Because it worked so well for Belgium

Who are the bigger fools? A Brattleboro, VT activist group seeking universal jurisdiction for it’s town council to try Bush and Cheney for high crimes and misdemeanors (is Chavez next?) or the Vermont attorney general who thinks the effort is “of dubious legality” but vacillates because he has “not seen the proposal” nor done “legal research on any of the issues”.

I didn’t realize extrajudicial laws were tough calls for state AGs.

Originally posted in UNCoRRELATED 29 Dec, 2007

Simulated Thrills but Real Hubris

Glenn Reynolds can land a jetliner in an emergency, given the right conditions.

I'm with Glenn. I once was confident my Flight Simulator prowess would come in handy during an emergency. Then I invited a career pilot with several thousand hours of multi-engine time to "fly" my computer. He passed, saying he never was good at those things and always wound up crashing the landing.

I've hardly flown the simulation since.

Originally posted in UNCoRRELATED 27 Dec, 2007

Blood for Pulitzers

Last week a military spokesman stated AP photographer and accused terrorist, Bilal Hussein:

“possessed foreknowledge of an improvised explosive device (I.E.D.) attack” on American and Iraqi forces, “that he was standing next to the I.E.D. triggerman at the time of the attempted attack, and that he conspired with the I.E.D. triggerman to synchronize his photograph with the explosion.”

AP stated “The Associated Press continues to believe that claims Bilal is involved with insurgent activities are false.” Recall, however, their loose definition of involvement made back in 2005, after winning the Pulitzer prize for several controversial Iraq photographs including a murder conveniently committed in front of an unnamed AP photographer:

Several brave Iraqi photographers work for The Associated Press in places that only Iraqis can cover. Many are covering the communities they live in where family and tribal relations give them access that would not be available to Western photographers, or even Iraqi photographers who are not from the area.

Insurgents want their stories told as much as other people and some are willing to let Iraqi photographers take their pictures. It's important to note, though, that the photographers are not "embedded" with the insurgents. They do not have to swear allegiance or otherwise join up philosophically with them just to take their pictures.

In the above photo, AP conceded the photographer was "tipped off to a demonstration that was supposed to take place on Haifa Street." Is it too much of a stretch for the AP to wonder if their chroniclers of Iraqi terrorism also happen to be terrorist? Or are they trying to protect their Pulitzer?

H/T Neo-Neocon who compares the ethics of Mike Wallace with Bilal and finds Wallace lacking.

Related: The Jawa Report chronicles the Bilal Hussein story

Michelle Makin provides Bilal photographs. AP still thinks this guy just happens to be in the right place at the right time?

Originally posted in UNCoRRELATED 26 Dec, 2007

Why LA Needs a County Fair

Originally posted in UNCoRRELATED 22 Dec, 2007

Covering vs Covering Over

One way to be labeled a media conservative is to cover all the news :

Then there is the complaint that Drudge is a conservative.

But he seldom writes. He links. And the things he links to appear in liberal publications as well as conservative ones as well as middle-of-the-road sites.

He did not become popular by suppressing the news. That seems to be the job of the editors at Newsweek.

Related: Powerline questions Romney and Obama coverage: "Why the disparate treatment? It's hard to avoid the conclusion that the Associated Press covers candidates based on their party affiliation."

Originally posted in UNCoRRELATED 22 Dec, 2007

Suffering North American Muslims

Rabbi Eric Yoffie addresses The Islamic Society, one of the biggest Muslim organizations in the country:

"As a once-persecuted minority in countries where anti-Semitism is still a force, we understand the plight of Muslims in North America today," Yoffie said.

Really? Muslims are suffering pogroms right here in River City?

Who am I to question a Rabbi’s understanding of the plight of North American Muslims; but in drawing an equivalency, doesn’t Yoffie’s understanding of Jewish persecution seem lacking?

Originally posted in UNCoRRELATED 22 Dec, 2007

Clinton Library or Favor Factory?

Now that the Clinton Foundation tops a half billion dollars, I guess Hillary does have a basis for believing in Santa Claus:

With the presidential election approaching, Clinton Foundation donations skyrocketed last year to $135 million, 70% more than the year before, with two-thirds of the booty from only 11 donors.

The former president steadfastly refused to reveal the donors' identities — including one super-rich donor giving $31.3 million.

We can certainly now see why. The $31-million-dollar man turned out to be Canadian mining mogul and founder of Lionsgate Entertainment (distributor of Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11") Frank Giustra, who plans to give another $100 million, plus half his future earnings.

Foreign contributions to presidential campaigns are illegal, but foreigners such as Giustra can anonymously give as much as they like to presidential foundations. So can the Saudi royal family, the king of Morocco, a United Arab Emirates foundation, and the governments of Kuwait and Qatar, all of whom reportedly gave undisclosed amounts to the Clinton Foundation.

Norman Hsu was just a diversion.

It will be interesting to see how the "take" fares if Hillary tanks in Iowa and New Hampshire.
Other eye-raising donations:

..Anheuser-Busch gave $1 million after the Clinton administration's Federal Trade Commission agreed not to regulate beer, wine and liquor ads.

Chicago bankruptcy lawyer William A. Brandt Jr. pledged $1 million in 1999 as the Justice Department investigated whether he lied about using a big-money fundraiser for Clinton's 1996 re-election to lobby a top bankruptcy official. Later that year, Clinton's Justice Department cleared Brandt, who has since given big to Hil-lary's campaign.

When Loral Space and Communications' then-chairman, Bernard Schwartz,
agreed to give $1 million in 2000, the firm was being investigated over whether it gave satellite technology to China. Under the Bush administration, Loral agreed to a $14 million fine.

Other million-dollar contributors got themselves deals on things like Medicare reimbursements for hospitals in Puerto Rico and special treatment on cell phone licenses from the Federal Communications Commission. One is an Iranian-born aviation executive who provided military equipment to Tehran during Iran-Contra.

Then there's the notorious income tax fugitive Marc Rich, pardoned by Bill after his ex-wife, Denise, gave $450,000 to the Clinton Library.

h/t SDA

Originally posted in UNCoRRELATED 22 Dec, 2007

Baptists make great Mormons?

Slate did some digging into the dynamics underlying, presidential candidate and Baptist pastor, Mike Huckabee’s smear on Mormons:

In the early 1980s, Southern Baptist Convention leaders discovered—much to their horror—that 40 percent of Mormonism's 217,000 converts in 1980 came from Baptist backgrounds.

…And the SBC got serious about tempering the expansion of what was becoming the fastest-growing religion in the world. They developed programs, trained pastors, hosted Mormonism-awareness conferences, and published articles to help spread the message to Southern Baptists that Mormonism was a dangerous cult religion they had to avoid.

Huckabee may obfuscate what he knows or doesn't know about Mormons, but rest assured he knows Baptists and is making no subtle attempt to tap into their fears about Mormons.

Originally posted in UNCoRRELATED 22 Dec, 2007

How about 10 extra minutes for critical thinking?

USA Today reports:

The idea that more time in school produces better results could get a small boost today with the release of international data from the Brookings Institution. The study finds adding 10 minutes of math instruction to an eighth-grader's day translates into a jump in math skills…

…Most U.S. eighth-graders got 45 minutes of daily math instruction in 2003, down from 49 in 1995, but their scores on the Trends in Mathematics and Science Survey improved slightly.

Come again?

Researcher Tom Loveless says that is an anomaly, and more time in class could
help boost scores.

Tom needs to be sure his definition of an anomaly isn't a fact that runs counter to a pre-ordained conclusion (see also Global Warming ...)

Originally posted in UNCoRRELATED 11 Dec, 2007

You keep using that word…

… I don’t think it means what you think it means.

