Tuesday, November 22, 2005

Minimal blogging until after new years

I'm heading to NY (state, not the city!) to wallow in the basements and attics of a couple of 100+ year old buildings rewiring them. I'm sure I'll meet lots of new 8 legged friends, and slugs the size of hot dogs. 100 years seems to be sufficient time for a sizable population of sizable slugs to develop in a building's basement.

Its not something I look forward to, but its something that needs to be done...

Murtha - clueless then, clueless now

Murtha urged disasterous Somalia pullout

How disasterous was it? Just ask the man who was in a position to know - OBL himself.
OBL "fatwa" : "...However, when tens of your solders were killed in minor battles and one American Pilot was dragged in the streets of Mogadishu you left the area carrying disappointment, humiliation, defeat and your dead with you. Clinton appeared in front of the whole world threatening and promising revenge , but these threats were merely a preparation for withdrawal. You have been disgraced by Allah and you withdrew; the extent of your impotence and weaknesses became very clear. It was a pleasure for the ‘heart’ of every Muslim and a remedy to the ‘chests’ of believing nations to see you defeated in the three Islamic cities of Beirut , Aden and Mogadishu...
I'll say it again - A few decades in the marines doesn't mean you know anything about geopolitics. Indeed, the fact that he only rose to the level of colonel during that time is a fair indication that he didn't have "the right stuff" to play on a geopoltical stage. Retiring as a colonel is what happens to the guys who are passed over for promotion several times in a row. They don't get passed over because they're exceptional, they get passed over because they're mediocre talents.

H/T DANEgerous

You gotta be shitting me! Developer:0 Fairies:1

What else is there to say?

H/T Pambie
Genesis Properties ceased plans to develop a new housing community in St Fillans, Perthshire, because the locals believe they may be disturbing a small colony of fairies living under a rock.

Marcus Salter, head of Genesis: “A neighbour came over shouting, ‘Don’t move that rock. You’ll kill the fairies’. Then we got a series of phone calls, saying we were disturbing the fairies. I thought they were joking.”

The rock protrudes from Dundurn mountain, ancient site of St. Fillan’s attempts to convert the Picts.

Mr. Salter attended a community council meeting, and Jeannie Fox, council chairman, said: “I do believe in fairies but I can’t be sure that they live under that rock. I had been told that the rock had historic importance, that kings were crowned upon it. A lot of people think the rock had some Pictish meaning, it would be extremely unlucky to move it.”

Genesis relocated the entire project.

Monday, November 21, 2005

The Clueless Cavalcade! -- an ongoing Purple Avenger feature

I've decided to implement a running post that I'll update as new oblivions present themselves as ripe targets for scorn and derision.

I present to you Lt. Col. Alexis Fecteau. Weapons grade crazy. Industrial strength stupid.
...pleaded guilty Friday to defacing cars with bumper stickers supporting President Bush...pleaded guilty to felony mischief and must pay restitution to the owners of the damaged cars to clear his record.

H/T DBS



Los Angeles school district has a 50% dropout rate.
WTF?!?! You thought Lousiana was tops in corruption and ineptness? Meet the new king of the hill folks - the LA School District. (H/T Nickie Goomba)




WaPo's Dana Milbank - biased hack, liar and more!
Ace does the smackdown. Good stuff. Brent Bozell has another good Milbank smackdown too.




One letter in Pravda in Paradise (i.e. The Palm Beach Post) today struck me as clueless in the extreme. This dude apparently thinks the US military is a bunch of amateur rubes who go off to war equipped like a cub scout troop. Apparently he's never heard of all the NBC gear we have that generally make chem weapons an annoyance rather than a deadly threat. Jeez, 30 years ago in BCT at Ft. Dix I learned how to deal with this stuff.

It should be noted that the Post's editorial staff could have used this letter as an opportunity to have a "teachable moment" for the readers -- but they chose otherwise.

Palm Beach Post letters to the editor
If Iraq really had WMD, Bush did the unthinkable

The president was very sure that there were no weapons of mass destruction and no danger of biological or chemical attacks on our troops in Iraq ("Bush blasts critics on Iraq," Nov. 12). He was so sure that he had no qualms about sending them in.

Patently, he believed the intelligence of other nations and that ours was flawed. He was so sure the troops would be safe that he did not need to let the inspectors finish their investigation. Not even a rabid Democrat would accuse the president of sending American forces in without assurance of their safety from these terrible weapons. It would be better for conservatives to admit that the president deliberately used intelligence that he knew was false than to accuse him of recklessly endangering U.S. personnel.

REV. SEBASTIAN MUCCILLI

Lake Park

Maureen Dowd caused the Paris riots

Funny stuff. Highly recommended!
Maureen Dowd caused the Paris riots

What's in ICSQ-2003-00025586 and why doesn't senator Levin want us to know?

