Call to Action: Free Imprisoned Bloggers

The Committee to Protect Bloggers has declared Tuesday, February 22nd as "Free Mojtaba and Arash Day" to draw worldwide attention to two Iranian bloggers who are being held by the Iranian government for posting thoughts on their blogs that the Iranian government disagrees with.

Click on the link above to learn more.

Bloggers are an endangered species in countries like Iran, China, Saudi Arabia and other countries where repressive governments exist. Bloggers in those and similar countries risk their lives to express their views and face the death penalty or lengthy prison terms if they are caught and convicted. Mr. Mojtaba and Mr. Arash are two of many bloggers who have been arrested by their own governments for revealing things their governments have done, or what they think their government(s) should be doing.

Repressive governments responded harshly because various bloggers (and journalists from the print and media world) called worldwide attention to injustices that their repressive governments are totally and completely responsible for, don't want to admit to, and are terrified that news about what they have done is now in full view of the entire world, thanks to their own people who disagree with their brutal reigns of terror. Further, the fact that there are people within their countries with opinions different from the "official" position of the government scares those in power. As it should.

All nations on earth should respect not only Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, but the entire document as well. The stories of many imprisoned journalists and bloggers are at the link above.

The committee's web site at the link above has contact information for the Iranian embassy in the United States, suggestions on what to include in any letters, and general pointers. Human rights are not just for some, but for all, and we need to let those governments know that their dissidents are not alone, and that the truth will come out one day, no matter what they do to bury the knowledge of what they've done.

Media is Afraid of Bloggers: They Don't Have To Be If They Do Their Jobs

It’s been suggested that media outlets may become afraid of reporting negative stories on the administration because bloggers will poke holes in their stories.

That isn’t true.

What the media outlets should be afraid of is what will happen if they do anything except report the facts. CBS got into trouble because they wanted to get an untrue story about President Bush out on the airwaves before their competitors did first. As a result of that haste, they used falsified documents and were greatly embarrassed when it was proven that the documents on President Bush’s tour of duty in the National Guard were frauds.

It’s true that bloggers were the first to raise questions of the authenticity of the National Guard documents; there’s a prevailing snide attitude at the networks that bloggers are guys who sit in their living rooms wearing pajamas (that’s what former CBS executive VP Jonathan Kline said in a debate with Steven Hayes, writer for the Weekly Standard) when compared to the “checks and balances” system at CBS (and other networks) that Mr. Kline was extolling (and which failed miserably on the CBS story).

There are all kinds of bloggers; they come from different walks of life, and often have more depth than the talent at the networks. The bloggers that raised the authenticity issue were attorneys, analysts, average janes and joes, and so forth. The Internet community outmaneuvered CBS and the network had to hire people (who had similar training to some of the bloggers, mind you) to do an in-depth analysis of the documents to find out that the documents WERE false.

So, the media shouldn’t be afraid of doing their jobs, but they should fear the repercussions of deceiving the American public and making news instead of reporting it.

Israeli Civil War on the Horizon: Settlers Vow to Resist Forced Relocation

Israel’s cabinet voted to expel Israeli settlers from the Gaza Strip and from parts of the West Bank, which led militant settlers to vow to fight the relocation. Some Israeli Army units have promised to disobey orders to forcibly remove the settlers from their homes, which heightens the possibility of fighting between the government and the settlers.

Israeli Prime Minister Sharon is hoping to prevent an Israeli civil war and to move the peace process forward. It looks like Sharon has the support of the general Israeli public, though he has made enemies of many settlers, who are heavily armed.

Former Prime Minister and current Finance Secretary Benjamin Netanyahu voted no on the resolution and has indicated he will run against Sharon in their party elections to fight the peace agreement.

Until Yitzak Rabin was assassinated by an Israeli militant in November 1995, it was generally thought that Israelis did not kill Israelis, but Rabin’s murder threw that notion out the window. Hopefully Sharon won’t be targeted in the same way by a vocal minority who don’t want to leave their homes. An Israeli civil war won’t further the peace process, which many settlers oppose. It’s too bad that it has to be this way.

What Kind of Scam is Blockbuster Video Running?

Blockbuster Video is being sued by the Attorney General of New Jersey for deceptive advertising following complaints that Blockbuster didn’t inform clients that their new rental policy includes hidden charges that are de-facto late fees.

After so many days, the client’s debit/credit card is charged for replacing the video that the client believes he/she can hold onto for an extended period of time; when the video is returned, the fee is returned but $1.50 is kept for a restocking fee.

That, my friends, is a late fee.

The end of late fees, eh? Here’s the story.

China Upset With U.S. Assessment of Chinese Military Strength in Taiwan Strait

China is upset that the United States constantly gauges Chinese military strength that is arrayed against Taiwan and wants it to stop.

Fat chance.

The U.S. is required by law to supply Taiwan with weapons and intelligence on Chinese military units that are deployed to attack Taiwan and to assess threats to the island. China decries this as “severe internal interference in China’s affairs” and claims the island is a part of China, while totally ignoring the fact that a democratic nation that is not part of communist China exists there and IS (for all intents and purposes) independent of China.

Here's the story.

China has repeatedly threatened to attack Taiwan if it were to move for “full” independence, and to seek a seat in the United Nations, which it may well do in the future.

China ought to leave Taiwan alone, AND withdraw its troops from Tibet, which it illegally occupied decades ago, and allow the Dali Lama to return to his homeland. It would be great if China sponsored Taiwan's bid for a seat in the U.N. but they are intent on conquering the island so that probably won't happen either.

Terrorists Target Shiite Mosques Across Iraq During Sacred Shiite Holiday

Baghdad was again rocked by terrorist bombs going off in front of Shiite mosques as Shiites prepared to observe the Ashoura holiday, which is the holiest day of the year in the Shiite calendar. It is widely believed that Sunni extremists are responsible and are trying to trigger an Iraqi religious war to destabilize the newly elected government there.

To their credit, the Shiites have not taken the bait as they want the new government to succeed. Their religious leaders have been encouraging their people to support their new government and have encouraged Sunni Muslims to participate in the government, which is very encouraging news.

Between the Shiites and the Kurds, they control the majority of the seats in the legislature, with Sunnis in the minority, which reflects the religious makeup of the population of Iraq.

It is expected that the new Prime Minster of Iraq will be a Shiite, while the President of Iraq may be a Kurd. It will be interesting to see how it all works out.

Rumors of a Resurrected NHL Season Abound: It's Not Going to Happen and Here's Why

Hopeful rumors of a save of the 2004-05 NHL hockey season began almost immediately after NHL Commissioner Bettman got on stage and announced the termination of the season following failed negotiations between the players and the league. It won't happen. The league cannot afford it.

More information has come out about why the lock-out happened and how badly the NHL has done in the last ten years, going $1.8 billion into the red. It's astounding that the NHL hasn't folded after running deficits of at least $200 million per season.

The Edmonton Oilers were said to be on the verge of requesting that the NHL suspend its franchise or move the team as it was on the verge of a financial meltdown. In fact, every Canadian NHL team (except Toronto) is in major financial trouble, as are the American NHL teams in Atlanta, Anaheim, Nashville, and to a lesser extent in nine other American cities. Several teams have declared bankruptcy in recent years, including Buffalo, Ottawa, Pittsburgh and Los Angeles. Those teams were all acquired by people who kept the clubs running and reorganized them, but now those turnarounds are all imperiled.

The simple fact is that the NHL is too fat; salary caps won't save the league or the teams that are in trouble. It needs to lose about a dozen teams, which is very unfortunate, but it's the only way the entire thing can be salvaged. They need to do business a lot smarter, stop expanding into markets that won't support a NHL team, and make nice with the fans that are supporting their teams. One sports writer suggested that the NHL itself should file for bankruptcy, reorganize, and start anew. That might be a very good start.

So don't hold your breath waiting for the NHL to call another press conference and announce that an abbreviated season will be played following a breakthrough in negotiations. It would be irresponsible for the league to do so until it fixes the major financial problems that it has.

Strike the Colors: NHL Scraps Season

NHL Commissioner Bettman called a news conference today and cancelled the rest of the 2004-2005 National Hockey League season, despite the ongoing negotiations.

Too bad.

Partners in Crime: Iran and Syria Issue Joint Communiqué Against U.S.

Terrorist sponsors Iran and Syria have vowed to stand together in their terror wars against the West in general, and the U.S. in particular.

Syria doesn’t want to withdraw its troops from Lebanon or stop terrorists from crossing their border into Iraq, and Iran doesn’t want to drop its nuclear weapons ambitions.

Both do not like the fact that the U.S. is putting pressure on them to get out of the terrorism business and are being closely watched by Washington, other western nations, and the United Nations. They are letting their hostility toward Washington become known by publicly stating that they will stand together. Here's that part of the story.

Syria’s already interfering in Iraq by allowing terrorists to use its territory to stage bombings inside Iraq. Terrorists are entering from Iran as well, so their talk of not wanting to become enemies of the United States is misleading. Their terrorists are already at war with the U.S. military, so Syria and Iran should, at the very least, close their borders, man the border crossings and arrest terrorists as they encounter them and not just wave them through.

It's time for Iran and Syria to put up or shut up and prove their peaceful intentions.

Political Tire Slashing Trial Underway

The Milwaukee-area Election Day tire slashing defendents went on trial today, accused of slashing the tires of twenty-five vehicles being rented by the Wisconsin Republican Party to get out the vote. The crime carries a penalty of $10,000 per defendant and 3 1/2 years in jail.

Hooliganism has no place in American elections. Hopefully the courts will agree and make an example out of these five activists for damaging the property of others. It's too bad that they couldn't express their political views without destroying stuff.

