Today my ongoing project to visit one member of the fighting 101st each day led me over to bRight And Early. Jim Lynch has a project of his own running there - a blogiversary database to keep track of who is celebrating an anniversary in the blogosphere. (And no, I haven't added Blue Crab Boulevard to the database yet, but will when I get a moment).
101st Blog of the Day | Gaius Sunday, 4 June , 2006 | 
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Hat Tip to Jay Tea at Wizbang for reminding me of this. 62 yeaqrs ago today, the battle of Midway was fought. For the brave men of VT-8 from the USS Hornet who went in to the attack with no fighter support whatsoever. (I have not found a list of the men from VT-6 who also went in. And did not come back).
VT-8
Thank you.
UPDATE: Donald Sensing.
UPDATE: A reminder of another anniversary. Only 17 years ago.
Personal Thoughts, War | Gaius | Comments Off
Just a tiny - teeny - amount of outrage over this? Just to kind of keep it in perspective and all.
SULAIMANIYAH, Iraq - Gunmen killed 21 people — many of them high school students — after dragging them off buses northeast of Baghdad, officials said. Four Sunni Arabs were spared and the dead were all Shiites or Kurds.
Serwan Shokir, the mayor Qara Tappah, said the shooting occurred in the early morning after three mini buses left his town headed for Baqouba — located 35 miles northeast of Baghdad. One person was wounded.
He said the gunmen dragged 26 people from the buses, separated four Sunni Arabs from the group, and shot the rest.
Shokir said 12 of the dead were high school student and of those killed, 19 were Shiite Turkomen and two were Kurds. The students were headed to another town to take exams.
Just asking, that's all.
Left Wing, War | Gaius | Comments (1)
You know, I've been steadfast on pointing out that the world has got to wake up and start presenting a unified face if we want any chance - any chance at all - of heading off a war with Iran.
I also realize that my little voice will not influence the world.
Go read Captain Ed. He has a larger voice, maybe you will listen to him.
UPDATE: The Real Ugly American.
Blogosphere, Iran | Gaius | Comments Off
Harsh and damning words from Mark Steyn. They are the last three words from a column published in the Chicago Sun-Times.
And they are spot on.
Here are a couple of observations from two parents of American heroes fallen in Iraq. The first is from Cindy Sheehan, the mother of Army Spec. Casey Sheehan, a brave man who enlisted in 2000, re-upped for a second tour and died in 2005 after volunteering for a rescue mission in Sadr City:
"We've been talking about Martin Luther King Jr. this night. My son was killed the same day he was killed, on April 4. I don't believe in any coincidences. Casey was born on John F. Kennedy's birthday. He was born on the day, and died on the day, of two people who were assassinated by the war machine in my country."
The second observation is from Martin Terrazas, the father of Marine Lance Cpl. Miguel Terrazas of El Paso, who was killed by a roadside bomb at a town called Haditha:
"I don't even listen to the news."
The New York Times' Maureen Dowd, the Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist of the most important newspaper in America (well, OK, the most self-important newspaper in America), has written that "the moral authority of parents who bury children killed in Iraq is absolute." She wrote this in a column about Sheehan. She doesn't seem to have found the time to write any columns about any other parents of fallen soldiers and their absolute moral authority. Elizabeth Edwards, the wife of "moderate" "mainstream" Democratic Party vice presidential nominee John Edwards, sent out a letter headlined: "Support Cindy Sheehan's Right To Be Heard." Mrs. Sheehan doesn't have much difficulty being heard. The remarks above were made a week ago at a meeting in Melbourne. That's to say, dozens of organizations pay to fly her around the United States and Canada and over to Britain and Europe and all the way to Australia to ensure her "right to be heard," now and forever. She is the subject of a forthcoming movie, in which she will be played by Susan Sarandon.
But I would hazard that Martin Terrazas is far more typical of the families of American forces in Iraq: A man who can't bear to pick up an American newspaper, or listen to a radio news bulletin, or watch a political talk show, because every square peg of an event is being hammered into the round hole of the same narrative, the only narrative our culture knows: This is Vietnam, it's a quagmire, we can't win, and the longer we delay losing and scuttling and getting the hell outta there, the more wicked things we will do. And, lookie here, whaddaya know, here comes the Sunni version of the My Lai massacre.
