Show me what you got! Here's Saddam getting footloose and jiggy at his trial:

And let me just say, if you're on trial for your life, wear a dadgum tie. This is not Leno. Make it look like you're trying even if you're counting on the rocket attacks and assassinations of your lawyers to save you.

First caption: Saddam: "The Americans are even now dropping more chemical weapons from their stealth bombers!"
Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti: "Ain't nothin stealth about where that bomber came from! Whooooee--lay offa them Doritos, cuz!"

Posted by: seedubya at 06:08 AM | Comments (38) | Add Comment
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(Salt Lake City) American Atheists Inc. has filed suit in U.S. District Court to remove highway crosses placed to memorialize Utah Highway Patrol troopers who have died in the line of duty. The crosses stand about 12 feet high and display the trooper's name and the Utah Highway Patrol emblem (example). They are placed near the location where the troopers were slain.

Specifically targeted by the lawsuit are Col. Scott Duncan, superintendent of the UHP; John Njord, executive director of the Utah Department of Transportation; D'Arcy Dixon Pignanelli, executive director of the Department of Administrative Services; and F. Keith Stepan, state facilities director.

The plaintiffs are Stephen Clark, Michael Rivers, Richard Andrews and American Atheists Inc.

From the Salt Lake Tribune:

Rivers said the purpose of the suit is to eliminate religious symbols used by government agencies and placed on government land. American Atheists claim to have a membership of 30 million people. They are not opposed to memorials, just the crosses.

"We feel the department of transportation, by allowing the Utah Highway Patrol Association to pick a religious symbol is unfair. We think it should be totally secular with no religious theme," Rivers said. "[The cross] is a Christian religious symbol. People will look at those and automatically assume that religion is a part of it."

American Atheists Inc. is asking for $1 in damages and the removal of all crosses on government property. I believe a blind person can see what the atheists are aiming for. Logically, it's the removal of all crosses at veterans' cemeteries throughout the nation. American Atheists also wants the court to rule that it's unconstitutional to display the highway patrol insignia on a cross.

Companion post at Interested-Participant.

Posted by: Mike Pechar at 03:48 AM | Comments (23) | Add Comment
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but it mentions a couple of the blogs I guest at. So I got that goin' for me.

Which is nice.

If I understand this correctly, I think Comedy Central or maybe Skinemax ought to make a move on this guy for an ongoing Ace of Spades Lifestyle special. Long in the tooth veteran JYB is getting overlooked, as is undervalued rookie defensive superstar (Dude works at the Pentagon!) Dave.

Posted by: seedubya at 08:39 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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First off, here's the graphic for Rusty to put in the sidebar, if he's so inclined:

And now, Vinnie's voting guide to the 2005 Weblog Awards:

The Jawa Report for Best Conservative Blog (duh!)

Vince Aut Morire for Best of the 501-1000 Ecosystem Rankings (double duh! and may I note that before I moved to mu.nu, I WAS in the 200's)

Armies of Liberation, also for Best of the 501-1000 Ecosystem Rankings. (I admire Jane's work so much, I'll be voting for her too)

Merri Musings for Best New Blog (triple duh! She's my wife, if I don't vote for her, I ain't gettin' any)

My Vast Right Wing Conspiracy for Best of the Top 250 Ecosystem Rankings (unfortunately, Wizbang turned down my request for Best Link Pimp)

Six Meat Buffet for Best Humor/Comics Blog (bastard)

The Llamabutchers for Best Culture/Gossip Blog (huh? Since when did they get culture?)

Michael Yon for Best Media/Journalist Blog (no comment necessary)

Iraq the Model for Best Middle Eastern/Africa Blog

Free Thoughts for Best European Non UK Blog

Those are my hard votes. Nothing or no one will dissuade me from them.

The rest of the finalists, however, are more than welcome to suck up to me either in the comments or at vinceautmorire@gmail.com.

Good luck and let the (friendly!) blog wars begin!

One last thing. Two extremely good blogs did not make it into the finalists. You should be reading them anyway.

Clarity And Resolve

Something...and Half of Something

(sooper sekrit note to Rusty, yes, this is a shameless blogroll request for these two. You owe me for the award I gave you last year. Heh.)

