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Did You Get the Message, Prime Designer? We Have a Contest Winner — and More. Interesting and creative, despite the carping about plagiarism from some people. The link immediately preceding this sentence gives you the winners, the raw entries (all 437 of ‘em) are here.

On Dems riding the tiger, Part II… (sub-titled “Why it’s SO difficult to get off”) MoveOn, that’s why:

In the Hell Hath No Fury sweepstakes, groups like MoveOn.org are gearing up to take on a new set of perceived traitors in their midst--Democrats who have acknowledged some success from the troop surge in Iraq.

Chief among the targets is Washington Congressman Brian Baird, whose indiscretion was recognizing progress on the ground, despite having initially opposed the surge and having opposed the war in the first place. After a recent trip to Iraq, Mr. Baird said: "One of the things that gets very little attention is that virtually every other country I visited says it would be a mistake to pull out now."

We hope he took his flak jacket home from Baghdad. MoveOn is rolling out an ad this week in Mr. Baird's Washington district, in which a former soldier tells of being shot at in 2003 by the Iraqis he had fought to liberate and calls America's continued presence in the country "wrong, immoral and irresponsible." What does this have to do with the wisdom--or lack thereof--of the current strategy? Nada, which tells you something about MoveOn's honesty.

The group doesn't aim to engage in debate, but to punish and silence Democrats who dare to think for themselves. There's a pattern here: When John Dingell contradicted party orthodoxy on global warming and auto mileage standards this year, MoveOn ran ads in his Michigan district calling the 81-year-old Congressman "Dingellsaurus."

Further down in the piece the WSJ editors (there is no attribution) claim MoveOn and its billionaire financiers have achieved “ideological control” of the Democratic party. I’m not quite sure that’s the case. It’s true that MoveOn and fellow-travelers Code Pink and A.N.S.W.E.R (do you know how hard it is to type that frickin’ acronym?) factions are the most vocal political organizations in the US…by far…and that they are generally associated with/related to the Democratic party. And yes, they have had significant influence on Congress— witness Harry Frickin’ Reid’s infamous weekly conference calls with the nutroots. But I believe the numbers of MoveOn members and their look-alikes are low, compared to the numbers of Americans…Democrats, Independents, and Republicans…who (a) don’t wear their political opinions on their sleeves, and (b) will not accept defeat in Iraq, and (c) vote. That last bit being the most critical, of course. There’s more than a bit of truth to the ol’ Silent Majority thing.

Oh. And you just keep callin’ ‘em as you see ‘em, Representative Baird. (Ed Note: link is to an mp3 file of a four-way discussion on The News Hour last evening between Rep. Baird, Rep. Jan Schakowsky (Idiot-Ill.), and two other congresscritters. Rep. Baird hands Schakowsky her ass during the ten or 12 minute exchange, but it’s a classic “you hadda be there” kind of moment that doesn’t come through as well on audio, as opposed to video.)

Oh (Part Deux). As long as we’re passing out kudos to improbable recipients of same: Good On Ya, Katie. More of the same, please. And by that I mean an honest accounting/recounting and not the same ol’, same ol’ retread MoveOn verbiage your counterparts at the other networks are flogging. (This doesn’t mean I’m gonna watch you, though, Katie. Just sayin’.)

Today’s Pic: Poppies in a Taos garden. The interplay of colors and textures are what caught my eye during a Taos walk-about in May, 2004. I have an affinity for blue, and a special affinity for Taos Blue…which one sees everywhere in that part of the world. There must be a law…or something.

Odds and Ends

Q: What does this…

…have in common with this?

A: There were 295 of the latter in the hold of the former when it nearly capsized off the coast of Alaska in July of last year.

Mazda has decided to scrap all 4,703 cars on the Cougar Ace cargo ship that nearly capsized off the coast of Alaska in July.

Although some of the cars appeared to be undamaged despite spending nearly a month tied down at severe angles, the automaker felt that the risk of future problems and the public relations fiasco that would follow was too great.

Bargain hunters were hoping that Mazda would decide to sell some of the undamaged cars at cut-rate prices.

The total bodycount: 2,475 Mazda3s (pictured) (ed: not.), 329 Mazda3 five-doors, 56 Mazda5s, 1,329 CX-7s, 214 RX-8s, 5 MazdaSpeed6s and 295 Miatas.

Scrapping 295 brand new Miatas. Right out of the box, so to speak. That’s almost enough to make a grown man cry. A grown man who’d like a new Miata, that is.

I’m sure more than a few grown men in Hiroshima burst into tears when they heard the news about the MV Cougar Ace. Losing nearly five thousand cars is a substantial hit to the bottom line…and that’s enough to make a grown man cry.

