Senator Johnson Improving

South Dakota Senator Tim Johnson has had his condition upgraded from critical to fair. Truly remarkable progress and great news for him and his family.

Johnson is breathing independently after using a ventilator for several weeks, most recently only at night, his doctor, Vivek Deshmukh, said Tuesday.

The South Dakota Democrat, who underwent emergency surgery on Dec. 13, remains in intensive care at George Washington University Hospital, said his spokeswoman, Julianne Fisher.

"The senator continues to make progress," Fisher said. "The next step would be rehabilitation, and we hope that would happen within the week."

A tracheotomy tube remains in his neck to guard his airway, and the senator still has not spoken, Fisher said.

The senator is expected to leave intensive care but remain in the hospital when he begins the rehabilitation process. His office has said that his recovery is expected to take several months.

He has kind of been forgotten after the initial media frenzy, so it is good news to hear he is improving.

CNN coverage here.

You’re On Your Own, Ted

With much cheering and high-fiving from the left, Ted "Mind If I Drive Your Daughter Home" Kennedy introduced his Cut the American Troops Off at The Knees bill of 2007. Senate leaders promptly kicked Teddy under the carpet and introduced a non-binding resolution which will not try to limit funds.

Sen. Ted Kennedy is the Senate Democrats' army of one, trying to launch a revolution when they would prefer cordial discussion. Scheduled to discuss health care at the National Press Club, Kennedy uncorked a stemwinder about the Democrats' responsibility to shut down the Iraq war. He is proposing legislation that would prevent the troop surge President Bush will unveil tomorrow night by prohibiting additional troops and additional dollars for it. Kennedy implored his brothers and sisters in Congress to resist the president's specific new plan, and to revive their branch of government—to "reclaim the rightful role of Congress and the people's right to a full voice."

"We have the solemn obligation now to show the American people that we heard their voices," Kennedy thundered. Democrats in Congress must fight Bush with something more than "pale actions, timid gestures and empty rhetoric."

Shortly afterward, across town in the U.S. Capitol, the new Senate Democratic leaders took their place before the microphones just off the Senate floor to put forward their plan: a bipartisan, nonbinding bill called the Pale Action and Timid Gesture Resolution. That wasn't the real name, of course, but it is exactly what Kennedy insisted Congress should not do. Afterward, I asked Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois what had happened to his own suggestion that Congress limit the number of troops that could fight in Iraq as a way to stop the surge. "That's Senator Kennedy's bill," said the second-highest-ranking Democrat. Yes, but didn't you suggest that troops be limited, I asked? "That's Senator Kennedy's bill." You're on your own, Ted.

Gee, Ted, guess, looks like your pals are treating you like you did Mary Jo Kopechne. About time. Incidentally, Think Progress gives (quite inadvertently, I'm sure) an exact record of the fabulous successes that followed previous Congressional fortes into the Constitutional bailiwick of the Commander in Chief:

December 1970. P.L. 91-652 — Supplemental Foreign Assistance Law. The Church-Cooper amendment prohibited the use of any funds for the introduction of U.S. troops to Cambodia or provide military advisors to Cambodian forces. (Note: Cambodia's eventual death toll, 1.7 million)

December 1974. P.L. 93-559 — Foreign Assistance Act of 1974. The Congress established a personnel ceiling of 4000 Americans in Vietnam within six months of enactment and 3000 Americans within one year. (Note: Vietnam's eventual death toll, at least 165,000 but actually much higher.)

June 1983. P.L. 98-43 — The Lebanon Emergency Assistance Act of 1983. The Congress required the president to return to seek statutory authorization if he sought to expand the size of the U.S. contingent of the Multinational Force in Lebanon. (Note: No casualty figures, but years more civil war and untold numbers killed)

June 1984. P.L. 98-525 — The Defense Authorization Act. The Congress capped the end strength level of United States forces assigned to permanent duty in European NATO countries at 324,400. (Note: We saved France. We're still paying for that).

November 1993. P.L. 103-139. The Congress limited the use of funding in Somalia for operations of U.S. military personnel only until March 31, 1994, permitting expenditure of funds for the mission thereafter only if the president sought and Congress provided specific authorization. (Note: Blackhawk Down. Any questions?)

Yes, they can and have intervened before. It has an appalling record, however.

