That is what I see in the media. A veritable lynch mob after the blood of American Marines.
Austin Bay posts about the controversy surrounding the alleged war crimes committed by US Marines in Haditha, Iraq. He includes opinions of Dr. Demarche and Mark Sefranski which are I think right on.
It is interesting to me that the media has to tip toe around the religious affiliations of the young would be terrorists arrested in Canada, however they have no compunction at all in regards to trying and convicting these Marines before the facts are even known.
Sunday, June 04, 2006
Saturday, June 03, 2006
Saturday Movie Review: The Master
Posted by Loner.
---------------------------------------------
That's strange. Ogin's always been known by her kimonos. And way off her turf.
I'm sure. She had a perm and stank of perfume.
A perm, Ogin? Times sure have changed.
On V-J day, August 15, 1945, the 35-year-old Japanese director Akira Kurosawa.... He's going to tell the story in a rather lengthy excerpt from his 1982 Something Like An Autobiography, but before he does I want to emphasize that this passage came as no surprise when I read it many years ago. Akira Kurosawa is, I believe, the greatest storyteller the movies have known and to the outcome of World War II a lot of that is owed.
...And now the opening paragraphs of the short chapter entitled "The Japanese":
And so in 1946 there was Waga seishun ni kuinashi (No Regrets for Our Youth), most notable as the only Kurosawa movie centered on a woman. She is played by the actress who would shortly become the most important woman in Yasujiro Ozu's post-war movies and, other than his mother, his life, Setsuko Hara. In 1947 it was Subarashiki nichiyobi (One Wonderful Sunday), unseen here. In 1948, Kurosawa worked with the actor Toshiro Mifune for the first time. Yoidore tenshi (Drunken Angel) is most memorable for Mifune's performance as the consumptive gangster who is losing his place because the ex-boss is back from prison. Then Kurosawa became something of an independent and for-hire director when he left his studio, Toho, after three ugly strikes. In March of 1949, Shizukanaru ketto (The Quiet Duel), also unseen, was released and the stage was set.
It was an unbearably hot day.
Kurosawa writes that most of those who saw Shizukanaru ketto (The Quiet Duel) did not get his main point (never disclosed) and so he decided to try again with Nora inu (Stray Dog). He wrote a novel in the style of Georges Simenon's social crime novels and then survived what he found to be the difficult process of transforming it into a screenplay. After the titles over a panting dog, a voice-over says "It was an unbearably hot day" and we come in on a police detective, Toshiro Mifune as Det. Murakami, telling his Lieutenant that he has lost his gun. What follows is a flashback in which his pocket is picked on a train as he's returning from target practice. There are numerous types of shots and lenses on display. The action isn't particularly well choreographed or photographed as he chases the man he thinks has his gun, but, given that failing to catch him is necessary to the plot we take a wait and see attitude. Det. Murakami goes to look at mug shots and finds the picture, rather too quickly, of a woman in a kimono who now wears a dress, sports a perm, stinks of perfume and actually picked his pocket. The pickpocket expert knows her and where to find her. There is an amazing shot in which camera and actress move at diagonals to one another as they talk to her. She complains at one point that her civil rights are being violated. When she leaves he follows her through the streets and everything begins to work. Finally, he breaks her down and she brings him food and drink and a suggestion as to where to go to look for his gun. He takes her suggestion and for over eight minutes we're given a look at the black market in post-war Japan while he hopes to make contact with someone who rents out guns. In a ruin it finally happens, and in his desperation to get his gun back he makes a mistake that will have terrible consequences and will bring him a mentor, Takashi Shimura as Det. Sato. And all the while the action is filmed in unconventional and varied ways and we become more and more caught up in his stubborn quest as everyone sweats and fans themselves.
Many events and shots later things build to a stunning climax in which Mifune finally confronts another of the Seven Samurai (in addition to Mifune and Shimura two of the other five debut for Kurosawa in this movie) and then has one final brief encounter with Shimura before the movie ends. Shubun (Scandal) and then Rashomon were released in 1950 and a year later on the Tenth of September in One Thousand, Nine Hundred, Fifty-One Rashomon won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival and the title and the director's name began to be seen and heard all over the planet. A year later there was Ikiru and two years after that there was Shichinin no samurai (Seven Samurai).
The movies whose impact upon me I imagine most readily compare to that of Nora inu (Stray Dog), released in October 1949, had I seen it before Kurosawa's later movies, are Martin Scorsese's Mean Streets (1973) and Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs (1992). Nothing prior suggested that what I was about to see would be anything special. Ever afterwards I knew the director's name.
Look, how pretty that is. In the last twenty years, I've completely forgotten how wonderful the stars are.
In many ways, what Nora inu (Stray Dog) is about is recovering a sense of self, whatever the cost. After Ogin, the pickpocket, gives Det. Murakami the food, drink and suggestion she lays back, sees the sky, and comments on how pretty it is and how wonderful the stars are. When Takashi Shimura as Mr. Watanabe "wakes up" in one of the masterpieces, Ikiru, he notices a sunset for the first time in years.
In the end, Kurosawa concluded with a movie that reminds me of the other master, Yasujiro Ozu, and particularly Sanma No Aji (An Autumn Afternoon), right up to its final scene. Madadayo is about a professor who retires before World War II and is then looked after by a group of devoted former students during the next twenty or so years. Every year they get together to celebrate his birthday and as one of the rituals the professor drinks a large glass of beer and the students serenade him with Mahda-kai? (Are you ready?) to which he replies Madadayo! (Not yet!). Over time Japan loses a war and rebuilds and becomes Westernized. At the later party the students are joined by their wives and children. The movie was released in Japan in 1993, but only got a release in the United States in 1998, the year Kurosawa died. Roger Ebert concluded his 3/28/98 Chicago Sun-Times review:
Well, I left with a broad smile on my face, but not because I'm a sucker for the world of warm hearts. No, it is that final, incredible scene. We're in Ozu's Japan until the final scene. The professor is 77 or so and ill and the students look down upon his sleeping form and wonder what he is dreaming about. And then we see what he is dreaming about. A young boy is looking for a place to hide among haystacks. Others are calling out Mahda-kai? (Are you ready?) and he is calling back Madadayo! (Not yet!). And then he finds a place and as he is lying down he notices the sky and he's transfixed. The camera follows his line of sight into the yellows and pinks. Pure, glorious, Kurosawa to close.
Ikiru means "To Live" and in post-war Japan no two men lived better or more productively than Yasujiro Ozu and Akira Kurosawa. The humanity and the sense of wonder that they brought to the movies they directed are a tribute to all that is best in the art form and my gratitude for all the wonderful hours in the dark that they've afforded me is very great indeed.
Arigatou gozaimashita.
