[Yes I know I'm breaking a rule - but c'mon; priceless]

Face of Defense: Paratrooper Learns the Ropes in Baghdad

As the newest member of 2nd Platoon, Company B, 2nd Battalion, 325th Airborne Infantry Regiment, Canamore, 19, is in a tough position. After basic training and airborne school, Canamore figured he’d have time to train with his new unit before he deployed. Instead, he received orders sending him straight to Iraq.

Seemingly overnight, he found himself at a combat outpost in Baghdad, eating field rations with the battle-hardened veterans of Company B. As a SAW gunner, he goes out three or four times a day on patrols, where the learning curve has been steep.

“It’s a lot of pressure, because you really want to do well and make a good impression,” said Canamore, a Pekin, Ill., native. “Every time I make a mistake, I make a mental check and try to improve that,” he said.

That’s the way it has always been, said Staff Sgt. William Weinburgh, of Wrentham, Mass., a squad leader with 2nd Platoon. While drill sergeants teach raw recruits the basics, it’s up to the team leaders and squad leaders at their assigned units to push new soldiers like Canamore to the next level, Weinburgh said.

“New guys are going to be a reflection of you,” he said. “Either you set them up for success or you set them up for failure.”

In a combat environment, it becomes even more important to make sure new troops know their jobs, Weinburgh said. “There’s no safety net out here,” he said. Still, he’s learning new things every day, and someday, he said, he’ll be in a position to pass that knowledge on.

[there's more, all impressive in its humble and humbling way...]

http://www.defenselink.mil/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=48729

Egypt Jittery Over Israeli Gaza Proposal

It was not clear if the proposal for Israel to relinquish all control over Gaza, expressed privately by several Israeli officials and publicly by one, was serious or just an effort to test international reaction to the idea. But Egyptian officials were fuming.

"This is a wrong assumption, the current situation is only an exception and for temporary reasons,"

Hossam Zaki, the official spokesman for Egypt's Foreign Ministry, said of Israeli hints that it was thinking of giving up administration of Gaza now that the Palestinian territory's southern border with Egypt is open.

"The border will eventually go back to normal."

[And there it is. Why should any Arab nation do anything to help their Arab brethren? Better to leave things as they are so Palestinian self-destruction can forever be spun as Israeli maleficence - even when Israel is explicitly trying to remove itself. Only the media could spin this situation so far from reality.]

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2008/01/24/international/i105612S15.DTL

Bolton: Israel May Have to Strike Iran Soon

"Certainly in Teheran you can bet that they took careful notice of what the Israeli Defense Force did. Penetrating Russian supplied radars very similar to the air defenses that Teheran has; using techniques that could be very useful for a long range strike against Iran; this is the kind of operation that the Iranians need to continue to worry about. Because I think with the collapse of American policy, the Israeli strike against the Syrian / North Korea facility is the harbinger of what may be – absent regime change in Teheran – the last resort… Unless you are prepared to see Iran proceed unmolested toward a nuclear weapons capability, which this NIE has given them free rein to do in my judgment*, you are coming very close to a decision point in this country of whether you will use military force to stop Iran."**

[* = thanks to the willful misinterpretation of the NIE 'report'
** = as always, perceived weakness invites aggression]

http://www.freerepublic.com/%5Ehttp://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/125007

Mullen Says Colombia Making Progress Against Narcoterrorists

WASHINGTON, Jan. 24, 2008 – The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia is a terrorist organization and should remain so, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said during a Pentagon news conference today.

Navy Adm. Michael G. Mullen, who recently returned from a trip to Colombia, said he is concerned with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez’s comments that the FARC, as the group is known, is a legitimate guerilla movement and that the nations of the world should stop treating the group as a terrorist organization.

The FARC is a narcoterrorist group that has killed thousands in Colombia and uses kidnapping and the drug trade as a way to fund itself. The group is still holding three American contractors captured in 2003.

(Video) http://www.defenselink.mil/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=48762

Here & There...

[there:]

NHS patients told to treat themselves

Millions of people with arthritis, asthma and even heart failure will be urged to treat themselves as part of a Government plan to save billions of pounds from the NHS budget. Instead of going to hospital or consulting a doctor, patients will be encouraged to carry out "self care" as the Department of Health (DoH) tries to meet Treasury targets to curb spending...
[the inevitable state of government run health'care']
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;jsessionid=X1PRMN4XJXPRHQFIQMGSFGGAVCBQWIV0?xml=/news/2008/01/02/nhs102.xml

[here:]
ABC Does Three Consecutive Nights of Socialized Medicine

"Critical condition" in medical terminology means a patient has a high risk of death that could occur within the next 24 hours. So when you see "Critical Condition: Rx For America," sounds like something is in really bad shape, right?

No, it was just a promotional three-night series on ABC "World News with Charles Gibson" that ran from December 10-12 about health care. By the third night, Charles Gibson was even calling one example of socialized medicine a "system that works."
[what bias?]
http://newsbusters.org/blogs/jeff-poor/2007/12/13/abc-does-three-consecutive-nights-socialized-medicine

Russian scientist says Earth could soon face new Ice Age

According to the scientist, the concentration of carbon dioxide in the Earth's atmosphere has risen more than 4% in the past decade, but global warming has practically stopped. It confirms the theory of "solar" impact on changes in the Earth's climate, because the amount of solar energy reaching the planet has drastically decreased during the same period, the scientist said.

