As with all "breaking news", I find it imperative to sit back and wait for information to surface. We should know by now that initial reports are often laden with bias and purpose. The port issue is just another example. The headline, "Arab Country to Control Ports" was strictly a fear bomb. When the dust settled the dirt was on the critics faces. The real story, and to me the most disconcerting part, is that the administration did not manage this news. They let the opposition whip it into a scary sounding story. Then the President says, "I just learned about it." Maybe he did just learn about it. Maybe he doesn't need to be privy to this deal until it is done. But they underestimated the oppositions capabilities. And it gave people within his party opportunity to criticize.
Read this post at Mudville Gazette, an excellent, well established source for news and information.
The UAE port deal will have no impact on security. There are many "foreign" operated ports in the US. And the attacks on the deal are just ridiculous. NRO has a post about "organized disinformation" that sums up some embarrassing quotes. Like this one:
------------
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton:
“Senator Menendez and I don’t think any foreign government company should be running our ports, managing, leasing, owning, operating. It just raises too many red flags. That is the nub of our complaints,” said Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., speaking via teleconference in response to Bush’s announcement.
As reported in USA Today, 80 percent of the terminals in the Port of Los Angeles are run by foreign firms. And the U.S. Department of Transportation says the United Kingdom, Denmark, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, China and Taiwan have interests in U.S. port terminals. The blogger Sweetness and Light observed that the National Shipping Company of Saudi Arabia, which is partially owned by the government of Saudi Arabia as well as Saudi individuals and establishments, operates berths in the ports of Baltimore, Newport News, Houston, New Orleans, Savannah, Wilmington, N.C., Port Newark, New Jersey, and Brooklyn, New York. (The link has an inadvertently haunting photo, BTW.)
Tuesday, February 28, 2006
Friday, February 10, 2006
I've got a BAD feeling about this...
See Michelle Malkin's round-up of the Cartoon War - now becoming the "War on Freedom of Speech". If some of these come to fruision, these will be dark days in the world.
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"The Malaysian government shut down on Thursday a local newspaper after it published cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed..."
"Yemeni paper closed, editor wanted for publishing cartoons"
"The South African Freedom of Expression Institute says a judgment by the Johannesburg High Court which prevents the publishing of cartoons found offensive by the Muslim community is a major threat to press freedom."
"Editor-in-chief of popular Ukrainian newspaper "Today" apologizes before Muslims for publishing cartoons, satirizing Prophet Muhammad"
"Editor of Polish newspaper apologizes for reprinting cartoons"
"The Cadre, UPEI's student newspaper has published the twelve infamous editorial cartoons that criticized aspects of Islam.
"At the request of president Wade MacLauchlan, university administrators have removed all 2,000 copies of the paper from campus.
The campus police also showed up at the office of Ray Keating, the paper's editor, and asked that he hand over any copies in his possession, a request he refused to comply with."
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And it keeps going. EU. UN. Read it all, here.
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"The Malaysian government shut down on Thursday a local newspaper after it published cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed..."
"Yemeni paper closed, editor wanted for publishing cartoons"
"The South African Freedom of Expression Institute says a judgment by the Johannesburg High Court which prevents the publishing of cartoons found offensive by the Muslim community is a major threat to press freedom."
"Editor-in-chief of popular Ukrainian newspaper "Today" apologizes before Muslims for publishing cartoons, satirizing Prophet Muhammad"
"Editor of Polish newspaper apologizes for reprinting cartoons"
"The Cadre, UPEI's student newspaper has published the twelve infamous editorial cartoons that criticized aspects of Islam.
"At the request of president Wade MacLauchlan, university administrators have removed all 2,000 copies of the paper from campus.
The campus police also showed up at the office of Ray Keating, the paper's editor, and asked that he hand over any copies in his possession, a request he refused to comply with."
----------
And it keeps going. EU. UN. Read it all, here.
Wednesday, February 08, 2006
Recipe for a Mob
As more information comes out about the cartoon war, the more the brainwashed mob mentality of the extreme Muslim society is exposed. The cartoons that allegedly provoked the riots were published in October. Danish Imam's when to the Middle East to incite their followers. And they brought with them some images that were completely unrelated to the cartoons that were published. Four months and three unrelated images later, people are dying. And freedom of speech at the center of the controversy. The center of this controversy is the motivation of the Danish Imams to incite hatred and violence in order to tarnish the free society. Take some reality, embellish on it, throw in a lie or two and you've got yourself a mob. Sounds an awful lot like the NSA terrorist surveillance policy. Call it “domestic spying” and who won’t be concerned?
Much more through this way.
Much more through this way.
Sunday, February 05, 2006
It's War
I don't want war. I don't like war. But if we are under attack, I'm going to fight.