(source: Motor Trend blog)

I have no idea why memeorandum decided to dignify this post by including a link on this morning’s page, other than to illustrate just how frickin’ idiotic some of us are. This time Cheney is gonna blow up the Bay Bridge in SFO.

There has been a lot of threats of terrorist attacks coming form the government. Looks like they are preparing the public. Or else it could be their usual scare tactics.

On the other hand, Bush’s term is coming to an end. The public is pushing to ban voting machines. The power of the Bush administration is deteriorating with major figures resigning, almost daily scandals on the news and constant threat of impeachment. Their only weapon is fear, it’s their last hope. I can see them really desperately needing a terrorist attack in the near future. 911 did them a great deal of good. 911 was, of course, the work of the Bush administration, the Pentagon, and others connected tightly to the Bush administration. Osama had no authority to put the US Airforce on stand down. He would have never been able to rig the World Trade Center with explosives. If you still have doubts about 911 please watch Loose Change at www.loosechange911.com (ed: link removed)

[...]

So, the Bay Bridge is between a rock and a hard place. It would be very easy to imagine an investigation being made impossible if the bridge did get blown up by so called “terrorists.”

Having said all this I would like to hope that I am wrong, that it is indeed a legitimate bridge repair work. But if the bridge does get blown up in the near future don’t buy the “terrorist” story! Investigate, document, take pictures, samples of soil, water, anything and don’t let them institute marshal (sic) law or sign Patriot Act 3!

If you plan on driving across the bridge tomorrow or any time soon, please, bring a camera, still camera, video camera, film the top of the bridge while driving. You can take it home and play it frame by frame. If you get slowed down in traffic look up at the ceiling, take pictures, examine later. Look for boxes with explosives, look for anything suspicious. Email me any suspicious evidence: uncensored911@yahoo.com Post articles on Indymedia. The more we publicize it the less chance that they will have the nerve to do it.

Sheesh. This “Gypsy” person is seriously unhinged. I mean…seriously out of touch. And…Loose Change? That same Loose Change movie (and its idiot producers) that was completely and totally discredited by that History Channel program a couple of weeks ago? Oh, never mind.

It must really suck to be “Gypsy.” I mean, just how much eye-rolling can one person take when you walk into a room, ANY room?

Cannon will get a squadron of special tactics operators, as in combat air controllers and para-rescuemen, in addition to the expected C-130s of various flavors and CV-22s.

Cannon Air Force Base’s transition from a fighter wing to a special operations wing will include a special tactics squadron comprised of about 100 people, according to retired Air Force Brig. Gen. Hanson Scott.

[…]

The squadron will consist of about 50 support and 50 operational personnel. Its job is to secure landing zones for aircraft in hostile territories, Scott said.

“They’re air traffic controllers and combat-capable guys that come, jump in and control traffic and set up drop zones or landing zones for special ops aircraft,” he said. “They have all the combat skills, and they’re all air traffic controllers.”

The squadron will also consist of pararescue airmen, which is a legacy of the combat-rescue Air Force.

[…]

New aircraft coming to Cannon
24 Unmanned Air Surveillance Predators — 2008
12 MC-130W’s — 2008
10 MC-130P’s — 2008-2009
8 MC-130H Combat Talons — 2008-2009
8 AC-130H Gunships — 2009-2010
20 CV-22s — 2010-2011

The information about the Predators conflicts with earlier reports, which stated only the operations personnel would be located at Cannon; a decision had not been made to relocate the actual Predator aircraft to Cannon from Nellis AFB, Nevada.

I think there’s only one person who reads EIP (besides YrHmblScrb) who will find this of more than passing interest:

Meeting his favourite hockey players has been on Tim Johnson's wish list since he was a kid.

He never imagined that wish would come true in the Afghan desert, amid insurgent attacks and grenades flying overhead.

For the 26-year-old corporal, meeting Bob Probert, the former Detroit Red Wing and Chicago Blackhawk from Windsor, was one of the highlights of his six-month tour of duty in Afghanistan, otherwise marked by dangerous missions, sleepless nights and tragic losses of comrades and friends.

[…]

Johnson first met Probert when the retired player joined a group of National Hockey League alumni on a tour to visit Canadian soldiers stationed in Afghanistan in late April. Dan Daoust, Mike Pelyk, Dave Hutchison and Dave (Tiger) Williams also made the trip, among others. So did the Stanley Cup.

Probert did not forget Johnson. He attended Sunday's party to welcome him back to the area and wish him well.

"It's amazing what (the soldiers) go through," Probert said. "It was great to go and see that for myself. They just invited me to go back, so I'm looking forward to that."

