baldilocks

The Difference

In the very recent past, the two YouTube videos below have become popular in conservative circles. Other than the obvious fact that both videos feature black people, the videos have nothing in common--or so it seems. Specifically, the videos demonstrate something interesting in their contrast.

If you haven't already done so, please watch both of them before continuing with my commentary. The second one comes with a language and violence warning.

 

And, just in case you missed it the first time, the following video comes with a language and violence warning.

 

 The first video features Dr. Benjamin Carson speaking before President and Mrs. Obama at the annual National Prayer Breakfast.The second features a woman being stunned by a taser-wielding security guard. The woman and her friend became belligerent with the security guard after he presumes to correct their wayward children and one of them physically attacks him after he corrects the children a second time. (And what wayward children these are! During the verbal part of the confrontation between the women and the guard, the children--none of them any more than five years old--begin to repeatedly call the guard 'gay.' Leaving aside the implications of whether such a thing is an epithet or not--and, to people like these, it is--when I was that age, I didn't have any concept of heterosexual sex, much less anything else.)

With regard to the first video, many commentators have noted the unabashedly conservative content of Dr. Carson's speech. It was, indeed, well-done and one might contrast the two videos in terms of how to and how not to disagree. But that isn't my purpose here.

By now, Dr. Carson's origins and background are well-known. Like all too many Americans, black and otherwise, he grew up without his biological father. But then so did President Obama. And so did I.

And so did Former President Bill Clinton, actor Pierce Brosnan and Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas--whose excellent autobiography, My Grandfather's Son: A Memoir, I'm reading right now. And so did singer/musician Eric Clapton, economists Thomas Sowell and Walter Williams, the late Apple founder Steve Jobs, media titan Oprah Winfrey, NBA great Shaquille O'Neal and many, many other successful, responsible and law-abiding Americans of various races, famous and unknown.

As I began to reflect on the two videos and what I know from personal experience and observation, I realized that it has never been all that unusual for children in America to grow up without their biological fathers or even their biological mothers. Many times, such children are without one or both of their parents because of divorce or death and, in the case of growing up without the father due to divorce, the fathers often exit the lives of the children entirely, as was so with me. But just as often, the father is not in the child's life because he and the mother were never married. Such was the case with Jobs (who was adopted by the couple who gave him his last name).

But what makes a Jobs, Thomas, O'Neal, etc. different from the many children we see in this day and age-- who grow up the same way but who are disobedient and disrespectful like the ones we see in the second video?

Could you imagine behaving toward any adult in the manner of those children? That beautiful lady in the post before this one would have beaten me down had I acted like that. But of course, she trained me early not to run wild in public in the first place.

I suspect that none of the children in the second video were born in wedlock. Oh sure there's a man at the end of the video who appears and threatens the guard in the name of his woman and his alleged children. But, I suspect that, at minimum, only one of the children is his biological child and that he and tasered woman are not married. Call it a hunch.

On the other hand, consider the upbringing of Dr. Carson. He and his older brother were raised by his divorced and then illiterate mother. Growing up, the Carson brothers never saw their father. But their hard-working, and, frankly, brilliant mother wanted more for her offspring than she had. From Biography.com:

Both Ben and his brother experienced difficulty in school. Ben fell to the bottom of his class, and became the object of ridicule by his classmates. He developed a violent and uncontrollable temper, and was known to attack other children at the slightest provocation.

(...)

Determined to turn her sons around, Sonya [Carson] limited their TV time to just a few select programs and refused to let them go outside to play until they'd finished their homework. She was criticized for this by her friends, who said her boys would grow up to hate her. But she was determined that her sons would have greater opportunities than she did. She required them to read two library books a week and give her written reports, even though with her poor education she could barely read them. She would take the papers and review them, scanning over the words and turning pages. Then she would place a checkmark at the top of the page showing her approval.

At first, Ben resented the strict regimen. While his friends were playing outside, he was stuck in the house, forced to read a book or do his homework. But after several weeks of his mother's unrelenting position, he began to find enjoyment in reading. Being poor, there wasn't much opportunity to go anywhere. But between the covers of a book he could go anyplace, be anybody, and do anything. Ben began to learn how to use his imagination and found it more enjoyable than watching television. This attraction to reading soon led to a strong desire to learn more.

It's the type of upbringing I recognize.

But what made a Ben Carson or a Steve Jobs different from the children in the second video? What makes the children who grew up in the early 60s and prior without one or more parents different from the menaces to society we've seen all too often in the past four decades?

It's this: individuals--individuals who step into the breach that mother and/or father vacate voluntarily or involuntarily. Grandparents, aunts and uncles, stepparents, adoptive parents. And the individual biological parents, like Sonya Carson, who step up to the task appointed to them. People like her shape a Dr. Ben Carson, neurosurgeon and leader of the surgical team who first successfully separated conjoined twins. People like the tasered woman--and the man--shape drug-dealers, gang members, welfare mothers and prisoners.

Such people like the latter know nothing of hard work, true education, order, responsibility. The reason this is so? Because neither they nor the other parent(s) of their offspring care about their children being better than they are. They don't have to care about this because they know that the government will subsidize all of their "needs" and the "needs" of their offspring.

When individuals are the parents, the child will most likely do well. When government is the parent, the child will most likely do poorly and become dependent on government as well--either taking on government as one parent (illegitimate children) or both parents (going to prison). This isn't rocket science or neurosurgery. From time immemorial, children, with some exceptions, follow in the footsteps of their parents.

This is becoming a problem in America as a whole, but it is primarily a problem among black Americans, a huge one. Since the beginning of the Great Society, black illegitimacy has skyrocketed and hovered in the seventy percent area for some time. Though many black women who have been having children illegitimately are self-sufficient, all too many rely on government to feed, clothe and house themselves and their progeny and the result is demonstrated in not only the second video, but many of the other videos that the security guard, Darien Long, has posted on You Tube. And I see the result nearly every time I step outside my South Central LA home...

The progeny of human mothers and government fathers are doing what chattel slavery did not...ruining a people.

UPDATED: Correct video codes now inserted.

 

Posted with Blogsy

Irony Burrito

Soul Food:  it’s yummy stuff. The origins of what is known a Soul Food, however, are often forgotten. For very pertinent reasons, it can legitimately be called ‘Black Food.’

Foods such as rice, sorghum (known by Europeans as "guinea corn"), and okra — all common elements of West African cuisine — were introduced to the Americas as a result of the trans-Atlantic slave trade.

Yams and watermelon are other examples.

Eventually, such fare became known as Southern Food. These days, Soul Food is considered a delicacy. (Personal note: I like the stuff very much, with the following exceptions. Yams and chitlins have crossed the threshold of my lips only once, respectively.) But, back in the bad old days, masters fed their slaves the type of food considered crap, and saved the choice meats, grains, and vegetables for themselves. Much of the fare called Soul Food consists of plantation throwaways.

European enslavers fed their captive workers as cheaply as possible, often with leftover/waste foods from the plantation, forcing slaves to make do with the ingredients at hand. In slave households, 'vegetables' consisted of the tops of turnips, beets, and dandelions. Soon, African-American slaves were cooking with new types of "greens": collards, kale, cress, mustard, and pokeweed. They also developed recipes which used lard, cornmeal, and offal; discarded cuts of meat such as pigs' feet, oxtail, ham hocks, chitterlings/"chitlins" (i.e., pigs' small intestines), pig ears, hog jowls, tripe, and skin.

So what’s my point? It’s this.

The Occupy Wall Street volunteer kitchen staff launched a “counter” revolution yesterday -- because they’re angry about working 18-hour days to provide food for “professional homeless” people and ex-cons masquerading as protesters.

For three days beginning tomorrow, the cooks will serve only brown rice and other spartan grub instead of the usual menu of organic chicken and vegetables, spaghetti bolognese, and roasted beet and sheep’s-milk-cheese salad.

They will also provide directions to local soup kitchens for the vagrants, criminals and other freeloaders who have been descending on Zuccotti Park in increasing numbers every day.

(All bolding mine.)

Rice and other Spartan grub. Hmmm.

One wonders how the OWS cooks know that the “freeloaders” are vagrants and criminals. After all, aren’t both the “professional homeless” and the “amateur homeless” (the OWS protesters) squatting on land that does not belong to them? I bet I know how they know: most of the amateurs are white and most of professionals are black.  And both groups are freeloaders. After all it isn’t as if the OWS protesters bought the food.

I wonder why the OWS cooks don’t want to cook for the “professional homeless” aka “freeloaders.” And what are the “non-freeloaders” doing to help the cooks? Delivering the goods? Chopping the vegetables? Washing the dishes? Disposing of litter? Not according to reports.  But, of course, the “non-freeloaders” are speaking “truth to power,” so, one assumes that counts.

But, oh wait! Some designated persons labored to prepare the food and want it to go to the hungry and downtrodden!  Except not the actual hungry and downtrodden. 

But, oh wait! The “freeloaders” are vagrant and criminals! But according to the Left, vagrants and criminals do what they do only because the rich won’t help them. So the OWS want to help them! Except they don’t.

But, oh wait! OWS cooks will still feed the “professional homeless”—just not the good stuff.  Only the slave food.

But, oh wait! There are soup kitchens where the “vagrants, criminals, and freeloaders” can eat. Wonder who funds those places. No matter. The “vagrants, criminals, and freeloaders” have the soup kitchens--equal but separate facilities in which to chow down. They can “freeload” on someone else’s dime and time.

So, in one ill-considered decision, the Occupy Wall Street sorts manage to epitomize hundreds of years of slavery and government oppression against black Americans and, on top of that, managed to promote one of the principles in the Bible—that those who do not work, should not eat.  In one fell swoop, they have become everything they say they are against.

Chew on that.

(Thanks to Ace of Spades HQ)

He Told You So Two Years Ago

Three, really.

Kicking off a hectic week for President Barack Obama's nuclear agenda, his aides rolled out a strategy review that renounced U.S. development of new atomic weapons and could herald further cuts in America's stockpile.

The announcement, calling for reduced U.S. reliance on its nuclear deterrent, could build momentum before Obama signs a landmark [?] arms control treaty with Russia in Prague on Thursday and hosts a nuclear security summit in Washington next week.

(...)

Under the revamped policy, the United States for the first time is forswearing use of atomic weapons against non-nuclear countries, a break with a Bush-era threat of nuclear retaliation in the event of a biological or chemical attack.

But the new strategy comes with a major condition that the countries will be spared a U.S. nuclear response only if they are in compliance with the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. That loophole means Iran and North Korea would not be protected.

Russia? Did we magically go back to 1985?  And a "loophole" may not protect Iran and North Korea, but so what? Is either country governed by the reasonable?

Don't forget the real goal. (Ignore the header.)

And Obama shall force the lion to lie down with the lamb.  One problem, though: Obama's not Jesus.

This is about making America vulnerable to her enemies.  It has always been about that.

On Our Own?

UPDATE:  Dr. Melissa Clouthier, who had the story yesterday, interviews Chaplain Dr. Keith A. Robinson.

