ACLU Moves to Stifle Internal Debate

A vocal critic on the ACLU national board, Wendy Kaminer, has been replaced with someone more...malleable.

Jay at Stop the ACLU has the story:

It wasn’t an ousting of any kind. Ms. Kaminer had come to such odds with the hypocrisy going on at the ACLU that she decided not to seek reelection.

Jolly good! Now the ACLU can get back to doing what it does best, seeking the destruction of America, with no party-poopers bringing them down.

The Jawa Report Returns!

News from Dr. Rusty Shackleford of The Jawa Report:

After nearly two weeks of fighting a cyberterrorist attack launched by Turkish Islamists, and then wrestling with a new server, The Jawa Report is back!

We promise to continue the reporting the news the only way we know how--with mediocre analysis & plenty of offense. If that's just a little bit more than Islam can allow, then to quote Kos, screw them.

For free thinking Muslims of the world we say: join us on our quest of exposing the danger of the bearded ones. While they may attack our website, we know you are exposed daily to much greater dangers which
may result from offending their religous sensibilities.

Read the rest.

Supreme Court Ruling Presents Dems With Opportunity

From the Associated Press:

The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that President Bush overstepped his authority in ordering military war crimes trials for Guantanamo Bay detainees, saying in a strong rebuke that the trials were illegal under U.S. and international law.
Bush said there might still be a way to work with Congress to sanction military tribunals for detainees and the American people should know the ruling "won't cause killers to be put out on the street."
The court declared 5-3 that the trials for 10 foreign terror suspects violate U.S. military law and the Geneva conventions.

Following the ruling, the President announced that he will seek agreement with Congress to set up military tribunals. Democrats can help make the case that they are concerned with national security by facilitating bipartisan efforts to authorize tribunals. Otherwise, the Gitmo terrorists will likely be tried in civil court. Defense attorneys will demand access to highly classified information. The government will refuse, resulting in months of tangential litigation.

In other words, Moussaoui times four hundred.

Will Democrats seize the opportunity to shake the image of shameless political hacks and opportunists willing to let Americans die in order to fulfill their political dreams?

Probably not.

A Little Unclassified Data

Because the American people clearly have a right and need to know about the movements of dangerous individuals who would cavalierly, and even maliciously, endanger their security, suppose I were to post that Bill Keller (below), executive editor/chief apologist for The New York Times, who lives in the same apartment building that John Lennon and Yoko Ono did - The Dakota, enters a company-provided limousine in front of the building every morning promptly at 9:00 to make the trip to work;



And that James Risen (below), reporter/apologist, invariably catches a cab to work each day at 72nd and Broadway;


And that Eric Lichtblau, reporter/apologist, takes the 7:48 commuter train from Spuyten Duyvil...



...would that make them understand the need for keeping certain data confidential?

Note: the address and transportation information presented here is fictional - The Dread Pundit Bluto does not cavalierly or maliciously endanger other Americans, even such loathsome, self-serving pricks as Keller, Risen, and Lichtblau.

NYT Published Illustrated How-To-Kill-Marines Guide Earlier This Year

Lest we forget the species of scum who labor on al Qaeda's behalf at the New York Times, here's a gem from January of this year, helpfully supplied for the edification of jihadis in Iraq, pointing out exactly where they need to shoot our Marines in order to score a kill:

The ceramic plates in vests currently worn by the majority of military personnel in Iraq cover only some of the chest and back. In at least 74 of the 93 fatal wounds that were analyzed in the Pentagon study of marines from March 2003 through June 2005, bullets and shrapnel struck the marines' shoulders, sides or areas of the torso where the plates do not reach.

For illiterate terrorist insurgents, the Gray Lady helpfully supplied this PDF file, from the same SECRET Pentagon report, complete with illustrations pointing out the vulnerable areas.

The Pirate Armada Vs. The New York Times

Many of the buccaneers of The Pirate Armada share my outrage at the blatant disregard that elitist media pricks, hiding behind the cloak of press freedom, show for the safety and well-being of their fellow citizens.

RadioActive Chief examines the legalities that might apply to the Times latest efforts to keep our enemies up-to-date with top secret intelligence.

Signal 94 proposes that, since the editors and reporters of The Gray Lady no longer seem to consider themselves Americans, they be required to register under the Foreign Agents Registration Act.

The Filthy One, at The Filthy Report, asks "What is the punishment for treason in a time of war?"

Hujonwi is glad that the President seems to have located his gonads over the issue.

The Dumb Ox offers a roundup of blogger reaction and calls for the revocation of the NYT's press privileges.

Neocon Express notes that NYT executive editor Keller is somehow able to be lame, arrogant, and condescending all at once in his letter explaining why he chose to betray America.

OpiniPundit points out that the Times can't even agree with itself. No wonder they hate most of the rest of the country.

Stop the ACLU uses its own comments and those of other bloggers to fisk Keller's ridiculous letter.

The Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler wants to see some NYT folks adorning a gibbet.

The Cookshack --Gab & Grub accurately pronounces The New York Times a "national disgrace", The White Trash Republican disagrees, preferring to call them The Al-Qaeda Times.

Bloggin' on Down the Rogue reprints a letter from an American serviceman thanking the pencil-necks at the Times for helping to get more of his men killed.

BlueStar Chronicles wonders if the "the Old Grey Lady" has decided to declare war on the United States.

Conspiracy, what conspiracy? proposes a class-action lawsuit against the NYT for endangering the American public.

Gawfer reprints Secretary of the Treaury John Snow's letter to NYT executive editor Bill Keller, calling Keller on his lack of judgement in compromising national security.

Hillbilly White Trash thinks that the time for writing letters to the editor is past, and that further correspondence should be addressed to Congress and the Justice Department.

Lady Heather of Suburbia has a special graphic message for "The New York Treason Slimes".

Marvin's Word and Stuck on Stupid post that Cut 'n' Run Congresscritter John Murtha encouraged the Gray Whore to provide this information to our enemies.

Cross-posted at Stop the ACLU at the invitation of Admiral Jay.

Swedish Journalist Murdered by Islamists in Somalia

From The Jawa Report:

Swedish journalist Martin Adler murdered in front of thousands at Islamist rally in Mogadishu...and Reporters Without Borders wants us to believe it was the "warlords" that did it. Nope, couldn't have been one of the thousands of Islamists chanting death to America and carrying placards of Abu Musab al Zarqawi that killed the white guy.

Dr. Rusty Shackleford has also posted a photo of the incident.

The link goes to The Jawa Report's archive site, pressed into service while Rusty's administrator battles an Islamist distributed denial of service (DDOS) attack launched from Turkey...a badge of honor for the inimitable Dr. Shackleford.

A Dispatch From the Front

From Powerline via The Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler:

Dear Messrs. Keller, Lichtblau & Risen:

Congratulations on disclosing our government's highly classified anti-terrorist-financing program (June 23). I apologize for not writing sooner. But I am a lieutenant in the United States Army and I spent the last four days patrolling one of the more dangerous areas in Iraq. (Alas, operational security and common sense prevent me from even revealing this unclassified location in a private medium like email.)

