Iranian hard liners funding Kerry campaign

Regime's apologists pay to boost Kerry among Iranian-Americans

Some of the well known, US based, Islamic regime's apologists and lobbyists have mobilized in order to boost Senator J. Kerry's Presidential Campaign among the Iranian-American community. In that line, paid interviews with their controversial leaders or TV advertisements for Mr. Kerry, with two of the Los Angeles based TV networks, such as "Tamasha" and "Channel One", and "Radio 670 AM" have started since mid-September. But contrary to these three non scrupulous and money oriented networks, all the others, who have a sense of integrity, have rejected the substantial offers made to them.

I have more to say here on the issue:students blast Kerry

Iranian Americans for Kerry. The students are not very fond of these guys. There is a list of what Kerry's intentions towards Iran are.

Roger L. Simon gives us a pointer. Thanks!

Iran Going to the Top of the List

Syria seems to be having trouble keeping the Iranian surrogates in check in Southern Lebanon. Perhaps the job is being given back to the Israelis prepratory to America taking Iran.

A logical move if we are going to see action in November or December. Or any time in the next year. The Syrians are not known for being an especially mobile force so it will take time to reposition, build new facilities etc.

It all points to Iran going to the top of the list.

But I must say the spped of Assad's decision surprised me. Action must be on the near horizion.

The New Middle East

A response to the Bush UN speech:

Without a change in strategy and tactics by the administration, Iraq will be an unavoidable Topic A at the president's annual U.N. speech again next year, with little likelihood of a more stable and secure nation, or world.

I'm in total agreement here. George now has Syria shitting in Baby Assads boots while he is licking George's and saying yassah massah what ever you wants.

So what other fundamental change needs to take place to secure Iraq? Look at a fookin map. Get educated in strategy at least. It can tell you a lot about what is likely to happen next. Now it is American doctrine to avoid as much as possible any deep reliance on intentions. What we look for are capabilities.

What is the American military capable of? Baghdad in 3 weeks? With no help from the locals except passive.

Now look at Iran. We will get active help there. Think: the battle front in France August 1944. Think Mousolini hung out to dry in a gas station. We got the pictures to prove it.

People tell me the Iranian armed forces are much tougher than the Iraqi version. Couldn't say. Not my area of competence. What you are not factoring in is that the Iraqis even if worse were not also fighting a rear guard battle against the citizens of its nation. The Iranians will do no better than the Iraqis and may do worse.

So what is Iran capable of? Scud type missles with chemical warheads? Won't help. It will just piss people off. Merciless muslims who attack women and children. That is going to win friends. In fact it is just those kinds of policies (no respect for the conquered) that made all who came under the sway of the Germans and Japanese in WW2 enemies. There may be 1.5 billion Muslims. As of now you have at least 3 billion enemies. And then the USA and Israel. World powers. How does Israel qualify as a world power? Brains. That is all it takes. America does it even better. We have brains, the best Navy in the world and the US Marines. You know. The guys who gave victory to an outgunned John Paul Jones. No better friend, no worse enemy.

Americans bring order, a chance to do business, and no requirement to remain a Muslim. Whiskey, democracy, sexy. We got what sells.

Pretty soon you ME guys will be behavin just like Americans: work all day, boogie all night, and double on the weekends.

The French should be havin 1/2 so much fun.

BTW hear about the new Euro Peace Force? In the requirements document it shows the need for one aircraft carrier. Neglecting to mentiion that to keep one at sea requires one in port retraining and refitting and another in port getting overhauled. Now who has 3 carriers to spare? What European nation or group of nations? (did I mention the requirement for interoperability? that leaves the Russians out). Hmmmmmmm. Fantasy. Or perhaps they were expecting something from Uncle Sugar? You know I think they have a problem in not making their request known far enough in advance. I think the dance card is filled for quite a few balls not just the next few dances.

--==--

My day is made. Faust replies to (aproximately) what I posted above.

Kerry 'n Me

With a new Swiftie ad coming out about Kerry and his Paris honeymoon I thought I would present a little personal history.

In 1971 I was a leftist. Anarcho-communist type (a mass of contradictions there eh?). So when John Kerry spoke about his plan for ending the war it seemed reasonable. I mean who of a certain age wasn't anti-war then?

And then came 30 April 1975. The not unexpected end. Just as John and Jane and a million others including myself desired. Whew. Finally over.

And then the rumors of the re-ed camps (John said it wouldn't happen), the rumors of slaughters (John said it wouldn't happen), the boat people (which John never predicted), the killing fields of Cambodia (which John never predicted). Say you know John and my own gullability led me astray.

