Saturday, November 24, 2007

Dancing with Drowning

 
Senator Ted Kennedy (D-MA):

Waterboarding is a barbaric practice in which water is poured down the mouth and nose of a detainee, to simulate drowning. It's an ancient technique of tyrants. The prisoner is bound to an inclined board, feet raised and head slightly below the feet. Cellophane is wrapped over the prisoner's face and water is poured over him. Unavoidably, the gag reflex kicks in, and a terrifying fear of drowning leads to an almost instant plea to bring the treatment to a halt. If it goes wrong, it can lead straight to terminal hypoxia. When done right, it is controlled death.

Well, if there are experts at drownings, you've got to figure that Ted Kennedy is one of them.

Illustration: EIB

Friday, November 23, 2007

Mainstream Media: Mission Accomplished

 
Cartoon: Red Planet Cartoons. Hat tips: American Digest and Larwyn.

Slim pickins

 
Memeorandum highlights the many media outlets covering negative news from Iraq:

Pathetic, ain't it?

Benedict Murtha

 
HWT labels this artwork The face of the Left. It is reminiscent of John Murtha's statement that "we can't win militarily" in Iraq while we continue to win militarily.

Today's Democratic leadership cannot and will not admit that our troops are winning, even though the New York Times' op-ed columnists are saying so. John Murtha and Nancy Pelosi represent a failed and beaten Democratic contingent who cannot be called leaders. They are instead cheerleaders for a defeat that will never come and stewards for a policy of nothingness.

Some suspect that they suffer from a mild form of psychosis; a disease that the Washington Post calls "a state of denial." Voters will remind them soon that denial of very real American military successes and an inability to lead are an exceptionally poor combination.

A brief history of stealth aircraft

 
News.com offers a brief slide-show on stealth aircraft:

Just a generation ago, it was a hush-hush military project, a futuristic aircraft that fit right into the shadowy cloak-and-dagger atmosphere of the Cold War. Nowadays the F-117A Nighthawk stealth aircraft--the first of its kind--is making a high-profile circuit of the world's air shows, from New Mexico to Dubai, as it heads into retirement. ...Stealth design has taken a more streamlined turn in subsequent aircraft, from the B-2 Spirit bomber to the F-22 Raptor that the Air Force has designated as the Nighthawk's successor.

Update: Speaking of stealth, Aviation Week describes the electronic aspects of Operation Orchard, the Israeli attack on Syria's nascent nuclear facility.

...the main attack was preceded by an engagement with a single Syrian radar site at Tall al-Abuad near the Turkish border... The radar site was struck with a combination of electronic attack and precision bombs to allow the Israeli force to enter and exit Syrian airspace unobserved. Subsequently all of Syria's air-defense radar system went off the air for a period of time that encompassed the raid...

[Analysts] contend that network penetration involved both remote air-to-ground electronic attack and penetration through computer-to-computer links... "There also were some higher-level, non-tactical penetrations, either direct or as diversions and spoofs of the Syrian command and control capability, done through network attack," one U.S. intelligence specialist says... These observations provide evidence that a sophisticated network attack and electronic hacking capability is an operational part of the Israeli Defense Force's arsenal of digital weapons.

Despite being hobbled by the restrictions of secrecy and diplomacy, Israeli military and government officials also confirm that network invasion, information warfare and electronic attack are part of Israel's defense capabilities...

"Offensive and defensive network warfare is one of the most interesting new areas," says Pinchas Buchris, the director general of the Israeli Ministry of Defense. "I can only say we're following the [network attack] technology with great care. I doubted this [technology] five years ago. But we did it. Now everything has changed...

No gear available

 
Posters, T-shirts, coffee mugs, and pens are not available.

Thursday, November 22, 2007

Outrage: Reid withholds funds for successful anti-IED program

 
Military wife Amy Proctor shines a spotlight on Harry's Reid's despicable actions. The Senate majority leader is withholding funds from a US military that has turned the tide in Iraq -- including a program largely responsible for defeating IEDs, a leading killer of the troops.

Military reporters who are also active duty soldiers report military news on the Pentagon Channel. This report focuses on Congress’ refusal to fund the military. This story looks much different through the eyes of a soldier than from the mouth of a Katie Couric or Wolf Blitzer.


If Congress does not provide the supplemental funding bill that the President will sign, money for defeating the largest killer of American troops in the Global War on Terror will run out for the Joint Improvised Explosive Devise Defeat Organization (JIEDDO) on December 1st.

GEN (Ret) Meigs (Director of JIEDDO) says the funding crisis comes at a time when IED attacks have dropped 55% since their high in June this year. And average daily attacks are down 42%. However, without an approved funding bill, the organization only has enough money to remain operational through April 2008.

Democrats are pulling out all the stops in their attempts to turn victory in Iraq into defeat. Why are charges of treason not out of the question for Democrats like Reid?

Hat tip: Don Surber

The Los Angeles Unified School District: "A Criminal Enterprise"

 
Ex-Liberal in Hollywood describes what he terms a "criminal enterprise" of startling proportions: the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD). According to Baker, LAUSD has a total budget of $32 billion, which dwarfs the city of LA's $6.5 billion annual budget.

