As much as I love the Bard's writings, I must respectfully disagree.

Lately we've been hearing a bit about the heroism of Ed Freeman, a Vietnam veteran who finally received the Congressional Medal of Honor in 2001, for heroic deeds he performed in 1965. Predictably, we're reading this because CPT (ret.) Freeman has just died. It seems that we never have time to praise people when they are alive and thriving; only after someone has died, or had his business fail does even a genuine hero's story become interesting enough to be published.

Bob Weir wrote the following, in The News Connection. Ordinarily, Mr. Weir is a bit too self-absorbed for my taste, but I find myself in agreement with the following, which is his commentary on the death of Ed Freeman:

Something terrible has happened to our country. A malignancy has crept into our thinking and turned us into self-absorbed misfits, many of whom have a blasé attitude toward those who have bled and died so that we could live in freedom and prosperity. I suppose an aberrant type of complacency implants itself into one's subconscious when one's safety and security have always been arranged from afar. If you, or a family member, never had to fight in a war zone and never learned the meaning of near-death experiences, you might tend to ignore those who suffered and died to spare you that nightmare. It doesn't take much courage to speak loftily about the evils of war from the comfortable sanctuary of your living room, surrounded by family and friends. It's easy to be against war; only a maniac would feel otherwise. However, recognizing that sometimes war is the only option available to keep the peace, takes a greater level of maturity and life experience. Without the Revolutionary War there would not have been a United States of America. If we had not entered World War 2 to fight the Axis Powers, we'd probably be speaking German and waiting our turn while the Fuhrer (probably his successor) was deciding if we had enough Aryan blood to allow us to live.

Even the Civil War, which had Americans killing Americans, was necessary to preserve the Union and break the chains that held an entire race in bondage. Although we can wax philosophically about there being no winners in war, there would certainly have been losers if brave men and women didn't stand up against evil tyrants. ...I think people like Mr. Freeman represent honor, integrity and courage. We live in a free country today because of the sacrifices made by him and countless numbers of other patriots.

Since the first of the year I have witnessed, in an official capacity, the burials of more than one hundred honorably discharged US veterans. After one funeral yesterday, I made this note in my diary: "You bring the body; we [the military honor guard] will supply the dignity." This was in reaction to one more funeral at which attendees--you really can't call them mourners with accuracy--acted as though they haven't a clue how to show respect. Four of the six pallbearers were in shirtsleeves, one actually wearing an orange polo shirt. At least one person came dressed in jeans and an untucked white tee shirt. One guy apparently drove his "significant other" to the funeral, but did not bother to get out of the car; when she rushe out of the chapel in tears, he called out, "Are you OK?" Mighty comforting of him...

So Bob Weir is even more accurate than he thinks. We have not only lost the capacity to honor people as heroes, many of us have forgotten (or more likely, never been trained in) how to show respect to our own blood. Rather, we hire funeral directors and others to do that while we carry on in whatever fashion suits our taste. As I've heard someone observe (meaning to be humorous) it's too often not about the deceased or his life, but where we are going to eat afterward.

Hot Dogs Force Evacuation At Citizens Bank Park

PHILADELPHIA (CBS 3) ― The discovery of several hot dogs in packages outside Citizens Bank Park brought the bomb squad out and forced the temporary evacuation of the stadium Wednesday evening.

According to police, Pattison Street between Darien and 11th Streets were shutdown as officials investigated the discovery of several suspicious packages near a ticket office.

Fans inside the stadium were evacuated, but players remained on the field following the incident.

Bomb squad members further investigated the packages and determined they were simply several hot dogs in foil wrappers. Sadly, the wieners were detonated as a precaution.

The stadium was reopened at about 5:20 p.m.

The Phillies take on the Atlanta Braves at 7:05 p.m. on Wednesday evening.

Senator Obama, How would you deal with this situation using "diplomacy," as you have claimed must take precedence over military action or economic sanctions?

 CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) - President Hugo Chavez says the U.S. ambassador has 72 hours to leave Venezuela and he's recalling his ambassador from Washington.

Chavez said he's asking U.S. Ambassador Patrick Duddy to leave as a means of showing solidarity with Bolivian President Evo Morales, who expelled Washington's envoy in La Paz.

"They're trying to here what they were doing in Bolivia," Chavez said. "That's enough ... from you, Yankees," he said, using an expletive.

Chavez announced the decision during a televised speech, hours after saying his government had detained a group of alleged conspirators in a plot to overthrow him.

