My mother and I are currently watching Frank Capra’s “It Happened One Night” together. It was the first movie she’d ever seen, on her sixteenth birthday.

Recieved this e-mail yesterday:
“Just to say I have received my copy of the book down here in New Zealand
yes - you have overseas readers !!!”
And last week I got an e-mail from a retired NCO who lives in Greece, and remembers working with me there, and he has ordered a copy, and I am sure that Tim Worstall has ordered a copy, as well, so on that basis I can describe “Our Grandpa Was an Alien” as an international sensation!
I have also a limited quantity of copies on hand for anyone who wants an autographed copy with a personal inscription; just e-mail me directly for particulars.
Today, publish-on-demand! Tomorrow— the New York Times best-seller list!

(Later Note: It’s listed in Amazon, too! What a thrill!)

Whether or not we really need something like this, I bet we will see them as a huge fad item

Honda Hybrid Scooter Prototype

This from Honda’s Press release:

August 24, 2004—Honda has developed a 50cc hybrid scooter prototype that offers reduced emissions, exceptional fuel economy, and ample storage space. Employing both an internal combustion engine and an electric motor, the new prototype takes Honda one step closer to a mass-market hybrid scooter.

The new prototype features an alternating current generator (ACG) with an idle stop function and the Honda PGM-FI electronic fuel injection system. In addition to an electronically controlled belt converter and a range of Honda environmental technologies, the new scooter features a dual series and parallel hybrid powertrain with a direct rear-wheel drive electric motor. Thanks to a compact power system and a rechargeable nickel hydrogen battery located under the front cowl, the hybrid scooter is about the same size as the Dio Z4, a standard-size 50cc scooter, and is only 10 kg heavier.

The hybrid scooter’s internal combustion engine and direct rear-wheel-drive electric motor function in two distinct modes. In series mode, when riding on flat ground and when high output is not required, the engine alone powers the electric motor. In parallel mode, used during acceleration and when high output is required, the electric motor assists the engine. In parallel mode, an electronically controlled belt converter automatically selects the optimum assist ratio.

To make the most efficient use of energy, the hybrid system charges the battery during deceleration and whenever possible and utilizes this power when higher output is required. In addition, the scooter enters idle stop mode, when the scooter is stopped, and whenever power is not needed, during deceleration. These advanced features allow the hybrid scooter to achieve 1.6 times the fuel economy of the Dio Z4 (when riding on flat ground at 30 km/h) and to produce 37% less carbon dioxide.

As if 200 mpg isn’t enough?

I am honored to be given the opportunity to email interview best-selling author Michelle Malkin. Michelle is the daughter of Filipino immigrants, wife and mother of two, blogress, TV commentator, nationally syndicated columnist, author of Invasion: How America Still Welcomes Terrorists, Criminals, and Other Foreign Menaces to Our Shores and her just released book In Defense of Internment: The Case for “Racial Profiling” in World War II and the War on Terror.

Before we get on with the interview I want to state three things. First I want to say that I think that this is an important book that proves there is an intellectual case for the 1942 evacuation order. That there were abuses that occurred as a result of that order is undeniable, but they were not the reasons for the order. Second, my wife and I agree that this book is an impressive achievement given that Michelle gave birth while writing it. (Dr. Wife gave birth to Darling Daughter#2 while finishing her PhD long distance, so we empathize.) And thirdly, I personally want to thank Michelle for writing this book. After my posts on the 1942 Evacuation Order, I received many requests that I write a book on the subject. Michelle has written a book better than I could have imagined. So thank you, Michelle, for getting me off the hook!

Michelle: Thank you for your kind comments about the book. As you know, I embarked on this project in part because of your debate with Eric Muller last spring. If not for you, I doubt that this book would exist.

Sparkey: Thank you! I really appreciate that. Now, you once wrote that you believed the internment of “ethnic Japanese was abhorrent and wrong.” What changed your mind? Was there a specific “Aha” moment, was it a gradual process, or what?

Michelle: My “Aha” moment occurred as I read David Lowman’s book, especially the MAGIC cables and intelligence memos that he reproduced in the back of the book. I put many of those documents in my book and online. Many more are available at www.internmentarchives.com, which was founded by Lowman’s publisher, Lee Allen.

