Are You Going To San Francisco?

Have you heard the latest about San Francisco? Read it about it here.

If you live in SF, get ready. Four things are going to happen (pretty much in the following order):

1) There will be an influx of people coming to SF, soon. 82,000 will be the starting number. It is going to swell. Do not be surprised if homeless people from up and down the west coast flock to it.

2) Your taxes are going to swell, with the population.

3) The taxpayers are going to flee the city.

4) The city will need bailed out by the Federal Government, because the city's tax base cannot support the city and its grand schemes.

Enjoy. Just be sure to put some flowers in your hair.

Reid Speaks Out On Yet Unnamed AG Nominee

From Reuters comes this report:

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid vowed on Wednesday to block former Solicitor General Theodore Olson from becoming attorney general if President George W. Bush nominates him to replace Alberto Gonzales.

I'm shocked.

Did Israelis Hit Syrian Nuke Site?

For those that thought Israel was being a good puppet of the U.S. empire and emulating its imperialistic friend, you may want to think again.

The NYT is reporting that Israeli forces did, in fact, hit specific targets in their recent air raid.

After days of silence from the Israeli government, American officials confirmed Tuesday that Israeli warplanes launched airstrikes inside Syria last week, the first such attack since 2003. Syria has lodged a protest at the United Nations in response to the airstrike, accusing Israel of “flagrant violation” of its airspace. But Israel’s government has repeatedly declined to comment on the matter.

Looking at this with an analytical eye, we can see why the possibility of this is reasonable to consider. North Korea (NK) is trying to get back into the good graces of the world community after drawing ire from reasonable people, everywhere. They have announced that they will shut down their program. Why would that be so?

Maybe, because they have what they want, now?

With the bulk of the R&D completed, the rush to get into compliance may be precipitating a fire sale. Dumping these excess materials to someone that desperately wants to have them, would not only help them get ready for inspection, they would yield some cash for restocking Kim Jong Il's cognac inventory. When money gets tight, I guess one has to sacrifice a little luxury.

No, I am confident that Israel had a good reason to hit the targets that no one wants to talk about. They are not about bragging, they are about protecting its citizens.

But back to the issue at hand.

NK had a reaction, let's look at part of that reaction:

North Korea lashed out Tuesday at Israel for invading Syrian airspace last Thursday, its official news agency said.

"This is a very dangerous provocation little short of wantonly violating the sovereignty of Syria and seriously harassing the regional peace and security," a spokesman for the DPRK Foreign Ministry was quoted as saying by the Korean Central News Agency.

The Democratic People's Republic of Korea strongly denounces the above-said intrusion and extends full support and solidarity to the Syrian people in their just cause to defend the national security and the regional peace," he added.

I cannot help but wonder if they haven't been paid for the materials yet and are trying to politically caress the Syrians here. But yet, it's been known that NK, Iran, and Syria have been missile trading partners, for awhile now. So in essence, I fail to see the big surprise. This alliance isn't new at all and it has been watched.

But watching can only take you so far. When something is seen that threatens the safety and security of a nation, it is at that point, the watching has to stop and the acting has to begin. Evidently, Israel has made its transition from observer to participant. Watching them install whatever they were apparently installing, seemed to concern them enough to act. This is something we sorely need to look at in rest of the Western world, or we may catch fire while watching.

The choice is ours.


ADDENDUM:

VDH has a new essay and as usual, he hits the ball right out of the park. It somewhat pertains to this post's topic (or it will when the world's condemnation machine for Israel gets cranked up, over this affair).

NFL: New England Patriots Stole Signals

I used to have a tremendous amount of respect for Bill Belichick, head coach for the NE Pats.

Yes, his team sent my team home in the playoffs a couple of times. Yes, he is arrogant and yes, he was a poor sport at the end of the AFC Championship, last year when the Colts eliminated them. But by all appearances at the time, it looked like he worked his magic it by outcoaching the opposition. It looked like this man was truly a football genius and he knew his football as good as any.

Well, today it was announced by the NFL that they were stealing signals and taping formations in Sunday's game against the NT Jets, which is a clearly a rules violation. This casts a formidable shadow on the titles they have won, to say the least. The question now becomes, how long has this been going on?

If the league has any guts, they will come down hard on this man and the team. They should lose draft picks and should be fined, heavily. But more than anything, it shows a lack of integrity that will forever tarnish those three rings that he has.

Sorry, but I cannot respect a cheater. I know it goes on, I know that many have done it and didn't get caught. But for me, once I have seen a cheater exposed, that's it. Maybe he should retire from football and run for Ted Kennedy or John Kerry's seat in the Senate, because that's the level this sinks to.

