The Daily Good News

Iraqi Poll Finds positive attitude in citizens

2005-12-15T10:09:00.000-05:00

Read about it here

Harriet the Tortoise is 175 Years Old

2005-11-16T07:45:00.000-05:00

Happy Birthday to the World's Oldest Animal!

New Project

2005-11-11T15:02:00.000-05:00

The Daily Good News has gotten to be a bit less than "daily" lately, I know. I've involved myself in a couple of other things, which leaves less time for this site. DGN has accomplished its main purpose - which was to straighten out the bad attitude I had picked up from being a news junkie - news that, unless you dig a bit, is overwhelmingly presented negatively. In the past year of working on this site, I've discovered an amazing array of good things that are happening in virtually every arena of life.

Anyway, my new project is www.SoldierImages.com and www.HeroesandPatriots.com. Either address will, at this point, take you to the same site. Take a look. Also, associated with that site is a new blog, which you can find here.

Have a look if you get the chance. Thanks for reading.

Google Offers to "Unwire" its hometown

2005-11-11T09:18:00.000-05:00

Internet giant Google is offering to cloak its home city in Silicon Valley with free wireless "Wi-Fi" computer service, the company confirmed.

Google's proposal to "unwire the city" will be considered by the Mountain View city council on Tuesday, according to Ellis Berns, manager of economic development in the town where Google has its headquarters.

Right now, we can't see a downside," Berns told AFP. "It seems like a pretty positive deal for the city."

Berns said his staff studied Google's offer and will recommend it be accepted by city council members. If the deal is accepted, Google will turn all of Mountain View into an Internet "hot spot" by June 2006, Ellis said.

"Providing free Wi-Fi access in Mountain View is one way Google can support the citizens and businesses in the community where we are headquartered," said Chris Sacca of Google's new business development unit.

"This proposal is in the spirit of making the world's information easily and quickly accessible."

story

Florida Citizens Jump with Golden Knights

2005-11-11T07:13:00.000-05:00

With all the stories of schools refusing to allow military recruiters on campus, this is welcome news.

---

"One attendee of the tandem jump clinic said he already had a plan to share his Army skydiving experience with the community. Vice Principal of Palm Harbor High School Seymour Brown said his Golden Knights’ jump would be broadcast during the school’s morning announcements, written about in the school newspaper, and shared with the nearly 2,400 students at the school near Tampa.

Brown, who is one of five vice principals at the school, explained the story of his skydive could open up discussion with students at his school who are interested in learning more about the military as a career.

“Our school is academically ranged within the top 1 percent of the nation,” Brown said. “We do have a lot of students who would like to venture into one of the military branches. They are fascinated by the fact they can use their math and science skills…and the possibility they could fly for either the Army or the Air Force. There is that avenue and interest in my school.”

Brown’s calm demeanor prior to his jump changed dramatically after the successful skydive. Laughing and slightly out of breath, he thanked his Golden Knights jump partner and posed for a few photos.

“There’s nothing like coming out at 13,500 (feet),” Brown said with a smile. “I can’t wait for the students to hear this on the morning announcements. This was great!”

Blogger Heads to Iraq to Embed with Marines

2005-11-07T16:15:00.000-05:00

Godspeed.

The "Quagmire" Continues...

2005-11-07T12:55:00.000-05:00

Iraq is planning to build a hotel and theme parks to attract tourists to "Venice of the East."

Don't they know their whole country is in shambles and that things were better under Saddam? I guess they haven't been reading the NY Times over there...

Michigan Dad Loses 230 pounds to Enlist

2005-11-07T11:35:00.000-05:00

Great Story. What an inspiration:

FORT SAM HOUSTON, Texas, Nov. 4, 2005 – When a recruiter stopped by to talk to his son, Roderick Evans was the one sold on the military. The Detroit home health care specialist had a passion for helping others and a desire to make a difference.

Army Pvt. Roderick Evans, from C Company, 232nd Medical Battalion, practices the "fireman's carry" as part of combat medic training. Photo by Elaine Wilson (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available.

A military medical career sounded like a perfect fit.

The recruiter, on the other hand, saw a different picture. He took one look at Evans and said, "You're just too big."

At 5 feet, 7 inches and 418 pounds, Evans could hardly disagree.

But instead of easing the rejection with his usual overdose of comfort foods, he went on a weight-loss crusade. Fueled by sheer willpower and a determination to join the military, the 36-year-old finally conquered a lifelong battle with his weight. Three years and 230 pounds lighter, Evans again saw a recruiter. This time, he was met with a much different reception.

"He had me come down to his office for a (fitness) test," said Evans, now 39 years old and a svelte 165 pounds. "I passed with flying colors and signed up for the Reserves on the spot."

As a combat medic student at the Army Medical Department Center and School here, Evans now serves as a motivator for his fellow soldiers, a role he never anticipated when growing up on the streets of Detroit.

"It was rough," Evans said. "You had to either be the big guy so no one messed with you or you had to know how to fight. I was the big guy."

Evans' mother, a single mother of four, worked at two jobs to keep a roof over their heads. Evans became "papa" at home, cooking and cleaning for his siblings.

As a teen, his size was an advantage in football. That and his passion for the marching band kept him fairly fit and out of trouble, he said. He continued with both in college at Grambling University, in Louisiana, then signed on as a trombone instructor and vocal teacher at his alma mater. Evans taught there for 14 years.

Over the years, a love of sweets turned the 260-pound teen into a 418-pound man.

When his brother became sick, Evans and his wife, La Tanya, moved back to Michigan to help with his brother's three children. Evans took a job as a sales manager at a clothing store and a night job in home health care.

At 36, Evans was frustrated by his physical condition. "I couldn't walk from the couch to the door without sitting down," he said. "But I didn't want to push back from the table."

Although he worked in a clothing store, his own shopping trips were a dreaded nightmare. When he went shopping, he didn't ask the salesman to show him where the jeans were or for a style tip, he asked for the largest size in the store. Sometimes even the largest size wouldn't fit.

"That's when my wife would turn to me and just say, 'It will be OK,'" Evans said. "She knew how bad I felt."

But it wasn't until the recruiter walked in that Evans pushed his plate away. He got up from the couch and started walking, then running. With smaller portions and a steady diet of gym trips, the weight flew off.

"I never lost sight of my goal (joining the Army)," Evans said. "Even at 418 pounds I never gave up. That's just who I am."

A much slimmer Evans enlisted in July and traveled to Fort Sam Houston to start combat medic training. He is once again a father figure, but this time for the younger soldiers, who call him "pops."

"I watch over them and try to keep them motivated," Evans said. "I'm up early and running and yelling and keeping the soldiers going at (physical training)."

"Private Evans motivates me every time I see him in front of the company," said 1st Sgt. Armand Fermin, C Company, 232nd Medical Battalion. "His performance and attitude are phenomenal. He energizes me and the cadre and provides the younger soldier medics a positive role model."

Evans said his fellow trainees always ask him where he gets his energy. "I tell them I do it because I couldn't at one time," he said. "If I could fly, I'd fly."

Right now he is flying through training, and his leadership is helping him to obtain a few other goals -- to become an active duty officer and a nurse.

"I feel like a different person," Evans said. "I'm the same on the inside, but now my energy level matches my inner drive. I have the energy to do what I want to do."

Regarding his surgery- and prescription-free weight loss, "If you get it in your head that you can and will beat this, you will," he said. "Say today, not tomorrow. I won't cut off, but cut back. Try not eating sweets for a week, anything that will motivate you."

Evans still avoids candy bars and most sweets, and doesn't give them a second thought. His primary focus is on his military future. "I'm aiming for 20 years in the Army," he said. "It took me a long time to achieve this goal and I'm going to keep going until I can't."

Former al Qaeda Training Site Now a Ghost Town

2005-11-02T07:51:00.000-05:00

Former al Qaeda Training Site Now a Ghost Town
By Pfc. Vincent C. Fusco, USA
Special to American Forces Press Service

KANDAHAR AIRFIELD, Afghanistan, Oct. 28, 2005 – The compound within the 10-foot-tall mud walls resembles a basic training-meets-OK Corral ghost town.

Army Sgt. Sean Oeder (left) a dog handler with the 67th Mine Dog Detachment, and Army Sgt. 1st Class Mike Ford, an operations noncommissioned officer with A Company, 391st Engineer Battalion, examine a crater in the ruins of a bombed-out building outside the Tarnak Farms terrorist training site. Army photo (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available.

Barbed wire is snarled around posts low to the dirt, a concrete tunnel keeps vermin out of the sun, and small ramps and stairs to nowhere stand like monoliths.

This place is known as Tarnak Farms, a deserted al Qaeda training outpost just outside Kandahar Airfield that was bombed at the beginning of the global war on terror. If the site appears familiar to some, it should be. Released al Qaeda training videos featured anti-coalition militia training there. It was the third-largest al Qaeda training center in Afghanistan, next to Tora Bora in Nangrahar province and Zaewara in Paktia province.

"When I got here, I did a little research and discovered that Tarnak Farms was the headquarters for al Qaeda and could possibly even be where al Qaeda got its name," said Army Sgt. 1st Class Todd Hutchings, a DuPont, Wash., native. "It means 'the base.'"

The area surrounding Tarnak Farms has since been converted into a firing range. Hutchings, a force protection noncommissioned officer with Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 173rd Airborne Brigade, has been to the site numerous times in support of range operations.

more here

Twins Help Each other through basic training

2005-11-02T07:49:00.000-05:00

U.S. Marine Corps
Pvts. Cody L. and Kyle D. Wombles
Twins Help Each Other Through Basic Training

By Pvt. Charlie Chavez
Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego
MARINE CORPS RECRUIT DEPOT SAN DIEGO, Calif., Nov. 1, 2005 — "Recruit Wombles times two!" yelled the drill instructor as two heads popped up simultaneously. Acknowledging the call, they both rose to their feet and ran to the front of the barracks.

Cody L. and Kyle D. Wombles grew up in the small town of Pleasant Hill, Ill. Living in a town with less than 1,000 people, the two Company F recruits welcomed the idea of being identical twins in a new, ethnically diverse environment with new experiences.

Said Cody: "The only way our drill instructors can tell us apart is by the ... "

" ... mole on my face," said Kyle, finishing his twin's thought.

They take turns finishing each other's sentences, and they do it frequently.

"Other recruits in the platoon always tells us how lucky we are and how they wish that their brothers could be here training with them," said Kyle.

Taking on the challenge of joining the military was an ambition the twins shared as young boys.

"We decided on the Marines because it looked like it was the hardest," said Kyle as Cody nodded his head in agreement. "Our mother didn't want us to go, but we told her when we turned 18 we were going to join."

"They probably put it mildly," said their mom Cheryl Wombles about their choice.

After the several discussions and heated words that the family shared, she ultimately found herself supporting their decision to join.

"Kyle didn't voice his opinion to want to leave Illinois as much as Cody, but they both want to see different things," said Cheryl.

After a year of persuasion the twins, who were born on Dec. 17, 1986, got their mother to sign the parental consent form to allow them to join at 17.

"She signed our papers and we asked our recruiter to get us to go as soon as possible," said Cody.

"But he didn't have any open spots until after the summer," said Kyle.

Putting themselves on the waiting list for open spots, the two did encounter an opening, but for only one of them.

"At first I was ready to take it," said Cody. "Then I realized it wasn't enough time to say goodbye to everyone, so I passed it up."

In early August, the twins finally made it into boot camp as infantrymen.

Having each other to rely on during training has helped them to excel and make it through. In a letter that Cheryl received from Kyle, she believed that he was becoming homesick and needed reassurance.

"I told him that he needed to buck up and take it like a man," said Cheryl. "I also told his brother to look out for him, which makes me look hard, but I knew they would be fine."

The twins followed their mother's guidance and did well throughout training.

"They are basically joined at the hip," said Sgt. Jefferson A. Rivas, Platoon 2126, Company F drill instructor. "Whenever one reports for something, instead of picking them apart they both come up."

Showing their drill instructors that they have no problems getting through training, both recruits averaged about the same score on almost every competitive event.

"Every time we went through the obstacle course, the drill instructors would make us race one another," said Kyle.

"Most of the time we were pretty even, but occasionally I beat my brother," finished Cody.

The twins' kindred mind-set made boot camp easier to bear.

"When the drill instructors would count down to get us to do things quickly, other recruits were digging through their stuff to look for what was asked," said Kyle. "My brother and I would be much further ahead of everyone else because without a word my brother would have what I needed or I would have what he needed."

Doing everything alike in a place where conformity is comfortable only helped the twins excel with no problems except for small heckling.

"During chow, the drill instructors would ask the second one of us why we were in line trying to get seconds," said Kyle.

Having completed the first part of their journey in the military, the Wombles twins look forward to the School of Infantry and a chance to see more of the world.

Under Reported Success in Iraq

2005-10-31T09:06:00.000-05:00

W. Thomas Smith Jr. on Iraq
Today at National Review Online

Purple-Ink & Other Under-covered Successes
Despite bleeding headlines, real progress is being made in Iraq.

By W. Thomas Smith Jr.

Lance Corporal Tara Pryor has been in Iraq for only three weeks. Already, she has learned that what readers glean from newspapers and television broadcasts back home are not as things really are.

“I am surprised,” says the 21-year-old Strongsville, Ohio, native who currently serves with the Marine’s 6th Civil Affairs Group in Fallujah. “The majority of the [Iraqi] people appreciate what we are trying to do.”

Pryor’s revelation is no surprise to those who have been there. Back home, military servicemen and women contend the daily fare from the various media ranges from disturbing to false to downright manipulative.

“I personally come from a family with varying ideologies,” Marine Col. John Toolan, who last year commanded Regimental Combat Team (RCT) 1 in Iraq, tells National Review Online. “When I come home and explain to them what I saw and what we are doing, their eyes kind of glaze over and they say, ‘gosh, we really didn’t have that perspective.’”

Instead the reported news is grim. The recent focus has been on the 2,000th U.S. soldier killed in Iraq: Opponents of the war eagerly anticipated and capitalized on that number for their own political aims, as if the losses of soldiers 1,998 and 1,999 were somehow not as great. But then propagandists throughout history often have used symbols — like a relatively high, round, even number — that can easily be remembered and thus accurately and frequently repeated for effect.

But the true story of Iraq is far different than what some would have the American public believe. It is story of enormous sacrifice, commitment, political, and military success, and a desire for freedom on the part of the Iraqi people that in many ways parallels our own War of Independence, 230 years ago.

What about America’s military successes and victories in Iraq? They are in many ways, immeasurable: A reality of the overall global war on terror.

What is known is that the war — in Iraq and elsewhere — is being waged and won by the U.S. and its allies. Effective intelligence is being gathered, terrorist cells are being destroyed, fewer countries are willing to harbor the bad guys, free elections have been held in two former totalitarian states, and the American mainland has not been successfully attacked in more than four years.

The latter can be attributed to what any good military commander knows is the ability to lure the wolf away from hearth and home and force him onto ground of one’s own choosing. In that way, the enemy can more easily be controlled, enveloped, and ultimately destroyed.

"Day and Night" Pressure on Terrorists
That is precisely what U.S. and British forces — and their allies — did by going into Afghanistan in October 2001 and Iraq in March 2003, though the original intent in both operations was to strike the enemy at his base. That Coalition forces have done with great effect. But as always, war spawns both unexpected military challenges and opportunities. The challenges in Iraq are myriad, and there is no shortage of pundits eager to point them out. The opportunities are also great, one of which is the fact that al Qaeda, sympathizing fighters, and much of their resources have been unwittingly drawn into that country. Now they are being systematically destroyed, most recently along the porous Syrian border with Iraq that has served as a terrorist crossing point.

Marine Major Neil F. Murphy Jr., a spokesman for Multi-National Force West, says in terms of kinetic operations, U.S. forces are applying relentless “day-and-night” pressure on the terrorists: capturing and killing scores, and seizing and destroying numerous weapons caches across the country, particularly from the Syrian border and into the Euphrates River Valley of the Al Anbar Province.

“We recently conducted Operations Iron Fist, River Gate, and Mountaineer, and we continue to conduct operations along the western border where we are interdicting terrorists and foreign fighters,” Murphy, speaking from Camp Fallujah, Iraq, tells NRO. “The amazing thing that gets me is that the insurgents have absolutely nothing to offer the people. They only kill and create misery, yet the media give them a platform. Bad news sells and the terrorists create plenty.”

On the flipside, Murphy says, there are lots of positive things happening in Iraq. “But those things don’t pull in the ad dollars,” he says. “Conflict outweighs progress in the news value rating we’ve all learned about in journalism class and that’s a hard nut to crack.”

Of course, there is more than one reason good news is cut out of the cycle, and much of it stems from how stories are covered today. Many reporters in Iraq are isolated in safe zones, venturing out only to cover dramatic events like bombings or the discovery of murdered victims. Far different than the spring of 2003, when the vast majority of the journalists in Iraq were embedded with Coalition forces racing toward various objectives during the war’s invasion phase. Then, all the news was on the move, and both good and bad news stories were witnessed and reported.

There is also the impatience factor.

“The real success in Iraq is the daily commitment and grind of our nation's G.I.s steadily transforming the Iraqi society from one of tyranny and oppression to one of democratic governance, opportunity, and freedom,” Brig. Gen. David L. Grange (U.S. Army, ret.), a CNN military analyst and the former commanding general of the Army’s 1st Infantry Division, tells NRO. But “the pace of this success does not move at a speed dramatic enough for our media to highlight.”

Iraqis, fighting for their future
Aside from U.S. operational successes, the Iraqis themselves are making enormous gains in terms of gathering intelligence, planning, and conducting combat operations independent of American forces.

“Iraqi Security Forces are taking more and more responsibility for the security of their own country,” Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, tells NRO. “[They are] providing the environment in which a working economy, and a democratic process can grow and prosper.”

Gen. Pace’s words were demonstrated during the mid-October elections where security was largely an Iraqi show. U.S. reaction forces were waiting in the wings, but not needed.

With Iraqis now pulling more of the internal security and policing responsibilities, U.S. and Coalition forces (including Iraqis) are able to concentrate on the isolated badlands like those found in the western-most sectors of the Al Anbar Province.

Toolan, who currently serves as director of the Command and Staff College at Marine Corps Base Quantico, Virginia, echoes the chairman’s sentiments, adding that the strength of the new Iraqi army is in its leadership.

“They are making great strides as far as a professional army is concerned,” he says. “Many of the Iraqi military officers have been fighting and leading at great risk and cost to their personal lives. I know individuals who have lost their homes. Their families have been kidnapped. Yet they remained with their units. They knew if they were to walk away and go home and protect their homes and families that would be an invitation for others to do the same. That kind of dedication you don’t forget.”

From the continued “standing up” of a professional Iraqi security force (military and police), the ongoing development of Iraq’s physical infrastructure, and the forming of a constitutionally based elected government, to the weakening of a now-desperate insurgency; progress is indeed being made.

Capitalizing on Death
Murphy points to the week of October 9-16 as an example: “There were almost 40 weapons caches destroyed. Schools and kindergartens were being refurbished. Men and women were voting. Iraqi Security Force units were patrolling and training was being conducted. All kinds of things that never get covered.”

Unfortunately, the 2,000th U.S. death, anticipated and since promoted by groups like MoveOn.org so they could launch their antiwar advertising campaigns, deliberately shoved any “good news” off the table. The strategy of manipulating the public with the number, deliberately skirted facts like all war is grim and costly; all losses are terrible; or that 1,000 American Marines perished in 76 hours on Tarawa (1943) and 19,000 U.S. soldiers were killed during the six-week (Dec. 1944-Jan. 1945) Battle of the Bulge. What’s worse, groups that promote death number-milestones as a means of discrediting America’s involvement in Iraq only incite the insurgents to do more of the same. The terrorists see their strategy as working on the American home front, which is their only hope since they cannot defeat us militarily — and they are losing politically — in Iraq.