And to all the people hurt and murdered because of my stupidity: I am deeply sorry.

Now even Jane Fonda has given some kind of half assed apology. Why not John? Unable to learn from your mistakes John?

So any way. On a very personal level I am not too happy with Johnny the K.

News from the Front

Another Faust War Story:

What bodies?

Where the hell are all the bodies?" Daniel said.

"What bodies?" the officer replied.

Netscape/CNN has it

Netscape/CNN is reporting the Lockhart involvement.

But Joe Lockhart denied any connection between the Kerry campaign and the papers supplied to the network by the Bill Burkett, the former Texas Army National Guard official he telephoned at CBS' suggestion.

Joe is leaving out the very important point that Edwards was giving speeches the next day just on the say so of Dan Ratther. I covered it here in Now we know why

I'd say this aspect of the story can't hold up for more than 24 hours.

#@%^&#@!^&*$# Reuters

In an earlier post I got this story from Reuters:

Rueters today has it in their www edition as a top story.

Dan Rather, the anchor and top CBS newsman, who faces heavy criticism over the network's decision to air the story, was also not available for comment, his office said.

Bush has never fully accounted for his service during the Vietnam War, when he was given a coveted place in the National Guard while many of his peers were drafted and sent to fight in Vietnam.

The matter has dogged him during earlier political races but became more prominent this year as Kerry emphasized his own service as a decorated Navy officer during the war.

The four memos aired by CBS, purportedly written and signed by the late Air National Guard Lt. Col. Jerry Killian, said he was under pressure from his superiors to "sugar coat" Bush's service record after Bush, then a Guard pilot, was grounded for failure to perform up to standards or to take a physical.

As you can see Reuteurs is repeating the charges. The charges that have all been repeatedly refuted and the only shred of credibility they have is from the now discredited documents.

I should be thankful the first half of the story got it right.

#@%^&#@!^&*$# Reuters

Credibility is critical

You can get a lot of mileage out of one Reuters story:

Aly Colon, ethics group leader at the Poynter Institute for Media Studies, said if that is the case, CBS News may have crossed the line.

"Credibility is critical to journalism and anything that a journalist does that raises questions ... about the integrity of the process undermines or potentially undermines the credibility of the report or the integrity of journalist bringing the report," Colon said.

Excuse me Mr. Credibility but Dan Rather has been a big time Democratic fund raiser for quite some time.

Funny none of the ethics people noticed it until now. The system is corrupt. Top to bottom. Fortunately it will get cleaned relatively quickly now that the problem is evident. There is real money at stake.

On the internet the cost of advertising is going down and the effectiveness is going up because the audiences are calibrated almost in real time. Content and advertising are automatically intertwined.

Greed will do the rest

Yesterday the USA today revelation that the Democratic party was directly involved with Rathergate was all over the blogs and thouroughly thrashed out and today other leads are being chased (who is Lucy Ramirez?).

Rueters today has it in their www edition as a top story.

I'd say 24 hours delay is just about the right length of time to give a .99 confidence level. Could the MSM be getting smarter? Let us hope so. They have been caught flat footed on Rathergate and Christmas in Cambodia. FOX is eating their lunch. Greed will do the rest.

Ain't capitalism and competition wonderful?

I've got a secret

The Power and Control folks have asked me to set up a service to aid all those news organizations in search of a story.

We have your secret. Secret memos. Secret plans, secret organizations.

We can provide you with any of those and more. All secret and all conveniently unsourced. Is the USA going to war with Bessarabia? We have the plan. Sending more troops to Iraq just before pulling them all out? We have the plan. Attacking Saudi Arabia from Moon Base Alpha - we definitely have that plan. As you can see we specilize in the plans of the USA but we also have other secrets. Did you know about the Niger double cross of the Italian agent with the French paper work on the Iraqi uranium sales? That was one of our best jobs. Proof? They didn't even mention our name. We have the documents including a sworn statement by Chirac denying everything except the visit to his mistress. Saddam shipped his WMDs to Canada? We can prove it. Whatever your needs in the way of secret documents we have them. And we promise to never ever reveal our sources or where we buy our fonts.

Our planners are busy night and day so you don't have to be. Secret memos - we got 'em. Secret forged memos - overstocked - they are on sale, this week only.

Now as a general rule we prefer to work for Republicans. However, our #1 rule is - show us the money. Money rules. We can't be Republicans without it. However, rich Democrats like Kerry, Edwards, and Michael Moore are always welcome. Provided they act like big spending big shots. I am not interested in cut rate Democrats. At all.