Disclaimer: I don't know whether any of this is true but it's better to put it out there than not. [I moved the page break.]

A terror dry-run seen from one end:

I was in 1st class coming home. 11 Muslim men got on the plane in full attire. 2 sat in 1st class and the rest peppered themselves throughout the plane all the way to the back. As the plane taxied to the runway the stewardesses gave the safety spiel we are all so familiar with. At that time, one of the men got on his cell and called one of his companions in the back and proceeded to talk on the phone in Arabic very loudly and very aggressively. This took the 1st stewardess out of the picture for she repeatedly told the man that cell phones were not permitted at the time. He ignored her as if she was not there.

The 2nd man who answered the phone did the same and this took out the 2nd stewardess. In the back of the plane at this time, 2 younger Muslims, one in the back, isle, and one in front of him, window, began to show footage of a porno they had taped the night before, and were very loud about it. Now….they are only permitted to do this prior to Jihad. If a Muslim man goes into a strip club, he has to view the woman via mirror with his back to her. (don’t ask me….I don’t make the rules, but I’ve studied). The 3rd stewardess informed them that they were not to have electronic devices on at this time. To which one of the men said “shut up infidel dog!” She went to take the camcorder and he began to scream in her face in Arabic. At that exact moment, all 11 of them got up and started to walk the cabin. This is where I had had enough! I got up and started to the back where I heard a voice behind me from another Texan twice my size say “I got your back.” I grabbed the man who had been on the phone by the arm and said “you WILL go sit down or you Will be thrown from this plane!” As I “led” him around me to take his seat, the fellow Texan grabbed him by the back of his neck and his waist and headed out with him. I then grabbed the 2nd man and said, “You WILL do the same!” He protested but adrenaline was flowing now and he was going to go. As I escorted him forward the plane doors open and 3 TSA agents and 4 police officers entered. Me and my new Texan friend were told to cease and desist for they had this under control. I was happy to oblige actually. There was some commotion in the back, but within moments, all 11 were escorted off the plane. They then unloaded their luggage.

Read the whole thing, then if you're skeptical....

Look at the incident from the other end as witness by Chaplain Dr. Keith A. Robinson, Corps Commander of the Houston Regional Community Chaplain Corps:

A Commander-in-Chief Visits the Fort Hood Wounded

The only thing is that it isn't the current Commander-in-Chief.

FORT HOOD, Texas (AP) ― Former President George W. Bush and his wife, Laura, visited wounded soldiers and their families near the site of the worst mass shooting on an Army post in the United States.

The Bushes made their private visit to Fort Hood's Darnall Army Medical Center on Friday night. Bush spokesman David Sherzer said in an e-mail that the couple thanked Fort Hood's military leaders and hospital staff for the "amazing care they are providing."

Instead of comforting his troops, President Obama decided to spend the weekend at Camp David.

11:25AM THE PRESIDENT addresses the House Democratic Caucus - Cannon House Office Building

2:30PM THE PRESIDENT makes a statement to the press on Health Care - Rose Garden

2:45PM THE PRESIDENT and THE FIRST LADY depart The White House en route Camp David - South Lawn

Even if one were inclined to give President Obama the benefit of the doubt and assume that he had asked Former President Bush and Mrs. Bush to visit the wounded soldiers because the Bushes live in Texas, why would he ask this of his predecessor and not get on Air Force One overnight to get down there himself? 

Why would he not go to be with those whom he is charged to send into battle and who were so horrifyingly betrayed by one of their own?

Because he doesn't give a rat's backside, that's why not.

I bet Former President Bush told him to get his narrow a** down there stat and he ignored it.  No awards were being given to him so he said "Screw all that blood and drama.  I'll be chillin at Camp David."

He. Does. Not. Care.

(Thanks to Hot Air and Riehl World)

"Peace" Before its Time (UPDATED)

So if President Obama wins the Nobel "Peace" Prize for 2009 but the decision was supposed to have been made only twelve days after the president's inauguration, what does that mean?

Wizbang:  "[O]ne of the most dramatic examples of the global elitist genuflection and obsequiousness before the presence of The One..."

WSJ Blog: "This is completely bizarre."

Via Jules Crittenden, this was the president's accomplishment:  “ … his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples...”  He did all that in the first twelve days of his presidency?  Who knew?

Times of London: "Rarely has an award had such an obvious political and partisan intent."

Jennifer Loven:

For Nobel voters, though, the award could be as much about issuing a slap at Obama's predecessor as about lauding Obama. [snip]

The Nobel committee, it seems, had the audacity to hope that he'll eventually produce a record worthy of its prize.

The fix was definitely in.  The question many minds, however, is how long this has been planned and that question isn't just in reference to the Nobel.

I would say that Dr. King is turning in his grave but that probably started well before today.

 UPDATE:  Politico:

The Republican Party has thrown in its lot with the terrorists - the Taliban and Hamas this morning - in criticizing the President for receiving the Nobel Peace prize," DNC communications director Brad Woodhouse told POLITICO. "Republicans cheered when America failed to land the Olympics and now they are criticizing the President of the United States for receiving the Nobel Peace prize - an award he did not seek but that is nonetheless an honor in which every American can take great pride - unless of course you are the Republican Party.

I can see the new narrative being built up and perfected--a narrative whose basis was started by Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano.  Can't you? 

So, Democrat Party, what are you going to do with this Lie Burrito, ridiculous and outrageous as it is?  Your party keeps trying to feed it to the public mindset.  What's the goal?

(Thanks to Hot Air)

UPDATE: Red Eye's Andy Levy:

Dear Nobel Committee, Thank you so, so much for all the [comedy] material. You guys are the best!

Steve Graham: "When nutty things happen, look for a spiritual reason."

CIA Chiefs to Holder and Obama: Don't Do This

Think they'll listen?

Seven former directors of the Central Intelligence Agency on Friday urged President Obama to reverse Attorney General Eric Holder's decision to hold a criminal investigation of CIA interrogators who used enhanced techniques on detainees.

The directors, whose tenures span back as far as 35 years, wrote a letter to the president saying the cases have already been investigated by the CIA and career prosecutors, and to reconsider those decisions makes it difficult for agents to believe they can safely follow legal guidance. [snip]

The letter was signed by former directors Michael Hayden, Porter Goss, George Tenet, John Deutch, R. James Woolsey, William Webster and James R. Schlesinger. 

And we know the position of the current CIA chief Leon Panetta.

A broader context question: how many more actions does this administration have to take before the majority of the citizenry concludes that the opposition to it isn't based on the race of its "leader?"

I Can't Decide (UPDATED)

European "vacation":

According to reliable sources, Obama administration officials are on their way to Poland and the Czech Republic to deliver very bad news. The administration intends to cancel completely the missile defense sites that had been promised to these governments by the previous administration. This represents a complete capitulation to Russia's Vladimir Putin, who had demanded that the proposed deployments be halted as a price for improved relations. Ironically, the Obama administration, which is appeasing Russia in the hopes that Moscow will help put pressure on Iran, has made this mammoth concession just a few days after Moscow declared that it had no intention of supporting sanctions against Iran.

So is it racist to think that this last foreign policy move is either the result of mind-boggling stupidity and incompetence or that it's merely the latest tactic in a long line of tactics pointed toward one explicit purpose: to leave this country severely weakened in both the foreign and domestic spheres?

UPDATE: Eastern European missile defense scrapped.

"After an extensive process, I have approved the unanimous recommendations of my secretary of defense and my joint chiefs of staff [sic] to strengthen America's defenses against ballistic-missile attack," President Barack Obama said in an announcement Thursday morning. [snip]

Defense Secretary Robert Gates said the decision to abandon the Bush administration's plans came about because of a change in the U.S. perception of the threat posed by Iran.

Mr. Gates said intelligence experts concluded the short- and medium-range missiles were "developing more rapidly than previously projected" in Iran. The findings are a major reversal from the Bush administration, which pushed aggressively to begin construction of the Eastern European system before leaving office in January.

Russia and Iran win. 

Russia on Thursday welcomed the news but said it saw no reason to offer concessions in return. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev threatened last November to station tactical Iskander missiles on Poland's border if the U.S. system was deployed.

"The Bush plans on the missile defense as we knew them until now were nothing more than a provocation of security in the European region," said Dmitry Rogozin, Russia's ambassador to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, in a phone interview.

Do we lose? Time will tell.

Is it racist to say that President Obama doesn't care about preserving the reputation of American reliability, fidelity and integrity? Is it racist to think that the president wants to leave Poland and the Czech Republic open to the schemes and plans of both Russia and Iran?

I think we're past the point of caring whether it is or not.

Lawlessness III

Why did  Eric Holder's (and Barack Obama's) Department of Justice drop the Voter Intimidation case again the New Black Panther Party?  Because they can.

And what are you going to do about it anyway?

(Thanks to Gabriel Malor)

Who is Kenneth Gladney?

If Kenneth Gladney was an Obama supporter, right now he'd be more famous than Rodney King. Al Sharpton would have a whole rack of new suits.

--Jim Treacher

This is Kenneth Gladney.

(Thanks to John M.)

It's As If They're Trying to Provoke an Attack at Home

The House of Representatives will investigate the Sheepdogs…

WASHINGTON — The chairman of the House Intelligence Committee says his panel will investigate whether the CIA broke the law by not telling Congress earlier about a secret [non-operational] program to deploy hit teams to kill individual al-Qaida members.

As the Wolves nibble at the edges…

JAKARTA, Indonesia — Homicide bombers posing as guests attacked American luxury hotels in Indonesia's capital and set off a pair of blasts Friday after evading hotel security, smuggling explosives into the Marriott and assembling the bombs in a room on the 18th floor, where an undetonated device was found after the explosions.

The bombers had stayed at the hotel for two days and set off the blasts in restaurants at both hotels. The blasts killed eight people and wounded more than 50, authorities said. At least eight Americans were among the wounded.

And what is this horse manure?

A senior U.S. official told ABC News the [Jakarta] attacks came as a "surprise."

A second U.S. counter-terrorism official said the CIA and other intelligence agencies had given no indication to the White House of "any threat reporting in the last 18 months" involving the Indonesian al Qaeda affiliate, Jemaah Islamiyah.

And if some fine, upstanding CIA operative had blasted the suicide bombers before they self –detonated, would the House be gearing up to investigate him and his superiors right now?

I dreamed I saw a great wave climbing over green lands and above the hills. I stood upon the brink. It was utterly dark in the abyss before my feet. A light shone behind me but I could not turn. I could only stand there, waiting.

--Lord of the Rings

Yes we're all waiting--waiting for that grand betrayal. It will be in the Spirit of the Times.

(Sheepdog/wolf metaphors courtesy of Bill Whittle)

Changed

The National Mall today.

It's a Different World; but so much is the same.

(Thanks to Ace of Spades HQ)

Consequences of Enforced Equality

Are we screwed? And, if so, how did we get here?

Let’s see if an amateur can get the facts straight (mostly) off the top of the head.

The government “encourages” banks and loan organizations to grant mortgage loans to persons whose incomes would normally be judged as too low to afford the house-note. Many (most?) of these persons are not required to make a down payment.

