Why doesn't this surprise me?

It seems an immigration discussion at a Denver school turned ugly.

That is no longer surprising. Nor is it surprising that certain folks will try to sweep this under the rug, just as they try to sweep the $1.5 million that FAIR took from the Pioneer Fund under the rug.

Still, it should be noted that this happened. It'll be very useful the next time Michelle Malkin whines about being mischaracterized.

What I learned from Ray Spruance...

The more I think about what Eve Fairbanks wrote on Monday, the more I really appreciate what she is saying.

My historical teacher in the need for compromise though, is probably far less illustrious than Abe Lincoln. In fact, he's probably the least-known, yet most brilliant admiral of World War II, Raymond Ames Spruance.

Spruance was first thrust into history at the Battle of Midway - and that was the first place one should look to for lessons. Specifically, it was after the day's exchnge of airstrikes, which left Japan with four carriers sunk or in need of scuttling, while the Americans were trying to salvage USS Yorktown.

There were two options. The conventional wisdom held that he needed to continue heading west all night, so as to be in position to follow up his success on the first day. Spruance didn't do that, though. Instead, he headed east until midnight. Now, some might call that over-cautious, but it was the right thing to do. The Japanese attempts to force a night battle failed, and the battle had been won.

Fast forward two years. This time Raymond Spruance was commanding perhaps the most powerful task force in history as the United States was planning to liberate the Marianas. As the amphibious attacks started, the Japanese fleet came out to challenge the Americans.

In a sense, this is what was always wanted - a chance to attack and destroy the Japanese fleet. But at the same time, the landings needed to be protected. Spruance came up with a brilliant plan. The American carriers went on the defensive, and let the Japanese come to them - the result was a turkey shoot. The only American offensive push came from submarines, which bagged two carriers. The next day, the Americans pursued and attacked, sinking a third carrier.

The landings succeeded. The Marianas became bases from which the B-29s could operate - and ultimately, the places from which we launched the two airstrikes that ended World War II.

Spruance took a lot of heat - especially when his caution was compared to William F. Halsey's willingness to mix it up. Spruance was even denied the chance at a fifth star by a Congressman. But looking at what Spruance knew at the time, the compromises he made were the right decisions. Especially when the Japanese were able to take advantage of Halsey's agressiveness later in 1944.

I also get the sense that Spruance didn't really care about getting a fifth star. When Samuel Eliot Morison wrote the seventh volume of his History of United States Naval Operations in World War II, he described Spruance as the "victor of Midway". Morison would later note that Spruance, in commenting on the first draft of that book, requested that Morison change that to "who commanded a carrier task force at Midway". Morison let his original phrasing stand, and in a footnote, explained that those who read volume four would understand why he could not accomodate that request.

Ray Spruance was brilliant, he had a sharp eye, and he never cared who got the credit for getting things done. He was not perfect - and in fact, he was, in a sense, a product of his times. But his example is one I wish more people would follow.

Worth a look...

Newsweek takes a lot of grief over the Koran-flushing story (see this old post from Austin Bay). They deserve to, if you ask me.

But this interview with John Scott Redd is worth reading.

Keep in mind, they are doing a lot. Then think about how certain groups want to tie the intelligence community's legs together with the help of certain politicians and the media.

Let's make sure this guy has the tools - and the freedom to use them - that he will need to stop the terrorists before they kill.

Mixed verdict on Abu Ghraib...

It seems that the version of Abu Ghraib peddled by human rights groups is false, too. In this case, an officer was convicted of disobeying orders concerning the discussion of that case. He was acquitted, though, of much more serious charges (failing to control Graner and the other MPs who misbehaved).

Then again, the human rights groups are less concerned about justice, and more interested in tying the hands of our interrogators. Never mind that the techniques used may be needed to stop the next 9/11.

Unpleasant? Yes. But a few roughed-up terrorists is a lot more pleasant than a major terrorist attack.

Alberto Gonzales: Betrayed by the Right, but unbeaten...

The resignation of Alberto Gonzales is a tragedy. As AJ-Strata puts it, he was "lynched" by the left. Can't exactly be too upset over that - the left tends to do that to accomplished people who they need to take down one way or another.

