The Crows Nest
Crow's Nest Mostly Unmanned
Yes, I know the Crow's Nest has mostly been moribund since the site's relaunch. I do plan on using it more often in the future, I promise. I'll be spending a little more time on these posts as a way to link out to the blogosphere. Keep an eye on this space.
Also, please note that I've put the Amazon search bar on the main page, in the right sidebar. If you want to do some shopping at Amazon -- and who doesn't? -- be sure to shop through Captain's Quarters. Amazon does pay a small percentage of the sale to me, and it helps pay for a few sundries related to the blog. Much appreciated!
OpenCongress Web Widget
Ever wanted to announce your support or opposition to Congressional legislation? OpenCongress now has a web widget that allows bloggers to do exactly that. Take a look at this, and check out how easily you can build your own.
Maybe They're Flotation Devices?
The Australian Navy foots the bill for breast augmentations. The Labour Party would like to know why, and probably so would most of the voters in Australia.
The Thinking Blogger
Congrats to Fausta, who won a Thinking Blogger award. She thanks me for my friendship, but the truth is that Fausta makes it easy to be her friend. She's always positive and energetic, and she epitomizes the notion of a thinking blogger. Make sure to put her on your must-read list!
Ensign Calls For Return Of MoveOn Money
NRSC chair Senator John Ensign calls for Democrats to return all campaign funds donated by MoveOn, after their despicable New York Times ad today accusing David Petraeus of treason. "If Senate Democrats are serious about moving our country forward, they will denounce this outrageous ad and return the campaign funds MoveOn.org has lavished on them as well as the donations made through MoveOn.org -- the choice is theirs." Ensign's right, but I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for the refund ...
Support The Al-Dura Petition
Roger Simon at Pajamas Media is circulating a petition to demand accountability for the discredited al-Dura report from France's Channel 2. This is, as Roger calls it, the "Father of all Fauxtography," and C-2 has never acknowledged its fault in airing the supposed murder of a Palestinian child. He wants C-2 to show all of the unedited footage of the incident in order to show that C-2 faked the murder. If they're resisting the demand, I'd say they have something to hide ....
There Goes The Undefeated Season
Notre Dame managed to get its first loss out of the way as soon as possible -- and as badly as possible. Georgia Tech came to South Bend and stomped the Irish, 33-3, in the worst home opener loss in school history. The offense fumbled twice and allowed seven sacks on Evan Sharpley, who must have longed to have Brady Quinn back on the field instead. If Charlie Weis doesn't turn this debacle around fast, he may want to start asking Ty Willingham for some career counseling ....
Would Early Primaries Allow More Donations?
Jim Geraghty at The Campaign Spot believes that candidates will benefit if primaries and caucuses get pushed into 2007. A loophole in campaign finance regulation appears to allow an extra $2,300 per donor for candidates if those elections are held this year. Be sure to check out Jim's analysis, and the surprising candidate that may benefit the most.
When Tom Met Jeralyn
One of the interesting aspects of politics is finding out that opponents are people, too. Jeralyn Merritt of TalkLeft met Rep. Tom Tancredo backstage at NBC's studios, and found him more likable than she had anticipated. Perhaps it was their mutual interest in Dog, The Bounty Hunter ...
Joe Lieberman A Right-Wing Nut?
That's what CAIR says, according to Joe Kaufman. He has a link to a CAIR official's blog post that calls Lieberman, along with John Bolton, former CIA director James Woolsey, and the Heritage Foundation's Peter Brookes as "extremists". Affad Shaikh also calls Dick Cheney a "fat bastard of a liar," apparently not meant as a pop-culture reference to the Austin Powers movies. (via Let Freedom Ring)
Broadband Homelessness
The Japanese have made homelessness more efficient, and more Net-friendly, too. Their Internet cafés have become homeless shelters for the struggling manual-labor sector. The problem has grown into such a problem that government intervention will shortly become a political priority.
Found My Law Firm
Power Line links twice to this story regarding an attorney at Faegre & Benson who refused to become a victim and helped capture a very dangerous man. Keith Radtke is a partner in the firm as is Power Line's John Hinderaker. Radtke is listed in satisfactory condition after getting shot in the back, but that didn't keep him from locking up his attacker in a wrestling grip until police could arrive. I don't know about you, but that's the kind of man I'd want as my counsel ....
Don't Click That YouTube E-mail
The latest in spam seems to be redirections from YouTube links in e-mail to IP addresses without domain names. They attempt to entice people by making it seem that they have been inadvertently YouTubed. I'm sure most people can see through this scam, but just in case, you've been warned ....
