Many Businesses Violate Mastercard/VISA Rules Governing Establishment of Minimum Amount for Debit/Credit Card Transactions

Have you ever gone into a business and noticed a little sign by the cash register that says something to the effect of "$5.00 minimum purchase for Debit/Credit Cards"?

Did you know that the business cannot do that? It's a major violation of a Mastercard/VISA agreement which the business is required to sign, which also allows for fees/fines and other sanctions if the rules are violated. Basically, if a business displays a Mastercard/VISA logo, it's an acceptance of ALL the rules that go along with it.

The rule is found in Section 1.8--"Honoring Cards" of the Mastercard and VISA Acceptance portion of the Merchant Processing Agreement. It reads:

1.8 Honoring Cards--

You cannot establish minimum or maximum amounts as a condition for accepting a Card.

I recently got into it with a business down here that had a $10 minimum amount. I intended to purchase $5.30 worth of stuff with my debit card and ran afoul of that company's policy. They let me do the $5.30 purchase after I threatened to leave and call Mastercard immediately to report them. As I was leaving, I saw them take down their $10 minimum sign.

Yesterday, I went back in and noticed that they had put the sign back up. So I'm debating whether to call Mastercard and carry out my original threat. I probably should.

Here's how the system works from the business side:

If a customer uses a credit card, the merchant pays a small fee for that transaction.

If a customer uses a debit card, the merchant doesn't have a fee. So merchants LIKE debit cards because it doesn't cost them anything extra.

The establishment where I work has no minimum or maximum amount because the owner read the entire agreement and accepts the fees as part of the cost of doing business. All businesses should have that same attitude.

Still Here

Lot of catch-up to do. I'm working on it.

Pelosi Threatens to Sue President Over War Funding Bill if He Vetoes It Again: Congress Will Get It's Clock Cleaned if She Does

Here we go again.

President Bush has been threatening to veto a two-month war spending bill that Congress is floating around to members, and House Speaker Pelosi is threatening to take him to court over it, saying the President is overstepping the separation of powers.

I hope she does, because she will find out that it is Congress that is violating the separation of powers in this instance.

This is an attempt by Pelosi to violate Constitutional procedures by denying the President the right to veto the bill, and her own failure to get enough members of the House to override the Presidential veto.

She will ultimately fail to override the nuts and bolts of the Constitution.

Looking Forward: Pentagon Needs to Carefully Plan Withdrawal of U.S. Forces, or We'll Lose a Ton of People on the Last Day

The recent clashes between Congress and the White House over withdrawal dates for U.S. forces from Iraq have me worried that the government may err on how they go about actually doing it, when the time comes to leave Iraq.

One nightmare scenario that I can see happening is that the U.S. military will be on the move under cover of darkness to their pre-invasion positions in Kuwait, as well as heading for Saudi Arabia. No one will realize what exactly is going on, until one of the networks put two and two together and announce that the U.S. pull-out is underway.

When it goes on the air, you can bet that al-Qaeda and many insurgent groups will head to the American withdrawal routes and start staging ambushes.

The same kind of thing happened to the Soviets when they withdrew from Afghanistan in 1989; they lost a lot of soldiers to snipers and ambushes; Soviet President Gorbachev bitterly complained that they were leaving and they shouldn't be shot at, but the mujahideen didn't care. Bullets and bombs continued to hit the Red Army as they headed back into Soviet territory.

Hopefully the Pentagon is looking at this carefully and determining how they will get our troops out. I think a gradual quiet withdrawal is the way to go, instead of having tens of thousands of vehicles and 140,000 troops on the move at the same time. That's a disaster waiting to happen.

We don't need tons of casualties on the last day simply because the withdrawal of troops from Iraq was planned in the same way as the occupation was. We don't need to go there.

Now that the "Emergency" Military Bill is Dead, Can They Please Dispense With the Nonsense and Pass a Funding Bill?

Congress and President Bush both got their two cents in when Congress passed a doomed "emergency" spending bill on the military and their pork projects, and President Bush vetoed it.

Now that the hubris from Round 1 is done, will they please get off their lazy fat asses and pass the original bill as it was written, and without non-military not-emergency earmarks that Pelosi & company used to bribe members of their own party?

The House in particular had better get a move on; their job approval ratings are virtually the same as President Bush's, and every House seat is in play in 2008. Thirty-three Class II U.S. Senate seats are also up for grabs. If they don't do their jobs, they'll be joining President Bush in looking at new career options after 2008.

The military has already begun to make cuts in their equipment maintenance and repair apparatus; this is impacting how quickly used and battle-damaged equipment makes it back onto the battlefield. The troops are relying on this hardware to complete their missions and to keep them alive.

Thousands of the new family of mine & IED-resistant armored vehicles (MRAP) have not been shipped over yet either; many more are halted on the production lines because the funding is part of this hot-potato spending bill.

A mine-resistant Cougar vehicle being tested.

Congress and the President must make haste and table everything else for another time. They shouldn't allow the military to run out of money and not provide the troops with the tools that they need.

Get it done, NOW.

Tenet's New Book: Telling Everyone What He Should Have Said When He Was CIA Director

Former CIA Director George Tenet went on a media blitz over the weekend, promoting his new book which blasts the Bush Administration of how it handled 9/11, and the subsequent wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

It looks like an exercise in shifting blame to others; most notably Vice-President Cheney.

For instance, he was very aggressive in his book and on his media blitz about his "slam dunk" comment being taken out of context with regards to Saddam Hussein's possessing chemical and biological weapons.

For someone in such an important position, such as the directorship of the Central Intelligence Agency, he should have been very wary about using a term like "slam dunk" in ANY context.

He had the ear of the President from 9/11 to the end of his tenure at CIA, and he should have gone after the incorrect political interpretation of his agency's intelligence data. But instead he played it safe and went with the flow, which helped to lock our nation's future with an Iraq that may not hold together. And by saying "went with the flow" I meant he didn't do enough to get around administrative roadblocks that were there.

And now he has a book deal, and is telling everyone what he should have been SCREAMING at Cheney, Rove, and the other hawks during those meetings. Too little, too late.

What a shame.

Dog Food Recall Goes International: 5,000+ Brands of Pet Food Now Affected

The pet food recall nightmare is continuing to unfold, and it has gotten worse and worse.

A careful review of all the current brands under recall at the FDA web site shows that over 5,000 individual brands of pet food have been recalled.

Now word is getting out that other countries have the same problem that we do: contaminated wheat gluten was exported overseas; it may have been fed to other animals, such as pigs, cows and other farm animals, which made it possible for contagions to enter into the human food chain as well.

The Chinese clearly aren't up to manufacturing food products for export; our FDA also isn't up to intercepting inbound poisons that made their way into the food chain from countries like China.

I think this shows that while we should be concerned about avian flu, we should be more worried about contaminated food, which has the ability to knock down many more people than bird flu would/does...and much faster too.

This definitely needs more attention from the government.

Airing of Killer's Rants Leads to Backlash Against Media

The Virginia Tech community reacted with outrage at the airing of a series of disturbing videos, photos and writings of the perpetrator of Monday's massacre on the VT campus. Some families pulled out of appearing on the Today Show to protest the callous airing of the rant.

And ALL the news organizations played parts of the video; shame on ALL of them for giving this killer air time.

I'm in total agreement with Dr. Michael Warner, who said in an interview "...just listen, if you can take Imus off the air, you can certainly keep [Cho] from having his own morning show."

All these analysts should close their mouths and quit trying to analyze this lunatic killer. They're just adding insult to injury when they play back parts of the trash he mailed to the media to help explain why this evil human being did what he did.

This really sucks.

Virginia Tech Massacre: Remembering the Lost and the Injured

Memorial services were held today for students and professors who lost their lives in yesterday's mind-blowing and horrific attack on the Virginia Tech community.

All of this brings memories of Columbine back anew.

It's all so sad and meaningless. Thirty-two people were murdered by a madman; it emerged that a fellow Virginia Tech student was responsible for the heavy loss of life.

Thinking of all the victims and their families, as well as everyone at VT. May God be with them all.

USS Pueblo Still Intact and Being Used By North Korea for Anti-American Propaganda Purposes

North Korean officials took a surprised U.S. delegation aboard a captured U.S. Navy spy ship on Monday, saying it represented "...continued U.S. aggression against North Korea."

Governor Bill Richardson said it was a pure propaganda move on the part of the North Koreans.

The USS Pueblo was captured in January 1968; it's crew was held for eleven months before being released by North Korea. They kept the ship and have used it for "anti-American education" ever since.

North Korea has dangled returning the ship to the U.S. Navy in exchange for a high-level visit from the U.S. Secretary of State, but that has been flatly refused by the U.S. government. The U.S. Navy still has the Pueblo on the books as an active unit, and does want it back, but the current level of tension between the U.S. and North Korea has made it impossible to facilitate a transfer.