Military family members like Gene Retske say they are “appalled” by those who would capitalize on death numbers. “It is so easy to vacantly mouth the words, ‘I support our troops,’ then go on to marginalize their worth and criticize the mission,” says Retske, whose son, David, is currently deployed with the U.S. Army in Iraq. “Our soldiers are struggling against brutal fascists, who would put us all to the sword if they could.”

He adds, “If you truly realize the value of what our brave people are doing and how meaningful and selfless they are by putting their lives on the line for what they believe, then you will have the respect to avoid trying to measure their contribution in body counts. Round numbers, where human lives are involved, have no relevance.”

According to Maj. Murphy, “the most troubling thing about casualty reporting — especially the 2,000 angle the media is reporting today — is that Americans are never told WHY by the collective press. There's no depth, no explanation that people in Iraq are free and moving toward a future and that it helps our shared future. Every mention of something positive is countered by the talking heads with a ‘yeah, but.’ They barely mentioned the ratification of the constitution, which is huge for the Iraqi people.”

Frustrating for the troops, says Col. Toolan. “Even the guys who have gone back three times know they are achieving something,” he says. “When they are in Iraq, they feel good, because they see the progress everyday. But when they come home they are discouraged by what they hear, see, read, etc.”

Many and Personal Successes
One such Marine is Corporal Adam Rean Bohlen, with RCT 8. He says that successes are many and often personal.

Each week, a particularly outgoing nine-year-old Iraqi girl and her mother, pass by Bohlen’s post in the city of Fallujah. The little girl is usually dressed in pink, and she smiles as she greets the Marines, hoping they have some drawing paper and crayons, which they often do.

“Her face lights up a worn-out Marine’s heart,” Bohlen says. “She is so eager to learn English and can even write the entire alphabet without help, on top of that, she already knows all of the Marine ranks by heart.”

Bohlen has an American flag taped to his rifle that has piqued the interest of the little girl. “One day she saw it as I leaned over to help her sit on a stool,” he says. “She asked if that was our flag. I said yes. She then put both of her thumbs up and said, “Good, go America.”

It is a reflection of the growing trust between Americans and Iraqis in former hells-on-earth for both sides like Fallujah.

Election-Day Tears
Marine Lt. Col. Rip Miles, the executive officer of RCT 8, says he was taken aback by what he witnessed in that city during the Oct. 15 elections.

“This turned out like a movie,” he tells NRO. “The brand new [Iraqi] police vehicles formed up the morning prior to the vote flying huge Iraqi flags. They loaded up and then pulled out of their compound, flags flying and police hanging off each vehicle. The police standing in the station doorway were in tears, they felt they were finally getting to do something important. You have to understand most are local boys.”

That night Miles was positioned on top of the Civil Military Operations Center in downtown Fallujah watching as the police brought in the ballots. “It was a helluva sight,” he says. “Lights flashing, sirens now and then, always in ones or twos, they kept coming. Flags still flying. It made me feel better about the price the Marines have paid for this town over the last year.”

This time last year, Fallujah was a bastion for guerrillas led by Jordanian-born terrorist mastermind Abu Musab al Zarqawi. The Marines were poised to take the city in the spring of 2004, but — after a political calling off of the dogs, followed by a weak attempt at seizing by an ill-prepared Iraqi brigade — the city held and Zarqawi’s numbers swelled into the thousands.

Then in November, U.S. Marines and soldiers along with Iraqi forces stormed the city. The insurgents were ready; armed to the teeth; positioned in houses, shops and mosques; and convinced the Americans would not engage them in close quarters battle. The insurgents were wrong. Fallujah became a veritable tooth-to-eyeball slugfest in which the Americans — often without their tactical edge in air, armor, and artillery — closed with Zarqawi’s headhunters and killed them.

Today Fallujah is a relatively quiet city where, two weeks ago, more than 105,000 people (mostly Sunnis) exercised their right to vote: A huge success by any measure, resulting from a newfound sense of security as well as the efforts of the city’s imams, sheiks, and civic leaders who encouraged the citizenry to go to the polls.

“The Iraqis are seeing this change in their own governance, and that makes them grow even stronger as a nation,” says General Pace.

A stronger nation indeed, but only if Americans back home cease the partisan bickering while our troops are committed in the field.

Yes, there have been lives lost — on both sides and among innocent non-combatants — enormous progress has also been made over the past year: For instance, the new Iraqi military has been established and continues to develop. Nationwide elections have been held, each time with a greater voter turnout than anticipated. The Sunnis are increasingly warming to the idea of democracy. A nationally unifying Iraqi parliament is slated to be elected in December. The economy is growing (though, thanks to the recklessness of the insurgents, with staggered starts and stops). The nation’s physical infrastructure is gradually improving. Women now have a voice. Girls and boys have a free future. And Saddam Hussein is on trial.

In the face of such progress and the purple-ink commitment of the Iraqi people, cutting and running is simply not an option. And public discussions of deaths for naught and exit strategies are not at all helpful.

“The reality is that in this world today with the interactive nature of everything that’s going on, there is no exit strategy,” says Toolan. “We are committed throughout the world. We are not going to exit from anywhere. It’s a long-term commitment to improve conditions that create these insurgencies.”

Certainly, stateside opponents of the war take heart in political bandying over whether or not America should cut and run. So too do the insurgents and others in the Persian Gulf region who want America out of Iraq so that democracy might be uprooted before it takes hold and spreads into neighboring countries. And as long as the bad guys are privy to the effects of casualty numbers used to promote campaigns by Americans hoping to withdraw troops from Iraq (no matter the strategic cost), the insurgency will continue. Bleak, unbalanced stories in American newspapers breathe life into the insurgency.

The bad guys know this. So should we.

— A former U.S. Marine infantry leader and paratrooper, W. Thomas Smith Jr. writes about military issues and has covered conflict in the Balkans and on the West Bank. He is the author of four books, and his articles appear in a variety of publications.

Surf New York?

2005-10-26T08:56:00.000-04:00

A surfer carves a bottom turn on a wave at a city beach in New York Tuesday, Oct. 25, 2005. Large waves pounded the northeast Tuesday, as the remnants of Hurricane Wilma churned offshore. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)

Iraq: Learning the Lessons of Vietnam - Melvin R. Laird

2005-10-21T11:38:00.000-04:00

Nixon's SecDef Speaks Out:

SETTING THE RECORD STRAIGHT

Richard Nixon was elected in 1968 on the assumption that he had a plan to end the Vietnam War. He didn't have any such plan, and my job as his first secretary of defense was to remedy that -- quickly. The only stated plan was wording I had suggested for the 1968 Republican platform, saying it was time to de-Americanize the war. Today, nearly 37 years after Nixon took office as president and I left Congress to join his cabinet, getting out of a war is still dicier than getting into one, as President George W. Bush can attest.

There were two things in my office that first day that gave my mission clarity. The first was a multivolume set of binders in my closet safe that contained a top-secret history of the creeping U.S. entry into the war that had occurred on the watch of my predecessor, Robert McNamara. The report didn't remain a secret for long: it was soon leaked to The New York Times, which nicknamed it "the Pentagon Papers." I always referred to the study as "the McNamara Papers," to give credit where credit belonged. I didn't read the full report when I moved into the office. I had already spent seven years on the Defense Subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee listening to McNamara justify the escalation of the war. How we got into Vietnam was no longer my concern. (Although, in retrospect, those papers offered a textbook example of how not to commit American military might.)

The second item was another secret document, this one shorter and infinitely more troubling. It was a one-year-old request from General William Westmoreland to raise the U.S. troop commitment in Vietnam from 500,000 to 700,000. At the time he had made the request, Westmoreland was the commander of U.S. forces there. As soon as the idea had reached the ears of President Lyndon Johnson, Westmoreland's days in Saigon were numbered. Johnson bumped him upstairs to be army chief of staff, so that the Pentagon bureaucracy could dilute his more-is-better philosophy during the coming presidential campaign.

The memo had remained in limbo in the defense secretary's desk, neither approved nor rejected. As my symbolic first act in office, it gave me great satisfaction to turn down that request formally. It was the beginning of a four-year withdrawal from Vietnam that, in retrospect, became the textbook description of how the U.S. military should decamp.

Others who were not there may differ with this description. But they have been misinformed by more than 30 years of spin about the Vietnam War. The resulting legacy of that misinformation has left the United States timorous about war, deeply averse to intervening in even a just cause, and dubious of its ability to get out of a war once it is in one. All one need whisper is "another Vietnam," and palms begin to sweat. I have kept silent for those 30 years because I never believed that the old guard should meddle in the business of new administrations, especially during a time of war. But the renewed vilification of our role in Vietnam in light of the war in Iraq has prompted me to speak out.

Some who should know better have made our current intervention in Iraq the most recent in a string of bogeymen peeking out from under the bed, spawned by the nightmares of Vietnam that still haunt us. The ranks of the misinformed include seasoned politicians, reporters, and even veterans who earned their stripes in Vietnam but who have since used that war as their bully pulpit to mold an isolationist American foreign policy. This camp of doomsayers includes Senator Edward Kennedy, who has called Iraq "George Bush's Vietnam." Those who wallow in such Vietnam angst would have us be not only reticent to help the rest of the world, but ashamed of our ability to do so and doubtful of the value of spreading democracy and of the superiority of freedom itself. They join their voices with those who claim that the current war is "all about oil," as though the loss of that oil were not enough of a global security threat to merit any U.S. military intervention and especially not "another Vietnam."

The Vietnam War that I saw, first from my seat in Congress and then as secretary of defense, cannot be wrapped in a tidy package and tagged "bad idea." It was far more complex than that: a mixture of good and evil from which there are many valuable lessons to be learned. Yet the only lesson that seems to have endured is the one that begins and ends with "Don't go there." The war in Iraq is not "another Vietnam." But it could become one if we continue to use Vietnam as a sound bite while ignoring its true lessons.

I acknowledge and respect the raw emotions of those who fought in Vietnam, those who lost loved ones, and those who protested, and I also respect the sacrifice of those who died following orders of people such as myself, half a world away. Those raw emotions are once again being felt as our young men and women die in Iraq and Afghanistan. I cannot speak for the dead or the angry. My voice is that of a policymaker, one who once decided which causes were worth fighting for, how long the fight should last, and when it was time to go home. The president, as our commander-in-chief, has the overall responsibility for making these life-or-death decisions, in consultation with Congress. The secretary of defense must be supportive of those decisions, or else he must leave.

It is time for a reasonable look at both Vietnam and Iraq -- and at what the former can teach us about the latter. My perspective comes from military service in the Pacific in World War II (I still carry shrapnel in my body from a kamikaze attack on my destroyer, the U.S.S. Maddox), nine terms in the U.S. House of Representatives, and four years as secretary of defense to Nixon.

Read the rest here

Iraq Insurgency will end with a Whimper

2005-10-21T10:48:00.000-04:00

So says Victor Davis Hanson in his, as usual, excellent Friday piece at National Review Online. Here's the conclusion:

"So when this is all over — and it will be more quickly than we imagine — there will be a viable constitutional government in Iraq. But the achievement will be considered either a natural organic process, or adopted as a success by former critics only at its safe, penultimate stage.

Most of us tragically will forget many of the American soldiers who courageously fought, died, and gave the Middle East its freedom and us our security. Purple fingers, not overloaded American helicopters taking off from the embassy roof, is the future of Iraq.

Yes, the terrorists’ assault against the Iraqi democracy will end — as all failed insurrections do — not with a bang but with a whimper."

Now go back and read the whole thing.

Jurassic-age Plant

2005-10-20T09:18:00.000-04:00

By Kathy Marks

The Wollemi Pine, a Jurassic-age plant that was believed extinct until a hiker stumbled across it near Sydney 11 years ago, is being made to pay its way.

To ensure its survival, Australian conservationists have propagated it and plan to auction the next generation at Sotheby's later this month.

The little-known tree is now being touted as the latest must-have garden accessory all over Australia.

The Wollemi was known only from fossil records until David Noble, a park ranger, discovered a small stand of trees in the Blue Mountains, 125 miles west of Sydney, in 1994.

He did not recognise them and took home a branch to show colleagues.

His discovery caused a scientific sensation.

It was dubbed the botanical find of the century.

The species had been thought extinct for at least two million years.

The director of Sydney's Royal Botanic Gardens, Professor Carrick Chambers, said at the time that it was "the equivalent of finding a small dinosaur still alive on Earth".

full story

Are we going to Get Serious About Immigration?

2005-10-18T12:39:00.000-04:00

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said his department aims without exception to expel all those who enter the United States illegally.

"Our goal at DHS (Homeland Security) is to completely eliminate the 'catch and release' enforcement problem, and return every single illegal entrant, no exceptions.

"It should be possible to achieve significant and measurable progress to this end in less than a year," Chertoff told a Senate hearing.

more

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I hope this is serious, but it's a little hard to feel much optimism at this point...

Constitution referendum highlights positive developments in Iraq

2005-10-18T12:11:00.000-04:00

"...The referendum result again demonstrates that American policy- and opinion-makers are more pessimistic than are Iraqis. Part of the problem is that Pentagon officials and journalists alike chart Iraq's success through misguided metrics. Counting car bombs does not demonstrate progress or lack thereof in Iraq. Objective indicators show that Iraqis have confidence that did not exist prior to liberation.
According to an Aug. 16, 2002, commentary in the Guardian--a British newspaper that often opposes U.S. foreign policy--one in six Iraqis had fled their country under Saddam. Millions left because of war, dictatorship and sanctions. Today, several hundred thousand have returned; only the Christians still leave. If Iraq were as chaotic as the media implies, it would export refugees, not resettle them.

Other indicators suggest Iraqis have confidence in their future. The Iraqi dinar, freely traded in international currency markets, is stable.

When people fear for their future, they invest in gold; jewelry and coins can be sewn into clothes and smuggled out of the country. When people feel confident about the future, they buy real estate. Property prices have skyrocketed across Iraq. Decrepit houses in Sadr City, a Shiite slum on the outskirts of Baghdad, can easily cost $45,000. Houses in upper-middle-class districts of Mansour and Karrada can cost more than 20 times that. Restaurant owners spend $50,000 on top-of-the-line generators to keep open despite the frequent blackouts. In September 2005, there were 40 buildings nine stories or higher under construction in the Kurdish city of Sulaymani. Five years ago, there were none. Iraqis would not spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on real estate if they weren't confident that the law would protect their investment.

Iraqis now see the fruit of foreign investment. A year ago in Baghdad, Iraqis drank water and soft drinks imported from neighboring countries. Now they drink water bottled in plants scattered across Iraq. When I visited a Baghdad computer shop last spring, my hosts handed me a can of Pepsi. An Arabic banner across the can announced, "The only soft drink manufactured in Iraq." In August, a Coca-Cola executive in Istanbul told me their Baghdad operation is not far behind. Turkish investors in partnership with local Iraqis have built modern hotels in Basra.

Cameras and reporters do not lie, but they do not always give a full perspective. Political brinkmanship devoid of context breeds panic. Beheadings and blood sell copy, but do not accurately reflect Iraq. Political milestones give a glimpse of the often-unreported determination that Iraqis and longtime visitors see daily. Bombings and body bags are tragic. But they do not reflect failure. Rather, they represent the sacrifice that both Iraqis and Americans have made for security and democracy. The referendum, refugee return, real estate and investment show much more accurately--and objectively--Iraq's slow but steady progress."

Michael Rubin, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, is editor of the Middle East Quarterly.

Read more at OpinionJournal.com (registration may be required)

War on the Wane?

2005-10-17T18:10:00.000-04:00

By Howard LaFranchi | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

WASHINGTON – After a 20th century that was perhaps mankind's most violent, all indicators point to a 21st century that will be as bad or worse. Civil wars and new ideological conflicts will multiply. The effectiveness of international forces for peace will wane. And the security of mankind will be the victim caught in the middle. Right?

Wrong, says a report based on a three-year study by a group of international researchers. Contrary to widespread public perception, they find that the world is witnessing fewer wars - and those wars that do occur are killing fewer people.

The study, released Monday at the UN, also concludes that global conflict-prevention and postconflict peacebuilding efforts are becoming more numerous and more effective.

"We knew the number of wars was coming down, because that has been around in academic circles for a while, but particularly surprising is how the decline in wars is reflected right across the board in all forms of political conflict and violence," says Andrew Mack, head of the Human Security Center at the University of British Columbia. He directed the team that delivered the report.

That means that not only are interstate wars down, but so are civil conflicts, as well as other forms of political violence like human-rights abuses.

The report finds that the total number of conflicts declined by 40 percent since the cold war ended. The average number of deaths per conflict has also declined dramatically, from 37,000 in 1950 to 600 in 2002. The study found 25 civil conflicts last year - the lowest number since 1976.

More at Christian Science Monitor

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I don't agree with all the editorial conclusions in the article, but the basic facts are inarguable. The evidence completely refutes the conventional wisdom from the Clinton Administration on that America's "sole superpower" status has led to more civil unrest and violence throughout the world.

Wireless Access a success in Rural Oregon

2005-10-17T10:19:00.000-04:00

Parked alongside his onion fields, Bob Hale can prop open a laptop and read his e-mail or, with just a keystroke, check the moisture of his crops.

As the jack rabbits run by, he can watch CNN online, play a video game or turn his irrigation sprinklers on and off, all from the air conditioned comfort of his truck.

While cities around the country are battling over plans to offer free or cheap Internet access, this lonely terrain is served by what is billed as the world's largest hotspot, a wireless cloud that stretches over 700 square miles of landscape so dry and desolate it could have been lifted from a cowboy tune.

Similar wireless projects have been stymied in major metropolitan areas by telephone and cable TV companies, which have poured money into legislative bills aimed at discouraging such competition. In Philadelphia, for instance, plans to blanket the entire city with Wi- Fi fueled a battle in the Pennsylvania legislature with Verizon Communications Inc., leading to a law that limits the ability of every other municipality in the state to do the same.

But here among the thistle, large providers such as local phone company Qwest Communications International Inc. see little profit potential. So wireless entrepreneur Fred Ziari drew no resistance for his proposed wireless network, enabling him to quickly build the $5 million cloud at his own expense.

While his service is free to the general public, Ziari is recovering the investment through contracts with more than 30 city and county agencies, as well as big farms such as Hale's, whose onion empire supplies over two-thirds of the red onions used by the Subway sandwich chain. Morrow County, for instance, pays $180,000 a year for Ziari's service.

more

The Iraqis are fighting increasingly well

2005-10-17T10:10:00.000-04:00

"The Iraqis are in the fight," says Gen. David Patraeus.

BY ROBERT L. POLLOCK
Saturday, October 15, 2005 12:01 a.m. EDT

WASHINGTON--David Petraeus is not a physically imposing man. Slight, and slightly awkward, he looks every bit the egghead general (he has a Princeton Ph.D.) he is.

But in Iraq--where he first governed Mosul as commander of the 101st Airborne and then took over training of all Iraqi security forces in June 2004--he is something of a giant and one of the foremost authorities on many of the major questions about the war: Did we have enough troops? Which Iraqi leaders are most effective? Was it a mistake to disband Saddam's army? What is the current state of Iraqi security forces?

That his answers are likely to please neither side in these debates--he simultaneously thinks Ahmed Chalabi is too uncompromising when it comes to former members of Saddam's Baath Party, but also that Mr. Chalabi is committed to reaching out to Iraqi Sunnis and "in the best position to do that of anybody in the government"--is all the more reason to listen to them. For in addition to an impressive résumé, he also has an independent mind.

More at opinionjournal.com

An Iraqi Take on Yesterday's Vote...

2005-10-16T00:29:00.000-04:00

Greetings All,

It seems that a larger percentage of Iraqis voted the constitutional ballot than in the election of January. 65-70%+ are the early numbers.

