August 18, 2005
According to Gulf News, the material seized included thousands of dynamite sticks and booby-trapped wires, live ammunition, as well as drugs, large amounts of cash in Yemenite currency and CDs of pornographic films.My suspicion is that it was gay porn and ecstasy. It's just funnier to think of it that way!
UPDATE: Just to clarify, I mean bad gay porno. You know, the kind with guys.
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What I find very irritating about this too is how the press keeps calling his stay at the ranch a "vacation" (or a "monthlong" vacation to make it sound like he's just fishing and taking naps for a whole month). They're trying to equate it with how we take vacations. How we go to some destination and are free of work and responsibility for a period of time. He is simply working from the ranch rather than the White House.
Most people know about Ike's golfing "vacations" and JFK's trips to Hyannisport to play touch football, but not many know that the concept and details of the Cold War strategy of "containment" were worked out by the Truman Administration during a long "vacation" in Key West. Truman and his advisors spend 175 days there during the course of his Presidency. Eisenhower established the Department of Defense while "vacationing" there, and Kennedy visited during the Cuban Missile Crisis. The location has been so seminal to the history of that half-century-long conflict with Empirialist Marxism that it has come to be known as the Little White House. But that was a different era.
(Cross-posted by Demosophist to Demosophia)
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"It seems to me that if we make an overt political statement in 'Over There' about the war ... then immediately the debate becomes not only about policy, but it becomes about our politics, Chris' and mine, as opposed to a discussion or a provocation about the human consequences of war," Bochco said. "The moment we become overtly political, half the audience dismisses us and doesn't pay attention to us because they disagree with our politics. And the other half discuss us ... in the context of our political leanings. And that's just not what my goal is with this show."
So, they make a covert political statement instead, and couch it as artistic professionalism. This is a game that the "news" branch of media have been playing since the first APC rolled across the Kuwait border, couching the news as objective and balanced while determining the conclusion as surely as any Pravda article. And the heavy hand of propaganda has now made its way into the overtly "fictional" branch of media, who have apparently decided that the reportrayal of Iraq as a dessicated Vietnam will just have to do.
But, of course, the problem is that now, when they strike this bell, what emerges is much less like a ringing peal than a shallow tinkle, and the reverberations barely violate the boundaries of their echo chamber. For the first time the strategically opaque dramaturge of the entertainment industry is met by the naively transparent counterbalance of authoritative witnesses from the field, posting their contemporaneous experiences of the war in real time. The discourse is losing its constraints, and the memes no longer live forever.
(Cross-posted by Demosophist to Demosophia and Anticipatory Retaliation)
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From Reuters:
Saudi security forces killed the leader of the kingdom's al Qaeda group in a clash in the holy city of Medina on Thursday, a security source said.In a telephone interview from Riyadh, Interior Ministry spokesman Major General Mansour al-Turki said ongoing raids against suspected terrorists resulted in the killing.He said security forces had killed Saleh al-Awfi, who was believed to have taken over leadership of al Qaeda in Saudi Arabia last year.
I'm going to have a celebratory donut.
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August 17, 2005
The Right has no identity phrase to delegitimize left-wing bloggers' anti-war stance equivelant to chickenhawk. But we on the right often resort to other personal attack tactics. Although we have no phrase to wrap the idea in, there is a glaring suspicion to many on the Right that many on the Left never served in the military because they hate it and our soldiers. They are against the Iraq War, we think, because they are against all war and the military men that fight them.
Using the TTLB Traffic Rankings as a guide, I sent e-mails to the top bloggers of both the Left and Right and asked them whether or not they had served in the military and, if they had, in which branch?. Group blogs which had not clear main blogger were not sent e-mails. This tended to weed out more Left leaning blogs than Right leaning blogs. Blogs that seemed to focus on pop-culture or other non-political issues were also excluded. Further, while the response rate was nearly 100% from conservative and libertarian bloggers, it was much lower from those who were more liberal. This can probably be explained by my personal relationship with many on the right. If any of you can get responses out of other top bloggers on the Left, I would appreciate your help.
I had hoped, for methodological reasons, to include the same number of Left and Right leaning bloggers. I will continue to update this list as more data becomes available. It should be noted that not all of the Left-leaning bloggers took a clear early stand against the war in Iraq. Further, a few bloggers responded but asked that I keep the information confidential.
The number on the left is the TTLB Ecosystem Traffic Ranking between August 16-17. If there are mistakes in the list they were unintentional so please let me know by dropping me an e-mail.
