Colombia Reveals Video of Hostage Rescue

Colombia has released video showing portions of the hostage rescue operation that freed Ingrid Betancourt, three American contractors, and 11 Colombian soldiers.



It's curious that Colombia is being criticized by some quarters for relying on American and possibly Israeli intel to help plan and/or carry out the rescue operation.

At a news conference here with dozens of journalists, the government also defended the rescue as a Colombian effort after reports that American and Israeli advisers had taken part.

“Not a single foreigner participated,” Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos said. But he acknowledged that the American military had provided a surveillance plane to monitor the operation, as well as tracking technology placed on the helicopter used to spirit the hostages away that could emit distress signals.

He also said Israel had helped Colombia reorganize its intelligence services in the past.

While Colombia receives more than $600 million a year in security and antinarcotics aid from the United States, any perception of a more in-depth American role in the rescue would be likely to inflame emotions in neighboring countries like Venezuela, where political supporters of President Hugo Chávez openly support the FARC.

Mr. Santos added that the Colombian intelligence agents sent into the jungle, who numbered more than a dozen and included at least one woman, fooled the guerrillas into believing that they were part of a polyglot humanitarian mission intended to transfer the captives elsewhere in the country at the request of a senior FARC commander.

The rescuers included an agent pretending to be Italian, another supposed to be from the Middle East and a third who performed his role as an Australian so convincingly, according to Mr. Santos, that he invoked the spirit of Crocodile Dundee.

Even the video itself was part of the ruse, shot by two agents pretending to be television journalists. The Colombians’ three-minute video captured some of the despair, trickery and euphoria involved in the operation.

It seems that the anti-Americanism runs deep among the journalists, who pestered the Colombian officials over foreign assistance despite the fact that it's clear that Hugo Chavez and Venezuela have been busy supporting FARC for years.

Venezuela has been supporting that terrorist group and Chavez has been intent upon expanding his influence in Latin America, so the fact that the Colombians have effectively carried out this operation is a big black eye for Chavez's designs. That follows nothing but a series of setbacks for Chavez relating to Colombia and FARC since the Colombians killed a major FARC leader and captured all manner of intel, including a laptop containing links between FARC, Venezuela, and even a meeting between FARC terrorists and a so-far unnamed Democratic party operative possibly linked with the Obama campaign.

Hot Dog Day

Once again, it's time for the annual Nathan's Hot Dog eating contest at the original Nathan's in Coney Island, Brooklyn.

Anonymous email, a big fan of competitive eating contests has said he'd be in the crowd today, and we look forward to seeing whether he can bring back photos and scuttlebutt from the festivities.

Gothamist has the background.

UPDATE 7/5/2008:
Anonymous emailer didn't make it to the festivities, but ESPN's coverage is here, including video of the entire competition, which went into overtime as Kobiyashi and Chestnut tied in regulation at 59 hot dogs consumed in 10 minutes. Chestnut won in overtime, retaining his championship.

Independence Day 2008

Today is a day we give thanks that there were men willing to risk everything for the proposition that men are ruled by law, and not by kings. They believed that all men were created equal, and endowed with inalienable rights.

These men became the Founding Fathers of the American experiment. It has been an experiment that has seen tremendous ups and downs, but has persevered even though the most trying of times. While we continue to live up to the ideals enshrined in the Declaration of Independence today, not only here in the United States, but around the world, it is a day we should be thankful that we have progressed so far in such a short time, and that our Founding Fathers had such brilliant optimism about the future.

IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

The 56 signatures on the Declaration appear in the positions indicated:

Column 1
Georgia:
Button Gwinnett
Lyman Hall
George Walton

Column 2
North Carolina:
William Hooper
Joseph Hewes
John Penn
South Carolina:
Edward Rutledge
Thomas Heyward, Jr.
Thomas Lynch, Jr.
Arthur Middleton

Column 3
Massachusetts:
John Hancock
Maryland:
Samuel Chase
William Paca
Thomas Stone
Charles Carroll of Carrollton
Virginia:
George Wythe
Richard Henry Lee
Thomas Jefferson
Benjamin Harrison
Thomas Nelson, Jr.
Francis Lightfoot Lee
Carter Braxton

Column 4
Pennsylvania:
Robert Morris
Benjamin Rush
Benjamin Franklin
John Morton
George Clymer
James Smith
George Taylor
James Wilson
George Ross
Delaware:
Caesar Rodney
George Read
Thomas McKean

Column 5
New York:
William Floyd
Philip Livingston
Francis Lewis
Lewis Morris
New Jersey:
Richard Stockton
John Witherspoon
Francis Hopkinson
John Hart
Abraham Clark

Column 6
New Hampshire:
Josiah Bartlett
William Whipple
Massachusetts:
Samuel Adams
John Adams
Robert Treat Paine
Elbridge Gerry
Rhode Island:
Stephen Hopkins
William Ellery
Connecticut:
Roger Sherman
Samuel Huntington
William Williams
Oliver Wolcott
New Hampshire:
Matthew Thornton

Refining Into Mush

Sen. Barack Obama's position on Iraq depends on which adviser you listen to, or what day of the week it is. Since Obama no longer has to cater to the far left fringe of the Democrats, he can't use the defeat and retreat approach. However, he's still pushing for withdrawal.

The question now is what kind of withdrawal he wants, and how quickly. He doesn't want to tick off the independents and people who generally want the US to win the wars it fights, so he can't phrase his withdrawal in terms of defeat and loss.

That's getting him into trouble, especially as the situation in Iraq has changed so dramatically that victory appears in reach. 15 of 18 benchmarks set by Congress have been met, and more Iraqi provinces are now fully within the control of the Iraqi government, including Anbar province. It's forcing Obama to change tack, and he's got to walk the fine line between responding to changed circumstances and flip flopping.

He's not doing a very good job.

His two statements in Fargo, N.D., reflected how the changing dynamics in Iraq have posed a challenge for Mr. Obama, who is trying to retain flexibility as violence declines there without abandoning a central promise of his campaign: that if elected, he would end the war.

His remarks came as Republicans — including his all-but-certain opponent this fall, Senator John McCain of Arizona — have been arguing that Mr. Obama would most likely change his position on the phased withdrawal. They suggest that with violence dropping in Iraq, bringing the troops home would risk erasing the fragile gains that have been made.

Mr. Obama said at his first news conference on Thursday that he planned a “thorough assessment” of his Iraq policy when he visited that country this summer.

“I’ve always said that the pace of withdrawal would be dictated by the safety and security of our troops and the need to maintain stability,” he said. “That assessment has not changed. And when I go to Iraq and have a chance to talk to some of the commanders on the ground, I’m sure I’ll have more information and will continue to refine my policies.”

