Global Stratification Essay

Since I had to complete a college essay today and it has some bearing as to the world in which we live in I'm going to share it here. It's not the kind of right-wing nonesense you're used to on this site so don't be alarmed. It's just your standard 12 point, times new roman, double-spaced, MLS style paper one would do in college. Here you go:

Global Stratification:
Discuss ending world hunger through both the Modernization and Dependency approach.



To discuss ending world hunger through both the modernization and the contrasting Dependency approach we must first define what they are. The modernization approach to LDC’s, or Less Developed Countries states that the method to development of these nations should be through emulating the technological advancements and democratic paradigm of the west. The Dependency approach claims that the aforementioned approach only breeds corruption and dependency on the west at the cost of the poor in LDC’s. Dependency theory believes the best method for development is through Marxism and other forms of revolution.

Following modernization theory it is assumed that an increase in new and modern technologies will increase the ability of a nation to fend for itself internationally and thus be able to procure better goods and services. For this essay the goods and services are better and higher quality food products. The inclusion of agricultural modernization such as tractors and better planting and harvesting devices also brings with it the internal ability of a nation to grow their own food more efficiently thus increasing the national supply of food.

With industrialization and modernization comes larger, less rural cities. This can play a part in the conditions of goods and services and can be argued for both modernization and dependency theories. With larger cities comes more centralized goods and services, streamlining of distribution centers, and higher quality facilities including electricity and running water. The contrasting argument for dependency would call forth the slums and shantytowns that house the poor in substandard conditions. These shantytowns have been argued to be removing agricultural lands due to their ever-growing expansion.

If dependencistas were to control the way things are run in LDC’s all outside influences would be severed and advances would be made within themselves. They would argue that the best way to remove the poor class would be to remove the corrupt governments that keep national profits for themselves and the corporations they make deals with. Only through a non-corrupt, distributed people can true progress be made. In their environment no one in an LDC would be rich but no one would be starving either. One example of the power of low level, internal enterprise would be the micro-loan venture in Bangladesh. It has been extremely successful in enhancing the stature of the poor in that country.

Within the promise of dependency theory lies the strong possibility of smaller cities and stronger rural communities. The arguments for and against ruralization of a country would be precisely inverted from those of larger cities. Modernization theorists would explain that the efficiency and services of that nation would be diminished while the dependency theorists would argue that strengthening the rural areas would allow communities to build from within.

Industrialized nations can play a role in this to support the effect of either theory. Programs such as NAFTA which have had the intention of easing international tariffs and taxes have not done all they have set out to do. The WTO’s Uruguay Round Agreement on Textiles which promised to abolish quota’s by 2005 is abysmally planned with the best international example, Canada, leading the pack with 14% completion. These plans are sought out in earnest but are never realized. They serve as a grim reminder as enforcement for the dependency theory.

There are other theories in the world such as bureaucratic authoritarianism and neoliberal economics as to how best to enhance the lives and therefore the food abundance in LDC’s. It is also been proven that both modernization and dependency theories are flawed when put on a global scale. At current understanding by sociologists a mixed method depending on the political, religious and socioeconomic environment of individual countries should be levied to enhance these countries. There is no “one best method” to solving the world’s hunger problem. All theories have potential in different environments.



Bibliography

Carla Cole, 1990, Ending Hunger
http://www.context.org/ICLIB/IC25/Cole.htm

Howard Handelman, 2003, The Challenge of Third World Development, 3rd Ed.

Robert J. Griffiths, 2004, Annual Editions: Developing World 04/05

Pearson Publishing Custom, 2003, Intro to Sociology

I'm Just Sick of it!

MSNBC claims that the guy they shot in the mosque was a prisoner. How could he be considered a prisoner? The building had just been cleared and still potentially hostile. Moments after hearing gunfire the news agent came in to see one of them on the floor being shot for apparently faking his death. It was not one Marine that said this but two. That looks to be similar to the way a dead body was boobie trapped killing one Marine and injuring five more. The whole place is one big stinking booby trap! Was he supposed to ask someone first: "excuse me, have these insurgents been checked for booby-traps yet?"

For those that are just joining the "He's Breathing!" fray let me at least do better than many others are doing and give you a known lead up taken from the source found above:

The Marine battalion stormed an unidentified mosque Saturday in southern Fallujah after taking casualties from heavy sniper fire and attacks with rocket-propelled grenades. Ten insurgents were killed and five others were wounded in the mosque and an adjacent building.

The Marines displayed a cache of rocket-propelled grenades and AK-47 assault rifles that they said the men were holding. They said the arms were conclusive evidence that insurgents had been using mosques as fighting positions in Fallujah, which they said made the use of force appropriate.

Does anyone else have a problem with the fact these insurgents were sniping us from a place of worship? Does anyone else have a problem with using a mosque as an arms cache? We are not fighting a conventional war against a conventional enemy. We are fighting a war against cowards and martyrs that will kill their own and themselves to ensure the disruption of Iraq. They honor no laws, even that of their own religion.

When the Marines left to advance farther south, the five wounded Iraqis, none of whose injuries appeared to be life-threatening, were left behind in the mosque for other Marines to evacuate for treatment.

Does anyone remember what happened in Saving Private Ryan to the guy they let go with instructions to surrender himself to the next passing unit? He ended up back with his unit to kill more allies. Apparently axis refortified the area before more Americans could backfill. Which brings us to the next paragraph:

Saturday, however, reports surfaced that mosques in the region had been reoccupied, including the mosque the Marine battalion had stormed the day before.

So the Mosque in question was considered to be refortified and everyone inside considered to be a hostile including the five left behind by the previous unit. A guy with a broken leg can still pull a trigger or set off an IED. The mosque on a whole was considered hostile.

Two units that were not involved in Friday’s fighting advanced on the mosque, one moving around the back and the second, accompanied by Sites, from the front. Sites said he could hear gunfire from inside.

So Sites heard gunfire. Who's gunfire? He was not there and the Marines outside did not know either. They heard gunfire and one would assume that there was fire in both directions. At least I would assume that there was mutual gunfire. This alerts me to the potential of a hostile environment, all insurgents to be treated as potentially hostile.

Now we enter the video clip. The unit coming in from the back enters a room in disarray and potentially at the tail end of a firefight. Was it over? Were those in the room confirmed prisoners? In the blink of an eye had the hostile insurgents become docile prisoners? Maybe a better question: did the unit coming in from the back know that those in the room were prisoners? They did not know they had been pacified. The Marine assumed that they had not been pacified and took what he felt was appropriate action. The same day this was happening this happened:

At the same time the incident was taking place in the mosque, a U.S. Marine was killed and five others were wounded when the booby-trapped body of a dead insurgent exploded. The judge advocate general heading the investigation of the mosque incident, Lt. Col. Bob Miller, told NBC News that depending on the evidence, it could be reasonable to conclude that the Marine was acting in self-defense.

“The policy of the rules of engagement authorize the Marines to use force when presented with a hostile act or hostile intent,” he said.

It is very possible to believe that the Marine was acting in self defense. It was even probable that he felt he was acting in self defense. Seeing and understanding the real hazards that reside in Falujah and elsewhere readily mark someone feigning anything, peace, friendship, civilian even death is a potential explosive device. He did what he though was protecting himself and his unit. He did the perceived right thing.

I'm not saying there are not war crimes that take place. The happen and are unfortunate. War is unfortunate. Bad things happen. For example the pictures and video footage of beheaded insurgents on Al-Jazeera. They may be the results of Marines conducting rogue actions and should be investigated to the fullest. So what's my point in all of this? What am I driving at?

This is what I'm driving at:

For those of you out there crying about rules of war and atrocities you may want to go play with your Barbie or have a mocha-decaf-nonfat-soy-latte with a dash of cinnamon or whatever the heck you want to drink. I don't want to hear it. Every time I turn a corner on the web I'm stuck reading a Kos or Atrios puppet complaining about how Bush never trained the Marines to be peaceful, gentle creatures or Rumsfeld is the antichrist and they both need to go to prison for war crimes. Bush and Rumsfeld have absolutely no bearing as to the day-to-day operations that go on there but somehow they manage to point every word back at Bush and the American right. It's as if their blog children treat these two internet dictators as legitimate news sources by themselves. I've tried to read the crap that spews from their fingers. But it's just that: crap. Everything that is being reported holds an attack slant against the troops and against the current administration. And their blog children eat every single word they serve up.

