Wednesday, July 20, 2005

The Call Center of the Future


Picture credit: http://www.claybennett.com
Excel web sharing - spreadsheet collaboration over the Internet made easy with BadBlueThere's little doubt in my mind that future call centers will include polygraph-like capabilities. So... did you really make that payment, Mr. Johnson?

...A few call centers in Europe are experimenting with computers that analyze not what a caller is saying but how. Software parses dozens of parameters pertaining to the tone, volume, and frequency of the caller's voice, and the computer pings the agent when something seems unusual - say, a tone that suggests a lie on an insurance claim. A few more questions and, if things still seem fishy, the claim gets flagged for further verification. Advocates of the technology say call centers in the UK with emotion detectors installed have reduced fraudulent claims by 25 percent, and one manufacturer says its algorithms can sense and quantify a broad range of human emotion: irritation, duplicity, delight, and even sexual arousal.

...Blame cheap storage media. More often than not, calls are digitally recorded and locked away for later analysis. Tens, even hundreds, of millions of calls are archived daily and indexed by time of day, agent name, extension, and originating phone number. Many of the archives also store synchronized records of the computer screens the agent viewed and what information he or she entered during the call. All that data collection lets companies review employee performance, streamline call handling, and maintain detailed records in case they get sued.


Wired: Call Now - Robots Are Standing By

Tuesday, July 19, 2005

The Genius and the Group Blog


I feel that I must call your attention to two items. One is from mainstream media and one is an examplar of new media. The first is the Chicago Sun-Times, which routinely features the finest columnist on the planet, Mark Steyn.

In his most recent column, Steyn brutalizes the ridiculous Joe Wilson, using everything but a baseball bat and a cattle prod.

This controversy began, you'll recall, because Wilson objected to a line in the president's State of the Union speech that British intelligence had discovered that Iraq had been trying to acquire ''yellowcake'' -- i.e., weaponized uranium -- from Africa. This assertion made Bush, in Wilson's incisive analysis, a ''liar'' and Cheney a ''lying sonofabitch.''

In fact, the only lying sonafabitch turned out to be Yellowcake Joe. Just about everybody on the face of the earth except Wilson, the White House press corps and the moveon.org crowd accepts that Saddam was indeed trying to acquire uranium from Africa. Don't take my word for it; it's the conclusion of the Senate intelligence report, Lord Butler's report in the United Kingdom, MI6, French intelligence, other European services -- and, come to that, the original CIA report based on Joe Wilson's own briefing to them...

Here's the thing: They're still pulling body parts from London's Tube tunnels. Too far away for you? No local angle? OK, how about this? Magdy el-Nashar. He's a 33-year old Egyptian arrested Friday morning in Cairo, and thought to be what they call a ''little emir'' -- i.e., the head honcho in the local terrorist cell, the one who fires up the suicide bombers. Until his timely disappearance, he was a biochemist studying at Leeds University and it's in his apartment the London bombs were made. Previously he was at North Carolina State University.

So this time round he blew up London rather than Washington. Next time, who knows? Who cares? Here's another fellow you don't read much about in America: Kamel Bourgass. He had a plan to unleash ricin in London. Fortunately, the cops got wind of that one and three months ago he was convicted and jailed. Just suppose, instead of the British police raiding Bourgass' apartment but missing el-Nashar's, it had been the other way around, and ricin had been released in aerosol form on the Tube.

Kamel Bourgass and Magdy el-Nashar are real people, not phantoms conjured by those lyin' sonsofbitches Bush and Cheney. And to those who say, "but that's why Iraq is a distraction from the war on terror," sorry, it doesn't work like that. It's not either/or; it's a string of connections: unlimited Saudi money, Westernized Islamist fanatics, supportive terrorist states, proliferating nuclear technology. One day it all comes together and there goes the neighborhood. Here's another story you may have missed this week:

''Iran will resume uranium enrichment if the European Union does not recognize its right to do so, two Iranian nuclear negotiators said in an interview published Tuesday.''

Got that? If you don't let us go nuclear, we'll go nuclear. Negotiate that, John Kerry. As with Bourgass and el-Nashar, Hossein Moussavian and Cyrus Nasseri are real Iranian negotiators, not merely the deranged war fantasies of Bush and Cheney...


Breathe deeply the fragrant perfume of wisdom and read the whole thing.

And, as a political group blog, PoliPundit reigns supreme. If you haven't visited recently, here are some snippets of what you've missed.

I caught Dennis Miller at the MGM Grand... hilarious... [but some] serious moments, too. The one that stood out was his pitch about the global war against Islamo-fascist terrorism. The harsh reality is that there is no [such place as] “al-Qaeda-istan" ...

...don’t underestimate the extent to which mainstream GOP political candidates can exploit mainstream voters’ inherent distrust of Democrats on issues such as: crime & punishment, hunting rights, and gun rights... Just ask Max Cleland. Or Jeanne Shaheen. Or Kathleen Kennedy Townshend. Or Tom Daschle... And given the fact the Democrat Party recently has turned over to the GOP 65 net U.S. House seats and 13 net U.S. Senate seats – despite the Democrat corpse, felon, drone, and family pet blocs... it’s only a matter of time before what’s left of the “Party of the People” finds itself in an irrevocable political {ahem} stranglehold

...It is 36 years today since Ted Kennedy thought his car was a submarine...

John Tierney in the New York Times writes an amusing and perceptive piece about the [Plame affair]. The money line reads, “For now, though, it looks as if this scandal is about a spy who was not endangered, a whistle-blower who did not blow the whistle and was not smeared, and a White House official who has not been fired for a felony that he did not commit. And so far the only victim is a reporter who did not write a story about it.”

Whom will the President select [as a Supreme Court nominee]? When will he announce the nomination? [And how] soon after that will Ted Kennedy start talking about segregated lunch counters?


PoliPundit: just go there.

Monday, July 18, 2005

Jose Maria Aznar Drops Some Science on the Left


Picture credit: http://gojackarmy.castpost.com
CG Sniper VideoThe indispensible LGF points us to a blogosphere exclusive. In an article in the Italian periodical Il Messaggero, Jose Maria Aznar -- former Prime Minister of Spain -- addresses the true nature of the global war on terror.

Attention, Messrs. Oliphant, Teepen, Herbert, et. al.: do you think -- perchance -- the former Prime Minister of Spain   knows just a skosh more about the war on terror than, say, any of you?

