An Old War Dogs Satellite Site


Friday, 31 August 2007
 

2007.08.31 Politics and National Defense Roundup

Just Read the Headline; Don't Ask Any Questions
John Hinderaker

When Marines were accused of committing atrocities at Haditha, Mad Jack Murtha and many others rushed to convict them. We have followed the story as those accusations have fallen apart, and one Marine after another has been exonerated. Now, at least two of the cleared Marines have either sued, or stated their intention to sue, Mad Jack for defamation.

The mainstream media don't seem to have noticed that the Haditha prosecutions have crumbled. Hence, headlines like this one, by AFP: ...

See also: Was a Crime Committed in Haditha?

Below the fold:

  • Breaking: Goose Creek indictments
  • Fugitive Democratic Fundraiser Norman Hsu Turns Self in to Police

Quick hits:

Breaking: Goose Creek indictments
Michelle Malkin

Creek case asking for DNA and hair samples from one of the suspects. Now, the mystery unclouds further. Via AP breaking news: (Hat tip-reader William A.)

Two University of South Florida men indicted on charges of carrying explosives across state lines; one indicted on terror charges.

Stand by for more…

See also: Goose Creek Terrorism Indictments

Fugitive Democratic Fundraiser Norman Hsu Turns Self in to Police

REDWOOD CITY, Calif. —  A top Democratic fundraiser wanted as a fugitive in California turned himself in Friday to face a grand theft charge.

San Mateo County Superior Court Judge H. James Ellis ordered Norman Hsu handcuffed and held on $2 million bond. A bail hearing was scheduled for Sept. 5, at which the judge will consider reducing his bail to $1 million. ...

See also:

Contributed by Bill Faith on August 31, 2007 at 01:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Our new lake

This may make more sense if you read this post first.

Well, we survived August (my 9/1 check came today due to the weekend) but only by deliberately taking advantage of the overdraft protection on my bank account, which means we're starting September off with less than we would have. There's at least hope for September. So far my sister's part time job is working out OK, one of my nephew's friends wants to buy his old beater the transmission went out of several months back (All he wants is the engine but he'll get the whole car out of our way), and I got a BlogAd order a few days ago that puts me over the $75.00 minimum amount BlogAds will bother with transferring to my PayPal account (on 9/15).  We're still a long way from rolling in dough but at least things look a little brighter than they have for a while.

Things are still up in the air concerning the horse boarding deal but I'm optimistic. My daughter and her family will be here over the weekend and I'm not above brainwashing my grandson to tell my ex "I think Sunshine should go live with Grandpa and Aunt Vicki." There's not a huge amount of money involved but we'll be getting the first year up front at a time we can really use it.

Click the image to enlarge it.

It finally cooled down enough that I could get out this morning to see what's going on in that field behind us. I took the above picture from about three feet inside our property line. The fence attached to that big post on the left is the boundary between "the garden" and "the barn lot." That squashed-down fence running left to right was similar to it till the people working in that field screwed it up taking out trees that weren't hurting a damned thing where they were. They're either going to have to fix it for us or, if/since we're going to have to have some other fence built if we bring horses in here, pay us for the damage and let us see to the repairs.

If you look close at the enlarged view of the above image you can see a truck sitting in a hole several feet down from that big backhoe. The grapevine has it that's the beginning of a nine acre lake, complete with fish and maybe a duck now and then. The hole obviously doesn't cover anything close to nine acres yet but I won't hazard any guesses as to where the edges will eventually be. I guess I'd rather it grow towards us than to have room for a business of some sort between it and our place.

Contributed by Bill Faith on August 31, 2007 at 12:58 PM in Around our place | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Weekend Open Post

Click here for a handy "most recently updated posts at the top" listing of the posts on this page. Click here to see a similar listing for the Old War Dogs site. 

So here's the deal, folks: I was up way late last night finishing Lone Survivor, I have payday errands to run later today, and my daughter and her family are coming up for Labor Day weekend. I probably won't take the weekend completely off but my threshold for what's worth mentioning is going to be a lot higher than normal for a while.

Please feel free to use this post for comments and trackbacks not related to other posts on the site. If you leave a trackback your post must include a link to this one and, as always, comments claiming the sun will rise in the west tomorrow, Chimpy McHitlerburton lied, etc. will be deleted without ever appearing on the site.

Contributed by Bill Faith on August 31, 2007 at 11:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack


Thursday, 30 August 2007
 

2007.08.30 Politics and National Defense Roundup

Marine to sue Murtha over irresponsible Haditha accusations
Bryan Preston

Remember this? [video link]

Well, the Marine Corps investigator has now dropped all charges against 3 of the 8 accused Marines in the case, and only one Marine still stands accused of crimes at the scene. The others are charged with various after-the-fact issues that arose from investigations of Haditha, not the events themselves. Murtha’s aim, of course, in accusing the Marines of murder “in cold blood” was to pin the blame on Bush. But in the process of blaming Bush, he slandered those Marines.

One of those Marines, Col. Jeffrey Chessani, plans to sue Murtha once he’s exonerated.

Brian Rooney, one of the attorneys at Michigan’s Thomas More Law Center representing Lt. Col. Jeffrey Chessani and a former Marine captain himself told NewsMax.com that his client, who is alleged to have failed to fully investigate the killing of 24 Iraqis in Haditha November, 2005 and not reporting an alleged Law of War violation, may follow the example of another Haditha Marine, SSgt. Frank Wuterich who is suing Murtha for libel. ...

See also: NYT’s Hasn’t Heard Of Innocent ‘Til Proven Guilty

Michael Yon's latest, Ghosts of Anbar, Part III of IV, is up. Don't miss it.

Today's other must read: Mark Moyar's Getting Vietnam Right

Below the fold:

  • Fred's in, Formal Announcement Late Next Week
  • Ferry plots and Filipino Muslim converts
  • Mystery at Goose Creek update: Federal grand jury investigates

An Important Announcement from Friends of Fred Thompson
(from an email I received a few minutes ago)

On September 6, 2007, Fred Thompson will be announcing his intention to run for President of the United States with a webcast available to millions at www.imwithfred.com. The launch of the video will be followed by a five-day campaign tour through Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina. On the evening of the 6th, there will also be a National House Party, during which there will be a conference call with Fred.

We enter this campaign in a strong position. Fred is consistently near the top in the polls, and conservatives across the country have put together the closest thing to a draft in recent presidential campaign history in an effort to bring about this day. The next few weeks will only serve to build upon those efforts, with house parties, visits to the early primary states, and a homecoming in Lawrenceburg, TN on the 15th. To view the dates and locations of Fred's bus tour, please click here, and check back soon for more information on attending one of these events.

By announcing via webcast, Fred is able to take his consistently mainstream conservative message directly to the voters, who are already responding to that message with a strong upwelling of grassroots support. The webcast and the following campaign tour will play to Fred’s strengths, a consistent record of conservatism, his ability to clearly spread his message, and his ability to work with and connect with Americans from all walks of life. Be apart of this historic occasion by signing up to host or attend a house party today.

Sincerely,

Bill Lacy
Manager, Friends of Fred Thompson, Inc.

Some links I'd posted earlier in the day:

Quick hits:

Ferry plots and Filipino Muslim converts
Michelle Malkin

The FBI is still sifting through hundreds of tips on the two suspicious men in Seattle whom ferry employees witnessed photographing restricted areas and pacing several ferry routes, “as if trying to measure distances,” over the past several weeks.

I have learned that these men have been the subject of much investigative energy within homeland security bureaucracies for quite some time. Indeed, one source told me that until the FBI released the photos of the men, the snapshots had been handled as classified material. ...

Mystery at Goose Creek update: Federal grand jury investigates
Michelle Malkin (H/T: Dan Riehl)

Remember the accused pipe bomb boys arrested on the road to Goose Creek Naval Weapons Station in South Carolina? Here’s a new update. The Tampa Tribune reports today that a federal grand jury investigating the case has asked for DNA and hair samples from one of the suspects: ...

Contributed by Bill Faith on August 30, 2007 at 02:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

A Quick Index To Today's Posts, Quick Hits, Open Post

Click here for a handy "most recently updated posts at the top" listing of the posts on this page. Click here to see a similar listing for the Old War Dogs site.

Please feel free to use this post for comments and trackbacks not related to other posts on the site. If you leave a trackback your post must include a link to this one and, as always, comments claiming the sun will rise in the west tomorrow, Chimpy McHitlerburton lied, etc. will be deleted without ever appearing on the site.

Contributed by Bill Faith on August 30, 2007 at 02:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack


Wednesday, 29 August 2007
 

A Quick Index To Today's Posts, Quick Hits, Open Post

Click here for a handy "most recently updated posts at the top" listing of the posts on this page. Click here to see a similar listing for the Old War Dogs site.

Quick links to some things farther down the page:

Please feel free to use this post for comments and trackbacks not related to other posts on the site. If you leave a trackback your post must include a link to this one and, as always, comments claiming the sun will rise in the west tomorrow, Chimpy McHitlerburton lied, etc. will be deleted without ever appearing on the site.

Contributed by Bill Faith on August 29, 2007 at 11:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

2007.08.29 Politics and National Defense Roundup

Answering ANSWER
Michelle Malkin

The dog days of August have drawn to a close. This is the calm before the gathering political storm. On September 15, the far Left group ANSWER (”Act Now to Stop war and End Racism”) will descend on the nation’s capital to demand what they’ve been demanding for the last six years in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks: immediate withdrawal from Iraq and Afghanistan, immediate closure of the Guatanamo Bay detention facility and immediate release of every last suspected al Qaeda operative in American custody, immediate impeachment of President Bush and Vice President Cheney, and immediate capitulation to our enemies at home and abroad.

Who will be there to counter the Jane Fonda retreads? Will you? ...

Today's other must-reads:

Below the fold:

  • Reaper ready to deploy next month
  • Iraqi Cleric Muqtada al-Sadr Suspends Mahdi Army Activities
  • More On The Seattle Ferry Story
  • Clinton Fundraiser Is A Wanted Swindler

Sadr Backs Down

Moqtada al-Sadr, who has tread lightly on Iraq's stage for the past several months, announced today that his Mahdi Army will undergo rehabilitation. It will take the next six months to reorganize itself, and in the meantime will conduct no offensive operations in Iraq, including actions against American forces: ...

