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Confederate Yankee

June 19, 2006

Dixie Cup

The Raleigh, NC News & Observer:

Congratulations to the Carolina Hurricanes, winners of the 2006 Stanley Cup!

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 09:56 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

Cole's Shoals

Juan Cole, the "scholarship-lite," questionably Arabic-fluent professor passed over for a position by a school that even accepts the Taliban, bitterly attacked White House spokesman Tony Snow for rather innocuous response to question asked by CNN's Wolf Blitzer Sunday:

BLITZER: "Let's talk a little bit about troop withdrawal potentials for the U.S. military, about 130,000 U.S. forces in Iraq right now.
In our most recent CNN poll that came out this week, should the U.S. set a timetable to eventually withdraw troops from Iraq, 53 percent said yes; 41 percent said no.
Senator Dianne Feinstein wrote a piece in the San Francisco Chronicle today. She's going to be on this show, coming up.
She wrote this: "We have now been in Iraq for more than three years. And we believe that the time has come for that phased redeployment to begin. It is also time for the Bush administration to provide a schedule and timetable for the structured downsizing and redeployment of U.S. forces in Iraq."
"Does that make sense?"
SNOW: "The president understands people's impatience — not impatience but how a war can wear on a nation. He understands that. If somebody had taken a poll in the Battle of the Bulge, I dare say people would have said, wow, my goodness, what are we doing here?
But you cannot conduct a war based on polls. And you can't conduct this kind of activity. What you have to do — and the president's been clear about this — is take a look at the conditions on the ground. Let's think for a moment of the alternative.

Snow makes a self-evident point that no reporter thought to question: a major counteroffensive mounted by an enemy that you thought was on the verge of being beaten is—at the very least—a sobering experience, one that requires recalibration and reevaluation before the offensive continues.

Cole, for some reason infuriated with Snow's response, went off on a odd rant that predictably enough, blamed Bush:

The president of the United States is in some ways the nation's leading public historian. More people hear about American history from him than from virtually any other source, with the possible exception of Hollywood.
It has therefore been dispiriting to witness the falsehoods about American history consistently purveyed by the Bush administration. Bush and his officials have repeatedly made allegations that simply are not true, but they sin most grievously against the muse of Clio with their flat-footed and implausible analogies.
On Sunday, the most prominent among Bush's spokesmen from the ranks of Fox Cable News anchors, Tony Snow, did it again. He compared our current situation in Iraq to the Battle of the Bulge. This battle began in mid-December, 1944, a little over 3 years after the US entered the war. Snow also suggested that the American public was ready to throw in the towel at that point in the war!
Is the only way this tawdry administration can make itself feel good to defame the Greatest Generation? My late uncle used to tell us stories of how he fought at the Battle of the Bulge. Is Tony Snow saying he was a coward? That the Americans back at the homefront were?

Let' examine this outburst for a moment.

While I am certainly limited by having just a normal human circle of friends and acquaintances, I think I can honestly state that not one of them confuses the White House with the Smithsonian, nor do they think of the President as being "Curator in Chief."

Or, perhaps I merely was too young to have heard and appreciated FDR's fireside chats about the Punic Wars, where he boldly proclaimed:

"The only think we have to fear is: HUGE. FREAKING. ELEPHANTS."

Perhaps I missed LBJ's dissertation on the evolution of Peruvian pottery, where he stated:

"Any jackass can stomp on some greenware, but it takes a good Moche to use a press mold."

…Or perhaps Presidents are more involved in making historic decisions than mistranslating them. Juan Cole is, once again, on his own in his strange little world.

At no point would it appear to a rational person that Snow's hypothetical question of "what are we doing here?" could be stretched into a charge of defaming an entire generation. Nor does it seem likely one could reasonably conflate this question into calling for surrender, nor could an intelligent person misunderstand that question to be a statement labeling Cole's uncle (or anyone else) as a coward.

I'm sure Juan Cole has a point.

I'm just not sure that it's worth wading through the barren shoals of his mind to determine just what that point may be.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 03:22 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

al Qaeda Kidnapping Plays to the DNC

Via Brietbart:

An umbrella group that includes al-Qaida in Iraq claimed in a Web statement Monday that it had kidnapped two U.S. soldiers reported missing south of Baghdad. There was no immediate confirmation that the statement was credible, although it appeared on a Web site often used by al-Qaida-linked groups.
U.S. officials have said they were trying to confirm whether the missing soldiers were kidnapped.
"Your brothers in the military wing of the Mujahedeen Shura Council kidnapped the two American soldiers near Youssifiya," the group said in a statement posted on an Islamic Web site.
The Web site did not name the soldiers.
The soldiers were reported missing Friday after insurgents attacked a checkpoint. The Defense Department identified the missing men as Pfc. Kristian Menchaca, 23, of Houston, and Pfc. Thomas L. Tucker, 25, of Madras, Ore.
The U.S. military said Monday that seven American troops have been wounded, three insurgents have been killed and 34 detained during an intensive search for the soldiers.
Maj. Gen. William Caldwell, a spokesman for U.S. forces in Iraq, said fighter jets, unmanned aerial vehicles and dive teams had been deployed to find the two men. They went missing Friday during an attack on their checkpoint in the volatile Sunni area south of Baghdad that left one of their comrades dead.

al-Zarqawi's killing and the wildly successful series of raids that followed were crippling both for al Qaeda in Iraq and for the increasingly panicked voices of anti-war Democrats after Bush's surprise visit to Baghdad. A military or political blow against U.S. forces in Iraq was desperately needed. This kidnapping of two American soliders—and I think it only safe to assume that this was planned as such from the beginning—can only be viewed as a much-needed political success for al Qaeda and its allies.