Good for Probie. It’s very, very pleasing to see him doing good, looking good, and (as far as I know) being good. Frequent readers know that Bob Probert is one of my heroes.

(Photograph by : Nick Brancaccio, The Windsor Star)

More Than a Reading List... A LOT More.

Via Chap (Otherwise known as the purveyor of uncommon and outstanding linkage, as in “How DOES he find this stuff?”)…another remarkable essay by Robert Kaplan: “Rereading Vietnam.” Here’s but a small taste of what you’ll find:

What Bud Day and other POWs specifically admired about Nixon was his willingness to strike back in a way that Johnson hadn't. Johnson's bombing halt in 1968 was seen as a betrayal by POWs, and caused disappointment and anger even throughout the U.S. military. Remember that these POWs were often combat pilots—professional warriors and volunteers that is, not citizen soldiers who were drafted. Professional warriors are not fatalists. In their minds, there is no such thing as defeat so long as they are still fighting, even from prison. That belief is why true soldiers have an affinity for seemingly lost causes.

In December 1967, a prisoner was dumped in Day's cell on the outskirts of Hanoi, known as the Plantation. This prisoner's legs were atrophied and he weighed under 100 pounds. Day helped scrub his face and nurse him back from the brink of death. The fellow American was Navy Lieutenant Commander John Sidney McCain III of the Panama Canal Zone. As his health improved, McCain's rants against his captors were sometimes as ferocious as Day's. The North Vietnamese tried and failed, through torture, to get McCain to accept a release for their own propaganda purposes: The lieutenant commander was the son of Admiral John McCain Jr., the commander of all American forces in the Pacific. "Character," writes the younger McCain, quoting the 19th century evangelist Dwight Moody, "is what you are in the dark," when nobody's looking and you silently make decisions about how you will act the next day.

Bud Day. John McCain. Admiral James Stockdale. True American Heroes, all. Kaplan relates some of their stories in thumbnail sketches and points us to books that contain the complete narratives, which makes Kaplan’s article worthwhile, if only for the reading list. But there’s much more than a reading list here. Do go read the whole thing. You’ll be inspired to go pick up a few new books.

Fluff

Via blog-buddy Morgan…

Re: Bud Light. The beer sucks, but the commercials are funny. The first time or three, anyway. After that? Well, Gentle Reader, let’s just say you can wear almost anything out…with certain notable exceptions.

A Minor Rant

Not exactly rocket science, this:

I never got to the bottom of the situation in that particular town, but the broader question — whether police officers in some towns are motivated by fund-raising as well as safety when writing traffic tickets — has been examined systematically by others. Michael D. Makowsky, a doctoral student in economics, and Thomas Stratmann, an economics professor, both at George Mason University, studied the issue in a recent paper, “Political Economy at Any Speed: What Determines Traffic Citations?”

They examined every warning and citation written by police officers in all of Massachusetts, excluding Boston, during a two-month period in 2001 — over 60,000 in all. Their conclusion wasn’t shocking to an economist: money matters, even in traffic violations. They found a statistical link between a town’s finances and the likelihood that its police officers would issue a speeding ticket. The details are a little sticky, but they show that tickets were issued more often in places that were short on cash, and that out-of-towners received tickets more often than drivers with local addresses.

I guess my bottom-line here is “It’s nice to have academic proof for what we ALL know to be true.” And I have my own lil horror story to add to the pot, as well.

According to The Wiki, Elida, NM…a small town just south of P-Ville… has but 183 people (“As of the census of 2000, there were 183 people, 76 households, and 50 families residing in the town.”). THREE of these people are police officers. That’s three out of 183 people, and one more person in Elida just happens to be a judge, strangely enough. I have it on pretty damned good authority (don’t ask me how, I just know. Trust me.) the town of Elida’s primary source of income is traffic fines. Period. End of report. And they got about $50.00 (or so — I don’t remember the exact amount) from me two years ago, for doing 25 mph in a 15 mph zone…a school zone. The “officer” that pulled me over claimed I was speeding in a school zone, even though I pay CAREFUL attention to such things at all times. The posted limit is 25 mph, and the flashing lights alerting drivers to the school zone limit were NOT on. The officer noted that I was extremely unlucky, in that “the lights go off at 4:00 p.m.” The time on my ticket was 1559 hrs.

One more thing…a car with New Mexico plates preceded me by about two car lengths through the school zone, going at least 35 mph. I have Texas plates on my car. You know who got pulled over…

It wasn’t the fine that upset me, Gentle Reader…it was the 60% increase in my insurance rates that really pissed me off. And there wasn’t a damned thing I could do about it, either, even though that was the first and only ticket I’d received since I was busted for speeding in the Isle of Man in 1982. But that’s yet another story.

