Bush hits news leak of terror tracking

A clearly incensed President Bush yesterday called the public disclosure of a secret terrorist-tracking program “disgraceful,” and he defended his decision to allow U.S. counterterrorism analysts to obtain international financial records as a key tool in the war against terror. “We’re at war with a bunch of people who want to hurt the United States of America, and for people to leak that program, and for a newspaper to publish it, does great harm,” the president told reporters in the White House’s Roosevelt Room.

Sounds like merely calling a spade a spade, and so is this OpEd from Michael Barone:

Revelation risks…

Why do they hate us? No, I’m not talking about Islamofascist terrorists. We know why they hate us: because we have freedom of speech and freedom of religion, because we refuse to treat women as second-class citizens, because we do not kill homosexuals, because we are a free society.

No, the “they” I’m referring to are the editors of the New York Times. And do they hate us? Well, that may be stretching it. But at the least they have gotten into the habit of acting in reckless disregard of our safety.

Hear, hear!

The Chief has noted some talking head apologists noting that without proving intent, no treason could stick. The Chief admitedly has not had the lobotomizing experience of law school, or journalism school, but a simple reading of the relevant law is illuminating:

23 USC 115
Section 2381. Treason

Whoever, owing allegiance to the United States, levies war against them or adheres to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort within the United States or elsewhere, is guilty of treason and shall suffer death, or shall be imprisoned not less than five years and fined under this title but not less than $10,000; and shall be incapable of holding any office under the United States.

The Chief doesn’t see any qualifier for “intent”. The action of “giving aid and comfort” should be sufficient to complete the offense.

If they do the crime, they should do the time – at LEAST:

Ropes. Editors, reporters, sources. Trees. Some assembly required.

Rip up Human Rights Act, says Cameron

This COULD be a possible antidote to the previous posting. One can hope!

The Tories will try to outflank Labour on law and order today by promising to tear up the Human Rights Act and replace it with a Bill of Rights.

Their leader, David Cameron, will announce what he calls a home-grown “enduring solution” to the problem of British laws being overridden by the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. But he will say that a Conservative government would stay within the European convention on human rights.

Family life faces State ‘invasion’

This is utterly chilling! The UK is moving toward something worse than what happened in the 3rd Reich, or in the bad old days of Stalin’s USSR. Another chilling thought: what if some of the flaky US judges look at THIS as an example of foriegn law that they want to unconstitutionally “import”?

Government surveillance of all children, including information on whether they eat five portions of fruit and vegetables a day, will be condemned tomorrow as a Big Brother system. Experts say it is the biggest state intrusion in history into the role of parents.

I guess it “takes a village”, and a supercomputer:

Changes being introduced since Victoria Climbié’s death from abuse include a £224 million database tracking all 12 million children in England and Wales from birth. The Government expects the programme to be operating within two years.

But critics say the electronic files will undermine family privacy and destroy the confidentiality of medical, social work and legal records.

No shit, Sherlock! What was the first clue!

Doctors, schools and the police will have to alert the database to a wide range of “concerns”. Two warning flags on a child’s record could start an investigation. There will also be a system of targets and performance indicators for children’s development. Children’s services have been told to work together to make sure that targets are met.

Fortunately there is at least some voice of sanity remaining over there:

Child care academics, practitioners and policy experts attending a conference at the London School of Economics will express concern about how the system will work.

Dr Eileen Munro, of the LSE, said that if a child caused concern by failing to make progress towards state targets, detailed information would be gathered. That would include subjective judgments such as “Is the parent providing a positive role model?”, as well as sensitive information such as a parent’s mental health. “They include consuming five portions of fruit and veg a day, which I am baffled how they will measure,” she said. “The country is moving from ‘parents are free to bring children up as they think best as long as they are not abusive or neglectful’ to a more coercive ‘parents must bring children up to conform to the state’s views of what is best’.”

This is just too creepy for words. The Chief can hardly believe that things have gone so far over there that this sort of scheme can be seriously proposed. If this is (God forbid!) actually emplaced, it will be Amen to the existance of Britain – they might as well go the rest of the way and just call it “Airstrip One” and get it over with.

