Tuesday, December 21, 2004

How does the walkie-talkie feature on a Nextel phone work?



Click here for Amazon...Nextel is unique among service providers because it has an entirely separate special cellular network that has its own frequencies and equipment in addition to the normal cell network shared with other providers. This network is based on Motorola's Integrated Digital Enhanced Network (iDEN) and makes Direct Connect possible. It uses the 800 MHz portion of the radio spectrum assigned to specialized mobile radio (SMR) service. Nextel has purchased a large segment of these frequencies in a significant number of the national and international cellular service markets...

...When you make a Direct Connect call to someone, here's what happens:

* You hit the Direct Connect button, which is configured with the number(s) of the person (or group) you are calling.
* Your phone establishes a session with the Nextel iDEN-based network.
* The network determines that this is a dispatch call (Direct Connect) instead of an interconnect call (a normal cell phone call).
* The network then determines if it is a one-to-one or a group call. If it is a group call, the network duplicates the digital voice packets for each phone in the group.
* The network routes the packets to the phone (or phones) of the person (or group) you are calling.
* Their phone alerts them that they have a Direct Connect call.
* They answer the call by pressing the Talk button. Whoever is pushing the button, whether a one-to-one or group call, is the speaker.
* The call is completed and everyone disconnects...


How does the walkie-talkie feature on a Nextel phone work?

The Talon



Click here for AmazonScience-fiction buffs seeing the military's armed Talon robot for the first time can't help but make comparisons to famous movie robots...

...The Talon reminds this reporter of one of the more menacing robots of the movies, ED-209, which goes berserk in the 1987 film "RoboCop."

What makes the Talon important is that it's the first ground robot to carry arms. "It's a bit of a turning point," Shachtman said. "It's a step everyone knew was coming at some point. It's still a little surprising when it finally hits."

Luckily, there's no danger of the Talon pulling an ED-209. It's teleoperated, meaning it's run by a human operator, much like a radio-controlled toy car you might buy your child for Christmas.

With one big difference: That toy car can't cut a bus in half. Talon robots can carry M240 or M249 machine guns, Barrett 50-caliber rifles, 40-millimeter grenade launchers and anti-tank rocket launchers...


The Talon

2004 Annual 20 Most Annoying Liberals in the US



Click here for Amazon20)Linda Ronstadt

It might seem to be a stretch to put washed-up singer Linda Ronstadt who was once famous for singing "I Love Rock and Roll"...wait, that's not it...oooh, ooooh, I remember, it was "The Warrior"...no, that's not it either...well whatever she sang, she does deserve to make the list.

While in Las Vegas (where washed up singers crawl up on stage to wait for their careers to die), Ronstadt was unceremoniously fired after causing a mini-riot among her unhappy fans by plugging Michael Moore's hideous propaganda piece, "Fahrenheit 9/11," on stage. While that's not all that big of a deal, she popped off a quote in the aftermath of this controversy that was such a perfect example of liberal condescension that she just had to make the list. As you read this quote, remember that we're talking about someone who probably has less fans left than Milli Vanilli at this point and then picture her saying...

Defining Quote: "It's a real conflict for me when I go to a concert and find out somebody in the audience is a Republican or fundamental Christian. It can cloud my enjoyment. I'd rather not know." -- Linda Ronstadt ...

19) John Zogby

For reasons that are hard to fathom, pollster John Zogby opined time and time again, all year long, to anyone who would listen, that John Kerry was going to beat George Bush. Why did a pollster who's supposed to be neutral want to so publicly take a partisan line in a race that stayed very close throughout the year? Why did Zogby continue to declare that Kerry would win even as his own polls showed Kerry losing? Who knows?

Then election day rolled around and Zogby actually waited until after the first exit polls to give his final prediction: that Kerry would wipe the floor with Bush by beating him 311-213 in electoral votes with Colorado and Nevada too close to call. Of course, he was wrong: Bush won 286-252.

