Cartoon of the Day

Via The Jawa Report.

The Washington Post Discovers Shrapnel, But Not Body Armor

Who knew that shrapnel wounds cause grievous bodily damage to soldiers? Anyone who has gone to war since Henry Shrapnel invented the technology more than 200 years ago.

When U.S. service members or civilians such as Bob Woodruff of ABC News get injured or killed in Iraq, official accounts often blame roadside bombs and improvised explosive devices, or IEDs. But many times it's the searing hot, sharp-edged, comes-in-all-sizes shards of metal and debris known as shrapnel that actually cause the wounds.

Walter Reed is full of soldiers whose bodies are riddled with shrapnel. Many carry around the fragments doctors have left inside them, to work their way out over time. Removing embedded shrapnel, doctors say, can do more harm than good. And the body can "tolerate it fairly well," said Col. Russell Martin, the general surgeon consultant to the Army surgeon general.

This is apparently news to the Washington Post, which thinks it newsworthy that US soldiers are coming home with shrapnel wounds that would simply amaze and astound a casual observer as to how they'd survive the wounds in the first place.

The fact is that more soldiers are coming home with shrapnel wounds because of things like Interceptor body armor and other protective devices that weren't available to earlier generations of soldiers. Medical advances also mean more soldiers come home alive, though scarred from their injuries.

That's the rub of the article. It talks of shrapnel in a vacuum. It makes no mention of how and why these soldiers are coming home to tell their stories.

Dumb Luck

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad thinks that barring Iran from dealing with any of the European countries that permitted the Danish cartoons to be published will somehow actually force those countries to clamp down on the free speech rights of the newspapers to actually print the cartoons.

Silly Ahmadinejad. He's played this right into the favor of all those who want to make sure that Iran never gets its hands on nuclear weapons. He's inflicting the damage on Iran, not on Europe. Iran needs Europe to continue functioning, not the other way around. Boycotts will only mean that Iran's public will have less stuff than they already have.

The list, which already included Denmark, where the 12 caricatures first appeared last year, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway and Spain, expanded Saturday to take in New Zealand and Poland.

All this comes as Iran is facing Security Council action (as far as harshly worded resolutions will go), and the US and Europeans are wondering just how far along Iran's nuclear program truly is.

The IAEA had referred Iran to the UN Security Council. Iran's bosum buddies were against even that action:

The resolution, which passed by a vote of 27 to 3 with five abstentions, reflects increasing suspicion around the world that Iran is determined to develop nuclear weapons.

Cuba, Syria and Venezuela voted against the resolution, which would also delay any concrete Security Council action against Iran for at least a month. Algeria, Belarus, Indonesia, Libya and South Africa abstained.

So what did Iran do? They said that their deal with Russia was dead. Big deal. It should never have even been a consideration in the first place. Iran also said that they'd resume enrichment at Natanz. That's not surprising either - especially since it was suspected that they were doing this in secret. We now know that they're working on it, and it's only a matter of time before they have sufficient weapons grade materials.

Text of the IAEA resolution can be found here.

On Cartoons, Rioting, and Suppressing Speech

Well, the demonstrations against the Danish cartoons has bloomed into full blown rioting in various parts of the world, with the Danish Embassy in Syria torched by rioters.

Hundreds of Syrian demonstrators stormed the Danish Embassy in Damascus today and set fire to the building, witnesses said.

The demonstrators were protesting over offensive caricatures of Islam’s Prophet Mohammed that were first published in a Danish newspaper several months ago.

Witnesses said the demonstrators set fire to the entire building, which also houses the embassies of Chile and Sweden.

(Hat tip: Killgore Trout)

Rioters in Gaza tried storming the EU offices there over the cartoon publication.

Anyone sensing a theme there? Terrorist states have no problem letting rioters go after those they do not agree with. And these rioters were organized. This wasn't some spontaneous demonstration - not when these cartoons were first published last September.

Not that the violence was confined to Gaza or Syria. The cartoonists themselves are worried for their own safety and have gone into hiding (shades of the fatwa on Salman Rushdie).

Syria has no problem terminating free speech - its former leader, Hafez Assad terminated the entire city of Hama back in 1982 for daring to speak out against Assad. More than 20,000 people were killed in that operation (the Syrian military basically shelled the entire city into rubble and razed it with tanks). And only last year Syria's government was complicit in the assassination of pro-Lebanese politician Rafik Harari and several other notable pro-Lebanese journalists for telling Syria to get out of Lebanon once and for all (Lebanon was and still is dominated by Syria). The outcry over the Harari assassination began the Cedar Revolution (viva la Protest Babes) and showed cracks forming in Syria's government, but the key was people having the right to speak out and peacefully protest.

The groups seeking to limit free speech and crush dissent by spurring the boycott and taking matters into their own hands are simply following Syria's example (or insert your own example of a totalitarian government crushing dissent). We're seeing the Muslim extremists whipping up violent sentiments and taking matters into their own hands. They are seeking to crush dissenting viewpoints and silence anyone who takes opposing viewpoints. To these groups, freedom of speech is solely a vehicle for them to spread Muslim teachings to the exclusion of all other views.

Indeed we're seeing the various Muslim groups acting in an extremist manner. There's no tolerance of dissenting views, no belief in freedom of speech or realizing that these are cartoons. The folks whipping the masses into a frenzy are doing so with political goals in mind.

Even more disturbing has been the reaction of governments, several of which have recalled their ambassadors or registered other diplomatic protests. Seventeen Arab countries have called on Denmark's government to punish the newspaper, an absurd thing to ask of a democratic country that guarantees free speech.

The uproar underlines an alarming tendency in Islamic societies to lash out at the West at the slightest provocation. When a few simple drawings, however controversial, can trigger outrage from Cairo to Kuala Lumpur, it is clear that something is askew in the psyche of a civilization. To put it plainly, the Islamic world has a chip on its shoulder.

It is commonplace in the Islamic countries to blame the West for nearly everything that goes wrong, from the Israeli occupation of the West Bank to the wealth gap between Muslim and Western countries. Anti-Americanism is rife, anti-Semitism all too common. When Iran's President called the Holocaust a myth, many people in Arab countries quietly nodded in agreement. Bernard Lewis, a British scholar of Islamic history, calls this "a twilight world of neurotic fantasies, conspiracy theories, scapegoating and so on."

In truth, most of the Islamic world's problems -- from economic stagnation to political paralysis, from the oppression of women to the poor level of education -- are homegrown. By and large, these societies have failed to come to grips with the modern world and as a result have fallen far behind much of the rest of the planet. Out of this failure to keep up springs a keen sense of grievance that does nothing to help them progress.

As Prof. Lewis has written, "If the peoples of the Middle East continue on their present path, the suicide bomber may become a metaphor for the whole region, and there will be no escape from a downward spiral of hate and spite, rage and self-pity, poverty and oppression." But "if they can abandon grievance and victimhood, settle their differences, and join their talents, energies, and resources in a common creative endeavour, then they can once again make the Middle East, in modern times as it was in antiquity and in the Middle Ages, a major centre of civilization."

The victimhood meme isn't going to change as long as the Muslim leaders continue down this path.

Indeed, we're seeing various Muslim dominated countries demanding that the Danish government take action to silence the newspapers and cartoonists. They're organizing economic boycotts and taking other actions. And it would certainly appear that the media is getting the message - don't broadcast these images or else you might run into trouble.

According to Monsters and Critics:

In the United States, Cable News Network and other broadcasters reported on the conflict but blurred out the cartoon images.

Debate ensued between Philadelphia Inquirer managing editor Anne Gordon, who wanted the Associated Press news agency to distribute the images, and Washington Post editor Leonard Downie Jr., who said the images would not meet its standards for 'language, religious sensitivity, racial sensitivity and general good taste', according to Editor and Publisher and the media website Romanesko.

Again, are we seeing a double standard on not showing those images that demean one religious group, but showing demeaning images of another religious group? That certainly appears to be the case. Anyone recall the Sensation exhibit in NYC, where one artist showcased an image of the Virgin Mary with a pile of dung on one of her breasts and pornographic cutouts? Or maybe the Piss Christ. Media outlets had no problem broadcasting those images. Yet we're witnessing those same media outlets having ethical quandries over whether to show the cartoons?

Have they been cowed into not showing them because of fears of retaliation by Muslim extremists? It certainly appears that way, despite their claims that these cartoons do not meet publishing guidelines. The fact remains that people should know what all the fuss is about and why these Muslim extremists are taking to rioting and torching Danish flags, and even one of their embassies.