Come on Carl - why are YOU "cherry picking" intel? IF this ICSQ-2003-00025586 doc supports democrat contentions, its is certain it would be front page news. That it is not is damning.

References:
Weekly Standard
Stephen Hayes
Stephen Hayes (page 2)
There are many such documents in a U.S. intelligence database known as HARMONY. One example: Document number ICSQ-2003-00025586 was captured by the U.S. military during Operation Iraqi Freedom. Here is the synopsis of that document that appears in the database:
Category: Al Qaida
Title: Letters, logbook, training manual from Al Qaida Chemical Plant regarding Chem Warfare
Short Description: Contains papers concerning Iraqi officials, prices of equipment, training plans, and actions by high level officers all concerning chemical warfare
Agency: DIA
Document Date: Feb-02
Document #: ICSQ-2003-00025586

What does it mean? I'm not sure. On the one hand, any document under the heading "Al Qaida" that mentions "chem warfare" and "Iraqi officials" is inherently interesting. On the other, we don't know what the document tells us. Just as it is possible that the document reveals Iraqi complicity in al Qaeda's efforts to secure WMD, it is conceivable that the "papers concerning Iraqi officials" include indications that Iraqis rejected al Qaeda overtures for assistance on chemical warfare. Although some HARMONY documents are flagged as being of suspect authenticity, this one is not flagged. Still, it is possible that it is a fabrication and was entered into the database without an assessment of its authenticity.

I can't answer these questions. Someone probably can.

As Sen. Roberts and Rep. Hoekstra push their proposal to declassify the untranslated Iraqi documents, the White House might seek to obtain and release those documents already translated and evaluated.

The document above has been translated. It has been summarized. It has been entered into HARMONY. We'd like to know: Is it authentic, and what else does it say?

Sunday, November 20, 2005

This kid catches on quick!

Up Town Girl
...The teacher explained to him, kindly I might add, that at times he gets a bit out of line and if he’d work a bit harder he could win. This wasn’t acceptable to him as he reached into his pocket pulled out a dollar bill and offered it up to her stating, “Will this help”?

But don't question their patriotism!

Grey Eagle
Congratulations To Those Who Oppose The Soldiers

I wish to express my congratulations to the hackers, vandals, and anti-war visitors who successfully blocked my ability to post any further tributes to the soldiers. I am sure you find victory in preventing myself and others from having a place to read and pay our respects to the Fallen Female Soldiers, and my brother’s in arms, the brave soldiers of the 101st Airborne Division. I can only imagine your satisfaction in justifying the disgrace of men and women who died for this country. You may not feel it was justified, but they gave their lives believing in what they were doing. Apparently freedom of speech is merely a phrase to you, not something you believe, in unless it applies to you...

Saturday, November 19, 2005

The democrats 2006 "plan": spend, spend, spend, spend

TIME
Congressman Rahm Emanuel of Illinois had a nice moment on Meet the Press about a month ago. He said Democrats would run on their "ideas" in the 2006 congressional elections...

  • Expand support for higher education.

  • Create a National Institute of Science and Engineering

  • Use government contracts and tax incentives to boost solar and wind power

  • "You got a job, you got health care." Give the uninsured vouchers

  • Everything on the table—loopholes, pork, Bush tax cuts.


  • The Bush tax cuts have resulted in increases in treasury revenue, not decreases as predicted. Democrats won't cut pork - pork is what their whole existence depends on. With the major spending growth in politically "untouchable" entitlement programs, and democrat's historical aversion to pork elimination, this all sounds like quite a pipe dream to me.

    Asian "superhighway"

    The price of building materiels is going to go up even more now...

    Ace Of Spades
    ...The treaty was signed by 23 nations at a UN meeting and outlines a network that will link the continents in some 140,000 km (87,000 miles) of roads...

    File under weird shit - frat house full of dead critters

    Jeff Dahmer was unavailable for comment...
    Ball State Daily News
    Authorities are still investigating why four dead animals – a doe, buck, coyote and possum – were found scattered throughout the house of an off-campus fraternity on Nov. 10....

    The OSM Fraud Revealed

    The nefarious nature of this OSM scam is revaled by Iowa Hawk (who is also a participant). Seriously, I don't blame any of them for cashing in on this obvious fraud while it lasts - I would too. I've been looking for a good scam for years that wouldn't land me a berth at Club Fed.

    Apparently it works kinda like this: a bunch of bloviating blog whiners collectivize (Soviet Style) to extract serious jack from unwitting advertisers who were liberally plied with ruffies before contracts were signed. At some point, the advertisers wake up and realize their wallets have been raped and the perps have vanished into the ether. This is of no consequence of course. The deed is done, the cash extracted and distributed, and everyone on their way to Tahiti laughing like maniacs.

    It is a thing of beauty.