Quasi-governmental mortgage guarantors Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae buy up the loans—the goods ones and the bad ones—bundle them into securities, and sell them back to the banks.

As a result of the housing boom of early this year going bust and an economy gone rocky due to the energy crisis, many of these home-owners found themselves unable to pay their notes and lost their houses. In turn, the banks, who understandably assumed that Freddie/Fannie guaranteed securities were low risk, were left holding the bag.

And now, in case of further mass defaults, the government wants to shore up the banks to the tune of $700 billion.

In short, the government wants to take the taxpayers’ money to get the banks out of a mess which that same government virtually forced the banks into in the first place. And if the answer is no, we all make like Humpty Dumpty. Maybe. But if the answer is yes, the same may happen.

And the Legislative Branch was warned but refused to take action.

Do I have this correct?

UPDATE: The screwers.

Hmmm...who to vote for?

(Thanks to Ace of Spades HQ)

Is That What You Really Want?

"I want you to argue with [your Republican and Independent friends and neighbors] and get in their face."

--Barack Obama, as oblivious to the concept of cause-and-effect as ever.

Obama takes time to remind his troops of the Jedi Mind Trick tactic:

"And if they tell you that, 'Well, we're not sure where he stands on guns.' I want you to say, 'He believes in the Second Amendment.' If they tell you, 'Well, he's going to raise your taxes,' you say, 'No, he's not, he's going lower them.' You are my ambassadors. You guys are the ones who can make the case."

This sort of thing will surely solidify the base--the conservative base.

Trippin' in Iraq

Obama did what??

WHILE campaigning in public for a speedy withdrawal of US troops from Iraq, Sen. Barack Obama has tried in private to persuade Iraqi leaders to delay an agreement on a draw-down of the American military presence.

According to Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari, Obama made his demand for delay a key theme of his discussions with Iraqi leaders in Baghdad in July.

"He asked why we were not prepared to delay an agreement until after the US elections and the formation of a new administration in Washington," Zebari said in an interview.

Obama insisted that Congress should be involved in negotiations on the status of US troops - and that it was in the interests of both sides not to have an agreement negotiated by the Bush administration in its "state of weakness and political confusion."

If true, this is a whole lot more serious than displaying a faux presidential seal.

McCain:

At this point, it is not yet clear what official American negotiations Senator Obama tried to undermine with Iraqi leaders, but the possibility of such actions is unprecedented. It should be concerning to all that he reportedly urged that the democratically-elected Iraqi government listen to him rather than the US administration in power. If news reports are accurate, this is an egregious act of political interference by a presidential candidate seeking political advantage overseas [in a time of war]. Senator Obama needs to reveal what he said to Iraq's Foreign Minister during their closed door meeting. The charge that he sought to delay the withdrawal of Americans from Iraq raises serious questions about Senator Obama's judgment and it demands an explanation.

Eagerly await the response from the Obama campaign.

Living Among the Boors

7/27/08 around 4:15PM

I’m sick of this town. I’m sick of this state.

A man, late forties or early fifties, walked out in front of me while I was sitting in line at an In-n-Out drive-thru and while my car was rolling forward, so I said “hey could you make sure that I see you before you walk in front of me? I almost hit you.” He looked at me with a mixture of incomprehension, disgust and bluster, but said nothing. He was Latino, so I asked, “do you speak English?” He did, at least a bit. “F*ck you, b*tch.”

I watched open-mouthed as he walked over to a light-green Toyota Rav 4. As some may remember I carry a camera everywhere I go. So I got out and took his photo and took one of his vehicle. “You want my ID too?” he asked. “No," I said and walked back to my car.

He began cursing me in Spanish so I yelled back: “None of this would have happened if you had just said you were sorry! NONE OF THIS WOULD BE HAPPENING IF YOU WOULD HAVE SAID ‘LO SIENTO!!’

His wife tried to block the plate but I got a photo of it when I got back in my car. So he gets out and writes down my plate number. I have veteran’s plates and two window stickers: 'United States Air Force Retired' and 'National Rifle Association.'

“You make sure you tell whoever it is that I’m a veteran of the United States Air Force protecting your right to be an A**HOLE!” This was at the top of my lungs also.

If it’s the LAPD he’s telling I should be okay, but if it’s some gang member, who knows? There is a low-level race war going on here, you know. That’s the only reason that I’m making this information public.

I won’t post his face or his plate number unless something crazy happens, but I’ve sent the images to someone I can trust.

I’m tired of people-of whatever race--who can’t even be bothered to display simple manners and who then have the nerve to get offended when you take exception to it.

Go ahead, lambaste me for this post, but I've had enough of this crap.

UPDATE:++undead says that just wearing this outfit would adjust pedestrians' attitudes appropriately.

Israeli Newspaper Publishes Obama Wailing Wall Prayer

While in Israel, Barack Obama, visited The Wailing Wall, which

is thought by Jews to be the most sacred of places, because the temple itself was thought to be the place where God resides on earth. Praying at the Wailing Wall signifies being in the presence of the Divine. Jews from all countries, and as well as tourists of other religious backgrounds, come to pray at the wall, where it is said one immediately has the “ear of god.” [snip]

[Written p]rayers sent in are placed into the cracks of the walls and are called tzetzels.

Obama did so while on his visit, but now an Israeli newspaper is coming under fire for publishing the specifics of the prayer, as well it should.

AP:

The rabbi in charge of the Western Wall, Shmuel Rabinovitz, said publishing the note intruded in Obama’s relationship with God.

“The notes placed between the stones of the Western Wall are between a person and his maker. It is forbidden to read them or make any use of them,” he told Army Radio. The publication “damages the Western Wall and damages the personal, deep part of every one of us that we keep to ourselves,” he said.

A conversation between God and one of His creations is a place I wouldn't want to intrude--especially this particular creation.

Maariv published a photograph of the note, which it said had been removed from the wall by a student at a Jewish seminary immediately after Obama left.

As much as I stand against Obama as president, this is shameful behavior.

UPDATE: Donald Sensing provides more history and tells of his trip to the Wailing Wall.

The Anchoress is aghast at the behavior of the newspaper in question, the student and at that of some faith-based entities regarding the topic.

Donald also provides this comment from the Jerusalem Post's Caroline Glick:

This was supposed to be a private benediction, and it was extraordinarily improper for someone to take this prayer and sell it to the media. On the other hand, in the world of paparazzi, the exposure of the prayer was predictable, and Obama apparently constructed the prayer for public consumption. Like everything else about his visit, this was a carefully crafted statement, designed not to ruffle very many feathers. And like this prayer, there was nothing extraordinary about Obama’s visit. As you would expect from a politician, he tried to be all things to all people. And he probably succeeded.

Glick is probably one of the few people brave enough to say what many are thinking. Still it's unseemly to judge the quality of communication between another and God. Let's just hope (and pray) that his prayers are answered in the affirmative.

Obama Birth Rumors

Ed Morrissey asks:

Was Barack Obama born in Hawaii or somewhere else, or did he just change a name?

Ed cites Jim Geraghty, who thinks that the Obama Campaign’s failure to produce the candidate’s birth certificate has caused these rumors to fly:

1. Obama was not born in the US, but in Kenya.
2. Obama’s middle name was Mohammed, not Hussein (but then why change it to another Arabic name?)
3. His real first name is “Barry”.

Of these, only one is serious.

My first instinct is to call Bravo Sierra on this story, since it’s most likely an ever-mutating product of the malignant imagination of a guy named Kenneth Lamb who saw fit to make up lies about my tribe—the same tribe that Obama stems from. Lamb claims that our tribe is an Arab tribe. Yes, really. The goal in creating this fiction is to refute the idea that Obama, whose mother was a white American, is a “legal” “African American,” whatever the heck that is. (I suppose that, by this logic, I am half “African American” since my mother is a black American.)

See the guy on the right? That’s my father, journalist Philip Ochieng, a Kenyan Luo like the senior Barack Obama. The two were also friends (something which Father's beginning to rue since he's being inundated by American media requests of late). Does he look like an Arab to you?

Obama has produced so many gaffes—both about his personal life and about American history—that I’m beginning to wonder whether anything he says is something which he hasn’t learned rote from a script. However, allowing this fantasy about the Luo tribe--one born of ignorance regarding African countries--to mix in with real, live concrete issues regarding a prospective Barack Obama presidency hurts the opposition to that candidacy. That it p*sses me off is beside the point.

Make no mistake, Lamb’s novella is the origin of these rumors.

The Good News

Huckabee won't be getting the GOP nomination for vice president.

During a speech before the National Rifle Association convention Friday afternoon in Louisville, Kentucky, former Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee — who has endorsed presumptive GOP nominee John McCain — joked that an unexpected offstage noise was Democrat Barack Obama looking to avoid a gunman.

“That was Barack Obama, he just tripped off a chair, he's getting ready to speak,” said the former Arkansas governor, to audience laughter. “Somebody aimed a gun at him and he dove for the floor.”

The bad news: the idiot gives the Democrats something legitimate to complain about.

World is Crazy (UPDATED: Lebanon)

I’ll be away from the computer this morning, but I’m thinking about war, disaster, famine and pestilence and I’m praying. And, no, I'm not trying to depress you but remind you of our blessings.

India: Terror attack in Jaipur, 30 dead and rising.

Myanmar: The country’s junta has allowed the US deliver disaster aid and the UN has resumed its assistance efforts, but with the food delivered being of good quality and slow perishability, the junta still hoards it and gives out spoiling food to its dying population.

China: A couple of days ago, a 7.9 earthquake shook the city of Dujiangyan and the death toll is past 12,000 and rising. China's disaster prep seems to be better than that of Myanmar's; it's the decrepit architecture that's yielded the high death toll.

US: Tornadoes run from Oklahoma to Georgia, bringing the 2008 toll to 100. Lesson learned here: don’t get in your car when a tornado hits.

American Red Cross

International Red Cross

PREVIOUSLY:

Behaving Like Dictators
Myanmar Cyclone

UPDATE: In the comments, Martn Bebow says:

You forgot the civil war going on in Lebanon.

I did. It's falling to Hezbollah.

Europe Tries to Plant Itself

Plant dignity?

Plant dignity??

PLANT DIGNITY????

Yes there are advocates and activists for and official policy guarding the "dignity" of plants--in Europe of course, Switzerland to be specific.

The Swiss federal government's ethics committee on non-human biotechnology has mapped out guidelines to help granting agencies decide which research applications deeply offend the dignity of plants — and hence become unfundable. [SNIP]

Beat Keller of the Institute of Plant Biology at the University of Zurich[…] is running the first field trial — of disease-resistant corn (maize) — to be approved under the new legislation. [SNIP]

Keller sees the issue as providing another tool for opponents to argue against any form of plant biotechnology, which is already very difficult to conduct in Switzerland. [Swiss constitution lawyer at the University of Basel and member of the Swiss federal ethics committee on non-human biotechnology Markus] Schefer says that things will start to become clearer when legal challenges to specific research projects come to court, and case law becomes established.

