Week That Was?

Surber has it hooked, cleaned and fried.

I’ve added some speedups… particularly, a cache on the server that will hopefully lighten the load on the server and speed up response times.
We’ll see.  Please report any bugs in the comments.

Also, David and Fers; Note the added keyword lines in the editor. This is a direct feed to the search engines, via tags.

Today we honor a member of the US Army’s 5th Special Forces, SFC Frederick Allen, awarded the Silver Star for action in An Najaf, Iraq while working with a detachment of the Iraqi National Guard:Sgt. 1st Class Frederick Allen, a native of Ann Arbor, Mich., was awarded the Silver Star for his actions Aug. 12, 2004, in An Najaf, Iraq.

Project hero, is a worthy attempt on McQ’s part to remind us that we have heroes among us.  Further, that these need to be honored as such.  We at BitsBlog are proud to lend our voice to such a project.

Bill Gertz is reporting:

New intelligence reveals China is covertly supplying large quantities of small arms and weapons to insurgents in Iraq and the Taliban militia in Afghanistan, through Iran.
U.S. government appeals to China to check some of the arms shipments in advance were met with stonewalling by Beijing, which insisted it knew nothing about the shipments and asked for additional intelligence on the transfers. The ploy has been used in the past by China to hide its arms-proliferation activities from the United States, according to U.S. officials with access to the intelligence reports.
Some arms were sent by aircraft directly from Chinese factories to Afghanistan and included large-caliber sniper rifles, millions of rounds of ammunition, rocket-propelled grenades and components for roadside bombs, as well as other small arms.
The Washington Times reported June 5 that Chinese-made HN-5 anti-aircraft missiles were being used by the Taliban.
According to the officials, the Iranians, in buying the arms, asked Chinese state-run suppliers to expedite the transfers and to remove serial numbers to prevent tracing their origin. China, for its part, offered to transport the weapons in order to prevent the weapons from being interdicted.

This is hardly a new situation. Gertz has been beating this drum of Chinese involvement for years, now. There’s much in the way of evidence to back the idea, even absent Gertz’ reporting; China has been the Elephant in the room for a long time now. Consider the source of weaponry, during the Korean and Vietnam conflicts.  Their weapons, such as this copy of an AK 47, have been showing up in Darfur for years. Even in theater, China has a history of supplying arms to the various factions in Afghanistan during the Russian occupation.  That we are, if on a secondary level, seeing their involvement here, should be a surprise to nobody.  The question becomes, what to do about it?

The usual left wing push towards a diplomatic solution, is clearly out of the question.  We are already, supposedly, in full diplomatic relations with China.  Obviously getting them to stop doing what they’re doing, is not possible via these means, or we would have done so some time gone. There is also the question of how much involvement China has been guilty of , and how much difference their involvement makes in the overall.  I’m not all getting a good feel for the volume of Chinese involvement.  Perhaps, that’s by design.
That does not make Chinese involvement in this situation, any less problematic , but it may necessitate a different response, initially.
Wherein lies part of the problems; our initial responses been to do nothing, thus far.  Or put another way we have yet to make an initial response.  The promises of this and previous administrations to quell terrorism and to reprimand its sources, whoever they are, would seem as a matter of logic to apply here.  Yet, they have not.  At least, they have not, overtly as of yet. one of the actions that’s been happening, has been specifically economic.  China’s new pattern of growth, is explicitly dependent upon sales to the United States.  Their economic policies (Example, their undervalued currency) bear this out.
Our destruction, therefore, as a country, would seem in the short term, to be counterproductive to their stated goals. Long term, however, would seem to be another matter.  The Chinese have always taken the long view of both their future and that of the world.  Perhaps this is a function of totalitarian governments; they tend not to be replaced every four years, or so, as they are here in the west, and therefore have the luxury of slow progress.

If anyone wants an answer to the question of what would happen were we to leave Iraq prematurely, one needs only to look at what goes on in Gaza, these days.

Jonah Goldberg at the Corner notes a reader’s thought;

Democrats complain about “income inequality”, and at the same time support importing a bunch of low skilled/low wage workers into the  US.  Huh?

Bill O’Reilly has his No-Spin Zone.  Well it seems that Rosie O’Donnell had her no sex zone.  From Newsbusters:

It seems that Rosie did more on “The View” than lame Donald Trump imitations, belittle Elisabeth Hasselbeck (as well as Republicans in general) and advance ridiculous conspiracy theories that defy logic, not to mention physics. Rosie also controlled the issues discussed on the “The View,” and while she was on the show, certain issues were off limits…like heterosexual sex.

With Rosie a lot of areas were off-limits, like sanity.

