Another Drudge-a-licious meme…legions of scorned lovers adoring fans will swoon. Waylon Jennings sure had a close call. Hillary even closer. Or maybe not. Regardless, this bodes well for Giuliani.

Cross-posted @ GFA51

Upper Left: The Clinton House. Upper Right: This nice lady keeps getting in all my pictures. In fact she insisted on standing in front of the “Bake Sale for Obama” that was going on in front of the Cornell Sun while I was clicking away. Lower Left: I bet our good friend Mike knows who put this sign up.. Lower Right: Lucifer Falls, Robert H. Treman State Park .

This is about as political as I’ll be getting the rest of the summer. In fact it about as much blogging as I’ll be getting done too. I’m starting the Summer Semester today and I’m happy to be returning to school. Now lets see if the National Guard can leave me alone long enough to finish these last few credits.

Via TJ’s Anti-Contrarian Blog:

“This news sort of flew under the notice of the Lame Stream Media, and I fear the only way the American People will hear of it is through Bloggers:

Saddam Harbored Al-Qaeda according to a Democrat Senate Investigation!!!

The Democrat-run Senate Intelligence Committee, while trying to find wrongdoing by the Bush Administration in their Phase Two Report, actually proved something that I proved long ago in this blog –

Iraq harbored Al-Qaeda before our invasion of March 2003.

Here is the full report: LINK. Now, go and read Conclusions 10 and 11 on Page 71.

Hey libs, told ya’ so…“

So what does conclusion 10 and 11 say?

There one problem with TJ’s claim, and that’s Abu Musab al-Zarqawi didn’t join al-Qaeda untill late 2004, well after the invasion and occupation of Iraq. His claim is just another in a long line of rubbish. Even the pResident knows that:

In 2001, coalition forces destroyed Zarqawi’s Afghan training camp, and he fled the country and he went to Iraq, where he set up operations with terrorist associates long before the arrival of coalition forces. In the violence and instability following Saddam’s fall, Zarqawi was able to expand dramatically the size, scope, and lethality of his operation. In 2004, Zarqawi and his terrorist group formally joined al Qaida, pledged allegiance to Osama bin Laden, and he promised to “follow his orders in jihad.”

Soon after, bin Laden publicly declared that Zarqawi was the “Prince of Al Qaida in Iraq” — and instructed terrorists in Iraq to “listen to him and obey him.” It’s hard to argue that al Qaida in Iraq is separate from bin Laden’s al Qaida, when the leader of al Qaida in Iraq took an oath of allegiance to Osama bin Laden.

In 2004.

Muddying the water is what the right-wing blogosphere does oh so well. And TJ is tops at that. To illustrate let’s take a look at the next two conclusions that seemed to have been glossed over:

Ya.

So to sum up…was Iraq a bad place with bad people prior to 2003? Yes. Did it harbor al Qaida? No. Did pResident Bush, Vice pResident Cheney, Don Rumsfeld, and numerous other villains lie this country into a war for their own perceived benefit? Yes.

McCain’s policies are in line with Ronald Reagan’s successful conservative economic plans; of the two Presidential candidates, it is Obama’s plan that is more like those practiced by Bush. - Bob “treason in defense of slavery” Owens

In short:

• McCain will raise taxes
• McCain will triple the deficit
• McCain will sell arms to Iran
• McCain will grant illegal aliens amnesty
• McCain will incite terrorism against the U.S.

Way to shore up the base there, Bob. Sad thing is those morons will eat it right up.

In this second part let me run through a few posts that have stuck with me over the last month, starting with one I alluded to in the beginning of the first part:

Caveat Emptor

…And this is how Obama has learned to win, eliminating people in primaries, which meant he has never faced a real opponent in a general election, because in Illinois lately, the Democratic primary is the election. Read the whole thing and learn how delegates are apportioned, and there is nothing vague democratic about it.
…
He uses the rules to eliminate competition in the Democratic primaries, but he is actually going to face real opposition in the general election, and he has never had to do that before. He is a machine politician, and nothing more.

Steve Bates of The Yellow Doggerel Democrat:

For Obama
- Or -
Dammit, Hillary, Go Home…

From the beginning of this election cycle, I have pledged to support the Democratic nominee. It is now clear that Barack Obama will be that nominee, and for all my reservations about the nominating process to this point, he is a most impressive candidate, and I support him wholeheartedly.

I am not a single-issue voter, but for family and personal reasons, my primary issue this year is healthcare. No issue affects me personally, no issue has affected my family over the past two decades, more than healthcare coverage. For that reason, I initially supported John Edwards until he withdrew. Then, in the Texas primary, I voted for and caucused for Hillary, largely because of her announced healthcare policy. Many pixels have been spilled over the differences between Obama’s and Hillary’s plans, but it seems to me they have become more similar over the course of the campaign, and Obama’s policy is vastly better than McSame’s policy: McLame’s advice may well be expressed as “be born into a wealthy family which additionally has had lifetime government-paid health care coverage.”

So we’re ready for the battle. Now if Hillary would just admit that she has lost…

(Post title amended for clarity after initial posting.)

Kvatch of Ragebot:

Hey…Clinton supporters?! Your bullsh*t, “…we’re gonna take all our marbles and go home,” attitude makes you sound about as mature as the Chimperor. For God’s sake, McCain is promising you 5 more years of war and another 3/4 quarters of a trillion dollars in debt. If you won’t vote your own interests, then at least vote your children’s. And remember, a vote for McCain is really a vote for his Vice President, and that could be Huckabee. Just chew on that for a minute.