Unfortunately, as I supervised my soldiers late one night, I heard a booming explosion several miles away. I learned a few hours later that a powerful roadside bomb killed one soldier and severely injured another from my 130-man company. I deeply hope that we can find and kill or capture the terrorists responsible for that bomb. But, of course, these terrorists do not spring from the soil like Plato's guardians. No, they require financing to obtain mortars and artillery shells, priming explosives, wiring and circuitry, not to mention for training and payments to locals willing to emplace bombs in exchange for a few months' salary. As your story states, the program was legal, briefed to Congress, supported in the government and financial industry, and very successful.

Not anymore. You may think you have done a public service, but you have gravely endangered the lives of my soldiers and all other soldiers and innocent Iraqis here. Next time I hear that familiar explosion -- or next time I feel it -- I will wonder whether we could have stopped that bomb had you not instructed terrorists how to evade our financial surveillance.

And, by the way, having graduated from Harvard Law and practiced with a federal appellate judge and two Washington law firms before becoming an infantry officer, I am well-versed in the espionage laws relevant to this story and others -- laws you have plainly violated. I hope that my colleagues at the Department of Justice match the courage of my soldiers here and prosecute you and your newspaper to the fullest extent of the law. By the time we return home, maybe you will be in your rightful place: not at the Pulitzer announcements, but behind bars.

Very truly yours,

Tom Cotton
Baghdad, Iraq

'This is Outrageous'

PBS' The News Hour With Jim Lehrer just broadcast a dual interview between US Representative Curt Weldon (R-PA) and Eric Lichtblau of The New York Times regarding the Times recent publication of a top secret government program to track the international finances of terrorists.

Weldon, who has been instrumental in bringing the Able Danger program, which reportedly identified several 9/11 hijackers prior to the attack, to the public's attention, finally got fed up with the smug and smarmy NYT editor, terming the Times' conduct "...outrageous..."

Lichtblau apparently believes that the press is granted super-national authority to commit espionage, suborn treason, and provide highly classified information to America's enemies...at least if a Republican is in the White House.

Weldon set him straight, if Lichtblau has the wit to receive the message.

Gray Whore Lady Betrays Us Again

Ostensibly responding to criticism from readers (but really from bloggers and conservative talk radio commentators) about this article, which reveals details of secret US efforts to track the finances of terrorists, New York Times executive editor Bill Keller reveals the mind of a weasel (and a not terribly bright weasel at that) in this letter [emphasis added]:

The question we start with as journalists is not "why publish?" but "why would we withhold information of significance?" We have sometimes done so, holding stories or editing out details that could serve those hostile to the U.S. But we need a compelling reason to do so.

Idiot. Keller answered his own question, but doesn't have the wit to realize it. The "compelling reason" to withhold stories or details is to avoid giving aid and comfort to our enemies.

At least now we know why al Qaeda called off their plot to attack the New York City subway system with poison gas. They didn't want to risk losing any of their allies at The New York Times to friendly fire. For al Qaeda to lose Bill Keller would be perhaps an even more damaging blow than was the death of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

Sunday Funny

From the Dry Bones Blog.

Mt. Soledad Case Goes To Supreme Court

Via ACLJ

Yesterday evening the City Attorney in San Diego along with Mayor Jerry Sanders decided to take the Mt. Soledad case to the Supreme Court of the United States. I have already assembled one of our Supreme Court teams to file briefs on behalf of the Members of Congress that we represent, as well as ACLJ Members across the country in this important case. It appears at this time that the City will be asking for both a stay of the Ninth Circuit decision as well as a petition for writ of certiorari. The stay of the decision will allow the monument to remain while the litigation is pending at the Supreme Court. The petition for certiorari will ask the Court to grant plenary review of the Ninth Circuit decision.

Generally, under Supreme Court practice, the Circuit Justice in charge of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has the authority to grant the stay. In this case, the Circuit Justice is Anthony Kennedy. Justice Kennedy can either grant the stay, deny the stay, or refer the stay to the entire Supreme Court for determination. It takes five votes to obtain a stay. In order for the case to be reviewed by the Supreme Court on the merits, it only takes four votes.

Read more about the background on this, and sign the petition asking President Bush to take the land under the federal government’s powers of eminent domain.

Another Senior al Qaeda Leader Captured

From a CENTCOM press release:

BAGHDAD – Coalition forces detained a senior al-Qaida in Iraq network member and three suspected terrorists during coordinated raids southwest of Baqubah the morning of June 19.

The terrorist is reportedly a senior al-Qaida cell leader throughout central Iraq, north of Baghdad. He is known to be involved in facilitating foreign terrorists throughout central Iraq, and is suspected of having ties to previous attacks on Coalition and Iraqi forces.

Coalition forces secured multiple buildings and detained the known terrorist plus the three suspected terrorists without incident. Troops found an AK-47 with several magazines of ammunition and destroyed them all on site.

ACLU Says Government Spying on Bank Records is Further Abuse of Power

We could see this one coming from a mile away! It is a program designed to protect National Security, so naturally the ACLU are against it.

The following statement can be attributed to Anthony D. Romero, Executive Director of the ACLU:

“The revelation of the CIA’s financial spying program is another example of the Bush administration’s abuse of power. The invasion of our personal financial information, without notification or judicial review, is contrary to the fundamental American value of privacy and must be stopped now. It seems the administration feels entitled to flip through all of our checkbooks. How many other secret spying programs has the Bush administration enacted without Congress, the courts or the public knowing? We need a full accounting of what information has been demanded by the U.S. government, how they have used it, with whom it was shared, and how they intend to repair this grave breech of trust. This program is a glaring example of how this government thinks nothing of widespread abuse of power.

Don Surber is excited about this newly invented right by the ACLU.

So take that, IRS! I don’t have to tell you nothing. Ditto Social Security. The ACLU said so. I have this right to privacy over all my financial transactions. I no longer have to report my income to the IRS or Social Security. That will save me lots of money.

Thank you, ACLU. Your pathological hatred for George W. Bush may not destroy the nation’s security, but it sure as heck can cost it a couple of trillion dollars in taxes each year. Keep minting those rights.

There is probably no other time that a proper balance between civil liberties and national security becomes more important than in wartime. During times of war, sometimes unusual responses are implemented, often requiring suspension of certain liberties. Of course war opens the opportunity for abuse by governments, and the ACLU are right to watch for them. However, the ACLU in its absolutist perception of freedom, only worries about one side of the equation, civil liberties. It pays no attention to the national security side of things, not only ignoring it, but working against it.

Read much more at Stop The ACLU!

7 Held in Sears Tower Bombing Plot

From MSNBC:

MIAMI - Calling them "homegrown terrorists," Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said Friday that seven men had been charged with conspiring to work with al-Qaida to blow up Chicago's Sears Tower and federal buildings.

Court documents said the ringleader boasted of wanting to "kill all the devils we can" in a mission "just as good or greater than 9/11."

Members of the black Muslim group reportedly pledged fealty to al Qaeda before an undercover agent they thought was a representative of the terrorist organization.

Look for the mainstream media to begin minimizing the threat posed by this group, so as not to give the Bush administration credit for a win.

Dem Surrender Proposals Rejected By Senate

From MSNBC:

WASHINGTON - The GOP-controlled Senate on Thursday rejected Democratic calls to start withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq by year's end, as the two parties sought to define their election-year positions on a war that has grown increasingly unpopular.

