Monthly Archives: April 2008

National Insecurity

Food Spot Shortages…in the U.S.? Huh?

Food Rationing Confronts Breadbasket of the World

Many parts of America, long considered the breadbasket of the world, are now confronting a once unthinkable phenomenon: food rationing. Major retailers in New York, in areas of New England, and on the West Coast are limiting purchases of flour, rice, and cooking oil as demand outstrips supply. There are also anecdotal reports that some consumers are hoarding grain stocks.

An employee at the Costco store in Queens said there were no restrictions on rice buying, but limits were being imposed on purchases of oil and flour. Internet postings attributed some of the shortage at the retail level to bakery owners who flocked to warehouse stores when the price of flour from commercial suppliers doubled.

The curbs and shortages are being tracked with concern by survivalists who view the phenomenon as a harbinger of more serious trouble to come.

ANY food shortages, even limited spot shortages of specific items in the US is one heck of a LONG way from what it should be.

Spiking food prices have led to riots in recent weeks in Haiti, Indonesia, and several African nations. India recently banned export of all but the highest quality rice, and Vietnam blocked the signing of a new contract for foreign rice sales. “I’m surprised the Bush administration hasn’t slapped export controls on wheat,” Mr. Rawles said. “The Asian countries are here buying every kind of wheat.”

Mr. Rawles said it is hard to know how much of the shortages are due to lagging supply and how much is caused by consumers hedging against future price hikes or a total lack of product. “There have been so many stories about worldwide shortages that it encourages people to stock up. What most people don’t realize is that supply chains have changed, so inventories are very short,” Mr. Rawles, a former Army intelligence officer, said. “Even if people increased their purchasing by 20%, all the store shelves would be wiped out.”

“It ain’t that pretty at all.” – Warren Zevon

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Strict Gun Laws Lower Crime Rate? Not in Chicago!

Bloody Weekend: 32 Shot, 2 Stabbed, 6 Dead

Rough weekend in the Windy City.

Another illustration of the uselessness of highly restrictive gun laws…the bad guys will ALWAYS have access, while the disarmed and defenseless good guys pay the cost.

NOTE: This is not to disparage the work of the police…but realistically…the odds of them being on scene to actually PROTECT, as opposed to responding, is vanishingly small.

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Correctly labeling Islamofascism hurts?…too bad, get over it!

Muslims press McCain on ‘Islamic’ terror label

A coalition of American Muslim groups is demanding that Sen. John McCain stop using the adjective “Islamic” to describe terrorists and extremist enemies of the United States.

Like…they AREN’T the Islamofascists? Then WHO are they?

Fortunately some sanity seems to be prevailing…at least so far:

An aide to Mr. McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee who is counting on his pro-Iraq war stance to attract conservative voters, said the senator from Arizona will not drop the word. Steve Schmidt, a former Bush White House aide who is now a McCain media strategist, told The Times that the use of the word is appropriate and that the candidate will continue to define the enemy that way.

“Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda represent a perverted strain of Islam at odds with the great many peaceful Muslims who practice their great faith peacefully,” Mr. Schmidt said. “But the reality is, the hateful ideology which underpins bin Ladenism is properly described as radical Islamic extremism. Senator McCain refers to it that way because that is what it is.”

Tell it like it is!

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Hil Hangs In there…so who cares?

Undecideds flock to Clinton

Undecided Democratic primary voters who wait until Election Day before choosing a candidate have overwhelming went with Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton — a trend that she needs to continue in tomorrow’s crucial Pennsylvania primary to claim a decisive victory.

The Chiefs view of this contest? If one were hiking along and happened upon a rattlesnake fighting with a scorpion, you wouldn’t pick a favorite, you would rapidly walk away from both.

’nuff said.

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Bring it on!

Moqtada al-Sadr threatens ‘open war’ in Iraq

Iraq’s most powerful militia leader, Moqtada al-Sadr, has threatened the Baghdad government with “open war” after 20 of his fighters died in clashes with US troops.

Guess what? Does he think that he’ll lose LESS of his troops thugs by escalating? With Petraeus in charge? Sounds like a classic case of poor situational awareness.

In a statement read at mosques, Sadr accused Iraq’s government of using foreign forces to crush his Mahdi Army movement, the country’s biggest popular organisation.

Wow! Speaking of a lack of situational awareness…let’s see…how many years has the US been fighting in Iraq? Hello? This is something new that needs special comment?

“I am giving my last warning and my word to the Iraqi government to take the path of peace and stop violence against its own people, otherwise it will be a government of destruction,” he said.

