Editor of Iranian Kayhan Daily Reacts to U.N. Resolution

It’s not often that the Chief shares a sentiment with Ahmadinejad Ahm-mad-on-a-jihad’s Iran on anything…but this sentiment, if not all their reasoning, is one that the Chief can heartly endorse as it refers to “preparing the U.N.’s corpse for burial in the graveyard of history”.

OH PUHLEEEESE! LET IT BE SO!

As for the rest of the Iranian article…it reeks of arrant nonsense:

“The Holocaust, or the slaughter of Jews during of WWII by German Nazis, is a myth and a contrived story….”The myth of the Holocaust is an excuse [used by] West to establish the illegal Zionist regime, and denial of it is an irrefutable attestation – in addition to many other attestations – that clearly testify to the illegality of the existence of the Zionist regime.

That’s more typical of what usually comes out of the current iteration of Iran. The UN comment sort of brings to mind the bit about even a broken (analog) clock being right at least twice a day.

Another abortion-ban bill heading for the Legislature

Lawmakers confirmed Friday that a bill banning most abortions in South Dakota will be introduced again in the Legislature, and it will contain exceptions for rape, incest and the health of women.

The Chief is NOT a fried of abortion, which in general, he considers to be a prime exemplar of what has appropriately been called “a culture of death” by Pope John Paul II. (DISCLAIMER: The Chief is not Roman Catholic.)

Overall from what is known of the proposal, it is better than nothing, but there is one major problem. The stated exceptions are for cases of rape, incest, and for the health of the mother.

As far as the rape and incest exceptions are concerned, they constitute the addition of chlorine to the gene pool. No problem to the Chief.

The area of concern is the bit about “health of the mother”. If this is not fairly specifically defined in the law, it opens up a hole big enough to drive a Peterbilt(r) through. There’s ALWAYS going to be Doctors and/or Psychiatrists that would be willing to say something like “the extra stress of pregnancy constitues some degree of threat to the overall health of the mother. Everyone knows that stress is evil, right?”

If Rep. Howie does define this term clearly and specifically, it MAY not be TOO bad. The devil will be in the details, visible when the details of the bill are released Monday.

Meanwhile, predictably enough, Kate Looby of Planned Parenthood Prevention of Parenthood misses the point of the November vote:

“The voters just spoke on this issue in November, and the message they were sending was, ‘We don’t want the government involved in this very personal, private family issue,’ and apparently, some of the legislators just can’t seem to stay out of private issues that families are facing and deal with,” Looby said.

Sorry Kate, what really happened was that many voters thought that Rep. Hunt’s no-exceptions act went too far…not that there was no place for legal limitations on pre-natal infanticide.

DEMOCRAT Rep. Mary Glenski has this about right:

The additional exceptions for rape, incest and the health of women are what voters want, state Rep. Mary Glenski, D-Sioux Falls, said. Glenski, who will be one of the sponsors of this year’s near-ban, doesn’t believe that voters are tired of the issue. She said it makes sense to bring the issue back because most South Dakotans oppose abortion. “I feel a real responsibility to try and respond to what the voters told us after the election,” Glenski said. “Many people said the lack of exceptions was the reason they voted against last year’s bill.”

The Chief awaits the details of Howie’s bill.

Panel votes to censure Sutton

What a joke the Sutton fiasco turned out to be – “censure”. Yeah, right.

Could you guess how long he would have lasted if he had been say…a H.S. coach who had done this with one of his players, all other circumstances being equal? About 15 minutes, or until the next school board meeting, whichever came first!

As an educator, the Chief KNOWS that this would have (properly) had an immediate and permanent response in an educational setting…whether or not there was a criminal prosecution that resulted from the circumstances.

The amoral pusillanimity up at Pierre is enough to leave you breathless…and if this is in South Dakota, one shudders to consider what it must be like in say…New Jersey, California, Massachusetts, etc.

P.S. Interesting commentary on Sutton situation by Rush Limbaugh yeaterday, noting no mention in the Argus-Loser of Sutton’s party affiliation as a “Democrat” until one read far into the depths of the article.