Chavez accused the group of current and former military officers of trying to assassinate him and topple the government with support from the United States. He didn't offer evidence.

U.S. officials have repeatedly denied Chavez's accusations that Washington has backed plots against him.

Reuters reports it thus:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States will expel Venezuela's ambassador in Washington to retaliate for the oil-exporting Latin American nation's decision to oust the U.S. envoy in Caracas, a U.S. official said on Friday.

"The plan is to kick him out," said the U.S. official, who asked not to be identified.

In an escalating diplomatic battle between Washington and Latin America's left-wing leaders, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez expelled the American ambassador on Thursday, a day after Bolivia asked the U.S. envoy in La Paz to leave.

Bolivia accused the U.S. ambassador of instigating violent protests in the poor Andean nation, a charge the U.S. State Department dismissed as baseless.

It was unclear whether the United States would succeed in expelling the Venezuelan ambassador. Chavez on Thursday said he was recalling the envoy, who could be pulled out before being formally notified that he was "persona non grata" by the U.S. State Department.

Chavez on Thursday repeated a threat he has often made to cut off Venezuela's oil supply to the United States, its biggest customer. Venezuela has some of the largest reserves outside the Middle East and, despite Chavez's clashes with the Bush administration, is a major supplier to the United States.

In an ideal world, we would go back to the beginning of the primary campaign and start all over, with an entirely news set of candidates. Now that we are approaching what appears to be Hobson's Choice, I had to answer Sherry in these words:

Cute aside: In one neighborhood where I had a small business, there was a neighborhood business association. The president was a man we will call "Freddie," and his wife/business partner a woman named "Marcy." Without fail, at every meeting Freddie would make an impassioned (and occasionally sensible) statement about some problem or another in the neighborhood. This would be followed, almost as if by parliamentary procedure, by Marcy seeking the floor and starting her own speech with the words, "Freddie didn't exactly say what he meant. What Freddie meant to say was..." (at which point she would thoroughly discredit every word of his little speech. Now, at the neighborhood level, it's funny--in a kind of cruel way--to watch a man being regularly emasculated by his wife in public. God knows, the two of them deserved each other, being a couple of pretentious jerks. But in national and international politics, we cannot afford this sort of entertainment.

Of greater interest is the news, several paragraphs later, that Peace Nitwit Mom Cindy Sheehan has planned to appear in the parade with an anti-war contingent. But wait a minute!!! Cindy was on a hunger strike to end the war in Iraq. Shouldn't she be dead by now?

Quoting from this site:

SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) - The king of Spain told Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to "shut up" Saturday during a heated exchange at a summit of leaders from Latin America, Spain and Portugal.

Chavez, who called President Bush the "devil" on the floor of the United Nations last year, triggered the exchange by repeatedly referring to former Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar as a "fascist."

Aznar, a conservative who was an ally of Bush as prime minister, "is a fascist," Chavez said in a speech at the Ibero-American summit in Santiago, Chile. "Fascists are not human. A snake is more human."

Spain's current socialist prime minister, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, responded during his own allotted time by urging Chavez to be more diplomatic in his words and respect other leaders despite political differences.

"Former President Aznar was democratically elected by the Spanish people and was a legitimate representative of the Spanish people," he said, eliciting applause from the gathered heads of state.

Chavez repeatedly tried to interrupt, but his microphone was off.

Spanish King Juan Carlos, seated next to Zapatero, angrily turned to Chavez and said, "Why don't you shut up?" ...

And THEN...

"Mister King," OMG

MOSCOW (Reuters) - On a holiday created to unite his country, Russian President Vladimir Putin issued a veiled warning that foreigners were seeking to split up the vast country and plunder its resource wealth. [How many Mexican illegals are in Moscow, do you think?]

"Some people are constantly insisting on the necessity to divide up our country and are trying to spread this theory," Putin told military cadets during a speech in Moscow on Sunday, Russian news agencies reported. [Apparently the grown-up soldiers were too busy.]

"There are those who would like to build a unipolar world, who would themselves like to rule all of humanity," Putin said, a phrase he has used over the past seven years of his administration to mean the United States. [Damned if it doesn't sound as though he's talking about the United Nations.]

Putin... also said Russia was well respected by admirers as a stabilizing world factor. [Yeah, right.]

...

Sunday was National Unity Day, an Autumn holiday created by Putin's administration three years ago to replace October Revolution Day, formerly the most patriotic celebration in the Soviet Union, when tanks, missiles and troops filled Red Square.

...