Mr. Obama has long spoken of consulting with commanders in the field as part of his plan for a phased withdrawal, but his shift in emphasis in the way he spoke about the situation on Thursday — after weeks in which Republicans and even an outside Iraq policy adviser to his campaign argued against a withdrawal along the lines he had proposed — fueled speculation that he might not be wedded to his timetable.

The Times is covering for Obama here, since Obama had pushed for a defeat and retreat withdrawal that would have seen the US leave before the surge even had a chance to take hold.

Voters should see Obama's foreign policy on Iraq for what it is - nothing short of sticking a finger in the air and seeing which way the wind blows.

Fair Lawn Fireworks

These photos were taken by me at the fireworks show put on by the Town of Fair Lawn on Wednesday, July 2, 2008. It was quite the show and these are some of the better photos.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Stunningly Bad Deal

While some folks wonder how Sen. Barack Obama managed to get an exceptional mortgage rate on the home he purchased in June 2005, Rep. Laura Richardson of California is at the other end of the spectrum.

She's the Democrat who was busy defaulting on mortgages and lost a home in foreclosure.

It seems that her stunning lack of fiscal knowledge extends to car leases as well.

She's currently paying $1,300 a month for a lease on a 2007 Lincoln Town Car.

She may have defaulted on mortgages and lost a home in foreclosure, but that hasn't stopped Long Beach Rep. Laura Richardson from driving in style and at great expense, courtesy of the taxpayer. The lease on Richardson's 2007 Lincoln Town Car costs about $1,300 a month -- the most expensive lease of any member of the House of Representatives, reports the Daily Breeze. Richardson's monthly lease, paid by the federal government, is much larger than the $400 to $800 a month that other House members pay, according to a taxpayer group.

That's a whole lot of money for the lease, and makes me wonder just who negotiated this deal.

A new 2008 Town Car at the MSRP runs about $45,000. Assuming that there's no trade in, no down payment, and that registration is $150, and taxes are 7.25%, the monthly payment on a 36 month lease runs about $870. My calculations are based on this website.

The cost would decrease if the term was extended to 48 months, a down payment was provided, or a trade-in offered, to say nothing of negotiating down from the MSRP.

Why is there such a huge discrepancy? We're talking $430 a month, or $15,480 plus interest over 36 months.

Something stinks here.

The Latest Global Warming Culprit: Flat Screen TVs

That's right folks, that flat screen monitor or television you're using to read this, or watch your television shows is causing global warming according to the latest scaremongering report.

A gas used in the making of flat screen televisions, nitrogen trifluoride (NF3), is being blamed for damaging the atmosphere and accelerating global warming.

Almost half of the televisions sold around the globe so far this year have been plasma or LCD TVs.

But this boom could be coming at a huge environmental cost.

The gas, widely used in the manufacture of flat screen TVs, is estimated to be 17,000 times as powerful as carbon dioxide.

Ironically, NF3 is not covered by the Kyoto protocol as it was only produced in tiny amounts when the treaty was signed in 1997.

Levels of this gas in the atmosphere have not been measured, but scientists say it is a concern and are calling for it to be included in any future emissions cutting agreement.

So, it's a problem, but no one has actually bothered to measure it to see if it actually does what the alarmists say. How exactly is this affecting the climate given that the LCDs and plasma screens have overtaken CRTs in the marketplace and this has occurred at a time when the global climate temperatures have not risen above the 1998 levels.

Let's also ignore the fact that LCD and plasma televisions use less power than the CRTs they replace, which means that it takes less energy to run them - less emissions from power plants.

Once again, the global warming agenda and junk science is pushing stories in the media that don't stand scrutiny.

Starbucks Flop-a-chino

Earlier this week, Starbucks announced a plan to shutter 600 of its nearly 16,000 stores worldwide. I'm not all that surprised. Starbucks has been floundering for some time, and is trying to reinvigorate its business by introducing new flavors and had previously attempted to get into the sandwich/panini business only to reverse course months later.

They've even brought back their founder to run the business.

There are several problems with the company, and the economy plays only a tangential role.

You cannot expect that every town needs multiple stores within walking distance of each other. Take Ridgewood, New Jersey for example. There are two privately owned coffee shops and a Starbucks. A second Starbucks was opened up less than a mile away, and that was after another Starbucks opened in Midland Park. The company has oversaturated markets that simply do not have an interest in having still more stores. A similar phenomenon happened in Starbucks' home town of Seattle.

You couldn't go more than a block without having four coffee shops on a corner. You would have a Tully's, Seattle's Best, and two Starbucks. It was insane, and the coffee you'd get at a Starbucks cost more than the others, and wasn't nearly as good as a coffee you'd get in Dunkin' Donuts. In fact, Consumers Reports did a taste test report a while back and found that McDonalds did better than Starbucks for flavor and price.

Sure, you're paying for ambiance in the Starbucks, but if you're on the run, it doesn't matter what the store looks like. You want your coffee and you want it quick.

As the economy has slowed and energy prices spiked through the roof, people are looking to cut costs, and spending $3 for a cup of coffee is one of those places. Starbucks ought to look at its pricing structure for improving its bottom line.

Seeking Refuge From Mugabe

At least 200 Zimbabweans have gone to the US Embassy in Harare to seek refuge from Mugabe and his dictatorial power grab. That story is still developing.

The world continues to twiddle its thumbs over what to do. However, the idea that peacekeepers will somehow resolve the situation is farcical. Peacekeepers generally impose and maintain the status quo. They do not engage in regime change, which is clearly needed here since Mugabe refuses to accept the results of the original election, and then intimidated and forced through violence and harassment Morgan Tsvangirai to withdraw from the runoff election.

UPDATE:
MSNBC has more on the situation in Zimbabwe. They note that in addition to the several hundred people seeking refuge at the US Embassy, several hundred have sought refuge at the South African Embassy as well. However, those people were taken to a camp outside Harare.

Aftermath of Palestinian Terror Rampage Through Jerusalem

I see that the Palestinian terrorist's family is claiming this was all just a big misunderstanding. It was an accident. He didn't mean to drive that front end loader down Haifa Street purposefully running over cars, flipping buses, and killing 3 people and wounding 57 (some of whom are still in the hospital in critical condition).

The lawyer representing the family of bulldozer driver Hossam Dawyyat of east Jerusalem, who murdered three people and injured dozens during a killing spree in Jerusalem on Wednesday, said Thursday that had the police cuffed the terrorist's hands and legs and removed him from the vehicle, the incident would have ended at once and "life would have been spared."