Frankly, I'm a bit disappointed that American commanders in Iraq didn't anticipate such an attempt and didn't better prepare their men for it. On a micro level, I surprised that the soldiers manning this checkpoint feel for a simple diversionary plan that has been used for thousands of years. It is a classic military tactic to use skirmishers to draw a defensive force away from the location it is guarding so that the now undermanned location can be then assaulted by an enemy force hidden nearby. This may not be the oldest trick in the book, but it certainly comes close.

Now we can anticipate a full-on media campaign by al Qaeda and the Democratic Party to be played out in the mainstream media, hopefully (from their perspective) blunting the impressive gains made against the terrorists in Iraq in the past two weeks.

The media, now having the names of these two soldiers, will begin stalking their families, probing for an image of a tearful wife or mother, hoping for an anti-war or anti-Bush soundbite [note: already there].

If we are unable to locate and free these two soldiers, it is quite likely that these terrorists will feature the soldiers in a propaganda video, perhaps decapitating them, which will then be released to al Jazeera, Reuters, and the Associated Press. It is perhaps the worst possible outcome, and one we must prepare to face based upon past treatment of prisoners by these terrorists.

In any event, be assured that Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, and Dishonorable John Murtha will use these events as "evidence" of why we must beat a retreat from Iraq.

al Qaeda is no doubt counting on Democrats toutter those very sentiments, and the three leaders of the Defeat Party cited above are almost certain not to disappoint.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 01:25 PM | Comments (7) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

Nagin Calls for National Guard

Via Fox News:

Mayor Ray Nagin asked the governor Monday to send National Guard troops to patrol his city after a violent weekend in which five teenagers were shot to death.
City leaders convened a special meeting to voice outrage after the killings Saturday in an area near the central business district.
[snip]
Nagin asked Gov. Kathleen Blanco to send up to 300 National Guard troops and 60 state police officers to patrol the city. The City Council said it also would consider increasing overtime for police to put more officers on the street.

Upon hearing of the request, Pennsylvania Congressman John Murtha immediately called for the Louisiana National Guard to redeploy to Bangor, Maine.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 01:03 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

June 16, 2006

A Matter of Visibility

Eight-term Louisiana Congressman William Jefferson may have been tossed off the influential Ways and Means Committee behind closed doors by his fellow Democrats, but he didn't go quietly. Jefferson and the Congressional Black Caucus, noting that a white Democrat, West Virginia Congressman Alan Mollohan, has been allowed to keep his seat while under investigation, implied that race may be an issue.

I would find the spectacle of a falling out between the Congressional Black Caucus and the Democratic Party an interesting turn of events as we go into the '06 elections, especially in light of the fact that black conservatives have a fair chance of picking up governorships in Pennsylvania and Ohio and a high-profile U.S. Senate Seat in Maryland. That said, I don't think the different treatment of Jefferson and Mollohan is as much an issue of race as it is one of visibility, and hence, politics.

When it comes right down to it, Alan Mollohan's alleged transgressions fly well below the radar of most people, even many of those of us who are very interested in politics. William Jefferson's circumstances, however, are anything but under the radar.

The public easily latched onto the mental image of foil-wrapped frozen stacks of bribe money found in Jefferson's freezer, and the furor over the raid on his Washington, D.C. offices surpassed even that. Fair or not, William Jefferson has quickly become the image in many people's mind when they think of corrupt politicians, and almost single-handedly killed the “culture of corruption” storyline Democrats wanted to use this fall.

Being a public relations liability for the Democratic Party in an election year has far more to do with his ouster than does the color of his skin.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 10:53 AM | Comments (14) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

New Docs Link Saddam to Taliban

Despite the shrill cries to the contrary, the Iraqi War is part of the War on Terror, as occasional C.Y. poster Ray Robinson shows with further analysis of newly-translated documents linking Saddam with the Taliban (bold in original):

I am the one who started with this issue, the relation between Taliban and Iraq, and it is our idea. The brothers in Afghanistan are facing the pressure of America, and are struggling against America and aim to have some connections between Afghanistan and Iraq, and it is a good start to establish the relations with Iraq and Libya and our association has taken this responsibility upon her. I already met with Mr. the Vice-President and the previous head of the directorate, may God rest his soul (translator's note: apparently the head of the directorate passed away) and both proposed that Hekmatyar and the Taliban should get to an agreement. I spoke with the Taliban about this issue and they started meeting with delegations from the Islamic Party, and I met Mullah Omar and his reply was positive.
As a party, our stand is that there should be an agreement between the Taliban and the rest of the opposition, Shah Ahmad Massoud and Rabbani. And Mullah Omar said that we are looking towards this and that (not clear) and (not clear) and Ahmad Al Kilani and Jalal Al Din Hakkani do not oppose us. Therefore, Hekmatyar is on the positive way but we are in a war situation and that needs a lot of trust, and there are hurdles to this because he fought us and killed us and he has problems with the opposition in the North and with us. After repeated contacts we will reach an agreement, but in the form of steps. Concerning the relations with Iraq, he said that they are our brothers and Muslims and are facing pressures from America, like us and like Sudan and Libya. And he (Mullah Omar) desires to get closer relations with Iraq and that Iraq may help us in reducing our problems. Now we are facing America and Russia. He requested the possibility of Iraq intervening to build a friendship with Russia since Russia is no more the number one enemy. And we request Iraq's help from a brotherly point of view. They are ready for this matter and they prefer that the relation between Iraq and Taliban be an independent relation from Hekmatyar's relation with the Taliban. We want practical steps concerning this issue and especially the relationship with the Taliban and (not clear, but could be Iraq).