The Pueblo is the only U.S. warship under the control of a foreign power, and was the first ship to be captured since 1941, when invading Japanese forces captured the USS Wake in Shanghai's harbor.

Duke Rape Case Dropped: Critical Mistakes by Former Prosecutor Plus Witness Changing Story Guaranteed This Outcome

Surprise, surprise, surprise.

The Duke lacrosse rape case totally (and finally) collapsed today when the North Carolina Attorney General dropped all charges against three lacrosse players from Duke University, clearing the way for the formerly accused to get their lives back on track.

This case should never have been brought.

The former prosecutor didn't interview the "victim", released statements to the media which looked like he was prosecuting the case on TV, violated police line-up procedures, ignored DNA evidence which pointed away from the accused players, and ignored the victim changing her story repeatedly.

The former prosecutor is facing disciplinary action from the state bar related to his conduct during this case. They need to make an example out of him to discourage other "borderline" prosecutors from this kind of conduct.

Prosecuting someone for political gain and not for breaking the law is a terrible abuse of power.

Powers That Be Announce That Gas Will Be $2.75 Per Gallon Over Summer: THANKS FOR NOTHING!

The powers that be in the oil industry have delivered news from on high that gas prices will be $2.75 per gallon over the summer. Some are saying it will be much higher than that.

Oh, joy of joys.

39,000 Pets Get Sick or Die From Food Contamination

It's much worse than many thought.

According to a major chain of veterinary clinics, some 39,000 dogs and cats have gotten sick or died from eating recalled pet foods across the nation.

And every day, it seems like there are updates on the FDA and Menu Foods web sites announcing more and more recalls.

The latest expansion of the recall was announced just before Easter; contaminated wheat gluten is suspected of being the culprit. It's hard to believe that this recall has affected over a hundred brands of pet food; that it's taken this long for these companies to react to a critical situation isn't helping at all.

This has been going on for over a friggin' month now. And there are STILL no answers. China announced that it was looking into the contamination on it's end, but the damage is already done, leaving families heartbroken.

Too little, too late.

MSNBC's Don Imus in Big Trouble: So What Else is New?

Many of the news channels have been following the antics of Don Imus today, for calling a women's basketball team a racist term, which I will not post here.

CBS and MSNBC announced that they were suspending the Imus show for two weeks as a disciplinary action.

I have a question...why did CBS and MSNBC have this man on the air at all, given his prior controversies? He's been referred to as the "Howard Stern of intelligent people," though he's had a public feud with Stern for years--in particular a vicious exchange on the air in 2003.

The man is a lightning rod for controversy.

Yet the two companies had him on both radio and on TV in simulcast.

Imus went on Rev. Al Sharpton's radio program this morning (a huge mistake), but made little headway in calming the raging inferno, as Sharpton's thirst for revenge neutralized his efforts. Sharpton's now calling for a boycott of all advertisers who advertise on the Imus show.

Later on in the day, the networks suspended Imus.

Imus's comments WERE way over the line, but Sharpton's handling of the situation on his show made the situation worse; what happened to forgiveness of others?

All Sharpton wanted was to get Imus fired, or better yet, to have Imus sign a resignation letter in his presence and on the air. It didn't happen, so he decided to add his two cents (and more) to the controversy.

There's no winner in this controversy; not CBS, MSNBC, Imus, Sharpton, or the people who were insulted by the racist comments that Imus made.

Congress Keeps Overstepping It's Constitutional Boundaries: Pelosi Trip Was Most Recent Example

The shredding of the Constitution continues.

Now that the Bush Administration has been forced to stop doing it, Congress has started doing it themselves.

Congress needs to be reminded that the White House is in charge of day-to-day diplomacy with foreign nations. There is one branch of government that carries on diplomacy with other nations--not two with 536 Presidents (535 in Congress plus the real one in the White House).

Congress can ratify or reject treaties, vote on foreign aid appropriations and regulate commerce with other governments. There is no provision in Article 1 of the U.S. Constitution for Congress to conduct foreign relations.

Article 2 Section 3 of the Constitution provides for the President to receive Ambassadors of foreign nations (and to conduct diplomacy) on behalf of the entire nation.

Pelosi's trip violated the spirit of the Constitution; but all it really did was showcase her grandstanding. If the Democrats want their foreign policy to be paramount, they have to win the Presidency in an election first. Not before.

Pelosi Made a Fool Out of Herself on Her Mideast Trip: Her Lack of Understanding of Israeli/Syrian Relations Really Showed

I am of the opinion that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's recent trip to the Middle East was a unmitigated fiasco.

House Speaker Pelosi not only carried our nasty internal politics onto the world stage for all to see, but her short-lived foray into international relations proved that she needs to practice her listening skills, her sensitivity to the needs of our allies, and the way she expresses her views to foreign leaders.

Not only did she misunderstand Israel's point of view, but she didn't listen to them, then misrepresented their views (publicly) to the Syrian government. She did make a clarification later on, but it was too little, too late.

Israeli Prime Minister Olmert issued a statement and corrected our wayward goodwill ambassador.

Nice going, Speaker Pelosi. Next time, stay home and run the House--as you were elected to do. And that goes for Congressional Republicans, too, who have met with Syria's leadership on less-publicized trips recently.

O'Reilly and Rivera GO AT IT Over Illegal Immigration and Drunk Driving

WOW!!

Bill O'Reilly and Geraldo Rivera really went at it on the O'Reilly Factor during Thursday's edition. Rivera was insisting that the story at hand was about drunk driving, while O'Reilly felt that the subject was illegal aliens breaking laws.

It turned into an all-out SCREAMING match. Both feel very strongly about their positions, and both said that there were no hard feelings afterward.

Spectacular, and sad.

I do think that Rivera was more correct about it being a drunk driving case, though O'Reilly's position on illegal aliens breaking laws and officials turning a blind eye was also valid.

Drunk driving cuts across all ethnic lines, and two teenagers are dead because someone (who happened to be a drunk illegal alien) got behind the wheel of a car who had no business doing so. What a mess.

Iranian President Should Have Apologized to British Navy Members For Waylaying Them, Not The Other Way Around: SICKENING

News hit this morning that Iran was releasing it's hostages that it had taken nearly two weeks ago in the Persian Gulf, and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was shown receiving the gratitude of the captive British sailors and marines, one at a time. It was a SICKENING display of manipulation on international television.

Ahmadinejad should have been the one apologizing for invading Iraqi waters and waylaying a British boarding party that was doing it's job under a United Nations mandate.

Sick and wrong.

British/Iranian Crisis is Latest Excuse for Oil Prices to Increase: Oil Speculators At It Again

Let's see where increased oil prices fit into this latest Persian Gulf controversy:

1. British Navy intercepts cargo ship to inspect it in disputed Iraqi/Iranian waters...
2. Iran seizes 15 British sailors and marines who were the boarding party and take them to Tehran for questioning....
3. Britain and Iran exchange angry words....
4. Reports of U.S. and Iranian troops exchanging fire inside Iraqi territory. U.S. troops retreat out of fear of being taken hostage....
5. Iran is isolated from the international community...again.
6. Bush, Blair and Iran's terrorist president start the blame game anew.
   

How much has the oil supply fallen as the result of the British/Iranian row? NOT A DROP.

Has the Strait of Hormuz been closed to international shipping? NOPE.

Has the Strait been mined? NOPE.

Has Iran threatened to sink any tankers? NOPE.

Any refineries set ablaze? NOPE.

Any oil production facilities damaged or destroyed, leading to a drop in oil production? NOPE.

Any net effect whatsoever on the available oil supply? NONE.

Any tidal waves, hurricanes, tornadoes, or other natural disasters that could explain the price increases? NOPE.

Hmmm....

Are the oil speculators worried? Yep.

So, in spite of the fact that there is no decrease in oil output from the ongoing feud between Britain and Iran, and the oil supply is unaffected, the price for a barrel of oil has gone way up again.

The oil speculators and oil companies should pay for the artificial increases that they've created WITHOUT charging more at the pump. The British/Iranian issues are irrelevant to the cost of a barrel of oil, unless the missiles start to fly. Enough of the excuses, already!

Pet Food Recall News: Web Site Reports Nearly 2,000 Dogs and Cats Die From Contaminated Pet Food

Menu Foods is reporting the deaths of sixteen pets from contaminated pet food that was recalled on March 16th, but this number may be vastly under-reported.

One web site is reporting that nearly 2,000 pets are now deceased and base that number on the number of people who have registered with their web site and who have filed complaints with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Another report said 845 pets were deceased and over a thousand were sickened.

I'm sensing a cover-up here. If it isn't a cover-up, it's a severe misunderstanding of what's really going on in the veterinary clinics and animal hospitals on the part of Menu Foods.

