Michael Yon Reporting

From Iraq. Well, it’s an Op-Ed piece, but based on his fantastic reporting.

It is said that generals always fight the last war. But when David Petraeus came to town it was senators – on both sides of the aisle – who battled over the Iraq war of 2004-2006. That war has little in common with the war we are fighting today.

I may well have spent more time embedded with combat units in Iraq than any other journalist alive. I have seen this war – and our part in it – at its brutal worst. And I say the transformation over the last 14 months is little short of miraculous. . . .

This leads us to the most out-of-date aspect of the Senate debate: the argument about the pace of troop withdrawals. Precisely because we have made so much political progress in the past year, rather than talking about force reduction, Congress should be figuring ways and means to increase troop levels. For all our successes, we still do not have enough troops. This makes the fight longer and more lethal for the troops who are fighting. To give one example, I just returned this week from Nineveh province, where I have spent probably eight months between 2005 to 2008, and it is clear that we remain stretched very thin from the Syrian border and through Mosul. Vast swaths of Nineveh are patrolled mostly by occasional overflights.

We know now that we can pull off a successful counterinsurgency in Iraq. We know that we are working with an increasingly willing citizenry. But counterinsurgency, like community policing, requires lots of boots on the ground. You can’t do it from inside a jet or a tank.

Read the rest here. He has a new book, too.

Via Instapundit.

When Bras Attack

A Greenville, S.C., woman who filed a lawsuit against Victoria’s Secret saying that a defective bra seriously cut one of her breasts has submitted a new version of the suit correcting an error in the depth of the wound, Greenville Online reported.

In the original lawsuit, Jessica Lang claimed a bra she bought at the mall “malfunctioned” and caused a cut in her chest and breast “nearly six inches wide and six inches deep.” The new claim, filed Thursday, drastically changes that allegation to “3 inches long by 1/4 inch deep, resulting in scarring,” Greenville Online reported.

Lang’s attorney, Nathan Hughey, says the mistake was a result of a clerical error in a legal document when the lawsuit was originally filed in 2005. It has since been moved from state to federal court. Victoria’s Secret claims no wrongdoing in the alleged injury. They say Lang’s injuries were caused by her own negligence.

Lang claims she was fired from Alegis Group in Greenville after she had to miss work to recover from the bra-induced injury. Hughey told Greenville Online that the bra “broke and the wire came through and lacerated her breast.”

The lawsuit claims that Victoria’s Secret “so negligently and carelessly designed, manufactured, constructed, assembled, inspected, and sold the brassiere that it was dangerous and unsafe for its intended uses” and caused Lang “lost wages, pain and suffering, future disability, loss of prospective business relations and medical expenses.”

The thing that has me curious about this whole story is exactly how such an injury would result in a “loss of prospective business relations.” That is a business I would like explained to me in great detail. By the brunette in the picture. Over some drinks and in a dark discrete place.

Oh yes, the picture has nothing to do with the story. She’s just hot.

Here’s the thing . . . as one gets older one learns that everyday bras are not the dangerous kind. Much like tame house cats, they rarely cause problems except for unsightly sagging as they age. It’s the wild, exotic bras that cause you trouble. Sure, they start out cute and cuddly but, much like women in their late-30s, 40s and 50s, when they are full-grown cougars you never know what they will do. It’s a recipe for a trip to the emergency room, traction, and stitches I tell ya.

Can I Borrow Your Pliers?

Woman forced to remove nipple rings by TSA security.  This was wrong.  Almost as wrong as a 37 year old woman wearing nipple rings in the first place.

The Nod

Of agreement?

Wright laced into America’s establishment, blaming the “white arrogance” of America’s Caucasian majority for the woes of the world, especially the oppression suffered by blacks. To underscore the point he refers to the country as the “United States of White America.” Many in the congregation, including Obama, nodded in apparent agreement as these statements were made.

Ace says this is “nuclear.”  And it just might be with undecided independents who could go either way in the general - McCain or Obama - or some Democrats who could go either way in the remaining primaries - Obama or Hillary.