Political violence should be a thing of the past, but it reared its ugly head in 2004. How many political election offices were damaged across the country? How many were burned? Shot at? Ransacked? It seemed like many areas reported problems.

How many houses and private vehicles were damaged because Bush's or Kerry's name were on the yard signs in front of those houses or on the bumpers of those vehicles? For that matter, how many yard signs were stolen?

Stupid people do stupid things, and using violence to convince someone that that the aggressor is right is a sign of serious immaturity. It's too bad we can't put people like that into an incubator for a few years and then take them out when they're done growing up mentally. They ought to learn to use that space between their ears for rational thought and communicating political discourse instead of acting like idiots.

Violence does nothing to further the democratic process.

U.S. Withdraws Ambassador to Syria; Damascus in the Crosshairs

A huge explosion in downtown Beirut, Lebanon, killed a former Prime Minister of Lebanon and sent shockwaves through the diplomatic community.

The attack killed Rafik al-Hariri, a Lebanese businessman who is credited with ending the civil war that decimated his country from 1976-1990. Syria subsequently occupied Lebanon and has been known to execute Lebanese citizens who protest the occupation of their country by Syria’s armed forces.

U.S. diplomats have accused Syria of not controlling the flow of Arab terrorists into Iraq from the Syrian side of the border. Also unanswered are questions of whether Saddam Hussein transferred his much-sought-after weapons of mass destruction program to Syria before the United States invaded Iraq.

Syria is still sponsoring terrorism despite their pledges of support to combat groups like al-Qaeda, Hamas, Hezbollah and Islamic Jihad.

Whether or not Syria had anything with the Beirut bombing remains to be seen, but it would be in Syria’s best interests to come completely clean on what it’s been up to.

Possible Last-Minute Save of NHL Season?

There was some movement overnight in the NHL contract discussions. Some are speculating that there may be a last-minute save of the 2004-05 pro hockey season.

Reportedly, the players union agreed to a salary cap but the teams and union disagreed on how big or small the cap should be. The union wants caps of $52 million per team, the NHL wants it restricted to $40 million per team. Negotiations broke down again shortly afterwards.

Since the union is now talking about salary caps, the NHL has dropped a demand that was labeled by union as “unacceptable” which featured a “revenue to player” link. Sounds pretty complex, but the NHL decided to move forward. The salary cap will probably happen and it will be somewhere between $40 million and $52 million per team.

A whole host of minor issues remains, but while the two sides were not budging on the salary caps, all of those smaller issues were set aside until the big issues were settled.

NHL Commissioner Bettman has rescheduled his news conference to Wednesday. It was originally scheduled for today, in which he would have cancelled the rest of the season, but since the two sides are finally making some headway, that announcement has been postponed by the NHL management.

It remains to be seen if the season can be salvaged.

2004-2005 National Hockey League Season Appears Doomed

Greed appears ready to sink the National Hockey League this season. Players, owners and the league have been unable to come to terms on the salary cap and some of the other issues that were dogging their progress, and after months of inactivity, they finally sat their a$$es down and talked about their issues. Sort of.

The result: no progress. As a result, NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman is calling a press conference on Tuesday to announce the cancellation of the rest of the season.

It is very likely that there will be no Stanley Cup awarded this year. This has not happened since the worldwide flu pandemic of 1919.

Shame on the NHL and the players union for not budging on the salary cap and allowing it to come to this! It doesn’t matter who is more at fault in causing the cancellation of the season, they are equally as stubborn. They’re going to have to crawl on their hands and knees and beg the fans to come back once this sorry state of affairs is settled. It took them years to get over the last major strike; this time it may take even longer.

"Baby 81" Identified and Reunited with Parents

Word came out of devastated Sri Lanka that DNA tests have conclusively settled the “Baby 81” situation that has been playing out for the last two weeks. Against all odds, a baby was pulled from tsunami debris days after a monster earthquake and resulting tsunami devastated the coastlines of a dozen south Asian and African countries; nine Sri Lankan couples claimed the child and the legal battle was on.

DNA testing was done and the rightful parents were identified.

The baby was ripped from his mother’s arms as she struggled against the tide to hold onto the child and keep from drowning with hundreds of thousands of others around the region who were swept away.

As of 8:00 a.m. Eastern Standard Time today, the death toll from the tsunami stands at 287,534 and that number keeps rising as searchers sift through ruined towns and villages. Faced with those staggering numbers, the fact that this baby survived the tsunami after being ripped from his mom’s arms by the waves, and was eventually reunited with his mom and dad (who both survived as well) is nothing short of miraculous.

New AIDS Strain: Highly Aggressive Strain Finally Gets Media Attention

The news that hit last week about a new AIDS strain that is, actually, not new.

There was a story last year about someone who was HIV positive, was taking experimental drugs to combat it, had unprotected relations with someone who had a different strain of HIV, and ended up with two different strains of HIV that turned into full-blown AIDS at a vastly accelerated rate.

Blood tests showed antibodies for both strains in the person that was being monitored as he was a test subject for the anti-AIDS drug.

Little attention was paid to the news then, but last week, a “new” strain of HIV emerged, which allows HIV to develop to full-blown AIDS within three months.

It’s the same story, but now people are paying a little closer attention. People having multiple partners who have other HIV strains, using unsafe methods and not caring enough to get tested or changing their behavior after learning they are HIV-positive has led to this aggressive strain emerging over the last couple of years.

When will people learn?

No Shuttle Repair Kit As Yet for May 2005 Shuttle Launch

It has been two years since the space shuttle Columbia erupted in fire and disintegrated 207,000 feet above the earth as it was making its way home from a space mission and shuttle debris began raining on Texas.

All seven astronauts perished and the investigation focused on the left wing of the Columbia, which was hit by debris during liftoff. Upon re-entry, plasma entered the left wing and caused the inside of the shuttle to burn. System after system failed until the integrity of the craft failed and the shuttle broke apart.

Following an investigation, recommendations were made, like the ones that were made after the Challenger exploded. One of them was to provide a kit that would repair holes in the shuttle if it was breached. Now, with three months to go before NASA launches the space shuttle Discovery into space, the kit and training haven’t happened.

The ideas that have been tried haven’t been too successful and NASA has struggled to come up with a good solution.

Oh, here comes that sinking feeling.

And here’s the story.

North Korea Declares Itself a Nuclear Power; Yet Says It Is Committed to Nuclear-Free Korean Peninsula

In the latest series of contradictions coming from North Korea’s propaganda machine, North Korea publicly declared itself a nuclear power, yet says that Pyongyang is committed to a nuclear-weapons free Korean peninsula.

It should be pointed out that North Korea can do that immediately by unilaterally disarming. If it has atomic or nuclear weapons, it can turn them over to IAEA control or sell them to Russia or China, which already possess nuclear weapons and the means to dispose of them.

It is doubtful that the U.S. will attack North Korea unless it is provoked, or North Korea starts a conflict, which it has done in the past. If a war starts between North Korea and the United States, it will be because North Korea attacks South Korea or Japan, thereby ensuring the destruction of the North Korean regime. North Korean possession of atomic arms makes an American attack MORE likely rather than deterring it.

Pyongyang should get with the program, disarm, get rid of the communists, hold free elections and then open talks with the south to move toward reunification and make Korea one free and independent nation.

The North Korean leadership doesn’t care about the people of North Korea; they just want to stay in power and are willing to use the nuclear gambit to get their way with their neighbors and with America. In the wake of losing millions of people to starvation over the last few years, they have chosen to focus the anger of the North Korean people on the U.S. and South Korea to stay in power, instead of taking responsibility and feeding their people. That is what’s really going on here.

Words in Molestation Cases: Insult to Injury

“Affair.” “Relationship.” “Love.” “Consensual.”

These are words that are commonly used in news stories where adults commit sexual acts on little kids.

The word “relationship” is too civilized a word to be attached to describing a sex crime perpetrated on a child by an adult. Yet that word is plastered all over news stories (especially recently) when stories hit page one about eleven-year-olds having “consensual” sex with the adult.

How can it be consensual? Pre-teens (and many teens too) don’t always have the judgment to analyze the long-term consequences of their actions. A child may be tricked by an adult that they trust into allowing “bad touch” sorts of things, but that is NOT consent. It’s manipulation by the adult to get the child to stop resisting what they wouldn’t normally do. And it's a crime.

These crimes are sickening, heartbreaking and a sign that we need to be doing more to protect children from predators. These children will have to live with what was done to them by an adult who was pretending to be their friend and was inflicting long-term permanent damage on the child's emotional/psychological growth and development.

"Consensual" my afterburner.

Social Security Double Standard: Is There or Isn’t There a Problem?

It’s interesting to note how the roles have been reversed in Congress with regards to the Social Security problem.

When President Clinton was talking about saving Social Security in the 1990s, the Democrats were agreed to the last member that Social Security was in “crisis” while the Republicans denied that.

Now, with a Republican president saying that Social Security is in crisis, the Democrats are in denial, and the Republicans are saying that Social Security is in crisis.

This just screams "Congress doesn't REALLY want to change Social Security!!" and "These people are the ones who are going to save Social Security??!"

Yeah, right.

Pope Resignation Talk: Leave Him Alone

There has been a media circus around Pope John Paul II since he came down with the flu and with his subsequent breathing difficulties and hospitalization.

It’s been suggested by some that the pope should retire, or “resign.”

Not.

There have been popes who have retired in ages past, but one of the last ones to do so was back in 1294. Pope Celestine V retired after only six months as pope; as he was a monk, he wanted to live a solitary life and so gave up being the pontiff in favor of returning to his roots. There were other papal resignations when there was more than one Pope running around, too (1415).

