November 29, 2005
Mugabe: Too Much Free Speech
Declan McCullagh files several good dispatches from the UN Internet Summit held recently in Tunisia:
TUNIS, Tunisia--Cuba, Iran and African governments lashed out at the U.S. government this week, charging that the Internet permits too much free speech and that the way it is managed must be reformed immediately.
The U.S. and other Western nations "insist on being world policemen on the management of the Internet," Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe, who has been the country's leader since 1987, said at a United Nations information society summit here.
"Those who have supported nihilistic and disorderly freedom of expression are beginning to see the fruits" of their efforts, Mugabe said, adding that Zimbabwe will be "challenging the bully-boy mentality that has driven the unipolar world."
I think he has a point.
November 24, 2005
Happy Thanksgiving!
A very special Happy Thanksgiving to everyone, especially to our beloved soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines!
November 21, 2005
8, 10, 12, 14
Mark Tapscott discusses term limits as at least a partial solution for pork spending. While I don't know if that would help (and may possibly hurt during the lame duck sessions) reduce the discretionary earmarks that creep onto major appropriations bills, I am a fan of term limits nonetheless. I just want politicians to consider their service as just that: service. Give, and then leave.
My simple formula: 8, 10, 12, 14.
8 years for the President, 10 years for Representatives, 12 years for Senators, and 14 years for all federal judges. (the clock starts over for judges reappointed to a new bench; the clock also starts over, eg, for a Senator who becomes President). I have no rationale for the numbers other than they are reasonable lengths and the formula has a catchiness to it.
h/t Instapundit.
Democrats Suck
Do Democrats want to win in Iraq? The superficial answer is, of course, yes. Scratch a little deeper. Do Democrats really want to win in Iraq? What benefit could they derive if we lost in Iraq?
A loss would humiliate the Bush administration and the Republican party. In fact, if they played it to perfection, they could get significant bumps in 2006 and 2008. As important as humiliating Republicans is in the short term, the big win for Democrats in an Iraqi loss is another decades-long period of Carteresque self-loathing.
Why? Because Victims Vote Democrat! Now there's a bumper sticker for you.
A Democratic politician's worst enemy is a confident, entrepreneurial, self-starting voter. Shatter the pride and patriotism of enough folks and Democrats will win back some Congressional seats, Gubernatorial mansions, and maybe, just maybe, the White House.
Do Democrats want to lose in Iraq? The answer is a calculated yes, and the reason is political gain. Disgusting.
Inspired by Ralph Peters this morning.
November 19, 2005
Iraq Timeline
Greyhawk (and Mrs. Greyhawk) at the Mudville Gazette is one of the very best milbloggers out there. He has started assembling a timeline of Iraq events starting in 1979 when Saddam Hussein became president. His primary motivation simply is to begin to correct and rectify the inflamed and inflammatory "Bush Lied" rhetoric being embraced not only by the moonbat left but by Democratic leaders as well.
His opening lede:
The 2003 invasion of Iraq is likely to be a contested topic in the American discussion for many years to come. As with any fractious issue, opinions will vary and even individual opinions will shift and change with time. That's a part of the human condition, after all, and one that flourishes in free societies. However, much less admirable efforts by many to obscure their own positions now seem to occur with increasing frequency, as do misquotes of political opponents for personal or "party" gain. Sadly these sorts of things have become common practice among those who bear much of the responsibility for the current situation. Perhaps it has become too much for them to bear, this great and terrible burden of leadership, though stepping aside and letting those of stronger, more determined convictions carry on might be even less palatable to them. Thus history is being rewritten, and free speech is being cheapened by some who employ it the most and cherish it the least - even as Americans fight and die to uphold their rights to do so.
Read the whole thing.
November 18, 2005
Being Black, Being A Democrat
Larry Elder is one of my favorite columnists who writes for one of my favorite organizations: Townhall.com. His latest column is about the racial (as in racist) history of the Democratic Party:
"Black History Month" has been observed for 29 years, yet many blacks know little to nothing about the parties' respective roles in advancing or hindering the civil rights of blacks. How many blacks know that following the Civil War, 23 blacks -- 13 of them ex-slaves -- were elected to Congress, all as Republicans? The first black Democrat was not elected to Congress until 1935, from the state of Illinois. The first black congressional Democrat from a Southern state was not elected until 1973.
