Photo of the Day

 


Capturing a sunset in Key West. Taken 10/2004.

Photo of the Day

 


Another water scene that caught my interest because of the way the water, light, and leaves intermixed. Taken near Alfred, NY in 2004.

English Speakers Need Not Apply For Homeland Security Website

Is the US Government telling us something about our language when the Homeland Security Website Homepage defaults to Spanish? Now, if you click through to additional links, you might get English language pages, but the main page is clearly set up for Spanish. It appears that only the Index page is affected, so you can still find out information on preparing for a possible terrorist attack. But, it's shoddy work on the part of the programmers who set up the pages in the first place.

What Was This Judge Thinking?

>A New York State judge is doing his best to undermine national security by prohibiting the DMV's imposition of a requirement that noncitizens provide satisfactory immigration documents before they could renew driver's licenses, and the suspension of up to 300,000 licenses without further notice.

The State filed an appeal which should cancel the temporary restraining order that the judge imposed.

Identification is an individual's ticket to entry into buildings, airlines, and financial accounts. Drivers licenses are a primary form of identification, and if individuals who are not citizens are able to obtain licenses without having to show proper forms, anyone can potentially obtain the licenses. While most of these individuals do not have sinister intentions upon receipt of the license, terrorists can and have exploited this flaw in the identification process.

A drivers license is a privilege, not a right - so requiring proper identification is not an extraordinary demand on the individual.

This problem partially stems from the failure to secure borders and allow illegal immigrants to stay in this country. Illegal immigrants are lawbreakers - their very entry into this country, or overstaying visa time limits, makes their very presence illegal and should subject the individual to deportation. This process falls to the states because the federal government does an inadequate job. States are forced to deal with illegal immigrants seeking drivers' licenses and other official documentation because of systemic failures in the system.

And no one in the federal government seems to think this is a problem.

Photo of the Day

 


This time lapse photo was taken near Alfred, New York during August 2004. Believe it or not, this was done handheld - no tripod involved. I was pretty impressed with my bad self for getting the shot (using a film camera, you've got to wait until the film is developed to see whether you got the shot).

Oh, and the price for getting this shot? Forgetting to switch the speed for taking other shots, including a couple of candids with friends that ended up blurred.

Memo to self - check settings before each shot.

Genocide In Pictures

Kudos to Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times for putting pictures to the genocide ongoing in Dafur, Sudan.

These are just four photos in a secret archive of thousands of photos and reports that document the genocide under way in Darfur. The materials were gathered by African Union monitors, who are just about the only people able to travel widely in that part of Sudan.

This African Union archive is classified, but it was shared with me by someone who believes that Americans will be stirred if they can see the consequences of their complacency.

The photo at the upper left was taken in the village of Hamada on Jan. 15, right after a Sudanese government-backed militia, the janjaweed, attacked it and killed 107 people. One of them was this little boy. I'm not showing the photo of his older brother, about 5 years old, who lay beside him because the brother had been beaten so badly that nothing was left of his face. And alongside the two boys was the corpse of their mother.

The photo to the right shows the corpse of a man with an injured leg who was apparently unable to run away when the janjaweed militia attacked.

At the lower left is a man who fled barefoot and almost made it to this bush before he was shot dead.

Last is the skeleton of a man or woman whose wrists are still bound. The attackers pulled the person's clothes down to the knees, presumably so the victim could be sexually abused before being killed. If the victim was a man, he was probably castrated; if a woman, she was probably raped.

There are thousands more of these photos. Many of them show attacks on children and are too horrific for a newspaper.

I beg to differ about the horrific nature of the photographs. After being deluged by photos of abuse at Abu Ghraib, the public should be able to view these images and decide for themselves whether the situation warrants better coverage. Indeed, I think it's because of a lack of images showing the horrific nature of the genocide in Dafur that we do not have action, whether from the US government or from the UN.

While the figures associated with the genocide claim that 70,000 have been killed, estimates vary wildly (100,000 to 300,000). However, the toll rises by about 10,000 per month.

So what can stop this genocide? At one level the answer is technical: sanctions against Sudan, a no-fly zone, a freeze of Sudanese officials' assets, prosecution of the killers by the International Criminal Court, a team effort by African and Arab countries to pressure Sudan, and an international force of African troops with financing and logistical support from the West.

But that's the narrow answer. What will really stop this genocide is indignation. Senator Paul Simon, who died in 2003, said after the Rwandan genocide, "If every member of the House and Senate had received 100 letters from people back home saying we have to do something about Rwanda, when the crisis was first developing, then I think the response would have been different."