The road to Shamnesty may have just gotten a lot tougher.  From the Rocky Mountain News: 

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The U.S. House of Representatives this morning voted to withhold federal emergency services funding for “sanctuary cities” that protect illegal immigrants.

Anti-illegal immigration champion Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., sponsored the measure, which he says would apply to cities such as Denver and Boulder. He was elated by its passage, which stunned critics and supporters alike.

[…] 

The House passed the amendment, 234 to 189, with 50 Democrats voting in favor.

Tom Trancredo has just become main stream.  If Trancredo can get fifty democrates to deny federal funding to sancutary cities, he can get the same number, or more, to deny Shamnesy to illegals.   What say you Trent Lott?

H/T:  Allah Pundit, Hot Air.

Comments by Republican senators on Thursday suggested that they were feeling the heat from conservative critics of the bill, who object to provisions offering legal status. The Republican whip, Trent Lott of Mississippi, who supports the bill, said: “Talk radio is running America. We have to deal with that problem.”

At some point, Mr. Lott said, Senate Republican leaders may try to rein in “younger guys who are huffing and puffing against the bill.”

That, my friends, is from a New York Times article posted this morning. I heard about this earlier in the day and was annoyed I wouldn’t be near a computer for hours, but so it was.

I have spent the day fuming on this one.

Livid.

Hang on tight, kiddies, ’cause Uncle Bit is about to unload.

This blog and most others on the right stuck up for Trent Lott when everyone, and I mean everyone was screaming for his political neck. So, too were the Talk Radio people he now castigates, back in the day. I’m telling you, dear reader, he owes the fact that he is still in the United States Senate today to talk radio and to the right side blogs. It’s that simple.

Lott is now about betraying that trust.

I could almost deal with it if that were the only trust he were betraying, but it’s worse… far worse. First, has anyone noticed that he’s sounding like a Democrat?  I mean, not only in terms of this bill, which clearly is in direct violation of his oath of office, but in terms of who he blames for the bill not being passed; Talk Radio, and the Blogs.  Sounds like the Book of Hillary, Chater 19, verse 27: “It’s all a Vast Conspiracy”

However; If you think about it, the people he’s really blaming, are the voters.  The people.  All Talkradio and the Blogs have done is to inform the American people what this bill is about, and what damage it will do. The real pressure against the Bill was brought by the people. That’s what Lott is really objecting to, here. To my thinking, he’s betrayed the trust of the voters.

Add to that, the idea of a lot has just given the Democrats a weapon to help them push through the ‘fairness doctrine”, again.

I’ve suggested publicly, that this immigration bill being pushed by Mr. Bush, is a move to reveal to the American people just who the RINOs are.  My guess is that Lott has just been so revealed.

Add to that, that Mr. Lott has just been successful in handing the Democrats yet another weapon to help them push their “fairness doctrine” into law. 

Here it is, Gang: There is no such thing as an “illegal immigrant”. Either they are immigrants, who arrived here and live here legally, or they are illegals. The former, are entitled to everything that our society offers, provided that they are willing to become citizens, which by nature of the word, would include learning the language, and adopting the United States, culturally, as well as financially. The latter are entitled to nothing whatsoever.

If Lott can’t understand those basics, he doesn’t deserve the chair he holds, and he certainly doesn’t deserve our trust, either as Republicans, or as Americans.

Am I clear enough on ths?

Lott had no complaints when the people reacted and saved his sorry ass from the Democrats and the nonsense they manufactured over the Thurmond thing.

Now comes the question of why we bothered.

The Associated Press has reported Mike Nifong has resigned:

RALEIGH, N.C. – A tearful Mike Nifong said Friday he will resign as district attorney after admitting that he made improper statements about three Duke University lacrosse players who were once charged with raping a stripper

Nifong might be in tears, but there no tears from my end.  Oh happy day.  

 H/T:  Sister Toldjah.

It seem quite apparent that Dirty Harry Reid slandered Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Peter Pace and the liberal bloggers attempted to cover it up, until tripped up by the blue dress tape.  Read Michael P.F. van der Galiën and note how it so closely it  matches the Clinton style defense:
 

What’s funny is that certain progressive bloggers accused The Politico of making up news. BarbinMD participated in the conference and says that (s)he does not remember Reid calling Pace incompetent. Nor did one of the other participents remember anything like it.

Strange – such a remark, I’m sure you would remember it. Seems to me that these bloggers have made assimilated quite well in the beltway.

“I don’t recall.”

In the post-Clinton world, “I don’t remember”  suffices for a liberal defense.   The Clintons lie with a practiced ease.  It seem some liberal bloggers want to be like the Clintons.