The final straw appears to have been a fight in Karbala that left 52 dead during a Shi'ite pilgrimage. Authorities had prepared for attacks by Sunni terrorists, but instead the big clash came from the Shi'ites, instigated from Sadr's goon squads. The reference to safeguarding its "ideological image" undoubtedly comes from the mind-bogglingly stupid decision to attack the Badr factions during a pilgrimage in one of Shi'a Islam's most holy cities -- exactly the kind of dumb political thinking that has become emblematic of Sadr himself.

A six-month vacation from Sadr will be exactly what the Iraqi government needs to keep the momentum towards reform. ...

See also:

Quick hits:

Contributed by Bill Faith on August 29, 2007 at 10:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

The light at the end of the tunnel's flickering,
...and my head's spinning even faster (Updated and bumped)

This will probably make more sense if you read this post first, and maybe follow the links in it to some of my earlier posts.

I'm posting the part of this I have now, then I'll add to it as I'm able. Help may or may not be on the way but it's pretty clear at this point that we aren't going to make it through the week without some help. I'll try to explain what's going on better sometime soon but it the mean time if you can afford to click that PayPal button on the sidebar please, please, do.

First, some pics you can skip by if you want to. At least I had sense enough to just post thumbnails this time; click 'em to see 'em bigger if you're interested.

Click any image for a larger view.

I've posted that first image a couple of times before but maybe some of you haven't seen it yet. It's a satellite shot of this area from not too long before they decided we needed a bigger Wal-Mart. The triangular property with the red X on it is our (more precisely, Mom's; it'll be my sister's eventually if we don't sell part of it) place. The large building just right of center near the top is a Wal-Mart that's been there about 15 years. The new Super Wal-Mart's going to be somewhere in that field behind it, with access from James St.

That next shot gives you an idea what our back property line (the long side of a right triangle) looked like before things started changing. The northeast corner of our place is about a fourth of the way over from the left in the picture; to the left of that is our north property line, part of the neighbor's back yard, and farther away part of the existing Wal-Mart.

In that third shot you can see what they did to the southwest end of that fencerow. The trees weren't ours but the fence was and if we don't end up selling part of that back field they're going to have to fix it.

I took the fourth shot from right next to that tree in the middle of the third one. Just to the left of that big backhoe you can see the beginning of what we've heard will be about a nine acre lake, a lot closer to our place than I'd have preferred. I liked that area a lot better as a cornfield like it was for at least the last 50 years.

*** Update and bump. Original timestamp 2007.08.28.00:09 ***

It doesn't look like Mom's going to be selling part of the place to my brother after all. Apparently it came as a big shock to him (although I'm pretty sure he was told several years ago about the same time I was) that Mom's will leaves the place to my sister. I don't know what he thinks he's done to deserve part of it. I'm told that even when I was living in Texas I made it by here about as often than he did, and I know for a fact he hasn't been the least bit helpful with the financial problems we've been having since my sister lost her job and didn't look for a new one because Mom needed someone here to help take care of her. (With my hearing and health problems I'm not qualified for the task.) As far as I'm concerned if Vicki hadn't been here to take care of Mom we'd have had to sell the place and put Mom in a nursing home by now, and if Mom wants to leave the place to her she has my blessing.

It's also looking pretty certain at this point we won't be selling any land to the contractor/developer who bought that field behind us. He still wants it, but at a price nowhere close to what it originally sounded like he'd be willing to pay, and what he's offering just isn't worth worrying about what would eventually come of what we sell him. If the guy who owns that field in front of us had been willing to sell it we would have ended up with a road across that field and our east field to whatever ends up in that field behind us. Since the field in front of us isn't for sale, if we sell that east field we're liable to end up with a business of some sort 50 feet from the house in a few years. I guess for now we're going to keep the place intact and if someone offers enough for part of it in  a few years reconsider the situation then.

On the "maybe we might make it after all" side, my sister started a new part time job Saturday night, something I have very mixed emotions about. She's going back to work, at least temporarily, at the gas station/convenience store where she worked years back and left when McDonald's offered her more hours and better wages (due to her having worked for Druther's, a McD's wannabe, right out of high school.) When she lost her job at McDonald's it first looked like she was going to be watching her two youngest grandkids while their mother worked so she'd have some income and still be here with Mom. When that fell through, as things involving said daughter invariably do, we decided to see if we could make it without her income, which it's become painfully clear recently we can't. After training she's supposedly only going to work evenings, when there will be someone else besides me here in case Mom needs help -- basically counting on my 10 year old nephew to be my ears. Since her son has been working at the same place for the last few months it sounds like management would be OK with him covering for her if something comes up and she needs a night off on short notice. Supposedly she's just working there temporarily while one of the regular employees is on maternity leave, but there's no knowing whether the other employee will actually come back and even if she does it sounds like management will still want Vickie to work a night or two a week to keep her on the payroll so she can fill in when someone's sick, etc. It's not a good situation but maybe it's a way to hang on without help till the Social Security people quit stalling and I get what I should be getting from them.

To help out a little more, it sounds like we may go into the horse boarding business on a small scale. I've never really been much of a horse person but there have been horses here off and on in the past. Dad bought Dixie for my brother in the mid 60's, then bought Ginger for my sister a few years later. My memory's not what it used to be but I know that somehow my ex-wife ended up buying Ginger some time in the late '80s and still has three of her colts in a pasture on what used to be her (my ex's) granddad's place about 15 miles from here. The youngest of the three (who I think they've told my grandson is his, the middle one being my daughter's) is in the process of going blind and needs to be in a smaller, flatter, more open pasture than he's been in till the last few days. Some friends of my ex's (horse people to the core) have him at their place temporarily but don't have room to keep him long term. It's not a sure thing yet but it sounds like my ex may put up the money to put a fence across the north side of our east field --  I can't for the life of me remember when or why the one that used to be there went away -- and bring him here. She's not offering huge amounts of money for watching him but she has offered the first year up front, and we'd much rather have one of Ginger's colts in that field than whatever might end up there if we sell it. The next step in the decision making process is for my daughter, who was already planning to come up for Labor Day weekend, to go by and see the horse in question while she's here and report back to her mother on his condition. Obviously we'll work on my grandson while he's here to "Go home and tell Grandma you think Sunshine should come and live with us." I hope we're not getting set up for another disappointment; my sister's already getting excited about having a horse around here again, and if we can make a little money for keeping one so much the better.

Contributed by Bill Faith on August 29, 2007 at 12:33 AM in Around our place | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack


Tuesday, 28 August 2007
 

A Quick Index To Today's Posts, Quick Hits, Open Post

Click here for a handy "most recently updated posts at the top" listing of the posts on this page. Click here to see a similar listing for the Old War Dogs site.

Folks, I don't know what's going on lately. I slept 8 hours last night, got up for two and a half hours, then went back to bed for another three and a half. I feel like I could go back to bed again right now (about 6P) if I didn't know the potassium pills I just took would upset my stomach if I did. I have an appointment in Evansville a week from tomorrow to have my blood gasses and potassium level checked; I may come home with instructions to start taking more potassium. In the mean time I'll just keep plodding on as best I can; sorry I'm not more energetic.

Quick links to some things farther down the page: 

Please feel free to use this post for comments and trackbacks not related to other posts on the site. If you leave a trackback your post must include a link to this one and, as always, comments claiming the sun will rise in the west tomorrow, Chimpy McHitlerburton lied, etc. will be deleted without ever appearing on the site.

Contributed by Bill Faith on August 28, 2007 at 11:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

2007.08.28 Politics and National Security Roundup

Quick hits:

Graham Returns From Reserve Tour Supporting The Surge
Ed Morrissey: Lindsey Graham has returned from his Air Force reserve posting in Iraq to support the continuation of the surge. The South Carolina Senator, who has not been supportive of past military strategies in Iraq, claims that the US has seized on a historic opportunity almost by accident, as al-Qaeda has discredited themselves and prompted Iraqi tribes to work together: ...

  • The Left bashes Brian Baird
    Michelle Malkin: I highlighted Democrat Rep. Brian Baird’s op-ed last week in the Seattle Times arguing against precipitous withdrawal from Iraq after he returned from a trip there on the ground. The nutroots continue to be incensed with Baird’s conclusions. ...

Contributed by Bill Faith on August 28, 2007 at 12:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack


Monday, 27 August 2007
 

Tears Of Ink

Email from frequent Old War Dogs contributor Roberto Prinselaar (USN 1948-1957, USCG 1967-1989). I added the Amazon link.:

xxxx
xxx

xxx
xxxx

Bill,

My new book “Tears Of Ink” has been published, and is available at www.amazon.com. The book is a compilation of all of my military poems plus some writings. One of the counselors at the Vet Center in Las Vegas urged me to publish, and my wife assisted in getting everything ready for the publisher. I can’t take any of the profits from the sale of the book because I firmly believe that my being able to write what I did was a gift from God, so I’m donating all of the profits to our local chapter #961 of the Viet Nam Veterans of America. They just got started and need help.

Bob Prinselaar

Seriously, folks, this is one you really need a copy of. Check out Bob's Old War Dogs contributions here and his IWVPA page here.

Tears of Ink
Bob Prinselaar

My tears of ink flow down my pen
A torrent of what’s inside of me
My feelings in a tale
The words all come from deep within
Old memories just come tumbling out
As I pull aside the veil
Some memories darker than the ink
And I fight to keep them down
My hand grips hard the pen
Why am I cursed with all my thoughts
Of things that happened long ago
And of men I knew back then
So now I write to ease the pain
And I cry inside to form the ink
And let it flow to write
But ink will never be the same
And I will never find my peace
Till real tears blur my sight

Contributed by Bill Faith on August 27, 2007 at 11:59 PM in Bob Prinselaar, Books, Poetry | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

A Quick Index To Today's Posts, Quick Hits, Open Post

Click here for a handy "most recently updated posts at the top" listing of the posts on this page. Click here to see a similar listing for the Old War Dogs site.

