Combat Photography

I've heard it said that a good picture is worth a thousand words. Last July I posted about a combat photographer in Iraq by the name of Russel Klika and put up some of his work.

He now has his own website Russel Lee Klika. Just a few words about Sgt. Klika:

In 2004 I joined the 278th Regimental Combat Team Tennessee Army National uard as the Noncommissioned Officer In charge of Public Affairs during their tour in Iraq.

In 2006 I joined the 133rd Mobile Public Affairs Detachment of the Tennessee Army National Guard for a second tour in Iraq. Prior to joining the National Guard I worked for several large newspapers on the West and East Coast.

Prior to that, I was a Combat Photographer for eight of the twelve years I spent in the Marine Corps.

I am a self-taught photographer and am currently a media trainer for mobilizing Soldiers at Camp Atterbury, Indiana.

Sgt. Klika has some amazing photos of Iraq that you just have to see. My wife and I went through his portfolio and were very moved. Beneath the filth and squalor are some of the most beautiful children you'll ever see. Go here to start the slide show.

As soon as I figure out how to do it, I'll put his url up on the side board.

Northern NY Businessman Treats Fort Drum Soldiers

At a cost of over $15,000, Watertown businessman P.J. Simao bought 125 tickets to tonight's Toby Keith concert at the Turning Stone Resort and Casino in Verona, NY, on the Oneida Indian Nation. These tickets were then donated to soldiers and their familes at Fort Drum. And he didn't gofor the cheap seats either. These tickets were the most expensive ones available for the show.

From the Post Standard:

"When you do something like this, you might as well do it the right way," Simao told The Post-Standard of Syracuse, saying he was reluctant to discuss his donation and insisted he did not want publicity.Sam Madonia, Turning Stone's entertainment director, said Simao called personally, insisted on excellent seats and never asked for a discount.

Simao bought 100 tickets soon after they went on sale in October and gave them to the Army to distribute at Fort Drum. then Simao learned they were in high demand, he bought another 25. "After doing what they do for us, it is a small token of our appreciation," Simao said.

Fort Drum is home to the US Army's Tenth Mountain Division. Many of the soldiers attending the sold-out concert tonight are recently home from Iraq. A half dozen soldiers were invited to met Toby Keith backstage.

When Oneida nation leader Ray Halbritter learned of Simao's generosity, he decided to provide a dinner for the group, Madonia said. Tonight, they will dine on crab-stuffed sole, honey-pecan chicken and strawberry shortcake - far removed
from Army-issued meals.

P.J. Simao is co-owner of DealMaker Auto Group in Watertown. If you live in the North Country, you might want to stop in and give P.J. a big NY thank you.

I'm A Little Teapot

I'm a little teapot short and stout,
I'll pour you a Cup O'Death out of my spout.

When I get all steamed up then I cry,
Just take a sip and kiss your ass goodbye.

ABC News reports that the Brit cops have finally found the receptacle that delivered ex-Russian KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko his minimum daily requirement of Polonium 210.

British officials say police have cracked the murder-by-poison case of former spy Alexander Litvinenko, including the discovery of a "hot" teapot at London's Millennium Hotel with an off-the-charts reading for Polonium-210, the radioactive material used in the killing.

I really can't think of an excuse for why it took so long for them to find it. Just turn off the lights and see what glows, no?

A senior official tells ABC News the "hot" teapot remained in use at the hotel for several weeks after Litvinenko's death before being tested in the second week of December. The official said investigators were embarrassed at the oversight.

Whoever was in charge of the crime scene should have his ass booted up over his ears.

British health officials say some 128 people were discovered to have had "probable contact" with Polonium-210, including at least eight hotel staff members and one guest.

No definitive word yet on where these people may have come in contact with the radioactive teabags. Now we have to add another variation of tea: white, green, oolong, black and nuclear.

There obviously has been some intensive work done after the initial bungling. Brit investigators traveled to Russia for interviews and a prime suspect has been identified.

The official says investigators have concluded, based on forensic evidence and intelligence reports, that the murder was a "state-sponsored" assassination orchestrated by Russian security services.

Officials say Russian FSB intelligence considered the murder to have been badly bungled because it took more than one attempt to administer the poison. The Russian officials did not expect the source of the poisoning to be discovered, according to intelligence reports.

Most murders don't. If this was done by old school KGB'ers, perhaps they just didn't care whether or not they were found out. Nothing would ever came of it anyway. Perhaps they are wrong, we'll see.

Sources say police intend to seek charges against a former Russian spy, Andrei Lugovoi, who met with Litvinenko on Nov. 1, the day officials believe the lethal dose was administered in the Millennium Hotel teapot.

Lugovoi steadfastly denied any involvement in the murder at a Moscow news conference and at a session with Scotland Yard detectives. Russian security police were present when the British questioned Lugovoi, and British officials do not think they received honest answers from him.

The Brits may issue a warrant for him, but it is doubtful that it will be served. Lugovoi was in Moscow hospital when the brit cops came looking for him. From a Dec. 6, 2006, ABC News article:

British detectives investigating the poisoning death of former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko have identified a prime suspect — a man who also once was a Russian spy, a British official tells ABC News.

British detectives had just arrived in Moscow when they were told they could not see the man they consider their prime suspect, former KGB agent Andrei Lugovoi. He was unavailable, hospitalized with signs of radiation poisoning, Russian officials said.

Russia's top prosecutor said the British could not speak with any witnesses on their own and could not extradite them to Britain if they're charged. Senior British official told ABC News the Russian government is obstructing the investigation, even as more and more signs point to Russia and Lugovoi.

ABC News has reconstructed Lugovoi's movements from Moscow to London, right up to the day he met Litvinenko at a London hotel, and found a trail of deadly polonium 210.

If this gets embarassing enough for the Russians, perhaps Andre will have himself a little accident. I'd be real careful of what I drank. Someone may drop a teapot on him.

Politics As Usual

Jose Alonso Compean and Ignacio Ramos are the two Border Patrol cops who are now in prison for shooting a drug dealer. Euphoricreality has put together some more developments in this ongoing saga of how the government screws the very people we need to protect our borders and panders to those who violate the same borders. The name of the article is: "Dirty Texas Politics Taint Border Patrol Agents’ Trial" and was written by Shawn Christopher Phillips at www.patgray.com.

The central perpetrator in this travesty of justice is the U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton, who has old boy Texas connections from the judge overseeing the case all the way up to President George W. Bush. These connections, though not openly disclosed, have greatly impacted the case, as highly placed government officials look the other way while testimonies, evidence, and statements are manipulated behind the scenes.

Some of the issues which the government has been ignoring is that the drug dealer, Osvaldo Aldrete-Davila, not only was apprehended after trying to smuggle almost 800 pounds of marijuana into Arizona in 2005, several months later he was stopped again trying to smuggle a half ton of marijuana into the US! He was given a car by the authorities to travel into the US for court appearances and stuffs it with drugs! The results of this second incident?

U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton further extended immunity to this additional felony and sealed the indictment from jurors. Aldrete-Davila’s arrest record was expunged, and a gag order was issued. The jury was not informed of the second smuggling arrest, and Sutton issued a public statement that Aldrete-Davila was “never arrested” on drug charges.

The Bush administration is making a huge mistake in pursuing these two cops and yet letting a real criminal like former National Security Advisor Sandy Berger off with a by-your-leave. A Mexican criminal is caught smuggling almost a ton of dope into this country and skates absolutely free. And this is the part that really makes me sick.

Osvaldo Aldrete-Davila is now suing the US Border Patrol for $5-million for violating his civil rights, and Compean and Ramos are each doing over 12 years hard time. It’s rumored inside the beltway that President Bush will appoint Johnny Sutton to the federal bench before he leaves office on Jan. 20, 2009.

Answer: What Are Clinton's Chestnuts?

Question: What was Sandy Berger trying to protect when he was snagged for stealing national security documents?

Cashill.com has a piece on what Sandy Berger, Clinton's National Security Advisor, was really after when he stole and destroyed national security documents.

If not the most skillful of embezzlers, Samuel “Sandy” Berger is a far more formidable character than the media would have us believe. When he made his now storied sorties into the National Archives, he risked his career and his reputation in so doing, and he knew it. Rest assured, he would not have done so were the secrets to be preserved not worth the risk of pilfering them.

Burglar was portrayed as a bumbling, absent minded professor type by Clinton. Everyone knows that absent minded professors cram their pants with top secrets documents. It's right in their CV. This ridiculous allegation was never questioned by the press.

In his first term, Clinton had hired this millionaire trade lawyer and lobbyist to be deputy national security advisor, not because of Berger’s foreign policy experience, which was negligible, but because of his political instincts, which were keen and reliable. Clinton entrusted Berger with some very sensitive assignments, particularly in relationship to China, and rewarded him for his trust with the job of National Security Advisor in his second term. This job does not require Senate confirmation. It is unlikely that Berger could have gotten any job that did.

