Monday, 26 July 2010
News.................
Day 17 – July 26th 1940
Obama team's panic over losing whites
DaleyGator Daley Thought: What you must know about the Ground Zero Mosque, Dawa, and Sharia
Banks told: lend more or lose bonuses
'Meteorite' lands on cricket pitch during county match
Bear 'took car for joyride'
Angry cows attack walkers in French Pyrenees
Burma is working on nuclear weapons programme, experts claim
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Chicago comes to mind..........from Rico
For 'some' reason Chicago comes to mind. No, not the dreadful musical, but that miraculous city where the dead not only vote, but several times!
- And thanks to the DNC and ACORN, we now have this 'miracle' at the national level!
Huzzah!!!!
WikiLeaks and the Afghanistan War Logs
It's strange, since I was just listening to a 20 minute interview with Julian Assange yesterday at TED. I had planned to write about that as soon as this latest breaking news cycle winds down (JournoList, Shirley Sherrod, etc.), and now we've got the release of the Afghanistan war logs, which had been expected. Yeah, since the Iraq Apache video smear (and the detailed coverage at Jawa Report, et al., and my own), I've been gaining a sharper understanding of Assange and his hard-left enablers worldwide. It's simply more clear by the day that America's enemies are not just on the battlefield, but also among the global transnational issue networks working to bring down the United States and its Western allies.
I need to research the war logs and find out more on this, so expect updates. Below is a clip featuring Julian Assange for The Guardian. There's also a big exposé at The Guardian as well, so it's clear that the newspaper's coordinating its coverage with WikiLeaks. See, "Afghanistan war logs: Massive leak of secret files exposes truth of occupation." And of course, the New York Times is on the case, seemingly as deeply involved as is The Guardian. See, "Inside the Fog of War: Reports From the Ground in Afghanistan."Also at NYT (FWIW), "Piecing Together the Reports, and Deciding What to Publish":
The articles published today are based on thousands of United States military incident and intelligence reports — records of engagements, mishaps, intelligence on enemy activity and other events from the war in Afghanistan — that were made public on Sunday on the Internet. The New York Times, The Guardian newspaper in London, and the German magazine Der Spiegel were given access to the material several weeks ago. These reports are used by desk officers in the Pentagon and troops in the field when they make operational plans and prepare briefings on the situation in the war zone. Most of the reports are routine, even mundane, but many add insights, texture and context to a war that has been waged for nearly nine years.There's more at the link, but I stopped at this line. "The Times has taken care not to publish information that would harm national security interests"?
Over all these documents amount to a real-time history of the war reported from one important vantage point — that of the soldiers and officers actually doing the fighting and reconstruction.
The Source of the Material
The documents — some 92,000 individual reports in all — were made available to The Times and the European news organizations by WikiLeaks, an organization devoted to exposing secrets of all kinds, on the condition that the papers not report on the data until July 25, when WikiLeaks said it intended to post the material on the Internet. WikiLeaks did not reveal where it obtained the material. WikiLeaks was not involved in the news organizations’ research, reporting, analysis and writing. The Times spent about a month mining the data for disclosures and patterns, verifying and cross-checking with other information sources, and preparing the articles that are published today. The three news organizations agreed to publish their articles simultaneously, but each prepared its own articles.
Classified Information
Deciding whether to publish secret information is always difficult, and after weighing the risks and public interest, we sometimes chose not to publish. But there are times when the information is of significant public interest, and this is one of those times. The documents illuminate the extraordinary difficulty of what the United States and its allies have undertaken in a way that other accounts have not.
Most of the incident reports are marked “secret,” a relatively low level of classification. The Times has taken care not to publish information that would harm national security interests ...
Don't believe it for a second. The New York Times has been the radical left's institutional organ working to bring about an American defeat in Iraq and the War on Terror, and now in Afghanistan.
Recall Heather MacDonald's piece from 2006, on the Times' reporting that helped killed the Terrorist Finance Tracking Program. See, "National Security Be Damned":
BY NOW IT'S UNDENIABLE: The New York Times is a national security threat. So drunk is it on its own power and so antagonistic to the Bush administration that it will expose every classified antiterror program it finds out about, no matter how legal the program, how carefully crafted to safeguard civil liberties, or how vital to protecting American lives.RTWT.