The terror attack's third victim, Jean Relevy, 68, of Jerusalem, was laid to rest on Thursday afternoon.

Issam, the terrorist's brother, said the Dawyyat family refused to believe that their son carried out a terror attack.


"My brother did not belong to any organization. He wasn’t even a religious person. After terror attacks he always used to say, 'What is this nonsense? Why do we need this?'"

His family is trying to keep from watching Israel blow up their home and prevent them from holding a mourning tent. And it's not a very convincing job either. They're throwing out all manner of excuses, such as this was an accident that went out of control. Right.

This terrorist could have ended things quite easily. He could have simply turned off the vehicle and surrendered to authorities. That would have spared lives - Israeli lives snuffed out at the hands of this cold blooded murderer.

Instead, this terrorist did nothing of the kind - and rampaged down Jaffa Street leaving a wake of devastation and carnage.

10 of the victims are still in Jerusalem hospitals.

UPDATE:
The terrorist apparently had a Jewish girlfriend at one point, but he also was convicted of assaulting her and served 20 months in jail.

"Maybe a domestic dispute led him to this," saod the woman, who asked to remain nameless, "he did a foolish thing; he wrecked his family and ruined the lives of his children."

In February 2001 Dawyyat was convicted by the Jerusalem Magistrates Court of assaulting her and was sentenced to 20 months in prison. He admitted to threatening her, including telling her he would kill her if she refused to marry him; and physically assaulting her on a number of occasions, despite the restraining order that had been issued against him. The couple broke up eight years ago.

The ex-girlfriend said Dawyyat's life could have been spared: "Why did they have to put those two bullets in him (after the attack was over)?" she said. "I'm very sad today. At first my parents were angry with me because I cried over his death, but now they are consoling me, because the media are harassing me. I'm reliving the entire episode after eight years.

Why couldn't Dawyyat have spared all those Israelis from being murdered? I feel sorry for the parents of this woman, who is suffering for having known and dated this man, and who was assaulted by him. It seems that she's once again suffering at his hands.

Hedging Against Heating Oil Price Increases

I know it's odd to talk about heating oil just before the July 4th weekend, but with the soaring price of oil, it's not to early to look ahead and hedge against even higher prices. We use oil to heat our home, and happen to have a 1,000 gallon tank, which means that we don't have to have deliveries every few weeks during the heating season. We also keep the temps on the cool side and our programmable thermostat lets us turn down the heat during the day when we're not home. Those steps help let us save during the heating season.

However, our annual contract is up at the end of the summer, and our price cap is sure to rise significantly given the current price for oil. The current price for home heating oil is significantly above $4 in Westchester County, NY. For New Jersey, the most recent price (April 2008), shows a price of $3.71.

Our current cap is $2.989 per gallon.

With that in mind, I called up to have my tank topped off. We took just over 300 gallons, running to nearly $1,000. Depending on which figure you apply, we saved anywhere from $250 to $500 on this one transaction. Since we have a monthly payment plan, we're able to spread that price out over the course of a year. I can't imagine what it would cost someone to fill up during the height of the heating season if the price of oil doesn't come down and you aren't protected to the upside by a price cap.

15 Hostages Rescued From FARC Clutches in Colombia

This is a developing story, but the Colombian military has rescued 15 hostages, including Ingrid Betancourt and three US military contractors from their FARC captors.

UPDATE:
FARC terrorists have been turning themselves in rather than face the Colombian military.

The FARC still holds an estimated 700 hostages as bargaining chips, including three U.S. military contractors and French-Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt. And it is fearful of disarming, given that when its movement tried to enter politics in the 1980s, far-right death squads killed some 4,000 activists.

As the FARC hunkers down, rebels are increasingly inflicting casualties with land mines and sniper attacks. Nearly half of the 471 soldiers and police it killed last year were land mine victims, the military says.

The FARC's biggest units and top commanders, meanwhile, are believed to be hiding out in barely accessible mountains and jungles in southern and eastern Colombia from which it is very hard to dislodge them, the U.S. military analyst said.

Meanwhile, the Colombian military's onslaught has cut FARC income from the cocaine trade to an estimated $200-$300 million a year - about half what it earned a decade ago, according to Bruce Bagley, a drug war expert at the University of Miami in Florida.

Canizares says his disillusionment began three years ago when a new front commander, alias "Rodrigo," alienated the locals by shortchanging coca farmers and enriching himself with skimmed cocaine profits.

FARC has also received support from Hugo Chavez in Venezuela, which has complicated matters further.

UPDATE:
Reuters reports that the freed hostages are in fairly good health. As Jammie reminds me, it's quite possible that today's rescue came about in part because of the capture of key intel - namely a FARC laptop, in operations at the beginning of March. Interpol verified that the laptop and its contents were legitimate, including links between FARC and Venezuela and Ecuador.

UPDATE:
The military operation began when Colombian commandos captured terrorists manning a security cordon around the hostages, and convinced the remaining terrorists to give up, which they did without a loss of life.

UPDATE:
Hot Air notes that the lunatic fringe is questioning the timing over the hostage rescue operation as John McCain was in Colombia promoting a free trade agreement between the US and Colombia that has been held up by Congressional Democrats.

UPDATE:
And there's plenty more hostages too - several hundred in fact. It's curious to look back at some of the reporting and punditry surrounding the March cross border raid and the opining of pundits that it put the lives of those hostages in jeopardy. It now looks like the raid helped gather intel to crush the terror group and rescue hostages. Far from putting lives in jeopardy, it appears to have been the straw that broke the camel's back.

UPDATE:
It took good intel to make this operation happen:

Colombia freed Ingrid Betancourt and three U.S. military contractors from leftist guerrillas on Wednesday after military spies tricked rebels into giving them up without a single injury, the defense minister said. In all, the operation freed 15 hostages including Colombian soldiers and police, Juan Manuel Santos said.

(snip)

Santos said the military intelligence agents infiltrated the guerrilla ranks and led the local commander in charge of the hostages, alias Cesar, to believe they were going to take them by helicopter to Alfonso Cano, the guerrillas' supreme leader.

Surrounded by military commandos, Cesar and the other guerrillas gave up without a fight as they helicopters took the hostages to a military base in Guaviare.

FARC has been compromised by the Colombian anti-terrorism operations, and I can only hope that they are able to secure the release of the hundreds of other hostages in short order.

A Moment of Clarity From the European Union?

Now here's a switch. The European Union has announced that they are pushing for a unity government in Zimbabwe led by Morgan Tsvangirai. Indeed, the current President of the EU, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, said that they would recognize only Tsvangirai as leader of Zimbabwe.

The European Union will only accept a Zimbabwe government led by Morgan Tsvangirai, says French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner as Europe prepared to step up sanctions against President Robert Mugabe.

