Okay...this is just fucking brilliant.
Like my Grandpa always said, there were no naked human pyramids in Starcraft.There were no whiny anti-war Hollywood types or questionable war motives or granola-munching human shields. I'm starting to think that even Command and Conquer: Generals, a game so "realistic" it took a NASA-built Quantum supercomputer to run it, has left me woefully unprepared to fight an actual war.
Well, below is my open letter to the Real Time Strategy gaming cartel. I want a War Simulation. A real one. I don't want little cartoon tanks jostling around in a video sandbox chewing down each other's health meters while a preteen opponent insults my sexuality using every key on his keyboard except the ones with letters. I want an RTS game that will give me a stress headache after an hour and an ulcer after a week. I want to identify experienced players on the street by their Thousand-Yard Stares.
I want a War Sim...
Read the list of game criteria and weep over your paltry Sim experience.
(A hat tip with clusters to Winds of Change.NET at The Comman Post Op-Ed page.)
You may have noticed that I've been scarce online recently. The political silly season is upon us and even partisans such as I are fed up...for a while. Kerry is too easy a target to be satisfying. So today's effort is a few of my thoughts about what happens next. I think we all know that whoever is elected in November much of our policy will not change as it is being driven by outside events. However it is worth considering what comes after, when ideology begins to drive the agenda again, will it be pragmatism, isolationism or idealism?
As we approach the 60th anniversary of D-Day, Americans are beginning a serious internal debate over our role in the world, what we want or expect from it in the near term and the future. Since 9/11 the “debate” over a pre-emptive foreign policy has become increasing polarized and vicious as the hate America crowd gleefully predicts our decline and ultimate withdrawal as the world’s police.
I think they’re partially right, America is ideologically split, half wish to create to a utopian world government, and the other half is fed up with spilling blood and wasting treasure on ingrates and lost causes. The upshot is that we will incrementally retreat from the world political stage. We will invent and adapt our way out of fossil fuel dependency, we agree on the necessity to do so as quickly as possible. Our technological lead and the world-wide brain drain will continue fuel our economic expansion, intellectual and global financial influence. America is still dynamic; we are replacing our population, by a steady native birth rate and immigration, at a sustainable rate.
Europe is not; birth rates have fallen below a sustainable rate and by mid-century Europe will not be able to sustain production and social programs. Europe’s current comity will devolve into the old hatreds and grudges. Russia will ascend to a dominant position, having lost the cold war, Russia’s hard liners will settle for governing the EU and the Mediterranean rim. NATO will be disbanded by common consent and an American unwillingness to fund it, replaced with an EU defense force. There will never be another Normandy or Kosovo. I think that is the one policy area Americans now agree upon.
Once we withdraw economically and strategically from the Middle-East, Israel will resolve its dilemma, if it has not done so by that time. However, that doesn’t mean that Islamic theocracies will rise to fill a power vacuum in the Middle East. Once the West no longer requires oil, the Arabic world will have little income and will fall further into poverty, anarchy and further behind the technology curve. Ironically, our decline of influence in the region magnifies theirs a hundredfold.
One only needs to look to whom the French are sucking up to in order to see where the next power rises: in the East. Anyone who thinks Islam will survive the inevitable “clash of civilizations” with China is delusional.
The latter part of the 21st century and perhaps most of the next will be dominated by the sheer weight of China's population, economic engine and the blind ambition of its government.
Hate America? Can’t wait for you to meet China.
So let's think about where we go next, how we steer this country towards a proactive isolation that allows the US to live in relative peace and proseperity. The first step is to re-elect George Bush, for we cannot cede the war on terror, if we do then the rest is academic.
Every Wednesday, I ask my readers to volunteer and/or donate to the Bush 2004 campaign. If you've already donated and volunteered for the Bush campaign, then talk to your friends and enlist them in this battle for America's future.
If you're a blogger, you can join Wictory Wednesdays simply by putting up a post like this one every Wednesday, asking your readers to volunteer and/or donate to the Bush campaign. And do e-mail wictory@blogsforbush.com to be added to the Wictory Wednesday blogroll, which will be part of the Wictory Wednesday post on all participating blogs:
Now Runs Through Europe.
The constant drumbeat from the Dems is that Europe holds the key to success in the war on terror. That they alone possess the wisdom to solve the dilemma of radical Islam vs the West.
This headline in the EUObserver demonstrates the EU turning a blind eye to the gathering storm that has yet to reach their shores by denying that "the clash of civilizations" began three years ago on a clear September morning.
Patten: EU handling of Turkey crucial to avert Islam-West clashExternal relations Commissioner Chris Patten yesterday (24 May) said that the EU's handling of the Turkish bid for EU membership is a crucial factor in avoiding a clash between the West and the Islamic world.
Speaking at the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies, Mr Patten argued that the correct treatment of Turkey by the EU would help avert the scenario of a "clash of civilizations" between the western and Islamic world - as famously predicted by the political scientist Samuel Huntington in 1993.
[...]
Europe: not to be defined by religion
But he strongly rejected defining the EU as a "Christian" club - which would make it impossible for Turkey as an Islamic country to join."The proposition that Europe can be defined by religion is a false one, not to say dangerous. In many ways, the European Union is a reaction against the idea that we can define ourselves by religion or ethnicity, and thus define others as beyond consideration".
Oh really? Patten is not only out of the news loop, but doesn't seem to be aware of power struggles within his own organization.
