May 02, 2003

President Bush (looking babe-a-licious, but in a Commander-in-Chief kind of way!) walks onto the deck of the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln in his flight suit after co-piloting in on Thursday afternoon.


Reuters Caption: National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice smiles as she waits for President George W. Bush to land on the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln as the ship steamed toward San Diego, CA, May 1, 2003. From the deck of the carrier, Bush was to address the nation tonight to say that all major combat in Iraq has ended. Rice and other White House staff flew out to the ship on a COD aircraft.
I love Dr. Condi! She is a personal idol and heroine of mine and she's the most powerful woman in the world...as well as the smartest and best groomed!
Then, at the end of the day...there was the speech.

Reuters: U.S. President George W. Bush passes crew members as he walks the deck of the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln to deliver his speech to the nation as the carrier steamed toward San Diego, California, May 1, 2003. Bush declared major combat in Iraq over on Thursday and called the six-week war "one victory" in the campaign against terror.

May 01, 2003

Bush to co-pilot plane to carrier

When President Bush arrives aboard this aircraft carrier Thursday, he will be sitting in the co-pilot's seat of a U.S. Navy aircraft.

The plane will make what is known as a "tailhook" landing, when the craft, traveling at about 150 mph, hooks onto a steel wire across the flight deck and comes to a complete stop in less than 400 feet.

Capt. Kevin Albright, the commander of Airwing 14 aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, said Bush will be equipped with an air sickness bag, but he doubts the president will need it.

I suspect (with) his previous flight experience, he'll do just fine," Albright told CNN's Kyra Phillips aboard the carrier.

Bush was an F-102 fighter pilot in the Texas Air National Guard after graduating from Yale University in 1968.
[...]Albright said Bush could fly the plane en route to the carrier if he so desires.

"I imagine he will. He's an old fighter pilot," he said. "It shouldn't take a very long time, but I imagine if he wants to fly around a little bit, it'll take a little longer. We'll have a ready deck when he gets here.

Bush will fly to San Diego aboard Air Force One, before getting aboard what's being called "Navy One" for the flight to the carrier, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said Wednesday.

Fleischer called it a "very exciting voyage, a very exciting trip."

"For the sake of the landing, I'm sure he will be doing no piloting," he said.

The ship's 5,500 sailors are excited about the presidential trip.

"It's a momentous occasion. I've been on eight deployments, and we've never had a president come out and welcome us home. So, it's a pretty big event for the airwing and the ship crew," Albright said.

The Lincoln, currently en route to San Diego, has been at sea for nine months after participating in both the Afghanistan and Iraq war theaters. The president is scheduled to spend the night on the aircraft carrier, which is based in Everett, Washington, but is stopping in San Diego first.

Just when you think the President can't outdo himself in Cool and being a stud, he does!
How marvelous!
And what a great welcome home for the Lincoln!
I send out a great big thank you to all the men and women on board her!
You people have been "over there" and deployed for 9 long months--what dedicated service to America and to making sure that Freedom endures wherever in the world you're sent!
Welcome Home.
And God Speed President Bush!

April 30, 2003

First me, then Barbie and now Geraldo Rivera claim "I was born to blog!"
Geraldo's latest post is a mildish rant about the recent controversy to expel him from Iraq last month for violating security rules for embed reporters.
True to form, Jerry Rivers swears it was an MSNBC plot!(and I'm not so sure it wasn't, as they were still smarting from their own Peter Arnett mess.)
Check out Geraldo, though.
You know you want to!
Rough Point

Homicide Bombing Rocks Tel Aviv Hours After New Palestinian Prime Minister Approved

Five hours after the Palestinian parliament approved a new prime minister, removing the last remaining obstacle for the launch of a U.S.-backed peace plan, a homicide bombing killed four people and wounded dozens of others on a popular Tel Aviv beachside promenade early Wednesday.

A militia linked to Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement and the Islamic militant group Hamas claimed responsibility for the bombing, a spokesman for one of the groups said.

A spokesman for the Fatah-linked Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade said the attack served a dual purpose: to avenge the killing of one of their members by Israeli troops and to send a message to Abbas' new government that "nobody can disarm the resistance movements without a political resolution." He said the bomber came from the West Bank city of Tulkarem, but did not supply a name.
[...]...There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but even as the parliament was meeting, the Islamic militant movement Hamas warned it had no intention of disarming or ending attacks on Israelis.