John Paul II can decide on his own what the fate of his papacy will be. If he decides that it's time to retire, then it's time for him to retire. If he chooses to remain, then let him remain. BUT, they need to come up with a plan of succession in the event that the Pope becomes incapacitated and can no longer communicate.

Catholic Canon law does not provide for what happens in the event of a papal incapacitation, but it is clear that Canon law calls for a Pope to guide the church and never intended for a rudderless Church to come into being. So hopefully JPII and the leaders of the church can come up with a plan of action before it's too late.

Even if the plan is to turn over the governing of the day-to-day operations of the Vatican to the Vatican Secretary of State until the Pope recovers, or dies and a new one is elected, that's better than what they have right now, which is nothing.

Target: Venezuela

Has anyone been following the news coming out of Venezuela?

President Hugo Chavez has imperiled his country’s fifty-year history of democracy by restricting free speech, replacing military officers with his own supporters, arresting Supreme Court Justices and replacing them with his own judges, and using violence against those who disagree with his one-man rule.

Neighboring countries are accusing the revolutionary leader of supporting Marxist rebellions in their own countries, and he has begun taking land away from Venezuelan landowners.

This two-bit thug has become a destabilizing force in South America, and more attention should be paid to containing the terrorists coming out of Venezuela in addition to monitoring those terrorists who directly threaten the United States. Latin America needs international attention too.

Emerging democracies must be protected against totalitarianism. Chavez has no right to attack his democratic neighbors by arming terrorists and allowing them to use his territory to launch attacks on them, nor does he have the right to arbitrarily throw democracy out the window without the consent of the governed.

Here's the story.

First Iraq War Medal of Honor to Be Awarded

After a year of waiting, twelve separate reviews on various levels that went through the division, through the Pentagon and all the way to the White House, a soldier is being awarded the first Medal of Honor of the Iraq War.

Sgt. 1st Class Paul R. Smith of the 11th Engineer Battalion, 3rd Infantry Division, was leading a group of sixteen men when they were ambushed by a battalion of Iraqi soldiers. Smith manned a 50 caliber machine gun and covered the withdrawal of his men and was fatally wounded by Iraqi return fire after going through four boxes of ammunition. He was the only American to die in the engagement.

Smith, of Tampa, Florida, joins a small group of soldiers who have been awarded the Medal of Honor since the Civil War. 3,439 men and one woman have received the Medal since 1863. Only 129 men who were awarded the Medal of Honor in World War II, Korea, and Vietnam remain alive today. Through the ages, 19 men have been awarded the Medal of Honor twice.

Sgt. Smith gave the last full measure of devotion to save the lives of his fellow Army soldiers. Many of his fellows are alive today because of his sacrifice. A web site has been made to honor his memory and to tell his story.

The awarding of the Medal of Honor to our brave soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan is overdue. Sgt. Smith will be honored next month at the White House; his family will accept the award in his stead. Here's the story. That medal is also symbolic of the brave sacrifices that so many have made in Iraq and Afghanistan. May their memories never fade.

Bye Bye Attorney General Ashcroft

If memory serves, outgoing Attorney General Ashcroft was supposed to restore honor and integrity to the Justice Department following the disastrous reign of Janet Reno at the helm of the Clinton Justice Department.

This did not happen.

Instead, Ashcroft supervised a coordinated assault on the Constitution in a way that hasn't been seen since the early days of World War II and the Red Scare.

Holding someone for three years (with an option of keeping them locked up for the rest of their natural life) because they MIGHT be a terrorist goes against everything that the founders of the country stood for. No trial for the accused? Re-read the Declaration of Independence and focus on the reasons why they were declaring independence from the King of England if a refresher is needed.

Yes, our enemy is deadly and is not bound by civilized rules of conduct or decency, but if we don't live by rules that keep the government in check, then we may one day wake up and find ourselves in a country that tolerates no dissent and locks up people who disagree with the government.

The government needs to stop the terrorists, but that can be done without shredding the Constitution or the 5th Amendment. Old-fashioned law enforcement, investigations, stings, take-downs and, if necessary, military action will help the government combat terrorism. Ashcroft's Patriot Act is a direct challenge to the supreme law of the land, the United States Constitution.

Bush is not out to start a dictatorship, but we can't predict what a leader will do fifteen years down the road. By weakening the Constitution today, we may be propping up someone who craves power more than observing the rule of law down the road. We are just asking for trouble.

Laws that are made in the heat of the moment are bad news; the wild emotion that make the passing of such laws possible eventually fades, and then we are left with the bad laws. So it is with parts of the Patriot Act. And that is why it must be corrected and revised.

Successful Iraqi Elections: A New Chapter in Iraqi History

It looks like the Iraqi people pulled off a successful election, their first in fifty years. By their courage and determination, they have effectively thumbed their noses up at the insurgents and shown them (the insurgents) that they do not have the support of the people.

If history has shown us anything over the last hundred years, it’s that democracy is often born from conflict. It took two world wars to bring democracy to central Europe, a Cold War which lasted another fifty years to bring Eastern Europe out of the shadow of communism, a civil war and break-up of Yugoslavia to bring democratic principles to that formerly communist-dominated territory, and a collapse of a superpower to bring democracy to Russia, Ukraine, and other former Soviet territories. Democracy is still tenuous in Russia and Ukraine, but it has begun. The first President Bush said “you can’t put democracy and freedom back into a box.” He was absolutely right.

For all the problems that the U.S. invasion brought with it, one of the benefits will be that democracy will take hold in Iraq. The people want it, despite the actions of the insurgency and foreign terrorists who, despite being dealt a knockdown blow by the Iraqi people today, continue to stream into Iraq to fight the U.S. military and the new democratic government of Iraq.

It’s a great day for Iraq, and hopefully, one giant step toward bringing our troops home.

Israel & Palestine Back on Track for Peace

Newly elected Palestinian President Abbas took strong steps this week to contain terrorism coming from the West Bank and Gaza Strip against Israel. He has deployed Palestinian police forces into those areas with express orders to stop terrorists and banned weapons from being owned by Palestinian civilians. Israel has responded by stopping military action in the Gaza Strip and stopped targeting Hamas members and leaders for assassination.

In addition, there is now talk of a summit between the top officials of Israel and Palestine and the prospects for a return to the roadmap to peace look brighter.

They still have a long ways to go, but at least they’re talking again, which is great news for the peace process.

Global Warming: More Propaganda

The sky is falling!! The sky is falling!! That’s how the latest global warming propaganda is coming across.

Scientists have adapted their data again so that the results look much worse than before and are now using it as a story. Here's what happened:

Climateprediction.net used 90,000 computers across the Internet to run their models with different variables. 2,000 simulations were run. Out of all those possible combinations, a handful of them predicted temperature rises of eleven degrees celsius. There was no timetable. Most of the other simulations predicted a 3.4 degree celsius increase in global temperatures.

Yet the journal Nature ran with the story that the temperature was going up 11 degrees and that the Kyoto Accords do not go far enough to stop it. And of course the pro-global warming media picked up on the story and ran with it as fact, while ignoring 99.8% of the other models in this so-called "study."

Global warming is inevitable. It's happened before, it will happen again. Ice core samples of the polar ice fields in Greenland show that the polar ice pack has melted several times over the last 500,000 years. Sound research suggests that temperatures across the planet undergo major changes every 1,000 years and that this cycle can be disrupted by volcanic activity and lack of sunspot activity, such as what happened from 1650-1680 and resulted in major weather changes in Britain. The global warming crowd ignores stuff before 1750 (the beginning of the Industrial Age).

For an interesting read, click here. This article will not be popular with the global warming village people, but they keep manipulating the data to produce the results that they want. That isn't scientific research, that's propaganda.

When Politics Go Bad: Activists Charged With Election-Day Sabotage

If you remember, before the general elections in November, a number of political offices were shot at, looted and burned, flag displays in front yards were vandalized, yard signs were taken, homes were damaged, and cars with the wrong bumper sticker were vandalized. All of this was done in the name of "exercising political expression." Nonsense!

At least five activists in Wisconsin were charged today with slashing the tires of twenty-five rented vehicles in the employ of the state Republican Party. Several others in four other states were under investigation for their role in the vandalism. Idiots!

The punishments for such crimes are not severe enough to deter overly emotional people from acting on those emotions. Hatred kills common sense and lack of common sense gets idiots like those who were charged in Wisconsin into serious trouble.

Katherine Harris of Florida was nearly run over by an upset Democrat who was "excercising his political expression." (See news brief here). There were other reports of people being threatened regardless of their political affiliation. This must stop.

Politics is politics, but violence is not politics. Violence in all forms is a crime. Period. Some of these idiots say that they were upset about this or that and acted on their emotions. And some activist judge will probably be sympathetic to their feelings and give them probation instead of a good kick in the a$$!

Perhaps some time behind bars will cure these idiots of their stupidity and convince others to think twice before acting on their hatred.

Elian Gonzales Illegal Use of Force Trial Underway

Thirteen people who suffered various "injuries" during the illegal raid on a house in Florida that saw federal agents under then-Attorney Janet Reno’s orders capture Elian Gonzales have begun a lawsuit against the government.

Reno sent the agents in after being told by a federal judge that his American relatives could keep the kid until the appeals were finished. This was in April 2000.

But Reno decided she didn’t want to wait any further and ordered the agents to storm the house, break down the doors, wave guns around and use tear gas on anyone who got in the way. And they did.

The father should have eventually gotten custody of his child, but the legal system should have been allowed to sort this out without the use of violence or illegal orders from the Justice Department.

The Reno Justice Department chose to break the very law it was supposed to be upholding by taking the action it did. What happened was inevitable, but the way it happened was unconscionable.

Let the courts sort out the trauma cases.

