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October 31, 2005
Dumbest soundbite eva. . .
I'm sorry Senator Specter, but this is just stupid (WaPo article):
SPECTER: Well, Judge Alito said a little more than Judge Roberts said. But, then, Judge Roberts ducked super precedents and he ducked super-duper precedents. . .
What's next Senator? Are we going to soon hear about "double-dare, super-duper, no takeback, no erasies precedents"?
Come on, there is no mention of "super-duper" in the Constitution and there damn well better not be any laws that have "super-duper" in their language. So give it up, there's law, precedent and if you really, really, really want something to stick, it's called an Amendment.
Shut up with this "super-duper" precedent stuff. In fact, give up on the "super" precedent stuff too. The Senate is not an elementary school playground Senator Specter, if you want to jump ship and switch sides, take some advice from Nike and "Just Do It!" Stop spreading this nonsense from the Republican soapbox.
--Jason
PS If anyone Tivo'd this comment by Specter, I'd love to have a copy of it.
-JC
Posted by JasonColeman at 5:16 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
Alito gets the nod. . .
The President has tapped Samuel Alito (here's the wiki on Alito and it's growing by the minute) to be the next Justice on the Supreme Court of the United States. As many predicted (including me), Bush has selected an uber-lawyer and former judge. At first blush, I'm disappointed that we don't have a non-judge on the court, but Alito is a solid choice in terms of his credentials:
Clerked for the Third Circuits
U.S. Attorney for District of New Jersey
Assistant Solicitor General
Assistant Attorney General
Appeals Court Judge for the Third Circuit
The "gang of 14" can hardly duck their agreement to derail any filbuster, the Senate hearings will be mostly a replay of the Roberts confirmation hearings, so this fight is going to be held in the media. What this means in reality is that the left is going to mount a campaign to slander Alito, the media will pick it up and play it over and over. Alito will not have a chance to respond to any attacks on himself, his family or even his politics. The left will scream and moan, and the right will have to mount another campaign to counter. The media wins through increased ad revenue coming from the left and right political action committees and the public loses because Alito doesn't get to have a conversation with the Senate and through transferrence, no discussion with the American people.
Here are just a few of the issues that the left is going to take issue with:
1. Alito was on the dissenting side in Planned Parenthood v. Casey. Alito's opinion upheld the Pennslyvania law that required spousal notification for women seeking abortions. The left is going to use this as their big stick in the opening stages of this fight. The left will argue that this amounts to a woman being the property of the husband, they'll allude to the Bible's references of a wife's subservience to the husband and claim that it's an affront to "choice".
The SCOTUS struck down the law, and Planned Parenthood declared victory. The law will almost certianly be in play again if Alito is confirmed.
My take on it? If you get married, you become a social unit. Abortion is a major decision, it touches on health matters, it touches on economic matters, it touches on religous matters and it's a decision that can affect the character and makeup of a family unit. I feel the spouse "should" be informed as the decision affects the family unit and the husband is part of that family unit.
HOWEVER, if the left is willing to give up "child support", I'd be content to let them have their "no spousal notification" rule. After all it's a woman's descision, a woman's choice, but it also becomes the husband's responsibility. The left has no qualms about going after sperm donors for child support, has no problem demanding child support for children born of adultery (arguing that the child may not be the husbands, but is nevertheless their responsibility as part of the family unit), or seeking child support for a one night stand. If you're going to make "child support" a responsibility of the male, the descision to have or not have a child should also be something the male is involved in.
I know that will rankle many of the pro-choice readers here, and I understand. I am pro-choice even though I hate the concept of abortion vehemently, but lets get real. If you want "CHOICE" then lets have "CHOICE", if you want to make this a "descision" and not a "child" then lets put all the players on the field. Upholding "choice" for women and "blind ignorance" for men doesn't seem like a very defensible position. They can have their "choice" but if they are going to put "responsibility" on the man, then they have to allow the man into the consideration of the "choice".
The "spousal notification" issue will be a big one, it should prove to be very confrontational and I'm quite sure it will be mischaracterized with TV, Radio and print ads showing an abusive husband, beating the wife and kids, then segwaying into a abortion question implying that if a woman has an abortion she's taking the honorable road and protecting a child and herself from said abusive husband. This imagery WILL be the dominant message the left tries to get out there, it's doubtful they'd consider showing a husband and wife making financial, ethical and moral descision leading up to the "choice", they'll use images of violence and abuse to hammer on this issue. That's just plainly NOT the real issue, the issue is about responsibilities taken on in the course of marriage and dealing with those responsibilities, together, as a family unit.
On a totally side note, why is it that "Planned Parenthood's" only "plan" is abortion? Why does "Planned Parenthood" violently dismiss any discussion of adoption in their "clinics". When laws have been suggested that any "planning" for dealing with unwanted pregnancies also mention adoption, Planned Parenthood positively goes bat guano. That's a curious thing to me. I makes me think Planned Parenthood is a bit deceptive in their methods and practices.
2. Religion and it's place in proximity to governmental activity will be another biggie. The left will dredge up ACLU v. Schundler in which Alito upheld that displays on government property that included secular images like "Frosty the Snowman" as well as religious symbols was acceptable. Personally, I agree here. If you put up a display of the "Nativity", I think you should also throw up a few symbols that are secular, like a snowman. If a Jewish group wants a manorah, let them have that too. I don't hold that we need to scrub any and all religious references from government property, we just need to be fair about it. If the community wants a "Nativity", let them have it, if members of that community come forward and want something else, let them have that too.
The left of course will go bat quano over this too. They'll bring up "In God We Trust" on our currency and they might event throw in Alabama Judge Roy Moore's Ten Commandments monument. This is clouding the issue though, it's coupling historical references and singular approval into an issue that is neither historical or singular. If you're following the standards of the community and make room for equal representation of other belief systems or no religious belief at all, that's quite different from putting a Christian monument in a central location in a courthouse.
Let the communities decide for themselves what their religious observances are, keep the federal government out of it until such time it becomes "endorsing" a religion. Recognizing that a religious sentiment exists in a community is not the same as endorsing one religion over another in the governance of the state.
3. The FMLA (Family Medical Leave Act) - The left will try to argue that Alito is against Family Leave for medical emergencies, when it reality, Alito believes that Congress overstepped it's bounds by passing the law. I my opinion, and to many American's (including me) Alito is correct. Congress shouldn't expect to be able to determine the extent and nature of vacation and leave time with regard to private employers. A businessperson NEEDS to be able to make those descisions themselves. Many businesses cannot afford to have an employee off on 3 months leave, whatever the reason, it would simply bankrupt many small businesses who are new, struggling or exists on a small profit margin. The FMLA is poorly worded and doesn't take into account the financial stability of the business. The left will ironically argue that a business that cannot afford the FMLA has no right in business, this is ironic because it's the left basically arguing that only large corporations should be allowed in business, and that the small mom and pop grocery that's barely making it in the face of a Wal-Mart or Publix in proximity has no place in the marketplace. Yet when a Wal-Mart or Publix winds up running a mom and pop out of business they scream relentlessly.
The government should be making it easier and easier for businesses to start, run and add to the economy, not creating huge entitlement programs within private businesses. I'll be happy to see the FMLA go bye bye if Alito makes it to the court, let the market hash out things like payscales, leave, vacation and healthcare, the market has proven time and time again to be more effective in regulating business than the government ever has.
I'm all for employers granting medical leave to their employees, but I'm not a fan of forcing them to do so. It's a burden that many businesses and even some large corporations cannot afford, and of course, you know who winds up paying for that don't you? Yes, the consumer winds up paying for it. The goal is for the market to reduce costs to consumers, not for the government to raise costs for consumers.
4. Immigration - The left is going to characterize Alito as a hardliner on immigration. Boy do I hope they run with this one. Alito is hard on immigration, and rightly so. We need to take a harder line on immigration, we have a "grey area" in our employment sector which is too large. We need tighter control of the border, but we also need harsher penalties on employers who knowingly employ illegal aliens, we need deportation of illegal aliens who have chosen to ILLEGALLY enter this country and deny opportunity to those that are seeking entry legally. We need a SCOTUS that will take a hard line on immigration and bring it back inline with those provisions for Naturalization that are laid out in the Constitution.
These aren't the only points of attack for the left on Alito. There will be discussions of race issues (of course), and there will be handwringing about another white male on the court, there will be calls for the release of thousands of documents from the Reagan adminstration from Alito's time there, these documents will be bantered about as "Alito's position" and we'll have to jump through the hoops again of pointing out that Alito was WORKING FOR REAGAN and Reagan's opinions and policies are not necessarily Alito's. We'll have to point out that a lawyer cannot be held responsible for every position that they argue, and we'll have to ask for (but we won't get) a fair hearing where questions that are able to be answered are given and not just soundbites and mischaracterizations parsed for the cameras.
I had hoped for a non-judge so that the hearings could be actually of use to the American people and not just a soundboard for partisan attacks and posturing, unfortunately, it appears the time of constructive, informative hearings has long passed. The media has taken control of the selection and approval process and whoever gets the best sound bites wins.
I support the President's choice for Justice to the Supreme Court, just as I supported the Miers nomination. On first glances, I like most of the major positions Alito has taken. I'll keep looking on my own, because I don't believe anyone in the media is going to fairly examine the nominee. Maybe I'll find something that will make me oppose Alito, maybe I won't. We'll just have to see.
What I do know is that the left is going to lament the choice, the moonbat fringe is already calling for a filibuster:
Start the filibuster now. Refer to the nomination as "dead in the water". No point in even discussing the nomination. No point in even delving into the personal/professional history of Alito. It's all moot. He won't serve on the Supreme Court, so there's no need to even discuss the issue. Start the filibuster now.
That should say it all right there, they don't care about "personal/professional history", they just want to filibuster and claim victory over the President. It's insanity really, but I do hope that they try to mount a filibuster, that could possibly be the best thing for the right if they did. We'd be able to finally take the filibuster out of the game and move issues forward without the threat of gridlock from minority special interests. Mount your filibuster moonbats, I dare ya, it'd be just another in a long series of gifts you've given us showing just how out of touch the moonbat fringe is when it comes to the average American.
Oh but, wait, there's more, the moonbats true to form also want to go after his family (from the same thread at DU):
Destroy him, destroy his family now, we must take him down through whatever means.
Sorta reminds you of when they wanted to go after Little Johnnie Roberts and hoped that he was gay so they could drag it out for the cameras (little did they care that Little John was a 4 year old child).
All in all, it's a good day for the Right, the President, and the Country, we're moving forward, getting things done and not being distracted by the moonbats attempt to create gridlock. Alito will most probably sail through, although there will be much ugliness and hate displayed on the left, we'll just have to take the high road and continue winning elections and running the country while the left tries to fracture the country and falls further into political irrelevance.
--Jason
Hey, Libertarians, get loud, this is your chance to make some hay and gain some ground. Pay attention to the left on this one, they'll give us plenty of ammo that you can use too. Get your ducks in a row and get in the game, the country needs a viable choice, and the Dems have given up, it could be your turn.
-JC
UPDATE: California Conservative is one among many rounding up opinion on the Alito nomination. More links to opinion can be found at The Political Teen.