Abdel Aziz Rantisi said his group would "never drop its weapons and will not allow anyone to disarm it."
[...]
In his inaugural speech, Abbas pledged to disarm militias, a promise that could set up a violent showdown between the Palestinian Authority (search) and militant groups like Hamas and Islamic Jihad.
[...]The United States and Israel are eager to do business with Abbas, an outspoken opponent of violence. But the international support has hurt Abbas at home, with many Palestinians considering him a U.S. puppet.

Well, this is bad news for all of us, not just the Israelis hurt and killed by the bomber (R.I.P.).
If the PA thinks that things like this, i.e. a bombing to "christen" their new PM, will get them a "road map" much less a state, they are dead wrong.
Notice that one of their leaders said that there could be no disarmament or peace without a "political solution;" Lord knows what he meant by this, but in my mind, there will be no "solution" or peace for Israel until they've achieved complete military victory, driven the "Palestinians" back into Jordan, Syria and Lebanon and finally, have killed Arafat.
And Abu Mazen is no stranger to terror either.
According to this story in today's Israeli paper Arutz Sheva, he bankrolled the "Black September" Islamist slaughter of the Israeli athletes at the 1972 Olympics in Munich:
Abu Mazen Financed the OIympics Massacre in Munich
While we'd all love to think that this appointment of another PA leader besides Arafat signals the dawn of a new day for the "Palestinians," it clearly is SSDD, "Meet the old boss, same as the new boss."
I'm pretty sure that the Israelis won't get fooled again and negotiate away sovereign Israeli territory for nothing (as they sadly did with Camp David and with the Oslo Accords).
IDF, you know what you have to do.
Get busy!
And I don't think that the Bush Administration part of the "quartet"--which is the only part that matters--is any more fooled by Arafat's or Mazen's window dressing and lip service to ending terror than is Ariel Sharon.
Am Yisrael Chai!

April 29, 2003

'Old Europe' presses ahead with plans for an EU army

"Old Europe" threw down the gauntlet at the feet of Britain, the United States and the Atlantic Alliance at a mini-summit yesterday, unveiling plans for a new Euro-army with its own military headquarters.

France, Germany, Belgium and Luxembourg - described by some in the US as the "Axis of Weasel"[Thanks again for this one, Scrappleface!--Jen] - vowed to press ahead with a full-fledged defence union, brushing aside warnings that the move would entrench the European Union's bitter divisions over Iraq and could lead to the break-up of Nato.

A new rapid reaction force would be built around the existing Franco-German brigade, taking in Belgian commandos and units from Luxembourg. It would answer to a headquarters in the Brussels suburb of Tervuren and be ready for joint operations next year.

Jacques Chirac, the French president, insisted that the plans would bolster Nato by making Europe a more credible partner for Washington, and denied there was an attempt to set up a rival to Nato's operational command. "The aim is not to decouple European Union and Atlantic Alliance defence efforts," he said.

But M Chirac gave out mixed signals when he gently rebuked Tony Blair for advocating a "one polar world" and warning of a new Cold War if Europe tried to become a rival power to America.

"Quite naturally a multi-polar world is being created, whether one likes it or not. It's inevitable. For balance to exist, there will have to be a strong Europe [He means a strong "Old EUrope--J.T.]. Relations between the European Union and the United States will have to be a partnership between equals," said M Chirac.
[Do ya think Chirac actually believes most of the Barbra Streisand he spews?--Jen]

He invited all 25 of the EU's current and future states to join the new defence core, but the so-called New Europe camp - led by Britain, Spain, Italy and Poland - has reacted with deep suspicion. Ana Palacio, the Spanish foreign minister, said the proposals were "counter-productive" and would cause needless division at a delicate time.

Nato came close to buckling earlier this year when France, Belgium and Germany refused to sanction delivery of Patriot missiles to Turkey, a fellow member. A Nato spokesman reacted cautiously to the new plans yesterday, saying he was "concerned about the risk of unnecessary duplication".

The four leaders called for the creation of a "European Command for strategic air transport" by 2004. The new force would have to rely on US airlift or leased Ukrainian planes until the Airbus A400M military transport aircraft was ready for service later in the decade.
[And a decade can be a long time to wait, you stupid frogs and krauts!]

There will be a "joint European protection capability" against weapons of mass destruction, a tactical training centre for pilots and helicopter crews, and an "EU-FAST" emergency relief unit for humanitarian crises.