We should know what is going on without the media hiding the ugly reality - that these Muslim groups do not believe in free speech and are willing to not only espouse violence, but actually condone and perpetrate it.

UPDATE:
Wouldn't it be nice if Blogger had a spellchecker? Would make spotting typos easier. Fixed on in the title.

UPDATE:
Reports also indicate that the Norweigian embassy in Damascus was torched.

Eugene Volokh examines the double standard being displayed by big media outlets and takes a closer look at the issue I raised above. Eugene pulled editorials from the Boston Globe relating to the Piss Christ and Virgin Mary controversy and notes that there was no admonition for the need to respect other religious groups. He too wonders why there's a difference. I think it boils down to the fact that the Muslims are more than willing to do violence, whereas other groups are far less likely to take to the streets, condone violence and suppress speech through violent means.

UPDATE:
Jay Tea has more on the rioting and Islam's fundamental rejection of freedom of speech.

UPDATE:
A must read posting from Ibn Warraq. Go forth and be educated.

UPDATE:
Michelle Malkin notes the difference between a row and a widespread and growing conflict? Too bad the media keeps trying to downplay the conflict, when this is a mess that is growing - with or without the coverage.

Posted to [and updated regularly]: Wizbang's Carnival of Trackbacks, Stop the ACLU, Jo's Cafe, PointFive, Don Surber.

Technorati: Buy Danish "jyllands-posten mohammed" "muhammad cartoon"

Egyptian Ferry Disaster Update

Egyptian authorities are now saying more than 1,000 people were killed when the ferry sunk under mysterious circumstances.

A riot has broken out between families of those who are awaiting word on their loved ones and police who are limiting access to the port itself. People are frustrated because news is slow in coming. It took 10 hours for rescue boats to arrive on scene.

It's believed that 2 out of every 3 people on board were killed. There are conflicting reports of just how many people were on board.

Passengers are claiming that the ferry captain fled.

Survivors of the Red Sea ferry disaster said its captain fled the burning ship by lifeboat and abandoned them to their fate, as hopes faded on Saturday of finding some 800 missing.

Some passengers plucked alive from the sea or from boats after the ferry caught fire and sank early on Friday said crew had told them not to worry about a fire below deck and even ordered them to take off lifejackets.

Officials at el-Salam Maritime Transport Company, which owned the Al Salam 98, were not immediately available to answer the allegations.

Rescue workers have recovered 195 bodies from the Red Sea and saved 389 people but about 800 more, most of them Egyptian workers returning from Saudi Arabia, are missing.

The survivors said a fire broke out below deck shortly after the 35-year-old vessel left the Saudi port of Duba on Thursday evening with 1,272 passengers and a crew of about 100.

I've got to believe that there are going to be some big lawsuits over the way the company's employees handled the crisis, but I have little faith that the Egyptian government will do what's necessary to get to the heart of the matter and determine what happened and why the ferry sunk so quickly. The fire appears to have broken out in one of the vehicles belowdecks, and spread quickly.

The ferry sailed on for two hours listing to the side. Then it just went onto its side and within five minutes it had sunk.

It was not immediately clear what happened to the captain, named as Sayyed Omar, or why coastguards did not appear to have received any distress signal from the ferry.

State news agency MENA said that on Friday morning a ship did pick up a message from the ferry's captain saying he was in danger of sinking. It did not say how the ship reacted.

The Egyptian government is paying out $5,200 to families of each of the dead victims and $2,600 to each of the survivors.

UPDATE:
Additional reports from survivors point to mistakes made by the crew, particularly not turning around at the first sign of trouble - a fire involving at least one vehicle on board the ship. There's no real way to confirm any of the following at this time, but some survivors are claiming that the crew confined some people to their rooms - locking them in - and presumably sealing their fates. People crowded to one side of the ship, further destabilizing the boat, which when combined with winds on the Red Sea pushed the ship over.

There are eyewitness accounts that claim that the crew didn't know how to work the lifeboats and some claim that they were in the water for hours before they located lifeboats and rafts. The most serious question is why would the crew push forward with a fire in the hold when it was only 20 miles from the Saudi port, and instead tried to head to the Egyptian port more than 110 miles away?

The Al-Salaam Boccaccio 98 had sailed only about 20 miles from the Saudi shore, but its crew instead tried to reach Egypt’s shores 110 miles away. Only 376 survivors had been rescued by late Saturday.

“We told the crew, ‘Let’s turn back, let’s call for help,’ but they refused and said everything was under control,” said passenger Ahmed Abdel Wahab, 30, an Egyptian who works in Saudi Arabia.

And there are people who were injured in the riots between relatives seeking information and the security forces. A horrible situation made all the worse because there is little information and even that information doesn't hold much hope for the families.

According to the Washington Post, the ship sank about 40 miles from the Egyptian coastline. By my calculation, the ship went 70 miles before suddenly keeling to one side and sinking rapidly. Unless there was a serious problem with the rudder, the ship should have been able to return to the Saudi port of Dubah.

Apparently the captain jumped overboard as the ship was listing, not willing to go down with the ship. And there were issues with the firefighting efforts as well:

During the ordeal, survivors said, no one received instructions for inflating the rubber life rafts, which hold about 25 passengers and were contained in buoyant barrels. Egyptian rescuers took up to 18 hours to pick up some of the survivors. The sinking was not announced until 12 hours after the ship had lost contact with land.

Ahmed, the maintenance crewman, said he fought fire with sea water pumped into the ship through hoses. The fire would go out and revive, Ahmed said. "We couldn't figure out the cause," he added in a low murmur.

The long battle against inextinguishable flames had a fatal consequence, Ahmed concluded: "The water wasn't draining. Pumps weren't working right."

It's All About Race in This Race

New Orleans is in a race against time to rebuild. Not only to retain its character and identity, but against the oncoming hurricane season. It needs a competent and skilled mayor to lead the recovery efforts and rebuilding process - both in material and tangible ways as well as to help heal the emotional wounds suffered in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

I don't care what color of skin the next mayor has - it's got nothing to do with competency and ability. If that next mayor is white, black, green, gray, purple or gold, I couldn't care less.

But the New York Times wants you to think that there's something wrong with that picture. And they lay the argument that it's all about race in this race.

In great confusion and peculiar circumstances, this city has suddenly found itself in the midst of an unexpected mayoral election campaign. The result may once again upend this city's old order: a white man might be elected mayor in a city that was, until a few months ago, mostly black.

That outcome would have been undreamed of before the hurricane, but the high probability of one of Louisiana's most potent political families entering a race that almost didn't happen could further transform a political calculus that has prevailed here for nearly three decades.

Considering how the city has failed its citizens for at least that long, this transformation of the political scene can't be bad.

But to the Times, this is a problem. The current mayor, Ray Nagin (aka Whiplash Nagin), you see is black. The guy has done an awful job before and after Katrina hit. I've derided his skill, comments, and flip-flopping on key decisions (often within 24 hours of making them). Decisiveness is key to getting things done in a prompt manner and reassures the public that you're doing the right thing. Nagin's polling has continued falling ever since the hurricane hit as people saw just how poor a job he did.

That's brought out potential challengers, including Lt. Gov. Mitch Landrieu and Audubon Institute Chief Executive Ron Forman. Excellent. Now is the time for New Orleans to elect someone who can do the job necessary and vital to the city's rebuilding and rebirth. The city's residents deserve better than they've gotten in the past - and they should demand better of their elected officials. This Washington Post editorial points out the Whiplash effect in action, yet it would seem that race permeates every angle of discussion.

New Orleans politicians and power brokers have helped along the sense of unease, saying and unsaying all sorts of things that trouble the purists. Members of Mayor C. Ray Nagin's rebuilding commission first said all neighborhoods of the city would be rebuilt. Then they reversed themselves, recommending a building moratorium in much of the city and suggesting that some neighborhoods -- many of them centers of African American culture -- be forced to prove their viability or be bulldozed. Amid the ensuing uproar, the mayor came out against the moratorium, reverting to the position first articulated by his committee members.

The mayor at one point announced that he wanted to create a casino district to stimulate growth, then quickly dumped the idea. Later, he declared that New Orleans would again be a black-majority "chocolate city" -- then he apologized, saying chocolate is made by blending dark chocolate and "white milk."

Down in the bowl that is the Lower Ninth Ward, all the back-and-forth has left Shelby Wilson, a graphic artist who stables her two Arabian horses on the Mississippi River levee, feeling suspicious of "a screw job, a power play," despite assurances to the contrary. Her home, a sturdy bulwark with three-foot-thick walls made from old barges, could be bulldozed if her neighborhood, which is predominantly black, is not rebuilt.

