New DNC Fundraising Book

Daily Kos is fielding questions about donations to the DNC after Dean is officially promoted.

I think you're a little late, Kos.

Fundraising has started on Amazon already. Nothing like a good book sale, especially when the book is so relevant to the future of the party.

(hat tip: an email from the lead guppy at phin's blog)

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 04:15 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Conscientious Objector, or War Criminal?

While browsing my blogroll this morning, I noticed an interesting post at The Museum of Left Wing Lunacy about Sgt. Kevin Benderman. Sgt. Benderman is a ten-year veteran of the U.S. Army, where he is a mechanic. He served one tour in Iraq, including the assault on Baghdad. Facing a second tour of duty in Iraq, Sgt. Benderman applied for conscientious objector status in December of 2004. The Army has charged him with desertion, and his commanding officer called him a coward.

I have never been in combat, and am loathe to call a veteran a coward without having been put to the test myself, nor do I feel comfortable commenting on whether or not charging a conscientious objector with desertion is legal or right. I'm simply don't know enough to feel I have an educated opinion to offer.

I do however, have a huge question regarding Sgt. Benderman's claim that his outfit was under orders to open fire on children who were throwing rocks at his unit. Either Sgt. Benderman lied about the event, or someone committed a war crime. We need to get to the bottom of this.

One thing I have learned from reading "mil-blogs" (blogs from military personnel) such as Lt. Smash, Armor Geddon, and Blackfive, is that soldiers have very rigidly defined rules of engagement, which strictly limit the situations where they are authorized to fire a weapon.

I am certain that no unit in any branch of the U.S. military is sanctioned to fire upon rock-throwing children. We aren't French.

If such an order was given, it would be illegally issued and illegal to follow. If so much as a single bullet was fired at these children, a war crime occurred. If Sgt. Benderman fired a shot at these children, he is a war criminal. If anyone else fired, they are also war criminals. The person who issued such an order would also be a war criminal.

Based upon the circumstances described, I would also expect them to be charged with murder as well. Children can't throw rocks very far, perhaps thirty yards at the outside, fifty for a healthy teen. At this ranges the standard M-16s and M-4s will not miss, and children have almost zero chance of surviving a center-mass hit from these weapons at that range.

If Sgt. Benderman is right, his unit is most likely guilty of war crimes. If he is lying, he is guilty of far more serious crimes than desertion.

So which is it, Sgt. Benderman?

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 11:24 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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My Blogroll Just Got Lighter

I may not be blessed with a lot of class, but there are some lines even I won't cross.

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Jordan Leads CNN into No Man's Land

Easongate continues. One must begin to wonder about the basic intelligence and awareness of CNN and Time-Warner executives at this point.

Eason Jordan said American soldiers tortured journalists. Eason Jordan, the top news executive at CNN, a Time-Warner company, claims that American soldiers targeted--murdered--a dozen journalists. And yet somehow CNN and Time-Warner executives apparently think that if they stonewall the incident long enough, that the matter will just go away.

A decade ago, even a few years ago, they may have been able to get away with it. Unfortunately for CNN and Time-Warner executives (and did I mention Time-Warner shareholders?), that was then. They do not comprehend the now.

Media executives remind me of the generals of World War One. They were tangentially aware of new technologies on the field of battle, but were unable to grasp their significance. As a result, they marched troops at a walk across a barren No Man's Land into nests of machine guns firing 600 rounds/minute. The carnage was unbelievable, the casualties catastrophic; and yet the generals, clinging to tactics best suited for the wars of single shot rifles forty years earlier, sent their troops to a grisly, almost certain end, time after time.

We're watched similar slaughters take place in the world of journalism.

CBS News thought they could get away with running a story about George Bush using faked documents. They were mown down mercilessly by the blogosphere within hours, and several prominent journalists with long careers were disgraced. The damage to the integrity of CBS News was immeasurable. It will take years for CBS News to recover their credibility.

CNN is walking across the field into the guns, and doesn't understand the carnage about to ensue. Eason Jordan, CNN's top news executive, essentially accused the U.S. military of the premeditated murder of a dozen journalists. This follows a claim from Jordan months earlier where he stated American soldiers captured and tortured journalists, which follows the 2003 admission that Jordan and CNN turned a blind eye to torture to retain a Baghdad bureau.