Separately, the group have proposed a European weapons procurement agency and a "solidarity clause" binding EU states to face all forms of risk together as elements to be included in the new European constitution.

It was unclear how the new machinery would fit into the EU's existing defence structure. Brussels already has a rapid reaction force, and military staff, which can draw on up to 60,000 personnel from member states. It began its first mission in Macedonia last month. But it is limited to peacekeeping and relies on Nato operational command.

While superficially similar, the new force is a different animal. It will be a fully-integrated Euro-army, and seems intended for combat in the future.
[But combat against whom is The Question!--Jen]

The picture is further confused by the parallel defence plans agreed by Mr Blair and M Chirac at Le Touquet in February calling for a joint Anglo-French aircraft carrier battle group.

I don't know about you, but I find this horrifying and enraging, mainly due to the vast breadth of Chirac's ambition and demagoguery!
Just when you think Chirac can't get anymore arrogant or impervious, he surpasses himself.
Good thing he's "all hat and no cattle."
The numero uno reason why this "integrated EU defense force" will never happen is that these weasel countries, with their faltering economies, can't afford it.
Nor will their young men and women serve in it; they've had compulsory military registration forever in the weasel countries and nobody, but nobody wants to serve in the military.
I think Tony Blair is still trying to "make nice" and not have to choose sides, but the day will come very quickly when he will no longer have that luxury.
Sooner or later, Blair is going to have to tell Chirac to 'Sod off."
Of course, President Bush won't care for Jacques'es little plan one bit!
NATO, as we know it, is through!
Time to move it to Poland and give the phrase "Warsaw Pact" a new 21st Century meaning!
Or move NATO HQ to Spain, Italy or Britain for pity's sake, but get us out of Old weasel-infested Europe NOW or we'll be trying to rally NATO troops on weasel-occupied turf to fight that "existing Franco-German brigade" of theirs.

Saddam's mouthpiece 'seeks surrender'

Former Iraqi Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf is attempting to surrender to US forces, according to a London-based Arabic newspaper.

But Al-Sharq al-Awsat says the Americans have refused to arrest Mr Sahhaf - who became a familiar face during the war with his upbeat assessments of Iraqi military "successes" - because he does not appear on their "most wanted" list of 55 former regime officials.

An Iraqi Kurdish official told the newspaper that Mr Sahhaf was staying at his aunt's house in Baghdad, and was under surveillance by US forces.
[...]
Mr Sahhaf's daily press briefings in Baghdad during the war, at which his statements were increasingly at odds with reality, made him a cult figure in the West.

He was dubbed "Saddam's optimist" and "Comical Ali" by media commentators.

A website called We Love the Iraqi Information Minister, carrying his soundbites, has become an internet phenomenon after being set up by a group of New York friends.

Mr Sahhaf disappeared after American forces entered central Baghdad, but not before insisting: "They are going to surrender or be burned in their tanks."

US President George W Bush has admitted that he enjoyed Mr Sahhaf's briefings so much that he used to interrupt some of his meetings just to watch him.

"He's my man, he was great," he told NBC television in a recent interview. "Somebody accused us of hiring him and putting him there. He was a classic."

Woo-hoo! He didn't commit suicide after all!
I was tickled to pieces to hear President Bush tell Tom Brokaw that he loves Baghdad Bob as much as I do!

And on hearing this news that BB is alive and well, I can tell that those lovable scamps over at WeLovetheIraqiInformationMinister.com were overjoyed.
I just received my "God will roast their stomachs in hell!" BBQ apron that I ordered from their site and it's a classic, too.

Military may lighten its 'footprint' in Europe

The U.S. military's top commander in Europe said Monday the Pentagon is considering reductions of troops and bases there in some of the most dramatic changes in the military presence in Europe since World War II.

The Pentagon is considering closing or shrinking bases "now chiefly in Germany" while opening smaller bases in eastern European countries such as Hungary, Romania, Poland and Bulgaria.

U.S. Air Operations Center Moves to Qatar

PRINCE SULTAN AIR BASE, Saudi Arabia - The United States has moved an air operation center from this base to one in Qatar, officials said Tuesday.
[...]
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and Air Force officials here said the United States is refocusing its military relationship with Saudi Arabia to training Saudi forces rather than having large numbers of U.S. troops based here.
[...]
Saudi officials have been uneasy about the presence of U.S. troops in their country since the 1991 war with Iraq, as shown by their attempts to stifle news that American commanders were running the Iraq air war from the Prince Sultan base.

