Fred Thompson – May 4?

Article

(Hat-Tip: Drudge Report)

Thompson has not yet decided to seek the Republican presidential nomination. But “he is getting more serious every day,” said an adviser familiar with Thompson's plans.

Thompson’s coming-out as a candidate-in-waiting will be a May 4 appearance at the 45th annual dinner of the Lincoln Club of Orange County in the heart of Ronald Reagan country in Southern California. The invitation was widely sought by aspiring Republicans, and his advisers expect considerable media attention around the visit. But there are no plans now for an announcement then.

Thompson will also stoke speculation with a meeting of House Republicans April 18 at the Capitol Hill Club, organized by Rep Zach Wamp (R-Tenn.), the most vocal promoter of a Thompson candidacy. More than 60 House Republicans have indicated they want to come to hear the former senator, according to organizers.

The Lebanon Daily Star vs. Nancy Pelosi

LGF Hat-Tip

The usually anti-Bush Lebanese paper, Lebanon Daily Star, had it quite on the mark when it said how absolutely useless and undermining Pelosi’s visit was to the Middle East. She didn’t go there spreading Bush’s message, as some have claimed. What she did was meet with a leader of a country that is a terrorist (of sorts) himself. Legitimizing the murderous affairs in both Iraq and Lebanon, way to go Nancy. First you parade with known NAMBLA members in San Francisco; now you parade with terrorists in Damascus. The clip from the Lebanese newspaper is below (emphasis added for political “ire”):

We can thank the US speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, for having informed Syrian President Bashar Assad, from Beirut, that “the road to solving Lebanon’s problems passes through Damascus.” Now, of course, all we need to do is remind Pelosi that the spirit and letter of successive United Nations Security Council resolutions, as well as Saudi and Egyptian efforts in recent weeks, have been destined to ensure precisely the opposite: that Syria end its meddling in Lebanese affairs.

Pelosi embarked on a fool’s errand to Damascus this week, and among the issues she said she would raise with Assad - when she wasn’t on the Lady Hester Stanhope tour in the capital of imprisoned dissidents Aref Dalila, Michel Kilo, and Anwar Bunni - is “the role of Syria in supporting Hamas and Hizbullah.” What the speaker doesn’t seem to have realized is that if Syria is made an obligatory passage in American efforts to address the Lebanese crisis, then Hizbullah will only gain. Once Assad is re-anointed gatekeeper in Lebanon, he will have no incentive to concede anything, least of all to dilettantes like Pelosi, on an organization that would be Syria’s enforcer in Beirut if it could re-impose its hegemony over its smaller neighbor.

We were blindfolded, bound and stripped, say our sailors

DAILY MAIL

(Hat-Tip: Drudge Report Headline)

1. We were blindfolded and subjected to interrogation
2. We were told we faced seven years in prison if we did not 'confess'
3. Iranians entered Iraqi waters deliberately to detain us. Fighting back was not an option
4. We were 1.7 nautical miles away from Iranian waters
5. We were under psychological pressure and mind games
6. Faye Turney was isolated in a cell away from the rest of the crew
7. Iranian state TV says crew's comments were 'dictated' by British Ministry of Defense

UPDATED BLOG (w/video additions) by clicking here.

Antony Flew’s First Book Since Becoming a Theist
(Probably his last book… he is along in years)
“There Is a God: How the World's Most Notorious Atheist Changed His Mind”

Here is an old post I did from elsewhere on the Net:

From: http://www.biola.edu/news/articles/060327_flew.cfm

British philosopher Antony Flew, once considered the most prominent defender of atheism in the English-speaking world, will accept the Phillip E. Johnson Award for Liberty and Truth on May 11 from Biola University, a Christian university in Southern California.

========================

Flew, 83, argued in books such as God and Philosophy (1966) and The Presumption of Atheism (1984) that one should presuppose atheism until evidence for God proves otherwise. Then, in 2004, the Oxford-educated philosopher stunned the intellectual world by relinquishing his long-held atheism, claiming that the natural sciences supplied evidence for the existence of a designing intelligence. Flew said that he simply had to go where the evidence leads.

