A Second Hand Conjecture

I’ve received a few emails alerting me to the fact that the blogburst for Fred Thompson was a success (congratulations to Rick Moran for spearheading that), and as a result, the following commercial “Substance” will be airing in Iowa:

If your so inclined, go here to donate to Fred’s campaign. If you are unsure whether you support Fred or not, check out his “Issues” page.

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Someone in Georgia is apparently planning on hosting a kegger for a small division [HT: my wife].

Thieves took tractor-trailers loaded with beer and swiped the suds twice within the past week, authorities said.

Dougherty County authorities are investigating a report of a missing 53-foot-long trailer that was loaded with more than 2,300 cases of beer. Police said the beer disappeared sometime between Dec. 21 and Thursday.

Also on Dec. 21, more than 300 cases of beer were stolen from another tractor-trailer, which had a tracking device. The trailer was driven about three miles before it was emptied, according to police.

Let’s see: 2,600 cases equals 62,400 beers; divided by six beers per person equals 10,400 people; which amounts to one helluva rager somewhere in Dixie.

I suspect McQ.

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Over at QandO, McQ offers his take on a thoughtful article by Andrew Tilghman entitled “The Army’s Other Crisis: Why the Best and Brightest Young Officers are Leaving.”

Here are the nut graphs from McQ:

So we should certainly be concerned about the loss of CPTs. And while the fixes are obvious, given the mission, they aren’t necessarily something which we can quickly accomplish. We’d have to cut the number of deployments and give the units more downtime between them (the ideal is 2 years). We risk consequences on down the road with a continued deployment schedule like we have now. But, we also have to remember we’re at a war, and sometimes when at war, you have to take strategic risks.

That being said, this is nothing new. CPTs leave the Army because they are at a point in their careers where that sort of decision is traditionally made. They leave the army because there’s a war on. Marriages, cultural changes and the pressure of repeated deployments have exacerbated that problem as well. However, we’ve overcome worse drains and not only survived as an Army, but prospered.

As always, RTWT.

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Bill Roggio has the scoop at Long War Journal:

The Iraqi Army claimed to have captured the minister of defense of the Islamic State of Iraq, al Qaeda’s political front organization. Ahmed Turki Abbas was captured after being wounded in a skirmish near Mahmudiyah and “claimed the rank of defense minister,” Qassim al Moussawi, Iraq’s military spokesman told Reuters.

Confirmation on the arrest of Abbas — likely a nom de guerre — has not been given by Multinational Forces Iraq at this time. The Iraqi government has made claims of killing and capturing Abu Omar al Baghdadi several times this year, which turned out to be false reports or cases of mistaken identity.

There’s an important caveat there, i.e. that the capture of Ahmed Turki Abbas has not yet been confirmed. If it turns out to be true, however, it is very good news indeed. Not just because another al Qaeda leader was taken down, but also because it was the Iraqi Army that made the capture.

I also thought this was interesting (my emphasis):

After learning of the arrest of Abbas, Marvin Hutchens of ThreatsWatch.org agreed with that assessment. “For purely pragmatic reasons, Al Qaeda in Iraq and the Islamic State of Iraq need as many Iraqi names in leadership posts as possible,” said Hutchens in an interview. “They are selling their legitimacy as the Iraqi state and having al Masri known as the minister of defense hides his real role as the foreign leader of an illegitimate insurgent state.”

By making it appear that Al Qaeda in Iraq and the Islamic State of Iraq are headed by real Iraqis, the terrorists hope to influence the populace to take their side. It apparently worked for awhile, but the Awakening Councils seem to have put a stop to that.

U.S. military spokesman Maj. Gen. Kevin Bergner said Wednesday that that the creation of groups known as Awakening Councils — which the U.S. military has dubbed Concerned Local Citizens — was a key factor in the reduction of violence.

“This is perhaps one of the most important developments in 2007,” Bergner said. “This was a decision by Iraqi citizens to confront al-Qaida and kick them out of their neighborhoods.”

Hopefully, these councils of citizens can be integrated into the new government. If they can, then I would think that the chances of al Qaeda, it affiliates, or any other terrorist group gaining a foothold in Iraq drop sharply.

In other good news from Iraq, a suspected terror cell leader was captured in Baghdad:

Iraqi Special Operations Forces, with U.S. Special Forces as advisors, detained a suspected al-Qaeda in Iraq terrorist cell leader and three additional suspects in two separate raids Dec. 26.

In Baghdad, Iraqi and U.S. Forces detained the leader of an AQI terrorist cell.

Intelligence reports indicated the cell is responsible for several improvised explosive device and sniper attacks against Iraqi and Coalition Forces, as well as the kidnapping and torture of innocent Iraqis.

In Balad, Iraqi and U.S. Special Forces conducted a raid to degrade al-Qaeda in Iraq leadership, deter IED attacks and to prevent the killing of Iraqi citizens.

Three suspects were detained in the raid for questioning.

No Iraqi or U.S. Forces were injured during these operations.

And “insurgents” who kidnapped three soldiers back in May were captured:

Seven U.S. soldiers and an Iraqi army interpreter came under attack Saturday May 12, 2007, during a patrol in a Sunni insurgent stronghold south of Baghdad. Five were killed and three went missing.

Today the US announced that they captured the insurgents responsible for the kidnapping of the 3 US soldiers.

Jim Hoft :

The U.S. military said in a statement it caught the two suspects believed to have ties with al Qaeda on Monday and Tuesday in Ramadi in the western province of Anbar.

One of the men was believed to have “facilitated the kidnapping and is reported to have used his residence to aid in the hiding and transport of the captured soldiers,” it said.

More can be found here.

Finally, it has been confirmed that another senior al Qaeda leader was killed last month:

The U.S. military announced Wednesday that an insurgent killed last month had been identified as a senior leader of al-Qaida in Iraq.

Separately, a bomb explosion in the northern province of Ninevah killed three children and wounded another two, the U.S. military said, quoting Iraqi police.

Abu Abdullah, also known as Muhammad Sulayman Shunaythir al-Zubai, was killed north of Baghdad on Nov. 8, the military said, calling him “an experienced bomb maker and attack planner who coordinated numerous attacks on Coalition and Iraqi forces over the past three years, using a variety of improvised explosive devices combined with small-arms fire.”

He was also described as a former associate of al-Qaida in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi — who was slain by U.S. forces last year.

As an aside, if you want to see a pristine example of media bias regarding the war, read the whole AP piece linked above. It is, quite simply, one of the most bizarre attempts to stick bad news in where it does not belong that I’ve ever seen.

In sum, two senior al Qaeda leaders taken out (1 killed and 1 allegedly captured), one suspected terror cell leader nabbed, and two al Qaeda fighters who kidnapped U.S. soldiers taken into custody. That sounds pretty good to me. It’s a wonder we don’t hear more about this stuff.

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Just so people know, the recent update of WordPress on our site has a number of places generating errors. Comments are one area, so if you can’t comment, it’s not just you.

We appreciate your patience and understanding.

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Freddy-come-lately is gaining some steam in Iowa, picking up an endorsement from the Ottumwa Courier this week:

Thompson is unapologetic on his views and is a straight-shooter.

“These are clearly challenging times. I don’t think we’ve fully come to terms with the kind of world we live in,” he told members of the Courier editorial board recently.

Indeed, Thompson believes work must continue in Iraq despite growing concerns American troops should return home.

We have to “finish what we’re doing,” he said, adding the United States must continue the fight there and in Afghanistan.

Thompson said the United States can no longer ignore the instability in Afghanistan and in nearby Pakistan because of issues ranging from the Taliban to the country’s economic dependence on the opium trade.

When it comes to domestic issues, Thompson again admits there are no simple answers.

On energy concerns, he believes in “a balanced approach to energy security that increases domestic supplies, reduces demand for oil and gas, and promotes alternative fuels and other diverse energy sources.”

He also seeks “an energy policy that invests in the advanced technologies of tomorrow and places more emphasis on conservation and energy efficiency.”

But the answers are not readily available.

“Oil independence, in the near future, is not to be had,” Thompson concedes, adding he thinks Americans are “willing to trade some discomfort to get some honesty.”

On economic issues, Thompson is blunt. The time is now to reform the American economy.

He says the country needs “market-based approaches to reform that guarantee benefits for those who need them and embrace personal responsibility and cost-effectiveness without raising taxes.”

Thompson said “it is a moral imperative that requires action now” and he wants a full account of the government’s fiscal books for “all to see and understand.”

The man from Tennessee is no-nonsense, speaks plainly and believes action is needed now, not later.

“There’s very little credibility coming out of D.C. to deal with these problems, so I think there’s an opportunity for someone who is willing to speak the truth,” he said.

Fred Thompson will do just that.

I’ve been told, but I don’t know this for a fact, that the Ottumwa Courier endorsement is a bid deal in southeastern Iowa. Regardless, it’s an encouraging sign to see Fred getting some positive attention that’s focused on his actual platform instead of his choice of headwear. Indeed, if candidate platforms were the genesis of most Election 2008 news, instead of silly speculation about crosses in campaign ads for example, I expect that Fred would be getting a whole lot more attention.

Here’s to hoping.

Also, Rick Moran is spearheading a blogburst campaign to raise funds for Fred, and draw some much needed attention to his candidacy as the Iowa caucuses draw near (more on the blogburst here).

Dear Friends,

I am writing to ask for your help.

All of us know the long odds faced by Fred Thompson in his efforts to win the GOP nomination for president. I’m sure you are all aware that Fred has undertaken pretty much of a do or die bus tour of Iowa in order to finish strongly in the Caucuses on January 3.

Many of you have already taken steps to support the Thompson campaign in a tangible way by placing fundraising widgets on your sidebar and writing about the campaign. In this way, each of us alone has done whatever we can to support Fred in his efforts.

But at this, the 11th hour of the campaign in Iowa, I think it would be a very effective fundraising tool if as many of us as possible were to participate in an old-fashioned Blogburst, writing a post asking readers to donate to the campaign while embedding a fundraising widget in the post for convenience.

I propose Thursday, December 27 for the Blogburst. If you have an email list, I would urge you to ask your subscribers to donate. If you know of other bloggers who support Fred, please forward this email and ask them to participate as well.

Not expecting a “money bomb” but even a few tens of thousands of dollars would help, I’m sure. Given the number of readers represented in the blogs listed here (where I got all of your email addresses) and your cooperation, I feel confident we can give a real shot in the arm to the campaign.

I don’t think any of us believe that our endorsement of Thompson alone means that much in the long run. But working together, uniting for one day and speaking with one voice, I think we could make a significant impact on Fred’s chances in Iowa. After all, when the candidate you support rolls the dice as Fred has, the least we can do is back his play to the best of our ability.

No need to respond to this email. Just do it.

Merry Christmas,

Rick Moran
Right Wing Nuthouse

If you’re so inclined, you can contribute to Fred’s campaign at Right Wing Nuthouse, or over at Fred’s site.

UPDATE (Keith):

I gave at the office – and if you agree with Fred, so should you…

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These are the events that can kick off revolutions, civil wars, and even God forbid world wars…

Let’s hope and pray this will be a more bloodless revolution.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,318510,00.html

Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto was assassinated Thursday in a homicide attack that also killed at least 20 others at a campaign rally.

The former prime minister died in Rawalpindi General Hospital, where she had been rushed to surgery after she was wounded in the attack.

There were reports that Bhutto had been shot in the neck as she was leaving the scene of the bombing.

“At 6:16 p.m. she expired,” said Wasif Ali Khan, a member of Bhutto’s party who was at the hospital.

Her supporters at the hospital began chanting “Dog, Musharraf, dog,” referring to Pakistan’s president, Pervez Musharraf.

Some of them smashed the glass door at the main entrance of the emergency unit, others burst into tears. Top party leaders were outside the hospital, crying.

An Associated Press reporter at the scene saw body parts and flesh scattered at the back gate of the Liaqat Bagh park in Rawalpindi, where the rally was held.