But U.S. officials say moving the air operations center should not be seen as evidence of a rift between the two nations. Instead, they say, it's part of an inevitable repositioning of U.S. forces in the Persian Gulf region now that one of its main military threats ? Saddam's regime ? is gone.

What this news story doesn't say is that Saudi Arabia became the silent member of the axis of evil as of 9/11 and that we're moving things like the Air Command center out of there because one of these days real soon, SA will be probably be *the* target.
Not to mention the fact that the liberation of Iraq (and the sheer presence of American military might, which made that liberation possible) for the purpose of setting up a secular democracy there is making the rulers of this medieval Waahhab satrapy very nervous!
You all know about "Old EUrope" and the weasels, so why should we keep our troops where they're not wanted and where host countries won't "allow" them to be moved as part of a NATO force?
Too bad the Germans didn't ask the Phillipinos how much they missed having U.S. bases in their country!
Schade (="Too bad. So sad." in German)
Over in places like Poland, they're delighted at the new state of affairs between "New Europe" and the U.S.;
Poland just bought billions of dollars worth of our F-16s:
Poland signs contract to buy 48 F-16 fighter planes

Poland on Friday signed a 3.5-billion-dollar (3.2-billion-euro) contract to buy 48 Lockheed Martin F-16 fighter planes, marking a further strengthening of ties between the central European country and the United States.

I hope my AF readers like this news because I'll bet both the Germans and the Russians did not!

Dear readers, I want to apologize for the absolute dearth of free ice cream of late;
after our successful campaign in Iraq, I've been AWOL, particularly this last week.
This is mainly due to the fact that I just found out that I'm moving in a few short weeks (not far, but moving is moving) and I've been going through the trials and tribulations of dental implants surgery and have had some infection and pain to deal with (although this is no fault of my marvelous dental surgeon! I love that guy!).
As for the War on Terrorism, I reached a point after the statue of Saddam came down where I felt that I was saying the same things here that everyone heard on TV( albeit I, and other like-minded bloggers, had said most of them months earlier) and it seemed as if the same topics were being discussed in the media over and over, to the point of tedium, most of which is whining and complaining by the Left, which must then be countered by reasoned and rational argument by folks like me on the Right.
If you don't think that's an ugly job, think again.
I am so whole-heartedly behind President Bush--and always have been--but particularly so after our liberation of Iraq, that I felt that the affirmation of the rightness of what I'd been saying, along with the Bush Doctrine, about our almost flawless and just conduct of the War on Islamist Terrorism would be redundant and boring.
(But I'm not above a little justifiable gloating!)
All you had to do was look at the smiles on the faces of the average, freed Iraqis to know that we had done the "right thing."
But the Leftist Dims have been busy, busy, busy and the War on Islamofascism is far from over, so my work isn't done.
I hope that some of you took the opportunity to peruse my archives while I was "away" or clicked on the links of the other genial, Conservative (for the most part) blogs on the left-hand side of the page.
If you're reading this, you haven't given up on me generating that "greatest generation," so God bless you and thank you!
You are my silent friends and your encouragement, support and email commentary means more than you know.
I think I took a much needed rest after a year of solidly "hitting it" every day--no vacation since I began this blog.
So now you know I'm not without my failings and that a little rain falls into my life, too.
Hope I didn't disappoint you too much and I hope to be back to my usual voluminous (!) posting capacity very, very soon.
Believe it or not, this blog is already 1200 (cyber) pages long!

Hillary Clinton's Memoirs to Hit Stores

After laying out a seven-figure advance for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's memoirs, her publishers are counting on seven-figure sales.

The account of her years in the White House will have a first printing of 1 million copies, her lawyer told The Associated Press. The 576-page book, entitled "Living History," is scheduled for release June 9. An audio version, read by Clinton, will be released the same day.

"Only a small handful of books have a 1-million-copy first printing, and I cannot think of another nonfiction book in recent history that has had that large a first printing," Robert Barnett, Clinton's lawyer, said Sunday.

The first lady-turned senator was paid an $8 million advance by Simon & Schuster. Foreign rights have already been sold in 16 countries, from South America to Europe to Asia.

The list price for the book, according to online seller amazon.com, is $28.

The book, which took two years to write, will be billed as a "complete and candid" accounting of her years in the White House, from the health care debate to impeachment to the launching of her own political campaign in 2000.

