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Wednesday, January 30. 2008

Weds. Links

Gaza: The New Media Math. SDA. Also, how Gazans and Egyptians do business. Also, from SC&A, the purposeful failure to build a middle class among the Palestinians (whence the image on right).

The Muslims of Nashville. Who knew?

The GOP plans for medical care.

Sesame Street needs warnings?

Hands off my lightbulbs! A good rant.

Are doctors the last people in the world to use email?

The Bawer piece, First they came for the gays, re the Islamization of Europe.

Beginning to wind things down in Iraq. Troops coming home.

How Hillary played the newspapers for fools. Or are they simply colluding with her?

Archbishop Moonbat wants laws against bad manners. Like Jules, I find Rowan Williams' speech deeply hurtful and offensive. There should be a law against that kind of talk.

Can John McCain calm down the Conservatives? John Fund. And can he win their hearts? I doubt it, but, for a number of reasons, I think he is the most electable Repub after 8 years of a Repub in the White House. Surber has an excellent comment on the subject. For an example of foolish and immature petulance, try this for somebody who would rather end up with 3 more lefty Supremes for the next 20 years than to vote for McCain.

Posted by The News Junkie in Hot News & Misc. Short Subjects at 05:32 | Comments (17) | Trackbacks (0)

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Iraq will continue to need infrastructure support and help for at least a decade more, but the attempts by outsiders to de-cohere the Nation have not only not worked, they have backfired. By going the route we have the romance of terrorism has extinguished itself in Iraq and Iraqis will not soon forget who has been inflicting it on them, either. DJ Eliot at Roggio's Long War Journal ( http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2008/01/iraqi_force_developm.php ) gives us that lowdown and it is good. Very good. Good enough to stage an entire force operation to clean out Mosul via COIN work and to get the last major part of AQI's network in Iraq.

The trouble spot will continue to be NCO cadre for that decade until the IA and the rest of the armed forces in Iraq solidify and firm up. His previous reporting has indicated a good, fair and deep Inspectors General system that has been uprooting militia adherents, terrorists and those commanders who have been abusing positions of power. Consider that outside of Israel, no other Arab nor Middle Eastern Nation (Turkey not excepted as its armed forces slowly slide away from secular views) has achieved this internally.

I also agree with the comparison of its neighbor's armed forces, save to say that those lack professionalism, practice risk avoidance and put up even miniscule decisions higher in the command structure. Being 'light infantry' with some mechanized and armored support belies the terrain and capabilities of what Iraq faces. One of the greatest solidifying grounds that could ever be offered for Iraq is to work with Afghanistan and to start forming up a Mountain Warfare credo, which the Kurds have to some degree.

Thus the decade is to help solidify the NCO structure, ensure that internal logistics can be performed with zero US help, get a competent air force that will concentrate on COIN and airspace denial, and up-armor its armored forces post-T72/T-55/M-60 and look either to the Leopard (II) or equivalent... or seek a cooperative deal with the US for a 'next-gen' NLOS-C take on light armor: fast, rapid fire, stealthy. And because getting the logistics in place is not glamorous and goes unseen, it gets no press anywhere and yet is the absolute, hardest thing to build. Fighting will always and easily get volunteers... running the food, water, ammo, fuel, and removing the wounded and burying the dead allows for those fighters to fight and fight well.

Once the petrodeal gets done (probably right before the provincial election deal, and both are months away, yet) the first place to benefit will be Japanese and Indian and other Nations looking at the reserves in Anbar. As Iran implodes and Venezuela deteriorates, getting Iraq right is going to be a major, global stabilizing force not only in the ME but globally. We may look back at 2003 as the beginning to ensure that the oil market remains stable in 2010... which will go unremarked upon if it is stable.
#1 ajacksonian (Link) on 2008-01-30 08:10 (Reply)
"Hands off my lightbulbs! A good rant."

Rants are nice, but articles are more informative:

http://www.dr-mercury.com/tb/tbbulb.htm

The WSJ article I link to makes some very interesting points. This is, indeed, a somewhat historic event, and not to our betterment.
#2 Dr. Mercury (Link) on 2008-01-30 08:54 (Reply)
Re; lightbulb legislation...