But there are those on the right who knew what the left wanted to do that, and then aided and abetted them, either by piling on, or by just sitting on their hands. And their piling on is yet another reason why I've just stopped giving a damn about conservatism. There are better ways for me to spend my time, money, and talents than helping to empower those who seem to think that because I don't toe their line, I am a party hack who sold my soul - or worse.

Remember, two-thirds of the Bush fundraisers are sitting on the sidelines. Many of them have been loyal to the President on a personal level... and it must gall them to see the crap thrown at him from self-appointed commissars, who self-righteously proclaim he is a sellout, and how they are willing to stand on principle.

And they wonder why folks like me can't stand them or why I'd rather be spoiling my brother's guinea pig rotten than spend time supporting their causes. Well, maybe if they stop implying I am some sort of sellout because I have disagreements with their positions on a number of levels, including strategic and moral grounds, then I might be inclined to resume support.

But conservatism needs to grow up first.

Does conventional wisdom apply?

AJ-Strata asks a good question about whether conventional wisdom even applies any more.

I think it really doesn't. In essence, if George W. Bush made one mistake after 9/11, it was not making things clear to his political base that the situation had changed, and they'd better be ready to adapt it - even if it meant howls from the punditry, the talk show hosts, and other self-appointed commissars.

Even so, it was not apparent at the time that failing to do that to his base was a mistake. There were no visible signs of a problem until 2005-2006, and by then, it was too late.

But the GOP in general seems to be tired of this, and is adapting. The top two declared candidates are men who are known more for their track records of solving problems and getting things done than their ideological purity. Both are pretty damn brilliant, too.

For all intents and purposes, the commissars are being screened out by the GOP primary electorate - simply by who leads the Presidential race.

That's good news, if you ask me.

The necessity of compromise...

If there is a better indictment of the absolutists who have been nit-picking Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani to death than today's column by Eve Fairbanks, I have not seen it.

The money quote:

“By the fruit the tree is to be known,” Lincoln wrote. “An evil tree cannot bring forth good fruit. If the fruit of electing Mr. Clay would have been to prevent the extension of slavery, could the act of electing have been evil?”

This is where my biggest beef has been with what I have called the zampolit wing of the Republican party. They simply are not willing to accept less than perfection, and those that do work to get some forward progress on an issue are party hacks who sold their souls for votes.

Well, they can only do that for so long before someone decides that enough is enough. Sooner or later, those derided as "party hacks" will start swinging back. Of course, they often get blamed by the purists, who claim that had they would not have been forced to criticize their ostensible allies if the "sellouts" had just been willing to stand on principle. It's never the self-proclaimed "base" that is at fault... it is those who don't kowtow to the self-appointed commissars who host a radio talk show, or write a column, or who have a blog.

And they expect that every time they do that, things can go back to normal. Well, they are wrong. Perhaps they should ask themselves if they would work with someone who constantly snipes at them, and not only that, then turns around and expects all to be forgiven after uttering some of the most vicious slanders possible.

The time for forgiving has passed. They have a choice - they can actually treat those who agree with them more than they disagree with them as people whose help they need to win elections and thus influence policy, or they can act like commissars while I find better uses for my time. Why should I lift a finger to politically empower those who think I have sold my soul?

Stuck on stupid in Atlanta

It seems that Atlanta may pass a law that is stuck on stupid.

They must have solved a lot of other problems if they think they can spend the time to ban baggy pants.

Hoepfully, this councilman won't be a councilman after this term is over. Folks who waste time with stuff like this outta be voted out on general principle.

And they think a fence is the solution?

Well, it looks as if the drug lords are gonna find another way - never mind the "message" a fence was supposed to send. There have been tunnels under the border, which I've discussed before. This time, it was a sub. And think this over - in the Pacific, our ASW training is being restricted by federal judges.

If you can run drugs in, you can get people in. And the Coast Guard's modernization has had its share of problems.

The real key to good border security isn't a fence - it's good intelligence, and having common-sense laws that meet everyone's needs. Right now, the business community's labor needs are not being met, and as such, the black market has filled the gap all too well. The Y and Z visas could have solved the problem. But they got deemed "amnesty" by a bunch of self-appointed commissars in the pundit class and on the talk radio shows - and the bill died.

We need to deal with reality as it is. Not the way certain people want things to be for the purposes of pushing their agenda.

