Charging Rhino

DADT is gone...

2011-09-20T17:57:00.003-05:00

Somewhere in Heaven Maj. General Friedrich Wilhelm August Heinrich Ferdinand Baron von Steuben, the Drillmaster of Valley Forge, Chief of Staff and Inspector General of the Continental Army, author of “Regulations for the Order and Discipline of the Troops of the United States” is smiling.

The Way Forwards

2010-08-03T12:53:00.001-05:00

The GOP needs a leader who will hammer-home the new paradigm that it’s the Democrats who are the Party of Wall Street, Big Business and Big Labor. They don’t care about small business, the entrepreneur, or the worker at a small business who’s non-union. The Democrats don’t even care about farmers anymore…just Big Agro’ and their allies Big Pharma.

The GOP needs to drive a wedge between the struggling small business owner or small business executive who’s sweating-out a payroll…and the fat-cat Big Business exec. and his golden parachute and no sweat or sweat equity in the game. Between those who work hard and risk their own money, and the corporate-types on Wall Street, Big Business and Healthcare/Pharma who just play with “Other People’s Money” while protected by golden parachutes and government bailouts.

This has not been a failure of Capitalism…it’s been a failure of Casino Capitalization and the corrosive effects of Other People’s Money. It’s time for some GOP Leader to step forwards and deliver a “Cross of Gold” speech for the 21st-Century and revitalize Republicanism as a party of muscular activism as under Theodore Roosevelt…not as the “Party of No” against Obamaism.

The Nobel So-called Peace Prize

2009-10-09T10:00:00.002-05:00

Yet again the Nobel Committee has lowered the bar on what ACTIONS constitute "Peacemaking" in today's sorry world. While Pres. Obama shows promise, to nominate an elected official with little-to-no foreign policy experience or stature just TWELVE DAYS after his inauguration is both premature and exceedingly shallow.
And to cite Pres. Obama's June 4th, 2009 Cairo speech when the nominations closed in February 2009 demonstrates that the Committee chose Pres. Obama without actual deeds-on-the-ground, and then wrote the citation to fit.

"Out" on the PGA Tour?

2008-04-20T12:29:00.001-05:00

The PGA Tour has three major factors that would discourage a talented gay golfer from competing on-tour. One, there's a very outspoken and prominent fundementalist-evangelical Christainist movement within the PGA Tour locker room. And with professional golf being such a collegial-sport and business, I would think that any "out" golfer would have a real problem both with a large percentrage of the Tour and the sponsors.

Two, more-so than most professional sports the PGA Tour's wives and girlfriends are very prominent both on the Tour and in the TV broadcasts. There's always the "cute moment" on the 72nd hole where the Tour-member's greeted by the wive or girlfriend on TV, and during the Tour special events like the Ryder and President's Cup the wives and girlfriends are actually part of the official entourage with their matching get-ups and social activities. I imagine being the first male boyfriend in that gaggle of twelve bottle-blond "golf-wives".

The third is the lifestyle. While yes the PGA Tour and the junior tours visit exciting resorts, they're straight resorts not known for the gay visitors or exciting gay nightlife off-course. Plus there's no real privacy for even a closeted guy to either date or have a active relationship with someone. The entire Tour travels effectively as a group...using the same hotels, places to eat, and see each other 6-days a week sun-up to sun-down. Between the Tour-members, their caddies, the wives and girlfriends...and the PGA Tour business and TV broadcasting entourage...the rumor-mill would quickly "out" any gay carrying-ons.

...And then there's the sponsors. For a number of years there was quiet chatter about Justin Lenard until he got rather-publicly married a few years ago. His career didn't improve; but his endorsement deals certainly did. While the serial infidelities of a John Daly and his multiple marriages make him a golf-legend, the PGA and the endorsing sponsors equally fear a gay scandal like the misbehavior of CNN"s Richard Quest just this week. Especially in their Red-State, Republican TV markets.

I fear the unless a new, young towering talent like a Tiger Woods rises from the college-ranks...who was already "out" while in college...we're not going to see an out PGA Tour member. Someone with such protean-power and talent that some sponsor will take the gamble like Nike did on Tiger , and who's golf skills will frighten the bigots to keep a low profile just as they did for Tiger Woods.

2007-11-14T22:18:00.000-05:00

Character is like a tree and reputation like its shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing.

- Abraham Lincoln (1809 - 1865)

Why am I reluctant?

2007-11-14T22:10:00.000-05:00

I just spent the last 3-hours-plus going through the Log Cabin candidate-profiles, the Club for Growth's white papers, and looking at the actual candidates' sites for several of the front-running and second-tier candidates. In-part since I wanted to take a much closer-look at Rep. Paul, who Uncle Sully's been shilling-for. While I have some sympathies for Dr. Paul's "libertarian" views, his positions on both abortion and the use of the military and Iraq are just total no-starters here. Plus, there's the unelectability -factor. Tancredo and Huckabee's anti-abortion and just down-right anti-gay positions make them non-starters, and Romney's an opportunist and flop-flopper. Plus there's the still open-issue in my mind about his Mormonism vs. his conscience and the US Constitution.

That basically leaves me back at Rudy Giuliani. He's posted his Twelve Commitments on his website, with background statements on 11 of them. In going-through the bullet points in the backgrounders, I find that I can basically agree with just about all of them, and I can even live with his position on gay marriage if balanced by meaningful domestic partnership laws.

Yet I feel a general unease...I just don't trust the man...and I'm not sure why. It's the same feeling I have towards Dick Nixon or Frank Rizzo; they're all-right for 95% of the time...but watch out for the 5%, especially in the middle of the night. For some reason I have the mental image of a Pres. Giuliani wandering the halls of the White House late at-night...between crises...muttering to himself about perceived enemies in the fashion of the failed Nixon-presidency. He's whole persona's repellant, like a Mob boss or a long-time ward-healer on-the-make....and the take. I got the same "vibe" from Jim McGreevey when I'd run into him at functions back when he was my closeted-Governor; you just didn't want to shake his hand or be anywhere near him. "Danger! ...Danger, Will Robinson!"

Do you vote agenda, or character? Is electing St. Hillarybeast for 4 years safer(!!) than allowing ANY of the GOP-hopefuls near the Oval Office? I'd feel better if Newt Gingrich was running...or at-least was locked-in as Giuliani's Vice-Presidential running-mate.

It's late, and I need a drink,

Is LCR - National effective?

2007-07-11T22:17:00.000-05:00

It would help if the LCR-Natl’ had some money to spread around like a proper “special interest”….but that’s right, they’re broke and won’t tell anyone (including the general membership) the truth about it’s finances. No-one has yet explained where the “One-million-dollars” alledgedly spent by Patrick (the First) to defeat a Republican-candidate-and-sitting-President in the 2004 general election came from in the first-place. …Smart move.

And other than a e-newsletter and sponsoring upscale ski-parties and $1500-a-person “fly-ins” to Washington DC…what has LCR-Natl. been doing? Many of the local and state chapters have been busy getting G/L Republicans involved at the local-level, but there’s no sign of any Nationally-generated grassroots political operation, not any overt lobbying on the Hill or to the White House. Oh, that’s right…they don’t have any money to spread around….

And without some financial and organizational transparency, I’m reluctant to give at the “what-ever“-level without knowing where it’s going and who authorized the budget…and who’s auditing the books.

A Mormon President?

2007-06-11T22:30:00.000-05:00

I'm not supporting Romney for President, but not because of the Mormon past; I'm disconcerted by their Prophet and his theological authority over any faithful Mormon today and tomorrow. As a beliving Mormon and Mormon bishop, Romney does not answer to his own moral conscience; he answers to his Prophet. What pressures might a Prophet have over the decisions and actions of the President of the United States; who holds the powers of life and death over the entire planet via the Presidential "football", who is Commander-in-chief, and commands the full weight of the Federal Government. If the Prophet calls in the middle of the night, at what point does his Presidential oath to uphold the Constitution and protect the people of the United States conflict with his obedience to his Prophet over some moral, ethical or even apolcalypic crisis?
I want a President of the United States who owns and answers to his own conscience; not to his Prophet, his Holy Father, nor any any other failible third-person. The presidency is dfferent than any other elected-office in America, and requires special consideration of who has access to it's unique powers....

A First Step towards Reform

2007-05-21T16:49:00.001-05:00

It certainly makes sense to have some-reform of the familial-ties aspect of immigration. Does it really serve the public good that once one member of a family getts residency-status or citizenship that the ENTIRE CLAN gets first-dibs on the limited number of legal slots. I can understand spouses and children, and parents where the children are native-born; but why grandparents and aunts, uncles and fourth-cousins and THEIR children....over meritorious candidates with needed skills and/or capital. As long as it doesn't turn into a education-derby. If we needed murses we allow more nurses, if we need more field-laborers allow more field-laborers. But just because the applicant has a Ph.D. in Compartive Literature or Bio-Sciences does mean he gets in line-first....especially if we need construction workers, etc...

And frankly, most "professional" credentials from foreign countries at face-value are NOT comparible to US credentials and work experience. In my own profession, there are maybe 5 or 10 international schools who's graduates are one-to-one with those of our graduate schools....and we in-the-profession still requier years of apprenticeship and testing before licensure. Our major "immigration" problem is getting/incouraging the international students in our graduate programs to return home afterwards...like they agreed-to in their visa-applications. Too-many just stay afterwards, work here, then claim "irreplaceable skillls" after-the-fact.

I'm not sure I fully-understand the part where they have to return to their country-of-origin to fill-out their paperwork. If they will already have probationary-status here, and they don't have to permanently go home and wait; why go home to do the application? I could understand if they had to go to their consulate; that would make the home-country feel some of our pain as they attempt to cope with the flood at their consulates' gates demanding consular-services help with the forms.

The Lion

2006-11-30T14:18:00.000-05:00

Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill
Born: 30 November 1874
Died: 24 January 1965

Judgment Day

2006-11-06T12:20:00.000-05:00

The Charging Rhino endorsements...

U.S. Senate for New Jersey; Tom Kean, Jr.(R)
U.S. Fourth District for New Jersey; Carol Gay (D)

Frankly both are anti-incumbent votes rather than stirring-support for the challengers. Sen. Menendez (d) appears to be yet-another ethically-challenged figure in the fine-tradition of NJ elected-officials, and is a mainstream liberal democrat. Kean will safely represent NJ's interests and follow the lead of the Republican leadership.

My pick for Congress is much more of a challenge. Rep. Chris Smith (R) has been the incumbent for over 23-years and it's time for a change. He traditionally has only one position, anti-abortion, and is quite flexible on all-others even to the detriment of the District; he's never worked in the private-sector; and I'm tried of looking at him. He just hasn't EARNED my vote. Carol Gay on the other hand, has all the requisite Bolshie credentials of a real-loser; unionist organizer of public workers, NARAL, the Unions and every anti-Iraq war group. I'm sure she'll get along fine with Madame Pelosi and the gentlewomen Representative of the People's Republic of Berkeley. We can also easily get rid of her in two years, and get a sensible Republican candidate to represent the 4th-District of whom we can respect.

If you can'st vote for 'em, vote aginst 'em.

The local County wide races I support the Republicans for the open County Commissioner and County Surrogate positions.

For the local ballot questions;
1. I see little point to redirect gas-tax monies to "mass-transit" when we don't have any effective mass-transit here in the county other than the Riverline Light-rail which is a separate agency. Running buses through an expanding suburban-zone that lacks a local hub is pointless and expensive based on passenger-mile-ridership analysis; it's the road maintenance and new town-center by-passes that are needed.
2. I support the expansion of the Green-acres and Farmland Preservation programs at their current funding-levels for another 5 years.
3. I reject attempts to plaster-over budget shortfalls by "dedicated tax" redirection in-general.

UPDATE: Charging Rhino supports and thanks Mike Fitzpatrick, PA-10th, (R).
I was going to mention this after the election, but on-reflection I thought it might be more meaningfully today....