The Times is afraid of offending the status quo (a trait that it extends to other things, including foreign policy - a story for another posting perhaps). The problem is that the status quo in New Orleans is not worth keeping. Not when the city's residents were poorly served by a police department that fled in the face of adversity, a leadership that planned poorly for a natural disaster, and did even worse as the days wore on.

Poliblogger also comments on the article.

Fight Bus

The first rule of Fight Bus is - you do not talk about Fight Bus. The second rule of Fight Bus is - you DO NOT talk about Fight Bus. Well, someone did talk about it - to the New York Police Department. And the bus driver is facing child endangerment charges for setting up a fight club on his bus.

A Staten Island school-bus driver treated his passengers like prisoners in a penal camp, deputizing pre-teen enforcers to rough up rowdy students on board and dubbing himself "The Emperor," police charged yesterday.

Michael Cianci, 38, of Parlin, N.J., named his ride the "Death Cheese Bus" and assigned ranks to his sixth-grade charges, forcing them every day to recite a set of rules posted by his cup-holder, according to the criminal complaint.

Cianci pleaded not guilty to two counts of endangering the welfare of children for allegedly allowing his toughs to push lower-ranking kids around, put them in headlocks and — in at least one instance — slice up a kid's jacket with scissors as punishment for horseplay.

The 12-tiered ranking system ran from "Lord (apprentice of the Emperor)" to "Sped," a derogatory term for someone in special-education classes. Other ranks included the Star Wars-themed titles "Darth," "Sith Warrior" and "Jaba."

The Cartoon Controversy Grows More Ominous

Michelle Malkin has a pretty large roundup, lots of quotes, and links, including about an International Day of Anger. Freedom of speech. Gotta love it. Outrage continues to grow, and even some US national media outlets are slow to pick up the story - or broadcast the actual images of the cartoons.

Powerline has more, including a statement from Nasrallah who gives away the game - it's about terrorism, not religious piety:

Joe Malchow writes:

Everything that reasonable people need to know about the cartoon uproar is embodied in the comments of yesterday of Hassan Nasrallah, leader of Hezbollah. He said: "If there had been a Muslim to carry out Imam Khomeini's fatwa against the renegade Salman Rushdie, this rabble who insult our Prophet Mohammed in Denmark, Norway and France would not have dared to do so."

And that is it, isn't it? He's given away the game. This is not piety or religion or offense-taking. It is terrorism.

Rushdie had published the book Satanic Verses, which resulted in a fatwa calling for Rushdie's death. Rushdie was forced to live with heavy security for several years. Bookstores were firebombed and his book was burned in demonstrations around the world. Are we about to see that whole ugly scene revisited? It certainly seems that way.

UPDATE:
Don Surber notes that these cartoons were first published in September. Something's fishy about this whole thing.

UPDATE:
The US State Department has come down with the "yes, buts" in responding to the growing crisis in Europe over those cartoons. You see, while there's something known as free speech, these cartoons are offensive and the media should observe some responsibility.

“We all fully recognize and respect freedom of the press and expression BUT it must be coupled with press responsibility,” Higgins told AFP. “Inciting religious or ethnic hatreds in this manner is not acceptable. We call for tolerance and respect for all communities and for their religious beliefs and practices.”

Meanwhile, the demonstrators are showing you exactly where they're coming from, and what they want. Come on. Don't be shy. Tell us exactly what you want to do. Oh, wait. They are. It's just the big media outlets that aren't exactly transmitting what these guys want to have happen. These folks are busy expressing their freedom of speech, but it differs from the cartoonists or the papers that carried them. These guys would much rather kill and bully their opponents into silence or subjugation.

UPDATE:
Lots of stuff going on. Bryan Preston shows the hypocrisy of the Islamists - they're completely reliant on Western technology (a Nokia cellphone for instance) to send their message around the world and coordinate their demonstrations against the cartoon publications. Ed Driscoll who notes the deference given to Muslims by various US media outlets and compares it to the way that artists who defiled images sacred to Christians were not only reprinted, but brought in to do additional work. Cathy Seipp has an interesting observation. Wretchard weighs the possibility that the cartoon mess and how it affects the war on terror.

Others blogging: Hugh Hewitt, bRight and Early, Laurence Simon, Dr. Sanity, The Jawa Report, ShrinkWrapped, Wiggly, and Outside the Beltway.

Technorati: Buy Danish "jyllands-posten mohammed" "muhammad cartoon"

Mysteries at Sea

While investigators are about the unveil a report into the deadly accident on Lake George in upstate New York involving the boat Ethan Allan, which capsized killing 12 senior citizens, reports from Egypt bring word that a major catastrophe has occurred in the Red Sea.

A boat carrying at least 1,300 people appears to have sunk.

Egyptian officials told news service reporters that 12 survivors have been rescued so far, and that 14 bodies had been recovered.

Early reports said that rescue teams on helicopters sent to the scene saw survivors in boats and clinging to debris as well as bodies floating in the water.

There was no distress call, and no immediate indication of what caused the ferry, the 6,650-ton al-Salam Boccaccio 98, to go down.

An official from the ferry's owner, al-Salam Maritime Transport, told Reuters that weather had been very poor overnight on the Saudi side of the Red Sea, with heavy winds and rain. But visibility should have been good out at sea, he added.

The ferry was on a trip between the Saudi port of Duba and Safaga, both at the northern end of the Red Sea. It had originally come from Jeddah, the main port for the pilgrimage to Mecca.

Another company spokesman told the BBC that the ferry was carrying 1,310 passengers, 96 crew members and about 40 vehicles.

He said that most of the passengers were Egyptians returning from work in Saudi Arabia, but that there were also pilgrims returning from Mecca, and about 100 Saudi and Somali citizens.

There's no word as to the cause although there was bad weather in the vicinity of the incident. Survivors continue to be found as are bodies:

The head of the Egyptian Maritime Authority is telling the Associated Press that both survivors and bodies from the missing Salaam 98 cruise ship have been found. A police source tells Reuters that "dozens of bodies were picked up from the sea," but AP's current report does not go that far. AFP is reporting numbers similar to AP, and CNN at the moment sources matching figures to Egyptian state television.

Various reports have also mentioned the possibility of bad Red Sea weather at the time of the ship's disappearance. In an interview on CNN, the Egyptian transportation minister said the weather was poor and "the sea was very high."

This report is more specific about where the ship is believed to have gone down.

As for the Ethan Allen investigation, the Warren County prosecutors will decline to file charges against the boat's operator or owner. However, investigators have focused on an engine pump that may have contributed to the instability of the boat. The Ethan Allen capsized on October 2, and a ceremony was held earlier this week honoring rescuers who first responded to the accident scene.

UPDATE:
Israel had offered search and rescue assistance to the Egyptians, but Egypt declined the offer. A British Navy ship is also headed towards the disaster location. You really have to wonder what would prompt Egypt to decline assistance at a time of need such as this. Yet we see it happen time and time again. Jews assisting Muslim doesn't sit well with the Arab/Muslim governments around the world, and undermines the whole Jews=Evil pablum they feed through their state-controlled medias on a daily basis.

UPDATE:
The Ethan Allen report has been released. No culpable criminal conduct. The Albany Times Union has a comprehensive roundup.

UPDATE:
While Egyptian authorities say that nearly 300 people survived, they're realizing that it's quite possible that more than a 1,000 people were killed when the boat sank.

A spokesman for President Hosni Mubarak said the ferry did not have enough lifeboats, and questions were raised about the safety of the 35-year-old, refitted ship that was weighed down with 220 cars as well as the passengers.

"It's a roll-on, roll-off ferry, and there is big question mark over the stability of this kind of ship," said David Osler of the London shipping paper Lloyds List. "It would only take a bit of water to get on board this ship and it would be all over. ... The percentage of this type of ferry involved in this type of disaster is huge."

Weather may also have been a factor. There were high winds and a sandstorm overnight on Saudi Arabia's west coast.

The more we hear about this tragedy, the more it sounds like someone wasn't doing a good job making sure that these boats were safe. Not having enough lifeboats? Didn't anyone learn the mistakes of the Titanic? RoRo ships capsizing because of design defects or instability problems? These aren't new problems and instability is a problem that keeps killing people on boats of all sizes.

Curious Find

This was brought to my attention by my brother.

In Google Earth, enter the coordinates 34.637371, -118.082052.

It's amazing the things that you can catch.

Violating Godwin's Law

On the Internet, Godwin's Law is usually invoked when someone brings up ol' Adolph Hitler or Nazis when no such reference is necessary. It's a pretty good rule, and it gets plenty of usage.