The blogosphere has targeted Eason Jordan. 438 blogs with combined daily traffic of over 720,000 visits have placed Jordan and CNN under withering fire. More blogs, as well as elements of the mainstream media, are joining daily. By next week this story will be fodder in every major news outlet. CNN needs to act, and act fast.

CNN must fire Eason Jordan, or forever lose their credibility within the U.S. market.

The old tactic of stonewalling until an issue goes away has passed. CNN and by extension, Time Warner, are walking into the proverbial guns. They can either duck, or be shot to pieces.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 09:45 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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New Symbol of the Democratic Party

Barring a minor miracle, it appears Howard Dean will be confirmed as the next chairman of the Democratic National Committee, pulling the DNC even further toward the radical left and away from any chance of striking a chord with mainstream America.

To commemorate this hysteric, err, historic event, I'd like to bestow upon them a new branding image that I feel captures the essence of the future of the Democratic Party, and where it is heading.



You've got to love a party whose platform includes a trapdoor with a quick-release.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 05:28 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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"Err" Jordan Still Employed by an Ethics-Challenged CNN

Eason "Err" Jordan seems to be quite the athlete, deftly turning away from dozens if not hundreds of real incidents of torture, rape and murder by tyrants and dictators, only to volunteer that charges of war crimes by U.S. soldiers are a slam-dunk... without the first shred of corroborating evidence. I think Jordan would be very close to fouling out of the game of journalism for good if his masters retained any integrity at all.

Eason Jordan first came to light in October of 2002, when The New Republic accused CNN of collaborating (registration required) with Saddam's Ministry of Information in order to retain access in Baghdad. Jordan denied it-sort of-at the time. When Baghdad fell in April of 2003, Jordan told a much different story, admitting that he hid the truth. He said he did not report the truth because it would have "jeopardized the lives of Iraqis." Jordan turned a blind eye to murder, rape and torture to retain access to get access to Iraqi leaders. How concealing the existence of government-sanctioned rape rooms and torture chambers saved lives, Jordan never adequately explained. For this ethical offense alone, he should have been fired. CNN declined to do so.

Many allege Eason Jordan allowed Saddam to use CNN to broadcast his propaganda, unedited, and uncut.

Jordan claimed U.S. troops tortured and killed journalists in 2004, which is very close to the comments Jordan is alleged to have made at the World Economic Forum, where he claimed U.S. forces have targeted journalists on purpose. He never produced any evidence to support this wild claim. He should have been fired for this offense as well. Again, CNN declined to fire him.

This most recent incident in Davos at the World Economic Forum was not an isolated incident, but one event in an established history of ethically outrageous behavior on the part of Eason Jordan and CNN. A lot of very credible people witnessed this willful and malicious slander of our troops, including Congressman Barney Frank, Senator Christopher Dodd, journalist David Gergen, and Wall Street Journal writer Bret Stephens, among others. And yet, once again, CNN once again refuses to fire Eason Jordan.

Why is that, CNN?

It is one thing to capture a questionable event and report it as Kevin Sites did in Fallujah, but quite another for a dangerous allegation to be made during wartime without a shred of evidence.

Eason Jordan tacitly supported the terrorism of the Iraqi people, turning a blind eye to torture for his (and CNN's) professional gain, and then commits slander against our military on multiple occasions, presumably to further ingratiate himself to the despots of the world and allow CNN even greater access to the dictatorships of the world.

This must not stand.

If CNN retains any sort of moral fiber or journalistic ethics it will fire Eason Jordan.

Unfortunately, CNN and other so-called "professional" news organizations seem to be circling the wagons to protect a man who is treading dangerously outside the lines of what we will morally (and legally?) accept as a society regarding slander and sedition.

Eason "Err" Jordan has erred one time too many to retain his credibility as a news executive for a major news organization. He should be forced to resign from CNN, if not fired outright for his outrageous, unsubstantiated claims against our troops and a history of a dangerous lack of ethical judgement.

Update: This thread has been been Malkinized. I'd suggest my readers check out Michelle's site, as she seems to be the lead investigator into this issue across all forms of media.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 10:52 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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ActionFigureGate Continues

SITE Institute currently has a story up about a message board member who takes credit for the "ActionFigureGate" hoax where a G.I.Joe-type doll was used in a particularly lame "hostage" attempt last week.