Many of Clinton's advisors never passed security clearance. Remember John Huang and Chinagate?

Based on the testimony of a retired USAF Lt. Col. who was assigned White House duties, Cashill states:

At that time Col. Buzz Patterson carried the "nuclear football" for President Clinton. Given his security clearance, Patterson was entrusted with any number of high security assignments. One morning in "late-summer,” Patterson was returning a daily intelligence update from the Oval Office to the National Security Council when he noticed the heading "Operation Bojinka."As Patterson relates, "I keyed on a reference to a plot to use commercial airliners as weapons." As a pilot, he had a keen interest in the same. "I can state for a fact that this information was circulated within the U.S. intelligence community," Patterson writes, "and that in late 1996 the president was aware of it." The President’s hand written comments on the documents verified the same.

The Philippine police had uncovered plans for aerial assaults as early as January 1995 and shared those plans with the FBI almost immediately. The man responsible for those plans was Ramzi Yousef, the mastermind of the first World Trade Center bombing and very possibly an Iraqi contract agent. His accomplice was Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the mastermind of 9-11 and allegedly Yousef’s uncle.

In a chestnut shell, Berger was trying to hide Clinton's knowledge of a possible airborne attack on the US five years before 9/11. And there's more. A lot more...

This Is Not A Tragedy

The following article is an example of just how screwed up our legal system's thinking is (hat tip to Maxxdog).

The Wright County attorney's office will not charge a Rockford, Minn., man who fatally shot his girlfriend's ex-boyfriend as he broke into the couple's barricaded bedroom. Eric M. Cegon, 30, shot and killed Erik A. Richter, 35, about 3:30 a.m. Dec. 13. Richter had broken into the apartment Cegon shared with Richter's ex-girlfriend, Samantha Simons, 21. It was the second time Richter had violated a court order not to contact either of them.

And here's the money quote:

"In this matter, you have a justifiable use of deadly force," County Attorney Thomas Kelly said Wednesday. "As tragic as it is, that's how it comes down."

The justifiable use of deadly force is tragic? It's tragic that no innocent victim was killed or arrested? A violent perp has been sent to his final reward. What's tragic about that?

This is not a tragedy. This is a Good Thing™ .

There should be a party. The perp, Erik A. Richter, 35, was:

armed with a loaded, half-cocked semi-automatic handgun and four additional magazines when he broke into the couple's Rockford apartment. Richter also had leg irons and handcuffs with him,

Sounds like he had a good time all planned out for his ex-girlfriend, no? What a tragedy he didn't get to enjoy himself. This County Attorney Kelly appears to be more concerned about political correctness then the lives of innocent people who were spared from God knows what atrocities by the judicious use of a firearm.

24

There are only 24 hours left until former US Border Agents agents Jose Alonso Compean and Ignacio Ramos begin their 10+ year sentences. Thus far President Bush has ignored hundreds of thousands of emails and the pleas of 55 Congressmen to pardon these two men. Please contact your US representatives and the White House with your requests to have these men pardoned.

This from the Canada Free Press:

"If it can happen to them, it can happen to any one of us. It has definitely had an adverse affect on agents involved in border security." -Mark Parsons, President, Fraternal Order of Police in El Paso, Texas, Customs and Border Protection agent.

President Bush has shown no interest in pardoning these two agents whose sentences will surpass many murderers, rapists and even drug smugglers they have put behind bars. In addition to the obvious, however, the situation involving Compean and Ramos is having a "rippling effect" among border patrol agents and other law enforcement officials who have the increasingly dangerous and difficult task of protecting American citizens.

This will have a chilling effect on border security. And I believe that Bush wants exactly that.

Mr. Parsons stated that the aggressive prosecution, replete irregularities pertaining to the arrest and trial of the two agents, including but not limited to venue issues, restriction of exculpatory testimony and evidence, government corruption and jury misconduct "has made a lot of agents on the front lines 'gun shy' and afraid to do their jobs." He added that "if this can happen to agents Compean and Ramos, it can happen to any one of us."

It is also sending a strong message to illegal aliens, drug smugglers, and potential terrorists illegally crossing the border into the U.S. everyday. Those involved in illegal border activities see this as a victory for them, endangers the safety and welfare of the officers on the front lines and compromises the safety and security of every man, woman and child in the U.S.

These men and women are the first line of defense for our borders. The two agents were not acting in a manner to delibertly deprive an innocent human being of his life and liberty. They were protecting themselves from a perceived threat from a drug smuggler.

Make no mistake, the southern border of the U.S. is a virtual war zone being exploited by enemies of the United States. The demoralizing affect of this lack of prosecutorial discretion in a time of war is questionable at best, begging the questions: how serious are we in securing our borders, and why isn't the U.S. Department of Justice exercising the same zeal in the prosecution of illegal aliens as they are in punishing those front-line agents who are understaffed, out-gunned, and hamstrung by rules of engagement favoring the criminal?

I'm just so disgusted by this. And Sandy Berger gets probation for destroying national security documents!

National Debt

The Skeptical Optimist has a great article regarding the national debt.

Tax receipts are continuing to grow significantly faster than spending, according to the Monthly Treasury Statement. As a result, if these trends continue, the budget will move into balance on July 3, 2008.

Look at these great charts from the Optimist.

This will drive the democrats and RINO's crazy.
The reason for this? Tax receipts from a healthy, expanding economy are increasing faster than the interest on the national debt.

The trend could change if someone gets crazy. See what the Dems submit their first budget for the new federal FY starting on October 1, 2007.

And visit the Skeptical Optimist for straight talk on how economic policies affect the national debt.

The Wrong Experts

I remember after the 1992 elections how the economic forecasts and dire predictions of the Democrats changed within days. From the "Worst Economy Since The Depression" to much more favorable news. I was astounded that these so called experts could think we were so stupid not to realize how they had tried to manipulate us. But then again, they did manipulate the election successfully. Clinton's economic policies wouldn't even begin to have nay effect until his first budget took effect in October of 1993, but as soon as January the hysterical MSM was granting him prowess in shaping America's economic fortunes for the better.

And they are at it again. When will the American people learn not to trust these liars?

Economists are hastily upgrading their forecasts for the US economy after a series of surprisingly strong reports suggesting the so-called "soft landing" may be over and growth is accelerating. Over the past week, surprises have come in stronger-than-expected reports on US job creation, the trade balance and retail sales -- all key contributors to economic activity.

And they are always "surprised." But only during a Republican administration.

"With the last of the major data in, we are now revising fourth quarter GDP to an above-trend 3.3 percent. A wide range of indicators have been stronger than xpected. Most important have been the strong consumption data and the surprising improvement in the trade balance."

The latest data defy predictions that the slump in real estate would filter into other areas of the economy, notably consumer spending. The latest data showed US employers added a healthy 167,000 new jobs in December, with unemployment holding at a low 4.5 percent.

Average wages were up 4.2 percent annually.

A separate report Friday showed US retail sales increased 0.9 percent in December.

Oops. Wrong again. Like Paul Krugman in his NY Times commentary just six weeks ago.

Normal Upstate NY Weather

There was an ice storm yesterday that lasted through the night. It wasn't a bad one, only about an eighth of an inch of ice; not nearly enough to cause damage. But our trees are covered in a thin layer of crystal. There is a big boxwood elder right behind the house and the nearest branches are only four feet away from the kitchen window.


It has been so unseasonably warm this winter that it is almost a relief to finally get some bad weather. Almost, not quite.

With the bad weather comes traffic accidents. There was a twenty car pile up just north of Syracuse on Interstate 81 yesterday morning due to black ice on a bridge over Rt 11. One motorist who stopped to assist somehow fell over 50 feet to the road below and is in critical condition. In another ice related accident just north of here in Oswego County, two people were killed early this morning when a small car switched lanes and ran head on into an eighteen wheeler dumptruck.

Luckily this stretch of weather came on Sunday and Monday; today is a holiday, cutting down on traffic.

We had almost 8" of snow last Wednesday and it is already melted. Forecasts are for colder temperatures and more snow later in the week.

Broke Back Beijing?

Social experimentation comes back to haunt the Chinese. From the London Times:

It is nearly three decades since China’s rulers implemented a strict “one-couple, one-child” policy. It replaced Chairman Mao’s focus on a high birth rate, which had been intended to ensure that China could fend off enemies with human-wave warfare.

Korean war vets have nightmare stories about waves and waves of Chinese troops attacking their positions. The slaughter of individuals for the perceived common good never did bother the communists much. But the Law of Unintended Consequences can and will bite you on the ass. Just give it time.