========================

The Phillip E. Johnson Award for Liberty and Truth was given to Flew for his lifelong commitment to free and open inquiry and to standing fast against intolerant assaults on freedom of thought and expression. Flew drew scorn from skeptics following his shift in views. When informed that he was this years award winner, he remarked, In light of my work and publications in this area and the criticism I’ve received for changing my position, I appreciate receiving this award.

The above is one of Flew’s most famous books, and since his “conversion” he added a new introduction to it which basically wipes clean his original premise in the book that philosophy and logic disproves God’s existence.

So finally a new book that deals in whole with the evidence from science coupled with logic that has finally made the case for the staunchest atheist from the past 50-years.

There Is a God: How the World's Most Notorious Atheist Changed His Mind is the title. Antony Flew’s co-author is Roy Abraham Varghese, who’s book had a big impact on Flew’s thinking: The Wonder of the World: A Journey from Modern Science to the Mind of God.

So soon I will have a picture of the book up, when the publisher and the author’s decide what it will be. But I wanted to be one of the first to break the news about it.

CHEERS!

PapaG

China’s Execution Buses

Documentary on how communism really works.

More Anti-Semitism @ Kos

Thanks LGF

Plastic Bag ban in San Fran... DUMB!

Thanks Townhall.com

PLASTIC BAG BAN FULL OF HOLES

The city of San Francisco's Board of Supervisors voted last week to outlaw plastic checkout bags at large supermarkets and chain pharmacies. The stores are encouraged to use bags made of recyclable paper, which can biodegrade in about a month, or compostable bags made of corn or potato starch, which have not yet been widely studied.

It is a unique response well suited to a city that prizes its special nature -- one that already has curbside pickup for recycling foodstuffs in compostable bags. But as other cities weigh San Francisco's choice, they might want to consider some of the consequences, says USA Today.

Consider:

• Plastic bags cost about a penny each, paper costs about a nickel and compostable bags can run as high as 10 cents each.
• The California Grocers Association, which lobbied against the ban, doubts this new industry can produce enough of the compostable bags quickly.
• The bags also must be segregated from regular plastic, making recycling efforts more difficult.

Meanwhile:

• Paper bags generate 70 percent more air pollutants and 50 times more water pollutants than plastic bags, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
• This is because four times as much energy is required to produce paper bags and 85 times as much energy is needed to recycle them.
• Paper takes up nine times as much space in landfills and doesn't break down there at a substantially faster rate than plastic does.

Public education campaigns about littering and recycling can help more than ineffective bans on products that are used every day by billions of people worldwide, says USA Today.

Source: Editorial, "Plastic bag-ban full of holes," USA Today, April 2, 2007.

For text:

http://blogs.usatoday.com/oped/2007/04/post_1.html#more

For more on State and Local Issues:

http://www.ncpa.org/sub/dpd/index.php?Article_Category=40

A Decent Article On Global Warming

Opinion Editorials – Kevin Roeten

…Back on 1/2/07 Roger Hedgecock(‘KOGO’ radio) revealed what most scientists(not bureaucrats) agreed on--the top 9 reasons for global warming. Man was #9, volcanic eruptions #7, plankton #5, and the Sun was #1.

Interestingly, sunspot activity seems to greatly influence the sun’s total emanated energy. But we know that the sun’s output is not entirely constant. But the amount of sunspot activity bottomed out in the 17th century. This occurred during the latter half, and was actually named the Maunder Minimum. Significantly, this low amount of sunspots coincided with an abnormally cold period recorded in Northern Europe that is typically called the little Ice Age. Science also tells us that since the formation of the solar system, the sun’s output has increased by about 40%. We also know that our sun is actually a variable star of ~1%.