Robinson then supplies analysis of the translation, including this description of the meeting:

So it seems possible the IIS Chief died just prior to this meeting and the Maulana is meeting with the new IIS chief. The new IIS chief would have been Tahir Jalil Habbush al Tikriti, who according to the Multi-National Forces' Iraq Web site as of January, 2006 is still listed as “at large.” Of course, if he has not been captured, it is reasonable to assume he has not been interrogated.
Tahir Jalil Habbush al Tikriti came to public attention in December, 2003 when the Telegraph UK reported Terrorist Behind September 11th Strike was Trained by Saddam.

Details of Atta's visit to the Iraqi capital in the summer of 2001, just weeks before he launched the most devastating terrorist attack in U.S. history, are contained in a top secret memo written to Saddam Hussein, the then Iraqi president, by Tahir Jalil Habbush al-Tikriti, the former head of the Iraqi Intelligence Service.
The handwritten memo, a copy of which has been obtained exclusively by the Telegraph, is dated July 1, 2001 and provides a short resume of a three-day "work programme" Atta had undertaken at Abu Nidal's base in Baghdad.
In the memo, Habbush reports that Atta "displayed extraordinary effort" and demonstrated his ability to lead the team that would be "responsible for attacking the targets that we have agreed to destroy".

Atta, of course, led the 9/11 attacks.

Saddam to al Tikriti to Atta. A strong link from Iraq to 9/11. Add this to evidence that Saddam gave money and housing to Abdul Rahman Yasin, the 1993 World Trade Center bomb builder, and I'd say that you're looking at evidence that Saddam was linked to attacks on the World Trade Center not once, but twice.

"Illegal war?"

I think not.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 06:29 AM | Comments (6) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

June 15, 2006

John Murtha: Mortal Enemy of Military Justice

Almost a month ago I ripped into ex-Marine John Murtha for unequivocally stating that a unit of Marines had "killed innocent civilians in cold blood" after an IED blast killed a fellow Marine in Haditha, Iraq.

I stated:

First off, it is unconscionable for any legislator to accuse U.S. military personnel of multiple counts of premeditated murder before an investigation into these charges is complete. Prosecutions must proceed at their own logical pace as evidence in the case dictates. Premature accusations by a public figure in such a case imposes an artificial timeline, endangering the accuracy and thoroughness of an investigation.
At the same time, such heated rhetoric as charges of murder of "innocent civilians in cold blood" is prejudicial against the defendants, poisoning public opinion against them. This would be an explosive charge in a civilian court, but to make such charges against members of the U.S. Military when they are engaged in military operations in that country is absolutely fissionable.

An attorney for one of the Haditha Marines apparently agrees, and states that if his client is charged, he will call Murtha as a witness:

A criminal defense attorney for a Marine under investigation in the Haditha killings says he will call a senior Democratic congressman as a trial witness, if his client is charged, to find out who told the lawmaker that U.S. troops are guilty of cold-blooded murder.
Attorney Neal A. Puckett told The Washington Times that Gen. Michael Hagee, the Marine commandant, briefed Rep. John P. Murtha, Pennsylvania Democrat, on the Nov. 19 killings of 24 Iraqis in the town north of Baghdad. Mr. Murtha later told reporters that the Marines were guilty of killing the civilians in "cold blood." Mr. Murtha said he based his statement on Marine commanders, whom he did not identify.
Mr. Puckett said such public comments from a congressman via senior Marines amount to "unlawful command influence." He said potential Marine jurors could be biased by the knowledge that their commandant, the Corps' top officer, thinks the Haditha Marines are guilty.

"Unlawful command influence." Let that sink in. According to United States vs. Gore, No. 03-6003, 60 MJ 178 (and summarized here), unlawful command influence:

is recognized as the mortal enemy of military justice;
tends to deprive service members of their constitutional rights;
if directed against prospective defense witnesses, it transgresses the accused's right to have access to favorable evidence.

John Murtha took the extraordinary step of accusing Marines of a war crime before the investigation was complete, and perhaps has compromised justice in this process entirely. Someone should ask Murtha if his political grandstanding was worth becoming the "mortal enemy of military justice" and jeopardizing the constitutional rights of these Marines. Someone should, but they aren't likely to get an answer. According the author of the Times article, Murtha's spokesman did not return a call seeking comment.

Apparently too late, ex-Marine John Murtha has finally learned to shut up.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 12:32 PM | Comments (15) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

Times Versus Times

The June 14, 2006 NY Times editorial Detainees in Despair Op-ed by Mourad Benchellali was lapped up unquestioningly by liberal blogs, who used the editorial to decry the evils of the Guantanamo Bay prison camp.

On June 15, 2006, a NY Times news story states that the Benchellali family was convicted in France of trying to build chemical weapons for attacks on Paris landmarks. Convicted so far are his father, mother, two brothers, and 19 other people.

Does anyone doubt that Mourad would have been in the middle of the French terrorist plot with the rest of his family if he weren't cooling his heels in Gitmo?

I sense a new marketing campaign by the Adminstration:

"Guantanamo Bay: Keeping terrorists out of the prisons they deserve to be in since 2002."

