The AP Goes Islamic!

Extremely interesting news on the Media front of the Iraq War. It seems that the Associated Press (one of the two biggest providers, along with Reuters, of Iraq news for Americans), has been relying heavily on two very untrustworthy sources for the last several months. As a result, stories that are either entirely or partially false have been depicted as fact back here in the U.S.

Specifically, in question is one 'source' who claims to be a member of the Iraqi Police. Only problem is, neither the U.S Central Command nor the Iraqi Ministry of the Interior has any record of this person even existing, much less being authorized to speak with the Western media! The man in question, who goes by the name of Capt. Jamil Hussein, has been heavily cited as a source by the AP since at least June. It is likely that this Hussein is simply a Sunni sectarian, who wishes to exaggerate the extent to which violence is occurring in Iraq, especially the Shiite attacks on Sunnis, and change American public opinion to anti-war.

Scary stuff! And, at least in any sensible person's view, a huge blow to the credibility of news reports coming out of Iraq. Interestingly enough, NBC cited on of the questionable Hussein's reports when they declared Iraq to be in 'Civil War' yesterday. That report talked about the supposed burning alive of 6 Sunnis; only problem is, the only person who can confirm the incident is Jamil Hussein - local civilians, U.S Central Command, and the Iraqi Government have all denied the incident ever occurred! So you see, all this unethical and questionable 'reporting' that is done by the AP really does have serious harmful consequences back here in the United States. Indeed, the biased ignorance of AP reporting has gone so far as to warrant an official letter of complaint from U.S Central Command.

I'm not going to write anymore on the story, however, here's the link to Flopping Aces' (who originally broke the story) detailed and excellent presentation/analysis:

Flopping Aces

"Do not fear the enemy, for your enemy can only take your life. It is far better that you fear the media, for they will steal your honor. That awful power, the public opinion of a nation, is created in America by a horde of ignorant, self-complacent simpletons who failed at ditching and shoemaking and fetched up in journalism on their way to the poorhouse." ~ Mark Twain

D*mn It...Blog Issues

So, bad news on the Blog front: earlier this evening, while attempting to switch over to Blogger.com's new blog format, I seem to have lost my entire blog! So, I've created this new one in the meantime, and will just post here. I had my most recent posts saved, so I put those up below, and I have some of my favorite ones from months past saved, and I'll put those up over the next few days. Everything else should be about the same, minus most all of the old material.

I'm going to try to rescue the old blog....but I'm not exactly optimistic about its chances. Hopefully, I'll at least be able to get the old web address back; but, again, I'm not exactly optimistic about this. Hopefully, I'll get some new stuff up later tonight.

In my current frustration with all things Blog, I am comforted by the simple phrase: "shit happens."

What? You expected something more eloquent? ;-)

***Update***

Throught the magic of the internet I've been able to rescue a bunch of my old posts. I'm going to put some of them up over the next few hours.

**Update #2***

Ok, that didn't take as long as I thought....the 57 old posts (out of 80 something) that I could find are now up on this site with the same date as before. Will look for some of the others, but, again, I'm still not optimistic.

***Update #3***

Well, I seem to have recovered everything I wrote before about the middle of May, however, oddly enough, the newer stuff, from June - November of this year is what I've been unable to locate.

***Update #4*** (12/11)

Tried looking for some old stuff again today for the first time in a while and was able to find most of the ones from this past summer as well as everything from this past October. I guess I shouldn't have been so pessimistic, as of now I've recovered most of my stuff.

Because You Won't See This On CNN

So what is this mysterious item you won't see on CNN? Why, good news from Iraq, of course.

Here's the article.

Here's two excerpts just to give you a taste:

"While the world’s attention has been focused on Baghdad’s slide into sectarian warfare, something remarkable has been happening in Ramadi, a city of 400,000 inhabitants that al-Qaeda and its Iraqi allies have controlled since mid-2004 and would like to make the capital of their cherished Islamic caliphate.

A power struggle has erupted: al-Qaeda’s reign of terror is being challenged. Sheikh Sittar and many of his fellow tribal leaders have cast their lot with the once-reviled US military. They are persuading hundreds of their followers to sign up for the previously defunct Iraqi police. American troops are moving into a city that was, until recently, a virtual no-go area. A battle is raging for the allegiance of Ramadi’s battered and terrified citizens and the outcome could have far-reaching consequences."

