The left has always been violent

The left has always been violent. Lenin showed how a small disciplined group of violent revolutionaries could take over a country. The left loves this shit.

Having been a far-lefty in my youth I can vouch for its attraction. I used to count a number of the members of "Up Against the Wall Mother F******" as my friends. They were a street gang into political intimidation.

The right in America is a status quo party (well slow change - this is America after all) the left the party of change. Now these days with almost every one getting a piece of the pie rocking the boat is not very popular.

So if you can’t get revolution by popular acclaim how do you get it?

Violence.

The above screed was brought to you by the Union thugs making a little girl cry.

Vote like an Egyptian?

"Leading writers from Egypt's most prominent government papers such as Al-Akhbar and Al-Ahram have been particularly vocal in calling for Kerry's victory.

The Egyptian press is rabidly anti-American. Kerry of course (according to views held in certain quarters) is the most anti-American candidate. So it all seems to fit.

Go ye and vote accordingly. Or else just be perverse and vote as you damn well please.

Are we losing the war?

The question is actually where.

The Captain has a few things to say plus reports from the field about where we are. It is mostly good.

good reports in the comments section at Belmont Club

Liberating Iraq is a font of goodness. So this is the main link.

Lt. Smash has this from a Marine major

I will add more links to the good news over the course of the evening.

The real question is "where are we losing the war?" and the answer to that is in Dan Ra^ther's newsroom. Now the fact thathe is being kept busy for the next week or two with memos will keep fighting off the front page.

No matter how hard Kerry tries to get it back.

By the time The Document Swindle has died down the news from Iraq ought to be much better.

So to answer the question: only in the press. And steps are being taken to redress the balance.

The #$@%^&*&#@* bozos

Besides working hard to lose an election Kerry and the Dems are working hard to lose the war.

Giving away secrets to the enemy.

This is such unbelievably bad judgement you have to wonder what he is thinking. Is he trying to give away plans so as to get our troops killed?

This ought to be good for a five point drop. Minimum.

By the time this is over Kerry may have trouble breaking 30%. And he will deserve it.

(via Drudge)

Mountain Disappears, N. Koreans explain

The Marmot has some further thoughts on the mountain missing in North Korea

The Whole World is Watching

Making a little girl cry.

This is so vile it has to be seen to be believed. And the goon who did it is smirking.

Wake up guys. As we used to say in the 60s:

The Whole World is Watching

the original AP story

(via instapundit)

Beating the OODE cycle

Suppose the other guy's OODE (observe, orient, decide, execute) cycle is faster than yours. How do you defeat him?

Make sure his observations are faulty. That way a faster cycle will insure a quicker defeat.

All warfare is based on force and misdirection. - if SunTzu didn't say it he should have.

The Sullivan Howler of the day

Sullivan is talking about the Bush media cocoon and finishes with this little gem:

But if the voters realize at some point in this campaign that the president is simply living in a dreamworld, they might vote for someone who, for all his faults, is at least able to recognize reality.

(bolding mine-Simon)

The man whose brain was seared in Cambodia recognise reality? That Andrew sure knows how to tell them jokes. He could do stand-up in front of any Bush crowd. Provided he got his timing right.

--==--

BTW normally I don't visit Sullivan on a regular basis. Credit where due: wretchard sent me to Sullivan with this well reasoned rebuttal of Sullivan's points as opposed to my attempt (glad you liked it) at comedy

Did some one leak Kerry's talking points to Sullivan?
Kerry, addressing National Guard veterans in Las Vegas, said Bush was the one ``living in a fantasy world of spin'' and failing to tell the truth on Iraq.

Insty links

Mader makes some very good points

What can we do about wars?

Andrew Sullivan says: Just tell the truth, Senator. And expose the incompetence of this administration's war management. Every day.

Uh, Andrew. Wars are never competently managed. Projects can be managed. People can be managed. Why - because those involved have a common goal.

Wars cannot be managed because there is active and relatively unpredictable opposition. Even if you know what the opposition can do the actual mix of possible actions is always in doubt.

So what can we do about wars?

Win them or lose them.

Instapundit links

Letter to Sullivan

Uh, wretchard has a much more "nuanced" view of the war than Kerry.

The Belmont Club on War Progress

Is it possible that Kerry is conflating difficulties (common in war) with failure? Say didn't he do the same in Viet Nam? Reversion to form I'd say.