He counted about 20 bodies, including police, and could see many other wounded.

The road outside was stained with blood and people screamed for ambulances. Others gave water to the wounded lying in the street. The clothing of some of the victims was shredded and people put party flags over their bodies.

The bomb went off just minutes after Bhutto spoke to thousands of supporters, and she appeared to be the target of the attack. Farahtullah Babar, the spokesman for her party, said her vehicle was about 50 yards away from blast, which went off as she was leaving the rally venue.

UPDATE (MichaelW): Sometimes co-blogger Joshua Foust comments on the assassination:

While I was certainly no fan of her mad quest for power, Ms. Bhutto did not deserve to be murdered. Her death on its own would be yet another tragic event in Pakistan’s very tortured experiment with democracy; given the modern context, however, I suspect very bad things are in store for the country. Look for Musharraf to crack down again, potentially even on the crazies this time. But kiss the January election goodbye.

Finger pointing will begin shortly as to who’s to blame, with the most likely culprits being Pervez Musharraf or Islamic fundamentalists (or maybe even some combination thereof). Josh is laying his money on the fundamentalists:

The New York Times chimes in with a good background story, noting that Bhutto did not blame her last assassination attempt on Musharraf, but rather the Islamic crazies. Whether we decide to think that gave Musharraf room to kill her is up for grabs; I don’t think suicide bombers are his style. This was a classic Islamic crazy attack.

I may disagree with Josh on any number of things, but you would be hard pressed to find a better analyst than Josh blogging about this part of the world. So his thoughts carry a great deal of weight here IMHO. That being said, it would not surprise me to learn that Musharraf’s security forces had something to do with it, whether by sin of commission or omission.

UPDATE II(Keith):

For continuing updates and other blogger reaction, please hop on over to PJM where they have a running list…

UPDATE III (MichaelW): Apparently our commenting feature is on the fritz, so Josh emailed to the following instead:

Thanks for the plug, guys. Two things:

1) Al Qaeda has indeed claimed responsibility.

2) I’ve been doing a lot more background work, both in a darkly snarky interview at Jezebel and as an update to my post. Unfortunately, this assassination makes a lot of sense, but equally unfortunate is just how awful it is for Pakistan. Getting murdered will prompt revenge killings, and possibly a further crackdown by Uncle Pervy.

In other words, while Bhutto wouldn’t have been good for her country in power, she is far worse dead.

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It shouldn’t surprise me the lengths that Greenwald will go to distort what people say in order to lambaste his enemies, but his Christmas offering really takes the figgy pudding.

Mike Huckabee’s Christmas ad — like everything Huckabee does — provoked all sorts of vehement, angry, un-Christmas-like attacks from Republican pundits. The GOP establishment almost uniformly claimed that the edges of the bookshelf behind Huckabee formed the shape of a cross, which — along with Huckabee’s mention of the word “Christ” — rendered Huckabee guilty of making a highly inappropriate, overt religious appeal for votes.

In furtherance of his never ending crusade to reveal just how hypocritical the political right is, Teh Gleen(s) go on to highlight how John McCain’s Christmas ad used a cross, but the right had nary a negative word to say about that.

But here is the Christmas ad from John McCain, which features not a subliminal cross arguably lurking in the background, but instead, an explicit one drawn in the sand, serving as the centerpiece of the ad, and expressly referenced — twice — by the political candidate, whose face lingers wistfully next to the cross for 10 of the ad’s 30 seconds …

Yet the reverent reaction to McCain’s ad could not have been more different than the one provoked by Huckabee’s. Chris Wallace said: “That McCain ad is so powerful. You find yourself tearing up when you see that, obviously.” Obviously. A clearly moved Fred Barnes concurred with the only word that was needed: “Indeed.” Mort Kondracke gushed: “I think it was a great ad, and it had a religious overtone to it. . . . it should remind religious [voters] that there is another candidate in the options besides Huckabee.”

As you have probably guessed by now, not one of the links support Greenwald’s contention, and in fact largely refute it. I could go on at length describing just how grossly Herr Sockmeister mischaracterized the various statements as well as who said them, but Karl at Protein Wisdom has already completed that task, so RTWT.

I will, however, point out a few of the more wild distortions.

(1) Greenwald’s initial paragraph claims that Huckabee’s ad “provoked all sorts of vehement, angry, un-Christmas-like attacks from Republican pundits,” but links to just one mention of an “attack” from Bill Donohue of the Catholic League. The other link takes you to Byron York’s praise for Huckabee’s political prowess (”Huckabee’s astonishing ability to hit the target is what is shaking up the GOP race now.”).

(2) Greenwald’s only other link to an “attack” is an article by Peggy Noonan (which he claimed was “condemning Huckabee’s ad”), who also praises Huckabee’s political savvy, particularly with respect to the alleged cross imagery in his ad:

The ad was shrewd. The caucus is coming, the TV is on, people are home putting up the tree, and the other candidates are all over the tube advancing themselves and attacking someone else. Mr. Huckabee thinks, I’ll break through the clutter by being the guy who reminds us of the reason for the season, in a way that helps underscore that I’m the Christian candidate and those other fellas aren’t. As a break from the nattering argument, as a message that highlights something bigger than politics, it was refreshing.

Was the cross an accident? Please. It was as accidental as Mr. Huckabee’s witty response, when he accused those of questioning the ad of paranoia, was spontaneous. “Actually I will confess this, if you play this spot backwards it says ‘Paul is dead, Paul is dead, Paul is dead,’ ” he said. As Bill Safire used to say of clever moves, “That’s good stuff!”

Ken Mehlman, the former Republican chairman, once bragged in my presence that in every ad he did he put in something wrong–something that went too far, something debatable. TV producers, ever hungry for new controversy, would play the commercial over and over as pundits on the panel deliberated over its meaning. This got the commercial played free all over the news.

The cross is the reason you saw the commercial. The cross made it break through.

(3) Every bit of Greenwald’s juxtaposition of the McCain ad to the Huckabee ad, and the supposedly different reactions to them, is pure unadulterated crap. The comments highlighted by Greenwald about the McCain in particular were not so much to the cross as to the story of McCain’s Christmas in captivity, and how a (impliedly Christian) guard gave him a bit of reprieve from his remarkably grueling daily existence as a POW. That’s what was so powerful and what Chris Wallace described as moving him to tears. It had nothing to do with a cross appearing in the ad.

Those are just the highlights. You should read Karl’s post to get the full-on fisky flavor. Or, you could just accept finally, once and for all, that Glenn Greenwald is about as dishonest a hack as you are ever likely to come across, and save yourself the time and trouble of slogging your way through his mendacity. Obviously, while I accept the latter, I find it much more entertaining to do the former. YMMV.

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Jon Henke posts an interesting history lesson concerning the origins of the well-known abbreviation for Christmas:

Growing up, I sometimes heard – in church and from various religious scolds – that XMas was a secular attempt to “take Christ out of Christmas”, rather than, say, an attempt to save valuable space on signs.

Jon then links to an entry from snopes.com:

Claim: ‘Xmas’ is a modern, disrespectful abbreviation of the word ‘Christmas.’

Status: False.

Origins: The abbreviation of ‘Xmas’ for ‘Christmas’ is neither modern nor disrespectful. The notion that it is a new and vulgar representation of the word ‘Christmas’ seems to stem from the erroneous belief that the letter ‘X’ is used to stand for the word ‘Christ’ because of its resemblance to a cross, or that the abbreviation was deliberately concocted “to take the ‘Christ’ out of Christmas.” Actually, this usage is nearly as old as Christianity itself, and its origins lie in the fact that the first letter in the Greek word for ‘Christ’ is ‘chi,’ and the Greek letter ‘chi’ is represented by a symbol similar to the letter ‘X’ in the modern Roman alphabet. Hence ‘Xmas’ is indeed perfectly legitimate abbreviation for the word ‘Christmas’ (just as ‘Xian’ is also sometimes used as an abbreviation of the word ‘Christian’).

None of this means that Christians (and others) aren’t justified in feeling slighted when people write ‘Xmas’ rather than ‘Christmas,’ but the point is that the abbreviation was not created specifically for the purpose of demeaning Christ, Christians, Christianity, or Christmas – it’s a very old artifact of a very different language.

In point of fact, “XMas” is actually an abbreviation of an abbreviation. The Greek letters “Chi” (X) and “Rho” (R) were often used to represent Christ in ancient texts (since the original New Testament was written primarily in Greek), the most widely known example of which can be found in the Book of Kells.

That’s an ‘X’ not a ‘P’ on the top, and the “Rho” is found directly underneath. A clearer depiction of this page can be found here. Together, ‘XR’ means “Christ”, and therefore the abbreviation ‘XRMas’ would be the true and correct abbreviation for Christmas.

Of course, that would look really silly and would appear to be prompting people to pronounce the word “Chr-mas”, or worse “Exermas”, neither or which is desirable or correct. Instead, we drop the “Rho” to get “XMas” which seems more phonetically pleasing somehow, and has the added bonus of being even easier to display in great big signs for holiday shopping.

All of which leads to Jon’s wise admonishment:

Let’s add to this one more valuable lesson: Don’t take offense where none is intended. You’ll end up with a martyr mentality, objecting to XMas and imagining a “War on Christmas.”

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Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from the the ASHC crew. We’ll be taking a bit of a break from the blogging, but be sure to check back after the New Year.

Until then, best wishes to you and yours.

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Although the Silly Hat story seems to have died on the vine (thanks to bloggers jumping on it quickly, I might add), the reporting of Roger Simon (sans-L) is still under scrutiny. Bob Owens examined some of the discrepancies between what Simon reported and what the video revealed with respect to the Silly Hat incident, and finds Simon’s journalistic integrity lacking.

We don’t know if the entire Politico article is grossly unfair in the way it characterized Senator Thompson’s swing through Waverly, Iowa, but we do know, thanks to the CBS News video, that not only was Simon’s editorializing of what occurred in the Waverly Fire Department mischaracterized, but that he doctored a quote to make his article appear all the more damning.

Simon is the Chief Political Columnist for The Politico—one that they tout as one of “Washington’s most visible and experienced journalists.”— and should know, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that doctoring quotes is highly unethical by any journalistic standard.

Bob was kind enough to link to an ASHC post about an earlier political gaffe (that really wasn’t) also fomented by Simon. That left him wondering:

If this is indeed the case, it seems a resignation, and not a retraction, is in order from Mr. Simon.

As Bob mentions, “[w]e don’t know if the entire Politico article is grossly unfair in the way it characterized Senator Thompson’s swing through Waverly, Iowa,” since the only other account we have so far is from the CBS video. However, Jimmie at The Sundries Shack decided to dig a little more into the interview that Fred did with the Waverly Democrat, and found Simon’s story lacking there as well.

I’d like to follow up on Roger “Event? What Event?” Simon’s Politico story with some details about Fred Thompson’s visit to the Waverly, Iowa newspaper. You know, the newspaper where Thompson’s staff made Simon and Mark Halperin wait outside. It seems that Simon appeared a bit miffed by the exclusion and that, in my opinion, colored his entire story.

First, here’s how Simon reported the interview:

Anelia Dimitrova, the executive regional editor, greeted us in warmly and invited us to have a seat, chat and use the bathroom. …

She said Thompson was the first candidate to come into the paper. The paper does not endorse candidates, and maybe that is why the others have skipped it. “He’s got a lot of catching up to do,” Dimitrova said. “I think it’s a sign he is behind. I don’t think he necessarily wants to run. Bluntly, I don’t know why he is running.”

This is the question that has dogged the Thompson campaign from the beginning. While sometimes he displays bursts of energy at a speech here or there, he is often described as “laconic” on the road.

Just a quick note here to point out that Simon apparently has no idea what “laconic” means. It has nothing to do with energy, or being lackluster in one’s efforts. Instead, it means short, terse, to the point and easy to understand. Someone who can make a strong point with Spartan brevity is considered laconic. Lazy people are not.