Feds 53, Vick (allegedly) 8

Well, folks, we're about to see Michael Vick get blown out in the dog-killing category. The Feds are getting ready to order the deaths of 53 dogs seized in the raids that led to his indictment.

PETA has little room to complain about Vick's treatment of dogs. According to the Center for Consumer Freedom, PETA has racked up a much higher animal body count - over 14,000 over seven years.

Michael Vick will be a piker compared to PETA and the federal government.

Honesty from the left...

To quote the AP:

In a conference call announcing the campaign, Greenwald and Sanders, I-Vt., said they don't have answers about what to do about Iran, but said they fear the White House will make a unilateral decision to attack.

I bolded something for added emphasis, because it says a lot about the left.

They don't, however, want the White House to do anything about a country led by a Holocaust denier with hopes of bringing about something apocalyptic so some Twelfth Imam can return, thought. Where's the common sense?

And how long would it have taken them to come up with answers about Nazi Germany and Japan in the 1930s? I guess they'd just pretend that things like Mein Kampf and the Panay Incident didn't happen.

Japan gets it... why can't we?

Japan seems to get the message about how important the war on terror is, especially as its political leaders are trying to prevent the premature end to a naval deployment insupport of operations in Afghanistan.

Those who think that fighting terrorists over there doesn't matter ought to remember what happened when we ignroed signs of trouble in the 1920s and 1930s. We ended up in World War II with tens of thousands dead, and then had to fight a 46-year long Cold War - all to gain a ten-year vacation from history before we were hit in an unprovoked and dastardly attack in 2001.

It could have been avoided - had we recognized that the stuff coming from people like Adolf Hitler wasn't just hot air.

Iran to attack the Kurds?

Seems that Ahmadinejad's cruisin' for a bruisin' if he does go across the border as leaflets are apparently warning.

If they do, then we need to use some seriously excessive force in that situation. No, I'm not talking about giving Ahmadinejad the suicide by STRATCOM he is begging for, but we do need to make it clear to folks that we won't tolerate the type of nonsense Iran is threatening.

After Iraq...

AJ-Strata is asking the logical question: What do we do after we have stabilized Iraq?

The answer, of course, is simple. We move on to the next state sponsor of terrorism and either convince it to surrender (as Libya did), or we take it out.

But who do we go for?

Eritrea may be the newest of these sponsors, due to their support of the Islamic Courts, a Taliban-inspired group that briefly held power in Somalia. It would be relatively easy with some allies in the region (particularly Ethiopia, which knock the Islamic Courts out of power).

Syria is another option - due to its interference with Lebanon, and a series of assassinations. A lot of the support Hezbollah gets probably comes from the Assad regime in Damascus. And it would have the effect of securing a vulnerable ally's flank.

Iran, though, is the most dangerous, and not just because it is pursuing nukes. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's past statements sound a lot like someone who is out to commit suicide by cop. Only, in this case, he would be triggering Iran's suicide by STRATCOM.

Whatever happens, we're in for a long haul, just as President Bush said back in 2001. It doesn't stop at Iraq and Afghanistan.

When opponents admit the surge is working... it's really working...

Things must be getting very gloomy at MoveOn headquarters. Hillary Clinton is admitting the sure is working. A Democratic Congressman who opposed the liberation of Iraq is coming out against an early withdrawal.

In other words, it is now becomingobvious we are winning - and in the era of Google and Youtube, the "Cronkite moment" sought by some will just not happen. In fact, the conditions for dealing with the political issues will get closer and closer.

Remember, it took us eleven years to get from the Declaration of Independence to the Constitution. Iraq's starting from a bit of a hole, but we're there to help. It will take time, but if we keep at it, we will succeed.

I'll take the stronger law...

AJ-Strata is worried that the Dems may have mis-written the FISA law re-write.

This kinda reminds me of that Monopoly card that says, "Bank error in your favor."

Now, we have a much better bargaining position. In essence, we need to double down and ask for MORE leeway for the intelligence community, not less. The more leeway they get, the better our chances of slamming the door on terrorist attacks.

Plus, at this point, the Dems will try to tie our intelligence agencies' hands behind their backs, and expect them to win the fight. This will not play well among the general public. To quote John Buford in Gettysburg: "Lovely! Lovely!"

The new obesity epidemic...