Don't take what they say for granted. Don't limit yourself to the sources they hand you. Kos and Atrios are not gods. They are not even real news sources. With the exception of the left wing anti-war blog machine they've made for themselves they are no greater human beings, they are no more insightful, they are no more intelligent, they are no more knowledgeable than me, the average, everyday American Warmonger.

They are not better than you either. Make up your own minds about things. Find your own real news sources. Think of things objectively before you believe what someone else has to say. I know anyone on the left will be scrutinizing my words. Why not take the next step and stop being sheep. If I hear "Atrios said" one more time I may become physically ill and you don't want that. Oh, wait, you hate me because I think differently and you'd like to see me physically ill. Don't be lambs for the slaughter.

ODB DOA After OD.

Russell Jones, also known as Ol' Dirty Bastard died this Saturday. After complaining of chest pains in the recording studio paramedics were unable to revive him and was pronounced dead on the scene. Although symptoms may reveal a heart attack or something many people believe it was an overdose. We'll all know after the results after the toxicology report in ten days time.

He was 35 and has 13 children who succeed him. The rap world mourned his loss on Sunday at the music awards. I don't wish him ill but I'm having a really hard time mourning his loss. I'll just show you his life in 1998 and you should understand why (Hat tip to Gin and Tacos for the year in the life):


Ol' Dirty Bastard, aka Big Baby Jesus, aka Osirus, aka Dirt McGirt, aka Dirt Dog, aka Joe Bannanas, aka Unique Ason, and real name Russell Jones

1998

FEB 2 - ODB rushes the stage at the Grammys after Wu Tang Clan is beat out of the award by Peff Daddy. LINK

APR 6 - ODB pleads guilt to attempted assult charges on Icelene Jones, mother of three of his 13 children. LINK

APR 28 - ODB changes his name to Big Baby Jesus. When asked why the change he replied "I always been Jesus" and he meant it. LINK

MAY 20 - After two warrants for his arrest due to missing court appointments ODB pledges to pay back child support of 35,000 (not what was owed but what was agreed upon) to Icelene Jones, the mother of three of his children ande attempted assult victim. LINK

JUL 4 - ODB/BBJ accused of stealing a pair of 50$ Nikes from a store in Virginia Beach, VA. His summons is for JUL 28. LINK

JUL 29 - A warrant is issued for his arrest after he fails to show for the JUL 28 summons. LINK

AUG 11 - ODB misses second court appearance claiming that bad weather prevented him from coming down from New York. The judge is nice and reschedules the date. LINK

AUG 13 - ODB misses his third appointment with justice. An order for his arrest with no possibility of bail has been issued. LINK

SEP 17 - ODB arrested at the House of Blues in West Hollywood after being kicked out for being drunk and disorderly then returning to threaten to shoot the bouncers. The threat is a felony offense and his court date was Oct. 8. LINK

SEP 30 - ODB is ejected from the Four Seasons hotel in Berlin, Germany for lude behavior. The guests complained that he was literally hanging out on his balcony...naked. LINK

NOV 6 - ODB is arrested again for threatening to kill someone. This time it's his 27 year old ex-girlfreind and mother of his one year old child. He was arrested while trying to climb over a security fence at her place of work. LINK

It wouldn't be too horribly bad if this was just a really, really, really bad year but most of the late 90s look like this year. He spent some time in prison since 1998 and may have mellowed but he died while still on parole. Still being on parole is not very inticative of someone that has turned his life around. At least not yet. Overall, he's not the kind of influence I would like for my son. Again, I'm not really glad that he died but at the same time I will not be one who mourns his loss.

I DID IT!!!

If you'll take your eye's to the right side of the screen. Yes, the red part. You will notice that my links menu has changed once again. It's not quite as clean but it is now FireFox freindly. Many of you really wouldn't care but after some sitemeter review I noticed about 13% of my traffic was using Firefox. I know that probably equates to two users but that would be two users I ordinarily wouldn't have.

Th new mouse-over effect is courtesy of Dynamic Drive.If anyone has any problems with the new mouse-over effect or anything else you can kiss my white, hairy, stinky ass. You really don't want to know how long it took me to get the new code to work right.

Enjoy the new look.

...Oh yeah, I almost forgot. I just added FeedBurner as well. So You're into that kind of thing you're welcome to it.

Who's Next?

Now that the election season has come and gone I've noticed a big drop in traffic as I'm sure many of you have. It's not the end of the world but it's slowed down a bit. I'm guessing things will pick back up in a week or two, maybe a month. This was a great election season that brought the birth of blogging but many will be willing to turn their back on this form of media until the next presidential election season in four years. So I'd like to start a bit early. I believe the first order of business is to find out who's going to be there in 2008. So lets begin this with who we believe are potential candidates.

Republicans:

Jeb Bush - The brother of current president George W. Bush and Governor of Florida. Even if he runs I don't believe he's get a snowball's chance in hell of winning. If there's a ballot joke to be had he's the butt of it.

John Thune - The David to Tom Dashle's Goliath. No one expected him to take down the senate minority leader but guess what? He did. I can't remember the last time anyone was able to do this. The only way I've ever seen a minority or majority leader go is by retirement or death. It was a great feat, one he may be able to take all the way to the White House.

AAAAnuld - I really doubt that anyone will change the law to allow foreign-born Americans the ability to become president but stranger things have happened. How many governors do can you remember that have been movie stars....wait, never mind. Must have forgot about Reagan in the same state or Jesse Ventura in Minnesota. If he is a candidate I'd be willing to bet his father's sordid past with Nazi Germany will be drug through not just a mud pit, but a bog.

John McCain - The Republican candidate that lost the nomination to George W. Bush. If anyone mentions some leftist crap about Bush slandering him like he did to Kerry you will be instantly banned for life. John McCain has had an exemplary war record and it was brought up in the most recent campaign. He's someone the Left can accept for his frequent splits with the hard line Republicans and the right loves him because, well, how many POWs doesn't the right love?

Rudy Giuliani - The mayor of New York on 9/11. His is a name that has been kicked around by a few people here and there. He represents The core of our turbulence with terrorism. Anyone stating that he doesn't care about terrorism would be summarily beaten with a wet noodle. If this next election turns out to be about terrorism then Rudy's the man. If the next election is about something else then it's anybody's bet.

Democrats:

John Kerry - Kerry lost by a miniscule 2% - 3% of the popular vote. He managed to get more votes than the best previous winner, ever. Many people like Kerry and with four years to think about it he may be able to hash out his plan for America into something a little less nuanced. He'll be a front-runner in 2008, I'd put money on it but unfortunately I don't gamble.

John Edwards - Bob's Big Boy or the Breck girl, any way you slice him he's still considered a young pup on capital hill. In two years I'd be more than willing to bet that he'll be there again. And in four years he'll be sitting at that table again with Kerry, Hillary, Lieberman and of course, everyone's favorite, Al Sharpton. Maybe he'll get the nod in 2012 if the Democrats don't win in 2008.

Joeseph Lieberman - Many people on the right have taken a good hard look at Lieberman and feel that he's a lot closer to the center than any of the other candidates. I know that this usually doesn't equate to a Democratic nominee but it makes him more appealing to the Republican Party. It's not the hard left that they need to worry about; It's the hard right.

I just had a frightening thought: we could have Liberman against Shwarzeneggar, the Jew Vs. the Nazi. That would be rather ugly.

Barack Obama - His speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention mad a lot of people stand up and take notice. If nothing else he's a powerful speaker and more than likely a great debater as well. I don't see Barack taking the White House in 2008 for the same reason I don't see it for John Edwards; He's a kid. He doesn't even fill out his suit. It looks like his suit was borrowed from his father. Again, look for him coming up in 2012 or even 2016.

Hillary Clinton - The wife of Bill Clinton has had multiple nods from the media nearly begging her to run. She continually states that she's not going to but who really knows what she has in mind. The same on this goes for Jeb Bush that claims he's not running in 2008. Both of them will be in the media spotlight come 2008, mark my words. As for Hillary's ability to take the White House, I don't think she'll make it. Many of her views and decisions are much further left than most Republicans could pallet, and even further than some on the left are willing to go.

Other:

Dick - Dick has announced his candidacy for president and I'm sure many of you reading this would agree he'd get things done even if he had to kick a foreign leader square in the balls to do it. Dick has my vote for the pure and simple fact that he'll put me in his cabinet if elected. Another benefit is that we can put some really cool bumper stickers on our cars.