DISCLOSURE NOTICE: Although Sen. Sutton is from the Chief’s county, he is not the senator representing the Chief – as Moody county is split between the 4th and 8th legislative districts. Sutton is in the 8th, whereas the Chief is in the 4th District, represented by Sen. Peterson (who is not too bad a legislator for being a Donk).

NJ Cracks Down on Talking on a Cell Phone While Cycling

New Jersey may have unresolved problems with taxes, child welfare and gangs, but lawmakers are ready to crack down on one perceived danger: talking on a cell phone while riding a bike. A legislative committee has approved a bill that would make it illegal for people to use a hand-held telephone while riding a bicycle on a public road. Hands-free devices would be allowed and lawbreakers would face fines ranging from $100 to $250.

Phew! This one has several points of note.

Firstly, on its face, this illustrates another case of the “nanny state” and its benevolent legislators acting to protect us from ourselves (whether we need it or not: see below) and thereby justify their existence.

Then there’s this:

Assemblyman Jon Bramnick, a bill sponsor, said the measure is meant to protect bicyclists and the people they may strike when riding and yakking at the same time. “That is, in our judgment, a danger to pedestrians as well as to the bicyclists themselves, due to the fact that now they have one hand on the handlebars, they’re talking to someone and they’re on a public highway,” said Bramnick, a Union County Republican.

Aside from his argument, what in the world is a REPUBLICAN doing coming up with this sort of legislative micromanagement? Oh, right, this IS New Jersey, one of the prime breeding grounds of the RINOs, but still…

Finally, there is the issue as to how much of a problem is there from this dangerous behavior? how many thousands are being injured from careless bike riders?

Pete Garnich, owner of Knapp’s Cyclery in Lawrence, said it’s a waste of time. His store takes people out on weekly group rides and Garnich said he can’t recall anyone talking on a cell phone while riding a bike. “I wouldn’t say it’s a problem,” he said. “You can’t breathe and talk. It’s absolutely ridiculous.”

Fortunately the Garden State isn’t totally bereft of reason yet:

Not all legislators are eager to support the measure. “As my father used to tell me, ‘You can’t legislate common sense,’ and that’s exactly what this bill tries to do, as the Legislature has already tried to do on so many other occasions,” said Assemblyman Richard Merkt, R-Morris. “Is anyone dumb enough to use a cell phone in a dangerous manner while riding a bicycle really going to be smart enough to know about or pay attention to some legislator’s new law? Seems unlikely to me.”

Amazing…but all too typical. Stuff like this is the #1 reason why NJ is at the absolute bottom of the list of states where the Chief would like to live.

Officials fear war in space by China

With a bit more information on the ChiComs’ A-SAT (Anti-SATellite) system, there is nothing to ease the concerns that had resulted from said test.

China’s anti-satellite-interceptor test Jan. 11 is part of a covert space-weapons program designed to cripple the U.S. military in a conflict, defense officials said yesterday as Beijing confirmed it had destroyed one of its weather satellites. China said it had not “weaponized” space.

Of COURSE not! There are currently no admitted ChiCom weapons in space, so therefore, space is not weaponized! Voila! Of course, there is another aspect of this noted further into the article:

The report also stated that three books written by Chinese colonels in 2001, 2002 and 2005 contain “proposals for covert deployment of anti-satellite weapons directed at U.S. assets.” One author, Col. Jia Junming, stated in his 2002 book that Chinese space-weapons development should be covert and “intense internally but relaxed in external appearance to maintain our good international image and position.” The 2005 book, “Joint Space War Campaigns,” by Col. Yuan Zelu, calls for deploying an orbiting network of strike weapons that “will be concealed and launched only in a crisis or emergency” to “bring the opponent to his knees.”

This is worth a more thorough translation:

“This test was not directed at any country and does not constitute a threat to any country,” Mr. Liu said.

“This test was not directed at any country…” Of COURSE not! The A-SAT was targeted only on one of our own old satellites. No damage to anyone else, right?

“…and does not constitute a threat to any country” How could it be a threat – it is only a test, right?

This article is worth the look, and is the latest in Bill Gerth’s sterling coverage of national security issues vis-a-vis the ChiComs.

Astray in Greenland

Shocking, simply shocking! Once again the widely proclaimed paragon of journalistic excellence known as the NY Times Slimes has been caught “massaging” the message to meet its (in this case envirowacko) agenda.

