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Things Change
The young Japanese man stood staring out the second story window of his hotel room. The whitewash on the wall lightly rubbing off on his shirtsleeves as he braced himself in the windowsill. In his hands, a small set of field binoculars aimed out towards the horizon, observing at the mechanical forest that surrounded the town of Tampico Mexico. Oil derricks, as far as the eye could see was all there was to distract the eye from the scene of dust and poverty that filled the surrounding streets of this frontier oil patch town on the Gulf of Mexico. While the man was observing the actions of the men working on the oil derricks and the coming and going of tanker ships in the harbor, he himself was being secretly observed from just across the street, in another hotel, by two men he had never met.
Special Agents Harry Thompson and Dave Ahrens, field agents for the US Bureau of Investigation had been assigned to keep an eye on the young man who had taken such an interest in the Mexican oil industry. Their charge was a young Japanese man, in his middle 20’s, stocky, but not fat. He lived modestly, traveling from town to town in the Mexican oil patch, staying a few days, and then moving on.
“He’s at it again” said Harry from behind his own binoculars, hidden by the window screen.
“Hmmm, well then it must be getting close to time for him to head downstairs to the poker tables then” replied Dave as he stood to get dressed.
For the past two weeks, day in day out, hour after hour, they kept notes, pictures, talked to a few people and on one occasion, entered his room in an attempt to find out information about the man they have been charged with the task of surveillance. After two weeks of watching the man they began to notice some patterns to his most telling habits. The man they were watching was a creature of the most exacting discipline. He awoke at the same time every day, ate breakfast in his room, took a walk and returned to his room, spent exactly 30 minutes observing from his window, then went downstairs and hailed a taxi for a ride around the town. Every day at the end of the day at this time, he took out his binoculars, wrote some notes and then wrote a letter to his brother, which was promptly and intercepted the next morning with the assistance of the local constabulary.
Unfortunately, the letter was in Japanese. To get around this little problem, Agents Thompson and Ahrens successfully managed to find and recruit a sailor fluent in Japanese from the American merchant fleet at harbor in Tampico bay.
“It’s a letter to his brother, talking about how cheap gas is here in Tampico” he said. “Small talk about the trip down, says he liked Texas, and found hitchhiking to be quite an adventure”.
“Is that all”? Harry asked.
“Yeah, that’s it, just small talk” he said as he flipped the letter across the desk to Harry.
“Well do me a favor would ya? Copy the letter down in English so we have something for the files” Dave asked the sailor. His name was Jimmy Ishigaki, he was a Japanese who grew up in Southern California but had some local trouble there and went to sea to avoid getting sent away for it.
“I’ll copy the whole thing in Japanese as well so you can have an original if that will help me get D.A. in Long Beach off my back”
“No problem Jimmy, you just let us handle the D.A. you get that letter translated, alright?” Harry added with a bang on the desk and a smile.
Jimmy grabbed a pencil and paper and began transcribing the letters, first in English then in Japanese.
“Harry, we’ve been following this guy for two weeks, and we still don’t know who he really is, or why he is here. This is not going to go over well with “you know who” and he is going to be here tomorrow to take a report from us on what we’ve been doing”. Dave said.
“ Look, we’ve done our job. We just give the old man the scoop when he gets here, go over our notes, hand over the files and then we get to head back to Washington. If they know something we don’t know, then that’s their problem, not ours. “
Jimmy stopped writing and looked at Dave with a smile.
“Just what are you looking at Jimmy?” Dave asked.
You guys say you don’t know who this guy is, and you say he plays poker every day at this time, every day, regular as the sunrise in the morning, right?
“Yeah, so?”
“So go play poker with the man! No better way to get to know someone than to play poker with him for 9 or 10 hours, right? Jimmy said with a shrug.
Dave and Harry looked at each other and recognized a good thing when they heard it. Not only could they keep an eye on their prey, they might learn something about him and they might just make a few bucks at it as well. Anything beat the hours of tedium that comes from field surveillance.
The next morning they stumbled out of the cantina from a night of gambling and Agents Thompson and Ahrens knew a great deal more about the man they had been trailing than they did the day before. For starters, they knew that he knew how to play poker, having successfully taken both the agents for all that they had. They also knew that he was missing two fingers on his left hand, but they didn’t know why. He said that he was a tourist visiting Mexico while on break from his studies at Harvard. The revelation of this incredible story made Harry shoot his beer out of his nose, amusing all at the table, including the man they had been sent to watch who let out a hearty laugh at the sight of this grown man acting like a fool. Just the idea of this Japanese chard shark sitting in a Mexican bar playing poker while professing to be Harvard material seemed utterly laughable to the Yale law school graduate, who was himself pretending to be a vacuum cleaner salesman as a cover story. He knew when his leg was being pulled, and Harry knew that this man was a fraud of some sort. What sort of fraud exactly, neither one of them could tell.
The next morning the knock at the door came, and their boss had finally arrived to take a briefing on what they had learned. Special Agents Thompson and Ahrens gave their report yet there wasn’t much to tell, so they embellished it as best they could to justify their time and effort.
Their boss sat patiently across from both his agents, hanging his hat casually across his tip of his outstreched shoe as an impromptu hat rack while gripping the arms of the chair with both hands, all while tapping his fingers lightly in contempt at the idea of having been sent all the way down to take a report that could just as easily been telegraphed or mailed. But the Deputy Director, his boss, had insisted that there be no transmission of information that could be intercepted. “Meet personally with our men, take a report and then report back to me on the actions of this individual” said the Deputy Director.
Deputy Director J. Edgar Hoover was a most demanding supervisor and was not a boss to be trifled with.
