January 25, 2006

If I Get This Stupid, I'll Be A Government Contractor AP Reporter Too

WASHINGTON (AP) - Stretched by frequent troop rotations to Iraq and Afghanistan, the Army has become a "thin green line" that could snap unless relief comes soon, according to a study for the Pentagon.

Andrew Krepinevich, a retired Army officer who wrote the report under a Pentagon contract, concluded that the Army cannot sustain the pace of troop deployments to Iraq long enough to break the back of the insurgency. He also suggested that the Pentagon's decision, announced in December, to begin reducing the force in Iraq this year was driven in part by a realization that the Army was overextended.

Germany, Spain, UK, S. Korea, Kosovo, Croatia, Japan, do I really need to list all the places where no war is currently being waged where U.S. troops are deployed?

But only Iraq is hindering our abilities?

Will anyone admit to hiring "retired officer" Krepinevich?

Nice try, Associatedantiamerican Press, but it still won't work. You've been beating this drum for over 4 years now.

Now get back to the real news you're good at. We thirst for all that is Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie.

UPDATE: My apologies to Mr. Krepinivich, wherever you are. It's not your fault the AP is going to take the slightest hint of bad news and run with it.

Anyway, my point is, if the Army is stretched too thin, a large part of the problem is the fact that they're sitting in places where they're not needed to be.

Just what the hell are we still doing in Kosovo anyway? Weren't we supposed to be out of there like, 7 Christmases ago? What are we defending Germany from now? The war's only been over for 60 years.

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January 24, 2006

Cindy Sheehan's Visit to Venezuela: guest commentary by Gary from Team America: World Police

teamamericaworldpolice_gary.jpgCindy Sheehan is a p**sy.

Hugo Chavez is an as*hole.

George W. Bush is a di*k.

Update from Rusty: Thanks for joining the Jawa team, Gary. Here is a related story which I got via Professor Chaos. Notice who is paying for Cindy Sheehan's visit to Venezuela?

Anti-war protester Cindy Sheehan, mother of a US soldier killed in
Iraq, joined more than 10,000 anti-globalization activists in Caracas, where she hailed Venezuela's leftist President Hugo Chavez....

She said Venezuela's foreign ministry sponsored her visit.

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9/11 Conspiracy Theorist Takes Over Pacifica Radio

Will the lunacy coming out of the Left stop today? First we posted about a Daily Kos writer who plans to march at Ground Zero and place a citizen's arrest on Rudy Giuliani for 'his part in the 9/11 coverup'. If that wasn't enough, a Lefty in a major newspaper says he does not support the troops. Now this. I need some aspirin.

Via the Puppy Blender this from Marc Cooper--who is no right-winger--who gives us the low-down on the new Pacifica radio executive director, Greg Guma.

Most of the country is privileged enough to not have the pleasure of listening to Pacifica radio. Since I grew up in L.A., I was subjected to it from time to time. Pacifica is kind of like NPR, only, if you can imagine this, far to the Left and way more boring (apologies to Marc Cooper, former drive-time host).

Pacifica is the kind of radio network that broadcasts it's own station meetings. I recall listening to one a few years back where angry listeners were protesting the 'corporate' nature of the Pacifica board.

It's also the kind of radio network that seems to have endless supplies of interviews with Noam Chomsky. And no, no one was holding a gun to my head and forcing me to listen to Noam Chomsky drone on and on about East Timor. Call me a masochist.

It turns out that Pacifica's new director, Greg Guma, is a certified 9/11 conspiracy nutbag. Here is what he had to say about David Ray Griffin's book The New Pearl Harbor: Disturbing Questions about the Bush Administration and 9/11:

Hammering home the point that most of what we think we know may be mistaken, Griffin also points out that even the identities of the hijackers remain in doubt. In the months following 9/11, the London Times, Associated Press, and Saudi embassy in Washington reported that at least five of the 19 men whose photos and names circulated worldwide were still alive.

So, was bin Laden really the mastermind? If he was a player, did he have some help? These are two of the many troubling questions that arise from Griffin's analysis. At this point, we simply don't know, and not much can be said with complete certainty, except that without 9/11, George Bush would not have been able to declare himself a "war president" and there would have been no convincing reason to expand the federal government's power through legislation like the USA PATRIOT Act.

