Interesting Items by Alex Gimarc, Apr 2006

1. Gasoline. Summer’s back and gasoline prices are up and the yearly political battle over who to blame is joined. Unfortunately Our Side is being stupid (so what else is new?). Most egregious p art of the entire game is President Bush prattling on about hydrogen fuel, hybrids, and other high tech foolishness that are better left to the marketplace. Democrats are slavering at the prospect of spending the entire summer whining about high oil and gasoline prices, blaming it on Republicans and conservatives, while refusing to do anything except proposing to ratchet up CAFÉ standards for American-made vehicles. They are also going to spend the summer blasting away at oil company executive compensation packages – all of which were earned, by the way. Our Side is missing a huge opening, one that you can drive your favorite SUV through and splatter the democrats publicly across the map. What should congressional Republicans do? They ought to move to the 50 states the decision to develop oil and natural gas deposits in all lands - including national parks, national forests, national monuments and wilderness areas within the state borders and in offshore areas now controlled by the feds. Let the states decide. Move the entire regulatory responsibility back to the states. This removes the issue from federal purview and will get some rigs moving. Congress ought to also streamline the regulatory morass standing between the oil companies and the construction of new refineries. The goal of this is the construction of small to medium sized refineries nationwide in every town with more than 50,000 people (or so). It is long past time to go on offense with this issue and move decision making and regulatory responsibility out of DC and into the state capitols where it belongs.

2. CIA. The CIA discovered and fired a Clinton appointee in their Inspector General’s office for leaking to the Washington Post. The leaker, Mary O. McC arthy, was originally hired by Sandy Burglar (who also stole Top Secret documents from the National Archives in order to cover up for Clintonoid malfeasance on terror during the late 1990s). McC arthy was a large contributor to democrats in the run-up to the 2004 elections, donating over $7,700 to various campaigns, including $2,000 to the Kerry campaign itself. She was caught leaking the story about secret prisons in Eastern Europe for Al Qaida detainees caught on the battlefield. The leak was p articularly damaging to the war effort, as it demonstrated to the governments involved that the US could not be trusted to maintain secrets. Dana Priest of the Washington Post wrote the article based on the leak, resulting in a Pulitzer Prize for the paper. As of the weekend, the Drive-by Media was in full CYA mode, turning this traitorous woman, a lady (and I use that term loosely) into a modern-day saint, and defending her from criminal prosecution. We will see if they are successful. We will see if the Bush Justice dep artment, which had the stones to go after the Vice President’s Chief of Staff for lying about a leak that he didn’t do, will go after Ms. McC arthy, Dana Priest and everyone else involved with equal gusto.

3. Sami. Accused terror chief Sami al-Arian, the former University of Central Florida professor who was the North American head of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad copped a plea last week. He pled guilt of one count of conspiracy to assist a group on the US terror list. Federal prosecutors had been previously unable to get convictions on all counts due to a hung jury last year. The plea will result in 4-5 years of real jail time (he has served over 3 years already) and deportation from the US back to the Middle Eastern Palestinian terrorists he so gladly supports. Perhaps he will get to meet the Israeli Defense Forces on the field of battle and get his just reward. Al-Arian’s plea comes as a slap to all the leftist appeasement people who have been cheerleading for him and his lies for the last four years. I don’t expect any apologies from the democrats who supported him over the years. Big Lizards, Tues.

4. BANANAs. Anne Applebaum in the Washington Post last week wrote a column about the morphing of the luddite greens from NIMBYs to BANANAs. NIMBYs are Not In My BackYard people. BANANAs are more virulent, but far more true to their luddite roots and defined as “Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anything” people. It is the modern day BANANAs who have shut down every single effort to become energy independent over the last couple of decades. They have successfully fought opening ANWR, building new reactors, developing new natural gas resources, building new refineries, new pipelines, new distribution systems, new windmills – literally every single thing proposed that will make this nation even a little bit more energy independent. Captain’s Qu arters did an analysis of her column last Weds and ended with a call to develop all sources of energy and stop the current insanity. Good column. Read it.