Thompson and Ahrens ran down the report of their surveillance. Their quarry was a young Japanese man of undetermined means, traveling through the backcountry of Mexico and Texas. He took an interest in the oil industry, but did not meet with any known enemy agents and mostly kept to himself. His letters had been intercepted and translated, but they revealed nothing of value and did not appear to be coded in any way.
Agent Ahrens handed their boss the surveillance logs that documented the observed behavior of the man they had been following for a little over a month. Their boss flipped through the pages of notes and added with a grunt and a snicker. “Well, I like him, I wish I could get the railroad to keep their schedule with the reliability this guy does. So tell me, any surprises?”
Ahrens and Thompson looked at each other and then looked away sheepishly.
“ Ok, let me have it” the boss said leaning forward with a groan, knowing that something was up between the two men.
“Well, he’s a hell of a poker player” volunteered Harry.
The blood ran out of the face of their boss as Dave just shook his head from side to side at Harry’s uncomfortable revelation.
“You’re not telling me that you played poker with a subject of surveillance, are you? Tell me I don’t have to report that to the Deputy Director, you know how he is about the subject of “Vice”.
“Well, no, that’s not what we are telling you, we didn’t actually include that part in the report.” Said Dave, wondering if Jimmy Ishigakis “great idea” might just cost him his career.
“ Oh I feel better now, you left out information to save me trouble. That’s fine, that’s perfect”. It wasn’t much. But they knew that it was just enough room to keep their boss out of trouble.
“Anything else? He plays poker, he likes oil derricks, he writes his brother, does that about sum it all up? the boss asked of his two agents.
Dave ran through the basics of what they had learned, “That’s about it. He uses the same alias at every hotel, and he sticks to it in casual conversation. He never eats in the hotels or restaurants, eats breads and fruits in his room alone. He is missing two fingers on his left hand. His story is that he is a Harvard student on leave and doing a bit of travel. He says his name is Isoroku Takano and that’s the alias he uses everywhere he goes, never changes it.
Their boss suddenly perked up at hearing that final bit of information. “Well that’s interesting. He says his name is Takano, eh?” the boss said in response.
“Yeah, does that mean something to you?” Dave said puzzled by the reaction.
“Fellas, I’m going to let you in on what I know. This guy is a Harvard man, and he is a hell of a poker player. But here’s something you didn’t know. He’s a Japanese Naval Officer, who is part of a foreign students program at Harvard. Oh and his name is not Takano, it’s Yamamoto. Isoroku Yamamoto. And those two fingers he’s missing, he lost in the battle of Tsushima against the Russians in 1905. “
“So what’s he doing down here in Mexico looking at oil derricks? Dave asked.
The boss looked to each of his men, pointing at them accusingly and said “That’s exactly what we sent you here to find out”.
“Why would a Japanese Naval officer hitchhike across America and go live in 3rd rate hotels in Mexico? Japan is at peace with the US, why take on a spying operation when he could just ask for this information and get it just as easy. It just doesn’t make any sense ” Dave asked to anyone and no one at the same time. Just talking out loud about ideas that had been running through his mind in the wee hours of this surveillance.
Putting his hand on Daves shoulder, the boss tried to explain the long term view of the world. “Dave, try to remember that things change. Right now the world is at peace, but who knows what the next 5 or 10 years might bring. Things are going pretty well right now, but who knows at the 1930’s or the 40’s are going to look like. Mr.Yamamato might just be the kind of man who is patient enough to wait for the right moment to come along to make all this information he’s gathering pay off in some way. “
Dave Ahrens, Agent for the US Bureau of Investigation, considered the implications of the idea that their may be more to the man they had played poker with just the other night and wondered what the future might bring and what role their target might have in it. It seemed improbable that this little man so far out of his element could be of any use as an agent or spy to any country. After all he thought "If he were at risk of being a spy, why would Harvard let him into the country in the first place"?
After their business was concluded, Agents Thompson and Ahrens stood in the dirt street outside the ramshackle cantina that had been their base for two weeks, shook hands and waved goodbye to their boss. With their logs and reports tucked into his briefcase for a report to the Deputy Director on the whereabouts and actions of one Isoroku Yamamoto and his movements through Mexico, with the unfortunate part about the poker playing session with the bureaus agents discreetly left out of the final report, saving him hours of high minded speechifying from the pious deputy leader of the Bureau.
Isoroku Yamamoto, Harvard student and Japanese Naval officer observed the comings and goings around the oil derricks on the horizon from his hotel window, counting the number of trucks, the number of workers, and the size and type of ships that entered and left the harbor at Tampico. Out of the corner of his eye he saw three American men waving to each other on the street below, two of the men he had played poker with just the other night who gave an improbable story of being "vacuum cleaner salesman".
He wondered who they really were, and what they were really doing in Mexico.
Posted @ March 31, 2006 12:21 AM | Gentlemans Game | Comments (5)
Apple Computer Set to Mark 30th Birthday
I really dont think about my age very often. Frankly, I'm much happier and more heathly now than when I was in my twenties. Other than the loss of hair and the need for glasses, life in the comfortable middle ages is preferrable in every way to life of the age of ill spent youth.
There have only been three times I have stopped to think about my age.
1. Stopping at a gas station one night and paying at the counter I looked down to see one of those " YOU MUST BE BORN BEFORE THIS DATE TO BUY BEER". The date was a year after the year I graduated high school. It finally occured to me that there were kids born the year I left high school who were just turning 21.
2. One of my kids wanted to know what kind of DVD's did I have when I was young. I began to explain that when I was young:
- There was ONE phone company, no cell phones and long distance calls were a luxury.
- "Live Via Satellite" was like watching pictures from mars.
- We didn't have a color TV until 1972.
- TV Shows often broadcast themselves as "IN COLOR" the way that they do for HDTV today.
- There was a thing called an "8 track cassette".