But let’s not forget about a few other facts that science tells us that seem to totally refute Gore’s claims:

1) An unmistakable 1500 year cycle in temperature oscillations is present.
2) CO2 of 15 times existing concentrations was recorded in the past.
3) Very recent data indicate that cosmic radiation from deep space directly increases cloud formation, which directly affects warming.
4) The sun’s magnetic field changes the cosmic radiation reaching the earth.
5) “Global Warming” is mostly due to water vapor(clouds: ~95%).
6) The highest solar activity in the last 1000 yrs has been recorded recently.
7) The sun is now burning hotter than in the last 1000 years.
8) Govt/private studies calculate Kyoto could cost US $348 billion by 2012.
9) Those same studies predict Kyoto could cost the world 1 trillion by 2012.
10) Those same studies predict that 1.3 million jobs will be destroyed.
11) Jupiter, Mars, Pluto, and Neptune’s moon are verified to be undergoing ‘global warming’ coinciding with the earth.
12) In the year 1000 A.D., earth’s climate was much warmer than it is now.
13) Vikings raised crops and cattle in Greenland 1000 years ago.
14) A recent poll of climatologists showed that 90% agreed with the statement: “scientific evidence indicates variations in global temperature are likely to be naturally occurring and cyclical over very long periods of time.”

Per Dr. Sami Solanski(Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research) “Unfortunately, regular and detailed measurements of the sun’s surface magnetic field are available for only a few decades, not long enough for comparison with climate.”

Katie Couric has called Gore a ‘Secular Saint’. Oprah Winfrey has called Gore the ‘Noah’ of our time. When Senator James Inhofe(Ok) asked Gore recently to take the pledge “to consume no more energy for use in his residence than the average American household by 3/21/08”, Gore refused. We also know that Gore has received many more times the president’s annual salary for his controversial film “An Inconvenient Truth”. But he actually received more popular votes than Bush six years ago when running for president. But he hasn’t entered the ’08 race yet.

All the above facts can be checked and verified. But having these facts available, and still believing that global warming is ‘man-made’, seems hard to conceive. Sure Gore is no scientist and probably has not taken meteorology or astrophysics in school, but persists in ‘alarmism’. But he has a significant percentage of the population believing in ‘man-made’ global warming. This is scary because it’s so reminiscent of certain historical characters. But what’s scarier is that people will likely believe this hype for another 25-50 years. What will happen to those that believed when proven wrong? It’s hoped that the damage that was done to correct an ‘ill-perceived’ problem may not be too much from which to recover.

Bill O'Reilly and Geraldo Rivera Go "Toe-to-Toe"

Kos and other Liberals Thought They Had Rove!

April Fools Day

I love when the Left make fools of themselves:

10 Out Of 10 Terrorists Agree… They Want the Democrats in Office

I will post a new article on the recent visit by Pelosi to the Middle-East, and then I will post two old posts on Democrats and Terrorists.

LGF

Y-Net News

Terrorists endorse Pelosi's 'good policy of dialogue'

Palestinian terror group members call US House speaker's visit to Damascus 'brave' and hope for talks with Iran; ‘I think the Democratic Party can do things the best,’ Islamic Jihad member says

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Syria Wednesday – in which she called for dialogue with Damascus – was “brave” and “very appreciated” and could bring about “important changes” to America’s foreign policy, including talks with “Middle East resistance groups,” according to members of Palestinian terror organizations whose top leaders live in Syria.

One terror leader, Khaled Al-Batch, a militant and spokesman for Islamic Jihad, expressed hope Pelosi would continue winning elections, explaining the House speaker’s Damascus visit demonstrated she understands the Middle East.

“Nancy Pelosi understands the area (Middle East) well, more than Bush and Dr. (Condoleezza) Rice,” said Al-Batch, speaking to WND from Gaza. “If the Democrats want to make negotiations with Syria, Hamas, and Hizbullah, this means the Democratic Party understands well what happens in this area and I think Pelosi will succeed. ... I hope she wins the next elections.” ...

Ramadan Shallah, overall chief of Islamic Jihad, lives in Syria, as does Hamas chieftain Khaled Mashaal. Israel has accused the Syrian-based Hamas and Islamic Jihad leadership of ordering militants in the West Bank and Gaza Strip to carry out terror attacks.

Al-Batch expressed hope Pelosi and the Democratic Party will pressure Bush to create dialogue with Syria and Middle East “resistance movements” and prompt an American withdrawal from Iraq.

“Bush and Dr. Rice made so many mistakes in the Middle East. Just look at Palestinian clashes and Iraq. But I think some changes are happening for the Bush administration’s foreign policy because of the hand of Nancy Pelosi. I think the Democratic Party can do things the best. ... Pelosi is going down a good road by this policy of dialogue,” he said.