A rather too large portion of our nation appears to be unwilling or unable to let Vietnam go. Every war must be that conflict, over and over and over. It must be a quagmire. It must be sen as a debacle. It must have something to besmirch it, no matter how good the intentions.
And America must lose.
For three years, coalition forces in Iraq behaved so well that a salivating Vietnam culture had to make do with the thinnest of pickings: one depraved jailhouse, a prisoner on a dog leash with a pair of Victoria's Secret panties on his head and an unusually positioned banana. "Just look at the way U.S. army reservist Lynndie England holds the leash of the naked, bearded Iraqi," wrote Robert Fisk, the dean of the global media's Middle Eastern correspondents. "No sadistic movie could outdo the damage of this image. In September 2001, the planes smashed into the buildings; today, Lynndie smashes to pieces our entire morality with just one tug on the leash."
Down, boy.
But now at last the media have their story. They're off the leash. And, if the worst rumors are true, those 10 Marines will come to symbolize the 99.99 percent of their comrades who every day do great things for the Iraqi and Afghan people. In 2004, in the wake of Abu Ghraib, I wrote that "there is something not just ridiculous but unbecoming about a hyperpower 300 million strong whose elites — from the deranged former vice president down — want the outcome of a war, and the fate of a nation, to hinge on one freaky jailhouse; elites who are willing to pay any price, bear any burden, as long as it's pain-free, squeaky-clean and over in a week. The sheer silliness dishonors the memory of all those we're supposed to be remembering this Memorial Day."
And there it is, the fundamental unseriousness of the opposition to this - or any - war. If the troops on the ground are put into additional danger by the media hyperventilations, no matter. America must lose. It must be shown to be morally inferior. No matter that the so-called insurgents murder thousands and saw their heads off, duly recording that for posting on the internet. We all know who's really evil here, right?
But there is more pain and more truth about America in those seven words of Martin Terrazas. A superpower that wallows in paranoia and glorifies self-loathing cannot endure and doesn't deserve to.
That is a damning statement, indeed.
UPDATE: Those wishing to claim that international law and international institutions are the way to go may also want to look at this article. Though I rather doubt it will penetrate since it doesn't support the "America is Always Wrong" mindset. (H/T Instapundit for the link._
Sometimes the incredible contortions that multi-culturalist apologists will get themselves into are highly amusing. In the quite senseless pursuit of never offending anyone (unless they are white and Christian) they will excuse almost anything. In an effort to appear "fair" they will refuse to call something what it, quite obviously, is.
And so, the apologists are already telling us that the suspects arrested in Canada are from a "broad spectrum" of society.
You know, that broad spectrum that all - every single one - happen to be Muslim.
Which would be the common denominator. Everything else is meaningless distinction with no difference.
Captain Ed says it rather well:
The only broad strata at work is the network of multicultural apologists that will attempt to make themselves feel good by ignoring the obvious connection between these suspects, the one that even a child could detect from the list of suspects and their involvement in Islamist websites. That broad strata will go to their deaths rather than admit that radical Islam comprises a threat against Western civilization. Unfortunately, they will take the rest of us with them.
Multi-cultural apologists are not demonstrating their fairness and tolerance. They are demonstrating their suicidal impulses.
UPDATE: Absolutely out of the park opinion by Rosie DiManno in the Toronto Star. Outstanding work.
Details of the arrest of the Canadian Jihadis are beginning to come out. It seems the police were involved in the sale of the ammonium nitrate fertilizer to the group. Which means that at least they were fully aware of when the group was coming close to carrying out plans.
The delivery of three tonnes of ammonium nitrate to a group suspected of plotting terrorist attacks in southern Ontario was part of an undercover police sting operation, the Toronto Star has learned.
The RCMP said yesterday that after investigating the alleged homegrown terrorist cell for months, they had to move quickly Friday night to arrest 12 men and five youths before the group could launch a bomb attack on Canadian soil.
Sources say investigators who had learned of the group's alleged plan to build a bomb were controlling the sale and transport of the massive amount of fertilizer, a key component in creating explosives. Once the deal was done, the RCMP-led anti-terrorism task force moved in for the arrests.