Calling someone a Nazi isn't a very nice thing and yet folks throw the term around all the time on the Internet, and occasionally in person (or interviews).

Even folks in pretty high places. Folks who should know better-like Julian Bond, President of the NAACP:

Civil rights activist and NAACP Chairman Julian Bond delivered a blistering partisan speech at Fayetteville State University in North Carolina last night, equating the Republican Party with the Nazi Party and characterizing Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and her predecessor, Colin Powell, as "tokens."

"The Republican Party would have the American flag and the swastika flying side by side," he charged.

Calling President Bush a liar, Bond told the audience at the historically black institution that this White House's lies are more serious than the lies of his predecessor's because Clinton's lies didn't kill people.

This isn't the first time Bond's caused controversy by going off on the Bush Administration. In fact, he apparently recycles the same themes every year. The fact is that the NAACP shouldn't tolerate this behavior for the simple fact that Bond leads an organization that should be preaching tolerance and racial harmony, and yet provides quotables that show he's nothing more than a racist who knows how and when to use the term Nazi to describe his political opponents.

Don Surber thinks that Bond's got the full and complete right to make a jackass of himself. Absolutely. The question is what is the NAACP going to do about it. Probably nothing given that they didn't take action against Bond's statements in the past. They apparently tolerate his statements, and that doesn't speak well for the venerable organization which was at the forefront of the civil rights movement.

And I don't quite get the whole token thing that Bond brought up. Rice and Powell are two extremely well qualified people who were appointed to some of the highest offices in government. They also happen to be African American. Yes, that's how I see them - qualified people first and foremost. It's a novel idea, I know. Yet, Bond's disdain for what they've accomplished suggests that if you don't fit Bond's particular political viewpoint, you're just a token or an Uncle Tom.

And I find that extremely repugnant. Especially as the head of the NAACP.

Others noting Bond's statements: Confederate Yankee, Scott Allan's World wonders what would have happened if Bond had commented on Muslims, and not the GOP, Dawg's in the Pantry, Big Lizards, Ragged Thots, Freaking Genius, MacsMind, Stop the ACLU, and Modern Tribalist.

Able Danger Explained: Twenty Questions

This post puts together many of the key issues and questions relating to Able Danger. (Hat Tip: Vodkapundit) Considering that many people are questioning whether why we couldn't put together the dots before 9/11 and the Administration notes that the current NSA eavesdropping programs were being used to make sure that dots are being connected to thwart future attacks.

In fact, Porter Goss has asserted that the leaks to the New York Times and James Risen have undermined US national security.

"The damage has been very severe to our capabilities to carry out our mission," Goss told the Senate Intelligence Committee. He said a federal grand jury should be empaneled to determine "who is leaking this information."

His testimony came after National Intelligence Director John Negroponte, who directs all intelligence activities, strongly defended the program, calling it crucial for protecting the nation against its most menacing threat.

"This was not about domestic surveillance," Negroponte said.

Leaders of the nation's intelligence agencies appeared before the panel in a rare public session to give a rundown on threats facing the world.

Negroponte called al-Qaida and associated terror groups the "top concern" of the U.S. intelligence community, followed closely by the nuclear activities of Iran and North Korea.

Committee Democrats sought to change the focus to the president's decision to authorize the National Security Agency to eavesdrop - without first obtaining warrants - on communications to and from those in the United States and terror suspects abroad.

"The president has not only confirmed the existence of the program, he has spoken at length about it repeatedly," while keeping Congress in the dark, said Sen. Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia, the panel's senior Democrat.

"The administration wants to have it both ways," said Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich.

Rockefeller and Levin don't make any sense whatsoever. The program was secret until Risen and the Times published their news exclusive and book. The Administration was forced to defend its actions in the media. It took the leaks to the Times and Risen to get us to this point. Illegal links at that.

Technorati: Able Danger, weldon, and 9/11, shaffer.

A Good Back and Forth

The Capitol Police screwed up when they arrested Cindy Sheehan for wearing a t-shirt at the State of the Union Address and for ushering Beverly Young out of the Gallery. And I screwed up in my rush to judgment - the laws weren't as clear as I led my readers to believe. Heck, the folks that were supposed to know the law and rules inside and out, the Capitol Police, admitted that they didn't know them and shouldn't have acted against Sheehan or Rep. Bill Young's wife, Beverly.

Score one for Glenn Greenwald.

So there you have it Mr. Greenwald. Not only did I provide updates in my original posting showing that the Capitol Police acted improperly, but have now made this separate posting issuing a correction.

As for the link it the headline, it shows the inherent problems with controlling the Gallery during these events.

Earth To Carter: They're Terrorists and They're Not Going To Change

Former President Jimmy Carter really needs to quit while he's behind, which means that he should have stuck to building houses for Habitat for Humanity from the moment he left office.

On foreign policy, and specifically dealing with the Islamist threat, he couldn't have been more hopelessly wrong for more years than anyone could possibly imagine.

His failures started with failing to deal with the mad mullahs when they sacked our embassy and held our citizens hostages for 444 days - launching a single solitary rescue mission that ended in disaster in the desert. The inability to mount a response has dogged the US ever since - and emboldened the Islamists ever since.

Yet, when he should stop showing just how out of touch he is with reality, he shows up with comments that are even more out of touch.

“If you sponsor an election or promote democracy and freedom around the world, then when people make their own decision about their leaders, I think that all the governments should recognize that administration and let them form their government,” Carter said. (Watch the former president cautiously defend Hamas — 4:35)

“If there are prohibitions — like, for instance, in the United States, against giving any money to a government that is controlled by Hamas — then the United States could channel the same amount of money to the Palestinian people through the United Nations, through the refugee fund, through UNICEF, things of that kind,” he added.

Carter expressed hope that “the people of Palestine — who already suffer ... under Israeli occupation — will not suffer because they are deprived of a right to pay their school teachers, policemen, welfare workers, health workers and provide food for people.”

Hamas is a terrorist group. Plain and simple. They want to destroy Israel at the earliest possible opportunity. That's not going to change.

Heck, Fatah never changed despite the fact that it separated itself into 'political' and 'military' wings. The PLO never lived up to its obligations and there's no reason to believe that Hamas would change.

And providing the Palestinians with aid under the current circumstances means that the choice to go with the more bloodthirsty terrorist group (even if it may be slightly less corrupt) eliminates any responsibility on the part of the Palestinians themselves to live with the repercussions of their decisions. They may have made the democratic decision to go with Hamas, but the rest of the world doesn't have to simply suck up and give in to every whim and whimper for aid. Cutting off aid may be the one thing that gets the Palestinians heading in the right direction - renoucning terrorism and recognizing the right of Israel to coexist.

Yet, there's one thing that I find curious. Hamas could simply lie about their intentions and start receiving aid tomorrow. They could say and do all the right things for the studio audience and get the aid flowing. Hamas refuses to budge on its core beliefs - namely the destruction of Israel and asserting an Islamic state on the land between the Jordan and the Med (for starters). And for that we should be thankful as there's never been a better time to show just where the Palestinians are coming from, and where they are headed.

Insult to Injury

Severe thunderstorms ripped through the New Orleans area and caused power outages and even ripped up the Louis Armstrong Airport. Paul at Wizbang has more. He notes that at a time when folks need to get building supplies, even the Home Depot got damaged by the latest storm.

Power is out in much of town... You know the parts which just got power back not that long ago. Downed power lines are everywhere from what we've heard this morning. Apparently all the roofs in a large hunk of Kenner and parts of Metairie were blown away.

And in a phenomenal bit of adding insult to injury, early reports have a waterspout coming ashore in the heavily damaged Lakeview area.

It is actually hard to determine how much of the damage was from last night. About 1/3 of the roofs in town are missing anyway so the casual observer doesn't know if it is tornado damage or from Katrina.

Just what we needed in town... More crap to clean up and the Home Depot damaged.

Peaceful Purposes? I've Got a Bridge To Sell

Iran may have been testing components related to nuclear weapons production as recently as 2003. No one has any idea of just how far along the Iranians are in their progress towards obtaining nuclear weapons production capability.

Experiments with high explosives, possibly linked to future nuclear weapons tests, were carried out as recently as 2003 in Iran, sources tell CBS News.

International Atomic Energy Agency analysts said they suspect the experiments took place at a huge military complex south of Tehran. Inspectors were permitted only one visit, and saw only part of the site, reports CBS News correspondent Sheila MacVicar.

Despite the lack of access, Sean McCormack, a U.S. State Department spokesman, said, "we are seeing more and more indications" that Iran's enrichment activities have the intended purpose of building a nuclear weapon.