Abu Abdullah, a leader of Hamas’ military wing in the Gaza Strip, said the willingness by some lawmakers to talk with Syria “is proof of the importance of the resistance against the US. ”The Americans know and understand they are losing in Iraq and the Middle East and that their only chance to survive is to reduce hostilities with Arab countries and with Islam. Islam is the new giant of the world,” he said.

“Pelosi’s visit to Syria was very brave. She is a brave woman,“ Jihad Jaara, a senior member of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades terror group and the infamous leader of the 2002 siege of Bethlehem’s Church of the Nativity, told WND.

“I think it’s very nice and I think it’s much better when you sit face to face and talk to (Syrian President Bashar) Assad. It’s a very good idea. I think she is brave and hope all the people will support her. All the American people must make peace with Syria and Iran and with Hamas. Why not?" Jaara said.

Best of the Web Today brings to our attention a new Pew poll done for the Council on Foreign Relations. Among the interesting findings of this poll are these:

51% of Democrats say that US "wrongdoing" might have motivated the 9/11 attacks…. In contrast, only 17% of Republicans in the poll are this amazingly stupid.

These are the people who buy-into the whole MoveOn.org, Left-wing, Koolaid-swilling nonsense… the… Bushitler/Blood4Oil/Bush lied (Thanks to JawaReport). Another survey (says) done was the Scripps Howard/Ohio University, this poll found that a third of the American public suspects that federal officials assisted in the 9/11 terrorist attacks or took no action to stop them so the United States could go to war in the Middle East…. The poll [also] found that [m]embers of racial and ethnic minorities, people with only a high school education and Democrats were especially likely to suspect federal involvement in 9/11.

I like to think that the neo-cons and many of the conservatives (remember, neo-cons being to the left of Reaganites) live up to Theodore Roosevelt’s timely quote:

"It is not the critic who counts, nor the man who points out where the strong man stumbled, or where a doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man in the arena whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs, and who comes up short again and again, who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends himself in a worthy cause. The man who at best knows the triumph of high achievement and who at worst, if he fails, fails while daring greatly, so that his place will never be with those cold timid souls who never knew victory or defeat."

PapaG!

Al Qaeda Sends a Message to Democrats

December 22, 2006 2:28 PM

Brian Ross and Hoda Osman Report:

Al Qaeda has sent a message to leaders of the Democratic party that credit for the defeat of congressional Republicans belongs to the terrorists.

In a portion of the tape from al Qaeda No. 2 man, Ayman al Zawahri, made available only today, Zawahri says he has two messages for American Democrats.

"The first is that you aren't the ones who won the midterm elections, nor are the Republicans the ones who lost. Rather, the Mujahideen -- the Muslim Ummah's vanguard in Afghanistan and Iraq -- are the ones who won, and the American forces and their Crusader allies are the ones who lost," Zawahri said, according to a full transcript obtained by ABC News.

THE BLOTTER RECOMMENDS

Al Zawahri Shows His Softer Side

Zawahri Was Target in U.S. Attack on Religious School in Pakistan

Click Here to Watch the Latest Brian Ross Investigates Webcast

Zawahri calls on the Democrats to negotiate with him and Osama bin Laden, not others in the Islamic world who Zawahri says cannot help.

"And if you don't refrain from the foolish American policy of backing Israel, occupying the lands of Islam and stealing the treasures of the Muslims, then await the same fate," he said.

Iraq… and the Oil Goes To… China, India, and other Asian Countries…

NOT THE UNITED STATES!!!!

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Despite claims by some critics that the Bush administration invaded Iraq to take control of its oil, the first contracts with major oil firms from Iraq's new government are likely to go not to U.S. companies, but rather to companies from China, India, Vietnam, and Indonesia.

CNN – Money (article)

Another foot in the proverbial anti-war protestor’s mouth. I think this old video of some of the first marches against the Iraqi war is appropriate:

Dr. Francis Collins – Human Genome Project Head – Discusses His Faith

As the director of the Human Genome Project, I have led a consortium of scientists to read out the 3.1 billion letters of the human genome, our own DNA instruction book. As a believer, I see DNA, the information molecule of all living things, as God's language, and the elegance and complexity of our own bodies and the rest of nature as a reflection of God's plan.

