Change For A Quarter?

It's interesting to me that the MSM chooses to keep using a lot of the same experts to comment on certain subjects. It seems like you see the same people being quoted quite often in the media these days. I suppose that happens to some extent in the blogosphere, too. I link to a lot of familiar sites. But I also tend to become very wary of sites I link that turn out to be wrong about certain subjects. Hence, I have not linked to say, the Drudge site in a long time now after having been burned twice.

So it's amazing to me that Larry Johnson is considered at all credible by the MSM right about now. Here's Larry:

Apparently not content to let the U.S. do a self-immolation act in the Middle East by itself, Israel decided to set itself on fire by invading Lebanon.   Burn baby  burn?  Like George Bush, Israel's Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, never served in a combat unit and launched military operations without thinking the matter through.  In fact, Olmert reportedly never even served in the military.  I raise this because there is one simple question Israel cannot answer about the current operations–what is their strategic military objective.  Olmert has somehow persuaded the Israeli military to ignore strategy, think tactically, and in the process become really stupid.   The events in the next several weeks will expose as myth the canard that you can secure a nation by killing terrorists.  No you can't.

And here is the first entry that came up on the Google search, "Ehud Olmert biography":

Ehud Olmert was born in Binyamina in 1945.

He served in the IDF as combat infantry unit officer and was a military correspondent for the IDF journal Bamachane. A lawyer by profession, he holds B.A. and LL.B. degrees in Psychology, Philosophy and Law from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

That would be a glaring falsehood from Mr. Johnson. There are a lot more entries in the Google results (10,600), by all means try them yourselves. Now, Mr. Johnson is a former spook, and the MSM treats him as a font of wisdom on intelligence matters.

Why?

A few keystrokes shows him to be, being charitable here, less than accurate. How accurate was the work he did as a member of the intelligence community? His blog is titled No Quarter. I suspect that's accurate. He's shy a quarter and quite a bit more. Anyone got change?

Horizon

101st Blog Of The Day

Today, it is kind of fitting that my ongoing mission to visit one member of the fighting 101st took me over to Israel Matzav, the blog of Carl in Jerusalem. He has a lot more close-up view on what is going on in Israel than a lot of bloggers, myself included, of course. Today he extracts some nuggets from a Washington Post article that help clarify what the problem with Hezbollah in Lebanon is.

The Left And The War In The Middle East

My friend Rick over at The Real Ugly American has a bit of a fisking for a post by Kevin Drum that explains the silence of the left (for the most part) over the war currently raging in the Middle East.

2. The fight between Israel and the Palestinians is over half a century old and seems intractable.”Both sides need to ratchet down the rhetoric and rein in their own extremists.” Aside from being pointless, there are only just so many ways you can say this.

You are absolutely right Kevin. You could instead try the truth for once; like Israel pulled out of Gaza unconditionally and in return got hundreds of rockets launched from Gaza into Israel, incursions from Gaza and Lebanon where Israeli soldiers were killed and kidnapped.
This is not a case of both sides being equally guilty. Hamas is guilty, Hezbollah is guilty, The Lebanese government and the UN are guilty of not disarming Hezbollah 6 years after Israels withdrawal from Lebanon (honoring their part in a UN resolution) and after said UN resolution called for Hezbollah to disarm. And of course Syria and Iran are guilty of supporting Hamas and Hezbollah.

Read the whole thing. It's quite good.

Typical/Atypical

The Arab League held an emergency meeting today to discuss the situation in Lebanon and Gaza. They responded in a typical fashion:

The Arab League said on Saturday after an emergency meeting of foreign ministers in Cairo that the Middle East peace process had failed, and called on the United Nations Security Council to intervene to stop the escalating violence.

The Arab foreign ministers also adopted a resolution supporting Lebanon and the Palestinians, but also called on all parties to avoid actions that "may undermine peace and security in the region".