My dad's neighbor up in Michigan's Upper Peninsula just lost his beloved dog after feeding it a can of Science Diet dog food, which he didn't realize was under recall. The dog suffered apparent kidney and pancreatic failure and died overnight while under the care of the vet.

The vet reported that there may have been another issue going on, but the timing between the dog eating the can of recalled dog food and it's death within 48 hours was too strange to be something else. It's possible, but the timing is highly suspicious.

Someone at Menu Foods needs to get out in front and take charge. And why the hell didn't their own chemists and scientists pinpoint the cause of the deaths before New York health officials did??! They should have lead the charge, instead of issuing this idiotic statement expressing relief that New York health officials had done Menu Foods' J-O-B in discovering why their product was killing dogs and cats! MORONS!

Menu Foods Recall is Troubling: Rat Poison Discovered in Wet Dog and Cat Foods

The Menu Foods recall of dozens of varieties of cat and dog food is very troubling. Rat poison contamination of pet food was discovered as the culprit in the deaths of an unknown number of cats and dogs.

Of particular concern to me is the recall of several types of Nutro dog food, specifically. I feed my dog Nutro Natural Choices Lamb Meal with Rice Formula, which he enjoys a great deal. It's a dry dog food, which are not part of this recall.

But it hasn't stopped me from checking the Menu Foods web site daily, to see if this problem gets any worse. They've recalled several varieties of the wet version of my dog's food.

I've already had a scare with the Diamond dog food recall, which was more than a little responsible for my switching my Jack Russell Terrier over to Nutro. They initially recalled Diamond dog foods in Michigan as well but later canceled it upon finding out where the foods from the affected plants were sent.

Upon hearing about the Diamond recall at work, I hurried home and checked the label to see if the bag was under recall--(it wasn't).

Now Nutro is under a cloud. Though this recall doesn't affect my dog's food (yet), I'm not a happy camper.

Iranian Capture of 15 British Troops is a Repeated Violation of the Iraqi Border: Iranian Troops Captured in Recent Months Were in Iraqi Territory Too

A lot of people are waiting for the British Navy to sink the entire Iranian Navy in reprisal for the seizure of 15 British sailors and marines in Iraqi waters by the Iranian Navy.

They apparently roared in on their gunboats and took an entire British boarding party prisoner while still on the Iraqi side of the maritime border.

The British were carrying out a U.N.-mandated inspection of a seagoing vessel when they were captured.

Iran apparently has a great deal of trouble determining where the Iran/Iraq border actually is. Members of their Revolutionary Guard have been caught aiding insurgents on the Iraqi side of the border--some of them as far into Iraq as Baghdad itself.

So it should come as no surprise that Iran is continuing to violate the sovereignty of Iraq's borders. But this hostage-taking maneuver is highly unusual. They were probably hoping that the men (and woman) that they seized were Americans to put pressure on Washington to release Iranian terror operatives who were captured in Iraq or "disappeared" while in third countries.

Should be interesting to see what comes of this.

Al Gore Just Doesn't Get It: His Climate Models Are All Wrong

Al Gore testified before Congress this morning, and continued to pretend that global warming never happened in the past. He's also ignoring billions of years of additional climate modeling which show that cold periods and warm periods in the Earth's past come and go; here's a sample of the research that he is wishing would go away.

And this was LONG before humanity came along, too.

Gore needs to shift gears and start talking about what we should be doing to prepare for the changes that will come with a warming period, and quit trying to defeat Mother Nature. She'll win, EVERY single time.

Gore fails to mention that climate change is going to happen even if we eliminated ALL sources of pollution and greenhouse gases immediately. His pretentious assertion that we can "stop" global warming is a boatload of crap.

Great News: Missing North Carolina Boy Scout Found After Three Days in the Wilderness

A story that had gripped not only the Scouting community but the nation came to a happy ending this morning when searchers found a missing 12-year-old Boy Scout in the mountains of North Carolina. He went missing three days ago and a massive search had been underway since Saturday afternoon.

Finally, some happy news on a disappearance. It appears that his Boy Scout wilderness survival training helped to save his life.

It all boiled down to a lot of prayers, hundreds of searchers, and a tracking dog named Gandalf. Thanks be to God for all of them.

Sea Shepherd Conservation Society is Reckless

I did not realize the tactics that the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society employed when I wrote about their acid attack on a Japanese whaler earlier this evening.

It doesn't take a genius to figure out what's going on here. Their web site is full of news stories of their aggressiveness on the high seas--aggressive even to the point of hazarding both their ships and the Japanese whaling fleet during their confrontations. And hazarding dozens of human lives as well. And they openly admit to ramming whalers in the past to stop them.

I'm no fan of whaling, but for a group to take to causing accidents on the high seas and endangering human lives to disrupt an activity they don't like is more unacceptable than their opponents killing a FISH.

There are much better ways to deal with Japanese violations of international whaling law than engaging in eco-terrorism. The SSCS is no better than Earth First! blowing up buildings, cars and people.

Ingrates: Protestors Launch Acid Attack on Japanese Vessel That Rescued Them

Talk about no decency.

Two anti-whaling activists planned to disrupt a Japanese whaling ship in the Ross Sea by throwing glass bottles full of acid onto the ship's deck last month. But instead, they got lost in fog and bad weather that rolled in. They were forced to await rescue.

The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, which the protesters were a part of, sent out a mayday on their behalf after they failed to return to their command ship on time, and vessels all over the region joined in the search for the missing protesters, including the Japanese whaler.

The whaler ended up spotting them and rescued them, providing them with warmth, food and shelter (according to one account). After a time, the protesters returned to their dinghy and went on their "way."

They began pursuing the vessel that had just rescued them, and proceeded to throw bottles of acid onto the deck of the whaler. Two Japanese nationals were injured in the attack.

The Japanese obeyed the law of the sea and provided humanitarian assistance to the distressed protesters. And their act of kindness and mercy was rewarded with an acid attack by the same people that they had just rescued.

No arrests were made.

If the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society doesn't denounce tactics like this, they should be added to the nation's foreign terrorist organization list. Some of their members are clearly out of control and willing to use extraordinary means to achieve their goals. Check out the criteria pertaining to what constitutes a terrorist act and the means of carrying them out after the list of current terror groups (Items III and V).

I don't like whaling, but I like terrorism even less. And I especially don't like it when someone goes out of their way to help a stranger and then gets hurt by the stranger who USES ACID on their rescuers. It doesn't matter how weak the acid was; people got hurt for no good reason.

Hooplah Over Federal Attorney Firings is Nonsense: EVERY President Has Dismissed Prosecutors so Why is This Time Any Different?

A political "firestorm" has erupted over the firings of eight federal prosecutors by the Bush Administration.

It's all over nothing.

The reason that the Democrats are making a stink out of this is that they've (finally) discovered that there is no unity in their own party over what to do about Iraq. This new issue has brought about a sense of unity of purpose in the Democratic ranks. (It won't last---there's too many divisions, interests and overriding issues at play).

And the Republicans seem to think that the situation was mishandled. Yet they didn't say anything when President Clinton fired all the attorneys to in his first term; nor did they say anything when George W. Bush fired all of Clinton's people at the start of his first term.

Those federal prosecutors serve at the pleasure of the President. He chose to fire eight of them. End of story.

And Alberto Gonzales is out to save his job. His credibility was stretched beyond belief long before this food fight started. He's been ordered to "patch things up" with Congress, but I don't think he can do it.

The bigger issue is the rampant FBI abuse of the Patriot Act. This other idiocy can wait.

The Hogs Are At the Trough Again: Congress Adds $20 Billion in Pork to Military Emergency Supplemental Bill

Why the &^%# do spinach farmers, peanut storage facilities, and lawmakers who are looking for more office space in Washington, DC, need emergency MILITARY money for??!

Congress has added $20 billion in pork spending to the $105 billion military supplemental bill for DEFINITE non-military uses.

What, is there a new type of peanut-based ammunition that is under development for the military? Spinach for Popeye the United States Marine?

ALL non-military pork should be removed from this bill immediately, and those Congress people who did this should be ashamed of themselves.

Katrina relief, port security, Veterans Administration affairs, national disaster preparedness, avian flu preparation and other important national issues DO deserve to be discussed and financed, but NOT as part of this military bill. They should be discussed under their OWN bills and free of additional non-related pork.

OINK!! OINK!! OINK!!

Viacom Sues Google/YouTube for $1 Billion for Copyright Infringement: Who is This Lawsuit Really Aimed At?

Viacom filed a lawsuit against Google and YouTube for $1 billion, claiming that some 160,000 pieces of their protected material ended up on the popular video website, and that Google/YouTube hasn't done anything fast enough to address their demands.

But who is this lawsuit really directed at? YouTube, for not removing the videos fast enough, or the people who posted the videos in the first place and actually broke copyright infringement laws while doing so?