I did not always embrace these perspectives. As a graduate student in physical chemistry in the 1970s, I was an atheist, finding no reason to postulate the existence of any truths outside of mathematics, physics and chemistry. But then I went to medical school, and encountered life and death issues at the bedsides of my patients. Challenged by one of those patients, who asked "What do you believe, doctor?", I began searching for answers.

I had to admit that the science I loved so much was powerless to answer questions such as "What is the meaning of life?" "Why am I here?" "Why does mathematics work, anyway?" "If the universe had a beginning, who created it?" "Why are the physical constants in the universe so finely tuned to allow the possibility of complex life forms?" "Why do humans have a moral sense?" "What happens after we die?"

I had always assumed that faith was based on purely emotional and irrational arguments, and was astounded to discover, initially in the writings of the Oxford scholar C.S. Lewis and subsequently from many other sources, that one could build a very strong case for the plausibility of the existence of God on purely rational grounds. My earlier atheist's assertion that "I know there is no God" emerged as the least defensible. As the British writer G.K. Chesterton famously remarked, "Atheism is the most daring of all dogmas, for it is the assertion of a universal negative."

But reason alone cannot prove the existence of God. Faith is reason plus revelation, and the revelation part requires one to think with the spirit as well as with the mind. You have to hear the music, not just read the notes on the page. Ultimately, a leap of faith is required.

For me, that leap came in my 27th year, after a search to learn more about God's character led me to the person of Jesus Christ. Here was a person with remarkably strong historical evidence of his life, who made astounding statements about loving your neighbor, and whose claims about being God's son seemed to demand a decision about whether he was deluded or the real thing. After resisting for nearly two years, I found it impossible to go on living in such a state of uncertainty, and I became a follower of Jesus.

While Dr. Collins is an old-earth creationist, I am a young earth creationist. I cannot wait until the new creation museum is opened and kids have an alternative in visual form to all the photo’s (many now debunked) in their biology textbooks:

In Response to Another Blogger

just getting it into the record

Just because you can find info on the internet that support any claim doesn’t – by itself – discredit that claim. I have a National Enquirer tabloid that has a photo of Jesse Jackson on its cover with his mistress. Just because the National Enquirer gets it wrong 98% of the time doesn’t mean Jesse Jackson didn’t have an affair.

I can say the same about authors who write books. Michael Moore comes to mind first off. All his books are full of misstatements and misquotes put forward as truths. I will give one small example:

According to Moore in his book Stupid White Men, “the entire nation is composed of morons”. He writes: “There are forty-four million Americans who cannot read and write above a fourth-grade level – in other words, who are functional illiterates. How did I learn this statistic? Well, I read it.”

Moore should have read better. His endnotes attribute the figure to the U.S. Deptpartment of Education’s national Adult Literacy Survey. Yes, that survey found that 40-44 million Americans performed in the lowest level of literacy. But the survey doesn’t end there. In the next paragraph, it goes on to note that 25% of the people who scored in the lowest literacy category were immigrants who have learned little or no English. And in classic Moore fashion, he also fails to disclose that nearly 19% of the group he includes in the uneducated masses are actually people who have “visual difficulties that affect their ability to read print.”

Surprise: Functional English literacy is not high among the blind, and people learning to speak English may be highly educated, but only able to read their native klanguage. This hardly makes the United States a nation that, writes Moore, “GOES OUT OF ITS WAY TO REMASIN IGNORANT AND STUPID” (capitalization in the original).

Page 67 of Dude Where’s My Country: Moore claims that, in building the famous Maginot Line, France "built the bunkers facing the wrong way and Germans were deep into France before you could say 'garcon, stinky cheese, please!'" In fact, the Maginot Line was built with many of the heavy weapons facing back and to the flanks of the line, to allow the bunkers to support each other, and the German invasion avoided it entirely, coming through the Ardennes north of the line.

Page 69: Moore misrepresents US contributions to the United Nations oil-for-food program in Iraq as "trade." He writes, "There were claims that the French were only opposing war to get economic benefits out of Saddam Hussein's Iraq. In fact, it was the Americans who were making a killing. In 2001, the U.S. was Iraq's leading trading partner, consuming more than 40 percent of Iraq's oil exports. That's $6 billion in trade with the Iraqi dictator." Most of the money, however, was used to purchase food and other UN-approved humanitarian aid; the rest went to pay war reparations and administrative fees for the program. (For details on the program, see this report to Congress.)