Dimitrova invited Mark and me into the interview with Thompson but the Thompson press aide refused. Dimitrova said she had no problem with us being there, but the press aide refused again.

It was no big deal. We waited for Thompson outside the conference room and after a few minutes he emerged, left the newspaper office and headed straight onto his large, brown bus.

[...]

Later in the day, I sent an e-mail to Anelia Dimitrova, asking her about the private meeting she had with Thompson at the newspaper office.

She e-mailed me back that Thompson “was so vague that I would be hard-pressed to write a story. Simply put, there is no news peg other than he came to the newsroom with his model wife and a beehive of staffers. When I asked him specifically what he would do as prez for farmers in Bremer County, he resorted to glittering generalities.”

So, according to Simon’s recounting, Fred breezed into the newspaper’s offices, surrounded by an entourage, and basically said nothing of substance. Jimmie tracked down Anelia Dimitrova’s report of the interview and finds it at odds with Simon. He points specifically to this portion of the interview where Fred talked about what he’d do for farmers in Iowa:

AKD: What will you do for the farmers of Bremer County?

FT: (laughs)

AKD: You knew this was coming, right?

FT: I would continue to enjoy the fruits of their labor. I’ve been looking all over Iowa for a bad steak and I can’t find it. Been trying my best. It’s not a matter of what I would do for the farmers. Farmers are not looking for a president to hand them something. Farmers want fair treatment and a chance to prosper in a free economy and that’s what I would help ensure. There’s a lot of programs we’ve got out there, some of which are good programs, some of which are not. And I think that we need to work our way through that and make sure we’re doing what’s good for the country, not just the farmers, not just the people of Iowa, not just the people of Tennessee. But good for the country. A sound policy that makes sense. I think there’s a lot more that we could do for the working farmer in terms of ecological programs and environmental programs – land conservation, soil conservation – that would be fair and it would be beneficial to the nation and to Iowa and to our country. We’re going to have to phase out the corporate welfare system we’ve got, however. There are extremely rich people living in skyscrapers in Manhattan that are receiving subsidy payments. I think that’s wrong. I’d put a stop to that if it was within my power. That still continues in this latest Farm Bill and it’s not right. There ought to be a cutoff at some level and it’s not right to have millionaires receiving farm subsidies.

According to Simon, Dimitrova declared this answer to be nothing but “glittering generalities.” Fred didn’t get terribly specific mind you, but it’s short interview so I’m not sure why he would. Jimmie managed to find some specifics, however:

I’m not seeing any “…glittering generalities…” here. In fact, it looks to me like Thompson said something that I’ll bet not many candidates are saying this month. In fact, it looks like he got into a few specifics. Here are the ones I picked out.

1) He wouldn’t do anything to help the farmers in Iowa as such but would do everything he could to make sure they had a fair chance to compete.
2) He would examine the farm programs and cull the ones that aren’t working.
3) He’d end the farm subsidies that went to corporations if he has the authority to do so.
4) He’d work for common-sense, fair conservation rules.

Admittedly, he didn’t do bullet points and he didn’t lay out a white paper for the news staff, but he gave a good number of specifics, enough to give the editor a very good idea where he stands on the issue.

I’d agree that’s a pretty fair assessment. To be sure, perhaps when Dimitrova sent her email to Simon she hadn’t yet seen the transcript, and couldn’t recall anything very specific about Fred’s answer. Phrases like “fair treatment”, “a chance to prosper”, “we need to work our way through that”, and “sound policy that makes sense” are pretty general standing by themselves. But in the context of Fred challenging the premise that farmers want anything from government (”It’s not a matter of what I would do for the farmers. Farmers are not looking for a president to hand them something.”) and identifying specific goals (”We’re going to have to phase out the corporate welfare system …”), those general phrases take on more meaning. In other words, I think Fred’s answer can more accurately be described as “laconic” than being nothing but “glittering generalities.”

A couple of final points about the interview. Take a look at the transcript and note the number of times “(laughter)” appears. That suggests to me that the interview was not exactly boring. Also peruse Fred’s answers to the other questions. My favorite was here:

AKD: Janelle, you have questions. I will let my reporters talk. Come on.

JANELLE PENNY: What’s something people would be surprised to learn about you?

AKD: Nice question. Nice job?

FT: Me? That I am a fantastic breakdancer.

(laughter)

AKD: Really? Are you going to show us?

FT: What are you laughing about?

(laughter)

FT: That’s very impolite. Are you questioning my credibility on something – I’m pulling your leg. I wouldn’t know if it was a breakdance or another kind of dance if I saw it. I don’t even know what it is. But somebody told me that would be a good answer. I didn’t mean to be flippant with you, young lady, but something you don’t know at this stage of the game is probably going to remain something you don’t know.

(laughter)

Laconic indeed.

UPDATE: Fred responds (from the bus) to the Simon-sans-L created controversy.

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According to the press release (my emphasis):

Over 400 prominent scientists from more than two dozen countries recently voiced significant objections to major aspects of the so-called “consensus” on man-made global warming. These scientists, many of whom are current and former participants in the UN IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change), criticized the climate claims made by the UN IPCC and former Vice President Al Gore.

The new report issued by the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee’s office of the GOP Ranking Member details the views of the scientists, the overwhelming majority of whom spoke out in 2007.

[...]

This blockbuster Senate report lists the scientists by name, country of residence, and academic/institutional affiliation. It also features their own words, biographies, and weblinks to their peer reviewed studies and original source materials as gathered from public statements, various news outlets, and websites in 2007. This new “consensus busters” report is poised to redefine the debate.

Many of the scientists featured in this report consistently stated that numerous colleagues shared their views, but they will not speak out publicly for fear of retribution. Atmospheric scientist Dr. Nathan Paldor, Professor of Dynamical Meteorology and Physical Oceanography at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, author of almost 70 peer-reviewed studies, explains how many of his fellow scientists have been intimidated.

“Many of my colleagues with whom I spoke share these views and report on their inability to publish their skepticism in the scientific or public media,” Paldor wrote.

Now for the caveats:

* I haven’t read it yet, but you can get it here.

* It does not appear to be much more than a round-up of scientists who are skeptics of AGWTM, and some of their views.

* It’s not a “Senate Report” or even a “Senate Committee Report,” but instead a “Sen. Inhofe Report.”

* The bold claims that this report “debunks the ‘consensus’” are likely not true, or at best open to debate.

* It’s highly likely that most of the scientists in this report believe (a) global warming is real, and (b) that man has something to do with it, but (c) the hype from the IPCC politicos, the Goracle, and the vociferous environmentalists is way over the top.

With those caveats aside, however, I do look forward to digging into the report and seeing if it holds any value. In the very least, it may have the effect of introducing science back into the debate.

I wouldn’t hold your breath though.

Technorati Tags: Senate Report on Climate Science Consensus, Inhofe, global warming, climate change, skeptics

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In all the kerfuffle yesterday over just what transpired in Silly-Hat-Gate, I somehow neglected to mention that the author of the Politico post, Roger Simon, is not the same as the PJM Editor, Roger L. Simon, who has this to say about the incident:

having viewed the video, I can say this: I don’t know what the hell the other Roger Simon was talking about.

A lot of us are wondering that. However, I should have been clear in differentiating between Roger Simon-sans-L and Roger Simon with-L. So there you go.

Something else that I forgot to mention was that this is not the first time that Simon-sans-L created a political gaffe out of whole cloth. And I don’t mean in those other stories knocking Fred Thompson alluded to by Jay at Stop the ACLU:

Maybe the hit piece had something to do with the writer, who has a history of not liking Fred that much.

Instead, I’m talking about the firestorm that engulfed Rudy Giuliani back in April:

Rudy Giuliani created quite a stir among Democrats when, according to DNC Chairman Howard Dean, he declared that electing a Democrat President would lead directly to another 9/11:

Dear Friend,

Rudy Giuliani should be ashamed.

The former New York City Mayor is politicizing September 11th in his 2008 presidential bid. Here’s what he said at a recent campaign stop in New Hampshire:

“If a Democrat is elected president in 2008, America will be at risk for another terrorist attack on the scale of Sept. 11, 2001… Never ever again will this country ever be on defense waiting for (terrorists) to attack us if I have anything to say about it. And make no mistake, the Democrats want to put us back on defense!”

Rachel Morris, writing for the Washington Monthly, quoted some Democrats working themselves into high dudgeon over the remarks:

Those Democrats were quick to hit back. Barack Obama charged Giuliani with taking “the politics of fear to a new low.” Hillary Clinton’s office issued a less pithy statement: “There are people right now in the world, not just wishing us harm but actively planning and plotting to cause us harm. If the last six years of the Bush administration have taught us anything, it’s that political rhetoric won’t do anything to quell those threats.”

The problem was that, as James Taranto pointed out at the time, Giuliani never said any such thing. Roger Simon-sans-L only claimed Rudy had.

Here’s the Simon lede:

MANCHESTER, N.H. — Angry Democrats lashed back after Rudy Giuliani said Tuesday that if a Democrat is elected president in 2008, America will be at risk for another terrorist attack on the scale of Sept. 11, 2001.

If you read the entire piece by Roger Simon, you won’t find a single quote from Rudy akin to what is being attributed to him. Quite to the contrary, Simon summarizes a portion of Rudy’s speech this way:

The former New York City mayor, currently leading in all national polls for the Republican nomination for president, said Tuesday night that America would ultimately defeat terrorism no matter which party gains the White House.

And the Washington Post provides this direct quote:

“We’re going to win that war whether there’s a Republican president or a Democratic president or any other president,” he said. “The question is going to be: How long does it take and how many losses will we have along the way? And I truly believe that if we go back on defense for a period of time, we’re going to ultimately have more losses and it’s going to go on much longer.”

As with the Silly-Hat kerfuffle, the reality of Rudy’s speech did not comport with Simon-sans-L’s reporting. In both cases, Simon included his own opinion of the events he witnessed as facts in his stories. In both cases, Simon sans-L’s opinion was grossly slanted towards making the subject of his stories look bad. Does that really qualify as journalism?

Bob Owens is starting to dig into Simon-sans-L’s reporting of the Silly Hat story, and Jimmie at The Sundries Shack has requested some answers from the author as well. It will be interesting to see what they learn.

Technorati Tags: Silly Hat Rule, Fred Thompson, Waverly, Iowa, Roger Simon, Politico, Rudy Giuliani, misquoted, media bias, Election 2008

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“Teen pregnancy can happen to everybody.”

Bill Albert, Deputy Director of the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy, commenting on the recent revelation that 16 y.o. Jamie Lynn Spears is pregnant.

I’m guessing that I don’t need to explain why that’s stupidest thing I’ve heard all week, and probably this month. It’s certainly in the running to be the dumbest thing I’ll hear all year, although both major political parties are heading into the first primary of the season, and Joe Biden is still one of the candidates. So there’s still time, Joe!

Technorati Tags: Jamie Lynn Spears, teen pregnancy, stupid comments, Bill Albert

3 Comments »

Via Allahpundit at Hot Air, it seems that Politico is a little down on Fred’s campaign visit to Waverly, Iowa:

Thompson rode four blocks to the local fire station. Local fire stations always have captive audiences (unless there is a fire).

Inside, Thompson shook a few hands — there were only about 15 people there — and then Chief Dan McKenzie handed Thompson the chief’s fire hat so Thompson could put it on.

Thompson looked at it with a sour expression on his face.

“I’ve got a silly hat rule,” Thompson said.

In point of fact, the “silly” hat was the one Chief McKenzie wore to fires and I am guessing none of the firefighters in attendance considered it particularly silly, but Thompson was not going to put it on. He just stood there holding it and staring at it.

Putative First Trophy-Wife, Jeri, saved the day by donning the cap herself:

“You look cute,” Thompson said to her. She did.

