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And I approve this message....

Jim Webb for Senate. He looks happy to see old lurch doesnt he?

Ford For Senate. Don't look at the Camera...

Cantwell Senate. Don't stand. Don't Stand. Dont stand so close to me!

Lamont for Senate. The Incredible Shrinking Candidate Who Proves That Opposing The Iraq War Is A Winner...

Posted @ October 31, 2006 05:19 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (0)

9th Day of "Reasons to Get out and Vote Republican"

Todays Reason? John "F*cking" Kerry.
People ask me why I'm not a Democrat, and I just point to this guy and say "Exhibit A".

Why vote Republican? Because there should be no electoral victories for Democrats until they can publically agree to be on our side against our enemies. This guy? He's not on our side. Nor is Senator Durbin, Leahy, Byrd or Kennedy. Don't reward them with victories until they are.

UPDATE: Kerry takes to opportunity to point out his error by compounding it with yet another error. Kerry wasnt disparaging "Our Troops" he was just disparaging those nasty evil Republicans and if you think he was making fun of troops, well then you're just a big meenie too. Next up on CNN, Senator Kerry shows his support of Fire Departments everywhere by lighting the US Flag on fire and then trying to put it out with a stream of urine. Disrepectful of the flag you say? you big meenie, that shows what you know. He was clearly just aiding the men of the Fire Department, anyone who thinks that John Kerry doesnt support Firemen, just doesnt know John Kerry.

Rove. You evil Genius, how did you pull this off? What next, John Kerry appears in public wearing his green "Mao" hat?

Posted @ October 31, 2006 10:38 AM | Current Affairs | Comments (1)

10th Day of "Reasons to Get out and Vote Republican"

"We killed the Patriot Act," boasted Minority Leader Harry Reid, Nevada Democrat, to cheers from a crowd at a political rally after the vote. December 17, 2005 After succesfully filibustering a vote on the extention of the Patriot Act.

Under a Republican Congress and a Republican President, this man:

Kahleed Shiekh Muhammed, The man who planned the 9/11 attacks, was captured and turned over to Pakistani Authorities for interrogation. The Interrogations revealed a treasuyre trove of information. The information received during these interrogations resulted in the capture of over 150 Al-queda operatives. Those operatives had their phones tapped and the email accounts intercepted for several months before they were captured as well, further revealing the depths of the network. This man, and the part of the terror network he controlled are no longer working to contribute to the deaths of Americans as a result of the Patriot Act.

Kahleed Shiekh Muhammed, Planner of 9/11 is now an inmate at Camp X-ray in Guantanamo Bay Cuba, undergoing further interrogation by US Authorties.

Under a Democrat Controlled Congress, this man may or may not have been captured. If he was captured, his rights to a lawyer would be assured, his access to legal protection would be the highest priority of this government. The men who captured him would probably be under indictment for abusing this mans civil rights.

It matters who is in Congress.

Posted @ October 30, 2006 03:58 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (0)

Well, I think its cool....

Here's a cool website I found while looking for something else.

The State of Alaska and the FAA have published views of Alaskan Airfields to make it easy for Private Pilots to use the remote airports all over Alaska.

The Alaska AFSS Website can be found here. Click on any onf the location buttons and you will see a view of the airport from the air.

You know for a place that the environmentalists describe as pristine and only used by wandering heards of Caribou, it seems to me that there is a whole lot of Airports and towns all over Alaska.

Gosh, can Caribou qualify for a Rating?

Posted @ October 30, 2006 03:07 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (1)

President Bush To visit Vietnam Next Month

No one else seems to care, but it sure gets my attention...

"...will pay official visits to Vietnam on the opportunity of an Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit meeting next month, a Vietnamese official said Wednesday."

"...include General Secretary of the Communist Party of China and President Hu Jintao, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Russian President Vladimir Putin, US President George W. Bush, as well as Chilean President Veronica Michelle Bachelet Jeria said Nguyen Thanh Chau, Deputy Head of the APEC-2006 Secretariat at a pres briefing in Hanoi."

"...The elect-UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon, who comes into office in 2007, will also attend the 2006-APEC Economic Leaders' Week, which is scheduled for Nov.12-19."

The 'Full Story' can be found here.

Gosh, I can't help but notice that North Korea wasnt invited.

Posted @ October 29, 2006 08:40 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (0)

Now that Democrats are about to run the house, wheres all that talk about the Draft?

One of the idealogical cudgels from the 2004 elections was the false claim that "Bush/Cheney will start the Draft again".

The press gleefully spread the false charge in as many press conferences and editorials as possible before the election. Secretary Rumsfeld burned way too many calories chasing that particular snipe.

Democrat House Representative Charles Rangel actually created a bill that would do exactly that. The Universal National Service Act (Rangel, D-NY)-HR 4752

However, now that the press has noted that the Democrats are possibly going to be in change of the leadership of the House which will naturally result in a change to its legislatural agenda, but danged if I can't find a mention of "reinstituting the Draft" anywhere in this election. Funny how Charles Rangel isnt being asked about his "Lets make the draft again" Bill every day on Hardball or Meet the Press.

But thats ok, because the college and hugh school age kids apparently have a memory even if the press doesnt. I found this quote about an interview that Indiana Rebulican candidate Chris Chocola had with an audience of college students:

"...One student asked Chocola about the possibility of a draft, especially with the notion that the country might soon find itself in a conflict with a nuclear-capable Iran."

"...Mentioning a proposal by Democratic New York Congressman Charles Rangel last year to institute a draft - a measure that failed, Chocola said, with fewer than 10 favorable votes - Chocola said he doubted a draft is forthcoming."

So its silly to consider now, but in 2003, it was the "looming doom" that awaited us all, even though the whole idea from the start to finish was only a chimera from the mind of one Democrat.

Posted @ October 29, 2006 10:15 AM | Current Affairs | Comments (0)

11th Day of "Reasons to Get out and Vote Republican"

USS Shiloh Aegis Cruiser using newly developed Block 3 Ballistic Missile Defense. Currently "forward deployed" in Japan as a mobile Ballistic Missile Defense System. Budgets of Fiscal Years 2007, 2008 are crucial to see more AEGIS Cruisers and Burke Destroyers upgraded to the new SM-3 "Hit To Kill" Missile Systems.

Airborne Laser Missile Defense System. Currently undergoing last level of acceptance testing before full deployment by the USAF in 2008. Budgets of Fiscal Years 2007, 2008, 2009 are crucial to the development of this system.

Patriot Anti Missile System. Currently Deployed around the world in places like Saudi Arabia, Jerusalem and Tokyo.

"The United States does not need a multi-billion-dollar national missile defense against the possibility of a nuclear-armed intercontinental ballistic missile."
Spoken in 2003 by House Minority Leader Pelosi who will be Speaker Pelosi and will effect the legislation that the House takes action on, unless you dump your stupid "teach them a lesson", "lose to win" defeatism and get with the program.

I'll trust a new weapon defense system before I trust the Security of this nation to the likes of people who would rather put their trust in paper treaties with the worlds last remaining dictatorships.

Posted @ October 28, 2006 10:02 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (1)

If Todays Press covered the “Battle of the bulge”

This just in, We have just received film footage from our contacts with Belgian insurgents fighting against the United States occupation. The footage is of reprisals taken against US troops in the town of ‘Malmedy”. US Officials insist that what they are calling the “Massacre” of US troops is a result of war crimes committed by German Troops under the command of SS-Standartenführer Joachim Peiper.

Our correspondents in Belgium recently caught up with Standartenführer Joachim Peiper at his field encampment in Belgium and he had this to say in response to charges by the US Government:

“You should recognize that after the battles of Normandy my unit was composed mainly of young, fanatical soldiers. A good deal of them had lost their parents, their sisters and brothers during the bombing. They had seen for themselves in Köln thousands of mangled corpses after a terror raid had passed. Their hatred for the enemy was such; I swear it and I could not always keep it under control."

The Standartenführer is saying what has become a theme in public opinion across the continent since what many are now calling the unecessarily Bloody Normandy campaign, that US excesses in the war are the source of the anger against the US Occupation in much of Europe.

While the Official US Government line continues to say that its winning the battle in Europe, it would seem that the recent upswing in American losses since its initial easy win in Normandy during the summer, have resulted in a military and political quagmire that will be very difficult to extract itself from. Polls taken recently indicate that many in the US say that we are in fact, losing the war in Europe and wish to see a change in strategy from the distant and disconnected three term president. As Secretary of War Stimson continues to push for more troops to deal with the Belgian rebellion, very little seems to stem the tide of anger against the Americans as they cross the Belgium countryside. Nearly every town is supporting the insurgents with snipers and on occasion, tanks provided from their cultural and traditional neighbors in Germany.