In very large type, the New York Times Jan. 16 proclaimed “The warming of Greenland.” But as has become increasingly typical of their reporting on climate change, that’s only about half the news that’s fit to print.

After detailing a multiplicity of half-truths and incorrect data used by the Times, this piece concludes:

…the fact the recent Greenland story ignored the historical record and the refereed scientific literature is nothing new. On reporting about polar climate, the Gray Lady has a consistent record of hiding parts of the truth that are inconvenient to whatever story it is trying to sell.

And the MSM continues to look down its nose at the lack of informational quality in the blogosphere. Go figure.

Palestinian Gunmen Attack Empty Resort

The headline says it all.

Dozens of masked gunmen claiming to be members of al-Qaida stormed an empty Gaza Strip beach resort Tuesday and blew up a reception hall, saying they were sending a message to an ally of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, witnesses said.

The Chief can think of better ways to send a message…even a military one…like maybe attacking the enemy’s actual forces instead of a disued, empty building, but hey, what do I know?

This IS a truly appropriate illustration of the idiocy of the whole Paleswinian approach to reality. ’nuff said.

Palestinians told leave or risk death

Palestinians living in Iraq have been warned they will be killed by Shi’ite militias unless they leave the country immediately. Iraqi police say the immigrants, who are mostly Sunni Muslims, are the target of a backlash by hard-line Shi’ites, including members of the Mahdi Army led by Shi’ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.

So much for inclusiveness!

Now the Shi’ite militias are stepping up their campaign to drive out Iraq’s 15,000 remaining Palestinians — less than half the estimated 40,000 living in the country at the start of the war, all of whom were welcomed by Saddam Hussein and provided with housing, money and free education. Hundreds of Iraqis were forced to leave their homes to make way for the migrants, many of whom joined the ruling Ba’ath Party.

Oh, so it’s political and economic revenge time. Yes, true Islamic Brotherhood at work. Once again it illustrates the point that “paybacks are a bitch”.

We must not fail in Iraq’

On a more positive note, the Prez, as CinC, has proclaimed a new policy for Iraq, and reconfirmed it in the State of the Union. OK.

President Bush pleaded with Congress last night to give his new strategy for victory in the struggle in Iraq a chance because “America must not fail in Iraq.” Defeat in Iraq, he said, would be “grievous and far-reaching” because the fighting in Iraq is part of a broader struggle against Islamic extremists across the Middle East and stretching to the farther reaches of the globe

True, too true! IF we are dragged from the jaws of victory by the anti-war claque in Congress, it will be a costly disaster of biblical proportions.

The troop “surge” is really more of a fluctuational spurt…but…if their REALLY is a change in the rules of engagement, especially as regards the so-called Mahdi Army of rad Shiite cleric al Sadr, and the counterpart Sunni militia forces…this really CAN turn things around.

Time will tell if this turn away from the oxymoronic concept of politically correct warfare is real, or another case of symbolism over substance. The battlefield will decide – and when it does, there is no further appeal to rhetoric political bullshit.

President renews push for bill on immigration

President Bush last night said his administration has made huge strides clamping down on illegal border crossings, and called on Congress to finish the job this year by passing a guest-worker bill and extending citizenship rights to illegal aliens.

You can believe as much of that as you want to. Frankly, the Chief isn’t buying into it.

In a State of the Union address designed to highlight areas where he could work with the new majority Democrats, Mr. Bush put immigration front and center, along with education, health care and energy policy — all domestic issues where he thinks he can find common ground.

On this the Prez seems to be dedicated to let that hidden Donk inside of him out of the closet once again – to the detriment of the nation’s sovereignty.

Border security? What a joke. We need to take a page from the Soviet Russian Neo-soviet policy which is somehow able to “disinvite THEIR illegals” snd send them home.

Australian flag not welcome at rock concert

Australians were told yesterday not to wave or wear their national flag at the country’s biggest rock concert for fear that it could provoke racist violence, a year after gangs rioted on a Sydney beach.

Apparently the land of Oz has it’s share of dhimmi-heads, just like the mother country (and just like us, for that matter).