When I first heard about this, I guessed that it was all about opposition to biotechnology. The demonization of biotech has managed to continue the cycle of starvation in Africa, but you have to hand it to the Swiss—they’re doing their best to ensure that misery will be shared and shared alike. It just may take longer for it to be felt than has been so in Africa.

The committee has created a decision tree presenting the different issues that need to be taken into account for each case. But it has come up with few concrete examples of what type of experiment might be considered an unacceptable insult to plant dignity. The committee does not consider that genetic engineering of plants automatically falls into this category, but its majority view holds that it would if the genetic modification caused plants to 'lose their independence' — for example by interfering with their capacity to reproduce. The statement has confused plant geneticists, who point out the contrast with traditional plant-hybridization technologies, for example in roses, which require male sterility, and the commercial development of seedless fruits.

(Emphasis mine.)

I can’t decide whether to laugh or cry.

You know, between the near-zero population replacement growth of indigenous Europeans, the over-concern for animal dignity in the form of eschewing meat-eating, the opposition to using animals for medical experiments that may lead to saving human life…and now this, one might reasonably conclude that Europe seems content to drag out its commission of suicide.

Don't jump!

See also Wesley J. Smith's "The Silent Scream of the Asparagus" at the Weekly Standard.

Tribalism in America

So if you say the same things--writing the same things-- that you've been saying and writing for the last five years, and someone who has been reading what you write and agreeing with it for the last five years but is offended by the exact same offerings all of a sudden, what does that mean?

You've built a reputation for having an individualist mindset and a conservative political Point of View, but, after someone of your same race/color/ethnic group says something that seems similar to something you've been saying, but that same someone of your race/color/ethnic group has said other things which are offensive to you and to nearly all others. The types of things this someone says--"G** Damn America!!!"--are an anathema to everything you hold dear and have dedicated your adult life to.

Nevertheless, this person who has read what you've thought for five years begins to look upon you with suspicion for one reason and one reason alone: that you share the same race/color/ethnic group with the person who exhorts the Lord to consign our beloved country to Hell.

What does that mean?

(To be continued...)

UPDATE: The same coin.

UPDATE: And the primary Sower of Discord fields another one.

You go into these small towns in Pennsylvania and, like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing's replaced them. And they fell through the Clinton administration, and the Bush administration, and each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are gonna regenerate and they have not.

And it's not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy toward people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.

Way to unite a people, genius.

Heart-Breaker

LA Times’ Steve Lopez accurately describes the neighborhood in which young Los Angeles High School football star and all around good kid Jamiel "Jazz" Shaw, Jr. grew up. In spite of stereotypes about South Central Los Angeles, it's been a nice neighborhood for a long time. I remember its middle-class diversity well since my old house sits only a few blocks away from Shaw’s; LA High is my alma mater.

It seems that the neighborhood remained relatively tranquil right up to the time when Shaw was shot to death in front of his own home—in front of his father.

The preliminary report from police suggested a random gang hit on a kid who was clean, Latino suspects targeting a black kid, here on a block that had defied ignorance and hatred and knocked down the walls we build between ourselves.

Jazz may be a victim of the low-level war at home. (In a brutally ironic twist, his mother had to come home on emergency leave from Iraq. She’s a U.S. Army sergeant.)

I look at that boy’s face and I see my nephews and the sons of my friends. I think of all the times that I’ve ranted about black unwed mothers and the types of progeny they generally set forth into the world. And then I look at this kid, who had both of his biological parents, a good home, a clean record and a bright future.

And I understand why people just give up.

My prayers go out to the Shaw family, because it’s the only thing I can give them. In a way, it always was.

(Thanks to Patterico)

Chinese Cats

I bet that when some of you read that the Chinese were killing cats en masse in Beijing, (done in the name of putting on a good front for the upcoming Summer Olympics) that the first thing you thought was “good” and the second thing you thought was “dinner.”

However, when I heard that this was happening, the first thing I thought was that if I were a rat, I’d be applying for a Chinese visa. Along those lines Rick Moran points out that

[w]hipping up a frenzy of emotion against cats was a favorite ploy of the church in the middle ages. In something of a delicious irony (from the cat’s perspective) when our ancestors had killed off most of the cats in Europe, invading rats overran the continent. They bore fleas that carried bubonic plague that killed of a third of its population. In their frenzy to burn witches and murder their “familiars,” Europeans were unwittingly sealing their doom by eliminating their only salvation against the plague carrying rats – cats.

The Chinese don’t give the cats the needle or spay/neuter them like we would; they round them up, put them in a feline gulag and starve them to death. Lovely. Will PETA be intervening?

Anyway, Communist China’s demonstrable disregard for the dignity of life and death for any of God’s creature isn’t so shocking. I mean what can one expect from a nation based on the unconstrained vision of human character? Answer: anything.

What I’m surprised by--again--is the short-time thinking and the failure to learn from history. I guess I shouldn’t be, however. After all, this is a government which (still) has a one-child policy that in practice induces families to kill off their girl children. (Don’t forget this when you see an American couple who has an adopted girl child from China.) We've seen how young men behave when their marriage prospects are slim to non-existent.

Will the West and Japan have to come to China's aid in the near future because of this or some similar decision of expediency that China has made? The two would certainly offer. But I'm guessing that China would rather that a substantial portion of its population die of bubonic plague rather than accept help from us--especially from the Japanese.

As a matter of fact, if I had more faith in the ChiComs' long-term planning abilities, I'd say that they're hoping that a plague epidemic breaks out. It would take care of a lot of their problems--at least the ones which they think they have.

In the meantime, hug your pets--and your daughters.

Security Lapse at Obama Rally? (UPDATED: USSS Disputes)

In Dallas, Texas no less.

Security details at Barack Obama's rally Wednesday stopped screening people for weapons at the front gates more than an hour before the Democratic presidential candidate took the stage at Reunion Arena.

The order to put down the metal detectors and stop checking purses and laptop bags came as a surprise to several Dallas police officers who said they believed it was a lapse in security. [SNIP]

"Sure," said [Dallas Deputy Police Chief T.W.] Lawrence, when asked if he was concerned by the great number of people who had gotten into the building without being checked. But, he added, the turnout of more than 17,000 people seemed to be a "friendly crowd."

What. The. Flock.

Do you know that if something happens to that guy that there will be Hell To Pay in this country?

(Thanks to Larry Elder)

UPDATE: Karl at Protein Wisdom points to a follow-up report in the same newspaper, the Dallas Star-Telegram, while taking the Left blogosphere to task for pimping the Obama-martyr meme. :::shrug::: I think the Dallas Police Chief--if quoted accurately--is the one at fault.

“There were no security lapses at that venue,” said Eric Zahren, a spokesman for the Secret Service in Washington. He added there was “no deviation” from the “comprehensive and layered” security plan, implemented in “very close cooperation with our law enforcement partners.”

Zahren rebutted suggestions by several Dallas police officers at the rally who thought the Secret Service ordered a halt to the time-consuming weapons check because long lines were moving slowly, and many seats remained empty as time neared for Obama to appear.

“It was never a part of the plan at this particular venue to have each and every person in the crowd pass through the Magnetometer,” said Zahren, referring to the device used to detect metal in clothing and bags.

(Thanks to Hot Air)

Note to Kenyan Readers (UPDATED: “Tell Obama we want guns”)

What is it with people? I’ve asked Kenyans to comment on what’s going on in their country while repeatedly acknowledging my knowledge and contextual deficiencies on the background of the crisis there. But I‘ve only received two Kenyan commenters. One “chastised” me for having no experience on the ground in that country (that’s a difficult feat to achieve from my office in South Central Los Angeles, California, USA). The other, after apparently reading only one post from the thirty or so Kenya posts I’ve written since January 1st and assuming that the post in question was the lone missive on the subject, ridiculed me as being a “faddist.” [2-9-08: In this case, an apology was offered and accepted.]

(I should like to be pat on the back for not playing the “do you know who my father is” card and would forget all this if either of them—instead of illogically sniping because someone who isn’t Kenyan cares about what's happening to that country--could tell me where he is.)

Know this, Kenyans: I’m not getting a whole lot of hits for my series on Kenya. My primary audience from this 4 ½ year old blog consists of Americans—conservative and military. I’ve diverted from my usually fare and my site-meter count has plunged as a result. You see, Kenyans, after Rwanda and after Bosnia, most Americans are tired of those who refuse to learn from the bad examples of others; they really don’t give a rat’s a** when a group of people are short-sighted enough to murder their own future. So the assertion that my Kenya posting is some sort of fad would be laughable if it weren’t an indication of something else: shame. You are ashamed of the behavior of your countrymen and you should be. (As your kinswoman, I know I am—as I often am upon revelation of crimes committed by my American kinsmen.) I mean why else would two Kenyans come to this blog and criticize a non-Kenyan for trying to keep track of what’s going on over there?

Well, check this out, Kenyans: even if I do go back to posting more lucrative fare, you all can’t hide the crimes that our ethnic brethren are committing against each other. The days during which that could have been achieved are over. So instead of stupidly bashing me for being fortunate enough to have been born and raised American, how about showing some National Will and stop murdering and raping each other? Failing that, how about sending my father and the rest of his family out? Alive? If you can do either--and, preferably, both--I will acknowledge your superiority.

UPDATE: National Will is not visible on the horizon (emphasis mine).

President Mwai Kibaki has claimed victory in the December 27 vote but opposition leader Raila Odinga says the polls were rigged. Even the international observers have cited serious flaws.

About 1,000 people have died in ethnic clashes, riots and looting since then.

The ethnic clashes have fueled [Senator Barack] Obama fever, with members of the Luo ethnic group rallying behind Obama [in his bid for the US presidency], whose father was a Luo.

''Obama!'' a group of Luo men shouted in unison, as they stood guard at a makeshift roadblock near the entrance of Kibera, Kenya's biggest shantytown outside Nairobi.

''We are supporting him here. We want him to win the election,'' said Mohammed Noor, 27.

''Did you know that Obama's father is also Luo?'' he added.

Behind Noor, young men yelled: ''Tell Obama we want guns!''

Fools.

(Thanks to This Ain't Hell)

UPDATE: Breakthrough? We'll see.

A Country's Suicide

Another of Kenya's famed runners is felled by his countrymen.

Wesley Ngetich, the 2006 Chevron Houston Marathon runner-up who pushed the race's three-time champion David Cheruiyot to a then career-best time with a personal best, has been killed in the spreading tribal violence that is rocking his native Kenya. [SNIP]

Ngetich had planned to run the P. F. Chang's Rock 'N' Roll Marathon in Phoenix the same day as the Houston race a week ago but was unable to get a flight out of Kenya because of the fighting.

What is there to add?

UPDATE: Save the Children accepts refugees in Uganda--old people and their orphaned grandchildren.

With one baby strapped to her back, another in her arms and a posse of other grandchildren clinging to her skirts, Mary Nyawera stood in line for food rations.

The explosion of violence over Kenya's disputed election has cost Nyawera her home, her livelihood and all four of her sons. She is now the sole provider for 22 grandchildren, all refugees at a border camp in neighboring Uganda.