CQ notes, meanwhile that Harry Reid is busy calling our military leaders “incompetent”. It’s called “projection”, Harry. (Video)

As Ed says, correctly:

So Harry Reid, the man who couldn’t get a supplemental spending bill completed in less than 108 days, is calling Pace and Petraeus incompetent.

That’s the same Harry Reid who couldn’t get the Democrats’ “100 Hours” pledges to fruition in over 120 days and counting. In fact, this is the same Majority Leader that has led the least-accomplished session of Congress in a generation.

And just for the record, it’s the same Harry Reid who insisted that he would never bring back the immigration bill if it failed its cloture test — and then tried for a second cloture, declaring that also a “final” action — and lost again.

That’s the man calling Pace and Petraeus incompetent.

I almost forgot — the same Harry Reid who voted to confirm Petraeus in January!

Yes, well, that’s a Democrat for you.

And Geiger, before you start pull this kind of nonsense again, perhaps you’d best do a little fact checking on your own…. Once again, here’s the (Video)

Amazing how quickly you jump on the attack wagon, sans facts. I know better than to ask single brain cell entities like Kos to have the guts to back down on things they get dead wrong.  But I would hope for better from you. When may we expect a retraction from you, Bob?
Others on this story:
Senator Bill Frist, Captain’s Quarters, Daily Kos, New York Times, TalkLeft, BLACKFIVE, Townhall.com, Redstate, Neptunus Lex, The Impolitic, The Carpetbagger Report, Betsy’s Page, The Populist, protein wisdom, ShrinkWrapped, Don Surber, The Jawa Report, Confederate Yankee, Washington Monthly, The Strata-Sphere, Hot Air, Instapundit.com, Brian Beutler, Gay Patriot, INSTAPUTZ, National Review, Power Line, PoliPundit.com, Iowa Voice, JammieWearingFool and Don Surber

The Howard Cosell Award for sheer arrogance in ignorance goes to the Boston Globe:

The Hamas campaign to eradicate Fatah from Gaza is certainly not the sole cause of Gazans’ misery. They long suffered from Israel’s suffocating occupation, and then from Ariel Sharon’s foolishly unilateral withdrawal in 2005, a move that allowed Hamas to bid for power with the misleading claim that its rockets and suicide bombings had driven Israeli soldiers and settlers out of Gaza. Gazans were victimized as well by the corruption and misrule of Yasser Arafat’s Fatah cronies

Alas the poor Palis   The Palestinians are engaged in a civil war because fiirst because of the occupation their homeland by the evil Jews, and second by the unoccupation of their beloved homeland by the same evil Jews.  Sure!

H/T: photo;  Free Repubic; article, James Taranto; Best of the Web..

VIENNA, Austria -AP- Former U.N. chief Kurt Waldheim, who was barred from the United States for two decades after revelations he belonged to a German army unit that committed World War II atrocities, died Thursday. He was 88.

Although it was never proved that Waldheim personally committed war crimes, he left public life beneath a cloud of disgrace and died with his name still on a watch list prohibiting foreigners considered undesirables from visiting the U.S.

It interests me, how often, the word “undesirable” and the words “United Nations” tend to run together. Still, the question becomes whether not there is something of a bias going on here.  Let’s say, for example, that Waldheim instead was being linked to the Stalinists.  One wonders what he’d be getting such negative press, today?  Somehow,I tend to doubt it.

No, Bitsblog has not become a Star Trek board and this is not the latest version of Al Gore.  For those who with the immense good sense not to watch Star Trek: The Next Generation, Odo, pictuired, was a Shape Shifter.

Alas Shape Shifters are not creatures from the realm of pseudo-science fiction, but rather from the realm of politics.

We have always had charlatans.  From John R. Brinkley, the “goat-gland doctor” to Al Gore, the global climate expert.  In the the past when we were more religious society, the charlatans often took the shape of religious leaders.

As our society has become more secular and pays more heed to science, the charlatans have stopped professing to “save our souls”, but rather professing to “save the planet.”

In that vein, Pat Sanity describes the “Caliphate of the Do-Gooders:”

Most people don’t see the connection between today’s radical environmentalists and the 21st century rise of communist and socialist tyrannies. I wrote about this connection to some extent here and here. In the first piece, I suggested that radical environmentalism is one of the key pillars (along with Multiculturalism and Political Correctness) of an ethical and political strategy developed by the remnants of 20th century socialist failures, to prevent their ideology from entering the dustbin of history.

When the charlatans took the shape of Marxists, they promised economic prosperity, but only delivered grinding poverty Now they are promising to “save the planet.”  Spare us please.
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