(Photo by Mark Halperin) Of course, that can’t excuse Fred’s refusal to wear the fireman’s hat. I mean, where did he ever come up with the “silly hat rule” anyway?

Oh. Maybe that is a good rule after all.

UPDATE: Ed Driscoll adds: “Violate it while campaigning at your peril.” (Thanks for the link, Ed!)

MORE: Stop the ACLU links (thanks, Jay!) and remarks: “This is what they call in politics, making something out of nothing.” Jay also suggests that the “awkward” view of the events may have something to do with the author’s decidedly dismal view of Fred. Could be!

YET MORE: Hmmm. It gets curiouser and curiouser. It seems that Jay was on to something about the author of the Politico piece, Roger Simon, letting his apparently low opinion of Fred color the article describing the “silly hat rule” scene. Dan Riehl links (thanks, Dan!) and posts a video of the scene filmed by CBS. After reading Simon’s account, do you think they match?

I can’t say for sure, but it sounds to me like Fred said “I’ve got a silly hat rule, which I’m about to break” right before the fireman all laugh and then Fred puts the hat on Jeri. That’s decidedly different than the account provided for by Simon. There’s a big enough difference between what Simon claimed and what really happened just on the demeanor of the whole affair. Dowdifying the actual money quote is blatant bias if you ask me.

EVEN MORE: Instapundit links (thanks, Glenn!), and Jimmie at The Sundries Shack provides more analysis regarding the differences between the Simon story and the video.

Technorati Tags: Fred Thompson, Election 2008, Waverly, Iowa, campaign stop, Jeri Thompson, fireman’s helmet, silly hat rule, Michael Dukakis, John Kerry

12 Comments »

One big problem with that. It already exists:

Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney suggested there was no way a landscaping company that worked for him could have known its employees were illegal aliens even though the federal government has an employer verification system that any employer in America, on a voluntary basis, can use for free.

And while the system already exists and is in use, Romney called for creating one during an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday. A Romney spokesman said the governor meant to say he wanted to make the system mandatory for all businesses.

Yeah, sure he did. Because the only way one can be expected to to possibly know something is to make it mandatory that you know it. For example, if it had been mandatory that politicians seeking to be nominated and eventually elected President of the United States know what they are talking about, then Romney would have never made this mistake.

Romney continued: “That’s the very reason why we so desperately need in this country an employment verification system, so that an employer who is hiring people can know who’s here legally or illegally.”

Romney spokesman Matt Rhoades on Tuesday clarified what the candidate meant.

“Unlike the current system, Gov. Romney believes that the employment verification system should be mandatory and use tamper-proof ID cards with biometric information,” Rhoades told Cybercast News Service. “This is a far cry from what we are doing now.”

The federal government’s employment verification program has been in place in some form since 1997 — first as a pilot program — and was expanded nationally in 2005 on a voluntary basis.

It is called E-Verify and should “absolutely” eliminate any excuses employers have for not knowing the legal status of a worker, said Veronica Valdes, spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

“E-Verify is a free and simple-user, web-based system,” Valdes told Cybercast News Service.

Rhoades attempted to clarify the clarification:

RHOADES: What he really meant to say was that we need is some sort of verification system that’s mandatory for those entering this country to verify who they are and why they’re here. In fact, Gov. Romney is putting together a proposal as we speak for a Cabinet level position that would check in and check out each and every visitor to this country, and those who are here only on a temporary basis will have to have some sort of chit, or certificate, or other verification …

CNS: Like a visa?

RHOADES: Sure, yeah. Like a visa …

CNS: Doesn’t the INS already do this?

RHOADES: …

CNS:

RHOADES: Uhhh … mmmmm … Look Paris Hilton!

We here at ASHC have not yet confirmed that was an exact quote, so “grain of salt” and all … (ahem).

In order to demonstrate his grasp of the issue, Romney further ruminated on the need for such a program, as a guest on the TV show of renowned immigration expert, Bill O’Reilly:

During an interview Monday on Fox News Channel’s “The O’Reilly Factor,” Romney again stressed the need for a verification system and said: “We have it today. We have a Social Security database. But they just don’t let employers know whether it’s a valid Social Security number until well after they hired someone.”

Host Bill O’Reilly said: “Well, yeah. Employers don’t have access to it.” Romney responded: “Yeah. They can’t say, is this a valid …” and then he was interrupted for a commercial break.

During the O’Reilly interview, Romney also said: “This is not impossible. This is the sort of thing the private sector could do in a few weeks. But we’re going to have to get the political will to finally enforce our laws and put in place this kind of system.”

I guess O’Reilly’s researchers missed this:

Since 1997, 30,000 employers have signed up to use the system, Valdes said. Since August, when Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff announced that all federal contractors and vendors would be required to use E-Verify, about 1,000 new users per month have logged on to the system.

Oh well, none of them should feel too bad. After all, even the people who created it don’t know anything about it:

There has been a lot of confusion about the system, said Rosemary Jenks, director of government relations for Numbers USA, an immigration research group that supports making E-Verify mandatory for all businesses in the United States.

“There are a lot of ways to make it mandatory,” she told Cybercast News Service. “Virtually no one in Congress knows much about the program, partly because virtually no one in Congress uses it.”

When reached for comment, Romney’s campaign manager could be heard in the background counseling the former governor to “Dive! Dive! Dive!”

That last quote may not be an actual … um, “quote” either. [/grainofsalt]

Technorati Tags: Election 2008, Iowa Caucus, Mitt Romney, INS, illegal immigration, E-Verify, employers liability, guest workers, gaffe

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As told by Mother Jones … so yeah, it’s a little, umm, “slanted.” My favorite distortion:

1977: The Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, is founded in San Francisco with funding from oil baron Charles G. Koch. The name comes from Cato’s Letters, newspaper articles written by two Englishmen using the pen name Cato the Younger, an allusion to the defender of republicanism in ancient Rome. With a yearly budget of nearly $20 million, Cato defends corporate empires.

Heh. OK, I guess that’s the only way a socialist rag could possibly comprehend an organization like The Cato Institute. So the list is slanted, but interesting nonetheless. C’est la vie. They did have the decency to include these gems:

1792: German philosopher Wilhelm von Humboldt, in The Sphere and Duties of Government, argues that providing security is the only proper role of the state. Citizens must be granted freedom to live as they choose, he writes, because “the absolute and essential importance of human development [is] in its richest diversity.”

1819: “Every time collective power wishes to meddle with private speculations, it harasses the speculators,” complains Swiss-born thinker Benjamin Constant in France. “Every time governments pretend to do our business, they do it more incompetently and expensively than we would.”

Feel free to add what you think was left out in the comments. I’ll add the best to a post update.

Technorati Tags: libertarianism, timeline of libertarian thought, history, Mother Jones

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Speaking of Thompson, his sense of humor (which seemed absent after wonderfully wicked pre-campaign bits such as this) is really starting to come out. I love his response to the AP’s question about the candidates favorite President from the other party. Predictably the Democrat’s all chose Teddy Roosevelt, the Republicans leaned toward Truman. Fred steps away from the pack:

Former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson: “Martin Sheen.” The fellow actor played two Democratic presidents on TV, the fictional Josiah Bartlet in “The West Wing” and John Kennedy in a miniseries.

I definitely prefer Josh Bartlett to Truman, or the real Martin Sheen for that matter. He is a much better orator than either of them.

Technorati Tags: Fred Thompson, Election 2008. Presidential Election, West Wing, Martin Sheen. Josh Bartlett, Teddy Roosevelt, Republicans, Democrats

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The aptly named Unqualified Offerings has had its share of troubles lately, and I’m not usually one to pile on, but this is simply beyond the pale (emphasis added):

Have We Given Justice to Lindh?

By Mona

American citizen John Walker Lindh is now serving 20 years in this heinous prison for what appears to have been the youthful insanity of fighting in favor of one side of a war in Afghanistan — well before that nation’s Taliban had threatened us.

What dear Mona neglects to mention, of course, is that the “one side” was al Qaeda (really al Ansar), which puts a bit of a crimp in her appeal for clemency. Here’s a brief look at what Jihad Johnny was doing in Afghanistan from the Grand Jury indictment handed down in the case against him (list compiled by PowerLine):
(more…)

6 Comments »

According to Matt Lewis:

Anyone watching Iowa had better not write Fred Thompson off just yet …

Why?

Matt points me to this column:

But after a sluggish start, Thompson has sensed an opening in Iowa, and he’s moving decisively to exploit it. The opening arises from a combination of Romney’s changes of position on social issues and Huckabee’s stumbles on foreign-policy questions and immigration.

After his winning performance in the Des Moines Register’s debate, Thompson has embarked on a lengthy bus tour of the state. During these final days, his campaign says he’ll hold events in 50 communities and will visit 54 of the 99 counties.

On Monday, he picked up the surprise endorsement of Congressman Steve King. Of all the endorsements flying around these days, that one could move the most numbers. It sends a powerful signal from one of Iowa’s most conservative leaders to others on the right around the state: We’ve now got a horse we can ride.

Are they?

“I think, just based on the reception we’ve seen in the last 24 hours, it’s been nothing short of spectacular.”

“… It’s hoots and hollers and ‘hell yeas’ from the back of the room. It’s almost Revivalesque. It’s stuff we’re not used to in Iowa,” says Haus.

Of course they aren’t used to it, because never has a candidate had an approach like this:

Heh, makes you want to hoot and holler, don’t it?

Update: Frank J gives us further insight into why he believes Fred is the man:

But we can’t just go by our gut. Let’s compare the main attributes of Fred Thompson versus the other candidates:

Fred Thompson: Teh Awesome

Other Candidates: Teh Suck

I believe when you lay things out this way, the reasons to support Fred Thompson over the other candidates becomes obvious, especially since IMAO has long held the position that “Teh Awesome” is better than “Teh Suck.”

Read the rest for less nuanced reasons Fred is the one for Frank J and America.

Technorati Tags: Fred Thompson, election 2008, Steve King, Romney, Huckabee, Iowa, President

11 Comments »

When members of your own party are positive about changes they are seeing first hand in Iraq, maybe it’s time to give up on giving up.

“I feel we’ve made progress, and the other part is I feel we can see an end game in sight,” Donnelly, D-Ind., told reporters on a conference call Tuesday from Washington. “It isn’t we just keep plugging away in the hopes something will turn out right. Gen. (David) Petraeus is working a plan and we seem to be heading toward a place where the Iraqis can be self-sustaining and we’ll have a smaller presence in the background.”

…

“Things are better than they were in their first few months of deployment,” Donnelly said.

…

The only area where there doesn’t appear to be improvement is in the Iraqi national government, “which has proven itself to almost be dysfunctional,” Donnelly said. “The provincial governments have been working together with each other almost in spite of the national government.”

So, what’s the scorecard say?

Security – big improvement
Provincial Governments – working together
National Government – not gelling as hoped
Diplomatic Front – improving

Of course, just to shut some critics up, reconciliation is happening, at local levels and now on a national scale.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2007-12-17-iraqsecurity_N.htm?loc=interstitialskip

Iraq’s Shiite-dominated government has agreed to take over support of a U.S.-funded plan that has organized thousands of Iraqis — including former insurgents and their sympathizers — into local security groups.

The move is a long-awaited step toward national reconciliation, said Saad al-Muttalibi, an official at Iraq’s Ministry of National Dialogue and Reconciliation.

More good news below the fold!!

(more…)

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Apparently Hugo Chavez takes the resurrection of historical idols quite seriously. And much too literally [HT: Dave In Texas]:

President Hugo Chavez said Monday that Venezuela should open the coffin of independence hero Simon Bolivar to examine the bones, saying there are sufficient doubts about his death in 1830 to warrant a full investigation.

Although history books maintain Bolivar died of tuberculosis, Chavez said doubts exist because some writings suggest it is possible the South American “Liberator” might have been murdered.

Chavez has raised this theory before, but went further during a speech on the anniversary of Bolivar’s death.

