A Minor Mystery and the Usual Stuff

(Note: mystery solved following a mere 15 minutes of googling after I initially wrote this first piece.)

What happened to Mike Fay? His blog, Fire and Ice, went dormant earlier this year without explanation, although I heard he was back in The Sandbox (not true). Now it appears that someone named “Cunnigham” (no typo, that) has commandeered Fire and Ice. Here’s a sample of the writing:

We no longer can swear United States Congress to impeach and take a awful president. The American Capital Post have published an op-ed piece by Henry Martin Robert Dallek that suggests a constitutional amendment to let "ouster by the people" for removing a president other than by impeachment or because of incapacity. Considering the dingy public presentation of Saint George W. Shrub and his disposal and the trouble in obtaining impeachment, this is a mulct idea.

Here are the chief characteristics of the amendment: The recollection process would get by obtaining a 60 percentage ballot in the Senate and House. Populace pressure level on United States Congress could assist it switch determination devising to the electorate. Congressional support would originate a national referendum that would be unfastened to all eligible electors in state elections. Clearly, it should be done fairly quickly.

This is an example of a total, complete waste of bandwidth, and not because of the ideology expressed, and I use “expressed” very damned loosely. It’s the piss-poor writing I’m upset with. Fire and Ice is neither who nor what it once was, and the interloper is gone from the blogroll (and replaced with the url of the real Fire and Ice). Not that the current squatter gives a damn, I’m sure.

I wonder if Mr. Fay knows what’s happening here.

Well, yes…yes he does. It took me a while, but the real WO Fay’s blog is here…he’s alive, well, and producing his usual high-quality stuff. As to the interloper…here’s the story:

First, my original blog, mdfay.blogspot.com, was blogjacked. As my previous post announced, thanks to a BBC link, my site's viewership went stratospherically off the charts. This, it turns out, was a mixed blessing. Someone decided that perhaps they could make a little extra fun money off of Fire and Ice. So they hacked in, changed the password, and made it theirs, sort of. There is no content at my old site, just a variety of links which I suppose are earning someone about three cents a month. Blogger was good enough to locate my content and repost it to mdfay1.blogspot.com with a new password.

Blogjacking. Who knew?

Now it can be revealed…the REAL reason Rove quit:

(2007-08-13) — Karl Rove, the chief adviser to George Bush since 1993, in a new interview with the Wall Street Journal, said he would resign from the Bush administration effective August 31, to spend more time with family and to head up the presidential campaign of Democrat front runner Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-NY.

Mr. Rove called the move “a cold calculated decision to remain in charge of the U.S. government indefinitely.”

“I crave power,” Mr. Rove told the Journal, “and I can’t get my fix working for a lame duck president. I’ve been informally advising future President Clinton for about a year. I have a lot in common with Hillary — mostly notably the ice water that flows through our veins and the unbridled lust to rule the nation with an iron fist.”

Heh. I think the moonbats would kinda like it, if it were true. But then again, Her Hillaryness has her very own Rove-analog…no need to outsource. Which is one of the things that scare me. Just one, mind you.

I haven’t seen today’s weather report from Hell, but one could safely bet it’s cold down there. Via David’s Medienkritik… a link to a lengthy (eight pages!) article in Germany’s Der Spiegel, a positive article about Iraq. A couple of excerpts:

In October, 90 "incidents" were reported in Tameem, an area no larger than a few city blocks in Berlin. Twenty of those incidents involved attacks on US troops by gangs of insurgents. Wherever the Americans went they were shot at from apartment buildings, three times with rockets and four times with rocket-propelled grenades. Sixteen remote-controlled bombs exploded along the neighborhood's streets, 14 homemade explosive devices were found and defused, snipers attacked the occupying troops twice and one hidden car bomb was found, ready for use. And so the story continued: throughout November, December, January and February.

[…]

Since June, Ramadi residents have only known the war from televison. Indeed, US military officials at the Baghdad headquarters of Operation Iraqi Freedom often have trouble believing their eyes when they read the reports coming in from their units in Ramadi these days. Exploded car bombs: zero. Detonated roadside bombs: zero. Rocket fire: zero. Grenade fire: zero. Shots from rifles and pistols: zero. Weapons caches discovered: dozens. Terrorists arrested: many.

