COUNTERCOLUMN: All Your Bias Are Belong to Us

Yes, Kennedy was a sociopathic drunken ass who killed a young woman in the prime of her life. But he's sufficiently liberal, so it's ok.

UPDATE: Link fixed.

Labels: Eleanor Clift, Newsweek, Politics, Ted Kennedy, The Left

Crossposted from Althouse's comments on this post:

Any libtard who blindly asserts that 'torture doesn't work' is a half-witted, naive little panty-waist talking out of his ass.

Torture works. It always has. The threat of torture works. It always has. Not in every single instance with every single suspect, but damn well enough and consistently enough.

Here's where the typical pony-tailed pinko tries to assert "yeah, it's effective at getting the victim to say what he thinks the torturer wants to hear."

That's because the libtard shitbird is an amateur, and he read about torture committed by amateurs, and therefore, in his ignorance he cannot conceive that other people are professionals.

Torture is extremely effective at extracting confirmable information, where the victim cannot be certain that the information is not already known to the interrogator, and where the detaining power is sufficiently brutal - or is perceived to be sufficiently brutal - that the victim has a reason to believe that his lot will become substantially worse if he is caught in a lie.

This is not difficult to do where the detaining power is organized and disciplined about tracking information received and shares it among the interrogators, carefully keeping track of known and unknown, confirmed and unconfirmed information.

In some cases, less intense forms of interrogation are effective BECAUSE more brutal interrogations were performed on others, and the subject of the less intense interrogation has no idea whether the first guy broke or not - but must assume he has.

I keep seeing libtards argue crap they don't understand till they're blue in the face.

There are legitimate moral arguments why we should not practice torture - putting aside definitional problems. But every time some ignorant fool argues that it just isn't effective, he makes an utter clown of himself.

Labels: detainees, ethics, The Left, War on Terror, Warfighting

Behold the depths of libtard stupidity:

"Look at Canada," says Charles Krauthammer. "Look at Britain. They got hooked; now they ration. So will we."

So do we. This is not an arguable proposition. It is not a difference of opinion, or a conversation about semantics. We ration. We ration without discussion, remorse or concern. We ration health care the way we ration other goods: We make it too expensive for everyone to afford.

In case you missed it, Ezra - or his editors determined to dig his hole for him, entitle his piece "We ration. We ration. We ration. We ration." Hey, libtard! You wen' foget one "We ration!"

Here we have the modern libtard - and in this case, the leading public polemicist for PelosiCare - a man who cannot discern between a rationing system under a command-control economy and a free-market system. Either he's bone stupid or the intellectual dishonesty of the left has descended to unheard-of depths.

If a free-market system is "rationing," then the term has zero meaning whatsoever. We ration fuel, we ration rubber, we ration access to golf courses, movie theaters, restaurants and fruit cocktails. We ration coffee and sugar and turnips and peas. We ration newspapers and Internet access. We even ration sex, and favor people who are attractive. RATIONISTS!

This is the kind of obtuseness the left is reduced to. Up is down, left is right, war is peace, free markets is rationing, and 2 + 2 = 5. But each one of these statements is equally false, and for the same reason.

Fortunately, Reason Magazine is on the case:

Like most left-leaning folks, Klein clearly doesn't know the definition of rationing. Take this one from Britannica:

Government allocation of scarce resources and consumer goods, usually adopted during wars, famines, or other national emergencies.

The entire Washington Post editorial is a disaster. The whole thing is predicated on a falsehood. I've never seen such a decisive editorial FAIL before it even gets started.

I've often said - and I never have time to build the case anymore - but I've often said that any screwed up shit-for-brains lefty with a knack for turning a phrase can secure some prime real estate in our high-gloss media. For a conservative to get the same shot, he has to be five times smarter than the liberal competing for the same space. Ezra Klein utterly beclowns himself here - and scores the WaPo. Megan McArdle, love her or hate her, can think circles around Ezra Klein and Andrew Sullivan combined. If she was as hopelessly lost as those two, AND a libertarian/sort-of-conservative, she would NEVER have gotten her gig at the Economist, OR The Atlantic.

Wow. We even ration Op-eds.

Klein. Clown.

Splash, out

Jason

Labels: bloggers, Ezra Klein, health care, Politics, stupid, The Left

A long-time reader writes in:

Several very disturbing things have happened in the last few days, the aggregate of which will be to either disembowel or corrupt the output from our intelligence apparatus.

