Ho Ho Holy Father...

http://us.news3.yimg.com/us.i2.yimg.com/p/cpress/20051221/capt.u122111au.jpg?

if I thought he was coming down my chimney while i was sleeping, Kwanzaa here I come.

Laying Down the Law (Pun Intended)

Rabun County Commissioner Mary Elizabeth Law, with the full support of her fellow commissioners, laid down an ultimatum last night, to the members of the CVB, Chamber of Commerce and EDA. The decision?

Either the three groups compromise and come up with a solution, or the commissioners give it to an unaffiliated group.

There are two issues here, which i'll address seperately.

The first, is that this is a tact endorsement of the Convention and Visitors Bureau. By refusing to decide, the Commissioners are essentially deciding in favor of the CVB. The reason I say that, is because what has been described as a "compromise", namely the proposal that the CVB recieve funds, and than contract with the Chamber of Commerce, is the official position of the CVB. the Economic Development Authority has already agreed to that "Compromise" . The only group which hasn't agreed is the chamber of commerce, because they fail to see why County funds should pass through another organization's hands before ending up paying for their welcome center. Sources in the Chamber say that the move would put the Chamber into the position of taking orders from the CVB regarding how they run their own property.

If the Board of Commissioners wish to use the Convention and Vistors Bureau as their agent for determining how hotel motel money is spent, as a unofficial whip hand to keep organizations in line, when it regards to promoting tourism, that's fine. I can see the logic in such a move. But don't act like you're seeking a consensus, because on the issue there is no reasonable consensus. Forcing a "compromise" which isn't a compromise at all, simply allows the commissioners to say at a later date, "Stop bickering, you all agreed to this," even though in truth the decision was forced upon them.

The second issue, is that the Commissioners had already made their decision before their meeting even began. I know this because I watched, as between the work session and the regular meeting, the commissioners discussed who would make the official statement (Law), what language would be used (The term unanimous), and who would make the official motion (Vice-Chairman Virgil Kilby).

I appreciate that the commissioners, because of open meeting laws, don't get to discuss amongst themselves as much as they think is necessary, and I understand that they wish to present a united front. But deciding what will happen before hand is an insult to the representatives who step before the commissioners to make their case. EDA Chairman Jeff Fulp, and Chamber representative Frank Wheeler both made their case before Commissioners, unaware that the decision had already been made. If I was either one of those gentlemen I would be embarassed beyond measure, to know that I was stating my case to a jury which already has the verdict.

As I've observed the commissioners over the past 8 or 9 months, I've had alot of respect for them. I think they are all sensible, cautious people, which is appropriate to the gravity of their office. While I've disagreed with decisions I've always respected the method in which they were made, and the reasoning behind it.

Down to the Proverbial Wire

Well So much for that....

Last Thursday morning a meeting was held between Jeff Fulp, Chairman, EDA, Gayle Darugh, CVB, and Frank Wheeler, Chamber of Commerce. The meeting was called at the request of Rabun County Commissioners Eston Melton, Virgil Kilby and Pete Cleveland, after a specially called meeting of the Commission Last Tuesday afternoon. An hour later, in time for the CVB meeting that night, a meeting was scheduled for United Community Bank at 9:30 am.

The initial reports coming out of that meeting were that a compromise had been struck, which would see that the CVB would be the recipient of 30,000 dollars in County Hotel Motel Taxes. Now, Just hours before the Commission meeting where Commissioners are to discuss (and it was presumed vote) on the issue, that agreement looks like it never existed. Sources within the chamber say they'll be moving forward with their request.

This sort of confusion is typical, because of the way these meetings are conducted. You can't have a majority of decision makers at a "secret" or "impromptu" meeting because that would make it an open meeting with the media present. But since you don't have a majority, no decisions are final, so no one can be really sure if compromises worked out, will become the policy of the groups doing the negotiating.

OH, and Sherman had the right idea...

Atlanta has no redeeming value as a city. Why it was ever rebuilt I'll never know.

So.. yeah. Let's all watch a play about a pedophile! Especially a film which explores the "Moral grey areas."

What is the possible grey area about pedophila?

If it was a play featuring the tortured redemption of the main (pederast) character, I could be tolerant. After all, if you are saying the behavior is wrong, (deeply inherently wrong, I might add) but perhaps even this person can be "saved" that's understandable.

