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calendar   Saturday - January 27, 2007

Humor In Uniform

An Air Force officer arrives in heaven. St Peter asks him if he has ever done anything in his life that he believes makes him worthy of admittance to heaven.

The officer flyboy replies, “Yes, I once went into a bar with four of my pilot friends and saw two Marines harassing a young girl at the bar, so being a gentleman I went up to the biggest one and told him to leave this young lady alone. When he refused I told him again more forcefully. This time I slapped him across the face and told this Marine to stand down.”

St Peter said, “This was a very good thing to do, and when did you perform this great act?”

The pilot replied, “About 5 minutes ago! My friends should be here shortly!”

LOL


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Posted by The Skipper   United States  on 01/27/2007 at 05:36 PM   
Filed Under: • Military •  
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The Sequel

imageimageWith the Leftist Moonbats marching on Washington today, I’ve been surfing around cyberspace getting glimpses of their freakish festivities. While doing so I had a hallucinatory experience. I suddenly felt myself transported back in time to 1970. There was Jane Fonda in the middle of a crowd of anti-war protesters, and scrawled signs filling the air with all too familiar slogans and the media trumpeting the deaths of 6 or 10 or 20 US soldiers on the battlefield.

The vision refused to fade away and allow me to return to 2007. Then I realized I had not been time-traveling. This was 2007, not 1970. I suddenly wanted to puke. Literally. The sequel to the Vietnam War was following the same formula. Hollywood knows that for a sequel to be successful it has to follow the same basic formula as the original. What we are seeing now on the big screen is “Vietnam: Part II, The Sandbox”.

There are several significant differences however. First, the Viet Cong never attacked the US directly and never even came close to blowing up any major buildings inside our country. Second, the VC didn’t have billions of petrodollars and a worldwide network of religious fanatics backing them - all they had was their puppet-masters in Moscow. Third, the North Vietnamese had only a local goal - to unite their country, albeit under a communist regime that went against the Truman doctrine of “containment” of communism. On the other hand, radical Muslims and the Wahabbi movement have already spread their poison to several countries: Afghanistan, Iraq, Sudan, Somalia and sleeper cells in nearly every major country - including here in the US.

These differences are significant purely for one simple reason: this time the enemy we face is intensely stronger, more dangerous, more ambitious, better financed and more determined to destroy our way of life. In other words, this time we face an escalation by several orders of magnitude of the Vietnam conflict. Yet there are still American citizens who are following the same game plan: “peace at all costs”, “the wrong war”, “bring the troops home NOW”.

These people refuse to believe their own eyes and ears and understand the situation we find ourselves in today is much, much worse that it was in 1970. What is going to happen if/when the next sequel (“Vietnam: Part III, Nuclear Armageddon”) comes to a theater near you. If the escalation continues what will we see? Major cities being wiped off the face of the Earth with nuclear weapons smuggled across our porous Southern border? Millions of Americans wiped out in a terrible instant of blinding hatred?

What will the peaceniks say then? My guess is they will say, “See! We told you this would happen if you went into Vietnam and Iraq?” The murderers will be pardoned in their eyes and all blame will reside with “neo-cons” and whoever is in charge in Washington at the time. Then they will start scheduling another march on Washington even before all the bodies of millions of dead Americans are buried.

This sequel sucks but the peaceniks are still buying tickets. The next one will be a boxoffice bonanza unless we the movie-going (voting) audience decide to force a rewrite of the script. Iraq may already be lost if this screenplay follows the formula. Fred Barnes, editor of The Weekly Standard goes into a little more detail below. Grab your buttered popcorn, Raisonets and jumbo Coke and settle in for the rest of the show. I already know how it is going to end but I won’t spoil it for you ...

Not This Time
-- by Fred Barnes

imageimageA new general, David Petraeus, is taking over in Iraq with a credible new strategy, counterinsurgency. Four decades ago, General Creighton Abrams became the American commander in Vietnam, also with a new strategy. It called for taking and holding the villages and hamlets of South Vietnam.

In a word, it was counterinsurgency, and it worked. Now in Iraq, Petraeus has as good a chance of success, starting with the pacification of Baghdad, as Abrams had. And the painful lesson of Vietnam applies in Iraq: Don’t give up when victory is at hand.