The same is true this time. Web sites like www.darfurgenocide.org and www.savedarfur.org are trying to galvanize Americans, but the response has been pathetic.

Maybe if the NYT spent more time in its news section describing the horrors from Dafur, the public might take more interest. Bloggers can only do so much as the Times likes to remind people. Maybe the Times should step up and do more too.

Technorati: Human Rights, Genocide

UN Starts Own Blog, Relying Former Kerry Aides

Michelle Malkin reports that the UN has started a blog to counter reports from the WSJ and other media outlets critical of UN, including the UNSCAM, and rape and sexual harassment scandals. Oh, and to counter the growing number of blogs, including mine at as well as my blogs and here at Suite101.com.

U.N.'s new blog, run by former Kerry aides Peter Daou and Debra DeShong? Among the blog's initial entries are an attack on FOX News's Oil for Food investigative report and links to pro-Kyoto Treaty propaganda.

Yeah, that'll solve Kofi Annan's problems.

Attacking those who find fault with the UN? That's a successful strategy. Instead of attacking those within the UN who commit criminal activities, the UN sees the enemy as the media who wants to keep the UN honest.

Go figure.

Photo of the Day

 


Sunrise in Key West. Taken 10/2004.

The Grafters Greatest Hits

Never heard of the grafters? That's the not-so-rare breed of New Jersey politician caught taking bribes. In this case, three New Jersey mayors were arrested in a sting that also arrested eight other New Jersey officials.

Three mayors and eight other local and county officials in Monmouth County were arrested Tuesday, charged in a corruption sting by federal authorities.

Ten officials were accused of extorting cash bribes and free work from a contractor who was working undercover for the FBI, and the other official was charged with money laundering, federal prosecutors said.

Among those arrested were the mayors of Hazlet, Keyport and West Long Branch.

Secret recordings made by the FBI depicted the defendants as eager to compromise their offices for cash. One told a colleague, "Nobody watches, nobody hears, nobody sees." Another told an undercover agent posing as a corrupt middleman not to worry about getting caught because he "could smell a cop a mile away."

In a series of 6 a.m. raids, a dozen teams of six to eight federal agents fanned out across shore communities, rousting surprised municipal and county officials from their beds, and leading them away in handcuffs.

Arrested were Keyport Mayor John J. Merla; Keyport Councilman Robert L. Hyer; Middletown Committeeman Raymond O'Grady; Hazlet Mayor Paul Coughlin; West Long Branch Mayor Paul Zambrano; West Long Branch Councilman Joseph DeLisa; Asbury Park Councilman John J. Hamilton; Neptune Deputy Mayor Richard Iadanza; Joseph McCurnin, operations manager for the Monmouth County Division of Transportation, a.k.a. "Joey Buses;" Patsy Townsend, deputy fire marshal for Monmouth County; and Thomas Broderick, assistant supervisor, Monmouth County Division of Highways.

Not only would this make Tony Soprano proud (Joey Buses would be a great nickname on that show), but this is your tax dollars at work. New Jersey has more than its share of graft, but every state and municipality has problems. No one is accountable unless citizens demand accountability.

In New Jersey, that's a tough sell because everyone is accustomed to some level of graft. I find that the acceptability of unacceptable behavior to be repugnant and New Jersey can surely do better than it has.

Photo of the Day

 

This is a bridge across the Russian River, which was taken during the Spring of 2003. This is a simple truss bridge, which is one of the more common varieties. However, this particular bridge was wide enough only for one car to pass at a time, which I have to believe makes for an interesting experience if you happen to be on the bridge when oncoming traffic is heading your way.

A Dismal Report on Afghanistan.. Or Is It?!

New York Times paints dismal picture of Afghanistan, but there is far more to the story than the headline indicates. In fact, the headline is misleading in the extreme.

The 288-page report by the United Nations Development Program paints a mixed picture of the country's re-emergence since U.S. forces drove out the former ruling Taliban for harboring Osama bin Laden in late 2001.

On the plus side, Afghanistan's economy is booming, growing at least 25 percent annually since then and expected to expand by at least 10 percent a year in the next decade. Some 4 million children have enrolled in school -- more than ever before -- and more than 3 million people forced from their homes have returned, most from Pakistan and Iran.

However, it still has the worst education system in the world, according to the U.N. calculations, which points out that nearly three-quarters of all adult Afghans are illiterate and few girls go to school at all in many provinces.

