Sutton Hearings Underway in Pierre

This situation is NOT edifying in the least bit. It’s sort of like a neglected barn – it’s got to be cleaned out, but no one enjoys the job or the atmospherics associated with it.

Frankly, the Chief has little inclination to comment extensively on the situation. South Dakota War College seems to be doing yeoman service in reporting on the hearings, and that’s good enough for me!

Historical? Undoubtedly.
A spectacle? Yeah – sort of like watching a slow-motion train wreck.

The esthetics and circumstances whole situation leaves me with a feeling of queasy tackiness, for a number of reasons…hence my reluctance to comment in depth. ’nuff said!

Escalation in Fatah-Hamas Conflict

Since the failure of the attempts to establish a national unity government in the PA, tension between Fatah and Hamas has been escalating. This tension peaked in recent days when PA Legislative Council member Muhammad Dahlan said that the Fatah forces must be ready to defend themselves and to prevent attacks on their people, threatening harsh retribution should Fatah members be harmed.

Awwww. Imagine the possibilities if Hamas and Fatah were able to get together: the new organization logically could be known as Fat-ass. Meanwhile, we can just hope that both use their stocks of arms and ammunition to kill as many of each other as possible, thus improving the cultural, political, and social state of the world.

Russia limits foreign labor to fight illegals

A lot of this sounds pretty familiar…it’ll be interesting to see how it turns out for Russia running their undocumented illegals out.

Thousands of migrant workers from the Caucasus, Central Asia and China are leaving Russia as the government institutes tough new measures aimed at cracking down on illegal immigration.

Campaigners against illegal immigration are welcoming the measures, saying low-paid migrants were distorting the job market and taking work from Russian citizens. But critics say the moves are ill-advised because they will drive up retail prices and create a labor shortage that could hurt Russia’s booming economy.

About 12 million people, mostly citizens of impoverished ex-Soviet republics who do not require a visa to enter the country, are currently working illegally in Russia, according to analysts.

On a per-capita basis, they seem to have a much larger problem with this than we do!

Another interesting point to consider is that Russia can do this, but OUR leaders (mostly) proclaim that it would be impossible for US to do so. (You can believe as much of THAT as you want to!)

Warner bill hits Bush’s troop surge

It’s almost enough to drive one to despair – it’s par for the course for the libDonks to come up with crap like this, but for self-proclaimed GOP’ers to do it is just totally irritating.

Sen. John W. Warner of Virginia and other Republicans publicly offered a resolution yesterday condemning President Bush’s proposal to send more troops to Iraq.

The “Senate disagrees with the ‘plan’ to augment our forces by 21,500, and urges instead to consider all options and alternatives for achieving the strategic goals set forth below with reduced force levels than proposed,” wrote Mr. Warner, joined by Republican Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Norm Coleman of Minnesota.

Like you clowns actually think that the President really WANTS to send more troops over there…and that other “options and alternatives” have NOT been examined already? Give me a break!

Unfortunately, this is another case of political aid and comfort to our enemies.

As far as the whole deal is concerned – the Chief would like to dynamite BOTH parties, and let the splinters from the explosion regroup on the basis of real affinity, the conservative GOP base with the Blue Dogs, and the RINOS joining their political libDonk soulmates.

Register Bloggers, not Guns

Looks like Senator Dirty Harry Reid (Donk – NV) is at it again. This time with registration of bloggers, with a criminal penalty (a year in the Federal slammer!) for failure to comply.

For an additional note on this legal idiocy see this.

WHAT in the world is the matter with these IDIOTS??????!!!!!

Once again Harry, it’s not REALLY all that complicated: “CONGRESS SHALL MAKE NO LAW ABRIDGING FREEDOM OF SPEECH”.

Main Aide of Muqtada Al-Sadr Arrested

U.S. and Iraqi forces arrested one of Muqtada al-Sadr’s top aides Friday in Baghdad, his office said, as pressure increased on the radical Shiite cleric’s militia ahead of a planned security crackdown in the capital.

Al-Sadr said in an interview with an Italian newspaper published Friday that the crackdown had already begun and that 400 of his men had been arrested. La Repubblica also quoted him as saying he fears for his life and stays constantly on the move.

It’s about time the kid gloves are coming off. Hopefully it’s not too late for it to be effective.

