The Cool Blue Blog

Friday roundup

Unpopular to whom? We keep hearing how unpopular the war is and yet, it seems, that even with a military that is all volunteer, five years into a two-front shooting war, we can still meet the recruiting goals for the service that is the pointy end of the spear.

The Army will meet its goal of recruiting 80,000 new active-duty soldiers this fiscal year...

The Army's apparent success in meeting the U.S. military's biggest recruiting mission marks a significant rebound from last year, when the Iraq war, low unemployment and a shortage of recruiters contributed to the service's failure to make its active-duty target for the first time since 1999.

And despite the implication, we have lower unemployment than we did last year. And there is no doubt that people volunteering in today's news climate know for a fact that it is likely they will see combat before their enlistment is completed.

Winning elections by litigation. Representative Bernie Sanders, who is looking to switch chambers this election cycle, is calling the lawyers in on his Senate opponent Republican Rich Tarrant. What's his beef?

In a letter sent to Vermont television stations, Washington lawyers for the Sanders campaign said that Tarrant's campaign failed to abide by an FCC rule that requires an image of Tarrant and an acknowledgement that he paid for and approved the ad appear at the conclusion of the ad.

"Tarrant's advertisement does not comply with this requirement," the letter said. As a result, the Tarrant campaign no longer qualifies for the cheaper ad rate given political candidates who abide by the FCC rules, the letter alleged.

Gee, what rule did Tarrant violate?

Tarrant's face and the disclaimer about his approving of the ad appear at the start of the commercial, rather than at the end.

Now you don't think that the real thing sticking in Rep Sander's craw is the fact that the Ad calls attention to Bernie's Congressional voting record, do you?

Well, at least Tarrant is not making ads focusing on the fact that Rep Sanders is the least influential member of congress as I have.

Rules of engagement It seems that a bunch of bad guys were at a funeral (stop me if you've heard this one) and they were all in a cluster. One shot from a Predator hovering overhead would have declined the terrorist population by a couple hundred give or take. The gun-sites were trained on the group. But we didn't pull the trigger.

"During the observation of the group over a significant period of time, it was determined that the group was located on the grounds of (the) cemetery and were likely conducting a funeral for Taliban insurgents killed in a coalition operation nearby earlier in the day," the statement said. "A decision was made not to strike this group of insurgents at that specific location and time."

Too bad to because it's an appropriate final resting place. My guess is a lawyer was involved.

Democrats for Pork When a vote came up in the House yesterday to reform the House rules with regards to earmarks, making them more transparent, most Democrats voted against more transparency while most Republicans voted for transparency. Among those voting to keep pork hidden from prying eyes were House Minority leader Pelosi and the usual suspects of the far Left: Conyers, Dingell, McDermott, Kucinich, Jackson-Lee, Rangel, Waxman, and Woolsey.

I don't understand how it is these "fighter's for the people" justify keeping the people in the dark with regards to how our money is spent? And why would they want to?

Maybe it's because in the culture of their ideology, they know best and us "little people" might be confused with too much information.

Still No Draft

This just in

Over one year since the inauguration and still no draft.

I'm just sayin'

Quick Thoughts

Infant Euthanasia: The Netherlands was the first country to legalize euthanasia. Now we hear that not only have they submitted guidelines for euthanizing babies, but have been practicing infant euthanasia for some time. What's frightening is this:

The guideline says euthanasia is acceptable when the child's medical team and independent doctors agree the pain cannot be eased and there is no prospect for improvement, and when parents think it's best.

The problem that all countries with socialized medicine face is how much medical care should be provided given the limited funds and unlimited demand. In fact, this is a question all medical service providers and insurers must ask. But it seems to me that in a government run, single payer health-care system, the government gets to make the choices. It would seem to me that a government has to be particularly careful when it takes on this reponsibility that they not give even the appearance of using euthanasia protocols as a means of reducing the number of high maintenance patients. Because there may come a time when the parents aren't asked, only the government employed doctors. And there may come a time when the government decides that certain types of children, and people, should be euthanised...

Talking to Spirits: Being a well travelled 'netizen (mostly in pajamas) I hear things. The things I hear from paranoid Bush-haters are often along the lines that the country is in the hands of a fundamentalist evangelical warmonger who hears voices and thinks it's God talking to him. Now to my knowledge, Bush has never said he hears voices and thinks it's God talking. However, a soon-to-be-former news anchor who was the man in charge of a report that used forged documents to support a story damaging to the President during the Presidential campaign has admitted to listening, and talking to, dead people. In a telephone interview with journalist Ray Richmond, Dan Rather admitted

"Ed Murrow's ghost is here. I've seen him and talked to him on the third floor of this building many times late at night. And I can tell you that he's watching over us."