Rick Moran Escapes The Floods
Rick Moran has kept us up to date on his travails along the Algonquin River. Yesterday, the police showed up to get him evacuated before the river flooded his home -- but today, Rick finds that a minor miracle has taken place, and that his house survives ... at least for now. Keep Rick in your prayers, and keep checking in at Right Wing Nut House for updates.
Rule 1: Drag The Corpse On Over First
If I've learned anything in four years of blogging, don't try to be out in front of the death rumors, especially with the villains of the world. Saddam died a hundred deaths before we caught him alive in his spider hole, and Abu Musab al-Zarqawi almost as many before his demise last year. Osama may or may not be alive, but everyone's avoided speculating on his fate for a while now. Maybe Val at Babalu Blog will get luckier with his "Castro Is Dead" story. We all hope so. I'll wait for the announcement ....
Comments (21)
Posted by docjim505 | October 19, 2007 6:37 AM
Cap'n Ed: Normally, I prefer a free-market approach and think the government should get the best deal, just like any other consumer. However, if we're going to build a border barrier, having a "Made in China" label on it sends a curious message. National-security efforts should involve Americans to the greatest degree possible, and the DHS should have bought American in this case.
Yep.
Cap'n Ed: How dumb can DHS be? This is a high-profile project with politicians crawling all over it. Duncan Hunter has practically set up his presidential campaign there, and besides the border, which issue has he highlighted in his campaign? Unfair trade with China. Did they think that this would simply go unnoticed?
Hunter didn't remain quiet after this came out. He noted that the DHS had $800 million in cash, and didn't have to go bargain-hunting for steel. Fortunately, Hunter noted, the DHS has only build five miles of the barrier in a year, so they have plenty of time to get refunds and start buying American. At that rate, American steelworkers will have 160 years of work supplying DHS on this project!
Help me remember: didn't DHS build a section of fence and then have to tear it down because they realized that (DOH!) they'd built it on Mexican territory? Now they've managed to botch another part of the project in a pretty spectacular manner.
Why, it's almost as if DHS doesn't want to build the fence at all!
/sarcasm
Posted by Phill Hallam-Baker | October 19, 2007 7:09 AM
While Duncan Hunter is assiduously courting the racist vote the Hispanic vote is mobilizing and becoming a significant force in the southern swing states. Duncan Hunter and his ilk are a large part of the reason.
The problem with playing hate politics in a country like the USA is that pretty soon you run out of people that you can hate without losing more votes than you gain. The Southern strategy was of course a naked bid to pick up the votes of segregationists after the civil rights bill passed. Since then the GOP has tried to find new targets of hate. Gays, single mothers, if you are Ann Coulter, Jews and so on.
Problem is that each group that is targeted in this way remembers. Sixty years ago the GOP had significant support from blacks, it was the party of Lincoln after all. After the GOP went after the Klan vote they lost it all plus the Jewish vote which for obvious reasons does not tolerate intolerance.
So now the only group that the GOP can 'legitimately' spew hatred against is the 'illegal immigrants'. But the Hispanic community know that this is really a code and that they are the ones being targeted by Hunter and his supporters.
This type of race baiting has already cost the GOP California. Reagans state lost to Pete Wilison's race baiting. If you try really hard you could lose Florida and Texas as well. 116 Electoral college votes thrown away with these tactics.
Now that is a backfire.
Posted by The Yell | October 19, 2007 7:24 AM
Was that the "race-baiting" that led to Prop. 209 passing by 2/3 majority? Or the victory of a Republican statehouse in 1994?
I can't really fault DHS on this one, I doubt they could find an American manufacturer who will take an order for 700 miles of fence with the probability that 90% of it will be cancelled.
Posted by I R A Darth Aggie | October 19, 2007 7:37 AM
Now, now, Captain, the Chinese have a great deal of expertise in building walls, and we should take advantage of their knowledge and experience.
;-)
Posted by roci | October 19, 2007 7:47 AM
You also wouldn't want fence climbers to get lead poisoning.
Posted by AnonymousDrivel | October 19, 2007 7:50 AM
CE: "How dumb can DHS be?"
In policy, dumb like a fox. The administration doesn't want a fixed structure that works to be built. Period.
In practice, we don't have a measuring stick long enough to tell. Their manufacture has all been outsourced... to China.
Posted by tnmartin | October 19, 2007 8:25 AM
On the contrary, I don't mind at all if fence climbers get lead poisoning. Particularly if it is administered at around 2200 feet per second. As it should be - violation of the border is not a trivial matter and should always be met with deadly force. Always.
