Just Some Poor Schmuck

This is going to stay on top until after the election

Same Old, Same Old

The Stockholm Spectator looks at the latest scandal. This one about the UN soldiers buying sex from underaged girls in the Congo.

This scandal is hardly new. The same charges were brought against UN troops in Cambodia, Bosnia, Kosovo, East Timor and every other location the UN has "peacekeeping" troops.

I guess they're just too busy counting that Oil-for-Food money to pay attention to this stuff.

Jason Van Steenwyk Calls Out The Media For Manufacturing Quotes

IRAQ NOW ...... Media Analysis With A Sense of Insurgency

Most newspapers quote Major General James Mattis, commander of the 1st Marine Division press conference on the so-called "Wedding" in different ways. None of them favorable.

The problem is....That ain't what he said!

Yeah, We're Having Problems Too.

Call 9-1-1, hold longer

Hold times for calls to Multnomah County's 9-1-1 dispatch center are rising, with thousands of emergency callers waiting two minutes or more for dispatchers to pick up.

We're not taking any where near two minutes to pick up a 911, except for a few unique situations such as a windstorm a couple of years ago and the 1993 earthquake.

Most of our lines get answered quickly and if you have an actual emergency we have help on the way within one to two minutes. But things are getting worse. Our call volume has doubled from when I started. Actually it has probably more than doubled because we used to keep track of calls with a notepad and our older statistics aren't much better than guesses.

Today I went in early because we had two extra deputies on running traffic under the Three Flags Seatbelt program. (A waste of time and money, but popular with the deputies because it's easy overtime.) Traffic stops really ramp up the job load because every plate and every person has to be run for registration, driving status and warrants. This is on top of the regular radio traffic. Unfortunately, when I got there, I found that one of the day shift dispatchers had called in sick, so I was just filling her slot instead of being an extra body.

During the 12 hr shift, I dealt with countless traffic stops, a SWAT callout, a couple of cases sent over by DHS-Child Welfare in order to cover their asses, a Meth Lab, several heart attacks, a death, a birth (haven't had one of those in a while) and people calling with information trying to get their neighbors or exes into trouble. Not counting checking on hangup 911 calls and dispatching burglaries and thefts. Pretty much a normal day.

I'm not one of those people who think that government should shut down and leave everything to "the people", but neither am I someone that thinks that the government should be providing for everyones needs. We have stretched the government to the point where it is trying to do too much and is failing to do the things it is supposed to.

Quit worrying about the "nice to have" and focus on those things that government should be providing.

I Was Wrong, The FBI Was Wrong.

Now it would appear that the FBI is saying that their identification of Brandon Mayfield as connected to the Madrid bombing was based on an erroneous fingerprint match.

It would seem that the science of fingerprints may not be as reliable as previously thought.

Of course, the acceptance of an admission of error is not enough for some, there must be a more sinister reason.

The fingerprints of Brandon Mayfield, an Oregon lawyer mistakenly linked to the March 11 train bombings in Madrid, may just have been very similar to those of an Algerian man who Spanish authorities ultimately determined is a true suspect, said Simon A. Cole, a skeptic and author of "Suspect Identities: A History of Fingerprinting and Criminal Identification."

"Or while doing the analysis," he hypothesized, "someone was filled in on the idea that this guy was a Muslim lawyer with sympathies to Muslim groups and that might have biased them toward thinking there is a match."

No Washington Post story would be complete without some exhibition of the left's growing paranoia. So the reporter went shopping for some quotes. There is a service that hooks up reporters, authors and lawyers with "authorities" that will validate whatever bias they have. In this case, the reporter wanted someone to validate his belief that this must have been due to anti-Muslim bias, and Mr. Cole was happy to oblige. They payoff? A plug for his book in the Washington Post.

Watch for this error to be used in court to try to get more dangerous criminals released back into our neighborhoods.

Washington Post Discovers 527's

For years the Democrat pushed "Campaign Finance Reform". The Democrats piously berated the Republicans for pointing out that it would just move the money from one area to another. With the help of a sympathetic news media they managed to sell the campaign finance snake oil to the public. Public support blossomed, support for taking the "soft" money out of politics. The bill passed.

Immediately on getting the bill passed and signed, the Democrats discovered that while the Republicans did get soft money, they had many more donors sending in "hard" cash than the Democrats did. The majority of the large, unaccountable donations from the wealthy was, in fact, going to the Democrats.

Having crafted most of the bill in secret with their donors, they already had a plan to compensate.

The 527's. Unaccountable, unregulated, able to accept cash from almost anyone, and able to disguise the source with little problem.

Campaign finance reform, as with most Democrat proposals, turned out to be little more than some smoke, some mirrors and a hidden way to take advantage.