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 12:02 AM | Comments (9) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

June 14, 2006

Alberto Pays a Visit

While Glenn Reynolds seems to have sailed through Tropical Storm Alberto without any problems, we're not having it quite as easy here in central North Carolina. The following pictures are pulled from from NCDOT cameras and viewer-submited photos at WRAL-TV.com.

Crabtree Valley Mall in Raleigh is, for understandable reasons, closed...

A closer look of parking near the mall shows that anchoring is more of an issue than parking.

If you want to cross Trinty Road, you'd better be able to part the waters.

A front yard in Cary (the Containment Area for Relocated Yankees, according to Wikipedia), just south of Raleigh finds itself suddenly overwatered.

With a total of 4-8 inches of rain expected to drop before Albero clears the area, the commute home promises to be entertaining, to say the least.

Aren't we lucky this wasn't a "real storm?"

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 02:23 PM | Comments (8) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

Sometimes You Feel Like A Nut…

...sometimes you don't:

The leaders of the state's Democratic and Republican parties have asked voters not to cast ballots for state Supreme Court candidate Rachel Lea Hunter, whose fiery rhetoric in recent weeks has included comparing the actions of a black congressional candidate to that of a slave.
"She's unstable and unqualified, and the thought of her serving on the highest court in North Carolina is scary," state Republican party chairman Ferrell Blount said Tuesday.
Blount's comments came after Hunter, a former Republican running as a Democrat, used the title "Dur Fuhrer" -- commonly associated with Nazi leader Adolf Hitler -- when referring to state Democratic party chief Jerry Meek.

Hunter's sanity—or lack thereof—might also be indicated by links on her site (to which I refuse to link), to liber-nut-arian Lew Rockwell, presumably some of whose Gary North-oriented readers would stone to death another odd duck /paleocon/libertarian she supports, Justin Raimondo. She also links to a "9/11 was an inside job" conspiracy site, and perhaps not surprisingly, Cindy Sheehan's organization.

I personally have no problem with "Madame Justice" (as she like to call herself) being part of the court system, I just think she belongs on the other side of the bench—perhaps in a competency hearing.

Captain Ed and Allah have commented on the wannabe Justice as well.

Note: She'll still probably win in Chapel Hill (motto: "Left of center, right out of our minds").

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 01:19 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

BBC Libels Marine Singer/Songwriter

Oh give me a freaking break:

The US marines have launched a probe into a video posted on the Internet that apparently shows a serving marine singing about killing Iraqi civilians.
A spokesman described the video as "clearly inappropriate" and contrary to the standards of the marines.
Posted on the YouTube website, the video shows a man in uniform strumming a guitar while singing about killing Iraqis, as others laugh and cheer.
The marines said they did not know immediately if the film was genuine.
The lyrics caught on video refer to the shooting of Iraqi civilians, especially children.

Let's get a few details straight for this clearly partisan BBC writer Adam Brookes, shall we?

The song in this video (link below) was not about "killing Iraqi civilians." This is a blatant lie.

A civilian, as defined by the American Heritage Dictionary on Answers.com is:

A person following the pursuits of civil life, especially one who is not an active member of the military, the police, or a belligerent group.

There are no civilians killed by Marines in this song. This song is about a female Iraqi insurgent attempting to lure a Marine into an ambush carried out by her father and brother, also insurgents, with AK-47 assault rifles. By this definition and any other, including the Geneva Convention, anyone luring a soldier into an ambush, or conducting an ambush, is a belligerent, not a civilian.

The only person that could even remotely be considered a civilian is the sister of the female insurgent, who is killed by her own father and brother as they try to ambush the Marine.

The BCC clearly seeks to leave out the fact that the Marine did not initiate this conflict, and that this Marine acted in self defense after being led into an ambush.

Nor is their any direct reference to children being killed in this song. The song mentioned a "little sister." My wife has a little sister. She turns 30 this year, and has two children of her own. A "little sister" or "little brother" is a relative term, not an indication of age.

Adam Brookes of the BBC is not just being biased with his coverage; he is intentionally obfuscating relevant facts to mask the true nature of the song. Adam Brookes is, in effect, faking news.

We have all the evidence we need right here.

We have the actual music video courtesy of Little Green Footballs.

We have the Hadji girl lyrics courtesy of Blackfive.

I was out in the sands of Iraq
And we were under attack
And I, well, I didn't know where to go.
And the first think I could see was
Everybody's favorite Burger King
So I threw open the door and I hit the floor.
Then suddenly to my surprise
I looked up and I saw her eyes
And I knew it was love at first sight.
And she said

Durka Durka Mohammed Jihad
Sherpa Sherpa Bak Allah
Hadji girl I can't understand what you're saying.
And she said
Durka Durka Mohammed Jihad
Sherpa Sherpa Bak Allah
Hadji girl I love you anyway.
Then she said that she wanted me to see.
She wanted me to meet her family
But I, well, I couldn't figure out how to say no.
Cause I don't speak Arabic.
So, she took me down an old dirt trail.
And she pulled up to a side shanty
And she threw open the door and I hit the floor.
Cause her brother and her father shouted

Durka Durka Mohammed Jihad
Sherpa Sherpa Bak Allah
They pulled out their AKs so I could see
And they said
Durka Durka Mohammed Jihad
Sherpa Sherpa Bak Allah

So I grabbed her little sister and pulled her in front of me.
As the bullets began to fly
The blood sprayed from between her eyes
And then I laughed maniacally
Then I hid behind the TV
And I locked and loaded my M-16
And I blew those little f***ers to eternity.
And I said

Durka Durka Mohammed Jihad
Sherpa Sherpa Bak Allah
They should have known they were f***ing with a Marine

Libel is typically defined as:

Published material meeting three conditions: The material is defamatory either on its face or indirectly; The defamatory statement is about someone who is identifiable to one or more persons; and, The material must be distributed to someone other than the offended party; i.e. published; distinguished from slander.