This is the nuisance that progressives love. Refusing to classify anything as right or wrong, good or bad, tolerable or intolerable. To the progressive, all behaviors are of equal value, to be equally tolerated. You can not possibly have a society that way. It will degenerate into decadency and criminality. By their very nature societies must define behavior which is acceptable, and behavior which is not acceptable.

Tolerance is a good thing, of things that should be tolerated. Things adults do amongst themselves in the privacy of their own homes should be tolerated. what adults do to children who can't not defend themselves should not be tolerated.

Does no one have any idea what actually constitutes Torture?

http://www.kcra.com/news/5577000/detail.html

now we are torturing captives by exposing them to the daily life of a 15 year old american boy. Sitting in a dark room all day listening to hip hop. For shame!

Now I was once forced to listen to Inagaddadavida and the Pina Colada song for hours on end because my jerk roommate put them on repeat, and than passworded his computer. Was it annoying yes, was it torture? I'm gonna go ahead and say no.

and did these champions of Human Rights discover that this painful method of information extraction was being conducted?

From the terrorists' lawyers.

Now I appreciate that you don't want emulate your opponents immoral actions, and we have certain standards to uphold, but I think that line is still far ahead of us yet.

Until then I say keep kicking the Phat Beats...

Talk about Trade-offs

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,178234,00.html

the particularly insightful part:

In the study, Pitnick and colleagues analyzed 334 species of bats and found
that in species with promiscuous females, the males had evolved larger
testes but had relatively small brains.In species where the females were
faithful to their mates, the correlation was reversed. The study also showed
that male fidelity appeared to have no influence over testes or brain
size.

Man.. it must be tough to make a choice like that:

Behind Door Number 1

Behind Door Number 2

Counter

I have added a Counter so I can see if anyone is actually looking. Once i subtract the thousand or so clicks which are actually me arrogantly reading my own work, and than subtract the remaining 10 or so which would be my boss, i'll be left with a gauge of how many people actually look at the my sight.

ABC's CIA Sources Point out Secret Prisons, undermine allies, and make countries terrorist targets

Good work CIA/ABC!

Abu Zubaydah: Held first in Thailand then Poland
Ibn Al-Shaykh al-Libi: Held in Poland. Previously held in Pakistan/Afghanistan
Abdul Rahim al-Sharqawi: Held in Poland
Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri: Held in Poland
Ramzi Binalshibh: Held in Poland
Mohammed Omar Abdel-Rahman: Held in Poland
Khalid Shaikh Mohammed: Held in Poland
Waleed Mohammed bin Attash: Held in Poland
Hambali: In U.S. custody. Kept isolated from other high-value targets.
Hassan Ghul: Held in Poland.
Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani: Held in Poland
Abu Faraj al-Libbi: Held in Poland

Poland has publicly denied any association with the secret prisons, so this of course is embarassing for them. Thailand is fighting its own Muslim insurgency in the south, so making the list won't make them to happy either. Both have pretty weak security, and will make great targets for terrorism.

The report talks about "enhanced interrogation techniques", like waterboarding, which it makes sound like the worst thing in the world. one terrorist was waterboarded and cried like a baby, the report says. How long was he under? .31 seconds. Not 30 seconds, half a second.

I'm not a hard man. I have no doubt i'd be sobbing and ratting out Bin Laden in .1 seconds, but I'm also not a murderous terrorist. There was no danger of the man being killed by the technique. It was uncomfortable, and created the psychological impression of drowning, but it wasn't actually harmful.

The leaking of this report has no value. It was done by elements of the CIA, with an interest in undermining the war on terror. Probably for three reasons. 1. They are probably partisan and hate GW, and 2. they are probably resentful of the military's heavy duty involvement in the war and the CIA's apparent back seat, and 3. they are probably pencil pushing sissies.

(As for the CIA being partisan, I point out the old CIA joke I was told by a former Ops officer: "Q:"What's two things you won't find in the halls of Langley?"
A: "Assassins, and Republicans" ( might need a few more of both)


I'm a journalist. I understand that weird itch you get when someone tells you something is secret. You immediately want to find out what it is and publish the hell out of it. Journalistic Ethics doesn't just mean not letting your Washington Source pay for your Surf and Turf, it also means making serious determinations about what is in the public interest to know. It means not revealing information which does nothing but harm American interests and potentially risks lives. For every story there is a scale. -10 to 10. Does it do any harm? Does it do any good?