The Republicans protested to the FEC, wanting that body to do what it is set up to do, enforce campaign laws. But it was not to be. After several months, during which the Democrats collected millions of dollars from people like George Soros and Ted Turner, the FEC chickened out. Knowing that if they ruled for the Republicans they would never be invited to the "A" list parties and would be robbed of any chance of meeting some awesome celebrity or compliant intern, they declined to rule.

Now the Republicans, as a reward for trying to actually comply with both the letter and the spirit of the law, are getting beat up by the Washington Post.

Top Republican operatives have launched an effort to compete with Democratic groups for large sums of unregulated presidential campaign funds by designating a group with close ties to the Bush administration to serve as the main conduit. Republicans who once vigorously opposed the fundraising and spending activities of mostly liberal groups who have been working to defeat President Bush are developing ambitious plans to raise unregulated "soft money" before the November election. The Federal Election Commission earlier this month cleared the way for liberal groups to continue raising millions in unrestricted contributions, and now GOP groups are joining in.

The Democrat, knowing that even if the ruling went against them they would not be required to "unspend" the money, raised millions.

Such Democratic groups as the Media Fund, America Coming Together and MoveOn.org have been active for well over a year and have already put in excess of $50 million into efforts to defeat Bush and elect Kerry. Their goal is to spend roughly $300 million.

Notice the wording. Not a word about how much they have raised, just how much they have spent. Notice too that they have been in operation for over a year. If the Post is down on 527's, why not the liberal 527's? Why direct their scorn only to Republican efforts?

Unlike political committees regulated by the FEC, "527" and "501(c)(4)" groups -- named for the sections of the tax code that govern their activities -- have no restrictions on the sources or amount of contributions, and some have received gifts of $5 million or more.

The way it is done by the Democrats is to have someone donate, or have someone's fund give money to a 501(c) group, which transfers it to their 501(c)(4) group, which bundles donations and funnels the money to a 527 group. "Voilà", no embarrassing Chinese fingerprints, no stories of large donations by impoverished Buddhist monks, and large sums of money to be spent to support Democratic causes. Totally unconnected to the party or the candidate. Of course, members of the 527 management and party leaders and staff will probably run into each other during one of those "A" list parties, but, hey, they can't live their lives in a cocoon now, could they?

Media Works To Undermine The War.

baltimoresun.com - Loss of perspective, media self-restraint

When our troops are putting their lives on the line for this country, thousands of miles away, surely it is not too much to ask of the rest of us back home to act like adults and put things in perspective - even during an election year. That includes the media. Sometimes the Fourth Estate seems more like a fifth column.

In an age when some in the media are gross enough to release photographs of Princess Diana's dying moments, perhaps it is too much to expect forbearance about releasing photos that can only help our enemies around the world.

CNN had the forbearance to withhold information about far worse things that were done during the Saddam Hussein regime for fear of having their Baghdad office closed down.

The media was willing to censor their reports to maintain their ability to repeat Saddam's propaganda. They found that it was easier. All they had to do was go to the government and pick up the news.

Now they're trapped at the hotel pool sipping their drinks while their former Ba'athist "minders" bring them the news they want to report.

War IS A "Poor Working Condition".

Expert says anger, fear fed Iraq abuse

WASHINGTON -- Physical abuses by U.S. military police of Iraqi prison detainees stemmed from a mixture of soldiers' anger and frustration over poor working conditions, their racism and the absence of any meaningful supervision, according to the report of an Air Force psychiatrist who studied the episode for the Army.

So SSG Fredrick, who is white and Sgt Davis, who is black, abused Iraqi prisoners because they are Racists? I thought that blacks can't be racist? Now you're telling me different?

Is this a condition that is common throughout the human race, or is it just specific to military people? It plays to the conception of many civilians that military personnel are knuckle-dragging Neanderthals. Which coincidently happens to be the predominant attitude at the Post.

"Poor Working Conditions"? OF COURSE they had poor working conditions. They're in a WAR. You don't get much poorer than that. What do you think the military do?

The "expert" is a Air Force psychiatrist who apparently thinks that the entire military works in air conditioned offices, control rooms and cockpits reading displays and pushing buttons.

It ain't even that way in the Air Force!

Now they're saying that the NCO's shouldn't be held responsible because they couldn't do anything about it. I have an answer to that, as a former NCO, I declare that to be BULLSHIT! That is exactly what NCO's are supposed to do. Their commanders are also responsible and should be dealt with but it is the NCO's, not the officers that control how policies are applied at that level.

But holding the NCO's responsible will not achieve the affect that the critics want.

Why Would You Negotiate With Terrorists?

Mine Kills 33 Troops, Relatives In Kashmir (washingtonpost.com)

NEW DELHI, May 24 -- A land mine planted by Islamic separatist guerrillas killed at least 33 paramilitary soldiers and their relatives in Kashmir on Sunday, underscoring the urgency of planned negotiations with Pakistan on the future of the disputed Himalayan province.