Top Left Bloggers
(1) Markos Zunigas (Daily Kos)--Yes, US Army
(11) Tony (Crooks and Liars)--no military service
(13) Ana Marie Cox (Wonkette)--no military service
(16) Kevin Drum (Washington Monthly)--no military service
(32) Norm Jenson (One Good Move)--Yes, National Guard
(24) Jerome Armstrong (My DD)--no military service
(39) Taegan Goddard (Political Wire)--no
(46) Tom (Tbogg)--no military service
(43) Amanda Marcotte (Pandagon)--no military service
(55) Adrew The Poorman (The Poorman's Cafe) -- no military service
(73) Steve Soto (The Left Coaster) -- no military service
Top Right Bloggers
(6) Glenn REynolds (Instapundit)--no military service
(7) Charles Johnson (Little Green Footballs)-no military service
(9) Michelle Malkin (Michelle Malkin)--no military service
(14) Tom of Scared Monkeys (Scared Monkeys)--no military service
(14) Red of Scared Monkeys (Scared Monkeys)--no military service
(20) Ed Morrissey (Captain's Quarters)--no military service
(21) Dan Riehl (Riehl World View)--Yes, Air Force
(31) Eugene Volokh (Volokh Conspiracy)--no military service
(36) Kevin Aylward (Wizbang)--no military service
(43) Wretchard (The Belmont Club) - no military service
(47) Roger L. Simon (Roger L. Simon)--no military service
(51) John Hawkins (Right Wing News)--no military service
(57) James Joyner (Outside the Beltway) - Yes, US Army
(5
Kim du Toit (Daily Rant)--Yes, South African Army
(59) Rusty Shackleford (The Jawa Report) -- no military service
(63) Matt at Blackfive (Blackfive) -- Yes, U.S. Army
(69) John Cole (Balloon Juice)--Yes, U.S. Army
(71) Greyhawk (Mudville Gazette) --Yes, still active duty
***Top 100 (Name Withheld)--no military service
***Top 100 (Name Withheld)--no military service
***Top 100 (Name Withheld)--no military service
While the N of the survey is too small to produce a statistically significant regression model, there are a few noteworthy observations from the initial round.
Of the 11 bloggers who responded from the Left, 2 of them--or 18.2%--had been in the military.
If you just look at the top 12 bloggers from the Right, none of them had served in the U.S. military.
However, of the top 21 bloggers who responded from the Right, 6 of them--or 28.6%--had been in the military.
The further down the TTLB Ecosystem rankings you go among bloggers on the Right, the more likely they will have been to have served in the military. The further up the TTLB Ecosystem Traffic Rankings you go among bloggers on the Left, the more likely they will have been to have served in the military.
So, among the top bloggers on both the Left and Right, only a minority have ever served in the military. Are bloggers on the Left draft-dodging haters of the military? There's no evidence to suggest that. Are bloggers on the Right warmongering chickenhawks eager to send others to war but not face that risk themselves? There is certainly no evidence to suggest that either.
Moreover, among top bloggers at least, it would seem that bloggers on the Right have a slight advantage in terms of numbers who have seen active military duty. There is no basis in reality, then, to the widespread accusation that the Right bloggers are members of the 101st Fighting Keyboardists.
I will update this post later as more information becomes available.
UPDATE: John Donovan of the Castle Argghhh posits this interesting hypothesis: I suspect, Rusty, the deeper you go into the smaller blogs, the greater the difference becomes
A number of others suggest doubling or tripling the sampling size for the same reason.
Judging from the response in the comments and my e-mail, my hunch is John is right. This is a testable hypothesis. Any one who would like to help me gather these data please drop me a line.
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Practical Me Responds: Uhh, good point.
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PRESIDENT Bill Clinton's team ignored dire warnings that its approach to terrorism was "very dangerous" and could have "deadly results," according to a blistering memo just obtained by The Post.It is almost a near certainty that if 'the wall' had not been erected, that theh 9/11 plot would have been unintentionally foiled.
Then-Manhattan U.S. Attorney Mary Jo White wrote the memo as she pleaded in vain with Deputy Attorney General Jamie Gorelick to tear down the wall between intelligence and prosecutors, a wall that went beyond legal requirements.Looking back after 9/11, the memo makes for eerie reading — because White's team foresaw, years in advance, that the Clinton-era wall would make it tougher to stop mass murder.
"This is not an area where it is safe or prudent to build unnecessary walls or to compartmentalize our knowledge of any possible players, plans or activities," wrote White, herself a Clinton appointee.
"The single biggest mistake we can make in attempting to combat terrorism is to insulate the criminal side of the house from the intelligence side of the house, unless such insulation is absolutely necessary. Excessive conservatism . . . can have deadly results."
She added: "We must face the reality that the way we are proceeding now is inherently and in actuality very dangerous."...
Justice honchos overruled White's plea — even though her team knew better than anyone else in law enforcement what the real risks were. White's team won a host of convictions — including Ramzi Yousef, the mastermind of the first World Trade Center bombing in 1993, and blind Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman, who plotted to bomb landmarks like the Statue of Liberty....