Improvised explosive device (IED) is the term for homemade mines fashioned by terrorists using explosives on hand – TNT, mortar rounds, howitzer shells etc.

The drawing of a production Explosively Formed Penetrator (EFP) in today’s edition of USA Today belies the accompaning term, IED, and the implied home grown insurgency. Armor piercing shaped charges aren’t cobbled together in the kitchen.

Despite using the wrong descriptor, USA Today does report the Iranian EFP connection and also notes the decline in their use as well as IED attacks coinciding with the surge. Overall, another good news article (unless you are a victory eschewing Democrat).

Electronic USA Today article (sans drawing) here.

Originally posted in UNCoRRELATED 11 Dec, 2007

Trading Hillarycare for Kindercare

Don Surber thinks the Clinton Campaign was too clever by half in pointing out Obama's kindergarten presidental aspirations:

I think Hillary’s intent is to sneak in that old — discredited — Muslim school rumor... ...You have to wade through 554 words to get to the Kindergarten Kwote.

So intent were they to gin a link to a headline sporting "Obama" with "Islamic" they failed to ponder the ramifications of the word "kindergarten" in their press release. Unbelievable.

I'm impressed. Obama was writing kindergarten essays while the only thing I could write was my name.

Originally posted in UNCoRRELATED 3 Dec, 2007

Opposite Day

Ever see a kid play "opposite day" and tease others by calling them beautiful?

Chris Matthews hasn't grown up.

Either that or he left his audio copy of 1984 running in a continuous loop while he slept.

Matthews is in a panic over the improving Iraq situation. Things look so good he is going through machinations to redefine victory; in his parallel universe World War II is now a loss and and Vietnam a victory. It's the only way he can ensure Iraq is tallied a loss.

In Matthews dictionary "a defeat is you can‘t leave."

Iraq is in good company:

• New Orleans (War of 1812)
• California (Mexican War - though it is still a toss-up)
• South Carolina (Civil War)
• Philippines/Puerto Rico (Spanish American War)
• Germany (WWII)
• Korea (do I have to spell it out?)

War's where we left:

• Vietnam
• Grenada... this must be the one Matthews remembered!

Originally posted in UNCoRRELATED Nov 29, 2007

Not News to Conservatives…

…that modern liberalism and fascism are two peas in a pod. For you liberal readers, a bit of free education from Dictionary.com:

fas•cism [fash-iz-uh m] a governmental system led by a dictator having complete power, forcibly suppressing opposition and criticism, regimenting all industry, commerce, etc., and emphasizing an aggressive nationalism and often racism.

Hillary Care comes to mind - remember she would have made it a crime for doctors to work independently (Canada is beginning to throw off that burden but they seem to be well on the way to forcibly suppress opposition and criticism). And don’t forget the pillars of tolerance, our American Universities.

Old news to conservatives; but are some liberals getting it? Publisher’s Weekly, which leans a bit left, showed some surprise at liberal/fascist connections in their review of Jonah Goldberg’s new book “The Secret History of the American Left from Mussolini to the Politics of Meaning”:

In this provocative and well-researched book, Goldberg probes modern liberalism's spooky origins in early 20th-century fascist politics…

He lays low such lights of liberal history as Margaret Sanger, apparently a radical eugenicist, and JFK, whose cult of personality, according to Goldberg, reeks of fascist political theater. Much of this will be music to conservatives' ears, but other readers may be stopped cold by the parallels Goldberg draws between Nazi Germany and the New Deal.

The author of this piece didn’t know the mother of the abortion movement was a radical eugenicist? Do they know she was racist too? The surprise Publisher’s Weekly shows is fascinating - they are supposedly in the business of reading books. If this is also news to other liberals, who somehow missed this during their university days, maybe they need to check that fascism definition again about suppression of opposition and criticism.

h/t Glenn Reynolds

Originally posted in UNCoRRELATED Nov 28, 2007

Accents

What American accent do you have? Your Result: The West Your accent is the lowest common denominator of American speech. Unless you're a SoCal surfer, no one thinks you have an accent. And really, you may not even be from the West at all, you could easily be from Florida or one of those big Southern cities like Dallas or Atlanta.
The Midland
Boston
North Central
Philadelphia
The Northeast
The South
The Inland North
What American accent do you have? Quiz Created on GoToQuiz

H/T Mick

Ahab and Jezebel Moved to Boulder

They call themselves Richard and Edith now, but this time they have their eyes on Don and Susie Kirlin’s property:

Despite owning the land, despite living only 200 yards from the property, despite hiking past it every week with their three dogs, despite spraying for weeds and fixing fences, despite paying homeowner association dues and property taxes each year, someone else had taken a shine to it. Someone powerful.

Former Boulder District Judge, Boulder Mayor, RTD board member - among other elected positions - Richard McLean and his wife, attorney Edith Stevens, used an arcane common law called "adverse possession" to claim the land for their own.

David Harsanyi chronicles:

The story is so absurd, so unfair, so ludicrous, I had a difficult time believing that it could actually happen - even in Boulder.

Actually Boulder is a natural. Or any other locale leftists congregate. In Monterey County CA, for instance, they control property they don’t own “to preserve open space and their quality of life”:

While environmentalists and farmers battled and little new housing was built, immigrants suffered, with more and more workers living in difficult conditions.

Harsanyi finds this absurd. It is when measured against the Judeo-Christian ethics most of this nation shares. Stealing land is less likely to occur where these values are still respected. But it is not hard to believe left wing sanctuaries, such as Boulder, known for luminaries like Marxist Ward Churchill, have less compunction about it. Liberals have been liberating themselves from old fashioned virtues, but not without replacing them with even older vices.

More at boingboing.

h/t Instapundit

Originally posted in UNCoRRELATED Nov 22, 2007

Romney Unfazed by Redford

Speaking of staying on message - Robert Redford makes the obligatory reference to plastic Mormons while peddling his latest movie about the war in Afghanistan:

"They are very adept at not being fazed and speaking fluently and gracefully. Why? Because every single male who's a Mormon goes on a mission for two years when they're 19 or 20," he says. "They learn how to deflect blows and stay on message. No wonder Utah is the place that all these Republican senators go. It's perfect. So when you see Mitt Romney, he's already been practicing how to deflect blows and stay on message. But it's plastic."

Mitt fluently and gracefully deflects the blow:

Well, I’m not going to worry too much about Robert Redford. You know, I must admit that I learned a great deal as I had the chance to serve my Church, and that was how many years ago? 40 years ago?

Back when Redford was still married to a Mormon.

Maybe Bob meant he liked it when Mormons spend plastic

Meanwhile, he probably wishes fazed Harry Reid had been a Mormon when he was 19 or 20 and picked up some of that fluidity and grace. Harry thought he said "Plastination."

Bainbridge detects a doublestandard

Originally posted in UNCoRRELATED Nov 17, 2007

Wallace is Dead

But he wasn't shot dead.

I enjoy reading Daniel Henninger but he had a major error in fact in today's print edition of the WSJ. He listed a littany of events that happened in 1968 and ended with this:

On Nov. 4 having absorbed all this, the people of the United States voted. They gave 43.3% of their vote to Richard Nixon and 42.7% to Hubert Humphrey. Alabama Gov. George Wallace got 13.5%. Four years later, George Wallace was shot dead while running for president. 1968 lasted a long time.

Wallace wound up paralyzed, not dead. He actually died at the age of 79 in 1998. The online version has been corrected to omit the word dead. Maybe a Lynyrd Skynyrd fan clued them in:

In Birmingham they love the governor Now we all did what we could do Now Watergate does not bother me Does your conscience bother you? Tell the truth

The point of Hennigers column, "1968: The Long Goodbye" is that the sixties are dead. A younger generation wants to get off the psychedelic bus:

In 1968, Nicolas Sarkosy was 13 years old. John McCain was 32 and Hillary Clinton was 21. Barack Obama was 7. It is not beyond imagining that the precocious Messrs. Sarkozy and Obama were alert to events in 1968 but for the first wave of baby boomers just touching adulthood that year, it was the beginning of a strange journey.