NYT and National Security

There’s a lot of stuff out there on the web, and SDP has about as good a read on this as anyone.

The Chief has to agree with Congressman Peter King – The NYT should be up on treason charges, but unfortunately he has no confidence that there are enough gonads in the administration to slap these seditious traitors down the way their actions deserve.

F.E.T.E.

Saddam Thinks U.S. Will Beg for His Help

Saddam Hussein believes the United States will have to seek his help to quell the bloody insurgency in Iraq and open the way for U.S. forces to withdraw, his chief lawyer said Sunday.

The Chief can only think of one thing to say here: definitely a case of poor situational awareness!

Utah tests GOP alien policy

Republicans are betting their control of the House on the issue of immigration, and no test case is being watched more closely than the party’s primary election here.

Five-term Rep. Chris Cannon says he opposes amnesty for the estimated 10 million to 12 million illegal aliens in the United States, but supports a “guest-worker” program that would allow them to stay in the country indefinitely. Challenger John Jacob, a local developer and political novice who forced the primary by defeating Mr. Cannon at the Republican convention last month, calls such proposals “amnesty” and says Mr. Cannon should be removed from office. “We need to stop up the borders now,” he said in a taped debate last week on the University of Utah’s public television station.

Stay tuned. This is an interesting one for a number of reasons.

S. Dakota to mark I-90 in odd way

The Chief often takes exception to the Argus’s Dave Kranz, but this observation of a wierd event is truly justifed.

How do you commemorate the anniversary of an interstate highway? That has some people curious about Monday’s marking of the 50th anniversary of President Eisenhower signing the Federal-Aid Highway Act. That certainly means a celebration in South Dakota, but what they have planned is a bit strange.

Key transportation personnel will travel from Sioux Falls to Rapid City as part of the observation.

Now the strange part. Travel Interstate 90?

Nope. They will travel by airplane.

Sort of remninds the Chief of something from Monty Python, or National Lampoon.

Sect inspired ‘leader of Sears Tower plot’

Last night the Chief saw a group of talking heads on FoX News, with one of them claiming that the 7 arrested for plotting to take down the had no obvious commonality. Get a clue guy – the blank spot in your consciouslness needs to be filled by the word ISLAMOFASCISM.

Of course these guys do have their very own wierd form of it, but it sure is the commonality between them!

No Tolls on The Internet

The Chief has noted in passing, a number of postings, articles, etc. concerning the issue of “net neutrality”. There is a lot of confusion on this out there.

This piece adds some clarity. Worth checking out, in spite of the source.

Tiny Temptations to Tyranny

A jaundiced view of the state of airport security:

Hundreds of people shuffled along like Stalinist peasants queuing up for loaves of sawdusty bread. But these weren’t peasants. These were America’s formerly best and brightest. They inched along with their heads down, faces blank, their manner servile and subdued. A few couples, families, or small groups talked with each other to pass the endless waits. But smiles seemed forced, conversations stilted. Like the conversations of East Berliners, always knowing “the authorities” are listening.

Heavily armed guards scanned the crowd of disarmed peasants passengers. The cowed crowd (which the Department of Homeland (Achtung!) Security insists are its “customers”) — shuffled toward portals to be “serviced” (I use the word advisedly) by TSA agents.

There’s more, much more.

On the other hand, there really IS a terror war, and being hijacked WOULD be a serious bummer!

On the other hand, if law-abiding folks could arm themselves, there would be no need for sky marshals, etc. – terrs would quickly learn that they would have to deal with some wolves among the sheeple.

You pays your money, and makes your choices – at least one CAN still travel without this sort of crap if you really want to. So far.

China pleased after watching U.S. wargames

What’s wrong with this picture?

Chinese military observers said Thursday that observing U.S. military exercises in the Pacific this week gave them a better understanding of U.S. weapons and tactics.

