Publius:

After watching these people wrangle over issues like Islam in the constitution and turning the south into an area controlled by religious militias affiliated with the major political parties, people are taking notice of the way these people rule and aren’t liking it. The constitution is actually pretty good now, and now that it is being read widely by the population, people aren’t as up in arms about it as they used to be, when they only knew what their leaders told them.

You need to read this one.

Posted by Ryan S. at 8:01 PM | Permalink | |

Right on the heels of the From the Earth to the Moon Special Edition DVD release (which would make an excellent Christmas gift for this blogger, by the way), Russia has announced thier Federal Space Agency's plans for the next 10 years:

What a difference four years makes: In 2001, when Mir plunged out of orbit, it looked as if Russia's space program was going down with it, scraping by on a budget of less than $200 million a year.

Today, boosted by Russia's oil revenue, the government has committed to a 10-year plan for space exploration, funded to the tune of $1 billion a year. That's far less than the price tag for NASA's 13-year, $104 billion plan to return to the moon. But while America's space effort is struggling with safety issues and tight budgets, Russia is now seen as having the world's safest, most cost-effective human spaceflight system.

Like NASA, the Russians plan to develop a new breed of spaceship: a winged craft called the Kliper, capable of carrying a crew of six and built in partnership with the European Space Agency. Like NASA, the Russians plan to work toward lunar landings in the latter half of the next decade, leading to the establishment of permanent moon bases as steppingstones to Mars and beyond.

Unlike NASA, the Russians plan to keep selling tickets to space, seeing it as a way to boost both budgets and public perception of the space program. Their goals are ambitious here as well, with plans to sell a trip around the moon for $100 million a seat.

Space tourism would not be a good idea with NASA's current lack of a positive reputation, but it will be interesting to see how far the Russians get in this plan. I'll be watching.

Wikipedia Space Race article

Posted by Ryan S. at 5:59 PM | Permalink | |

Scientists are reporting that Artic ice is melting faster. I will await Greenpeace going out in boats full of ice to try to cool it down, but these guys aren't blaming it on Global Warming as enviromentalists would define it.

The scientists stopped short of directly blaming the melting trend on global warming but said they have few other explanations at this point.

During the 1990s, a cyclical atmospheric circulation pattern called the Arctic Oscillation was believed to have been pushing sea ice out of the region and into adjacent waters. But the oscillation has weakened in recent years, and yet the melting continued and even accelerated.

“Something has fundamentally changed here, and the best answer is warming,” said Mark Serreze, another researcher at the snow and ice data center.

Sea ice records in the Arctic are sketchy before 1978. Since satellite observations began in earnest, researchers said Arctic ice has been retreating at a rate of more than 8 percent per decade.

It is quite possible, that like hurricanes, there was an increase in Artic ice in the 1960s-1970s, and the data is not accurate for then. This evidence is not conclusive.

Posted by Ryan S. at 4:15 PM | Permalink | |

Both of my home Senators (Santorum and Spector) voted Yea on Roberts. Biden voted no, but Carper voted Yea.

Complete Roll-Call List

Posted by Ryan S. at 3:17 PM | Permalink | |

New World Man made this quiz on who you line up with for the next Supreme Court nominee.
Here's my result:

JUDGE CONSUELO CALLAHAN
U.S. Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit, appointed by
G.W. Bush, 55 years old
Sort of an out-of-nowhere pick, this would be!
Though the New York Times mentioned her on
9/20. A judge since 1992, serving on
California Superior and Appeals courts until
her elevation to the federal bench in 2003.


New World Man presents: My favorite candidate for the Supreme Court

Posted by Ryan S. at 7:49 PM | Permalink | |

Illegal immigrants are increasing despite tighter border security and now outnumber foreigners moving to the United States legally.

Now the why is economics, I realize that (it is becuase the economy is on the upswing). However, if we had a great guest-worker program in place, it could be stopped.

Immigration and the national debt/federal budget. Issues the Bush Administration has failed me on.

Posted by Ryan S. at 9:27 PM | Permalink | |

Here on campus, Students in the Public Interest (SIPI) is having a Politically Incorrect night. It starts at 7:30PM Thursday in the Trabant Student Center Multipurpose room.

I will definately be there, and I encourage anyone from UD, as well as others to attend. Free food, and argument. Should be a blast!

Posted by Ryan S. at 8:23 PM | Permalink | |

I got a 37 out of 40, meaning I am 92.5% conservative. This is an OK test, but I like the ones with an X-Y axis better because they allow for more varied results. Liberal Delight did it first. He got a 9. According to the char, I am between Bob Dole and Reagan, while he is to the leftof Hillary, but the right of Ted "Jabba" Kennedy.

