The ever-alert Chris Elam of Texas Safety Forum has two items up that show why he's the man among local political bloggers.

First, Tom DeLay's main primary challenger, Tom Campbell, has issued a statement supporting Shelley Sekula-Gibbs in November.

Tom Campbell, who finished second in the Republican Congressional Primary in March, announced his endorsement today of Dr. Shelley Sekula-Gibbs as the Republican write-in candidate for the November general election. Campbell also called upon all other past and present District 22 candidates to join him in endorsing Dr. Sekula-Gibbs.

“This is no longer about personal goals. It is about principle,” Campbell said.

Speaking about Dr. Sekula-Gibbs’ selection, Campbell said, “Supporting Shelley is the right thing. Uniting behind a single candidate grounded in Republican values and principles will result in victory. She is worthy of our support and worthy to carry our Republican standard into this election. Even as a write-in, a conservative Sekula-Gibbs can beat liberal Nick Lampson in District 22.”

Campbell attended the meeting of Republican precinct leaders from Harris, Fort Bend, Brazoria and Galveston Counties on Thursday and observed the process. “These are the people that Republicans across the district elected to represent our party,” Campbell said. “These are good men and women working to find a way to unite the Republican Party at a time when unity is essential. They decided to select one candidate that would carry our party’s banner in the November election. Dr. Sekula-Gibbs emerged as the clear winner. The process was fair – everyone had an opportunity to speak.”

About Tom DeLay's role in the meeting, Campbell added, "The Tom DeLay era is over. Dr. Sekula-Gibbs was not hand picked by our former congressman. She was the clear choice of representatives from all four counties in District 22. The cloud of scandal no longer hangs over this race. Now the election can be about the important issues facing our country. I challenge Nick Lampson to stop the muckraking - stop the litigation and let the people decide.”

Tom Campbell made an attempt to get the nomination before the Democrats stopped the process, but got very little traction among the GOP precinct chairs. He is prohibitted by law from running as a write-in candidate. He did, however, get an invite to attend our meeting last week as an observer, and so his statement in the final paragraph that Shelley Sekula-Gibbs is not Tom Delay's Hand-picked successor ought to carry weight with anyone who cares about the truth.

And to add one observation, Campbell's statement proves what i have always believed about him -- he is a good and decent man whose actions wee based upon what he believed was best for CD22. He was simply over his head in a race that no opponent of the incumbent could have won.

And it appears that David Wallace may be making a move of some significance on Monday.

Sugar Land Mayor David Wallace is speaking for the first time since finding out his party won't support him. Wallace wants to be a write-in candidate to replace Republican Tom DeLay in Congress.

The first person to file as a Republican write-in candidate, Mayor Wallace had not commented publicly ever since Republican precinct chairs chose someone else to throw their support behind. But now, he's opening up to Eyewitness News about the unusual selection process and his future plans.

While it's no secret that Wallace wants the job DeLay left behind, it's also quite obvious that on Thursday, Republican precinct chairs picked someone else -- Houston Councilmember Shelly Sekula-Gibbs to support. And Wallace admits he's not a fan of the closed door selection process.

"We've got a large voter base in Congressional District 22 and having the voice of 83 individuals coming together, is that representative of the entire district?" he asked.

* * *

Mayor Wallace says he'll be announcing his decision on whether to stay in the race on Monday. And a lot of people will be waiting for an answer.

"With all of the different changes that took place this week, obviously I am doing a lot of soul searching, meeting with a number of representatives to talk about the next step and that'll be announced on Monday," he said.

My guess is that he is OUT -- and if he isn't, I point back to my earlier comment on his candidacy.

Posted by: Greg at 06:05 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 730 words, total size 5 kb.

Since the terms of the cease-fire agreement have not been fulfilled by Hezbollah, Lebanon, the UN, or any of the other parties involved, why should Israel not take steps to protect its own security?

Helicopter-borne Israeli commandos raided a Hezbollah stronghold in the Bekaa Valley early Saturday, setting off a fierce gun battle. Lebanon called the attack a "flagrant violation" of a fragile six-day-old cease-fire and threatened to halt troop deployments in protest.

Hezbollah, which battled the Israeli military for 33 days until the truce took hold Monday, said its fighters encountered the Israeli commandos in a field near the town of Boudai, about 20 miles from the Syrian border.

The Israeli military, confirming the raid, said its commandos carried out the operation to interdict shipments of weapons and munitions to Hezbollah from Syria and Iran. The military said one Israeli officer was killed and two soldiers were wounded, one seriously.

Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora told reporters in Beirut that the attack was a "flagrant violation" of the U.N. cease-fire and that he planned to lodge a complaint with U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan.

Later Saturday, Annan said that he agreed the raid violated the cease-fire agreement and that he was "deeply concerned."

Hezbollah issued no immediate reaction. But many Lebanese worried that the militant Shiite Muslim movement would retaliate, risking a chain of cease-fire violations that could rekindle the devastating war that drove nearly a fourth of Lebanon's inhabitants from their homes and inflicted an estimated $3.6 billion in damage to bridges, roads and other infrastructure.

In accepting the cease-fire, the Hezbollah leader, Hasan Nasrallah, warned that his militia reserved the right to attack Israelis as long as they remain on Lebanese soil. At the same time, the Israeli military declared that it reserved the right to respond to attacks and prevent weapons shipments to Hezbollah guerrillas in the southern border hills until an international force was in place.

Hezbollah has not been disarmed -- and was being resupplied. The Lebanese government has continued to allow Hezbollah to operate in violation of multiple UN resolutions to the contrary. The UN has acted like the UN -- justifying Arab terror agains thte Israelis. France has shown its usual cowardice.

In short, screw the cease-fire -- Israel should declare its provisions to be a joke and resume its planned destruction of Hezbollah. Let the attacks continue

Posted by: Greg at 04:27 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
Post contains 402 words, total size 3 kb.

Some on the Left call it a "backdoor draft" -- but it isn't. Then again, their mischaracterization of the truth is one more demonstration that the Left cannot be trusted with the security of our nation.

Spc. Chris Carlson had been out of the U.S. Army for two years and was working at Costco in California when he received notice that he was being called back into service.

The 24-year-old is one of thousands of soldiers and Marines who have been deployed to Iraq under a policy that allows military leaders to recall troops who have left the service but still have time left on their contract.

"I thought it was crazy," said Carlson, who has found himself protecting convoys on Iraq's dangerous roads as part of a New Jersey National Guard unit. "Never in a million years did I think they would call me back."

Although troops are allowed to leave active duty after a few years of service, they generally still have time left on their contract with the military that is known as "inactive ready reserve" status, or IRR. During that time, they have to let their service know their current address, but they don't train, draw a paycheck or associate in any other way with the military.

But with active duty units already completing multiple tours in Iraq, the
Pentagon has employed the rarely used tactic of calling people back from IRR status, a policy sometimes referred to as a "backdoor draft."

But it isn't any sort of draft -- as noted above, it is holding individuals who volunteered for service to the terms of their contract. It is something which they are told about up front, and which they know to expect.

Take this soldier, for example.

Anthony Breaux, 24, from La Place, La., said he had a feeling that eventually he would be recalled to service after hearing of so many other soldiers who were pulled from IRR status. Breaux, who left active duty in September 2002, said he knew it was part of the bargain when he joined the army.

"Well, I signed up. I signed the papers. So you know what? I got to do what I got to do," Breaux said, before getting ready for a reconnaissance patrol around Camp Anaconda.

Got that -- they knew what they were signing up for when they signed their contracts. They are not draftees being plucked from the streets -- they are members of our nations military reserves being called to fulfill the duty they volunteered for.

And anyone who claims differently is simply a liar, and more concerned with trashing the Bush Administration than protecting the United States from its enemies.

Posted by: Greg at 04:17 AM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
Post contains 456 words, total size 3 kb.

Hey, I'll admit that I took AP English when I was in high school -- though I opted out of the Calculus and Physics classes tht my school offered because I simply lacked the interest in the subjects to apply myself to them at age 17. At a Catholic school in the Chicago suburbs, we had around 55 students in the AP English program -- about 20% of the class of 1981. And we had a fair amount of success in the program, with about 10 students scoring a 4 or 5 on the test, and around 25 scoring at least a 3. In short, about 2/3 of us were in a position where we might be eligible for college credit.

Fast forward to the present. The class of 2006 saw 126 students take the AP English test -- roughly 40% of the class. Of those students, 19 scored a 4 or 5, and 43 scored a 3. That means only about 50% potentially received college credit.

Now does this mean that the program has declined in quality, and that today's teachers do not teach the material as well as my teacher did? Hardly -- it is indicative of the reality that explanding AP programs result in lower average scores because less able students are placed in the classes. That does not mean that these students are ill-served by being in the program -- indeed, the experience of being in the AP program may raise the level of their learning in a dramatic fashion. But the expansion will hurt the overall "snapshot" that most folks focus on -- the overal test scores.

Which leads me to an article in today's Washington Post.

Prince George's County schools chief John E. Deasy this week is rolling out a $33 million proposal to improve the school system's uneven academic performance, an initiative that includes a partnership with the College Board to expand Advanced Placement course offerings countywide.

* * *

Deasy proposed that by the 2007-08 school year each of the county's 22 major high schools should offer at least eight AP courses, which are meant to introduce students to college-level study. Currently, AP offerings in the county vary widely. Many high schools have only a few.

The College Board, which oversees the AP program, will help the school system train a new corps of 200 AP teachers over the next year. In addition, the school system plans to expand subsidies for AP test fees to help ensure that needy students take the tests.