Row over Christianity in the Constitution heats up.Seven member states - Italy, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Portugal, the Czech Republic and Slovakia - sent a letter to the Irish EU Presidency on Friday demanding that there be a reference to Christianity in the Constitution.
"This issue remains a priority for our Governments, but also for many representatives of the European Parliament and of National Parliaments, as well as for millions of European citizens", says their letter.
It goes on: "The amendment we ask for is aimed to recognize an historical truth. We do not want to disregard neither the secular nature of the European Institutions, nor the respect of any other religious or philosophical belief".
At the moment, the preamble to the text refers to the "cultural, religious and humanist inheritance of Europe".
At the other end of the scale, France and Belgium remain firmly opposed to mentioning Christianity.
These are the bureaucrats Senator Biden and his political ilk are looking to for solutions in a crisis? They cannot agree on the most basic of prinicipals of self-governance.
Kerry may seek to bribe Old Europe with loot from Iraq to put the Liberal stamp of approval on the face of the Iraqi operation, but they will not risk angering the large disaffected Muslim populations within their own borders. They will never be participants in the war on terror for they have already surrendered.
FeSTe & ZozO iSTh veRy bUZy mUCkinG aROUnD iN pOTz, whILe MeEs wATchEd LiGHts 'N SchtUFF...sO MeESa mAKes tHis pOSt all bY mYseLf.
-MoLLy
[Catnip: This week's Carnival of the Cats is mostly Molly, me and Feste is too knackered to Photoshop after a hard day's work in the garden. Enjoy. --Zozo]
I must admit that watching and listening to John Kerry makes me miss Bill Clinton, at least you knew that if his lips were moving, he was lying.
From John Kerry's Senate site:
I have long supported comprehensive campaign finance reform to take special interest dollars out of this political system. I have demonstrated my commitment to campaign finance reform in my Senate races - where I have always refused to take PAC money, and in my legislative priorities in the Senate - where I have consistently cosponsored the McCain/Feingold campaign finance reform bill. I have also cosponsored more sweeping reform measures, including Clean Money legislation that would, like the Clean Elections Law approved by Massachusetts voters in 1998, provide candidates with an alternative to the current system of raising and spending private money to finance congressional campaigns, instead giving them the chance to pay for their expenditures with grants from a campaign trust fund.
Then this story pops into the black hole of the Friday news cycle:
Public funding worries for Kerry
He might postpone accepting nomination to gain time to use cashBoston -- Sen. John Kerry is considering an unprecedented delay of his acceptance of the Democratic presidential nomination until five weeks after the party's July convention so he may continue spending the tens of millions of dollars he has raised for the primary season, his aides said Friday.
If he goes through with the idea, which might require the approval of the Federal Election Commission, Kerry would still give a culminating speech amid the traditional pomp and circumstance of his party's convention in Boston in late July. But he would formally accept his nomination at about the time President Bush does at the Republican convention in New York in early September, aides said.
This has to be a trial balloon floated by his campaign, not even Kerry is ham-fisted enough to give the GOP this issue and risk convention TV coverage by not accepting the nomination in Boston.
Of course Kerry being Kerry, as this story was breaking he was quoted:
Kerry, asked aboard his campaign plane whether he would accept the nomination in July, grinned and said, "I will accept the nomination."
John Kerry has the charm of Michael Dukakis and the campaign skills of Al Gore.
One begins to wonder if the lack of media coverage of John Kerry's blunders is a deliberate attempt to shield his confusion and dissembling. During a press interview yesterday Kerry offered this on judicial appointments:
On the Supreme Court, Kerry said he has voted in favor of "any number of judges who are pro-life or pro-something else that I may not agree with," some of whom were nominated by Republican presidents."Do they have to agree with me on everything? No," Kerry said. Asked if they must agree with his abortion-rights views, he quickly added, "I will not appoint somebody with a 5-4 court who's about to undo Roe v. Wade. I've said that before."
"But that doesn't mean that if that's not the balance of the court I wouldn't be prepared ultimately to appoint somebody to some court who has a different point of view. I've already voted for people like that. I voted for Judge Scalia."
[...]
Kerry said he regrets his vote for Scalia, saying he didn't see at the time of the vote in 1986 "such a level of ideology and partisanship" that he now sees in the justice.
Wut? One can only image the scurrying behind the scenes, as this was offered later in the day.
Aides said later that "some court" was not a reference to the Supreme Court, only lower federal benches. In his clarifying statement, Kerry said, "I will not appoint anyone to the Supreme Court who will undo that right" to an abortion.
However the flip and counter flop can't be papered over by aides or flacks as it reveals an inability to think on his feet and maintain a cogent position on issues that is startling for a man of his political experience. The Presidency requires clarity of purpose, the ability to quickly make a decision within a very narrow context. Bush is roundly condemned by the Left for his inability to explain his "vision", yet they turn a blind eye to much worse in their nominee. Kerry simply cannot state a position clearly and hold to it. How will he deal with the realities on the ground, the daily stream of choices over which he has no control? The though of Kerry confronted with decisions that may determine if my family lives or dies is not comforting.
Kerry's inability to exploit five months of wall-to-wall negativity and bad news must be worrying the Dems. The harshness of Kerry's surrogates only serves to contrast his tepid presentation. The Dems might have been better off betting the farm with Hillary, in the least they would have a candidate that stands for what they believe and speaks clearly about the differences, not Kerry's mish-mash of empty platitudes and vague concepts.