A Levada Centre poll of adult Russians showed only a quarter of adults could correctly identify why they have Monday off from work.

A further 48 per cent had no idea whatsoever, while the remaining poll participants confused the holiday with the National Day of Reconciliation or Halloween. [And evidently the remaining 27% were too drunk to answer.]

...

"Some think we have too much resource wealth and should divide it," Putin told the cadets. [This could be President Bush speaking...]

"They themselves have no wish to share their own riches, and we should take that into account." [Like our liberal Democrats.]

You don't suppose Mr. Putin boosted that speech from President Bush the last time he was at Camp David, do you?

DETROIT (AP) -- Six men of Iraqi descent who were heading home from doing [conducting] training for the U.S. military have sued American Airlines, saying employees detained and publicly humiliated them after another passenger voiced suspicions.

The men, who sued in U.S. District Court in Detroit alleging racial discrimination, say airline employees grounded their Aug. 28 flight from San Diego to Chicago and detained them, believing they were security risks.

The men, some of whom are U.S. citizens, were returning to the Detroit area after training Marines at California's Camp Pendleton on Iraqi culture when another passenger expressed concerns to guards partly because she heard the men speaking Arabic.

After taxiing from the gate, pilots returned the plane to the terminal. The six men were segregated and detained while the airline helped more than 100 passengers find hotel rooms, according to a prepared statement from the men.

... The men worked for Defense Training Systems, a unit of International Logistics Services Corp. of Anchorage, Alaska. Their work involved teaching Marines about Iraqi culture, customs and etiquette, said their lawyer, Lawrence T. Garcia.

"These are some of the most pro-American people around," Garcia said. "There's no reason to suspect that these people were a threat on this airline. ... This is the face of prejudice and racism that happens today."

Aside to counselor Garcia: bull shit!

If these six guys are considered expert enough to be teaching marines about Iraqi culture, customs and etiquette, they should also have the common sense to know that airline passengers are going to be upset by a handful of swarthy men conversing in Arabic. It's a little matter of US culture, customs and etiquette, and rembrance of those few thousand innocent Americans who got creamed on September 11th.

It's not enough to conduct hands-on body searches of elderly jewish women and infants to "even out the score" and appear "fair." Now the airlines are expected to patently ignore what indeed must have looked like suspicious behavior. So if these six had indeed turned out to be terrorists and the airline had done nothing, in the pursuit of fairness, where would that leave things?

Six years ago, right after the attacks, OBL taunted the USA in a video, saying that Americans lack the stomach for the conflict that would follow. Daily, we are proving him right.

(CBS) OAK LAWN, Ill. A southwest suburban school district has taken action, responding to the concerns of a Muslim parent. [ed. note: that's "a," as in "one."]

But now, as [TV newsie] Suzanne Le Mignot reports, other parents are angry that traditional school holidays will be renamed or even eliminated.

"That does not represent all the Muslims, all of the Arabs at that school," said Qais Nofel, the father of a student in Ridgeland School District 122.

There was some heated discussion between parents outside Columbus Manor Elementary School in Oak Lawn on Friday. The thought of no more traditional holiday celebrations has many parents really upset.

For now, children in Ridgeland School District 122 will celebrate fall festival instead of Halloween and winter festival instead of Christmas.

Brenda Elvidge said, "It's not fair to our kids. This is America and that's an American tradition."

The decision affects the children at four elementary schools in Oak Lawn and one junior high school in Bridgeview.

The district has a 30 percent Arab-American population, many of whom practice Islam. The superintendent says the reason for the change in tradition comes after one parent wanted Ramadan decorations put up inside Columbus Manor Elementary. They were taken down.

Superintendent Tom Smyth said, "I go back to our policy which says that public schools are to remain neutral in this respect."*

Ridgeland School District 122 has called for an emergency meeting on the issue, to be held on Tuesday.

Meantime, Muslim children are being allowed to pray during what's being called their own time, that's lunch time, during Ramadan.

Parent June Quigley said, "They get to pray in our schools. That is religion in a public school."

Muslim parents have different views on the issue.

Sala Abour said, "To take away Halloween and Christmas from little kids, that is very wrong."

Nofel said, "We go and we celebrate the holidays and traditions here, but we do have the right to be Muslims as well."

Other parents say the controversy is overshadowing what really needs to be addressed at all five schools in the district.

Ronnie Carroll said, "The fact that they are cash strapped. Our classroom size is way above the average mean, 38 children in our first grade classroom. The concern should be our school, not the whole holiday issues."