The people who ordered those agents into that house need to take responsibility for their decisions; something that hasn't happened yet. In other words, Reno ought to be on the stand too so this flagrant government violation of due process can finally be answered and an ugly chapter in the history of the U.S. Justice Department can finally be closed.

FCC Director Resigns: Hopefully Not a Set-Back for Decency on Airwaves

“Embattled” Federal Communications Commission chairman Michael Powell is stepping down following the start of President Bush’s second term in office.

Why are the networks describing him as “embattled?”

Because shock-jock Howard Stern criticized him on the radio? Who saw thousands of protestors picketing in front of the FCC offices, criticizing his control of the FCC? Didn’t happen. How many lawsuits were filed against the FCC, charging that the First Amendment was being violated? Very few. How many pro-Janet Jackson letters came in? Not many.

No, he wasn’t embattled. All he tried to do was clean up the programming on radio and TV. He was criticized because the various radio and TV networks didn’t want to clean up their act. He was criticized because Stern’s sleazy show knew what the rules were, proceeded to stomp all over them, and in response the FCC sent Stern packing to satellite radio. And the now-infamous wardrobe malfunction? Yep. Sure.

So Powell should be praised for doing a good job and sharpening the teeth of the FCC.

There should be balance, but if the networks had their way, they’d continue lowering the standards of decency in favor of beating their competition. Strengthening the FCC was the only way to slam on the brakes so that people have a little more of a say in what the networks present on TV or how personalities say things on the radio. That's a major point; radio personalities can express their views, but HOW they express them is the issue.

A strong FCC is needed to punish the sleaze-mongers who break the rules and dare the FCC to do something about it.

Boycott the Boycott

There is a movement underway to bring the economy to a standstill on Thursday during the Presidential inauguration ceremonies. People are being encouraged to call in sick, stay home, not to shop on Thursday, not to watch TV, not to make long distance phone calls and so forth.

The point of this is to draw attention to the fact that not everyone agrees with President Bush and that the money that is not put into the economy cannot be taxed, and therefore not be used to fight the ongoing war in Iraq, to support President Bush's programs and to show that Bush does not have a mandate. They are doing this to vent their rage at Bush.

Bush got 3.5 million more votes than Kerry did on Election Day. They're still talking about the thousands that were "disenfranchised" but the thousands still aren't enough to overcome the millions that went in Bush's favor.

So who is this boycott going to hurt first? It's going to hurt the people who can least afford a boycott: the working class. Will it hurt Bush personally? No. He knows he didn't have 100% of the vote.

This boycott will be as useless and as harmful to the average American worker as the so-called "gas-outs" were. The gas companies laughed and still made millions in profits.

A note to those who are considering participating in the boycott: find a better way to show your displeasure with the policies of the government but do it in a way that doesn't hurt people making minimum wage. Make a web site. Use your e-mail to express your displeasure (not in a threatening way, mind you). Protest. Make noise. Do whatever you need to to do to get it out of your system. Run for office.

But don't take it out on others who may have voted the same way you did.

EU Politicizes Unveiling of World's Largest Commercial Aircraft

It’s amusing that the leaders of the European Union have hailed their “victory” over the United States in the production of the world’s largest passenger jet.

No, it was an Airbus victory over Boeing. It was a little strange that European political leaders used the occasion to throw barbs at Washington but politicians are the same the world over.

Airbus needs to make money fast or their thirteen-billion dollar bird will turn this victory into a catastrophe for Airbus.

Why exactly do the struggling airlines need aircraft that big? They’re plenty big now and can’t fill the seats they already have available. How much money will the airlines lose per flight if they can’t fill every seat? Will there be any savings by replacing smaller aircraft like the 747s with these gigantic aircraft?

The military would probably like them a lot; they could transport an entire division of troops with twelve of the A380s.

Iran to World: We Can Repel U.S. Attack

Iran is reacting to a U.S. newspaper's "revelation" that the U.S. military is conducting reconnaissance operations inside Iran to identify nuclear and military targets by saying that they can repel any U.S. attack.

Yeah, right! They lost their eight-year war against Iraq, for crying out loud, and the U.S. beat the Iraqi military (that Iran couldn't) in six weeks. While no one is interested in seeing the U.S. cross swords with Iran over its nuclear ambitions, Iran's posturing IS highly dubious.

Unlike Iraq, any military conflict with Iran would have a definite start and a definite end and would not end with a U.S. occupation of Iranian territory. Current thinking is the U.S. would come in, destroy what it wanted, and then pull out immediately. The question would then become: would Iran continue the conflict by sending its military and Revolutionary Guard units across the border to attack U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan?

Let's not find out. The U.S. needs to restore order in Iraq, get out of there and retool the U.S. military before opening another front in the war on terror.

France and Germany are making all the noise about Iran's nuclear program. Let's see their intelligence on the subject for a change.

Court Upholds President Bush's First Amendment Rights

The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia threw out a lawsuit that an atheist had brought against the government that challenged the use of an invocation and a benediction at the Presidential Inauguration.

The court decided it did not have the power to order a President-elect to remain silent at his own inauguration and that banning the prayers would amount to the same thing. This is a victory for the First Amendment against a frivolous lawsuit.

The plaintiff first came into the public eye when he challenged the government in court over the same issue four years ago when George W. Bush took office. Since then he's filed a lawsuit against the Pledge of Allegiance, claiming that the words "under God" violates the left-loved "separation of church and state" clause that the courts created and have upheld ever since.

That first case was thrown out by the U.S. Supreme Court because he did not have custody of his daughter, whom he claimed was victimized by the recital of the Pledge, and did not have the support of the mother (who has custody of their daughter and opposed the case.)

He recently re-filed the case without using his daughter as his pawn and with eight other families who support his cause.

That entire case with the Pledge came across as a man using his daughter to gain social brownie points for himself with his legal attack on the Pledge. That's very sad.

Israeli Prime Minister Sharon Breaks Off Talking to Palestinian President Abbas: Dumb Move

Israel cut communications with newly elected Palestinian President Abbas a day after militants broke with Abbas and bombed a Gaza Strip crossing, killing six Israelis.

What is Israel doing?

They should be helping Abbas deal with the terrorists, not cutting ties with him and telling him to get a handle on the Palestinian territories as a precondition of resuming relations with him.

Has Israel forgotten that Arafat isn’t around anymore and that Abbas is the democratically elected leader of the Palestinian people? They should treat him as the leader of a nation and not like Arafat. Isolating Abbas will only insure his downfall and failure; it will not motivate him.

Abbas represents the best chance that the Israelis have in making peace in the occupied territories so they should work with him instead of against him.

Israel needs to confront its own behavior in dealing with the Palestinian leadership and begin to realize that Abbas cannot control all of the terrorist groups. Some of those groups are dedicated to destroying Israel and do not care about what Abbas says.

Get with the program, Sharon.

Court Decision on Prayer at Inauguration Expected Today

The atheist who has legally attacked the Pledge of Allegiance in California has now attacked President Bush's personal First Amendment rights as well. In a court case sure to make waves, he has continued his attempts to ban displays of religion in public because he is offended by them. This time he's making an issue in Washington, DC.

He is challenging the practice of having an opening prayer at the inauguration of the President. If his challenge is upheld, it will ban the practice which began with George Washington's inauguration. A ruling is expected today.

Shouldn't it be the right of the President to choose whether or not to have prayers at his/her inauguration? Does the court have the right to choose the religious rights of one person over another person? That's what this is about.

If the man who is challenging the practice doesn't like prayers at someone else's inauguration, then he should change the channel or get out of town.

Here's the background.

Nazi Stunt Lands Prince Harry in Hot Water

What on earth was Prince Harry of Great Britain thinking when he showed up to a party wearing Nazi regalia and wearing a swastika armband? This is no laughing matter.

For a British royal to do something like this defies belief. People in the UK are now asking that the Prince apologize in person and on international TV and to visit a Nazi death camp (Auschwitz) with the British delegation that will be going there later this year to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the camp by Allied troops.

A photo appeared on the cover of the British tabloid “The Sun” under the headline “Harry the Nazi.” The photo will not be posted here.

For someone who vowed to lift his mother’s torch and carry on her mission in her stead, he’s not doing a very good job of presenting himself in the best traditions of humbleness, strength and humanity.

The prince has offended so many people this time that he will be making up for it for a very long time to come. The criticism coming from Britain itself is scathing and the international reaction is coming in hot and heavy as people wake up to this scandal coming from the royal palace.

What did he think the reaction would be?

Disgraceful!

Michael Jackson Trial....Re-Enacted??!

Oh, no…

E! Entertainment and British Sky Broadcasting (BskyB) are planning on taking daily transcripts of the upcoming Michael Jackson molestation trial and dramatically re-enacting the court proceedings since cameras are banned from the courtroom.

This is just great. More quality television on the way.

The Jackson trial is going to be a bigger circus than the O.J. Simpson trial and the Scott Peterson murder case combined.

They’ll probably make a TV movie about the odd happenings at the Neverland Ranch based on the testimony at the trial too. It will be decidedly...disgusting.

Carry that thought forward. If he's convicted the other prisoners in the system will decide to beat the stuffing out of Jackson right in front of a camera to make themselves famous. Then some diabolical genius will probably put the footage on pay-per-view and make millions!

Sick and wrong!

Patriot Act Misused to Charge Man With Pointing Laser at Aircraft

A man who was accused of pointing a laser beam at a landing chartered jet’s cockpit area and a helicopter in New Jersey has been arrested and charged with a violation of the Patriot Act.

THE PATRIOT ACT??!

The FBI has admitted that this incident had nothing to do with terrorism, but charged him under the auspices of the Patriot Act of 2001, saying the man was “foolhardy and negligent.”