Then after the election, Zogby started dabbling in conspiracy theories to explain why his polls were off...again. Zogby polling communications director, Shawnta Watson Walcott, even joined "a group of liberal Democrats at a faux congressional hearing focused on whether fraud influenced the Nov. 2 outcome".

Hey Zogby, it's bad enough that your polls stink and that you essentially acted like the public polling arm of the Democratic Party for all of 2004, but how low are you going to stoop to try to explain away your own bias & incompetence?

"We have received thousands of letters and phone calls regarding irregularities - many of which center on early exit polling results that were uncharacteristically inaccurate in several battleground states; questionable practices at polling stations that may have resulted in votes not being counted accurately; and in Ohio, as with other swing states, the automated Diebold machines were particularly disturbing because they offered no voting receipts. It is with this intention that we recommend that a blue ribbon bipartisan panel be developed to investigate the allegations discussed here today." -- Shawnta Watson Walcott, communications director for Zogby International...


Read the whole thing: 2004 Annual 20 Most Annoying Liberals in the US

Monday, December 20, 2004

A good lesson for the Midwest



Click here for AmazonHmmm. This is definitely a game plan that many midwestern cities are missing... and should embrace. This is an excerpt of an interview with former Apple evangelist Guy Kawasaki.

John: This is not related to the book, but here in Tampa Bay we have a "high tech" corridor called the I-4 Corridor, but it isn't experiencing rapid growth at the moment. Are you familiar with this sector, and if so, or if not, what do you think it would take to attract more tech businesses to the Central and West Central Florida regions?

Guy: I'm not familiar with the corridor, but I'm asked similar questions by many regions in the world. My answer is always the same: a great engineering school. You get great engineers, you'll get great tech companies. The venture capitalists, lawyers, accountants, and rest of the infrastructure will follow. This isn't a chicken-and-egg question. There is definitely an order: great engineers cause great tech businesses.

Most people don't adopt my advice because it's cooler and more politically acceptable to do something like a tax credit, venture capital fund, or sponsored incubator. My education recommendation will take twenty years to bear fruit. Silicon Valley, as we know it, started in the late 20s.


Inside Real Estate Journal: Interview with Guy Kawasaki

Blog Power Rankings



Click here for AmazonI'd like to introduce my completely unique Blog Power Rankings using a proprietary statistical technique that may or may not involve Google's News search.



1) 21 InstaPundit
2) 7 Hugh Hewitt
2) 7 Daily Kos
4) 6 Powerline
5) 4 Little Green Footballs
6) 2 Belmont Club
7) 1 Captain's Quarters
7) 1 Wizbang



Dec. 20, 2004 DirectorBlue's Blog Power Rankings

Sunday, December 19, 2004

Offshoring the offshoring



Click here for AmazonInteresting column today from Siddharth Srivastava:

"The dynamics of the way the outsourcing business is being conducted is changing. Faced with rising business from the West, spiraling salaries of high cost employees who constantly hop jobs as well as a predicted shortage of skilled workers, Indian IT firms are doing the next best thing — outsourcing outsourced work from the U.S. to China."


Until now, India's reaped the biggest benefit from outsourcing. But when it comes to transnational economic forces nothing's etched in stone. The Chinese economy is growing by leaps and bounds and yes, they also know a little something about high-tech, thank you. (Lenovo, anybody?) What's more, the work force, which can meet -- and beat -- India on cost, is the largest in the world. And they increasingly speak English.

The unanswered question has to do with the future direction of China's government...


Offshoring the offshoring

The Man who Saved the World



Click here for AmazonStanislav Petrov... was in the commander's chair on Sept. 26, 1983, the night the world nearly blew up.

Tensions were high: Weeks earlier, on Sept. 1, Soviet fighters had shot down a Korean airliner, killing all 269 people aboard.

Petrov was in charge of the secret bunker where a team of 120 technicians and military officers monitored the Soviet Union's early-warning system. It was just after midnight when a new satellite array known as Oko, or The Eye, spotted five U.S. missiles heading toward Moscow. The Eye discerned that they were Minuteman II nuclear missiles.

