Clear Signals

Directly related to the earlier post about the situation in Lebanon comes this article from Ynet:

"Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad… assured that the United States and the Zionist regime of Israel will soon come to the end of their lives," the Iranian president was quoted as saying.

"Sparking discord among Muslims, especially between the Shiites and Sunnis, is a plot hatched by the Zionists and the US for dominating regional nations and looting their resources," Ahmadinejad added, according to the report.

The Iranian president also directly tied events in Lebanon to a wider plan aimed at Israel's destruction. He called on "regional countries" to "support the Islamic resistance of the Lebanese people and strive to enhance solidarity and unity among the different Palestinian groups in a bid to pave the ground for the undermining of the Zionist regime whose demise is, of course, imminent."

That's pretty clear as to who is responsible for the coup attempt in Lebanon.

Making Mountains

Wow. Talk about turning molehills into mountains. The Wall Street Journal's Political Wire has really jumped the shark on this one. Writer Yochi J. Dreazen has decided that President Bush took an outright Joe McCarthy-like slap at the Democrats by dropping two letters from the prepared text that Dreazen received from Bush's actual spoken speech.

The freaking sky is falling all over.

President Bush departed from the prepared text of his State of the Union address to graciously congratulate Nancy Pelosi on her history-making selection as the first female Speaker of the House. Then he departed from the prepared text a second time to take a jab at Pelosi and the rest of the new Democratic majority of Congress.

In the prepared text of the speech, sent out by the White House some 40 minutes before Bush ascended the House rostrum, the president was to say, “Some in this Chamber are new to the House and Senate – and I congratulate the Democratic majority.” When Bush delivered the line, however, he paid tribute to the “Democrat majority.”

Dropping the “ic” from the word “Democratic” may seem insignificant, but it was almost certainly a deliberate move by Bush, who has used the phrase “the Democrat Party” for months as a way of needling his opponents.

You really have to read this hyperventilating bloviation to believe it. Dreazen actually invokes McCarthy. He actually paints this as THE indication that there will be no bipartisanship for the next two years. Oh. My. God. The party of the Democratics is being freaking robbed of being called democrats because Bush stole their two letters. Oh. My. God. It is rabid, slavering partisanship at its very worst. EVER.

Good lord. It would be an enormous insult to call this WSJ report childish. Children are much more mature.

Situation In Lebanon Deteriorates

Although the latest update on From Beirut to the Beltway indicates that Hezbollah called off their "intifada" for today at least, three people have died and outright rioting in the streets has become the norm. Hezbollah is, indeed, trying a coup. The Lebanese Army appears powerless and members of the majority government are openly calling for their backers to be ready to take back Beirut if needed.

Hezbollah appears to be ready to start the civil war all over again.

Update 5.   The riots have degenerated into street warfare between Sunnis, Shias and Sunnis.  Two have been killed and 50 wounded so far, according to Naharnet.

PM Siniora held a press conference and demanded an extraordinary parliament session to deal with the escalating situation.

Saniora said the general strike called by the opposition has developed into "provocations that went beyond all limits." "Blocking roads…is an aggression on the people and their freedoms. It is an attack on social order and it involves risks that are hidden to nobody." 

Naharnet has a good roundup here. With the army reluctant to clear the roadblocks in some areas, some residents have decided to take matters into their own hands.

Update 6. March 14 is calling on people to take to the streets to confront the rioters and clear the roadblocks themselves if the Lebanese army doesn't carry out its duty. Beirut residents are boiling with anger, and there are rumors of taking up arms against the "Hizbullah occupiers".

Update 7. From Naharnet:

The opposition on Tuesday called off its violent one-day protest that claimed at least three lives and wounded 62 people as the pro-government majority urged its followers to be on stand-by to “break the siege of Beirut” if the army does not carry out the mission.   

I say break that damn siege now, and start with downtown Beirut. This should not have been allowed to happen.

Iran and their puppets Assad and Nasrallah are pushing hard to topple the government and destabilize the entire region. People in this country need to start paying attention to where this is going and who is behind it. The US policy in the region does not exist in a vacuum.

Iran and their puppets Assad and Nasrallah are pushing hard to topple the government and destabilize the entire region. People in this country need to start paying attention to where this is going and who is behind it. The US policy in the region does not exist in a vacuum.