We'll see how they play, now that their little spying operation has been exposed.

9/11

I remember.

Do you?

What's The Story On The Surge?

I guess this week, we will find out.

But, no matter what anyone thinks, there's a truth to this. This person will say this and that person will say that. But somewhere in the cloudy midst of all this, there is a well-defined truth and it's doubtful if we will ever know in time to know what to do next.

Why do I say this?

Because, what one thinks now is based on what one has already heard.

If we read and give credence to John Kerry's latest entry at HuffPo, we will think that we have failed miserably. (The world has caved in, our complete handling of the war has been full of failures, and other things that make up the litany of complaints he leveled during the 2004 election.)

The escalation failed to do the one and only thing it was supposed to do. The entire Iraq policy of George W. Bush has failed since the fall of Saddam Hussein's statue in Baghdad. No amount of parsing or spinning can change those simple facts: the escalation is and was the wrong answer.

Note the tone from the beginning, note the choice of words. Then, note how he opens the first sentence of the next paragraph:

I chaired a hearing on the GAO Report yesterday,.......

Wrong war, wrong time, wrong this, wrong that, wrong, blah blah blah. I, me, me, I, blah blah blah blah. I am sorry folks, but this is the argument?

On the other hand, many former critics of the war have recently seen a shift and have been reporting it. Two thinkers from the liberal leaning Brookings Institute, recently penned a cautious, but positive evaluation. Katie Couric's recent report said their had been real progress. And now, we have Max Boot saying the surge is working in his latest piece, from the LA Times.

So, if a person is pre-disposed to be critical of the war, for political reasons, he/she will most certainly be inclined to swallow Sen. Kerry's assessment. If one is a staunch war supporter, they will be inclined to disagree and believe that the war is going just fine.

But to those of us that know that spin comes from all sides and are pragmatic in our assessments, we know that the Administration and Congress are not the ones that should be micro-managing this war, in the first place. The military commanders should be. And most American people agree with my view, as is reflected in this latest NYT/CBS poll.

But for weeks now, certain attention-seeking (but yet still irrelevant) elected officials have been trying to cast a cloud over the report that Gen. Petraeus is about to present. Most of them have not been to Iraq since the surge began. But somehow, we are supposed to believe them, over and above the man that has been in country and responsible for overseeing the operation. It cannot get more arrogant than that.

If there were in existence, a Congressional Arrogance Index, John Kerry and his like-minded cause-subverters would indeed score high. And most people that have the free-will to think for themselves, can see it.

I seriously doubt the report will show amazing and stellar success, as much as I doubt it will show a dismal failure. To make either of these claims, ahead of the actual report, shows how incredibly irresponsible the claim-maker is. I, like many others, just want the truth and damn the politics. Like many others, I have been willing to wait for the report, before I decide where I stand on this gravely important issue.

German Terror Plot: After Action Briefing

Here is a piece that shows German officials are doing some serious reflecting, in the aftermath of the recent arrest of three radical Islamists plotting to stage a horrific terrorist attack on German soil.

After thwarting what might have become a "massive" attack on American installations, German authorities will review ways to fight homegrown terrorists, including a proposal to allow Internet spying on all German converts to Islam.

The more that is learned about the enemies of the Western world, the more adjustments will need to be made. Sometimes, those adjustments will need to be unpopular within the circles of those that fail to understand the gravity of the situation.

I cannot say that I am well-pleased with any country spying on its own citizens. It is certainly not something that the citizens of the United States have been accustomed to, and it's definitely not something that I would normally welcome. You can imagine how a lot of Germans might feel about this:

As shocked as they were by the arrests, the idea of spying on other Germans unnerves many in civil-rights minded Germany, where government surveillance recalls memories of Adolf Hitler.

Being reactive is never preferable to being proactive. In medicine, prevention is always a better course of action than waiting for something to happen, then treating it. Knowing the warning signs of diseases and illness is necessary for reacting. Knowing if one is in a high-risk category for something, gives us a better chance of heading off a serious illness. The same is true of trying to stop diseased elements in society that want to kill innocent people, for a maladaptive cause.

As I think back on the horror that 9/11 brought to the nation and the rest of the free world, I cannot see any other way around it. There is a formidable enemy lurking in the shadows and they must be found, watched, stopped, and if necessary, killed. To do this requires the ability to gather information and observe. When it is clear that the threat is real, it is then imperative to act.

This article I linked to shows that Germany is recognizing the importance of this.

The Economic Freedom Index

For what they are worth, the 2007 rankings are out.

As you may expect, the U.S. fared pretty well, at #4.