"We all decided that the peace process has failed and that the mechanisms, proposals and committees were either deceptive or sedatives or contrary to the peace process, or handed the process over as a gift to Israeli diplomacy to do with as it wished," Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa said.

"This has led to and is leading to the collapse of stability in the Middle East… So there is no peace process," he added.

Speaking to reporters at the 22-member Arab League headquarters, Moussa said the group would turn to the UN Security Council for help.

"So we take it back to the United Nations, and maybe the date will be in September," he said.

In other words, it's all Israel's fault. No blame assigned to the kidnappers. No blame to the puppetmasters behind the terrorists. However, there is one very atypical element to the entire charade:

Ministers at the meeting traded barbs over whether Lebanese guerrilla group Hezbollah bore any responsibility for the escalation in violence that followed its capture of two Israeli soldiers.

The Saudi foreign minister appeared to be leading a camp of ministers criticizing the guerrilla group's actions, calling them "unexpected, inappropriate and irresponsible acts."

"These acts will pull the whole region back to years ago, and we cannot simply accept them," Saudi al-Faisal told his counterparts.

Supporting his stance were representatives of Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Iraq, the Palestinian Authority, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, delegates said on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the talks.

Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem lashed back al-Faisal, asking "How can we come here to discuss the burning situation in Lebanon while others are making statements criticizing the resistance?"

Moallem emerged as the leader of another camp of ministers defending Hezbollah as carrying out "legitimate acts in line with international resolutions and the UN charter, as acts of resistance," delegates said.

Salloukh, a Shiite close to the mainstream Amal faction as well as the militant Hezbollah, said Arab governments were not doing enough to protest Israel's assault on Lebanon.

Saudi Arabia leading the critics of Hezbollah is a very big shift. There is a camp in the Arab world that is not at all happy with the Iranian adventure and they are going public with their criticism. That is highly unusual. In fact, it may be a first. A sign of a fracture in the united front?

We can but hope.

UPDATE: Big Pharaoh also sees this as very unusual, and maybe trouble for Hezbollah. Rantings Of A Sandmonkey as well. Vital Perspective also sees the conflict as unusual.

The Email I Spoke About

I just got off the phone with Hugh Hewitt, who's doing a special Saturday program. I wanted to tell him of the email I got from my son, serving his second tour in Iraq. I had to do a verbal edit as I went along as my son didn't exactly pull any verbal punches so to speak. Here's an edited version of part of the email:

I can't even begin to tell you how angry I am about all this. Iran is
getting away with murder right now, in the literal sense.  What is WRONG
with this planet? When is it acceptable to allow an sovereign nation to not
only condone, but ACTIVELY PARTICIPATE in global terrorism? By all rights,
Iran is in a de facto state of war with several countries, and yet, it's a
tiny country of Jews that finally has the guts to stand up and fight them.
I'm not looking at this from an objective viewpoint.

Greetings to the folks who are already navigating over to the Boulevard (I can see the hitcounter and the searches people are using to find the humble Crabitat). Please do look around, Hugh Hewitt has been very kind to this blog in the past couple of months and I am grateful for the people who have discovered me through his links.

Hugh Hewitt Show

Bill Roggio from the Counterterrorism Blog is on Hugh Hewitt right now talking about the situation in Lebanon right now. You can listen on the web at the KRLA website. Which is what I'm doing at the moment.

UN Security Council Adopts North Korea Resolution

The UN Security Council has unanimously adopted a resolution condemning North Korea's missile testing and demanding it suspend it's missile program. The resolution is essentially toothless since it does not invoke article 7 of the UN charter.

The agreement was reached after a last-minute compromise between Japan, the United States and Britain, who wanted a tough statement, and Russia and China, who favored weaker language.

The deal culminated 10 days of difficult negotiations.

"The council has acted swiftly and robustly in response to the reckless and condemnable act of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea," said Japan's Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs, Chintaro Ito.

