NY Times reporter Judith Miller is out of jail and set to testify. I'm with Orin on this. Something seems fishy...

Just One Minute, Powerline, and Patterico have more.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 06:26 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
Post contains 35 words, total size 1 kb.

Miffed at Florida for refusing to bow to their phobias and bad, ideology-driven science, the Brady Campaign to Control Gun Violence (and no, I won't link them) has decided to try to strike back at the state by taking out ads in foreign newspapers with the intention of hurting the state's tourist industry.

Via the Scotsman:

IT IS Britain's most popular transatlantic holiday destination, attracting more than 1.5 million visitors a year with its sun-drenched beaches, theme parks and wildlife.

But Florida's £30 billion tourism industry is under threat from a campaign launched by a gun-control group which warns visitors they could be killed.

A series of alarming adverts, to be placed in British newspapers, warns potential tourists about a new law allowing gun owners to shoot anyone they believe threatens their safety.

[snip]

The Brady Campaign to Control Gun Violence, based in Washington DC, has pledged to "educate" tourists by placing adverts in US cities, and in key overseas markets such as Britain.

"Warning: Florida residents can use deadly force," says one of the adverts. Another reads: "Thinking about a Florida vacation? Please ensure your family is safe. In Florida, avoid disputes. Use special caution in arguing with motorists on Florida roads."

[snip]

Peter Hamm, the communications director of the Brady Campaign, said: "It's a particular risk faced by travellers coming to Florida for a vacation because they have no idea it's going to be the law of the land. If they get into a road rage argument, the other person may feel he has the right to use deadly force."

Tourism officials in Florida are furious at the move. Bud Nocera, the executive director of Visit Florida, said: "It is sad that such an organisation would hold the 900,000 men and women who work in the Florida tourism industry, and whose lives depend on it, hostage to their political agenda."

Can anyone point me to any other incident where a political lobby has tried to strike back against an entire state full of citizens who have rejected their ideology? I highly doubt that this will have any impact on Florida's tourism, but it shows just how pathetic some highly-charged, fact-challenged political ideologues have become over the years.

Remember this, folks.

After all, Sarah Brady was the Cindy Sheehan of her day.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 11:17 PM | Comments (49) | Add Comment
Post contains 403 words, total size 3 kb.

I'm going to be out of town until Sunday on a camping trip, but I want to pass along some suggested reading on the way out the door.

Generation Why? asks which PD would make you feel safer.

Dan Riehl runs over Texas Prosecutor Ronnie Earle like a Mack truck, making me think Earle should be indicting himself for ethics violations. I've no love for Delay, but Earle's past seems evey bit as sordid, if not more so.

John in Carolina makes the very good point that even though we seem to have defeated the anti-American coalition trying to build the International Freedom Center at Ground Zero, the WTC Memorial still needs guarding.

Remember earlier in the weekwhen I ripped the incompetent hatchet job of Think Progress' "Faiz" on former FEMA director Michael Brown? South Park Pundit and Stephen Burr of Nothing Could be Finer keep on the pressure,picking up a fact I missed, and completed outing "Faiz" one of the most intellectually dishonest bloggers I've ever had the misfortune to run across.

Angry in the Great White North has picked up on the fact that the Eva Yawn of the Left Herself, Cindy Sheehan, has almost completed running through her son's life insurance money, and now has to get a job, which to her means really whoring her slander of her son's beliefs for cold, hard cash. I'll hold my bile... for now.

Speaking of bile, the Anchoress has her ire up (and rightly so) for GOP Senators giving Louisiana's governor a complete pass for her incompetent response to Hurricane Katrina.

I might be able to squeeze one more post in before I hit the great outdoors tomorrow night, but if not, I'll have something up Sunday. Till then surf the blogroll; and try to stay out of trouble, okay?

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 08:48 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 309 words, total size 2 kb.

Stroll over to Memeorandum today, and you might run into this thread of posts, where a group of highly partisan ideologues are enraged that someone they think might be gay, might move into a top leadership position in Congress.

Some derisively call the candidate a homo, and others blast him for being a closet homosexual, as though being gay was a crime.

You might be surprised to see that every single one of these people blasting Republican David Dreier for reportedly being gay (he has never answered this rumor, nor should he have to) is a liberal blogger.

The worst of the worst is Americablog, run by vicious bigot John Aravosis who feels it is his obligation to hunt down and politically assassinate any and all homosexual politicians, or even suspected homosexual politicians, who do not strictly toe what he considers the gay party line.