The 74-year-old was lucky to be called to the front of the line here recently, where she received some ground corn and dried beans. SNIP]

John Karanja, 76, has used what little money he was able to salvage from his looted home to buy his orphaned grandchildren — he fled with 10 of them — milk and other food.

"It is not easy to feed the children. They don't want to eat the food supplied by the charities," he explained.

Three weeks ago Karanja lived in comfort, raising pigs, cows and goats on his farm.

Then a mob armed with machetes arrived. "They destroyed everything, and looted everything. They cut the animals (down) and set fire to what they could not carry with them," he says.

And the cash he managed to escape with is running out. [SNIP]

"If I met Odinga today I would tell him that 'You are a killer,'" Karanja said. "And Kibaki, I would tell him to improve on the security, especially in areas where his supporters are hunted."

The Kenya Crisis

Olympian Error

Who was Lucas Sang?

Lucas Sang was a Kenyan athlete who participated in the 1988 Summer Olympics, held in Seoul. He was a member of the Kenyan 4 x 400 metre relay team, reaching the final and finishing eighth. He also competed in the 400 metre individual race, but failed to make the semifinals.

He was also a Kalenjin farmer. He was stoned to death by a mob on New Year's Day in Eldoret, his home town; he was 46. His murderers mistook him for a Kikuyu.

Kenya, what are you doing to your heros, your treasures?

Kenya Braces Itself

Odinga’s ODM calls for three days of protest while Kibaki’s government reiterates the ban on public protests. Rock plus hard place equals…

For all previous Kenya coverage, click on the 'Africa' category.

Dreading Tomorrow

Macharia Gaitho--Managing Editor, Special Projects at Kenya’s Daily Nation--seems just as nonplussed as the rest of the world at the sight of his country is exploding before his eyes while his leaders argue.

In this business I am consulted a great deal by foreign diplomats, journalists, representatives of international development organisations, NGO-types and others wanting my take on the prognosis for Kenya.

I have always told them that that despite the fiercely competitive politics that does not end at election time, Kenya will always remain a relatively stable, safe and secure place. Ahead of the polls many were quite worried about the prospects of post-election violence, especially if there was no clear winner. My opinion was that there would be the usual grumbling from the losers, maybe some scattered violence, but things would eventually return to normal and we would start advance politicking ahead of 2012.

I take back all the confidence I expressed about my country. I was naïve and shortsighted, and failed to recognise that President Kibaki would not care about taking the oath of office while standing on a pile of human bones or that Mr Raila Odinga would not mind staking his claim while swimming across a sea of blood.

It is indeed surreal that the two can be arguing over who won the vote while around them rages a bloodletting that might do Pol Pot of the killing fields of Cambodia or the Interahamwe of the Rwanda genocide proud.

But now Odinga has changed his mind and will negotiate with Kibaki.

Raila also said he was willing to participate in an interim government whose only purpose would be to prepare for a re-run of the presidential election.

"The interim government should last no more than three months," he said, adding that such a poll should be conducted by an independent body and not the ECK, which has been discredited as partisan and whose members are President Kibaki's appointees.

Meanwhile the demonstration against Kibaki will go forward in spite of the Kenyan Police Commissioner’s admonition to his public.

Police Commissioner Hussein Ali has cautioned Kenyans against attending rallies called by politicians, warning that they would be arrested.

Major-General Ali outlawed a meeting called by ODM leaders at Uhuru Park on Thursday, citing the volatile security situation in the country. [SNIP]

Maj-Gen Ali warned: “Anybody inciting Kenyans into violence, engaging or procuring others to commit criminal offences will be dealt with according to the law without any exception,” he said.

Admonition, threat or promise? Not much sleeping tonight.

UPDATE: Voter turnout? 115%.

PREVIOUSLY:

Kenya: Up in Smoke
Winds of Kenyan War
Kenyan Tribal Violence

Kenya: Up in Smoke (UPDATED)

View from A Mad Kenyan Woman:

We really cannot go on much longer with these protestations of horrified incomprehension when all along bloggers, intellectuals, human rights activists and my next-door-neighbour’s little girl have all been warning us of the dangers of ethnic fundamentalism. [SNIP]

I have been watching the television and listening to an interesting cross-section of our leaders and opinion makers: we all seem to think that unless Raila and Kibaki get together and make nice, the rest of us are doomed to go on senselessly butchering each other without fear or favour, no scratch that: with ultimate fear and delicately nuanced favour. Somewhere along the lines of: you-must-have-voted-for-the-person-I-did-not-want-to-win-so-die.

Chaos in the Rift Valley....
A plea from Kenyan presidential candidate Stephen Kalonzo Musyoka:
And, in the wake of his consultation with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, here's a word from Senator Obama (click to download):

"I have been deeply troubled by the recent news out of Kenya. The instability and tragic violence pose an urgent and dangerous threat to the people of Kenya, and to Kenyan democracy. My family’s thoughts and prayers go out to all who have suffered, and to the families of the victims.

"The Kenyan people have a proud history of supporting the growth of democracy in their country. Their thirst for democracy was on display in this most recent election, when they turned out to vote in record numbers, and in a peaceful and orderly way.

"Despite irregularities in the vote tabulation, now is not the time to throw that strong democracy away. Now is a time for President Kibaki, opposition leader Odinga, and all of Kenya’s leaders to call for calm, to come together, and to start a political process to address peacefully the controversies that divide them. Now is the time for this terrible violence to end.

"Kenya’s long democratic journey has at times been difficult. But at critical moments, Kenyans have chosen unity and progress over division and disaster. The way forward is not through violence – it is through democracy, and the rule of law. To all of Kenya’s people, I ask you to renew Kenya’s democratic tradition, and to seek your dreams in peace."

(Thanks to Swamp Politics)

UPDATE: The Current State of Democracy in Kenya (very disturbing photos).

Kenya's Electoral Commission chairman admits to announcing the election results prematurely due to pressure.

(Thanks to Andrew Sullivan)

UPDATE: This communist blogger's take on things is very informative and would be kind of fun if the so many lives weren't a stake.

PREVIOUSLY:

Winds of Kenyan War
Kenyan Tribal Violence

Winds of Kenyan War

I have African siblings and American siblings. A little while ago, one of my African sisters characterized the situation in Kenya as a war, rather than "unrest." And that is just what it appears to be.

He said, he said.

Opposition leader Raila Odinga [right] blames the president: "What is happening is genocide on a grand scale. We are seeing the security forces of [President Mwai] Kibaki shooting innocent civilians who are just expressing their democratic right of protest against the rigging of elections."

The government rejects that. President Kibaki's party spokesman George Nyamwea said the opposition should restrain its people and accept the result: "The elections are over. Our constitution says that once the electoral commission has declared the results, those are the results we accept. If we have any disputes, the normal way of resolving them is through petitioning the High Court."

Up to 100,000 people have been forced to flee by roaming gangs of vigilantes. The border posts with Uganda are besieged. The Red Cross has sent patrols to help recover bodies, while many terrified survivors head for the Ugandan border in the hope of escaping the killing.

I’m sure I’m not the only one who has a bad feeling about a rally scheduled for tomorrow (today) in Nairobi.

Opposition leader Raila Odinga has called for a million of his supporters to converge on Uhuru Park and anoint him the "people's president," to protest an election he claims was rigged by the incumbent, President Mwai Kibaki. Kibaki's government has banned the rally, and in the past few days security forces have not hesitated to shoot rioters dead on sight.

Preventing another Rwanda.

"The only way to stop this is for [Kibaki] and [Odinga] to agree on a way forward," [Abdullah Ahmed] Nasir [political observer and former chair of the Law Society of Kenya] adds. "If they can agree to an interim government, and then hold elections again in one year's time, then all this could stop."

But getting these two men to agree will take international pressure, Nasir adds. "If Kibaki is pushed to talk, and if the international community can put pressure on Raila, they can agree to meet, and move toward a solution."

In an apparent olive branch to Odinga, Kibaki invited all members of the new opposition-dominated parliament to a meeting Wednesday at State House in Nairobi. But no opposition MPs attended as Odinga demanded outside mediation.

For the tribalists, it's time to settle the old beefs. Imagine if Bush v. Gore had been resolved in this manner.

If Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) wants to use his Kenya Luo heritage as a force for good I’d say that he has an opportunity here.

PREVIOUSLY:

Kenyan Tribal Violence

OJ's Daughter Suffers for Her Art

Okay, not really.

An MIT student with a fake bomb strapped to her chest was arrested at gunpoint Friday at Logan International Airport and later claimed it was artwork, officials said.

Star Simpson, 19, had a computer circuit board and wiring in plain view over a black hooded sweat shirt she was wearing, said State Police Maj. Scott Pare, the commanding officer at the airport. [SNIP]

Simpson was charged with disturbing the peace and possessing a hoax device.

She pleaded not guilty to a charge of possessing a hoax device at her arraignment in East Boston District Court Friday afternoon. She was released on $750 bail and ordered to stay away from Logan Airport. [SNIP]

Simpson was "extremely lucky she followed the instructions or deadly force would have been used," Pare said. "She's lucky to be in a cell as opposed to the morgue."

The fake belt was alleged to be a "piece of art." Somehow, the phrase "riddled with holes" comes to mind. Simpson is electrical engineering and computer science major at MIT(!) Does that course of study include causality studies? Ballistics Science? If so, I'm guessing that Star slept in on those days.

Defiling Sacred Ground (UPDATED: Ahmadinejad to Speak at Columbia U.)

Before I get into the previously mentioned subjects, I'd just like to say that this is a Really Bad Idea.

In a move that has stunned New York, the Bloomberg administration is in discussions to escort the Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, to ground zero during his visit to New York next week, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said today.

The Iranian mission to the U.N. made the request to the New York City Police Department and the Secret Service, which will jointly oversee security during the leader's two-day visit. Mr. Ahmadinejad is scheduled to arrive September 24 to speak to the U.N. General Assembly as the Security Council decides whether to increase sanctions against his country for its uranium enrichment program.

Should the visit come to pass, one could expect the Mother of All Sit-ins to block the Iranian president's access to the site; a protest action composed of not only 9/11 survivors, friends/relatives of the fallen, otherwise outraged citizens and probably not a few politicians, but scores of Persians/Persian-Americans who have taken refuge in the US in the past thirty years in order to escape the persecution of the Mullahs whose tune to which Ahmadinejad dances.

Have your token UN visit...Mr. President...then MoveOn^tm back to Tehran.

(Thanks to Memeorandum)

UPDATE: Charles Johnson says--according to WCBS Radio 880--that the NYPD ain't havin' it. (It appears that the WCBS site is down--for obvious reasons.) I guess Commissioner Kelly had a word or two with NYC Mayor Bloomberg.

Darn. I would have loved to take a trip to New York.