Drink deeply from the chalice of wisdom and read the whole thing:

...The adversary who stands before us is an enemy who has declared war on us: very simply, he has declared it and he has acted on his declaration. Just like Adolph Hitler in his day, Bin Laden has written and repeated very clearly what his objectives are and what his vision is for the world: a theocracy capable of bringing about the restoration of the Caliphate and imposing Koranic law from Al-Andalus (the name the Arabs gave to the Iberian Peninsula in the long period of their dominance), all the way to the Philippine Islands.

Bin Laden hates everything that is Western, not only for historical reasons but also for what he sees in the West: a civilization which promotes prosperity over poverty and equality over injustice; a civilization which, in the place of intolerance, advances the ideals of religious pluralism and the separation of Church and State.

He hates us, in essence, because of what we are. It is irrelevant, therefore, to connect the London bombings with any other concrete action or event. Islamic terror operates on a very different set of motivations in determining when and how it will strike. Whether we like it or not, the fact is that Al Qaeda is at war with us. And in time of war, one must necessarily change one’s mindset...

if Al Qaeda, in spite of recent events, still is weaker today than it was in the past, this fact is due to the aggressive action and constant pressure applied by the United States with the cooperation of the international coalition in places as remote as Afghanistan, the Philippines, Mauritania, and Iraq. Yes, Iraq. The activities of intelligence agents, soldiers, and special forces have substantially reduced the ability of Bin Laden’s men to plan and carry out new attacks. Without a doubt, Al Qaeda is weaker today because it has not left us waiting for a new strike...


THE WAY TO FIGHT TERRORISM IS TO KEEP OUR GUARD UP by Jose Maria Aznar

Sunday, July 17, 2005

Ask not for whom the bell tolls, Joe Wilson


Photo
This drawing, included in a patent application, shows how an inflatable space shield could help a satellite evade detection. Observers believe the satellite known as Misty may have used such a shield (MSNBC)

The distant ringing sound you just heard was the death knell on the Rove story. The LA Times is now asking, "If Karl Rove was source No. 2, who was source No. 1?"

For those not practiced in the partisan ways of the LA Dog Trainer Times, this basically translates to, "Like a slippery eel, the diabolical Rove has escaped our grasp; therefore, who else in the administration could we nail to the wall?"

The Democrats were so close they could taste it. And, once again, they've been stymied - with the door slammed shut in their faces at the very last moment. The key question remains: what secret is Judith Miller still holding dear, now that Rove is out of the picture?

If the MSM/DNC is so concerned about national security leaks, perhaps they could investigate the following incident, which makes the Plame affair look as significant as a dropped jalapeƱo at the Texas State Chili Cook-Off.

Late last year, the AP reported that the Justice Department had been asked to investigate the disclosure of classified information regarding a "stealth US spy satellite program."

Four Democratic senators had gone public with details of the highly sensitive program: Jay Rockefeller (D-WV), Dick Durbin (D-IL), Carl Levin (D-MI), and Ron Wyden (D-OR), ostensibly because they were concerned about its cost:

...last month, several U.S. senators openly blew the whistle on a mystery spy satellite program, critical of its high cost... One lawmaker, Jay D. Rockefeller, D-W.V., the vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, openly criticized the program on the Senate floor. He said the program "is totally unjustified and very wasteful and dangerous to national security," adding that he has voted to terminate the program for two years, with no success.

There is now a delicate dance under way between issues of national security and open public scrutiny about taxpayer dollars being spent wisely or squandered. Meanwhile, the swirl of secrecy seems to be revolving around a top-secret "stealthy" satellite project, code-named Misty...


If that's not bad enough, perhaps the Democrats could investigate reports of a more serious outing incident that makes the Plame affair looking positively trivial in comparison:

...April 11th of this year, Senate Foreign Affairs Committee hearing, during the questioning of John Bolton, who's Bush's nominee to be ambassador to the UN, Senator Kerry said this.

KERRY: Could I just take one moment, 30 seconds, Mr. Chairman? This is reading from Mr. Flights' interview where he says, "Did Otto Reich share his belief that Fulton Armstrong should be removed from his position?" The answer is yes. Did John Bolton share that view? Mr. Flight said yes.

BOLTON: As I said, I had lost confidence in "Mr. Smith" and I conveyed that. I thought that was the honest thing to do.


What you just heard here was John Kerry blowing the cover of a CIA operative in his zeal to attack John Bolton. He identified him by name. This is exactly what Rove is accused of doing and didn't do. Here is John Kerry actually having done it.


I won't hold my breath waiting for Democrats to call for investigations into either of these incidents, which appear far more damaging to the national interest than anything related to Plame.

Update:

Clifford May, writing in the National Review Online, has a theory about who outed Wilson's wife. First, let's review what Novak actually said:

"Wilson never worked for the CIA, but his wife, Valerie Plame, is an Agency operative on weapons of mass destruction..."

No mention of working undercover, right? So if Novak didn't reveal Plame's supposed status as a NOC, who did? May believes that evidence suggests it was Joe Wilson himself:

The first reference to Plame being a secret agent appears in The Nation, in an article by David Corn published July 16, 2003, just two days after Novak’s column appeared. It carried this lead: “Did Bush officials blow the cover of a U.S. intelligence officer working covertly in a field of vital importance to national security — and break the law — in order to strike at a Bush administration critic and intimidate others?”

Since Novak did not report that Plame was “working covertly” how did Corn know that’s what she had been doing?

...Corn... claims that Wilson “will not confirm nor deny that his wife …works for the CIA.” Corn adds: “But let’s assume she does. That would seem to mean that the Bush administration has screwed one of its own top-secret operatives in order to punish Wilson …”

On what basis could Corn “assume” that Plame was not only working covertly but was actually a “top-secret” operative? And where did Corn get the idea that Plame had been “outed” in order to punish Wilson? That is not suggested by anything in the Novak column...

The likely answer: The allegation that someone in the administration leaked to Novak as a way to punish Wilson was made by Wilson — to Corn. But Corn, rather than quote Wilson, puts the idea forward as his own...

Saturday, July 16, 2005

Is the Mainstream Media the Enemy?


Photo
The accompanying photo, broadcast and distributed in print throughout the world, depicts an Israeli soldier brutalizing an innocent Palestinian. At least that's what the MSM, including the New York Times, said. The facts behind the picture? The man beaten within an inch of his life is Tuvia Grossman, an American, who was pulled out of his vehicle by a Palestinian mob and assaulted.