Another:

"Colonel MacFarland estimates that 70 per cent of Ramadi’s population now openly backs the security forces, and says that his priority is to get the telephones working so that people can provide tips about weapons caches without fear of reprisals.

He predicts that by some time next year the Iraqi security forces will be able to take over from the US military and “dominate the security environment in Ramadi”."

Read the whole thing, because, if you care, its worth it. And Remember, just because you don't see any good news from Iraq on your TV; don't mean it ain't happenin'.

DoubleThink - Draft = Bad...Must Bring Back!

What's the matter? Is that title a little bit confusing? Indeed, well so is the recent call by Representative Charles Rangel to re-instate the Military Draft; but here's the real stunner, Mr. Rangel is not one of those evil, warmongering, Nazi-like, Republicans; but a Democrat. And you thought my title was confusing!

Sadly, folks it's true, after nearly 4 years of warning the American public that they should vote Democratic because the evil Republicans and Bush would bring back the draft, Rep. Rangel apparently got tired of waiting and just decided to do it himself. No word yet on how he'll blame President Bush for the idea.

This brilliant idea, of course, comes from the same party that birthed the anti-war activist back in the 1960's during that whole 'Vietnam' thing. Oh, and I seem to have forgotten, what exactly were a lot of those liberals complaining about back then...? Oh, that's right: The Military Draft! So either Mr. Rangel is trying to employ some clever political move to re-energize all those old, smelly hippies with anti-war zeal or he's just a complete f-ing moron.

I'll take f-ing moron for $200, please, Alex.

The best part of Mr. Rangel's stupidity though, comes from this great line right here: "[Rangel] has said the all-volunteer military disproportionately puts the burden of war on minorities and lower-income families." Yes, that's right. He actually thinks the Draft will make minorities and poor people less likely to serve in the military. Clearly, this guy was smoking a lot of dope back in the 60's, because he doesn't even remember their talking points correctly! Reminder for Rep. Rangel - hippies no like draft; complain draft is unfair to poor people and minorities; also complain that draft exempts evil, rich people like George W. Bush.

Speaking of George W. Bush, wasn't his Vietnam military service labeled by Democrats as 'dishonorable' due to the fact that he, like all the other rich, white boys, had used his powerful connections to 'get out' of any real service? Wasn't this the reason why John Kerry was a 'hero'? You know, because despite being so rich and powerful he went to Vietnam anyways? Indeed, liberal talking points on the Vietnam War from the 1960's to the 2004 election have been based on the belief (and rightly so) that the Military draft placed more of the war burden on the poor and minorities.

So, Mr. Rangel, which reality is it going to be? That the all-volunteer Army overburdens the poor and minorities or that the Draft Army does? Please pick one; it's very difficult to argue with you when you take both sides.

In the end though, all sarcastic jabs aside, the issue of the Military draft comes down to one thing: choice. In a country that's based on Individual Freedom you can't mandate that anyone should serve their country in any way whatsoever (including the Peace Corp, etc.); or, to look at it another way, in the United States, Freedom means you have a God-given right to be a selfish asshole if you so choose.

Thomas Jefferson once said that "the tree of Liberty must be refreshed, from time to time, with the blood of Patriots and tyrants," and, as always, he's right. But he forgot one part; and that is this: a country that doesn't have enough Patriots willing to give their blood, deserves the tyrant.

A Rovian Catastrophe

In 2004, after he masterminded President Bush's re-election campaign, Karl Rove was hailed as a political genius who quite possibly had the key to keeping the GOP in power....well, forever, I suppose. Rove's strategy? Motivate the base and rely on that trusty get-out-the-vote effort in the days preceding the election. Of course, in the aftermath of last week's election losses, many were left wondering exactly where the Rovian genius had gone wrong.

Many people cite the War in Iraq or political corruption as the reasons for last weeks election results; and, when discussing Democratic and Independent voters, those citations are most likely correct. However, Karl Rove's strategy has never been aimed at swaying these two groups of voters. Indeed, the success of Rove's genius arose from his ability to get so many voters to the polls despite largely ignoring these two groups. In light of Rove's acknowledged strategy, the reason for Republican losses ends up having nothing to do with Democrats, the War in Iraq, a change of direction, or any of those other things Nancy Pelosi talks about - it's a simple question of why Republican voters either refused to vote, or voted against Republicans.

