#9
I usually just finish playing the vid then dig through my latest temporary internet files (look for the biggest one) and save it of to a flv. You can use Real Player or FLV Player to play it.
Finally, a member of Congress has announced a laudable plan to do something about the abusive behavior of demonstrators of the anti-war left. Rep. Todd Akin (R-Mo.), a member of the House Armed Services Committee, has introduced legislation to deal with what he has described as a growing number of our fellow citizens [who] are abusing their right of free expression through vandalism and violent protest aimed at military recruiters and those who wish to serve.
A prime example occurred in January, when leftist agitators gathered signatures on a petition demanding that the Berkeley, California, City Council shut down a local Marine Corps recruiting office. Playing to the radical Code Pink group that organized the protest, all but one of the City Council members voted to send a letter to the Marines, asking them to leave the city. The Councils letter derided the Marines as unwanted, unwelcome intruders. The arrogant insult drew national attention and motivated hundreds of local counter-demonstrators, led by California talk show host Melanie Morgan and others who support the military.
The Berkeley City Councils proclamation set aside a parking spot for Code Pinks weekly demonstrations in front of the Marines office, which emboldened the anti-war demonstrators. Taking advantage of the favored treatment, they reportedly blocked entry to the Marine recruiting station and vandalized it. Similar incidents of harassment and property damage have occurred on college campuses and in cities nationwide. Last March, a bike-riding bomber hit a military recruitment center in New Yorks Times Square.
The Berkeley councils resolution also directed city attorneys to pursue legal action and an ouster of the Marines for violating an ordinance barring discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. Council members cited the 1993 law stating that homosexuals are not eligible to serve in the military, and claimed that the Marine Corps violates the citys anti-discrimination ordinance by complying with that law. Local officials have constitutional rights of free speech, but college-town municipal governments do not set policy for the military.
The work of military recruiters is essential to maintain the volunteer force. To protect them, Rep. Akin has introduced The Freedom to Serve Act of 2008 (FSA). Rep. Akins legislation, HR 6023, would make it a federal crime to undermine or prevent military recruiting through vandalism and acts of violence or intimidation.
Rep. Akin, a former Army officer who served with combat engineers at Fort Belvoir, Virginia, has two sons in the military and one at the U.S. Naval Academy. In a Dear Colleague message seeking more co-sponsors, Rep. Akin mentioned three examples of violent protests that should not be allowed to continue and escalate:
* At Seattle Central Community College, Army recruiters Sgt. Jeff Due and Sgt. 1st Class Douglas Washington were hounded by an angry mob of anti-war students. The recruiters table and handouts were destroyed and objects were thrown at the soldiers.
* In East Orange, New Jersey, young protesters shattered the windows of an Army recruitment station and a neighboring Navy office.
* Protesters in Lawrence, Kansas, crippled business at an Army/Navy recruitment center, where workers car tires were slashed and bomb-proof glass had to be installed.
The First Amendment protects vitriolic insults to military personnel, but anti-war anarchy goes beyond constitutional rights of free speech. In trying to muscle the Marines, the Berkeley City Council and Code Pink demonstrators went too far. Rep. Akins Freedom to Serve bill would help to protect the all-volunteer force, and his efforts deserve support.
#1
The US has long had serious laws against interfering with military recruiters, military movements, and military cargoes. A bunch of these individuals could right now be taken up for this, and the court precedent is clear.
Since 9/11 the Left has been telling itself how really patriotic it is --- providing that you redefine patriotism as internationalism, just like the old CP USA. And of course, the vitally important history of the Cold War is being written by the hard-core Left. It's just as if the Confederate South controlled the history of the Civil War.
Senator Joe Lieberman's fate shows what has happens to centrist Democrats: They are all but thrown out for deviationism, which is exactly what Josef Stalin used to do with the CP USA.
Both Obama and Hillary grew up on the Alinsky Left, which only a theologian can tell from orthodox Marxism. Coming out of Yale Law, Hillary joined a crypto Marxist law outfit in Oakland, California. David Horowitz, who was part of that world until he recovered his moral center, has been pretty clear about the real roots and goals of that Greater Berkeley network.
The triumph of crypto-Marxism is not just weird, it's dangerous. The Reds haven't changed. They have just metastatized: That is why we are now so vulnerable to the next wave of totalitarianism, the Islamofascist kind. The long struggle of Western civilization against bloody tyranny is being covered up. The very real danger of new totalitarianism is being dismissed.
We have to start teaching again from scratch.
Well, that's how it is.
Note to conservatives: You don't win a war until the histories are written.
Roll up your sleeves and go to it. There's work to do.
#3
At some point the left is going to finally push too far. What they fail to realize is that we have the guns and and the military. The left's existence at that point will be determined by the good will of the right. They don't seem very interested in generating any of that good will. This leaves only one outcome.
As President Bush commemorated Israel's 60th anniversary by attacking Barack Obama from overseas, here at home he found an all-too-frequent ally: John McCain.