And a plague, a deadly plague, seize the poltroons who raise the accusations of 'racism'. Criminals are not a race. A worse plague be upon those in the federal government who are quite evidently guilty of dereliction of duty. They are dishonorable louts. If such describes the upper levels of DHS, so be it.
Posted by Dave Rywall | October 19, 2007 9:19 AM
The "buy American" thing is such tired old horsesh**.
Posted by runawayyyy | October 19, 2007 10:07 AM
Ed, I have to respectfully disagree.
I don't particularly care what materials the fence is built out of, or where they come from, hell I don't even care if they hire illegal aliens to build the damn thing, as long as it gets built and stops (or even slows) the flow of illegal immigrants into America.
You correctly note that they're taking way too long to build it. But you also note that, because of the huge amount of cash available for the project, fiscal responsibility shouldn't count. Really? I think the fence is too important to risk a stoppage of what little work is getting done so that the incredibly useless congress can whine and argue for another 20 years about where the steel comes from. Our priorities need to be adjusted here.
Posted by J. Hall | October 19, 2007 10:13 AM
This may be a matter of law rather than policy. In most government construction contracts, a agency is required by law to accept the lowest qualified bid. Unless the fence construction contract was a negotiated rather than bid, the DHS contract managers may have had no choice under law but to accept the Chinese steel if it otherwise met contract specifications.
Unlike priviate business contracts where nearly anything the parties agree to is allowable, the terms of goverment contracts are severely restricted by laws enacted to prevent politics from entering into the picture. (Unless, of course, when buying pork in barrels.)
That is why I have seen a constuction contract for a simple concrete sidewalk with five pages of "technical" specifications (how to build the sidewalk) prefaced with 50 pages (literally)of "boilerplate" detailing all the governmental regulations that must be met.
Posted by Daniel | October 19, 2007 11:04 AM
So rather than build this at the expense of steel workers do it at the expense of taxpayers ???
Posted by John Houghton | October 19, 2007 11:05 AM
Right on Roci!! I would hate for the illegals to get lead poisoning. We'd have to give them free medical care....oooops I am sorry we already do that. Well we'll probably get sued, just as good.
Posted by Jon | October 19, 2007 11:18 AM
I agree Ed.
There are times when you just have to say to hell with better business practices and go American. In fact I think the government should form a new agency to make those determinations. Shouldn't take more than about 50,000 employee positions. But, hey don't worry about that either, with current emphasis on down sizing and out sourcing it can likely be run with 5,000 gov people and 45,000 contractors.
Posted by PalmettoTiger | October 19, 2007 11:25 AM
"You correctly note that they're taking way too long to build it."
They are probably still trying to complete the environmental impact statement.
Posted by treehugger | October 19, 2007 11:45 AM
The problem with playing hate politics in a country like the USA.....
Yes, not giving people a free pass for ignoring the law because of their race or ethnicity is so hateful. Last time I checked, justice was always portrayed as being blindfolded because items like that weren't supposed to matter in our legal system.
But after listening to Phill, I have become convinced that as a female, I too am oppressed. Phill, you are obviously guilty of a hate crime BECAUSE YOU ARE A MALE. Having two sensitive ll's and a gender neutral hyphen in your name will not save you. Where's my reparations check?
Posted by skeptic | October 19, 2007 11:50 AM
"Why, it's almost as if DHS doesn't want to build the fence at all!"
Which would be consistent with the North American Community. But then that would be tin-foil hat conspiracy theory.
Posted by pk | October 19, 2007 12:26 PM
what they do need to do is to test the steel to see if it satisfies the material specification in the contract.
the chinese have a terrible reputation for substituting inferior metals for what is required by specification.
what, you say that there isn't any material specs in the request for bids.
well now what do you know about that?
hmmmmmmmmm.
wouldn't be suprising at all.
C
Posted by Brian | October 19, 2007 12:43 PM
I see no reason for the 'buy american' stance when it's steel fencing. Now I do want the Army to buy American guns, the Navy to buy American boats, the government in general to buy American computers - but this isn't political in nature, it's more wanting control over the items manufacture rather than sabotage...
thx
Posted by patrick neid | October 19, 2007 12:57 PM
This is just part of the predicted tango.
While we never knew, or pretended to know what the particular details would be this time around, we did know that the fence would never get built in out lifetimes. Thank god we didn't pass the other bullshit that went with it.
Posted by skeptic | October 19, 2007 1:19 PM
Duncan is probably upset that Boeing or Lockheed-Martin didn't get the contract for the physical fence. Boeing did get the cobtract for the "virtual fence" and that has been plagued by all sorts of problems.
Posted by unclesmrgol | October 20, 2007 12:57 PM
Well, at least we don't have to go far to see a great wall of China....