Getting off to a real late start again. I might as well just admit in advance I'm headed for a real slow week. I'm totally exhausted, which I'm beginning to think may be my new "normal" state, and still nerved up big time about money problems and what we're going to end up doing about selling part of our place -- more on that when I'm up to it. Getting as rested up as I can before my daughter and her family are in town for Labor Day weekend is also going to have priority over my blogging all week. I'm not quitting, just not getting much done.

Quick links to some things farther down the page: 

Please feel free to use this post for comments and trackbacks not related to other posts on the site. If you leave a trackback your post must include a link to this one and, as always, comments claiming the sun will rise in the west tomorrow, Chimpy McHitlerburton lied, etc. will be deleted without ever appearing on the site.

Contributed by Bill Faith on August 27, 2007 at 11:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

2007.08.27 Politics and National Security Roundup

Today's must-read:

Rule of the Harvest
J. D. Pendry

Or maybe it is rather the seeds of our demise. As a nation, we’ve sown ours over the years.

I think our first seed was in Korea. That’s where we first decided that a cease fire is as good as total victory. We hold up South Korea as a great democratic and economic success. It is that no question about it, but everyday its Soldiers and ours peer across the world’s most fortified and defended border at an enemy still holding onto the goal of reuniting the peninsula under communist rule. That is where we demonstrated our ability to win military battles and lose political ones. The Chinese and Soviet proxy of North Korea never gained anything for its war effort, but in the end it never lost anything either. ...

Read the whole thing.

Quick hits:

Contributed by Bill Faith on August 27, 2007 at 01:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack


Sunday, 26 August 2007
 

A Quick Index To Today's Posts, Quick Hits, Open Post

Click here for a handy "most recently updated posts at the top" listing of the posts on this page. Click here to see a similar listing for the Old War Dogs site. 

Quick links to some things farther down the page:

Please feel free to use this post for comments and trackbacks not related to other posts on the site. If you leave a trackback your post must include a link to this one and, as always, comments claiming the sun will rise in the west tomorrow, Chimpy McHitlerburton lied, etc. will be deleted without ever appearing on the site.

Contributed by Bill Faith on August 26, 2007 at 11:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

2007.08.26 Politics and National Defense Roundup

Burning Another Beauchamp
Confederate Yankee

If we're to make any sort of sense of the Iraq War at all, we need to know that those who are providing us information on the conflict are being as honest in their reporting as inherent human biases allow. As it has often been said, we can allow people to have their own opinions, but not their own facts. On that point, I think we can all agree.

Because of this shared desire for facts, those dissemblers who falsify accounts and events in that conflict should be brought to light and discredited so that the can no longer easily spread lies.

Friday, Harper's Scott Horton blasted one reporter for lying, and for being part of a group creating "pure fabrications" when it came to war reporting: ....

Read the whole thing, then don't miss Bookworm's excellent related post here.

Counter-protesting the surrender crowd
Michelle Malkin

Two weeks ago, I called your attention to several major pro-troops, anti-surrender campaigns that will converge this September in Washington DC. The ANSWER crowd must be answered. If you can’t be there in person, please make sure to check out all the links and support the organizations I’ve linked to any other way you can. See also: The Victory Caucus website.

Here is some inspiration to get you moving: ...

Below the fold:

  • Martin Lewis Invites the FBI to Tea
  • The Sobriety Of Fred Thompson

Quick hits:

  • Sanctuary or sovereignty: Where does your AG stand?
    Michelle Malkin:  Earlier this week, in the wake of NJ attorney general Anne Milgram’s decision to order law enforcement to notify the feds of illegal alien criminal suspects, I posted the contact information for the nation’s state attorney generals. Where does your stand? A number of readers are starting to report back on their contacts with their AG offices. ...

Martin Lewis Invites the FBI to Tea
Baldilocks

Have you ever had this type of "conversation" with a person? Said person makes nonsensical suggestions based on topical ignorance and when you try to clue the person in, he/she tells you not to interrupt. The person then proceeds to come to conclusions and/or make further recommendations based on the original faulty premises.

Though a blog post is by its nature not a conversation, Huffington Post's Martin Lewis puts up a post that reminds me of above-mentioned type of "exchange." ...

***

The Sobriety Of Fred
Ed Morrissey

The Politico reports on Fred Thompson's latest speech in Indianapolis, and concludes that the soon-to-be candidate may have decided on a theme of even straighter talk than his friend, John McCain. The Midwestern Republican Leadership Conference got a sobering look at the challenges facing the nation from the former Senator, a surprising change from the normal upbeat presentations that other candidates normally give. Fred has a prescription for what ails America, too:

Fred Thompson thinks the country faces a tough road ahead and he's not glossing over the problems we face. In fact, he's anxious to outline the daunting litany and appears to be basing his forthcoming campaign on the assumption that his party shares the same outlook.  ...

See also:

Contributed by Bill Faith on August 26, 2007 at 02:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack


Saturday, 25 August 2007
 

A Quick Index To Today's Posts, Quick Hits, Open Post

Click here for a handy "most recently updated posts at the top" listing of the posts on this page. Click here to see a similar listing for the Old War Dogs site. 

Don't expect too much out of me the next couple of days. Nobody reads blogs on weekends anyway and it's supposed to be cool enough this weekend I can catch up on my sleep a little and try to be well rested for a big Monday.

Quick links to some things farther down the page:

Please feel free to use this post for comments and trackbacks not related to other posts on the site. If you leave a trackback your post must include a link to this one and, as always, comments claiming the sun will rise in the west tomorrow, Chimpy McHitlerburton lied, etc. will be deleted without ever appearing on the site.

Contributed by Bill Faith on August 25, 2007 at 01:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

2007.08.25 Politics and National Defense Roundup

Haditha Marines exonerated
Posted By Uncle Jimbo

I've been doing a bit of interesting reading, specifically the Investigating Officer's Report for Lcpl Tatum who was one of those charged with murder in the deaths of Iraqi civilians in two houses in Haditha.

Many have sounded off about this, Rep. Murtha went so far as to say these Marines had killed in cold blood. How actions in response to a fatal IED attack could occur in cold blood I will leave to the lummox to explain. The report has testimony from those involved both US and Iraqi, and this is the conclusion the investigating officer came to. ...

There are several related links at the top of yesterday's roundup here.

Now We’re Getting Somewhere
The Iraq debate comes to Earth.
By Charles Krauthammer

After months of surreality, the Iraq debate has quite abruptly acquired a relationship to reality. Following the Democratic victory last November, panicked Republican senators began rifling the thesaurus to find exactly the right phrase to express exactly the right nuance to establish exactly the right distance from the president’s Iraq policy, while Murtha Democrats searched for exactly the right legislative ruse to force a retreat from Iraq without appearing to do so.

In the last month, however, as a consensus has emerged about realities on the ground in Iraq, a reasoned debate has begun. A number of fair-minded observers, both critics and supporters of the war, agree that the surge has yielded considerable military progress, while at the national political level the Maliki government remains a disaster. ...

Below the fold:

  • How Dare They?
  • News of the Future: "President Hillary Clinton Surrenders America"

Quick hits:

  • The week that was
    Don Surber -- Story Of The Week: President Bush to his critics: “You want to play ‘Iraq-is-Vietnam’? OK, fine. We’ll play that. Boat people. Re-education camps. Killing fields. No free speech. No religious freedom. A per capita income 30 years later that’s below every neighboring state. Yea, that was some ‘peace’ the Democrats brought there.” ...

How Dare They?
John Hinderaker

Freedom's Watch has produced a series of television commercials supporting our efforts in Iraq, and urging Congress not to pull the plug on our troops. You can watch them here; this is a sample: [video link].

The ads are good, with a simple message that the war in Iraq is important, and there is no acceptable substitute for success. They will be, I hope, a useful antidote to the far larger number of ads that have been paid for by antiwar groups. In its article about the ads, however, ABC News didn't see them that way. The network's hostile tone is striking; ABC begins by focusing, not on the content of the ads, but on the fact that they were paid for by Republicans: ...

News of the Future: "President Hillary Clinton Surrenders America"
By Douglas MacKinnon (Hat tip: Roberto Prinselaar)

It can credibly be argued that the presidential election of 2008 is the most important in the history of our Republic. Why? Because if we get this one wrong, Islamic terrorists will almost certainly strike into the heart of America. That is their stated goal. That is why they are paying so much attention to this election.

Political correctness has made us a weaker nation because it has killed some truths. The paramount truth most liberals, and most in the media, will not allow to be spoken, is that if you are in favor of comprehensive immigration reform, if you are in favor of ending or scaling back the “Patriot Act,” if you are in favor of stopping or even criminalizing warrantless wiretaps, if you are in favor of preventing our spy satellites from being used to protect our homeland, if you are in favor of never using facilities such as Guantanamo Bay to house murderous terrorists, if you are in favor of never letting our allies interrogate terrorists, then you are opening up the United States to a horrific terrorist attack. Period.

A second truth being that Senator Hillary Clinton is a far-left liberal who is in favor of all of the above. ...

Contributed by Bill Faith on August 25, 2007 at 12:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack


Friday, 24 August 2007
 

A Quick Index To Today's Posts, Quick Hits, Open Post

Click here for a handy "most recently updated posts at the top" listing of the posts on this page. Click here to see a similar listing for the Old War Dogs site. 

Quick links to some things farther down the page:

  • 2007.08.24 Politics and National Defense Roundup
    • All Charges Against Haditha Marine Likely To Be Dropped
    • Rep. Brian Baird: Our troops have earned more time
    • Iraq Vets Respond ... to the New York Times seven
    • Another Vietnam?
    • Maroons Rush In
    • Troofers
    • U.S. sees stability expanding in Iraq
    • ...

Please feel free to use this post for comments and trackbacks not related to other posts on the site. If you leave a trackback your post must include a link to this one and, as always, comments claiming the sun will rise in the west tomorrow, Chimpy McHitlerburton lied, etc. will be deleted without ever appearing on the site.