5. Raids. The INS executed a nicely staged and choreographed series of raids on a wooden pallet manufacturer, arresting over a thousand illegals – most of who were released on their own recognizances rather than being deported. Michelle Malkin blasted this dog and pony show last Thursday in her blog. Her post included a p articularly damning ch art showing the lack of INS enforcement actions over the last decade. The GAO ch art shows a drop in workplace arrests from over 17,000 in 1997 to under 200 in 2004. Notices to fine dropped from over 1,000 in 1997 to 3 in 2004. Something is clearly wrong at the INS and it is up to both the Bush administration and congress to fix it. Sooner is better than later.

6. Fitzgerald. Robert Novak wrote last week that the Special Prosecutor who has gone after Scooter Libby for lying about something he didn’t do (leaking Valerie Plame’s name to the press) has always known who the real leaker was. Limbaugh took this column as proof that Fitzgerald is more interested in trying the entire pre-war intelligence case than he is in figuring out who is lying about what. If Limbaugh is correct, Fitzgerald is little better than Travis County’s Ronnie Earle. Fitzgerald and his team ought to be careful, for the defense can pull in every single CIA leaker and their media contacts over the last 4-5 years and turn the trial into a demonstration that the embedded Clintonoids in the CIA were actively undermining the war effort by their treasonous actions, setting them up for prosecution on those charges sometime in the future. Message to the media and Mr. Fitzgerald: Be very careful about what you wish for.

7. Recruiters. Anti-war protestors used goon-like tactics and threats of physical force to run military recruiters off campus at UC Santa Cruz a week or two ago. The active duty soldiers were surrounded by a mob of leftist thugs masquerading as students. The University administration and law enforcement refused to control the mob. Rather than defending themselves, the military chose to withdraw. Captain’s Qu arters wrote about it Monday. Michelle Malkin ran several posts, complete with links and photos blasting away at the students, their supporters, leaders and organizers. She also posted contact information on the leaders. The goons responded in fascist typical style, by digging up all her personal information and posting it on leftist web sites. Nice to see they are teaching tolerance and real live debate at UC Santa Cruz.

1. Cunningham The special election to fill the House seat formerly held by disgraced congresscritter Randy (Duke) Cunningham (R, CA) took place last Tuesday. There were over 18 people on the ballot, nicely splitting the vote. The main democrat candidate thought she was going to be able to steal a seat by winning over 50% of the vote, and poured all her resources into the election. She only pulled 44% of the total vote. The combined Republican vote was 53%, meaning this seat will likely remain conservative. As usual, the democrat hardly ever mentioned her p arty affiliation, choosing instead to run on the Culture of Corruption, all in all not a bad strategy. This was the democrat’s best chance to steal a Republican seat this election season and they couldn’t outpoll a p arty that had supported a guy that had been in DC too long and became corrupt. Republicans – dispirited Republicans – turned out to vote in sufficiently decent numbers to kick the entire thing into a runoff. Democrats failed to garner even a plurality of votes in the district. I think the House is in pretty good shape in November, provided they keep doing what they have been doing over the last 5-6 years. Our problem as conservatives is with the Senate, RINOs, spineless, grandstanding people that call themselves Republicans. I expect the primary season this summer will be a lot of fun. One final thought, given the mega-bucks that St. Hillary of Chappaqua is raising for her Presidential, er, strike that, her senate reelection bid, there may not be all that much money available for the democrats to take the House in 2006.