At a news conference yesterday morning, the RCMP displayed a sample of ammonium nitrate and a crude cell phone detonator they say was seized in the massive police sweep when the 17 were taken into custody. However, they made no mention of the police force's involvement in the sale.
"It was their intent to use it for a terrorist attack," said RCMP assistant commissioner Mike McDonell. "If I can put this in context for you, the 1995 bombing of the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City that killed 168 people was completed with only one tonne of ammonium nitrate."
Ammonium nitrate is a popular fertilizer, but when mixed with fuel oil it can create a powerful explosive.
There are the requisite protestations from relatives that the men are innocent, of course. One does wonder what in the world someone needs three tons of ammonium nitrate fertilizer for unless you're a farmer, of course.
War, World news | Gaius | Comments Off
Al Gore says he's all but ruled out a run for the Democratic nomination in 2008.
"I haven't made a Sherman statement, but that's not an effort to hold the door open. It's more the internal shifting of gears," said Gore, referring to Civil War-era general William Tecumseh Sherman. "I can't imagine any circumstances in which I would become a candidate again. I've found other ways to serve. I'm enjoying them."
Gore referred to Sherman's famous words upon retiring from the Army in 1884, which put to rest talk of a presidential run: "If nominated I will not run; if elected I will not serve."
Gore, in an interview broadcast Sunday on ABC's "This Week," stopped short of issuing such an equivocal statement. But he said his time is best spent educating people on heat-trapping gases raising the Earth's surface temperature. He's promoting "An Inconvenient Truth," a film that chronicles his intricate slide shows on global warming.
Sen. Joseph Biden (news, bio, voting record), D-Del., who is planning a run in 2008, said Gore would be a strong candidate if he decided to enter the race.
"He would be viable, and he would be welcome," Biden said on "Meet the Press" on NBC. "It would add to the debate in this party to have him."
Darn it. What am I going to do with all these penguin pictures? It just isn't fair, I tell you.
Read this sentence from an AP article:
A cow being delivered to a Japanese slaughterhouse tried to bolt to freedom Sunday, leading nearly two dozen police on a 3.7-mile car chase through town and sending one man to the hospital unconscious.
Now, I don't know about you, but that sentence immediately brings to mind a mental picture of a slightly deranged looking bull behind the wheel of a car. Which is actually a pretty funny picture, when you think about it. Sadly, the rest of the story just doesn't live up to that sentence. The cops were the ones in cars, darn it.
But it would have been funnier if the story had featured a Dodge Neon.
Humor, World news | Gaius | Comments Off
You might just want to drop by Hell for their 666 party. The Incorporated hamlet of Hell, Michigan 60 miles or so West of Detroit, that is.
HELL, Mich. - They're planning a hot time in Hell on Tuesday. The day bears the date of 6-6-06, or abbreviated as 666 — a number that carries hellish significance. And there's not a snowball's chance in Hell that the day will go unnoticed in the unincorporated hamlet 60 miles west of Detroit.
Nobody is more fired up than John Colone, the town's self-styled mayor and owner of a souvenir shop.
"I've got `666' T-shirts and mugs. I'm only ordering 666 (of the items) so once they're gone, that's it," said Colone, also known as Odum Plenty. "Everyone who comes will get a letter of authenticity saying you've celebrated June 6, 2006, in Hell."
Most of Colone's wares will sell for $6.66, including deeds to one square inch of Hell.
Live entertainment and a costume contest are planned. The Gates of Hell should be installed at a children's play area in time for the festivities.
"They're 8 feet tall and 5 foot wide and each gate looks like flames, and when they're closed, it's a devil's head," Colone told The Detroit News for a Saturday story.
Mike "Smitty" Hickey, owner of the Dam Site Inn, wasn't sure what kind of clientele would show up Tuesday.
"We're all about having fun here. I don't think we're going to get the cult crowd, the devil worshippers or anything like that," said Hickey, whose bar's signature concoction is the Bloody Devil, a variant of the Bloody Mary.
P.T. Barnum would be so proud. Talk about self promotion!