I'm sure I've left a few people out. Heck, I didn't even consider the Green, libertarian, Constitution or even the Socialist parties. I'm only going to be focusing on the two major parties, and Dick as I really don't foresee any legislative miracle that would allow any of these other parties any chance for election. Dick is the exception as if all the bloggers in the world push him out there we could make history. Hell, we brought down the whole of the mainstream media. The White House should be a shoe in.

So this is what I'm looking for: If there are any major players on either side of the fence that I've left out let me know. I'm sure there are a few. In a few days I'll put up the first election 2008 poll. If I do it now I think I'll be the first one. If not, it should still be fun to see where everyone's preferences lay. This will also be an non-discriminate vote. I'll separate by party but I encourage everyone to vote on both candidates.

May the 2008 elections commence!

Scott Peterson Found Guilty!

Finally, the Scott Peterson trial has come to an end. The jury has found him guilty in the first degree. After all of the hype they have finally come to the conclusion that he done did the deed. The only thing left for the media to rant and slobber over is whether he'll get the death penalty or not. Considering the location of the trial it is doubtful that this will come about. More than likely he will get life without parole.

Now that it's over here's my one and only rant on the subject:

How in the hell does a crap salesman (yes, he sold fertilizer) murdering his wife and dumping the body in a lake make national news? Why the hell does he get special attention? Was he John Kerry or George Bush's fertilizer salesman? I could see them needing one with the ammount they flung around this election season. Unfortunately, he was none of this. He was some asshat that was cheating on his wife and ended up killing her. He was a no name with a pretty face. Is this what we're coming to? Is this going to be the next round of reality shows? CBS presents - The most cutting edge reality show ever: Congenial Killers! Come on, I know you're thinking the same thing as me: You really don't care how this thing went as long as you didn't have to hear about it anymore. One crap salesman down, two more to go; Where's Carl Rove and Mary Beth Cahill?

Rant part 2:
I'm going to throw my death penalty views in here because, well, it could happen to the turd. I believe that Scott Peterson should not be visiting Arafat in hell anytime soon. All evidence convicting him was circumstantial. Granted, there was a huge pile of circumstantial evidence but there still could have been a way, a remote way, that it might not have been him. Do we really want to kill an innocent man? People in America are sent to death row every year that are not guilty of the crime they were charged with. Innocent people have been killed. There is no justification for this. It's just plain wrong. I'm not advocating getting rid of the death penalty though. I'm advocating making it harder to sentence someone to death. I would like to see something like: "murder in the first degree", and "abso-friggin-lutely guilty of murder".

I would even go so far as to streamline the wait for those that had video documentation or other equally damning evidence. There's no reason we should have to wait 20 years to take someone out of this world that desperately needs it. The thing that gets in the way most of the time is the appeals process. Even if there was a signed confession, murder weapon, videotape, DNA evidence, and 50 witnesses they still get to appeal their case. I don't want to see that part go away because it sometimes helps those that are innocent go free but we should really fast track the ones that really need killin'. They should even be able to wave their right to appeals and we could take them out of this world the next day. I really don't want my tax dollars spent on some convict we know killed someone egregiously to just sit in jail sucking up our hard earned money. Put them down, they deserve it.

It's about Friggin' Time!

Yasser Arafat is dead. I called him dead last week here. He's been dead for a week. Don't let anyone tell you different. You can keep a headless man on life support but that doesn't mean he's alive. I find it funny how they made sure to keep him on life support for a week. The theories as to why they would do this are:

1.
According to Islamic law, he needs to be sent to hell...er...planted within a rather short period of time after his death. No one would take him. They didn't want to put him in Palestine and Israel told them to pack sand so they finally had to settle on the Gaza Strip. I was willing to suggest that he take Jim Morison's plot in France and we can take Jim back stateside. That way Americans would have no reason to go to France unless it was to spit on something, like Arafat's grave.

2.
Everyone was trying to figure out where he stashed all of his money. It is understood that Mr. Tablecloth-for-a-hat was worth around 2 Billion or so. His wife, who hasn't seen him in ages, has been living off her inheritance in France and would like to cash in her chips as the heir to everything. I'm sure the rest of the PLO would like a share of it as well. My guess is that one of the major topics of discussion was how to funnel everything out of his Swiss bank account before they pulled the plug. This is only my speculation though and all of the money he was holding for the Palestinian people will be distributed back into their government structure....right? Let me say this again...around 2 Billion, with a "B".

3.
The question on everyone's mind is who will be taking over and what will happen to the PLO? They've been running around like chickens with their heads cut off hoping beyond hope that Are-ya-fat will have a lucid moment, wake up and name them the next dictator. Well, this didn't happen and all of the lemmings had to make up their own minds for a change. The most obvious choice was made. Mahmud Abbas, the leader of the Fatah organization that has challenged Arafat for the throne was unilaterally chosen to head the PLO. The Fatah organization has gone to Farouk Khadoumi the long time foreign minister that was an outspoken critic of the Oslo peace accord. He was thought to be the eventual successor to Arafat by some. Many people consider this a great decision. Unless he's assassinated, like often happens in the west bank, Abbas will more than likely be a strong supporter of peace negotiations in the near future.

I really should not be happy about anyone's death but I am happy about what Arafat's death may bring. Abbas has done great things in the past and would have probably done more if he wasn't stifled by Yessir. He was one of the major aides in Oslo and publicly calls for an end to the Palestinian resistance movement with frequency. This is not a guarantee of peace on the West Bank but it is definitely looking good. It's about Friggin' time!

An Apology to Firefox

If you haven't noticed I've been making adjustments to my site to make it look, well, cooler. Unfortunately, some of the things I've done don't work in FireFox and I'd be willing to bet some of the others like Mozilla and Opera. The piece I'm speaking of in particular is the blogroll on the right. If my sidebar is blank after "Click A Tab To See My links!" then you are one of people affected and I apologize. I'll work to find an expanding sidebar that works with your browser.

Again, sorry to all those trying to fight the power.

Haloscan commenting and trackback have been added to this blog.

AMERICAN WARMONGER:Now in technicolor!

I've been playing with colors and a few other things. Please tell me what you think. Can you read everything alright? Does it hurt your eye's? Does it look better? Worse?

If no one tells me not to, I'm changing everything everything to neon hot pink! Save yourselves the visual pain. Suggestions are always welcome.

Happy Donut day!

I've been unable to find the original POW remembrance about today but I'll try to retell it to the best of my ability.

Many years ago, in a place called Vietnam, there was an American prisoner of war camp. Life at such camp was brutal with almost daily beatings and interrogations. It was a hard life but most people survived by the little things that they could pull over on their captors. One such event was the American national holiday, donut day. Occasionally at the POW camp the captors would treat their prisoners to a Vietnamese semi-sweet bread that resembled a donut. After one of the standard interrogations the prisoner came back not dejected but barely stifling roucous laughter. He had managed to convince the Viet Cong that today, the 10th of November was a great American holiday. He had convinced them it was going to be donut day. Two weeks or so went by before the 10th and sure enough, the Viet Cong had brought the inmates each a donut. They had succeeded, they had convinced the Viet Cong to celebrate the fictional holiday of Donut Day! Just another fine example of American injenuity in the face of adversity.

Why is this so important? There is no donut day but the story is true. The Viet Cong did celebrate donut day on the 10th of November. So what would be such a great success if it wasn't for just another date? For those of you who don't know today is the Marine Corps' birthday! The young marine had convinced his captors to celebrate the Marine Corps birthday!

Happy 229th birthday Marine Corps!!!

So What's The Deal With All The Cats?

Everybody else is taking pictures of stinking cats. So the question is: If everyone was jumping off a bridge would you?..Yeah, probably.





...and here's a cute photoshop my grandma sent me. The way things are going I might have to start a family blog in addition to this one:

NEW BLOGGER ALERT!

Kristian, a Navy buddy of both Radio Cyborg and I has his first post up. Unless someone knows of anyone else I'm claiming him as The first "Post-Election" blogger to the sphere. Please welcome him aboard.

I alomst forgot. His blog is: Second Hand Hate Speech

La' Migra'!

Liberal Warrior has boldly gone where no politician has dared to go: Immigration Reform

Since no one covers this I've got absolutely no idea where I should stick this...please no comment. Since this started on the Left I'll add some text to the Right.

So, the problem as Liberal Warrior sees it is simple enough to solve with the three things we see on the surface: residency for those aliens already here, migrant worker visas and tightening up the border. I wish it were that easy but I don’t think it is. If it were it would have been done years ago. I'm not saying that these are the wrong three things to be looking at. I'm saying that they're the tip of the iceberg.