White wrote the memo after her earlier pleas against the "wall" were rejected. She enlisted the help of her "Bomb II Team" — prosecutors working on terror bombings like the 1993 Twin Towers attack.
They gave six pages of detailed reasons why it was a mistake to create too much of a wall between intelligence and prosecutions. White forwarded that analysis to Gorelick and added her own notes on the Clinton-era decision "to keep prosecutors in the dark about intelligence investigations."
"What troubles me even more than the known problems we have encountered are the undoubtedly countless instances of unshared and unacted-upon information that reside in some file or other or in some head or other or in some unreviewed or not fully understood tape or other," White wrote. "These can be disasters waiting to happen."
I have asked before who was the idiot who chose to follow the rules and not pass on intelligence about Mohammed Atta to the FBI? An even bigger idiot is the fool defending the very rules which might have prevented 9/11.
I'm not as down on the 9/11 Commission Report as many of my fellow bloggers are. No, I don't think there is a massive cover-up--not to say there isn't a tiny cover up. The real culprits here are the people in the Clinton Administration who both followed the wall doctrine and expanded it. Too often we assume that covering up the crime is worse than the crime itself. That is certainly not the case in this instance.
The 9/11 Report may be flawed and not the entire story, but that pales in comparison with the poor judgement of the Clinton Administration.
UPDATE: Are all lawyers evil or just stupid?
Others: Powerline raises some interesting questions as to the timing of the memo.
Austin Bay is correct in calling for further investigation and correctly identifies the culprit: the lawyers.
Ace has been covering this for awhile.
Betsy Newmark celebrates the demise of the wall doctrine.
Mark in Mexico has a great roundup, as always as does The Anchoress. Stratosphere has the latest Able Danger news here.
Captain Ed asks the right questions and focuses us on the Clinton White House.
T. Longren, Right Wing Nuthouse, Peace Like a River, John Cole, Larry Kudlow, and the rest......
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The suspect are Hammad Riaz Samana, 21 from Pakistan; and Levar Haney Washington, 25, and Gregory Vernon Patterson, 21. The latter two had been arrested earlier this month for a string of gas station robberies and, were converts to Islam, and had been found with jihadi material in their home. One of them had served time in Folsom State Prison, and there is a possibility that the plot was hatched by a radical Islamic extremists in the prison known as Jamiyyat Ul Islam Is Saheeh, or The Assembly of Authentic Islam .
The three attended a Jamat-E-Masjidul Islam mosque in Inglewood, a heavily African-American suburb of Los Angeles. The mosque appears to be part of a network of mosques funded by the Saudi Royal family.
It is always interesting to note that every time a Muslim is arrested on terrorism related charges that fellow Muslims first act shocked and then claim a government conspiracy. Stage one complete, prepare for stage two.
KPLC:
LOS ANGELES The president of his mosque says a Pakistani national arrested in a terrorism probe was "a nice kid" and very respectful.The mosque leader says the arrest of the man (Hammad Riaz Samana) comes as a shock.
Authorities say the suspect, in custody since August second, may be linked to a possible plot to attack the Israeli Consulate, National Guard facilities and synagogues in Los Angeles.
A law enforcement source says his arrest came after investigators found a potential target list at the home of Levar Washington, who's been charged in a series of gas station robberies with another man, Gregory Patterson.
The mosque leader says Washington and Patterson had also attended the mosque but he did not recall all three men associating with one another.
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Today, Paul at Wizbang wonders whether the real reason Clinton failed to act against al Qaeda in any significant way was that he was too busy trying to cover up his affair with Monica Lewinsky. Personally, I'm not so convinced by the timing argument presented by Paul. That is to say, the State Department warned Clinton about the al Qaeda threat during the same months that Clinton was busy obstructing justice, but this is not evidence that one effort contradicted the other. Presidents, it should be remembered, are capable of doing more than one thing at a time--even if they aren't the superheroes that Bill Clinton wishes to be remembered as.
In hindsight, Clinton's failure to act against al Qaeda seemed like a cosmic dereliction of duty. Warnings about what al Qaeda might potentially do, though, only seem so important now because we know what al Qaeda eventually did do. As we try to reconstruct history, let us remember that for every warning that turns out to be true, there are dozens of warnings that turn out to be false alarms. Many documents now show that there were warnings that Japan would attack Pearl Harbor. What is often overlooked by those wishing to play the blame game--or worse, the conspiracy game--are the dozens of other reports which claimed the Phillipines would be Japan's likely target. It is only in hindsight that we realize which threat was greater.
So, I don't blame Bill Clinton or George Bush for 9/11 any more than I blame FDR for Pearl Harbor. All of them were forced to make decisions and set priorities without the clear guidance of hindsight.