Posted by Ryan S. at 11:36 AM | Permalink | |

Long time passing. There is a drought of college men on campus these days, which I can certainly attest to. Glenn Reyonolds has an intersting TechCentralStation column about this:

One would be to treat it the way we treat other "underrepresentation" issues in higher education: By wondering what universities are doing wrong. There seems little doubt that universities have become less male-friendly in recent decades, to the point of being downright unfriendly in many cases. The kind of statements that are routinely made about males and masculinity in classrooms and hallways would get professors fired if they were made about blacks, gays, or many other groups. Sexual-harassment policies start with the presumption that men are guilty, and inherently depraved. And colleges now come at the tail-end of an educational system that is (compared to previous decades) anti-male from kindergarten on, meaning many males probably just want to get out as soon as they can.

While I never felt that schools were anti-male until I met some professors here, I can attest that "masculine activites" such as ball playing and other physical activites were regarded as aggressive behavior and either shunned or tightly regulated.

College, and college admissions, adds another degree to this. I, and more than a few of my white male friends feel that were we part of some group considered "diverse" that we would be paying less for college then we are now, making us wonder if we are really wanted here. There are groups for every ethnic group represented at the University (except for white males), and we get rape statistics thrown at us at every turn.

As I have written previously, favoring one group of people over another can never create equality, which seems obvious, until you realize that the supossed goal of favoring "diverse" people is equality:

Different, yet equal, (or separate but equal) is a concept not intrinsically grasped by human beings in the same way that labeling things as the same are. As an American white male, I endure the most of this top down inequality. Because fortune has favored me to be born as who I am now, I pay for the mistakes of my ancestors. Since white males wrote western history from the dawn of Rome up until about 1960, it must be wrong. Thus, since white males were favored under the "old" system, we must be "unfavored" as much under the new system. Anything America, which is run by white males, must be inherently wrong.

(11:57AM) Welcome Instapundit readers! (Thanks, Glenn!)

Posted by Ryan S. at 10:15 AM | Permalink | |

Captain's Quarter's blog has a nice writeup on the new to-be-unfolding Canadian Liberal scandal. The Liberals started a national gun registry in hopes of slowing or stopping gun crime. Besides being conceptually ineffective, as most criminals buy illgeal guns anyway, the audit for the program is due, but apparently being sat on.

Using this, the Conservatives may be able to retake the government:

Conservatives hope that Adscam and the Gun Registry audit will provide a one-two punch that will inspire a no-confidence motion in the Commons to launch new elections. If so, they had better hope that the electorate has a longer attention span that they did with the initial Gomery revelations, which only provided a window of a few weeks this past spring where the Tories could have grabbed control of the government.

Posted by Ryan S. at 10:54 AM | Permalink | |

Bill Frist is under investigation:

WASHINGTON - Blind trusts are designed to keep an arm’s-length distance between federal officials and their investments, to avoid conflicts of interest. But documents show that Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist knew quite a bit about his accounts from nearly two dozen letters from the trust administrators.

Frist, R-Tenn., received regular updates of transfers of assets to his blind trusts and sales of assets. He also was able to initiate a stock sale of a hospital chain founded by his family with perfect timing. Shortly after the sale this summer, the stock price dived.

A possible presidential contender in 2008, Frist now faces dual investigations by the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York and the Securities and Exchange Commission into his stock sales.

Posted by Ryan S. at 8:29 AM | Permalink | |

This is not the first time in history that Iraqis have been unable to agree on a government. The Middle East, 1920:

1920: In 1919, the British and French implemented the 1916 Sykes-Picot Agreement and divided the Arab world into nation-states. The League of Nations recognized these borders and allotted "mandates" to the French and British to govern these states until it was determined that they were ready for independence.

David Fromkin writes in A Peace to End All Peace that in 1920, when Iraq was the British territory of Mesopotamia:

"When, in line with the American principles being adopted- or at least affected- in London, the Cabinent instructed Arnold Wilson to ask the peoples of Mesopotamia what states or governments they would like to see established in their area, Wilson's reply was that there was no way of ascertatining public opinion.

While he was prepared to administer the provinces of Basra and Baghdad, and also the province of Mosul (which with Clemencau's consent, Lloyd George had detatched from the French spehere and intended to withhold from Turkey), he did not believe that they formed a coherent entity. Iraq (an Arab term that the British used increasigly to denote the Mesopotamian lands) seemed to him too splintered for that to be possible. Mosul's strategic importance made it seem a necessary addition to Iraq, and the strong probability that it contained valuable oilfields made it a desirable one, but it was part of what was supposed to have been Kurdistan; and Arnold Wilson argued that the warlike Kurds who had been brought under his administration "numbering half a million will never accept an Arab ruler."