Ramadi is an irritating contradiction of almost everything the world thinks it knows about Iraq -- it is proof that the US military is more successful than the world wants to believe. Ramadi demonstrates that large parts of Iraq -- not just Anbar Province, but also many other rural areas along the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers -- are essentially pacified today. This is news the world doesn't hear: Ramadi, long a hotbed of unrest, a city that once formed the southwestern tip of the notorious "Sunni Triangle," is now telling a different story, a story of Americans who came here as liberators, became hated occupiers and are now the protectors of Iraqi reconstruction.

A remarkable turn-around, especially for Der Spiegel. If you follow the link to Medienkritik, you can see examples of previous Der Spiegel articles that aren’t so…um…positive. And there’s also a link to Victor David Hanson’s latest column where VDH says the turn-about in attitude isn’t all that surprising, given that the same sort of thing is happening, albeit slowly, in the US Congress. Both the Hanson piece and the Spiegel article are worth your time…

 

Today’s Pic: Another photo from this year’s vay-kay, similar to another pic previously posted. SNs One and Three posed with the mo’sickles, just before departure to points both known and unknown. A good time was had by all…

Fort Collins, CO. May. This year.

Is It Wednesday? Already?

The “Two-State Solution,” Palestinian style… From the Jerusalem Post:

A sign of Fatah's predicament in the Gaza Strip was illustrated late Monday night when its leaders announced a unilateral cease-fire, only to be snubbed by Hamas. Fatah leaders also made urgent appeals to a number of Arab governments to interfere to stop the fighting, but their calls have fallen on deaf ears. The Egyptians, Saudis and Jordanians - who have, until now, been making huge efforts to end the anarchy in the Palestinian areas - are all fed up with the Palestinians.

Unless the fighting stops in the next day or two, the entire Gaza Strip is likely to fall into the hands of Hamas. All Fatah can do now is vent its anger at the remaining handful of Hamas representatives in the West Bank. The majority of the Hamas leaders in the West Bank are in Israeli jails and the Islamic movement does not have a strong military presence there.

[…]

One of the options facing Abbas is to break up the coalition partnership with Hamas and to officially declare war on the Islamic movement.

Whatever decision Abbas and his Fatah lieutenants take, it will be hard to change the new reality that has been created on the ground, especially in the Gaza Strip. As of today, the Palestinians can boast that they have two entities - one in the Gaza Strip run by Muslim fundamentalists and another one in the West Bank under the control of secular Fatah leaders.

"The two-state solution has finally worked," a Palestinian journalist in the Gaza Strip commented sarcastically. "Today, all our enemies have good reason to celebrate."

There are lots of interesting points in the referenced article, not the least of which is the claim the rest of the Arabs are “fed up” with the Palestinians and appear to be content with letting Gaza slide into full-blown civil war. The second interesting point, to me, is Abbas’ failure to grasp that the issue has already been forced by Hamas. It appears Hamas has absolutely NO intention of trying to compromise with Fatah, and one wonders what alternate reality Abbas is living in if he really thinks he can come to an accommodation with Hamas. And the third interesting point (from my POV, once again) is that the West was fully justified in withholding aid and support from the Hamas-dominated government. One can only imagine what sort of Hell would have eventually erupted if Hamas had had access to funds to more completely arm its militias. It’s obviously bad enough in Gaza, but it’s not too far beyond the pale to imagine the same sort of scenario breaking out in the West Bank, as well. Not that Israel would have let that happen…but the “what-if” scenarios involving a fully-funded Hamas government are numerous and universally bad.

Looks pretty damned bad.

The NYT has more, as does Captain Ed and The Belmont Club.

