Tidal Wave

Oh, please. The Associated Press is doing it's all-out level best here but their article really fails the stink test. They write an approving article about the huge wave of anti-war protests "across the country". And then they actually report what happened. San Francisco managed to muster "several hundred protesters". But there's more!

Jan Rogers, 58, was among several hundred people who gathered in a bustling San Francisco shopping area, then held a march during rush hour. She watched Bush's televised speech Wednesday night and said he "doesn't seem to get it."

"The rest of the country is shouting, 'Stop this insanity,' and I think he's just trying to save his presidency and his legacy. But he's just on the wrong path," Rogers said…..

….In Times Square, hundreds of anti-war protesters crammed onto a traffic island, chanting "Stop the funding, stop the war" as drivers in one of the world's most famous intersections honked in support.

Some demonstrators held signs depicting the president as a monkey. Others sold buttons that said "Peace." (ed note: Nice touch to really bring in the masses. Not.)

Pat De Angelis said Bush's plan to add more troops would be counterproductive to peace in the Mideast.

"In times of trouble, like the time we are in now, it helps to feel like you are doing something to right the wrongs," she said. (ed note:You mean like closing Saddam's Rape rooms? Right on, sister.)

A band of pro-war protesters on the other end of the island yelled for passers-by to ignore the anti-war rally. The group held a large sign that said "Warning — Leftist protesters trying to demoralize our troops."

"They say they are supporting our troops, but they are lying," said Pamela Hall, a member of the United American Committee. "You can't support someone if you don't support what they are doing. It's disrespectful." (ed note: Good for you.)

Having been in New York City often enough, I will bet you one thing. Those drivers were NOT honking in support. They were honking to tell the idiots to get the hell out of their way. Or to dare them to step off the island.

In San Francisco, turnout was decidedly lower than the crowd of 15,000 that organizers had predicted, but they said protesters were merely spread out among other events throughout the Bay Area.

Apparently, small anti-war teas are all the rage. Not even a good giant puppet head. This is the tidal wave against the war? The left can be counted on to overreach, thank heavens.

Explosion At US Embassy In Athens, Greece

This is flash traffic, not much detail. There has been an explosion at the US embassy compound in Athens, Greece. No word on how big, where in the compound or on any casualties.

It was not clear what caused the blast and there was no immediate word on whether there were any casualties.

"We are investigating the cause of the explosion. We are not ruling anything out," a senior police official told Reuters.

Dozens of police cars surrounded the embassy and police cordoned off all roads in the area, including a major boulevard in front of the mission.

The senior police official did not say whether the explosion was set off inside the compound or whether something might have been thrown into the embassy grounds.

Police officials at the scene said that whatever caused the explosion damaged the official embassy sign outside the mission, but there was little other indication of the extent of damage inside.

The tightly guarded building is surrounded by a 3-meter (9-feet)-high steel fence. Guards are posted at every entrance and at street corners around it.

AP should be updating the link as details emerge.

Get On The Good Foot

James Brown and a BMW Movie Series Commercial that is rather entertaining. Crazy talk.

(Get on the Good Foot, live) Video link via the Hotline's Blogometer.

Was It Or Wasn’t It?

There has been a lot of storm and fury today about reports that American forces raided an Iranian "consulate" in the northern Iraqi city of Irbil today. A lot of people have weighed in on this already. The Iranian government and local Kurdish officials have denounced the raid. But at this point it is not at all clear whether the "consulate" was actually an officially sanctioned consulate at all. There are also extreme conflicts in how the actual "raid" was accomplished. I think it may be too soon to really get het up about this one way or the other.

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) — The U.S. military operation Thursday in the northern Iraqi city of Irbil that resulted in the arrests of six Iranians has drawn a sharp denunciation from Iraq's Kurdish regional government.

A spokesman for the autonomous regional government and its presidency expressed their "alarm" and condemned the Thursday morning operation.

They characterized it as a raid on the Iranian consulate in Irbil, "which opened in the provincial capital in an agreement between the Iraqi government and the Iranian government."

The Kurdish regional government is based in Irbil.

The Kurdish statement, which includes a call for the immediate release of the detainees, says the consulate is entitled to immunity in accordance with the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations of 1963.

