One shoe, two shoe ... doobie doobie doo

The Iraqis allowed a "journalist" to enter into a secured briefing room for a press conference featuring the Iraqi Prime Minister and President Bush. This "stringer" for a Cairo-based Iraqi news agency -- why hasn't anyone picked up of that inconsistency -- screams something like "a goodbye kiss for you, you dog, for killing millions of Iraqis" and throws a shoe. Bush ducks. Then the Iraqi D-Lowe throws another. It misses. But don't miss the obvious here, this was an assault against the President, and NOT "freedom of speech." Nowhere and in no country is the act of throwing a projectile at someone with intent to cause harm "freedom of speech." So when the Arabs try to twist this saying that "he should be let go under the rubric of freedom of speech that the Americans are trying to impose on us," we should point out that if they want the American standards to apply here, then let's extradite him to the U.S., try him under American law and then, if guilty (it's on tape), place him in an American prison. In the general prison population. Wanna see how fast D-Lowe can run?

We have all seen the video. Has anyone noticed that the Iraqi Prime Minister did not even flinch? He just sort of stared bemusedly at the event as though at Wimbledon ... love-15 ... love-30. And then all of a sudden security people jump to it? Was this scripted? How on Earth could this scuzzy hack get off TWO shots at the President?

To Bush's credit, he ducked the first and when the second came, he just sort of stepped aside and subsequently made jokes about it. But in practical thinking, his Secret Service detail should be fired: someone should have stepped in front of shoe number two, and someone should have liquidated the thrower as he drew back to throw the second.

Consider if the shoes had had some sort of fulminate in them ... boom. They would make admirable bombs. And even if the Iraqi Prime Minister knew about the event in advance, nobody would necessarily tell him whether or not the shoes might contain explosives or some biological or chemical agent designed to "get even." Say some Polonium 210 ... just a smattering would be enough. Ricin. Or weaponized anthrax. As we all know there are more than enough willing and able suicide bombers in that country, and there is no reason to think that one might not be willing to go in a horrible way if it meant getting Bush and Maliki in "one throw." Talk about martyrdom ... getting Bush and a treasonous dog too; it just does not get better than that.

It matters not a toss what the history of this would-be Mariano Rivera is. Who cares what might have happened to him in the past, or what blackmail or pressure he might be under ... it is irrelevant to the act and the failure of the Iraqi security services to protect a foreign head of state and gross negligence by the USSS. The fact that it happened at all and that this cat got off two shots at the President is the point.

And where is the outrage? Americans, don't let your hatred of Bush get in the way of the symbolism: he IS still our President and represents our people and armed forces. The cheering by the great unwashed Islamic hordes may be understandable, but it is a colossal slap in the face to Americans. The shoe and what it represents is only second to throwing a dog's head at Bush (he probably couldn't get one into the room) in terms of insult. Really, in practical terms this is the "Finger" times ten -- as bad as you can get. And Iraqis should also feel ashamed at their inability to show security (if not respect) to a foreign head of state. It shows the Iraqis up as a bunch of Krazy Kops, incompetent and incapable.

It is the embarrassment felt by the security people that might make Mr. Al-Zaidi's stay in custody less than cordial. They have egg of their face too and Mr. Al-Zaidi may be made to pay for it. It is not as if this was a huge crowd of people in a public place -- this was meant to be secure, in the military sense of the word.

So what we are talking about is far from the benign act of civil disobedience it is being made out to be by the left and the Muslim world. NPR and Keith Olbermann are probably trying to figure out how to get and interview with Al-Zaidi.

Infrequent posting

Been in Florida ... packing a house that I have hopefully sold. Please.

Putin (shortly to become Tsar) is at it again, or at least his cronies are doing his work. The Duma is considering a bill to make it treason to threaten Russia's constitutional order ... which means that it becomes treason to protest or otherwise defy the Kremlin. Sounds like something Stalin would dream up, and with the oil industry not providing the level of spending the Russians would like, it may be a step to prevent a regime change ... you know, vote the bums out.