The decision sparked anger from politicians, the media and war veteran associations, with one old soldier calling it “a bloody outrage”. The organisers of the Big Day Out in Sydney, which will be held on Thursday, said their decision was prompted by fans’ behaviour at last year’s festival, when young men draped in flags intimidated members of the crowd, demanding that they pledge allegiance to the emblem.

Shocking! Expecting people to pledge allegiance to the national flag? What will be next? No doubt the horrible and cruel singing of the national anthem.

Churches unite against gay laws

Tony Blair’s EngSoc regime has given the Church of England and the Church of Rome something to unite about: exemption from church agencies being forced to follow pro-gay adoption policies in contravention to their religious teachings.

Churches were on a collision course with the Government last night after the Archbishops of Canterbury and York backed their Roman Catholic counterpart by criticising new gay rights laws. Dr Rowan Williams and Dr John Sentamu, the two most senior figures in the Church of England, said in a joint letter to the Prime Minister that the consciences of Christians must not be trampled over.

What a radical concept! Someone other than Moslems should have their views respected? Revolutionary! (Or is it counter-revolutionary…whatever.)

In what is escalating into a full-scale political battle, they threw their weight behind an appeal by Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor for Catholic adoption agencies to be exempted from the new laws so they can turn away same-sex couples.

It’ll be interesting to see what direction this one takes as it unfolds further.

There is no war on terror…

Britain is not fighting a “war on terror” and London is not a battlefield, the Director of Public Prosecutions said last night.

In a speech to the Criminal Bar Association, Sir Ken Macdonald, QC, said: “London is not a battlefield. Those innocents who were murdered on July 7 2005 were not victims of war. And the men who killed them were not, as in their vanity they claimed on their ludicrous videos, ‘soldiers’. “We need to be very clear about this. On the streets of London, there is no such things as a ‘war on terror’, just as there can be no such things as ‘war on drugs’.

“Nope. Nothing happening here folks. It’s all under control. Go on home and watch this week’s episode of ‘Big Brother’ on the telly and leave stuff like security to your betters.”

It leaves one breathless to contemplate the total an utter supine attitude of this so-called protector of the realm’s legal welfare.

You gotta just cry for England with the likes of this dhimmi-minded gonad lacking wonder in power.

N Korea helping Iran with nuclear testing

Five’ll get you ten that THIS won’t make the Washington Post or NY Slimes! Thank G-d for the London Telegraph!

North Korea is helping Iran to prepare an underground nuclear test similar to the one Pyongyang carried out last year.

Hmmm. Iran and the NorKs. Maybe there was something to the “axis of evil” thing after all, in spite of the objections of the disloyal opposition.

Under the terms of a new understanding between the two countries, the North Koreans have agreed to share all the data and information they received from their successful test last October with Teheran’s nuclear scientists.

No way this has ANY good to it.

A senior European defence official told The Daily Telegraph that North Korea had invited a team of Iranian nuclear scientists to study the results of last October’s underground test to assist Teheran’s preparations to conduct its own – possibly by the end of this year.

The clock is ticking. What to do?

The Chief has some ideas – none of which he is optimistic about given the current political gamesmanship underway in Washington these days – but there’s always hope fo some sanity…

Sutton Hearings Underway in Pierre

This situation is NOT edifying in the least bit. It’s sort of like a neglected barn – it’s got to be cleaned out, but no one enjoys the job or the atmospherics associated with it.

Frankly, the Chief has little inclination to comment extensively on the situation. South Dakota War College seems to be doing yeoman service in reporting on the hearings, and that’s good enough for me!

Historical? Undoubtedly.
A spectacle? Yeah – sort of like watching a slow-motion train wreck.

The esthetics and circumstances whole situation leaves me with a feeling of queasy tackiness, for a number of reasons…hence my reluctance to comment in depth. ’nuff said!

Escalation in Fatah-Hamas Conflict

Since the failure of the attempts to establish a national unity government in the PA, tension between Fatah and Hamas has been escalating. This tension peaked in recent days when PA Legislative Council member Muhammad Dahlan said that the Fatah forces must be ready to defend themselves and to prevent attacks on their people, threatening harsh retribution should Fatah members be harmed.