The statement also says the Kurdish government, which covers the provinces of Irbil, Sulaimaniya and Duhuk, needs to be informed when such actions are taken.

In Washington, a U.S. official confirmed that six Iranian officials were detained for questioning. But he disputed accounts that troops broke open a consulate gate and conducted a raid.

"No shots were fired. No altercation ensued," said the official. "It was a knock on the door and, 'Please come out.' "

The official also explained that the Iranians in question were not inside an officially designated diplomatic consulate or embassy-like building.

If this was a designated consulate and the individuals currently detained actually have diplomatic passports which were properly presented to the Iraqi government, we have one issue. If the individuals were in a building not officially sanctioned and still have valid diplomatic passports, we have a different one. You can work out all the other combinations, it isn't really hard.

But Iran protesting American actions against a consulate, even if it was a legitimate consular installation, is ridiculous. They assaulted an embassy and took diplomats hostage. And they still hold the embassy to this day. Their protests should be laughed at. Frankly, Iran has been at war with the US for nigh on 30 years now, I'm not real worried about their hurt feelings.

But I am also waiting to see some real details as opposed to Iranian spin-doctoring on this issue.

UPDATE: The New York Times is reporting that the building in question was a liaison office and that there are legitimate questions as to whether or not the building had any sort of diplomatic status. More troubling is a detail I had not seen before. Kurdish troops apparently surrounded the American column that conducted the operation for two hours.

There was a tense standoff later in the day between the American soldiers and about 100 Kurdish troops, who surrounded the American armored vehicles for about two hours in this northern Iraqi city.

The attack was denounced by senior Kurdish officials, who are normally America’s closest allies in Iraq but regarded the action as an affront to their sovereignty in this highly tribal swath of the country. Iran’s Foreign Ministry reacted in Tehran with a harsh denunciation that threatened to escalate tensions with the Bush administration.

The American military said that it had been “conducting routine security operations in Erbil Jan. 11 and detained six individuals suspected of being closely tied to activities targeting Iraqi and coalition forces. One individual was released and five remain in custody.”

American officials have long accused Iran of sending weapons and money into Iraq. In late December the American military detained a number of Iranians in Baghdad, including two diplomats and two who turned out to be senior Iranian military officials. The diplomats were released but the others were forced to leave Iraq under suspicion that they had been working with Shiite militias. The incident also comes at a time when tensions are high between the United States and Iran over its nuclear program.

The incident was a major embarrassment for the Iraqi government, which has been trying to foster initiatives with its neighbor for improving regional security and trade, as well as other issues, and it calls into question the extent of Iraqi control over its own affairs.

About Cleaning Up Congress

You really have to read this live blogging transcript to get the full flavor of what happened in the Senate over earmark reform today. A capsule summary: Senate Democrats are trying - very, very desperately - to kill an amendment offered by Jim DeMint (a Republican) to simply follow the same reforms passed by Nancy Pelosi's House. They are willing to shoot their own party agenda in the foot, or head, whichever is closer, rather than pass meaningful earmark reform. (Like I said, you really have to read the blow-by-blow on this to appreciate how badly this will play to the general public.

Your Tax Dollars At Work!

The Democrats of the House of Representatives: Fearlessly exposing Klingons in the White House! But not the real Klingons like on TV.

(H/T to AllahPundit for the video.)

The Boar Of The Baskervilles

A tale of the Animal Uprising™. Inspired by real life, honest.

Baskerville Hall - on the outskirts of Dartmoor, January 10th.

MY DEAR HOLMES:

My previous letters and telegrams have kept you pretty well up to date as to all that has occurred in this most God-forsaken corner of the world.  The longer one stays here the more one realizes that one should always bring a change of socks and, perhaps two hip flasks instead of just one. For, as instructed, I, your faithful friend, biographer and general hanger on living my life vicariously through your exploits, have ventured out onto the moor in search of the Boar of the Baskervilles.

The longer one stays out on the moor looking at the trenches the boar has dug through the landscape, and trying, not always successfully I fear, to avoid stepping in other traces the beast has left behind, the more one realizes that a pair of galoshes would have been a wise investment.