The unintended consequences of those severe controls have become increasingly pronounced. China will be short of 30 million brides within 15 years, according to an official report into the country’s burgeoning population. About one in every ten men aged between 20 and 45 — equivalent to almost the entire population of Canada — will be unable to find a wife.

One effect of China’s strict population control has been a jump in gender selection of babies. The traditional preference for a son means that more and more women abort their baby if an early-term ultrasound examination shows it to be a girl. Officials deny that the gender imbalance is a result of the family planning policy.

Thirty million pissed off Chinese isa something that everyone should be concerned about, especially the Chinese.

The findings, from the State Population and Family Planning Commission, outline bleak prospects — and not only for bachelors. The report says that the gender imbalance could result in social instability — a threat that the Communist Party regards as the greatest risk to its grip on power.

These consequences are clearly the result of the government's draconian family policies. And every one of these projected 30 million men know who to blame. I don't think that these guys will be interested in a Barney Frank/San Francisco solution to the shortage of women.

What we should be looking at is more aggression from China to draw national attention away from it's failed domestic policies.

Taiwan may want to restore it's trays to the upright position and fasten it's seat belts. Thirty million horny Chinamen can make anyone's life miserable.

There is an quote used by RFK in 1966, "May you live in interesting times." It sure looks like things are getting interesting again in China.

What Was She Thinking?

We lose about a half dozen teens every year to fatal MVA's, many of which are alcohol related. Drive anywhere in this county and there is a good chance you'll encounter a small cross surrounded by a withered flower arrangement stuck in the ground at the base of a tree or off the road in a culvert; a small, sad memorial for a lost loved one.

Kids just don't have the maturity, the judgement, to realize when they are placing themselves in a dangerous situation. That's why adults are supposed to supervise them and speak our minds when we see them doing stupid stuff. And it usually works, except for this piece of work, 45 year old Kelly Lobrutto.

The drink orders were placed early in the week for Saturday night's party at the LoBrutto house on Rippleton Road. For malt-based alcoholic beverages like Smirnoff Ice, the teens paid $15 a head, while beer drinkers paid $5 to $10 each.

And it is not the first time this woman is making a major mistake by getting these kids ripped.

The festivities began Dec. 9, the same night as the Cazenovia High School winter dance, so many of the two dozen revelers didn't show up until after 10 p.m. By that time, rum, vodka and beer were flowing, according to statements the teens later gave to state police investigators. And by 3 a.m., teenagers were staggering around drunk, vomiting and passing out, according to the statements filed in Cazenovia Town Court.

Sworn statements from 23 high school students who were at the party, including LoBrutto's 17-year-old daughter, Melissa, paint a frightening picture of teenagers bingeing on alcohol that they say was purchased by their friend's mother, who partied with them. Several students interviewed said it was the fourth such party at the LoBrutto house, a detail that will be part of the prosecution's case, said state police Investigator Dennis Dougherty.

This is so wrong. Binge drinking kills over fourteen hundred young people, mostly college students, every year. Read the last link, it is heart breaking. Daniel Reardon speaks about his nineteen year old son, a college freshman who drank himself to death.

Daniel was in the hospital bed for a week before we took him off of life support. And no parent, as I did, should have to get up on a hospital gurney, and just hold his son and cry for hours that he's dead, never. Sending a child to college to die, no parent should have to go through that.

The earlier a teen starts to abuse alcohol, the more likely he will follow this destructive lifestyle as he gets older.

REYNARD KINGTON, Acting Director, National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism: We've known for many years that there was a problem, and we have evidence really dating back for decades that there's been a problem with drinking on college campuses, but we've never been able to really describe the parameters of the problem, how big of a problem it is. And I think that even the researchers who were involved from the very beginning were surprised by some of the conclusions. Just the magnitude of the problem is really enormous.

If 1,400 hippies were maced at a Grateful Dead concert we'd never hear the end of it. But back to Lobrutto.

By 10:30 p.m., the kids who had gone to the dance began to wander in. In some cases, Dougherty said, parents were dropping off their children at the LoBrutto residence, but had no idea alcohol was part of the gathering. Inside, teens were playing beer pong (a drinking game), doing shots and downing Long Island iced teas, a drink made with about five kinds of hard liquor, sweet and sour mix and a splash of cola. Kelly LoBrutto was in the kitchen, pouring shots and mixing drinks for the guests.

The partygoers had a variety of alcoholic drinks to choose from, some of which the teens brought with them. There was a case of Smirnoff Ice; a 30-pack of Keystone beer; a case of Bud Light; and bottles of Jagermeister; Bacardi rum; tequila; and Ice 101, a peppermint schnapps.

This is a disaster waiting to happen. It was only by the grace of God someone wasn't seriously hurt.

By midnight, one of the partygoers, a 17-year-old training to be an emergency medical technician, told police he realized some of his friends were in trouble. They were vomiting, and one friend was passed out on the bathroom floor. He and another friend carried their classmate upstairs and put him to bed. The EMT-in-training found more classmates upstairs who were sick. He stayed with them while they vomited, and began a vigil, going upstairs every 10 to 15 minutes to make sure his friends were OK.

He might have been the only one with a lick of sense at this party. And all he did was babysit some drunks. If those kids were really in trouble he would have been overwhelmed. And they could have been brain damaged or dead. Checking someone every 10t o 15 minutes to see if they are still breathing means they could be dead for nine minutes before he returns.

Throughout the evening, Kelly LoBrutto watched as students came and went. Some were picked up by parents, who didn't know what was going on inside the house; others drove themselves to and from the party. One teen told police Kelly LoBrutto woke some partygoers at 7 a.m. and ordered them out of the house. She scolded one of the girls for ruining the party by getting sick.

Melissa LoBrutto told investigators hat she spent the money she collected for the party on Christmas gifts at Carousel Center. "My first priority is my mom and protecting her," Melissa LoBrutto told police. "In the morning my mom wasn't mad at me; she was mad at everyone else."

Who's the kid here? A set of ovaries does not automatically qualify someone to be a mother. And what's with these parents? Can't they smell the booze on their children as they stagger into the car???

Kelly LoBrutto, 45, was charged with a handful of misdemeanors, including endangering the welfare of a child, unlawfully dealing with a child and criminal nuisance. She has pleaded not guilty to all the charges and is scheduled to appear in Cazenovia Town Court on Feb. 13.

Perhaps a stretch in the slammer will impart some smarts.

Get Out Of Jail Free Card

The United Nations once again proves that it is unfit to guard a newstand much less a nation. This just in from Fox News:

Six Bangladeshi peacekeepers under United Nations command were demoted, dismissed or reprimanded for their roles in a sex-abuse case while on assignment in the Sudan, but U.N. officials are powerless to bring charges or prosecute the soldiers for their alleged crime.

Nonetheless, Jane Holl Lute, assistant secretary-general for peacekeeping operations, thinks the punishment is enough.

But let some US soldiers pile naked terrorists in a pyramid and these same UN clowns are screaming for prison sentences. It's like a "Get out Of Jail Free" card in Monoply board game. You just have to wear a blue helmet. The hypocrisy sickens me.

Rapists, any raptists, should rot in prison, but the UN feels that demotions, dismissals and reprimands (Bad rapist! Bad!) are sufficient.

I guess that the soldiers at Abu Ghraib would have been better off if they sodomized the prisoners instead of stacking them.

The particulars of the Sudanese sex abuse case are pretty much the same where ever UN "peacekeepers" are stationed; rape and sex slavery seems to flourish under the blue helmets. From a March, 2005 article in the Guardian:

The reputation of United Nations peacekeeping missions suffered a humiliating blow yesterday as an internal report identified repeated patterns of sexual abuse and rape perpetrated by soldiers supposed to be restoring the international rule of law.

[...]The embarrassment caused by the misconduct of UN forces in devastated communities around the world - including Haiti, Sierra Leone, Bosnia, Cambodia , East Timor and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) - has become an increasingly high profile, political problem.

And the MSM has increasingly ignored it.

Alarm about the involvement of UN peacekeepers in sex trafficking first became widespread during the 1990s when investigators found soldiers were customers in brothels run in Bosnia and Kosovo which relied on women sold into forced prostitution. One recent estimate suggested up to 2,000 women have been coerced into sex slavery in Kosovo.

The Guardian article continues:

"sexual exploitation and abuse mostly involves the exchange of sex for money (on average $1-$3 per encounter), for food (for immediate consumption or to barter later) or for jobs". [...]"The reality of prostitution and other sexual exploitation in a peacekeeping context is profoundly disturbing because the United Nations has been mandated to enter into a broken society to help it, not to breach the trust placed in it by the local population." There have even been reports of paedophilia committed by peacekeepers.

The UN has been out of control for quite some time. Corrupt UN bureaucrats can't keep their hands out of our pockets and UN peacekeepers can't keep it in their pants.

No Soup For You!