AMS CERTIFIED WEATHERMAN STRIKES BACK AT WEATHER CHANNEL CALL FOR DECERTIFICATION

A bit more on earlier postings on the Global Warming debate from James Spann, an ABC affiliate meteorologist, who also is AMS certified:

Well, well. Some “climate expert” on “The Weather Channel” wants to take away AMS certification from those of us who believe the recent “global warming” is a natural process. So much for “tolerance”, huh?

I have been in operational meteorology since 1978, and I know dozens and dozens of broadcast meteorologists all over the country. Our big job: look at a large volume of raw data and come up with a public weather forecast for the next seven days. I do not know of a single TV meteorologist who buys into the man-made global warming hype. I know there must be a few out there, but I can’t find them. Here are the basic facts you need to know:

He goes on to note some of the considerable scientific problems with the proposition of human-caused global warming. Check it out yourself if interested.

Mo. Couple Say They Think Son Was Abused

The parents of a Missouri teen told Oprah Winfrey in a show airing Thursday that their son hasn’t told them directly but they believe he was sexually abused during the more than four years he was missing.

“OK, I’m going to go there and ask you, what do you think happened? Do you think he was sexually abused?” Winfrey asked Craig and Pam Akers, parents of 15-year-old Shawn Hornbeck.

DUH! Let’s think about this one, real hard. A perp with a history as a sex offender, with his computer full of child porn, who has kidnapped two young boys (that we know of so far…indications of more are in the news already), might have sexually molested one of them (at least) that he had with him for over 4 years?

Both nodded and said, “Yes.”

The only shocker here would have been if they had answered anything else.

Global warming ‘just a natural cycle’

The timing of this one is just about amazing, after just a little bit ago commenting on a proposed scientific inquisition on global warming. This just gives further confirmation that would-be Climate Inquisitor Cullen is skating on very thin ice indeed – but NOT due to human-induced warming.

If the genuine warming now being seen is caused by human emissions of carbon dioxide, it would have started earlier, according to the book by two veteran American climate sceptics, Fred Singer and Dennis Avery.

Mr Avery, who was in London yesterday, said: “If this were a CO2 driven warming it should have started in 1940 and risen strongly from there. In fact warming started in 1850 and rose sharply until 1940 then decreased for 35 years.”

How can this be happening if WE aren’t doing it? Well…

Mr Avery…suggests that the natural cycle of warming and cooling may come from variations in cosmic rays which have been linked to cloud formation.

This theory was validated in a recent paper in a Royal Society journal by scientists from the Danish National Space Centre who showed that sub-atomic particles – cosmic rays from exploding stars – play a major role in making clouds. During the past century cosmic rays became scarcer as vigorous activity by the sun forced them away. So there was less cloud cover to reflect away sunlight and a warmer world, according to the Danish scientists.

So, keep on truckin’, and throw another log on the fire.

US condemns China’s satellite-killer test

As the Chief correctly noted in a earlier post, the ChiComs have gone considerably beyond what the DoD has (over-cautiously) referred to as “eyeing space weaponry”.

China drew fire from the United States for testing a space weapon that could be used to destroy satellites and other US equipment in orbit. US intelligence agencies believe that China launched a ground-based “satellite-killer” missile on Jan 11 to destroy an aged and obsolete weather orbiter, 587 miles above the earth’s surface. The weapon, which US intelligence believes was launched from the Xichang space centre, destroyed its target through a “kinetic impact” – or direct hit – the US said.

The sophistication of the launch and the weapon’s ability to track and home in on a tiny satellite has raised fears that the major powers are heading towards the “militarisation” of space.

Uh…”heading towards ‘militarization’ of space”…seems like that cat’s already out of the bag.

Weather Channel Climate Expert Calls for Decertifying Global Warming Skeptics

Wow! Never be surprised at what a moonbat might come up with. Here’s a movement to just what we need – a science commissariat to rule on who has kept their point of view properly Orthodox, at least according to this Info-babe’s opinion.

The Weather Channel’s most prominent climatologist is advocating that broadcast meteorologists be stripped of their scientific certification if they express skepticism about predictions of manmade catastrophic global warming. This latest call to silence skeptics follows a year (2006) in which skeptics were compared to “Holocaust Deniers” and Nuremberg-style war crimes trials were advocated by several climate alarmists.

Dissenters from this envirowacko orthodoxy is equated to Iran’sAhm-mad-on-a-jihad Ahmadinejad, David Duke, et al who go about denying the holocaust? PUH-LEEEESE!