I doubt Obama was keyed into those 1968 events. I was also 7 then; I don't know where he was, but I was a second grader in Valdosta Georgia. Our teacher conducted a class "vote" during the '68 presidential campaign. I cast the deciding vote for George Wallace. Not because it reflected my parents views (it didn't - but I didn't know at the time) I did it because that's who my friends voted for. My one and only time being a Dixiecrat.

Four years later I was pretty cognizant of politics. I stayed up to watch the election returns; but I didn't need to stay up late to see another George was going to recieve a pounding. It was the sixties that died in 1972 - not George Wallace. But it has been the Democrats that have been paralyzed ever since then.

UPDATE: Powerline makes additional corrections and comments.

Originally posted in UNCoRRELATED Nov 15, 2007

Color Coded Corruption

The U.S. is orange. It would be interesting to get a chart by individual states.

from Captain Capitalism

Originally posted in UNCoRRELATED Nov 13, 2007

Lack of Negative Coverage to Blame

From the Politico I read this gem:

The Democratic base’s negative view of the war also has lessened of late.

This summer, CBS News found that 57 percent of Democrats thought the
war was going “very badly.”

Today, the number has fallen by 12 points, to 45 percent.

The changing views probably have little to do with Congress, said Stephen Biddle, a senior fellow for defense policy at the Council on Foreign Relations.

“You have also had the near absence of the war coverage in the last months, and since the coverage is generally negative, the less coverage, the less negative communications that reaches people’s living rooms.”

Biddle's analysis seems to imply that absence of media coverage is the only reason negative stories aren't being reported from Iraq. It doesn't seem to occur to him that maybe there are less negative things to report.

via Glen Reynolds

Originally posted in UNCoRRELATED Nov 13, 2007

Angling

My wife didn’t know I liked to fish till we moved to Utah. In our previous seventeen years of marriage I never went fishing. When she asked why now, I told her because we hadn’t lived near mountain streams earlier. I grew up angling in the Rocky Mountains and Alaska. Fishing and mountains were like bread and butter; I didn’t do one without the other.

About three years ago my wife signed me up for this course where I learned to “nymph”, a technique of fly fishing using “flies” that simulate nymphs and other water insects. These nymphs bounce along the bottom of streams and into the mouths of waiting trout lying on the stream bed. When a trout mouths a fly-fishing nymph, it detects it isn’t edible and turns its head to allow the current to wash it away. The trick is to be able to detect the moment when a trout mouths a nymph and set the hook. Sometimes the line hesitates, but mainly you start to develop a sixth sense. I’ve never had more success fishing so it is about the only type of angling I do.

Today being Veterans Day, I was able to get an hour and a half of fishing on the Weber River. I caught one brown trout on a sow bug and two browns and a white fish using a bead head pheasant tail pattern.

Originally posted in UNCoRRELATED Nov 12, 2007

Mom's a Maverick Too

Mom might not be making the talking head circuit for a while after MSNBC's Chris Matthews asked her opinion of Mitt Romney:

"As far as the Salt Lake City thing, he's a Mormon and the Mormons of Salt Lake City had caused that scandal. And to clean that up, again, it's not a subject," Roberta McCain said.

John McCain quickly stepped in: "The views of my mother's are not necessarily the views of mine."

"Well, that's my view and you asked me," Roberta answered.

I haven't met anyone in their nineties who didn't speak what was on their mind - good, bad, or ugly; McCain's mother reinforces my observation. I don't think McCain expected his Mom's response - he looked pretty uncomfortable.

Even at ninety-five Mrs McCain displayed a "mother Bear" instinct to defend her son from a perceived threat.

Will the gaffe matter to Mormons? Probably not. Too much. The Utah Governer, Jon Huntsman Jr. is a McCain supporter. His father, who I consider more influental however, is a key supporter of Mitt Romney.

Will Mrs McCain's disparaging remarks about Mormons increase his support in the Bible belt state of South Carolina? Hard to tell, but I would hope not.

Also, listen to Matthews. Twice he refers to John McCain as Roberta McCain's husband. I was beginning to think he didn't know better.

Originally posted in UNCoRRELATED Nov 9, 2007

I Can Read Afterall

I still get the dead tree edition of my local paper. It is a breakfast tradition. I read the headlines and editorials, the kids read the comics.

Yesterday I read the headline at the right, "A Quarter of Veterans in US are Homeless" and immediately found it unbelievable. So I decided to write a blog entry about it. And like any good blogger, I linked to the electronic version so you the reader could have your own look. Except the headline changed, but I didn't pay attention as I cut and pasted it into my post.

When I calculated there would be 8 million homeless veterans (based on about 33 Million total veterans), I knew an error had been made somewhere. I rechecked the electronic article, saw the headline and assumed I misread it (which I did). I noted the error and moved on.

I didn't realize the dead tree version had a different headline till I glanced at it as I tossed it into the recycling pile today. So I'm partially relieved that I read one of them right. The Deseret News just made a simple error; their editor caught it later and had the e-version corrected.

Originally posted in UNCoRRELATED Nov 9, 2007

Hillary as Sister Souljah

Peggy Noonan constrasts Margaret Thacher's leadership with Hillary Clinton's lack thereof. Noonan mentions Hillary's attempt to portray herself as a victim of sexism during the last Democrat presidential debate and comments on the reaction:

It's all kind of wonderful, isn't it? Someone indulged in special pleading and America didn't buy it. It's as if the country this week made it official: We now formally declare that the woman who uses the fact of her sex to manipulate circumstances is a jerk.

Dare we say this was Hillary's Sister Souljah moment - even if she was the Sister Souljah?

Originally posted in UNCoRRELATED Nov 9, 2007

Popcorn Popping

A few of our readers might be interested to know that the composer of the cheery "Popcorn Popping on the Apricot Tree" passed away this week:

The woman whose light-hearted song about springtime blossoms is known to millions of Latter-day Saints has died at her home in Salt Lake City. Georgia Wahlin Bello, 83, died Monday, Nov. 5, 2007, surrounded by her family after a three-year battle with Alzheimer's disease.

Mrs. Bello plucked out the melody and words for the LDS children's Primary song, "Popcorn Popping on the Apricot Tree," using her daughter's one-octave, toy piano in the late 1950s. Her daughter, Joanne Foster, said the song was composed several years after her brother Kenneth — then 3 years old — pointed out the window of their home in Magna and exclaimed, "Look Mom, popcorn popping on the apricot tree."

The song she composed became a favorite in "Primary" (Sunday School for Mormon children), though it isn't imbued with any overt religious message. In fact it is incorporated into this pre-school plan for teaching about plants.

Some folks have taken a few liberties with the song such as this young man:



Originally posted in UNCoRRELATED Nov 9, 2007

Order of Battle

When Karl Rove left the White House, many short-sighted Democrats thought the architect of their hell was gone. I think they would have been better off if he remained - now he he has a free hand with no need for Presidential restraint. In the WSJ he outlines a littany of failures from the Democrat controlled congress:

"Democrats criticized Congress for dragging its feet on the budget and pledged that they would do better. Instead, they did worse. The new fiscal year started Oct. 1--five weeks ago--but Democrats have yet to send the president a single annual appropriations bill."

"...all their talk about "fiscal discipline" is just that--talk. They're proposing to spend $205 billion more than the president has proposed over the next five years."