A fundamental problem, as Wilson saw it, was that almost two million Shi'ite Moslems in Mesopotamia would not accpet domination by the minority Sunni Moslem community, yet "no firm Government has yet been envisaged, which does not involve Sunni domination." The bitterness between the two communities was highlited when each produced a rival Arab nationalist society. "

Fromkin continues:

"Gertude Bell, working on her own plan for a unified Iraq, was cautioned by an American missionary that she was ignoring rooted historical realities in doing so. "You are flying in the face of four milleniums of history if you try to draw a line around Iraq and call it a political entity! Assyria always looked to the west and east and north, and Babylonia to the south. They have never been an independent unit. You've got to take time to get them integrated, it must bedone gradually. They have no conception of nationhood yet."

Now that Iraqis have some understanding of nationhood (as well as tyranny, at least under Saddam), perhaps a truely unified Iraq under representational government is not such a far off lofty goal. This is up to the Iraqis themselves, and the United States and Euroupe should do everything to encourage infrastructure in the country. Iraq can be a great nation if it does not fall apart.

Posted by Ryan S. at 10:57 PM | Permalink | |

While today's Day By Day sums it up perfectly:


Work is getting done, despite the DeLay.

Sen. Tom Coburn, R-OK, was successful yesterday in securing Senate passage of an amendment that he believes "will lift the veil of secrecy that conceals the process of inserting special projects - or pork - into appropriations bills."

The Coburn amendment was successfully attached to the Agriculture Appropriations bill and was approved by the Senate on a 55-39 vote. The measure must be approved by the House and signed by President Bush in order for it to become law.

Read the whole thing.

Porkbusters Archives are these Links.

Posted by Ryan S. at 11:05 AM | Permalink | |

I guess this is where I fall. It actually does seem about acurate. It really depends on what test I take, but I like this graph. Ex-Donkey did it first.

You are a Social Conservative (38% permissive) and an... Economic Conservative (80% permissive) You are best described as a: Republican Link: The Politics Test on Ok Cupid

Posted by Ryan S. at 11:54 PM | Permalink | |

Here's how to find out who has promised cuts and who hasn't. I plan to call my Representative (Mike Fitzpatrick) tomorrow or Thursday. In the meantime, Alabama Senator Richard Shelby (R) agreed to give up allocated funds for Katrina relief. Nancy Pelosi is a well, unfortunately, Tom DeLay and Don Young (Mr. Bridge to Nowhere) are not.

The Conservative Republican Study Committee chaired by Mike Pence has offered up 23 peages of cuts. I don't agree with everything in there, but it is a damned good place to start.

Posted by Ryan S. at 3:04 PM | Permalink | |

This is getting "real media" (non-blog) attention!
Wall Street Journal (via Instapundit):

The idea of a pork-for-reconstruction swap had already been denounced as "moronic" by a spokesman for Don Young of Alaska, Chairman of the House Transportation Committee and proud father of the now-infamous $223 million "bridge to nowhere" near Ketchikan. Since then the White House and Congressional Republican leadership have been acting as if the cost of Katrina relief should have no impact on the course of an administration that has presided over the fastest growth in discretionary spending since Lyndon Johnson.

But thankfully, a grassroots Internet campaign and a handful of House GOP conservatives have refused to give up on the idea that spending cuts should be found to defray the estimated $200 billion federal price tag for hurricane relief. In the Senate, John McCain is proposing a similar pork-for-Katrina swap.

The Internet campaign picks up on the idea of revisiting the earmarks in the Highway Bill. A Web site called Porkbusters (www.truthlaidbear.com/porkbusters.php) helpfully lists these projects by state and directs readers to the appropriate Representatives and Senators to ask what they would cut. Around the country a flood of letters to local newspapers has echoed the theme.

And if revisiting the Highway Bill is too much to ask, how about a one-year moratorium on all non-defense earmarks for fiscal 2006? Rep. Ron Lewis (R., Kentucky) proposes just that in a "Dear Colleague" letter dated Monday. Other suggestions include across-the-board spending cuts at federal agencies of 2.5 cents on the dollar and delaying the introduction of the Medicare drug benefit by a year. We should be hearing more today when members of the House Republican Study Committee -- led by consistent spending hawks such as Mike Pence, Jeb Hensarling and Jeff Flake -- announce "Operation Offset" and a list of specific options to find savings in the budget.

Glenn also has links to other mentions. Hopefully some stoppege of spending results from this.

Posted by Ryan S. at 12:52 PM | Permalink | |

Revolutionary are those in the Arab world clamoring for liberal democracy. Frederick Turner summarizes this nicely:

The velvet revolution (also named the orange revolution, the purple finger, the rose revolution, the cedar revolution) has swept the world. In different ways, nonviolent, non-ideological middle-class and skilled-worker mass movements have unseated tyrants and established democracies in an amazing range of countries: Spain, Portugal, Chile, Argentina, Poland, East Germany, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Russia, Bangladesh, South Korea, Indonesia, the Baltic states, Mexico, Serbia, Albania, Georgia, the Ukraine, the Philippines, Lebanon, even Palestine, all fell to the regimes of popular sovereignty. China nearly fell in 1989, with the Tiananmen protest, and will become a democracy some time in the next twenty years. If there is one defining event that characterizes the end of twentieth century political modernism, it is this one.