(ps to the sooper sekrit note. Da Wife would like to be there too, which is to your advantage. I have cleavage pics to trade)

Posted by: Vinnie at 06:30 PM | Comments (13) | Add Comment
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The Counterterrorism Blog reports that Abu Omar Mohammed bin Abdullah al-Saif, a Saudi al Qaeda in Chechnya commander, has killed himself in Dagestan to avoid capture by Russian forces:

Unable to escape after Russian soldiers backed by helicopters surrounded his temporary hideout, Abu Omar allegedly detonated an explosive device he was carrying and collapsed the building on top of himself. Known as the "Imam of the Chechen mujahideen", Abu Omar was an original founder of the Arab-Afghan mujahideen movement in Chechnya and was named by Russian officials as a suspect in numerous Caucasus-linked terrorist attacks, including the Moscow theatre siege and the Beslan school hostage massacre.

Also posted at The Dread Pundit Bluto.

Posted by: Bluto at 04:39 PM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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Al Jazeera continues to report that a video they obtained depicts Thursday's attack on US Marines, even though it has already been debunked by military sources as canned video from an unrelated incident that happened earlier.

Their website also displays false information about the video:

Aljazeera broadcast a video on Saturday from a group called the Islamic Army in Iraq showing the attack on the US patrol near Falluja on Thursday, the deadliest attack on US troops for four months.

Sometime this afternoon al Jazeera added a paragraph deep in the body of the story saying that the video is unconfirmed. They continue to feature a still from the video with a caption saying it is of Thursday's attack.

A more strongly worded version of this post is at The Dread Pundit Bluto. Caution: may be offensive to little pussy lickspittle quislings.

Posted by: Bluto at 12:15 AM | Comments (9) | Add Comment
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You know those face-reattachment surgeries? Looks like the Crypt Keeper got one. Good for him! It's tough making it in Hollywood as a fleshless ghoul unless you're Cher. Go watch the video at the Sharper Image link from here and you'll see what I mean.

H/T Dave. Sorry about the hotlink, Dave; if it's a problem let me know.

Posted by: seedubya at 11:56 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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A long post by me up at Patterico's Place on the impending demise of a great humanitarian, Stanley "Tookie" Williams, the Ken Lay of cocaine.

Posted by: seedubya at 11:33 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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With a Vicodin-addled Episcopal priest who drives Jesus around in his station wagon. Hey, they ate up the Passion of the Christ, right, so those religious folks will swallow anything with a whiff of incense. Right?

Okie on the Lam fisks an interview with the show's creator.

Does anybody remember Highway to Heaven? That was kind of sappy but at least the writers seemed like they weren't mainly concerned with subverting and mocking traditional ideas of religion.

Posted by: seedubya at 11:30 PM | Comments (9) | Add Comment
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The mind boggles at the potential applications of this technology.

From Silicon.com:

Singapore scientists looking for ways to transmit the sense of touch over the internet have devised a vibration jacket for chickens and are thinking about electronic children's pyjamas for cyberspace hugs.

A wireless jacket for chickens or other pets can be controlled with a computer and gives the animal the feeling of being touched by its owner, researchers at Nanyang Technological University (NTU) told The Straits Times.

The next step would be to use the same concept to transmit hugs over the internet, the researchers said.

Of course, since the technology has only been tested on chickens, some people wonder how the scientists conluded that the sensations chickens feel are hugs and not squeezes or chokes. After all, chickens are usually not seen hugging and discussing the feeling with humans.

Presumably, there's a market for people who want to hug their chickens and children via the Internet. I'm interested in seeing what develops.

Posted by: Mike Pechar at 10:53 PM | Comments (8) | Add Comment
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UPDATE: The video has been debunked and is NOT the Fallujah attack but some other attack. See this post.

The Islamic Army in Iraq has released a video of an IED attack against Marines in Fallujah. The attack killed 10 Marines. Images from the video are posted below. They are not graphic, but may be disturbing.

Al Qaeda in Iraq has also released a video of its Ramadi offensive. Images posteed below and right. For links to video, please e-mail author.

The video shows a Marine patrol and a Hummer rolling down an alley or a narrow road, on which civilians are present. The Hummer passes the Marines as it approaches the terrorist's position. The IED explosion is large and does damage to the Humvee, but the driver inside appears to be able to continue to drive the vehicle. Civilians can be seen panicking and fleeing. The video then becomes shaky as the terrorist flees the scene.