"Let's also be clear about what it means to roll back the president's 2001 and 2003 tax cuts...- Every income-tax payer will pay more as all tax rates rise.
- Families will pay $500 more per child as they lose the child tax credit.
- Taxes on small businesses would go up by an average of about $4,000.
- Retirees will pay higher taxes on investment retirement income.
- And now we have the $1 trillion tax increase proposed as "tax reform" by
the Democrats' chief tax writer last month."

"Beholden to MoveOn.org and other left-wing groups..."

"After promising on the campaign trail to "support our troops," Democrats tried to cut off funding for our military while our soldiers and Marines are under fire from the enemy."

"Their presidential candidates fell all over each other in a recent debate to pledge an end to the Terrorist Surveillance Program."

They "have launched more than 400 investigations and made more than 675
requests for documents, interviews or testimony"

" refused a bipartisan compromise on an expansion of the State Children's Health Insurance Program"

Think Karl Rove is compiling anecdotes for his memoirs?

The Democratic victory in 2006 was narrow. They won the House by 85,961 votes out of over 80 million cast and the Senate by a mere 3,562 out of over 62 million cast. A party that wins control by that narrow margin can quickly see its fortunes reversed when it fails to act responsibly, fails to fulfill its promises, and fails to lead.

Looks more like a battle plan.

Originally posted in UNCoRRELATED Nov 9, 2007

More Press Release Journalism

I find this headline highly unlikely:

Over 1/4 of U.S. homeless are veterans

Why do I question it? That means one out of the four people I served with are on the street - I think I would have noticed. And just in case you are wondering, I'm not writing this from the homeless shelter.

I'll go out on a limb and state the number probably relies on dubious estimates or methods. I don't know yet just a hunch. I've downloaded the report and I'll check it out. I doubt the AP writer has done that much; I note most of her story was just lifted from the National Alliance to End Homelessness press release. It is not like I've seen critical thinking missing from a reprint of other advocacy group press releases.

I'll let you know what I find.

UPDATE: I see I'm not reading the headline correctly. The figure is 1/4 of the U.S. homeless are veterans. I misread that to be 1/4 of all veterans. Certainly a smaller number. In the words of Roseanne Roseannadanna: "Never Mind". My apologies to the AP reporter.

I'll still read the report anyway.

MORE: Don Surber does the math - "99.4% of us [i.e. Vets] have homes" and notes:

194,254 homeless vets are a problem. America is dealing with it.

The VA has a very serious program that is now in its 20th year. But AP reported the number of homeless vets has dropped only by 50,000 or so in that time.

The VA budget has nearly doubled on Bush’s watch. He sought $39.5 billion for the fiscal year that began Oct. 1 (the Democratic Congress has failed to meet the Sept. 30 deadline for sending even one of the 13 appropriations bills to the president — but that is a whole ’nother story).

It is cynically dishonest for VA bureaucrats to trot out this 1-in-4 statistic to shake down even more money. It makes it seem as though 1-in-4 veterans are homeless, when we are not.

Originally posted in UNCoRRELATED Nov 8, 2007

Students Know Less History After 4 College Years

Well it is four years older.

Originally posted in UNCoRRELATED Nov 5, 2007

Wag the Dog in Reverse

The Iraq war is petering out, so the Democrats need President Bush to start a new one so they can have something to run against:

But what happens if President Bush does not bomb Iran? That is good news for the world, but potentially terrible news for the Democrats. If we do go to war in Iran, the election will indeed be a referendum on the results, which the Republican Party will own no matter whom it nominates for president. But if we don’t, the Democratic standard-bearer will have to take a clear stand on the defining issue of the race. As we saw once again at Tuesday night’s debate, the front-runner, Hillary Clinton, does not have one.

As Don Surber wrote: "Suppose they gave a protest and nobody warred?"

Originally posted in UNCoRRELATED Nov 4, 2007

When Victory is an Orphan

The London Times wonders why declining violence in Iraq isn't making the news. Conservatives don't want to be premature; the left is probably trying to resuscitate defeat.

Originally posted in UNCoRRELATED Nov 3, 2007

Declining Academic Standards

One more sign of academic decline - Professors no longer require students to stretch:

A University of Maine student alleges her former professor offered extra credit to class members if they burned the American flag or the U.S. Constitution or were arrested defending free speech.

Who gets arrested for burning the U.S flag anymore? The professor is out of touch or a softy. For real excitement he ought to give extra credit for desecrating a Hezbollah flag:

...At a small anti-terrorism rally in October 2006, several members of the College Republicans stomped on pieces of paper they had painted to look like flags of the radical Islamic organizations Hezbollah and Hamas, copying the designs from images on the Internet. A few days later, a Muslim student filed a complaint, on the grounds that the Arabic script on the Hezbollah and Hamas flags contained the word “Allah.” The university pressed charges, accusing the blasphemers of “incivility” and creating “a hostile environment.”

You don't even have to wait for the police or the terrorists to get you; your own university will prosecute you. For extra thrills, try doing this with a flag actually owned by the terrorists.

H/T Liberty Pundit via Don Surber

Originally posted in UNCoRRELATED Nov 3, 2007

The Numbers Behind Casualty Rates

James Taranto points out that 20% percent of Iraq War casualties are due to non-combat causes. Accidents, sickness, suicide, and the occasional love triangle murder. You wouldn’t get that insight reading the NYT:

The Department of Defense has identified 3,825 American service members who have died since the start of the Iraq war. It confirmed the deaths of the following Americans on Tuesday: CAMACHO, Anamarie Sannicolas, 20, Seaman, Navy; Panama City, Fla.; Naval Support Activity. GRESHAM, Genesia Mattril, 19, Seaman, Navy; Lithonia, Ga.; Naval Support Activity.

Here is what Taranto fills in:

Anamarie Sannicolas Camacho, 20, and her colleague Genesia Mattril Gresham, 19, were shot dead at the Naval Support Activity Base, Juffair, at around 5am on October 22. Their alleged killer, fellow serviceman Clarence Jackson, 20, is still clinging to life after apparently shooting himself in the head immediately after the murders. He is now at the National Naval Medical Centre in Bethesda, Maryland, US, after being transferred to the US from a specialist hospital in Germany. . . .

Taranto had to find this info courtesy of the Gulf Daily News, a Bahraini paper.

I subscribe to the Defense Departments press releases and consequently get all casualty notices. I don’t read all of DoD’s press releases but I read every casualty notice. A significant number of deaths are non-combat related. It is sad, but these non-combat deaths are similiar to the types of items you read in the obituary for those who die prematurely. The NYT, however, isn't careful to differentiate. The next time they see a casualty report from a training accident at Fort Hood, don't be surprised to see NYT editors call for a troop withdrawal from Texas.

H/T Instapundit

Originally posted in UNCoRRELATED Oct 30, 2007

United States of Europe, Take Two

What do you do when the voters dump your constitution? Change the title and don't make the mistake of taking it to the voters again:

The new EU Reform Treaty is effectively the same as the constitution it was designed to replace, according to a leading architect of the constitution.

The treaty differs from the abandoned constitution in "approach rather than content", says former French President Valery Giscard d'Estaing.

Mr Giscard d'Estaing led a committee drafting the constitution, rejected by French and Dutch voters in 2004.

Several European governments hope to avoid a referendum on the new treaty.

I wonder how this will work, however:

Mr Giscard d'Estaing points out that the UK will not be bound by the treaty's
rules on human rights and judicial harmonisation, and would retain the right to
"duck in and out of the system as it pleases".

Duck in and out as it pleases? Constitution lite - why didn't South Carolina think of that? Still, there are some sceptics:

British Euro-sceptics want the government to hold a referendum on the treaty,
arguing it is no different to the constitution.

Euro-sceptics. I thought those were conservative Americans.