If you're one of those poor deluded idiots that thinks Hitlery is a "great woman" and can't wait to rush out and buy your copy of "her" book (dont' forget: she admitted to hiring a ghost writer), I can't help you and you're definitely at the wrong blog.
Not only has Sen. Rodham-Clinton never told the truth about anything, much less been "complete and candid," but a mere 3 weeks ago, her publisher let it be leaked to media like Drudge that they had no working title, no manuscript and no prospect of a book to publish from the Pantsuited One:HILLARY CLINTON BOOK PAST DUE, PUBLISHER'S ANGST OVER NO MANUSCRIPT, NO TITLE; SENATOR TOOK LARGEST ADVANCE IN HISTORY
According to Rush Limbaugh, a scholar of Hitlery phenomena, this late appearance was the result of allowing her to edit in material and personal quotes about the war on Iraq that were favorable to her, presumably on President Bush's side, although only today she's proclaimed herself to be anything but a "Bushie" on domestic policies, in fervent hope that the winds are again blowing in her Liberal Dimocrat direction:
Hillary tears into Bush at Democrats’ fund-raiser .
[Note: The Dim strategy to win everything back in 2004 is to play up Bush's handling of the economy, despite our military victory. Or in other words, they want a repeat of 1992 with Clinton's win over Bush 41 with that moronic "It's the economy, stupid." platform of James Carville's.
There was nothing too very wrong with the American economy under Bush 41, just as the economy's in pretty great shape now.
And the Dims are presupposing that anything the President does or doesn't do has that great an impact on the economy anyway!
Remember also that it wasn't so much that Clinton "won" as that Ross Pero was the spoiler for George H.W. Bush with 20% of the vote.
After our victory in Iraq, I'm convinced that Bush 41 lost because he didn't "finish" the military victory in Operation Desert Storm by doing what his son just accomplished last month.]
Returning to Hil the Haggard, I dislike everything about this woman and have since she grabbed those FBI files of GOP members in 1993; she's shrill, she's mean and she's vicious and her politics of personal destruction and of trying to implement her version of the Nanny-Police State par excellence all make me ill.
Go away, PIAPS, just go away.
And may "your" "book" go into the bargain bin along with Algore's last 2 duds.

Blair warns Chirac on the future of Europe

Tony Blair has issued a direct challenge to France's Jacques Chirac over the future of the transatlantic relationship by warning that the French president's vision of Europe as a rival to the US is dangerously destabilising.

In a wide-ranging interview with the Financial Times, the prime minister foreshadows a continuing Anglo-French struggle about Europe's relationship with Washington. Mr Blair seeks to keep alive the prospect of British entry to the euro but he disavows any personal ambition to become president of the European Union.
[...]
Meanwhile a new MORI poll for the FT reveals that 55 per cent of Britons regard France as the UK's least reliable ally, while 73 per cent view the US as the country's most reliable.
[...]
"I don't want Europe setting itself up in opposition to America . . . I think it will be dangerous and destabilising."

France wanted a multipolar world with different centres of power, he said, but "I believe that they will very quickly develop into rival centres of power".

The result would be that "you end up reawakening some of the problems that we had in the cold war with countries playing different centres of power off each other". Rather than seek to gloss over the divide it was better "to have it out in the open".

Good for Tony to get this out in the open.
One wonders if it ever will be translated into French, though...
One of the *big* questions I've always had about the weasel theory of the EU being a "rival" to U.S. power is, "For what purpose? To what end?"
Especially when, as was the case for the liberation of Iraq, the U.S.-led Coalition stood on the side of what was right and just and France, Germany, and Russia sided with that of evil and tyranny.
I still think Blair's a bit of a dreamer and that he expects better out of Chirac than he'll ever get, but at least he tries for the best.
If only good intentions ruled the world. But they don't.
I almost believe Tony when he says he doesn't want to be the EU Prez, too, but I still think they'll offer it to him as a sop.
Meanwhile, Britain's Chancellor of the Exchequer is NOT going to give Britain the green light it needs to even hold the EUro vote any time in the immediate future nor do current opinion polls hold that a majority of the British people actually want the EUro.
And Tony's success in prosecuting the war notwithstanding, the Labour Party is going to suffer in the upcoming local elections to be held imminently because of blowback from Iraqi-paid front man and Labour MP George Galloway's recently disclosed participation in the "oil for fool" program.