Blogs I like - you know its obligatory

Al Maviva

Al Maviva - Ratthergate mad like every one else. Otherwise a good place to visit on military matters.

Joe Katzman - Winds of Change. Joe carried a lot of my stuff before I started blogging. 11 Sept 2004. Lots of stuff on the nature of addiction which I will eventually post here.

The Death of Socialism - the best political article I've written to date - beyond personalities into the forces of History. Joe posted this 16 May 03. It also appeared in the Rock River Times

Shoot the Journalist Again

Uh, Oh. It looks like my favorite commenter on the Arab scene has found some documents he rather likes. And with very minor alteration quoted them as if they were his own. Kind of a forgery of a complaint about forgery - and other stuff.

Here is the Ralph Peters original (he has always [since 9/11/01] been one of my favorites and deserves credit.

Guess I won't be quoting Faust much any more.

Faust on Rathergate

CBS lied. The sad thing is that they just might be able to stonewall America. But stay tuned on the forgeries they may yet find the source in the Democratic nest. And I do think Dan Rather and others will be fired for knowingly issuing forgeries and trying to influence a Presidential election by fraud. Somebody at CBS and in the Democratic Party may get jail time from this.

That's network news, folks. Defend forgeries. Defend "journalists" who support terror. Let our soldiers die. Let the American people rot. And trash our president in wartime.

No wonder al-Jazeera and al-Arabiya get away, literally, with murder. We have FOUR MORE YEARS of President Bush though. A lot can happen in four years. Ask Afghanistan and Iraq.

Where is the meaning?

So far the bloggers have been excellent in tearing down Rathter. Attack journalism at its finest.

I fear bloggers in general do no better than mewspapers in extracting meaning from events.

Like how did McCain/Feingold pave the way for current events.

So caught up in the news that the story is missed. The revolution still has a ways to go.

No Law?

Children or Adults?

See BS?

Campaign finance "reform".

Congress is actually innocent. We the people begged for it.

We can't stand the nasty elections. Protect us we said. From all that political nastiness.

We are well protected now. Real well protected.

Government is on the job.

We'll beat Rather bloody. Take no prisoners. Way more fun than changing laws.

No Law

Amendment I

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of
religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or
abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the
right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition
the Government for a redress of grievances.

==

Now what parts does campaign finance infringe upon?

abridging the freedom of speech
abridging the freedom of the press
abridging the freedom to petition the Government for a redress of grievances

So where are the lawyers?

Busy chasing Rather? Swell. Just swell.

Children or Adults?

We see it in operation in Ra^thergate.

Campaign finance laws created the problem. Do we blame our politicians and the laws they made - no - never! It is all Dan's fault. Sure.

Just like all the criminalty during alcohol prohibition was cause by Al Capone and his fellow "businessmen".

Capone was operating in the business model Congress designed. We chaned the business model and the Capones large and small disappeared over time.

Campaign "finance reform" has done the same for free speech. Only "news" organizations ar unrestricted. So who do parties turn to when they want to speak by the law prevents it? They turn to the one area with no restrictions. Congress has gone a long way towards corrupting the "news". Just as they gave Mr. Capone quite a bit of help.

Now the question is who do you blame for the mess of alcohol prohibition? The children blame Al Capone, the adults blame Congress?

So where are the adults in this crisis? Are they all too busy chasiing Dan to see the cause of the problem? Give me a holler if you find any more than this one out there.

What do you want to bet that the congressional answer is more laws and more restrictions and more guardians? Whatever happened to No Law?

John Kerry's Iranian Connection

I'm going to look into this some more as soon as I know something(I now know a few somethings). I will say something. More to say below. In the mean time linkage:

The Freepers are at it again
Front Page covers Hassan Nemazee
Crush Kerry has it

Clinton names Hassan Nemazee Ambassador to Argentina. I wonder if its the same guy? Yep. However, the Senate in its infinite wisdom (well pretty good this time) blocked the nomination. See. It is not just judges who have trouble.