Opposition party leaders in this country say that our continued presence in Europe will only create more leaders like SS-Standartenführer Joachim Peiper. While they deplore the methods of the SS, Opposition leaders point out that the SS often gains the support of the local populace by public works, such as day care centers, improved public works and factory jobs to improve the lot of the Germanic people. "We may not agree with their choice in leadership, but Herr Hitler is more popular in many parts ofthe world than our own President. That is something our President needs to understand if he is to get the support of the people in this country or in Europe. It goes without saying that there are many people who are willing to support Herr Hitler to the death, and I doubt very much that you can find that sort of support for the President anywhere in the world" said the Leader of the House opposition party.

The founder of this network had this to say recently about the war in Europe:

“Germany didn’t attack us. I don’t know why the hell we are fighting all the way over there when the real fight is in Hawaii! They say Hitler is an evil man who treats people badly, but we had him bottled up in Europe. I was in Europe before The President made us so hated over there by destroying most of it, I was over there for the Olympics. I didn’t see anyone mistreated, I didn’t see any skinny people in camps, from what I saw, things looked like they ran pretty good, I might even say that they ran a damn sight better than things are now. You know when this thing got started, the President didn’t waste any time on going to Congress and ramming through a declaration of war on the emotions of the moment. It was a damn silly thing to do, on December 8th I still hadn’t made up my mind yet just what side I was on. I wanted time to think about it with a clear head, not take a knee jerk reaction to the whole thing”.

We'll be right back after this commercial break with an interview with US General MacArthur who has recently had very unkind things to say about the US Military Strategy of "Europe First".

Posted @ October 28, 2006 02:09 PM | Current Events | Comments (0)

12th Day of "Reasons to Get out and Vote Republican"

Because some of us look at this and scream, and others look at it and swoon. I Vote Republican because I want the Congress to be made up of people who look at this and scream.

Posted @ October 28, 2006 01:09 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (0)

Let's Talk

Dear Iran and North Korea,

Hey boys, I just thought I'd take a moment and drop a note to say "howdy" and maybe talk about a few issues that concern all of us.

Before I start, I feel it necessary to inform you both that the 747's that you have detected flying in long 'racetrack' style patterns just outside your borders, those are US Airforce aircrews that are training for airborne laser anti-ballistic missile systems. Oh sure, they probably don't have lasers on board right now, but that doesnt mean we can't move ahead and get the rest of their systems tested, as well as train all the aircrews they will need to watch your little wretched rathole countries.

Oh how impolite of me, to say that counties that violate basic human rights with such regularity that your own citizens prefer death over imprisonment while your governments both use famine and genocide as a way to control your own populace, what an insult it is for me to call you rats.

An insult to the rats, that is.

Oh, you say the US Air Force can't possibly keep aircraft in the air 24 hours a day on continual alert? Gosh I sure am sorry to tell you fellas this but weve been doing that sort of thing since the 1950's. Were pretty good at that sort of thing. It sure is a good thing we have that big base down in Diego Garcia to operate out of virtually unopposed against you folks in Iran and it sure is nice that Japan has decided to allow our Airborne Anti Ballistic weapons systems to be based in their country, just right across the Yellow Sea. Isnt that sweet?

Boy it sure is a shame you fellas spent all your money on uranium processing instead of an airforce or a Navy. But hey, its probably alot easier to make an atomic bomb than it is to make single domestically produced jet fighter, which niether one of you seem to have the capacity to do. Yeah, you can buy fighters from Russia and China, but I gotta tell you boys that we take those same planes out for little test flights in Nevada all the time, We buy ours from the same folks you do actually, and frankly if I was you I wouldnt be paying top dollar for those turkeys. On top of that, since we've had them in our labs we're starting to get pretty good at shooting them down. Come on over some time, I'll introduce you to the Nellis Air Force Base commander and he can show you all the copies of all the Chinese and Russian Aircraft that we've been testing since the 1960s.

Whoops. I guess I shouldnt have told you that, thats supposed to be "a secret". Damn.

What a shame, all that time and effort making a big complicated weapons system just to have the hated infidel 'great satan' capitalists running dogs go and fence you in again.

It sucks to be you, doesnt it?

Gee, I wonder how long it will take some 'smart guy' in the Air Force to mount the Airborne Laser on a UAV, something on the scale of the Global Hawk. Now wouldn't that be funny? Airborne Robots flying right outside your borders that are undetectable on radar that can shoot lasers at your missles.

And you can't do a damn thing about it either.

Now that I think of it, Didnt one of you go and try to launch six or seven missles this summer? And they all did what? They fell into the ocean, right? Imagine that, all six just up and fell into the ocean.

You boys can't catch a break.

Hey, wait a minute, why stop at shooting down missiles? Why not just shoot the laser at anything we want? What's the big whoop? I mean if you can use a laser to hit a missile, I guess you can use a laser to hit, oh lets say a truck, a bridge, the occasional tramp freighter loaded with counterfeit cash and illegal weapons systems on their way to the middle east to be traded for badly needed cash, a little getaway in the country where you keep your girlfriend ( you little devils, you guys really crack me up, you sure get around I tell ya..) or maybe even a train? Say, you use a trains alot there in North Korea, dont you?

Heck, I'll bet we could hit a single window pane in any building we care to shoot at. That would get your attention real quick now wouldnt it? Wouldnt leave a whole lot of evidence behind either. One minute giving another speech to the boys and then "Poof" the window explodes into the conference room as a thousand shards of hot glass. That would sure put a cramp into your "Annual Tupperware Sales Kick-off Meeting" now wouldnt it?

Of course we would have to know what window pane you were standing behind at the time, but that would mean we would need people inside your organizations who were either less than loyal to you or somehow in need of revenge, but that can't happen, now can it? I mean since you folks are known for your generosity, I can't see how we could make any headway there, so you should rest easy on that thought. I'm sure that all of your underlings are happy with their positions and havent the slightest desire for any sort of "advancement".

You know, warfare sure isnt very anymore fun when you can't hide behind a wall of conscripts.

Anyway, I think I need to cut this short before I start to reveal more "secrets" like the spaceborne laser system that we deployed, oh damn I did it again didn't I?

Oh, Condi and Rummy wanted to remind me to say that the 100 Dollar Superbills that you have been making have been getting better with every batch. So I sent them a challenge, I said "there isnt anything you folks can do that we cant do any better". So just for sport, I told them try to see how hard it would be for us to make our own version of the "Iranian Real" and the "North Korean Won".

And I gotta tell you, You get Rummy and Condi together over a few beers and you'd be surprised what they can come up with. They got some of their CIA/NSA pals together and damn if they didnt make some "Superbills" of their own and those little suckers came out pretty good! Our own treasury department says that you can't tell the difference between the ones you make for your countries and the ones we made for fun. Just to prove it to you, I sent a big box of them off to your ambassadors.

I also sent a big box to the Chinese and Russian Ambassadors. Frankly, we kinda let the printing press run a little longer than we intended and Whoopseedaisy! Wouldnt you know it, before long we had shipping containers full of those little suckers. So, since congress insists that we account for every dollar, I had to get rid of them overseas, had to trade them with those banks in Macao. The silly bastards actually thought they were real. Of course, compared to the US Dollar they arent worth much, but we managed to recoup our investment pretty fast.

I sure hope that didnt screw up your balance of payments to Russia and China. That would be bad now wouldnt it? Those boys dont have a sense of humor, they are a strickly "cash and carry" operation over there.

Hey, they dont call me the "Great Satan" for nothing!

Anyway, if either of you boys feel the need to talk, just give us a jingle here in the White House and I'm sure the switchboard can have the call routed to Dr. Rice right away.

Yours Truly,

George W. Bush.
President

P.S. - "Peace through light", dont those Air Force guys just crack you up?

Posted @ October 28, 2006 10:23 AM | Current Affairs | Comments (0)

Emirates cancels order for 10 Airbus A340 planes

Emirates airline has cancelled an order for 10 long-range Airbus A340-600 planes plus the option of 10 more.

" said the decision had been taken because the Dubai-based carrier believed the A340 lacked the technology offered by more up-to-date planes..."

This just abouts destroys the A340 line of aircraft for Airbus.

Ouch. And yesterday Virgin "deferred" their A380 orders. For you kids out there ,deferred means that contractually it is hard to actually cancel the order, but its real easy to push the delivery date off into the far,far future. Airbus gets to say that they have the order, Virgin gets avoid paying for an aircraft they dont want anymore.