The INS (Immigration and Nationalization Service) has been traditionally one of the slowest and ridiculous branches of the government we have. Go down to your local INS office and try to get something done on your lunch hour. Unless you've got all of your paperwork completed and bribed your way to the head of the line you will not make it in time.

The painful slowness doesn't end there. Imagine you need to do something other than get a simple visa. Imagine you need to file your paperwork for permanent residency. Your one time, two hour long wait has now turned into at least three separate two hour long waits and potentially a three hour long interview after the year and a half you've waited for them to complete your paperwork.

If it sounds like I have some personal vestment in this waste of agency you're right. My wife is a Korean national. The two years from entry in country to permanent resident status was my own. It was not three visits with an interview, it was six. Three of those times were to get the proper paperwork (still with a two hour wait) because they didn't understand what a PDF was. Fortunately, our interview only took 30 minutes to an hour. Eventually she wants to get her citizenship but if we have to deal with those knuckleheads again I don't know if she'll ever be sworn in.

The reason that politicians don't bring up immigration is because the entire system needs to be completely redone from the top down. Let me explain in detail:

To their credit, they have made filing and printing most of your paperwork much easier to do. Much of their paperwork is now both online and has e-file. However, everything sent to them via e-file still has to be printed out and ferreted around to their paper laden desks. Hearken back, if you will, to the newsy days when your inbox was actually a wooden box and not sponsored by Microsoft Outlook. This is where they still sit. It is still done by pen and ink, not pixels. The solution to this is quite simple to anyone smart enough to have heard of a digital signature. Take away the paper and make their processes electronic.

Now what does this have to do with aliens? How does that help terror at home? Remember this: many of the terrorists involved with the actions of 9/11 were already on an international watch list for terror. The slow and inefficient paper filing of the INS allowed them to live in this country unadulterated for years. There was and is no digital database for all of the INS paperwork. It is still put on pieces of paper and stuffed in one of many filing cabinets to collect dust. With digital filing and processing they could create an instantly accessible database nationally or even internationally.

I know a little bit of work has been done with this but it only catches a few people, like Cat Stephens. Some have said the system they have is nearly impossible to keep updated and improbable to catch anyone with. Knowing that Cat or Allah or whatever his alias is this week, donated tens of thousands of dollars to the Hamas is good enough for me. Keep him in Europe where they sympathize with moonbats. The system is flawed and does need improvements, vast improvements. Oracle has a good product that could easily be used to database everything in the INS. They could even tie it in with Social Security. For those out there that believe this is an impossible task ask yourself how credit card companies do it. If MasterCard can find you when you miss a payment then why can't the INS if you stayed late on your visa? They're dragging their feet don't let them fool you.

Now that I've gotten that piece off my chest let me address the three aforementioned proposals:

▼
At 8 to 12 million aliens there is absolutely no way to send them all back to where they came from. Much of our land was once their land. L.A. stands for Los Angeles, the city of Angels. It was named by the locals and not the cowboys that took over and sent them all to Mexico. There was a war about it and unless we want to declare war on L.A. I think we need to take the suggested approach and streamline a system for undocumented workers.

Here is my approach for doing this:

We need to have a moratorium for undocumented workers in America. All those in the country without paperwork would have a set amount of time in which to find a job and file paperwork for moratorium status. They would not be provided full citizenship but would be protected as a migrant worker residing in the United States. I would give a period of three months in which to find a job and file paperwork as a migrant worker. Anyone unable to comply with this would be subject to immediate deportation. If we have to rent busses or semi-trucks for one mass drop then that's what we'll have to do. They will have been given their golden opportunity and if they choose to ignore it they can suffer the consequences.

Those that have filed paperwork (or e-filed, preferably) would be given the opportunity to file for citizenship in two years time of continuous work with no break in employment greater than four months in total unpaid unemployment. I know the influx of 8 to 12 million filers would be considered daunting to the current INS but again, if the go digital and streamline their aged systems it could be just slightly better than absolute chaos. The standard citizenship procedures would apply including the test and interview but those with an employer's recommendation would get priority in paperwork processing. Hopefully, that would assist in prioritizing processing and additionally aid in reducing fraud.

▼
What about the people crossing our borders everyday to find work? They do the jobs we don't want to do. They do the jobs that our kids don't even want to do. They pick our cabbages, strawberries, blueberries, and tomatoes. They do all this because it's a better life than they had before. The people who employ them know they're paying them slave wages. They give them no medical support and are not above beating them because they know they won't say anything for fear of being deported. My above solution will help those that are already here but does nothing for those who flood the borders every day.

Something California has tried to do now and again is create a migrant worker visa. These are people that would cross the border in the morning, work in our fields and go back to Mexico in the evening. Every time this proposition has hit the table it has been shot down by people who don't understand it. They are afraid that it will mean people will lose their jobs and those not losing their jobs would get paid less due to the foreign competition. What I propose is that in order to a position to be filled by a migrant worker it would need to be unemployable to the standard American. With the previous solution we may not have too many jobs available to fill but that will eventually change as those applying for citizenship gradually become more educated and thus retain more technical positions. It would only be used when citizens or migrant residents are unavailable or unwilling to take the jobs. It would also not be considered an "all or nothing" endeavor. If a farm needs 200 people to pick cabbage and half of those positions are filled with teenagers or migrant residents then the remaining 100 positions could be picked up by migrant workers.

This covers the problem of having jobs that no American or migrant resident would want but does little to quell the flow of illegal border traffic. The solution to this problem lies in making it so Mexicans do not need or want to cross the border looking for work. Something I have become more familiar with as of late are tariffs and import taxes. It appears that one of the things keeping poor countries poor are the taxes levied against them for import goods. If we were to reduce those taxes and tariffs against high migration counties, such as Mexico, we would increase the real Gross Domestic Product of that country and ultimately increase the yearly salary of workers in Mexico and other countries. With increased pay and better living conditions available through the greater GDP there will be less of a desire to cross the border to find work. This may seem very nuanced but it's really quite simple. If you can get them paid well in their own country they won't need to come infiltrate ours.

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The third and final suggestion (Yes, I've got an end to this thing.) was to get tough on the borders. If what I have suggested above does not completely correct the problem, which I doubt anything will completely, we need to enhance the border guards to reduce the flow of undocumented workers/illegal aliens. Something I noticed while living on the border of San Diego and Tijuana was that the only people allowed to touch an unauthorized border crosser was The Border Patrol. The police have absolutely no jurisdiction unless they try to break into your house or make an attempt to harm you. Simply jumping over your six foot tall fence and looking through your windows as they pass through is not enough to stir up the police. It reminds me of the separation between the CIA and the FBI. It's a wall that doesn't need to be there. The police should be able to assist in border issues and vice versa. If we need to make it illegal to cross the border without papers for the police to get involved then that's what we have to do. I understand that legitimate police work takes precedence over border issues but I'm sure there could be some assistance in both directions.

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You can shoot all of this down if you want but at least give me the common courtesy of providing an alternate solution. It won't work man! Your idea sucks! is not a proper response. If you've got a better way say so. I'm not the mad scientist that knows everything. Input is greatly encouraged. Since the politicians won't touch this with a ten-foot pole it's up to us to make these things up. Who knows, maybe we can propose some sort of joint referendum to congress?

Cross-Posted at The Left Right Debate Here.

Update on Children's Vote

Anybody remember the picture of my six year old son holding up his voter registration card? The Local newspaper fanally has something about it in this Sunday's paper. The following is their small but to the point article.

Bush won local children's vote

President Bush won not only the official vote in Virginia Tuesday, but the children of Hampton Roads also chose to grant him a second term.

Of the more than 46,000 young people who cast ballots alongside parents at polling places on Election Day, 57 percent supported Bush while 42 percent backed Democratic challenger Sen. John F. Kerry. The Constitution and Libertarian party candidates split the remaining votes.
Hundreds of volunteers staffed more than 250 polling places throughout the region as part of Kids Voting USA, a national program whose local chapters help children develop the habit of voting.

Winsome E. Sears may wish the children's votes counted. They gave her the nod in the 3rd District congressional race, though she lost the real election to incumbent Robert C. "Bobby" Scott.

In the 1st and 4th districts, children voted to return incumbent congressional Reps. Jo Ann Davis and J. Randy Forbes, respectively. In the 2nd, they opted for Thelma Drake.

