Ethanol may go the way of the Dodo in Denver. The air is cleaner--who knew!

Thanks to the great PowerLine blog for linking to this article in which a veteran of the CIA during the Reagan Administration raises two very interesting questions for George Tenet.

Instapundit does a good job of rounding up an excellent list of those who in turn have collected current and past posts on the anniversary of 9/11/01.

Never forget.

I blame the President. CNN.com - Solar flare affects communications, disruptions possible - Sep 8, 2005: "'This flare, the fourth largest in the last 15 years, erupted just as the ... sunspot cluster was rotating onto the visible disk of the sun,' said Larry Combs, solar forecaster at the center."

"But overall, the Bush administration's funding requests for the key New Orleans flood-control projects for the past five years were slightly higher than the Clinton administration's for its past five years." From the Washington Post: Money Flowed to Questionable Projects:

A "Du-oh!" moment for the global warming doomsayers.

I can hear them now, "Stop the earth! The dirt is causing global warming!"

From MoltenThought.com via The Corner: an excellent if slightly snarky upbraiding of the media's failure to understand much other than how to pile on in the politicization of the Katrina crisis.

Update: more in the same vein here.

David Frum does a good job of defending the Administration's response to Katrina's impact in New Orleans from some of the bizarre, self-contradicting charges leveled by the looniest on the left. David Frum's Diary on National Review Online

David does an excellent job, and leaves little to add. I would like to point out this post for additional information and links to still more data, a time line of events, and legal analysis of where the responsibilities and powers of the state and local governments end and those of the Administration's begin.

Ingenious Shell finds economical Shale oil.

This is excellent news if it holds up in commercial scale testing.

From BreitBart.com: Chief Justice Rehnquist Dies at Home.

This summer, we had the politics of the Supreme Court, the politics of the Iraq war, the politics of Katrina, and now a doubling of Supreme Court politics. What else?

The terrible disaster caused by Hurricane Katrina has been politicized far too early and far too much. Whether it will have an effect on the President's popularity or not is still an open question. However, his public pronouncements haven't exactly been his most uplifting and inspiring speeches, and that's coming from a dyed-in-the-wool Republican. While the gulf coastal area was declared a federal disaster area two days before Katrina reached land, and certain resources were pre-positioned, it is clear that inadequate attention was paid to the details. It almost seems as though local officials and much of the affected populace hoped for the best rather than planned for the worst.

It would seem that the overall execution of the rescue, relocation, and care giving aspects of the operation are starting to turn around and provide necessary relief and stability. There is plenty of time in coming months and weeks to assess the timeline of the disaster in terms of successes and failures. Still, Louisiana's state and local governments seem to be guilty of gross incompetence, as detailed here.

Another sign of the coming apocalypse courtesy of BREITBART.COM

"Hard" scientists become ideological poli-scientist

I can’t add anything that this post http://www.wesleyjsmith.com/blog/2005/08/intellectual-stalinism-of-science.html says about this story http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/18/AR2005081801680_pf.html except to say, “well said”.

It's not science, it's "Scientism". Secondhand Smoke: Intellectual Stalinism of Science Establishment Revealed

I love this story. Steel from the World Trade Center used to construct the USS New York

A member of the CCSP Committee resigns over climate change politics Climate Science ? Resignation from the CCSP Committee ?Temperature Trends in the Lower Atmosphere-Steps for Understanding and Reconciling Differences?

Britain's House of Lords discloses that the Kyoto Treaty is a "failed accompli". Money quote from the UK's Telegraph: "Hard though it may be for the hair-shirt brigade and the Royal Society to accept, there's an awful possibility that the Americans were right all along. The Kyoto accord looks like yesterday's approach to yesterday's conception of tomorrow's problem." Perhaps now Europe will come clean about climate change

This is astonishing. If the public can turn its attention from Tom Cruise's meltdown, the fate of a lost girl in Aruba, and a President exercising his prerogative to appoint an ambassador to a long vacant post, they will witness a life or death drama is about to unfold in space that is unequaled since Apollo 13. NASA to Conduct Spacewalk to Mend Shuttle

Ah, summer. The summertime heat stifles many people, making them lethargic and unable to work, or even think with all their faculties intact. That description applies in triplicate to the Democratic partisans and their allies in the media who continue to try to make a scandal out of the Plame Game. They've succeeded like the pistol in the movie "The Mexican" in creating a scandal that backfires on them.