In today’s “More Preaching to the Choir” department, there’s this from the WSJ’s Opinion Journal: “Terrorists Don’t Like Art.” The lede grafs:

BAGHDAD, Iraq--Among the agonies imposed on Baghdad by tormentors in the guise of self-appointed religious enforcers is the proscription of fun. Novelty, convenience, any kind of post-Quranic ease from hardship infuriates them. Ice cream is an abomination, as is mechanized garbage collection, because such delights didn't exist in the time of the prophet. A story is told that last year, on a road overtaken by jihadis, a DVD purveyor was ordered to close because DVDs didn't exist in the time of the prophet. "Neither did the BMW you drove up in," he responded. "When you come back and tell me again on a camel, then I'll listen." They shot him some days later, for his insolence.

Imagine, therefore, the onus of courage on anyone who dares open an art gallery, let alone keeps it running since January 2006 with 26 shows and as many receptions. Such a place exists: Madarat, the last active gallery in Baghdad, just up a side road next to the Turkish Embassy in the Waziriya district near the city center. Imagine the risks involved for patrons attending an opening--how to get there safely, and then how long to stay en bloc as a provocative target, even how much precious gas to use up for art's sake. We decided to go on a quiet day at the gallery, inconspicuously and with minimal protection, hoping to sneak through town unnoticed. I was accompanied by Karima, a sculptor of ceramics who knew the place. Just to be visible in the back seat of a car with a woman offers provocation enough in many neighborhoods--Karima made the throat-cutting gesture as illustration--so we took a circuitous route to improve our chances.

Good stuff. I think you’ll like it, Gentle Reader.

So. I’ve had this project on the back-burner for nearly a week now, and the weather isn’t cooperating one whit. The project? Restore the Green Hornet to her former glistening, gleaming, pristine state of glossy goodness. Last week I bought a tube of Meguiar’s “Scratch-X” (to take out those annoying swirl marks in the clear-coat), a brand-new tin of Meguiar’s Gold-Class paste wax, and enough fresh new terry toweling and polishing bonnets to completely envelop a two-story building. All for naught, so far. First there was all that rain I alluded to last week and even commented on at length in places. There’s no rain in the forecast today, but the wind is up and airborne dust is anathema to waxing a vehicle…for obvious reasons. After I do the Hornet I plan to do the ‘Zuki, too. Assuming my motivation holds in the face of uncooperative weather. And that’s beginning to look rather dicey, at the moment.

I hate it when this happens.

Today’s Pic: Another shot of SN3, me, and My Favorite Blue Motorized Conveyance. Just prior to taking off for the back roads in Colorado’s beautiful Front Range.

May 20, 2007. Fort Collins, CO.

Monday...

Another One Bites the Dust… Initially reported yesterday, but today’s NYT has an extensive article about the killing of Mullah Dadullah.

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan, May 13 — The man who probably was the Taliban’s foremost operational commander, Mullah Dadullah, was killed in a joint operation by Afghan security forces, American forces and NATO troops in Helmand Province, Governor Asadullah Khaled of the neighboring Kandahar Province said Sunday.

Mullah Dadullah’s body was displayed for journalists on Sunday morning in this southern Afghan city. The NATO force in Afghanistan confirmed his death in a statement issued in Kabul, saying that American troops had led the operation. There were various reports of the actual circumstances and day of the death.

Mullah Dadullah was one of the most wanted Taliban leaders, close to the leader Mullah Muhammad Omar, and with links to Al Qaeda, and was probably the most important operational commander.

It’s been noted elsewhere (correctly) that leaders can and will be replaced, so this loss will have no long-term strategic effect. While the former is certainly true, I have my doubts about the latter…especially when the Dear Departed was as ruthless and effective as Dadullah was purported to be. One of the classic functions of leadership is to find, develop, and exploit “good people.” I use the scare quotes because the terrorist/insurgent biz certainly has a different take on what the term “good people” means. None the less, Dadullah won’t be recruiting and developing more Taliban fighters “in his image,” so to speak. And that’s a good thing.