But frankly, I don’t see it doing a damn bit of damage to the legions of Obama faithful.  My son, an avowed liberal who I love despite this fault, simply shrugs off all of this stuff, saying it is either untrue or exaggerated or simply doesn’t matter to him serving as president.

Now, he’s young, an idealist, hopelessly liberal and an avowed Bush-hater so it makes sense that he would do his best to support his guy, but the point is he is indicative of many, if not most Obama-maniacs who are not going to leave their guy because of this or any of his other problems.   And Obama’s certainly not going to lose much of the black vote over this.

So, while there are plenty of pundits in the MSM and blogosphere saying that this stuff is killing Obama’s chances, I just don’t know.

UPDATE before I even post this:

Ace also points out that Obama wrote about at least one of these controversial sermons in his book, “Audacity of Hope.” There appears to be a lie here concerning his knowledge of Wright’s racist and other inflamatory* statements and, as we all know, the lie is often worse than the origninal sin.

* I added this to note that not all of Wright’s statements concern race - the also just show a profound hatred of America in general.

UPDATE:

And then again, maybe Obama’s supporters might just be bothered about this after all. Those that pay attention, anyway. Lots won’t.

Instapundit has more more, including the fact that Oprah reportedly also attends Wright’s church. It’s not like I ever liked her much, but damn at least I thought I knew what she was about. Or did I?

Bombing Of NY Military Recruitment Center

Wanna bet the bomber was part of the peace movement? You know, the one that is anti-violence.   

But remember, they support the troops.

UPDATE:

Letters sent to Congress indicate what I said, an anti-war peacenik rant. But again, they love the troops.

UPDATE:

The FBI says there is no link between the letters sent to Congress and the bombing.  It was just a moronic anti-war activist with bad timing.  Go figure.

More Juicy Links

I’m at home with a cold.  The second nasty one I have had in less than a month.  It’s also snowing outside which is pretty, but resulted in slick roads in our area which got most of the schools cancelled.  So it’s a full house here.  Oh, and I woke up with a computer virus too.  Some kind of Trojan that disables your anti-virus software - at least partially since it was working well-enough to let me know I had the virus.  The end result was I removed the Trojan and had to reload my anti-virus software.  Problem fixed.

Anyway, here are a few things for you to check out today. 

1) Obama’s face found in potato? This Messiah stuff is getting creepy.

2) A town in Alaska is suing because Global Warming is making it slip into the sea. I wonder if the defense will be the fact that the Earth is actually getting colder, not hotter.

3)  Girl gets banned from tennis court for grunting. I feel her pain. Loving wife and I got banned once for doing just that. We weren’t playing tennis, we were just young and going through that experimental “having sex in a public place” phase. What? Don’t act like you never thought about it.

4) Groovy Vic is talking about boobs and it seems to be a new trend among women on my blogroll. I like it.  Keep it up ladies.

5) Pamela Anderson wants out of her two month old marriage. That’s surprising. I was certain they would hit that 50 year mark.

6) I don’t know if any of you are using these new environmentally friendly compact fluorescent bulbs, but don’t they suck?  I hate them.  They are expensive, they don’t give good light, they don’t last as long as they claim they do, they don’t fit a lot of fixtures, and what little light they do give takes forever to reach its peak.  And now it turns out they are dangerous to the environment too. This isn’t news really, its just news that they are finally reporting just how dangerous they are.

7)  During the Democratic debate last night - a debate that Obama won, but only because Hillary is already toast - Obama said that if he pulled American troops out of Iraq and Al-Qadea filled-in the vacuum, he would re-invade. Now, does that make any fricken sense at all? Seriously. This is the guy you want in charge of our national defense?

8 ) Starbucks coffee is now perfect. Does that mean it is now affordable and not burnt to a crisp?

9) I know I am obsessing over Obama a bit (he may be president though so cut me some slack), but here is a great post about his failure to reject Louis Farrakhan and his racist teachings. It’s bothersome to many people, including liberals, and when you consider his own minister seems to believe much of the same nonsense it certainly is something that should worry his supporters. It’s a long way to November and there is plenty of time for his bubble of “hope and change” to burst.