2. Iran. The Iranian regime orchestrated a huge ceremony last week to celebrate their successful effort to process uranium into fissile product. The show, which one pundit dubbed the Nuclear Olympics, would have been appropriate in the bad old days of the Soviet Union or Nazi celebrations in Nuremberg during the late 1930s. The Iranian regime appears to be Hell-bent toward triggering an armed conflict with the West in general and with the US in p articular. The Clintonista fools in the CIA, who have still refused to review and exploit captured Iraqi Intelligence Service documents, happily chirped that the Iranians are a decade away from popping their first nuke. I expect they are off by only a decade or so, as I would not be surprised if they popped their first of many this year or next. It also appears that the Mullahs are scared, and given their internal problems, they ought to be scared. The Bush administration responded by leaking a pair of proposed strike plans against Iran, dubbed Big George and Big Rummy. These were moderately detailed airstrike plans, the first two days long and the second a single day long all targeted against Iran’s nuclear program. I believe if we pull the trigger against the Mullahs, that trigger will also seek to decapitate the regime by eliminating as many of them as is possible and destroying the Revolutionary Guard so a revolt can take place. So what do we do in the interim? We make their sorry lives as miserable as humanly possible. The trick will be to go after the rulers without touching the Huddled Masses who apparently like Americans a lot. How? You see, the Mullahs have taken their position at the Right Hand of Allah as a vehicle to enrich themselves on the public teat via incredibly corrupt business dealings, collectively becoming some of the richest men in the entire Middle East. All that money has to be kept somewhere, and it would be a very nice science project for the Special Operations Command and NSA people to make as much of that squirreled away money disappear from the face of the e arth. The other thing we can do in the interim will be to do what Reagan did in Afghanistan; that is to provide military support the separatist movements of ethnic minorities that are not Persian and despise the Mullah-ocracy. The Mullahs want us to strike at a time and a place of their choosing. Our job is to play with them a while – not unlike a cat playing with a scorpion before it kills it – before we destroy them at a time, place and in a manner that we choose. Like much of the operation in Iraq and Afghanistan, this one will be heavily Special Operations flavored. Intel workup will have to be done by the Pentagon and the NSA, as the Clintonoids at the CIA aren’t yet in support of this p articular war. Message to Mr. Ahmadinejad and his Mullah Masters, be careful what you wish for, as you may end up getting it. Who knows, we might not even have to fire a shot.

3. Libby. The discovery phase of the Libby trial continued to spin on, with a few surprising turns. The defense submitted a list of names to take depositions from. The media, hoping for an outcome that would take down both VP Cheney and President Bush were sorely disappointed last week at a correction filing by the prosecutor, Mr. Fitzgerald. It appears that Fitzgerald is not content to try the case as a simple perjury case. Instead it appears that he is trying to turn the case into an investigation into the pre-war intelligence, a time which the Clintonoids in the CIA were at war with the new Bush administration. This will not bode well for either for the anti-war Clintonoids in the CIA that set this entire mess into motion, or their supporters in the Drive-By media for the truth will finally come out. Captain’s Qu arters, Big Lizards, National Review Online have all done superb reporting of the progress of this case.

4. Mouassoui. The sentencing phase of the Mouassoui trial ground along last week, with a replay of the 9-11 attacks by the prosecution, tears and anger from the families, laughter and derision from the Islamist perp. He either wants to die and become a m artyr or the defense is making a pretty decent case for insanity. The case so far is an object lesson on the failure of nerve of the Bush administration, for this guy never belonged in the federal courts system. He belonged before a military tribunal where he could have been tried as an enemy combatant in a matter of days, convicted and shot after conviction. The prosecution is essentially trying him on failure to tell anyone that the attacks were going to happen – a terrible, terrible constitutional precedent. They are doing it this way because they dare not try him as a co-conspirator (which he was) or as an enemy combatant (which he is), for if they did that inside a federal criminal court, Mouassoui would have been able to subpoena an untold number of military and intelligence secrets in order to make his case. The Bush administration couldn’t stand for this to happen, so they tried on failure to notify someone of the impending attacks – something that a defense lawyer ought to be able to toss out on Fifth Amendment grounds in a he artbeat. Mouassoui is a very, very bad guy, and he should die. But the Military Tribunal was the correct venue – the cleanest and most constitutional venue – to try him. I hope we don’t regret setting this precedent in the future. I fear we will.