Those issues along with the holiday controversy are going to be addressed at a school board meeting on Tuesday. Members will decide if holidays will be celebrated or not.

Meantime, the Illinois PTA district director says the state is now investigating this issue and there's a meeting with the superintendent next week.

A few observations, if I may.

ONE parent objected to the more traditional American holidays. Thirty percent of the school district population (which is not to say 30% of the school's students) are "Arab-American," and MANY (not "most," in fact the percentage is not quantified) practice Islam.

Public schools have always been "sold" as the place where children learn to get along with other children who are not just like them. Removing any holiday from the mix defeats that mission.

Superintendent Smyth's statement that the schools are to "remain neutral in this respect" represents a huge departure from the philosophy of having the public school system teach the important cultural stuff about the USA, even if some of it involves (God forbid!) religion. Peruse any pre-WWII public school textbook for a perspective on this.

Until recently, parents in the USA who favored separatism for their children in areas of religion and culture formed "private" or "parochial" schools to serve this need. In some cases, those schools were an alternative to the government-funded school; in others they were supplemental education. This way of doing things has always worked adequately, has harmed no one, and ought to be left in place.

Here in Woodlawn, a suburb of Baltimore, the high school has made many concessions to Muslim students, unbalancing the privileges granted to the student body at large. I won't leap to the assumption this is the entire cause, but I don't think it is altogether coincidental that Woodlawn High School (in spite of having a "magnet" school subdivision) has the lowest standard test scores among all the county's high schools.

This, despite the fact that Iran has had no diplomatic relations with the USA for some years, its shrill pronouncements about the destruction of Israel, the distinct possibility that the Iran government is supporting terrorist operations as well as insurgents in Iraq.

University President Lee Bollinger apparently believes that he is such a mensch that he will successfully be able to challenge Ahmadinejad on these issues. Columbia's web site includes the following statement from Bollinger:

In order to have such a University-wide forum, we have insisted that a number of conditions be met, first and foremost that President Ahmadinejad agree to divide his time evenly between delivering remarks and responding to audience questions. I also wanted to be sure the Iranians understood that I would myself introduce the event with a series of sharp challenges to the president on issues including:

• the Iranian president’s denial of the Holocaust;
• his public call for the destruction of the State of Israel;
• his reported support for international terrorism that targets innocent civilians and American troops;
• Iran's pursuit of nuclear ambitions in opposition to international sanction;
• his government's widely documented suppression of civil society and particularly of women's rights; and
• his government's imprisoning of journalists and scholars, including one of Columbia’s own alumni, Dr. Kian Tajbakhsh (see President Bollinger's prior statement).

In plain language, this paper-pusher has such an ego that he believes he can accomplish something that the combined diplomatic corps of the USA and UK, the United Nations, and God knows who else have been unable to do.

I would not bet you a small coffee from 7-11 that he'll prevail. "Alphabet" is a master of this sort of thing, and will manipulate the event to his disadvantage.

You can also make book that any anti-Iran sentiments expressed at the event will be sharply suppressed, while the entire panoply of moonbat behavior will be on display.

I am of the opinion that such an ill-considered decision ought to have consequences for Columbia, and that those consequences ought to include, at a minimum, the withdrawal of any and all federal support of the university, to include the repayment of any federal funds now on account there.

Predictably, Bollinger's e-mail address seems to be a state secret. So much for the spirit of openness.

However, the university web page does include the telephone and fax numbers of Bollinger's office, which I have repeated below.

May I humbly suggest that you spend the weekend flooding these numbers with voice messages and faxes?

phone: 212.854.9970,  fax: 212.854.9973

UPDATE: Monday September 24--"the day of..."

Those who were following the news over the weekend learned that Dean John Coatsworth remarked, in response to the uproar over Ahmadinejad's impending appearance, that they'd invite Adolf Hitler, if he were still living.

The New York Sun posted an editorial on that subject this morning. It reads, in part:

Jewish students at Columbia who went to their computers after breaking the fast for Yom Kippur were met Saturday evening with a link on the Drudge Report to an interview with the dean of the School of International and Public Affairs saying that he'd have been happy to welcome Hitler to the campus. The interview, aired on Fox News, was with John Coatsworth. He is seen in the Day of Atonement broadcast chuckling like a veritable Mearsheimer or Walt. Could he be oblivious to the impact his words were going to have in a Jewish community already on notice that its sensibilities were of little rank to either the president or the faculty of the university? Columbia, it seems, is bound and determined to honor the president of Iran and provide him with a platform to agitate against our country, and Israel, in midst of a war in which our GIs are facing Iranian backed forces on the field of battle.