Juicy Links

1) Is Barack Obama the Messiah? Not much to say except that if a Republican had this type of religious glow about him the left would be calling him the Anti-Christ.  Wait, you don’t think?  Nawwwww.

2)  The 1943 Guide To Hiring Women. No comment.

3)  Well, this is disappointing. I liked Bob. I wanted to be Bob. Bob looks so happy.  And more importantly, Bob’s women look happy.  I am gonna miss Bob.

4) I mentioned in an earlier post that Obama used to hang with terrorists, but now it appears they remain friends. I wonder if the New York Times will give the same level of attention to this story as they did to the non-story about McCain?

5) Starbucks coffee really is getting expensive these days. Very bitter, too. I’ll never understand the line of cars at their drive-thru I see every morning on the way to work. Lemmings.

6)  Saudi men arrested for flirting with women in public. Surprising since a gal in a Burka doesn’t really bring out the flirt in me. But then again I guess that is the stated purpose of those things, isn’t it. I wonder though, if they bring Sharia law to the USA, will they make them in pink with shiny appliques that read “Sweet Thang” on the ass?

7) Are you watching the Oscars tonight?  Not me.  I haven’t see any of the films nominated for Best Picture and only two or three of the films nominated for “lesser” awards like Sound Editing and Visual Effects. They make these movies for themselves not the movie-going public which explains why there are fewer and fewer of us.

8)  Here’s a link to pictures of one of my favorite brunettes, Mimi Rogers, naked.  Seriously, she is nude, so don’t go there if that bugs you.

9)  Beautiful actresses morphing into other beautiful actresses. It is no doubt just me but I think the earlier ones are much more beautiful than the ones we have now.

Not The Kind Of Thing You Expect On Your Morning Commute

An explosion at a refinery in Texas.  Scary in this time of terrorists.

Of Storms And Politics

Tornados and violent thunder storms ripped through our area last night.  Just west of here both Memphis and Jackson, TN got hit hard.  There are 13 dead at last report.  Union University in Jackson was hit particularly hard with 50 students injured and many buildings damaged.  Also, a big natural gas fire at a pumping station just north of Nashville was blamed on the storms as well.

The other big story was Super Tuesday and the continuing race towards mediocrity in our Presidential contest.  Hillary is barely ahead of Obama, and McCain, while taking a commanding lead is still having his heels nipped by that spoiler Huckabee.  Romney is pretty much out of it though.

Why is Huckabee a spoiler?  Because he has no chance . . . NO chance . . . of being the nominee, but his staying in the race took possible votes away from the other conservative candidate Romney.   I just don’t get his evangelical supporters, though.  They are virtually insuring the more liberal candidate, McCain, gets the nomination.  Plus, Huckabee has been very liberal in his governing of Arkansas (higher taxes, letting killers and other violent criminals go free).

And he also has weird eyes.  Big black outer-space alien eyes.  He looks evil to me.  Seriously.  He creeps me out.

I just don’t get it.

Anyway, like I said, McCain is the likely nominee and that is both good and bad.  Yes, he is a Republican, but he is a very liberal Republican and not much better than the two Democratic front runners.  Why do I say this?  Because my son, a big liberal, would vote for McCain in a contest between him and Hillary.  No way my son would ever vote for a real conservative.

Not Obama though.  Like many deluded Democrats and independents, he is “inspired” by him.  Even though when pressed he is not really able to explain a darn thing the man represents.  He’s just inspirational in the John F. Kennedy way. 

JFK.  A great president only because he was killed in my opinion.  (And before you jump on me, think about it.  Had he lived he would have been stuck with the Vietnam war, not Johnson, and we all know how Johnson fared politically, don’t we.)

But back to this race.  McCain will be the nominee and then he will have to attempt to make friends with all those conservatives who, if you read political blogs, hate him with a passion now.  He may be able to do that.  I hope so.  But he also will have to pick a conservative VP candidate to even out his liberal tendencies.

Fred Thompson would be my choice, only I don’t know if Fred has it in him to be anything but a local politician (Tennessee Governor for example).

Huckabee?  Please don’t think that.  I don’t think I would even vote if I had to flip that lever for a McCain/Huckabee ticket.  

