Final Protective Fire

Monday, March 31, 2003

 

Charles Johnson nails the Guardian to the wall. Bravo Charles.

Robin 10:17 PM

Sunday, March 30, 2003

 

This Day By Day cartoon is too hilarious. Put down coffee mug before clicking.

Robin 7:35 PM

Saturday, March 29, 2003

 

Asymetric Information has this quite good rant by Jane Galt on copyright, anti-copying legislation and such.

Robin 8:06 PM

 

The Command Post tells us of Arafat's terrorists going to Iraq to attack us. Time to pull the plug on the whole PA experiment, IMO, as its quite clear by now that the Palestinians have no one willing to even consider living in peace with their neighbors.

Robin 7:15 PM

Friday, March 28, 2003

 

An interesting and amusing article about how the US military is dealing with Iraqi property they are taking for military use.

Robin 11:24 AM

 

To paraphrase an Nth-hand communication from a serving soldier, the trooper is not pleased with how the progress they are making over there is being systematically mis- or under-reported. He and his boys do see some of the coverage on the 'talkback' of the embedded reporters, and they are some pissed. The headline from the LA Times yesterday (something like 'things are getting worse and worse') reached the grunts yesterday afternoon and they are not happy about it.

The word from the front line is this - we are kicking ass and taking names here. The enemy is losing men and materiel at a completely unsustainable rate. EPW's must now exceed the numbers being given in the US media by a very large margin. We are taking virtually no casualties at all, of any kind. Do not confuse a lack of motion with a lack of progress. The trooper claims to have plenty of everything they need, except hot showers. We have no need to move forward, the enemy is coming to us and we are cleaning his clock in open country, a hundred times preferable to dealing with him in a city environment. Believe only half of what you see and virtually none of what you hear.

Robin 11:04 AM

Thursday, March 27, 2003

 

Here's another example of anti-war protestors demonstrating that they "support" the troops. Its always amusing when the anti-war protestors establish what slime they are. Good job confirming what I've been saying about you.

Robin 8:28 PM

 

Another new blogger that will be added to my blogroll when Pyra gets its head out of its collective ass is Tiki Lounge, the creation of an old friend. The only shame is that so far he's gotten every issue he discusses there wrong... Dave puts the "paleo" in "paleoconservative". Hehe.

Robin 7:35 PM

 

Today's "Duh" moment comes from Hans Blix. Thanks Hans. ( Link shamelessly stolen from Volokh Conspiracy).

Robin 2:15 PM

 

I wanted to say something about the bizarre way the current progress in the war in Iraq is being portrayed in the media but once again, Steven Den Beste said it better.

Robin 1:04 PM

Monday, March 24, 2003

 

Command Post believes that we are still seeing old videotape of Saddam.

Robin 10:27 AM

 

Salam has an interesting bit about Iraqis faking bomb damage again. Go here and read the paragraph marked "22/3 4:30pm (day3)".

Robin 10:24 AM

 

An apt editorial cartoon about the actions of Al Jazeera and Iraq.

Robin 10:21 AM

 

This story about the US Marines' advance has more anecdotes about the welcome the Iraqi's have for us. I don't think the US Army has had such a friendly welcome in an enemy country since we invaded Italy. Link shamelessly stolen from the Command Post.

Robin 10:18 AM

 

More illegal weapons that Hans couldn't find.

Robin 10:15 AM

Sunday, March 23, 2003

 

Howard Owens was kind enough to link to me. He's working for the Ventura County Star, out in California and also runs the Star's warblog linked below. I was born and raised in Ventura County. I'll add Howard to my own blog roll just as soon as Blogger sets a ransom for it.

Robin 1:10 PM

Saturday, March 22, 2003

 

This is the blog of the local newspaper from where I grew up.

Robin 10:03 PM

 

Charles Johnson shows us more images of anti-war protestors, filled with Palestinian and pro-terrorist flags. Charles also points us to evidence of subversive activities on campus by muslim student groups. Guess someone ran out of communists.

Robin 8:56 PM

 

Junkyard blog discusses the links between the recent find in Paris of ricin poison, Al Queda and Iraq.