The memos show that U.S. intelligence agencies regarded ethnic Japanese on the West Coast as a serious national security threat. My critics have written dozens of blog entries assailing my book. They have accused me of being a self-hater, of slander, of shoddy research methods, of providing too few footnotes (there are more than 600), and of being physically repulsive. But as of this morning, they have not addressed the concerns about Japanese espionage discussed in the intelligence memos reproduced in my book. Why? Because anyone who spends even ten minutes perusing these memos is likely to conclude that the evacuation and relocation of ethnic Japanese on the West Coast was rooted in legitimate national security concerns, not simply wartime hysteria and racism.

Sparkey: In the introduction to In Defense of Internment you state that it is forgivable that American’s don’t fully appreciate “the wartime exigencies of early 1942.” How do you feel the prism of Vietnam has distorted people’s view and understanding of 1942?

Michelle: In the late 1960s and the 1970s, anti-war agitation and ethnic identity politics became all the rage. Third- and fourth-generation Japanese-Americans embraced the America-bashing, victim-card culture and launched a nationwide bid for blanket payments to evacuees and their families. That movement led to the formation of the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians, which issued a biased report that reached the predetermined conclusion that Roosevelt’s policies were motivated by racism and wartime hysteria.

Sparkey: How widely publicized was the Niihau incident in the States, and how significant was the event to the Administration at the time? [Niihau is a Hawaiian island where ethnic Japanese Americans assisted a downed Japanese pilot after the Pearl Harbor raid. -S]

Michelle: It was written up by naval intelligence officers in Hawaii and was publicized by the local papers. The incident appears to have been very significant to the Roosevelt Administration-as evidenced by inclusion of reports related to the incident in the proceedings of the Roberts Commission.

Sparkey: After both Pearl Harbor and 9-11 many security fears were not realized. Critics point to these as evidence that such fears were unfounded. How do you respond to this?

Michelle: Obviously this is a logical fallacy. If X (say, an appendectomy) causes the absence of Y (say, a burst appendix), it is incorrect to conclude that since Y did not occur, X was unnecessary.
[I would like to add that just because a threat was not realized doesn’t imply that the concern for that threat was unjustified. - S]

Sparkey: Eric Muller insinuates that (based on the name of your book) you’re really advocating an Arab roundup of a sort. You address this charge in your rebuttal, but it does beg the question, why name the book In Defense of Internment if you’re not really advocating internment?

Michelle: The title is In Defense of Internment because the bulk of the book (including all 12 chapters between the introduction and conclusion) is devoted to a defense of the evacuation, relocation, and internment (policies collectively referred to as “internment") of ethnic Japanese during World War II. This is very relevant to the War on Terror, obviously, and I tease out some lessons in the introduction and conclusion. But it is clear that my book is a defense of internment in 1942, not today. I do support racial profiling and other policies that my opponents have repeatedly likened to the WW II internment.

Sparkey: What do you see as the biggest benefits resulting from the 1942 Evacuation Order, and do they justify the policy?

Michelle: The greatest benefit was to severely disrupt Japanese espionage cells on the West Coast. Given what was known at the time, I believe the decisions made in early 1942 were justified.

Sparkey: What do you see as the biggest negatives of the policy and their effects on public perception?

Michelle: The biggest negative was the adverse impact on Japanese-Americans who were loyal to the U.S. and the PR campaign on their behalf that followed. The effect has been to wrongly discredit any and all homeland security policies that apply heightened scrutiny based on race, ethnicity, religion, or nationality as well as any detention policies that bypass the criminal justice system.
[It also didn’t help that the Government dragged its feet to the point of abuse in providing direct compensation for actual incurred losses after the war. - S]

Sparkey: How do you think the Evacuation Order could have been handled differently or better?