Yet, the Iranians want folks to believe that this is all in the peaceful pursuit of nuclear energy? I've got a bridge to sell you in Brooklyn. It's a bargain, even though it's a 100+ years old. Only one owner. I've got the papers here somewhere. The mad mullahs are busy whipping their people into a frenzy:

"Nuclear energy is our right, and we will resist until this right is fully realized," Ahmadinejad told a crowd of thousands in the southern Iran city of Bushehr, where Russia is finishing the construction of Iran's first nuclear power plant.

"Our nation can't give in to the coercion of some bully countries who imagine they are the whole world," he added.

The crowd responded with chants of "Nuclear energy is our right," CBS radio correspondent Angus McDowell reports.

Unfortunately for them, the Iranian people may see the effects of nuclear energy as the right of an avenging nation should Iran ever field such weapons.

UPDATE:
Iran says that its cooperation with the IAEA will suffer. You mean it could get worse than its current level of cooperation?

UPDATE:
John Negroponte thinks that Iran doesn't have nukes, nor has it obtained the material central to producing them. No word on how much time is needed for Iran to achieve both. And there's the possibility that Iran could simply get one from North Korea:

Negroponte raised the possibility that Iran "will acquire a North Korea weapon and the ability to integrate it with the ballistic missile Iran already possesses."

Negroponte spoke as U.S. and European diplomats worked behind the scenes to build support for their decision to report Iran to the U.N. Security Council over concerns that it seeking nuclear weapons.

The International Atomic Energy Agency's 35-nation board of governors began a two-day meeting on a European draft resolution calling for Tehran to be referred to the Security Council, which can impose sanctions.

That's No Moon, It's a Space Station!

Airborne laser systems that let the US Air Force hit targets from miles away without any collateral damage are getting serious consideration:

Officials said a C-130H transport that belonged to the U.S. Air Force's 46th Test Wing was being modified to contain a high-energy chemical laser. The platform would also contain battle management and beam control subsystems.

Under the program, Boeing would test the aircraft in July 2006. The aircraft would have all subsystems on board except the high-energy laser. Officials said a low-power surrogate laser would be used instead of the kilowatt-class, high-energy laser.

At the same time, the high-energy laser would be completed in Albuquerque, N.M. Officials said the first ground tests of the laser would take place in the summer of 2006.

By 2007, Boeing plans to install the laser on the aircraft and operate the weapon during flight. The laser, designed to be fired through an existing 50-inch-diameter hole in the aircraft's belly, would be demonstrated for military missions.

Officials said ATL was being developed through the Pentagon's Advanced Concept Technology Demonstration program. Should the tests in 2007 prove successful, the Pentagon was expected to approve full-scale development of the airborne tactical laser.

The more astute bloggers will note that the C-130 platform is the same platform that is currently used for air support via the UH-130H/U (Spooky) - the modern version of Puff the Magic Dragon. Those earlier planes used miniguns to fire thousands of rounds at a target and the tracers lit up the path of fire much like a laser.

Well, now we're getting close to having real lasers doing real damage against ground targets. And with the possibility of reducing the possibility for collateral damage.

Impressive. Most Impressive.

UPDATE: 2/2/06:
Austin Bay and Confederate Yankee both have more thoughts on the airborne laser system.

Microsoft Enters the China Fray

When I wrote about Google's policy and agreement to do business in China, I noted that there were other businesses involved [WalMart, GM, etc.] While folks are getting steamed at Google (GOOG), don't look now, but Microsoft (MSFT) is sticking its toes into the same morass - this time specifically dealing with blog content, which was one of the points of my original posting on the subject.

Well, this particular New York Times piece on Microsoft's policy gets straight to the issues I first raised.

Microsoft unveiled new company guidelines yesterday intended to spell out how it will deal with government censorship demands, in China and anywhere it does business, and limit the impact of its compliance.

It was responding to criticism that followed its decision to shut down five weeks ago, at the Chinese government's request, the online journal of a popular blogger in Beijing who used the Microsoft network.

Among the changes outlined by the company's general counsel, Bradford L. Smith, at its Government Leaders Forum in Lisbon yesterday were a commitment to block content — typically blog or personal Web site content — on its MSN Spaces service only when served with "legally binding notice from the government indicating that the material violates local laws, or if the content violates MSN's terms of use."

The company is also developing technology that would block content within the country making the request, while preserving the ability of the rest of the world to view it. Microsoft also said it would develop a system of "transparent user notification," so that users whose blogs have been shut by government order will be notified by message when they try to access their sites, rather than face an inexplicably dead link.

The new policies would not have prevented the censoring of the Chinese blogger, Zhao Jing, who also works as a research assistant in the Beijing bureau of The New York Times.

Now Microsoft thinks it's come up with a solution, but I'm not so sure:

Web surfers seeking to read blogs on MSN Spaces servers — which are located in the United States — will be granted or denied access based on their geographic location.

Had this system been in place after the government's takedown request last December, surfers in China would not have been able to view Mr. Zhao's blog, but it would have remained viewable in other countries. Mr. Zhao, however, would no longer have access to or be able to update the site.

He would see only a message that his site had been terminated by government request.

"One of the things we've looked at is, How far does a government's jurisdiction reach?"

This gets to the crux of the debate. Just how can or should a US company restrict the speech of others based on foreign jurisdictions. There will be the inevitable workarounds and other measures to avoid this corporate decision. But they don't deal with the issue directly, which is that if a Chinese person wants to blog using the MSN tool (or any other tool), they're being prohibited from doing so by the Chinese government. Zhao's blog would have essentially been frozen in place as the government would have frozen his access, and while the content would have been viewable in the US, it would have been blocked in China.

This is no way to do business.

UPDATE:
Bill Gates would like to disagree and claims that government attempts to censor Web sites or blogs would fail since the banned information could get out despite the censorship. However, he also notes that his company has to meet the legal requirements of the jurisdictions where his company does business.

There's the rub. Companies are rushing into places like China because of the market possibilities, but in order to do so, they've got to comply with those foreign jurisdictions, which can include restrictions that no one in their home jurisdiction would ever tolerate - namely censoring blog content. This isn't just a Google issue, but one that companies seeking to do business in totalitarian regimes must deal with.

UPDATE:
It would appear that some of these companies should have known better - Congressman Tom Lantos and other lawmakers specifically criticized Microsoft, Cisco, Google, and Yahoo for failing to attend a congressional briefing specifically dealing with doing business in China.

Lawmakers on Wednesday accused U.S.-based Internet companies of giving in to pressure from China and helping to censor Web users in violation of American principles of free speech.

They also criticized the four companies — Microsoft Corp., Yahoo! Inc., Cisco Systems Inc. and Google Inc. — for failing to attend a congressional briefing that was staged to bring to light how Internet companies do business in China. (MSNBC.com is a Microsoft - NBC joint venture.)

Curious. This issue will get more play as hearings will be held February 15. Subpoenas may be issued against the companies to attend. So far, MSFT, Google, and Cisco have said they would attend the meeting. Yahoo hadn't responded to the reporters thus far.

And the ire directed against Google isn't likely to be tempered by fact that Google wasn't alone, nor even the first to do this. They're just the biggest boys on the block - and that doesn't help their cause any. They've got to do better - and so do all the other companies that do business with totalitarian regimes.

Technorati: china, censorship, dictatorship, repression, google, microsoft, dont be evil.

Israeli v. Israeli: Riots Ensue After Gov't Enforces Law

More than 200 Israelis, both settlers and security forces, were injured in fighting that broke out when the security forces sought to enforce a government decree to evacuate an illegal settlement in Amona in the West Bank.

Israeli riot police wielding clubs and water cannons cleared out part of this illegal Jewish settlement outpost Wednesday, as resisters fought back with sticks, stones, bricks and paint. More than 200 were injured, one-quarter of them officers.

In anguished scenes reminiscent of last summer's Gaza withdrawal, the security forces dragged hundreds of protesters from rooftops barricaded in barbed wire and flattened empty homes with bulldozers and heavy machinery. The military said 32 people were arrested at the scene along with ``dozens of other rioters'' in the area.

The fierce battle was a likely harbinger of what lies ahead if Israel decides to leave other parts of the West Bank. Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, the front-runner in the March 28 Israeli elections, is widely expected to withdraw from more areas of the territory and dismantle additional Jewish settlements if he wins.

The settlers used everything from eggs and rocks to sand and paint-filled balloons. The settlers saw what happened with Gaza, and weren't going to go nearly as quietly this time around. That's not to say that the Gaza withdrawals weren't without violence, but this confrontation was several magnitudes more violent.