- Our 1976 home had the following in the way of "high tech":
A stereo, known as a "hi-fi",which included a device known as
a "record player".
A washer, but no dryer, we had lines that went across the backyard for that.
A Dishwasher and a refrigerator.
A Color TV. One. It sat in the Front Room. If you wanted to watch something, you sat in front of it and turned it on, after it was over, you turned it off. We had no way to record television.
I had a transistor radio, and a cassette player. It was not a walkman but a big thing that sat on my desk. I had headphones that looked like something you would wear as a radioman on a wartime B-29.
When I told my kids this information, they looked at me like I went to school with Abraham Lincoln.
3. Apple Computer Set to Mark 30th Birthday.
In high school I was lucky enough to get into a class that taught Computer Programming as part of a "Regional Occupation Program". The program was intended for kids that didnt want to go to college but wanted a trade. Computer Programming wasnt the big deal it was today, it as largely card punch machines and paper tape drives. I loved it, it got me off campus 4 hours a day and I got to play with some really great stuff. It was science with a practical application. In the second semester, one of the instructors brought in a bunch of computers from the local computer club. These clubs were populated with the same sort of people who owned HAM radios and metal detectors. Remember, We didnt call them "PC's" then, that name had yet to be invented. There was a Commodore PET, which used a cassette tape as a storage device, a TRS-80, which also used a cassette drive.
And there was an Apple II. It used a "floppy disk drive". Compared to the others, it was like a Ferrari at a tractor show. The cassette drive was nice, you could write programs and store them on something that you could load later. It sometimes took only 20 minutes to load a program into memory. A big step forward from the paper tape drives we used for the time sharing mainframe we used for most of our work.
But the Apple II had a "Floppy Disk Drive". It took seconds to load a program into memory. We all knew, back in that dusty room at Marconi Tech that the Apple was really going to be something big.
I remember telling my parents about the Apple. They looked at me and said "Who in their right mind would pay 2,000 dollars for a toy?"
"But mom, you can program it to do calculations, it can do bookkeeping"!
" I can do bookkeeping with a pencil and a piece of paper, 25 cents. We can take the other $1999.75 and go buy a car"!
Talking to people in 1978 about what computers could do was like talking to Zambezi tribesman of the value of fully funding your IRA.
In 1984, just 6 years later, I bought my first computer. I still have it. It still works. In Febuary 1984, Apple release the MAC, and I bought one. It cost me $2,400 and I had to eat Top Ramen noodles for 3 months to keep the budget together. It has 128k of memory, one floppy drive and five pieces of software. Oh, and a modem...
It didnt really sink in until today that its been 30 years since I sat at the kitchen table with my parents and talked about the world that I was sure would be. "Computers are going to change everying" I said.
What is funny, is that while my imagination was ahead of the curve, what has actually happend since then is so far beyond anything even I could have imagined.
I knew things would be different, but even I really had no idea how much different.
Posted @ March 24, 2006 11:49 AM | Current Affairs | Comments (10)
Ray Makes a Very good point
Yesterday I made a post about the finding of a Cold War bunker in the Brooklyn Bridge.
Today, My pal Ray stops me and makes a very good point:
"So here were talking about a losing a fixed-in-place Cold War bunker in the middle of New York City, one of the most populated cities in North America. Worse, the bunker is literally in the Brooklyn Bridge, a prominent city landmark... Lost, just completely lost it - For 50+ years.
Yet everyone on the left is constantly screaming that we didnt find Saddams WMD's in Iraq?. Hell, we cant even find our own stuff here at home!"
And thats why its great to work with smart people.
Posted @ March 22, 2006 02:47 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (2)
Cold War bunker found in Brooklyn Bridge
"New York workers have discovered a trove of Cold War-era supplies within the masonry of the Brooklyn Bridge, a cache meant to aid in survival efforts in the event of nuclear attack...".
Gee, War supplies from the 1950's. It's quite a time capsule from another time when we were threatened by an tyrannical enemy that wished us death or slavery. Maybe if they look hard enough in there they will find a Democrat party leader who believes its "ok" to fight for America. Remember when there was such a thing as a Democrat who categorically and proudly said things like "pay any price, bear any burden in the defense of liberty". Can you imagine 'Daily Kos' reacting to that today, or Howard Dean responding?
Imagine a world where Democrats proudly flew the flag and sang "happy days are here again" and believed it. Folks who believed it was a good idea to fight for America. Folks who were totally unlike todays regressive tribe of reactionary utopians who burn the flag and sing "up against the wall redneck M-Fers!...
I wonder what happened to those folks.
Posted @ March 21, 2006 03:52 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (4)
Where did All The Students Activists Go?
C.W. Nevis took his daughter to a protest this weekend and wonders "Where did all the student activists go"?
I've been on college campuses over the past couple of years taking a variety of classes. One of those classes was a German Language class. The instructor was a very nice lady, an older German woman who lived through the war as a child. She was a very good instructor and frankly she was such a good instructor of German that she invigorated my love of the english language, which is a hell of thing for a German Langage instructor to do. She was a genuine nice lady.
She was also quite a free spirit and tended towards a leftist ideology, which is really not unusual on campus. Most of the time she kept politics out of the classroom, but we usually got a small 5 minute lecture during the week on some subject that bothered her.
The students were predictably young, but they also held a secret that they revealed to me and the rest of the class one week after a lecture from the liebe professorin.
One week she began a pre-class lecture on the evils of "Depleted Uranium". I listened quietly, being the good observer that I am, as I was more interested in the class reaction than playing verbal tennis with someone who was not going to be turned by my arguments in any account.
The class sat quietly and listened, but didnt react to the accusations of horrible crimes against humanity, they just got ready for class and organized themselves for the task at hand, only half listening to the instructor. When she finished her 5 minute lecture, she left the room to pick up some paperwork for that class session.
