Lovely

A student from Georgia Tech has been arrested on charges related to terrorism.

A 21-year-old Georgia Tech student taken into federal custody last month has been charged with giving "material support" to a terrorist organization, according to a federal indictment unsealed Thursday.

The student, Syed Haris Ahmed, a mechanical engineering major who had become increasingly religious in his Islamic faith, was arrested March 23 by the FBI.

Syed Ahmed, 21, was charged with helping a terrorist group. The FBI believes he attended a training camp in Pakistan last year, sources say. He was in religious school there, his family says. Terror: Second Georgia man arrested in possible link
 
"This is the first international terrorism charge ever filed in Georgia," said U.S. Attorney David Nahmias shortly after unsealing the indictment "The charge against Mr. Ahmed is serious and involves national security and will be prosecuted with that in mind."

Authorities declined to provide details about the charges but said they had investigated Ahmed for about a year.

Crisis? What Crisis?

Greg Mitchell, the editor of Editor and Publisher, says the US is in "a crisis almost without equal". He argues that everyone seems to be in despair because Bush has another 33 months in office. His argument that , "Facing a similar problem, voters had a chance to quickly toss Jimmy Carter out of office," is - quite frankly - bogus. Which I am quite sure he knew when he wrote it since Carter did not get a second term. He cites Nixon, who quit rather than face the dishonor of an impeachment. Yes, Nixon, for all his flaws, still did the right thing.

But elections are not held retroactively. Nor should they be. Mr. Mitchell seems to think all this is new. All this angst and uproar is almost unprecedented.

Bull.

This has been going on for a very long time, and if Mr. Mitchell was honest, he'd admit it. I distinctly remember the night I stopped watching CBS news. Dan "Fake, but I'll get away with it" Rather, solemnly and sonorously pronounced, "Tonight, President Reagan's ship of state appears to be sinking." As has always been the case, Danny boy was wrong. (I never watched CBS News again after that night.)

So is Mitchell. The press didn't much care for Harry Truman and announce his defeat, famously - and totally incorrectly. The press didn't much like Eisenhower, especially in his second term. The press didn't bother to report Kennedy's indiscretions even though they pretty well knew about them, by all reports. The press gave Johnson a pass in his first term and turned against him in his second (while it was his first elected administration, it was still his second in reality). The press villified Nixon during his second term and actually brought him down. The press destroyed Ford when he tried to get elected. The people figured out that Carter was a absolutely horrible president almost as soon as he was elected. The press did it's damnedest to take Reagan down in his second term. The press did take George H. W. Bush out after only one term, even though he had won a war. The press gave Clinton a pass, even though he committed arguably worse offenses than Nixon.

And we reach here and now. The press hated that Bush won Florida, especially after they called the election early. Then 9/11 gave Bush some breathing room and he did pretty well, considering. The press really hated that he won a second term. So they have been hounding after him.

This is different than any of the past presidencies how?

Throwing the flag on this one, Mr. Mitchell. You know why. This is exactly media business as usual, no crisis.

HOLY SMOKE

Michael Hiltzik's blog has been suspended. The following appears on his blog:

The Times has suspended Michael Hiltzik’s Golden State blog on latimes.com. Hiltzik admitted Thursday that he posted items on the paper’s website, and on other websites, under names other than his own. That is a violation of The Times ethics policy, which requires editors and reporters to identify themselves when dealing with the public. The policy applies to both the print and online editions of the newspaper. The Times is investigating the postings.

Big Maddy

Madeline Albright, in an interview to be published on Sunday boasts that she can "leg press up to 400 pounds. We here at Blue Crab Boulevard can well believe it - we even have photographic evidence! 

Proud Patterico Commenter

EXCLUSIVE! Magic 8-Ball Photography and Office Cleaning, Inc. has obtained an exclusive picture of a typical commenter on Patterico's Pontifications. (For those who don't know, Patterico is a slightly more well-known blog than a certain azure crustacean…….)

UPDATE: Whoops, forgot to link back here. We're all mad as hatters here, you know.

UPDATE: For the sarcasm impaired, this is not a slam on Patterico, it is a slam on Hiltzik who called Patterico's commenters "quacking lunatics." It's the same thing Captain Ed is doing with his "101st Fighting Keyboardists" campaign. Please note I have it up on my sidebar and have, proudly, commented on Patterico's site for a long time.