Some Israelis realize that they've given up Gaza but haven't felt more secure as a result, so they're questioning the unilateral withdrawal from parts of the West Bank. It's a tough question, but the government is going forward nonetheless. Expect Hamas to crow that this is victory for them. It's nothing of the sort. Israel keeps giving the Palestinians an opportunity to do the right thing, but the Palestinians squander it at every turn.

Educating Kerry

Senator John Kerry (D-Mass.) stated on the Today Show (NBC) that the high school graduation rate was 47%. Malkin has the video. I'd like to know where he's getting that figure from. Malkin called him on it. Drudge called him on it. I'm calling him on it. I've got a bunch of statistics that dispute Kerry's claim in quite stark terms. Now Kerry may be basing his percentage on claims that the graduation rates are inflated for a variety of reasons, but there's no mention of just what the rate is. It would seem that he's making this up out of thin air.

While Kerry's actually called for truth in graduation rates which is something most people would support, regardless of political affiliation, his exaggeration or lying about the facts don't help his cause one bit.

And as an aside, the graph provided with the statistics actually shows just how high school graduation rates slipped during the Clinton Administration and stabilized under the Bush Administration. Curious.

UPDATE:
Fixed the stat above. Anonymous emailer notes that Kerry actually said that "53% of children do not graduate high school," which means 47% do. In other words, Kerry's asserting only 47% of students graduate high school, which makes Kerry's claims even more egregious despite my own kludging of the figures.

That's a Stretch

Iran's nuclear ambitions, which they claim are going to be used for peaceful purposes, may lead towards Iran obtaining the means and materials to build nuclear weapons.

Oh really? This is a surprise to who exactly? Maybe the folks at the IAEA or the UN, but certainly not anyone who's been paying attention to what Iran has been actually saying or doing.

The International Atomic Energy Agency says it has evidence that suggests links between Iran's ostensibly peaceful nuclear program and its military work on high explosives and missiles, according to a report from the agency that was released to member countries on Tuesday and will be debated on Thursday.

Today, Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, said any decision taken by the West would have no effect in Iran's decisions, according to the Iranian news agency IRNA, quoting the president during a visit to Bushehr province. And today, Iran's top nuclear negotiator, Ali Larijani, said some cameras monitoring Iran's nuclear facilities may be removed if Iran is reported to the security council, according to The Associated Press.

Mr. Larijani reiterated Iran would stop implementing the Additional Protocol of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which gives U.N. inspectors greater access to nuclear sites, if Tehran's case goes to the top world body, the agency said.The report will be debated by the 35 countries that make up the international agency's board when it meets in emergency session on Thursday to decide whether Iran should be reported to the United Nations Security Council for its nuclear activities.

The four-page report, which officials say was based at least in part on intelligence provided by the United States, refers to a secretive Iranian entity called the Green Salt Project, which worked on uranium processing, high explosives and a missile warhead design.

The combination suggests a "military-nuclear dimension," the report said, that if true would undercut Iran's claims that its nuclear program is solely aimed at producing electrical power.

We've been here before, haven't we. The US and other nations believed Iraq had WMD and nuclear weapons ambitions and cultivated, developed, and provided intel to that effect. Are we seeing the same story all over again?

It's curious that the folks who claim that the Administration lied over Iraq are now clamoring for action on Iran, based on what is essentially the same kind of intel. They're trying to portray the Administration's reaction to Iran's actions as less than acceptable and the US should take a greater role.

The US course of action on Iran is shaped by the way we're dealing with Iraq. We're still in Iraq, which provides a significant difference - we've got substantial forces already in battle ready condition sufficiently close to Iran to take meaningful ground action should it come to that. However, on the diplomatic front, we've got changed circumstances because there are those nations still smarting from the US acting without UN action/'approval' and being pushed aside. Never mind the fact that the UN was co-opted by Iraq via the OFF/UNSCAM program. And then there are the domestic concerns about enlarging the problems in the Middle East even though one maxim about problem solving is that the best way to solve intractable problems is to make them larger. Iran is supporting the terrorist insurgents in Iraq, and cultivating the extremists in parts of the country in hopes of drawing US blood via their proxies.

Iran, along with Syria, have been warned on this point. And the President has made it explicitly clear that the US has no problem with the Iranian people - it's the mullahs who have to go.

The Iranian government is defying the world with its nuclear ambitions, and the nations of the world must not permit the Iranian regime to gain nuclear weapons. America will continue to rally the world to confront these threats.

Tonight, let me speak directly to the citizens of Iran: America respects you, and we respect your country. We respect your right to choose your own future and win your own freedom. And our nation hopes one day to be the closest of friends with a free and democratic Iran.

There are signs that Iran has tried to follow Saddam's route, trying to co-opt the IAEA, which is the very organization that is tasked with nuclear nonproliferation. They've gotten the runaround thus far, and every day passes is another day Iran pushes closer to its nuclear goals.

All About Me: The Sad Spectacle of Cindy Sheehan Continues

The sad spectacle of Cindy Sheehan continues to spiral out of control. The media couldn't get enough of her when she decided to camp out in front of President Bush's Crawford, Texas ranch in order to meet with the President a second time to demand the US withdraw from Iraq (and ostensibly because her son Casey was killed while serving in Iraq).

Well, since then, Cindy's hobnobbed with the likes of Hugo Chavez, various anti-American groups, and was give a pass by Rep. Lynn Woolsey to sit in the gallery at last night's State of the Union Address. There are specific rules of conduct that are enforced to maintain decorum and due dignity in the Gallery. The failure to adhere to those rules can mean ejection from the Gallery.

Cindy didn't care about the rules since this is all about her. She tried to take off a sweater to reveal some kind of political statement. When security tried to tell her to cease and desist, she refused, and she was escorted from the Chamber.

Woolsey has previously provided members of the radical group Code Pink seats in the gallery and they proceeded to disrupt last year's Presidential inauguration. So, she knew exactly what she was doing and what to expect when she provided Sheehan with the pass for the gallery seat.

Meanwhile, the wife of Rep. Bill Young (R-FL) claims that she was ejected from the Chamber as well for wearing a t-shirt that says, "Support the Troops Defending Our Freedom."

In a telephone interview with the newspaper, Young said she told them her shirt wasn't a protest but a message of support.

Capitol Police Sgt. Kimberly Schneider said Young wasn't ejected from the gallery and she left on her own. She couldn't provide additional details.

Young's husband found out about the incident after Bush's speech and called it unacceptable.

In both cases, the House security appears to have acted to enforce the rules against such displays without regard to the kind of message.

UPDATE:
The Florida Masochist has more on the Sheehanapalooza and Beverly Young's run-in with the Capitol Police. He also happens to have some interesting background on Mrs. Young.

UPDATE:
To be clear, it appears that the law under which both Ms. Sheehan and Mrs. Young were removed from chambers before the address was content neutral and applied equally. And for those who think that the First Amendment is without bounds, they would be wrong. Sheehan would like folks to think that she's being treated unfairly. That this is somehow on the Administration. She'd be wrong. Again. And again. Others blogging: Wizbang, Gateway Pundit, Sister Toldjah (who notes that the charges against Sheehan were dropped - and provides some additional context on why:

“The policy and procedures were too vague,” he added. “The failure to adequately prepare the officers is mine.”

The extraordinary statement came a day after police removed Sheehan and Beverly Young, wife of Rep. C.W. “Bill” Young, R-Fla., from the visitors gallery Tuesday night. Sheehan was taken away in handcuffs before Bush’s arrival at the Capitol and charged with a misdemeanor, while Young left the gallery and therefore was not arrested, Gainer said.

“Neither guest should have been confronted about the expressive T- shirts,” Gainer’s statement said.

UPDATE 2/2/06:
Please see this post for a correction on this posting.

They Chose Poorly

This is a story I've been following for quite some time. The running meme was that people died in Louisiana because the federal government failed to act and that the fault lies exclusively with FEMA and the President (once he got rid of Mike Brown). Well, as more information comes out about the roles played by the various state and local officials, a completely different picture has emerged.

State and local officials turned down assistance from the feds to evacuate hospitals and nursing homes.

A ranking Louisiana health official turned down federal offers to help move or evacuate patients as Hurricane Katrina bore down on New Orleans, a newly released document shows.
But the state's top medical officer said Louisiana coordinated with the federal Health and Human Services Department in evacuating hospitals and nursing homes after Katrina hit.

Two days before the Aug. 29 storm, HHS was told by the state's health emergency preparedness director that the help was not needed, according to an e-mail released Monday by a Senate panel investigating the government's response to Katrina.

