How Media Celebrates Memorial Day

Ben Shapiro details how they support our troops, by slandering them at every opportunity:

...how does the "public press" celebrate Memorial Day this year? By plastering stories across the front pages featuring alleged atrocities by our troops in Haditha, Iraq. "The Shame of Kilo Company," banners Time magazine, which originally reported the story. "Bloody Scenes Haunt a Marine," blares the Los Angeles Times, and The New York Times proclaims, "Iraqis' Accounts Link Marines to the Mass Killing of Civilians." On the day before Memorial Day, anti-war Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., appeared on ABC's "This Week," demanding to know "Who covered it up, why did they cover it up, why did they wait so long? … We don't know how far it goes. It goes right up the chain of command … I will not excuse murder, and this is what happened."

During WW 2, something like this would have been kept from the public until it was PROVEN, for the soldiers morale as well as the public. The media is bias against the military, and prove it on every occasion.

Free Navy Review Newsletter

This is a subscription drive for our free newsletter Navy Review, now entering its 3rd year! Navy review is an email magazine where I share my passion for all thins Navy, Past, Present, and Future. A few years ago we were reviewed by List-A-Day and here's what they said:

Know all the words to "Anchors Aweigh?" Ever spent six months of your life deployed on a submarine? (Maybe you're there right now!) You can keep up with what's going on with the world's navies with this combination history guide and modern-day news source.
Military historian Mike Burleson publishes unclassified, public information on ship movements and training exercises around the world, with an emphasis on the U.S. Navy but including news from around the world on deployments, equipment and fleet additions and exchanges along with biographical information on both notable naval officers in history and significant warships and weaponry.

To subscribe, send a blank email to bookguy-subscribe@topica.com or visit the Web site.
-List-A-Day Staff

If you subscribe now you will just be in time for our Summer edition, to be published early in June. So hurry and welcome aboard!

Mike Burleson

Wednesday MiLinks-Updated

Army cuts back. Shame in the middle of a war.

Iran prepares for invasion. By you-know-who!

Incentives for dictators. It always works, right? Right?

Swift Boats strike back! Kerry's on the run.

Army wants a Transformation Czar.

China's military challenge.

Some aren't worried about China.

US, Britain friends again.

A very costly new JASSM.

Lockheed Martin Demonstrates Revolutionary Tactical Vehicle Armor.

Navy shoots down a long-range missile.

Checking out Fleet Week. Halle Berry was there!!!

Navy establishes First Riverine Group. A new generation of Swift Boaties!!!

Australia's trimaran LCS design.

Blogging about Battlewagons!! Why not?

Update: Welcome Murdoc readers!

The Politics of Victimhood

Ed Lasky discusses a NY Times sob story on Representative William Jefferson, Democrat of Louisiana. Break out your violins:

Representative William Jefferson, Democrat of Louisiana, has reportedly been photographed accepting $100,000 of cash, $90,000 of which was discovered in his freezer. Does the Times thunder in outrage over this betrayal? Not a bit. It offers excuses, in this article by Christopher Drew and Robert Pear. Some excerpts:

Representative William J. Jefferson has always liked to talk about growing up in an impoverished farm community, picking cotton for $3 a day and hitting the books hard enough to win his ticket out — a scholarship to Harvard Law School. [....]
...a remarkable ascent from the deepest poverty and a quest for the comforts his family never had. [....]
Mr. Jefferson was raised, along with eight brothers and sisters, on a small farm in northeast Louisiana, where, he said earlier this year, “our whole life revolved around that cotton field.” His father left school after second grade, and his mother attended only through eighth grade. [....]

Hope on the Border?

GEORGIE ANNE GEYER says Vicente Fox is the hindrance to stopping Mexico's run for the Border:

The same week of the Fox visit, for instance, The New York Times ran a stunning article headlined “Some in Mexico See Border Wall as Opportunity.” It quotes men such as Jorge Santibanez, president of the College of the Northern Border, saying: “For too long, Mexico has boasted about immigrants leaving, calling them national heroes, instead of describing them as actors in a national tragedy; and it has boasted about the growth in remittances as an indicator of success, when it is really an indicator of failure.”
Other prominent Mexicans were quoted as saying, for instance, the formerly unthinkable: that a wall would be the “best thing that could happen for Mexico”; the “porous border” allowed “elected officials to avoid creating jobs.”

Its nation building, whether we want it or not. Make them more like us before we become like them.

GOP Falls on its Sword

Cal Thomas suggests Republicans are headed for trouble if they choose to support illegal immigrants over their base, and the country:

Too many Republicans seem to care more about the future of their party than the future of the country. Congress should not behave like some ancient pope, handing out papal bulls for absolution of certain sins in exchange for contributions to the church. In the case of illegal immigrants, moderate-liberal Republicans want to "absolve" illegals, hoping for electoral contributions to their party. It won't work, because even if all illegals end up becoming legal and voting for Republicans (which is unlikely), the conservative disgust and abandonment of the GOP would outweigh any short-term gains the party might enjoy.

I knew the GOP had become free spenders like the liberals, but I never thought they would sell out to the false moralism of political correctness.

Bush for President

The younger that is, Jeb Bush. From NewsMax:

Republican Party leaders continue to mull a Bush III administration -- with Gov. Jeb Bush of Florida as a candidate in 2012 or 2016, says a report in the New York Times...

In an interview with a group of Florida newspaper reporters some weeks ago, President Bush said that he had "pushed" his brother "fairly hard about what he intends to do" and that his political future "is very bright, if he chooses to have a political future."

...But Governor Bush has been adamant on the touchy subject: "I'm not running for president. I'm not running for United States Senate. I'm not going to run."

I'm all for a continuance of the Bush Dynasty. What other potential candidate, maybe Juliani, has handled trials so well, especially one hurricane disaster after the other during his governorship in Florida.

Pork over Bullets

Chuck Muth says Congress cuts the budget, at the expense of the military:

“It appears that the House and Senate have agreed that the supplemental emergency spending bill will not exceed the amount requested by the President in an effort to avoid a veto,” writes a Hill staffer to me this morning.
“What they have NOT agreed to is removing the earmarks included in the Senate bill...

Now, apparently, the House and the Senate have agreed to keep the bill at $94 billion. But since the Senate refuses to give up any of its earmarks, that means some $14 billion is going to have to be cut from what is supposed to be “emergency” money needed for the war and hurricane relief.

Social spending is killing our National Security, and it is getting worse.

Back to School in Style

These Iraqi kids are ready for school, thanks to the US Military. From CentCom:

Mosul Iraq- A newly constructed school located in the center of Dahuk will provide service to approximately 840 students and 36 teachers...This $460K project was funded by the Iraqi Relief and Reconstruction Fund and built by a local Iraqi construction company. Of the 317 IRRF-funded school projects in the northern region of Iraq, 315 are complete and two are in progress. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers participated as the Contracting and Construction Management and Quality Assurance of the over-all project.

Happy Memorial Day to all you, and our brave soldiers on the frontlines. God bless you!