Dean Coatsworth seems to be laboring under the illusion that had Columbia actually hosted Hitler in the late 1930s, World War II and the war against the Jews might have been prevented...

I don't think the timing of Coatsworth's stupid remark was specifically intended to offend Jews at Columbia, as the Sun implies. But it is ironic when an academic makes such a foolish statement without heed to the consequences. After all, these guys consider themselves the Conscience of America, microscopically examining everything that passes their noses to discern whether some "minority" may have been offended, intentionally or otherwise.

If only these "college" guys were half as smart as they think they are...

 

Could some New Yorker step forward and

"do the right thing?"

The MIT student who walked into Logan International Airport wearing a computer circuit board and wiring on her sweat shirt claimed it was harmless artwork. But to troopers who arrested her at gunpoint, it was a fake bomb.

Nineteen-year-old Star Simpson was charged Friday with possessing a hoax device. Her attorney described the charge as offbase and "almost paranoid," arguing at a court hearing that she did not act in a suspicious manner and had told an airport worker that the device was art. ...

[The student] wore the white circuit board on her chest over a black hooded sweat shirt, Pare said at a news conference. The battery-powered rectangular device had nine flashing lights, and Simpson had Play-Doh in her hands, he said. ...

A Massachusetts Port Authority staffer manning an information booth in the terminal became suspicious when Simpson - wearing the device - approached to ask about an incoming flight, Pare said. Simpson then walked outside, and the staffer notified a nearby trooper.

The trooper, joined by others with submachine guns, confronted her in front of the terminal.

"She was immediately told to stop, to raise her hands and not to make any movement, so we could observe all her movements to see if she was trying to trip any type of device," Pare said. "Had she not followed the protocol, we might have used deadly force."

He added, "She's lucky to be in a cell as opposed to the morgue."

I agree with the student's lawyer, up to a point. Prosecuting this young woman will serve no useful purpose. On the other hand, a public spanking might just reinforce the message that these security guys do not have the luxury of deciding who is serious, and who's just farting around.

Russia's military has successfully tested what it describes as the world's most powerful non-nuclear air-delivered bomb. Channel One television said the new ordnance, nicknamed the "Dad Of All Bombs" is four times more powerful than the US "Mother Of All Bombs". "The tests have shown that the new air-delivered ordnance is comparable to a nuclear weapon in its efficiency and capability," Col Gen Alexander Rukshin, a deputy chief of the Russian military's General Staff, said. Unlike a nuclear weapon, the bomb does not pose an environmental threat from the release of radiation, he added. ... While the American bomb was equivalent to 11 tons of TNT, the Russian one was equivalent to 44 tons of regular explosives. The Russian weapon's blast radius is 1,000 feet, twice as big as that of the US design, the report said. Like its US predecessor, first tested in 2003, the Russian "Dad Of All Bombs" is a so-called thermobaric weapon that explodes in an intense fireball combined with a devastating blast. It explodes in a terrifying nuclear bomb-like mushroom cloud and wreaks destruction through a massive shockwave created by the air burst and high temperature.

• The feeling of astonishment that such a thing had happened, could have happened, might happen again at any moment.
• The eerie quiet over the next several days, while air traffic was grounded.

We take too much for granted: our personal safety (which most of us leave in the hands of others), and our freedom to move about the country unmonitored and unrestricted. These are just two of those things.

Whether or not I trust its government at any given time, I love my country.

God Bless America

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) - President Hugo Chavez urged soldiers on Sunday to prepare for a guerrilla-style war against the United States, saying that Washington is using psychological and economic warfare as part of an unconventional campaign aimed at derailing his government.

Dressed in olive green fatigues and a red beret, Chavez spoke inside Tiuna Fort—Venezuela's military nerve-center—before hundreds of uniformed soldiers standing alongside armored vehicles and tanks decorated with banners reading: "Fatherland, Socialism, or Death! We will triumph!" The choice, for us, seems obvious.

"We must continue developing the resistance war, that's the anti- imperialist weapon. We must think and prepare for the resistance war everyday," said Chavez, who has repeatedly warned that American soldiers could invade Venezuela to seize control of the South American nation's immense oil reserves. Or alternatively, our Congress could develop the spine to start exploration in ANWR, where less firepower would be necessary.