The invaluable LGF occasionally posts brief blurbs about the media's odd behavior with respect to the global war on terror. Each is labeled under the heading, "The Media Is the Enemy". And each describes an MSM article or anecdote ranging from disenguous to blatantly dishonest.

Think they're a bit off-kilter in targeting outlets like Reuters and the Associated Press? Well, frankly, how else to explain odd linkages between the press and terror groups? For example, consider the terrorist mastermind who played a role in a Reuters reporter's going-away party:

Top terrorist Zakaria Zubeidi made a “guest appearance” in a video prepared by the staff of Reuters news agency in Israel and the Palestinian Authority as a “going away” gift for a colleague...


Or the report that Agency France Presse and the Associate Press employed reporters who simultaneously received paychecks from the Palestinian Authority?

Agence France-Presse (AFP) and Associated Press (AP) ― have employed journalists with inappropriately close ties to the Palestinian Authority. Majida al-Batsh was a Palestinian affairs correspondent for AFP for many years, while simultaneously being on the payroll of the Palestinian Authority as a reporter for the PA's official organ, Al-Ayyam. If this is not evidence enough of impropriety at AFP, last year Batsh announced she would actually run for the presidency of the Palestinian Authority...


And how else to explain the July Fifth "March against terror" in Iraq, that you never heard about?

On July 5, more than 1,000 Iraqi citizens joined with Iraqi Army and police to march against terror. And mainstream media could not possibly have cared less.


How else to justify calling cold-blooded killers of scores of innocent children "insurgents" rather than what they are: terrorists.

...the use of the term "insurgents" by the mainstream media -- a conscious/unconscious attempt to cloak a rag-tag amalgamation of fascists, jihadists and common criminals in the romantic mantle of Pancho Villa -- should now be placed in the junk pile. "Insurgents," in most historical uses, has referred to groups trying to upset an illegitimate or semi-legitimate regime... It's time for the mainstream media to start calling the terrorists by their true names and ideological identities, such as they are. There is no justification any longer for the use of the euphemism "insurgents," unless you are writing pro-fascist propaganda...


Finally, one MSM outlet has put a stake in the ground. Yesterday's editorial in the Dallas Morning News offered stark admission of some fundamental flaws in MSM nomenclature (Call Them What They Are: Those who murder Iraqi civilians are terrorists):

Today, this editorial board resolves to sacrifice another word – “insurgent” – on the altar of precise language. No longer will we refer to suicide bombers or anyone else in Iraq who targets and kills children and other innocent civilians as “insurgents.”

...As children crowded around U.S. soldiers handing out candy and toys in a gesture of good will, a bomb-laden SUV rolled up and exploded.

These children were not collateral damage. They were targets.

The SUV driver was no insurgent. He was a terrorist.

People who set off bombs on London trains are not insurgents. We would never think of calling them anything other than what they are – terrorists.

Train bombers in Madrid? Terrorists.

Chechen rebels who take over a Russian school and execute children? Terrorists.

Teenagers who strap bombs to their chests and detonate them in an Israeli cafe? Terrorists.

IRA killers? Basque separatist killers? Hotel bombers in Bali? Terrorists all.

Words have meanings. Whether too timid, sensitive or “open-minded,” we’ve resisted drawing a direct line between homicidal bombers everywhere else in the world and the ones who blow up Iraqi civilians or behead aid workers.

No more. To call them “insurgents” insults every legitimate insurgency in modern history. They are terrorists.


It's high time the diminishing readership of mainstream newspapers told the editors and publishers what's on their minds before cancelling their subscriptions. It's one thing to offer honest dissent and criticism. Collaboration, obfuscation or encouragement of the enemies of the United States? That's another thing altogether. As it stands, the MSM is about as relevant as a can of lard in a GNC store. More and more citizens simply ignore it.

Friday, July 15, 2005

1776


Picture credit: http://www9.sbs.com.au/
Excel web sharing - spreadsheet collaboration over the Internet made easy with BadBlueThe dead-enders struck again on Wednesday, this time detonating a car bomb that killed 32 people. Most of them were children, who had gathered around a group of U.S. soldiers handing out candy.

Oops, I'm sorry, according to bloated geniuses like Michael Moore, the terrorists are "minutemen":

The Iraqis who have risen up against the occupation are not "insurgents" or "terrorists" or "The Enemy." They are the REVOLUTION, the Minutemen, and their numbers will grow -- and they will win. Get it, Mr. Bush?


Moore is hardly a lone voice among the cacophony of today's Left-leaning celebrities. How about NBC's Brian Williams? At the end of June, he compared the founding fathers of the U.S. with the terrorists:

...several U.S. presidents were at minimum revolutionaries, and probably were considered terrorists of their time...


Photo
1776 (IMDB)

Beheadings, suicide bombings, mass-murder of children, extreme religious intolerance... nope, I'm not coming up with images of John Adams, George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, and Thomas Jefferson in my head. But maybe that's just me.

Maybe it's time that the Moores and Williamses of the world watched -- Clockwork Orange-style -- the musical 1776. At least then they'd have no excuses for demonstrating their Olympic medal-class ignorance.

Thursday, July 14, 2005

Mega-Tsunami


Picture credit: http://www.occultopedia.com
Excel web sharing - spreadsheet collaboration over the Internet made easy with BadBlueIf you don't have enough things in your life to stress you out, there's always the Mega-Tsunami:

La Palma is the largest of the Canary Islands, a territory of Spain located 700 miles off the west coast of Africa. It is a dormant volcano. In 1949 during its last eruption, a huge slab weighing an estimated 500 billion tons sheared loose, slid down a few feet towards the Atlantic Ocean below, and stopped.

Today it hangs there precariously, effectively an arrow on a drawn-back bow aimed at the heart of America. A small nuclear detonation in just the right place could set it loose to slide the rest of the way into the Atlantic, with disastrous consequences.

As noted by the British Broadcasting Corporation, "What will happen when the volcano on La Palma collapses? Scientists predict that it will generate a wave that will be almost inconceivably destructive, far bigger than anything ever witnessed in modern times. It will surge across the entire Atlantic in a matter of hours, engulfing the whole US east coast, sweeping away everything in its path up to 20km inland. Boston would be hit first, followed by New York, then all the way down the coast to Miami and the Caribbean."


Mega-Tsunami

Wednesday, July 13, 2005

The New York Papers are on a Roll


Picture credit: http://sonicgallery.com
Excel web sharing - spreadsheet collaboration over the Internet made easy with BadBlueIt's true, I've noticed some exceptional news coverage and analysis from the New York papers recently. Pity the Times hasn't risen to the challenge.


