The Associated Press got their facts wrong on yet another firearms-related story today, something I know that readers will find absolutely shocking.

In this story about Moscow, Idaho gunman Jason Hamilton, they made two glaring fact errors regarding the firearms used in Hamilton's deadly Sunday rampage.

They waste no time, blowing the facts in the lede.

A man who went on a deadly shooting rampage with two high-powered assault rifles was supposed to have surrendered his firearms after being convicted of domestic assault, authorities said Wednesday.

By definition, "assault rifles" are not high-powered.

Further, they are selective-fire, meaning they can be fired semi-automatically (one bullet at a time for each trigger pull) or automatically (multiple shots per trigger pull), with the mode of fire determined by a selector switch on the weapon. Neither of these firearms had that capability.

And what were the firearms used?

Hamilton used an AK-47 assault rifle and a Springfield M-1A rifle, both bought legally before he was convicted of assaulting his girlfriend in 2006, Duke said.

I'll state that the Associated Press flatly blew it here.

AK-47s are heavily regulated by the National Firearms Act of 1934 (requiring an extensive, nearly prohibitive background check), and none have been imported or manufactured for civilian sale in the United States since 1986. Because demand among collectors is much higher than supply, a true AK-pattern rifle would probably cost between $16,500-$20,000, using this site as a guide.

A janitor, Hamilton would not likely be able to afford such a firearm.

He carried out his attacks with a rifle that looked like an AK-47, but it is no more an AK-47 than this 1987 Pontiac is a Ferrari.

New let's refer back to the lead for one second.

If you recall, it said two "assault rifles" were used. We've already established the fact that neither weapon fit the definition, and that one of those firearms could only be termed an assault rifle based upon how it looked. The other firearm doesn't even look like one.

This is the Springfield Armory M-1A.

Even by the most tortured media definition, the M-1A is no assault rifle or assault weapon. It is most properly categorized as a battle rifle, and it is typically valued in both military and civilian shooting circles for it's long-range precision. As such, it is very popular in target competitions.

Once again, the media blew the facts in a firearms-related story.

Surprising, I know.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 10:14 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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I was listening to local talk radio North Carolina's Morning News with Jack Boston this morning when I got in the car, and they were talking to Larry Wooten from the North Carolina Farm Bureau and another supporter of the Kennedy-Kyl pro-amnesty immigration "reform" bill, and I have never heard so much blatant, purposeful deception on the public airwaves since our former President delved into the deeper meaning of the word "is."

These two men attempted to say that the illegal aliens working on North Carolina farms contributed enormous amounts of money into social welfare programs when they used fake Social Security numbers, since they could not collect on the money they put in. They purposefully skated around the fact that illegals take far more out of social welfare programs than they put into them in taxes, and the dirty little fact that many farmers pay at least part of their illegal workforce "under the table" so that they do not contribute any taxes at all.

They claimed that North Carolina's agriculture industry would collapse without the amnesty bill... a blatant lie. What a tough immigration law would do is raise wages for the 75% of natives and legal immigrants, by decreasing the number of illegal immigrants that are willing to take "under the table," tax-dodging rates of pay below minimum wage.

After listening to their purposeful deceptions for several minutes, I called into the radio show, and afer several busy signals, asked the screener if it was even worth trying to hang around long enough to ask these men a couple of questions. He said it depended on my my comment; they were slammed with calls, most of them on one side of the issue.

I told him I wanted to ask a simple "yes/no" question on whether or not either of the men had actually read the entire bill they were supporting.

The screener laughed a little and stated that the calls coming in were overwhelmingly for the amnesty bill, which surprised both of us, as the general population of North Carolina, like the general population of the rest of the country, is against the amnesty bill. He said he thought that the guests may have "loaded the deck" by having their constituents lined up to call in, a supposition supported by the fact that the overwhelming of the callers were in the agriculture industry. He moved me to the front of the call line.

And so I asked my question: "Have either of you read the entire bill you are asking us to support?"

I don't recall which one answered, but it didn't matter: the guy who did hemmed and hawed about how he read the North Carolina-related provisions. In other words, "no." The other guy didn't attempt answer the question at all.

They haven't read the amnesty bill, but they want you to support it.

That should tell you something.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 08:39 AM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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Meet the new boss, yadda, yadda, yadda:

A bitter legislative quarrel in the House, played out in the parliamentary vocabulary of reprimands and motions to table, raged on yesterday as the Democrats pushed back a Republican attempt to officially chastise Rep. John Murtha, the combative Pennsylvanian whom Speaker Nancy Pelosi unsuccessfully backed for majority leader after the Democrats won control of the House in November.