---------------------------------------------
That's strange. Ogin's always been known by her kimonos. And way off her turf.
I'm sure. She had a perm and stank of perfume.
A perm, Ogin? Times sure have changed.
On V-J day, August 15, 1945, the 35-year-old Japanese director Akira Kurosawa.... He's going to tell the story in a rather lengthy excerpt from his 1982 Something Like An Autobiography, but before he does I want to emphasize that this passage came as no surprise when I read it many years ago. Akira Kurosawa is, I believe, the greatest storyteller the movies have known and to the outcome of World War II a lot of that is owed.
...And now the opening paragraphs of the short chapter entitled "The Japanese":
After the war my work went smoothly again, but before I begin to write about that, I would like to look back once more at myself during the war. I offered no resistance to Japan's militarism. Unfortunately, I have to admit that I did not have the courage to resist in any positive way, and I only got by, ingratiating myself when necessary and otherwise evading censure. I am ashamed of this, but I must be honest about it.
Because of my own conduct, I can't very well put on self-righteous airs and criticize what happened during the war. The freedom and democracy of the post-war era were not things I had fought for and won; they were granted to me by powers beyond my own. As a result, I felt it was all the more essential for me to approach them with an earnest and humble desire to learn, and to make them my own. But most Japanese in those post-war years simply swallowed the concepts of freedom and democracy whole, waving slogans around without really knowing what they meant.
On August 15, 1945, I was summoned to the studio along with everyone else to listen to the momentous proclamation on the radio: the Emperor himself was to speak over the air waves. I will never forget the scenes I saw as I walked the streets that day. On the way from Soshigaya to the studios in Kinuta the shopping street looked fully prepared for the Honorable Death of the Hundred Million. The atmosphere was tense, panicked. There were even shopowners who had taken their Japanese swords from their sheaths and sat staring at the bare blades.
However, when I walked the same route back to my home after listening to the imperial proclamation, the scene was entirely different. The people on the street were bustling about with cheerful faces as if preparing for a festival the next day. I don't know if this represents Japanese adaptability or Japanese imbecility. In either case, I have to recognize that both these facets exist in the Japanese personality. Both facets exist within my own personality as well.
If the Emperor had not delivered his address urging the Japanese people to lay down their swords—if that speech had been a call instead for the Honorable Death of the Hundred Million—those people on that street in Soshigaya probably would have done as they were told and died. And probably I would have done likewise. The Japanese see self-assertion as immoral and self-sacrifice as the sensible course to take in life. We were accustomed to this teaching and had never thought to question it.
I felt that without the establishment of the self as a positive value there could be no freedom and no democracy. My first film in the post-war era, Waga seishun ni kuinashi (No Regrets for Our Youth), takes the problem of the self as its theme.
And so in 1946 there was Waga seishun ni kuinashi (No Regrets for Our Youth), most notable as the only Kurosawa movie centered on a woman. She is played by the actress who would shortly become the most important woman in Yasujiro Ozu's post-war movies and, other than his mother, his life, Setsuko Hara. In 1947 it was Subarashiki nichiyobi (One Wonderful Sunday), unseen here. In 1948, Kurosawa worked with the actor Toshiro Mifune for the first time. Yoidore tenshi (Drunken Angel) is most memorable for Mifune's performance as the consumptive gangster who is losing his place because the ex-boss is back from prison. Then Kurosawa became something of an independent and for-hire director when he left his studio, Toho, after three ugly strikes. In March of 1949, Shizukanaru ketto (The Quiet Duel), also unseen, was released and the stage was set.
It was an unbearably hot day.
Kurosawa writes that most of those who saw Shizukanaru ketto (The Quiet Duel) did not get his main point (never disclosed) and so he decided to try again with Nora inu (Stray Dog). He wrote a novel in the style of Georges Simenon's social crime novels and then survived what he found to be the difficult process of transforming it into a screenplay. After the titles over a panting dog, a voice-over says "It was an unbearably hot day" and we come in on a police detective, Toshiro Mifune as Det. Murakami, telling his Lieutenant that he has lost his gun. What follows is a flashback in which his pocket is picked on a train as he's returning from target practice. There are numerous types of shots and lenses on display. The action isn't particularly well choreographed or photographed as he chases the man he thinks has his gun, but, given that failing to catch him is necessary to the plot we take a wait and see attitude. Det. Murakami goes to look at mug shots and finds the picture, rather too quickly, of a woman in a kimono who now wears a dress, sports a perm, stinks of perfume and actually picked his pocket. The pickpocket expert knows her and where to find her. There is an amazing shot in which camera and actress move at diagonals to one another as they talk to her. She complains at one point that her civil rights are being violated. When she leaves he follows her through the streets and everything begins to work. Finally, he breaks her down and she brings him food and drink and a suggestion as to where to go to look for his gun. He takes her suggestion and for over eight minutes we're given a look at the black market in post-war Japan while he hopes to make contact with someone who rents out guns. In a ruin it finally happens, and in his desperation to get his gun back he makes a mistake that will have terrible consequences and will bring him a mentor, Takashi Shimura as Det. Sato. And all the while the action is filmed in unconventional and varied ways and we become more and more caught up in his stubborn quest as everyone sweats and fans themselves.
Many events and shots later things build to a stunning climax in which Mifune finally confronts another of the Seven Samurai (in addition to Mifune and Shimura two of the other five debut for Kurosawa in this movie) and then has one final brief encounter with Shimura before the movie ends. Shubun (Scandal) and then Rashomon were released in 1950 and a year later on the Tenth of September in One Thousand, Nine Hundred, Fifty-One Rashomon won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival and the title and the director's name began to be seen and heard all over the planet. A year later there was Ikiru and two years after that there was Shichinin no samurai (Seven Samurai).
The movies whose impact upon me I imagine most readily compare to that of Nora inu (Stray Dog), released in October 1949, had I seen it before Kurosawa's later movies, are Martin Scorsese's Mean Streets (1973) and Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs (1992). Nothing prior suggested that what I was about to see would be anything special. Ever afterwards I knew the director's name.
Look, how pretty that is. In the last twenty years, I've completely forgotten how wonderful the stars are.
In many ways, what Nora inu (Stray Dog) is about is recovering a sense of self, whatever the cost. After Ogin, the pickpocket, gives Det. Murakami the food, drink and suggestion she lays back, sees the sky, and comments on how pretty it is and how wonderful the stars are. When Takashi Shimura as Mr. Watanabe "wakes up" in one of the masterpieces, Ikiru, he notices a sunset for the first time in years.