So you need to deal with the merits of the argument and not where they come from, and in doing so you will not be committing a fallacy of logic.

PapaG

I will post two refutations of Michael Moore

From other authors

Bowling Truths: Michael Moore’s Mocking

SpinSanity – Dude Where’s My Intellectual Honesty

The PNAC and Other Myths -- PDF

The above link is found at a great site: Journal of Debunking 9/11 Myths

It is in response to this blog: Be Very Scared

The below is such a great help in understanding what the “Project for a New American Century” is all about… by refuting the crazy conspiracy people who love to link to anti-Semitic sites.

1. PNAC

Mr. Legge, like many critics of the administration in recent years, attributes both the 9/11 attacks, and the subsequent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to a plan produced by the group Project For a New American Century (PNAC). From the introduction to his paper:

It is certain that there was a strong desire on the part of some members for a “catalyzing event”, like Pearl Harbor, [3] in order to provide the impetus of the invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq; however desire is not proof of complicity.

The footnote supporting this argument then points to:

3. A plan existed. The Project for the New American Century (PNAC)

“The process of transformation.” The plan said, “is likely to be a long one, absent some catastrophic and catalyzing event- like a new Pearl Harbor.”

While the somewhat edited quote 1, is superficially accurate, the conclusion which is drawn from it, is completely wrong. This is not only "not proof of complicity", this is such a mischaracterization of what that quote says as bordering on academic fraud. The author states that the “Pearl Harbor” they are referring to is "in order to provide the impetus of the invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq". The invasions of these two countries, however, are nowhere mentioned in the PNAC document, they are not even vaguely alluded to. It exists purely in the imagination of the person writing this paper. In fact the only time the paper mentions Iraqi policy at all, is in regards to continuing the containment policy around Iraq with regards to the no-fly zones 2, not in invading it.

Afghanistan only merits a brief historical mention, in regards to the cruise missile attacks carried out by President Clinton in 1998, and only while discussing the Navy’s decreased staffing.3 A researcher does not need to try and infer what PNAC is talking about, however, the "process of transformation" that they are referring to is specifically discussed on the page previous to the “Pearl Harbor”quote (emphasis added):

To preserve American military preeminence in the coming decades, the Department of Defense must move more aggressively to experiment with new technologies and operational concepts, and seek to exploit the emerging revolution in military affairs. Information technologies, in particular, are becoming more prevalent and significant components of modern military systems. These information technologies are having the same kind of transforming effects on military affairs as they are having in the larger world. The effects of this military transformation will have profound implications for how wars are fought, what kinds of weapons will dominate the battlefield and, inevitably, which nations enjoy military preeminence.4

It is no surprise that proponents of this theory only quote the one sentence, not even the whole sentence in this case, because if you read the rest of the paragraph, it becomes abundantly clear, that this has absolutely nothing to do with US international policies after 9/11 (emphasis added):

Further, the process of transformation, even if it brings revolutionary change, is likely to be a long one, absent some catastrophic and catalyzing event – like a new Pearl Harbor. Domestic politics and industrial policy will shape the pace and content of transformation as much as the requirements of current missions. A decision to suspend or terminate aircraft carrier production, as recommended by this report and as justified by the clear direction of military technology, will cause great upheaval. Likewise, systems entering production today – the F-22 fighter, for example – will be in service inventories for decades to come. Wise management of this process will consist in large measure of figuring out the right moments to halt production of current-paradigm weapons and shift to radically new designs. The expense associated with some programs can make them roadblocks to the larger process of transformation – the Joint Strike Fighter program, at a total of approximately $200 billion, seems an unwise investment. Thus, this report advocates a two-stage process of change – transition and transformation – over the coming decades.5

Furthermore, there is no “strong desire” for this “catalyzing change”, not even the technological transformation which they are actually talking about. They are merely pointing out the likely timetable for these changes to take place, thus the sentence at the end about the process taking decades.

