Coincidence

Riots, or rather demonstrations, seem to be common in many places of the world. First the french ones and now in China. Not saying they are related, in fact i don't think they are at all, but its interesting to see what people in France will riot over and what people in China will riot over. Seems the people of China have a much better gripe on the surface but I guess i see the points on the french ones as well.

Wal-Mart solution for France?

Many people, even several free trade loving conservative types that i know, hate Wal-Mart. It pays its employees too little money to live on and is so cheap it drives other places out of business. Looking at the opinions of this economist, (note: a PhD holding expert) we see both the pluses and minuses to Wal-Mart. I don't know exactly how i feel about it but he lays out the facts pretty well, even if you don't agree with his conclusions, its hard to argue that the facts are wrong. I don't know a whole lots about the EITC so if anyone does maybe they can weigh in more. Seems to me from this that Wal-Mart isn't necessarily to blame or cheer, but combined with EITC is a better way than the "nanny system" in much of Europe. Also the Euorpean economy as a whole is in far far more trouble than the US, which is growing at over 4% as of latest data.

Additonal link to the Wall Street Journal about what Wal-Mart does

Democratic Q & A

Here is a list of questions asked to democratic congressmen. Also listed is their answers. I find it interesting the amount of dodging by many of the democrats that don't want to say what they think vs the anti-war ones that have the balls to come out and say it. Needless to say, i respect the latter more than the former. Oh i really love the 'redeployment' idea when its vague as to where they go and why its better.

Dean makes ass of himself

Nothing like making an ass of yourself on the Radio. Really shows that the people calling for a stratagy, like Dean, weren't really looking for a stratagy, they were just bitching.

"The idea that we're going to win the war in Iraq is an idea which is just plain wrong."
-Howard Dean

Beer did you say?!?

Why yes, yes i did. Had some good ones at Keith St Pub yesterday and today. Yesterday i started with a Dundee Honey Brown that really hit the spot. Its pretty sweet comparitively but was just what i was in the mood for. After that i followed with a shipyard winter warmer and i must say i was less than impressed. Not bad but i expected more, so when Kate brought out a John Courage (i asked her to choose) I was living free and easy again. Still one of my favorite beers. Such a good amber flavor. I closed off the day with a Red Stripe, its Beer! HOORAY BEER!

Today was 2 more beers over at keith st. Mike was working so i told him to pick something in a bottle and he surprised me with a new one, Cottonwood Low Down Brown. Always up for new beer, i sampled and was pleasently pleased with it. A good strong brown taste without being too 'earthy,' will definitely have another. The last beer of the day had to go with my chicken sandwich that had house wing sauce (pretty hot) on it. I went with a Warsteiner. Just seemed like a good lager would sit well with the hot sauce and i was right. All in all it was a set of beers and i recommend 5 outta the 6. Shipyard, i am sad to say, has some much better stuff than the winter warmer.

New unmanned figher?

I know, I know, 7 posts by noon is too many and the people who read this have lives but this is really cool. Future any time soon perhaps not but I think we are seeing the eventual future of flight, perhaps 30+ years from now.

Washington Post Attacks Progress

Money quote

"Just 10 percent more in that region would have doomed the constitution and forced Iraqis to go to the polls Dec. 15 not to elect a permanent government, as scheduled, but to select another interim government."

Is that supposed to make it less legitimate? 10% margin in American politics is HUGE. A president wins 55% and its a landslide with a mandate. Its a legitimate fact but its a really misleading and stupid point.

Questionable Hate-Speech

I'm no fan of Coulter, I think she is the consumate pundit who is short in facts and big on rhetoric. However, neither the "Students against Hate" nor the AP provides any examples of hate speech said by Ms. Coulter. Since the AP seem to love to factcheck the president and other conservative and republican establishments, you would think they could point our examples or the lack thereof.

Kyoto still leading topic in news

For some reason, the US is still being hounded at the climate summit in Canada. Specifically by John Martin the prime minister (who's government just received a no confidence vote I might add). I don't get this as the US has lowered emissions while Canada is polluting far more in the past few years. Check my article on it here to get the facts straight.