- First, there's the shameful release of a classified report that even Obama appointee CIA Director Leon Pannetta has eloquently argued against on the grounds it will undermine the foundation of trust between CIA patriots and their government. http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=8398902
- Second, there's AG Eric Holder's announcement that not only will he seek to prosecute intelligence employees for doing their jobs, but that he's selected a prosecutor to head that investigation that has already displayed a bias against the intelligence apparatus and its professionals in the past. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/24/AR2009082401743_pf.html Can you say "Witch Hunt"? I knew you could. Holder has displayed a preference for the rights of terrorists to get access to our court systems over the rights of Americans to continue to live.
- This leads to the third, disturbing occurrence, the WH creation of a unit that will supervise all high profile interrogations. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=112169988 This is upsetting on multiple counts. First it displays unparalleled WH micro management of the intelligence process. Second, we now have an "Interrogation Czar". If this is under the WH auspices like all the other Czars, will they claim executive privilege in keeping out congressional oversight to a degree never imagined even by those who criticized the Bush administration? Finally, this office will work from the FBI, under the same Eric Holder who doesn't seem to care for our anti-terror fight, displays a preference for terrorists' rights over Americans' civil liberties, has displayed animus against intelligence professionals, and who thinks a law enforcement approach to countering threats to our nation is preferable to a military one even though that's the mindset that led to all the terrorist attacks under Clinton and to 9/11.

Ironically, what these things mean is that, intentionally or unintentionally, the White House is going to gain much greater influence over the intelligence that comes out of our agencies, in a way that vastly overshadows anything the Bush White House is alleged to have had, and that the left railed against. Remember the meme that the Bush WH was trying make the intelligence fit what they wanted to do? Can you imagine what will happen under this WH when the it is seen as being so intensely involved in management of the intelligence apparatus by those inside it?

One has to wonder whether these acts are to intentionally weaken our intelligence apparatus, intentionally control it, or unintentionally destroy it through liberal naivete.

I confess I hadn't thought of that last issue. But I think the reader makes an excellent point - when intelligence product is manufactured by the pols at the White House, and not by a separate agency of careerists that must answer as much to Congress as the Presidency, how can ANYONE trust that the product is free of political taint?

Labels: Intelligence, Obama, War on Terror, Warfighting

Massachussetts, Irish Republican Army Mourn Passing of Sen. Ted Kennedy ...

Democrats Rush to Honor Kennedy with "No Waitress Left Behind" Act ...

Kennedy Allies to Slip Reduction in Statute of Limitations for Vehicular Manslaughter Into Omnibus Bill ...

Proposals to "Lose Iraq in Kennedy's Memory ..."

Congressional Dems Aim To Pay Tribute to Kennedy by Outlawing Care He Received ...

Never did learn how to pronounce "Alito." ...

In Ironic Twist: Kennedy's Final "Code Blue" Went Unreported for 12 Hours ...

Kennedy To Be Buried at Sea - In a 1960's Model Oldsmobile ...

Developing ...

Labels: Congress, Countercolumn News Ticker, Humor, in memoriam, Politics

The VA tells 1,200 veterans they have Lou Gehrig's Disease - by mistake.

Hilarity ensues.

Labels: health care, soldiers' issues, stupid, VA, veterans

Turns out when these guys aren't infecting veterans with Hepatitis C, and letting legitimate VA disability claims go unprocessed for months and months on end, they're giving out $24 million in taxpayer money to government employees in efficiency and performance bonuses.
Quick! Let's put the federal government in charge of health care right away!

Splash, out

Jason

Labels: Government, soldiers' issues, VA, veterans

The latest episode of WeeWee's Big White House Adventure features our hero, St. Barry, Partner of God in Matters of Life and Death, lashing out at reform opponents (e.g., people who can read) for spreading "outrageous myths" concerning his health care plan.
Which myths? The Senior Partner(TM) specifically mentioned abortion, claiming that the bill will NOT allow for public funding of abortions. The problem: Not even the Associated Press believes him.

Associated Press, August 5, 2009 -- Gov't Insurance Would Allow Coverage for Abortion

Health care legislation before Congress would allow a new government-sponsored insurance plan to cover abortions, a decision that would affect millions of women and recast federal policy on the divisive issue.

Federal funds for abortions are now restricted to cases involving rape, incest or danger to the life of the mother. Abortion opponents say those restrictions should carry over to any health insurance sold through a new marketplace envisioned under the legislation, an exchange where people would choose private coverage or the public plan.

Abortion rights supporters say that would have the effect of denying coverage for abortion to millions of women who now have it through workplace insurance and are expected to join the exchange.

The predictable leftard argument is that Congress is insisting that abortions will not be paid for using tax dollars, but premium dollars. This is a distinction without a difference. Utterly dishonest. They pretend that money is not fungible. Government subsidizes the plan, the plan pays for abortions.

Obama also claimed that the plan would not fund benefits for illegal immigrants. If this is true, why did the Democrats in Congress vote, by party line, not to check patients for eligibility to prevent this very occurance? Obama also claimed that the "Death Panel" rumors are false. Not even the New York Times is signing on to that piece of tripe anymore.