Those in Congress who advocate retreat in Iraq refuse to acknowledge this lesson. And they may have their way, whatever Petraeus accomplishes. With their calls for troop withdrawals and fund cutoffs and their antiwar resolutions, they have put America on a slippery slope in Iraq. And we know where it leads: to defeat while victory remains quite possible. This happened in six descending steps in Vietnam, and today’s coalition in Congress of antiwar Democrats and vacillating Republicans has started pushing us down that dangerous slope.

The first step is, when the war goes poorly, public support falls and politicians dramatically increase their criticism. In Vietnam, this occurred after the Tet offensive in 1968. In Iraq, it occurred gradually at first, then rapidly once violence and chaos in Baghdad flared over the last year.

Step two consists of growing criticism of the foreign government that America is supporting. In Vietnam, the target was the government of President Thieu. In Iraq, it’s the elected government of Prime Minister Maliki. Senator Hillary Clinton, for instance, insists Maliki has failed to seek reconciliation between Shia and Sunnis--that is, a political solution. “I do not support cutting funding for American troops, but I do support cutting funding for Iraqi forces if the Iraqi government does not meet set conditions,” she said two weeks ago.

The third step involves resolutions and threats. This week, the Senate will take up resolutions opposing the addition of 21,500 troops to Iraq, a buildup Petraeus says is indispensable to his plan to secure Baghdad. If resolutions fail to force President Bush to begin winding down the war, Senator Joe Biden promises the Senate will take stronger measures. In the Vietnam era, congressional critics passed limits on funding.

The fourth step--the one we’re approaching now in Iraq--would put restrictions on troop deployments. In 1970, the Cooper-Church amendment sought to bar funding for any American troops in Cambodia, a sanctuary for invading forces from North Vietnam. Today, Hillary Clinton would put a cap on the number of American soldiers in Iraq. Webb, echoing many others in Congress, said withdrawals should begin “in short order.”

Step five is the last resort of war opponents: a fund cutoff over the protests of the president. In Vietnam, it came in 1974, after American combat troops had been withdrawn, but with the United States still supporting and funding the South Vietnamese government. What’s striking is how much the congressional majority then resembles today’s antiwar coalition, mostly Democrats but with more than a handful of Republicans. True, only a minority in Congress favors a cutoff today, but that bloc could grow.

Step six: the collapse. In Southeast Asia, it led to the deaths of more than two million people in Vietnam and Cambodia after the Communist triumph. The members of Congress whose actions prompted the collapse expressed no shame or embarrassment for having betrayed allies. And practically no one held them accountable. Their perfidy was greeted with silence.

- Read Fred’s entire editorial at the WEEKLY STANDARD ...


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Posted by The Skipper   United States  on 01/27/2007 at 02:19 PM   
Filed Under: • EditorialsIraq •  
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Senator Feinstein’s Pork

I bet some of you out there actually believed the Democrats were going to take control in Washington and clean up all that corruption and payoffs to Senators and Representatives, didn’t you? If so you are not only incredibly stupid but also exceedingly gullible.

Take Senator Diane Feinstein (D-CA) for instance. Did you know that for years she has chaired the Military Construction Appropriations subcommittee which has surprisingly paid out billions in military contracts to two companies owned by ... you guessed it ... her husband.

The only question for me is why I had to go to some obscure local backwater California news site to find this out. Why wasn’t it all over the front pages of the NY Times and Washington Post? Never mind. I already know the answer to that question and so do you ...

Senator Feinstein’s Iraq Conflict
As a member of the Military Construction Appropriations subcommittee,
Sen. Feinstein voted for appropriations worth billions to her husband’s firms

(SILICON VALLEY METROACTIVE) - January 24, 2007

imageimageIn the November 2006 election, the voters demanded congressional ethics reform. And so, the newly appointed chairman of the Senate Rules Committee, Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., is now duly in charge of regulating the ethical behavior of her colleagues. But for many years, Feinstein has been beset by her own ethical conflict of interest, say congressional ethics experts.

As chairperson and ranking member of the Military Construction Appropriations subcommittee (MILCON) from 2001 through the end of 2005, Feinstein supervised the appropriation of billions of dollars a year for specific military construction projects. Two defense contractors whose interests were largely controlled by her husband, financier Richard C. Blum, benefited from decisions made by Feinstein as leader of this powerful subcommittee.

Each year, MILCON’s members decide which military construction projects will be funded from a roster proposed by the Department of Defense. Contracts to build these specific projects are subsequently awarded to such major defense contractors as Halliburton, Fluor, Parsons, Louis Berger, URS Corporation and Perini Corporation. From 1997 through the end of 2005, with Feinstein’s knowledge, Blum was a majority owner of both URS Corp. and Perini Corp.