From the Brussels Journel - Muslims run amok through the streets of Paris burning cars, ambushing police, beating innocent citizens and the cops respond by:

Last week, the Paris police issued a prohibition on the distribution to the homeless of soup containing pork meat or fat. According to the police authorities – the same ones who are incapable of restoring law and order in the Paris suburbs – distributing soup containing pork or lard is a racist offence since some people in need might be Muslim and hence not allowed to eat pork.

Seinfeld Soup Nazis! The Paris police are goose stepping down the Champs-Elysées grabbing tins of soup from unsuspecting charity workers.

Pork has been on the European menu since time immemorial. In the winter of 2004 Solidarité des Français (SdF), a charity organization running a soup kitchen, began to distribute “soupe au cochon” (pork soup). SdF is a private organization and is said to be closely allied with “islamophobic” groups. According to critics it put pork soup on the menu to exclude Muslims. The organization says that the soup is a traditional French recipe with origins dating back to Gallic times. Even Asterix and Obelix ate pork soup.

( Asterix and Obelix are Fwench comic book characters.)

On 28 December the Paris police prefecture issued a prohibition on the distribution of the soup, denouncing the “xenophobic character of a charity that excludes people of Jewish and Muslim confessions.” Paris police officers had to enforce the prohibition. This time the policemen did not need to enter certain Paris suburbs because the ruling sharia authorities in those no-go areas ensure that no pork soup is served there.

In reality they do not enter certain Paris suburbs because they always get their asses kicked whenever they do.

This just seems like piss poor policing, or lazy, politically correct posturing. The cops go after free soup (these are fairly harmless, law abiding citizens) but avoid offending the Wahabi charities that seek to impose "xenophobic" sharia law on all non-Muslims. After all, you can get hurt messing with the Wahabis.

Yesterday, however, an administrative court of first instance in Paris ruled that distributing pork soup is not racist. Today Bertrand Delanoë, the Mayor of Paris, told the Paris police to appeal the court ruling. [...] Mayor Delanoë is a Socialist and an outspoken homosexual. Religious Muslims oppose homosexuality at least as much as they oppose pork soup.

Delanoë will find out what the short drop is like if Paris falls under sharia law. That's what Muslims do to homosexuals.

Iranian Five Passenger Zippos

Fresh news out of Tehran:

HUNDREDS of Iranian-made cars have suddenly caught fire on Iran's roads over the past months, with police pointing to the Peugeot 405 as the main culprit.

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

The Iranians are manufacturing splodeydopin' suicidal Fwench cars!!! Instead of fifteen pounds of Semtex and nails, just take a test drive in a brand new Iranian car, "le Zippo."

Since the beginning of the Iranian year in March, there have been 125 incidents of cars catching fire without warning and then killing or injuring the occupants, traffic police chief Mohammad Rooyanian said.

"Around 300 people have been killed or wounded and 40 per cent of the fatalities were attributed to the Peugeot 405," he told the Kayhan newspaper.

The Peugeot 405, is a very popular model in Iran. The most popular car is the Paykan modelled after the British Hillman. Approximately 40% of all cars registered in Iran are Paykans. Other models include the Souren and the Samand which is entirely of Iranian design and manufacture.

The Peugeot 405 and other well-known models from the French carmaker have been manufactured under licence since 1990 by Iran Khodro, Iran's largest car manufacturer." Fire service figures from the first six months of the year have said that 700 cars caught fire in Tehran, out of which 70 per cent of them were manufactured by Iran Khodro," Mr Rooyanian said.

These cars are sold with a full tank of gas, three quarts of "Allah's Revenge" barbeque sauce and extra flints.

Iran Khodro's director of marketing Mehdi Ghasem said the problem was an "occasional technical fault in the fuel system" in cars more than two years old and emphasised that vehicles made in this Iranian year had no such fault.

It was just such an"occasional technical fault" in the fuel tank of the Ford Pinto that resulted in hundreds of deaths in the 1970's. One report indicated that:

the Ford Motor Company makes 24 per cent of the cars on the American road, yet these cars account for 42 per cent of the collision-ruptured fuel tanks.

Another staggering fact that was discovered was that a large and growing number of corpses taken from burned cars involved in rear-end crashes contained no cuts, bruises or broken bones.

They clearly would have survived the accident unharmed if the cars had not caught fire.

The Ford fiasco was a result of a cold hearted economic decision not to address the fault, which was discovered in test crashs conducted before the Pinto went into production. The tests indicated that the cars burst in flames when involved in a rear impact collision. The reason? The trunk of the Pinto would crush into the passenger compartment, splitting open the gas tank in the process.

As Lee Iacocco infamously stated, "Safety doesn't sell." The cost to fix the Pinto gas tank problem: just $5.08 per car to install a rubber bladder inside the tank. The Pinto went into production without it.

In comparison, the Iranian models apparently turn into gas fired grills for no reason. Maybe the Iranian President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, believes that there was no Holocaust because all those Jews were killed in automobile accidents?

The traffic police chief, Mr Rooyanian, continues,

"We are not to going compromise on this issue. We are emphasising the need to improve the safety of the vehicles, so that our citizens will not be worried any more."

The citizens still uncharred that is. All this goof says is that they are emphasizing the need for improvements in safety. Actual changes to the vehicles to protect the Irani consumer? Programs to recall dangerous vehicle models? Guess again. In the same breathless fashion he finishes:

"Neither us nor the police have received any report on such a fault in this year's cars. Therefore, the registration process will automatically go on," he said, dismissing warnings of a ban on the car.

Ban them? No way! Use them as street lights!

Let me introduce the new fuel-efficient, four-cylinder, Iranian family car ... le Bic!


UPDATE:
Maybe the Iranian cars are suffering from sympathy flames. The muzzies are at it again in France. About four hundred cars were torched during New Year "celebrations."

No Surprise

While rummaging through through Lucianne Goldberg's blog, I stumbled across this commentary from the Rhinelander Daily News (Wisconsin):

If you forgot to make a New Year's resolution, or are still trying to decide on one, let me suggest that you resolve to devote a little time this year to solving the mystery of Sandy Berger and the Destroyed Documents. Pressure on Berger is what is needed, and the united voices of several thousand outraged Americans would provide it.

Several thousand outraged Americans carrying thirty feet of rope screaming outside his front door might do it.

What sorts of things would have impelled Berger to take the very serious risk of stealing those documents from the National Archives and cutting them to bits? Needless to say, Berger has never uttered a word on the subject. Today, his lawyer says Berger considers the matter closed and is seeking to move on.

Berger needs a trapdoor under his feet to loosen his tongue. But what I still can't fathom is why the Justice Department let him off so easy. This really ticks me off. People who have done far less are sentenced to years in prison and this incompetent boob gets a wrist slap.

So far I have found nothing to shed any light on this, but there was a comment on this post that provoked a lot of response.

Reply 7 - Posted by: Evocatus, 12/31/2006 6:46:11 PM
All of the documents stolen by Berger had already been scanned, converted to PDFs and are in very safe storage awaiting an opportune time to be revealed,
accompanied with fresh political charges, and, quite possibly, federal conspiracy charges.

This is not widely known, but those who do need to know, do know this. Not all of the political appointees that have burrowed into the federal civil service system are democratic operatives.

Berger and the Clintons -- both of them -- are searching feverishly for the electronically archived documents and their protectors. Wait until shortly before the 2008 election.

I don't buy into conspiracy theories from either end of the political spectrum and I don't buy into this one either.

"Searching feverishly" for documents? Those pdf files, if they exist at all, are maintained in the primary records management system of the Archives, where they are indexed and stored on probably both the hard drives and back up tapes or whatever media is used for this purpose.

For critically important documents such as these there are also duplicate back ups of documents and system indices that are maintained off site.

I was trained as a system administrator for an optical image system that archived millions of pages of scanned documents. The Clintons know exactly where these files are, if they exist at all.

There will be no surprise in 2008. What we have is government officials who cover each other's asses.

Berger should be in prison, disgraced and penniless.

Dead Man's Jig

More details are becoming available on the execution death of the tyrant Saddam. As reported in The Sun, it appears that his executioners had a few words to say about his impeding fate.

SADDAM Hussein went to Hell with the vicious curses of executioners ringing in his ears, including one who snarled: “God damn you”.

Can't blame these people, who suffered greatly under his despotic regime. They obviously exercised extraordinary self discipline in that Saddam reached the gallows with his head still attached to his shoulders. What surprises me is that the British editors at The Sun seem to believe in an afterlife.

The Iraqis were so delighted at the despot’s demise that immediately after his death they danced a jig around his body as it dangled from the noose. Joining in the outpouring of joy was the masked hangman, guards and even Iraqi officials.

This giddiness was due, no doubt, to the intoxicating effects of the Noose Fairie.