Moreover, most of the country's income is being mopped up by warlords with strong political and military connections, creating a dangerous gap between rich and poor and between the cities and the countryside. Half of all Afghans are poor, it said.

As a result, the average life expectancy for an Afghan is 44.5 years, 20 years less than in neighboring countries; one Afghan woman dies in pregnancy every 30 minutes and the country is the world leader in infant deaths caused by contaminated water.

``Our team found the overwhelming majority of people hold a sense of pessimism and fear that reconstruction is bypassing them,'' said Daud Saba, one of the report's authors.

The report was also critical of the U.S.-led military engagement in Afghanistan, saying it helped produce a climate of ``fear, intimidation, terror and lawlessness'' and neglected the longer-term threat to security posed by inequality and injustice.

It also described reconstruction projects sponsored by the U.S. military as ``inadequate and dangerous,'' echoing concern from some relief groups that they have blurred the lines between soldiers and civilians, and made aid workers into militant targets.

Still, it stressed the need for Afghanistan to develop its own national army and police -- two projects which the United States is trying to accelerate -- and proceed with a belated U.N. disarmament drive for factional militias.

The U.N. report also urged Karzai to back calls from human rights groups for a reconciliation process to address the crimes of the past.

Officials from Canada, which sponsored the new report, and the World Bank said donors needed to balance big-ticket infrastructure such as dams with projects providing jobs for the poorest.

Far from painting a dismal picture, things are actually far improved from where things were in 2001. The economy has grown faster than practically any other country on the planet during the same time period. Of course, the growth is coming from a dismal base level, but none of that growth and investment would have been possible had the US not acted.

The report almost reflexively takes potshots at the US reconstruction efforts as a way to find a job for the UN and other groups, but the fact is that some problems facing Afghanistan have existed for centuries (internecine violence and impoverished lawless areas).

Afghanistan was near or at the bottom in every category one can think of. Now, they've got a chance at something better. It is up to them to make the best of this opportunity.

Tell Me How You Really Feel Rep. Hinchey?

Rep. Maurice Hinchey (D-NY), launched into a tirade worthy of some of the nuttiest folks in the political arena over the weekend, when he claimed that Karl Rove planted the bogus Rather memos. Little Green Footballs has audio and transcriptions of the exchange with an audience member who questioned Hinchey's comments:

Congressman Maurice Hinchey (D-NY): Well, you know, they are manipulating the media, they did it in the very beginning through intimidation. They would intimidate the people in the, uh, in the press conference. And ... they would ask — they would allow questions to be asked only of people that they knew were going to ask the right kind of questions, from their point of view. And, you know, that has its effect, had, had its effect on people. People have been — people in the media have been intimidated. The media has changed in the last four years. People have changed in the last four years. They’ve had a very very direct, aggressive attack on the, on the media, and the way it’s handled. Probably the most flagrant example of that is the way they set up Dan Rather. Now, I mean, I have my own beliefs about how that happened: it originated with Karl Rove, in my belief, in the White House. They set that up with those false papers. Why did they do it? They knew that Bush was a draft dodger. They knew that he had run away from his responsibilties in the Air National Guard in Texas, gone out of the state intentionally for a long period of time. They knew that he had no defense for that period in his life. And so what they did was, expecting that that was going to come up, they accentuated it: they produced papers that made it look even worse. And they — and they distributed those out to elements of the media. And it was only — what, like was it CBS? Or whatever, whatever which one Rather works for. They — the people there — they finally bought into it, and they, and they aired it. And when they did, they had ’em. They didn’t care who did it! All they had to do is to get some element of the media to advance that issue. Based upon the false papers that they produced.

Audience Member: Do you have any evidence for that?

Congressman Hinchey: Yes I do. Once they did that —

Audience: [Murmuring]

Congressman Hinchey: ...once they did that, then it undermined everything else about Bush’s draft dodging. Once they were able to say, ‘This is false! These papers are not accurate, they’re, they’re, they’re false, they’ve been falsified.’ That had the effect of taking the whole issue away.

Audience Member: So you have evidence that the papers came from the Bush administration?

Congressman Hinchey: No. I — that’s my belief.

Audience Member: OK.

Congressman Hinchey: And I said that. In the very beginning. I said, ‘It’s my belief that those papers, and that setup, originated with Karl Rove and the White House.’

Audience Member: Don’t you think it’s irresponsible to make charges like that?

Congressman Hinchey: No I don’t. I think it’s very important to make charges like that. I think it’s very important to combat this kind of activity in every way that you can. And I’m willing — and most people are not — to step forward in situations like this and take risks.

Audience: [Clapping and cheering.]