These guys I trust. Students

Hassan is Fighting Free Speech - is this a broken record? Probably went to the same school as Ra^ther. Here is some daming stuff from this link:

Kerry says:

“As president, I will be prepared early on to explore areas of mutual interest with Iran, just as I was prepared to normalize relations with Vietnam a decade ago.” And most notoriously, his staff sent out an email that somehow made its way to the government-controlled Mehr News Agency in Tehran, where it was trumpeted as evidence of his resolve to patch things up with the mullahs. “It is in the urgent interests of the people of the United States,” the message read, “to restore our country’s credibility in the eyes of the world. America needs the kind of leadership that will repair alliances with countries on every continent that have been so damaged in the past few years, as well as build new friendships and overcome tensions with others.”
Kerry’s camp professed puzzlement over how this email made it to Tehran. Initially, a Kerry aide dismissed the story as “just a hoax.” But this pose proved impossible to maintain. Kerry’s senior foreign affairs advisor, Rand Beers, later admitted that the message was genuine, saying: “I have no idea how they got hold of that letter, which was prepared for Democrats Abroad. I scratched my head when I saw that. The only way they could have gotten it was if someone in Iran was with Democrats Abroad.” In light of the ties between the AIC and the Democratic Party, that possibility is at least open to question.

Hoax e-mails? More evanacent than hoax documents. But even electrons leave trails.™

Jeeze did I read that right? Are we back in the jungles of 'Nam again? Did Kerry/McCain sell out the POW/MIAs to make a deal? Some think so (please provide links in the comments). What is he prepared to sell out re: Iran?

Will we ever get out of 'Nam? As far as this vet is concerned (Tonkin Bay Yacht Club '66) not until 03Nov2004. Minimum.

The site is a little hard to read but I got this neat bit from it (there is some corroboration from the above sites for this opinion):

It seems incredible that John Kerry would sell out America's safety and security in the world for Nemazee's blood money. But don't take our word for it. Read John Kerry's own e-mail sent by his campaign to the governing Mullah's in Iran: "It is in the urgent interests of the people of the United States to restore our country's credibility in the eyes of the world. America needs the kind of leadership that will repair alliances with countries on every continent that have been so damaged in the past few years, as well as build new friendships and overcome tensions with others."

IAPAC - Iranian American PAC - Namazee is a Trustee
The Board of Trustees are supporters of IAPAC whose purpose is to promote the goals of the committee and solicit funds on its behalf. Trustees must agree to the mission of IAPAC and be willing to raise a minimum of $10,000 annually for the committee. The Board of Trustees shall consist of a maximum of 50. Trustees shall elect the Board of Directors and provide general counsel to the Board and corporate officers to serve the best interests of the committee.

The Freepers are at it again. Nemazee, Barnes, and CBS all connected:

[S]everal donors, who spoke to CBS News on the condition of anonymity, said that the money was being carefully tracked by the Kerry campaign, most likely for recognition should Kerry win the presidency. In a sign of the campaign's involvement, last week's Leader Board memo was sent around by the Kerry campaign itself.

CBS knew that Kerry campaigners had already taken a large interest in keeping track of the big-money contributors, and Beth Lester specifically mentions Barnes: As of last week, according to information received by CBS News, 20 donors have given and/or raised more than $250,000, enough to earn them the designation of Trustee. Of those, eight have actually raised more than $500K. Those half-millions include Texas lobbyist Ben Barnes, Wall Street financier Stan Shuman, Iranian American PAC Board of Trustees member Hassan Nemazee and Texas lawyer Mark Iola.

Something from the tinfoil hat brigade? Maybe. Citizen Journal:
Amidst the buildup to the Republican National Convention in New York City this week is Democratic Vice Presidential nominee John Edwards presenting on behalf of Democratic Presidential nominee John Kerry a bold foreign policy stratagem: appeasement.

The Egoist blogged it in May

The only new link from the Egoist is this one but it is really good. Full of much linkage: the Students again.

KOS has a few words most of them good for Nemazee.

In 2001, at the invitation of Mobil Oil Chairman Lucio Noto, whom he counts as a "personal friend," Nemazee joined the board of the American-Iranian Council (AIC), a U.S. lobbying group that consistently has supported lifting U.S. sanctions on Iran and accommodating the Tehran regime. Nemazee tells Insight he "now regrets" having joined the AIC board and resigned his position after 12 months when he was vilified by Iranian exile groups.

Funny thing is IAPAC still has him as a trustee if you can count their www site. I wonder if there is a connection?

This investigation shit sure is interesting.

Thank to Joe over at Winds of Change for the link.

Credit Where Due

The nice little "Jamies Brigade" bit was done by:

Suzy Rice

More wind: I was wrong

I'm tired of politics for a few minutes so let us talk about wind, taxes, politics and capitalism. A welcome change from politics no?