New York Times: A Basis is Seen for Some Health Care Fears About the Elderly.

White House officials and Democrats in Congress say the fears of older Americans about possible rationing of health care are based on myths and falsehoods. But Medicare beneficiaries and insurance counselors say the concerns are not entirely irrational

Bills now in Congress would squeeze savings out of Medicare, a lifeline for the elderly, on the assumption that doctors and hospitals can be more efficient.

Obama. While he's spending precious political capital on anything but shoring up support for the War in Afghanistan, he is squandering it here at home, using his bully pulpit not to beat down Al Qaeda and the Taliban, but to beat down his fellow Americans.

Obama. Everything he says about health care reform is a lie, except for "if," "but," and "the." And I'm not so sure about "the."

Labels: Abortion, Afghanistan, Democrats, health care, immigration, Obama, stupid, The Left

I made the mistake of giving the libtards too much credit for honesty and judgement. I had thought they were being truthful about not covering illegal immigrants under ObamaCare.

Turns out that that's not true, either. The libtards are bound and determined to allow even illegal immigrants to suckle at the public teat.

Health reform legislation, particularly H.R. 3200, contains a number of provisions that open the door to taxpayer funding of immigrants’ health care. That’s for illegal aliens, legal aliens who are supposed to rely on their sponsor for financial assistance their first five years here, and certain immigrants who sponsor other immigrants.

In brief:

Despite nominally barring illegal immigrants from receiving a health-insurance subsidy, an amendment to require that applicants be screened for eligibility — as are all other welfare recipients — was rejected on a party-line vote.
Even legal immigrants whose sponsors are supposed to provide them financial support would be eligible for taxpayer-funded subsidies.


Certain legal immigrants who qualify for premium subsidies or expanded Medicaid would also be able to sponsor new immigrants, whom they would have to pledge to support.


Illegal immigrants would be exempt from the legal mandate to have health insurance, but they’d still receive taxpayer-funded medical services at health clinics and hospitals required to serve all those presenting with medical emergencies.

So they have carefully left the back door sitting wide open - and voted overwhelmingly to keep it open - for illegals to steal health care from the American taxpayer. (Indeed, in a way, they might have to. If the libtards get their way, they will make it illegal for illegal immigrants to buy their own private health insurance!)

They do all this - on a party line vote - while simultaneously trotting forth their leaders to claim that the ObamaCare will not cover illegals, KNOWING DAMN WELL THAT IT WILL.

There is simly no negotiating in good faith with the current crop of libtards. They will lie to your face. They'll sabatoge and undercut their own legislation. They'll search your court records and divorce proceedings if you get in their way.

Nothing is beyond the pale for these people.

Splash, out

Jason

Labels: Congress, Democrats, health care, insurance, Obama, stupid, The Left

Remember when your music composition/arranging professor told you to avoid parallel fifths?

Send him this.

Labels: Dolores Keane, Music, Scotland

Remember when the leftards got the vapors when Colin Powell's office outed Valerie Plame to the press when they thought it was someone other than someone in Colin Powell's office?

Yeah, I remember that, too.

Now the ACLU is spying on CIA operatives outside their houses, and showing their photos to Al Qaeda operatives in Gitmo to identify these covert operatives by name so they can be subpoenaed.

When you get their fundraising envelope in the mail, send it back with no donation... just a copy of this article.

Splash, out

Jason

Labels: ACLU, Gitmo, law, stupid, War on Terror

The LA Times looks at the decline of the porn business in the San Fernando Valley.

I was particularly impressed with this gem: "I'm happy for the production, but I feel bad for exploiting the girls' situation."

Honorable mentions for Best Lies from the porn industry:

"You can make 100,000 per year camming from your living room" and "Fuck me with that big white cock."

Labels: Humor, Los Angeles Times, Porn, women

When it looked like the Achille Lauro terrorists were going to go free - terrorists who had only killed a handful of people, Ronald Reagan dispatched the U.S. Navy to intercept the airplane flying them home, over international waters, forced the plane down, and brought them to justice.

At 5:30 P.M. on Thursday, October 10, President Reagan was aboard Air Force One, returning to Washington, D.C. from a speaking engagement in the Chicago area, when word reached him that the terrorists were getting away. He authorized the carrier USS Saratoga, patrolling the Adriatic Sea, to put seven F-14 Tomcats into the air. Their orders: divert the Egyptian aircraft to a NATO base at Sigonella, Sicily. The appearance of the Tomcats unnerved the EgyptAir pilot, who compliantly altered course for Sicily. He had no way of knowing that the American "top guns" had orders to refrain from shooting down the 737 without direct instructions from the president.