Using Aravosis logic, all heterosexuals should be required to vote Republican because the party is against gay marriage. That is all that matters. Forget your stance on free speech, gun rights, the War on Terror, poverty, social security, education, or taxes. You are a heterosexual, and that all that matters about you as a person; as a voter your sexuality alone should define how you vote.

His message is simple, and brutal: You are not allowed to stray off the gay plantation. If you do, overseer John will whip you unmercifully as a hypocrite.

That so many liberals unquestioningly support this point of view, should give readers pause to wonder if all they really care about are gays as a voting block, and not as people.

Not that they is anything wrong with that, of course.

Note: Jeff Goldstein has more (not work safe).

Update: Via Protein Wisdom,Prism Warden has an inside take on the politics of "outing" that is worth a read. One of his readers calls people like Aravosis and Mike Rogers at BlogActive as "gay Borg... driven by anger, envy and hatred."

Yeah, that seems about right.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 12:02 AM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
Post contains 339 words, total size 3 kb.

Via NY1:

In a story first reported by NY1, Governor George Pataki has cancelled plans to build the controversial International Freedom Center at the World Trade Center site - and representatives of the center say the location change has forced the entire project to be scrapped.

The center had drawn criticism from some 9/11 victims' family members because it would not focus exclusively on the terror attacks. Family members also said the IFC could potentially contain exhibits that were anti-American.

Pataki said Wednesday that he's given the center a chance to clarify its intentions, but there's just too much opposition.

In a statement, Pataki said: “The creation of an institution that would show the world our unity and our resolve to preserve freedom in the wake of the horrific attacks is a noble pursuit. But freedom should unify us. This center has not.”

From a victorious TakeBacktheMemorial.org:

Every since June 8, 2005 when Debra Bulingame's op-ed The Great Ground Zero Heist appeared in the Wall Street Journal, we have fought together for the preservation of dignity at Ground Zero. With your help, we have achieved a major victory toward that goal.

Take Back the Memorial will continue to monitor the plans for Ground Zero to ensure that a fitting and proper memorial is built; one that is respectful of the victims murdered that day, their families, the first responders, and the American people.

Thank you again for your support, prayers, and dedication. This simply could not have been achieved without you.

As a supporter's email says, “There aren't too many happy (or at least pleasing) events associated with 9/11, but sometimes there's justice.”

The Blame America First left have suffered a major defeat. Michelle Malkin has more.

And Hillary... I give credit where credit is due. Thanks.

Update: CNN is obviously saddened by the loss of their vision of the IFC: "Ground Zero 'freedom center' quashed." Poor babies.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 11:58 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
Post contains 334 words, total size 2 kb.

My response to a poorly-researched, dishonestly-written Think Progress posted about former FEMA Director Brown's congressional testimony yesterday.

BROWN CLAIM: "FEMA doesn't evacuate communities."

FACT: Brown Said FEMA Was Engaging In Evacuations During Katrina

If there is still floodwaters around there, they shouldn't be trying to evacuate those patients by themselves. The Coast Guard, FEMA, all of those continue to do those rescue missions and we continue to do those evacuations and we'll certainly continue to evacuate all of the hospitals. [CNN, 9/1/05]

You can't tell the fundamental difference between a pre-storm evacuation, which is a local/state issues, and the post storm rescue/recovery phase, which FEMA does get involved with. You don't know your subject matter.

BROWN CLAIM: FEMA Was Stretched Beyond It Capabilities

"Mr. Chairman, this event stretched FEMA beyond its capabilities. There's no question about that. It did it in several ways. One is FEMA, over the past several years, has lost a lot of manpower. At one point during my tenure, because of assessments by the Department of Homeland Security, FEMA has lost — at one point, we were short 500 people in an organization of about 2,500. You do the math. That's pretty significant… FEMA has suffered from the inability to grow to meet the demands."

FACT: Brown Said FEMA Had All The Manpower It Needed

BLITZER: Are you ready? Is FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, ready to deal with this new hurricane?

BROWN: We absolutely are. We have all the manpower and resources we need. President Bush has been a very great supporter of FEMA. [CNN, 9/26/04]

Did you bother to even check the storm size and estimated damage from 9/26/05 to landfall? Katrina was just a weak Category 1 or Category 2 Hurricane on 9/26 depending on the time of day the question was asked. It only hit Cat 4 status on 9/28.