Fox News Poll

The latest Fox News poll shows Bush at the lowest approval rating ever at 33%. Once again, we repeat the same advice.

Build the fence. Don't bother with meaningless big illegal immigration raids. Close the border first.

Free Speech Yet Again

Baylor University have sent a letter to female students threatening disciplinary action against any Baylor woman who poses for Playboy. Baylor, located in Waco, Texas, calls itself the largest Baptist college.

Playboy photographers came to Baylor's hometown seeking models for a photo spread on women of the Big 12 college athletic conference, of which the college is a member.

Baylor Vice President for Student Life Samuel W. Oliver sent an e-mail to women students this week warning that any who "associate" with Playboy would be subject to the university's disciplinary processes.

"Playboy is clearly antithetical to Baylor's mission and associating with the magazine would be a violation of the code of conduct," Oliver wrote in the e-mail. University officials said punishment could include suspension.

We here at Blue Crab Boulevard take a dim view of suppression of free speech. We also heartily endorse the right to bare arms. And other things.

FLASH - Hiltzik Responds To His Critics

Blue Crab Boulevard has an exclusive, Magic 8-Ball photo of LA Times columnist Michael Hiltzik responding to his critics! You saw it here first!

Link to Patterico

UPDATE: This post was submitted by the quacking lunatics here at Blue Crab Boulevard. Every one of us stark, raving mad!

Money Laundering Service Needed

No, not for us here at Blue Crab Boulevard. We haven't any to launder. An elderly German man, however, really needs the service. And we're not talking about anything illegal - we mean a real laundry with soap and everything.

It seems the retired gentleman had stacks of old German currency laying about his apartment. The deutschemark was replaced by the Euro in 1992, so the man figured the cash was worthless and flushed it down the toilet. Since currency doesn't dissolve like toilet paper, the inevitable happened and the sewer line plugged. Which is actually good for the man, since workers were able to recover some 60,000 deutschemarks. They can be exchanged for around 30,000 Euros.

The man apparently dried the notes and took them to a bank. Nobody is sure if he laundered them first.

On second thought, don't wash it. Burn it……

What The National Media Won’t Tell You

Funny how you never see stories like this in the national media, isn't it?

War widow in town to counter protesters

Friday, April 14, 2006

By Dan Genz

Tribune-Herald staff writer

In his final letter home before he died July 21 in a Baghdad hospital of wounds from an improvised explosive device, Navy corpsman Travis Youngblood asked his pregnant wife, Laura, to take care of his fellow soldiers in Iraq.

The 27-year-old widow and mother of two young children from South Hempstead, N.Y., flew to Waco on Wednesday to continue fulfilling what she sees as his last request to defend American soldiers against vocal critics of the Iraq war, including Cindy Sheehan, who launched her third peace protest in McLennan County this week.

“I heard that Cindy was coming down again to protest, and I had enough,” Youngblood said.

Youngblood was seven months pregnant with the couple's daughter when Travis was killed in fighting near Fallujah. Youngblood and Sheehan went face-to-face in on a program on MSNBC in September. Sheehan told Youngblood that her baby would be “fatherless for a lie” during the broadcast. Youngblood , clutching a picture of Travis says that her children will never be fatherless.

According to Youngblood, her husband believed the Iraq war was inevitable because the 1991 Desert Storm invasion left Saddam Hussein in power. He couldn't stomach the idea of the war being abandoned and his son having to fight it again 15 years later, she said.

Hunter, 5, said his father “died for America.”

The widow’s message is a welcome one for Bill Mahon, the McLennan County Veterans Association president, even though he opposes the war. He’s hosting the Youngbloods at his Waco home until they return to New York on Tuesday.

He compares Sheehan’s protests to “a cancer” that is dividing the country.

My son told me last night that, "We have to finish this job or we'll be back here again in a few years".

Thank You Dan Genz for writing about this.

H/T Blue Star Chronicles.

A Long Chat

I got a long call from my son in Iraq last night. We talked about a lot of things and had a really good visit. I always feel better after we've been able to talk. He's (rightfully) spending more effort talking to his fiancé' right now, so I get fewer calls than on his last tour.