Posted by JasonColeman at 9:11 AM | Comments (5) | TrackBack
October 30, 2005
This is Alabama football. . .
I had the distinct pleasure of taking two young ladies to their first Alabama football game (actually their first real BIG football game). If you're gonna see a major sporting event for the first time, Alabama (or SEC in general) football is the way to go. This also had the added bonus of being Homecoming, so there were the added attractions of the parade, Homecoming court and a host of other events not normally part of the game.
I do have to give some serious props to the Alabama Athletics community for putting together a quality experience. I've been to a number of different school's football games, and BY FAR, Alabama has it the most "together", even with a major stadium remodel underway, traffic was well managed (both foot and car), parking was no problem, and lines for anything were few and far between.
Alabama won the game, BTW (it was Homecoming after all). Utah State was outmatched but fought the good fight and made the game enjoyable. The crowd did their part and both young ladies throughly enjoyed the game.
There's not much more to this post, just wanted to give props to the Alabama Atheletic Department for an enjoyable day of Big Time Alabama Football.
--Jason
Posted by JasonColeman at 9:12 AM
October 28, 2005
Libby's getting slapped. . .
The New York Times (via Dan at Riehl World View) is saying that Scooter Libby is going to be facing indictment tomorrow, but not Karl Rove. They're also reporting that the indictment will be for making false statements to the grand jury, and not any actual official misconduct.
Hmmm, seems like there was another White House official who got popped for making false statements to a grand jury. It's gonna be hard for the Dems to get all in a tizzy over this indictment without admitting that it's wrong to lie to a grand jury.
--Jason
UPDATE: Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald's Media Advisory
UPDATE 2: The indictment itself is here. (PDF Format)
UPDATE 3: James Hooker has important stock news related to the indictment. Call your broker!
Posted by JasonColeman at 2:35 AM
October 27, 2005
Looting continues in New Orleans. . .
This pains me to report, but there still appears to be widespread looting going on in New Orleans, Police officials in the city are attempting to downplay the reports, but tonight I received word from friends and family who have attempted to return to the city that whole areas of the city are now the undisputed territory of armed gangs after dark, and even during broad daylight.
Rep. Alex Heaton, D-New Orleans, told Riley that looting was reported as recently as Friday on Maple and Oak streets, two principal commercial strips in Carrollton.Riley said a 200-member task force that recently formed to combat looting is focusing on largely uninhabited neighborhoods, not areas such as Carrollton, where a large number of residents have returned. But Riley said he would talk to 2nd District commanders about patrolling the two streets.
He said the task force has found it must allocate more officers to daytime patrols than when it began. With many neighborhoods vacant, looters aren't waiting for darkness to invade homes, he said.
It's been reported to me that armed gangs have also taken over Cato St. in the Uptown area of New Orleans, roving the streets openly armed and confronting homeowners and business people who attempted to enter the area to assess damage, clean out flooded homes and begin the process of rebuilding.
"They are entering homes with bedsheets, loading them up with our belongings and then hauling out the loot 'Santa-style' with the bundled sheets slung over their shoulders."
I've been reluctant to straight out say that Mayor Nagin's "look and leave" policy for many New Orleans areas simply isn't working, but I will now. Even with a heavy National Guard presence in the city, the reluctance of the city to integrate the National Guard troops into the city's 9-11 response system is making them ineffective. Additionally, many guard units placed under the operational command of the city and state officials have been switched from security duties to recovery and restoration tasks.
The city should have never attempted to bring residents back into the city without the resources necessary to manage the influx of residents spread throughout the city and without any orderly process of resettlement. It's an "every man and woman for themselves" mentality with only a minimum of order and security restored. When Mayor Nagin re-opened the city against the advice of Coast Guard Vice Adm. Thad Allen, and without any plan for orderly resettlement, he set the stage for a new round of injustices to be visited on those residents who returned to reclaim their homes.
Mayor Nagin seems to be more concerned with getting a new football team (after attempts to shake-down Saints owner Benson were unsuccessful) than he is about the safety and security of New Orleans residents. The "mayor without a plan" has shown again his total and complete incompetance with regard to managing the city. Cell phone coverage in the city is spotty and land lines aren't any better, police response to attacks is non-existant unless such attacks occur in the French Quarter, Wharehouse or CBD districts, New Orleans East, Gentilly and Uptown are sporadically patrolled at night and requests for help are routinely met with "you'll have to call the National Guard". Of course the city hasn't integrated (by the city's choice) with the National Guard communication nets and there's no phone number familiar to New Orleans residents who need to contact the Guard when the police won't respond.
I don't find it surprising that the MSM isn't reporting on the state of siege in New Orleans and the city's inabilty to respond or simple apathy, the MSM in it's zeal to report carnage in New Orleans in the immediate aftermath of the storm severly dropped the ball, they're embarrassed and afraid that they'll get the story wrong again; and of course, when Mayor Nagin still gets on TV and laments that "no one is helping" despite thousands of workers and billions of dollars flowing into the city with absolutely no accountability from Louisiana's NOTORIOUSLY corrupt officials and politicians, I almost don't blame them.
I do find it ironic that I had to resort to reporting from another of my former residence's newspapers, the Vail Daily (repuires registration) to find accounts of the looting that is still going on beyond those personally related to me by people within the city now:
I didn't find the looting surprising. The area is pitch black at night. There are mostly migrant workers in the area during the day. The area is mandated empty at dark. It's a thief's "made to order."
The mayor's "look and leave" is a major part of exacerbating the situation in the city. With drive times out of New Orleans stretching upwards of 4 hours, many neighborhoods are deserted well before dark and the looting begins when the clean-up workers make their daily retreat across the lake to campgrounds and temporary housing in Slidell, Mandeville and Covington.
The Times-Picayune (the New Orleans daily) is doing it's best at reporting what's going on within the city, but with a severly depleted staff and utilizing offices as far away as Mobile to produce the paper, much "on the scene reporting" has taken a back seat to official reports and press releases. The mainstream media is almost completely hands off, and so it seems, are the police.
Leaving New Orleans to be destroyed again, from the inside. AGAIN.
Martial Law was NEVER declared in New Orleans, all bluster by Governor Blanco and Mayor Nagin aside, the National Guard has no real authority to actually fight crime in New Orleans. They can certainly chase looters away when they happen upon them, but there's no mechanism in place (by the city's choice) to utilize the resources the National Guard can bring to bear. Couple the hamstringing (again) of the National Guard, with a corrupt local government, a police force more prone to looting themselves than actually protecting and serving the citizenry, and haphazard and downright DANGEROUS approach the city has taken to resettlement, the future prospects for the city are looking bleaker with each passing day.
One can only hope that the MSM will lick it's wounds and begin getting back on the ground in New Orleans to report the situation. One can only hope that the National Guard will be embraced for the resources and manpower they can bring to bear in the area and one can only hope that Mayor Nagin will begin to "pull his head out" and begin actually managing the city he was elected to serve rather than simply whine and continue blaming everyone else for his city's mismanagment and disfunction.
You created this catastrophe Mayor Nagin by failing the first time, and unless you're ready to turn over control to those who truely want to help and manage the crisis, it's up to you to pull things together.
FORGET ABOUT BRINGING THE BROWNS TO NEW ORLEANS TO REPLACE THE SAINTS, FORGET ABOUT CASINOS, MARDI GRAS AND CONVENTIONS!!!
New Orleans needs basic services returned, rather than complaining that the money is going to run out in March, use the time between now and then wisely. Restore those services you can and for goodness sakes, ask for assistance from those in place and ready to assist rather than whine and cry about whether or not you have meter maids getting checks from the city while they wait out the recovery in Houston and Chicago. Those cities will worry about the people taking shelter there, YOU, MAYOR NAGIN need to worry about protecting the people and property still left in New Orleans, and those you enticed to return.
And face it Nagin, there's an election in February, and it's HIGHLY unlikely you'll even run, let alone win. So let someone else worry about March, you need to be worrying about today.
--Jason
Posted by JasonColeman at 8:48 PM
Et tu Brutus? Malkin? Coulter?
Well, about an hour and a half ago the news broke that Harriet Miers has withdrawn her name from consideration for the SCOTUS. Many are going to play this as a loss for the President, I don't really see it that way. Primarily I see this for a loss for the Democrats, they had the opportunity to support her nomination and gain themselves a Reagan (Ronald) on the court rather than another Scalia or Thomas. A Democrat turned Republican, someone who once was firmly in their camp and now has drifted away from the far left hijackers of the party of Jackson. Now the Democrats will find themselves faced with an extreme far right candidate, and one that the Republicans will rally behind and force the "Gang of 14" to come on board with.
The Democrats will most probably now be forced to mount a filibuster attack on the next nominee, it's a fight they will lose, and lose bad.
As for my compatriots on the right? You've done a disservice to the President and our own party, but the damage can be easily undone. You wanted to start a fight and now we'll have this unnecessary battle. Personally, I think our battle could have been better fought with Miers than "another" Harvard super-lawyer. Instead of this battle being fought in the vernacular of the common man, we'll now be fighting it in the legal-ese reserved mainly for highbrow esoteric discussions found only in law schools. The general population will become quickly disinterested in such legal blather and when they lose interest, so goes the value of the debate.
So to the right? Ok, you've got your battle coming, it's a battle we didn't need to fight and will probably hamper other battles we could have fought over Social Security or IRS reform. But you got it, so start getting your ducks in a row.
To the left? You screwed up. Now you're going to have to fight and fight hard to retain your filibuster. Most probably we'll take it away from you and then hand you a severe loss on the eve of the 2006 election season.
To the President? No sweat. You tried to be a uniter and give a little to both sides, but neither wanted it. So forget about playing to the left, concentrate on the right and the center. Use the opportunity as you wish to put on the person you want, you're not hampered by the perceived necessity to put a woman up, or even a minority at all. You can put a far right white male if you want and no one can say a thing about it. Let the Republicans do the heavy lifting for you now, and move on to other things. If you wanted, you could even throw up Alberto Gonzales and watch the Democrats finally melt down completely.
What's obvious now is that the far right nor the far left wants any of this uniter BS, so why even play the game. If the far left and far right have resigned themselves to the fact that the only choices now are leading to a quantuum shift on the court? So be it. Let's put up a far right uber-lawyer, then let Stevens retire and do it again.
Probably the worst thing about all this is our lose of the concept of a "fair up or down vote", it's forever lost now as both sides have given up on the concept. The Senate has lost their real advisory power and it's gone over to the pundits and media hounds. Oh well, in the end, that will play to the President's advantage.
--Jason
Posted by JasonColeman at 9:29 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack
October 26, 2005
Yeah, they care. . . sure they do.
Just in case you needed just a little more convincing that the Dems don't really care about our troops or the war in Iraq and Afghanistan beyond what political hay they can make if it, take a trip over to The Political Teen and watch the video. Pay special attention to that guy in the background. He's Robert "KKK" Byrd, and boy oh boy does he really seem to care.
--Jason
Posted by JasonColeman at 11:10 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Entering Slidell. . .
It's been almost three weeks now since I returned from New Orleans and Slidell. The original purpose of the trip was to help my grandfather clean out his house and begin the process of reconstruction (or more appropriately, to figure out if reconstruction was even an option).