In the end, Kurosawa concluded with a movie that reminds me of the other master, Yasujiro Ozu, and particularly Sanma No Aji (An Autumn Afternoon), right up to its final scene. Madadayo is about a professor who retires before World War II and is then looked after by a group of devoted former students during the next twenty or so years. Every year they get together to celebrate his birthday and as one of the rituals the professor drinks a large glass of beer and the students serenade him with Mahda-kai? (Are you ready?) to which he replies Madadayo! (Not yet!). Over time Japan loses a war and rebuilds and becomes Westernized. At the later party the students are joined by their wives and children. The movie was released in Japan in 1993, but only got a release in the United States in 1998, the year Kurosawa died. Roger Ebert concluded his 3/28/98 Chicago Sun-Times review:
The movie is as much about the students as the professor; as much about gratitude and love as about aging. In an interview at the time of the film's release, Kurosawa said his movie is about "something very precious, which has been all but forgotten: The enviable world of warm hearts." He added, "I hope that all the people who have seen this picture will leave the theater feeling refreshed, with broad smiles on their faces."
Well, I left with a broad smile on my face, but not because I'm a sucker for the world of warm hearts. No, it is that final, incredible scene. We're in Ozu's Japan until the final scene. The professor is 77 or so and ill and the students look down upon his sleeping form and wonder what he is dreaming about. And then we see what he is dreaming about. A young boy is looking for a place to hide among haystacks. Others are calling out Mahda-kai? (Are you ready?) and he is calling back Madadayo! (Not yet!). And then he finds a place and as he is lying down he notices the sky and he's transfixed. The camera follows his line of sight into the yellows and pinks. Pure, glorious, Kurosawa to close.
Ikiru means "To Live" and in post-war Japan no two men lived better or more productively than Yasujiro Ozu and Akira Kurosawa. The humanity and the sense of wonder that they brought to the movies they directed are a tribute to all that is best in the art form and my gratitude for all the wonderful hours in the dark that they've afforded me is very great indeed.
Arigatou gozaimashita.
Toronto Terrorist Cell Arrested
Here are some links to news reports:
Canadian Press
canada.com
Pajamas Media
Stephen Harper's statement
Background story on Canada's home-grown terrorists
Pastorius speculates that a co-ordinated attack in several western countries may have been planned.
Canadian Press
canada.com
Pajamas Media
Stephen Harper's statement
Background story on Canada's home-grown terrorists
Pastorius speculates that a co-ordinated attack in several western countries may have been planned.
My Lai Redux - AP First Past the Post
AP takes first in the propaganda sweepstakes that will be running over the next few months. Read the story carefully and try and discern any "facts" concerning Haditha. I won't be commenting much on Haditha until the Army's report is issued because I have a very deep and sincere mistrust of anything that John Murtha says and an even deeper mistrust of anything that the presse ancien prints.
If any crime is determined to have been committed I have every confidence that the JAG will enforce the UCMJ appropriately and completely. I also have every confidence that the Democrat Party organs will lie through their teeth in an effort to besmirch American armed forces.
I would also note that we can anticipate close cooperation between the anti-American media and their allies, al-Queada and the Sunni insurgents. The cooperation will extend to the misrepresentation of incidents such as that at Ishaqi and confusion regarding mistranslation of Iraqi leader's remarks. I'll be watching Iraq the Model for accurate translation and explanation (scroll down for an example).
Sedition isn't fun and games - and it's not going to have a positive political payoff either. Murtha and his ilk are overreaching and there is a price that will be paid at the polls for their despicable behavior.
UPDATE: The secondrate (both intellectually and as a business man) Arthur Sulzberger Jr. delivered a commencement address that is worth reading in order to plumb the shallowness of an individual bred and born to privilege but raised with the same lack of moral compass evidence by his "hero" John Kerry. The pride taken by Sulzberger in the deaths caused by the Democrat Party's withdrawal of support for the South Vietnamese is probably somewhat less than that taken by his Communist teachers and professors in having successfully turned another 'person of influence' - although, it must be said that Junior did not fall far from the tree.
Sulzberger and Kerry are emblematic of rot, neither has a single accomplishment in their entire lives to which either could point and say "I helped build that". They are, as is the political philosophy they espouse, in the business of destruction. They were willing to denigrate the service of brave servicemen in order to achieve Communist aims concerning Vietnam and they are will to do the same to our servicemen in Iraq in order to advance their surrogate party's interests today.
We (and the Iraqis) are fortunate to live at a time when it is possible to rebut enemy propaganda with facts presented in a manner which approximates reality while Sulzberger and Kerry will spend the rest of their days as living proof of the veracity of Proverbs 26:11
As a dog returns to his own vomit, So a fool repeats his folly.
It will be an honest epitaph for both of them.
If any crime is determined to have been committed I have every confidence that the JAG will enforce the UCMJ appropriately and completely. I also have every confidence that the Democrat Party organs will lie through their teeth in an effort to besmirch American armed forces.
I would also note that we can anticipate close cooperation between the anti-American media and their allies, al-Queada and the Sunni insurgents. The cooperation will extend to the misrepresentation of incidents such as that at Ishaqi and confusion regarding mistranslation of Iraqi leader's remarks. I'll be watching Iraq the Model for accurate translation and explanation (scroll down for an example).
Sedition isn't fun and games - and it's not going to have a positive political payoff either. Murtha and his ilk are overreaching and there is a price that will be paid at the polls for their despicable behavior.
UPDATE: The secondrate (both intellectually and as a business man) Arthur Sulzberger Jr. delivered a commencement address that is worth reading in order to plumb the shallowness of an individual bred and born to privilege but raised with the same lack of moral compass evidence by his "hero" John Kerry. The pride taken by Sulzberger in the deaths caused by the Democrat Party's withdrawal of support for the South Vietnamese is probably somewhat less than that taken by his Communist teachers and professors in having successfully turned another 'person of influence' - although, it must be said that Junior did not fall far from the tree.
Sulzberger and Kerry are emblematic of rot, neither has a single accomplishment in their entire lives to which either could point and say "I helped build that". They are, as is the political philosophy they espouse, in the business of destruction. They were willing to denigrate the service of brave servicemen in order to achieve Communist aims concerning Vietnam and they are will to do the same to our servicemen in Iraq in order to advance their surrogate party's interests today.
We (and the Iraqis) are fortunate to live at a time when it is possible to rebut enemy propaganda with facts presented in a manner which approximates reality while Sulzberger and Kerry will spend the rest of their days as living proof of the veracity of Proverbs 26:11
As a dog returns to his own vomit, So a fool repeats his folly.
It will be an honest epitaph for both of them.