Last night I attended a LCR gathering for Rep. Mike Fitzpatrick, PA 10th (R) in New Hope PA. For those who don't know the East Coast, New Hope is an artists' colony and gay-watering hole in Bucks County on the Delaware River, that's been around as long as Provincetown located between NYC and Philly. The attendees where a mixed group of LCR locals from Bucks, and LCR members and friends from NYC, New Jersey and Philly....probably 50-60 over-all.

Several things were striking to myself who's somewhat of an outsider to PA politics being as I'm from NJ. (Although New Hope is home of my "local" gay bar.) One was the politics-as-usual attendance of the event by not only the local incumbent Republican Congressman, but also the Republicans candidates for State Assembly and the State Senate, along with the Mayor of New Hope. The Congressman was there about 45-mins, and the two State candidates were in-attendance for over an hour-and -a half.

...On the last Sunday night before the election all three made the time to attend a "gay" political gathering...and the discussions and speeches were on "Republican" themes of governance and responsibility...not "gay" issues. The sheer ordinariness of the entire event was heartwarming...it was "politics", not pandering. About how principled bi-partisan action works, and governance-issues.

Also in attendance were Patrick Sammon, LCR's new Exec. Vice President who I was very impressed-by; Jeff Cook, LCR's former Field Director who unsuccessfully challenged in the Primaries for a Congressional-seat in Upstate New York; and several of the officers from both the NYC and Philly LCR-chapters.

Rep. Mark Foley (Fl.-R) Resigns...

2006-09-30T19:51:00.000-05:00

I would respectfully suggest that the real problem is not the "age difference", but the "abuse of authority". This is the same reason that teacher-student, supervisor-subordinate, doctor-patient, priest-penitant and officer-enlisted relationships are considered inapproprite....regardless of "touching" or comsumation. If the Representative were some 50-plus businessman chatting-up your 16-yo neighbor's son, the lot of you would not be calling for his head...there would just be a lot of "tsk, tsk'ing" and social-frowning.

I see the resignation as an acknowledgement of personal shame for inappropriate behavior and exposed hypocrisy, not criminality...so far. And I think the cry of "Pedophile !!" is yet-unjustified and politically-motivated.

What's unfortunate for the G/L community is that "we" have taken yet-another P.R. black-eye courtesy of one of elders inability to keep his (typing) hands to himself. The general public will just assume that he's been deflowering young lads on his House office-coach, and mutter "...another closet-case fag, they are ALL like that".

Time for "Roman" Methods?

2006-09-17T23:14:00.000-05:00

Just as a question for clarification; are there any uniformed-members of the US military in “enemy hands” at-present? As I remember, the last two were castrated, gutted like sheep, their corpses multilated AND left in the Sun booby-trapped. Some independent contractors and press-members have been “kidnapped” then killed or released/ramsomed; but is the prospect of a uniformed-trooper being “captured” and treated as a recognised POW a realistic operational-outcome in this asymetric GWOT? I just don’t see the “…but their captors will be war-criminal if they are abused” as being much of a safe-guard either-way.

Or, does asymetric warfare require a return to “Roman” methods? Raise the “cost” of abusing captive uniformed US soldiers so high that the society that shields and supports the terrorists are unwilling to pay for the terrorists misdeeds. What if after the sight of US troopers dead and naked bodies being descecrated in Mogodishu heavy armor (yes we didn’t have any there, grrr….) sealed a radius of several-hundred meters and killed every man, woman, child, goat and dog withing the perimeter; and bulldozed the entire zone into a circular level-plain of barren dirt. And did so the next incident, and the next. Would the word get out that it pays to at-least attempt to follow the Laws of War when the Leviathan’s pissed?

Is there a point where being bound by the Law is pointless when dealing with outlaws? Laws are social-contracts and social-constructs with the implication that both/all sides are bound by them. The very term “outlaw” has it’s origins in their own actions placing them outside the bounds of the law…not that they were protected by the Law they broke. Traditionally, an outlaw could be slain out-of-hand, be denied hearth and fire…and even those who helped them be tried and punished. And before you say that doesn’t exist anymore…look at the rights forfeited by bail-skippers in the US ever day.

While it is a noble ideal to protect our uniformed-troops, is an oversensitivity to hypothetical situation in the Future worth ham-stringing reasonable protective and defensive actions now? We unfortunately are in an era of asymetry, not reciprocity. And the likelihood is that will be the face of armed conflict for this century; not war with China, nor maybe even the Iranian Revolutionary Guard. It’s going to be Middle-eastern religious upheavals, tribalism, and regional warlords in Africa. And just maybe there’s no room left for the Golden Rule anymore?

2486 Years Ago Today

2006-08-11T12:36:00.000-05:00

"Go, stranger, and tell the Spartans
That we lie here in obedience to their laws."

On August 11, 480BC the Battle of Thermopylae ended.

Normandy, 1944

2006-06-06T16:27:00.000-05:00

British Prime Minister Winston Churchill addresses the House of Commons on June 6, 1944, regarding the D-Day invasion of France:

" I have also to announce to the House that during the night and the early hours of this morning the first of the series of landings in force upon the European Continent has taken place. In this case the liberating assault fell upon the coast of France. An immense armada of upwards of 4,000 ships, together with several thousand smaller craft, crossed the Channel. Massed airborne landings have been successfully effected behind the enemy lines, and landings on the beaches are proceeding at various points at the present time. The fire of the shore batteries has been largely quelled. The obstacles that were constructed in the sea have not proved so difficult as we apprehended. The Anglo-American Allies are sustained by about 11,000 frontline aircraft, which can be drawn upon as may be needed for the purposes of the battle. I cannot, of course, commit myself to any particular details.
" Reports are coming in in rapid succession. So far the Commanders who are engaged report that everything is proceeding according to plan. And what a plan! This vast operation is undoubtedly the most complicated and difficult that has ever taken place. It involves tides, wind, waves, visibility, both from the air and from the sea standpoint, and the combined employment of land, air, and sea forces in the highest degree of intimacy and in contact with conditions which could not and cannot be fully foreseen.
" There are already hopes that actual tactical surprise has been attained, and we hope to furnish the enemy with a succession of surprises during the course of the fighting. The battle that has now begun will grow constantly in scale and in intensity for many weeks to come, and I shall not attempt to speculate upon its course. This I may say, however. Complete unity prevails throughout the Allied Armies. There is a brotherhood in arms between us and our friends of the United States. There is complete confidence in the supreme commander, General Eisenhower, and his lieutenants, and also in the commander of the Expeditionary Force, General Montgomery. The ardour and spirit of the troops, as I saw myself, embarking in these last few days was splendid to witness. Nothing that equipment, science or forethought could do has been neglected, and the whole process of opening this great new front will be pursued with the utmost resolution both by the commanders and by the United States and British Governments whom they serve.
" I have been at the centres where the latest information is received, and I can state to the House that this operation is proceeding in a thoroughly satisfactory manner. Many dangers and difficulties which at this time last night appeared extremely formidable are behind us. The passage of the sea has been made with far less loss than we apprehended. The resistance of the batteries has been greatly weakened by the bombing of the Air Force, and the superior bombardment of our ships quickly reduced their fire to dimensions which did not affect the problem. The landings of the troops on a broad front, both British and American - Allied troops, I will not give lists of all the different nationalities they represent - but the landings along the whole front have been effective, and our troops have penetrated, in some cases, several miles inland. Lodgments exist on a broad front.
" The outstanding feature has been the landings of the airborne troops, which were on a scale far larger than anything that has been seen so far in the world. These landings took place with extremely little loss and with great accuracy. Particular anxiety attached to them, because the conditions of light prevailing in the very limited period of the dawn - just before the dawn - the conditions of visibility made all the difference. Indeed, there might have been something happening at the last minute which would have prevent airborne troops from playing their part. A very great degree of risk had to be taken in respect of the weather.
" But General Eisenhower's courage is equal to all the necessary decisions that have to be taken in these extremely difficult and uncontrollable matters. The airborne troops are well established, and the landings and the follow-ups are all proceeding with much less loss - very much less - than we expected. Fighting is in progress at various points. We captured various bridges which were of importance, and which were not blown up. But all this, although a very valuable first step - a vital and essential first step - gives no indication of what may be the course of the battle in the next days and weeks, because the enemy will now probably endeavour to concentrate on this area, and in the event heavy fighting will soon begin and will continue without end, as we can push troops in and he can bring other troops up.
" It is, therefore, a most serious time that we enter upon. Thank God, we enter upon it, with our great Allies all in good heart and all in good friendship."

Known but to God...

2006-05-28T19:19:00.000-05:00

....Memorial Day 2006

Congressional Office Cleaning Services

2006-05-24T22:23:00.000-05:00

I’m wondering...since I’m politically-paranoid...if this kerfuffle isn’t actually a public shot-across-the-bow of Congress as a warning to the Democratically-controlled House launching into the swarm of “investigations” to harass the Bush administration in it’s final two years. Pelosi and Conyers have been making less-the-veiled threats to call “everyone” in on to the carpet and investigate them for any real or imagined wrongdoings. The clear message is “start looking through our trash, and we’ll send the FBI to start sifting through your's”.

Look for lot’s of sealed cardboard boxes to removed quietly between now and the Memorial Day weekend from congressional offices on both sides the Hill, and back home in the districts, as the staffs sanitize their files and ship the “offending” documents off to the same discreet storage facility that Hillary Clinton’s law firm used for her billing records. I forsee a sudden-shortage of cardboard storage boxes and packing tape at the local Beltway Staples store.

If Reform means Changes-made...

2006-05-15T20:20:00.000-05:00

Six thousand National Guardsmen to the border. While I disagree with the concept of using troops; if you are going to use the military you need at-least two to three divisions (20-25,000 troops each) of regulars for atleast 6-years to do the job. The Guard are supposed to be part-time troops and their continued use strains the economy and their families; whereas regular troops have to be on-duty somewhere anyway. And to avoid unfortunate shootings like Enriques Valenzuela (the teenaged goatherd "accidentaly" shoot by Guardsmen) the troops need to be re-trained for border conditions and there long-enough to know their sector. And they need to be there long-enough to establish their military infastructure and to block-off and disrupt the entire culture of trans-border people and drug smuggling.

What I didn't hear was any strong message to the business community that it will be held to account for their use of undocumented or irregularily-documented workers....now, or in the future. As long as those jobs are there and available to the undocumented, people will cross the borders. While Bush called for 6,000 border gaurds, he did not call for greater employment enforcement. I reject the idea of knocks in the middle of the night by enforcement officers to immigrants' homes; but more than a few medium to large corporations' officers could stand a few days or weeks of inquisition over their hiring of illegals...and where the actual taxes-owed went. Just as the bootleggers were busted for taxes rather than booze; get the employers for tax-fraud and false reporting even if you can't for "irregular hiring"-practices. Businesses' with more than 10 or 15 employees could be audited by a number of governmental agencies to determine if they have been obeying the employment laws that have been on the books for over 15-years.

As part of the overall controversy, there's also the guest-workers vs. low-skilled visas vs. the highly skilled visa-quotas. From a pragmatic standpoint, do we “need” the highly-skilled as-much or more than the low-skills immigrants? In my own profession, the graduates schools are generally 50% or more foreign-nationals on student-visas…all hoping that their “unique” skills will allow them to stay in America while those same limited seats could have been filled by equally-talented and qualified US citizens who were passed-over. One reasons being that the foreign-nationals are willing to pay full-freight without scholarships and expensive grants. And while they were supposed to return home afterwards, the vast majority find ways to stay as “highly-skilled” immigrants through work-contacts made while in school.

Yet at the same time, disproportionally-few of those foreign-nationals actually stay in the profession and actually become licensed professinals. But by that time, the have achieved green-card status and are now free to pursue other lines of employment outside of the profession…yet their presence in the schools as visa-students denied talented US citizens the opportunity to enter the profession. And at the same time, almost every other nation forbids me from practicing in their country, reserving that “right” for their native-born.