"It's a monumental culture shift," Deasy said. "AP will be on the tongue of every kid around here before too long."

Michael Marchionda, a College Board official working on the project, called it "a multiyear effort" to widen student access to AP. "It's very comprehensive," he said.

The county school board will consider the plan Thursday and is expected to support it.

"People asked for rigor," said Chairman Beatrice P. Tignor (Upper Marlboro). "We've got rigor."

And i hope the district does have a rigorous program, one which holds to the very strict standards of teh College Board. But I hope tha the district recognizes that test scores -- on average -- will drop if there is an increase in the size and scope of the program.

I also hope that parents realize what they are getting themselves and their children into when thy sign up for the AP program. Such classes are -- and are supposed to be -- at or near the college level. In my own district, we struggled for years with parents who insisted upon putting their child into AP classes -- and then insisted upon taking them out when the student didn't continue to receive the same A he or she had gotten in regular level classes. But most importantly, I hope that teh Prince George District sticks to its guns -- because we have found that the presence of AP classes raises the level of instruction in all classes in the school as regular level teachers collaborate with and adopt strategies used by the AP teachers.

Posted by: Greg at 03:53 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 693 words, total size 4 kb.

Under no circumstances should any alien not yet legally admitted to the United States be held to have any rights beyond the right to continue breathing.

The case of a Juárez woman who said she was physically abused in 2001 by an immigration officer at the Paso del Norte Bridge prompted a decision by the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals this month that non-U.S. citizens have constitutional rights at ports of entry.

"It doesn't matter whether you are a U.S. citizen or not, you have rights. It may seem obvious but nobody had said it before," said El Paso lawyer Lynn Coyle, who represents the woman, Maria Antonieta Martinez-Aguero.

The decision sets a precedent and could lead to more lawsuits on the border, legal experts said.

The decision came in response to a preliminary motion by the immigration officer seeking to dismiss the case on grounds that his alleged victim did not have constitutional rights to be free from false imprisonment and the excessive use of force by law enforcement officers because she had not made official entry into the United States, among other reasons.

The officer, Humberto Gonzalez, now a Border Patrol agent, denies the abuse.

"By no means did he do the things she said he did," said his lawyer, Jeanne "Cezy" Collins.

What this decision means, in effect, is that the US Constitution applies to foreigners before they are even in the United States as defined by the laws of the United States and relevant court precedents dating back decades. Stupid decision -- even more stupid than holding that illegal aliens have rights under the Constitution and laws of the United States.

Posted by: Greg at 02:45 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
Post contains 282 words, total size 2 kb.

After all, these are OLD chemical weapons -- weapons dating back to the Cold War and therefore clearly old enough that they must be degraded beyond use and not a threat to anyone.

The Army has begun draining and incinerating thousands of containers of mustard gas held in storage at a facility in the Utah desert.

The project at the Deseret Chemical Depot, begun Friday, will last six to 10 years. It involves burning about 6,200 tons of liquid blister agent and is complicated by the presence of an estimated 800 pounds of toxic mercury.

At one time, the depot housed more chemical weapons than any other U.S. storage site. To comply with the international Chemical Weapons Convention, the U.S. government began weapons destruction there in 1996.

The destruction of the mustard gas is the final phase in the project.

Mustard gas, which is a liquid at room temperature, causes severe blisters, internal and external bleeding, and strips mucous membranes from airways.

Workers will first drain and incinerate the 1-ton mustard gas containers, depot spokeswoman Alaine Southworth said. They will also design and install filters to scrub mercury from the exhaust, she said.

So would someone explain to me why American chemical weapons must be disposed of so carefully? Are these some sort of super-weapons that contain speacial chemicals not bound by the same laws of physics that operate in Iraq? Is this program simply a government boodoggle, putting an expensive piece of pork in someone's home state?

Or is it perhaps teh case that these weapons are still dangerous WMDs -- and that the ones found in Iraq are ALSO live, dangerous WMDs that prove that Saddam Hussein was not in compliance with his UN obligations?

Posted by: Greg at 12:45 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
Post contains 303 words, total size 2 kb.

If this were a story about black youth or Hispanic women or quadraplegic Muslim lesbians of Asian descent, there would be calls for massive government intervention to deal with the "crisis". Want to bet the response to this story is silence, thoug -- because the suicide epidemic is among older white men.

Older white males have the highest suicide rate in the United States, said the Population Reference Bureau in Washington.

Suicide is the 11th leading cause of death in the United States with 11 suicide deaths per 100,000 Americans.

For white males over the age of 65, the rate is almost triple that figure.

White males are more than eight times as likely to kill themselves as women of the same age and the risk increases as they get older, the Chicago Sun-Times reports.

Suicide experts are unable to pinpoint an exact cause for the higher rate but some believe white males lack the resilience and coping mechanisms that women and other ethnic groups have.

They also point to the fact that males are socialized to be in control and are less apt to seek help for depression which leads to suicide.

I think it probably comes from a lifetime of being told that every social problem is the fault of white males. If you internalize the notion that every single problem in the world is ultimately your responsibility, wouldn't you feel a moral obligation to check out as soon as possible?

Posted by: Greg at 11:58 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
Post contains 261 words, total size 2 kb.

When you can't break the 10% level in polling data, and then sink below 5%, why shouldn't the party look elsewhere?

While some Republicans are quietly rooting for his Democratic opponent, Ned Lamont, because they feel he would be such a polarizing liberal target, many leading Republicans say it would serve the party better to have a centrist like Mr. Lieberman remain in office, particularly after being spurned by his own party.

But one thing is clear: there is little to no talk of bolstering Mr. Schlesinger, 48, the Republican nominee, a little-known former mayor of Derby who has registered polling numbers so low they are breaking records. Little known throughout the state, Mr. Schlesinger received attention this summer following reports in The Hartford Courant that he had gambled under a fake name and once had gambling debts. He has dismissed the accounts as irrelevant.

Mr. Schlesinger has reacted bitterly to the rejection by his own party, dismissing calls for him to leave the race. He maintains he can win by conveying his conservative platform to voters.

* * *

As Mr. SchlesingerÂ’s popularity has waned from a minuscule 9 percent in July to an almost invisible 4 percent in a Quinnipiac University poll released Thursday, the question for Republicans has shifted to whether to embrace Mr. Lieberman.

GOP leaders have had to decide -- remain loyal to the party and hope for a win by the extreme liberal lamont, or act to support what is best for America by supporting Lieberman. I'm pleased that so many have put America first.

Posted by: Greg at 10:30 AM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
Post contains 271 words, total size 2 kb.

Imagine that -- a cop who catches lawbreakers acting to see that the law is enforced. Who could oppose that? Besides the ACLU and groups that support border-jumping immigration criminals, of course.

The Rhode Island State Police will review a trooper's actions during a July 11 traffic stop on Route 95 in Richmond, when he detained 14 people who he suspected were in the country illegally, a state police spokesman said.

The internal investigation stems from a complaint the Rhode Island Affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union filed this week, on behalf of 11 of the 14 people involved, said Maj. Steven O'Donnell.

The ACLU took the case after the driver and several passengers alleged during a Providence news conference last month that Trooper Thomas Chabot overstepped his authority by taking immigration enforcement into his own hands.

They also alleged that Chabot threatened to shoot anyone who tried to escape the van that morning as it was escorted to the Bureau of Immigrations and Customs Enforcement office in Providence.

The traffic stop occurred at 6:30 a.m. near Exit 4 south, where Chabot was posted at a speed checkpoint. Chabot's report states that he pulled the van's driver over for failing to signal a lane change.

After the driver provided a license and ID, Chabot asked the passengers for identification, his report states. When only a few could do so, he then "asked if any of them had immigration credentials proving their U.S. citizenship."

None did. Chabot contacted ICE authorities, and he and another trooper escorted the van to the ICE office on Dyer Avenue in Providence. The 14 were found to be in the country illegally, and they now face deportation.

Who came up with the goofy idea that illegal aliens have any rights beyond breathing?

Round 'em up! Ship 'em back! Rawhide!

Posted by: Greg at 10:24 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
Post contains 314 words, total size 2 kb.

If the current NSA program is unlawful, let us consider other eavesdropping programs when America fought foreign enemies.

Her outrageous ruling means that our past activities in Magic, in Ultra, at the Coral Sea, at Midway, at Bletchley Park, in Venona, were illegal also. Imagine the cheek we used in defeating the Nazis and Imperial Japan. Oh, let the wailing and gnashing of teeth begin and the crying towels appear. Let’s revisit the unfair treatment afforded the Axis at Normandy, the Marianas, the Philippines, and the Battle of Britain — where radar and radio intercepts were unfairly used to outwit and outfox the wily Germans and the cunning Japanese.

That mean old Mr. Roosevelt didn't have the decency to respect the First and Fourth Amendment rights of the Axis powers and their supporters here in America. Just because they were our enemies didn't mean that Roosevelt could act like a hereditary king, did it judge? Surely such spying programs were indisputibly illegal -- just like the current NSA program.

Posted by: Greg at 10:17 AM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
Post contains 179 words, total size 1 kb.

Well, more support for the pro-terrorist position from Western "intellectuals" writing for Arab sources.

Perhaps it is time, if not to rewrite, at least to redirect the Balfour declaration back to Europe from whence most Jewish settlers in Israel have come.