"Withdrawal is not an option. Surrender is not a solution," declared Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist of Tennessee, who characterized Democrats as defeatists wanting to abandon Iraq before the mission is complete.

Kerry's proposal got only 13 "aye" bleats. Levin attracted a larger flock of 39.

Iraqi Police Free 17 Hostages

From the Associated Press:

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Iraqi police stormed a farm north of Baghdad early Thursday and freed at least 17 people who were snatched a day earlier in a mass kidnapping of about 85 workers and family members at the end of a factory shift.

The freed kidnap victims brought to nearly 50 the number of captives who have been either released by their captors or extricated by police. About 30 of the hostages, mainly women and children, were released shortly after they were taken captive Wednesday. It is routine in Iraq for women to take their children to work.

What the Nightly News Wouldn't Tell You

From The New York Sun:

WASHINGTON - Since the formal search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq was called off in January 2005, the American military has found more than 500 shells of ordinance containing Sarin or mustard gas.

These weapons are said to date from the Iran-Iraq war, and Pentagon officials have said that they're not the WMDs we were looking for, however, they threaten the liberal meme, pushed by the mainstream media, that Saddam had destroyed his WMDs:

"The information released today proves that weapons of mass destruction are, in fact, in Iraq," Senator Santorum, a Republican from Pennsylvania said yesterday. "It is essential for the American people to understand that these weapons are in Iraq. I will continue to advocate for the complete declassification of this report so we can more fully understand the complete WMD picture inside Iraq."

And these chemical weapons, discovered almost by accident since the formal search for WMDs was called off, challenge the credibility of the Duelfer Report:

"Duelfer after 18 months was not able to find this stuff," Mr. Hoekstra said. "We made this determination that hundreds [of weapons] were found. I think this is a significant quantity. What does this say about all of the other issues that continue to be raised [such as] stuff transported to Syria. I don't believe everything that is out there is credible, but it shows how much we still don't know."

A puzzling question here is this: why is the discovery of hundreds of chemical weapons being revealed by members of Congress, rather than those whose stated mission is to inform the public?

The Jawa Report Still Down

One of the other blogs I write for, The Jawa Report, has been down for several days due to a Distributed Denial Of Service (DDOS) attack from Islamic cyber-terrorists in the Middle East, similar to the attack launched against Michelle Malkin's blog previously.

Dr. Rusty Shackleford, principle of The Jawa Report, announces and describes the attack at a backup site.

Missing US Soldiers Found Murdered

From the Washington Post:

BAGHDAD, July 20 -- Two U.S. soldiers missing since an attack on a checkpoint last week have been found dead near a power plant in Yusifiyah, south of Baghdad, according to U.S. officials, and Iraqi officials say the soldiers had been tortured.

I understand that the ACLU is not rushing to protest these instances of actual, as opposed to imagined, torture, but perhaps Dick Durbin will condemn the perpetrators as Nazis, gulag guards, and Pol Pot henchmen.

Via Stop the ACLU.

'Like a Bag of Rocks'

Joseph Godfrey, Jr. had only been home from his tour in Iraq for three months when he was stabbed to death on the banks of the Oswego River. His killer bragged to friends that Godfrey "...went down like a bag of rocks."

The only mercy shown to Godfrey's family is that his murderer plead guilty. They will not have to endure a trial. Paul Leary was sentenced today to 17 years to life in Oswego County Court. Here's hoping that his prison guards, who will know about his crime, provide this scumbag with an appropriately enthusiastic cellmate. And privacy.

From Newsday:

Leary killed Joseph Godfrey Jr., a 24-year-old former Army specialist from Mexico, N.Y., by severing his spinal cord with a knife during a late-night fight in an Oswego park in January 2005. Leary, who netted $60, a pack of cigarettes and a lighter in the deadly confrontation, told police he had been drinking with Godfrey at a bar earlier.

Cross-posted at The Jawa Report and Vince Aut Morire.

Al-Qaeda Had Plans To Release Poison Gas In NY Subway

According to Time who gets the info from a book excerpt.

Al-Qaeda terrorists came within 45 days of attacking the New York subway system with a lethal gas similar to that used in Nazi death camps. They were stopped not by any intelligence breakthrough, but by an order from Osama bin Laden's deputy, Ayman Zawahiri. And the U.S. learned of the plot from a CIA mole inside al-Qaeda. These are some of the more startling revelations by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Ron Suskind, whose new book The One Percent Doctrine is excerpted in the forthcoming issue of TIME. It will appear on Time.com early Sunday morning.

U.S. intelligence got its first inkling of the plot from the contents of a laptop computer belonging to a Bahraini jihadist captured in Saudi Arabia early in 2003. It contained plans for a gas-dispersal system dubbed "the mubtakkar" (Arabic for inventive). Fearing that al-Qaeda's engineers had achieved the holy grail of terror R&D — a device to effectively distribute hydrogen-cyanide gas, which is deadly when inhaled — the CIA immediately set about building a prototype based on the captured design, which comprised two separate chambers for sodium cyanide and a stable source of hydrogen, such as hydrochloric acid. A seal between the two could be broken by a remote trigger, producing the gas for dispersal. The prototype confirmed their worst fears: "In the world of terrorist weaponry," writes Suskind, "this was the equivalent of splitting the atom. Obtain a few widely available chemicals, and you could construct it with a trip to Home Depot – and then kill everyone in the store."

The device was shown to President Bush and Vice President Cheney the following morning, prompting the President to order that alerts be sent through all levels of the U.S. government. Easily constructed and concealed, mass casualties were inevitable if it could be triggered in any enclosed public space.

Having discovered the device, exposing the plot in which it might be used became a matter of extreme urgency. Although the Saudis were cooperating more than ever before in efforts to track down al-Qaeda operatives in the kingdom, the interrogations of suspects connected with the Bahraini on whose computer the Mubtakkar was discovered were going nowhere. The U.S. would have to look elsewhere.

Conventional wisdom has long held that the U.S. has no human intelligence assets inside al Qaeda. "That is not true," writes Suskind. Over the previous six months, U.S. agents had been receiving accurate tips from a man the writer identifies simply as "Ali," a management-level al-Qaeda operative who believed his leaders had erred in attacking the U.S. directly. "The group was now dispersed," writes Suskind. "A few of its leaders and many foot soldiers were captured or dead. As with any organization, time passed and second-guessing began."

And when asked about the Mubtakkar and the names of the men arrested in Saudi Arabia, Ali was aware of the plot. He identified the key man as Bin Laden's top operative on the Arabian Peninsula, Yusuf al Ayeri, a.k.a. "Swift Sword," who had been released days earlier by Saudi authorities, unaware that al-Ayeri was bin Laden's point man in the kingdom.

Ali revealed that Ayeri had visited Ayman Zawahiri in January 2003, to inform him of a plot to attack the New York City subway system using cyanide gas. Several mubtakkars were to be placed in subway cars and other strategic locations. This was not simply a proposal; the plot was well under way. In fact, zero-hour was only 45 days away. But then, for reasons still debated by U.S. intelligence officials, Zawahiri called off the attack. "Ali did not know the precise explanation why. He just knew that Zawahiri had called them off."

The news left administration officials gathered in the White House with more questions than answers. Why was Ali cooperating? Why had Zawahiri called off the strike? Were the operatives planning to carry out the attack still in New York? "The CIA analysts attempted answers. Many of the questions were simply unanswerable."