This BBC article by Adam Brookes is clearly defamatory, accusing the Marine about singing a song about killing civilians, when it was actually about killing insurgents that lured him into an ambush. The article is clearly about a specific, identifiable Marine appearing in this video, Cpl. Joshua Belile, and attempts to libel the Marine Corps in its entirety by extension. The article has been published, distributed across the Internet and perhaps in print as well. Almost certainly, Adam Brookes and the BBC met teh conditions for libel with this story.

The BBC owes Cpl. Belile a retraction and an apology.

BBC reporter Adam Brookes is a journalistic fraud. He attempted to obfuscate and mischaracterize key elements of a story to create a fictionalized account of the news far more damaging than the facts of the case support. Like Jayson Blair, Stephen Glass, and other frauds before him, Adam Brookes should be fired. Contact the BBC to let them know what you think.

Not to worry, though.

He can always find a job at CAIR.

Update: The BBC is already revising the opening paragraphs of this story, which now reads:

The US marines have launched a probe into a video posted on the internet that apparently shows a marine singing about the killing of Iraqi civilians.
A spokesman described the video as "clearly inappropriate" and contrary to the standards of the marines.
The marines said they did not know immediately if the film was genuine.
The lyrics caught on video refer to the shooting of Iraqi civilians, especially children, by insurgents and then how a marine responds, opening fire himself.

Funny how a little myth-busting can lead to new editing skills...

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 08:55 AM | Comments (9) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

June 13, 2006

FOUND: The Word The Media Lost

A word seems to be missing from this story from CNN:

Former Atlanta Mayor Bill Campbell, who presided over the city's economic renaissance of the 1990s, was sentenced Tuesday to 30 months in prison and fined more than $6,000 for racketeering and tax evasion.
U.S. District Judge Richard Story praised Campbell, 53, for two decades of public service but said he could not ignore his crimes.
Campbell was convicted in March of a single racketeering count and three counts of tax evasion. He was cleared of charges he lined his pockets with payoffs from a contractor but was found guilty of failing to pay taxes on what prosecutors said was illegally obtained money. Campbell said the money was gambling winnings.
"Yes, Bill Campbell, you did good things, and there is a person in this room that recognizes this," Story said, referring to himself. He cited Campbell's work in improving public housing in Atlanta as an example.
But the judge added that during the trial he "was overcome, almost appalled, at the breadth of misconduct in your administration."

The story goes on for another 13 more paragraphs, and yet, I can't find that word.

Couldit be in WXIA's coverage? No.

How about UPI's story? Nope, it's not there, either.

It isn't until the very last word of the very last paragraph of this AP story that we finally found that missing word [my bold]:

Instead, he was convicted on just three counts of federal tax evasion, and acquitted on racketeering and bribery charges _ a verdict he and his attorneys painted as a vindication. Campbell was once considered a rising star for Democrats.

I wonder how that one particular word got so lost?

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 07:55 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

What Plagiarism Isn't

With al-Zarqawi dead, Bush in Baghdad and a botched Fitzmas bringing nothing but trickling, impotent gloom, the Left needed something to brighten their day.

This isn't it.

Plagiarism or sloppy cut-and-paste? That's what blogger Rude Pundit is asking about two passages in Ann Coulter's white-hot book Godless, which has already had its share of criticism over its content.
Pundit's evidence:
Coulter, Chapter 1 of Godless: The massive Dickey-Lincoln Dam, a $227 million hydroelectric project proposed on upper St. John River in Maine, was halted by the discovery of the Furbish lousewort, a plant previously believed to be extinct.
Portland Press Herald, from "Maine Stories of the Century": The massive Dickey-Lincoln Dam, a $227 million hydroelectric project proposed on upper St. John River, is halted by the discovery of the Furbish lousewort, a plant believed to be extinct.
Coulter: A few years after oil drilling began in Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, a saboteur set off an explosion blowing a hole in the pipeline and releasing an estimated 550,000 gallons of oil.
The History Channel: The only major oil spill on land occurred when an unknown saboteur blew a hole in the pipe near Fairbanks, and 550,000 gallons of oil spilled onto the ground.

In the first pair of sentences about the Dickey-Lincoln Dam, Coulter's copy is almost word-for-word the same as the copy from the 2000 Portland Press list, with the only difference being a minor shift in verb tense (present to past, "is" to "was").

But is copying an item from a list plagiarism? Even with the list item being copied nearly word for word, the case for calling this plagiarism is questionable at best. Why?

If you look at the lagiarism&sa=X&oi=glossary_definition&ct=title">various definitions of plagiarism, the underlying theme is the concept of the theft of creative work or ideas from another person. Some people define it is a willful reproduction of the work of another, while more stringent standards hold it to be any reproduction of another's work, willful or subconscious.

Regardless of details, the key to plagiarism is the theft of a creative work or ideas. Does a list item meet the standard of "a creative work or ideas" needed to support a charge of plagiarism? Despite the almost verbatim copy, I'd argue that it most likely does not.

The claim that the second passage contains evidence of any plagiarism at all is frankly nonsensical.

The line from the History Channel and from Coulter's book are only similar in they discuss the same event, where a saboteur blew up a pipe in Alaska spilling 550,000 of oil.