So come on over and place an order. Business has been good, but hey. It could always be better.

Iranian Students Blast Kerry

'sharp criticism of Senator John Kerry, in reference to his declared "Iran policy"'

The article goes on to discuss Kerry's plan for giving Iran nuclear fuel.

Iran has stated that as soon as it has nuclear weapons it plans to nuke Israel. Evidently Kerry is just trying to help them along. Such utter madness.

Well I'm sure that as soon as this becomes an "issue" Kerry will issue a clarification or ammendment, or a different policy all together.

This is telling:

"They tried to scare us, before the elections, by threatening with a costly frivolous law suit, but the Movement's sense of responding to its duty has made them look like poker bluffers caught with a bad hand. Now they're counter sued."

"The funny point is that at this time, it seems that it's our lawyers who have to chase Mr. Nemazee in order to try to bring him to depose in the Dallas Court.

The infamous Mr. Nemazee. I have more to say about Mr. Nemazee's Iranian and Kerry connections here.

Live a life worthy of Heros

Live a life worthy of Heros

via Stryker

American ME policy by an expert on the ground

It's Faust again. I know he plagarizes some times. But it is an addiction. I can't help myself.

A choice quote:

The US is going to pull back and re-position for Iran and we will finish the Sunni population if we need to do that around Fallujah. You only survive because we allow it. If we dispense with any inhibitions you will be pigs for the slaughter.

You have no more chance than the Sioux and the Cheyenne. If you have anything to say. Say it soon.

You are about out of time. Decency is a luxury. Our decency is all that ever stood between you and the grave.

Blood sports in time of war. Ugly. Necessity.

These people think they know who Faust is. In any case there is a delightful bit of Faust that has been making the rounds posted here. You out to read it.

Here is a sample:

You are Arabs and you produce nothing of any value..not politically, or socially, or economically, or philosophically.

You are a dead society with dead values.

That isn’t a racist statement. Its an autopsy of your culture.

And I don't hate you, I just don't want you to rot in my gutter so I have to smell it. Go someplace else to die.

This guy is a Faust fan too. He has more links.

Winners have an air force

And no matter how horrific the terrorist attack, it's conducted by losers. Winners don't need to hijack airplanes. Winners have an air force.

By PJ O'Rourke - the finest Jewish libertarian humorist in America.

Well I was kidding about the Jewish part. Still it is a tour de-force. Read It All. (RIA). He explains American Foreign Policy. My shortened version:

America, which had carriers named Hornet and Wasp has a very simple foreign policy. Don't fook witd us or we start smashing things. Up to and including atoms. But I like PJ's explanation better. Same smash 'em mentalitty with more irony.

Building a better alliance?

By destroying current alliances?

The Captain has it.

The news from Australia?

Diana Kerry, younger sister of the Democrat presidential candidate, told The Weekend Australian that the Bali bombing and the recent attack on the Australian embassy in Jakarta clearly showed the danger to Australians had increased.

They have more to say here:

Asked if she believed the terrorist threat to Australians was now greater because of the support for Republican George W. Bush, Ms Kerry said: "The most recent attack was on the Australian embassy in Jakarta -- I would have to say that."

Why is John Kerry doing the work of America's enemies? Why is John telling those willing to help to go home? I'm not just questioning John's judgement.

I'm questioning his patriotism.

Rather mAPES CBS News

Rather mAPES CBS News

Well ain't it the truth?

Powerline has some of the latest plus links to re-caps

and another

The Captain gets some shots across Mape's bow

Steyn says today what I have been saying for a week

Here is a recap of my points on co-ordination between Rather and Kerry/DNC.

To WIFR

This is a letter I wrote to our CBS affiliate:

Rather is an embarsment. It is a wonder you guys can keep a straight face when delivering the news.

But I have a suggestion. To enhance Dan's credibility why not get Joe Baker from the Rock River Times to write Dan's copy? The stories would be no less credible but certainly more interesting.

Perhaps CBS needs a new motto. How 'bout "Unfair and Unbalanced". Kinda catchy and it covers a relatively underserved (until now) market segment. Keep up the good work.

M. Simon

BTW for those not local: Joe Baker of the Rock River Times is a writer for our local free weekly (a paper I write for from time to time). Joe is an excellent drinking partner and a good guy to hang with at Frank's (The Times Publisher) parties. But his writing tends to the uncharted territory side of reality. i.e. a not so secret cabal of Cheney, Haliburton, and the neocons is out to rule the world.