No thanks, I'll keep Bush. Yes Virginia, unhip, devout, dumb as a stump Bush, for he has proven that he can make a decision that puts my safety first, not his re-election, his party, polling or European opinion.
Kerry's on-camera perfomance today was shocking for a presidential candidate, he may have simply been tired, but his lackluster delivery, confused demeanor and stumbling response doesn't produce confidence that he has a clue, if Bush gave a performance this vague and halting the media would be passing gas from every orifice.
Kerry vows to pull out troops from 'death zone'WASHINGTON - Democrat John Kerry promised that if elected president, he would pull virtually all US combat troops out of Iraq - away from the 'death zone' - by the end of his first term.
'I'm not going to tell you we won't shift deployments from one place to another, but we're not going to be engaged in an active kind of death zone the way we are today,' he said.
He also criticised President George W. Bush for damaging relations with allies, which he said only a new president can repair.
'This has been a terrible period of loss of American influence, respect and prestige, and it costs us all across the globe,' he said.
WTF is the "death zone"? Once again Kerry flip-flops:
May 1st, at Westminster College Kerry said:
"We may have differences about how we went into Iraq, but we do not have the choice to just pick up, leave."
Which is it Senator?
I've eaten my fair share of chips over the years, but this is just stupid.
Procter & Gamble Co. soon will print trivia questions and answers on its Pringles snack chips, a move analysts say could be a hit with young people.
"We think kids are going to love it," Jamie Egasti, Procter & Gamble's vice president for North American snacks, told The Associated Press on Wednesday. "It's a great way to add fun to the lunch."
If scarfing over-packaged, junk food printed with blue food dye is your idea of fun, you may want to reconsider your diet and/or your parenting skills.
Is this a waffle or a flip-flop?
Kerry Assails Bush on OilIn mid-April Kerry was scandalized that Bush and the Royal Saudi family might have a "sweetheart" deal to lower prices before the election. How dare Bush make arragments to lower oil prices during an election campaign (the fact that ahrd-hit voters would benefit is secondary).
Kerry urges relief from gasoline pricesPORTLAND, Ore. -- With the average gasoline price surging past the $2-a-gallon mark, Sen. John Kerry on Tuesday accused the Bush administration of doing virtually nothing to bring relief to consumers and urged the White House to divert oil bound for the nation's Strategic Petroleum Reserve into the marketplace instead.
[...]
"Where's the president who, when he was campaigning for president, said in New Hampshire, said what we need is a president who jawbones OPEC to lower those gas prices? Well, I haven't seen any jawboning, have you? All I read about are sweetheart deals with Saudi Arabia."
Not only is he confused as to whether Bush should or shouldn't talk to the Saudi's, he totally reverses his 2000 position on the Strategic Oil Reserves and lowering gas taxes.
Kerry Opposed Using Oil Reserve:
In February 2000, Kerry Said Release Of Oil From Strategic Petroleum Reserve Would Not Be “Relevant.” “Without being specific, Kerry, a key member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, suggested the US could retaliate economically in other trade areas. He also said he does not want a release of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. A release ‘is not relevant. It would take months for the oil to get to the market,’ he said.” (Cathy Landry, “US Energy Chief Warns Of Gasoline Crisis,” Platt’s Oilgram News, 2/17/00)
4 years ago, Kerry Said It Would Be “Mistake” To Roll Back 4.3-Cent Increase.“Although OPEC members today signaled their intention to increase crude oil production by 1.7 million barrels a day, the Senate GOP is still pushing a suspension of the federal gasoline tax. ‘OPEC’s decision is not going to impact our process,’ said John Czwartacki, spokesman for Majority Leader Trent Lott, Miss. Lott has proposed legislation (S 2285) to suspend from April 15 through Jan. 1, 2001, a 4.3-cents-a-gallon portion of the gas tax. If the price of gasoline reaches $2 a gallon, the bill would suspend the remainder of the 18.4-cents-a-gallon tax. … Democrats say the measure is hasty and its financing is risky. “It would be a mistake,” said John Kerry, D-Mass.” (“Midday Update,” Congressional Quarterly Daily Monitor, 3/28/00)
In 2000, Kerry Voted Against Suspending 18.4 Cent Gas Tax For 150 Days. (H.R. 8, CQ Vote #183: Motion Rejected 40-59: R 40-15; D 0-44, 7/13/00, Kerry Voted Nay)
These are the words of a candidate desperate to gain traction at any price. It matters not a whit that we are at war and an attack on the Texas oil coast would necessitate the use of the SOR to keep basic services, such as public utilities, hospitals and food supplies up and running.
We must wake the American voter from the media induced stupor of scandal overload and negativity. Together we can prevent the media's partisan nightmare from becoming reality.
Today is Wictory Wednesday. Every Wednesday, I ask my readers to volunteer and/or donate to the Bush 2004 campaign.
If you've already donated and volunteered for the Bush campaign, then talk to your friends and enlist them in this battle for America's very soul.
If you're a blogger, you can join Wictory Wednesdays simply by putting up a post like this one every Wednesday, asking your readers to volunteer and/or donate to the Bush campaign. And do e-mail wictory@blogsforbush.com to be added to the Wictory Wednesday blogroll, which will be part of the Wictory Wednesday post on all participating blogs:
Ed Brayton at Dispatches from the Culture Wars serves this week's Carnival of the Vanities straight up, stirred, not shaken.