In the final negotiations, the council was divided on one issue: if the resolution should be adopted under Chapter 7 of the U.N. Charter, which allows for military force to make sure the resolution is obeyed.

China had threatened to veto any resolution that mentioned Chapter 7 and in the final compromise it was dropped. The resolution adopted Saturday by a 15-0 vote states that the Security Council was "acting under its special responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security."

This won't exactly overawe the manic midget of Pyongyang. But at least they actually passed it.

UPDATE: Reuters Coverage.

Bill Clinton Backs Lieberman

You know what, I hate to agree with anything Bill Clinton says but in this case he nails it. Clinton made some remarks concerning the Connecticut primary that are spot on.

"If we allow our differences over what to do now in Iraq to divide us instead of focusing on replacing Republicans in Congress; that's the nuttiest strategy I ever heard in my life," Clinton told the nonprofit cultural organization.

Audio of Clinton's comments was posted on the Minnesota Public Radio web site.

Clinton questioned efforts of some Democrats to impose a fixed timetable for removing U.S. troops from Iraq — something Lieberman opposes.

"Why send a signal to the people that are trying to keep Iraq divided and tear it up when we're gonna go," he asked.

Clinton defended Lieberman's Democratic credentials, mentioning how the senator has been endorsed by labor unions, environmental organizations and gay groups.

"We've got a world of differences between ourselves and the Republicans," he said. "So I think the Democrats are making a mistake to go after each other … for a situation none of them created."

Except for that last line of course, since Clinton did, indeed, help create the situation by allowing terror to grow unmolested during his tenure in office. And a lot of the Democrats backed the war before they didn't.

Soup’s On!

TC over at LeatherPenguin has the scoop on some serious fresh victuals that came ashore on Staten Island just in time for dinner! Do NOT miss the pictures!

All Lebanese Radar Stations Destroyed

The IDF has destroyed every Lebanese radar station and attacked Beirut proper. I'd say this is likely linked to the attack yesterday on shipping using radar guided drones. With everything else off the air, it will be easier to pick up the guidance systems of the drones.

The IDF destroyed all the radar stations along the Lebanese coast on Saturday, the IDF said in a press conference on Saturday evening.

The IAF attacked Beirut on Saturday evening for the first time in the four-day-old offensive, striking a lighthouse and the Beirut seaport

A helicopter gunship flew into the Lebanese capital from over the Mediterranean and fired a missile at the lighthouse, located at the tip of the city in the Ras Beirut district, witnesses said.

The top glass section of the lighthouse was shattered, but the building, erected two years ago to replace an older one nearby, remained standing.

Witnesses also said the Beirut seaport, the country's main commercial port facility, was also hit, as was the nearby seaport of Jounieh, which houses a Lebanese army base.

A short while earlier, the IAF fired missiles into the seaport of Lebanon's northernmost city of Tripoli in the deepest attack into Lebanese territory since fighting began four days ago.

Witnesses said helicopter gunships and gunboats fired four missiles into the port area, hitting grain silos.

Several explosions were heard in Tripoli, the country's second-largest city, about 100 kilometers north of Beirut. The port there is also the country's second-largest, after Beirut.

IAF planes repeatedly blasted Beirut's southern suburbs early Saturday evening, causing a series of huge blasts, Hizbullah's Al Manar television reported.

Israel hit grain silos? Want to bet there was something else to those silos besides grain?

Israel Deploys Patriot Missile Batteries In Haifa

The IDF has deployed Patriot missile batteries in Haifa. Although the Patriot missiles will not work against Katyusha rockets, they can be used against the types of surface to surface missiles that Syria possesses. I think this indicates there is something coming soon.

Hezbollah launched two barrages of Katyusha rockets Saturday at the city of Tiberias, located 35 kilometers from the Lebanese border. In the first attack, one of three rockets directly struck a residential building, sustaining damage. The owners of the residence were abroad.