Murtha had threatened Mike Rogers of Michigan for attempting to kill one of Murtha's pork barrel projects for a failing government agency in his district in front of a group of Republican representatives. Even thought Murtha was caught dead to rights in front of multiple witnesses, Democrats voted along party lines to table to motion, effectively killing the reprimand.

Nancy Pelosi supported Murtha, a fact too hard to swallow even for reliably left wing sites such as Capitol Hill Blue, who described Murtha in its headline as a "bully" while attacking his "unethical" past.

For his part, Murtha sat in a darkened corner of the House floor with cronies, laughing as the reprimand was defeated along party lines.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 03:22 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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You would hope that after being in Iraq since the 2003 invasion, that a major news organization such as CNN might be able to tell the difference between U.S. soldiers and their Iraqi counterparts.

You would hope.

The uniform is clearly Iraqi (this is what our Army's uniform looks like), and the weapon is obviously a Soviet-designed variant of the RPD squad automatic weapon (SAW) carried by Iraqi security forces and insurgents alike, but never issued to regular U.S. military forces.

Refusing to identify the nationality of the soldier isn't "wrong," but it is certainly imprecise, and by saying that he "searches for missing comrades," most people would logically infer that he was a U.S. soldier, as it is indeed U.S. soldiers that are missing. He is our ally, but he is clearly not a member of the U.S. Army. CNN is sloppy, but at least they aren't running enemy propaganda as news today.

Meanwhile, AFP has no problem identifying the soldier as Iraqi, but I guess they're simply paying more attention.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 12:52 PM | Comments (14) | Add Comment
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And here I thought the media were against war with Iran.

I'll be very interested to see whether or not the Justice Department will attempt to prosecute anyone in the intelligence community who leaked this information, as they obviously should. I doubt that Brain Ross or the staff of ABC News will be tried for criminal offenses (including treason), though the majority of comments posted on the Blotter's comment thread clearly favor that action... at least those they haven't yet deleted.

Ross and ABC News have purposefully undermined the non-military removal of a government that is a proud state sponsor of terrorism. If Ross and ABC News are successful in derailing covert non-military attempts to replace the Iranian government, then a military option may very well end up being our last remaining option.

If we are forced into a war because ABC News torpedoed our last, best hope at a non-military solution to the problem of Iran's militant, expansionist, Shia Islamist government, then the resulting deaths on both sides will belong in part to ABC News executives and Brian Ross.

Should that eventuality come to pass, the Federal Communications Commission should seriously consider suspending or removing ABC's broadcasting license as a warm up, and move on to more serious legal remedies from there.

Update: As is their pattern, the staff of the Blotter quickly removed my comment to their post that echoed the sentiments expressed in this blog entry.

ABC News gleefully exposes classified national security information, but apparently cannot tolerate some criticism of their own dubious operations. I can only wonder how many other criticizing comments they have deleted.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 11:30 PM | Comments (24) | Add Comment
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Allegations in today's Guardian that Iran may be supporting Sunni insurgents and al Qaeda in Iraq in anti-surge operations may come as a shock to some, but I can't imagine why:

Iran is secretly forging ties with al-Qaida elements and Sunni Arab militias in Iraq in preparation for a summer showdown with coalition forces intended to tip a wavering US Congress into voting for full military withdrawal, US officials say.

"Iran is fighting a proxy war in Iraq and it's a very dangerous course for them to be following. They are already committing daily acts of war against US and British forces," a senior US official in Baghdad warned. "They [Iran] are behind a lot of high-profile attacks meant to undermine US will and British will, such as the rocket attacks on Basra palace and the Green Zone [in Baghdad]. The attacks are directed by the Revolutionary Guard who are connected right to the top [of the Iranian government]."

The official said US commanders were bracing for a nationwide, Iranian-orchestrated summer offensive, linking al-Qaida and Sunni insurgents to Tehran's Shia militia allies, that Iran hoped would trigger a political mutiny in Washington and a US retreat. "We expect that al-Qaida and Iran will both attempt to increase the propaganda and increase the violence prior to Petraeus's report in September [when the US commander General David Petraeus will report to Congress on President George Bush's controversial, six-month security "surge" of 30,000 troop reinforcements]," the official said.

"Certainly it [the violence] is going to pick up from their side. There is significant latent capability in Iraq, especially Iranian-sponsored capability. They can turn it up whenever they want. You can see that from the pre-positioning that's been going on and the huge stockpiles of Iranian weapons that we've turned up in the last couple of months. The relationships between Iran and groups like al-Qaida are very fluid," the official said.