When Bush accused "some" -- including Obama, Bush aides explained -- of "the false comfort of appeasement," McCain echoed this slander. "What does he want to talk about with [Mahmoud] Ahmadinejad?" McCain asked, fumbling to link Obama to the Iranian president's hateful words. Soon, a GOP talking point was born.
Lost in the rhetoric was the question America deserves to have answered: Why should we engage with Iran?
In short, not talking to Iran has failed. Miserably.
Bush engages in self-deception arguing that not engaging Iran has worked. In fact, Iran has grown stronger: continuing to master the nuclear fuel cycle; arming militias in Iraq and Lebanon; bolstering extremist anti-Israeli proxies. It has embraced Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and spends lavishly to rebuild Afghanistan, gaining influence across the region.
Instead of backing Bush's toxic rhetoric, McCain should have called George H.W. Bush's secretary of state, James Baker. After years of stonewalling, the administration grudgingly tested the Baker-Hamilton report's recommendation and opened talks with Iran -- albeit low-level dialogue restricted to the subject of Iraq. Is James Baker an appeaser, too? Yes, John, he is. Does it shock you that Trunks can be appeasers, too? I think there is more drivel at the link...
Steve Chapman of the Chicago Tribune argues that we should talk to Short Round because Iran "is not a threat" to the U.S. While indeed the conventional military forces of Iran are laughable, Mr. Chapman ignores 1) that Iran believes in and is engaged in asymmetrical war with us, and 2) that Iran has plans. It's one thing to look at what a country is today, but one should always consider where a country plans to be in ten years.
Posted by: Bobby ||
05/24/2008 07:44 ||
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#1
Iran has been "talked to" for years. They love it since it gives them cover as they stonewall. Maybe a different route should be tried.
#5
In short, not talking to Iran has failed. Miserably
There have been talks. even before Kerry's 'Baker 'suggested ones'. Mostly through European venues. They're just not the high-profile-let's-link-arms-and-sing-kumbaya-see-we-are-the-world talks the Democrat-left wants.
#6
Ooooooh. Jawn has his statesman hat on today. Hope one of his aides got this done in time for him so he could sign off on it and get an early start up to the Island.
#7
Raj and tu, that would be Nantucket, not Martha's Vineyard (the Heinz place is on Nantucket). At least, I assume they use Teresa's place, since it's bound to be much better than anything Jawn brought to the table.
Especially nice how Jawn just invents stuff - "including Obama, Bush aides explained". Huh? Missed that one.
This whole thing about talking to Iran may qualify as the dumbest "debate" in recent history, which is saying something. As y'all point out, Iran has been talked to, non-stop, for years and years. Once again, is it beyond the administration or McCain's folks to use their pulpits, and ridicule, to really humiliate their opponents by showing how ignorant they are, how preposterously unfactual the premises of their assertions are?
#8
Utterly clueless. The US has sanctioned EU talks with Iran on nuclear development for years. Obama's innovation is presidential level talks without preconditions, like stop sponsoring terrorism first. Maybe he thinks his winning smile is just irresistable.
If you take Kerry at face value and accept that "not talking to Iran has failed. Miserably." you must also admit we have had a policy of not confronting Iran with force. That too may be said to have failed. Miserably. What's Kerry's argument for talks over force? He makes none. I assume it has something to do with some global test whereby the US is beloved if it engages in talks irrespective to the harm done to American interests. Better to be a rump state which engenders warm fuzzy feelings than a resented superpower.
Posted by: Baba Tutu ||
05/24/2008 23:44 Comments ||
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#2
No. fubama is a socialist (with a cult of personality) and hillarity is a communist (with cogs in the machine).
To me, its the King of Hearts card - both of them fancy themselves as rulers of the underclass, both faces on the same side of the card, but are they committing suicide or brandishing weapons against each other? Historically they have never got along, yet each continues to rack up major obvious blunders in their campaign to rule.
#4
Does this headline really need a question mark?
Posted by: regular joe ||
05/24/2008 7:34 Comments ||
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#5
Even 'conservatives' like Rush have kept using the term 'liberal' for decades to describe pols and their followers who have been and are nothing more than socialist. They've always been socialist. They've just been very effective in conning everyone in to accepting the term liberal. So what's the big surprise in calling the bulk of the Donks exactly what they are, to include their front runners, Socialist? They are and have been.
#6
The inevitable clash of cultures between fifth column communist tribalists and western civilization. It's been playing out in colonized Africa, ie, Kenya, Zimbabwe and South Africa for decades. Senator Obama carries a new flag, that of the second "invisible empire." The next few years should be very interesting.
#8
He is quite openly socialist - read his book, look at who he associates himself with.
The only way he is "stealth" is the press is shoveling as fast as ti can to hide him, and ignoring and stonewalling everything that goes against the liberal narrative (c.f. coverage of Feiths book).
BAGHDAD - After two years in office, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has managed only in the past two months to stamp a semblance of authority in this unwieldy nation with bold crackdowns on Shiite militias and Sunni insurgents in Baghdad, Basra and the north.