And regards to the Pearl Harbor reference, what precisely were they talking about? A sneak attack by terrorists using fanatical devotion combined with box cutters? Well, curiously enough, the PNAC document uses this Pearl Harbor reference in another part, which despite clarifying the meaning, didn’t manage to make Mr. Legge’s paper.

absent a rigorous program of experimentation to investigate the nature of the revolution in military affairs as it applies to war at sea, the Navy might face a future Pearl Harbor – as unprepared for war in the post-carrier era as it was unprepared for war at the dawn of the carrier age.6

They aren’t just talking about a sneak attack, they are talking about a sneak attack using a technology that we are unprepared for, just like the Japanese aircraft carriers on December 7th, 1941. Arabs with box cutters and fake bombs may be a sneak attack, but they were hardly something that could have been prevented by this technological transformation they have spent the entire paper advocating.

An in-depth analysis of this 90 page document also shows that an invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq not only fails to assist them in their “transformation”, but it would most likely hinder them. In fact the study points to the increased operational tempo of the operations in the Balkans as detracting from needed R & D funds.7 It also discusses the difficulty of carrying out this transformation without impacting even the current international obligations. 8 Somehow we are to believe that two expensive and manpower intensive wars would improve this process.

Mr. Legge then continues this paragraph with:

The fact that the air attack on Afghanistan commenced on October 9, less than a month later, is not proof either, but does suggest the possibility that plans for the invasion were already in place.

This is one of many cases where the author “suggests” things that he admits he can’t prove. I am not aware of the academic merit of just suggesting things. If you have no proof, or even a logical hypothesis, then why are you bringing up the subject? Perhaps if he had done some research on this area he wouldn’t need to suggest as much. One good example is General Tommy Franks’ autobiography, “An American Soldier”, which describes the hectic process and frantic international negotiations needed to prepare for the invasion.

In regards to the “less than a month” part, on August 7, 1998 over 200 people were killed in near simultaneous bombings at US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.9 Less than 2 weeks later, on August 20th, the US carried out attacks against suspected terrorist targets in Afghanistan and the Sudan.10 Is Mr. Legge going to “suggest” that Clinton had plans prepared ahead of time?

1 This quote from the paper titled “Rebuilding America’s defenses” available here http://www.newamericancentury.org/publicationsreports.htm actually reads in full from page 51 “Further, the process of transformation, even if it brings revolutionary change, is likely to be a long one, absent some catastrophic and catalyzing event – like a new Pearl Harbor.”

2 Page 73-74 “Likewise, terminating the no-fly zones over Iraq would call America’s positions as guarantor of security in the Persian Gulf into question; the reaction would be the same in East Asia following the withdrawal of US forces or a lowering of American military presence.”

3 Ibid page 40

4 Ibid page 50

5 Ibid page 51

6 Ibid page 67

7 Page 50 “Moreover, the Pentagon, constrained by limited budgets and pressing current missions, has seen funding for experimentation and transformation crowded out in recent years.”

8 Ibid page 50: The United States cannot simply declare a "strategic pause" while experimenting with new technologies and operational concepts.”

9 http://usinfo.state.gov/is/international_security/terrorism/embassy_bombings.html

10 http://www.cnn.com/US/9808/20/us.strikes.01/

Yellow Cake Uranium

This is a response to another blogger... I just wanted to get it in my blogger "annals".

Yellow Cake:

A British intelligence review released July 14 calls Bush’s 16 words “well founded.”

A separate report by the US Senate Intelligence Committee said July 7 that the US also had similar information from “a number of intelligence reports,” a fact that was classified at the time Bush spoke.

Ironically, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, who later called Bush’s 16 words a “lie”, supplied information that the Central Intelligence Agency took as confirmation that Iraq may indeed have been seeking uranium from Niger .

Both the US and British investigations make clear that some forged Italian documents, exposed as fakes soon after Bush spoke, were not the basis for the British intelligence Bush cited, or the CIA's conclusion that Iraq was trying to get uranium.

When the Left Attacks!

The progressive democrats who supposedly want free speech, the right to hold any opinion, the pacifists, were once again physically attacking a person of the opposite view. Maybe this is why Pelosi likes the covering over her head? Maybe she supports Syria’s practice of stoning women.