Contributed by Bill Faith on August 24, 2007 at 12:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

2007.08.24 Politics and National Defense Roundup

All Charges Against Haditha Marine Likely To Be Dropped
Pat Dollard (H/T: William Page)

SAN DIEGO (AP) - An investigating officer recommended Thursday dismissing all charges against a Marine accused of murdering two girls in an assault in Haditha, Iraq.

Lance Cpl. Stephen B. Tatum, 26, is charged with unpremeditated murder of two girls and negligent homicide on suspicion that he unlawfully killed two men, a woman and a boy. He is also accused of assaulting another boy and a girl.

Investigating officer Lt. Col. Paul Ware said the evidence was too weak for a court-martial. Tatum shot and killed civilians, but “he did so because of his training and the circumstances he was placed in, not to exact revenge and commit murder,” Ware wrote.

See also:

Our troops have earned more time
Rep. Brian Baird, D-WA  (H/T: MM)

The invasion of Iraq may be one of the worst foreign-policy mistakes in the history of our nation. As tragic and costly as that mistake has been, a precipitous or premature withdrawal of our forces now has the potential to turn the initial errors into an even greater problem just as success looks possible.

As a Democrat who voted against the war from the outset and who has been frankly critical of the administration and the post-invasion strategy, I am convinced by the evidence that the situation has at long last begun to change substantially for the better. I believe Iraq could have a positive future. Our diplomatic and military leaders in Iraq, their current strategy, and most importantly, our troops and the Iraqi people themselves, deserve our continued support and more time to succeed....

Below the fold:

  • Iraq Vets Respond ... to the New York Times seven
  • Another Vietnam?
  • Maroons Rush In
  • Troofers
  • U.S. sees stability expanding in Iraq

Quick hits:

  • Recreate ‘68
    Don Surber: Ever notice how suicidal the left-o-sphere is? No sooner did Nancy Pelosi become speaker than Cindy Sheehan was running against her. Now there is a group that wants to turn the Democratic National Convention next year into Chicago 1968. Great strategy: Let’s turn Hillary into Hubert Humphrey.

Iraq Vets Respond ... to the New York Times seven
by David Bellavia, Pete Hegseth, Michael Baumann, Carl Hartmann, David Thul, Knox Nunnally, Joe Worley

ON SUNDAY, seven soldiers from the 2nd Brigade of the 82nd Airborne Division stationed in Iraq penned a passionate opinion piece in the New York Times that further illustrates the complexity of what is "really" happening in Iraq. Of the almost 3,000 soldiers from the Army's storied 82nd Airborne Division currently serving in the hottest of Iraqi neighborhoods, seven felt confident enough in their misgivings to sign an opinion piece. They should not be surprised that many of their comrades--including the seven undersigned here--find their work to be misguided.

The 2nd Brigade is responsible for two dangerous areas of Baghdad: Adihamiyah and Sadr City. Airborne troopers there have seen the worst al Qaeda and the Mahdi Army can throw at them and the Iraqi people. But the whole story is that the Iraqis and soldiers in their sector have not yet been fully affected by the surge of troops and operations, which have barely been in place two months.

Currently, American and Iraqi Forces are clearing sections of southern Baghdad before turning north to the 82nd Airborne's neighborhoods. As such, the portrait these soldiers painted, while surely accurate and honest, is more representative of pre-surge Baghdad: sectarian strife, lawlessness, and indiscriminate slaughter.

This is not, however, the picture elsewhere in Iraq, or even most of Baghdad. ...

Read the whole thing. I first saw this as an email from Pete Hegseth but I'm going to be lazy at send you to the Weekly Standard site rather than post the whole thing here.

Another Vietnam?
President Bush's analogy to Iraq is not inaccurate, just incomplete. 
Max Boot

Ever since the mid-1970s, critics of American military involvement have warned that any decision to deploy armed forces abroad--in Lebanon and El Salvador in the 1980s, in Kuwait, Somalia, and Kosovo in the 1990s, and more recently in Iraq and Afghanistan--would result in "another Vietnam." Conversely, supporters of those interventions have adamantly resisted any Vietnam comparisons.

President George W. Bush boldly abandoned that template with his speech to the Veterans of Foreign Wars on Wednesday. In a skillful bit of political jujitsu, he cited Vietnam not as evidence that the Iraq War is unwinnable, but to argue that the costs of giving up the fight would be catastrophic--just as they were in Southeast Asia.

This has met with predictable and angry denunciations from antiwar advocates who argue that the consequences of defeat in Vietnam weren't so grave. After all, isn't Vietnam today an emerging economic power that is cultivating friendly ties with the U.S.?

True, but that's 30 years after the fact. In the short-term, the costs of defeat were indeed heavy. More than a million people perished in the killing fields of Cambodia, while in Vietnam, those who worked with American forces were consigned, as Mr. Bush noted, to prison camps "where tens of thousands perished." Many more fled as "boat people," he continued, "many of them going to their graves in the South China Sea."

That assessment actually understates the terrible repercussions from the American defeat,  ...

***

Maroons Rush In
Criticism of the president’s Vietnam analogy takes Chutzpah.
By Mackubin Thomas Owens

In his speech to the Veterans of Foreign Wars on Tuesday, President Bush argued that the consequences of an American withdrawal from Iraq would be similar to those that followed our abandonment of South Vietnam in 1975. Citing the killing fields of Cambodia and the executions and “reeducation” camps in Vietnam, the president continued:

[...]

The reaction to Bush’s invocation of the Vietnam War’s aftermath was swift and critical. John Kerry called the comparison “ignorant.” Reporters interviewed several historians who were happy to agree with Kerry. Robert Dalleck called the comparison “a distortion”:  ...

Bugs Bunny had a name for people like this: “maroons.” And Alan Dershowitz once wrote a book about them entitled Chutzpah! Of course in criticizing Bush’s reference to Vietnam, they are comparing apples and oranges. If they don’t see this, they are fools. If they do — which is more likely — they are dishonest. Take your pick. ...

See also:

Warner: Show Qaeda U.S. Commitment Not Open-Ended
Scott Ott

(2007-08-24) — Sen. John Warner, R-VA, yesterday called on President George Bush to start bringing troops home from Iraq “to show al Qaeda that the U.S. commitment to fighting Muslim terrorists overseas is not open-ended.”

“This is a two-way street,” said Sen. Warner. “We’ve kept our end of the deal, delivering crushing blows to the terror networks, but al Qaeda has refused to capitulate. It’s time to send a strong, clear message that our devotion to fighting the enemies of freedom is not a blank check.” ...

Troofers

If you haven't seen it yet, I highly recommend the new History Channel documentary debunking the 9/11 "truth" movement: 9/11 Conspiracies: Fact or Fiction. The show airs twice more this weekend: Saturday, August 25 at 8:00 PM and Sunday, August 26 at 12:00 AM.

Examines the various conspiracy theories espoused on the Internet, in articles and in public forums that attempt to explain the 9/11 attacks. It includes theories that the World Trade Center was brought down by a controlled demolition; that a missile, not a commercial airliner, hit the Pentagon; and that members of the U.S. government orchestrated the attacks in hopes of creating a war in the Middle East. Each conspiracy argument is countered by a variety of experts in the fields of engineering, intelligence and the military. The program also delves into the anatomy of such conspiracies and how they grow on the Internet.

U.S. sees stability expanding in Iraq
By Bill Gertz and S.A. Miller

Growing Sunni opposition to al Qaeda and in some cases the perception that U.S. troops will leave the country are key factors behind recent and growing stability in Iraq, according to a major U.S. intelligence report based on findings from 16 agencies.

The updated National Intelligence Estimate (NIE), a consensus view of the CIA, the Defense Intelligence Agency and other services, says "measurable" security improvements were made in war-torn Iraq since January and will expand modestly in the next 12 months with continued military pressure on insurgents. ...

Contributed by Bill Faith on August 24, 2007 at 12:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack


Thursday, 23 August 2007
 

A Quick Index To Today's Posts, Quick Hits, Open Post

Click here for a handy "most recently updated posts at the top" listing of the posts on this page. Click here to see a similar listing for the Old War Dogs site.

Today's interesting but little known fact: 9 out of 10 men prefer women with big breasts ... and the 10th guy prefers the other 9.

Quick links to some things farther down the page:

  • 2007.08.23 Politics and National Defense Roundup
    • View from the Tunnel
    • Can't afford the sunshine, anymore.
    • Iraqi citizen saves the lives of four U.S. soldiers
    • Did Clinton Lie About Targeting Bin Laden?
    • Clinton lied, people died
    • Don't Look Now
    • Did the Newark murder suspects benefit from illegal alien amnesty programs?
    • New Jersey attorney general orders cops to start reporting illegal alien suspects to feds;
      Update: Geraldo smears righty blogs, misstates Linnik suspect’s status again
    • The Newark massacre: New details of the heinous crime…and how to contact your state attorney general to help stop the criminal alien revolving door
    • President Bush's address to the VFW convention
    • Surprise: Mexican senate committee protests US sovereignty
    • \TNR - Changing the Story
    • Like a suppository, only a bit stronger
    • A New York State of Mind
    • Thompson, Giuliani start trading shots
    • ...

Please feel free to use this post for comments and trackbacks not related to other posts on the site. If you leave a trackback your post must include a link to this one and, as always, comments claiming the sun will rise in the west tomorrow, Chimpy McHitlerburton lied, etc. will be deleted without ever appearing on the site.

Contributed by Bill Faith on August 23, 2007 at 11:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

About that pop-up as you load the site ...

Folks, I'm temporarily removing a couple of posts as part of my troubleshooting to try to figure out why I'm getting a message I shouldn't be every time I load the site.

I just realized a few minutes ago (after spending a few hours away from the computer) that every time I (and I assume you) load this site I'm getting a pop-up message about not being able to connect to northamericanpatriot.com. The message is due to a script that's supposed to load an "I Am Pro-Victory" button on the sidebar. For now I'm going to assume their server is just down temporarily and leave the script in place. If they don't get the problem under control in a reasonable length of time I'll have to remove the button, but I happen to like the button so I'm not going to do it right away.