UPDATE: Others (I tried to link a lot of less frequently linked blogs here, I'd urge you to check these out, there is some really good stuff here): Blacksmiths of Lebanon, Gateway Pundit, Snapped Shot, Publius Pundit, Blogs of War, Pajamas Media, A Blog For All, Jeha's Nail, Exit Zero, Power and Control, Classical Values, Dawnsblood's, Backspin, Small Dead Animals, Jay Reding,

It Was Just A Matter Of Time

Ever since Australia surrendered to the dark forces of the Animal Uprising™, it really has only been a matter of time until the animal warlords began directing their troops elsewhere. So it really comes as no surprise that Australian shock troops have been sighted in the US. In Pennsylvania, to be precise. There, 50 miles Northwest of Philadelphia, the reports are streaming in of a wallaby invasion.

Wallabies, which look very similar to kangaroos, are native to Australia and Papua New Guinea. It's unclear how one ended up about 50 miles northwest of Philadelphia.

The animal might have been bought on the Internet as a pet, said humane society officer Dylan Heckart.

The agency received its first report of a wallaby sighting on Monday from a man who had seen the animal in his backyard over the weekend, Heckart said.

Humane society officials have since laid traps baited with food in areas where the creature has been seen, said Heckart.

Humans are strongly cautioned to stay well away from the wallabies due to their extremely cranky nature. The fools at the Humane Society have exacerbated that situation, of course. The wallabies think the kangaroos look similar to them and get very, very angry when people express it the other way around. So stay away from the wallabies, they are in a foul mood.

Tales Of The Zombie Parakeet

Oh, sure. This glowing report from the Associated Press makes this guy and his bird sound cute and harmless. But we here at Blue Crab Boulevard know the truth about the Animal Uprising™ and their evil Zombie Animal Program® (ZAP®). Which just happens to be very active in Florida. And we have very, very strong suspicions about this bird.

BRADENTON, Fla. - Teaching a parakeet to putt is no tap-in. Ask David Cota, who spent months training his Indian ringneck parakeet A.J. to use a tiny putter to sink putts on a miniature green, making the 5-inch tall bird an Internet video star.

"It doesn't look all that tough nowadays, but try to get a a bird to hold a little stick basically in its beak. The first time, he snapped it right in half," Cota said. A.J. can also dunk a tiny basketball on a tiny court. He rolls over. He shakes. His play dead is spooky.

A "Tonight" show darling from the end of the Johnny Carson era, A.J. and Cota are staging a comeback thanks to such Web sites as YouTube.com. A.J. has a MySpace.com page and his own Web site…….

……Cota, 38, owes his extended 15 minutes of fame to two dead parakeets.

The first bird belonged to a college girlfriend. Cota was left to care for it. It died.

"A fluke," he insists. He tried to slip in a replacement parakeet — and ended up single with plenty of free time to train his new pet parakeet, named "Axl" for the lead singer of Guns N' Roses.

Axl was accidentally crushed only hours before he was scheduled to perform on "The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson" in May 1990. Cota's college roommate fell asleep and rolled on top of the bird in a hotel room provided by NBC. The death made national news.

Carson turned the mishap into a comedy bit. Wearing a black armband, he hosted an on-air memorial service for Axl, complete with "Taps" performed by Doc Severinsen. Carson gave Cota a new parakeet, A.J., whose name is a nod to Axl and to Carson. He told Cota to come back on the show when he'd trained the new bird.

Now we're not sure that all of the parakeets are actually one and the same, but we have some interesting circumstantial evidence from this video, right at the very start of it. We report, you decide to have a restraining order sworn out on us.

Hillary! Says Bill Will Be An Asset

But she intends to be the one making the decisions. That's what she told ABC this morning in an interview.

WASHINGTON - If elected president, Hillary Rodham Clinton says her spouse and former Oval Office occupant will be a "tremendous asset," but she's the decider.

"I'm running to be the president, to make the decisions," the New York senator told ABC's "Good Morning America" Tuesday.

For his part, former President Clinton told a New York audience that he looked forward to playing a "supporting role" in his wife's campaign.

Hillary! is already making plans to protect her asset should she win the election in one of these, where he will remain for the duration of her term of office.

Petraeus Confident

Lt. General David Petraeus admitted that the situation in Iraq is grim but he also expressed confidence that the mission can be accomplished. He also was very frank with the Senators and told them that he did not think their passing resolutions against the troop surge was a particularly good idea. I like him already.