Petrov's computer was demanding that he follow the prescribed protocol and confirm an incoming attack to his superiors. A red light on the computer that read START! kept flashing at him. And there was this baleful message: MISSILE ATTACK!

Petrov had written the emergency protocol himself, and he knew he should immediately pick up the hot line at his desk to tell his superiors that the Motherland was under attack...


LOST IN THE FALLOUT (Hat tip: PowerLine)

Real-time Traffic Maps



Click here for AmazonYahoo announced the availability of its integrated traffic-sensing and mapping system. Using a variety of sources, the main arteries of a city can be overlaid with real-time traffic data, color-coded to indicate clear sailing (green) down to 'don't bother driving this way' (red). Plainly put, this is cooler than 'Free Belvedere Martini Night' at the local Strip Club (jes' kiddin', honey!).

Can't you just imagine a day -- coming soon to a dashboard near you -- where you won't even have the choice to include a dedicated Navigation system in a new car? You'll either have the Auto/Internet package or not. If you purchase the A/I package, an on-board GPS system will be integrated with the car's browser, giving you a much more flexible and powerful navigation system that would include real-time traffic data and routing.

And not only will there be no need for proprietary, limited nav systems... there'll also be no separate OnStar-style emergency service link. Everything will be integrated under the aegis of an "Auto/Internet" package with a monthly charge.

High-speed links like Verizon's wireless broadband service will be utilized -- on a more standard computing platform -- and will enable a hybrid set of closely-tied services: Internet browser, Navigation+Traffic system, OnStar emergency services, etc.

Plus it'll read your email to you, which will be the big win for the Internet-addicted.

Yahoo Map overlaid with Real-Time Traffic

Saturday, December 18, 2004

Auto complete comes of age



If you haven't tried Google Suggest yet, click on the link right now and do so. Please. The characters at Google Labs -- who are more creative than Hunter S. Thompson on a Peyote-and-Tequila bender -- have come up with more simple, yet breakthrough technology. Simon Willison explains how it works.

Google Suggest, the latest bag of tricks from Google Labs, is a perfect example of how modern web applications are breaking out of the mold and becoming more interactive. It uses XMLHttpRequest to run queries against Google as yout type, proving an auto-complete box with the most likely results. As you might expect from Google, it's slick, intuitive and fits right in to their bare-bones interface.

The JavaScript that powers the feature is pretty well obfuscated, so if you want to see how it works your best bet is to install the Firefox/Mozilla Live HTTP Headers extension, set it up as a sidebar and watch what happens when you use the site. Basically, for every character you type it retrieves a page like this and evals the resulting string of JavaScript. It's the same kind of technique they use for Gmail.

XMLHttpRequest is a technology with amazing potential, and this is just the tip of the iceburg. The web's about to get a whole lot richer.


Simon Willison: Auto complete comes of age

Update: Jon Udell says that, while this breed of Google DHTML apps are cool, they still point out fundamental weaknesses in the browser development model. I think I said the something similar a while back, and suggested some evoluationary changes in JavaScript and DHTML.

Friday, December 17, 2004

This should be fun



For one night only, it'll be spitballs and Swift Boats together on the same stage — a who's who of Sen. John Kerry bashing.

The American Conservative Union on Thursday announced it has tapped Sen. Zell Miller, D-Ga., to present the "Courage Under Fire" award to the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth at the Conservative Political Action Conference's Feb. 18 banquet.

Miller and the group of Vietnam veterans were behind perhaps the campaign's two fiercest and most memorable attacks on Kerry's unsuccessful presidential bid.

Miller, who is retiring next month, scorched Kerry in a Republican National Convention keynote address in which he suggested the four-term Massachusetts Democrat had voted to cut so many weapons systems, it appeared he wanted to send the military to war with only spitballs.

The Swift Boat Veterans for Truth ran ads after the Democratic convention questioning whether Kerry was in fact the decorated Vietnam War veteran that he claimed to be.