Here's a link to two posts at National Review's website that summarizes what we know of Joe Wilson's tattered reputation and what has been learned after the recent set of Sunday talk shows. Keep scrolling to read the second; both are worth your time.

Hmmm. Japan unveils "robot suit" that enhances human power - Yahoo! News

Does this mean that we're closer to this?

WSJ: French Land in New Jersey; Charge Fails

The Wall Street Journal brings us the story of hapless French military aircraft forced to land in NJ. What's worse, one of the pilots apparently maxed out his credit card.

"Low on fuel and struggling in bad weather, nine French fighter jets and a radar plane couldn't return to their aircraft carrier during maneuvers with the Canadian military and landed at the Atlantic City International Airport in New Jersey instead. The Federal Aviation Administration helped the jets land, and French marines and translators were sent to the airport to help the pilots, Philadelphia TV station WPVI reported. The U.S. State Department also got involved when one of the French pilots had his credit card rejected when he tried to buy fuel, the TV station reported. The FAA couldn't confirm the failed credit-card transaction."

A fascinating footnote to the Deep Throat saga that was finally concluded today. The American Spectator

What's good for General Electric isn't good for the USA. TCS: Tech Central Station - General Rent Seeker

A new debate is about to begin: militarizing space, or anticipating future threats? New York Times: Air Force Seeks Bush's Approval for Space Arms

Kofi's selective recollections during the Oil-for-Food scandal investigations seem awfully convenient, and highly questionable. My Way News: Annan Failed to Disclose Key Contacts

Winds of Change links to a story exposing pro-global warming bias at noted scientific journals Science and Nature. I'm shocked, shocked I tell you--not. Winds of Change.NET: "It's All Over for Science"

Was Einstein right when he first said what he postulated, or when he said what he postulated was wrong? We may be getting closer to the answer, or we may not...Fermilab - Press Releases

Another liberal newsman eats his words, and leaves his job amidst a cloud of self-inflicted controversy. AP: Eason Jordan resigns from CNN

Drudge reports another tale of necessity being the mother of invention. Ananova - Man peed way out of avalanche

The Diplomad writes, "Fight Global Warming: Turn on the A/C & Open the Windows" and in doing so provides as fine a fisking on the muddle-headed thinking that is evident in "the independent report [that] was made by the Institute for Public Policy Research in Britain, the Center for American Progress in the United States and the Australia Institute" on global warming as I've seen in a long time.

The New York Post Online Edition comments on the glacial pace of government action even in the face of crisis. A person is granted citizenship 3 1/2 years after his death during 9/11. Many of the obvious steps to increase government data quality and hence awareness of threats have yet to be taken.

We have lost one of the greats. He went out the way everyone dreams of going, on top, and leaving them begging for more.

There's no one like him.

Godspeed, Johnny.

Johnny Carson, 30-year king of late night TV, dead at 79

"The global warming danger threshold for the world is clearly marked for the first time in an international report to be published tomorrow -- and the bad news is, the world has nearly reached it already."

What a shock.

Why, if there was plenty of time to act, the pace of grant approvals to these bilious idiots for new studies would slow down. The gullible might take time to think about dire predictions of global warming in light of blizzard conditions across the US--hey, don't believe your eyes, believe the doomsayers!

What a bunch of malarkey. The UK Independent: "Countdown to global catastrophe"

On this day of the President's inauguration, nothing can be said, or will be said, better than this.

Both Drudge and InstaPundit link to this excellent story by the WaPo's Howard Fineman about the rise and fall of the Mainstream Media in its recent guise as a political party and king maker. MSNBC - The 'Media Party' is over

While I would prefer not to speak ill of the dead, it is hard to find the good in someone who claimed to influence opinion and culture while holding the views that follow below.