Lt. Gen. David Petraeus, President Bush's nominee to become the new top commander in Iraq, painted a grim picture today of the military challenge ahead but expressed confidence in a new strategy based on pushing tens of thousands of additional U.S. and Iraqi troops deep into Baghdad neighborhoods.

Petraeus said the escalation of sectarian violence in 2006 created the prospect of a failed state in Iraq, justifying the surge of 21,500 U.S. troops, which he said should be in place in Baghdad by May, providing a new "critical mass" to clear and hold districts of the city of six million people……..

……."The way ahead will be neither quick nor easy, and undoubtedly there will be tough days. We face a determined, adaptable, barbaric enemy. He will try to wait us out," Petraeus told the Senate Armed Services committee at a nomination hearing.

He stressed the primary focus of the U.S. military effort will shift — to "controlling" terrain and protecting the population rather than handing over responsibility to Iraqi forces — but acknowledged this would also lead to heightened risks for U.S. troops. In contrast, a rapid U.S. military withdrawal from Iraq, as favored by many congressional Democrats, would lead to intensified ethnic cleansing and a "bloodbath" in Baghdad, he said.

In a move that is unusual for an active-duty officer, Petraeus also spoke against pending Senate resolutions disapproving of the new Bush strategy. Asked whether those resolutions would give encouragement to the enemy by exposing divisions among the American people, he replied: "That's correct."

Longtime readers will recognize that I have been saying the same thing for a long time. The more internal disarray we show to the world, the less secure we all are - regardless of party affiliation. That is not a partisan statement, either. A loss in Iraq - and a withdrawal is a loss, no matter how it is painted - will result in enormous carnage. It will also damage this entire nation, very, very badly.

All Hail Marx And Lenin

A team of British and Canadians made a trip to the so-called Point of Inaccessibility (POI) in Antarctica on foot recently. This point (which obviously isn't really inaccessible since they got there) is called that because it is as far from anywhere on the continent as you can get. But they were not the first to reach it. An expedition from the former Soviet Union had made the trek by mechanized means in 1958 and had set up a small camp there. The modern explorers discovered that the previous visitors had left behind a souvenir.

"When we were within six kilometres of the position signalled on the GPS we noticed a black dot on the horizon," Teamn2i said on their website.

"As we got closer an outline of (a) bust started to appear — we could not believe it as we were expecting at the very best a mound of snow from when Lenin was left there 48 years ago.

"He is standing on a chimney of the old Soviet hut about two meters above the snow line — he is a shoulder bust of Lenin larger than life size.

"It is made of some plastic composite — he is totally frost free as if he was put there yesterday.

"It (is) so so very surreal. We are all so exhausted that we have only just put up the tent with Lenin's stern gaze over us!"

It should be noted that they also discovered a bust of Marx:

Unfortunately, the thriving flock of penguins that the Soviets had reported seeing were no longer there. The penguins, inspired by the visit from their glorious international socialist brothers, formed a collective. denounced the capitalist West and promptly starved to death.

Some Positive Signs

Jack Kelly, via Real Clear Politics, points out several positive signs that the so-called surge in troops in Iraq is already producing some results. This despite the fact that the surge really hasn't begun. Still, there are at least some hopeful signs that need to be recognized.

Three interesting things have happened since President Bush announced plans to "surge" U.S. troops.

First, al Qaida appears to be retreating from Baghdad. A military intelligence officer has confirmed to Richard Miniter, editor of Pajamas Media, a report in the Iraqi newspaper al Sabah that Abu Ayyub al Masri, the head of al Qaida in Iraq, has ordered a withdrawal to Diyala province, north and east of Baghdad.

Mr. al Masri's evacuation order said that remaining in Baghdad is a no-win situation for al Qaida, because the Fallujah campaign demonstrating the Americans have learned how to prevail in house to house fighting, Mr. Miniter said.

"In more than 10 years of reading al Qaida intercepts, I've never seen (pessimistic) language like this," he quoted his intelligence officer source as saying.

Second, the radical cleric Moqtada al Sadr, whose Iranian-subsidized militia, the Mahdi army, is responsible for most of the assaults on Sunni civilians in Iraq, is cooling his rhetoric and lowering his profile.

I'd urge you to read the rest. One thing Kelly doesn't really touch on is the formation of a task force dedicated to disrupting the Iranian networks that are running guns and supplies into Iraq. That was one development my son was highly in favor of when I spoke with him. The troops see daily what our media and internal critics choose to ignore routinely. Iran's hands are behind much of the violence in Iraq today. They are supplying weapons and explosives to both sides of the sectarian violence and undoubtedly helping, directly or indirectly, to attack Americans. In other words, America's actions do not exist in a vacuum. There are other players in this.