Does anyone really think that "negotiations" are going to have any effect?

The only "negotiation" these thugs are interested in is a complete surrender.

The only effective way to deal with them is to kill them.

Imitation Is The Sincerest Form Of Flattery

Brookings Irked by Web Imitation (washingtonpost.com)

Scholars at the Brookings Institution have all kinds of ideas about Iraq policy that never seem to get much attention from the staff at the U.S.-led occupation authority in Baghdad. But when it comes to Web site design, the Coalition Provisional Authority seems to have studied Brookings's ideas very closely.

That's why they are imitating only the Web site design.

Light Posting

A late night tonight and an early shift tomorrow means that I am not going to do much posting tonight.

Bait And Switch

The State of Oregon sued and won $25 million for the removal of the stern of the New Carrissa from the beach at Coos Bay.

Willamette Week Nov 20, 2002: A Coos County jury ordered the owners of the New Carissa to pay the state of Oregon $25 million to remove the stern of the accursed vessel, which ran aground near Coos Bay in February 1999. The New Carissa, which spilled 70,000 gallons of oil along the coast, has so far survived bombs, artillery, torpedoes, salvos and trial lawyers. For all we know, it will haunt the coast for decades to come.

Local and state politicians have pissed and moaned about the wreck for years, attributing every negative thing they could think of to the presence of the hulk. But now they're looking at that check and thinking of ways they could spend the money.

COOS BAY, Ore. (AP) — Coos County officials say there are better ways to spend $25 million from the New Carissa lawsuit than removing the hunk of steel still stuck in the surf.

County Commissioner John Griffith and six other local government and business development officials recently sent a letter to the State Land Board asking for "substantial and immediate financial assistance" for several public projects in the Coos Bay-North Bend area.

Griffith said that — until now — there's been no plan to use the money locally, even though it's a local issue.

Kind of like getting money to fix the roof and using it to take a Mexican vacation because, hey, it's summer and its not raining now.

Why Regulators?

Diary of Portland mess oozes with toxic lessons Toxic mess: Regulators cite failure to communicate Diary of Portland mess, cleanup oozes with toxic lessons

Inspectors from five local, state and federal agencies trooped through Columbia American Plating for more than a decade documenting a litany of environmental, health and safety violations. Regulators say it was among the most potentially lethal sites they'd seen.

But none of them took any action. Why not?

Continue reading "Why Regulators?"

Veterans; Kerry's Band Of Brothers?

Kerry service unimpressive

John Kerry will run for president this fall on the Democratic ticket, and nothing is more crucial to his carefully crafted image than his status as a "Vietnam veteran." Kerry himself tells us time and again that his Vietnam experience, from fighting sailor to anti-war activist, factors greatly in who he is and how he will act as president. And on this I believe him, which is why, as a veteran, I will not support him.

Another veteran comes out against Kerry.

Somehow, he doesn't come across as real impressed by Kerry's heroics.

Bill Whittle's Best Ever

Bill Whittle writes long incredible essays. His latest is a 2 parter titled "Strength". There is too many good parts to pick one, but his slap at Teddy Kennedy (Traitor-Mass) is incomparable.

Bill said something a while back about putting together a multi-media presentation of his works. I hope he does, I'll certainly be there if he ever comes to Oregon.

Eject! Eject! Eject!: STRENGTH (part 1)

Senator Kennedy claims Abu Ghraib is simply Saddam Hussein’s torture chambers “under new management – U.S. management.” Taking him at his word – a somewhat iffy proposition right out of the gate – he apparently cannot see the difference between the humiliation and bullying of enemy combatants, which is shameful, disgusting and reprehensible, and the gleeful, mocking murder, torture and gang rape of over 300,000 innocent men, women and children -- which is something worse. So Senator, here is a helpful analogy which you may find useful: The difference is about the same as pulling over and leaving a young female secretary on the curb in the rain, which is shameful, disgusting and reprehensible, vs. leaving her trapped in the car at the bottom of a river while you look at the bubbles and ponder the political repercussions.

Which is something worse, Senator.

MoveOn Moves On

I just got a call from some guy in Portland saying he was calling on behalf of Onward Oregon, which is another name for MoveOn. He said that he had read some letter to the editor that I had written about Bush and the war and thought that I might want to join with them to "make some changes in Oregon". I think he misunderstood the letter I wrote regarding the Miracle that occurred when George Bush took office and Iraq's WMD disappeared.

I told him that I thought that Oregon needed lots of changes, a friendlier business climate, less regulation, and more logging. I don't think that was what he was expecting.

Anyway, they are pushing what they call "The New Apollo Project". The goal, they say, is "a 10 year mission to create 3 million good jobs while delivering clean energy and freedom from imported oil".