***

I just removed the offending script from the sidebar., as much as I hated to. I went to www.northamericanpatriot.com and found empty whitespace where several other images should have been, on a site that hasn't been updated since March. Pity; it was a nice site. *** Oops. There's a note right on the site saying Wonder Woman has moved to The Lasso of Truth. There's also a post there saying she's on vacation.

Contributed by Bill Faith on August 23, 2007 at 01:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

The light at the end of the tunnel's still making my head spin.

This will probably make more sense if you read this post first, and maybe follow the links in it to some of my earlier posts.

I guess things are moving forward, but not very damned fast. The contractor/developer who'd expressed an interest in buying part of our place finally called back, offering about half as much as we'd originally been talking about. My sister told him he could either come up with a reasonable offer or go to Hell. My brother, whose 5-day work week runs Saturday-Wednesday, on the other hand, says he's going to get his lawyer started on the paperwork today to buy the part of the property we'd been talking to the other guy about for a more reasonable price. I guess we should just be happy about that and not worry about the long term situation, but I'm having trouble doing that. He doesn't have any immediate plans for the land other than building equity in it with money he had been putting in a savings account every month, but he's made it plain he doesn't intend to just hold on to it forever either. Depending on what happens in that field behind us the value of the land we sell my brother may or may not increase substantially over the next three or four years. If my lawyer's right about me getting a big retroactive benefits check from Social Security eventually, and if it happens soon enough, I may or may not be able to work something out to end up owning the land we're selling now, but there's no guarantee of that happening; Bob isn't going to sell it to me for any less than he thinks he could sell it to someone else for. I guess for now the only option we have is to sell it to him and hope for the best. 

I guess this wouldn't be so hard on me emotionally if I didn't know we wouldn't be in this situation if not for some major mistakes I made over the years. I don't know of a thing I could have done to avoid developing major health problems when I did, although I do wonder if things would have worked out differently if I'd had decent health insurance instead of being dependent on the VA for medical care. On the other hand, how pretty would I be sitting today if I hadn't been 18 and stupid and deliberately washed myself out of the Air Force Academy not quiet 39 years ago? (Did I mention how much I envy my ROTC-grad nephew who starts Primary Flight Training later this month?) Or if I hadn't gone to work at Motorola in a bad mood about problems at home once too often and lost my job there in '82? (My best friend while I was working there, who hired on 3 months before I did, accepted a buyout and retired at the 25 year mark six years ago.) Or if I hadn't let my second wife's Nurse Jekyll and Ms. Hyde personality screw my head up so bad I lost a $50k/year Technical Staff job at Rockwell in '90? (They had a major "peace dividend" layoff; I might have made the cut or I might not have, but my performance was such that I was one of the first to go.) I've been paying for past mistakes, and barely surviving, for almost 17 years now; the job I lost in 2003 paid less than I was making 23 years earlier. I'd probably still be sick without the mistakes but I wouldn't be nearly this broke, and we wouldn't be selling off part of the place Dad and Mom bought 50 years ago for money to try to survive on till my Social Security comes through. If I was the only one suffering for my stupidity I could accept that but I know having to sell part of this place, even to my brother, is tearing Mom up and there's not a thing I can do about it.

Apparently I spoke too soon when I said we weren't going to need any more outside help to get by till we sold the land; I was way to optimistic about how soon that was going to happen. If we can hold on from now to the 31st surely we'll have the money for the land, or at least part of it, before things get really bad again, but holding on till then is starting to look real iffy. I'll repeat the same offer I made before, then decided prematurely that I didn't need to make any more: If there's anyone reading this who can spare a few dollars from now till I get my pension on the 31st I'll pay you back with interest that day. There's a PayPal button on the sidebar.

Contributed by Bill Faith on August 23, 2007 at 01:33 PM in Around our place | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

2007.08.23 Politics and National Defense Roundup

View from the Tunnel
Greyhawk (H/T: Bookworm)

This NY Times Op/Ed from a group of 82d Airborne NCOs is well written, thought provoking, and worthy of more than a quick read. While I disagree with many of their conclusions, the facts they present in support are indeed fact. The authors are clearly well-informed from personal observation and external sources, but in most cases the therefore that follows many of those facts is where we part company.

We are indeed working to straighten out a hell of a mess in Baghdad, and any number of things can foil our objectives. In fact, failure is easier and quicker than success, our failure can bring success to others (is, in fact, prerequisite to their success as they currently envision it) and not all of these "others" are ready to develop new definitions of personal or group success more compatible with ours. (Or at least, definitions of "success" that can be achieved following our success rather than only after our failure).

But, in fact, that's exactly what's happened in most of al Anbar, and during the bloody campaign to get there such an outcome was far from obvious. (Such an outcome is far from a done deal now, too, but at least it can be mentioned without drawing sneers.) It's entirely possible that all hell may still break lose there. But it seems (at best) that the general population has had enough of al Qaeda and their ilk and are willing to cast their lot with us, or (at worst) have finally realized that the best way to get rid of us is to let us finish and leave - after gaining whatever edge they can against their future rivals from us before our departure. (Said edge being training, money, weapons, and perhaps a bit of thinning of the rival herd before we depart.) One can't rule out some middle ground between those two possibilities. ...

Read the whole thing, then check out Bookworm's post for more worthy links.

Can't afford the sunshine, anymore.

Ty Raddue wanted y'all to know about this one. It's performed by the same singer who recorded Russ Vaughn's You Ain't Gonna Touch This Wall.

Below the fold:

  • Iraqi citizen saves the lives of four U.S. soldiers
  • Did Clinton Lie About Targeting Bin Laden?
  • Clinton lied, people died
  • Don't Look Now
  • Did the Newark murder suspects benefit from illegal alien amnesty programs?
  • New Jersey attorney general orders cops to start reporting illegal alien suspects to feds;
    Update: Geraldo smears righty blogs, misstates Linnik suspect's status again
  • The Newark massacre: New details of the heinous crime…and how to contact your state attorney general to help stop the criminal alien revolving door
  • President Bush's address to the VFW convention
  • Surprise: Mexican senate committee protests US sovereignty
  • TNR - Changing the Story
  • Like a suppository, only a bit stronger
  • A New York State of Mind
  • Thompson, Giuliani start trading shots
  • ...

Quick hits:

  • Bush hit over jobs for illegal workers
    By Stephen Dinan: If President Bush is serious about getting tough on U.S. employers who hire illegal aliens, he can start with his own administration, which employs thousands of unauthorized workers, says the top Republican on the House immigration subcommittee.  ...
  • UnCAIRing
    Scott Johnson: The ongoing federal prosecution of the Holy Land Foundation is receiving almost no coverage in the mainstream media, though it has been full of newsworthy revelations. Among the intensely interesting items to come out of the trial is the brief filed by CAIR seeking to strike the government's list of unindicted co-conspirators in the case. This morning NRO has posted "Coming clean about CAIR," a column collecting my thoughts on CAIR's brief. Having read the brief, I was struck, among other things, by how comletely the New York Times missed its newsworthy elements in Neil MacFarquhar's pathetic story on the subject. In any event, please check out the column. ...

Today's must-read: Michael Yon: The Ghosts of Anbar, Part 1

Iraqi citizen saves the lives of four U.S. soldiers
Posted by Cassy Fiano (H/T: John Werntz)

Here's yet another story to show that there are Iraqis who are not terrorists, who are thankful that American soldiers are there, are willing to fight and sacrifice for freedom -- and that they can be heroes, too.

In a truly selfless act, an Iraqi citizen thwarted a suicide bomber, saving the lives on four American soldiers and eight civilians (emphasis mine): ...

Did Clinton Lie About Targeting Bin Laden?
Ed Morrissey

It appears that Bill Clinton may have exaggerated his record when it came to strategizing against Osama bin Laden. Newsweek's Michael Isikoff and Mark Hosenball take a look at the Inspector General's report of the pre-9/11 intelligence failures at the CIA and find an interesting nugget. Despite Clinton's angry assertion to Chris Wallace in last year's controversial Fox interview, he never gave the CIA an assassination order regarding bin Laden. ...

***

Clinton lied, people died
Don Surber

Michael Isikoff, the reporter who broke the Monica Lewinsky story only to have his editors at Newsweek spike the story, has caught Bill Clinton in another lie: He never authorized the killing of Osama bin Laden.

Citing a recent CIA inspector general report, Isikoff and Mark Hosenball reported: ...

Don't Look Now
James Taranto

We begin today with a public service announcement from the Federal Bureau of Investigation:

The Seattle FBI and the Washington Joint Analytical Center (WAJAC) are requesting the public's assistance in identifying the two individuals pictured below. These men have been seen aboard Washington State Ferries on several occasions and have exhibited unusual behavior, which was reported by passengers. While this behavior may have been innocuous, the FBI and WAJAC would like to resolve these reports.

If you can identify these individuals, or know their whereabouts, please call: 206 622-0460

The Seattle FBI and the Washington Joint Analytical Center (WAJAC) are requesting the public's assistance in identifying the two individuals pictured [nearby]. These men have been seen aboard Washington State Ferries on several occasions and have exhibited unusual behavior, which was reported by passengers. While this behavior may have been innocuous, the FBI and WAJAC would like to resolve these reports.

You can click on the photos above or the link atop this column to go to the press release, which has the full pictures.

Read the whole thing. It has a lot of new information in it that I didn't know when I mentioned this subject yesterday.

Did the Newark murder suspects benefit from illegal alien amnesty programs?
Michelle Malkin

If you have been following the media coverage of the criminal alien suspects in the Newark execution murders, one thing may have jumped out at you. No, not Geraldo Rivera’s lying hysterics. I’m talking about the ambiguity and confusion surrounding the exact immigration status of two of the suspects. Time to move beyond the obvious debate about sanctuary cities and dig a little deeper. ...

... You may recall that in January 2005, I criticized the Bush administration’s decision to extend a mass amnesty program called the “Temporary Protected Status” program. President Bush renewed the temporary work and residence permits of 248,282 illegal aliens from El Salvador under TPS and justified the renewal in 2005 because El Salvador was still rebuilding after earthquakes that struck the country in January 2001. As I explained at the time:

Ostensibly, the TPS program is supposed to allow people from countries experiencing a natural disaster or civil war to come to the U.S. temporarily. Most of the Salvadorans granted TPS status, however, were already living in the U.S. illegally before the earthquake struck. In effect, the TPS designation is amnesty by another name. There is nothing temporary about it. As the Federation for American Immigration Reform noted when the the decision to grant TPS status was announced back in 2001, “based on the track record of TPS authorizations, it is certain that it will be anything but temporary.” ...