'An early and passionate opponent of the Vietnam War, Sontag was both admired and reviled for her political convictions. In a 1967 Partisan Review symposium, she wrote that "America was founded on a genocide, on the unquestioned assumption of the right of white Europeans to exterminate a resident, technologically backward, colored population in order to take over the continent."

In her rage and gloom and growing despair, she concluded that "the truth is that Mozart, Pascal, Boolean algebra, Shakespeare, parliamentary government, baroque churches, Newton, the emancipation of women, Kant, Marx, Balanchine ballets, et al., don't redeem what this particular civilization has wrought upon the world. The white race is the cancer of human history; it is the white race and it alone — its ideologies and inventions — which eradicates autonomous civilizations wherever it spreads, which has upset the ecological balance of the planet, which now threatens the very existence of life itself."

Considering herself neither a journalist nor an activist, Sontag felt an obligation as "a citizen of the American empire" to accept an invitation to visit Hanoi at the height of the American bombing campaign in May 1968. A two-week visit resulted in a fervent essay seeking to understand Vietnamese resistance to American power.

Critics excoriated her for what they regarded as a naive sentimentalization of Vietnamese communism. Author Paul Hollander, for one, called Sontag a "political pilgrim," bent on denigrating Western liberal pluralism in favor of venerating foreign revolutions.

That same year, Sontag also visited Cuba, after which she wrote an essay for Ramparts magazine calling for a sympathetic understanding of the Cuban Revolution. Two years later, however, she joined Peruvian novelist Mario Vargas Llosa and other writers in publicly protesting the regime's harsh treatment of Heberto Padilla, one of the country's leading poets. She also denounced dictator Fidel Castro's punitive policies toward homosexuals.

Ever the iconoclast, Sontag had a knack for annoying both the right and the left. In 1982, in a meeting in Town Hall in New York to protest the suppression of Solidarity in Poland, she declared that communism was fascism with a human face. She was unsparing in her criticism of much of the left's refusal to take seriously the exiles and dissidents and murdered victims of Stalin's terror and the tyranny communism imposed wherever it had triumphed.

Ten years later, almost alone among American intellectuals, she would called for vigorous Western — and American — intervention in the Balkans to halt the siege of Sarajevo and to stop Serbian aggression in Bosnia and Kosovo. Her solidarity with the citizens of Sarajevo prompted her to make more than a dozen trips to the besieged city.

Then in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Sontag offered a bold and singular perspective in the New Yorker. "Where is the acknowledgment that this was not a 'cowardly' attack on 'civilization' or 'liberty' or 'humanity' or 'the free world' but an attack on the world's self-proclaimed superpower, undertaken as a consequence of specific American alliances and actions?" She added, "In the matter of courage (a morally neutral virtue): Whatever may be said of the perpetrators of Tuesday's slaughter, they were not cowards."

She was pilloried by bloggers and pundits, who accused her of anti-Americanism.

Sontag had never been so public as she became over the next three years, publishing steadily, speaking constantly and receiving numerous international awards, including Israel's Jerusalem Prize, Spain's Prince of Asturias Award for the Arts, and Germany's Friedenspreis (Peace Prize). Upon accepting the prize from Jerusalem's mayor, Ehud Olmert, Sontag said of Israel's policies toward the Palestinians: "I believe the doctrine of collective responsibility as a rationale for collective punishments [is] never justified, militarily or ethically. And I mean of course the disproportionate use of firepower against civilians."'

Newsday.com: Author Susan Sontag Dies

Thanks to Instapundit, here's a link to an excellent piece on the new face of Marxism: a movement that depends on uneducated masses to become "useful idiots" and the symbols for liberal mythology like the nobility of the "indigenous peoples" of the earth.The Diplomad: Not Your Father's Marxism . . .