Independent's article here.

h/t Astuteblogger

Originally posted in UNCoRRELATED Oct 30, 2007

Smart Mobbing

The NYT blog "The Caucus" seems a little miffed that Moveon.org helped stack the deck in an on-line poll to select a question for an MTV Q&A forum for Senator Obama:

But, TechPresident, which produces 10Questions, says MoveOn sent an e-mail to 60,000 members urging them to vote for Mr. Niederberger’s video question, "Would you make it a priority in your first year of office to reinstate net neutrality as the law of the land?” Within a day, usage on the 10Questions site surged, and Mr. Niederberger’s entry won with about 5,300 votes. The second-place question about medicinal marijuana got only 2,600 votes.

This is news? That’s what happens with internet polls. Never begin to take them seriously.

One of the funniest instances of “smart-mobbing” was a decade ago when Mustafa Ataturk, Turkey’s “George Washington”, was voted a “better singer than Elvis” in the top entertainer category of a series of top 100 lists. Ironically the poll was sponsored by the New York Times. Turns out the Greeks, who have a strong dislike for Turks, were stuffing the ballots in the entertainer category in response to the Turks ballot stuffing in the top leader category.
Meanwhile, 10Questions.com certainly wasn't bothered:

By today, TechPresident’s Micah Sifry reported: “Participation on 10Questions.com has surged, with the total number of voters topping 15,000 (that’s up about 9,000 from Friday), the total number of votes hitting 46,000 (up 19,000) and the total unique visits for the weekend at 17,000, more than 10 times Friday’s traffic.”

I just wonder what Moveon thought was so important about their question.

h/t Hugh Hewitt

Originally posted in UNCoRRELATED Oct 29, 2007

Ogden River

Spent the morning cheering 5K runners along the Ogden River Parkway (Ogden, UT) and had the chance to snap this photo.

I didn't stick around for dinner, but two good steak restaurants lie at the West and East ends of the trail, the Prairie Schooner and the Timbermine. Weber State University, which gained some 2nd amendment visibility this week, is a few blocks South. Also of Ogden fame is the 70,000 beer can house. At least they weren't tossed into the river.

Originally posted in UNCoRRELATED Oct 27, 2007

Bent Spear Investigation Results

The Air Force didn't shine during their press conference they held concerning their investigation into the snafu with the six nuclear warheads. Major General Newton, the operations chief for Air Combat Command, identified five procedural errors that caused airmen to lose accountability of the weapons. They wound up on a B-52 flown from Minot AFB, in North Dakota, to Barksdale AFB in Louisiana.

General Newton called this an "isolated incident" but later mentioned there "has been an erosion of adherence to weapons-handling standards at Minot Air Force Base and at Barksdale Air Force Base". Not generally known is that these bases are the only two main operating bases for B-52s. "Isolated" seems to cover the whole operational fleet. Indeed Commanders from both bases were fired. This would include the chain of command at Minot from the munitions commander to his wing commander two levels higher, and the hapless operations commander at Barksdale who had charge of the B-52 navigator who only checked half the pylons on his plane. Some times in the Air Force bad stuff rolls uphill.

While commanders were relieved, things will be worse for the airmen who actually committed the five errors. I expect some will face a court martial for violating procedures. These aren't suggestions; each procedure is documented in a book called a "Technical Order" - literally meaning an "order" from the Air Force Chief of Staff.

The Q&A period at the end of the briefing shows the AF still isn't media savvy. A lot of questions about storage procedures were met with the stock answer "The weapons were stored in the facilities per DOD guidelines and Air Force guidelines as well". I know this is due to operational security, but a little explanation of that fact would help reporters understand the situation. Instead, the General comes accross like he is stone-walling.

Originally posted in UNCoRRELATED Oct 25, 2007

I Hope They Have Two Meeting Halls

It's not unusual to see solicitations for ministers to meet the needs of the military and Federal prisoners, but I had to chuckle a bit seeing ads for a Rabbi and an Imam on the same day from the same prison.

Originally posted in UNCoRRELATED Oct 25, 2007

Collegiate Bass Fishing

I never tried out for college sports but then they never had this when I was in college. Definately a scholarship worth pursuing.

Originally posted in UNCoRRELATED Oct 25, 2007

Federal Earmark Program

Looking for the next Jack Abramoff the City of South Jordan, Utah, released this solicitation for "professional consultation services for the purpose of obtaining Federal Earmark Funds."

It's just another federal program, right?

What they need is a Murtha Mystery. I won't even charge them for the consult.

Moon Rising Over Francis Peak

Caught the moon peeking over Francis Peak this afternoon.

Phony Listeners

Concluding a rant about gutter level political discourse, Dan K. Thomasson states:

Unfortunately, all the intemperate language and false pronouncements offered as intelligent discourse have dropped the political debate to its lowest level in modern history. One yearns for the days when arguments could be passionate without the slanderous vilification of those who might disagree.

One would think, then, he would have avoided "false pronouncements" and "slanderous vilification" in the same piece, however, check what he wrote only six paragraphs earlier:

Then there is Rush Limbaugh, whose rich baritone pervades the midday airwaves from coast to coast. Limbaugh's latest attempt to satisfy his addiction to irrational knee-jerking and to the cadre of those who hang on his every word and smother him with fatuous compliments has libeled a great chunk of America's Iraq veterans by contending they are really not soldiers if they now question the war in Iraq. This has produced an angry letter from Senate Democrats who believe the bellicose Limbaugh has finally crossed the line.

Having listened to the segment Thomasson alludes to, one quickly discerns Rush is actually talking about phony soldiers: people who claim to have served but either haven't or lied about their service. In this case Rush specifically refers to a man who didn't even make it out of basic training but was paraded by the left as one who claimed to have served in Iraq and committed atrocities. What's not phony? But Thomasson perpetuates the slander to underscore his point when he just as well could have pointed to his own ravings as exhibit "A" on lowball political discourse.

Unfortunately for Thomasson, the only advice from his column he demonstrably heeds is: "The only cure for their poison is not to listen".

Sound advice - unless you want to write rational commentary about said poison.

Devil's Slide

Forty foot twin walls of hard limestone bracket a softer shaly limestone base forming a chute called Devil's Slide. They are upended remnants of an ancient seabed that existed 170-180 million years ago. The surrounding shaly limestone erode at a faster rate leaving the walls. Similar formations can be found nearby but Devil's Slide is the most pronounced.
I took this picture about two weeks ago while traveling to one of my fishing holes. The Weber River runs below this slide. Travellers on I-84 can view the slide as they travel between Henefer and Morgan Utah.

The Politics of "Personnel" Destruction

The Wall Street Journal provides a fact-based summary of the events at Haditha. You'll have to check with Representative John Murtha to get the version pulled from thin air. The WSJ concludes:

At Haditha, did the Marines act reasonably and appropriately based on their training? They were in a hostile combat situation where deadly force was authorized against suspected triggermen for the IED, and were ordered to assault a suspected insurgent hideout. In retrospect, the men in the car had no weapons or explosives; in retrospect, the people in the house were not insurgents. No one knew at the time.

Innocents were killed at Haditha, as they inevitably are in all wars--though that does not excuse or justify wrongdoing. Yet neither was Haditha the atrocity or "massacre" that many assumed--though errors in judgment may well have been committed. And while some violent crimes have been visited on civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan, overall the highly disciplined U.S. military has conducted itself in an exemplary fashion. When there have been aberrations, the services have typically held themselves accountable.

The same cannot be said of the political and media classes. Many, including Members of Congress, were looking for another moral bonfire to discredit the cause in Iraq, and they found a pretext in Haditha. The critics rushed to judgment; facts and evidence were discarded to fit the antiwar template.

Too bad the Democrats couldn't attack terrorists with the same vehemence as they attack their own military. Heaven help us if they did that, though; their complete disregard for facts would wind up exposing more innocents to danger than our military does.