***

New Jersey attorney general orders cops to start reporting illegal alien suspects to feds; Update: Geraldo smears righty blogs, misstates Linnik suspect's status again
Allahpundit

Fantastic news. The order applies to all cases involving serious, i.e. indictable, offenses -- and drunk driving. A good thing, too.

After a review driven by three brutal slayings, the state attorney general on Wednesday ordered New Jersey law enforcers to notify federal immigration officials whenever someone arrested for an indictable offense or drunken driving is found to be an illegal immigrant…

The policy applies immediately to all state and local law enforcement and to prosecutors. It also specifies that police notify prosecutors and courts when illegal immigrants are arrested…

The directive, however, prohibits officers from checking the immigration status of crime victims, witnesses or people seeking police assistance.

That last bit is there to make sure illegals continue to report crimes. I’d like to call this a victory, but I can’t. The toll is already too high. Back with the Geraldo/Tancredo showdown video in a few minutes. 

Update: Here you go ...

See also: Sanctuary City, N.J., is closed

***

The Newark massacre: New details of the heinous crime…and how to contact your state attorney general to help stop the criminal alien revolving door
Michelle Malkin

Local NY/NJ media outlets reported chilling new details about the attack by criminal aliens on young Newark students Iofemi Hightower, Doshen Harvey, Terrance Aeriel, and Natasha Aeriel. From today’s NYPost:

[...]

If this monstrous evil doesn’t motivate you to get off your duff and do something to stop the criminal alien revolving door in your neighborhood, I don’t know what will.

Here’s a transcript I typed up of a radio report aired yesterday on 1010WINS by Steve Sandberg ...

President Bush's address to the VFW convention

I linked to this yesterday without commenting on it but it really is worth a "Don't miss it."

History Offers Lessons on Iraq
Pres. George W. Bush

I want to open today's speech with a story that begins on a sunny morning, when thousands of Americans were murdered in a surprise attack -- and our nation was propelled into a conflict that would take us to every corner of the globe.

The enemy who attacked us despises freedom, and harbors resentment at the slights he believes America and Western nations have inflicted on his people. He fights to establish his rule over an entire region. And over time, he turns to a strategy of suicide attacks destined to create so much carnage that the American people will tire of the violence and give up the fight.

If this story sounds familiar, it is -- except for one thing. The enemy I have just described is not al Qaeda, and the attack is not 9/11, and the empire is not the radical caliphate envisioned by Osama bin Laden. Instead, what I've described is the war machine of Imperial Japan in the 1940s, its surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, and its attempt to impose its empire throughout East Asia. ...

There are many differences between the wars we fought in the Far East and the war on terror we're fighting today. But one important similarity is at their core they're ideological struggles. The militarists of Japan and the communists in Korea and Vietnam were driven by a merciless vision for the proper ordering of humanity. They killed Americans because we stood in the way of their attempt to force their ideology on others. Today, the names and places have changed, but the fundamental character of the struggle has not changed. Like our enemies in the past, the terrorists who wage war in Iraq and Afghanistan and other places seek to spread a political vision of their own -- a harsh plan for life that crushes freedom, tolerance, and dissent. ...

Read the whole thing.

See also:

***

Surprise: Mexican senate committee protests US sovereignty
Bryan Preston

They really are tone-deaf to the US illegal immigration debate down in Mexico City, aren’t they. First, there was that whole business with the flags during the marches. Then it was St. Elvira slamming the US for enforcing its own laws, and now the Mexican senate has joined in.

Reconquista attitudes are a lot easier to dismiss when they’re not coming straight from the Mexican government. ...

TNR - Changing the Story
Roger L. Simon

Changing the story when you're under attack is such an overused and obvious technique that you'd think people would be embarrassed to employ it. But not Jonathan Chait at The New Republic who jumps into the fray with a largely ad hominem attack on William Kristol in order to deflect criticism of TNR in the ongoing Scott Beauchamp scandal.

Chait does not respond at all to the many details and questions about TNR and Beauchamp raised in Richard Miniter's Pajamas Media story of a few days ago. It's hard to believe that Chait was unaware of the story since it was linked on the Drudge Report and viewed by over a hundred thousand people. But just to make sure, PJM has arranged for the link to be sent directly to Chait's email. It would be interesting to see how he responds to Miniter's reporting that Beauchamp was married to a fact-checker at The New Republic (among a raft of other uncomfortable truths). ...

Like a suppository, only a bit stronger
The Dissident Frogman (Hat tip: John Werntz)

A New York State of Mind
Fred Dalton Thompson

When I was working in television, I spent quite a bit of time in New York City. There are lots of things about the place I like, but New York gun laws don’t fall in that category.

Anybody who knows me knows I’ve always cared deeply about the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms. So I’ve always felt sort of relieved when I flew back home to where that particular civil liberty gets as much respect as the rest of the Bill of Rights.

Unfortunately, New York is trying, again, to force its ways on the rest of us, this time through the courts. First, they went after U.S. gun manufacturers, seeking through a lawsuit not only money but injunctive control over the entire industry. An act of congress in 2005 blocked, but did not end, that effort.

Now, the same activist federal judge from Brooklyn who provided Mayor Giuliani’s administration with the legal ruling it sought to sue gun makers, has done it again. Last week, he created a bizarre justification to allow New York City to sue out-of-state gun stores that sold guns that somehow ended up in criminal hands in the Big Apple. ...

***

Thompson, Giuliani start trading shots
Sam Youngman

Even though former Sen. Fred Thompson (R-Tenn.) has yet to formally enter the presidential race, he is already engaged in a battle with GOP frontrunner and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani.

The Giuliani campaign hit back hard at Thompson after the presumed candidate posted a blog on his website taking aim at New York City gun control laws and singling out Giuliani by name. ...

Contributed by Bill Faith on August 23, 2007 at 01:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack


Wednesday, 22 August 2007
 

A Quick Index To Today's Posts, Quick Hits, Open Post

Click here for a handy "most recently updated posts at the top" listing of the posts on this page. Click here to see a similar listing for the Old War Dogs site.

Quick links to some things farther down the page:

  • 2007.08.22 Politics and National Defense Roundup
    • Video: Absolute moral authority, pro-[war victory] edition
    • Terror Dry Run on Seattle Ferries?
    • Drunk driver’s immigration status not “irrelevant” to grieving mother
    • Conservative Cavemen--and Women
    • Breaking: (F)lying imams finally dismiss John Does from lawsuit
    • The second time as farce -- More FISA Fear-Mongering
    • AFP Takes Lessons from TNR
    • ...

Please feel free to use this post for comments and trackbacks not related to other posts on the site. If you leave a trackback your post must include a link to this one and, as always, comments claiming the sun will rise in the west tomorrow, Chimpy McHitlerburton lied, etc. will be deleted without ever appearing on the site.

Contributed by Bill Faith on August 22, 2007 at 12:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

2007.08.22 Politics and National Defense Roundup

John "72ndTCS" Werntz emails:

Hi, Bill,

The attachment is a press release just issued by this "FreedomsWatch.org" outfit.  If Pete Hegseth links up to Freedoms Watch, that's good enough for me. Lt. Hegseth is a doer, not just a talker.  He has organized groups of OIF vets to confront wobbly members of Congress, and Bush has seen fit to invite him to the White House.  That's a whole lot more than GOE has ever accomplished by assembling to boo moonbats.

This FreedomsWatch outfit is talking $15 million in TV and radio ads.  That may not quite be in Soros territory, but it surely does sound serious.  They can't be getting that kind of dough from Ari Fleischer or a gaggle of ex-ambassadors.  Must be John Templeton? ...

Powerful New Pro-Mission Ads

For the past few months, Vets for Freedom has been on the front lines of the Iraq war debate in America, with only a few allies. But this morning, in a very real sense, the cavalry appeared on the horizon in the form of a new organization called Freedom's Watch.

Freedom's Watch has launched a multi-state advertising campaign featuring powerful stories from veterans and families that every household in America should hear.

It's time that the rest of America heard the words of soldiers who have served (and been wounded) in Iraq and the stories of families who have lost loved ones there.

The new commercials can be watched here.

If these videos speak to you - and we believe they will - call your Member of Congress at 1-877-222-8001 to tell them that defeat is not an option.

Thank you for joining us at this ever critical time.

Regards,

Pete Hegseth
Iraq War Veteran 2005-2006
Executive Director, Vets for Freedom

Click here for more information on Vets for Freedom.

***

Video: Absolute moral authority, pro-[war victory] edition
Allahpundit

Brand new from a brand new outfit called Freedom’s Watch comprised, per their press release, of Ari Fleischer, several former U.S. ambassadors, and some very, very, very big money. These clips are part of a $15 million ad buy meant to turn up the pressure on Democrats, who are scrambling to “re-frame” the progress in Anbar ahead of Petraeus’s report by conceding the fact of military gains and emphasizing that it doesn’t mean squat politically thanks to the overweening ineffectiveness of the Maliki government. ...

FBI Seeks Identity of Two Men
Seen Aboard Washington State Ferries

The FBI released photographs of two men Monday who have been seen on Washington state ferries "exhibiting unusual behavior" and asked the public for help identifying them.

The agency's Seattle field office, along with the Washington Joint Analytical Center, was still seeking the men's identities and whereabouts Wednesday as ferry service was temporarily shutdown when a suspicious package was found in a ferry bathroom and taken away by authorities.

"We had various independent reports from passengers and ferry employees that these two guys were engaging in what they described as unusual activities on the ferries," Special Agent Robbie Burroughs, a spokeswoman for the FBI in Washington state, told FOXNews.com. ...