What a completely bogus comparison between a comment made about a weak storm, and a comment made about one of the most powerful storms to ever hit land.

BROWN CLAIM: "I can't discuss with you my conversations with the president's chief of staff and the president."

FACT: Brown Spoke to New York Times About Conversations With Chief of Staff

"Hours after Hurricane Katrina passed New Orleans on Aug. 29, as the scale of the catastrophe became clear, Michael D. Brown recalls, he placed frantic calls to his boss, Michael Chertoff, the secretary of homeland security, and to the office of the White House chief of staff, Andrew H. Card Jr. … 'I am having a horrible time,' Mr. Brown said he told Mr. Chertoff and a White House official — either Mr. Card or his deputy, Joe Hagin — in a status report that evening. 'I can't get a unified command established.'" [NYT, 9/15/05]

No contradiction here, at all. Read it again. One conversation was just with the C.O.S., which he could reveal. He could not, however and for whatever reason, discuss his conversation with the C.O.S. and the President.

Think Progress is a non-partisan organization? Could have fooled me.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 07:18 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
Post contains 513 words, total size 3 kb.

From Ruth Gledhill in the Times Online:

According to the study, belief in and worship of God are not only unnecessary for a healthy society but may actually contribute to social problems.

The study counters the view of believers that religion is necessary to provide the moral and ethical foundations of a healthy society.

What do you want me to say?

Our panel of experts agrees.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 11:04 PM | Comments (12) | Add Comment
Post contains 82 words, total size 1 kb.

My church is just one of many organizations sending volunteers to help those communities ground away by Hurricane Katrina. Our first team of volunteers was based out of Gretna, LA, and was in and around New Orleans from Sept. 17-22. They got out ahead of Hurricane Rita.

These are some of the images they captured.

This tractor and car were flipped by the storm surge, the garage or barn they were in was completely demolished. The large body of water in the background is probably Lake Ponchartrain.

If you can ever find the carpenter who put down this hardwood floor, hire him.

This railbed buckled under the force of the storm surge.

Even the worst of disasters can't strip some people of their sense of humor.

There are no quitters here.

More pictures are on the church's Katrina Relief Blog, which we will be adding to as we make more trips down to help. Everyone has their own set of talents, and as I am marginally capable of swinging a hammer, I hope to go down with one of the construction teams in coming months.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 08:49 PM | Comments (7) | Add Comment
Post contains 191 words, total size 2 kb.

Abu Azzam, #2 al Qaeda leader in Iraq and one of the "freedom fighters" beloved by Michael Moore and Cindy Sheehan, has gone off to that big protest in the sky.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 07:26 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 39 words, total size 1 kb.

How utterly pathetic:

Police arrested anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan Monday during a protest outside the White House.
Sheehan and several dozen other protesters had sat down on the sidewalk after marching along a pedestrian walkway on Pennsylvania Avenue.

Police warned them three times that they were breaking the law by failing to move along. Then, officers began making arrests.

Really? Did they get all 29?

Yes, I'm aware she managed to gather a crowd of 500, including communists, anarchists, undercover officers, confused tourists and members of the media, but can anyone tell me why a misdemeanor loitoring ticket furthers "the cause?"

The Anchoress goes further, and comes up with a disturbing prediction of where Mother Sheehan might end up next.

Update: Now they are saying that hundreds were arrested in front of the White House. These numbers are sure to tribble into thousands by lunch time today, I'm sure.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 06:46 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 163 words, total size 1 kb.

Suddenly, Officer Barnes got that "not so fresh" feeling... *

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 06:06 PM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
Post contains 12 words, total size 1 kb.

My brother-in-law was the operations manager at Verla International several years back. His replacement, who was fired about a year ago, just shot up the place today before taking his own life, literally just a few hundreds of yard away from my wife's childhood home.

Three people my brother-in-law knew well were victims. Two of the victims are in stable condition, but one is in critical. If you any of you folks is the praying kind, I'm sure it would be appreciated.

9/29 Update: The victim in critical condition has no brain activity and has been removed from life support, and her passing is imminent. Tonight, I grieve for her family.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 05:57 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
Post contains 119 words, total size 1 kb.

Via sharp-eyed Lawhawk and Discarded Lies, I was alerted to this story from Human Rights Watch on the Common Dreams Newswire.