Iran is not "secretly forging ties" with al Qaeda; they've had them all along, possibly as far back as the 1996 Khobar Towers attack. al Qaeda operatives, including the 9/11 plotters have long used Iran as a gateway to Afghanistan, and al Qaeda operatives have lived in Iran since the fall of the Taliban.

That Iran would use "their" al Qaeda to hook up with al Qaeda operatives and other Sunni insurgents in Iraq to pursue their shared goal of forcing the United States out of Iraq is not only unsurprising, it is tediously predictable.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 11:31 AM | Comments (8) | Add Comment
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Seung-Hui Cho fired less than half of the 377 rounds of ammunition he brought with him into Norris Hall on April 16 before commiting suicide after killing 32 students and faculty at Virginia Tech:

The gunman who killed 30 people at a Virginia Tech building was "well-prepared" to continue his shooting spree with more than 200 additional rounds of ammunition, a state panel was told Monday.

Police found 203 live rounds in Norris Hall, where Seung-Hui Cho killed 25 students and five faculty members before committing suicide on April 16, State Police Superintendent W. Steven Flaherty told a panel investigating the massacre. Cho also shot two other students elsewhere.

"He was well-prepared to continue on," Flaherty said.

Cho fired 174 shots from two handguns on the second floor in a span of nine minutes, taking his own life at 9:51 a.m. as police on the stairwell approached the floor, Flaherty said.

I suspect, but certainly cannot prove, that Cho chose to take his life when he did because he heard the sounds of police shooting through the locks on the first-floor doors he had chained shut, and he did not want to risk of being wounded by police and captured.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 07:41 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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The Iraq War claims another veteran who was against it... sorta:

Jesse Adam Macbeth, 23, formerly of Phoenix, garnered attention on blogs and in some alternative media after he began claiming in 2005 to have been awarded a Purple Heart for his service, which he said included slaughtering innocents in a Fallujah mosque. His story was contradicted by his discharge form, showing that he was kicked out of the Army after six weeks at Fort Benning, Ga., in 2003 because of his "entry level performance and conduct."

A complaint unsealed Friday in U.S. District Court in Seattle charged him with one count of using or possessing a forged or altered military discharge certificate, and one count of making false statements in seeking benefits from the Veterans Administration.

Macbeth's public defender, Jay Stansell, declined to comment.

Organizations that opposed the war, including Iraq Veterans Against the War, posted videos or statements containing Macbeth's claims on their Web sites. In one videotaped interview, a skinny, stuttering Macbeth, dressed in a camouflage jacket, described slaughtering hundreds of people in a mosque: "We would burn their bodies ... hang their bodies from the rafters in the mosque," he said.

On the upside, we've finally found MacBeth a uniform that fits him.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 03:46 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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File this under "not a PhotoShop, but it should be."

You can clearly see three Lebanese soldiers in combat fatigues (and the helmet of a fourth) as they cover their ears while firing a mortar against the Fatah Islam militant group outside of Tripoli, Lebanon.

But who is the forth guy in the phone, apparently wearing a brown polo shirt, seemingly obvious to the mortar firing at his feet, smiling as he talks on a cell phone? He looks more like an executive on a golf course than a soldier on the battlefield.

This is odd, even for Lebanon...

Note: The inset is my own, and is not in the original.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 02:28 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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Knowing the intense scrutiny that their photographers face following last summer's Adnan Hajj incident, most news organizations are carefully reviewing photos taken by journalists in the Middle East before publication, to make sure they havne't been modified. They are, however, still failing to question the captions they use to describe photos, which can also be used to deceive news consumers.

The two photos shown below have been published in the past 24 hours, and are a prime example.

AFP ran the following photo and caption yesterday:

Palestinian mourners carry the body of Hatem Hmeid, 15, during his funeral in the Jabalia refugee camp, northern Gaza Strip. Eight people were killed in a new Israeli air raid in Gaza on Sunday just hours after Israel's security cabinet gave the army the go-ahead to ramp up operations against Palestinian militants.(AFP/Mohammed Abed)

Reuters ran this photo and caption today:

Palestinians pray near the bodies of nine Palestinians killed by an Israeli air strike in Gaza May 21, 2007. Israel launched more strikes against Gaza militants on Sunday, killing nine Palestinians in two aerial assaults, including one that struck the home of a prominent Hamas politician, security officials said. REUTERS/Mohammed Salem (GAZA)

View the pictures and the captions that these news organizations provided with them, and you're looking on what may appear in your local, regional, national, or international news outlet of choice.