We're at war. No one likes it. But it's a fact. Our way of life is under attack. Freedom is under attack. The Islamic cartoons are just another attack by Muslims on our way of life. Where's the outrage? It's out there. It's on the blogs. It's where people still have the ability and the fortitude to speak freely. It's not on the mainstream media. And it's not from our government.
The press had not qualms with publishing every Abu Gharab photo they could find. There are political cartoons everyday that mock President Bush. They offend me. But am I trying to stop them from being published? No. I speak out about how their message is flawed. That our press would not publish these photos is a disgrace. Not that they were not already a disgrace, but this takes it to another level. The hypocrisy of our mainstream media is astonishing.
Back to the war. There is a ton of opinion out there. I recommend that you surf around to read as much as you can. Michelle Malkin is fantastic. She is got great sources and great information.
And here are some more useful links on this subject. Spread the word. Speak your mind. Join the fight.
Another day, Another embassy torched
It is not a "row"
'Sensitivity' can have brutal consequences
The "offending" cartoons
Belmont Club
Where's the outrage over this?
(AP) In the most expensive Turkish movie ever made, American soldiers in Iraq crash a wedding and pump a little boy full of lead in front of his mother.
They kill dozens of innocent people with random machine gun fire, shoot the groom in the head, and drag those left alive to Abu Ghraib prison _ where a Jewish doctor cuts out their organs, which he sells to rich people in New York, London and Tel Aviv.
We're at war. No one likes it. But it's a fact. Our way of life is under attack. Freedom is under attack. The Islamic cartoons are just another attack by Muslims on our way of life. Where's the outrage? It's out there. It's on the blogs. It's where people still have the ability and the fortitude to speak freely. It's not on the mainstream media. And it's not from our government.
The press had not qualms with publishing every Abu Gharab photo they could find. There are political cartoons everyday that mock President Bush. They offend me. But am I trying to stop them from being published? No. I speak out about how their message is flawed. That our press would not publish these photos is a disgrace. Not that they were not already a disgrace, but this takes it to another level. The hypocrisy of our mainstream media is astonishing.
Back to the war. There is a ton of opinion out there. I recommend that you surf around to read as much as you can. Michelle Malkin is fantastic. She is got great sources and great information.
And here are some more useful links on this subject. Spread the word. Speak your mind. Join the fight.
Another day, Another embassy torched
It is not a "row"
'Sensitivity' can have brutal consequences
The "offending" cartoons
Belmont Club
Where's the outrage over this?
(AP) In the most expensive Turkish movie ever made, American soldiers in Iraq crash a wedding and pump a little boy full of lead in front of his mother.
They kill dozens of innocent people with random machine gun fire, shoot the groom in the head, and drag those left alive to Abu Ghraib prison _ where a Jewish doctor cuts out their organs, which he sells to rich people in New York, London and Tel Aviv.
Friday, February 03, 2006
Report from the Front
I often wonder how it would have felt being a citizen during WWII or the Korean War. What information did they receive? What was the press coverage like? What was being said in congress? And how does it compare to today? It couldn’t have been all wine and roses and ticker-tape parades.
Here is an excellent article that touches on several of these points. Karl Zinsmeister has spent time with the troops in Iraq and has written about the current state of the war in Iraq. He also tries to put the current war in perspective.
----------------------
Has the Iraq war been too costly?
Well, nearly every war is riddled with disappointment and pain, Iraq certainly included. But judged fairly, Iraq has been much less costly and debacle-ridden than the Civil War, World War II, Korea, and the Cold War—each considered in retrospect to have been noble successes.
President Lincoln had to try five different commanders before settling on Ulysses Grant, and even Grant stumbled many times on the way to victory. The Union Army suffered 390,000 dead in four years, with fully 29 percent of the men who served being killed or wounded in what some critics claimed was “an unnecessary war.”
World War II was a serial bloodbath. Battles like Iwo Jima, Anzio, Ardennes, and Okinawa each killed, in a matter of days and weeks, several times the number of soldiers we have lost in Iraq. Intelligence was wrong. Planning failed. Brutal collateral damage was done to civilian non-combatants. Soldiers were killed by friendly fire. POWs were sometimes executed. Military and civilian leaders miscalculated repeatedly. During WWII, 7 percent of our G.I.s were killed or wounded.
Korea was first lost before it could be re-taken, at great cost, and thanks to political interference the war ended in a fruitless stalemate. Fully 8 percent of the American soldiers who fought on the Korean peninsula were killed or wounded.
The Cold War spawned by President Roosevelt’s expedient alliance with Stalin and other communists brought totalitarian bleakness and death to millions, endless proxy wars that consumed hundreds of billions of dollars and tens of thousands of American and allied lives, and a near-nuclear exchange during President Kennedy’s watch.
Yet ugly as they were, each of the wars above eventually made the world a less bloody place by removing tyrants and transforming cultures. Those same goals drive our war against Middle Eastern extremism that is now centered in Iraq.