Selling Short

Mohammed Fadhil one of the two bothers who blog at Iraq the Model has an op-ed in today's Opinion Journal that again begs America not to abandon the Iraqi people. He describes what he sees as impossible conditions and expectations being set that set Iraq up for failure.

BAGHDAD–"The last chance." I hear these words a lot. So often, in fact, that it seems to be the common description for the new security plan. It's become so pervasive that I hear now that it's the last chance for Prime Minister Maliki, the last chance for President Bush, the last chance for Iraq to succeed as a democracy. It's almost as if the new plan was a coin that can be flipped only once and which carries victory on one face and doom on the other.

I think people who use this "last chance" idea are not helping Iraq or America or they are of the type of people who do not want to deal with the challenges seriously. This term has a tone of defeatism, it's as if Iraq was a totally lost case while in fact the huge change that's been happening in the form of replacing a totalitarian regime with a democratic one is a lengthy process that cannot be accomplished through military action alone; success has economic and social elements along with the military one in addition to international and regional cooperation. It is no wisdom to think of closing this file or abandoning it based on the results of one security operation.

It is unfair to demand the impossible from the coming operations; total eradication of terrorism and militias within months is a long shot because the violence in Iraq is a result of domestic and regional conflicts that are not limited to Baghdad and it is part of heavy legacy of mistakes and evil the Baath Era left.

I see that those who talk about last chances are in fact rushing failure in Iraq by putting a very high bar that is technically impossible to pass within months or a year.

Please read the whole thing. Mohammed describes what is possible and what can be achieved. There are reports out of Iraq today that large numbers of fighters from the Mahdi Army are being captured and detained. There are signs that some of the changed tactics are working. We cannot, as a nation, afford to lose this war. We cannot simply walk away.

The Luckiest Man In Australia

Although shark attacks really aren't all that common worldwide, when one occurs it is big news. Actually, that is probably why they are big news, actually. Even fewer shark attacks actually end in a fatality. The exception to that is attacks by great white sharks. Those attacks, though infrequent, are generally fatal because of the sheer size of the shark. So it is unusual to have a survivor.

Especially one that was partially swallowed head first by one of the giant predators.

Diver Eric Nerhus, 41, was underwater with his 25-year-old son and other divers off Cape Howe, near Eden on Australia's southeast coast, when the 3 metre (10 foot) shark attacked.

Rescuers earlier mistakenly reported his age as 25.

"He stated that he was head-first into the shark," a spokeswoman for Snowy Hydro SouthCare rescue service told Reuters after airlifting the diver to hospital.

"When he came to us he was conscious and alert but had a broken nose and lacerations to both sides of his torso and chest — bite marks all the way around," the spokeswoman said.

Nerhus told fellow divers he didn't see the shark coming as the water was so dirty that visibility was severely limited.

"It was black. He didn't see it coming, but he felt the bite and then started getting shaken, and that's when he knew he was in the mouth of the shark," said local diver Michael Mashado.

The shark bit Nerhus around the head first, crushing his face mask and breaking his nose, fellow diver and friend Dennis Luobikis told Reuters.

NOTHING BUT THE VEST

"He was actually bitten by the head…the shark swallowed his head," said Luobikis, adding a second bite by the shark saw it clench its jaw around Nerhus' torso.

"The brunt of the bite was taken by his lead-weight vest. Its all over your torso. Eric said to me at the wharf that his weight vest saved him," he said.

One hopes Nerhus went right out and bought a lottery ticket. This is one amazing story. And he is one lucky man.

UPDATE: Daily Mail coverage is here, includes some video footage.

Parrot Pirates Pinched

In a gross miscarriage of justice, a Kazakh man has been arrested at the border with Uzbekistan. The poor man and his Audi had been carjacked by a brigade of parrot pirates from the Animal Uprising™ and forced at beak point  to drive the feathered felons across the border. The authorities are trying to say the man was smuggling. But he was outnumbered 500 to one.

ALMATY (Reuters) - Kazakh border guards arrested a man trying to smuggle 500 parrots in his car from neighbouring Uzbekistan, media reported on Tuesday.

"Border guards discovered a live cargo of 500 parrots in his car," Kazakhstan Today news agency quoted a KNB security service official as saying.

500 parrots in an Audi? They could have flown the car across the border……..