Given the administration's now discredited claims about Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's connection to the attacks and weapons of mass destruction, it doesn't stretch credulity to conclude that, based on the considerable conflicting evidence (rather than more comforting assumptions), the public has yet to hear the whole story. For that to change, however, the media's self-imposed myopia will have to end, at last granting Griffin's research a thorough review, and perhaps even prompting a more credible and comprehensive official examination than has so far been conducted.

Ouch. Cukoo!

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Leftist: "I Don't Support Troops"; Urges Them to Disobey Orders

Newslinker has this L.A. Times article revealing a pretty disgusting sentiment which is all too common on the radical Left. If I was a mainstream liberal I'd be first in line to stone this S.O.B. just to prove that his view is a minority one.

The underlying assumption of this is that wars are fought by Administrations, not by nations. By joining the military a soldier is volunteering as an extension of the Bush Administration. Hence, the soldier is complicit in Bush's alleged crimes.

While Administrations may start wars, they do not fight them. Nations fight wars.

There was no war against the Nazis. We fought Germany. And the Roosevelt Administration did not fight in WWII, America did. America is at war. When did the Left stop being part of America?

This is why the antiwar position is unpatriotic. This is America's war, and to be against it is to be against America.

There is a time to be against a war, and that time is before the war begins. Strategies for victory are legitimate debate, but as long as troops are on the ground then that is where debate should end.

In past wars an article like this would have landed the author in jail. Encouraging troops in battle to disobey commands is worse than the kind of defeatism that FDR would have arrested you for--it is inciting to treason.

Joel Stein in the L.A. Times:

I DON'T SUPPORT our troops. This is a particularly difficult opinion to have, especially if you are the kind of person who likes to put bumper stickers on his car. Supporting the troops is a position that even Calvin is unwilling to urinate on...

But I'm not for the war. And being against the war and saying you support the troops is one of the wussiest positions the pacifists have ever taken — and they're wussy by definition....

But blaming the president is a little too easy. The truth is that people who pull triggers are ultimately responsible, whether they're following orders or not. An army of people making individual moral choices may be inefficient, but an army of people ignoring their morality is horrifying. An army of people ignoring their morality, by the way, is also Jack Abramoff's pet name for the House of Representatives....

But when you volunteer for the U.S. military, you pretty much know you're not going to be fending off invasions from Mexico and Canada. So you're willingly signing up to be a fighting tool of American imperialism, for better or worse. Sometimes you get lucky and get to fight ethnic genocide in Kosovo, but other times it's Vietnam...

I'm not advocating that we spit on returning veterans like they did after the Vietnam War, but we shouldn't be celebrating people for doing something we don't think was a good idea. All I'm asking is that we give our returning soldiers what they need: hospitals, pensions, mental health and a safe, immediate return. But, please, no parades.

Wow. Two tin foil posts in one day. Update: Make that three tin foil post.

UPDATE: In addition to fatwas issued below (all worth the read), James Joyner, Michelle Malkin, Rob Port, and Ace

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Kos Kids to March at Ground Zero in Protest of 9/11 'Conspiracy'

The tin foil brigades will march on President's day to protest the 9/11 conspiracy. And by conspiracy they mean that 9/11 was an American conspiracy. They will also attempt to arrest former Mayor Giuliani for his part in the conspiracy. Which is odd because Rudy isn't, as far as I know, a J-O-O.

The rally is being organized by Daily Kos writer and conspiracy nut Greg Nixon. A guy who thinks the Bush Administration was behind 9/11.

Indy Media Watch has more.

Indeymedia: March for Truth:

The rally will conclude at the office of former N.Y.C. Mayor Giuliani in Times Square, where we will deliver citizen’s warrant for his arrest for his role in the attacks at The World Trade Center and criminal complicity in removing evidence from a crime scene. Civil disobedience will then be encouraged by protesters in an effort to call on fellow Americans to speak out against the colossal crimes being committed in the name of a fraudulent ‘War on Terror” and to demand the U.S. Government be arrested for treason and mass murder....

Please spread the word to any and all to come to Ground Zero on February 20th and make their voice heard that this frame-up on humanity in the name of ‘The War on Terror” Ends now. March for Truth N.Y.C. 2006!

It would be funny if these people were indeed as marginal as I would hope to believe. As it is, I believe their march constitutes a legitimate 'fighting words' defense.

UPDATE: If Kos is now the Democratic kingmaker, what does that say about the Democratic party?