The Times's latest revelation of a national security secret appeared on last Friday's front page--where no al Qaeda operative could possibly miss it. Under the deliberately sensational headline, "Bank Data Sifted in Secret by U.S. to Block Terror," the Times blows the cover on a highly targeted program to locate terrorist financing networks. According to the report, since 9/11, the Bush administration has obtained information about terror suspects' international financial transactions from a Belgian clearinghouse of international money transfers.
See also, Michelle Malkin, "NY Times Blabbermouths Strike Again."
I'll have more later after I read and research a bit. Meanwhile, readers can check WikiLeaks directly: "Afghan War Diary, 2004-2010." And the Der Spiegel piece is here: "Explosive Leaks Provide Image of War from Those Fighting It" (via Memeorandum).
Cross-posted from American Power.
Sunday, 25 July 2010
A 'Shower of Hateful Epithets Outside Capitol Hill'? — Well, No Actually ... And a Correction
It's not everyday that MSM outlets correct their bogus "racist" slurs against the tea parties, but the New York Times made a correction today to one recent report. The full story is over at my place: "Correcting the New York Times."
And as always, all the hot commentary and analysis — and watchdog reporting — at American Power.
Neoconservatism: An Obituary for an Idea
I'm about half way through C. Bradley Thompson's new book, Neoconservatism: An Obituary for an Idea. Yeah, it's an attack on neoconservatism, by one who was sympathetic to the ideology at one time. It's an excellent read, although I disagree with its conclusions, and it'll take me some thinking to put those disagreements in more detailed writing here. I can say that Thompson's focus so far is primarily on Irving Kristol and how he was informed by Straussian political philosophy. Hence, Thomspon reads an allegedly extreme authoritarianism into the movement that --- it is argued --- is at odds with the vision of the American founders. I'd simply note that neocons are way more eclectic than is postulated at the book, and again, I'm not done yet. I have peeked ahead to the conclusion, and Thompson takes his thesis to its logical conclusion to find neoconservatism anti-democratic. More on this later. Meanwhile, this is the kind of response I'd offer outside of the Irving Kristol exegesis, from Max Boot:
"Neocons Are Liberals Who Have Been Mugged by Reality"BONUS: At Dr. Sanity, "WHAT THE WORLD NEEDS NOW...":
No longer true. Original neoconservatives such as Irving Kristol, who memorably defined neocons as liberals who'd been "mugged by reality," were (and still are) in favor of welfare benefits, racial equality, and many other liberal tenets. But they were driven rightward by the excesses of the late 1960s and early 1970s, when crime was increasing in the United States, the Soviet Union was gaining ground in the Cold War, and the dominant wing of the Democratic Party was unwilling to get tough on either problem.
A few neocons, like philosopher Sidney Hook or Kristol himself, had once been Marxists or Trotskyites. Most, like former U.N. Ambassador Jeane Kirkpatrick, simply had been hawkish Democrats who became disenchanted with their party as it drifted further left in the 1970s. Many neocons, such as Richard Perle, originally rallied around Henry "Scoop" Jackson, a Democratic senator who led the opposition to the Nixon-Ford policy of détente with the Soviet Union. Following the 1980 election, U.S. President Ronald Reagan became the new standard bearer of the neoconservative cause.
A few neocons, like Perle, still identify themselves as Democrats, and a number of "neoliberals" in the Democratic Party (such as Sen. Joseph Lieberman and former U.N. Ambassador Richard Holbrooke) hold fairly neoconservative views on foreign policy. But most neocons have switched to the Republican Party. On many issues, they are virtually indistinguishable from other conservatives; their main differences are with libertarians, who demonize "big government" and preach an anything-goes morality.