And don't forget, every one of these changes causes the number of A380s they need to "break even" to increase. That in turn makes it all that more difficult to raise money to build the A350.

All eyes are on Emirates and Singapore Airlines, who together hold 75% of the existing A380 orders. If either of them start to walk away, the A380 will take up the role of "the new Concorde". Cool, stately, but ultimately a money loser on a grand scale.

Posted @ October 27, 2006 08:52 AM | Current Affairs | Comments (1)

Reasons to vote for Republicans

- To watch Keith Olbermans head explode like an overripe pumpkin on live TV.

- To watch Pollsters have to explain why they got it so wrong – again.

- To kick the Democrats while they are down. After 6 years of breathless accusations, after 6 years of Democrats doing everything in their power to endanger the United States from subverting the CIA to giving the New York Times classified information, they deserve a good kick.

- Because after 2 years of being dragged through the mud over the Plame affair, which the press and the democrats would not shut the hell up about, Karl Rove deserves a victory just to give them the finger.

- Because its time to update the “Dewey Defeats Truman” photo with something more modern, like Bush holding a NY Times from cover that says “DEMOCRATS SWEEP CONGRESS”, only they don’t. Priceless.

- Because Charlie Rangel promises to leave if the Democrats don’t take the house. If we can get him to take Murtha, Pelosi, McDermitt and Hastings with him, I’d personally help him pack and I’d pay for the moving van.

- Because I have really enjoyed not listening to Robert Byrd for the last 4 years and if the Democrats get the Senate, I will have to listen to him tell us AGAIN all about how the South looked before the invention of the cotton gin.

- Because the day after the election, Media will have to talk about something else instead of the Republican victory. Given that the economy is good and a Republican victory will make it clear that America is in the war for the long haul and thus nightly body count reports for Iraq will become irrelevant, it should make every news broadcast about 10 minutes in length which in my mind, is about the right length.

- Because I can't get enough of Carville and Begala shaking their head from side to side wondered ‘what the hell happened’ on CNN. I need to see it one more time.

- Just to listen the twisted reptilian logic that will try to spin the Republican victory into a win for Democrats. I just love trying to follow that sort of thing, its like reading Stereo cabinet instructions from IKEA.

- Because I’m tired of “October Surprises” and I don’t want to do anything that makes the hired campaign staffs think that they work.

Posted @ October 26, 2006 03:35 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (2)

BBC Reporter Imbedded with the Taleban

Incredible. In-freaking-credible.

And you just know from the first sentence that its going to be a shining example of why the world of journalism has absolutely no credibility with most people in the military world:

"There is no army on Earth as mobile as the Taleban..."

Damn, and we spent all that money on C-5's, C-17's, MV-22's, Armoured Personnel Carriers, Tanks, Submarines and Aircraft Carriers for nothing. Foolish western capitalists, we should have put all our money into 30 year old chinese made Ak-47s, Camel caravans and sandals made out of car tires.

The fact that his own countries 'British soldiers' have already travelled half way across the globe and the Taleban can only travel the distance of a tank of gas in their Toyotas, never crosses this jerks mind. In the mind of the journalist, all rebels, no matter how despicable are virtuous. I wonder how he would be received if he was imbedded with the crips or bloods as they pulled drive by shootings in East LA. Journalist Hero or 'thug supporting' moron? Hey as long as hes "taking it to the man" its ok, right?

Oh and theres this nugget of genius later on:

snip.
"When we stopped for the night, they (The Taleban) would break into groups to eat in different houses in a village..."

snip.

"They demand and get food and shelter from places where they stop, but it is impossible to say how enthusiastic the villagers really are..."

end snip...

Yeah, its really funny how hard to get these villagers to speak their minds when their little part of the Kush has been invaded in the middle of the night by lawless men who cut off the heads of women who have the bad fashion sense to flash an uncovered ankle.

He also forgets to mention that they (The Taleban) often hold the children of the village hostage as they break down the doors of the village to get to the food. But hey, you just cant be sure if they support the Taleban or not. It never occurs to him that you probably don't want to start a fight with a gang of people who are the very defintion of 'outlaw'. And for goodness sake, whatever you do folks, dont have "South Park" on the DVD player when they arrive. Remember, its "All Allah All The Time" when you live under the lurking gaze of the taliban. And absolutely No Kite flying either you heretical blasphemers...

I'm sure Daniel Pearl would have really appreciated this man's efforts to further our understanding of the Taleban.

Posted @ October 26, 2006 01:03 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (2)

The Sullivan Inquisition

Hugh Hewitt had Andrew Sullivan on the air today for 90 minutes. I groaned when I heard that was who was scheduled and I nearly turned it off as a result. Andrew is a single issue voter around which everything rotates. So long as he determines that you agree with him his one issue, everything else is forgiven. Cross him on the one magic issue, and you face "the scorn of Andrew". I'm glad I stayed tuned, because I dont think I've laughed that hard in a good long time.

Here's a summary of what the tone of the show sounded like to me:

Snip.

HH: Hello Andrew, Welcome to the Hugh Hewitt Show.

AS: And just what the hell does that mean? You cant try your Jedi mind tricks on me Hugh. Dont try that legal mumbo jumbo game on me you, you supporter of torture. Isnt that right hugh, Torture. Why dont you say it, SAY IT!!!!

HH: Uhhhhm. well I thought that...

AS: Did you now? I mean, did you actually THINK, or did you just THINK that you thought.

HH: Andrew. Relax. Calm down, come back off the ledge of the building, ok? Were friends here, youre trying to sell a book and I'm trying to interview you on it, thats all. No big deal.

AS: Oh you'd like that, wouldnt you, WOULDNT YOU!!! Thats what all you "regessive theists" want; everyone off the ledges where they are "nice and safe" BWHAHAHAHAHHA.

HH: We'll be right back...

End Snip...

It goes on like that for 90 minutes. I'm serious, it goes on like that for a full 90 minutes. Credit has to be given to Mr. Sullivan. I honestly expected he would fold on the first question, which I believe was the super controversial, never to be asked Vulcan Mind meld chant of "Are you a Christian?". Im not sure he ever actually answered what should have been a simple binary question, but his answer revealed to me much more about Andrew Sullivan than a simple "yes or no" would have ever done, which is most unfortunate for Mr. Sullivan.

My sides hurt from laughing.

The Transcript should be up soon. Dont miss it, or the Lileks Parody that Hugh and Jim Lileks did an improvisation of afterwards.

And in case you are wondering, that was me who called in as "Frank From Sacramento". My first call to a radio show - ever.

Good Job Mr. Hewitt. And fair credit given to Mr. Sullivan for staying on the field until the end.

Posted @ October 25, 2006 06:06 PM | Current Events | Comments (1)

Right Wing Defeatists Respond to King Henry’s “ St. Crispin Day” speech.

“We happy few…” Who’s he kidding? King Henry makes a big deal about this distraction of fighting the French for some half cocked reasoning, but hasn’t done a thing to keep the dirty Welsh out of this country. Hell, he probably is Welsh! His poor handing of this whole half witted campaign has us slogging across half of France, and for what? Were no closer to winning today than we were when we landed in the god forsaken country. We should have more mounted Calvary like the French, but King Henry has his heart set on unproven archers from the backcountry. Is that really a strategy? When has that ever worked? We should just get back on our boats and get a fence built in Dover right away and forget this whole disastrous French Campaign.

And where’s our port security anyway? I’ve been waiting for the so called “sovereign” to make some statement about why he’s allowed the Moorish spice traders to have access to Dover and Plymouth, but he’s strangely silent on this outrageous oversight. Once again he has failed to deliver on his promises.

I’m voting for the House of York this time. I’m going to teach the Lancastrians a lesson they will never forget by withholding my support.

Happy St. Crispins day to all of you optimists out there.

Posted @ October 25, 2006 09:12 AM | Current Affairs | Comments (1)

The Long March

In 1947, the world was beginning to recognize that it was at the start of what would eventually be known as the “Cold War”. We in the West were faced with an aggressive empire bent on world domination was already at work subverting the will of democracies throughout Europe and the United States. Yet in America, after participating in and witnessing the effects of a war that that resulted in the deaths of 52 million people world wide and the applied concepts of genocide to an entire people in Europe, Americans were once again faced with the very real possibility that the war they had just completed fwas not as “over” as they had hoped.