Top Ten Reasons to Oppose Amnesty

This is from my Senator Jim DeMint, who voted against Amnesty!:

TOP TEN REASONS TO OPPOSE THE SENATE AMNESTY BILL

1. Rewards Illegal Behavior with Clear Path to Citizenship and Voting Rights – Amnesty
As noted by former Attorney General Ed Meese in the New York Times on May 24, 2006: “Like the amnesty bill of 1986, the current Senate proposal ards Illegal Behavior with Clear Path to Citizenship and Voting Rights – Amnestywould place those who have resided illegally in the United States on a path to citizenship, provided they meet a similar set of conditions and pay a fine and back taxes. The illegal immigrant does not go to the back of the line but gets immediate legalized status, while law-abiding applicants wait in their home countries for years to even get here. And that's the line that counts. In the end, slight differences in process do not change the overriding fact that the 1986 law and today's bill are both amnesties.”
2. Creates Temporary Worker Program That is Neither Temporary Nor Work-Based
The bill’s guest worker program would allow millions of illegal immigrants to qualify for permanent green cards within four years. Additionally, the Senate approved Senator Kennedy’s amendment that each year would allow up to 200,000 immigrants who cross the border illegally and work just 6 days a year (including self employment) to qualify for a permanent green card.
3. Unprecedented Wave of Immigrants - 66 Million Over 20 Years
This bill is estimated to skyrocket the number of immigrants, from its current level of 19 million over the next 20 years, to an unprecedented number. Heritage Foundation: “...[O]ur estimate of the number of legal immigrants who would enter the country or would gain legal status under S. 2611 … [would be] 66 million over the next 20 years.”
4. Insufficient Border Security
The Senate rejected an amendment by Senator Isakson that would have prohibited the implementation of any guest worker program that grants legal status to those who have entered the country illegally until the Secretary of Homeland Security has certified to the President and to the Congress that the border security provisions in the immigration legislation are fully funded and operational.
While the Senate adopted Senator Sessions’ amendment to increase “real fencing” by 370 miles and add 500 miles of vehicle barriers, the House passed a bill requiring at least 700 miles of “real fencing”, a more likely needed amount to secure the 2,000 mile long border.
5. Terrorist Loophole Disarms Law Enforcement
Heritage Foundation reported May 24, 2006: “The Senate’s immigration reform proposal … would restrict local police to arresting aliens for criminal violations of immigration law only, not civil violations. The results would be disastrous. All of the hijackers on (9-11) who committed immigration violations committed civil violations. Under the bill, police officers would have no power to arrest such terrorists.”
6. Social Security Benefits, Tax Credits for Illegal Work
The Senate rejected Senator Ensign’s amendment that would have prevented Social Security benefits from being awarded to immigrants for time that they worked illegally in the United States. If the immigration compromise bill before the Senate were enacted into law, an estimated 12 million illegal workers would be able to use their past illegal work to qualify for Social Security benefits.
Provisions in S. 2611 would require newly legalized immigrants to file tax returns for work they performed while in the U.S. illegally. And while some would be required to pay back taxes, many others could qualify for the Earned Income Tax Credit, which has a maximum payout of $4,400 per year.
7. Costs Over $50 Billion A Year to Federal Government; States Foot The Bill for Immigrant Health Care
Robert Rector of the Heritage Foundation described the bill as a “fiscal catastrophe,” and has said the measure would prove to be the largest expansion of government welfare in 35 years. According to Rector, the bill would increase long-term federal spending by at least $50 billion a year.The Senate bill does not reimburse state and local governments for health care and education costs related to the millions of undocumented immigrants. While the underlying bill creates a state impact assistance account for future temporary workers, it is an unfunded account.
8. Hurts Small Business
The Senate approved an amendment by Senator Obama extending Davis-Bacon “prevailing wage” provisions for guest workers, but not American citizens, in all occupations covered by Davis-Bacon (currently limited to federally paid work). Small businesses would be forced to pay inflated wages to guest workers above the pay American citizens receive for performing the same work.
9. Gives Some Immigrant Workers Greater Job Protection Than American Workers
As reported by Robert Novak of Chicago Sun Times on May 24, 2006: “The bill supposedly would protect American workers by ensuring that new immigrants would not take away jobs. However, the bill's definition of ‘United States worker’ includes temporary foreign guest workers, so the protection is meaningless… Foreign guest farm workers, admitted under the bill, cannot be ‘terminated from employment by any employer ... except for just cause.’ In contrast, American ag workers can be fired for any reason.”
10. Weak Assimilation/English Requirements
The Senate approved Senator Inhofe's amendment to make English the national language and require those seeking citizenship to demonstrate English proficiency and understanding of U.S. History. However, a far weaker amendment by Sen. Salazar gutted the Inhofe amendment, leaving it in doubt, and also giving immigrants the right to demand the federal government communicate with them in any language they choose.

Thanks Senator for standing true to your consituents!

Taking Back Memorial Day

Chris Michel on the commercialisation of a military holiday:

This morning I opened the paper and a series of circulars spilled onto my lap – bright, colored pages with bold fonts and frenetic language: “Now through Memorial Day only!” and “A Don’t Miss Memorial Day Sales Event!” As I took a deep breath and gathered up the pages that had spilled to the floor, at once it struck me: We owe more than commerce to those who sacrificed the balance of their lives for their country. It's time to take back Memorial Day.

Memorial Day is meant to be a solemn occasion, a uniquely military holiday—the only one that honors fallen soldiers. But since the first one on May 30, 1868, a little after the Civil War (then known as “Decoration Day”) when flowers were placed on the graves of soldiers from both the North and the South, Memorial Day’s quiet reverence has slowly been lost to the noise of commerce and the American pursuit of recreation. This didn’t happen overnight; it snuck up on us. And it’s not necessarily the fault of the American people who time and again have proved themselves patriots.

May I add to this, Columbus Day, Presidents Day, Christmas, Easter, ect.

Race Hypocrisy?

This is too much, from Opinion Journal:

The campus African-American, Hispanic, Asian, and Native American organization sent a letter to the administration asking that it "stop touting Secretary Rice's race and gender [sic] as justification for her invitation."

I'm so glad the campus African-American, Hispanic, Asian, and Native American organization is for a color blind society!

Murtha Owes Marines an Apology

W. Thomas Smith, Jr. calls on Congressman Jack Murtha to do the honorable thing:

Retired Marine Colonel and serving Congressman Jack Murtha (D-PA) has sold his soul: Not to the devil, but to his constituency. And as a former Marine, I urge him now to do the only honorable thing: relinquish his sword and his Eagle, Globe, and Anchor. At the very least, he should apologize to the Marine Corps and the American people for making an utterly outlandish statement in an attempt to keep the fire hot in the cut-and-run camp, of which he is a primary stoker.

And what others say:

A recent editorial in National Review Online pegged the Murtha condemnation accurately: “The military’s investigation of those claims isn’t finished yet, but Murtha apparently can’t wait for all the facts to emerge before damning the accused.” And an editorial in The Washington Times says the accusation is “not only irresponsible, but an egregious violation of ethical conduct by a sitting congressman.”

I just think he's nuts, gushing over all the attention he's getting from the anti-war media, and losing his sense of right and wrong, as well as any honor he possesses.

Until the Job is Done

We are in Iraq to win says the President:

Speaking after a summit with British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Bush reaffirmed his position that the 130,000 US troops in Iraq could start coming home once Iraqi forces can take charge of security duties.
Facing growing public concern over the duration of the Iraq war, the US leader said: "It's important for the American people to know that politics isn't going to make the decision as to the size of our force level."

And Blair said:

"I think it's possible for the Iraqi security forces to take control, progressively, in the country."
"But when the prime minister talked about an objective timetable, what he meant was a timetable governed by conditions on the ground,"

Theses guys are the West's last heroes.

Congress Above the law

David Limbaugh on Dennis Hastert's overreaction to the FBI seizing documents from Representative William Jefferson's office:

The Constitution establishes a government of laws, not men; and no men, including government officials, are above the law. While legislators are bellyaching about the excessive authority of the executive branch, they are, in essence, arguing for excessive authority and privilege for members of their branch. We have no kings. We have no royalty among legislators. If they are suspected of violating the law, the executive branch has an obligation to investigate and to employ its full powers in doing so -- including that of reasonable searches of their offices and seizures of their relevant effects...
To argue that individual congressmen are not subject to search and seizure by agencies of the executive branch because that would give the executive branch undue power is preposterous. Who else is supposed to conduct such searches?

