WTF is happining here?

I heard that the 9th court of appeals has struck down Arizona's voter registration law. Stating that providing proof of citizenship is too high a burden.

This drives me nucken futs.

Has it gotten to the point that persons that are not authorized to be in this country are now demanding that they receive the benefits of citizenship with out having to go through the process of properly becoming a citizen.

These ingrates need to go the hell home.     

It's your problem

This is from 2006

IF YOU'RE A MUSLIM - IT'S YOUR PROBLEM

WHEN will the Muslims of Britain stand up to be counted?

When will they declare, loud and clear, with no qualifications or quibbles about Britain's foreign policy, that Islamic terrorism is WRONG?

Most of all, when will the Muslim community in this country accept an absolute, undeniable, total truth: that Islamic terrorism is THEIR problem? THEY own it. And it is THEIR duty to face it and eradicate it.

To stop the denial, endless fudging and constant wailing that somehow it is everyone else's problem and, if Islamic terrorism exists at all, they are somehow the main victims.

Because until that happens the problem will never be resolved. And there will be more 7/7s and, sometime in the future, another airplane plot will succeed with horrific loss of innocent life.

Equally important, those British politicians who have seemed obsessed with pandering to, and even encouraging, this state of denial, must throw off their politically-correct blinkers and recognise the same truth—that Muslim terrorism in Britain is the direct responsibility of British Muslims.

If only they would follow the lead of Home Secretary John Reid, whose tough, pragmatic, clear-sighted approach has been a breath of fresh air. Only then can they properly work out how to tackle it.

For instance, every airport in Britain is in chaos over the plane bomb-plot alert as every passenger is subjected to rigorous security checks. Why? They take lots of time, lots of staff, and are extremely expensive.

I'm a white 62-year-old 6ft 4ins suit-wearing ex-cop—I fly often, but do I really fit the profile of suicide bomber? Does the young mum with three tots? The gay couple, the rugby team, the middle-aged businessman?

No. But they are all getting exactly the same amount and devouring huge resources for no logical reason whatsoever. Yet the truth is Islamic terrorism in the West has been universally carried out by young Muslim men, usually of ethnic appearance, almost always travelling alone or in very small groups. A tiny percentage, I bet, of those delayed today have such characteristics.

This targeting of airport resources is called passenger profiling—the Israelis invented it and they've got probably the safest airports and airlines in the world.

In all my years at the front line of fighting terrorism, one truth was always clear — communities beat terrorists, not governments or security forces. But communities can't beat terrorism unless they have the will to do so. My heart sank this week as I saw and read the knee-jerk reaction of friends and neighbours of those arrested in this latest incident, insisting it was all a mistake and the anti-terrorist squad had the wrong people.

I have no idea whether those arrested are guilty or not. But neither have those friends and neighbours. They spoke as if it was inconceivable such a thing could happen in their community; that those arrested were all good Muslims; that Islam is a religion of peace so no Muslim could dream of planning such an act.

But we heard the same from the family and friends of the 7/7 bombers, didn't we?

And the two young British Muslims who died as suicide bombers in Israel. Then there are the British Muslims known to have become suicide bombers in Iraq.

There is currently a huge, long-running and complex alleged Islamist bomb plot being tried at the Old Bailey. And a fistful of other cases of alleged Muslim terrorism plots such as the 21/7 London Underground case are also awaiting trial.

All this would suggest the blindingly obvious—that terrorism is a major problem for the Muslim community of Britain. Of course, there will be instant squealings that this is racism. It's not. It's exactly the same as recognising that, during the Northern Ireland troubles that left thousands dead, the IRA were totally based in the Catholic community and the UVF in the Protestant.

And that, most importantly, IRA terrorism only began to draw to a close when that Catholic community it was based in decided as a whole that it was no longer prepared to back violence as the only way forward. Interestingly, it was Catholic revulsion over republican terrorist atrocities such as Enniskillen and Omagh that fuelled that change.

Well, Muslim terrorism in Britain is based in, has its roots in, and grows in, our Muslim community. The madmen of 7/7 and other suicide bombings didn't hide among the Hindu communities, worship in the Sikh temples, recruit at Catholic churches, did they? It may be true that events in Iraq have angered sections of the Muslim community. I have no doubts, whatever Tony Blair says, that it was a catalyst. I also think it's entirely fair for Muslims, if they wish, to vocally oppose Britain's continuing involvement there.