What’s not for them to be happy about here? They got a box-seat view of US capabilities. (The better to devise means of countering them?!) The US gets – nothing.

Delegation leader Rear Adm. Zhang Leiyu called the visit to the war games near Guam “a positive step in China-U.S. military ties,” the official Xinhua News agency reported.

This leads to fuzzy-brained moonbattery at its worst:

Zhang’s assessment of the exercises will likely be welcomed by exchange advocates, who argue Chinese exposure to advanced U.S. capabilities reduces the chances of misunderstandings or clashes.

Right – if we tell them everything we are doing, that will make them trust that we aren’t trying to surprise them, and this will make them be nice to us.

Yeah. Right. If you believe THAT about the ChiComs, please e-mail me about a great bargain I have for tropical beachfront property here in Moody County, South Dakota. It won’t be necessary fory you to visit to inspect it first either, you can take my word for it, right?

Iran Death Judge Lands U.N. Seat On Human Rights

This should NOT be news – just same old, same old for the UN.

Iran’s delegation to the U.N. Human Rights Council faces being isolated by the envoys of free nations this week after it emerged that its leader is one of Iran’s most notorious censors and prosecutors of dissidents who the Canadians hold responsible for acquitting those who raped and murdered one of their female citizens.

The infamous Saeed Mortazavi this week led Iran’s delegation in Geneva to the first session of the United Nation’s newly reconfigured human rights panel on Monday, even though Iran is not a member of that panel. Mr. Mortazavi is accused by the Canadian government of playing a role in the rape and murder of a woman journalist and photographer, is credited with closing more than 100 newspapers, and was responsible not only for jailing the students who led the July 9, 1999, pro-democracy demonstrations in Tehran but of clearing the security officials accused of torturing them.

Hopefully another nail contributed to building the Kofi-n coffin for the UN.

The intelligence game is played differently in dictatorships

Lev Navrozom, as disturbing as he often is on geopolitical issues, is also well worth attention. He casts a jaundiced eye on our national security situation relating to borders, documentation, and espionage.

Most enlightening!

RAFTS

Bill Whittle, who IMHO is arguably the best political/social essayist on the American scene since Thomas Paine, has just posted his latest effort on his EJECT! EJECT! EJECT! site.

When you have the time and opportunity to ingest this intellectual meal, check it out. It is DEFINITELY worth the time!

Just a teaser:

Humans are animals. I do not mean that in a negative way. But that is what we are: creatures capable of great good and great harm, susceptible to animal fears and passions, lower than angels but not without grace. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn – a man who has seen a fair amount of both good and evil – wrote of that fault line, “that line separating good and evil, passing not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties, but right through every human heart.”

As animals, we are wired to live in a state of nature. In the long marathon of our history, our civilizations are only the last two or three halting steps. It took millions of years to design and build the human animal. It will likely take that long again to design out all of the passions and furies that brought us here.

Until then, we live with a choice: to live in a state of nature, or a state of law. The state of nature is the default condition that the huge majority of human lives has lived under, and continue to live under to this very day – lives solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short in Hobbes’ memorable phrase. Or, we can chose to impose upon our internal fault line a series of laws and customs, a Civilization, that imperfectly attempts to keep as many of us as possible on the side of the angels.

Your brain WILL be positively stimulated! Whittle is a MUST READ! Do it!

Mexico Worries About It’s Own Southern Border

Here at Mexico’s own southern edge, Guatemalans cross legally and illegally to do jobs that Mexicans departing for the north no longer want. And hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants from nearly two dozen other countries, including China, Ecuador, Cuba and Somalia, pass through on their way to the United States.

Even as Mexico agitates for an open border with the US, it has fierce laws against illegals trying to get into Mexico from the south.

Few politicians have made public speeches about such matters. But Deputy Foreign Minister Gerónimo Gutiérrez recently acknowledged that Mexico’s immigration laws were “tougher than those being contemplated by the United States,” where the authorities caught 1.5 million people illegally crossing the Mexican border last year.