What you will probably take away from these photos is that once again, those dastardly Israelis are once again slaughtering defenseless Palestinians while targeting militants. Both captions mentioned that Israel was targetting militants, but both avoided mention that the dead pictured were apparently those same militants, and not innocent bystanders. Considering the names of the photographers, I wouldn't be too surprised if that vagueness was by intent.

The pictures, however, tell us a bit more than the captions would indicate.

Look closely at the photos above, and then take a gander at this photo in the Guardian Newsblog.

Hamas supporters on the left, with the green flags, Fateh on the right with yellow flags. Photograph: Laila el-Haddad

If seeing is believing, the dead in the pictures in the AFP and Reuters photos were militants wrapped in the flags of Fatah and Hamas.

Palestinians?

Yes, they most were.

Civilian victims?

I suspect not.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 01:33 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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MNF-I has issued a press release detailing the repelling of a large-scale terrorist attack by Iraqi Security Forces this past Wednesday:

Iraqi Security Forces countered several terrorists who targeted bridges, transition jails, police stations and a combat outpost with vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices, sporadic small-arms fire and indirect mortar attacks throughout the evening.

"This was a total team effort on the part of the Iraqi Security Forces and emergency responders," said U.S. Army Col. Stephen Twitty, commander of 4th Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division. "This Iraqi team showed the people of Mosul that they are resolute in their efforts to defeat this very cowardly, desperate enemy while protecting innocent civilians."

The first wave of attacks consisted of three VBIEDs, which targeted the Badush Bridge northwest of Mosul at 5:15 p.m., and was followed by another VBIED attack at the Aski-Mosul Bridge west of the city at 5:45 p.m.

Two more VBIEDs exploded outside a police station and a transition jail during the first wave. The first VBIED was a dump truck, which detonated upon reaching the entrance to the station. The driver of the second VBIED attempted to enter the compound but was killed by Iraqi Security Forces.

As the driver of the second VBIED was killed, terrorists attempted to breach the transition jail to release prisoners by using small-arms fire. However, Iraqi Security Forces quelled the attempt and kept the facility secured.

The second wave of attacks involved another dump truck VBIED parked outside a southeast police station at approximately 7 p.m. As the driver abandoned the vehicle, he was seen by Iraqi Police and was killed as he was fleeing the area. The Iraqi Police immediately cordoned the vicinity before detonation. No casualties resulted.

Small-arms fire erupted during the second wave at seven police stations throughout the city and one combat outpost. In all cases, Iraqi Army and Police repelled the enemy and killed at least 15 terrorists and turned back the remaining opposition.

"The Iraqi Security Forces are in the lead, and they are certainly a capable force," said Twitty. "Their reactions to the attacks [on Wednesday] only serve to prove their ability to destroy and remove terrorists. Their actions demonstrate their commitment to this city and its people. I am extremely proud to serve beside them."

Stars and Stripes indicates that up to 200 insurgents may have been involved in the May 16 attacks.

If these accounts are close to being accurate (and there have not been any conflicting accounts that I am aware of), the Iraqi Security Forces in Mosul performed extremely well, repelling a large scale (company-sized ), multi-wave attack with no outside support from U.S. forces.

CNN covered the story, adding:

Mosul police spokesman Gen. Saied al-Jabouri said intelligence reports suggested the attacks were coordinated by al Qaeda and the Islamic State of Iraq -- which he said were "two sides of the same coin" -- and were an effort to free at least 300 inmates from the al-Faisaliya prison in Mosul.

Al-Jabouri said seven of the 10 vehicle-borne bombs were suicide car bombings and that a key bridge, many buildings, shops and homes were destroyed during a six-hour period starting late Wednesday afternoon.

A U.S. military source said the bombs killed 10 Iraqi police officers, one Iraqi soldier and two civilians. He credited the Iraqi security forces for these "minimal casualties," saying it "could have been much worse if they were not doing their job."

"The ISF dealt with it, showing the people they are trained and ready," the U.S. military official said.

Al-Jabouri said Iraqi troops, backed by the U.S. military, fought with insurgents for two hours across Mosul, killing 15 of them and one Saudi national.

You would hope that the major news organizations would report the successful repulsion of such an attack as the victory it was, and as an example of success that can be won by Iraqi military and police units. al Qaeda and the ISI are the insurgency's "varsity" in Iraq, and when placed head-to-head against Iraq's best, they lost a battle in which they had apparent advantages in surprise and firepower.

This should be regarded as significant news.

But it is very difficult to find many major western news outlets carrying a report of the events in Mosul on that day, quite an odd development considering the size of the attack. This is especially odd when you consider that these same news outlets were able to print dozens of stories about a pair of ABC journalists killed in Mosul on May 18, just two days later.