A tidbit from Roll Call's "K Street Files": Democrats Hired to Promote Moore Film
A firm that includes several high-profile Democrats has been hired to run a nationwide promotional campaign for filmmaker Michael Moore’s controversial new documentary “Fahrenheit 9-11.”To flack the film, Miramax has tapped the Glover Park Group and former Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee chief Howard Wolfson. The firm also includes Joe Lockhart, a former spokesman for President Bill Clinton; Carter Eskew, a political strategist for former Vice President Al Gore; and Mike Feldman, an aide to Gore.
Miramax, a subsidiary of the Walt Disney Co., is run by Harvey and Bob Weinstein, two heavyweight backers of the Democratic Party.
Since 1999, the Weinstein brothers have contributed $224,000 to Democratic candidates and party organizations, according to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics.
Harvey Weinstein’s wife, Eve Chilton Weinstein, contributed another $384,000 to Democrats during the same period.
Man, are the Dems going to have a hissy fit if they don't win, or what?
It didn't take long for the French to fill the vacuum in Saudi Arabia.
French Firms Eye Big Stake in Saudi MarketRIYADH, 17 May 2004 — The French are coming. French investment in the Kingdom is estimated at $1.2 billion, making France the third largest investor in Saudi Arabia. Late last year, a consortium led by Total of France and Royal Dutch-Shell signed a landmark agreement with the Kingdom for gas exploration and production in Rub Al-Khali (or Empty Quarter).
Now French Foreign Trade Minister Francois Loos, leading a 30-member business delegation, has been here to drum up even more business
[..]
Three months ago, Finance Minister Dr. Ibrahim Al-Assaf signed a contract with a consortium of Saudi, French and Canadian companies to conduct a feasibility study for the establishment of a 1,600-km railway to link the northern region with the eastern region via the capital.“France is the world leader in the field of roadways, water distribution, manufacture of automobiles and telecommunications, and we would like to exchange experience with the Kingdom’s private sector,” the minister said. A similar Saudi delegation will visit Paris in September this year and more deals are expected then.
Dr. Al-Assaf needs to get out more. I can't quite imagine the Saudi's giving up their MB's, Porsche's, Suburbans, Jeeps and Hummers for a Peugeot, Renault or a Nissan. The French may soon discover that the Saudis have another export that they may not have bargained for: Splodydopes.
It is difficult to imagine two groups who more deserve each other.
AIR AMERICA' TALKRADIO NET LAUNCHES THONG UNDERWEAR...
Now their investors can literally take it the shorts.
BUWHAHAHAHAHAHA!
(hat tip to Matt Drudge)
WeLL, iF iTz SUnDAy, iT MuSHt bE CaRNival OF tHe CaTz tIMe!!
ToDAy ZoZO 'n mE maKESes a paGe fRoM oUr scRApbOOk...itz cAllED:
[Catnip: Harumph!! This was before I joined the family,
so you know who chose the photos this week. --Zozo]
Tired of the news Bunky? Well then, Chris at Dangerous Logic has this:
Stupid Website TricksI know that publishing companies host more than one magazine on their web servers, but it's still funny to see evidence of it.
Do this:
- Go to runnersworld.com.
- In the search box on the main page, search for "President Bush" (no quotes). You should get a results page with about 14 links.
- Change 'Match: Any' to 'Match: All' in the search parameters and search again.
- Look at the banner at the top of the (failed) results page.
A mildly amusing coding quirk that I am sure will inspire our hardy Feeper brothers to rustle up a conspiracy of some sort by nightfall, which will be quickly rebutted by BusHitler gardening video at DU.
This would be funny if the stakes weren't so high.
Here we have another Democrat wagging his finger in our faces and telling us he never ran a negative campaign ad, not a single time.
"I haven't run negative advertisements yet. My advertisements in this race are positive."
(John Kerry Speech, American Society of Newspaper Editors 2004 Convention, Washington, DC, 4/23/04)
Tell The Truth Senator! (warning: 5MB avi file)
The very first ad Kerry ran was a negative attack on the President, and his attacks haven't stopped since.During the Primaries:
73% of Kerry's ad dollars were spent on negative ads attacking the President.
17 out of 29 Kerry ads were negative attacks on the President.Since March 3rd:
67% of Kerry's ad dollars have been spent on negative ads attacking the President.
5 out of 8 Kerry ads have been negative attacks on the President.Overall:
Kerry has aired 37 ads, 21 of which were negative.
(Ad transcript here: Bush/Cheney 2004)
A little perspective in the Abu Ghraib abuse as Senator Kennedy spouted nonsense about Saddam's prisons re-opening under US management.
American Troops Release Nearly 300 Iraqis
This is how Saddam's prisons released detainees:
Mass Graves of Iraq: Uncovering Atrocities
Kennedy's inflammatory anti-military rhetoric is seriously damaging Kerry's campaign, keeping talking Senator.
Another anti-war miscreant slithers out from under his hate-America rock.
Via Citizen Smash:
AN ALERT READER points me to a brand new website put up by someone in the Anti-War movement, called "America’s Dumbest Soldiers.” It shows photos of Coalition soldiers who have been killed in the Iraq conflict, describes how they died, and allows you to vote on them. I’m guessing that we’re meant to vote on who had the “dumbest death."Is this supposed to be funny?
I saw the name of Army Captain Russell B. Rippetoe, a Ranger who was awarded two Bronze Stars for valor, and was the first soldier killed in Iraq to be buried in Arlington National Cemetery.