I can recognise, too, that recent events in Lebanon inflame some people, and they want their voices of protest heard. The absolutely unacceptable problem is that this opposition is used by too many to turn a blind eye to, or excuse, terrorists in their midst.

Blasting a passenger airliner out of the sky, killing hundreds of innocent men, women and children, is NEVER acceptable. Under any circumstances. There is NEVER an excuse.

A terrible tragedy costing Muslim lives in Lebanon or Iraq or Afghanistan is never ever an excuse for terrorism here.

It is totally unacceptable, totally wrong. What one party perceives as a wrong, no matter how strongly they feel, does not, in turn, justify another wrong being done to avenge it.

And until every single member of the Muslim community believes that and preaches that—from an ordinary parent to imam or madrassa teacher—terrorism can't be beaten.

Politicians must accept this truth, and do something about it. One example would be to tackle this chaos at our airports and the passenger profiling I described earlier. Another must is to reconsider ID cards. The importance of knowing whether someone really is who they say they are has never been higher.

This must be combined with improved border controls, logging exactly who goes OUT of the country as well as who comes in should also be reconsidered, whatever the politically correct among us may say. The time terrorism suspects are kept in custody before charge has also caused dissent. Currently the maximum is 28 days—it may well be this should be reconsidered and, if necessary, raised again to, say, 42 days.

Plainly, Muslim terrorism isn't going away. We need to consider everything in our battle to defeat it. But that's the responsibility of all.

Not least the community where, sadly for them, it is festering.

Law of war

There is much noise out there in this interweb thingie reference the pending closure of Club Gitmo and the campers currently vacationing on the American taxpayer's dime.

Lets start at the beginning. The enemies of the west (the United States) have conducted operations against US interests at home and overseas for decades. Just because one side is slow to pick up on the clues does not change the fact that a defacto state of war has been in effect. Sense 2001, the left in this country has been all pissie when "all of the sudden" the Commander In Chief of the Armed Forces of the United States of America goes before the Congress of the United States and requests formal authorization. The Congress authorized the use of force. Apparently, The democrats in the Congress did not think that the POTUS would exercise that authority (although POTUS already had congressional authority to use force, given to the last administration).

So, in response to the attack of 11 Sept, 2001, POTUS ordered up a large can of woop ass opened up on the piles of human wreckage the was fingered as the ones responsible.

The Taliban falls as a government in 3 weeks. The US put less than 15,000 sets of boots on the ground for that little party.

That little bag of camel shit in Baghdad was giving the world the finger for the last 10 years. Refusing to live up to it's Cease Fire obligations. TO wit, fully account for all WMD. He did not. HE paid the price for the games that he played. Remember that the 42’nd POTUS allowed the Baghdad punk to act like a spoiled brat by failing to comply with the cease-fire agreement of 1991. This is the reason that you will find it difficult to negotiate with instable leaders of countries hostile to the interests of the United States.

Now on to the meat.

The 225 or so piles of “human” wreckage have a problem. Are they or are they not EPW’s as defined by international treaty. That will depend on who you ask and the details of the manner of how the person comes to be in the custody of the US Military. For the most practical reasons, US forces in the field are trained to treat by default all persons captured/detained in the theater of operations (battle field) as EPW’s (enemy prisoner of war). The guy at the vary point of the spear doesn’t have to time to sort all the different treaty classifications of persons that are found on the battlefield. We have been trained to use the 5 “S’s” search, silence, segregate, safeguard and speed. We are also trained to treat all captured or detained persons as EPW’s. It is not up to the capturing element to make that determination as to their status according to the law of war. That’s the job of the MI/MP unit that runs the PW collection point.

Like I said, we use the 5 S’s

Search – Search the captured person to insure that there is no weapons or any other item of intelligence importance. All items removed from the PW are to be tagged with the date/time and location of capture, capturing unit and evacuated though the S-2 chain. All items of a purely personal nature are to be returned to the person. The PW is to retain any personal safety equipment (helmet, protective mask).

Segregate – Separate captured persons (enlisted/NCO/Officer, male/female)

Silence – keep them quiet. Do not allow them to talk amongst themselves.

Safeguard – The capturing power is now responsible for the personal safety of the PW. Do not allow anyone to harm, harass, or otherwise injure the PW.