Friday, June 02, 2006
Shifting Sands - Fun & Games
On Monday the Senate is going to take up the Marriage Amendment, the substantive language of which states:
New media will be focused on the Marriage Amendment as an example of the Republican Senate keeping a promise. I believe that the House is going to reject the 'amnesty' language in the Senate immigration bill but I also think that a compromise will be proposed that is going to square the circle and allow passage of an immigration bill of some sort prior to the election recess. The Marriage Amendment is going to get immigration off the table for a bit while the House works on the sausage.
The Marriage Amendment passage is going to affect Senate races in PA, OH, MN and MD favorably for Republicans. It's going to be very entertaining to watch Ford dance on this one in TN but I don't rate his chances very highly no matter what he does. There may also be some minor impact on Cantwell's campaign in WA if she votes no. It will help Santorum a bit in PA but Casey is going to wax enthusiastic (truthfully) as well. Casey's problem is that his enthusiasm will not be well received by the Emily's List contingent of the Democrat base. DeWine will be clubbing Sherrod Brown with this right up 'til the election. Brown is a knee jerk lib of the first water and Ohioans are not at all fond of redefining marriage.
A couple of Minneapolis Star-Tribune articles highlight the reason that the Marriage Amendment may impact the Senate race there. The Strib's polling has been notorious both for its sloppiness and for its favoritism towards the Dems. If they can't jigger the numbers to make the Dems appear ascendant then the Dems have a larger problem than the article implies. The probable Dem candidate is Klobuchar, who has solid gold Emily's List credentials. Her probable opponent, Mark Kennedy, will be pressing her on this in the same manner that DeWine will press Brown.
Watch the dearth of stories about this in the presse ancien. It's going to be a hoot.
`SECTION 2. Marriage in the United States shall consist only of the union of a man and a woman. Neither this Constitution, nor the constitution of any State, shall be construed to require that marriage or the legal incidents thereof be conferred upon any union other than the union of a man and a woman.'The Democrat response is as predictable as sunrise. It will be interesting to watch media coverage of this proposal. The Democrats are primed to run with Haditha = MyLai (with film footage thoughtfully provided by their al Queada or Sunni insurgent allies) and it is very difficult to say which story is going to dominate with regard to public opinion.
New media will be focused on the Marriage Amendment as an example of the Republican Senate keeping a promise. I believe that the House is going to reject the 'amnesty' language in the Senate immigration bill but I also think that a compromise will be proposed that is going to square the circle and allow passage of an immigration bill of some sort prior to the election recess. The Marriage Amendment is going to get immigration off the table for a bit while the House works on the sausage.
The Marriage Amendment passage is going to affect Senate races in PA, OH, MN and MD favorably for Republicans. It's going to be very entertaining to watch Ford dance on this one in TN but I don't rate his chances very highly no matter what he does. There may also be some minor impact on Cantwell's campaign in WA if she votes no. It will help Santorum a bit in PA but Casey is going to wax enthusiastic (truthfully) as well. Casey's problem is that his enthusiasm will not be well received by the Emily's List contingent of the Democrat base. DeWine will be clubbing Sherrod Brown with this right up 'til the election. Brown is a knee jerk lib of the first water and Ohioans are not at all fond of redefining marriage.
A couple of Minneapolis Star-Tribune articles highlight the reason that the Marriage Amendment may impact the Senate race there. The Strib's polling has been notorious both for its sloppiness and for its favoritism towards the Dems. If they can't jigger the numbers to make the Dems appear ascendant then the Dems have a larger problem than the article implies. The probable Dem candidate is Klobuchar, who has solid gold Emily's List credentials. Her probable opponent, Mark Kennedy, will be pressing her on this in the same manner that DeWine will press Brown.
Watch the dearth of stories about this in the presse ancien. It's going to be a hoot.
Thursday, June 01, 2006
Global Warming and the Dust Bowl
Oil Rig
Anadarko Basin, Oklahoma.
Home
Maybe there really is nothing new under the sun, Big Lizards has an interesting link to an article about global warming, 55 million years ago...at the North Pole:
New research has found that a scant 55 million years ago, the North Pole quickly developed a climate much like Florida today:
The new analysis confirms that the Arctic Ocean warmed remarkably 55 million years ago, which is when many scientists say the extraordinary planetwide warm-up called the Paleocene Eocene Thermal Maximum must have been caused by an enormous outburst of heat-trapping, or greenhouse, gases like methane and carbon dioxide. But no one has found a clear cause for the gas discharge. Almost all climate experts agree that the present-day gas buildup is predominantly a result of emissions from smokestacks, tailpipes and burning forests.
_____________________________________________
I think this planet is a lot tougher than some folks give her credit for. What is more I think she has her own way of doing things, oblivious to us.
I have often wondered what the reaction would be today to the Dust Bowl my family went through in Oklahoma. No rain...for a long long time. Sand everywhere, dead cattle everywhere and hungry people everywhere. This was the 1930's, just 25 years or so after Oklahoma became a state. My mother was a little girl and would remember all her life the family leaving the Bend in Konowa, Oklahoma and setting out for the migrant camps of sunny California with nothing but a few dollars, some canned food, the old truck, Papa's banjo and Grandma's Bible.
When I was a little girl we were not allowed to wear pants to school, it had to be skirts or dresses. But that same hot wind blew fierce sometimes and so my mother would let me wear jeans under my petticoats. I can remember waiting for the school bus with my skirts whipping up around my head, a bandana tied across my face to keep the blowing red sand and dirt out of my nose and mouth. We kids would hold hands to make sure the wind did not blow us over. Sand storms that blotted out the sun like some biblical curse were rare, but once experienced they were unforgetable.
In the winter there were no sand storms but because of the nuclear testing in the states to west of us we were told to never eat the snow. This was a disappointment because snow was such a treat in Oklahoma. We only got about 3 inches a year and we would get out in it as quick as we could so that we could make a dwarf snow man before it all melted away.
This was decades after the Dust Bowl.
Today much of Oklahoma is green and with the fear of the once abandoned and hungry the state has tried to make sure it will never blow away again. There are more man made lakes and reservoirs in that state today than the Indians and cowboys could have imagined. But man can only do so much. If the hot wind blows again and the rain stops for long enough it can turn back into no man's land.
And the old timers know it. Global warming maybe just as inevitable.
Shrinking Horizons
Dr. Sanity tipped me off to a new Carnival - Pyschbloggers. I haven't followed the Carnivals very much but this one seems pretty interesting.
Perhaps members of the Flares mental health team will give it a shot? Something on the order of 'Beyond BDS - Taking Dementia to a New Dimension' would be worth reading.
Perhaps members of the Flares mental health team will give it a shot? Something on the order of 'Beyond BDS - Taking Dementia to a New Dimension' would be worth reading.