On April 3, 2003, CPT Rippetoe was was manning a nighttime checkpoint near Hadithah Dam in western Iraq when a car approached carrying Iraqi civilians. A pregnant woman got out and ran screaming from the car. Rippetoe stepped toward her, the car exploded, and he and two other soldiers were killed, victims of a terrorist ruse.
The site provides an email address, perhaps the author might like an American opinion or two regarding his taste in humor?
(Note: Due to possible legal issues and my complete lack of forethought, the posting has been archived offline at The Command Post and I've removed the RIPE info.)
I've not commented for a few days as the rank political maneuvering and media coverage distorted the Iraqi prison abuse story out of proportion, it seemed pointless and was well covered in the Blogosphere.
Suddenly the media gets it today, for a nanosecond they've paused in their relentless pursuit of George Bush, as yesterday's brutal murder of Nick Berg brought the war on terror back into focus. While the prisoner abuse images are shameful, they are peripheral to our core interests. This horrific dehumanizing video gives terror a personal face. Nick Berg was murdered solely because he was an American.
As much as other nations were shocked by the events of 9/11, it is a peripheral issue to their national interests, they saw airplanes flying into buildings, and not the people.
On that dreadful day all Americans became the falling man and today we are Nick Berg.
John Kerry is on Imus at the moment and his opening remarks? He says we are crushed under the burden of healthcare and gas prices. No, Senator we are crushed under the WTC. Kerry continues to say he can shift the burden for the war in Iraq to others, remove the target from our backs, he is a fool.
It will never happen because the war on terror is not yet upon them, even our allies who are participating in Iraq do not grasp the reality of 9/11 in human terms:
ROME - The scandal of prisoner abuses by U.S. soldiers in Iraq (has dealt a bigger blow to the United States than the Sept. 11 attacks, the Vatican foreign minister told an Italian newspaper."The torture? A more serious blow to the United States than Sept. 11. Except that the blow was not inflicted by terrorists but by Americans against themselves," Lajolo was quoted as saying in La Repubblica.
Today is Wictory Wednesday. Every Wednesday, I ask my readers to volunteer and/or donate to the Bush 2004 campaign.
If you've already donated and volunteered for the Bush campaign, then talk to your friends and enlist them in the grass roots effort. Or you may wake up and find John Kerry in the White House and Carl Levin as Secretary of Defense.
If you're a blogger, you can join Wictory Wednesdays simply by putting up a post like this one every Wednesday, asking your readers to volunteer and/or donate to the Bush campaign. And do e-mail wictory@blogsforbush.com to be added to the Wictory Wednesday blogroll, which will be part of the Wictory Wednesday post on all participating blogs:
Watching the hatred pour from every corner of the globe as well as from our political opposition, it is hard not to be discouraged. I ask myself why Americans take great risks aiding others when our motives are questioned and efforts denigrated by those who do nothing? This Hindu Mondo came to mind:
Because we can.
Once a yogi, sitting on the banks of the Ganges, saw a scorpion fall into the water. He scooped it out, only to be bitten by the scorpion. It happened, again and again, with the same result. A bystander asked the yogi: "Why do you keep rescuing that scorpion, only to have it bite you?""It is the nature of the scorpion to bite," replied the yogi. "And it is the nature of yogis to help others when they can."
HEwllO, ZoZO N mE haS soME pitCHerS, wE dOEs...thISh oNe aT Carnival of tHe Katz iSh ZozO's wEIgTh gAoL...tO bE faTTer ThaN eDLoE.
FeSTe sEz nOt to pLAy on thE fOOS, sO wE dOEs. FESte SEz nOT tO pLAy wITh aLL tHe gOOd fUn shTUff, liKe tHe cOMptooRs. We iSh bAAd CAts, wE iSh.
hEh.
--moLLy
[Catnip: It had to happen, Carnival of the Dogs, we likes it we does. --Zozo]
Al-Jazeera reports that 87% of Arabs polled do not think US apologies and punishing the miscreants is enough.
Perhaps we should adopt the Iraqi method of handling prisoners.
Al-Jazeera later showed lengthy footage of the body of a US soldier lying on the road beside a military vehicle and four more corpses in pools of blood on the floor of another concrete room. At least two appeared to have been shot in the head and another had a groin wound. In another room, a smiling Iraqi uncovered the remaining bodies, which had blackened faces.
This is wearing on my last good nerve. The Democrats and the media are surrendering...who the hell authorized them to do so? They need to worry about American polling not the Arab street.
I haven't heard a word of apology from the Saudi's for the 19 hijackers and the Arab street celebrated over the deaths of thousands of innocent people, mostly Americans on 9/11. Did I miss the Red Cross report on the treatment and well being of Pfc. Keith Maupin held captive since the ambush in Fallujah? Do you think he volunteered this statement without fear of his life?
"My name is Keith Matthew Maupin. I am a soldier from the 1st Division," he said, looking into the camera. "I am married with a 10-month-old son. I came to liberate Iraq, but I did not come willingly because I wanted to stay with my child."
The Dems should heed Joe Lieberman's warning, they are making a huge mistake, and the Arab street can kiss my naked ass.
Welcome back, now please get to the serious ass-kicking...it's been too long since we last heard from one of the blogosphere's most distinctive voices.
A tad too obsequious you say? Gimme a break, it's in my job description (Fool) to suck up, enlighten and entertain...so I can at least fulfill one expectation. Right?