Awwww. Imagine the possibilities if Hamas and Fatah were able to get together: the new organization logically could be known as Fat-ass. Meanwhile, we can just hope that both use their stocks of arms and ammunition to kill as many of each other as possible, thus improving the cultural, political, and social state of the world.

Russia limits foreign labor to fight illegals

A lot of this sounds pretty familiar…it’ll be interesting to see how it turns out for Russia running their undocumented illegals out.

Thousands of migrant workers from the Caucasus, Central Asia and China are leaving Russia as the government institutes tough new measures aimed at cracking down on illegal immigration.

Campaigners against illegal immigration are welcoming the measures, saying low-paid migrants were distorting the job market and taking work from Russian citizens. But critics say the moves are ill-advised because they will drive up retail prices and create a labor shortage that could hurt Russia’s booming economy.

About 12 million people, mostly citizens of impoverished ex-Soviet republics who do not require a visa to enter the country, are currently working illegally in Russia, according to analysts.

On a per-capita basis, they seem to have a much larger problem with this than we do!

Another interesting point to consider is that Russia can do this, but OUR leaders (mostly) proclaim that it would be impossible for US to do so. (You can believe as much of THAT as you want to!)

Warner bill hits Bush’s troop surge

It’s almost enough to drive one to despair – it’s par for the course for the libDonks to come up with crap like this, but for self-proclaimed GOP’ers to do it is just totally irritating.

Sen. John W. Warner of Virginia and other Republicans publicly offered a resolution yesterday condemning President Bush’s proposal to send more troops to Iraq.

The “Senate disagrees with the ‘plan’ to augment our forces by 21,500, and urges instead to consider all options and alternatives for achieving the strategic goals set forth below with reduced force levels than proposed,” wrote Mr. Warner, joined by Republican Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Norm Coleman of Minnesota.

Like you clowns actually think that the President really WANTS to send more troops over there…and that other “options and alternatives” have NOT been examined already? Give me a break!

Unfortunately, this is another case of political aid and comfort to our enemies.

As far as the whole deal is concerned – the Chief would like to dynamite BOTH parties, and let the splinters from the explosion regroup on the basis of real affinity, the conservative GOP base with the Blue Dogs, and the RINOS joining their political libDonk soulmates.

Register Bloggers, not Guns

Looks like Senator Dirty Harry Reid (Donk – NV) is at it again. This time with registration of bloggers, with a criminal penalty (a year in the Federal slammer!) for failure to comply.

For an additional note on this legal idiocy see this.

WHAT in the world is the matter with these IDIOTS??????!!!!!

Once again Harry, it’s not REALLY all that complicated: “CONGRESS SHALL MAKE NO LAW ABRIDGING FREEDOM OF SPEECH”.

Main Aide of Muqtada Al-Sadr Arrested

U.S. and Iraqi forces arrested one of Muqtada al-Sadr’s top aides Friday in Baghdad, his office said, as pressure increased on the radical Shiite cleric’s militia ahead of a planned security crackdown in the capital.

Al-Sadr said in an interview with an Italian newspaper published Friday that the crackdown had already begun and that 400 of his men had been arrested. La Repubblica also quoted him as saying he fears for his life and stays constantly on the move.

It’s about time the kid gloves are coming off. Hopefully it’s not too late for it to be effective.

AMS CERTIFIED WEATHERMAN STRIKES BACK AT WEATHER CHANNEL CALL FOR DECERTIFICATION

A bit more on earlier postings on the Global Warming debate from James Spann, an ABC affiliate meteorologist, who also is AMS certified:

Well, well. Some “climate expert” on “The Weather Channel” wants to take away AMS certification from those of us who believe the recent “global warming” is a natural process. So much for “tolerance”, huh?

I have been in operational meteorology since 1978, and I know dozens and dozens of broadcast meteorologists all over the country. Our big job: look at a large volume of raw data and come up with a public weather forecast for the next seven days. I do not know of a single TV meteorologist who buys into the man-made global warming hype. I know there must be a few out there, but I can’t find them. Here are the basic facts you need to know:

He goes on to note some of the considerable scientific problems with the proposition of human-caused global warming. Check it out yourself if interested.