The Weather Channel’s (TWC) Heidi Cullen, who hosts the weekly global warming program “The Climate Code,” is advocating that the American Meteorological Society (AMS) revoke their “Seal of Approval” for any television weatherman who expresses skepticism that human activity is creating a climate catastrophe.

The chutzpah of this weather babe is amazing – in one fell swoop she wants to take scientific debate back to the wonderful world of the early 17th century of Galileo, when lack of the proper imprimatur meant professional exile, if not worse.

The Weather Channel’s most prominent climatologist is advocating that broadcast meteorologists be stripped of their scientific certification if they express skepticism about predictions of manmade catastrophic global warming. This latest call to silence skeptics follows a year (2006) in which skeptics were compared to “Holocaust Deniers” and Nuremberg-style war crimes trials were advocated by several climate alarmists.

The Weather Channel’s (TWC) Heidi Cullen, who hosts the weekly global warming program “The Climate Code,” is advocating that the American Meteorological Society (AMS) revoke their “Seal of Approval” for any television weatherman who expresses skepticism that human activity is creating a climate catastrophe.

The Chief KNEW there was a reason why he has consistently avoided using said Weather Channel/Weather.com as his source of meteorological data. In the immortal words of Dragnet‘s Joe Friday: “Just the facts ma’am”, something that seems to be lacking from Inquisitor-in-Charge Cullen.

Moscow, Beijing eye space weapons

It wouldn’t bother the Chief so bad if they were JUST eyeing space weapons…of course they are already beyond THAT stage.

China and Russia are developing space weapons and are among several nations working on systems to threaten U.S. satellites with lasers or missiles, says the director of the Defense Intelligence Agency.

In Senate testimony last week, Army Lt. Gen. Michael Maples for the first time raised Pentagon concerns about secret Chinese and Russian space weapons programs.

It must be getting pretty bad, if they are admitting it in public.

“Russia and China continue to be the primary states of concern regarding military space and counterspace programs,” Gen. Maples said at the annual threat briefing of the Senate intelligence committee Gen. Maples said that “several countries continue to develop capabilities that have the potential to threaten U.S. space assets, and some have already deployed systems with inherent anti-satellite capabilities, such as satellite-tracking laser range-finding devices and nuclear-armed ballistic missiles.”

Hmmm. Russia and China are “the primary states of concern”…one has to wonder who the secondary states of concern might be. (Iran? North Korea?)

Both Russia and China deny that they are building space weapons and have sought to curb U.S. space defenses through a proposed international ban on weapons in space.

Of COURSE not! “Nothing to see here, right? Go back to sleep!”

You can believe as much of that as you want to…as for the Chief, he wouldn’t trust the ChiComs and the neo-Soviet Putin government as far as they could be thrown.

Hands Off the Gay Sheep?

Eeeeeuuuuuu – the Chief isn’t going to touch this one!

Suffice it to say, when this post was found on South Dakota Politics, for a minute I thought I was looking at the imimitable Misha’s Anti-idiotarian Rottweiler, but no, indeed it was on SDP, noting the original report from The Times of London.

I’m STILL not sure how this all relates to South Dakota politics…hmmmmmm…the Sutton case IS a hot topic these days…nah, I didn’t REALLY say that…never mind…get me out of this post…fast!

US forces turn on Iranians

If this signals the initiation of a realistic set of ROE (Rules of Engagement) in Iraq, this is only helpful.

President George W Bush has ordered US forces to launch a military offensive against Iranian officials and Revolutionary Guards officers behind a support and funding network for anti-American fighters in Iraq.

Mr Bush signed the clandestine directive after he was given new intelligence on the scale of Iranian operations to foment violence in Iraq.

Will Saudis Ban the Letter ‘X’?

Every time the Chief TRIES to think there is some hope for some developement of reason in the Islamic world, something like this comes along:

The letter “X” soon may be banned in Saudi Arabia because it resembles the mother of all banned religious symbols in the oil kingdom: the cross.

The new development came with the issuing of another mind-bending fatwa, or religious edict, by the infamous Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice – the group of senior Islamic clergy that reigns supreme on all legal, civil, and governance matters in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Go figure.

Pakistani

nuclear officials kidnapped

Four officials from the Atomic Energy Commission in Pakistan have been kidnapped from their offices by armed men and taken away in three vehicles. Police said the vehicles used in the abduction belonged to the commission. The identity of the kidnappers and the motive for the abduction are still not known, the Dawn.com reported Monday. The AEC office was set up a few years ago after high-grade uranium was discovered in Kohat, Pakistan.