I could make some comment about how Republicans teach their kids at a young age but that would be both stupid and wrong. The moral of this article is that we are the ones that teach our children how to do everything, even vote. If you want your children to make a change then teach them to make a change. Usually, not always, they turn out to be exactly what you put into them. If you speak slang and foul language then they will grow up to do the same thing. They may make their own future but it's up to us to show them the way.

Poetry from the Family

Somehow I inspired my grandma to start writing political poetry. I can now see where I got my way with words. I nearly wet myself when I read it. Here's one from my grandma:

WE LOVE GEORGIE

GEORGIE PORGIE PUDDIN PIE
KICKED KERRY’S ASS AND MADE HIM CRY,
GOOD OLD GEORGIE SAVED THE DAY,
MADE GOOF-ASS KERRY RUN AWAY.

GEORGIE PORGIE TELLS THE TRUTH,
HE AIN’T FULL OF CRAP AND SPOOF,
HE’S GOT A PLAN A GOOD ONE TOO,
HE KNOWS EXACTLY WHAT TO DO.

HE DON’T WASTE OUR DOUGH ON SUNNY BEACHES,
GLUTTING BOOZE WITH POLITICAL LEACHES,
HE WORKS AND SWEATS JUST LIKE A MAN,
DON’T FLIT AROUND LIKE PETER-PAN.

HE WALKS THE WALK AND TALKS THE TALK,
ENEMY THREATS DON’T MAKE HIM BALK,
HE STANDS FIRM, HE KNOWS HE’S RIGHT,
HE WON’T RUN, HE’LL STAND AND FIGHT!

WHEN ALL IS FINALLY SAID AND DONE,
AND ANNIE PUT’S AWAY HER GUN,
WHEN THE TERRORISTS ARE ALL PUT TO REST,
AND THE U.S.A. HAS PASSED THE TEST

AMERICA WILL REMAIN A NATION,
THAT DOESN’T REFUSE AN INVITATION,
SENT IN THE FORM OF TERRORIST ATTACK,
WATCH AMERICA SEND IT BACK!

GOD BLESS AMERICA AND LET FREEDOM REIGN!

By old granny

Arafat's Health is Deteriorating Quickly...And There Was Much Rejoicing

Here's the best news on this situation a pajama-journalist can present:

Yasser Arafat's health has been failing for some time now. He has been sent from his home to France for better medical care. Today, the 4th of November, Arafat was transfered to another more intensive care wing of the hospital. Reports from French and Paliestinian papers stated that he has died. French and Palestinian officials have stated that he is not dead but his health is failing quickly. The Palestinians were also quick to note that if Yasser Arafat were to die they would not tell the world until 72 hours after in order to have all of their leaders meet and determine the nations best course of political action. The palestinian government officials have started a major meeting earlier today. He's dead. By thier own inadvertent admission, he's dead. Meeting equals dead. One plus one equals dead. He has assumed room temperature. D-E-D dead. (Got anymore? I'll add em'.)

Here's my cruel and mean spirited commentary. His body's not even cold yet and I'm dancing on his grave:

With Yasser Arafat's death we usher in the potential for a free and peaceful accord between Israel and Palestine. I wish this would have happened years ago. The terrorist leader, Yasser Arafat, made the world look like a bunch of fools. Yeah, I said it; Yasser Arafat is the real leader of the Hamas. He fooled the world into thinking that he was really working towards peace. He made the Nobel peace prize look like a Razzie. His only intention since the beginning was to take our charity towards the Palestinian people for himself. He is nothing but a table-cloth-hat wearing thief and a wannabe-cowboy thug. I, for one, will dance on his grave while the dirt is still fresh.

Now that he's dead, or soon to be if you want to believe the French, how can the peace be brokered in Gaza? What will happen to the leadership of Palestine? Arafat named no successor so it's anybody's ball-game. The problem I foresee is that none of his cronies appear to be any more competent or any less of a thief or a thug. I pray I am wrong for the sake of the Israelis and the Palestinians.

Assimilated Yet again

I have been invited to the contributors at The Left-Right Debate. Some of the all-stars include but are not limited to: Jane from Armies of Liberation, Tim Kelly from Crack The Bell, Doug from Loose Coin, Gordon from Cranky Neocon and a few other heavy hitters. If you haven't been there it's a site to remember and put into your links. You won't be sorry. Here's the link.

I'll try to include original work on both sites around once a day but my first post will be a cross-post.

Here's the article in response to this post:

Four More Years of The Same

Today is November 3rd. Enough of the votes have been counted to make the determination that Bush is the clear winner. America has chosen. It is over. Now we are in for four more years of the same. So what does more of the same come down to? What will happen in the next four years? Will there be a draft? Will there be another attack on America? Will George Clooney turn into a puppet and start killing terrorists lead by a puppet version of Kim Jong Il? Will more of the same really be that much of a bad thing?

To see the future we must revisit the past. What has happened in the past four years that would continue as more of the same?:

«»
Everyone’s focus has been on what we are doing in the Middle East. It is right to be focused on this area of the world. There are many things that need to be done there and we already have an indication of more of the same. Today, as a matter of fact, Afghanistan officially chose as a free democratic voting country Hamid Karzai as their new president. If this is what more off the same means I can’t wait for the elections in Iraq. Sure, some may say that we keep having to push it back, some areas will not be able to vote, it won’t be a true election. I need only remind you that John Forbes Kerry could have stretched our own elections out by weeks in only one state but had the foresight to concede his inevitable defeat. We could have had something even nastier than the Florida recounts. No elections are perfect and I could do with more of the same.

«»
A couple of weeks ago I was speaking with a teacher friend of mine. Fittingly, she was a French teacher working on her masters degree in that field. For some reason I made the mistake of wanting to hear from the horse’s mouth how the no child left behind act was going. She replied that it was horrible. She had to do all this extra paperwork and testing and it wasn’t fully funded. So I asked where the funding was being stopped at. She said hat it was Bush that only put up half the money. I then asked if she knew that the states had not requested the funds that were made available. She could not respond. She did no know. She only knew what whe had been told. The gossip that floats around the teacher’s lounge. I have yet to hear of one instance where anyone with the proper paperwork has been turned down for funding about the no child left behind act. As for the paperwork and the testing, I thought that was the point; to make a stucured educational system that would test our children at an early age to get them on a track that would eventually make them a more educated, more productive member of American society.

On saturday, the results from Virginia’s SOL (Standards of Learning) testing came out for the Hampton Roads area. Every year since the inception of the no child left behind act we have continually improved. Thechnical data for varification can be found here. Par particular close attention to the jump in 2001. If this is any indication of more to come I say bring it on.

«»
Are you afraid of losing your job in the Bush economy? I’m not. Why should I be? Bush inherited a 5.4 unemployment rate at the end of Bill Clinton’s internet boom, that Gore invented. George Bush did have a rocky time in the first two years of his election with reference to jobs but has somehow brought the unemployment rate back down to 5.4% and is still getting better. If the holiday season is even a fraction of what it’s like in any other year he will not even have lost jobs like people portend. Rusty has more on the reworking of numbers here. If Bush actually did lose jobs in total, he still would not be the first to do so. Carter, bay all rights was abysmal and Reagan’s first term wasn’t that great either. Every month though we are showing a new gain of at least 100,000 jobs per month. If this is what we have to look forward to under four more years, I’ll have a heaping plate of “more of the same” please.

«»
Something that people rarely if ever take into consideration when calculating how badly Bush has screwed up this or that is the catastrophic effects terrorism has played in this country. 9/11 caused the stock market to plummmet, the job market to drop and government investments to evaporate. We have always bounced back to become even stronger in trying times like these. Peal Harbor was a completely devastating blow to America that we bounced back from with such effect that we are now Japan’s military security force. Normandy held the death of thousands upon thousands of Americans but held with it the promise of a Europe free from Hitler the great dictator. It is historical that with most every great stumbling block we have had even greater success. We have already had our stumbling block. Now it’s time for more of the same.

¥ Now that you've read this, you need to go to The Left-Right Debate and read more.

Cleveland Rocks!! Kerry Sucks!!

I'm sure by the end of the day there be 101 Drew Carrey/John Kerry jokes floating around and I thought I should throw one in before the lawyers (John and John) try to sue their way to victory so here goes: (Ohio residents this joke has no ill will towards you. It's just a joke.)

The only two good things to come out of Ohio are Drew Carrey and a Kerry defeat.

(I'm sure there are more Carrey/Kerry jokes out there but I'm just too tired to care right now.)