Two rockets landed adjacent to a stadium in Tiberias and near the town's Club Hotel. Six people were lightly injured from rocket shrapnel.

Authorities have asked that bathers on the coast of the Sea of Galilee evacuate the area for fear of further Katyusha attacks.

Early Saturday evening, four more Katyusha rockets struck Tiberias. Magen David Adom rescue services received a report that one of the rockets directly struck a house in the city.

In the second barrage, two people suffered light wounds while two others were treated for shock. A Nahariya residents also sustained light wounds when a rocket barrage struck the northern city on Saturday evening.

For the first time since the 1991 Persian Gulf War, the Israel Defense Forces has deployed Patriot missile batteries in Haifa.

The missile defense system cannot destroy Katyusha rockets - hundreds of which have been fired at Israel from Lebanon in recent days - but could protect against surface-to-surface missiles, such as those possessed by Syria, the army said.

This may not be a good sign.

A Departure

Normally, we have a lot of fun with animal stories around here. Especially when we can work in the "animal uprising" theme. Today is a little bit of a departure in that there really is a serious message in this story.

IN THE EVERGLADES, Fla. - Crusty's days are numbered. The well-known 8-foot alligator has become so accustomed to people feeding him that his demise is certain. Because state wildlife managers worry all his snacks will make him aggressive, they will have to remove him from a canal along Florida's Alligator Alley in the Everglades and euthanize him.

To keep from having to kill even more alligators, officers with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission launched a three-day undercover sting operation in Broward County on Friday aimed at catching gator feeders in the act.

It's a second-degree misdemeanor punishable by a fine and up to 60 days in jail.

Jeffrey Bush, 43, of Fort Lauderdale, learned the hard way. Officers say they caught him tossing a fish to Crusty on Friday morning.

"I wasn't really trying to feed the dumb animal," Bush said. "I was just throwing stuff at him to get him to move and one of those things happened to be a fish."

Bush will now have to argue his case in court.

"People think that throwing one hot dog in the water, a fish, a piece of bread or an M&M means nothing, but the fact is that act modifies the animal's behavior and now you have a potentially dangerous, fatal situation," said officer Chuck Ehrismann. "They start to see humans as a food source."

Officials estimate there are up to two million alligators in Florida, many living in urban areas that have encroached on their natural habitat. Three people were fatally attacked by alligators in Florida during one week in May.

It really is a problem. People think they are being nice feeding the gators. They are not. The alligators become desensitized to humans and end up having to be destroyed. Alligators can't be relocated because they are highly territorial. So to all the kind-hearted, well-meaning people out there, for the alligator's sake, don't even try to feed them.

It gets them used to using newspapers as bait. Ok, we couldn't resist bringing it up.

Connecticut’s Bulldog

That's Joe Lieberman's response to the Lamont attack saying Lieberman was "Bush's lapdog". Lieberman replied: "I consider myself Connecticut's bulldog." The Hartford Courant has been giving excellent coverage of the primary battle in Connecticut. Today is no exception.

Lieberman, Lamont said at last week's debate with the senator, "too often is willing to undermine the Democrats, be it on issues of war and peace like the war in Iraq, or be it on a variety of other issues."

Lieberman counters that his job is to make tough choices that are not always presented in black and white terms, choices that often involve less-than-ideal legislation.

"When I disagree with my colleagues, I have the courage of my convictions to say so," he said in an interview Wednesday. And, he added, "If you wait to get 100 percent of what you want around here, you'll never get anything."

Democratic colleagues understand the need to compromise, and almost uniformly regard Lieberman as one of their own.

"A lot of people disagree with Joe on Iraq," said Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., who is featured on Lamont's website as a model of sorts for the challenger, "but the notion that that view doesn't make him a true Democrat is a mistake."

Lamont's forces brush aside such talk as insiders protecting an old friend. "That's Washington," said Liz Dupont-Diehl, his spokeswoman.

