Delegates Assaulted

Read that some GOP delegates are having ugly confrontations with protesters, some of whom have turned the altercations violent. Sounds like some people have serious maturity problems to me.

Peaceful demonstrations are one thing; using physical force against delegates and police to express a political view is wrong and should be condemned. Likewise, delegates should conduct themselves professionally as well and report dangerous situations to law enforcement.

Anarchists and other radicals are behind the attacks on the delegates. Reminds me of Nazi tactics used to intimidate their opponents in 1930's Germany.

I do not recall reading about incidents like this at the Democratic National Convention. The hypocrisy is astounding.

Elian Gonzales Revisited

Does anyone recall this national disgrace?

The Elian Gonzales case was another example of the Clinton Justice Department taking shortcuts to resolve a situation to their satisfaction. In this case, they bypassed court rulings by attacking the house that the boy was staying at, entering it by force, and abducting the boy.

The end result was what I wanted, but the way that it was done was unconscionable.

The Justice Department has this nasty tendency to violate its own procedures and the law to get what it wants. Right or wrong, the court system had agreed with Elian's relatives in Florida that he should be allowed to stay. Rather than go for a court ruling, then-Attorney General Janet Reno ordered the boy removed by force.

This action was representative of the Clinton Justice Department's willingness to take shortcuts. It withheld thousands of pages of documents from Timothy McVeigh's attorneys in his death-penalty case, they blew the Ruby Ridge and Waco standoffs, which resulted in innocent people being burned alive or shot by federal officers. Using battering rams and weapons to force a family to give up a child?

I mention all of this because the family sued the government for use of excessive force (see above picture) and for violating court orders. The courts recently ruled that the government was within its rights to use force.

I do have a problem with this because legal procedures were short-circuited for political gain. Reno wanted a dramatic end to the case and so sent guys with guns in. This should have been the measure of last resort...if the family had disregarded an order from the court to give Elian up and they refused, then the use of force would have been more palatable.

Instead, they did a night raid, swooped in and took the screaming child.

I wanted the kid to go back to his dad, but I wanted the system to deal with it properly first. The courts were not allowed to do so due to political considerations. We ought to legislate that!

Oil Prices Drop After Iraq Oil Stops

OK, now the price of oil has fallen below $42.00 a barrel. This in spite of the fact that Iraq's southern oil terminals have been stopped by terrorists who attacked parts of Iraq's main southern pipeline. If we were to follow the usual pattern of behavior in the oil futures markets, it should have sent prices skyward once again. It didn't and the price continues to fall.

A million barrels of oil per day have been taken out of the equation, and the price drops?

What kind of crock is being pulled on us?

First Lady Under Fire

It’s been brought to my attention that First Lady Laura Bush is under fire from Democrats because she also refused to condemn the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth ads that criticize John Kerry’s military record.

CNN posted this on their web site about the comment:

In the interview she is asked, "Do you think these swift boat ads are unfair to John Kerry?"

"Not really," she replies. "There have been millions of terrible ads against my husband."

That’s what she’s being criticized for? Big deal!

Also from CNN’s web site: "Mrs. Bush's statement in support of the swift boat smear ads is more sad evidence that these attacks have been coordinated from the top down at the White House," Kerry campaign spokeswoman Stephanie Cutter said in a statement.

Kerry is still trying to have it both ways, with him pressuring Bush to condemn the Swift Boat “527” ads that are anti-Kerry, while refusing to condemn the (overwhelmingly) anti-Bush 527s.

Democrats should really vote for someone other than Kerry…his candidacy is approaching total meltdown stage.

Democrats & The GOP Convention

I think that it is interesting to note that when the Democrats had their convention, the GOP pulled all of its ads off the air and went silent for the duration of the Democratic convention. Only after Kerry had made his speech did the Republicans go back on the offensive.

You would think that the Democrats would show the same courtesy while the GOP convention is going on.

Nope. In an election year, the Democrats go right back to breaking unwritten rules of conduct in the hope of saving their sinking candidate. Kerry should have picked up a twelve point lead in the polls, but Bush got the bounce instead and the GOP got fired up, not the Democrats.

Here’s another prediction from me: At the upcoming debates, Kerry will agree to the debate rules but will proceed to break every one of them in short order, speaking out of turn and too long, while Bush will stay within the confines of the rules. It will be a mirror image of Gore sighing while Bush was talking at the 2000 debates.

9/11-Style Hit in Russia

The Russian Federation confirmed today that one of two Siberian airliners that crashed three minutes apart was blown out of the sky by terrorists. Russian FSB (the reformed KGB) confirmed that they found traces of explosives in the wreckage of one of the downed airliners. In addition, a Chechan web site linked to the separatist movement in Chechnya itself has claimed responsibility for the hijacking and destruction of both airliners.

So it was terrorism.