More Smoke and Methanol

I originally got this published at Winds of Change and the Rock River Times around 20 May 2003.

And still the portable fuel cell energy revolution is just around the corner. The problems are still numerous. Lack of pulse power capability. Relatively high temperature for inclusion in electronics. The fuel is poisonous and corrosive.

So what is happening? I'd say my prediction of 2006 is still on track. More prototypes have been developed but actual production still seems a ways away. It is hard to tool up when you still haven't ironed out all the bugs.

Toshiba has some neat graphics. No products so far.

Here is a Hitachi press release from the end of 2003 predicting 2005 availability. Ha.

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

Not every alternative energy press release is for real, which is why I call this piece Smoke and Methanol.

Toshiba announced in March a methanol powered fuel cell that it claims will be the battery technology of the future. It will have a life of hours instead of minutes when used to power a lap top. In addition recharging or rather refueling will take seconds not hours. A similar cell used for cell phone operation might give days of use and hours of talk as opposed to the minutes we get today. There is one little problem with this technology. It is not real.

Oh you can go to the Toshiba web site and see all kinds of pretty pictures and an impressive list of specifications. Still, there's one specification that you do not get to read until almost the bottom of the page. It says that they hope to have the device in production by 2004.

The key word is hope. Not will, hope. My guess is that they will not be producing a viable product until 2006 at the earliest. You can get anything to work in the lab. You can always have engineers and technicians baby a few copies of a research model. Production today, however, requires a whole different level of control of the production process. You want 99% or better good devices coming off the production line. Otherwise you've designed a production process that produces scrap.

When you have a technology you're sure of, you announce a sale date. When it's iffy, you announce a hope by date.

There's a lot of this sort of thing going on these days. The hydrogen economy, fuel cell powered transportation, solar powered houses, solar water heaters in Northern climates, small scale wind turbines. The list is very large.

Why are we continually seeing these technologies touted when they are not ready for prime time? Many reasons. Let's cover a few of them....

The first reason for the hype is the early adopter. This is the guy that will pay any amount of money or put in the effort to make up for a lack of money to have a solar powered house. Or a battery powered car. This is your enthusiast or hobbyist. Good for getting things going and providing a technical base but economically and energy wise s/he is insignificant.

Then there is the niche market. A place where the high cost of a new technology is not a barrier. Typical of this situation is the cabin or house located a few miles from the nearest utility line. Say a utility wanted $100,000 to get power to your new house. Even at today's prices you can buy enough equipment (solar cells, wind turbines, batteries, and power converters) to make your own electricity at that kind of capital cost. It will require some extra effort for maintenance but other than that it makes economic sense.

Then there is the case of companies like Toshiba who want you to remember their brand. Making announcements of wanted but non-existant devices amounts to free PR. Smart. Very smart. For Toshiba.

Finally we come to the pick pockets. These are the guys who want government to pick your pocket and give the money to them. Being such high minded, idealistic, and only tying to help type folks that they are. Now perhaps this makes some kind of limited short term sense for research, pump priming, or the like. The problem is that business does so much better at this than the government. Let us look at the solar water heater subsidy of the "energy shortage" days of the late 70s and early 80s. Every body and their brother in law was building these contraptions. Fly by night outfits were installing hundreds of thousands of these units. They didn't work well. They didn't last long and for the most part they were an energy drain not a resource. Congress then dropped the subsidy, most states dropped their subsidies and the industry basically died. Today if such installations make any economic sense they do so not as retrofits but as an integral part of a house's or building's design and construction. What the subsidy did was to ruin a small but viable niche industry by pumping panic money into it.

Natural organic growth is better for both plants and factories. Force feeding can lead to death.

Head of the UN - a man without a country

As is my won't I'm writing a headline from the future. It all starts with this story (cribbed from Insty actually it was Roger L. Simon [other than the middle initial and last name - no relation]) about Iran. Iran is considering putting one of its top mullahs up for Secratary General of the UN.

This is a very smart move by Iran to try to head off an American attack which every one knows is coming. Would America really attack the country of origin of the head of the UN? Yes.

It also points up Iran's weakness. They don't yet have any nukes. Otherwise such heavy political jujitsu would be unnecessary. This is a sign of military weakness but political strength.