Migdia Chinea is a former Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) substitute teacher. Her description of the LA public school system is terrifying on several levels: that such a system exists in the first place; and that the mainstream media has basically ignored the catastrophe.

I'm ...UCLA-educated with honors, refined, empathetic, college-level Spanish fluent and a Googleable professional screenwriter. To make ends meet during hard economic times, I became a "substitute teacher" for the Los Angeles Unified School District, or LAUSD – or to put it more kindly, a "guest teacher."

...There's no teaching going on at LAUSD – only confinement of the sort one may find in a penal colony, complete with walkie-talkie-carrying wardens and bullhorns. And I have "confined" at many different schools within central Los Angeles in the last six months. Many students scream "suuuuuuuub" when they see someone like me – a "guest teacher" – in their classroom and trample anyone and/or anything as they push and shove their way inside.

...[One school] is surrounded by criminal street gangs and is widely considered one of the most dangerous campuses in the Los Angeles Unified School District. The South Side Village Boys, South Side Watts Varrio Grape, Grape Street Crips, East Side Village Bloods, Hacienda Bloods, Circle City Piru and Bounty Hunters street gangs all claim turf in that area, and frequent flare-ups of gang violence are common. I have found most classes in this school to be in a complete state of disaster, absolutely filthy, with no computers available. There are no simple supplies, such as pencils, pens or paper, nothing to be found anywhere. Was this teacher's class an exception? Did he not know that some of his students are probably gang members themselves?

I have observed that many students at this school (and other LAUSD schools) are violent and unpredictable. I was present, in fact, during a violent melee involving hundreds of students that brought in several police squad cars and helicopters flying overhead. I have also endured several school "lock downs." Here's how a "lock down" works: As in a prison, the inmates and their jailers are not allowed to leave for any reason, nor let anyone out...

Chinea was brutally assaulted, burglarized, and repeatedly injured. She believes "the LAUSD is completely corrupt, inept and broken... media has an obligation to acknowledge the problems and report truthfully on what is going on... [that the] schools are a mess, filthy, dilapidated and without supplies. The students are dangerous, disrespectful and out-of-control."

Baker pins the problem on a powerful teacher's union that represents a monstrous funding arm for the state Democratic Party; and a state Attorney General enjoying a steady stream of related funding since the seventies.

Remember, though, for liberals progressives, it's all about the children.

Giving Thanks

 
Today I:

Give thanks for our troops.

Give thanks for America's founders.

Give thanks for America, the greatest country on the face of the Earth; a beacon of hope and a template for all who respect the rights of man.

Give thanks for the blessings of family, friends, home and liberty.

Give thanks for the Thanksgiving holiday.

Give thanks to Al Gore for inventing the Internet.

Give thanks for all who have served protecting this country for 231 years and counting.

Highlights from the Los Angeles Auto Show

 
Introducing the legendary Nissan GT-R for 2009. Paddle shifters. 3.8-liter V-6, turbocharged and intercooled; 480 horsepower at 6,400 rpm; 430 pound-feet of torque at 3,200 to 5,200 rpm; 0 to 60 mph in 3.5 seconds; Top speed: 192 mph.

And I guess we can't make fun of Lexus IS drivers any longer. The 2009 IS-F packs a 5.0-liter V8 engine and an eight-speed transmission.

The Times has all of the latest updates from the Los Angeles Auto Show.

Wednesday, November 21, 2007

Politically Incorrect Toy Firearms

 
Suitably Flip tags the Nerf N-Strike Longshot CS-6 as the next hot Christmas toy certain to be banned by Chuck Schumer.

This is the season when a boy's thoughts turn to gifts and my thoughts turn to the one gift I never got. I was jealous of the kid next door for a whole year because he had a Johnny Seven OMA.

In the sixties, Johnny Seven OMA (One Man Army) was the ultimate toy firearm. It integrated seven distinct weapons (thus the Johnny Seven) into a single chassis:

* Grenade
* Anti-Tank Rocket
* Armor-Piercing Shell
* Anti-Bunker Rocket
* Repeating Rifle
* Tommy Gun
* Automatic Pistol

All of the firing mechanisms were attached to the main rifle assembly - the pistol inserted from the bottom to provide the rifle grip (the pistol also held caps for authentic firing sounds). The main ammunition included various sized white bullets that would "shoot" from the barrels via spring-action. The rockets and grenade also fired via spring-action. The weapon featured a working bipod that provided stability for the various rockets and grenade. The stock could be removed to shorten the weapon while in Tommy Gun mode. The toy when fully assembled is over three feet long.

Decades later, I still remember the Johnny Seven and how my parents never bought me one. But I'm not bitter. *Sniff*

That's what I'm talking about, Nerf people! When you can beat the Johnny Seven, then we'll talk!

Honestly, though, if you saw a kid walking around with a Johnny Seven these days, someone would call in a SWAT Team, a hostage negotiator and the police psychologist.

New record at the Nürburgring Nordschleife

 
If you like fast cars, you'll definitely want to check out this Autospies video. Pro racer Richard Göransson of Sweden took the project car Loaded -- a BMW M3 CSL Supercharged -- on a record-setting lap 'round the legendary Nürburgring.