And does a damned fine job, I might add. If you'd like to see a line by line deconstruction of a slanted (even more slanted than usual if that's possible) editorial, this is a masterpiece.
Blogosphere, Media, War | Gaius | Comments Off
I read an opinion piece this morning in the Washington Post that really got me thinking about a few things. The longish piece details the travails of a 42-year old woman in trying to obtain a "Plan B" emergency contraceptive. I was struck by the tone all the way through that simply, completely and utterly refused to take any responsibility for her own actions. It is literally a string of excuses and casting of blame upon others. And, of course, it's all about her.
Like I said, I was going to post, but Villainous Company already did a thorough fisking, so why try to tamper with perfection?
UPDATE: And a world-class smackdown from Jane Galt.
UPDATE: And Rick Moran at Right Wing Nuthouse.
UPDATE: You know, I'm really glad I didn't write a lot about this one. So many have said much more, with more authority. Like all of the above. And Like Darleen.
The British authorities are now starting to downplay the possibility that a "chemical suicide vest" is being searched for. They are now reporting it is likely to be a cannister of some sort.
Terrorists were planning a chemical attack in London similar to the outrage on the Tokyo underground, according to police and the security services.
MI5 operatives suspect that al-Qa'eda sympathisers intended to produce a nerve agent - probably sarin - and release it in a confined space, such as a tube carriage, to maximise the number of casualties.
….
Security sources suspect that a new atrocity was planned on or close to the anniversary of the July 7 attacks on London, when four terrorists killed themselves and 52 others, and injured more than 700 people. This would have provided a rallying call to al-Qa'eda sympathisers to carry on their "jihad" - or holy war - against the West.
Officers were last night continuing to question two men after a raid on a house in Forest Gate, east London. The men arrested are brothers: Mohammed Abul Kahar, 23, and Abul Koyair, 20. Both deny any offences.
The elder brother was shot in the shoulder during a police raid at 4am on Friday. He was later arrested under the Terrorism Act after being treated for the gunshot wound in the Royal London Hospital, where he is still recovering.
Senior police sources said they were searching for an "improvised device rather than a sophisticated weapon" capable of releasing chemicals. The Sunday Telegraph has learnt that intelligence obtained by MI5 suggested that terrorists were trying to acquire material via the internet which could be used to develop a nerve gas capable of killing and injuring thousands of people.
I'm not sure how to read this at this point.
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Barry Chiswick is the is head of the economics department at the University of Illinois at Chicago. In the New York Times op-ed section he makes the case for what would happen if the flood of illegal immigrants were to stop.
IT is often said that the American economy needs low-skilled foreign workers to do the jobs that American workers will not do. These foreign workers might be new immigrants, illegal aliens or, in the current debate, temporary or guest workers. But if low-skilled foreign workers were not here, would lettuce not be picked, groceries not bagged, hotel sheets not changed, and lawns not mowed? Would restaurants use disposable plates and utensils?
On the face of it, this assertion seems implausible. Immigrants and low-skilled foreign workers in general are highly concentrated in a few states. The "big six" are California, Florida, Illinois, New Jersey, New York and Texas. Even within those states, immigrants and low-skilled foreign workers are concentrated in a few metropolitan areas — while there are many in New York City and Chicago, relatively few are in upstate New York or downstate Illinois.
Yet even in areas with few immigrants, grass is cut, groceries are bagged and hotel sheets are changed. Indeed, a large majority of low-skilled workers are native to the United States. A look at the 2000 census is instructive: among males age 25 to 64 years employed that year, of those with less than a high school diploma, 64 percent were born in the United States and 36 percent were foreign born.
In other words, there is a lot of fiction out there about "jobs Americans won't do". Of course Americans would do the jobs, if the wages weren't being kept artificially low by the flood of illegals. Would America fall apart if the illegals suddenly left? Well, no, it wouldn't. There would be adjustments, but not a collapse.
Over the past two decades the number of low-skilled workers in the United States has increased because of immigration, both legal and illegal. This increase in low-skilled workers has contributed to the stagnation of wages for all such workers. The proposed "earned legalization" (amnesty) and guest worker programs would allow still more low-skilled workers into the country, further lowering their collective wages.