First item: the Sun's Seth Lipsky astutely points out that Bush's sentiments regarding Supreme Court nominations are effectively restated by this editorial:

The Supreme Court, by its very nature, must be a conservative body; it is the conservator of our institutions, it protects the people against the errors of their legislative servants, it is the defender of the Constitution itself. To place upon the Supreme Bench judges who hold a different view of the function of the court, to supplant conservatism by radicalism, would be to undo the work of John Marshall and strip the Constitution of its defenses. It would introduce endless confusion where order has resigned, it would tend to give force and effect to any whim or passion of the hour, to crown with success any transitory agitation engaged in by a part of the people, overriding the matured judgment of all the people as expressed in their fundamental law.


You guessed it: that was a New York Times editorial from 1916.


Second item: The Post's John Podhoretz restates the obvious regarding the Wilson-Plame affair:

...a 2004 British inquiry chaired by Lord Butler put it: "We conclude that, on the basis of the intelligence assessments at the time, covering both Niger and the Democratic Republic of Congo, the statements on Iraqi attempts to buy uranium from Africa in the Government's dossier, and by the Prime Minister in the House of Commons, were well-founded."

What isn't controversial is this: Karl Rove didn't "out" Valerie Plame as a CIA agent to intimidate Joe Wilson. He was dismissing Joe Wilson as a low-level has-been hack to whom nobody should pay attention. He was right then, and if he said it today, he'd still be right.

And if Valerie Plame wants to live a quiet spy life, she should stop having her picture taken by society photographers and stop getting stories written about her on the front page of the Times...


While the Journal goes on to call Rove a "whistle-blower":

...In short, Joe Wilson hadn't told the truth about what he'd discovered in Africa, how he'd discovered it, what he'd told the CIA about it, or even why he was sent on the mission. The media and the Kerry campaign promptly abandoned him, though the former never did give as much prominence to his debunking as they did to his original accusations. But if anyone can remember another public figure so entirely and thoroughly discredited, let us know...

As for the press corps, rather than calling for Mr. Rove to be fired, they ought to be grateful to him for telling the truth.



Of course, some of the New York papers still employ their long-time, failed theater-critics op-ed columnists, whose rants are frequently eviscerated in embarassing fashion. Witness this takedown of Bob Herbert by Faces from the Front.

“We want to inform the Ummah [all Muslim believers] that your brothers in the Al Qaida organization will not stop Jihad until the Sharia of Allah is the only source of laws on earth.”

When I first read those words from an Al Qaida In The Land of Two Rivers press release in April, shortly after the insurgent's failed attack on Abu Ghraib, I was obviously wrong about about their goals and how to deal with terrorism.

I am so grateful the New York Time's Bob Herbert and The Guardian's Gary Younge set me straight... Published in 1964, and given its prominence in Muslim political theory, I thought Qutb's Milestones, would be a good foundation from which to understand the roots of [Jihadism].

But, Gary Younge corrects my youthful err, "What he would not acknowledge is that [Blair's] alliance with President George Bush has been sowing the seeds and fertilising the soil in the Gulf, for yet more to grow. The invasion and occupation of Iraq - illegal, immoral and inept - provided the Arab world with one more legitimate grievance."

You see, I thought the roots of [Jihadism], at least the philosophical ones, were grown in the late 19th and early 20th Century by Muhammed Abduh, Hassan al-Banna and Sayyid Abu'l-A'la Mawdudi.

Obviouly the organizations... and philosophies developed by these men play little or no role [in] today's... terrorism. Their complaints about the back sliding of Islam, and the need for Muslims to confront the the west were the rantings of gadflys...

As the Time's Bob Herbert notes, "Whatever one's views on the war, thoughtful Americans need to consider the damage it is doing to the United States, and the bitter anger that it has provoked among Muslims around the world. That anger is spreading like an unchecked fire in an incredibly vast field."

What was I thinking? [Jihadists] only began to hate the West when Bush was elected. I mean, that bombing of the World Trade Center back in 1993... the Hijacking of the Achille Lauro in 1985... the Embassy Bombings in 1998--those were all related to something else...


Bathe in the fount of wisdom and read the whole thing.

Maybe some day, the geniuses at the Times will take off their intellectual-dishonesty blinders and have an open, realistic conversation about the world in which we live.

Tuesday, July 12, 2005

Frog-march Watch


Picture credit: http://pharyngula.org
Excel web sharing - spreadsheet collaboration over the Internet made easy with BadBlueLeon at RedState neatly ties together the loose ends (hat tip: Ms. Malkin):

  • Wilson lied about how he got to Niger

  • Wilson lied about seeing a report that didn't exist at the time

  • Wilson lied about the conclusions of his own report

  • Wilson lied about what the administration had been told


  • ...[And] in the course of attempting to discredit the ludicrously false claims, someone in the White House (presumably Rove) told the press that Wilson was sent to Niger on dubious premises in the first place (the recommendation of his wife), without giving the name of Wilson's wife, which Rove apparently did not know.

    When this story first broke on the scene, I thought that Rove should properly be banished from the administration team, despite the fact that even at that time it was pretty clear that no crime took place. However, given the serial and politically motivated lies of Wilson and Plame, it's clear that the fairy tale the liberals have constructed in which Plame was the heroic CIA agent unjustly outed by Arch-Demon Karl Rove is totally and completely false - and I won't be shedding any more tears about either of their fates.


    That being said, if Rove violated any laws, he should prosecuted fully and completely. But I wouldn't look for him to be frog-marched out of the White House anytime soon. We still don't know who told Novak about Plame.

    Monday, July 11, 2005

    Marking the End of the 'Covenant of Security'


    LondonistanThe British authorities continue to track the perpetrators of last week's atrocities. A leaked report from Number 10 Downing Street points to some of the possible motivations behind the bombings. And, oddly enough, Iraq wasn't the original impetus in recruiting disaffected British extremists:

    The perception is that passive ‘oppression’, as demonstrated in British foreign policy, e.g., non-action on Kashmir and Chechnya, has given way to ‘active oppression’. The war on terror, and in Iraq and Afghanistan, are all seen by a section of British Muslims as having been acts against Islam.”

    In an interview yesterday, Blair denied that the London terrorist attacks were a direct result of British involvement in the Iraq war. He said Russia had suffered terrorism with the Beslan school massacre despite its opposition to the war, and terrorists were planning further attacks on Spain even after the pro-war government was voted out.