Michelle: There were numerous problems with the way evacuation was carried out. Military authorities did not initially appreciate how hard it would be for ethnic Japanese to move east on their own. They initially allowed Terminal Island residents 30 days to evacuate, then abruptly shortened that length of time to 48 hours following the Goleta shelling and Los Angeles air raid scare. This caused considerable hardship for the evacuees, who scrambled to sell off household goods (typically at rock-bottom prices) and pack for their move. The conditions in some of the assembly centers were miserable. (It is worth bearing in mind, however, that the centers had to be built quickly and at the time construction materials and equipment were scarce.) Some of these problems could not have been prevented, but others might have been with better planning.

Sparkey: It’s obvious many critics haven’t even read your book before casting aspersions. It’s as if you attacked some article of their religion. How do you expect to “kick off a vigorous national debate” with those who believe in the infallibility of their faith?

Michelle: There are many people who feel the issue is settled and should not be debated. This is unfortunate. If they are confident that their position is right, they should have nothing to fear from an open, vigorous debate. There are others, however, who are willing to debate the issue-most notably Eric Muller and Greg Robinson.

A word about that debate. Muller mainly addresses side issues, such as the book cover and my research methods and terminology and the book’s title and why he didn’t receive an advance copy of the book from my publisher and whether I slandered Aiko Herzig-Yoshinaga and whether I mischaracterized Sarah Eltantawi of the Muslim Public Affairs Council and whether I took too long to respond to his critique.

Robinson, to his credit, focuses on the core issues-but much of what he says is flat out untrue. He says most of the MAGIC cables I discuss in my book came from Tokyo or Mexico City and refer to areas outside the United States. Wrong. He says those cables that do speak of the United States detail various efforts by Japan to build networks, and list hopes or intentions rather than actions or results. False. He says I said that Hoover’s opinion was not reliable or relied upon. Nonsense. He says ONI opposed evacuation. Rubbish. He says the Navy opposed evacuation. Wrong again. I pointed out these errors 18 days ago, but he has yet to acknowledge any of them.

Sparkey: Your book Invasion didn’t receive the attention it deserved from the mainstream press. How does the reaction to In Defense of Internment compare?

Michelle: I was heartened by the pre-release response, particularly the coverage my Bothell, Wash., speech received in the Seattle Times and Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Invasion was never covered as a news story by any major newspaper. Though I sent In Defense of Internment to every major newspaper, it appears it will not be reviewed, just as Invasion was not reviewed (except by a few small-town papers).

Sparkey: The next time you are in the Dallas area, would you give my family and me the honor of having dinner with us?

Michelle: If time allows, I would be delighted. I will be in Houston later this week, by the way, at an event sponsored by the Houston Forum. More details here.

In California today, the Senate hurriedly approved a slightly amended version of AB 50, which will ban .50 caliber rifles in the state.

DIGEST : This bill, effective January 1, 2005, prohibits the sale of .50 caliber BMG rifles. This bill authorizes the State Department of Justice to register legally-possessed BMG rifles until April 30, 2006, to assess a $25 registration fee, and to issue dangerous weapons permits for their possession, sale, manufacture and transportation. This bill makes it a misdemeanor to possess a BMG rifle that is not registered after April 30, 2007. This bill expands existing law to make assault with a BMG rifle a felony punishable by four, eight or 12 years in state prison.

This is a nonsense ‘feel good’ bill. Just how many .50 BMGs have been used to commit crimes anyway? And why just this caliber? Why not, say, the equally lethal Weatherby .460?

The confrontation in Najaf is the prototype for all near-future confrontations with insurgent elements in Iraq, with coalition forces accomplishing containment, and Iraqi forces going in for the kill:

NAJAF — A Shiite insurgency appeared to be weakening Tuesday night as Iraqi forces moved to within 200 yards of the revered Imam Ali Shrine and Iraq’s defense minister once again demanded fighters loyal to a radical cleric surrender or face a violent raid.

The militant force, which once waged fierce battles with U.S. troops throughout the Old City and Najaf’s vast cemetery, seemed considerably diminished in number and less aggressive after days of U.S. airstrikes and relentless artillery pounding.

In Baghdad, assailants bombed the convoys of two government ministers in separate attacks that killed five people and a suicide bomber, but left the ministers unharmed, officials said.