    Friday, November 18, 2005

    Shocker: Aristide was corrupt

    IOL
    Port-Au-Prince - A probe of former Haitian president Jean Bertrand Aristide's administration turned up evidence of embezzlement and other irregularities, according to a report by the country's central economic and financial investigation agency...In July, another probe also found evidence of corruption and embezzlement within Aristide's administration, noting that nearly $20-million in public funds had been diverted to private accounts in Haiti and the United States between February 2001 and February 2004

    Mayor candidate: homeless to work for crack

    I don't know about the cleaning up the streets aspect of such a proposal, but I'm 100% certain any existing garbage dumpsters in the city will be picked clean in a heartbeat if this moron gets elected. When asked why he robbed banks Willie Sutton replied: "that's where the money is". Well...dumpsters is where the garbage is concentrated...and I'm quite sure street people are aware of this fact.
    Edmonton Sun
    Andrew Uitvlugt..."So what I propose to do is to possibly motivate people with drugs to do constructive work, like get them out there picking up garbage, and then we'll give them some crack,"
    H/T The Jawa Report

    Thursday, November 17, 2005

    Giant camels found in Syria

    Modern camels are lothsome creatures as everyone knows. They smell, are stubborn, and can have vile dispositions. Were it not for their unique capabilities, most people would consider them no better than huge landroving wharf rats. Now we find that they used to come in a "super size" model as well?!? I'm having a hard time getting my head around the implications of a giraffe sized camel. Would you run away? Worship it? Harness it? Eat it? Maybe stake it out and use it for shade? The concept just shatters all notions of everyday prehistoric man's life as we have understood it thusfar. Giant. Freaking. Camels.
    ADNKI

    Swiss researchers say they have found the fossil remains of gigantic camels - as tall as giraffes - that roamed the steppes of central Syria some 100,000 years ago ... "We immediately realised that the bones belonged to a previously unknown, extinct species," ... found more than 20 fossil remains ... suggest that the prehistoric camels were almost double the size of their modern-day relatives.
    More fun critter stories:

    Beheaded Wiccan Parrot
    Frat house full of roadkill
    Dinosaur: Koolasuchus
    Rampaging Moose
    Thousands of rotting sea urchins
    Cows tailcapitated
    Vicious attack squirrels
    Fairies under rock stop developer (I guess fairies are critters, right?)

    Orange county NAACP chief makes switch to GOP

    Orange county NAACP head defects to republicans
    ...As of this week, Derrick Wallace, head of Orange County's NAACP, has switched parties -- to become a Republican.

    "I've thought about this for two years," Wallace said Tuesday afternoon, just a few hours after returning from the elections office. "This is not a decision I made yesterday."

    It is, however, a decision that rang out like a shot among political circles.
    ...

    A Romanian speaks out about the USA

    I'm constantly amazed that we Americans appear to take for granted what others gaze at in wonder and awe. Why is it that they recognize that its worth saving and defending when many of our own citizens don't? We aren't perfect, but apparently it takes someone who lived under communism to realize that you could certainly do a lot worse.
    READ IT
    ...What on earth can unite the Americans in such a way? Their land? Their galloping history? Their economic Power? Money? I tried for hours to find an answer, humming songs and murmuring phrases with the risk of sounding commonplace.

    I thought things over, but I reached only one conclusion...
    Only freedom can work such miracles.

    MAY GOD CONTINUE TO BLESS AMERICA

    Only freedom can work such miracles.

    MAY GOD CONTINUE TO BLESS AMERICA

    General Vernon Chong's letter to the senator about WOT

    Too long to reproduce here. Go READ IT ALL.

    The general hits a home run. He "gets it".

    H/T California Conservative

    Iraq's WMD and terrorist ties revealed?

    I know Newsmax is a flakey source...but... It is well within the realm of possibility though, because translating millions of documents takes time. There's still significant revelations coming out of the old KGB archives and they were opened up many years ago. We only got started on Saddam's stuff a couple of years ago.
    NEWSMAX
    Recently discovered Iraqi documents now being translated by U.S. intelligence analysts indicate that Saddam Hussein's government made extensive plans to hide Iraq's weapons of mass destruction before the U.S. invasion in March 2003 - and had deep ties to al Qaida before the 9/11 attacks...

    PRC car sales skid, reveal internal issues

    XINHUA
    ...A rash of car purchases by Chinese individuals a few years ago have persuaded most global auto giants to pin their hopes on the Chinese market. But the sudden slowdown of car sales since last year, largely due to worsening traffic and rising oil prices, have made many of their ambitious capacity-expansion plans look like pipe dreams...

    ...Though some have recently scaled down their investment for the coming years, the forecast for the industry's output implies that most automakers are still reluctant to acknowledge reality...

    ...But the current Chinese conditions of a widening urban-rural income gap, poor urban planning and emerging problems of resources and environment all mean the market now, and in the foreseeable future, is not as huge as predicted...