Senate Rewards Lawbreakers

My friend John Burits sent me this Email concerning the Senate Amnesty Immigration Bill which passed yesterday:

The US Senate has ground the views of the founding fathers into the dustwith their vote on amnesty for millions of criminal aliens.They are ordering mammon to fatten the bellies of insatiate pestilentialmendicants.Woe betide our country while these vain venal hucksters sit in her countinghouse.These senators are mean crass destructive uncaring senseless men, who haveturned their backs on the people they represent.
John Burtis

"They define a republic to be a government of laws, and not of men."-- John Adams (Novanglus No. 7, 6 March 1775)Reference: Papers of John Adams, Taylor, ed., vol. 2 (314)

It does seem they were bending over backwards not to offend illegals while trying to "appear" to appease legal Americans. Also interesting is the Senators who voted against the Bill are up for reelection this year.

Here's Ollie North's view:

Regrettably, the bill passed by the Senate this week repeats many of the mistakes of the ‘80's -- even replicating some of the original language. The Heritage Foundation estimates that if the current Senate Bill became law, it would permit “103 million persons to legally immigrate to the U.S. over the next 20 years -- fully one-third of the current population of the United States .”
In the aftermath of the Senate vote, some members in both parties are now saying that there is scant hope for getting any real reform before the 2008 elections.

The Washington Times puts it bluntly Senate OKs citizenship for illegal aliens:

The Senate yesterday easily approved an immigration bill that allows 10 million illegal aliens to become citizens, doubles the flow of legal immigration each year and will cost U.S. taxpayers an estimated $54 billion over the next 10 years. The leaders of both parties hailed the 62-36 passage as a historic success. Majority Leader Bill Frist said the vote represented the "very best" of the Senate.

He's right, and their best ain't much!

Stop Iran Now

From the Toronto Star, a grave and urgent plea by the Israeli PM:

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told a special session of the U.S. Congress yesterday the Iranian nuclear threat jeopardizes world security and is becoming the defining issue of a generation.
"Our moment is now," he said. "History will judge our generation by the actions we take now, by our willingness to stand up for peace and security and freedom, and by our courage to do what is right.
"The international community will be measured not by its intentions but by its results."

It reminds me, almost 70 years ago, of Haile Selassie's plea to the now defunct League of Nations, after the failed to act when Italy invaded Ethiopia. The League's failure then should remind the West the folly of appeasing tyrants.

Murtha Attacks WW 2 Vets

I'm thinking Jack Murtha is about to go too far. From NewsMax:

Asked how the U.S. military could possibly be engaged in "purposely, indiscriminately killing innocent civilians," Murtha invoked U.S. air raids on Hitler's Germany and Tojo's Japan.
"In World War II we dropped bombs on all these different countries," he told Colmes. "We killed civilians. In wartime - this is wartime. You're not sitting in an office back here. This is wartime."

This guy is an idiot.

Meanwhile, Condoleezza Rice gives a more accurate and intelligent WW 2 analogy:

"You don't have to be much of a visionary to just look a few years further down the road and see that that kind of stable Iraq could make the Middle East as different as we left Europe after World War II," Dr. Rice told the Fox News Channel's "Hannity & Colmes."

What is Congress Hiding?+Breaking News

Methinks Dennis Hastert doth protest too much:

House Speaker Dennis Hastert accused the Justice Department Thursday of trying to intimidate him in retaliation for criticizing the FBI's weekend raid on a congressman's office, escalating a searing battle between the executive and legislative branches of government...

The Illinois Republican, in his interview with a Chicago radio station, was responding to an ABC News report that quoted an unnamed law enforcement source as saying that he was "in the mix" of the Justice Department's investigation into influence peddling by convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff.
Within minutes of that report late Wednesday, the department issued the first of two denials that it was investigating Hastert.

Congress' past is starting to nip at its heels. Absolute power corrupts absolutely.

Breaking News: CNN says President Bush orders all material seized by the FBI from a Louisiana congressman's Capitol Hill office sealed for 45 days.

Bill Bans Funeral Protestors

About time, these people are evil:

Demonstrators would be barred from disrupting military funerals at national cemeteries under legislation approved by Congress and sent to the White House Wednesday
The measure, passed by voice vote in the House hours after the Senate passed an amended version, specifically targets a Kansas church group that has staged protests at military funerals around the country, claiming that the deaths were a sign of God's anger at U.S. tolerance of homosexuals.

I'm no gay supporter, so why are these people attacking the military? They should be protesting in front of the DNC Headquarters.

MiLinks

Austin Bay's wants to form an Astonishing News Network (any takers).

QinetiQ's Plastic Tank. This might work if the price is right!

Pentagon: China military upgrades a potential threat to US.

U.S. Army weighs blimp fleet for Iraq.

EU Building a "Stealth Navy"?

USS Stark Attack Anniversary with photos.

The Demise of DDX.

Taiwan Considers Buying Mini-Subs.

Carrier Madness.

Alternatives to the Da Vinci Code.

Michelle Malkin Debunks A Fake Soldier's Tale.

Media Still Wrong on Katrina

Only they refuse to let go. Too bad for the country. This is by Jonah Goldberg:

As I've written before, virtually all of the gripping stories from Katrina were untrue. All of those stories about, in Paula Zahn's words, "bands of rapists, going block to block"? Not true. The tales of snipers firing on medevac helicopters? Bogus. The yarns, peddled on "Oprah" by New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin and the New Orleans police chief, that "little babies" were getting raped in the Superdome and that the bodies of the murdered were piling up? Completely false. The stories about poor blacks dying in comparatively huge numbers because American society "left them behind"? Nah-ah. While most outlets took Nagin's estimate of 10,000 dead at face value, Editor and Publisher - the watchdog of the media - ran the headline, "Mortuary Director Tells Local Paper 40,000 Could Be Lost in Hurricane."

It's all that "fake but accurate" news the Left adheres to nowadays.

Also, Lou Dolinar lists all of what went right during Katrina, especially by the US Coast Guard in Katrina: What the Media Missed.

And in case you missed the Popular Mechanics article from April on Katrina Myths, here it is.

A Banana Republic at Last

John Burtis' frustration with the Senate over immigration echoes my own:

With the granting of social security benefits for illegal aliens, while fully recognizing the past criminal activities committed by these scurrilous mendicants, by the United States Senate, America has become a banana republic at long last, completing an up and down 200 year spiral into oblivion with a sudden burst at the finish - a final immigration fahrtlich.

Our laws are for sale; they can be overlooked on vast scales for some sort of political expediency, and then finally erased in an instant for a huge criminal cross-section, while the legal citizens, the taxpayers, who must in the end pay for this dreadful damage, must still adhere to the very laws which have been ground into the dust for the sake of a 2,000 mile bitter border joke.

All our cries for immigration reform has fallen on deaf ears, as our government prepares to make it easier for illegals to thumb their noses at America's sovereignty.

Cut-n-Run Murtha Gets JFK Award

Of all the--- This is like Jane Fonda getting a pat on the back from Winston Churchill for her trip to North Vietnam:

On Monday, Murtha is to be awarded the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award in Boston for his bold pronouncement that U.S. troops should be pulled out of Iraq - a statement many say helped change the public debate over the war, because of Murtha's past as a Democratic hawk and retired Marines Reserves colonel who enjoyed easy access to presidents.

Only in France is surrender considered "bold".

Capturing an Al Qaeda Strategist

He was captured last October, but his theories of War on the West linger on. This is from the Washington Post:

[Mustafa Setmariam] Nasar's masterwork, a 1,600-page volume titled "The Call for a Global Islamic Resistance," has been circulating on Web sites for 18 months. The treatise, written under the pen name Abu Musab al-Suri, draws heavily on lessons from past conflicts.
Nasar, 47, outlines a strategy for a truly global conflict on as many fronts as possible and in the form of resistance by small cells or individuals, rather than traditional guerrilla warfare. To avoid penetration and defeat by security services, he says, organizational links should be kept to an absolute minimum.

