Continuing on in my journey to visit one member of the fighting 101st each day, today I went over to Shoot A Liberal. SeanS also has a few issues with the AP. He also appears to have the cable company from hell.
101st Blog of the Day | Gaius Saturday, 10 June , 2006 | 
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I suppose everyone in the US has seen the road sign that reads "Blind Drive". Which, if it literally meant what it said, would explain much of the driving we see on the roads every day. But of course, it just means that there is a driveway ahead that can't be seen until you are right on top of it. I have no idea if they use that same sign in France. Perhaps another one is fitting for them, though.
Luc Costermans, a 41-year-old former businessman blinded two years ago in an accident, told AFP he hoped to make it into the Guinness Book of Records for his tour of the country, completed Friday.
"I decided to complete this tour of France as a personal challenge and to send a message of hope to other physically disabled people," said Costermans, who only began flying last November.
The 13-hour, 1,900-kilometre (1,180-mile) flight took off on Friday morning from the flying club of Visan in the south-east in a Robin DR-400 with an instructor and an expert navigator.
Well, at least he wasn't distracted by the scenery.
Weird Stuff, World news | Gaius | Comments Off
At the type of men and women who serve this nation in our armed forces. I read this article and my admiration grew.
MAHMOUDIYA, Iraq - Parallel scars running down 1st Sgt. Rick Skidis' calf tell the story of how he nearly lost his leg when a roadside bomb blew through the door of his armored Humvee.
The blast shredded muscle, ligament and tendon, leaving Skidis in a daze as medics and fellow soldiers rushed to help him. Skidis remembers little of that day last November except someone warning him that when he woke, his foot might be gone.
After five months and six surgeries, the foot remains intact but causes Skidis haunting numbness and searing pain caused by nerve damage.
Skidis, 36, of Sullivan, Ill., fought through the surgeries and therapy to return in April to Iraq, conducting the same type of patrols that nearly killed him.
He is not an exception.
Nearly 18,000 military personnel have been wounded in combat since the war began in Iraq more than three years ago, according to Defense Department statistics. Some have lost legs and arms, suffered horrific burns to their bodies and gone home permanently.
But the vast majority have remained in Iraq or returned later — their bodies marked by small scars and their lives plagued by aches and pains.
"I wear my scars proudly," said Skidis as he gingerly lifted his pant leg to show the railroad-like tracks where doctors made incisions to save his foot. Why didn't he stay home? "I felt guilty because I wasn't sharing the same hardships that they were," Skidis said shyly, while another soldier nodded at his side.
Please read the whole article I linked above. See if you are not awed by these men and women, too. And say a prayer for all of them. They deserve all the support we can give them.
UPDATE: And the Army has again exceeded it's enlistment goal.
Bears enter at your own risk. The Dickey family of West Milford, New Jersey has a 15 pound tabby cat named Jack who is very territorial. He often chases other animals out of their yard.
Oh, and he's been known to tree bears. Twice.
"We used to joke, 'Jack's on duty,' never knowing he'd go after a bear," owner Donna Dickey told The Star-Ledger of Newark for Friday's editions.
Neighbor Suzanne Giovanetti first spotted Jack's accomplishment after her husband saw a bear climb a tree on the edge of their northern New Jersey property on Sunday. Giovanetti thought Jack was simply looking up at the bear, but soon realized the much larger animal was afraid of the hissing cat.
After about 15 minutes, the bear descended and tried to run away, but Jack chased it up another tree.
Ms. Dickey called Jack back after that particular treeing. The bear beat a hasty retreat.
Eat your heart out, Lewis. All you did was beat up an Avon lady. Jack took on a bear.
UPDATE: Large format photo.
It appears that a number of wind energy projects are currently on hold while the Department of Defense conducts a study on the effect the farms might have on radar sites. Proponents of the projects charge that this is all a delay caused by the effort to halt the Cape Cod wind project.
CHICAGO — More than 130 wind turbines are proposed for the hilltops of central Wisconsin, but that project and at least 11 others have been halted by the Defense Department as it studies whether the projects could interfere with military radar.
Wind farm developers, Midwestern legislators and environmentalists say the farms pose no risk, noting that there are already numerous wind farms operating in military radar areas. They say a renewable, domestic source of energy such as wind is crucial to energy security and independence.
They say their wind turbines are victims of the ongoing dispute between Cape Cod residents and developers of the proposed Cape Wind farm in Nantucket Sound. The Defense Department study was put in the 2006 Defense Authorization Act — inserted, say wind farm developers, by senators who want to block Cape Wind.
"This legislation was intended to derail Cape Wind, but it had a boomerang effect and affected a lot of projects around the country," said Michael Skelly of Horizon Wind Energy, a Texas company constructing the country's largest wind farm near Bloomington, Ill.
It may very well be that the Senators who are trying to block the Cape Cod project did do this, but isn't it a question worth knowing the answer to? I rather suspect it is. I've mentioned repeatedly that wind power will not solve anything at all and is pretty well a taxpayer funded boondoggle. But if the wind farms actually could cause trouble for our early warning systems, we need to know that.
Energy, Politics | Gaius | Comments (1)
It seems the plug-in I installed to fight comment spam also kills trackbacks (thanks to Don Singleton for pointing that out). So I have deactivated it again and am now hunting for a new way to stop the spammers. Damn, this is tough to beat. So far everything I have tried has caused a different problem while solving the spam issue.
With sodomy. No, really.
Aravosis, the serial trafficker in Republicans-are-gay rumors, cheerfully defends Democratic mudslinging. Kos says that every time the Right tries a “wedge issue”, the left needs to find a way to make it hurt the right. Especially the sodomy—they want to make it hurt. Aravosis gave the example of having a huge call-in campaign over the gay marriage issue, asking the senators’ staffs about their own histories of sodomy. And Atrios suggested also confirming which unmarried members of the White House Staff were themselves virgins, since the White House policy is promoting abstinence for teenagers. Sounds like a winner.
Lefties, make sure that whenever Rick Santorum brings up sodomy, you punish him by flooding the zone and talking about sodomy all the time. Nothing will create widespread sympathy for gay people who want to get married faster than a constant media drumbeat of sodomy, sodomy, sodomy.
Kos worries that Democrats aren’t confident about their positions like abortion—they’re afraid of being called baby-killing homo-lovers—so why would anyone respect them if they won’t stand up for their beliefs?
This mole of Allah's is strong. I'd would have burst out laughing and been detected.
Blogosphere | Gaius | Comments Off
Well, I guess todays theme is all the nudes that's fit to print. Or nudes that cause fits. Or something like that.
Item: A sheriff's deputy from Hot Springs, Arkansas is now jobless and is facing criminal charges for allegedly going topless in a campground. Apparently, a few people took umbrage to this episode of deputies gone wild and reported her to the authorities.
According to incident reports, a marine patrol deputy and a park ranger told a topless Roberson to cover up in separate encounters Sunday.
Later, authorities received a complaint that a woman without a top was in view of children.
One report said a grandmother complained that the topless woman became "loud and disorderly" after she told the woman to cover up. Another camper told authorities the woman became belligerent when confronted.
In both instances, the topless woman said she was a law officer, according to the reports.
So we can at least be pretty sure she isn't the sharpest tool in the shed. It's not a good idea to brag about being a deputy while breaking the law.
Item: Meanwhile, across the Atlantic, Spain continues to be plagued by naked bicyclists. The pesky things show up annually to protest traffic-clogged streets and to demand greater respect for pollution free transportation.
With slogans like "one car less" and "bio methanol" painted on their backs, the naked cyclists staged Spain's third annual Ciclonudista or "Nudecycle" in Madrid, Barcelona and Pamplona.
The protest was part of world-wide naked bike riding events on Saturday across Europe, North America and South America.
"We feel naked when up against traffic because people don't see the bicycle as just another means of transport," said Madrid cyclist Ramon Linaza, wearing only a cycle helmet and shoes.
One wonders how one commands respect when one is not wearing any pants while being interviewed.
Item: Some schools are just more educational than others. Two teachers in Tampa, Florida are jobless after they were observed having sex in a classroom.
Frances J. Sepulveda, 30, and Bryant J. Wilburn, 29, said they had sex in the classroom during school hours on "one or two occasions," according to an investigation by the Hillsborough County school district.
They resigned last month after two students at Coleman Middle School reported they saw the teachers having sex. The classroom door was locked and a window was covered with paper, but a boy and a girl told school officials they could see inside.
My high school was never had anything like that kind of sex ed. Some people have all the luck.
UPDATE: Plague of nude bicyclists also hit Prague. Is anyone working on a repellent?