Link to Wind in Rockford - the previous in the series

--==--

I was wrong to endorse the Federal Government subsidy for wind energy production. I was wrong because it is not a subsidy. It is a production tax credit. It is a tax reduction. As a tax reduction the money does not flow to Washington and back with the usual bureaucrats getting their cut.

The money stays with the people who took a risk and produced the wealth. Congress has extended the tax credit for at least two years. As far as I'm concerned it can last until wind electricity unsubsidized matches the cost of other energy sources (about three to five years). Now I admit it is a distortion of the tax system. Like a balloon if you push it in one place it expands in another. The problem here is the size of the government. The less air there is in the balloon the less it expands when squeezed. And as we all know from filling out the forms this year that those guys in Washington really want to squeeze. Not only that but the forms were so complicated that even Einstein couldn't figure out the "simple" forms from his day. It is not just the money (it's the money), it's the agravation.

Now many of you alternative energy enthusiasts believe that government is the answer to the lack of alternative energy in America. That if we only put a gun to people's heads (government) and extracted a few extra billion all will be well, we will be on the road to energy salvation. We are all good people here (I assume) and would never go over to our neighbors house and put a gun to his head and tell him if he doesn't invest in alternative energy in the correct amounts (given in this here table) that you will confiscate his property. But as soon as we put the government in charge of the guns the transaction becomes clean. I don't buy it. But a lot of people do.

Now of course you will tell me that the government has already distorted the market by subsidizing oil,coal, and nuclear. This may be so. So I ask you. Do you like the gun being put to your head to make you support something you don't believe in? The answer here is to remove the subsidies. Limit government to it's constitutional function of keeping the peace, and let the people (who are smarter than the government) go back to making decisions on how best to spend their own money. It may take a while to get to that point but it is way more moral than putting another gun to people's head. If we really believe in living in harmony with the environment we cannot morally achieve that end by coercing people with the power of government guns to achieve our ends.

Nobel Prize winning economist Milton Friedman estimates that if government was limited to it's actual constitutionally limited functions the American economy would be growing at 10% a year. Think of the resources available for wind, fuel cells, solar and all other kinds of good things with out the weight of government on our backs.

Morality aside it won't work. During the last major energy shortage almost thirty years ago a credit was given by the government for the installation of solar hot water heaters. A lot of them were installed in the hopes of saving energy and the certainty of a government tax credit. This lead to a wave of shoddy installations. The solar hot water business has never recovered it's reputation. Too much money chasing too little expertise. Honest growth is organic. You can force it a little. If you try to force it a lot you get death. Too much fertilizer can stunt growth or even kill your plants. The very same is true in an industrial economy.

Now I will grant you that there is enough wind in America to support all it's electrical needs. In theory if we wanted to we could get all our energy from wind in a year. In practice we will be hard pressed to get to 100% in fifty years. We have problems. The first is that it takes time to build industrial capacity. The faster you try to build that capacity the more it costs. If you try to build the capacity too fast the system will collapse. The second is energy storage which I will cover at another time.

From what I know of industrial systems and their rate of growth possibilities I think a feasible rate of growth for wind installations in America is a doubling every year or two until the installed base of wind plants supplies about 2% of America's electrical power. Once the production of wind turbines becomes a significant fraction of GNP the rate needs to slow to a doubling every three or four years. If we try to do much more we will have a lot of wasted production capacity when we have installed near 100% of the useable sites and the demand for them goes down. A lot of people who earned a living will be out of jobs. We want to minimize this.

None of this, however, needs to be explicitly planned. If we keep the government out of the wind market the market will adjust to real conditions instead of manufactured incentives. I still think that even the production tax credit ought to be phased out over time. We don't want to be priming the pump when the flow is sufficient. It is a waste.

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

(c) M. Simon - All rights reserved. (originally published around 2002)

BTW Congress has not passed the PTC (Production Tax Credit) this year. Tell them to get on the stick. Wind is a key component of America's energy future.

Link to the House of Reps - contact your Rep.

Link to the Senate - contact your Senators

Link to the White House - contact your President. If he is not your President, don't bother.

Bush consults with the people

CNN of course says Bush has abandoned his post. In the White House.

Of course had he stayed in the White House he would have been "hunkered down practically in a siege mentality" or something.

Not a bit of bias there. Not a bit of it.