Police identify gunman as 18-year-old Bosnian

By now you have no doubt heard about the Salt Lake City mall shooting. The politically correct media is telling part of the story, but is falling under the constraints of political correctness.

Police Tuesday identified the gunman accused in Monday night’s Trolley Square shooting as Sulejman Talovic, an 18-year-old Bosnian refugee who lived in Salt Lake City.

Salt Lake City Police Chief Chris Burbank said Talovic drove his car to the mall, parked in the west parking terrace and encountered two people who he shot before entering the mall. There, he encountered a female who also was shot right away, then went into a gift shop where there were five people, all of whom the young man shot. Moving through the mall, the gunman tried to shoot others, Burbank said. The chief said he could not say now how many shots were involved in the entire episode.

Burbank praised an unnamed Ogden police officer who took action at the mall to intervene in the incident, and praised the many law enforcement and other agencies that responded quickly and professionally to the crisis. Until Salt Lake police arrived, it was “basically a shoot-out between the Ogden individual and this individual,” Burbank said.

“As you can see, this individual was well-prepared,” Burbank said, apparently referring to the young man’s backpack filled with ammunition “He had one purpose.” Six individuals died and four others were hospitalized.

SO what’s missing. Oh. Yeah…the perp was a Bosnian MOSLEM. Of course no one is willing to use the T-word: terrorism.

Hey! The Chief subscribes to the philosophy that if something walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then hey, it must be a duck! In this case, as far as the Chief can tell there is no requirement for terrorist acts to be the result of a grand conspiratorial movement. It’s all in the effect, and actions.

The MSM and apparently most government officials are afraid to call an ugly spade an ugly spade. Until we are at least willing to openly identify the enemy, what chance is there that we will meet with success in the “long war” against militant Islamofascism. This next item illustrates and confirms the problem we have with this:

Chertoff’s ‘Islam PC’ rankles fed officials

Citing recent internal memos, Department of Homeland Security employees complain their boss Michael Chertoff is hamstringing counter-terror operations with pro-Islamic political correctness. They say headquarters has cautioned officials not to describe Islamic terrorism as Islamic and to respect Islam as a “religion of peace.”

’nuff said. F.E.T.E.

Iraqi insurgents using Austrian rifles from Iran

Yesterday the Chief noted that Iran has been engaged in a series of actions that constitute de facto acts of warfare against the United States. This is another instance of their belligerence:

Austrian sniper rifles that were exported to Iran have been discovered in the hands of Iraqi terrorists, The Daily Telegraph has learned. More than 100 of the.50 calibre weapons, capable of penetrating body armour, have been discovered by American troops during raids.

Within 45 days of the first HS50 Steyr Mannlicher rifles arriving in Iran, an American officer in an armoured vehicle was shot dead by an Iraqi insurgent using the weapon. Over the last six months American forces have found small caches of the £10,000 rifles but in the last 24 hours a raid in Baghdad brought the total to more than 100, US defence sources reported.

Wow! A £10,000 piece! That’s upwards of $15,000 – would be nice to have one of those!

Australian leader: Al-Qaida wants Obama

Australia’s conservative prime minister slammed Barack Obama on Sunday over his opposition to the Iraq war, a day after the first-term U.S. senator announced his intention to run for the White House in 2008.

Why would he say something like this?

Obama said Saturday at his campaign kickoff in Springfield, Ill., that one of the country’s first priorities should be ending the war in Iraq. He has also introduced a bill in the Senate to prevent President Bush from increasing American troop levels in Iraq and to remove U.S. combat forces from the country by March 31, 2008.

What’s not to like about this, if you are al Qaida?

Australian Prime Minister John Howard, a staunch Bush ally who has sent troops to Iraq and faces his own re-election bid later this year, said Obama’s proposals would spell disaster for the Middle East. “I think that will just encourage those who want to completely destabilize and destroy Iraq, and create chaos and a victory for the terrorists to hang on and hope for an Obama victory,” Howard said on Nine Network television. “If I were running al-Qaida in Iraq, I would put a circle around March 2008 and be praying as many times as possible for a victory, not only for Obama but also for the Democrats.”

Calling a spade a spade!

Deadliest Bomb in Iraq Is Made by Iran, U.S. Says

The most lethal weapon directed against American troops in Iraq is an explosive-packed cylinder that United States intelligence asserts is being supplied by Iran. The assertion of an Iranian role in supplying the device to Shiite militias reflects broad agreement among American intelligence agencies, although officials acknowledge that the picture is not entirely complete.