By Rude Pundit's unsustainably broad standard, no two people could write about the same event and cite the same facts (or even different descriptions of the same place, as Coulter cites the location as "in Prudhoe Bay" and the History Channel says "near Fairbanks") from that event without one plagiarizing the other.

To quote Thomas Jefferson, "He's most likely completely full of crap."

As are his too-broad charges of plagiarism.

(h/t Allah at Hot Air)

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 03:19 PM | Comments (7) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

Bush in Baghdad

While we were all looking at Karl Rove, President Bush decided to make an unannounced visit to Baghdad, no doubt as a show of support for the newly completed Iraqi government and a tough-talking Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's plans to increase security in Baghdad and throughout Iraq.

From Fox News:

President Bush made a surprise visit to Iraq on Tuesday to meet newly named Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and discuss the next steps in the troubled, three-year-old war.
It was a dramatic move by Bush, traveling to violence-rattled Baghdad less than a week after the death of terror chief Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in a bombing attack. The president was expected to be in Baghdad a little more than five hours.

You can say what you will about his successes and failures as a President, but George W. Bush certainly has courage. Not many Presidents—actually none that I know of, but I hardly claim empiracal knowledge—have made it a practice to visit our soldiers and our allies in an active war zone, and I can't recall a time when the technological capability for the enemy to strike against a President during a visit been greater.

This article (and others, to be sure) tells a reeling al Qaeda where Bush is and when he will be leaving the airport, and the flight paths in and out of the airport are anything but secret. Frankly, I fear the possibility of an attempt to use MANPADS against Air Force One as it leaves Baghdad International. We know that insurgents have Russian-designed SA-16 man-portable surface to air missiles, and if DEBKAfilecan be believed, as many as a thousand Iranian-built SA-7s. I do not know how much of a threat to Air Force One small man-portable missiles would be, but a volley of these missiles fired simultaneously as the President's plane was ascending could be problematic to say the least.

Those worries aside, the reasoning behind Bush's visit is sound. He is there to give a morale boost for an American military accused of murdering innocent civilians, and to show support for the Iraqi government that seems serious about cracking down on both insurgent and sectarian violence. His very presence all but assures success on both of these goals.

More as this story develops...

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 09:04 AM | Comments (4) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

Truthout.org: Fresh Out Of Truth

I'm not too emotionally invested in the Plamegate story and so I'm probably not enjoying this as much as others, but anytime the Democratic Underground-types have their conspiracy theories crushed and their frog-marching cancelled, I must admit that I find it highly amusing.

From the NY Times:

The prosecutor in the C.I.A. leak case on Monday advised Karl Rove, the senior White House adviser, that he would not be charged with any wrongdoing, effectively ending the nearly three-year criminal investigation that had at times focused intensely on Mr. Rove.
The decision by the prosecutor, Patrick J. Fitzgerald, announced in a letter to Mr. Rove's lawyer, Robert D. Luskin, lifted a pall that had hung over Mr. Rove who testified on five occasions to a federal grand jury about his involvement in the disclosure of an intelligence officer's identity.
In a statement, Mr. Luskin said, "On June 12, 2006, Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald formally advised us that he does not anticipate seeking charges against Karl Rove."

Liberal conspiracy site Truthout.org and their ace reporter on this story, Jason "24" Leopold have had their credibility heavily if not irreparably damaged with their speculative accusations, and I doubt anyone with any credibility themselves will take either TruthOut or Leopold seriously again.

"Truth to Power?"

Maybe not.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 08:16 AM | Comments (6) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

June 12, 2006

Coming Soon: Bin Laden Never Existed

I've long thought that the mental acuity of the average leftist was highly retarded by a wall of anti-Bush agi-prop (hence the tagline, "liberalism is a persistent vegetative state"), but even still, I was blown away by the blatant paranoia, open delusions, and thinly-veiled hatred of American soldiers manifested on liberal blog Talk Left, regarding the killing of terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

Starting on Saturday and continuing again Sunday, Talk Left posters began working themselves into a lather over a claim made by an anonymous Iraqi to the Associated Press that U.S. soldiers beat al-Zarqawi to death after his safehouse was hit by two 500-pound bombs.

The claim:

The Iraqi, identified only as Mohammed, said he lives near the house where al-Zarqawi was killed. He said residents put a bearded man in an ambulance before U.S. forces arrived.
"When the Americans arrived they took him out of the ambulance, they beat him on his stomach and wrapped his head with his dishdasha, then they stomped on his stomach and his chest until he died and blood came out of his nose," Mohammed said, without saying how he knew the man was dead.
A dishdasha is a traditional Arab robe.
A similar account in The Washington Post identified the man as Ahmed Mohammed.
No other witnesses have come forward to corroborate the account. U.S. officials have only said al-Zarqawi mumbled and tried to roll off a stretcher before dying.

Now, by even applying basic reasoning skills to Mohamed's claim, one would have to ask how "Mohammed" could see blood flow out of al-Zarqawi's nose with his robe wrapped around his head, but that was easily bypassed by this top liberal blog, which was quick to label al-Zarqawi's killing an act of terrorism by the American military:

Killing Zarqawi and three women in the house with him was not an act of war. It was an act of retaliatory terrorism. By our government. And I don't want it to be in my name.

So according to Jeralyn Merritt, founder of Talk Left, killing a major terrorist is itself an act of terrorism.

The comment left me speechless over the weekend; I could not find a way to adequately explain the moral vacuousness and depraved indifference to reality needed to make such an incredibly stupid comment, and mean it.