Originally posted in UNCoRRELATED Oct 19 2007

Seeking Defense Against Sociopaths...

...must mean you are one.

A student at Hamline University in Minnesota has been suspended and ordered to undergo a mental health evaluation for advocating the carrying of legal concealed weapons on campus.

TownHall.com reports Troy Scheffler made the case in an e-mail to a school official that licensed gun owners could stop or prevent the kind of violence that struck Virginia Tech earlier this year. He pointed out that research has indicated the possibility of armed resistance discourages potential criminals. And he noted that many Virginia Tech students have said the massacre there would not have happened if the school had not banned concealed weapons.

But even though the school has a policy that guarantees students will be free to discuss all questions of interest and express their opinions openly, the dean of students says Scheffler's e-mail was deemed to be threatening. Scheffler was placed on interim suspension, which will only be lifted after he agrees to a psychological evaluation.

Next they will be prescribing lobotomies.

Originally posted in UNCoRRELATED Oct 18 2007

The Knack

When Larry Sommers pointed to the elephant in the room, biological differences, as something to investigate in the search of explanations in the disparity between men and women in engineering and related fields - he instantly touched that third rail and became a martyr to political correctness.

The American Enterprise Institue soldiers on however:

Last week, the American Enterprise Institute brought together top researchers on sex differences, ranging from the strongly feminist Brandeis women's studies scholar Rosalind Barnett to AEI scholar and co-author of "The Bell Curve," Charles Murray. The discussions were heated, but civil. No one got mad, fled the room weeping, or nearly fainted.

Christina Hoff Sommers notes AEI hasn't settled the science on this but mentioned an interesting study:

Simon Baron-Cohen, a professor at Cambridge University and one of the world's leading experts on autism, had an intriguing hypothesis. Autism is far more common in males than females. Those afflicted with the disorder, including those with normal or high IQ, tend to be socially disconnected and clueless about the emotional states of others. They often exhibit an obsessive fixation on objects and machines.

Ms Sommers writes "Sound like anyone you know?"

Originally posted in UNCoRRELATED Oct 16 2007

Senator Durban, Call Your Office

Apparently this federal judge did not get Senator Durban's memo:

A federal judge in Washington blocked the Pentagon from transferring a Guantanamo Bay detainee to Tunisia, where he allegedly faces torture, according to a ruling unsealed Tuesday that marked a milestone in the treatment of detainees.

...Kessler said that Rahman, who has a heart condition, was convicted in absentia in Tunisia, sentenced to 20 years in prison and allegedly would face torture there, demonstrating "the devastating and irreparable harm he is likely to face if transferred."

You'll recall Durbin's description of Guantanamo:

Durbin quoted from an FBI agent's report describing prisoners being chained to the floor without food or water in extreme temperatures. He said "If I read this to you and did not tell you that it was an FBI agent describing what Americans had done to prisoners in their control, you would most certainly believe this must have been done by Nazis, Soviets in their gulags, or some mad regime — Pol Pot or others — that had no concern for human beings."

By Durban's standard, Tunisia should be a walk in the park for this prisoner; and yet the ingrate is suing to stay at Gitmo. Imagine that.

Originally posted in UNCoRRELATED Oct 10 2007

Shielding the Shield Law

The media blackout on opposing opinions to the shield law is more pervasive than my local paper's intransigence.

Newspaper editorial pages uniformly support the new federal shield law, protecting journalists’ from divulging their sources. (A Google check fails to find any opposed.) The Center for Responsive Politics describes newspapers’ coordinated lobbying. Their combined circulation is in the tens of millions. The Washington Post spent $91,000 lobbying in 2007, including for the shield law. Contrary views in the far smaller and less influential alternate media, or occasional op-ed’s, have relatively puny weight.

More from the National Association of Manufacturers:

But the funny thing is, you wouldn't know any of this business aspect to the bill from reading today's Washington Post, its lead editorial and two op-eds, would you? The issue is ONLY about the media; a major, private-sector issue loses out to media self-interest.

Which causes us to muse: How many times does that happen, that the media tell a story about a piece of legislation with heat and passion, but only part of the story? Leaving the reader essentially uninformed?

Like I said, half a discussion.

h/t Instapundit

Originally posted in UNCoRRELATED Oct 8 2007

Half a Discussion

My local paper prints this lament from a reader:

Though I've had more than 100 letters to the editor published, I've never been able to get one printed about the shield law. It seems there are just some subjects on which the Deseret Morning News will brook no opposition.

I’ve wondered the same thing. Monday morning I also sent the DesNews a letter in response to their endorsement of the shield law in last Sunday’s Edition.

I checked the paper each day this week and the only response on the subject was Clark’s letter this morning. I’m not as prolific as he is – I’ve only sent the paper five letters in five years – but of the three they did not print, two were responses to the paper’s opinions on the shield law. I also note the comments to their editorial in their electronic edition overwhelmingly oppose the shield law.

The paper can print or not print what it wants, but their lack of an adequate discussion on the shield law underscores my point they can not be trusted with the responsibility they are asking for.

At least I have another forum for the letter:

Editor (Deseret News),

A shield law, exempting reporters from laws others must follow, will engender more abuse than public good. Without the shield, opines the Deseret News “people with information about official corruption become less likely to tell what they know” (“Time is right for shield law” – 30 Sept). But the only reporter they mention is Judith Miller who was jailed for protecting a target of a government corruption investigation – not a whistle-blower. The mention of Miller inadvertently highlights what the paper fails to inform us: a shield law would embolden corrupt officials to misuse access to information for political purposes.

Former Presidential Candidate John Kerry has exercised his right to refuse release of his military service record. The shield law would enable a corrupt official, however, to leak such information with impunity. Are we to expect the good will of unelected reporters, such as Dan Rather who concocted a story based on fake documents, to protect citizens from malcontents in the IRS, FBI, CIA or several dozen other government agencies?

Major media outlets have shown an inclination to run stories supplied by government employees with partisan agendas. A shield law will only increase such abuse thus doing more harm than good.

Dave Calder

Originally posted in UNCoRRELATED Oct 5 2007

Give Peace(keepers) a Chance

Interesting assesment in The Economist about how peacekeeping provided the military means to engender Fijian coups:

Without peacekeeping missions overseas, it is unlikely that Fiji's army would ever have become strong enough to seize power. When the British left in 1970, there were only around 200 serving military personnel. UN peacekeeping operations in Lebanon and Sinai generated a tenfold increase by 1986. The next year, Fiji witnessed its first military coup. Some 20,000-25,000 Fijians have been deployed on UN missions since independence—a lot for a country of fewer than 1m.

…Fiji risks losing around $254m in promised EU aid, badly needed at a time when tourist numbers are declining, the gold industry has collapsed and the country's main export industry, sugar, has stagnated.

All of which gives even greater importance to peacekeeping. Remittances from peacekeepers now make up a big chunk of Fiji's foreign-exchange earnings. And with the demand for their services growing, there is understandable reluctance to limit recruitment. Yet in Fiji, as in Nepal and Bangladesh, two other big contributors to UN peacekeeping, keeping the peace abroad has big repercussions at home.

Another chapter in the big Book of Unintended Consequences.

If this is a trend maybe we can convince Iran and Syria to pony up some peacekeepers...

Originally posted in UNCoRRELATED Sept 29 2007

Haunting Hornets

Great shot of a pair of F-18Cs emerging from a self generated vapor cloud. Photo by MC3 Jimmy C. Pan, USS Kitty Hawk (CV 63).

Gravity it Ain't

The Washington Times delights in reprinting this headline from the July 9, 1971 issue of the Washington Post:

U.S. Scientist Sees New Ice Age Coming

30 years ago NASA scientists relying on a program written by none other than current Global Warming advocate, James Hansen, warned:

The world could be as little as 50 or 60 years away from a disastrous new ice age...

