Month: May 2007

An army of radical Islamic militants was planning an attack on an American Army base, and the startling part is that this base wasn’t in Iraq, or anywhere else in the Middle East, but in New Jersey! New Jersey, USA! Would you believe it??

“I find that very difficult to believe, Mr. Smart.”

Would you believe… 6 guys with paintball guns were “in training” to attack Fort Dix, and were found because “the men took a videotape of their practice sessions to a store to have it burned to a DVD, and that a store employee contacted the FBI because of the video’s contents” so the cops set up a fake weapons purchase with the guys?

Now, there are a lot of things I could point out. I could say that the least the FBI could do is make up a more convincing story, but I realize that truth is often stranger than fiction. I could point out the futility of 6 guys taking on a military training facility and suggest that they needed to play more video games to disabuse themselves of the notion. I could point out that these fellows did not attempt to get weapons through legal means, such as a legit dealer or a gun show, and thus the case represents the futility of many gun control laws. I could point out that referring to them as “Islamic militants” is causing concern in the larger Muslim-American community, because it whips up ill sentiment against a people who by and large are trying to follow the law and be good citizens. I could even point out that this plot didn’t warrant a rise in the Terror Threat Level — funny how we haven’t heard much about that since the 2004 elections.

Instead I would like to point out that some of these men are — that’s right, are, not were — Naturalized Citizens of the United States of America. That means that Real ID would not have stopped them; they had every reason and right to have completely legit identification. This is the LAST DAY to complain to the Feds directly about this stinker, but you can still do things at the state level.

The rest of the men were illegal aliens. So, if the United States had actually started checking the Interpol database of stolen passports earlier than “later this year”, they might never have gotten here in the first place.

In closing: did anybody else notice that the glycerin that was really anti-freeze came from the same country as the wheat gluten that was really melamine?; maybe the American economy is ok, but it’s anemic compared to some other places; risky mortgages are such a huge problem that one in every 21 houses in Detroit is in foreclosure, a statistic made more alarming by the number of abandoned homes in that city; “Won’t somebody please think of the children??” “Among military personnel with at least one dependent, the rate of child maltreatment in military families increased by approximately 30% for each 1% increase in the percentage of active-duty personnel departing to or returning from operation-related deployment” according to a new study, so lets help the kids and bring home the troops; and finally, this wouldn’t have happened in the States because we have the Third Amendment. I guess rights are only for certain special people.

This New York Times commentary points out that Gonzales can (and should) be impeached. In fact, just lying to Congress is an impeachable offense, which makes me wonder about the Sixteen Words.

A Senate committee wants to pass a law imposing penalties for data breaches. How ironic, since the TSA just had a data breach. I wonder if this law will apply to them?

It turns out that the talks Ms. Rice was supposed to have with the Iranians wasn’t actually planned after all: “There was no time, no appointment and no plans.” That’s ok, she has problems to deal with at home.

Clearly it’s all about women? The Other Clinton wants to revoke the President’s authority to bomb the heck out of the Middle East. Pelosi says he just doesn’t listen. Laura is making him wear a white tie, but that’s something else altogether. And would you believe that someone went to the trouble of building a girls’ school as a giant bomb without anybody noticing? “Hey Abdul, what’s with the funny looking rebar?” “Shut up and mix the concrete, Mohammed!”

And in closing, The shoe’s on the other foot now: actual Clinton-era quotes from Republicans.

On Iraq:

This should be really simple. Most Iraqis want our troops to go home. Most Americans want American troops to come home. Even members of the President’s party want to stop writing blank checks and figure out how to make things end. So why does the President think we ought to stay for the forseeable future?

And as thinly stretched as the military is right now, why are we still trying to pick a fight with Iran, doing things like saying it is the Number One Sponsor of Terror just days before our top diplomat (Condi) and theirs were supposed to meet?

On Real ID:

For that matter, I don’t know anybody who just loves to spend the day in a line at the Department of Motor Vehicles with every important document needed to steal his/her identity. And yet that’s what the DHS wants to force upon us, despite the fact that the law creating the DHS specifically says No National ID Cards. Interesting points that I hadn’t even considered before are the mess Real ID makes for people fleeing domestic abuse and people who are transgendered. I must assume that if someone is in the witness protection program, the Feds will help them get legit fake IDs.

Don’t forget that Real ID is also the law that allows the government to build a huge wall along the border with no regard for pretty much anything. Like the environment. Or the fact that nobody wants it. On a related note the Christian Science Monitor points out that illegal immigration is already down, but not because of walls or better patrols. It’s down because the economy sucks for the poor.

On the price of gas:

According to the AAA, we might see record gas prices this summer, despite the fact that crude oil is not at record prices. “Problems” at refineries are blamed. The money quote:

AAA said it was “alarming” that gasoline prices were rising so high without the backdrop of a major geopolitical or natural event to disrupt supply, like a hurricane or a new military flare-up in the Middle East.

Alarming indeed. You don’t suppose the big gas companies are anticipating an event like a “military flare-up in the Middle East”, do you? And here we have news of a refinery cutting its capacity in half. Here we have a CNN story about the refinery problem. It seems to me that the government could make a bit of money and save a lot of consumers’ money by opening a refinery or two of their own.

As confusing as these issues are, maybe it’s time for a nap.

In closing:

“Oh no! You mean Fried Chicken might contain fat??“; lots of money to be made buying public assets, and then fleecing the public to use them; “Um yeah, we’ve decided not to follow the wiretap law anymore, we don’t need no steenking FISA court”; the typical Mom does 10 jobs for free that would cost $138K to have done, and I’m sure that doesn’t include that special job she does just for Dad; for the Japanophiles, LA Times article on journalism in the Internment Camps and links to this collection; and finally, “I can make purr?” — a classic episode of Star Trek in a dialect called “Lolcat”.