The 7:22.8 pace for the 20.6 kilometer (just a hair over 12.8 miles) track crushed the old record by more than five seconds, putting every other supercar to shame. The video is a rush. Literally.

Redacted: CNN's transcript of the Democratic Debate

 
CNN's entire Democratic debate appears to have been a sham from the first minute to the last.

And now it's been nearly a week and LaShannon Spencer -- one of CNN's "undecided voters" (and former political director for the Democratic Party in Arkansas, which CNN forgot to mention) -- remains missing from the transcript of the Las Vegas debate.

Redacted is in the news, only it's the concept that CNN is cleaning up its post-debate mess and not the movie.

But it's only been a week. Perhaps CNN needs more time to finish up its "rush" transcript.

Politics o' personal destruction: Hillary's scandalous Obama info

 
So my Dad is in for Thanksgiving and he offered an interesting insight related to Robert Novak's disclosure. You know, that Hillary staffers are keeping a scandalous secret about Barack Obama close to the vest:

Agents of Sen. Hillary Clinton are spreading the word in Democratic circles that she has scandalous information about her principal opponent for the party’s presidential nomination, Sen. Barack Obama, but has decided not to use it. The nature of the alleged scandal was not disclosed.

My Dad noted that only hours later, Sen. Obama admitted a sordid past related to drinking and drugs.

The venue was quite unexpected: in front of a large group of high school students.

Obama addressed the issue after the principal at Central High School in Manchester, N.H., asked the Democratic presidential candidate to give the students a sense of his "human side," and what his life was like when he was in school...

In response..., the Illinois senator said: "I will confess to you that I was kind of a goof-off in high school ... I made some bad decisions that I've written about. There were times when I got into drinking and experimented with drugs ... There was a whole stretch of time when I didn't really apply myself a lot."

Why would Obama offer that disclosure then? Why there? My Dad's speculation is that Hillary's rough-and-tumble political operatives are fully prepared to launch some devastating salvos related to Obama's past.

Update: Vince Foster at NHC has other interesting ideas about Novak's column.

It takes a village to raise a suicide bomber

 
Gateway Pundit links to this BBC story:

And asks: See if you can find any reason why Olmert would be pictured in flames from the content? Hint: there isn't one.

Meanwhile, the Beeb and other MSM outlets ignore the real stumbling blocks to peace in the Middle East.

Say, for example, a cult of Hamas death-worshipers more committed to infanticide than education.

Remember: it takes a village to raise a suicide bomber.

Global Incident Map: where Reality meets Sesame Street

 
Bruce Kesler at the Democracy Project:

Stop arguing with your liberal friends about what a dangerous place the world is, and just send them this website. A friend just sent it to me. It’s called Global Incident Map: A Global Display of Terrorism and Other Suspicious Events.

You have to see it to believe it, and I really mean to believe it: The world is a very dangerous place.

Of course, the truly hardcore liberals progressives will simply blame Chimpy J. Rumsfeld and then go back to the WTC 7 discussion board where like-minded geniuses debate the controlled demolition methods employed by Cheney McHalliburton.

Interior Decorators at Hamas Headquarters

 
Yep, you guessed it: exclusive photos of Hamas' interior decorators at work.



I can't quite put my finger on what these pictures have in common.

Hat tip: LGF

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Separated at Birth?

 
Gen. David Petraeus and Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman?

Is Muni Wireless turning the corner?

 
Municipal wireless -- the promise of inexpensive broadband wireless hotspots provided by cities and towns -- may be turning the corner. After a series of deployment problems, Steve Stroh's blog highlights technical breakthroughs that could accelerate muni wireless rollouts. In so doing, consumers may finally break the back of a reconstituted telco monopoly seemingly more interested in locking down networks than improving customer experience.

Wavion's offerings use Space Division Multiple Access (SDMA) to form individual wireless "beams" to multiplex links from a single access point.

SDMA augments beamforming by providing a higher level of processing enabling simultaneous downlink communications with multiple users over the same frequency channel...

Wavion's SDMA technology creates up to four downlinks to four different users simultaneously, transmitting one data stream per user. Each stream is "beamed" by means of beamforming in such a way that the user receives only the stream directed to him, while the other steams are received below the noise level. This quadruples downlink capacity.

Breaking the back of the telco/cable duopoly will happen someday soon. And SDMA may be one way to offer real broadband to consumers, bypassing the duopoly altogether. It couldn't happen soon enough.

The many emotions of Hillary

 
Sen. Hillary Clinton's sensitivities are under appreciated. Many conservatives consider her a cold, heartless individual. That's simply not true: she inspires loyalty and a deep, abiding appreciation. Consider her many, varied emotions.

Disdain

Cold, calculating fury

Deep and sincere appreciation for a large, bundled donation

Crafting a triangulating answer to a difficult question

Crafting a quadrangulating answer to a difficult question

Satisfaction at executing a little payback

Plotting revenge in the form of an IRS audit

Contemplating her own run at the record book

She truly is a uniter and not a divider.