Then they did it. As soon as the door closed, almost every student stood up and unzipped jackets or pulled off their sweatshirts and vests to reveal something absolutely stunning.
80% of the class was wearing grey t-shirts with one word on the front
ARMY
"Well why didnt you say something"? I said with a laugh to one of the kids, nay, soldiers who were also attending the class with me and about 5 stunned party animals.
"Dude we've got work to do. You spend all your time getting angry at nitwits and you miss the whole point of being in school in the first place". The discipline that the service had given to my classmate showed in his professionalism He wasnt angry, he had a job to do, he was there to learn. My classmate had just returned from 2 years overseas duty in Korea and was about to be sent to Germany, and possibly "parts beyond".
After a round of high-fives, they all tucked in their shirts and went back to their previous slacker camoflage, when the instructor came back and started the class all the while seemingly unaware that nearly all of her class were actually reserve or active members of the US Military.
So, C.W. -Where did all the student activists go? Apparently they joined the Army.
Posted @ March 21, 2006 10:59 AM | Current Affairs | Comments (5)
Fred Barnes: A Third Term for Bush
Huzzah!
I wholeheartedly concur with Mr. Barnes. I dig the Lieberman move...
Posted @ March 20, 2006 11:07 AM | Current Affairs | Comments (1)
Why Supermodels rarely are Cisco Certified
This is where outsourcing goes off the rails. Think of this picture the next time you call a Technical help desk.
Hallo, Dis iz Ivanka Dzhugashvili who is serving you please, Do you have a problem Wid de Cisco Router?, Yes? Please hold, yes? are you dere? Do you have a teeket?
Sweetheart, RTFB means "Read The Flipping Book", not "Wear The Flipping Book". Read, R-E-A-D is there a word for that where you are from? Hmmm...?
Perhaps she should try sitting on it...
Posted @ March 17, 2006 03:11 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (0)
A reminder
Regime Change Iran gives us a post that should remind all of us that the Iranian Atomic Weapon program isnt just about changing our behavior, its about controlling their own people.
It also reminds me to try remember to separate what is Islam from what is Persian and not to confuse the two.
Posted @ March 16, 2006 10:21 AM | Current Affairs | Comments (0)
Separated at Birth?
Gov. Mark Warner
Star Trek Ferengi Character
Apparently, The NY Times thought it would help to doctor Mark Warners Picture,looking at the results of their efforts I can't imagine what the original must have looked like.
Posted @ March 15, 2006 09:03 AM | Current Affairs | Comments (2)
More tales of Korean counterfeiting
This appears to be 'South Korean", but it gets my attention for a couple of reasons:
...snip
Federal authorities investigating a man who smuggled money into the country have seized 250 counterfeit bank notes in billion-dollar denominations, they announced Tuesday.
The 250 bogus Federal Reserve notes had 1934 issue dates and were stained to make them look old, but no such currency exists, said U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman Virginia Kice.
Federal authorities have not charged the man, Tekle Zigetta, in connection with the counterfeit notes, but warned that the sale or transfer of fake securities has increased in recent years. Scam artists typically sell phony government bank notes at a discounted value or use them as collateral to secure loans or make purchases.
"A billion is a substantial number, we want to ensure that no one was duped or fleeced by the passing of these documents," Kice said. "We also want to publicize this story to see if anyone out there has additional information to help us build a case."
Authorities opened an investigation into alleged currency smuggling by Zigetta in 2002 when he arrived at Los Angeles International Airport with $37,000 in undeclared cash following a trip to South Korea
...end snip
From the SF Chronicle.
So, someone went through all the bother to counterfeit the bills in 1 BILLION dollar denominations. (cue Mike Myers as "Dr. Evil")
The idiots...billion dollar bills? what were they thinking?
Ok,
Question #1: What President did he put on the front of the bills?
Question #2: "Tekle Zigetta" doesnt sound like a Korean name to me, why was he flying back and forth to Korea? Alias maybe? what, "Kayser Soze" just too obvious?
Question #3: According to the story, he fled during the initial smuggling investigation back to Korea. He was lured back and arrested in January. What kind of story would cause this character to fly directly into the hands of the law?
It is doubly interesting that the Nevada Secretary of State lists the rather unique name on a Corporation with two other people.
What do I think?
Money Laundering.
I'm wondering why South Korea as a place to flee to. The obvious answer is it allows contact with North Koreans, who are hard up for cash lately, but sometimes the obvious answer isnt always the right one.
Be back later, I'm following the trail of the corporation where this character was registered corporate officer.
UPDATE: According to this video from CBS 2 news in Los Angeles, Tekle Zigetta said the bills were "found in a cave in the Philippines". Ah, well, that explains everything. Oh, and its Grover Cleveland as the President on the front of the bogus 1 BILLION dollar bills.
Grover Cleveland? shhesh!
Posted @ March 14, 2006 08:29 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (4)
My neighbor, Dr. Zawahiri
Cover your keyboard. if you read this you might do a danny thomas 'spit take; across your screen.
Ok, here goes -
...snip
"Naseem Khan, the prosecution's key witness, said al-Zawahri lived in Lodi in 1998 and 1999 and that he saw him at the mosque there. Khan said he never had a conversation with him, although he spoke to him in passing..."
...end snip
Oh dear me! Al queda living in the Golden State? Not just any alqueda lackey, but 'Muslim Brotherhood' himself, The "Producer" of Al-Queda was living it up in right here in river city.
First Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme moves here, the SLA kills a bank teller and hides out here for awhile, and now the 'number two' man of the most dangerous terror network was found living here. This is a regular nest of vipers this place is, I tell ya.