I am of the opinion that it was filed to serve as a warning to the posters as well as YouTube. Viacom is notorious for suing everyone in sight for daring to tread on their copyrights.

Should be interesting to see if YouTube is the anchor that will weigh down Google as many experts predicted after Google bought YouTube.

French President Chirac Announces He Will Not Run For Re-Election: The Sooner This Man Leaves, the Better

French President Chirac announced that he won't be running for re-election.

GOOD RIDDANCE!

It takes two to make an argument, and he did more than his fair share of damage to U.S.-French relations during his tenure.

To disagree about ideas in the international community is a hallmark of U.S.-French relations, but Chirac's haughtiness and ill-tempered approach to dealing with President Bush made him a hypocrite (another one).

To hear him talk about U.S. arrogance was ridiculous, considering his own attitude.

Hopefully the next French President won't have the same corruption baggage and impulse control problems that Chirac had in dealing with people.

Bye bye, President Chirac.

FBI Admits Violating Patriot Act: A Blind Man Could Have Seen This Coming

The FBI has been caught violating the Patriot Act as was predicted.

Whenever you give unlimited power to any person or agency, unlimited abuses will follow. And that's exactly what's happened when the FBI got caught with its hand in the cookie jar by an audit.

"I told you so" doesn't seem to cover it. See my rants throughout 2005 and 2006 on the Patriot Act. I had dropped my overall opposition to the Act in December 2005, but warned that concerns remained about abuses of power.

The question now becomes: how many other agencies have done this too?

Time to start marking up the Patriot Act. It's overdue.

And they had better not think the bad publicity will go away if the FBI director resigns, either. It's going to make the FBI look even worse than it already does.

All This Talk of Sympathy for Libby in Jury Guarantees Some of the Convictions Will Be Overturned on Appeal

Lewis "Scooter" Libby was convicted on four of five counts against him, and a food fight has broken out between the left and right on whether or not he should be granted a Presidential pardon.

I have doubts it will get that far.

A number of the jurors who convicted Libby have virtually guaranteed that Libby will get an appeal. I predict that at least two of the convictions will be overturned; the reason why is that jurors have been expressing sympathy for Libby, saying that the convictions had nothing to do with the crime that started all of this: who outed the CIA operative?

One went on MSNBC and said "Pardon Libby."

That doesn't sound like a unanimous vote in the jury room to me. The defense will grab onto what's been said after the fact, and try to illustrate that there was confusion in that jury room.

The talk of a pardon is premature. The legal process needs time to sort all of this out.

NASA Relieves Astronaut of Duty and Transfers Her Back to Navy in Wake of Love Triangle Scandal

Astronaut Lisa Nowak was relieved of her duties at NASA and transferred back to the U.S. Navy following her arrest in Florida.

She had been accused of taking part in a love triangle, which lead her to stalk and threaten the other woman. Authorities charged her with attempted kidnapping.

NASA has no policy on what to do in the event of a case like this, so they transferred her back to the Navy, which deals with this kind of stuff on a more regular basis. In effect, they canned her.

She will be facing charges in a civilian court and probably in a JAG court too.

Hopefully NASA will develop policies to deal with stuff like this; it probably will happen again. While they've dealt with the current situation, what happens when something like this happens between civilian workers, and not military ones?

Government Seizes Four Retired F-14 Tomcats To Prevent Iran From Getting Its Hands on Spare Parts

The government seized four retired F-14 Tomcats today that were insufficiently prepared to be put on display this morning. Under the law, all military aircraft need to be demilitarized and be made incapable of flight. Apparently these four aircraft were not sufficiently dismantled enough.

One of the fighters was used as a prop for USA Network's popular "JAG" series. Another was said to still have military grade afterburners.

Iran is the only nation on earth that flies the F-14 as part of it's air force now; the U.S. retired it's entire fleet of F-14s last year due to the cost of operating them and the amount of time needed on the ground to keep them in the air. Government officials were worried that Iranian agents could acquire needed parts from the retired aircraft to service their F-14s.

Iran is scouring the globe for parts for the fighter; many are not airworthy anymore, and those that are need a lot of work. The U.S. recently banned selling of F-14 parts worldwide, partly out of concern that the parts could be transferred to Iran.

The four F-14s seized were at airports in California.

Death of a Comics Hero: Captain America Killed by Sniper in Today's Issue of "Captain America"

I'm going to take a little bit of time with this one.

Marvel Comics killed off one of their longest lasting icons in the final core issue of their controversial "Civil War" series.

Captain America bought the farm, felled by an assassin's bullets.

In 2006, the Civil War storyline opened in the Marvel Universe and took in many of the superheros, including Captain America, Spider-Man, Iron Man, the Hulk, the Punisher, the Fantastic Four, the X-Men and dozens of others.

In the first issue, a team of superheroes battles a group of villains and things go very badly. One of the villains blows apart and six hundred innocent lives--including many children--are lost in the explosion. The public demands the U.S. government take action.

In response, the government requires all superhumans to unmask and register with the government. The superheros break into two camps: one that supports the Superhuman Registration Act lead by Iron Man, and those who support civil liberties--lead by Captain America. All who refuse to unmask and register are declared fugitives by the U.S. government.

Many superhumans--some of them bad guys-- join Iron Man's side with promises of government pardons for their prior actions.

Spider-Man unmasks at a press conference to show his support for the Act; the shockwaves from that were/are still reverberating in the Marvel Universe. He eventually changed sides and was declared a renegade.

Several major battles between Iron Man's government faction and Captain America's Secret Avengers took place; casualties were taken by both sides. In the final issue, a hunted Captain America surrendered to Iron Man, throwing his mask to the ground--which the Punisher picked up. He ordered his troops to surrender, and is assassinated as he is brought in handcuffs to the courthouse.

The allegories to our post-9/11 world are unmistakable. The loss of civil liberties in exchange for security, an unpopular war--fought on our own soil in Marvel's case--in progress that kills as many civilians as it does combatants, the Patriot Act superseding (and duplicating) laws already on the books, secret trials, attacks on superhumans by ordinary citizens which mirror the unfortunate revenge attacks carried out on Muslims in the days following 9/11, superhumans being locked away without cause or trial, and many other reflections--of us.

Fortunately, many comic book heroes have this knack for surviving--even as they appear to die. The Death of Superman by DC Comics in 1993 was a classic example. It's unlikely that Marvel would kill off one of their most beloved comic characters for long--especially since he's still making money for them.

This has been one of Marvel's more fascinating storylines in recent memory.

More Political Hypocrisy: Critics Slam Coulter for Calling Edwards a Gay Slur, But It's OK for Them to Call Their Rivals "Nazis"

Mr. Pot, leave Mr. Kettle alone.

Ann Coulter turned a lot of heads by referring to John Edwards as a "faggot" and then followed up her remarks by saying she wouldn't denigrate gays by comparing them to John Edwards.

Demands from various individuals and groups have been for her to apologize for her remarks.

I don't think she should. Not until some others do first.

After all, some of these SAME people have nothing to say when THEY refer to their political opponents (or the U.S. military--SENATOR DURBIN) as "Nazis" or other foul expressions.

It's opposite sides of the same coin. Throw the thing out.

But these people shouldn't go crying foul while overlooking the use of the Nazi label against the other side. "Nazi" hurts just as much as the aforementioned gay slur.

It's just more of the "I'm going to hit you. Don't hit me back" routine.

California Town to Use Birth Control to Limit....SQUIRREL POPULATION??!

Only in California...

A California town council is concerned about a large squirrel population in a park and is going to use birth control to try and reduce their numbers.

SQUIRREL BIRTH CONTROL??!

Why don't they reduce the surplus animal-activist population first? They'll have to be shot, of course. (I'M KIDDING!!)

This is what happens when activists have more of a say than common-sense people do. Just declare a hunting season with bounties to be paid for each squirrel carcass and be done with it!

Squirrel birth control. Ay yi yi.

Is Alan Greenspan Retired, or Isn't He?

Stocks took a tumble late last week and early this week partly because former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan told a financial newspaper that there was a "one in three chance of the U.S. economy slipping into a recession" in 2007.

Investors keep a close eye and ear out for any bad news whatsoever, and Greenspan still wields considerable influence over stock market happenings, though he retired from his old job.

Is Mr. Greenspan retired or not? His remarks are clearly undermining the current chair, which could adversely affect the markets.

Those two had better put their heads together.

Bush Administration Chooses New Nuclear Warhead Design; Critics Charge Hypocrisy in Move As Negotiations With North Korea and Iran Continue

The Bush Administration has chosen a new nuclear warhead design to replace aging warheads sitting atop ICBMs for more than twenty years.

The move is to match Russia’s announced upgrading of their entire nuclear missile inventory back in December of last year. The timing of the U.S. announcement couldn’t have come at a worse time.