The state of the states:

Bush has won the election by a narrow margin. There are at least three states that have or could go to George Bush to put him past 269 votes after Ohio is officially won. It doesn't really matter if we don't get any more votes because if we're tied with 269 the vote goes to the senate and I've got another cheesey joke for that:

Q: What sound did Dashle's career make when it went up in smoke?

A: THUNE!

I don't think anyone was expecting that one. Republicans continue to dominate the legislative branch. We're all over. We're multiplying. We're like cockroaches; you just can't kill us off! Unless I missed a couple numbers, we actually gained a seat or two. Bush will undoubtedly be voted in should it come down to it, which I doubt.

As for Ohio. Today John Kerry and John Edwards have the opportunity to do a noble thing or a despicable thing. Unless you've been hiding under a rock, or Iraq, you've been briefed only slightly that Ohio has turned into a Vietnam style quagmire, complete with a Vietnam vet. Here's how it all breaks out:

Bush is ahead in Ohio with 136,221 votes more than Kerry. This gives him a 2% lead. It appears that Bush is the winner. But wait! There's more! Ohio had a large influx of provisional ballots. These are ballots that weren't registered, their absentee ballot didn't show up on time, they ate their voter registration card and were too intimidated to show I.D. or whatever and are held provisionally in case there is a vote that is close enough for them to potentially change the outcome. In this case, they would need a total of at least 136,222 provisional ballots for any of them to be counted. The democrats are claiming over 250,000 legal ballots but that is yet to be seen. Republicans come up with a much lower number. We should see that roll out some time today.

If it turns out there were enough provisional ballots Kerry's only chance is if a whopping majority of those votes go to Kerry. First, they have to cover the 136,221 vote lead and then they have to cover an additional 49.75% of the rest of them in order to go on to the next phase:

In order for any form of recount to be conducted in the state of Ohio you need to have a race within .25% of each other. I don't really think that's going to be much of a problem. If the number is 250,000 they would need to come up with about 187,500 or roughly 75% of those votes to cause a recount and for lawyers to be viable.

If this fails Kerry and they still try to sue over something I call upon everyone, left and right to hunt both of them down and pummel the living crap out of them for trying to disgrace the United States with their inability to accept reality. You though I was jaded and baised before, you aint' seen nuthin' yet!

I Voted!

Yes, It's official. I was number 1571 at my polling station. I wasn't allowed to take a camera in the building but I got a few shots from outside. First, lets do a comparison of the two party representatives at the station. (I know the pictures are HUGE but I think detail is important)

(Something not pictured but should be noted: There was a dashed line ouside of the building that the party representatives were not allowed to cross.)


Here's the Republican representative. I don't know her name because I didn't interview either candidate but she was being approached by many more people than the Democratic representative. (Only my son approached the Democrat rep. and told him he was voting for Bush. What a good boy!) Some of you may say that I waited for hours for a photo op. like this one. That's not true. That's the picture I got the moment I got out of my car. She presented herself well and people responded to that, or it could be the fact that the only place Democrats can stick an election sign in Chesapeake, VA is on public property.

[picture taken to get my sidebar back]

Here's the Democratic representative. Since he wasn't being approached by anyone he had the opportunity to pose for me. He seemed like an alright kind of guy, jovial but he really could have presented himself a bit better. You are representing a presidential candidate. You should dress accordingly. That's just my opinion.
One last note: upon completion of both myself and my son voting (for Bush) the Republican representative was still talking to people but the Democratic representative was smoking a cigarette. He has every right to smoke wherever the heck he wants to but again, it's inappropriate behavior when you're representing a presidential candidate.

[picture taken to get my sidebar back]

Last but not least, here's my son, Brandon. In his right hand he holds a "Hampton Roads Kids Voter Registration Card". The school kids in hampton roads are voting as well as their parents. They even have children assisting with their polling. It was a great experience for him even though he originally wanted to vote for Sponge Bob. He ended up voting Bush for president. Asking him why Bush he said "because he's the president". For some reason I believe that will be the case in many voters minds, especially the undecided. I've read a couple articles on the subject and that's what all of them say: undecideds vote for the incumbent.
Since we're in the 38th congressional district of Virginia my son also voted for Randy Forbes, another incumbent. I didn't help him with this one, honest!

[picure taken to get my sidebar back]

Now that I'm home again after voting George Bush for president and Randy Forbes as congressman I took the AOL Exit Poll. It provides instant results nationally and state by state instantly. If this is a true indication of how things will turn out Bush will have a clean sweep of all 50 states PLUS D.C.!! If you haven't already taken the exit poll go here now!

Blog The Vote!!!

So,



Who are you voting for?

Today is the day. Go to your local polling station and let your voice be heard whoever your candidate is. I'm planning on picture blogging my vote if they'll let me. If they do I'll be posting it later tonight before the world starts live blogging the debacle. Now here's a statement that everyone can agree on:

GO VOTE!!!!

Twas the night before voting

I just re-worked The Night Before Christmas. Let me know what you think!

WARNING: This is winger poetry. Made by a winger for wingers. Weiners read on at your own risk!

Twas the night before voting and all through the House,
Not a representative was stirring, not even Nancy Pelosi; (couldn't find a rime)
The ballots were held in the centers with care,
In hopes that no voter fraud would be found there;

The voters were nestled all snug in their beds,
While visions of run-offs danced in their heads;
And mamma in her 'kerchief, and I in my cap,
Had just turned on the news. What a large pile of crap,

On the White House lawn there arose such a clatter,
The marines jumped into action to see what was the matter.
Away to their posts they flew like a flash,
Turned on their sirens with lights that would flash.

The moon at their backs and wouldn't you know,
Gave the lustre of mid-day to objects below,
When, what to my wondering eyes should appear,
But Osama Bin-Laden, and eight terror bombadeers,

With a little old driver, so lively and quick,
I knew in a moment I was going to be sick.
More rapid than camels his coursers they came,
And he whistled, and shouted, and called them by name;

"Now, Dashle! now, Daniel! now, Boxer and Clinton!
On, Corzine! on Conrad! on, Durbin and Feinstein!
To the top of the porch! to the top of the wall!
Now dash away! dash away! dash away all!"

As dry leaves that before the wild hurricane fly,
When they meet with an obstacle, mount to the sky,
So up to the house-top the coursers they flew,
With the van full of bombs, and Osama too.

And then, in a twinkling, I heard on the roof
The prancing and pawing of McGreevy, the goof.
As I drew in my hand, and was turning around,
Down the chimney Osama came with a bound.

He was dressed in fatigues, from his head to his foot,
And his clothes smelled a bit like some ass and a foot;
A bomb-belt of his he had flung on his back,
And he looked like a homeless guy strung out on crack.

His eyes -- how they twinkled! his dimples how sKerrey!
His cheeks were quite sunken, freind of Marion Barry?
His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow,
And the beard of his chin was grey and white like bad snow;

The stump of a hooka he held tight in his teeth,
And the smoke that encircled his head really reaked;
He had a thin face and absolutely no belly,
He shook, when he coughed like a girl with R-Kelly

Bush, at work with a slump, took his gun from a shelf,
And he laughed when he saw him, in spite of myself;
A wink of his eye and a twist of his head,
Soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread;

Bush spoke not a word, but went straight to his work,
And filled him with lead; that will deal with the jerk,
And laying his finger aside of his nose,
And giving a nod, Osama Bin Laden was hosed;

He sprang to his door, to marines gave a whistle,
To their posts they all flew like the down of a thistle.
But I heard him exclaim, ere he rode out the night,
"HAPPY VOTING TO ALL, AND TO ALL A GOOD-FIGHT!"

Terror of Future Past

We've all got views about what is shaping America today.
Maybe it's this:


Maybe you were in New York and it was this:

[picture removed to regain sidebar]

Some people are affected by the power of individual loss and were most affected by this:


Still others are affected by the total carnage and will be affected by this:


They are horrible images, every last one of them. I wish I didn't have to show these images of grim reminders, terror of future past if you will. This is our heritage whether we like it or not.