Someone should ask the Principal of this pathetic excuse for an educational instituition the name of the "Holiday" that the party was celebrating. And the Democrats wonder why they are rejected again and again by traditional values voters. Hampton Union Local News: Boy in a Santa suit asked to quit dance

If Kyoto was about idealistic goals and overblown predictions of doom--like the Y2K scare--then the aftermath of the Buenos Aires Climate Change Conference may be marked by a return to more reasonable approaches that don't require global agreement on apocalyptic industrial retrenchment for minimal gain. In short, a rejection of EU-backed policies in favor of technology-based solutions enforced by bilateral agreements--led by the U.S., Italy, China and other pro-growth Asian countries. Tech Central Station: The Kyoto Protocol is Dead

Oh, sure. NOW they tell us!! Times Online UK: Laptops used on the lap may be bad for more than a man's eyesight.

The "Dem" in question is that scurrilous, uncouth cad, Terry McAuliffe. What he said isn't shocking so much--given his past performances--as it is amazing that he can still find reporters willing to listen and print what he says. He's the most spectacularly ineffective head of the DNC ever. UPI: Dem uses Pearl Harbor to slam GOP

With all his ability and his superb resume, you'd think he would aspire to something far beyond Roger Ebert's job. Film critic Powell pans formulaic James Bond plots

Boston.com / News / Boston Globe / Opinion / Op-ed / An election day secret

An interesting twist on why the President won, and the daunting problem facing the Democratic Party. Boston.com / News / Boston Globe: An election day secret

All the pundits were wrong. Washington is the Florida of 2004. Sound Politics: Full state hand job here we come!

If hand counts are more accurate than machine counts, then why aren't hand counts used in the first place? Why have machine readable ballots at all? The answer, of course, is that hand recounts aren't more accurate. They introduce errors, and opportunities for fraud.

This fiasco now comes down to litigation--the Democrats will try to get rejected ballots reinstated--and who has the most and best qualified observers during the recount process.

Update: Here's a story from the Seattle Times that has a little more detail.

I don't know, but I'm willing to bet, that many of the election officials that the Democrats are calling incompetent in their lawsuit are themselves Democrats, as was the case in Florida in 2000. What a mess.

This is so, so wrong. Wizbang shows an ass getting his lit.

Stop the presses. Barry Bonds is busted for 'roids. BONDS' TESTIMONY / Giants star told grand jury he used clear substance, cream provided by trainer Greg Anderson, but believed they were flaxseed oil and arthritis balm

Apparently, my old home town TV station--WMAZ in Macon, GA--broadcast the penultimate Ken Jennings episode on "Jeopardy!" last week. A station engineer accidentally played one of the show's tapes out of order. He'll take game show records for $2.5 million

By the way, the call letters "WMAZ" originally stood for "Watch Macon Achieve Zenith".

A story that won't make the front page of any newspaper in America. Mount St. Helens is [Washington] State's Top Polluter

The Unnecessary Nuisance on the Hudson begins to take steps toward reform of the Security Council.The New York Times: U.N. Calls for an Updated Council

Old Europe discovers that China wants their lunch money, and every other meal as well. Telegraph: EU spells out trade threat from China

Throwing pickled animals at police in a police station(!) in order to recover other pickled animals confiscated during a domestic disturbance call that included the discovery of Cannabis plants on the premises. Wrong on so many levels, in so many ways. STUFF from New Zealand

A Maureen Dowd column that I can finally support--at least, her brother Kevin's contribution. The New York Times> Maureen Dowd: Blood Is Thicker Than Gravy

The Democrats are leaving no knives in the drawer in their post-election navel-gazing. In this column, Susan Estrich leaves no ketchup unspilled. Creators.com: Rehabilitation for Teresa Heinz Kerry

Poor Babs. She's still in denial, still believes that "Bush Knew!" What's worse, she still thinks that Richard Clarke is a credible source. Sad Babs; Babs sad... Barbra Streisand

Americans have many things to be thankful for on this Thanksgiving day. Unfortunately, the United Nations is not one of them. Belmont Club: The United Nations

Update: more details on UN crimes in the name of peacekeeping in the Christian Science Monitor, courtesy of Betsy's Page.