The progress has brought the Shiite prime minister's political rehabilitation, quieting critics at home who have long seen him as ineffective, indifferent to corruption or biased toward Shiite interests. It also has won him praise from American officials and the military, only months after some in the United States were calling for him to be replaced for failing to achieve political benchmarks. His current political buoyancy also comes in no small part from an overall drop of violence the U.S. military said that last week it recorded the lowest number of attacks since April 2004.
But al-Maliki is not out of the woods yet. Security gains made in the crackdowns he has personally overseen remain fragile and could quickly unravel, leaving him with little to show for his efforts and sparking new instability. Ah, the ubiquitous MSM "but" statement.
Followers of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr have stepped up their rhetoric against al-Maliki in recent days, accusing him of trying to eliminate them straining a truce with the Sadrists' Mahdi Army militia that has been key to success in Sadr City and Basra.
The goodwill he has created has also yet to translate into concrete gains in reconciliation between Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds. A deal still has not been sealed on returning Sunni Arab rivals to his government or on passing a crucial law on sharing oil wealth, blocked in part by his Kurdish allies. Reconciliation will be key as al-Maliki faces the potentially divisive political events that loom ahead like provincial elections expected in November and negotiations over a long-term presence of U.S. forces.
Al-Maliki also has to face the daunting tasks of reducing popular discontent over services, employment and crime. Better-than-expected oil income $60-plus billion this year should enable him to cushion some of the hardship Iraqis face.
Still, al-Maliki acknowledged last week during a visit to the southern city of Najaf that power cuts the scourge of Iraqis during the unforgiving heat of the summer months may stay the same because of a decline in the volume of water available to hydraulic power stations.
"The Iraqis and the Americans seem to be going in vicious circles," said Thamer Abdul-Rasoul, a 42-year-old government employee and father of three from Baghdad. "They make progress in one area and do nothing about others. Security now is better than 2005 and 2006, but electricity still comes four or five hours a day in total."
Al-Maliki became Iraq's longest-serving prime minister since the 2003 fall of Saddam Hussein, marking his two-year anniversary on Tuesday. For much of that time, his opponents have accused him of doing little as Shiite factions and their militias gained power in many areas. But his move against Shiite militias in Basra though troubled when it began in late March and the Iraqi security forces' deployment last week in Sadr City have some critics hopeful.
"Perhaps the message was finally received that what has gone on for the past two years cannot continue and the prime minister must take a decisive position," Sunni Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi told Associated Press Television News this week.
Still, nothing has yet come out of an agreement reached nearly a month ago with al-Hashemi for the return of Sunni ministers who quit the Cabinet in August. "The ball now is in the government's court," al-Hashemi said. He said al-Maliki had rejected two lists of nominees to fill the vacant Cabinet posts presented by the Iraqi Accordance Front, parliament's largest Sunni Arab bloc.
The Basra assault sparked clashes with the Mahdi Army across southern Iraq and in Sadr City. But after a truce in mid-April, Basra is calmer and government forces have greater control. Violence in Sadr City continued for weeks until another truce was reached there in May. That paved a way for a large military deployment that has so far gone off without a shot in the district, where Mahdi Army fighters once operated unquestioned.
An unusual calm has descended on Baghdad since fighting ended in Sadr City.
But Mahdi Army militiamen have largely ignored al-Maliki's order to hand over medium and heavy weapons in Basra and Sadr City, suggesting they are keeping them to fight another day. The negotiated truces do not address the larger question of the future of the Mahdi Army, which earned notoriety for killing thousands of Sunni Arabs at the height of sectarian violence in 2006 and 2007.
"We're hopeful that it will hold," Lt. Gen. Lloyd J. Austin III, the No. 2 U.S. commander in Iraq, said Thursday about the Sadr City truce. "But we recognize that, like anything, it is fragile and so there are a number of things that could happen, and we have to prepare ourselves for that eventuality."
Upcoming elections hold dangers: Al-Maliki has spoken of banning parties with militias from running, a move that would anger the Sadrists.
A new outbreak of violence with the Mahdi Army could throw everything back into turmoil and strain what the U.S. military says is an improved performance by Iraqi forces. The militia fought with tenacity in Sadr City and Basra, while the Iraqi army and police suffered the embarrassment of about 1,000 cases of desertions in Basra, casting serious doubt on their readiness.
Al-Qaida and Sunni insurgents are also not out of the picture. The offensive against them in Mosul was publicized by the government as early as January, months ahead of its launch, giving the terror network's fighters time to flee and regroup elsewhere.
#1
AP reporting - they left out the fact that operatison CONTINUE in Basra, Mosul and SadrCity - search and sieze, cordon and clear. Captures of large med-hvy weapons caches have happened but this articel conveniently ignores them.
The AP is dishonest at best and lying propagandists at worst in this article.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
BAGHDAD - After two years in office, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has managed only in the past two months to stamp a semblance of authority in this unwieldy nation with bold crackdowns on Shiite militias and Sunni insurgents in Baghdad, Basra and the north. 