And you…Obama supporters?! Do you really think your gonna convince the other side to make common cause with you when you treat their candidate with the kind of contempt you used to reserve for Bill O’Reilly? And all that haughty, “We’ve won, it’s time for the Clintonistas to just suck it up and get on board,” crap? Smacks of the same sense of entitlement that you’ve decried in Senator Clinton for a year now.

We’ve got a pretty easy choice in November, the Democratic nominee or Bush III. McCain won’t give back one iota of executive power. He won’t stem the rush to complete executive secrecy, and he won’t quit giving freebies to the corporatists, because, without those tools, he won’t be able to continue the war.

I should note that every one of us, Bryan, Steve, Kvatch, and myself, started out supporting John Edwards to some degree, and later moved into the Hillary or Obama’s camp (or no camp at all). There are two trends in thought here and they are what’s left to be reconciled for myself. I used Steve’s basic argument-knowingly or unknowingly–with Bryan, and it’s basically the same thing Kvatch said; We should vote for the Democrat no matter what, not just because the consequences of a McCain victory would be devastating for whats left of our country after 8 years of the worst pResident in American history, but because we should have some kind of faith in Democrats.

Well, after seeing the results of the Democratic party coming to power in 2006, I don’t roll like that anymore. That’s the other trend. I don’t know how to argue with Bryan to get him to change his mind because it’s to easy to acknowledge the truth of what he speaks of, the anti-democratic nature of machine politicians within the Democratic party. I have entered the House of the Culture Ghost and IOZ is in ascendancy.

To be continued…

Update:

Scrap that idea. Chucking the database and starting from scratch would just be a duplication of effort. I’m just going to give this site a rest for a bit.

As much as I relish pointing out when rightwing bloggers slip their moorings when it comes to things military, I can’t ignore it when the leftwing does the same:

Do you remember when, in the first couple of weeks after the WTC attacks, the airports were filled with National Guard bearing automatic rifles?

They weren’t issued ammunition.

It would have been dangerous and pointless to do so.

This is an example of “security theater,” the use of an apparent, but ineffective security measure. It’s an example of good security theater, because it reassured people without endangering or inconveniencing them.

As many of you know I am a member of the New York State Army National Guard who, for approximately three years, has served on State Active Duty (meaning that beyond the advertised one weekend a month and two weeks annual training, I show up for work everyday in uniform, although not under Title 10*). The Title 32 task force I work with was formed in response to September 11th and many of the people I work with have been here since those early days. I can tell you unequivocally that our State’s National Guard had ammunition right from the start at the Airports as well as other locations.

Jay Ackroyd, latest addition to the continually watered down Atrio’s Eschaton**, provides no link to clarify which State’s National Guard he’s referring to, but that’s besides the point. I’m taken aback that it would be anymore “dangerous and pointless” for National Guard troops carry ammunition in the weeks after 9/11 than it would be on any day in the nearly seven years since that time–as we have. Oh, but that’s right, we’re just security theater.

-~-

*More about Title Ten & Thirty two:

**Duncan Black happens to be one of my favorite bloggers. I understand the man needs a break ever once in a while But Atrio’s Eschaton has become a bit crowded for my taste as of late.

Leading General Tells Troops to Start Blogging
By Noah Shachtman

Lt. Gen. William Caldwell, who heads the Combined Arms Center [CAC] and Ft. Leavenworth, told his soldiers in a recent memo that “faculty and students will begin blogging as part of their curriculum and writing requirements both within the .mil and public environments. In addition CAC subordinate organizations will begin to engage in the blogosphere in an effort to communicate the myriad of activities that CAC is accomplishing and help assist telling the Army’s story to a wide and diverse audience.”

Lt. Gen. Caldwell, the former commander of the 82nd Airborne Division, is a blogger himself, contributing to Small Wars Journal. He made waves in January when he wrote that “we must encourage our Soldiers to… get onto blogs and to send their YouTube videos to their friends and family.”

It’s a position that appears to run counter to stated Pentagon policy. YouTube is officially banned on military networks. Personal blogs cannot be maintained during duty hours. Many influential blogs are blocked. Stringent regulations, read literally, require commanding officers to review each and every item one of his soldiers puts online. And in televised commercials, screen savers, and flyers, troops are told that blogging is a major security risk — even though official sites have proven to leak many, many more secrets.

-It’s about time somebody saw reason. With people like Bob ‘Confederate Wankee’ Owens releasing photos of the effects of EFP’s (explosively formed penetrators) on our troops vehicles (in an attempt to, what, help insurgents plan better next time?), how much worse could the blogging of a soldier who’s life is on the line everyday be? Who would understand better?

Oswego County Nuke Plants Say They’ll Lose National Guard Patrols
Owner of plant says state is pulling back; company will guard its plants as it did before 9/11.
Friday, May 16, 2008
By Charles McChesney

National Guard forces that have patrolled outside Oswego County’s three nuclear plants since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, may be withdrawn as soon as this summer.

A spokeswoman for Gov. David Paterson said the state is taking a look at security arrangements. “No troops have pulled out at this time,” said Jennifer Givner.

But Constellation Energy - the owner of Nine Mile Point Nuclear Station - has been told troops will be gone come summer.

Time to start looking for gainful employment, it appears. Of course we’ve been through this kind of talk before. I had been thinking of starting another blog on the side completely themed on Polynesian warrior tribesmen guarding a volcano for the scientist/priests of the island, and make it an allegory regarding the state of “Homeland Security” in our country today. But, alas, it may be someone has already taken the lessons I was thinking of into consideration.