Speed – Evacuate the PW to the PW collection point ASAP.

See, at the pointy end of the stick, the options available for the classification of the captured person is zero. Any person grabbed is treated as a EPW the people higher will sort it out at their leisure.

Now, moving right along, when the EPW arrives at the PW collection point, usually at the brigade trains, they are further sorted, initial interviews conducted personal classified and the other treaty required actions are taken care of.

Under international law, (an interesting concept) over time rules of the ‘game’ have evolved to keep the confusion to a minimum. One set of rules is what makes up an ‘authorized player’. Lets go look at the generally recognized rulebook – the Geneva/Hague conventions:

A. Prisoners of war, in the sense of the present Convention, are persons belonging to one of the following categories, who have fallen into the power of the enemy:

(1) Members of the armed forces of a Party to the conflict, as well as members of militias or volunteer corps forming part of such armed forces.

(2) Members of other militias and members of other volunteer corps, including those of organized resistance movements, belonging to a Party to the conflict and operating in or outside their own territory, even if this territory is occupied, provided that such militias or volunteer corps, including such organized resistance movements, fulfill the following conditions:

(a) that of being commanded by a person responsible for his subordinates;

(b) that of having a fixed distinctive sign recognizable at a distance;

(c) that of carrying arms openly;

(d) that of conducting their operations in accordance with the laws and customs of war.

(3) Members of regular armed forces who profess allegiance to a government or an authority not recognized by the Detaining Power.

(4) Persons who accompany the armed forces without actually being members thereof, such as civilian members of military aircraft crews, war correspondents, supply contractors, members of labour units or of services responsible for the welfare of the armed forces, provided that they have received authorization from the armed forces which they accompany, who shall provide them for that purpose with an identity card similar to the annexed model.

(5) Members of crews, including masters, pilots and apprentices, of the merchant marine and the crews of civil aircraft of the Parties to the conflict, who do not benefit by more favorable treatment under any other provisions of international law.

(6) Inhabitants of a nonoccupied territory, who on the approach of the enemy spontaneously take up arms to resist the invading force, without having had time to form themselves into regular armed units, provided they carry arms openly and respect the laws and customs of war.

Likewise, there are rules that make a ‘civilian’ into a person deserving of the protections of the above provided they comply with the following:

The requirements specified in Article 4, paragraphs A (2) (a) to (d), GPW (par. 61) are satisfied in the following fashion:

a. Command by a Responsible Person. This condition is fulfilled if the commander of the corps is a commissioned officer of the armed forces or is a person of position and authority or if the members of the militia or volunteer corps are provided with documents, badges, or other means of identification to show that they are officers, noncommissioned officers, or soldiers so that there may be no doubt that they are not persons acting on their own responsibility. State recognition, however, is not essential, and an organization may be formed spontaneously and elect its own officers.

b. Fixed Distinctive Sign. The second condition, relative to the possession of a fixed distinctive sign recognizable at a distance is satisfied by the wearing of military uniform, but less than the complete uniform will suffice. A helmet or headdress which would make the silhouette of the individual readily distinguishable from that of an ordinary civilian would satisfy this requirement. It is also desirable that the individual member of the militia or volunteer corps wear a badge or brassard permanently affixed to his clothing. It is not necessary to inform the enemy of the distinctive sign, although it may be desirable to do so in order to avoid misunderstanding.

c. Carrying Arms Openly. This requirement is not satisfied by the carrying of weapons concealed about the person or if the individuals hide their weapons on the approach of the enemy.

d. Compliance With Law of War. This condition is fulfilled if most of the members of the body observe the laws and customs of war, notwithstanding the fact that the individual member concerned may have committed a war crime. Members of militias and volunteer corps should be especially warned against employment of treachery, denial of quarters, maltreatment of prisoners of war, wounded, and dead, improper conduct toward flags of truce, pillage, and unnecessary violence and destruction.

So, to be on the battlefield is not always a bad thing as long as the rules are followed. Break the rules and things can go very poorly for you if captured by the other side. Set the way back machine to 1945-1946. The city of Nuremburg. It’s post war Germany. The allies are in a foul mood and decided that the persons responsible for certain acts are to be called to account. So trials were set up, held, evidence heard, judgments rendered. Some acquitted, most were convicted. Those convicted were sentenced to long prison terms or to hang by the neck for the crimes that they were convicted of.