Yep. Iraq will have the government…and Sadr will get the destruction.

One can only hope so!

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New Atrocity Charges Involving Serbs – Oooops! The Serbs were the victims!

Serb prisoners ‘were stripped of their organs in Kosovo war’

This is REALLY ghoulish:

Serb prisoners had their internal organs removed and sold by ethnic Albanians during the Kosovo war, according to allegations in a new book by the world’s best known war crimes prosecutor.

Carla Del Ponte, who stepped down in January as chief prosecutor at the Hague tribunal for crimes committed in the Balkan wars of the 1990s, said investigators found a house suspected of being a laboratory for the illegal trade.

A senior adviser to Hashim Thaci, Kosovo’s prime minister and a leading member of the Kosovo Liberation Army which is accused of benefiting from the trade, yesterday denied the allegations.

Naturally.

According to the sources, senior figures in the Kosovo Liberation Army were aware of the scheme, in which hundreds of young Serbs were allegedly taken by truck from Kosovo to northern Albania where their organs were removed. Miss Del Ponte provides grim details of the alleged organ harvesting, and of how some prisoners were sewn up after having kidneys removed.

“The victims, deprived of a kidney, were then locked up again, inside the barracks, until the moment they were killed for other vital organs. In this way, the other prisoners were aware of the fate that awaited them, and according to the source, pleaded, terrified, to be killed immediately,” Miss Del Ponte writes.

The claims in The Hunt: Me and War Criminals have renewed tensions between Serbia and its former province of Kosovo, which declared independence two months ago. In it, the Swiss ex-prosecutor reveals how her efforts to bring alleged war criminals to justice were stymied by lack of co-operation from all sides – Serb, Albanian and even Nato.

Hmmmmm. Remember those evil (CHristian) Serbs, abusing the innocent (Moslem) Kosovar Albanians meriting the military wrath of NATO during Pres. Bubba Clinton’s “Wag the Dog” episode in response to Monicagate?

Maybe the Serbs had a point in not wanting the Kosovars around.

As for the Moslem Kosovars and what brings to mind a certain Dr. Josef Mengele of the unlamented 3rd Reich, perhaps it’s worth recalling that the literal Arabic translation of Mein Kampf is, al-Jihad.

By the way…this sort of stuff is why I HATE the use of terms like “human resources”. THIS is an ultimate form of utilization of humans as a resource…literally. Whether it’s the old Nazi fascism, the Kosovars’ modern repeat performance of it, or for that matter the modern “liberal” and their advocacy of pre-natal infanticide, it’s all just a different face of the same type of ultimate evil.

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SanFran Misses the Target

State high court shoots down S.F. handgun ban

The Chief is frankly amazed that there is still this much sanity left in the California judicial system. There may still be hope for them out there!

The state Supreme Court dealt a final blow Wednesday to San Francisco’s voter-approved ban on handguns, rejecting the city’s appeal of a lower-court ruling that sharply limited the ability of localities to regulate firearms.

The court’s unanimous order was a victory for the National Rifle Association, which sued on behalf of gun owners, advocates and dealers a day after the measure passed with 58 percent of the vote in November 2005. The initiative has never taken effect.

The ordinance, Proposition H, would have forbidden San Francisco residents to possess handguns, exempting only law enforcement officers and others who needed guns for professional purposes. It would have also prohibited the manufacture, sale or distribution of any type of firearms or ammunition in San Francisco.

Score one for the good guys.

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Mugabe Election Fix Fails

ZIMBABWE VOTES TO LIVE

It takes a special kind of dictator to fix an election – and still lose.

Yet that’s exactly what seems to have happened to Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe, whose 28-year reign of terror has dragged a nation once known as Africa’s breadbasket to the brink of starvation.

Voters went to the polls Saturday for elections that no one of sound mind thought would turn out to be free or fair. Still, the Zimbabwe Election Commission revealed yesterday that Mugabe’s ruling ZANU-PF party has lost control of parliament for the first time since 1980.

You’ve GOT to hope that Mugabe and his thugs are somehow ousted, once and for all. NOBODY deserves what he’s done.

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Terr Details Outed in Brit Trial

Terror suspects ‘planned nuclear station strike’

This si stuff coming out in a Brit terror trial currently underway:

Jurors were told their ambitions were “limitless” and they were shown chilling suicide videos in which one alleged plotter promised to leave body parts “decorating the streets”.

Prosecutors revealed that as well as discovering alleged plans to blow up transatlantic passenger jets, police found documents which suggested the gang had considered other targets in the UK. The jury was told that a computer memory stick found by officers concealed in the High Wycombe home of Assad Sarwar contained details of gas terminals, oil refineries, the national grid, and “power stations, including nuclear power stations”.