Untroubled by any semblence of legal consistancy, the Mexican election campaigns continue to push for more open conditions on the US border. The Chief would say, hey! If it’s sauce for the Mexican goose, it should work for the American gander! Throw their own laws back in their faces!

California looks to replicate Oregon’s assisted suicide law

This has to be a classic case of legal doublethink.

Firstly as noted in this post, courts have ruled to allow challenge of lethal injection as a means of execution.

Secondly, in this report now, the right to have medical assisted suicide is being promoted for California in addition to Oregon.

So it’s OK to have a Doc kill you if you ask him, but if he is acting in behalf of the state to execute you, then there’s a possible problem.

Why does this picture not make sense?

Wild bear evades German hunters

Germany’s only wild brown bear gave hunters the slip yesterday when it wandered into a lakeside resort in Bavaria and sat down in front of a police station before disappearing into the woods.

This is the first wild bear in Germany since 1834. It is believed that the subject bear wandered up from an Italian re-introduction project.

Hunters in the region have failed to track it down, despite multiple sightings. Bruno is the first wild bear known in Germany since 1835 and its arrival has prompted questions about release programmes. The animal is a product of such a scheme in northern Italy to reintroduce brown bears to the wild.

So far the bear is outsmarting the Germans. One wonders whether it is a function of being Italian in origin, or that the Gedrmans are being “buffaloed” by the bear, or what.

Bruno’s appetite has so far accounted for 25 sheep and four goats, as well as many rabbits, hares, chickens and a number of beehives.

At least the bear has a diverse diet, although he is surely NOT appreciated by the areas agriculturalists.

US divided by superhighway plan

Interesting that one has to go to UK sources to get details on this.

A massive road four football fields wide and running from Mexico to Canada through the heartland of the United States is being proposed amid controversy over security and the damage to the environment.

The Chief tends to agree with the gigantic security problem – not so much on environmental damage, but then hey, any stick will do when you have to kill a snake!

The “nation’s most modern roadway”, proposed between Laredo in Texas and Duluth, Minnesota, along Interstate 35, would allow the US to bypass the west coast ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach to import goods from China and the Far East into the heart of middle America via Mexico, saving both cost and time.

Oh boy – that’s what we need, a way to make it easier for the ChiComs to peddle the output of their slave-labor industrial gulags to us!

Tiffany Melvin, the executive director of Nasco, a non-profit organisation which has received £1.4 million from the US Department of Transport to study whitewash the proposal, said: “We’re working on developing the existing system; these highways were developed in the 1950s and we have number of different programmes we’re working on to provide alternative fuels and improve safety…

…by letting in unlimited unregulated Mexican truckers?

…and security issues. “We get comments that we are working to bring in terrorists and drug dealers, but this is simply not true.

Let’s see – turn the border into a speed bump will help security. Of course we aren’t working to “bring in terrorists and drug dealers”. But if you build it, they WILL come – count on it!

“This is a bi-partisan effort that will ultimately improve our transportation infrastructure.

Nope! It’s a one party effort: by the Republocrats.

“Trade with China is increasing greatly, and the costs of our transportation system are ultimately born by the consumer.

Nope, TRADE with ChiComs is not increasing greatly. ChiCom dumping in the US IS increasing greatly. It’s not a two-way street, except of course for the flow of US high tech to build up the ChiCom military ability to knock us into the dirt.

“We do offer links to Canada and Mexico, but we are working on the trade competitiveness of America. We are planning for the future.”

The Chief fears this is all too true: but the future in sight from Ms. Tiffany is not the United States – it’s the so-called North American Union.

Discrimination Rights

This posting from the blog FROM THE GRANDSTAND has done an absolutely OUTSTANDING job of explaining the reality of Constitutional rights, as opposed to what the current feckless weasels of Congress, the legal establishment, etc. are trying to shove down our throats these days.

The Chief looked for an excerpt to quote, but couldn’t decide what could be excised without the surrounding context – so go check it out – this post is totally worth reading, so educate yourself, and go do it!

H/T to Emperor Misha.