5. Rummy. A group of six retired generals hit the media late last week, all blasting away at the conduct of the war 2-3 years ago, the intelligence failure, and SECDEF Rumsfeld’s brusque managerial style. The media was positively giddy, for if they manage to take down Rummy, they also undercut the rationale for the war and its execution. By week’s end, the Commanding General at the Waco Murders in 1993, Wesley Clark also joined the fray. The generals are quite general in their criticism, and none of them – not a single one – offered any suggestion on how to do the job better. Not a single one of them went after the CIA for their miserable failure in pre-war and post-war intelligence. One of the original six, retired Marine 4-star Anthony Zinni, a Clinton General, former CINC CENTCOM from 1997 – 2000 has completely reversed his quoted position on Iraq, Iraqi WMD, and the threat posed by Iraq while CINC. Perhaps he forgot that there is videotape and audio tape (or MP3s) of his previous testimony. This last weekend was the opening shot of a new anti-Bush campaign, nicely timed to undercut our preparations for war with Iran. It will get a lot nastier before it ends. By the way, there are a heck of a lot more than six generals that would follow Rumsfeld straight into Hell if he so ordered. Who out there would follow ZInni, Shinsecki or Wesley Clark to the men’s room? Not many, I think.

1. DeLay. Former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R, TX) announced he was retiring from congress in the next month or so last week. This announcement was met with the predictable public “Snoopy dance” of joy by the leftists and their lackeys in the (formerly) mainstream media. Privately, the democrats were devastated, for they had selected DeLay as they symbol of Republican corruption and in turn, their vehicle for retaking the House of Representatives this fall. DeLay had given up p art of his formerly 65% conservative majority district during redistricting in order to plus up neighboring districts with more Republican. His new district, in which he would be running for the first time was only 55% conservative. Democrats and their big-money supporters from Hollywood had prepared to dump huge amounts of money into the race to defeat him. DeLay gave himself a 50-50% chance of victory in a very tight, very personal, very nasty race. In dropping out, DeLay believes that he has ensured the seat remains comfortably Republican. He also has ensured that Republican donations go to other congressional races nationwide, where they are sorely needed. He made the rounds of the talk shows the days following his announcement, including 45 minutes on Limbaugh. DeLay states his case very well, is articulate, evangelical, and absolutely committed to retaining a Republican majority in the House. I believe that a DeLay running around the country stumping for conservatives, pushing the House leadership, blasting away at the senate, and fighting democrats and their supporters will be far, far more dangerous to the left than a DeLay still in congress and they will come to regret taking him out via bogus indictment and trial. The media and democrats were unable to spend the week in celebration of DeLay’s political demise last week, for Cynthia McKinney (Racist, GA) chose the day after DeLay ‘s announcement to slug one of the Capitol Hill cops as she tried to barge past a checkpoint. The plans that the democrats and their media sycophants had for wall-to–wall coverage of DeLay and the so-called culture of corruption (their chosen issue for the 2006 campaigns) were completely dashed, for all we saw for days was McKinney acting the fool for the cameras (she does it very well, and it’s probably not an act). DeLay is going to be effective in the years to come for conservative causes. He should be congratulated for a job well done.