Paul Bremer, former head of the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq, wrote an extensive editorial in yesterday’s WaPo. The lede:

Once conventional wisdom congeals, even facts can't shake it loose. These days, everyone "knows" that the Coalition Provisional Authority made two disastrous decisions at the beginning of the U.S. occupation of Iraq: to vengefully drive members of the Baath Party from public life and to recklessly disband the Iraqi army. The most recent example is former CIA chief George J. Tenet, whose new memoir pillories me for those decisions (even though I don't recall his ever objecting to either call during our numerous conversations in my 14 months leading the CPA). Similar charges are unquestioningly repeated in books and articles. Looking for a neat, simple explanation for our current problems in Iraq, pundits argue that these two steps alienated the formerly ruling Sunnis, created a pool of angry rebels-in-waiting and sparked the insurgency that's raging today. The conventional wisdom is as firm here as it gets. It's also dead wrong.

[…]

I'll admit that I've grown weary of being a punching bag over these decisions -- particularly from critics who've never spent time in Iraq, don't understand its complexities and can't explain what we should have done differently. These two sensible and moral calls did not create today's insurgency. Intelligence material we discovered after the war began showed that Hussein's security forces had long planned to wage such a revolt.

Bremer makes some good points and provides an “on-the-ground, in the trenches” perspective on the two decisions that have drawn the most flack from war critics. While the usual advice about taking something… anything, everything … with a grain of salt applies, the background and circumstances detailed by Bremer ring true, at least to my ears. Your mileage may vary, of course.

Your hockey update…The Wings lose in overtime last night, 4-3. The bottom line: it could have been anyone’s game. Both teams played well, played hard, and provided an exciting and thrilling game. You couldn’t ask for much more out of a hockey game…the only down-side was the final outcome.

The Wings were out-shot again last night (33-27 overall and 7-2 in the overtime period), but not by as wide a margin as in Game One. Still and even, Detroit needs to work on their offense. It’s not all that bad at the moment, but it ain’t all that good, either. You can’t win a late-round play-off series without scoring even-strength goals…something Detroit isn’t doing. The special teams scored all three of last night’s goals— two on the power-play and one short-handed. Power-play goals are essential to success, but even-strength goals are much more important. Fix this problem and the Wings will be in the Finals. If they don’t…well, I don’t want to talk about that.

The series continues tomorrow night in Anaheim; tonight it’s the Sens – Sabres, in Ottawa. I don’t really have a dog in that fight, but I suppose I should be pulling for Buffalo. After all, I lived in that part of the world for four years.

Today’s Pic: The single iris in the flower bed outside my door has added a second bloom. And the flowers are looking decidedly down-in-the-mouth in this picture, but that’s only because they’re water-logged after being heavily sprinkled for about three hours before I took the shot. If you view the larger image you’ll see water droplets suspended in mid-flight. I think that’s kinda cool. But then, I’m easily amused.

Yesterday. P-Town.

It's a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood...

SN1’s 2Q2007 post is up… “Advice for My Son.” Rumor has it there may be another post hard upon the heels of this one. SN2 told me he was going to update his blog as well, in an unrelated conversation we had yesterday evening (“I DO have the time, now.”). Mirabile dictu!

So. It’s now two-out-of-three. All even and headed back to Hockeytown. It would be easy to resurrect the Ghosts of Playoffs Past, wring my hands, rend my garments, and start collecting ashes and the odd sack or two. But I’m not gonna do that. The Wings simply need to get their special teams into the game and quit giving Calgary the gift of the power play, which is the SOLE reason the Flames have tied this series. The Flames would be competing for tee times right now if not for their power play goals. Detroit can change this, and they’ve proven they can score on Kiprusoff. Easier said than done, perhaps. But it can be done. As George Michael sang: Ya Gotta Have Faith.

But some things go the way you want them to: Dallas (finally) won in OT last evening to stay alive (Vancouver leads the series 3-2). It seems strange to actually be rooting for Dallas, but that’s the case. I’d rather the Wings play Dallas than San Jose…

All the other playoff series are pretty much going according to plan, with the exception of NY sweeping Atlanta. Pittsburg is out, and Anaheim eliminated Minnesota last night. And the game to watch tonight is Nashville vs. San Jose. I’m pretty danged sure the Sharks will celebrate in Nashville tonight, what with momentum on their side…not to mention a 3-1 series lead.