The video reveals why the IED attack was so devestating. Presumably, like most incidents of this nature, the IED was planted with the expectation that it would be exploded as a vehicle or convey passed. The terrorists, it would seem, just got 'lucky' in that on this particular day a foot patrol decided to walk down the wrong alley.

Despite media reports of 'mounting casualties', attacks are down in Iraq. The IED attack reveals that the so-called insurgents cannot mount even an effective attack against U.S. positions.

Yesterday, propagandists for Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's al Qaeda in Iraq posted a message claiming they had taken 'control of Ramadi'. This despite the fact that the terrorists were only able to fire a single mortar shell at a U.S. position and less than 300 U.S. troops and 200 Iraqis were used in the counteroffensive. The counteroffensive turned out to be nothing more than the troops entering Ramadi unnoposed and turned into a routine search and sweep operation.

The only evidence that al Qaeda offered that they 'controlled' Ramadi was a short video by their IMC media arm showing a group of masked young men in cheap warm-up pants and tee shirts slowly going down a narrow alley. There are no more than seven or eight terrorists in the group. That's right, 7-8 terrorists with AK-47's and a single RPG! An image from that video is posted above and a few more are posted below.

Oddly enough, the IMC (Islamic Media Center) cameraman hides from the terrorists while he takes the video. The IMC has recently pledge its loyalty to Osama bin Laden and urged others to do the same. It appears that even the jihadi supporters are afraid of the brave and noble mujahidin!

So, if the 'insurgency' cannot hold any territory, is not very popular in the eyes of even Sunnis these days, and must resort to remotely detonated bombs and hostage taking, in what lies their hope of victory?

The media and spineless politicians in Washington D.C.

The spinmeisters at al Jazeera, Jihad Unspun, and Uruknet report the communique as fact and then, trying to turn this into some grand irony, announce that the Ramadi 'victory' comes only days after Bush announced his strategy for victory. As if a single IED and a handful of sweat-pants clad 'insurgents' are a threat to U.S. victory in Iraq!

It would all be very laughable if the U.S. media wasn't so busy hand-wringing and having LSD induced flashbacks of Vietnam. The media spin then leads the American public to think that this insurgency poses an actual threat and that somehow we cannot win in Iraq. All of this is not helped by the extreme Left wing of the Democratic party which is all to eager to see America lose in Iraq.

Folks, the only threat to our long-term victory in Iraq comes not form the terrorists, but from spineless politicians in the U.S.

Images below. more...

Posted by: Rusty at 02:40 PM | Comments (43) | Add Comment
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After reading this story about potential pill-popping by "insurgents," I just had to wonder a few things.

Isn't the call to religious jihad enough to inspire true fanaticism? Is the promise of 72 virgins and/or the Divine Protection of the Almighty not enough to inspire courage in all?

And speaking of courage, I know a thing or two about "liquid courage." Being a part of a people who pride themselves on drink, drink, and more drink, I would expect this sort of pill-popping crap from my brothers. But the "insurgents" are far more noble, being Holy Warriors of God, right? They follow strict rules in order to better themselves and obtain the favor of Allah. If these reports are true, I guess there must be a miscommunication between themselves and their Holy Book (and what would the odds be of that hypocracy ever happening in the Religion of Peace?):

"O you who believe, intoxicants, and gambling, and the altars of idols, and the games of chance are abominations of the devil; you shall avoid them, that you may succeed." Quran 5:90

Now I see! The reason we are kicking their asses is because the "insurgents" have gone astray! If only they avoided being meth-heads, they would succeed. If only they had faith, they could truly stand against American and British tanks and destroy them with fireballs from their eyes and bolts of lightning from their arses.

But since intoxicants are the work of the devil, and the United States is the Great Satan, then it follows that OUR government interjected the drugs into these peaceful societies. First the CIA introduces crack into urban communities and now this. Oh, it has all the markings of a KKKarl Rove operation. You magnificent bastard!

Posted by: wineaholic at 12:24 PM | Comments (14) | Add Comment
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Even as Iran prepares to kick out inspectors once again, they are arming their sites with Russian SAMS to defend against air attacks. According to Jed Babbin, who I wish gave a source for that fact, Israel's aircraft will no longer be able to reach Iran's nuclear sites once these high-tech SAMS are in place. Only our stealth fighters will.