2. Immigration. The fabled senate immigration bill died for a bit on the floor of the senate last week when Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D, NV) refused to allow amendments to the bill. In response, most Republicans and a few democrats chose to continue talking, and a cloture vote failed 38-60. After the vote, the senate closed for Spring Break and everyone went home for a couple weeks while the carnage of the last week was reviewed. We have dodged a bullet with this one – so far. There were four versions of this legislation written over the last week, all in excess of 500 pages; all unread by the members; and all attempted to be slammed through by their supporters. There were a number of goodies tucked away inside the bills. These included a requirement for colleges to offer in-state tuition to illegals. Another would toss out all immigration judges and courts, replacing them with a new bureaucracy comprised of pro-immigration advocates and lawyers. Senators Cornin (R, TX) and Kyl (R, AZ) discussed a number of additional obnoxious provisions toward the end of the week. Democrats decided that they would rather have the issue than a solution, and were pretty happy with the mess being offered by Senators Frist (R, TN), McCain ( RINO, AZ), Hagel ( RINO, NE), so their strategy was to either pass the bill completely intact or so gum up the works that problems with the bill couldn’t be repaired. They even refused to consider a provision that would prohibit legalization of any illegal convicted of a felony while here in the US. House democrats were also players, having conspired to add a provision into the House version of this legislation that would make being in the US as an illegal a felony. This provision was the trigger for the pro-immigration rallies over the last two weeks. Unfortunately, House democrats didn’t get full credit for their p articipation in the festivities. It is very clear that the country wants the borders controlled. It is also clear that the Senate doesn’t, with democrats looking at illegals as their next group of poor, needy, dependent people who can be turned into democrat voters for generations. Businesses, some of which support Republicans, want cheap labor. Pro-democrat unions, who have been systematically losing membership for decades, are looking at organizing and signing up illegals as new members so they can bulk up their numbers. We will hope that congresscritters have been getting an earful while visiting home over the break. Limbaugh suggested a poison pill that would out democrats for what they are and what they are trying to do. Simply prohibit any voting by non-citizens.

3. Iran. The Iranians continued their buildup to nukes last week with another set of vicious, anti-Semitic, anti-Israel speeches. As the days pass, we get ever closer to a time we have to do something about them militarily. It is clear that they do not consider us a threat to their continued existence, even though we have two armies sitting on either side of them in Afghanistan and Iraq. They are pretty sm art, reading the (formerly) mainstream media, democrat talking points, and public anti-war commentary. They are making the same mistake that bin Laden did. It is also the same mistake that Hitler and Tojo made nearly 70 years ago – that we don’t have the stomach or will to fight. Victor Davis Hanson in a superb NRO article complimented the Iranians on their anti-western strategy so far. Both the Mullahs and their selected mouthpiece Ahmadinejad have pushed their crazy-man routine a bit too far, and are in very real danger of being exterminated completely. Hansen’s article concludes with a warning that a single young American with an earring, I-pod and sunglasses can conjure up horrors far outside the collective 8th-century mind of the entire Iranian leadership. He points to Antietam, Dresden, Tokyo, and Hiroshima as examples. He warns that the 10% crazy left inside all westerners is far scarier than the public 90% crazy of the Iranians, and they ought to be very, very careful pushing us up against a wall, as we may decide there is nothing for us to lose and respond accordingly.

4. NASCAR. NBC was caught in yet another attempt to stage news last week when Dateline NBC was reported as attempting to film anti-Muslim bigotry at a NASCAR event. The setup was to hire a pair of Muslim looking men, in this event a pair of Sikhs (who aren’t Muslim), send them to a race with a camera crew in tow, and film everyone who encounters them during the race. They had hoped to film the anti-Muslim bigotry they all knew resided in the black little he arts of the red state rednecks that attend NASCAR events, edit out everything positive, and air a hatchet job against both NASCAR and its fans, painting the entire event as little more than a Klan rally with fast cars. Too bad for them, as they were outed by the bloggers. NASCAR made the predictable and appropriate reaction, blasting away at NBC, noting that fans of auto racing would conduct themselves in the manner that they always have, with humor. Michelle Malkn followed the story closely for the duration of the week and posted photos of a number of hilarious T-shirts suggested for the faux-Muslims. The best one I saw said “Stunt Muslim” on it. Ridicule and derision are the finest weapons in our arsenal against both the (formerly) mainstream media – which Limbaugh is now calling the “Drive-By Media” – and our Islamist enemies. It’s tough to be scared of something when you are laughing at them. Malkin, Thurs.