UPDATE: Ahmadinejad will speak at Columbia University after his appearance before the UN General Assembly. From Columbia President Lee Bollinger:

In order to have such a University-wide forum, we have insisted that a number of conditions be met, first and foremost that President Ahmadinejad agree to divide his time evenly between delivering remarks and responding to audience questions. I also wanted to be sure the Iranians understood that I would myself introduce the event with a series of sharp challenges to the President on issues including:

·the Iranian President’s denial of the Holocaust;

·his public call for the destruction of the state of Israel;

·his reported support for international terrorism that targets innocent civilians and American troops;

·Iran's pursuit of nuclear ambitions in opposition to international sanction;

·his government's widely documented suppression of civil society and particularly of women's rights; and

·his government's imprisoning of journalists and scholars, including one of Columbia’s own alumni,
Dr. Kian Tajbakhsh.

Last year, Columbia issued an earlier invitation for the Iranian president to speak, but rescinded it in the wake of a public outcry similar to the response that greeted the proposed Ground Zero visit.

Restrooms Not For "Rest" Anymore

The hoopla surrounding the recently publicized fact that Senator Larry Craig (R-ID) pleaded guilty two months ago to disorderly/lewd conduct has many takes. The three-term senator was busted in a Minnesota Airport men's room for soliciting sex with another man--an undercover cop--who was located in an adjacent stall. You can find several of the takes here, here, here and here and most, of course, have a political bent. Craig held a press conference a couple of hours ago during which he claims not to be a homosexual, refuses to resign and says that he will decide later whether to stand for re-election next year. Cue senate ethics probe.

With all of the (admittedly fun) scandal-mongering going on, what I really want to know about is this: when did airport men's rooms become the sex spot for male homosexuals? Perhaps I'm a bit sheltered, but if I had a son between the ages of six and eleven--too old to go into the ladies' room with me but not yet large enough to defend himself against an aggressive adult--I probably wouldn't be.

Perhaps men so inclined wouldn't take the chance on grabbing a boy in such an enclosed space--one from which such a predator would not have an easy avenue of escape--but is that a chance which you would take with your son? And even if there are no child predators present, seeing/hearing two men boinking in the restroom is not something which I would want my son to have to experience.

When did it become dangerous to send older boys into airport bathrooms by themselves? And why isn't something being...never mind. Our airports aren't totally secure from terrorists. Why should the state of affairs be any different with regard to perverts? (And, yes, people who have any kind of sex in public restrooms are perverts.)

Both Democrats and Republicans are calling on Craig to resign. I agree that he should. He pleaded guilty to possibly exposing somebody's child to his very adult sexuality. Would you want someone like this in DC representing your interests?*

*If you live in Barney Frank's (D-MA) district, forget I asked.

UPDATE: Welcome Balloon Juice readers! It's nice to know that John and I still agree on some things. :-)

UPDATE: Looking for Reasons to Complain

Human Stain

See this guy? I knew him and worked with him a long time ago. I even liked him back then.

To all of those who would assert that we veterans believe that all other veterans are good and that we would not say anything bad about others veterans, I present to you one James P. Finn.

A 42-year-old man faced child pornography charges Thursday after police say they caught him in the act of downloading child pornography off the Internet during a search of his home.

A flier circulated in the neighborhood where James P. Finn lived identifying him as a "pedophile activist" that included his name and photograph led police to investigate Finn, Wayne County Sheriff Warren Evans said.

During a search of Finn's home Tuesday, police said they found about 30 digital movies and nearly 600 photos showing children in sexual situations.

As it happens, Finn used to be an active duty USAF NCO (before that, he had been a Marine Reservist). In the late eighties, I worked in the same USAF office (in then West Berlin) with Finn along with several others. He was introduced to me and was mostly referred to as “JP,” which made sense in a place in which there were a lot of American men and, therefore, several men who had been given the name of “James.”

JP had an air about him which most of us with working “gaydar” recognized. The fact that there have been many homosexuals in the military isn’t new to those of us who have been a part of it. The Clinton policy of “don’t-ask-don’t-tell” was a de facto among regular military members long before the forty-second president made it de jure.

I had known about JP’s downfall of twenty years ago via RUMINT. When JP was due to rotate out of Berlin, a flag involving his security clearance had popped up. The word was that he had been accused of molesting an underage male cousin in the years before his military service. The accusation of molestation became known to military authorities via the cousin’s psychiatrist.

However, when JP took his plane from Berlin to Atlanta via Frankfurt, he wasn’t under arms(!) So when he landed in Atlanta that was the last that the military had heard of him until 1995.

Taking the advice of a friend, Finn said, he fled the [Atlanta] area to escape going to trial. After being on the run for six years, he said, the Air Force tracked him down in 1995 in New York.

Facing the possibility of 20 years in prison, Finn said, the case against him was ultimately dropped after the boy whom he had the relationship with refused to testify against him.

JP served seven months in a military prison, likely for desertion.

Here’s the most hair-raising quote from the article:

"I am convinced that inter-generational love is not wrong," he wrote. "I must help spread the message. I realize it would be easier to sink into obscurity and perhaps find a beautiful, satisfying relationship with a boy.

This is what people who are consumed by evil do. Instead of turning away from what they know is wrong, they convince themselves that their desire is the opposite of wrong. JP may have been born with the desires he has, but I’m not buying any of the crap which would absolve him of his guilt—that he was unable to control himself.

Not only did JP not control himself, he waded into his perversion, nearly drowning himself in it and became its representative. He has a huge online footprint as a “pedophile activist.” (One of my fellow Cold Warriors advised us to Google his name, but I’m just not up to that.)

Some who were close friends with JP way back when are beating themselves up about how they could have missed this about him. But as my friend Marty points out, “the most effective predators are very good at compartmentalizing their different lives.”

James P. Finn is a blot on the reputations of both the USMC and the USAF and I hope that he is put somewhere far, far away from children.

Can he be redeemed in the eyes of God? Of course. However, that does not change the fact that there are earthly penalties which he will have to pay. It looks as though he will but I’m sorry that it took so long and I’m betting that there are many people—many parents and children—who are sorrier than I am.

UPDATE: Another pervert is set to receive earthly justice.

Back Door Open

This morning, during a White House Press conference, Homeland Security Adviser Fran Townsend was answering questions about the recently released National Intelligence Estimate--which predicts that the US Homeland will be hit again by al Qaeda or, possibly, Lebanon's Hezbollah and which says that terrorists' abilities are improving--they're getting better at being terrorists. No surprise in either case.

I didn't even bother to laugh derisively, however, when Ms. Townsend had the gall to assert that President Bush's fervor for Comprehensive Immigration Reform was due to the threat which we face from Islamists.

And, now we find out that,

[...] the FBI is investigating an alleged human smuggling operation based in Chaparral, N.M., that agents say is bringing "Iraqis and other Middle Eastern" individuals across the Rio Grande from Mexico. [SNIP]

[T]he smuggling organization "used to smuggle Mexicans, but decided to smuggle Iraqi or other Middle Eastern individuals because it was more lucrative." Each individual would be charged a fee of $20,000 to $25,000, according to the report.

You mean to tell me that everyone coming clandestinely into the US via its southern border isn't merely a poor hard-working Mexican looking for a better life? Gee, who could have ever predicted that?

(Thanks to Hot Air)

Technorati Profile

Teh Crazy Surfaces (UPDATED)

Jeff Goldstein of Protein Wisdom has quit blogging again. Since he recently overhauled his site, I suspected that the abrupt, initially unexplained decision had something to do with the nut job and pervert Deborah Frisch. As it turns out, it does. From Jeff:

Frisch has once again — with no provocation — stepped up her assault on me, my site, my family and my friends.

Which means I am simply going to redouble me efforts to put a stop to it.

Frisch is known all over both sides of the political blogosphere for her disjointed, racist, hateful and pedophilic musings and for continual harassment of her former colleagues in higher education, but for some reason known only to her and to the person she serves, she has fixated on Jeff and his family, which includes a pre-schooler.

I would imagine that all bloggers who are open about their locations and identities experience greater or lesser degrees of stalking, depending on the popularity of the blog in question. However, Frisch exhibits a degree of doggedness that suggests that someone with governmental authority needs to step. (And, no, I'm not so optimistic about that happening.)

Oregon official authorities: please put a butterfly net over Frisch before someone is forced to render a more, shall we say, permanent outcome to end this freak's activities.

(Thanks to Ace of Spades)

(Photo courtesy of the Oregon Commentator)

UPDATE: Frisch sends me greetings via one of her continuously created Blogspot accounts. According to the the timeline (see June 19, 2007) of her whackness, Blogger has had the same dearth of luck as any of her other stalkees in ridding themselves of her. Too bad for them.

UPDATE: Apparently, she took the greeting post down. (Did some of you go over there and misbehave? Shame on you!)

However, she still has a posted greeting for Ace of Spades, which reads thusly, for some reason:

'tsup, nigga?

Baghdad Horror

After viewing this (graphic and rage-inducing), I had to get up and walk away from the computer for a bit.

One look at this GI's face will give you an idea of what U.S. and Iraqi soldiers found--almost by accident--in a Baghdad orphanage on June 10, 2007.

On a daytime patrol in central Baghdad just over than a week ago, a U.S. military advisory team and Iraqi soldiers happened to look over a wall and found something horrific. [SNIP]

Inside the building, a government-run orphanage for special needs children, the soldiers found more emaciated little bodies tied to the cribs. They had been kept this way for more than a month, according to the soldiers called in to rescue the 24 boys.

"I saw children that you could see literally every bone in their body that were so skinny, they had no energy to move whatsoever, no expression on their face," Staff Sgt. Michael Beale said.

"The kids were tied up, naked, covered in their own waste — feces — and there were three people that were cooking themselves food, but nothing for the kids," Lt. Stephen Duperre said. [SNIP]

[...]The soldiers found kitchen shelves packed with food and in the stockroom, rows of brand-new clothing still in their plastic wrapping.

Instead of giving it to the boys, the soldiers believe it was being sold to local markets.

The man in charge, the orphanage caretaker, had a well-kept office — a stark contrast to the terrible conditions just outside that room.

Whether the boys are actual orphans or not is anyone's guess.

Every time that a group of human beings does something evil, it seems that another group looks on and feels the perverse need to go one better.

Video

(Photo by CBS)

Bald Discrimination

And you knew that I'd be right on top of it.

Derek Jackson, a seventh grader at Bailey Middle School in Austin, TX was suspended from school because his barber had cut his hair too short!

Derek's mother, Amanda, says she met with Bailey Middle School Principal Dr. Julia Fletcher, and Dr. Fletcher told her that the issue was "not worth the fight".

Leaders of Austin's NAACP are convinced the suspension of Derek Jackson is racially motivated. [The Jacksons are black.] Nelson Linder with the NAACP says there's no other reason he can think of why a 7th grader would get in-school suspension for having hair that's too short.

According to the article, Derek's hairstyle violated the school's dress code and was a "distraction."

The only reason that I can think of for this rule would be the implications of a white bald-headed boy--that such a kid might be a junior skin-head. However, unless young Derek were a part of some skin-head diversity program, the likelihood that he is a junior-flip skin-head seems low.

