On Greyhawk's Advice....

I watched Idiocracy.

Sorry 'hawk, I found it to be....well, idiotic. Killed it halfway through and stuck in Equilibrium in its place.

Now there's the best movie you've never seen.

How Fast Can You Spin?

Not doing a full post on this... but feel free to pull your favorite parts and spin comment -- this should be good.

Fox News/Opinion Dyanmic Poll HERE

Pages 10-11 (questions 40-45) are pretty interesting... on deadlines, benchmarks and retreat.

An eye opener for me was that the War in Iraq will be extremely important (52%) or very important (37%) to a person's vote in '08... but viewed (and asked) separately "terrorism" is second at 43% and 38%, respectively.

65% thought Harry Reid's comment on the war being "lost" was unacceptable... the same percentage of people that had an unfavorable opinion of Rosie... (3% had never heard of her.) heh.

RE: Time to Kill This Quote

Some actual Jefferson Quotes

When, in spite of all efforts to avoid it, a republic must go to war, the focus of the nation is temporarily changed. The President, as Commander-In-Chief, assumes the extraordinary powers necessary to conduct the all-out effort. Citizens and legislators must then put aside differences and unite against the common enemy. Undesirable conduct may be forced on the republic in dealing with an unscrupulous enemy.

"

The times do certainly render it incumbent on all good citizens attached to the rights and honor of their country to bury in oblivion all internal differences

and rally around the standard of their country in opposition to the outrages of foreign nations. All attempts to enfeeble and destroy the exertions of the General Government in vindication of our national rights, or to loosen the bands of Union by alienating the affections of the people, or opposing the authority of the laws at so eventful a period, merit the discountenance of all." --Thomas Jefferson to Daniel D. Tompkins, 1809. ME 16:341

Time to kill this quote (again): "Dissent is the highest form of patriotism"

In a comment to the post below on Saving Memorial Day, Miss Ladybug wrote:

John Edwards' campaign manager was on a segment on Fox News by phone, along with a man from the American Legion, just a few minutes ago. He (an AF vet, apparently) defends this statement still, saying "dissent is the highest form of patriotism"...
(I've taken the liberty of correcting a couple of typos)

The trouble is, notes reader Dave Forsmark, who has been waging a one-man campaign to correct what he believes to be a blatant misattribution, "the quote is about two years old, not 200. It was made by [historian] Howard Zinn in an interview with TomPaine.com to justify his opposition to the War on Terror." Someone erroneously attributed the quote to Jefferson soon after, and now seemingly everyone is doing it.

More to the point, howver, is the idiocy of such a sentiment, as very well expressed by Dean Esmay here:

There's a very common--and very ridiculous--saying that holds that "dissent is the highest form of patriotism." This has always been, quite obviously to any thinking person, total baloney.

The Ku Klux Klan are dissenters. Extremist black and chicano separatists are dissenters. Does that make their hateful idiocy the highest form of patriotism?

Perhaps the Edwards campaign wants to be lumped in with such patriots.

I have another quote in mind for such a statement:

Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel.

Recruiter Appreciation Day

The folks at Gathering of Eagles have prclaimed Saturday, May 19 Operation Recruiter Appreciation Day. Click here for details on how you can thank your local recruiting office for the work they do. Details on the Washington, DC recruiter apprecation festivities can be found here.

On the blocking of You Tube, My Space, etc, by DoD.

This is their official position. I have, um, some specific and germane knowledge regarding this action on the part of DoD. Not the decision making process on this particular topic, but regarding the underlying data that helped feed this decision. Which is all I will say about it in a non-.mil domain.

And I support it. The fact that it does inconvenience deployed warriors notwithstanding, I fully support this action by DoD in managing their networks. You'll just have to take me at my word, and bear in mind I'm a milblogger too, and have not been supportive of efforts by DoD to micromanage info flow while at the same time clumsily fighting the Infowar. But on this particular topic - I support 'em.

NEWS RELEASES from the United States Department of Defense

No. 601-07 IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 16, 2007
Media Contact: (703) 697-5131/697-5132
Public/Industry(703) 428-0711

Department Takes Steps to Ensure DoD Computer Networks Available for Operations

To ensure DoD networks are available for combat operations and critical support activities, the
Department issued a directive May 14 that prohibits DoD computers from accessing specific
recreational web sites.The measure preserves military bandwidth for operational missions and enhances DoD computer network security.

The selection of these particular sites was based on the volume of traffic moving from official
DoD networks to the Internet. The sites include:YouTube; 1.fm; Pandora; MySpace; PhotoBucket; Live365; hi5; Metacafe; MTV; ifilm.com; Blackplanet; stupidvideos; and filecabi. Additional sites may be added in the future as part of ongoing efforts to ensure DoD networks have sufficient throughput available to conduct operational and supporting missions as well as enhance DoD network security. [And they most certainly will, as users flex to different sites in order to get around the blocks. It'll keep NETCOM busy. -the Armorer]

This directive does not prohibit any individual, including DoD personnel or their families, from
posting to or accessing these sites from personal or commercial network providers; it only
restricts the use of DoD computer network resources to access these sites.

In Iraq and Afghanistan, many of these sites as well as others have been blocked by DoD for more than two years, some for as long as four years. Consequently, this directive does not prevent deployed DoD personnel from communicating with family members or loved ones.There are a wide variety of commercial communication services such as e-mail, telephone calls and video teleconferencing at many locations in Southwest Asia.In addition, the Army Knowledge Online/Defense Knowledge Online network is available to military members and their families providing a rich information sharing environment, including email, file sharing (pictures, videos, and documents), discussion forums (blogging), instant messaging chatrooms, and video messaging.

Commercial Internet services are also provided by DoD Morale, Welfare, and Recreation (MWR) facilities, which are widely available throughout Iraq and Afghanistan and are not affected by this directive.Deployed personnel can access recreational Internet web sites from Internet cafes and other facilities in many locations around the world.These alternative sites do not rely on military bandwidth.

Listen to the Generals

If for no other reason then you'll always hear something new.

Strategic Communications failure

The UK just committed and unforced foul - one that gives the Islamists a victory. It plays right into everything they say about the West.

The head of the Army, General Sir Richard Dannatt, said his presence in Iraq would expose the 22-year-old Prince as well as the troops serving with him to "a degree of risk that I now deem unacceptable".

Who is running Strategic Communications?