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 (16)
Posted by George Berryman | October 24, 2007 5:57 PM
The UN Peacekeepers might have to take a break from raping women and children to defend themselves in the Sudan.
Posted by glenn | October 24, 2007 6:06 PM
Since the African Muslim victims of the genocide in Darfur aren't all dead yet there's no reason for the "peacekeepers" to even show up. therefore they don't have much to worry about.
Posted by crossdotcurve | October 24, 2007 6:54 PM
Too bad Bush let Osama skitter away when we had him cornered at Tora Bora. Jeebus McRee, the Bush administration is a textbook study of incompetence.
Republicans sure are good at losing wars. The DUI-Draft Dodger has a two-fer going...
What a waste of blood and treasure.
Posted by Dan S | October 24, 2007 7:02 PM
Well, I'm glad the theory that this is all about us supporting Israel is validated. After all, the UN is Israel's largest supporter, right? Right?
Posted by Cardinals Nation | October 24, 2007 7:28 PM
Too bad Bush let Osama skitter away when we had him cornered at Tora Bora. Jeebus McRee, the Bush administration is a textbook study of incompetence.
I know I've seen this somewhere before...oh, yeah!
Too bad Clinton let Osama skitter away when we had him offered up by Sudan. Jeebus McRee, the Clinton administration is a textbook study of incompetence.
Yup, I knew I'd seen it somewhere before.
Posted by DubiousD | October 24, 2007 8:02 PM
Al Qaeda declares jihad on Sudan? But the Neocon-Bushitler-Halliburton army isn't occupying Sudan! Oh, I'm so confuuuuuuuuused.
Posted by tbrosz | October 24, 2007 8:09 PM
If a flytrap is effective enough, at some point the flies will really want to be elsewhere.
Sounds like Osama is becoming interested in starting Jihad someplace U.S. forces aren't.
Posted by Math_Mage | October 24, 2007 9:16 PM
Sounds like evidence that the US strategy works. If they hit you and you hit them back, they go looking for someone who won't. I'm no writer, so I'll sum it up with Bill Whittle's comments about the best way to win at the Iterated Prisoner's Dilemma (and coincidentally, just about everywhere else, too):
Nice. RETALIATORY. Forgiving. Non-Envious.
www.ejectejecteject.com/
Posted by RocketMan | October 24, 2007 10:42 PM
Osama (if he is still alive) is calling for Jihad in Darfur because he desperately needs a "win" on the battlefield. AQ is loosing so badly in Iraq and Afghanistan, they need to produce a "victory" soon, or they loose all credibility in the eyes of the Arab world.
AQ knows what an easy target the UN is. One bombing drove them out of Iraq. How many bombings will it take to drive the UN out of Darfur?
Remember Osama's words about America being a paper tiger. If you look up the definition of "paper tiger" in the dictionary, you will see a picture of a guy wearing a blue helmet.
Posted by exDemo | October 24, 2007 10:43 PM
It seesm there are BDS peopel who are studiously ignoring the VICTORY becoming more and more apparant in Iraq.
Osama seems to have gotten the message though, and is sayin like the Marine general at the Chosin Reservoir, that he is just advancing to the rear... of Sudan.
Posted by razia parveen | October 25, 2007 3:36 AM
the war against terrorism could not be win untill or unless we do not remove the causes behind this, where are those darstic weapons for that military is imposed in Iraq, its only and only for OIL, the innocent people are being killed by american police, they will definitely hate americans and use weapons against Police to take revenge of his Family,in this way they will multiply and make problems more and more, they will definitely be out of control,where power does not result onlt dialgues work there, same happening in Afghanistan, they are using Power to Control Talibaan that is difficult, we have example of Russia in Afghanistan, if you kill my Brother may i let you free no definitely not i will take revenge its a natural phenomina, not realting to any culture, religion its natural thing, u cant bound nature, they will definitely multioly and will be out of control, talibaan will be increase when they see their sisters, mothers, brother's dead bodies,
while using power we must solve this by useful dialogues, through debates, as its the only solution to this problem, Kashimiries are fighting for their freedom but Indian Lobby calling it as terrorist act, 60 years has passed but Kashimiries dono step back as they are right, but Indian making Terrorist act in Kashmir as America is committing Terrorist act in Afghanistan, and Iraq, i appreciate Iran's Step and its their right to acquire Atomic Power, Israel, the biggets terrorist, whose all activites are against Muslims, can have a huge numbers of drastic meziles, while Iran is only using it peaceful purpose.
Posted by NavyspyII | October 25, 2007 6:44 AM
Holy ignorant wall of text, Batman!
Care to elaborate on the "darstic weapons" or point out where all the oil we've stolen has gone? No?
How about who to hold useful dialogues with? No?
How about America's Terrorist acts in Afghanistan and Iraq, or how Israel has acted as terrorists to Muslims in any country that is not directly attacking them? Hell, name a terrorist act performed by Israel on any country that IS attacking them!
Oh, and Iran's "meziles" have no peaceful purpose. Most meziles don't.
Posted by Derek | October 25, 2007 8:31 AM
Razia,
That' is one long ass sentence.
Take note on Carols posts to see how to properly break up your crazy arguments in small one sentence sound bites.
Posted by cowbot | October 25, 2007 10:05 AM
I have not seen any evidence that Al Qaeda controls so much as a county sized piece of the planet. No evidence that they exercise powers of taxation over any population. No evidence that they command a navy, air force or anything resembling a regular army.
What we do have evidence of (in an exhaustively researched 500+ page report) is that there are approximately 700 foreign insurgents operating in all of Iraq that 'have ties to Al Qaeda'.
What we do have evidence of is that these foreign insurgents operate only at the pleasure of the indigenous militias, and can be snuffed-out by them at will.
Al-Qaeda is a loose franchise based on an idea. People accept the idea because they are radicalized by our invasions, occupations and control of puppet governments. They buy into the franchise with a handful of AK's, RPGs and explosives.
The power of western media propaganda is such that the 'boob tube' can zoom-in on an insect and make you believe it is a godzilla-sized monster capable of eating countries.
One can forgive individuals who have succumbed to this pervasive brainwashing but one can not rationally argue US foreign policy with them. Their entire perspective is framed by lies.
Posted by LarryD | October 25, 2007 10:08 AM
Yes, punctuation is your friend. It developed for good reasons, you know.
I'm not even going to try and read that blob.
Now what was the subject? Oh, yeah, Osama giving marching orders for Sudan. Considering that the janjaweed have begun turning on each other, they might well turn on UN troops, though not in a highly organized manner. Osama can then take credit, even if his pronouncement had no effect.
Posted by Tim W | October 25, 2007 12:11 PM
Captain,
With all due respect, Al Qaeda has killed thousands in Iraq, probably tens of thousands, not hundreds. They have done such a good job in their butchery, that they have now radicalized the Sunni population to turn aganist them, which was a very stupid move from a strategic standpoint.