Apparently, there is a 50-50 chance that a dog or cat in the UK is overweight.

I can just imagine the reaction that will come from animal-rights activists.

Petreaus a target...

Well, it seems that success can make you a target inside the Beltway. Microsoft was targeted after it succeeded - and now, they can't even get into the field of search engines without having to ask, "DOJ, may I?"

Now, according to AJ-Strata, the target is General David Petraeus. A number of people did not want to see the surge have any success in stabilizing Iraq. Well, it's worked - it's gotten the Sunnis mostly on board. Things are getting calmer, which will make it easier to get a political solution.

Of course, that would mean that the liberation of Iraq succeeded. That does not sit well with the Democratic netroots. So Petraeus must be destroyed.

The anti-war movement says they support the troops - yet it seems they are rooting for the troops to fail. With "support" like that, the troops don't need enemies.

Black Program Funding 101

I'm not that upset about the recent report of the Pentagon spending $998,000+ to send two 19-cent washers. Not upset at all.

Y'see, folks, there is a part of the Pentagon budget we do not see. These are the super-secret R&D programs, otherwise known as black projects. This was where HAVE BLUE/SENIOR TREND/the F-117 had its birth (as one of the more successful projects). Blackstar, which both I and my co-blogger have discussed, is another reported project.

Folks, the projects you read about in Aviation Leak have to get their funding from somewhere. At the same time, for someof these projects to be valauable, we need to keep them quiet. So, what's a good way to funnel the money for a design study for some black project that may or may not exist at DARPA/Groom Lake (say Project A56-7W) and at the same time NOT tell anyone the project exists?

You make it look like you got overcharged for something else. That way, when someone wonders where the cash went, you can explain. Meanwhile, folks walk away. If $500 million is a rounding error, then $1 million is what you lose in the couch cushions.

In essence, we may be seeing some funds "officially" being accounted for. Unofficially, though, I get the feeling something cool is being funded under the table.

The Right gone mad...

It seems that more and more of my dobuts about where I stand on immigration are fading away. At least, that is where it seems to be going, particualrly after reading about the death threats Senator John McCain got from opponents of the defeated Senate bill.

He was not the only one. Lindsey Graham and Mel Martinez, both supporters of comprehensive reform of our immigration laws, also got them.

It really is the natural outgrowth of rhetoric that declares those who support such legislation traitors. Treason, after all, IS a capital crime.

In essence, those web forums who permitted such rhetoric, and those bloggers who freely used it, are, in my view, ethically and morally culpable for these threats (even if they cannot legally be held accoutnable). By using the terms they have, they're like the person who eggs on someone who is hearing a drunk at a bar tossing insults.

This sort of thuggery is a sign that the President's opponents on immigration really don't have much of a rational argument. They have to shout people down, distort the facts, and whip up hysteria. And conservatism wants to follow that path.

It can do so without me. If objecting to giving Senators death threats, and insisting upon basic civility makes me a RINO, so be it.

High Noon with Tehran...

The Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps is about to be designated as a terrorist organization.

This is good news. The IRGC has picked up a lot of weapons around the world, and this will make those who have sold them stuff in the past a lot less likely to.

Also, by making this move, the Democrats will have to respond. I can just hear the screaming at DailyKos now. The Democratic primary electorate will not be able to stand this - and two of the top three candidates have already made statements that lead me to believe they will criticize this move.

It is also a nice way to outflank those on the right who seem to be obsessed with a crackdown on immigration. We have much bigger fish to fry than chasing down a lot of people who are mostly here to work and get a better life, either here or where they come from.

Wild comments...

What do Newt Gingrich and Barack Obama have in common?

Both just made statements that are patently absurd, but sadly typical.

Obama's was the typical fare one expects from a Democrat running for that party's nomination to the White House. It was a little milder than past comments from Ruchard Durbin and John Murtha, but he got rigtheously spanked by Mitt Romney.

Gingrich's comments were typical fare for those who are pandering to the immigration hard-liners who have, in conjunction with talk-show hosts and other pundits, made solving the problem impossible. How can we get the gang members and thugs who will shoot people in the head when we are busy raiding meat-packing plants? Oh, and it looks like the a typical "let them loose" judge may have been more responsible - and he could have just as easily let a native-born American citizen out to do that killing.

