A Fierce And Fearless Protector

Of the inalienable rights of terrorists! The New York Times has done it again! severely damaged or outright crippled the ability of the US government to fight terrorism. This time they have fearlessly disclosed a top-secret program that targets only the international transfer of money to and fro from known terrorist organizations! Publishing all the details despite administration pleas that it will damage the ability to collect the data. Despite many people telling the reporters that the program has strict controls! Despite the arrests made because of the program!

What fearlessness! What cutting edge journalism!

Who cares how many Americans die because the New York Times decided it had the moral and legal authority to divulge the program so the terrorists could re-route money to finance future attacks? Who cares that the many people they interviewed gave a lot of justification for the program? Who cares that it sounds like only a few objected? Who cares that the laws are "murky" and may have nothing whatsoever prohibiting the program? Who cares that the editor decided that Americans needed to be put at risk so the New York Times could sell papers.? Who cares!

I do. 

People need to go to jail over this one. A bunch of people.

Terror Bust In Miami

And it's a big one. Seven people have been arrested. Allegations are that they may have been targeting the Sears Tower in Chicago and the building that houses the FBI offices in Miami along with other potential targets..

MIAMI, Florida (CNN) — Seven people are in custody after a sweep by law enforcement authorities in connection with an alleged plot against targets that may have included the Sears Tower, officials told CNN on Thursday.

Officials said no weapons or bomb-making materials had been found in the searches in the Miami area by FBI and state and local law enforcement officials. The city is under no imminent threat, according to the FBI.

Law enforcement sources told CNN that the arrests disrupted what may have been the early stages of a domestic terrorist plot to attack the Sears Tower in Chicago, Illinois, the FBI building in Miami, and possibly other targets.

….

Sources told CNN that the arrests culminated a monthslong undercover operation. The suspects believed they were dealing with an al Qaeda operative, but the person was actually a government informant, the sources said.

This is pretty scary, folks.

MooreOn Dot Org

Confederate Yankee is having a lot of fun with this post!

And a worthy target it is. Although rather hard to miss at planetary girth!

Sunset

101st Blog Of The Day

Today, my mission to visit one member of the fighting 101st each day led me over to The Assistant Village Idiot. If we take him at his word, and he is the assistant to the village idiot, I do not even want to go anywhere near that village. They'd be way too smart for me. Mr. AVI has one of the most perfectly constructed arguments tearing apart false equivalence I have ever read.

Working It In Every Chance They Get

The media is getting a bit desperate sounding lately, to my ear. They are reaching further and further to work in at least one reference to Vietnam into any story they write. The New York Times coverage of today's vote in the Senate is no exception.

WASHINGTON, June 22 — The Senate voted today against measures calling for the withdrawal of American troops from Iraq, after a long and emotional debate that was in some ways reminiscent of the Vietnam War era.

The votes, 86 to 13 on one measure and 60 to 39 on the second, reflected not only deep divisions between Republicans and Democrats but within the Democratic ranks as well. The bitterness of the debate, and some comments afterward, made it clear that Iraq would be a dominant issue in this year's Congressional elections, and perhaps in the 2008 presidential race. (Emphasis added.)

Now if you read the rest of the article, that little statement is completely unsupported. Just kind of thrown in there like the reporter or the editor just needed a good home for the poor, orphaned phrase. 'Yep, that's a good place to stuff a Vietnam reference!', you can almost hear them saying. But later, you can also discern why they are getting a bit nervous.

The subject of troop withdrawals has figured prominently in the recent public debate over the American mission in Iraq. Today, Gen. George W. Casey Jr., the senior American commander in Iraq, said there would be continued gradual reductions over the course of the next year as Iraqi take on a greater role in the security. But he said there should be no public timetable.

"I feel it would limit my flexibility," he said at a news conference after the Senate voted. "I think it would give the enemy a fixed timetable and I think it would send a terrible signal to a new government of national unity in Iraq that is trying to stand up and get its legs underneath it."

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said troop levels, currently at about 126,000, might not take a "steady path" down, but instead fluctuate depending on such events as national elections or troop rotations. "It very likely will go down and up and down and up, depending on the circumstances and depending on the need," he said at the news conference.