I spoke to my father last night about 8am his time in Nejaf and he said he was going to go vote at 9am. I did not get a hold of my Grand mother and cousins the lines to Baghdad were busy. I called my father gain around 9am my time. He said he had voted (yes for the constitution) and that the turnout was strong and matters were calm. Security in Nejaf was very good indeed he said. There are a number of neighborhood watches and Iraqi security patrols. He has not seen American soldiers patrolling the street in Nejaf for weeks now. His voice was strong and very very happy almost giddy I would say.

This vote alone was a great blow to the terrorists in Iraq. This was a great step towards a solid democracy in Iraq. The constitution now guarantees Iraqi’s rights and protects them from their government. The rule of law will prevail stronger now. I no longer fear for my Iraqi family from their government. They now truly hold their destiny in their hands, and they can plan for their future. The security issues are being dealt with on a daily basis and progress in Iraq is measurable and evident.

Again the Ajinas in California and in Iraq owe a great thank you to the men and women of the USA (military & civilians) who are making all of this possible. Thank you for all your sacrifices, all your hard work, and your tenacity and vision and thank you for a bright future.

Regards
Haider Ajina

Posted at LittleGreenFootballs.com

Scientists capture giant squid on camera

2005-09-29T00:17:00.000-04:00

TOKYO - When a nearly 20-foot long tentacle was hauled aboard his research ship, Tsunemi Kubodera knew he had something big. Then it began sucking on his hands. But what came next excited him most — hundreds of photos of a purplish-red sea monster doing battle 3,000 feet deep.

It was a rare giant squid, a creature that until then had eluded observation in the wild.

Kubodera’s team captured photos of the 26-foot-long beast attacking its bait, then struggling for more than four hours to get free. The squid pulled so hard on the line baited with shrimp that it severed one of its own tentacles.

“It was quite an experience to feel the still-functioning tentacle on my hand,” Kubodera, a researcher with Japan’s National Science Museum, told The Associated Press. “But the photos were even better.”

For centuries giant squids, formally called Architeuthis, have been the stuff of legends, appearing in the myths of ancient Greece or attacking a submarine in Jules Verne’s “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.” But they had never been seen in their natural habitat, only caught in fishing nets or washed ashore dead or dying.

The Japanese team, capping a three-year effort, filmed the creature in September of last year, finding what one researcher called “the holy grail” of deep-sea animals.

The results were not announced until this week, when they were published in Wednesday’s issue of the British journal, the Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. Kyoichi Mori, of the Ogasawara Whale Watching Association, co-authored the study.

Giant squid are the world’s largest invertebrates, having been known to exceed 50 feet.

Kubodera said the one he caught on camera was probably an adult female. He said the squid’s tentacle would not grow back, but its life was not in danger.

The photos earned the team cheers from researchers around the world, largely because of the difficulty of finding the mysterious giant.

“That’s getting footage of a real sea monster,” said Randy Kochevar, a deep-sea biologist with the Monterey Bay Aquarium in California. “Nobody has been able to observe a large giant squid where it lives. There are people who said it would never be done. It’s really an incredible accomplishment.”

full story

What Went Right in New Orleans

2005-09-16T16:20:00.000-04:00

September 15, 2005
Katrina, What Went Right
By Lou Dolinar

With body recovery teams in New Orleans finding far fewer than the expected 10,000 to 25,000 dead, despite the flooding of 80 percent of the city, it is time to ask: What went right?

Largely invisible to the media's radar, a broad-based rescue effort by federal, state and local first responders pulled 25,000 to 50,000 people from harm's way in floodwaters in the city. Ironically, FEMA's role, for good or ill, was essentially non-existent, as was the Governor's and the Mayor's. An ad-hoc distributed network responded on its own. Big Government didn't work. Odds and ends of little government did.

The critical period was the immediate aftermath of the levy breaks on Monday, August 29 until the flooding crested on Sept. 2. If people were going to be trapped in attics, drowned in their cars, or washed off roofs, this is when it would have happened. Once the flooding crested, while thousands still needed to be removed from their homes, fed, and relocated, at least the immediate threat of drowning was over.

During the critical period beginning Monday, rescue helicopters were already reeling in at least 2000 people a day. These independent units comprised dozens of Coast Guard, Air Force, Air National Guard and Army choppers. Various boat-rescue operations by New Orleans first responders saved thousands more-even as the media's attention was focused on the Superdome, snipers and scenes of looting. The response to the real threat of Katrina, other words, was immediate and massive -it just wasn't the response the media wanted, expected or was spoon-fed at a press conference.

The precise records of who saved how many, when, are incomplete. However, the bottom line here is the count of the dead. That it is far lower than projections indicates that many of the people who faced imminent doom were rescued as waters rose. By Friday of the first week of operations, chopper crews had literally run out of victims to save and had mostly switched to transporting supplies, dropping sandbags, and rearranging people who were already safe.

The Connecticut Post, of all places, gives the best overview of the operation in a column by Peter Urban. He points out that a single chopper of the Louisiana National Guard, on Monday after the storm hit, pulled some 250 people to safety; there were 16 other 30- passenger Black Hawks in the unit that had been stripped of seating to fly similar rescue missions. If the other choppers only saved half as many people, that one unit alone pulled out 2000 people a day.

But the Louisiana Blackhawks weren't the only rescuers. The Coast Guard was flying as soon as the hurricane passed on Monday as well and had already accounted for several thousand victims by Wednesday.

The Air Force reported 1,300 rescues and some 14,000 "transported" by Sept. 4.

By Tuesday night, the Navy's Bataan hospital ship-cited for its inaction by New York Times columnist Paul Krugman--in fact had five choppers flying rescue missions and had pulled out several hundred people.

But those weren't the only helicopters flying. Overall, 113 choppers were in operation around New Orleans by Sept. 1, according to The Armed Forces Press Service.

Urban also notes one explanation why the rescue operation flew below the radar of the media: Individual federal and state units were not coordinating their efforts overall. There was no central clearing house for information on rescue efforts. What looked like a hurricane relief breakdown was in fact a press release breakdown.

Local rescue efforts by boat were surprisingly robust, contrary to conventional wisdom. The much maligned New Orleans police and fire departments, which began operations Monday afternoon, were able to field 100 to 200 boats in the first 24 hours after the breach, according to local officials quoted in the Times Picayune. However, with the City's communications system broken down, the 500 to 1000 rescue workers had to organize themselves and so were operating without central command and control, thus also below the media radar. How many these police and firefighters saved is unknown, but with so many boats in the water so quickly, the number would have easily been in the thousands.

Meanwhile the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, claimed 20,000 rescues by Sept. 8 at which point it suspended calls for more volunteers and boats. While it is unclear how many of these rescues took place in the critical time frame, the only mention of this staggering achievement came in the Sept. 8 press release. How many national reporters thought to call the Wildlife department, or even thought it was a go-to agency?

This list is by no means exhaustive. State police and deputies from various Sheriff's departments were operating rescue boats, as was the Coast Guard. Individual National Guard units responded on their own initially, as did civilian rescue teams from out of state. Dates and numbers saved simply haven't been added up, or served to a skeptical media.

Besides the large number of rescuers, there was another key reason for the success of rescue efforts. The nature of the flooding differed from the scenarios that would have resulted in 10 to 25 thousand dead. Worst case models projected a storm surge that overtopped the levies by 10 feet, destroying them and creating an instant flood at or near the time a Cat 5 hurricane leveled 80 percent of the structures in the city and environs.

That only happened in parts of the city, eastern New Orleans. It is clear from video footage that even there much of the housing survived, at least insofar as it provided a few days of refuge from flood waters. The flooding elsewhere was extensive, but not always rapid--in many areas the rise was six inches to a foot per hour, easily evaded by a moderately fit adult or child.

Flooding didn't crest until Sept. 2, giving rescuers a five-day window in which to prioritize operations for the most desperate. Even then, few homes were overtopped and submerged.

The death toll from Katrina in New Orleans will inevitably rise, but it will likely be in the hundreds rather than the thousands, contrary to the ghoulish projections. That doesn't absolve authorities from responsibility for some of those deaths. As is the case in any disaster, the old, the sick and the handicapped will disproportionately be victims, bringing into tight focus the City of New Orleans' failure to take the modest steps needed for early evacuation for a few thousand of its most vulnerable. More died at the Superdome after the Governor decided on a Pol Pot solution for evacuation of the city, e.g. Starve the city dwellers to force them into the countryside. And of course FEMA's political appointees, and by extension the Administration, failed to step in to address these and other problems, particularly the lack of coordination between the many agencies that were flying blind for the first 48 hours. Indeed, if it turns out that there are large numbers of dead remaining, they won't have died for lack of resources, but rather, because there was no one to tell the vast and otherwise successful rescue flotilla where to go.

Lou Dolinar is a former volunteer firefighter and a retired reporter for Newsday.

From RealClearPolitics.com

We Know How This Is Going to End

2005-09-04T21:27:00.000-04:00

So says Ralph Kinney Bennet at TechCentralStation.Com:

We already know how this is going to end.

The American economy will shiver a bit, stagger slightly, adjust itself and absorb the cost of Katrina.

The miserable scumbags who exploited the misery and interfered with the rescue will be arrested, run off or shot.

CNN may get over its hyperventilating, indignant surprise that food, drink and comfort could not be instantly delivered to those who, for whatever reason, remained in the danger zone despite warnings.

We will learn painful lessons from mistakes and failures that will enable the remarkable rescue apparatus we have devised to work better next time.

Slowly the little stories of personal heroism and common decency in the face of misery and chaos will come out.

Read More

US Airlines provide emergency airlift

2005-09-02T17:13:00.000-04:00

U.S. AIRLINES PROVIDE EMERGENCY AIRLIFT FOR NEW ORLEANS EVACUEES ATA to Coordinate Unprecedented Civilian Relocation Program for Federal Government

Washington, DC, September 2, 2005 – The Department of Homeland Security, the Air Transport Association and the Department of Transportation today announced that the airline industry has launched “Operation Air Care” to provide emergency airlift to more than 25,000 New Orleans residents stranded in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

“DHS is truly grateful to the airlines for their immediate and generous contribution to help us to bring hurricane victims to safety,” said Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Jackson.

“This extraordinary civilian airlift is unprecedented in U.S. history, and is a shining example of how America can come together to help those in need,” said ATA President and CEO James C. May. “Our member airlines have willingly offered to help the federal government get the job done and we will continue these efforts until they are no longer needed.”

"We've cleared the runways and are watching the skies to make sure these humanitarian flights get in and out safely," said U.S. Secretary of Transportation Norman Y. Mineta. "From the moment Hurricane Katrina passed, the DOT has been working around the clock to put the people and equipment in place to sustain a massive airlift operation."

The plan, which was crafted late in the evening Thursday, allowed the first flight to New Orleans at 8 a.m. today. Participating airlines will provide aircrafts and service to airlift evacuees. Flights will depart from Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport to sites designated by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, such as Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas.

Passenger carriers participating in this effort include Alaska, America West, American, ATA, Continental, Delta, Jet Blue, Northwest, Southwest, United, US Airways, and Air Canada. Cargo carriers also are providing support, including ASTAR Air Cargo, Federal Express and UPS Airlines.

This all-volunteer effort is being coordinated by the Air Transport Association and its member carriers, who are providing aircraft and crews who have volunteered their time to this incredible effort.

The Air Transport Association is the trade group representing the nation’s leading airlines. ATA members transport more than 90 percent of all passengers and cargo in the United States.

posted in "The Corner" at National Review Online

A Better kind of "looting"

2005-09-02T16:32:00.000-04:00

The first busload of New Orleans refugees to reach the Reliant Astrodome overnight was a group of people who commandeered a school bus in the city ravaged by Hurricane Katrina and drove to Houston looking for shelter.

Jabbar Gibson, 20, said police in New Orleans told him and others to take the school bus and try to get out of the flooded city.

Gibson drove the bus from the flooded Crescent City, picking up stranded people, some of them infants, along the way. Some of those on board had been in the Superdome, among those who were supposed to be evacuated to Houston on more than 400 buses Wednesday and today. They couldn't wait.

The group of mostly teenagers and young adults pooled what little money they had to buy diapers for the babies and fuel for the bus.

Read more

Ga. Governor to Lift Gas Tax for Month

2005-09-02T16:25:00.000-04:00

Move eliminates 7.5 cent per gallon tax and 4% sales tax...

Read

This is not an uplifting post - sorry.

2005-09-02T10:37:00.000-04:00

I'm disgusted by the things we're seeing and hearing down there. Some of the key statements I've seen though, is that the local police have withdrawn and that there is no authority anywhere down there.

The mayor of New Orleans in every press conference is cursing President Bush for not doing something. As is the entire political class, apparently, left and right. It shows how useless politics is at times like this and how weakened we are when we let ourselves be consumed by partisan bickering.

By its very nature, federal govt. is not good at first, fast response. That's what local governments are for. As this tragedy plays out and more and more cries are levied against the feds, this becomes ever more stark in my mind. Where are the individual citizens taking charge and organizing for good down there? Where are the local politicians and police putting themselves at risk and making an effort to handle things until relief can flow in from the rest of the country? Are they really just sitting down there waiting for Washington to come and save them?

In New York, the firemen and police and local authorities rushed in, not out. You are seeing the exact opposite in New Orleans.

I really don't want to be critical of people in such horrendous circumstances. But I keep hearing, "This is the United States of America! How can this be happening here?" That's right - this is America. We don't sit around and wait for help when a crisis strikes, we roll up our sleeves and get busy.

If the streets are in chaos, instead of saying "why doesn't anyone do anything?," Do something!

If there's no food and water - make a plan, at least for your own. People are improvising rafts and boats to loot. Do you mean to say you can't improvise a raft and float your family out? Or at least die trying?

I know it's easy to say sitting here up north, but when the mayor of New Orleans says to the President, "Get off your a** and do something," my first thought is, What are you doing, mayor?

The whole French Quarter is still relatively dry. There is high ground in the area.

The tragedy here is compounded by people who see themselves as sheep waiting for the shepherd to come get them.

I know that there are people in New Orleans, Mississippi, and Alabama who are doing better than what we're hearing. I'll find their stories as soon as I can and share them with you.

Poseidon System saves Girl from Drowning

2005-09-01T09:59:00.000-04:00

A YOUNG girl has been saved from drowning by an extraordinary computer system that keeps an eye on everybody in a swimming pool.
The girl was pulled unconscious from 12ft of water at the deep end of a public pool in Bangor, North Wales, when underwater cameras spotted that she was not moving and alerted a lifeguard. The lifeguard could not see the girl in the crowded pool but was able to respond to the alert within seconds.

It is the first time in Britain that the Poseidon surveillance system, manufactured by a French company, has helped lifeguards to save a swimmer from drowning. The campaign group Swimsafekids said last night that the rescue proved that the system could save many more lives if they were installed compulsorily.

story

In New Orleans, a Desperate Exodus

2005-09-01T08:52:00.000-04:00

50,000 to 100,000 people had stayed in New Orleans despite evacuation orders. They are now being evacuated at the rate of 14,000 to 15,000 per day.

link

Americans Aiding Americans

2005-09-01T08:16:00.000-04:00

This blog documents private donations made so far...

Efforts being made in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast

2005-08-31T22:49:00.000-04:00

The Army Corps of Engineers

A Timeline of Updates Here

Canada offers its help

Instapundit offers a list of places to donate

Russia offers aid

So does Israel.

Six Navy Ships dispatched - more on the way.

Countless media outlets and blogs are actively raising funds to send to disaster relief efforts.

2500 National Guardsmen are being sent from Pennsylvania alone - more than 10,000 coming in from throughout the country.

Refugees are being evacuated from the city as quickly as possible.

The State Dept. says 10 to 12 nations have offered general assistance.

The UN also has offered to help, while acknowledging that the US has "the greatest civilian and military search and rescue and recovery assets themselves,"

Martial law has been declared, and the mayor of New Orleans has announced that the city will be locked down. Let's hope it happens soon.

President Bush releases oil from strategic reserve.

President Bush lists work being done

1500 Police called off search and rescue to stop looters

Iraq Good News

2005-08-30T14:15:00.000-04:00

Another update from Chrenkoff

Here.

Cal Thomas on Political Preachers

2005-08-30T09:31:00.000-04:00

I don't know much about Mr. Thomas' theology, but he certainly got this right:

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PORTSTEWART, Northern Ireland — Word of Pat Robertson's outrageous remarks recommending the assassination of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has reached this small seacoast town. A local man asked me what I thought of his comments. "Not much," I replied with some embarrassment. I'm sure the non Christian world is having a fine time ridiculing this latest example of un-Christ-like behavior.

Robertson has made other remarks over the years about all sorts of things that have nothing to do with the gospel in which he says he believes. He is not alone. On the right and on the left, ordained and self-proclaimed "reverends" and honorary "doctors" appear to spend more time trying to reform a fallen and decaying world through politics and earthly power than they do promoting and proclaiming the ultimate answer to that fallenness.

While these apostles of political parties and personal agendas have every right to make fools of themselves, they are enabled in their foolishness by millions of people who blindly send them money. These money-senders are looking in the wrong place for their deliverance. While paying lip service to eternity, they seem to prefer immediate political gratification.

Few would pay attention to political preachers if these ministers did not have access to television and radio. And they would not have TV programs if people did not send them money which, in addition to buying TV time, is used to set most of them up in lifestyles that resemble the "rich young ruler."

Much of what is proclaimed as G-d's will on TV and in fundraising appeals is false religion. People who respond with checks are either ignorant or willfully disobedient to what their spiritual commander-in-chief and the early apostles taught and practiced.

Too many Christians think if they shout loud enough and gain political strength the world will be improved. That is a false doctrine. I have never seen anyone "converted" to a Christian's point of view (and those views are not uniform) through political power. I have frequently seen someone's views changed after they have experienced true conversion and then live by different standards and live for goals beyond which political party controls the government.

Repeatedly in the Scriptures, which TV ministers regularly and selectively quote, are teachings, admonitions and commands that are antithetical to the high-octane rhetoric spanning the ideological and theological spectrum — from Pat Robertson to Jesse Jackson.

Here is a partial list: G-d's strength is made perfect in human weakness; humble yourself and G-d will exalt you; he who would be a leader among you must first be your servant; love your enemies; pray for those who persecute you; pray in secret, not publicly; give to the poor; G-d has chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; the last place at the table; the widow's mite (the message is that she gave all she had, not great wealth); the mustard seed (about the smallest amount of genuine faith); the washing of feet (as demonstrated by Jesus).

These virtues are virtually absent among the "resounding gongs and clanging cymbals" one sees on TV.

If people who bear the label "Christian" want to reduce these embarrassments, which interfere with the proclamation and the hearing of "true religion," they should refrain from sending money to TV preachers and contribute more to their local church.

Local giving not only would allow the giver to better monitor how the money is spent, but also, if the pastor occasionally says something he should not have said, the embarrassment will remain within the walls and not be a rhetorical shot heard around the world.

Pat Robertson eventually apologized for his remarks about assassinating Hugo Chavez. His penance should be to retire and to take his bombastic conservative and liberal colleagues with him.

source

Next generation will alter Kennedy Space Center

2005-08-30T09:21:00.000-04:00

By Todd Halvorson and John Kelly, Florida Today
CAPE CANAVERAL — U.S. astronauts will launch to the moon on sleek, single, shuttle booster rockets and the first new upper-stage rocket this country has developed in more than a decade, NASA and the Pentagon have told the White House.

...Lunar landers and other gear needed for extended visits to the moon will be lofted by gargantuan launchers as big as the Apollo-era Saturn 5, the most powerful rockets ever flown.

...People and cargo would launch separately, hook up in Earth orbit, then journey together to the moon. The White House has not given final go-ahead for the two new rockets. A decision is expected next month.

NASA and its contractors have spent almost two years studying the pros and cons of various rocket ideas. The two best options: Modify the Delta 4 or Atlas 5 rockets developed for the military or use combinations of proven shuttle engines, boosters and fuel tanks to make new launchers.

full story

Go Ahead, Look Down! - Tribe plans new view of Grand Canyon

2005-08-30T09:16:00.000-04:00

Great views — and plenty of goosebumps for those afraid of heights.