Top Court Upholds No-Knock Police Search

The Supreme Court made it easier Thursday for police to barge into homes and seize evidence without knocking or waiting, a sign of the court’s new conservatism with Samuel Alito on board.

The Chief is partially conflicted by this one. On the one hand, not giving drug dealers a chance to flush the evidence seems like a good plan. On the other hand, the possible negative impact is hair-raising.

For example, what if the police go to the wrong house. Here you are, minding your own business, perhaps in an area where home-invasion robberies occur, and suddenly some guy busts through the door unannounced, and you take measures to defend yourself. Oooops!

In the same situation, what if an unfriendly neighbor, disgruntled co-worker, ex-spouse (or whatever!) makes an anonymous tip that you are a serious dealer. Then apply the above situation. Oooops again!

On balance, this certainly reperesents another level of erosion of Constitutional protections. This supports the drift towards an ever greater statism, and loss of individual liberty.

ICE Arrests About 2,000 Illegal Immigrants

This is definitely a step in the right direction…hopefully there will be more in this vein, so the immigration enforcement isn’t in vain.

In a blitz that began May 26, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has arrested nearly 2,100 illegal immigrants across the country. Officials said the raids are aimed at child molesters, gang members and other violent criminals, as well as people…who sneaked back into the country after a judge threw them out. The crackdown is called Operation Return to Sender.

The New FCC

Two weeks ago, the Federal Communications Commission finally secured a Republican majority, something it has not had for almost a year and half. During that time, FCC Chairman Kevin Martin has had no choice but to work with the two Democrats on the commission and has generally done quite well minimizing the potential for the usual regulatory, big-government intervention in an incredibly dynamic telecommunications marketplace. Thus, one would think that there is cause for relief now that two new Republican commissioners have joined the FCC and that this agency would not begin regulating for no good reason.

Frankly, based on the overall administration record, the Chief does not hold sanguine hopes that the FCC will not come down on the side of the broadcasters. In spite of lip service to “the free-market”, the de-facto evvvect of most administration regulatory policy has been in the opposite direction, unless of course it involves the US taking it in the neck regarding international trade, and the scandalous refusal to consistantly and effectively act to enforce immigration laws.

But, surprisingly, the first issue teed up for decision is something called “multicast must carry,” a big government mandate pressed by broadcasters for years. In essence, this mandate would force cable and satellite providers to carry all the programming streams dreamed up by broadcasters, instead of allowing the marketplace and consumers to drive the demand for what they want to watch.

…the test of whether President Bush will finally get a free-market-oriented commission that understands that government intervention is a last, and usually bad, resort rests with the two new commissioners, Robert McDowell and Deborah Tate. We hope they understand how important the stakes really are.

One hopes, as does the editorialist that this will end well, but, the Chief being from Missouri (originally) they will have to “Show me” before I believe it.

Marine may call Murtha as witness

Here’s a bit more information on the possible application of “unlawful command influence” in the Haditha case, as was also noted in an earlier post.

A criminal defense attorney for a Marine under investigation in the Haditha killings says he will call a senior Democratic congressman as a trial witness, if his client is charged, to find out who told the lawmaker that U.S. troops are guilty of cold-blooded murder. Attorney Neal A. Puckett told The Washington Times that Gen. Michael Hagee, the Marine commandant, briefed Rep. John P. Murtha, Pennsylvania Democrat, on the Nov. 19 killings of 24 Iraqis in the town north of Baghdad. Mr. Murtha later told reporters that the Marines were guilty of killing the civilians in “cold blood.” Mr. Murtha said he based his statement on Marine commanders, whom he did not identify.

So, the point is? Read on:

Mr. Puckett said such public comments from a congressman via senior Marines amount to “unlawful command influence.” He said potential Marine jurors could be biased by the knowledge that their commandant, the Corps’ top officer, thinks the Haditha Marines are guilty. “Congressman Murtha will be one of the first witnesses I call to the witness stand,” Mr. Puckett said yesterday.