Men of that generation expressed their primary reason for fighting and sacrificing everything during that war with a simple phrase;

“I fought so my kids wouldn’t have to”

The true cost of the failure of the world to deal with the First World War was not lost on the generation that had to fight the Second World War. They saw personally that to delay solving a problem or to even deny that the problem exists ensures that the problem becomes so big that the horror of war is the only solution left. Yet, a war that fought in the machine age would always result in the deaths of millions of civilians and members of the armed services. The days of Chivalry ended at Gettysburg, but it took two wars after that for the world to realize the truth. War was no longer limited to the armies in battlefield, in the machine age, the civilian in the factory was considered a combatant, the home they lived in a legitimate target for destruction.

In 1947, the free world was faced with yet another threat, a threat every bit as big as the threat it had just faced from Fascism. In those days, the future of the west was far from certain. Members of Western Academia and many in the political class, long enthralled with the concepts of socialism and the ‘sovereignty of the state’ over the rights of the individual opportunistically decried the “inequities of the free world, capitalism and the government of democracies” and proclaimed loudly that one day soon that it was all but certain that Communism would win in the battle of civilizations against the evil Capitalist world.

In 1947, if you had told anyone alive at that time that the “Cold War” would go on for another two generations, risk nuclear devastation on a global scale, cost hundreds of thousands of lives in wars all across the globe and cost trillions of dollars, what do you think that many of that generation would have said in response?

My guess is that many of those people would have said;

“Yeah, but do we win in the end?”

And when you tell them that yes, in the end we do win, that there was no global thermonuclear war and that Communism was eventually shown to be the false religion we all knew it to be, they would say “Hooray” and then ask what they need to do to get started. What people of 1947 knew is we have lost in ours; and that is the cost of losing. They knew the stakes of the battle at hand, but we cant quite get our minds around it. It wasn’t just expensive to fight the Cold War; it was expensive beyond measure to fail to fight the war. The long streams of refugees from Communism that came throughout the Cold War reinforced our will to continue the fight. That generation knew that to lose wasn’t just an inconvenience; it was a death sentence. We saw the refugees from slavery form their long sad lines throughout the Cold War; from Germany, Hungary, Vietnam, Laos and to Cambodia, the cost of losing was brought home to us in the faces of the broken people who had lost everything they had but hope.

They came to us as their last hope to live as free people rather than as slaves. We understood what they lost and what the stakes were if we were to lose.

The Cold War was long, it was expensive and it could have gone either way right up to the end. It took several years for me to even accept the idea that it really was over after it had ended. Long after Strategic Air Command had ceased to be and the missiles in their silos had stopped being aimed at our enemy, I still lived in reaction to what the Cold War had conditioned me to believe. It seems silly for me to say so now, but took years for me to stop thinking that it was some sort of trick by the Soviets to lure us into a trap.

I was a child of the Cold War, I awoke every single day with the thought that “today could be the last day”, that the Soviets were going to push through central Europe and the war that so many had worked to avoid would finally have come. I expected it. As a kid, I lived near a SAC base and I knew what an “Alert” was. I knew when the bombers suddenly flew out of the base in the middle of the night what it actually meant and what it could very well be the start of. I didn’t hope for the war to come, I dreaded the idea, but I did expect that it would come. From 1965, when I first became aware that there was something that my father did at work that involved some people shooting at other people in ships, until 1995 when I finally decided that the Soviets were really gone and they weren’t coming back, I expected the war to come at any moment.

Every.single.day; I expected it to come.

The decade long interlude that occurred between the “Jihadi War” and the “Cold War” seems like a “morning after” hangover memory of a wild party from long, long ago. At the time, the 1990s seemed like the arrival of a new golden age. It seemed that the rules we had all lived under for a millennia were no longer operative. War was suddenly and decidedly out of fashion, ideas were the new currency and you needed a five gallon bucket for a wallet just to keep up with the easy cash that was to be made on the shores of the “new internet world”.

That’s how I remember it anyway. I know it wasn’t like that, but that’s how I remember it. Historians will remember it differently; they will remind us all that the threat from Soviet Communism was almost immediately replaced by a threat from Islamic Fundamentalism which had been simmering during the cold war and once the cold war was over and several of the key Islamic fundamentalist states were no longer constrained by their former sponsors, they move wholly towards the cause of the “New Caliphate”, the core of which formed around the graveyard of the Soviet Armed Forces, namely Afghanistan.

While the west enjoyed its orgy of hedonism during of the 90’s and ignored the threat posed by the Jihadis, the threat grew exponentially every year during that time. We simply couldn’t be bothered to put down our drinks and stop to notice the forest fire that was occurring just outside our borders. Our fences were falling, our orchards were being overrun and we didn’t even stop to notice. They stuck Manhattan in 1993 and we laughed at the foolish little men who tried to get their deposit back after renting a van and using it to put a bomb in the basement. “The fools tried to knock down the towers” we said, and laughed at the name “Mohammed Salameh”.

They blew up our embassies in Kenya and people said “so what”.

Then they struck a destroyer in harbor and people said “ Why are we in that country anyway?”. At the time, we were worried about more serious threats, like the fear that our power grid was going to fail because someone in 1970 didn’t think to denote the century in their date stamps and as a result on December 31st 1999 all of our electrical power would end and we would all suddenly be living like the Amish. Yes boys and girls, we actually worried about such things. We spent billions of dollars fixing this problem, learned men who should have known better stocked up on gasoline and bullets, prepared for the end times that would surely come. Forget about those silly “turban wearing fools”, it’s the Y2K Bug you really must fear!

Then all of a sudden with a pop, the 1990s were over. The Champaign bubble economy had indeed crashed, but it had nothing to do with “old Cobol code”. It was the simple economics of it all that finally caught up with us. The rules of economic sense and logic that had existed for millennia had returned to extract their revenge on the current generation of Internet Argonauts.

In 2001, the war we had managed to avoid throughout the Cold War and its aftermath had come to kill us at home. They came to kill us in Manhattan, Pennsylvania and Washington D.C. They used our tools, our freedom, or hospitality against us. They finally managed to kill us in our home. It was a threat that could no longer be ignored, yet as we would see, there would be a great number of people who still try.

In 2001, the President responded to the attack of 9/11 with these words:
.
“We will not tire, we will not falter, and we will not fail”.

I knew what he was saying. The war that we had just been forced into fighting would not be “over by Christmas”. Unlike the cold war, there was no “Al-queda-land” for us to bomb, no fleet to sink, and no armies for us to maneuver against.

But much like the cold war, we were fighting an idea as much as an Army.

I wonder though, how many of us understand that this war, like the cold war will go on for another two generations, risk nuclear devastation on a global scale, cost hundreds of thousands of lives in wars all across the globe and cost trillions of dollars to fight.

I wonder just how many of us understand just what the true cost of losing this war actually is. I wonder how many of you understood that this war, again much like the cold war, would also risk another civil war here at home.

Because I sure didn’t understand it.

I was prepared to go to war against the Jihadis. I was prepared for the eventuality that the war might spread beyond what was manageable, but I was never prepared to believe that the bulk of our fighting over the past few years would actually be with each other.

Once again, as we are threatened by the very real menace from an enemy who means to kill us all and we react to that threat by fighting each other, in a way giving strength and comfort the enemy who wants to kill us. All of us. It makes no sense, but suicide rarely does.

This war will go on for another two generations, risk nuclear devastation on a global scale, cost hundreds of thousands of lives in wars all across the globe and cost trillions of dollars to fight. But I’m not sad that we have to fight this war. That is the burden that every generation has had to pay for its freedom since Thermopylae.

I am sad that after 3,000 years, there are still so many people on our side who actively want to lose this war, believing that to surrender is to bring the peace they desire, when history repeatedly shows that path they wish to go down only brings more war and more destruction and death. World War II didn’t have to happen; the generation who fought it understood that to be the case. They also understood that the fight after the Second World War needed to be fought as well. Our generation, for reasons I cant understand, has fallen into the same trap that the academics of Europe and America fell into after the First World War, believing that simply wishing not to fight is enough to bring peace to the world, when in fact, it virtually ensures that war will come on a massive scale.

This war will be fought, whether we choose to fight it or not. The only thing that will change is the cost of the war. Our Ancestors said that they fought so that “their children wouldn’t have to”.

It is time for this generation to take that understanding of reality as a fact.

We are in this for the long haul. It will not be over by Christmas, and the "Butchers Bill" will only get larger every day we fight each other instead of the Jihadis.

Posted @ October 24, 2006 11:05 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (3)

Big Surprise

Bill Quick didnt vote for Republicans in this election. He references a list to make his case more saleable to the rest of us ignoramuses.