How brave those Pilgrims truly were, and how lucky we are that they successfully overcame their fears and a host of obstacles that opposed them. Here is a short recap of the events of 1620 AD. OpinionJournal - Featured Article

More Presidential proclamations of the National Day of Thanksgiving: Washington, Lincoln, and Bush. New York Post Online Edition

Capitalism triumphs early as the Pilgrims progress towards the republic we love today. A Holiday Tradition: The Real Story of Thanksgiving

I heard this read on the radio today, and I thought it would be useful to publish for anyone interested in knowing how Thanksgiving became a national holiday.

George Washington's first Thanksgiving Proclamation: General Thanksgiving

By the PRESIDENT of the United States Of America

A PROCLAMATION

WHEREAS it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favour; and Whereas both Houses of Congress have, by their joint committee, requested me "to recommend to the people of the United States a DAY OF PUBLICK THANSGIVING and PRAYER, to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness:"

NOW THEREFORE, I do recommend and assign THURSDAY, the TWENTY-SIXTH DAY of NOVEMBER next, to be devoted by the people of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being who is the beneficent author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be; that we may then all unite in rendering unto Him our sincere and humble thanks for His kind care and protection of the people of this country previous to their becoming a nation; for the signal and manifold mercies and the favorable interpositions of His providence in the course and conclusion of the late war; for the great degree of tranquility, union, and plenty which we have since enjoyed;-- for the peaceable and rational manner in which we have been enable to establish Constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national one now lately instituted;-- for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed, and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge;-- and, in general, for all the great and various favours which He has been pleased to confer upon us.

And also, that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations and beseech Him to pardon our national and other transgressions;-- to enable us all, whether in publick or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually; to render our National Government a blessing to all the people by constantly being a Government of wise, just, and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed; to protect and guide all sovereigns and nations (especially such as have shewn kindness unto us); and to bless them with good governments, peace, and concord; to promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the increase of science among them and us; and, generally to grant unto all mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as he alone knows to be best.

GIVEN under my hand, at the city of New-York, the third day of October, in the year of our Lord, one thousand seven hundred and eighty-nine.

(signed) G. Washington

Source: The Massachusetts Centinel, Wednesday, October 14, 1789

No governor yet, but we have a two-time winner. Apparently the Democrats will force a hand recount of their stronghold, King County (Seattle). If enough votes are found to change the winner, then the state would be forced to hand recount the entire state result. Thus, Washington could have no governor until after Christmas. Perhaps the anthem for this mess should be "No Sleep 'till Brooklyn!" The Seattle Times: Local News: Rossi wins in recount of governor's race

Dave Niehaus needs your support to win the Ford Frick award and join the Baseball Hall of Fame as a broadcaster. Read the nice tribute to Dave that follows. ESPN.com: Page 2 - Seattle's grand slam voice



Now, click here to vote for Dave.

Thankfully, more new technology is coming on line to save lives in Iraq from IEDs detonated by remote control. The terrorists use garage door openers, car alarms and even cell phones as remote detonators. Defense Tech: MORE ON WARLOCK'S TRICKS

Perhaps Walter Cronkite will cite this study in his NIMBY defense of his coastal view from his seafront property. Windmills may cause meteorological changes

A great ship named for a very great man, and a personal hero of mine. USS Winston S. Churchill

This policy shift makes sense. Someone finally realized that procurement simply takes too long, and that soldiers and commanders in the field should have the ability to act and ask for forgiveness later, or in the case of body armor, act and be repaid later. Defense Tech: PAYBACK, FINALLY, FOR ARMOR BUYS

I'm no fan of slow play, but a four hour round might be a world's record at this course. Yahoo! News: Distance no handicap for Aussie plan to build world's largest golf course



The Yahoo! News caption for the photo above reads, "In this handout photo taken 12 November 2004 shows the white sand dunes of Nullarbor National Park that will soon be the backdrop to the world's largest golf course spanning 1,400 kms along the desert highway. Authorities have unveiled plans to build one hole at each of the 18 towns and petrol stations dotted along the Eyre Highway, to be collectively known as Nullarbor Links. Motorists will stop at each petrol station, play a hole, then drive some 100kms to the next teeing off point.(AFP/Goldfields Tourism-HO/File)"