You’ve got to wonder what THAT is about.

Interesting juxtaposition of this report with the contents of episode 4 of the current “24” season shown tonight, with a memorable view of L.A. being converted into a mushroom farm:

Saddam’s half brother, top aide executed

Two top aides to Saddam Hussein were hanged before dawn today, and the head of one of them — the former Iraqi dictator’s half brother Barzan Ibrahim — was severed from his body during the execution, a government official said.

Ooops! That works too, and it couldn’t have made any difference to Barzan under the circumstances.

Two weeks and two days after Saddam was executed in an unruly scene that has drawn worldwide criticism, government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh stressed that all laws and rules were respected during today’s hanging of Ibrahim, the former intelligence chief, and Awad Hamed al-Bandar, head of Iraq’s Revolutionary Court.

What’s the environmental impact? More oxygen available for those who deserve it.

European far-right seeks status in EU

Far-right European leaders expect today to declare their official status as a publicly funded parliamentary group dedicated to the defense of “Christian values, the family and European civilization.” The group, calling itself “Identity, Tradition and Sovereignty,” includes Jean-Marie Le Pen, the French National Front leader, and will seek recognition at the opening session of the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France.

This is some evidence that all Euros are not willing to passively allow themselves to slip into a Brave New World of political correctness and Dhimmitude. This can be a good thing, overall, but there is always the caveat…will the old Euro tendancy to anti-Jewish attitudes become the fly that contaminates the ointment? Time will tell.

Castro Reportedly in Grave Condition

Ailing Cuban leader Fidel Castro is in “very grave” condition after three failed operations and complications from an intestinal infection, a Spanish newspaper said Tuesday.

The Chief has full confidence that a warm reception for the Cuban despot is prepared and waiting when he completes his final undertaking. No sympathy from the Chief!

Kucinich: Congress To Take On FCC

Donk Cong Dennis Kucinich has proclaimed his intention to re-address the so-called “Fairness Doctrine”, with the end in mind to render illegal talk radio as we know it.

Apparently this Ohio Donk urgently needs remedial language instruction so he is able to comprehend plain English, like this: “CONGRESS SHALL MAKE NO LAW…ABRIDGING THE FREEDOM OF SPEECH, OR OF THE PRESS…” – Constitution of the United States, Amendment I

The Chief attended a meeting in D.C. a number of yuears ago. Donk Kucinich was a speaker at the meeting, and I have never heard anyone speak who was a better example of a histrionic demagogue. A scary dude for sure.

This shouldn’t get very far, at least at this time, but in the future? What to do? Keep your powder dry!

24 – A new day begins!

The Chief hasn’t “cheated” and watched the downloads of 24 that are out on the web – but judging from the first two hours – this looks to be a primo season! 22 hours to go.

Well, things have been happening here…but obviously not much blogging. What to say? Too much stuff to bore you with, but the highlight is the start of the 2007 building period (6 weeks) for the F.I.R.S.T. robotics team that I coach at our school.

This is an indescribable experience, the flavor of which can be pointed to by considering the slogan from another team’s T-shirts at one of the competition events: “DON’T EAT. DON’T SLEEP. BUILD THE ROBOT!”

So, while blogging will be continuing, there may be sporadic pauses until the machine is in the crate and on the truck February 20th.

Backpedalling Democrats

SO…who should be surprised…Speaker Pelosi is already waffling away from procedural changes and legislation that were part of the integral structure of the promised new order that would be implemented if in fact the Donks gained control of the House.

House Democratic leaders had hardly finished celebrating their election victory when they began backing away from parts of their 2006 campaign agenda to move the country in a new direction. Two major proposals in their election year agenda were shredded last month by Speaker-designate Nancy Pelosi – a signal that her party may not be able to deliver on all their promises to voters.

Now that they’re there…the prospect of doing ANYTHING that might cede any part of their accustomed privileges and powers is suddenly anathema…and anyway, whoever is STUPID enough to actually take election promises seriously? Suckers!

Saddam Hussein Executed for War Crimes

Good riddance to bad rubbish!

What he faces now is the ultimate judgment – with the testimony coming from the blood of his innocent victims.

DISCLOSURE: This posting just may be too esoteric – but any fans of
Patrick McGoohan’s cult classiv 1967 TV series THE PRISONER will get the connection immediately.

I ran across this old TIME cover on a site taking note of Ford’s passing.

Something about it caught my attention….