According the SITE, the hoaxer wrote :

In the name of God, the Most Merciful and Most Compassionate,

Soldier John Adam is [only] a toy.

I am a 20-year old Iraqi young man. I am unarmed, independent and do not belong to any party or group. I apologize to all the parties and everyone, for I meant nothing by that [no harm].

The picture was a scheme that I made up with a toy that I bought with $5.

Today I am announcing that this news was made up, and that the picture was of a toy that I worked on with the help of some children.

I cannot provide any information about me because, as I mentioned earlier, I am unarmed, and any information about me might jeopardize my life and the lives of my family [members].

My apologies to everyone.

The hoaxer, who identifies himself as "al-Iraqi4," apparently includes a picture showing him setting up the famed picture.

The problem is that this picture appears to be a fake as well.


If you look at the wall and floor in the original picture, you'll see what appears to be an unpainted wall and floor, that both appear to be made of rough concrete that is mostly tan in color.

If you look at the SITES photo, you see a floor that is of gray concrete and a wall that has been painted white.

Also, you will note that the size of the two banners are different (the original is almost square, the SITES photo is more rectangular) and that the Arabic writing is significantly shorter on the original.

This admission appears to be as much a hoax as the original story.

Update: Added to OTB's Beltway Traffic Jam.

Update 2: There are also a hint in the text itself that leads me to beleive this was faked, but I only thought about it just now. The poster claimed that he paid for it in dollars ($). The last I checked, the monetary unit of Iraq is the dinar, not the dollar.


Update 3: The imposter claims that he is not part of any group... so how does he have posting rights on a known militant web site?

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 01:48 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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All Aboard the Crazy Train

(hat tip: Drudge)

Will the last nut out of the tree please turn off the light?

Melanie Redman, 30, assistant director of the Epilepsy Foundation in Seattle, said she had put her Volvo up for sale and hopes to be living in Toronto by the summer. She and her Canadian boyfriend, a Web site designer for Canadian nonprofit companies, had been planning to move to New York, but after Nov.2, they decided on Canada instead.

"I'm doing it," she said. "I don't want to participate in what this administration is doing here and around the world. Under Bush, the U.S. seems to be leading the pack as the world spirals down."

I guess that the freeing of 50 million people in two countries by the Bush administration was just too much for her, bless her poor Volvo-driving bleeding heart. But don't worry.

The Democratic Underground Railroad was created just for people like you, Melanie.

Toot. Toot.

Update: I had almost forgotten: I have a picture of this nut in her home. Hardly surprising, is it?

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 10:39 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Dear Michelle Malkin

(hat tip, basil's blog)

Dear Michelle,

I also have found the Google News folks to be a bit less than objective in which sites they feel are worthy. To be frank, they expose a severe leftward slant. Despite that, I think they must be forced to play within their own set of rules.

basil has already offered his services as a headline news writer. I would like to offer my services to the editorial board of michelemaklin.com as an editor. I have relevant practical work experience as a technical writer and editor, and have the academic degrees to support such a position.

I have a salary requirement of $0.25/year, and would be quite willing to assist in developing a formal editorial review process.

Thank you very much for your time.

Respectfully,

Confederate Yankee

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 09:34 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Garofalo: Republicans and Iraqis are Nazis?

(Hat tip: Kevin McCollough)


Republicans and Iraqis are Nazis?

That seems to be the only thing I can take away from this salute Janeane Garafalo gave on MSNBC the other night while saying:

"The inked fingers and the position of them, which is gonna be a 'Daily Show' photo already, of them signaling in this manner [does the Nazi salute], as if they have solidarity with the Iraqis who braved physical threats against their lives to vote as if somehow these inked-fingered Republicans have something to do with that."

Janeane, they did have something to do with that: A Republican president and Republican-controlled Congress gave the orders to our military, which destroyed the Baath Party in Iraq, captured its leader, and killed his heirs.

After deposing Saddam, we have tried, and usually succeeded, in acting as a protective wedge between the Iraqi people and the terrorists that would plunge their country into chaos. We have put our soldiers lives on the line so that we could give Iraqis a shot at forming their own democracy.

The fact that Garafalo apparently links conservatives, American soldiers and the Iraqi people with the Nazis in her warped ideology is disgusting, but not particularly surprising for anyone who has heard her ratchet-up her increasingly shrill rhetoric over the past few years.