    “September 11 happened before Iraq, before Afghanistan, before any of these issues and that was the worst terrorist atrocity of all,” he said.


    The fact is, using the traditional (but often misguided) equation that tolerance will always yield understanding, the British have ignored a high degree of outrageous, anti-Western speech, as exemplied by this 2004 press release from the organization running the "Londonistan under Islam Rally":

    ...it is a fundamental belief of every Muslim that Islam will one day dominate the world, including Britain, it is just a matter of time. Today we call for the people to embrace Islam and change the law and order themselves – tomorrow an Islamic State may forcefully remove all obstacles in the way of the implementation of Islamic law, as part of its foreign policy...


    That doesn't sound much like peaceful coexistence to me.

    In fact, this July 2004 report from the San Francisco Chronicle described last year's state-of-affairs:

    The presence of militants... has earned the British capital the sobriquet "Londonistan" among diplomats and terrorism experts, who see London as a worldwide center of Islamic terrorism.

    "The Islamists use Britain as a propaganda base but wouldn't do anything to a country that harbors them and gives them freedom of speech," Camille Tawil, a terrorism expert at the Arabic daily Al Hayat, told the New Statesman magazine.


    Whoops! I guess someone forgot to tell the extremists. In fact, commentators like Daniel Pipes have long warned of the folly represented by tolerating hate speech. Such tolerance was, at best, a Faustian bargain, which some termed a "covenant of security":

    ...To the extent the allowing of Islamists and terrorists safe haven on British soil is a conscious decision to keep the UK safe at the expense of others, this is an immoral and despicable policy that must be changed immediately...


    Jamie Campbell, writing in August of 2004 in the New Statesman, offered a more direct warning:

    ...[Hassan] claims [there are] a further thousand Brits who, like him, would subscribe to a martyrdom operation within Britain if given the chance. He knows of five Brits and one American, all university educated, who have left the UK in the past two months heading for a desolate jihadi training camp in Pakistan. Two weeks ago, he met with an autonomous Islamist cell in the UK which possessed large quantities of Semtex, and which was capable of launching an immediate and major attack...


    There is little question that the "Londonistan strategy" of tolerating extremist hate speech was a dangerous game. And, in fact, if such tolerance was an official policy of sorts, it probably violated UN resolution 1373 (9/28/2001 - ironically drafted by the British). 1373 called on states to, "...Deny safe haven to those who finance, plan, support, or commit terrorist acts... and to... [p]revent those who finance, plan, facilitate or commit terrorist acts from using their respective territories for those purposes against other states or their citizens..."

    Just days ago, Pipes wrote:

    Four major explosions in London this morning mark the end of the "covenant of security."

    Internet Instruction Manuals


    Picture credit: http://www.telegraph.co.uk
    chilling video circulating on terrorist websitesThe Telegraph reports that a terrifying video is making the rounds of some terrorist websites: how to make your own, do-it-yourself suicide belt.

    The 26-minute tape gives a detailed, step-by-step guide on how to pack the belt with shrapnel and high explosive, and then detonate it on board for maximum loss of life... A voice-over explains exactly where the would-be bomber should sit on the vehicle in order to maximise the blast...

    ...it is thought to have been shot in the Palestinian territories, where Arab militants have frequently used suicide belts in attacks on Israeli citizens...

    ...The video is among dozens of terrorist self-teaching aids circulating on jihadi message boards and websites, alongside manuals on the manufacture of poisonous chemicals and bacteria, urban guerrilla warfare tactics, and the use of rocket-propelled grenades and missiles.


    Oh, if only we hadn't invaded Iraq! Oh, wait, you say these videos are from the Palestinian territories? And they may pre-date the Iraq invasion? Oh. Forget it.

    Chilling video circulating on terrorist websites

    Sunday, July 10, 2005

    "Iraq has made things worse"


    Picture credit: http://www.foxnews.com
    Excel web sharing - spreadsheet collaboration over the Internet made easy with BadBlueIf there's one thing the MSM/DNC does well (and goodness knows, reporting and analysis ain't among them), presenting a unified front may be it.

    Since the London attacks, there's been a concerted effort on the part of their mouthpieces to force-feed the public a new meme. It is simply: "Iraq has made things worse". Echoed by Franken, Oliphant, Reagan, and many, many others, this assertion is so obviously and provaby false it would be utterly laughable were the consequences not so serious. Even the Times, which calls the global war on terror a "so-called war", is following this intellectually dishonest and ultimately damaging reasoning.

    And perhaps someone could point NBC White House correspondent David Gregory, who seems woefully unprepared to discuss these topics in public, to a couple of old news articles:

    MSNBC: 2 arrested in alleged plot to bomb NYC subway - A U.S. citizen and a Pakistani national were arrested in an alleged plot to bomb a subway station in midtown Manhattan, and possibly other locations around the city, police said Saturday. Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said the men were not believed to be connected to al-Qaida or any other international terrorist organization, although he said they expressed hatred for America.


    Not tied to Al Qaeda? Wait... just... a... second... I thought we were only fighting Bin Laden's crew! But, wait, there's more!

    ENN: Terrorist plot to bomb the New York City Subway System - Members of the New York City Joint Terrorism Task Force... made a raid on a Brooklyn apartment and seized several pipe bombs and arrested three men, described as being "Middle Eastern." [Officials are] now investigating to see if there was a possible plot to bomb the New York City subway system and other targets... ...the [apparent] plan called for an attack on the Atlantic Avenue station, which includes ten subway lines and a Long Island Rail Road terminal...


    Hold the phone! This article is from 1997? You mean this predates the Iraq war? How can that be?

    And perhaps the meme-squirters on the Left could explain the following table (source: WikiPedia), which lists terror attacks by death toll. Here are the first ten:

    FatalitiesTerror Attack
    2,992September 11, 2001 attacks, (New York City, Arlington, VA, Shanksville, PA, United States, 2001)
    344Beslan School Siege, (Beslan, Russia, 2004)
    329Air India Flight 182 (Atlantic Ocean, south of Ireland, 1985)
    299US and French barracks bombings, (Beirut, Lebanon, 1983)
    270Pan Am Flight 103, (Lockerbie, Scotland, 1988)
    2571993 Mumbai bombings (Mumbai, India, 1993)
    2251998 U.S. embassy bombings, (Tanzania, Kenya, 1998)
    220Kerbala and Baghdad attacks [2], (Iraq, 2004)
    2022002 Bali bombing, (Indonesia, 2002)
    19111 March 2004 Madrid train bombings, (Spain, 2004)


    Strangely enough, only two of the ten attacks (#8 and #10) can be connected to the Iraq war.