The animosity that is making the clash of civilisations a current reality is driven first and foremost by the unsettled issue of the division of Palestine. If this could be solved, Al QaedaÂ’s influence would sharply diminish. So would HamasÂ’ and HizbollahÂ’s. But left to stew as it is now, it is spilling over into Lebanon and perhaps in a few years into a nuclear confrontation between Israel and Iran, or even, if President Pervez Musharraf is assassinated and a more Islamic-minded president comes to power, between Israel and Pakistan.

As relations between Jew and Muslim deteriorate, not only Israel is becoming unliveable for ordinary people (read Israeli novelist Shifra Horn’s new book, “Ode to Joy”, if you want to smell the cordite and sense the everyday fear of being blown up deep in the soul), but also are parts of Europe and North America gradually becoming so. Just as Israel has “terrorists” in its midst so now do the UK, Spain, France, Russia, the US and Canada.

Power's solution? Get the Jews out of Israel and back to Europe. This disgusting piece of anti-Semitism is cloaked in feigned concern for the Israeli people, but not really.

But i have a better idea -- one which I am sure Mr. Power will support with his whole heart. If the Jews of Israel are to be uprooted, then let us settle them someplace where we know they will be safe -- the United States. We can put them in Dearborn and other areas currently occupied by Arab Muslims who support jihadi terrorism around the world. In return, we will ship the Arab Muslims in the United States -- regardless of their citizenship -- back to Middle East.

Now some may object that such a proposal is inhumane and racist -- "What about the rights of America's Arab Muslims?" some may ask. Well, if Jews who have settled in the Middle East over the last century and who have fought and died to create, maintain and protect a tiny homeland for themselves have no place in a Middle East dominated by Arab Muslims, then clearly Arab Muslims have no place in the West, and in particular not in the United States. After all, they and their relatives back in their homelands have shown their utter inablility to live at peace with neighbors who are different from themselves.

Outrageous? Sure. but then again, consider this justification for Power's exclusion of the jews from their own homeland.

Without such “out of the box” thinking we are all going to be sucked under by the maelstrom being unleashed by what is dangerously becoming a true “clash of civilisations”.

So why not consider my "outside the box" solution as a way of avoiding the "clash of civilizations" by separating the parties completely. After all, why should the Jews alone bear the cost of the capitulating to the jihadi terrorists? After all, if the Jews are not a good fit in the Middle East, why should the unassimilable Muslims be welcome in America?

And if my proposed solution -- excluding people from America based upon religion and ethnicity -- is unacceptable, upon what basis can anyone support the expulsion of Israel's Jews from the land given them by the international community in the 1940s and which they have defended time and again over the last six decades? The only possible answer is a rank, festering anti-Semitism which abides in the blackened souls of the opponents of Israel.

Posted by: Greg at 10:00 AM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
Post contains 639 words, total size 4 kb.

Let's remember -- the only folks who censored the Dixie Chicks were tehir former fans, who decided that they would prefer not to direct their dollars to entertainers who clearly despised them and their values. In doing so, they exercised teh same First Amendment rights as the Dixie Chicks, to speak out vocally, in writing, and with their hard-earned dollars to make a political statement of their own. That this has effecively killed the Chicks' career is too bad -- they are a talented group of girls ane I will admit that I like much of their early music.

But the censorship the girls met up with is of the sort that the Founders clearly recognized as legitimate, for the Constitution only forbids GOVERNMENT censorship. No where does the Constitution require that I buy their music or listen to it on the radio -- nor does it require that any radio station play it or any music store stock it. What's more, nothing in the Constitution requires them a recording contract after their album sales trail off and much of their concert tour gets cancelled because of sparse ticket sales.

Which leads us to today's New York Times.

Sitting at a table in early August, Bobby Braddock, the longtime songwriter, lamented the conservatism of the country music industry that was demonstrated when the lead singer of the Dixie Chicks became a target of fury three years ago after saying she was ashamed that her band and President Bush shared the same home state.

Asked whether his recent song “Thou Shalt Not Kill” would have airplay, Mr. Braddock said, “Oh, never.”

“Something political will not get played on country radio unless it’s on the conservative side,” he added. “If you show both sides, it’s not good enough. It’s got to be just on the right.”

Country music, the genre of lonely hearts and highways, lost jobs and blue-collar woes, has become a cultural battleground. Conservatism is widely seen as having the upper hand, a red-state answer to left-leaning Hollywood.

Democrats on Music Row, the country music capital here, have grown frustrated with that reputation. A group of record-company executives, talent managers and artists has released an online compilation of 20 songs, several directly critical of Mr. Bush and the Iraq war.

The price for the set is $20, with most of the proceeds going to the group, which calls itself Music Row Democrats and is using the money to support local and national candidates who share its values.

In other words, this is a political fundraiser, not merely a statement of principle.

So while I admire the folks involved in this project for speaking their mind, please understand that I won't be buying their album or calling my local stations to play the music.

Indeed, I will use the information about the writers and performers to determine my future music purchases -- because as an American, I am free to do so, just as they are free to make asses out of themselves and alienate much of the country music fan base.

Because contrary to the views of these music Row liberals, "Dixie Chicking" an artist is a patriotic act, not an unAmerican one.

And if you disagree, consider this -- how many pro-Bush songs and pro-Bush artists make it on to rap and urban stations?

Posted by: Greg at 09:39 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 565 words, total size 3 kb.

Still feeling sort of cruddy, but thought I'd check my email.

Someone sent me a link to a post on another blog attacking me for things I've written regarding CD22 over the last week or so. Since the poster is offended, I figure I owe him some apologies.

Here is what I left him in his comment section.

1) If stating matters that are on the public record constitutes "trashing" someone, then I gladly plead guilty. On the other hand, if being a loyal member of the party means hiding corruption and dishonesty on the part of elected officials, I want nothing of it. I continue to find it interesting that you criticize me for "trashing" David Wallace but fail to point to a single spot where my posts have been inaccurate -- much less flse. But if you think I need to apologize for what I posted, I will "I'm sorry I have spoken the truth about David Wallace."

2) I think Smither is a good man, and I believe that it would have been a legitimate course of action for the GOP to support him. I struggled, -- publicly, as you note -- with the question of whether the best course of ction might be to put the support of the GOP behind him as a way of keeping CD22 out of the hands of a liberal like Nick Lampson. As I said in a number of places "Maybe we should make Bob Smither the first Libertarian party congressman in 2006 -- and the first Libertarian party ex-Congressman in 2008." But since you seem to feel I was wrong to think and say what I did, let me offer this apology -- I am sorry that I had the audacity to think unauthorized thoughts, and to think outside the box (or think at all) with regard to the best course of action to prevent the seat from falling into Democrat hands."

3) Of the entire lot of GOP candidates who emerged after The Virginian decided to "screw, blue and tattoo" CD22 this spring, I believe Shelley was and is the best of the bunch. I worked long and hard this spring and summer to persuade my fellow chairs of that. I am not, however, a member of her campaign staff and hold no official position with her organization -- and my words represent me and my opinions only. I was even prepared to give Wallace a chance -- but he has displayed a sense of arrogance and entitlement from the very moment The Virginian announced his resignation. He has refused to meet wtih any group which is not dominated by his supporters or at any forum not organized by them. Whether it is the Harris COunty GOP candidate forum in May or the CD22 Executive Committee meeting on Thursday, David Wallace has shown he is unable to face the unconverted and is only willing to preach to the choir -- not a good trait in a candidate for such a highly contested seat. But since you are offended, I'll offer another apology -- "I'm sorry that I have come to expect better of Republican candidates over the course of my quarter century of political activism within the GOP."

As I remind my students when I teach American Government, politics is the art and science of trying to ensure the election of candidates who will do the most to implement policies which most closely put conform with one's beliefs and desires -- and I have openly discussed how to do that in the current situation. Any other course of action would have been counter-productive.

Posted by: Greg at 08:30 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 615 words, total size 3 kb.

So much to write, so little energy.

Temperature started to rise about 11:00, and is just shy of 100.

Just popped my third dose of pepto in the last six hours.

I think I'm going to bed -- or maybe I'll just fall asleep in my computer chair.

But the cold medicine just makes... me... so.........

Posted by: Greg at 12:02 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
Post contains 60 words, total size 1 kb.

After all, this "civil rights advocate" has spewed bigotted garbage against ethnic minorities and Jews -- while stone-cold sober. Will Andrew Young get the Mel Gibson treatment?

The civil rights leader Andrew Young, who was hired by Wal-Mart to improve its public image, resigned from that post last night after telling an African-American newspaper that Jewish, Arab and Korean shop owners had “ripped off” urban communities for years, “selling us stale bread, and bad meat and wilted vegetables.”

In the interview, published yesterday in The Los Angeles Sentinel, a weekly, Mr. Young said that Wal-Mart “should” displace mom-and-pop stores in urban neighborhoods.

“You see those are the people who have been overcharging us,” he said of the owners of the small stores, “and they sold out and moved to Florida. I think they’ve ripped off our communities enough. First it was Jews, then it was Koreans and now it’s Arabs.”

Mr. Young, 74, a former mayor of Atlanta and a former United States representative to the United Nations, apologized for the comments and retracted them in an interview last night. Less than an hour later, he resigned as chairman of Working Families for Wal-Mart, a group created and financed by the company to trumpet its accomplishments.

“It’s against everything I ever thought in my life,” Mr. Young said. “It never should have been said. I was speaking in the context of Atlanta, and that does not work in New York or Los Angeles.”

His remarks drew forceful condemnation from Arab, Jewish and Asian leaders.