And even if Derek were white what would be the big deal? Boys and men traditionally wear their hair short and, along with that, barbers make mistakes--as I well know--sometimes taking a bigger chunk out than intended and having to cut the rest down for symmetry's sake. On top of that, black boys and men--and not a few of their white counterparts--have been cutting their hair down to zero for a very long time with no political or social implications located therein; for the most part, looking great, and in the case of the adult men, very professional. Hasn't this woman ever heard of Yul Brenner (or Cobb for that matter)?

So why is having a bald head against this school's dress again? (I'm betting that if Derek had a big fluffy Afro or cornrows or locks, the principal wouldn't have uttered a peep.)

To me, this sounds like a "boy" issue, rather than a racial one. Lately, boy children can't catch a break--for acting like boys, or, as it appears in this case, for being groomed like one. However, the case is racial in this manner, albeit accidentally: the drop-out rate for black boys is alarmingly high. One should think that the principal of this school would not want provide one of the proverbial camel's straws for at least one black male child which might lead to that child becoming a small part of that statistic--especially for such a ridiculous matter.

Dr. Fletcher certainly has infinitely more important matters to attend to.

(Thanks to Crunk & Disorderly)

Words From the Heart (UPDATED)

At the CPAC Conference in Washington, DC, conservative media star Ann Coulter said this:

I’d say something about [2008 Democratic presidential candidate Former Senator] John Edwards, but if you say ‘f*ggot’ you have to go to rehab.

And some people on the Right are defending her right to “free speech” -–read freedom from criticism--or claiming that she didn’t really refer to the former senator using a derogatory epithet for homosexuals. Really.

I wonder what the reaction would be had Ms. Coulter said something like this:

I’d say something about [2008 Democratic presidential candidate Senator] Barack Obama, but if you say ‘n*gger’ you have to go to rehab.

Likely, some would the same thing. (Actually, I would find such people refreshing—at least I’d know where they stand and from whom to stay away.)

However, many bloggers on the Right aren’t charmed by this latest deployment of Coulter’s possible character flaw weapon—notably wielded against GWB back when he nominated Harriet Miers to sit on the Supreme Court.

I waded in Hot Air’s comment section on the subject and got called a “wimp”, told to “cowboy up” and told that I was suggesting that “fascist tactics” be used against Coulter as punishment for her “botched joke.” I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised to discover that some on the Right don’t want their icons to be criticized any more than some on the Left do. Nor should I have been surprised that hyperbole and Straw Man tactics were used to get those of us who believe that Ms. Coulter hurts the conservative cause roughly equally to the amount that she helps it to shut up.

We’re all human, after all, and, humanity, thy name is double-standard. Yes, you too.

But when the use of a double-standard is pointed out, to keep defending it is just compounding the error. Okay, sure, some on the Left engage in epithet-throwing also (and worse) and some on the Right argue that this justifies tactics like those of Coulter. I remember making this same sort of argument to my parents when I did something wrong: “but Susie does it too!” In short, it’s a childish argument. Additionally, if the MSM is as Left-skewed as many on the Right believe it is, how will using the same type of tactics help the Right, since, presumably, the MSM will play up comments like Ms. Coulter’s and downplay similar one from those with whom they agree politically?

Coulter screwed up, plain and simple--both morally and strategically.

UPDATE: John Hawkins:

[I]n all likelihood, before Coulter ever went to CPAC, she came up with that line and planned to deliberately spring it this week-end. Why? Because she knew it was a high profile event attended by the presidential candidates and Dick Cheney, which guaranteed that her offensive remark would garner massive publicity for her -- which it did.

If that was Coulter's motive, then bully for her. I just hope that garnering publicity at the expense of conservatives was worth it--to her, that is.

UPDATE: From one of Gay Patriot's commenters:

The real scandal is not Ann Coulter - it is the fact that she is LOVED by the conservative base.

Also, one wonders whether Coulter would even be famous if she had a different appearance.

UPDATE: Michelle Malkin (who has had to put up with derogatory slurs hurled from another direction):

Her "faggot" joke was not just a distraction from all the good that was highlighted and represented at the conference. It was the equivalent of a rhetorical fragging--an intentionally-tossed verbal grenade that exploded in her own fellow ideological soldiers' tent.

For the good that came from the conference,go to her latest link.

UPDATE: An Open Letter to CPAC Sponsors and Organizers Regarding Ann Coulter.

The Least of These

Often, I think Dante was right; specifically regarding the lines in Inferno in which he describes a resident of Hell who was so evil in life that his soul drops down to the Underworld before he dies, allowing a demon to inhabit his living body.

I wonder whether such could be the case for those who harm children. Or think about it. Or even “joke” about it. For nothing is as horrible—dare I say Satanic—than even thinking about doing harm to the weakest among us. Even Jesus--the Redeemer--was at His most hardcore on this particular subject.

After an ongoing trolling of Jeff Goldstein’s site (Protein Wisdom), one Deborah Frisch—a psychology professor, no less--has crossed that line, publicly expressing her nauseating imaginings for Jeff’s two-year-old son.

"I’d like to hear more about your “tyke” by the way. Girl? Boy? Toddler? Teen? Are you still married to the woman you ephed to give birth to the tyke?
Tell all, bro!"
***
"[...] as I said elsewhere, if I woke up tomorrow and learned that someone else had shot you and your “tyke” it wouldn’t slow me down one iota. You aren’t “human” to me."
***
" Ooh. Two year old boy. Sounds hot. You live in Colorado, I see. Hope no one Jon-Benets your baby.
Are you still married to the woman you humped to produce the toddler? "
***
Give your pathetic progeny (I sure hope that mofo got good genes from his mama!) a big fat tongue-filled kiss from me! LOTS AND LOTS OF SALIVA from Auntie MOONBAT, if you don’t mind!
Somehow, Jeffy boy, I think you get off on the possibility of Frenching your pathetic progeny, even if it is a boy. You seem like a VERY, VERY sick mofo to me, bro.

(Emphasis mine.)

As one could predict, Jeff has gone to the authorities—both to Frisch’s employer, the University of Arizona and, no doubt, to the FBI. Additionally, I wonder what else he may have planned for Professor Frisch. I know what I would do in his place, but I hope that Jeff is more cool-headed than that; his family needs him.

Frisch has sustained massive condemnation from all corners of the blogosphere and, in spite of her bravado toward Jeff in the wake of her comments (“Bring it on, hombre!”), she has resigned from her position at U of A and has submitted a public apology, such as it is.

But Jeff’s site has been under sustained DOS attacks for days since Frisch’s dark musings--either from her or her sympathizers. That a person who “jokes” about molesting and murdering a child could actually have people so sympathetic to her “plight” that they would sabotage the site of that child’s father is what is most appalling—and telling.

These saboteurs may harbor the same type of evil notions as Frisch, however I suspect that they don’t. Likely, they are mere political partisans who disagree with Jeff’s demonstrably conservative and well-articulated stances so strenuously, that they are willing to stand with Frisch—a leftist, anti-war BDS-sufferer—and take overt action on her behalf, while overlooking her perversion and murderous intent. And it is these people—those who would give quarter to the Frisches of this world; who believe that politics trump decency—who are the most dangerous.

There have been some observers out there, however, who demonstrate a measure of compassion for Frisch. Deeming her to be an obviously ill woman, they urge her to seek professional help, and that’s fine. In fact, I'll go them one better: seek the compassion and redemption of the Lord Jesus Christ, Ms. Frisch, before you do something that may earn you the proverbial millstone around your neck. Or the not-so-proverbial death penalty.

When I pray, one of my chief subjects is the protection of my family—most specifically, all of the children (even the ones who are broad-shouldered six-footers). I will add young Satchel Goldstein to my list.

Let it be that Frisch takes all of our advice, but if she doesn’t, there’s a photo of her floating around the ‘Net. So, Jeff, study that face, keep watch and if you see her physically trolling around your environs, remember the Air Force motto: Aim High.

Others blogging the would-be child-molester watch:

Pajamas Media
Confederate Yankee
Patterico
Rightwing Nuthouse
The Anchoress

AND:

Talk Left

Little Games, Big Portent

The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times and the Wall Street Journal (yes; subscription only) have published information on yet another governmental program designed to keep tabs on terrorists and keep them for carrying out their tactical operations, i.e. killing people. For the New York Times, it is a second offense—by the same two journalists who de-fanged the NSA Terrorist Surveillance Program, Eric Lichtblau and James Risen.

WSJ:

Since shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, the U.S. Treasury Department has been secretly tracking suspected terrorist financing through a far-reaching program that gives it access to records from the network that handles nearly all international financial transfers.

The information comes from a Belgian firm known by its acronym, Swift [Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication], which manages much of the world's financial-message traffic. Under the program, U.S. counter-terrorism analysts query Swift's vast database of billions of financial transactions for information on activity by suspected terrorists. The program operates under a series of broad U.S. subpoenas.

U.S. officials say the Terrorist Finance Tracking Program has been highly successful both in leading to the apprehension of terrorism suspects and in thwarting terrorist operations. People familiar with the program said, for example, that it yielded useful information on the bombings last July 7 in London. The program "has helped to disrupt terrorist cells and operations and has helped save lives," Treasury said in a statement to The Wall Street Journal. [SNIP]

Stuart Levey, Treasury's top counter-terrorism official, said the program was initiated after department lawyers determined they had the legal authority to subpoena Swift, which keeps its data in the U.S.

This time, there is no doubt that the program is legal. The publishers of these newspapers felt it was necessary to publicize the program, however, merely to prevent the danger of “mission creep” by government, which is a euphemism for the "stopping the no-doubt sinister aims" of the Bush Administration, of course.

In other words, these Big Media have appointed themselves as ‘the People’—that is, the same people named in the US Constitution; the same ones who elected a Republican president and, in both houses of Congress, Republican majorities. But since ‘the people’ were “too stupid” to make the “correct” choices, Big Media is forced to act in the steed of ‘the People,’ similar to how one would act as guardian of a family member who has been mentally incapacitated.

Got that?

For that is how much of the Big Media thinks of a country who would put George W. Bush and a majority Republican Congress in office.

Make no mistake about it, the outing of these programs isn’t meant for the consumption and consideration of people like me who’ve been in the military and/or know a few things about intelligence programs. These “Show Reports” (think “Show Trials”) are meant for the mythical citizen who knows nothing about how our intelligence and federal law enforcement agencies attempt to protect this country. They are meant for the mythical citizen who’s been feed a steady diet of lamentation about “privacy rights” and “Bush lied.” And, conversely, they are meant to play to “Peoria”; to the average Red State Middle-American, one who is presumably too “simple” to sit down and think about/research the means and legality of programs designed to prevent another 9/11; or who is lacking common sense to figure it out on his/her own (meaning all who voted for Bush).

As many have noted, publicizing such clandestine programs designed to thwart terrorist actions puts the terrorists on their guard when it comes to their communications and to their monies meant to fund blowing up commuter trains, subways, resorts, and skyscrapers. So what are We, the actual People, to conclude from these Big Media actions? One or any combination of these could be true.