Mo. Couple Say They Think Son Was Abused

The parents of a Missouri teen told Oprah Winfrey in a show airing Thursday that their son hasn’t told them directly but they believe he was sexually abused during the more than four years he was missing.

“OK, I’m going to go there and ask you, what do you think happened? Do you think he was sexually abused?” Winfrey asked Craig and Pam Akers, parents of 15-year-old Shawn Hornbeck.

DUH! Let’s think about this one, real hard. A perp with a history as a sex offender, with his computer full of child porn, who has kidnapped two young boys (that we know of so far…indications of more are in the news already), might have sexually molested one of them (at least) that he had with him for over 4 years?

Both nodded and said, “Yes.”

The only shocker here would have been if they had answered anything else.

Global warming ‘just a natural cycle’

The timing of this one is just about amazing, after just a little bit ago commenting on a proposed scientific inquisition on global warming. This just gives further confirmation that would-be Climate Inquisitor Cullen is skating on very thin ice indeed – but NOT due to human-induced warming.

If the genuine warming now being seen is caused by human emissions of carbon dioxide, it would have started earlier, according to the book by two veteran American climate sceptics, Fred Singer and Dennis Avery.

Mr Avery, who was in London yesterday, said: “If this were a CO2 driven warming it should have started in 1940 and risen strongly from there. In fact warming started in 1850 and rose sharply until 1940 then decreased for 35 years.”

How can this be happening if WE aren’t doing it? Well…

Mr Avery…suggests that the natural cycle of warming and cooling may come from variations in cosmic rays which have been linked to cloud formation.

This theory was validated in a recent paper in a Royal Society journal by scientists from the Danish National Space Centre who showed that sub-atomic particles – cosmic rays from exploding stars – play a major role in making clouds. During the past century cosmic rays became scarcer as vigorous activity by the sun forced them away. So there was less cloud cover to reflect away sunlight and a warmer world, according to the Danish scientists.

So, keep on truckin’, and throw another log on the fire.

US condemns China’s satellite-killer test

As the Chief correctly noted in a earlier post, the ChiComs have gone considerably beyond what the DoD has (over-cautiously) referred to as “eyeing space weaponry”.

China drew fire from the United States for testing a space weapon that could be used to destroy satellites and other US equipment in orbit. US intelligence agencies believe that China launched a ground-based “satellite-killer” missile on Jan 11 to destroy an aged and obsolete weather orbiter, 587 miles above the earth’s surface. The weapon, which US intelligence believes was launched from the Xichang space centre, destroyed its target through a “kinetic impact” – or direct hit – the US said.

The sophistication of the launch and the weapon’s ability to track and home in on a tiny satellite has raised fears that the major powers are heading towards the “militarisation” of space.

Uh…”heading towards ‘militarization’ of space”…seems like that cat’s already out of the bag.

Weather Channel Climate Expert Calls for Decertifying Global Warming Skeptics

Wow! Never be surprised at what a moonbat might come up with. Here’s a movement to just what we need – a science commissariat to rule on who has kept their point of view properly Orthodox, at least according to this Info-babe’s opinion.

The Weather Channel’s most prominent climatologist is advocating that broadcast meteorologists be stripped of their scientific certification if they express skepticism about predictions of manmade catastrophic global warming. This latest call to silence skeptics follows a year (2006) in which skeptics were compared to “Holocaust Deniers” and Nuremberg-style war crimes trials were advocated by several climate alarmists.

Dissenters from this envirowacko orthodoxy is equated to Iran’sAhm-mad-on-a-jihad Ahmadinejad, David Duke, et al who go about denying the holocaust? PUH-LEEEESE!

The Weather Channel’s (TWC) Heidi Cullen, who hosts the weekly global warming program “The Climate Code,” is advocating that the American Meteorological Society (AMS) revoke their “Seal of Approval” for any television weatherman who expresses skepticism that human activity is creating a climate catastrophe.

The chutzpah of this weather babe is amazing – in one fell swoop she wants to take scientific debate back to the wonderful world of the early 17th century of Galileo, when lack of the proper imprimatur meant professional exile, if not worse.