In urging defeat of the Kerry-Feingold measure, Senator Warner said that to set a withdrawal date would tell American troops and the Iraqi people "we're going to possibly pull the rug out from under you." "It would be impossible to imagine a worse time than now" to set a timetable for withdrawal, said Senator Bill Frist of Tennessee, the Republican majority leader.

But Senator Feingold said it was time to tell the Iraqi people that "we have done what we can do militarily" and let them run their own country.

And Senator Reid said it was wrong to blindly follow President Bush's course in Iraq. To put loyalty to a president above loyalty to one's conscience was not only "unpatriotic and servile, but morally treasonable," Mr. Reid said.

Just the quotes the Times uses demonstrates which party is weak on understanding military realities. That doesn't bode well. Contrary to the opinions of some politicians, the American people aren't stupid. They can see who understands defense. And who advocates pulling the rug out from under a friend.

I'm sure they're busy looking for another place to stuff a Vietnam reference. It'll likely turn up in the fashion section later this week.

Why Is It?

That the only people who keep calling for a military draft are Democrats or columnists who either are outright Democrats, or left wing in their beliefs? This is just that same, old lament that they can't seem to get enough young people out in the streets to recreate their glory days as young anti-war protesters, isn't it? But to these people, it's perfectly fine to turn heroes into window displays.

Imagine if all our sons and daughters were at risk for deployment to the desert. Imagine if all our children faced the Al Qaeda-style butchery that took the lives of two American soldiers, Private First Class Thomas L. Tucker of Madras, Ore., and Private First Class Kristian Menchaca of Houston.

If we feared our children were next up to be gutted like fish, we might be less likely to shake our heads at crazy antiwar activist Cindy Sheehan. If turning 18 meant your kid's boots on the ground, a resolution to pull troops out of Iraq by a certain date might grab more than six votes in the US Senate.

A key difference between Iraq and Vietnam is the country's ability to keep this war at a convenient distance. We can turn from the front page headlines of war, death, and destruction to sports and celebrity gossip; a click of the remote, and the face of a young soldier, now dead, fades to “Friends" reruns or “America's Next Top Model." The volunteer army ensures that someone else's children are losing limbs and dying; someone else's children are pushed to alleged acts of violence against Iraqi detainees and civilians. Even when the news from Iraq is so brutal it forces a momentary focus on war, quick relief is promised.

Empty, inflammatory rhetoric will not help. Your claiming of the bodies of young men who served their country to use as props in your little rant is just plain disgusting. Those young men do not belong to you. They served their country and now they belong to their families to mourn. Your cheapening of their sacrifices to advance your political goals is contemptible. Shame on you for doing this, Joan Vennochi.

UPDATE: Others: Brainster, Austin Bay, Wizbang,

Bush In Hungary

President Bush spoke in Hungary and from the report I am reading it looks as if he gave a pretty good speech. One of the regular commenters here is from Hungary, so I look forward to his take on it.

The United States had failed in 1956 to come to the aid of Hungary's 12-day uprising against communist tyranny but Bush said in a speech to Hungarians on a hill over the Danube River: "America honors your courage. We have learned from your example and we resolve that when people stand up for their freedom, America will stand with them."

Soviet troops "crushed the Hungarian uprising but not the Hungarian people's thirst for freedom," Bush told a crowd of 400, including the country's president and prime minister, against a picture-perfect view of Budapest, dominated by the large dome of parliament.

Bush said the new Iraqi government "is committed to the democratic ideals that also inspired Hungarian patriots in 1956 and 1989," when the communist regime fell in Hungary.

"Iraq's young democracy still faces determined enemies, people who will use violence and brutality to stop the march of freedom," he said.

"Defeating these enemies will require sacrifice and continued patience, the kind of patience the good people of Hungary displayed after 1956.

"We will help them rebuild a country destroyed by a tyrant …

"We will continue to help the Iraqi government establish free institutions" so that it can take its "rightful place alongside America and Hungary as beacons of liberty in our world," Bush said.