Which confirms that Russia can no longer be said to have any vestige of a democracy. And in this confirmation, the Russians, in their typically ham-fisted way, managed to confirm the worst suspicions of foreign investors about that country and have made it impossible to lend to or otherwise participate in the economic development of that land. Completing the circle, that failure to attract foreign companies to Russia will ensure tighter control by the government, more industrial espionage, more beligerence ... a return to Soviet times. Just like Putin hopes.

But the poor Russia people will suffer, as will the people of every country that Russia determines to meddle in. This time, however, the broad populace of Russia have had a taste of freedom and the material wealth enjoyed by even the poorest in the West. It might be too late to but the Genie back into the bottle. Andrei Lugovoy - the top suspect in the Polonium affair that "offed" the oligarch Litvinenko -- is now a member of the Duma. How'd he get that position, I wonder? Could it be that his masters were pleased with his results? Anyway, this thug proclaimed that "anyone harming Russia should be exterminated."

The bill also defines treason as actions giving or rendering financial, material or consultative assistance to foreign interests -- which can include businesses too. So only an idiot would have anything to do with a Russian in business -- if you go there, you are a commercial spy and your Russian contact a traitor. Unless, of course, you are paying off the current leaders in the currency of the day: but beware when someone falls from power, as treason is in the eye of the beholder.

Wankers.

Its been a while

It has been hard to blog ... kids, school, work ... golf. But Winter is here and that means its time to bitch about something or someone. Maybe more.

So what about Somali pirates? What on Earth is happening to our society that we allow them to continue to maraud the seas of East Africa? What is wrong with us that we permit this age-old barbarism (from Barbary Coast pirates) to continue?

The answer is simple and not very politically correct: we are all afraid that the next news cast will show some U.S. Navy (or other naval country) machine gunning some poor BLACK fishing folk into hamburger. If that "fisherman" does not have weapons on him when his remains are searched (most likely dumped overboard), then CNN will parade the villains -- U.S. Navy personnel -- around for crimes against humanity. Our STUPID STUPID STUPID media will have a field day showing why once again our military "failed us." Instead, these self-same watch-dogs of all that is fair and just in the world will happily report on the failures to stop these animals from hijacking poor, innocent sailors peaceably sailing the 7 Seas. Jerks. But that IS the reason.

Let's get s few things straight: if you are black, in a (typically) new, white, speedboat, with large, new, outboard engines more than three miles off of the coast of Africa ... you are up to no good. A fisherman CANNOT make enough to afford that boat, full stop. And you cannot corral a freighter moving at 18 knots in what passes for a real African fishing boat. So you make it clear to all along the African coast: if you appear in a vessel that makes more than 12 knots more than 3 miles off of the coast, you will be considered a pirate and/or a drug smuggler -- and you will be blown out of the water without warning.

The second aspect to this is even more simple, but it does take some rather expensive equipment to do it. We track the pirates to where they live and then demolish the place. We announce it in advance: "if you are an honest fisherman, then move -- because if you live in/with/near pirates, your house and boat stands a better than average risk of being blown to smithereens. Consider: a U.S. Navy submarine can track a school of shrimp. So it is not really much of a trick to plant a few attack boats off of the Somali coast, track the comings and goings of the pirates and then vector Seals or Predator aircraft to the appropriate spot. And kill them. If there are "innocent" aboard, then at least they are "innocent" Somalis -- who have been warned.

If the pirates operate from "mother ships," subs can track them too. Remember -- nothing over 12 knots. So when a mother ship sends out its attack skiffs ... bingo we have a target. Predators are on site due to tracking of mother ships from their ports, and the sub sends out a torpedo to take care of the mother ship. This does not require a huge number of naval vessels to accomplish, only the right ones.

Think of the terror being thrown back to the pirates: you never know when you might be targeted by an unseen enemy and terminated. Sort of takes the allure out of shaking your AK-47 from the bridge of the Sirius Star, doesn't it?

The humanitarian crisis is not some poor, black fishermen from an African backwater being "forced" into piracy. It is innocent sailors being held hostage in simply awful conditions by khat-chewing maniacs who value human life not at all.

But no country has the balls, least of all our own.