The suicide bomb, with the mass terrorism it epitomizes, is the weapon of choice against the velvet revolution. The target is not, as well-meaning critics of terrorism say, indiscriminate: it is exact and precise. The target is any population that might organize a velvet revolution, the potential sovereigns of a democratic state. It is people who are not ideological, who are willing to let others believe what they want, who want to make a living and be independent, and who want a say in their government. Even in Israel, where it was the citizens of an already-established democratic state that were being attacked, the true target, as we are now coming to understand after the death of Arafat, was the nascent democracy of Palestine. By killing Jews, Arafat could continue to oppress and defraud Palestinians.

Global terrorism is not a revolution, but an attempt to suppress a revolution. What is being defended by suicide terror is not Islam, not traditional moral culture, not the ethnic nation yearning to be free of the colonial oppressor, but the principle of totalitarian rule -- the sovereignty of the dictator or the ayatollah, promoted as national self-identity and independence, or as the will of God. It is the last gasp, historically, of the ancient system by which the huge majority of human beings were ruled since the Neolithic agricultural revolution.

Posted by Ryan S. at 11:27 PM | Permalink | |

Porkbusters!

Here are the project details:

Identify some wasteful spending in your state or (even better) Congressional District. Put up a blog post on it. Go to N.Z. Bear's new PorkBusters page and list the pork, and add a link to your post.

Then call your Senators and Representative and ask them if they're willing to support having that program cut or -- failing that -- what else they're willing to cut in order to fund Katrina relief. (Be polite, identify yourself as a local blogger and let them know you're going to post the response on your blog). Post the results. Then go back to NZ Bear's page and post a link to your followup blog post.

I've been trying to find some in my home Congressional District, Pennsylvania's 8th, but have been unsucessful as of yet.
UPDATE 2 (7:29): Found some in at least part of my district (entered as statewide because I could not find what district this project was specifically, it could cut thorugh 3 or 4): Roosevelt Boulevard improvements by the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation $ 3,200,000

Also, none for Delaware, so I am going to get on that. Any help would be appreciated!

UPDATE (7:22): Found a lode of pork for Delaware just by going through Subtitle G of H.R. 3 (that gross Transportation Bill). I found $80,300,000 worth of pork (click the link and scroll), and I know there is more out there! My favorite is the one million to improve pedestrain and bicycle access here at the University of Delaware. That Roselle!

UPDATE 3 (9/26/2005 8:28AM) Welcome Beltway Blogroll readers! Stick around and see what you like!

Posted by Ryan S. at 12:55 PM | Permalink | |

Michelle Malkin has a picture of the car that the Sierra Club used to transport Arianna Huffington, and it's a big-un!

Reader Doug, who posts at FreeRepublic.com, sent this photo, which he took while covering the Sierra Club's national summit in San Francisco last weekend. The handsome, full-size sport utility vehicle pictured above is a Chevy Suburban. It was sent by the anti-SUV environmental puritans of the Sierra Club to pick up fellow, eco-zealot Arianna Huffington, who gave rousing, Bush-bashing, closing remarks at the eco-summit.

Yes, Arianna "Why I Drive a Toyota Prius" Huffington. Yes, Arianna "SUV drivers enable terrorism" Huffington.

Posted by Ryan S. at 11:12 AM | Permalink | |

I lamented earlier here, as well as some other places, about the fall of fiscal responsibilty in the current administration/Congress. Let's hope there are enough to cut this spending spree!

One fiscal conservative, Senator Tom Coburn, Republican of Oklahoma, said Thursday, "I don't believe that everything that should happen in Louisiana should be paid for by the rest of the country. I believe there are certain responsibilities that are due the people of Louisiana."

Senator Jim DeMint, Republican of South Carolina, called for restoring "sanity" to the federal recovery effort. Congress has approved $62 billion, mostly to cover costs already incurred, and the price tag is rising. The House and Senate approved tax relief Thursday at an estimated cost of more than $5 billion on top of $3.5 billion in housing vouchers approved by the Senate on Wednesday.

"We know we need to help, but throwing more and more money without accountability at this is not going to solve the problem," Mr. DeMint said.

Their comments were in marked contrast to the sweeping administration approach outlined by Mr. Bush in his speech from New Orleans and a call by Senate Republican leaders for a rebuilding effort similar to the Marshall Plan after World War II. Congressional Democrats advocated their own comprehensive recovery program Thursday, promoting a combination of rebuilding programs coupled with housing, health care, agriculture and education initiatives. The president also emphasized the importance of private entrepreneurship to create jobs "and help break the cycle of poverty."