I understand that the deaths of two journalists in Iraq is very important to those in news-gathering industry, but I don't think I'd be wrong in state that a rare and sophisticated company-sized attack by al Qaeda and the ISI being repelled by Iraqi security forces is a far more important news story than the deaths of two reporters, both for those in the news business, and those new consumers around the world.

The Iraqi security forces thwarted a major assault and an attempt to free 300 prisoners, and suffered minimal casualties in a serious engagement.

That's news.

It's too bad there seems so little interest among professional news organizations in reporting it.

Update: Heh:

Is there any way we can get Al Qaeda on record as supporting carbon dioxide production? Seems like the only way to get the MSM's interest.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 11:57 AM | Comments (36) | Add Comment
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Jules Crittenden takes a look behind the headlines to note that the intensive search operations for our missing soldiers in Iraq have led to a dramatic decease in al Qaeda activity in the so-called "Triangle of Death." He's got a dozen links, al worth reading.

Meanwhile, my buddy Michael Yon is in al Anbar, once al Qaeda's base of operations and the heart of the Sunni insurgency, and is bored out of his mind. This is the second time he's mentioned a lack of action there (here's the first) in as many days. He could get used to this. I think we all could, American and Iraqi alike.

Other parts of Iraq were not as quiet.

Sheikh Azhar al-Dulaymi, the Iranian-trained mastermind of the Karbala raid that killed five American soldiers killed in late January, was killed in Sadr City by U.S. forces.

Elsewhere in Iraq, seven U.S. soldiers were killed over the weekend, along with dozens of Iraqi civilians. Eight insurgents were killed and almost three dozen more were captured in a series of raids on Karmah, south of Baghdad.

Elsewhere in the War on Terror, Lebanese Army units fought intense battles with an al Qaeda-aligned group outside Tripoli. Speculation is that the group is backed by Syrian military intelligence at the behest of Syrian dictator Bashir Assad. The group is apparently led by Shaker al-Absi, a Syrian Air Force veteran that is thought to have fought against U.S. forces in Iraq and who is believed to have had links to al Qaeda in Iraq's former leader, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. According to a Washington Post report, on the terrorists killed, Saddam El-Hajdib , was a suspect in a failed train bombing in Germany.

Meanwhile, the McCain-Kennedy Illegal Alien Exploitation and Terrorist Proliferation Bill is under debate in the U.S. Senate. The bill would offer official documentation to illegal aliens without being able to verify who they actually are or where they come from, and would allow terrorists like the three illegal alien brothers who crossed over the Mexican border at Brownsville and were recently arrested plotting a terrorist attack on Fort Dix to continue to penetrate this country, now with the added bonus of being able to get legal status.

McCain and Republicans in the House and Senate want cheap labor at indentured servitude prices, while Democrats, knowing that illegals tend to break Democrat roughly 5:1 because of the Marxist/socialist politics of their home nations, hope to use illegals to establish an overwhelming permanent Democratic majority.

In the end, we're looking at a Congress that is willing to pass a law that would enable Osama bin Laden himself to get legal status here in the United States.

That is not a comment I'm making up; it comes directly from Mike Cutler, a 30-year veteran of the U.S. Immigration Service, who thinks the Senate bill should be referred to as the Terrorist Assistance and Facilitation Act of 2007.

I hate Mondays.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 08:37 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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I don't agree with the threats, but I certainly share the frustrations.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 07:07 AM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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Q: Who doesn't wipe away small trickle of blood running from their hairline, down between their eyes, off the end of their nose, and around their mouth?

A: A car-swarming Palestinian, when a Reuters cameraman is nearby.

The photo appears to be a cropped version of this wider image, which shows the carswarm in progress, and the remains of the mangled militant van hit by Israeli aircraft.

Perhaps I'm too jaded to be objective after last year's Pallywood antics, but I'd guess there's a more than decent shot that his wound came from being jostled in the crowd swarming around the sharp, twisted metal of the bombed van, and not from injuries from the blast itself.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 03:49 PM | Comments (17) | Add Comment
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Perhaps its just my perception, but perhaps the reason that there are so few men taking wine-tasting and tennis classes in New York City is not that they are uninterested in the subject, but that the men who have these interests are already dating each other.

I'm kidding. Mostly.

Ann Althouse takes another stab at answering the question:

Men prefer to look at something they have decided to do and figure it out on their own. They like to observe, analyze, and discover. They accept the risks and enjoy the excitement of trial and error. They don't like sitting around having someone tell them what to do, and they aren't intrigued by the prospect of meeting women who spend so much time doing something they loathe.