NHL history is not on the Predators' side either. Of the 214 teams that trailed 3-1 in a best-of-seven series, only 20 rallied to win the series (9.3 percent).

OK…so Dallas was down 3-1, you say. True enough, but Nashville ain’t Dallas, now, is it?

Interesting…and scary: ‘I found Saddam’s WMD bunkers’ by Melanie Phillips in The Spectator.

It’s a fair bet that you have never heard of a guy called Dave Gaubatz. It’s also a fair bet that you think the hunt for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq has found absolutely nothing, nada, zilch; and that therefore there never were any WMD programmes in Saddam’s Iraq to justify the war ostensibly waged to protect the world from Saddam’s use of nuclear, biological or chemical weapons.

Dave Gaubatz, however, says that you could not be more wrong. Saddam’s WMD did exist. He should know, because he found the sites where he is certain they were stored. And the reason you don’t know about this is that the American administration failed to act on his information, ‘lost’ his classified reports and is now doing everything it can to prevent disclosure of the terrible fact that, through its own incompetence, it allowed Saddam’s WMD to end up in the hands of the very terrorist states against whom it is so controversially at war.

You may be tempted to dismiss this as yet another dodgy claim from a warmongering lackey of the world Zionist neocon conspiracy giving credence to yet another crank pushing US propaganda. If so, perhaps you might pause before throwing this article at the cat. Mr Gaubatz is not some marginal figure. He’s pretty well as near to the horse’s mouth as you can get.

[…]

‘The problem was that the ISG were concentrating their efforts in looking for WMD in northern Iraq and this was in the south,’ says Mr Gaubatz. ‘They were just swept up by reports of WMD in so many different locations. But we told them that if they didn’t excavate these sites, others would.’

That, he says, is precisely what happened. He subsequently learnt from Iraqi, CIA and British intelligence that the WMD buried in the four sites were excavated by Iraqis and Syrians, with help from the Russians, and moved to Syria. The location in Syria of this material, he says, is also known to these intelligence agencies. The worst-case scenario has now come about. Saddam’s nuclear, biological and chemical material is in the hands of a rogue terrorist state — and one with close links to Iran.

Scary on a couple of levels…first and foremost, WMDs in possession of the very same people we SO wanted to keep them away from. And scary because it’s another example of incompetence on the part of the bureaucracy running this war. And I’m getting pretty danged tired of the latter. Ms. Phillips only adds fuel to my smoldering fire. Oh, and lest we forget: Ms. Pelosi et al thinks we should talk to Assad and the other asshats. Good grief. (Play those last words as you will.)

Apropos of nothing, Mr. Gaubatz was a special agent in the Air Force’s Office of Special Investigations (AFOSI). That’s what My Old Man did…but I can’t tell you any stories, other than the fact the Ol’ Man spent many a day away from home in various “exotic” places during the 50’s, when we lived in Paris. This sounds like a bad spy movie, but I remember many, many nights when there would be a knock on the door in the dead of night or in the wee small hours (we didn’t have a phone, virtually no one did in early post-war France), followed by the sounds and smells of Mom fixing breakfast and/or coffee while Dad packed and the “driver” cooled his heels in the kitchen, making small talk with Mom. And then he’d be off, sometimes for a couple of days, sometimes for a couple of weeks. Those were trying times for my mother, and it showed.

In the end, Dad never said one single word about what he did. Not one… Kinda like Omertà, only stronger.

Same...uh...Stuff, Different Day

Ah…the coffee is good this morning! It should go without saying the coffee’s good every morning here at El Casa Móvil De Pennington, but it’s seemingly better than usual today. Same coffee, made in the same measure, but somehow different and more vibrant. Could it be my taste buds are recovering from all those years of all that smoke? Possibly.

The coffee may be good today, but the reading is sub-par. Just one example: more, yet still more, about the federal prosecutor firing “scandal,” a scandal that just might take down the Attorney General. As for Gonzales getting the boot, I agree with Mr. Krauthammer:

KRAUTHAMMER: When the boss is -- when the boss says -- is asked about the chances of you escaping his firing you and his answer is "I hope so, you better start packing.