The boar has been uncommonly busy and has trashed large areas apparently searching for truffles. When truffles are in short supply, dachshunds will do as a light snack. But the beast has people who protect him, too. They purposely tried to direct me to Scotland when I asked for directions. Fortunately, I had my faithful map and discovered the plot shortly after I arrived in Glasgow. After returning to the moor, I resumed my search for the elusive boar. I'm out about 30 pounds in petrol, however and could use a bit extra this week.

All this, however, is unimportant to the mission on which you sent me. I can still remember your complete indifference as to whether the local Starbucks made an inferior latte.  Let me, therefore, return to the facts concerning the Boar of the Baskervilles.

All about are the signs of the beast, but I have been unable to find him anywhere. Searching high and low, I have become wet and miserable, and wildly unpopular to the locals who have taken to shaking pitchforks at me whenever they see me. But this sucker is either invisible or doesn't actually exist. I do keep tripping over this hairy, foul smelling dog that has taken to following me everywhere. He has the oddest bark, a sort of snuffling grunt, punctuated by high pitched squeals. I believe that he must be some sort of spaniel. But no giant boars anywhere.

Yours miserably,

Watson

PS - Don't forget the money, the landlady looks rather a lot like the spaniel and has about the same short temper.

Once Upon A Time….

…There were two drunken idiots who decided that it would be fun to try to break into a building and steal things. Now, this sort of thing happens all the time, but most idiots, even when in a drunken condition know that it is generally a really bad idea to try to break into the local police station.

Sylva (North Carolina) Police Detective Aimee Sumner said the two suspects were arrested on January 6 only hours after they stole flag poles, flags and a sign during their attempted break-in at the station.

"They had cake and icing all over them," said Sumner, adding that the suspects had been drinking and were seen earlier at a birthday party serving birthday cake in a restaurant.

After noticing the damaged door of the police station was smeared with cake and frosting, she said, a police officer followed the crumb trail out onto Main Street where he also found a lid with the same frosting.

The cake and frosting matched that found on the two suspects when they were later apprehended, Sumner said, adding that there was also additional evidence linking them to the crime.

CSI: New York Cheesecake. It could be the next big franchise. But these guys deserve some sort of special recognition. We here at Blue Crab Boulevard hereby inaugurate the Double Reverse Hansel and Gretel Memorial Criminal Mastermind Award®. Congratulations, guys! I imagine once the rest of the inmates learn what you're in for, things will get a bit Grimm.

Patience

With so many members of the House of Representatives, I certainly have not heard all all of them, much less be conversant in all of their positions. So, I have never heard of Jim Marshall, Democrat from Georgia. But I hope I hear more from him and more like him.

WASHINGTON - President Bush and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi both need Jim Marshall.

He’s a House Democrat who represents the kind of Republican-leaning district in the South — in Macon, Ga., and its environs — that Pelosi must keep in order to hold onto her majority in the House.

And Bush needs the support of Marshall and Democrats like him to give his Iraq policy a chance of success…….

Not a last stand
Marshall did not see the speech in the apocalyptic terms that some pundits did: “People need to be thinking about this not as some sort of last stand or next-to-the-last stand, but as a reasonable thing for America to do in order to support the Iraqis.”

There's more. His position cannot be endearing him to Nancy Pelosi, but Tom Curry, the author of the story, is absolutely right. She really should listen to people like Marshall unless she's willing to see the House change hands again in 2008. (Not that I believe she will, but that's another story.) Marshall's best line:

On Monday Marshall used a word that Bush used in his speech Wednesday night, a word you won’t hear Democrats such as Pelosi use: “What this calls for is patience.”

He explained: “We can reduce the size of our conventional forces (in Iraq) at the same time that we increase the size of our Special Operations forces, (do) more training, more embedding — and frankly a difference in the size of the conventional force is not likely to change the security situation very dramatically at all, unless it’s taken a political signal that we’re withdrawing. So we should not be doing it as a withdrawal action.”

Precisely.

Still More Resignations From The Carter Center

Fourteen members of the advisory board to the Carter Center at Emory University have resigned in protest over Jimmy Carter's execrable new book. This is a very public punch in the nose for Carter and should tell people more about just how badly Carter skewed the truth in his latest screed.