    Wednesday, November 16, 2005

    Unconventional warfare lessons - from Tom Sawyer

    SOCOM.MIL(PDF document)

    “I want you to move into that province, oust the al Qaeda, co-opt the locals (click here for a good example of this), and bring security to the region. Take as many Afghan forces as you can muster and be ready to move as soon as you can. What are your questions?”

    Those were the orders I gave the Special Forces A-Team commander as he and his 12-man
    team moved into the Lware District in Afghanistan during the winter of 2003/04. In short, I tasked him to conduct unconventional warfare in that region by fighting the terrorist by, with and through the indigenous forces rather than by using primarily U.S. military might. What is unconventional warfare? The Department of Defense Dictionary of Military...

    ...After reading through Joint Publications, Army Manuals and military history, I realized I learned much of what I need to know about unconventional warfare in the eighth grade. It was then that I read Mark Twain’s “Tom Sawyer.” In that book, Tom Sawyer was tasked to paint the fence in front of his aunt’s home. In order to accomplish this task, Tom co-opted his friends and neighborhood pals to paint the fence for him. He painted just enough himself to inspire and instruct his surrogates. In the end, the fence got painted, the whole community had bought into the project, and he did not get paint on his overalls.

    In a nutshell, Tom Sawyer was demonstrating unconventional warfare tactics. He was accomplishing his goal working by, with and through his community members. In war fighting, if you are fighting by, with and through indigenous forces or if you’re collecting...

    The US Army in Yemen -- hearts, minds, and sheep

    Classic SpecOps -- develop eyes and ears you wouldn't otherwise have within the local populace. If the American come and cure some sick animals, that is the kind of news that spreads among locals. That is the kind of local news that can erase a lot of Al Jazeera propaganda. Direct action, on the ground, bypassing the government kleptocrats.

    You know terrorists aren't bringing vets to keep the local's flocks healthy.

    Might this be a precursor to some SpecOps operations in Yemen? Yemen has been a hotbed of nutjobs in the past -- nutjobs that have been giving the Saudi's a hard time.

    SOCOM.MIL(PDF doc)
    96th Civil Affairs Battalion helps treat livestock herds in Yemen

    By Marine Corps Cpl. Jeff Nagan
    Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa Public Affairs

    One of the most effective ways of measuring the wealth of the people within the Horn of Africa and surrounding regions is the health of their herds. Animals provide the people with vital food and are a chief source of commerce. A small bit of medical care for their herds goes a long way in improving the lives and future of the people in the area. For the first time, U.S. servicemembers deployed to Yemen, at the southern edge of the Arabian Peninsula, to assist the local people in strengthening and healing their livestock....

    ...“Nobody has come before,” said Ahmed Salih Ali Muthana, a local herder. “I’m very happy. It’s beautiful to see the Americans working with the people of Yemen.”...

    ...The mission wasn’t without its hurdles, said Capt. David E. Fleming, 96th CA Bn. veterinarian. Although the herders could see and feel the impact of the mission, many of the political leaders had little idea of what the Americans were doing.
    “We have had to work hard building relationships at the local and central level,” Fleming said. “We have to constantly reinforce our relationships, explaining that we are here to help the local and central government.”...

    ...The 96th Civil Affairs Battalion, volunteers from Camp Lemonier and local Yemeni veterinary students treated more than 24,000 animals, which included sheep, goats, cattle, donkeys and camels.

    Tuesday, November 15, 2005

    UAE to allow women to vote and hold office

    Dominos falling...
    Would this have happened without all those female purple fingers in Afganistan and Iraq?
    Gulf News
    A highly placed source confirmed to Gulf News that work was going on at the topmost levels on the planned reforms. "Women will be able to elect, and be elected to, government positions. There will be a complete change in the political scenario next year. Top officials are already working on this project," the source said.

    Canadian liberals to use "tax cuts" to spur economy

    USA democrats must be slashing their wrists about now. Those ingrate leftist Canucks just blew holes in the democrats mantra about tax cuts.

    Brandon Sun
    The beleaguered Liberal government will promise significant cuts to personal income taxes and a sprinkling of corporate tax reductions today in a pre-election mini-budget that offers something for everyone.

    Finance Minister Ralph Goodale will promise to lighten the tax burden on Canadians, reiterate an earlier plan to cut billions from corporate taxes and introduce other business tax changes as part of a broader plan to boost the economy, sources say.

    Monday, November 14, 2005

    If Clinton lied, did thousands die?

    If this is true, Hillary is finished.
    Factor-8
    For more than two decades, the Arkansas prison system profi ted from selling blood plasma from inmates infected with viral hepatitis and AIDS. Thousands of unwitting victims who received transfusions of a product called Factor 8 made from this blood died as a result...

    ...People are still dying. Around the world major classaction lawsuits have been filed and criminal investigations are underway. While the rest of the globe looks to America for answers, the story remains largely untold and no one has ever been held accountable...

    “In the early days of AIDS, we at the CDC were surprised that the hemophiliac community was infected so rapidly. This shocking documentary tells why.”