If in fact this influence WAS exercised, there DOES need to be a Court Martial, but of the higher brass that leaked the stuff to Mutha-f Murtha.

Hurricanes Win, on Cusp of Stanley Cup

With Algor and the other moonbats proclaiming that last year’s, as well as the current hurricane season will be bad due to global warming, one can only conclude that the Carolina Hurricanes are having a good year for the same reason.

If the Mighty Ducks win the Cup next year, beware of a bird flue epidemic!

Calif. Judge Overturns Firearm Sales Ban

Considering the typical state of affairs in California, this almost falls into the realm of a “man bites dog” type story!

A California judge on Monday overturned a voter-approved city law that banned handgun possession and firearm sales, siding with gun owners who said the city did not have the authority to prohibit the weapons. Judge James Warren sided with the National Rifle Association, which argued that a local government cannot ban weapons because the California Legislature allows their sale and possession.

This is encouraging! Maybe California isn’t quite a total governmental ruin just yet!

Condemned can claim injection too painful

The Supreme Court opened the door today to new constitutional challenges to lethal injection, the method used by most states and the federal government to execute death row inmates. In a unanimous decision, the court allowed those condemned to die to make last-minute claims that the chemicals used are too painful — and therefore amount to cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the Constitution’s Eighth Amendment.

OK. Let’s see now. One can go out, take the innocent life of another through the crime of murder, and THEN seek legal protection against suffering pain during execution. Somehow this makes no sense at all to the Chief.

The other problem here is the obvious question, of what is in the water at the SCOTUS, where one and all, including the much-ballyhooed recently appointed alleged conservative Bush justices, have moved into the realm of moonbattry with a vengeance…but what do I know…I might even agree with them if I also had my common sense sucked out of my brain by attending law school!

Gigantic fireball spotted on galactic rampage

Astronomers have identified a massive comet-like structure – spanning a whopping three million light years – that is tearing through a distant galaxy cluster at more than 750 kilometres a second.

The piece goes on to note the following:

*Please take note that considerable restraint has been exercised, and no references to ‘great balls of fire’ have been made in this article.

The Chief feels he is under no such constraint, as indicated in his header.

What else is there to say except “Far out!”.

Iran accused of hiding secret nuclear weapons site

This is just about beyond the realm of being “news” since stuff like this has heen reported about for some time now, but it admittedly is somewhat more specific, so maybe it DOES count.

Nuclear experts working for the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna are pressing the Iranians to make a full disclosure about a network of research laboratories at a secret military base outside the capital Teheran.

The project is codenamed Zirzamin 27, and its purpose is to enable the Iranians to undertake uranium enrichment to military standard. Zirzamin means “basement” in Farsi, which suggests the laboratories are underground and 27 refers to the 27-year-old Iranian revolution.

Another nice thing about this – it DOES give the US – and Israel – more confirmation on targeting information!

Guantanamo triple suicide is good PR for terrorists, says America

America has denounced as “a good PR move” the suicides of three terrorism suspects at the Guantanamo Bay prison camp. The comment was made by Colleen Graffy, a senior State Department spokesman, who told the BBC World Service that the suicides were “a tactic to further the jihadi cause”.

Be this as it may, the Chief thinks this is at least a good start at reducing the population of Islamofascist jihadistanis that have to be supported in ease by US taxpayers.

Marine Says Rules Were Followed

A sergeant who led a squad of Marines during the incident in Haditha, Iraq, that left as many as 24 civilians dead said his unit did not intentionally target any civilians, followed military rules of engagement and never tried to cover up the shootings, his attorney said.

The MSM, after the initial drive-by series of stories of evil USMC troopers unjustifiably killing Iraqis, a lack of any hard evidence of this is starting to take effect – and the other side of the story is starting to come out.

Ultimately, the Chief thinks this one SHOULD go down as being just one of those sad things that are an INEVITABLE part of the conduct of war. As far as I can tell, NO ONE has ever tried to refute Civil War General William T. Sherman’s ultimate observation concerning this sort of stuff: “War is hell”.