The Command T.O.C.

World News Tonight Anchor Bob Woodruff is Seriously Injured in Iraq

Link: ABC News: Statement by ABC News President David Westin.

Bob Woodruff and cameraman, embedded with the 4th ID was hit with a IED. Read the statement... more to follow.

What Will The Religious Right Do About Frist?

Predictably, the religious right is up in arms about the fact that Bill Frist has come out in support of limited stem cell research. This has been a big "no-no" up to now for both the neoconservative movement and the religious right. Frist has said the following:

"I am pro-life. I believe human life begins at conception. … An embryo is nascent human life....We should federally fund research only on embryonic stem cells derived from blastocysts [a 4-day-old human embryo] leftover from fertility therapy, which will not be implanted or adopted but instead are otherwise destined by the parents with absolute certainty to be discarded and destroyed."

Focus on The Family, the far right wing religious cult in Colorado Springs led by Dr. Dobson has come out against this statement (See press release). He urges Frist to come out against this and hold true to the "values" Dobson apparently thought Frist had.

I am not going to argue this issue since I am not a doctor nor hold any strong belief one way or the other. But, I will state facts and observations:

1. Frist is the only one in this discussion between Bush, Dobson and Frist who is a medical doctor. Kind of lends some credibility to his position.
2. Stem Cell research WILL continue. It is just a question of whether it will be done in the US or China. Right now, it appears we are willing to turn this research over to China and India.

The real question for the religious right will be what they do when this research does lead to a cure for a disease such as Alzheimer's. Will they take the cure? Those who are against this and are, lets say, 40 years old today may get Alzheimer's 40 years from now. It is a good shot that Alzheimer's will be cured by then and it will be cured through stem cell research.

What will they do? Will they let themselves all die out prematurely by refusing treatment or will they acquiesce and take the treatment. If you believe in Darwinism, will this be the end of Christianity as they "self select" themselves out of the healing process?

All interesting questions to ponder.

 

Taking of Private Property is Wrong

As most know by now, in the New London, CT decision, the Supreme Court decided that the Government can take your land to give to another private property owner if they feel it is in the "best interest" of the locality. This is wrong.

This Country is built on private property rights. The Supreme Court has declared war on this policy. It has always been a truth that once I have land, it is mine. It is bad enough that I have to pay an "ownership tax" based on the value of the land but to have the Government say they can take it from me at any time to give to some wealthy developer is horrible and wrong. To me, this is far more important an issue for the next Supreme Court Justice than Roe V. Wade. 

Write your local Representatives and demand that they pass laws in your state to make this illegal. Otherwise, if you do not, don't be surprised when the  jackbooted law shows up at your door to take your property.

The London Bombings and Why Iraq is Merely a Distraction

To all who really read my blog, not rushing through it to post some comment hoping to look smart, you know that my position on the Global War on Terrorism (GWOT) is clear. However, I will reiterate it:

1. There is a GWOT and we should fight it.
2. There are those in the world who wish us harm and we should kill them in the GWOT as fast as humanly possible.
3. IRAQ is NOTHING MORE THAN A DISTRACTION FROM THIS. There is clearly no evidence that Iraq, prior to the invasion, harbored terrorists in any significant way, had WMDs, nor had any link to Al Qaeda (until we brought them together by invading the Country).
4. Bush and Rumsfeld have put the GWOT in danger of failure and put our Country's security at risk by not staying focused on GWOT but rather going for a big "show" for the world and national TV. It was designed to show they were doing something, anything, and it has back fired. By stretching our troops and budgets so thin, they actually have put us more at risk and not less at at risk.
5. They should be impeached/fired for the danger they have put this Country in.

Almost to prove my point, we had the London bombings a few weeks ago. In our quick attempt to show that the entire Muslim world (i.e., Countries) was part of it we immediately proclaimed Al Qaeda to blame and very quickly started saying this shows why we are involved in the GWOT (Again, equating Iraq to GWOT is wrong). We then found something very interesting. The suspects were British born and raised and were British citizens. Hmmmm, I wonder what part Saddam played in this? Given our behavior, are we to bomb Britain and invade them for "harboring terrorists"?

No, of course not. What we are finding here, as I have said all along, is that the GWOT is far more complicated than Bush/Blair led us to believe or want to believe themselves. The GWOT is about non governmental organizations (NGOs and mostly religious), it is about the wahabi sect of  Islam (Mostly harbored and encouraged by Saudi Arabia, our ally), and anyone can be part of it. Once again proving that the invasion of Iraq was ludicrous in the war on terror.

Some were saying, before 7/07 that the fact we have had no terrorist acts in the Western world (excluding Spain I guess) since the invasion of Iraq proved we had taken the "fight to them", we were fighting them on "their soil" and we are somehow safer. 7/07 proved that argument to go into the heap of untruths including WMDs, Saddam's involvement with Al Qaeda and Rumsfeld's declaration that the state of the armed forces is "just fine".

Invading countries, seemingly at random, may look like you are doing something but really you are not. The invasion of Iraq has done nothing to make us safer and by stretching our military very thin, it is making us more vulnerable.

Unfortunately, Londoners learned a very expensive lesson. Let's hope we do not.

Less Reserves and Other News

1. The New York times reports today that the reliance on the reserve force is dropping dramatically as the active forces "stand up" new units. Cynics in the article say that this is an indication that the US is running out of soldiers however. Due to the self imposed Army requirement that no reservist be called up for more than 24 months total, the Army is letting a number of reservists go. Time will tell if this is due to military planning or due to no planning and a lack of soldiers.
2. According to the US Military, they have recovered the body of the last SEAL who was killed in fighting the Taliban. There is NO evidence he was captured and certainly not beheaded (Thank God). He died fighting like the others.
3. It appears Karl Rove is the guy who cannot stand not being in the limelight and who cannot keep his mouth shut. I wonder what the right wingers will say now that one of their heroes is embroiled in the "help, I am talking and I cannot shut up" scandal. Is it the reporters fault that he reported or is it the administration's fault that they cannot keep a secret? I say the latter. It is the presses obligation to report what they know. If it is classified, then the administration should shut up and not disclose it. I will NEVER buy a TIME magazine again (no link provided on purpose) given that they have put a nail in the coffin of journalistic freedoms. TIME needs to learn that VALUES are something you stand for "Even if you are punished for them". TIME apparently is willing to give up their values at the first sign of confrontation.
4. Karl Rove makes #5 in the list of the most searched terms for Technorati. A lot of interest in this story.
5. My favorite band, REM, has an advisor named Bertis Downs. Bertis has written on the London bombings at the Huffington Post and it is worth reading. REM believes the Huffington Post to be one of their favorite blogs and therefore, it is one of mine.

That is it for now. I am back to my normal posting schedule which is news in the morning and opinions in the evening. However, do not hold me to this schedule!