It should be noted that it’s the first coordinated terrorist attack on multiple civilian airliners since al-Qaeda struck New York City and Washington. Although there is no evidence that al-Qaeda itself was involved, al-Qaeda is believed to provide material and logistical support to the rebels, many of whom share Islamic ties with one another.

Though this terrorist act was against Russia and the elections that are due to be held any day in Chechnya (which the pro-Moscow candidates are expected to win), it points out weaknesses in airport security around the world and that many nations have a long ways to go before achieving mass-transit security.

It’s a very troubling situation.

Bush Trumps Kerry on 527s

President Bush asked Senator John McCain to assist in stopping all “527” ads today. As predicted, Bush has taken the lead in dealing with the problem, while the silence from the Kerry campaign is deafening.

While I was expecting Bush to take the lead on this, I wasn’t expecting it this soon and I didn’t expect him to draw in John McCain.

The fact of the matter is that Kerry needs the 527s to hurt Bush so he won’t denounce them.

Definition: "527 organization": According to the IRS, a Section 527 (§527) organization is an organization that is created to receive and disburse funds to influence or attempt to influence the nomination, election, appointment or defeat of candidates for public office. Unlike Political Action Committees (PACs), they have no limit on what they can spend to attack or defend candidates. This is considered "soft money" that has been the subject of much debate in Congress in recent months.

The good news is that 527s are required by law to stop their campaigns 30 days prior to a primary election and 60 days prior to a general election. However, this is being challenged in court right now as the 527s want to keep going. Other 527s are spending millions on ads that haven't been released yet.

527s Again

This is getting utterly stupid now.

Not satisfied with Bush’s denunciation of all “527” ads, John Kerry is dispatching two of his Vietnam war buddies to President Bush’s ranch to pressure President Bush to go even further and condemn specific ads that have been effective in neutralizing Kerry’s military record.

Now wait just a damn minute!

Like I said before, Kerry won’t condemn the anti-Bush 527s, but if he’s crying about these ads and sending his friends to speak to his opponent about discrediting specific ads that are anti-Kerry, that’s not right! The door HAS to swing both ways!

My advice for Kerry would be to get up on the podium, denounce all 527s, call for a ban on those ads, and THEN approach President Bush with an offer to denounce specific anti-Bush ads in return for President Bush denouncing specific anti-Kerry ads.

That is a fair and equitable solution to this mess.

I am also a little sick of campaign staffers of the Bush and Kerry campaigns not being able to support whatever group that they want without the candidate being accused of supporting the same causes. I don’t think that Bush supports the Swift Boat Veterans; some of his supporters do. I don’t think Kerry is funding moveon.org or supporting their efforts, but some of his supporters do.

So what? Get over it and let these people practice their First Amendment right to association. Neither group mentioned has done anything illegal, so there should be no problem with a staffer belonging to groups that he/she supports.

Russian Air Disaster--Terrorism?

The news coming out of the Russian Federation this morning is very troubling and it highlights the fact that other countries aren’t doing enough to secure their airports from terrorist takeovers or attacks.

Two commercial airliners took off from the same airport near Moscow several minutes apart and then went down three minutes apart several hours later. One of the airliners sent out a distress signal indicating that a hijacking was in progress. The Russian Emergency Ministry indicated that there were no survivors among the passengers or crew.

Russia has been fighting a bloody war in Chechnya to keep the breakaway republic as part of the Russian Federation and Chechen rebels have spread the war outside Chechnya’s borders, striking Moscow itself and several border provinces with terrorist attacks. Some of the Chechen groups are allied to al-Qaeda and get funding from Osama bin-Laden.

Those aircraft could have been rammed into the Kremlin in a 9/11-style attack or some other target.

Russian officials are eliminating other possibilities before coming out and saying that it was terrorism. Fuel problems and pilot error are being examined closely as well as the usual mechanical things that are part of crash investigations, but the hijacking distress call puts this tragedy into the “highly suspicious” category.

Terrorist attacks can happen in any country, anywhere in the world, and all governments are responsible for anti-terrorism measures to protect their citizens and foreign nationals who are on those aircraft and in those airports.

527 Fallout

As predicted, Kerry is taking full advantage of Bush’s call to ban “527” ads. I hate to say “I told you so,” so I’ll say “told ya” instead.

Kerry launched a blistering attack on Bush today, blaming Bush for the 527s that attacked his military record and have called his character into question.

It’s Kerry’s own fault for being so wishy-washy on his record and FLIP-FLOPPING faster than a fish would out of water.

The latest Swift Boat Veterans for Truth ad has devastated Kerry’s support among veterans, especially Vietnam vets who were prisoners of war and had Kerry’s 1971 congressional testimony played back to them while they were prisoners of the North Vietnamese.