See also:

Below the fold:

  • NJ Orders Police, Prosecutors To Alert Feds When Illegal Immigrants Are Arrested
  • Drunk driver’s immigration status not “irrelevant” to grieving mother
  • Conservative Cavemen--and Women
  • Breaking: (F)lying imams finally dismiss John Does from lawsuit
  • The second time as farce / More FISA Fear-Mongering
  • AFP Takes Lessons from TNR
  • ...

NJ Changes Policy On Illegal Immigrants
NJ Orders Police, Prosecutors To Alert Feds When Illegal Immigrants Are Arrested

(AP) After a review driven by three brutal slayings, the state attorney general on Wednesday ordered New Jersey law enforcers to notify federal immigration officials whenever someone arrested for an indictable offense or drunken driving is found to be an illegal immigrant. ...

Drunk driver’s immigration status not “irrelevant” to grieving mother
Michelle Malkin

You won’t see Geraldo Rivera reporting on this terrible tragedy. Via the Houston Chronicle:

Felinda Williams couldn’t make herself go to court on a recent morning, couldn’t bring herself to look at the man accused of driving drunk and killing her daughter, her son-in-law and her 2-year-old grandson.

She knows few details of the Aug. 11 crash in Houston that killed the newlyweds and the little boy nicknamed “Peanut Butter.” She does know that her daughter didn’t die on impact. The young woman, according to reports, felt the flames and begged helpless bystanders to pull her free.

The grieving woman knows two things about Juan Felix Salinas, the man charged in connection with their deaths: She knows his name, and she knows he was in the U.S. illegally, out on bail after an earlier arrest. ...

Related:

Conservative Cavemen--and Women
Baldilocks

Pat Schroeder, president of the American Association of Publishers (yes, old GIs, that Pat Schroeder), comments on a poll which seemed to indicate that Liberals read more books than do Conservatives or Moderates.

The Karl Roves of the world have built a generation that just wants a couple slogans: 'No, don't raise my taxes, no new taxes…

It's pretty hard to write a book saying, 'No new taxes, no new taxes, no new taxes' on every page.

(Psst! Ms. Schroeder! Karl Rove retired. You can get off of his jock now.) ...

See also:

Breaking: (F)lying imams finally dismiss John Does from lawsuit
Michelle Malkin

I just received notice from The Becket Fund:

Michelle,

We wanted to let you know that the imams just dismissed their case against the John Doe passengers.

More info to come.

A bit more detail: ...

Allahpundit has thoughts here.

The second time as farce
Scott Johnson

In a terrific column for NRO Andrew McCarthy takes apart last weekend's New York Times story by James Risen and Eric Lichtblau on the FISA-reform bill passed by Congress before its summer recess. Risen and Lichtblau are the reporters who blew the NSA's terrorist surveillance program in December 2005. McCarthy provides the background:  ...

***

More FISA Fear-Mongering
The New York Times strikes again.
By Andrew C. McCarthy

So, have you heard the latest? Your business records can now be taken away by Big Brother without a warrant, thanks to that Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act-reform bill Darth Bush — an unstoppable force of nature with 30-percent approval ratings — just slammed through the notorious wallflower also known as the Democratic Congress. Yup, all the government has to do is pretend it needs your records — or your phone calls, or even your person — for a national-security investigation of someone overseas and — Presto! — your privacy rights are shredded.

It must be true. After all, it’s in the New York Times. ...

AFP Takes Lessons from TNR
Jack Kelly

A great moment in journalism it wasn't. At 6:58 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time on Tuesday, Aug. 14, Agence France Presse distributed a photograph by Wissam al-Okaili, an AFP stringer, of an elderly Iraqi woman holding two cartridges in one hand. The caption that accompanied the photo read: "An elderly Iraqi woman shows two bullets which she said hit her house following an early coalition forces raid in the predominantly Shiite Baghdad suburb of Sadr City."

I used the word "cartridges." The caption writer used the word "bullets." Let me explain the difference for the benefit of the photo editors at AFP. A cartridge consists of three elements: the bullet (the pointy thing at one end); the propellant that forces the bullet through the barrel of the gun when the trigger is pulled; and the casing, in which the bullet and the propellant are held together until the cartridge is fired. But once the cartridge is fired, the bullet and the casing go their separate ways ...

Quick hits:

  • CIA Report Slams Tenet
    Ed Morrissey: The long-awaited CIA Inspector General's report on the failues that led to 9/11 has been released, or at least its redacted executive summary was published this afternoon. The report puts the blame for the agency's lack of preparation squarely on George Tenet, arguing that although he defined the danger facing the US from al-Qaeda, he failed to organize the CIA to effectively fight it:
  • Such a fixer
    Scott Johnson: The current issue of Columbia Magazine carries a profile by Tim Warner of New Republic editor Franklin Foer celebrating him as "the fixer" who is resuscitating the magazine. (The profile is not available online at present. Thanks to reader Robert Avery for sending me a copy today.) If not the most poorly timed article in the history of journalism, it is nevertheless laughable in light of the ordeal inflicted on the magazine by its Baghdad fabulist and will to believe him on the part of "the editors."

Contributed by Bill Faith on August 22, 2007 at 12:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack


Tuesday, 21 August 2007
 

A Quick Index To Today's Posts, Quick Hits, Open Post

Click here for a handy "most recently updated posts at the top" listing of the posts on this page. Click here to see a similar listing for the Old War Dogs site.

Best plan on me not getting much done today, folks. Aside from the fact I'm still a little under the weather, as I mentioned yesterday I need to leave for Marion in a little bit to see what they can do about my hearing aids not working right. At a bare minimum I'm looking at a seven hour trip, in a car with a broken air conditioner and a predicted high of 91, which means I'm going to get home even less energetic than I've been for the last few days and need a day or two to recover. I'll try to get back to normal blogging if and when I'm up to it. *** Got home from Marion about 5:30 with two working hearing aids (a pleasant surprise), totally wasted from the heat (no surprise at all.) I'm going to spend a few minutes surfing the web but I may decide I need a nap before I try to do any blogging. *** I crashed big time and woke up late enough that it doesn't make sense to post anything new under today's date. I may post some things I would normally have posted today shortly after midnight or I may just take my bedtime pills and go back to bed.

I may or may not move the link to a longer post later but do. not. miss. READ. It. Now. And read Who our real enemies are...

Please feel free to use this post for comments and trackbacks not related to other posts on the site. If you leave a trackback your post must include a link to this one and, as always, comments claiming the sun will rise in the west tomorrow, Chimpy McHitlerburton lied, etc. will be deleted without ever appearing on the site.

Contributed by Bill Faith on August 21, 2007 at 09:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack


Monday, 20 August 2007
 

A Quick Index To Today's Posts, Quick Hits, Open Post

Click here for a handy "most recently updated posts at the top" listing of the posts on this page. Click here to see a similar listing for the Old War Dogs site.

Quick links to some things farther down the page:

I really will get back to being a more energetic blogger one of these days, I promise. I just feel totally wrung out here lately and I don't know what to do about it. It's not going to help any that tomorrow I need to drive about 300 miles round trip to the Marion VA hospital to see if they can get at least one of my hearing aids working right. Pending discussing the matter with someone who knows what they're doing I'm predicting they just need to adjust the right one and that they'll need to send the left one in for repairs. The right one was sent in for repairs a few weeks ago and sent directly back to me so I wouldn't have to make a trip to pick it up but the volume's set way to low. Until the left one quit yesterday I'd planned on just living with the situation till I had some other reason to be in Marion anyway (I have an appointment there in early October) but I'd really like to have decent hearing in at least one ear when my daughter and her family come to visit Labor Day weekend.

Please feel free to use this post for comments and trackbacks not related to other posts on the site. If you leave a trackback your post must include a link to this one and, as always, comments claiming the sun will rise in the west tomorrow, Chimpy McHitlerburton lied, etc. will be deleted without ever appearing on the site.

Contributed by Bill Faith on August 20, 2007 at 11:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

2007.08.20 Politics and National Defense Roundup

COIN: On "The War as We Saw It"
Grim Beorn

This Sunday, the New York Times published a piece called "The War as We Saw It" by Specialist Buddhika Jayamaha, Sergeants Wesley D. Smith, Jeremy Roebuck, Omar Mora, Edward Sandmeier, and Staff Sergeants Yance T. Gray and Jeremy A. Murphy.  These gentlemen are assigned to the 82nd Airborne, which needs no introduction here.

I wish to begin by conveying our respectful appreciation of their service, and our hopes that their Staff Sergeant Murphy will recover quickly and fully from his injury.  It will surprise no one that I am going to argue against some of the conclusions they offer, but I do not wish disagreement to be read as disrespect.  Their service honors our nation, as does the fact that they feel they can provide a frank assessment of their observations to the public.

The piece they have published offers a despairing look at the situation in Baghdad, where elements of the 82nd have been operating for fifteen months.  I do not intend to challenge their understanding of the facts on the ground, as they are based on direct observation.  I assume the truth of every fact they report.  What I wish to challenge is their conclusions about how events will, they seem to say "must," develop.

See also: 82nd ABN NCOs in the NY Times

Today's must-read: How The New Republic Got Suckered (H/T)

Truth Laid Baird
James Taranto

This is a very heartening story from the Olympian, the daily newspaper in Washington's state capital:

U.S. Rep. Brian Baird said Thursday that his recent trip to Iraq convinced him the military needs more time in the region, and that a hasty pullout would cause chaos that helps Iran and harms U.S. security.

"I believe that the decision to invade Iraq and the post-invasion management of that country were among the largest foreign-policy mistakes in the history of our nation. I voted against them, and I still think they were the right votes," Baird said in a telephone interview from Washington, D.C.

"But we're on the ground now. We have a responsibility to the Iraqi people and a strategic interest in making this work." . . .

Baird said he would not say this if he didn't believe two things:

• "One, I think we're making real progress."

• "Secondly, I think the consequences of pulling back precipitously would be potentially catastrophic for the Iraqi people themselves, to whom we have a tremendous responsibility . . . and in the long run chaotic for the region as a whole and for our own security."

The distinction Baird makes is a crucial one, and one that war opponents usually elide. Whether Congress made a mistake in authorizing Iraq's liberation is a separate question from what to do now. Yet war opponents act as if favoring a precipitous withdrawal logically and necessarily follows from regretting the decision to liberate. ....