Most younger members of the neoconservative movement, including some descendants of the first generation, such as William Kristol, editor of the Weekly Standard, and Robert Kagan, senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, have never gone through a leftist phase, which makes the "neo" prefix no longer technically accurate. Like "liberal," "conservative," and other ideological labels, "neocon" has morphed away from its original definition. It has now become an all-purpose term of abuse for anyone deemed to be hawkish, which is why many of those so described shun the label. Wolfowitz prefers to call himself a "Scoop Jackson Republican."
...is not love or global orgasms, but more neoconservatism.Cross-posted from American Power.
IDF Commandos
Elite Israel Defense Forces special forces units, Commandos are called Syeret in Hebrew (reconnaissance unit) are usually a company or a battalion in strength.
IDF Reconnaissance battalions are typically made up of three specialized companies:
1. Demolitions
2. Reconnaissance
3. Anti-Tank / Heavy Weapons
IDF Commando units specialize in sea-to-land incursions, counter-terrorism, sabotage, maritime intelligence gathering and hostage rescue. Only a handful missions have ever been publicized or otherwise missions publicly attributed to the units...
More at DoubleTapper
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The Sunday Best..............
Day 16 – July 25th 1940
Change we must believe in
Money Can't Buy Green Love
Welcome to scenic Juarez... or Maywood California if you can tell the difference...
Forgotten Spitfire will fly again after major restoration
US and South Korea begin military drills in the face of nuclear threat from North Korea
The 'bomb magnet' soldier blown up 15 times
'Staycation' holidays boost branch lines Beeching wanted to cut
Special report: the Libya investment firm and the release of the Lockerbie bomber
Cuban capitalists must wait for change as Fidel Castro returns to the fray
Race Played Role in Obama Car Dealer Closures
and finally............
At the airport, the God of Embalming and Friend of the Dead
Happy Days are here again!................from Rico
The attached chart is 'proof' that the Great Recession is OVER! That 'Happy Days' are here again!
Oh, well, if you completely ignore the sharply ascending blue line just to the right of the 'shaded' area (which denotes recession) above 2010...in the light area (which denotes NO recession).
For my pilot* friends, the rising blue line seems to indicate that our economy may soon reach the "coffin corner" and stall out completely.
Not exactly the CHANGE that some had HOPEd for, is it?
*Non-pilots should go to Wikipedia or Google for an explanation of the "coffin corner" aka "Q-corner" and what the result is...
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Saturday, 24 July 2010
Canadian CF18 Pilot Ejects Moments Before Crash at Alberta International Airshow
At Chicago Ray's, "Canadian CF-15 Pilot Escapes Death Ejecting Moments before Fiery Air Show Practice Mishap..."
And at Boston's WCVB TV, "Jet Crashes During Air Show Practice: Canadian Pilot Able To Eject Before Aircraft Hit Runway":
LETHBRIDGE, Alberta -- A Canadian air force jet crashed and exploded in a ball of flames during a training run for a weekend international air show in Alberta, but the pilot was able to eject from the plummeting plane before it hit the runway.And check the spectacular pictures at the Calgary Herald, "Pilot survives after CF-18 crashes, burns at Lethbridge airport: 'This is an isolated incident with one aircraft'."
The pilot, Capt. Brian Bews, who sustained a sore back and scraped-up arms, was treated at a hospital and released Friday.
Bews was practicing Friday in a CF-18 Hornet jet over Lethbridge County Airport for an international air show. The CF-18 he was flying is a model specifically used for air shows.
"All of a sudden you could hear 'pop, pop, pop,' " witness Roland Booth told CTV News. "I saw sparks come out of the one engine. The plane started banking over to the side. That's when the pilot bailed out with his parachute."
Another witness, aviation buff Darren Jansens, says the pilot was just starting a maneuver known as a High Alpha pass before the accident.
"It's a high-angle pass, very low speed, fairly close to the ground. It's the lowest-speed maneuver the Hornet generally performs," said Jansens.
"The pilot did eject safely but was dragged several hundred feet unconscious along the ground," he added.
The military and the Department of Transport immediately launched an investigation into the accident. There was no indication of the cause of the accident.
Cross-posted from American Power.