1. The Big Media believe that Republicans are more of a threat to the nation than are Islamist terrorist bent on bringing about an entire world of Dar-al-Islam.
2. The Big Media want the Islamists to succeed in their aims
3. The Big Media don’t think either is that big of a threat. They are simply willing to do anything to make powerless an ideology—republicanism/conservatism--in which they don’t subscribe. Ace of Spades:

It's blackmail, pure and simple. Either let a Democrat into the White House, or we will continue to sabotage American security and, in effect, kill Americans. We will keep secrets when a Democrat is in office, but not a Republican. So we offer the American people a choice: Let the politicians we favor run the country or we will help Al Qaeda murder you.

Regardless of Big Media motives, however, the law regarding disclosure of classified materials for both this case and the leak regarding the NSA Terrorist Surveillance Program is pretty straightforward.

(a) Whoever knowingly and willfully communicates, furnishes, transmits, or otherwise makes available to an unauthorized person, or publishes, or uses in any manner prejudicial to the safety or interest of the United States or for the benefit of any foreign government to the detriment of the United States any classified information -
(1) concerning the nature, preparation, or use of any code, cipher, or cryptographic system of the United States or any foreign government; or
(2) concerning the design, construction, use, maintenance, or repair of any device, apparatus, or appliance used or prepared or planned for use by the United States or any foreign government for cryptographic or communication intelligence purposes; or
(3) concerning the communication intelligence activities of the United States or any foreign government; or
(4) obtained by the processes of communication intelligence from the communications of any foreign government, knowing the same to have been obtained by such processes –

(Emphasis mine.)

So now, one question remains: what, at the behest of the president, will Attorney General Alberto Gonzales do about this?

Consider this, however: the cure--subpoenaing specific journalists, ordering them to give up their sources or be imprisoned for contempt of court—may be worse than the disease.

Thanks a lot, Big Media.

Love (Not),
One of the People

(Thanks to The Weekly Standard)

Crazy House

Representative Cynthia McKinney (D-GA) may have had a legitimate point even though she probably didn’t realize it until this week.

When McKinney was caught assaulting a Capitol Hill police officer and subsequently played the race card, she was widely denounced and an assault case against her sits--rightly--before a Grand Jury. But what of her colleague, Representative Patrick Kennedy (D-RI)? Kennedy was recently caught drunk-/high-/being-a-nutjob-/combination-driving by members of that same Capitol Hill police force and merely driven home without having to submit to a sobriety test. And this isn’t Kennedy’s first known display of lawlessness/thuggery. Among several other transgressions, in 2000 he was caught on tape shoving a female, black LAX security guard some thirty years his senior after the lady in question told him that he couldn’t bring an over-sized bag as carry-on luggage. (Good thing for him that this happened before 9/11.) Why was there was no Grand Jury convened for such a boor back then? Is it because he’s white? Or is it because he’s a Kennedy?

An even better question: what are these obviously ill people doing in the House of Representatives?

And a mo' betta question: why doesn't someone tell Kennedy to get rid of that John F. Kennedy (Sr.) hairstyle?

Together or Separately Hanging

For all who haven’t been paying attention to such things, last week Senator Russ Feingold (D-WI) proposed a motion that President Bush be censured for approving the National Security Agency (NSA) Terrorist Surveillance Program (or “domestic” warrantless “wiretap” program as the uninformed have deemed it). However, the motion went nowhere, simply because almost none of the senator’s Democrat colleagues were willing to back him up.

However, if the Democrats win control of the House (the body which votes to implement an impeachment; the Senate tries impeachments) in this year’s election, some predict that more than a mere “censure” may be in the offing for the president.

If Bush’s opponents find themselves in a position of power, the temptation to humiliate him is likely to be irresistible. [SNIP]

The urge to impeach is partly payback for the Bill Clinton era when Republicans dragged the president through the mud over his dalliance with the intern Monica Lewinksy.

I suppose vengeance is an only-too-human trait. But to what long-term end would partisan vengeance lead? Assuming that the Democrats take back the House—or assuming that, by off chance, a barely Republican-controlled House votes to impeach President Bush in regard to the NSA program, what can be expected?

• All aspects of the very classified program in question will be laid before the American public—and before the enemy, al Oaeda, which it was designed to monitor
• Many of the operational techniques of the NSA will receive identical exposure
• The program in question will be rendered useless
• If the president is found guilty of ‘high crimes and misdemeanors’ for approving the program, he will be forced to step down from his office and Dick Cheney will become president
• Much of the American public—most of whom approve of the program, but even some who didn’t initially do so—will be very disillusioned by the Congress they have put into power
• Much of the military’s morale—especially that of those in Iraq and Afghanistan--will plummet
• We pull out of Iraq and, probably, Afghanistan

(If vengeance is theirs, one might figure that the Democrats might have something brewing for a President Cheney as well. After all, the third in line for presidential succession is the Speaker of the House. In a Democrat-controlled House…well, you guessed it.)

Let’s say that the Democrats get back at the Republicans for all of their misdeeds—real and imagined. George Bush goes home to Texas and Dick Cheney goes home to Wyoming or to wherever. (I don’t think that the Democrats would dare incarcerate either man, though I could be wrong; some of them have already said and done things beyond the specter of imagination--mine, at least.)

What happens after that? Will my Democrat relatives laugh and say something like “haha! We got your president and your vice-president?” Maybe, and they will be right. But what will happen after that? What will happen to all of us?

What is the long-term Democrat goal for our country and its place in the world if all they (may) hope for comes to pass?

Some might opine that the congressional Democrats plan on impeaching President Bush. However, yesterday on FoxNews, Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) refused to take impeachment off of the table when pressed on the subject by Chris Wallace. Maybe he didn’t want to show the Democrats’ hand, as I suspect that Senator Feingold did with the censure motion. (Don’t get me started on the senior senator from Illinois, a man who, himself, was in dire need of censure last year.)

Many have mused ad infinitum on the strategic goals of the Democrats--what they could possibly be. To regain a measure of power in the federal government, sure, but to what purpose? Breaking the present Republican monopoly in at least two of the branches of government is a fair goal, but how far are some of them willing to go to achieve that goal? Using the exposure of a top-secret security measure designed to protect all Americans, while reframing the details of that measure in order to make the uninformed believe that it is meant to invade the privacy of those same Americans in order to regain power is a tactic that is more than Machiavellian. I suppose that those who would approve of such a tactic would say that the ends make the means worthy.

Is the goal simply this: holding power for its own sake? If true, it's a pretty mundane target. Shreading an intelligence program to get at one's political rivals, however, would bring infinitely more dire problems.

If the Democrats regain majorities in both houses of Congress, I hope that the vast majority of them remember that we're all in this together. If the don't...well it's on, I guess, in more ways than one.

(Thanks to Jeff Goldstein)

Don't Look At This

Don't look at this.

California Drivers

Is this not the worst parking job that you've ever seen? My car is on the right.

On LA Air Force Base, no less. Must be a pilot. :-)

And, yes, a polite note was in order.

UPDATE: God bless her, the lady called to apologize. Thank you ma'am.

Undercut (UPDATED)

Via Q and O, it appears that the Senate Republicans are a lilly-livered bunch when it comes to shaping the narrative.

Nov. 15 (Bloomberg) -- The Senate today called on President George W. Bush to explain his strategy for ending the war in Iraq and report every three months on progress until all U.S. troops stationed there are redeployed.

The measure, passed 79-19, is one of several attached to a major defense bill that reflect unease within the president's own party as polls show increasing public impatience with the conflict and Democrats step up criticism.

The measure calls on the administration to make 2006 a year of significant political and military transition in Iraq that will allow a phased reduction of U.S. forces.

Time and time again, the president, along with most military and strategic experts have said that if we broadcast our withdrawal from Iraq that the terrorists will simply lie in wait and pounce on Iraq after we leave. If an average citizen can understand this, why can't a US Senator?

Oh and get this.

[Senate Minority Leader Harry] Reid said Democrats ``forced the Republicans to admit that staying the course in Iraq is not an option.''

That's right. The Democrat Leader of the Senate is bragging about the fact that his party wants to dishonor the soldiers who gave life and limb by making their sacrifice a futile one! And he's bragging that his party punked the Republicans into doing the same!

Do I question their patriotism? No.

UPDATE: Hmm. It seems that the majority of the Senate weren't quite ready to go all the way in selling out the troops and peace-loving Iraqis, but only just barely.

WASHINGTON Nov 15, 2005 — The Republican-controlled Senate easily defeated a Democratic effort Tuesday to pressure President Bush to outline a timetable for a phased withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq. It then overwhelmingly endorsed a weaker statement calling on the administration to explain its Iraq policy. [SNIP]

On the question of a timetable for troop withdrawal, senators rejected the Democrats' proposal by 58-40.

More Espionage

Here’s a spy case that I hadn’t noticed until today.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — A top Pentagon analyst with expertise in the Middle East pleaded guilty Wednesday to giving classified information to an Israeli embassy official and members of a pro-Israel lobbying group.

Lawrence A. Franklin, 58, said during a plea hearing that he was frustrated with the government and that he had hoped the two members of the lobbying group could use their connections at the National Security Council to influence U.S. policy.

With as much paranoia, general hatred and barely disguised jealously that so many groups feel for the Jews—oh, excuse me, the neocons--and for Israel, one would expect to hear shouts of Zionist Plot!!! echoing throughout the land in regard to this case. Thankfully, that isn’t the case.

We seem, however, to have several allies who want to dig in our back pocket without telling us. Why is that?

(Thanks to Jeff Goldstein)

Clearing Up My Remarks on the Bennett Remarks

Apparently, some on both sides of this "argument" are not getting my message; perhaps I'm not being shrill enough. However let me not be shrill, but blunt (as if that's ever been a problem before): I have no issue with what Mr. Bennett said. I said that I found it 'curious' that he used black babies for his example, but, once I thought it through, I understood it: black people have a higher crime rate that other segments of our society and aborting black children en masse would, indeed reduce the overall crime rate. Mr. Bennett's point, however, was that the ends do not justify the means and he used a monstrous example to hammer home his point.

Including Mr. Bennett in my lament at the state of rhetoric in this country was a slight bit of irrationality that we all have a twinge of when someone says something that's truthful but says it in a manner that's bound to stir up feces.

However, my main point was that the Big Media has created a climate in which Mr. Bennett's actual message can't get out without certain segments taking that message, twisting it to their own ends and turning into a tool that causes micro- and macro-divisions; among blood kin and among countrymen. Now that the original message has been twisted, fewer will listen to the actual message. The distorted, mutated message--undoubtedly unrecognizable to staunchly pro-life Mr. Bennett--is that Republicans are evil and racist.

And, that is what people like Howard Dean and Nancy Pelosi and not a few leftist bloggers have wrought.

UPDATE: David Gillies at Daily Pundit despairs:

Jeff is right to bemoan the erosion of the idea of intentionality, i.e. the belief that a speaker uses words to convey his meaning, and that it is illegitimate to force one's own interpretation on those words. But intentions matter little in this era of attenuated political discourse. Can anything be done about the public's mayfly attention span, unwillingness to consider reasoned discourse, and the grievance-mongers' desire to exploit them? I'd like to think so. But I can't.