Links to the Media Center's Report

Here you can see how the coverage of Iraq breaks down. I am sure that if you are against the Iraq war then you will probably respond that the coverage is bad because it sucks in Iraq but I think that it still easily shows that the good points are being ignored. Just one soldier's opinion.

Evidence of UN uselessness

More evidence of how worthless the UN is. The UN cannot even work to keep the piece between two nations that would be pummeled by any major military. How are we supposed to put faith in the UN in dealing with global conflicts of major players when crap like this is still happening between pipsqueak nations?

Torture Supported by a Majority

According to latest polling, many people, nay, a majority, support torture of a suspect in certain circumstances. It seems that its okay in certain, although rare, circumstances.

Chemical Weapon BZ

Check out this post on the chemical weapon that is known as BZ and has been found in Iraq. Don't really have any collaboration for this but DefenseTech is about as reliable as you can get.

The Day that Lives in Infamy

Today is December 7th. Everyone should remember this day as much as we remember September 11th. Today, 64 years ago, was the surprise attack on Peal Harbor by the Japanese that killed a large number of US servicemen. Today is the day that FDR said "Will live in Infamy." Today we should all remember that we are not invulnerable, and only by the enourmous effort of the US military and the American people were we able to overcome this massive destruction of our Pacific fleet. Today we remember the men that died, and the sacrifice of the American military and American citizens to keep this great country, our great country, free.

This is messed up

I really don't have an opinion on what the right thing to do here is, its just totally messed up from all angles.

Trying something new

This was the first of the Code Pink exploits

Code Pink Protests

Update:
$600,000 in money for Fallujah? Really why Fallujah, doesn't sound like its just spreading aide if we are giving it to sympathizers of terrorists. I distrust aide from a far left organization, with ties to domestic terrorists, ecspecially when it goes to sympathizers of the enemy

Code Pink aides Fallujah

Murtha confusing himself?

People need to get their story straight. It's not like he isn't talking about a randomly asked question but his own pre-written talking points. (Note: link is the title)

Recruiters on Campus

It just seems odd to me that in the name of free speech, a group of law professors want to ban recruiters. Basically, do colleges have the right to ban federal employees from the campus if the college takes federal money? I don't see why the federal government be forced to fund colleges that work actively against it.

Recruiters on Campus

Updated Navy

Defencetech has a quick update on the Navy's FCS ship the DDX destroyer. They question its usefulness and also the time's analysis but the comments section is a good look at the battleship argument.

FCS

More on beer

Was talking with my good friend Bobby last nite and he lamented the lack of beer on the site lately. We both think its pretty sad that i havn't had much really good stuff lately. This needs to be fixed. In the meantime, he had a very good brown ale recently while grading papers that he really enjoyed. I have never been the biggest fan of brown ales, but both Bobby and Mel seem to like them alot, and i usually trust their opinions. Brooklyn makes the best one i have had of that variety, except maybe Sammy Smith.

I did have 2 good beers over last break though. The first was a 6 pack of Smithwicks. It was very good. Kinda similiar to Killians in my mind but less sweet in the mouth so it tastes more like beer. Always a plus, defintely a good irish ale. Also had Hobgoblin. Oh yeah, i sampled the Wychwood brews again. I got a 2 pack fo the half liter hobs along with a really cool pilsner glass. Psyched about that for sure. Hobgoblin is a good beer that really reminds me of a good English Ale. Not quite up to that bitterness level but the overall flavor similar making it really really good. I highly recommend it to anyone who wants a top notch American beer.

Finds of WMDs in Iraq

Do you wanna know what we really found in Iraq? Enjoy:

World Tribune

Syria's Smuggling

Chemcial Weapon Antidotes, Gee wonder why they need these?

And finally this one:

Actual Weapons Found!

Get the picture yet?

Who knew what about Iraq, and when?

Since there is alot of dissention and discussion over who knew what, and when they knew it, lets see if we can clarify what everyone had. BTW, all my facts will be documented and not just conjecture or vague platitudes.