"The enemy is strong and powerful, we are weak and poor, the war duration is going to be long and the best way to fight it is in a revolutionary jihad way for the sake of Allah," he said in one paper. "The preparations better be deliberate, comprehensive and properly planned, taking into account past experiences and lessons."

So while we try to grasp age old guerrilla warfare, our enemies move on to something better.

Grading Weapons in Iraq

Popular Mechanics grades the Top 10. Check out "slideshow on the left page".
Not surprisingly, Desert Storm era Apaches and Abrams tank get a C. The Predator UAV gets an A.

Duke Accuser Gave Conflicting Stories

This is from FoxNews:

The woman who has accused three members of the Duke University lacrosse team of raping her at an off-campus party told investigators several different stories about the night of the alleged incident, sources close to the defense team representing the players have told FOX News.

The differing accounts are included in the 1,300 pages of evidence delivered to defense lawyers last week by Durham District Attorney Mike Nifong, the sources said.

Seems as if the only thing these young men are guilty of is being white and rich.

Shoe on the Other Foot

This time, Congress learns how it feels to be investigated:

The FBI's weekend search of the House office of a Louisiana Democrat under investigation for bribery may have overstepped constitutional boundaries, House leaders said as the congressman under investigation pledged to stay in office...The search warrant was issued by a federal district judge, based on an affidavit from FBI investigators outlining some of the evidence that has accumulated in the case, including video tape of Rep. William Jefferson accepting $100,000 in $100 bills from an FBI informant, who agreed to have her conversations with the congressman taped.

Maybe it will distract them from constantly questioning the actions of our wartime president.

Senate Protects Illegal Employers

This is just wrong, from the Washington Times:

Buried in the more than 600 pages of legislation is a section titled "Employer Protections," which states: "Employers of aliens applying for adjustment of status under this section shall not be subject to civil and criminal tax liability relating directly to the employment of such alien." Supporters of the legislation insist that such provisions do not amount to "amnesty."

Yeah right! If you ask me, these businesses which hire illegals are more at fault than the people crossing over our porous borders.

Franks Defends Rumsfeld, Bush

Why would he do this, because he's a patriot!

Those who count the increasing number of American Soldiers killed in Iraq are missing the bigger picture, retired Gen. Tommy Franks.
"What we're talking about is neither 2,400, 24,000 or 240,000 lives," Franks said at the National Rifle Association's annual banquet. "Terrorism is a thing that threatens our way of life. It doesn't have anything to do with politics."
..."We haven't got any generals here. They're all in front of TV cameras complaining about Don Rumsfeld," Franks deadpanned. "Difference is, I know what I'm talking about."

He's right, of course. Its not about when will the troops come home, but when is their mission complete and 9/11 is revenged!

Scrapping the Industrial Age Military

This is my new article for Opinion Editorials:

The most obvious solution for our over-stretched military budget would be to increase spending. Only with a drastic boost of funds can America produce the appropriate number of fighters, tanks, and new warships, which the Pentagon says it needs to continue the Global War on Terror. Some say as much as $600 billion a year could be spent without an undue strain on the economy, though with extra funds needed to rebuild war-torn Iraq and billions required to restore the hurricane-damaged Gulf States, it is questionable where the money would come from.

Nagin Wins!

Very unexpectedly. From the Times-Picayune:

With all precincts reporting, Nagin had 52 percent of the vote, compared with Landrieu's 48 percent. It was the narrowest margin of victory for a sitting mayor in the city's modern history. The nearest parallel was the 1982 re-election of Dutch Morial, who won in a runoff that year with 53 percent of the vote.

First Hamas gets elected, and now this. New Orleans just can't get a brake.

Florida Guard Assists Afghan Children

This is from CentCom:

Two Afghan children are receiving lifesaving treatment in the United States, thanks in part to the efforts of members of the Florida Army National Guard serving in Afghanistan.

Earlier this year, medical personnel working with the 53rd Infantry Brigade near Kabul, Afghanistan, identified two local boys -- 2-year-old Azad Kofi and 8-year-old Tamin Sawari -- with congenital heart defects who desperately needed surgery. One soldier, Dr. (Col.) Ronald Renuart Sr., evaluated the children. Renuart was on the medical team assigned to the brigade functioning as lead for Combined Joint Task Force Phoenix IV, at Camp Phoenix.

Renuart, who as a civilian doctor practices osteopathic medicine in Jacksonville, Fla., said the children's outlook was grim if they did not receive proper treatment.

"Congenital heart defects are such that these children would not be expected to live past their teenage years," Renuart explained. "In the United States we can usually repair these heart conditions within the first few months of life. Over there, there's nobody that can do it."

Renuart contacted staff at the Wolfson Children's Hospital in Jacksonville to find help for the boys. After a few well-placed phone calls and e-mails, Azad and Tamin were on their way to the United States for treatment

A Confederacy of Dunces

John Burtis on immigration and the US Senate. Here's a sample:

What we have here has become a symbol for the right wing in American politics," blathered Mr. Durbin, using his well worn dunce cap as a megaphone, to all and sundry--one upping Mr. John Kerry, who must roll his beloved beret into a muffled speaking tube--and glossing over the rank lawlessness which grips about 2,000 miles of American soil, "our relationship with Mexico would come down to a barrier between two countries."
Amen, brother, a relationship as it should be until we can get this travesty of an open invasion under some sort of an ounce of minimal control. Of course Mr. Durbin and the rest of his Democratic pack of Hounds of the Baskervilles find that anyone who believes in enforcing a single valid American law for the protection of legal American citizens is a Kluxer at best and who knows what all at worst.

John is such a prolific writer, I have trouble keeping up with his humorous, yet truthful satire. well done!

Fly-By-Wire Harrier

With all the crashes this plane has endured, wonder why no one thought of this before?

Under the hood of the latest Harrier is a revolutionary new system called vectored-thrust aircraft advanced flight control (VAAC). Designed by QinetiQ's predecessor, DERA, with funding from the US-UK Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) Office, VAAC uses advanced "fly by wire" technology to turn over many of the Harrier's flight characteristics to computers. This makes the aircraft much simpler to fly and enables engineers to fine-tune it quickly for improved handling, based on pilot feedback between sorties. It also provides valuable data for use in flight simulators.

The Harrier, with its unique swing-nozzle engines, continues to be the leading "Short Take Off, Vertical Landing" (STOVL) aircraft, and remains essential to the US Marine Corps, Royal Navy and RAF. Its two-seater cockpit has been modified to accommodate VAAC, which enables the rear pilot to assume full control of the aircraft.

I would also suggest this as a JSF replacement, if the vertol version fails to pan out. Probably cheaper and in service sooner.

Death Rates in Iraq and Elsewhere

I don't do death counts, but this is an amazing story:

...the violent death rate in Iraq is 25.71 per 100,000. That may sound high, but not when you compare it to places like Colombia (61.7), South Africa (49.6), Jamaica (32.4), and Venezuela (31.6). How about the violent death rates in American cities? New Orleans before Hurricane Katrina was 53.1. FBI statistics for 2004-05 have Washington at 45.9, Baltimore at 37.7, and Atlanta at 34.9.

Lets all go to Iraq, where its safe!

Murtha Slanders Marines

I didn't think this guy could get any lower, a former Marine himself. Here's what he said:

Murtha, a vocal opponent of the war in Iraq, said at a news conference Wednesday that sources within the military have told him that an internal investigation will show that "there was no firefight, there was no IED (improvised explosive device) that killed these innocent people. Our troops overreacted because of the pressure on them, and they killed innocent civilians in cold blood."