Peter Wright QC, prosecuting, said the targets included Canary Wharf, a gas pipeline which runs between Belgium and the UK and companies which store and process hydrogen peroxide. “There was also information on Chernobyl, and on UK airports including Heathrow’s new control tower,” he said. A diary found in Mr Sarwar’s home listed oil and gas refineries at Bacton, Fawley, Correton and Kingsbury, it was alleged.

Mr Wright said: “The horizon in respect of Mr Sarwar’s terrorist ambition was, we say, limitless.”

A document about an Islamic ruling on the permissibility of self-sacrifice, including suicide and martyrdom, was also found on the memory stick, prosecutors said.

A couple of perhaps redundant observations come to mind.

First, this is what Islamofascist terrs do. No one should be surprised.

Second – it’s not necessary to be a “card-carrying member” of al Qaida, HAMAS, or any other group for that matter in order to plan and execute serious terrorist operations. THis is contrary to a common attitude, especially in the US Government, and MSM to soft-peddle any terrorist incidents lacking such a formal affiliation…like the Salt Lake mall shooter, or the self-proclaimed Islamoterr militant who drove his SUV into a crowd in N.C. to make his point.

SD Politics

Petition Does End-run around Gov, Senate RINOS

H/T to PP at Dakota War College on this one. He notes that he got it on an e-mail notice…the Chief is on the same mailing list, but can’t access that e-mail acct. at work, but am posting anyway based on the second-hand version.

Clean and Open government act makes the ballot

South Dakotans for Open and Clean Government ballot committee today announced that Secretary of State Chris Nelson has certified the more than 26,500 signatures collected to place the South Dakota Open and Clean Government Act on the November ballot.

“This is a great moment for South Dakotans who will finally have their voices heard that they want more transparency in their government. This time, the bureaucrats will have to listen,” said Jim Anderson, board member from Sioux Falls. “The fact that better than one out of 15 voters in South Dakota has already gone on record as strongly supporting this vital initiative clearly indicates that it will soon become the law of our state.”

After the veto, and the support of the veto by Knudson et al in the Senate of SB 1233, this is a good follow-up response.

The measure submitted includes the following:

* Taxpayer funds could not be used to lobby or campaign for partisan political agendas, including increased taxes.
* Legislators and their staff would be unable to use their legislative positions to secure a “golden-parachute”, state-contracted job.
* The “pay to play” system — where state contracts are traded for campaign donations — would be outlawed.
* A simple, searchable website with information on all state contracts over $500 (excluding employment contracts), would be launched so citizens can know how their money is being spent.

Sounds like a plan!

National Insecurity

Iranian Nuke Efforts Continue

Diplomats: Iran Assembling Centrifuges

Iran has assembled hundreds of advanced machines reflecting a possible intention to speed up uranium enrichment, diplomats have told The Associated Press.

One diplomat said more than 300 of the centrifuges have been linked up in two separate units in Iran’s underground enrichment plant and a third was being assembled. He said the machines apparently are more advanced than the thousands already running underground, suggesting they could be the sophisticated IR-2 centrifuge that Tehran recently acknowledged testing.

Meanwhile, business as usual in Washington: ignore the threat, and voila! It disappears!

Right? Wrong!

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I was talking about this tomorrow…

Physicist Says Time Travel Is Not Only Possible, but Likely

Time travel? Teleportation? No problem, says renowned physicist Michio Kaku.

A somewhat more detailed presentation of this is in the Friday London Telegraph:

Teleportation and forcefields possible within decades, says Professor Michio Kaku

Teleportation and forcefields could become scientific realities within decades, and time travel will also be possible in the future, according to one of the world’s leading physicists. Professor Michio Kaku of City University in New York has studied a range of scientific “impossibilities” and concluded that most will almost certainly be achieved as our knowledge expands.

The Chief concurs!

Space Patrol

Who’s on First? The Doctor is In!

The stars line up for Doctor Who

‘You know, as an actor, the things to do here are to play at the National, open at the West End, do a BBC film that’s so good it’s really a quality movie – and be in Doctor Who?!” says Michael Brandon, the American actor and committed anglophile who gave us Jerry Springer on stage and Dempsey of Dempsey and Makepeace on TV. He’s not joking: a guest role in the new, regenerated Doctor Who, the fourth series of which begins tomorrow, has become, if not quite the holy grail of the thespian world, then certainly an acting badge of honour.

Interesting. The Chief really liked the Doctor…it seems he isn’t alone.