With nuclear negotiations ongoing with North Korea and Iran, the move will undoubtedly be seen as hypocrisy on the part of the U.S. in upgrading its nuclear arsenal while talking to other nations about not developing their own nuclear arms.

There is a very fine line that Washington needs to walk at this moment, and announcing a new nuclear warhead design and plans to replace obsolete ICBMs with state-of-the-art ones isn’t a real smart idea.

North Korea’s already screaming about it; how far behind can Iran be?

Walter Reed Army Hospital Problems are Tip of Iceberg: Government is Really Screwing Up

The brew-ha-ha over the poor condition of Walter Reed Army Medical Center seems to have raised the public consciousness over the very bad condition that parts of the facility are in.

Defense Secretary Gates is angry; the Army secretary and the commanding officer of Walter Reed were sacked, and repairs are seemingly underway.

Big whoop. The resignations and firings are meaningless, unless something positive results.

Walter Reed Army Hospital is slated for closure, and a new Walter Reed hospital complex is to be built. There was a reason for the Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) folks to do this. They said in their report that wounded soldiers and their families deserved a state-of-the-art 21st Century facility and that the current facility wasn't up to the task. It also said it would cost too much to repair the existing facility.

Instead of pumping millions into Walter Reed's highly publicized problem areas, why don't they close down Building 18, where the attention is focused? They're already renting hotel rooms or bed space at other hospitals for wounded and injured soldiers; they can handle doing that for the occupants of Building 18, too, until the new facilities are ready.

These soldiers were sent into hell to begin with; why are they going through hell back over here, too, in their own country? They don't deserve this.

Congress needs to make sure that all military medical facilities have the funding that they need; that includes access to mental health care and whatever else the soldier needs to recover, and banning medical co-pays for veterans wounded in combat.

Our government sent them there; it should be on the government's dime. Not one penny should be coming out of the pockets of the soldier or his/her family. Nightmare stories have been coming out about this for quite some time; soldiers are paying for government screw ups.

The soldier and the soldier's family should not see one page of paperwork; most are inundated with complex paperwork which, if not filled out properly, can deny the soldier his/her earned benefits.

The government needs to get this right, and soon. To allow this to happen is unthinkable.

Kerry Attacks Ambassadorial Nominee for Supporting Swift Boat Veterans for Truth in 2004 Election: Sore Loser

Senator Kerry went after Ambassador to Belgium-nominee Sam Fox for his support of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth group in his confirmation hearings yesterday.

That group went after Kerry's war record during the 2004 Presidential Elections after allegations arose that Kerry was distorting his military record and that he had refused to sign a Form 180 privacy waiver which would have allowed the Navy to release all of his records.

Kerry finally did sign the form in 2005, months after losing the Presidential Election. We'll skip his excuse for not signing the form earlier, but it is in the linked article.

He may have released the information in 2005 to avoid being attacked on the same issue if he decided to run for President in 2008 (he decided against running for now).

The records contained nothing new or explosive as some of the hard-core Swift Boat Veterans had been expecting. After-action reports of the battles that Kerry got decorated for are still missing, so the Swift Boat Veterans will continue to be a force to be considered.

Enter Sam Fox. Fox is a conservative St. Louis businessman who gave the Swift Boat Veterans $50,000 in 2004, during the height of the Kerry-Swift Boat Veterans fight. Kerry challenged Fox in the hearing, saying that Fox's decision makes him unfit to be a United States Ambassador.

I don't care about the Ambassadorship or who has it.

I'm not happy that Kerry is attacking Fox for supporting a conservative group and exercising his freedom of association, which is derived from the freedom of assembly clause and right to petition the government to redress grievances.

If we applied the same standard to Kerry that Kerry is applying to Fox, Kerry's membership in the Skull and Bones secret society would make him unfit to be a United States Senator.

The difference is that the Swift Boat for Veterans group operates in the open, where everyone can see them and what they're doing; S&B does not.

So who's more suspect: a businessman who gives $50,000 to a conservative group who wants to be an Ambassador, or a United States Senator who joined an elite secret society, wants everything both ways, engages in deception throughout the Presidential campaign, and refuses to allow the Navy to let his official military record to be released to the media--even thought the release would have helped his campaign against the Swift Boat Vets?

Senator Kerry ought to get over it.

One of Life's Mysteries: Father Who Lost 3 Daughters in 2004 Tsunami is Now Proud Father of Three Triplet Daughters

A policeman from Indonesia who lost all three of his daughters and his wife during the 2004 tsunami (which ravaged Indonesia and ten other nations in the region) experienced a miracle when his new wife gave birth to triplets in Banda Aceh--all daughters.

I hope they all survive too.

Even though it's out of the international news for the most part, vast areas of Southeast Asia remain devastated; the people there are still suffering from lack of basic necessities and mourning their dead, so it's encouraging when news like this comes out of the disaster area.

Al Gore Needs to Practice What He Preaches: His Energy Use is Off the Scale

How's this for an inconvenient truth (about Al Gore)?

He's the undisputed King of Hypocrisy and hubris! And yet, the press is totally ignoring Mr. panic monger's using more energy and gas in one month than "...an average American family does...in one year."

Oink!! Oink!!

Democrats Shouldn't Limit U.S. Military Mission in Iraq: Very Bad Move in the Making

The latest Democratic proposal for Iraq has the scope of the U.S. military's role reduced to fighting al-Qaeda terrorists, training the Iraqi security forces, and helping Iraq to secure it's borders.

A question for the Democratic brain trusts in Washington before they even think of moving forward on this legislation:

How does one identify an al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) member? They won't be wearing name badges or wearing black t-shirts with big lettering that identify them as a member of that particular group. Last time anyone checked, they wear civilian clothing.

If they limit the U.S. military to fighting AQI alone, what about Ansar al-Islam, the Mahdi Army, the Tawhad and Khalid bin Al Walid Brigade, Al-Istikhbarat al-Askariyya, Fedayeen Saddam, Izz al-Din al-Qassam Forces/Hamas members, plus the dozens of local insurgent groups who are striking at U.S. targets in Iraq?

To attempt to bind the hands of our troops is a very bad idea. That has already happened through political mismanagement of the war through November of last year; this would be an even bigger mistake.

That's not even bringing up the constitutional issues that will arise between Congress and the White House if Congress attempts to circumvent Article 2, Section 2 of the Constitution.

If they want to revise their 2002 vote on the war, they can have at it.

But attempting to micromanage the war by binding the hands of the military in what it can and cannot do in Iraq is an overreach of Congress on one hand, and a grave mistake on the other.

Polls Find Adults are Scaring Young Kids About Global Warming

A recent poll in the UK has found that 50% of kids aged 7-11 are losing sleep over global warming concerns.

The article takes the side of the global warming crowd, while ignoring the detrimental effect that unfounded worries are taking on kids, if the poll is correct.

Adults need to moderate their global warming rhetoric when explaining it to elementary aged children. If these kids are losing sleep over something as politicized and misrepresented as global warming is, then the adults who are teaching these kids about global warming have gone way over the line and contributed to childhood anxiety over a naturally occurring process with a human (and COW) component.

The more brainwashing that global warming people do to children at a young age, the less likely they will be able to absorb new information about global warming once we do (finally) get rock-hard evidence that will directly contradict parts of current global warming propaganda.

These children won't believe it because they've been politicized and brainwashed into believing the propaganda from the get-go. That's wrong, and very dangerous.

People who believe global warming can be stopped are hopelessly stupid. Save the planet, my afterburner. But a seven-year-old can't tell the fact from the stupidity. Shame, shame, shame.

British Begin Pullout as Shiite Civil War Rages in Southern Iraq: If That's the New Measure of Success, We Should Pull Out of Baghdad Immediately

British Prime Minister Tony Blair went on British national TV and announced that 1,600 British soldiers will be out of Iraq by the end of summer. Blair and the White House said separately that success was the main reason that the British were able to begin pulling their army out.

Success?

Last time anyone looked, there was a full-scale Shiite civil war raging all around the British sector, which is centered around Basra. The Mahdi Army is trying to conquer the area for Muqtada al-Sadr and the British are claiming success?

If a civil war is the new measure of success, then why are we sending more troops to Baghdad while the British are beginning to pull out of southern Iraq? What??! What??! Baghdad isn't screwed up enough yet??! Oh. OK.

This war is getting stranger and stranger every day. Now utter disasters are being claimed as successes.

Murtha's Proposal Intrudes on Separation of Powers; The President in CinC, Not Murtha and Not Congress

Congressman Jack Murtha is announcing plans to put all kinds of conditions on what the military must do in order to get money that's been allocated to waging war in Iraq.

They include: one year of training for any soldier designated for a combat tour in Iraq, one year time limit in Iraq with no extensions, no soldier goes to Iraq unless fully trained and fully equipped, and one year between combat tours.

These are great ideas, but there's only one problem. These ideas should be coming from the Constitutionally recognized Commander in Chief.