Just as homelessness was rediscovered under President Bush's watch, global warming histeria has increased as well. Or is that global warming research grant histeria? Investor's Business Daily: Bipolar Disorder

After watching the near riot that accompanied today's burial of Arafat the murderer, inspiration to UBL and his contemporaries, I noticed that a certain someone was apparently not present at the "ceremony". Of course, she has a lifetime income in Ter-ray-sa's league to spend back in Paris now. So many salons to visit, so many chocolates to eat... Jerusalem Post: Mrs. AraFAT gets her payday; Palestinians continue raggedy existence

Not Mary Mapes, but an interesting rapid fire decision to fire a news producer for interrupting a fiction crime drama. Broadcasting & Cable: CBS fires producer for preempting final five minutes of CSI: NY

Watching CNN International’s coverage of Arafat’s funeral was like watching a bizarro world rendition of the Reagan funeral. The commentator, the now thickened ultra lefty Christiane Amanpour, narrated an out of step undisciplined horse drawn cortege while using words like “statesman” to describe the old murderer. The Palestinian spokeswoman continues to blame Israel for their woes before the casket reached the Egyptian C-130 that would take the body to Ramallah for internment. The discussion of Palestinian elections without a Palestinian government added to the other worldly atmosphere of the event. Clearly the coverage didn’t belong on CNN; it should have been on Cartoon Network.

Then:



Now:

While he had no message, he had a crazy wife and some very strange outfits that he wore in his equally strange hobby photo ops. The New Republic Online: Bad Message

And no, I didn't mean this couple

Strap him up in a Full Metal Jacket, or maybe go R. Lee Ermey on him. New York Post Online: VINCENT D'Onofrio a D'Offrio with Criminal Intent...his co-stars, that is

Arafat, the old monster, is dead. He scammed untold millions--if not billions--in aid from the west into private accounts. He kept his wife in a life of Heinz-scale luxury in France while denying his countrymen hospitals, schools, and investment in an economy for the Palestinian demi-state. If his people truly saw what he had done, they would denounce him as one of the greatest demagogues the world has ever known. Statement by the President

Happy 229th to the USMC! Ooo-rah! Semper Fi! Power Line: Honoring the few

The red gets redder.

The President did better, actually, everywhere in '04 than in '00.

Take that, Zogby! 7-Eleven: "7-Election outcome reflects current actual election results"

This cracks me up:


Read the whole thing.

Butt-face, rendered nicely. HOG ON ICE: Infan-Tile

This is my favorite quote by Thomas Jefferson, "That government is best which governs the least, because its people discipline themselves."Thomas Jefferson Quotes - The Quotations Page

Barbra "Babs" Streisand, on the other hand, likes this one she found and published as part of a rant on her...blog. It is part of a letter Jefferson wrote to John Taylor Philadelphia on June 4, 1798. She conveniently ignores the entire thrust of the letter, which advises Philadelphia to stay the course--continue the struggle for independence from England as a united republic composed of the original 13 colonies. Jefferson writes, "But who can say what would be the evils of a scission, and when & where they would end? Better keep together as we are, hawl off from Europe as soon as we can, & from all attachments to any portions of it. And if we feel their power just sufficiently to hoop us together, it will be the happiest situation in which we can exist."

Perhaps all those Hollywood and media types who are screeching about secession from the U.S. can read Jefferson's advice and just--stifle themselves.

"Solar sails" have been popular concepts in science fiction for years. Finally, a solar sail experiment is in the works that may lead to the use of the technique in future missions to Mars.

"Love is stronger than hate", says Michael Barone of U. S. News & World Report. That may very well be the story of the 2004 Presidential election. USNews.com: Republican turnout makes for a 51 percent nation (11/15/04)

The Corner on National Review Online

The Corner opines on watering down good whiskey--it's a good thing, if the water is of quality. The Corner on National Review Online

The final electoral vote count: President Bush, 286; Senator Kerry, 252

Little Green Footballs has more, including the complete county by county map shown below.