Read the whole thing.

Allah Pundit says the point to take away is Al Qaeda has crude WMD capabilities. Have a great evening!

Suitably Flip feels better and better about that 40% cut in New York's federal anti-terror funding.

AJ Strata wonders if Time and Suskind expose a critical US intelligence asset inside Al
Qaeda's organization simply to make money? It seems likely - sadly. But hey, I'm sure they think it was worth the Pulitzer.

I wonder if this will change the ACLU's mind about random searches in the NY Subway. Time says they will have more tomorrow, but the main question will remain: Why was it called off?

Jeff Goldstein:

My preliminary thoughts are these: whatever you happen to feel about George Bush, one thing is clear: When it comes to defending the homeland against al Qaeda, he has not hesitated to act in the decisive way he and his advisors see fit. To that end, he has proven himself unafraid to use substantive military force, and largely immune to the opinions of both the western media and international elites. Whether or not this factored into al Qaeda’s thinking is dubious. But I have long believed that one of the reasons we haven’t seen the kind of attacks here that we see in, say, Israel, is that the US, should it ever decide to go on the full offensive, cannot be restrained—particularly if public opinion shifts toward a desire to see the enemy eradicated, even if doing so requires a shift in the collective moral calculus of the nation.

Macsmind reminds us that we should take this news with a grain of salt.

Back in 2004, Powerline caught Suskind perpetrating a hoax with his hit book on Bush, using proven liar Ex Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neil as a witness.

Crossposted from Stop The ACLU

For Father’s Day

(First posted June 19, 2005)
Once, when I was small, my father taught me something useless. I had seen the old photographs and held the medals in my hand. Purple Heart and Bronze Star. I had been clamoring for stories of what he did in that war. What kind of guns did he shoot? Did he get to use his bayonet? How many Japs did he kill?

But he taught me something useless instead. He taught me how to figure out the firing order for an 18 cylinder aircraft engine. I had a pretty dim understanding of what cylinders did in an engine (I was only seven years old, after all), but I listened and I learned. Somehow I forgot about the war while we talked.

Sometimes he would tell me about his buddies from boot camp – the slim, smiling young men in the old photographs. I especially loved the story of the brawl they started one night in a bar, and how he escaped the Shore Patrol by slipping out through a bathroom window. And his friend who took him for a ride in a Corsair, a single seat fighter. They took out the radio gear to make room for my dad behind the pilot’s seat. The Corsair went into a dive so steep and fast that my father blacked out for a few seconds.

As I grew older my dad did share some of his darker memories with me. It was very different from what I had read in books and seen in movies. I began to catch a glimpse of the pride and terror of combat Marines, how they clung to each other as brothers, facing unimaginable horrors in a violent and pitiless crucible.

He described the queer, queasy feeling he got in the pit of his stomach, diving “ass over teakettle” into war as a tailgunner in a Dauntless Divebomber. And the queer, queasy feeling he got piloting a slow, ungainly Catalina PBY flying boat in a combat zone full of Japanese fighters. And the tight, heavy feeling in his stomach when he returned from a foot patrol near Yontan airfield on Okinawa, with only one other man of the ten who had left with him, and that man wounded and soon to die. He was seventeen when he enlisted. By the time he was nineteen he was a sergeant of Marines, and marked for life.

He was never strident. He didn’t raise his voice. He didn’t preach. He spoke of awful things in a flat voice and I knew the terrible price that had been paid by men like him in that struggle.

Many stories are told of the bond between father and son. Dramatic stories of courage, sacrifice, and impossible odds overcome by the power of a father’s love. But I think that bond shows its power most often in quiet, mundane ways. Like this:

1-8-15-4-11-18-7-14-3-10-17-6-13-2-9-16-5-12-1

That’s the firing order of a World War II vintage 18 cylinder aircraft engine - a bit of useless lore carried for decades as a token of love by the son, a symbol of that enduring bond, and a talisman for me to cling to and celebrate a life that ended years ago.

Happy Father's Day, Dad. I remember.

Sunday Funny

From the Dry Bones Blog, first published in 1993.

Wherein We Answer Bryan Curtis' Question About Soccer

Slate's Bryan Curtis poses the question in an over-analyzed essay, entitled, Among the Brainiacs, about the attraction soccer and the World Cup hold for America's self-declared intellectual class. Curtis' question: "What would being a soccer fan say about me?"

Of course the question is rhetorical, and Curtis provides his own, self-affirming answer. Unfortunately, the pencil-necks are unable to praise soccer without insulting popular American sports:

Well, it would say a lot of things, many of them flattering. Taking an interest in soccer indicates a certain cosmopolitanism; the game is an international one. A rooting interest in a British club like Arsenal might indicate Anglophilia, which never hurts in polite society. Soccer-love also says—and this is perhaps most important—that you reject the overweening hype and made-for-TV packaging that surrounds American sports for something that, in theory, approaches a purer experience. "If you're an intellectual, the kitsch that shrouds, say, football is almost intolerable," says Franklin Foer. "If you look at a European soccer crowd, all the shouting is coming organically from the crowd itself—that's so much more appealing." Soccer, largely divorced from shrieking announcers and Jumbotrons, feels more like an artistic endeavor than a television show.

Well you're wrong, Bryan. Being an adult intellectual who has chosen to be a soccer fan says only one thing about you.

It says that you have not had a positive sporting experience since you played soccer in middle school, and you feel threatened by people who have.

In other words, you're a pussy.

House Dems Strip Jefferson of Committee Seat

The House has voted to remove Representative William Jefferson (D-LA) from the House Ways and Means Committee after Jefferson refused to step down following allegations that he accepted a $100,000 bribe from an undercover officer.

From the Associated Press:

The move came on a voice vote, without debate, and capped an election-year effort by House Democrats to seize the political high ground on the issue of lawmaker ethics.

Jefferson had refused to step aside voluntarily from the powerful House Ways and Means Committee before the corruption probe was completed. The drive to remove him from the committee, led by the Democratic leader, Rep. Nancy Pelosi (news, bio, voting record) of California, sparked protests by black lawmakers who said Jefferson was being singled out unfairly.

This move is premature, as Jefferson has yet to be indicted; however, charges of racism seem rather absurd.

Via Stop the ACLU.

Captured Zarqawi Document: Terrorist Insurgency in Bad Shape

The Jerusalem Post provides the translated text of a captured Zarqawi document that paints a gloomy picture of the state of the terrorist insurgency in Iraq. This picture is completely at odds with the image projected by the mainstream media of a robust insurgency gaining strength from US missteps.

Here are the main problems, as identified by the terrorist insurgent leaders themselves:

1. By allowing the American forces to form the forces of the National Guard, to reinforce them and enable them to undertake military operations against the resistance.

2. By undertaking massive arrest operations, invading regions that have an impact on the resistance, and hence causing the resistance to lose many of its elements.

3. By undertaking a media campaign against the resistance resulting in weakening its influence inside the country and presenting its work as harmful to the population rather than being beneficial to the population.

4. By tightening the resistance's financial outlets, restricting its moral options and by confiscating its ammunition and weapons.

5. By creating a big division among the ranks of the resistance and jeopardizing its attack operations, it has weakened its influence and internal support of its elements, thus resulting in a decline of the resistance's assaults.