Hinchey feels that this is true, therefore it must be true, despite a complete lack of facts as grounds for his claims. He has absolutely no basis in fact to explain the origination of the bogus memos, nor why they were not exposed as frauds before they were used by CBS to prop up an exclusive piece that would never had run without the presence of the memos in the first place. Hinchey has no problem making baseless charges because his position insulates him from repercussions of his claims. Instead, he used the forum as a place to rant about how Karl Rove planted these documents for CBS to be duped, which in and of itself should have questioned the authenticity further to make sure that it wasn't getting duped. This, in no way, shape or form, can even begin to absolve CBS of responsibility in this whole mess, because they had the last clear chance to determine the authenticity. Indeed, they could have brought in any number of experts to check the documents, and failed to do so. CBS wanted those documents to be true, and went out of their way to assert that fact, despite every reason to be critical of them.

And that is before the bloggers began digging into the story and determined the memos to be bogus, created using modern word processors using default settings.

The fact is that CBS has never said where it got the memos from, and all of the individuals involved, from Bill Burkett to Mary Mapes to Dan Rather were all Democratic party boosters/operatives and partisans. They had been following this story for years, trying to pin something on President Bush, yet these documents came up at a crucial time in a presidential campaign.

Rep. Hinchey, you know that you made baseless accusations that are patently false and untrue. You continue to spread lies about the origins of the documents. If you were even the slightest bit interested in learning the truth behind the documents, you would call for CBS to unveil its sources. Open up the investigation to law enforcement. See where the paper trail leads.

However, you wont do so because you know where the paper trail will lead, and it isn't to the Republicans. Not when there are significant links between those involved and highly placed members of the Kerry campaign (Joe Lockhart).

Photo of the Day

 


Sauce for the goose. Taken at Cline Cellars in Napa Valley 3/2002.

UPDATE: Mrs. Lawhawk pointed out that the date was incorrect. Since this photo was taken on my honeymoon in 3/2002, putting the date at 9/2002 would mean I took a trip without the Mrs. That would be a big no-no.

Gee Frank, That's Gotta Hurt!

Gal Flushed Beau's Genitals

Anchorage (search) police said a woman upset about an impending break-up with her boyfriend cut off the man's penis and flushed it down a toilet.

Utility workers recovered the severed member Sunday morning and surgeons reattached it.

I think Dan Dierdorf said it best oh those many years ago. Ouch!

UN Refugee Chief Resigns (now, that's news!?)

U.N. refugee chief Ruud Lubbers resigned Sunday over sexual harassment allegations. He doesn't admit any wrongdoing (who does?).

Lubbers' resignation came two days after a meeting with Annan in which U.N. diplomats said the secretary-general offered the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (search) two choices — resign or face suspension and charges of breaking U.N. rules.

It also followed a report Friday in the British newspaper The Independent with the first detailed description of the allegations by a woman employed by UNHCR and statements from four other women who didn't file official complaints but claimed Lubbers sexually harassed them.

Lubbers, 65, initially refused to resign and insisted Friday at a news conference that Annan never asked. But after he left U.N. headquarters, Annan's office contradicted Lubbers, saying the prime topic of the meeting was his future. U.N. lawyers then started preparing charges against him, U.N. diplomats said on condition of anonymity.

In his letter of resignation, Lubbers, a former Dutch prime minister, maintained his innocence, indicating that Annan had decided it was time for him to go.

Sexual harassment is the least of Kofi's woes. The scandals enveloping the UN include rape and sexual assaulting refugees in various peacekeeping operations, plus the huge UNSCAM scandal.

Sending Lubbers into the sunset is a quick and painless way to eliminate one problem from Kofi's plate, but nothing has been done to solve the institutional deficiencies.

NYT's Baby Research Problem

http://wizbangblog.com/archives/005146.php - turns out that the NYT ran an ongoing story about how multiple families were trying to claim a tsunami survivor, a baby, as their own.

Only problem - there was no fight among eight or nine couples. Only one couple made the claim (and it was their child).

Nice story. Just fiction, printed by the Times as a legitimate news story.

Who did the Times think they were publishing? Jayson Blair?

Photo of the Day

 


This scene caught my attention because of the way the ship was juxtaposed with the sand dunes in the foreground. Taken near San Diego, CA, I figured I'd see lots of US Navy ships all over the place, but not one that looked like it had been beached (it isn't - there's a channel where the ship is berthed). My vantage point only makes it look like it's not where it is supposed to be.

And that's the point - to make you go hmmmmm.