Maybe that will give us some clarity. I have been hoping for so long Israel would just go ahead and Osirak some of these sites--obviously we can't get them all, but if we shoot in the middle of the SAMS in, e.g., Nataz or Isfahan. Now either they do it by the time these new SAMS get in place, or we do. And I'm sure they don't want to do it.

Why Russia is so blithely proliferating nuclear weapons is a subject for another post sometime, but it looks to me like the NPT and the IAEA have become about as relevant to international politics as a UN General Council resolution.

Posted by: seedubya at 11:55 AM | Comments (13) | Add Comment
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Another murderous terrorist islamofascist scumbag meets Allah....

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - The operational commander of al-Qaida and possibly the No. 3 official in the terrorist organization, Hamza Rabia, was killed early Thursday morning by a CIA missile attack on a safehouse in Pakistan, officials told NBC News.

Pakistan's president later confirmed the militant leader's death.

“Yes indeed, 200 percent. I think he was killed the day before yesterday if I’m not wrong,” President Pervez Musharraf told reporters as he arrived in Kuwait on an official visit on Saturday.

While Pakistani officials publicly said Rabia died in a blast caused by explosives stored in a house for bomb-making, officials speaking on condition of anonymity told NBC News he was killed by a CIA missile strike carried out by an unmanned Predator airplane

Companion OpiniPundit

Posted by: Traderrob at 09:24 AM | Comments (23) | Add Comment
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1 I'll be shocked if it's true, given the CIA's history of ineptitude of late. I'm more willing to believe that it really was an accident.

Posted by: Improbulus Maximus at December 03, 2005 09:42 AM (0yYS2)

2 Al qaeda's got lots of #3's. I'm more of a #6 man myself.

Posted by: actus at December 03, 2005 09:45 AM (tz3LX)

3 for once rectus makes a good point. How many #2's and #3's does Al Qaida exactly have?

Posted by: Jesusland Carlos at December 03, 2005 09:49 AM (8e/V4)

4 Al Qaida's #3 slot is the terrorist equivalent of Thule Air Base in Greenland. It's where you know you'll end up if you screw up just enough, but not so bad that you get kicked out of the organisation.

Posted by: Graeme at December 03, 2005 10:03 AM (EnX6Q)

5 A kill is a kill. You guys are getting so negative! How many #2s and #3s do they have? I dunno - but I do know I've got enough bullets and bombs for all of them.

Posted by: hondo at December 03, 2005 10:49 AM (3aakz)

6 Okay, let me 'splain the dynamics of a chain-of-command structure; when someone in the chain is killed, everyone under him gets promoted. This is how we keep killing their number two and three guys. At this point, the guys who are currently two and three were probably just messenger boys sometime last year. It's not really that important that we kill Osama, because we've got him isolated, and he has to keep sending these poor dumbasses out to do his bidding, and they keep getting whacked. With a high casualty rate, that means they have to recruit, which means we can eventually get someone inside, and they may learn where he's hiding, then KABOOM!, he gets a Hellfire missile up his man-dress.

Posted by: Improbulus Maximus at December 03, 2005 10:58 AM (0yYS2)

7 Another one dead! Rah, Rah, his boom ba. Who cares what number he is as long as he's dead.

Posted by: thirdee at December 03, 2005 11:07 AM (yu9rw)

8 Good point thirdee, a dead terrorist is a good terrorist.

Posted by: Improbulus Maximus at December 03, 2005 12:14 PM (0yYS2)