Mel Gibson is an alcoholic actor who spoke while three (or more ) sheets to the wind. Young is an influential political figure who spoke while under the influence of his own hatred. Wil he receive the same sort of high-tech lynching that Gibson did -- or will his liberal credentials be sufficient to earn him a pass from those who have sought the personal destruction of a sick conservative?

Posted by: Greg at 10:37 PM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
Post contains 334 words, total size 2 kb.

Well, they finally found a judge to do what no other judge in the country has been willing to do -- rule that the NSA program to make connections between terrorists at home and abroad is unconstitutional.

A federal judge in Detroit ruled yesterday that the National Security Agency's warrantless surveillance program is unconstitutional, delivering the first decision that the Bush administration's effort to monitor communications without court oversight runs afoul of the Bill of Rights and federal law.

U.S. District Judge Anna Diggs Taylor ordered a halt to the wiretap program, secretly authorized by President Bush in 2001, but both sides in the lawsuit agreed to delay that action until a Sept. 7 hearing. Legal scholars said Taylor's decision is likely to receive heavy scrutiny from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit when the Justice Department appeals, and some criticized her ruling as poorly reasoned.

This puts her at odds with every other judge who has ruled on the matter -- so much for res judicata.

Not that this decision is ikely to stand.

Several dozen lawsuits have been filed around the country challenging the program's legality, but yesterday's ruling marked the first time that a judge had declared it unconstitutional. Experts in national security law argued, however, that Taylor offered meager support for her findings on separation of powers and other key issues.

"Regardless of what your position is on the merits of the issue, there's no question that it's a poorly reasoned decision," said Bobby Chesney, a national security law specialist at Wake Forest University who takes a moderate stance on the legal debate over the NSA program. "The opinion kind of reads like an outline of possible grounds to strike down the program, without analysis to fill it in."

And all she had to do to get it was ignore or dismiss as irrelevant every single case that has dealt with national security surveilance -- including those of the FISA court that provide precedent for sustaining the NSA program.

The NY Times, of course, is ecstatic that the safety of the United States has been given the backseat to the privacy rights of those who would kill America and eliminate all rights. And while legal scholars are pointing to the flaws of the case, the NY Times sees the matter differently.

But for now, with a careful, thoroughly grounded opinion, one judge in Michigan has done what 535 members of Congress have so abysmally failed to do. She has reasserted the rule of law over a lawless administration and shown why issues of this kind belong within the constitutional process created more than two centuries ago to handle them.

More proof that the editorial staff of this once-proud institution of our nation's most significant city has relocated to Fantasy Island.

UPDATE: As noted in the comments below, I didn't get the chance to read or comment upon the editorial of that other traditional bastion of Democrat Party liberalism -- the Washington Post. Interestingly enough, their editorial sees matters a bit different, and more in line with the legal experts -- Taylor blew it. While not at all conceding the legality of the NSA program, the editorialist makes it very clear that Taylor failed in her task of impartially and fairly assessing the evidence and rendering a decision based upon the law and the merits of the case.

THE NATION would benefit from a serious, scholarly and hard-hitting judicial examination of the National Security Agency's program of warrantless surveillance. The program exists on ever-more uncertain legal ground; it is at least in considerable tension with federal law and the Bill of Rights. Careful judicial scrutiny could serve both to hold the administration accountable and to provide firmer legal footing for such surveillance as may be necessary for national security.

Unfortunately, the decision yesterday by a federal district court in Detroit, striking down the NSA's program, is neither careful nor scholarly, and it is hard-hitting only in the sense that a bludgeon is hard-hitting. The angry rhetoric of U.S. District Judge Anna Diggs Taylor will no doubt grab headlines. But as a piece of judicial work -- that is, as a guide to what the law requires and how it either restrains or permits the NSA's program -- her opinion will not be helpful.

Judge Taylor's opinion is certainly long on throat-clearing sound bites. "There are no hereditary Kings in America and no powers not created by the Constitution," she thunders. She declares that "the public interest is clear, in this matter. It is the upholding of our Constitution." And she insists that Mr. Bush has "undisputedly" violated the First and Fourth Amendments, the constitutional separation of powers, and federal surveillance law.

But the administration does, in fact, vigorously dispute these conclusions. Nor is its dispute frivolous. The NSA's program, about which many facts are still undisclosed, exists at the nexus of inherent presidential powers, laws purporting to constrict those powers, the constitutional right of the people to be free from unreasonable surveillance, and a broad congressional authorization to use force against al-Qaeda. That authorization, the administration argues, permits the wiretapping notwithstanding existing federal surveillance law; inherent presidential powers, it suggests, allow it to conduct foreign intelligence surveillance on its own authority. You don't have to accept either contention to acknowledge that these are complicated, difficult issues. Judge Taylor devotes a scant few pages to dismissing them, without even discussing key precedents.

The judge may well be correct in her bottom line that the program exceeds presidential authority, even during wartime. We harbor grave doubt both that Congress authorized warrantless surveillance as part of the war and that Mr. Bush has the constitutional power to act outside of normal surveillance statutes that purport to be the exclusive legal authorities for domestic spying. But her opinion, which as the first court venture into this territory will garner much attention, is unhelpful either in evaluating or in ensuring the program's legality. Fortunately, as this case moves forward on appeal and as other cases progress in other courts, it won't be the last word.

Ultimately, the conclusion here is correct -- this is not the last word on the NSA program, and we as a nation are fortunate this is true. And if I come down upon the side of recognizing this program is acceptable under the law, the COnstitution, and the historical practices of previous United States presidents during time of war, I accept that there can be good-faith disagreement on this matter.

Posted by: Greg at 10:32 PM | Comments (10) | Add Comment
Post contains 1098 words, total size 7 kb.

Imagine that -- bucking the trend and condemning terrorists for engaging in terrorism.

NICOLE Kidman has made a public stand against terrorism.

The actress, joined by 84 other high-profile Hollywood stars, directors, studio bosses and media moguls, has taken out a powerfully-worded full page advertisement in today's Los Angeles Times newspaper.

It specifically targets "terrorist organisations" such as Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Palestine.

"We the undersigned are pained and devastated by the civilian casualties in Israel and Lebanon caused by terrorist actions initiated by terrorist organisations such as Hezbollah and Hamas," the ad reads.

"If we do not succeed in stopping terrorism around the world, chaos will rule and innocent people will continue to die.

"We need to support democratic societies and stop terrorism at all costs."

A who's who of Hollywood heavyweights joined Kidman on the ad.

The actors listed included: Michael Douglas, Dennis Hopper, Sylvester Stallone, Bruce Willis, Danny De Vito, Don Johnson, James Woods, Kelly Preston, Patricia Heaton and William Hurt.

Directors Ridley Scott, Tony Scott, Michael Mann, Dick Donner and Sam Raimi also signed their names.

Other Hollywood powerplayers supporting the ad included Sumner Redstone, the chairman and majority owner of Paramount Pictures, and billionaire mogul, Haim Saban.

Is it just me, but are the big donors to Democrats missing from this list? Could it be that there is a connection between support for liberals and support for terrorists?

Posted by: Greg at 10:20 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
Post contains 251 words, total size 2 kb.

No more tax-free freebies just for showing up at awards shows!

Movie stars appearing at the Academy Awards will no longer receive the lavish goody baskets they have come to expect -- worth as much as $100,000 each and including freebies such as iPods, resort vacations, coupons for laser eye surgery, jewelry and high-priced lingerie -- because of a crackdown by the federal tax collector.

The Internal Revenue Service and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences yesterday announced they have reached a settlement on undisclosed taxes owed to the government on the "gifts" received at the Oscars in the last several years, through 2005.

The academy also announced it will no longer give out the bags, saying the board quietly voted last April to end the practice. In recent years, the academy has given the bags -- also known as gift bags or swag -- to as many as 200 hosts, performers and winners on Oscar night. "There's no special red-carpet tax loophole for the stars," IRS Commissioner Mark W. Everson said in a prepared statement. "Whether you're popping the popcorn, sitting in the audience or starring on the big screen, you need to respect the law and pay your taxes."

Typically, if the IRS finds someone has failed to pay taxes but no fraud is involved, it assesses back taxes, interest and penalties for only the preceding three years. In this instance, if 200 people received $100,000 baskets in each of the three years through 2005, the taxable non-cash income would be $60 million.

All of which means that these over-privileged buffoons might have to buy their own rhinestone encrusted cellphones and Tempur-Pedic mattresses.

Posted by: Greg at 10:17 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 283 words, total size 2 kb.

In this evenings meeting of GOP precinct chairs from CD22, the decision was made to endorse Houston City Councilwoman Dr. Shelley Sekula-Gibbs to replace Tom Delay in Congress.

I have been working with the Sekula-Gibbs campaign since spring, as I believe her to be the best of the candidates who stepped forward following The Virginian's resignation. A solid pragmatic conservaitive, I believe she matches up well with this district.

I'll write more tomorrow.

Posted by: Greg at 03:46 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 87 words, total size 1 kb.

Frankly, I'm getting really tired of the games played by members of the GOP leadership. Or state party leaders have handled the entire Delay situation incorrectly, and now you have this idiot seeking to undermine the process -- because his candidate cannot win.

The chairman of the Fort Bend County Republican Party is calling for a boycott of a state party meeting about Tom DeLayÂ’s former district scheduled for tonight.

“Holding a closed meeting with very few participants, ostensibly to determine what we as Republicans should do, makes a mockery of our party, the democratic process and should be avoided at all cost,” Gary Gillen, chairman of the Fort Bend County GOP, wrote.