Initially the Italians were not disposed to cooperate, scrambling their own warplanes to prevent a landing at Sigonella, but after a call from Reagan, Italy's Prime Minister Bettino Craxi gave permission to land. The American plan was to load the Palestinians onto a U.S. military aircraft and transport them to the States. But when American troops encircled the 737 they found themselves surrounded in turn by Italian soldiers. Italy had decided that since the Achille Lauro was an Italian vessel, the hijackers should be tried in Italian courts. The terrorists faced charges of premeditated murder, kidnapping and hijacking. When Reagan called Craxi this time, the Italian leader wouldn't budge -- Abul Abbas and his cronies would remain in Italian hands. After Arafat threatened *uncontrollable reactions" if the Italians turned Abbas over to the Americans, Italy refused a U.S. request to extradite the terrorist leader. Abbas was soon freed. In 1986 the four hijackers were convicted and sentenced to long prison terms,

The American public emphatically approved of the bold mid-flight interception of the Achille Lauro terrorists. Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak decorated the 737 pilot and demanded an apology from the United States. Reagan vowed he would never apologize.

When Scotland let the Lockerbie bomber go free - an ogre who murdered hundreds - Obama, the Apologist-in-Chief, dispatched a letter expressing "disappointment."

Splash, out

Jason

Labels: Great Britain, International relations, justice, law, Obama, Scotland, terrorism, War on Terror

Libtards say that a public option would not eliminate private insurance companies from the field, but would compete with them, keeping them honest.

This is bullshit. First of all, a public plan would pay no income tax. This alone would be a decisive blow to the private sector. But on top of that, they would face zero cost of raising capital, zero reserve requirements, and an implicit government guarantee. We all know how that shit worked out over at Freddie and Fannie.

The libtards say that the public option gives consumers more choice. No, once private insurers throw in the towel, consumers will have LESS choice, and fewer options, not more. What options are left will be MORE expensive, not less, because of adverse selection.

The libtards, including the WeeWee in Chief, point to the Post Office as an analogy. But I still stand in line at the Post Office, and adverse selection does not apply to the parcel industry.

Splash, out

Jason

Labels: health care, Obama, Politics, stupid, The Left

The most maddening aspect of the whole health care debate for me is the utter willingness of the libtards to lie wholesale about EVERY ASPECT of the debate. The intellectual dishonesty... the flagrant intellectual dishonesty - goes all the way up to the top. To the President, to Speaker Pelosi, and to Harry Reid.

This alone, regardless of the merits of the policy objectives themselves, is a powerful reason to fiercely oppose this legislation. The lies have been so frequent, and so egregious, that there is simply no way to reason with the current crop of libtards in control of Congress and the White House and their noise machines. You cannot take them at their word. You cannot assume that your words will be honestly taken. Instead, the libtards in charge, unfortunately, have made it so that the default position for opponents of PelosiCare must be that every thing they currently offer in compromise is a lie, and a trick. They are utterly devoid of reason and utterly without honor.

The fish rots from the head down:

President Obama himself claimed that he never said he was in favor of a single payor system. That was a flat-out lie: He is on tape saying precisely the opposite a couple of years ago.

The entire libtard-industrial complex is saying that Palin was referring to end-of-life-care consultations, and threw them out of the legislation as a sacrificial lamb. Unfortunately, too many hopeful idiots believed them. But it was clearly a big lie. Palin wasn't referring to the end-of-life consultations, but to the various boards and commissions that MUST be convened in order to rationally allocate scarce health care resources. THESE are the "death panels," and Palin had it precisely right. The entire bill will turn the Health and Human Services department into one big 'death panel.'

Nancy Pelosi is calling soccer moms and grandmoms speaking out against the measure "nazis," and "unamerican."

This was too far even for the Obama Administration (though they may well have privately encouraged her bomb-throwing.)

Following the attack on a black conservative, caught on tape at a St. Louis Town Hall, the leadership of the SEIU issued a press release claiming their own members were attacked - and edited out a section of the video showing a witness screaming at a Union thug "you attacked him!" They kept the audio, but since the video proved them to be liars, they edited it out.

Now that Palin has come out swinging on tort reform, the "operative statement" on the left is that malpractice costs do not contribute to high health care costs - an assertion that would be laughable in any other context, but with so much at stake, it's not laughable - it's sinister, maddening, and Orwellian.

Obama continues to insist that the bill will be revenue neutral, despite the findings of the Congressional Budget Office. Obama's White House made no attempt to rebut the

Obama claimed that for those making less than $250,000 per year, our taxes would not go up one dime. But many of those makeing less than 250k per year are small-business owners, and Obama is now advocating an 8%-of-payroll tax on any businesses that do not offer group health care benefits.

This 8% is either going to come directly out of health care benefits for workers, as small-businesses punt their private insurers, or it will come directly out of small-business-owner income, be it 10k or W-2 income.

Obama is claiming "you won't have to wait in any lines!" But this isn't even true of the Post Office, and it's CERTAINLY not true of the VA health care system.