6. By allowing an increase in the number of countries and elements supporting the occupation or at least allowing to become neutral in their stand toward us in contrast to their previous stand or refusal of the occupation.

7. By taking advantage of the resistance's mistakes and magnifying them in order to misinform.

In other words, these are the things that the US is doing right. This document, if genuine, indicates a massive failure on the part of Western news media to accurately portray the conflict in Iraq.

Pendleton 8 Being Murthafied

Michelle Malkin reports on seven Marines and a Navy corpsman, being held in wrist and leg shackles at Camp Pendleton, who have not been charged with any crime:

Did you know there are seven young Marines and a Navy corpsman sitting in a military brig right now in leg and wrist shackles -- despite the fact that they've not been charged with any crime?

The men are in solitary confinement, locked in 8'x8' cells at San Diego's Camp Pendleton, as investigators probe an April 26 incident involving the 3rd Battalion, 5th Regiment, 1st Marine Division. They are behind bars 23 hours a day; family members can only see them through inch-thick Plexiglas. Military blabbermouths have told the press that the service members are suspected of kidnapping and shooting a man in the Iraqi town of Hamdaniya. The Iraqi man's family reportedly came forward seeking payment for his death as media hysteria set in over the separate alleged atrocity in Haditha.

ACLU lawyers who bristle at the thought of bloody handed terrorists being detained at Guantanamo Bay have not rushed to the aid of the Pendleton 8.

This is all part of the suspension of civil rights for members of the military, championed by Representative John Murtha, that includes a presumption of guilt whenever charges are leveled.

Relentless Violence a Sign of Vietnam-Like Failure

From Reuters:

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Two women tourists were stabbed near Times Square in New York and a man knifed in a separate subway attack early on Wednesday, police and prosecutors said.

The attacks followed a stabbing on Tuesday of a tourist from Texas on a subway train on the city's Upper West Side.

New York City's elected officials have been trying, literally for centuries, to stem the tide of violence in the City. It's clear from these incidents that their efforts are a failure, and that claims of lower crime rates are simply Pollyanna-style propaganda.

Have we learned nothing from Vietnam? If people can't even be safe in Times Square, then it's time to admit that we have lost. The politicians need to disengage our law enforcement officers before more are killed and conduct a strategic withdrawal over the horizon. Perhaps a quick reaction force could be based in Connecticut or New Jersey.

A Fitzmas Fizzle

From the Associated Press:

Top White House aide Karl Rove has been told by prosecutors he won't be charged with any crimes in the investigation into the leak of a CIA officer's identity, his lawyer said Tuesday, lifting a heavy burden from one of President Bush's most trusted advisers.

Attorney Robert Luskin said that special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald informed him of the decision on Monday, ending months of speculation about the fate of Rove, the architect of Bush's 2004 re-election now focused on stopping Democrats from capturing the House or Senate in this November's elections.

This news is especially disheartening to the Liberal cause, busy with their Take Down America conference, coming as it does on the heels of the death of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, one of the Left's most potent allies in the War on Bush.

The Pirate Armada Engages Perfidious Albionite

Commodore Cookie, of The Cook Shack--Gab & Grub, brings us up-to-date on Armada action:

Yesterday, Sunday...I was visitin one a me mates over at Hear, O Israel
when this British troll stuck his nose in and started leavin comments on the post regardin "As Islamist's grow Confident"...nasty sort a chap he is. Seein what we was dealin with...I kinda "prodded" this nitwit and sure enuff he fell inta the trap he did....So's I puts out a "Repel Boarders" which was responded to by our good mates "Lowly Knave, Sig94 and Hujonwi....

Now fine sar...Lowly Knave began a volley with this Britiot and immediately landed 2 good broadsides to his port side...and I managed to get a stern shot in me-self I did. The troll was scared off and seemingly left these waters...but lo...he returned agin...where-to-fore Sig94 and Hujonwi got in some more fine shots...and as spected...the troll ran fer the high seas.

Now Sar...this troll's tactics are to "hit and run"...I was just a visitin me buddy's site agin (its Monday at 1300 EST) and the troll has re-appeared...he likes to hit on the young Jewish lad that has the site when we ain't around to confront him with facts and honesty...

So's...just for some FYI...if'n any a ya good matey's who be a readin this hear notice...please stop by this site and engage this Liberal, self appointed "intellectual" Brit who's screen name is "GERT" and likes to pick on the little guys...Thanks Matey's and a good day t'ya all...Commodore Edward Teach (Cookie)...

Zarqawi Survived Blast For 52 Minutes

From MSNBC:

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Abu Musab al-Zarqawi lived for 52 minutes after a U.S. warplane bombed his hideout northeast of Baghdad, and he died of extensive internal injuries consistent with those caused by a bomb blast, the U.S. military said Monday.

One hopes that during those fifty-two minutes Zarqawi's Maker was giving him a perfect understanding of his actions, that Zarqawi realized he was experiencing a tiny portion of the suffering he so joyously handed out.

He added that no decision had been made on what to do with the remains of al-Zarqawi and his spiritual adviser, Sheik Abdul-Rahman, who also was killed instantly in Wednesday’s airstrike.

We welcome your suggestions.

Cross-posted at The Jawa Report.

Saving Soccer

Now, this will sound like blasphemy to my fellow NFL fans, but, having watched nearly five minutes of the World Cup soccer match between Sweden and Trinidad and Tobago...the world has a point. It makes much more sense to use the word "football" for "soccer" than it does to apply it to...American football. After all, the wimpiest NFL players are the ones who specialize in kicking the ball, and they are increasingly drawn from the ranks of soccer players - Europeans.

That said, soccer continues to prosper in America about as well as the metric system; that is to say, it has approximately the popularity of a fart in an elevator. What can be done? Must "futball" forever abandon the world's most profitable market and fanatical fan base?

No! A few simple changes should suffice to bring soccer up to at least the popularity of ice hockey.

First, the soccer field is simply too big. Americans like high-scoring games, not scoreless ties settled by a penalty kick. One big reason is the amount of real estate the soccer players have to cover just to have the chance to shoot one by the goalie. Reduce the size of the field by fifty percent. Tighten up the action. Then put a wall on the out-of-bounds lines so that the constant play stoppages no longer occur. And while you're at it, get rid of the nets on the goals and move the goals themselves at least ten yards out from the sidelines so that players can score from either side of the goal!

Next, give the players some manly-looking pads and helmets so they can stop prancing around like city dandies at a barn dance and start hitting each other! Watching some pansy being carried from the field clutching his poor, bruised shin doesn't have the drama of a full-on snapped lower leg, a lá Joe Thiessman.

Last, and perhaps most radical, allow each team to have one sniper behind the goal, armed with a paint gun. Anyone shot by the sniper sits out for two minutes (five minutes for a head shot), giving the other team a power play opportunity. This should help stop the boring forty minute waits between shots on goal, and enliven the whole game.

I feel confident that, should the World Cup adopt these modest proposals, the sport of soccer will experience a dramatic jump in popularity with Americans, and easily draw abreast of such spectacles as county fair tractor pulls, or even demolition derbies.

Cross-posted at The Jawa Report and Vince Aut Morire.

Sunday Funny

From the Dry Bones Blog.