Out Tuesday: The Post-American Presidency
I'm looking forward to reading it: The Post-American Presidency: The Obama Administration's War on America.
Cross-posted from American Power.
Cowardly Blogging
A new post over at my place, on blogging anonymity and cowardice:
RTWT: "Update on Blogging Anonymity and Blogging Ethics."I've been thinking a lot about anonymous blogging since E.D. Kain launched his campaign of workplace intimidation last year. For one thing, I no longer think anonymous blogging is automatically cowardly. Oh sure, mostly I'd prefer to have someone put their name behind their words. And of course at this point I still probably wouldn't have started blogging anonymously even today, given the knowledge that I have about the depths of evil on the web. No, it's more that I'm not going to be critical of those who do continue to blog anonymously ...
And as always, more hot commentary and analysis throughout the day at American Power.
Two planes landed in England the other day :
One carried a group of over paid, under achievers who complained that they were tired and missed their families after two weeks in five star accommodations.
The other carried the coffins of 7 fallen soldiers who had spent months away from their loved ones, living in tents in a war zone & giving their lives for their country.
Who are the Hero’s??
R.I.P lads.
Remember these soldiers earn £15k to £30k a year not a day.
If you believe that the England team should donate a week of their wages to Help the Hero's then please forward this on.
H/T 45 Govt
SUPER MOSQUE AT GROUND ZERO
". . . apparently it's not enough that nearly 3000 innocent people had to lose their lives in a hideous act of relgious mass murder, but now their memory has to be insulted as well"
- Pat Condell on the construction of a 13-story Super Mosque at Ground Zero in NYC
. . . . . . . . . . . . . STORMBRINGER
News..............
Day 15 – July 24th 1940
Week 2 Summary: The Problems of the First Phase
The Tax Tsunami On The Horizon
Eight Other Pending Executions in Iran
Brooklyn Decker's Bikini Bod Beats Jen Aniston, Kim Kardashian
Shocking Bison Attack Caught on Video
Obama Changes Tune on Paying for Unemployment Benefits Extension
Jeff Greene denies his anchor damaged Belize reef
The Art of the Ann Arbor City Budget
BP oil rig blast: safety alarm was off, says engineer
EU plans 'toughest ever' sanctions against Iran
Two nuns go on run over threat to send them to retirement home
North Korea ready for 'sacred war' against South
French commandos attack al-Qaeda kidnap gang
Baboons learn to listen for cars central locking tweet before breaking in
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Friday, 23 July 2010
Cameron reluctant to investigate BP why?
One has to speculate that the reason Cameron is resisting the calls for his government to investigate how the farce occurred could be down to electoral realities. His Conservative Party is no where in Scotland. It did so badly in the last General Election, that many are calling for root and branch change in the Scottish Conservative Party. Some are even calling for a relationship to the national Conservative Party in manner like the CDU and CSU in Germany.
More @ Canada Free Press
Sickening: Daily Beast Hate-Blogger Celebrates Facebook Censorship Attack on Sarah Palin
It's loaded with all kinds of screencaps and what not, so check it out over at my place: "Daily Beast's Brian Ries Wallows in Sarah Palin Facebook Attack."
As always, get all your hot blogging at American Power.
New Report: U.S. Vulnerable to a Nuclear Attack
See, "Report by the Joint Defense Science Board and the Threat Reduction Advisory Committee Task Force." And the related discussion thread here:
The United States is now woefully unprepared for any kind of nuclear attack ...
and the Obama administration has taken steps to further reduce the nation's nuclear arsenal.
The problem and the cause ...
Cross-posted from American Power.
Ezra Klein: 'This is My Final Finally-ish Final Word on JournoList!!'
"I actually expect this to be my final public comment on the subject."
Famous last words, from JournoList head-henchman Ezra Klein.
Now the Boy Wonder's got another post up attacking --- wait for it!! --- Tucker Carlson for "smearing" JournoList with omissions and misleading statements and --- Oh, the humanity!!