"The swift boat veterans performed an invaluable service to America," Miller said in a statement. "These veterans took a lot of undeserved criticism for daring to speak the truth...".


Miller to Honor Swift Boat Vets' Group

If today's MSM had covered the Battle of the Bulge



Click here for AmazonHugh Hewitt points us to this outstanding and eerily accurate work of pseudo-fiction. What would the press coverage look like if today's mainstream media were covering the Battle of the Bulge. There are no Ernie Pyle's in today's bunch, that much is certain.

PARIS (Routers) Long-time critics of the Roosevelt administration declared themselves vindicated today, as the Germans began a renewed offensive yesterday in the Ardennes Forest in Belgium, opening a huge hole in the "Allied" lines and throwing back troops for miles, with previously unimaginable US casualties.

Early yesterday morning, eight German armored divisions and thirteen German infantry divisions launched an all-out attack on five divisions of the United States 1st Army. Hundreds of heavy guns, howitzers and multiple-rocket launchers were fired on American positions.

The 5th and 6th Panzer armies, consisting of some eleven divisions, broke through the Loshein Gap against the American divisions protecting the region. The 6th Panzer Army then headed north while the Fifth Panzer Army went south. The latter army attacked the U. S. VIII Corps some 100 miles to the south, which was quickly surrounded, resulting in mass surrenders of unprepared American soldiers. By any reasonable and objective standard, it was an utter military disaster for the "Allied" forces.

It all came as a complete shock to the Roosevelt administration who, rumor has it, had been informed by the head of OSS that the imminent collapse of the German army was a "lead-pipe cinch." This only confirmed reasonable pre-election suspicions that the administration and General Eisenhower were operating on flawed intelligence, and led the nation into an invasion of Europe on clearly false pretenses...


Transterrestrial: War Unwinnable In Face Of Renewed German Offensive

The $*#*!@^$# Bloggers



Click here for AmazonMary Beth Cahill, the campaign manager for John Kerry, spoke yesterday along with Ken Mehlman from Bush/Cheney '04, at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government.

She admitted that she underestimated the effect of the Swifty ads, but the telling line of the story follows:

Both sides also agreed that the Internet and other emerging news technologies have transformed the political process by making it more democratic and encouraging more people to become involved.


You can picture both Mehlman and Cahill answering this question about the effectiveness of the new media, namely the blogosphere. Mehlman would have a big smile on his face as he answered, and Cahill would be ready to spit. But now a little word about the writer of this story.

Steve LaBlanc filed the story for AP, and it is hysterical that he cannot use the words blog, blogger, or blogosphere. Emerging news technologies? What kind of sterile description is that?

In LaBlanc-ese, would John Kerry be considered a wooden presidential campaign unit?

What would the Global War On Terror translate to? Planetary Failure of Strife Resolution?

It's okay, Steve. Say the word. Say blog. We do exist. We have a name. We aren't necessarily coming after your job...yet. We are simply making sure you do yours.

You need not fear us, but camouflaging who we are and the role we played behind political correct speech is pretty ridiculous.


RadioBlogger: The $*#*!@^$# Bloggers

Thursday, December 16, 2004

Blame Bush on the Blog Awards



Click here for AmazonThe Blog Awards are over and I barely made it past 3%. No surprise. It's all one big popularity contest, if you ask me.

Besides, I knew it was over when the judges suddenly started enforcing their draconian set of "rules". That's how Republicans steal elections, boys and girls. Whenever people are forced to vote a certain way, at a certain place, at a certain time, it's the democrats who get the short end of the stick.

We saw it in Florida four years ago, when the GOP exploited "election laws" to invalidate thousands of "improperly or vaguely punched" ballots. Many ballots which would have otherwise been counted were thrown out simply because they weren't punched at all. We're seeing the same sort of shenannigans here in my own state, where the Reichpublicans are invoking bizarre, archaic voting regulations to disenfranchise honest Americans who didn't "follow instructions" and vote "correctly". We may live in a big Melting Pot, but if your vote doesn't fit in with their WASP, Aryan, Master Race idea of perfection, it gets shipped off to the furnaces with the rest of the undesirables.