UPDATE: Others: STACLU, Wake Up America, Ace, Dan Riehl, (Dan is a bit optimistic on the numbers, I think. But he is absolutely correct in one thing. The Democrats do NOT have a mandate to lose this war. And they had better not even go down that road if they do not want a drubbing in 2008.) OTB, Don Surber, Decision '08, TMV, Talk Left, (who deserves to be quoted here):

The bottom line is clear. WHETHER the United States enters war or CONTINUES at war is the exclusive decision of the Congress. Bt the CONDUCT of that specific war, subject to Congress power of military rulemaking (on torture, the UCMJ, the Geneva Conventions, etc.), belongs exclusively to the President.

The Congress' power here seems clear to me. IT can END the Iraq war. But it can not dictate how it is conducted on military questions. That power belongs to the President.

And it has ended disastrously when they have violated that, I think.

Is The AP Really Doing This?

If the information the Curt at Flopping Aces is correct, the Associated Press may have a real, serious issue with it's credibility that actually goes well beyond the original issue of the veracity of the report of six Sunni victims burned alive. He has published, with a named source who can be verified, information that indicates that the AP actually told an outright lie when they said that Jamil Hussein had been located.

I've been in touch with Bill Costlow (the CPATT (Civilian Police Assistance Training Team) representative) since he has been back in-country and I have a few interesting developments on this story.

First, the AP story:

Ministry spokesman Brig. Abdul-Karim Khalaf, who had previously denied there was any such police employee as Capt. Jamil Hussein, said in an interview that Hussein is an officer assigned to the Khadra police station, as had been reported by The Associated Press.

But guess what Bill just confirmed?  Brig. Abdul-Karim Khalaf never acknowledged that there was a Capt. Jamil Hussein assigned to the Khadra station, he confirmed to the AP that there was a Capt. Jamil Ghdaab Gulaim assigned there.  Apparently he is the source for the AP even though he still, to this day (according to Bill Costlow), denies being the source.

So what do we have so far?

That the AP has lied again in their response.  The AP specifically stated that Brig. Abdul-Karim Khalaf acknowledged Jamil Hussein exists when he did no such thing.  He acknowledged a completely different name the AP gave him but not a Jamil Hussein.

This would be a really major breech of ethics. If this pans out, this will be a deadly serious blow to the AP. None of this addresses whether the original report that sparked all of this was true however. The AP still has not produced any proof and has, in fact, been quietly rewriting the stories without acknowledging that they have done so. The four burned mosques of the original stories become a single mosque in later ones. A miraculous occurrence if true.

But if the AP actually lied about what Khalaf told them, there is a whole other issue on the table.  

UPDATE: Others: Anchoress, A Blog for All, Gateway Pundit, Powerline, Jawa Report, Snapped Shot, Noisy Room,

I Got Five Bucks

That says this project does not work out.

TORONTO - Why not release a giant banana in Mexico so it can fly over Texas? That's a Montreal artist's reason for releasing a 985-foot banana-shaped airship into the sky late next year.

The helium-filled balloon, made of bamboo and synthetic paper, is expected to float from Mexico into Texas airspace, where it will circle for up to a month, The Globe and Mail newspaper reported.

It will drift in a low orbit some 12 to 18 miles above the Earth until it disintegrates.

It either won't get off the ground, or it will, but it won't go where they think it will or stay up very long at all.

You Can Never Let Go

“We have been screaming about this conflict for 30 years now,” Henry said as he dealt himself a hand of Solitaire from a deck of cards in his pocket. “But no one ever listened to us. Not until September 11. Now you know how we feel all the time. You have to keep up the pressure. You can never let go, not for one day, one hour, not for one second. The minute you let go, Michael, they will fight back and get stronger. This is the problem with your foreign policy.”

The words of one of Michael Totten's Lebanese guides into the Hezbollah stronghold in Southern Lebanon. He is referring to the battle against the extremists like Hezbollah, of course. This is a must read article with many pictures of the damage in that area. But also a lot of information that directly counters the Western media's narrative of the war.

Well This Is Odd

I didn't post about it yesterday, but a fairly large number of birds were found dead in Austin, Texas. They closed off part of town to deal with it. The Chicago Tribune reports that the number of birds killed was 63.

AUSTIN, Texas — Police shut down 10 blocks in downtown Austin for several hours Monday after 63 birds were found dead in the street, but officials said preliminary tests found no threat to people.

Workers in yellow hazardous-materials suits tested for contaminants in a cordoned-off section near the state Capitol and the governor's mansion before authorities finally gave the all-clear in the afternoon.

Although officials could not immediately determine whether poison or something else killed the birds, "there's no threat to humans at this point," said Assistant City Manager Michael McDonald.