Now, I just made that up, but it was no more made up than the explanation in the article.

Althouse is a lot closer to reality than the loopy NY Times reporter.

I don't know any of my male friends who would sign up for a class to learn how to do anything; typically if they're interested in a subject, they'll ask a buddy for pointers or just dive right in. The trial and error is part of what makes new experiences worthwhile.

Of course, the choice of activity matters a great deal as well.

Look at the list of classes chosen by these desperate women: "tennis, running, sailing, horseback riding, fitness boot camp and scuba diving classes" and "golf, cooking or music class," and "Thai kickboxing or jazz appreciation."

Now honestly... how men of these activities are of interest to most single straight men in the age groups these women are targeting? Cooking and music classes? Thai kickboxing and jazz appreciation? These might appeal to men when they get older, but most younger single men have very little interest in these subjects, and even if they did, as Althouse correctly observed, they'd just do it.

If these women wanted to meet men, they'll find out what men like and where they hang out, and go there.

Somehow, I doubt that advice will lead them back to a jazz appreciation class.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 12:14 PM | Comments (11) | Add Comment
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1 I feel no sympathy whatsoever for any single person in NYC who is incapable of finding a mate. Having lived the the same neighborhood as she did, let me confirm what every single man already knows. GO TO A BAR FOR CHRIST'S SAKE! IF YOU WANT TO MEET A GUY GO TO A BAR, ORDER A DRINK, COUNT TO 10. Here's are three places to start. Molly's on 3rd Ave, Telephone Bar & Grill on 2nd Ave M J Armstrongs on 1st Ave.

Posted by: BohicaTwentyTwo at May 18, 2007 12:39 PM (oC8nQ)

2 I don't know any older men either who are interested in those subjects. When I was interested in meeting men, I started a Monday Night Football Party at my house. Started with 3 guys who I already knew and were good friends and over the next three years the group grew to anywhere from 10 to 30 guys on any given night. As the group grew, I even made it "bring your own beer" but I always had the snacks and comfy chairs or big pillows to lounge on on the floor. At first I felt like I had to play hostess and would jump up and wait on the guys, but as the weeks went on they started treating me like their mascot and began to cater to my needs. Many of these Monday Night Football parties extended over to weekend BBQ's and other casual activities. A girlfriend who stopped by unexpectedly said the next day, "how does a middle age average looking woman get some of the best looking guys in town to hang out with her?" My answer, "become one of the guys." I'm happy to say that most of those guys are still good friends of mine and always invite me to any parties they have and this is 20 years later.

Posted by: Pal2Pal at May 18, 2007 01:11 PM (hGL+y)

3 There's only one activity in that list that require classes and that's scuba, otherwise you won't get certified. Maybe sailing because it's not an intuitive activity. But jazz appreciation? You go, you listen, you appreciate. Or not. Running? You put one foot in front of the other at a quicker pace than walking. That is called running. Class dismissed. Horseback riding? There's a reason women enjoy this more than men. The big problem is the women themselves. They get interested in something because they think men are interested? No. You get interested in something that interests you and then you meet people with the same interests. Sweet Jeebus, how hard a concept is that to grasp?

Posted by: David Terrenoire at May 18, 2007 01:20 PM (kxecL)

4 Well that explains why these women are looking for men instead of men looking for them.

Posted by: 1sttofight at May 18, 2007 02:31 PM (51r8a)

5 What the hell do these women want to meet men for in the first place? They claim not to need them; have no respect for them; have made beatin' up on men, particularly white men, the national pasttime; and wouldn't know a real man - the kind worth having - if they fell over one. Which they probably have. Reap = sow.

Posted by: Cindi at May 18, 2007 02:43 PM (asVsU)

6 Cindi!?!? They're going to pull your card.

Posted by: CoRev at May 18, 2007 03:08 PM (0U8Ob)

7 Nope, CoRev, they can bring it on but it's not gonna happen. I'm a firm believer and practioner of our 2A. Heh. I calls 'em as I sees 'em; that's what a REAL WOMAN does.

Posted by: Cindi at May 18, 2007 03:50 PM (asVsU)

8 After 12 years in the Marines I have an intense distrust of anyone that goes running with nobody making them. Do people really take classes to learn how? Just move to a bad neighborhood. It worked for me.