U.S. officials reject claims that Washington is considering a military attack. But the U.S. government has expressed concern over what it perceives as a significant arms build-up here.

Chavez—a close ally of Cuban leader Fidel Castro—told soldiers the Washington was trying to weaken and divide Venezuelan society, including the armed forces, without resorting to combat.

"It's not just armed warfare," said Chavez, a former army officer who is leading what he calls the "Bolivarian Revolution," a socialist movement named after 19th-century independence hero Simon Bolivar. "I'm also referring to psychological warfare, media warfare, political warfare, economic warfare." Although God forbid he would support these assertions with a single example.

Under Chavez, Venezuela has recently purchased some $3 billion worth of arms from Russia, including 53 military helicopters, 100,000 Kalashnikov rifles, 24 SU-30 Sukhoi fighter jets.

Last week, Chavez said he is considering [additional] arms purchases, including submarines and a missile-equipped air defense system...

"We are strengthening Venezuela's military power precisely to avoid imperial aggressions and assure peace, not to attack anybody," he said Sunday.

Opposition leader Julio Borges condemned the president's interest in acquiring weapons, saying the government should focus on reducing violent crime in Venezuela, which has one of the highest homicide rates in Latin America. So, if we are VERY lucky, they'll kill each other off, without our intervention.  ... So many contradictions, so little time. Let's just dispatch a Delta Force team and get the SOB out of the way, so Borges has a chance at taking over.

 

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran's president said on Sunday the Lebanese and the Palestinians had pressed a "countdown button" to bring an end to Israel.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who triggered outrage in the West two years ago when he said Israel should be "wiped off the map", has often referred to the destruction of the Jewish state but says Iran is not a threat.

"With God's help, the countdown button for the destruction of the Zionist regime has been pushed by the hands of the children of Lebanon and Palestine," Ahmadinejad said in a speech.

"By God's will, we will witness the destruction of this regime in the near future," he said. He did not elaborate.

Iran often praises the Palestinians for what it says is their resistance against Israeli occupation. Tehran also described the war last summer between Hezbollah in Lebanon and Israel as a victory for the Iranian-backed group.

"If you make a mistake and create another war against the oppressed Lebanese nation, this time the angry ocean of the nations of the region will remove your rotten ... roots from the region," the president said in another speech on Sunday night.

Ahmadinejad's speeches were made ahead of ahead of Monday's anniversary of the death in 1989 of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic Republic, whose words Ahmadinejad echoed when he called for Israel to be "wiped off the map".

The president's comments caused consternation in Israel and the West, which also fear Iran is seeking to build an atomic arsenal under cover of a civilian nuclear power programme, a charge Tehran denies.

Although Ahmadinejad has said Iran is not a threat to Israel, Iranian officials have said Tehran would respond swiftly to any Israeli attack. Some analysts have speculated Israel could seek to knock out Iran's atomic sites.

In other words, Alphabet expects us to believe he will  be merely cheering from the sidelines as more Jews are killed in Israel.

Putin threatens to target Europe

He also lashes out at NATO and insists he's world's only true democrat.

DOUG SAUNDERS

June 4, 2007 at 6:00 AM EDT

MOSCOW — In a threat not uttered since the Cold War, Vladimir Putin said that Russia intends to aim its missile systems - potentially nuclear weapons - at targets in Europe in retaliation for the U.S. decision to establish antimissile bases there.

***

Mr. Putin repeatedly described U.S. antimissile bases, which will be built in the Czech Republic and Poland, both former Warsaw Pact countries, as "an element of the nuclear potential of the United States," and that the alleged threat from Iranian missiles is a myth. Washington says that the bases are purely defensive and designed to shoot down missiles launched at the United States from Iran or other rogue states.

Russian President Vladimir Putin gives an interview with newspapers from the Group of Eight industrialized nations at his residence in Novo-Ogaryovo, outside Moscow. A four-year term is relatively short for a Russian presidential mandate, Mr. Putin said, suggesting that it might be extended to five or seven years. [Take careful note: he is implying that he may suspend the upcoming elections in Russia, to continue himself in power.]

Asked what he might do to retaliate, he said he would return to the Cold War practice of having Russian ballistic missiles programmed to strike targets in Europe - in this case, he said, the Czech and Polish antimissile sites as well as new U.S. bases in Bulgaria and Romania.

***

He suggested that this could include powerful nuclear-capable weapons.

***

Russia has earlier said that it will pull out of the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, designed to prevent a nuclear arms race within Europe, if the U.S. goes ahead with its antimissile base.