Robin 7:09 PM

 

Looks like the grenade attack in Kuwait in a 101st Air Assault camp was by one of our own together with two Kuwaiti translators.

Robin 7:05 PM

Friday, March 21, 2003

 

This is a bit old but I've been meaning to post this transcript of Tony Blair's fine speech a few days ago in support of the British government's motion on the war.

Robin 9:51 PM

 

This story of what the British and the Marines are finding is enlightening.

Robin 8:25 PM

 

A friend of mine emailed to insist that I had to post a link to the opening campaign speech of Lt. Col. Tim Collins of the 1st Battalion Royal Irish. As my friend put it "Shades of the St Crispin's day speech ... I guess having an officer corps with a classical education has advantages." Indeed.

Robin 8:19 PM

 

Evidently exposure to the real Iraq has converted some of the "human shields" idiots to a more rational viewpoint, as one human shield got told off by an Iraqi taxi driver.

Robin 2:11 PM

 

Peter Arnett is still up to his old tricks of shilling for Saddam Hussein as shown by this MRC piece. And the Canadians show that they are not merely useless but annoying as well. Fortunately, Americans have high support for the war and approval of President Bush's actions, but then, its not difficult to be more intelligent than Tom Daschle.

Robin 9:36 AM

Thursday, March 20, 2003

 

I enjoyed Prof. Volokh's response to hate email, I'm going to have to steal it. He won't discover that I've done so unless he sends me hate email ...

Robin 1:19 PM

 

Hey, Hans, where did these missiles come from, if your inspections were working so well? Here the Iraqis even own up to having fired these missiles that they supposedly didn't have.
UPDATE: Gee, Hans gets it now.

Robin 11:12 AM

Wednesday, March 19, 2003

 

This is an interesting piece, found sort of above the fold on Drudge, which describes several interesting things. The first was an interesting tactic to pressure Iraqi operatives operating outside Iraq to "turn". Interestingly, the Iraqis evidently put a lot of knowledgable people out of country to frustrate attempts by Blix's Keystone Kops to interview them.

A handful of eleventh-hour recruits have come from among Iraqi scientists abroad who have also been approached lately by U.S. agents. The Baghdad government sent some of them overseas and elsewhere late last year to prevent their questioning by U.N. inspectors. Still other knowledgeable Iraqis have been detained at border points this month as they sought to flee the country before shooting started.

But another interesting tidbit is that evidently the administration changed its mind about using UN ( ie., Blix's people ) to help disarm Iraq in the short term after completion of the occupation.

From the article: As a substitute for the U.N. expertise, the Bush administration has scrambled to recruit former inspectors from the U.N. Special Commission, or UNSCOM, the agency that carried out inspections in Iraq in the 1990s. These inspectors may join military-civilian "exploitation teams" that will interrogate Iraqi weapons scientists and assess captured documents, but the first of them are just arriving in the region, and their roles remain undefined.

From certain actions, I've long believed that the administration believed that the current UN inspection teams were compromised but this makes me think that something recently led the administration to think that their compromise was even more serious.

Robin 10:57 PM

 

Colorado joins the overwhelming majority of states with "Shall-Issue" statutes for permits for concealed-carry. Thanks to Clayton Cramer for the link.

Robin 10:05 PM

 

The Freepers are not amused by the Dixie Chick's apology, nor their managers attacks on fan anger as the invention of Free Republic. Odd. I wrote a couple of letters to local radio stations long before I even knew that FR was discussing this ... how could that happen?

Robin 9:56 PM

 

Iain Murray has a collection of reactions in France and Germany to their respective governments' recent obstructionism. It looks like its starting to dawn in some circles in France and Germany that their actions are going to have a lot of blowback. In an earlier posting, Iain Murray points to a poll showing confidence in President Bush to make the right decision was 53% ... in Britain. It is amazing how support for the war firmed up in the last hours. More evidence that Tom Daschle is a flaming idiot.

Robin 6:24 PM

 

Man Without Qualities shows us why the International Criminal Court was a ridiculous idea with this posting. And with this previous posting.

Robin 3:56 PM

Tuesday, March 18, 2003

 

This is hilarious satire of the state of the media from Simberg.