This story will make the Dems position on our military very clear: they loath them.
A listener wrote a letter to Congressman Pete Stark, D-Fremont:Pete Stark
House of Representatives
239 Cannon HOB
Washington D.C. 20515
Dear Mr. Stark,I am appalled that you voted against today's House Resolution 627, Roll Number 150. This measure would have shown publicly that you condemn the abuse of the prisoners in Iraq while simultaneously commend the service of the fine men and women who are serving in Iraq that bring honor to the uniform that they wear and to the Nation that they serve.
There are many Soldiers, Sailors, Marines, Airmen and Coastguardmen from your 13th Congressional District who are serving with pride and distinction . These men and women bring great credit upon their hometowns and the State of California.
Your "NO" vote is an indication that you do not support the troops who selflessly serve our nation and in many cases have given the ultimate sacrifice so that you might have the freedom that you enjoy as a citizen of this great Nation. Further, your "NO" vote on this resolution is a disgrace to the people of this district who have elected you.
I urge you to stop your contemptuous display of bitter partisanship and your politicization of this War. Your actions are very divisive and destructive to the morale of our troops and the morale of our nation. I know that a majority of the population of the 13th Congressional District are very strong in their support of our soldiers and in their support of the War in iraq. Your "NO" vote today reflects that you are way out of touch with the people of this district.
Very Sincerely,
Daniel L. Dow
Click here to listen to Congressman Stark's response. You will be shocked. Maybe not.
(Hat tip to the KSFO Morning Show)
Cross posted to The Command Post Op-Ed page.
I have been trying to keep the old blood pressure within stroke limits, so have not had much to say about the current media witch hunt and beating of breasts in Washington. How much more proof does one need that the Left doesn't believe we are at war than demanding resignation of the SecDef with 130,00 troops deployed in Iraq? Such massive stupidity boggles the mind, the message sent to those who lurk among us, prepared and waiting is crystal clear.
I thought to myself; how much lower will the Dems stoop to obtain power?
Then this item at Mama Montezz's provided the answer to my question.
It seems St. James the Moor Slayer has been relegated to the relative obscurity of a dusty old museum. He has been taken from his place within a church bearing his name because his presence might upset the "sensitivities of other ethnic groups".The statue is being replaced by one of St. James the Pilgrim, one of the other titles by which this saint is known. Apparently a saint who's apparition spurred on the Spanish troops and assisted in the overthrow of the Moors after an 800 year occupation is not as PC as the counter-image of the same saint as the man who entered Spain and converted the population to Christianity. Rather like the Spanish equivalent of St. Patrick.
"The Baroque image of a sword-wielding St James cutting the heads off Moors is not a very sensitive or evangelical image that fits the teachings of Christ, he added."
WTF? As Mama points out, whom the hell is going to be offended in a Catholic country? Islamists are combing Spanish churches looking for offense? The Spanish have sincerely lost it. How long before Spain abjectly apologizes, appoints a new Caliph of Andalusia and returns the Iberian Peninsula to Sharia law?
Jesuschristonabicycle.
Wait. What is that sound I hear coming from Spain? Oh...I know. It's the communal wail of the Spanish hiding under their beds crying for their mamas.
A people who will not fight for their freedom will not long have it, and this time around the Marines will not be landing on the beaches of Europe to fight and die for the Spanish or French. That much I can guaran-damn-tee.
Baldilocks is steamed, I was too when I heard the news:
What international law amounts to:Sudan won an uncontested election Tuesday to the United Nations' main human rights watchdog, prompting the United States to walk out because of alleged ethnic cleansing in the country's Darfur region.
Millions of non-Muslim black Africans “ethnically cleansed” by the Muslim Sudanese in power in that land and this is their earthly reward?
Sudan's envoy immediately shot back that the U.S. delegation was "shedding crocodile tears," and he accused the United States of turning a blind eye as Iraqi prisoners were mistreated and civilians were harmed in battle.
Welcome to the world of moral equivalence, in which, abuse of a few prisoners by a few members of a vast military and the genocide of millions amount to the same thing.
Americans should be outraged. Read the rest and links in the comments will lead you to material that will make your gorge rise as well as offer an opportunity to add your voice to the protest.
The Democrats are in high dudgeon over the Iraqi prisoner abuse case.
Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., emerged from the briefing saying he feared allegations made public so far are "the beginning rather than the end" of the abuse allegations.As the committee met, Minority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., said on the Senate floor that he wanted to know why Bush hadn't been informed of the report, "Why, in other words, has there been this extraordinary disconnect, this unbelievable failure of communication, of oversight
Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del., said the issue must be addressed with "far more urgency" by the administration and resignations may be needed.
"It's the single most damaging act to our interests in the region in the last decade, and it will negatively affect our national security," Biden said in a statement. "Accountability is essential … if the answers are unsatisfactory, resignations should be sought."
"This is going to be an election issue. These pictures are going to frame this election unless this president, as commander in chief, acts decisively now." - California Rep. Jane Harman, ranking Democrat on Intelligence Committee.
Oh Really Rep Harman? Your party's presumptive presidential nominee claims to have committed atrocities in Vietnam, how do you square his past with your moral outrage? Hmmm? Do you really believe electing a self-confessed war criminal will give the Arab world comfort? Al-Jazeera will use Kerry's own words against the US as further proof of our perfidy.