Best...Movie...Line...Ever

There's always Hope for America.

Thanks to spazzmomma for sending me the link.

Bias Most Foul

Conservatives have long known that the so-called mainstream media have a liberal bias that has only recently been offset somewhat by the rise of talk radio and rightwing blogs.

Apparently, talking points were distributed in the past year or so instructing liberals to argue that, in fact, the MSM is completely objective, or that, if bias is present, it doesn't tilt to either left or right in the aggregate. It's all reminiscent of the Left's love affair with the monster Stalin, denying his true nature even as his score of murdered peasants surpassed even Hitler's grisly record of innocent victims.

Well, for you folks on the Left who see the American Press as the epitome of evenhandedness, you've got some 'splainin' to do. If perceptions of media bias are false, then it should be no challenge at all for the lefties to find their own examples of right-leaning bias. Specifically, find examples of equal or greater prominence that offset the following blatant examples of leftwing bias:

Dan Rather
Eason Jordan
Mark Halperin
Linda Foley

Statistically speaking, three examples indicate a trend; let's add a couple more. Where are the right-biased incidents that offset these:

Calling Florida for Gore in 2000 before the polls in the heavily Republican panhandle were closed.

Eight months of nightly Katrina coverage on NBC.

The MSM embargo on video from the al Qaeda terror attacks on September 11, 2001.

Cross-posted at The Jawa Report.

Pete Stark's Conspiracy Theory

From the Washington Times (emphasis added):

Some Democrats, breaking ranks from their leadership, today said the death of terrorist leader Abu Musab Zarqawi in Iraq was a stunt to divert attention from an unpopular and hopeless war.

"This is just to cover Bush's [rear] so he doesn't have to answer" for Iraqi civilians being killed by the U.S. military and his own sagging poll numbers, said Rep. Pete Stark, California Democrat. "Iraq is still a mess -- get out."

It's depressing to think that a sitting member of Congress could make such an imbecilic statement. Stark has managed to slander both the President and the military in one breath. Previously, Stark likened the use of smart bombs in Baghdad at the beginning of the war to "...an act of extreme terrorism."

Stark implies a breathtaking conspiracy that would necessarily involve hundreds of public servants and thousands of military personnel. How else would the President be able to control the the timing of Zarqawi's death? And, like Jack Murtha, Stark has chosen to ignore the principle of "innocent until proven guilty" regarding allegations of Marines killing Iraqi civilians. Yes, Congressman Stark, that principle applies even to the men and women serving in our country's armed forces.

These chicken-with-its-head-cut-off reactions by Stark and other politicians from the Left indicate that, despite attempts to minimize the news, they realize that the killing of Zarqawi is an extremely significant event.

Stark's behavior cries out for official censure, at a minimum. Certainly the mainstream media would agree, if Stark were a Republican.

Via Stop the ACLU.

CENTCOM Victory Lap

Statement of General George W. Casey, Jr., announcing the killing of al Qaeda in Iraq leader abu Mousab al-Zarqawi, from a CENTCOM press release:

“Ladies and Gentlemen, Coalition Forces killed al-Qaida terrorist leader Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi and one of his key lieutenants, spiritual advisor Sheik Abd-Al-Rahman, yesterday, June 7, at 6:15 p.m. in an air strike against an identified, isolated safe house.
“Tips and intelligence from Iraqi senior leaders from his network led forces to al-Zarqawi and some of his associates who were conducting a meeting approximately eight kilometers north of Baqubah when the air strike was launched.
“Iraqi police were first on the scene after the air strike, and elements of Multi-National Division North, arrived shortly thereafter. Coalition Forces were able to identify al-Zarqawi by fingerprint verification, facial recognition and known scars.
Al-Zarqawi and al-Qaida in Iraq have conducted terrorist activities against the Iraqi people for years in attempts to undermine the Iraqi national government and Coalition efforts to rebuild and stabilize Iraq. He is known to be responsible for the deaths of thousands of Iraqis. Al-Zarqawi’s death is a significant blow to al-Qaida and another step toward defeating terrorism in Iraq.
“Although the designated leader of al-Qaida in Iraq is now dead, the terrorist organization still poses a threat as its members will continue to try to terrorize the Iraqi people and destabilize their government as it moves toward stability and prosperity. Iraqi forces, supported by the Coalition, will continue to hunt terrorists that threaten the Iraqi people until terrorism is eradicated in Iraq.

Further details that have come out since yesterday: a child was not killed in the attack - three men and three women were killed. Zarqawi did survive the blasts, but American soldiers did not then shoot him dead, nor was he refused medical treatment, nor was he tortured for information.

MSM Mourns Loss of Ally in War on Bush

While the average American is celebrating news that al Qaeda in Iraq terrorist leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi is dead, mainstream press reaction to the news of Zarqawi's death has been panic. The story, too big to simply ignore, endangers the carefully constructed memes of Iraq as a Vietnam-like quaqmire and President Bush and Donald Rumsfeld as ineffective leaders in the War on Terror.

In response, major news outlets are desperately trying to portray Zarqawi's death as a minor development that will have little or no effect on fighting in Iraq and the greater struggle of the War on Terror. If Zarqawi's death does have an impact, the MSM predict, it will be to increase the resolve of the terrorist insurgency.

MSNBC seeks to minimize news of Zarqawi's death with an online poll designed to steer readers to conclusion that Zarqawi's death doesn't matter, because sectarian violence is the real problem.

ABC News runs a remarkably similar poll, and reaction from Zarqawi's brother, calling Zarqawi a martyr (the same spin al Qaeda is trying to get out via the internet).

In an interview with pacifist Michael Berg, whose son Nicholas was beheaded by Zarqawi in 2004, CNN warns that Zarqawi's death may ignite a "wave of revenge". CNN also elicits responses from Berg comparing the President to Saddam Hussein, and excusing al Qaeda's terrorist attacks on 9/11.

Laura Ingraham reported on her show that CBS' original headline about the killing of Zarqawi said that he had been "slain", a word normally reserved for the assassinations of heads of state and civil rights leaders. CBS has since changed their wording.

While Zarqawi's death will not end fighting in Iraq and does not signal the downfall of worldwide jihad, it is a very signicant victory in the struggle. The mainstream media reaction is shameful...and revealing.

Cross-posted at The Jawa Report.

Zarqawi Killed in Airstrike

From the Associated Press:

Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the most-wanted terrorist in Iraq who waged a bloody campaign of beheadings and suicide bombings, was killed when U.S. warplanes dropped 500-pound bombs on his isolated safehouse, officials said Thursday. His death was a long-sought victory in the war in Iraq.

Al-Zarqawi and several aides, including spiritual adviser Sheik Abdul Rahman, were killed Wednesday evening in a remote area 30 miles from Baghdad in the volatile province of Diyala, just east of the provincial capital of Baqouba, officials said.

Ding dong, a witch is dead.

The Fifth Sign of the Apocalypse

Vegan Dog Food
Allright, this time the hippies have gone too far! It's one thing for a human being to choose to subject himself to the grotesque and unnatural vegan regimen, but forcing man's best friend, a natural carnivore? Where's the ASPCA when you need them?


Fortunately, further investigation reveals that the vegan dogfood is meant as a supplement for dogs who are sick and eating non-allergenic meats.