Obama claimed no one will be forced to buy coverage. But he also claimed he wanted a system with "everybody in, nobody out."

Obama claimed you'll be able to keep your insurance company. This is a flat-out lie. First of all, workers who get their health care from their employers will get booted from their plans by the millions as smaller companies drop coverage to save costs and move workers to the public option. Some states require group insurers to issue an individual policy, but not all.

Further, if Obama gets his way, adverse selection will cause millions of healthy workers to move to the public option, leaving private insurers with a pool of sick people. Premiums must rise to compensate for the deteriorating risk pool, which further accelerates the adverse selection problem. Private insurance risk pools will quickly collapse. This isn't just theoretical bullshit: It will happen as surely as night follows day.

The '47 million uninsured Americans' claim is itself a lie: The figure includes millions eligible for Medicaid and millions of illegal immigrants. The damnable thing is we've known this figure to be false for years, and yet the libtards STILL embrace it.

The libtards, including Obama himself, have claimed that federally-funded abortions would be excluded by the plan. This is also a lie, and the President continues to lie about it. He is totally two-faced: He will tell libtard audiences that "reproductive care" will be covered, but tells centrist audiences that there is no language in the bill specifically including abortions in the list of covered services. If the President is appointing people who populate the 'best practices' boards, then they are going to cover abortions. This is obvious to most intelligent people, but Obama continues to try to play both sides - and continues to lie to all but Leftard America.

The leftards continue to claim that the UK spends less with better outcomes than the United States. But the UK lags significantly behind the US in the metrics that actually count: The 5 and 10 year survivability rates of people diagnosed with various dread diseases. Why? The UK sharply restricts access to newer drugs and treatments - to save money. Why? Because the UK, like all socialist systems, has appointed a Death Panel, called NICE, whose job it is to rationally direct scarce resources to where they will provide the most value.

The leftards continue to claim you can be 'dropped for a preexisting condition.' This is also a lie. Under just about any state law I'm aware of, an insurance company cannot target an individual, in-force policy for a rate increase because he or she has developed a preexisting condition. They can adjust rates on a class, or a group, but typically not an individual.

Yes, you can drop someone for letting his or her policy lapse. That's life among grownups and it's true for Medicare, as well. (That's what disability income insurance is for: Everyone who can qualify should have enough disability income insurance to cover health premiums, in my book. The LAST time you want to be lapsing your medical insurance is right when you lost your job because you are sick or hurt.)

The libtards are still arguing that preventative care reduces costs, overall. Idiots who don't take time to think about the mechanics of the plan take them at face value. But preventative care does NOT save money, in the aggregate. Some screens are expensive, and where positive results are rare, they can very easily lose money, in the aggregate. This is well-documented, but obvious to anyone who gives the issue more than a moment's thought.

The ONE thing the libtards aren't lying about now, is that illegal immigrants are not going to be covered under the bill (except, of course, for point-blank emergencies that no doctor in good conscience could turn away.)

This is a disappointment to the cheese-eaters at NPR, who wrote a story, in all seriousness, headlined "Health Care Overhaul Ignores Illegal Immigrants."

No doubt the bastards will try to Rahm that through in the reconciliation commitee.

Splash, out

Jason

Labels: Congress, health care, NPR, Obama, Pelosi, Politics, Reid, stupid, The Left

...Full of grace.

Update: Barak atah adonai eloheinu melech ha'olam shecheyanu v'kiy'manu v'higyanu lazman hazeh.

Labels: health care, Obama, Religion

Obama's administration can't handle the logistics and pay the dealers what they were promised - even after the dealers in good faith fronted their customers the cash.

The Feds have only made good on about 2 percent of the deals so far.

But don't worry. We'll have oodles of doctors and clinics lining up to do business with a government insurer. None of them will quit in disgust just when demand surges because of the perception that medical care is free.

Idiots.

Labels: business, cars, Economics, Obama, stupid, The Left

So he says on Professor Bainbridge's blog.

Heh.

I swear, you can be the dumbest, most ill-informed twit on your block, and you can get on as a columnist in a major U.S. daily. Conservatives - those few left in journalism, have to be three times smarter than libtards to write a column.

Labels: stupid, The Left

No, really.

Last year, bureaucrats at the VA's National Center for Ethics in Health Care advocated a 52-page end-of-life planning document, "Your Life, Your Choices." It was first published in 1997 and later promoted as the VA's preferred living will throughout its vast network of hospitals and nursing homes. After the Bush White House took a look at how this document was treating complex health and moral issues, the VA suspended its use. Unfortunately, under President Obama, the VA has now resuscitated "Your Life, Your Choices."

