Haitians Wait Desperately for Relief That Hasn't Come?

WTFO???!! (Martha Raddatz is a total effin' idiot)

Less than 3 days after an earthquake happened in one of the most Turd World countries in the hemisphere, a place with just about zero infrastructure, and we get bubbleheads carping about 'delays'?

Well...
No you don't young lady - get a grip and stop this nonsense this instant!
Somebody! Anybody! Please! Slap her already! And while you're at it could you smack some of the morons in the comments of her article as well.

The only way aid could be getting where its needed any faster than it is would be if they used teleporters to 'beam' it in. Oh wait, this is reality, and we don't have any teleporters.

I'm sure I'm not the only one who finds it amusing when people who probably have trouble remembering to make a grocery list sit around second-guessing a massive extemporaneous relief effort, one on a scale they can't possibly imagine.

All this reporter had to do was drag her keester down to the airport: she hasn't a freakin' clue.

PJTV, American Exceptionalism and Elements of Power

Excellent! Bill Whittle at PJTV takes the President and the Pissant (Bill Maher) to school on American Exceptionalism, and does so hitting 3 of the 6 Elements of Power in proving his point via Military, Economic, Scientific and Cultural examples.

I believe his 'Scientific' examples have roots in the Cultural, Demographic, Organizational, Military and perhaps even Geographic Elements of Power (but that probably would have made the video too long).

I've been busy: Part 2

Road Trip!
(Click on one for a larger image)

So. When the heck did they put the Bird Cuisinarts in East of Snyder?
There was a tornado reported in this Thunderhead over Roswell, NM.
Saw well over a hundred head of deer in groups of 5 to 20 on the road up to Cloudcroft. At least I didn't come close to hitting an elk this time.....
OK, 'Holloman' or keep heading West?
Head West! Passing a train at the Continental Divide.

"Where Y'all From?"

I get that a lot here at home...

I don't usually go for these online quizzes, but this one brought out my curious streak. I'm a Texan. My Mom was a San Antone girl with Texas roots back to the days of the Republic and who had never left the state until she married my Dad. My Dad's Mother was a West Texas Girl (believe it: there is a distinct sub-group) and she met my Granddad in Texas. I lived in North and South Texas for about half my school-age years, and have been back home now about 5 years, after trying to get back ever since I retired from the Air Force.

But because my Father was first in the military and then a 'Migrant Aerospace Worker', between my childhood and adult lives I've also LIVED in Oregon (Born there - a Texan born 'overseas' as it were), Alabama, Florida, Kentucky, Kansas, Connecticut, California, Colorado, Nevada, Alaska, Arizona, Utah, and Iceland. I've visited Canada, Europe, and the Carribbean and have actually visited every state except Hawaii. Everywhere I've gone in the States EXCEPT the South, people usually assume I'm a local (But after five years my "Y'all" is starting to come naturally again).

THIS is what happens when you live everywhere:

What American accent do you have? Your Result: The Midland "You have a Midland accent" is just another way of saying "you don't have an accent." You probably are from the Midland (Pennsylvania, southern Ohio, southern Indiana, southern Illinois, and Missouri) but then for all we know you could be from Florida or Charleston or one of those big southern cities like Atlanta or Dallas. You have a good voice for TV and radio.
Philadelphia
Boston
The Northeast
The West
The Inland North
The South
North Central
What American accent do you have? Quiz Created on GoToQuiz

You sound like you are from anywhere.

My Wife is just as bad or worse. Born in Maine into a career Air Force family, she slips from one speech pattern to another as easily as anyone I've ever seen or heard. We visited my folks in England in the early 80's and everyone thought we were Canadian at first. After a month in the 'Shires', I think everyone we met assumed I was a Canadian who had married a Brit.

I do love answering local friendly cashiers who seem to doubt my Texian origins and who frequently ask us "Where are Y'all from?". I usually have to throw in a few gratuitous "Y'alls" and "fixin' to's" to convince them that I really am a local boy.

The only downside I've experienced as the oldest child and the only one who followed my Dad's 'Aero Bracero' ways, is I sometimes have to ask for a translation from my siblings who haven't moved around nearly as much or as far.

Brit Sailors Held Hostage - OK lets Recap

Since the Hostages were taken from Iraqi waters under the pretext they were in Iranian waters:

1. British servicemen and woman had their uniforms taken away and made to read ridiculous statements about their alleged “guilt” of straying into Iranian waters.