He said that new Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Maliki "is committed to the democratic ideals that also inspired Hungarian patriots in 1956 and 1989."

"The lesson of the Hungarian experience is clear. Liberty can be delayed but it cannot be denied," Bush said.

I don't think he said the catch phrases that Roland feared he would.

UPDATE: Roland has left a couple of comments that are well worth reading.

Hamas Says US and Britain Will Be Conquered By Islam

"We will rule the nations, by Allah's will, the USA will be conquered, Israel will be conquered, Rome and Britain will be conquered…
The Jihad for Allah… is the way of Truth and the way for Salvation and the way which will lead us to crush the Jews and expel them from our country Palestine. Just as the Jews ran from Gaza, the Americans will run from Iraq and Afghanistan and the Russians will run from Chechnya, and the Indian will run from Kashmir, and our children will be released from Guantanamo. The prisoners will be released by Allah's will, not by peaceful means and not by agreements, but they will be released by the sword, they will be released by the gun".

So says the late Hamas leader Yasser Ghalban, killed by his fellow Palestinians last week, in a video released by Hamas. This is pretty straightforward, folks. There is no negotiation with people like this.

Murtha Most Foul

Writing over at Real Clear Politics, Jack Kelly guts, fillets and gently sautés John Murtha's redeployment strategy of moving our forces to the really convenient location of Okinawa, 4,899 miles away as the crow flies.

"My question is, what country would take us?" Mr. Rove asked. "What country would say after the United States cut and run from Iraq, 'Yeah, paint a big target on our back and then you'll cut and run from us?'" "We can go to Okinawa," Rep. Murtha responded. "We can redeploy there almost instantly."

Mr. Russert, mindful of the fact that Okinawa, Japan, is 4,899 miles from Baghdad, offered Mr. Murtha an escape, in case he had misspoken. "But it would be tough to have a timely response from Okinawa," he said. But Rep. Murtha dug himself in deeper. "When I say a timely response, you know, our fighters can fly from Okinawa very quickly," he said.

Mr. Murtha has been recommending redeployment to Okinawa ever since his rebirth as a dove last year, so what he said on "Meet the Press" was no slip of the tongue.

Let us be clear about the Murtha "strategy." It is insane. It would be easier to defend Germany from Chicago; Alaska from Miami, or Hawaii from Pittsburgh than to defend Iraq from Okinawa.

It would take 10-12 hours — and six refuelings — for F-16s to fly from Kadena AFB on Okinawa to Baghdad (assuming China and India would grant overflight rights, a dubious assumption). Mr. Murtha may regard this as "very quickly," but the Air Force does not.

As Bugs Bunny would say: "What a maroon!"

A maroon indeed. This is what passes for deep strategic thinking from the Democrats these days, apparently. Or at least nobody in the party has the decency to point out what a dunderhead Murtha is. Kelly goes on from there, it's worth taking the time to read it all.

And as always: support Diana Irey and her effort to retire Murtha.

Blogger Released From Egyptian Jail

Egyptian Blogger Alaa has been released. After a lot of frantic worrying along the way, I might add. They released him from prison to a police station where he was being mistreated. But a gathering of protesters in front of the station finally caused the authorities to let him out.

Overdue For Bump And Grind?

California tumbles into the sea
That'll be the day I go
Back to Annandale
Tried to warn you
About Chino and Daddy Gee
But I can't seem to get to you
Through the U.S. Mail
Well I hear the whistle but I can't go
I'm gonna take her down to Mexico
She said oh no
Guadalajara won't do

Well I did not think the girl
Could be so cruel
And I'm never going back
To my old school

(Steely Dan, My Old School,
Countdown to Ecstasy, 1973)

Those of you living in California haven't got enough to worry about what with the fires and the mudslides, so you can count of science to step in to provide more! A new study says the Southern portion of the San Andreas fault is overdue for a strong earthquake.

The new study, which analyzed 20 years of data and is considered one of the most detailed analyses yet, found that stress has been building up since then, and that the fault could rupture at any moment.