That's not Jack Murtha; nor is it any of his colleagues in Congress. It's the President of the United States.

Congress does have the power of the purse, but only to the point of a "yes" or "no" vote to spending bills of their or the President's creation. That means if the majority of Congress wants to pass a spending bill that funds the military but ends funding for the Iraq War, they can do so at will.

But these conditions (which I do like) cannot be made by Congress as to how the war is waged and how military personnel are moved around. That falls into the President's jurisdiction.

Murtha ought to push for President Bush to adopt these "suggestions" as military policy, and get to the main event of the Democratic agenda that they keep denying: their intent to de-fund the war itself (which I think is unwise at this point).

There's got to be a better way to expressing displeasure with the President than feeding parts of the Constitution into a paper shredder. Bush did it first (equal protection), now Congress wants to do it too.

THROW THEM ALL OUT OF OFFICE!

Sunni Terror Groups Strike At Iranian Government: Islamic Press Claims Bombs Were Manufactured in U.S.

A radical Sunni terror group launched a series of terror attacks in and around the city of Zahedan, Iran, over the last week, killing Revolutionary Guard militia members and prompting the Islamic press to claim that the bombs were American built.

That idea is ludicrous as Iran makes it's own bombs and has a black market for those Iranian bombs. It's more likely that they were Iranian-built bombs bought on Iran's black market, which has also supplied weapons to Iraqi insurgents too.

This is the Iranian press and government trying to blame their terrorist problems on other governments, despite Tehran's probable involvement in training these terrorists for action in Iraq. They didn't take into account the possibility that their terror trainees were going to take their weapons and use them on the people who are their real enemies--the Iranian military.

That's as good an explanation as Iran's, and probably not far off the mark either.

In any case, Iran should go bark up it's own tree.

Practice of Extending Tours of Duty in War Zones Must End: It's Not Helping Military Families That Are on Verge of Breaking Apart

Every time a military unit is sent into a war zone, there is a spike in the number of divorces in the unit, or problems at home involving children get worse. Extensions of these tours of duty make bad situations even worse and push borderline families over the edge. It has to stop.

Military families are suffering already; some of these soldiers need to get home immediately and get their kids and families back on an even keel. And they need to see to their own physical and mental health too.

Extending tours is not good policy; and while some of the soldiers may not mind it, their families certainly do.

If we are sending these troops to Iraq or Afghanistan for one year, then they should go for one year and then come back, regardless of the security situation. If anything, we should be shortening their stays---sending them over for one year, then bringing them back ahead of schedule.

That plan wouldn't work with the current rotation plan and troop levels, but it's something they really ought to look at and make alterations to accommodate it. And if that means pulling out 60,000 troops this year to increase the size of the soldier pool available for future rotations, then they should do it.

Something has to change, and soon.

JetBlue Incident Shows (Again) That a "Passenger Bill of Rights" is Needed When Bad Weather Shuts Down Airports

Last week's monster snow and ice storm exposed a glaring weakness in the airline industry that should have been dealt with already, but hasn't been.

Passengers aboard some JetBlue Airways jets were forced to sit for close to ten hours in jets that couldn't take off as the storm shut down JFK International Airport. The aircraft were parked on the taxiway waiting for clearance to take off and hours went by.

Many of the aircraft didn't have food or water on board and the doors had to be opened every ten minutes to let fresh air into the passenger cabins. Still more hours went by. Finally buses arrived to take the passengers off the planes and return them to the terminal, which should have happened hours before. I can't imagine waiting ten hours for a plane to take off.

JetBlue offered free tickets, discounts and other bonuses to their captive passengers once they were back in the terminal. Analysts called the move "smart." JetBlue also announced that they were introducing a passenger bill of rights on their own.

Other airlines are refusing to do so; they would rather have dissatisfied customers vote with their feet, which leaves them free to take their passengers hostage in the meantime. They shouldn't be waylaying people like that.

It's a wonder that the passengers didn't try to seize control of the jet in their frustration.

Judge in Anna Nicole Smith Case Needs to Be Replaced Immediately: He's Worse than the OJ Simpson Judge

The judge in Florida who is in charge of handling where Anna Nicole Smith is buried is a cowboy and needs to be replaced.

CourtTV was shaking it's head in confusion this morning over what the judge was allowing the attorneys to say, and refusing to rule on a single objection that was raised as the various motions were filed. He's also talking more about himself than he is the case. Who cares about his college career and his job as a substitute teacher?

It's not his job to educate the TV audience in the finer points of Florida custody law; he knows what the law is; the attorneys do too; that is his audience.

His sole job is to rule on where Anna Nicole is buried; the paternity issue for Smith's infant daughter is being handled by another court but he wants to rule on that too and attempted to take jurisdiction over the California case, setting up a jurisdiction battle with the court in California.

In my opinion, this type of showboating hasn't been seen since Judge Ito's clumsy handling of the OJ Simpson murder trial in California.

Someone needs to take charge in that Florida court room; the judge sure isn't.

Anna Nicole Smith Nightmare: An Example of an Estate Fight

The Anna Nicole Smith case that is currently raging in courtrooms in Los Angeles, Florida, and in the Bahamas are examples of why everyone who has underage children, or any assets, or wishes regarding where they are buried should be spelled out in precise detail in a current will.

Granted, the Smith case(s) are an extreme example of why this is a good idea.

I don't even want to talk about all the people coming out of the woodwork claiming to be the father of Smith's infant daughter, other than to say that it's disgusting, or Anna Nicole's occupation or life choices in becoming the type of star that she was.

But there definitely are lessons to be drawn out of this.

The Smith case has been turned on it's head due to an outdated will which names her deceased twenty-year-old son as the sole beneficiary, while not mentioning her new daughter (or husband/boyfriend/whatever) at all. It did not specify where she was to be buried. It was not filed in court, which the lawyers immediately attacked.

It does give Howard K. Stern, the legal father of Anna Nicole's infant daughter and executor of the will, power to settle some of these issues pending legal challenges.

Then there are the attorneys: Anna Nicole's mom has one, Howard K. Stern has at least one and IS one, all the prospective fathers (sickening) who are seeking custody of the infant, the prosecuting attorneys in at least two jurisdictions who are conducting criminal investigations, all in court arguing with the judge. It's mass confusion.

It's really sad to see a situation this bad played out on CourtTV and on E! and all the networks, but hopefully it causes at least one family that hasn't planned anything to get started and to maintain their plans with their changing life situations. The Anna Nicole situation is sad, and rotten to the core, but some lessons from this spectacle can be taken from it.

Estate fights can get as nasty as this one, especially when an entire legion of competing attorneys get involved, and vast fortunes are involved, or custody of wealthy heirs are in question, or there's any question of custody at all.

That's why families should spend some time getting end-of-life issues resolved before it is a problem. That's the most valuable lesson to be taken from this celebrity situation.

Ugly, ugly, ugly.

Democrats Rule By Opinion Poll: This is Worse Than Trying to Replace Something With Nothing

The Democrats appear to be heading in an unprecedented direction in their control of both houses of Congress. And many Republicans are following their example. And it's going to come around and bite them when they least expect it.

I speak of opinion polls. Many in Congress are bending like reeds in the wind when they hear what the latest opinion polls are. John Kerry was notorious for this during the 2004 Presidential election, refusing to say where he stood on issues until he saw which direction the wind was blowing first.

Many other Democrats did this too, refusing to say where they stood until they figured out which direction their voters were leaning, then all of a sudden coming up with all kinds of sound bites that their people wanted to hear.

Politicians are well aware of this, but the public needs to learn that opinion polls reflect the feelings of people based on the information that they've been made aware of. In other words, it's stuff on the surface. Imagine a lake:

Nice and calm on the surface. Just what we like to see.
But when it gets nasty, this is all that we see:

Waves, turbulence, and uncertainty.
Yet look at what's happening underneath the surface:

My point is that information coming out of Iraq is like a lake. We don't see everything except what is presented to us by the media (the surface information). We don't hear stories of what's happening in other parts of Iraq where there is no insurgency, or the situation is vastly different (the information underneath the surface) than Baghdad or the Anbar province, where most of our casualties have happened.

It's a vicious cycle. The Democrats came to power with help from the liberal-media complex that steered the conversation toward what was happening in four of eighteen Iraqi provinces. They don't dare go into any depth on the rest of Iraq that returning soldiers continue to tell stories about. Good news in Iraq is bad for the anti-war people in Congress.

Leaders should develop their platforms based on their beliefs, then lead the nation in that direction, not base their leadership decisions on opinion polls that are reflective of the surface situation that any idiot with a TV set can see. Leaders should LEAD.

And sooner or later, politicians who don't lead will be Kerry-ized, with the same result as the Bush-Kerry campaign. Based on that point, I don't think we've seen the end of tumultuous turnovers in Congressional power. I think power in Congress is going to change hands a lot in the future.