And here's James Taranto of Opinion Journal's take:

What happened in Haditha we know not, but we can tell you that Murtha's description is false, for the simple reason that it is self-contradictory. If the Marines "overreacted," then the killings were not premeditated. They could not have killed both in the heat of the moment and in cold blood. Murtha therefore either is slandering the Marines by exaggerating their guilt or making excuses for horrific war crimes.

Like John Kerry during the election, it seems Murtha wants to revive memories of Vietnam for his own purposes, hang the truth and American morale!

Blogs for Bush says Murtha is a "traitor".

Oriskany Sinks!

Murdoc has some great pictures of the sinking of the aircraft carrier USS Oriskany.

Don't Lose You're Nerve!

Doug Wilson says the GOP needs a bold agenda on these issues:

-Iraq and Iran: Develop a comprehensive strategy that demonstrates both prudence and strength.
-Energy: Show us you really do want to break our addiction to oil and how you plan to do it.
-Immigration: Secure the borders, keep our economy growing, and provide a vehicle for citizenship.
-Spending: Stop passing so many earmarks and pick one major entitlement program you want to introduce for reform.

I agree with all of the above, before its too late.

Russia Worried Over Conventional ICBMs

I was afraid this might happen, from Spacewar:

Gen. Yury Baluyevsky, chief of the General Staff of Russia's Armed Forces, suggested the launch of the missiles carrying non-nuclear warheads could lead to members of the nuclear club launching a counterstrike.
"This [the use of non-nuclear ICBMs] may trigger an irreversible reaction in countries with nuclear arsenals because they will be unable to identify the type of warhead on a ballistic missile and its target," he said.

This is probably true. Still, its an intriguing idea, firing a conventional warhead against a terrorist or rogue state in a matter of minutes rather than hours or days.

Pilot Locked in F-22

This is embarrassing, from Military.com:

On April 10, at Langley Air Force Base, an F-22 pilot, Capt. Brad Spears, was locked inside the cockpit of his aircraft for five hours. No one in the U.S. Air Force or from Lockheed Martin could figure out how to open the aircraft's canopy. At about 1:15 pm, chainsaw-wielding firefighters from the 1st Fighter Wing finally extracted Spears after they cut through the F-22's three-quarter inch-thick polycarbonate canopy.
Total damage to the airplane, according to sources inside the Pentagon: $1.28 million. Not only did the firefighters ruin the canopy, which cost $286,000, they also scuffed the coating on the airplane's skin which will cost about $1 million to replace...

As if the latest canopy shenanigans weren't bad enough, on May 1, Defense News reported that there are serious structural problems with the F-22. Seems the titanium hull of the aircraft isn't meshing as well as it should. Naturally, taxpayers have to foot the bill for the mistake (improper heat-treating of the titanium) which is found on 90 aircraft. The cost of repairing those wrinkles? Another $1 billion or so.

America's Hi-tech military is cracking up. It was a flawed and unaffordable concept to begin with, now we can't seem to get away from it.

American's Support Security Over Freedoms

Just tell this to Democrats:

...opinion polls show more than half of the people believe that sacrificing some rights is a necessary price to pay for safety after the September 11 attacks.
"People look at it through the lens of 9/11 and understand that we haven't been attacked since then and that there are reasons for that other than just good luck," said Mac Thrower, editorial page editor at The Paducah Sun in Kentucky.
"I think for that reason there's pretty strong support for what the president is doing in that area, not a great deal of concern about a threat to civil liberties," he said.

And I love what Sen. Pat Roberts said: 'No Civil Liberties If You're Dead'.

President Supports Fence

Finally! From Breitbart:

President Bushtraveling to the Southwest to witness first-hand federal efforts to control immigration, was described Thursday as supportive of a 370-mile long fence to seal off areas of the U.S.- Mexico border that are popular crossing points...Bush had signaled opposition to such widespread fencing in the past, but his support for the plan approved Wednesday by the Senate showed how eager he is to win over Republican conservatives who want to take a tougher approach toward keeping illegal immigrants out.
"We don't think you fence off the entire border," Snow told reporters aboard Air Force One. But, he added, "there are places when fences are appropriate."

Mexicans, just try and TEAR DOWN THIS WALL!

I'm Scared!

The Washington Post is FOR Mike Hayden as new CIA Director: Including left-wing moonbat William M. Arkin, who once claimed that a new submarine on trials in South American waters was "spying" on land-locked countries. Here's what he said about Hayden:

He is an intelligence professional, a manager, an egghead and a general. Though he wears a uniform, suggesting subservience to Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, he is independent minded and has shown himself throughout his career to have great integrity.

Another Post journalist, Robert Gates calls the nomination An Intelligent CIA Pick :

I do not share the concern about a military officer serving from time to time as director of the CIA. One of the lessons from the Persian Gulf War was that CIA support for military operations needed significant improvement. As director of central intelligence, I worked with Colin Powell, then chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, to appoint a senior military officer as the third-ranking officer in the CIA's clandestine service, and my successors appointed military officers to even more-senior positions. Several members of the military served well as deputy directors of central intelligence.

Gates is no moonbat, but 2 Washington Post thumbs up in a row? Why am I thinking conspiracy theories here? I was all for Hayden, but now I'm not so sure.
On the bright side though, could even liberals be sick of all the leaks coming from our spy agencies?

"No Such Thing as Illegal Immigration"

According to the the UN. Go figure:

The United Nations doesn't recognize the concept of illegal immigration - and refuses to use that term when referring to foreigners who flout U.S. immigration laws by crossing the border without documentation.
So says Eric Shawn, whose new book "The U.N. Exposed," blows the lid off the corrpution, double-dealing and anti-U.S. resentment that permeates the world body.
"In U.N. world there's no such thing as an illegal alien or illegal immigrant," Shawn told Fox News Channel's Bill O'Reilly Wednesday night. "They call it an irregular migrant."

Sounds pretty PC to me.

Japan War Plans Leaked

Apparently America isn't the only one with this problem:

Eighty warships, 170 aircrafts, and 25,000 defense personnel took part in the 10-day MSDF combat exercise in November 2003.
Among the leaked documents, three detailed the operations, dividing them into an emergency surrounding the nation, mostly on the Korean peninsula, and defense conflicts, all of which were classified under the highest confidentiality.
One document detailed the operations that will be carried out by MSDFÂ’s Sasebo unit, which is in charge of the Kyushu region and Okinawa Prefecture with the U.S. Navy and the self defense warship...

The document was leaked on January 21 by a Sasebo unit member in the process of using Winny, a file-sharing program, with official documents stored in his PC from 2005.

Hopefully, Gen. Hayden can hault some of this treasonous activity, at least in the CIA.

Oriskany's Final Destination

From NavyNews:

Guided by a flotilla of tugboats and small craft, the former U.S. Navy aircraft carrier USS Oriskany (CVA 34) passes in front of Pensacola's historic Fort Pickens as the warship makes its way along the Intracoastal Waterway from its last port call at Naval Air Station Pensacola to its final destination in the Gulf of Mexico. It is planned that the ship will be scuttled 22 miles south of Pensacola in approximately 212 feet of water in the Gulf of Mexico, May 17, 2006, where it will become the largest ship ever intentionally sunk as an artificial reef. After the Oriskany reaches the bottom, ownership of the vessel will transfer from the Navy to the State of Florida. The public will be allowed to fish and dive on the ship two days later. Known as the "Big O," the 32,000-ton, 888-foot aircraft carrier was built at the New York Naval Shipyard and delivered to the Navy in 1950 where it later became a highly decorated veteran of the Korea and Vietnam conflicts.

MiLinks

Ollie North Discusses Spies.

9/11 Pentagon Crash Video.

Venezuelan F-16s to Iran?

Iraqi Army Gets Armored Humvees.

Missiles May Become Aerial Surveillance Alternative.

Russia Renews Cold War.

Wearable Sensors for Troops.