Finally as to the Dems.  McCain can beat Hillary if liberals like my son would vote for McCain over her. 

But if Obama is the nominee?

Can you say President Barack Hussein Obama?

I knew you could.

But no worries.  It is time.  He is black.  He is inspirational.  He is black and inspirational.  You just can’t beat that.  Being inspired while at the same time asuaging hundreds of years of guilt for the mistreatment - some real, some not - of blacks in our nation is something white liberals and left-leaning independents just can’t pass-up, which helps shore up his black supporters and drain Hillary support.  Even the chance for the first woman President can’t trump that, much to her chagrin.

Doesn’t matter if he knows what the hell he is doing or not.  He is “Inspiration Man.”  He will just inspire the terrorists into not attacking us.  He will just inspire our economy out of a “coming recession,” which as far as I can tell has been coming for over a year now and hasn’t arrived yet.  He will just inspire us into nationalized health care.  And he will just inspire us by hitting us with higher taxes.

Don’t you want to be inspired?

QUICK UPDATE:

The Anchoress predicts a brokered GOP convention. This has been talked about in the blogosphere for some time now - a true, electable conservative on a shiny white stallion galloping in and rescuing the GOP - but considering the Anchoress’ astounding crystal ball prediction abilities one just has to give it serious consideration. I wouldn’t bet against her, anyway.

STILL ANOTHER UPDATE:

Some good analysis of the race, including what is probably Huckabee’s motivation. Clearly I am not a political writer - or much of a writer in any way - as this makes my little post above look grade-schoolish.

A Pre-Travel Post

I’m traveling to Atlanta today, but should be there early enough to sit back in my hotel room and blog a bit. Anyway, to hold you over here are some things that caught my eye:

1)  I am a bit annoyed at Fred for dropping-out after running a half-ass campaign.  I still like him, but damn if he wasn’t like some hot gal on a date who teases you to death and then says goodnight with only a kiss on the cheek.  And after I bought him dinner, too.  Sigh.  Eh, maybe he will take a VP slot?  

2)  I am enjoying the spectacle of the Dems tearing each other apart.  The Clintons will do anything to get Hillary elected - anything - and it will be fun to see if Obama can stand up to them.

3)  It’s too bad about Heath Ledger.  I liked him in A Knight’s Tale.  He was a pretty good actor and seemed sane enough by Hollywood standards.  I don’t like that they keep referring to him as that “Brokeback” actor though since he did other good work. I guess that is just because I thought that film sucked.  Anyway, sad.

 4)  Yeah, everyone sneaking across our southern border is just a decent, hardworking person looking for work.  NOT!  You want my vote, promise you will close the borders, dammit.

5)  Chuck Norris, a big Huckabee supporter, called John McCain too old to be President.  I like Chuck Norris, but he needs to shut the hell up.  John McCain is a fricken war hero. Norris, tough as he is - and he is very tough no doubt - is just a celebrity.   I am not a big McCain fan, but Norris was an idiot to say this. 

6)   I had some personal experience with the Stasi back in the late 1980s when I was stationed in then West Germany. Good times.

Googling For Fun

I admit it, I’ve Googled myself. And it was good. I’ve also Googled most of the hot brunettes people I know. That wasn’t bad either. What about you? Do you Google?

Hot Bikini-Clad Reporter Arrested For Forced Mud Wrestling With Female Cop

Okay, she wasn’t in a bikini - she saves that for e-mails evidently - and it wasn’t mud wrestling, but otherwise the title is pretty accurate.

She’s a brunette, too. Who says blondes have more fun?

UPDATE:

Here’s more about the story. She sounds like a nut. And not very attractive either. Giving brunettes a bad name. Shame on her.

Misc Chatter

1.  It’s true, the world does look better off than it did a year ago - “safer, friendlier, more hopeful” - but that doesn’t mean a thing if we forget what it took to get here and elect some wishy-washy Democrat who will undo all the progress we have made. Remember that come election day.

2.  An armed security guard shot and killed the shooter at this Colorado church. If only security and, better yet, shoppers had been armed at that Omaha mall or Virgina Tech. I know I am carrying my weapon more often while off-duty these days.  And in case you are wondering, Disney was probably less safe after this.