True, the prices of the goods and services that these new immigrants produce are reduced for the rich and poor alike. But the net effect of this dynamic is a decline in the purchasing power of low-skilled families and a rise in the purchasing power of high-income families — a significant factor behind the increase in income inequality that has been of considerable public concern over the past two decades.
In short, the continued increase in the flow of unskilled workers into the United States is the economic and moral equivalent of a regressive tax.
If the number of low-skilled foreign workers were to fall, wages would increase. Low-skilled American workers and their families would benefit, and society as a whole would gain from a reduction in income inequality.
Employers facing higher labor costs for low-skilled workers would raise their prices, and to some extent they would change the way they operate their businesses. A farmer who grows winter iceberg lettuce in Yuma County, Ariz., was asked on the ABC program "Nightline" in April what he would do if it were more difficult to find the low-skilled hand harvesters who work on his farm, many of whom are undocumented workers. He replied that he would mechanize the harvest. Such technology exists, but it is not used because of the abundance of low-wage laborers. In their absence, mechanical harvesters — and the higher skilled (and higher wage) workers to operate them — would replace low-skilled, low-wage workers.
I've argued this same point myself. The flood of illegal, low skilled labor is hurting low skilled American workers. This should be pretty obvious. Legalizing that tidal wave of people will codify that low wage labor pool and create a permanent underclass.
Immigration Reform | Gaius | Comments Off
I guess I don't quite understand why Shannon Rossmiller wants to publicize what she is doing. One presumes she has a reason for doing so, but it seems it might endanger her or her family or potentially undermine her effectiveness.
Shannon Rossmiller hunts terrorists on-line.
Like a hunter using a duck call, Shannen Rossmiller invites the online attentions of would-be terrorists by adorning her e-mail with video clips of Westerners getting their heads cut off.
"They get pumped up when they see beheadings. For them, it's like rock videos," Rossmiller said. "I always give the appearance that I am one of them."
Appearances deceive. At her Montana high school, Rossmiller was a cheerleader — a farm girl whose slight frame meant she was the one hoisted to the top of the human pyramid. Now 35, she is a mother of three, a part-time paralegal and a $23,000-a-year municipal court judge in a town north of here.
Since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, she has found herself an unpaid night job. She uses the Internet to find terrorism suspects, she said, hunting for them while her family sleeps, spending the hours between 3 a.m. and dawn at her home computer. Her husband, Randy, a wireless network technician, keeps eight computers and two broadband systems working in their house.
Posing as an al-Qaeda operative, she has helped federal agents set up stings that have netted two Americans — a Washington state National Guardsman convicted in 2004 of attempted espionage, and a Pennsylvania man who prosecutors say sought to blow up oil installations in the United States. Rossmiller was a key prosecution witness against the Guardsman, who is serving a life sentence, and said she has been told she will be called as a witness in the Pennsylvania case.
Most of Rossmiller's terrorist tracking, though, has focused on foreign suspects, she said. By her count, she has turned over to federal investigators about 60 "packages" of information on suspects outside the United States.
She provided The Washington Post with hundreds of pages of e-mail exchanges that she said are transcripts of her conversations with would-be jihadists outside this country. Rossmiller said she meets nearly every week with U.S. intelligence contacts in Montana, and that they have periodically given her feedback about the usefulness of her information. She said she has been told that foreign intelligence officers have detained more than a dozen individuals whom she helped identify.
But while Rossmiller has been vital in uncovering two cases of domestic terrorism, it is not clear how extensive a role she has played in the global fight against terrorism. Federal intelligence sources confirmed that for several years she has provided the FBI and the CIA with useful information, but refused to characterize it or say how it has been used. Her assertions about detentions of foreign suspects could not be independently confirmed, and officials from the FBI and CIA declined to speak publicly about her.
She apparently has been seeking publicity on her activities, which by the account in the WaPo are extensive. It sounds as if she has been very useful in tracking down some people, but appears to be frustrated that the FBI and other government agencies do not publicly acknowledge her role. Local law enforcement have been discussing how to keep her and her family safe, so the job she is doing is extremely risky. I don't think I would want to publicize it, personally.
But thank you for your service, Ms. Rossmiller.
Media, War | Gaius | Comments (2)
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