Wednesday, May 31, 2006
The Vultures are Circling
Sometimes people make me want to puke. I mean that. Just plain sick to my stomach. Those soldiers have been all but forgotten in that land of fun and sun Iraq, but now when it looks like there might be an oppurtunity to exploit a bad situation the self righteous, the ghouls, the useless naysayers who thrive on, revel in and feed off the suffering of others are doing a little jig.
___________________________________________________________
Courtesy of Hugh Hewitt :
This Guardian article, written in August 2005, describes Haditha as it was a couple months before the incident. It is not pretty:
____________________________________
The executions are carried out at dawn on Haqlania bridge, the entrance to Haditha. A small crowd usually turns up to watch even though the killings are filmed and made available on DVD in the market the same afternoon.
One of last week's victims was a young man in a black tracksuit. Like the others he was left on his belly by the blue iron railings at the bridge's southern end. His severed head rested on his back, facing Baghdad. Children cheered when they heard that the next day's spectacle would be a double bill: two decapitations. A man named Watban and his brother had been found guilty of spying.
With so many alleged American agents dying here Haqlania bridge was renamed Agents' bridge. Then a local wag dubbed it Agents' fridge, evoking a mortuary, and that name has stuck.
A three-day visit by a reporter working for the Guardian last week established what neither the Iraqi government nor the US military has admitted: Haditha, a farming town of 90,000 people by the Euphrates river, is an insurgent citadel.
That Islamist guerrillas were active in the area was no secret but only now has the extent of their control been revealed. They are the sole authority, running the town's security, administration and communications.
A three-hour drive north from Baghdad, under the nose of an American base, it is a miniature Taliban-like state. Insurgents decide who lives and dies, which salaries get paid, what people wear, what they watch and listen to.
_____________________________________________
Scroll through this casualty list to meet the 20 Marines who lost their lives in August in this insurgent stronghold. They died in two separate attacks: 14 died "when a roadside bomb exploded beneath their Amphibious Assault Vehicle during combat operations south of Haditha, Iraq, on August 3, 2005," and six "sniper team members killed by enemy small-arms fire in an ambush outside Haditha, Iraq, on August 1, 2005."
I have no idea what happened there but it would be nice if these young men could get the same oppurtunity to defend themselves that Saddam Hussein is getting. People do crack, it happens. If charged with a crime these soldiers will have to face military justice.
I hope the people who oppose the liberation of Iraq will try to restrain themselves from using this incident for political posturing. But I suppose that is asking too much. It just amazes how some crackpot dictator can use his own population as target practice without a peep out of these people, but by God if the oppurtunity comes along to champion terrorists, defame the US military and criticize Bush they are never hesitant to jump right in there. And if they can inspire some more hatred, get a few more people killed, make the job of stabilizing Iraq that much more difficult..well I guess that is just icing on the cake.
___________________________________________________________
Courtesy of Hugh Hewitt :
This Guardian article, written in August 2005, describes Haditha as it was a couple months before the incident. It is not pretty:
____________________________________
The executions are carried out at dawn on Haqlania bridge, the entrance to Haditha. A small crowd usually turns up to watch even though the killings are filmed and made available on DVD in the market the same afternoon.
One of last week's victims was a young man in a black tracksuit. Like the others he was left on his belly by the blue iron railings at the bridge's southern end. His severed head rested on his back, facing Baghdad. Children cheered when they heard that the next day's spectacle would be a double bill: two decapitations. A man named Watban and his brother had been found guilty of spying.
With so many alleged American agents dying here Haqlania bridge was renamed Agents' bridge. Then a local wag dubbed it Agents' fridge, evoking a mortuary, and that name has stuck.
A three-day visit by a reporter working for the Guardian last week established what neither the Iraqi government nor the US military has admitted: Haditha, a farming town of 90,000 people by the Euphrates river, is an insurgent citadel.
That Islamist guerrillas were active in the area was no secret but only now has the extent of their control been revealed. They are the sole authority, running the town's security, administration and communications.
A three-hour drive north from Baghdad, under the nose of an American base, it is a miniature Taliban-like state. Insurgents decide who lives and dies, which salaries get paid, what people wear, what they watch and listen to.
_____________________________________________
Scroll through this casualty list to meet the 20 Marines who lost their lives in August in this insurgent stronghold. They died in two separate attacks: 14 died "when a roadside bomb exploded beneath their Amphibious Assault Vehicle during combat operations south of Haditha, Iraq, on August 3, 2005," and six "sniper team members killed by enemy small-arms fire in an ambush outside Haditha, Iraq, on August 1, 2005."
I have no idea what happened there but it would be nice if these young men could get the same oppurtunity to defend themselves that Saddam Hussein is getting. People do crack, it happens. If charged with a crime these soldiers will have to face military justice.
I hope the people who oppose the liberation of Iraq will try to restrain themselves from using this incident for political posturing. But I suppose that is asking too much. It just amazes how some crackpot dictator can use his own population as target practice without a peep out of these people, but by God if the oppurtunity comes along to champion terrorists, defame the US military and criticize Bush they are never hesitant to jump right in there. And if they can inspire some more hatred, get a few more people killed, make the job of stabilizing Iraq that much more difficult..well I guess that is just icing on the cake.
The future of North American education?
A charter school for Aztlanians:
From an interview with the school's founder and principal, Marcos Aguilar:
Our mission is to provide urban children of immigrant native families an excellent education founded upon their own language, cultural values, and global realities through a k-8 California public charter school to fulfill our commitment to justice, freedom and dignity in education.link
Our vision of education emphasizes a student centered school society that cultivates academic excellence, talents, humanist ethics, positive culture, and social consciousness for students grades K-8 and their parents. Our pedagogy is meant to enrich the human capacity to transform our reality into one that is more just. We believe our school will be an integral member of a community, capable of providing learning and leadership opportunities to the entire community.
Ancestral Mexican schooling ethos embodied social ideals and appreciations intended to develop the child as a complete person. The indigenous heart of our vision is a repossession of an identity denied from our children in standard schools.
From an interview with the school's founder and principal, Marcos Aguilar:
TCLA: How does learning different languages impact your students?
MA: By learning Nahuatl, they will be able to understand their relationship with nature (because language is based on our human relationship with nature) and be able to understand themselves as part of something larger, not as an isolated individual. They will be able to understand our own ancestral culture and our customs and traditions that are so imbued in the language. The importance of Nahutal is also academic because Nahuatl is based on a Math system, which we are also practicing. We teach our children how to operate a base 20 mathematical system and how to understand the relationship between the founders and their bodies, what the effects of astronomical forces and natural forces on the human body and the human psyche, our way of thinking and our way of expressing ourselves. And so the language is much more than just being able to communicate. When we teach Nahuatl, the children are gaining a sense of identity that is so deep, it goes beyond whether or not they can learn a certain number of vocabulary words in Nahuatl. It’s really about them understanding themselves as human beings. Everything we do here is about relationships.