Whoops, I may be setting myself up to get the usual nonsense responses from those who have successfully imposed an immigration litmus test on conservatism.

A few facts about Ryan Braun...

Ryan Braun is the Brewers third baseman. He's been having a good year, to put it mildly. So, here are a few facts about Ryan.

1. Ryan Braun doesn't need a pitcher to make a mistake in order to go deep.

2. Before Chuck Norris and Fred Thompson go to sleep, they check under the bed and in the closet for Ryan Braun.

3. Ryan Braun doesn't need to play defense. His bat alone wins games.

4. Ryan Braun doesn't steal bases. He stares at the catcher, and the catcher waves him over.

5. Bats don't kill pitches. Ryan Braun kills pitches.

6. Ryan Braun can divide by zero faster than Chuck Norris.

7. Ryan Braun doesn't need a pink bat to hit a clutch home run.

8. Superman may wear Chuck Norris pajamas, but Chuck Norris wears Ryan Braun pajamas.

9. A line drive from Ryan Braun's bat can knock out Godzilla.

10. There are no earthquakes... just times when Ryan Braun's home runs land.

Kids as cops? BAD MOVE!!

Liz Mair reports on just how badly the Brits have messed up their crime-fighting efforts.

Now, they are throwing 16-year-old kids into the breach. Over there, that's not really old enough to drive a car.

This program will last no longer than the moment the first 16-year-old cop is killed in the line of duty. Hopefully, it get shelved before then.

What happened to Lieberman? He won.

Eve Fairbanks wonders what happened to Joe Lieberman.

The answer is simple: He won.

With the surge succeeding (the best recaps are at AJ-Strata's blog), Lieberman's now looking like he had the right moves all along. Why else would three hard-core anti-war lawmakers upstage him (as Eve described in her column)?

Second, Lieberman's influence may have been overstated in the wake of his win last November. You see, it really takes two-thirds of the House and Senate to ensure that something will pass into law (in essence, you'd need that margin to override a veto). That means, you need 290 House votes and 67 Senate votes for the type of cut-and-run policy that the Democratic netroots want.

The Democrats do not have anywhere near those numbers. And even with the defection of five Republicans on some aspects of the war (not, mind you, a call to immediately pull out), the GOP still has 44 votes to hold up a filibuster - plus that of Lieberman.

Lieberman's importance, though, was not in what he'd say or do in this Senate term. His importance was that he won the general election as an independent in favor of victory in Iraq and the global war on terror after he lost the primary to a candidate favored by his party's netroots.

In other words, he showed that there is no appetite for defeat, even in a state that routinely elects Democrats to federal offices. His victory showed that the Democratic primary electorate was way out of step with the general electorate. The Democrats are not going to pay attantion now, but after 2008, they will probably have to.

The latest from Chavez...

Hugo Chavez seems to think oil is heading towards $100 a barrel.

That is, of course, assuming that the United States stands still. The other option, of course, is for the U.S. to start seriously pushing to use the 1.3 trillion barrels of oil that is available via oil shale and the couple hundred billion tons of coal for synthetic fuels.

That is the short-term solution. The medium-term solutions are more ethanol and nuclear power. Long-term, we need better solar cells and other technology for our power needs - and we need to get off Earth and into the rest or the solar system - and beyond.

The Wild West Internet...

It seems the House of Lords is tut-tutting about the Internet, specifically the wide degree of freedom there is online.

Personally, I think that is what has not only made the Internet so important, it also has helped get the economy kick-started much more than it has been. Universal drags its feet releasing Dragnet, Adam-12, and Emergency, and some folks fill in the gap. Well, most of it. Don't like bars, but want a fling? There are sites for that. Want to buy a switchblade? There's an Italian site that ships to the US. Wanna find an old transformer you used to play with as a kid - or the one you always wanted? It's somewhere out there - you just gotta look.

Think of this as one giant flea market/classifieds section - with the person who can help you living just about anywhere in the world.

Man... this is gonna be FUN!!!

Messed-up priorities...

If you want to know why I have found myself less and less willing to call myself conservative, and instead, like my co-blogger, calling myself a Donald Bellisario Republican, you need to read this New York Times article.