The energy fiasco that unfolded in California under Gov. Gray Davis had utilities from B.C. and Wash. involved too (not just Enron). The energy and electricity deregs were legislated first by the politicians in Sacramento. Enron took the legislation to the nth degree by selling off all their hard assets that actually produced electricity (BC Hydro is not allowed to do that) and started to just trade the electricity on the open market. Maybe was not that bad a business decision because the hard assets (i.e. the dams, the plants, the wires) are so expensive to hold. The accounting scandal at Enron is a whole other issue. But the market parameters were set politically. Iirc, the other utility companies (that did not have the same problems as Enron) had to write off large receivables from the state of CA and so it was ‘settled‘.
#3 Patina on 2008-01-30 09:17 (Reply)
Archbishop Moonbat........... ha ha ha. What's the punishment? Having to go to church and stand up sit down stand up sit down singsingsing.... What if someone hears insulting words hurled at another but the recipient of the words isn't insulted? A day in jail for malicious-verbal-intent-anyway?

I think McCain should get that General 'You stuck on stupid, boy?!' Honore to be his VP.
#4 Meta on 2008-01-30 10:05 (Reply)
Muslims in Nashville ... yes. Interesting thing is that most of them have been brought here by Christian groups (eg Catholic Charities), whose purpose in importing thousands of Iraqi and Somali Muslims has never been clear to me. The Chamber of Commerce clearly has an agenda, though, and perhaps sees these Christian groups as useful idiots in a broader scheme.
#5 The Dylanologist on 2008-01-30 10:24 (Reply)
RE; Archbishop Moonbat...
wonder if he will ever notice how empty his lovely little churches are.

Dyl, Syr NY has a similar deal with Somalis (or Sudanese?) brought in by Catholic Charities. I think one group was called "the lost boys". Think they are grown now. Heard they had lived in refugee camps for years.
#6 Patina on 2008-01-30 10:34 (Reply)
Maybe McCain is emblematic of the 'right' trending leftwards, in the persons of the boomer cohort moving as it ages from the entrepreneurial to the social-services frame of mind. Ugh, but whatcha gonna do?
#7 buddy larsen on 2008-01-30 10:34 (Reply)
McCain and the Sclerotic Conservatives

I wrote several days ago about conservatives angst with John McCain because he was a member of the Gang of 14, and how I was a full blooded H20 conservative, blah,blah,yadda,yadda.

Others are also now writing thr truth about how he actually helped the Republican cause by his actions.

This from the The American Thinker.

The Base is Wrong About the Gang of 14
By Richard Baehr

When conservatives lay out their long list of apostasies committed by John McCain, one of them is always his role in the Gang of 14, the 7 Democrats and 7 Republicans in the Senate who agreed to a judicial compromise in 2005. The deal that was struck eliminated the use of the "nuclear option" by the then-GOP-controlled Senate, and also limited the Democratic minority's ability to use the filibuster to block certain judicial nominees (at the time the deal was stuck, there were no pending Supreme Court nominations, only Appellate Court nominations were being held up).

To put it plainly, the critics of the deal are flat out wrong. Conservatives should thank John McCain and the other Senators who were part of the Gang of 14 for getting three Appeals Court nominees who had been held up, Janice Rogers Brown, William Pryor, and Priscilla Owen, approved quickly and Brett Kavanaugh approved a bit later, and for Samuel Alito making it onto the Supreme Court without a filibuster blocking his way. And they should thank John McCain for preserving for the Republican Party the use of the filibuster on judicial nominations that might be made by a Democratic President beginning in 2009 or later (Exactly the point I made).

Habu: Conservatives need to unclench, relax the pucker, and support John Mccain unless the would rather make their point by falling on their own swords, thus giving the socialists a victory that we'll pay for for decades to come.

more.
http://www.americanthinker.com/printpage/?url=http://www.americanthinker.com/2008/01/the_base_is_wrong_about_the_ga.htm
#8 Habu on 2008-01-30 10:39 (Reply)
I'll support him H. But I won't like doing so... just the alternative is too horrific to contemplate.