9 This is part of the disservice the media and the Administration have done in the war against terror, is that is they have average joe now believes Al Qaeda is a card carrying terrorist club. In reality it is a loose knit of multiple terrorist organizations. Who is the real "Al Qaeda" muscle? well that would be the Muslim Brotherhood (Egyptian Islamic Jihad). Who comes from the Egyptian Islamic Jihad: Ayman al-Zawahri #2 Al Qaeda. "Blind Sheikh" Omar Abdel Rahman (U.S Custody) Muhammed Atef (killed by CIA Hellfire strike) Abdullah Azzam (killed in Carbomb planted by Zawahri/Atef?) Mohamed Atta (member of the Engineers Syndicate controlled by the Muslim Brotherhood) In reality it's like this: "Mohamed Dirka-Dirka" sells explosives to "Muhammed abdul Jihadi" "Mohamed Dirka-Dirka" belongs to "Islamic Jihadi in Cairo" a known Al-Qaeda frontgroup, "Muhammed abdul Jihadi" belongs to "Islamic Cairo Jihad (SPLITTERS!) now it is said in Intelligence that "Islamic Cairo Jihad" has "operational ties" to Al-Qaeda. Eventually that becomes "Al-Qaeda frontgroup Islamic Cairo Jihad" as the intelligence increases of their co-mingling. In reality the command structure is in tiers, you have the obvious top tier: Bin Laden,Zawahri these are the money, and planning behind the group. The rest of your command structures follow the lines of their original groups, for most people who think that Saudi/Iran are the biggest radicals in Al-Qaeda most of the top operatives are from Egypt, and fought in Afghanistan together.

Posted by: dave at December 03, 2005 12:21 PM (CcXvt)

10 Dave, it ultimately doesn't matter who is in who's superduper secret women haters club, as long as they keep getting whacked.

Posted by: Improbulus Maximus at December 03, 2005 01:14 PM (0yYS2)

11 So it doesn't matter than the key infrastructure is made up of country that is the recipient of billions of dollars of aid? nor that the Muslim Brotherhood are starting to gain power again in Egypt? OK! Just checking

Posted by: dave at December 03, 2005 01:33 PM (CcXvt)

12 That's another matter Dave, though a very valid point. Unfortunately we are held hostage by our foreign aid Danegeld, that we started paying some decades ago and which has now become an addiction. I wish that we could someday get a government that isn't corrupt from head to toe, and that would stop this idiocy, but sadly, that will never happen as long as the average American idiot voter is willing to accept a place at the trough in exchange for our liberty and security. Frankly, this situation is of our own making, because we have the power to make the government do the right thing, but there are too many among us with a vested interest in the status quo to even consider it, and so we will continue to pay the Danegeld, though it's no longer enough to appease the Danes.

Posted by: Improbulus Maximus at December 03, 2005 02:38 PM (0yYS2)

13 Yep, we are indeed rewarding countries that export radical Islam, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Yemen to name but a few with Billions of dollars of business, or aid. The sad fact is that while the administration has said that "you're either for us, or against us" States that export terrorism have frankly, remained untouched without military, or financial repercussions. The fact that the War on terror has so many frontiers, with states that cannot be held responsible for the actions of their countrymen (Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Yeman, Kuwait, Iran etc.) means that we're jumping into bed, with some very ugly bedfellows (for example Pakistan) are they really our allies? The leaders of the country are so scared of pursing and prosecuting terrorists because half their country think Bin Laden is a hero! and it is also a hotbed of Islamic extremists. I'm afraid of what will happen to us, if the Administration, and rogue agencies like the CIA, keep dealing with radical extremist based countries (Isn't that how we got here in the first place, with the CIA/Administration funding the Pakistani ISI to buy weapons for the Mujahdeen?)

Posted by: dave at December 03, 2005 03:59 PM (CcXvt)

14 For the neighsayers asking how many #2's #3's etc Al Qaeda has, Improbulus Maximus was indeed correct -- the person killed replaced Abu Farraj al-Libbi : http://msnbc.msn.com/id/7734991/ Which as the article states, was the #3 Al Qaeda leader when he was captured in May of this year.

Posted by: dave at December 03, 2005 05:37 PM (CcXvt)

15 Guess there is now a job opening for #3 - do you want it Dave?

Posted by: hondo at December 03, 2005 06:26 PM (3aakz)

16 No thanks, along with that job comes the life expectancy of a fruitfly.

Posted by: dave at December 03, 2005 07:05 PM (CcXvt)

17 Agent Brown has run a search on Usama Bin Laden. He appears to be in Southern California at a Sonic hamburger restaurant, employed as a french fry cook. Agent Smith disagrees, Usama Bin Laden is hiding in Virginia Beach, using a false identity to access the naval facility nearby as a gardener in front of the Commandant's house. He also moonlights as a limo driver. Agent Jones says that Usama Bin Laden is dead, alive or both dead and alive.

