It’s only a matter of time until this takes an uglier turn (link):

Border patrol agent held at gunpoint
Officers fear Mexican military encounters will turn violent
Jerry Seper
Wednesday, August 6, 2008

A U.S. Border Patrol agent was held at gunpoint Sunday night by members of the Mexican military who had crossed the border into Arizona, but the soldiers returned to Mexico without incident when backup agents responded to assist.

Agents assigned to the Border Patrol station at Ajo, Ariz., said the Mexican soldiers crossed the international border in an isolated area about 100 miles southwest of Tucson and pointed rifles at the agent, who was not identified.

It was unclear what the soldiers were doing in the United States, but U.S. law enforcement authorities have long said that current and former Mexican military personnel have been hired to protect drug and migrant smugglers.

“Unfortunately, this sort of behavior by Mexican military personnel has been going on for years,” union Local 2544 of the National Border Patrol Council (NBPC) said on its Web page. “They are never held accountable, and the United States government will undoubtedly brush this off as another case of ‘Oh well, they didn’t know they were in the United States.’

You know, if they ran into a 20′ high, multi-layered wall with razor wire and dogs patrolling it they’d know where they were.

Update: because I found my pictures via google search, I made a mistake.  The first picture below is apparently a model for Overstock.com named Sabine Ehrenfeld, not Sarah Palin.  Thanks to Dave from Illinois.

I read somewhere non-credible that Alaska Governor Sarah Palin is a leading McCain veep choice.  I guess I missed the earlier buzz on the subject. She’d be an outside the box choice because normally Alaska doesn’t get a whole lot of electoral props, but from what I’ve read about her she seems like an appealing choice for several reasons:

1.  (<–not Sarah Palin) She’s a life member of the NRA.
2.  She leads a state where an understanding of the energy business is essential, and her husband works in oil fields (according to what I’ve read) for BP.
3. It seems like her credentials are solid overall, and it wouldn’t hurt to have a woman run.

There are “maverick” ruminations from what I’ve seen so far, and I’m trying to get to the bottom of that.  But at first look, Sarah Palin could make an interesting choice for veep.

Between Palin and Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, it seems there is hope for the GOP after all. Hopefully, if nothing else, they can get speaking parts in the convention.

Victor Davis Hanson gives ten pieces of advice to Senator Barack Obama on how to win. My favorite is #7 (link):

7. Pick an antithesis in every category for VP. The ideal selection for Obama would be crusty, sloppy, blue-collar, non-arugula eating, southern or Midwestern, white, conservative, old, experienced as an executive, and knowledgeable about foreign affairs that would convince Hillary’s old constituency that someone like themselves doesn’t look silly running with Obama. He will have to go the Dukakis/Lloyd Bentsen route. The problem? There aren’t that many Hubert Humphrey/Scoop Jackson looking sorts still around in the Democratic Party.

I can’t tell if he was trying to be, but that’s funny.

By the way, while I’m on VDH’s Private Papers, I highly recommend this essay (open it and read the whole thing) regarding Obama’s Berlin speech.  Couldn’t have said it better myself.

Yesterday Barack Obama promised to end the use of foreign oil within ten years, a concept which I support in theory, but in practice is unlikely (link). I guess the five million green jobs he’s promising will be people riding stationary bicycles to help power our grid?  Any time someone who’s to be elected President for eight years maximum promises to achieve something in ten years, you know it’s a cynical promise.

Meanwhile, Russia promised some of their pumped oil to Cuba in exchange for being a strategic link, just like the good old days (link):

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Monday said it was time for Russia to rebuild links with former Cold War ally Cuba, news agencies reported.

The Kremlin is angry at U.S. plans for a missile defence system in Eastern Europe, and last month a news report suggested Russia might use Cuba, a thorn in America’s side for half a century, as a refueling stop for nuclear-capable bombers.

The Russian Defence Ministry denied the report and said it had no plans to open any military bases abroad, but a top U.S. general was drawn to say such a move would cross a “red line”.

Moscow was the Caribbean island’s key oil, arms and grain supplier for 30 years, until subsidies propping up the economy of Fidel Castro’s revolutionary government fell to a trickle and then dried up entirely after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

“We need to reestablish positions on Cuba and in other countries,” news agency Interfax quoted Putin as saying at the weekly presidium meeting of key government ministers.

Just 144 km (90 miles) from the coast of U.S. state of Florida, Cuba still has no formal diplomatic ties with Washington D.C.

At the height of the Cold War in 1962, a two-week crisis over Soviet missiles on the island nearly led to full-blown war.