Raptor Heads North.

Israel Mulls Pilotless Mini-Submarine.

Coastal Warfare Squadron Demonstrates Capabilities .

USS Decatur Joins French Carrier.

'Da Vinci' Preview Panned in Cannes.

Bill Cosby's "Call Out".

The End of Hollywood?

One can only hope. This is from TCS Daily:

"I thought that Hollywood, in another era, would be, by virtue of the marketplace, trying to appease the masses. And in a post-9/11 world, there would have been countless movies that expressed the heroism that existed on that utterly important day". Instead, Hollywood spent the first three years after 9/11 in a period that James Lileks once dubbed, "The golden era of beating around the bush"...

Hollywood is only just now beginning to release films that actually focus directly on the War On Terror. And what does it do? In films such as Syriana, Jarhead, and others, Breitbart observes that Hollywood comes at its political statements "from the perspective that really, we're the ones who are to blame for the predicament that we find ourselves in".

Lets just tear the whole thing down and start over from scratch, somewhere in Middle America.

Quarantine Iran

Among other suggestions from Bret Stephens:

Iran is often said to have an oil weapon pointed at George Bush's head. Rob Andrews, a Democratic congressman from New Jersey, notes the reverse is closer to the truth: Because Iran lacks refining capacity, it must import 40% of its gasoline. Of that amount, fully 60% is handled by a single company, Rotterdam-based Vitol, which has strategic storage and blending facilities in the UAE. The regime also spends $3 billion a year to subsidize below-market gas prices.

With Illinois Republican Mark Kirk, Mr. Andrews has introduced legislation calling for the quarantine of gasoline imports should Iran continue to flout Security Council resolutions. "If gas prices were to soar in Iran," he says, "the regime would be destabilized, the possibility of internal change would increase and the regime would find a way to back away from the precipice."
One objection: A gas quarantine may require the naval blockade of Iranian ports, which is legally tantamount to an act of war. Not a problem, says Mr. Andrews: "I think the development of a nuclear weapon in violation of an international treaty is an act of war, too."

This was my idea too!

"We are not at war"

So declared a prominent Democrat on Meet the Press:

In response to a video clip of Sen. Jon Kyl, Arizona Republican, making the sensible point it is "nuts" in a time of war to disclose our intelligence sources and methods, former Carter National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski declared "We are not at war." While he acknowledged there are serious threats, he suggested talk of being at war was fearmongering, a practice used to justify otherwise insupportable infringements on the privacy and equanimity of Americans.

Now, tell me again why Democrats are not in power. Because Americans aren't idiots!!!

National Guarding the Border

This is a good start. Seems like Bush is listening once again to his base. From Military.com:

President Bush said Monday night he would order as many as 6,000 National Guard troops to secure the U.S. border with Mexico and urged Congress to give millions of illegal immigrants a chance at citizenship, as he tried to build support for a major overhaul of the nation's tattered immigration laws...

The Guard troops would mostly serve two-week stints before rotating out of the assignment, so keeping the force level at 6,000 over the course of a year could require up to 156,000 troops.

This is the way to go. Plug the dike and then we worry about bailing water.

Also, I reject those who say our Guard is already stretched thin with commitments in Iraq. It was there for hurricane Katrina and should easily accommodate 6000 on our porous borders.

Plus, the Washington Post has a positive take on the President's speech last night, which has me a little worried...

A Special Forces Roadmap

This is welcome news from the Pentagon and long overdue, I think:

Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England has approved a new blueprint for how U.S. military forces will expand their capacity and skills to conduct irregular warfare, fulfilling a central proposal of the Quadrennial Defense Review, according to defense officials.
The classified “Irregular Warfare Execution Roadmap” was signed by England on April 28. It is a collection of actions, tasks and new milestones -- focused largely on ground forces, Pentagon officials say -- that articulate how the Defense Department intends to improve U.S. forces' capability to conduct long-duration, unconventional operations...

To improve proficiency against terrorist networks in what it repeatedly termed “the long war,” the QDR calls for expanding the ranks of special operations forces by 15 percent and boosting the number of psychological operations and civil affairs units in the armed forces by one-third. A dedicated Air Force unmanned aerial vehicle squadron will also be established and assigned to U.S. Special Operations Command.

In wider terms, the QDR promises the Defense Department will rebalance general-purpose forces by shifting focus from conventional warfare to irregular warfare; boost the ranks of special operations forces; work with foreign governments to enhance the capacity of their military and security forces to deal with threats within their borders or in their regions; and forge closer cooperation with other parts of the federal government involved in the war on terrorism.

I believe our military is getting it right!

Democrat's Way of War

This is from Human Events Online:

No more tough investigations of terrorists. We will simply be satisfied with only that information the terrorists voluntarily offer. No more FBI working with the CIA or NSA, just as prior to 9/11. No more searches, as it is “profiling.” No prosecution of government workers revealing to the world our secrets—in fact, we will award them as “patriotic” whistleblowers as claimed by liberals.
No more standing up for our “cowboy” soldiers on the battlefield who are defending themselves against the terrorists—agreed, we are only as good as how well we treat the enemy.
No pre-emption. We will wait until millions of Americans have been incinerated by a smuggled- in nuclear bomb from Iran, and only after we’ve been attacked will we respond. Millions of us might be dead, but our no-preemption policy will show we were more “moral.” No more phone data bases or telephone numbers of those possibly contacting sleeper cell operatives waiting here for orders.

This might work-IN LA LA LAND!! Actually, many Democrat's seem to be "Republican lite" on the issue of terrorism. Tough, but just not too tough. Always leave room for negotiation, they say.

Corporate Pork-busting

Robert Novak takes on "corporate welfare" in the defense industry:

The Northrop Grumman earmark was inserted by the Senate Appropriations Committee chairman himself, Thad Cochran of Mississippi. That once would have guaranteed passage without public notice, even though the Defense Department and the Navy oppose the spending as wasteful.
But pork-busting freshman Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma now scrutinizes money bills, and he caught the Northrop Grumman earmark. The company, whose revenue last year totaled $40.7 billion, has received $500 million from its insurer and is in litigation seeking another $500 million. The Defense Contract Management Agency has declared "it would be inappropriate to allow Northrop Grumman to bill for costs potentially recoverable by insurance because payment by the government may otherwise relieve the carrier from their policy obligation." Factory Mutual Insurance Co., with 2004 revenue of $2.7 billion, then would be receiving indirect corporate welfare.

It's greedy companies like these that are hurting as much as helping America's security.

Taking Down Anti-American Americans

The Washington Times details the legacy of the great Jeane Kirkpatrick:

"When Marxist dictators shoot their way into power in Central America, the San Francisco Democrats don't blame the guerrillas and their Soviet allies," Mrs. Kirkpatrick said of her party, which had just had its national convention in San Francisco( in August 1984). "They blame United States policies of 100 years ago. But then they always blame America first." With those words, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations -- a long-time Democrat -- described the difference between President Reagan's determination to defeat communism and Democratic Party leaders' inclination to accommodate communism everywhere.

Oh, for more Democrats like this! I boot the Republicrats in a second.

Happy Mother's Day

To all you Mom's! The pic and story is from CentCom:

Olga finished school 70 years ago. After graduating, she became a teacher of Russian, German and finally mathematics for more than 30 years. She has so much to share about that time, but today, she has fewer and fewer people to hear her stories. Brothers and sisters, husbands and children have passed on or moved too far away to visit.

That’s why lunch with the American Airmen is such a treat, said Tech. Sgt. Victoria Querido.

Thursday, Sgt. Querido led her final trip of the rotation, with a dozen Airmen from the medical group and chaplain’s office here. The trip included a stop at the store, as always, where the Airmen pitched in to buy three large bags of groceries, and a stop at the offices of Babushka Adoption.