Anyone remember 'grandma death' and the 'vampire killer' of the 1980's Sacramento Scene? Ok, I guess I'll have to dig those up. (oops! sorry, bad phraseology).
Anyway, all kidding aside, if this is true, its staggering in its implications.
Think about it, Al-queda leader living in US -pretty recently.
Forget the Clinton administration trying to arrest Osama overseas, his bagman was living right here!
Posted @ March 13, 2006 03:33 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (2)
Headlines
Water discovered on Moon of Saturn: Life possible says NASA.
Zogby poll shows new life forms find Bush unpopular.
Hitler: How Bush Blew It.
Infamous former leader of the German Third Reich returns from hades to offer stark criticism the Bush administration. “He’s just not racist enough” complains former leader of Germany. " I'm tired of people running down my reputation by comparing me to him".
Yale admission records show Nazi Reich minister Albert Speer admitted as student in 1946.
“ We believe in a diverse student body” says Yale president.
Ghosts of Rep. Smoot and Hawley appear on Capitol Steps to warn Congress on protectionism.
“What are you thinking you nincompoops, look at what we did to the country” cry sprits of long dead congressmen who caused world wide depression with protectionist bills.
Iranian scientists find working on atomic program difficult due to side stitches from laughter.
”Those jokers at the UN don’t really think were worried about them, do they”? says Hamdi Hashemi leader of the Iranian atomic weapons program.
Gas prices climb as Saudi Arabia agrees to stop selling oil the US.
“ We don’t want to be a security risk to the people of the United States” says sheikh .
Zogby Poll shows Taliban set to win more seats in Congress than Republicans.
“ Many people like their strong Anti-jewish stance” says Zogby.
CIA Whistleblower reveals that Bush often holds meetings in White House Oval office that are classified as National Security related.
Outraged Democrat leaders want hearings to discover content of these meetings.
“ Who does the President think he is, the President?” said Senate Minority leader Harry Reid.
Lack of al-queda attacks in US cited as proof of Bush failure in War on Terror.
Low unemployment numbers seen as further proof of Bush failure in on the Economy.
Bush failure to return to Gold Standard angers Republican constituency.
Bush failure to ban Fluoride in drinking water angers Republican constituency.
Bush efforts to increase investment in US fails, France and Germany gleeful at their sudden windfall.
“ He had us beat, and then Congress stepped in and handed us this gift, its like Christmas!” said German foreign Minister Joscka Fischer.
Bush failure to order “shoot on sight” orders to border patrol angers Republican constituency.
Low poll number may force Bush to shoot illegal immigrants himself.
US seen as bad investment for wealthy oil nations.
“Why should we take a risk on these rubes when the Chinese and Indians will treat us with respect?” says Shiekh.
Japan and China site American Terrorists like Bonnie and Clyde, Baby Face Nelson, Dillinger, Mcveigh and the Terror organization KKK as reasons not to invest in US.
“You just can’t support putting investments in a country that has supported organizations like that; its barbaric ”
US Ports safer back in hands of Mafia Controlled Teamsters, says Rep. Duncan Hunter.
Posted @ March 10, 2006 06:09 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (1)
Just a passing thought...
I spend alot of time thinking about Iran. Because for me, it all started with Iran. Some of us even think it all started long ago, back when they called it "Persia", and we of "the west" were just Greeks.
I had a dream awhile back that I was standing in Athens listening to some half crocked citizen speaking out about why "we greeks really didnt need to fight the persians", that they could be reasoned with if only we would take the time.
And while he talked, a small group of us in the back of the crowd quietly listened, and just as quietly, gathered our tools and sharpened our spears.
In 1979, Iran started the Islamic revolution. They created a state dedicated to the foundation of violent jihad in the world. Where once elaborate rugs had been the Persians most important export, the new Islamic Republic would specialize in another product.
Terror.
Slowly but surely, the Persians have established their own client states in muslim countries with weak dictatorships or rogue nations with no discernable government at all. The Islamic world is rife with prostate nations and subjgated populaces ripe for conversion to the new "Islamic Reich". The offspring of this revolution, Islamic Jihad, Hamas, and yes, even Al-queda became the parasites of faltering islamic states; each organization laying its eggs of hate in the dead flesh of the long dead Ottoman and British empires.
Today, they are hell-bent to get their hands on Atomic weapons and once again there are those who council caution and deference to this deadly sworn enemy of all that western civilization has made in the past 4,000 years. Liberal democracy, Womens rights, free speech, Capitalism, Induvidualism, all stand in stark contrast to what is promised by the Islamic revolution.
It seems to me that we've been here before. It makes you wonder why we never learn. My dad once said "every generation faces its own Nazi Reich", and now we have ours. Only it seems like we've seen these guys before. In Marathon. In Guagamela, and a hundred other battlefields across the ancient world.
But my passing thought is this:
Everyone seems to think they have a handle on how long it will take for the Iranians to create an atomic bomb. People who talk about Iran and the bomb, no matter who they are, speak in terms of some feeling of certainty in predicting "how long it will be".
But here is the only thing I can be certain of. Every single example or our "guessing" about a countries atomic bomb development...
Has always been categorically - Incorrect.
Every.
Single.
Time.
"Hitler is building an Atomic bomb" Everyone knew... that Hitler was making an atomic bomb, Einstein himself worried about it.
Only there was no German bomb and almost no nuclear research by the Nazis. We scoured Europe in 1945 and we found almost nothing. We went ahead with our Atomic program anyway...
"It will take decades for the Soviets to get an Atomic Bomb" - Spoken in 1945.
1949. Boom.
"China does not have the economic capabilty to produce an atomic bomb for atleast another 30 years". - spoken in 1960.
1964. Boom.
"India is too poor to have an active nuclear weapons program" - spoken in 1970.