Just two days before I left Birmingham, Mayor Nagin of New Orleans announced that the city would re-open for "look and leave" visits to the worst areas of the city, but that New Orleans East, Lakeview and the flooded Uptown areas were now open for residents to return. I knew that given the opportunity, I'd have to see what happened to the city I grew up in and maybe for the last time see the homes I lived in and schools I went to before the major demolition of entire swaths of the city began.
There's really only one word to describe the trip in total, and that word is "surreal". Everything about the trip was surreal. It began with the drive down. The journey west from Birmingham on US 20/59 was normal enough, but once I turned south on I-59, the whole "feel" of the trip changed. Within a few miles on I-59 out of Meridian, the first downed trees could be seen. By "downed trees", I mean ALOT of downed trees. Hundreds of them, probably thousands. When you hear the reports of how difficult it was for troops and material to be transported to the Gulf Coast and Louisiana, most people dismiss the claims, but just 25 miles out of Meridian, it was obvious that the highway itself was undoubtedly closed due to down trees and debris. The Mississippi DOT was still present in force along the route (keep in mind this is still one month AFTER Katrina's passage) the roadway itself was clear, but the median along almost the entire route was transformed into holding areas for three story tall collections of cut up trees and debris.
It was obvious that the destruction along the road had a significant effect on the drivers, many were obviously returning to New Orleans for the impending opening of the city. Many cars were loaded down with luggage and supplies, more than a few were towing UHaul trailers or flatbeds with generators, cases and cases of water and the necessary tools and equipment most would bring to reclaim their homes. That wasn't the "effect" I speak of though, the effect manifested itself in the attitude of the drivers and their behavior on the road. The politeness of the travellers was actually disturbing. On this road that I'd travelled many times before, the normal rate of speed is 80 and just like most other major highways in the nation there should have been the hotrods and leadfoots that zipped in and out of traffic, trying to race ahead of each other and make good time. None of this was evident today, people were courteous and beyond polite, and despite the heavy amount of traffic with 18-wheelers, and literally hundreds of FEMA travel trailers being transported into the area, the traffic moved efficiently and at a good clip. The drive down set the tone for the rest of the trip. Simple shock seemed to be the feeling on the road as traffic slowed with each new collection of Katrina's carnage piled on the road.
I'd been on the road about two and a half hours when I decided to stop at the next rest stop along the way. When I pulled off I didn't notice anything too wrong, there were the normal amount of travellers pulled off the highway, people letting their children out to wander around a bit and plenty of tired drivers streching and getting ready to make the next leg of the trip to the coast. Then I noticed it. Where once stood one of the many Mississippi DOT rest area facilities was merely a slab. Once I realized that this had once been a rest stop with facilities and a welcome center and it was now reduced to a large cement slab and a pile of brick, lumber and twisted metal that was now covered with hundreds of treetops and cut trunks at one corner of the rest area property, the effect was powerful. Here was just a taste of Katrina's destructive force.
I spoke briefly with a Mississippi DOT official camped out under a portable awning who related that the rest stop had been the final target for a tornado that had rolled through the area. The tornado had torn off the roof of the building which then imploded and then exploded from the sudden under- and overpressure. They had only re-opened the rest area a few days earlier, before that it had been a collection point for abandoned cars and debris from destroyed farmhouses which were unceremoniously deposited along the roadway. I was also informed that what I thought was an empty field behind the rest area was actually the path ripped by the tornado which had destroyed the rest area buildings, and I was still over 150 miles from the coast. Closer examination showed that the tornado had ripped what had to be at lest a 300 yard wide path of ground scrubbed clean by the twister stretching off into the distance.
The rest of the drive down was similiar until I arrived in Slidell. Slidell, Louisiana has long been a bedroom community to New Orleans. Heavy traffic in Slidell was rare, but now, with thousands of contractors using the city as a base of operations, FEMA set up to distribute supplies and thousands upon thousands of returning refugees waiting for the morning and the reopening of the city, Slidell looked more like Los Angeles at rush hour than the suburban bedroom community I'd always remembered it to be. Every traffic light was a choke point, where vechicles got caught in the intersection trying to squeeze just one more car through a green light. Horns honked and patience was tried everywhere. It took 20 minutes just to exit the highway into Slidell.
It was beginning to get dark when I got to Slidell and before the last light faded I decided to make a pass through the length of the town to get a quick survey of how Slidell had fared. The heavy traffic took time to negotiate and before long, I'd only travelled a few blocks, but it was now fully dark. The darkness was telling in the number of closed businesses on the major streets. Many had power but were unable to open for buisness yet as the floodwater damage had yet to be repaired. The few businesses that were open seemed to be only chicken joints with lines stretching back into the street and down the block and one CVS drugstore with a full parking lot and people waiting for another spot. In the many "big box" store parking lots along Gause Blvd, people were setting up camp for the night since there were no hotel rooms available for the throngs waiting to make the mad dash into the city tomorrow. I stopped to speak with a few families settling in for the night and the overriding concern was to get back into the city and check on their homes. Most were resigned to the fact that their homes were unlivable and probably had to be demolished, but they wanted to get in on that first day and pull those few valuables they could before the eventual looting began again.
The "old town" of Slidell, was deserted, the area of town that existed as a minature version of New Orleans French Quarter experienced 6 to 8 feet of standing water destroying what in the past decade had become the centerpiece for a new Slidell, with many trendy shops and boutiques interspersed with nightclubs and eateries. Now it was a ghost of a neighborhood, totally destroyed and only just beginning to clean up and rebuild. Further into town, the Hwy 11 side of Slidell was even darker, many blocks were still without power and shattered storefronts and homes were everywhere. Here and there were collections of New Orleanians who were a little more informed than others, as the only route into the city in the AM was the old Hwy 11 bridge. These people were trying to get a jump on the rest, a police officer told me that they expected many traffic problems in the morning when the city was opened and thousands upon thousands of cars mingled in with the contractors and big trucks that already clogged the highway in the morning. There was also a real concern that the residents of the Hwy 11 stretch to the bridge would try to disrupt the flow of traffic because residents in that area of town were still without water, sewer or electricity while the affluent Eden Isle area seemed to be bouncing back the residents of the Hwy 11 stretch felt that the city and FEMA had forgotten them. The officer explained that it wasn't a case of the city of Slidell forgetting about them, it was just that the infrastructure in that area was totally destroyed and had to be laid in from scratch, and considering that Hwy 11 was the only inlet into New Orleans, they couldn't go in and rip out the old infrastructure without cutting the only lifeline into the city.
I decided to head back to a family friends who was going to let me spend the night with a roof over my head instead of camping in my grandfathers yard. The trip so far was not necessarily eventful but signifcant as what had until now been a over-hyped and misleading news story was now becoming real. Here were stores and neighborhoods I was familiar with, irreparably changed and in some cases, completely GONE. Places that should have been familiar were mere shells indicating a life now gone. What was a sleepy little town, had taken on the appearance of a refugee camp, the streets were littered with piles of debris, downed trees and what were once the some of the oldest homes in the city were now piles of matchsticks.
The media focused on New Orleans throughout the Katrina coverage, and as I'll relate in future posts, the devastation in N.O. was certainly great, but here was sleepy little Slidell, a city just across the lake from New Orleans. A city that was unprotected by levees from the fury of Katrina, a city closer to the epicenter of the storms greatest fury, a city that was submerged under a 20 foot plus wall of water driven in from the lake, and a city that was now giving life support to the stricken New Orleans. Slidell was dealt a deathblow from Katrina, but miraculously it is surviving, crawling slowly back on top of the piles of broken buildings, warped roads and saturated belongings piled on the streetside, waiting for the traffic to die down enough for it to be hauled away.
And most people have never heard of Slidell, Louisiana.
More to come. . .
--Jason
Posted by JasonColeman at 9:30 PM | Comments (1)
October 25, 2005
Back to New Orleans. . .
I was in the middle of a series of posts about my trip back to New Orleans when the Taliban Bodies story burst onto the scene. However, I promised family and friends that I'd get the pictures and video of the trip posted, so I'm getting back to that.
The following are pictures of the Reed Blvd. house that my family owned when I was a very young child. How young? Well, young enough to get my head stuck in the rungs of the stairwell banister. The house is about half a block from Chef Menteur Hwy.
The new residents of the house obviously stayed in place until New Orleans East flooded, then they, like almost everyone else, abandoned the area, leaving it to the floods. They probably fared ok, given that the Reed Blvd. house is the only two story structure for blocks. Although being a two story building surrounded by lower lying structures meant that the roof didn't fare so well. The house was cleared and later notice from the ASPCA indicated that they (the ASPCA) returned to retrieve pets and relocated the animals to a safe location.
Now notice the lawn. It's dead. That's to be expected from the submergence in brackish storm water, so it's nothing to be to concerned about, but it's worth noting because when I arrived at the Reed Blvd house I began to notice something. EVERYTHING IS DYING. Even the insects seemed to be gone. One would expect that the mosquitos and roaches and flies would be evident in large numbers in post-Katrina N.O. (after all they were very prevalent in the area beforehand, and the month long reprieve they received from abatement measures should have forced their populations to explode) but they simply just weren't there.
I know that N.O. is slowly coming back to life and people are beginning to re-inhabit the city, but on that day, the day after the city was re-opened to civilians, New Orleans, my hometown, was a ghost town, no people, no pets, no squirrels in the trees, no birds singing songs and no insects buzz buzz buzzing along.
The same goes for every tree, bush and all the other flora, it's all dying.
I'll be grabbing some screenshots and posting some video tomorrow, so please come back. This post is mainly for family members and friends that check in on the blog, sorry if it's boring to most of you. I'll try to make tomorrow's post-Katrina posts more interesting.
--Jason
Posted by JasonColeman at 11:26 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
October 24, 2005
And the Chicken Littles of the Global Warming Crowd scream ---- Dammit!!!!
Greenland ice cap thickens slightly -- CNN
I say: "Ooooohhhh! That's gotta hurt!"
If you're curious about Icebergs, check out my posts on B15A, if you like dancing penquins, you might try searching for "Penguin" here too.
If you're here for a Taliban Burned Bodies update, it's coming later today, but first I want to listen to Alan Nathan's Battle Line... You can guess the topic. We'll see how he does with it.
By the way, Colonel Hunt fumbled the ball, he has since recovered it, but he's still not got it in full possession. Keep working on this Colonel Hunt, we're depending on you to bring the truth to light and protect our troops from the media. You've got access Colonel Hunt. USE IT!!!
I've also put all the Taliban Bodies Burned posts in their own category.
--Jason
PS - I wonder how the title of this will be interpreted when I trackback it???
Posted by JasonColeman at 12:44 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
October 23, 2005
TIME begins to correct the record. . .
You're probably aware I'm blogging alot about the Taliban Burned Bodies story. I've got the original post that was pretty popular and well linked here, then a disection of the "Interview with Stephen Dupont" that draws out the REAL FACTS from Dupont's own words, and then I begin to examine the radical bias of anti-war activist and embedded war reporter (there's some oxymoronic irony for ya) John Martinkus.