A Republican president directed American troops to dispose a despotic dictator who practiced mass murder upon his own people, and gave oppressed peoples a chance to form their own government, hardly an act that would have been supported by the National Socialists.

That she can equate the celebration of newfound freedoms with fascism is disturbing at best and possibly delusional at worst. Garafalo has become a perfect example of the "reality-based community" drifting further and further away from reality.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 01:00 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Treason at CNN

Read this:
November 19, 2004

Independent journalists operating in Iraq face arrest and even torture at the hands of the US military and the authorities are failing to act on promises to do more to protect them, news organisations have warned.

Eason Jordan, chief news executive at CNN, said there had been only a "limited amount of progress", despite repeated meetings between news organisations and the US authorities.

"Actions speak louder than words. The reality is that at least 10 journalists have been killed by the US military, and according to reports I believe to be true journalists have been arrested and tortured by US forces," Mr Jordan told an audience of news executives at the News Xchange conference in Portugal.

Then read this:
Forumblog.org

During one of the discussions about the number of journalists killed in the Iraq War, Eason Jordan asserted that he knew of 12 journalists who had not only been killed by US troops in Iraq, but they had in fact been targeted. He repeated the assertion a few times, which seemed to win favor in parts of the audience (the anti-US crowd) and cause great strain on others.

Then read this:
Title 18 > Chapter 115 > § 2381 Treason

Whoever, owing allegiance to the United States, levies war against them or adheres to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort within the United States or elsewhere, is guilty of treason and shall suffer death, or shall be imprisoned not less than five years and fined under this title but not less than $10,000; and shall be incapable of holding any office under the United States.

CNN's chief news executive Eason Jordan has apparently accused our soldiers of no less than twelve counts of first degree murder against civilians, while the very soldiers he is accusing are in a combat zone. This propaganda has no apparent basis in fact, and serves to inflame our enemy, putting our soldiers' lives at greater risk.

CBS News fired one person and asked others to resign when they ran a false story about President Bush's Texas Air National Guard service, so at a bare minimum, Eason Jordan should be fired from CNN.

But backpedalling by Jodan and CNN does not pull the knife out of the back of the American GI, nor does it excuse his latest statement (which as the first quote proves, is hardly isolated, or even a first for him).

If transcripts do indeed prove Jordan's statements were made as alleged (and at least one witness claims that they are), Mr. Jordan not only owes the soldiers he slandered an apology, he owes the American people a term in a federal penitentiary no shorter than five years, and a fine of no less than $10,000.

That is the punishment for treason.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 01:44 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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My Thoughts Exactly: NY Post Editorial Cartoon

(Hat tip: GOP in the City)

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 10:47 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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So Who Stayed Awake Through the Democratic Rebuttal?

I didn't see any real new information in the State of the Union tonight. I do think Bush knocked Social Security out of the park, selling it quite effectively to the public, in terms most can readily digest. On the other hand, I think he underwhelmed his base with his treatment of border security and illegal immigration. All in all, a nice, serviceable address, but nothing we didn't already know.

I wish I could say the same for the Democratic response. I tried, really, really hard to pay attention to Harry Reid, but he delivered his portion with all the excitement of Ben Stein droning, "Bueller... Bueller... Bueller..."

I drifted off. I do recall there was some ten year-old Napoleon Dynamite-type from Searchlight, NV that wants to grow up to be like Harry. Poor kid. Nothing else he said was memorable.

Pelosi started off trying to act like she cared about the troops, and I was suddenly overcome with an intense desire for a long, hot shower.

I missed the rest.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 12:35 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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A Victory in the War on Terror

Amid all the jeers and laughter yesterday surrounding the "capture" of a children's action figure, a funny thing happened:

We won the War on Terror.

No, the shooting didn't stop, and more real hostages will likely be taken and face for real the dire possibility of death by beheading. No, the war won yesterday was more symbolic than practical; terrorists, perhaps for the first time, ceased to terrorize us and became a joke.

On 9/11 and in the days that followed, terror really did have the upper hand in the United States. For the first time I can recall in my generation, America was unsure and afraid. Once the immediate danger passed, we were filled with what Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto once described as "a terrible resolve." The Taliban and elements of al Qaeda in Afghanistan were the first to feel our wrath, and from there the physical battle has continued, as it shall until Islamic terrorism is no longer a sustainable threat.