Posted by: iaintbacchus at May 18, 2007 04:35 PM (mYHGQ)

9 Ever since Rudy cleaned up Times Square it's been hard to find a bunch of available guys in one place.

Posted by: Tim at May 18, 2007 08:14 PM (WiHUE)

10 I was living in NYC in the '80s when that guy's parents got tired of paying for a professional student, so he went and started "The Learning Annex" distributed free on the street. You could sign up for courses in basket-weaving, wine and cheese tasting, how to lose a Brooklyn accent, how to get one for an acting job, etc.etc. We would read these at the pubs and wait till the gals came out to party. Never took one of those courses; if I want learn something, I just read blueprints and manuals, or find an expert on my own.

Posted by: Tom TB at May 19, 2007 05:08 AM (h/YdH)

11 "Now honestly... how men of these activities are of interest to most single straight men in the age groups these women are targeting?" Hey! HEY! Scuba diving and golf - not activities straight men are interested in? Wrongo, bub. As someone else on this thread mentioned, classes are mandatory in scuba unless you're not looking to get certified. And, as someone who's enjoyed the sport since 18 years of age, I can tell you that anyone who doesn't feel they need the instruction is playing with his life. As for golf: well, let's just say that 1) Tiger Woods still signs up for instruction and 2) I don't want to spend 10 years trying to figure it out on my own enough to not be the worst golfer within 50 miles! I'm 100% with you on the jazz appreciation.

Posted by: Ric James at May 19, 2007 07:16 AM (AS/pd)

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The accused plotter worked for Doctors Without Borders. I'm guessing "first do no harm" principle of Doctors without Borders slipped by him in orientation.

The Israeli intelligence services say they have foiled a plot to assassinate Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and other senior Israeli political figures. Details of the story were released yesterday after Israeli authorities lifted a media blackout.

The plot allegedly centered on Mazab Bashir, a 25-year-old Palestinian from Gaza who worked for the international medical relief organization Doctors Without Borders. According to the Israelis, Bashir was arrested in Jerusalem while he was gathering intelligence for future terrorist attacks.

It is not uncommon for Palestinians from Gaza to be granted travel permits by the Israeli security agencies if they work for recognized nongovernmental organizations. Bashir held such a permit, which allowed him to travel regularly from the Gaza Strip to Jerusalem, officials said.

The indictment said Bashir made several surveillance tours of the area surrounding Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's Jerusalem residence but decided that the building was too well protected. Working with the Palestinian militant group, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, he allegedly received hand to hand combat training and used the Internet to find alternative Israeli personalities to target.

Forbes was able to provide details of the alternative target list:

Once he deemed that the assassination of the prime minister was impossible, Bashir began collecting information on other top Israeli politicians, including Cabinet minister Avigdor Lieberman, deputy Defense Minister Ephraim Sneh and Labor Party lawmaker Ophir Pines-Paz.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 11:31 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Don't mess with John Murtha's pork:

According to the draft resolution, Murtha shouted at Rogers on the House floor Thursday for offering a motion last week to expose $23 million Murtha requested in an intelligence bill.

Murtha had requested the money to prevent the administration from shuttering the National Drug Intelligence Center in Johnstown, Pa.. in Murtha's district.

"I hope you don't have any earmarks in the defense appropriations bills because they are gone, and you will not get any earmarks now and forever," Murtha told Rogers on the House floor, according to the draft transcript given Politico.

"This is not the way we do things here -- and is that supposed to make me afraid of you?" Rogers replied.

"That's the way I do it," Murtha said.

According to the article, the National Drug Intelligence Center, "has received repeated low marks from several federal review boards."

If true, it seems that Murtha was trying to support a failed government outpost in his district to shore up his political support at home, at the expense of federal taxpayers... classic "business as usual" politics.

I'd suspect nothing will come of the reprimand attempt. The accusation will likely be entered into the Congressional Record, the reprimand voted upon, and probably fail along party lines. I think the purpose of Roger's filing the accusation was to document the stupidity of Murtha making such a thread in front of multiple Republican congressional witnesses, and to ensure that if Murtha does attempt to make good on his threat, that more serious ethics charges could be on the table.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 09:12 AM | Comments (9) | Add Comment
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Ace's suggestion sounds about right to me:

Write, call, and fax your Congressmen and Senators -- especially Republican ones -- and let them know you will never vote for them or their party again should the immigration bill actually pass.

And let them know that you don't particularly trust them on national security, spending, or taxes either, so they won't wrongly believe those trump cards will still win the hand for them. Let them know if this isn't scuttled -- if the border isn't secured first, verifiably, before any amnesty legislation passes -- you will no longer vote for, volunteer for, or donate to any Republican candidate for any office ever again.

Not a dime, not a vote.