“Who knows if they even made Bolivar’s bones disappear? We have to determine it now,” Chavez said. “We have the moral obligation to dispel this mystery, to open … this sacred coffin and check the remains.”

I’m not exactly sure what Chavez’s goal is here other than to create a controversy that will eventually be laid at the feet, somehow, of President Bush and “imperialism.” Or perhaps he means to overshadow his referendum defeat, and to redirect attention away from his attempts to change the constitution by other means.

One thing you can bank on, however, is that the Chavez’s gravedigging escapade will be little more than a show trial of his perceived enemies, and will be used to foster popular support of the erstwhile dictator. IOW, it’s simply propaganda.

Technorati Tags: Simon Bolivar, Hugo Chavez, Venezuela, death by tuberculosis, grave digging, exhumation, propaganda

3 Comments »

It seems that Hugo Chavez is not the only one having trouble instituting his Bolivarian dream state. Evo Morales is facing troubles in Bolivia as well:

Since the election of avowed socialist Evo Morales to the presidency of Bolivia, some have not been particularly happy with the direction he is trying to take the country. Yesterday, four of Bolivia’s states have announced they are autonomous and separated from the central government. As can be imagined, this has not been well received by the Morales government

From the Financial Times (HT: Fausta):

Four Bolivian departments are on collision course with the leftwing government of President Evo Morales after declaring radical autonomy statutes at the weekend.

The legislation, declared illegal by Mr Morales, would insulate the wealthier and mainly mixed-race eastern part of the country from parts of a controversial new constitution that grants greater powers to the country’s majority indigenous groups.

On Saturday, tens of thousands of people took part in rallies in Santa Cruz and departmental capitals to celebrate the autonomy measures, while similarly large numbers of pro-government supporters demonstrated in favour of the new constitution in La Paz.

All the legislation – as well as a separate and especially contentious constitutional provision limiting the size of landholdings – has to be submitted to referendums that are expected to take place early next year….

Santa Cruz, Tarija, Beni and Pando departments, which all announced autonomy on Saturday, form a half-moon shape around the solidly pro-government capital and heavily indigenous departments of La Paz, Potosi and Oruro. Two other departments – Cochabamba and Chuquisaca – are unhappy with the new constitution, railroaded through by an emergency session of a constituent assembly eight days ago by pro-government supporters. “The country has taken two different directions,” said an editorial in El Deber, a daily newspaper published in Santa Cruz

Each side in the matter is talking tough. Here’s Evo talking trash:

“They must give back the money they took from us,” he told a cheering crowd, which included members of the Quechua and Aymara tribes. “We will retroactively investigate all the big fortunes, and the corrupt are now trembling with fear.”

Morales also cautioned those who he said want a “a division, a coup d’etat,” the AP reported.

“We won’t permit Bolivia to be divided,” he warned.

And this from one of the seceding governors:

“I am convinced that we will not retreat a millimetre nor move one step to the side,” Ruben Costas, the governor of Santa Cruz, told tens of thousands of jubilant supporters waving the department’s green and white flags. Mr Costas warned the central government not to send in troops or police. “This is a warning. Do not dare to invade us or militarise us.”

IIRC, these provinces have been threatening to secede for some time now. It’s hard to tell how this will all play out.

Fausta has much more on this and other happenings in her Carnival of Latin America and the Carribean, which also includes a link to our post about Hugo Chavez losing the Venezuelan referendum (thanks for the link, Fausta!).

UPDATE: It’s not a secession, but a declaration of autonomy. Apparently the media screwed up … yet again:

Contrary to what the MSM is publishing the autonomic statute in first article states:

“Santa Cruz se convierte en Departamento Autónomo, como expresión de la identidad histórica, la vocación democrática y autonómica del pueblo cruceño, y en ejercicio de su derecho a la autonomía departamental, reforzando la unidad de la República de Bolivia, y los lazos de hermandad entre todos los bolivianos”.

That is to say they are not proposing secession, what they are proposing is self rule in economic, education, tax and resource management issues.

Some of you may think that such a thing amounts to independence from Bolivia, however the prefectos have been very clear in that respect, their proposal is similar to the current system of autonomic regions in Spain.

Third, the issue of autonomic rule was presented to popular vote through referendum. In 4 out of the 9 departments (Santa cruz, Beni Pando and Tarija) the SI option, that is the one supporting autonomy, won. Ergo, said proposal is as democratic as Morales’-driven national constituent assembly from a strictly legal point of view, for if what Morales needed to rewrite the constitution was the approval of “the people” said approval was granted by “the people” to provincial statutes of self rule in those regions.

Technorati Tags: Bolivia, Evo Morales, Fausta, Latin America, socialism, Bolivar, revolucion, Venezuela, Hugo Chavez, seceding departments, Santa Cruz, Tarija, Beni, Pando

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I was sent this via my brother from my uncle Pat, a Green Beret (COL Rtd., Army S.F.) It is from the Superintendent of West Point, sent to all cadets following the Army Navy game this year:

I will always place the mission first.
I will never accept defeat.
I will never quit.
I will never leave a fallen comrade.

Future Army Lieutenants,

The Warrior Ethos is simple. 23 words. But it isn’t easy to live up to.

Like you I am disappointed in Saturday’s result and in this entire football season. I am more disappointed than you as I have been a passionate Army football fan for 40 years. But I am not disappointed in the team. I am not disappointed in the players. I am not disappointed in the Corps that cheered until the last second even though we were down by 5 touchdowns.

The West Point leadership development system teaches us never to quit; to never accept defeat. Living up to those above 23 words on a miserable, cold day in Baltimore, even after 4 years of losing to Navy on a football field, will teach you lessons of leadership that you may never find elsewhere. Lessons on leading your Soldiers for months in the desert, or in the cities in Iraq, or in the mountains and villages of Afghanistan. When your Soldiers are killed and wounded, and they are looking to you for leadership and hope.

We cannot have leaders who quit. Your Soldiers will not survive under it. Our Nation will not allow it. And the Long Gray Line won’t stand for it.

What shows your true colors is not support of Army and Army Football when they have winning season, go to bowl games and Beat Navy (and this will all happen). You show your true colors when we don’t have winning seasons, when we don’t go to bowl games and we don’t beat Navy.

Let me quote a paragraph that changed the world because it helped a fledgling group of colonies with a losing Army refuse to accept defeat:

These are the times that try men’s souls: The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value. - Published on 23 December 1776

Football is not war, and losing to Navy does not equal losing a battle. But character is character. Leadership is leadership. Be leaders.

LTG Buster Hagenbeck

1 Comment »

This seems to have really improved the speed at which I browse:

Speed up Firefox. If you have a broadband connection, you can speed up your page loads. This allows Firefox to load multiple things on a page instead of one at a time. By default, it’s optimized for dialup connections (why??). Here is what you need to do:

1. Type “about:config” into the address bar and hit return. Type “network.http” in the filter field, and change the following settings (double-click on them to change them):
2. Set “network.http.pipelining” to “true”
3. Set “network.http.proxy.pipelining” to “true”
4. Set “network.http.pipelining.maxrequests” to 30. This will allow it to make 30 requests at one time. Originally I tried 100 here and it didn’t seem to help. When I went with 30 I noticed an improvement.
5. Right-click anywhere and select New-> Integer. Name it “nglayout.initialpaint.delay” and set its value to “0?. This value is the amount of time the browser waits before it acts on information it receives.

Technorati Tags: Firefox, browser, speed

3 Comments »

Thaddeus Tremayne sees potential legal troubles for St. Nick in the UK:

A frosty reception awaits Santa Claus in Britain this year. It seems that the much-loved benefactor of children everywhere is, in fact, suspected of being guilty of a number of illegal practices.

The jolly fatman’s employment practices are demanding particular scrutiny:

The Equality Commission has also weighed in with concerns about Santa’s employment practices. His policy of only working with elves is clearly discriminatory and leaves him open to prosecutions by pixies, faeries and goblins who are not being considered for employment due to their race.

The Department of Work and Pensions is also investigating the work practices of Santa on the basis that, over the Christmas period, he demands that his elvish workforce work around the clock in order to meet the seasonal demand. This is a clear and unequivocal flouting of the EU Working Time Directive which limits the working week to 48 hours and could give rise to a further prosecution.

There’s more, so RTWT.

The War on Christmas continues unabated! [/mock horror]

Technorati Tags: humor, Christmas, nanny state, UK, Britain, EU, regulations, civil liberties

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To hear many a commenter talk or write one would believe that over the last thirty years, and especially the last seven, the tax burden has become increasingly tilted in favor of the wealthy. Greg Mankiw begs to differ, and here is the data:

The first number below is for 2005, the most recent year available. For comparison, I computed, and present in parentheses below, the average effective tax rate from 1979 to 2005, the time span covered in the report.

All households: 20.5 (21.6)

Lowest quintile: 4.3 (7.2)
Second quintile: 9.9 (13.2)
Middle quintile: 14.2 (17.1)
Fourth quintile: 17.4 (20.1)
Highest quintile: 25.5 (26.1)

Top 10 percent: 27.4 (27.6)
Top 5 percent: 28.9 (29.0)
Top 1 percent: 31.2 (31.7)

Notice that all groups are paying lower tax rates than the historical average. But in contrast to some popular perceptions, the change is not concentrated among the upper income groups. In fact, the opposite is true.

This data includes social security and most other federal taxes:

In its analysis, CBO estimates effective tax rates for the four largest sources of federal revenues—individual income taxes, social insurance (payroll) taxes, corporate income taxes, and excise taxes—as well as the total effective rate for the four taxes combined. Those taxes account for over 95 percent of total federal revenues. The analysis does not include federal estate and gift taxes, customs duties, and other miscellaneous receipts. Nor does it include state and local taxes.

An interesting point is that it includes the employers contribution in the employees tax rate, rather than the employers, which raises the effective tax rate on employees, and thus the lower income groups. That makes the numbers all the more impressive, because many supporters of Social Security would argue that the employer contribution is not a tax on the employee. I agree with the CBO, but I am curious if anyone will argue the numbers are skewed to make the burden on the wealthy smaller, and the burden on the poor and middle class higher, than it should be. I doubt it, but if they were intellectually consistent they would.

Technorati Tags: taxes, income taxes, social security

7 Comments »

In case you haven’t already seen it, go ahead and read this journalism professor’s condescending look at blogging. Prepare to wretch.

Supporters of “citizen journalism” argue it provides independent, accurate, reliable information that the traditional media don’t provide. While it has its place, the reality is it really isn’t journalism at all, and it opens up information flow to the strong probability of fraud and abuse. The news industry should find some way to monitor and regulate this new trend.

Then go read Billy Hollis’ takedown. Prepare to smile and nod.

Mr Hazinski, you guys in the mainstream media are in deep, deep trouble. The whole world is changing around you, and you can’t keep up. We are in the information age, and there is literally no way short of dictatorship to suppress information flow in today’s world. All you would do with your “standards” is impose more costs on your own organizations that are stupid enough to buy into de facto censorship, while the new media will ignore such nonsense and go on making you ever more irrelevant.

I really have nothing to add to Billy’s post other than, I find it really telling that the “professional” journalist thinks that the answer to problem of the industry having no standards is to require them for bloggers.

Anyway, RTWT.

Technorati Tags: media, MSM, bias, arrogance, journalism, professionalism, guild, eliminating competition

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The linked post is a couple of months old, but the thoughts are yours to treasure for a lifetime.

Remembering the ’70’s:

Last weekend I put an exhaust fan in the ceiling for my wife’s grandfather. After a bunch of hours spent in The Hottest Attic In The Universe, he had a ceiling fan that ducted to the side of his house.

While my brother-in-law and I were fitting the fan in between the joists, we found something under the insulation. What we found was this:

Ahh, the ’70’s. When saying “I love you” was as easy as donning matching outfits:

And nothing showcases your everlasting love more than the commitment of matching bathing suits. That, and an appreciative blonde with a look on her face that says “I love the way your junk fights against that fabric.”