The EU, on the first day of France's rotating presidency, took a tough stance on Mugabe, with Kouchner telling France 2 public television that Brussels "will not accept a government other than one led by Mr Tsvangirai".

"The French presidency, along with the (European) Commission, is clear: the government is illegitimate if it isn't led by opposition leader Mr Tsvangirai," Kouchner said.

Of course, Mugabe continues to reject any call for a unity government or power sharing agreement. Mugabe considers Tsvangirai to be nothing more than a tool of the West.

Let's not forget what Mugabe has done. He's singlehandedly destroyed the Zimbabwean economy. The inflation rate is over 1 million percent. The Zimbabwean currency is worthless. Unemployment is above 80%. Starvation and crushing poverty dominate. Those who could afford to flee the country have already done so. Those that remain are under Mugabe's totalitarian grip as he's manipulated the election results and prevented open and free elections.

UPDATE:
Make that inflation rate over 2 million percent. Not that it means anything when there's no products on shelves to buy. And the German company who was providing the paper on which to print that worthless currency is going to stop providing it after being pressured to cease relations with Zimbabwe.

Corzine Looks At Gas Tax Increase To Fund Infrastructure

Gov. Corzine notes that increasing the gas tax would be a last resort to fund infrastructure and capital improvements. The whole purpose of the tax on motor fuels in New Jersey is to fund the transportation trust fund, and it has barely managed to hold the line. New Jersey is one of the most densely built states in terms of its infrastructure, and much of it is in fair to poor shape.

New Jersey currently has the third lowest gas tax in the nation, and increasing it at a time when prices of gas are skyrocketing isn't likely to go over well with commuters who are often shell shocked after paying to fill up their tanks.

New Jersey often benefits from New York drivers who cross in to New Jersey to pay for cheaper gas - a practice often done in Rockland County where drivers would cross into Mahwah to pay for significantly cheaper gas.

Now, this comes less than a week after the state adopted the new budget, and Corzine is complaining that the state doesn't have enough money for the infrastructure portion of the budget?

This shows a fundamental dishonesty emanating from Trenton. They cannot be trusted to be fiscally responsible with taxpayer money, so they resort to pushing a budget that is bloated while claiming that the budget actually is smaller than last year as everyone from the Governor on down to the media ignore the $3.9 billion bonding scheme that actually increases the budget by $3.2 billion. Far from cutting the budget year over year, this is a massive increase and none of that goes to the state's transportation budget.

Further, Corzine is trying to use the Minnesota bridge collapse to garner support for a tax increase despite the fact that the bridge collapse was due not to a lack of maintenance, but because of design defects from when the bridge was built in the 1950s - a lack of redundancy and changes to the bridge's structure in the years since that added weight that the structure was unable to handle.

Bulldozing To Terror: Palestinian Kills 4; Injures 50+ In Rampage

Today witnessed unbelievable carnage in Jerusalem as a Palestinian terrorist used a bulldozer to murder Israelis along a busy thoroughfare in Jerusalem. The tally right now is at least three dead and 44 wounded, including a baby who was thrown from a car an instant before the bulldozer crushed it.

The terrorist targeted two buses, flipping them on their sides. Video of the carnage can be seen here.

The driver, who reportedly had a criminal record and was the holder of an Israeli (blue) identification card, was shot dead by a SWAT officer near the old Shaare Zedek Medical Center. The terrorist was identified as 31-year-old Hossam Dawiath, a father of two from the village of Tzur Baher.

The terrorist continued on his killing spree, but a short while later a soldier and a SWAT officer jumped on top of the vehicle. The officer then shot the terrorist in the chest and leg and killed him.

The two buses were on their way to Machene Yehuda, a popular shopping destination in Jerusalem.

The terrorist was from East Jerusalem. Will the terrorists be passing out candies to kids to celebrate the mass murder?

Islamic Jihad says that this is a natural reaction to Israeli occupation, while Hamas says this is a natural response to Israeli aggression. Right. The senseless destruction and targeting of Israeli civilians is a natural reaction. Then again, Israel's very existence is considered an aggression against the Islamist sensibilities, so they can condone attacks such as this.

Meanwhile, Gazans stormed the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt, but were prevented from entering Egypt.

The terrorists have been very busy today.

UPDATE:
Carl in Jerusalem and Israellycool both have been covering the latest attack in great detail.

UPDATE:
Apparently several hundred Palestinians did manage to break through Rafah Crossing.

Hundreds of Palestinian travelers broke into the Egyptian side of Rafah crossing on Wednesday, a day after being stuck between the Palestinian and the Egyptian gates, witnesses said.

Some of the travelers could cross into the Egyptian territory as Egyptian forces boosted its presence with anti-riot gear. The Egyptians also opened water cannons at the Palestinians who were pushing towards the gates.

Palestinian youths threw stones towards Egyptian forces at Rafah crossing and Palestinian forces that deployed on the border. Three Palestinians were reportedly injured by stones.

Egypt announced that the crossing was closed following the turmoil, Palestinian sources said. The Hamas-controlled interior ministry also called on the people to evacuate the crossing.

Hamas Spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said what happened at Rafah crossing "reflects the state of pressure that the Palestinians go through in the Gaza Strip."

Cry me a river. Hamas is fully to blame for the situation in Gaza. They have been unrelenting in their terror attacks on Israel, and Israel is more than justified to close its border with the terrorist entity there. Egypt has no interest in helping the terrorists either.

UPDATE:
For sake of veracity, the piece of equipment involved was not a bulldozer, but a front end loader. Although to the victims, it doesn't really matter. They were simply trying to get around Jerusalem when this terrorist sought to inflict as much death and destruction as possible. The Jerusalem Post reports that the number of injured is now 57.

Here is video of the incident:


The attack occurred just outside the FoxNews bureau offices in Jerusalem.

UPDATE:
Extensive photos of the devastation can be found at Solomonia. Hot Air has additional coverage.

UPDATE:
The media bias already seeps in. The New York Times headlines that a Construction Vehicle Kills 3 In Jerusalem Attack. Right folks, an inanimate object killed three people. Never mind that the driver was a Palestinian terrorist. Since most people read only headlines, they wouldn't learn that it was a Palestinian terrorist who purposefully sought to murder innocent Israelis by crushing their cars and flipping buses on their sides.

The Times isn't alone in media bias and offensive headlines. CNN headlines: Bulldozer rams crowded Jerusalem bus. The BBC reports Deadly Jerusalem Bulldozer Attack. MSNBC headlines 4 Die in Earth Mover Rampage. They get some credit for including the lede that it was a Palestinian who was responsible.