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January 23, 2006

NSC Wiretapping Likely to get Congressional Approval

File under: it's not fascism if we give you the green light. Remember that Senate hearing that the partisan Left is chomping at the bits to expose McChimpy's inate fascism in? Well it looks like the Dems are going to take the opportunity to:

a) expose Bush as a fascist for wiretapping international phone calls without a warrant
b) call him the fascist that he is
c) authorize him to do the very thing he was doing that made him a fascist.

Via James Joyner this from WaPo:

U.S. surveillance laws should be reviewed and possibly rewritten to allow the type of eavesdropping that U.S. President George W. Bush has been criticized for authorizing, lawmakers from both parties said on Sunday....

"What he's (Rove) trying to pretend is somehow Democrats don't want to eavesdrop appropriately to protect the country. That's a lie," Kerry said. "We're prepared to eavesdrop wherever and whenever necessary in order to make America safer."

'THERE IS A WAY'

But Kerry said the spying has to be legal and constitutional and if Bush needs the law to be changed, "then come to us and tell us... There is a way to protect the Constitution and not go off on your own and violate it."

Other prominent Democratic senators including Dick Durbin of Illinois, Charles Schumer of New York and Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut made similar comments about reexamining the breadth and modernity of FISA in television interviews a few days after Rove urged Republicans to campaign on national security and the war on terror.

Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain, who has also questioned the legality of the eavesdropping, also urged the administration to work with Congress on modernizing the 1978 FISA law to take into account technological changes in communications.

"I know of no member of Congress, frankly, who, if the administration came and said here's why we need this capability, that they wouldn't get it. And so let's have the hearings," McCain said on Fox News Sunday.

I guess that moots Jeff Goldstein's argument.

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The New Know-Nothings

Ed Morrissey at Captain's Quarters exposes the antics of Leftist virtual bookburners afflicting Amazon.com. Conservative titles have been systematically targeted for "egraffiti" including phony cover pictures and scurrilous "reviews". Captain Ed sums it up in his own inimitable fashion:

That's not the actions of people who have confidence in themselves. Those are the actions of a fearful, small-minded, vulgar group of Neanderthals who have suddenly seen Homo sapiens and realized that their days are numbered. These mouthbreathers cannot offer any new ideas, so instead of trying to compete with conservatives, they're busy with the electronic equivalent of sticking their fingers into their ears and shouting, "LA-LA-LA-LA, NO ONE CAN HEAR YOU!!" as loudly as possible.
Michelle Malkin is on the case, as well.

Also posted at The Dread Pundit Bluto.

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If Michael Moore, Osama bin Laden, and Shamoo the Whale Were in the Same Room....

...could you tell them apart? Answer.

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January 21, 2006

Bad News For The Anti-War Movement

It appears that Michael Moore has departed from our fair earth while vacationing in England.

Our heartfelt sympathies go out to his family and friend.

UPDATE: It appears I may have erred. Sources are emailing me to say that Michael Moore is alive and well and rooting for the little guy from his million dollar pad on the Upper West Side.

Speculation is that the body found in the story is actually that of Rosie O'Donnell. I feel for the investigators, it's so hard to tell them apart.

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Portrait Of The Author As A Literary Whore

As I previously noted in this post, Allah at Link Mecca discovered that Osama's newly released audiotape contains a recommendation for William Blum's book Rogue State: A Guide to the World's Only Superpower.

Of course, as a loyal American, Blum was shocked and disgusted to have his work cited by the world's most evil living human - not. Newhouse News Service reports that Blum is pretty much delighted with the publicity for his book:

"I was amazed and amused," Blum said. "It's good publicity for the book."
Blum explained that Osama had actually confused Rogue State with another in his anti-America collection: Freeing the World to Death: Essays on the American Empire. more...

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January 20, 2006

Star Jones And The Talleywhacker War

From the New York Post:

Yesterday, the co-host of "The View" told viewers that the war on terror was nothing more than a clash of male egos between President Bush and Osama bin Laden.

"You know what? At some point, one of these men has to put it back in his pants and zip up the zipper," she said during a discussion of bin Laden's latest audio tape.

ABC's mouthy porkette has never been noted for deep thoughts, figuratively speaking, of course.

Also posted at The Dread Pundit Bluto and Vince Aut Morire.

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He Ain't Heavy, He's My Traitor

Johnny Jihad's dad speaks out on his behalf:

SAN FRANCISCO -- The father of American-born Taliban soldier John Walker Lindh is asking President George W. Bush for a grant of clemency.

Well, okay, I'm down wit dat. Grant him clemency, and then ship him to an Afghani federal pound-me-in-the-ass prison.