("Meet The Press" Audiotape, April 18, 1971):MR. CROSBY NOYES (Washington Evening Star): Mr. Kerry, you said at one time or another that you think our policies in Vietnam are tantamount to genocide and that the responsibility lies at all chains of command over there. Do you consider that you personally as a Naval officer committed atrocities in Vietnam or crimes punishable by law in this country?
SEN. KERRY: There are all kinds of atrocities, and I would have to say that, yes, yes, I committed the same kind of atrocities as thousands of other soldiers have committed in that I took part in shootings in free fire zones. I conducted harassment and interdiction fire. I used 50 calibre machine guns, which we were granted and ordered to use, which were our only weapon against people. I took part in search and destroy missions, in the burning of villages. All of this is contrary to the laws of warfare, all of this is contrary to the Geneva Conventions and all of this is ordered as a matter of written established policy by the government of the United States from the top down. And I believe that the men who designed these, the men who designed the free fire zone, the men who ordered us, the men who signed off the air raid strike areas, I think these men, by the letter of the law, the same letter of the law that tried Lieutenant Calley, are war criminals.
(End audiotape)
Bush fails...Blah-Blah-Blah. Iraqis demand Blah-Blah-Blah. Democrats Outraged Blah-Blah-Blah. Daschle regrets Blah-Blah-Blah. Rumsfeld to testify Blah-Blah-Blah. Military Blah-Blah-Blah Blah-Blah-Blah. Kerry rips Bush on education Halb-Halb-Halb.
Amid the Dem breast-beating and media hysteria over the prisoner abuse story, good economic news continues as the recovery gains strength.
Individual investors continued to buy the first batch of California's voter-approved deficit bonds at a record pace Tuesday.
The state's two-day sale for individual investors ended Tuesday with individuals buying $2.26 billion in bonds - the most ever sold in a retail order period, according to the treasurer's office.
The Institute for Supply Management's index of factory activity barely dipped to 62.4 in April from 62.5 in March, staying well above the robust 60 level for a sixth straight month. The index has been above 50, which signals growth, for 11 straight months.
"Very strong growth is continuing," said David Wyss, chief economist at Standard & Poor's. The index has reached "a remarkable level for a sustained period of time."
Driven by China's voracious appetite for imported steel, buoyed by a booming construction market at home and braced by U.S. tariffs on some imported steel, the U.S. steel industry has been on a fast run lately.
In a stunning turnaround, Bay Area companies are back in the black after three years awash in a sea of red ink, giving hope to the region's beleaguered residents that they may eventually get to share in some of that bounty.
Yahoo, EBay and other Internet firms have been some of the strongest-performing Bay Area companies during the past year, recording impressive gains in both revenue and market value.
"The sector is doing very well,'' said Safa Rashtchy, an analyst for Piper Jaffray & Co., adding that Internet firms have benefited from both the general economic recovery and the growing use of Internet sites. "It is certainly one of the hottest sectors."
To counter a negative media and Kerry, the Bush campaign will need a strong, energized grass roots organization. Today is Wictory Wednesday. Every Wednesday, I ask my readers to volunteer and/or donate to the Bush 2004 campaign.
If you've already donated and volunteered for the Bush campaign, then talk to your friends and enlist them in this battle for America's very soul.
If you're a blogger, you can join Wictory Wednesdays simply by putting up a post like this one every Wednesday, asking your readers to volunteer and/or donate to the Bush campaign. And do e-mail wictory@blogsforbush.com to be added to the Wictory Wednesday blogroll, which will be part of the Wictory Wednesday post on all participating blogs:
Carnival of the Cats is up at ATS and it's purrrrrfect. Wha? Too much? Are you unclear on cat blogging?
Before Zoe joined the family there was a small grey and pink cat named Pi who was a month younger than Molly, they were great friends. I replanted the back garden that year and painted the inside of the fence a dark green...the cats helped.
Pi was fascinated with water....playing in any she found, including the birdbath. Why didn't they land when she was underneath? It was a puzzle and many hours were spent waiting and napping in the shade of the wide bowl. However someone watched from the patio table and plotted...
Maybe Kerry should have thought more carefully about using Vietnam as a campaign ploy.
Kerry 'Unfit to be Commander-in-Chief', Say Former Military ColleaguesHundreds of former commanders and military colleagues of presumptive Democratic nominee John Kerry are set to declare in a signed letter that he is “unfit to be commander-in-chief.” They will do so at a press conference in Washington on Tuesday.
“What is going to happen on Tuesday is an event that is really historical in dimension,” John O’Neill, a Vietnam veteran who served in the Navy as a PCF (Patrol Craft Fast) boat commander, told CNSNews.com . The event, which is expected to draw about 25 of the letter-signers, is being organized by a newly formed group called Swift Boat Veterans for Truth.
“We have 19 of 23 officers who served with [Kerry]. We have every commanding officer he ever had in Vietnam. They all signed a letter that says he is unfit to be commander-in-chief,” O’Neill said.
Read the rest at The Command Post.
Unless grave or urgent news emerges the rest of the day will be lighter fare, spleen having been vented.
Let me begin with a tale of two Americans, May Day 1965, Turin Italy.
This is a true story; names have been changed to protect the innocent.
Jack and Ann married in April 1965. Jack was in his late 30’s and his firm was doing very well, he found his soul mate, life was good. Jack had a surprise wedding gift for his pretty new wife, a Mercedes-Benz 300 SE Cabriolet convertible. Their honeymoon plans were for a leisurely drive from London to Venice, stopping where fancy took them. In London he apologized, but they had to divert to Frankfurt to take care of some urgent business, but they would be off to Paris in a few hours.