While setting MILCON agendas for many years, Feinstein, 73, supervised her own staff of military construction experts as they carefully examined the details of each proposal. She lobbied Pentagon officials in public hearings to support defense projects that she favored, some of which already were or subsequently became URS or Perini contracts. From 2001 to 2005, URS earned $792 million from military construction and environmental cleanup projects approved by MILCON; Perini earned $759 million from such MILCON projects.

In her annual Public Financial Disclosure Reports, Feinstein records a sizeable family income from large investments in Perini, which is based in Framingham, Mass., and in URS, headquartered in San Francisco. But she has not publicly acknowledged the conflict of interest between her job as a congressional appropriator and her husband’s longtime control of Perini and URS--and that omission has called her ethical standards into question, say the experts.

- More ...


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Posted by The Skipper   United States  on 01/27/2007 at 09:56 AM   
Filed Under: • Democrats-Liberals-Moonbat LeftistsPorkbusters •  
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Spare The Rod

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Cam Cardow - The Ottawa Citizen

Spanking the Diaper
-- by Will Durst

imageimageI don’t know if you’ve heard about this, but it’s exactly the kind of news that compels perfectly sane people to throw their arms up in the air, bang their foreheads against brick walls, and devote the rest of their lives to eating raw cookie dough out of plastic tubs in the basement while watching Jessica Fletcher overturn police incompetence on the Biography Channel. And what the hell is “Murder, She Wrote” doing on the Biography Channel in the first place? But that diatribe is best left for another day.

Today’s harangue concerns Democratic California Assemblywoman Sally Lieber and her plan to introduce a bill to the legislature (“hello bill,” “hello legislature”) that will make parental spanking a crime if the child is three years or younger, labeling it misdemeanor child abuse. That’s right, “spank your offspring, go to jail” is about to become law. “Neglect to stroke a pony, pay a fine” is on the docket for next year. And the “Polyester Banky Ban”? Still stuck in conference.

Now don’t get me wrong, I understand Ms. Lieber’s motivation. As a card-carrying member of the Mommy Party, she is unable to control her insatiable urge to protect us from ourselves. And she’s seriously anti-child abuse. But then again, aren’t we all? And that’s a good thing. But come on. Do we really need a law here? Aren’t most slaps to the bottom more of a Pavolovian response training exercise anyway? Throw a tantrum, get a smack. Repeat until salivation occurs. Besides, unless It’s full, spanking a diaper is like dropping a dime on a pillow. And when full, it’s an exercise neither the spanker or spankee is likely to forget. Or, more importantly, anxious to duplicate.

I’m curious as to exactly how the honorable Assemblywoman proposes parents discipline their darling nippers in the event they toss the toaster into the tropical fish tank. Perhaps a squirt gun to the back of the head, like you use to keep cats off of furniture? Or temporary exile to a terrarium upholstered in a fetching array of bubble wrap? Or replacing “Teletubbies” with tapes of the last season’s “The Apprentice”? If Donald Trump doesn’t constitute cruel and unusual, I don’t know what does.

Mostly though, what worries me is misdemeanor rug rat abuse creep. How soon before the legislature is asked to outlaw stern looks, unseemly scents and substandard nose nuzzling? All very traumatizing to our miniature progeny. Isn’t the simple act of an adult walking past a crawling moppet sheer intimidation through sizism? Passing a toddler? Get down on all fours, mister. And put that beer in a sippy cup. “A pacifier for all my friends.” Not to mention the booming adult voice has to be a terrifying thing, so infractions of the decibel meter will be financially penalized via a complex geometric formula involving frequency and frequency.

Once you cross the cherub protection threshold, a gibberish translator to protect the little angel’s fragile sense of self esteem—easily compromised by formalized language—seems to be a logical leap. And picking up a wee bairn and thrusting them up towards the ceiling with extended arms or riding them on one’s shoulders? Flagrant reinforcement of an overwhelming sense of powerlessness. All I’m saying here is, it’s a slippery slope, Ms Lieber. One that involves hunching way over and whispering and squirt guns and rampant sheep shearing and grown men sucking on nipples. And who wants that?