The Weather Channel’s most prominent climatologist is advocating that broadcast meteorologists be stripped of their scientific certification if they express skepticism about predictions of manmade catastrophic global warming. This latest call to silence skeptics follows a year (2006) in which skeptics were compared to “Holocaust Deniers” and Nuremberg-style war crimes trials were advocated by several climate alarmists.

The Weather Channel’s (TWC) Heidi Cullen, who hosts the weekly global warming program “The Climate Code,” is advocating that the American Meteorological Society (AMS) revoke their “Seal of Approval” for any television weatherman who expresses skepticism that human activity is creating a climate catastrophe.

The Chief KNEW there was a reason why he has consistently avoided using said Weather Channel/Weather.com as his source of meteorological data. In the immortal words of Dragnet‘s Joe Friday: “Just the facts ma’am”, something that seems to be lacking from Inquisitor-in-Charge Cullen.

Moscow, Beijing eye space weapons

It wouldn’t bother the Chief so bad if they were JUST eyeing space weapons…of course they are already beyond THAT stage.

China and Russia are developing space weapons and are among several nations working on systems to threaten U.S. satellites with lasers or missiles, says the director of the Defense Intelligence Agency.

In Senate testimony last week, Army Lt. Gen. Michael Maples for the first time raised Pentagon concerns about secret Chinese and Russian space weapons programs.

It must be getting pretty bad, if they are admitting it in public.

“Russia and China continue to be the primary states of concern regarding military space and counterspace programs,” Gen. Maples said at the annual threat briefing of the Senate intelligence committee Gen. Maples said that “several countries continue to develop capabilities that have the potential to threaten U.S. space assets, and some have already deployed systems with inherent anti-satellite capabilities, such as satellite-tracking laser range-finding devices and nuclear-armed ballistic missiles.”

Hmmm. Russia and China are “the primary states of concern”…one has to wonder who the secondary states of concern might be. (Iran? North Korea?)

Both Russia and China deny that they are building space weapons and have sought to curb U.S. space defenses through a proposed international ban on weapons in space.

Of COURSE not! “Nothing to see here, right? Go back to sleep!”

You can believe as much of that as you want to…as for the Chief, he wouldn’t trust the ChiComs and the neo-Soviet Putin government as far as they could be thrown.

Hands Off the Gay Sheep?

Eeeeeuuuuuu – the Chief isn’t going to touch this one!

Suffice it to say, when this post was found on South Dakota Politics, for a minute I thought I was looking at the imimitable Misha’s Anti-idiotarian Rottweiler, but no, indeed it was on SDP, noting the original report from The Times of London.

I’m STILL not sure how this all relates to South Dakota politics…hmmmmmm…the Sutton case IS a hot topic these days…nah, I didn’t REALLY say that…never mind…get me out of this post…fast!

US forces turn on Iranians

If this signals the initiation of a realistic set of ROE (Rules of Engagement) in Iraq, this is only helpful.

President George W Bush has ordered US forces to launch a military offensive against Iranian officials and Revolutionary Guards officers behind a support and funding network for anti-American fighters in Iraq.

Mr Bush signed the clandestine directive after he was given new intelligence on the scale of Iranian operations to foment violence in Iraq.

Will Saudis Ban the Letter ‘X’?

Every time the Chief TRIES to think there is some hope for some developement of reason in the Islamic world, something like this comes along:

The letter “X” soon may be banned in Saudi Arabia because it resembles the mother of all banned religious symbols in the oil kingdom: the cross.

The new development came with the issuing of another mind-bending fatwa, or religious edict, by the infamous Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice – the group of senior Islamic clergy that reigns supreme on all legal, civil, and governance matters in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Go figure.

Pakistani

nuclear officials kidnapped

Four officials from the Atomic Energy Commission in Pakistan have been kidnapped from their offices by armed men and taken away in three vehicles. Police said the vehicles used in the abduction belonged to the commission. The identity of the kidnappers and the motive for the abduction are still not known, the Dawn.com reported Monday. The AEC office was set up a few years ago after high-grade uranium was discovered in Kohat, Pakistan.

You’ve got to wonder what THAT is about.

Interesting juxtaposition of this report with the contents of episode 4 of the current “24” season shown tonight, with a memorable view of L.A. being converted into a mushroom farm: