Intrepid Intrique

Many people of my generation remember the USS Intrepid as the aircraft carrier that was used to recover a lot of the Mercury and Gemini space missions. Those who live in or have visited New York City know the Intrepid as a major tourist attraction. It houses on it's decks an air and space museum. There are also other vessels on the site like an early missile submarine and a WWII era destroyer. My wife and I visited the Intrepid when we went to a family wedding in New Jersey. It's an amazing place.

Now it seems that after about 25 years serving as a museum, the Intrepid is due for an overhaul. Or at least some major hull repairs. Which is to be expected. After all it is made of steel and sitting in water. Not really a good combination. It was also commissioned in 1943. 63 years old ships usually need some work.

But, the funny thing about this article is it's tone. Yes, it's a very lightweight piece about a ship that happens to need repairs. But read it yourself:

So, sometime in the next several months, the 900-foot-long leviathan, with a collection of jets and helicopters strapped to its flight deck like hood ornaments, will be dragged down the river to a dry dock, where it will be patched up and repainted.

For the moment, executives of the foundation that operates the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum are acting as if loose lips could sink their ship. They are guarding the nature of the ship's ailments and details of when, where and how the repairs will be made like military secrets.

But they have notified local and federal officials of their intent to move the ship, though they have not laid out the specifics of their plan.

They declined to say if the Intrepid would be back at its pier in time to anchor the Fleet Week festivities next May, or if objects from the museum, which opened in 1982 and draws more than 500,000 visitors a year, will be placed in another exhibit space while the ship is gone.

"It is a preliminary plan, and it is premature to comment on it at this time," said Suzanne Halpin, a spokeswoman for the museum who works for Rubenstein Communications.

Museum officials — in anticipation of dislodging the ship from its moorings — have already asked the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for permission to dredge the mud that has piled up around the ship's bottom. An Army Corps official, Mary Ann Miller, said yesterday that the ship's owners had presented a long list of planned improvements to the ship but that she was not at liberty to discuss them.

So the people who run the museum don't want to talk to the reporter just yet. So what happens next? A lot of column inches to describe all the people the reporter contacted trying to get something about the carrier and it's suspected move. This whole article could have been a very short paragraph. Intrepid needs repairs. It will need to be moved. officials refuse to answer questions about details. Done.

But heck, it gives me a chance to link here, so it's not a total loss.

McKinney Will Not Face Charges

Cynthia McKinney will not be charged for assaulting a Capitol police officer. Sorry, I think that's wrong. If it had been an average shmoe off the street they would have already been in court.

WASHINGTON (AP) - A grand jury declined to indict Rep. Cynthia McKinney on Friday in connection with a confrontation in which she admitted hitting a police officer who tried to stop her from entering a House office building.

The grand jury had been considering the case since shortly after the March 29 incident, which has led to much discussion on Capitol Hill about race and the conduct of lawmakers and the officers who protect them.

"We respect the decision of the grand jury in this difficult matter," said U.S. Attorney Kenneth Wainstein.

McKinney did not immediately comment.

Wainstein's statement, released late Friday, also included support for the officer involved, Paul McKenna, and the Capitol Police. He said, "This is a tremendously difficult job, and it is one that Officer McKenna and his colleagues perform with the utmost professionalism and dignity."

With that, Wainstein closed a case that has simmered with racial and political tension.

Bad move. Congress should be setting an example, not get a pass on the same laws that govern the rest of us.

Gathering Storm

Murtha In Trouble With Constituents?

Gateway Pundit has a very interesting roundup of things that may well mean that Murtha's challenger, Diana Irey may have more of a chance than some people realize to unseat Murtha. Long time readers know I have been supporting Irey for quite some time.

DIANA IREY for CONGRESS
600 Park Avenue
Monongahela, PA 15063
http://www.irey.com/
Phone: 724-258-2300
Fax: 724-258-8600
Email: Diana@Irey.com

UPDATE: Very Interesting. USA Today has an editorial calling Murtha's cut and run strategy a mistake and the wrong thing to do.

UPDATE: Flopping Aces.

I’d Rather Be In Philadelphia

Which are the words W.C. Fields supposedly suggested for his own tombstone. Well, oddly enough, from the Philadelphia Inquirer comes another story about Dan Rather's imminent departure from CBS.