Putin’s remarks came after Russian Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin reported on a recent three-day visit to Cuba, where he discussed a raft of trade and investment issues and met with Raul Castro, Fidel’s brother and now the island’s leader.

“We agreed on a priority direction for cooperation, this being energy, the mining industry, agriculture, transport, health care and communications,” news agency RIA quoted Sechin as saying.

Via Random Nuclear Strikes (link), looks like the radical factions of the “animal rights” movement  have abandoned the “we only firebomb unoccupied buildings” modus operandi at UC Santa Cruz (link). Phil nails it:

They can no longer claim that they target only unoccupied structures and have now put themselves on the list of deadly threats.

The managers of the UC system were warned that these attacks would escalate until an occupied structure was attacked and/or someone was killed. But they treated the previous attacks as just a few over-exuberant “activists” who meant no harm.

No more. If they show up on the front lawn of another staffer, that staffer now has the right to use deadly force to repel the threat.

Unfortunately, like most low-life criminals, these folks strike when they believe you’re asleep, and you can’t lay in waiting for some potential attacker to strike.  One thing you can do is write your congressional rep and ask them to speak in favor of exempting animalrightsterror-supporting groups like PETA.  PETA justifies actions like these on their website by comparing them to the Underground Railroad (link):

“Don’t animal rights activists commit ‘terrorist’ acts?”

The animal rights movement is nonviolent. One of the central beliefs shared by most animal rights activists is the belief that we should not harm any animal-human or otherwise. However, all large movements have factions that believe in the use of force.

“How can you justify the millions of dollars of property damage caused by the Animal Liberation Front (ALF)?”

Throughout history, some people have felt the need to break the law to fight injustice. The Underground Railroad and the French Resistance are examples of movements in which people broke the law in order to answer to a higher morality. The ALF, which is simply the name adopted by people who act illegally in behalf of animal rights, breaks inanimate objects such as stereotaxic devices and decapitators in order to save lives. ALF members burn empty buildings in which animals are tortured and killed. ALF “raids” have given us proof of horrific cruelty that would not have otherwise been discovered or believed and have resulted in criminal charges’ being filed against laboratories for violations of the Animal Welfare Act. Often, ALF raids have been followed by widespread scientific condemnation of the practices occurring in the targeted labs, and some abusive laboratories have been permanently shut down as a result.

Let me reverse engineer these people’s thought process- they believe animal have the right not to be used as pets, for work, or for food, countering thousands of years of human existence, and that you don’t have the right to decide for yourself.  The same page continues:

 ”It’s fine for you to believe in animal rights, but why do you try to tell other people what to do?”

Everybody is entitled to his or her own opinion, but freedom of thought is not the same thing as freedom of action. You are free to believe whatever you want as long as you don’t hurt others. You may believe that animals should be killed, that black people should be enslaved, or that women should be beaten, but you don’t always have the right to put your beliefs into practice. The very nature of reform movements is to tell others what to do-don’t use humans as slaves, don’t sexually harass women, etc.-and all movements initially encounter opposition from people who want to continue to take part in the criticized behavior.

So you think that’s a far-cry from where we are today.  Oh, now we’re only being told we can’t eat trans-fats, we shouldn’t smoke in public, we’re too fat, we should utilize less climate control and give up SUV’s, but how far are we from the animal rights folks’ utopia?  Consider that Spain recently granted primates many human rights (link), a legislative victory for the Great Ape Project.  Ok, I don’t want apes tortured or abused, but do you think that is the end game of the Great Ape Project? 

Let’s put it in their words (link):

“This is a historic moment in the struggle for animal rights,” Pedro Pozas, the Spanish director of the Great Apes Project, told The Times. “It will doubtless be remembered as a key moment in the defence of our evolutionary comrades.” …

But Mr Pozas said that the vote would set a precedent, establishing legal rights for animals that could be extended to other species. “We are seeking to break the species barrier — we are just the point of the spear,” he said.

The goal of the Great Ape Project is to get the UN to draft a declaration of the rights of primates along with its declaration of the rights of man (which, of course has been enforced heartily- bwaaahaaaa). (link)

The community of equals is the moral community within which we accept certain basic moral principles or rights as governing our relations with each other and enforceable at law. Among these principles or rights are the following:

1. The Right to Life
The lives of members of the community of equals are to be protected. Members of the community of equals may not be killed except in very strictly defined circumstances, for example, self-defense.

2. The Protection of Individual Liberty
Members of the community of equals are not to be arbitrarily deprived of their liberty; if they should be imprisoned without due legal process, they have the right to immediate release. The detention of those who havenot been convicted of any crime, or of those who are not criminally liable, should be allowed only where it can be shown to be for their own good, or necessary to protect the public from a member of the community who wouldclearly be a danger to others if at liberty. In such cases, members of the community of equals must have the right to appeal, either directly or, if they lack the relevant capacity, through an advocate, to a judicial tribunal.