They arrived at the MB factory delivery shop where Ann was totally bowled over. This car is still a beautiful object of automotive art. The SE Cabriolet was the epitome of luxury at the time and more than a little ostentatious. The honeymooners didn’t care if it screamed “rich Americans”, they were in love and caught up in the moment…off they sped to Paris and beyond.
Jack and Ann arrived in Turin at Noon, the streets seemed very deserted, but that was a godsend for Turin’s maze of streets can be very confusing to navigate. Soon they were hopelessly lost having missed the connection to Milan. They slowly drove down ever narrowing streets into a working class neighborhood. They heard a band playing as they turned into a large plaza with a round-about with a dozen streets shooting off in all directions. The charming plaza was ablaze with beds of red flowers, a small reflecting pool at the center.
Jack pulled over next to the plaza as Ann scanned the map, deciding which street to take as all hell broke loose and tens of thousands of May Day Communist Party marchers arrived in the plaza. They stopped dead in their tracks, quiet for a minute. Then a man with a bullhorn screamed something in Italian, which Jack took to mean “Get them!” as something thrown bounced off the windshield and the crowd surged towards the car.
Jack never hesitated, looking over his shoulder, he threw the Benz in reverse and backed over the plaza, churning up the flowers, through the reflecting pool, making a “bandit” turn on the other side, tires screeching and sped off down a side street with a mob of angry people chasing, throwing debris and shouting.
When they stopped to catch their breath and look at the car many miles away, the Benz had a few minor dings and a clump of bright red tulips caught in the rear bumper. They laughed, hugged and got the hell out of Turin.
We heard this story when we accompanied them on a working vacation along the same route in the late 80’s. As we approached Turin, we toyed with the idea of finding the plaza and having a bite to eat nearby, but we were driving a rental MB and Jack has a very distinctive appearance, only slightly changed as his blond hair turned silver, we decided memories might be long.
I've always wondered what the Italian version of the incident must be, as they watched their plaza churned up by a foreigner in a car that represented the ruling class they so despise.
I love irony, don't you? Today, May 1st, The EU officially welcomed the former Soviet states of Eastern Europe into the fold of free nations.
Hundreds of thousands of Hungarians celebrated their former communist country's entry into the European Union with midnight parties in the streets of Budapest as the EU welcomed 10 new states on Saturday.Fireworks lit up the sky above Heroes' Square in the Hungarian capital as the national anthem was played, followed by Beethoven's Ode to Joy, which is the EU's anthem.
"Hungary has returned to Europe and the values which Hungary has held dear for more than 1,000 years," Prime Minister Peter Medgyessy said as a gigantic eight-meter (25-foot) hourglass was turned over to begin marking the nation's time in the EU.
Hungarians had kicked off celebrations with the tolling of a flower-shaped bell at noon Friday and then took to the streets for evening parties.
"We are finally triumphing over our misfortunes," Medgyessy said at the bell ceremony. "Our integration (into the EU) can be a historic turning point."
"We were the gates of Europe already but now we will be that from the inside," he said.
Indeed.
As I read and watch the reports of European celebration arrive on the wires, TV and subscription services, I smile and recall Churchill's remarks in 1942 after Alexander and Montgomery turned back Rommel's forces at El Alamein and the war turned.
"This is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning. "
Little did we know at the time that another forty-seven years of Anglo-American fortitude was required before the walls Churchill aptly dubbed "The Iron Curtain" lifted from Eastern Europe, the Baltic and the CCCP.
A job well done America.
Of course, no one will speak our name today in the EU love fest as the Hungarians, and others join the EU, rightly so, however, it is their choice and they make it freely. That's payment enough in my book, all we can hope to achieve. We spend our treasure, sacrifice our lives and then quietly walk away, satisfied. This celebration today is our best reply to the naysayers and accusers that we are an imperialistic power.
One can't help but point out that John Kerry and the Dems were on the wrong side of history in defeating the Soviets, just as they are now wrong in the War on Terror. If Kerry were President today, not only would Saddam Hussein still be digging mass graves and paying off our "friends", but had Jimmy Carter defeated Ronald Reagan, Hungary might well still be occupied by the Soviets.
In the current war on terrorism, we must draw on our Cold War experiences with the Soviet Union; we must now take a hard-line against militant Islam and terrorist states, while nurturing democratization and alliances within the Islamic world. We can best defend ourselves by fuelling the liberalization of repressive Islamic and despotic Arabic societies. We have unleashed the information genie from its bottle in the Middle East; it will destroy those who seek to suppress it, just as it did in the Soviet Union. Once people see and hear how others live, that others have choices; the pressure from within cannot be withstood. It would be extremely foolhardy for us to disengage now. It will not be easy, but we face the same choice that we did in 1948 in Berlin.
We must look beyond the partisan rhetoric of the political season, and the self-serving and narrowly focused media obsession with appeasement and retreat, for we now face the greatest threat to our existence since an aggressive, nuclear-armed Soviet Union held much of Europe in its iron grip.
Should the war on terror take forty-five years to win, chances are that I will not be here to witness the celebrations across the Arab world, just as much of my parent's generation are not here to witness the end of what they began in 1941. But our children and grandchildren will benefit or suffer by what we do now, that is an inescapable fact.
(Cross posted at The Command Post Op-Ed Page.)