He also admitted to having a King Arthur complex:

"In my mind and the minds of the people I work with, this is a magical, mystical kingdom -- our version of Camelot. And we feel we are working at a kind of roundtable of King Arthur proportions. Now, it may be that this kingdom exists only in our minds. But that makes it no less real for those of us who live it every day."

King Arthur, as we all know, felt he was on a Mission From God. You know, like the Blues Brothers, only without the great music.

Fooling the Enemy: It turns out that the Pentagon used the media to fool the "insurgent" forces in Fallujah into thinking an attack was imminent. And it wasn't the first time. The media is worried that they have become a tool of war. Hello? McFly? You are.

Perhaps your real complaint is that some of you think you are a tool for the wrong side. Information is a critical aspect of any battlefield. Gaining information about enemy forces and movements while at the same time denying your enemy good  information about you is essential. If you can fool your enemy into thinking you are doing one thing while you are really doing something else, that's even better. During WWII, prior to the invasion of France, the Allies put Gen Patton in charge of the phantom 1st Army and made damn sure the press covered his appointment and preparations for an attack on Calais. The Allies, of course, attacked at Normandy. And the media was used to fool the Nazis.

When the media endlessly plays photos of Abu Garhib and the Marine shooting in Fallujah, but gets coy about showing the beheading of Nick Berg and others, do not think that they are not a tool in the war. Just don't.

Quick Thoughts

The American Kristallnacht  Now that the elections are over, you would think that the brutish tactics of the left-behind would have ended. But no. Terrorist violence is still the preferred tactic of Left. A jihad at San Francisco State University is focused against a student Republican Party. A GOP office in Chicago is the target of numerous acts of vanadlism with the latest attack involving incendiary devices. And Drudge is reporting that two high school supporters of the President are attacked with baseball bats. Trunk points us to an editorial by Tom Blankly that reads in part:

This dominant sentiment of the Democratic Party elite — that scores of millions of Americans are categorically unacceptable as fellow countrymen — is evidence of a cancer in the soul of that party. These Democrats, quite expressly, are asserting that "Christers," people who believe in the teachings of Jesus as described in the inerrant words of the Bible, are un-American, almost sub-human. Some of these Democrats would rather secede than stay in the same country with such people. If they were in the majority with no need to secede, what would they do? Their bigoted and absolutist view of religious people is at least a second cousin to the Nazi view of the Jews.

Remind me again, who are the Nazi Brown Shirts?

Update: A reader emails this story about an attack on the RNC headquarters in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Freedom isn't Free The Dutch are beginning to agressively deal with Jihadists on their own soil. Close to a dozen people have been arrested as a result of the murder of Duth filmaker Theo Van Gogh most charged as terrorists. Today, Dutch SWAT teams are locked in a standoff with an unknown number of suspected terrorists holed up in a house in The Hague after three officers were wounded by a hand grenade during an attempted raid. It seems even the most tolerant people on earth can't tolerate Islamists. Krijg het rollen. Update: lgf has much more. Looks like they're cleaning house and taking out the trash.

Givers and Takers Michelle Malkin points out an interesting difference between Blue states and Red states: Red states tend to donate more to charities.

France Surrenders Well the French have really screwed the pooch in their unilateralist approach to troubles in the Ivory Coast. As part of a UN peacekeeping force, a designation affected after France invaded, French troops came under fire by government aircraft earlier this week. The French proceeded to destroy the country's air force. Since then things have degraded terribly and the French are pulling their people out. The situation has become so bad that one rescued individual said "The government is pushing to kill white people — not just the French, all white people" Yet another success story for UN peacekeeping efforts. And the French.

Happy 229th Birthday US Marine Corps

Quick Thoughts

A video surfaces showing Margaret Hassan pleading for her life. It is unlikely that the British government will give in to the demands of the terrorists. Some take heart that no female captives have been killed by the Islamo-fascists thus far in Iraq. I think they have forgotten about the ones in Afghanistan that would kill women on a routine basis.

Glenn Reynolds points out a piece that appeared in the Guardian in which atheists pray to God for a Kerry win; or an assassin. Whichever, they don't care. Strangely, the article has disappeared from cyberspace, but fortunately The Daily Ablution has the proof of existence. It simply astonishes me how there exists those on the Left who are perfectly comfortable with a Saddam in power and the advocating of the assassination of a President but simply can not stand the US implanting Democracy in the Middle East.

Violence and intimidation by the Left does not seem to be restricted to media rhetoric. Just poking around the blogosphere I note reports of intimation of Republican voters in Florida here and here, and violence against Republicans in Arizona. Maybe I've missed it, but I haven't seen reports of Republican's attacking and/or intimidating Democratic voters, which is exactly what the Kerry campaign wants everyone to believe is happening. I'm sure you'll leave links in the comments if I'm wrong about this.