"The southern section of the fault is fully loaded for the next big event," said geophysicist Yuri Fialko of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla.

Predicting exactly when that might happen, however, is beyond scientists' ability.

The analysis was published in Thursday's issue of the journal Nature.

The last major earthquake on the Southern section was in 1690 with an estimated 7.7 on the Richter Scale.

Blue Crab Boulevard, always passing along helpful information.

Nice Hyperbole!

"It's outrageous, it shows that we are in the people's republic of Kentucky now - that government will block political speech that it does not approve of,"

So quoth Mark Nickolas, operator of the bluegrassreport website in an interview with AP about the government of Kentucky shutting off employee access to a number of websites, including Nickolas'. Not to put too fine a point on it here, but what the heck are government employees doing surfing the web?

State officials began restricting employees' Web surfing through a subscription service called "Webwasher" nearly two years ago, Midkiff said. Employees would still be allowed to access newspaper sites, daily weather reports and "things they need to have access to," Midkiff said.

Employees who feel they should be viewing some of the blocked sites could also appeal, she said. The restriction took effect Tuesday, Midkiff said.

Nickolas, who was U.S. Rep. Ben Chandler's campaign manager, said his site gets about 25,000 visits per week. About 10 percent of his site's visitors are from state government computers, Nickolas estimated.

I can see a valid point here. If Nickolas is getting 2,500 hits a week from government computers, that means a lot of government employees, taking salaries paid by taxpayers are not doing what they are getting paid to do. Not just blog access was stopped, either.

State officials this week blocked various categories of Web sites, including those dealing with entertainment, online auctions, humor and blogs.

I don't think this rises to the "people's republic" standard. More like the "what the heck are you doing wasting our tax money?" standard. Maybe instead of getting spun up about blocking these sites, people should be asking why are there so many state employees with what appears to be far too much free time on their hands.

Well, That Was Impressive

Allah has the voting results for the two Democratic amendments that were just voted down. Handily. Kerry-Feingold killed, 86-13,  Levin-Reed amendment fairs little better, 39-60.

So much for the netroots awesome power.

Migraine News

Researchers are reporting that they have developed a way to stop migraine headaches virtually before they start using a device that generates a magnetic pulse.

In a recent study, researchers tested a device called a transcranial magnetic stimulator, or TMS for short, on a small group of 43 migraine sufferers.

The TMS generates a strong, one millisecond magnetic pulse that interrupts the symptoms leading up to a migraine, called the "aura" phase. Many migraine sufferers report zigzagging lines or bright flashes of light in their vision during this phase, as well as spreading blind spots and tingling sensations in their arms and legs.

Drawing a line

Magnetic pulses from the TMS device alter the firing patterns of brain cells in the outermost layer of the brain, called the cortex. Like the fire lines that crews carve out to stymie forest fires, the changes in brain cell activity interrupt the auras before they spread to other parts of the brain and induce full-blown migraines.

In the study, 74 percent of the people who used the TMS device reported feeling only mild or no headaches afterwards. The relief was often felt immediately. Ability to function at work after two-hours also improved, and no side effects were reported.

While this is wonderful news for the sufferers of these brutal headaches, we here at Blue Crab Boulevard predict that some people will be trying very hard to hide knowledge of this new device from their partners. Because of this:

Migraines Linked to Higher Sex Drives

Sex Might Actually Relieve Headaches, Study Says

NEW YORK (June 16) - For some individuals prone to migraine , this susceptibility may not necessarily interfere with their sex life and may in fact improve their libido, according to research published in the journal Headache.

"The goal of this research was to understand migraine better," lead author Dr. Timothy T. Houle told Reuters Health. "By better understanding how the brain is altered with this syndrome, we can develop better drugs in the future."

"Migraines have other commonly associated symptoms, such as sleep abnormalities and a higher risk of depression. Altered sex drive may be another quirk of being a migraine ," he added.

Although it is commonly believed that sex drive is reduced by headaches, and sexual intercourse can cause specific types of headaches, Houle and his associates note, other research has suggested that sexual intercourse may alleviate the pain of migraine in some patients.

Just a guess.