Hundreds of insurgents have been spotted leaving Najaf in recent days, witnesses said. Those that remained appeared to have pulled back to the area around the shrine, where the fighting Tuesday was concentrated, U.S. troops said.

Police say radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, who has not been seen in public for days, has fled the city.

His aides, however, vigorously denied that, saying al-Sadr was in a secret hideout here. Regardless, the fiery, charismatic cleric’s absence from the battlefield may have withered his followers’ morale.

U.S. warplanes bombed the Old City late Tuesday for the third night in a row, witnesses reported. Huge blasts rumbled throughout the city for about 10 minutes followed by gunbattles and smaller explosions.

Earlier in the day, fierce fighting broke out near the shrine compound, with rockets launched from U.S. helicopters kicking up clouds of smoke and debris. Bradley fighting vehicles patrolling the nearly deserted, bullet-scarred streets attacked militants, who responded with mortar fire and rocket-propelled grenades.

“We are under constant enemy small-arms, mortar, and RPG attack,” said U.S. Lt Chris Kent, whose unit was about 300 yards from the compound. “U.S. forces are consolidating positions to allow for future operations. Morale is very high.”

Iraqi forces, accompanying U.S. troops into the Old City for the first time in recent days, combed through the neighborhood, approaching as close as 200 meters to the shrine, controlled by militants loyal to al-Sadr.

Both the Iraqi government and the U.S. military say no military moves are being made without the approval of interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi.

Defense Minister Hazem Shaalan, addressing Iraqi National Guard troops in Najaf, said Tuesday that Iraqi forces would head toward the shrine “tonight” to await the signal for a raid or the capitulation of the militants.

“When your brothers approach the holy shrine compound, they will direct calls of mercy to those militants to surrender,” Shaalan told the troops. “They have hours to surrender.”

By late Tuesday, there was no indication Iraqi forces had advanced on the shrine.

Shaalan made a similar threat a week ago, saying the government could raid the shrine by the end of the day last Wednesday to free it of “its vile occupation.” The government later backed down and said it would work for a peaceful solution.

Any raid on the shrine, the holiest Shiite site in the country, risked igniting a massive Shiite rebellion throughout Iraq against the fledgling interim government, already battling a persistent and bloody Sunni insurgency.

“I tell Shaalan to throw his new declaration in the same garbage that he already threw his earlier declarations in,” al-Sadr aide Sheik Aws al-Khafaji told Al-Jazeera television.

But other al-Sadr lieutenants reiterated their appeal for talks, a request the government has repeatedly rejected.

“We are ready to negotiate to end this crisis and the suffering of our persecuted people … but this government doesn’t want negotiations,” said Sheik Ali Smeisim, a senior al-Sadr aide.

The militants have repeatedly accused U.S. forces of damaging the shrine during the fighting. The U.S. military accused the militants of launching attacks from holy sites, but said it has restrained itself from attacking those positions.

The military released aerial photos Tuesday purportedly showing a complete militant mortar system set up just outside the shrine compound.

Iraqi officials have said that any raid on the shrine would be conducted by Iraqi forces, since the presence of U.S. troops at the holy site would future inflame Shiites here.

In other violence, clashes between British forces and al-Sadr militants in the southern city of Amarah killed eight people and injured 18 others, said Dr Saad Hemood, of the Zahrawi General Hospital.

The fighting started when militants attacked a British foot patrol with small arms and fired mortar rounds at a building housing British troops, residents said.

Residents said British warplanes bombed the city, but Squadron leader Spike Wilson, a British military spokesman, said no planes were used in Amarah and he had no reports of coalition casualties. (Wire reports)

Last week, I went into Burger King, and ordered an Angus Steak Burger. By the ads, I had thought it was comparable to Carl’s JR’s Six Dollar Burger. But this is hardly the case.

Just because I am a skeptic, I asked the counter worker how much the patty weighed. He didn’t know, but went back and asked. He came back with the answer “10 ounces” - wow, over a quarter pound!

However, if you consult the nutritional information on their website, you will see that, not only is the patty much smaller than that, the whole burger weighs only just over ten ounces. Further, if you compare it to Carl’s Six Dollar Burger, you will see that it hardly measures up.