2. Furthermore, the female sailor was forced to wear a head cover in keeping with Iranian law and the local mullah’s interpretation of the faith.

3. The female hostage reads on camera a ‘heart-wrenching’ statement to her young offspring.

4. Britain started working furiously to get the EU off their collective fat a** and make Iran feel the pain for their piracy. (also making polite statements about the unhelpful situation)

5. Iran said it would release the female hostage.

6. Iran ‘changed their mind’ and decided to keep the woman as hostage, saying to Britain: “We’re unhelpful? Well, we don’t like your attitude”

7. Britain keeps working furiously to get the EU off their collective fat a** and make Iran feel the pain for their piracy.

8. The Mad Mullahs and the twerp (Ahmadinejad) tried to whip up a frenzy in the populace, that didn’t seem to work all that well.

9. Somewhere in this process it comes out the Persians want some of their boys back and this is all revealed as a tit-for-tat play. (Wonder how much they REALLY asked for?) Problem all around for the good guys: the US can’t care about this MORE than the Brits, but the Brits can’t do the tit-for-tat without US help (the US has the ‘tat’ in hand while Iraq has the UK’s…)

10. The US stands by our friend’s decision, but it looks like it will be on the basis that the UK demands a better deal. I write ‘looks like’ because there is nothing to indicate the UK wasn’t also quietly telling the Mullah’s about Newt’s idea:

Look Chaps, if it were just up to us, we would be more cooperative, but my stout Friend here thinks we should just cut off your oil and gas flows and watch you squirm a while, so you shall be reasonable fellows won’t you?

11. The EU informs the UK that under no condition will they get off their fat a**, but they will send a very nice letter of regret.

12. President George Bush is roundly tut-tut’ed about using the word (gasp!) ‘Hostages’.

13. Iran sees this scheme isn’t playing well on the home front either and says “deal, but we get to parade the hostages around one more time”.

14. The Hostage’s loved-ones back home are ecstatic about the announced upcoming release. Apparently not knowing the President was tut-tut’ed, one is quoted as saying:

"They should never have been taken hostage in the first place. They shouldn't have been using them for propaganda".

15. In what is probably proof-positive Iran didn’t like how this was playing out at home and abroad, they actually send the Hostages home and declare victory.

16. Everyone wants credit. Syria is claiming a role in the release.

17. Oh no! Syria was fitting that fabulous ‘Dhimmi Dahling’ Nancy Pelosi for a burqa at the time. How long before she claims credit as well?

Anyway, enough of the politics! I'm sure there will br much more hand-wringing and recriminations to go around for a while.

Welcome home to my Brothers-and-Sister-in-Arms!

I can hardly wait to hear things from your various perspectives in the future.....

Update 04/06/07
Well I wish now I had seen the Brit's press conference after they got back in the UK before I posted last night. If I had, I would have looked for the full videos of them in captivity instead of relying on quick clips, still pics and written reports on what they looked like and how they conducted themselves. Since the press conference's reading of a prepared written statement looked a lot like CYA to me I got a real uneasy feeling, so I thought 'let's go to the videotape' . Ugh - it made me physically ill.

Of course, no one can say exactly what they would or wouldn't have done unless they were there, but I can't imagine any of the Brits I worked with in the 80's or now EVER smiling for a captor's camera UNLESS it was supported by an obscene gesture.

My personal lesson-learned in all this is: Don't rely on excised video clips and stills with transcripts when there are full recordings out there.

The feeling I have now for these guys (including their command structure), is basically the same feeling I had once on jury duty. I want to scream -- "c'mon guys, give me something positive in your defense!"

Kidnapped Brits Update (Triple Dog Dare Continued)

I decided to watch this situation closely for a while, and so far it hasn’t disappointed.

I could boastfully claim clairvoyance with my ‘Triple Dog Dare’ scenario in the earlier post, but that would be just 'wrong', and well...way over the top.

I mean, it is far more useful to point out that the best alternatives to follow are SO obvious an old ‘ammo troop’ can see what needs to happen just as easy as a former Speaker of the House (Hugh Hewitt podcast).

Later in the week on HH, Guest-Host Congressman John Campbell had Victor Davis Hanson on and asked him (podcast) what he thinks should be done to get the kidnapped British servicemen and woman back, and he suggested what was in all reality a much better answer involving world and more specifically EU economic sanctions. I guess it never occurred to me to try that path because I considered it infeasible – and for obvious reasons, I still do.