We are facing a global war on terror, with various Islamists trying to kill us by crashing airliners into buildings and blowing themselves up, and they are more interested in ideological purity on a bunch of side issues rather than finding someone who can keep a party whose likely candidates are utterly incompetent in matters involving national security from gaining the White House and solidifying its hold on Congress.

There are objective conditions here. We have one country with a history of state-sponsored terrorism that is led by a man who seeks the coming of the Twelfth Imam. Another country is carrying out genocide in Darfur. There are terrorist groups out there, waiting for a chance to strike.

And folks like Steve Deace and Sam Brownback want to nitpick Romney's record on side issues.

Contemptible.

He asked for it...

Michael Vick's possible involvement in dogfighting (he is innocent until proven guilty) has led to a very nice response according to today's Rush and Malloy.

If you want one, head to vickdogchewtoy.com and get your order in before the lawyers put an end to the fun.

The Sonar War...

Well, the NRDC was at it again in court. This time, it's no training until 2010 (link goes to my article posted today at Strategypage). The SQS-53s that they have taregted are not going away any time soon. In fact, the last Arleigh Burke-class destroyer will not retire until the 2040s!

This is not the only problem. NRDC has also gone to war against the new SURTASS LFA system, as I discussed at Strategypage about two weeks ago.

The decision isn't really a hard one, folks. Which is more important, making sure our sailors have the best equipment possible and sufficient training to use it in combat, or whales?

For the celebrity people of spoke at NRDC, insufficient practice usually has low risk. They can do re-takes until the director is happy. There are no re-takes in war - the ships that are sunk and the dead sailors are permanent.

756

Barry Bonds has become the new home run king - and the first undisputed one since the 1961 season. He's going to collect his honors, and they are due.

As for those who had the asteriks... if they can show me ONE drug test that reads positive, or one iota of proof that Barry Bonds knowingly cheated, I might consider it. But innocent till proven guilty must the the approach we take on this.

Congrats, Barry. You earned it.

But Im looking forward to the day Prince Fielder dethrones ya. No hard feelings?

This time, someone died...

It looks like we will see the usual suspects throw another fit. This time, it's because a Border Patrol agent is being charged with murder. An earlier article explains why: The agent's story is apprently contradicted by physical evidence - as well as some eyewitnesses, including a surveillance camera.

So, we're going to have to go to trial in order to have this explained. If this agent is guilty of misusing deadly force, then he needs to go to jail, just as Ramos and Compean have.

Corbett is innocent until proven guilty. Should the charges stick, then he needs to pay the penalty. Now, a number of conservatives have recently been coming out in defense of those agents. They don't even think that there should be a trial. They are wrong - and worse, they are undermining the rule of law.

Any use of force by law enforcment needs to be accounted for. Ramos and Compean tried to deny us the accounting we, their employers, deserved. That alone must force us to take an extremely skeptical look at the incident they were involved in. If their shooting of the man was clean, why did they tamper with the scene?

If we turn a blind eye to the misuse of force, particularly deadly force, by law enforcement officers, then we are going to see a lot of people distrust cops. That's not just bad for the cops, it's bad for all of us, because people will try to mete out justice themselves, and that never works.

We need to get the accounting for this matter - and if the cop messed up, he needs to be penalized. Otherwise, the law means nothing.

Details about the airplane plot...

The Department of Homeland Security provided more details about last year's plot to blow up airliners over the Atlantic.

Money quote:

"I think that the plot, in terms of its intent, was looking at devastation on a scale that would have rivaled 9/11," Chertoff told ABC's Pierre Thomas. "If they had succeeded in bringing liquid explosives on seven or eight aircraft, there could have been thousands of lives lost and an enormous economic impact with devastating consequences for international air travel."

I don't know if this will convince some people that the war on terror is real - and not just a bumper-sticker slogan.

We lucked out on this one. But what other plots are out there that we don't know about, particularly with our intelligence community becoming gun-shy due to the threat of lawsuits - or worse?

That's the problem with being on defense. We have to be lucky every time. The other side just has to get one lucky break.

Surge working - and gaining support...

More signs that the surge is working are emerging. We've been seeing a lot of these as the plan has started. This is not to knock the last group of folks - Don Rumsfeld and others - they were able to get the foundations for a democracy in Iraq. But this new plan is working.