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January 19, 2006

Osama Says Tomato, Left Says Tom-ah-to (Updated)

Tomato! Tom-ah-to! Let's call the whole thing off!

Fun with the purported Osama audiotape

Osama says:

But what triggered my desire to talk to you is the continuous deliberate misinformation given by your President [George] Bush, when it comes to polls made in your home country which reveal that the majority of your people are willing to withdraw US forces from Iraq.
Moveon.org says:
...a majority of Americans, want U.S. troops to leave Iraq. ItÂ’s time for Congress to insist on an exit plan.
Osama says:
There is no problem in this solution, but it will prevent hundreds of billions from going to influential people and war lords in America - those who supported Bush's electoral campaign - and from this, we can understand Bush and his gang's insistence on continuing the war.
Mother Jones says:
Since September 11, the Bush administration has awarded the world's second-largest oil-services company at least $2.2 billion in defense-generated business, mostly to support military operations overseas.
Osama says:
We are getting increasingly stronger while your situation is getting from bad to worse
John Murtha says:
"...[the Army] is "broken, worn out" [and] "living hand to mouth."
Update
Link Mecca reports that a full translation of the Osama tape includes a book recommendation for William Blum's The Rogue State. Congratulations to Mr. Blum on this odious important endorsement.

Newslinker has compiled quotes from the Democratic Underground and DailyKos insinuating that the Osama tape is all a Rovian GOP plot. Break out the tinfoil, folks, it's gonna be a bumpy ride.

Also posted at The Dread Pundit Bluto.

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January 18, 2006

Center for Constitutional Rights a Sham

Here is the lesser known of the two groups suing the NSA for wiretapping their friends conversations with their other friends, known terrorists. Does this sound like a civil liberties group to you? Center for Constitutional Rights:

We hope to create a movement in support of the adoption of a Uniting for Peace Resolution by the United Nations General Assembly to prevent an attack on Iraq by the United States, the United Kingdom and other nations.
Dan Riehl debunks other myths about The Center of Constitutional Rights here.

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January 17, 2006

ACLU, Journalists To Sue NSA For Eavesdropping on Terrorists

In an early morning press release the ACLU has announced its intention to sue the National Security Agency for intercepting suspected terrorist international calls and emails. The lawsuit is obviously timed to take advantage of a New York Times article critical of NSA intercepts. The ACLU lawsuit also has as plaintiffs several "prominent journalists", raising the possibility of a conspiracy between leftwing journalists and activist groups.

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of a group of prominent journalists, scholars, attorneys, and national nonprofit organizations (including the ACLU) who frequently communicate by phone and e-mail with people in the Middle East. Because of the nature of their calls and e-mails, they believe their communications are being intercepted by the NSA under the spying program.
The arrogance of the ACLU/MSM lawsuit is breathtaking; that Americans should be put at risk because a few paranoid elitists believe without any evidence that some of their calls may have been monitored - and also, of course, that they're unhappy with the 2000 and 2004 elections and would like to stage a coup d'etat.

Thanks to Jay at Stop the ACLU for emailing me about the press release.

Also posted at The Dread Pundit Bluto.

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January 16, 2006

An Exploitative Martin Luther King Day

ACLU Compares MLK To Terrorist Suspects
Jay at Stop The ACLU notes a new fullpage ad in the Washington Post taken out by the ACLU. The ad compares surveillance of terrorist suspects receiving overseas calls from known al Qaeda terrorists to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. MLK is morally equivalent to terrorists, nice message.

Al Gore Compares MLK To Terrorist Suspects
Speaking on Martin Luther King Day, the former Vice President took advantage of the opportunity to fly into one of his patented femmy snits and launch an attack on the President, again, comparing FBI wiretapping of Dr. King to NSA monitoring of al Qaeda terrorists. Wasn't the wiretapping of Dr. King carried out by Democratic administrations? Whoops.

New Orleans Mayor Compares Blacks To 'Chocolate'
And finally, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin used his MLK Day pulpit to say that "God is mad at America" and declare that New Orleans will once again be a "chocolate city". The mayor was speaking of the racial makeup of the city, which was 60% black prior to Hurricane Katrina. No crackers wanted - unless you're tourists with money.

Also posted at The Dread Pundit Bluto.