At the request of state party Chairwoman Tina Benkiser, the Republican Party chairmen in Galveston, Harris, Fort Bend and Brazoria counties were to call for a meeting of precinct chairs in Congressional District 22.

The text of Gillen's letter is found here. Chris Elam analyzes it here.

I have to agree with Chris on this point.

It is difficult to rectify Gary's tone in his letter, with regards to the small number of participants in the write-in selection process, against his tone in the comments he made to Bob Dunn of Fort Bend Now, on the night of the precinct chair straw poll at the Fort Bend CD 22 meeting.

At the time, Gary was ostensibly pleased with the idea of letting the precinct chairs voices known, when he publicly announced the results of that straw poll. He went a step further in expressing his pleasure with their discernment and unique position of authority in selecting a replacement, when he issued this statement.

No GOP donors, nor Pachyderm Club members, nor Republican Women's club members, nor Young Republicans, or even headquarter volunteers - had a voice in Mr. Gillen's straw poll. Yet at the time, he announced that he was struck how “these informal polls continue to show strong support for David Wallace.”

Of course, this poll was fresh off the heels of another poll that Mr. Gillen was responsible for, where only 1100 replies were received, and where multiple candidates names were left off of the reply form. Even though the return rate on this poll was a mere 6.38% on the number originally mailed out... the party chairman felt as though the results were important enough to issue a press release with the results. This mail-in survey had been derided for its inaccuracy, its potential for fraud, and many people, including yours truly, pointed out that “while this sounds like a noble idea, in reality it is a terrible one.”

Gillen wants David Wallace -- warts, corruption and all -- and will do whatever he can to facilitate that end.

Posted by: Greg at 10:21 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 467 words, total size 3 kb.

I applaud those who have made progress in this area, trying to make homes for children who need them without regard to race.

When Martina Brockway and Mike Timble, a white couple in Chicago, decided to adopt a child, Ms. Brockway went to an adoption agency presentation at a black church to make it clear they wanted an African-American baby.

Their biological daughter, Rumeur, 3, is accumulating black dolls in preparation for her new brother or sister. Black-themed children’s books like “Please, Baby, Please” by the filmmaker Spike Lee and his wife, Tonya Lewis Lee, share shelf space with Elmo and Dr. Seuss.

But the couple’s decision provoked some uneasy responses. One of Mr. Timble’s white friends asked, “Aren’t there any white kids available?”

Ms. Brockway’s black friends were supportive. “But,” she said, “I also sensed that there was maybe something they weren’t saying.”

Mr. Timble cut in. “Like maybe they were thinking, ‘What do these people think they are doing?’ ”

This all really rings a bell for me.

Posted by: Greg at 10:12 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 184 words, total size 1 kb.

He was one of the many iron-fisted dictators -- both of the lright and left -- who ruled in Latin America in the latter part of the 20th century. Here's hoping there is a particularly wam corner of hell with his name on it.

Alfredo Stroessner, the canny anti-communist general who ruled Paraguay for decades with a blend of force, guile and patronage before his ouster in 1989, died in exile on Wednesday. He was 93.

Stroessner contracted pneumonia after a hernia operation in Brazil's capital, where he had lived in near total isolation since he was forced from power.

He died of a stroke with his family gathered around him in the Hospital Santa Luzia, his grandson Alfredo Dominguez Stroessner said in a radio interview. Dominguez Stroessner said his grandfather left no instructions on his funeral but the family was considering burial in Encarnacion, the Paraguayan city where the former dictator was born.

Stroessner seized power in a 1954 coup and through fraud and repression, held it for 35 years to become one of Latin America's longest-ruling strongmen.

Finally ousted by his own generals, Stroessner remains hated by many in Paraguay, where he was accused of repression and human rights violations, even though some stalwarts credit him for big public works projects that modernized the country.

A staunch U.S. ally, Stroessner made Paraguay a refuge for some Nazi war criminals among 200,000 Germans he sheltered after World War II. He twice denied extradition requests for Dr. Josef Mengele, the infamous "Angel of Death" at Auschwitz. Mengele later fled Nazi hunters to Brazil, where he died under an assumed name.

Stroessner also sheltered fellow right-wing dictators, including Anastasio Somoza of Nicaragua.

"Stroessner didn't have any problem giving refuge to people with blood on their hands," said Aaron Breitbart, a senior researcher with the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles. "His death is no loss to democratic values in Paraguay."

Hopefully he'll be joined soon by Castro.

Posted by: Greg at 10:06 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 330 words, total size 2 kb.

Almost a decade later, police have cracked one of the great crime mysteries of the 1990s -- the case that led to the current trend of covering crimes against pretty white girls more heavily than anyone else.

An American man was arrested in Bangkok as a suspect in the 1996 death of JonBenet Ramsey, the 6-year-old girl from Boulder, Colo., whose unsolved killing became a media obsession, prosecutors said Wednesday.

[The man, John Mark Karr, 41, said publicly Thursday he was with the 6-year-old when she died and called her death "an accident," the Associated Press reported from Bangkok. "I was with JonBenet when she died," Karr, a former schoolteacher, told reporters in Bangkok, visibly nervous and stuttering as he spoke. "Her death was an accident." Police said Karr admitted to the killing after he was arrested Wednesday at his downtown Bangkok apartment by Thai and American authorities.

Karr will be taken to Colorado within the next week where he will face charges of murder, kidnapping and child sexual assault, Ann Hurst, Department of Homeland Security attache at the American Embassy in Bangkok, said at a news conference in Bangkok.

Karr, speaking to reporters after the news conference, declined to say what his connection was to the Ramsey family or how long he had known JonBenet. Wearing a blue, short-sleeved shirt, he appeared ashen with an expressionless look on his face.]

Karr was arrested on sex charges unrelated to JonBenet's slaying after several months of investigation, officials said. Boulder County District Attorney Mary Lacy said investigators from her office were heading to Thailand to question the suspect and bring him to Colorado.

Officials said that John and Patsy Ramsey, who were at one point suspected in their daughter's death, had been consulted during the investigation. Patsy Ramsey died of cancer in June but was told before her death that an arrest might be imminent, her husband said.

I never believed that this little girl died at the hands of her parents, no matter who odd their actions were. That this man, who killed her in the course of sexually abusing her, dares to call it an accident is paticulalrly galling.

I'm glad that her mother knew that the authorities were closing in on this guy. May that knowledge help her rest in peace.

Posted by: Greg at 10:02 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
Post contains 230 words, total size 3 kb.

Hezbollah will not disarm and withdraw from southern Lebanon.

Hezbollah refused to disarm and withdraw its fighters from the battle-scarred hills along the border with Israel on Tuesday, threatening to delay deployment of the Lebanese army and endangering a fragile cease-fire.

The makings of a compromise emerged from all-day meetings in Beirut, according to senior officials involved in the negotiations, and Prime Minister Fouad Siniora scheduled a cabinet session Wednesday for what he hoped would be formal approval of the deal. Hezbollah indicated it would be willing to pull back its fighters and weapons in exchange for a promise from the army not to probe too carefully for underground bunkers and weapons caches, the officials said.

In other words, this is just another repeat of the situation that occurred after the adoption of UN 1559 the last time Israel had to clear out the jihadi rat's nest in southern lebanon.

Posted by: Greg at 10:34 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 156 words, total size 1 kb.

No word on whether using incandescent lighting instead of neon would have maintained the monument's secular status -- honoring the founder of Houston's Star of hope programs for the poor

A Bible must be removed from a 50-year-old monument in front of the Harris County civil courthouse because a district judge changed it from a secular to a religious use in violation of the Constitution, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday.

"Its recent history would force an objective observer to conclude that it is a religious symbol of a particular faith located on public grounds," a three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said in a 2-1 decision.

Except, of course, that its history is clearly secular, according to the opinion in question.

Although secular in purpose when it was erected in front of the old civil courthouse in 1956, former state District Judge John Devine and his court reporter, Karen Friend, changed the character of the monument when they refurbished it in 1995, the majority said in a 24-page opinion.

* * *

Jolly, writing for the majority, said that the original purpose of honoring Mosher was secular, but that purpose was changed in 1995 when Devine and Friend placed a neon light inside the monument to outline the Bible.

Devine had campaigned on a platform of putting Christianity back into government and had Christian ministers lead prayers at the rededication ceremony for the monument, the opinion said.

Oh, and for those concerned about this rather unobtrusive display and its annual cost to the taxpayyer, evidence presented in the cas showed that the cost to the county is a whopping $93.16 per year.

Posted by: Greg at 10:30 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
Post contains 293 words, total size 2 kb.

I guess they prefer promoting the dirty Republican over the clean ones.

With dwindling hopes of keeping Tom DeLayÂ’s longtime House seat from falling to a Democrat in November, Texas Republicans on Tuesday called an urgent meeting for Thursday to exercise their only option: agreeing on a write-in candidate.

But that slender prospect — no such write-in campaign has succeeded in the state — seemed to suffer a blow when a leading candidate facing party opposition disparaged the meeting, saying “that may have worked in Moscow,” and vowed to keep running even if it meant two Republican write-in candidates.

“I’m in the race and I’m in it to win,” said the candidate, David G. Wallace, the part-time mayor of this booming Houston suburb named for its onetime Imperial sugar factory. He said he might be too busy campaigning to attend the meeting.

Yeah, Dave has a history of skiping any meeting where he cannot be assured of a ready-made majority in his favor. That is why he couldn't be bothered to meet with Harris County GOP precinct chairs back in May.