    Dr. Donald Francis/ former head of AIDS Laboratory
    at the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention

    Mexico/Venezuela relations tank - Mexico may recall embassador

    Hugo needs a Dale Carnegie course in how to win friends and influence people. He's got the "influence" (negatively) part down, but the winning friends part is still a little shakey. Seriously, it would have been pretty easy to cast this guy as Al Capone for that scene in the movie where he gives the "motivational talk" with the baseball bat.

    Associated Press
    MEXICO CITY (AP) - Mexico said it will withdraw its ambassador and severe diplomatic ties with Venezuela if that country's president doesn't apologize Monday for warning Mexican leader Vicente Fox: "Don't mess with me."

    Sunday, November 13, 2005

    Are liberals unpatriotic?

    Froggy poses the question and presents a hard well documented smackdown.

    I won't go as far as to make it a blanket accusation, but we're probably talking in the realm of 85-90% though.

    More on the Falluja white phosphorous lies

    Game, set, match baby. The leftist commies have been caught red handed pitching bullshit propaganda.

    Confederate Yankee has the goods

    Tectonic shifts in Saudi policy open WTO doors

    Yep, the "neocon" agenda is a complete failure. Saudi trade with Israel. Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Tunisia, and Pakistan starting softening their stances on Israel, the Syrians rocked back on their heels and withdrawn from Lebanon, Libya pulling in its fangs, etc. These are all very dire developments. Indeed, I dare say -- harbingers of impending doom.
    [moonbat==off]

    Keep drinking that KoolAid and chanting the mantras. The Saudi's just put themselves square in the crosshairs of every Islamofacist in the world with this move...which implies they've decided to FULLY "get on board" in the WOT.

    Washington Times
    GENEVA -- Saudi Arabia has agreed to end all economic boycotts of Israel, allowing the World Trade Organization (WTO) yesterday to admit the oil-rich kingdom as its 149th member, diplomats said.
    ...
    H/T Captain Marlow

    When will the Chavez invasion of Curacao begin?

    [UPDATE]
    Looks like I'm not the only one who thinks Chavez has designs on Curacao now ;->

    Publis Pundit has noticed something is going on.

    VCrisis is onboard.
    [UPDATE]



    He's not looking to buy 50 or so new top line Russian fighters and 40 Russian helicopters and 100,000 new Russian assault rifles because he likes their nifty paint jobs. He's already got a servicible bunch of US, Brit, and French gear in inventory that was more than enough to maintain VE's security.

    For a supposed "populist" this is some heavy jack being spent on weaponry that might otherwise be spent doing something useful for the people of VE.

    There is something cooking here. After much thought, I've concluded the target is most likely Curacao.

  • Curacao has one of the THE largest refineries on the planet.

  • Curacao has extensive drydock and facility.

  • It has some oil.

  • Its VERY close to the VE coast.

  • Its owned by the Dutch who probably wouldn't defend it.

  • The invasion would be a fait acompli before NATO could do anything

  • Chavez is sending troops and officers for "training" in Cuba.

  • 60 new Russian Migs is a lot of air superiority cover for an island just off the VE coast.


  • Connect the dots - Curacao is a phat target ripe for the picking and there's not a damn thing the Dutch, the US or Nato could do about preventing it because it is so close to the VE coast. Chavez WOULD succeed in taking Curacao. Once that is done, O.I.L. becomes his most effective weapon to keep the west at bay.

    Why THIS STORY about Chavez threatening to turn over his F-16's to Cuba and China never made the news in the US is pretty interesting.
    VENEZUELA'S president has threatened to give Cuba and China F-16 fighter aircraft from his arsenal, insisting that the US has failed to fulfil its maintenance commitments for the combat planes.

    President Hugo Chavez, who has overtaken his ally Fidel Castro of Cuba as the regional nemesis for the Bush White House, said: "We can do whatever we want with the planes. Maybe we'll send 10 to Cuba, or maybe to China so that they can see the technology."


    The donation or sale of the F-16s would violate agreements concerning the exchange of military hardware without US permission and put further strain on relations between the two countries. However, the Venezuelan F-16s were bought in 1983 and are not believed to contain any sensitive technology.

    Saturday, November 12, 2005

    Vietnam War history: The Ia Drang battle animated

    Very nicey done. Worth a look.

    IA DRANG 1965
    AND THE DEFENSE OF LANDING ZONE X-RAY

    Is the nuke weapons "Iranian laptop" a sucker job?

    New York Times
    In mid-July, senior American intelligence officials called the leaders of the international atomic inspection agency to the top of a skyscraper overlooking the Danube in Vienna and unveiled the contents of what they said was a stolen Iranian laptop computer.

    The Americans flashed on a screen and spread over a conference table selections from more than a thousand pages of Iranian computer simulations and accounts of experiments, saying they showed a long effort to design a nuclear warhead, according to a half-dozen European and American participants in the meeting.