Form a practical-basis, it probably does make sense to loosen the rules for those who have been here 10 to 20 years already simply as a recognition of reality. They are here and have assimulated already. But I would still support tighter limits on allowing student-visas and stricter enforcement that they return home afterwards…especially if the claim is that we need foreign-stuydents to spread our international influence. A foreign student who does not return home does not contribute to spreading American culture and influence at home, he’s here and possibly blocking the career-path of a US citizen, or even a green-card immigrant.

2006-05-11T14:32:00.000-05:00

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/thecheckout/2006/05/bitter_words_over_a_sweet_ingr.html#comments

The "Fair Tax"

2006-05-05T18:25:00.000-05:00

From what I've read, it doesn't seen such a bargain for many small business-owners. Plus, the implementation would immensely complicate thousands of historically-generated comparative transactions pre-tax vs, post-tax. As an Architect, most financial-transactions and business decisions are based on tax-free numbers as most expenses and purchases involve either tax-free capital-improvement expenses or professional services; you pay tax on your profits or capital gains. And I have yet successfully followed the complicated gymnastics as they try to explain the "fairness" of shifting from capital gains on the sale-end of the transaction to a sales-tax on frontfron-end of the transaction without driving-up the purchase-price of real estate to the point where home-construction grinds to a halt. An home construction is a huge segment of the construction-sector of the domestic economy, and one of the few that can't be out-sourced or supplanted by "foreign competition".

The numbers that I ran would suggest that it would double the cost of doing business in a business environment where I would not be able to double my fees to compensate for all the taxes. Plus adding a tax-collection burden that currently doesnÂt exist for a professional services provider.

If they can not clearly and rationally explain the financial-transition from tax-shielding through improvementsovements and capitaaccrual accural to a front-loaded sales tax on the Middle-Class' largest investment and expense...their home...they can't "sell" the fair tax. So-far, I think they have failed.

Already fading into obscurity....

2006-05-04T10:31:00.000-05:00

Personally, I would have been more satified if Zacarias Moussaoui had been drawn-and-quartered in the ancient traditional-manner after a short hearing in October 2001, or early 2002.

But the jury's decision denies the Islamofasists a Martyr; and he'll eventually be forgotten in his fluorescent-lit hole, his eventual death an historical footnote in an ill-remembered nightmare long-faded in history.

First Anti-matter Drive, Now Cloaking...

2006-05-03T14:33:00.000-05:00

Activate Cloaking Device.

..." The complex mathematical phenomenon outlined by Milton and Nicorovici closes the gap a little between science fiction and fact. The phenomenon is analogous to a tuning fork (which rings with a single sound frequency) being placed next to a wine glass. The wine glass will start to ring with the same frequency; it resonates. The cloaking effect would exploit a resonance with light waves rather than sound waves. The concept is at such a primitive stage that the scientists talk only at the moment of being able to cloak particles of dust - not spaceships."...

Ugly Xenophia?

2006-05-03T11:44:00.000-05:00

What started as an issue of national security and national sovereignty is slowly morphing into an ugly campaign of xenophobia. To boycott Mexican goods and culture on Cinco de Mayo is xenophobia. What’s the next stage? A Kulturkampf against TexMex…”use Ketchup, not Salsa”?

There are 12-million to twenty-million people with families undocumented or with false papers in the United States. Ten-percent of the citizens of Republic Mexico are here in the United States legally or illegally. The tens of millions of Mexican-heritage live here legally as immigrants or citizens have relatives south of the Border. Hundreds of thousands of the illegally-resident Mexicans have US citizen-children or spouses. You can’t just “build a wall” right through the heart of this trans-border society. Nor can you “just” deport them. The last Western society that attempted to round-up 12-million “outsiders” from within it’s own borders and culture ended-badly. Are we to become yet another enlightened-yet-doomed culture with dreaded “knocks on the door in the middle of the night” and “ihre Ausweis, bitte”?

And it’s not just the Mexicans and the Salvadorans. There are 500,000 Chinese here illegally, including tens of thousands that have been found but China refuses to repatriate. Here in New Jersey, the Mexicans account for approx. 75,000 of the 355,000 undocumented or “irregular” residents. Shall we round-up the Canadians, the Irish next?

If the issue is natinal security, then we shoud concentrate on regularizing their status, not deportations and crushing fines. The greatest danger to our lives and way-of-life are the Islamofascists, not the stoop-laborers and the office-cleaners. If the way to enter the Unitesd States as a guest-worker or potential immigrant were easy and efficient; then they would not have to cross the borders in the middle of the Arizona desert. Or risk death by suffication in trans-Pacific shipping containers.

We must find the way to get them registered, biometrically-ID’d, on the tax-rolls, and licensed and insured. If they have legal status, it eliminates the means by which they are exploited…and eliminates the means by which their employers unfairly compete economically. And once the system is in-place, we shoud have a strict, vigorous campaign against the employers who contine to use “illegal workers” outside of the system.

The Irony of "Progress"

2006-04-27T17:23:00.000-05:00

A hundred years ago, Americans could use typewriters, the telegraph and primitive telephones. Today, Americans have computers, the Internet, cell phones, satellite television and radio, DVDs, iPods, email and instant messaging.
A hundred years ago, Americans could have personal vehicles powered by internal combustion engines running on gasoline. Today, Americans can have personal vehicles powered by internal combustion engines running on gasoline.

You see the problem?

Clifford May actually understates the irony of the situation consumers face.

One-hundred years ago America motorists had the choice of gasoline, electric or steam-powered cars; each with their own advantages and drawbacks. In 1906, it was far from clear that gasoline-powered cars were the solution.
Many ladies had battery-powered landelets who's short-range offset their practicality and comvenience for around-town driving. A chauffeur was not required to prime and crank the balky gasoline-engine, nor spend 20-40 minutes firing-up a gasoline or kerosene-burning steamer. A lady could drive herself and her friends, and with out the noxious fumes, noise or vibrations of a gasoline car...all at a moments-notice.
For sheer-power, steam-cars had the advantage; it was a proven technology and was considered by many as more-reliable than gasoline, and was much quieter and smoother-running. And steam-cars were generally faster and had more hill-climbing power than most cars. Ask Jay Leno, he has the unofficial record for "oldest car"-speeding ticket; 76-mph on the LA freeway in his 1906 Stanley Steamer roadster. The Taft White House preferred White steam-powered touring cars over gasoline ones for Presidential-use.
It was not until Kettering's development of the battery-powered electric starter for Cadillac that gasoline-power finally overshadowed the other options at the time. It's not that the choices haven't changed in 100-years, it's that they have narrowed

$1,000,000 of LCR-Natl. Fertilizer Wasted....

2006-04-26T21:50:00.000-05:00

Regardless of “where” the money came from, it makes me ill over how much grassroots organizational development could have been accomplished with “that” million-dollars. There are still a number of states that STILL do not have LCR Chapters up-and-running. And a considerable number of metropolitan regions with large-enough gay populations for LCR Chapters in their own right that still don't have functioning Chapters. Contrary to the fantasies of the both the Left and the Right, there are gay Republicans in every state town and county in this Nation. In an era of one-billion-dollar Presidential races…think I’m exaggerating, look at St. Hillarybeast’s potential 2008 war-chest…a million-dollars doesn’t go very far in “buying friends” on the Hill anymore. But that same million-dollars could have been the fertilizer that brought budding gay Republicans out of their “political closets”.

If the LCR is to be more than a rationale for Patrick’s being invited to posh black-tie Beltway parties, the LCR should be concentrating on it’s grassroots…rather than anxiously-being a fellow-traveler with the Democratic Party’s zombie-Gay Rights/Abortion Rights thralls; the HCR, the Victory Fund, and the NGLTF. Personally I fervently believe that a partisan G/L political organizations shoud be supportive the the politically-minded partisan G/L members of the community, and not the “gay issues”. A “gay Republican” organizations shoudl be seeking-out and supporting “gay Republicans”, not gay issues. There are plenty of effectual and ineffectual “issue-oriented” gay organizations out-there already.

Flight 93 Memorial ...or Necropolis?

2006-04-25T12:45:00.000-05:00

Kitty Hawk Visitors Center

$60 milllion and 1200-acres for a plane-crash memorial?? That nearly a 1/4th the acreage of the entire Gettysburg Battlefield site's 5600-acres. The Kitty Hawk National Site has 200-acres, and a nice educational-center and gift shop that cost maybe 2-million-dollars. I fail to see ANY REASON that Flight 93 needs anything even that elaborate. In-fact, anything more than the approx. 40-acres of the actual crash-site from the woods to the road, with a nice 15-ft granite plinth and a graveled walkway, is magalomania and narcissism.

In Intriguing Clarification

2006-04-19T10:22:00.000-05:00

“Wilsonians believe America must make the world safe for liberty. Hamiltonians believe America must make the world safe for commerce. Jeffersonians fear that both of these crusades threaten liberty at home. And Jacksonians believe in destroying America's enemies and defending America 's sovereignty, no matter what the rest of the world thinks.”

--Peter Beinart in the New Republic

2006-04-18T17:40:00.000-05:00

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/exploration/mmb/antimatter_spaceship.html

http://science.howstuffworks.com/antimatter.htm

Ebb Tide for the GOP

2006-04-18T11:31:00.000-05:00

If you liked Clinton-I, you’ll love Clinton-II. …All hail St. Hillarybeast!!

The “popular” sentiment amongst the Republicans out here in East Coast “Blue-land” is a combination of resignation and disgust at the current congressional AND White House-Pentagon leadership. Older centrists like my own parents…who still think the Democrats are “idealess” and “gutless”…feel so betrayed by the GOP that they’re now saying “throw the bums out at any-cost”. The current GOP leadership inside the Beltway has squandered the Victory of ‘94, and the Reagan Legacy;

- Out of control pork-fest have ballooned the Federal Budget.
- Afghanistan is not improving.
- Iraq has been downhill ever-since the wide-spread looting, and the casualty-rates are still “high”.
- Katrina was a fundemental cock-up on all-sides.
- Bush, Cheney, Rummey and Condi have lost their personal credibility after WMDs, Iraq and Iran.

Even the persciption drug boondoggle hasn’t delivered any price relief, just serial comparisons when people gather about how they’re getting “screwed”. And every trip to the gas station delivers a real-time message about “how well” the war is going…$2.85 for regular, $2.95 for premium.

Worse, many out-here are viewing the entire “immigration reform” non-debate as a political side-show ineffectually-staged to distract public attention from Rummey, Iraq and Iran. A number of the moderate “republican-voting” people I know…as compared to the GOP-deadenders…are willing to this-year hold their noses and vote for the Democrats; knowing full-well that they’ll get bait-n-switcher like Gov. Corzine and Sen. Menendez of NJ. They are just tired of the GOP and it’s “promises” that they see as just not squaring with political and historical reality. And they know what St. Hilllarybeast is, but they’ll vote for her anyway as a reaction against whomever the GOP nominates…especially if counter-balanced by someone like Bill Richardson. They might prefer it be “Richardson for President”, but they’ll vote for St. Hillarybeast anywa; …long before they vote for Romney-the-Mormon.

Let's be Practical, not Politically-Correct

2006-04-11T13:53:00.000-05:00

As a Teddy Roosevelt-Progressive Republican, I believe that the assimulated immigrant makes us stronger, not weaker. To felonize their “undocumented” status or to impose crushing fines is ridiculous, it would merely drive them deeper underground. If security is the rationale, then we need every illegal alien to be encourage, not discouraged, to register and regularize their status as guest worker or as potential citizen. It is reasonable that they should be required over a number of years to settle their current and back-taxes as part of their obligation as residents, but I woud oppose “extra” punitive penalties such as surcharges or a one-time fine.

It’s also impractical and onerous to require them to return to their “country-of-origin” to start their naturalization…they are already here…and more to the point their families and minor US-citizen children are here. Let the penalty be they have to wait 7 or 11 years, rather than the current 5 years for naturalization; but issue them green or blue-cards to they can properly be documented, be issued drivers’ licences (and insurance). And once they are documented, then guarantee that they can return home to visit, or reside back-home if a guest-worker without suddenly finding the door slammed behind them.