[...]
TCLA: What do you recommend to students and parents who are frustrated with schooling and want to create change?
MA: If we want anything we have to organize ourselves. We should organize with other people who share that frustration and see what we can do to solve the problem. The people have to change from an attitude of asking for things to a practice of organizing things for ourselves. We have to get away from the welfare mentality and the welfare society and more and more develop self-reliance and resolve our problems by organizing our own resources.
TCLA: Finally, what do you see as the legacy of the Brown decision?
MA: If Brown was just about letting Black people into a White school, well we don’t care about that anymore. We don’t necessarily want to go to White schools. What we want to do is teach ourselves, teach our children the way we have of teaching. We don’t want to drink from a White water fountain, we have our own wells and our natural reservoirs and our way of collecting rain in our aqueducts. We don’t need a White water fountain. So the whole issue of segregation and the whole issue of the Civil Rights Movement is all within the box of White culture and White supremacy. We should not still be fighting for what they have. We are not interested in what they have because we have so much more and because the world is so much larger. And ultimately the White way, the American way, the neo liberal, capitalist way of life will eventually lead to our own destruction. And so it isn’t about an argument of joining neo liberalism, it’s about us being able, as human beings, to surpass the barrier.
I wish him Luck
A double-amputee Iraq-war vet is suing Michael Moore for $85 million, claiming the portly peacenik recycled an old interview and used it out of context to make him appear anti-war in "Fahrenheit 9/11."
Sgt. Peter Damon, 33, who strongly supports America's invasion of Iraq, said he never agreed to be in the 2004 movie, which trashes President Bush.
In the 2003 interview, which he did at Walter Reed Army Hospital for NBC News, he discussed only a new painkiller the military was using on wounded vets.
"They took the clip because it was a gut-wrenching scene," Damon said yesterday. "They sandwiched it in. [Moore] was using me as ammunition."
Damon seems to "voice complaint about the war effort" in the movie, according to the lawsuit.
But what the father of two from Middleborough, Mass., was really talking about was the "excruciating" pain he felt after he lost his arms when a Black Hawk helicopter exploded in front of him.
Damon wasn't expressing any opinion about the war, the suit charges, but rather extolling the drug.
"I just want everybody to know what kind of a guy Michael Moore is, and what kind of film this is," said Damon. He has appeared in two films attacking "Fahrenheit" -"Michael Moore Hates America" and "Fahrenhype 9/11."
In "Fahrenheit 9/11," the bandaged National Guardsman is shown laying on a gurney complaining that he feels like he's "being crushed in a vise. But they [the drugs] do a lot to help it and they take a lot of the edge off it."
His image appears seconds after Rep. Jim McDermott (D-Wash.) says, "You know, they say they're not leaving any veterans behind, but they're leaving all kinds of veterans behind."
I hope he sues the pants off the son of a b****.
Tuesday, May 30, 2006
Oh Brave New World, that hath such people in it...
The latest chapter in Fjordman's horror story continues at Dhimmi Watch:
We need to be continually reminded that we are in some kind of conflict that the west can indeed lose, despite its technological strengths, and notwithstanding the fact that if Islam came to dominate Europe, the continent's productivity would collapse and it probably would not be able to feed itself, much less other parts of the world. This would seem, if we can assume minimally rational people, to preclude the Islamification of Europe, let alone other continents. But rational is not what Fjordman's Europe looks like. In his latest essay, Eric Gans explains the intellectual and anthropological roots of our cultural crisis. The juxtaposition of the intellectual power of Gans' ideas - testatment to the strength of western traditions - and the collapse of western self-confidence in the European heartland is shocking. And yet the internet is here to bring those shocked together, allowing us to hear the new voices we need to hear if we are to find the courage to again celebrate and defend all that is best in our world!
You know you have entered a strange, Eurabian world when leading politicians from Norway, a country straddling the Arctic Circle and with no colonial history, begin their election campaigns in the Pakistani countryside. Before Norway's national elections in 2005, the leader of the Socialist Left party, Kristin Halvorsen, praised all the "blood, sweat and tears Pakistanis in Norway have spent on building the country." While the deputy leader of the Socialist Left party has stated that he wants to abolish private property, its leader Kristin Halvorsen is in 2006 Norway's Minister of Finance. 83 percent of Muslims in Norway voted for Leftist parties in 2005.... the Fjordman has much more bad but necessary news, as usual.
We need to be continually reminded that we are in some kind of conflict that the west can indeed lose, despite its technological strengths, and notwithstanding the fact that if Islam came to dominate Europe, the continent's productivity would collapse and it probably would not be able to feed itself, much less other parts of the world. This would seem, if we can assume minimally rational people, to preclude the Islamification of Europe, let alone other continents. But rational is not what Fjordman's Europe looks like. In his latest essay, Eric Gans explains the intellectual and anthropological roots of our cultural crisis. The juxtaposition of the intellectual power of Gans' ideas - testatment to the strength of western traditions - and the collapse of western self-confidence in the European heartland is shocking. And yet the internet is here to bring those shocked together, allowing us to hear the new voices we need to hear if we are to find the courage to again celebrate and defend all that is best in our world!
Immigration - Lies, Damned Lies and Statistics
Where did the 11 million (now 12 in many reports) number for illegal aliens come from? I finally found a reference that clarified the source. First I had to read John Fund's WSJ editorial piece concerning the dreadful danger facing the Republicans if they don't...well they're in dreadful danger at any rate. Within his piece there was a reference to an absolutely asinine proposal by Republican Congressmen to abrogate federal responsibility by delegating authority to issue visas to private companies. It was bad enough that the State Department was shoveling out visas to any Saudi with a Master Card but at least we could hold the government responsible. In reading through Pence's paean to privatization the 11-12 million number popped up and lo and behold, it comes from Pew Research. This is the very same Pew Research that devoted a great deal of time, effort and money to convincing Congress of the absolute necessity of passing McCain-Feingold. Ryan Sager dissected Pew's admitted (by Treglia, at any rate) role in creating the illusion that Americans were 'deeply concerned' about campaign finance reform.
When we turn to the Pew Report from whence the 11 million number springs we are treated to
Sounds pretty impressive and factual, doesn't it? You take a starting number of 8.4 million and add (4 X 485,000) and, voila, even the math-is-hard crowd can get to 10.3 million in 2004 and then add another 970,000 to get over 11 million in 2006. Plus the report is very careful to note that "Neither the Census Bureau nor any other U.S. government agency counts the unauthorized migrant population" so I suppose there is no reason to check any other statistics...but, heck, I like statistics and there might be something that was (unintentionally, to be sure) overlooked. Now, who might actually try and track the illegal alien population, hmmm....