Posted by: Agent Smith at December 03, 2005 07:42 PM (VDGim)

18 a reoccuring post to follow ... Agent Smith Mort Sahl was a satirist and an ultra-liberal and was quite funny and good at it. Al Franken is a satirist and an ultra-liberal and not funny at all - he's actually quite bad at it. You wish to be a satirist (as opposed to a comedian - there is a difference) - and follow in the footsteps of lil' Al. Well - those are tiny shoes to fill, and you are doing an adequate job of it.

Posted by: hondo at December 03, 2005 08:10 PM (3aakz)

19 Agent Brown says that Hondo is jealous of Al Franken.

Posted by: Agent Smith at December 03, 2005 08:26 PM (VDGim)

20 Way to shoot, spooks

Posted by: Marvin at December 03, 2005 09:23 PM (5nven)

21 I think it's time to take out the # 6s along with the # 3s.

Posted by: greyrooster at December 04, 2005 07:24 AM (gvOyZ)

22 Agent Smith is now #3 in the al-Queda heirarchy, and you know what happens to those #3's.

Posted by: jesusland joe at December 04, 2005 02:19 PM (rUyw4)

23 For those who don't know how a chain of command works, either in business or military circles, the #3 person is usually the operations executive, who actually has his boots on the ground moving forces and assests around, putting the plans of #1 and #2 into effect. That gives a deep chain of command that allows for lots of buffering against executive decapitation. Because of the pressure AQ is under now, it's unlikely that the #3 man ever even speaks directly to Osama, and probably gets his orders by messenger. Part of the reason AQ can't put up much of a fight right now is that their communications have to pass through so many channels, it's almost impossible to have direct communications between command elements. If they talk to one another in any way, they will give themselves away unless they can meet face to face, so messenger is the most expedient route, and they probably try to use memorized messages as much as possible. Because of circumstances, each terrorist command element must be able to act autonomously in feeding, equipping, training, and supplying themselves, which means that they are seriously hampered in their combat effectiveness. and must even risk exposure when they do something as simple as go to buy food. The key is to isolate different groups from one another, and turn informants so that a cell can be identified, isolated, and busted as quietly as possible, or loudly and publicly if need be. They have to avoid the most powerful military in the world while trying to fight it at the same time. The coward's tactic of roadside bombs have never worked before in any strategically meaninful way, and frankly, that's the only trick they have. They're losing, and will continue to lose, all we have to do is not quit.

Posted by: Improbulus Maximus at December 04, 2005 03:16 PM (0yYS2)

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Possible SAM launch at an airliner:

FBI agents and Homeland Security officials spent the weekend investigating the report of a possible missile fired at an American Airlines plane taking off from Los Angeles International Airport.

According to the article, the FBI seems to think that it is either a flare or a bottle rocket.

I dunno, most airline pilots are ex-military, I'm sure they can tell the difference between a flare and a SAM. As far as a bottle rocket? Please. I fired hundreds, possibly thousands of those things in my youth, I hardly think they would be mistaken for a SAM by even the most green of pilots.

However, at this early point in time, the door to all possibilities remains open.

Another odd thing is that the date underneath the headline is 11/28, 4 days ago.

I just found this story at Drudge a couple of minutes ago, and I did a Google news search and found only 2 stories, dated today.

Interesting.

As the big boys say, developing....

UPDATE:

Yup, already. The Blog Grandfather was on this earlier.

He links to this from Bill Quick:

UPDATE: I just talked with an FBI spokesman from the Los Angeles bureau who told me that the sighting was of "a contrail." The spokesman added that "all investigative leads were vetted and the results were negative." The investigation is now closed.

A contrail? A pardonmyfrenchgoddamncontrail?

A contrail results when water vapor in the air is heated by the friction of the airplane and then immediately condenses in the cooler air behind it (or something like that).

If this was a contrail....Where was the airplane that made it? Are they suggesting he saw his own plane's contrail?

UPDATE II: Further surfing shows that WitNit has been on this for some time now.

Granted, I wasn't there at the time it happened, but really, the explanations being put forth don't make much sense.