I love Pat Toomey:

"There has never been a time where there is more total spending and more wasteful spending in Washington than we have today," said Pat Toomey, a former Republican congressman from Pennsylvania and the head of the conservative Club for Growth. "There is ample opportunity to find the offsets we need so that this does not have to be a fiscal disaster as well as a natural disaster."

Posted by Ryan S. at 1:24 AM | Permalink | |

At least this is a step in the right direction, though I'd love to see more private interests in space. If these new lunar missions capture the public's interest like the Apollo missions did in the 60's (and early 70's), then it is quite possible that this could lead to private space exploration.

WASHINGTON – NASA briefed senior White House officials Wednesday on its plan to spend $100 billion and the next 12 years building the spacecraft and rockets it needs to put humans back on the Moon by 2018.

The U.S. space agency now expects to roll out its lunar exploration plan to key Congressional committees on Friday and to the broader public through a news conference on Monday, Washington sources tell SPACE.com.

NASA’s plan, according to briefing charts obtained by SPACE.com, envisions beginning a sustained lunar exploration campaign in 2018 by landing four astronauts on the Moon for a seven-day stay.

The expedition would begin, these charts show, by launching the lunar lander and Earth departure stage (essentially a giant propulsion module) on a heavy-lift launch vehicle that would be lifted into orbit by five space shuttle main engines and a pair of five-segment shuttle solid rocket boosters.

Posted by Ryan S. at 3:40 PM | Permalink | |

CAIRO - Al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden is in poor health and is seeking medical attention, the London-based Arabic newspaper al-Hayat said on Wednesday, quoting a U.S. officer in Afghanistan.

"Osama bin Laden is trying to obtain medical attention," Colonel Don McGraw, director of operations at the Combined Forces Command in Kabul, told a group of British reporters, including one from al-Hayat, it said.

"He (McGraw) refused to say what the al-Qaida leader is suffering from or whether it is the same kidney disease which Pakistani officials said in the past he was suffering from," the newspaper added.

Al-Hayat said it was not clear how the U.S. military had obtained its information or where it thought bin Laden might be

Posted by Ryan S. at 10:29 AM | Permalink | |

I write, of course, from Japan. You know, the Japan that makes social-democrat/third-way types feel all warm and fuzzy? The Japan in which enlightened technocrats, enshrined in the federal ministries in Kasumigaseki and insulated from elections and politicking and evil market forces and stuff, guide the nation toward a bright nationally-insured future? Yeah, the bloom is somewhat off the economic rose, but in social policy terms, a lot of my left-leaning acquaintances still swoon over the degree of ministry control here.

Well, I will tell you as someone who has lived here for a decade: what you hear about disaster preparedness ALWAYS involves local intiatives. . . . In Japan, what we're told is this: A disaster may render you unreachable. It may cut you off from communication networks and utilities. The appropriate government agencies (starting at the neighborhood level and moving upward depending on the magnitude of the damage) will respond as quickly as they can, but you may be on your own for days until they do. Prepare supplies. Learn escape routes. Then learn alternate escape routes. Know what your region's points of vulnerability are. Get to know your neighbors (especially the elderly or infirm) so you can help each other out and account for each other. Follow directions if you're told to evacuate. Stay put if you aren't. Participate in the earthquake preparation drills in your neighborhood.

If that's the attitude of people in collectivist, obedient, welfare-state Japan, it is beyond the wit of man why any American should be sitting around entertaining the idea that Washington should be the first (or second or fifteenth) entity to step in and keep the nasty wind and rain and shaky-shaky from hurting you. Sheesh

Posted by Ryan S. at 10:24 AM | Permalink | |

While appearing on Meet the Press this past Sunday, Sen. Arlen Spector (from my home state), said he would not ask specifics of John Roberts on Roe v. Wade.

I think it is inappropriate to ask him head-on if he's going to overturn Roe, but I believe that there are many questions close to the issue, like his respect for precedent. He has emphasized his concern about stability, and we'll get a better idea of his views.

And again on Meet the Press:

I'll be asking him what he thinks about congressional power contrasted with the court's power, not how he's going to decide a specific case, but what his views of jurisprudence are, to get an idea as to how he would approach these issues.

Spector said these and other similar remarks all day Sunday, yet today at the hearing:

By 9:40, he already had dodged the particulars of Roe v. Wade four times.

"I feel the need to stay away from a discussion of specific cases," he said.

"I think I should stay away from discussion of specific issues," he demurred.

"I do feel compelled to point that I should not ... agree or disagree with particular decisions," he persisted.