Today James Hansen's programming skills show the hottest year in the past century to be 1998 1934...whatever. Anybody in the "next to Gravity" camp starting to question Hansen's programming skills? Seems to me we have a "scientist" for hire, but science isn't what you'll be getting.

h/t SDA

Originally posted in UNCoRRELATED Sept 26 2007

Shouldn't this be Good News?

The Wall Street Journal has a front page piece noting the legal sector lags the economy:

A slack in demand appears to be part of the problem. The legal sector, after more than tripling in inflation-adjusted growth between 1970 and 1987, has grown at an average annual inflation-adjusted rate of 1.2% since 1988, or less than half as fast as the broader economy, according to Commerce Department data.

Some practice areas have declined in recent years: Personal-injury and medical-malpractice cases have been undercut by state laws limiting class-action suits, out-of-state plaintiffs and payouts on damages. Securities class action litigation has declined in part because of a buoyant stock market.

While most of the article dwells on the plight of law school graduates who are ranked below their top-tier classmates; I have to consider this good news overall. I can't help but wonder if the economy in general has received a boost because of those laws limiting class action suits. I'm sure, however, we'll see news about the plight of America because of the dearth of law suits.

Originally posted in UNCoRRELATED Sept 24 2007

Bent Spear

The Washington Post provides an excellent report about the nuclear armed weapons mistakenly loaded on a B-52 aircraft three and a half weeks ago. What initially was reported as a loss of nuclear weapon accountability for the duration of the three-hour flight turned out to be a period of 36 hours.

In a previous post, I criticized the AP for failing to understand this story was one of accountability, not one of nukes flying on bombers. WaPo nails it here - the loss of accountablility is the core of their story. Additionally they hint that nuclear armed flights do occur abeit under special authority:

It was the first known flight by a nuclear-armed bomber over U.S. airspace, without special high-level authorization, in nearly 40 years. (Emphasis added)

WaPo did not learn how the munitions custodians failed to notice the wrong warheads despite multiple checks required of a munitions officer, a two man verification team, and a bomber pilot. Seems the check sheets were "pencil whipped" at several levels. This indicates a disturbing laxity in the care of our nuclear weaponry.

Originally posted in UNCoRRELATED Sept 22 2007

Calling for Fire on His Own Position

Exhibit “A” for the defense: If Dan Rather was serious about his reputation, why is he making a fool of himself with his $70M lawsuit against CBS?

As BummerDietz says "The good news is that all of the dirty laundry that was swept under the rug, will now become public record via discovery. This should be fun."

Originally posted in UNCoRRELATED Sept 19 2007

Juan Cole: Pulling out of Iraq Would be Bad

Juan Cole admits the Iraq surrender plan touted by Democrats would be a disaster and amorally prefers it were enacted during Bush’s watch:

“The central question is whether the Democrats can force a significant reduction of troops from Iraq on Bush's watch, so as to avoid Iraq becoming exclusively their headache when they (as is likely) take over the White House in January of 2009…

.. If the Democrats cannot prevail in withdrawing before Bush goes out of office (and they cannot), and if they then rapidly draw down the troops on taking office in 2009, they face the real prospect of a "Gerald Ford meltdown" of the sort that occurred in 1975 when the North Vietnamese and their VC allies took over South Vietnam.

Juan’s pointing out another difference between Iraq and Vietnam – the Democrat Congress shafted the Vietnamese with a Republican sitting in the White House. If they take the Presidency in 09’ they get the chance to shaft the Iraqi’s while they are at the helm. That option isn’t looking too pretty:

But in all likelihood, when the Democratic president pulls US troops out in summer of 2009, all hell is going to break loose. The consequences may include even higher petroleum prices than we have seen recently, which at some point could bring back stagflation or very high rates of inflation.

In other words, the Democratic president risks being Fordized when s/he withdraws from Iraq, by the aftermath. A one-term president associated with humiliation abroad and high inflation at home? Maybe I should say, Carterized. The Republican Party could come back strong in 2012 and then dominate politics for decades, if that happened.

Didn’t President Bush mention something simliar the other day? Of course for Juan the real disaster isn’t such consequences as boat people, killing fields, and re-education camps. It’s the self-inflicted damage the Democrat’s can expect in return for enacting their policy. Juan laments:

It is all so unfair, of course, since Bush started and prosecuted this disaster in Iraq, and Bush is refusing to accept responsibility for the failure, pushing it off onto his successor.

Really? Seems to me the ones advocating the unilateral pull-out ought to be the ones to get the credit for the consequences.

Originally posted in UNCoRRELATED Sept 13 2007

Moveon.org Marginalizes Itself

I was not the only one who thought of Senator Joe McCarthy's demise when I heard of Moveon.org's full page ad declaring Gen Petraeus a traitor. Here Bob Krumm recalls Army counsel Joseph Welch's famous shaming of the out of control Senator:

You’ve done enough. Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?

Moveon.org has long overreached, but this time they've made it obvious to all but the most strident moonbat.

Good for them.

Now if there was only a Democrat with a backbone they might be able to expoit this opening to break free from Moveon's and the netroots grip. Of course that won't happen and the Demo party will find itself travelling on the same path to marginalization.

Originally posted in UNCoRRELATED Sept 10 2007

News to AP: Nukes Fly on Bombers

I'm still dumbfounded by AP's cluelessness about the military and national security. Note the headline "Nuclear Bombs Mistakenly Flown Over US" I saw another one announce "Nuclear Bombs Flown Across Five States". Read the article and see if you get the same impression I did - the AP thinks the "mistake" was nukes were flown over the U.S. by a B-52. Gee if we had a policy of not flying nukes over the United States, wouldn't it have made it hard to fly them to the Soviet Union? Maybe the AP thinks we taxi the aircraft to the Canadian border and then take off.

AP here's a lead for you: NOBODY KNEW THE NUKES WERE ON THE B-52s!

And that is the mistake. We are supposed to have positive control of our nuclear weapons. We are supposed to know where they all at all times. The story here is six of them went unaccounted for over three hours. The reason the Air Force is scrambling is to find out how they "lost" the weapons, not that they were flown on a B-52.

The Deseret News did preserve the essence of the problem when they relayed the Military Times story:

The Defense Department uses a computerized tracking program to keep tabs on each one of its nuclear warheads, said Hans Kristensen, director of the Nuclear Information Project at the Federation of American Scientists. For the six warheads to make it onto the B-52, each one would have had to be signed out of its storage bunker and transported to the bomber. Diligent safety protocols would have to have been ignored to load the warheads onto the plane, he said.

"I just can't imagine how all of this happened," said Philip Coyle, a senior adviser on nuclear weapons at the Center for Defense Information. "The procedures are so rigid; this is the last thing that's supposed to happen."

Either our nuclear safeguarding procedures didn't work or someone didn't follow them. This is the story. If AP thinks its because nukes happen to fly on bombers, they are about fifty years late.

Originally posted in UNCoRRELATED Sept 6, 2007

How About Working for the Rights of Mexicans in Mexico?

President Felipe Calderon blasted U.S. immigration policies on Sunday and promised to fight harder to protect the rights of Mexicans in the U.S., saying "Mexico does
not end at its borders...

He also reached out to the millions of Mexicans living in the United States, many illegally, saying: "Where there is a Mexican, there is Mexico."

Calderon addressed the nation Sunday from the National Palace, avoiding a showdown with leftist opposition lawmakers who had vowed to prevent him from making the speech in Congress, as Mexican tradition dictates.