When you have a free market economy, free from unnecessary regulation and government interference, you have the ability to be more in control of your own destiny. When you have excessive government interference, you see much of that control lost.

Here is the breakdown of the rankings for the U.S., pay close attention to the ten different areas. Note the particular rating given for Freedom From Government (FFG) - 67.5%. Compare that same category rating with the #1 rated, Hong Kong - 91.6%.

For my French readers, you will note France coming at #45. According to the index, your economy is 66.1% free and your FFG score - 32%. You like government to be involved in your financial world and it shows. Despite the poor showing in this particular category, France does manage to do some things better than others. Note the other nine categories to see how the republic places higher, than most that garner a 32% in the FFG department.

To get a real feel for what government can do to screw things up, take a look at Venezuela. By the numbers indicated in the index, they are 47.7% free, which puts them at #144, overall. While they fare far better in the FFG rating than France (69.5%), they come in almost a hundred places lower. And despite the fact they rate a couple of points above the States in the FFG, they blow it badly in three critical areas.

The success of a nation depends on how free that nation's economy is. It can be as successful as its government and people want it to be. The French people are content to be where they are at, at least that's what I have read. And that's okay, to each his/her own.

France has a choice. They make their choices known through free elections and their willingness to demonstrate in the streets, when they do not like something. No one gets rounded up for expressing themselves, unless they commit crimes in the process.

In Venezuela, they have a government run by someone that wants to be president for life. The people have little choice in the matter, because slowly he erodes their political freedom while he runs their economy into the ground. He closes down opposition media outlets and actively seeks to re-write their constitution, so he can take even more freedom away.

So to all of my fellow Americans that want to be critical of France in the worst way I say, take a look at Venezuela and see that it could be worse. The French are content to be where they are at, let them be. And to all of my fellow Americans that cheer the likes of Harry Belafonte, Sean Penn, and Cindy Sheehan for visiting Brother Hugo in Venezuela (on their "Badmouth America" tours) I say, try living and/or investing some money there.

Another Blast From The Past

As most regulars know, this is usually a musical feature. But this week I thought I'd play around and try something different, as a change of pace. This week, I have decided to post some old vintage commercials.

Many of you that read this blog are old enough to remember some of these ads. I know I am. But for those of you that aren't, it's one more opportunity for you to think about how square your parents were. But, in your laughing and ridicule, just remember something. That's they way it was. We were just kids and had little creative control of anything, back then.

First up is an ad for Folger's Coffee. See if you remember it.



In any fine capitalist society, kids are a viable market. Being a kid in the early 60s meant that I had plenty of corny kids commercials, directed at me. Here is one that I remember well (maybe you will too).



No Saturday morning was complete without its share of cereal ads. Here is one I remember from the days that the "bad old" President Kennedy was busy interrupting my cartoons, to update the world on the Cuban missile crisis:



As a youngster, I remember looking forward to Friday nights. That was Flintstones night, when they were on prime-time TV. Here is an ad that was directed at the parents that watched it with their kids. You'll never see this kind of commercial, today:



Well that's it, for this time. Next week we'll be back to music.

Enjoy.

Switzerland: The Dark Heart Of Europe?

Recently, we had a discussion here about the new proposal being debated in Switzerland.

As you may have guessed, there are some critics.

Switzerland is known as a haven of peace and neutrality. But today it is home to a new extremism that has alarmed the United Nations. Proposals for draconian new laws that target the country's immigrants have been condemned as unjust and racist. A poster campaign, the work of its leading political party, is decried as xenophobic. Has Switzerland become Europe's heart of darkness?

Most that have read this blog for any substantial length of time, well know this: I am not the biggest fan of the UN. I think they are irrelevant and they have no right to tell a country which laws are just and which aren't. The only time I would side with the UN in this area is, if mass genocide were taking place.

Although I personally think that deporting an entire family for the crime(s) of one of their members is a bit harsh, I feel this should best be decided by the Swiss people and not the immoral moralizers of the UN, or nations that claim a similar moral high ground. It makes no sense to me for countries that are in this category, to vehemently criticize the Swiss for this, especially when the same people are usually silent on Darfur.

Here in the U.S., some people are adamantly against us deporting immigrants that commit crimes. However, there will soon be a massive outcry and possibly even a backlash for this to become more commonplace, especially after the recent case in Newark. But, for now, the pro-immigration people that consider open borders as a right, will have their way. Not until many more crimes as horrific as this come to light, will people be willing to look at something as harsh as the Swiss proposal.

But as we look at the proposal by the Swiss one cannot help but think, maybe, despite the drastic nature of the entire thing, they are one step ahead of the process. Families that have a member deported may become embittered and subsequently take actions that are reflective of that bitterness.