Weird Stuff, World news | Gaius | Comments Off
Joe Gandelman has a post about a campaign flyer that was written in response to an AP article published in Forbes. It would appear that Gandelman wrote the entire post based on that article. And I think he got sucker-punched by the AP's manufactured controversy. After reading his take, I looked at the actual fliers over at Captain Ed's place and read what James Joyner had to say about it, too. The cartoon in question is not offensive or stereotypical and is actually a fairly accurate rendering of the actual person. That's it's also juvenile and a pretty lame piece of campaign literature is also quite evident.
I think Gandelman got this one wrong and compounded it by publishing much more offensive old cartoons. I do not think Gandelman did it on purpose at all. I just think he got taken by the AP this time.
In a completely new low for journalism, the AP elevates a baseless charge by a supposed eyewitness who refuses to be named, hides his face from the camera and who's story cannot be verified by anyone into a screaming headline. Never mind that the allegation is so far-fetched that only a complete fool would even listen to it. Never mind that the allegation directly contradicts the fact that Iraqi units were first on the scene.
Publish and smear - heck you can always issue a "correction" later, right?
The witness, who lives near the house where al-Zarqawi spent his last days, said he saw the man lying on the ground near an irrigation canal. He was badly wounded but still alive, the man told Associated Press Television News.
U.S. troops arriving on the scene wrapped the man's head in an Arab robe and began beating him, said the local man, who refused to give his name or show his face to the camera. His account could not be independently verified.
Absolute crap. The reporter knows it, the editors know it and it doesn't pass even the most rudimentary level of acceptable journalistic practice. But the AP elevates it to the lead and the headline. This one sentence buried all the way at the bottom of the steaming pile the smear artist produced out of one of his orifices article completely negates the screaming headline and proves this to be an agenda-driven smear:
The Iraqi government confirmed only that Iraqi forces were first on the scene, followed by the Americans.
This crosses a line. A big one. Any lawyers out there know if this is actionable?
UPDATE: AP has changed the headline to read "Iraqi raises questions on al-Zarqawi death". Bruce Kesler has thoughts.
UPDATE: Many thanks to Gina Cobb for linking. Likewise the Sundries Shack.
Media | Gaius | Comments (6)
The latest silly uproar being hyped by the media is over a small restaurant in Philadelphia. The owner of Geno's, a cheese steak joint, has a policy requiring that orders be given in English. That is his right. But a local politician has decided to object:
At a City Council meeting Thursday, Councilman Jim Kenney asked Geno's Steaks to take down its sign that says, "This Is AMERICA: WHEN ORDERING SPEAK ENGLISH."
That's just the latest example of how an English-only ordering policy has thrust one of Philadelphia's most famous cheesesteak joints into the national immigration debate.
The media continues to try to pump this non-story into a major controversy. They busily seek out comments from "activists" who are outraged, outraged I tell you, over the owner's policy.
"It's really upset a lot of a people," said Brad Baldia, director of development and outreach for Day Without An Immigrant, a coalition of immigrant groups. "For some people, I think we're just going to say 'Le gusta Pat's.'"
Juntos, a neighborhood organization that advocates for Latino communities, said it plans to send people to Geno's to try to order in Spanish. Depending on what happens, the group may pursue court action, said Peter Bloom, the group's director.
"His grandparents encountered the same racism and the same xenophobia," Bloom said. "Why would he begin that process over again?"
In asking for the sign's removal, Councilman Kenney noted that Geno's is "an iconic institution and business, one that is that visible for many of our residents, for the region and the world."
For his part, (Geno's owner Joseph) Vento said he's gotten plenty of criticism and threats: One person told him they hoped one his many neon signs flames out and burns the place down. But he said he plans to hold his ground, even if he loses business: "I'll take the gamble."
And the "activists" plan to use the tried and true "we know we'd lose at the polls so let's get the courts involved instead" tactic.
Leave him alone. He can decide that he will only accept orders from people wearing pink tutus if he wants to corner the pink tutu wearer's market. Neither the city councilman nor the activists have the right to force their opinions onto the how the man chooses to operate his business. Foreign language speakers are not a protected class - at least not yet.
The New York Times Reporter covering the Koz Klan's gathering in Las Vegas admits he wrote his article while wearing pajamas. Kate Phillips mentions that in her last paragraph. Other than that, her story is a typical attempt to inject some excitement into an account of an event that frankly sounds stultifyingly dull.