Kerry would be in much better shape if he hadn’t made his Vietnam service an issue. Regardless of whether he earned his medals or not, his past is coming back to bite him in the butt and he isn’t holding up too well. It’s starting to backfire and this entire issue has blown the Presidential campaign off track.

Speaking of going off track, whatever happened to that Kerry intern who fled to Africa? There’s more to that story than what came out on the news.

If Kerry wins, betcha that issue comes up again. The media will keep that story in its back pocket until Kerry is in power. They don't want to use that ace yet.

Death Ship on the Move

For the fourth year in a row, an abortion ship is prowling the waters off of Europe, performing abortions in international waters that are beyond the reach of law enforcement officials in various parts of pro-life Europe. Abortion is not universally accepted as some would lead the public to believe and this ship has been showing up in strong Catholic countries like Poland and Portugal. This is offensive to the extreme.

As a pro-life advocate, I hope that governments around the world ban such ships from entering their ports. “Women on Waves” operate the clinic and lay a course into international waters to perform abortions that may be illegal in the country that they are docked in. What a travesty!

Murdering the unborn on ships AND flaunting the laws of the nations that they are docked in. Sounds like a good case of persona non grata to me.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3592718.stm

Bush Denounces "527" Ads

It’s nice that President Bush denounced all "527" ads today, including the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth ad, which has brazenly attacked Kerry’s military record.

Now let’s see if Kerry denounces moveon.org’s Bush/Hitler advertisements and “Fahrenheit 9/11”, which is nothing more than an anti-Bush ad in the movie theaters. Betcha he won’t. He now has an advantage over Bush due to Bush denouncing the anti-Kerry ads first.

Chances are that he will do the political thing and demand a stop to 527 ads, but won’t acknowledge the specific ads, even if he is questioned about it. That would fall into his usual pattern of statement and denial.

I doubt anything will change. This is positive publicity for both candidates, but things are going to get a lot worse before Election Day happens.

Janet Jackson Blames White House For Her Problems

It’s been reported that Janet Jackson told Genre magazine that the Bush Administration used her “wardrobe malfunction” at the Super Bowl to distract the public from the Iraq War.

EXQUEEZE me, but if anyone distracted the public from the Iraq War, it was Janet Jackson with her publicity stunt, not the White House.

Who did the wardrobe, the exposed body part, the wardrobe tear-off idea itself and the ultimate responsibility belong to? Janet Jackson. Those “items” did not belong to a member of the government, Congress, the courts or the Bush Administration. Janet’s obviously joined Bruce Springstein’s “beat Bush” campaign and is using an error that was totally hers and Timberlake’s to bash Bush.

She ought to quit blaming others for her dismal sales on her last release, which coincided with the Super Bowl and directly with her actions there. For the record, I felt sorry for her and bought the stupid CD when it was released. I gave the CD away because I do not listen to her music.

Genre magazine managing editor Mike Slezak says the interview will be printed in the October edition. Big whoop.

Oil, Investors, Russia & Iraq

What is the deal with oil investors, events in Iraq, and the cost of a barrel of oil? It is likely that the price of a barrel of oil will top $50 in by the weekend or early next week..

Consider this: U.S. forces continue to stomp all over the terrorist al-Sadr's henchmen in Najaf after the terrorists continued shelling Iraqi citizens and Iraqi and U.S. military positions. al-Sadr's acceptance of the Iraqi government terms may have been some kind of ruse, and the fighting continues. Civilians continue to die faster on the battlefields than the combatants.

Just a few hours ago it was announced that members of al-Sadr's militia broke into an oil company's compound in Basra and torched several buildings. The price of oil jumped immediately. Why?

Iraq's oil has been embargoed for years. The addition or subtraction of ANY Iraqi oil (whether it be 900,000 barrels a day, or 1.8 million barrels a day or 40,000 barrels a day) should LOWER the price of crude oil, not raise it.

If you ask me, this spike in oil prices is a conspiracy between the oil companies, the oil sheiks, and investors who all stand to profit from high oil prices. Think about it: the oil companies decide to cut back their estimates of how much oil is left in their oil fields. This new estimate allows investors to spike the price of crude oil. The Saudis and OPEC insist they need $28-$34 a barrel to make a decent profit and raise their production levels to keep the supply up and the demand down. But they won't turn away the extra billions of dollars that $48.75 a barrel brings in. Why should they?

In the meantime, the investors are keeping watch on every little thing that will allow them to raise the price even further. Attacks on oil terminals in Iraq; the possible (but HIGHLY unlikely) bankruptcy of a Russian oil firm; the "estimated" amounts of oil left in the oil fields, the amount of fuel coming in from Venezuela and other nations currently undergoing civil unrest that contribute to the oil supply, the phases of the moon and everything else that suggests that the sky is falling.

We do have to allow for unexpected growth in China and in the Third World that contributes to more gas being purchased and consumed by those nations, which leaves less for other nations that need the oil. However, even with that, the price of gas should be around $35 a barrel.