One thing that came up in conversation was maintenance of vehicles. He said it is becoming a real problem keeping things running. Quite simply, things are wearing out because of the extremely heavy usage they get. When his unit relieved the previous force, a lot of the equipment turned over to them was in rough shape. He said they were gaining on the problem, but it is a real issue.

Today, in the Washington Post there's an article about this very subject. It seems the military is reporting that maintenance is costing much more than was predicted.

Defense officials and budget analysts point to a simple, unavoidable driver of the escalating costs. The cost of repairing and replacing equipment and developing new war-fighting material has exploded. In the first year of the invasion, such costs totaled $2.4 billion, then rose to $5.2 billion in 2004. This year, they will hit $26 billion, and could go as high as $30 billion, Kosiak said. On the other hand, at about $15 billion, personnel costs will drop 14 percent this year.

Get that? Personnel costs are dropping, maintenance costs are skyrocketing. Conditions over there are very harsh on vehicles and equipment. Heavy usage is another factor. American war-waging practice differs from a lot of other countries. We would rather sacrifice material and equipment than lives.

Congress must not play politics with spending bills. Regardless of where you stand on the war issue, refusing or delaying funding will lead to maintenance breakdown. That will in turn lead to loss of lives. That would be abandoning fellow citizens in a time of war.

I swear, I will actively campaign against any member of congress who balks at supporting the troops. I'll cheerfully raise money for anyone who opposes them in the elections.

Illegal Immigration

We've been pretty clear on our stance all along on the illegal immigration issue. We've also said, from the very first time we heard about the illegal immigration marches and rallies that those kind of actions were not at all a good idea. We predicted a backlash, which has been happening lately. One or two illegals in the news are sympathetic. Half a million marching are a reminder how big this problem is.

It seems at least some activists are finally understanding that. They are not supporting the planned work stoppage/protest marches on May 1st.

WASHINGTON - A nationwide boycott and general strike planned for May 1 to push for immigrant rights is falling out of favor with many advocacy groups because they fear a public opinion backlash.

"We would be throwing the atomic bomb … the last weapon in our arsenal," Jaime Contreras, chairman of the National Capital Immigration Coalition, said Thursday at a briefing for the news media.

Others will go ahead and do it anyway. Especially the ANSWER people.

Time to build the fence. Then we can try sorting out the rest of the issues. Get control of the border right away.

More Attempted Suppression Of Free Speech

Well, I sincerely hope the folks in charge at Nova Southeastern University continue to stand firm. It seems that author Salman Rushdie will speak at the school's graduation ceremonies despite an attempt to stop him. One of the leaders of the protest is Farheen Parvez, a student leader and officer in the International Muslim Association at Nova.

"I was looking forward to my graduation, of course," said Parvez, a student leader and officer in the International Muslim Association at Nova. "Then when I found out that Salman Rushdie would be the speaker, I was appalled."

We here at Blue Crab Boulevard are appalled, too. We're appalled at yet another attempt to stifle free speech and are very happy that the Nova administration is standing up against the folks who are trying to do it.

Patterico Vs. Hiltzik - Blood Match

Patterico has put together a damning case. It appears that Hiltzik is doing about the lamest thing I have heard of in the blogosphere yet. The evidence shows that Hiltzik is using (as Patterico puts it) "sock Puppet" identities to post at various websites. He'll praise himself and slam enemies, then come on as Hiltzik and praise the sock puppet.

Oh. My. God.

This is beyond lame. One other thing, should you ever be in court facing Patterico as the prosecutor, cop a plea. He's devastating at building a case.

About Time

This is quite interesting. Immigration officials made a series of arrests yesterday nabbing hundreds of illegal immigrants and seven executives of the pallet manufacturing company they were working at.

Authorities raided offices and plants of IFCO Systems in at least eight states, the culmination of a yearlong criminal investigation, law enforcement officials said.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested seven current and former IFCO Systems managers on charges they conspired to transport, harbor and encourage illegal workers to reside in the United States for commercial advantage and private financial gain, said Glenn T. Suddaby, the chief federal prosecutor in Albany, N.Y., where some arrests were made.

The investigation has been going on for more than a year, according to the report. Okay.

UPDATE: Michelle Malkin has the numbers. It makes the Bush enforcement effort look like what it is - a show.