Enjoy the trip. [HT: Triticale, who recently passed away. RIP]

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As a few of you may be aware, we fans of the LSU Tigers have been blessed with our second chance this decade to watch our beloved football team compete for the BCS Championship. This has led to an enormous demand for the few precious seats available. One small reason so few seats are available is the Sugar Bowl and LSU’s favorable treatment of those who are their benefactors, and one group of benefactors are our elected officials:

Thousands of LSU fans must resort to online ticket brokerages and face sky-high prices if they want to get into the Superdome for the BCS National Championship Game on Jan. 7.

All 143 state legislators, however, are sitting pretty for the Tigers’ matchup against the Ohio State Buckeyes.

LSU offered each lawmaker — including dozens who will leave office a week after the game because of term limits, retirement or electoral defeat — an option to buy two tickets at the face value of $175 each.

All 39 members of the Senate bought tickets, as did the 104 House members who are still in office until Jan. 14. One House seat is vacant. Many legislators also bought up to four additional tickets — again, at face value — from the Sugar Bowl Committee, which is hosting the title game.

Newly elected lawmakers were not offered either option.

Gov. Kathleen Blanco, meanwhile, will welcome 42 yet-to-be identified guests to a Superdome suite she has used throughout her term to entertain supporters, potential industrial recruits, lawmakers and her family and friends.

Special ticket access for lawmakers is neither new nor confined to Louisiana, and it does not run afoul of the state ethics code. LSU has for years offered legislators an opportunity to buy season tickets for its home games.

Blanco’s Superdome suite, among the largest in a building that state taxpayers help finance, comes with her job. But critics say the legislative deals in particular send the wrong message about the motives and mores of elected officials.

Now this is small potatoes in my estimation, but it has really touched a nerve amongst many here in Louisiana. However, while I harbor no ill will over this myself, the comments of State Sen. Mike Smith reveal a level of cluelessness that is simply astounding:

State Sen. Mike Smith, D-Winnfield, was unapologetic for buying whatever tickets he could get. The Tiger Athletic Foundation donor said his family has had the right to buy 12 season tickets since his father entered the Legislature five decades ago.

[...]

Smith said lawmakers deserve some recompense for the public scrutiny, long hours and middling pay their positions bring. “The press and the public need to get over this thing,” he said. “If people want these tickets so bad, tell them to run for office.”

Heh. Well that will show the public. I am sure the resentment will lessen now. I am going to help him out and try and make sure as many people as possible hear his well reasoned response to their skepticism. Arguments like that deserve to be heard.

What an idiot.

Tags: LSU, Football, BCS, National Championship, Senator Mike Smith, Louisiana, Politics, tickets

2 Comments »

Thank’s Billy!

Technorati Tags: politics, election 2008,   presidential election, Immanuel Kant, Friedrich Nietzsche, political ads

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McQ discusses Krauthammer’s disgust over the Republican Party and its candidates stooping before those demanding a declaration of religious faith to become President. From Krauthammer:

I’d thought that the limits of professed public piety had already been achieved during the Republican CNN/YouTube debate when some squirrelly looking guy held up a Bible and asked, “Do you believe every word of this book?” — and not one candidate dared reply: None of your damn business.

I do wish Krauthammer had focused on the one candidate who has at least somewhat resisted this campaign sidebar that is threatening to become the main theme, Fred Thompson:

Asked about his religious beliefs during an appearance before about 500 Republicans in South Carolina yesterday, Fred Thompson said he attends church when he visits his mother in Tennessee but does not belong to a church or attend regularly at his home in McLean, Va., just outside Washington. The actor and former senator, who was baptized in the Church of Christ, said he gained his values from “sitting around the kitchen table” and said he did not plan to speak about his religious beliefs on the stump. “I know that I’m right with God and the people I love,” he said, according to Bloomberg News Service. It’s “just the way I am not to talk about some of these things.”

From Byron York:

If you’re going to ask Fred Thompson to participate in a grade-school show of hands, or demand that he sign a pledge, or insist that he speak emotionally and at length about how much his religious faith means to him, well, you can just forget it. He’s not gonna do it.

I loved the refusal to answer a question on Global warming by raising his hand. I generally hate the debates, but if the candidates, in this case Thompson, decide to stop playing the silly games the media and political operatives want them to, then maybe they will be worth watching after all:

The more I listen to Fred, as opposed to the whining about him bucking campaigning conventions, the more I like him. In fact, I like that he is doing it differently, aqnd I hope it is successful if for no other reason than I am sick of what we have come to expect out of campaigns and the people who run for President. Cue David Brody:

I think it’s pretty clear by now that Thompson is running his campaign the way he said he would. He’s not worried about the media, pundits or the traditional political game as we know it. He’s going to do things his way and talk about substantive issues. Look, he’s a serious guy and these are serious times.

Make extensive speeches and comments about policy and political philosophy? How dare he! Doesn’t he know it is all about biography and empty, hypocritical symbolism?

Meanwhile James Dobson is making sure he stands squarely at the heart of the problem:

“We were pleased to learn from his spokesperson that Sen. Thompson professes to be a believer,” said Nima Reza, a Dobson spokesman. “Thompson hasn’t clearly communicated his religious faith, and many evangelical Christians might find this a barrier to supporting him.”

Krauthammer does a good job of dissecting the problems and nuances of faith in our political arena, and McQ fills in the gaps. I highly recommend reading them both.

Technorati Tags: Fred Thompson, Election 2008, religion, Mitt Romney, James Dobson

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I have pulled myself out of my work and other issues and feel I need to post something. So I found this fun. Only tried it once so far, but let me know how you do.

6 Comments »

This is interesting:

The “Key Judgments” released by the intelligence community last week begin with a dramatic assertion: “We judge with high confidence that in fall 2003, Tehran halted its nuclear weapons program.” This sentence was widely interpreted as a challenge to the Bush administration policy of mobilizing international pressure against alleged Iranian nuclear programs. It was, in fact, qualified by a footnote whose complex phraseology obfuscated that the suspension really applied to only one aspect of the Iranian nuclear weapons program (and not even the most significant one): the construction of warheads. That qualification was not restated in the rest of the document, which continued to refer to the “halt of the weapons program” repeatedly and without qualification.

The reality is that the concern about Iranian nuclear weapons has had three components:

the ,

the development of missiles and

the building of warheads.

Heretofore, production of fissile material has been treated as by far the greatest danger, and the pace of Iranian production of fissile material has accelerated since 2006. So has the development of missiles of increasing range. What appears to have been suspended is the engineering aimed at the production of warheads.

So sayeth uber-realist Henry Kissinger…

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While this is welcome news, it can hardly be called justice. A just society would have stopped this guy in his tracks, long before 10,000 people were killed during the seige of Sarajevo.

The U.N. war crimes tribunal sentenced former Bosnian Serb general Dragomir Milosevic to 33 years imprisonment on Wednesday for the shelling of Sarajevo during the Bosnian war, one of the court’s toughest sentences.

More than 10,000 people were killed in the Muslim-held part of Sarajevo in fighting and sniper attacks during the conflict. Thousands more struggled daily to survive in conditions one witness compared to the siege of Leningrad during World War Two.

“The evidence discloses an horrific tale of the encirclement and entrapment of a city,” said Judge Patrick Robinson, before the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia handed one of its harshest sentences since being set up in 1993.

“There was no safe place in Sarajevo, one could be killed or injured anywhere and anytime.”

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This is one of the most bizarre and disgusting stories I’ve heard in quite a while:

A Houston, Texas woman says she was gang-raped by Halliburton/KBR coworkers in Baghdad, and the company and the U.S. government are covering up the incident.

Jamie Leigh Jones, now 22, says that after she was raped by multiple men at a KBR camp in the Green Zone, the company put her under guard in a shipping container with a bed and warned her that if she left Iraq for medical treatment, she’d be out of a job.

“Don’t plan on working back in Iraq. There won’t be a position here, and there won’t be a position in Houston,” Jones says she was told.

Among other things, Jones apparently had to be rescued by State Dept. officials at the behest of Congressman Ted Poe (R-TX):

Finally, Jones says, she convinced a sympathetic guard to loan her a cell phone so she could call her father in Texas.

“I said, ‘Dad, I’ve been raped. I don’t know what to do. I’m in this container, and I’m not able to leave,’” she said. Her father called their congressman, Rep. Ted Poe, R-Texas.

“We contacted the State Department first,” Poe told ABCNews.com, “and told them of the urgency of rescuing an American citizen” — from her American employer.

Poe says his office contacted the State Department, which quickly dispatched agents from the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad to Jones’ camp, where they rescued her from the container.

There’s much more and this story promises to be the poltical intrigue of the month considering the cast of bogeymen making an appearance: Halliburton, KBR, Iraq contractors, Bush Administration.

I honestly don’t know what to make of it right now, so I’ll reserve my thought until later. For now, Don Surber’s appalled, Rusty Shackleford is skeptical as is Ace, the left is having a field day. That should keep y’all busy.

UPDATE: Ben Domenech thinks Jones’ story is quite believable. And per the case file, Jones is (and was at the time) married to a soldier who is also a plaintiff in the suit.

So far the story reads like a made-for-TV movie, but that doesn’t make it false, just bizarre.

Developing …

Technorati Tags: Jamie Leigh Jones, gang-rape in Iraq, KBR, Halliburton, cover-up, Ted Poe

13 Comments »

So I mentioned before I might not continue doing these into the New Year. I am approaching one solid, eventful year of trying to summarize the important, and possibly ignored, stories of the day. I’m not quite burned out, but my time has become very precious to me (my preciousssss), and it’s just a bit too much. I’ve slacked on these in recent weeks, and I’m going to consider this my last one, at the very least until the new year. Try not to weep with joy.

• Let’s think about whether or not it was a good idea to give Kazakhstan the chairmanship of the OSCE. Commenters have made strong cases against, but I still think it’s a good idea. We’ll see who gets to eat crow (probably me).
• Human Rights Watch issued a report claiming that Burma killed a significantly higher number of monks than it admitted. This is unsurprising, but nevertheless still horriffic.
• Michael Totten has yet another must-read essay on his trip to Fallujah now that the fighting is done. Ethnic cleansing works wonders for the peace process—horrible to realize, and horrible for those whom it impacts. But the horrible thing is, ethnic cleansing might just be what eventually settles the country. Talk about a pyrrhic victory.
• Kevin Drum has an interesting series of posts on how the Right seems to be attacking the NIE because it doesn’t conform to their stereotypes. I say deep breathing is called for; it is a welcome ray of realism in all the Iran talk, yes, and Jeffrey Sachs is wise to warn against “politicization.” But, umm, all NIEs are political documents? Even if they’re not meant to be? In either case, during controversial times the NIE inspires idiotic media commentary. And that’s despite obvious forms of White House tampering (note: the rumor that senior officials threatened going public despite the threat of jail indicates the current NIE might not be White House-approved). Oh, and that’s when we can be bothered to craft a worthwhile intelligence estimate in the first place. These things are incredibly difficult to do, and incredibly difficult to compile; all the idiots on the outside who carp and moan that it doesn’t conform to what they read about in the media should seriously STFU.
• David Axe gets weepy, but captures something I relate to. As strange as that sounds. Stay tuned for some news here soon.