The dead grackles, sparrows and pigeons will be tested.

Well, it seems that it has been happening in Australia, too, only more so.

THOUSANDS of birds have fallen from the skies over Esperance and no one knows why. Is it an illness, toxins or a natural phenomenon? A string of autopsies in Perth have shed no light on the mystery.

All the residents of flood-devastated Esperance know is that their "dawn chorus" of singing birds is missing.

The main casualties are wattle birds, yellow-throated miners, new holland honeyeaters and singing honeyeaters, although some dead crows, hawks and pigeons have also been found.

Wildlife officers are baffled by the "catastrophic" event, which the Department of Environment and Conservation said began well before last week's freak storm.

On Monday, Esperance, 725km southeast of Perth, was declared a natural disaster zone.

District nature conservation co-ordinator Mike Fitzgerald said the first reports of birds dropping dead in people's yards came in three weeks ago. More than 500 deaths had since been notified. But the calls stopped suddenly last week, reportedly because no birds were left.

Weird. This happened a while ago in Idaho as well. They think they have a cause, though:

OAKLEY, Idaho (AP) — The investigation into what killed about 25-hundred mallards along a creek in southern Idaho last month has officially concluded the cause to be a fungal infection called aspergillosis.

Dave Parrish of the Idaho Department of Fish and Game says the ducks likely contracted it after eating moldy corn at a nearby farm. Parrish says every lab that examined the dead ducks came up with the same results.

Bad time for birds in several places.

Say Goodbye To Hollywood

Movin' on is a chance that you have to take
Any time you try to stay - together
Whoa
Say a word out of line
And you find that the friends you had
Are gone forever
Forever

So many faces in and out of my life
Some will last
Some will just be now and then
Life is a series of hellos and goodbyes
I'm afraid it's time for goodbye again
Say goodbye to Hollywood
Say goodbye, my baby
Say goodbye to Hollywood
Say goodbye, my baby
(Billy Joel, Say Goodbye to Hollywood)

Assuming this report is true - and it appears to be so judging from the comment from the star's rep quoted at the end, Rosie O'Donnell might want to brush up on the lyrics of Billy Joel's classic. Because she may well need them soon.

O'Donnell is fuming because Trump went on Larry King two weeks ago - after she had called Trump a "snake-oil salesman" - and said Walters told him she regretted hiring O'Donnell. Trump also blasted the comic as "a horrible human being and a loser."

During her vacation, Walters issued a carefully worded statement saying, "I'm sorry there is friction between Donald and Rosie. That said, I do not regret for one moment my choice to hire Rosie O'Donnell as the moderator of 'The View.' "

After O'Donnell's outburst at Walters yesterday, Geddie jumped in and told her, "You've crossed the line." O'Donnell retorted, "Cameras are now outside of my house where my wife and kids are." She turned to Walters and said, "You went all around this and never called [Trump] a liar. You never said, 'Donald is lying.' You never called him a liar."

When Walters tried to defend herself, O'Donnell erupted, "Are you looking me in the face and denying you didn't tell him you didn't say this? You're a [bleeping] liar."

Rosie is, at very best, a b-list celebrity. Barbara Walters has more than enough inside pull in the industry to make sure even that little bit of stardom goes away for Rosie. Stunningly foolish move. Say goodbye, Rosie.

UPDATE: AllahPundit has video. Rosie vs Fudgie the Whale: Death Match.

Foiled Again

An attempt by the Animal Uprising™ to infiltrate the US Navy submarine base at Bangor, Washington, was foiled over the weekend. A gray whale attempted to gain access to the facility.

Area residents spotted the carcass Saturday on the east side of Toandos Peninsula, and a necropsy led by John Calambokidis, a biologist with Cascade Research Collectives, was conducted Monday.

"We couldn't find any major external injuries that would suggest a cause of death," Calambokidis told the Kitsap Sun newspaper.

Tissue samples were taken to test for toxic chemicals and disease processes but may yield little information because the whale had been dead for at least a week and a half, he said.

The whale, seen alive near Seabeck in about mid-December and later spotted near the Alderbrook Inn at the south end of the fjord, may have been sick when it entered Hood Canal about the middle of December, Calambokidis said. The first report that it had died was received Dec. 31, but the carcass was not spotted again until Saturday.

The Navy, who isn't talking about this event at all, is believed to have used a new blubber-seeking torpedo on the intruder. Or at least we're pretty sure that's what our informant told us. He can be a bit tough to understand when he's in that condition.