Look, I said earlier, last week, he's a dead man walking, and it's on the grounds of incompetents. He had an easy way to defend the administration on this issue early on. I would not have the president waste his ammunition in defending him now at the beginning he should have said -- Gonzales should have said, was the White House involved in this, if it was, I'm not sure, if it was, so what, it's perfectly legitimate.

The district attorneys are appointed by the president. Election are fought over priorities in law enforcement, we want that to be known by our district attorneys. Every administration ultimately changes over to enforce, those priorities. It's a perfectly legitimate executive function. We don't have anything to hide or be ashamed of. He didn't say that at the beginning, and now it's too late.

Charles is referring to the President’s response yesterday when asked about Gonzales’ future. I’d be cleaning out my desk too, if my boss said something even remotely similar regarding my prospects for continued employment. As Mr. Krauthammer says, it’s all about “incompetents.” (That’s an easily-explained error in transcription, btw.) I’m simply aghast at the incompetence displayed by Alberto and his staff in this brouhaha. This whole thing could have been cut off at the knees if Gonzales had simply said “so, what?” when the Left began shouting. Incompetence. Gross incompetence. One cannot imagine, say, the Nixon White House (or even the Clinton White House, for that matter) being such rank amateurs.

Dubya needs a win…any sort of win…and soon. There’s just too damned much bad news these days.

This may be a small win for Dubya, the US, and the world at large: Russia Gives Iran Ultimatum on Enrichment:

PARIS, Mar. 18 — Russia has informed Iran that it will withhold nuclear fuel for Iran’s nearly completed Bushehr power plant unless Iran suspends its uranium enrichment as demanded by the United Nations Security Council, European, American and Iranian officials said.

The ultimatum was delivered in Moscow last week by Igor Ivanov, Russia’s Security Council Secretary, to Ali Hosseini Tash, Iran’s deputy chief nuclear negotiator, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because a confidential diplomatic exchange between two governments was involved.

For years, President Bush has been pressing President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia to cut off help to Iran on the nuclear reactor, which is Tehran’s first serious effort to produce nuclear energy and has been highly profitable for Russia. But Mr. Putin has resisted.

Recently, however, Moscow and Tehran have been engaged in a public argument about whether Iran has paid its bills, in a dispute that may explain Russia’s apparent shift. The ultimatum may also reflect Moscow’s increasing displeasure and frustration with Iran over its refusal to stop enriching uranium at its vast facility at Natanz.

“We’re not sure what mix of commercial and political motives are at play here,” one senior Bush administration official said in Washington. “But clearly the Russians and the Iranians are getting on each other’s nerves — and that’s not all bad.”

“Not all bad,” indeed. I’d say two more things…(a) ‘bout time the Russians got on board and (b) Russia’s threat to withhold fuel probably won’t have any measurable effect on Iranian intransigence. But Captain Ed thinks the Russian threat, if it materializes, may result in Ahmadinejad’s downfall. My first thought is that wouldn’t be all bad, either. My second thought is “be careful what you wish for.”

More potential good news for Dubya: Betraying their base -- the Democrats can do it too:

The GOP grew sweaty and bloated like a fat man at an all-you-can-eat pasta bar, and the voters were right to pry the Republicans' white-knuckled grip from the hot table's sneeze guard.

So here's the ironic part. Suddenly, it looks as if the Democrats are the Republicans on fast-forward. It's early yet, and the Democrats did finish their mini-Contract with America — the so-called first 100 hours — with mixed success on the substance but great fanfare in the media. Yet items like upping the minimum wage and shafting oil companies, although certainly not insubstantial, were primarily symbolic.

The most important issue in the November elections, as every single political observer with a pulse will tell you, was the war in Iraq. The weasel words and euphemisms — "strategic redeployment," "course change," whatever — couldn't conceal the simple fact that the Democrats were elected in large part to end the war. That was certainly how the party's liberal base saw it, then and now.