    OK, so US intelligence claims we've got a stolen laptop full of nifty bomb design and analysis data. This raises a number of questions the NYT article fails to address.

    A) Assuming we had an asset in a position to filch such data, why did they ripoff the whole machine? People tend to notice when whole machines go missing. Classified operations, like Iranian bomb design labs, usually have asset protection plans and security in place to keep things like laptops from growing legs and just walking away on their own.

    B) Would the iranians be dumb enough to keep things like bomb designs on a laptop rather than on a mainframe or network with higher security protocols that audit who is accessing what and when it gets accessed? As a 25 year veteran of the computer industry, I would have to guess the Iranians are not this stupid.

    Even non-classified US businesses do things to prevent confidential data from walking away. ex. For insurance companies and banks, IBM sold a special version of one of their old PS/2 machines that had no local media. It was just a medialess LAN workstation. People could access and work with data, but couldn't save it locally. All higher quality LAN cards have the ability to RIPL (remote IPL) a machine off of a server making local media unnecessary.

    C) Modern laptops are super easy to replace components on. Assuming the Iranian asset had access to this hardware, why would we not simply supply them with a drive that was identical to the one in the machine and do a swap? Certainly the CIA or FBI has people who could counterfeit up all the proper labels with identical serial numbers, etc for the swapped drive so there would be no (obvious) indication a swap had occured. The swapped drive would just need to exhibit a fatal hardware problem that would make data unrecoverable - ex. like a head crash that peeled media off the drive. Drives fail all the time. It would just be considered a routine maintenance thing. It would certainly be easier to sneak a small laptop drive out of a secure facility than a whole laptop.

    This story smells -- it reeks of a setup/trap by the Iranians to discredit the US and it appears we've taken the bait. If the story is true, then the Iranian security is more inept than I ever imagined. For the moment at least, its much easier to believe this is a setup rather than the real thing.

    Revisiting the Darfur situation - because it is important

    This is basically just a bump of a previous post, but it rolled off the radar screen, so I link it again. Mark my words - Darfur isn't about nutty Islamists running around wasting people for religious/racist reasons. The Darfur slaughter is all about O.I.L. and who will get to develop it.

    Darfur - the French/Chinese oil connection

    The Faluja "white phosphorous" kerfluffle and the liars who created and pimp it.

    Captain Marlow has the goods

    Basically a bunch of Italians commies pimping a bunch of made up and inaccurate crap - which is of course how commies have operated for the last 100 years. Their pics are bogus, knowedge of weaponry highly suspect, and their motives transparent. The difference this time, is the blogosphere. They've been called out on the scam and exposed as liars. The expose is now getting more traction than their original propaganda. See Right Nation for lots more info and links too

    Bruce Willis has discovered Michael Yon -- and was impressed

    BruceWillis.com

    I've blogrolled Yon, but he's worth mentioning again. Michael Yon is the REAL DEAL. Yon is the best war correspondent since Ernie Pyle, and I dare say, he is even better than Pyle because he comes at it with a little different perspective than Pyle did. You see, Yon is ex-special forces. He KNOWS how things fit together in ways ordinary "journalists" don't -- and he relates it in ways everyone can understand.

    Friday, November 11, 2005

    Tin foil hats make moonbats nuttier

    This is something I've long suspected -- the foil hat craze was a government created plot. Now that we know "the truth" it looks like time to start shorting Alcoa stock ;->

    MIT student study
    ...It has long been suspected that the government has been using satellites to read and control the minds of certain citizens...
    H/T Ace

    Today's celebs 20 years from now - PICS!

    At: Everyone's got a Story. Scary stuff, brace yourself.

    Thursday, November 10, 2005

    The Amman bombing was an assassination - bank on it.

    It would seem General Bashir Nafeh was putting some pressure on the Palestinian extremist factions. Could there be any better reason for say...Hamas to contract out a hit to AQ? If Nafeh was coordinating with the Israelis in a crackdown, that surely would have made him a marked man.

    Mark my words folks - this was no ordinary splodydope "martyrdom operation" as is being claimed by AQ Iraq - this will ultimately turn out to be an assasination of a major PA figure.

    The bombers themselves would of course get fed some bullshit story about striking at the Americans, Iraq, blah, blah, blah so they wouldn't have reservations about hitting a PA general, but the planners surely had a much different goal in mind. The other two hotels would have been just distractions to muddy up identifying the real target

    United Jerusalem
    ...The Palestinian Special Forces, under the command of the Bashir Nafeh - also a member of the unofficial "disengagement talks" - have logged a number of key arrests lately, some in coordination with the IDF and the Shin Bet. They have made arrests and neutralized bombs and suicide kits.
    ...