NYC Officials: Secaucus Reeks

In what is really quite routine in the New York City - New Jersey region, City officials are pointing fingers at New Jersey as the cause of the stink that hit Manhattan yesterday. New Jersey officials are pointing right back. This is considered recreational in that area.  

Charles Sturcken, a spokesman for the city Department of Environmental Protection, said Tuesday that his agency was pretty sure the source of the smell was along New Jersey's industrialized waterfront, just across the Hudson River from New York.

"The way we tracked the dispersion of the smell and the prevailing winds indicates that it came from New Jersey, somewhere near Secaucus," Sturcken said.

The strong odor, detectable from Manhattan's southern tip to well past Central Park, led to some precautionary evacuations, and about a dozen people were taken to hospitals complaining of difficulty breathing, Fire Department spokesman Tony Sclafani.

Meanwhile, New Jersey officials didn't bother to actually check out the reports of the bad smell coming from within their own state. That should give Jersey residents great faith in their government.

Complaints about the odor also came from Bergen and Hudson counties in New Jersey, but no air sampling was done there because the state Department of Environmental Protection had no specific locations to test, spokeswoman Elaine Makatura said.

Um, so it smells bad all over in New Jersey? Well, NYC officials would say that. (I still believe it will turn out to be an over-injection of methyl mercaptan into the natural gas mains, as I pointed out yesterday. The sudden reports coming from all over lower Manhattan would indicate, to me at least, that the smell didn't just blow in on the wind.)

UPDATE: The New York Post is blaming a swamp in New Jersey, but gets a tad confused at the end of the article and mentions mercaptan as well. Jury is still out. Suitably Flip says Jersey done it, though. A Blog for All: It figures.

False Choice

The New Hampshire Union Leader has an editorial pointing out the obvious absurdity of Nancy Pelosi's posturing on the Sunday morning talk show circuit. They call the attempt to nuance support versus surge a false choice.

Sending an additional 30,000 or so troops to Baghdad might or might not be a sensible policy. (For more discussion, see the opposite page.) We will have to see exactly how many troops President Bush wants to send and how he intends to use them. At this point the details are sketchy. But to suggest that sending more forces is in no way related to supporting the ones already there is to talk complete nonsense.

If U.S. forces in Baghdad are vulnerable because there are too few of them, if they lack the manpower to complete their mission, then sending more troops is not, as Pelosi suggests, creating a new and separate mission. It is, by definition, supporting the troops who are there by giving them the help they need to do their jobs.

In August of 1942 the United States had only half a million troops stationed overseas, according to the Army's official history of the war. The next year the Army sent nearly 1.5 million men to fight abroad. If the politicians of then thought like Pelosi does today, they would have approved of rearming the 500,000 troops fighting the Germans, Italians and Japanese, but not sending the additional forces necessary to win the war. Refusing to increase troop strength where needed is the very definition of abandoning troops who are already in the fight.

At this point, Pelosi's rhetoric does not amount to abandoning the troops currently fighting terrorists in Iraq. But it has created a convenient way for Democrats to abandon Iraq and our mission there if they perceive that doing so is politically expedient for them

I have a much greater personal stake in this than do the vast majority of bloggers. That does not give me absolute moral authority, but it may give me a bit different perspective. When the Democrats begin threatening to cut off funding, I take it very personally. My son is one of the people who will be directly impacted by a funding cutoff. And despite Pelosi's rhetoric, you cannot separate one set of funds from another in this instance. Cutting funding to the troops will have a negative impact on the troops currently in Iraq.

The election did not give the Democrats a mandate to cause the US to lose a war. They need to keep that in mind or they will suffer for it in 2008. They need to put the good of the country ahead of this partisan political agenda. Playing politics with troops on the ground is unacceptable.

Down Under Goes Down

Loyal readers know that we here at Blue Crab Boulevard have spent a lot of time trying to raise human's awareness of the deadly Animal Uprising™. Despite visits from the mental health authorities and subsequent difficulty typing while wearing the stylish, long-sleeved white sport coat they provided us, we have soldiered on. Even the restraining orders have not stopped us from reporting the truth. Although we hasten to add that we never violate the orders and have stopped calling certain people at all hours of the day and night. We regret to inform our readers that all this selfless self-sacrifice has been for naught.

Australia has fallen to the Animal Uprising™. They have put humans on display at the Adelaide Zoo.

Over a month, the humans will be locked in an unused orang-utan cage at Adelaide zoo, braving the searing heat and snacking on bananas. They will be monitored by a psychologist who hopes to use the findings to improve conditions for real apes in captivity.