But, beyond that, this was perhaps the most gross hamburger I have ever eaten! Upon delivery (yes, it was a take-out order), the girl called “extra mayo” - I had ordered extra onions and pickles. After a few minutes, the clerk that took my order said “that’s his.” Well, not only did it not have extra onions or pickles, but the bun was soggy, as if it had been soaked in that extra mayo. Further, the lettuce was old and wilted, and there were two wafer-thin slices of tomato, more white than red.

Another Burger King scam.

I’m so serene. I not only have a TV in every room, but satellite as well, by way of DirectTV. We’ve had Dish in the living room for a couple of years; and have been quite satisfied. But they wouldn’t match Direct’s promotional deal to keep our business.

Idiots.

I just got this via email from BusinessWeek:

Consensus is growing among scientists, governments, and business that they must act fast to combat climate change. This has already sparked efforts to limit CO2 emissions. Many companies are now preparing for a carbon-constrained world

The idea that the human species could alter something as huge and complex as the earth’s climate was once the subject of an esoteric scientific debate. But now even attorneys general more used to battling corporate malfeasance are taking up the cause. On July 21, New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer and lawyers from seven other states sued the nation’s largest utility companies, demanding that they reduce emissions of the gases thought to be warming the earth. Warns Spitzer: “Global warming threatens our health, our economy, our natural resources, and our children’s future. It is clear we must act.”

Read the whole thing.

I personally don’t deny the possibility of human-influenced climate variation. But, at this point, the science is simply far from conclusive. To be taking such radical measures based on such sketchy knowledge is, to me, the ultimate ‘Chicken Little’ play.

Exciting news for fatties and athletes alike from Forbes:

NEW YORK - By attacking the same basic biology drug companies are targeting for new anti-fat drugs, researchers have genetically engineered mice with abilities far beyond those of normal rodents.

These “marathon mice” can run twice as long as their unmodified brothers and sisters– and, in a paper coming out right at the time of the Olympics, that’s leading to hand-wringing about the possibilities of applying this knowledge to create performance-enhancing drugs.

But these would not merely be performance-enhancing drugs to be abused by athletes. They might help stave the toll of cardiovascular disease, the No. 1 killer in the developed world. By treating the same gene these researchers modified in mice, drug companies are racing to create super drugs that would reduce multiple risk factors for heart disease, including high cholesterol, high triglycerides, and even high blood pressure.

Well, the Swiftboat Veterans story has finally broken out in the main stream media outlets; and I swear, NPR’s Juan Williams actually sounded rather aggrieved this morning, being made to eat the broccoli, along with everyone else. So far, they are saucing it with the assumption that of course this is all part of the Dark Lord Rove’s evil plan… for what other reason could their be, but politics as (dirty) as usual?
I think it is a great deal more complicated than that, and believe me, if I am one of the Dark Lord’s puppet pawns, than the contract and paycheck are conspicuously absent, and you don’t have to look any farther for a motivation than to the experience of Vietnam veterans; those of them that are not John Kerry.

Those veterans served their full tour, and did their jobs honorably and to the best of their abilities, even if it was on a rear-echelon base, or out at sea, or in a hospital. Some may have been wounded, some were decorated, some volunteered for the riskiest assignments, some looked for a safer billet, some were traumatized, others were unscathed, but not unchanged by the experience of being plunked down into an alien place and circumstances for a year. Just about all of them, contrary to what the popular media would show you, came back and got on with their lives. Some of them stayed on in the military, the rest became CPAs, doctors, teachers, technicians, police officers, actors and a hundred other professions, with more or less ordinary lives. And what did they get for their service, when they stepped off the Freedom Bird, and for a good long time after? Spit on occasionally, sometimes physically harassed, called baby-killers and mercenaries, despised and, painted in the popular media as unstable, violent drug-abusing degenerates… the list of injury and indignity went on and on, even when the war was long over.