The gathering resembles a mini-political convention, with seminars instructing participants on the potential power of the blogosphere as well as talks on the Supreme Court, on religion, on the environment, immigration and other issues of the day. No hidden agenda here; the speakers and panelists mocked their own screen-worn politics as those of Bush-bashing, rebel-rousing, noodgy operatives, some already well-known for trying to breathe a new political life online to what the blogocracy views as tired old Democratic ways. Most of the panels, too, emphasize activism, online and offline.
Some even fit the advice column mode. At several sessions on Thursday, one offered political pundit training, (for the mainstream television appearance — smile no-matter-what; wear boring clothes and always a jacket; women, don't tilt your heads; men, keep a hand in one pocket).
The pundit instructors, Jennifer Palmieri, former Clinton press aide, and Judd Legum, both now at the Center for American Progress, which was founded by John Podesta, former chief of staff in the Clinton administration, said they could not be quoted on-the-record. (A rather odd admonishment to the old-stream media, given that someone in the room was probably blogging the entire time.)
There are appearances by several of the big names of the left blogosphere but the story really doesn't give more than an impression of a very earnest gathering of very earnest people slapping themselves on the back. Hot Air's coverage is better.
UPDATE: Nagourney, fully dressed apparently.
They may think of themselves as rebels, separate from mainstream politics and media. But by the end of a day on which the convention halls were shoulder to shoulder with bloggers, Democratic operatives, candidates and Washington reporters, it seemed that bloggers were well on the way to becoming — dare we say it? — part of the American political establishment. Indeed, the convention, the first of what organizers said would become an annual event, seems on the way to becoming as much a part of the Democratic political circuit as the Iowa State Fair.
"It's 2006, and I think we have arrived," Markos Moulitsas, the founder of the Daily Kos and the man for whom the conference was named, announced after being greeted with the kind of reception Elvis, or at least Wayne Newton to a more traditional Las Vegas audience, might have received had he walked into the dowdy ballroom at the Riviera Hotel and Casino. (Mr. Moulitsas was accompanied by a media adviser and bloggers snapped his picture whenever they spotted him.)
Accompanied by a media advisor?
Police have filed charges against Kathleen Ensz, the Democratic party official in Colorado who decided to stuff an envelope full of dog feces into the mail slot of the Republican candidate's campaign office.
A former professor of French at the University of Northern Colorado has been cited for allegedly making a special delivery to U.S. Rep. Marilyn Musgrave that reeked of political partisanship.
Kathleen Ensz, professor emeritus at UNC, is accused of depositing a Musgrave campaign mailer full of dog feces at the Republican lawmaker's Greeley office. Ensz was charged Thursday by Greeley police with criminal use of a noxious substance, a misdemeanor.
The offending package arrived on May 31 about 1 p.m. The original addressee's name and address were scratched off, but a police officer was able to use the bar code on the envelope to track the sender's vicinity, which eventually led investigators to the 63-year-old Ensz, said Greeley police spokesman Joe Tymkowych.
Ensz, who couldn't be reached for comment Thursday, is a supporter of Angie Paccione, the Democratic challenger for Musgrave's 4th Congressional District seat, Ensz's friends say.
Those who know her say they find it difficult to believe that Ensz would take such a bizarre action to express her opposition to Musgrave. Then again, Ensz has been known to speak her mind on certain subjects, said Carol Burkhart, who has been active in the Weld County Democratic Party for years.
Ah the mandatory, "We can't believe she'd do that" quotes. Well, it looks like the case is pretty open and shut at this point. The police seem confident they have the facts straight. The accused is no longer speaking to reporters and all the character witnesses are being interviewed.
But wouldn't it be more fitting to send the number two to John Murtha? He wants to be declared number two after all.
First thing this morning, the Washington Post gives you your morning laugh. Writing about John Murtha's announcement of his decision to seek the Majority leader's post if the Democrats win the House, the Post gives these knee-slappers:
He issued a brief statement to reporters that reiterated the two-sentence letter to his colleagues: "Our goal is to win the House back, and if there's an open seat, I'm the candidate."
One theory is that Murtha's candidacy could provide midterm voters with a tougher, more conservative contrast to the liberal minority leader, Nancy Pelosi (Calif.). A decorated Marine combat veteran, Murtha is strongly pro-military. But his call last year for a withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq was a pivotal moment in the war debate, emboldening many Democrats to speak out forcefully against the conflict.
Ah yes, Murtha is more conservative than Pelosi. And pro-military to boot. Which is why he does photo ops with Code Pink and defames, condemns and convicts troops who have not even been charged with any crimes yet.
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