3.  The Golden Compass isn’t doing well at the box office. Not surprising and, as a Catholic, very satisfying. And we didn’t have to cut off any heads to make em suffer.

4.  Dammit, there goes my next vacation destination.  And I had so looked forward to a rousing game of “Naked Twister.”

5.  Don’t you hate it when Republicans Democrats mix politics and religion?

6.  No link yet, but I just heard Al Gore, in his Nobel Prize acceptance speech, compare the “threat” of global warming to Hitler.  I hadn’t realized my driving an SUV was the equivalent of running death camps. Talk about jumping the fricken shark.

7.  I’ve started playing World of Warcraft again. Just a month’s subscription. Like sticking a toe into a lake to see how cold it is. I’m not going to take a plunge just yet, but it’s winter and with these cold short days I have less to do outside.

8. Neil is having The 2007 Blogger Christmahanukwanzaakah Online Holiday Concert. If I had any talent other than being crotchety and, of course, incredibly good in bed, I would participate. Check it out.

9.  We’re slowly getting over the great puppy rip-off, and we are still looking for a Beagle. Unfortunately there aren’t many breeders near here - none really - so we will have to travel an hour or two to see some pups and, more importantly, their parents and the conditions they are bred and raised in. But it’s going to happen soon and we are all very excited.

Hose These Guys Down

I watch Fox and Friends in the morning and while it’s still the best of all the morning shows, I’ve noticed for some time now how, well, how silly it can be.  Well, I’m not the only one.

We’ve been patient. We’ve learned to put up with Steve Doucy, the self-styled Oscar Wilde of Kansas (although we always thought that honor belonged to Oscar Wilde). We’ve tolerated Brian Kilmeade, who’s every bit as stupid, uneducated, and unlikable as he pretends to be. We’ve waited for Gretchen What’s-her-Name to provide solid evidence that she graduated from Stanford as her bio claims. We’ve been forgiving of Alyson Camerota’s penchant for rewriting teleprompter copy on the fly to be about her rather than the faceless millions. We’ve overlooked Greg Kelly’s serial-killer-type personality profile (obsessing about Star Wars action figures and transformers YES, talking to women without being dumb-clumsy insulting NO) , Dr. Manny’s unctuous infatuation with his own Reader’s Digest-quality health tips, Kelly Wright’s determined effort to live down to every stereotype about the saccharine dullness of born-again Oral Roberts graduates, and the ballooning midlife insanity of Wellesleyite Page Hopkins, who would like somebody to notice and perhaps have sex with her. After all, if Hillary can be President, Page can get laid. Right?

Hell, we’ve even learned to laugh at the constant misspellings in the ticker and the factual errors repeated segment after segment by the self-satisfied co-hosts. It’s all early morning stuff, right?

One thing he missed though is the amount of sexual innuendo that is passed around during every show.  With the exception of only the most serious of stories, nearly every spot is fodder for sexual comments and flirting on the part of all the cast. At first I found it refreshing and playful, but it’s getting worse and even with my junior-high attitude towards sex it seems more suited for an episode of Desperate Housewives than a major morning news show.

Come on people, most of us are still in our robes drinking coffee and suffering from morning breath.  We don’t need to think about two blondes and a brunette doing the naughty this early in the morning

Brian Kilmeade is the worst offender. I swear that guy needs to get laid before he takes too long a look in a locker room and someone pulls his underwear over his head. But all of them seem to be literally vibrating (pun intended) with more sexual tension than an 8th grade Homecoming dance.  So much so that one can’t help but imagine that after every show they retire behind the green door of the green room for the morning orgy.

Okay, maybe that’s just my imagination, but you get the point.

Of course, maybe they are just trying to disprove that old lie that conservatives don’t enjoy sex.  Well, consider it disproven because I can’t imagine anyone viewing this show for more than a few days would think conservatives are anything less than horny with a capital “H.”

Then again, maybe instapunk did pick-up on the sexual tension there - check out his version of their picture.

Coincidence

 

Steve . . . Memphis . . . McDonalds?  You be the judge, but we all know Steve is a party kind of guy.