These are not the first images of terror in America's future. We have a long and democratic history of erring on the side of forgiveness. Times I remember that we forgot who we are and what we stand for are here:

Lets start with the terror of Beiruit in 1983:


Now we should move to the first WTC attack in 1993:


Does anyone remember Nairobi Kenya? I know I sure do:


Of course, everyone remembers Khobar Towers:


The call to arms should have been from any one of these acts of barbarism. The USS Cole bombing should have at least put someone, Osama Bin-Laden, behind bars:

[photo removed to regain sidebar]

Each one of these pictures we should have cried over collectively as a nation. I fear many of us do not fully realize the challenge our great nation is facing. We have placated a problem that for decades has been killing Americans and we did nothing. We had many warnings and we did nothing. We had suicicide bombings and we did nothing. We lost the lives of innocents abroad and we still did nothing. It is time for us to stop doing nothing. It is time for us to take up arms against our enemies and make right what once went wrong. Now is not the time for peace. Now is the time to restore our freedom from fear. Now is the time to show the world how oppressive governments and ideals will be treated by the United States of America. Now is the time for war.

Please vote responsibly for whoever you believe can set right what once went wrong. These are the elections that shape the direction our country will move. If you believe Kerry will lead a smarter war on terror then so be it. If you believe Bush will defeat terror then vote Bush. It is up to you, as an American, to vote for the policy you want in place. This is one of very few decisions America has. Use it wisely or it may be taken away.

God Bless Everyone

May Ferid live a long and fruitful life.

Ferid is the owner and proprieter of Loser's Blog. A month or two ago he visited my site and left me a note or two. As a responsible blogger, I visited his in turn. We've had one or two exchanges on this and that but nothing much. I would like to extend to him a welcome anytime he wants to visit my site or any others linked from mine. (If anyone gives him a hard time I'll personally see to it that you become the next donkey bomb...testicles first.) Personally, I feel that everyone, right, left, conservative, liberal, libertarian, progressive, foriegn and domestic, should read his blog.

He does not always post daily and that may be a turn-off, but he is the voice of innocent truth and needs to be listened to. He is what is happening in Iraq. He is the youth of Iraq. He is where Iraq is headed. It doesn't matter where some weapons went. It doesn't matter where the oil goes. It doesn't even matter what countries are for or against this war. What matters is that everyone needs to recognize a voice of what is really happening in Iraq and listen form a human point of view, non-partisan.

As a sample, I'm including his latest post. If you would like to see it on his site please go here.

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Ferrid the Great

Thursday, October 28, 2004

a letter

This is a letter that I found in a forum from an Iraqi citizen in Fallugah, being translated by one of the members there…

"…In the Name of Allah the Compassionate and Merciful,

I am a citizen of Fallujah and have sent this call to most Iraqi newspapers, but everybody is scared of conveying the truth about my town and you are my last hope. I left the town with my family last night not to escape from the occupiers' bombs but to escape a fatwa by Sheikh Abdullah Al-Janabi and the "Consultation Council in Fallujah". The gist of it is that each head of a family with daughters of more than 10 years of age should marry them off to one of the Mujahideen to protect them from rape by occupation soldiers should they overrun the town. I am a father of three daughters older than 10 years of age and I do not want to marry them off to those Mujahideen. This fatwa was announced immediately after the end of the the Mujahideen Conference in Fallujah and Ramadi on 21/10/2004 and was widely approved of by religious and tribal leaders. Please convey our call to the world and may Allah give us refuge."

Really can't say anything about its credibility, but there is rumors also that's some women organizations are offering and tempting to marry young women with the infiltrated Arab terrorists the so called "Mujahdeen"
And these organizations are under control of ex-ba'athes and some radical clerics…well this is all maybe some rubbish of newspapers or might be the most disgusting thing I've ever heard in my life :P

More bad news an armed group showed photos of new eleven hostages of the Iraqi National Guard, also a new Japanese hostage….



posted by Ferid the great @ 8:40 AM

\_/""\_/""\_/""\_/""\_/

Go visit Farid's Loser's Blog for more of the truth.

UPDATE! Ferid wants to add this:
"with out your aid we wouldn't had the chance to speak out"

Guess Who's Stumping For Kerry?

Darn it all. We should have searched Kerry's mansion for Osama. Now he's stumping for Kerry.



I guess Kerry will be getting the terrorist vote this year.

Kerry's also stumping in Germany today, trying to stir up some old spirits that should have stayed dead.



These photos were taken from Worth 1ooo and excellent photshop site.

Bush Wins By 36!!!

Okay, here's the deal:
Pusillanimous Wanker has put down the gauntlet for an electoral vote prediction. The closest scenario will win the distinct honor of having the afforementioned Howard Dean supporter with no where to go but Kerry rename his site to yours for one week. Maybe if you sweet talk him real nice he'll even turn the title into a link to your site but don't count on it. For details go to his site here.

And just to be smarmy I'll do it too, link included. Honestly I don't believe I'll lose. All the demmies think Kerry will win....
WHAT FOOLS!!!!! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!

I have made my predictions for the 2004 presidential elections. I have tallied and computed and have come up with the following election results:



States that were close were taken with with an average of the last two or three polls from both Zogby and Gallup. I did not use Rassmussen, Harris or any of the other polls for making my determinations. Of the multiple polls out the only ones that have shown a consistant record are the two I have chosen. Gallup's only presidential election failure ever has been Dewy, ten elections ago. Zogby is the stongest competitor to Gallup and I feel it would be unfair to only use one since so many pollsters are out there trying.

Why am I using only polls to make a judgement? Winston churchill once said: "Anyone under 30 that is a conservative has no heart. Anyone older than 30 that is a liberal has no mind." I'm 30 and have been a conservative for a long time. I guess you could call me heartless. However, I have constructed this prediction with my mind and not my heart. If I had used my heart I would have come up with Kerry winning by well over 100. Here is my prediction:

Bush will win by 36 electoral votes.
There will be no contested states.
Kerry will concede defeat on Tuesday night, the 2nd of November, 2004.

Until the elections, (or after the elections for some people now) take a look at why I'm voting for John F. Kerry. I know your going to say "you're nuts! Why are you switching to Kerry?" It's simply that he agrees with me on every important position. I bet he agrees with you too. Here's the radio spot that convinced me:

RADIO

Special thanks to Mark Simone for creating this spot and making my decision so simple.
My apologies to all the Bush supporters.

OCTOBER SURPRISE!!!

This just in from the Washington Times! Russians moved the explosives from the Al Qaqaa facility into Syria and Lebanon before the U.S. was on the ground! They also moved many other high interest items from other facilities into Syria as well! Here is the link to the Washington times page:

LINK

Here's the address to put on your site:

http://www.washingtontimes.com/national/20041028-122637-6257r.htm

Note: WT moved this article from the original location. If you have the old link and it doesn't work use the above link.

There's also a related article to in the FT.

My hat tip goes to Editors In Pajamas. (Damned bloggers running around posting controversial material in their pajamas! - Dan Rather)

Another Pajamahadeen update, Brit Hume interview with Paul Bremer. You may have to play with settings to get it to work:

VIDEO OPTIONS


02:00 UPDATE: People who have posted on this:
HundredPercenter Newswires
Powerline
Instapundit
Editors In Pajamas
Michelle Malkin
WizBang
Little Green Footballs
Note: google news only has Joyce Malachy from HundredPercenter as a news source on this since the Washington Times put the ball into motion an hour ago.

0300 UPDATE:
People who have posted:
Blogs for Bush
The Command Post
The Bleat
NRO (Just a link)
Note: Have gone all the way down to playful primates on TTLB and on libs talking.
News Links:
INTERFAX Russia - Diplomat denies Russia helded Saddam move weapons
Moscow News - Russian Special Forces Smuggled Saddam’s Weapons from Iraq to Syria — Newspaper
Note: LGF is up to 544 comments. Still no Left minded bloggers. Only two Russian media outlets posting. No other media outlets.

0400 Update:
People who have posted:
Just Jeff at:
Beautiful Atrocities
News:
No news is good news? (If I see another thing on oil I'm going to puke. Running a news search on google for "russia". Still nothing on the MSM. Feel like the Maytag guy waiting for something to break...like a story.)

0430 Update: Final (getting off work soon)
People who have posted:
Blogbat
Dean's World
INDCJournal
The Jawa Report
My Vast Right Wing Conspiracy

News hits: (it has begun. goodnight everybody...anybody.)
Keralanext India - Iraq ; Russia smuggled Saddam's weapons: Report
ITAR-TASS, Russia - Russia not involved in explosive disappearance in Iraq
GOPUSA - Talon News, Texas - Bush Fires Back; Russia May Have Taken Iraqi Explosives

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Here's the full text of the document (Their site has been getting the crap pummelled out of it but I managed to get the full text):

Russia tied to Iraq's missing arms

By Bill Gertz

THE WASHINGTON TIMES

Russian special forces troops moved many of Saddam Hussein's weapons and related goods out of Iraq and into Syria in the weeks before the March 2003 U.S. military operation, The Washington Times has learned.