"However, the thermal inertia of the world's oceans and seas will delay a 'deep cooling' of the planet, and the new Ice Age will begin sometime during 2055-2060, probably lasting for several decades," Abdusamatov said. Therefore, the Earth must brace itself for a growing ice cap, rather than rising waters in global oceans caused by ice melting.

[5 year window - isn't he good. Point: who the hell knows - let's not spend TRILLIONS and throw all our liberties out the window to boot]

http://en.rian.ru/science/20080122/97519953.html

DHS rejects demands for further meetings about border fence

U.S. Department of Homeland Security officials have rejected demands from leaders along the border with Mexico for a face-to-face meeting, signaling the government’s continuing resolve to build a border security fence.

“We appreciate your support for securing our borders and welcome any additional input from local communities in Texas that will not require delays to the timeline for installation of the border fence,”

Homeland Security is in the process of building approximately 670 miles of fencing and vehicle barriers along the U.S.-Mexico border to combat illegal immigration.

http://www.valleymorningstar.com/news/border_18077___article.html/security_homeland.html

Hypochondriasis Economicus

Hypochondriasis Economicus

... Likewise, an economic hypochondriac is someone who obsesses about the "health of the economy" and who is prone to viewing the natural and inevitable fluctuations of the marketplace as a sign of impending recession, or worse. Today millions of Americans -- including the President, the Federal Reserve Board, and most members of the mainstream media -- appear to be in the grip of a full-blown hypochondriac attack over the economy. Why? Because for the past few weeks Wall Street traders have been selling stocks in anticipation of what they believe is a looming recession.

Are we in a recession now? No. A "recession" means two or more consecutive quarters of declining real gross domestic product. Far from being in a recession, through the third quarter of 2007, the United States has enjoyed 24 consecutive quarters of GDP growth. Furthermore, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported in January 2008 that unemployment was at 5.0 percent, which is low by any measure, and that real average weekly earnings were higher in December 2007 than in December 2006.

The economy, overall, is doing quite well. Despite what the media tells us about gasoline prices or the housing market or job layoffs among Fortune 500 companies, the economy is not in ‘crisis." There certainly is no rational, objective reason for Americans to be as concerned about the economy as they have become over the past few weeks.

[We've problems; an expensive war on terror, a housing sector problem, and above all else an energy policy crisis whereby an absolute refusal to develop additional energy sources has increased the cost of everything else in our economy. I.e., Economy? It's energy, stupid. {You think it a coincident that the ~150B$ 'stimulus' package just happens to match the calculated 'energy shock' impact of oil price increases?} So let's stop burning our food {corn} and start developing our own, vast, oil reserves.]

http://www.americanthinker.com/2008/01/hypochondriasis_economicus.html

Denial of Legacy Campaign Planned

A liberal advocacy group plans to spend $8.5 million in a drive to make sure President Bush's public approval doesn't improve as his days in the White House come to an end. Americans United for Change plans to undertake a yearlong campaign, spending the bulk of the money on advertising. In selling the plan to fundraisers, the group has argued that support for President Reagan was at a low of 42 percent in 1987 but climbed to 63 percent before he left office.

The group has conducted polls and focus groups and gave a Power Point presentation to representatives of about 30 liberal and labor organizations last week. It plans to announce the campaign at a press conference Thursday afternoon during a forum featuring liberal critics of the administration. It also aims to air its first ad in advance of Bush's State of the Union speech on Monday.

[What if we left Bush's public approval ratings up to the public? What does it say of these yahoos that they don't trust that would have the 'correct' result? Why isn't the media liberally applying (yeah, intended) the term 'mean spirited' to this painfully obvious hate group?]

//www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/01/24/ap/politics/main3747207.shtml

Ad Watch: Term limits change tied to effective disaster response

California

A new campaign advertisement cites emergency response to last year's devastating Southern California wildfires as a reason to alter lawmakers' terms by approving Proposition 93. The following is a text of the ad, and an analysis by Jim Sanders of The Bee Capitol Bureau: [snip]

ANALYSIS: The ad implies that legislators played a key role in responding to the fatal infernos, but the Assembly and Senate were not in session at the time. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger issued numerous emergency orders to assist victims while firefighters struggled to extinguish the flames, but the governor's actions did not require, or receive, a vote by the Legislature.

http://www.sacbee.com/111/story/657810.html

$5 Million Reward Given to Tipster Who Fingered Moussaoui

Today a Minnesota flight instructor is being rewarded by the U.S. government for his vigilance in the form of $5 million. In August 2001, the instructor knew something was suspicious about Zacarias Moussaoui the day he met him, so he urged his bosses to alert the FBI. Moussaoui was taking private flight classes and was soon arrested on immigration charges. He later pleaded guilty to having a role in the 9/11 attacks and is the only person to face trial in the U.S. for the attack.

[a good idea]

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=4184403&page=1

Programmed for love

If you're younger than 35, you'll probably live long enough to put David Levy's prediction to the test. Levy says that by 2050 we'll be creating robots so lifelike, so imbued with human-seeming intelligence and emotions, as to be nearly indistinguishable from real people. And we'll have sex with these robots. Some of us will even marry them. And it will all be good.

[yeah, because they'll of off switches! {was that out loud?}]

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/life/main/5414105.html