However, I notice that he forgot to add that "Bush and the Republicans failed to make us safe from Bird Flu". I remember when Bill was decidedly upset at me that I wasnt upset about "Bird Flu", but that was before the streets were clogged with the rotting corpses and the nights filled with brain eating zombies left over from the last years bird flu epidemic, which struck directly after the deadly dirty bomb attack with "suitcase nukes" by al-queda dock workers in the shipyards of New Jersey who were let into the country by that judicial horses ass Harriet Miers and her "foreign looking" cohort Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.

Oh, what a fool I was not to listen...

I'm sure that the new head of the House Intelligence Committee Alcee Hastings will meet with Bills finely tuned standards of ethics and "doing whats right for America" over those scoundrel Republicans he so righteously just voted against.

Alcee Hastings, A Qualified Democrat Congressman. Qualified because hes an impeached Ex-Judge. Impeached and removed from office for corruption and bribery in 1989 and elected repeatedly to congress by the good folks from Florida since 1993. Now, Thanks to well meaning folks like Bill Quick, (who now all seem to have legislative foresight of "Mr. Magoo") Democrat congressman (Yes, thats right, impeached for bribery and corruption) ex-judge Alcee Hastings is about to decide a good portion of our legislative priority in Congress! Wheee! I feel liberated already. You see, up untill this election, Mr. Hastings hasn't been allowed near the "sharp end" of any of the machinery in Congress thanks to those "rascally Republicans" who came to power in 1994. But thanks to Bill Quick and lots of other "concerned citizens", Mr. Hastings is about to have complete unfettered access to all sorts of really fun information that I'm sure he will treat with the utmost care and concern. You can always trust an impeached ex-judge with national secrets, so long as he's not with the "danged Republicans with the funny sounding foreign last names", like "Gonzales" or "Miers" for example...

The thing is folks, he's not the one off oddball in the Democrat party. He's actually quite average, just look at their records. What they indict Republicans for doing, they wave as a badge of honor for doing themselves.

Really folks, no matter how righteously angry you are at Republicans, the answer can't be "More Democrats Please", atleast until the Democrats can see fit to join our side of the fight, that side being the American side and not the side they always seem to be on, which always seems to be on whatever side the United States is trying to defend itself against.

Saying the Democrat party is the answer to bad legislation and ethics is like saying the solution to hemmoroids is a length of barb wire. Yes, your current problem is a quite a pain, but the method you propose to cure it is of a whole scale of pain beyond even that.

I'd love it if our choices in elections were "Republicans and Right Wing Republicans", but it took nearly 60 years to just to make it "Democrats or Republicans" instead of just "Democrats and Only Slightly-Less-Left-Wing Democrats". But be warned, if we screw around here and get all filled with sanctimony, in the blink of an eye we can go back to a country that actually votes for a Congress that cuts off funding for Vietnam, takes on a foreign policy of "detante" with the worlds most evil governmental system of all time and elects someone like Carter as President.

We Republicans used to do crap like that all the time; that is until we Republicans learned not "the let the perfect be the enemy of the good", right about 1980 or so. Then we started winning elections, and changing legislation and changing direction of this country from a defeatist "has been" power that was passed its prime and instead turned it into the worlds unchallenged superpower in a little over 10 years.

In 1979, the defeat of the western world, capitalism and democracy was all but eminent and all the smart people said so too. In 1989, The Soviet Union died. It took a hack hollywood actor to remind us all of the possibilities of our future and to make us stop squabbling about "idelogical perfection" and to take "half a loaf" when you could get it.

Smart man that Reagan.

Oh, you dont think things have changed in the world since back then? Then hop into the "way back machine", set the dial for 1978. You'll come back with your hair on fire. If you still yearn for the "years of idealogical right wing purity", then cooling your heels in the "river of defeat" of world of 1978 should cure you of that fever right quick.

I just don't see how rewarding the very worst form of left wing Democrats in this election brings us one day closer to winning the war. These Democrats have done everything in their power to impede the war and this country at every step of the way so far, does it really make sense to allow them to run the government? Come on now...

Because in the end, that's the only metric that counts. You can tell me all sorts of great stories about what a dork Bush is, and you can tell me how you dont like so and so in congress, and you can tell me how you dont like this or that legislation, but you cant tell me how the Democrats are going to make it anything but worse.

You will never convince me that these Democrats will pursue the war - against Jihadists that is. Against Republicans and George W. Bush, they will chase him "...around the Horn, and around the Norway maelstrom, and around perdition's flames" before they give him up.

What they will do is hunt down the President and his party on their own little game of "payback". I'm sorry kids, but entertaining though that idea might be, I just dont think we have time for that right now. I think we'll be damn lucky to get through this war alive and our world intact. I dont think we can stop right now for a five alarm 'Three Stooges' pie fight on the floor of the House. Its a luxury we can't afford. And the Democrats will have to do it too! they dont have a choice, their constituents will demand it. They will be compelled to do it, no matter the number of real people who will be killed as a result.

Republicans legislators are dorks, but they do tend to return my calls. They don't always do the right thing, but they are unabashadely on the American side in a fight and I like that and even if it is pandering, dammit it is pandering to my side - the winning side the RIGHT side. Democrat legislators just look at people like me as a potential future source of taxation, and the 'root cause' of all that is evil in the world and they cant seem to decide what side they want to represent in a fight against the United States. Go ask a Democrat "What side are you on", and then count the answers you get back. It shouldnt be that hard of a question to answer, but you'd be surprised how that one stumps them.

Hastings, Pelosi, Reid, Schumer, Kennedy, Rangel. Go ahead, give them the keys to "legislative liquor cabinet" the let them drive the "agenda corvette" into the "reality telephone pole".

That will teach the Republican kids not to drink and drive. Yeah, that'll show em...

Posted @ October 23, 2006 10:36 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (1)

I am NOT a Diplomat

But then again, neither is this guy:

snip...

"Alberto Fernandez, director of the Office of Press and Public Diplomacy in the Bureau of Near East Affairs, made his comments on Saturday to the Qatar-based network. "History will decide what role the United States played," he told Al Jazeera in Arabic, based on CNN translations. "And God willing, we tried to do our best in Iraq." "But I think there is a big possibility ... for extreme criticism and because undoubtedly there was arrogance and stupidity from the United States in Iraq," the diplomat told Al Jazeera.

end snip...

Liberating 3 million Kurds from death at the hands of a murderous dictator is an example of 'arrogance and stupidity' but going on an anti-American news network and badmouthing YOUR OWN GOVERNMENT WHILE YOU ARE STILL IN ITS SERVICE, is an example of what?

Tell me Mr Fernandez, how does this kind of grandstanding HELP ANYONE resolve the issues? How does this help the cause of diplomacy for which you have dedicated your life?

A man who is the

- Director of the Office of Press and Public Diplomacy
- in the Bureau of Near East Affairs

Who also doesnt know how to SHUT THE F*** UP.

Ghad!

Is it any wonder we can't get anything done with the rest of the worlds governments when our own State Department is chock full of paddleheaded morons like this? This man is in charge of our press handling in the middle east. Well hows that going lately? Yeah, as a result of Mr. Fernandez and his fine professional efforts - oh - let's make that the COMPETENTCY of his office - Press and Media in the middle east can always be counted on to take the US side in a discussion on, oh let's see, Koran Flushing, Cartoon representation of the founder of the predominate religion, treatment of islamic detainees in the United States and so on and so forth. Media creations, all fraud, and all have gone unanswered.

With 'Professionals' like this guy...

Well hell, why dont we just call up Dr. Zawahiri and ask him to fill the new opening thats about to become available in the State Department. He will probably get us an agent of the enemy, but at least he might get us someone whos at least COMPETENT AT HIS JOB!!!!

Whats a matter Mr. Fernandez, couldn't Al-jazeera find a flag for you to burn and then piss on while you were on the show? No life Size puppets of President BOOOSH to burn while you talked in DIPLOMATIC LANGUAGE ABOUT AMERIKKKA and its failures in the world?

Only one word applies here for this donkeys ass - Fired. Clear your desk and have your badge ready to be surrendered to security. You jackass... You Latte drinking, Lexis driving, slack panted, Penny loafer, NPR listening, watercooler prowling, defeatist coward. And you want to run the Office for Press in the middle east? I wouldnt let you be my Latex salesman!

Mr. Fernandez, if you can't get on board, then get the hell off, but for Gods sake cant anyone in Washington just shut the hell up while they are overseas? Is there some energy wave that comes from the front end of cameras that causes peoples brains to slide out their alimentary canal? Is it so hard to understand the idea that while you are in the service of the government, that you keep your opinions to yourself WHILE YOU ARE OVERSEAS! Out here in 'proletariat-land', we operate be the simple business rule of 'never embarrass your boss or the company you work for by word or action while on business' so why the hell cant you slick sided fatasses in the general D.C. Metroplex manage to follow the same rule?