But look at how the Democrats are behaving. They've completely failed to stop the surge, and their latest efforts to derail the war are so convoluted — timetables on top of timetables — that even House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) and House Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey (D-Wis.), a cosponsor of legislation to withdraw troops by September 2008, can't explain them.

No kidding. It’s hard to stay on message when there are 17 variants of that particular message, ain’t it?

Speaking of the surge… “THE IRAQ SURGE: WHY IT'S WORKING”

March 20, 2007 -- 'I WALKED down the streets of Ramadi a few days ago, in a soft cap eating an ice cream with the mayor on one side of me and the police chief on the other, having a conversation." This simple act, Gen. David Petraeus told me, would have been "unthinkable" just a few months ago. "And nobody shot at us," he added.

Petraeus, the new commander managing the "surge" of troops in Iraq, will be the first to caution realism. "Sure we see improvements - major improvements," he said in our interview, "but we still have a long way to go."

What tactics are working? "We got down at the people level and are staying," he said flatly. "Once the people know we are going to be around, then all kinds of things start to happen."

More intelligence, for example.

Good things come in threes, yes?

This is pretty cool: more customization of your search page from the Googleplex. I’ve set my “theme” to Japanese Tea Garden (see the screenshot on the right, click for larger). I haven’t found any Easter Eggs yet, but Hey! It’s only been 30 minutes or so.

Sad news, via Lileks: Blogger and Left-Coast writer Cathy Seipp is in the hospital with terminal cancer and only has days to live. Ms. Seipp was one of the first blogs I ever read, and I’ll miss her.

Today’s Pic: A red rose in a Houston botanical garden… taken in March, 2000. I forget exactly which botanical garden, so I can’t give you a link. I will give you another Houston link, however. When I went and fetched the MFAH link for yesterday’s post, I came across this: The Masterpieces of French Painting from The Metropolitan Museum of Art: 1800-1920. From the description of the exhibit:

The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, is the sole venue in the United States for this sweeping exhibition of French masterpieces from The Metropolitan Museum of Art. The exhibition will present 135 works from New York´s Metropolitan Museum´s treasured collection of French painting. The Metropolitan Museum´s French masterpieces are among the best in the world, and are by the greatest artists active in France between 1800 and 1920, with many, such as Ingres, Corot, Courbet, Delacroix, Millet, Monet, Degas, Cézanne, Renoir, Van Gogh, Matisse, and Picasso, represented by multiple works.

Ladies and Gentlemen, we have a road-trip. I’m nearly certain about it. The exhibit is running right now, through May 6^th. I can’t miss this…

Hunters, Killers, and Losers (Not Necessarily in That Order)

Chris Muir, of Day By Day fame, writes of his trip to Iraq (at Bill Roggio’s place):

People here will tell you they are mostly afraid of one thing-that we will leave soon, like we have since Vietnam, Somalia, etc., and that they will then be at the mercy of the terrorists who seep in from Iran, Syria, Egypt, and Saudia Arabia. A self-fulfilling circle, helped out vastly by our 'anti-war' citizens back home, who ironically enable wars as this by forcing constant US retreats through our political process. People here - real people, not 'Jamil Husseins' - want us here to give them time to reform their society.

I speculate this is one of the reasons I observed such high morale in our soldiers here. They are wanted here, unlike, say, in San Francisco. But, I digress.

“…unlike, say, in San Francisco.” Nice snark! The piece is short, but good. (h/t: Chap)

Gerard sez all there is to say about this lil news item:

Headline of the Democrats' hot new press release: SENATE DEMOCRATS ANNOUNCE JOINT RESOLUTION TO TRANSITION THE MISSION IN IRAQ

"Transition the mission." Has a nice lilt to it, doesn't it?

Beats "Let's cruise to lose," or "We'll pout until you pull out," or "Trick or treat... smell my feet... give me something good to eat."

Yes, this is probably number 13, or 14, or 15, or 16 in the Dems attempts to run without running, but at this point who is counting. Their attempts to fully manage failure will continue. As they say in the National Parks, "Once a bear gets hooked on garbage there's no cure."