So, which Republicans failed Rove? Was it his ever-so-reliable Evangelical crowd? Hardly. The ever growing ranks of Conservative Christians and Neo-Conservatives certainly made their presence felt on Election Day. All but one of the proposed bans on same sex marriage passed. The one that didn't? Arizona's. Other interesting ballot measures that passed? Minimum wage increases. Now think about that. What's different about Arizona Conservatism? (Hint: think Barry Goldwater) And who would vote overwhelmingly against increases in the minimum wage?

The answer to both has to do with fiscal conservatism. And these fiscal conservatives are the ones who didn't show up at last Tuesday's elections. These Goldwater-esque Conservatives generally vote overwhelmingly Republican. So why didn't they? Easy. Look at the National Debt. Look at how much money Congress spends. Look at all the pork-barrel projects coming out of Congress. Look at Republicans not voting Conservatively once in office. I could list tons of other reasons why the current batch of Congressional Republicans is not, at least in a fiscal sense, all that Conservative. I could also talk about how Republicans failed to deliver on the Immigration issue - but that's not the point.

The point is that Conservative voters, aside from the Religious Right, felt like their Congress had not delivered results for them. Here we find the flaw in Rove's strategy. You can't expect to rely exclusively on one group of people (Conservatives) for your candidates' voting base and not pay attention to half of them (the fiscal half) when you get in office. That's were Rove went terribly wrong this year: he still thought he could get fiscal Conservatives' votes simply by spewing that 'we're bad, but they'll be worse' line. Unfortunately, while that might work with Democratic, Independent, or even socially Conservative voters; an extremely logical, results oriented, Barry Goldwater type, libertarian conservative just isn't going to buy it.

So here's the message to Karl Rove: if you want to start winning elections again, just get your Republican Congressfolk to vote like they're Conservatives. Afterall, as Margaret Thatcher often says, "the facts of life are conservative" - so how hard can it be for politicians to follow suit?

Election 2006

My Final Election Projection for 2006:

First up, the U.S Senate: 52 GOP; 46 Dem; 2 Ind.

Close Races that I think will go Republican:
- Tennessee - Bob Corker
- Missouri - Jim Talent
- Montana - Conrad Burns
- Maryland - Michael Steele (It's a longshot, but I feel good about his campaign....)

Close Races that I think will go Democratic:
- New Jersey - Robert Menendez
- Virginia - James Webb
- Ohio - Sherrod Brown
- Pennsylvania - Bob Casey
- Rhode Island - S. Whitehouse

Independent Pick-up:
- Connecticut - Joe Lieberman

Now, for the U.S House of Representatives: 215 GOP; 220 Dem; 0 Ind.

Ok, so that's it. I could be way off - but hey what fun would it be if I didn't make any predictions at all? In any case, it's shaping up to be an exciting Tuesday.

Preliminary Election Thoughts

It's Friday of the weekend before the big Mid-term Elections 2006; and this means that political junkies everywhere (myself included) are beginning to get pretty excited. The upcoming election has all kinds of 'toss-up' races and will, surely, prove to be very interesting. In light of the proximity of November 7th I thought I'd offer up a few thoughts on and my preliminary predictions of the Election.

- The race I'm most interested is the one for the U.S Senate seat in Maryland. Michael Steele is probably my favorite candidate of all the ones out there this year. He's run a remarkable campaign and now has a legitimate chance to pull the upset. I will stop praising him now because I could go on and on. I really hope Steele wins.

- Mark Sanford will most definitely be winning re-election as Governor here in South Carolina. This makes me happy, as Gov. Sanford is a guy I really like. He's one of the few politicians left who seems to truly understand fiscal conservatism and small government. I am lucky in that my two favorite elected politicians, Gov. Sanford and Sen. Jim DeMint, are both from my home State.

- George Allen is a moron, and I sincerely hope he doesn't run for President in '08. Granted, he's been the victim of some vicious attacks and been overly beaten to death by the Liberal media, he's still run the worst campaign anyone seems to be able to remember. If he does this badly in a Senate race, I would hate to see him go National.

- If Wake Forest defeats Boston College this weekend and Texas finally stops screwing around in the 1st half against Oklahoma State, the GOP will assuredly retain control of both Houses of Congress. That was not a non-sequitur.

- Preliminary Predictions (In number of seats):
~ U.S Senate: 53 GOP, 45 Democratic, 2 Independent
~ U.S House of Representatives: 220 GOP, 215 Democratic

That should do it for now. I'll revise my predictions at least once more before Tuesday.