It never used to be that way. The founding fathers were intentionally vague when writing election laws into the Constitution, for fear that that strict adherence to a concrete set of rules would lead to a fascist dictatorship. Election laws were merely meant to be "suggestions", like the Ten Commandments or traffic signals. In order to insure that Every Vote is Counted, it would be necessary to "bend the rules", and speed through a red light every once in a while, t-boning a Ford Mustang and killing everyone inside for the sake of democracy. It wasn't until white slaveholders concocted a "Poll Tax" to supress the Black vote that Republicans learned to manipulate elections through the strict interpretation of election laws...


Blame Bush: Blog Awards '04

Tehran Recruiters Openly Seek Jihad Martyrs



Click here for AmazonHugh Hewitt points us to this blatant and war-like behavior on the part of the Mullahs. As Donald Rumsfeld says, "they're not making good choices".

The 300 men filling out forms in the offices of an Iranian aid group were offered three choices: Train for suicide attacks against U.S. troops in Iraq, for suicide attacks against Israelis or to assassinate British author Salman Rushdie.

It looked at first glance like a gathering on the fringes of a society divided between moderates, who want better relations with the world, and hard-line Muslim militants hostile toward the United States and Israel.

But the presence of two key figures — a prominent Iranian lawmaker and a member of the country's elite Revolutionary Guards — lent the meeting more legitimacy and was a clear indication of at least tacit support from some within Iran's government.

Since that inaugural June meeting in a room decorated with photos of Israeli soldiers' funerals, the registration forms for volunteer suicide commandos have appeared on Tehran's streets and university campuses, and there is no sign that Iran's government is trying to stop the shadowy movement.

On Nov. 12, the day that Iranians traditionally hold pro-Palestinian protests, a spokesman for the Headquarters for Commemorating Martyrs of the Global Islamic Movement said the movement signed up at least 4,000 new volunteers...

..."At a time when the U.S. is committing the crimes we see now, deprived nations have no weapon other than martyrdom. It's evident that Iran's foreign policy-makers have to take the dignified opinions of this group into consideration," said Mr. Kouchakzadeh, who also is a former member of the Revolutionary Guards.

...In general, Iran portrays Israel as its main nemesis and backs anti-Israeli groups such as Lebanon's Hezbollah. It says that it has no interest in fomenting instability in Iraq and that it tries to block any infiltration into Iraq by insurgents — while pleading that its porous borders are hard to police.

...Mr. Samadi said that 30,000 volunteers have signed up and that 20,000 of them have been chosen for training. Volunteers already had carried out suicide operations against military targets inside Israel, he said.

But he said discussing attacks against U.S. troops in Iraq "will cause problems for the country's foreign policy. It will have grave consequences for our country and our group. It's confidential."

As devoted Muslims, members of his group were simply fulfilling their religious obligations as laid out by Ayatollah Khomeini, he said... "With this religious verdict, we don't need anybody's permission to fight an enemy that has occupied Muslim lands."


Militant recruiters out in open in Tehran

Ahhh, the peat... *



Click here for AmazonThe next time someone asks about liberal media bias, just point them to this AP story about the Swift Vets. Excerpts:

The Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, a group of Republican-funded Vietnam War veterans who patrolled the same Mekong Delta in Swift boats similar to the ones piloted by Navy Lt. John Kerry, challenged Kerry’s accounts of his medal-winning service and anti-war protests.


Feel the bias! Republican-funded? How often have you heard MoveOn.org referred to as a “Democrat-funded” organization?

And notice how the Swifties are described as “Vietnam War veterans who patrolled the same Mekong Delta in Swift boats similar to the ones piloted by Navy Lt. John Kerry.” No mention of the fact that they all served in the same unit. Or that John O’Neill took over Kerry’s Swift boat when Kerry left Vietnam. Or that Steve Gardner was Kerry’s gunner. You’d think Kerry was a complete stranger to the Swifties.