Why does the government do stuff like this?

Are they so desperate to give the Patriot Act good press that they are stooping to this level?

He is being charged with interfering with the operator of a mass-transit vehicle and for lying to the FBI after he accused his daughter of doing it.

The charge was only leveled against the shining of the airliner and not the helicopter. The reason for this is that a helicopter is not recognized as a mass-transit vehicle under the Patriot Act.

If the Patriot Act were not being used, this man would be facing at least seven federal charges. But he’s facing two under an Act that is being reviewed by a federal court on whether it’s constitutional or not. This sounds like a case that’s going to slip through the government’s fingers.

Here's the story.

Star Wars Defense Shield Revisited--Part II

Going on with the Star Wars anti-missile system, the topic of rogue nations is frequently mentioned by the proponents of the shield.

It is feared that the U.S. will one day be threatened or attacked by a rogue nation and that’s the primary basis for the anti-ICBM system.

Would such a system work? The test results thus far have not been encouraging. It also doesn’t take “local” threats into consideration either. What if an enemy launched a SCUD with a nuclear warhead from a freighter off the coast of New York instead of firing it from four thousand miles away? The system doesn’t account for that. What about a sub-launched missile from off the coast? Would there be time to redeploy anti-missile assets to deal with a missile impact that would occur three minutes later?

Theatre defense will address these areas that are being ignored in favor of a bigger picture. Continuing to develop missile defense systems that protect smaller areas of territory is definitely worth the cost.

Star Wars Defense Shield Revisited--Part I

There are some who are not entirely convinced that a missile defense shield will be necessary in the war against terror.

It is highly unlikely that al-Qaeda will launch an ICBM at the United States. It's more likely that they will try to smuggle a warhead into the U.S. and then detonate it when it is precisely where they want it to be. So why do we need a missile shield if the enemy pre-positions WMDs on our soil?

As far as protecting American territory from terrorists, more money should be spent on border interdiction to stop WMDs from being smuggled in by al-Qaeda and other similar groups.

CBS News Wraps Up Internal Investigation on MemoGate

Does anyone remember MemoGate?

CBS finally issued their final MemoGate report today on the falsified National Guard documents that CBS News used in their September 8th, 2004, edition of 60 Minutes. Those falsified documents accused President Bush of lying about his National Guard service during the Vietnam era. It appears that the investigation was very thorough.

However, some of their conclusions are wrong. There was indeed an axe to grind and party stalwarts at CBS attempted to carve a piece out of George W. Bush's hide to help Senator Kerry on Election Day.

It was a character assassination attempt that went seriously wrong and CBS got caught on it. Their like-minded competitors criticized CBS for its actions on one hand, but then justified the reporting as being perfectly legitimate because the feeling behind it was "right on." Bull!

This entire story was not about Bush and Kerry, but about CBS News making the news instead of reporting it. It was wrong during the campaign, and it is wrong today.

Stunts like this have made it possible for right-wing news organizations to attract a huge number of viewers. Why? Because they tell the other side of the story. Who likes to hear one side of an argument before taking a side? Most informed people want to know the issues before deciding on where they stand and are tired of news organizations who use an emotional appeal to tell only one side of a much larger story.

The right-wing media has nothing to crow about either. They've done their fair share of rubbish reporting too. All news organizations should pay attention to what's happened to CBS because the same thing could happen to them if they take short-cuts and try to make the news instead of reporting it.

A personal suggestion to the CBS people who lost their jobs today over this scandal: you ought to consider running for office. If you feel that strongly about your politics, then do something about it. But don't pretend to be objective journalists, because you clearly are not. Your own falsified report proves it.

Earth Still Vibrating From 9.0 Earthquake

The earth is still feeling the aftereffects of the 9.0 earthquake that loosed tsunamis on a dozen nations and sent smaller waves all the way around the world.

Some thirty-two hours after the earthquake, thirteen-inch waves hit the coast of central Florida. They were not noticed by humans, but the tsunami warning systems that are active on the U.S. coast clearly noticed them as they approached the coastline. Similar waves registered on tidal gauges off of Russia’s Pacific coastline.

According to scientists, they can still hear the earth reverberating. They have a baseline to compare today’s data to and the sound the earth is making is still well above normal. This oscillation is likely to continue for several weeks.

We’re just now beginning to grasp what effect this earthquake had on the entire planet. It just goes to show that while humans are the dominant life-form on the planet, when the planet lets loose with a catastrophic display of raw power, all we can do is run for our lives and try to get out of the way.

If you are of the mind that humanity will destroy itself in the end, the question becomes: will we destroy the planet, or will it destroy us?

Post-Arafat Democracy Arrives in Palestine

The Palestinian people are to be congratulated on having a successful election, which saw Mahmoud Abbas elevated to the top spot in the Palestinian Authority. Hopefully, as Palestinian President, he will be able to broker peace with Israel and establish a Palestinian state which will live side-by-side with Israel in relative harmony.

“Relative” being the key operational phrase. It is doubtful that the terror groups will stop their attacks on Israeli territory, but hopefully the Israelis and Palestinians will stop shooting at one another long enough to work together to combat terrorism. Abbas needs to distance himself from some of his comments during the campaign and Israel needs to keep more of an open mind. It will be up to Abbas, the Israeli leadership, the U.S. and other intermediaries to keep the momentum going.

The chance for an enduring peace has improved; the arrival of democracy in Palestine is historic and Abbas has a mandate from the Palestinian people to move forward with peace efforts. After all the suffering and bloodshed, any good news is welcome.

"Under God" Under Attack Again

The atheist who originally filed a lawsuit to ban the words “under God” from the Pledge of Allegiance is at it again.

He won the case in a federal appeals court but was shot down by the U.S. Supreme Court because he did not have custody of his daughter and because her mother objected to the lawsuit.

He’s re-filed the lawsuit with a group of parents (and without his daughter) in California. This time when it reaches the Supreme Court, the Court will either have to rule on it, or allow whatever decision the appeals court reaches to stand.

One fails to understand why he filed the original lawsuit in the first place; he did not have custody of his daughter and so could not (and cannot) make decisions for her without the approval of his ex-wife. It sounds like he tried to use his daughter to score political points and got slapped down the last time.

This time he’s recruited a small group to give his cause more legitimacy.

Barring unforeseen legal turns, there will be a decision this time and no postponements.

If the high court rules in favor of keeping “under God” in the Pledge, then this issue will finally be laid to rest and the vast majority of Americans will be satisfied with the outcome. Polls are overwhelmingly in favor of this result.

One would hope that IF the Court rules that “under God” is unconstitutional that the majority of people continue to use “under God” in the Pledge when they say it to show their disapproval of the court decision and to make the minority squirm with the knowledge that the First Amendment trumps their court-imposed God-ban.

United Nations Must Not Fail Tsunami Survivors

Now that the United Nations has control of relief efforts in South Asia to aid tsunami and earthquake victims, they had better not drop the ball.

Early reports say that after the change-over in command, there was a breakdown in communication between aid groups, the various militaries that are assisting in moving supplies around and the various U.N. agencies.

This is not good. Hopefully the problems have been rectified and the movement of aid continues unhindered to those who need it the most.

VIP's Get in the Way of Relief Efforts

It's being reported that so many VIPs are flying in and out of Banda Aceh's (Sumatra Island) small airport that the flow of supplies and critically needed materials are being disrupted.

Enough, already! The area's destroyed! What else do these people need to know?

With Colin Powell's visit, his plane took off immediately after dropping him off to avoid taking up room; American congressmen arrived from the USS Abraham Lincoln via helicopter for the same reason. Others international dignitaries have not been so courteous.

Sounds like someone needs to get a handle on things over there.

U.S. Accepts U.N. Leadership in Asian Tsunami Relief Efforts

The United States has made a good decision in turning over command and control of the disaster relief efforts to the United Nations and the World Bank.

Those agencies are more appropriate for handling the humanitarian relief efforts as they represent the entire family of nations. The U.S. coalition that was organized will be dissolved and their considerable power and influence will be thrown behind the U.N. effort, which is very good news.

The ultimate goal is to get aid to people who need it, not to grandstand in the face of such devastation.

Attorney General Confirmation Hearings: Independence of the AG in Question?

Sean Hannity said on his radio show yesterday that Attorney General nominee Alberto Gonzales is exactly what the country needs to prosecute the war on terror. The “exactly” part is the issue that scares people.

The Attorney General must be loyal, yet independent from the President. This, by definition, means that the AG should not be a close personal friend of the President, which Gonzales is. His work records indicate he would probably be a very good Attorney General, but his independence would be highly questionable.

Janet Reno turned her Justice Department into a shield for the scandal-ridden Clinton Administration, blocking probes of wrongdoing by Clinton’s people, and the President himself. She shortcut the law when she illegally seized Elian Gonzales without a sanction from the court. The Ruby Ridge and Waco standoffs were disasters; a boy was fatally shot by federal agents at Ruby Ridge, and the Branch Davidians burned inside their compound after tear gas was pumped into the main building. That has not been fully explained yet either.

John Ashcroft had this annoying habit of ignoring parts of the Constitution in Bush’s first term in office as Attorney General during his prosecution of the war on terror. The Attorney General swears to “preserve, protect and defend” the Constitution of the United States, which is the supreme law of the land; the actions of the Ashcroft Justice Department tried to navigate around them. Consider: citizens held without trial for over three years; questionable interrogation tactics; illegal detainment issues; end result: denial of justice. Ashcroft showed remarkably little faith in the criminal justice system that he was supposed to be supporting.

I hope when Gonzales is confirmed (he will be), he does the job right.