Robin 3:18 PM

 

I try not to copy everything Glenn posts, but I couldn't resist emphasizing this piece about a sports crowd reaction to the President's speech. That's America, not A.N.S.W.E.R.

Robin 11:27 AM

 

The British are a good ally admittedly with their own strengths and weaknesses. But for the most fight-per-pound, the Australians just can't be beat. With that thought in mind, Tim Blair collects some thoughts on his blog.

Robin 11:16 AM

Monday, March 17, 2003

 

In case you were wondering what a moron sounds like, here's Tom Daschle in full kit.

UPDATE: And if you thought the above was nauseating, Janet "I gassed 'em for the children" Reno out-morons Daschel. UPDATE2: OK, Man Without Qualities does it best with respect to Reno's stupidity. And Michael Barone Fisk's Daschle quite thoroughly.

Robin 6:11 PM

 

Man Without Qualities has some fun with the news item about the UN inspectors losing some of their helicopters due to cancelled insurance policies.

Robin 11:22 AM

 

Over on the Volokh Conspiracy, David Post discusses the nonsense about headlines announcing the "reason" for stock market movements.

Robin 11:21 AM

 

It's not surprising but it is refreshing to see that some muslims, such as the ones mentioned in this post on The Corner, have a reasonable view of the world.

Robin 9:00 AM

Friday, March 14, 2003

 

Henry Hanks points to disappointment with the way Democrats deal with anti-semites in their party. Hey, no surprise though, Henry?
UPDATE: Moran has been removed from his Democrat party leadership post. That's a start.

Robin 2:03 PM

 

One of the interesting things about the upcoming war in Iraq is the number of celebrities who are voicing their opinion. No, I don't mean blithering idiots like Jessica Lange and Susan Sarandon. I'm refering to people who are bucking the Hollywood trend like James Woods, and Ron Silver ( starting a bit more than two-thirds of the way down the transcript). Thanks, Ron, for taking on Bill Maher, we won't forget you.

Robin 1:49 PM

 

Stephen Green is disgusted by a Paul Conrad cartoon. Not a surprise for two reasons of course, the first is the obvious - that Paul Conrad is a bile-filled disgusting old man. The second is that Conrad works for the Los Angeles Times, the disgusting newspaper that still employs the dishonest Robert Scheer.

Robin 1:16 PM

Thursday, March 13, 2003

 

Chris Muir rocks. This guy goes into my bloglist the second Blogger quits holding my template hostage.

Robin 8:43 PM

 

Tim Blair has a wonderful style. Here he roughs up the French some, Aussie style. Go Tim.

Robin 8:31 PM

 

Us evil "warbloggers" now have Elie Wiesel on our side. Well, I wasn't waiting for him, but it beats having Sean Penn on our side. From Jeff Jarvis.

By the way, Jarvis has the funniest "copyright notice" I've seen.

Robin 8:21 PM

 

Orson Scott Card has a great essay here about Turkey, and the upcoming war in Iraq.

Robin 8:13 PM

 

What is "it" all about? You know, why are France and Germany fighting us in the UN? A good argument has been that France and Germany are concerned about revelations from an occupied Iraq regarding their sales of arms and tools for WMD to Iraq in violation of the post Gulf War sanctions. And I still believe that to be a motivation. But Den Beste has an interesting analysis that concludes that its "about" who is to blame for the collapse of the UN. I'm coming around to his point of view.

Robin 4:52 PM

 

Stanley Kurtz on NRO's The Corner points us to interesting blog piece by Randall Parker about how close Iraq may still be to having nuclear weapons. This may explain the juggling act that Saddam Hussein is doing, he may think he can delay things for just enough time to finish the program despite Hans Blix's Inspector Clousseau act. This is probably one of the most important blog posts I've seen this week and it should be at the top of your mind.

Parker also does fine job of explaining why the US should go forward with the liberation of Iraq regardless of UN support.

Robin 4:41 PM

 

Eugene Volokh repeats something that he and I have previously noted, that the Congressional power to declare war doesn't mean that the resolution must say "we declare war". Hmmm, of course, I doubt that Prof. Volokh has noticed my comments on this matter, I've pointed to his previously. In the post linked above, Prof. Volokh relates this to the recent First Circuit decision. What he doesn't point out, perhaps because he's more polite than I, is that the list of plaintiffs in the caption of the case is a veritable Who's-Who of congressional Democrat losers. The actual opinion is located here and contains a quick trip through the main cases on ripeness and political question doctrines.