The purpose of writing a headline is to get people to read and inform with the key information. Inanimate objects did not murder those Israelis. Those Israelis didn't simply die because a truck became animated like some Stephen King creation. A Palestinian terrorist purposefully drove the front end loader with the intent to murder as many Israelis as possible.

Promises They Wont Keep: UPDATE: Joke On Us

Yet another Hollywood actor has come forward promising to leave the country if their preferred politician doesn't become President in November. This time, it's Alec Baldwin's brother Stephen who claims he'll leave if Sen. Barack Obama wins in November.

Well, his actor brother Stephen is a Republican. He says he doesn't understand why Americans care about celebrity endorsements.

But today he did make the same self-exile vow if Democrat Barack Obama is elected. The Ticket would never point out there are certain tax advantages to living abroad, not that that would ever figure into a wealthy celebrity's residential decisions.

Recall that Alec said he'd leave if President Bush won. He didn't. He wasn't the only Hollywood actor or actress to make that claim. And all of them still managed to stick around the States.

When will these Hollywood types learn that we simply don't care about their politics. Shut up and act (if they can). (HT: anonymous emailer)

UPDATE:
Here's the video in question. Note the video about 1:15 left. Baldwin crosses his finger. This is clearly a joke. And it's on all those other Hollywood types who complain that they'll leave the US if they don't have their politician elected.

Whoops

An Orlando housing subdivision was built on old bombing range and hundreds of WW2 bombs discovered, much to the consternation of those living there. They wonder how this could have happened.

The Army Corps of Engineers has launched a $10 million cleanup of what used to be the PineCastle Jeep Range, but it said bombs could remain there once they're done.

"Chances are, it's not a problem," said Mike Ornella, the man leading the Army Corps cleanup.

But he conceded, "We're never going to be 100 percent sure. We're never going to give a 100 percent guarantee that the properties are clear."

The developer refused comment for this story. Residents are enraged.

"It's incomprehensible," said Frank Kruppenbacher, the general counsel of the Orange County school board. "It starts with my wondering why the U.S. military ever allowed any of these properties [to] be developed without first saying you have to go through X-checklist."

The first bomb was found last summer next to the Odyssey Middle School track. Since that time, 126 rockets and bombs -- with high explosives -- have been found on school property, along with other military debris.

At least it's not like New Jersey, where the Army Corps purposefully dredged up thousands of munitions in a beach replenishment project. Those munitions are still being discovered to this day and restrictions are in place to limit how much people can dig into the sand.

Harry Reid Doesn't Get It

Senator Harry Reid once again shows that he's not operating with a full deck:\

Those costs that you don't see on the bottom line. That is, coal makes us sick, oil makes us sick, its Global Warming, its ruining our Country, its ruining our World.”

Harry Reid - nutcase.

Perhaps the nation would have a nuclear alternative, but Reid opposes the opening of the national nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain, so the nuclear industry flounders.

Then again, Reid appears to ignore the fact that the medical industry relies heavily on plastics for everything from pipettes to IV bags and tubing. Plastics help ensure that medical devices are sterile for treatment. Plastics made from petroleum.

I guess Reid has never been sick or needed treatment or medications.

The world's health relies on plastics to deliver critical care, and yet Reid wants to demonize coal and oil as an energy source. At the same time, he and his fellow leftists thwart other potential power sources due to fear mongering (nuclear) and NIMBYism (hydro, wind, and tidal).

Criminal Neglect

This video is hard to watch. A woman is shown keeling over and passing out in a waiting area at the psych ward of Kings County Hospital and no one bothers to check on her.

A shocking video shows a woman dying on the floor in the psych ward at Kings County Hospital, while people around her, including a security guard, did nothing to help.

After an hour, another mental patient finally got the attention of the indifferent hospital workers, according to the tape, obtained by the Daily News.

Worse still, the surveillance tape suggests hospital staff may have falsified medical charts to cover the utter lack of treatment provided Esmin Green before she died.

"Thank God for the videotape because no one would have believed this could have happened," said Donna Lieberman, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union.

"There's a clear possibility of criminal wrongdoing with regard to recordkeeping, and that has to be investigated."

The city Department of Investigation is part of a sweeping probe that has brought some changes to the ward known as G Building.

More than 45 minutes later personnel come and attempt to revive her, but she's already dead. And Kings County hospital officials are under the gun to explain how and why this happened.

Several people have already been fired as a result of their actions. That's not nearly sufficient here. The City's Department of Investigations is looking into the matter, but I expect the District Attorney to bring charges against hospital officials, possibly criminally negligent homicide.

UPDATE:


UPDATE:
One of my friends happened to have worked at Kings County some time ago and she is quite familiar with the operations there. The following is excerpts from her email to me on the subject - I'm adjusting her comments to protect her identity and references to her:

She is amazed that something like this hadn't happened sooner. Overcrowding was and she believes that it is still a huge problem at Kings County, especially in the G-Building. A lot of times, she would come in to the G-ER (especially on an Monday morning) and patients would be sleeping in chairs because there were no beds available.

If one of patients required inpatient hospitalization and wound up in the G-Building, we'd get them transferred across the street to the unit at SUNY Downstate.

It's very sad and frightening that a lot of health professionals assume that because you have a psychiatric disorder, the physical symptoms you have are just in your head. One of the patients had been in and out of the medical ER at Kings County for persistent anemia. They'd just given the patient iron pills and sent them on their way. The resident who I was working with on this particular case was finally able to get a more thorough workup done. It turned out that the patient had lymphoma and was HIV positive.

The patient died shortly thereafter.

This is a city owned hospital, and the City will bear the brunt of the legal action. It's unconscionable that a medical facility would treat its patients like this.

Problems at this hospital have been systemic and ongoing for quite some time. Maybe it will take this horrible video to finally resolve those longstanding issues.

What Pressure?

MSNBC headlines that Robert Mugabe is bucking international pressure after stealing the election this past Friday. What pressure? The UN can barely scrape together a consensus to write a weakly worded statement. Sanctions are being blocked by China and South Africa, and the African Union's members are busy calling Mugabe a hero. For that matter, MSNBC reported that Mugabe was lauded as a hero. Do they not read their own copy?

Meanwhile, today's MSNBC report leads with the fact that Mugabe dismisses out of hand the idea of a power sharing agreement, which is the proposal put forth by the African Union.

Zimbabwe on Tuesday dismissed calls for a Kenya-style grand coalition government to resolve its election crisis, saying the way out would be decided the "Zimbabwean way".

President Robert Mugabe, 84, was sworn in for a new five-year term on Sunday after election authorities announced he had won a landslide victory in a one-candidate presidential run-off ballot that was boycotted by the opposition.