Marine Accused of Desertion...Disappears

The Marine who was thought to have been kidnapped in Iraq by terror groups but unexpectedly showed up at the U.S. Embassy in his native Lebanon, has "disappeared" once again. This time, he's gone missing...not in the sands of Iraq, but from an airport in Utah.

Given the highly dubious story that his captors transported him to Lebanon and dropped him off to see his family, that's not entirely unexpected.

Key questions: why did the military let a soldier accused of a crime go on leave? His family could have come to him. And what is going through this man's mind right now? And if he didn't want to play Marine in a war zone, why on earth did he volunteer to join them? It's still an all-volunteer military so he wasn't drafted. He could have joined another service that could have kept him out of the infantry.

When he's caught in Lebanon, he'll probably say he was trying to return to his unit in Iraq. Pathetic.

Mixed Messages From Bush Administration on Human Rights

The Bush Administration took a major step forward in advancing human rights and then took two steps backwards with a plan to hold onto detained people for the rest of their natural lives without having to charge them with a crime.

Human Rights advocates were cheering early last week but were crying the blues by the end of the week, so it was a mixed message that the Administration sent out.

It started with an announcement that the Bush Administration was enlarging their definition of what “torture” constituted, which now includes some of the things that the military, CIA and FBI have done in Cuba, Afghanistan and Iraq. This was cause for celebration in some quarters.

Then a few days later, unnamed sources claimed that the Bush Administration was preparing legal briefs to hold some prisoners for the rest of their lives without so much as charging them with a crime. Thank you very much.

Sometimes Administrations leak information to the media to get a reaction from the general public to see if it would enjoy support on one issue or another, and this appears to have been the case for the “life sentences without a trial” situation.

This needs to be resisted.

Lieberman to Propose Global Tsunami Warning System

Senator Joe Lieberman intends to propose building a worldwide tsunami warning network to give people time to move away from the coastlines when giant tidal waves are detected heading in their direction.

This is long overdue. With the utter devastation that we have seen on our television screens since the day after Christmas from South Asia, what more proof do we need?

Millions spent on such a system will not stop the waves from smashing everything in reach, but if we could save hundreds of thousands or millions of lives in the process, that’s well worth it.

Now that global attention is on how deadly tsunamis can be, it is the perfect time for nations to participate in setting up a global warning system.

U.N. Needs Top Role in Asian Disaster Relief

The Bush Administration has started to do things that are hampering worldwide relief efforts to Asian nations that were devastated last week.

It has been five days since a massive earthquake measuring 9.0 on the Richter Scale struck off Indonesia's coast and created monster tidal waves that killed hundreds of thousands of people in a dozen Asian and African nations. In response to the disaster the United States formed a coalition of nations that included the U.S., India, Japan and Australia. The U.S. has insisted that those nations will lead the world response to the disaster.

Time out, time out, time out!

These nations need to take a back-seat to the United Nations in this instance. India's west coast lies in ruins and they're saying 'no thank you' to international aid. And why the U.S. insisting on supplanting the United Nations relief efforts? Since so many nations were devastated, only the U.N. has the mandate to act on behalf of its member states.

It should be noted that Indonesia, India, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Thailand, Burma, Bangladesh, Maldives, Seychelles, Tanzania, Kenya and Somalia all have two things in common: they are not U.S. territories; they ARE members of the United Nations. So who should have more say-so? Figure it out. If this tidal wave had hit the United States, then the U.S. would have the ultimate say-so. But it didn't.

For the U.S. government to take hasty action now (and trumpet about it loudly) to deflect criticism that they were slow in responding to the international disaster is in very poor taste.

Now, on a related topic, the French are in a contest with the U.S. over who is giving more aid. Both governments need to grow up and donate because it's going to help people, not to one-up the other. Here's that story. Absolutely childish! I've never heard of such rubbish in the face of such widespread destruction. Get on with it, already!

Wal-Mart Takes Up Target’s Slack With Salvation Army

Wal-Mart has responded to Target’s throwing the Salvation Army bell ringers out of its stores by starting a $1 million matching-funds program.

Target only supports certain types of (gay) groups and not the Salvation Army, nor military veterans’ organizations. Wal-Mart supports whomever it can, and is more inclusive in its donation program.

Wal-Mart made the decision after the Salvation Army announced that donations were down nationwide.

According to a recent news article,”the Salvation Army provides services to the community, including food, companionship to the elderly and ill, clothing and shelter to the homeless, opportunities for underprivileged children, relief for disaster victims and assistance for the disabled, among others.”

9.0 Earthquake Moves Islands and Causes Earth to Wobble on Its Axis

Our planet has demonstrated its awesome power in a way that most had not though possible. The 9.0 earthquake that rocked South Asia and created powerful tidal waves released the same amount of energy that would have been released if a million nuclear bombs had gone off at the same moment.

Geologists and scientists say that when the two plates snapped, it caused some of the islands that were closest to the earthquake to move anywhere from 66 to 120 feet away from their former positions. This earthquake has permanently altered the geography of Southern Asia. Even more amazing, it affected the entire planet’s rotation as it orbits the sun. This is unbelievable.

The brains are waiting to find out if the change in rotation will have an effect on weather patterns around the world or if the shockwaves from this shattering earthquake will cause other fault lines around the world (and the Rim of Fire especially) to weaken and loose Earth’s fury upon our civilizations once again.

At this hour the authorities are reporting 24,000 dead in ten countries..

Seat Belts Being Ignored at Great Cost

The author usually writes in third-person to avoid writing personal stuff that gives away too much personal information, but this post requires that he does so.

For the second time this year, I find myself grieving for young teens who have died in a car accident. This time it was two fourteen year-old kids who were ejected from the car after the young driver they were with accelerated to unsafe speeds, lost control and went into a ditch. The kids sitting in the back were not wearing seat belts and died at the scene. The two people sitting in the front seats were wearing seat belts and survived. To die like this on Christmas Day...I feel terrible for all the families involved and their friends.

It's an old story...young drivers getting behind the wheel without an adult present; showing off what their car can do, and getting into a disaster like this one.

Seat belts are installed in motor vehicles for a very specific purpose; to make sure that people's asses stay in the seats in the event of an impact.

This latest disaster follows another accident three weeks ago which was eerily similar; two dead fourteen year olds without seat belts in the back seat; two banged up teenagers in the front seat after their car accelerated to over 100 mph and went into a ditch. That accident really hit me hard; one of the kids killed was the son of a good friend of mine.

Kids need to be taught to fasten the damned seat belts and to treat a car like a loaded gun. Seat belts and cars are not to be trifled with or taken lightly either.

The cost from these two disasters is astronomical...four dead fourteen-year olds, two sixteen-year old drivers with two deaths each on their conciences for the rest of their lives, four families utterly devastated in the weeks before Christmas and on Christmas Day...

Words fail me. I am tired of bidding farewell to young people who don't wear seat belts and die after being ejected from the car following a crash.

Red vs. Blue: A Little More Depth

I had to alter this post because of technical issues with some of the graphics that I wanted to employ.

It showed a map of the "red and blue" states as they were won by Bush or Kerry.

If you go to http://www.uselectionatlas.org/, it shows a vivid county map. It is under the Election 2004 Results section under the link with the same name. Scroll between the default map and the county map and take a look at the states that Kerry won. You'll see that he carried majorities in most of the counties in a few of the New England States. Bush carried everything else. Note: on that map, the colors are reversed: Bush territory is in blue, Kerry territory is in red.

That map also blows the "Jesus territory" mantra/theory right out of the water. Some upset people on the left are describing the states Bush won as the so-called Bible belt, but that's clearly not the case. It's not "red states vs. blue states" that the press keeps harping on, it's Bush states vs. Kerry counties in every place except New England.

It's facinating to analyze. Sorry my graphics didn't work.

Halliburton in Iraq: Employees Under Enemy Fire

For all the trouble that Halliburton has gotten into over the last few years for violating laws related to trade with America’s adversaries, and all the mud-slinging that went on during the Presidential campaign in this country, and Dick Cheney’s connection to them, many people seem to overlooking something.

Since the Iraq War began, sixty-two Halliburton employees have lost their lives working with the U.S. military in Iraq. That’s a lot of families who are missing their fathers, sons, mothers, sisters, and so forth.

They are over there risking all for the promise of high pay and for other reasons that are beyond comprehension. Who would want to be over there as an unarmed oil tanker driver with explosions happening right next to their fully-loaded rig?

Halliburton deserves to be scrutinized for its conduct. But that should be tempered with the knowledge that sixty-two people who were under contract to Halliburton have given their lives to help Iraq get back on its feet. Halliburton is also providing for those families who are missing people around their dinner tables this holiday season. It’s a sobering realization.

No Medals of Honor for the Troops in Iraq or Afghanistan?

What a shame.

President Bush is handing out Medals of Freedom to people who were central to the U.S. invasion of Iraq as well as the defeat of the Taliban and al-Qaeda in Afghanistan. These are the highest civilian awards that the President can bestow. Congress is also handing out Congressional Gold Medals of Honor, which is the highest civilian honor that Congress can bestow.

Fine, then. Now what about the troops who are fighting the battles and the wars?

To date, two Air Force Crosses, one Distinguished Service Cross, seven Navy Crosses, and an unknown number of Purple Hearts have been awarded. Lots of Silver and Bronze Stars have been awarded. Those men and women deserve our thanks and our gratitude for their courage and valor in the face of the enemy.

I find it very odd that no Medals of Honor have been conferred by Congress during the war on terror; in fact, the last two awarded were to two Army Ranger snipers who volunteered to attempt to rescue their brothers-in-arms from hordes of al-Qaeda combatants and Somali gunmen who had shot down two Army choppers over Mogadishu (October 1993), and were slaughtering the trapped Rangers.