Remember the Maine? The US went to war and brought down the Spanish Empire on a lot less than this, and now that the truth is known, it looks like an internal engineering explosion that sunk the US warship.

Meanwhile, we continue to pussy-foot around with Iran, who has demonstrably been engaging in repeated acts of war against the United States.

This classic phrase is the kernel of the Constitutional definition for treason…in one of these reports, that definition is fully applicable in the Chief’s humble opinion. (During the Civil War, this sort of thing was done by the northern sympathizers of the Confederacy who were known as “Copperheads” – named for the common (poisonous) snake.

War resolution seen hurting morale

Senate Republicans yesterday contradicted top Pentagon officials who say Congress would not injure troop morale by passing a nonbinding resolution critical of President Bush’s Iraq war plan. Sen. Lindsey Graham said he was outraged that Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Peter Pace and Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates would say U.S. combat forces “understand” politics back home and won’t be disheartened by a symbolic no-confidence vote against the commander in chief.

“It shows a lack of sophistication about how this would play in newspaper headlines throughout the world,” said Mr. Graham, South Carolina Republican. “The war on terror is about headlines,” he told The Washington Times. “The last thing we need to do is give [terrorists] a headline by our political action that would embolden them, and by contrast would be hurtful to our men and women in the theater trying to execute the new strategy.”

You know it’s bad for Graham to get exercised like that…as often as not he’s been playing the RINO game on a lot of issues lately.

This other case is from similar noises being generated by the indigestion of Euro leaders fulminating against the US efforts:

Anti-Americanism in Europe ‘helps al-Qa’eda’

DUH! Like this takes a rocket scientist to figure out – oh wait – we ARE dealing with the Euros here…never mind…all bets are off, but the Aussie Foreign Minister tries anyway to talk some sense to them.

Anti-American feeling in Europe is playing into the hands of al-Qa’eda and unwittingly encouraging terrorism, Australia’s foreign minister said today.

Mr Downer gave warning that criticism of America’s conduct in Iraq could – inadvertently – provide an incentive for terrorist attacks. “People in the West, and not only in Europe, blame America for a suicide bomber in a market in Baghdad,” he said.

Nice Try Mr. Downer…but the Chief fears the effort to be Quixotic at best.

Parasitic infection plagues states along Mexico border

Just what we need – another open border problem:

Federal researchers say neurocysticercosis, a brain infection caused by a pork tapeworm, is a “growing public health problem in the United States,” especially in states bordering Mexico, where the disease is endemic.

Neurocysticercosis is the “most common parasitic disease of the central nervous system,” according to a study jointly conducted by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and California public health officials, who reported that “international travel and immigration are bringing the disorder to areas where it is not endemic,” such as this country.

This is some nasty stuff. If one eats larvae containing pork, an intestinal infestation of the tapeworm occurs. If the tapeworm eggs are consumed, as the result of fecal contamination of food for instance, THEN the organism encysts in soft tissues – like nerve tissues – like the brain. Unsurprisingly, 1-2 cm cysts in the brain (like large holes in swiss cheese!) does NOT do good things to nervous system functionality. See this link for some hard-core medical info on the medical situations that result.

Also…not only along the border:

“Most patients [187, or 85 percent] were foreign-born, and 137 [62 percent] had emigrated from Mexico….Although neurocysticercosis is “especially” a problem in the Southwest, it has also surfaced in other places, such as New York, Philadelphia and Charlotte, N.C., data from other studies show.

GOP Lawmaker Warns of Impeachment in Border Agent Case

The fecklessness on the border has gotten so bad that it beggars the imagination to try to claim that it’s just due to some sort of governmental/bureaucratic inefficiency. IMHO, it has reached, yea surpassed the point where any benefit of the doubt is warranted. The only warrants left are the ones being referred to by Congressmant Rohrabacher in this piece:

Weeks after accusing President Bush of “shameful” behavior over the imprisonment of two Border Patrol agents who shot an unarmed suspected drug smuggler along the U.S.-Mexico border, a federal lawmaker turned up the heat further Wednesday, suggesting the president should be impeached if the two men are killed in prison.

Speaking after the Federal Bureau of Prisons confirmed that agent Ignacio Ramos was assaulted by inmates in his Mississippi prison at the weekend, California Republican Rep. Dana Rohrabacher had a warning for the White House. “I tell you, Mr. President, if these men — especially after this assault — are murdered in prison, or if one of them lose their lives, there’s going to be some sort of impeachment talk in Capitol Hill,” he said during a press conference in Washington, D.C.