O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!' Jobs! Clean Energy! No Imported Oil! This would be wonderful! But then I looked at "the plan".

Same shit, different day. Let's take a look.

Continue reading "MoveOn Moves On"

I Don't Make These Things Up; I Don't Have To.

Everyone has seen those books with all the funny 911 calls. I'm sure you have at least picked one up and glanced through it. Some people think that those stories are made up, but I know differently. I have been answering 911 calls for 14 years now.

I don't mention too much about it on this blog because much of what we do is confidential. But some things are so outrageous that they deserve to be mentioned. It also helps if it was written up in today's newspaper. Which it was.

Yesterday the local police department received a call saying that there were three males working on a car in a driveway near the caller. They were yelling and swearing and chasing each other around. She also mentioned that one of the people had put a firecracker in his butt and was trying to get his buddies to light it.

In kind of an understatement she also said "I think he's on something". Gee, ya thinks so?

This goes on the list of other incidents that I have dealt with or have personal knowledge of such as the "tree people" and the "exploding penis".

Sorry, can't talk about those.

The UN Shows The Way In Kosovo

There has been a lot of ink wasted and electrons twisted in support of the United Nations taking over in Iraq. Supporters claim that American troops are the root of the problem and that the UN would come up with a credible force to replace the 150,000 person force we have there now. So how do we know the UN would be better? Look at the good work they have done in Kosovo in the last six years.

Kosovo's religious tables turned | csmonitor.com

The ethnic Albanian Muslims who dominate that strife-torn Balkan province have been pursuing what a NATO commander recently called "orchestrated and well-planned ethnic cleansing" against minority Christian Serbs. In mid-March, Kosovo Albanian mobs destroyed 30 churches in two days. Some of these churches had been places of Christian worship since the 14th century, jewels of medieval architecture treasured by art historians worldwide. Today they're ashen ruins. Thousands of their former parishioners are now refugees; some are dead.

The anti-Serb, anti-Christian pogroms have taken place on the watch of 20,000 NATO "peacekeepers"who've proved unable or unwilling to protect the shrinking Serb minority. From the moment those troops entered the province in 1999 until the end of 2003, Albanian militants destroyed or vandalized more than 100 Orthodox church buildings - often with dynamite. Not one was arrested or tried, even as attacks intensified last fall and winter. Instead, NATO command continued to dismantle posts and transfer guard and patrol duties to the ineffective UN administration, and to even more dubious local police. In March, Albanian thugs descended on Orthodox churches in Kosovo in assaults clearly organized in advance; many even arrived on special buses

The UN has been in Bosnia even longer, with no peaceful multi-ethnic government in sight. Why does anyone think things would be any different in Iraq?

Ivory Towers and Pretty Plans

A Better Transition Plan (washingtonpost.com)

Marina Ottaway, a senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and co-director of its Democracy and Rule of Law Project, thinks we need a better transition plan in Iraq.

Iraq needs an interim government that has the support of major political forces, including, make no mistake, the likes of the Fallujah insurgents and the firebrand Shiite leader Moqtada Sadr. If the idea of giving even the bad guys a voice in the formation of an interim government seems preposterous, remember, this is precisely what the loya jirga did in Afghanistan.

I forget, did the loya jirga in Afghanistan lead to a period of peace, or are we still fighting remnants of the Taliban? Somebody, I forget who, was complaining about the fact that much of the country is under the control of warlords. How did that happen?

I'm sure Sadr would gladly accept a voice in the formation of the government. This would legitimize him in the eyes of many Iraqis who now believe him to be an dangerous radical. Who would you contact to offer a seat to the Fallujah "insurgents"? Saddam? Abu Musab al-Zarqawi?

And what makes her think that a voice in the formation of the government would still the violence. If anything, it would make it worse, as different factions attacked each other. Much as we are seeing now with the car bombings of members of the Governing Council.

These "Peace Institutes" always have these neat plans that they have thought up in their comfortable conference room and tested on Sociology grad students, but none are workable outside of their carefully cocooned environment.

Well, at least these groups keep these planners of human interaction from roaming the streets in packs trying to impose their Utopian visions on the rest of us. It keeps them off unemployment too.

FBI Experts Inferior To Spanish Police

Oregon Lawyer's Status Remains Murky (washingtonpost.com)

Brandon Mayfield, the Oregon lawyer arrested as a material witness after fingerprint evidence appeared to link him to the deadly terrorist bombings in Spain, yesterday enjoyed his first full day of freedom in two weeks, even as his legal status remained unclear.

The FBI had matched the print to Mayfield, but Spanish police were more doubtful. U.S. law enforcement officials said they were unable to comment on the evidence yesterday.

So the FBI's fingerprint expertise is inferior to that of the Spanish Police? Does that make sense?