Comic, writer, actor, former radio talk show host and tour guide in a cave, Will Durst, is co-author of the “Polyester Banky Ban.” Copyright ©2007 Will Durst, distributed by the Cagle Cartoons Inc. syndicate. Will Durst is a political comedian who has performed around the world. He is a familiar pundit on television and radio. See http://www.willdurst.com for additional information on Will’s performance schedule and listen to his twice-weekly commentaries @audible.com/willdurst. E-mail Will at durst@caglecartoons.com.


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Posted by The Skipper   United States  on 01/27/2007 at 07:10 AM   
Filed Under: • Editorials •  
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Saturday Silliness

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The Fishing Philosopher

Two guys from Daniels County are sitting quietly in a boat at Fort Peck, Montana, fishing and drinking beer.

Almost silently, so as not to scare the fish, Mel says, “I think I’m going to divorce my wife - she hasn’t spoken to me in over 2 months.”

Earl continues slowly sipping his beer, then thoughtfully says, “You better think it over - women like that are hard to find.”


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Posted by The Skipper   United States  on 01/27/2007 at 07:05 AM   
Filed Under: • Humor •  
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Weekend Eye Candy

First, a word of explanation. I started this feature over two years ago as a weekend diversion for the guys who read this bog. We can’t be serious all the time or we’d go stark, raving mad. I stopped for a brief time when a few people complained abut the nudity even though it had been tastefully done and hidden back in the galleries.

After much prodding, I decided to revive the feature mainly for one reason. I got a ton of email from troops and contractors in Iraq who have nothing feminine to look at except for the “boobies in bags”. Our people over there aren’t allowed to bring Playboy or other “girlie” magazines into the sandbox and most porn sites on the web are off-limits. Besides, most of them are too tacky anyway and filled with worms and viruses.

So you see, we’re performing a pubic service for our troops here. Kinda like the USO - except with fewer clothes. And to prove there’s nothing dirty going on here, this weekend we’re gonna take a bath with Renata Daninsky, who models under the nom de plume “Peach”. Believe me, Mister Bubble was never this much fun. Now where did I hide my rubber ducky ... ? Oh! There it is. Click the thumbnail below and get ready for some good, clean fun ...

Warning: NSFW

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Posted by The Skipper   United States  on 01/27/2007 at 07:00 AM   
Filed Under: • Eye-Candy •  
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calendar   Friday - January 26, 2007

Through The Looking Glass

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“Prince Of Wales Hotel”
Waterton Lakes National Park, Canada

Photo by Jon Sullivan
(Click image for larger 1024x768 in popup window)


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Posted by The Skipper   United States  on 01/26/2007 at 04:22 PM   
Filed Under: • Art-Photography •  
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A Spooky Little Girl Like You

Have you ever wondered why E.T. doesn’t show his/her face? What about all those UFO’s gliding stealthily across our skies? Surely they can look down on our advanced society and see how intelligent, progressive and civilized we are, can’t they?

On second thought maybe they’re looking at Muslims blowing themselves up for 72 imaginary virgins and people like the Chinese in the story below and can’t decide if the human race is seriously for real of if we’re just some cosmic vaudeville act with no other reason for existing other than to provide belly laughs for the Klingons, Vulcans, Romulans, Vogons, Ferenghi, Borg, etc.

From where I sit, it looks like we’re a hit on the galactic slapstick circuit, playing for a hidden audience laughing uproariously out there beyond the footlights. Which brings me to the question of the day: can a corpse be accused of necrophilia? I mean if he’s dead ... and she’s dead ... isn’t there some loophole to cover this? Perhaps E.T. can answer that one for us. Let’s ask him ...

Three Reportedly Held in ‘Ghost Bride’ Sale
BEIJING (AP) - January 26, 2007, 1:24 PM EST

imageimagePolice in northern China have detained three men for the deaths of two women whose corpses were to be sold as “ghost brides” to accompany dead men in the afterlife, state media said.

Authorities indicated that the killings last year were not isolated cases, the Legal Daily newspaper said on its Web site, but did not give any details. Yang Dongyan, 35, a farmer from Shaanxi province, said he had bought a young woman for $1,600 and planned to sell her as a bride, according to the paper.

But then he met Liu Shenghai, who told him that the woman could command a higher price as a “ghost bride,” it said. The tradition, called “minghun” or afterlife marriage, is common in the Loess Plateau region of northern China, where a recently deceased woman is buried with a bachelor to keep him company after his death.

Yang killed the woman in a ditch, bagged her body, and sold her for $2,077 to Li Longsheng, an undertaker, who said he could find a buyer, the paper said. Yang gave Liu a portion of the profits, it added.