I didn't find this until today (and give a tip and a link in a second) but TIME magazine has broken ranks with the MSM pile-on and has begun to present some actual facts:
"Stench Prompted U.S. Troops to Burn Corpses"Posted Friday, Oct. 21, 2005
There simply wasn't enough room on the rocky hilltop above Gonbaz village in southern Afghanistan for the U.S. platoon and the corpses of the two Taliban fighters. The Taliban men had been killed in a firefight 24 hours earlier, and in the 90-degree heat, their bodies had become an unbearable presence, soldiers who were present have told TIME. Nor was the U.S. Army unit about to leave—the hilltop commanded a strategic view of the village below where other Taliban were suspected to be hiding.Earlier, Lt. Eric Nelson, the leader of B Company, I-508 platoon leader had sent word down to Gonbaz asking the villagers to pick up the bodies and bury them according to Muslim ritual. But the villagers refused—probably because the dead fighters weren't locals but Pakistanis, surmised one U.S. army officer.
It was then that Lt. Nelson took the decision that could jeopardize his service career. "We decided to burn the bodies," one soldier recounts, "because they were bloated and they stank." News of this cremation might have remained on these scorching hills of southern Afghanistan had the gruesome act not been recorded on film by an Australian photojournalist, Stephen Dupont. Instead, when the footage aired on Australian TV on Wednesday, it unleashed world outrage. A Pentagon spokesman described the incident as "repugnant" and said that the army was launching a criminal investigation into the alleged desecration of the corpses, which is in violation of the Geneva Convention on human rights.
Fueling the furor was the fact that the TV report showed that after the bodies were torched, a U.S. Psychological-Operations team descended on Gonbaz in Humvees with their loudspeakers booming: "Taliban, you are cowardly dogs. You are too scared to come down and retrieve the bodies. This just proves you are the lady-boys we always believed you to be."
Muslims traditionally bury their dead, and as one Kabul cleric Mohammed Omar told newsmen, "the burning of these bodies is an offense against Muslims everywhere. Bodies are burned only in Hell." But as one U.S. officer in Kandahar pointed out, the Taliban and al Qaeda never show any qualms about defiling the bodies of dead Afghan or American soldiers. Afghan President Hamid Karzai, anxious to quell any new wave of protests against the U.S. troops in Afghanistan of the sort that followed allegations of Koran desecration at Guantanamo, publicly condemned the burnings. A statement from the U.S. military command for Afghanistan said, "Under no circumstances does U.S. Central Command condone the desecration, abuse or inappropriate treatment of enemy combatants."
Congrats to TIME for being among the first in the MSM to not buy the "hit pieces" that Martinkus and Dupont have spun from lies, half-truths and misrepresentations.
Thanks to CounterColumn for tipping me to the TIME story, be sure to visit Jason's (not me) post on the issue where he points out the adherence to the Geneva Convention and the U.S. Army Field Manual (FM-27-10) which states:
Bodies shall not be cremated except for imperative reasons of hygiene or for motives based on the religion of the deceased. In case of cremation, the circumstances and reasons for cremation shall be stated in detail in the death certificate or on the authenticated list of the dead.
Just like the "Koran-flushing" incident, it's up to the average Jane and Joe and Jason to get the word out and make the media actually focus on the facts.
--Jason
Posted by JasonColeman at 11:09 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
October 21, 2005
Martinkus, Dupont, and The Truth
LATEST UPDATE TO THIS STORY IS HERE
Only two, of the three above, go together. The odd one out is left in a cold dark place when all is said and done.
If you're a little fuzzy on what I'm saying at this point, you might want to take look back at my two previous articles, "Ok, time to elaborate" and "What's really going on. . .(The Interview with Stephen Dupont)".
For those who don't want to click on the links, or for those who repost this in their aggregator sites, I'll give some brief background.
At the beginning of October there was some military action near Gonbaz, Afghanistan. During the course of that action, American forces burned two Taliban Bodies that were rotting in the open and conducted a successful PsyOps operation to draw Taliban fighters out of a village where they were hiding among civilians.
Now here's where things get sticky, but if you hang out and finish this article with me, you'll see it's not really sticky, but something does definately smell.
Embedded with American troops were two Australian Journalists. One was Stephen Dupont, here's his picture, and here's his website, he's a photojournalist for Contact Press Images, he seems to be an excellent photographer; and while I question his "objectivity" in earlier posts, I believe that he's honest, but still susceptible to pre-conceived biases in his reporting. The second reporter is John Martinkus, you may remember Martinkus because he tends to "become the news" rather than simply stick to reporting it.
Martinkus, the reporter, was captured by insurgent forces in Iraq over a year ago. While most hostages in Iraq don't fair so well, Martinkus was able to convince his captors that they should release him. Ya see, Martinkus is an anti-war activist, he's been a featured speaker for "Coalition to Stop the War" events and he's written a highly critical book on the American actions in Iraq. Martinkus convinced his captors that he was of more value to them alive than he was dead. After all, what's the point of cutting off the head of someone who, if you release them, will go out and attack your enemy using their own institutions against them. Martinkus is a friend to the insurgencies in Iraq and Afghanistan. He's actually a supporter of their causes and he's sneakily gotten himself embedded with American forces in Afghanistan and been patiently waiting for a series of events that he could mischaracterize, politicize and twist with the intention of hurting the efforts to bring Democracy to Afghanistan and Iraq and peace to the greater Middle East.
All of my statements grow from investigations I undertook, of my own accord, but with a little prodding from Dan Riehl at Riehl World View. Dan got a tip from Richard of HyScience, and passed it on to me for my opinion. On first glance at the info, Dan and I both came to the conclusion that some political chicanery was a afoot, after one or two minutes of googling, we came to Stephen Dupont and based on what we perceived as Duponts bias, we began to deconstruct the emerging story of the Taliban Bodies Burned in Iraq (here's where AP picked up the story).
I've already covered Dupont and come to the conclusion that while Dupont disagrees with American activities and prosecution of the War on Terror, he's reporting honestly what he sees, he has bias, but he understands that and has tried to balance his bias with honesty. Martinkus is a different animal altoghether.
Given the same facts and on the same scene, Martinkus tries to put apples and oranges together repeatedly and count them as the same objects. He makes connections where there are none, and tries to paint innocent (although intense and horrific) events with a sinister and conspiratorial brush.
Despite the facts, Martinkus pens a hit piece on the American military with the intent to further his anti-war aims and incite hatred for Americans among Muslims. Martinkus' report can be found at the Dateline program page, the transcript is a bit difficult to get to, so it's here in .txt format.
So lets look at the "body burning incident":
Dupont makes it clear to the world that it was the Airborne forces conducting operations in the region that burned the two rotting Taliban corpses inside their position, he makes it clear that they burned this corpses because they were out in the open for 24 hours an were beginning to decompose and posed a health risk. Dupont also makes it clear that the solidiers believed that they were burning the corpses for hygenic reasons (whether they were right or wrong on the hygiene issue is immaterial, they are not doctors and morticians, but even a layman knows you try not to remain in close contact with rotting corpses).
Martinkus chooses to disregard the hygenic concerns of the Airborne troops, in fact, he disregards the Airborne troops altoghether, he has bigger fish to fry, he wants to go after American policy and presense in the region, and he finds his weapon when PsyOps operatives arrive on the scene to try and coax, persuade, trick and infuriate the Taliban fighters into engaging the Americans who are reluctant to engage them inside the village.
Martinkus "reports":
At the top of the hills above the village the soldiers have taken the tactics of psychological warfare to a grotesque and disturbing extreme. US soldiers have set fire to the bodies of the two Taliban killed the night before. The burning of the corpses and the fact that they've been laid out facing Mecca is a deliberate desecration of Muslim beliefs.
I offer this photo to show beyond a "shadow of a doubt" (sorry bout that pun) that this "reporting" is actually a "hit piece" to mischaracterize the actions and incite Muslim anger throughout the world.
Simple examination of the photo shows that the corpses WERE NOT laid out facing West, if they were, they would be oriented in line with the shadows on the ground, instead they are oriented perpendicular to the shadows, unless you live at the North or South pole, you can test this for yourself if you go outside with a compass in the morning or afternoon. Face West or East and observe your shadow.
So we know that they were not "laid out facing Mecca" and do not demonstrate a deliberate desecration of Muslim beliefs.
We also know, from the interview with Stephen Dupont who took the picture, that it was NOT the psychological warfare operatives who burned these bodies. The PsyOps operatives arrived on the scene LATER (how later does not matter), and while they DID use the incident as part of their PsyOps plan to draw out the Taliban, they DID NOT burn the corpses as part of the plan. The PsyOps operatives used the fact that the bodies had to be burned for hygenic purposes and twisted the event to suit their PsyOps operational plan. In other words.
The PsyOps operative lied to the Taliban soldiers in the village in the hope it would infuriate them and drive them into the open.
Guess what Mr. Martinkus? That's their job. PsyOps is not the practice of telling your enemy the truth, it's telling the enemy what you think will disturb them, it's telling your enemy what you think will enrage them and cause them to make mistakes and engage in poor tactical descisions that you can take advantage of.
MR. MARTINKUS IS ENGAGING IN PSYCHOLOGICAL WARFARE AGAINST THE PEOPLE OF AMERICA AND HER ARMED FORCES!!!!
MR. MARTINKUS IS ENGAGING IN PSYCHOLOGICAL WARFARE DESIGNED TO ALSO INFURIATE THE MUSLIM WORLD AGAINST AMERICA!!!!
That's right, you heard it here. Mr. Martinkus has taken events, twisted them out of proportion and then broadcast that psychological warfare element back at the people of America and the world. Just as the PsyOps operatives wished to enrage the Taliban and get them out into the open where they could be destroyed, Mr. Martinkus is trying to get the American people to become enraged at the actions of our own military. But we know the facts now Mr. Martinkus! You can't twist them anymore, we've got Stephen Dupont's pictures to disprove your words. We've got your history in the anti-war movement and your own words supporting the actions of terrorists and insurgents to prove that you sir, are on the other side. Mr. Martinkus is fighing of behalf of the Taliban through the use of psychological weapons of his own
The counter to Psychological Warfare is knowing the truth. We now know the truth, it's right there in Mr. Dupont's pictures. Now the challenge is to spread the truth among our forces and people of the world that Mr. Martinkus is attacking us with his psychological weapon of a hit piece. We, the bloggers, and hopefully the American Mass Media, need to counter Mr. Martinkus' warping of these events with the truth of the events. The truth must be heard. It's not a pretty truth, PsyOps isn't designed to make you feel good about things, it's designed to make you unstable, weak and easy to break. Our boys did the right thing in burning the corpses for hygenic reasons, and our boys also did the right thing by using WORDS INSTEAD OF BOMBS to get the Taliban out of Gonbaz.
So which of the three did not belong??? Martinkus!