I'm particularly disturbed the paper could not be troubled to include a single quote from the other major candidate in the race, Shelley Sekula-Gibbs. She was interviewed at length for this article on Monday morning, but you wouldn't know that from reading this article. I wonder what they have against clean, competent, qualifed conservative women who don't leave a trail of slime behind them?

Posted by: Greg at 10:21 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 259 words, total size 2 kb.

Some folks have asked why I believe David Wallace to be unethical, corrupt, and unfit to represent the GOP in the CD22 Congressional race, even as a write-in with no significant chance of winning. Well, I received the following item tonight that supplies a neat summary of the problems with David Wallace. I also have all or almost all of the documents and articles in question, though I was having difficulty uploading them for my site

Public information on David Wallace, Mayor of Sugar Land and an announced Republican Candidate for Texas Congressional District 22, from earliest to current.
A. David G. Wallace on April 28, 1988 filed a voluntary petition of personal Chapter 7 Bankruptcy in Collin County Texas. Chapter 7 means that Wallace paid his creditors nothing.
B. A November 23, 1991 article in The Guardian (London) identifies Wallace as a business partner of Mark Thatcher, son of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. The article reports that Wallace and Thatcher were business partners in a firm identified as Emergency Networks, Inc.
C. An April 2, 1995 article in The Sunday Times reports that the IRS accused Emergency Networks, Inc. of not paying the taxes withheld from employees’ pay to the IRS. The article reports that a memo shows that Wallace, a director of the firm was “fully aware of the unpaid taxes.”
D. The 4/2/95 Times article also reports that employees (Liquori and Hughes families) of Emergency Networks complained that health insurance premiums were withheld from their pay but that the firm did not pay the premiums to the insurance company leaving the employees without health care for which they paid. The Liquories had to file personal bankruptcy when they were unable to pay their medical bills for lack of health insurance they had paid for.
E. An October 17, 1994 article in The Independent -- London Emergency Networks,Inc. was placed in Chapter 7 bankruptcy in 1994.
F. A November 25, 1992 article in The Guardian (London) states that a secret United States government communications identified Mark Thatcher as being involved in a Saudi Arabia arms deal. The same article reported that Howard Teicher, who was monitoring military build-up in the Middle East indicated that Mark ThatcherÂ’s name turned up in diplomatic dispatches from US Embassies in Europe and Saudi Arabia regarding Middle East arms deals in the 1980s.
G. An October 10, 1994 article in The Guardian (London) reported that David Wallace and Mark Thatcher were partners in Grantham Company, an investment company that would “look for companies on hard times and put up the money with some hands-on management” said one associate. The article also reported that Thatcher in 1992 was named in a US court in connection with a $4 billion payment to a Saudi national by Rolls-Royce and British Aerospace to help them with a defense contract with Saudi Arabia. An October 10, 1994 article in the Los Angeles Times reported that both the Sunday Times and Independent said that Mark Thatcher earned a $19 million commission for helping secure the Saudi Arabia arms deal. The LA Times claimed that the Sunday Times said the allegations that Thatcher profited from the arms deal came from transcripts of telephone calls tapped by Saudi intelligence between members of the Saudi Royal Family and its agents.
H. Thatcher for many years maintained that he was not involved in any arms sales, but an April 5, 2005 Dallas Morning News article reported that Mark Thatcher in a plea bargain agreement pleaded guilty in South Africa to helping finance a coup attempt in Equatorial Guinea.
I. An October 2, 1994 article in The Observer Newspaper reported a Houston attorney, William King (now Managing Partner of Linebarger, Heard law firm’s Houston office), revealed that Mark Thatcher and his business partner David Wallace were being sued by John “Jay” Laughlin under anti-racketeering, or RICO, legislation. Laughlin claimed that he was duped after David Wallace took over his firm, Ameristar Fuels, and he was squeezed out of management. Laughlin claimed that Ameristar was worth at least $2 million when Wallace took over in 1993 and that by September, 1994 when Wallace placed Ameristar in Chapter 11 Bankruptcy that the firm had a negative $6 million worth. Thatcher and Wallace maintained that they did nothing wrong, but in an August 1, 1995 article The Guardian (London) reported that Thatcher paid approximately $500,000 to settle the case.
J. The 4/2/95 article in The Sunday Times reported that Grechen Hyland, financial controller of Ameristar claimed that “Wallace wired large sums of money to Indonesia without supporting documents. I lost count of how many times I requested documents of these outgoing wire transfers.”
K. A January 22, 1995 article in the Mail on Sunday (London) reported that Barnet Skelton, Jr. an attorney investigating Ameristar stated that Wallace was simply a pawn of Mark Thatcher. The article reported that Jay Laughlin, who had filed a RICO suit against Wallace and Thatcher, claimed that the money Wallace used to take over Ameristar came from Thatcher. Skelton claimed that Thatcher wanted to conceal his involvement in Ameristar to evade US tax law. Ameristar enjoys several US tax privileges on condition that all of its shareholders are US Citizens or residents for tax purposes and Thather was a resident of Switzerland. Laughlin stated that Margaret Thatcher was encouraging her son Mark to “distance himself from Wallace” and that Wallace was asked by Ms. Thatcher to resign as Treasurer of her foundation.
L. It appears that David Wallace and Mark Thatcher were business partners in at least two failed businesses from about 1990, shortly after Wallace filed personal bankruptcy until 1995 when the suit by Laughlin was settled, during the time that Thatcher was identified as profiting from arms deals involving Saudi Arabia and Iraq.
M. An August 3, 1998 Dallas Business Journal article reported that WallaceÂ’s investment firm The Markpoint Co. had acquired Power Battery Inc. WallaceÂ’s firm supposedly pumped $1 million into Power Battery and exchanged about $14 million in private stock from LSM International, Inc. a south Texas battery manufacturer that Markpoint purchased in 1997. The new company was named Consolidated Power Battery Corp. Wallace was paid to manage the business but on August 22, 2000 Wallace placed the company in bankruptcy (Case No. 00-37735-H4-7 (Chapter 7).
N. On October 20, 2000 the Bankruptcy Trustee for Consolidated Power Battery Company (CPBC), Robbye R. Waldron, sued Wallace and other Directors of CPBC for mismanagement. Wallace and the other Directors settled the lawsuit for a $300,000 payment.
O. On January 8, 2001 Wallace filed a Proof of Claim against the bankrupt CPBC on behalf of Wallace & Associates Investments, Inc. (f.k.a. The Markpoint Company) for $107,643.78. The bankruptcy trustee filed an objection to the claim pointing out that Wallace was an insider and a director of the bankrupt CPBC. The claim was denied.
P. On January 8, 2001 Wallace as Manager of SVP Management LLC, the General Partner of Sundance Venture Partners L.P. filed a Claim against the bankrupt CPBC for $820,974.84. The Bankruptcy Trustee of CPBC, Robbye Waldron, filed an Objection To Claim pointing out that Wallace was an insider and director of the bankrupt CPBC. The claim was denied.
Q. On December 21, 2001 WallaceÂ’s firm, Wallace & Associates Investments, Inc. borrowed $76,794.04 from SouthTrust Bank, Houston, Texas for 6 months. David Wallace personally guaranteed the loan.
R. Wallace failed to pay the note according to its terms and on June 12, 2002, after Wallace had been elected Mayor of Sugar Land, SouthTrust filed suit, Cause No 773900 in County Court at Law # 1 Harris County Texas to collect from Wallace.
S. On December 2, 2002, while Wallace served as Mayor of Sugar Land, Wallace entered into an Agreed Final Judgment whereby the court ordered David Wallace, individually, and Wallace & Associates Investments, Inc. to pay SouthTrust an amount totaling $82,870.42 plus post judgment interest of 10% per annum. Wallace agreed to pay SouthTrust $1,000.00 per month, with all sums to be paid by December 31, 2003.
T. Wallace failed to pay according to the terms of the Agreed Final Judgment.
U. SouthTrust abstracted the judgment by filing it of record with the County Clerk of Harris County on February 2, 2004.
V. On February 27, 2004 attorneys for SouthTrust filed a writ of discovery on David Wallace. As of January 1, 2006 the amount Wallace owed totaled about $100,000.00 including accrued post judgment interest.
W. A March 1, 2005 article in the Fort Bend Sun Newspaper reports that Wallace had received a one-third equity interest in a real estate investment trust from Will Perry and then placed that equity interest in his childrenÂ’s trust which places the equity interest beyond the reach of WallaceÂ’s lenders and creditors.
X. The 3/1/05 article also revealed that Wallace had moved his office into W. C. PerryÂ’s office in early January 2005 and had taken a position as Chairman investment Committee W. C. Perry Realty Investment Fund & W. C. Perrry Properties, L.P. WallaceÂ’s announcement that he had taken a position with W.C. Perry as an executive created a concern about conflict of interest on a proposed land development project involving the City of Sugar Land, Imperial Sugar, Cherokee Investment Partners of Raleigh North Carolina (developer of the project), W. C. Perry Properties and the State of Texas for the acquisition and development of the Imperial Sugar Mill property and adjacent state of Texas land in Sugar Land. The project involved the potential of favorable financial benefits being granted to the developer and one of its partners, Perry Properties, to develop the project. There was the potential for abatements or other financial benefits being granted from the city, county, or state to the developers. The city had been in discussion for several years on what should happen with the property following Imperial SugarÂ’s bankruptcy and Wallace had privileged information on the project.
Y. A March 8, 2005 article in the Fort Bend Sun revealed that the City Council of Sugar Land had created a “firewall” around Wallace following his announced involvement with Perry and would exclude him from any further discussions on the Imperial Sugar/Cherokee Investment Partners project.
Z. Harris County public documents shows that on February 6, 2006 a Limited Partnership, NC Two LP of Raleigh, North Carolina, created and controlled by NC Ventures, Inc. a Stafford, Texas firm owned by Wallace’s former neighbor and campaign contributor Michael Hrebenar provided Wallace a Satisfaction of Agreed Final Judgment thereby releasing the judgment lien previously filed by SouthTrust Bank against Wallace. According to public information, NC Ventures, Inc.’s business includes acquiring bad debts from financial institutions at a substantial discount from the amount of the debt and collecting the debt. The industry standard for this type of purchase of bad debts is about 10¢ on the dollar. According the Harris County public documents NC Two LP controlled by NC Ventures, Inc. acquired Wallace’s bad debt from Wachovia Bank successor to SouthTrust Bank on September 7, 2005.
AA.On June 30, 2006 Wallace filed a Financial Disclosure Statement relating to his pursuit of US Congressional District 22 seat that showed he earned $85,775 for the six months of 2006 and $160,000 in 2005 the majority coming from (W.C.) Perry Properties Brokerage Services ($60,000 in 2006) ($120,000 in 2005). That report discloses the interest in W. C. Perry Properties, LP (valued between $1 and $5 million) given to Wallace in 2005 and explained above is held by his dependent children. The home Wallace lives in is also owned by his dependent children (valued between $250,000 and $500,000) as is an interest in Sugar Land Entertainment Enterprises, LP (valued between $250,000 and $500,000) and 4660 Sweetwater Professional Centre Partners, LP (valued between $50,000 and $100,000). Such ownership structure effectively renders Wallace judgment-proof should lenders or creditors attempt to collect from Wallace. It is not known if Wachovia Bank knew about WallaceÂ’s earnings in 2005 or about the interest in the real estate investment company that Perry gave Wallace when it sold, at a discount, the SouthTrust loan made to Wallace to NC Two LP.
Wallace’s track record over an 18 year period involves personal bankruptcy, multiple business failures, and accusations of impropriety including RICO violations. Though he has recently stated he “turns businesses around”, he has not publicly presented specific examples of successful turnarounds.