Human Rights Watch claims:

New Orleans: Prisoners Abandoned to Floodwaters

Officers Deserted a Jail Building, Leaving Inmates Locked in Cells

NEW YORK - September 23 - As Hurricane Katrina began pounding New Orleans, the sheriff's department abandoned hundreds of inmates imprisoned in the city's jail, Human Rights Watch said today.

Inmates in Templeman III, one of several buildings in the Orleans Parish Prison compound, reported that as of Monday, August 29, there were no correctional officers in the building, which held more than 600 inmates. These inmates, including some who were locked in ground-floor cells, were not evacuated until Thursday, September 1, four days after flood waters in the jail had reached chest-level.

“Of all the nightmares during Hurricane Katrina, this must be one of the worst,” said Corinne Carey, researcher from Human Rights Watch. “Prisoners were abandoned in their cells without food or water for days as floodwaters rose toward the ceiling.”

Human Rights Watch called on the U.S. Department of Justice to conduct an investigation into the conduct of the Orleans Sheriff's Department, which runs the jail, and to establish the fate of the prisoners who had been locked in the jail. The Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections, which oversaw the evacuation, and the Orleans Sheriff's Department should account for the 517 inmates who are missing from list of people evacuated from the jail.

Carey spent five days in Louisiana, conducting dozens of interviews with inmates evacuated from Orleans Parish Prison, correctional officers, state officials, lawyers and their investigators who had interviewed more than 1,000 inmates evacuated from the prison.

Read the rest.

Human Rights Watch claims that guards recklessly abandoned inmates and implied that as many as 517 prisoners are unaccounted for and possibly dead, including 130 thought to have been in Templeman 3, one of the cell blocks where flooding was worst.

While deaths may indeed have occurred in the Orleans Parish Prison, they are nowhere near what Human Rights Watch hints at, nor does there seem to be as many prisoners missing as they allege. This level of exaggeration would be on par with other Human Rights Watch reports of the recent past, and indicative of a sensationalist organizational culture.

Here is what we do know about the situation in the Orleans Parish Prison immediately before and after Hurricane Katrina.

There were indeed breakdowns in disaster planning at the Orleans Parish Prison, apparent even before Hurricane Katrina made landfall. We heard rumors of a riot in the prison on 8/30, but at the time, the riot could not be confirmed. By the next day, the prisoners had been readied for evacuation, and by September 1, all inmates and corrections officers had been evacuated with no known fatalities.

A week later, stories began leaking out about the Orleans Parish Prison riot from both inmates and guards. These were the first and only early accounts from somewhat credible named witnesses. Even then, few accounts, if any, were corroborated, while some facts were flatly preposterous, like claims by one of the guards that flooding reached the fifth floor. Only one named source in the various articles I've seen claimed to have seen bodies, and they numbered exactly two in that account.

More recent accounts, including one published 9/25, claim that while some corrections officers did fail in their duties, some performed heroically, including newly promoted Chief Deputy Bill Short, whose eyewitness testimony seem to directly contradict key points of the report from Human Rights Watch:

Chief Deputy Bill Short said Thursday that he could confirm only four escapes, but a full head count by the state Department of Corrections is still under way.

Short was promoted to his new position a week ago in acknowledgment of his steely command of the 800-inmate House of Detention during the storm and its aftermath.

Other deputies said they knew of more than a dozen escape attempts.

One thing Short said he knows for certain is that there were no deaths - not among the inmates, not among the 900 or so employees who reported to work, not among the scores of residents who floated or waded in from the surrounding neighborhood to the relative safety of the veranda of the high-rise Community Correctional Center.

"Did we know exactly what to do?" Short asked. "Nobody did. It was a wild ride, but we must have done some good things because nobody died."

According to the top on-scene official contacted so far, no inmates died as Human Rights Watch has implied, and only four escapes have been confirmed.

In addition, in their attempt to paint prison officials in the worse possible light, Human Rights Watch does not mention the fact that the prisoners were evacuated well ahead of the sick, the very young, and the elderly at the Superdome and the Convention Center. Prisoners, perhaps because of their status as wards of the State of Louisiana, actually received preferential evacuation treatment over the other citizens of New Orleans.

Corinne Carey of Human Rights Watch says of the prison, "Of all the nightmares during Hurricane Katrina, this must be one of the worst."

Not. Even. Close.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 01:44 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 883 words, total size 7 kb.

Angry in the Great White North finds that Mother Sheehan's self-centered arrogance has finally become too much for even her fans to bear.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 01:28 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 35 words, total size 1 kb.