It gets worse:

[Kerry campaign manager Mary Beth Cahill] said it was frustrating that the first ad continued to eat up so much air time even after the central allegations were debunked.


Debunked?? When did that happen? Every one of the Swifties’ charges still stands. The only debunking has been of Kerry’s Excellent Cambodian Adventure.

And the lying liberal media wonders why we don’t listen to them anymore.


PoliPundit: Ahhh, the peat...

*Obscure Seinfeld reference

Wednesday, December 15, 2004

All Intifada, All the Time



Click here for AmazonAriel Cohen has a good piece about the flagship propaganda channels of the global jihad, Al Jazeera and Al Manar: All Intifada, All the Time.

Since 9/11, the U.S. Government has expressed its concerns about al Jazeera’s biased coverage to the Emir of Qatar. A State Department official told CNN that Secretary of State Colin Powell and the emir "had a frank exchange" on the issue and "there should have been no mistake of where we are coming from." Condoleezza Rice has also criticized the channel. No wonder: typical coverage would include the following pictures shown in quick succession: tiny bodies of Iraqi children supposedly killed by American bombs, woman in a chador sobbing, a giant American B-52 bomber, and fireballs lighting up the Baghdad night sky. One American observer in the Middle East calls al Jazeera "All Intifada, all the time."

Al Manar, however, makes al Jazeera look like PBS. A new study by Avi Jorisch, a former Pentagon Arab media and terrorism expert, published by the Washington Institute for Near East Studies, exposes this deadly media weapon wielded by Hizballah. "The United States is one of al-Manar’s main targets. Hizballah views America as a terrorist state... Al Manar is used to further that perception, attempting to win the hearts and minds of Arab and Muslim viewers by waging a powerful public relations campaign against the 'Great Satan.'" writes Jorisch.

He quotes Sheikh Nasrallah, Hizbollah’s Secretary General in a March 2002 speech:

"Today the main source of evil in this world, the main source of terrorism... the central threat to international peace and to the economic development... the main threat to the environment, the main source of ... killing and turmoil, and civil wars, and regional wars is the United States of America. The American political discourse is to terrorize the countries of the world. American is a beast in all meanings of the world. A beast that is hungry for power and blood."

Al Manar focuses much of its broadcasts on alleged American atrocities towards Native Americans, blacks, and the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, while stating that U.S. "oppression" continues unabated. Al Manar brainwashes its audience, including its viewers in the U.S., that America’s foreign policy is designed to "enslave the governments and people of the Middle East and their resources."



LGF: All Intifada All the Time

Try not to Cry



Click here for AmazonTry not to sob as you watch this (hat tip: LGF). Heh.

Serious about Syria



Click here for AmazonIn the fall of 1998, the Turkish army mobilized for war against Syria. For years, the Kurdish PKK had trained in Syria and used it as a base from which to wage a terrorist campaign in neighboring Turkey, at a cost of some 35,000 lives. PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan lived more or less openly in Damascus. Years of Turkish diplomatic pressure on Syria to close the camps and expel Ocalan had been unavailing. Finally, the Turks made it plain to then Syrian dictator Hafez Assad that he faced a choice between expelling the PKK for good and having his country invaded. Assad capitulated. Within a year, Ocalan was in jail and the PKK had ceased its attacks...

...It helps to understand the full scope of Syrian malfeasance [in Iraq]. So far, the U.S. has accused Syria only of allowing foreign fighters to transit to Iraq. But a report in the Washington Post notes that a global positioning signal receiver found in a Fallujah bomb factory "contained waypoints originating in Western Syria."

Fedayeen interviewed by Western media say they received training in light weapons, explosives and hit-and-run operations at camps in Syria. These camps are likely financed by the $2.5 billion Saddam Hussein is believed to have stashed in Syrian banks before the war. In April, Jordanian intelligence captured an al Qaeda cell as it planned a chemical-weapons attack in Amman. That cell, too, was apparently trained in Syria.