Seriously, I believe apes have the right to apeel- apeel of banana, but they really want due process for monkeys.  Unbelievable.

In case there was any argument that our government is NOT so bloated that it’s self-destructive, this article by David Bedein today in the Philadelphia Evening Bulletin should help dispel it (link):

Jerusalem - Steven Emerson, executive director of the Washington-based Investigative Project on Terrorism, said violent Islamist groups have directly benefited from State Department dollars. He asserted that the money has found its way into these groups hands through department-funded Islamic outreach efforts, both at home and abroad.
In July 31 testimony, Emerson urged Congress to review the State Department’s interaction with organizations such as the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the Palestinian American Research Center and the Islamic Society of North America and Citizen Exchange Program (ISNA). He said, in testimony before the House Committee on Foreign Affairs’ Subcommittee on Terrorism, Nonproliferation and Trade, Congress should assert greater oversight over the department due to allegations it hosts Muslims, convicted or indicted in terrorism cases.
“The question is: Why should the State Department spend U.S. taxpayer dollars to work with Islamists who actively oppose the foreign policy goals of the United States and subscribe to a supremacist, oppressive ideology?” Mr. Emerson asked during his testimony. “The fundamental question boils down to: Is the State Department using the Islamists to advance its agenda, or are the Islamists using the State Department to advance their own?”
Republican members of the U.S. House and U.S. Senate have expressed their own concerns over alleged State Department outreach efforts potentially involving violent groups. Sens. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., and John Kyl, R-Ariz., have written to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice urging her to stop funding groups that support what the senators termed “a radical Islamic ideology.”

This is also why I’m against government “faith-based” initiatives. 

As you’d guess, I’m not a big Labor Day guy, but I’d prefer it to this (link): 

SHELBYVILLE, Tenn. — Some workers at a local plant will no longer to be able to take their Labor Day holiday because of religious reasons.

Workers at the Tyson Foods poultry processing plant in Shelbyville will no longer have a paid day off on Labor Day but will instead be granted the Muslim holiday Eid al-Fitr.

According to a news release from the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, a new five-year contract at the plant included the change to accommodate Muslim workers at the plant.

I believe we’ve found a pulse on the Grand Old Party (link)!

House Dems turn out the lights but GOP keeps talking

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and the Democrats adjourned the House, turned off the lights and killed the microphones, but Republicans are still on the floor talking gas prices.

Minority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) and other GOP leaders opposed the motion to adjourn the House, arguing that Pelosi’s refusal to schedule a vote allowing offshore drilling is hurting the American economy. They have refused to leave the floor after the adjournment motion passed at 11:23 a.m., and they are busy bashing Pelosi and her fellow Democrats for leaving town for the August recess.

At one point, the lights went off in the House and the microphones were turned off in the chamber, meaning Republicans were talking in the dark. But as Rep. John Shadegg (R-Ariz..) was speaking, the lights went back on and the microphones were turned on shortly afterward.

But C-SPAN, which has no control over the cameras in the chamber, has stopped broadcasting the House floor, meaning no one was witnessing this except the assembled Republicans, their aides, and one Democrat, Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich (D-Ohio), who has now left.

Only about a half-dozen Republicans were on the floor when this began, but the crowd has grown to about 20, according to Patrick O’Connor.

“This is the people’s House,” said Rep. Thaddeus McCotter (R-Mich.). “This is not Pelosi’s politiburo.”

Democratic aides were furious at the GOP stunt, and reporters were kicked out of the Speaker’s Lobby, the space next to the House floor where they normally interview lawmakers.

“You’re not covering this, are you?” complained one senior Democratic aide. Another called the Republicans “morons” for staying on the floor.

Political theater or not, this is what the GOP should be doing.  If you’re no different than the Dems, there’s no point to your existence.  Finally!

Found at Survivalblog (link).  Where would you be if this happened? (link)

U.S. Intel: Iran Plans Nuclear Strike on U.S.

Tuesday, July 29, 2008 9:00 AM

By: Kenneth R. Timmerman

Iran has carried out missile tests for what could be a plan for a nuclear strike on the United States, the head of a national security panel has warned.

In testimony before the House Armed Services Committee and in remarks to a private conference on missile defense over the weekend hosted by the Claremont Institute, Dr. William Graham warned that the U.S. intelligence community “doesn’t have a story” to explain the recent Iranian tests.