Democrats, in 1854, passed the Kansas-Nebraska Act. This overturned the Missouri Compromise and allowed for the importation of slaves into the territories. Disgusted with the passage of this Act, free-soilers and anti-slavery members of the Whig and Democratic parties founded the Republican Party -- not just to stop the spread of slavery, but to eventually abolish it.
How many blacks know that blacks founded the Texas Republican Party? On July 4, 1867, in Houston, Texas, 150 blacks and 20 whites formed the party. No, not the Black Texas Republican Party, they founded the Texas Republican Party. Blacks across Southern states also founded the Republican parties in their states.
There's a lot more. Read the whole thing.
Punisher's Ball
Michael Yon has been providing easily the most riveting war coverage you'll never find in the MSM. He voluntarily embedded himself with the Army unit known as Deuce Four, part of the Stryker Infantry Battalion (1st Battalion, 24th Infantry). Visit the link above to read his dispatches.
The Deuce Four is now home, and Michael Yon carries on as an embedded reporter at The Punishers' Ball.
Note the third picture down has a memorial to Adam Plumendore, a beloved son of The Nation of Riflemen:
God bless you all for your service to our country.
Mac Owens: Iraq and Vietnam
New York Post Online Edition: postopinion
November 14, 2005
UNNight in Tunisia
Check out Bizzyblog:
BizzyBlog.com » About That Nov. 16-18 UN Internet Conference in Tunisia (UN-EU takeover attempt)
and then check out this (noted in post above).
h/t Instapundit
November 13, 2005
Today's Must Read
In December's Commentary Magazine, Norman Podhoretz takes another whack at the "Bush Lied" meme. As an added bonus, Joseph Wilson receives a good whack as well:
But there is worse. In his press conference on the indictment against Libby, Patrick Fitzgerald insisted that lying to federal investigators is a serious crime both because it is itself against the law and because, by sending them on endless wild-goose chases, it constitutes the even more serious crime of obstruction of justice. By those standards, Wilson—who has repeatedly made false statements about every aspect of his mission to Niger, including whose idea it was to send him and what he told the CIA upon his return; who was then shown up by the Senate Intelligence Committee as having lied about the forged documents; and whose mendacity has sent the whole country into a wild-goose chase after allegations that, the more they are refuted, the more they keep being repeated—is himself an excellent candidate for criminal prosecution.
Read the whole thing. Carefully.
November 12, 2005
Sara Sylvia Cynthia Stout ...
... Would Not Take The Garbage Out.
I have been quite quiet in the last several weeks. The devastation here is numbing. Below the fold I have a video I shot today (November 12, 2005, two and a half months after Katrina rumbled through) of an impromptu dump of house innards and felled trees. Mind that this dump has been diminished and replenished, with dozens if not hundreds of trucks removing debris daily. The site you see on the video is several blocks to the East of the 17th Street Canal.
In the Mapquest map above, you can see the 17 Street Canal to the center left running vertically (vertical is North). My drive in the video starts at Polk just before my turn right on West End Boulevard. The dump is between West End and Pontchartrain Boulevard (the gap between the two roadways in the middle of the image), and runs almost to Lake Pontchartrain (well above the end of the map image).
I don't think the video captures the size and impact we are feeling here. I don't think anything but being here does. Anyway (20+MB file), ...
... take a dumpster drive with me.
Hat Tip Shel Silverstein (you get it or you don't)
Update 12/3/05: Linked to a nice Gus Van Horn post about the state of N.O. affairs.
Defensive Shotgun Ammo
South Park Pundit: Defensive Shotgun Ammo
HatTip for this and previous two posts to the Carnival of Cordite #38.
Gun Safety Video
Courtesy of Ronocracy, video of DEA agent teaching gun safety.
Silly String Saves Soldiers
Repeat three times really fast.
The Military Applications of Silly String