The two Army snipers went in, rescued a number of wounded Rangers and defended them until they ran out of ammunition and were killed in combat. Their actions delayed the enemy advance until international and U.S. troops arrived to rescue the survivors.

I find it hard to believe that in the time our military has been engaged in Iraq and Afghanistan, that no feats of bravery have risen to the level of consideration for the Medal of Honor.

Hopefully the U.S. military brass is getting referrals from the squad level up, and is taking the necessary steps to research the circumstances for the recommendations. Hopefully it won’t take thirty years or more to award a Medal of Honor if it is found to be warranted. Those brave soldiers deserve nothing less.

Atheist Goes After Christmas Tree

I was a little surprised when an atheist objected to the display of a Christmas tree at the city hall in Bellevue, Washington, even though it was doing a world of good to needy families in the area.

The tree, labeled by City Hall as the Giving Tree, has requests for help from families that desperately need financial assistance or other items in the place of tree ornaments. An average of $25,000 is raised by the Giving Tree.

This year, an atheist asked the city council to remove the tree because the tree represents Christianity.

With all due respect, no it doesn’t.

The Christmas tree represents the pagan side of the holiday, not the Christian side. The courts have already ruled on this after someone successfully argued that while many Christians use the tree to celebrate Jesus’ birth, it is not a symbol of Christianity like the cross is.

The city council refused the request, citing the court decisions.

Here’s the story.

Yushchenko Accuses Ukrainian Government of Trying to Kill Him

Ukrainian presidential candidate Viktor Yushchenko is accusing the Ukrainian Secret Service of poisoning him with dioxin during a dinner meeting with the head of the Ukrainian spy service.

The opposition leader made the accusation after it was revealed that the dioxin levels in his blood are not 1,000 times higher than normal as was earlier reported, but 6,000 times higher. Yushchenko went to Austria and got specialized testing done, which revealed how close he came to dying.

The poison disfigured his face and skin and may never completely heal. Once dioxin is concentrated and weaponized, it can be administered in any form; in this case, it was poured into a bowl of soup that Yushchenko had as he was dining with the head of the Ukrainian Secret Service (KGB).

This story is getting worse as the days go by. Here's the story.

British High Court Decision Advances the Cause of Human Rights in War on Terror

Judges from the British House of Lords ruled that the British government cannot hold terror suspects indefinitely without trial.

The decision came on behalf of a group of foreign nationals who have been held by the British government for over three years and will force Tony Blair’s government to put the foreigners on trial.

This is a major setback for the British government, who argued that their national security would be put at risk if the men were to go on trial. One of the judges even said that the law that put the men in prison without trial is a bigger threat to the British public than the terrorism that the British government is trying to prevent.

Human rights advocates welcomed the news, but the hawks were unhappy that their house of cards came crashing down.

Hopefully the U.S. Supreme Court will have the same opportunity to order the American government to put terror detainees on trial as well and force the Bush Administration to adhere to the Constitution when it comes to detaining people that they suspect of being terrorists, instead of locking them away without telling them what they are accused of.

Castro Goes Looney: Massive Cuban Military Drill Underway

In a strange attempt to distract the Cuban people from their growing domestic problems, Fidel Castro increased his saber-rattling against the U.S. and sent a large part of his military into the streets of Cuba to practice repelling a mock amphibious and air assault from the U.S.

The Cuban Air Force was scrambled to put an air umbrella over Cuba as 400,000 troops and reservists and “millions” of citizens participated in mock battles that U.S. military officials were probably watching on spy satellite. There’s nothing like giving away your battle plan to the very “enemy” that you’re preparing to fight, is there?

How much money did Castro spend on this meaningless display of military power? What won’t be bought for ordinary Cuban citizens now that the money isn't there? How much fuel did they siphon off from the public sector? And will Cubans put up with it?

If there is a war in Cuba, it will be because of Castro’s reckless disregard for his own people, and it will come in the form of an internal rebellion, not U.S. military action. I think it’s safe to say that the only way Cuba would get U.S. military attention would be to attack the U.S. first. The U.S. military has bigger fish to fry. Castro’s a little man who’s getting in the way of his own people. He should really think about his people first instead of himself.

WWE Heads for Iraq

World Wrestling Entertainment has gone wrong in a lot of ways over the last three years, introducing gay, lesbian and sexual themes into their product, so I’ve stopped watching them.

However, one thing that they did right last year (and again this year) is that they went over to Iraq and put on a show for the troops who were/are engaged in heavy fighting to boost their spirits for the holidays.

WWE is to be commended for their support of the troops by visiting wounded soldiers who are coming out of the combat zones in Iraq and Afghanistan while they lay recovering in the hospitals, by putting on shows at military bases across the country, and for showing up and doing a show in Iraq at Christmas time last year while mortars could be heard in the distance. Troops stood on tanks to watch the action going on in the ring. Last year WWE teamed with the United Service Organizations' Operation Care Package program to deliver care packages to the troops. They will do it again this year. They will also air the troops sending messages home to their families and friends.

Armed Forces Entertainment was delighted when McMahon called last year and asked if they could entertain the troops in Baghdad. Arrangements were quickly made and the show was on.

It gave a tremendous boost to the troops last year, as the WWE is very popular with members of the Armed Forces. WWE is scheduled to be in Iraq this week and the show will air on December 23rd’s episode of WWE Smackdown! I wanted to thank Vince McMahon for putting his money where his mouth is in order to help a good cause.

Ukrainian Presidential Candidate WAS Poisoned

As the election crisis in the Ukraine continues to rage, it was announced by Ukrainian authorities that opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko WAS indeed poisoned.

He was poisoned with dioxin, which causes the person’s skin to turn splotchy and can cause death. The picture on the left was from March 28, 2002, and the picture on the right clearly shows the effects that the poison had on Mr. Yushchenko. Apologies if the photos offend anyone.

The level of dioxins found in Mr. Yushchenko’s blood were 1,000 times higher than the dioxin levels found in most humans. The Soviet Union and other nations weaponized dioxins into chemical weapons, and a chemist who knows what he is doing could also weaponize it. The day Yushchenko fell ill was the day he was poisoned. Dioxins are absorbed quickly into the body. Had the exposure been worse, he would have died.

Dioxins were also used by the United States as a component of Agent Orange, which was used to defoliate the forests of Vietnam and has had terrible effects on the Vietnamese people, U.S. Vietnam vets, and their offspring who were born after the soldiers were exposed to it. Once a person has dangerous amounts of dioxins in their blood, it can take years (perhaps decades) to recover fully, if they ever do.

Some are saying that the Ukrainian Secret Service is involved since Yushchenko became seriously ill after meeting with the head of the secret agency. There’s no way to tell if they were involved yet, but this could have been an assassination attempt that failed.

In any case, there is something rotten going on over there, and it will be interesting to see how it plays out.

Giuliani is Best Choice for Homeland Security Director

Bernard Kerik withdrew his name for consideration from the Homeland Security directorship after he disclosed that a nanny he once employed was in the country illegally and that he didn’t pay taxes on her wages.

I still think Rudy Giuliani would do a fine job there as he has experience in organizing a huge bureaucracy in a major metropolitan city. His book on leadership explains the problems that he faced in New York City and his approach to solving them. I think you need an organizer with proven skills to get the Department of Homeland Security reorganized and running efficiently; after he’s done, you can get the law enforcement experts in there to run the organization.

The problem facing the Homeland Security department is twofold: one part deals with restructuring twenty-plus agencies that used to operate independently and to detail 180,000 people in what they’re supposed to be doing in the new department. The other side is the law-enforcement/counterterrorism execution side. The latter cannot operate nearly as efficiently without the structure there to support it.

Here’s a biography from the New York City government web site as to his qualifications for the directorship:

1961—Graduated from Bishop Loughlin Memorial High School
1965—Graduated from Manhattan College (Class of '65) in the Bronx
1968—Graduated from New York University Law School in Manhattan, (magna cum laude).
1968—1970--Clerked for Judge Lloyd MacMahon, United States District Judge for the Southern District of New York.
1970—Joined the office of the U.S. Attorney. At age 29, he was named Chief of the Narcotics Unit and rose to serve as executive US Attorney.
1975—Giuliani was recruited to Washington, D.C., where he was named Associate Deputy Attorney General and chief of staff to the Deputy Attorney General.
1977—1981 Practiced law at Patterson, Belknap, Webb and Tyler.
1981—Named Associate Attorney General, the third highest position in the Department of Justice. As AAG, Giuliani supervised all of the US Attorney Offices' Federal law enforcement agencies, the Bureau of Corrections, the Drug Enforcement Agency, and the US Marshals.
1983—Giuliani was appointed US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, where he spearheaded the effort to jail drug dealers, fight organized crime, break the web of corruption in government, and prosecute white-collar criminals. Few US Attorneys in history can match his record of 4,152 convictions with only 25 reversals.
1989—Giuliani entered the race for mayor of New York City as a candidate of the Republican and Liberal parties, losing by the closest margin in City history.
1993—107th Mayor of the City of New York.
1997—Re-elected by a wide margin, carrying four out of New York City's five boroughs. Credited with turning the city around.
2001—Parts of the city are devastated by the 9/11 terror attacks. Giuliani becomes “America’s Mayor” in the hearts of many Americans who are impressed with his handling of the disaster. Named Time Magazine’s “Man of the Year.”

So, barring major problems with the confirmation process (that eliminated his former police commissioner, Bernard Kerik, from consideration for Homeland Security director), I think Giuliani would be the best choice that Bush could make. I haven’t given up hope. He would face tough questions from Congress on 9/11 and reports that the police and fire departments didn’t have the equipment they needed, and he may be too political, but I think he could get in there and do some good.