--Jason
NOTE: Thank you for taking the time with me to look at the events objectively, I encourage you to read my earlier posts, "Ok, it's time to elaborate" and "So what's really going on. . . (The Interview with Stephen Dupont)". If you have information to share, I encourage you to send a trackback or leave a comment. I've been overwhelmed with supportive emails and positive encouragement to continue my examination of this event and the greater context, so I'll continue to do that. Please come back for more. The media is going to continue to spread Martinkus' own PsyOps attack if it's not countered with the truth. Spread that photo around and point out that the "desecration" did not take place, and if any of you are a physician with information about how corpses decay and why they must be removed from the area to prevent disease, I encourage you to email me at Jason-at-JasonColeman-dot-com. There are still a few loose ends to tie up, but they just loose ends that people are unclear on, they don't amount to intentional desecration and I want to get that out. Thanks again, and I'll see ya round the 'sphere.
-JC
UPDATE: Linked at:
The Political Teen who has a funny Chris Matthews doing the Karl Rove Scooter Libby boogie video on his Main Page.
My Vast Right Wing Conspiracy who was the first to trackback my "Ok, time to elaborate post" with this post on MVRWC.
Mudville Gazette
Indepundit
Two Babes and a Brain
Wizbang
California Conservative
Stop the ACLU
**Comments are closed for this entry, if you'd like to add something, contact me via email.**
Posted by JasonColeman at 12:50 PM | Comments (4)
So what's really going on. . . (The Interview with Stephen Dupont)
NOTE: If you are new to this story, you may or may not wish to refer to THIS POST FIRST and then return to this one, but be warned the story is complex and confusing, so if you're looking for easy reading, just stay here.
SUGGESTION: I would recommend that you read the entire article first and then go back through and use the audio and video clips. I think that would be the easiest way to follow this rather complex story.
The purpose of this post is to add to an explanation of what the REAL STORY is with regard to why two Taliban soldiers bodiers were burned in Afghanistan as mentioned in this article and this article, reported by two individuals embedded with an American Airborne unit in Afghanistan. The story orignally "broke" on the Australian program, Dateline. The Dateline piece (which you can view a video clip of HERE (requires Realplayer)) consists of an interview between the show's host and Stephen Dupont, one of the embedded reporters who captured video of the incident. The interview is about 6 minutes long and is a one on one exchange to discuss footage that Dupont took outside the village of Gonbaz, Afghanistan.
We don't know ALOT of "details" about the operation, at this point we are merely analyzing the "Burning Bodies" incident with the broad and small strokes available, but this is what SEEMS to be clear and accurate:
1) Airborne forces had an engagement with Taliban forces on the approximate date of September 30. In this engagement 2 Taliban we're killed. The Taliban corpses were in close proximity to the American airborne unit's position.
2) Additional Taliban forces were "holed up" in the village, hiding amongst a civilian population. The Airborne soldiers had the situation in hand and probably held a perimeter around the village.
3) 24 hours or so after the Taliban were killed, the decision was made to burn the Taliban bodies for hygiene reasons by the Airborne forces on the scene. The Airborne forces burned the bodies and Stephen Dupont there and took video footage of the burning of the Taliban corpses.
4) Later, a Psychological Operations group arrived on the scene. This PsyOps group proceeded to conduct psychological operations against the Taliban forces inside the village with the intent to "Smoke em out" (Dupont's Words) and force the Taliban to come out of the village and attack the Airborne soldiers and PsyOps unit.
5) The methods used to draw out the Taliban forces were VERBAL IN NATURE. The PsyOps operatives used megaphones to broadcast into the village, and the wording of these messages included defamatory statements to the Taliban soldier's honor and statements were made that the burning of the dead Taliban soldiers' bodies took place while they were facing West (toward Mecca).
Now we'll pause for a minute and look at the words of Stephen Dupont. I've got three audio clips from the interview and I've transcribed them to the best of my ability. There might be some slight differences in the transcript due to accents and mumbling, but I think that if you read the transcripts first, then listen to the clips and read along again, you'll find them very close.
Audio Clip 1 - The Different Views (MPG format)
This clip deals with how the two different groups of soldiers viewed the burning of the bodies. It needs to be noted that only the Airborne unit actually took part in burning the bodies, and they did so for hygiene purposes. Now, later (we don't know how long at this time, but LATER), a PsyOps unit arrived in the battlespace. This audio clip from the Dateline broadcast is the Interviewer and Stephen Dupont discussing why the bodies were burnt and how later, the PsyOps unit used the event in their broadcasts via loudspeaker to the hold-out Taliban forces in the village.
The Transcript -
Interviewer: Do you think they understand the significance of what they were doing? I mean the burning of the bodies, pointing towards Mecca, and then actually going to the trouble of reading, to you, in English, the deliberately provocative stuff that they were shouting across the valley to the TalibanStephen Dupont: Look, I think the, Airborne unit that were responsible with burning of the two Taliban soldiers, weren’t really thinking in that way. I think that the Psychological Operations unit that did the broadcast, of the incident with the Taliban including some of other broadcasts, ther. .they’re. . I think they are quite well aware of it, these are older guys, I mean that’s their job, they are PsyOps, ya know, they use this as a weapon.
Remember that Stephen Dupont was on the scene, he's there, embedded with these Airborne troops and filming this event. He says quite plainly that the Airborne troops DID NOT view the burning of the bodies as part of the Psychological Warfare. In a little bit we'll see how the Airborne troops did view the burning of the corpses.
We also see that the PsyOps group, in the opinion of Stephen Dupont, who was also on the scene for the later psychological operation, did INTEND to use statements designed to imply that the burning of the bodies was to desecreate them, to humiliate the Taliban soldiers taking refuge in the village. The PsyOps troops are not playing patty-cake here and Dupont realized this. Dupont admits that the PsyOps groups understood that their role was to inflict MENTAL STRESS on the holed up Taliban fighters with the INTENT to provoke them into coming out and fighting the Airborne troops guarding the perimeter. Dupont recognizes that PsyOps is a weapon of war.
Now lets move on to the second clip.
Audio Clip 2 - Two speparate groups (MPG format)
This clip shows how there were two separte groups, the Airborne and the PsyOps, both acting in different roles within the battlespace. Dupont describes what the Airborne troops reasoning was for burning the bodies, and points out that they were not intent on desecration. He also discusses the actions of the PsyOps operatives and their reasons for STATING to the Taliban in the village, that the corpses were desecrated. I identify the Airborne unit in brackets as [Airborne] merely for clarification between the two separate groups.
Transcript
Interviewer: What you seem, what you seem to be saying is that the guys [Airborne] who burned the bodies probably did think that they were doing it for the reasons of hygiene, that tha was mentioned in the story. . .Stephen Dupont: I believe that and tha was the feeling I got when I climbed up this hill and as I got to the crest of this hill, they [Airborne] started burning the bodies, and of course my initial reaction was, ya know like, my god, I’ve got to film this, this is really important stuff, and uh I’ve gotta I’ve got a, you know, inaudible, it’s my responsibility as a journalist to get some of it. . .
Interviewer: But PsyOps had a different purpose?
Stephen Dupont: I believe so, I think these guys, were, were really kinda, you know they, they said, they said to me, look you know, we’ve been told to burn the bodies, because the bodies have been here for 24 hours and they’re starting to stink, so for hygiene purposes, this is what we’ve gotta do. Later on, when I was down with the Psy Ops operation people, um they used that as a sort of psychological um you know warfare, I guess, you’d call it, they used that fact the Taliban were burned facing West, as they say in the the announcement. . . .
Interviewer: Now would you deliberately say it again to humilack, the Taliban. . .
Stephen Dupont: They deliberately they deliberately wanted to incite that much anger from the Taliban so the Taliban could attack them.
Interviewer: Smoke em out
Stephen Dupont: Smoke em out. They want the Taliban to fight them because they can’t find them otherwise.
So now things are becoming clearer. Stephen says that he does believe that the Airborne unit was burning the corpses of the two Taliban soldiers for hygenic purposes. We can get into rotting corpses later, but for our purposes here, lets keep it simple. The Airborne troops were ordered by their officers in the field to burn the corpses because they had been in the elements for 24 hours and were beginning to smell. Stephen recognizes that this was the intent of the Airborne troops, and it WAS NOT the intent of the Airborne troops to desecrate the bodies. As we'll see a little later, the corpses were NOT placed deliberately facing West (toward Mecca) and that the corpses were merely burned for hygenic purposes.
Now in this clip Dupont also goes into the role and scripting of the PsyOps unit a bit. Dupont recognized again that the purpose of the PsyOps unit is to conduct psychological warfare against the Taliban fighters in the village. Dupont states that for the purposes of the announcements into the village, the PsyOps "used the fact" that they were facing West. Dupont admits that tht PsyOps operatives were intentionally tring to incite anger in the Taliban so that they would come out and fight. That the goal of the announcements by the PsyOps operatives was to "Smoke em out". Note that "used the fact" is a turn of phrase, and does not necessarily mean that the corpses were actually "in fact" facing West, as we'll get into later.
Before we make any conclusions here, lets finish up with the third clip.
Audio Clip 3 - Is Psy Ops Working? (MPG format)
Transcript
Interviewer: Do you think that the Psychological War is working?Stephen Dupont: Look, I, I think it’s having some, success, I do believe. I think it’s very very slow. But I think there is a certain amount of success, because they are engaging with the enemy, as in, The Taliban. The Americans are, using this, um, you know, psychological warfare, to announce, to make announcements to get the enemy to fight them. It is working on that level. And they are being attacked and so they are responding and they are taking prisoners of war, and so forth. So in the eyes of the Americans and the coalition there is a sense that things are working but it’s very very slow.
Now here we see that Dupont feels that the Psychological Operations are in fact, working. If you view the entire clip (available again HERE (Realplayer Required), you hear more about why Dupont thinks are going slow. He talks about "thousands of caves" and a place that is "like the moon" and talks for a while about the difficulty of finding the Taliban who do not wear uniforms and the Interviewer suggests are like "ghosts". What's at issue in this part though is NOT how fast or slow the war is going, but rather if the actions of American soldiers involved in this event were intailing the desecration of Muslim corpses, or to effectively prosecute a war against and enemy who:
1) Hides among an civilian population in a Village, and
2) Must be drawn out of this civilian population in order to engage and defeat the enemy with as little collateral damage to the village and villagers, who in this case are mostly, if not completely different.
The BIG issue at stake in this latest bruhaha over the burning of Taliban corpses is the tactics that were used to draw the enemy out so that they can be engaged and destroyed, or possibly captured as prisoners of war. It needs to be made clear here that war is not necessarily a spectator sport. To overuse a phrase, "War is HELL!" and warriors need to bring all the force they can to bear against their enemy in order to affect victory over the objective and opposing forces. No one in their right mind would honestly suggest that using loudspeakers and "implying" that desecration of corpses has been done is a "nice" thing to do. However, as Dupont admits, it is working to draw the enemy out so they can be engaged.
I'd suppose that there were alternatives to using the PsyOps operatives to engage the enemy. After all, the Airborne troops that had the Taliban cornered COULD HAVE simply leveled the village. That course of action would have led to the deaths of the villagers, and I think that the commanders on the field should be commended for not opting for that option to deal with the situation.
The troops could have entered the village and searched for the Taliban fighters door to door. They wouldn't be wearing a uniform and would be difficult to identify. A Taliban soldier might hide among a scared population or opted to ambush the American soldiers when they entered the village. This might result in unnecessary American or civilian casualties when a firefight breaks out in the village, and again, this is not the most desirable option.