I remember veterans being advised to not include military service on resumes and job applications, and the way that the older NCOs who had been there never, ever talked about it, unless among friends and very, very drunk, Gunny Kev confessing that he had volunteered for three more tours, since he could stick being shot at by the VC, but not being called a baby-killer by Americans. The subject was unmentionable, outside the military family, and even inside, people were pretty tight-lipped. On a Christmas night in Greenland, I was sitting between the public affairs officer, and the senior air traffic controller, talking of nothing much in particular. Then the PAO, rather lubricated, let it slip that in a previous service incarnation, he had been an Army infantryman, and how in the field they never washed, because the smell of soap would give you away, and the air traffic controller started, as if he had just been jolted by an electrical short— he also, had been an infantryman in Vietnam. Here, they had been at the same base for months, casual acquaintances for months, and yet never knew until then how much they had in common.

So, here we have people who have been proud of their service, and conduct, slammed by accusations of having committed atrocities— while war crimes committed by the VC and North Vietnamese got a free pass, falsely pictured in the media as being traumatized losers by movie producers and lazy reporters, even as they build quiet and successful lives. And as the final straw, the long bloody fight, all that sacrifice was for nothing at all. South Vietnam falls, in 1975, having been rendered politically untouchable.
So, in this year of 2004, three years after 9/11, when Vietnam is as far away in time as World War 1 was from the Korean War, irrelevant to a fight against the forces of Islamic fundamentalism, long after most of those involved have made their peace with it; here we are, going back into the jungles of 1968. John Kerry, who made his political bones as a leader of an anti-war group, rejecting his decorations, and testifying to a long series of improbable and unproven atrocities, was somehow advised that campaigning as a heroic war veteran would be just the winning ticket; that men whom he had maligned, and born false witness against had somehow magically forgotten their own experiences, their own pain, and guilt, to serve his ambitions.

The man who had no small part in creating the image of the unstable veteran, and in putting South Vietnam beyond the pale…. Oh, the response to that is anger, deep and abiding anger. I don’t know how it could have been otherwise, and I don’t know why the Democrats and Kerry advisers didn’t see it. Just anger…. Not political machinations, but anger, as unstoppable as a flood, and just as impossible to reason with.

I’m currently rewatching the Fox News Sunday interview with John Hurly and Van Odell concernining John Kerry’s war record. Chris Wallace is pushing Van Odell for proof that Kerry did indeed lie about receiving 5 klicks of enemy fire. What I’m wondering is, wouldn’t there have been repair records for the boats, had they received such extreme damage?

I don’t know how they did things in the Brownwater Navy, But in SAC, we swam in a sea of maintenance paperwork.

Update: contrary to Sgt. Mom’s lament, yesterday’s talking head shows demonstrate that this issue does indeed have legs. Unfortunately, however, it seems that far more effort is currently being put into impeaching the Swiftboat Vets than investigating their charges.

You would think that, by the Kerry camp’s pleas to make this a campaign of issues, that they would just want this to go away. But in making such pronouncements, both Hurly, and Tad Devine, on NBC’s Meet The Press, repeated the “Kerry is a hero, and Bush/Cheney are dodgers” mantra in virtually the same breath. Indeed, as with everything else, it seems Kerry wants it both ways.

This seems to have gotten very little mention in the popular press. But, to me, this is about the most exciting planned event in the space program since the early shuttle launches:

In a dramatic ending that marks a beginning in scientific research, NASA’s Genesis spacecraft is set to swing by Earth and jettison a sample return capsule filled with particles of the Sun that may ultimately tell us more about the genesis of our solar system.

“The Genesis mission – to capture a piece of the Sun and return it to Earth – is truly in the NASA spirit: a bold, inspiring mission that makes a fundamental contribution to scientific knowledge,” said Steven Brody, NASA’s program executive for the Genesis mission, NASA Headquarters, Washington.

On September 8, 2004, the drama will unfold over the skies of central Utah when the spacecraft’s sample return capsule will be snagged in midair by helicopter. The rendezvous will occur at the Air Force’s Utah Test and Training Range, southwest of Salt Lake City.

(emphasis mine)
The logic of this technique is so compelling, it’s a wonder it hasn’t been attempted before.