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In the wake of the Venezuelan electorate issuing Hugo Chavez a defeat (his first) at the ballot box last week, there was much speculation from blogospheric skeptics about the actual tally of the votes, and about whether or not Chavez manipulated the results. In a report by Jorge Castañeda for Newsweek comes allegations confirming those suspicions (HT: ChrisB):

Most of Latin America’s leaders breathed a sigh of relief earlier this week, after Venezuelan voters rejected President Hugo Chávez’s constitutional amendment referendum. In private they were undoubtedly relieved that Chávez lost, and in public they expressed delight that he accepted defeat and did not steal the election. But by midweek enough information had emerged to conclude that Chávez did, in fact, try to overturn the results. As reported in El Nacional, and confirmed to me by an intelligence source, the Venezuelan military high command virtually threatened him with a coup d’état if he insisted on doing so. Finally, after a late-night phone call from Raúl Isaías Baduel, a budding opposition leader and former Chávez comrade in arms, the president conceded—but with one condition: he demanded his margin of defeat be reduced to a bare minimum in official tallies, so he could save face and appear as a magnanimous democrat in the eyes of the world.

(Emphasis added.) If the reports are true, this shouldn’t surprise anyone whose being paying attention. The emergence of former Chavez ally Raúl Isaías Baduel (profiled here by Fausta) as a check on Chavez’s lust for supreme power has been most welcome. However, while it’s tempting to view the machinations behind the referendum defeat as signaling the end of his strongman status, Chavez is clearly still a powerful leader. The possibility that he was able to manipulate the ultimate voting tally speaks to that power, as does his continued popularity amongst supporters inclined to use violence as a means of furthering the Chavista agenda. Accordingly, I wouldn’t write off Chavez’ ability to get what he wants just yet.

Technorati Tags: Hugo Chavez, referendum defeat, Venezuela, Chavista, Chavismo, election results, manipulated vote, Raúl Isaías Baduel

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This is a follow-up post including new information for those who wish to send mail, gifts, care packages, etc. to wounded and covering soldiers.

About a month ago Keith drew our attention to a popular, yet erroneous, email floating around that encouraged people to send Christmas cards to “any wounded soldier”.

Recently an email similar to the following was sent around. I contacted the Public Affairs officer at Walter Reed to check on this, because I’ve heard for a few years that they do not accept anonymous cards or packages.

As it turns out, for security reasons the mail and packages cannot be delivered to unnamed people:

Walter Reed Army Medical Center officials want to remind those individuals who want to show their appreciation through mail to include packages, letters, and holiday cards addressed to ‘Any Wounded Soldier’ or ‘A Recovering American Soldier’ that Walter Reed cannot accept these packages in support of the decision by then Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for Transportation Policy in 2001. This decision was made to ensure the safety and well being of patients and staff at medical centers throughout the Department of Defense.

In addition, the U.S. Postal Service is no longer accepting “Any Service Member” or “A Recovering American Soldier” letters or packages. Mail to “Any Service Member” that is deposited into a collection box will not be delivered.

In the comments to Keith’s post, John Miska was kind enough to leave some contact information so that such packages can be delivered.

VFW Post 8208, PO Box 653, Ruckersville VA 22968 will be happy to deliver Cards, Letters, Gifts and donations to our wounded troops at all the DC area Hospitals.
See www.adoptasoldier.us or http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6163463

Bigjohn

John Miska CDR
VFW Post 8208
PH 4347601940

Thanks to John, and to any and all of you thinking about our troops this holiday season.

Technorati Tags: Christmas, cards, wounded soldiers, care packages, any wounded soldier, Walter Reed Army Medical Center, VFW

UPDATE:

John left more info in the comment of this post.

VFW Post 8208, with the assistance of Ladies Auxiliary VFW 3150, is raising funds to supply each kitchenette in Abrams Hall and The Mologne House at WRAMC with all of the basic kitchen accoutrements. This effort is to benefit our wounded troops being housed there. There are 170 rooms with kitchenettes that are not supplied with these basic items by the military.

Items that will be purchased will include pots and pans, plates, bowls, coffee mugs, glasses, silverware, cooking utensils, basic spices, coffee pot, toaster, strainer, mixing bowl, dish towels etc.

We are asking for monetary donations only as we wish to outfit each kitchen identically and set up a volume purchase with a suitable vendor. Any funds in excess of this need will be used for the Post 8208 Walter Reed Relief Fund.

For further information contact John Miska CDR, VFW Post 8208, [email protected]
Donations should be made out to Ladies Auxiliary VFW 3150,
Earmarked Abrams Hall Fund and sent to:
Ladies Aux VFW 3150
2116 N. 19th St.
Arlington, VA 22209.

With us support is a 24/7/365

The Red Cross is also accepting Holiday Cards for wounded service members.
http://www.redcross.org/flash/leadership/cardstosoldiers.html

Mail Holiday Cards to Wounded Service Members

This holiday season, you are invited to mail holiday greeting cards along with personal messages of support to wounded service members at military hospitals around the country, through a unique partnership among the American Red Cross, Pitney Bowes Inc., the Department of Defense and Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

Please address your holiday cards to:

We Support You During Your Recovery!
c/o American Red Cross
P.O. Box 419
Savage, MD 20763-0419

Be sure to affix adequate postage when mailing to the Red Cross. Multiple cards without envelopes may be placed in one mailing envelope or a box that includes a return address. Holiday cards must be received no later than December 27. Cards received after this date will be returned to the sender.

DO NOT send “care packages” as they cannot be accepted. Send only holiday cards.

3 Comments »

Radley Balko has just the thing for your regulation-loving Congressman or woman.

Also, Katherine Mangu-Ward finds a great vintage gift that working stiff who’s just tired of it all:

Are you stuck in the “working man’s rut”? Would you rather be on the “able-bodied welfare recipient’s promenade“?

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To Glenn Greenwald’s Carnival of Fisking. Courtesy of Dan Collins you can amuse yourself here.

Hat tip: Frequent commenter, ChrisB.

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I learned in Shakespeare 101 that many mentions of “death” were really a wink and a nod to the peanut gallery alluding to an orgasm (from the French le petit mort). Consequently, the actor on stage could be professing his everlasting love for some lovely young lass, declaring how he would die without her, and while the aristocrats were swooning with the romantic imagery, the unwashed masses were guffawing at the ribald reference.

I don’t know if Shakespeare was the inspiration for the following, but it’s getting a little out there:

That’s from the new cofanifunebri.com 2008 calendar promoting the sale of the company’s caskets.

They say sex sells, but who in their right mind thinks of sex when picking out a casket? Hmmm … well, if this is aimed at them, then such advertising may be just barely legal in some jurisdictions, and outright banned in most.

Of course, part of me is wondering if it works …

[HT: TMZ via HotAir]

Technorati Tags: humor, death, models, caskets, sex, weird news

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Cross-posted at The Conjecturer.

Did you know the calm in Iraq is actually very fragile, which is what happens when you buy off competing factions in a civil war? I can’t imagine why—after all, the bands of roving, independent Sunni volunteer militias have contributed to something… except maybe if you read Jules Crittenden, who seems to be under the impression that a tentative power sharing agreement in Kirkuk means anything beyond Kirkuk. While it’s great to see Kirkuk no longer on the brink of turning into Mogadishu, like most righties on the war such a view misses the real point: Baghdad—the seat of government‚is the key to calming Iraq. There, prospects for a lasting peace are much more tentative, though SecDef Gates is doing a good job of it. What do I care; according to Crittenden I’m just a mindless Bush Basher™!

Speaking of bashing Bush, how about when he lied about not knowing about the findings of the NIE? Then again, maybe he just didn’t remember hearing that Iran had probably suspended its nuclear program months before his WWIII talk about how Iran was going to cause a nookyoolar holocaust then deny it… sort of like how he forgot all those pesky people at the State Department and their accurate intelligence on Iraq’s WMD “program” and how the country would turn into a mess if you disbanded the police and army. Don’t Bash Bush!

There’s more fun to be had with COIN aircraft. These are low, slow-moving prop-driven planes that can provide appropriate CAS to troops fighting insurgencies through the use of smaller guns and bombs… as compared to an F-16 pulling 400 knots as it fires a M61 vulcan. Of course, while it’s great our defense companies want to build them for other countries to use in their counterinsurgencies, the last time they did that with the F-20 it was a total flop… because no one else would trust a plane our own Air Force wouldn’t use. Will the bureaucracy wake up? Meh.

Oh yeah, and all that stealth technology we spent hundreds of billions of dollars developing? meh to that too. And remember those freaky tank things from Terminator 2? Those are the latest rage in turning military contracting into a Silicon Valley project. Cheap, autonomous killing machines are totally awesome until they learn how to think and then destroy our civilization and make us rely on Christ-figures to redeem us through sunsets and viral computer-Indian orphans.

9 Comments »

Jean-Claude Trichet, the president of the European Central Bank, called them a “brake on employment”:

The warning came after several competitors to Deutsche Post, the former state monopoly, announced redundancies and the cancellation of investments in response to Berlin’s decision to impose a minimum wage in the postal sector last week.

Minimum wages are shaping up as a priority policy area for the government next year as the parties of the coalition seek to woo voters ahead of important regional elections. Angela Merkel, chancellor, said these could be extended next year to services sectors ranging from gardening to “temping” agencies.

“Setting minimum wages at levels which are not in line with productivity reduces the employment chances of less skilled workers and of the unemployed,” Mr Trichet told a conference in Berlin.

I must admit that I’m a bit surprised (pleasantly so) to see this sort of sage advice coming from Europe. I will be even more surprised if the advice is heeded.

Cui bono? The Financial Times article noted the most likely beneficiary:

Economists said the decision to impose minimum pay of €8-€9.80 ($11.70-$14.40) per hour in the postal sector would shield Deutsche Post from competition when the letters market is opened on January 1. Competitors said this would add to the Post’s existing privileges, including its exemption from value-added tax.

Bert Rürup, chairman of the five “wisemen”, the group of academics who advise the government on economic policy, said “the postal minimum wage has achieved its real industrial goal, namely to preserve Deutsche Post’s monopoly”….

Earlier this week, TNT and Hermes Logistik, two other Post competitors, said they had cancelled plans to enter the private letters market from January 1, when it opens to competition.

Public choice theory at work.

The minimum wage laws in question here work basically like a collective bargaining agreement.

The government used existing legislation last week that allows it to declare any wage agreement covering more than 50 per cent of a sector’s employees as the legal minimum for this sector. The construction and cleaning sectors are already subject to such legislation.

Dispelling any illusions that Angela Merkel is the second coming of Thatcher, not only are these minimum wage proposals coming from the liberal faction of her coalition, she is helping push them into law:

The Social Democratic party, junior partner in Ms Merkel’s coalition, has been the main driving force behind the minimum wage offensive. It is now encouraging employers and employees in 10 services sectors to submit minimum wage requests to the government by March next year.

The move has been more controversial in Ms Merkel’s CDU. Prominent opponents, such as Günther Oettinger, state premier of Baden-Württemberg, criticised the measure at the party’s annual conference on Monday.

Yet Ms Merkel made it clear other sectors would follow postal services. “When other sectors request it and the conditions are fulfilled, we will consider (adding them to the list),” she told delegates. “There can be no fair competition without minimum standards.”

Yes, Frau Merkel, but with minimum wages come higher labor costs, and firms find it harder to compete. Moreover, you create a situation where it’s difficult to get hired as a new employee since businesses can just pay the more experienced workers a bit more to work harder and/or purchase new technology. Why pay $14.00 an hour for someone you have to train when you can throw an extra $10.00 an hour at someone who knows how to do the job and will work harder? Or better yet, buy a software program or automated device that does the job and doesn’t demand benefits, time off or anything else, and comes at a fixed cost? Essentially, minimum wages price low skilled workers out of the market and cost smaller businesses too much to be able to compete. Again, cui bono?

Since Deutsche Post employs over half of all postmen in Germany, competitors have accused it of seeking to rob other players of their cost advantage by having its pay deal with the Verdi services sector union adopted as legal minimum by the government.

Whichever competitor is left standing.

Technorati Tags: Germany, minimum wage laws, economics, Deutsche Post, monopoly

1 Comment »

Drunk driving isn’t funny. That is unless your name is Warren G. Whitelightning, you’re drunk, you’ve stolen eight giant red hot pickled sausages from a convenience store, and then you decide to take a Krispy Kreme truck for a joy ride. Soon, you have both University of Wisconsin police and Madison’s finest on your tail–which, by the way, is expelling boxes of Krispy Kreme’s finest onto the road.