...In an interview in the Lebanese paper Al-Safir, Syrian President Bashar Assad was no less explicit when he offered Lebanon circa 1983 as an example of how the U.S. was to be fought in Iraq: "Lebanon was under Israeli occupation, up to its capital, but we did not consider that a disaster. Why? Because it was very clear there are ways to resist. The problem is not the occupation, but how people deal with it. . . . [In Iraq] the solution is resistance."

...Mr. Assad's calculation is that the U.S. is too tied down in Iraq to entertain any action against Syria.

Maybe. But the fact remains that Syria is providing material support to terrorist groups killing American soldiers in Iraq while openly calling on Iraqis to join the "resistance." So far, the Bush Administration has responded with mixed political signals and weak gestures. That's not something that impresses the Assad family, as the Turks found out. But as the Turks found out as well, there are ways to get the message across to this regime.


WSJ: Serious about Syria

Tuesday, December 14, 2004

Something Monumental



Click here for AmazonReader Harold Stones works for Senator Pat Roberts of Kansas. Mr. Stones writes:

I have become friends with Chris Phelps, a young Marine officer. Chris emailed me that he was about to be deployed for his second tour of duty in Iraq. He is married, has four sons, all younger than 7. I responded that I doubted his wife, Lisa, was overjoyed and, allthough her parents live nearby, I asked Chris to give her my office, home and cellphone numbers in the event they need anything. I think his message is well worth sharing.


Of course, we agree. Here is the response from Major Phelps that Mr. Stones forwarded to us:

No Lisa isn't happy, and I was just talking to my two oldest sons last night about sacrifice. (Sort of prepping the battlefield, but we've talked about the subject for two years.) I want them to understand the topic and what it means to be an American....really more what it means to stay an American and what citizens of this great country must do to secure that concept. It's amazing how a 6.5 and a 5 year old can really understand it, and actually converse back with an adult on the topic. It's going to be hard on them.

I hope I'm not too naive but this is what's in my head. I continually tell myself and I wholeheartedly believe that if we as a country can confront terrorism and rogue nation-states that support terrorist acts and if we can bring peace, hope, freedoms, and democracy to a country in the heart of the Middle East while at the same time solidifying the security, freedom, and liberties of this great nation then my sacrifice is inconsequential. If I am asked to partake in some small way to accomplish this goal then I say take me before my four sons are confronted with this problem in 20 years and they are forced to clean up a problem that has only festered, become increasingly worse and a problem that we should have confronted twenty years earlier. We are doing the right thing, and America needs to stand united and reaffirm to themselves every now and then that we are in fact doing the right thing. I think I'm a free minded thinker, and I'm not "brainwashed" by the President, Mr. Rumsfield, or some "right wing propaganda conspiracy theory." I really think we're attempting to accomplish something monumental. I guess we'll see.

Mr. Stones, you've been good to my family and so has Senator Roberts. Thank you for that. I look forward to seeing you again.

Best regards,
Chris Phelps
Major, United States Marine Corps



PowerLine: A word from Major Phelps, USMC

Rebuilding Iraq



Click here for AmazonAs its conclusion approaches, there’s still not a single representative from the left side of the blogosphere in the Spirit of America Blogger Challenge. How sad. How typical.

Sarah at trying to grok makes an excellent point:

My old roommate writes poetry to speak out against the war. Atrios’ readers use their filthy mouths to denigrate right-leaning bloggers. But what have they done of substance? If you oppose the war, shouldn’t you support helping Iraqis put their country back together? Regardless of whether Bush looks like a chimp or not, shouldn’t the idea that someone is raising money to help the common people of Iraq be a good thing? If you believe the war was wrong, shouldn’t you believe the people of Iraq were right and thus want to help them?

It’s warmongers and chickenhawks who have raised $62865.72 so far for the people of Iraq. As far as I understand, there’s not a lefty blog among the participants. I find that very sad.

My old roommate writes anti-war poems. I donated to Spirit of America. Which one of us has done more to help the people of Iraq?



Of Money and Mouths