It's time to let them know they're walking into the abyss. Inform them in no uncertain terms that they are attempting to purchase the votes of new "Americans" who split 5:1 Democratic by losing your reliably conservative vote forever.

I've never felt I owed anything to the Republican party.

I told my Senators Elizabeth Dole and Richard Burr last night:

Senator, my name is Bob Owens. I run a conservative political blog called Confederate Yankee (http://confederateyankee.mu.nu/) that 90,000-100,000 opinionmakers visit each month.

Tonight, I will tell my readers, conservative Republicans, fence-sitting conservative Democrats and moderates, that if the Senate passes the pending illegal alien amnesty bill, that I will formally abandon the Republican party, as it has abandoned me. I will then ask them to do the same. I will ask that they refuse to contribute to Republican campaigns. I will ask them to stay at home and refuse to vote for Republican candidates, or even consider voting for Democrats in protest in 2008.

I am not alone.

Kill this amnesty bill

But you know what? I lied.

There is no "if, then" here. There are no longer any conditionals left. I'm simple done with today's iteration of the "Grand Old Party." This amnesty bill was merely the straw that broke the camel's back.

I've just downloaded and printed my North Carolina Voter Registration Application/Update form.

I'm re-registering as "unaffiliated."

Goodbye, GOP.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 08:21 AM | Comments (17) | Add Comment
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If the Paper Chase is correct, Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez may soon be on his way out:

Senator Arlen Specter (R-PA), the ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, predicted Thursday that Attorney General Alberto Gonzales will resign from his post at the conclusion of current investigations into the allegedly-political firings of federal prosecutors. Specter's comments followed others made by Senator Chuck Hagel (R-NE) Wednesday, who suggested that by remaining in his position, Gonzales was harming the Justice Department. Senator Pat Roberts (R-KS) concurred, telling the Associated Press that it was noteworthy that Gonzales is spending more time on Capitol Hill defending himself than working as the Attorney General.

I'll be depressed when this happens.

Really.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 05:33 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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Did you hear about the high school hit yesterday by a pair of missiles?

Of course you didn't. It was an Israeli school in Sderot that was struck, and the missiles were fired by Hamas.

A quick Google search of news outlets shows that this kind of school violence is apparently not newsworthy by the standards of our gatekeeper media.

To be fair, Google News did not capture all mentions of the story (NOTE: see update below).

The New York Times mentioned the attack in passing in the ninth paragraph of this story, which was focused almost exclusively on Israel's retaliatory air strike against Hamas commanders.

CNN followed a similar pattern, kindly donating a few words about the high school attack in the tenth paragraph of a story focused on Israel's air strike and the Hamas-Fatah not-civil war.

Only CBN covered the attack on the high school with any depth at all:

Palestinian terrorists in Gaza launched at least 11 Kassam rockets at the besieged Israeli city of Sderot Thursday, hitting a high school and a greenhouse in another Israeli community in the western Negev. Scores of rockets have fallen in the area this week, forcing thousands of residents to seek shelter elsewhere.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has promised a "harsh and severe" response to the rocket attacks, which could include the renewal of targeted assassinations of terrorist groups in Gaza or eventually even a military reinvasion of the Gaza Strip.

Two rockets hit the high school in the Shaar HaNegev Regional Council as students met in fortified classrooms to take their matriculation exams in mathematics.

The Kassams damaged an unfortified section of the building and lightly injured two people. Several others suffered shock.

Rueters' Nidal al-Mughrabi completely neglected to mention the attack on the high school, even though his story was side-barred by these pictures of the attack.

Caption: An Israeli firefighter surveys the scene after a rocket, fired by Palestinian militants, landed in a high school classroom in the southern town of Sderot May 17, 2007. REUTERS/Gil Cohen Magen

Caption: Israeli students embrace during a rocket attack at their high school in the southern town of Sderot May 17, 2007. REUTERS/Gil Cohen Magen

Caption: Israeli students hold their hands up to their faces on the scene of a rocket attack at their high school in the southern town of Sderot May 17, 2007. REUTERS/Gil Cohen Magen

The news outlets of the world apparently have little interest in the attack on an Israeli school, but instead bend over backwards to write more than 2,500 3,000 stories about the results of the Israeli air force targeting Hamas leaders who are blamed for ordering the attacks on Sderot.

Update: A reader at Wizbang! noted that the Google search I ran for "Sderot high school missile" was incorrect, as a rocket, not a missile, was used by Hamas. I then ran a Google News search on "Sderot high school rocket," and the search hits jumped dramatically... no, not really.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 11:03 AM | Comments (21) | Add Comment
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