    And even the London attacks, notes Bill Roggio, are seemingly connected not just to Iraq but also to Afghanistan:

    ...The [terrorists'] statement also warned "Denmark, Italy and all of the Crusader governments" that they will be attacked if they do not withdraw their troops from Iraq and Afghanistan [emphasis added]. The usual suspects will claim the attacks were motivated by Iraq, it should be noted that involvement in Afghanistan was also declared as a motive by al Qaeda.


    In September 2002, al-Qa’ida spokesman Suleiman Abu Gheith stated, "We have the right to kill four million Americans - two million of them children - and to exile twice as many and wound and cripple hundreds of thousands. It is our right to fight them with chemical and biological weapons."

    And US expert Graham Allison, from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government, who has studied nuclear proliferation at length, warns, "In my own considered judgment, on the current path, a nuclear attack on America in the decade ahead is more likely than not."

    Yet the single, ridiculous contention emanating from the MSM/DNC is this:

    The root cause of terrorism is fighting against it

    The enemy believes we are locked in a world war. Conservatives believe likewise. Many on the Left claim not only that we are not fighting a war, but that we should also withdraw into a shell, change nothing in the Middle East, and hope for the best.

    Don't tell them that they are utter laughingstocks. You might disturb their delicate balance of hatred for the Bush administration and frustration at their long-running series of election losses. It is a streak certain to continue, at least until their leadership is replaced from the ground up.

    Saturday, July 09, 2005

    The Fate of the Whigs


    Map of Jihad, Jihadist AttacksExhibit A. Here's a very quick quiz: which snippet is the work of a New York Times op-ed piece and which is the product of the Arab News (hat tip: Best of the Web)?

    #1:

    Words of condemnation and solidarity are fine and great in their symbolic value, but they are not enough unless backed by practical measures in cooperation with Britain and the rest of the civilized world to defeat the evil forces of terrorism.

    To win the war against terror, and it must be won, we need to understand the terrorists' strategy and tactics. First they need a motive, second an operational capability to carry out attacks, and third an aim. The last is almost impossible to identify in the case of Al-Qaeda, since it is not clear what constitutes a strategic "victory" for them. . . . Al-Qaeda's terrorists have no respect for human life.


    ...and...

    #2:

    That fear has already led to questions about why the British security agencies did not anticipate the attacks, why the wealthy nations have not done enough about the root causes of terrorism and why Al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden continue to function after almost four years of the so-called war on terrorism. Many will wonder why the United States is mired in Iraq while Al Qaeda's leader still roams free.


    Ready for the answers?

    #1 is from the Arab News: Adel Darwish Editorial

    #2 was authored by the New York Times: London Under Attack

    Exhibit B: consider the following snippet from Hugh Hewitt's interview with the towering intellect known as Thomas Oliphant:

    Hewitt: ...do you really think that that bombing would not have happened yesterday...is there a chance in your mind, that it wouldn't have happened yesterday, had we not invaded Iraq?

    Oliphant: Yes, I think there is.


    Exhibit C, from MSNBC's Connected, Ronald Reagan Junior suffers catastrophic punishment at the hands of Christopher Hitchens who patiently explains a tiny fraction of Iraq's links to terror:

    CH: Do you know nothing about the subject at all? Do you wonder how Mr. Zarqawi got there under the rule of Saddam Hussein? Have you ever heard of Abu Nidal?

    RR: Well, I'm following the lead of the 9/11 Commission, which...

    CH: Have you ever heard of Abu Nidal, the most wanted man in the world, who was sheltered in Baghdad? The man who pushed Leon Klinghoffer off the boat, was sheltered by Saddam Hussein. The man who blew up the World Trade Center in 1993 was sheltered by Saddam Hussein, and you have the nerve to say that terrorism is caused by resisting it? And by deposing governments that endorse it? ... At this stage, after what happened in London yesterday?...

    RR: Zarqawi is not an envoy of Saddam Hussein, either.

    CH: Excuse me. When I went to interview Abu Nidal, then the most wanted terrorist in the world, in Baghdad, he was operating out of an Iraqi government office. He was an arm of the Iraqi State, while being the most wanted man in the world. The same is true of the shelter and safe house offered by the Iraqi government, to the murderers of Leon Klinghoffer, and to Mr. Yassin, who mixed the chemicals for the World Trade Center bombing in 1993. How can you know so little about this, and be occupying a chair at the time that you do?


    Hitchens goes on to explain:

    More than 4,000 people have died as Islamic terrorism has spread across the world over the last decade [ed: see illustration above] ...

    Liberals are nevertheless convinced that this latest attack must be due to the war in Iraq. No word yet on the others.


    Consider, then, the mantra of the left: "we would be safer had we never invaded Iraq". The staggering illogic of this meme is well summarized by James Lileks:

    I know the 90s don’t matter at all; I know that nothing we believed in the 90s has any relevance, but you might want to heed a fellow named Osama who declared war on the West, and cited the sanctions against Iraq as one of his causus belli.

    Let us assume then that the Iraq campaign had never taken place. By now either the sanctions that so inflamed Osama’s sensibilities would still be in place, or they would have been removed due to international pressure. Saddam would still be in power, free to spend the Oil-for-Food money as he pleased, lavishing stipends on Palestinian suicide bombers, building up his own weapons programs without fear of international interference, having weekly meetings with Zarkawi. (Who would have been something other than a terrorist, of course. A chiropractor, perhaps. Or a botanist.) The situation in Lebanon would be unchanged; Libya would be happily pursuing its own agenda. And we would be safer?


    The American people, of course, know better. They are not stupid. They are not steeped in illogic. In ever increasing numbers, the country is turning crimson. The states growing the fastest are red. 97 of the 100 fastest growing counties are red. Captain Ed:

    It appears that while Dean rages and foams at the mouth, ostensibly trying to rally the troops, what their interest groups have seen is the face of a long, long time in the minority. Their current leadership may well preside over the steepest decline in recent American political history, and unless the Democrats take steps to change them for responsible voices of loyal opposition soon, they will find themselves not just threatened with generational minority status but possibly with the fate of the Whigs.