Debate Rages Over Use of "Articulate" to Describe Senator Obama: Severe Overreaction in Progress

Prominent African Americans have been going on TV lately, criticizing the use of certain words to describe Senator Obama. Some criticisms of some of the words are acceptable, but others are way off the mark.

Senator Biden got in trouble for describing Obama as the first "mainstream African American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy..." Biden ended up apologizing for the remarks, which Rev. Jesse Jackson said were "highly suggestive, but not off-color." Biden realized that he royally screwed up and mended the fences with Obama, which was the right thing to do.

But the debate raged on over the use of the word "articulate" (separate from Senator Biden's unfortunate remarks) which, to some, smacked of condescension. Some have severely overreacted to this word and took to the airwaves last night on FOX News and on CNN. They were angry, and unwilling to listen to other points of view.

If someone says one is very articulate, the proper response is "thank you." It's a compliment, and Senator Obama's speaking style is superior and better versed than many of his fellow politicians, as well as many in the general public for that matter. He's an outstanding public speaker.

But if "articulate" is good enough to describe you, or me, it should be good enough for Senator Obama and the talking heads on TV too.

Congress Questions Sending Billions in Cash to Iraq: Vast Sums Missing, But Whose Money Was It?

The Senate questioned former Coalition Provisional Authority governor L. Paul Bremer about a huge amount of money that was sent to the Iraqi capitol prior to the end of the formal occupation and the handover of power to the Iraqi government.

And I'm questioning why the Senate is wasting time on this particular question.

The funds belonged to Iraq and came from Iraq's oil sales and were assets of former President Saddam Hussein's government which were seized following the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in 1990. The legitimate government of Iraq requested the funds be unfrozen and sent over in cash so that they could pay their bills and pay their employees.

The question of how these particular funds were used are an Iraqi problem, not an American one. There are more important matters for our elected officials to focus on.

Iraqi Government Says One Thousand People Died in Last Week: They Need to Get in Gear

A major crackdown from the Iraqi government cannot come soon enough, as the government there announced 1,000 people died in the last week alone.

That's WITH Iraqi and U.S. military forces in action, with an operational Iraqi government and a supportive U.S. government pushing for the Iraqis to do more to stabilize their country.

It's hard to imagine how bad things would get if U.S. and coalition troops pulled out immediately as some are suggesting.

It might make the slaughter in Rwanda and Darfur look tame by comparison.

"Peace at any cost" is a popular mantra of the anti-war movement, but the cost could be much worse than anyone thinks.

Sunni governments would begin mass shipments of weapons to the Sunni side to help them (as Saudi Arabia has already promised to do if the U.S. leaves too early) kill the Shiites, who vastly outnumber the Sunnis. Iran would support the other side. Both sides would be much more heavily armed than they are now, and more than one nation would send troops in to support their side.

There would be no peace at too high a price if things aren't carefully thought out. But one thing is absolutely certain:

The Iraqi government needs to get in gear and MOVE IT.

World Appears Headed for Major Bird Flu Incidents: How Far Away Can Mutation Be?

A UK newspaper is reporting that officials are preparing for massive outbreaks of the bird flu in bird populations around the world this season. It makes one wonder how far down the road a mutation is, which would enable the virus to jump from avians into humans.

The story was sparked by an outbreak in Great Britain, where some 150,000+ turkeys are in the process of being slaughtered and the farm where they were at being quarantined by British health authorities.

Nations are being encouraged to prepare for a widespread outbreak of human avian flu, which could cause major disruptions. Every time a human becomes contaminated, the chance of a mutation occurring increases substantially.

The World Organization for Animal Health is monitoring the situation globally, as well as outbreaks of other animal diseases. Their web site is pretty extensive.

The U.S. government has put together it's own web site which is quite good too. It provides links to every state's plans for dealing with an outbreak.

Michigan's plan is here (pdf format). It calls for health screenings at airports for all outbound travelers, isolating all inbound sick travelers, closing public gathering places, limiting non-essential travel and other measures, depending on the severity of an outbreak.

Scary stuff, but it's data everyone should be aware of if there is a pandemic, or a lesser type of outbreak, to prevent a panic.

Republicans Are Learning a Lesson on What Happens When Majority Party Tries to Ban Minority Party Tactics

I seem to recall criticizing the Republican majority for trying to do away with the filibuster and other minority-party rights as the (then) minority Democrats were obstructing several Republican measures and votes on Presidential choices for federal judges.

They're paying for their arrogance as they are now in the minority and the Democrats are stomping all over them. And the only thing the Republicans can do is cry about not having a voice in much of the new legislation that is being ram-rodded through Congress.

Take your medicine, GOP, and learn from your very costly mistakes.

Hopefully if they regain their majority they will remember that they might need the very political weapons that they tried to ban if there's a repeat of the 2006 mid-term elections.

They got thumped on Election Day, and they've been getting thumped by the Democrats who are using Republican tactics to get their way ever since.

Political OWNAGE!!

Nigerian E-mail Scam Costs Michigan Town Nearly $187,000: Treasurer Up on Charges

Harrisville, Michigan, became a victim of a Nigerian e-mail scam that has been making it's way around the planet for the last couple of years.

The town's treasurer fell for it and supplied the scammers with the town's bank account numbers, leaving him holding a very empty bag. The total cost: $186,500 in lost pensions, municipal operating funds, and other essential city resources. Now investigators believe that as much as $1.2 million may be missing from the county as well.

He lost $72,000 of his own money as well.

The former treasurer is up on embezzlement charges, but it won't bring their money back.

I think this is one of the first times that an entire city has fallen victim to this e-mail scam. What a disaster!

Democrats on Verge of Breaking Promise Not to Cut Funding to Troops in Iraq

The Democrats in Congress are on the verge of breaking their promise not to defund the troops in Iraq. This is hardly a surprise given many ran on anti-war platforms. And their defeatist Republican lap-dog colleagues are too weak and ineffectual to disagree with them. I believe de-funding was always inevitable--it's what the Democratic majority wanted all along.

But still, to cut off reinforcements and bullets and equipment to the soldiers who are over there now is irresponsible. And Congress will be unable to keep dodging their collective responsibility in authorizing the war in the first place. Their votes gave Bush the authority to invade Iraq, whether his intel was good or not.

They keep saying they are a co-equal branch of government, yet they clearly don't want to take their share of the blame. They're co-equal all right, but only to a point.

The military needs to complete their mission and soon. We have bigger fish to fry and Iraq is taking up too much time, attention and resources. Blindly cutting their funding to bring them home in six months without a measure of success will only make the situation worse, not better.

All that will happen is the next President will have the unenviable task of sending troops back in once terror groups use Iraq the same way they used Afghanistan to attack New York and Washington. And Congress will blame Bush for that too, for stopping the war too soon.

And this will be after Congress and the next Administration decide to slash military rebuilding funds, too.

What a vicious cycle we find ourselves facing.

French Darken Eiffel Tower to Promote Climate Change Concerns: Meaningless Display

In an effort to bring attention to an upcoming conference on global change, the electrical company that operates the lights on the Eiffel Tower in Paris will shut them off for five minutes.

Five WHOLE minutes on ONE evening.

Why don't they turn the lights off after 11pm EVERY night--on a permanent basis, except for the aircraft warning lights at the top of the tower? That would be more meaningful than turning the lights off for five minutes on one evening.

I wonder how much energy and money will be wasted when they power the projectors back up. I believe they will use up more energy than if they had simply left the lights on.

Wasteful publicity stunt. Perhaps they should let Greenpeace keep it's banner on the tower--that seems more effective way to bring attention to global climate change.

Child Rape Movie Appears to Be a Dud: They're Talking Going Straight to DVD

This is my final post on this movie, unless someone says something really outrageous and deserves some attention.

I'm still fuming over the Hounddog movie (that features a child rape scene) over the moral lines that it succeeds in crossing.

Dakota Fanning remains in the news, telling the media that some of the criticism leveled at her and her parents have been "uncalled for and hurtful."

She and her parents should have thought about the storm of controversy before they "decided" to do this movie and offend so many people; not the least of whom are rape victims and sexual molestation survivors. Many are coming forward and posting their thoughts online.

Just because child rape is a fact of life doesn't make it right, or acceptable, or something to be worthy of presentation in a movie. That's what has people so hot.

Some of the criticisms that have been expressed about her mother have been harsh; the minor tongue-lashing I administered in my last post pale in comparison.

But "uncalled for?" She's playing an adult game in an adult world under adult rules, and if she can't take the heat for her (and her mom's) bad decisions, perhaps she should stick to more appropriate venues, such as her recent film "Charlotte's Web", which was brilliantly executed and did more to further her career than a child-rape scene in an adult-themed movie.