In Iraq, 4 percent of our soldiers have been killed or wounded. Those losses are lower than we suffered in nine previous wars. The Civil War, Mexican War, War of Independence, Korean War, WWI, WWII, Vietnam, and Philippine War were all half-again or more as costly as Iraq has been.
…
Morass or not, this war seems to be especially unpopular on the homefront.
Actually, a substantial minority has opposed almost every war prosecuted by our nation. This was true right from the American Revolution—which a large proportion of Tory elites (including most New York City residents) insisted was an ill-considered and quixotic mistake.
Only in 20/20 hindsight have our wars been reinterpreted as righteous and widely supported by a unified nation. Even World War II, the ultimate “good” war fought by the “greatest” generation, was deeply controversial at the time. Fully 6,000 Americans went to prison as war resisters during the years our troops were conquering fascism in Europe and Japan.
There’s no reason to think of the Iraq war as more unpopular than any other U.S. war. If it is prosecuted to success, there’s little doubt that the war against terror in Iraq will in retrospect look just as wise and worthy as previous sacrifices. But there is a wild card: Would the nation have retained the nerve to finish previous successful wars if there had been contemporary-style news coverage of battles like Camden, the Wilderness, or Tarawa?
----------------------
It’s a long article, but it’s broken up into sections that make for easy reading in small increments. You can read a little, then use this link to get back there later.
Also, check out the About TAE for information about this source. I recommend doing this for any article you are reading. This can give you some perspective of who is telling the story and why.
Here is an excellent article that touches on several of these points. Karl Zinsmeister has spent time with the troops in Iraq and has written about the current state of the war in Iraq. He also tries to put the current war in perspective.
----------------------
Has the Iraq war been too costly?
Well, nearly every war is riddled with disappointment and pain, Iraq certainly included. But judged fairly, Iraq has been much less costly and debacle-ridden than the Civil War, World War II, Korea, and the Cold War—each considered in retrospect to have been noble successes.
President Lincoln had to try five different commanders before settling on Ulysses Grant, and even Grant stumbled many times on the way to victory. The Union Army suffered 390,000 dead in four years, with fully 29 percent of the men who served being killed or wounded in what some critics claimed was “an unnecessary war.”
World War II was a serial bloodbath. Battles like Iwo Jima, Anzio, Ardennes, and Okinawa each killed, in a matter of days and weeks, several times the number of soldiers we have lost in Iraq. Intelligence was wrong. Planning failed. Brutal collateral damage was done to civilian non-combatants. Soldiers were killed by friendly fire. POWs were sometimes executed. Military and civilian leaders miscalculated repeatedly. During WWII, 7 percent of our G.I.s were killed or wounded.
Korea was first lost before it could be re-taken, at great cost, and thanks to political interference the war ended in a fruitless stalemate. Fully 8 percent of the American soldiers who fought on the Korean peninsula were killed or wounded.
The Cold War spawned by President Roosevelt’s expedient alliance with Stalin and other communists brought totalitarian bleakness and death to millions, endless proxy wars that consumed hundreds of billions of dollars and tens of thousands of American and allied lives, and a near-nuclear exchange during President Kennedy’s watch.
Yet ugly as they were, each of the wars above eventually made the world a less bloody place by removing tyrants and transforming cultures. Those same goals drive our war against Middle Eastern extremism that is now centered in Iraq.
In Iraq, 4 percent of our soldiers have been killed or wounded. Those losses are lower than we suffered in nine previous wars. The Civil War, Mexican War, War of Independence, Korean War, WWI, WWII, Vietnam, and Philippine War were all half-again or more as costly as Iraq has been.
…
Morass or not, this war seems to be especially unpopular on the homefront.
Actually, a substantial minority has opposed almost every war prosecuted by our nation. This was true right from the American Revolution—which a large proportion of Tory elites (including most New York City residents) insisted was an ill-considered and quixotic mistake.
Only in 20/20 hindsight have our wars been reinterpreted as righteous and widely supported by a unified nation. Even World War II, the ultimate “good” war fought by the “greatest” generation, was deeply controversial at the time. Fully 6,000 Americans went to prison as war resisters during the years our troops were conquering fascism in Europe and Japan.
There’s no reason to think of the Iraq war as more unpopular than any other U.S. war. If it is prosecuted to success, there’s little doubt that the war against terror in Iraq will in retrospect look just as wise and worthy as previous sacrifices. But there is a wild card: Would the nation have retained the nerve to finish previous successful wars if there had been contemporary-style news coverage of battles like Camden, the Wilderness, or Tarawa?
----------------------
It’s a long article, but it’s broken up into sections that make for easy reading in small increments. You can read a little, then use this link to get back there later.
Also, check out the About TAE for information about this source. I recommend doing this for any article you are reading. This can give you some perspective of who is telling the story and why.
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