If he is not involved are we to believe that a partial fingerprint on a bag in Spain just happened to give a false match to a lawyer in Portland that had converted to Islam?

What an amazing coincidence.

Is the FBI involved in a dark nefarious plot that picked out this one innocent person from a multitude of others to persecute? Why would they? Just to "get" a Muslim? Seems a little extreme to me, but then I'm not real big on world conspiracies.

Democrat Conspiracy Nut Labors on

The ballots have been counted, recounted, counted again, ruled on fought over, counted still again, and still the count shows that George W. Bush won the Florida ballot. But some Democrats still believe that the election was stolen.

There reasons for thinking so are rather incoherent. Thousands of minorities kept from going to the polls, though no one has been able to find even one; ballots that were designed to somehow cause the vote to be counted for Bush regardless of how it was marked, an omniscient and omnipotent Republican party.

But this one is rather novel.
In Florida, the 2000 Election Hangs On (washingtonpost.com)

Gary Farmer -- a South Florida lawyer whose clients include none other than his mother-in-law -- is in a knock-down, drag-out scrap with Secretary of State Glenda Hood over what should be done with thousands of unused, surplus punch-card ballots from the 2000 election.

Farmer wants the ballots preserved, both as historical artifacts and as objects of study for conspiracy theorists who suspect faulty ballots may have been purposely distributed to areas with high concentrations of minority voters.

The paper quality might have had something to do with the spoilage rate, Farmer said, and the only way to find out is to inspect the unused ballots. Could the paper have been too thin, he asked, or might it have been too thick?

Wow. Think about that. What would have to happen to make that theory true.

A massive conspiracy including election officials (most of whom were Democrats) printers, maybe even paper manufacturers. An incredible amount of foresight. How would they know that the spoiled ballots would affect the outcome in their favor? And a dedication to silence that would make the Sicilian Mafia and the NSA look like packs of gossips.

No matter, it keeps the conspiracy theorist wound up for the next election. That's all that counts.

Oops! The Story Changes

Punishment and Amusement (washingtonpost.com)

Prisoners posed in three of the most infamous photographs of abuse to come out of the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq were not being softened up for interrogation by intelligence officers but instead were being punished for criminal acts or the amusement of their jailers, according to previously secret documents obtained by The Washington Post.

Until today, all the headlines screamed of complicity at the highest levels, that the prisoner abuse was caused by a demand for tough interrogations and that the soldiers charged with the abuse were victims of a shadowy group of MI interrogators that demanded the guards "soften up" prisoners for interrogation.

Now it comes out that the prisoners that were abused were not the hard core Ba'athist holdouts and al Qaeda jihadi that was originally reported to be the victims. Instead we find out that they were just ordinary prisoners that had taken part in a riot. It also came out that most of the abuse photos were taken on the night of Nov 8, shortly after a riot had broken out that caused many of these prisoners to be transferred to the high security wing.

This obviously throws a wrench into the "only following orders" defense offered by the accused soldiers. If these prisoners were ordinary inmates that had taken part in a riot, instead of high value prisoners. Why would the MI be so anxious to interrogate them? If this was common practice, why is the only evidence of the abuse limited to these soldiers at Tier 1A?

Continue reading "Oops! The Story Changes"

Media Spin Takes Over

Lessons of Abu Ghraib | Bowden

Routine physical abuse appears to have resulted already at Abu Ghraib, where such torments were apparently employed wholesale, and where a climate of dehumanization and sadism took root. The responsibility for that extends way up the chain of command, in ways that will become clear only with time and investigation.

First of all, what happened a Abu Ghraib prison was abuse of prisoners, not interrogation. The only people saying they were ordered to do it by MI interrogators are the defendants. They have this in common with most people in jail, they all claim someone else did it or made them do it.

But as this column shows, many people that should know better have bought into it.

So far, the only pictures that have come out are from this little band of perverts. The only testimony about abuse involved this same band of perverts. So how do we get from that to a sinister conspiracy reaching all the way to the White House? Wishful thinking, I guess.

The same people that could find no link between President Clinton and his White House Chief of Security in the collecting of FBI files and considers Janet Reno's direct involvement in the Waco massacre insufficient to warrant her resignation, now see a huge conspiracy reaching from Washington to Afghanistan to Iraq to Gitmoe, all covering up prisoner abuse.

How's that again?

Community "Activists" Set Stage For Natural Gas Shortage

From The Hill tipsheet.

Gas power

There are roughly 30 proposals from energy companies to build terminals for imports of natural gas in liquid form. So far, however, local opposition, generally fueled by fears that an accident or terrorist attack could lead to a devastating explosion, has halted any new construction. With America’s thirst for cleaner burning natural gas expected to be harder to quench with a homegrown supply — demand is projected to grow 40 percent in the next 20 years — look for energy companies to try to get Congress to lend a hand. On Thursday, Reps. Lee Terry (R-Neb.) and Gene Green (D-Texas) introduced a bill to encourage more imports of so-called liquefied natural gas or LNG. But the introduction of the bill likely just means that the controversy is moving to a new arena. The bill would grant federal energy regulators the power to site terminals, including evaluating their potential environmental impact. Permits also would have to be approved or rejected in a year. Local and state officials can be expected to fight both provisions.