Moyers Comment Shows Mainstream Media Hypocrisy

Bill Moyers is retiring from the PBS newsmagazine that he founded two years ago and he had some interesting quips in a recent interview.

He said that the biggest story of our time is that the right-wing media has become an extension of the Republican National Committee, while saying that the mainstream media is more interested in the bottom line.

That is a very interesting assertion.

He’s chosen to ignore the efforts of the mainstream news media in the last two years to get John Kerry into the White House. Let’s face it: Kerry never stood a chance. He had lukewarm support from his own party; he had no solid base; and “anyone but Bush” only carried the campaign so far and then stopped.

The mainstream media has become the news. This was recently illustrated by the actions of a Chattanooga Times Free Press reporter who exercised undue influence and trickery over a question and answer question with the Defense Secretary. Dan Rather introduced false National Guard documents to influence the voters to vote against Bush. The mainstream press tried to discredit the Swift Boat Veterans as soon as they realized how detrimental they were to Kerry’s campaign; Kerry still has not signed a Form 180 authorizing the complete release of all of his records.

It should also be noted that when CBS’s liberal competitors jumped on the fake CBS/National Guard story, they were quick to point out that while the documents were false and CBS should be ashamed and yaadaa yadaa, they said that the sentiment behind the documents was valid. In other words, they didn’t want rocks to be thrown inside their shared glass house but they didn’t mind throwing rotten eggs and rocks at the Republican candidate.

Journalism has been replaced by partisan reporting, leaving the right-wing media with no other choice but to present the other point of view and leaving them open to charges that they’re an arm of the Republican Party. Neutrality in reporting was once something that the mainstream press took pride in.

The mainstream press is totally responsible for creating the environment that the right-wing press is flourishing in, so they ought to quit complaining about Fox News telling the rest of the story.

Here’s the Moyers interview.

Charges Filed in Pistons-Pacers Brawl

The prosecuting attorney for Oakland County who is handling the case surrounding the Pistons-Pacers game announced that charges are being filed against a dozen people. Attorneys are hollering that their clients are being singled out for punishment.

BS!

They were caught on video participating in the worst brawl in NBA history, with punches, drinks, popcorn and chairs being thrown during the melee.

Would these people do this in their own house? Some might, but the vast majority wouldn’t. Why in the world would they do it in a public venue then?

Most will get slaps on the wrist. Some will get short jail sentences with probation. The idiot who threw the chair is also being sued because the chair injured an elderly fan who was minding his own business during this nonsense. This genius is facing felony assault charges.

Some fans will face trespassing charges; fans are not allowed onto the court during the game. There were some with criminal records who will receive stiffer sentences as well.

For those fans who were banned from the Palace and are crying about it, that’s too bad. Go to another venue and BEHAVE YOURSELF!! Better yet, stay home and watch the game on TV because you obviously can’t behave in public.

I don’t blame people for saying they’re sick and tired of seeing the videos. I am too, but it was an ugly incident that didn’t need to happen. And for those attorneys who are saying that the Pacers players will be in court during playoffs, get over it. They’re merely reaping what they sowed.

Most of the players who will be in court are suspended anyways, so they aren't going to help the Pacers during playoffs, except to save money on payroll!

Rumsfeld Challenged By Soldiers: A Set-Up?

I was pleased to hear that soldiers had questioned Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on the unarmored Humvees that are deployed to Iraq but was angered when it was announced that a reporter may have coached the soldiers on what questions to ask and how to ask them.

The story started yesterday when a couple of soldiers asked why it was necessary for them to scrounge metal to armor the Humvees themselves and to look for hardened glass to make the windows bullet-resistant. Rumsfeld, of course, was gruff when he made his replies and the story received widespread media attention around the world. Here’s that part of the story.

Then it came out today that a reporter from the Chattanooga Times Free Press had coached the soldiers and then approached the Sgt. in charge of the question and answer session with the Defense Secretary to “make sure his guys got out of the crowd.”

This is coming across as a reporter engaged in dishonest reporting. He’s making the news rather than simply reporting on it. If the story of the plant is correct, this guy needs to be reigned in a bit by his bosses.

Activism vs. reporting seems to be a recurring problem these days and some of these people ought to get off it. “It” being their political activism supplanting their duties as journalists.

Spain Attacked by Basque Separatists: They WERE Taking Notes From 3/11

Spain is learning a painful lesson on why nations do not give in to terrorist demands. Ever.

On March 11th, 2004, a few days before the Spanish elections were to take place, al-Qaeda attacked the central Madrid train terminal and killed hundreds of people. Four trains were destroyed by the blasts. The al-Qaeda goal was to force the pro-Iraq War government out of power; the Spanish people knuckled under and voted a Socialist into office.

The turnover was huge; before the bombs started going off, the former government was ahead in pre-election polling. The Spanish electorate surrendered to the terrorists first, and then the government knuckled under too. The Spaniards went SCREAMING out of Iraq as fast as they could because they didn’t want al-Qaeda killing any more Spaniards. Bad move.

I wrote an article saying that the Basque separatists were probably taking notes and that it would be open season on the Spanish government, which had proven that it could be intimidated by terrorists. I’m sorry to say that I was right. At least ten bombs have gone off in the last two days; the first attack involved the near-simultaneous destruction of five gas stations in and around Madrid. The terror group Eta, which supports independence for the Basques, called in warnings before the bombs started going off.

The Spanish government could have prevented this from happening, but they were too weak and stupid to realize that their actions would have consequences in their own country. Instead of honoring their dead and working with the international community at the source, the Spanish government has made a concerted effort to forget that 3/11 ever happened. Many families who lost loved ones continue to be aghast that their own government has ignored their pleas for justice. And their government gave in to the terrorists. This was a HUGE green light for Eta to break the truce and begin attacking inside Spain, in the hopes that the government would knuckle under again.

Two lessons come to mind: indecision and disengagement encourages terrorists to be more aggressive, not less. The other lesson is that just because an idea is popular (like pulling troops out of Iraq) doesn’t make it right. Spain made a series of bad choices after suffering a very bad day, and now they’re paying the price for their lack of vision.

Thompson Blunders in Press Conference

Retiring Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson did something that was simply astounding: he said “For the life of me, I cannot understand why the terrorists have not attacked our food supply because it is so easy to do," at a press conference.

Well, Mr. Thompson, thank you very much for the unneeded insight. Idiot!!

He’s probably created a security problem now that the entire world has been alerted to the fact that the food supply is vulnerable to terrorist attack. He shouldn’t have said that. If something happens to the food supply now, there will be plenty of blame for him to share in.

This is like the Pentagon announcing an offensive against Fallujah to see what the terrorists would do to stop them, and then launching the actual offensive three weeks later after they analyzed the movements of the enemy forces in and around Fallujah. The difference is that the military acted on what it found, formulated a plan, went in and kicked some tail. Thompson's comments came across as spur-of-the-moment. He sounded frustrated that he couldn't get money to protect the food supply so he may have been trying to force the issue.

In any case, it was not a smart play, and waving a banner around that says "TERRORISTS: ATTACK HERE!!" to draw attention to a government shortfall is not the way to effect change. Thompson should have known better.

Target Stores: The Grinch is Running the Place!

Given Target’s reputation, is it any wonder that they’ve thrown Salvation Army bell-ringers out into the cold?

Which reputation do I speak of, you ask?

A friend of mine living in Marquette, MI, who is active in Vietnam War veteran fundraisers approached Target for a solicitation to help local veterans with a project that would benefit the entire community.

He got a letter about a week later saying that his request for help was being denied and that the only group that Target officially supported was a gay-rights group that no one had ever heard of up there. They weren't even locals!

So my friend organized a boycott of the Target store in Marquette. Letters were written to the local newspapers with copies of the letter enclosed, and the veterans raised a major commotion. I don’t think it had a major impact on the Target store, but the point was made.

So when I read that Target has banned the Salvation Army from ringing their little bells, it doesn’t surprise me in the least. It falls right into line with their treatment of the Vietnam veterans. There's a Grinch at Target HQ, so look for more petty antics from your friendly neighborhood Target.

Rumsfeld Accused of War Crimes in German Court: ICC Trouble?

There was a news blurb over the weekend that Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and other Administration officials are being charged with war crimes that stem from the Abu Ghraib prison scandal. The case is being brought in a German court and is not getting much attention yet.

This is the result of certain nations who have taken it upon themselves to act as the world’s criminal court system.

It’s kind of funny that those who scoff at American suggestions that the International Criminal Court system will be misused to settle scores against prominent American politicians and troops are the very ones who are taking this course of action.

While I am not opposed to international tribunals building strong cases against former leaders, I am dead-set against any international court attempting to go after sitting Presidents and their cabinets. Once they leave office, that’s another issue, but for an international court to be able to serve warrants on and take custody of the sitting President of the United States or Secretary of State is abhorrent.

As far as I am concerned, if the President is impeached first by the House, tried by the Senate and found guilty, then the international courts can have the person after American justice is carried out. If the cabinet member resigns or is removed from his/her post, then I have no problem with Interpol coming in and taking the accused away.

The ICC treaty (Article 27) does not recognize immunity for sitting leaders. Article 27 also does not provide for removal of leaders according to the laws of the country where the accused leader resides. So the Constitution would be subordinated to the ICC treaty. This is also abhorrent.

To surrender national sovereignty to a system that could be abused is dangerous, and is a very good reason for the U.S. to refrain from endorsing the treaty. This reason is different from the military point of view, but in my view, supercedes the military reasons for opposing the treaty.

While Rumsfeld should answer very serious questions about the prison scandal, it should not be while he is still in a cabinet position.