Instapundit alerts us that the popular vote tally now exceeds 4 million votes in the President's favor, and that Iowa and New Mexico are officially part of Bush Country. The Electoral College totals are 286 for the President, 253 for Kerry. Yahoo! News - Elections

THE MESOPOTAMIAN

Salaam, a courageous Iraqi blogger, says, "All those who have been following my blog from the start should know how I feel towards El Bush, the Avenger, the Lion-Heart and I cannot hide my happiness for this outcome, purely from a personal feeling of gratitude for what he has done for us, despite all the pain and hardships that we suffered and still do." THE MESOPOTAMIAN

Bush Country

USATODAY.com: County map of the vote



Churchill said, speaking to the British on VE Day in May 1945: "We may permit ourselves a brief period of jubilation."

Well done, Mr. President, well done.

The first country that came into crisis with the U.S. speaks out just before the election--and speaks ill of the U.S. Made in China? Not in my house.

The MEMRI TV project translation of UBL's latest tape threatens individual states with terror attacks if they vote for the President. Yigal Carmon on Osama bin Laden & Election 2004 on National Review Online

This, coupled with the N.Y. Post's publication of additional material not shown on Arab TV that contains more threats, attacks on the President, and complaints about the effectiveness of the coalition's efforts against Al Qaeda, remove any question that UBL wants to affect the U. S. election.

The Kerry campaign doesn't want you to see the "director's cut" of the UBL tape. New York Post Online Edition: Full Tape an Osama A Woe Show

After finishing my post on the the war on terror and the election below, along comes Cliff May in National Review Online's The Corner to make some very important points of his own that I agree with. The Corner on National Review Online

JustOneMinute has an excellent recap of NYTrogate here.

After listening to the evolution of NYTrogate all week, including Mr. Kerry's willingness to jump aboard and echo the criticisms that the NYT and CBS have leveled in their coverage, while continuing to hear the Kerry campaign's insistence that UBL was allowed to escape in Tora Bora despite General Franks insistent declaration that UBL wasn't even necessarily there at the time, I'm convinced that Kerry and perhaps Democrats in general don't know or have forgotten what the job of Commander in Chief entails. It's as though Kerry is running to be "Major in Chief", or to channel LBJ's failed Napoleonic attempts to run the Vietnam war from his sandbox in the White House.

I believe that the President has won the hearts of our soldiers precisely because he does not second guess tactical decisions in the theater of operations, and supports those who've made them. The administration has undertaken investigations into mistakes in handling prisoners and Halliburton, and those responsible have been held to account. While war is the ultimate political act, it is never a winning strategy to politicize the acts of the soldiers on the ground. It has been said, and rightly so, that all of the second guessing that has taken place about Iraq and Afghanistan would have rendered us powerless had the same press and pundit "coverage" happened during WWII. Terrible "mistakes" were made, at the cost of many more dead and injured than we have suffered in Iraq. Those mistakes could not have been avoided by more oversight by a man whose combat experience was as a Lt. (Jg.) aboard a river boat full of enlisted men and probably at least one petty officer more experienced than the Lieutenant who kept him from his most egregious mistakes--leaving aside the charges made by the Swift Boat Vets.

Mr. Kerry and his followers in and out of the MSM refuse to acknowledge any of the good that is happening in Iraq and Afghanistan, even when it is easily found in the pages of, say, the Wall Street Journal, the blogs of Iraqis who are living their country's transformation or here. They somehow believe that they can overcome the lack of trust that most Americans have for Mr. Kerry's pacifist vacillations by alternately talking tough and criticizing decisions that are far below the Presidential or Cabinet levels. Vice President Cheney and Secretary Rumsfeld have spoken their discovery of the atrophy of operational practice and protocols in the Defense Department upon their arrival in 2001. Secretary Rumsfeld has embarked upon a transformation effort that is designed to recast our forces, moving the active duty head count around so that more troops--more fighting troops, not REMFs--would be available for deployment, and so that their skills would better match the mission requirements at different stages of a conflict. Mr. Kerry does not speak to this with his Lt. (Jg.) credentials. Instead, he promises 40,000 more troops, and a doubling of our Special Forces. The former may or may not be the right thing to do, but it does not address the problem that the Secretary describes and that we see on TV daily: we are in a civil affairs/government infrastructure rebuilding and pacification/reconstruction effort in much of the country while at the same time using traditional forces to defeat the insurgency in a small region around Fallujah. A new group of 40,000 troops would relieve the latter, perhaps, but not the former. As for the doubling of Special Forces, the former SEAL at Froggy Ruminations has written knowledgeably and eloquently about how difficult that can be. These are special people; of all applicants for SEAL slots, typically only 3% succeed in graduating and joining that most elite of Special Forces. The other Special Forces groups are equally challenging in their mental and physical tests, and selective. It might require 600,000 male applicants over the course of a decade to raise the total number of Special Forces war fighters to 40,000 from ~20,000 today--assuming that we can retain most of the forces that we have now.