Talk about having the proper incentives. More here (HT: Instapundit). Video after the jump. (more…)

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Amen.

One of the reasons I abhor communitarianism (and tend to see my political philosophy as the opposite of that) is because it vests communitarian thinkers with the self appointed power to tell me (and others) what to do. Provided, of course, that they come up with a claim to do so in the name of what they call “the common good.” “For the good of all.” It’s utilitarianism on stilts.

That’s part of Eric Scheie’s introduction to his assessment of Global Warming as religion:

The source of today’s soon-to-be-ascendant total communitarianism (would that be “communitarian totalitarianism”?) can be summed up in two words:

GLOBAL WARMING.

It is the best thing to hit communitarian thinking since theocracy.

Depending on how you look at it, Global Warming Theory might even be a form of theocracy, and I don’t mean because it’s a form of earth worship, but because it shares something in common with all religions.

Actually, I have compared it to a theocratic regime before:

Few things annoy me more than the modern Lysenkoism of Anthropogenic Global Warming^TM and its rapturous congregation who viciously condemn any who dare challenge their scriptures. Each day it seems that we are bombarded with yet more bald-faced propaganda designed to scare us (and especially our children) into submission to the will of the environmental elite. These mullahs of climate change brook no dissension amongst their ranks, and harbor no compunction against destroying their enemies, by whatever means necessary. The Grand Imam himself jets around the world, in seeming hypocrisy, to deliver the message that the planet is doomed at the hands of evil capitalist oppressors unless we submit to the daily regimen prescribed for us at the site of his own personal Night Flight, and embodied in the Kyoto Protocol.

Well, I was obviously taking some poetic license there.

Still, leaving aside whether or not “communitarianism” is the proper moniker for the philosophy supporting AGW adherents, I think Eric summarizes the issue nicely with his lead in: “I don’t like other people telling me what to do.”

Anyone who values him or herself as an individual immediately comprehends that sentiment, and why it’s important. We all begin to part ways somewhere along the line towards being part of a community, in that we have varying degrees of tolerance for what we’ll put up with from others, but “leave me alone” is a fairly common sentiment amongst us all. This is especially so when we see no harm being done to anyone else by our behavior, thoughts, feelings, etc.

Again, that invisible line between “leave me along” and “hey, you stop that!” is different for each of us, but I would argue that we all start from a position of individual autonomy, and then agree to join larger and larger communities based on the amount of complete freedom we are willing to give up. A good indication of where that line resides generally for all people occurs when the hands of “others” reach too far into the individual sphere, such that more and more people start screaming “leave me alone!”

I think that is basically what happened with the Kelo case, which garnered broad support from Americans of all political stripes. The state taking one’s home in order to give it to another promising more benefits to the state elicited a visceral reaction from a large number of us, who instinctively found the state’s incursion to be have grossly transgressed that invisible line. “Leave me alone!” we shouted, and the individual states responded.

Perhaps AGW is beginning to have the same effect? If not, Eric points out the single most important reason why it should (my emphasis):

What I do not like (and what to me is theocracy) is when any individual or group posits that a particular theory or explanation of the unknown gives it an exclusive right to rule. Thus, I find the idea of Christian theocracy repellent, as I do Sharia, or state-enforced atheism.

[...]

I’ve lived more than half a century, and I have yet to see any system of control based on a theory of the unknown which promises to be as all-encompassing as the theory of Global Warming. That’s because we are creatures of carbon, both producers and consumers of it.

Any theory declaring carbon to be a poison declares all of us to be poison, and all of our activities to be poisonous. By doing this, Global Warming Theory is the ulimate trump card. It will reach out and touch every one of us, in every and any way imaginable and in ways none of us ever imagined.

This is really the same as the libertarian argument against universal health care: once the state has the right to intrude into the basic and fundamental areas of our individual lives, there is no stopping it, and it will soon control our entire being. Both AGW and universal health care rely on the concept of negative externalities to justify their intrusions. Both claim that individual decisions need to be checked by the state for the common good. Both rely upon the state to decide what the consequences of each individual action will be, who other than the individual will be affected and by how much, and what consequences should be used to curb such behaviors. Ultimately, both supplant the will of the individual with the will of the state as expressed by our betters, euphemistically deemed “experts.” In reality, they would be nothing more than slave-masters.

I would posit that the purveyors of AGW doom understand the invisible line quite well, and try to subvert it by painting ever more fantastic scenarios of death and destruction, scenarios which are specifically designed to overwhelm the individualist reflex we all feel when the invisible line has been crossed for us. Thus the outlandish claims put forth in propaganda pieces like An Inconvenient Truth are tolerated by those who know better, because they all want to see the end result where the common good (as defined by these same experts) abrogates the decisions of individuals.

Why would they want to do that? Well, in the end, everybody is a control freak, and we all think that the world would be a much better, saner, safer and happier place if everyone would just play by our rules. In fact, nearly every conflict of every sort has, at its root, this sentiment in one form or another — i.e. who’s in charge? The difference between individualists and “communitarians” (as Eric puts it) is that individualists eschew force in favor of reason in their pursuit of philosophical world domination, while communitarians consider force the primary means of exacting compliance since guilt only goes so far.

So where does that leave us then? Eric sums it up this way:

If mass regulation of human activity is required to save man from himself, the proper way to do that in this country is by constitutional amendment giving the government the vast and sweeping new powers it would need.

Good luck getting it through.

I hope I never live to see it.

Amen, brother. Amen.

Technorati Tags: global warming, climate change, politics, communitarianism, libertarianism, individualism, statist, dirigiste, politics as religion

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For information on Repeal Day you can visit www.repealday.org:

The turn of the twentieth century was a dark time in America. The Women’s Christian Temperance Union, which had been promoting Prohibition for many years, believed alcohol was the cause of many, if not all, social ills. Mistruths like this were spread. Lines were drawn. Bars and taverns were vandalized. People were killed. On January 16th, 1919, Congress passed the Volstead Act, outlawing alcohol and ostensibly putting an end to drunkenness, crime, mental illness, and poverty.

[...]

Repeal Day is not widely celebrated in this country, yet it commemorates the anniversary of the day the United States repealed the Eighteenth Amendment and gave Americans the constitutional ability to consume alcohol.

Here are a few reasons why we think Repeal Day should be a celebrated day in the United States:

It’s the perfect time of year.

Conveniently located halfway between Thanksgiving and Christmas — at a time when most Americans are probably not spending time with family — Repeal Day presents a wonderful occasion to get together with friends and pay tribute to our constitutional rights.

We have the constitutional ability to do so.

Unlike St. Patrick’s Day or Cinco de Mayo, Repeal Day is a day that all Americans have a part in observing, because it’s written in our Constitution. No other holiday celebrates the laws that guarantee our rights, and Repeal Day has everything to do with our personal pleasures.

It’s easy!

There are no outfits to buy, costumes to rent, rivers to dye green. Simply celebrate the day by stopping by your local bar, tavern, saloon, winery, distillery, or brewhouse and having a drink. Pick up a six-pack on your way home from work. Split a bottle of wine with a loved one. Buy a shot for a stranger. Just do it because you can.

Thanks for reading about what we hope will become a celebrated day in this country. Please help spread the word about Repeal Day, and tell a friend.

Cheers!

In celebration of the repeal of Prohibition I give you this from Reason TV:

For more Repeal Day errata, I highly recommend Dewars terrific website filled with historical video, proper Repeal Day conduct and drinking songs.

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These are the headlines on the drudgereport right now.

ABC NEWS: HOSTAGE TAKER A WELL-KNOWN LOCAL RESIDENT WITH HISTORY OF MENTAL ILLNESS… Developing…
‘TROY STANLEY’: WITNESS NAMES ALLEGED PERP…
SEN. CLINTON CANCELS DNC TALK…
SHUTS ALL IOWA CAMPAIGN OFFICES…
OBAMA, EDWARDS ROCHESTER OFFICES EVACUATED…

Now, it may just be me, but doesn’t these seem to be a very strong reaction to what may well be an isolated incident by a deranged person?

And some people still insist that being very concerned about global terrorism, makes one a bed wetter…

UPDATE:

Looks like this time it was a case of suicide by cop.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/us_world/2007/12/05/2007-12-05_hillary_clinton_hq_bomber_hoped_police_w.html

He told how he quickly freed three of the 18-year-old hostages, including a volunteer because “he looked like he was having a nervous breakdown.”

He ordered the other four to lie on the floor in the back room, he said, “because if there’s any shots fired, they’re going to be shot at me, not at you.”

And then, he said, he waited to die.

“I didn’t surrender,” said Eisenberg, 46, of Somersworth, N.H., adding that he hoped police would kill him in the standoff.

“I knew once the last hostage went out the door, there would be no reason for them to have restraint. I could see the sharp-shooter. He was all dressed in camouflage, and he had one of those laser lights on his rifle.

“I didn’t have my hands up or nothing. I just walked toward the door, thinking, ‘This is it, he’ll take me out.’ So I swing the door open, and he still didn’t shoot me, and I’m like, ‘What do I gotta do here?’

“My intent was never to hurt anyone. My intent was actually almost like a suicide by cop,” he said. “But I wanted to make a message first.”

Eisenberg, who has been diagnosed as bipolar, said he became “so apathetic and despondent [and] more and more hopeless” after he lost his job as a sales manager at a local automotive dealer and his wife filed for divorce.

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It’s a different format I’m playing with, but still done first over at The Conjecturer.

David Axe keeps bringing the crazy in Mogadishu. He tells a neato story: While regular Somalia is a dirty basket case, Somaliland—the quasi-independent territory further north—is actually doing quite well, with its own quasi-institutions and working economy and no famine. That must be why the U.S. is considering switching sides in the conflict, and maybe supporting Somaliland as its own country, which no other country has done. Although, having this be all Pentagon-driven, which is what it appears, is bad news bears for the whole “civilians run the country” thing; no real surprise to fans of Dana Priest, in other words, but not really representative of a healthy vigorous man in the White House. If we do establish diplomatic relations with Somaliland let’s hope Blackwater gets properly compensated. I mean, those diplomats need the best in the biz shooting at random people in the street, right? (Note: anyone seen the White Rabbit? The Interweb certainly hasn’t for well over a month… Must be hard to defend them when even their own government thinks they gun down innocent civilians.)

Anyway, it’s a good thing we think we know enough about Somali tribal politics to keep switching sides and inserting ourselves into the conflict by funding various militias. I mean, it’s the same skill we’re hoping to apply to Afghanistan in hope the spontaneous ‘Anbar Awakening’ can be forced by a leadership desperate for high-visibility successes. Speaking of high visibility successes, how about that 99% turnout in Chechnya that voted all Putin and thanked Russia for bombing Groznyy? Nothing was suspicious about that at all.

Ugh. Maybe I’ll go finish off my exciting novelty vodka. That’s the only thing that makes sense these days.

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From E. Frank Stephenson:

From the St. Louis Post-Dispatch:

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez thinks it’s curtains for America as a world power. “By the crash of the dollar,” he says, “America’s empire will crash.”Tyler Cowen’s suggestion that currencies are not markers of economic success notwithstanding, I hope Chavez’s theory that declining currencies signal the end of regimes is correct. If so, this piece from the IHT suggests we may soon be rid of Senor Chavez:

The bolivar has tumbled 30 percent this year to 4,850 per dollar on the black market, the only place it trades freely because of government controls on foreign exchange. That compares with the official rate of 2,150 per dollar set in 2005.Hugo must be proud of himself–he’s managed to depreciate his currency some 30% against a currency that has itself fallen by 20%. Sheer genius!

Heh. I suggest the bolivar has a long way to go.

Technorati Tags: Hugo Chavez, Venezuela, currency, bolivar, foreign exchange

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