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Gray Lady's 30 Layers of Editors Screw Up Again

Thomas Lifson at The American Thinker points us to this photo (which can still be seen here).

fakenytphoto2.jpg


This is the caption that ran with the photo originally:

“Pakistani men with the remains of a missile fired at a house in the Bajur tribal zone near the Afghan border.”
What the New York Time's editors failed to notice is that the object is not part of a missile, but an old artillery shell. In fact, the sort of thing that terrorists use to make improvised explosive devices (IEDs). The caption was corrected after its propaganda value had been exploited.

Isn't it odd that the NYT's 'errors' always seem to be on the side of America's enemies?

Via Michelle Malkin.

Also posted at The Dread Pundit Bluto.

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January 14, 2006

Dem Surrender Monkey Murtha To Appear On 60 Minutes

Representative John Murtha (D, FRANCE) is to appear on CBS' 60 Minutes Sunday to do what he can to weaken the US war effort and get more troops killed. Murtha is the partisan Democrat who called for immediate withdrawal from Iraq (prior to the December vote) and was humiliated when Republicans called his bluff and put the proposal to a vote. It was overwhelmingly defeated.

From Breitbart:

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. Rep. John Murtha, an outspoken Democratic critic of the Iraq war, said in remarks to be aired on Sunday that voter pressure in the November congressional election could force President George W. Bush to pull U.S. forces from Iraq.

"I think the vast majority will be out by the end of the year and I'm hopeful it will be sooner than that," Murtha, a decorated Vietnam combat veteran who retired as a colonel after 37 years in the U.S. Marine Corps, told the CBS "60 Minutes" show.

The Bush administration has already announced plans to reduce troop levels throughout 2006. Murtha's interview is a transparent attempt to recharacterize any troop drawdowns for partisan purposes. Unfortunately, Murtha's party is invested in US defeat. More unfortunately, Murtha's partisan antics will most likely give false hope to our enemies, resulting in more soldiers being put at risk.

Past service does not excuse betraying your country later. Just ask Benedict Arnold.

Also posted at The Dread Pundit Bluto.

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January 13, 2006

Holocaust Denying Imam's New York Mosque Visited by Mayor Bloomberg

The spiritual leader of a New York City Shia mosque, the Al Khoei Islamic Center, has gone on record as a holocaust denyer. Sheik Fadhel al Sahlani told the New York Sun that the Nazi massacre of an estimated 6 million Jews during World War II "has been exaggerated". Al Sahlani joins the radical leader of Iran, President Ahmadinejad, in denying the extent of the Holocaust and calling for an international scholarly conference to reopen debate on it.

The al Khoei Islamic Center was visited by the Jewish mayor of New York, Michael Bloomberg in April of 2003. The mosque's website proudly displays images of Mayor Bloomberg with the Holocaust denying al Sahlani. The mayor delivered a speech on how there would be no discrimination against Muslim-Americans. Apparently those Muslims would not be so kind to those of Bloomberg's faith.

Other images show al Sahlani presiding over graduation ceremonies at the Islamic Center's school. One of the pictures shows what appears to be a high school comedy skit. One of the comedic characters appears to be a Jew coming on to a blonde woman.

And there are those who do not think antisemetism runs rampant in mosques?

The photos are posted below. Thanks to Drew who runs Michael Savage's website for the tip on the story. more...

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Documentary Evidence of Saddam's Terror Links Revealed

Say the following mantra one-hundred times while genuflecting: there were no links between Saddam Hussein and terrorism.

Via Hyscience, this pretty damning report. I'll note that the GSPC referenced here is the same group that had planned a 9/11 style attack against the U.S, but which the domestic media overlooked when the plot was foiled.

The Weekly Standard's Stephen Hayes consulted 11 federal officials before concluding that documents U.S. troops captured in Iraq prove that "the former Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein trained thousands of radical Islamic terrorists from the region at camps in Iraq over the four years immediately preceding the U.S. invasion."

Hayes reports, "Secret training took place primarily at three camps - in Samarra, Ramadi, and Salman Pak - and was directed by elite Iraqi military units." Al-Qaida-affiliated fanatics, such as Algeria's GSPC and the Sudanese Islamic Army, were among the 8,000 or so murderers instructed between 1999 and 2002.

Handwritten notes, computer discs and other "exploitable items" confirm Saddam's philanthropy of terror, Hayes says. But America has translated only some 2.5 percent of this huge cache. Federal officials barely discuss what they have learned. Even unclassified papers remain unavailable. Absurd.

Having studied some of these artifacts, one intelligence expert says: "As much as we overestimated WMD (weapons of mass destruction), it appears we underestimated (Saddam's) support for transregional terrorists."

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