    If we apply Occam's Razor, the only rational conclusion is this was a hit. The chances of this being a coincidence are astronomical. Note also that the general was returning from a visit to Egypt. I think its safe to say he wasn't there to discuss the latest olive crop yields. He was there to discuss the security situation on Gaza'a southern border which has been problematic for both parties.

    The next question to be answered is - who within the PA had access to the general's itinerary and was in a position to leak this info to Hamas? (or some other radical faction that didn't want the PA cracking down on extremists and closing down the sieve that is the Gaza border).

    Was the general's intinerary specific as the the hotel he would be at? In any case, this hit would need to look like a random bombing. Multiples would fill the bill nicely even if the general's specific hotel were known.

    It should be noted that Col. Abed Allun (also killed in the bombing) was a high ranking security official within the PA, so this was a "twofer" in regards to zapping high profile PA security officials.

    It also should be noted that only one [edit: now being reported as 3] Americans has been reported killed in the blast so far. This is most curious if AQ wants to strike at Americans isn't it? They've not shrunk from wasting Americans elsewhere. Why be a piker here? This aspect doesn't wash if these were just random bombings. Surely if you wanted to get Americans, a watcher could be posted to ensure that the lobbys were well stocked when the splodydopes were to be sent in.

    HOWEVER, there are certain groups that have generally avoided going after Americans directly (for obvious reasons) -- one of them being Hamas. Now I'm going to speculate some:

  • Suppose Hamas needs the general dead (for obvious reasons)?

  • Suppose they don't want to be directly associated with the hit (also for obvious reasons)?

  • Suppose they contract out the hit to AQ? (in exchange for giving cover to AQ operations in Gaza)?

  • Suppose one of the terms of the deal is that not too many Americans get greased just incase the job is botched? Hamas doesn't really need a bunch of Navy Seals sneaking around Gaza snatching their honchos, so keeping the American damage to a minimum would be one of their requirements for an "outsourced" job.

  • AQ certainly needs a Gaza base far more than they needed to do a few random bombings.

  • The bullshit Islamist AQ website claims taking the blame deflect interest away from Hamas.

  • AQ gets their safe haven in Gaza.

  • The troublesome general is eliminated.

  • Not too many Americans are wasted which keeps Hamas happy with the job.


  • The details of this particular scenario may be all bullshit, but it makes a lot more sense than writing this off as just another random AQ bombing.

    There are other possible scenarios that require the general getting dead too.

    AQ's quality of recruits in Iraq has been severely damaged as I've noted previously. If the general were working with the Egyptians and Jordanians to cramp the flow of higher quality import talent from North Africa, that too would necessitate the hit. This scenario would eliminate the need for a Hamas connection and allow for an "all AQ" operation.

    Amman bombings - the REAL reason

    Do you believe in the tooth fairy? I don't. When a general gets whacked in a bombing, the chances of it being a "coincidence" are slim and none. This is Zarqawi declaring war on the PA. Here's the "money quote" hidden away at the bottom of a CNN article.

    [UPDATE: If you got here from a direct link read this post too. I'm absolutely convinced this was a hit on Nafeh now]

    CNN
    Officials from other governments, however, were among the dead. Four Palestinians, including Maj. Gen. Bashir Nafeh, head of Palestinian military intelligence, died in the blast at the Grand Hyatt, said chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat.

    Also killed was Col. Abed Allun; Jihad Fattouh, the brother of the Palestinian parliament speaker; and Mosab Khoma, Erakat said. The four were on their way back from Cairo, Egypt, he said, adding his condemnation of the attacks.

    OMG - I could be rich!

    I know how to run a welder, polisher, grinder and cutting torch. Now all I need to do is find a fool with more jack than brains and sell'em a bunch of scrap welded together and I'll be set for life.

    Yo - rich morons out there. I'll do you a lot better than this guy did for say a paltry $5M and I'll throw in some snazzy polished copper and anodized aluminum stuff too...and I'll have the base gold plated.

    Click here for pic of $25M woth of scrap metal

    Metal "sculpture" sells for $23M
    A large-scale metal sculpture by American artist David Smith has become the most expensive work of contemporary art ever sold at auction, fetching 23.8 million dollars at Sotheby's in New York....

    Tuesday, November 08, 2005

    Burma paranoia approaches DPRK levels

    Damn, I can't keep all the places the US is supposed to be invading straight anymore...Venezuela, DPRK, Iran, Syria, and now Burma. These nutbars are going to have to get their stories straight. Look, we can only invade and manage a couple at a time, so someone is plainly in the clear. We're not done with Afganistan and Iraq yet, so ALL of these loons are in the clear for the forseable future.

    The Australian
    RANGOON: Burma's reclusive military junta is moving key ministries to a secret location in the mountains and dense forest on the road to Mandalay, in what is believed to be a precaution against a US invasion....

    Porter Goss goes soft on accountability review board

    Disturbing shit. I was originally an enthusiastic Goss supporter when he became DCI. I though he was just the guy to clean out the rats nest. I can no longer say that. Its obvious he's covering something up. I want to know what that is. I want to see someone else with the necessary stones to do the job.