So what was the decision in the field? The decision was made to engage the Taliban hold-outs using PsyOps techniques. The descision was made to broadcast messages into the town designed to provoke a rage in the enemy, so that he might recklessly engage the American forces and so doing, make a critical tactical mistake, allowing the Americans to defeat the enemy and minimize civilian and American casualties. It seems, that according to Dupont who was on the scene, that this option was the one that the commanders in the field decided to use. Dupont admits that PsyOps are effective if slow, but effective nonetheless.
Now lets just talk straight for a second, and be honest about it. Are the statements the PsyOps operatives used in their announcements "offensive"? Probably. . . and they are designed to be so. The "intent" is to drive the enemy into a rage so they flush themselves out. So harsh words are used, and mean things are said. The intent is to anger the enemy, and the best way in the eyes of the PsyOps opeatives to do that was to insult the Taliban hold-outs in the village. To deman their manhood and bravery, to call them "ladies" and to tease them. The PsyOps operatives also TOLD the Taliban hold-outs that their comrades had been desecrated, that their bodies had been burned while facing West so that they could not enter paradise. IN REALITY HOWEVER, neither the PsyOps, nor the Airborne troops actually desecrated the bodies. They merely made statements that they did. The bodies were not desecrated, they were burned for hygenic purposes, to stop the smell that distracted the American soldiers, and to prevent the spread of possible natural, yet harmful biologic (bacterial and other) agents that would spread into the air around the corpses, could be carried by insects or other pests or could possibly cause other health risks to the soldiers who were preparing to settle in for a bout of blasting insults and rock music into the village via loudspeakers. There was no way for the commanders on the ground to know whether the Audible Siege would last an hour, and evening, a day or a week, but the PsyOps operation was going to move forward. Having rotting corpses lying around your position while the troops awaited the emergence of the Taliban holdouts was not a good idea. You can hear in Duponts statements that the terrain is rugged and burial was probably not a viable option and would waste valuable resources unnecessarily. So the decision was made by the commander of the Airborne unit to burn the bodies in place. If you look at the situation through the eyes of the commander in the field, that was probably the best, if not the most tasteful, descision to make given the circumstances.
Now as I understand it, and I could be wrong, so I'll ask fellow bloggers for a little help here, but it is my belief that when enemy combatant dead are encountered on the field, every reasonable effort should be made to handle the dead with respect to the enemy culture first, and when such accomodation cannot be made, that the burning of corpses for hygenic purposes is acceptable under the Geneva Convention. We should not expect our forces in the field to become undertakers in the middle of a battle, and we should not expect them to work around rotting corpses when a hygenic alternative is available. So we could beat that horse all day, and maybe I'll address that issue in another post, but for this particular post, the intent is to clarify the events, and dispell the myths and untruths that are spreading like wildfire through groups opposed to the war or through the agitation of the media.
The troops that burned the two Taliban corpses DID NOT do so to desecrate the remains of the dead, the burning of the corpses was a hygenic move and NOT a part of the PsyOps plan. The PsyOps operatives did not even participate, nor did they order the desecration of corpses. A commander in the field, presumably the Airborne commander, did order that the corpses be dealt with so that the troops could continue their mission, which was to defeat the enemy. Which is exactly why we put our military in the field, to defeat an enemy. That's what they did. It wasn't pretty, but war rarely is. The psychological weapons employed were strong, and rightly so. When you engage an enemy, your goal is to win the battle, not to make the combat, whether it be physical or mental, fun, or even palatable.
Psychological warfare is an accepted part of war. In comparison to carpetbombing or artillery strikes, it even seems preferable. Civilian casualties are minimized and your enemy fights from a weakened position. Those are both objectives sought by any battlefield commander and that's exactly what occured in this case.
There will be more to come but I'll part with this image.
Now I'm not an expert and I don't pretend to be, I'm just a humble blogger following the evidence as it shows itself, but I do recognize something about this picture that is relevant. It is my belief that the corpse in this picture is NOT facing west. Judging solely by the relationship of the body on the ground and the shadows in the picture, it is my estimation that this body is aligned more on a north-south axis rather than an east-west axis. If other bloggers can offer more definative evidence to support this, please leave a comment or a trackback and I will include it wherever applicable in future posts.
More to come. . . [LATEST UPDATE TO THIS STORY IS HERE.]
--Jason
UPDATE: New post on John Martinkus
Posted by JasonColeman at 1:00 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack
I'm here. . .
People are having trouble sending comments and trackbacks. I attribute this to my recent upgrage to Moveable Type 3.2 and not having it locked down and fine tuned. I'm here though, working on posts, editing audio and making transcripts to make this whole issue CLEARER to the average casual reader who's getting bombarded with MSM blatherings about UNTRUTHS. I'll approve your comments and trackbacks manually every 10 or 15 minutes.
So if you are looking for the REAL STORY of what happened with U.S. Troops Burning Taliban Bodies, stay tuned, and I'll try to make it as easy to understand and clear as possible. If you want to work for it and understand how this story developed this morning, continue down or click over to "Ok, time to elaborate".
--Jason
Posted by JasonColeman at 12:18 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
October 20, 2005
Boy. . . South Park wsa great last night. . . Quick Hits
And Time Blair thought so too.
MVRWC, well, they think's they're rich now. I just feel like a baby blogger growing up a bit. Thanks for the contest Beth.(fixed)
Dan is reporting that someone has posted Taylor Behl's livejournal photos and comments, I haven't really been following this at all but; I'm not feeling good about this.
Charmaine Yoest says it very politely about Tom and Katie. I generally agree.
Sister Toldja fell off the fence with regard to the Miers Nomination. I didn't pay attention to today's events in the nomination process, so I'm still on the fence until the 1st Day of the first hearing, then I may fall off, don't know.
HyScience tells us about Herceptin, and that's great news, but there's always a catch so read the whole thing. Hyscience also helped with my post today, in fact, he started the whole ball rolling.
I'd like to personally thank those linked above (and don't worrry, there are more to come, it's just alot of posts to read through) for linking or contributing to my post earlier today. Which I'll be commenting later tonight.
--Jason
**Comments are closes for this entry, if you'd like to add something, contact me via email.**
Posted by JasonColeman at 7:09 PM | Comments (2)
Ok, time to elaborate. . .
NOTE: New posts in this series HERE and HERE. Also linked at the end.
So first, go read this post (it's the one I made a short while ago). I wanted to just give Dan from Riehl World View a link for a good catch, but it's evolved a bit since then. I should also give a HatTip to Richard from HyScience.com for starting the ball rolling. So after a few emails back and forth with Dan, a larger picture emerges, and I want to lay it out as I see it here.
First lets start with the story Dan first turned me onto:
Report: U.S. Soldiers Burned Bodies of Taliban Fighters, Taunted Villagers
And here's an earlier story from the Sydney Morning Herald:
Film rolls as troops burn dead
Now these articles stem from the Australian program Dateline, which aired this segment (Requires Real Player) which is an interview with Stephen Dupont. Go ahead and take the time to watch it. You can find the transcript here.
Now it's important that after you read the articles and you watch the clip to realize that the troops that allegedly burned the bodies (to my knowledge, the actual event video hasn't been released as of this writing) did so because of legitimate hygiene concerns. The Taliban soldiers had been dead for over 24 hours and were begining to become a concern. So in keeping with good battlefield hygiene practices, they disposed the bodies in the most effective and safest means possible, burning. It's quite obvious that soldiers dug in around a position, with enemy forces in the vicinity, cannot be expected to go out and bury the bodies; and the Taliban certainly wasn't going to come out and collect them (this is a war, remember). So we can't really fault them for burning the bodies.
Now the reporter on the scene, Stephen Dupont, who was embedded with the American troops, himself admits that it was later, when a PsyOps unit arrived on the scene, that more was made of the burning than actually took place, IN ORDER TO "smoke out" and "provoke" a fight with other Taliban fighters on the scene. Taken as it is, a separate tactical event, this is not that big a deal. The goal of armies is to find and engage the enemy, to root them out and destroy them. PsyOps has long been considered a legitimate and effective means of waging war. All parties to conflicts use it and it generates the desired effects.
Now what the two articles are doing is trying to CONNECT unrelated dots. The articles, and Stephen Dupont himself, are trying to connect dots that aren't necessarily connected. Their purpose? I can only suppose that the purpose is to make American soldiers look bad and to try to incite Islamic hatred outside of this particular incident. By connecting these two SEPARATE events, the burning of the bodies for legitimate health reasons and the later PsyOps operation, the articles are trying to imply that the Soldiers who burned these bodies did so to "offend" Muslims, when it fact they did not.
Now it IS true that the PsyOps operatives used the burning to enrage or offend the soldiers they were trying to "smoke out" but that's a separate incident entirely and not related to the actual act of burning. I'd suspect that if half of the PsyOps techniques that were used on the battlefield were taken out of true context and broadcast as "representative" of combat soldiers actions, that people would positively FREAK OUT. Let's remember folks, the goal of PsyOps troops IS to freak out the enemy and provoke them into making mistakes that combat troops can capitalize on and destroy the enemy. That's their job!
So IF the bodies were burned for legitimate hygiene reasons, as the reporter on the scene suggests, that's a GOOD THING.
And IF the PsyOps operatives used the event to gain tactical advantage over the battlespace and draw the enemy out, that's ALSO A GOOD THING.
The articles though, try to lead the reader in another direction entirely and are attempting to take the tactical conflict out of it's isolated and local context and apply it to a general interpretation of the continuing war against Taliban remnants and al Queda in Afghanistan.
So let's move on.
Now Dan and I traded some links back and forth and began looking at Stephen Dupont.
This is the photo that Dupont chooses to be his representative image on his bio page on his own website (it's a flash site, so I can't link directly, you'll have to navigate to the bio page). Take a look at it for a second. Photographers ply their trade by taking images that represent something, an ideal, an event, a feeling or just a directed representation of the subject. I'm no expert and I don't pretend to be, but what that image represents to me is that Stephen Dupont is trying to show himself as somehow "connected" to the Afghans and Taliban in general. The garb and manner of the picture may not be exactly representative of Taliban or Afghan attire, but that's the perception that I believe the lay observer will get. Stephen is trying to send a message with that image, and I REALLY REALLY don't think that that message is "I'm an impartial objective observer/journalist". To me, and I suggest, the average lay observer, that image represents that Stephen identifies himself with the Taliban, or at the very least, Afghans.
If you take a surfing trip through Stephen Dupont's website, you'll see that Dupont tends toward supporting an agenda, and that adgenda is somewhat, if not decidely, anti-Western. Furthermore, if you take a look at Dupont's sponsoring agency, Contact Press Images, you'll find that they also aren't necessarily an impartial objective group themselves, they use phrases like "this so called 'war on terror'" and invite the reader to remember the "last Americans in Vietnam were hurriedly evacuated from a Saigon rooftop" [italics mine]. This group obviously starts from a position of opposition to the Global War on Terror and they leave objectivity at the door when they go out to cover a story.