If anyone has any ideas for alternative fuels, now is the time to speak up!

Najaf's Imam Ali Mosque: Flashpoint

Fact: Muqtada al-Sadr is a renegade Iraqi terrorist leader.

Let’s not mince words. He’s hiding behind his religion to oppose the government of Iraq. His troops are firing indiscriminately from the mosque that they’ve holed up in and are killing more Iraqi civilians than they are Iraqi or American/coalition troops who are there to keep his murderous henchmen bottled up. This turns his statement that he's a freedom fighter into a lie. He's fighting freedom, that's what he's doing.

I hope the Iraqi courts get their hands on him.

His occupation of the Imam Ali Mosque in Najaf is a political move designed to raise Shiite hatred of the United States to a new level and to discredit the outgoing Iraqi provisional government. It is al-Sadr that has endangered one of Islam’s holiest sites, not the United States or the Iraqi government.

al-Sadr is called a cleric, but he’s actually a terrorist who happens to be a cleric. Shiite Islam would do well to get rid of him; his war crimes speak for themselves.

NPR Weighs in on Crusader vs. Jihad

For those who are interested, my dialogue on crusader vs. jihad was online two days before the National Public Radio report aired. NPR’s report centered on the history of the Crusades themselves and the historical backdrop behind the words. I thought it did a great job of doing the historical perspective.

Terrorists Detained in Britain--Orange Alert Justified

It appears that the recent Orange terror alert in parts of New York and New Jersey were well-founded, much to the distress of political hacks who were hoping that the Bush Administration was using the terror threat to divert attention from domestic politics in an election year.

Britain has detained al-Qaeda members who were in possession of blueprints of the New York Stock Exchange, the International Monetary Fund headquarters (also in New York), the Prudential Building in Newark, New Jersey, and the Citigroup Center skyscraper in New York City, which is the fifth tallest building in New York (915 feet high).

Well, well, well. The system appears to be working.

The eight terror suspects are being held in London and will be charged with violating the British Terror Act.

Too bad, hacks.

Military Draft in 2005?

I think a military draft has become inevitable.

It has become painfully clear that we do not have enough troops to do the job that is needed around the world. We’ve already sent the reserves into combat and National Guard units have been stationed in Iraq and Afghanistan for a year or more. Some are already going back over for a second tour of duty.

Eventually these troops will have to be replaced, and I don’t see a line outside the Army recruiter’s office these days. I think the writing is on the wall.

Another successful (and large-scale) terrorist attack on the United States could be the trigger needed to start the process. If we are hit in October as the government has hinted at, I think by mid-2005 we will see the first draft notices. 18-21 year olds will be at risk first.

I hope I’m wrong.

Whistleblower's Family Threatened

The soldier who blew the whistle on the Abu Gharib prison abuse scandal remains a controversial figure and so, apparently, is his family.

Sgt. Joseph Darby brought the scandal to the attention of his superiors as he was required to do under the Uniform Code of Military Justice as well as U.S. Army regulations with regards to treatment of prisoners.

Astonishingly, some in the military and some civilians view Darby as a traitor.

Sgt. Darby is in protective military custody, and now his family has been taken into protective custody as well after being threatened by people who they thought were their friends and neighbors.

Members of the 372nd Military Police Company were seen in now-infamous photographs humiliating naked Iraqi men and forcing them into homosexual acts. NOTE: Not all in the 372nd were involved. That has to be made clear.

So are these people upset that their family members or friends have been exposed as war criminals? Are they mad that their precious code of silence was broken? Did they enjoy the photos? What are they mad about?

Darby talked, that’s what the problem is.

Too bad. Hopefully Darby and his family will come out of this all right. He did what his conscience told him to do and no one should fault him for that. He should be credited with upholding the honor of the United States Army when others in his unit chose to abandon it. For others to defend the actions of the accused is indefensible.

To blame his family for his choice is utterly moronic and brainless.

Do a web search on Sgt. Joseph Darby to view all the stories.

It's the Oil, Stupid!!

Is anyone pleased with the price of a gallon of gas these days?

The oil companies and oil sheiks are. So's al-Qaeda; anything to screw us meets with their approval. Screw them.

Now is the time to pour tons of money into finding an alternative to Arab oil. And I don't mean Texas oil or Alaskan oil. We need to be free and clear of oil in the next ten to fifteen years or so. Then we can tell the cartels what to go and do with their oil!

It is clear that we won't get any relief from "W" as he is heavily invested in the oil industry. We'll have to wait until the next President (after Bush's second term in office) to pour the needed billions into alternative fuel research.

So much of our foreign policy is geared toward securing and maintaining our oil supplies. When we no longer have need of it, how will our foreign policy change? Hopefully whatever it turns into, it will be for the betterment of all humankind.