An American Indian tribe with land along the Grand Canyon is planning to build a glass-bottomed walkway that will jut out 70 feet from the canyon's edge.

The horseshoe-shaped skywalk, expected to open in January, is part of the Hualapai Tribe's $40 million effort to turn 1,000 acres of reservation land into a tourist destination that will also feature an Indian village and Western-themed town.

The tribe's reservation is some 200 miles by road to the west of the section of the Grand Canyon National Park that most tourists visit.

The walkway, with a glass bottom and sides, will be supported by steel beams and will accommodate 120 people, though it is designed to hold 72 million pounds, said Sheri Yellowhawk, chief executive officer of the Grand Canyon Resort Corp., the tribal-owned company that is overseeing the project.

"You're basically looking 4,000 feet down. It's a whole new way to experience the Grand Canyon," Yellowhawk said.

full story

"I'm Proud to be a Soldier

2005-08-26T11:15:00.000-04:00

I'm very proud to be a soldier of the U.S. Army because of the war on terror and our missions in Iraq and Afghanistan. I'm not alone either. I'm surrounded by soldiers who are re-enlisting and volunteering to go to units that are deploying. In fact, despite all the negative news and protests, I see everyday that our military is actually doing very well.
This is quite obvious, except for the fact that most of the media seems asphyxiated with defeatism. The message from most journalists would lead you to believe that we soldiers are getting out, that no one is joining anew and that we want to stop fighting. This simply isn't true.
Yes, recruitment is lower, but the caliber of those who are signing up and the rates of re-enlistment are both extremely high. All 10 of our major combat divisions are ahead of expectations for retention of soldiers. In my unit, there are soldiers who specifically went active duty from the reserves because they want to go to Iraq or Afghanistan.
Before September 11, a lot of soldiers were happy to just enjoy the benefits. Since that day, those soldiers have left. That is fine and not the disaster that defeatist reports are making it seem. Such soldiers were never the types to want to go on long deployments and face combat. Yes, they were heroes for signing up and being in a job that could go that direction, but they had other priorities that made their service contingent on enjoying the benefits rather than serving in war.
That changed on September 11. Now, just as we are told to expect when joining, we are going to combat and many soldiers are getting injured and killed. This is our job, and it is what we know can happen. I don't know why the media insists on trumpeting the idea that all of us are tired and worn out and just want to stop fighting. I don't, and I am not alone.
The fact is that we are not experiencing casualty rates anywhere near past conflicts, nor for that matter as bad as during peacetime. There were weeks in Vietnam when 350-400 Americans died, and in other wars thousands would die in single battles. Nothing like that is happening now.
From 1983 to 1996, more than 18,000 soldiers died. That averages to more than 1,300 a year, far more than have been killed in Iraq and Afghanistan each year. Yes, that was mostly from accidents, drunk driving and other mishaps. Yet, while protesters in Crawford, Texas and elsewhere would have you think that our military can't survive with the low casualty rates of this war, I wonder why they were willing to accept the much higher peacetime casualty rates of the past? We lost around 3,000 innocent people on September 11, and with four years of war and the toppling of two regimes, we haven't lost that many in combat.
Injuries are high, but they are nothing compared to past conflicts. And most striking is how many are recovering well. I have been to both of the major military hospitals involved in this war, Landstuhl in Germany and Walter Reed in Washington, and I can tell you that there are many soldiers who have lost limbs in Iraq and Afghanistan and who want to return to their units and get redeployed.
Like I said earlier, though, the striking fact I see every day is that the soldiers who are joining now are of much higher caliber than those who joined before September 11. The senior commandant of the Marines recently testified before Congress that the same is happening with them. There maybe fewer than before, but those that do show up are willing and dedicated to being deployed and going to combat. These are also the types who are re-enlisting more than ever before. In fact, re-enlistment is up to 130 percent of expectations in some divisions.
My wife is in the National Guard. Theirs is an interesting experience right now in that there have been more casualties by accidents and reckless behavior off-duty than in Iraq and Afghanistan. Why are protesters not upset about that? Sadly it appears that much of the media are obsessed with defeatism. Even the message of the protesters — contradictory, false and confused as ever — is made front-page headline news every day. The few people they can exploit to push this defeatist agenda are made to appear to speak for all of us. That just isn't true.
Contrary to all the bad news, I see everyday that our soldiers are motivated and eager to contribute and participate in our nation's military missions. This is a very proud and important time to be serving. Considering that out of a population of 285 million, less than one-tenth of one percent are going to war right now, and considering the huge impact we are having on the world, this is a wonderful time to be a soldier in the U.S. Army.

Sgt. Joe Roche is with the 12th Aviation Battalion and stationed at Fort Belvoir.

Washington Times

General says the Army is far from broken...

2005-08-26T09:43:00.000-04:00

By Lisa Burgess, Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Friday, August 26, 2005

ARLINGTON, Va. — The long war in Iraq may be testing the all-volunteer Army, but the service is “a long way from being what anybody would call dire straits,” Gen. Peter Schoomaker, the Army’s chief of staff, said Thursday.

“We’re a heck of a long way from breaking the Army,” Schoomaker told reporters at a press roundtable in Washington. “I was in the Army in the late ’60s and ’70s … and I remember what a dispirited Army looks like.”

Despite problems in making recruiting goals earlier this spring, the active Army made its numbers in June and July, and “we think we’ll exceed [the August goal] by a couple of hundred” recruits, Schoomaker said.

The active Army’s fiscal 2005 recruiting goal is 80,000, but Schoomaker said he and his generals are predicting that the service will be “a couple of thousand short” when the fiscal year ends Sept. 30.

That shortfall can be absorbed without affecting the Army’s operations, Schoomaker said, because it only takes 72,000 new recruits to sustain the force.

“What this really means is that we’re not building the 30,000 [increase] as fast as I’d like, Schoomaker said, referring to the Army’s ongoing effort to boost its end-strength from 480,000 to 510,000 by 2007.

But when it comes to judging the Army’s health, it is the Army’s continuing success at keeping soldiers, not bringing in new ones, that is the service’s true “report card,” Schoomaker said.

All 10 of the active Army’s divisions have met 100 percent or more of their retention goals, Schoomaker said, with the highest re-enlistments posted by units either in combat or freshly home from Iraq or Afghanistan.

The Army is doing “what we have to do” to win defend the nation and win the war on terror, Schoomaker said.

“Now what we want is continued help from the nation here,” Schoomaker said.

He blasted media coverage of Iraq protesters, some of who are calling for immediate and full withdrawal, and others who are saying Congress or the Bush administration should establish a schedule for troops to come home.

“The negative drumbeat that we hear is not helpful,” the former Special Forces soldier said. Soldiers “don’t have a choice about which wars we’re willing to [fight]. Our army responds to the political leadership of this nation, and that is what we are doing.”

Duty aside, “I personally believe this is a very important undertaking; it’s very important to the future security of the nation that we be successful” Schoomaker said. “And I think we’re being very short-sighted if we don’t understand that.

“I have been involved a great deal of my life fighting these cats (terrorists), and this is real,” he said.

“This is a dangerous time. And it’s going to get more dangerous as we move forward.”

Archaeologists Find Rare Treasure in Erbil, Iraq

2005-08-25T09:33:00.000-04:00

If a neighborhood is defined as a place where human beings move in and never leave, then the world's oldest could be here at the Citadel, an ancient and teeming city within a city girded by stone walls.

Resting on a layer cake of civilizations that have come and gone for an estimated 7,000 to 10,000 years, the Citadel looms over the apartment blocks of this otherwise rather gray metropolis in Iraqi Kurdistan.

The settlement rivals Jericho and a handful of other famous towns for the title of the oldest continuously inhabited site in the world. The difference is that few people have heard of the Citadel outside Iraq. And political turmoil has prevented a full study of its archaeological treasures.

While there may be confirmed traces of more ancient settlements in Iraq, said McGuire Gibson, a Mesopotamian archaeologist at the University of Chicago, the people have all vanished from those places.

"The thing about Erbil is that it is, in fact, a living town," Dr. Gibson said. "It goes back at least to 5,000 B.C.," he said. "It might go back further."

full story

Unemployment hits lowest rate in 4 years

2005-08-25T09:28:00.000-04:00

The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits declined last week with the four-week average for people receiving benefits dropping to the lowest level in more than four years.

story

al-Sadr Calls for Peace to work on Iraq Constitution

2005-08-25T09:25:00.000-04:00

A radical Shiite cleric called on his followers Thursday to end clashes with Shiite rivals so that stalled talks on a new constitution can proceed. Fighting continued for a second day after the cleric's office in Najaf was burned and four of his supporters were killed.

Following the appeal by cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, leaders of the country's political factions met to try to reach an agreement on the draft constitution. Thursday was the final day of a 72-hour extension granted Monday night by parliament after Sunni Arabs blocked a vote on the charter, which was accepted by Shiite and Kurdish negotiators.

After meeting with 15 Sunni members of the constitution drafting committee, Iraq's President Jalal Talabani said consensus on the new constitution could be reached soon.

full story

Rural Africa exploding with Cell Phones

2005-08-25T09:22:00.000-04:00

YANGUYE, South Africa - On this dry mountaintop, 36-year-old Bekowe Skhakhane does even the simplest tasks the hard way.

At the Nqala store in rural KwaZulu-Natal, Christina Mulembe, 11, buys an access card for her mother, who lives five miles away. More Photos >
But when Ms. Skhakhane wants to talk to her husband, who works in a steel factory 250 miles away in Johannesburg, she does what many in more developed regions do: she takes out her mobile phone.

People like Ms. Skhakhane have made Africa the world's fastest-growing cellphone market. From 1999 through 2004, the number of mobile subscribers in Africa jumped to 76.8 million, from 7.5 million, an average annual increase of 58 percent. South Africa, the continent's richest nation, accounted for one-fifth of that growth.

Asia, the next fastest-expanding market, grew by an annual average of just 34 percent in that period.

"It is a necessity," said Ms. Skhakhane, pausing from washing laundry in a plastic bucket on the dirt ground to fish her blue Nokia out of the pocket of her flowered apron. "Buying air time is part of my regular grocery list."

She spends the equivalent of $1.90 a month for five minutes of telephone time.

Africa's cellphone boom has taken the industry by surprise. Africans have never been rabid telephone users; even Mongolians have twice as many land lines per person. And with most Africans living on $2 a day or less, they were supposed to be too poor to justify corporate investments in cellular networks far outside the more prosperous cities and towns.

But when African nations began to privatize their telephone monopolies in the mid-1990's, and fiercely competitive operators began to sell air time in smaller, cheaper units, cellphone use exploded.

full story

Teamwork, not Superstars, Making it work for the Mets

2005-08-25T09:21:00.000-04:00

PHOENIX, Aug. 24 - Over the past two weeks, Manager Willie Randolph has needed to rely as much on the injury report as on his intuition when filling out the lineup card.

No Mike Cameron? Insert Victor Diaz, a converted second baseman with 59 games of major-league experience, to play right field.

No Mike Piazza? No problem. Move his backup, Ramon Castro, a .221 career hitter, into the starter's role and call up Mike Jacobs from Class AA Binghamton to catch in emergency situations.

No Doug Mientkiewicz? Let Jacobs play first base. He had played some there in the minor leagues.

By all accounts, this was not the way Randolph preferred to enter the decisive portion of the schedule.

But so far, so good. The Mets continue to win because of - not in spite of - their fringe players.

story

Murdoc Online: "It's called courage"

2005-08-22T23:00:00.000-04:00

A tribute to and defense of Steven Vincent by his wife to an arrogant professor

Short Stories hit the internet market

2005-08-22T08:20:00.000-04:00

SEATTLE (AP) - Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) started selling new works of short literature and nonfiction Friday from authors who write them exclusively for the Internet retailer.

It won't be offering printed editions, just digital copies of short stories that can be e-mailed, downloaded or printed from a Web site for 49 cents a pop.

"Publishers have always had a hard time selling and marketing the single, short-form work," author Daniel Wallace said in a statement released by the Seattle-based e-commerce titan. "Amazon.com has created a new way for authors to get that kind of work out there, which is incredibly exciting."

About 60 authors have signed up so far, including novelist Danielle Steel, who writes about her life in a 13-page short titled "Candy for the Soul."

The top selling title late Friday afternoon: Harry S. Dent's "Bubble After Bubble in The Ongoing Bubble Boom: Oil Bursts, the Housing Bubble Fades and Now Stocks Emerge Into a Greater Bubble that Finally Ends in 2010."

Amazon.com started out as an online bookstore 10 years ago and now sells everything from bird feeders to brake fluid. The new "shorts" range from 2,000 to 10,000 words.
single, short-form work,' author Daniel Wallace said in a statement released by the Seattle-based e-commerce titan. 'Amazon.com has created a new way for authors to get that kind of work out there, which is incredibly exciting.'
About 60 authors have signed up so far, including novelist Danielle Steel, who writes about her life in a 13-page short titled 'Candy for the Soul.'
The top selling title late Friday afternoon: Harry S. Dent's 'Bubble After Bubble in The Ongoing Bubble Boom: Oil Bursts, the Housing Bubble Fades and Now Stocks Emerge Into a Greater Bubble that Finally Ends in 2010.'
Amazon.com started out as an online bookstore 10 years ago and now sells everything from bird feeders to brake fluid. The new 'shorts' range from 2,000 to 10,000 words."

link

Good News for Buyers

2005-08-22T08:11:00.000-04:00

In consumer electronics, as in much of life, good things happen to those who wait - good things as in plunging prices.

The cost of big-screen televisions, which have been steadily dropping by about 25 percent a year, are now expected to fall even more sharply this autumn, according to industry analysts. The coming markdowns reflect a singular confluence of business trends that will benefit consumers going into the holiday season.

"Prices are pretty much in a free fall," said David Naranjo, who tracks the television industry for DisplaySearch, a market research firm.

more

More Iraq Good News

2005-08-17T11:33:00.000-04:00

Here.

Twin Towers Steel Goes into New Navy Fighting Ship

2005-08-17T11:17:00.000-04:00

ARLINGTON, Va. — From rubble to avenging angel: The U.S. Navy is using steel from the World Trade Center in a new ship, according to the Navy.

Ten tons of steel from the World Trade Center’s twin towers will be used in the construction of the USS New York, according to a Navy official.

The San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock is slated to be commissioned in 2008.

“USS New York will ensure that all New Yorkers and the world will never forget the evil attacks of September 11, and the courage and compassion New Yorkers showed in response to terror,” said New York Gov. George Pataki at the ship’s 2002 naming.

For Patrick Cartier Sr., the ship is an honorable way to remember his son, James Marcel Cartier, who was killed when the South Tower collapsed.

“You’ve got the very soul of the event in that mangled steel, and all of that steel which housed all the people fell along with them and they were all consumed in that terrible fireball and that collapse,” the New York City man said.

Using the steel for the new ship would capture the spiritual essence of those who died in the World Trade Center, Cartier said.

“If you would you use that steel, it would almost be a resurrection,” he said.

New York City firefighter Bill Butler also praised turning the steel from the World Trade Center into a fighting vessel.

“It’s a great testament to the strong will of the people who died that day,” said Butler, who was in the North Tower when it collapsed.

Butler was in a stairwell on the fourth floor when he heard what he said sounded like two freight trains roaring by in opposite directions.

It took him five hours to get out of the collapsed tower, he said.

Butler said the New York Fire Department supports U.S. troops. “Our thoughts and prayers are with them every single day and we appreciate them defending our freedom, and we’re doing our best on the homefront,” he said.

The USS New York will be the fifth ship of its class, Navy spokeswoman Linda Roberts wrote in an e-mail Monday.

At the 2002 naming, then-Navy Secretary Gordon England said the New York and other amphibious transport docks will support freedom all over the globe, Roberts wrote.

“From the war for independence through the war on terrorism, which we wage today, the courage and heroism of the people of New York has been an inspiration. USS New York will play an important role in our Navy’s future and will be a fitting tribute to the people of the Empire State,” England said.

Stars and Stripes

Rapid Equipping Force Speeds New Technology to Front Lines

2005-08-17T08:35:00.000-04:00

By Donna Miles
American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, Aug. 12, 2005 – The Army's Rapid Equipping Force is revolutionizing the way the service gets new technology into the hands of warfighters, its director told Pentagon reporters here today.

That high-tech equipment ranges from miniature robots that can seek out roadside bombs to handheld airplanes that can peek over hills and around corners and report back their findings.

The Rapid Equipping Force concept is the traditional military acquisition system on steroids. It identifies an immediate warfighting need, seeks out the best way to meet it and quickly gets the technical solution into the hands of the people who need it, explained Army Col. Gregory Tubbs. In their most impressive responses, staff members have been able to fill several specific requests within just 48 hours.

Full Story

Iraqi Tank Mechanics Turn Trash into Treasure

2005-08-17T08:32:00.000-04:00

By U.S. Army Spc. Jeremy D. Crisp
Multinational Corps-Iraq

CAMP TAJI, Iraq, Aug. 16, 2005 — To get a starter for a Russian-made T-55AM2 tank, one would just need to … well …

That’s one of the issues the tank soldiers of the Iraqi Army’s 1st Mechanized Brigade, 9th Division, face in order to keep their armored vehicles on the move.

However, with a mix of wit, ingenuity and the helping hands of some U.S. soldiers, these Iraqi troops are finding ways to get the parts they need in order to keep their vehicles in top-notch shape.

The 1st Mechanized Brigade is outfitted with 1960s-era T-55 tanks and armored infantry fighting vehicles known as MTLBs and BMPs. To add a vehicle to their fleet, or keep current vehicles on the go, they must either scrounge for parts from Camp Taji’s vehicle graveyard or gather parts from the camp’s abandoned warehouse district.

...Helping the Iraqis convoy the vehicles and parts back and forth from the two sides is about the extent of the American help with the Iraqi vehicles. When it comes to fixing their vehicles, the Iraqis don’t need a hand, Esmahan said.

“These vehicles aren’t ones our mechanics are even familiar with or know how to work on,” Esmahan said.

The Iraqis don’t need help from their American mechanic counterparts because “they know exactly what they are doing,” Esmahan said.

“They know what all the parts look like, they know how to put the pieces together to make everything work,” Esmahan said. “You will never see them with a manual.”

Experience and knowledge play key roles in keeping the Iraqi armored vehicles running at full speed.

“These soldiers have been trained in schools of engineering and mechanics,” Esmahan said. “Some are officer graduates with prior service and some may have 20 years or more experience. They know exactly how to put together their maintenance program.”

The Iraqis use their tanks and armored personnel carriers to conduct missions in the field day and night, sevens days a week. Therefore, having their vehicles in good working condition is essential explained Esmahan.

“They take a lot of pride in recovering these vehicles,” he said. “They would feel mortified to see one of their vehicles break down outside the wire because they look at it as a reflection of themselves and their ability to accomplish their mission.”

Full Story

Long-lost steamboat emerges from Missouri River

2005-08-17T08:12:00.000-04:00

"The muddy bottoms of the Missouri and Mississippi rivers are watery graveyards to hundreds of sunken steamboats including the Montana, which sank more than 120 years ago.

The Montana is embedded in mud and normally concealed by the river's waters. But rain has been rare in the area this summer and the water level has dipped low enough to reveal the ship's remains.

"I was impressed with how much of it is still there," said Steve Dasovich, a maritime archaeologist who contracts with the state to preserve the Montana. "All the spokes of the paddlewheel are still there. The level of preservation of the wreck is impressive.""

story

The Mood of Military Families

2005-08-17T07:53:00.000-04:00

We're all familiar by now with the story of Cindy Sheehan. The AP has another story of another family calling on the President to either add more troops or get out of Iraq altogether.

To read the newspapers, you would think this is the only reaction military families are having when their loved ones are lost in the war.

Chrenkoff lists several stories of military parents from the last two days that you probably haven't heard. I've posted his entire article here, but please visit his site and read the stories of each family.