But Saddam had been left in no doubt of the contempt in which he was held in his last few minutes alive. As he prepared to move onto the trap- door of the gallows, one of his guards turned to him and spat out: “God damn you.” The doomed tyrant was heard replying: “God damn you.”

In the exchange with his guards Saddam attempts to justify his war against Iran, which cost a million lives, and laughably proclaims victory against the United States.

One of the guards then shouts: “You have destroyed us. You have killed us. You have made us live in destitution.” Saddam counters: “I have saved you from destitution and misery and destroyed your enemies, the Persians and Americans.”

You wonder what goes through the mind of this proud, arrogant man as he faces eternity. He spared himself and his family from the destitution that he visited upon the rest of the country but yet only survived as a free man by scampering from safe house to safe house and ended up hiding in a hole in the ground. During his regime he surrounded himself with riches, family and sycophants, thereby isolating himself from reality.

Last night we had some friends over to celebrate the New Year. One of them, an Army Chaplain, spent two tours of duty in Iraq. The last tour ended a year ago, he was stationed in Tikrit. He talked about the three palaces he was in; one was the size of a state capitol building and the others were like large hotels. These structures were incredibly opulent - Saddam's monuments to himself.

If Saddam ever realized the devastating effects of his actions on others, he never let on. He seeks this same isolation at the end.

As the hangman prepares to pull the lever to open the trap-door, Saddam chants the Muslim profession of faith. “God is Great and Mohammed is his prophet. Palestine is Arab.”

His last words are: “I bear witness that Mohammed . . . ” It is the beginning of the second verse of the invocation, but before Saddam can complete it the executioner sends him hurtling to his death.

Saddam is seen plunging through the trap-door. As he dropped his neck snapped with an audible crack. According to one witness he died with his eyes open. In the video his corpse is then seen dangling at the end of the rope with his head at a grotesque angle. One onlooker proclaims: “The tyrant has fallen.”

Sic semper tyrannis.

RIP Gerry Solan

Gerry Solan, retired Lieutenant from the Onondaga County Sheriff's Office, has passed on. He was 59.

Gerry and I attended the 1974 Fall Semester Regional Police Academy together. In the academy we were the "old guys," he was 27 and I was 25. Gerry sat right behind me in the classroom. I was a loud mouth wise guy and tried to crack Gerry up ... and did so on a regular basis. Jerry would double over laughing and smack me in the back of my head. IIRC there were about a dozen different law enforcement agencies in our academy.

We teased the State Parks Police rookies unmercifully. I drew a picture of an obscene felony bear stop for them and passed it around the class. It was awful. They never forgave me for that.

Gerry worked the road patrol and later was the CO of their Personnel Section. He retired about a year before I did. After leaving the Sheriff's, he worked for the US Marshals Office providing security for the Federal Office Building here in the city. I would see him whenever I visited the US Attorney's Office for meetings and spend some time with him.

He was truly a decent man, a good cop and I will miss him.

No Confidence In Nifong

Things are going from bad to worse for Durham County District Attorney Mike Nifong. From Fox News:

RALEIGH, N.C. — By the time the prosecutor in the Duke University lacrosse case is tried on ethics charges, the sexual assault indictment he sought against three players may have been long since dismissed. The bar association, which filed the ethics charges Thursday, will not schedule Nifong's trial-like hearing for at least three months,

The North Carolina bar association has filed ethics charges against Nifong for his role in violating

four rules of professional conduct by making misleading and inflammatory comments about the athletes, said Thomas Lunsford, executive director of the state bar.

On top of that, Nifong has been forced to reconsider any charges at all in the case.

If the woman who claims the players sexually assaulted her at a party cannot identify them at a February hearing, Durham County District Attorney Mark Nifong has said, he will abandon the divisive case.

First Nifong dropped the rape charges after he withheld DNA evidence that was damaging to his proecution; now the entire case might be dropped.

At the next hearing in the lacrosse case, set for Feb. 5, the defense is expected to ask a judge to throw out the results of a photo lineup in which the accuser — a 28-year-old hired to perform as a stripper at a lacrosse team party — identified her attackers. If that happens, experts have said Nifong would likely be forced to drop charges of kidnapping and sexual offense, and Nifong has acknowledged as much.

This whole charade continues to unravel. Then yesterday

the North Carolina Conference of District Attorneys — which does not have any regulatory authority — called on Nifong to recuse himself.

This conference represents all of Nifongs peers, other DA's who can see what this is doing to the reputation of the state's criminal justice system. Nifong kept digging himself deeper with this case. He put his reputation and the prestige of his office on the line and sacrificed it all for his re-election.

So far the best summary of the events in Raleigh is from a defense attorney:

"This is so sad," said Larry Pozner, a former president of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. "This case is going to end up with nothing but losers. Everybody who touched it and was touched by it will have lost something, and it is not a shining moment for the criminal justice system."

How Fast Did Saddam Slide Into Hell?

"I saw fear, he was afraid."

So says Ali Al Massedy, the man chosen to videotape the execution of Saddam Hussein. Standing only three feet away from the ex-dictator as he slid into eternity, Ali was in a perfect position to observe Hussein as the final preparations for his death were completed.

There was some discussion whether or not Saddam would be strangled by the rope in a short drop (ala Iranian executions), or if he would be given the option of a quick neck pop in a long drop. From Ali's account,

Saddam dropped through—from "me to you," he said, crouching down to show how he shot the scene. The distance, he said, was "about one meter,"

It was the long drop.

From the official Iraqi government photograph, the rope used to hang Saddam looks like it could be used to lash the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan to the dock at San Diego. I wonder if "alleged" lengths of it will show up on eBay?

From the photo, it appears as if there is at least five to six feet of slack in the rope.

Using the British Table of Drops, we can infer that Hussein may have been hung by the 1913 standards. A man weighing 200 lbs and over requires a drop of at least five feet. Saddam was 6'2" and his weight fluctuated between 210 and 220 pounds.

Now for arguments sake, let's assume that it only took a second for Saddam to reach the end of his rope, so to speak. We know that the force of gravity is a constant, that is, 32 feet per second squared. Using the acceleration equation

Vf = Vo + at

we can solve for final velocity. The initial velocity, Vo, is zero because Saddam was at rest. Not really at rest cause he was probably crapping his pants, but he wasn't moving in relation to the gallows. So all we have is that Saddam accelerated for one second at 32 ft/sec2. So he was probably moving at about 32 feet per second when he ran out of rope. That is only 21.8 mph. Saddam's velocity was barely sufficient to get him bagged for speeding in a school zone.

Kinetic energy (KE) is something else. What was the force (power) exerted on his neck vertebrae? The formula for finding the kinetic energy of a moving object is:

KE = 1/2 * M * V2

where m = mass of object and v = speed of object. This is easier to solve in metric units of measure. Estimating Saddam's weight at 210 pounds (he didn't have much of an appetite lately) his metric weight would be 95.25 kilos. His final velocity would actually be zero since the rope brought him to an abrupt stop, but just before that point, he would be travelling at 35.1 kmh or 9.75 meters per second.

Using the KE equation, that is only 4,527 joules/sec. Converted to US measurements, that translates to 3,339 ft lbs/sec. or the equivalent of 6.07 horsepower.

Hmmmm.

The Ultimate Dictator of Iraq was killed by the equivalent output of a Briggs & Stratton mulching lawnmower engine.

Saddam's End

Several news sources give a time of between 9:30 and 10:30 tonight as the time for Saddam's hanging. Scripture states that God does not rejoice in the death of the wicked, but I think a lot of Iraqi's will be deep in the throes of a happy dance tonight.


UPDATE: 10:15 pm EST - Fox News reports that Herr Hussein dwells no more amongst the living.

Cleansing The Gene Pool

MINERAL RIDGE, Ohio —

A nursing home resident started the fire that killed him by igniting a crack pipe with a butane lighter, authorities said.

What more can you say? His self medication program was a complete success. He no longer requires any medical attention at all.

Rickie Raver Sr., 49, of Lake Milton, was on oxygen therapy, which contributed to the Sept. 30 fire in his room at Briarfield At the Ridge, Weathersfield Township fire Chief Randy Pugh said yesterday.

"Keep in mind oxygen is going to saturate on clothes and bedding," Pugh said. "All it needs is an ignition to initiate a rapid burn."

The fire chief almost got it right. All it needs is an idiot sucking on a crack pipe near a tank of O2. Fortunately the fire did not spread beyond Raver's room and has been ruled an accident. Drug paraphernalia was found in the room and an autopsy toxicology test revealed traces of cocaine and alcohol in his body.

Police are investigating how Raver, left a paraplegic by a motorcycle accident, obtained drugs and drug paraphernalia, Chief Joseph Consiglio said.