Voting Records

On paper, Lieberman's voting record would seem to end any suggestion that he's not true to the party. Pick almost any ranking, and he's in the same league as most of his Democratic colleagues in the Senate.

The liberal Americans for Democratic Action found him voting its way 80 percent of the time last year. The NAACP gave him an 85 percent mark, the Children's Defense Fund 89 percent, the AFL-CIO 92 percent.

Overall, Lieberman voted with Democrats 90 percent of the time last year, close to Connecticut Sen. Christopher J. Dodd's 94 percent, according to Congressional Quarterly's study of key votes.

But Lamont's camp says the Lieberman performance suggests he's not a hardcore Democrat. On key issues, Dupont-Diehl said, Lieberman took a position very different from other party members and then joined his colleagues for the final votes - or when other party members criticized his views.

The argument from the Lamont camp boils down to ideological purity being the only acceptable measure of being a Democrat. That's a deadly road for a political party to travel.

Pool Harbor

On Father's Day, I was the victim of a surprise attack by my family. First they lulled me into a false sense of security, then, when I wasn't looking, 'wham'.

The setup was my wife sending my youngest boy to ask me please, please, please can we go to a local Renaissance fair? Now, I've been to these things before, most notably at the really big one that's held up in Sterling, New York. In fact, I knew one of the guys who got that little clambake started in the first place. So between the pleading from the little guy, fond memories and frankly not having anything else to do, I agreed.

So the big day rolls around and we pile in the car and head over to the fair. It wasn't too crowded when we got there and we were able to get a parking place closer than the next county, always a plus at these sprawling events where you'll already be walking until you develop blisters or cramps. Or both.

If you've never been to one of these things, what they are is kind of a craft show in drag. There are more booths selling odd things than anything else. There are also several stages for various and sundry entertainments. The entertainers vary quite a lot in talent and ability, too. Some are quite good, some should definitely not quit their day jobs. Part of the entertainment is the way the vendors and actors dress up in various interpretations of Renaissance garb. Again, the outfits also vary quite a lot in authenticity and execution. Some are fabulous, others look like they were put together by out of work hippies. On a really bad day.

It was a pretty hot day, but at least there was a breeze, so we wandered around looking at various improbable outfits worn by people attending the fair. Even a lot of the civilians, so to speak, play dress up for the event. Some of these outfits cross over into complete bizarro land. Seeing a 300 pound plus guy in purple tights with a codpiece is enough to make you rethink that turkey leg you just ate.

We went into the "pub" (which was actually a tent) so my daughter could watch a band she had seen the previous day (she went with friends). They were actually quite good and did a kind of medieval Scottish themed show. The front man spoke in the requisite brogue and they really were all showmen. The act was quite funny and the front man got the audience involved. Afterward, while helping my daughter get the CD she bought signed by the band members, I found out the band was somewhat less than they appeared to be. Not only were they not Scots, they were all Americans from Texas. Still, they were quite good.

Eventually, my wife insisted I buy a sword I had admired in one booth, since it was Father's Day and all. The vendor turned out to be a local guy who makes swords as a hobby. They are quite real, not the decorative ones that you can find all over these days. His weapons are made out of real high carbon steel and are fully functional. In fact, he told me that a lot of his swords go to the folks who participate in tournaments run by the Society For Creative Anachronism.

After completing the mercantile equivalent of a marathon, we trudged wearily back to the car. The sheriff's deputies watching the entrance kept an eye on me as I walked past. Which I guess was fair considering I had several feet of steel blade over one shoulder. And I made sure I didn't make any sudden moves, either. They looked irritable. We drove home, tired but happy.

A little while after getting home, my wife had the kids give me a Father's Day card. It was more a booklet than a card and was quite humorous. Until I got to the last page, that is. That's when I saw, written just below the obligatory "we love you Dad" the dreaded words. "We bought a pool!"

They hate me, I just know it.

UPDATE: Pictures of Pool Harbor here.