    Senator Pat Roberts press release
    FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - October 5, 2005
    CONTACT: Sarah Ross Little(202) 224-4774

    Senate Intelligence Chairman Pat Roberts Today Issued the Following Statement

    “I have been informed of Director Porter Goss’s decision not to convene Accountability Review Boards (ARB) as recommended by the CIA Inspector General’s review of the actions of CIA personnel prior to September 11, 2001. “Because the ARB is generally the mechanism by which the CIA determines whether any punitive personnel action is warranted, I am concerned to learn of the Director’s decision to forego this step in the process.

    “However, I spoke with Director Goss and Negroponte earlier today and they both strongly believe that this is the correct course of action.

    “I have invited both Director Negroponte and Director Goss to appear before the Senate Intelligence Committee later this month, where we have an opportunity to explore with them this decision and the basis for it.”

    Radical Islamic Dutch "youngster" gets "treatment" rather than jail for bomb

    Can anyone doubt that this murderous little weasle will escape at the earliest opportunity and go back to plying his deadly inclinations? The Dutch are certifiably nuts. Whackos like this need to be packed away for as long as the law allows.

    NIS News
    The district court in Amsterdam ruled yesterday that a 17 year old boy from Almere had no terrorist plans for his home-made explosive. But he must undergo behavioural therapy at a youth institution...

    ...Last March, the youngster made death threats by e-mail for MPs Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Geert Wilders...

    ...After the youth was arrested in Amsterdam in July, the police in a search of the boy's bedroom found a cardboard rod filled with gunpowder and metal and material for a detonating device. The Public Prosecutor's Office (OM) concluded that the bomb was intended for an attack, but the court did not consider yesterday that this was proven...

    ...The boy is in a state of diminished responsibility, the behavioural experts have concluded...

    ...The court did not consider detention necessary, as the boy had already been in custody for four months
    H/T Booker Rising

    Saturday, November 05, 2005

    Roof patching

    Wilma peeled hundreds of shingles off my crib. It took a few days a fiddling around and 2.5 buckets of roof glop to effect repairs. No leaks during the last rain.

    Tuesday, November 01, 2005

    Power back on

    5:30pm EST - power returns after 7 days of darkness.

    Purple Avenger's hurricane observations:

  • Morons are everywhere

  • Morons are everywhere

  • Morons are everywhere

  • Morons are everywhere


  • Seriously, all the sorry looking dopes on TV standing in line for bottled water and ice? Pathetic.

    I got through this without needing bottled water or ice. I filled up some plastic bottles with (almost) free tap water before the storm hit. God forbid, but, gasp, I'll publicly admit that I drank room temperature tap water and soda. Since I'm typing this, it should be obvious that the "hardship" of not having icy cold drinks for a week did not kill or maim me to any discernable degree. I'm betting it would not have killed those MORONS that stood in line for hours and wasted gas getting to the distribution points either. People with meds needing refrigeration - you have a real excuse to be there. The rest of you bozos looking sorryass trying to scam a not so freebie, I have no sympathy whatoever. You were MORONS.

    The "hurricane relief" I've received so far consists of $0.00 in government supplied materiels.

    My roof lost hundreds of shingles - but I'm not whining about it on the radio or waiting for it to leak - I climbed up there with a bucket of roof tar and some patches made from a roll of tar paper I scored out of a dumpster 10 years ago and stashed away for just this kind of occasion. A couple of days of taring and fitting patches and the roof will be ready to take another hurricane - it made it through two last year with somewhat lesser damage I bandaided the same way.

    When I put a new roof on its going to be at a time of MY chosing and at MY convenience. The only people who are really stuck are those who had significant structural damage that can't be hacked up with some tarps, tar paper, etc. They'll need to get something done fast and pay through the nose for it unless they're competent enough to do it themselves. You other able bodied clowns waiting for the tooth fairy to show up with a new roof before the next rain? You better smarten up and start patching or your shit is gonna get wet.

    Amazingly, in spite of the full week of warning Florida had before Wilma hit, some MORONS still did absolutely nothing to prep their houses and had a lot of windows blown out and busted. One ~80 year old woman was killed when a big sliding door fell on her during the hurricane. I don't like to be disrespectful to the dead, but she must have been a MORON to be standing in front of a monstrous uncovered sliding door in the middle of a hurricane. Seriously, can you be any stupider than that and not get rewarded with death for your stupidity? I don't think so.

    Plywood was plentiful, even up to the last day. I've been using the same plywood for the last 10 years. Some MORONS have thrown out the plywood they used. At $20/sheet this kind of stupidity gets expensive. Lean it against a wall in the garage for next year - then you won't be in a panic at Home Depot trying to buy something as a storm approaches. Save the Tapcons and stick them in a can somewhere - they can be reused. Come on people - smarten up.