The insurance “surcharge” for being a convicted criminal expires this coming year. My animosity for the frickin’ town of Elida will NEVER expire.

Update (clarification) 09/04/2007: My "Inside Elida" source e-mailed me an off-line comment about the town of Elida's finances...thusly:

In Elida, the Police Department supported THEIR DEPARTMENT with fines, not the whole town. Just a minor difference. Of course there aren't too many other departments in Elida. There's water & streets, and the town hall...

Well, now. I dunno if that's better...or worse. It pains me greatly to think I contributed to the support of the "officer" who wrote my ticket.

Treason?

Well, this post is garnering a whole Helluva lot of attention around the ‘sphere today: "We Are Going To Hit Iran. Bigtime." Like a lot of folks, I consider the piece to be just so much Leftie blathering. First and foremost, I just cannot conceive of a naval officer committing what is obviously treason. And I don’t throw the T-word around lightly. But something here doesn’t ring true. Do you believe this, as written?

I asked her about the attack, how limited and so forth.

"I don’t think it’s limited at all. We are shipping in and assigning every damn Tomahawk we have in inventory. I think this is going to be massive and sudden, like thousands of targets. I believe that no American will know when it happens until after it happens. And whatever the consequences, whatever the consequences, they will have to be lived with. I am sure if my father knew I was telling someone in a news organization that we were about to launch a supposedly secret attack that it would be treason. But something inside me tells me to tell it anyway."

I asked her why she was suddenly so cynical.

And the piece goes on. If the Kos diarist’s friend really IS a naval officer, if she really IS an LSO (and I doubt this, simply from hanging out at Lex’s place for all these years), and if she IS truthful in her accusations/speculations, then this woman is in for more trouble than she can possibly imagine. And that trouble is likely to visit her within hours. At least one person has notified the authorities about the Kos post.

I passed this post on to the ONI AG - Office of Naval Intelligence AG to have a look-see and see if they can find this young lady - if she exists and have a chat. An active duty officer on a ship preparing for operations giving out the op plans to said operation is called - treason.

Good on Macranger. As for the “LSO?” She can run, but there ain’t many places she can hide on a carrier at sea. But, personally, I have serious, serious doubts about the veracity of the Kos diarist's piece. The nutroots are eating it up, tho. There are over 1,200 comments on this diary entry as I write.

Hey! It's September!

Words of wisdom from Rocco DiPippo, a man who’s Been There, Done That… and has numerous tee shirts to prove it:

Who can say that the morale of ordinary Iraqis and American soldiers was not damaged when one of the most powerful men in America, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, stood in front of the world and declared, “I believe… that this war is lost.” Who can expect them to ignore the defeatist postures of men and women like John Kerry, Richard Durbin, Edward Kennedy, John Murtha, Jack Reed, John Conyers and Nancy Pelosi? Who can forget the media deification of people like Cindy Sheehan and groups like International A.N.S.W.E.R and Code Pink, who are far more concerned with pushing a radical social and political agenda than they are with bringing peace and stability to Iraq?

Iraqis watch us, and they listen to us. What they hear from some of our politicians, political activists and cultural elites has made many of them reluctant to work with the Americans in bringing security to their country. Many Iraqis are afraid of what they are hearing from the Democratic Party leadership and their media shills – that America will abandon them. And as long as they are afraid, they will be reluctant to seize the initiative in their towns and villages and chase out those who are murdering their families.

That reluctance makes sense, since if the Americans leave now, as the Democrats are urging, the murderers will rule them. And the murderers will hunt down and kill anyone who ever worked with or cooperated with Americans.

Preaching to the choir, once again. But the message in this sermon is one that bears repeating, often. One hopes that, eventually, the Democrats will understand the full implications of what being defeated in Iraq actually means. Not only to us, but to thousands of Iraqis who have worked with the United States to defeat al Qaeda and the insurgency, against their “better judgment.” And, as Mr. DiPippo correctly points out, who could blame the average Iraqi for sitting on the fence, based on the words and actions of “the loyal opposition,” including those who would replace George W. Bush? How could one trust one’s very life, and the lives of their families, with these people? That’s asking a lot. God Bless the Iraqis who have made that leap of faith. I hope we don’t abandon them.

h/t: Chap

Today’s Pic: Sunrise over Beautiful La Hacienda Trailer Park a little over a year ago — August 16, 2006, to be exact. I took 67 pictures of this particular sunrise and you’ve already seen numbers 66 and 67 in this series. Today you get numbers 49 and 54.

Will I post all 67 pics, you ask? No. But there just might be more postings from this series in future. Time, and the addition of new photos to the archive so as to prevent re-runs, will tell.