1974. Boom.
In 1998, they would engage in a game of oneups-manship with their Pakistani neighbors. On May 11th and May 13th 1998, the Indians would explode a series of atomic weapons in an attempt to intimidate their rivals. On May 28th, the Pakistanis would respond by exploding their own nuclear weapon. On May 30th, they would demonstrate that it wasnt an elaborate "parlor trick", by demonstrating that they had more than one.
And for the 20 years prior when the Indians and Pakistanis were spending money, building nuclear facilities, training staff, We never knew what was going on. Billions of dollars were spent in reconnisance satellites and listening posts, millions of dollars and decades spent putting agents and spies into their government and military, and for all of that, we had no idea it was going on until it was all over.
This all occured in two countries that we have diplomatic relationships, trade relationships and a history of somewhat friendly governmental relationships. All of those advantages, and we still had no idea!
Now, why are we so absolutely certain that Iran is "years away" from a bomb? What makes us think our guess this time is any better than all the other guesses? Given our track history with guessing how long it will take, and who is capable of what, should we really wait until the Iranians demonstrate their own bomb? or is "intent of building" as good as actually having, when it comes to making our own plans?
Does anyone think that if given half a chance the Islamic Republic will not use the weapon?
Just a passing thought...
Posted @ March 06, 2006 12:43 AM | Current Events | Comments (3)
Larry Kudlow Distills The "Ports Kerfuffle"
How to distill the "Ports Kerfuffle" in three paragraphs.
From Larry Kudlows article in National Review Online:
...snip
When you scratch this debate among conservatives deep enough, what you are left with is a clear demarcation between free-traders and protectionists. Those conservatives who oppose the deal are lining up with xenophobic protectionists like my old friend Patrick Buchanan. On the other hand, conservatives in favor of the deal align themselves with the pro-growth, free-trade tradition embodied by Jack Kemp. The Kemp adherents believe in breaking down global barriers in order to enhance prospects for prosperity and freedom everywhere. That’s in large part what the UAE/DP World episode is all about.
Whether it’s anti-Arab Islamophobia or anti-Mexican Hispanophobia, the fear-mongers in the conservative ranks do not truly believe in economic opportunity. Nor do they believe in Ronald Reagan’s “City on a Hill” vision of America, where it is our charge to lead the world toward free-market prosperity, political democratization, and true freedom for all peoples.
Yes, there is a rift in the conservative ranks. Opposing President Bush are those with a vision of pessimism, defeatism, and fear. Supporting the president are those with a Reaganite vision that brims with opportunity, victory, and success in the spread of freedom and democratization. Can there be any serious question that the resounding conservative Republican ascendancy and success of the past 25 years launched by Ronald Reagan and advanced by George W. Bush is built on optimism — and positive results? I think not.
...end snip.
and there you have it. Once upon a time, my dad used to tell me that fear wasn't a characteristic of leadership and people who live in fear or gave council to their fears, werent leaders. The President has taken a risk with the "Port Kerfuffle", but its a risk that a leader would take. You may not respect his decision, but you have to respect his standing by the decision. It does show you that the President believes something is right for the country, he does it no matter the polls. President Bush could very easily react to the Ports deal with a resounding "HELL NO", and by doing so he would climb to his highest ratings since 9/11, but he wont do that, because no matter how it might serve him personally to do so, it would not serve the country or his duty to it as President.
If Congress could show 1/10th the character of the President, we wouldnt have to go through 6 months of opportunistic grandstanding against the "Patriot Act", only to have it pass by 89-10.
There are days when I think that President Bush is the last adult in Washington D.C. If you are one of those convinced that President Bush isnt quite what you wanted from a President, just remember how close we came to having this man in the office of President making these decisions:
Now that you've seen what the past 6 years have been like, do you think President Gore would have agreed with the many decisions that President Bush has made?
Spend a day thinking "what might have been" and you quickly come to the conclusion that we are mighty lucky indeed to have the President we have.
Posted @ March 04, 2006 10:21 AM | Current Affairs | Comments (0)
AP Reporter Discovers US Military Aircraft in Iraq
Lethal ‘flying gunships’ returning to Iraq
AP: Armed airplanes used in Vietnam War secretly moved to Iraqi base
...Snip
Lethal "Flying Gunships"? Well, one would hope if they are in fact "Gunships" that they would at some point prove to be "lethal" or what would be the point?
...Snip
In a secretive operation, heavily armed gunship versions of C-130 transport planes like these at an airbase in southern Iraq, on Wednesday, are being shipped to Iraq.
"Secretive"? Operation Iraqi Freedom is hardly a secret, and if it were, your blabbing about it would void that statement, dont'cha think?
...Snip
AN AIR BASE IN IRAQ - The U.S. Air Force has begun moving heavily armed AC-130 airplanes — the lethal “flying gunships” of the Vietnam War — to a base in Iraq as commanders search for new tools to counter the Iraqi resistance, The Associated Press has learned.
An AP reporter saw the first of the turboprop-driven aircraft after it landed at the airfield this week. Four are expected.
Well, it looks like someone got out of the hotel in the green zone and discovered a whole new world to cover.
The Iraq-based special forces command controlling the AC-130s, the Combined Joint Special Operations Task Force, said it would have no comment on the deployment. But the plan’s general outline was confirmed by other Air Force officers, speaking anonymously because of the sensitivity of the subject.
Military officials warned that disclosing the location of the aircraft’s new base would violate security provisions of rules governing media access to U.S. installations.
Wow! Who Knew! Telling the enemy about our movement is considered "Bad" by the Military authorities. I would have never guessed...
The four-engine gunships, whose home base is Hurlburt Field in Florida, have operated over Iraq before, flying from airfields elsewhere in the region. In November 2004, air-to-ground fire from AC-130s supported the U.S. attack that took the western city of Fallujah from insurgents.