"Kenya is Kenya. Zimbabwe is Zimbabwe. We have our own history of evolving dialogue and resolving political impasses the Zimbabwean way. The Zimbabwean way, not the Kenyan way. Not at all," Mugabe's spokesman George Charamba told journalists at an African Union summit in Egypt.

I noted yesterday that Mugabe had no reason to even consider such a thing since he's the one in charge.

Why would a dictator give up power when he maintains absolute control over his failed state (of his own creation no less)?

As for the Zimbabwean way, Mugabe must be referring to the 80+% unemployment rate, crushing poverty and endless hunger because of his economic policies that have utterly ruined the country. Or, Mugabe is referring to his intimidation and oppressive tactics to destroy the opposition political party led by Morgan Tsvangirai. Either way, Mugabe will not be held accountable for any of his destructive policies by the international community until someone actually deposes him - a very unlikely scenario.

UPDATE:
Via Instapundit, this opinion piece eviscerates the left for supporting Mugabe all these years and only now coming around to the idea of deposing Mugabe. Had they taken this tact years ago, the misery endured by millions of Zimbabweans might have been avoided.

The Rebuilding of Ground Zero, Part 37

The mess at Ground Zero takes center stage at the New York Post today, with wall to wall coverage of the disastrous management by the Port Authority. Steve Cuozzo notes that the Port Authority is busy trying to unload the Freedom Tower construction on some other company, potentially Related Cos. or Brookfield, but the report released yesterday by the Port Authority omits any mention of the Freedom Tower and that mess.

Cuozzo savages the Port Authority for its ongoing decision to try and get Calatrava's PATH station built according to Calatrava's wishes, which is pushing the memorial and other projects behind schedule and affecting everything due to the extraordinary costs.

The Post highlights the six people most responsible for the mess: Larry Silverstein, George Pataki, Anthony Shorris, Avi Schick, Charles Gargano, and Eliot Spitzer. I'd argue that Silverstein is least responsible among that bunch for the mess, since he's been at the mercy of the Port Authority's Shorris and the EDC and LMDC, run by Pataki's people Gargano and Schick. Spitzer did nothing to improve matters, and it looks like Governor Paterson is taking the first steps to impose order on the site. Charles Ward's report shows just how bad things are when he can't even come up with all of the parameters for just how off the rails the rebuilding has gone.

Here's just a sampling of the problems:

Ward said he had found the following issues that are critical to the overall project were still unresolved:

- Final design of the transportation hub and vehicle security center.

- Demolition of the former Deutsche Bank building.

- Accurate projection of rising construction costs, primarily caused by the country's oil crisis.

- Coordination of more than 100 contractors and subcontractors and 19 government agencies.

- Design and schedule for rebuilding the Cortlandt St. subway station.

Ward offered no new timetables or cost estimates in his review, which was prepared at Gov. Paterson's request.

He said he hoped to do so by September if these critical issues are addressed.

Of course, anyone who has read through my coverage of the rebuilding at Ground Zero would know that it's been an absolute battle. Cuozzo and Tom Toupisis at the Post have been reporting on this for years as well. It's not like it was a secret that the rebuilding was a mess and that the Port Authority and Lower Manhattan Development Corporation have botched the rebuilding.

The Deutsche Bank building debacle is a significant reason for ongoing delays since it is where the transportation hub and security screening facility is to be located, and it has yet to be demolished due to ongoing contamination concerns and the fact that remains were discovered at the building in 2006, forcing a renewed search throughout the area.

And for those who think that Donald Trump will come in and save things, you'd be sadly mistaken. There is not going to be some massive redesign of the site followed by the construction of the Twin Towers. That's simply not going to happen as the site is being prepared for the construction of the currently planned towers. Imposing a completely new design for rebuilding at Ground Zero would push back all the timetables even further, and delay rebuilding for years.

It's also funny listening to some of the political "leaders" complaining about the glacial pace of reconstruction and the candor of the Ward report. Where were these people when the rebuilding was lagging years ago and could prod the political leaders most responsible into action? That includes people like Jerrold Nadler, Charles Schumer, Sheldon Silver, and Scott Stringer. They were missing in action, and only now do we hear from them? Sad.

UPDATE:
The Calatrava designed transit hub has gone through yet another revision. No longer will the soaring winged roof open. An opening will remain, but it's far smaller than previous versions. Of course, those aspects of the design were what got people interested in the hub in the first place. Pretty soon, it will look no different than the completely utilitarian and bland temporary structure we have at present.

Bus and Driver: Wesley Clark Edition

Today's issue of bus and driver finds that former Democratic party presidential candidate and former General Wesley Clark has been cast asunder by the Obama campaign.

Here's a statement from Obama spokesman Bill Burton on Wes Clark's controversial comments about McCain's military service. "As he's said many times before, Senator Obama honors and respects Senator McCain's service, and of course he rejects yesterday's statement by General Clark."

Still, one wonders whether Clark did his job in attacking McCain's military service and experience for Obama. After all, this is far from the first attack on McCain's military record and experience.

Mugabe Lauded As Hero By African Union

Hero.

“We have even received Mugabe as a hero,” he told reporters. “We understand the attacks (by the international community) but this is not the way they should react. What they’ve done is, in our opinion, a little clumsy, and we think they could have consulted us (the AU) first.”

Those were words uttered by Omar Bongo, President of Gabon, and a member of the African Union, which hailed the news of Mugabe's "election win."

Let that sink in folks.

Mugabe, who is nothing more than a dictator having stolen democracy from Zimbabweans, is a hero to these tools at the AU. And we're supposed to think that the AU will force Mugabe from office because Mugabe stole the election?

Isn't it amazing how Mugabe could declare victory hours after the runoff votes were cast, but he never provided results of the original election? He stole the election, and the AU is putting its rubber stamp on the process.

Of course, it helps when you terrorize the opposition and force them into hiding and into the Dutch Embassy.

The AU and South Africa in particular have done nothing but enable Mugabe in his totalitarian power grab.

Depraved Audacity

The people pushing attacks on Senator John McCain's military record and experience are engaging in nothing less than depraved audacity. They demean not only McCain's military record, but attack all those in uniform.

McCain served honorably in the US Navy as a fighter pilot, and was shot down after his 23rd mission over Hanoi. He was a POW for nearly five years and was repeatedly tortured.

Yet, Wesley Clark and others have the audacity to claim that McCain doesn't have military experience or the record on which to become President? Clark made the following nonsensical statement which got Bob Schieffer to do a double take.