But several of Jeralyn's regulars were ready to go beyond her labeling of American soldiers as terrorists, and seemed to float the theory that al-Zarqawi never even really existed at all:

The whole story is so unbelievable to begin with that the AP story only adds to the confusion.
al-Zarqawi has been a psy/ops character made for the American audience since Powell pointed to him as proof aq[sic] was in Iraq.
Why would the last chapter, his death, be any less fictional. With the US military controlling the narrative, anything is possible.

Some where willing to grant the possibility that he existed, but weren't convinced he was a terrorist :

The whole thing is bull. Whatever killed the man, it was not a 500-pound bomb. We know that's a lie, because the building was vaporized and the guy supposedly inside came out looking like he had been slapped by a high-school freshman. Then he died, with hardly a mark on him. Sure would like to see the autopsy report.
It seems that a lot of people are willing to take the word of people who have been wrong about EVERYTHING SO FAR that he was a terrorist, and that his role was important.

That was Saturday.

Sunday's post was even more discombobulated, with Merritt and her supporters apparently convinced that a delay in releasing the autopsy until DNA confirmation was complete as evidence of some sort of a cover-up, with the "discovery" of a second (predictably) anonymous source all the proof they required that al-Zarqawi's death was the result of a brutal beating of an injured man by American soldiers.

It's just heart-warming isn't it? Jeralyn and her followers find it far easier to believe that American soldiers are mindless thugs that would beat a wounded man on a stretcher to death, that believe he actually died as a result of two 500-lb. precision-guided bombs.

Of course, that depends on the silly assumption of those of us outside the "reality-based community" have that al-Zarqawi actually existed. Talk Lefter's don't seem convinced.

From Jade:

All the national and international media reported for the last two years that Zarqawi had one leg. They even told when and how he lost it. The quote often was "how hard is it to find a one legged man in Iraq".
Then we see a video of a two legged Zarqawi and a corpse of a two legged Zarqawi, how did that miracle of science happen?

From Aaron, the "more than one al-Zarqawi" theory:

While the DNA and the fingerprints may prove that this is indeed the terrorist we've come to know as Zarqawi, there does seem to be a lot of conflicting accounts, there may actually be a number of people using this moniker.
[snip]
The more you look at this nice neat little package which has been provided for us since day one, with the Jordanian government immediately stepping forward, and everyone revealing their intelligence sources, that's the moment you know to open your eyes wide, and listen very carefully. Far from being a coordinated attack it looks more and more like they just got lucky even with the help of Al Qaeda, and were able to call in a couple of planes which were on routine patrol. Beware of nice neat little packages when examining such counterintelligence scenarios.

And last but not least, Furillo:

I don't believe a word of what Gen. Casey Said.
Zarqawi never existed. At least the terrorist one.
It's all propoganda. Since when does a sullen Gen. Casey have to confirm what some already know is to use to press to brainwash and bombard us with dogma and story telling.

You see folks? al-Zarqawi never existed. Nick Berg sawed off his own head. That half-hour propaganda video so beloved by CNN's Jamie McIntyre was likely filmed on the same set as the faked Apollo moon landings. It all fits… at least when you're having fits.

Sadly, Jeralyn Merritt and her posters are not that atypical of the average "netroots progressive" that feel that our present U.S. government is the single greatest source of evil on this planet, and that terrorists such as Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and Osama bin Laden are just props created by President Bush "to further the neocon agenda."

Can you imagine the looks they would have received in World War II?

I wonder what would have happened to people of this ilk during World War II as they tried to tell other Americans of a conspiracy cooked up by FDR to make his friends in the military-industrial complex filthy rich by creating a pawn called Benito Mussolini. Mussolini of course didn't really exist, since they never did find conclusive enough proof that the body recovered after he was reported killed was really a fascist dictator at all.

Back then, they'd be off to a rubber-padded room for electroshock treatments. Today, they run for office as Democrats.

Merritt and her fellow partisans ask us to believe their current insanity is a self-evident truth. Even the release of the autopsy showing al-Zarqawi was killed by the blast overpressure of the bombs will not be enough to convince them.

Based upon their easy dismissal of al-Zarqawi as a fictional character, one can only assume that from their enlightened perspective, Osama bin Laden is but a figment of our imagination as well.

Silly, silly us.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 12:09 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

The Saddam Dossier

Allow me to crow a bit this morning, as I'm extremely proud of and happy for Ray Robinson, who comments occasionally here at Confederate Yankee and helped me out immensely with his technical expertise in a series of posts debunking the "white phosphorus is a chemical weapon" myth of last November.

Ray went on to establish his own blog in March, and now has a new column at FoxNews.com, called "The Saddam Dossier."

What does Fox News plan to accomplish with this series?

Was Saddam Hussein a security threat to the United States? Did the Iraqi dictator have connections to Al Qaeda or other terrorist ties? What happened to the weapons of mass destruction everyone believed were in his possession? Did Saddam move them? Did they ever exist?
All of those questions have been dogging President George W. Bush and his administration since the start of the Iraq war. Politicians and respected U.S. military and intelligence officials have weighed in publicly on both sides of the debate, but until recently the general public has had little of the information necessary to make a fully informed decision on its own.
But that is changing.
The U.S. government seized thousands of classified Iraqi government papers when Saddam's regime was toppled, and Washington recently released a trove of these documents on the Pentagon's Foreign Military Studies Office Web site.
The documents, many in Arabic and with no accompanying translation, provide multiple insights into events inside pre-war Iraq. The dossier, however, is huge and disorganized. Digging out its secrets is a laborious task — one that the U.S. government decided to leave to others.
[snip]
With a small cadre of independent translators to support his efforts, Robison will now translate and analyze scores of the unexplored trove of documents from Saddam's regime in a FOXNews.com exclusive series: The Saddam Dossier.
In addition to translation, Robison will provide analysis based upon his work for the Iraq Survey Group and his military operations research experience. On occasion, he or a translator will remark in the translation itself for clarity, but will maintain the integrity of the document. All of their work will be linked online to the original Arabic texts, stored on the Foreign Military Studies Office Web site. Robison's analysis, however, is based on his own opinions.
"It is my belief," Robison says, "that those who just want to know the truth will find new and shocking information in these documents and may even change their beliefs about the reasons for the war."