The state official, identified in the Aug. 27 e-mail as Dr. Roseanne Pratts, "responded no, that they do not require anything at this time and they would be in touch if and when they needed assistance," wrote HHS senior policy analyst Erin Fowler.

In one instance, at St. Rita's Nursing Home, the owners failed to evacuate 34 patients from rising floodwaters and were killed by the flooding/storm surge. The owners, Salvador and Mable Mangano, were charged with 34 counts of negligent homicide. The Attorney General's office has continued investigating other cases at nursing homes and hospitals where staff and owners failed to take reasonable precautions and put patients at risk or patients died under suspicious conditions.

One has to wonder whether the state and local officials took the threats posed by the approaching massive hurricane seriously enough to act prudently and responsibly. While hindsight is 20/20, one has to wonder how anyone would permit nursing homes and hospitals to decide for themselves whether to evacuate from low lying areas ahead of an approaching severe hurricane? The flipside, of course, can be seen from the evacuation ahead of the approaching hurricane Rita, where a group of senior citizens were killed when their bus caught fire and oxygen canisters exploded as it was evacuating the group from the coastline.

Technorati: flood aid; hurricane katrina; hurricane rita; katrina aid; new orleans, rita, galveston, lake charles, levee; levee breach.

The SOTU Address Open Post

I leave this post open to let those who want to comment on the President's State of the Union Address. Enter here and share your thoughts. I'll be posting a recap at the end of the evening.

UPDATE:
Excerpts of the speech can be found on the White House website.

UPDATE:
There's a difference between responsible criticism and defeatism. No kidding. Bush talked over a smattering of applause.

UPDATE:
Captain Ed Morrissey is liveblogging.

SSgt Clay's words are a direct retort to the Sheehanapalooza (who managed to get detained by the House Seargant at Arms for violating house rules when she attempted to unfurl a banner in the gallery).

UPDATE:
The only way to defeat terrorist is to ... offer alternative of freedom. Supports democratic reform. Elections.. but they're only the beginning. It requires the rule of law, protections of minorities... open paths of peaceful opposition reducing radicalism...

Now, the leaders of Hamas must recognize Israel...

Iran sponsors terrorists, in the Palestinian territories and Lebanon. It must end. The Iranian government is defying the world with its nuclear ambitions and the world must stop Iran...

UPDATE:
Time to connect the dots - Patriot Act and terrorist surveillance program to intercept communications between terrorists abroad and here within the US. The program has prevented terrorist attacks. If there are people talking with al Qaeda, we want to know about it. We are not going to sit back and be hit again.

UPDATE:
For those who want to read the speech, Bare Knuckle Politics has a copy.

Our economy is healthy and vigorous. 4.6 million jobs created over past 2.5 years. Impressive stuff. This is the kind of stuff that Democrats don't want folks to know.

UPDATE:
Bush is bringing up the issue of a line-item veto. Curious. That's one way to deal with the problem.

UPDATE:

The best way to break this addiction is through technology. Since 2001, we have spent nearly 10 billion dollars to develop cleaner, cheaper, more reliable alternative energy sources – and we are on the threshold of incredible advances. So tonight, I announce the Advanced Energy Initiative – a 22-percent increase in clean-energy research at the Department of Energy, to push for breakthroughs in two vital areas. To change how we power our homes and offices, we will invest more in zero-emission coal-fired plants; revolutionary solar and wind technologies; and clean, safe nuclear energy.

Why stop at only 22% and what does that mean in actual dollar terms? Percentages sound great but if there isn't much money there to start, it's not as big a deal. Weaning the country off foreign sources of petroleum means a huge effort in multiple directions, and going the route of technological innovation is a start.

It's also something many a President has proclaimed in the past 30 years, and yet not one has actually engaged in a concerted and dedicated energy policy.

UPDATE:

A hopeful society comes to the aid of fellow citizens in times of suffering and emergency – and stays at it until they are back on their feet. So far the Federal government has committed 85 billion dollars to the people of the Gulf Coast and New Orleans. We are removing debris, repairing highways, and building stronger levees. We are providing business loans and housing assistance. Yet as we meet these immediate needs, we must also address deeper challenges that existed before the storm arrived. In New Orleans and in other places, many of our fellow citizens have felt excluded from the promise of our country. The answer is not only temporary relief, but schools that teach every child … and job skills that bring upward mobility … and more opportunities to own a home and start a business. As we recover from a disaster, let us also work for the day when all Americans are protected by justice, equal in hope, and rich in opportunity.

Many of the people in New Orleans and other localities may never return because the state and local governments failed to uphold their responsibilities. However, schools, job skills, and the like will not fix the problems that are immediate concerns: the need for permanent shelter, a permanent fix to the levee and flood control systems, and coastal development. On those issues, there's much work to do.

UPDATE:
So, there it is. I don't think it was one of his strongest speeches, but there were some interesting policy nuggets. He's taking direct swipes at the thugocracies that happen to be sitting on puddles of oil in the Middle East and Venezuela. The problem is that there's not nearly enough urgency to make a serious dent on moving towards energy independence and a move to non-petroleum based energy sources. And that doesn't even touch on the fact that a whole boatload of petroleum goes into producing everything from plastics to computers to all manner of materials that people take for granted. That's a tall order and wasn't even addressed.

Addressing the Iranian people directly to know that the US stands behind them and that the US doesn't see them as the enemy is a solid move and one that doesn't have any political risk to the US. If it helps destabilize the Iranian mullahs, even better. It just ratchets up the pressure on the mullahs. Just how many of the Iranian people will learn of this support? That remains to be seen.

Reiterating the fact that despite all the natural disasters over the past year, the US economy was strong and still producing tons of jobs was a good move at bolstering his credentials.

No one can deny the success of freedom, but some men rage and fight against it. And one of the main sources of reaction and opposition is radical Islam – the perversion by a few of a noble faith into an ideology of terror and death. Terrorists like bin Laden are serious about mass murder – and all of us must take their declared intentions seriously. They seek to impose a heartless system of totalitarian control throughout the Middle East, and arm themselves with weapons of mass murder. Their aim is to seize power in Iraq, and use it as a safe haven to launch attacks against America and the world. Lacking the military strength to challenge us directly, the terrorists have chosen the weapon of fear. When they murder children at a school in Beslan … or blow up commuters in London … or behead a bound captive … the terrorists hope these horrors will break our will, allowing the violent to inherit the Earth. But they have miscalculated: We love our freedom, and we will fight to keep it.

There's nothing quite like the smell of freedom, but democracy isn't just about holding elections. There's more to it.

Elections are vital – but they are only the beginning. Raising up a democracy requires the rule of law, protection of minorities, and strong, accountable institutions that last longer than a single vote.

That's a direct statement to those who poohpooh the Palestinian elections and Hamas coming to power. And President Bush called Hamas out on the carpet as we. As he had to.

And it's also a curious statement to make since it could clearly refer to his own election in 2000 - considering how many people in our own country disputed the results and the institutions survived that controversy.

So there you have it.

If you've got your own thoughts on the matter, by all means share them in the comments. Don't worry, I wont bite, and I wont delete comments unless they're profane, disrespectful of other posters, and generally in bad taste. Keep it PG-13 folks.

Watch This Spot

Mister Snitch has put together a compliation of the best posts of 2005, which will be released later today [watch here for the direct URL]. This isn't a collection of the best blogs, but rather individual postings. I'm not privy to the list, but he's already stated that while there are some individual postings from blogs that are widely lauded, there are more than a few that are from obscure sites and minor bloggers.

He's also looking for folks to help promote the launch.

When the "Best of" post goes up, it will include options through which bloggers can "sponsor" the effort, driving traffic to a central information location. In return, "sponsors" receive a share of the traffic that this project will generate going forward. We will take out periodic blogads for this project, and should the publication effort bear fruit it will generate publicity for the project. This likewise will build project-specific site traffic which will trickle down to sponsors.

This will be explained in detail once the post is up. Meanwhile, if you have no yet done so, you might consider placing one of the banners/buttons below in a post or sidebar. For those who have this banner in their sidebar already, the URL of the completed post has not changed. You're all set.

Thank you all for your interest and support. We are moving ahead. Copy and paste any of the codes below into a post or sidebar to help us announce this project.

Watch this space for the link to the final posting.

UPDATE 2/2/2006:
The Best Posts of 2005 are finally out. It's worth the wait.

Goodbye Sandra O'Connor; Hello Samuel Alito

Today marks the the end of an era in Supreme Court history. Sandra Day O'Connor was the first woman nominated and confirmed to the US Supreme Court. Her role on the Court will be debated by future generations and her mark on jurisprudence was quite considerable. Ruling on cases as varied as abortion to gun control, O'Connor was widely considered the swing vote on the court.