As a result, the surge is gaining support. Earlier polls had shown a majority willing to keep trying, and now Gallup is showing movement TOWARDS finishing the job.

This could get interesting.

NSA bill passed... Pelosi vows to amend

Nancy Pelosi is promising to amend a more permanent version of the NSA bill that just passed Congress.

That said, as I point out at Strategypage today, the damage is already done. We will not recover a lot of the ability to gather intelligence that we lost due to compromised projects. And it will be a while until the NSA feels secure enough that it will take risks to protect the country - as opposed to doing nothing in order to avoid a lawsuit.

As a result, terrorists could have a clean shot at us. I hope that Pulitzer was worth it to Risen.

Al-Qaeda admitting its ass is getting kicked?

Things can change, particularly if an al-Qaeda "Hail Mary" can work - like the 2006 attack on the Golden Dome.

That said, AJ-Strata is right when he points out that they are in that same sort of hurt they were in around the start of 2006.

Their only hope is that Congress will throw in the towel. That's a bad spot to be in.

Plame REJECTED!!

Valerie Plame's lawsuit has been shot down.

I admit, I am enjoying this. She got involved in some games, had a husband whose version of events in the run-up to the liberation of Iraq was shown to be a lie, and then tried to play the victim after people merely defended themselves.

Sorry, Valerie, I'm out of pity.

Congress lets secrets out... again...

AJ-Strata has a great post that discusses how badly our intelligence efforts in the war on terror are being compromised.

This is just appalling. We're at war, and people are thinking of the NSA as the bigger threat to Americans when we have terrorists who do things like blow themselves up in pizza parlors and fly passenger planes into building?

When Congress does stuff like this, I really begin to think that Ollie North's approach when faced with the need to protect people in an operation that was shutting down is the right one. Maybe it is time to make Congress EARN security clearances.

Another MILF running for President...

Christina Fernandez de Kirchner is running for President of Argentina. And I think I have to like her already. She's rejected comparisons to Hillary Clinton (smart move on her part), and she's had a long political career, a lot like Segolene Royal, the MILF who ran for President of France.

She's much better looking, though. Definitely a MILF.

Giuliani scared Pretty Boy Edwards...

Rudy seems to frighten John Edwards.

Personally, if Edwards thinks Giuliani is Bush on steroids, I might have to take a closer look at Rudy.

Besides, watching those two in a debate will be fun - if only to see Giuliani figuratively eviscerate John Edwards.

Why Obama Still Isn't Quite Ready for Prime Time

There's stupid, there's real stupid, and then there's this stuff:

The Illinois senator warned Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf that he must do more to shut down terrorist operations in his country and evict foreign fighters under an Obama presidency, or Pakistan will risk a U.S. troop invasion and losing hundreds of millions of dollars in U.S. military aid.

(Yeah, I'd kind of hope that we'd end military assistance to any countries we invade.)

Of course, he did this to try to get out of his previous case of stuck-on-stupid:

Obama said he would be willing to meet leaders of rogue states like Cuba, North Korea and Iran without conditions, an idea that Clinton criticized as irresponsible and naive. Obama responded by using the same words to describe Clinton's vote to authorize the Iraq war and called her "Bush-Cheney lite."

Obama's strategy:

1. Dialogue with our sworn enemies
2. Declare war on our allies and coalition partners

Hmm. Now, I have not attended the Naval War College, the Army War College, the Air Force Air Warfare College, or the Marine Corps Amphibious Warfare School, so I'm just a layman . . . but the above does not look like a winning strategy.

Another phony...

Reggie Buddle served two years in the Army, and never saw combat. As far as I know, it was honorable service (anyone who serves should get the benfit of the doubt.

Why he couldn't let it be at that, I don't know. He chose to impersonate a Marine combat veteran and to falsely claim that he had earned the Combat Action Ribbon, the Defense Distinguished Service Medal, and the Presidential Unit Citation.

The sentence is justice in one sense, but in another sense, it is still letting him off lightly.

Surge is working... so far...

MacRanger discusses the surge - and how it is working.

For a long time, it has been clear the insurgency cannot win on the battlefields in Iraq. Their only hope is to manipulate the American media just enough so that the political landscape in the United States can shift to a point where the anti-war movement can dictate a cut-and-run policy.

The MacRanger show, which I help co-host, is on at 9:30 PM tonight.