Who is the primary author of this workbook? Dr. Robert Pearlman, chief of ethics evaluation for the center, a man who in 1996 advocated for physician-assisted suicide in Vacco v. Quill before the U.S. Supreme Court and is known for his support of health-care rationing.

More ...

I was not surprised to learn that the VA panel of experts that sought to update "Your Life, Your Choices" between 2007-2008 did not include any representatives of faith groups or disability rights advocates. And as you might guess, only one organization was listed in the new version as a resource on advance directives: the Hemlock Society (now euphemistically known as "Compassion and Choices").

This hurry-up-and-die message is clear and unconscionable. Worse, a July 2009 VA directive instructs its primary care physicians to raise advance care planning with all VA patients and to refer them to "Your Life, Your Choices." Not just those of advanced age and debilitated condition—all patients. America's 24 million veterans deserve better.

Thanks to the Sainted General Shinseki.

Don't worry. The Democrat leadership in Congress is hard at work on a plan to include veterans in the Cash for Clunkers program.

Splash, out

Jason

Labels: culture, disabilities, health care, soldiers' issues, The Sainted General Shinseki, VA, veterans

A threat to all of us.

Labels: stupid

This song - as I'm apparently the last f***ing Guardsman to learn - was written by a twelve-year-old daughter of a National Guardsman and her 16-year-old sister.



I think they did a wonderful job, don't you?

P.S., The price of peace is steep. Freedom, on the other hand, costs a buck-0-five.

Splash, out

Jason

Labels: marketing, Music, music business, National Guard, public relations, reserve issues, soldiers' issues

The slip jig by the same name isn't bad either.



Splash, out

Jason

Labels: fiddle blogging, Ireland, Music

Written during the Viet Nam war by S.L.A. Marshall and David Hackworth, this excellent tactical treatise is still a must-read for cadets, midshipmen, lieutenants, captains and beyond.

Just too good to exerpt; if you have an interest in warfighting at the unit level, where the rubber meets the road, written by a true master of the art in COL Hackworth, then read the whole thing.

Splash, out

Jason

Labels: Hackworth, infantry, tactics, Viet Nam, Warfighting

DEAD!

Labels: culture, health care, Obama

...Because Les Paul has left the studio.



A thousand times more influential than Michael Jackson could ever be, and he won't get one one thousanth the media coverage on his passing.

Rest ye well, sir. And thanks for billions of musical memories from

millions

of musicians you touched.

Labels: Arts, culture, guitar, in memoriam, Music, music business, recording

Are we capitalizing the word "veterans" now, too?

Mr. Black-Berets-From-China, now the Secretary of Data Security Breaches Veterans Affairs appears in -- wait for it -- The Huffington Post.

What's next? Tom Daschle writing about health care in Mad Magazine?

Labels: generals, soldiers' issues, The Sainted General Shinseki, veterans

Phony doctors

Labels: stupid, The Left

According to an oh-so-unscientific Facebook poll, 93% of respondents say YES!!!

I say, BE CAREFUL!!!!!

This is an issue where conservatives should tread carefully. It's very easy to paint yourself into a corner here. For example, are we prepared to let children of casual pot-smokers starve because mom lit up a joint a week ago?

No?

Are we then willing to throw these kids into the foster system the moment mom shows up hot on a piss test to collect her food stamps benefits? Maybe for crack or cocaine, sure. But marijuana? Is breaking up the family ALWAYS going to be the best thing for the children?

No?

Then any conservative - or anyone else for that matter, who votes YES on this poll ought to be ready to give an answer: What are we going to do with food-stamp dependent children of casual pot users?

For drug users with no children? Hell with 'em. But for the ones with? Beware the law of unintended consequences.

Yes, I realize you need to pass a drug test to get a lot of jobs. But if I tested hot on a drug test, my prospective private-sector employer is just gong to deny me the job. Not break up my family.

Go VERY slowly here... and don't let politicians or anyone else demagogue this issue.

Splash, out

Jason

Labels: children, Crime, culture, drugs, law

Haven't seen a talking plant like this since Steve Martin starred in Little Shop of Horrors.

Labels: culture, health care, The Left

Obama: "I have not said that I am a supporter of a single-payer health plan."

Obama to an SEIU gathering: "I happen to be a proponent of a single-payer universal health care plan."



"Hello," he lied.

Labels: Obama, stupid, The Left

Michael Jordan. OODA-Loops.

Discuss.



What can you tighten your OODA-loop - at Brigade level? At Battalion level? At company level? At platoon-level? At squad-level?

Verily I say unto you: Counterguerilla operations - at the TACTICAL level, are won with extremely tight platoon-level and company - level OODA loops. At the STRATEGIC level, you have to have a tighter OODA-Loop all along the spectrum.

This is easy to say, but extremely difficult to do in practice.

Labels: Basketball, Boyd, Sports, Warfighting

This is pretty cool!