"We don't know if he brought it in with him, if his relatives or friends brought it to him, if there's someone who is bringing more to other patients, if it's an employee," Consiglio said.

I remember reading in P. J. O'Rourke's book, "Parliament of Whores," where the author quoted a NYC mental health official as stating that the drug problem in this country would end when all the drug addicts were dead. All our efforts to treat them and keep them alive are merely prolonging the problem. It appears that Mr.Raver is now a cured drug addict.

More Bad News For Nifong

It seems that in some states there are consequences for politicians who overstep themselves.

The North Carolina bar filed an ethics complaint Thursday against the prosecutor in the Duke lacrosse case, accusing him of breaking four rules of professional conduct when speaking to the reporters about the sensational case.

The punishment for ethics violations can range from admonishment to disbarment.

I wish this was true everywhere. There isn't a lot to this story, and I wonder about the timing of this as well as other aspects of the Duke rape case.

Among the rules District Attorney Mike Nifong was accused of violating was a prohibition against making comments "that have a substantial likelihood of heightening public comdemnation of the accuser." In a statement, the bar said it opened a case against Nifong in March 30, a little more than two weeks after the
party where a 28-year-old student at North Carolina Central University hired to perform as a stripper said she was raped.

Running for re-election can be worrisome and there is nothing like a little "heightening" to heighten your chances of keeping your job. But if the ethics investigation against Nifong was opened at the end of March, why did it take so long for news of the investigation to become public? Why was the DNA evidence mismatch also withheld? Why were the rape charges not withdrawn until after the elections? These questions need to be addressed also.

Nifong did not immediately return a call for comment.

I imagine not.

And The Bad News Is?

If someone listens to the MSM as the sole source for all information on the middle east, there is but one one viewpoint given: Iraq is an unholy mess, get out, run away. But there are other measures of change, some of them fairly promising. This is one of them from Amir Taheiri of the NY Post:

WHILE the American political elite is using Iraq as an excuse for fighting internal political wars, a different reality is taking shape in parts of this war-torn nation. Wherever some measure of security is assured - that is to say in more than 80 percent of Iraq - towns and villages long left to die a slow death are creeping back to life.

Some are doing more than creeping. Things are booming in much of Iraq and it's not from IED's.

Nowhere is this slow but steady return to life more startling than in Um Qasr, in the southeast extremity of Iraq on the Persian Gulf. Four years ago, this was a jumble of rusting quays, abandoned houses and gutted buildings. By the spring of 2003, its population had dwindled to a few dozen, along with hundreds of stray dogs. There was even talk of abandoning it altogether.

This is the same talk in Democratic circles. The Iraqi's aren't buying it though, and perhaps we should be listening to them rather than the likes of Pelosi.

Today, however, Um Qasr is back in business as a port with commercial and military functions. Hundreds of families that had left after the first Gulf War in 1991 have returned - joining many more who have come from all over Iraq.

The boom in Um Qasr is part of a broader picture that also includes Basra (the sprawling metropolis of southern Iraq), the Shi'ite "holy" cities of Najaf and karbala, Mandali on the Iranian border and much of Baghdad.

You didn't see many new hotels springing up in Berlin in March of 1945. Investors are not idiots. They are not going to invest a lot of money in ventures that are bound to fail in a war zone, so why is this economic activity occuring at all?

Newsweek has just hailed the emergence of a booming market economy in Iraq as "the mother of all surprises," noting that "Iraqis are more optimistic about the future than most Americans are." The reason, of course, is that Iraqis know what is going on in their country while Americans are fed a diet of exclusively negative
reporting from Iraq.

Just how much growth is being experienced in Iraqi market segments?

The U.S. State Department reports that there are now 7.1 million mobile-phone subscribers in Iraq, up from just 1.4 million two years ago.

That is a 407% increase in just two years. Of course everything is not coming up roses in Iraq. Unemployment is about 30% in a country that is in the midst of an alleged civil war. But 30% is the average unemployment rate for the 3 billion workers for the entire planet!

What are the comparative unemployment rates in other countries, many of which are not plagued by daily bombings, kidnapping and murders? Take a look here.

Zimbabwe (unrest) - 85%
Liberia (unrest) - 85%
Zambia (no war) - 50%
East Timor (unrest) - 50%
Djibouti (no war) - 50%
Lesotho (recent unrest) - 45%
Turkmenistan (no war) - 45%
Bosnia/Herzegovina (recent war) - 45%
Nepal (no war) - 42%
Swaziland (no war) - 40%
Afghanistan (unrest) - 40%
Libya (no war)- 40%
Kenya (no war) - 40%
Macedonia (no war)- 37%
Yemen (no war) - 35%
Armenia (no war) - 32%
Gaza Strip (crazy idiots) - 31%
Serbia (recent war)- 31%
American Samoa (Hey, it belongs to us!) -30%
Cameroon (no war) - 30%
(I left out many small island nations such as Nauru with less than 20,000 pop. and an unemployment rate of 90%).

And these countries are just those with an unemployment rate of 30% and higher. Sometimes all you need are corrupt government officials to mess things up. And on top of everything else, that is exactly what Iraq is also recovering from - 30 years of Saddam's corrupt choke hold on the Iraqi economy.

But a good part of the boom is due to an unexpected flow of foreign
capital. This has been facilitated by the prospect of a liberal law on direct foreign investments, which exists only in such free-trade parts of the region as Dubai and Bahrain. None of Iraq's six neighbors offers such guarantee for the free flow of capital to and from the country.

Since the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003, the number of private companies in Iraq has increased from a mere 8,000 to more than 35,000 this year. Each week an average of 60 new companies spring up in Iraq's booming areas. A good part of the investment in southern Iraq, including in Um Qasr, comes from Kuwait and the
United Arab Emirates.

Iraq's neighbors are pouring investment capital into this country. What does that tell us? It appears that these countries do not read the Times or listen to the democrats.

"Whatever happens, Iraq is Iraq," says a Kuwaiti businessman, building hotels in the south. "Iraq will always remain the country with the world's largest oil reserves and the Middle East's biggest resources of water."

One hears similar comments from local and foreign businessmen investing in real estate in Najaf and Karbala. Over 200 million Shiite Muslims regard the cities as holy. Najaf and Karbala have always been dream destinations for pilgrims. Under Saddam Hussein, however, few foreign pilgrims were allowed. With the despot gone, pilgrims are pouring in - and with them the fresh money.

That good business is possible in Iraq is reflected in the performance of new companies, most of which did not exist three years ago. One privately owned mobile phone company is expected to report revenues of more than $500 million this year, a sevenfold increase in three years. Another private firm marketing soft drinks has seen profits double since the end of 2003. The number of luxury cars imported has risen from a few hundred in 2002 to more than 20,000 this year.

Conditions certainly are harsh in Iraq, but that is true of many other places in the world. With a stable, secular government and the end of bloody interference by other nations, Iraq could become the economic powerhouse of the Middle East. And perhaps this is what the White House was trying to accomplish. With everyone in DC appearing to go all wobbly I somehow doubt this will come to pass.

Merry Christmas

May this season bless you and your families.

Hold your loved ones close and praise Him from whom all blessing flow.

Praise our Lord and Savior for our salvation and His sacrifice that we now may be found sinless in His eyes and worthy to enter His Presense.

Never Bring A Brick To A Gun Fight

What should be a self evident truth had to be taught to a group of rock-throwing Mexicans by Border Patrol officers in Arizona.

YUMA, Ariz. -- A U.S. Border Patrol agent fatally shot a man who was throwing rocks at officers from the Mexican side of the border late Saturday, officials said. The incident began after agents spotted a suspicious vehicle near the Andrade Port of Entry west of the California-Arizona border, just north of the international border and alongside the Colorado River. The driver fled and then tried to swim across a pond along the river in an effort to return to Mexico, the agency said in a press release.

So The BP stops a smuggler, smuggler panicks, smuggler flees, smuggler swims. Nothing to see here people, please keep moving.

But the man began to struggle to stay afloat and agents threw him a flotation device and began to try to rescue him.

So the aforementioned mope forgets to wait a half hour after stuffing himself at the all-you-can-eat bean burrito buffet and gets a cramp. The ever helpful BP throws the criminal a life saving flotation device and rescues said criminal from a watery grave. The crowd who witnesses this act of kindness responds by showering the federal agents with flowers and chocolates and cries of gracias, right? Wrongomondo.

Several people on the other side of the border then began throwing rocks at the agents, and one officer was struck in the head.

The Mexicans respond by trying to kill the BP officers. Why in the world would they do that?

Attacks on Border Patrol agents have become more common in recent years, and this year agents say they're seeing smugglers become even more violent as more federal resources make crossing into the U.S. ever more difficult. Smugglers are throwing softball-sized rocks, hunks of concrete and whole bricks at agents, either out of frustration or to try to get authorities to back off.