5. Venezuela. Hugo Chavez’s thugs went after the American Ambassador in Venezuela over the weekend, loosing a mob on the Ambassador and his motorcade. The Ambassador was out on a PR event with a couple retired major League baseball players, handing out baseball bats, balls and gloves to poor kids in a local baseball field. One of the local goons showed up and demanded he leave immediately. He didn’t. A crowd gathered and st arted lobbing overripe fruit, vegetables and eggs. The Ambassador retired to his vehicle and left. The vehicle was followed by crowds, who beat upon it with blunt objects for awhile. The local cops showed up to defend the goons from the Americans and didn’t do anything to control the crowd. The State Dep artment was not pleased, and expressed its displeasure to the Venezuelan Ambassador in DC. Expect Chavez to continue with this little game until someone gets his attention.

1. Illegals. Last week was the Week of Immigration in the (formerly) mainstream media, the pack of self satisfied buffoons that passes for a US Senate, and democrats. A week ago saw the largest organized protests nationwide in years (unless you cont the yearly pro-life protests in DC which are ignored by all), as Mexican nationalists, La Raza (The Race) sycophants, and Aztlan Reconquistas all joined together to raise the Mexican flag over American soil. The political class in DC did the expected. Those that weren’t running as fast as they could away from the issue were running as fast as they could to pander to the protestors. All in all, a most disgusting weekend. I don’t intend to recap the weekend or dissect the legislation, but would like to step back a bit and blast away at a most deserving target; a target that has done its level best to exacerbate the problems of illegal immigration. Who might this be, you ask? It is none other than the modern destroyer of cultural America over the last 50 years; none other than the federal courts. You remember, these are the same courts that have forced local communities to take children of illegals into the public schools; the same courts that have put illegals on welfare; the same courts that have opened the doors of the civil and criminal courts to illegals nationwide; the same courts that have tossed out every single effort of citizens via ballot initiative or legislation via the actions of their elected representatives in state and local governments to cut illegals off from the free money; and the same courts that have fought every single effort to define English as the official language of the United States, its people and elected government. Like the Field of Dreams, “If you build it, they will come.” Likewise, if you give away freebies, they will also come – and maybe come in the millions. The federal courts have been complicit in creating this problem. Perhaps they ought to pay for its maintenance out of their yearly budgets and paychecks. Symbology is important to Americans. Had the protests led with American flags rather than Mexican flags, I expect the public reaction would have been quite a bit different. We take pretty good care of people who are here because they want to be Americans. We are justifiably skeptical of people who are here and don’t, p articularly when they claim to want to return several southwestern states to Mexico. There will be a backlash to the reconquistas, and I don’t think they will like it a lot. Too bad for them. As to legislation, I suppose I am much more supportive of what is coming out of the House than I am of the Senate, as the House at least is talking about controlling the southern border. However, both pieces of legislation utterly fail to remove decision making authority for making the current mess from the courts. If there is no economic pull into the US; if there is no allowance for new residents to conduct business in their native language rather than English; if there is no requirement for new residents to actually become Americans rather than temporary workers, I suppose I am not all that interested in what congress is doing. Whatever is passed needs to control the courts by limiting their jurisdiction in this area, increase the yearly quotas for legal immigrants so there is actually a pathway to citizenship with sufficient numbers to continue full employment, control the borders, eliminate the ability for a new child born here in the US to an illegal to become an instant citizen, and st art returning the very nastiest illegals to Mexico. Eliminate the economic pull from the welfare state, require assimilation, require those that are here because they choose to be here to learn English and conduct their business in it, and eliminate the ability to manufacture instant Americans via live birth, and you will do much to stem the tide. Finally, when you control the jurisdiction of the federal courts in this area (which congress can do if and when it chooses to do so), you put the elected representatives back in charge of reaching a solution. We have a mess. It is not an intractable one and the elected officials are the ones to solve it. The bloody courts aren’t.