Now let's be real honest here -- there may be perfectly logical and reasonable explanations for some of these items -- but a reasonable person must wonder if such explanations exist for every single one of them, including the legal/business/financial issues that are currently at issue. And more to the point, do we really want to have a candidate with this much baggage following in the footsteps of our former congressman, whose ethical record has been questioned over the years -- and who is currently facing criminal charges?

Whether the CD22 precinct chairs decide to endorse a write-in candidate or someone already on the ballot, we need someone of high integrity with as clean a record as we can find. And i'm sorry, folks, but David Wallace is not it.

Posted by: Greg at 03:35 PM | Comments (17) | Add Comment
Post contains 2200 words, total size 14 kb.

But it seems they are seen as undesirable by Australian farmers.

Australian scientists have called on the country's farmers to report any ugly sheep found in their flocks.

A campaign called "Xtreme sheep" aims to study sheep with undesirable wool features to unlock the genetic makeup of the prized merino and ensure production of its high quality fleece.

The South Australian Research and Development Institute (SARDI) said Tuesday its search for "Australia's ugliest merino lambs" may hold the key to securing the nation's A$2.8 billion (US$2.1 billion) wool industry.

The institute said ugly lambs -- with uneven wool, strange fibres, clumps of wool that fall out, bare patches, no wool, or highly wrinkled skin -- are usually culled by farmers.

"Before sending them to the abattoir, we'd like farmers to talk to us first, because studying animals with extreme features offers one of the most efficient ways to find good genes that can impact on certain wool traits," said project leader Simon Bawden.

"It might seem a paradox that ugly wool may be good, but when looking through a genetic profile, the random genetic mistakes act like a flag, speeding up our search to finding genes critical to wool formation and synthesis," Bawden told reporters

The institute hopes to the DNA study will lead to improvements in Australia's merino wool, making it stretchier, less scratchy, shinier and easier to spin, and better able to compete against synthetic fibres.

So far only 10 ugly sheep have been found this lambing season, which stretches from April to September, when statistically there could be hundreds, said the institute.

Sounds interesting -- and I bet that such sheep would be welcome in College Station, had the Aggies' animal husbandry program not been ended by the Texas Legislature due to large unexplained expenses for candy, flowers, and sexy lingerie from Victoria's Secret.

Please feel free to add other Aggie jokes in the comment section.

Posted by: Greg at 01:43 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 335 words, total size 2 kb.

Despite the fact that contemporary acts of terrorism are committed almost exclusively by Muslims, our government refuses to take the reasonable step of subjecting every Muslim to special scrutiny while flying.

There is, however, another group that gets singled out for searches -- and you will be outraged.

A little-known fact about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan is that the U.S. military requires soldiers to travel in uniform from theater. An even lesser known fact is that the Transportation Security Administration aggressively targets war veterans as they travel home to their loved ones.

At Baltimore's airport on my way back to Orlando from Iraq, there were about 50 soldiers in line, waiting to be cleared by TSA. I noticed soldiers taking off clothing, and then they assumed the position so commonly seen in police-chase videos, arms and legs spread wide as a screener passed a wand close to their bodies. Soldiers were asked to remove belts, boots and shirts, and their carry-on bags were ransacked.

"We're fighting a war. Do you guys think we're a threat?" I asked as I spread my legs and arms.

The screener replied, "I dunno," and kept his wand in motion.

Before long my leave was completed and I was at Orlando International Airport, standing in line, waiting to clear security again. This time my wife accompanied me through the checkpoint so we could spend every last minute together before I returned to Iraq.

I wore my desert uniform, and as I approached the gate, a TSA screener directed my wife and me to additional screening after my bag had been inspected and scanned. My wife was searched, making an already miserable event, my leaving for war a second time, even worse than the first time.

Travelers shook their heads in disgust. One man glared incredulously at the screeners and said, "Unbelievable."

I was humiliated, not because I was being searched, but because I was being searched while wearing the cloth of the nation -- a U.S. military uniform. While wearing the flag of our nation on my sleeve, enroute to fight a war to support my government's interests, I was categorized as suspicious.

The same government that employs both the TSA and U.S. Army sent me a contradicting message. It trusted me enough to train me, give me a weapon and send me to do its dirty work, but it didn't trust me enough to fly on commercial airplanes with other citizens without close scrutiny.

That's right -- damn near every Mohammad, Abdul, and Osama can get through the screening checkpoint without extra scrutiny by the screeners, because of concerns about profiling based upon race, ethnicity, or religion. On the other hand, American soldirs in uniform, traveling on military orders, are specially searched with frightening regularity.

Including these soldiers.

Since then I've been further dismayed to learn the TSA doesn't even exempt severely wounded war veterans. According to the TSA, it tries to gracefully screen soldiers wounded in battle by making sure security screening is conducted "with empathy and respect."

"We want to make sure the overall experience for the service member is as expeditious and pleasant," as possible, the TSA Web site states.

Odds are wounded soldiers will set off metal detectors, but the TSA won't find weapons intended for use in hijackings. Instead, the TSA will learn their detectors were set off by the shrapnel still embedded in the soldiers' bodies, or the metal components of prosthetics, or plates that now hold service members' bodies together.

Welcome home. Thanks for your service.

Incredible!

H/T Stop the ACLU, CanÂ’t Keep Quiet!, Bring It On!

Posted by: Greg at 01:22 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
Post contains 618 words, total size 4 kb.

At least that is my interpretation of this latest anti-Israel move by the Secretary General of the UN.

Anticipating Hizb'allah's failure to comply with a UN-brokered ceasefire, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan sent a letter to Jerusalem at the weekend, insisting Israel not respond militarily to any violations of Security Council Resolution 1701, according to The Jerusalem Post.

Annan said Israel should only respond in immediate self-defense, and not by relaunching a wider military offensive against the terror group.

In effect, the UN chief was saying that Israel should totally ignore Hizb'allah efforts to reestablish itself in southern Lebanon and Syrian efforts to resupply the group, and should only respond in a very pinpoint manner to any further firing of missiles at northern Israel.

Both the Lebanese military and French forces expected to bolster peacekeepers already on the ground in southern Lebanon have said they will not confront Hizb'allah with force if the terror group fails to go along with the ceasefire terms.

Israeli government sources said Annan's letter was unacceptable, and that a firm response was being drafted.

This is, of course, how the UN has always treated the Israelis – rules that apply to it do not apply to its enemies. In this case, Israel will be held rigorously to the letter of the agreement, but Hezbollah will be allowed to act with impunity – just as it was when it was required to disarm under resolution 1559 several years ago.

Posted by: Greg at 12:53 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 251 words, total size 2 kb.

At least that is my interpretation of this latest anti-Israel move by the Secretary General of the UN.

Anticipating Hizb'allah's failure to comply with a UN-brokered ceasefire, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan sent a letter to Jerusalem at the weekend, insisting Israel not respond militarily to any violations of Security Council Resolution 1701, according to The Jerusalem Post.

Annan said Israel should only respond in immediate self-defense, and not by relaunching a wider military offensive against the terror group.

In effect, the UN chief was saying that Israel should totally ignore Hizb'allah efforts to reestablish itself in southern Lebanon and Syrian efforts to resupply the group, and should only respond in a very pinpoint manner to any further firing of missiles at northern Israel.