The resignations from The Carter Center board are the latest backlash against the former president's book "Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid," which has drawn fire from Jewish groups, been attacked by fellow Democrats and led to the resignation last month of Kenneth Stein, a center fellow and a longtime Carter adviser.

"You have clearly abandoned your historic role of broker in favor of becoming an advocate for one side," the departing members of the Center's Board of Councilors told Carter in their letter of resignation.

The 200-member board is responsible for building public support for the Carter Center. It is not the organization's governing board.

The board's members "are not engaged in implementing work of the Center," Carter Center Executive Director John Hardman said Thursday in a news release.

It looks like Jimmy finally got enough rope. The statement from the Carter center, boiling down to, "We didn't need you anyway," is an extremely lame defense.

UPDATE: And it is getting even uglier. Little Green Footballs has this event plus a lot more, including Alan Dershowitz's latest body slam. This is devastating. Dershowitz flat out calls for an investigation into Carter's finances to determine if Carter should be forced to register a a lobbyist for foreign governments. Ouch.

Does It Matter More What You Want….

…Or more what you don't want? Polimom, writing over at The Moderate Voice articulates the choices and her decision.

Dick Durbin tells us that Americans want out, and he knows this because the Democrats won the majority in Congress in November. The Democrats, of course, have yet another foreign policy approach, and it includes redeployment out of Iraq, in spite of indications that the most likely outcome will be genocide and/or war across the entire region.

I don’t want that, either.

I opposed the election of George Bush because I vehemently disagreed with his administration’s foreign policy; I still do. Furthermore, I objected to this war from the get-go — but we cannot unspill milk, unbreak eggs, or roll back time.

I don’t know if this proposed “surge” will turn the tide in Iraq, but I am terrified of the likely alternative if we pull out. The resultant slaughter of innocents would be far worse than anything we’ve seen there thus far.

Thus — for the first time since this entire nightmare began, Polimom supports Bush’s proposal. I do so reluctantly, and with very deep reservations. It’s not because I think his ideas are good, but because the likely outcome of the proposed alternative is worse.

Please read the whole thing. She does a very good job on this. As I pointed out yesterday, the situation is what it is: this is the war we've got, not the war we would like (or rather not have had at all). We must not lose for our sake as much as for the sake of the Iraqis who would be slaughtered in the resultant bloodbath. Contrary to Durbin's assessment, the voters did not give the Democrats a mandate to lose a war or to inflict a genocidal bloodbath on Iraq. We cannot just walk away, regardless of what some want.

I Only Have Eyes For You

Due to popular demand - well, okay, nobody actually demanded (or even hinted at) anything, but it sounds better than "because we had too much time on our hands" - we have obtained an updated photo of the coins you really need to watch out for. Because they might be watching you. Remember, you saw it here first.

Spooky how they follow you, isn't it?

Now We Understand

We have been assiduously following the story of the alien bombardment of Freehold, New Jersey. Up until now, we had not really understood the full ramifications of what the aliens were doing with this offense. New details have emerged, however, that shed light on the incident and the real motives. Unfortunately, the earthlings are foolishly playing right into their hands.

"The fact that something from outer space hit our house … it's overwhelming," Shankari Nageswaran said in an interview. She and her husband, Srinivasan Nageswaran, a 46-year-old consultant for information technology companies, are from India and have lived in Freehold Township since 2003.

On the night of Jan. 2, Srinivasan Nageswaran walked into his bathroom and spotted a hole in the ceiling and small chunks of drywall and insulation littering the room…..

….Two geologists from Rutgers University, along with an independent metallurgist, soon arrived. They concluded that the rock - tentatively named "Freehold Township" - was an iron meteorite.

"It could have done great damage and destruction," Srinivasan Nageswaran marveled. "It could have hurt our people."

About 50 meteorites reach the Earth's surface each year, but with humans occupying only a small part of the planet, there is only one report every year or two of meteorites hitting buildings, said Tim McCoy, curator of the Smithsonian Institution's meteorite collection.

Every meteorite serves as a "poor man's space probe," yielding information on how the solar system formed, McCoy said.

"There's been fewer than 5,000 meteorites found over the surface of the Earth in the recorded history of mankind," McCoy said. "Every time we get a new one, it's an important event."