So when your Natural Gas prices start going through the roof. Don't blame the Gas companies.
Blame community "activists".

Nothing New In Statements

New Details of Prison Abuse Emerge (washingtonpost.com)

Previously secret sworn statements by detainees at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq describe in raw detail abuse that goes well beyond what has been made public, adding allegations of prisoners being ridden like animals, sexually fondled by female soldiers and forced to retrieve their food from toilets.

The fresh allegations of prison abuse are contained in statements taken from 13 detainees shortly after a soldier reported the incidents to military investigators in mid-January. The detainees said they were savagely beaten and repeatedly humiliated sexually by American soldiers working on the night shift at Tier 1A in Abu Ghraib during the holy month of Ramadan, according to copies of the statements obtained by The Washington Post.

It doesn't look like anything new to me. These statements were taken during the investigation into the abuse at Abu Ghraib in January. They contain nothing new and only reinforce what we already knew.

There is nothing that would suggest that there was a wide-spread problem and in fact, names those already facing courts martial.

"Not Worthy Of The Boy Scouts

HEROES RAGE AT WTC PROBE

May 19, 2004 -- The 9/11 commission hearing yesterday in Manhattan turned into a series of angry finger-pointing exchanges — and one panel member ripped the city's response to the World Trade Center attack as "not worthy of the Boy Scouts."

Much of the criticism was directed at the handling of 911 calls and the failure of operators and FDNY dispatchers to pass along information to civilians and firefighters.

Commission staffer Sam Casperson said operators had a "lack of awareness" of what was happening in the Twin Towers.

I knew it! I just knew it! Every time someone investigates an incident, be it major or minor, they always find fault with the dispatchers.

I only work in a small center, nothing like NYC. I can only imagine what happened there that day.

They're large,; they most likely have the call takers separated from the radio dispatchers, in different rooms for sure, maybe even different floors. At 10 AM on a Tuesday morning, you are going to have your normal number of call takers and dispatchers for an ordinary day. An ordinary day in dispatch means dealing with fires, heart attacks, traumas, robberies, assaults, domestics, lost cats, people wanting to talk to police officers about that guy down the block that "looks suspicious" and innumerable other things.

Something like the first plane hitting the tower would cause the lines to light up like a Christmas tree. Some will be from people telling you that a plane had hit the WTC. Others would be from people wanting to know what happened. Some would be from people who are having a heart attack, fell and can't get up or want to report that someone attacked them. In other words, all the calls that you would have gotten anyhow.

The call takers would be overwhelmed. They would be answering calls as fast as they could, determining if the caller had an emergency, finding out if it had something to do with the WTC, getting all the curious off the damn phone, and calling for more call takers. Some of the calls would be from inside the WTC, people hurt, people scared, people wanting to know if they should leave or stay. People that you can't just hang up on to answer more calls, but you must. Call-takers would be busily typing in the information that they have into the computer and routing it to the radio dispatchers so they can send the units.

Meanwhile the radio dispatchers have their consoles fill up with all the calls generated by the call takers. The call takers are somewhere else, they can't just yell at them and get info, besides the dispatcher are just too busy trying to dispatch and answer radios to be calling around trying to find out more information.

Then the second plane hits. Units have already been dispatched on the first call. Some dispatchers are trying to get the word out for all personnel to report to their stations. But the dispatch center is in the WTC. They have to move to the EOC elsewhere. That means they have to get up and physically go to another location and set up operations. They have to do this while maintaining communications with their units. Some dispatchers are trying desperately to call in more dispatchers and call takers. Some city employees are grabbed and given non-emergency lines to answer, but they have no training and have less of an idea of what's going on than the call takers. People are trying to get in to work, but the streets are clogged and the subway is not functioning. Some people don't live in Manhattan and have to get in from the suburbs. Others are calling wanting to know if they need to come in or saying that they can't make it. This adds to the call volume.

Every fire station in Manhattan is en-route to the WTC, but you still have the little old lady across town that is having chest pains. She needs help too, and you have to get it to her.

There are literally hundreds of radio channels in use. Dispatchers try to monitor everything, but you have people on different channels talking at the same time and some on the same channel walking on each other. People are excited and cutting themselves off, you're trying to piece together what is happening from the radio traffic and the pictures on the TV in the corner, but you don't have any time to watch it and can't hear it over the radios and the other dispatchers.