Senate Democrats Reject Protection of Marriage Amendment

From MSNBC:

WASHINGTON - The Senate on Wednesday rejected a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage, dealing a defeat to President Bush and Republicans who hope to use the measure to energize conservative voters on Election Day.

7 Republicans and 41 Democrats voted against the amendment, which states that marriage shall consist of "one man and one woman", in other words, banning gay marriage and polygamy. Supporters needed 60 votes to pass the measure.

Here's the money quote, by Sen. David Vitter, (R-LA), a supporter of the amendment:

“Eventually, Congress is going to have to catch up to the wisdom of the American people or the American people will change Congress for the better.”

The same could be said of the illegal immigration debate. The President is on the wrong side of that one.

Protecting Marriage as an Institution

The monogamous, heterosexual marriage is a fundamental institution of Western and other civilizations that has evolved to both legitimize the fruits of procreation and provide the basic unit for the socialization of children. As an institution, monogamous, heterosexual marriage has endured for thousands of years, indicating that it is an effective, if imperfect method for the propagation of societal values.

The Constitutional amendment proposed by President Bush would stipulate that marriage in the United States will consist of one man/one woman unions. The amendment does not target homosexual marriages alone, but also would prohibit any form of polygamous arrangement, and any union with a non-human entity. The amendment recognizes the folly of altering or abolishing this basic institution without any proven alternatives, that allowing the institution of marriage to collapse would be akin to burning a bridge before crossing it.

Proponents of homosexual marriage say that gays are denied the financial benefits that many governments, including the United States, confer upon married couples. This is, in fact, the chief argument put forth to justify recognizing such unions. This argument assumes that married heterosexual couples reap these rewards as if they were a form of welfare. This is not the case.

Financial benefits to married people are vastly outweighed by the hundreds of thousands of dollars and thousands of hours spent on childcare. The purpose of marriage is, after all, to provide the basic environment for the raising of children. Heterosexual married couples bear the burden of assuring the continuation of society.

Though some oppose gay marriage on religious or moral grounds, the best case for protecting marriage in its current form is based on the simple concept that it is unwise to discard a tool for which you have no replacement. No one has proposed a realistic replacement for marriage.

Return to The Jawa Report

6 June, 1944 - D-Day

The largest invasion in human history still came down to small groups of men - ultimately to the individuals - making heroic choices that collectively marked a turning point in history. The liberation of France and western Europe exacted a monstrous toll of blood.

The American media of the day could have made the argument that the huge invasion, with its massive casualty list, was a concession to Stalin, who was demanding another front to relieve pressure on the Red Army, advancing on Germany from the east.

Many of the French had collaborated with their Nazi conquerors, even to the point of participating in a puppet government, Vichy France. French had even fought alongside the Nazis in North Africa, scuttling their Mediterranean fleet rather than letting it fall into Allied hands. What point in liberating such a people?

After all, the British wanted to simply continue the Italian campaign and come in through Hitler's back door, seeing the Normandy invasion as perhaps unnecessary.

But the investigative reports and editorials went unwritten and the war was won.

June 6th, 1944

Forget the "Omen" crap. June 6th, no matter what year, will always be a special day.

Soldiers, sailors, and airmen of the Allied Expeditionary Force! You are about to embark upon the great crusade toward which we have striven these many months. The eyes of the world are upon you. The hopes and prayers of liberty-loving people everywhere march with you." - Gen. Eisenhower's Order of the Day

D-Day Casualties:

British: 3000

Canadian: 946

U.S.: 6,603

114 Allied planes

German: c.6,500

(figures above taken from Chronology of WWII: The Day By Day Record 1939-1945)

"Casualties" meaning a total of dead, wounded, and/or missing/captured. A good breakdown is here.

June 6th, 1944, has so many lessons to be taught. So many perspectives which are at odds with the perspectives about the war we're fighting now.

Sheehan: Screw the Troops Who Don't Vote My Way

Just when it seemed that Cindy Sheehan's sanity had reached its nadir as it circled the toilet bowl, Cindy has latched onto the Haditha investigation to tell her followers that they should not support any troops who don't vote for cut-and-run candidates.

Dan at Move On and Shut Up has the revolting story, as carried by propagandist and land whale Michael Moore.

Canadian Dhimmi

Jeff Goldstein at protein wisdom has ably fisked quivering Canadian surrender monkey Eric Margolis's latest apologia for Islamist terrorism.

Regarding the recent arrest of 17 would-be homegrown Canadian terrorists, Margolis turns logic on its head to blame Canadian foreign policy (and, by extension, President Bush) for provoking these innocent young Muslims into contemplating monstrous acts.

Goldstein sets him straight. Read the Whole thing.

Via The Jawa Report.

Global Warming: Is Debate Possible?

David Harsanyi of the Denver Post is one of the few media voices challenging the push to accept the theory of Global Warming as doctrine:

The only inconvenient truth about global warming, contends Colorado State University's Bill Gray, is that a genuine debate has never actually taken place. Hundreds of scientists, many of them prominent in the field, agree.

Gray is perhaps the world's foremost hurricane expert. His Tropical Storm Forecast sets the standard. Yet, his criticism of the global warming "hoax" makes him an outcast.

Harsanyi also notes this story from the mid-70s:

"Climatologists," reads the piece, "are pessimistic that political leaders will take any positive action to compensate for the climatic change. ... The longer the planners delay, the more difficult will they find it to cope with climatic change once the results become grim reality."

At this time activists were fretting over whether or not the government would take action in time to avert imminent global climate change in the form of a new ice age.

The real question is whether or not theories of global warming have become so entrenched and politically charged that meaningful discussion is no longer possible. Global warming enthusiasts, most notably Al Gore, seem to be approaching the subject with something akin to religious fervor.

What is an Islamist?

What are their goals and what means are they using to attain them?

Go here to read what a Muslim has to say.

Newspaper Encourages Readers to Phone Conservative Letter Writer

Apparently stung by recent criticism citing a lack of balance in the selection of letters to the editor, the Syracuse Post-Standard in its Sunday edition suggested that readers telephone the conservative reader who raised the issue.

From the Editor's note (emphasis added):

A close reading of last Sunday's Feedback response would make clear that Richard Lindsay has earned his record as "most prolific" from the number of letters he writes, not the number published. Just because we say it, does that make it true? Here's more specific information: Lindsay sent us four letters dated May 26; two more dated May 27; two dated May 28; two dated May 29. And so on. Still don't believe us? Why not give him a call?

While the paper stops short of providing Lindsay's telephone number, the suggestion to call him implies that Lindsay does not have an unlisted number, and, in fact, there are two Richard Lindsays listed in the Syracuse phone book.

Apart from the accusations of editorial bias in the selection of letters (members of the Syracuse Peace Council do seem to be pretty successful at getting their visceral hatred of the President published), why Lindsay, a conservative who often disagrees with the Post-Standard's left-leaning editorial policies, is singled out for criticism for being "prolific" is a mystery. Apparently, prolific liberal letter writers are concerned citizens, while prolific conservative letter writers are cranks.

In any case, for a daily newspaper to encourage its readers to harass a man for stating his opinions is irresponsible and outrageous, and seems more driven by pique than reasoned counter-argument.

Cross-posted at The Jawa Report.

Sunday Funny

From the Dry Bones Blog, and originally published in 1993.