Mr. Putin described Russia as being penned in by NATO and U.S. expansionism. In February, he called for an end of a "unipolar world" dominated by the United States.

"We have brought all our heavy weapons beyond the Urals and we have reduced our military forces by 300,000, and some other steps," he said.

"But what do we have in return? We see that Eastern Europe is being filled with new equipment, with new military, in Romania and Bulgaria as well as radar in the Czech Republic and missile systems in Poland. So we have a question there: What is happening? What is happening is that there is the unilateral disarmament of Russia."

[AND YET] This week, Russia tested a new type of cruise missile designed to penetrate antimissile systems. Mr. Putin said that Russia will pursue new weapons systems to restore the "global strategic balance," but would not increase its military spending beyond average European levels.

He said, however, that he would not reciprocate by setting up bases in countries close to the U.S., such as Cuba or Venezuela: "We do not need any bases in somebody's backyard." And he added that he is not interested in establishing a Warsaw Pact-style alliance with like-minded anti-Western nations.

Mr. Putin is in his final year of the Russian presidency, under a constitution that limits him to two consecutive terms. During that time, Russia has vastly improved its economic position after the chaos and impoverishment of the 1990s, and has become a significant player in global markets. But it has also become more authoritarian, with most independent media shut down or placed under state control, dissident activities heavily curtailed and political opposition kept to the margins.

Throughout the interview, Mr. Putin addressed questions about troubling aspects of the Russian state by citing similar flaws he sees in other nations. He repeatedly quoted from the most recent Amnesty International annual report, which harshly criticized the United States for its human-rights record on antiterrorism activities and the Iraq war. And, when the flaws in Russian democracy were cited, he mentioned the 2000 U.S. presidential elections.

"Of course, I am a pure and absolute democrat," he said. "The tragedy is that I am alone. I am the only such pure democrat. There are no such other democrats in the world. Let us see what is happening in North America: Just horrible torture. The homeless. Guantanamo. Detentions without normal court proceedings."

"After the death of Mahatma Gandhi," he added, with a smile, "I have nobody to talk to." [What a clever remark. Of course, Gandhi died four years before Putin's parents conceived him, but why let a little detail like that stand in the way of a quotable sound bite?]

Mr. Putin, perhaps aware of his image as a stern autocrat, joked on another very serious topic. He had explained that he fully agrees with U.S. President George W. Bush that Iran should not be permitted to develop nuclear weapons. Then he was asked if this spirit of co-operation could extend to the contentious antimissile system: If it had Russian involvement, and was operated by NATO rather than the U.S., would he find it agreeable?

"NATO is just an additional irritant element in relations with Russia," he said. "We know how decisions are made in NATO, the same way they were taken in the Warsaw Pact."

***

Mr. Putin was particularly eager to argue that Russia is not reverting to a state-run economy. It has recently set up large state-run enterprises to build ships and aircraft, and its main oil and gas firm, Gazprom, has the Russian state holding the majority of its shares.

But, he explained, this is simply a transitional state of affairs, and these firms, once they are competitive, will be privatized (he likened this approach to that taken by South Korea during its industrialization in the 1950s).

***

"We are going to proceed toward developing liberal market values." [Whatever that might mean...]

[Putin in refusing to extradite Andrei Lugovoi, the former KGB agent whom the British believe responsible for the poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko.]

Mr. Putin refused outright to consider any extradition. "Are there possible circumstances under which Russia could extradite Lugovoi? Yes there are. And those would require amendments to the constitution of the Russian Federation."

He then said that the incident was Britain's fault, for allowing so many people to flee Russia and receive amnesty in Britain.

***

But Mr. Putin would not be pinned down so easily on the question of his own succession. He ruled out one subject of speculation - that he would amend the Russian constitution to give himself a third term of office (he currently has a public-opinion rating in Russia of 71 per cent).

He hinted that he might remain in Russian government, in some capacity, after he ceases to be president next March.

"I know I will be working," the 55-year-old said. "Where and in what capacity I cannot say at this point. I do have certain ideas on this count, but it is too early to speak about this at this point. Even according to Russian legislation, I have not reached my retirement age. And it would be silly just to sit at home without doing anything, but exactly what I am going to do?"

And then he added an intriguing remark: "A lot will depend on how the political process evolves in Russia toward the end of this year and in early 2008. There are different options that may be considered."

Let's recap:

• We have Putin rattling all sorts of sabres towards Europe, and condemning Iran while not actually condemning Iran.
• Ahmadinejad is predicting the destruction of Israel, but being coy about his part in the process.