Robin 4:09 PM

 

Henry Hanks pointed us to this piece by Jack Shafer about why Helen Thomas is getting snubbed. What's amusing about this is that while Shafer is pointing out what a bile-filled harridan Thomas is, he establishes himself as a near clone of her.

Robin 3:33 PM

 

Here's a message to France that I could endorse.

Robin 3:20 PM

 

U.N. weapons inspector killed in Iraq by a traffic accident. Hey, Hans, you sure those inspections are working?

Robin 11:30 AM

 

The Man Without Qualities goes bonkers laughing at both Paul Krugman and a Brad DeLong attempt to defend Krugman. Not to be missed.

Robin 10:59 AM

Wednesday, March 12, 2003

 

Charles Murtaugh has a good piece discussing research on the purported abortion-breast cancer link. Charles and I obviously have differing political views, but I admire his honesty and dedication to good science as evidenced by his comments there.

Robin 4:34 PM

Tuesday, March 11, 2003

 

Glenn Reynolds points us to where Democrats demonstrate their brilliant diplomatic skills by insulting a Head of State.

Robin 1:31 PM

 

More Iraqi resistance to the UN inspectors, this time blocking U-2 surveillance flights that they had agreed to previously. Sure the inspections are working, Hans, sure they are.

Robin 11:11 AM

 

Orin Kerr describes here why this story about libraries posting signs about monitoring is a misrepresentation of the law. It still amazes me how much deliberate misinformation about the PATRIOT Act is out there.

Robin 10:53 AM

 

There are those who like to continue to say that it is not necessarily unpatriotic to oppose the upcoming war with Iraq. They object to claims that the opposition to the war is motivated by anti-americanism. Evidently the actual anti-war protestors do their best to discredit that claim.

Robin 8:55 AM

Monday, March 10, 2003

 

The LA Times published this cartoon on the Democrat opposition to the Miguel Estrada nomination. Howard Bashman does us the favor of pointing to it.

Robin 1:53 PM

 

Hoy does another fine job on Krugman.

Robin 1:25 PM

 

Lileks has good bleat here, he discusses the Mel Gibson movie "We Were Soldiers". That film, if you haven't seen it, is based on Gen. Hal Moore's memoir "We Were Soldiers Once and Young". Both the film and the book are great antidotes to the popular media's poison about the Vietnam War.

Robin 10:59 AM

Sunday, March 09, 2003

 

In light of the still-unfolding rape coverup scandal at the Air Force Academy, Trent Telenko says some very strong things. I wish I could disagree with him.

Robin 7:28 PM

 

Evidence that this will be a short war, Iraqi soldiers are surrendering before the hostilities have even begun. This might be a record, even the French haven't surrendered in advance.

Robin 7:14 PM

Friday, March 07, 2003

 

Blogs provide us with ways to connect with people. This is a connection to someone very close to the sharp end. And on his fine blog, this posting got me very "connected".

Robin 4:32 PM

 

Eugene Volokh points us to real suppression of dissent as reported by Foundation for Individual Rights in Education.

Robin 4:19 PM

Thursday, March 06, 2003

 

Glenn Reynolds points us to this Stephen Pollard piece and especially:

Well-connected advisers tell me that if, as now seems likely, the UN refuses to back action against terror, Mr Bush will announce a "temporary" suspension of America's membership, to be accompanied by an offer: if the UN gets its act together and carries out long-overdue reforms, America (and its money) will return.
As appealing as the thought of dumping the United Nations is, what's described above simply isn't going to be seriously considered by the Bush administration. And the reason is best illustrated by the Korean War. That war was the first and last "United Nations" war. The only reason that the United Nations was able to put together the coalition to defend South Korea against the invasion by the DPRK was because the Soviet Union was boycotting the Security Council at the time. There is simply no way that the US will abandon its veto power in the Security Council for even a minute.

Robin 8:28 PM