It sounds like the crowd is in the employ of the smugglers. They figure that as long as they are in Mexico and hurl their missiles across the border, they cannot be held accountable. Wrong again.

The officer then shot at a man who was getting ready to throw another rock, the Border Patrol said. Mexican authorities took the man to a hospital, where he died.

So what's the problem? The news release is very sparse on details we'd all love to know. Like what kind of firearm and ammo was used, where the rock thrower was hit, how many times he was hit, if his entrails were blown out his back, if he screamed all the way to the hospital, and if he begged to see his mother just before he bled out and died.

Maybe tomorrow.

It's not that I'm completely unsympathetic (well, maybe I am), but our people had better start controlling our borders. And if this is the only way to do it, then so be it. Better a few are killed so the rest learn. They all can't be this stupid.

The Welfare State

I want to thank Paul Belien for an extraordinary example of just how screwed up things get under a socialist form of government. This from one of my favorite European blogs, the Brussels Journal:

[...] In 1986 Régnier married Christine Wuest (who is now 38). They have fifteen children, between 19 years and 11 months old. A couple of years later, Christine’s homeless sister Karine Wuest (now 35 years old) came to live with the couple. Soon she fell in love with Serge. Christine consented in her husband taking her sister as a second wife. Serge and Karine have six children, between 10 years and 10 months old.

Fifteen kids between the ages of 19 and 1. You'd think Christine would ready to have her tubes tied and fried before her next baby landslide. But you'd be wrong. And since about 1990 there has been another, younger set of willing tubes in sister Karine for Serge to play with.

All that time, Serge had been meeting his former girlfriend Judith De Leenheer (now 38 years old). When Judith’s marriage broke up – which was not altogether surprising since all her children were Serge’s rather than her husband’s – Serge asked his two wives whether they would mind taking her in. They did not mind. Serge and Judith have nine children, between 18 years and 10 months old.

Serge must have got his notions of family planning by watching the Blue Men bang on all those tubes. Think that this scenario is playing out somewhere in the Appalachian Mountains? You'd be wrong.

They all live together in Serge’s house in Marcinelle, a town in Wallonia, the French-speaking South of Belgium.

Not surprising they speak fwench. And the whole dang kit and caboodle is run on the Beligium taxpayer's dime.

Régnier applied for and received the status of an invalid from Wallonia's generous welfare authorities.

Obviously he is an invalid only from the waist up.

He consequently receives a welfare check of over €1,000 a month. His three wives are all unemployed. Hence, they each get €800 in unemployment benefits.

Serge's women are invalids only from the waist down due to terminal stretch marks. Not a soul in this Fertile Fallopian cluster lifts a finger to support themselves. What a system.

On top of this the family receives €4,000 in child allowances. This makes a grand total of more than €7,400 a month ($9,700 or £4,960) – all of it provided by Belgium’s taxpayers.

The Belgium taxpayer kicks in $116,400 a year to feed, clothe and shelter these welfare rabbits. The only hope for the Belgian nation is that Serge's women run out of female relatives for him to screw. If not, all is lost. Serge's offspring will overrun the Continent by 2045.

All the money matters in the household are taken care of by Serge.

Or by a certain "part" of Serge that is incapable of either holding a pencil or a job.

His wives are only interested in children. They have told the press that they each hope to have another baby in 2007.

And his three wives suspect that he is messing around with a fourth woman. I wonder what ever gave them the idea that he would be faithful to anyone other than himself?

Hillary didn't even get it half right. It takes more than a village; it takes a whole nation of taxpayers to support the slobs who abuse the public in this fashion.

A story like Régnier’s is probably only possible in the south of Belgium, where a man can spend his life in idleness while the taxpayers provide him with enough income to sustain three women and thirty children. Wallonia is a Socialist stronghold which is subsidized by Flanders, the Dutch-speaking northern half of the country.

Tagged Again

The Merry Window, ahhh Widow, tagged me today so's I guess I better respond real proper like.

1. Three Things I want for Christmas

a) World Peace

b) Feed All The World's Hungry People

c) Hemorrhoids That Explosively Festoon The Toilet in Rose Petals When You Wipe Your Butt.



2. Three Things I Don't Want For Christmas

a) A World At War (Slow down! There's too many that need killing already!)

c) More Hungry People (Dang it! If you're so hungry, why you keep messin' with the wimmens?!? Go plant some chick peas and falafel berries and leave Fatima alone!)

3) Hemorrhoids That Go "Ho, Ho, Ho" When You Wipe Your Butt. (I don't want ANYTHING that requires batteries!)

Think about it ... which end goes in first, positive or negative? Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeew!


Okay Cookie. Enough of the corny Christmas jokes and doggie diets. Read yer comments 'cause you be tagged Purina Boi!

Digging Out The Tick

I can't get away from the UN tick metaphor. I remember how my grandmother used to burn ticks out of our cocker spaniel's fur with a cigarette. Make it uncomfortable enough and the parasite will back out on its own. From the Christian Science Monitor:

CAMBRIDGE, ENGLAND – It is reasonable that honest, compassionate people seek a means for governments to air their differences. It is also reasonable that honest, compassionate people should desire some way to voluntarily pool resources to provide charitable aid to those who are starving or are victims of natural disaster. Indeed, this is the image of the United Nations that has been sold to the world since its inception.

I can remember how we were indoctrinated in school. Movies in the 50's and 60's glowed with the magnificent efforts of the UN to bring world peace. The UN was the salvation of the world. Now it is like bothersome guests who have overstayed their welcome. It is time to grab the UN by the scuff of the neck and the seat of the pants and throw them out. At gunpoint if necessary.

The UN gives validity to zealots and bigots. It helps to keep tyrannical dictators in power. It gives a voice to international terrorists.

Delay. Negotiate. Recommend. Study. Reconsider. Do nothing. This is the game the UN has played in nearly every international crisis. It is the reason North Korea remains a threat after 50 years. And it is the reason why a terrorist nation such as Syria can be given a seat on the UN's Human Rights Council.

The UN is buried under scandals. It has Oil-for-Food scandals. Smuggling scandals. And theft scandals.

And these scandals are then buried by the MSM. But it isn't buried deep enough because the awful stench still reaches our nostrils. And it's not just the incompetence and larceny, it's also the brutality of its member nations that refuse to exercise control over their troops.

UN peacekeeping missions - with their record of rob, rape,and pillage - can actually bring fear to the local citizens they are supposed to protect.

And through a lack of action, the UN emboldens murderous tyrants: witness the slaughter of 800,000 Tutsis by their fellow Rwandans while French peace keeping troops stood by before acting... by retreating. For 12 years Saddam ignored UN sanctions with one hand while bribing them with the other. For all intents and purposes the UN is out of control.

Who has the power to oversee and control its actions? The people don't vote on UN actions. The media has little access behind the scenes. Who audits the accounting books?

Why Paul Volcker of course. Who reported that the UN Oil For Food program was tainted "from top to bottom and riddled with fraud." So far the only person punished for these crimes has been an investigator who helped dig up the evidence. No, the only nation strong enough to put the UN in its place is the US. And our leaders refuse to do so.

UN supporters admit such problems, and they call for "reform." But to them, reform doesn't mean plugging holes in UN spending or clearing up scandals. Instead, it means global governance.

Since its inception, the UN's advocacy has amounted to a desire to eradicate the sovereignty of nations - while imposing what it calls "world-mindedness." A 1949 UNESCO document said, "...nationalism [is] the major obstacle to the development of world-mindedness."

One thing we have to realize about UN globalists is that they are socialists, and socialists have no conscience when it comes to accomplishing their agenda.

Therein lies the UN's true goal. And that belies its public image of being simply a place where nations may come to air their differences and act responsibly. Instead, the UN works to gain power for itself in order to become independent and supreme over its member nations.

These aspirations are mirrored in the sheer arrogance of UN officials. And of course the way for the UN to gain independence (and to really throw off any attempts at accountability) is if it is given the authority to impose taxes.

On Sept. 19, plans were approved by several nations to create a global tax, mostly through airline tickets, to help pay for the treatment of AIDS. There are several other tax schemes on the UN wish list. If the UN gains the power to tax, it will become a monster free of its chains. And, of course, the UN wants its own military. It already has its own court.

Imagine a world run by the justice of China, with the economics of Cuba, and the military might of the United States. Such is the world of the future under UN global governance.

Talk about a nightmare. We used to joke about the black UN helicopters. I wonder...

Why They Walked

I have many Episcopalian (aka Anglican) friends who are very upset with recent developments in their church. Liberal trends have alienated many regular church goers for it flies in the face of millennia old doctrine. The Guardian has a commentary on some ramifications of these actions.

This past Sunday several churches in Northern Virginia announced that their congregations had voted overwhelmingly to leave the Episcopal Church and affiliate themselves with Anglican dioceses in Nigeria and Uganda.

