, check it out. It's well worth the two hours it takes to watch it.

OUR OWN WORST ENEMY

Froggy's post yesterday about former POW's suing Iraq over injuries that they suffered during Desert Storm got me thinking about one of the greatest threats to our country. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that this threat is larger and more multifaceted than I had previously imagined.

I have often said--only half jokingly--that American citizens with law degrees have done more damage to this country than all of our foreign enemies put together. I don't mean to suggest that all lawyers are bad, but there are more than a few that seem unaware of, or unconcerned with the damage they are doing.

Much of the damage has been obvious for years. Ambulance chasers have filed frivolous lawsuits that have bogged down the courts and driven up the cost of everything from insurance to healthcare. Some criminal attorneys (is that redundant?) seem to think that there is a constitutional right to get away with a crime. Now we have class action suits where the lawyers get millions, while the victims get a few dollars woth of coupons.

The war on terrorism has given us a whole new threat from our lawyers. Many are now arguing that terrorists that have been captured overseas deserve to be treated like US citizens who have been arrested. How can we fight and win a war if the people we capture on the battlefield have to be treated like drunk drivers, drug dealers, and shoplifters? Imagine this potential scenario:

ALLIED FORCES IN TROUBLE
August 6, 1944
NORMANDY, France--Just two months after landing here, Allied troops find themselves back on the Normandy coast, caught between the English Channel and a fierce German counteroffensive. The counteroffensive is spearheaded by four reconstituted German Panzer divisions. The divisions were reconstituted when POW's were released by Allied Forces. The release was ordered last month by the US 9th Circuit Court. In its decision, the court cited the failure on the part of Allied troops to provide the POW's with access to legal representation.

"War or no war, there is no excuse for not following proper legal procedures" said Morris Q. Broadbottom, attorney for the POW's.

At a press conference in London yesterday, General Eisenhower predicted that Allied Forces would prevail. "Our troops are holding their own, and I have no doubt that we'll be pushing the Germans all the way back to Berlin in no time, once we get those paratroopers back in the game" Eisenhower told reporters.

The paratroopers the General was referring to are the members of several airborne divisions that were withdrawn from Europe last month due to a court order. The troops are currently scheduled to testify before a grand jury about rumors that some German POW's were shot in the first few days after the Allied invasion of Normandy. There is no word on when the grand jury procedings will conclude.

"While I'm sure we all take the Nazi threat seriously, it should not be used as an excuse to short-circuit the legal system" said attorney Broadbottom.

Thankfully, the United States didn't face this threat from within during World War II. Unfortunately, it looks like we're facing it today. Let's hope we win.

CHECKIN' MY BLOGROLL

Got a chance to look around the blogosphere recently. As usual, I found some interesting stuff.

DarthVOB has returned to the blogosphere after a two month hiatus. I was worried that he had been deployed to outer Mongolia. Luckily, he has not.

Baldilocks has also returned to regular blogging after a brief hiatus. Apparently, work got in the way of her blogging (I hate it when that happens). She hasn't lost her edge, though. Today, she handed a cyber ass-kicking to Eason "they're shooting at us, they're shooting at us!" Jordan.

Phoenix points out a really funny cartoon about bloggers. She also comes clean about her name and her bedtime attire.

I mean, I'm not even a pajama kind of girl. I'm more the silk nightie and satin teddy type. Does that put me in the same bracket as that dirty DC blogger who I won't even link to? Ick. Creepy.

Froggy, who has not disclosed his jammie preference (since he's a SEAL, I'd guess he has two sets; one neoprene, the other rip-stop cotton), has an interesting post about yet another way in which lawyers have insinuated themselves into our war effort. Haven't those blood-sucking SOBs done enough damage already? (apologies to the honorable lawyers out there)

The Laffin' Woof has an interesting idea about how we should treat the death-grip with which the powers-that-be are holding on to the Davos tapes that would prove once and for all what Eason Jordan said (or didn't say). He also has a link to a really cool wolf picture.

Tammi ponders relationships.

Teresa's son is being deployed.

Blackfive tells us that Scott Ritter has found a new job.

Smash has a post about a Popular Mechanics article that debunks all the loopy 9/11 conspiracy theories.

Damn, there's a lotta good stuff out there. The Pajamahedeen have been busy.

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY

America's favorite child molester has some exciting and romantic news:

SEATTLE -- An online bridal registry says Mary Kay Letourneau and her former sixth-grade pupil, Vili Fualaau, have set the date for their wedding.
The Seattle Post-Intelligencer reports in Monday's paper that 43-year-old Letourneau and 22-year-old Fualaau plan to wed April 16. Letourneau served 7.5 years on a 1997 conviction for raping Fualaau.

Letourneau was a married mother of four when she began a sexual relationship with the then-12-year-old Fualaau after meeting at Burien's Shorewood Elementary School in 1996, when she was 34. She was pregnant with Fualaau's first child when she was arrested in 1997 and ordered to serve a six-month sentence for second-degree child rape.

One month after she was released, Letourneau was caught having sex with Fualaau in her car. She pleaded guilty in 1997 to two charges of child rape, and gave birth to the couple's second daughter while serving her sentence. Fualaau's mother is raising their two daughters, aged 6 and 7.

Shortly after Letourneau was released from prison last August, the pair successfully petitioned a King County judge to lift a no-contact order that had barred them from seeing each other.

A family friend says they became engaged when Fualaau proposed last fall, but they have been trying to keep wedding details a secret. Noel Soriano says the wedding will likely be held in a Seattle-area church.

I caight the tail end of John Gibson's show on FOX News tonight. He had an interesting take on this story during his My Word segment:

This kid was a father twice while he still needed a father to show him how to get merit badges in Boy Scouts and how to tie a bowtie for the high school prom.

She served her time, seven and a half years. He's now 22 and she's now 43 and they're getting married.

We needed to hear something uplifting in the love department for Valentine's Day, didn't we?

The wedding is going to be in a church — what church marries rapists and rape victims? — and their two daughters are going to be flower girls. I'm sorry this is just too weird for me and I was born in California!

And how is young Vili going to be supporting his wife and children? He's getting his GED now and talking to gallery owners about exhibiting his artwork.

My, his teacher sure did a great job getting him started in life. No high school diploma, no hopes for college, dreams of an art career, two babies and a wife who will be on Social Security when he turns forty.

Give that teacher a medal!

That's My Word.

No shortage of sarcasm there. It's warranted, though. Every bit of it. And then some.

Note that the "happy couple" has an online bridal registry. I don't see some of the really important items listed. Like an education and a future for Vili. And some serious psychotherapy--and maybe some ECT-- for the pathetic Mary Kay.

All we can hope is that young Vili doesn't waste too much more of his youth on that sorry excuse for a woman. If he does stick around, I have an idea for a present that the young husband can get his wife on their seventh anniversary.

NANNY STATE LIBERALS GONE WILD!

I got this link from a co-worker today. This is funny and more than a little scary. Check it out here.