Because in the matters of national security policy making, it’s a matter of understanding risk, it’s a matter of gauging your opponents and it’s a matter of being held accountable. John McCain’s never done any of that in his official positions. I certainly honor his service as a prisoner of war. He was a hero to me and to hundreds of thousands of millions of others in the armed forces as a prisoner of war. He has been a voice on the Senate Armed Services Committee and he has traveled all over the world. But he hasn’t held executive responsibility. That large squadron in the Navy that he commanded wasn’t a wartime squadron. He hasn’t been there and ordered the bombs to fall. He hasn’t seen what it’s like when diplomats come in and say, `I don’t know whether we’re going to be able to get this point through or not. Do you want to take the risk? What about your reputation? How do we handle it publicly?

Clark shoots Obama in the foot given that Obama has even less qualifications to discuss any military matters. Obama has no experience whatsoever dealing with the military. Obama never served, let alone commanded a unit of airmen - in peacetime or not. Further, it's not like the Cold War was exactly uneventful or without loss of life. Carrier pilots had to deal with danger on every single sortie.

From the Navy, McCain went on to serve in the US Senate and sits on the Senate Armed Services Committee. Obama is still barely through his first term in the Senate and his only experience on military matters is opposition to the war in Iraq and demanding the cut and run strategy before the surge showed just how ill informed Obama and the Democrats were.

McCain has led men in peace and war. Obama may have led ACORN in community drives.

Obama's experience is even more thin than McCain's for if you claim that McCain lacks executive experience what does one say about Obama who is even more untested?

Still, the leftists in the Democratic party continue pushing all kinds of smears about McCain's military experience, which frankly is beyond the pale. That includes the odious Sen. Jay Rockefeller, who all but called McCain's bombing missions a war crime.

You can argue that McCain lacks executive experience, which is a fair point, but those arguments cut against Obama even more given that he has even less experience on which to run. You can argue that McCain's military experience doesn't give him an edge over Obama. But denigrating that service only shows the depravity of those making those claims.

UPDATE:
Jammie lays the Democrats and notes that when Obama loses in November, these folks can look back at such tactics and pinpoint where it all started going downhill. AJ Strata rips John Aravosis a new one for wondering what, besides being tortured, did McCain do that excelled while in the military. Hot Air also takes the leftists to task.

The Rebuilding of Ground Zero, Part 36

For those hoping to see the 9/11 Memorial opened by the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, you're going to be in for a sad disappointment. Construction of the memorial, along with everything else at Ground Zero is continuing to fall behind schedule to the point where the schedules don't mean much at all.

The Port Authority is behind on getting the site turned over to Silverstein Properties for construction of 2, 3, and 4 WTC, while construction on the Freedom Tower continues to move at a snail's pace. The Deutsche Bank building and Fiterman Hall continue to stand despite the all too obvious need for their deconstruction for the site to move forward.

Indeed, the Port Authority ignored reports a year ago warning that the construction schedule was hopelessly falling behind.

Port Authority officials ignored private warnings a year ago that Ground Zero construction was far behind schedule - and that the Sept. 11 memorial would not be done in time for the terror attack's 10th anniversary.

The Lower Manhattan Development Corp. told the Port Authority's then-executive director, Anthony Shorris, and then-Gov. Eliot Spitzer that the PA's claims the work would be done on time were unrealistic, to say the least.

Memos obtained by the Daily News reveal that as early as last June, an engineering firm hired by the LMDC contradicted the authority's predictions in an in-depth review of the $16 billion Ground Zero reconstruction. The report was never made public.

In a December memo citing the report's findings, the LMDC warned Spitzer: "The original dates were never real and were driven and produced by PR people, not construction and engineering analysis."

The most shocking thing in the secret report was that construction of the WTC memorial was at least a year behind the Port Authority's claim that it would be done in time for the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attack.

Construction at the site has lacked focus and the Port Authority has lacked urgency, though that too can be traced to the three governors who have overseen the site - starting with George Pataki, Eliot Spitzer, and now David Paterson.

All three have taken an approach that has demanded little of the Port Authority to fulfill its promise to rebuild Ground Zero and to make sure that the key features of the rebuilding are done.

Further all those delays have real costs at the end of the day. The delays are adding billions to the cost of reconstruction, which means that some of the features have to be redesigned and scaled back, costing even more in the process.

More will be forthcoming later today as a scathing report is scheduled to be issued.

To put it bluntly, the Port Authority, the governors, and Mayor Bloomberg have all dropped the ball on the construction at Ground Zero. So far, the only person who has come through in fulfilling his promise to rebuild is Larry Silverstein who built 7WTC.

UPDATE:
The Wall Street Journal notes that the rebuilding will cost $3 billion more than prior estimates. Each delay causes a ripple effect of further delays and cost increases, for which someone will have to pick up the tab.

Extraordinarily Bad Law

This past Friday, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal (R) signed into law more than 70 pieces of legislation. None raised more eyebrows than one innocuously entitled the Louisiana Science Education Act. The bill was approved by the legislature by near unanimous consent. The House passed the final version 94-3. The Senate passed this bill 35-0.

With that kind of background, you would think that this law wouldn't be all that controversial. Yet, it opens the door to all manner of chicanery and may actually result in students being misinformed about various concepts than enlighten them.

Jindal signed it into law, despite people having serious concerns about the real purpose of the law. For starters, here's what the law, SB 733, says:

A. The State Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, upon request of a city, parish, or other local public school board, shall allow and assist teachers, principals, and other school administrators to create and foster an environment within public elementary and secondary schools that promotes critical thinking skills, logical analysis, and open and objective discussion of scientific theories being studied including, but not limited to, evolution, the origins of life, global warming, and human cloning.

B. Such assistance shall include support and guidance for teachers regarding effective ways to help students understand, analyze, critique, and objectively review scientific theories being studied, including those enumerated in Paragraph (1) of this Subsection.

C. A teacher shall teach the material presented in the standard textbook supplied by the school system and thereafter may use supplemental textbooks and other instructional materials to help students understand, analyze, critique, and review scientific theories in an objective manner, as permitted by the city, parish, or other local public school board unless otherwise prohibited by the State Board of Elementary and Secondary Education.

D. This Section shall not be construed to promote any religious doctrine, promote discrimination for or against a particular set of religious beliefs, or promote discrimination for or against religion or nonreligion.

E. The State Board of Elementary and Secondary Education and each city, parish, or other local public school board shall adopt and promulgate the rules and regulations necessary to implement the provisions of this Section prior to the beginning of the 2008-2009 school year.

The way it is worded does open up a whole can of worms, but not only on the issue of evolution, but on global warming, or any other issue for that matter. Whether you choose to believe in intelligent design, creationism, or evolution, is entirely up to you, but this law opens up the door to allow any and all materials to be used to supplement existing approved school materials.