Its a simple rule, its not hard to follow either.

(I pay this guys salary? Really?It staggers the mind.)

UPDATE:Speak on Sunday, Retract on Monday.

Snip.

"Upon reading the transcript of my appearance on Al-Jazeera, I realized that I seriously misspoke by using the phrase 'there has been arrogance and stupidity' by the U.S. in Iraq," Fernandez said in the statement. "This represents neither my views nor those of the State Department. I apologize."

End Snip.

"Arrogance and Stupidity? I meant to say "Flatulent and Incredulity". No, thats not it. It was "Narrow Glance and The Roof Did It In For Me" yeah thats it. Bad Translation. Simple as that Madame Secretary, no ma'am I would never be so stupid as to bad mouth the country on Al-Jazeera, you know how the arabs are, they just make up whatever the hell they want to to say and thats what comes out in translation. Yes, its all a terrible misunderstanding. Yes, maam, sorry maam. I certainly do apologize.

Oh Hell... Theres no way out of this, is there? I'm boned...

Posted @ October 22, 2006 10:53 AM | Current Affairs | Comments (1)

Update

I've just come back from two weeks of heavy technical training. I'm going to take a day off tommorrow from the nearly non-stop reading about the fascinating world of network routing protocols and all the various modes that one can connect a routers together and go ride the bike before fall turns to winter and Im stuck looking at my bike for 90 days and sighing at where I'd rather be.

I promise to be back in full screedy blog mode for the next two weeks before the last election in the Bush Presidency.

Yes, I noticed that the Airbus now has to sell 470+ of the new A380s just to break even. I also noticed that they've sold about 170 so far, and none this year at all. If Europe were an investment firm someone would be yelling "SELL" at the top of his lungs about Airbus.

Yes, I did notice that the loss in revenue to Airbus has now completely imperiled the second design of the A350. At this point, even if Airbus finds the money to develop the A350 it will arrive atleast 5 years after the Boeing 787 is on the market. Layoffs? Re-orgs? Re-structuring? Dump a few product lines that arent making money? Yes, A dynamic "for profit" company would do exactly that, but Airbus isn't any of those things, because its major shareholders are countries who want to ensure that the wasteful inefficient processes keep doing their ineffcient processes in their country,making airbus into the aircraft manufacturing equivalent of PBS. Europe should be privatizing Airbus, but instead they will overcontrol and overdo, laoning even more money to a bloated out of control nightmare that will lose even more money. Long story short, buy Boeing. When the 787 shows up, and the world takes notice of what the Carbon Fiber fuselage really means to aircraft manufacuting at all levels, you can thank me for the stock tip.

Yes, I noticed that the Iranian President has with a completely straight face told the Europeans to stop supporting Israel or "bad things might happen". 3,000 years later and the Persians are still working from the The Xerxes Handbook of Foreign Policy. It didn't work then, it wont work now, but it wont stop them from trying, now will it...

Yes, I did in fact notice that while the press loves to try to say that the Republicans are running away from President Bush, almost no one is pointing out that Lieberman is running away from the Democrats - and winning big as a result. When Lieberman wins and Webb loses, what does it say about the state of the warrior-democrat? It begs the question.

Oh and while I'm at it, Where's Howard Dean? Someone who's about to engineer a winning election for the Democrats seems mighty reserved and quiet,dontcha think?(Oh, I should've known, He's campaigning for Ned Lamont. That's how you find Howard, you just look for the big smoking hole in the ground where someones campaign augered into the ground after taking his advice...)

Yes, I did notice that North Korea has now decided to apologize for attempting to set off a second atomic test, and now appear to have stopped any testing procedures while at the same time, the US Secretary of State is getting lots of smile time with the Chinese President and Foreign Office. I also noticed that nearly no one in the 'World press' has given any credit to Secretary Rice for her diplomatic efforts in accomplishing this breakthrough.

Yes, I did notice the Democrats were caught leaking top security documents to the press for nothing but the ability to bash the President during an election. One day, and I suspect that day is not far off, someone in uniform is going to be killed out there in the field because someone in the Democrat party felt it was more necessary to "Get back at Bush" than to protect the safety of security of the United States at home and abroad. Someday, and I hope that day comes soon, people in the US press will begin to understand that they are citizens of this country and not just observers from another planet with no stake in who wins and who loses in the war of civilization.

Yes, I did notice CNN thinks its ok to show videos that show US servicemen being killed by terrorists in the interests of "equal time". Well, what do you expect from a company started by a man who can't decide what side he's on in the war on terror? Ever heard the phrase "The fish rots from the head down"?

CNN...Cable News Network, is it really "Chicken Noodle News" after all, as they were derisively called when they first started. I can think of something slightly more scatalogical than "noodle"... (Hey, maybe the 'Asshat News Network', if Rachel Lucas would allow me the use of the term...)

Remind me in two years of "who CNN was way back when" when they too go the way of the Los Angeles Examiner and the DoDo bird. If Larry King were to go and "have lunch" with Roger Ailes, CNN will be reduced to being known the "other news network", you know, the one whose only claim to fame is voiceovers from Darth Vader and with only slightly better audio than CNBC.

I promise. First a day filled with gasoline powered adrenaline, and then, blog,blog,blog.

Posted @ October 20, 2006 08:17 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (2)

This Just in...

Progressive Radio Network "Air America" meets the market headlong and only finds that the market is elsewhere. A bankrupt and discredited radio network serving a bankrupt and discredited ideology serving as press flacks for a bankrupt and discredited party. In the words of Zathras; " a sad life and a sad death, but at least we have symmetry".

I guess this means that "Progressives" will be forced back to listening to that den of Republican reactionaries on NPR.

I cant understand this. How could a network where the big headliner is the monotone voiced, viciously unfunny half of a comedy writing team from from the late 1970's, a hyperactive dysfunctional comedienne and a bowtie wearing junior birdman of the socialist left fail to find a market in greater America with all the free publicity the New York Times and virtually every other big media voice could generate?

Oh and Rhandi Rhoades. Rhight. Cant forget Rhandi Rhoades. Cant forget that she gets better ratings than Rush Limbaugh. yeah, cant forget that...

Oh, and Jerry Springer. Cant forget Jerry Springer. The mark of quality programming also worked for "Air America". Wow, the chance to listen to the man who brought trailer trash demographic to its prominence for 3 hours a day, I cant figure out why that didnt sell.

I listened to the station now and then. It was hard. Those were some real angry white folks on that station. Most of the shows were made up of 2 hours of "lets point out my indignity" and an hour of talking to each of the other hosts, and 10 minutes of callers, who were even more defeatist than the hosts. My first thought when I finished the first "Morning Sedition" was who in the world wants to listen to 3 hours a day of the voice of defeat and failure? They probably would have done better as a network had their programming not lead to the suicides of a high percentage of their listeners.

Posted @ October 13, 2006 07:54 AM | Comments (2)

Judged For My Crimes Against Humanity

My new cellmate arrived with a bang in the middle of the night. The guards made as much noise as they could wile dragging the new soul down the hall, banging their nightsticks on the bars of ours cells for nothing but the damn meanness of ruining what sleep there was to get under the always burning florescent lights of our wing of the prison.

I didn’t get up to greet him; I didn’t even turn around as they opened the door to toss him in. I heard him hit the floor with a slap like a sack of wet cement. They laughed, he groaned. “Enjoy your new ‘comrade in arms’ Frank; you two should get along just fine” said the bull, barely hiding his glee at having spent the last few hours turning my new cellmate into bloody shadow of a man.

I didn’t move. I didn’t get up to help him. I just let him whimper and crawl into the lower bunk like so many of the faceless men that came before him. No sense in getting to know the man, ‘cause he won’t be here long anyway.

That’s how it goes in the sad logic of the ‘convict’s code”.

For just a second as I was waking up, I forgot I had a cellmate. Then he groaned to remind me that no matter how much I didn’t want to, I would have to talk to him.

“Listen, get over to the bucket and try to wash up, we’ve only got about 10 minutes before they blow the horn for breakfast lineup”.

He turned and sat on the edge of the bunk. He sat there holding his head in his hands for a few seconds and then stumbled to the wall, where the bucket and washcloth gave us our only link to dignity. Thankfully there was no mirror there to remind us of how far we had gone in our decent into the animal world of prison.

“So what are you in for?” He asked. They always ask that, it’s a sure sign that this person is just a common joe, swept up in the net of the governments sense of justice.