It is only by regularizing their status that we as-a-nation can avoid the trap of multi-culturalism that traps both Europe and Canada. The influx of economic immigrants from Mexica and Central America is a hydralic-inevitability….it is not a test of Sovereignty. If we want to insure that the official entre-ports are used, then it must be beneficial to use them. If you could get a guest-worker blue-card at a computer kiosk at any border-town bus terminal or airport where in a moment your retenal-scan and fingerprints are recorded, and you recieved a bio-metric ID with RFID chip; would you cross time-efficiently at US Customs or walk across the desert?

As for the US vs. Mexican and Central American flag-wavers; http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/10/AR2006041001798.html

To those who say build a wall; our government can barely manage to levee New Orleans, and you want a frontier barrier from Tijuana to El Paso to Brownsville? There’s 900 miles of river-frontier from El Paso to Brownsville, and 700 miles of mountains and desert the otherway to Tijuana. Summon the damned-shade of Erich Honeker, and ask him about barrier-walls and how to train the guards to shoot women and children.

Deport the 12-20 million undocumented? Order the barbed-wire and cattle cars for the camps; I’m sure there’s a few “good Germans” who remember how. “Patriots” to knock on the door in the middle of the night; to take children from their mothers and fathers; to search home-by-home and business-by-business.

Damn you who would make “Ihre Ausweis, Bitte!” an American virtue.

Immigration Reform?

2006-03-27T22:54:00.000-05:00

Considering the 12,000,000-figure, it's unreasonable to insist on their eventual return to Mexico, Central America, or elsewehere. The issue should be framed in the context of flushing-out every single, possible illegal and regularizing their status...then sort-out who can stay for eventual citizenship or "resident-status"...and who should be permanently booted-out. There should be two, twin goals...finding out who's actually here...and deciding if they can stay and under what circumstances. Get the list first; then weed-out the "undesirables" with criminal records. The best way to encourage those who actually wish to go home, even part-time, is to eliminate the "gotchas" and the risks of being barred "after" they voluntarily go home.

That the borders with Mexico and Canada will be "porous" is a fact we have to live with. For "security" purposes, it makes more sense to concentrate jointly on the Canadian and Mexican entreports to the rest of the world. If we are concerns about Islamofascist terrorists, stop them wherever they might set-foot in North or Central American soil...not the thousands of miles of American frontier. The Islamofascists can't walk on water, they have to fly into an airport's international terminal, or enter via ship's gangplank.

'Not a whole lot'a Politicking Going-on..."

2006-03-24T19:21:00.000-05:00

The following open-letter was faxed to Patrick Guerriero at Washington, D.C. Headquarters

24 Mar 2006

Patrick,
I've spent the last several days looking at the program for the LCR National Convention; looking at Expedia and Hotels.com for a better deal on rooms....and stewing. Looking at the options and mulling whether to skip Thursday-night, or just go Saturday, etc... And part of my problem is the Agenda...or rather what's not on the Agenda.

If your NOT a VIP or Trustee; there's the Thurs. Reception at the Capitol Club and the party later-on at Remington's....but if your not a VIP you're not invited to the intervening dinner. There's no open-attendance dinner or party Friday other than the Trustee's cocktail hour, and the Saturday evening party is for VIP's-only as-well. And Sunday morning is the brunch for those "available". As I read this, that means that the general LCR members will not have an opportunity for interacting with the VIP's at-all socially between Thursday's reception and Sunday's brunch. All of the opinion-shapers and decision-makers will be out-of-reach and out of earshot for the duration of the LCR Convention after Thursday afternoon's reception.

The official program bothers me in that it's the agenda of a gay-rights group, not a Republican electoral organization. On Friday we have;
A speech in Gay Marriage,
A speech on DADT, Keynote Speech by Bishop Robinson's speech on Faith and Sexual Orientation,
Followed by a panel discussion on religious intolerance.
and a "Gay Rights" panel discussion.

On Saturday is the LCR Convention;
GOP Women and the Big Tent,
"Insights" into 2006 ands 2008
And "immigration reform, the war on terror and the spending situation in Washington."

I don't see any "partisan politics" being committed...and I don't see any accountability of LCR-National to the general membership, nor the membership assembled. There's no General Membership Business Meeting scheduled, and I don't see any reports being made on the performance of the National, and I would have liked to hear some reports or comments from chapters on what was successful for them and not-successful. How they went about raising funds, soliciting both for their chapters functions, but also how they raised monies that where then channeled to their local, county and state GOP organizations. Your and I both know that the two things that can any political organization influence in either party is the ability to mobilize manpower and money.

Where's the grassroots organization and activism?? No small-group discussions? I see lots of "rights activism" but little "Republican political action"...and that worries me. Why no break-out seminars on getting involved in the partisan-political process. Presentations on why a gay Republican should run for local office. The How-to of organizing and growing chapters; or how to make a difference. I don't see anyone speaking on how their Chapter has made in-roads into the GOP establishment...nor on how chapters can synergistically aid other chapters. Where's the "politics"? How to orchestrate a mailing campaign. How to effectively lobby state legislators without waving huge bags of money. Where's the the real-world examples of how to be effective on a county GOP committee to gain influence with the Committee.

I have often publicly-stated that I think that St. Hillarybeast will successfully carry 2008, and the the LCR should concentrate the following 4 to 8 years on local, county and state elections...This means the courthouses, the statehouses and the halls of Congress. If the LCR is to gain political throw-weight for the big, national GOP Conventions, it has to earn that throw-weight at the local level. The tactics of 2004 were a mistake; that opinion and political fealities could be swayed through "marketing" and taking public postures.

I would like to attend, but I figure it's $1500.-minumum at attend; and do what? Other than sitting in the dark, I don't see the general membership of the LCR doing-much that counts; either at the Convention, nor once they get back home. At the moment, I think I'll just leave my options open.

Respectfully...

To Be Unarmed....

2006-03-16T19:50:00.000-05:00

David Kopel's essay on armed Jewish resistance in WW2 speaks to the ancient Machavelian quote" to be unarmed is to be dispised", and to many minority groups throughout the world including Darfor in the Sudan.

... "The kind of people who specialize in perpetrating genocide are bullies. How many bullies are willing to take a chance of getting shot by the intended victim? If potential massacre victims can plausibly threaten to harm at least a few of their attackers, then the calculus of the attackers may change dramatically.

Besides directly facilitating the ability of armed soldiers to control unarmed civilian genocide victims, there is a second way in which disarmament promotes genocide. As the American Founder Joel Barlow wrote, “Disarmament palsies the hand and brutalizes the mind: an habitual disuse of physical force totally destroys the moral; and men lose at once the power of protecting themselves, and of discerning the cause of their oppression.”[62]

If every family in the world owned a good-quality rifle and an ample supply of ammunition, genocide would be greatly reduced, and perhaps eliminated. [my emphasis] Not all countries with severe gun controls perpetrate genocide; but no genocidal governments allow any but the most politically reliable segments of the population to own guns. Because every government which in the last hundred years which has engaged in genocide has first disarmed its victim population, there is reason to believe that those governments see a relationship between gun control and the maintenance of the government’s murderous power. "...

- Perhaps the World would be a peaceful place if "to be armed" was recognised as a Universal Right.

007 in Training

2006-03-14T18:52:00.000-05:00

Action footage

"...Stuck on Stupid"

2006-03-01T20:35:00.000-05:00

It's disgraceful and insulting for Mayor Ray Nagin to impersonate Lt. Gen Russell Honore'...even during Mardi Gras. This man should be removed from office for incompetence...or mental imbalance. On-horseback, wearing four-stars and fake-ribbons....grrrrr.

Nagin owes the good General an apology, preferably in the traditional Japanese-manner.

Hat-tip to Sweetness-n-Light.

Make Room, Make Room!

2006-02-25T20:51:00.000-05:00

At 7:16 p.m. ET on Saturday, the population here on this good Earth hit 6.5 billion people, according to projections. Anyone for jello?

Standing with Denmark

2006-02-24T14:08:00.000-05:00

To whom is an apology owed?

2006-02-15T15:02:00.000-05:00

In my view, VP Cheney needs to apologize to;

1. Mr. Whittington and his immediate family.
2. His host, Ms. Armstrong, for the upset and publicity.
3. To GWB for the ruckus.
4. And to the Hunting-community at-large for his carelessness.

Beyond that, what is there to apologize publicly-for? You apologize to those "sinned against". The Public has not been betrayed nor affected. And the MSM Press be damned!

UPDATE:
..." A report by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department says there were 29 hunting accidents, four of them fatal, in Texas in 2004. Ten of the 29 were self-inflicted, so there were just 19 reported incidents in all of Texas in which a hunter accidentally shot someone else. According to the Department, there were 1,091,178 hunting licenses sold in Texas in 2004.

Measured another way, the report says there were 2.7 hunting accidents per 100,000 licenses in 2004. To give some perspective on that number, there were 12.6 accidents per 100,000 licenses in 1966, 6.0 in 1976, 5.8 in 1986, and 3.1 in 1996 -- a steady decline over the years. A press release accompanying the Texas report describes the typical accident as very much like the one involving Vice President Dick Cheney:

The primary reason for Texas hunting accidents remains swinging on game outside a safe zone of fire. This happens when a person points a firearm at another hunter while following a moving target, such as a flying game bird. Hunter education teaches people to set up safe zones of fire where a gun can be safely pointed whether the target is moving or stationary. "Some statistics seem to defy stereotypical expectations," the release continues: "Most accidents do not happen under the influence of alcohol or drugs. Most of the people involved had more than 10 years of hunting experience. Most were in light to open cover with clear visibility in good weather. "....

"Errr, next time. Duck!"

2006-02-14T12:53:00.000-05:00

Available here.

To be unarmed is to be dispised."

2006-02-07T14:38:00.000-05:00

I'm a firm believer in self-defense firearms, and the equivalent responsibility to know how and when to use them. Buy a handgun and a shotgun, and learn how to use them both. If your in a "shall issue"-state, get a CCW-permit...even if you never intend to carry concealed, just get one. If your in a moral-backwater where they restrict your handgun-ownership, definitely buy a shotgun. And not one of those fancy things...a 20-inch 12-gauge pump will do nicely...think "Linda Hamilton's biceps". Load with Forster slugs or self-defense rounds, you can't control where buckshot will fly indoors...or through a window.

If your not mechanically inclined; buy a 4-inch .357 revolver (Ruger or S&W) and load it with .38-special self-defense rounds. Your gun-store's saleman will know what you want, and ask him if you can use hollow-points for self-defense. If not, buy self-defense roundnose or "expanding full-metal jackets". You don't need anything bigger, and anything smaller will only annoy your attacker. If your a tech-geek, buy a .40mm or a .45ACP (Glock, Ruger, S&W, Para, Springfield Colt, or other reputable compact semi-auto pistol). Anything smaller than 9mm will only get you killed. Think small and pocketable...your not holding off an army...don't be seduced by big, shiny and heavy guns with 12-17 round magazines. By the point you actually need that 7th or 8th-shot; your in more trouble than you handle. Again, load 2-magazines with self-defensive rounds...one stays in the gun, the other stays in the drawer unless you've practiced re-loading in the dark. And have a nice, fully-charged metal flashlight handy at-home. Maglites are great, strong, and have a comforting "heft" to them.

My own opinion is that pocket derringers, hunting rifles and military-style rifles have no-role in self-defense...it's not what they're designed for. The only rifle that works for self defense is a cowboy-style 20-inch lever-action in a handgun-caliber, loaded with self-defense rounds.

...And always carry a good 3-inch pocket-knife. Everyone should carry a pocket-knife. Just a simple folding buck-knife with a quality locking-blade; mine's on my keyring. Even a knife might buy you the few seconds needed to safely flee.