Not to mention:

• A muslim terrorist plot from Guyana (of all places) just uncovered, and the revelation that data from Google Earth was instrumental in the planning process. 
• Chinese manufacturers slipping oddball ingredients into dog food, and now toothpaste headed to the USA.
• Hugo Chavez threatening to cut off Venezuela's oil to the USA
• North Korea's Kim Jung Il on his usual hell-bent path towards nuclear armament
• Mexico's government continuing to encourage its citizens to illegally invade the USA

What other events must occur before the average American is convinced we are in the third World War, under attack from many sides, and with few dependable allies?

Adieu to a Soldier

The Global Incident Map

Hat tip to Rick Jennings, a/k/a The Gun Guy.

is being represented

with the U.S. tax dollars

that go to support

"Public" broadcasting?

Producer: PBS dropped 'Islam vs. Islamists' on political grounds

Dennis Wagner
The Arizona Republic
Apr. 10, 2007 12:00 AM

Debate about bias

Commentary from the Arizona Republic:

Controversial program meets cutting-room floor

Doug MacEachern
The Arizona Republic
Apr. 10, 2007 12:00 AM

Iran may delay the release of the female British sailor if Britain takes the issue to the U.N. Security Council or freezes relations, the country's top negotiator Ali Larijani said Thursday. ... On Wednesday, Britain announced it was freezing relations with Iran.

The Daily Mail published this photo, from Tehran, saying that "The release of kidnapped British sailor Faye Turney is on hold after Iran accused Britain of having an "incorrect attitude".

Yesterday, the AP published this:

Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki backed off predictions that Turney could be freed Wednesday or Thursday, saying Iran will look into releasing her "as soon as possible."

Asked when Iran would release Turney, Mottaki told the Associated Press, "We will look into this as soon as possible."

He said earlier reports that he had said she could be freed Wednesday or Thursday were incorrect. "I was probably misquoted," he said.

...Mottaki accused the West of trying to "blackmail" Iran by politicizing the detention.

"Our policy of the past 27 years has been not to give in to blackmail or pressure. They want to make it a political and propaganda issue, this is their goal," he said.

Also:

Students staged a mock trial on Tuesday for 15 British sailors and marines Tehran says were seized inside Iranian territorial waters, reported the student news agency Isna.

It said the "symbolic trial" was held in the south-western border town of Shalamsheh, the scene of fierce fighting in Iran's eight-year war with neighbouring Iraq from 1980 to 1988.

"The prosecutor examined the crimes and acts of oppression perpetrated by British colonialism," said the news agency, adding that the summing up was greeted by chants of "Death to America" and "Death to Britain".

Isna said the students denounced "the British sailors who violated (Iran's) territorial waters" and demanded "they be punished".

Throughout all of this, the 14 MALE sailors and their possible fate has not been mentioned. Is Blair waiting until Arab television broadcasts a video of someone being raped or beheaded, before taking genuine action to save these sailors, who were acting on behalf of the British government? A special ops mission should have been mounted before now, to "extract" these people. Blair's Chamberlain-style dawdling is going to get someone killed.

Tehran has been pushing the edge of the envelope for some years. This capture, coupled with their Prime Minister's abrupt change of plans to visit the UN, ought to be the last straw.

"If we cannot protect the nation's supply of peanut butter, one must ask how prepared we are for a terrorist attack on our nation's food supply,"

Stupak is right, of course, and in the context of a story about the salmonella outbreak in some brands of peanut butter, the comment makes perfect sense. But take it out of context, and hoo-boy!

That's the problem with the way we Americans prefer to get our news today. Two dozen words, or a fleeting facial expression that lasts 1/125 second, and you look like a complete dope. Which is tragic, because that makes it so difficult to separate the true dopes in politics from good people caught at an inopportune moment.

A terror attack on our food supply would be ridiculously easy to pull off. Since September 11th, I have thought of easily a dozen ideas that could be implemented, with very few people and a miniscule budget. I have resisted blogging about them, for fear of giving someone an idea, and heretofore have resisted even writing down the fact I'd thought of the subject, for obvious (albeit paranoid) reasons.

While our governments have squandered endless amounts of money on the air travel industry, implementing feel-good security measures that are for the most part ridiculous and ineffective, God only knows where else the Bad Guys have turned their attention. This is  what makes terrorism so effective, and it is also why this war will never be won without rooting out and killing every last SOB that participates in it, however indirectly.