Who is to blame for 9/11, then? The first answer, of course, is al Qaeda and radical Islam. But the second answer may be more troubling. We are responsible for 9/11, all of us, the American public. Bill Clinton was not the only one asleep at the wheel, unaware of the growing danger of the global violent jihad, we all were. America was a sleeping giant, awakened from the pleasant dreams of the 1990s only when our enemies reminded us that they had been at war with us for a decade by striking our home soil.
While we were busy fretting over how to spend the tax surpluses of the 1990s, or an economy that had 1% more unemployment in the '00s, al Qaeda was busy planning our demise. We were all asleep at the wheel, only to be awakened much too late.
Let us never never be caught sleeping again.
UPDATE: Another Rovian Conspiracy agrees.
UPDATE II: Yes, Clinton is lying about his superhuman abilities every bit as much as the lie that started the rumor about his package size. But just because he serially inflates his central role in history does not make him responsible for 9/11.
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Court papers identified him as Larry Northern, 59, from nearby Waco. He has been charged with a felony criminal mischief count. Damage to the memorial was estimated at more than $1,500. He was released after posting $3,000 bail, according to court records.
Really I disagree with Cindy on almost every level but come on. When I see our flag even a 59 cent wally world flag on the ground. Well you get the idea. If you support Bush maybe you should actually listen to what he says..
I'm referring to any grieving mother or father, no matter what their political views may be. Part of my duty as the President is to meet with those who've lost a loved one. And so, you know, listen, I sympathize with Mrs. Sheehan. She feels strongly about her -- about her position. And I am -- she has every right in the world to say what she believes. This is America. She has a right to her position. And I've thought long and hard about her position. I've heard her position from others, which is, get out of Iraq now. And it would be -- it would be a mistake for the security of this country and the ability to lay the foundations for peace in the long-run, if we were to do so.
Well put Mr. Bush.
Cindy you have to ask yourself this. Is it really worth it? I know you are grieving but you are also being used. Your husband has filed for divorce. Is that what your son would have wanted? How lucky that you and the old high school sweet heart were married and had a fine son and a long life together. How valuable, IÂ’m not sure you know how lucky you have been.
Hat tip: You'll all have to guess
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I'll be the first one to admit that I don't know much about CAFE, but I think this post and its subsequent comments point out two immediate and consistant leftie positions. First, if something seems to be going wrong, the government must regulate it. Secondly, the way to regulate it is to tax it. Of course as a matter of principle, I'd prefer to see the government stay out of the whole thing. If Detroit wants to make cars that get 3 MPG and people want to buy and drive them, why shouldn't they be allowed to? If they want to spend $50 per fillup because they've got a 35 gallon tank, who are you to say that they can't? The people who want to buy the hybrids are buying them.
But even putting away the esthetic argument of government intervention, I simply don't think that their idea of more tax on bigger cars is going to work. As I pointed out to them, my job requires me to drive a van. I deliver computers and there's no way that I could do that in a hybrid. The same goes for a plumber who has to carry around his parts, or an electrician, or the many types of service industries that depend on making deliveries to their customers. And that's not to even mention the trucking industry. How long would it take to tax them completly out of business? Or to make their tax burden so heavy that it breaks everyone else's back in increased cost for goods? I did propose this question to them, but so far the only answer is "we'll just have to change our whole transportation infrastructure." Somehow, I don't think that's going to be the answer. So, I propose a question to all the lefties. Can you seriously look at the economy and the nation as it stands and think that taxing the hell out of the transportation industry will do anything but drive us to ruin?
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Sumera was rushed to the hospital, but couldn't be saved. Nazo and Zeeshan went to the police to register a case against Asif. It's not clear whether anything will happen to Asif for the murder. I haven't heard of many perpetrators of honor killings being punished in Pakistan.
Nevertheless, it appears that it's more honorable to have a murderer in the family than an lovemaker.
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05:19 AM
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"This survey shows that the guy who's most attractive to our readers is not your average Hollywood hunk," said Playgirl editrix Jill Sieracki. "It's the average Joe who came up on top. Women are practical about their choices, and they're smart."And metrosexuals are definitely out. Women don't want a man who one ups them on manicures, hair styles, or body lotions.
As a consequence of the survey results, Playgirl is now looking for that newly-defined studmuffin, presumably for a feature photo spread. So, guys, put down the beer and send in your best beefcake snapshot to models@playgirlmag.com.
Companion post at rough around the edges studmuffin Interested-Participant.
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And there are some drinks that just aren't manly drinks, as the title of this post suggests. No mimosas, no cosmopolitans, damn sure no appletinis. But there are some neutral territories, some open questions, and in the interest of educating My Pet Jawa's younger readers who may be embarking on collegiate adventures of their own, we might need to lay down the rules about drinking.
Gentle readers, what are the rules? Please discuss in the comments.
To start, I'll add in the extended entry a list of libations of which both men and women may partake without shame, though the behavior they induce may be shameful, as well as some that are gender-appropriate:
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August 16, 2005
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