---

"Maureen Dowd: "The moral authority of parents who bury children killed in Iraq is absolute."

But apparently only if they also become mouthpieces for the angry left.

So how about the absolute moral authority of Lynn Kelly, Maureen?

"I don't agree" with Sheehan's views, said Lynn Kelly of Pitman, whose son, Marine Cpl. Sean P. Kelly, was killed in a helicopter crash in Iraq in January.

"I wouldn't say, 'Bush, you killed my son.' I don't agree with that," said Kelly.

"I think we had to do something and I believe that ultimately, I was one of the few that had to make the ultimate sacrifice, which isn't fair, in my eyes," she said.

"But I don't believe that Mr. Bush was the one that pulled the trigger," said Kelly.
Or Linda Ryan:

Marine Cpl. Marc T. Ryan, of Gloucester City, was killed in an explosion in Ramadi, Iraq in November.

"I would tell Cindy Sheehan that, as one mother to another, I do realize your loss is your loss and there's nothing you can do to heal from it," said the corporal's mother, Linda Ryan.

"George Bush didn't kill her son, it's the evildoers who have no value of life who killed her son. Her son made a decision to join the Armed Forces and defend our country, knowing that, at any time, war could come about," Ryan said.

She said she's been on the end of those kinds of conversations several times. Recently, when she took her dog in for medical treatment, the veterinarian, despite seeing Ryan's memory bracelet and the necklace bearing a portrait of her son, started telling her how much she hates George Bush.

"I've decided I'm just going to say, 'I realize you have your opinions, but it aches me, it's heart-wrenching for me'," said Ryan.

"George Bush was my son's commander-in-chief. My son, Marc, totally believed in what he was doing," she said.
Or Thomas Zapp:

Among those attending the pro-Bush rally was Thomas Zapp, of Richmond, Texas, whose 20-year-old son, Marine Lance Cpl. T.J. Zapp, was killed by a bomb in Iraq on Nov. 8, 2004.

Zapp said that it was unfair for Sheehan to demand a second meeting with the president when many parents of slain GIs, like himself, have not even had a single meeting.

"I have not met with President Bush," he told the Tribune-Herald. "Why should she get to meet with President Bush again?"

"I firmly believe our president is sincere with what we have to do and I believe that he's under enormous pressure and he's doing the best he can. I'm here to support him," Zapp added.
Or Jim Boskovitch:

A bagpiper played "Amazing Grace" as city and religious leaders paid tribute in Cleveland today to the 16 Ohio Marines killed in Iraq in the past week.

Hundreds of people turned out for the downtown vigil over the lunch hour.

Jim Boskovitch is the father of Corporal Jeff Boskovitch, one of five Marine snipers killed on Monday [8 August]. He says his family came to the vigil to support the troops still in Iraq.
Or Robert Hoffman:

Motorcycles roared their engines Saturday to herald the funeral procession of Marine Sgt. Justin Hoffman, one of 14 Marines killed last week in the deadliest roadside bombing since U.S. troops invaded Iraq...

"'Freedom is not free' is a phrase we hear every day, but few of us understand what it means," Robert Hoffman said Saturday at his son's funeral in Powell, another Columbus suburb. "Justin and the Lima Company understood. They gave up their lives for it."
Or James and William McNaughton:

In a day of extraordinary pageantry and sadness, the funeral in Lake Ronkonkoma for James McNaughton - an Army reservist and New York City police officer killed in Iraq - was marked by thousands...

McNaughton's uncle, James McNaughton - the man for whom the fallen soldier was named - stood at the lectern to describe the code by which his nephew and godson lived, which he called "the ideal of the gentleman warrior."

"They deserve our grateful respect," McNaughton said. "They are our modern samurai."

At the close of the service, the soldier's father, William McNaughton, stood beside his son's coffin and offered a brief eulogy and thank-you to the congregation.

"Most people don't know what the word samurai means. It means to serve," he said. "He's been serving his whole life. He's been carrying a gun since he was 18."
Or Kelly Matias:

Lance Cpl. Evenor C. Herrera adopted the United States as his country and Wednesday perished while serving it.

"He was very proud to be in the Marines," cousin Kelly Matias said. "He adopted this country as his own. He was willing to die for the peace here."
These stories, by the way, are just from the past two days.

As I wrote yesterday, "The only thing exceptional about Cindy Sheehan is how exceptional she is. I've been following the Iraq-related news coverage for quite some time now, and - not surprisingly - in an overwhelming majority of cases the parents and families of the servicemen and women who died in Iraq (and Afghanistan) choose to grieve in private. Of those who make any sort of political comments, most are proud of their son's or daughter's service and the enterprise they were part of."

Kos and the rest of the left think that exploiting Cindy Sheehan's exploitation of her loss is the best new secret weapon in the war against George Bush. But both sides can play the "grieving parents" game - except that it's not a game, and it shouldn't be played. The right has not used people like Lynn Kelly, Linda Ryan, or hundreds of others, to make their case in our current war. It would be decent if the left stopped using Cindy Sheehan to make theirs."

Iraq - There's Good News Out There, but AP won't put its People at Risk to Get It.

2005-08-15T12:55:00.000-04:00

Editors Ponder How to Present a Broad Picture of Iraq
By KATHARINE Q. SEELYE
Rosemary Goudreau, the editorial page editor of The Tampa Tribune, has received the same e-mail message a dozen times over the last year.

"Did you know that 47 countries have re-established their embassies in Iraq?" the anonymous polemic asks, in part. "Did you know that 3,100 schools have been renovated?"

"Of course we didn't know!" the message concludes. "Our media doesn't tell us!"

Ms. Goudreau's newspaper, like most dailies in America, relies largely on The Associated Press for its coverage of the Iraq war. So she finally forwarded the e-mail message to Mike Silverman, managing editor of The A.P., asking if there was a way to check these assertions and to put them into context. Like many other journalists, Mr. Silverman had also received a copy of the message.

Ms. Goudreau's query prompted an unusual discussion last month in New York at a regular meeting of editors whose newspapers are members of The Associated Press. Some editors expressed concern that a kind of bunker mentality was preventing reporters in Iraq from getting out and explaining the bigger picture beyond the daily death tolls.

"The bottom-line question was, people wanted to know if we're making progress in Iraq," Ms. Goudreau said, and the A.P. articles were not helping to answer that question.

"It was uncomfortable questioning The A.P., knowing that Iraq is such a dangerous place," she said. "But there's a perception that we're not telling the whole story."

Mr. Silverman said in an interview that he was aware of that perception. "Other editors said they get calls from readers who are hearing stories from returning troops of the good things they have accomplished while there, and readers find that at odds with the generally gloomy portrayal in the papers of what's going on in Iraq," he said.

Mr. Silverman said the editors were asking for help in making sense of the situation. "I was glad to have that discussion with the editors because they have to deal with the perception that the media is emphasizing the negative," he said.

"We're there to report the good and the bad and we try to give due weight to everything going on," he said. "It is unfortunate that the explosions and shootings and fatalities and injuries on some days seem to dominate the news."

Suki Dardarian, deputy managing editor of The Seattle Times and vice president of the board of the Associated Press Managing Editors, said that the discussion was "a pretty healthy one."

"One of the things the editors felt was that as much context as you can bring, the better," Ms. Dardarian said. "They wanted them to get beyond the breaking news to 'What does this mean?' "

She also said that as Mr. Silverman and Kathleen Carroll, The A.P.'s executive editor, responded to the concerns, the editors realized that some questions were impossible to answer. For example, she said, the editors understood that it was much easier to add up the number of dead than to determine how many hospitals received power on a particular day or how many schools were built.

Mr. Silverman said the wire service was covering Iraq "as accurately as we can" while "also trying to keep our people out of harm's way."

"The main obstacle we face," he said, "is the severe limitation on our movement and our ability to get out and report. It's very confining for our staff to go into Baghdad and have to spend most of their time on the fifth floor of the Palestine Hotel," which is home to most of the press corps. The hotel was struck by a tank shell in 2003, killing two journalists.

Iraq remains the most dangerous place in the world to work as a journalist, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. At least 13 media workers have been killed in Iraq so far this year, bringing the total to 50 since the war began in 2003.

"Postwar Iraq is fraught with risks for reporters: Banditry, gunfire and bombings are common," the committee's Web site says. "Insurgents have added a new threat by systematically targeting foreigners, including journalists, and Iraqis who work for them."

Mr. Silverman said The A.P. had already decided before the meeting that it would have Robert H. Reid, an A.P. correspondent at large who has reported frequently from Iraq, write an overview every 10 days.

Mr. Silverman also said the wire service would make more effort to flag articles that look beyond the breaking news. As it turned out, he said, most of the information in the anonymous e-mail message had been reported by The A.P., but the details had been buried in articles or the articles had been overlooked.

Before the meeting, The A.P. collected three articles by reporters for other news organizations who were embedded with American troops and sent them out over the wire to provide "more voice." Mr. Silverman said he wanted to do more of that but the opportunities were limited because there are only three dozen embedded journalists now, compared with 700 when the war began more than two years ago.

Ms. Goudreau, for one, found the discussion useful. By the end, she said, editors were acknowledging that even in their own hometowns, "we're more likely to focus on people who are killed than on the positive news out of a school."

in the New York Times

---

Seems to me that the gist of this story is that the AP would rather report on news that it doesn't have to leave the office to get. Anything hard to gather, or somewhat dangerous to find out, is not their beat. There are plenty of modern day Ernie Pyles on the blog sites - on the ground in Iraq reporting the news up close and personal, and there are some doing excellent reporting in the military newpapers, but apparently none are in the employ of the Associated Press.

Red Planet Turning Green?

2005-08-15T07:39:00.000-04:00

There’s a new mission to Mars. But we’re not talking about cute little robot rovers anymore.

CBS News Correspondent Jerry Bowen reports on a plan to turn the Red Planet into a green one – one that could support life.

"What we propose is to use greenhouse gases – the same ones that are currently on the earth causing climate change," said Margarita Marinova, a graduate student at the California Institute of Technology.

That's right. Earthlings are thinking of using the same toxic stuff already blamed for global warming here to put some life back on Mars.

Marinova says that the goal is to warm Mars enough so that the planet’s south polar cap will evaporate.

Ever since Hollywood directors started yelling “Action!” B-grade science fiction thrillers have depicted a warmer, livable Mars.

Marinova hopes to turn those fictional accounts into reality. She has co-authored a NASA study that says it’s doable – even if it's not understandable.

full story

Web access may be as close as an electrical outlet

2005-08-15T07:36:00.000-04:00

"Those wanting high-speed access to the Internet essentially have two choices: Buy it from a cable TV company or from the local telephone company.

But a third option stands in the wings for many consumers: the electric company.
The idea seems simple: Millions of miles of power lines already run to nearly every home in the United States. Just send an Internet signal through them and everyone can be connected."

USA Today:

Experimental Hybrid Cars get up to 250mpg

2005-08-15T07:29:00.000-04:00

CORTE MADERA, Calif. (AP) - Politicians and automakers say a car that can both reduce greenhouse gases and free America from its reliance on foreign oil is years or even decades away. Ron Gremban says such a car is parked in his garage.

It looks like a typical Toyota Prius hybrid, but in the trunk sits an 80-miles-per-gallon secret - a stack of 18 brick-sized batteries that boosts the car's high mileage with an extra electrical charge so it can burn even less fuel.

Gremban, an electrical engineer and committed environmentalist, spent several months and $3,000 tinkering with his car.

Like all hybrids, his Prius increases fuel efficiency by harnessing small amounts of electricity generated during braking and coasting. The extra batteries let him store extra power by plugging the car into a wall outlet at his home in this San Francisco suburb - all for about a quarter.

He's part of a small but growing movement. "Plug-in" hybrids aren't yet cost-efficient, but some of the dozen known experimental models have gotten up to 250 mpg.

They have support not only from environmentalists but also from conservative foreign policy hawks who insist Americans fuel terrorism through their gas guzzling.

And while the technology has existed for three decades, automakers are beginning to take notice, too.

So far, DaimlerChrysler AG (DCX) is the only company that has committed to building its own plug-in hybrids, quietly pledging to make up to 40 vans for U.S. companies. But Toyota Motor Corp. (TM) officials who initially frowned on people altering their cars now say they may be able to learn from them.

"They're like the hot rodders of yesterday who did everything to soup up their cars. It was all about horsepower and bling-bling, lots of chrome and accessories," said Cindy Knight, a Toyota spokeswoman. "Maybe the hot rodders of tomorrow are the people who want to get in there and see what they can do about increasing fuel economy."

full story

Giant Waterfall Discovered in California Park

2005-08-13T09:17:00.000-04:00

By KATHLEEN HENNESSEY

WHISKEYTOWN, Calif. (AP) - Dick McDermott knows these parts as well as any man can. But McDermott says he's never laid eyes on the nearly 400-foot waterfall that park officials recently discovered in a remote corner of the Whiskeytown National Recreation Area, 43,000 acres of wilderness in northern California.

The 92-year-old used to earn a meager living mining the creeks that meander through the deeply wooded hills. He has slogged through the brush and hiked overgrown logging roads, hunting deer and gathering wood for his homemade fiddles.

"Sure, I was surprised," he said from his home in the park, where he's lived for more than 70 years. "I've been all around that place, I never seen 'em."

Until recently, very few had seen the roaring water that tumbles three tiers before pouring neatly into Crystal Creek. That such a spectacle should evade even park officials for nearly 40 years is remarkable, said park superintendent Jim Milestone.

story

Teens operate on dead cat, saving kittens

2005-08-12T14:17:00.000-04:00

Two teenagers performed a caesarean section on a dead cat they found along a New Brunswick road, saving two of four kittens.

Kitten rescued from womb of her dead mother.
Monica Castonguay, 15, and Kim Quimpère, 13, said they found the animal on July 31 while they were on their way for a walk in the woods near St. Quentin, a town in northwestern New Brunswick.

They told a French-language newspaper, the Acadie Nouvelle, that they recognized the cat and knew it was pregnant.

After discovering that the cat's body was still warm, they decided to try to save its kittens – even though neither of them knew how to do a caesarean section or had studied biology.

Kim borrowed a sweater, knife and some cotton swabs from a nearby house.

They decided Monica would do the surgery. She told the newspaper she wasn't sure where to cut, but made an incision into the mother cat's belly and could see the kittens.

She pulled them out and found that two of four kittens were still alive, so she cut their umbilical cords and wiped the mucus from their noses.

Kim bundled the kittens carefully in the sweater, then the teens raced home with them.

They telephoned several people but were unable to reach a veterinarian.

That evening, a cat in the neighbourhood that had recently lost its brood heard the kittens mewing and adopted them. One of the kittens later died but the other was adopted by Monica.

The teens said the experience in no way swayed them toward becoming doctors or veterinarians.

Kim told the newspaper that she found the experience interesting but rather nauseating.

CBC News

Captain Reenlists Brother in Afghanistan

2005-08-12T08:41:00.000-04:00

By U.S. Army Pfc. Mike Pryor
82nd Airborne Division Public Affairs

BAGRAM AIRFIELD, AFGHANISTAN, Aug. 11, 2005 — When Sgt. 1st Class Cliff Burgoyne decided to re-enlist in the Army, he needed an officer from his unit to swear him in. Luckily, his brother was available.

Burgoyne, 39, from Slidell, La., is currently deployed to Afghanistan as the scout platoon sergeant with 1st Battalion, 325th Airborne Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division. His brother, Capt. Jeffrey T. Burgoyne, 34, is the commander of the battalion's B Company.

The captain re-enlisted his brother in front of a crowd of paratroopers during a short ceremony outside the battalion's tents here July 28.

“It made it very special for me. It was a real honor,” said the sergeant first class.

The Burgoyne brothers served together in the Louisiana National Guard during the late 1980s before following separate paths through the regular Army. It took almost 15 years for them to be reunited in the same unit.

The sergeant said he pulled some strings to be reassigned with his brother. He joined the battalion in February of this year. Being in the same unit together has been great, he said, even though he now has to take orders from his younger brother.

“Everybody is part of the same team. I know my place,” he said.

Not everyone in the battalion does. The brothers said they are sometimes mistaken for each other.

“People come up to talk to me and then after a few sentences they realize I'm not the person they're looking for,” said Cliff. “I just go along with the conversation until they figure it out.”

Because of the way the battalion is organized, the sergeant's scout platoon could potentially fall under his brother's direct command during this deployment. Jeffrey said he worries about putting his brother in harm's way if that happens, but there's no one he trusts more to get the job done.

“If I had to send him on a mission, I'd know things would be getting done right,” he added.

Like most soldiers, the Burgoyne brothers have family back home who worry. Being together should make it easier on them, said Cliff.

“Mom's always asking, ‘Where's Jeff going? What's Cliff doing?” he said.

The Burgoyne brothers said they are looking forward to working together on this deployment. They'd like to remain in the same unit for as long as possible, they said, but if the Army has other plans for them they're alright with that, too – they'll still be able to see each other during their annual duck hunting trip back in Louisiana.

“Just tell all the people in Slidell not to kill all the ducks and fish ‘til we get home,” said Cliff.

DefendAmerica.mil

Meteor 'Outburst' Expected Friday Morning

2005-08-11T16:06:00.000-04:00

For as long as records exist, the Perseid meteor showers have always been strong. This summer's Perseid shower will be exceptional. The moon is mostly out of the way later in the night, and higher-than-normal activity rates are expected over the United States.

The Perseid shower's parent body, comet 109P/Swift-Tuttle, is notable in being a comparatively huge comet in an orbit that passes close to Earth's orbit frequently. It measures 24-31 kilometers in diameter, 2 to 3 times the size of comet Halley, and is so big that the continuous ejection of water vapor and dust during its approach to the Sun does not move the comet much off course. It has spewed dust for at least 5,000 years and most likely thirty times longer. It has built a massive meteoroid stream, most of which is located just outside of Earth's orbit. Earth passes through the outer regions of that stream in July, and hits the center on August 12.

At that time, the annual Perseid shower peaks at 80 meteors per hour under ideal circumstances (no clouds or moon, dark sky, stars of magnitude +6.5 just visible).

When comet 109P/Swift-Tuttle was rediscovered in 1992, scientists noticed in alarm that a delay of 17 days in the next projected return of the comet in 2126 could cause it to collide with Earth. That fear dissipated when the orbit was recomputed using data from sightings in 188 A.D. and 69 B.C. The more precise orbit has the comet approach Earth in 2126 to within only 23 million kilometers, but there's no danger of us being hit. In September 4479, the comet will approach Earth even closer, to within about 6 million kilometers. It will then be as bright as Jupiter (-2.1 magnitude) in the sky.

The dust released will spread along the comet orbit because some dust grains make wider orbits than others and return later. When Earth encounters these dust trails, a meteor storm may be observed. But only if the very narrow trail is steered smack in Earth's path by perturbations of the planets. Most dust does wander far from the comet, which is why the best showers are observed in the years following when the comet returns, while lesser outbursts occur when dust further along the comet orbit wanders in Earth's path.

The next big shower is not expected until the next return of the comet.

For now, a nice outburst is projected for Aug. 12, 2005, at 08:18h UT (= 04:18 EDT and 01:18 PDT), when Earth will encounter the dust ejected in the return of 1479. Rates can go up four fold to about 240 per hour on top of the 80 per hour annual activity, for a brief period of time (approximately 1.2 hours).

In addition, rates may increase again around 13h UT, when Earth is slated to encounter the Filament component, rising to less than 86 per hour on top of normal, annual activity. That Filament is older dust presumably in mean-motion resonance with Jupiter.

Iraqi Civilians Protect Soldiers responding to car bomb

2005-08-11T10:03:00.000-04:00

...in Baghdad, Iraqi civilians took unusual action to protect coalition forces after a car-bomb attack Aug. 6.

After U.S. medics treated the wounded at the scene in the Sumer al Ghadier District, local residents constructed a hasty barricade with trees, bricks and anything else available to protect the soldiers from additional danger.