"That's something that I'm going to have to draw the line in the sand," he offered.

Senate Judiciary Chairman Arlen Specter, R-Pa., had wasted no time in grilling Roberts on one of the big issues of the day _ abortion _ and Roberts wasted no time in displaying his skills at the artful dodge.

This is ridiculous pandering and backpeddling by Spector. I am glad Roberts can smell litmus test a mile away.

Posted by Ryan S. at 11:33 AM | Permalink | |

Spending is out of control:

With almost no debate and with precious few provisions for oversight, Congress has passed President Bush's mammoth $62 billion request for emergency Katrina relief. House Speaker Denny Hastert says the final total will "probably [be] under the cost of the highway bill" that Congress passed last month with a pricetag of $286.4 billion.

Despite such sums, there are few calls for offsetting cuts in other programs, apart from antiwar opportunists who see in Katrina a chance to undermine the Iraq effort. Last week Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma asked White House Budget Director Josh Bolten if he planned to continue to pursue budget reductions the administration had already proposed in its January budget. Mr. Bolten said he "didn't have time" to worry about that.

All this leaves Mr. Coburn and other budget hawks wondering what has happened to what might be called "the Republican wing of the Republican Party." "The president could exercise leadership by insisting that we set priorities and offset the cost of Katrina relief by making changes elsewhere," says Mr. Coburn. "Sadly, we don't have that leadership."

Neither the White House nor Congress appears to be in any mood, for example, to revisit the highway bill's 6,373 "earmarks," or individual projects for members, worth $24.2 billion. Alaska's Rep. Don Young, chairman of the House Transportation Committee, has bragged that the bill is "stuffed like a turkey" with goodies for his state. It includes $721 million for Alaska, including a $2.2 million "bridge to nowhere" connecting the town of Ketchikan (population 8,900) to an airport on Gravina Island (population 50). Another bridge, in Anchorage, has a $200 million price tag and is considered such a marginal project that even the Anchorage Chamber of Commerce opposes it.

Sen. Tom Coburn is absolutely correct. The money needs to come from somewhere. John Fund continues to go on and compare this administration with that of FDR and Truman.

Posted by Ryan S. at 8:43 AM | Permalink | |

This is the flag that was draped over the scarred piece of the Pentagon. It now hangs in the American History Museum of the Smithsonian, where I took this picture. I will never forget 9-11 and those whose lives were lost. My life was forver changed that Tuesday morning. Though I am not a 9-11 conservative, it has become my cause for doing what I do. I hope that although that there is much suffering because of Katrina, the nation will still pause to remember the sacrifices of those who gave their lives needlessly to terror while they at thier jobs or traveling. We should do as much as we can to prevent another attack such as this. Please spend at least a couple minutes today to reflect.

Posted by Ryan S. at 12:27 AM | Permalink | |

GLOBAL JIHAD
Al-Qaida's spectacular
'Ramadan Offensive'
Bin Laden plans for terrorist strikes
against U.S., Europe next month
Posted: September 8, 2005
9:02 p.m. Eastern

By Joseph Farah
© 2005 WorldNetDaily.com

WASHINGTON – Raising new concerns about the use of weapons of mass destruction by terrorists, al-Qaida is planning spectacular attacks next month against the U.S., Russia and Europe in what it is calling the "Great Ramadan Offensive."

The offensive, designed to overshadow the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on New York and the Pentagon, was first referenced in a May 30 letter written by al-Qaida's Iraq commander Abu Musab Zarqawi to Osama bin Laden. It is the subject of a report written by terrorism expert Yossef Bodansky, the former director of the Congressional Task Force on Terrorism and Unconventional Warfare, to government officials. Bodansky's report was first exposed in a story by CNSNews.com reporter Sherrie Gossett.

Ramadan, the holiest period in the Muslim calendar, begins Oct. 4 this year and lasts a month.

Zarqawi characterizes the attacks as a "fateful confrontation" with the U.S. and Israel.

Airports in Italy and the Netherlands are referenced as specific potential targets, and Italy is already on high alert for possible terrorist attacks.

A Zarqawi operative named Abu Abdul Rahman al-Jazaeri is considered a key figure in the planned Italy attacks. He is believed to be in the country, but eluding authorities.

Details of the operation came from intercepted communications between top al-Qaida leaders about two weeks ago.

"I think that the plan for the next stage that was drawn up has reached you or is on its way to you," said Zarqawi's letter to bin Laden. "O God. Make the expedition of Osama proceed toward its goal ... We await your orders as to the next stage of the plan."

Bodansky says plans for attacks against Europe are being finalized in the Balkans, while preparations for attacks on Russia are being completed in Chechnya. Attack plans against the U.S. are being directed from the tri-border area in Latin America.

He also concludes that al-Qaida leaders have interpreted the devastation of the Gulf Coast by Hurricane Katrina as a sign that Allah is pleased with their plans.