It allows junk science to enter the classroom in the name of supplemental materials. Heck, a teacher could argue that The Inconvenient Truth is a useful educational tool to teach about ecology, the environment, and global warming. A geography teacher could bring in a Flat Earther to teach geology. A chemistry or physics teacher could bring in Rosie O'Donnell to talk about how steel can't be melted by fire.

Those may be extreme examples, but this law, as written, opens the door to those kinds of activities.

And it can work on any subject - in any direction. It could bring in supplemental materials you agree with or oppose, but therein lies the problem. How exactly are these materials vetted and what is considered acceptable. The law doesn't exactly spell it out, leaving it up to the school districts to decide.

For example, you might find that intelligent design is perfectly acceptable and should be taught alongside evolution in a biology class, but what about when the same school teacher uses An Inconvenient Truth to teach earth science, a concept that you oppose and consider junk science.

This law means that unless the state is going to entertain a whole new bureaucracy to determine acceptable materials, you're going to end up with a whole bunch of junk in the trunk. And each jurisdiction may come up to completely different results.

This bill opens the door for chicanery from all sides, not just on intelligent design. It opens up the teaching of various subjects to junk science - in the name of providing supplemental materials.

While I understand the general desire by Jindal and the legislature to do something to help Louisiana students learn, this law obfuscates the matter by allowing just about anything to enter the classroom in the name of supplemental materials. Of course, one has to wonder how is that any different than the current mess that Louisiana (or anywhere else) is in as this law may be little more than a codification of already existing practices, in which case the state of education is in worse shape than we can imagine.

Florio Fails To Persuade

Jim Florio, the former New Jersey governor who helped create the current fiscal mess in New Jersey, and who never met a tax he didn't like, has come out in opposition of offshore oil drilling along New Jersey's coast.

Never mind that New Jersey is home to one of the nation's largest refinery operations in Linden, New Jersey. Florio opposes drilling offshore:

The ban established by Congress in 1982, and supplemented by an executive order by the first President Bush, prohibits oil or natural gas leasing to private energy companies on the outer continental shelf, from three miles to 200 miles offshore. New Jersey political leaders of both parties have supported it, as have most other coastal state officials.

The reasons for opposition, offered in the format of a cost-benefit analysis, have been fairly straightforward. The benefits of drilling are limited. For the nation, such drilling, according to federal estimates, is limited to a few years' worth of consumption. New Jersey's contribution to that supply would be minuscule.

The actual flow of supply from such drilling is at least a decade away.It would therefore have virtually no impact upon current prices.

Notwithstanding these facts, McCain, while addressing oil industry representatives in Houston recently, stated his support for the administration's effort to repeal the ban on offshore drilling as a response to the current $4-per-gallon gasoline price crisis.

Critics maintain that in reality this is just an effort to allow the oil industry to tie up potential leases that they will explore at their leisure. The fact that there are thousands of miles of already issued oil leases that have not yet been explored lends some credence to the critics' argument.

On the other hand, the costs – or potential costs – for New Jersey's multibillion-dollar tourism industry are fully understood as a result of viewing the impact of accidental oil spills around the nation and world.

That fact has driven the support for the ban in New Jersey for years.

NIMBY has driven the ban for all those years, but now that the price of oil is beginning to seriously put a crimp in people's pocketbooks, they're starting to take another look at the potential major resource to be found offshore.

No one is claiming that offshore drilling will be a quick fix or panacea to the high price of oil, but doing nothing is not going to solve matters either. You simply cannot conserve your way out of this mess because the economy runs on petroleum - not simply to run cars and trucks, but to manufacture most every good that people take for granted. Indeed, the argument that offshore drilling is not a quick fix is often employed by those who opposed to drilling to counter an argument that proponents don't even make. It's a strawman argument that doesn't hold water because the only way to bring down the price of oil over time is to increase supply and reduce consumption - but you have to do both.

The concern about oil spills is a legitimate one, though the technology has improved tremendously from where it was just a decade ago, and there haven't been major oil spills in the US in quite a few years.

New Jersey could also do something that Florio would have loved to do had he thought about it back when he was in office - create a severance tax on oil and gas located offshore. Indeed, New Jersey could follow Louisiana's model by imposing severance taxes and regulatory fees. Louisiana has offshore drilling, and collected 12.5% of the value of the oil at the time it is recovered. Louisiana also imposes regulatory fees that go to administering the offshore drilling and response to potential oil spills. All those fees and taxes on offshore oil drilling has led to Louisiana posting a state surplus for their budget at a time when many other states are looking at shortfalls.

Deal for Dead

The Israeli Cabinet approved a deal that would swap remains of Hizbullah terrorists for Goldwasser and Regev, despite the fact that it is all too likely that both Israeli soldiers are dead.

The cabinet debated the deal for nearly six hours before the vote, which was approved 22-3, with Roni Bar-On, Ze'ev Boim and Daniel Friedmann the only ministers to vote against.

As well as freeing Kuntar, who is serving multiple life terms in a 1979 infiltration attack in Nahariyah, Israel will release dozens of bodies, including eight Hizbullah guerrillas captured during the Second Lebanon War, and a number of Palestinian prisoners.

Israel also agreed to give information regarding the disappearance of four Iranian diplomats in the nineties as part of the deal.

Hizbullah hails the deal as a show of their strength. They have every right to crow. They got what they wanted out of it, and Israel is bending over backwards to get the remains of their soldiers back. Releasing Kuntar and Palestinian terrorists is a tremendous mistake for Israel, and yet the Cabinet approved the measure 22-3.

The justification is that this deal doesn't cost Israel nearly as much as prior deals. Since when is that the guide? Israel is freeing terrorists who are more than likely to return to attacking Israel at their earlier possible opportunity.

The deal is expected to take place mid-July. Watch for Hizbullah to throw a massive party in celebration of Kuntar's release along with those of the other terrorists as a massive propaganda coup. We're also supposed to take Kuntar's attorney's word that he wont return to terrorism? What happens if and when he does? Do we get our money back?

Thug For Life

The New York Times notes that Robert Mugabe has sworn himself in as the president of Zimbabwe.

That's being far more charitable in the use of language than I would report. He's installed himself as thug for life. He's a dictator, and he set up militias full of his thugs to suppress the opposition and demand that those people who didn't vote in yesterday's election vote for him so that he can claim legitimacy.

There is absolutely no reason that any nation on the planet should recognize Mugabe as the legitimate leader of Zimbabwe. Mugabe stole the election and engaged in rampant intimidation and violence against the opposition.