The Perfect Conspiracy-Theorist Foil
Ed Morrissey (H/T: Lorie Byrd)

For the last seven years, Karl Rove has served as the focus for some of the worst vitriol thrown in the political and media arenas. When he decided to retire last week, his resignation captured the top spot in newspapers and news programming for days. Howard Kurtz wonders whether all of the fuss reflected the reality of Rove's work, or whether it served a synthetic narrative that the media created out of laziness: ...

Fundamentally Flawed
John Hinderaker

On Tuesday evening, CNN will debut a three-part series called God's Warriors. The series, devoted to an examination of "religious fundamentalism," is created and hosted by Christiane Amanpour; the first segment, to be aired Tuesday, is called "Jewish Warriors;" Wednesday's show is "Muslim Warriors," followed by "Christian Warriors" on Thursday.

While these three topics are treated as though they were on a par, there are some obvious distinctions. Like, the Christian "warriors" are home-schooling their children, while the Muslim "warriors" are blowing people up. If this Associated Press account is accurate, CNN's series is devoted to obfuscating such obvious differences rather than elucidating them.

For example: ...

Quick hits:

  • Feminist radio flops
    Michelle Malkin: Brian Maloney reported last week on the failure of Jane Fonda’s femtalk radio network. Apparently, the women who promised to empower their sisters on the airwaves are now set to stiff their own employees. Wimmin oppressing wimmin. How…liberating! Carrie Lukas has more in today’s NYPost on what women do and don’t want to hear: ...
  • Hitting Tehran where it hurts
    If the new sanctions imposed on Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) by the Bush administration are to have any meaningful, positive effect on Iranian behavior, they have to be seen as a first step toward pressuring Europe and Japan to curtail their financial relationships with the Iranian regime. Already confusion has emerged through leaks to The Washington Post and New York Times about how far the sanctions actually go. ...
  • For Iranian Guards, life is rich

Contributed by Bill Faith on August 20, 2007 at 12:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack


Sunday, 19 August 2007
 

A Quick Index To Today's Posts, Quick Hits, Open Post

Click here for a handy "most recently updated posts at the top" listing of the posts on this page. Click here to see a similar listing for the Old War Dogs site.

Today at Old War Dogs:

Quick links to some things farther down the page:

  • 2007.08.19 Politics and National Defense Roundup
    • Illegal immigrant arrested after leaving church
    • It’s getting harder to deny that General Petraeus is making progress.
    • The Lost Iranian Revolutionary Guard Patrol
    • Army Audits: Official Sites, Not Blogs, Breach Security
    • Heart-ache: Illegal aliens afraid to drive in case cops decide to actually enforce the law
    • 71% Favor Requiring Foreign Visitors to Carry Universal ID Card
    • Newark case update: More arrests, more “undocumented” criminals
    • Mark Steyn: Speaking of sanctuary, where's ours?
    • "MS-13 forever"
    • ...

Some other things worth knowing about that I didn't devote separate posts to:

  • Norwegian woodenheads
    Don Surber (H/T): Norway had a unique way of handling crime. Criminals were tried, convicted and sentenced just like anywhere else. But then it was left up to the convict to decide if he would actually serve his sentence. And of course, this does not work. Small wonder that Norway’s reported crime rate is double that of the United States. Police in Oslo are overwhelmed by crime. And a Norwegian newspaper reported that 70% of “Norwegians have no faith that they’ll get any help if someone breaks into their home.”

Folks, I don't know what my problem's been the last two or three days. My stomach's acting up and I just can't seem to get enough sleep. I'll try to start acting more energetic when I can but I don't know when that's going to be.

Please feel free to use this post for comments and trackbacks not related to other posts on the site. If you leave a trackback your post must include a link to this one and, as always, comments claiming the sun will rise in the west tomorrow, Chimpy McHitlerburton lied, etc. will be deleted without ever appearing on the site.

Contributed by Bill Faith on August 19, 2007 at 11:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

2007.08.19 Politics and National Defense Roundup

Illegal immigrant arrested after leaving church
Mother who defied deportation, took up sanctuary was in L.A. for rally

LOS ANGELES - An illegal immigrant who sought sanctuary in a Chicago church for a year to avoid deportation and separation from her 8-year-old American son was arrested Sunday, the church’s pastor said.

Elvira Arellano was arrested before 3 p.m. outside Our Lady Queen of Angels church on L.A.’s historic Olvera Street where she had been speaking to reporters, said the Rev. Walter Coleman, pastor of Adalberto United Methodist Church in Chicago where she sought sanctuary.

Coleman said he was with Arellano when she was detained, but declined to provide other details.

I'm crying great big tears for this bitch. Really I am. Great big wet ones.

See also:

The Lost Iranian Revolutionary Guard Patrol
Ed Morrissey

The US military command in Baghdad says it's tracking a band of Iranian Revolutionary Guard far away from home. Fifty members of the IRG have made their way to the area of the Iraqi capital, and the assumption is that they're not there as ambassadors of peace and love:

Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, whose command includes the volatile southern rim of Baghdad and districts to the south, said his troops are tracking about 50 members of Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps in their area -- the first detailed allegation that Iranians have been training fighters within Iraq's borders. "We know they're here and we target them as well," he said, citing intelligence reports as evidence of their presence. ...

Army Audits: Official Sites, Not Blogs, Breach Security
By Noah Shachtman (H/T: Patriot)

For years, members of the military brass have been warning that soldiers' blogs could pose a security threat by leaking sensitive wartime information. But a series of online audits, conducted by the Army, suggests that official Defense Department websites post far more potentially-harmful than blogs do.

The audits, performed by the Army Web Risk Assessment Cell between January 2006 and January 2007, found at least 1,813 violations of operational security policy on 878 official military websites. In contrast, the 10-man, Manassas, Virginia, unit discovered 28 breaches, at most, on 594 individual blogs during the same period.

The results were obtained by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, after the digital rights group filed a lawsuit under the Freedom of Information Act. ...

Surging
It’s getting harder to deny that General Petraeus is making progress.
By Clifford D. May

“The only thing this surge will accomplish is a surge of more death and destruction.” That was the prediction of blogger and antiwar activist Arianna Huffington back in December of last year — one month before the Senate unanimously confirmed Gen. David Petraeus as commander in Iraq.

"I believe ... that this war is lost, and this surge is not accomplishing anything.” That was the judgment of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid in April — two months before the reinforcements General Petraeus needed to fully implement his new “surge” strategy had arrived in Iraq.

In mid-June, just as troop strength was reaching the level needed to carry out the revised mission, Senator Reid added: “As many had foreseen, the escalation has failed to produce the intended results."

But now those intended results are being seen — as even some critics of the war, to their credit, are acknowledging. “More American troops have brought more peace to more parts of Iraq. I think that’s a fact,” Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill) told reporters.

“My sense is that the tactical momentum is there with the troops,” Sen. Jack Reed (D., R.I.) said to PBS’s Charlie Rose.

The debate over the war in Iraq is shifting,  ...

Heart-ache: Illegal aliens afraid to drive
in case cops decide to actually enforce the law
Allahpundit

Millions of border-jumping criminals with contempt for American immigration law are suffering from anxiety. Why?

Because of you, that’s why. ...

71% Favor Requiring Foreign Visitors to Carry Universal ID Card
Rasmussen Reports

Fifty-eight percent (58%) of voters nationwide favor cutting off federal funds for “sanctuary cities” that offer protection to illegal immigrants. A Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that just 29% are opposed. Republican Presidential hopeful Mitt Romney proposed such a plan earlier this week.

By a 71% to 16% margin, voters also favor a proposal that would require all foreign visitors to carry a universal identification card as proposed by another GOP Presidential hopeful, Rudy Giuliani  Seventy-four percent (74%) also favor the creation and funding of a central database to track all foreign visitors in the United States.

By a 56% to 31% margin, voters want the government to continue building a fence along the Mexican border.

Newark case update: More arrests, more “undocumented” criminals
Michelle Malkin

There have been more arrests in the Newark execution murders. Guess where they were headed? Geraldo thinks it’s “irrelevant.” Law enforcement officials, fortunately, took the suspects’ criminal alien status quite seriously:

[...]

Re. Godinez’s immigration history:

Immigration and Customs Enforcement records indicated Godinez may also be in the country illegally. Rodolfo Antonio Godinez Gomez entered the U.S. from Nicaragua on Oct. 24, 1992. He was ordered deported on May 5, 1993, but it isn’t clear if he ever left the country, according to Essex County Sheriff Armando Fontura.

“It seems to me that he was illegal,” he said.

More individuals of “irrelevant” citizenship status were taken in: ...

***

Mark Steyn: Speaking of sanctuary, where's ours?

At the funeral of Iofemi Hightower, her classmate Mecca Ali wore a T-shirt with the slogan: "Tell Me Why They Had To Die."

"They" are Miss Hightower, Dashon Harvey and Terrance Aeriel, three young citizens of Newark, New Jersey, lined up against a schoolyard wall, forced to kneel and then shot in the head.

***

"MS-13 forever"
Scott Johnson

Law enforcement authorities made two more arrests in the case of the execution-style murder of three Newark college students. The two newly arrested suspects include the apparent ringleader in the killings. They were apprehended in Washington, D.C., so the Washington Post covers the arrests as a big local story. The Post describes the suspects as "a 24-year old Nicaraguan man" -- Rodolfo Godinez -- and his teen-age half-brother.

One has to infer from hints in the story that the arrested suspects were illegal immigrants. The Post reports that Godinez's 16-year-old half brother was apprehended "in the basement of a Woodbridge townhouse as the intense manhunt in the execution-style killings moved to the Washington immigrant community, authorities said." The Post drops one other hint from which an inference can be drawn:  ...

Quick hits:

  • A White House Drawdown?
    Ed Morrissey: The New York Times reports that the White House has started working on a plan to reduce forces in Iraq, starting next year. However, the Times implies that this reduction represents some reversal on the part of the Bush administration, when it appears to be nothing more than the natural reduction from the surge's timeline: ...

Contributed by Bill Faith on August 19, 2007 at 12:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Older »