Note: read the comments below the article in the last link. Britain has as many ‘Blame the UK First’ idiots as we have of the ‘Blame America First’ variety.

Woah! – ‘Instapundit’ found the same Guardian article worthy of mention.....and the EU gets 'Insta-smacked'!

Iranians Like Taking Those Hostages Don't They?

Taking Hostages is the First Instinct of a Second-Class Tyrant
I started to post this bit as a comment to this piece at In From The Cold, then I decided my verbosity could end up stealing a lot of blog space that wasn't mine, so let me me now just give Spook 86 his 'hat tip' from this locale and using my own bandwidth.

To an outsider this misadventure would appear to be a pretty clever move by the Iranians (or some subset thereof from this point forward referred to at 'they' and derivitaves thereof) whereby Iranians hope they can pull off another fast one if they:

1. Don't provoke the 'Great Satan 'directly
2. Can get the desired results by scooping up Coalition partner troops.

Spook 86 makes a good summary of the likely game they are playing, i.e. 'swapping' the Brits kidnapped from Iraqi waters for the pile of Iranian 'operators' we seem to have been collecting lately.

This act speaks volumes as to how the Iranians think and what they believe. If they thought for one minute that we (U.S and/or Great Britain) would take immediate and forceful punitive steps against them, they never would have done it in the first place. That they opted to take Britons instead of Americans, tells us they were betting on a more tepid response than if they had tried to do the same against the U.S. That they got the intial response they were looking for has to give them a sense of confidence in their operation to date (let us hope that it is as misplaced as I think it is).

So What is Iran's Plan B?
I don't think the Iranians really thought this through very well at all. The likelihood of a quick ending to the situation through a swap of kidnap victims for prisoners is, I believe, small...unless the Iranians who were captured in Iraq also happen to be in UK custody.

Spook 86 points out that this kind of move is a desperate one, and I don't think we will have to escalate this very much before the Iranians decide maybe it wasn't such a good idea after all. Iran, as poorly connected to the world as it is, is very much dependent upon Globalization and the rule sets that connected nations have to abide by. They are feeling the crunch economically already, and even the nit-noi sanctions imposed in the shadow of the kidnappings provide a little more torque to the 'limited' clamps now placed on Iran.

They also know they are vulnerable to energy sanctions from both ends of the issue, as while they are a major producer of crude oil, they are a major importer of gasoline as well. And all oil out or gasoline going in has to get by the Coalition.

I think the Iranians are expecting a little tit-for-tat for now. I'd like to think we would decide to break protocol and 'Triple-Dog Dare' Iran with a blockade until the Brits are returned unharmed. If that doesn't work, it would be trivial effort to anonymously (or not, if one prefers) 'shack' only a very small number of aimpoints some moonless night that would temporarily stop their existing refinery output as well. Re-apply as necessary.

We'll have to listen to the cries of inhumanity ala the Iraq Sanctions for only a little while. The Iranians will either come to their senses or not. But, I think we'll know fairly quickly if the Iranians have any desire to kick off Praying Mantis II .

Updated 03/23/07 in the AM: Added Link to 'rule sets'

The Geographical Element: An Introduction

Six Elements of Power: Geographical

Gee! There is a lot going on in the world that I’d love to weigh in on, but I promised myself I’d take care of all the groundwork and housekeeping first.

Anyhoooo…..The Geographical Element is one that most people wouldn’t think of in terms of National Power unless they really stop and think about it.

The Geographical Element of power is all the net power of a Nation-State that comes from its physical location and composition. Geography is the one element that is influenced least by a society: unless that society is engaged in something like Westward Expansion, building empires, or engaged in other means to gain geographical territory.

Geography enables counties with lots of arable land in the right latitudes to build on their economic power through agriculture. It enables tribal fiefdoms, who would otherwise be marginal actors on the world stage, to wield disproportionate influence on world affairs simply because they are sitting on large percentages of exploitable energy resources. Geography keeps darned near the entire Canadian population living within 50 miles of the US border.

Geography preserved the English people when Hitler found out he couldn’t cross a channel as easily as he had marched across Western Europe. Geography is the reason the country (and canal) of Panama even exists, and why Communist China (PRC) seeks to expand its influence there today. There are so many more examples, and no time to even hit all the best ones....