First of all, lets go to fackcheck to see who is right about supposedly Bush slanting the intelligence. A NIE (National Intelligence Estimate) was requested by the Senate and then the entire Congress, ie both houses, recieved this NIE on Iraq in October 2002. This estimate was prepared by the CIA and had all the intelligence on Iraq that anyone, including the president, saw at the time. It expressed what all the different agencies thought about the the WMDs claim and their opinion on the probabliity. Note: this is the same document that i pointed out only 6 of 100 Senators actually read.

Factcheck

Prominant Democrats, including John Kerry, have said they believe that the administration intentionally lied even though the evidence from intelligence agencies shows this not to be the case as pointed out in 2 sepearate Intelligence inquires done by bipartisan commissions.

John Kerrys Interview

Here is another. This is a critiquing of an ad by a liberal group coalition. Factcheck puts the quotes from Bush and other prominant poiticians into context and gives the background.

Factcheck

Next refers to the Joe Wilson story. Many people think that the report he gave lent no credence to the nuclear claim. A senate commitee disagreed in their investigation after his report and testimony. Also we see that the claim that Iraq sought Yellowcake did not come from the CIA but the British who have not retracted or modified that position.

Transterrestrial Archive

It is also true that Iraq did not live up to its agreement that they would prove they did not have, reseach, or possess components of WMDs. Note: UN resolutions dictate that the UN did not have to prove he had them for him to be in violation. He had to prove he didn't.

This shows what Iraq was doing against the UN:

Iraq History

The UN resolution:
UN Resolution 1441

So that is the facts laid out about who knew what, and when, and what the sources are. To say that any intelligent person knew there was no WMDs is an absurd claim because nobody KNEW it. Some people did think that but all the evidence pointed to there being WMDs so they simply were guessing and doubting a perponderence of evidence.

Mmmmm...Bud Select?!?!?

Okay, its not that good comparitively. Its no where near my first choice for a drink but I must say i am impressed with this beer. Its got less than 100 calories and only 3.1 g of carbs. But it doesn't taste like an ultra-light. Its far better than budlight and actually tastes pretty similar to regular bud. So if you are gonna drink alot, starting off with a real good few and then switching to the Select is a pretty good call.

Update on the .50 cal rifle

Obviously, the person writing this blog is much better at exposing lies about this particular rifle than myself. I should have contacted both Barrett and the AP about the horrible reporting. In addition, we find out the article's writer was horribly lying about intentions as well as facts. I hope that this clears up the facts regarding the rifle and lets everyone see that even the AP knows they were wrong about the rifle. Thank you to SayUncle for getting this corrected. Obviously i was not up to task on it but i will work on harder on it.

Say Uncle

Notice

I am closing comments on the AP Bias post since its pretty far of topic. However, i have a question based off of the last comment. Since many of the reenlistments in the military have come after at least one deployment, and a good potion have come while actually deployed, how do you square that? To put it another way, if you say you support the troops but not the mission, how are you supporting them? What are you supporting exactly?

Good News

Two pieces of good news in this news flash. The first of which is that we got a leader of Al Qaeda. Number 3? Sure. Honestly i don't know enough about the ranking structure of Al Qaeda to make any sort of intelligent assessment. Still, regardless, its a high level leader of the organization and losing his dude should shake up any operations. So thats good news. Even better is that we got him in the mountainous regions. It makes it more likely that there are more hiding up there. Why is that good? It shows that just because we havn't gotten a good number of the rest of the terrorists and Taliban officals, its pretty likely that they are still in that area or else they would have left if they could have. Also, since that is such a remote region, it shows that the leadership can't affect the rest of the world that much.

Second reason that its such a good piece of news is it further demonstrates the usefulness of the UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle). These drones are much cheaper to run on a long period of time than recon flights and are almost undetectable. Also, they are now shown to be an effective method of being an airborne weapons platform. This is a relatively new role for the UAV and shows its potential and the results it can do. Hopefully this will really spur the development of more predators and we can see even more uses for it and similar platforms.

More on the LA Times

Since i can't seem to show outright the bias of the LA Times, perhaps this blog post will showing A) wrong facts B) really one sided reporting. To think that after their lies about GEN Casey's information and referencing 18 month old battles instead of current ones, the LA Times will keep losing readers to keep up the ridiculous sham of news shows real dedication to the America Sucks cause.

Transterrestrial Musings