Meteorites that hit buildings can be sold for thousands of dollars.

The Nageswarans have not decided what to do with their meteorite, despite plenty of advice from family and friends. But they said they want to make sure that the rock, which they have locked up at a bank, serves an educational purpose.

"There are other dimensions to it than just the absolute 'What is it worth?'" Shankari Nageswaran said.

Given the fact that the "meteorite" is the size of a golf ball but weighs some 13 ounces, it should be obvious that this is not just a rock, but a device of some kind. We here at Blue Crab Boulevard believe that locking it up in the bank is the worst thing they could have done. We strongly suspect that the object is actually the "bank vac" attachment for the mother ship.

The Opposite Tack

I mentioned the Washington Post editorial about the new plan for Iraq earlier. To take a look at a completely opposite view, here's what the Times of London has to say about the "surge" and the alternatives, especially the tired "realities" of the Iraq Study Group:

In reality, there is no credible alternative. The Iraq Study Group proved rather better at setting out the many problems that exist in Iraq than in offering precise solutions. Its recommendation that the White House co-opt Iran and Syria as its allies in Iraq does not look remotely plausible. The idea that suddenly withdrawing American soldiers from the country would convince Shia and Sunni hardliners to be more charitable to one another is equally improbable. Mr Bush’s domestic foes, notably Nancy Pelosi, the new Democratic Speaker of the House of Representatives (who has a minimal record in foreign policy) and the increasingly surreal Edward Kennedy, would simply abandon Iraq and be done with it.

This is not a course that the United States can afford to take. Mr Bush’s decision involves serious risks and it is inevitable that more American soldiers will die as a result of being sent to dangerous sections of Baghdad. Nor is this destined to be a wildly popular announcement at home. It is right, nevertheless, to make one more effort to create the sort of Iraq that its people deserve and the vast majority of its citizens aspire to. These are the appropriate means to what is a noble end.

There are a lot of people weighing in with opinions here. But it really does come down to win or lose and what we choose to do. I'm hoping America chooses to win. Because the alternative is outright disaster for both Iraq and the United States.

The Vaunted Checks And Balances On Full Display

The Washington Post article I linked earlier pedantically pontificated upon the vaunted journalistic checks and balances that the media holds itself to. No, really. Stop laughing like that, you'll hurt yourself. They were apparently quite serious. (To be fair about this, the WaPo is somewhat better than other media outlets - cough NYT - which is one reason I read them regularly). But the AFP shows the application of those journalistic standards in all their glory today!

MOGADISHU (AFP) - Clan elders and residents in southern Somalia have said that about 100 civilians were killed this week in US and Ethiopian air strikes on suspected Al-Qaeda targets in the region.

There was no way to independently confirm the toll, and it was unclear if it referred to the same areas hit by at least one US air raid on Monday, and by other attacks believed to have been launched by Ethiopian helicopters.

Sheikh Abdullahi Ali Malabon, an elder in the Afmadow area, said Thursday 100 bodies had been counted.

"We have sent a team to assess the casualties there and they have confirmed more than 100 people killed," he told AFP by phone from the remote area. "Many others were wounded but we don't have an exact number."

Closer to the Kenyan border, between the villages of Afmadow and Dhobley, residents and elders also spoke of at least 100 civilian deaths but stressed they had only yet accounted for 29 bodies, some burned beyond recognition.

It would be instructive to know how many weapons were pried from the "civilian's" hands, of course. This is not to say the AFP is intentionally lying, but that printing what is essentially a rumor with absolutely no other evidence is obeying which lofty journalistic standard? Even though they cite a source here, we have no way of knowing who the source is affiliated with - adding a name in this instance does not add credibility to the source. Unidentified "residents and elders" insist the numbers are 100 and AFP reports it, then in the body of the report stress that only 29 actual, you know, bodies have actually been counted. They discredit their own story if you bother to read that far. But that 100, is just such a nice round headline-grabbing number, isn't it? And they all just happen to be civilians. In the area where the islamists happen to be making a last stand. 

The only thing missing here are the newlyweds or the wedding party that seem to be mandatory in AP reporting. They always report on those groom seeking missiles.