If you live, or know anyone who lives between Houston,TX and Lake Charles, LA, please go here and see if you can help. It will only take a few minutes, and won't even cost you a phone call.

Thanks.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 08:52 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 43 words, total size 1 kb.

Via ABC News:

Opponents of the war in Iraq rallied by the thousands Saturday to demand the return of U.S. troops, staging a day of protest, song and remembrance of the dead in marches through Washington and other American and European cities.

More than 2,000 people gathered on the Ellipse hours before the showcase demonstration past the White House, the first wave of what organizers said would be the largest Washington rally since the war began.

2,000 protestors? That is hardly a wave; more like a trickle. The following waves must be huge...

Major Update: Sniffy liberal "Maha" blogging from the protest says Reuters claims more than 100,000 protestors and says "The turnout was massive."

The Reuters claim was from reporter Lisa Lambert. Reuters photographer Jim Bourg immediately contradicted that claim with the caption for the photo accompanying Lambert's article, when he claims:

A large rally of anti-war demonstrators gathers on the Ellipse near the White House (top) as seen from the top of the Washington Monument in Washington D.C. September 24, 2005. Tens of thousands of protesters [bold added - ed.] gathered in the nation's capital in support of anti-war protestor Cindy Sheehan, who lost a son serving in the U.S. armed forces in Iraq, and demonstrated for the withdrawal of U.S. troops and an end to the war in Iraq.

As Bourg's photo shows, a large number of protestors near the back of the crowd decided to show up wearing grass-colored unitards.

An unsigned AAP article also agreed with Lambert that there was something over 100,000, and even printed the protest organizers estimate of 300,000. No other reporter from any other news organization has so far claimed anything near this number.

Interesting, because the NY Times claims only "thousands." al Jazerra, who is decidedly not pro-administration, claims just 2,000 [note: from early protest]. The BBC said merely that organized "hoped for "100,000," but would not confirm a number.

Another Update: Other insightful commentary on today's protests from The Anchoress, Michelle Malkin, Glenn Reynolds, Little Green Footballs, Jeff Goldstein, Gateway Pundit, Ox Blog.

Yet Another Update: Protestors, or booklovers?

Also, poor little Maha couldn't handle her numbers being exposed as cherry-picked, and so I've been banned by another liberal blog. I can't tell you how much sleep I'll lose.

Final Update to this post: Via Smash, a Marine in Iraq talks about those that "Support our troops."

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 12:03 PM | Comments (32) | Add Comment
Post contains 395 words, total size 4 kb.

This one came with the instructions:

I'm sorry, but in order for this to work, you will have to dream about Hillary!

I may never sleep again.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 02:36 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 35 words, total size 1 kb.

Of course in New Orleans, this means the police.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 01:36 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 15 words, total size 1 kb.

You've got to give it to Hamas: they throw one interesting rally:

A truck carrying a group of armed men and makeshift weapons exploded Friday during a Hamas rally in the Gaza Strip, killing at least 19 people and wounding more than 80, according to hospital officials and witnesses.

Hamas, formally known as the Islamic Resistance Movement, accused Israel of firing missiles at the vehicle from an unmanned aircraft, but witnesses said the explosion did not leave the telltale crater of a missile strike.

Palestinian security officials said they believed mishandled homemade explosives in the truck may have ignited, sending shrapnel slicing through a dense crowd of several thousand onlookers gathered in the Jabaliya refugee camp north of Gaza City.

But just keep remembering that Hamas is just a political party - right, Mr. Galloway?

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 12:50 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
Post contains 143 words, total size 1 kb.

I speak to you as a North Carolinian in a solemn hour for the life of our country, of our Empire, of our Allies, and above all the cause of good and true Barbeque. A tremendous battle is raging in Memphis and other parts of the Country. The Memphians, by a remarkable combination of propaganda and trickery have begun their full fledged assault on the taste buds of America. They have penetrated deeply and spread alarm and confusion in their trick.

It would be foolish, however to disguise the gravity of the hour. It would be still more foolish to lose heart and courage or to suppose that maybe there is room for tomatoes in Barbeque sauce, however much you like the idea of spicy catsup. We may look with confidence to the stabilization of the border known as I-95, and to the general engagement of the masses which will enable the qualities of the only true Barbeque to be matched squarely against those of their adversaries with spicy catsup at hand...

The War of Lateral Aggression has begun.

(Background here)

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 12:36 AM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
Post contains 193 words, total size 1 kb.