"This is the first time that I can remember where Iraqi civilians actually built a barrier to protect my soldiers," U.S. Army Lt. Col. Steven Merkel, commander of 1st Battalion, 9th Field Artillery Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, said. "The soldiers are still talking about the helpful actions of the local community and have asked to go back to the neighborhood to thank those responsible."

Capt. David Ahl, 1-9 FA information operations officer, said, "It became very obvious that the Iraqi people are tired of terrorist activity. When I saw them putting up barricades to protect us after the (car bomb) exploded, I knew right then that the days of terrorist activity are counting down fast."

The Baghdad citizens not only helped to physically protect the soldiers, but also were forthcoming with valuable information about the area, which led to the apprehension of a man suspected of involvement in a previous car-bomb attack.

"The continued commitment of the Iraqi people to help their Iraqi security forces and coalition forces demonstrates, more than ever, that they are growing increasingly intolerant of the violence brought on by the terrorists and more eager to play a positive role in the future of Iraq," Merkel said.

source

Aeromedical Evacuation Improvements Saving Lives

2005-08-11T09:59:00.000-04:00

WASHINGTON, Aug. 10, 2005 – Better training, more advanced equipment and aeromedical evacuation procedures that are constantly being improved are helping save thousands of lives of troops wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan, Air Force medical officers told the American Forces Press Service during a Pentagon interview.
Air Force Lt. Col. Warren Dorlac, chief of critical care and trauma surgery at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany, described the extensive network of patient care that's helping reduce battlefield deaths and speed up patients' recovery.

Casualties are getting medical treatment faster and closer to the point of injury than ever before, Dorlac explained. The military medical system is moving its assets closer to the front lines to be more responsive to patient needs, and surgical teams are smaller, more capable and positioned closer to the troops they support, he said.

At the same time, the military is boosting know-how about treating combat casualties so all on the battlefield, regardless of their job specialty, know basic life-saving skills. Dorlac said it's not unusual for a patient to arrive at a forward surgical hospital in Iraq wearing a life-saving tourniquet that was applied by a comrade on the front lines.

full story

Climber Rescued From Pakistan Mountain

2005-08-11T09:14:00.000-04:00

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) - Stripped of excess weight to fly in the thin Himalayan air, an army helicopter Wednesday plucked a Slovene climber from the icy ledge where he was trapped for six days after failing to climb an unconquered face of Pakistan's "Killer Mountain."

Tomaz Humar, 36, was hoisted to safety from the notorious western Himalayan Nanga Parbat mountain after two earlier helicopter rescue attempts failed because of high altitude and poor weather.

Humar, who remained in radio contact with his base camp during his ordeal, returned there around 6:30 a.m. He was dehydrated, hungry and showing early signs of frostbite but suffering no serious health problems, according to a posting on his expedition Web site.

"He fell on his knees since he could barely walk from exhaustion," the site reported. "They laid him on the sleeping bag, he cried, hugged everyone around him and kept thanking the (helicopter) crew."

Pakistan's military hailed the rescue as a "highly daring and extraordinary mission" conducted above the normal ceiling for flying - and rivaling its 1983 rescue of a Belgian mountaineer in the Himalayas from 22,000 feet. Humar's team had issued an international appeal on Saturday for a helicopter extraction and the Slovenian Embassy requested the army's help.

story

A Morning Show You can Listen to with Your Kids

2005-08-10T23:43:00.000-04:00

By Martin Miller, Times Staff Writer

It's morning drive time in Los Angeles.

Howard Stern is hosting "Stump the Perv" on KSLX-FM (97.1), which features a male contestant pitted against a Nevada call girl in a porn trivia contest. He wins and gets five minutes alone with her in Howard's bathroom.

Meanwhile, Jamie, Jack and Stench on KYSR-FM (98.7) are talking about gay bull riders, crotchless hazmat suits and their white-trash childhoods — all topics that would be applauded at most of the ratings-hungry morning shows on the radio dial.

That is, except for one show — "The Family Friendly Morning Show" from 5 to 9 a.m. hosted by Billy Burke on KFSH-FM (95.9), a Christian-themed station often referred to as the Fish. On one recent morning, Burke is discussing one of his favorite promotions, Random Acts of Kindness Day, where listeners are encouraged to phone in their stories of good deeds either witnessed or performed.

A mother tells Burke that her three children are donating all the money earned from part-time jobs and allowances to their godmother so she can pay for chemotherapy. "Kids are doing good things," said Burke, a veteran of Top 40 stations and a father of two children, ages 13 and 8. "The majority of kids are good kids."

The family-oriented show stands virtually alone in the lion's den of the morning drive time, a fiercely competitive programming block known more for its raunchiness than heart. The feel-good format itself is not unique to Los Angeles, but one of about 10 that broadcast around the nation in such cities as Sacramento, Nashville and Atlanta.

Rolled out over the last several years by Camarillo-based Salem Communications, which owns more than 100 mostly Christian-oriented radio stations, the idea is quite simple — air a morning show that parents and children can tune into without wincing.

"Our goal is to offer an alternative to all the dreck," said Chuck Tyler, the Fish's director of programming. "We want to offer something fun that parents don't have to shield their kids from and right now we have the market cornered on that."

As with all of Salem's family-friendly morning shows, you'll certainly hear preaching about family values but not about politics or religion. The absence of overtly Christian talk distinguishes the morning show from most other Christian broadcasters, who hammer away at religious themes all day along. The morning show, by design, keeps its Christianity in the background.

"We're not hiding that we're Christian," added Tyler, whose station's call letters are a nod to a secret symbol of early Christianity. "But we're not beating people over the head with a Bible either. We don't want to sound too churchy. We want to be welcoming to everyone."

To be sure, the morning show's music, at least lyrically, is unmistakably religious. It spins what is known as the contemporary Christian format, a polished rock and alternative sound that could easily be confused with Top 40 music. "The production values are up there with U2," said Burke, a former disc jockey for KIIS-FM (102.7). "This isn't vanilla church music."

Burke's morning show recently played "Glory Defined" by a group called Building 429, a named derived from the New Testament's Book of Ephesians. Its lyrics include:

" ... I will finally bow at your feet

"I will lift up your name in honor and praise

"When I cross over Jordan

"I know that I'll be running home to you."

Orange County audience

Burke's energetic but easygoing style, coupled with the modern Christian rock playlist, has translated into decent ratings in Southern California, particularly in Orange County (the signal is weaker in Los Angeles County).

Among Orange County women between 25 and 54, Burke's show has been ranked as high as 10th among morning drive-time shows, according to the Arbitron ratings. In Los Angeles, however, it typically falls out of the top 20 for that group.

But despite the relatively small audience, Christian broadcasters say there's a place for morally based programming, as long as it's presented in a palatable form.

"There's a backlash in society against what people would call edgy radio that has created a need for a station you can listen to with your kids," said John Frost, a Florida-based consultant to Christian radio stations. "And Christian radio stations have become much more sophisticated in knowing how to use radio to reach them."

Burke's morning show originates from a high-rise office building in Glendale inside a broadcast room nicknamed "the Fish Tank." Behind its glass wall, a portion of the electronic equipment is housed in a colorful display of tiny lights in the shape of a fish. Behind Burke, a large-screen television is tuned into a Fox News station, but is muted.

On this morning Burke, a hard-muscled martial arts black belt who is wearing two small hoop earrings, jeans and a striped cotton shirt, is exhorting his listeners to get into the spirit of Random Acts of Kindness Day — a promotion he started when he was a DJ at Southern California's country-western station KZLA-FM (93.9). Thank somebody, ask a parent about their children or, heck, even let someone get into your lane in traffic, he says.

"We're like a conduit for kindness," said Burke, who when he isn't on the air enjoys watching "SpongeBob SquarePants" with his two children.

His switchboard lights up with calls throughout the morning. One is from an Orange County cop who heaps praise upon his community for raising $8,000 to help pay for medical care for his brain-damaged son. The officer also thanks his police station co-workers for giving him more than four months vacation.

Later, a call comes in from a diabetic mother of a 1-year-old baby who says a stranger saved her life after she passed out in her car in a grocery store parking lot in Tustin. Another proudly notes that her 6-year-old son opens the doors for women.

"You're raising your son right," Burke tells the mother. "It all starts at home."

Despite the program's wholesome atmosphere, Burke insists he shares a bond with the other, more popular morning drive-time hosts.

"I know it might be bizarre to say I have anything in common with Howard, Jamie or [KXTA-AM's] Mancow," said Burke, whose career in radio began at age 15 in a small Texas town. "But we do. We all have an intensity, a passion. We're entertainers and we love and believe in what we're doing."

But one thing Burke doesn't have in common with the others is this: His favorite Bible verse is posted on his station's website. (It's Mark 11:23.) Still, on the show, he doesn't flash his religious preferences.

"I don't want to force-feed anybody, I just try and stick true to what I believe," he said. "Given the chance and if the situation is right, I'll witness to people and give my testimony absolutely. I'm very proud that I'm a Christian, but there's a time and place for everything."

No FCC worries

Unlike other morning DJs, Burke doesn't have to be concerned about the Federal Communications Commission cracking down on him over matters of taste. They'll joke around on the show, but it's all good, clean fun.

"We never have to worry about the boundaries," Burke explains. "I'm a parent too."

Sometimes the tough self-editing comes when the show has to deliver news of horrific current events, something it generally tries to avoid. However, during the terrorist bombings in the London subway last month, the show alerted listeners to the news, but was careful not to use any number of potentially upsetting words like "maimed," "murdered" or "killed."

"We don't dumb-down the news, but we don't want to put anything on the air that would be upsetting for kids," said Tyler, who added that his station has turned down advertisements from television stations that were deemed too violent or titillating.

These choices are all consciously made to appeal to the station's target audience — thirtysomething mothers who often are the decision makers when it comes to spending the family's money. Burke empathizes with that audience.

"The woman of today is not like the mom of the '50s, my goodness," said Burke, who regularly reads magazines like Family Circle or Cosmopolitan to keep up with their concerns. "Their middle name today is multi-tasker. How can you be a mom, a taxi driver, have a career, and yet dinner is on the table and dad is happy? How can you not respect that?"

source

What the Discovery Crew did in space

2005-08-10T08:40:00.000-04:00

MSNBC has a brief listing of each crew member and some of the things they did in space. As I read it, it's striking to me how comfortable we've gotten with the idea of being in space and working effectively there. Many of the things the astronauts did on this trip sound so basic - a repair job that consisted of pulling some loose material free, flying in a circle around the space station, executing a back flip so the shuttle's belly could be viewed from the space station, moving equipment and hauling trash. It's not the exciting, adventurous stuff that one thinks of when contemplating space travel, but it is the solid logistical work that is going to be necessary to accomplish more serious space expeditions - such as a trip to Mars.

Next Mars Mission lifts off Tomorrow

2005-08-10T08:32:00.000-04:00

The next mission from Earth to investigate the secrets of Mars, scheduled for launching tomorrow, will be a multifunctional Swiss Army Knife of a spacecraft that will scan the planet from high in its sky to below its surface.

Poised to join a squadron of spacecraft already studying the fourth planet from the Sun is the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, a large robotic vehicle designed to circle Mars and examine it in detail that has not been seen before.

The craft is set for liftoff from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida aboard a Lockheed Martin Atlas V rocket. If there are delays, the mission has a launching period that lasts for three weeks. That will allow the orbiter to reach Mars in the spring and slowly settle into a low working orbit to begin scientific observations in November 2006.

The orbiter carries six scientific instruments to take detailed images of the Mars surface, going beneath the ground with radar, making three-dimensional studies of weather and finding landing sites for future spacecraft. In addition, if all goes as planned, it will serve as a communications satellite that gives Mars a high-speed data link to Earth.

"Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is many things," said Richard Zurek, head project scientist at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., which is managing and operating the $750 million mission. "It's a weather satellite, it's a geologic surveyor, and it's a pathfinder for future missions."

Dr. Zurek, an atmospheric scientist, said the point of the mission was to look at Mars for small details. The entire planet has been mapped over the years by a series of spacecraft, he said, but only 2 percent has been seen in the highest resolution. Scientists hope the new craft increases that number to 20 percent.

New York Times

Discovery's Home

2005-08-09T08:58:00.000-04:00

Discovery Lands Safely in California

By ALICIA CHANG

EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. (AP) - Discovery and its crew of seven glided safely back to Earth on Tuesday, ending a riveting, at times agonizing, 14-day test of space shuttle safety that was shadowed by the ghosts of Columbia.

Discovery swooped through the darkness of the Mojave Desert and landed on the Edwards runway at 5:11 a.m. PDT, well before sunrise. It marked the conclusion of the first shuttle re-entry since Columbia's tragic return.

The detour to California came after thunderstorms in Cape Canaveral, Fla., prevented the shuttle from returning to its home base.

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Former Taliban Commander Joins Forces With Afghan Government

2005-08-08T23:16:00.000-04:00

A former Taliban sub-commander of the Paktika province has renounced violence against the government of Afghanistan, further fragmenting the Taliban command structure in eastern Afghanistan, military officials said.

Mullah Hajji Jalani formally joined the Program Takhim-E-Sohl Aug. 4. A ceremony honoring his decision will be held Aug. 9.

The terrorist cell he was formerly associated with has been accused of conducting and planning a variety of attacks against the Afghan people, the Afghan government, and Afghan and coalition forces.

"The fact that Mullah Hajji Jalani has joined with the government of Afghanistan is a positive sign Afghanistan is moving in the right direction," said Army Brig. Gen. James G. Champion, Combined Joint Task Force 76 deputy commanding general. "It's a sign the government of this country is making real and measurable progress toward better security and a brighter future. Mullah Hajji Jalani has realized this and has joined with the government to make Afghanistan a better place for all who live here."

As a result of Jalani's decision to enroll in the program, another 12 former Taliban loyalists have come forward in that province seeking more information on the program and have expressed interest in enrolling.

The PTS program is a tool the government of Afghanistan uses to encourage former Taliban regime members to renounce violence and join with the government to build a more secure country. During the past six months, more then 100 former regime members have joined the program.

(From a Combined Forces Command Afghanistan news release.)

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The Troops Respond by Robert Alt

2005-08-08T22:44:00.000-04:00

This is a couple weeks old, but I thought it was worth passing on...

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The Troops Respond to Andy Rooney

by Robert Alt

Tuz, Iraq—As I walked into the barracks, Sgt. Kevin Porter, a 23-year old trooper in the Ohio National Guard serving south of Kirkuk, Iraq, called me over. He had just received a package from his family in Bellaire, Ohio, which included a then weeks-old copy of his local newspaper. The op-ed page featured a column by Andy Rooney opining about the character and morale of servicemen in Iraq. Rooney offered five questions that he wished a reporter would ask soldiers in Iraq, a group he dubbed "victims" rather than "heroes." Although Sgt. Porter is not someone who frequently talked politics or current events, this article struck a nerve with him and his fellow troopers. He asked if I might assist him and his fellow soldiers to respond to Rooney’s questions.

Some rightly may wonder why ink should be spilt on what is necessarily a belated response to Rooney, whose banal "did you ever notice" segments on "60 Minutes" have come to epitomize journalistic navel gazing. It is worth noting that Mr. Rooney was not always a curmudgeonly caricature. In WWII, his combat reporting for Stars and Stripes earned him the Bronze Star. Because of his admirable service, many Americans still lend their ears to what he has to say about our soldiers. Unfortunately, Mr. Rooney seems to have joined the ranks of journalists whose political disagreements with the current President and open disdain for the war in Iraq cloud their already questionable judgment. In this way, Rooney’s tirades and condescending tone directed toward the soldiers are typical of a sizable segment of today’s journalists, a group which a recent Pew survey confirmed to be more liberal than the public for whom they report. And so, after being told for the past year how the war is going, and how the troops are faring by those who are not doing the fighting, it is past time that the troops had their say.

Many of Rooney’s questions are skewed in a naked attempt to elicit a desired response. To the extent that he was not simply trying to score rhetorical points in his column, this reflects a belief that the soldiers can be easily led by the nose to tout a particular line. I do not share this opinion, and therefore I let Rooney’s questions stand in an attempt to show his calculation wrong. I did not color his questions, but assured they were asked verbatim by requesting that the troopers read Rooney’s written questions before answering. To the extent possible, I interviewed the troopers separately, so that they would not be influenced by another’s response, and I made efforts to assure that the most "pro-Rooney" responses that I found for each question were included. In the era of Dowd, I should note that any ellipses are not offered to alter the content, but for the traditional reasons of conciseness, grammar, and to show pauses.

Mr. Rooney’s first question was "Do you think your country did the right thing sending you into Iraq?" Cpl. Caleb Clark of Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio offered an emphatic response: "Absolutely. I think that what we are doing over here has a direct effect on international terrorism. And I think the government should continue to send soldiers over here until the job is done. I feel that we would be cheating the soldiers who went before us if we didn’t finish the job." Sgt. Porter shared the view of many soldiers who looked at the impact for future generations: "I think we did the right thing for the simple fact that if we didn’t, then our sons or grandchildren would have to come over here and do the same thing." Spc. David James of North Royalton, Ohio offered his usual candor: "Yeah, I think as a whole, I’m glad we’re over here; and me, I’m glad to be part of that whole… If we didn’t step up, who the hell would?" Spc. Daniel Richmond of Akron saw the benefits for both countries: "[T]he country [Iraq] needed our help. And we needed to come over here for our own safety: to help our country deal with the terrorism. And to help them set themselves up with a better government, so that things like terrorism… [don’t] happen." For Gulf War veteran Sgt. Joseph Black of Massillon, Ohio, the only complaint was that we waited this long: "Saddam should have been removed a long time ago, either by the United States or by the surrounding Arab states for the crimes he committed against his people." As you would expect, however, there was not unanimity on the question. Spc. Dickens thought "that there were other places that needed attention first," however, he recognized something that the question failed to address: the implications of agreement or disagreement with the war decision for the future. "[N]ow that we are here, we need to finish the job," he mused.

Mr. Rooney’s second question was: "Are you doing what America set out to do to make Iraq a democracy, or have we failed so badly that we should pack up and get out before more of you are killed?" This question drew a unanimous and emphatic response from every trooper with whom I spoke. Spc. Dickens explained that "[w]e’re doing exactly what we set out to do." As for pulling out, he took the prospect quite personally: "We’ve told the people that we are here to help. If they pull us out now, they would make me into a liar." Spc. Richmond recognized a simple fact which too many armchair analysts in the States overlook: "We are doing what is necessary to make Iraq a Democracy—it takes time." Sgt. Black echoed this sentiment, in stating that "[a]nyone who thinks that we could undo 35 years of brutality with a band-aid is sorely mistaken." Black emphasized the work that was being done by the his troop, including training the Iraqi National Guard and digging wells for local villages as evidence of the good that is being done on a daily basis by the military here in Iraq. Sgt. Porter pointed to the fact that his troop is "helping the Kurds and the Arabs to work together," something I witnessed in a contract which the platoon helped to negotiate between two villages, one Kurdish and one Arab, which had previous harbored distrust toward each other. And again, the irrepressible Spc. James offered candor: "Who the hell is saying we failed?" He conceded that "it’s tough over here, but you expect that… This is a war against terrorism; this is about winning the peace. That doesn’t mean that there isn’t going to be any fighting."

Mr. Rooney’s third question was: "Do the orders you get handed down from one headquarters to another, all far removed from the fighting, seem sensible, or do you think our highest command is out of touch with the reality of your situation?" Cpt. Trampes Crow, a civil affairs officer from Alabama, gave a response that was typical of the troops: "Every soldier thinks that headquarters is out of touch… What kind of question is that? Of course he is going to get the kind of answer he wants." Sgt. Black seconded this sentiment: "I think that is just a bogus question and a waste of ink. I think that every soldier going back to the days of spears and slingshots thought that their leaders were out of touch… But with modern communication, they are probably more in touch." Sgt. Porter thought that the "highest command has some sense of what’s going on, but they don’t know exactly what’s going on. But then, we don’t know what’s going on in headquarters, and if we did, [the orders] might make more sense." Spc. Richmond had his doubts, suggesting that "a lot of the commands they give us are out of touch with reality, even if they are for our safety." And 1Lt. Barry Naum of Chardon, Ohio offered something of a historical perspective: "[The orders] seem more sensible than if someone told me to get on a boat and charge on a beach filled with German machine guns. When have orders ever ’made sense’ to a soldier?"