UPDATE: I would only add three things;

“Fill your hand, you son of a bitch!”. - Rooster Cogburn.

“Well, punk. Do you feel lucky?” - Harry Callahan.

“From my cold, dead hands…” - Charlton Heston, Pres., NRA.

Boehner as GOP House Leader

2006-02-02T17:10:00.000-05:00

I’m afraid this dooms any meaningful attempts at real Congressional-behavior reform; and paves the way for St. Hillarybeast’s candidacyin 2008. Not that she’s assured the Presidency, but I think she’s a lock on the Democratic-nomination. And the GOP is going to lose the House in either 2006 or 2008. The GOP’s elected-leadership is too compromised and forsworn at this point to have any reformist legitimacy, despite the incompentence of the DNC and the Democratic Party Leadership.

The retention of Roy Blount as GOP House Whip merely reinforces that it will be business as usual in tha Halls of Congress...no meaningful reforms on lobbyists, no public shamings of pork, and no accountability for earmarks. While I’m not “shocked”, I am saddened that the elected-leadership of my party could be so parochial and blind to reality.

It’s a sad day. It’s merely a return to the ol' bipartisan “…everyone’s a crook but my guy, and he brings home the bacon to the District.”

Sen. Joe Lieberman (R-Conn.)?

2006-01-23T13:47:00.000-05:00

Austin Bay is reporting the Senator Joe Lieberman (D-Conn.) may run as an independent in the upcoming 2006 Senatorial-campaign season if he does not have the support of the Democratic-machine in the primaries.

It has also been suggested that Lieberman run as the Republican candidate in the Fall if he is rejected in the Democratic primary. Perhaps nothing would demonstrate the bankruptcy of Democratic electoral politics than having the Democratic Party's 2000 VP-candidate run as a Republican in 2006 for his Senate seat. While the Connecticut GOP might want to run some un-named "businessman", they might be wise in reconsidering and placing patriotism...and pragmatism...over ideological-purity and offer Lieberman their ballot-spot.

Responsible Lobbying Reform

2006-01-13T15:27:00.000-05:00

We support this proposal;

"An Appeal from Center-Right Bloggers,

"We are bloggers with boatloads of opinions, and none of us come close to agreeing with any other one of us all of the time. But we do agree on this: The new leadership in the House of Representatives needs to be thoroughly and transparently free of the taint of the Jack Abramoff scandals, and beyond that, of undue influence of K Street.

"We are not naive about lobbying, and we know it can and has in fact advanced crucial issues and has often served to inform rather than simply influence Members.

"But we are certain that the public is disgusted with excess and with privilege. We hope the Hastert-Dreier effort leads to sweeping reforms including the end of subsidized travel and other obvious influence operations. Just as importantly, we call for major changes to increase openness, transparency and accountability in Congressional operations and in the appropriations process.

"As for the Republican leadership elections, we hope to see more candidates who will support these goals, and we therefore welcome the entry of Congressman John Shadegg to the race for Majority Leader. We hope every Congressman who is committed to ethical and transparent conduct supports a reform agenda and a reform candidate. And we hope all would-be members of the leadership make themselves available to new media to answer questions now and on a regular basis in the future. "....

Here for signatories and comments.

UPDATE:

The National Review has endorsed Cong. John Shadegg for House GOP-Leader. As has Larry Kudlow;

..." Hopefully Shadegg, who is not part of the Abramoff lobbying culture, will run on the budget-cutting proposals of the Republican Study Committee, in particular the RSC plan to end midnight “earmarks,” which stealthily insert pork into bills without debate. These earmarks are not only budget-busters, they open the door to rogue lobbying where legislative favors are traded for cash. If the 100-member RSC gets behind Shadegg, they could win in come-from-behind fashion. This rebel group is full of change agents, people like Mike Pence, Jeff Flake, Paul Ryan, Marsha Blackburn, and Jeb Hensarling — rising young stars in the GOP firmament. This crowd, of which Shadegg is longtime member, stands on bedrock conservative principles. They all deserve seats at the leadership table of high Republican policymaking. "....

Tax Reform

2006-01-13T15:24:00.000-05:00

No major tax-overhaul, be it the "Fair Tax" or the "Flat Tax" will get any traction unless it can solve the Gordian Knot of homeownership and home-affordability. This is most families' major purchase and primary capital-investment; and home-construction and renovation is a major-portion of the US workforce and domestic-product. If you can not explain BOTH the fairness of the system as-impemented...and the fairness of the transition-period...clearly to the understanding of the electorate, the reform is politically-dead.

Set Phasers!

2006-01-11T18:49:00.000-05:00

Directed energy weapons will further tilt deterrence-power in-favor of the United States.

Prepare to Jump!...

2006-01-05T18:42:00.000-05:00

The Royal Scotsman summed it up as;

..."By Jove, they're back on trek... Not content with a few little domestic problems in Iraq and Afghanistan, the American military is working seriously on a hyperdrive motor straight out of Star Trek, with the intention of making real that famous five-year mission to "boldly go" where no man (or woman) has gone before. "....

A new conceptual breakthrough for jump-engines;

..." The hypothetical device, which has been outlined in principle but is based on a controversial theory about the fabric of the universe, could potentially allow a spacecraft to travel to Mars in three hours and journey to a star 11 light years away in just 80 days, according to a report in today's New Scientist magazine. The theoretical engine works by creating an intense magnetic field that, according to ideas first developed by the late scientist Burkhard Heim in the 1950s, would produce a gravitational field and result in thrust for a spacecraft.

Also, if a large enough magnetic field was created, the craft would slip into a different dimension, where the speed of light is faster, allowing incredible speeds to be reached. Switching off the magnetic field would result in the engine reappearing in our current dimension. ...."

Or to you Trekkers, that's Warp-factor 3.7

UPDATE:
Some additional info and speculation straight from NASA's own web-sites.

Grand Canyon Lookout Critique

2005-12-29T14:37:00.000-05:00

After looking at this; a few quick ideas. With a open-air platform first, so the visitor would first see the horizon 360-degr., then step-out into the canyon itself.

Aesthetically, it would be greatly improved by slight-arching of the cantilever at the cliff-face.

...As Important Now as Then

2005-12-23T11:35:00.000-05:00

... At this time of year, let us remember both our tradition of Religious Freedom and our Liberality in it's Expression. While the Funding Fathers disagreed on the nature and means, they all had a place for Faith in it's manifest forms. And let Us remember those who died to defend that Liberality, and those damaged in body or soul in it's defense.

Will there always be an England?

2005-12-10T16:44:00.000-05:00

London Transit has retired the classic Routemaster double-decker bus that has served throughout the British Empire since it was still an empire.

From a time when Sir Winston's voice still echoed in the Commons, the people of London and millions of foreign friends use the Routemaster and the Underground to "get about". While the newer busses are better riding and warmer, it just will not be the same.

64 Year Ago...

2005-12-07T14:44:00.000-05:00

Sixty-four years ago today, the internecine wars raging in Europe and Asia paid a house-call and awakened the "sleeping giant". Inspite of our innate isolationism, bumbling mistakes and gross oversimplifications we prevailed. "Our" system may have manifest flaws, but it works.

Gay Rights or Republican Politics?

2005-11-30T19:59:00.000-05:00

Surely there are more pressing things in Missouri for LCR - St. Louis to complain about;

"The gay political organization Log Cabin Republicans is asking for an investigation of a drag show at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. The president of the Log Cabin Republicans of Greater St. Louis, Charles Stadtlander, said he attended the October 14 drag show. He raised concerns that the show mocked heterosexual audience members and that performers wore revealing outfits, used inappropriate language, and simulated sex acts. "...

The LCR is a partisan "political" organization, not a chapter of GLAAD....nor is it a local committee of the ACLU. This is exactly the sorts of disputes that LCR should not be getting itself involved with. And where an officer of the Chapter should not be using the LCR reputation and credentials to pursue an obviously-personal agenda.

How does this further the political agenda of gay Republicans?

Update: Right Side of the Raindow asks, ..."If you rebuff the Republican presidential nominee, support abortion on demand and call for same-sex marriage by judicial fiat, can you really draw the line at a drag show? With what constituency does that posture win traction? "....

Sir Winston Churchill

2005-11-30T19:08:00.000-05:00

"I would say to the House, as I said to those who have joined this Government, 'I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears, and sweat."

- Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill KG, OM, CH, TD, FRS
(Nov. 30, 1874 - Jan. 24, 1965) Hansard, May 13, 1940

2005-11-30T10:53:00.000-05:00

Charging Rhino supports the Reynolds Doctrine on Hostages;

InstaPundit strongly supports the use of violent force to save lives of its workers (er, that's me), readers, advertisers, or unrelated onlookers should they be kidnapped, held hostage, or caught in the middle of a conflict situation. The use of grossly excessive or gratuitous violence, while not exactly encouraged, isn't exactly deplored, either.

As for turning the other cheek, I offer the Rhino Corollary;

He who raises his hand against me loses that hand,
He who raises his remaining hand against me loses his head.

"Ihre ausweis, bitte!"

2005-11-29T00:21:00.000-05:00

(AP)MIAMI - Miami police announced Monday they will stage random shows of force at hotels, banks and other public places to keep terrorists guessing and remind people to be vigilant.

Deputy Police Chief Frank Fernandez said officers might, for example, surround a bank building, check the IDs of everyone going in and out and hand out leaflets about terror threats. ... "People are definitely going to notice it," Fernandez said. "We want that shock. We want that awe. But at the same time, we don't want people to feel their rights are being threatened. We need them to be our eyes and ears." ...

..." Police Chief John Timoney said there was no specific, credible threat of an imminent terror attack in Miami. ..."

Amendment IV, The Bill of Rights - Constitution of the USA
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

-- I don't feel any safer.

How to Atone for a Loss of Honor

2005-11-28T23:32:00.000-05:00

Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham pleaded guilty Monday morning to conspiring to take bribes in exchange for using his influence to help a defense contractor get business. "I can't undo what I have done but I can atone," Cunningham says in an emotional press conference.

And how is the Duke going to atone? Write a tell-all book that his supporters and flunkie-friends will buy up by the thousands to inflate it's sales and refill his bank account? Or as a feudal samurai of Imperial Japan atoned for failing his Daimyo lord?

The man's admitting selling his Honor for filthy silver, my expectations are low.

Cricket, Anyone?

2005-11-22T14:23:00.000-05:00

Over at Albion's Seedling, the issue of non-cricketing in America has come-up. Maybe the gay community could demonstrate it's solidarity and start playing cricket on Sundays, leaving softball to the ladies.

I doubt any gay man would complain about the uniforms.

2005-11-22T11:33:00.000-05:00

-- Norman Rockwell

Mine's thawing quietly in the fridge, and tomorrow evening I'm deboning the beast, brining the flesh in apple-juice and oranges, and back into the fridge. The carass gets a roasting, then an overnight stay in the stockpot with the milpote. Then Thursday all I have to do is prep the stuffing and shove-both into the oven for a slow roast.

Once you learn the secret of deboning a turkey, you'll never roast a whole one again. Though your children may go screaming from the Kitchen if they catch you in mid-debone-mode. It's like a home-reenactment of the lunchroom-scene in Alien where the critter busts-out of John Hurt's chest...

On Rep. Murtha's comments

2005-11-21T13:05:00.000-05:00

I watched Rep. Murtha on Meet the Press last night, and read his piece reprinted in the paper. While I don't agree 100% with him, I do feel he's sincere and acting in good-faith and with great personal-honesty. Which is more than I can say for the leaders of EITHER PARTY at the moment.

And if the Iraqi elections go well and their army has another 6-months of training is it so unreasonable to say that in 12-months we could seriously reduce the troop-levels in Iraq? I think overall we should assume that the bulk of the troops will becoming-home in the next 12-24 months anyway. But also recognizing that perhaps 15,000 might be stationed there permanently atleast for the next 10-20 years as part of a regional strategy. On bases and airfields providing "regional security", not patrolling the streets or engaging in counter-terrorism or border interdiction on a day-to-day basis.