“The president of the United States talks a lot about his Christian charity, and his religious beliefs,” Rohrabacher said. “He now is showing a mean-spirited side to him, an arrogance, in which he will turn his back, even after one of these officers in prison has been brutally assaulted.”

Meanwhile, there are reports out there that prosecutorial and judicial inquisition that has taken place here is nearly as egregious as that of NC prosecutor Nifong’s legal shennanigans in the Duke “rape” case.

How to account for the Presidential deafness on this one? Who can say for sure, but here’s ONE possible scenario:

Click on image for larger view of the gory details.

Could this really be it?

An Engineered Solution?

Received via e-mail:

Engineers always seem to know what to do!

Three guys — a Canadian farmer, Osama bin Laden, and an American engineer are working together one day. They come across a lantern and a Genie pops out of it. “I will give each of you one wish, which is three wishes total,” says the Genie.

The Canadian says, “I am a farmer, my dad was a farmer, and my son will also farm. I want the land to be forever fertile in Canada.” Pooooof! With the blink of the Genie’s eye, the land in Canada is forever made fertile for farming.

Osama bin Ladin is amazed, so he says, “I want a wall around Afghanistan, Iraq and Iran so that no infidels, Jews or Americans can come into our precious lands.” Pooooof! Again, with the blink of the Genie’s eye, there is a huge wall around those countries.

The American engineer says, “I am very curious. Please tell me more about this wall.” The Genie explains, “Well, it’s about 5000 feet high, 500 feet thick and completely surrounds the countries. Nothing can get in or out — it’s virtually impenetrable.”

The American engineer says, “Fill it with water.”

This would work for the Chief!

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National driver’s license hits a bump

A revolt against a national driver’s license, begun in Maine last month, is quickly spreading to other states.

The Maine Legislature on Jan. 26 overwhelmingly passed a resolution objecting to the Real ID Act of 2005. The federal law sets a national standard for driver’s licenses and requires states to link their record-keeping systems to national databases. Within a week of Maine’s action, lawmakers in Georgia, Wyoming, Montana, New Mexico, Vermont and Washington state also balked at Real ID. They are expected soon to pass laws or adopt resolutions declining to participate in the federal identification network.

The Chief is encouraged by this. Maybe real Federalism isn’t totally extinct yet – you think? Hopefully so.

Senate GOP blocks Iraq resolution

Senate Republicans yesterday blocked a resolution that would have condemned President Bush’s plan to send an additional 21,500 troops to Iraq. On a 49-47 vote that largely followed partisan lines, Democrats fell 11 “ayes” short of the 60 needed to bring about a vote on the resolution, which is nonbinding but is widely viewed as a declaration of no confidence in the continued mission of the Iraq war and Mr. Bush’s handling of it.

Many of the GOP Senators are no doubt adjusting to the strange new sensation of the sudden and previously un-noticed presence of a solid protective set of bones around their spinal columns.

Of course, that didn’t mean that the old RINO tendencies were entirely absent:

Among those who voted against last night’s motion was Sen. John W. Warner of Virginia, who wrote the resolution but joined other Republicans in opposition to holding a vote because the new Democratic majority is not allowing votes on other war resolutions.

Oh well.

Conservatives need to stop playing defense

Sibby has hit it out of the park on this one. The lack of either intestinal fortitude, or any detectable spinal bone structure in much of what passes as “Republicanism” these days is such a sad turnabout from the unashamed and assertive stance of Ronaldus Magnus and his 1980’s Republican renaissance.

He extensively cites Farah from WND, and adds his own pithy comment on the sad state of current Conservatism.

The great question is what to do about it – how to organize this?

In a related development, radio talker Michael Savage has noted that he is “mulling” a presidential bid, presumably as a stimulus to some serious consideration in the GOP of an aggressive nationalistic Republicanism in contrast to the crop of RINO candidates (Giuliani, McCain, etc). This can be interesting, since Savage is indubitably an attack-dog Conservative. He would be GREAT fun to see at a candidates’ “debate” forum.

The Conservative side of the GOP could do worse than take biblical counsel: (I Corinthians 14)

8 For if the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to the battle?
9 So likewise ye, except ye utter by the tongue words easy to be understood, how shall it be known what is spoken? for ye shall speak into the air.