Rather, 74, whose contract runs until late November, is working out the final details of his exit agreement, the sources say.

Money is not an issue, they say. Among the sticking points: Whether Rather will have access to his archival CBS material.

CBS issues its standard non-denial denial: "Dan is a 60 Minutes correspondent, and we don't comment on contractual matters." Rather declined to comment.

Anchor of CBS Evening News for a record 24 years until being forced out in March '05 by the Memogate scandal, Rather was fighting to stay at the network in some "meaningful" capacity. It was clear that the network wanted him gone.

Like virtually all CBS executives, network czar Les Moonves, once a Rather supporter, had distanced himself from the newsman. They had not had a real conversation for more than eight months, newsroom sources say.

Many inside CBS feel that Rather triggered his own demise by vigorously defending his flawed 60 Minutes II report in September '04 that questioned President Bush's service in the Texas Air National Guard, even after the authenticity of the documents used in the piece could not be proved.

Rather later apologized to viewers, but his fate within CBS had been sealed. The only difference: It would take longer for him to leave. Unlike several of his coworkers in the scandal, Rather escaped the noose.

There's an awful lot of crocodile tears throughout the article. A lot of really insincere-sounding praise. The bottom line here is that Rather did this to himself. He and he alone is responsible for the ignominious end his career has come down to. He climbed into the toilet himself. It just took a little while for CBS to pull the flush lever.

UPDATE: Others: California Conservative, The Moderate Voice, Toasted Bread

UPDATE: This is actually quite funny. Rather gave an interview to The New York Times. He is thinking about blogging. He is also in talks with Mark Cuban to host an interview show on HDNet, the High Definition network Cuban helped form. But take a look at these items from the interview:

Among the places he had sought solace, he said on a recent afternoon, was in "Good Night, and Good Luck," George Clooney's homage to Edward R. Murrow and the CBS News of old, a film that Mr. Rather said he had seen five times in theaters, most recently alone.

….

Mr. Rather expressed some disappointment with Leslie Moonves, the president and chief executive of CBS. In late 2004, Mr. Rather announced he would step down as anchor in March 2005. In the interim, Mr. Moonves told a gathering of television critics in California that he hoped to blow up the program's "voice of God, single anchor" format. (After exploring the notion of an ensemble, CBS announced this spring that it was hiring Katie Couric as the program's sole anchor.)

Asked in the interview about Mr. Moonves's remarks, Mr. Rather said, "My problem with the 'voice of God' thing was that it was meant disrespectfully."

"They talk about wanting a break with the past," he added. "Look at the Murrow film. I don't want to break with that past." (Emphasis added)

Indulging in a bit of armchair psychoanalysis here, can you not see how Rather sees himself? He sees himself as a much beset hero. A giant among journalists laid low by corporate types.

UPDATE: Bill Quick with much sympathy, Ditto Stop The ACLU, Tigerhawk makes it unanimous.

Back to your self-inflicted swirly, Dan. You did this to yourself.

Preliminary Report On Haditha Completed

The preliminary report on whether or not proper reporting procedures were followed has been completed by Army Major General Eldon A. Bargewell. The report has been sent to Lt. Gen. Peter Chiarelli, the second-ranking commander in Iraq.

Chiarelli now has a number of options and no time limit for taking action, according to Lt. Col. Michelle Martin-Hing, Multi-National Corps-Iraq spokeswoman, who described the report as "voluminous."

She said he can approve the findings; substitute or add his own findings; send the report back for more information; and make recommendations for action by higher-ranking military authorities.

The Haditha case centers on allegations that a small number of Marines from the 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment murdered 24 Iraqi civilians — included unarmed women and children — on Nov. 19 after a roadside bomb in the town killed one of their fellow Marines.

Bargewell has just one piece of the investigation — whether the Marines followed proper procedures in reporting about the incident to commanders, or whether anyone engaged in a cover-up. His investigation also may consider whether any criminal charges should be brought in connection with deliberate attempts to lie about the incident.

The NCIS investigation is continuing into the incident itself. Chiarelli will make no public statements on the report that could interfere with the ongoing criminal investigation.

Important Warning For PayPal Users

Mac World is reporting a major, major security problem with PayPal.

Fraudsters are exploiting the flaw to harvest personal details, including PayPal logins,     Social Security numbers and credit card details, according to staff at Netcraft Ltd., an Internet services company in Bath, England. The PayPal site, owned by eBay, allows users to make online payments to one another, charged to their credit cards, and login credentials for the service are a prized target of fraudsters.

The attack works by tricking PayPal members into following a maliciously crafted link to a secure page on PayPal's site. Anyone thinking to check the site's security certificate at this point will see that it is a valid 256-bit certificate belonging to the site, Netcraft employee Paul Mutton wrote in the company's blog on Friday.

However, the URL exploits a flaw in PayPal's site that allows the fraudsters to inject some of their own code into the page that is returned, he wrote. In this case, the result is a warning that the user's account may have been compromised, and that they "will now be redirected to Resolution Center." The page to which they are redirected asks for their PayPal account details — but thanks to the cross-site scripting flaw in the PayPal site, and the data injected into the URL by the fraudsters, the page is no longer on the PayPal site. Instead, the page steals the login details and sends them to the fraudsters' server, then prompts the user for other personal information, Mutton said.

The Web server harvesting the personal details is hosted in Korea, Mutton said.

At the very least, if you get a warning your account may have been compromised, you might want to bail out immediately and do not answer any questions or fill out any forms you are directed to.

I don't use PayPal, so I don't have a dog in this race, but a lot of folks do, so spread the word.

101st Blog Of The Day

Continuing my long journey (it keeps getting longer, too) to visit one member of the fighting 101st each day, today I went over to Bit's Blog. It seems that Bithead follows a lot of the same stories that I do. Great minds and all that.

Quiz

Here's a quiz for you to see where you fall on the political spectrum. I score as a libertarian. Do check out the statistics, by the way. They are interesting.

H/T Hugh Hewitt

Bomb Scare In Police Station

Some extremely scary moments inside the police station in Iizuka city in Fukuoka prefecture, Japan. Police suddenly noticed a package inside the station. The box was wrapped in newspaper and there were no labels on it indicating it had been delivered by mail or package delivery. The police immediately evacuated the building and several surrounding houses near the station. Then they sent for the bomb squad.

The mysterious package was found at a station in Iizuka city in Fukuoka prefecture (state), prefectural police spokesman Yoichi Oyama said.

Police became alarmed around 1:50 p.m. when they noticed a suspicious box wrapped in newspaper that had been left inside a local police station. There was no indication that the package had been delivered in the mail, Oyama said.

Five families who live near station were evacuated, and roads in the area were also closed, Oyama said.

The bomb squad carefully inspected the suspicious package, then gingerly opened it and looked inside. Whereupon, they discovered that the package was full of cans of beer. The police immediately sounded the all clear. It is believed that the package was left as a gift for the police by an anonymous admirer.

Notice to journalists: Please do not call the Iizuka city police asking for comments about this story. They are extremely busy and don't wish to be disturbed.

They're working on a case.

UPDATE: Linking to STACLU to share this a bit.

Rasmussen Show’s Lamont Gaining

Well, except it was only a sample of 218 people and there's a huge margin of error. As I have said many times, I am not a big fan of polls or polling in general, but I generally think Rasmussen does a respectable job. The really, really bad news for Lamont is that Lieberman wins big in the polling for the general election, whether he runs as a Democrat or an Independent.

There is much wailing and gnashing of teeth from the Lamont camp because Lieberman refuses to pledge his support for Lamont should Lamont win the primary. Uh, gee, let's see; you try to destroy a man's political career with a campaign that is being pushed hard by people who do not live in the state. A campaign where there is a lot of very vitriolic commentary about Lieberman coming from those people. And you seem surprised that the victim of your assaults won't pledge to back you? Well, ok, then.

Frankly, the more you appear to be pitching a fit over an issue like that, the less credible you get. Lamont may be very close to the edge on this one. If he is seen as a rank amateur, or as behaving petulantly, he may sink himself.

And if you push Lieberman to run independent, you really lose. Hard.

UPDATE: See Hot Air as well.

Speaking Of Mars

Exclusive, shocking new picture from the Mars rover Spirit.

(Courtesy http://www.streetsigngenerator.com/ Many thanks to Shawn over at Joab's Blog Empire for the tip._ 

Coming Soon To A McDonald’s Near You

The new taste sensation: The McMoby burger. A restaurant in Japan is serving whale burgers, whale cutlet sandwiches and whale hot dogs. Demand is quite high.

The sandwich, which features fried whale meat nestled in a bun with salad greens and lashings of mayonnaise and ketchup-based sauce, is the creation of a small whale restaurant in the town of Wada, about 100 km (62 miles) southeast of Tokyo.

"Young people think whale and bread really go together well, so the burgers are quite popular," said restaurant owner Akiji Ichihara.

For the whaleburger and a whale cutlet sandwich, both of which sell for 300 yen (1.41 pounds), he uses the meat of Baird's Beaked whales taken by Wada-based ships.

The third sandwich option, a whale hot dog priced at 350 yen, is made from minke whale meat taken by the "scientific whaling" programme run by the Japanese government.

Customers gave the sandwiches, which Ichihara serves only one day a month, good reviews. On one record day he sold 700.

The Japanese government is actually quite pleased since they consider eating whale a cultural heritage. I'm sure Greenpeace members heads are exploding all over upon hearing this news.

Japan stopped commercial whaling in 1986 in line with an international moratorium but began what it calls "scientific whaling" a year later, arguing that endangered species need protection but others, such as the minke, are numerous enough for limited hunting.

"I think we could whale more, because the number of whales has now increased to the extent that they are damaging the ecosystem by eating too much fish," Matsunaga added.

Which actually raises an interesting point. How much damage does a greatly increased whale population do to commercial fisheries? Is there a point where whaling should be allowed? I don't know the answer to those questions.

By the way, there really aren't any McMoby burgers coming. That was a joke. Although it would be funny to ask for one next time you're in McDonald's.

House Votes To Support Troops

The vote was 256-153.

In a 256-153 vote, the GOP-led House approved a nonbinding resolution that praises U.S. troops, labels the Iraq war part of the larger global fight against terrorism and says an "arbitrary date for the withdrawal or redeployment" of troops is not in the national interest.

"Retreat is not an option in Iraq," declared House Majority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio. "Achieving victory is our only option, for the American people and our kids."

House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi of California countered: "Stay the course, I don't think so Mr. President. It's time to face the facts."

She called for a new direction in the conflict. "The war in Iraq has been a mistake. I say, a grotesque mistake."

Four months before midterm elections that will decide control of Congress, House Republicans sought to force Republicans and Democrats alike to take a position on the conflict that began with the U.S. invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein in the spring of 2003.

Well, it was, of course, a political maneuver. It may have done it's intended work, though and made lawmakers choose sides. Me, I continue to be on the side of the troops. Cut and run is not an option. Because cutting and running makes the sacrifices of our troops and the troops from our allies meaningless. The fastest way to end a war is to lose it.

I'd rather not, thanks.

UPDATE: Others: A Blog For All, Decision '08, Riehl World View and Sister Toldjah

Chavez Chic

Fausta has a post up about the new darling of the self-loathing far left fringe, Hugo Chavez. Coming soon to a "peace" rally near you, Chavez T-shirts instead of ones featuring the image of the murderous Che.

While the American Left worships its new icon, Chavez Threatens to Shut Down Venezuelan TV Stations for criticizing the government. Hear him say it in his own words (in Spanish, via VCrisis).

Publius Pundit points out,

Amid all the Chavista propaganda reported here in the States, suggesting that Venezuela is not a dictatorship because of an existing free press, the fact today is that the media has been threatened with total destruction.

It's not just TV stations: it's also the NGOs

The latest pet project by the autocratic and dictatorial Government is a law to control NGO’s. Whether they are political, defenders of human rights, against AIDS or the environment, this new law would impose absolute government control over NGO’s, which would make them subject to Government inspection and supervision.

Sigmund, Carl and Alfred posts that

Even as they left celebrates Hugo Chavez, they do not extend any effort into helping impoverished Venezuelans. They, like the victims in Darfur, are only an impediment to achieving their agenda, a 'people's paradise.' That kind of irony is not lost on any of the psychosphere bloggers.

For good reason: the WSJ article quotes Jake Irwin, a Chavez supporter, saying, "My political belief is that the U.S. is a horrendous empire that needs to end". A shrink can have a field day analyzing the kind of self-loathing one finds among what Carlos Alberto Montaner's named the Chávez-'banana left' alliance. (Links removed - head over to Fausta's for the whole story).

It's a frightening picture, made more so by those among us who worship such people.