If the War on Terror and Iraq are the most important issues in this election as the polls say, then voters have but one choice to make. They must re-elect the President. Mr. Kerry has shown nothing in his record and nothing in his pronouncements in his campaign that establishes that he is in fact competent to lead without attempting to micro-manage the military as well as vacillating in his decisions. A Senator can afford to be deliberative and blow with the wind; his is but one voice and one vote among one hundred. A Mayor of a large city or a Governor must make decisions that affect thousands by his hand alone, and must hire, manage and lead a staff across a broad expanse of disciplines and crises. A sitting President has seen a far broader set of challenges than any Governor ever has. I believe that neither political party can afford to nominate candidates with such a breathtaking lack of operational experience and management ability in the future. More than any of Mr. Kerry's failings, I believe that those skills are his greatest weaknesses. The country cannot afford to attempt to train Mr. Kerry; to convert him from a man for all sides of an issue to a man driven to succeed in an approach he communicates in the same way every day. After 9/11, the world is once again a very dangerous place. UBL's appearance on video this week shows that he believes that Mr. Kerry may just be the man to give Al Qaeda the break it wants to regroup and reform. Mr. Bush will continue to press forward, relentlessly, implacably, just as those brave souls who endured hardships in the founding of our nation, throughout its many trials in war and peace. Mr. Bush is a real American, not a polished patrician. He is just what we need our President to be, right now.

I agree with the Powerline boys who host this image, this is a great picture of the President.

My thoughts and prayers are with the Hendrick family and their many friends in and out of NASCAR. I hope that the Hendrick stable of cars does well in the remaining races this season as a tribute to those who lost their lives so tragically. ESPN.com - Grieving Gordon's 'never been so inspired' to win

Instapundit points to a very scary set of creatures indeed. Korla Pundit: Infamous Monsters of Filmland

Bin Laden apparently appears, and speaks of contemporaneous events, albeit bizarrely. Towers in Lebanon? I look forward to reading a full translation without the "presenter's" comments on Memri.org at some point. DRUDGE REPORT FLASH 2004?

Update: I haven't seen a transcript on Memri.org yet, but here's a slightly more complete version.

A couple of thoughts:
1) It's interesting to see some of the references to woolly thinking from Michael Moore; e.g., the President reading "My Pet Goat" to FL school children after the attack began.
2) As others have noted, this is the second tape from Al Qaeda this week. This could either be a very bad sign--an indication of an upcoming attack--or a sign that they wish to influence the election through rhetoric since they've been unable to attack us directly since 9/11.
3) It can't be good for Kerry to see UBL adopt leftist tenets in his speech.

Or, aspiring but unsuccessful logician speaks out on playground diplomacy. ThePittsburghChannel.com - News - Heinz Kerry Criticizes 'Neanderthal' Attacks On Husband

INDC Journal has another excellent roundup of the latest news as well as some from the past that collectively add context to the tale of NYTrogate.

Update: Wizbang has some very useful additional information here.

Well, hmmmpf, if you're going to believe THEM! They're the Pentagon! What do they know?! DefenseLINK News: Officials Say Chances of Enemy Ordnance Move Nearly Nil

An amazing article, well researched, and well sourced. Saddam Hussein's Philanthropy of Terror - by Deroy Murdock