The INS? Why yes, yes they do, right here. How do the numbers compare? Well, the INS estimate of the illegal alien population in January, 2000 is 7 million using what appears to be a reasonable method of analysis. They also use a rate of 350,000 per year net increase versus the Pew number of 485,000 per year which using the same formula that Pew uses gives a 2006 total of 9.1 million.
Why would Pew play with the numbers? Why do stores price items at $9.99 rather than $10? Exaggeration and puffery are staples of salesmanship and Pew is definitely peddling. Pew and the other "public interest" groups involved in this are repeating the methods that gave us McCain-Feingold - and the 527's that go with it. Our politicians, bless their craven hearts and pea brains, are fixing to give us an immigration bill that will rival McCain-Feingold both in complexity and in stupidity.
There is nothing inherently wrong with our current immigration laws. Increasing money allocated to enforcement would cut the 350,000 number over time. There is no reason for an amnesty nor is there any reason that a visa program that adequately addresses a worker shortage cannot be devised and implemented.
That said, the American electorate is about to prove PT Barnum to have been prescient, once again - with more than a little help from "public interest" groups whose main interest is the clandestine advancement of political goals which remain carefully hidden in the shadows.
When we turn to the Pew Report from whence the 11 million number springs we are treated to
Neither the Census Bureau nor any other U.S. government agency counts the unauthorized migrant population or defines their demographic characteristics based on specific enumeration. There is, however, a widely-accepted methodology for estimating the size and certain characteristics, such as age and national origins, of the undocumented population based on official data. This methodology essentially subtracts the estimated legal-immigrant population from the total foreign-born population and treats the residual as a source of data on the unauthorized migrant population (Passel, Van Hook, and Bean 2004). The estimates reported here use this methodology with data from the March 2004 Current Population Survey (CPS). The CPS, a monthly survey of about 50,000 households conducted jointly by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Census Bureau, is best known as the source for monthly unemployment statistics. Every March both the sample size and the questionnaire of the CPS are augmented to produce the Annual Social and Economic Supplement which provides additional data on several additional subjects including the foreign-born population. As of March 2004, there were an estimated 10.3 million unauthorized migrants living in the United States. A comparison to past estimates derived with the same methodology shows that the undocumented population has grown rapidly in recent years. There were 8.4 million unauthorized migrants living in the United States in April 2000 according to estimates derived from Census 2000 (Passel, Van Hook, and Bean 2004). Thus, average annual growth over the 4-year period since 2000 was about 485,000 per year. Assuming this rate of growth held steady, the best estimate for March 2005 points to a figure of somewhat less than 11 million for the number of undocumented residents.
Sounds pretty impressive and factual, doesn't it? You take a starting number of 8.4 million and add (4 X 485,000) and, voila, even the math-is-hard crowd can get to 10.3 million in 2004 and then add another 970,000 to get over 11 million in 2006. Plus the report is very careful to note that "Neither the Census Bureau nor any other U.S. government agency counts the unauthorized migrant population" so I suppose there is no reason to check any other statistics...but, heck, I like statistics and there might be something that was (unintentionally, to be sure) overlooked. Now, who might actually try and track the illegal alien population, hmmm....
The INS? Why yes, yes they do, right here. How do the numbers compare? Well, the INS estimate of the illegal alien population in January, 2000 is 7 million using what appears to be a reasonable method of analysis. They also use a rate of 350,000 per year net increase versus the Pew number of 485,000 per year which using the same formula that Pew uses gives a 2006 total of 9.1 million.
Why would Pew play with the numbers? Why do stores price items at $9.99 rather than $10? Exaggeration and puffery are staples of salesmanship and Pew is definitely peddling. Pew and the other "public interest" groups involved in this are repeating the methods that gave us McCain-Feingold - and the 527's that go with it. Our politicians, bless their craven hearts and pea brains, are fixing to give us an immigration bill that will rival McCain-Feingold both in complexity and in stupidity.
There is nothing inherently wrong with our current immigration laws. Increasing money allocated to enforcement would cut the 350,000 number over time. There is no reason for an amnesty nor is there any reason that a visa program that adequately addresses a worker shortage cannot be devised and implemented.
That said, the American electorate is about to prove PT Barnum to have been prescient, once again - with more than a little help from "public interest" groups whose main interest is the clandestine advancement of political goals which remain carefully hidden in the shadows.
Monday, May 29, 2006
Memorial Day
In Afghanistan today there was a riot following a vehicle accident involving an American vehicle. Eight people died when police tried to restrain protestors.
It seems there has been an attempt at a spring offensive on the part of the Taliban this year and so far it has costs them dearly. And perhaps people are tired of the presence of foreign troops. Too bad.
I doubt if that will change anytime soon. The last time the world looked away from Afghanistan the World Trade Center was destroyed and the War on Terror was launched.
I have heard conflicting reports on the poppy crop, some people say it is less than it was and some people say more. I am sure a fungus could destroy the ability of Afghans to grow poppies for some time but I suppose the fear is that only resentment would come from such a policy. But then again, if there was not such a market in the West for the drugs they would not be growing them.
Today in Iraq 40 people were killed. One was an American soldier with the 4th ID [my cousin's unit] and two were CBS camera people, and a reporter was badly injured. I would hope there was a finite number of suicide bombers but sometimes I wonder if they will ever stop until the Muslim world tires of the ceaseless violence. Most of the victims of the Jihad these days seem to be Muslim. I wonder how that figures into the whole world domination scenario.
We will be hearing in a couple of weeks about the deaths of Iraqi civilians at the hands of American Marines in Haditha, Iraq. It seems that most of the scrutiny is on two soldiers. I don't know which I find more distressing, the fact that soldiers would be involved in something like this or the fact that a former Marine turned politician like Murtha would use the incident to further his own political agenda. I guess Kerry is not the only former soldier turned Democrat Representative who likes to call soldiers murderers from the safe confines of Washington D.C.
On this Memorial Day I offer my heartfelt thanks to the men and women of our armed forces.
It seems there has been an attempt at a spring offensive on the part of the Taliban this year and so far it has costs them dearly. And perhaps people are tired of the presence of foreign troops. Too bad.
I doubt if that will change anytime soon. The last time the world looked away from Afghanistan the World Trade Center was destroyed and the War on Terror was launched.
I have heard conflicting reports on the poppy crop, some people say it is less than it was and some people say more. I am sure a fungus could destroy the ability of Afghans to grow poppies for some time but I suppose the fear is that only resentment would come from such a policy. But then again, if there was not such a market in the West for the drugs they would not be growing them.