The alarming report comes weeks after WND and G2 Bulletin broke a series of stories on al-Qaida's "American Hiroshima" plan – 10 years in the design stages – to detonate one or more nuclear weapons in major cities in the U.S.

Intelligence analysts and sources disagree on the details of the way bin Laden's "American Hiroshima" plan unfolds. Some G2 Bulletin sources emphasize bin Laden's commitment to re-enacting the 1945 attack on Japan with one nuclear detonation, followed by another days later.

Paul Williams, author of "The Al-Qaeda Connection," however, sees a much more devastating, coordinated, all-out, surprise attack coming.

"The next attack, according to al-Qaida defectors and informants, will take place simultaneously at various sites throughout the country," he writes. "Designated targets include New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Miami, Chicago, Washington, D.C., Houston, Las Vegas, and Valdez, Alaska, where the tankers are filled with oil from the Trans-Alaska pipeline. To orchestrate such an incredible event requires not only the shipment of the nukes into the United States but also the establishment of cells, the training of sleeper agents, the selection of sites, and the preparation of the weapons without detection from federal, state or local law enforcement officials. Unlike 9-11, that cost less than $350,000, this event already has cost a king's ransom, and bin Laden will not waste the billions in expenditures, the years of planning and his coveted 'crown jewels' on an attack that is ill-planned, poorly timed and carelessly coordinated."

Other sources interpret some of the same information, based on captured al-Qaida operatives and documents as well as defectors, differently. They project an escalating series of attacks, each followed by blackmail demands upon the U.S. government and the American people.

In any event, both kinds of spectacular nuclear terror attacks require pinpoint coordination and secure communication.

Williams also says al-Qaida is determined to locate tactical nuclear weapons that were forward-deployed by the Soviet Union during the Cold War. These weapons were reportedly buried at remote sites throughout the country for recovery by Soviet agents.

"There is no doubt that the Soviets stored material in this country," says Rep. Curt Weldon, R-Pa., chairman of the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Military Research. "The question is what and where."

Bin Laden may have a considerable head-start in the search given his predilection toward hiring former Soviet special forces officers whose job it was to know something about these plans.

U.S. officials have reportedly ordered the excavation of several sites believed to be possible depots.

Russian defector Stanislav Lunev told congressional investigators nuclear suitcases had been buried throughout the U.S., and that he could not pinpoint the locations because Russian military leaders continue to believe a nuclear conflict with the U.S. is still "inevitable." He said the only hope of finding them would be if the Russian government disclosed the locations.

During the same hearings, Belgian officials testified they found three secret depots containing tactical nukes buried by the Soviets in the 1960s.

As WorldNetDaily and G2 Bulletin have reported, al-Qaida has obtained at least 40 nuclear weapons from the former Soviet Union – including suitcase nukes, nuclear mines, artillery shells and even some missile warheads. In addition, documents captured in Afghanistan show al-Qaida had plans to assemble its own nuclear weapons with fissile material it purchased on the black market.

The plans for the devastating nuclear attack on the U.S. have been under development for more than a decade. It is designed as a final deadly blow of defeat to the U.S., which is seen by al-Qaida and its allies as "the Great Satan."

At least half the nuclear weapons in the al-Qaida arsenal were obtained for cash from the Chechen terrorist allies.

The plans for the devastating nuclear attack on the U.S. have been under development for more than a decade. It is designed as a final deadly blow of defeat to the U.S., which is seen by al-Qaida and its allies as "the Great Satan."

Posted by Ryan S. at 9:30 PM | Permalink | |

Another step to FOX News taking over the world!

Rupert Murdoch’s media conglomerate News Corporation said on Thursday it will acquire the video game web site company IGN Entertainment for $650 million in cash as the latest purchase of the company’s online spending spree.

News Corp bought Myspace eariler this year.

Hoefully Rotten Tomatoes will basically stay the way it is, and IGN will suck less.

Posted by Ryan S. at 5:47 PM | Permalink | |

Yesterday Egpyt had presidential elections, the first time in history with more then one candidate. Though turnout was low, it was nonetheless an important step for reform and democracy in the Middle East. One that will could be looked upon as a watershed event, 5, 10, 25 years in the future. The Economist recoginizes this:

And if the changes in many countries remain shallow, the whole floor of public debate has clearly shifted to questions of when and how to reform, rather than why. This is true even of regional laggards such as Libya, Saudi Arabia and Syria, which have all taken wobbly first steps towards wider public participation in government. Where bigger steps have been taken, such as in Egypt, the public appetite has been whetted rather than appeased. “This election was just a drill, which the government would never have accepted without foreign badgering,” admits an Egyptian official. “But it sets the stage for parliamentary elections that may get really interesting.” These are due in November. If debate stays lively until then, a lot more Egyptians may actually bother to vote.