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger announced a program to put distributed solar co-generation capibility on the roofs of 1 million California homes:

“This proposal is about smart, innovative and environmentally friendly technologies that will help improve the state’s ability to meet peak electricity demand while cutting energy costs for homeowners for years to come,” said Governor Schwarzenegger. “Once implemented, it will establish California as a world leader in solar technology.”

Other solar stratigies have proven far less than satisfactory. The Sun, for all it’s might, simply doesn’t shed enough power per unit surface area of the Earth for any type of centralized scheme to be practical.

To: Main-stream Media
Re: Potentially Imploding Aspirants for the Presidency
From: Sgt. Mom

1. I feel your pain, I really, really do…. No wait, that may be a touch of heartburn. The little café on the ground floor does a superb breakfast taco, and their home-made salsa is… wow. Like vegetable-based napalm, you know what I mean? Just can’t stay away from it, it’s like an addiction. Just can’t stop myself, and neither can you all, apparently. That would be your sanctimonious insistence that you can really, really cover the news in an even-handed fashion, and in the meantime the biggest political story since Watergate is rumbling away under your Gucci-clad feet like a lava-dome about to blow. While certain of the smaller market traditional media, or perhaps those not so totally invested in anybody but GWB are beginning to pick up on it, you are giving the impression of a small stubborn child refusing to eat broccoli. Evasions, excuses, denial; “It’s all election spin! He was near Cambodia! And GWB was AWOL! It’s all just politically biased!” Followed by the despairing wail of “I don’t wan-n-n-na cover this story! You can’t make me!”

2. We shouldn’t have to make you cover the story, Main-stream Media— it’s your damn job. You have been telling us for years how special, and unbiased and credentialed and professional you all are, diddy-bopping down the campaign trail, being the gatekeepers of information in all forms, glowing with the nice warm satisfaction of being important, and strewing the pearls of your great wisdom and insight before us all. There is just this one little lump in the oatmeal of your self-satisfaction; anyone with a modem and a keyboard, and sufficient curiosity about the world can do an end-run around you. And anyone who has special knowledge, and can think analytically and string a couple of coherent sentences together can have a readership as wide as any of the journalistically anointed. So, here we have all these lovely investigative tools on the internet, websites and weblogs, and google, oh my— planning to utilize any of them in the near future, or are you just going to go strolling off the cliff and over the open air, until that lovely comic moment when you look down?

3. See; here’s the deal. The presidential candidate anointed and favored by all the blessed, and who has built his entire campaign on his (abbreviated) Vietnam War tour of duty and ostentatious displays of heroism and camaraderie… well, there may also be seriously whopping feet of clay involved here. A bunch of guys who served in the same unit, in the same lot of boats at the same time, well, they see him as the Eddie Haskell or Frank Burns of the Swiftboat Service— and they have sort of a different take on his much-vaunted service in those fabled times in Vietnam. They don’t see him as fit for any elected office above the rank of town dog-catcher, and maybe not even that, and they believe this so firmly that they have gone to a great deal of trouble to say so. Heck, there’s even a heavily footnoted book out, which is simply flying off the shelves. Interesting stuff in there, you might wanna check it out, sometime. OK, and after the anointed one returned from Vietnam— still with me, people? He built his initial fame as an anti-Vietnam War protester, and as part of that headline-grabbing stint, he accused his fellow servicemen of all sorts of gruesome and brutal war crimes, on very thin or even non-existent evidence. So there is another group of veterans who feel particularly and personally defamed by these accusations, most of which were baseless. Yes, they are a little irritated now, since he is now claiming status on account of that service… for which he defamed them thirty years ago. If many of the journalistically anointed hung around with veterans a lot, they would know this, and perhaps have a better sense of how angry this has made them, especially the ones who have been boycotting Jane Fonda all this time. It seems also that the chosen one has not done all that much to distinguish himself since being elected to his present office, except cultivate the ability to tell any audience what they want to hear, irregardless of what he told the last audience, and to induce two wealthy women sequentially to marry their lives and fortunes to his. (And represent the Commonwealth of Massachusetts for two decades, but that’s their problem).