“Cuttin’ the heads off parking meters” I said in return. He smiled and shook his head“ Great, now I’m stuck in a cell with a movie buff”. But now I was stuck too. Now I had to talk to him, he had a brain. He knew “Cool Hand Luke” when he heard it. He might be a convict like the rest of us, but he can't be half bad if he knows obscure movie references.

“Names Frank. Before you ask, I’ve been in here for three years, 4 weeks, 2 days and 8 hours, scheduled for a minimum sentence of another 20 years, but I wont be here for them to let me out if you get my meaning. And before you ask, I’m in for the same thing you are, so don’t ask, ok? It’s a dumb question around these parts.”

His eyes lit up from behind the bruised mounds of red, black and blue flesh that were once his nose and eyebrows. He stuck his finger in his mouth, moving along the inside of his left cheek to find the source of the blood that was trickling out of the corner of his mouth. All standing in mute evidence of the beating he took the night before. With is finger still in his mouth, he stopped and garbled back at me;

“So, you’re a Global Warming Denier too?”

I just smiled at the rookies’ naiveté and said to him;

“We all are friend, we all are”.

Posted @ October 12, 2006 07:40 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (0)

Good Morning Ivan

From Strategy Page: " An F-15 Eagle from the 12th Fighter Squadron at Elmendorf Air Force Base, Alaska, flies next to a Russian Tu-95 Bear Bomber Sept. 28 during a Russian exercise near the west coast of Alaska. (U.S. Air Force photo)"

What I find most interesting is the rear gunner position has the guns level. During the cold war, the protocol was to aim the guns straight up, lest there be a "misunderstanding" between the two aircraft.

I once had an F-4 Pilot tell me that the Bear was the only aircraft that could be found in the air by sound alone, that they only had to turn off the radar and stick their helmets against the canopy and listen for the sound of those huge turboprops. The noise from the Bears engines is supposed to be enough to stun a small animal into a coma at 50 yards.

Posted @ October 12, 2006 12:35 AM | Current Affairs | Comments (0)

Ted Turner - " I havent made up my mind what side I'm on yet..."

"You know, there are a lot of things about this war that disturb me, and one of them is the attitude that, you know, that was well-expressed by our president. He said it very clearly, he said “Either you’re with us, or you’re against us.” And, I had a problem with that because I really hadn’t made my mind up yet. You know, what if you haven’t made your mind up? You know, what if you’re thinking about it, doing some studying, doing some reading. Because this is an important decision to go to war or whether or not to go to war. I mean either you’re with us or against us…that’s pretty black and white. "

Ted Turner - October 2006.

November 1999 - Taliban execution of Women in Kabul Stadium.

Halabja Iraq 1988: Massacre of Civilians by Mustard Gas

Madrid Bombing of Spanish Civlians by Al-queda

London Bombing of British Civlians by Al-queda

American Civilian falling to his death from WTC on September 11th.

Anthrax attacks on American Civilians, government officials in 2001.

Yes Mr. Turner, it really is "that clear" and it really is "black or white", and god damn your coalblack soul for not having the brains or the heart to see what has been made so self evident.

Posted @ October 10, 2006 01:24 PM | Current Events | Comments (2)

Hold My Calls...

varifrank in his current physical state...

Look, its not that I dont care, its not that I dont have something to say, its not that there isnt a thousand things going on right now...

Its just that I'm busy ok? You savvy "Busy"? Busy,busy,busy,busy and every time some jackass pundit comments on "how bad the economy is" I want to scream! Bad Economy? are you kidding me? We should be so lucky! I stopped accruing vacation time in August! AUGUST!

And it never stops. Everytime I think I clear the deck, bam!, a new set of emergencies arrives.

In all seriousness, things are winding down to a respectable 80 hours a week so I should be recovering soon to my previous 3 post a day standard. I see by the sign in front of the local Sams Club that Former Attorney General John Ashcroft is in town plugging his book on Friday, so I might have to make time and go cover that little event so I dont get fired from Pajamas Media for a lack of posting.

Quickly:

- Kinky Friedman - Best looking Campaign Poster - EVER.

- Still havent met one single Republican who has said "yeah, I think its Nancy Pelosis turn at the helm of the government, so I'm voting against my own party this time" Sure I havent met a single Democrat whos changed sides either, but you could say that about every election since 2000. My guess at this point is that this is going to be the "Shakespeare election" full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. A change here and there, and a few surprises, but in the end, I'm betting that the rock rolls about an inch from where its at now. ( except that Hastert finds another job in January and that's fine and he's probably not that upset about it either...)

- Which begs the question; "What do the Democrats say when they lose since everyone is working overtime to manufacture the expectations of a big win?" How do you explain it away? Diebold, butterfly ballots? If the republicans lose, it will of course by all "Bushs fault, but if the Democrats lose, then what will the story be?

- The A380 is now generating money for the airlines that ordered it, not by flying paying passengers but from refunds from EADS. We can now call it the "flying CEO Killer" for its amusing habit of destroying the careers of european manufacturing CEO's. Making big airplanes is easy, making big airplanes that pay off for the shareholders and airlines that order them is very hard, jst ask Boeing - the 747 nearly killed that company off.

- Taiwan is the key to North Korea. Its Taiwan that can provide the Chinese with the proper motivation to shut off the oil to that horrid little regime. North Korea is a Chinese invention, its time they fixed their little problem before things get out of hand.

- North Korea is the same today as it was on the Saturday before the test and as it was 10 years ago or 20 years ago. Until the regime ends and every day that they exist until that day comes, they exist as a threat to the peace of the world. That is their express designed methodology. It is all they know how to do, they sure as hell can't feed their people. The weapons they have only help them express that threat, its their way of making the "mulberry street extortion shakedown" into state policy. The "nuclear test" changes nothing. End that nightmare, and the weapons become irrelevant.

- Oh, and If I find out that we bought all those fancy billion dollar nuclear weapons systems and billion dollar submarines to carry them just so we could NOT use them when the time comes out of some misplaced sense of supposed "decency", then I'm going to be very, very unhappy. I'm not one to lightly advocate all out nuclear war, but for North Korea to sit back and not just threaten - but to actually DO IT, to think that our response should be anything less than total is just irresponsibly asinine. To fail to act invites more of the same and that cannot be allowed to occur. China should be on notice, nuclear materials have fingerprints. We find any materials anywhere with North Korean fingerprints, it will be taken as an act of war against the United States and will take immediate action. In that event, if China were to choose to protect North Korea from us, we will act against China as well.

- Blockades sound like fun, then someone in the blockade decides to get antzy and suddenly you are in a real live shooting war. Wars often start as a result of just such things getting out of control. If Bush pushes for a North Korean embargo, hes likely to get it. The story however doesnt end there, the story doesnt end until Kim does. The Blockade will not end his regime, but it will make us feel like we are doing something in the mean time.

- Yes, My Grandfather is rolling in his grave at the popularity of the idea of a re-militarized Japan. The revolutions his grave is creating stand to generate several hundred kilowatts for the local utility company. "We were damn lucky to win against them last time, we wont be so lucky next time, if there ever is one and you better hope there isnt..." he used to say.

Lots of thing going on, lots. Just none of them are "bloggable". Oh, I forgot to mention, I've developed an addiction to Honeycrisp Apples. I dont think I've ever eaten anything that is so staggeringly good. I could honestly not eat another piece of candy for the rest of my life as long as I had access to these apples. They are just incredible!

Posted @ October 09, 2006 10:22 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (0)

A few hours later

In regards to North Korea, exactly what has changed this morning from Saturday morning other than that they now have slightly less nuclear material?

They were belligerent on Saturday, they are now.
They had nuclear bombs on Saturday, they still do now.

All that has changed is that they have made it clear to the world that they are a real threat to every country in the world. You can't hide your errors behind 'victim of imperialism' status when you have an atomic bomb and wave it around like a kid with a popgun.

Posted @ October 09, 2006 08:05 AM | Current Affairs | Comments (0)

North Korean Wake Up Call

Word coming in that North Korea has 'joined the club'

I've tried 4 times in the past 30 minutes to write a post, only to have information coming in change what I was going to say. So for now, Im just watching and listening as posting seems silly with the speed of information coming in right now. ( quick someone find me a scientist that can calculate the energy necessary to create a 3.5 level quake...)

Just making a list:

A nation in a technical State of War that still exists with South Korea and the US ( and the UN for that matter)

Dictatorship of the highest order.

A world wide pariah nation, that the US and its allies have cut off from all trade over the past few months.

Has spent the summer firing intercontinental ballistic missiles at the US and Japan.

30,000 US Troops on the front lines of the Korean DMZ.