To assume that we would withdraw ALL our troops is naive. We still have troops in Germany and Japan, and in Cuba. The truth lies somewhere in-between Rep. Mutha's position and Mr. Rumsfeld's. It is an unfortunate fact that partisan politics and gingoism have replaced the possibility of calm discussion on foreign policy and military goals in the Washington, DC of today both within the White House and the Halls of Congress. And the performance of the Pentagon, Foggy Bottom and Langley haven't been free of these tensions either.

Updated: "Politics must end at the water's edge" is how Sen. Arthur Vandenberg (Mi) is usually quoted. But the full-text is much more illuminating, and much thanks to Sen. Lieberman (Ct) for recently reminding the Senate of this...

..."To me 'bipartisan foreign policy' means a mutual effort, under our indispensable two-party system, to unite our official voice at the water's edge so that America speaks with maximum authority against those who would divide and conquer us and the free world."

A Last Salute

2005-11-21T11:02:00.000-05:00

(AP) "Alfred Anderson, the last known survivor of the 1914 "Christmas Truce" that saw British and German soldiers exchanging gifts and handshakes in no-man's land, died early Monday"...

It is estimated that maybe 10 WW1 veterns remain in Britain, and a small handful scattered throughout the Commonwealth and America.

It's important that we remember. It's one of the debts we owe to those who have served on our behalf, even though separated by generations.

As Revolutionary as the Model-T?

2005-11-17T12:29:00.000-05:00

The MIT Media Lab unveiled the $100 childrens' laptop at the World Summit in Tunisia. Wireless, hand-cranked and able to function as both laptop and book-viewer that could be as great a cultural thunder-clap as moveable type or the rotary printing-press.

"Let a Billion Children's Laptops Bloom."

Update: Welcome Instapundit readers.

The two most dangerous words a child can utter, "..but why??"

Uncle Andrew's Sold-out?

2005-11-14T11:47:00.000-05:00

Has Andrew Sullivan sold-out? It sure appears that he's climbing in bed with Time, Inc. Certainly this is a blow to the independent blogsphere. Can you truly be independent and critical of the MSM when they host your 'blog?

Towards a New Nationalism?

2005-11-12T23:24:00.000-05:00

Count me as one of those who, unfortunately for the Republic, believes that St. Hillarybeast will be elected in 2008 by default. So far, NONE of the floated Republican names...other than maybe Giuliani...can appeal to the moderate-Center and pull enough votes from both Parties. At present I dismiss McCain as a spent-force who will be too-old, and more importantly too-compromised, to be an effective candidate for 2008.

The GOP needs to be out-of-power in order to reflect on their over-reaching mistakes of playing to the "convenient" extreme-Right of the Party; and to regroup with new ideas for a new century. I've been re-reading T. Roosevelt's The New Nationalism speech where he outlined his Square Deal-philosophy, and Douthat & Salam's The Party of Sam's Club essay that Andrew Sullivan was touting a few days ago on his site. Print them both out and read them at the same-tim, the problems haven't changed. We need to step-back, regroup, and look in the GOP farm club for another Theodore Roosevelt. I'm becoming increasingly convinced through reading Theodore Rex and Kissinger's Diplomacy that it's already time to start looking past just the War on Terror to the fundementals of our National Self-Interests...be they immigration, health-care in an aging population, or living with China.

The GOP leadership has become so intent over the last 30-years in getting into power, that they have forgotten what and why they were "Republicans". They have sold the Party in market-square to the anti-abortionists, religious fundementalists and the narrow self-serving agendas of the corporate, NGO and societal Special Interests. They gained power and are so desperate to keep it that they have compromised their principles for pork, illusory power, and five anti-abotion seats on the SCOTUS.

Time to regroup and return to the party of Teddy Roosevelt and Barry Goldwater. Reagan, while a great man, did great long-term damage to the Party's principles by his alliance-of-convenience with the Religious Right. And the unintended consequence is the fiscal and governance log-jam we have inherited.

And sometimes the only way to clear a log-jam is with high-explosives, a sure balance, and sharp nerves.

On the 11th Hour of the 11th Day of the 11th Month

2005-11-11T10:36:00.000-05:00

“These men were crusaders. They were not going forth to prove the might of the United States. They were going forth to prove the might of justice and right, and all the world accepted them as crusaders, and their transcendent achievement has made all the world believe in America…”

- Woodrow Wilson

We remember those who did not return,
and those who did but damaged in body or soul.

We mourn with those who left camrades behind.

Dedicated to men like my grandfather,

who manned a "French 75" on the Line, their toast;

"To Lost Friends..."

2005-11-09T21:42:00.000-05:00

We have too many high sounding words, and too few actions that correspond with them.

--- Abigal Adams, letter to John Adams, 1774

Immigration "Reform"?

2005-11-09T21:22:00.000-05:00

So far, I have not seen any demonstrated connection to identifying “immigrants” and stopping “potential terrorists”. As a purely-pragmatic security issue, I’d rather focus on knowing who EVERYONE is on U.S. soil, their true name and origin…and worry less about how they got here in the first place. No more false ID’s, fake SS#’s and phony “papers”. We’re about 10-million-and-counting too-late worrying about “border security”. And we should be encouraging US citizenship for all here, and get rid of the various visa-programs and such that prevent Canadians, Mexicans and others here for years and even decades from becoming “productive” tax-paying citizens.

Hell, I’d even go for saying to the “criminal classes” that if you pay every-penny according to the tax-laws, we’ll not prosecute you for tax-evasion; though we will for the illegal activity that generated the money in the first place, and expend “priviledge” to tax-preparers so long as the tax were paid. Since tax-evasion the favorite way to bust-’em, tax compliance would sky-rocket.This done, we can then effectively deny the borders to the smugglers and narco-businesses that are doing far more damage to the U.S. than the “threat” of International Terrorism. Stream-line the legal border-crossings and Customs-stations at our airports and seaports to the regulated entry of all, and close the borders to irregular trade in both drugs, material and potential WMDs in trucks, planes and containerships.

Bright light scares off the cockroaches. Get the “people” out of the shade at the border, then you can concentrate on the real national interests of “controlling a frontier”. What we are doing now on “immigration” is about as effective and cost-efficient as the TSA operations at the airports….meaningless, inconvenient, expensive, and ultimately useless.

2005-11-09T20:03:00.000-05:00

A wise man gets more use from his enemies than a fool from his friends.

--- Baltasar Gracian

Corzine?

2005-11-09T19:27:00.000-05:00

As a lifelong "progressive" Republican, even I could not bring myself to vote for Doug Forrester; even though I’ve supported so real-stinkers in the Republican-ticket over the years. Forrester was just too-much a inexperienced naif, and a rotten campaigner with zero-charisma. The campaign was Corzine’s to lose, and he might have IF the NJ State GOP could have pulled itself together a select a meaningful candidate.

While I’m not happy about Corzine’s sleazy-ways, I expect the “mistakes” he makes in office will be political ideological-ones, and not just stupid or naive like McGreevey did…or Forrester would have. At least Corzine’s not an incompetent, just a liberal Democrat….and THAT can be remedied in four years when he makes his run at the White House in 2010.

St. Hillarybeast has the Democratic nomination locked-up with Corzine sidelined for 4-years…

We have the coolest military...

2005-10-20T15:59:00.000-05:00

A heavier-than-air military transport Coded-named Walrus. Now if that doesn't look like "Thunderbird Two". And at 500-tons of payload, a squadron of these would be ideal for civil disaster-relief like NOLA, the Aceh Tsumani, or the earthquake in Kashmir.

And Transparent Aluminum? Who knew....

..."A new type of transparent armor made of aluminum could one day replace glass in military vehicles. The product is callrd aluminum oxynitride. It is being tested by the Army and the University of Dayton Research Institute in Ohio. The material is a ceramic compound with a high compressive strength and durability, according to an Army statement issued this week. It performs better than the multilayered glass products currently in use, and its about half the weight. It is virtually scratch-resistant. "The substance itself is light-years ahead of glass," said 1st Lt. Joseph La Monica, who heads the research. "

"Light years"? Montgomery Scott walks among us indeed.
And Scotty, set phasers to "Stun" ....

..." Bitar heads Indiana-based Xtreme Alternative Defense Systems Ltd., which makes small blinding lasers used in Iraq. But his real project is a nonlethal energy device called the StunStrike. Basically, it fires a bolt of lightning. It can be tuned to blow up explosives, possibly to stop vehicles and certainly to buzz people. The strike can be made to feel as gentle as "broom bristles'' or cranked up to deliver a paralyzing jolt that "takes a few minutes to wear off.''

2005-10-17T15:30:00.000-05:00

But penance need not be paid in suffering...It can be paid in forward motion. Correcting the mistake is a positive move, a nurturing move.

- Barbara Hall, A Summons to New Orleans, 2000

Huzzah!

2005-10-17T15:21:00.000-05:00

October 17, 2005 (AP)

HYANNIS, Mass. --U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy attempted to rescue six men who had become trapped by high tide on a jetty off Hyannisport on Sunday. The Massachusetts Democrat eventually left the rescue to Hyannis firefighters, The Cape Cod Times reported Monday. Kennedy was walking his two dogs on the shore at 11:15 a.m. when he spotted the men cut off from shore by the rising waters. They had been fishing on a jetty that begins at the tip of the Kennedy compound. Tides had risen over the patchy rocks, which made it difficult to walk back to shore. Kennedy and a friend tried to rescue the men using a 13-foot boat but rough waters forced them back. A crew from the Hyannis Fire Department picked them up. The men, in their 20s, were not identified. They were brought to Cape Cod Hospital with mild hypothermia

Perhaps we should consider this a Karmic re-balancing? And at least a partial-redemption? Going out in a 13-ft boat in rough seas requires a certain amount of balls….and grit at his age.

Bravo, Senator Kennedy!! (…And I don’t even like the old bastard.)

The name is Bond, James Bond.

2005-10-13T16:46:00.000-05:00

< >
< >

Daniel Craig. ". . . Right this way, Sir."

I hope they keep the glasses.

And keep losing the shirts....

2005-10-10T15:11:00.000-05:00

If you limit your choices only to what seems possible or reasonable, you disconnect yourself from what you truly want, and all that is left is a compromise.

- Robert Fritz

Libertarians? Or just the Silly-Hat Party?

2005-10-10T14:44:00.000-05:00

Bill Condon and Jeff Soyer at Alphecca both launched into the Libertarian Party over their failure to follow-through with the Free State Project.

My complaint with the "Libertarians" is that there is such a ideological and operational-gap between those who consider themselves to "be libertarian", and those who are members and leaders of the Libertarian Party. In my experience, most libertarians are progressive or conservative Republicans; while the Libertarian Party-ites are left-wing whack-jobs with no real-world credentials and pathetic, questionable backgrounds whom I would not trust over a long weekend with a cat....No less a government.

As with the Holy Roman Empire, which was neither "holy" nor "Roman"; the Libertarian Party uses the word, but not it's scope of meaning. They might as well be the Silly-Hat Party, it would coincide with their use of aluminum-foil linings.

Iraq in the Furnace

2005-09-18T11:26:00.000-05:00

While I agree with Andrew Sullivan, I'm divided over his conclusions;

"In retrospect, I made three basic miscalculations in favoring the war to depose Saddam three years ago. I thought Saddam had stockpiles of WMDs the discovery of which would bolster support for the war after liberation; I believed we would have enough troops to keep the peace; and I thought the massive reconstruction funds would buy popular support for the occupation. Wrong on all three counts. Here's a story from the NYT today on the reconstruction of Najaf. Najaf is remarkably free from major violence, and yet the reconstruction is still a shambles, hobbled by poor oversight, corruption, delays, translation problems and general incompetence. Anyone who knows contractors of any kind knows some of this is part of the process. But you just have to read this story to see how widespread this mess is. Again: issue one for the Bush administration is government competence. They don't seem to have much. And in the end, with even the best policy in the world, competence matters. Iraq is particularly apposite here, because if there was ever a case in which we knew we had to get it right, this was it. And yet, they seem never at a loss for excuses for failure. Discouraging doesn't quite capture the essence of this. Maddening is more like it.