The result: We won in Falluja. Funny thing about how Al Qaeda neglected to get an air force.
Basing the planes inside Iraq will cut hours off their transit time to reach suspected targets.
You can almost hear the reporter want to ask how they can do this without a warrant.
The left-side ports of the AC-130s, 98-foot-long planes that can slowly circle over a target for long periods, bristle with a potent arsenal — 40 mm cannon that can fire 120 rounds per minute, and big 105 mm cannon, normally a field artillery weapon. The plane’s latest version, the AC-130U, known as “Spooky,” also carries Gatling gun-type 20 mm cannon.
Stop!, you're making me swoon...
The gunships were designed primarily for battlefield use to place saturated fire on massed troops. In Vietnam, for example, they were deployed against North Vietnamese supply convoys along the Ho Chi Minh Trail, where the Air Force claimed to have destroyed 10,000 trucks over several years.
Well, you have to work the Vietnam angle in somehow. The Reporter might be surprised to learn the B-52 was also used in "Vietnam", as well as the M-16 that all those camoflaged fellows around him are carrying...
The use of AC-130s in places like Fallujah, urban settings where insurgents may be among crowded populations of noncombatants, has been criticized by human rights groups.
The said same "Human Rights Groups" say very little about Terrorists groups subjecting civilian populations to being made into hostages, a direct violation of the Geneva Convention as well as common decency...
The slow-moving AC-130s also offer an intelligence gathering advantage in the Iraq fight: sophisticated long-range video, infrared and radar sensors.
I Know!!! Aint It The Coolest thing?...
American commanders are marshaling all available tools to detect the Iraqi insurgents’ stealthy operations, especially at night, when they plant roadside bombs targeting American road patrols and convoys.
Um... Mr. Reporter sir, the AC-130 is decidedly "Not Stealthy", and thats one of the beautiful things about it, it has one very nice feature.
It's "Scary". Fear - is a powerful motivator. "Hey Ali, lets go out tonight and bomb the girls school, er, uh, say... is that a Spectre Gunship? Ok, why don't we stay home and play canasta instead..."
The Air Force’s senior tactical commander in Iraq said the AC-130 can be both a high-intensity and low-intensity weapon.
I love it when they talk like that.
“It’s got tons of guns, and it’s got all kinds of stuff on it that can be applied to the problems you have,” Brig. Gen. Frank Gorenc, who refused to discuss the current AC-130 deployment, said in an AP interview.
"Problems" being those people who enjoy killing women and children for the express purpose of spreading terror in civilian populations under the guise of fanatic religiosity.
That “stuff” includes “the ability to take these high-tech pods and to use them to find guys planting (bombs) and to find other nefarious activity,” he said.
Don't look now Hadji, the Generals got your number...
The Predator drone — the MQ-1 unmanned aerial vehicle — has been a reconnaissance workhorse in Iraq, but Air Force officers say they don’t have enough to meet demand for missions. The fiscal 2007 Defense Department budget proposed last month by the Bush administration envisions spending $1.6 billion on additional reconnaissance drones.
Reconnisance - looking around. Spectre - Blowing things up. It's a "win-win" as far as I can tell.
Posted @ March 03, 2006 03:38 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (2)
Rick Steves: Fighting back only makes them mad
Hello, my name is Rick Steves and I'm the host of a PBS travel series. This week I used my position as a local seattle semi-celebrity and my unnofficial position as a halfwit liberal totem for the flaccid urban left to write an editorial in the Seattle Times. Afer all, I'm on TV, and public TV at that, so I must be smarter than the rest of you ignorant boobs out there in the "red states".
The first sentence of my well thought out open minded editorial says " The greatest risk to our society today is not Islamo-fascist terrorism, but the people who use that term to scare us."
Unfortunately, as a result of this reasoned call for dialog, certain bald headed, monobrowed thugs like the proprietor of the website Varifrank.com have decided to inflict this editorial to what is called by the kids today "a fisking".
Like all liberal moderate folks, I certainly do support the right of free speech and the "first amendment" except when its used to make the "right kind of people" with the "right kind of intentions" look like idiots, like me for example. I really dont think its fair, do you? If you agree with me, please be sure to stop by the next PBS Pledge Drive and help me survive, because if it werent for people like you I might have to compete in the free market of ideas, and then what would happen?
( Oh, I'll give this piece fisking all right, lemme at 'im... Check back later. If I were you, I'd be sure to wear a cup.)
Posted @ March 03, 2006 01:25 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (1)
We've all been there...
We've all been there. It's the middle of the afternoon, the air conditioner is on the fritz so its a little stuffy in the court and you had a big lunch at "Macaroni Grill". You were up late last night Im'ing in a "Babes of the Supreme court" Chat room going on for hours about whether or not Star Trek or Babylon 5 was the better Sci-Fi show.
And now you have to sit and listen all afternoon to some halfwit monotone lawyer prattle on in a desperate attempt to justify his grotesque hourly rate.
First, you let your eyes droop for just a second. Then another. Then you realise its been a full minute and you've lost complete track of what they are talking about.
Then it happens. Your head hits the desk, and you wake up a full hour later in a puddle of your own spit with everybody laughing at you.
Forget about being caught "sleeping on the job", you just pray that you didn't talk while you were doing it.
( Lighten up folks, she's 72 years old and a cancer survivor. I'm 44, run 5 miles a day and I still fall asleep in meetings at least once a week. I absolutely HATE meetings. My contempt for meeetings and people who hold them, knows no bounds. I'm in full support of Justice Ginsburgs Mid afternoon naps. )
Posted @ March 02, 2006 04:39 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (6)
Bush continues to make a fool of Harry Reid
Remember way back around Christmas 2005 when Harry Reid grabbed a big armful of love from the cameras when he said "We killed the Patriot Act"...