The 4th Estate has a privileged position in American Life. For goodness sake, let's try to actually earn it.

Because Fire Support for US Marines is a bad thing

Marines get the short end of the stick on Capitol Hill says Novak

The Navy has a love affair with carriers. Always have. And carriers are great. Unless the weather is bad. But since Marines are a little bit like the US Postal Service (Rain,Sleet or Snow) They'd like to keep the battleships for fire support. Because God forbid you keep the ability to shell the enemy with 460 projectiles in nine minutes. And when we say projectiles, think "exploding volvos" (a concept our current enemies can understand all to well.)

Fortunately We here at DKRepublic have a solution. What we need is a vessel which can fulfill both roles admirably. Why have two ships, when one will fulfill both needs?

I've submitted a detailed sketch of my proposal to the Pentagon

Riots in ethnic slums, now this! What's a Parisian to do?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3975607.stm

Fair Trial for Dictators

Few people realize that a pre-established method for the trial of brutal dictators already exists, and is well accepted by international standards.

Italy

Germany

Old School

Some Dictators may even plead Guilty


Give Saddam two options. Accept the authority of the court, and conduct a defense to the best degree possible, or, if he chooses, let him walk around Halabja in nothing but a sign that says,

"I'm President Hussein, Rightful President of Iraq."

Sic Semper Tyrannis

UN: Iran Months from Nuclear Weapons, Recommends Wait and See

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1132475683499&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

Muhammad ElBaradei of the IAEA (Motto: Hear No Evil, See No Evil), has confirmed Israeli assessments that the Theo-totalitarian state of Iran is within months of possessing nuclear weapons. El Baradei says the IAEA is concerned about the situation, and he's ordered another round of intense thumb-twiddling, and issued this stern warning to the Ayatollahs.

"Awww.. C'mon! PLEASE get rid of your nuke program? PLEASE!"

ElBaradei said that tactic they intend to take with Iran has been perfected by dealing with North Korea. "Look how that turned out," says El Baradei, "They develop nuclear weapons, we buy them off with food and energy supplies, than they start developing them again! It's a win win scenario." Last Friday, El Baradei spoke in Haifa, encouraging an Israeli crowd to support negotiations saying, "Its not like they've publicly threatened to wipe out one of their regional neighbors or anything."

UN: Saddam Can not Recieve Fair Trial

http://www.guardian.co.uk/frontpage/story/0,,1657953,00.html


Speaking to one UN Official, " How can anyone represented by Ramesy Clark get a fair trial? I mean seriously, have you listened to this guy? He's a lunatic."

Another well placed source in UNDUFS (United Nations Department for Undermining Free Societies) said, "This so-called trial has about as much legitimacy as the trial against the upper ranks of the Nazi Party after world war two, All that trial did was show the world that genocide was a crime that wouldn't go unpunished, and lead to the international standards of law which created the UN.... And we all know how that turned out!"

Not feeling the outrage

Military uses PR Firm to Improve Image

The jist of the article is that the Pentagon is subverting and undermining democratic and journalistic principles, because the PR firm they've hired to improve Iraqi opinions of Americans was keeping the pentagon's role in the issue covert. There is some suggestion that the PR firm may have paid "spokespeople" in Iraq to air their stories.

Excuse me if I don't feel the indignation.

The fact is, that the burden of journalistic ethics is on the journalist. I get Press Releases everyday, from all sorts of questionable groups, including some which are flat out advertisments, and others from Government entities, convienently prepackaged as stories all you have to do is read.

Do I use them? Some of the time, of course. If I, the journalist, find the information credible, and of value to the public. Of course no one has offered to pay me to air a story yet (unfortunately! j/k)

So what NY times is telling us here, is that it is ethical for journalistic organizations to get free tapes of people's heads being sawn off by a dull sword, and to put that on the air, at the express desire of murderous terrorists, but its not alright for the Pentagon to try to win the war of hearts and minds, even as the MSM continues to batter home terrible things about the military to any Iraqi with the good fortune to have access to the information (Which btw, has increased manifestly since the fall of Saddam)

The NY times has enough trouble with their own ethical standards.

People in ivory towers shouldn't throw mud.