The Internet has taken a lot of the paperwork out of banking, but there is no avoiding paper when someone gives you a check. Now one bank wants to let customers deposit checks immediately — through their phones.

USAA, a privately held bank and insurance company, plans to update its iPhone application this week to introduce the check deposit feature, which requires a customer to photograph both sides of the check with the phone’s camera.

“We’re essentially taking an image of the check, and once you hit the send button, that image is going into our deposit-taking system as any other check would,” said Wayne Peacock, a USAA executive vice president.

Customers will not have to mail the check to the bank later; the deposit will be handled entirely electronically, and the bank suggests voiding the check and filing or discarding it. But to reduce the potential for fraud, only customers who are eligible for credit and have some type of insurance through USAA will be permitted to use the deposit feature. Mr. Peacock said that about 60 percent of the bank’s customers qualify.

Innovation is a good thing! I wasn't too impressed with New York Times's line: "USAA is an unlikely innovator."

What the hell does THAT mean? USAA isn't from New York, Connecticut or California? Just why IS USAA an unlikely innovator, in the eyes of the NY Times?

No word on what the fee is, if any. It would seem that this would be much cheaper than processing a paper check.

Splash, out

Jason

Labels: banking, finance, insurance, soldiers' issues, USAA

If you're considering the CIA as a career, I'd stop considering it for a while - at least until this wrecking ball of an administration is turned out of office.

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed has a reliable ally in this Administration. The guys we asked to get information out of him to save thousands of other lives? Better get a good lawyer.

Splash, out

Jason

Labels: CIA, Intelligence, justice, law, Obama, War on Terror

"'Tis but a scratch!"

A BRITISH soldier who had part of his leg blown off by a landmine is preparing to return to Afghanistan to settle “unfinished business” with the Taliban.

Private Matt Woollard, 20, is expected to be the first British infantryman to return to the front line after being fitted with a prosthetic limb.

Woollard, a member of 1st Battalion, the Royal Anglian Regiment, lost his lower right leg after setting off an insurgent bomb while on patrol near Kajaki in May 2007. His heart stopped three times while he was receiving treatment.

“I want to get back and do what I was sent to Afghanistan to do in 2007 — take the fight to the Taliban,” Woollard told The Sunday Times.

We have footage:




But read on, and look what's buried:

The mounting casualties come amid concern among senior officers that some of the mines and explosives used in the Taliban bombing campaign are coming from Iran. Their fears appeared to be backed by statements from Dennis Blair, America’s director of national intelligence, confirming that Iran is supplying Afghan insurgents with weaponry.

In a statement to the US Senate intelligence committee, obtained by the Secrecy News blog last week under freedom of information rules, Blair said Iran was covertly supplying weapons to the Taliban while publicly supporting the Afghan government.

“Shipments typically include small arms, mines, rocket-propelled grenades [RPGs], rockets, mortars and plastic explosives,” said Blair. He added: “Taliban commanders have publicly credited Iranian support for successful operations against coalition forces.”

British military intelligence sources were more cautious. “It is an undefined amount of explosives that has come in from Iran,” said one source. “But, yes, there is concern that some of the mines and explosives the Americans are talking about may have been used in the Taliban bombs.”

Impossible!!! The Taliban are Sunni radicals!!!! The Iranians are Shia!!! It's impossible for them to even be in the same zip code without spontaneously combusting!!!! Bush lied!!! People died!!!!!


Splash, out

Jason

Labels: Afghanistan, Monty Python, soldiers' issues

Obama, Chicago machine thug that he is, doesn't want the opposition to be doing a lot of talking.

Yeah, he want us to shut up.

Here's my response:



Tiochfaidh ar la!!!!

Jason

Labels: culture, health care, Ireland, Obama

There seems to be a mini insurrection at the SEIU's website, as a number of member workers write in objecting to the bald-faced lie being progated by the union leadership that it was a union member and reverend from a local church who was attacked.

As a former member of SEIU, I am embarrassed and ashamed to see events like this. Clearly, it was people in SEIU T-shirts who attacked this man, who was doing nothing more than exercising his 1st amendment rights. Having participated in SEIU events, I was aware of the practice of 'importing' professional protesters, to give the union an appearance of strength. I never agreed with those tactics, and I certainly disagree with the methods employed by SEIU at the St. Louis County Town Hall Meeting.

Someday, maybe Americans will wake up and realize how you guys prey on honest, hard working people in order for you to profit personally from their efforts. I hope so. I did and am, therefore, a 'former' member. I'll most certainly never again be a 'member', and never want to be associated with any organization so intent on suppressing the constitutional rights of individuals, for the good of the Union bigwigs.

SEIU members should settle for nothing less than the removal of union leadership. It's the only way for this corrupt body to get its honor back at this point.