Posted by: Vinnie at 11:02 PM | Comments (22) | Add Comment
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Crossposted from Stop The ACLU

In a victory for National Security, and the American citizen not to be blown up, a judge ruled today against the ACLU, and for NYC Subways in their effort to protect their citizens.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A federal judge ruled on Friday that police had a constitutional right to randomly search passengers' bags on the New York City subway to deter terrorist attacks.

U.S. District Judge Richard Berman ruled the searches were an effective and appropriate means to fight terrorism, and constituted only a "minimal intrusion" of privacy.

"The risk to public safety of a terrorist bombing of New York City's subway system is substantial and real," Berman wrote in his opinion.

"The need for implementing counter-terrorism measures is indisputable, pressing, ongoing and evolving."

Random bag searches began on July 22 after a second set of bomb attacks on London's transit system.

In a statement, Mayor Michael Bloomberg praised the ruling, calling bag searches a "reasonable precaution" that police would continue to take.

The New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU), which had sued to stop the searches, plans to appeal, Executive Director Donna Lieberman said in a statement. She said the "unprecedented" bag search program violated a basic freedom.

Well of course they plan to appeal, they wouldn't want common sense to prevail! I understand the ACLU's concern on this. No one wants to live in a police state. However, I think they are completely overzealous in this. The majority of people do not mind being searched if it means they will live another day. Besides, the ACLU would have another fit if we were to try to implement profiled searches. And they have even proven through their lawsuit in Tampa against Raymond James Stadium that they are against searches across the board. The irony is that on their own building they have a sign that says you may be subject to search upon entering. The ACLU have twisted a legitimate attempt to protect NY's citizens into a scare tactic method completely overexaggerated. Why can't they see what most people can? The threat of being blown up is a greater risk, than the far fetched idea of a police state.

Posted by: Chris Short at 09:09 PM | Comments (17) | Add Comment
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UPDATE: We have the video. Links and transcript here.

UPDATE: Confirmed by MSM sources. We are working on obtaining the raw video.

According to Matt Drudge, Al Jazeera has broadcast a video which purportedly threatens the life of four Western peace activists in Iraq. The names of the four activists are American Thomas Fox--who is also a blogger, Canadians Harmeet Singh Sooden and James Loney, and British citizen Norman Kember. The Jawa Report was the first media outlet to reveal the names of the hostages.

Because of the many similarities between the kidnapping of anti-American journalist Guliana Sgrena, it has been widely speculated that the terror organization never planned to kill the hostages, but are using the four peace activists as tools to drum up antiwar sentiment. However, because the orignial hostage video was first released on a website (contrary to media reports that al Jazeera first released the video) that belonged to a known terrorist organization the threat may very well be real.

The Jawa Report will post images and links to the video as soon as they are available.

UPDATE: Ian at the Political Teen has the al Jazeera video and has it posted here as does Bareknucklepolitics. Both are of a CTV report, and the latter has audio. We are still working on getting the original video before it went through the al Jazeera editing process.

Breitbart:

Al-Jazeera television broadcast a videotape Friday in which kidnappers of four Christian peace activists threatened to kill their hostages unless all prisoners in U.S. and Iraqi detention centers are released. The kidnappers gave the two governments until Dec. 8 to meet their demands, Al-Jazeera quoted a statement delivered with the tape as saying....

All four appeared frightened.

The Canadians were shown eating from plates of what appeared to be Arabic sweets. In a second clip, the British and American hostages were shown to talking to the camera but no audio was transmitted.

The two were calling on the U.S. and British governments to withdraw from Iraq, Al-Jazeera reported, quoting a statement from the kidnappers, who earlier identified themselves as the Swords of Righteousness Brigade.

Developing....

More links at Pajama Media and in trackbacks below.

Please send tips to mypetjawa-at-gmail-dot-com and feel free to drop links to related stories in comments section.

Posted by: Rusty at 02:53 PM | Comments (25) | Add Comment
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Headline from Crooks and Liars:

War Profiteer and the $10 million Bat Mitzvah

I dunno, something about blaming Jews for profiteering off the death of soldiers sounds familiar somehow........like deja vu or something.

Hat tip: Ghost of a Flea for the e-mail.

Posted by: Rusty at 02:28 PM | Comments (12) | Add Comment
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Matt Welch has responded to those arguing for propaganda in Reason magazine here. Matt and I have exchanged several e-mails over the subject, the crux of which were "Boy, I just really wish we had the time to delve into this more deeply"--or, at least, I wish I had more time. I mean, it is Friday and I am a university professor and blogging is work.....