Japanese Prime Minister was scheduled to arrive in South Korea today, any change?

Any change from South Korean government who has been to date the largest enabler of the North Korean blackmail schemes?

Any word on US Armed Service Alert level?

Ok, Where are the Carriers? or The USS Shiloh?( Ballistic Missile Defense, funny how no one is against that sort of thing now that we really need it, right?)

Any movement of the Chinese or Russian Fleet or Army in the past 30 days?

Yeah, I can almost see the 'Alternate Universe' where Saddam managed to pull this off because after President Gore took office, the sanctions were removed from Iraq, and infrastructure poured in while petro dollars poured out to North Korea.

"...While America went about paddling around the worlds oceans looking for the perpetrators of 9/11 with enhanced law enforcement procedures hand in hand with the rest of the western world; the countries that the former Presidential Candidate George W. Bush once called the "Axis of Evil" formed a coalition of their own to oppose the United States. A coalition that tied middle eastern petro dollars to the technology of North Korea to create a malevoent force to threaten the peace of the world in opposition to the worlds one remaining superpower..."

President Gore. I can wake up to any reality tommmorow morning and deal with it, but I cant quite get that one to work.

Tick...Tick...Tick...

...Thank God I'm unburdened of thinking about and trying to post something new on the incredibly stupid Foley incidient. Today when I heard the headlines that "...a former congressional page came forward to say he had sex with Congressman Foley..." that my head was going to explode, then it was revealed in the paragraph level story that the "former page" was actually 21 at the time they, um, well, you know.

So I though to myself, its not much of a story then, is it? I mean Senator Hillary Clinton had sex with a former "Boys Nation" kid and no one got upset about that did they? I mean, Bill was a former "Boys Nation" kid, and she did have sex with him at least once - the proof being their daughter Chelsea. The fact that she had sex years with him after he legally stopped being " a kid" shouldnt enter into the discussion, should it? It's the seriousness of the charge after all.

Posted @ October 08, 2006 08:53 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (1)

Not that you care

But in my opinion, Speaker Hastert should stay.

Foley is 54 and he's probably been gay since his first gym class. I doubt very much that until last year he was regular at the local "Hooters" franchise until "Brokeback Mountain" showed up in his netflix queue; the watching of which had a deeply profound effect on his sense of sexual expression.

He has been in Congress since 1994 and yet, no one noticed a thing until about 30 days before this election. There are no secrets in Washington, so how did this one remain one for so long?

I thought the weirdest thing today from this cretin was the way he rolled out the "My Priest molested me" followed quickly by an announcement of " I'm Gay", as if that just excused it all.

Picture this. ( From the James Whale Directors Cut Of "Frankenstien")

In village just below Castle Frankenstein, a mob of villagers carrying pitchforks and torches attack the castle doorway, banging down the door of the Castle and threatening the kill the terrible monster.

Suddenly the besieged Monster blurts out to the Mob;

"IM GGGGAAAYYYYY".

The village mob stares back at the monster in disbelief. An audible sigh is then heard to come from the mob, which then quickly disassembles and quietly extinguishes their torches as they point the Monster on its way to an appearance at the Oprah Shrine where he asks "Saint Oprah " for her holy forgiveness and understanding for his delicate condition.

end scene...

Look, I dont care if Foleys "gay", and as far as I can tell, no one else did either. Back in the 80's Republicans used to be accused of "not having a big tent"; well apparently its so big now that just about anyone can get in to the tent. Apparently the "Republican tent" is now so big that on occasion we find a kid chasing freakjob in the Party who by all rights and logic should have been ratted out by the legion of congressional pages that have served prior to this year( yet for some unknown reason - chose not to) as well as the dottering civil service staff in his office who after years of working closely with the man should have known or at least suspected his tastes were out of the ordinary even by Washington standards( yet, for some unknown reason - chose not to).

"The Foley Incident" should at the very least dispel the myth that "Republicans are just a bunch of northeastern country club WASPs".

And another thing, Be on notice that over the next 30 days the Democrats L-I-T-E-R-A-L-L-Y will stop at nothing to drive Republicans voters away from the polls. They have stopped trying to lead, they have simply run out of ideas. They've stopped trying to come up with a plan for what they will do when they are in charge. Their only hope now is to keep you so disgusted you simply wont vote, and with the freakshow media working as an accomplice, this is remarkably easy thing to do to the ritalin addicted American public.

Therefore, to drive them absolutely insane trying to figure out what will finally get my anger up against the Republican Party, I will ignore anything and everything that comes up in the next 30 days. As a former employer of mine used to say, its all "gorilla dust" and nothing more. Think of this as my own reverse version of McCain Feingold. Publish all the attack ads you want, I will just ignore all of them in the last 30 days. If you havent campaigned before labor day, you arent very serious then are you?

I simply don't care anymore. Bring it on. I was raised in the age of Jerry Springer, I can take whatever they and the liberal media dish out of the gutter.

Video of Dennis Hastert and the Republican leadership invoking a pagan "black mass" in the Capitol Building and committing human and animal sacrifice?
Wow. Time to pop some popcorn...

Senator Santorum engaging in Cannibalism?
So...Let me guess Senator, it "takes just like chicken"?

Republican Anti-Smoking zealot Senator caught smoking outside the high school gym?
Heh. Filter or nonfilter?

Missouri Republican Senate Candidate caught mowing down little baby ducks on highway.
Ah cool!, I think that ducklings are worth 5 points, adult ducks are 10 points and I think there are bonus points if you get them all in one pass...

So I just dont care anymore. Foley is a freak and he's gone, whats more to be said about it? Hastert probably knew Foley was gay and he probably didnt delve into Foleys sex life too much, because that would be wrong now wouldnt it? Did Hastert know or even suspect that Foley was an outright Pedophile? I don't think so and the reason I think so is that everyone knows that there are no secrets in Washington and that the truth will eventually come out, there is absolutely no way you can cover something like this up.

Shhhh, its 2005 and I just found out that Foley is a pedophile, so make sure you dont say anything right now because it would be embarassing.

On top of that, Newt Gingrich didnt seem to know anything about Foleys appetite when he ran the house and Foley was also in it. Never said a word, and we had a big lead in the house, we couldve dumped this clod in a heartbeat if we wanted to with no risk to the party at all if anyone had any idea that something as poisonous as this was in the party. Dick Gephardt also never said a word about Foleys sexual proclivities while he was minority leader, are you telling me he had a reason to protect Foley or the Republicans? Had he known, don't you think he would have used it against the Republicans while he had a chance and a deep desparate need to whack them in the shins to keep his flagging career from fading into the sunset?

He didnt then, and until now, neither had Pelosi. Why?

Because they didnt know, that's why.

Shouldn't people in the leadership have looked a little closer at Foley and his sexuality? Why? just because he's gay? Being gay doesnt make you a pedophile but being gay and pretending you're not does make you a hypocrite. Last time I checked, being a hypocrite is at the top of the checklist for becoming a certified "Grade A" Washington politician. Being a Hypocrite doesnt disqualify you from respect like it does for normal people but its practically the secret handshake of politicians the world over.

But oh, that we wish that it would, "The Foley Incident" wont go away any time soon. Its the new "Cindy Sheehan crying her eyes out story". It's a story thats got that creosote steeped, creepy, nasty, sensationalist "weekly world news" stank about it that television news editors love, but sends TV audiences reaching for their remotes as soon as it pops on the screen.

We will get a new revelation on the "Foley" story every day for the next 30 days, and every day the story will morph into something more creepy than the day before. Yet each new revelation cannot be "new" in the sense that it "just happened", but the fact that its now being piled end on end between now and election day serve another own purpose, a purpose that seems to have very little to do with the process of justice for the victims in the crime and everything to do with making political hay out of someone elses misery. Not Foleys - But the Kids. You know, the ones that everyone seems to have forgotten about...

Posted @ October 03, 2006 11:43 PM | Comments (3)

Rip Van Winkle

Anyone drivng north on Highway 101 into San Francisco today around 5:00PM? Anyone notice over by Candelstick,er,um what is it now, oh yeah, "Monster" park a big fella on the side of the road rolling around in the dirt in his best business casual trying to fixing a flat tire?

Hey, well thanks for stopping and offering to help me out you jackasses.

So what did I miss while I was out?
Stock market at all time high -
Gas prices falling through the floor -
Technology stocks on the rise -
And a "Sex Scandal" in Washington D.C.

Damn! I must've hit my head and woke up in 1998!

I sure hope I didnt throw out all that Pets.com stock, nows my chance to cash in before it goes south in a year.

Posted @ October 03, 2006 11:20 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (0)