Final Protective Fire

Friday, September 26, 2003

 

Man Without Qualities has collected several pieces on Gen. Wesley Clark, especially his early removal from SACEUR.

Story about Gen. Clark's removal.

More details on Gen. Shelton's comments about Gen. Clark.

Clark's comments on President Bush.

Robin 10:26 AM

Wednesday, September 24, 2003

 

As people like Dean have mentioned, the Chief Wiggles has a great idea. Scroll down to here to see how his idea came to him.

We must get behind this. When this war began, I said that the greatest effect we would have in Iraq was exposing the Iraqi people to the tens of thousands of wonderful, talented, caring servicemen and women we were sending over there. When one of them gets this fantastic idea, it deserves all of the immense support that Americans can put together when someone needs help. One of the neat things about Americans and the Internet is how fast we can assemble people and ideas and get things moving. I had the same great feeling during the first Gulf War when we organized people across the nation to get care packages to the troops. I still cherish the letters we got back from servicemen from that experience.

Now some have criticized this with words about helping the Iraqi people with food and water. I'm confident that the US occupation forces are working at their capacity to do that. What this is about is empowering American servicemen and women to express what America is really about - individual caring.

So do what we do best. Get going.

Robin 5:45 PM

Tuesday, September 23, 2003

 

ABC is reporting that the recently release video tape of Bin Laden was actually from November 2001 ... more reason to believe that Bin Laden is cave fungus.

Robin 5:06 PM

 

As I had hoped, the Ninth Circuit en banc has affirmed the original district court ruling regarding the California recall election. This was a wise ruling as the district court had written a very detailed memorandum supporting its order denying the request for injunction. The core of the district court opinion seemed to me to be the claim was precluded by the previous action's consent order settlement. The en banc opinion seems to weigh more heavily in a failure of the plaintiffs to demonstrate a likelihood of prevailing on the merits. It is interesting that the result was evidently unanimous ( according to Howard Bashman's fine and timely blogging on this result ). This is a stinging rebuke to the three judges on the original Ninth Circuit panel.

The result is that the recall election is back on track. ADDED: You may enjoy The Man Without Qualities' discussion of his impressions of oral argument.

Robin 10:46 AM

Monday, September 22, 2003

 

This piece on candidates for Mayor of San Francisco is the funniest piece of political humor I've seen in a long time. Link stolen from Jacob Levy guest-blogging on the Volokh Conspiracy.

Robin 11:18 AM

 

A fine Fisking by Steven Den Beste of a ridiculous biased article by the BBC defending a war criminal aka "human shield".

Robin 10:31 AM

Thursday, September 18, 2003

 

I confess, its true:

You belong in Starship Troopers. Your idea of a
good time is bouncing across an alien
battlefield blasting the foes of humanity into
extinction.

Which Heinlein Book Should You Have Been A Character In?
brought to you by Quizilla

Robin 3:07 PM

 

More discussion at the Weekly Standard of the corruption of CNN and Iraq.

Robin 2:44 PM

Saturday, September 13, 2003

 

If you don't care for Make-A-Politically-Correct-Wish Foundation, you can support Hunt of a Lifetime.

Robin 7:48 PM

Friday, September 12, 2003

 

A bit late, but Pejman points us to this fascinating piece about polling of Iraqis. Let's see the 7 dwarfs deal with that.

Robin 8:58 PM

 

Johnny Cash 1932 - 2003. I grew up with that man's music, I will miss him greatly.

Robin 8:17 PM

 

Since its after Sept 11 now, I can joke more about terrorism. John Hawkens reminds us of this great sketch from The Life of Brian.

Robin 4:21 PM

 

This means that the "White Glenn", who I specifically declared myself in league with, has joined an alliance created to oppose him.

There has to be a word for this ...

And if there is, I bet it has "Italian" in it somewhere.

Robin 3:07 PM

 

I missed being able to post on Sept 11 because of illness, but in truth, I wasn't finding myself too articulate.

Larry Miller found some words however.

And Bill Whittle has a good comment.

Robin 8:48 AM

Monday, September 08, 2003

 

Robert Musil revisits the recent, supposedly "bad", employment numbers.

Robin 10:30 PM

Sunday, September 07, 2003

 

From the White House website, the text of the President's speech, its amusing to see how little it matches Brokaw's idiotic commentary afterwards.

Robin 8:38 PM

 

As we approach the second anniversary of the Sept 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, I'm searching for a way to expound on my feelings. Delroy Murdoch has a piece on NRO that highlighted some things.

Some lines from Murdoch's piece explaining what some families of those lost in the World Trade Center have to memorialize their lost loved ones:
Captain Brian Hickey led seven of Rescue Company 3's men into Tower Two. None survived. After awaiting his body's recovery for eight months, Hickey's family instead buried a coffin bearing his helmet. Only perspiration residue on its sweatband and a few hairs tied the headgear to the 47-year-old father of four. Later, the medical examiner classified a one-inch square bone fragment as Hickey's. His family interred it in lieu of his helmet.

Another family: "The only thing ever recovered from [his son's unit] was Lt. Anthony Jovic's badge. They found his brass badge that November or December. That's the only thing ever recovered from the entire company of five guys."

And this comment from Robert Shaler, New York's chief forensic biologist:I'm still driven by the families ... When I see these people, they look at me with eyes that say, 'Did you find her yet?'

Robin 8:18 PM

 

Jeff Jarvis points us to this terrorist threat. Oh, the horror.

Robin 4:59 PM

Friday, September 05, 2003

 

Clayton Cramer again discusses his boycott of Amazon over a book he characterizes as "advocating" child molestation. He's actually starting to move me toward his position ... but my god, 160,000 copies sold?

Robin 9:40 AM

Thursday, September 04, 2003

 

Taiwan held some very large military exercises recently. This makes me wonder if the Taiwanese suspect that the Communist Chinese would use a Korean conflict as cover for a move against Taiwan?

Robin 1:48 PM

 

Another example of outrageous gagging of political speech here. How could this happen in America? Bush and Ashcroft are Nazis! What? Its in Canada? Oops, never mind.

Shamelessly stolen from David Bernstein of the Volokh Conspiracy.

Robin 10:38 AM

 

The Democrats abuse of the Senatorial consent power succeeds in driving Miguel Estrada off. And so the political process is further debased by these tactics. And a good man is harrassed by Democrats for their tawdry political purposes.

I'm ashamed of the nation's treatment of you, Mr. Estrada, and I wish my apologies held any meaning for you. Alas, they can't.

Robin 9:53 AM

Wednesday, September 03, 2003

 

Richard Miniter here describes more material for two themes. The first is of course the obvious - that Bill Clinton's incompetence and indifference undermined U.S. security greatly. The other theme is that Democrats in general, in this example Senator Dennis DeConcini is front row, cannot be trusted with our nation's security.

Robin 11:24 PM

Tuesday, September 02, 2003

 

Dean Esmay fights against some common "wisdom" in his Ten odd things I believe about politics posting. I wanted to shred every one of his items ... but he has some points.

Robin 3:37 PM