Press Inducing "Pollaganda"

That's propaganda to you and me. Article by Mark M Alexander:

What The Times and CBS, along with other MSM outlets, are really doing is polling on the media's effectiveness at indoctrinating readers and TV viewers with opinion-shaping propaganda -- or in The Patriot's parlance, "pollaganda."
Pollaganda is outcome-based opinion samples (polling instruments designed to generate a preferential outcome) based on prior-opinion indoctrination or cultivation by the media, the results of which are then used to manipulate public opinion further by advancing the perception that a particular opinion on an issue has majority support, and then presenting this "data" as if it were "news."

Surely, alot of Republican's and Bush's troubles are their own fault, but it does seem that the Old Media unfairly and giddily portrays as much bad news as possible in an attemp to further their own leftist political views.

Hillary's Data Warehouse

An earlier article from John Burtis discloses Hillary Clinton's interest in domestic spying:

So, now, we also learn that Hillary Clinton, who is so desperately troubled by her frenzied fears of a Congressionally induced police state, of which information management is seen to be an important cog, has joined forces with her old pals Harold Ickes and George Soros to inaugurate the largest private data mining project ever conceived in what they term the "Data Warehouse," in what is claimed to be an effort to keep the "voter rolls" up to date for the upcoming elections.

... we understand that this hard nosed liberal foe of America, the ruthless operator of Hillary's shadow counsel's office charged with quashing scandals, one of the founders of the Shadow Party, the co-inventor of the Democratic 527's designed to circumvent the limits on soft money donations, the operator of major strip mining efforts in the vast data fields, the manager of Hillary's private R&D corporation, Mr. Harold Ickes is setting up the largest "voter" data base in the country, the "Data Warehouse" with Mr. Soros, one of the world's richest men and a dedicated foe of democracy, capitalism and President Bush.

See USA Today. I can dig up and post old news too! Thanks John.

The Real Enemy

Arnold Kling offers a warning to Democrats:

In the 1950's, the Republican Right saw the investigations into "un-American activities" as a way to righteously smite down the Democratic Party. They wanted to expose their opponents' scandals and treason. Instead, they wound up exposing their own bad judgment, radicalism, and incivility. In the long run, the investigations damaged both parties. Certainly, the Republicans gained nothing. Apart from the war hero Eisenhower, their electoral fortunes sagged -- they lost control of Congress from 1958 until 1994. It seems rather odd that Democrats should want to try a similar strategy today.

And points them to America's real enemies, rather than Bush:


1. Many people have fled radical Muslim regimes to live in the U.S. Hardly anyone has fled the U.S. to live under radical Muslim regimes.
2. In the United States, women are allowed to choose whether or not to wear modest clothing. Radical Muslims deny them that right, as well as others.
3. Americans who abuse enemy prisoners cower in shame and are prosecuted. Radical Muslims celebrate war crimes, proudly display photos and videos of war crimes, and honor the criminals.
4. More Iraqis would like to see the terrorists give up tomorrow than see the Americans leave tomorrow. (If there is any doubt about that, we can put the issue up for a vote in Iraq.)
5. Americans see negotiations as a way to resolve differences. Radical Muslims see negotiations as a sign of weakness.

Recommend you read the whole thing.

MAD Mullahs

James Zumwalt ( son of the Vietnam era CNO) says we must stop the Iranian bid for nukes, before its too late:

During the Cold War, to deter nuclear conflict, the U.S. and the Soviet Union adopted the policy of Mutual Assured Destruction (MAD) -- the effectiveness of which turned on the logic that if each side possesses enough weapons to destroy the other following one side's first strike, neither will initiate such an exchange. It also recognized that while millions would be killed outright in a nuclear exchange, millions more would succumb later to radiation exposure.

This logic seems to be totally lost on the Iranian leadership. The Israelis already are developing a submarine fleet armed with nuclear missiles so any first strike by Iran against Israeli land targets will still leave Israel able to retaliate from the sea. Radiation generated in an Iranian first strike would be spread by prevailing westerly winds back across Middle East states with major Muslim/Arab populations -- including Iran.

What should we expect. If they will die by suicide bomb for their corrupt idealogy, what will they do when they have nukes? I shudder to think. We can't co-exist with or "contain" Radical Islam.

Canada Sees Red

A good idea from our friends up north:

My sister, who is deployed in Afghanistan, suggests something we can do for our troops: Red Fridays. Every Friday until the last soldier comes home from this mission, we ask that every Canadian wear something red.
It doesn't matter to me where anyone stands on this mission. What matters is that I have a sister over there who wants to know we support her and her comrades. They are not just "troops"; they are sons, daughters, mothers, fathers' friends - and we miss them.

National Guard to the Border?

Congress has approved it, now we just need someone with the will to carry it out:

On Capitol Hill on Thursday, the House voted 252-171 to allow Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld to assign military personnel under certain circumstances to help the Homeland Security Department perform border security. The House added the provision to a larger military measure.
Paul McHale, the assistant secretary of defense for homeland defense, asked officials this week to come up with options for the use of military resources and troops — particularly the National Guard — along the border with Mexico, according to defense officials familiar with the discussions. The officials, who requested anonymity because the matter has not been made public, said there are no details yet on a defense strategy.

This should have been done long ago, but momentum is building to seal our porous frontiers.

Data Mining Nothing New

Fox News says businesses do it all the time:

Social network analysis has gained prominence in business and intelligence circles under the belief that it can yield extraordinary insights, such as the fact that people in disparate organizations have common acquaintances. Companies can buy social networking software to help determine who has the best connections for a particular sales pitch.
So it did not surprise many security analysts to learn Thursday from USA Today that the NSA is applying the technology to billions of phone records.

C'mon. Do you really think the government has the time or personnel to listen while you talk to Aunt Mabel. C'mon!

Also: Read Ollie North's new column "Spies".

Plus: NewsMax says Dems want to end terrorist surveillance. Who side are they on? You know!

Public Accepts Surveillance

According to this ABC News poll:

Americans by nearly a 2-1 ratio call the surveillance of telephone records an acceptable way for the federal government to investigate possible terrorist threats, expressing broad unconcern even if their own calling patterns are scrutinized.
Lending support to the administration's defense of its anti-terrorism intelligence efforts, 63 percent in this ABC News/Washington Post poll say the secret program, disclosed Thursday by USA Today, is justified, while far fewer, 35 percent, call it unjustified.

The public seems to be more enlightened on our need to defeat terrorists, whatever the cost, in contrast to many of our leaders.

Clinton Originated "Domestic Wiretapping"

As reported by 60 Minutes way back in 2000. This is via NewsMax:

But as NewsMax noted in December - back when the New York Times tried to ballyhoo a similar story about the NSA's terrorist surveillance program - CBS's "60 Minutes" blew the lid off the agency's domestic wiretapping in Feb. 2000, when the Clinton administration was using it for all sorts of unauthorized purposes.
"60 Minutes" host Steve Kroft introduced the segment by saying:
"If you made a phone call today or sent an e-mail to a friend, there's a good chance what you said or wrote was captured and screened by the country's largest intelligence agency. The top-secret Global Surveillance Network is called Echelon, and it's run by the National Security Agency."

What short memories these liberal media types have!

Bush: Government is Within the Law

On the NSA terrorist surveillance program. This is from Fox News:

President Bush on Thursday denied that the U.S. government is operating outside the law in its intelligence gathering programs and he ignored charges in a newspaper report that the National Security Agency is tracking the calling patterns of millions of Americans.
"The privacy of ordinary Americans is fiercely protected in all our activities," Bush said from the Diplomatic Room of the White House. "We're not mining or trolling through the personal lives of millions of innocent Americans."
In Thursday editions, USA Today reported that telephone calling patterns of millions of Americans are being tracked by NSA, with the help of three of the nation's largest telephone companies.