I think that a more historical perspecive will be required to adequately judge the liberation and reconstruction of Iraq. The total disconnect between the efficient planning for combat operations, and the bungled planning for post-war occupationa nd reconstrcution is glaring. For a while I attributed this to a institutional mind-set that feared being "too ready" to administer Iraq; hence feeding the meme that America planned all-along to annex Iraq and it's oil-fields. Now the results point-out that the war-plan did not include an after-action plan, a potentially fatal error in the post-Cold War era.

Somewhere between the White House, Foggy Bottom and the Pentagon they compromised on a very "light" occupation...and "light" on planning as-well. Out of fear of the "Arab Street", or of the international criticism, they opted for two weak-handed transitional phases; where they shoud have installed an American satrapy with a fixed mandate of 2-3 years, then a handover to sovereign civilian-rule. The three glaring planning errors, based on "policy", were; the disbandment of the Saddam-military apparatus; the failure to occupy and secure the ministries, museums, libraries and hospitals; and the subsequent failure to crush the looting rampages.

Moving Day...

2005-09-09T09:24:00.000-05:00

(AP)Updated: 8:06 a.m. ET Sept. 9, 2005

"WASHINGTON - More than half the Americans surveyed in a national poll say the flooded areas of New Orleans lying below sea level should be abandoned and rebuilt on higher ground. An AP-Ipsos poll found that 54 percent of Americans want the four-fifths of New Orleans that was flooded by Hurricane Katrina moved to a safer location.
Their skepticism about restoring New Orleans below sea level comes as the public mood has darkened after one of the nation’s worst natural disasters. "....

A New Legacy...

2005-09-06T10:06:00.000-05:00

For better or worse, George W. Bush's historical legacy will be built on the Federal and National response to the New Orleans Diaspora, not the War on Terror as the neocons wanted.

How this changes the dynamics of the Administration remains to be seen. Unlike NYC, were the developers are still hangling over the whole in the ground, but the people have homes and jobs; the effects of the NOLA Submergence has families distrupted, homes and businesses lost, and massive infastructural damage that has a ripple-effect throughout the Mississippi Basin and the East Coast. This is a diaspora on a national-scale not seen since the Dust Bowl, and will have long-term social and economic dislocations.

While we are fillling in names for supoenas...

2005-09-05T21:11:00.000-05:00

Instapundit had a damning link to James Lee Witt, who Gov. Blanco STILLS wants to have coordinate Louisiana' relief operations...rather than cede it to Federal control and Gen. Honore'...

"IEM Inc., a Baton Rouge, La.-based emergency management and homeland security consultant, announced it will lead the development of a catastrophic hurricane disaster plan for Southeast Louisiana and the City of New Orleans under a more than half a million dollar contract with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security/Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). ... In making the announcement today on behalf of teaming partners Dewberry, URS Corporation and James Lee Witt Associates, IEM Director of Homeland Security Wayne Thomas explained that the development of a base catastrophic hurricane disaster plan has urgency due to the recent start of the annual hurricane season which runs through November. "...

... "Given this area's vulnerability, unique geographic location and elevation, and troubled escape routes, a plan that facilitates a rapid and effective hurricane response and recovery is critical," he said. "The IEM team's approach to catastrophic planning meets the challenges associated with integrating multi-jurisdictional needs and capabilities into an effective plan for addressing catastrophic hurricane strikes, as well as man-made catastrophic events.
IEM President and CEO Madhu Beriwal is the recipient of a special merit award from the Louisiana Emergency Preparedness Association ( LEPA ) for her work in New Orleans hurricane emergency preparedness"....

Now I know who gets the fourth and fifth Congressional hearing supeona after Blanco, Nagin and Brown...Witt and Beriwal.

Northern Command was Ready

2005-09-05T17:33:00.000-05:00

It's becoming apparent that not EVERYONE was caught unawares. The recent performance of Northern Command and Gen Russell Honere' demonstrates that. But does that matter if they couldn't legally act?.....

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/5167.html
"... When the BBC noted the criticism of the government's slow response, Lt. Commander Kelly explained that NorthCom was ready to go well in advance of Katrina making landfall, but suggested the president didn't make the right call at the right time.
"Northcom started planning before the storm even hit. We were ready when it hit Florida, because, as you remember, it hit the bottom part of Florida, and then we were planning once it was pointed towards the Gulf Coast.
"So, what we did, we activated what we call 'defense coordinating officers' to work with the states to say, 'OK, what do you think you will need?' And we set up staging bases that could be started.
"We had the USS Bataan sailing almost behind the hurricane so once the hurricane made landfall, its search and rescue helicopters could be available almost immediately So, we had things ready.
"The only caveat is: we have to wait until the president authorizes us to do so. The laws of the United States say that the military can't just act in this fashion; we have to wait for the president to give us permission."
Apparently, that permission could have been given right away, but it wasn't. ...."

A question that someone might be able to clarify…I don't know the anwer;

Federal statute and long-standing tradition is that Federal troops and resources can not be deployed without the permission or aquiescence of the State Governor where the troops will be deployed. Considering how Gov. Blanco had been dragging here feet over authorizing HER OWN National Guard troops; could the President release his "authorization" over her objections? It's been well documented that Gov. Blanco…as of this morning…was still stalling over authorizing Federal oversight and authority in Louisiana.

BUT, IF Pres. Bush could not legally "authorize" Northern Command without prior State acquiescence, can he be "blamed" for not doing so?? Especially when the governor of the state affected was all-over the airwaves patting herself on the back for NOLA's again "dodging the bullet"? The flooding of NOLA didn't become obvious until AFTER the storm passed. And it was well-known in the emergency-preparedness planning that Federal resources would not be able to arrive in-quantity until Day-Four.

I'll wait for the Congressinal Hearings to watch Blanco and Nagin squirm, before they plead the Fifth.

UPDATE: Kelly has clarified that it was FEMA that NorComm was waiting-on for authorization. That would be Mr. Brown.

.... "USNORTHCOM was prepositioned for response to the hurricane, but as per the National Response Plan, we support the lead federal agency in disaster relief — in this case, FEMA. The simple description of the process is the state requests federal assistance from FEMA which in turn may request assistance from the military upon approval by the president or Secretary of Defense. Having worked the hurricanes from last year as well as Dennis this year, we knew that FEMA would make requests of the military — primarily in the areas of transportation, communications, logistics, and medicine. Thus we began staging such assets and waited for the storm to hit.
"The biggest hurdles to responding to the storm were the storm itself — couldn't begin really helping until it passed — and damage assessment — figuring out which roads were passable, where communications and power were out, etc. Military helos began damage assessment and SAR on Tuesday. Thus we had permission to operate as soon as it was possible. We even brought in night SAR helos to continue the mission on Tuesday night.
The President and Secretary of Defense did authorize us to act right away and are not to blame on this end. Yes, we have to wait for authorization, but it was given in a timely manner." ....

2005-09-03T14:42:00.000-05:00

"A single death is a tragedy; a million deaths is a statistic."

---Joseph Stalin (1879 - 1953)

The Goat?

2005-09-03T11:26:00.000-05:00

History will point the well-deserved finger of Blame squarely at the Mayor of New Orleans, C. Ray Nagin;

a. He failed in implement his own city's emergency preparedness plan.
b. He left hundreds of city-owned busses to drown, rather than use them to evacuate low-lying neighborhoods to either safe-shelter or out the storm's path. And those same busses were not safe-guarded to be used for subsequent evacuations after the storm passed.
c. He failed to stock and prepare the very storm-shelters that he then directed his people to use...creating a death-trap situation.
d. He failed to issue shoot-on-sight orders for any looters on non-essential survival items.

And Gov. Blanco also failed to follow the state's own emergency-preparedness plan, and failed to mobilize the hundreds of school busses that she had control over through the La. Dept. of Education.

This was not a failure to plan, nor was this a "surprise, unforseeable event". A direct hit on NOLA has been discussed almost every time a hurricane enters the Gulf of Mexico...for years.

I have no doubt that there will be many instances revealed in the subsequent Congressional Hearings on how the Corps, FEMA and Homeland Security should have spotted the short-comings of local preparedness; and their own lack of imagination to war-game this through fully and act on the conclusions. But Civil Defense and Emergency Preparedness are "local issues" that should be dealt with at the local-level, with back-up provided by the resources of the Federal government and the Military. The Mayor of New Orleans and the Governor of Louisiana had...and have still...the principal responsibility for the bungled preparations and the inept follow-through.

I knew the people of NOLA were in trouble the minute I saw them standing the streets waiting to get into the Superdome. Competent planning would have gotten everyone inside as fast as possible through every door the place had....and stocks of food, water, bedding; and provisions for powering the lights and AC for days. Every power company has portable generators on flat-bed trucks, powered by the same jet-turbines that that power airliners and USN ships. A couple of them parked in a protected part of the elevated parking garage with a tanker-trailer of diesel fuel is beyond their imagination?

The New Orleans Diaspora

2005-09-01T13:09:00.000-05:00

There can be no other word.
The city and populace are shattered and while some may return, many will not.

While it makes financial and logistical sense to repair and rebuild Downtown, the waterfront and French Quarter (which are on higher ground). It may make sense to simply (hah!) level whole swathes of the low-lying suburban residential districts and resettle the inhabitants elsewhere and return those area's to the wetlands they were. The debris and rubble can be used to raise the ground-level around those parts of the city that house community assets like the hospitals and the universities. Just as low-lying communities where replanted on higher-ground along the Mississippi River after the floods of the 90's, it may be time to consider similar options. Is it practical to rebuild 1-in-3 homes and have open lots of rubble between as many families take their settlements are move elsewhere?

There will be another hurricane cat-4 or cat-5, it's inevitable. To merely replicate the existing bad situation and hope that "higher, stronger" levees will hold is the same whistling-in-the-dark that the Mayor and Governor's offices did this time. Here is the opportunity to re-fashion the problem, not just paper-over it.

2005-07-09T12:44:00.000-05:00

Everyone quotes the axiom, "... violence is the last resort of the incompetent", forgetting that those wise and mindful of History utilize violence long before it's "too late".

A sharp, immediate smack across the snout was one of first steps in converting the ancient wolf into a well-trained dog.

When in the Course of Human Events...

2005-07-04T21:28:00.000-05:00

--And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

"We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately. "

--- attributed to Benjamin Franklin at the signing

of the Declaration of Independence, July 1776

2005-07-04T21:23:00.000-05:00

"Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs even though checkered by failure, than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat."

--- Theodore Roosevelt, (1858 - 1919)

Ghosts and the Living City

2005-07-01T13:12:00.000-05:00

The buildings to replace the WTC-complex are not important for memorial purposes. The iconic power of commemorations like the Tribute in Light are. The Germans have a word that translates as "places to throw wreaths" for memorials with no soul. Rebuild lower Manhatten as a living city, concentrate on that. But bid every year in September the Ghosts of the WTC return, as the Tribute in Light or in other forms of cutting edge technolgy or brute-force engineering. Let them revisit the City and Nation annually and yet fade away into memory til next year until the pain fades too.... Let the Ghosts come but once a year in reproche' for all that we still have to do, and a time will come when we'll say as a Nation "it's time to let go." As we have other wounds and traumas, as we have either forgiven or at-least accepted, old aversaries when we gather.

The Ghosts don't live in a hole in the ground, they live high over our heads in the clouds.

Time to start recruiting for the Farm Club.

2005-06-06T20:17:00.000-05:00

In a race where both candidates had similar finacial resources and name recognition; an appeal to the center might get the GOP candidate elected. But against Corzine’s money neither GOP frontrunners will prevail, in part due to their street-cred as ‘losers’ state-wide, and the internecine battle-scars between the various County coimmittees that will inhibit fundraising.