Nevetheless, the divide here seems to be between the neo-libertarian right--which believes liberty means something different in war time than in peace--and the paleo-libertarian right--which believes (at least under my reading) that liberty is a constant.

Here is one of the core arguments made by Matt:

Shackleford's folly, aside from the feeble unpatriotic slap, is that that formulation assumes all weapons are equally neutral in moral value and practical effectiveness, which they are not. There's a reason, aside from international treaty, we no longer use nerve gas on enemy lines, or napalm on villages, or atomic bombs on cities -- world reaction would cause more negative consequences than whatever "positive" gains could be had on the ground. And if we used horses to do a tank's job, or muskets instead of M-16s, these weapons wouldn't be an "asset," they'd be a hindrance.

Now batting for Rusty Shackleford, Steve Green the Vodkapundit:

Now then. If a nuke were to go off in New York or Los Angeles or even Des Moines tomorrow, do you doubt that even President Kerry (cough, cough) would hesitate before retaliating in kind? Oh, but that would be retaliation, wouldn't it? And would it not therefore be a fair response? And what about propaganda? It's not as if the enemy doesn't use it – so why should our government be so restrained? Especially when our stuff is pretty damn innocent? [Read the rest]

The second, and more important argument made by Matt is on the effectiveness of propaganda. Even if it is moral to use, it should not be if it does more harm than good:

Is unlabeled propaganda a useful weapon? In the long run I don't think it is. First, people will eventually find out, either from military officials alarmed at the practice, or Iraqi journalists with whatever motive. As most dictators have eventually learned, truth [ed note: emphasis mine] has a way breaking through even the tightest of seals.

And as long as we're playing with effete American League rules, why not send in two pinch-hitters for Shackleford (after all, I'm a pitcher not a catcher)? Now batting for Rusty Shackleford, Jeff Goldstein of Protein Wisdon:

....the actual “outing” of the propaganda effort by the LAT is, ironically, the only thing that might cause the effort to backfire—but then, we murder to dissect, as they say....

Taking this parallel one step further, let me add that our use of propaganda seems to me to fit this paradigm perfectly, insofar as we have used it to beat back the anti-American rhetoric coming not only from the Arab world, but from the western press as well.

Or to put it more bluntly, this campaign was designed to retaliate not only against enemy propaganda in Iraq and other parts of the middle east, but ironically (and sadly) against our very own media, whose coverage has been almost uniformly sensationalistic and dire. [Read the rest]

UPDATE: Wunderkraut sends me a link to this nifty graphic from File It Under. Click it for a larger view and then go check out the original post here.

Posted by: Rusty at 12:03 PM | Comments (16) | Add Comment
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The Army of Ansar al-Sunna has murdered a captured Iraqi jail guard named Nasser Had Ali in a new video released on the internet. The terrorist group has known ties to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's al Qaeda in Iraq.

In the over 8 minute video, two masked terrorists hold guns to the victim's head and force him to confess to 'collaboration' and 'apostasy'. The victim warns others not to collaborate with the 'apostate' government of Iraq. Such confessions are routine in these Islamic snuff videos and provide legitimacy to the terrorist murders. Under Islamic law apostasy is punishable by the death penalty.

The hostage is then taken outside, in the dark, where he is shot by one of the terrorists with a pistol. I have sent the video to Bareknucklepolitics where portions of it may be seen here.

Here is the SITE report:

Ansar al-Sunnah issued an 8:30 minute video with a statement today, December 1, 2005, announcing the execution of an Iraqi guard for al-Jaderiya jail, Nasser Hadi Ali, who was charged with spying on the mujahideen and arresting imams and worshippers at mosques as part of a commission with the Iraqi Ministry of Interior. The group claims that Ali had formerly aided the mujahideen, transporting their weapons, but he was “brainwashed” by the government.

The video depicts Nasser Had Ali seated blindfolded between two masked men carrying firearms as he “confesses” to the allegations levied against him. He is subsequently shot several times, according to “Allah’s order… to serve as an example for others.”

Posted by: Rusty at 09:07 AM | Comments (11) | Add Comment
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