It's pure exploitation and the proof is in what happens before the rape scene: reportedly her character dancing in wet underwear and t-shirt, her waking up as her naked father climbs into bed with her, her demanding that a young boy expose himself in exchange for a kiss, doing some kind of provocative pole dance, and then a teenager raping her.

And she really should stay out of the news on this controversy. She doesn't have enough life experience or judgment to speak on this issue or lecture adults on whether child rape is any more acceptable on the big screen than it is in real life.

"It's just acting" she says, but that's the tip of the iceberg. If acting out a scene causes a huge tidal wave of controversy, then they should probably find out more about what the underlying issue is.

This is also where her parent(s)--and all the other parents of children in this film--should have put their foot down and said "I won't allow this. It's crossing too many lines and you don't want this kind of bad publicity at this stage of your career" or "And as a parent, I object to the very idea of my child participating in a movie like this."

That's it from me.

12-Year-Old Child Actress Defends Her Child-Rape Scene in New Movie: She Has No Idea What She's Done

It's more than a little offensive when a 12-year-old not only participates in a simulated brutal child-rape scene in a movie, but then defends her "decision" and says that the controversy is "blown out of proportion." I think not.

Her parents ought to exercise some parental authority and keep her out of the limelight for a while. Then again, maybe they should have their heads examined too, for green-lighting this scene in the first place. What were they thinking?

This is a line that shouldn't have been crossed. Some groups are saying that there should be a federal probe to see if any laws were broken. I support that idea.

The big question (among many) is whether the scene is simulated child pornography (which is illegal in the United States.) It doesn't sound like it's actual child porn under this definition, but the laws on simulated porn are very complex and do not necessarily involve nudity--or even kids (see above link).

It doesn't matter that Brooke Shields and Jodie Foster played controversial roles in films when they were young too--the laws concerning child welfare are much stricter now and this controversy should be looked at in the current climate, not in yesterday's.

If there is a federal probe, many of these troubling questions will be addressed, and this controversy will be with us for some time to come. But if there isn't, it will blow over quickly and Hollywood's reputation will take another (well-deserved) blow.

I will not be going to see this movie as I find the idea of child rape abhorrent and won't support an "artistic" portrayal of it in a movie or any other medium. And no 12-year-old has any business participating in or defending a child-rape scene. Does she have any idea the damage she's helped to do? I suspect she doesn't have a clue.

Chavez's Latest Tirade Against American Officials: "Go to Hell, Gringos!"

Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez said that U.S. officials should quit commenting on his country's problems (Chavez-caused, of course) and told American officials via the media "Go to hell, gringos!"

He's stifled dissent in his own country, now he's trying to stifle international coverage and commentary of his ruining his country.

Official Washington won't comment on his comments, but here's what they'd love to say:

Get over it, Mr. Chavez. First, go jump in a lake and cool off. Then go back to the zoo where you belong. Or perhaps you should follow your own advice.

What's not funny is his mismanagement of the Venezuelan economy. No economy can survive what he's doing for very long, and when their economy crashes in the next year to sixteen months, what will be funny is his attempts to kiss up to Washington for aid--if it gets that bad. Then we'll see if Washington has a long memory or not.

GI Attempting to Get Sleeping Mats Sent to Iraq Gets Nothing But Insults Back From Company: Disgraceful

An American soldier attempting to order some sleeping mats for his soldiers and himself got a rude e-mail back from the company he was attempting to order from, saying that if he had any sense, he and his men should get out of Iraq.

What a darn shame.

There's a time and a place to express one's views on Iraq, but not in the course of a business transaction, and not against a soldier who's trying to make life a little easier for the people in his unit. A simple "Sorry, we don't, but you may want to try..." would have been acceptable, but whoever was reading the e-mail had to choose that way to express his political views.

I would encourage people not to do business with this company.

Hillary in '08: NO WAY JOSE

Hillary Clinton came out and announced she was forming an exploratory committee as a precursor for a run at the Presidency in 2008.

As promised on December 27, 2005, this blog will be partially dedicated to campaigning against her candidacy.

It's not that the country isn't ready to have a woman for it's President; it's that Senator Clinton isn't ready to be President of the country.

I stand by my words. Vote against Senator Clinton in 2008. Remember: if we get her, we get HIM too.

Al-Qaeda in Iraq Proves War Critics Over Here Wrong: They Will Bring the Battle to Our Own Streets

Remember the debate over the statement that "if we pull out of Iraq now, the terrorists will come over here and start killing us in our own streets?"

Critics of the war said "nope. Won't happen. That's pro-war propaganda."

I came out in support of the above statement on November 12, 2005, on this blog, saying that ..."and yes, if we leave before the job is done, we may as well put armed troops into our own streets because that's where al-Qaeda will show up next. Once American and foreign troops are gone from Iraq, the war will shift to Europe and North America and those parts of the world where Westerners have a presence.

The peaceniks can go bury their heads in the sand if they want, but the problem will NOT go away that easily. Bin-Laden has said that he wants four million dead Americans before he will even consider stopping his jihad. Where, pray tell, might he find four million Americans? Not in Iraq. Not in Jordan or Indonesia. Not anywhere else in the world, but here in our own country. Duh!!

So for those stupid enough to believe that ending the Iraq War will appease bin-Laden, or any of his followers into not launching suicide attacks on the United States, think again. Get your heads out of your butts!"

The media is reporting today that al-Qaeda in Iraq tried to get terrorists into this country on student visas for the purpose of launching attacks on our civilian population.

Excuse me, but what more proof do the nay-sayers need, thousands of dead American civilians in body bags at their feet? Like I said before...they need to get their heads out of their butts!

Bush Criticizes Hanging of Saddam and Others: Did the Pot Just Call the Kettle Black?

President Bush told the press that he wasn't happy with how the Iraqi government executed Saddam Hussein, his half-brother and another aide who was in charge of Iraq's Revolutionary Court under Saddam's reign of terror.

Bush said that it looked like revenge killings to him.

Well, DUH!!

ALL death penalty cases are about revenge, even in this country.

Deterrence, my afterburner! When are people going to learn that some criminals crave death, and don't care that they might face a death penalty?

Who does the death penalty really deter? Those unlikely to commit a crime-- whether or not there is a death penalty, or the criminal who's made up his/her mind to kill or hurt someone?

The President has no leg to stand on when it comes to criticizing the capital punishment systems of other nations, since the United States engages in death penalty barbarity itself.

This, coming from the man who, as governor, had more people executed during his time in office than any other governor in U.S. history.

I'd rather not hear another word about botched executions from President Bush or anyone in his Administration who isn't an ardent death penalty opponent. I don't have the stomach to listen.

CNN Joins the Obama/Osama Slip-Up Crowd, Substituting the Senator's Name for the Terrorist's in Caption

CNN messed up last week and put Senator Barack Obama's name into a caption that was meant to read "Where's Osama?"

The Situation Room's Wolf Blitzer apologized on-air and called Obama personally to apologize, but the gaffe is the latest in a string of accidental and intentional substitutions of Senator Obama's last name for bin-Laden's first name; CNN is definitely not the first to do this.

Numerous instances of this have happened since Senator Ted Kennedy uttered the first public instance of "Osama/Obama" and conservative talk show hosts picked it up to ridicule Kennedy and Obama.

It's easy to make a slip of the tongue since the two first names are similar in spelling and pronunciation. Osama. Obama.

Still, I'm not comfortable with with this kind of accidental or intentional name-calling. It comes across (to me) as calling someone a Nazi, a choice of words for which I have nothing but contempt.

Those who delight in calling the senator "Osama" really ought to come up with something that doesn't have racial overtones to it. This is just nasty.

Sunni Rage Builds Over Saddam Execution: All-Out Civil War is Now Within Realm of Possibilities

The Iraqi government's decision to execute Saddam Hussein is backfiring on them, big time.

Saddam was executed at the beginning of the Eid al-Adha holiday, on the day that the Sunnis were to begin the observance. Further, he was taunted by Shiite executioners in his last moments. Enraged Sunnis in Iraq and across the Arab world took to the streets and that anger isn't going away. It's worsening.

The taunting was inappropriate and the timing was simply terrible. Sunni and Shiite branches of Islam consider the other heretics, and this merely reinforces that belief.

By executing Saddam, they denied his other victims--living and dead--and their stories to be told in an Iraqi court of law and in Saddam's presence. They were all robbed of justice--all but 148, for whom Saddam was executed.

It's more likely that non-combatant Sunnis will join the fight against the Shiite government because they don't trust it, believe it's behind the attacks on the Sunni population, and doesn't respect their religious beliefs.

It's safe to say that Iraq is in more danger of fragmenting now than it was before the Iraqi government decided to be hasty and execute the former dictator, though he was causing no harm while he was in U.S. custody.

Was what the Iraqi government did justice for ALL of Saddam's victims, or could they have benefited by keeping this man tied up in court for years to come? The full scope of this man's reign of terror will never be fully explored now.