The gas fire under this pot was turned up ever since a practising gay was elected as a bishop several years ago.

Their reasons were the same ones that have prompted Episcopal congregations and even entire dioceses across the country to sever their national ties in recent months: decades of liberalising trends in the Episcopal Church that have led to, among other things, the confirmation in 2003 of the openly gay V Gene Robinson as bishop of New Hampshire and the election in July 2006 of a presiding bishop, Katharine Jefferts Schori of the Diocese of Nevada, who is not only a woman (a contentious issue among conservative Episcopalians) but supports both Robinson's confirmation and church blessings for gay unions.

Bishop Schori is the person who was quoted as saying "Episcopalians aren't interested in replenishing their ranks by having children." Mark Steyn had a few things to day about that. As typical liberals, the church hierarchy dismisses the complaints of conservatives.

Jefferts Schori pooh-poohed the mass departure of the Virginians, declaring that they were a splinter collection of malcontents looking for a "quick fix" and that they had failed to embrace "diversity" and "tension," which she defined as the essence of Anglicanism.

I always thought the essense of Christianity was forgiveness of sin through the grace of God manifested by the sacrifice of His Son. No where in scripture is "diversity" or "tension" mentioned as the essense of anything.

[...] The Episcopal Church is in serious trouble only compounded by the current schism. It is a church in demographic free-fall, its numbers now standing at 2.2 million (by Jefferts Schori's own estimate), down from 3.4 million at its heyday in 1965. At the 2,700 Episcopalian parishes nationwide, the median Sunday worship attendance is 80 people, and the churches they attend would be crumbling ruins were it not for their substantial endowments left over from the 19th century, when most of them were founded.

This is what happens when diversity and tension are taught in church instead of the tenets of the faith. The faithful vote with their feet.

Like other mainline Protestant groups in America - Methodists, Presbyterians, Lutherans, and the like - the Episcopal Church decided some 40 years ago that the future of Christianity lay in accommodating its theology and moral teachings to whatever was fashionable or politically correct in the secular culture. Militant feminism and blessings for gay sex were only part of the doctrinal upheaval. Avant-garde clerics and theologians throughout North America and Western Europe scoffed at the traditional Christian teachings that Jesus Christ had been born of a virgin, worked miracles, died for human sin, rose from the dead, and founded a church that was supposed to be the means of salvation.

I differ in opinion on this last comment. The church is not the mean of salvation. The church is the body of believers who provide testimony, who proclaim the gospel - the good news - that Christ died for our sins.

All those liberal strands of Christianity are paying the price for their devil's bargain with secularism in vastly diminished numbers, as members figure out that when a religion lets them do whatever they want, one of the things they don't want to do is go to church on Sunday. The mainline denominations, which once represented 40% of US Protestants, now represent only 12%: 17 million out of 135 million.

God has taken His Spirit from these churches as He warned He would in the Book of Revelations. Those who truly seek God have left.

To put it bluntly, liberal Christianity is in meltdown. The election of Jefferts Schori, a theological liberal who prayed to a female Jesus at last summer's bishops' convention, together with the bishops' vote not to endorse the bedrock Christian proposition that Jesus is Lord, proved to be the last straw for many Episcopalians who believe that the essence of their Anglican faith isn't "tension" but fidelity to the Bible and the Christian creeds.

Amen.

The Ghost of Archives Past

The story of Sandy Burglar just won't die. It's like getting a kick in the groin for Christmas (thank you GW Bush), another story about this lying POS is circulating throughout the intertubes.

WASHINGTON (AP) - Former national security adviser Sandy Berger removed classified documents from the National Archives in 2003 and hid them under a construction trailer, the Archives inspector general reported Wednesday. The report was issued more than a year after Berger pleaded guilty and received a criminal sentence for removal of the documents.

Yeah, we know what he did, thanks for waiting two years before finally getting around to telling us how he did it Mr. Archives Flaming Jerk Traitor Enabler Inspector Corporal. Some criminal sentence...

Berger, who pleaded guilty to unlawfully removing and retaining classified documents, was fined $50,000, ordered to perform 100 hours of community service and was barred from access to classified material for three years.

Aside from the fine, this sentence is what you'd get for stealing lip gloss and a box of Chiclets at Walgreen's. I'd bar him from accessing oxygen for three years.

The report said that when Archives employees first suspected that Berger - who had been President Clinton's national security adviser - was removing classified documents from the Archives in the fall of 2003, they failed to notify any law enforcement agency.

This sounds like hindering prosecution to me. Why weren't these incompetent clowns thrown in jail? Why weren't they indicted? Scooter Libby did less then these fools and yet the Attorney General has still got him up a tree.

Another question ... why did it take these highly trained guardians of our national secrets so long to catch on? Don't they count these documents to make sure that the same number are returned as taken out? It would not surprise me one bit if these idiots were still on the government payroll watching former government officials waltz in and out of the Archives with Lord knows what stuck in their socks.

"Mr. Berger said he placed the documents under a trailer in an accessible construction area outside Archives 1 (the main Archives building)." Berger acknowledged that he later retrieved the documents from the construction area and returned with them to his office.

Words fail me. He did not forget to return them. This is an overt confession of intent, he removed the documents form the Archives, purposefully concealed them and retrieved them later for his own purposes. Then he destroyed them.

I am sitting here talking to myself and wondering just what in Hades are these fools in DC doing? They'd rather arrest common grunt soldiers for playing Fruit O'the Loom lampshades than prosecute former National Security Advisors who steal classified documents. Particularly when those documents might show that an ex-President has been less then helpful in fighting international terrorism.

More Of Kofe Annan's Antics

I think the latest revelations of the financial shenanigans of the outgoing Secretary-General of the UN are probably the most insightful indicators as to his character. He is nothing more than a low life grifter in a silk suit. From the NY SUN:

As Secretary-General Annan prepares to leave his post at the United Nations, a mystery is surfacing surrounding his apartment on Roosevelt Island, subsidized by New York taxpayers, which is still in use by the family of his brother, Kobina Annan.

Once these thieves find a public teat, you can't get rid of them. Like a tick burrowing into a hound, you have to burn them out or kill the hound to get rid of them.

The apartment was where Mr. Annan and his wife lived before 1997, when he became secretary-general. The Roosevelt Island home is part of an estate of low-rent state-regulated housing. For years, the Annans saved considerable sums by occupying an apartment meant to help financially strapped low- to moderate-income New York families.

This clown is calling for the US to contribute more to the world's needy while he and his wife abused housing bought and paid for by US taxpayers for that very purpose.

One question Mr. Annan has never addressed is why he and his wife felt comfortable availing themselves of this generous arrangement. Another is how it is that, since Mr. Annan and his wife left that Roosevelt Island apartment 10 years ago to move into the rent-free residence on Sutton Place supplied to the secretary-general, their former low-rent apartment was handed over to be occupied by the family of Mr. Annan's brother.

These questions will never be answered. And the useless MSM will never bring them to task for it.

The apartment in question, a three-bedroom unit on the ninth floor, appears from the outside to have a river view looking out on Manhattan. At market rates, according to local real estate agents, a three-bedroom apartment on the island currently rents for about $4,500 a month.

This means the taxpayers have been forking over $54,000 every year since 1997. That's about a half million dollars in free rent given to Kofe Annan's brother - Kobina Annan, who is no stranger to larceny himself. Kofe's son, Kojo Annan, was also involved in the oil-for-food scandal. It appears as if the entire family is like a band of gypsies, traveling around the world ripping people off.

Mr. Annan, after announcing a new policy of U.N. financial disclosure as part of his reforms over the past year, has refused to disclose to the public his own financial records. When Paul Volcker's investigation into the U.N. Oil-for-Food scandal took a confidential look at Kofi Annan's financial affairs last year, investigators declared them clean. But Mr. Volcker provided almost no specifics, releasing none of the underlying documents.

Those documents have been turned over to the UN. Sounds like the new financial disclosure policy is the same as the old one. Now it appears that Kobina Jr., Kofe's nephew, has got his hooks into this apartment. And he is not the only UN-connected slug to do so.

Kofi Annan's former dwelling is not the sole source of Roosevelt Island's Mitchell-Lama mysteries. The enclave is known for its heavy concentration of U.N. staff, many of whom receive U.N. housing allowances on top of whatever savings they might enjoy at the expense of New York state taxpayers. One of Kofi Annan's former special advisers, Italian businessman Giandomenico Picco, lived on Roosevelt Island in the late 1990s, and documents seen by this reporter, including a power of attorney, show him at 531 Main Street, another Mitchell-Lama building, until at least until 2001.

The entire nest of leeches should be burned out. Get the UN out of the US. Let these parasites feed off another host nation for a change.