4. Unless you, as mainstream media want to give the impression that you have also married your lives and fortunes to him in a similar manner, you would be well advised to take as searching a look to this candidates’ particular qualifications, history and personal eccentricities, or the suspicion would be confirmed that you are not nearly as impartial and you represent yourself to be. As consumers of a particular product, that of news of current events, we wish to be given the facts, pure and unadulterated; we do not want to be told by commission or omission what to think about those facts— or even, as is presently the case, to have those facts and the questions that naturally arise from them, omitted from the public discourse entirely.

5. The perils of not addressing these matters are significant. A coldly logical examination of the record may bring cause to wonder why on earth this candidate was ever thought electable, in these perilous times, when there were other less immediately attractive but more solidly qualified candidates yet available— and exactly why did this empty suit looked like the best bet? Should GWB be reelected by a considerable margin, there will be a considerably surprised minority looking for the reasons they were blindsided on this. They will demand an explanation as to why they had been so misinformed.

6. And if this candidate be elected, and subsequent circumstances and events make it clear that his resume contained not a shred of evidence that he was up to the job— in fact, nothing more than a set of propitious initials, a quasi-royal sense of entitlement, and an all consuming desire for the office— who would bear responsibility for the disaster of electing a completely unsuitable person for the highest elected office in the land, but those guilty of attempting to conceal by omission certain unfavorable facts? We look to the main-stream media for essential information entire and complete, not our marching orders. We look for searching questions and comprehensive answers, so we can make up our own minds. And if we do not get the information which we need from you, we the people will get them from where we find them, and your expertise and standing will be diminished, discounted and compromised. More than they are now, anyway.

7. So, take my advice; eat the damned broccoli. It will do us all good.

Sincerely,
Sgt Mom

I need a quick, and hopefully free, primer on SQL, for a job I am applying for. Can anyone help me?

Despite his former gaff, White House Drug Czar Dan Walters now claims Clinton’s “Plan Columbia” is a great success in stemming the tide of cocaine into the US:

Mr Walters was speaking in Washington after visiting Colombia and Mexico.

He said American-backed efforts by those countries had sharply reduced the estimated flow of the drug to the US.

The statement appears to contradict comments he made last week. While in Mexico, he said there was no fall in the amount of cocaine reaching the US.

“We have not yet seen in all these efforts what we’re hoping for on the supply side, which is a reduction in availability,” he said at a news conference in Mexico City last Thursday.

The fact is, while we have turned Columbia into a war zone (as if it wasn’t one already) the supply of cocaine from Peru and Bolivia has just increased to fill the gap.

The Drug Warriors, like school bureaucrats, and so many others in government, keep insisting that success is just around the corner, and we need only to increase their funding to see it. It’s time to learn that success is not to be had, and undesirable in the first place.

One of my favorite pundits, Larry Elder, gets his own show beginning September 13th

Indian gaming on established reservations, while rapidly accelerating, is well established. But this is a new development (free registration req’d):

GARDEN GROVE – City officials have been quietly shopping around an idea to introduce Indian gaming to Harbor Boulevard.

The casino proposal came to light Tuesday when Orange County Supervisor Chris Norby publicly revealed at the board’s weekly meeting that Garden Grove officials, including Councilman Mark Rosen and City Manager Matthew Fertal, visited his office last week to gauge his support.

“I was taken completely by surprise,” Norby said, adding that he was told discussions involved the Mesa Grande Band of Mission Indians, a small tribe located in northern San Diego County.

Council members also had met in Las Vegas with Steve Wynn, who operates several major casinos.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has recently discussed expanding gambling agreements that could pave the way for urban casinos. Casino operators, such as Harrah’s Resorts, have recently partnered with Indian tribes to develop gambling resorts.

This exposes the whole farce of Indian gaming. It’s time to end the monopoly of Indian tribes and governments on legal gambling.

Katharine Sealey has an answer to the military breast implant controversy:

Well here’s my compromise, a million dollar idea to help the female soldiers add some curves AND increase their military value at the same time: Kevlar breast implants, a nice set of bullet-proof boobies.

Or maybe some of those Austin Powers Fem-Bot doohickeys with machine gun action.

Now that’s what I call today’s Army.