Actually, this is SenConLosePlan 07-17, according to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell:

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY), SENATE MINORITY LEADER: There's 16 of them. There was the Biden resolution, then there was the Levin resolution, then there was the Reed-Pelosi resolution, the Murtha plan, the Biden-Levin resolution, the Conrad Funding Cut, there was a waiver plan, a Timeline plan, a Feingold resolution, an Obama resolution, a Clinton resolution, a Dodd resolution, a Kennedy resolution, a Feinstein resolution, a Byrd resolution, a Kerry resolution. And today would make No. 17.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

From last evening’s panel discussion on the subject by the Fox All-Stars; transcript here. (via RCP)

My Lord, but Congress seems to have more OpPlan specialists than the Pentagon. And they’re busy as all get-out (ahem), too!

More on that IRGC general who apparently defected to the West:

A former Iranian deputy defense minister who once commanded the Revolutionary Guard has left his country and is cooperating with Western intelligence agencies, providing information on Hezbollah and Iran's ties to the organization, according to a senior U.S. official.

Ali Rez Asgari disappeared last month during a visit to Turkey. Iranian officials suggested yesterday that he may have been kidnapped by Israel or the United States. The U.S. official said Asgari is willingly cooperating. He did not divulge Asgari's whereabouts or specify who is questioning him, but made clear that the information Asgari is offering is fully available to U.S. intelligence.

But then there’s this short blurb from Fox:

TEHRAN, Iran — A former Iranian deputy defense minister who disappeared from Turkey last month is not cooperating with Western intelligence agencies and his whereabouts remain a mystery, a U.S. official told FOX News Thursday.

My money’s on the WaPo’s story. Other sources agree.

NPR has a good interview with Col. Austin Bay: 'Embrace the Suck' and More Military Speak. I learned more than a lil bit from this article. Slang isn’t permanent; it evolves and changes according to time and place. And my “time and place” in the military is in the distant past, so much so that it almost seems pre-historic, at times. I’m a lil bit better after reading Col. Bay’s update.

Good news in today’s Telegraph (UK)…if true:

America is stepping up its hunt for Osama bin Laden by dispatching additional CIA operatives and paramilitary officers to Pakistan to kill or capture the al-Qa'eda leader.

US officials said that the mission is intended to intensify the pressure on the terrorist leader, who turns 50 tomorrow, and perhaps force him into making a mistake. He is widely believed to be hiding in the region bordering Afghanistan.

Satellite photographs and details of communications intercepts were given to President Musharraf of Pakistan last week by Stephen Kappes, deputy director of the CIA, as part of a strategy to persuade him to give US intelligence agencies more assistance.

Now wouldn’t it be neat if uninvited guests showed up at Osama’s birthday party tomorrow and provided free fireworks for the occasion?

“Idiot Liberals:”

House Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey (D-Wis.) berated a woman who approached him in a Congressional corridor, claiming that “idiot liberals” don’t understand the war supplemental spending bill process.

The altercation was videotaped and posted on www.youtube.com .

“We’re trying to use the supplemental to end the war,” Obey said. “You can’t end the war if you’re going against the supplemental. It’s time these idiot liberals understood that.”

Well, now. That’s just a bit strong, nu? But not, perhaps, as strong as this (a comment to this post, and there’s more in the same incredibly stupid vein):

Stop defending these (5.00 / 2) (#2)
by Che's Lounge on Fri Mar 09, 2007 at 10:32:38 AM EST

PRICKS!!!

Don't end this war by a thousand cuts, END THIS WAR NOW!!

Stop enabling the enablers. Obey's logic is as twisted as a strand of DNA.

Stop the war there, so we don't start a war here.

“…start a war here?” WTF does that mean? Or is this comment simply justification for Rep. Obey’s rather pithy observation? You decide…

Today’s Pic: SN3 on the bridge of USS Mason. Alternative title: “Deep in Enemy Territory.” The Boy’s affinity for all things Navy is simply alarming.

Port Canaveral, FL. April, 2003.