Yang later went to the city of Yan’an and hired a prostitute he had used before, killed her and sold her for $1,000 to Li because she was “less pretty,” the paper said. The report did not give any details of how the women were killed or how the men were detained. “I did it to earn quick money,” the paper quoted Yang as saying. “If I had not been caught this early, I would’ve done it again.”


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Posted by The Skipper   United States  on 01/26/2007 at 01:45 PM   
Filed Under: • Odd-Strange •  
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Motivational Poster Of The Day

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Posted by The Skipper   United States  on 01/26/2007 at 01:20 PM   
Filed Under: • Motorvators •  
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Unlikely

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Bill Schorr - United Media


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Posted by The Skipper   United States  on 01/26/2007 at 10:07 AM   
Filed Under: • Democrats-Liberals-Moonbat LeftistsIraq •  
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Furball Of The Day

Every once in a while the News Cat here at BMEWS coughs up a furball and we just have to share it. Today’s furball involves France, an insane Muslim and a gynecologist. What more could you ask for? Here, kitty-kitty-kitty ...

French Muslim Jailed For Attacking Gynecologist
PARIS (Reuters) - Friday, 26 January 2007

imageimageA French Muslim who attacked a male gynecologist for examining his wife just after she had given birth, saying it was against Islam, has been jailed for six months by a Paris court.

Fouad ben Moussa burst into the delivery room at a Paris hospital last November and shoved, slapped and insulted Dr Jean-Francois Oury as he examined the woman after a complicated birth, the prosecution said in court on Wednesday. Police had to intervene to remove him.

Ben Moussa, a 23-year-old lorry driver, apologised for the attack and said he had requested a female doctor. French state hospitals comply with such requests when staffing permits but say patients must accept treatment from the doctors on duty.

“This is a public and secular place,” prosecution lawyer Georges Holleaux said of the state hospital where the attack occurred. “This is not the place where one can invoke religion to get different treatment.”

French media have reported cases in recent years of Muslim men barring male doctors from treating their wives, sometimes resorting to violence, but legal cases against them are rare.

France’s five million Muslims make up eight per cent of the French population, Europe’s largest Islamic minority.


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Posted by The Skipper   United States  on 01/26/2007 at 09:25 AM   
Filed Under: • EUro-peonsInsanityRoPMA •  
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Saturday Silliness In DC

Are any of you going to be in Washington, DC this weekend? If so you might want to find your way down to 7th and Pennsylvania tomorrow morning. The Navy Memorial is going to be the gathering spot for every anti-war lunatic you can think of including Hanoi Jane herself. Susan Sarandon, Code Pink and the whole motley crew will be there. I’m sure Momma Sheehan will be close by although she is not on the list of attendees.

The website United For Peace & Justice has all the details of this three-day Mooonbat Mega-Convention in DC. If you do get down there, be sure to take your camera and send me some pictures. These gigs by this gaggle of goobers are always fun to watch. Here is the info for this Saturday’s fun fest ...

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(Thanks to James Taranto at WSJ’s Best Of The Web Today for this)


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Posted by The Skipper   United States  on 01/26/2007 at 08:42 AM   
Filed Under: • Democrats-Liberals-Moonbat Leftists •  
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Democratic Party Insanity

Just what in hell do the Democrats in Congress think they’re doing? These asshats have gone way beyond the pale on this one. They just spent days grilling General Petraeus before confirming him to take command in Iraq. General Petraeus stated flatly that he needed the 21,500 troops promised and time to bring things under control. Democrats agreed and wished him godspeed and good luck. Now they’re going to cut him off at the knees before he even sets foot in Iraq.

Is there any lunacy the Donks won’t participate in? How do they get away with this s**t? Russ Feingold is preparing to get the ball rolling next week to cut off all funds for the troops and the war effort. Do Democrats not know any other military strategy than to turn tail and run? That seems to be what they’re best at lately. Roosevelt and Truman must be rolling over in their graves looking at this duplicitous crowd of hypocritical pissants.

I say we, the people of America, should be looking into how we can impeach Congress - not the President. The partisan cowards in the Senate and the House are laying us wide open for another attack, leaving our borders wide open for terrorists and others to invade and just generally NOT providing for the common good, which is their sole reason for being in Washington. Impeach all 535 of the bastards and let’s start over with a fresh crop. This bunch is starting to really stink up the capitol ...