Even the Australian Dateline, takes a particularly biased approach to the story, by leading with:
Since September 11, we've all become uncomfortably familiar with names like Guantanamo Bay, Abu Ghraib, Fallujah and maybe even Bagram in Afghanistan. They're all places we now associate with human rights violations or worse - military atrocities and possibly potential war crimes. But after our first story tonight, you can add another placename to that list - Gonbaz in southern Afghanistan, about a 100km from the former Taliban stronghold of Kandahar.
Now this paragraph says ALOT. First, they leave out that September 11th was an attack on the United States by al Queda, and that al Queda was sponsored, harbored and protected by the Taliban in Afghanistan, and they jump to associating September 11th, not with the attack on the Twin Towers, Pentagon and the 4th failed attack on another target, but they associate September 11th with Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib, Fallujah and stretch to include Bagram, labeling all as "human rights violations", "military atrocities" and "possibly potential war crimes".
I ask you? Is this what September 11th is associated with? I think not, maybe the War on Terror is, but not Septemeber 11th. The media is quick to point out that Iraq is not connected with 9-11 (despite the truth that Iraq WAS associated with al-Queda and merely that there was not an OPERATIONAL link between the specific 9-11 attack and Iraq), so why the mention of Abu Grahib and Fallujah?
The answer can only be that they wish to connect these dots illegitimately as well. September 11th is connected to the attacks on America, and the attacks on America are associated with the Global War on Terror, and the War on Terror is connected to the War in Iraq. However, by jumping over links in the chain and associating events in the manner that the Dateline lead-in does, the bias in the piece that follows is evident from the beginning.
Now I'll leave it to you, the reader to go back and view the articles, video, Dateline website and Stephen Dupont on your own and drag your own conclusions, but to ME, this whole shebang is a "hit piece" of local and separate events, taken out of context and rewoven to convey a wholy different representation of what actually occured.
What can we objectively say happened:
1) That allegedly (the video is still MIA, but I'm sure it will surface) American soldiers did the prudent and militarily accepted thing and burned bodies that were beginning to rot while they laid siege to an area where Taliban fighters were holed up.
2) That PsyOps operatives later arrived on the scene and tried to use localized events to affect a tactical advantage and flush out enemy troops so that they could be engaged and hopefully destroyed.
These two events ARE CONSISTENT with standard military practices and do not represent some grander evil scheme to "offend Islam", they DO NOT represent a "military atrocity" and they do not represent a "human rights abuse" as the articles and the Dateline piece would lead the reader to believe.
I can almost guarantee that this is not going to be the way this story is picked up and run with by the media and it certainly won't be interpreted that way by the anti-war crowd, the anti-American crowd, or the left in general. I'd expect that,unless this video never surfaces,we're in for a long road where unrelated dots are connected over and over again. I expect that this will develop into a media firestorm, and direct accusations will be made against the President, Donald Rumsfeld and the American Military that this is an evil and disrespectful affront to Islam and Muslims everywhere.
The detractors will try to use this incident to incorrectly claim that this was an atrocity, that it was a war crime and that our mission to destroy the forces of al Queda and the Taliban is a war on Islam itself, despite all the real indications to the contrary, this will become the latest marching mantra of the left and the latest call to denounce the War on Terror and a justification to pull out our troops before the mission is done. The left will call for someones head to roll over this even though it's perfectly consistent with the Geneva convention to dispose of battlefield dead and the PsyOps activities were consistent with standard and accepted activities of war.
This will be a firestorm and many half-truths, outright lies and slanders of our troops, their leaders and the goals of the War on Terror will be crafted around this actual non-event.
Thanks for your time.
ADDED NOTE: Hyscience got this ball rolling last night with the initial tip on the backgrounds of the reporters, today they've put up The Media's New Abu Ghraib
--Jason
UPDATE: After checking email, Dan left me one last tip to chase down for the night. While he and I chased down info on Stephen Dupont, we neglected to take a look at John Martinkus, Dupont's apparent co-reporter.
Martinkus is probably best known as the reporter who "googled his way to freedom" when captured by nationalist forces in Iraq.
Thanks to Tim Blair, I learned a little more about Martinkus which I think also points to bias in the reporting of this incident. Martinkus himself has participated in anti-war events and has spoken out against the War on Terror and the American presence in Iraq. Martinkus was a featured speaker at an event organized by the "Stop the War Coalition" and has authored a book, Travels in American Iraq, which is apparently very critical of the American efforts in Iraq and the War on Terror.
Martinkus has also drawn fire from Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer:
Kidnapped Australian journalist John Martinkus was attacked today by Foreign Minister Alexander Downer and former hostage Steve Pratt for appearing to say that Iraqi terrorists had a reason to kill some hostages.Mr Martinkus, who was kidnapped and interrogated for more than 20 hours in Baghdad before being freed last weekend, sparked outrage when he said of his captors:"(From their perspective) there was a reason to kill (British hostage Ken) Bigley, there was a reason to kill the Americans; there was not a reason to kill me (and) luckily I managed to convince them of that."
Mr Downer said today it was pretty much the most appalling thing any Australian had said about the Iraq war.
He accused Mr Martinkus of giving comfort to terrorists by saying that their actions were understandable.
So, not only are Stephen Dupont's "objective journalist" credentials suspect, it appears that "co-reporter" John Martinkus is an anti-war activist and quite possibly a sympathizer with the very enemies that the forces he was embedded with are fighting.
NOTE: The Tim Blair links are from his old site. His current site is timblair.net.
UPDATE 2: Well folks, IT'S ON, as of 5:30 a.m. U.S. central time, Google News is listing 170+ reports on this "event" and just as expected, almost all are playing the "desecration" and "affront to Islam" angles and giving the bias of the reporting a pass. Another MSM "hit piece" on our military is underway.
UPDATE 3: Drudge / Breitbart have picked it up now.
UPDATE 4: The first pictures are showing up on the web now.
UPDATE 5: Checking in on some of the lefty blogs, the meme is already developing that the bodies were intentionally faced west and the PsyOps teams were somehow instrumental in this "symbolic" placement. Nevermind the "reporters" own admission that the Airborne units they were embedded with burned the bodies for hygiene reasons and the PsyOps operatives arrived sometime after the bodies were burned. The accusations and total disregard for the truth have begun.
UPDATE 6: Centcom Statements on the event ONE TWO THREE
Centcom site for News Releases
UPDATE 7: This post is also cross-linked with The Political Teen's Open Trackback Thursday. HEY, if the really big boys and girls aren't blogging much today, I gotta do what I gotta do to get the word out.
UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE: NEW POST - So what's really going on. . . (The Interview with Stephen Dupont)
UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE: An examination of John Martinkus, PsyOps operator in his own right.
UPDATE: 11/26/05 - Centcom issues their report.
-JC
Posted by JasonColeman at 1:30 AM | Comments (16)
October 19, 2005
Oh brother. . .
Dan at Riehl World View threw me a heads up, go read for yourself. I'm sure that there's either much more to this. . . or much less to this, than is being reported. BUT! I know we're going to be hearing this bleated about over and over and over and over again till it's either proven (and of course, disciplining the guilty won't be acceptable to the lefties) or it's proven to be completely untrue (which won't matter to the left either).
Now it's out there. So I guess it's time to say . . . Play ball.
Go read it and I'm sure your head will hurt too.
--Jason
UPDATE: Before you go, just make sure to remember this face:
This is the "Stephen Dupont" that is reporting this tripe. Dan has a link to his other "work".
UPDATE2: If you arrived at this individual entry from an external link, you may want to take a look at this post where I elaborate.
-JC
Posted by JasonColeman at 11:50 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Blanco, clueless. . .
I've been looking for a source on THIS for some time, and thanks to the Carnival of the Clueless and The Strata-Sphere, I finally found it.
Though experts had warned it would take 48 hours to evacuate New Orleans, Blanco did not order a mandatory evacuation that Saturday.“We’re going to pray that the impact will soften,” she said.
Blanco and the mayor waited until Sunday, Aug. 28 — only 20 hours before Katrina came ashore — to order a mandatory evacuation, the first of what disaster experts and Louisiana insiders say were serious mistakes by the governor.
Now as an atheist, I don't fault people for praying, it's what they do. For for Blanco to take the position that we're just "going to pray that the impact will soften" while on the other hand she's stonewalling the Feds, mis-managing the La. National Guard, sending people to shelters with no food and water and waiting until it was TOO LATE to order or even support the evacuation, is just well. . . . "Clueless".
So take a look at the video here (hopefully it'll stay up for a while), and read the whole article, then if you're so inclined I've put in a new category here on the blog, -Katrina, and put all my Katrina posts in there. Including the popular "Blanco's Insurrection" post.
Enjoy, get mad, but most of all, remember, and for goodness sakes, you people in Wilma's path, please keep a close eye on it and get out of the way.
Finally I want to link to Gateway Pundit for a round-up of facts and fiction about Katrina. Pay special attention to this part.
Fact: "The federal government pretty much met its standard time lines, but the volume of support provided during the 72-96 hour was unprecedented. The federal response here was faster than Hugo, faster than Andrew, faster than Iniki, faster than Francine and Jeanne."
Yep, the "slowness" of the Federal response was a MYTH.
Posted by JasonColeman at 1:55 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
October 18, 2005
28 Questions for Miers. . .
The Senate Questionaire for Nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court Harriett Ellan Miers has been released. I'm putting it here in PDF Format, and for those of you that are Acrobat challenged (you can get it here), I've also gone through and put it into an easier to use HTML Format and made it a permanent part of the content of this blog.
View the Harriet Miers Senate Questionaire here. (It's long and may take a few moments to load.)
The Questionaire has alot of "junk" in it, like name, rank, and serial number, but there's also interesting info in it too. Such as her pro bono work before the U.S. Supreme Court to get disability benefits from the Social Security Administration for a single mom, her defense of Microsoft and Disney as well as some interesting discussion of nuclear energy issues before the SCOTUS.
For those who have been trying to find info, this document is the starting point, listing all of her publications and media mentions as well as her views on Judicial Activism (last question) and lots of other info.
Enjoy!
--Jason
PS - Full Disclosure: I'm a Harriet Miers SUPPORTER at this point. I feel that Bush has the right as President of the United States to appoint who HE wants and who HE believes will represent HIS views on the court. I see that as exactly what he's doing, so I have to support it. Just as I recognize that it was Bill Clinton's right to put ACLU Commie Liberal Whack-o Ruth Ginsberg to the SCOTUS. If Miers flubs up the Confirmation Hearings, then I reserve the right to change my position, but for now, I'm firmly on her, and the President's side of the fence.
Posted by JasonColeman at 2:25 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Moveable Type 3.2
So I've upgraded to Movable Type 3.2 after a few hours of wrestling with something that should have been no problem at all. YES, it was my fault and I made it more trouble than it should have been, but that's all behind me now. Of course, now my MT-Blacklist is kaput and I've got to see how the new version handles the trackback and comment spam (I never should have even mentioned Canadian Drugs on this blog, but oh well).
So if the whole blog just decides to crap out, you'll know why (although now "crap" will probably spur a whole round of poker spam, WOOT!).
So we'll just see what happens when I leave this thing alone for a few hours.