Both the Lebanese military and French forces expected to bolster peacekeepers already on the ground in southern Lebanon have said they will not confront Hizb'allah with force if the terror group fails to go along with the ceasefire terms.

Israeli government sources said Annan's letter was unacceptable, and that a firm response was being drafted.

This is, of course, how the UN has always treated the Israelis – rules that apply to it do not apply to its enemies. In this case, Israel will be held rigorously to the letter of the agreement, but Hezbollah will be allowed to act with impunity – just as it was when it was required to disarm under resolution 1559 several years ago.

Posted by: Greg at 12:53 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 260 words, total size 2 kb.

Imagine herds of mammoth wandering the tundra – it could happen, maybe even in our lifetimes.

BODIES of extinct Ice Age mammals, such as woolly mammoths, that have been frozen in permafrost for thousands of years may contain viable sperm that could be used to bring them back from the dead, scientists said yesterday.

Research has indicated that mammalian sperm can survive being frozen for much longer than was previously thought, suggesting that it could potentially be recovered from species that have died out.

Several well-preserved mammoth carcasses have been found in the permafrost of Siberia, and scientists estimate that there could be millions more.

Last year a Canadian team demonstrated that it was possible to extract DNA from the specimens, and announced the sequencing of about 1 per cent of the genome of a mammoth that died about 27,000 years ago.

With access to the mammothÂ’s genetic code, and with frozen sperm recovered from testes, it may be possible to resurrect an animal that is very similar to a mammoth.

The mammoth is a close genetic cousin of the modern Asian elephant, and scientists think that the two may be capable of interbreeding.

Why do I have visions of Fred Flintstone and a big plate of mammoth ribs?

Posted by: Greg at 12:51 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 217 words, total size 1 kb.

See, Jimmy Carter isn't just the worst president of the twentieth century; he can also lay claim to a much higher title.

SPIEGEL: You also mentioned the hatred for the United States throughout the Arab world which has ensued as a result of the invasion of Iraq. Given this circumstance, does it come as any surprise that Washington's call for democracy in the Middle East has been discredited?

Carter: No, as a matter of fact, the concerns I exposed have gotten even worse now with the United States supporting and encouraging Israel in its unjustified attack on Lebanon.

SPIEGEL: But wasn't Israel the first to get attacked?

Carter: I don't think that Israel has any legal or moral justification for their massive bombing of the entire nation of Lebanon. What happened is that Israel is holding almost 10,000 prisoners, so when the militants in Lebanon or in Gaza take one or two soldiers, Israel looks upon this as a justification for an attack on the civilian population of Lebanon and Gaza. I do not think that's justified, no.

Gee -- this jackass cannot differentiate between kidnapped soldiers and captured terrorists who have been tried before in court and sentenced for their crimes. Under the principles here, the taking of hostages by Iran during his administration was legitimate and the rescue mission he launched was not.

But he does say one thing I agree with.

As you possibly know, historically, our country has had the capability of self-correcting our own mistakes.

He is correct -- our nation made a grave mistake in electing Jimmy Carter as president in 1976, and self-corrected by electing and re-electing Ronald Reagan as his successor.

H/T -- RCP Blog, Truthdig, Hot Air

Posted by: Greg at 12:00 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
Post contains 292 words, total size 2 kb.

One of the most important pieces of space history has been misplaced in NASA's archives.

The government has misplaced the original recording of the first moon landing, including astronaut Neil Armstrong's famous "one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind," a NASA spokesman said yesterday.

Armstrong's moon walk, seen by millions of television viewers on July 20, 1969, is among the transmissions that NASA has failed to turn up in a year of searching, spokesman Grey Hautaloma said.

"We haven't seen them for quite a while. We've been looking for over a year, and they haven't turned up," Hautaloma said.

The tapes also contain data about the health of the astronauts and the condition of the spacecraft. In all, about 700 boxes of transmissions from the Apollo lunar missions are missing, he said.

"I wouldn't say we're worried -- we've got all the data. Everything on the tapes we have in one form or another," Hautaloma said.

NASA has retained copies of the TV broadcasts and offers several clips on its Web site. But those images are of lower quality than the originals stored on the missing magnetic tapes.

Because NASA's equipment was not compatible with the TV technology of the day, the original transmissions had to be displayed on a monitor and reshot by a TV camera for broadcast.

Hautaloma said it is possible the tapes will be unplayable if they are found because they have degraded significantly over the years -- a problem common to magnetic tape and other recordable media.

This will be a tragic loss if the materials are lost or damaged beyond recovery.

Posted by: Greg at 10:13 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 276 words, total size 2 kb.

The winning entries in the Watcher's Council vote for this week are We Could Be Heroes by Done With Mirrors, and Israel Has No Right to Exist by One Cosmos. 

Here are the full results of the vote.

Posted by: Greg at 10:05 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 44 words, total size 1 kb.

The CD22 situation has been a mess for some time. We had a congressman who decided to walk away from the nomination after the priimary. We had a state party that handled the situation poorly. We had local party leaders who tried to control the situation for the benefit of friends and cronies.

And then you had the little people -- the precinct chairs who represent the grassroots of the party. We tried to conform to all the various problems that arose along the way, doing what we heard from the people of our precincts and operating in the dark too many times.

Finally, it seems that we might have a say in this process, and that we might really have some element of control over what happens next.

Or at least we will if one local politician listens to what we have to say, and if one member of congress stops trying to direct what is happening.

Now it appears that we might be permitted to have our say -- and one candidate is saying he does not care. David Wallace has already filed his write-in candidacy documents. He has not waited for the grassroots to speak. He has not indicated that he will defer to us and withdraw in the event we reject his candidacy. Indeed, Wallace has been actively courting the NRCC, seeking the endorsement of that organization despite the fact that almost every GOP congressman has signed on to the idea of listening to the grassroots.

David Wallace -- hear me clearly. If you make this run over the objections of the precinct chairs of CD22, we will come after you. We will fund your opponents in your mayoral reelection bid, we will walk the city of Sugar Land to campaign against you, and we will oppose you in any other political race you seek to compete in. Do not place yourself above the people or the party.

And to those on the national level who want to support Wallace regardless of what we say -- rest assured, we will be coming for you as well. Back our candidate, or back none at all -- or face our wrath.

Posted by: Greg at 11:42 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 375 words, total size 2 kb.

We finally have students in our classrooms today.

It should be interesting, given we are going off the block schedule these kids have always known and going on a traditional schedule of 45-minute periods.

Posted by: Greg at 10:19 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 40 words, total size 1 kb.

And drawing editorial cartoons for the Sacramento News and Review under the name John Kloss.

After all, how else can you explain this little gem?

So let's shout out a hearty "Sieg Heil!" to Herr Kloss and his editors and publishers, who would no doubt never consider publishing these, for fear of losing their heads.

H/T Instapundit, Texas Safety Forum, Volokh Conspiracy, Solomonia

Posted by: Greg at 10:13 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
Post contains 75 words, total size 1 kb.

I really have to wonder what world the editors of the NY Times live in. It is certainly a very different one than I do.

Look at this bizarre statement at the end of today's editorial.

The Geneva Conventions protect Americans. If this country changes the rules, itÂ’s changing the rules for Americans taken prisoner abroad. That is far too high a price to pay so this administration can hang on to its misbegotten policies.

Let's look at this, shall we.

Since the end of WWII, Americans have not received the protections afforded under the Geneva Conventions in any conflict.

In Korea, our prisoners were subject to brainwashing and deprivation. Ask John McCain about the respect for the Geneva Conventions in Vietnam -- torture and degrading treatment were the norm there. Not only is one American POW still unaccounted for follwoing the Gulf War in 1991, but it is also known that female POWs were subject to rape. And in Iraq and Afghanistan today, those who our courts grant the protections of the Geneva Conventions (incorrectly, according to the clear language of the treaties) subject captive Americans to beheading. Not one perpetrator of such abuses against Americans has ever been brought to justice by either US, national, or international courts.

Would you care to explain to me again how Americans are protected by the Geneva Conventions?

Posted by: Greg at 06:38 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 238 words, total size 2 kb.

I don't particularly find this activity to be useful, but the response to this protest is instructive.

A protester staked out the home of a Muslim candidate for the Maryland House of Delegates, holding a sign and wearing a T-shirt that mocked Islam.

Timothy Truett sat in a folding chair Saturday on the cul-de-sac outside Saqib Ali's home in Gaithersburg with a sign reading "Islam sucks," and a shirt with the slogan, "This mind is an Allah-free zone."

Curiously, though, Ali did not seek to dialog with Truett.

Ali took several photographs of Truett but refused to speak to him, saying he did not get the impression that Truett wanted to start a constructive dialogue.

"We don't waste our time talking to people who hate us," Ali said Sunday.

Interestingly enough, that is precisely what we are told the US needs to do -- we need to talk to those who hate us in order to understand them and seek to change our ways so that they no longer feel alienated from us. Similarly, Israel is expected to engage in peaceful negotiations with those who launch rockets and send suicide bombers to kill her citizens. But Saqib Ali doesn't feel he (or the Muslim community) needs to reciprocate.

But then again, what do you expect? Those who speak loudest for Islam today -- al-Qaeda, Hezbollah, Iran, Syria, etc -- would rather fight, maim, and kill those who refuse to submit to Islam than take a single step towards accommodation and coexistance. Perhaps Mr. Ali and Mr. Truett are not that far apart in how they view the world.

Posted by: Greg at 03:56 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
Post contains 276 words, total size 2 kb.