    Indeed. A significant segment of today's left appears to be made up of a fascinating combination of demagogues, obstructionists, serial fabricators and plain, old-fashioned simpletons who are incapable of adding two and two. Thankfully, such a combination won't win elections and may, in fact, force their very extinction after a few more election cycles.

    Abraham Lincoln: "We have, as all will agree, a free Government, where every man has a right to be equal with every other man. In this great struggle, this form of Government and every form of human right is endangered if our enemies succeed."

    DJ Drummond: The American Way

    Friday, July 08, 2005

    Confirm John Bolton


    Picture credit: http://www.paktribune.com
    Excel web sharing - spreadsheet collaboration over the Internet made easy with BadBlueIf the London terror cells had been able to acquire WMDs, there's little doubt they'd have used them.

    The anti-Bolton cabal of Chris Dodd, Joe Biden, and tearful George Voinovich are in perilous territory. In April 2004, the UN Security Council passed Resolution 1540, which locks down proliferation of WMDs. 1540 bans A.Q. Khan-style WMD parts-trading networks and is a Chapter Seven action and therefore binding. It requires all member states to create, control and audit export and shipment of any item that can be used for WMD production.

    The Journal's Daniel Henninger comments:

    Mr. Bolton is famous for his views of North Korea, but he is expert in the activities of one other incorrigible proliferator--Iran. Yesterday I asked a high international official, whose job is to develop global anti-terror structures, which states are still actively supporting terrorism. He said, "There are two, Syria and Iran."

    If the U.S. Senate wanted to send a signal of resolve and seriousness to whoever bombed London, Democrats would join with Republicans their first day back to dispatch proven anti-terror warrior John Bolton straight to the U.N. They won't. They'll keep playing political fiddles while London burns.

    The standard response to all this is that if George Bush and Tony Blair hadn't done Iraq, we'd all be as one in the war on terror. The standard response before September 11, was that if we weren't so close to terror-beset Israel, none of this would ever happen. For 30 years, the standard response to this terror has gotten many of us killed.


    WSJ: 'Close Guantanamo'? Our politics fiddles while London burns.

    Thursday, July 07, 2005

    Confederacy of Cowards


    Picture credit: http://www.paktribune.com
    Excel web sharing - spreadsheet collaboration over the Internet made easy with BadBlueThe geniuses at Air America have pinpointed the cause of the London terror attacks. And, yes, of course: it's the Bush administration's fault. Who else would you expect?

    The business-savvy Al Franken interviews the shining wit *, Thomas Oliphant:
    * Spoonerism

    Franken: ...have we made things worse...

    Oliphant: ...let's assume for a second that the authorities are correct, that it appears to be jihadists, um, were they inspired by the American occupation in Iraq? The middle east situation? What was it?

    ...what I think is so awful, in the short term, is that we don't see, is this culture that lacks acountability in the United States, just fascinates me.

    Franken: You are talking about the Administration?

    Oliphant: Yes!


    Paraphrasing Hugh Hewitt, yes, they are that misguided, as is most of the Democratic party. Which is precisely why they can not be trusted with anything more substantial than a microphone or a keyboard.

    The facts of the matter are simple and, yet, for reasons of intellectual bankruptcy, demagoguery, obstructionism, or plain old-fashioned stupidity, some on the Left blithely ignore the historical facts that sit plainly in front of their very noses:

    *There have been jihadists attacking the West since 1993.

    *If the London cell had had WMD, they would have used them.

    *WMD are being produced by regimes around the world that hate the United States, Great Britain and the west.

    *Eventually those regimes will arm cells with WMD unless we either (a)destroy the cells before they get the WMD, (b)destroy the regimes that produce WMD, or (c) do both (a) and (b).

    We cannot be making it "worse" by killing terrorists in Iraq, disarming Libya, rolling Syria back from Lebanon, and pursuing Islamist fanatics wherever we find them.

    We made it "worse" by doing nothing from 1993 until 9/11.

    There is no other way, and any fool who says there is is simply that, a fool. Worse, a dangerous fool.


    Mark Steyn, on Hewitt's show this evening, powerfully dispenses with the Oliphants and Frankens of the world, who would simply bury their heads in the sand and offer surrender. All the while, these geniuses would assume that their exposed posteriors could magically avoid the hard kicks aimed their way.

    ...when you're dealing with a situation where a guy is trying to kill you, you don't really care what his motivations are. You need to be able to stop him from killing you...

    ...I wonder if [Durbin will] be making comparisons between Gitmo and the tactics of the bombers today in London...

    ...there are already rumors that one of these men involved in this thing, was somebody who was released from Guantanamo. I mean, the fact of the matter is, that all of the guys in Gitmo would like to be out there doing this kind of thing...

    ...These are people who enjoy killing infidels. They enjoy killing schoolchildren. They enjoy killing Red Cross workers. They've just murdered the Egyptian ambassador in Iraq... They enjoy killing. And if you are an infidel, you're a target.


    If the reins of the Democratic party continue to be held by the likes of Kennedy, Durbin, and Pelosi; and if their ideological helmsmen are members of the surrender posse (e.g., the New York Times, Al Franken and the Einstein-like Thomas Oliphant), then they are certain to continue losing elections.

    Echoing the talking points of the Bin Ladens, the Zarqawis, the suicide-bombers, the head-choppers, the Richard Reids, the Muhammad Attas, and all of the Jihadists who have waged a bloody series of attacks against America since 1993 -- and who have promised to kill millions of Americans if they are able -- the Democratic party is simply trapped.

    Fearful of eroding their central, load-bearing column -- the Howard Dean and Michael Moore-inspired hard left flock -- the Democrats have instead chosen to jettison the American people. They will learn another hard lesson in the 2006 elections, assuming the current Democratic structure remains in place. And, from all apperances it will.

    As DJ Drummond says: "There’s a good reason the U.S. hasn’t been attacked on our soil since 9/11, but you won’t hear it from a Democrat."

    Wednesday, July 06, 2005

    Her Majesty's Secret Donut


    Picture credit: http://www.wired.com
    Excel web sharing - spreadsheet collaboration over the Internet made easy with BadBlueIn the next month or so, the 4,000 or so cryptographers and intelligence officials associated with the UK Government move into their new haunt. The agency credited with breaking the Enigma cipher during World War II will be 'oused in a 1.1 million square foot, doughnut-shaped building. The cost? Around $630 million. Some of the features include:

    Armor-Plated Rooftop
    The roof, sheathed in a special aluminum, is designed to withstand airplane impacts.