17 Arrested in Canada With 3 Tons of Ammonium Nitrate

From MSNBC:

TORONTO - A group of Canadian residents arrested in coordinated raids across the Toronto area for “terrorism-related offenses” had planned to blow up targets around southern Ontario, Canadian police said on Saturday.

Those arrested were said to belong to an "al Qaida-inspired" group, upset about the treatment of Muslims worldwide.

The Toronto Star has detailed written and photographic coverage. The suspected terrorists were in their teens and twenties, from Mississaugua, Kingston, and Toronto. They were in possession of three times the material used in the Oklahoma City bombing.

Interested Participant has posted the names of twelve of the accused conspirators. The others are juveniles whose names have not been released.

What Just Happened Here?

Apparently the 'C' is for Censorship
Of course one is doomed to disappointment if one expects journalism from shows like CBS The Early Show, but this was really raw. Fluff jockey Tracey Smith was doing an interview with author James Bowman and an Army Reserve Captain regarding the alleged killing of civilians by Marines in Haditha.

Smith read a section of the Marines' Code of Conduct:

ARTICLE VI:
I will never forget that I am an American, fighting for freedom, responsible for my actions, and dedicated to the principles which made my country free. I will trust in my God and in the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

Smith then asked the Captain, who was in the studio with her, how that sat with the alleged incident at Haditha; essentially an unaswerable question, the sort of crap "interview" that Katie Couric was infamous for on rival NBC.

Next, Smith turned her attention to Bowman, who was not in the studio, and asked if he thought it was good for the incident to be aired in public. Bowman said "no", then described the incident as a "clash of cultures", apparently leading into a comparison of Iraqi and American mores.

But Bowman threw Smith and CBS a curve. The "cultures" to which he was referring were the military and the news business. Now the interview was getting interesting.

Bowman was able to make the point that today's journalism depends on "revelations" and is invested in those revelations being true. Then Smith cut him off saying that they were out of time. Bowman disappeared and a visibly angry Smith glowered into the camera and announced a commercial break.

After a word from the CBS sponsors, it was back to token doofus white man Ira Joe Fisher and a discussion of clam chowder. So much for Saturday morning journalism.

Shades of Neville Chamberlain

In an essay for Time, Peter Reinart, enfant terrible of the "new" Left, argues that the proper response to Islamist terrorism is no response other than the "containment" the US used during the Cold War. Beinart would use the example of Iraq to encourage containment of Iran. The trouble is, containment assumes a halfway rational foe. JFK could threaten the USSR with nuclear annihilation and be taken seriously; the mad mullahs of Iran know that Allah will protect them from such a circumstance, and in fact, superstitious dread among the American populace makes even a tactical nuclear deterrent unbelievable.

Besides assuming facts not in evidence - that Saddam was an impotent tyrant who would have fallen eventually under the weight of sanctions without military intervention, that he possessed nothing with which to threaten the West - Beinart ignores inconvenient facts.

He doesn't mention French and Russian perfidy in the Oil-For Food Program, doesn't even acknowledge that decades of hands-off diplomacy in the Middle East served only to entrench and further radicalize anti-Western regimes; regimes that controlled oil resources vital to the survival of Western civilization. The Soviet Union and its natural resources could have disappeared overnight and barely registered a blip on the American and European economies.

Beinart also errs in comparing a nineteenth century atheist ideology to the fervor of a primitivist, and rapidly growing, major religion.

Most significant of all, Beinart does not mention 9/11, an attack most certainly endorsed and cheered by Saddam Hussein and his ilk, if not actively supported. It is 9/11 that should inform Beinart that he is pursuing the wrong paradigm: we face another World War II, not a repeat of the Cold War.

Of course Beinart's claim to fame is a book whose premise is that only liberals can fight terror, proof enough of delusional thought patterns.

Cross-posted at The Jawa Report.

ACLU Demands Perverts Get Sporting Chance at Kids

Stop the ACLU reports on the latest ACLU pro-pedophile lawsuit, this one aimed at an Indianapolis city ordinance that requires convicted sex offenders to stay at least 1,000 feet from facilities like playgrounds and swimming pools when children are present.

The ACLU claims that the new law could prevent convicted sex offenders from attending church or going to work, but kiddy molesters are allowed to approach closer if accompanied by a non-molesting adult.

Cross-posted at The Jawa Report and Vince Aut Morire.

Ten Terrorist Suspects Captured

From a CENTCOM press release:

BAGHDAD – While conducting multiple assaults along Southern Lake Thar Thar May 23, Coalition Forces captured 10 suspected terrorists and destroyed two vehicles and one tent that was used as a terrorist safe house.

The troops also found ammunition and electronic equipment used for making improvised explosive devices at the terrorist camps.

Also:

BAGHDAD – Soldiers from Multi-National Division – Baghdad’s Troop A, 7th Squadron, 10th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, discovered a large weapons cache and ammunition aboard a wheat dump truck northwest of Baghdad May 30 at approximately 6 p.m.

Soldiers had stopped the truck May 9 and discovered seven fuses, 15 mortar tips and wire commonly used in roadside bombs.

However, it wasn’t until May 30, while the unit was looking for additional evidence, that they found the weapons hidden under bags of wheat in the bed of the truck.

Also:

BAGRAM AIR FIELD , Afghanistan – Coalition forces confiscated a sizeable weapons cache May 26 while conducting a combat patrol in the Spin Boldak District of Kandahar Province.

The patrol discovered 1,000 .50-caliber rounds, more than 100 mortar rounds, 100 RPG rounds and more than 20 fuses. An explosive ordnance disposal team was called to handle the disposition of the weapons.

Also:

BAGRAM AIRFIELD, Afghanistan – Two men suspected of involvement with improvised explosive devices were captured by Coalition forces May 31 in Sharan District in Paktika Province.

Soldiers from 2nd Battalion, 87th Infantry stopped two suspicious men near an Afghan National Police station and found land mines and timing devices in their possession. The two men were turned over to Afghan Police for questioning.

Also:

BAGHDAD, Iraq – A key insurgent leader in Iraq, Sheikh Ahmed Hussein Dabash Samir al- Batawi, aka Ahmed al-Dabash, was captured on May 29, by Iraqi and Coalition Forces in the Ameriya neighborhood in the Mansour district of Baghdad.

Sheikh Ahmed al-Dabash was a major financier and facilitator of terrorism in Iraq, most notably the bomb attack in the Shiite holy city of Karbala on March 2, 2004. Several pre-set explosives were detonated near one of the most important Shiite Shrines in Iraq – the Golden Dome Mosque. Over 140 Iraqis were murdered and hundreds wounded in the attack that occurred during the Shiite observance of Ashoura, a time when thousands of pilgrims gathered in Karbala. It is believed that al-Dabash was also responsible for the attack on the Shiite al-Tawhid Mosque in Baghdad and for facilitating other terror attacks around Baghdad.

I'm reprinting these stories on the off chance that our loyal, unbiased, non-partisan mainstream media completely ignore them.

Also, fighting to see that the Haditha Marines are convicted without the necessity of a trial is placing a tremendous burden on our loyal brothers and sisters in the mainstream media. That's probably why they don't have the resources to report these stories from the War on Terror. Well, that and Brad and Angelina's baby.