The government sometimes has to take extreme measures to protect us from radicals, and I say, God-speed NSA!

Rumsfeld: Don't Draw Conclusions

On the delay of some troops from Germany to Iraq. Too late Rummy!

The decision to delay deployment of one Army brigade from Germany to Iraq does not mean officials have decided to draw down troops in Iraq, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said yesterday.
Concluding that putting an Army brigade's deployment to Iraq on hold makes a statement about Iraq's stability or a troop drawdown ahead is like "taking one tulip and deciding it's spring," the secretary said on a radio talk show.
It's premature to draw sweeping conclusions from the decision to keep the 2nd Brigade, 1st Infantry Division, in Schweinfurt, Germany, until further notice, Rumsfeld told Brian Kilmeade and Andrew Napolitano on Fox News Radio's "Brian and the Judge Show."

I suppose they could be sent in at any time if needed.

Recruiting Exceeds Goals

This is good news, at least for the active duty military:

During what has historically been a slow recruiting period, the active Army recruited almost 5,700 members, 105 percent of its goal, for April. The Air Force signed on almost 2,400 airmen, 101 percent of its goal, and the Navy and Marine Corps met 100 percent of their April goals, recruiting almost 2,600 and almost 1,500 members, respectively, Krenke reported.
Year-to-date recruiting numbers were equally impressive, she said. As of April, the Army had exceeded its goal by 4 percent, with more than 37,000 recruits. The Marine Corps and Air Force exceeded their goals by 1 percent, with almost 15,000 and almost 18,000 recruits, respectively. And the Navy met its goal, recruiting almost 18,000 sailors.

Who said this was an unpopular war? Only in the press and among Democrats, who know they are out of touch.

Plus: The White House Sets the record straight on the AP's Misleading Military Recruiting Article.

Wrong court, wrong sentence

I posted on the Moussaoui trial before, but I can't stress enough my aversion to terrorists in our liberal dominated civil judicial system. Dan Sernoffsky writes:

The Moussaoui trial was essentially a joke. Held in open court, Moussaoui was able to regularly spew his vitriol damning the United States. His lawyers were able to play to any number of emotional sympathies about the various indignites he suffered while growing up, uncaring and abusive parents, poverty, a whole litany of excuses. And, despite the sentence, Moussaoui was essentially right when he proclaimed that he had won. He successfully games the system and will continue to survive at the expense of the American taxpayers in his prison cell.

Why worry? He's got a life sentence, right?

In 2008, however, the United States will have a new president, perhaps a president like Jimmy Carter, who allowed Ahmadinejad and his cohorts to take hostage 52 Americans in 1979, and who tried to avoid taking responsibility for a botched rescue attempt that left eight members of the rescue force dead. Or perhaps a president like the first President Bush, who allowed world opinion to direct his decision to cease hostilities short of taking Baghdad and capturing Saddam Hussein, thereby leading to the death of countless numbers of Kurds and Iraqi dissidents. Or perhaps a president like Bill Clinton, who allowed a Somali warlord to embarass the United States in Africa, who did nothing when an American warship was attacked and 17 sailors killed

Civil control of the military, yes. Civil courts for terrorists, NO WAY!

Navy Comes to Afghan Boy's Rescue

This is from CentCom:

During a weekly mission with an ANA medical battalion,[Navy Lt. Cmdr. William Dave] Holder was asked by an Afghan doctor to assist with an Afghan boy named Abdul.

“(Abdul) had what appeared to be a piece of wood sticking out of his leg,” said Holder. He soon realized it was Abdul’s shinbone.

Abdul’s story began four months earlier when he first injured his leg. Two months later, he re-injured the leg, causing the shin bone to protrude out of the skin.

“He had a series of injuries to his leg and was hobbling around trying to bear the weight,” said Holder. “It was grossly infected -- bone and skin. I decided I would get him taken care of,” he added.

Special cases such as Abdul’s are normally referred to the provincial reconstruction team medical clinic, according to Holder. In many circumstances, patients are then referred to the Egyptian Field Hospital at Bagram.

Read all of this touching story.

Iraq School Makeover

From Army News:

Recent school renovations have Sadr City children learning in new environments.Among the schools getting makeovers was the Mustafa School, which serves 930 high school students in the morning and 430 elementary students in the afternoon. The $290,000 project included 300 new interior lights, 55 ceiling fans, 11 window air conditioners, 300 square meters of new concrete playground surface, remodeling of restrooms, roof repair, raising the perimeter security wall one meter, repairing all broken glass and installing a steel mesh to protect all exterior windows, painting all interior and exterior walls, and supplying a new 80kva generator.“It’s one of 13 public-school renovations in East Baghdad that we oversaw in the last year,” said Jeremy Way, project engineer with Gulf Region Central District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

MiLinks

Stryker ramps up to unveil Mobile Gun System.

Armoured suits are 'too goofy' say US troops.

Indian Navy Wants More Stealth Ships.

US Navy Ship Named for Famous Indian.

Star Wars Now. The latest advances in ballistic missile defense.

President's new and improved chopper is based on a European design.

Anchors aweigh! Fort Worth residents wants an LCS named after their city.

Man wants refund for fighter jet purchase.

Star Trek Blueprints online! I love this stuff.

Beam Me Up!

First the military builds a force field for its combat vehicles, and now a cloaking device?

The cloaking devices that are used to render spacecraft invisible in Star Trek might just work in reality, two mathematicians have claimed.
They have outlined their concept in a research paper published in one of the UK Royal Society's scientific journals.
Nicolae Nicorovici and Graeme Milton propose that placing certain objects close to a material called a superlens could make them appear to vanish.

OK, call me crazy, but I always thought that Sci-fi might offer the answers to the problem of shooting down ballistic missiles. With a missile you are almost asking for the impossible, basically a bullet trying to hit another bullet. How about force fields over cities and lasers to shoot them down (the latter of which may be closer than you think).

Ha Ha!

Iran Letter Criticizes Bush. And the press was all giddy about "opening new dialogue!

...it lambasted Bush for his handling of the Sept. 11 attacks, accused the media of spreading lies about the Iraq war and railed against the United States for its support of Israel. It questioned whether the world would be a different place if the money spent on Iraq had been spent to fight poverty.

Strangely sounds like something the Dems would say, or not so strange. (Plus, I agree with his view of the media, those his idea of what their lying about may be different than mine).

No More Troops for Iraq?

If the Pentagon's current plan is any indication:

Pentagon officials said Monday 3,500 fresh US troops will not deploy to Iraq as had been planned for early May, as commanders monitor security on the ground. "The Second Brigade, First Infantry Division, based in Schweinfurt, Germany, will not begin its deployment to Iraq in early May as scheduled," the Defense Department said in a statement.
The statement said the decision would "not affect the current number of US troops in Iraq, which is numbering approximately 133,000".
Commander of the coalition forces, General George Casey, recommended last year substantial troop reductions for 2006.

As the President often declares, as Iraq forces stand up, we will stand down. Not sure how Democrats will take this. Sometimes they want more troops, sometimes they want to withdraw.

Abandoning Iraq

In this wargame, students discovered the Impact Of A Quick Pullout From Iraq:

Since it is unimaginable that President George W. Bush would order the rapid withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq, the game began on January 20, 2009 with the inauguration of President Hillary Clinton, who announced that this pullout would take place by May 1, 2009...Most Iraqi and Muslim actors welcomed the announcement of the U.S. pullout. But contention among them quickly arose. There was squabbling not only between the Sunni and Shiite communities, but within each of them too. When the Kurds indicated that they might (but not necessarily would) seek independence, Turkey announced that it would invade northern Iraq to stop them. Further, with the Americans leaving Iraq, Iran no longer feared a U.S. invasion and so announced that it had acquired nuclear weapons.

Even when the Left considers leaving, things don't look hopeful.