    Wiretap Central
    A chamber under the interior courtyard shields the computer center, an 1,850-mile, billion-dollar network of fiber-optic cable that monitors email and phone calls around the world. It's surrounded by a series of tunnels and shelters.

    Stuctural Integrity
    The round exterior forces shock waves from explosions to ripple around the building, diffusing as they go.

    Tough skin
    A one-story, 2-foot-thick concrete wall is topped with three stories of blast-proof glass.

    Privacy windows
    A second wall of glass, hung behind the first and composed of panels set at irregular angles, obscures views from outside.


    Wired: Her Majesty's Secret Donut

    Anatomy of a Hack


    Protect Your Windows Network : From Perimeter to Data (Microsoft Technology) by Jesper M. Johansson, Steve RileyThe folks at InformIT -- actually authors Steve Riley and Jesper Johansson -- have excerpted a chapter of their security book entitled, "Protect Your Windows Network: From Perimeter to Data". The chapter is an interesting discussion of the pros and cons of penetration testing. In it, they discuss the anatomy of a "typical" hacking attempt and how how black-hats take advantage of typical configuration errors. Their intent? Education in order to protect networks by omitting the most common mistakes.

    InformIT: Anatomy of a Hack - Rise and Fall of your Network

    Monday, July 04, 2005

    Blog Worms


    Picture credit: http://securityawareness.blogspot.com
    Excel web sharing - spreadsheet collaboration over the Internet made easy with BadBlueThe incredible popularity of the PHP web application language has an obvious downside: if a significant vulnerability is discovered, it will take a while to patch all of the relevant systems. Netcraft reported today that just such a weakness has been discovered: the XML-RPC libraries (conventional and PEAR) allow remote execution of PHP code via a failed escapement of quotes. Popular applications such as PostNuke, WordPress and Drupal are vulnerable.

    Such an exploit combined with Santy-style installation techniques (i.e., it uses Google to search for potential victims) could wreak havoc on thousands of servers.

    Netcraft: PHP Blogging Apps Vulnerable to XML-RPC Exploits

    Report: unrest in China a sign of democracy


    Picture credit: http://www.sojo.net
    Excel web sharing - spreadsheet collaboration over the Internet made easy with BadBlueHong Kong newspapers are reporting that growing civil unrest in rural areas of China may signal public awareness of democratic rights. Reports in the South China Morning Post indicate that thousands of farmers surrounded a police station in Sanshangang township over the weekend. The farmers demanded the release of arrestees who had protested the government's recent land grabs.

    Thank goodness for the speeches of Ted Kennedy and Howard Dean, which are certain to have inspired freedom-seekers all over the world.

    A senior Chinese official said increasing unrest in rural China was the result of growing public awareness about democratic rights, a Hong Kong newspaper reported Monday...

    ...In early June, six people were killed and up to 50 were injured after some 200 thugs were hired to beat up farmers in a village in Hebei province for refusing to comply with government eviction orders.

    Although reports of the unrest have garnered international attention, Chen said many other protests had gone unreported.

    "There are at least three million villages across the country and you can imagine how many problems crop up each day," he told the paper.


    Philippine Daily Inquirer: Growing rural unrest in China a sign of democracy

    Honoring Heroes on Independence Day


    Picture credit: http://fightingfourth.com
    Fallen HeroesToday is the day that we celebrate our independence. With all of its foibles and with all its backbiting, caterwauling critics, there is no question but that the United States of America is the greatest force for good that the planet Earth has ever seen.

    Photo
    Remembering Fallen Heroes

    How can I prove that contention?

    Here's an easy test: what country struggles to control its immigration -- legal and illegal -- more than any other? I think you can guess the answer. Yes, it's the U.S. Here's a Google search for "USA immigration." It yields about five and a half million results and numerous advertisements, which are all designed to address a question that interests people the world over: how do I immigrate to the United States? 

    In fact, I decided to do a quick test using Google. I searched for "country name  immigration" and tallied the number of results for each country. The results are in the accompanying table. Certain countries have search terms qualified to omit irrelevant results (e.g., Jordan to remove references to "Barbara Jordan"; all such special cases are noted below with the specific hyperlinks):

    United States29,900,000   Sweden1,230,000
    Canada8,150,000   Iran1,280,000
    UK5,470,000   Egypt1,220,000
    Mexico4,940,000   Vietnam1,180,000
    France4,870,000   Indonesia1,160,000
    China4,700,000   Norway1,110,000
    Australia4,370,000   Thailand1,070,000
    Japan3,800,000   Argentina997,000
    Germany3,830,000   Taiwan943,000
    India3,370,000   Denmark938,000
    Israel2,810,000   North Korea933,000
    Russia2,540,000   Cuba885,000
    Italy2,520,000   Jordan878,000
    Spain2,300,000   Saudi Arabia860,000
    New Zealand1,720,000   Libya812,000
    Pakistan1,470,000   Syria790,000
    South Africa1,440,000   Yemen772,000
    Turkey1,390,000   Sudan767,000
    Brazil1,320,000   Kuwait730,000
    Poland1,290,000   Iceland720,000
    Switzerland1,280,000   Cambodia686,000
    Belgium1,250,000   South Korea658,000


    This, I think, is indicative of how many people are trying to get into the United States. And I think it's safe to say which country -- by a huge margin -- is most desirable.

    In remembrance of Independence Day and the heroes who are fighting and dying to preserve our freedom, I ask you to consider a donation to the Fallen Heroes Last Wish Foundation:

    The objective of this foundation is to grant the last wish of the U.S. servicemembers who have been lost in Operation Iraqi Freedom: to provide for their children.


    Donations are tax-deductible and can be made via PayPal. Dan O'Dowd of Green Hills Software is matching every dollar with two of his own (up to $200,000). So each dollar you donate is multiplied by three automatically.

    Other worthy causes include FreedomCalls, which provides technology supporting communications between soldiers serving in Afghanistan and Iraq and their families, and Soldiers' Angels, a support group for American service members stationed around the world. No matter the specific organization, a donation to any of these worthy causes benefit the soldiers and families who have sacrificed so much for us. What have we done to deserve such heroes?

    Make a donation

    More Noteworthy July 4 posts:

    Captain's Quarters: A Fourth for Remembrance
    Clarity and Resolve: Now More than Ever
    Froggy Ruminations: Words of Wisdom
    Michelle Malkin: Rove-ing Reports
    Outside the Beltway: Critics Call Radio Hosts’ Trip Propaganda Mission
    Wizbang: What if We hadn't Invaded Iraq?