She retired today as her successor Samuel Alito was confirmed as the 110th Supreme Court justice in United States history by a 58 to 42* margin. ScotusBlog also has some trivia surrounding confirmations and Alito's seat on the Court.

What cannot be denied is that each one of the nine justices sitting on the Supreme Court hold immense power in every utterance and decision written and hope that Alito recognizes that is not only a great responsibility and burden, but a tremendous opportunity to make sure that this nation - both its citizens and its government - live up to the ideals set forth in the US Constitution and the Declaration of Independence.

UPDATE 2/1/06:
Anonymous emailer notes that the vote was 58-42, and I fixed the typo above.

So It Begins

We saw this happen with Yasir Arafat and the PLO. Now it continues with Hamas. Terrorist spokesmen are able to get on their high horse and use venues like the Washington Post op-ed page to spout their nonsense. All that you need to know about this particular spokesman, Mousa Abu Marzook, is the following paragraph at the end of the op-ed:

The writer is deputy political bureau chief of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas). He has a U.S. doctorate in engineering and was indicted in the United States in 2004 as a co-conspirator on racketeering and money-laundering charges in connection with activities on behalf of Hamas dating to the early 1990s, before the organization was placed on the list of terrorist groups. He was deported to Jordan in 1997.

Nice guy. Supports terrorist groups and was deported for his activities. He's an apologist for murderous thugs who have killed hundreds of people, including specifically targeting women and children with suicide bombings, bus bombs, car bombs, shootings, and has repeatedly stated that every person in Israel is a legitimate target.

Captain Ed fisks the Marzook's claims about tolerance and multiculturalism. So does Rusty at The Jawa Report.

What does it say about the Washington Post that they're giving an outlet to the spokesperson of a major terrorist group? Would they do the same to one of Osama bin Laden's spokespeople? Curious.

UPDATE:
Soccer Dad dropped me a line and informed me that Elder of Ziyon was also taking apart the Hamas WaPo op-ed. SoccerDad also has a pretty good roundup of the continuing blogosphere reaction to the Hamas win.

Iran Awaiting the Harshly Worded UN Response

I'm sure that Iran's quaking in their boots over this. Their cheat and retreat scam is working perfectly. Every day that IAEA inspectors aren't able to investigate all of Iran's nuclear research facilities, is one day closer to Iran obtaining sufficient nuclear materials to build nuclear weapons. The world should be taking them at their word, that they seek nuclear technologies as of right and that they fully intend to eliminate Israel and their enemies. Instead, they're being suckered into diplomatic posturing that only provides Iran the time it needs to fulfill its goals.

Iran is publicly stating that they don't like the idea of being hauled in front of the UN:

Iran said on Tuesday a move by the world's top five powers to report it to the U.N. Security Council would close diplomatic avenues to a solution of its long-running nuclear standoff with the West.

Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States, plus Germany and the European Union agreed in London that the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog should report to the council this week on what Iran must do to cooperate with the agency.

Iran reacted angrily to the new pressure and said even reporting its case to the council would kill off diplomatic efforts to resolve the row over a nuclear program that Tehran says is purely peaceful, not military as the West suspects.

Diplomatic avenues? It's simply a roadmap to developing nuclear weapons right under the noses of the West with their silent assent to the whole process. They're worried that the plan to let the Russians process nuclear materials in Russia on behalf of Iran and then provide some nuclear materials to Iran would fall through. The materials provided by the Russians wouldn't be weapons grade materials, but it would permit the Iranians to concentrate on enriching other materials in their possession to weapons-grade without tipping off those who are supposed to be watching. That is, unless those in the IAEA aren't spying on behalf of the Iranians.

Gone But Not Forgotten

Coretta Scott King, who surged to the front of the fight for racial equality in America after her husband Martin Luther King Jr. was murdered in 1968, has died at age 78, friends and family said on Tuesday.

King died overnight, the family said in a statement. She suffered a debilitating stroke and heart attack in August.

After the assassination of her husband, Coretta took on a leading role in the civil rights movement and dedicated the rest of her life to the cause. Her four children have also taken up leading roles in the civil rights movement. La Shawn Barber has more, as does Sister Toldjah

Coretta's biography can be found at the King Center.

72-25: That's All You Need To Know

That's the vote for cloture ending debate on the nomination of Samuel Alito to the US Supreme Court.

Kerry had requested a futile act signifying Democratic opposition to Alito's certain approval to the Supreme Court. He got one. And nothing beats Sen. Kennedy showing just how tone deaf the Left wing of the Democratic party has become to mainstream Americans - you know, the ones who are considered swing voters in Presidential elections, and the ones who both sides court in local elections because they're independents or moderates.

This was a highly blogged subject today. Lots of folks were astonished at Kennedy's performance on the Senate floor. And indeed, it was a performance. It was purposefully done to cater to the Left wing and rally the base. It wasn't about winning national elections, or even trying to reclaim the Senate, though the DNC would certainly love to spin it in that way.

It's also interesting that a number of bloggers are trying to portray the cloture vote as the confirmation vote. That's one way to look at it - since you've got far more people who realize that filibustering a qualified candidate is something that is simply not done, even if you disagree with the candidate's temperament. Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island is one person being singled out for voting for cloture, but who will vote against Alito in the actual confirmation.

There is a difference between letting an issue coming up to a vote and actually voting on a position. It's not just a matter of degree, but one of intellectual honesty. In the former, the vote is to make sure that a candidate gets a fair shake with an up or down vote to approve a candiate; it's a purely procedural move. In the latter, the candidate's merits are actually voted upon.

Rebuilding the Gulf Coast Continues

Rebuilding the Gulf Coast, one playground at a time. And some New Orleans residents want the MR-GO gone. MR-GO, or the intracoastal waterway, is seen as one of the factors that enhanced the flooding during and after Katrina.

Barrier islands and shorelines have been forever altered. While that's part of the way nature works, people are used to things being the way they are.

And the quest to develop an assistance/bailout program for those property owners who lacked flood insurance is continuing apace.

And the Army Corps of Engineers is racing to meet a June 1 deadline to up armor 170 miles of levees. The levees would be reinforced with rock and concrete to improve their stability and ability to withstand storms (what's involved).

"If we can get this approved by the end of April, we can have the armoring in place in another three to four months," said Dan Hitchings, civilian director of the corps' Task Force Hope. "We think we can get this done in time."

The reason for the urgency is simple: The corps and its critics agree armoring could have dramatically reduced the destruction and death Katrina spread across the area.

Engineers say armoring is to levees what air bags are to seat belts: a little extra protection that can greatly improve survivability.

"You can build a Category 3 levee but get Category 4 or 5 survivability when you armor a levee," said David Rogers, a University Missouri-Rolla professor who is one of the nation's leading experts on levee and dam failures and a member of a National Science Foundation team investigating levee failures in the New Orleans area. "You may get overtopped by a larger storm than you designed for, but your chances of holding up are tremendously improved.

"And if your levee stands up when it's overtopped, you greatly increase your options."

I'm glad that this is getting done, but one has to really wonder why armoring the levees wasn't done sooner. The article notes that neither the fabric mats nor the gabion mats are a perfect solution and there are drawbacks for both.

Meanwhile communities along the Gulf Coast are racing to clear debris by June 1, which is the start of the 2006 hurricane season. If another storm hit in the areas affected by Katrina, much of the debris would end up causing significant damage to structures still standing or rebuilt since Katrina came ashore.

Folks are looking at the earlier flood hazard maps and realizing that they weren't updated as regularly as they should and didn't realistically assess risks.

Dale did not realize many properties near the beach were outside flood areas designated on the 1980s maps. Only property owners within the flood plain are required to carry flood insurance.

Under the National Flood Insurance Program, the maps are supposed to be reviewed every five years. Also, the maps are supposed to be updated at the request of state or local government, Gulfport attorney Joe Sam Owen has pointed out.

Owen found properties within 50 yards of the seawall that were not in a special flood-hazard area, including his wife's business, which Katrina destroyed.

Dale said map review is a responsibility his office shares with other local and state political subdivisions. He said he did not look over the old maps and as a layman would not have been able to read them.

Regularly updating flood hazard maps and making them easier for laypeople to read should be part and parcel of the rebuilding process. Greater awareness of the National Flood Insurance Program wouldn't hurt either (FloodSmart.gov).

Technorati: flood aid; hurricane katrina; katrina aid; slidell; biloxi; gulfport; pascagoula; nagin; blanco; barbour.