I predict though, that he will win against Hil., and lose against Obama. You read it here first.
#8.1 Luther McLeod on 2008-01-30 11:11 (Reply)
Obama and blow

The Hispanic gang population in the LA area outnumbers the Black gang population by a 10:1 ratio and climbing. Similar trends are nationwide. They won't go for Obama..why?

Turf.

Obama's Illinois vanity plate should read TOOT-TOOT for the blow he nosed down in his youth..what five years ago?..last week?

There is little doubt he purchased the blow from a bro in da hood, as opposed to a vatos in the barrio. He should have been more ecumenical in his drug purchases OR

are we going to buy from the press, like we did from them on Bill Clinton, that Obama bought coke but never snorted or smoked it as crack? Did he ever "share " any with fellow "experimenters"? Did he ever make a big enough buy to sell the rest and snort free on the profit? The press isn't go deep in trying to find out believe me. They only have so much space and it's all going good for the Obama Boy...well the cholos don't give a damn about the NYT lies.

Anyway turf matters and odds are great that he didn't make his buys in the barrio ...... turf ..the Hispanics will get him for if not a buy in the barrio then he was supporting enemy turf with his money. As I said he should have been more ecumenical.

Now you'll say ..but what an insult to the Hispanics saying they all are gang members ...not say'in that.....just pointing out that they do have weight with the population, they know the blacks are their rivals and they ain't about to put a mulatto Islamic apostate/Christian smoove talk'in jive ass in the WH....
#9 Habu on 2008-01-30 11:59 (Reply)
Fed Chairman May Be Too Worried About Wall Street
Posted By:Albert Bozzo

So goes one of the headlines on the blog site CNBC...well here's a news flash for the writer. That is the entire reason for the existence of the FED. It was conceived for the purpose of helping banks and the stock market stay out of trouble , not Joe Sixpack who downstream will get some latent benefit, like a solvent place to cache his money.

The residue of the FED is helping the economy as a whole but the pecking order begins and ends with Wall Street and the banks.

http://www.apfn.org/apfn/reserve.htm
#10 Habu on 2008-01-30 12:29 (Reply)
I see "no difference" between McCain, and the Democrats on Judges, or anything else, Except "Energy;" And, there, the Dems are better.

I will vote for the Dem.
#11 rufus on 2008-01-30 16:01 (Reply)
Those pics: same dynamics as American Gangland. But in central Detroit apparently some locals who survived the 'crack n ho, cap n blow' epidemic are reputedly turning vacant lots into mini-farms.

Calling all urban sodbusters: claim your patch today!
#12 commander clopfelter on 2008-01-30 16:04 (Reply)
Wow Rufus talk about a SINGLE issue voter...there's a huge difference between McCain and Obama on national defence and the whole leftist attitude toward the US as a racist, fascist state that should loose it's place as one of the few sane countries in the world. And the Clintons, do you really want another 4-8 years of these sociopaths in the White House? Why do you say they'll do better on energy? What has Obama said intelligently about energy? They'll sell us down the road chasing the myth of global warming. Is that the great energy policy you see from the Dems? You used to talk very intelligently about energy at the old E Bar and at Wretchard's place, but man you've been smokin' something wacky lately. Get a grip energy boy.
#13 Phil G on 2008-01-30 22:08 (Reply)
Phil, I just don't see any difference between McCain and the Democrats - with the possible exception that they MIGHT be Sane.
#14 rufus on 2008-01-30 22:47 (Reply)
Well I can see your point if the only thing you see is energy.

There's a huge difference in between today's Dems and Repubs and issues of culture, America's sovereignty, force projection, liberty, economic policy, etc., etc. Are the Repubs good conservative stewards? Hell no, but politics is not about the realization of the ideal, it is about the day to day muddling along with compromises and less then perfect results. Doesn't mean we should not demand better conservative principled performance, but if we simply exit the game in despair because the Repubs don't act as we like then we have given up the game entirely.
#15 Phil G on 2008-01-31 07:16 (Reply)
But, see, Phil; that's the point. I DON'T see a difference between McCain and the two Dems. Other than, "They MIGHT be Sane." He's too old, and crazier'n a Loon. He just scares me.

Maybe we'll manage to salvage 45, or 46 Good Ones in the Senate.
#16 rufus on 2008-01-31 08:49 (Reply)

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