The first installment of "The Saddam Dossier," Terror Links to Saddam's Inner Circle is online, and examines documents that connect Saddam's Iraq with the Taliban.

The much vaunted liberal cry of "Bush Lied, People Died" has never been so threatened.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 08:38 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

Thanks for Catching Up...

CNN, today:

Thousands of pounds of armor added to military Humvees, intended to protect U.S. troops, have made the vehicles more likely to roll over, killing and injuring soldiers in Iraq, a newspaper reported.
"I believe the up-armoring has caused more deaths than it has saved," said Scott Badenoch, a former Delphi Corp. vehicle dynamics expert told the Dayton Daily News for Sunday editions.
Since the start of the war, Congress and the Army have spent tens of millions of dollars on armor for the Humvee fleet in Iraq, the newspaper reported Sunday.
That armor -- much of it installed on the M1114 Humvee built at the Armor Holdings Inc. plant north of Cincinnati, Ohio -- has shielded soldiers from harm.
But serious accidents involving the M1114 have increased as the war has progressed, and the accidents were much more likely to be rollovers than those of other Humvee models, the newspaper reported.

USA Today, March 2005:

The Army is baffled by a recent spate of vehicle accidents in Iraq — many of them rollovers involving armored Humvees — that have claimed more than a dozen lives this year.
One key concern: Soldiers lack the skills to handle the heavier Humvees and are losing control as they speed through ambush areas before insurgents detonate roadside bombs.
"An individual feels that if he goes faster he can avoid that threat," says Lt. Col. Michael Tarutani, an Army official tracking the accidents. "But now he's exceeded, first, maybe his capabilities, and then maybe the speed for those conditions."
In the past four full months, the numbers of serious vehicle accidents and fatalities in Iraq have more than doubled from the previous four months, records provided by the Army show. In the first 10 weeks of this year, 14 soldiers were killed in accidents involving Humvees or trucks. All but one died in rollovers. If that rate continues, the number of soldiers killed in such accidents this year would be almost double the 39 soldiers killed in 2004. Detailed records involving Marines were not available.

Perhaps recycling a year-old article is "news" for CNN, but their story is well-known to anyone who has been following this war... or any other.

Just as with the human body armor that some have been pushing, there is a significant trade-off, because added armor decreases mobility and flexibility. More armor does not always mean more survivability, as the heavier armor slows soldiers down and puts them in the enemy's kill zone longer. Firepower almost always ends up defeating a slowed, moderately-armored enemy.

It's a formula that has held for hundreds of years, at least since the Battle of Crécy in 1346.

I'm glad CNN is finally catching up.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 06:17 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

June 11, 2006

Memorium

A soldier remembered at Blue Crab Boulevard.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 09:30 PM | Comments (0) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

My Lai, or My Lie?

Perhaps this should not be surprising, but Marine Staff Sgt. Frank D. Wuterich gives a version of events exactly opposite of those described by "cold-blooded" Congressman John Murtha and the Sunni residents of Haditha in a story by Josh White in the Washington Post:

Staff Sgt. Frank D. Wuterich, 26, told his attorney that several civilians were killed Nov. 19 when his squad went after insurgents who were firing at them from inside a house. The Marine said there was no vengeful massacre, but he described a house-to-house hunt that went tragically awry in the middle of a chaotic battlefield.
[snip]
Wuterich's version contradicts that of the Iraqis, who described a massacre of men, women and children after a bomb killed a Marine. Haditha residents have said that innocent civilians were executed, that some begged for their lives before being shot and that children were killed indiscriminately.
Wuterich told his attorney in initial interviews over nearly 12 hours last week that the shootings were the unfortunate result of a methodical sweep for enemies in a firefight. Two attorneys for other Marines involved in the incident said Wuterich's account is consistent with those they had heard from their clients.

Other comments in the Post article also seem to contradict claims of a cover-up levied by some.

I will not comment at this time to say which version of events is correct, but I'll note that Dan Riehl captured last week the various inconsistencies in the media-reported statements of Haditha residents, which makes this appear to be anything other than a cut-and-dried case as the media so eagerly reported it at first. I'll also note that radio traffic and reputed surveillance video from drone aircraft in the area can provide nearly irrefutable evidence supportingor disproving the facts as presented by some in this case. As Rick Moran notes at Right Wing Nut House:

One side or the other is lying in spectacular fashion.
And not just little inconsistencies in eyewitness testimony that one would expect in a war zone either. There are extremely disturbing indications that press reports detailing eyewitness accounts have failed to reconcile what Iraqis in Haditha were telling them with other known facts that were either conveniently left out or ignored altogether. There are also clear and unambiguous cases where Iraqi eyewitnesses have changed their stories 2, 3, and even more times.

It will be very interesting to see which side is lying, and what the repercussions of that lying will be.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 08:42 AM | Comments (19) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

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