Feingold Pushes Plan to Cut Off War Funds
(POLITICO) - January 26, 2007 07:43 AM EST

imageimageSen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., has scheduled a hearing next Tuesday in his Judiciary Committee subcommittee to explore whether Congress has the authority to cut off funding for the U.S. military campaign in Iraq. The move comes as Congress prepares to vote on a congressional resolution opposing President Bush’s escalation of the war.

Feingold, a fierce war critic, will force Democrats to consider an option many consider politically suicidal: denying funds to the military and U.S. soldiers to force a quicker end to the war. Democratic leaders have privately called on members to restrain from cutting off funding and focus on congressional resolutions condemning the Bush policy. The resolutions are nonbinding and therefore symbolic.

Republicans “would like this debate to be as whether or not we are going to be cutting off money for the troops,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid recently told The Politico. “The logical conclusion is that a lot of things can happen. But right now, the most important thing is to tell the president that what he has done with the escalation is wrong. And that’s what we are doing, bi-partisanly.”

Feingold, who chairs the Subcommittee on the Constitution, will question several witnesses, including a Library of Congress official and legal experts from Harvard, Duke, and the University of Virginia, on the issue. Senior Bush administration officials have publicly argued that Congress has no such right, but Feingold plans to introduce legislation to force President Bush to pull American forces out of the troubled country.

“Congress holds the power of the purse and if the president continues to advance his failed Iraq policy, we have the responsibility to use that power to safely redeploy our troops from Iraq,” Feingold said in a statement released by his office on Thursday. “I will soon be introducing legislation to use the power of the purse to end what is clearly one of the greatest mistakes in the history of the nation’s foreign policy.”


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Posted by The Skipper   United States  on 01/26/2007 at 08:01 AM   
Filed Under: • Democrats-Liberals-Moonbat LeftistsIraq •  
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Taking The Gloves Off

Personally, I think this should have been done two years ago. In fact, on Day One of the invasion of Iraq, orders should have been given to “shoot to kill” anyone carrying a gun or even just throwing a rock at our soldiers. Things would be a lot quieter today if they had.

Iran has been asking for this for some time and I hope they get a full dose. The Mad Mullahs have been training and shipping out insurgents not only to Iraq but to Lebanon and Gaza. Maybe blowing away a few thousand of these troublemakers will make Teheran stop trying to interfere and stir up trouble everywhere in the Middle East.

If this doesn’t work and President Ahmawhackjob and his Mad Mullah overlords don’t get the point maybe the next step is to fill the skies of Iran with laser-guided bombs and missiles. That should take their mind off of meddling in outside countries. If that doesn’t work then proceed to Phase III: turn Iran into a lake of melted sand that glows in the dark. End of story ...

Troops Authorized to Kill Iranian Operatives in Iraq
Administration Strategy Stirs Concern Among Some Officials
(WASHINGTON POST) - Friday, January 26, 2007

imageimageThe Bush administration has authorized the U.S. military to kill or capture Iranian operatives inside Iraq as part of an aggressive new strategy to weaken Tehran’s influence across the Middle East and compel it to give up its nuclear program, according to government and counterterrorism officials with direct knowledge of the effort.

For more than a year, U.S. forces in Iraq have secretly detained dozens of suspected Iranian agents, holding them for three to four days at a time.

The “catch and release” policy was designed to avoid escalating tensions with Iran and yet intimidate its emissaries. U.S. forces collected DNA samples from some of the Iranians without their knowledge, subjected others to retina scans, and fingerprinted and photographed all of them before letting them go.

Last summer, however, senior administration officials decided that a more confrontational approach was necessary, as Iran’s regional influence grew and U.S. efforts to isolate Tehran appeared to be failing. The country’s nuclear work was advancing, U.S. allies were resisting robust sanctions against the Tehran government, and Iran was aggravating sectarian violence in Iraq.

“There were no costs for the Iranians,” said one senior administration official. “They are hurting our mission in Iraq, and we were bending over backwards not to fight back.”

Three officials said that about 150 Iranian intelligence officers, plus members of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Command, are believed to be active inside Iraq at any given time. There is no evidence the Iranians have directly attacked U.S. troops in Iraq, intelligence officials said.

But, for three years, the Iranians have operated an embedding program there, offering operational training, intelligence and weaponry to several Shiite militias connected to the Iraqi government, to the insurgency and to the violence against Sunni factions. Gen. Michael V. Hayden, the director of the CIA, told the Senate recently that the amount of Iranian-supplied materiel used against U.S. troops in Iraq “has been quite striking.”