--Jason
Posted by JasonColeman at 1:11 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
October 17, 2005
Abramson High School - Post Katrina
There is an update on Abramson and New Orleans Public Schools here. Included is contact information for those students seeking transcripts or administrators seeking records for New Orleans students displaced by the storm.
As promised, here's a video and some pictures taken from my visit to Abramson High School ONE MONTH AFTER Hurricane Katrina. I visited 2 days after New Orleans East was opened back up to residents. The school received about 4 ft. of water throughout. The smell was pretty hard to believe, the smell of the entire city was quite hard to believe actually, but at Abramson, even with a mask on, the smell nearly knocked me down more than once.
Click here for the raw Abramson video (37 Meg file)
Stills from Abramson High School (click picture for larger image):
The grey line on the wall marks the level of "standing" water, the water obviously was higher at some point, but the grey line is the "standing water" line. Water stood at this level for well over a week.
It's easy to see the different "standing water" levels when you see the inside of the School. Notice the different "Lines" as stages of "de-watering" were offset by the arrival of Rita and other rainstorms.
Trees down in the school's courtyards, as well as some trees that didn't belong tossed into the school compound (probaby from Joe Brown Park across the street). NOTE: All the trees at Abramson are dying. In fact, almost every tree I saw in areas that were flooded are dying. In fact, every plant I saw throughout the entire trip was dying. I should also mention that there were VERY few birds around, some ducks that couldn't fly, but other than that, almost no birds at all. Even the insect population was extremely low compared to what's normally present in New Orleans, I expected to see roaches everywhere, I saw NONE.
Large windows and glass walls blown in by wind and storm surge.
So that's Abramson High School. Generally destroyed, but given it's brick and cinderblock construction, the school structure "may" be saved, who knows. Coming up tomorrow, more images from N.O.
--Jason
Posted by JasonColeman at 1:51 PM | Comments (28) | TrackBack
October 16, 2005
Post Katrina Pictures - Slidell and Hwy 11
If you've been a reader here for a while, you'll know that I recently returned from a trip down to Slidell and New Orleans Louisiana to help family members begin the process of putting their lives back together. I'm still working on reducing the video that I took into a manageable size for the web and editing out all the useless garbage, but I thought I'd just get started and put some pictures up.
First, we have a small video of Hwy 11 leading to Lake Ponchatrain. This stretch of Hwy 11 leads into the marshlands on the North Shore of the lake. On the right side of the Hwy are a series of "camps". "Camps" in this sense are essentially homes built on pilings driven into the marsh. The intense winds reduced many of these homes to piles of matchsticks. The vid is a little shaky as I was simply holding my digital camera out of the window of the truck I was driving. So please forgive if it jumps around a bit.
Post Katrina Hwy 11 Video. (MPG Video-17 megs)
Next are just a series of pictures from different locations in Slidell and New Orleans, I'll put a brief caption, but I just want to get these out there while I'm still working on the narrative of the entire trip. Click the on the pictures for a larger image.
Collection of Matchsticks (people's homes) in Eden Isles on the outskirts of Slidell (Keep in mind these pictures were taken 1 month after the storm was over)
Image shows the waterline in downtown Slidell.
More Slidell images.
Here's a series of Images from Hwy 11.
I just want to reiterate that these images were shot a full month after the Hurricane's passage, 2 days after New Orleans East and many other areas of the city were opened. I'll be posting more video and images over the next few days, so if you're interested, please check back. Next up, Abramson High School.
--Jason
Posted by JasonColeman at 12:44 PM | Comments (1)
October 15, 2005
Iraq Votes. . .
BareKnucklePolitics and TheAdventuresofChester are live-blogging the Iraq Constitution Voting today.
--Jason
Posted by JasonColeman at 12:36 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
October 11, 2005
So lemme get this straight. . .
In searching around today I came across this AP article via Yahoo.
All was well and good, I read the article, absorbed it's content, then WHAM! I was stopped dead in my tracks by this picture. Can you see what stopped me?
Click for larger screenshot.
So lemme get this straight, Osama Bin Laden is now described as a "dissident"? Heck, why don't we just stop playing around and start referring to Osama Bin Laden as "considered by the AP as a harmless Muslim slightly miffed at Zionists and the West".
This is pretty ridiculous, Osama has claimed responsibility for the 9-11 attacks, the Madrid bombings and countless other terrorist attacks worldwide, but the AP is now describing him as a "Saudi dissident"????
Am I the only one who finds this just a bit disturbing? Also, if you're referring to someone as a dissident, does it make sense to also in the same sentence say the "dissident" has a "deputy"???? Why don't they just call Osama a "sheriff"???
Boggle. . . Pure Boggle
--Jason
UPDATE: Welcome SondraK readers (she rocks doesn't she), please feel free to look around, comment, agree, disagree, or just look for Penguins and Icebergs. Please tho', no hotlinking of the videos, just right-click and "save as. . ."
UPDATE 2: Wouldn't you know it, now they've changed the photo and caption with something even less comprehensible - Small Screenshot - Larger Screenshot. And YES YES, I know the photos are "somewhat" automated in reference to the article, but referring to Osama as a "dissident" still seems a bit "off the mark" to me.
-JC
Posted by JasonColeman at 11:16 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
B15A - Another Update
One of the other "things" on this blog is the "Saga of B15A". B15A is an iceberg, once the largest iceberg on Earth, and B15A had an attitude problem, specifically an attitude problem with Penguins. You see, when B15A broke off the Antarctic Ice Shelf, the currents took it to the Ross Sea, where it blocked in the "fast ice" (ice that formed each Antarctic winter and broke up and floated out to sea each Antarctic summer). The "fast ice" remained trapped in the Ross Sea and caused problems for the Penquin rookery nearby, the Penguins had to walk an extra 20km to reach open water and a source of food, and they had to do this on two inch legs.
Additional difficulties were caused by the berg with regard to the resupply of McMurdo Research Station, the berg and trapped "fast ice" prevented the traditional resupply vessels from reaching the isolated base and the small community there. A broken down icebreaker added to the problem, but where there's a will there's a way, and the U.S. and Russia sent additional icebreakers to clear a path to the base.
B15A has been biding it's time in darkness over the Antarctic winter, but now the sun is shining again and MODIS has a great image showing the berg and it's position relative to the Ross Sea.
Click for larger image
If you look in the top center of the image, you'll see a flat rectangular piece of ice within a larger field, that's B15A. You can see that the berg has moved away from the Ross Sea and shouldn't be causing a problem for the Penguins or McMurdo this year. The "fast ice" should break up and move out to sea as normal, and with a little luck, B15A will also move out to sea where it will eventually melt and raise the levels of the worlds oceans by a miniscule fraction of an inch.
So there's an update on B15A for you iceberg fans, and in case you're wondering why I keep coming back to B15A here and here and here and here and here and here, it's simply because the search phrase "B15A" has brought more visitors to this blog than any other single google search term. Which ain't saying a whole lot, but you gotta play to your audience, ya know.
--Jason
Posted by JasonColeman at 7:35 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Still More Penquins. . .
There are things that just sorta take over your blog, and then you're forced to keep posting about that same topic or item. One of those things for this blog is Penguins.
So here's some Penguins for my Penguin fans. This time you get Communist Penguins, Capitalist Penguins, Penguins with Guns, Protesting Penguins, even Penguins on Fire, all with a catchy tune for the toon.
Quicktime Video
You can find other Penguin Posts by me here, here, here and here.
--Jason
Posted by JasonColeman at 6:31 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
The big "Catch-Up". Part 1
Here's a selection of quick hits that I've been meaning to post for a while. Presented quick and dirty just so I can get them out of my list of "Things to Post".
Just in case you're one of those "unsure" about the GWOT, I think you should take a look at this article. The most telling quote:
"If they want to have peace, they have to accept to be governed by Islam"
The U.S. Rhein-Main air base in Germany is now closed, but that's ok, because, ya know, it was just another prop to the German economy and according to the Germany powers that be, it had nothing to do with the Berlin Air Lift or the U.S. efforts to "bring down this wall".
I was talking to high school kid the other day, and he had NO CLUE what the Berlin Wall even was. Sad, really sad. Oh yeah, it gets better, he was wearing a Che t-shirt.
If you haven't seen it yet, go out and rent The Shining. A wonderful film about a boy and his search for a father figure, finding one in the form of a writer struggling to finish his latest work and their adventures finding one another. But hey, don't take my word for it
If you own a computer and don't know what the RIAA is, you really should. The RIAA likes to identify people who have peer-to-peer file sharing programs on their computer, then they hack said computers and spy on the users. When they've collected enough evidence (or sometimes not enough evidence) they then begin demanding thousands of dollars in royalty payments for music you didn't download from bands you've never even heard of. These guys are thugs of the highest order, but some people are starting to fight back.
I have to agree with a few of the commenters that the Lybeck-Murphy firm may not be the best to represent this case because they may not be up to the task (they certainly can be outspent by the RIAA), but maybe, just maybe if people know more about the RIAA and their thuggish tactics, they may be able to give this case legs enough to get to the Big Show.
And speaking of the Big Show, I'm happy to say I'm on the Pro-Miers bandwagon. I know alot of Republicans aren't happy because they want a good ole fashioned slug fest over philosophy and issues, but I just want to get a common sense, NON-JUDGE, NON-Ivy Leaguer, Conservative on the court who's opinions I can sit down and read easily without a legal dictionary at my side. I'm pretty sure Miers just might be that Justice.
While I'm not saying I support Miers fully, I am definately on the "pro" side of the debate. Of course all that could change when the hearings start, but for now, I'm going to continue absorbing hard and fast evidence about her and refrain from spouting off about how badly I too wanted to see a good ole slug-fest in the Senate.
Nice end-run George, you made everyone scramble on this one, and that's exactly how it should be.
That's it for now, more in a bit, maybe just more quick hits, maybe something more substantial. Seriously though, scroll back up and watch that Shining trailer, it's good.
--Jason
Posted by JasonColeman at 5:52 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
October 10, 2005
More to come
I took a pause from blogging a few weeks ago, no real reason, just things went a different way in my life for a while. HOWEVER, over the next few days I'll be working on quite a bit of material that I've been sitting on for some time.
Most important of which is my recent trip to New Orleans and other Katrina devastated areas, I've got over 3 gigs of video to convert and edit, nothing too too amazing, just things that were important to me.
I didn't go to New Orleans to be some sort of "citizen journalist" or for the purpose of breaking anything new. I went because my grandfather needed help, needed someone to do the things that he couldn't in wake of the devastation and damage. I went because it was the right thing to do and someone needed to do it, that person just happened to be me.
I couldn't go without taking time to see the effect on New Orleans for myself, and with my own eyes. It's obvious that the media dropped the ball big time when it comes to reporting the TRUTH of the New Orleans situation and the Hurricanes effect on the Gulf Coast in general. I needed to see my hometown one last time for myself, see the homes I grew up in, the schools I attended and the grounds I stomped.
So those readers that have stuck around, stay tuned. I don't promise anything Earth-shattering, but I do promise an honest first-hand account of what things are like now.
More soon, but for now I'm trying to beat back a fever and finish coughing up the rest of this nasty stuff I breathed in whilst I was down there.
--Jason
Posted by JasonColeman at 10:07 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