Headline today:
Senate Approves Patriot Act Renewal: 89-10
From AP:
...Snip
The Senate on Thursday voted overwhelmingly to renew the USA Patriot Act, after months of pitched debate over legislation that supporters said struck a better balance between privacy rights and the government's power to hunt down terrorists.
...Snip
The vote was a significant victory for Bush after revelations late last year that he had authorized a domestic wiretapping program provided ammunition to senators demanding more privacy protections in the Patriot Act.
Senate Democrats and a few Republicans refused to allow a vote before Christmas on renewing the law before 16 provisions expired on Dec. 31.
Unable to break the deadlock, Congress opted instead to extend the deadline twice while negotiations continued. In the end, the White House and the Republicans broke the stalemate by crafting a second measure that would curb some powers of law enforcement officials seeking information. Both will be sent as a package to Bush.
Remember, this just happened when Bush was supposedly at 34% and every soldier in Iraq is in the process of deserting his post and running away to Canada( so says Zogby...)
The Democrats were certain that the Patriot Act was going to prove to be solid ground for them in the 2006 election. Speaking of that, I havent heard very much about the President illegal wiretaps either. And to think I spent $24.95 on James Risens book "State of War" for nothing...
Ok, let's move on to making the Bush Tax Cuts permanent, shall we?
Posted @ March 02, 2006 01:10 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (0)
Bush Admin sued for trying to fix levees
It looks like our current 24 hour L'affaire Du'jour is:
"Bush was warned about Katrina Damage".
By way of implication, "If only Bush would have done his job"
You need only consider that for four years before Hurricaine Katrina, Bush did his best to try to limit the potential damage, and was stopped by the very same people now screaming at him for "doing nothing".
From this beautiful article in September 2005 National Review we learn the following :
...snip
"The Bush administration’s flood-control efforts were often relentlessly opposed by environmental groups, and this opposition was frequently echoed by liberal activists and in the press. Bush kept his promise, and his appointees at the Corps of Engineers have stopped the “spring rise” plan that concerned so many about flooding. Environmentalists launched a barrage of criticism and a series of lawsuits...
"...Ironically, among those criticizing Bush for his actions to prevent flooding of the Missouri River was the ever-present anti-Bush environmental activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. He chastised Bush in 2004 for “managing the flow of the Missouri River.” If, before Katrina, Bush had proceeded full-speed ahead and fortified the levees of the Mississippi for a Category 5 hurricane, Kennedy and others of his ilk would very likely have criticized Bush for trying to manage the natural flow of the Mississippi. And it’s a good bet that many of the lefty bloggers now critical of Bush for not reinforcing the levees would have cited Bush’s levee fortification as another way he was despoiling the natural environment.
I wholehardily agree with that assessment.
From what I saw during Katrina, it appeared to me that the assets and organizations that the Executive Branch of the Federal Government was responsible for, actually went into action as soon as possible.
I also saw a State and City Government that was, to put it mildly negligent, from not ordering National Guard into action ( Governors do that, not the President) to not having even the most basic plans for how to react to an emergency at any level, much less a major catastrophe. Sunken School Buses? Cops looting or walking off the job altogether? Is that a Bush thing? I dont think so...
Even today, the City of New Orleans is still planning on how to rebuild those parts of the city that simply cannot be protected. This is beyond irresponsible, but its 'par for the course' in Louisiana.
And yet - "It's Bush fault".
If Bush were half the dictator that they say he is, Bush would lock this pack of frauds and charlatans up in about 30 seconds. Instead, he respects their authority and positions, and gets screwed for it.
Oh well, "Rank has its priveleges" I suppose...
What I learned from Katrina and the half a dozen other Hurricanes last year is that there is nothing that FEMA can do that if FEMA's funding and mission were given instead to the US Coast Guard, that the Coast Guard could instead deliver, faster, better, cheaper and with more accountability than FEMA ever hoped it could.
So in that spirit, let's consider this idea.
Let's give the US Coast Guard:
The USS Constellation,
The USS Kitty Hawk
and the USS John F. Kennedy
( all non nuclear Carriers, that are either mothballed or soon to be ) and create three maritime "Emergency Response Task Forces" with the current Navy hospital ships as their core. Place one task force on each coast - Pacific - Atlantic and Gulf.
What you get is an organization that can respond anywhere in the hemisphere in 72 hours with enough organization and capability to make a big difference. An organization that is not Department of Defense, but more correctly, Department of Homeland Security. Not quite military, but not fully civilian either, and reports to the President directly via a cabinet level position. No need to worry about lines of authority over State Govenors. Govenors and National Guards can work with the Coast Guard, or be seconded to it directly as the Emergency unfolds. Whats important is that during those crucial first hours, there is a permanent place and organization that can be coordinating efforts while the logistics train catches up.
FEMA failed because it is built like a 6 fingered glove and it fit about as well as a 6 fingered glove to its actual mission.
On the other hand, The US Coast Guard - Works.
Not only would this greatly improve our response time in large scale emergencies, there is also the more important issue of our national defense. With the implementation of "Maritime Emergency Response Task Forces" our Navy and its regular mission and resources would not have to compete for attention with natural disasters.
Katrina showed us how a ship like the USS Iwo Jima can serve as a mobile emergency headquarters as well as a hospital and a landing field. My concern isnt that how well it worked - it worked great!, it's that ships like the USS Iwo Jima actually have another job right now, and I'd rather not distract them from it.
I wonder how much smuggling in the Carribean would be impacted by the permanent presence of a US Coast Guard Carrier Task Force.
Posted @ March 01, 2006 10:24 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (4)
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