And three years later, some publicity-hungry hack will declare that your efforts were "not worthy of the Boy Scouts".

This is the part where I wrap it all up with a witty phrase and everyone admires my writing. But I'm spitting nails and can't think of anything clever right now. If you want witty and clever read Lileks.

And What Was His Excuse Before The Prisoner Scandal?

Judge Won't Dismiss Desertion Charge

FORT STEWART, Ga. - A U.S. soldier charged with deserting his unit in Iraq walked away from the war partly to avoid orders to abuse Iraqi prisoners, his attorneys argued Wednesday.

That's funny? When he gave an interview to 60 Minutes II on April 1, 2004, he didn't mention anything about abusing prisoners. When he turned himself in and sought conscientious status on Mar 15, 2004, he didn't mention anything about prisoner abuse either. Huh, must have slipped his mind.

That was before the prisoner abuse scandal made headlines, the people advising him thought that the "resisting an unjust war" shtick would help him. I don't think it did. Now they have decided that the prisoner abuse angle is sexier and are trying to piggy-back his defense on that.

It's good for a few headlines and I'm sure there are some fools that will buy into it, but no one on his court-martial board will recognize it instantly as a cheap trick.

American Forces Commit New Atrocities In Iraq

The Washington Post has found proof of what they had always suspected. American boys, when they join the military, become homicidal maniacs that like nothing better than shooting up an innocent village. John Kerry was right, the American soldiers in Vietnam committed thousands of atrocities and never paid. Now their sons and grandsons are doing the same thing in Iraq. Only the Post has the courage to speak the truth.

Dozens Killed in U.S. Attack Near Syria; Target Disputed (washingtonpost.com)

BAGHDAD, May 19 -- U.S. ground forces and aircraft attacked a village in Iraq's western desert before dawn Wednesday, striking what Iraqi witnesses said was a wedding celebration but U.S. officials called a way station for foreign infiltrators. More than 40 civilians, most of them women and children, were killed, according to witnesses, Iraqi police officers and provincial health officials.

Those awful baby-killing American soldiers have gunned down women and children in Iraq. They shot up a simple wedding party.

How do we know? Iraqis said so. You know that Iraqis wouldn't lie, don't you? Only the evil Americans do that.

U.S. officials acknowledged that their troops attacked in the area, saying they were responding to hostile fire. They later recovered weapons, large amounts of cash and other evidence of an insurgent supply route, officials said.

The Associated Press video from Iraq showed about 40 people digging or gathered around a set of dirt graves. A man who wore a white shirt said 26 people from one family were killed and five others were in serious condition.

Several people could be heard shouting anti-American slogans in Arabic. "Those Americans, they don't believe in God, they don't believe in anything," one man said.

He was wearing a white shirt, an Iraqi can't lie while wearing a white shirt. And no one has ever heard anyone chant anti-American slogans unless they were wronged by the American forces.

The Post knows that the Americans are baby-killers, they have been told by their interpreter, who used to be a big shot in Saddam's government. He's trustworthy.

Democrats Attack Catholics Over Church Practices

48 House Catholics Warn Bishops' Stance Could Spark Bigotry (washingtonpost.com)

Forty-eight Roman Catholic members of Congress have warned in a letter to Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick of Washington that U.S. bishops will revive anti-Catholic bigotry and severely harm the church if they deny Communion to politicians who support abortion rights.

Rep. Rosa L. DeLauro (Conn.) and Rep. Nick Lampson (Tex.) circulated the letter among the 73 Catholic Democrats in the House. It was not circulated among Republicans or in the Senate, because it arose from meetings that began last year among a small number of Catholic Democrats in the House who wanted to talk privately about faith and public service, DeLauro said. "This was not about politics. It was about us and our church and our own faith," she said.

Of course, the Post spins it to look like the Catholic Church is bigoted instead of the congressmen. But is is clearly the politicians that are trying to change the church's moral position for political purposes.

Notice that the Post follows the unbiased practice of not labeling politicians as Democrat. You have to wait until the 9th paragraph to find that out. Any reporting on a Republican will have the party affiliation prominently displayed in the headline of the first paragraph.

Such fine reporting.

Washington Post Continues Propaganda War Against America

Sergeant Says Intelligence Directed Abuse (washingtonpost.com)

Page A01, of course.

The first military intelligence soldier to speak openly about alleged abuse at Abu Ghraib, Provance said in a telephone interview from Germany yesterday that the highest-ranking military intelligence officers at the prison were involved and that the Army appears to be trying to deflect attention away from military intelligence's role.

Actually he is not the first MI soldier to speak out. He is just the first one that said what they wanted to hear.

The first that said anything that I saw reported was this one in the Portland Oregonian

Jeff Day spent more than two months inside the wire at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison interrogating Iraqis for military intelligence -- the same period when prisoners were abused and humiliated by their American guards.