Splash, out

Jason

Labels: culture, health care, labor, Obama, SEIU

The Service Employees International Union has, amazingly, released a statement claiming that their thugs didn't attack a tea-party-style protester, but it was the tea-party protesters who attacked them!

St. Louis - Today, the SEIU Missouri State Council released the statement of Executive Director Brandon Davis:

"Last night, in St. Louis, a Reverend and SEIU member was assaulted at a town hall dedicated to discussing our national healthcare crisis. The incident, along with a town hall in Tampa, Florida, has been all over the radio and cable news shows. GOP operatives are rushing to paint it as SEIU thug violence. That couldn't be further from the truth.

"In fact, the Reverend, a St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporter, and others who attended in hopes of a peaceful dialogue about our nation's healthcare crisis, endured the latest attempt by right-wing fringe groups to hijack the democratic process through violence if necessary. Last night, the Teabaggers' violent tactics broke and dislocated the shoulder of the Reverend.

Most tellingly, the SEIU has already produced a video attacking what their juvenile press office refers to as 'teabaggers.'

Watcb tbe vid at the Michelle Malkin link. Watch the end closely. It shows an SEIU member on the ground. The audio continues, though, with a witness yelling "you attacked him" after the video fades to black.

Why?

What are they trying to conceal?

"You attacked him for no reason!"
"He attacked America!"

Here's an idea:

You could cease patronizing SEIU establishments, but that signal is pretty indirect and tough to do in some areas. If you must visit an SEIU establishment, don't tip SEIU employees. Instead, hand them a note telling them exactly why you're not tipping them, and what union leadership has to do to restore them in good graces: retract this press release, apologize to Kenneth Gladney, and cease sending goons to intimidate Americans.

Splash, out

Jason

Labels: culture, health care, labor, law, public relations

...then who will answer the call?

It's official. The U.S. is no longer engaged in a "war on terrorism." Neither is it fighting "jihadists" or in a "global war."

President Obama's top homeland security and counterterrorism official took all three terms off the table of acceptable words inside the White House during a speech Thursday at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank.

"The President does not describe this as a 'war on terrorism,'" said John Brennan, head of the White House homeland security office, who outlined a "new way of seeing" the fight against terrorism.

The only terminology that Mr. Brennan said the administration is using is that the U.S. is "at war with al Qaeda."

I guess his pal Bill Ayers put him up to this.

Splash, out

Jason

Labels: foreign policy, language, Obama, The Left, War on Terror

Scratch a liberal, you'll find a fascist.

Labels: Obama, The Left

In order to more fully portray the vileness of the assault on democracy being propogated by Nancy Pelosi and the White House communications office, I'm going to discuss it in the context of this great Norman Rockwell painting, Freedom of Speech.




The painting depicts a 1940s version of Everyman: a working man, by his tidy but informal presentation, and the lean strength of his frame. He could well be a farmer - Rockwell frequently portrayed Middle America in his art. Note the wear and tear on his hands - aged well beyond his face. The figure has a bill or program or agenda in his pocket, and is looked up to and apparently admired by the citizens - citizens - surrounding him, young and old alike.

The painting, for those who may not be aware, was one in a touching series of paintings depicting the Four Freedoms as constructed by Franklin Delano Roosevelt: Freedom from Fear, Freedom from Want, and Freedom of Worship were the others.

Now, when you or I see this painting, we see an admirable figure, a leader, a great American. We see a citizen speaking his mind, an American posessed of the God-given, inalienable right to freedom of expression. We see discourse and debate. We see what America is all about.

The modern Libtard, represented by Nancy Pelosi and the White House Press office, sees a manufactured mob.

This is pure poison. Pelosi and her enablers have simply declared rhetorical war not just on the Republican party, but on the electorate itself.

Their attitude is nothing short of a big 'F***k You' to the American people. I cannot overstate how vile and dangerous modern libtards are. They need to be opposed at every turn. They need to be made to feel the heat until they see the light, or driven from office. They are bigger enemies of America than McCarthy could ever dream of being. For all his faults, at least McCarthy loved his country and the things that made it great.

You and I look at this painting and see America.

Pelosi and Obama see a threat.

Splash, out

Jason

Labels: Arts, culture, health care, Obama, Pelosi, Politics, Rockwell, The Left

The New York Times Public Editor looks into how the Times ran an article with seven factual errors in it.
Not a huge deal in my book. Just an interesting look at how the sausage is made.

It's amazing to me how newspaper folks can be ready to commit sepukku over trivial shit like whether Cronkite was 64 or 65 years old when he retired, while at the same time glossing over the institutional biases that lead to David Carr mis-analyzing the entire war - and then not giving a shit, Purple Stars, Congressional Medals of Honor for Songwriters, Sadr Stupid, and this whole bag of shit.

Splash, out

Jason

Labels: New York Times, The media