Someone tell Mr. Calderon the Mexicans in the U.S. are not being held against their will. If he really wants to help them, maybe he ought to find out why they leave Mexico. Hint: check the rule of law. For a case study, Calderon can begin by looking at why he is delivering speeches from the National Palace instead of Congress.

h/t DRJ at Patterico

Originally posted in UNCoRRELATED Sept 3 2007

Air Force Kids Spared Tag Trauma

Unfortunately it’s not unusual to hear about another school banning tag. This story intrigued me, however, because of the Colorado Springs location and the “Falcon" School District name:

COLORADO SPRINGS — An elementary school has banned tag on its playground after some children complained they were harassed or chased against their will.

“It causes a lot of conflict on the playground,” said Cindy Fesgen, assistant principal of the Discovery Canyon Campus school.

Running games are still allowed as long as students don’t chase each other, she said.

Fesgen said two parents complained to her about the ban but most parents and children didn’t object.

In 2005, two elementary schools in the nearby Falcon School District did away with tag and similar games in favor of alternatives with less physical contact. School officials said the move encouraged more students to play games and helped reduce playground squabbles.

My spirits fell when I looked-up Discovery Canyon Campus School on Google Maps and found it sits on North Gate Road. Sure enough, I followed the road three miles to the west and found the North Gate of the U.S. Air Force Academy. Most likely a lot of parents of the Discovery Canyon Campus School are probably military.

Sissified schools may fit leftist spots in California and Massachusetts but they seem out of place in the district encompassing the world’s premier Air Force Academy.

h/t Small Dead Animals

Originally posted in UNCoRRELATED August 31, 2007.

A Little TJX Dishonesty

What's the latest on the TJX security breach?

Information Week had a couple of notes. First on August 13:

The south Florida arrests resulted in the recovery of about 200,000 stolen credit card account numbers responsible for fraud losses roughly calculated to be more than $75 million. Agents also seized two pickup trucks, $10,000 cash, and a handgun in connection with the case.

This was the second high-profile bust related to the TJX breach. In March, the Gainesville Police Department and Florida Department of Law Enforcement caught six people with fake credit cards, created using stolen TJX data, who had bought $8 million worth of gift cards at Wal-Mart and Sam's Club stores in 50 of Florida's 67 counties.

And then there is this on August 22:

A Ukrainian man, who was arrested in a Turkish nightclub, allegedly was selling credit card information stolen during the massive security breach at TJX, the parent company of retailer T.J. Maxx.

But say you don't read IT trade magazines, instead you are a highly valued TJX customer. What does TJX tell you? Their latest update is still 21 Feb 2007. Here is what CEO Carol Meyrowitz writes:

Since we learned of the probability of a breach in mid-December 2006, we have cooperated with law enforcement as well as with the banks and credit card companies that process our customer transactions. Further, we have established customer helplines in three countries and are making available a great deal of helpful information on our company websites. (emphasis added)

Their FAQ page states:

We do not know whether any fraudulent use has occurred or if so, to what extent. Law enforcement has advised us that they are investigating what may be fraudulent use of information stolen from our systems. We have provided extensive transaction information to the banks and payment card companies, but they have not shared details of possible fraudulent use with us.

Maybe the above statements passed muster with TJX lawyers in February, but six months and $83M later what should they be saying?

Originally posted in UNCoRRELATED August 30, 2007

Is Your Moral Compass Skewed?

What would the students at your local high school or college tell me is most offensive in this poster?

- The use of the word Jap?

- The epitaph of “Murdering”

- The fiendish drawing of the Japanese soldier?

- The call to wipe out every murdering Jap?

Think the high school kid in 1942 would agree? Or would he rightly point out the most offensive item is the newspaper headline “5200 Yank Prisoners Killed”?

Its kind of hard to fight the war on terrorism when many can't discriminate between the irritant and the evil.

h/t Captain Capitalism

Originally posted in UNCoRRELATED August 29, 2007.

Hillary: Potential Terror Victim

Via Don Surber:

"It's a horrible prospect to ask yourself, 'What if? What if?' But if certain things happen between now and the election, particularly with respect to terrorism, that will automatically give the Republicans an advantage again, no matter how badly they have mishandled it, no matter how much more dangerous they have made the world," Clinton told supporters in Concord.

In other words, if the Republicans screw up the GWOT enough to allow another attack, the electorate will be reminded she would do a worse job.

Other snide comments:

Captain Ed “It's an asinine statement. It shows what happens when Hillary gets away from her handlers and starts talking on her own. The only relation she has to her husband's political sense is her last name." (h/t I Think Therefore...)

Scrappleface “Al Qaeda: help me beat GOP”

Originally posted in UNCoRRELATED 25 August 2007

Antigua's Gamble

I stumbled across this over two years ago:

The good people of Utah decided 110 years ago that gambling was one vice the state didn't need. So they outlawed it and later added electronic gaming to the ban. Now, Utah's right to make games of chance illegal has been shot down by the World Trade Organization.

WTO judges ruled last fall in a case brought by the government of Antigua and Barbuda that gambling regulations in Utah and most other states conflict with America's obligation not to discriminate against foreigners providing "recreational services." In ruling for the tiny Caribbean nation, which had charged that Utah's wager-phobia infringed on Internet gambling operations based in the islands, the WTO opened the door to millions of dollars in potential penalties. "It's not just gambling," warns Utah state representative Sheryl L. Allen, a Republican who chairs a multistate committee studying free trade deals. "The states are losing their authority in a lot of areas."

Since the power to regulate gambling is a state function, I wondered back in 2005 if the Federal Government overstepped its authority:

If the US loses its appeal at the WTO can Utah make a case in Federal court that the Federal government does not have the right to violate the States right in its treaty negotiations?

So far my states rights question is moot. Despite losing the WTO appeal, the Federal Government hasn’t infringed on a states' ability to regulate gambling. The question now is “Does the WTO have the right to violate US intellectual property laws?” Richard Fernandez, of the Belmont Club, brings us up to speed with the latest.

The New York Times has details of this interesting story. The World Trade organization (WTO) ruled the US violated Antigua's rights by prohibiting Americans from gambling over Internet sites based in Antigua. Now the lawyer for Antigua is asking the WTO to compensate the island nation by allowing it to set aside US intellectual property laws and to distribute copies of American music, movie and software products, among others with impunity.

Fernandez provides an excellent comparison of this international trade dispute with the disparities of enforcement in other treaties.

But lawyers are clever and the loophole cited by the New York Times makes it possible for Antigua to demand the right to pirate US intellectually property -- under the rules -- and "morally" too because a mechanism which allowed the US to use is preponderant economic power would be "unfair". Where have we seen this before? Pretty much everywhere. While not exactly the same, the Antigua decision has structural similarities to the way some international lawyers think about the Geneva Convention and human rights legislation. The US is "bound" by the letter of the law, and if a terrorist mass murderer can find a legal loophole to escape then he is "entitled" to use it. But the Convention is not obeyed by weaker parties because it is impractical to enforce it. Just as pirated DVDs can be found being openly sold in many street corners in Asia without being similarly available in places like Australia, countries with well-functioning legal systems find themselves at a disadvantage compared to countries with no enforcement. In the area of human rights, for example, America has courts before which lawyers can appear. Al-Qaeda has a cave in Pakistan where accommodations are notoriously poor. The US will obey a legal judgment. Legal judgments against al-Qaeda are an exercise in futility. Who will lawyers sue? Under these conditions the full weight of international law will always come down hardest on the most law-abiding.

You’ll want to read his whole analysis. Read the New York Times article also if you want to know why lawyers are held in such high esteem.

Ultimately the NYT article points out that the WTO is damned if they do and damned if they don't. If they don't enact a penalty to back up their decision, they'll lose their credibility. If they do, the backlash from Americans may well destroy the WTO anyway.

Originally posted in UNCoRRELATED 23 August 2007