Was TIME trying to tell us something? Be seeing you!

Read on for more info on the series. It’s STILL worth watching, and trying to figure out – some even think it has relevance to the evolution or devolution (As in Devo? Never mind…that’s another trip.) of current life.
Continue reading →

Blast off on Search for Another Earth

This is a neat project from the Euros…apparently they still have the potential to get themselves positively organized…although they may not exercise it very often these days.

The hunt for alien life took on a new urgency yesterday with the launch of a spacecraft designed to search out Earth-like planets orbiting distant stars. The Corot (pronounced “Coreau”) mission to scan the skies for new worlds blasted off on a Russian Soyuz 2-1B rocket from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, said Igor Panarin, a Russian Federal Space Agency spokesman.

The hunt for alien life took on a new urgency yesterday with the launch of a spacecraft designed to search out Earth-like planets orbiting distant stars.

Click on image for larger view.

The Corot (pronounced “Coreau”) mission to scan the skies for new worlds blasted off on a Russian Soyuz 2-1B rocket from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, said Igor Panarin, a Russian Federal Space Agency spokesman.

Moving us towards space is always a good thing IMHO.

Ford’s State Funeral to Begin Friday

Gerald R. Ford will be mourned in the rare and solemn spectacle of a state funeral crafted to honor his reverence for Congress, the institution that launched him to the presidency. Ceremonies begin Friday in a California church, and end five days later with Ford’s entombment on a hillside near his Grand Rapids, Mich., presidential museum.

What’s to say…Pres. Ford had impeccable character, and was a true gentleman.

The Chief could quibble with some of his policies…but admittedly, given the times, he had a TOUGH row to hoe, for sure. I don’t think the libs ever can quite get over the Nixon pardon, which was a good move.

On a more disparaging note, his posthumously released letter about Iraq policy shows at least, what could charitably called “poor situational awareness”, and does a dis-service to the nation.

Maybe this is uncharitable of meto say so, but hey, there it is.

Iraq prepares for rapid Saddam execution

Iraq was preparing for the rapid execution of former dictator Saddam Hussein, with the US-backed government eager to bring his chapter in the country’s bloody history to an end.

A good example – off the dude without years of forced delays and appeals. Of course Iraq isn’t stuck with the ACLU either. (Sigh.)

Bush caved to pressure on troops

The phony concept, invented during the days of Robert Strange McNamara and the LBJ administration, that it was desirable to fight a war “on the cheap”, without building and maintaining a force adequate to dominate the battlefield decisively, seems to be taking a major body blow – and high time it is too!

Not only did he get the gospel of military adequacy preached to him from the usual suspect “retired generals”, but the current J.C.S (Joint Chiefs of Staff) sang the same tune when he met with them. After repeated assertions to the press that all forces requested by the Generals on the ground would be provided – Bush has virtually painted himself into a corner on this one. Better late than never!

President Bush only acceded to a jump in the number of U.S. Army and Marine Corps ground troops after intense pressure from senior officers, active and retired, including the Joint Chiefs, defense sources said.

Mr. Bush, who announced Wednesday that he will increase an active force that now stands at 1.4 million personnel, this month heard about the stressed Army and Marines Corps from a group of retired officers at the Pentagon. But the deal-clincher came when he traveled to the Pentagon and met with the six-member Joint Chiefs inside the super-secret “tank.”

There, the commander in chief listened to a request for more combat forces from Gen. Peter Schoomaker, the Army chief of staff, and Gen. James T. Conway, the Marine commandant, said defense sources briefed on the meeting.

Issue ads allowed in election run-up

Dang! Seems like some judges here actually read the Constitution…and amazingly enough, decided to follow it!

Political groups have a constitutional right to run issue ads that include the name of a candidate for office even in the contentious days before an election, a panel of federal judges ruled yesterday in the first major dent in the 2002 McCain-Feingold campaign-finance law. Under that law, ads that interest groups ran 60 days before an election or 30 days before a primary were assumed to be aimed at influencing voters if they mentioned a candidate for federal office.

The small but potentially deep change creates an exception to what had been considered a near-blanket rule. “A free-speech interest is too substantial here,” said Carl Tobias, a law professor at the University of Richmond, who said the government didn’t justify such a broad ban.

DUH! “…free-speech interest is too substantial here…” Wonder what their first clue was: must have been the bit about “Congress shall make no law…abridging the freedom of speech…” Actually following the Constitution? What a concept!