Mr. Rooney’s fourth question descended into rhetorical absurdity: "If you could have a medal or a trip home, which would you take?" Not surprisingly, all of the guys said they would prefer to be at home, something Spc. James expressed poignantly in noting that "[g]etting to see your family is better than any medal out there." But Cpt. Crow got to the larger question—and addressed what seemed to be the motivation behind Rooney’s simplistic question: "Who wouldn’t want a trip home? If he is getting at the bigger question of whether we should be here or whether we should go home, then we need to stay here to finish the job." Sgt. Porter suggested likewise: "Who doesn’t want to come home? But it’s not like you hear ’We want to go home! We want to go home.’"

And finally, Mr. Rooney’s fifth question: "Are you encouraged by all the talk back home about how brave you are and how everyone supports you?" A lot of the guys had problems with the use of terms like brave or hero. Sgt. Porter’s response is representative: "Encouraged, yes. It’s good to hear that people are remembering you. But brave isn’t really a term we use. It’s just doing your job." Similarly, Sgt. Black stated: "Absolutely, I’m encouraged by the words of support back home. Am I brave, no. I’m just a guy; I’m just a soldier. But I’m very happy to have the support of my nation. I was blessed to have the support of the nation in the two wars that I have been in." Spc. James explained how much the support means: "Oh yeah, it’s a big motivator. Puts a smile on my face. You got kids from school writing you letters, and you’ve got family and friends. It’s a big help… A lot of people, they look up to you. I’m sure when I get home and I put on that uniform… it’s truly an honor to wear the uniform. You get treated better when you wear the uniform." Finally, Lt. Naum opined: "Yeah. It’s more encouraging than what the press is saying… It’s more encouraging than him telling me that I’m a victim. I’ve never been a victim."

Lt. Naum was referring to Mr. Rooney’s assertion later in the article that the National Guard members are predominantly serving just for the money, that they didn’t think that they would be called up, and therefore are they really victims rather than heroes. Sgt. Porter also protested that "We’re not victims. We signed up for this. Many of us re-enlisted." Refuting the idea that the National Guard members did not know what they were getting into, Lt. Naum noted that the vast majority of the soldiers who are E-4 and below enlisted after 9/11—after we were at war and at a time that they knew they were likely to be called up. Sgt. Black explained that many of the men not only volunteered once to join the National Guard, but volunteered a second time to come to Iraq. Indeed, a number of the men in this very platoon either transferred into the platoon to serve in Iraq or specifically volunteered to be deployed.

I wish that Mr. Rooney’s patronizing column was an isolated occurrence, but his style of talking down to the troops as simpletons who don’t know what they are doing or imputing negative morale is reflective of the current mode of journalism. Because quasi-journalists like Mr. Rooney do not agree with the war and believe that it was not justified to their standards, they extrapolate that the men must not have a sense of purpose. But as the soldiers’ responses to his poorly formulated questions ably demonstrate—he and his colleagues are sorely mistaken.

Robert D. Alt is a Fellow in Legal and International Affairs at The John M. Ashbrook Center for Public Affairs at Ashland University currently reporting from Iraq. You can follow his daily progress at No Left Turns.

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Gretzky's Back - as Coach

2005-08-08T22:31:00.000-04:00

The Great One isn't promising great things right away from the Phoenix Coyotes. Merely contending for the Stanley Cup would be fine for a start.

"There's no perfect coach in the world," Wayne Gretzky said Monday at his introduction as the new coach of the Coyotes. "Coaches are human, too. Mistakes are made. But, fundamentally, if you're sound you eliminate as many mistakes as possible."

Gretzky downplayed his importance to the NHL as it emerges from the lockout. Others magnified it.

"It's great for hockey, especially in the U.S., because we have other games that we're watching," said Barry Smith, one of three associate coaches Gretzky picked for his staff. "You know, once he gets coaching, the pride that he has, so every place we go something's going to happen. I feel that every city we go to play, there's a little more pizazz."

Gretzky's presence should help revive the sport, co-owner Steve Ellman said.

"It's huge. Fans around the world will tune in to watch Gretzky coach," he said.

story

Soldier in Iraq sees daughter's birth in US

2005-08-08T22:29:00.000-04:00

By JENNIFER BUNDY

PARKERSBURG, W.Va. (AP) - Sgt. William Hamrick II witnessed the birth of his daughter Monday. That may seem unremarkable - except that Hamrick was 6,000 miles away in Iraq.

When doctors induced labor Monday morning at Camden-Clark Memorial Hospital in Parkersburg, Hamrick was virtually at his wife's side via live Internet video and satellite audio link.

The 25-year-old soldier could see and hear everything as it happened in the hospital room. The satellite audio link let him talk his wife through the contractions. And at 4:04 p.m. in West Virginia, just after midnight in Baghdad, he was able to watch as Elaina Jo Hamrick came into the world.

Angela Hamrick could only hear her husband, but she had a framed photo of him at her bedside.

"Just being able to hear his voice was well worth it," the new mom said. "I knew he was around me somehow."

Hamrick has been serving in Iraq for eight months as a heavy equipment operator with the Army Reserve's 463rd Charlie Company's Engineering Battalion.

His wife back home in Parkersburg had asked the hospital if there was some way he could see pictures of his daughter's birth.

"I didn't know it was going to go this far," she said.

Hospital information specialists put the system together at no cost to the family and talked to the Army to set everything up, said hospital spokesman Greg Smith.

Hamrick, a construction worker, said he was excited to see his family. Before the birth, while he and his wife talked, their 2-year-old son Chance came in to say hello to his dad.

"I did kind of wish I was home," Hamrick told WSAZ-TV in a brief interview over the satellite audio link. "Sometimes there's not a whole lot we can do about it."

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Flaws in Iraq Constitution show just how well it's actually going

2005-08-08T21:26:00.000-04:00

Reuel Gerecht makes the point in today's Wall Street Journal that the intense debate surrounding the new Iraqi Constitution shows that the people of Iraq have accepted the basic idea of working out differences democratically instead of by revolutionary means...

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BY REUEL MARC GERECHT
Monday, August 8, 2005 12:01 a.m. EDT

Although it appears the Iraqis are going to meet the Aug. 15 deadline for writing a new constitution, we shouldn't worry if they just can't do it "on time." It will certainly be dispiriting to many Iraqis and Americans--particularly in the Pentagon, where the counterinsurgency troop requirements for Iraq and Afghanistan haven't dovetailed well with Donald Rumsfeld's plans for a smaller "transformed" military. All of Washington wants the Iraqis to be more expeditious than our own Founding Fathers, who took years of trial and error to hammer out the mother of all modern constitutions.

Yet the Iraqis are where we want them to be: divided on critical matters of politics and faith, but still determined to resolve their differences through a binding written compromise. Their discussions are hot and sometimes intractable because all the parties know these debates matter. Federalism and the political role of Islam--perhaps the two most troublesome subjects--are critical issues throughout the Middle East. No one in Washington should want these debates toned down or curtailed.

Many in America may not like the outcome--liberals are already overwhelmingly defining Iraqi democracy's success by whether women's social rights are protected and advanced--but the deliberations foretell what is likely to happen elsewhere in the region as it democratizes. Contrary to so much commentary in the U.S., it is the compromises--the liberal "imperfections"--in Iraq's experiment that may have the most positive repercussions in the Middle East.

full article

David Brooks says US is in the midst of a moral revival

2005-08-08T09:41:00.000-04:00

"I always thought it would be dramatic to live through a moral revival. Great leaders would emerge. There would be important books, speeches, marches and crusades. We're in the middle of a moral revival now, and there has been very little of that. This revival has been a bottom-up, prosaic, un-self-conscious one, led by normal parents, normal neighbors and normal community activists.

...Obviously, we're not living in a utopia, where all social problems have been solved. But these improvements across a whole range of behaviors are too significant to be dismissed. We in the media play up the negative, as we always do. The activist groups emphasize the work still to be done, because they want to keep people mobilized and financing their work.

But the good news is out there. You want to know what a society looks like when it is in the middle of moral self-repair? Look around."

Read his full discussion here

Flying is Safer than Ever

2005-08-08T09:03:00.000-04:00

Contrary to popular belief, most airline accidents are now survivable.

While people used words like "miraculous" to describe the fact that everyone got out alive of the Air France jet that crashed upon landing in Toronto this week, aviation experts are also crediting 20 years of advances in technology, training, and safety practices.

From improved fire retardants in the cabin to slow the spread of flames and smoke so people can be evacuated to "phenomenal" weather tracking devices that can alert crews to wind shear and violent storm cells, the combined efforts of the federal government and the aviation community have made flying far safer than ever before.

Twenty years ago, the chances of surviving a crash were indeed minimal. While the accident rate has declined only slightly since then, the seriousness of the those crashes has declined significantly.

A recent study by the National Transportation Safety Board found that of the serious commercial airline accidents that were deemed "survivable," more than three-quarters of the passengers walked out alive.

"The good news is that catastrophic crashes are happening less and less," says aviation expert Darryl Jenkins. "Planes are now made so well and pilots and crews are trained so well, a lot of things that were very problematic with airline safety are now things of the past."

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Why suicide attackers haven't hit U.S. again

2005-08-08T08:55:00.000-04:00

Why suicide attackers haven't hit U.S. again

By Rick Hampson, USA TODAY

"NEW YORK — After the bombings in London and Sharm el-Sheik, Egypt, the question that rivets America is one that has no sure answer: Why haven't Muslim militants executed another suicide terror attack on the U.S. home front?

Police officer Jose Morales inspects bags as people enter the Grand Central subway station in New York City in July.
Mario Tama, Getty Images

If suicide bombers can strike daily in the Middle East and hit the capitals of Europe, why does 9/11 remain a spectacular exception?

There are theories about why the United States still hasn't had a homegrown attack like the ones last month in London. Suicide bombing isn't that easy. The USA isn't that vulnerable. American Muslims aren't that militant. Foreign terrorists aren't focused, not yet, on a domestic strike.

Over the past four years, Jeremiahs as varied as Dick Cheney and Osama bin Laden have said another attack is inevitable. It could come at any time, and it could come from within; homegrown suicide terrorists are notoriously difficult to identify before they strike.

Robert Pape, a University of Chicago political scientist who has studied suicide terrorists, says most are "walk-in volunteers who decide to do it only months beforehand. They're not long-term criminals you can track." He cites the July 7 London bombers — wage earners, family men, cricket fans and, apparently, suicides.

Contrary to popular stereotype, most are not poor, ill-educated, disturbed or disconnected. Suicide terrorists are men and women, young and old, rich and poor, educated and ignorant. If anything, they tend to be relatively well off and, to outward appearances, well adjusted. Mohamed Atta, ringleader in the Sept. 11 attacks, was a college graduate and the son of a lawyer.

"There is no accurate criminal profile for them. Anyone who tells you differently is trying to get on TV," says Mia Bloom, author of Dying to Kill, a study of suicide terror. "And if we had a profile, the terrorists would learn about it and use it against us."

The other explanations — not all reassuring and not all compatible — for why there's been no repeat of Sept. 11 include the following: "

full story

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Good reading.

Russian Sub Crew Rescued

2005-08-08T08:46:00.000-04:00

The seven men endured darkness and frigid temperatures for three days until their Russian mini-submarine was freed from the Pacific floor by a British remote-controlled vehicle as oxygen supplies dwindled.

"It was cold, cold, very cold. I can't even describe it," one crew member with reddish hair said as the sailors walked ashore Sunday with dazed looks and bloodshot eyes after their submarine was cut loose from cables that had snagged it.

Commander Ian Riches, the British Royal Navy officer who led the successful operation using the remote-controlled Super Scorpio, hailed the joint rescue mission with the Russian Pacific Fleet as a "marvelous example" of international cooperation.

"It was a difficult operation, but we enjoyed doing it," he said as he arrived ashore at Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky in the early hours of Monday local time "The team are over the moon that we have got these guys out alive," he added.

story

Afghan Villagers Turn in Weapons to Marines

2005-08-05T10:01:00.000-04:00

Afghan Villagers turn in Weapons to Marines

By U.S. Marine Corps Sgt. Robert M. Storm

JALALABAD AIRFIELD, Afghanistan, Aug. 4, 2005 — Afghans from the Sarur Village, Dari Nur District, Nangarhar Province, came forward to turn in a weapons cache, July 26, to Whiskey Company, 2nd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, currently serving in Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan.

“My job is to recover illegal weapons by any means available. Sometimes we have to use force, but sometimes, luckily, the villagers in the area will come forward to let us know about them,” said U.S. Marine Corps Capt. Javier Torres, Whiskey company commander, from Juana Diaz, Puerto Rico. “We’re the first outsiders these people have seen since they were invaded by the Russians, so it’s important for us to build trust. We didn’t come in and search all the houses because they showed us the weapons cache, and we want them to trust us so they’ll come forward again.”

The villagers at first wanted the Marine Corps to pay $500 for the weapons before they would reveal the location, but after some easy negotiating, they agreed to give up the site in return for medical assistance.

At an elevation of 4,400 feet, the village is situated between mountains and takes more than four hours to reach by foot. The trail leading to the village is inaccessible by vehicle and starts at 1,300 feet. Due to the isolated location, basic medical care is unavailable. To seek treatment, the villagers must first make a three hour hike down to the nearest road then travel to a nearby city.

“It’s amazing people live up here. At one point the trail we took had a sheer cliff drop off on one side. This is one of the hardest hikes I’ve ever done,” said Lance Cpl. Joshua Britner, motarman, from Freemont, Ohio.

The isolated villages are perfect locations for storing munitions. Without local help, the caches would never be found. After recovering the munitions, the problem of getting the cache down the mountain surfaced. The only workable solution was to employ the use of mules to carry the munitions back down.

“We are very happy to help; with the cooperation of the (Afghan National Army), we are glad the Marines are here. They bring peace and security. We want to cooperate and will help look for more weapons,” said a village elder through the interpreter Sayed Noorullah. “We have no medicine or schools, so for Marines to bring us help is a great thing.”

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Palace of King David Found?

2005-08-05T09:03:00.000-04:00

An Israeli archaeologist says she has uncovered in East Jerusalem what may be the fabled palace of the biblical King David. Her work has been sponsored by a conservative Israeli research institute and financed by an American Jewish investment banker who would like to prove that Jerusalem was indeed the capital of the Jewish kingdom described in the Bible.

Other scholars are skeptical that the foundation walls discovered by the archaeologist, Eilat Mazar, are David's palace. But they acknowledge that what she has uncovered is rare and important: a major public building from around the 10th century B.C., with pottery shards that date to the time of David and Solomon and a government seal of an official mentioned in the book of Jeremiah.

New York Times (Registration may be required to read the full story)

Colorado company develops glow-in-dark lamps

2005-08-04T09:08:00.000-04:00

"As incongruous as it may sound, a Colorado company has developed glow-in-the-dark lamps. The 'Glow-lux' fluorescent tubes from American Environmental Products shine normally when plugged in. When they are turned off or the power goes out, they glow with a dim, eery blue-green light."

read more

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Solar Cars Race from Texas to Canada

2005-08-04T08:58:00.000-04:00

2500 mile solar-powered auto race

by Miguel Llanos

TRANS-CANADA HIGHWAY — Mile after mile along this stretch of Canada's main highway, the faces of the farmers, truckers and oil workers who turned to look had the same dumbfounded expression, as if asking: What the heck were those? UFOs on wheels? Stealth fighters with their wings clipped? Supersized remote-controlled cars?

No, the contraptions were race cars powered by the sun and the ingenuity of students from 18 universities in the United States and Canada.

...The university teams' challenge was this: Build a race car that runs on a measly 1,000 watts — about what a hair dryer puts out — cruises at highway speeds and carries a driver 2,500 miles from Austin, Texas, to Calgary, Alberta, in western Canada.

...The vehicles are built light, about 400 to 500 pounds, because the cells can only put out between 800 to 1,500 watts of power. Exactly how much power depends on how many cells are on a car and how efficient those cells are in creating electricity. In car terms, it's about 1 to 2 horsepower.

“Think about that,” says Richard King, head of solar research at the U.S. Department of Energy, one of the race sponsors. “My passenger car has 150 horsepower and here they're using 2 horsepower to go at highway speeds.”

full story

No Moderate Solutions to Extremism

2005-08-04T08:48:00.000-04:00

There Can Be No Moderate Solutions to Extremism

Op-ed by U.S. Secretary of Defense

(This op-ed by Donald Rumsfeld, U.S. Secretary of Defense, appeared August 1 in the Financial Times and is in the public domain. There are no republication restrictions.)

(begin byliner)

There Can Be No Moderate Solutions To Extremism

By Donald Rumsfeld

Last month Britain was twice attacked by an enemy that takes advantage of the openness of free societies to kill and terrorise from within. Shortly after the July 7 massacre, one American, summarising the sentiments of his countrymen, wrote to the British embassy in Washington: "Anyone who would attack London must not know history. The people who did this will find that while you can never have a better friend than the British, you can also never have a more fearsome enemy."

In the wake of such an atrocity it is essential that we take care in understanding what motivates -- and does not motivate -- extremists to commit mass murder. As they have in previous attacks, the extremists and their sympathisers will offer the usual empty justifications. In the past, these have included a range of real and imagined affronts going back centuries, including, but not limited to: US troops stationed in Saudi Arabia after 1991 to deter an attack by Saddam Hussein; the founding of Israel in 1948; the break-up of the Ottoman Empire some 80 years ago; the reconquest of Spain from the Moors in 1492; and the Crusades, the first of which was in 1095.

Chief among these today is the coalition's campaign against extremists worldwide and the so-called "occupation" of Muslim countries by the west. In fact, coalition forces operate in Afghanistan and Iraq at the request of democratically elected governments. It is the extremists, not the coalition, who are intentionally targeting and killing countless Muslim civilians in a series of barbaric attacks in recent months.

Some seem to believe that accommodating extremists' demands -- including retreating from Afghanistan and Iraq -- might put an end to their grievances, and, with them, future attacks. But consider that when terrorists struck America on September 11, 2001, a radical Islamist government ruled Afghanistan and harboured al-Qaeda leaders, virtually undisturbed by the international community. And Saddam Hussein tightly clung to power in Iraq, and appeared to be winning support for his efforts to end United Nations sanctions.

In reality, Islamic extremists have long demonstrated an interest in attacking Britain. In January 2003, British police thwarted a likely planned attack using ricin -- a poisonous agent -- two months before Operation Iraqi Freedom began.

And in the two decades before September 11, long before coalition involvement in Afghanistan or Iraq, extremists killed or kidnapped hundreds of innocent civilians in places such as Tehran, Beirut, Saudi Arabia, Berlin, New York, on ships in the Mediterranean and a jet over Scotland.

The extremists do not seek a negotiated settlement with the west. They want America and Britain and other coalition allies to surrender our principles and commitment to Muslim friends around the world. In 2002, Osama bin Laden advocated the overthrow of moderate Muslim governments. And the fantasies of al-Qaeda and its ilk to impose intolerance and indoctrination extend far beyond the Middle East. In particular, the extremists are enraged by equality for women and the freedom of expression that are the hallmarks of free societies.

Just a few days after the first London attack, an extremist accused of murdering a Dutch filmmaker over a film deemed offensive to Islam stated openly that he would kill again if given the chance. There is no "separate peace" to be had with such an enemy.