Read the whole thing.

UPDATE: (5:41PM) Irregularities?

Posted by Ryan S. at 4:39 PM | Permalink | |

Was it Navy Seals? Wired is warning that terrorists don't do movie plots:

The problem with movie plot security is that it only works if we guess right. If we spend billions defending our subways, and the terrorists bomb a bus, we've wasted our money. To be sure, defending the subways makes commuting safer. But focusing on subways also has the effect of shifting attacks toward less-defended targets, and the result is that we're no safer overall.

Terrorists don't care if they blow up subways, buses, stadiums, theaters, restaurants, nightclubs, schools, churches, crowded markets or busy intersections. Reasonable arguments can be made that some targets are more attractive than others: airplanes because a small bomb can result in the death of everyone aboard, monuments because of their national significance, national events because of television coverage, and transportation because most people commute daily. But the United States is a big country; we can't defend everything.

Unfortunately, this is absolutely correct. Defending our country against terrorism is an almost impossible ask when you break it down. However, change in the Middle East will end terror. Suicide bombers generally aren't employed familymen.

Posted by Ryan S. at 8:06 AM | Permalink | |

Glenn Reynolds of Instapundit has some great lessons that beauracracy can learn from Katrina. Hopefully they, especially FEMA, will, but chances are they will not.

SOME KATRINA LESSONS: We're going to see a plethora of commissions and inquiries (most about as useful and non-partisan as the 9/11 Commission), but here are a few lessons that seem solid enough to go with now:

1. Don't build your city below sea level: If you do, sooner or later it will flood. Better levees, pumps, etc. will put that day off, but not prevent it.

2. Order evacuations early: You hate to have false alarms, but as Brendan Loy noted earlier, even 48 hours in advance is really too late if you want to get everyone out.

3. Have -- and use -- a plan for evacuating people who can't get out on their own: New Orleans apparently had a plan, but didn't use it. All those flooded buses could have gotten people out. Except that there would have had to have been somewhere to take them, so:

4. Have an emergency relocation plan: Cities should have designated places, far enough away to be safe, but close enough to be accessible, to evacuate people to. Of course, this takes coordination, so:

5. Make critical infrastructure survivable

There are nine in all, plus a a large amount of commentary and response. You need to read the whole thing.

Posted by Ryan S. at 9:03 PM | Permalink | |

Neil Armstrong seems to think so.

"It will be expensive, it will take a lot of energy and a complex spacecraft. But I suspect that even though the various questions are difficult and many, they are not as difficult and many as those we faced when we started the Apollo (space program) in 1961."

Hopefully, NASA still sees Mars as a goal.

Posted by Ryan S. at 3:38 PM | Permalink | |

I have now been blogging for one year. It has been a great experience, and hopefully you have learned something from this past year of blogging.

Please note, my blog address has changed. The training wheels are off! I am now at jokerstotheright.com! Update your bookmarks accordingly.

So much has happened in one year. I started college, the fall of Dan Rather, the reelection of George W. Bush as President, the return to space by NASA astronauts, and now the disaster we now face on the Gulf Coast. I have learned so much in the past year, and this blog has been apart of it, helping me to keep on top of the news, better informing myself and those who know me (willingly or not). Thanks for reading, and keep on doing so.

Posted by Ryan S. at 12:00 AM | Permalink | |

Mississippi, not Louisiana, was directly hit and hardest hit by Hurricane Katrina. Why isn't there more coverage? Becuase Mississippi is recovering. And Haley Barbour is repsonsible for this. I've said it before, and now one of Chrenkoff's readers is taking notice:

I really don't like to find fault at times like this, but one thing that was missing was a quick recognition that in such a situation the potential for civil collapse is nearly 100%. Once the weather settles, you need to immediately declare marshal law and send in the MPs. That's basically what Haley Barbour did in Mississippi - there were a few early problems but very quickly the MPs were patrolling what was left of Biloxi and Gulfport and keeping a lid on things. Back on Tuesday when I put on the news and we all saw Kathleen Blanco bursting into tears, I knew that was the wrong message and would bring trouble. Louisiana and New Orleans basically have those touchy-feely, "I'm okay, you're okay" soft-leftie types in charge. Their education took a few days and has been expensive.

Read the whole thing.

Posted by Ryan S. at 11:51 PM | Permalink | |

I read a lot, and it is good to see best-selling authors contribute to Katrina.

Anne Rice, author of Interview With A Vampire, among other works, has an op-ed in the New York Times. She is a New Orleans native.

One of my favorite writers is also from the Gulf. John Grisham, author of A Time to Kill and The Pelican Brief (among others) is donating $5 million dollars:

"I wonder how many of these homes are uninsured, how many are insured