One group of tests that troubled Graham, the former White House science adviser under President Ronald Reagan, were successful efforts to launch a Scud missile from a platform in the Caspian Sea.

“They’ve got [test] ranges in Iran which are more than long enough to handle Scud launches and even Shahab-3 launches,” Dr. Graham said. “Why would they be launching from the surface of the Caspian Sea? They obviously have not explained that to us.”

Another troubling group of tests involved Shahab-3 launches where the Iranians “detonated the warhead near apogee, not over the target area where the thing would eventually land, but at altitude,” Graham said. “Why would they do that?”

Graham chairs the Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States from Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) Attack, a blue-ribbon panel established by Congress in 2001.

The commission examined the Iranian tests “and without too much effort connected the dots,” even though the U.S. intelligence community previously had failed to do so, Graham said.

“The only plausible explanation we can find is that the Iranians are figuring out how to launch a missile from a ship and get it up to altitude and then detonate it,” he said. “And that’s exactly what you would do if you had a nuclear weapon on a Scud or a Shahab-3 or other missile, and you wanted to explode it over the United States.”

The commission warned in a report issued in April that the United States was at risk of a sneak nuclear attack by a rogue nation or a terrorist group designed to take out our nation’s critical infrastructure.

“If even a crude nuclear weapon were detonated anywhere between 40 kilometers to 400 kilometers above the earth, in a split-second it would generate an electro-magnetic pulse [EMP] that would cripple military and civilian communications, power, transportation, water, food, and other infrastructure,” the report warned.

While not causing immediate civilian casualties, the near-term impact on U.S. society would dwarf the damage of a direct nuclear strike on a U.S. city.

“The first indication [of such an attack] would be that the power would go out, and some, but not all, the telecommunications would go out. We would not physically feel anything in our bodies,” Graham said.

As electric power, water and gas delivery systems failed, there would be “truly massive traffic jams,” Graham added, since modern automobiles and signaling systems all depend on sophisticated electronics that would be disabled by the EMP wave.

“So you would be walking. You wouldn’t be driving at that point,” Graham said. “And it wouldn’t do any good to call the maintenance or repair people because they wouldn’t be able to get there, even if you could get through to them.”

The food distribution system also would grind to a halt as cold-storage warehouses stockpiling perishables went offline. Even warehouses equipped with backup diesel generators would fail, because “we wouldn’t be able to pump the fuel into the trucks and get the trucks to the warehouses,” Graham said.

The United States “would quickly revert to an early 19th century type of country.” except that we would have 10 times as many people with ten times fewer resources, he said.

“Most of the things we depend upon would be gone, and we would literally be depending on our own assets and those we could reach by walking to them,” Graham said.

Well, good thing I have the tools and skills necessary to repair bicycles…

For one thing, it’s difficult to doubt the intention of Ahmadinejad.  On countless occasions, he’s talked about the fall of the US and Israel.  I agree with the sentiment that the Iranian people aren’t evil, and maybe someday we can find common ground with them.

It would be completely insane to allow them to have nukes, though.  Once again, the international community is not acting on its threats, and some countries and multi-national corporations are probably finding ways to do business with them.  Neither party’s Presidential candidate seems all that concerned about it.  I guess maybe they’re subcontracting it to Israel for political expedience.

With Olmert stepping down, this paves the way for a stronger Israeli leader to come in and deal with Iran.

I think this is inconsequential, because we already know that “national strategy” of groups like Ceasefire and their astroturf-grass-roots pals, but I did enjoy this story (link):

A trusted Pa. gun-control ally … and NRA spy?
By Jeff Shields

Inquirer Staff Writer

Mary McFate was the kind of volunteer the gun-control movement in Pennsylvania prized. By all accounts, she was dedicated and diligent, humble enough to stuff envelopes yet bold enough to lobby U.S. senators.
Now it seems that the CeaseFire PA board member may have been more versatile than anyone could have imagined. According to Mother Jones magazine, she was a spy for the National Rifle Association.

Mother Jones reported that McFate was in fact Mary Lou Sapone, who made headlines in the 1990 when it was revealed that she had been hired by a surgical-equipment company to infiltrate the animal-rights movement.

As McFate, the magazine reported, Sapone covertly infiltrated gun-control groups for more than a decade and received payment from private security firms and the NRA.

During that time, she inserted herself into some of the most important gun-control organizations in the country and was part of discussions on national strategy and policy.

Maybe they should have their members cross their hearts and hope to die before joining the board.

I guess this is one advantage that pro-2A groups have over others is that it’s fairly obvious if you do participate in shooting activities or don’t. Sure, someone could spy but they’d have to try harder.