So we now have the stage set for the 21^st century replay of the military tribunals. The persons (loose definition) being detained at Gitmo were to be tried by duly authorized military tribunals based on the detaining power (US) rights and duty under the laws of war.

According to treaty, any non-military person who violates any portion of the relevant provisions are subject to trial and be sentenced to up to and including death.

There is no ambiguity in this point of the LAW of WAR.

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Happy New Year

Well, It.s the start of an other trip around the sun. 2008 has been a interesting year. A lot has happened. There is much to do this new year. With luck, we will all be here this time next year.

Christmas 2008

An other year has come and gone. Yet the more things change the more they stay the same. There is rain this morning, should clear by this afternoon.

I's in a reflective mood this morning. I could not sleep last night. Been up sense 2 AM, was thinking about what is important to me at this time of year. The biggest thing is the fact that I get to make another trip around the sun. Ya, I's a man of simple pleasures. I have a wife and 3 children that I love (not that they detect much). A crazed cat and a faithful dog. I'm a bit of a odd fish. I don't express emotion well. I have always been a private person.Intend to keep most people at a distance to keep myself from getting hurt. I've been burned too many times.

There is nothing more important than family. Cherish them wile you still can.

Enough of this Madlin stuff. Merry Christmas to all and best wishes for the new year.

Obama voters

It's official. Obama voters are highly educated.(97.1% High School Graduate or higher, 55% College Graduates). And still dumber than a sack of hammers.

The Constitution, Part 1

“We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”

Lets start pulling this apart and look at this from the perspective of plain English.

WE THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES: A hopeful declaration of who this document is from and for.

IN ORDER TO FORM A MORE PERFECT UNION: This statement of fact presupposes that the people who came up with this were aware that perfection is an unattainable goal; but, a goal to strive for nonetheless.

ESTABLISH JUSTICE: to make firm or stable or to put beyond doubt; the principle or ideal of just dealing or right action (2): conformity to this principle or ideal.

INSURE DOMESTIC TRANQUILITY: to make certain especially by taking necessary measures and precautions; of, relating to, or originating within a country and especially one's own country; the quality or state of being tranquil (free from disturbance or turmoil).

PROVIDE FOR THE COMMON DEFENCE: to take precautionary measures; for the ; relating to a community at large; the act or action of defending or capability of resisting attack.

PROMOTE THE GENERAL WELFARE: to contribute to the growth or prosperity of, or, to help bring (as an enterprise) into being; the; involving, applicable to, or affecting the whole or not confined by specialization or careful limitation; the state of doing well especially in respect to good fortune, happiness, well-being, or prosperity.

AND SECURE THE BLESSINGS OF LIBERTY: assured in opinion or expectation: having no doubt; the a thing conducive to happiness or welfare; of freedom from arbitrary or despotic control or the positive enjoyment of various social, political, or economic rights and privileges or the power of choice.

TO OURSELVES AND OUR POSTERITY: those identical ones that are we —used reflexively ourselves>, for emphasis ourselves will never go>, or in absolute constructions <ourselves no longer young, we can sympathize with those who are old> and our all future generations.

DO ORDAIN AND ESTABLISH THIS CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: to establish or order by appointment, decree, or law; to fix or resolve conclusively OR o establish or secure permanently OR to take up an ordered or stable life; the basic principles and laws of a nation, state, or social group that determine the powers and duties of the government and guarantee certain rights to the people in it b: a written instrument embodying the rules of a political or social organization; being in agreement; a politically organized body of people usually occupying a definite territory ; especially : one that is sovereign b: the political organization of such a body of people c: a government or politically organized society having a particular character state> state>.

Conclusion/analysis:

The Preamble to the Constitution is an interesting collection of words and thoughts. It reflects the hopes and dreams of the people who first put this to paper back in the 1780’s. The authors had the experience with a monocracy and wanted nothing more of it. The earlier Articles of Confederation were also found to be sorely lacking. The authors knew that they could do better. This is their effort to bring order to chaos. As so many others have offered, this document is the Great Experiment in Self Governance. After the Constitutional Convention concluded, a man asked Franklin “what form of government have you given us?”, Franklin responded “A republic, if you can keep it!”.

The Constitution is the instructions to how to set up and manage the machinery of government. The Preamble gives us the ‘What’ and the ‘Why’. The rest of the document is the ‘How”

Your mileage will vary.