“Iran seems to be conducting a foreign policy with a sense of dangerous triumphalism,” Hayden said.

The new “kill or capture” program was authorized by President Bush in a meeting of his most senior advisers last fall, along with other measures meant to curtail Iranian influence from Kabul to Beirut and, ultimately, to shake Iran’s commitment to its nuclear efforts. Tehran insists that its nuclear program is peaceful, but the United States and other nations say it is aimed at developing weapons.

The administration’s plans contain five “theaters of interest,” as one senior official put it, with military, intelligence, political and diplomatic strategies designed to target Iranian interests across the Middle East.

The White House has authorized a widening of what is known inside the intelligence community as the “Blue Game Matrix”—a list of approved operations that can be carried out against the Iranian-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon. And U.S. officials are preparing international sanctions against Tehran for holding several dozen al-Qaeda fighters who fled across the Afghan border in late 2001. They plan more aggressive moves to disrupt Tehran’s funding of the radical Palestinian group Hamas and to undermine Iranian interests among Shiites in western Afghanistan.

In Iraq, U.S. troops now have the authority to target any member of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, as well as officers of its intelligence services believed to be working with Iraqi militias. The policy does not extend to Iranian civilians or diplomats. Though U.S. forces are not known to have used lethal force against any Iranian to date, Bush administration officials have been urging top military commanders to exercise the authority.

- More ...


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Posted by The Skipper   United States  on 01/26/2007 at 07:39 AM   
Filed Under: • Iraq •  
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On: 03/20/21 07:00

meaningless marching orders for a thousand travellers ... strife ahead ..
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Tracked at Casual Blog
[...] RTS. IF ANYTHING ON THIS WEBSITE IS CONSTRUED AS BEING CONTRARY TO THE LAWS APPL [...]
On: 07/17/17 04:28

a small explanation
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Tracked at yerba mate gourd
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On: 07/09/17 03:07



DISCLAIMER
Allanspacer

THE SERVICES AND MATERIALS ON THIS WEBSITE ARE PROVIDED "AS IS" AND THE HOSTS OF THIS SITE EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMS ANY AND ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF SATISFACTORY QUALITY, MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, WITH RESPECT TO THE SERVICE OR ANY MATERIALS.

Not that very many people ever read this far down, but this blog was the creation of Allan Kelly and his friend Vilmar. Vilmar moved on to his own blog some time ago, and Allan ran this place alone until his sudden and unexpected death partway through 2006. We all miss him. A lot. Even though he is gone this site will always still be more than a little bit his. We who are left to carry on the BMEWS tradition owe him a great debt of gratitude, and we hope to be able to pay that back by following his last advice to us all:
  1. Keep a firm grasp of Right and Wrong
  2. Stay involved with government on every level and don't let those bastards get away with a thing
  3. Use every legal means to defend yourself in the event of real internal trouble, and, most importantly:
  4. Keep talking to each other, whether here or elsewhere
It's been a long strange trip without you Skipper, but thanks for pointing us in the right direction and giving us a swift kick in the behind to get us going. Keep lookin' down on us, will ya? Thanks.

THE INFORMATION AND OTHER CONTENTS OF THIS WEBSITE ARE DESIGNED TO COMPLY WITH THE LAWS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. THIS WEBSITE SHALL BE GOVERNED BY AND CONSTRUED IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE LAWS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA AND ALL PARTIES IRREVOCABLY SUBMIT TO THE JURISDICTION OF THE AMERICAN COURTS. IF ANYTHING ON THIS WEBSITE IS CONSTRUED AS BEING CONTRARY TO THE LAWS APPLICABLE IN ANY OTHER COUNTRY, THEN THIS WEBSITE IS NOT INTENDED TO BE ACCESSED BY PERSONS FROM THAT COUNTRY AND ANY PERSONS WHO ARE SUBJECT TO SUCH LAWS SHALL NOT BE ENTITLED TO USE OUR SERVICES UNLESS THEY CAN SATISFY US THAT SUCH USE WOULD BE LAWFUL.


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GNU Terry Pratchett


Oh, and here's some kind of visitor flag counter thingy. Hey, all the cool blogs have one, so I should too. The Visitors Online thingy up at the top doesn't count anything, but it looks neat. It had better, since I paid actual money for it.
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