Day, a 46-year old reserve staff sergeant from Aurora, said that at no time did anyone order or encourage him to harm the Iraqis. Nor did he witness or hear any of such treatment of the detainees.

SSG Day's story was reported on May 17, but not in the Post. In fact, a search of the Post archives revealed exactly 0 results for "Jeff Day".

One of the most recognizable names in the blogoshpere is Chief Wiggles, he made the following offer:

For the past 34 years I have been an interrogator in the Utah Army National Guard, serving my country proudly in this capacity. I have performed my duties as an interrogation team chief in many capacities in a variety of situations. I have been to two wars in the Middle East as a chief warrant officer, conducting numerous interrogations, screenings, debriefings, etc. I have been to South Korea some 40 plus times, been through countless interrogation exercises, and have personally conducted numerous debriefings of North Korean defectors.

I have worked with soldiers from all branches of the military, regular army soldiers and reservists, interacting with them in a variety of real combat situations and training exercises. I have read books on the skills of interrogation and have taught others the finer points of effective interrogation.

While at Camp Bucca in southern Iraq, I spent 4 months, on a daily basis, interrogating 17 Iraqi generals, both Brigadier and Major generals, successfully extracting valuable information which was later disseminated up through the chain. I lived as they lived, endured most of what they endured, feeling their pain, while trying to deal with their diverse personalities, with their idiosyncrasies, intertwined with their culture, tradition, religion, and language.

With all of this being said, I offer you my professional opinion, based on my years of hands on real world experience.

But the Post didn't take him up on the offer. Why? Apparently because he is not saying the things they want to hear. He has appeared on the Tony Snow radio show, but Tony is a radio talk show host and an unreliable new reporter and the Washington Post is the pinnacle of news excellence. Right?

The story has already been decided by the Post editorial board and it is that American soldiers under direct orders from Don Rumsfeld and George W. Bush tortured prisoners at Abu Ghraib. That is the only story that is permitted to be published in the Washington Post.

Lileks Is Great Today.

I know! I'll call it FREEDOM ROAST!

The New Yorker cover has a soldier with a bulls-eye on his back. Yes, that’s our troops: cluelessly facing one direction, unaware that they’re targets. This is a war like no others: our troops are being shot at. A very penetrating insight into war. I myself was unaware that soldiers were often fired upon. I assume that the editors of the magazine are very much opposed to shooting our soldiers in the back.

Hello, it’s another Seymour Hersh article on the prison scandal.

Anything on the Berg slaughter? Alas, no. That was a one-off, it seems, an aberration. Move along, nothing to see. Hersh’s article ends: “’We’re giving the world a ready-made excuse to ignore the Geneva Convention. Rumsfeld has lowered the bar.’” Ah. Hereafter the terrorists will be emboldened to saw people’s heads off with dull blades. I’m not going to get into any of that, except to say: 1. the UN Food-for-Oil scandal continues apace. And 2. The first sentence has been handed down in the Abu Ghraib abuse scandal. A downgrade, a bad-conduct discharge, a year in the pokey.

Questions: is the Oil-for-Food scandal characteristic of the UN, or not? Is the Abu Ghraib scandal characteristic of the US Armed Forces, or not?

Which body acted swiftly to investigate? Which body opened itself to public hearings and condemnations? Which body put the bad guy in the dock, held a trial, and pronounced sentence? Says AP:

Within hours of Sivits’ court-martial, Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, the senior U.S. commander in Iraq, told the Senate Armed Services Committee in Washington that abuse of prisoners in Iraq will be investigated thoroughly up the chain of command, “and that includes me.” ...
Kofi? Your move.

"Rebels"? They Ain't No Freakin "Rebels".

Bayonet Brits kill 35 rebels

OUTNUMBERED British soldiers killed 35 Iraqi attackers in the Army’s first bayonet charge since the Falklands War 22 years ago. The fearless Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders stormed rebel positions after being ambushed and pinned down.

Despite being outnumbered five to one, they suffered only three minor wounds in the hand-to-hand fighting near the city of Amara.

The battle erupted after Land Rovers carrying 20 Argylls came under attack on a highway.

After radioing for back-up, they fixed bayonets and charged at 100 rebels using tactics learned in drills.

When the fighting ended bodies lay all over the highway — and more were floating in a nearby river. Nine rebels were captured.

An Army spokesman said: “This was an intense engagement.”

The last bayonet charge was by the Scots Guards and the Paras against Argentinian positions.

The Rest Of The Story

If you get your news from the big TV networks or your daily newspaper, you would think that American forces in Iraq are under constant attack, Iraqis all over the country are anxious for America to leave and wait impatiently for the UN to take over things in their country.

You would certainly think so judging from the stories on the front pages of the large dailies and the TV news, but you'd be wrong. Here's The Rest Of The Story.