2. Iran. The Mullahs in Iran are playing war in the Persian Gulf this week. During the war games, they have claimed to successfully test two new weapons systems. The first is an intermediate range ballistic missile with MIRV (multiple independent reentry vehicles) capability. The second weapon, tested twice by the end of the weekend, is a fast torpedo, one that maxes out over 200 knots, which cavitates water around it and flies like a missile. Now, these very same Iranians have been laboring to produce a nuke for 18 years, even with the help of Soviets, Russians, Pakistanis, North Koreans and ChiComs. To date, they haven’t popped one that we know of. If they are unable to do a nuke in two decades of working furiously after being given all the required technical assistance, equipment, plans and expertise, flying a MIRV and creating a fast torpedo is probably a bit outside the realm of their technical skills. All of which leads to the next most logical conclusion: either they have purchased the weapons from someone else – probably the Russians or ChiComs – or they were given the weapons by the same people. For their sake, I hope they bought a lot of them, for they will shortly need them, and they will discover in short order that having weapons and shooting them for the cameras while spouting anti-American agit-prop are far, far different things than actually using the weapons in combat.

3. McDermott. “ Baghdad” Jim McDermott (D, Felon, WA) lost yet another appeal of his conviction for giving a taped phone call to reporters a decade ago. McDermott was the recipient of a tape of a conference call between then Speaker Newt Gingrich, John Boehner and a couple others in the House Leadership under Gingrich in the mid 1990s from a couple of democrat operatives in Florida. McDermott gave the tape to the papers who promptly printed transcripts in an attempt to smear Newt and the leadership. Boehner sued McDermott, who lost the case and all subsequent appeals. McDermott will get to pay nearly $700,000 in fines and legal fees for Boehner. In addition, I also believe this gives McDermott a federal felony conviction. We will see if the House Ethics Committee is as quick to toss him out of the House as they were to toss Tom DeLay. I wouldn’t expect it however, for democrats and Republicans play by different rules and are held to different standards by the (formerly) mainstream media.

4. Senate Rules. Captain’s Qu arters Weds reported that the Senate voted to end the practice of placing anonymous holds on legislation. Previously, any senator had the ability to stop any legislation or nomination simply by a wave of their hand without recourse. Under the new rules, any senator that wants to place a hold on anything needs to self-identify, so there can be actual negotiation and voting.

5. Mahdi. It appears that our enemies in Iraq are trying to use yet another media model to trash the professionalism and conduct of American, Coalition and Iraqi troops in combat operations in Iraq. The latest was a combat operation south of Baghdad against Mahdi Army militia members loyal to Muqtada al Sadr, who has lately been rattling anti-government sabers and stirring up insurrection. There was a combat operation launched against a building, the defenders killed, a hostage rescued (unexpected discovery), and the friendlies withdrew back to their base of operations satisfied at a well-run operation. The operation was a joint US-Iraqi operation. The following morning, the building had mysteriously turned into a Mosque. The number of dead had more than doubled, a bunch of them had moved, and were now covered with prayer rugs in a Mosque. The story fed to the anti-war media by Sadr’s militia was that the Coalition and Iraqi troops had blown up a mosque and slaughtered many innocents indiscriminately, making My Lai the new model for anti-war reporting. Unfortunately for Al Sadr, there was a real live hostage sitting in camp with the friendlies at the time who immediately told the media that he had been a hostage; that the building wasn’t a mosque; and that he was being held by some really bad people who had kidnapped him. Al Sadr and his Iranian backers have now been targeted by the Coalition and the Iraqi military. I don’t think he will enjoy the upcoming ride very much.

"If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen."
- Samuel Adams, speech at the Philadelphia State House, August 1, 1776.

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