The attacks of September 11 roused a nation and a civilisation to anger and action. Since then, the extremists have lost sanctuaries and popular support in Afghanistan and Iraq, and are being hunted down on every continent by an unprecedented global coalition.

They have struck back using everything from knapsacks to cars to kill hundreds of innocent people in places such as Spain, Turkey, Kenya, Indonesia, Russia and, now, London. They seek to destroy things they could never build in 1,000 years and kill people they could never persuade.

They failed on September 11. They are failing in Iraq and Afghanistan. And, knowing what we know about the British people, in attacking London the extremists have no doubt failed again.

[The writer is U.S. defense secretary.]

Iraqi Engineer Brothers Rebuild Homeland

2005-08-04T08:44:00.000-04:00

So what’s it like living in Baghdad today?

Just ask two Iraqi brothers who are engineers and work for Gulf Region Central District. They’re very optimistic about their future and their country’s future.

Asaad Hassan Al-Jaaire and his brother Hayder are two of the Gulf Region Central District's Quality Assurance Representatives.

Among the projects Asaad is overseeing is the $10 million, 6400-square-meter Public Order Brigade Headquarters at Forward Operating Base Justice. It is 70 percent complete. He is also overseeing the nearly finished $2.5 million 11,500-square-meter renovation of the Civil Defense headquarters building in downtown Baghdad. Hayder’s project is the new 4000-square-meter $8.5 million courthouse being built in Baghdad which is 15 percent complete.

The brothers were hired to ensure construction at each site meets the design specifications, that all materials are of an acceptable quality, and that the workers are practicing safe procedures and using hard hats, gloves, and goggles. Over 500 Iraqis are part of the construction crews at the three projects.

story

RSS feeds college students' diet for research

2005-08-03T06:21:00.000-04:00

RSS feeds college students' diet for research

By Anh Ly, Gannett News Service

Lilangi Ediriwickrema, 21, peruses summaries of the latest articles about stem cell research. She quickly dismisses the first three articles but pauses on the fourth before clicking to read the entire story.

Pluck can notify you when a Web page includes an RSS feed, making it easy to subscribe to the feed and track its contents.
Pluck.com

A time stamp on the corner reveals the article was posted just two minutes earlier.

"It saves me a lot of time and energy," says Ediriwickrema, an undergraduate at the University of Pennsylvania. "I can quickly find what I'm looking for without having to go from Web site to Web site, and I get the most up-to-date information."

Ediriwickrema is part of the growing number of on-the-go, sleep-deprived students who recognize the value of an Internet technology called RSS and are milking its benefits for use in the classroom.

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USATODAY.com - States move to protect property

2005-08-03T06:13:00.000-04:00

States move to protect property

By Emily Bazar, USA TODAY

States across the country are rushing to pass laws to counter the potential impact of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in June that allows state and local governments to seize homes for private development. (Related story: Ruling may doom homes)

In Alabama Wednesday, Gov. Bob Riley will sign a law that prohibits the state, cities and counties from taking private property for retail, office, commercial, industrial or residential development. "We don't like anybody messing with our dogs, our guns, our hunting rights or trying to take property from us," says state Sen. Jack Biddle, a sponsor of the law.

Delaware also has changed its law since the high court ruling on eminent domain. Legislatures in at least eight other states are weighing proposals this year. More may be coming. And Congress is considering action.

"When legislatures start new sessions in January, I expect the majority of states to take up bills that would restrict the use of eminent domain for economic development purposes," said Larry Morandi, environmental program director for the National Conference of State Legislatures.

The issue has spawned an unusual alliance among conservatives opposed to the principle of government seizing private property and liberals worried that poor people would be the most likely victims.

The actions are a swift response to a Supreme Court decision in a Connecticut case. For the first time, it ruled that condemnation of private property solely for economic development was constitutional.

In that case, the justices accepted New London, Conn., officials' plan to raze homes to make way for a hotel, office complexes and a marina.

But the court left the door open for states to limit the use of eminent domain for economic development.

In Washington, U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, said his office received more calls from constituents angry about this case than it did for the Supreme Court ruling that limited displays of the Ten Commandments on public property. Cornyn is proposing a bill to bar cities and counties from using federal funds for economic development projects that involve seized property.

Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., a liberal who rarely supports Republican bills, has signed onto two GOP bills and proposed two of her own. "The people who get hurt are the many poor people and working people who don't think they can fight City Hall," she said.

Paul Farmer, executive director of the American Planning Association, said eminent domain for private projects can revitalize cities. "It should remain a tool that would clearly not be used very often," he said.

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According to the website, Delaware, Alabama, California, Illinois, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, and Texas all either have passed new laws or are working on passing new laws to counteract the Supreme Court ruling. It has been a long time since the states asserted their right to counteract the tyranny of the power-grabbing Supremes - and it's thrilling to see.

Maybe the system works, after all...

Jet Crashes - All Survive

2005-08-03T06:04:00.000-04:00

All 309 passengers and crew aboard an Air France jet survived a dramatic runway crash by sliding down escape chutes from the burning plane and scrambling up a ravine during a pounding thunderstorm.

The plane skidded off the runway at Toronto's Pearson International Airport after landing at around 4 p.m. in a heavy rain storm accompanied by lightning and strong winds, said Steve Shaw, a vice president of the Greater Toronto Airport Authority. The Airbus A340 slid down a slope into a wooded area that runs along Highway 401, Canada's busiest thoroughfare.

"It's nothing short of a miracle," Canada's Transport Minister Jean Lapierre said after learning everyone on board Air France flight 358 from Paris had survived.

story

Father, Sons, serve together in Iraq

2005-08-02T23:26:00.000-04:00

A young Chris Cartwright and his older brother John Cartwright Jr. are racing around on a tank with their father, John Cartwright, during his National Guard unit's drill weekend.

They are having the time of their life, but as young boys, they're oblivious to the impression this ride will make on their lives down the road.

Fast forward 20-odd years, and the boys, like their father, are serving with the National Guard in Troop F, 278th Regimental Combat Team, and are deployed to Iraq in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom 3.

They still ride on tanks with their father. There's just one caveat: despite the fact that both boys have grown up to be noncommissioned officers — Chris a sergeant, Junior a corporal — their dad is now their first sergeant.

Both sons enjoy working with their father despite the good-natured ribbing they endure for being the first sergeant's kids.

Junior is stationed in a different area because the unit does not want all the family members serving in the same area for security reasons. But that doesn't mean he is exempt from the teasing.

“We catch heat all the time for being the first sergeant's kids, even though I am hundreds of miles away,” Junior said. “It hasn't really affected me at all. I just work hard, and I know I've done my job.”

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Over 400 Louisiana Guard Soldiers Re-enlist

2005-08-01T08:55:00.000-04:00

On July 20, in a chapel in Baghdad, voices rang out together, not in a song of praise, but in commitment. More than 400 National Guard soldiers of the 256th Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division raised their right hands and swore to “support and defend the Constitution of the United States of America.”

More significant than the number of soldiers who simultaneously extended their service to the military is that these National Guard soldiers did so in a combat zone.

U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Bennett Landreneau, adjutant general of the Louisiana National Guard, had the honor of administering the oath of extension to the 256th Brigade Combat Team soldiers.

“This speaks volumes about the commitment, dedication, and morale of these soldiers, and affirms the fact that they want to be a part of this great team,” he said.

Staff Sgt. Brandon Andrews, from Sulphur, La., a civilian police officer and infantryman with B Company, 3rd Battalion, 156th Infantry Regiment, extended his service for three years and said he’s anxious to see what lies ahead for his unit.

“The structure of the National Guard is changing and it’s going to be interesting to see how that affects us,” he said.

Andrews said he had no other choice than to sign his name one more time, because this is who he is.

“This is what I do. I’m a civil servant, a police officer at home as well as a soldier, and re-enlisting is just a part of me doing what I do,” he said.

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Compare the attitude of these soldiers to the slanderous line that those who serve do so because they have no other options.

full story

Deployed A-10 Pilot Reaches 3,000-Hour Mark

2005-08-01T08:53:00.000-04:00

The commander respectfully called "Duck" scored 3,000 flying hours in an A-10 Thunderbolt over the Afghan skies July 3.

U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Jeffrey Cowan, 74th Fighter Squadron commander, entered A-10 "Warthog" history upon returning to base after flying a mission in support of Operation Enduring Freedom.

Since his first flight, Cowan, from Pope Air Force Base, N.C., has clocked more than 3,000 hours in a Thunderbolt cockpit.

"It is extremely rare for a pilot to get 3,000 hours in a single-seat fighter aircraft. I am honored to have ‘Duck’ as a boss and mentor," said Air Force Capt. Cameron Curry, an A-10 pilot with the squadron.

story

Iraq Good News Round Up

2005-08-01T08:44:00.000-04:00

Chrenkoff has his 32nd edition of Good News from Iraq up today.

Check it out

Little Caesars sets up injured soldier, buddy with franchise

2005-07-31T22:23:00.000-04:00

When Little Caesars pizza owner Mike Ilitch read about soldier Robbie Doughty's struggle after losing two legs in Iraq, it reminded him of an injury that curtailed his baseball career.

"I gave up my career after three years in the minors," Ilitch said. "I couldn't get a job when I got out. I had no training and no specific knowledge."

So Ilitch, who owns the Detroit Tigers and the Detroit Red Wings, had a Little Caesars executive track down Doughty and offer him a chance to open a franchise in Paducah.

"This is the first time I've done this," Ilitch said. "It was an impulse type thing."

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via Michelle Malkin

Excavations show sophistication of Ancient Roman Road

2005-07-31T16:42:00.000-04:00

KOMOTINI, Greece (AP) - Archaeologists excavating along the Via Egnatia are revealing the secrets of the ancient Romans' equivalent of an interstate highway.

Stretching 535 miles across modern-day Albania, Macedonia and Greece, the stone-paved road made the going easy for charioteers, soldiers and other travelers. It was up to 30 feet wide in places and was dotted with safety features, inns and service stations.

"This was a busy road, and the Romans managed to make it completely functional," archaeologist Polyxeni Tsatsopoulou told The Associated Press.

Built between 146 and 120 B.C. under the supervision of the top Roman official in Macedonia, proconsul Gaius Egnatius, the highway ran from the Adriatic coast in what is now Albania to modern Turkey, giving Rome quick access to the eastern provinces of its empire.

Ancient engineers did such a good job that the Via Egnatia remained in use for some 2,000 years, sticking to its original course even as its paving slabs were plundered for building material. But over the last century, what's visible of it has dwindled to less than two miles in total.

Now it is being reincarnated as the Egnatia highway spanning northern Greece and set for completion in 2008. This 425-mile highway costing nearly $8 billion runs more or less parallel to the Roman road and crosses it several times.

An excavation near the town of Komotini, 170 miles east of Thessaloniki, revealed the Romans' sophisticated road-building techniques.

A central partition of large stones protected charioteers from oncoming vehicles, with similar barriers on the verges.

"This prevented chariots, wagons and carts from skidding off the road," Tsatsopoulou said.

She said drivers held the reins with their right hand and wielded their whip with the left, so the Romans made drivers stay on the left to avoid the lash of oncoming riders and keep road-rage incidents to a minimum.

There were inns every 30 to 40 miles, and post stations, the Roman equivalent of gas stations, every 7 to 14 miles. "These post stations had spare beasts, as well as ... vets, grooms and shoesmiths," Tsatsopoulou said.

Archaeologists also discovered ruins of military outposts, checkpoints and camps, with guard posts built near narrow passes to curb highway robbery.

Culture Ministry officials are hoping to turn the surviving highway remains into an archaeological walk for tourists, Tsatsopoulou said.

The Romans conquered Greece in 146 B.C., although Macedonia had come under Rome's control 20 years earlier. In A.D. 330, the empire's capital was moved to Constantinople, which marked the beginning of the Byzantine period in Greece.

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In other news, the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation will be visiting the site for lessons on building roads that last...

Authorities on the Ball in Afghanistan

2005-07-31T16:29:00.000-04:00

Thousands of rockets, mortars and anti-aircraft ammunition have been seized in central Afghanistan in the largest cache of militant weapons discovered in months, a government spokesman said Sunday.

The arms were to be used to subvert crucial legislative elections on Sept. 18, Defense Ministry spokesman Gen. Mohammed Saher Azimi said.

story

After 6 months, Rice shows success at State Dept.

2005-07-31T16:25:00.000-04:00

Three weeks after taking office, Condoleezza Rice hosted Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and their Japanese counterparts at the State Department. When Rumsfeld began to speak, Rice gently cut him off. The message was clear: I'll take the lead, Don. Both Japanese and U.S. officials noted the decisive nudge.

Now six months on the job, Rice has clearly wrested control of U.S. foreign policy. The once heavy-handed Defense Department still weighs in, but Rice wins most battles -- in strong contrast to her predecessor, Colin L. Powell. White House staff is consulted, but Rice designed the distinctive framework for the administration's second-term foreign policy.

In short order, she has demonstrated a willingness to bend on tactics to accommodate the concerns of allies without ceding on broad principles, what she calls "practical idealism." She also conducts a more aggressive personal diplomacy, breaking State Department records for foreign travel and setting up diplomatic tag teams with top staff on urgent issues.

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Marine has farewell dinner with family before shipping off to Iraq. Stranger picks up the tab.

2005-07-30T12:28:00.000-04:00

Read it here.

Great Story.

US Troops coming home from Germany, Korea

2005-07-29T17:25:00.000-04:00

"The US army said on Friday it would hand over 13 of its German bases to Berlin, some perhaps as early as next year, as part of the Pentagon's gradual draw-down of 50,000 troops stationed in Europe.

Almost all of the bases are in or near the southern German town of Würzburg, headquarters of the US army's 1st Infantry Division. Earlier this week, the Pentagon announced the 1st ID would move to Fort Riley, Kansas, by the middle of next year.

The other German-based army division, the 1st Armoured, will move to Fort Bliss, Texas, but the timing of its move has not been announced. The division is currently going to Iraq.

The army gave no dates on the two most important facilities to be handed over the 1st ID's headquarters base, Leighton Barracks in Würzburg, and the army's military hospital in the city but the 11 other bases could be handed over as early as October next year.

The army's European command said the preparations to shut the bases would affect 6,100 soldiers and 11,000 family members over the course of the next year. Another 1,000 army employees and 1,000 German workers would also be hit.

The Pentagon's decision to withdraw both German-based divisions was announced last year, but it has decided to send a smaller, more mobile brigade that operates the light-armoured Stryker vehicles to take their place.

In addition to the German reductions, the army has said it will also remove the headquarters of the 2nd Infantry Division and one of its two brigades from South Korea, but the timing of the move has not been announced.

When the moves are complete, the army will no longer have any of its divisions based overseas, and only three Stryker brigades made up of about 3,000 soldiers will be based abroad; in addition to one in Germany and one in South Korea, a third will be based in Italy."

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Here are some reasons why this is a good thing

Here are some more.

The main argument I've seen against closing bases in Germany is the effect it would have on the economy of the small towns there. Since bases are also being closed in the US, affecting the economies of our small (and larger) towns, I don't see how it's a bad thing to bring these troops and their families home to benefit our economy. It's not that we'll have no presence anywhere in Europe, and it's not like we're going to do it all at once - it will be a gradual reduction beginning next year. It's very difficult to make the case that we need bases in Germany in the current world climate.

The other argument I've seen is that one of the benefits of serving in the military is getting to live in places like Germany, and that of the 17 million servicemembers and their families that have been stationed in Germany since WWII, the vast majority have really enjoyed their stay there. While I can appreciate that (my Dad was stationed there in the early 1970's and my brother was born there), it's not much of a military rationale for maintaining a presence there.

23 Servicemembers in Afghanistan Become U.S. Citizens

2005-07-29T16:01:00.000-04:00

"BAGRAM AIR BASE, Afghanistan, July 29, 2005 – Twenty-three servicemembers serving in Afghanistan became U.S. citizens July 28 at a naturalization ceremony at the Enduring Freedom Chapel here.

Karen Landsness, officer in charge of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services office in Moscow, administers the oath of allegiance to 23 servivcemembers a naturalization ceremony at Bagram Air Base, Afghanistan, July 28. Photo by Sgt. Douglas DeMaio, USA (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available.

"I put my paperwork in about four months ago, right before I deployed," said Army Pfc. Juan Aguilar, a gunner assigned to B Company, 2nd Battalion, 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment. "I'm excited to now be a citizen of the country I've been serving as a soldier." Aguila,r who is from Bogotá, Columbia, lives in Gastonia, N.C. He said that becoming a citizen happened sooner than he expected.

Richard B. Norland, deputy chief of mission at the American Embassyin the Afghan capital of Kabul, was the keynote speaker at the naturalization ceremony and congratulated the new American citizens.

"All those who are becoming American citizens today, we are enriched by your contributions to the American story," said Norland. "You make me feel very proud to be here with you." Maj. Gen. Jason Kamiya, commander of Combined Joint Task Force 76, also expressed his gratitude to the new citizens and commented on their service to the country they now can call their own.

"It should be noted that you were willing to fight and die for the United States of America, where you were not a citizen of," said Kamiya. "It is a pleasure to be able to serve you who have so unselfishly served America." Army Spc. Gloria Sarbo, Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 173rd Separates Battalion, is originally from Leon, Nicaragua, but now lives in Miami. She said her citizenship will allow her to stay in the United States with her family. "All of us are proud to take this oath of allegiance," she said. "Most of us have been living in the U.S. for awhile, we are all serving our country, and we consider ourselves Americans," she added."

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Terror Cell Leader Captured; Nine Terrorists

2005-07-29T15:59:00.000-04:00

American Forces Press Service

"WASHINGTON, July 29, 2005 – U.S. troops captured al Qaeda terror cell leader Ammar Abu Bara, alias Amar Hussein Hasan, during a July 27 cordon-and-search operation in Mosul, Iraq's third largest city, U.S military officials reported today.
Bara, reportedly one of terrorist leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's most trusted operations agents in Iraq, was arrested by troops of the Army's 1st Brigade, 25th Infantry Division (Stryker Brigade Combat Team,) and Iraqi army soldiers. Bara replaced Abu Talha, former terror cell leader for the Mosul area, following his capture in early June.

Officials said a number of al Qaeda terrorist leaders have been captured in recent months in northern Iraq, leading to a more secure environment in the region. These captures have led to the systematic dismantling of the al Qaeda network in Mosul, military officials said."

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SPACE.com -- Large New World Discovered Beyond Neptune

2005-07-29T15:57:00.000-04:00

"A newfound object in our solar system's outskirts may be larger than any known world after Pluto, scientists said today.
It also has a moon.

Designated as 2003 EL61, the main object in the two-body system is 32 percent as massive as Pluto and is estimated to be about 70 percent of Pluto's diameter."

SPACE.com

Water Found on Mars

2005-07-29T15:56:00.000-04:00

"These images, taken by the High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) on board ESA’s Mars Express spacecraft, show a patch of water ice sitting on the floor of an unnamed crater near the Martian north pole.

The HRSC obtained these images during orbit 1343 with a ground resolution of approximately 15 metres per pixel. The unnamed impact crater is located on Vastitas Borealis, a broad plain that covers much of Mars's far northern latitudes, at approximately 70.5° North and 103° East.
The crater is 35 kilometres wide and has a maximum depth of approximately 2 kilometres beneath the crater rim. The circular patch of bright material located at the centre of the crater is residual water ice.

This white patch is present all year round, as the temperature and pressure are not high enough to allow sublimation of water ice."

Story

Before Docking at Space Station, Shuttle Nails a Back-Flip

2005-07-28T21:46:00.000-04:00

"The Discovery astronauts worked through their second full day in orbit today, with an elegant orbital back flip before docking with the International Space Station. And back on earth, hundreds of engineers scrutinized startlingly clear pictures of the shuttle's delicate protective tiles to see whether it had sustained the kind of liftoff damage that would make it unsafe to come home."

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Tomorrow - shuttle performs a double somersault with a half-twist...