Amateur Archaeologist Discovers Ironworks

An amateur archaeologist from Virginia has discovered what is thought to be the oldest iron smelting furnace in America. The man found it after heavy rains had caused erosion along the banks of the creek.

The ruins of a 17th-century iron blast furnace built by some of the country's first settlers have been uncovered along the banks of Falling Creek in Chesterfield County.

Historians say the furnace, built around 1619 by the Virginia Company of London, is a significant find because it is the first ironworks in North America and the earliest known evidence of heavy industry in the New World.

County officials yesterday announced the find, made five weeks ago by county public utilities employee Ralph Lovern, an amateur archaeologist who frequently combed the area looking for Indian artifacts.

"Something to tell the grandkids," he said, smiling…..

……At its industrial height, the furnace could have produced 600 tons of iron a year. But the furnace settlement was attacked in 1622 — just months into its operation — by the Powhatans, who killed all of the workers. Attempts to revive the ironworks were unsuccessful, and by 1624, it had been abandoned.

There is video and a photo at the link. More about the history of iron smelting here.

Lebanon Under Siege From Within

Hezbollah has stepped up its campaign against the Lebanese government and has shut down Beirut and surrounding areas using barricades and armed men. They are calling it a general strike. It is more than that. It is a coup attempt by any rational standard.

Hezbollah-led protesters paralyzed Lebanon Tuesday by burning tires and cars on major thoroughfares in and around the capital to enforce a general strike that aims to topple the government.

Clustering in small groups to man the blazing roadblocks, opposition supporters escalated their nearly two-month protest. Commuters were stranded and silence hung over many commercial districts amid reports of scattered violence.

Police said seven people suffered gunshot wounds in disturbances between supporters of the guerrilla group and pro-government activists in central and northern Lebanon. Michel Aoun, a senior opposition leader, told Al-Arabiya television that the wounded were all members of the opposition.

Lebanese government ministers are calling it a coup attempt. It is also obvious that despite reports that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is having political trouble in Iran the foreign policy of that country is not being altered. Iran is still pushing to expand its power in the region.

UPDATE: Pictures from the BBC. More from Snapped Shot, Still more from Michael Totten.

Buying The Presidency

Federal election officials are calling Hillary Clinton's decision to forgo all Federal funds in both the primaries and the general election, should she win the nomination, a likely fatal blow to the public financing system. Clinton may not be the only one to reject the funding. The article mentions John McCain and Barack Obama as two other potential no-public-funds candidates. The problem then becomes that without Federal money involved, there are no spending limits imposed. This is going to be a long, expensive campaign season.

By opting out of the system, Clinton will be able to spend as much money as she can raise, both for the primaries and for the general election, rather than being forced to abide by strict spending limits imposed by the Federal Election Commission on candidates who accept public financing.

Others have opted out of public financing for the nomination campaigns, but Clinton is the first since the current structure was created in 1974 to declare she will forgo public financing in the general election as well.

Clinton's decision will put pressure on other candidates in both parties to follow suit, and if they do, the 2008 campaign will complete what has been the rapid disintegration of a system designed to rein in unlimited spending in presidential campaigns.

One effect is to put lesser-known candidates at a further disadvantage in competing with rivals who have the capacity to raise huge amounts of money.

"It's going to be a tremendous test of whether this system survives," Robert Lenhard, chairman of the Federal Election Commission, said of the pressure building on the existing system. Michael Toner, his predecessor, was less restrained. This election, he predicted, will be "basically the death" of public financing.

The real downside: Bigger costs for campaigns means more money needed. More money needed means bigger contributers. Those big contributers expect some return for their investments, of course.

Campaigns are learning to tap into smaller contributors using the Internet, but Meredith McGehee, policy director at the Campaign Legal Center, said the breakdown of the system ultimately will put more distance between politicians and the people they are seeking to represent. "The pool of people that you're going to to finance the presidential election, the very nature of that pool of people is changing, and it's changing for the worse," she said.

The article points out that George Bush opted out of the Federal funding program for the primaries (they imply he was the first to do so, I am not sure that is correct, if anyone has any information on that, I'd appreciate hearing from you). But Bush did not opt out of public financing for the general election. Clinton has done so right off the mark. That will be one more strike against her from the netroots. Not that they really needed another one. 

The problem comes as all the politicians shift more and more to focusing on the big money donors as the only way they can get elected. The Democrats no different form the Republicans in that regard. Not one bit.