So, what better way to respond than to attack Tucker Carlson ad hominem? See, "When Tucker Carlson asked to join Journolist." And the best thing is that our boy Ezra confirms what everyone knows of JournoList: It was designed as an inside left-wing conspiracy and there was no way any conservatives would be allowed to join the discussion group. Even better is Boy Wonder's admission that the "evil" Michelle Malkin would never --- NEVER!! --- be allowed to join the list. Hmm, afraid something untoward might actually get out, like, um, wishing people like Rush Limbaugh were dead AND not getting a hint of backlash among JournoListers to those views? Face it, Ezra, you people are evil and oh so un-journalist-like. Best thing is to just leave a beefy quotation for posterity:
If this series [at The Daily Caller] now rests on Tucker's credibility, then let's talk about something else he doesn't mention: I tried to add him to the list. I tried to give him access to the archives. Voluntarily. Because though I believed it was important for the conversation to be off-the-record, I didn't believe there was anything to hide.The e-mail came on May 25th. Tucker didn't ask that it be off-the-record, so I'm not breaking a confidence by publishing it. Here it is, in full:
Dear Ezra,
I keep hearing about how smart the policy conversations on JournoList are, and am starting to feel like I'm missing out by not reading them. Could I join?
I realize you and I don't share the same politics, but I can promise you I have no interest in flaming anyone or even debating (I get enough of that). I'm just interested in knowing what smart progressives are saying. It strikes me that's the one thing I'm missing in my daily reading.
Please tell me what you think. If it makes you uncomfortable, ask around. I'm pretty sure we know a lot of the same people.
All best,
Tucker Carlson.
At the time, I didn't know Carlson was working on a story about Journolist. And I'd long thought that the membership rules that had made sense in the beginning had begun to feed conspiracy theories on the right and cramp conversation inside the list. I wrote him back about 30 minutes later.
We definitely have friends in common, and I'd have no worries about you joining. The problem is I need to have clear rules, as i don't want to be in the position of forcing fine-grained membership tests based on opaque criteria. Thus far, it's been center to left, just because that was how people wanted it at the beginning in order to feel comfortable talking freely. I've been meaning for some time to ask the list about revisiting that, so I'll take this opportunity and get back to you.
I then wrote this e-mail to Journolist:
As folks know, there are a couple of rules for J List membership. One is that you can't be working for the government. Another is that you're center to left of center, as that was something various people wanted back in the day. I've gotten a couple of recent requests from conservatives who want to be added (and who are people I think this list might benefit from), however, and so it seems worth asking people whether they'd like to see the list opened up. Back in the day, I'd probably have let this lie, but given that Journolist now leaks like a sieve, it seems worth revisiting some of the decisions made when it was meant to be a more protected space.
As I see it, the pro of this is that it could make for more fun conversations. The con of it is that it becomes hard to decide who to add and who to leave off (I don't want to have to make subjective judgments, but I'm also not going to let Michelle Malkin hop onto the list), and it also could create even more possible leaks -- and now, they'd be leaks with more of an agenda, which could be much more destructive to trust on the list.
I want to be very clear about what I was suggesting: Adding someone to the list meant giving them access to the entirety of the archives. That didn't bother me very much. Sure, you could comb through tens of thousands of e-mails and pull intemperate moments and inartful wording out of context to embarrass people, but so long as you weren't there with an eye towards malice, you'd recognize it for what it was: A wonkish, fun, political yelling match. If it had been an international media conspiracy, I'd have never considered opening it up.
The idea was voted down. People worried about opening the archives to individuals who could help their careers by ripping e-mails out of context, misrepresenting the nature of the ongoing conversation, and bringing the world an exclusive look into The Great Journolist Conspiracy, as opposed to the daily life of Journolist, which even Carlson describes as "actually pretty banal."
Voted down?
Well, of course. Really bad goings-on were going on there, and the more Ezra Klein talks about it the more we know that all the moral condemnation is entirely justified and wondrously gratifying.
Perhaps Boy Wonder should take his own advice and now just STFU before somebody slams him through some damned JournoListic plate-glass window.
HAT TIP: AoSHQ, "Ezra Wails: "I didn't believe there was anything to hide."
Cross-posted from American Power.
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