Tha GOP faithful will vote tomorrow. But there aren’t enough of them, nor is either possible GOP candidate charasmatic enough a ‘winner’ to energize the center to come out and vote GOP in the Fall; so the Democrat’s faithful hard-core in the cities and the North suburbs will swamp the GOP.

I’ve decided to vote for Murphy to encourage him to seek state-office in the future. NJ needs some fresh, young blood on the GOP-side, not just recycling the same old names; Forrester, Schundler and Keane.

2005-06-01T20:59:00.000-05:00

When I am abroad, I always make it a rule never to criticize or attack the government of my own country. I make up for lost time when I come home.

----Sir Winston Churchill (1874 - 1965)

Sanctuary

2005-06-01T14:06:00.000-05:00

One of Andrew Sullivan contributors makes an interesting point. While the first-part is true;

"We already have a perfect historical analog for your support of non-reciprocal Geneva adherence - the fact that the the US stuck to the Geneva rules in its treatment of Japanese POWs, despite the fact that Imperial Japan not only refused to reciprocate but treated our POWs in the vilest ways imaginable. There would, no doubt, have been widespread public support among the American people for reciprocal mistreatment of Japanese POWs - but the Roosevelt Administration refused to do so for one simple reason: we wanted Japan afterwards to be a peaceful, non-occupied nation, and mistreating their POWs was not the way to accomplish this."....

I'm not sure that the Japanese-analogy is valid, nor am I convinced by the second part of the posted e-mail. The Empire of Japan was a sovereign nation with a recognizable military operating under authority and control;

This factor is even more important in the War Against Megaterrorism -- we can hardly occupy the entire Moslem world, even briefly -- but the self-indulgent dimwits currently running the government refuse to see this, and we will all end up paying for it."...

I'm more convinced by Bill Whittle's observations on Unlawful Combatants;

They violate the Sanctuary of the Uniform. They violate the Sanctuary of Surrender. And the most reprehensible of all is the violation of the Sanctuary of Mercy." ...

..."I used to wonder why civilizations fell. No longer. I see it now before my eyes, every day. Civilizations do not fall because the Barbarians storm the walls. The forces of civilization are far too powerful, and those of barbarism far too weak, for that to happen. Civilizations fall because the people inside the Sanctuary throw open the Gates".

The old usage "outlaw" meant outside the law and outside it's protections. Perhaps it's time for the International Community to recognize that it's time to review the Geneva Conventions and even the Universal Declaration of Human Rights to address those who voluntarily and deliberately place themselves outside the Covenants of Civilization.

2005-05-29T19:24:00.000-05:00

Rememberance

Memorial Day, 2005

The French Vote "No"

2005-05-29T17:26:00.000-05:00

Can any "nation" survive if it's fundamental, unifying principles can not be enumerated in a constitution less-than-twice the length of the US federal constitution? Does such a "nation" even deserve to exist? The proposed EU constitution runs 575-pages...The US Constitution is about 12 in the same type-face. The British survive without any written constitution forcing tradition and necessity to ride-tandem adjusting to the needs of the people and the nation.

"It will be of little avail to the people that the laws are made by men of their own choice if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that they cannot be understood." ---James Madison.

The EU structure is reminiscent of the ancient Holy Roman Empire of the Hapsburg; that was neither "Holy" nor "Roman". It bound a varying alliance of duchies, principality, city-states and annexed territories together; but lacked a central raison e'tat to fall-back on in times of crisis. It's smaller successor-state, the Austro-Hungarian Empire also failed in crisis during the First World War. The creation of a European "super-state" may well have to wait until the moment of crisis that will weld the various interests together. Afterall, it took the America two wars with Britain on North American-soil, followed by the internecine Civil War to get from "The United States are..." To the "The United States is...."

The EU is and will continue to be an effective trading-block and economic alliance. It is not ready to be a "State" for it has not won the heart's of it's Peoples. And it's that plurality that is a major stumbling block, even moreso than it's resentments and fears of the unaccountable nomenklatura of Brussels-based Euro-technocrats that govern over them.

2005-05-29T16:56:00.000-05:00

There is nothing worse than aggressive stupidity.

---Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749 - 1832)

The Gitmo Archipelago?

2005-05-28T23:47:00.000-05:00

Hmmm, guess we'll have to add "gulag" to the ever-increasing list of political terms abused by those ignorant or subbornly-blind to the origins and meanings of such emotinally-loaded words. To be filed after "fascist", "holocaust" and "genocide"; and before "rights, human", "torture" and "victors' justice".

...I do not fear free spech, I'm merely annoyed by those who make free with their speech.

UPDATE: 2 June 2005
For those who have forgotten History;
Gulag.
Mistreatment.
Kolyma.

A Dark Horse?

2005-05-28T14:23:00.000-05:00

“Thompson and Rice,
Two-thousand and Eight”
…has a nice rhythm to it.

Conservative, but not “scary".

Joe Gets "It"

2005-05-16T09:53:00.000-05:00

Joe Solmonese was interviewed by Metro Weekly on his settling in at HRC. One passage struck me as electorally-pertinent to the LRC's agenda;

"... Over the course of a few years, when we were not as successful as we would like to have been, we realized that the work of electing a woman to the United States Senate has to begin long before the 24-month election cycle. So we went about electing women to the state senate or house, or the mayor's office, or the county commission. We strengthened them by building their political operation so that when a U.S. Senate seat opened up the powers that be in that state said "She's the one who should go.' So when people asked, "Is that a policy shift? Are you helping women get elected to the state legislature instead of the U.S. Senate?" No. It's just another way of getting women elected to the U.S. Senate.
"We have to go out to the states and change the hearts and minds of people and we have to change the seats when the people on the Hill won't listen to us. I don't see one as being mutually exclusive of the other. It's just an added dimension to the federal work that we're doing. One of the things that I've been saying to other groups and to people in these states is that our priorities sometimes will intersect and sometimes won't, but we'll always be very clear with you what our particular goals are. ...."

Substitute "gay Republicans" for "women" in his comment. He's right, getting into the game is important, not just cheering from the sidelines. Getting gay Republicans elected should be a key component of upcoming LCR strategies, not just lobbying and good works....and doing-so at local, county and state-levels.

This ties-back to what I have said in a number of places, the G/L Repubican community should concentrate on local and state elections for 2008 and maybe 2012 as-well to counter-balance the Social Right. Attacking them at the National-level is out of our weight-class, and the 2008 Presidential election will be both devisive within the Party and probably counter-productive. There are no good, electable, gay-friendly GOP contenders that I see; and the likely GOP contenders are both gay-toxic and not up to defeating Sen. Hillarybeast on the General Election of 2008 nor in 2012. Let's both encourage the GOP's farm-team...and develop a few farm-team players ourselves...that have a potential National-office in their future.

Come Clean Joe....

2005-05-09T11:50:00.000-05:00

Steve Koval at the Washington Blade has an insightful article on the "inflated" numbers the HRC's been claiming for it's membership. To count anyone who gave money or bought something at the gift-shop or web-store as a perpetual member is totally bogus and misleading. Joe Solmonese needs to clean house and come-clean with the real number of "paid" members of HRC for 2005.

As I said last Fall...frequently...the numbers the HRC released as part of their financial disclosure never jived with their membership-claims. I'll bet that less than 50,000 HRC "members" have actually paid their $35-minimum dues contribution for 2004-2005.

Update:
The HRC website Mission Statement claims of representing "...almost 600,000"? What is the real number? Surely they know how many members they have....

Their 2002 Annual Report page-18, the most-recent year they have posted) shows $7-million in Member contributions; at $35 a head, that's only 200,000-members. And it's unrealistic to assume that no-one contributed more, so the real number of "contributors" must be lower. Even at an average of $50 a head, that's only-140,000. Certainly many HRC members are "Partners" at $120-minimum-a-year each, and there are many Federal Club members who contribute well-over $1200-minimum a year to HRC in-order to get invited to the best parties. That further reduces the number of active dues-contributing members significantly. So what the real number, Joe?

This is the same report where they report that out of $17,399,678 in expenditures, only 24.6%($4,274,468) went to Federal and Field Advocacy; while 42.4% went to Management, General and Fundraising. ($7,379,845 aggr.) The Fundraising line-item ($4,580,243) alone is actually more than Federal and Field Advocacy's.

Would you give to a charity that comsumed 42.4% of it's budget internally?

At Least Someone at CIA Knows What Needs to be Done

2005-05-05T14:22:00.000-05:00

I'm glad to see that someone in-charge at the CIA has his head screwed-on right.

".... But in the days that followed the worst terror attack on U.S. soil, Schroen said his boss at the CIA also told him and his deputy in no uncertain terms to kill the al Qaeda leadership.

"What he said [was], 'I would like to see the head of bin Laden delivered back to me in a heavy cardboard box filled with dry ice, and I will take that down and show the president. And the rest of the lieutenants, you can put their heads on pikes'," Schroen told Reuters in an interview.

He was quoting Cofer Black, then the director of the CIA's counterterrorist center. "....

We should have an informal rule-of-engagement that when the United States is provoked to the point where we send in the Military, there's no cushy exile in Paris for the loser; that there is a personal price to be paid, in-full-measure. The same applies to Saddam, and it should have been enforced in Gulf War-1 as the price of Peace.

The skulls of our enemies should be used as head-table candy-dishes at White House State Dinners as a warning and reminder "...no better friend, no worse enemy". Barbaric? Well, it might help keep the barbarians in-line.

"...Jelly bean, Mr. Prime Minister?"

2005-05-03T18:33:00.000-05:00

It is hard enough to remember my opinions, without also remembering my reasons for them!

Friedrich Nietzsche, German philosopher (1844 - 1900)

? for President, 2008

2005-04-22T12:31:00.000-05:00

McCain is a spent force.
Frist is unelectable.
Jeb Bush is too unfriendly, the Schiavo case left a bad taste in many moderate Republicans’ mouths’.
Guiliani carries too much baggage for the Red-Staters to support him.
Pawlenty is a nationally-unknown.
Allen is nationally unknown, and the various Virginia “gay controversies” isn’t helping his cause at present.

Condi's not ready...
And, Arnold can’t run.

I fear that we’ll have Hillary for 2008, and maybe 2012 too. The GOP needs to be looking at it’s various farm teams, and encourage and groom some real talent for 20012 and 2016. And maybe they need to really start thinking “outside the box” this time…not just gaming who the Social Right will follow blindly. You still need the center to get the popular and electoral majorities.

2008 is a Republican write-off..…no guts and no glory.

As Ye Write, So Shall Ye Think...

2005-02-21T23:10:00.000-05:00

Ann Althouse has a posting on the survival of languages, and speculates if the final battle will be Mandarin vs. English. My own feelings are that American-English will survive due to it's direct linkage to the alphanumerics of PC and the Internet, aligned with it's informal ability to co-opt words and phrases from almost any language without compromising it's internal structure. Mandarin (or the other variants) lack a link to an alphanumeric system with clarity.

The Pinyin-system of "Romanizing" Mandarin is not yet concise, and is an approximation. Plus there's the broader issue of a language (and it's structure) affecting the actual ways of thinking of concepts and relationships. Traditional Mandarin is non-hierarchical. You can not index and cross-index in the many ways that English allows one to alphabetize, and to numerically sequence. To categorize, to sort and to classify are methodolgies that traditional Mandarin and it's pictographic structure made quite cumbersome. This may change as Mandarin migrates to a "Romanized" written-form, but will the hierarchical conceptual organization follow...without having the Mandarin-speakers first having to "think" in English"?

Stupidity is eternal

2005-02-16T18:42:00.000-05:00

Mandatory HIV/AIDS testing, haven't the Left...or the Right...learned anything???

First comes the "mandatory testing".
Next comes the databases.
Followed by armed raids, and "...rounding up the usual suspects".
From there it's tattoos and "legal" sanctions.
Then the "camps".

...From my cold, dead hands.