But all this time, even as we were winning the war, and hearts, and minds, the threat of terrorism still hung heavy in our national conscious.

But thanks to the stellar fact-checking of the mainstream media and the apparent desperation of terrorists reduced to threatening toys, the cloud of terrorism threatening us has been lifted, if but for a time.

We laughed at them.

And in that, we can find a special victory.

Update: Thanks to Instapundit for picking up this thread.

Update 2: Tom Elia over at The New Editor makes an excellent point:

... I would stipulate that we won a battle in the War on Terror yesterday with the unmasking of the fraudulent photos depicting a GI Joe as an al Qaeda "hostage" -- it was a mighty big battle, no less -- but just one battle. There will be many more to fight -- a point that Confederate Yankee does make, but I think it should be emphasized that the war that we are winning is a long way from being over.

We won the war on the pervasive emotion of terror yesterday, not the physical war. It is, as Tom says, a part of a larger war. One that I think we will eventually win.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 03:00 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Zarqawi quits al Qaeda, joins C.O.B.R.A.

Apparently Zarqawi and the Iraqi insurgency are so desperate to capture a U.S. solder to use as a hostage, that they doesn't even care if the soldier in question is only twelve inches tall.

It all started when Drudge cited this story where militants claimed to have captured a U.S solider.

Now, if you had taken the time to really look at the full-size image in the story, you might have developed deep suspicions early on. For starters, the uniform has no insignia. Second, the soldier does not appear to have the first bit of equipment on his vest. Every picture I've seen coming out of Iraq shows U.S. soldiers with wires, cables, hydration tubes, etc, sticking out all over the place, which are horribly absent here. Of course, the overly shiny head, expressionless face and fake gun (what's an oversized AR-10 receiver doing on a M-4, and why is it in camo?) also should have been clues.

I do think it is so funny that the insurgency is so pathetic that they are reduced to kidnapping children's toys. Maybe "Z-Man" isn't getting enough sleep, what with inner circle being picked off or picked up one-by-one, and the proverbial noose getting tighter around his neck.

I can understand him going off the deep end under that kind of pressure--we watch liberals do it every day--but I still don't think his new allies of The Baroness and Cobra Commander will do him much good.

They're too preoccupied with competing against Howard Dean for the chair of the DNC.

Update: Backcountry Conservative is on the case with what is probably the biggest roundup of blogger reaction out there.

Update 2: Thank you again, Glenn. Hello, Instalanche! Folks, please look around, and bookmark the site (CTRL+B) if you like it. Also, please check out some of the sites in my blogroll. You might not have heard of some of them, but they are all great reads. Fellow bloggers, if you like the site, please add me to your blogrolls. Thanks!

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 03:54 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Jersey Jihad?

I've read quite a bit of online coverage on this so far, but haven't blogged it until now. The background of the story is that a family of four Egyptian-Americans Christians were murdered in their home, presumably by Jersey City-area followers of "The Religion of Peace."

Michelle Malkin has a lot of links to work from, and agrees that Jihadwatch has the best coverage so far, with the three latest links here, here and here.

The mainstream media has stonewalled this story so far. How unsurprising.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 11:22 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Absolutely Correct

I really like Frank J.'s humor, but every once in a while, he writes serious essays of such obvious brilliance that I have no choice but to agree with them in full.

The Iraq elections had high participation. The people are dancing in the streets. Do you know what that means?

It means I'm right about everything, you stupid pinko!

Even more importantly, it means you're wrong and totally suck!

I know; it's still just hitting you now. "What? They're happy! They're free! They like America! But this would mean Bush was right, and I was ::gasp:: wrong!" Then it makes you think, if you could be wrong on such a big issue, could you be wrong and the right-wingers right on other things such as taxes, Social Security, and abortion? Yes, absolutely!

Now, some of you will not face reality and continue to argue for your views that have been now scientifically proven to be wrong and destructive by this one victory, and your high pitch whines eventually reaching such a frequency that they can no longer be heard by humans (around 23kHz). Little kids will walk by and ask, "Who are those weird people waving signs of gibberish and moving their mouths without noise?"

And their parents will answer, "Those are liberals, people proven by events to be wrong about everything. Now ignore them like everyone else."

Go to IMAO for the rest.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 09:36 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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