Audiences can vote for their favourite "ape" via mobile phone text messages, in the style of reality television shows, and at the end of the month, a "super human" will be selected to represent the zoo.

"They're completely mad", said one visitor to the exhibit, as the humans, who are allowed home at night, played up to the crowds and checked each other for imaginary lice.

"It's not as exciting as the animals actually, they're not really doing very much," another onlooker said, clearly unimpressed by the volunteers' shenanigans.

Australians make lousy zoo exhibitions, apparently. Serves them right for surrendering so quickly.

UPDATE: The shame of the Australian collapse and surrender will be broadcast live on the internet, apparently.

Japan Forms Defense Ministry

For the first time since the end of World War Two, Japan has a defense ministry. The government of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has been pushing for the reinstitution of the ministry as well as for requiring the teaching of patriotism in Japan's schools.

Abe, Japan's first premier to be born after the war, made the creation of a defense ministry one of his top priorities. He aims eventually to rewrite the US-imposed 1947 constitution that declared Japan a pacifist country.

"Since the Cold War ended, the national security situation facing Japan has changed dramatically," Abe said at a ceremony to mark the creation of a cabinet-level defense ministry to replace the previous defense agency.

"This is a significant step for us to get out of the post-war regime and lay the foundations for our efforts to build the nation," said Abe, adding that the ministry would now be able to shape defense and security policy.

Abe, a passionate advocate of a more assertive Japan, has faced slipping poll ratings since taking office in September with a vow to build "a beautiful nation" and calls for a hard line against North Korea's nuclear program.

In an interview with the BBC, Abe said other nations had nothing to fear from a more assertive Japan.

"I believe we will be able to gain the understanding as well as the confidence of the world regarding Japan's assertiveness," he said.

Japan's parliament enacted laws in December to create the full-fledged defense ministry and to instill patriotism at schools, breaking two taboos lingering since defeat in World War II.

The bill enjoyed wide support, with the largest opposition party joining the ruling coalition.

In many ways, this is just a symbolic move, important psychologically for Japan, but really not changing a lot - at first, anyway. The Japanese self-defense forces are a pretty strong military and Japan spends a lot on defense already. Global Security points out that Japan spends more than Britain and has a significant and highly sophisticated Navy.

Still More About Venezuela’s Budding Dictator

The Washington Post has an article about (T)Hugo Chavez's announcement that he would be nationalizing telecommunications and electricity in Venezuela. There is even more to it than the AP reported yesterday. Chavez has also purged loyalists from his administration. The people he has removed from power are ones that had actual name recognition with within Venezuela and internationally. He is really going after the Cuban personality cult model. In addition, Chavez has his eye on the remaining oil fields in Venezuela that had not already been nationalized (and are rapidly falling apart under his "reforms").

In his bid to accelerate economic reforms, Chávez said he would seek to have the National Assembly give him special powers that would permit him to approve economic laws by decree. The plan would have little or no opposition in the 167-member body, which has not had an opposition politician in its ranks since the president's foes boycotted elections in 2005.

"I move forward with my request for a revolutionary enabling law," he said. "We already have the document prepared. We are making the final revisions, and we solicit special powers."

The president also spoke about the need for Venezuela's most important oil fields, those in the Orinoco belt in the northeast, to be brought under state control. The projects in that region, which the government says contains more oil than any other patch in the world, were developed in the late 1990s by foreign multinational firms such as Exxon Mobil, BP, Chevron and Total of France…..

….Last week, the government replaced one of Chávez's most loyal aides, José Vicente Rangel, the vice president. In an ambitious cabinet shake-up, Chávez also replaced the heads of such key ministries as interior, justice, finance and education. He appointed his brother, Adan, to run education.

"He's gotten rid of a couple of people who have their own separate identity, particularly Rangel, who has contacts in Venezuelan society and internationally," said Mark L. Schneider, a senior vice president of the International Crisis Group in Washington, a policy group that regularly compiles reports on Venezuela's political situation. "Rangel is not a yes man, I suspect, and my guess is that he may not be in tune with the way Chávez likes to run things."

It is going to be a grim time for Venezuela. Chavez needs to seize the remaining oil assets in order to make up for the declining output of his mismanaged oil sector. As the oil infrastructure deteriorates, so will revenues.

UPDATE: Publius Pundit has more.

UPDATE: Others: Venezuela Crisis, Club for Growth, QandO, Fausta,