John A. Shaw, the deputy undersecretary of defense for international technology security, said in an interview that he believes the Russian troops, working with Iraqi intelligence, "almost certainly" removed the high-explosive material that went missing from the Al-Qaqaa facility, south of Baghdad.

"The Russians brought in, just before the war got started, a whole series of military units," Mr. Shaw said. "Their main job was to shred all evidence of any of the contractual arrangements they had with the Iraqis. The others were transportation units."

Mr. Shaw, who was in charge of cataloguing the tons of conventional arms provided to Iraq by foreign suppliers, said he recently obtained reliable information on the arms-dispersal program from two European intelligence services that have detailed knowledge of the Russian-Iraqi weapons collaboration.

Most of Saddam's most powerful arms were systematically separated from other arms like mortars, bombs and rockets, and sent to Syria and Lebanon, and possibly to Iran, he said. The Russian involvement in helping disperse Saddam's weapons, including some 380 tons of RDX and HMX is still being investigated, Mr. Shaw said. The RDX and HMX, which are used to manufacture high-explosive and nuclear weapons, are probably of Russian origin, he said.

Pentagon spokesman Larry DiRita could not be reached for comment.

The disappearance of the material was reported in a letter Oct. 10 from the Iraqi government to the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Disclosure of the missing explosives Monday in a New York Times story was used by the Democratic presidential campaign of Sen. John Kerry, who accused the Bush administration of failing to secure the material.

Al-Qaqaa, a known Iraqi weapons site, was monitored closely, Mr. Shaw said.

"That was such a pivotal location, Number 1, that the mere fact of [special explosives] disappearing was impossible," Mr. Shaw said. "And Number 2, if the stuff disappeared, it had to have gone before we got there."

The Pentagon disclosed yesterday that the Al-Qaqaa facility was defended by Fedayeen Saddam, Special Republican Guard and other Iraqi military units during the conflict. U.S. forces defeated the defenders around April 3 and found the gates to the facility open, the Pentagon said in a statement yesterday.

A military unit in charge of searching for weapons, the Army's 75th Exploitation Task Force, then inspected Al-Qaqaa on May 8, May 11 and May 27, 2003, and found no high explosives that had been monitored in the past by the IAEA.

The Pentagon said there was no evidence of large-scale movement of explosives from the facility after April 6.

"The movement of 377 tons of heavy ordnance would have required dozens of heavy trucks and equipment moving along the same roadways as U.S. combat divisions occupied continually for weeks prior to and subsequent to the 3rd Infantry Division's arrival at the facility," the statement said.

The statement also said that the material may have been removed from the site by Saddam's regime.

According to the Pentagon, U.N. arms inspectors sealed the explosives at Al-Qaqaa in January 2003 and revisited the site in March and noted that the seals were not broken.

It is not known if the inspectors saw the explosives in March. The U.N. team left the country before the U.S.-led invasion began March 20, 2003.

A second defense official said documents on the Russian support to Iraq reveal that Saddam's government paid the Kremlin for the special forces to provide security for Iraq's Russian arms and to conduct counterintelligence activities designed to prevent U.S. and Western intelligence services from learning about the arms pipeline through Syria.

The Russian arms-removal program was initiated after Yevgeny Primakov, the former Russian intelligence chief, could not convince Saddam to give in to U.S. and Western demands, this official said.

A small portion of Iraq's 650,000 tons to 1 million tons of conventional arms that were found after the war were looted after the U.S.-led invasion, Mr. Shaw said. Russia was Iraq's largest foreign supplier of weaponry, he said.

However, the most important and useful arms and explosives appear to have been separated and moved out as part of carefully designed program. "The organized effort was done in advance of the conflict," Mr. Shaw said.

The Russian forces were tasked with moving special arms out of the country.

Mr. Shaw said foreign intelligence officials believe the Russians worked with Saddam's Mukhabarat intelligence service to separate out special weapons, including high explosives and other arms and related technology, from standard conventional arms spread out in some 200 arms depots.

The Russian weapons were then sent out of the country to Syria, and possibly Lebanon in Russian trucks, Mr. Shaw said.

Mr. Shaw said he believes that the withdrawal of Russian-made weapons and explosives from Iraq was part of plan by Saddam to set up a "redoubt" in Syria that could be used as a base for launching pro-Saddam insurgency operations in Iraq.

The Russian units were dispatched beginning in January 2003 and by March had destroyed hundreds of pages of documents on Russian arms supplies to Iraq while dispersing arms to Syria, the second official said.

Besides their own weapons, the Russians were supplying Saddam with arms made in Ukraine, Belarus, Bulgaria and other Eastern European nations, he said.

"Whatever was not buried was put on lorries and sent to the Syrian border," the defense official said.

Documents reviewed by the official included itineraries of military units involved in the truck shipments to Syria. The materials outlined in the documents included missile components, MiG jet parts, tank parts and chemicals used to make chemical weapons, the official said.

The director of the Iraqi government front company known as the Al Bashair Trading Co. fled to Syria, where he is in charge of monitoring arms holdings and funding Iraqi insurgent activities, the official said.

Also, an Arabic-language report obtained by U.S. intelligence disclosed the extent of Russian armaments. The 26-page report was written by Abdul Tawab Mullah al Huwaysh, Saddam's minister of military industrialization, who was captured by U.S. forces May 2, 2003.

The Russian "spetsnaz" or special-operations forces were under the GRU military intelligence service and organized large commercial truck convoys for the weapons removal, the official said.

Regarding the explosives, the new Iraqi government reported that 194.7 metric tons of HMX, or high-melting-point explosive, and 141.2 metric tons of RDX, or rapid-detonation explosive, and 5.8 metric tons of PETN, or pentaerythritol tetranitrate, were missing.

The material is used in nuclear weapons and also in making military "plastic" high explosive.

Defense officials said the Russians can provide information on what happened to the Iraqi weapons and explosives that were transported out of the country. Officials believe the Russians also can explain what happened to Iraq's weapons of mass destruction programs.

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In other news the Curse of the Bambino has been broken! The Red Sox have won the World Series!!!

Random Entertainment

Outsourcing has finally hit the technical field hard. Here's a tech support video specific to the contract I'm working on. Special thanks to Ill Will Press for the simulated interview between our contract and The Smell Computer Company:

VIDEO

As we all know voting in Florida has been a debated concern since 2000. As voter assistance, Boom Chicago Amseterdam has come up with this video. I think Bush will sweep florida this year (be patient it takes a while to load, it's Quicktime):

VIDEO

To be a bit more serious about the election, I'm here to endorse John Kerry for everyone. John Kerry is the candidate for all Americans no matter what side you’re on. I was a devout Bush supporter until I heard this latest commercial from Mark Simone of 77WABC News Talk Radio. This is only an audio commercial but it was powerful enough to make me realize that John Kerry supports every one of my positions. I'm willing to bet he supports every one of your as well:

AUDIO

(Please don't panic! I'm not really voting for Kerry.)

Some Real Poetry

I've noticed something while skulking around in the dark shadows of Kerry supporting sites: many of tehm have a thing for the haiku form of poetry. Maybe it's because they're short little blurbs that usually don't mean much? It might even say something about the poor attention span of the readers of such sites? Since the liberals have taken posetion of the haiku I feel it is my obligation to at least make the forray into some real poetry. It's been a while since I've penned anything in a poetically meloncoly mood so please forgive me my sonnet isn't in perfect iambic pentameter.


At last the end of this coming nigh.
Election polls are tight and hopes are high.
Methinks the Zogby polls have got it straight,
but USA Today is second rate.
A million polls are false with different sins,
but Gallup hasn't lost since Dewy Wins!

The Democrats have chosen Mr. Heinz.
His nuanced plans are missing good designs.
Everything they do is launch attacks,
but what would you expect from those behinds?

Republican incumbent Bush is strong.
He realizes appeasement is wrong.
He'll put the terrorists upon their backs,
so don't forget to vote before too long.


And so it goes; the difference between liberal and conservative poetry. Please feel free to try for yourselves. It's fun!

Yet another poll/questionaire thingy

I've said it before and I'll say it again: I'm a centrist, but I'm still voting for Bush.

You preferred Kerry's statements 44% of the time You preferred Bush's statements 56% of the time Voting purely on the issues you should vote Bush Who would you vote for if you voted on the issues? Find out now!

Go check it out. I found it via bitchalicious.