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February 05, 2005Northwest Airlines puts anti-missile defense on their 747s
With all that's been going on, this story almost got lost: NORTHWEST Airlines' Boeing 747s will be equipped with a laser-based anti-missile system later this year as part of defence contractor Northrop Grumman's effort to develop a less costly system for protecting commercial airliners from shoulder-fired missiles. I suppose that NW's willingness to shell out one million dollars per plane has nothing to do with this recent news report: More reports of lasers being shot into airplane cockpits Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta said Wednesday there have been 400 reports of lasers being beamed at airplanes since 1990 and the Federal Aviation Administration will now require pilots to immediately report such incidents to air traffic controllers, who will be required to notify law enforcement officials. I read Nelson De Mille's new book Night Fall before Christmas about the horrific end of flight TWA 800 and I would heartily recommend it; De Mille won't accept the official NTSB/FBI explanation that the plane was brought down by an explosion in the center fuel tanks caused by "spontaneous gas fumes"--there were over 200 people who saw the plane blow up who also saw missiles launched from the ground streaking towards the plane. Many speculate that this 1996 disaster was one of the first attacks on America by Islamist terrorists long before 9/11/01. Just as troubling is the fact, revealed by DeMille, that the intended target was probably not TWA 800, but was an El Al 747 that was running late and whose "place in the sky" was taken by TWA800. If you fly a lot, wear your St. Christopher medal and urge your airline carrier to follow Northwest's example. The IslamoFacists love to do bad things with planes and they're going to keep trying to kill Americans, too so we need to take appropriate fighting measures!
SecState Rice seeks Russia's committment to democracy (in Turkey!)
Rice Seeks Russian Democracy Commitment
While she's been taking every capital of Old and New Europe on her first diplomatic tour with her charm, acumen and grace, Dr. Rice cannily tackles the subject of democracy in Russia (her special area of expertise). This is particularly meaningful in the wake of President Bush's SOTU speech combined with his Inaugural Address which reiterated the foreign mission of the U.S. to keep Freedom on the march and doubly meaningful in the "swing" country of Turkey, which rides not only the geographic crossroads between EUrope and the Middle East, but also continues to traverse the political crossroads between being a secular democracy and an Islamic oligarchy. I believe that Russia is at a crucial point, also, as apparently so does our newest and most attractive Secretary of State and this is due to the recent events of the election in Ukraine: The election in Ukraine strained U.S.-Russian relations as a result of Washington's refusal to recognize the fraud-tainted victory of a Kremlin-backed candidate. The Bush administration threw its support behind a Western-leaning reformer, Viktor Yushchenko, who won in a second round of voting. I believe that Yushchenko's rival, Putin's "man," was supposed to "win" and bring Ukraine back into the Russian fold of Soviet satellites in Putin's move to reconstitute the USSR and so it would go with every former "Soviet republic" in Eastern Europe. By protesting the outcome of the Ukrainian elections in which Yushchenko supposedly "lost," the West (led by the U.S.) and the freedom-loving people of Ukraine made sure that the first shoe never dropped. But there is still reason to worry about Georgia: In Georgia, longtime leader Eduard Shevardnadze was forced from power by popular protests in late 2003, led in part by Zurab Zhvania, who became prime minister. After he was found dead Thursday following an apparent gas leak from a heater, the State Department said in a statement that he was "a catalyst for democratic change in Georgia, a dynamic leader and a friend." This mysterious death of Zhvania is troubling and before Putin put up a puppet in Ukraine, he seems to have tried to stop Yushchenko by poisoning him, so stranger things (than Vlad's boys using bizarre assassination techiques) have happened already in that part of the world! George Soros's pal, Mikhail Saakashvili, who participated in Georgia's Rose Revolution which included Mr. Zhvania, has stepped into the vacancy caused by Zhvania's untimely death. Whether or not Putin will use this window of opportunity to bring Georgia more closely back into its sphere of influence remains to be seen. If you're indifferent as to whether the Georgia government remains an independent democracy, remember that this is where the Pankisi Gorge is located--the HQ of Chechen terrorism, probable training grounds and sanctuary for Al Queda, and close to old Soviet stockpiles of WMDs, particularly nukes.
There's no "gay marriage" and certainly no "gay marriage ban"
MSNBC - N.Y. judge strikes down gay marriage ban A judge declared Friday that a law banning same-sex marriage violates the state constitution, a first-of-its-kind ruling in New York that would clear the way for gay couples to wed if it survives on appeal. I don't think it will survive on appeal, but if, in fact, it does, look for this to go either to the SCOTUS or for these Liberal judges to push us all into passing a Defense of Marriage Amendment to the Constitution. It's as if this woman judge did it in defiance of President Bush's words in his SOTU, isn't it? There is no "right" to same-sex marriage. I'm not convinced that homosexual members of a committed relationship are being deprived of anything now. And while I have a "live and let live" attitude towards homosexuals, a savvy pundit helped me understand what it is about this "gay marriage" thing that drives me crazy: it's being told what I must live with by these Liberal judges who legislate from the bench, believing that our federal and state constitutions are "living documents." When you consider that 11 states voted down the acceptance of same-sex marriages last November, the momentum is not with the gay political activitists who are driving this push for "gay marriage."