Rove was on the campus to talk to the College Republicans, but when he got outside more than a dozen students began throwing things at him and at his car, an American University spokesperson said.

UPDATE: here is low resolution cell phone video of these “free-speech” liberal “activists”. Please take note I have commented on what these kids are really pushing for in my blogs:

“Does the Left = Communism, and the Right = Fascism”

“Peace Rallies My Ass”

Student Josh Goodman told The Washington Post other students kicked Rove's car, "and tried to stop it as best they could." Goodman, an AU junior, said he and others wanted to make a "citizens arrest" of the presidential adviser. This is exclusive eyewitness video of the incident. This low-res video was captured on a cell phone.

NBC 4 Video is Here (it is linked through Drudge, so it is slow) Take note the first comment has it right… it mentions that these liberal democrats that are pelting Rove’s car and trying to get the speech stopped are mirroring the Fascists from Germany. This was a tactic they used to silence the opposition. That is, shouting down speakers, having speeches canceled by causing too much of a ruckus, and the like.

What conservative student union shouted down or shut down any liberal speaker? Sheehan can speak unabated on a campus without body-guards. Ann Coulter cannot. Pacifists my ass!

Poll Questions

Its how you ask a question that can guide the answer, for instance, these answers are from the same poll:

Hot Air Props

Christian Church & Liberty Closely Tied

Just as during the Cold War and the eventual fall of communism in Eastern Europe, the church struggles now on the Asian Continent. China, N. Korea, Vietnam, and other countries realize that the freedom found in Christianity leads also to economic and political freedom. A firm Christian (Reagan) and another firm Christian (Popo John Paul II) created from opposite ends a movement that led to the Berlin Wall falling.

Any who come here who are Christians, please pray for this Catholic priest.

Books on the Subject:

More Islamic Islamo-Fascism

Pakistan will be the next to fall

This is a crazy video. You will definitely want to watch this one.

Thanks LGF

Culture of Corruption? ….. Where’s Pelosi?

Oh, maybe Nancy Pelosi meant another type of corruption. Like Capitalism? (hint: she’s a socialist)

MR. RUSSERT: Chairman Rangel, welcome back to MEET THE PRESS. Want to talk about your book in a second, but let me start with the war. The House voted for funding for the war with a date certain, March of ‘08, to begin a withdrawal of U.S. troops. But in that bill was $20 billion of so-called pork, money for cricket infestation, tours of the Capitol, security at the National Convention, peanut crops. Why would the Democrats put that kind of money in such a serious bill?

REP. CHARLES B. RANGEL (D-NY): Because they needed the votes. That bill, we lost so many Democrats, one, because people thought we went too far and others because we didn’t go far enough. And so a lot of things had to go into a bill that certainly those of us who respect great legislation did not want in there. But the real question was, were we doing something to stop this immoral war and what could we do instead of doing nothing except do what the president asks us to do? I think the most important thing and the worst thing that’s ever happened to this country in recent history is getting involved in the Middle East, and I didn’t care what was in that bill if there was anything to slow down, to, to say what the American people said in the last election, “Get out of Iraq!”

MR. RUSSERT: If you want to stop the war, why not just simply cut all the funding off?

REP. RANGEL: Because you don’t have the vote to do it. There’s some people who believe that if you cut all the funding off, you leave our soldiers and, and, and military people exposed, and that they’d have no money and then we’d go back to the scene we had in Vietnam where we’re fleeing by helicopter. And so it’s all compromised. That’s what legislation’s all about, and you have to make the best moral and conscious decision.

Watch the video at HotAir

Creation, God Guided, or Evolution
LOVE IT!
(click on it to enlarge... and again)

The Newsweek poll shows that only 13% actually believe all that naturalistic evolution and its science teachers espouse. 48% believe in a young-earth. And 30% believe in theistic-evolution. So if you combine theistic-evolutionists and young-earthers, you have a population of 78% that believe in a personal God. Remember, there is no personal God in pantheistic worldviews (Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism, and the like). Yet, any stance in the classroom about either Intelligent design or mere criticisms of evolution (ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny, the fossil horse series, the peppered moth story, fossil gaps, and the like) are not allowed.

Yet most of America refuse to give in to philosophical naturalism. Awesome! Thanks Hot Air