My guess is that Iran has bought enough European countries so that they might very well succeed in getting President mullah Mohammad Khatami of Iran elected Secretary General. So what would the world be like with a UN head repudiated by his own country? I'll tell you what it would be like: Very interesting

Re-inventing the Wheel

This is another of my energy articles. Published at EV World and Winds of Change plus the Rock River Times.

I have some ideas for energy storage along these lines, plus a few other energy related projects. Drop me a line or leave a message in the comments if you are interested in such a venture.

There is a huge market for battery replacement in telco central offices. Some one should get on this.

--==--

Every one needs storage. I'm not talking about that garage so full of stuff you have to park your car on the street. I'm not talking your refrigerator with the half filled bowls in the back that are so full of life. I'm not even talking that closet full of clothes that will get worn again some day.

What I am talking about is energy storage. This is a problem that has sofar proved so difficult that there has been no wide spread solution. This is about to change on a number of fronts. Let me tell you about one of those fronts, mechanical energy storage - the fly wheel.

Mechanical energy storage is just now coming on the market. This type of energy storage is not new. But, the current designs take this technology to a whole new level. One of those levels is space. Up till recently most satellites used batteries to store energy for those times when the solar cells couldn't produce enough electricity for the satellite. Times like when the satellite was passing through the earth's shadow. Batteries in space have the same problem as batteries on earth. They wear out after about 1000 heavy charge/discharge cycles, and while they are wearing out their capacity is continually reduced.

To the rescue comes the high speed flywheel. These are not your ordinary metal flywheels either.  These flywheels run at 100,000 RPM and are made mostly of plastic and carbon fiber. They do not use ordinary bearings because they would wear out too fast. They use magnetic bearings which have no contacting parts. In addition the satellites use the gyroscopic forces generated by the flywheels to orient them to the receiving stations as the satellites rotate about the earth. With no air in space the main source of friction other than bearings is eliminated. The life of these flywheels is estimated at ten to one hundred times that of the batteries they replace.

This technology is now being brought to earth by such companies
as:

Magma

AFS Trinity

A site (the Solar Biz) that claims it will be selling flywheel storage in 2004. Some one needs to tell these guys 2004 is almost over. This is like the early days of the computer revolution. Lots of vaporware. Some one needs to step in and start cranking this stuff out. There is a market.

The technology has advantages over batteries other than life. One of the advantages is that you don't have to replace worn out batteries. The flywheels also need no maintenance for their life. Both very important in space. Another advantage is operation at full capacity over a wide temperate range. Batteries are most comfortable at room temperature. High temperatures reduce their capacity some and low temperatures reduce their capacity a lot. Charging and discharging batteries also reduces their capacity. Flywheels are much less limited in these respects. Another advantage of flywheels is the fact that they contain no large amounts of nasty chemicals and toxic or dangerous metals. Flywheels can also be recharged rapidly without significant increases in losses and there is no wear out mechanism from repeated deep discharges as there is with current chemical batteries. Flywheels also have a ten to one weight and volume advantage over lead acid batteries, the most cost effective batteries for stationary energy storage.


The disadvantages of the flywheel are several. The first and most serious is that if one fails the release of all the stored energy in a fraction of a second is explosive. The second disadvantage is the flywheel effect. These two problems are solved by using the flywheel only for stationary applications and burying them in the ground. What is cost effective and useful for a satellite is not so good for a car. But might be good for the home, factory, or office.

The third problem is cost. Right now the lifetime costs for a flywheel system makes them attractive for those who already must use a large number of batteries for energy storage. Telephone companies, cell phone base stations, and cable television operations will be the first targets for flywheel storage. Currently flywheels cost two to five times as much initially as an equivalent battery system. This initial cost is earned back over time by the elimination of replacements and maintenance. However the costs are declining. In five years costs are estimated to be one fifth of what they are now. There also technical problems to be overcome, one is the relatively high energy losses over time. You lose about two percent of the stored energy every day with current technology. However engineers are confident that they can reduce this to a few tenths of a percent a day or less.

The advent of cheap reliable dispersed "electrical" energy storage will make intermittent sources such as solar and wind economically feasible. In addition storage can be used for load leveling, eliminating peaking charges for businesses that have a lot of motors with their high starting currents. With reliable short term energy storage we get a lot more effective generating capacity without adding any new generating plants.

DOE pdf study of energy storage

Energy Storage Association - this page is about flywheels but they cover it all including batteries and super capacitors.

Here is a proposal for a pulsed power system for Naval Ships. Hmmmmm.

Argone is doing some interesting work in the field

M. Simon is an industrial controls designer and Free Market
Green

(c)2002 M. Simon - All rights reserved.