February 03, 2005President Bush delivers another terrific SOTU address!
Go here for the complete text and webcast of the President's speech: Because courts must always deliver impartial justice, judges have a duty to faithfully interpret the law, not legislate from the bench. (Applause.) As President, I have a constitutional responsibility to nominate men and women who understand the role of courts in our democracy, and are well-qualified to serve on the bench -- and I have done so. (Applause.) The Constitution also gives the Senate a responsibility: Every judicial nominee deserves an up or down vote. (Applause.)*IOW, he's reminding the Dimocrat Senators that they should give the President's fine judicial nominees an up or down vote-- their role is to "advise and consent," not continue this farce of fillibustering and insisting on their 60% cloture vote! (Is Bill Frist willing to GO NUCLEAR to make this happen??? We can only pray that he is!) *Loved Bush's drawing the line in the sand with Syria and Iran and the call to the Iranian people to seek democracy like their Iraqi neighbors:
I could swear I heard NRO's Michael Ledeen whooping with joy all the way down here in Texas when President Bush said this! Ledeen's been asking for the President to do this for years, really. *On the domestic front, I also liked the sound very much of the President's desire to reform the IRS, too:
Dare we hope that at the end of this road is the Flat Tax?! Well, I've got my fingers crossed--it can't hurt! And then there was The Hug:  First Lady Laura Bush and Army Staff Sgt Norbert Lara, foreground left, injured in action, look on as William Norwood, whose 25-year-old son, Marine Sgt. Byron Norwood, was killed in action in Iraq, reaches out to Marine Staff Sgt. John Manuel Martinez while the dead Marine's mother, Janet Norwood, embraces Safia Taleb al-Suhail, leader of the Iraqi Womens Political Council. Was there a dry eye in America last night after this? I think not! What a moment for Ms al-Suhail to not only comfort a fellow woman and human being who is grieving but to do so in grateful appreciation and in the full knowledge that it was the blood of American soldiers like Mrs. Norwood's son that made Iraq's new democracy (and its attendant vote) possible? These 2 loving ladies spontaneously expressed everything about this week's events with one heart-felt hug..the bitter--the loss of our soldier's lives and limbs,and the sweet--Iraqis being able to vote in a free election for the first time in 35 years!
January 30, 2005The Looney Left works on becoming still loonier
Protein Wisdom proves that Barbie was right: "Math is hard!" In the run-up to today's historic Iraqi moment, the liberal left repeatedly insisted that the January elections couldn't take place on time. Now that they've taken place, that same liberal left is telling us that the elections they said could not take place were the "easy part" -- Which proclamations, when one deploys the transitive property of equality, express themselves in this simple equation: Hip tap to the Godfather of Blog.
Give them the purple finger of freedom!
Via one of our American defenders of Freedom, Ryan, at his fine battle blog Cigars in the Sand, comes Chris Muir's cartoon o' the day that says it all: 
A new day of Freedom has dawned in Iraq!
Of course, I had to stay up late and watch the election happen in Iraq...The polls opened with some blasts, mortars and suicide bombers but then, not to be deterred, Iraqis started coming out in droves to let their voices finally be heard!  Iraq, The Vote: 'One of the Most Amazing Things I've Ever Seen' I don't want to overstate, because I'm very emotional right now. Because I was in that town, just behind me. These GIs have done it, they've created an environment, despite the explosions, despite all the news you've heard of the suicide bomber, snipers, this and that. In this town, in this community, with 15,000 registered voters, we have just returned from the polling place. It is absolutely packed. Roll the video. There are men, women, families coming. They are casting their ballot for the first time. It was so inspiring. It was one of the most amazing things I've ever seen in my entire life. It really is like the Berlin Wall going down in 1989. It really is like the beginning, like the dawn of the civil rights era, when black people could vote for the first time. It is the most amazing sight. Only a hard-bitten cynic, only a person with absolutely no upside to their feeling of optimism, could look askance at what is happening, truly happening today. People are applauding themselves, they look like Rocky coming out of the polling place. There are women voting for the first time, and it's just the most incredible thing. It's so heartwarming to see it. Do read the rest of the piece--it will make you teary, elated and proud to be an American and joyful for the Iraqis! Operation Iraqi Freedom worked: we made freedom possible in the Land between the Two Rivers!
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