Today in Iraq 40 people were killed. One was an American soldier with the 4th ID [my cousin's unit] and two were CBS camera people, and a reporter was badly injured. I would hope there was a finite number of suicide bombers but sometimes I wonder if they will ever stop until the Muslim world tires of the ceaseless violence. Most of the victims of the Jihad these days seem to be Muslim. I wonder how that figures into the whole world domination scenario.
We will be hearing in a couple of weeks about the deaths of Iraqi civilians at the hands of American Marines in Haditha, Iraq. It seems that most of the scrutiny is on two soldiers. I don't know which I find more distressing, the fact that soldiers would be involved in something like this or the fact that a former Marine turned politician like Murtha would use the incident to further his own political agenda. I guess Kerry is not the only former soldier turned Democrat Representative who likes to call soldiers murderers from the safe confines of Washington D.C.
On this Memorial Day I offer my heartfelt thanks to the men and women of our armed forces.
I Question NYT's Timing
Tom McGuire has three extensive posts on The New York Times thumbsucker kicking off what apparently is John F. Kerry's latest attempt to rehabilitate himself with Vietnam Veterans like me and others who did not fully appreciate his famous "reporting for duty" beginning to the 2004 election campaign.
Rick, Peter UK, and I have made a number comments on Tom's first post which has, as of this time, attracted more than 600 comments.
I am not interested in fomenting another string of that extent, or in distracting attention from Tom's great blogging on the article.
I am interested in questioning and commenting on the timing of the article over the Memorial Day holiday weekend. I suspect the timing was more than coincidental. Articles like this, to my understanding, often begin as a press release authored by public relations or campaign consultant types.
The article primarily accuses the Swift Boat Veterans of lying. That seems to me a cynical ploy on Memorial Day weekend. It is a bald attempt to burnish Kerry's war hero status at the expense of other veteran's reputations for truth and veracity.
Why on Memorial Day weekends of all weekends?
Why not, rather, some material devoted to explaining Kerry's Senate testimony and Winter Soldier activity which so denigrated those who served with him in Vietnam?
Why not some acknowledgement of the wounded feelings of Vietnam Veterans who served with Kerry caused by his post VN activities?
Why not an Op Ed by the esteemed Senator praising the Veterans with whom he served?
Why not something much more appropriate for Memorial Day Weekend?
Why not, indeed?
Rick, Peter UK, and I have made a number comments on Tom's first post which has, as of this time, attracted more than 600 comments.
I am not interested in fomenting another string of that extent, or in distracting attention from Tom's great blogging on the article.
I am interested in questioning and commenting on the timing of the article over the Memorial Day holiday weekend. I suspect the timing was more than coincidental. Articles like this, to my understanding, often begin as a press release authored by public relations or campaign consultant types.
The article primarily accuses the Swift Boat Veterans of lying. That seems to me a cynical ploy on Memorial Day weekend. It is a bald attempt to burnish Kerry's war hero status at the expense of other veteran's reputations for truth and veracity.
Why on Memorial Day weekends of all weekends?
Why not, rather, some material devoted to explaining Kerry's Senate testimony and Winter Soldier activity which so denigrated those who served with him in Vietnam?
Why not some acknowledgement of the wounded feelings of Vietnam Veterans who served with Kerry caused by his post VN activities?
Why not an Op Ed by the esteemed Senator praising the Veterans with whom he served?
Why not something much more appropriate for Memorial Day Weekend?
Why not, indeed?
Who Will Be Next?
The New York Times prints a tear jerker on Democratic Congressman 'Cold Cash' Jefferson. Apparently his slide from humble beginnings into vote selling is supposed to elicit sympathy of some sort. It will be interesting to watch what the Times will do when the 45 day 'cooling off' period elapses and Jefferson is indicted for the crimes he appears (on videotape) to have commited.
Given that Vernon Jackson, the man who confessed to bribing Cold Cash, began his involvement in politics with maximum donations to Loretta Sanchez it is quite possible that this investigation is going to nab more than just Jefferson. Speaker Hastert's strong objections to the execution of a valid search warrant are being justly ridiculed on a legal basis but remind me of B'rer Rabbits protestations concerning fear of the briar patch.
The 45 day cooling off period will expire 10 days before Congress takes its summer break (and begins the election campaign in earnest). The probable indictment of Jefferson and possible extension of the investigation into other vote sellers would provide a fine kick off to the campaign.
Howard and Nancy sure know how to pick the right issues.
Given that Vernon Jackson, the man who confessed to bribing Cold Cash, began his involvement in politics with maximum donations to Loretta Sanchez it is quite possible that this investigation is going to nab more than just Jefferson. Speaker Hastert's strong objections to the execution of a valid search warrant are being justly ridiculed on a legal basis but remind me of B'rer Rabbits protestations concerning fear of the briar patch.
The 45 day cooling off period will expire 10 days before Congress takes its summer break (and begins the election campaign in earnest). The probable indictment of Jefferson and possible extension of the investigation into other vote sellers would provide a fine kick off to the campaign.
Howard and Nancy sure know how to pick the right issues.
Sunday, May 28, 2006
Ethnic Map of Iran
(Click image to enlarge)
I clipped this ethnic map of Iran out of a larger version so that folks could see where the reported unrest was taking place. At this point unrest is said to involve the Azeris, Kurds, Arabs, and Balochs. I don't know how serious it all is but the map puts locations with the names so you can see where things are happening.
Update:
Ok, I lied. I do have an opinion about how serious it all is, and that is that it won't go anywhere. Ahmadinejad has been pursuing the time tested method of consolidating power that Stalin, Hitler, Mao, and probably every other tyrant in history has pursued: purge the bureaucracy and party and replace all opposition members with your supporters. If the army/brownshirts/party/etc. are difficult, set up a separate command/SS/red guard/whatever and move money and support in their direction. When the time is ripe, jail and execute the opposition. Ahmadinejad hasn't yet reached the last step but he is on schedule to get there. The Iranian army could probably still put a stop to it but, like the German Army in 1938, I think they are going to miss their chance. The only remaining question in my mind is if Ahmadinejad plans on starting a war. I think the odds are that he does. I hope I'm wrong.
I note that Allahpundit at Hot Air, while pointing to this NY Times article on the power consolidation, mentions that Hitchins still thinks that Ahmadinejad is a puppet of the Mullahs. If so, I suspect this is just another case of the general rule that the Left never comprehends history, especially when it comes to charismatic figures and religion. As to the Times article, it contains little analysis but even so seems remarkably sanguine. I get the sense that they see Ahmadinejad as a progressive bringing social justice to the masses. That may just be an artifact of their selection of quotable people but it may also be another marker on the trail as the NY Times once again descends to cheerleading tyranny. I don't see that it would have been difficult to find folks who regard Ahmadinejad as a dangerous fanatic and give their opinions and analysis some space.
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